Lighthouse Baptist Church
and Christian Academy

That's the starting point. If I want God to work in my life, I've got to admit it - "God, I need Your help!" For many of us this is pretty difficult. We don't like to admit our problems.

• We like to hide our problems,
• cover up our problems,
• blame other people for our problems,
• pretend our problems don't exist.

But the first principle of this story is God doesn't work in your life until you ask Him to. He doesn't save you until you ask Him to. He says, "Ask and it shall be given." Over twenty times in the New Testament, we're commanded to ask. So I come to Jesus Christ and say, "I've got a major need in my life." God won't help until you admit you need help for it.

We don't do this because what we usually do are three self defeating behaviors. When we have problems we tend to procrastinate, pass the buck, or worry. All three of them are in this story. The disciples did these things.

First the disciples procrastinated. They put off dealing with the problem; they delayed it. Notice: "By this time it was late in the day."

Anybody could have figured out these people are going to get hungry sometime. We're out here in the middle of the desert. There's no place to eat, no fast food chains. What's going to happen? But they put it off.

Typically, we do this with a lot of our problems.

We:

• delay,
• procrastinate,
• pretend it doesn't exist,
• we look the other way.

But the truth is, procrastination only makes a problem worse. It's like putting your homework off until the last minute or putting your taxes off until the last minute. When you have cancer, delay can be deadly.

Procrastination never solves any problems. What it does is make the problems worse.

Second, we pass the buck. We blame other people. We say, "It's not my fault. It's all their fault." Notice what the disciples said, "Send the people away." In other words - out of sight, out of mind.

They're basically saying, "Jesus, we didn't ask these people to come see You. So it's not our responsibility to feed them. They're hungry. Tell them to get lost! Tell them to go into the countryside, find a store, get themselves some food, some dinner. We didn't ask them to come."

Third, we worry about our problems. If you prayed about your problems as much as you worried about them, you'd have an awfully lot less to worry about. We tend to fret and stew and we get anxious and stressed out.

Notice what the disciples did: They said, Imagine the expense! "It would take eight months of a man's wages!" They did a little cost analysis. Their anxiety goes into overdrive and I can imagine Peter and some of the other guys saying, "Jesus!

• How are we going to do this? Feed 5,000... feed 15,000... feed 20,000 people?
• How are we going to transport the food out here?
• How are we going to keep it warm?
• Who's going to clean up the mess?
• Who's going to pay for the liability insurance?" Their minds are going into overdrive.

What they had forgotten was who was there with them - Jesus Christ, the Son of God standing right by them. This is the guy who can turn stones to bread. He's standing right there and they're looking for a Colonel Sanders.

We do this a lot. When we have a problem, we forget that God's with us. He's said, "I'll help you if you'll just come to Me." But first I must admit that I have a need.

I assess what I have to work with. I do a little realistic analysis of my resources and I ask myself, "What have I got?... How am I using it?"

Jesus said, 'How many loaves do you have? Go and see.' When they found out, they said, 'Five small loaves of bread and two fish.'

Mark 6:38

Why did Jesus do this? He's God. He could have just rained manna out of heaven. He'd done that before. Why would He say, "Go see what you've already got." Because here's the second principle when you need a miracle in your life.

First you admit you have a need, then second, you assess what you have to work with.

The second principle is God always starts with what we've got.

• You take the energy you've got and give it to Him.
• You take the time you've got and give it to Him.
• You take the money you've got and give it to Him.
• You take the relationship, the talent, or whatever it is that you've got and say, "God, here's what I've got." And you do an evaluation of it.

Notice in verse 36 Jesus said, "You give them something to eat." You feed them. How would you like to be a disciple and have Jesus say that to you? You're standing there, "Lord, look at these 15,000-20,000 people! They're all hungry!" and Jesus looks at you and says, "Why don't you take care of this problem."

The disciples responded, "Lord, this is impossible!

• It's humanly impossible.
• It's financially impossible.
• It's practically impossible! We can't do this!"

Has God ever asked you to do anything impossible? If you've been a believer for any length of time I guarantee you, He probably has. Why? God loves to ask His children to do the impossible. Why?

• He wants to stretch your faith.
• He wants to test you.
• He wants you to see that He can be trustworthy.

The book of John tells about the same story, "Jesus asked this only to test them, for He already had in mind what he was going to do." Jesus wasn't sweating this problem. He'd seen the need long before they did and He had a plan. He obviously knew they were going to get hungry and He knew what He was going to do. But He was just testing the disciples by saying, "Why don't you do it?" ... asking them to do the impossible.

That's a third step to a miracle. Give God whatever you have. In the book of John it tells us that in this story a guy named Andrew, one of the disciples, found a little boy in the crowd who'd brought a sack lunch. It wasn't much. It was just five little barley loaves (probably little muffins) and a couple of fish (probably dried sardines).

This little boy became the hero not because he had the biggest meal or the best meal but because he gave it to God. He gave what he had to Jesus and said, "Here's all I've got - five rolls and a couple of fish. Lord, You can have these." So he gave God what he had.

This is the third principle: God uses whatever I give Him.

Notice the Bible says "Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before the people..."

He'll take it and use it. God likes to use ordinary things to do extraordinary things. God likes to use ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary tasks.

Notice the kind of giving that this little boy had that sparked a miracle.

• he gave it willingly,
• he gave it cheerfully
• he gave it immediately.

The Bible tells us in the book of Matthew that the little boy volunteered his lunch. He said, "Here! Take mine!" Maybe he liked peanut butter rather than sardines. But for whatever reason he said, "Here, take my lunch!" He did it willingly.

And he did it cheerfully. He didn't do it grudgingly or complaining or resenting or worrying - "I've got to think about what I'm going to eat! What am I going to eat if I give my lunch away?" He did it cheerfully.

And he did it immediately. He didn't hesitate. He didn't know what God was going to do with it.

But he gave willingly, cheerfully, and immediately. That's the kind of giving that sparks a miracle.

That leads us to the fourth point. After I admit that I have a need and I assess that I have to work with and I give what I have to God...

I expect God to multiply whatever I give Him. Notice what happened in verse 42. This little boy brings his lunch of just a couple of fish and five loaves and it says, "Everyone ate and had enough."

What do you not have enough of in your life?

• Time? That means you're not giving it to God.
• Money? That means you're not giving it to God.
• Relationships? You're not giving that area of your life to God.

Whatever you give totally to God, He multiplies it. He blesses it in return.

"Everyone ate and had enough. Afterwards they collected twelve baskets full of leftovers." Can you imagine this kid going home with twelve baskets full of leftovers? And his mother says, "Johnny, you did what? And Jesus did what?"

Yet God had multiplied it! God makes sure of that. God has set it up in the world, a principle called sowing and reaping. "Whatever you sow [whatever you give away] you're going to reap."

• If you give away criticism, you're going to get back criticism.
• If you give away encouragement, you're going to get back encouragement.
• If you give away your time to help others, you're going to find you have more time than you would have if you saved it all for yourself.

Why? Because God wants to teach you to become a giver. You can't be like God unless you learn to be generous. "God so loved the world that He gave" He wants us to give. He wants us to learn to be like Him.

Here's the principle: You always reap back more than you sow.

• If you criticize other people you're going to be more criticized back.
• If you judge other people, you're going to be more judged back.

God says, "Give Me whatever you need more of and watch Me multiply it." It's the principle of sowing and reaping.

All things are possible with God.

Mark 10:27

The key to this verse is that God likes to do miracles through people.

What we often wait for God to do for us, God is waiting to do through us. Does that make sense? What we're waiting for God to do for our marriage, He wants to do through our marriage. What I'm waiting for God to do for me, He wants to do through me.

This story of feeding the thousands of people is very appropriate to Lighthouse church. We live in a county with 50,000 spiritually hungry people. 100,000 people live in a ten mile radius of Lighthouse.

And only 4000 people attend church in the valley. Every week people show up saying, "Feed me! Feed me spiritually!" And God has said to this congregation, this family, "You feed them." We look at them and say, "But, Lord, how can we possibly feed all those spiritually needy people in this valley, much less all of Putnam County?" We've got one entrance, one building. How can we possibly do that? We need a miracle.

In the days ahead, our church family is going to need a miracle. To prepare us, we've kicked off a new spiritual growth campaign called "Building For Life". Since it's going to involve all of us, I want to quickly give you the five purposes of what's going to happen in the next forty days.

We have five purposes.

Starting Easter Sunday March 27, 2005 we're going to begin a traditional venue. That means another service centered around a traditional form of worship begins.

Steve Hensley - will be preaching the Gospel
Fred McPherson - will be leading in worship
Virginia Reed - will lead the Lighthouse Gospel Choir
Shelley Hensley - will be the instrumentalist

It's exciting to see what God is doing.

We always benefit from the sacrifices of others. That's what this story is about. The little boy sacrificed his lunch and, as a result, 20,000 people got blessed.

You have benefitted your entire life from sacrifices of other people.

Your parents sacrificed for you.

You benefit, as part of Lighthouse's family, from the sacrifices of people who paid for all these things that we sit in, this property we meet on every week. Twelve years ago, Seventy-five people sacrificed to start Lighthouse.

Two years ago, many of you were here for this when we did another Spiritual Growth emphasis called "40 Days of Purpose". During that you filled out cards. Committing to 40 Days to see God do something great in our mist.

Why? So that Lighthouse can have a church home and we can spiritually feed those who are spiritually hungry in Putnam County.

I want to say to those of you, "Thank you!"

These people gave their lunch to Jesus like the little boy did. They gave what they had to make this possible. The amazing thing is, that since this happened twelve years ago, many people have been saved and now enjoy their new life in Christ.

So we're going to do it again! We're calling it "Building For Life" - the next stage, the next phase in our spiritual growth.

There are five men who have received a call to become Pastors here at Lighthouse.

• Steve Hensley - pastor of 101
• John Reed - pastor of 201
• Grant Edwards - worship pastor
• David Termer - pastor of 401
• Fred McPherson - pastor of 301

Each of these men will be ordained and oversee one of the seminars or one of the five purposes.

These are exciting days! You're going to be growing like never before. You're going to be stretched. What can I expect to happen during "Building For Life"? Four things, if you're a part of this church, you need to expect during the next forty days:

1. You can expect to see some miracles. I mean flat out, honest to God miracles.

Get ready to see some miracles.

2. You can expect to grow spiritually. I'm going to challenge you and take you deeper than ever before in your level of commitment to Jesus Christ. I would honestly say,

If you're not interested in spiritual growth I suggest you find another church for the next six weeks.

• If you don't want to be challenged,
• if you don't want to be stretched,
• if you don't want to grow deeper in God, please find another church.

I'm not going to pull any punches in the next six weeks. I am interested in your being spiritually mature.

3. You can expect to be hassled by Satan during the next forty days. Count on it! When people get serious about growing spiritually and when people get serious about the fellowship in their church, Satan doesn't want this church to succeed and he certainly doesn't want you to be a part of the blessing. He's going to do everything he can to distract you in the next forty days.

4. You can expect to experience joy during the next forty days. This church is going to get happy. It always happens when people give.

As we close, I want you to do two things: One, I want you to start praying, "God, help me to really grow in the next forty days. Help me to grow spiritually in the next forty days." Two, pray, "God, give us a miracle in our church family." And watch what happens.

Father, I look out on these faces of people who've been here for years and I see the commitment and joy and love. Thank you that Lighthouse is a special place. We can sense it as we come here week after week. Thank You for this time that we can do something a little bit different than we normally do and kind of have an insider's message. I pray, Lord, for those who are visitors's here today, that they would feel Your love, feel Your presence and realize that they matter to You. Help us all to grow spiritually in the forty days of this emphasis. Help us to build our lives on Jesus Christ. Help us to see a miracle of Your love and Your compassion in Your people. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.