Sideline to Sideline | Miracle Play
Saturday, September 29th 2018
Miracle Play
God loves to ask the impossible, but we love being comfortable!
John 6:5 NIV
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip,
“Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”
Mark 6:35-37 NLT
Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.”
But Jesus said, “You feed them.” “With what?” they asked.
“We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!”
3 Steps To A Miracle:
1. Accept Christ’s call to action!
Mark 6:38a NASB
And He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!”
Truth #1: God won’t begin till I respond!
2. Go all in and hold nothing back!
John 6:8-9 NIV
Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
Truth #2: God always starts with what I have!
John 6:6 NIV
He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Truth #3: God knows the plan before I see the problem!
3. Expect Jesus to make up the difference!
John 6:10-13 CEV
The ground was covered with grass, and Jesus told his disciples to have everyone sit down. About five thousand men were in the crowd. Jesus took the bread in his hands and gave thanks to God. Then he passed the bread to the people, and he did the same with the fish, until everyone had plenty to eat. The people ate all they wanted, and Jesus told his disciples to gather up the leftovers, so that nothing would be wasted. The disciples gathered them up and filled twelve large baskets with what was left over from the five barley loaves.
Truth#4: God always does more than I could even hope for!
Famous miracles in the Bible, 4 times God tells what happened…
All of these men were faced with what was physically, financially, practically, logistically, and humanly impossible!
- Abraham – This is My Home (Genesis 12:1ff, Acts 7:3ff)
- Moses – I cannot Speak (Exodus 4: 1- 14)
- Joshua – The Walls of Jericho (Joshua 5:13 – 6:27)
- David – Goliath the Giant (1 Samuel 17)
Why does God do this…He wants to stretch your faith!
The disciples in Mark 6:35-37 could have made several excuses:
- Procrastinate – late in the afternoon…
- Pass the buck – send them away…
- Worry – we’d have to work 8 months…
- Excuses – too many people, not enough money, no place to buy food, out in the middle of nowhere
…They were standing next to Jesus!
These two realities, that God loves to ask the impossible and that we love being comfortable are in direct contrast to each other, they cannot coexist, either we will join God in doing the impossible or we will stay on our seats believing we are comfortable!
God wants to stretch your faith, faith cannot be realized until you act on it!
The amount isn’t what matters, what matters is the willingness of your heart. “God I don’t have much talent…I don’t have much time…I don’t have much money…I don’t have ______________ but it’s all yours!
God already has the answer before we know the question!