Church Sermon - July 31, 2005

THE GIVING HAND

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Epistle Lesson; Romans 8:35-39
Old Testament Lesson; Isaiah 55:1-5
Sermon Text; Matthew 14:13-21

In your mind’s eye, right now, if you could go to your own home, and in your mind’s eye, open up the cupboard door where you keep your canned goods and look inside, you would see what is in there. As we sit here today in church, our Savior is also at your home, and He is peering into your cupboard. He sees exactly how many cans of tomato soup, how many cans of corn, and how many cans of sliced peaches are in your cupboard. He knows exactly how long they have to last, before the next paycheck. And, He knows whether you have plenty, or whether you are in need.

Now in your mind’s eye, go to the place in your home, where you keep all of those bills. Maybe it is a little drawer, or cupboard, or filing cabinet. And in your mind’s eye, look at all of those bills. Our Savior Jesus, right now, as we speak, is standing in your home. He sees that drawer, that cupboard, or that filing cabinet. He knows every single one of those bills. He has the total all added up. He knows exactly how much it is. He also knows exactly how much, as you sit here today, with your checkbook in your pocket or your purse, He knows the balance in your checking account and He knows the balance in your savings account. And, He knows whether the amount of those bills is greater than the amount of money that you have. He knows whether you are in plenty or whether you are in need.

Now in your mind’s eye, go to your medicine cabinet, and take a look at all of the different medicines you need. Your Savior is at your home right now, and He is peering into your medicine cabinet. He knows the name of every medicine you need. He knows what it does and He knows how much it costs. He knows if you have Medicare or Medicaid, or whether you have to pay for all of those medicines out of your own pocket. He knows whether you are in need, or you have plenty.

Today’s scripture reading is a beautiful, beautiful scripture reading, which every Christian should take great heart in, because it clearly shows us that our dear Savior, Jesus, is not only concerned about our spiritual needs, but He is also dearly concerned about the physical or temporal needs of His people. The scripture lesson, the feeding of the five thousand, is intended to provide great comfort for anyone who is in need. All of us, in our lives, if not today, someday, someday we will all be in temporal or physical need.

As we look at today’s scripture reading, we need to understand, first of all, that Christians, at times in their lives will be in need. God doesn’t promise that we will have plenty all of our lives, and things will go wonderfully, and Christians will live in prosperity. He does not promise that. Today, in our scripture reading, we run across some people who were in great need. They were people who followed Jesus. They followed Him all the way to a remote place and they dearly wanted to hear what Jesus had to say. They loved their Savior. They trusted in Him, and they wanted to hear His Word. And yet, they were in need. We know there were five thousand men, besides women and children. We don’t know how big the crowd was, maybe fifteen or twenty thousand people! They didn’t have any food with them, it was getting late, and, it was a remote place. And so, the disciples, seeing their need, came to Jesus and said to Him, "Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."

To which Jesus replied, "You give them something to eat." Now, there was a command from our Savior, to His twelve disciples. It was a command that they give those people something to eat.

And human reason began to kick in. Human reason, or human thinking in the minds of those disciples, began to take over. Human thinking or human reason looked at what was available. The disciples said to Jesus, "We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish."

How far will that go, among so many people? Human reason began to look at the situation and say, "We are in desperate need here. We don’t have enough food to feed all of these people. And Christ, you have commanded us to feed them. How can it be done? It is impossible. It is not possible. This is a lost cause."

Oh, if the disciples had seen a big pile of money with their eyes, or banquet tables spread all over the place with great food, it would have been easy for them to believe that they could feed those people. But human reason said, "This is impossible."

When you and I look at our own situation, we begin that human reason process and we may begin to say, "This is impossible. I only have so much food in the cupboard and there are still two weeks ‘till payday. This is a lost cause. This is impossible. How can I ever give my family enough food to eat?"

Or, we look at the bills and we may say, "How can I ever meet those bills? I don’t have enough money in my checking account or my savings account. This is a lost cause."

As we use human reason, or human reason looks at the medicine we need, and says, "My social security check is only so big and the medicine! How am I ever going to pay for it?"

It all appears to be a lost cause, when we use human reason. Human reason then sinfully goes forward and takes the next step and says, "Therefore, I must worry. I can’t trust God to take care of all of these needs. There simply isn’t enough. I must fall into despair. How will I ever be taken care of? How can I ever survive?"

And then human reason begins to come up with sinful solutions.

Human reason, when it looks at our need, will always lead us in a sinful direction. Which takes us to something awesome that we see in our scripture reading. Jesus told those disciples to do something that appeared to be impossible. He said, "You give them something to eat."

Five loaves of bread, two fish, and fifteen or twenty thousand people and He commanded them, "You give them something to eat!"

Their human reason told them that it was impossible. But, look at what Jesus commands next. The disciples said, "We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish."

Here comes Jesus next command,

Bring them to me. Bring the five loaves of bread to me. Bring the two fish to me.

And so, the disciples carried out the command of Jesus, their Savior. They brought Him the five loaves of bread and the two fish.

They took what they had,

what little they had,

and they put it into the hands of Jesus.

They put it into the hands of the

omnipotent, all-powerful God.

They put it into the hands of the God,

who loves us dearly.

They put it into the hands of the God,

who has made all things and cares for all things.

And when they took what little they had (which humanly speaking couldn’t feed anywhere near twenty thousand people), what happened? The Lord began to break that bread. He multiplied that bread. By His prayer, He hallowed that bread. And what little they had, was enough. It was enough to satisfy that whole crowd of people!

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the same is true for you and me. We have obligations that we have to meet. And, we only have certain means that God has placed in our hands a certain amount of money, a certain amount of food, a certain amount of clothing. And, it may not appear to be enough. But, what does our Savior say? He says, "Bring it to me. Bring it to me. Put that food in my hands. Put those clothes in my hands. Put that money in my hands."

Now, I would rather have one dollar to my name, one dollar to my name and be able to put it in Christ’s hands, than one hundred thousand dollars to my name and not put it in Christ’s hands, because the Lord will supply our needs. I would rather live in a cardboard box, and put that cardboard box in the Lord’s hands, than live in a mansion with a thousand rooms and not put it in the Lord’s hands, because the Lord will supply our needs.

How do we know, how do we know that the Lord will supply our needs? In scripture, the Bible takes two very opposite approaches to assure you that God will take care of your physical needs. Here are the two very opposite approaches.

First of all, scripture argues from what we call "the greatest to the least." It says,

"If God spared not His own Son,

but freely gave Him up for us all,

how will He not also along with Him

freely give us all things?"

You see what scripture does there? It takes you directly to your greatest need. And by far, your greatest need, (more than food, more than money, more than clothes, which only last for a short lifetime), is your need to have your sins forgiven. On that rests the eternal destiny of your soul. Scripture says, "If God spared not His own Son, but freely gave Him up for us all," our dear Lord saw to it that your greatest need has been met. And, your greatest need is to have your sins forgiven.

What expense did God go to, to see to it that your sins are all freely, fully, totally, 100% forgiven?

Do you see how dearly God loves you? God was willing to go to the greatest extreme, to pay the highest price to give up His own, dear, Son on the cross, who suffered more intensely than we can possibly imagine, paying every last penny that we deserve, so that in God’s eyes our sins are gone. They are gone! They do not exist anymore! They are forgiven! They are washed away, because Christ, God’s Son, gave up His life. Scripture says,

"If God spared not His own Son,

but freely gave Him up

for us all,

how shall He not also along with Him

freely give us all things?"

There, scripture takes us from the greatest. If God stopped at no expense, to take care of your greatest need, you think He won’t take care of your least need? It is like giving you a mansion in Heaven. If He will give you a mansion in Heaven, do you think He won’t give you a piece of bread, if you need it? Certainly, He will.

Then scripture takes the totally opposite approach, to assure us again that God will take care of all the needs of His people. Instead of going from the greatest to the least, it goes from the least to the greatest. Here is what Jesus says in Matthew, chapter 6.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown in the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"

There, scripture takes us from the least to the greatest. Jesus says that if God takes care of the little birds and He takes care of the flowers (and you can see that everyday), if He takes care of them, and they are here today and gone tomorrow, (they are not worth much), then how much more valuable are you? You are worth the blood of God’s own Son. If He takes care of the least, He will certainly take care of you and me. That is God’s assurance.

Then to top it off, Jesus gives us a promise. Here is the promise. He says, "Don’t worry."

"So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all of these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you, as well."

You hear the promise. The promise is you put God first, you put Jesus first, you trust in Him, you cling to Him for the forgiveness of sins. It says,

"Seek first His Kingdom

and His righteousness

and all these things

will be given to you, as well."

He will see to it that there is bread on your table, clothes on your back, and a place for you to live. It may not be fancy, but He will take care of our needs.

Which gets me to three short little stories that I would like to wrap this sermon up with. One is this. So often I talk about our shut-in members. You know, they are older and their faith has really been tested. They can serve as wonderful examples of faith. This past week I was at one of our shut-in member’s homes. She has a meager income and lives in lower income housing for seniors. I was asking her how things were going and she was talking about the medicine she has to buy. For some reason, she does not get Medicare or Medicaid, and so she has to pay a couple hundred dollars a month for medication. She doesn’t know how she can do it, month to month.

Then, as I got up to leave she said, "Oh Pastor, wait a second."

She went over to her counter and grabbed a little pile of envelopes. They were offering envelopes. I could tell she had put something in there, every week. She gave them to me and said, "Make sure these go back to church."

I went back to my car and put them on the seat beside me, and thought, "What a precious cargo this is! Here is a woman of faith. She has a meager income. She does not know how she is going to make ends meet. But, the Lord has helped her so far and she knows that. She trusts the Lord will help her in the future and He will. What an act of faith! Even though she doesn’t know how she is going to make it, she didn’t keep it all for herself. She gave to the Lord in thanksgiving, trusting His promise,

What an act of faith! God provides for His people.

Then secondly, if you look at the front of your bulletin, you will see a painting that I love. It is one of my favorite religious paintings. You can interpret art however you want to, but when I look at that painting, I see an elderly man who has lost his wife. He doesn’t have much. His walls are bare. The heat is probably turned down, so he has on his heavy shirt. He has just a little food on the table. He has a lot of concerns, because his brow is furrowed. There he sits at the table. It appears he has just read his Bible, because his glasses lie on top of his Bible. He has sought first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and now in all humility, with what little food he has on the table, he takes and gives it to Jesus.

Jesus says, "Put it in my hands."

And he does that in prayer. Then he goes forward, confident that the Lord will take care of him, because Jesus provides for his people.

The last thing I want to share with you is this. You know, here in the Lutheran church, we sing some pretty deep hymns. And sometimes, people think that they are a little boring and a little deep, and wonder why we don’t sing some more peppy hymns, more entertaining hymns, hymns that are more praise hymns. And maybe, particularly, we think that our kids need that type of thing. But you know, our hymns have a lot of deep, deep scriptural truths to them. They contain the Word of God. They are intended to teach.

When I was a young boy, there was particularly a section of the hymnbook that was very, very dear to me, even though they were deep hymns. It was the family section, a section of hymns about the Christian family. And, there was one hymn that really, really comforted me. Here is how two of the verses went. It said,

Oh blessed home where man and wife

Together lead a godly life.

By their deeds,

Their faith confessing

There, many a happy day is spent.

There, Jesus gladly will consent

To tarry with His blessing.

I knew we had that kind of home. We had a home where Jesus was the most important thing, where we sought first the Kingdom of God.

And then came verse three, which says this,

If their home be dark and drear,

The cupboard empty, hunger near,

All hope within them dying.

Let them despair not in distress

Lo, Christ is there

The bread to bless

The fragments multiply.

That always comforted me, knowing that Jesus, who has taken care of our greatest needs, will certainly provide for His people.

Amen.

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