May 11

Transcript

Yeah, that was a Mother's Day gift like no other. Just there, happened right there. Thank you, Jay, who plays the lead guitar.

Scott, who plays the acoustic. Laurel played the piano this morning. Bruce, who was on the drums.

And Carrie, who gets the team together, puts the music together, and then sings with us. Thank you. You're all a blessing.

And there are others. When the others are on the stage that day, I will introduce them again to you as well. Sometimes we take it for granted, but this doesn't just happen overnight.

There's so much work, so much planning that goes into a moment like this. They don't just walk up here, take the instruments, and there they go. What a gift that is, and thank you.

We love you, and we pray for you as you minister to us. Really important that we do that. Father, thank you for the gift of your words.

A word that was inspired by your Holy Spirit. A word that gives life. A word that guides.

A word that lifts us up. Thank you for your word again this morning. Thank you for speaking to us.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Number three in our series on choices.

First one was you have the choice to forgive. Talking about forgiveness. Last week we spoke about the choice of what you do with your worries.

You can either put them at the foot of the cross, or you can put them in a bag and carry them on your back and make it really hard on yourself. Today, number three. And you'll know what it is about in a second.

I don't know if any of you have ever run out of gas in your car. It's not a fun feeling. Happened to me, I think it's only once in my life, because I learned the lesson.

When I was a student, university, end of semester, driving home to mom and dad. It's a four hour drive in my little VW bug, and usually I would take care of filling the car up, making sure it's all filled. Four hours, kind of just what this little bug could do on a tank of gas.

But it just happened this semester, was things were just wild, and just jumped in the car, took off, didn't fill the car up. Kind of halfway there, I realised, man, this might be touch and go. So it was a standard.

So in a standard, at least when you go downhill, you can take the car out of gear, and you can just let it go on its own. And at least you save a little gas, and then you put them back and forth. They didn't have more than four gears, and there you go again.

It was about 30 kilometres before I got to Lady Smith's Motel. That's when you speak in tongues in this church. Well, 40 kilometres, this little car starts sputtering and jerking.

I'm thinking, no, no, this just can't be. And the next thing, it just and there's nothing. So I get it off to the side of the road, and I look at the gas gauge, and I realise the E on that gas gauge is not for enough.

It's for empty. So I did what most of us would do. I just sat there, and I stared at the gauge.

It didn't change a thing. And then I started blaming. I blamed the car for not being that good on gas.

I blamed my mother and father for potty training me too soon. Did everything in the book. And then I did the third thing.

I denied this thing. I denied that this was a problem. So I put the car in first, put my foot on the gas, and I let the clutch out.

Nothing happened. And I know what you're thinking. These are kind of odd choices.

Here's my question. What do you do when you run out? Not of gasoline. When you run out of patience, you don't have much kindness left in the tank.

When you run out of hope, and the gauge is on empty. When you run out of steam before you've run out of days. What do we do? Don't we do the staring? The problem.

Don't we often just start blaming? Oh, it's the church's fault. No, it's my mother's fault. No, it's the society's fault.

Or we just put our head in the sand and we just deny and hope that it will go away. Here's the thing. You were right when you were doing this, Peter.

Here's the thing. None of those work. Denying it's not going to fill up the tank.

Blaming is not going to move that gauge from the E to the F side of the gauge. The only thing that will help us when I look at that gauge and I realise it's going to empty, to stop at the gas station before I run out of gas and fill up the tank so that it can go again. And when it comes to our lives, so often we make the same mistake as the disciples made.

They didn't run out of gas. They ran out of food. You know the story, right? Jesus sent them out to go minister for the first time on their own.

And they experienced these wonderful moments of people changing their lives, seeing miracles happen. They come back. They talk to Jesus, but they're tired.

Jesus is tired. He says, let's go find a quiet place and we can talk about this. So they go to a quiet place, but the people follow them.

And before you know it, there's more than 5,000 people hanging around with them. And Jesus is preaching and preaching and teaching. And the day goes longer and longer and the people go hungry and the disciples, they get a little antsy.

And so we read Mark chapter six, verse 35. By this time, it was late in the day. So Jesus' disciples came to him.

This is a remote place, they said. And it's already very late. I don't know if you saw what Mark is implying in that verse.

Somehow it seems as if he's saying the disciples, while Jesus was preaching, had a little sidebar, their own little meeting on the side. And in this little meeting, they were listing all the problems that they were facing right there. And so they come to Jesus with this little list and they say, Jesus, you know it's late, right? You know, you know that this place is desolate.

No one lives here and the people are hungry. And a little later we'll see Philip pipes in and he says, and also we don't have money to buy food. So they've got the whole list neatly planned out.

But then they make the mistake that we often do. Instead of asking Jesus what to do, they tell Jesus what to do. Verse 37, 36, sorry.

Send the people away, they say to Jesus, so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. And Jesus, here's the solution. Tell the people to get lost.

Not their finest moment, right? They've been with him for how long? They've seen Jesus do the impossible. Tell them to get lost. Can we rewind their story a little bit? They saw Jesus in Cana in Galilee change the water into wine.

They saw Jesus yield Peter's mother-in-law. They saw Jesus walk on the water. They saw the empty nets turn into boats that were overflowing with fish.

They saw Jesus take command over demons. They saw Jesus raise a widow's son from the dead. And the list goes on and on and on.

They've stood with this man for how long? Seeing him do the impossible. And which one said people are hungry? Jesus. Oh, I know.

Let's talk to the miracle worker. Andrew didn't do it. Philip didn't do it.

Jacob didn't do it. John didn't do it. Peter didn't do it.

Why? They're so obsessed with the problem that they never saw the one who stood before them who had the solution. They never did this. They list everything.

They have it all out. But they never take the problem to Jesus. And that's the point of this whole sermon today.

Being a Christ follower does not mean being naive about the problems that we face. But being a Christ follower means that we get to Jesus before the problem gets to us. That we take it to Jesus.

And before we hit that empty, to use my image from the beginning, I stop at the gas station and I fill it up. And the place to stop is with Jesus before it gets to me. And then I sit and I stare and I blame and I deny and I don't know what to do with it.

And it overwhelms me. You want to make this one of the best years in your life? Well, here's the thing. It might not be the best year because you're not going to have any problems.

You're going to have them. But here's what can make it an amazing year. If you take your problems to Jesus before you take it out on others and before the problems take a toll on you.

I want you to say that again because I said that really fast. Make it the best year of your life. Take your problems to Jesus before you start taking them out on others, before they start taking a toll on your own life.

That's my challenge to you today. Run to Jesus. When those problems come before you hit that E, just go stand there with him and say, Jesus, can I give this to you? Can you just take that to Jesus in prayer and just stay there and be with him? Because here's God's promise.

He will help you. You want a verse that tells us that? Ephesians chapter three, verse 20. I'm reading from the New Living Translation.

Now listen carefully. Now all the glory to God who is able, underline that, through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask. God is able to accomplish infinitely more than we can ever ask or think.

Take it to God, for God is able. Thank you, brother, because that's the truth. When I can't, when I run out of gas, God is able.

When you look at your problems and you say, my problems are too big, God is able. When you feel that your enemies are overrunning you, whatever that might be, God is able. When you feel that my needs are so strong and so many, God is able.

If you feel that your sin is overwhelming you and you don't know what to do with that, God is able. If you're worried about the future and you don't know what it holds for you, God is able. Go home.

God is able. You don't have to run on empty. Don't do it on your own because you can't.

I know I can't because I mess up so badly and then I make the mistake like the disciples. I want to tell God, you do this instead of saying, you know better, Lord. You are able to do infinitely more than I could ever think or ask because even before I've asked, you already knew what you were going to do because God.

And why would I do that? Why would I go to God and ask? Boy, this story is so cool because remember I read you the piece from Mark. We're going to end it with John because John tells the same story, but from a different angle. We're going to go to John 6, 6 in a second.

So in this moment of telling him about the problems, Jesus says to them, okay, you've listed the problems. Uh, where can we go buy food for these people? Uh, Philip, he says, um, you lived in this area, so you know the area well. Where do you think we can go? And what did Philip say? Standing with Jesus.

Uh, we don't have enough money. Half a year's wage could not pay for these people, even though it's a little bite. There's the problem.

Where does Philip take the problem? We can't do it. Look at what Jesus does. Verse 6. Remember I said he is able and we can trust him.

Why? 6, 6. He was testing Philip for Jesus already knew what he was going to do. Before I even bring the problem, Jesus already knows. And when I bring the problem, Jesus already knows what he's going to do.

Why? Because Jesus has a plan for you and for me and for my life. He doesn't dump us out there and say, see if you can do this. He has a plan.

He knows what he wants for you. And all he wants you is to say, hey Jesus, will you come walk alongside me? Hey Jesus, I can't do this alone. And imagine, just imagine what he's giving you.

Because as you walk with these things and they're part of your life, you don't have to do that alone. Guess who's right next to you? Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth, who said a word and this creation was spoken to being. And he said, I'm going to walk right next to you.

Will you just trust me? Will you just come to me? Will you just give it to me and I will walk with you? Why would you want to carry them along? You might say, but I don't have much to give. I don't have much to do with him. Well, neither did the hero of our story have much to give.

Let's finish the story. John 6, 8. One of the disciples, it was Andrew, brother of Simon Peter said, there's a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but that's a drop in the bucket for a crowd like this. Jesus said, let the people sit down.

There was a nice carpet of green grass in this place. He sat down about 5,000 of them. And then Jesus took the bread and having given thanks, gave it to those who were seated.

Did the same with the fish and all ate as much as they wanted. And when the people had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples, gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted. They went to work and filled 12 large baskets with leftovers from the five barley loaves.

The people realised that God was at work among them in Jesus, just what Jesus had done. Can we do the same as that little boy? Can we just give it to God and allow him? Don't worry whether it's much or not. Just keep saying, I can't do this.

I need you. So I asked the question in the beginning, what do you do when you run out? I hope you know what the answer is. Amen.

Take a few moments of silent, please. Lord, you've never changed. You've always been the one who provides in so much abundance.

You're always the one who says, bring it all to me because I have a plan for you. And I'm able to do so much more than you can think or ask. So help us then, Lord, not to see the problem, but to see Jesus, not to be overwhelmed and make our little lists and forget to take it to you.

Help us, Lord, to bring it and to give it to you because you can, you are able. Help us to make that choice before we run on empty. In Jesus' name we ask.

Amen.