Daring Faith: How To Get Ready For A Miracle with Rick Warren

all right let's look at where we're going for the next several weeks if you take out your message notes first what is the daring faith campaign well it's a two-month focus on growing sewing and going in faith let's say those three words growing sewing and going let me show you three verses from the Bible first God wants you to grow in faith the Bible says in Colossians to let your roots grow down deep into him and draw up a nourishment from him so that you will grow in faith circle that grow in faith strong and vigorous God wants you to grow in your faith you know one should be a spiritual baby and then God says I want you to sow in faith I want you to learn to become generous you cannot become like God without becoming generous you can't not become like Christ without becoming generous the Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 9 remember this whoever sow sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously this is the law of you reap what you sow and it's true in every of your life if you sow criticism you're going to reap criticism if you sow love you'll reap love if you sow kindness you or reap kindness but you always reap more than you so when you plant one porns kernel in the ground you don't get one kernel back you get a whole stalk you always get more back either positively or negative of what you put out in life and the Bible says if you so generously you will reap generously so grow in faith so in faith and then God wants you to go in faith I could have used many examples but here's an example of Abraham hebrews 11:8 says it was by faith that abraham obeyed god's call to go you know this story how he left her to go to the promised land god's called to go to another place that god had promised to give him he left his own country without knowing where he was to go would you do that Abraham was up in years he was at retirement saves it's time to hang it up and settle down and God said no get it down dust it off you're on the ready for the greatest journey of your life and God says when you live by faith it involves going off into places you hadn't any idea you were planning to go to in fact you weren't planning so we're going to look at faith in the areas of your growing in Larry's of your giving and in the areas of your lifestyle now why are we doing this because everything that God does in your life he does because of his mercy and grace and your faith he does it by grace through faith I could give you a hundred different verses let me just give you a few Hebrews 11:6 does this without faith it is impossible to please God well that's enough to study it for ten weeks right there Romans 14:23 says this anything that is not done in faith is sin that's another reason to study faith for ten weeks Matthew 9:29 jesus said according to your faith it will be done to you I love that verse because Jesus says you get to choose how much God blesses your life a lot of faith a lot of blessing little faith little blessing no faith no blessing according to your faith it will be done to you so God says I want you to develop faith now there are four purposes of our daring faith campaign I want you to write these down we're going to advance enhance finance and honor first the first purpose is to advance our spiritual maturity you're going to grow more in the next ten weeks probably spiritually than in the rest of the year and we're going to advance our spiritual maturity by stretching our faith a muscle only gets stronger by stretching it a muscle only gets stronger by developing it a muscle only gets stronger by putting pressure on it putting some weight on it I'm going to put some weight on your spiritual muscle in the next ten weeks I'm going to challenge you in ways you've never been challenged because I want you to grow up spiritually James chapter one says this when your faith is tested your endurance has a chance to grow so let it grow for when your endurance is fully developed you'll be strong in character and read it with me ready for anything that's what I want to be true of your life I want you to be ready for anything that comes at you the road winds of life the tough times I want you to be strong in character and I want you to be ready for anything and the Bible says you the way you get that way is by developing faith muscle letting it grow so we're going to advance our spiritual maturity yes we're going to build some buildings with some money we're going to give two offerings and things like that but I've always been far more interested in building disciples than in building buildings nobody can infuse this church of being into buildings because we were the only church to ever go to over 10,000 attendants without owning a building we wanted to prove that a church is not a building of churches people we always say I tell pastors build your people before you build your steeple and so yeah we're gonna build some things in our next phase of growth in the future of our church but that's not really what this about it's about building you building your spiritual maturity so we're going to advance our spiritual maturity second we're going to enhance our relational unity we're going to enhance our relational unity what do you mean by that I mean we're going to get closer together as a spiritual family we're going to become more deep in fellowship we're going to become more intimate in our relationships we're going to grow closer together and how do we do that by cooperating together when people work on a common goal when people work on a common ministry when people give to a common cause when people pray for a common reason it brings us closer together I want our church family to be close I want you to have many close friends many close relationships the Bible tells us in the book of Acts that the believers in the Jerusalem church were united in their hearts and spirit why tells us why because they shared all they had with each other it says in fact people would actually sell what they owned even their homes and give the money as an offering jesus said where your treasure is your heart is and and wherever you put your time your money your interest that's going to be where you where you feel close I don't feel close to Microsoft but if I bought some stock I'd feel close to Microsoft I'd be very interested in its future I don't feel close to Apple but if I bought some apple stock all of a sudden where your treasure is your heart is and so we're going to enhance our relational unity by cooperating together third thing we're going to do is finance our global ministry we're going to finance our global ministry through an offering and a couple months and toward the end of May and a 36 month Giving Pledge now many of you have been at Saddleback for years you've been through one of these campaigns for in fact we've done seven of them in 35 years together we grow possess our land time to build building for life for the children extend the vision decade of destiny many of you were in part of that one about four years ago and now we're doing daring faith everything you see at Saddleback Church was paid for by a campaign the chair you were sitting on was paid for by people who sacrificed in the time to build campaign somebody else paid for the chair you're sitting on the building you're in was paid for by another campaign where your children are right now everything you see at Saddleback Church in the past has been paid for by one of these seven campaigns and now we're going to do number 8 the 8 in our 35th year it's time for us to step up it's time for us to tamanna so we're going to finance our global ministry now Paul expresses this same reason for helping people grow in their faith and for helping people become spiritually mature because he says as you become spiritually mature then you can be a part of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission and he says this in 2nd Corinthians 10 what we're hoping for and by the way this is my prayer as your pastor what we're hoping for is that as your lives grow in faith you'll play a greater part within our expanding work Saddleback has had a great past we celebrated the 35 years of it last year but it's nothing compared to where we're going so buckle up because I'm taking you on the ride of a lifetime and I make no apology and saying to you that what you are doing in this church in the next few years may be the most significant thing you do with your life it's certainly gonna outlast your career it's gonna outlast your hobbies it's gonna outlast everything else you do because it's going to last for eternity now when I read second Corinthians chapter 8 I think of our congregation it could be written of us Paul says this since you already excel in so many ways you have so much faith you have so much gifted teaching such gifted teaching so much knowledge you have so much enthusiasm you have so much love Paul says I now want you to grow and Excel in the ministry of generous giving and that's one of our goals it's one of the four goals of this campaign then number four the fourth purpose of the campaign as I mentioned earlier is to honor the everyday heroes of faith that are serving in our church family and we're going to do this every weekend during the campaign just like we did with our small group host we're going to honor those of you who have been serving faithfully for months and years and many of you for even decades we want you to know how much we appreciate you we want to honor the heroes Paul gives an example of this in the Bible he's writing to the Christian believers in the city of Philippi and Greece and in Philippians chapter 2 he writes this a pad for Dittus by the way how'd you like to have the name of Pafford itis is the pepper diet is here present what do you use for a nickname Pappy you know our eepa I don't know if Pafford diocese a Greek name works and serves with me in the army of Christ when I needed help you sent him to me welcomed him back in the Lord with much joy and here's the point give honor give honor to people like him not just this guy but the people like him for he risked his life to give me the help I needed that you could not provide and and the Bible many times commands us to honor the people who are true heroes who sacrifice for the benefit of others and we're going to do that every week now how are we going to do this how are we going to build up your faith and make you stronger spiritually in these 10 weeks well the answer is by challenging people to stretch their faith to take wise risks to learn to trust God and to practice sacrificial generosity like price then we're going to do it these ways they're on your outline first the 10-week end messages daring faith the key to miracles then the small group videos and these are here that all of our small groups are going to go through learning to live by faith we actually start that this week not after Easter this week and then daily devotional readings on faith and then the faith offering which will give on May 8 and 9 and then we've got some recognitions and some fellowships and some projects now whenever you talk about giving and offering people have all kind of wild ideas and so Saddleback is a very unique church there are some things we just won't do in this church that other churches and other organizations will do and we don't do them we don't believe in it so let me explain to you right now what we will do and what we won't will not do in this campaign okay why don't you write these down number one what we won't do we won't pressure we will not pressure anyone to get we are actually opposed to pressure why because the Bible says never give under pressure and and in fact if somebody ever comes to your door and ask you for a donation you feel a little guilty about it feel pressured by it just say pastor I told me to not give because I am Telling You do not get in fact I'm telling you this if you ever feel pressured by me don't give but you don't get any credit for it anyway never never never never never never never never never never never never give under pressure never give out of guilt never give out of fear you give out of joy and if you don't give out of joy don't give okay let me just make it real clear in about two months we're gonna have a big offering and a commitment where people sign pledges like they have for 35 years and there's some people goes I really don't want to do that here's what I say to you don't I'm letting you off the hook because if you feel pressured it doesn't work okay now the Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 9 each one should give what he is decided I can't tell you each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give not reluctantly or under pressure for god loves of what cheerful giver Circle that word cheerful you know what that word is in Greek it's the word hilarious I bet you can't guess what word we get from that hilarious so when you bring an offering you ought to bring it hilariously alright so we're not pressure anybody second thing we will not do we do not believe in it we won't sell anything we won't sell anything this by the way is the difference between fund raisers and generosity we don't do fundraisers in this church we don't have cake sales we don't have bake walks we don't have a car washes we don't sell candies or cookies we don't do silent options we just don't believe in them the difference between giving and fund raising and fund raising I give you a reward for money you give to my project and giving I give myself out of my own generosity fund raising doesn't build your character it doesn't build your giving does generosity does you know my testimony of generosity I have a right to talk to you about this because as you know okay and I started giving ten percent of our income away 40 years ago and through each year of marriage we raised it and we now give away ninety one percent and live on nine and I've played this game with God for 40 years where God says you give to me and I'll give to you and we'll see who wins and I've lost it for 36 years and you know I don't take a salary from this church in fact I've served this church free for 35 years so I have a right to talk to you about generosity I know what it means to be generous and I know the joy of generosity and I want you to learn that you cannot outgive God you cannot outgive and the more generous you are the more God bless your life so we're not going to sell anything david says in first chronicles 21 talking about the offering for the temple and Jerusalem I will not sacrifice an offering that cost me nothing so we don't we don't do you know quid pro quo here the third thing is we won't promote products mixed with giving you you would not believe how many salesmen come to me every week who want a chance at our mailing list you should thank me for protecting you really because people look at Saddleback Church but look at all those potential customers and I can't pay every time we've done a campaign I'm just telling this upfront cuz I've seen this happen many many times people will come to me with hey Pastor Rick we're trying to raise money for buildings and projects I got a great idea I have this new invention I have this widget I have this product I have this service and if you'll just let everybody in the church get one then all Tighe on it and I tell them on the same thing everything thank you but no thanks if you want to give that's between you and God it's not even between me and you it's between you and God but we don't give as a quid pro quo and we don't use our church to promote other things does that make sense okay and so we're just never gonna do those things they're part of our values at Saddleback Church we don't do fundraising we just say everybody give what you want to give now what we will do without apology the next rethinks first we will show how everybody can give something everybody can get something even if it's just a penny even if it's to Jesus tells the story about the widow who gave two mites and he said that woman who gave two pennies gave more than a millionaire before her because she gave all that she had even if you're out of work you can give something you could make a pledge say during the next three years I'd like to give this amount even if you didn't have any money right now it's that's called faith that's called faith so we will show everybody how they can get something second we will ask people to sacrifice and I make no apology and saying to you I want you to learn to sacrifice for the greatest cause in the world the kingdom of God there is no greater cloth we sacrifice for ourselves all the time I have people say well I don't believe in making a 36-month giving commitment that's a financial that's being presumptions on the future Oh have you ever bought a car yeah have you ever made a commitment have you ever rented a house have you ever bought a mortgage oh you don't mind making financial commitments it's long on your behalf you just don't want to make one to God so let's just be clear about that what that is so we'll ask people to sacrifice because there are more promises in the Bible about giving than else and then number three we will follow the biblical pattern for an offering and David lays this out in first chronicles 29 in the offering to build the Temple in Jerusalem and we follow that to the tee first chronicles 29 now let me explain to you what you can expect some of you are new to Saddleback what you can expect in the next 10 weeks four things you ought expect write these down in daring faith number one the first thing is you can expect to see some miracles I guarantee it you count on it because when people trust God when people take risks when people dream great dreams when people go for it in faith God moves God is not impressed with my complaining God is not compressed with my griping God is not impressed with my criticizing all the things I don't like about my life it doesn't move God to act at all when I complain when I whine when I moan but God moves according to faith and when he looks down and he sees a child of God the Son of God a daughter of God believing and trusting him all throughout scripture we see this overnight God moves every time you see God did a miracle in the Bible it's cus and moved out of heaven moved on earth because somebody believed and because a lot of people are going to be taking risks and steps of faith during daring faith you're gonna see some flat-out miracles I guarantee it it's gonna happen some of you will get promoted it just happens some of you will get engaged on me God me me me me me me me me me God me me me God some of you will get engaged some of you will have honest unexpected income come in some of you will have windfall some of you will have physical healing I have seen this seven times in 35 years when people's but start to believe God and trust him in ways they've never done before they see some really neat stuff happen in their lives so you can SPECT to see miracles number two the second thing you can expect is you can expect to grow spiritually as I said you're probably going to grow more in the next ten weeks or eight weeks now then you will in all of the rest of the year because we're going to be focusing on your spiritual growth number three the third thing you can expect I hate to tell you this but it's part of the deal you can expect to be hassled by Satan you're gonna have some difficulties in the next ten weeks Satan's going to try to distract you to keep you from growing do you think Satan wants you to learn how to live by faith no do you think he wants you to learn how to be generous no do you think he wants you to learn how to go in ways and places that you've never gone to for with your life absolutely not so he's going to throw everything at you and I've again seen this seven different times and you may have unexpected illnesses and your karmic breakdown and some of you may get fired during this and you some of you may go through a real crisis of grief lose a loved one and some of you in fact this is a high probability you may have a fight with your husband or wife okay that's a high probability conflict is Satan's favorite way to get you distracted so when you get in the fight to stop and go Rick told us this would happen okay put me right in the center of your fight okay and I'll be right there smiling and it'll calm you down okay so I'm sorry to have to tell you this but you're going to have the Saint is going to try to distract you and get you off task and get you to forget this the fourth thing you can expect is you can expect to experience joy you can expect experience joy and in the next few weeks this church is going to get happy happy happy happy and it's because when people learn to trust God in deeper ways it makes them happy when people learn how to set great dreams dream great dreams and set big goals and take risks and live by faith and make the sacrifice and invest their lives you just get happy when people give they get happy and so this is going to be a very happy place the seven happiest worship experiences of my life have been the celebration Sundays at the end of campaigns there's nothing like it's like going to heaven now as I said I just want to mention this before we go on one of the four elements in daring faith is we're going to give an offering and when I mentioned an off making a commitment some people get all kinds of nervous about that because the most sensitive nerve in the human body goes from the heart to the wallet okay and and people just get all freaked up chill out just calm down okay let me tell you I've seen this seven times there will be three reactions to this campaign every one of us here and everybody else is going to be in one of these three groups you can tell yourself where which group you're in the first group are those who are going to give no matter what's said no matter what we say they're spiritually mature people they don't need a Giving Campaign they don't need a growth campaign they don't need a sewing and going campaign they're just spiritually mature and if you say hey it's time for Saddleback to take the next phase of growth it's time for our church family to do the next set of projects all these things are behind us now we're gonna do some new stuff I know all right it's time to re-up they'll pull out their wallet write a check make a commitment and that's it they don't need a campaign they're gonna give no matter what the second group of people are those who are not gonna give no matter what we say and and and they're just not going to give why why would anybody not give to something significant like that well actually there are three legitimate reasons are not legitimate but three well-known reasons the first reason is pain when you are in pain you can't think of anything else and that's legitimate when you are in if your husband had just walked out on you or you just discovered you got cancer are you going through major pain the last thing on your mind is what is my church doing that's okay that's a season of life it's okay when you're in pain if you had come to me two years ago after Matthew had taken his life and I was in deep deep grief and pain and said Rick Saddleback's getting ready to go to its next phase of growth you want to be a part I would have said yeah but I can't even think about it right now does that make sense it wouldn't even be on my radar I'd be so consumed with what I'm feeling at that point I it's not that I'm not I'm not I just can't think about it and and so some people going to have some really serious pain in the next ten weeks and they're gonna say I can't even think about an offering I can't even think about Sala Beck's future what do we say to people who are in pain who don't want to be a party offering we say to them how can we help you how can we help you because that's what this church does we help people in pain it's the reason for our existence and people in pain was it forget the offering forget daring faith forget the goals forget the sowing the going the growing free let's just get you through this season you're in pain right now we love you you're part of our family how can we help you because that's what this church exists for we exist to serve people in pain it's a legitimate reason second reason people say I don't want to give is just honestly immaturity they have no idea where all this stuff comes from they think maybe that you know Tinkerbell flies through as pixie dust and built a building for us isn't that nice wow how nice but there it is they have no idea how much money it cost to care for a congregation of 30,000 people it takes a lot of money somebody paid for the parking lot your part you're sitting on some and we had in previous campaigns we had people sold their homes bought smaller homes and gave them equity we had people who cancelled vacations cancelled pension plans the game we have people gave their wedding ring I know a couple in this church who had no money and they sold their television simply so they could give something to the offering to build this building that's the kind of sacrifice this church is built on and so some people are just immature and they just think it's gonna happen let somebody else do it and then the third group are those who honestly are just selfish they're just self-centered now it is my job as a pastor to confront their self-centeredness it's not your job it's my job as a spiritual leader to confront the self-centeredness because miser and miserable go together and they're never really gonna be happy until they learn to be unselfish now finally how do you stretch and grow your faith in other words how do you get the most out of daring faith campaign well there in your outline we're going to do it by challenging people to stretch their faith take wise risks learn to trust God and practice sacrificial generosity for different things in like Christ we're going to do it you know in in these ways first form a six-week daring faith small group to watch and discuss the in-depth teaching on video if you're not in a group you need to start one today and we'll help you start one so I don't have any friends I will buy you two friends just go out to the table and get this up and I'll buy you two friends and you can start a small group then listen to all 10 weekend messages on the campaign then read the daily inspirations in your workbook carry the weekly Bible verse with you and we're going to later on help you set three faith goals for growing for giving and for going now I want to spend the rest of my time the last few minutes just talking to you about how do you prepare for a miracle and we're going to look at the most famous miracle of Jesus Christ it's the Jesus feeding the 5,000 how he took one little boy's lunch and was able to feed the 5,000 and really this story is all about how God turns a little into a lot you need to know these principles because many times for the rest of your life you're going to need God to turn a little into a lot in your life you got a little energy you need a lot of energy you got a little bit of talent you need God to turn it into a lot of talent you got a little opportunity you need God to turn it into a big opportunity you got a little little connections relationships you need God to turn it in some big relationships some big connections you got a little bit of money you need God to turn it into a lot of money many times in your life God is going to need to turn a little into a lot I got a little bit of help but I really need great help how does God turn a little into a lot that's what this story and that's what this miracle is all about now jesus never did miracles just to show off like hey look at this miracle I learned this one at the Magic Castle it's really cool you can impress your friends with it and so use it at your next cocktail party do this little miracle Jesus never did a miracle to show off every miracle is to teach a spiritual truth and the spiritual truth of Jesus of the feeding of the 5,000 is to show us how to prepare for a miracle where God turns a little into a lot in your life very important as we start daring faith now this miracle is so important it's the only miracle of Jesus told four times in the New Testament it's in the book of Matthew it's in the book of Mark it's in the book of Luke and it's in the book of John all four authors were so impressed with this miracle and you couldn't deny it I mean there are 5,000 people who saw it that it it makes all for now any time God tells you something four times he's saying you really should pay attention to this one you should really pay attention to this one now here's the story Jesus goes out into the Judean Desert and he's out there and he's teaching and about 5,000 people follow him out into the the Judean Desert and he's teaching all day and at the end of the day 5,000 people are hungry and they're 25 miles from the nearest McDonald's or actually in Israel be mcDavid's and and there's no fast food nearby and everybody's hungry and the disciples come to Jesus go hey Lord it's late in the day and everybody's hungry and Jesus says you feed them I love this line we'll get to it a minute you feed him the Lord that's impossible physically practically you know humanly impossible for us twelve to feed these guys what is going on here Jesus is performing a miracle to teach us the four steps to preparing for a miracle I told you that during daring faith you're going to see some miracles in this church they're just going to happen and I literally have not hundreds but thousands and thousands of letters of people who have miracles in previous campaigns so what does Jesus telling us to do he's telling us the four keys to getting ready for a miracle write these down here's the first step step number one - a miracle in your life is admit I have an unsolvable problem I must admit that I have an unsolvable problem now let me be real blunt if you don't have an unsolvable problem you don't need a miracle that's kind of obvious right does not unsolvable you don't need a miracle if you have a solvable problem solve it just just solve it I mean people don't to me Rick I've really gotten over wait I need a miracle stop eating it's not like a mirror you don't need a miracle you need a diet right and a lot of times we want miracles when God says don't know you're just overspending the reason you're in so much debt is you're overspending you need a plan you don't need two miracle you need us you need a spending plan but the first step is to admit I have an unsolvable problem now in mark chapter 6 here's the story when Jesus saw the large crowd he had compassion on them so he began to teach them teaching him by this time it was late in the day so his disciples came and said this is a remote place send the people away so they can go and buy something to eat but jesus answered you give them something to eat and they said you know Lord that would take eight months of a man's wages and those they go all economics on Jesus here now in that verse in that passage I just read we have the three typical responses when we have an unsolvable problem in our life you do this everybody does this I do it we procrastinate we pass the buck and we worry all three of those things are in that passage right there first we procrastinate when we have a problem we can't solve we just keep putting it off we know we need to solve it but we don't know how to solve it so we just keep putting it off we delay we pretend it doesn't exist we looked the other way the phrase in this passage says by this time it was late in the day they were procrastinating they had all day to figure out food service for 5000 people let's call up Domino's or something they had all day to figure it out but they had done nothing now procrastination only makes a problem worse in your life if you got cancer you deal with it now not tomorrow not next week you deal with it now procrastination has never solved any problem makes it worse I wonder what problem you have been procrastinating over I wonder what problem you know is there and you're pretending isn't a problem what problem you're pertaining isn't in your marriage what problem are you pretending isn't in your body what problem you're pretending isn't in your finances we procrastinate and then we pass the buck and what we do is we blame other people as well it's not really my problem it's your problem it's it's their fault and we blame others and you've heard me say many times you spelt blame be lame every time you blame you are being lame and and so the disciples say send the people away what are they doing they're passing off responsibility hey we didn't invite these guys out here we didn't ask them to come eat we didn't ask them we didn't promise some food we didn't even invite him to come here Jesus teach I said just send him away out of sight out of mind we didn't ask them to come let them find their own food we pass the buck on our problem and the third thing we do is we worry and we fret we stew and we get anxious we get stressed out when said Lord it would take 8 months we just to pay for these guys then disciples anxiety goes into overdrive and you know I could just imagine Peter doing this cost analysis imagine the expense 5,000 people you know how we ever gonna import the food how we gonna keep it hot how we gonna distribute it how are we gonna do the cleanup who's gonna get the health permits what about liability insurance and their minds are just going in overdrive and we worry worry worry and notice I love what Jesus says he looks at these 12 guys than he says you feed him you feed him a nickel mwah me Peter's going are you kidding Artie said that yeah we did why do I we can't do that you know here's the point they're procrastinating they're passing the buck and they're worrying what's the problem with this picture they're standing next to Jesus the guy who could easily turn stones to bread if you wanted to who could easily feed everybody instantly if you want to do their standing in the presence of the Son of God and they would go on what's going on here and Jesus says you feed him and they say Lord that's practically financially and humanly impossible question has God ever asked you to do something impossible he loves to do that God loves to ask you to do something possible impossible and you go Lord I don't have the time I don't have the money I don't have the energy I don't have the education hi I just you got the wrong guy Lord Moses I want you to do this not me yeah you know Jeremiah why me you know you you know you got it you got to say like Isaiah use me here am I send me and God says I want you to do the impossible why does he ask that why does God ask you to do the impossible he wants to stretch your faith every time when God asks you to do something you think is physically and financially impossible he wants to stretch your faith and this is the first principle of a miracle I have to admit that the problem I'm facing right now is unsolvable okay principle number two here's the second step to a miracle give God what little I already have I give God what little I already have and now Jesus says to the disciples I want you to do a little reconnaissance go on if anybody's got any lunches he says how many loaves do you have Jesus asked go and see he sends him out on a little reconnaissance to five thousand people and when they found out they said five small loaves of bread and two fish one little boy has a sack lunch and wait a minute out of five thousand people only one guy brought a lunch I'm thinking a lot of rich people are hiding the picnic basket under their robe cuz they don't want to share it with anybody else in five thousand people it is highly doubtful to me that only one boy brought a lunch his mom has packed him you know three or four or five little barley rolls and a couple of you know dried fish okay he's the only one but he becomes the hero of the story because he's willing to offer up what he's got and he gives God what little he had now why did Jesus do this why did Jesus said find out how many lunches are out there find out how many loaves of bread are among this crowd why did you you didn't need anything to do a miracle he just got bread for everybody manna falls it's a million different ways you could why did he do this the second principle of miracle is this God always starts with what I have God always starts with what I have it may not be much but I give it to God as a god I don't have much time but here's my time God my finances aren't much but here's what I've got God my talent isn't much but here's my town God my sex life isn't much but there's a little nervous laughter on that one okay but here I give you I gave you everything in my life I give you my reputation I give you my heart my soul my past my present if you'd hidden much but I'm gonna give you my five loaves and two fish now it's interesting that when you God always starts with what I have John chapter six verse six tells us a little detail this story it said Jesus asked us how many lows do we have up there only to test them for you already had in mind what he's going to do he wasn't sweating it when God asked you to do the impossible he's not sweating it he already has in mind what he knows do he'd seen the need long before they did and he had a plan I want you to write this down it's important truth God always has the answer before I even know the problem in your life God always knows the answer before you even know what the problem is he saw the problem long it's not late in the day for Jesus he saw it long before he knew it was coming he's already has a plan for it God already knows the solution to your problem before you even recognize it's a problem so why are you worrying that's one of the principles of a miracle I admit I have an unsolvable problem and then I give God what little I have number three the third thing I do is I put it all in the hands of Jesus I put it all in the hands of Jesus and in John's account of this miracle it tells us this little detail that the disciple Andrew finds this one little boy who'd brought a sack lunch and his mom had packed him it wasn't much had packed him you know five little barley loaves or muffins and maybe a couple sardines or something I don't know but he's got fish and little loaves of bread it's not much now I imagine that a lot of other people probably bought bigger lunches but this boy becomes the hero because he gives God whatever he's got it didn't much but he says I'm giving it to you and the Bible says in verse 41 Jesus took the five loaves and the two and he blessed the food and he broke the loaves and as he kept breaking them he kept giving them to the disciples to set before the people and here's the third principle God will use whatever I give him God will use whatever I give it may not be much but if I give him what little time energy effort whatever I've got I give it to God he will use it now I'm done time to get into this but we could do a detailed study looking at the other verses of how this little boy gave he gave willingly cheerfully and immediately which are the keys to a miracle he gives willingly Matthew tells us that he volunteered I'm asked is would you share your lunch you're in 5,000 people crowd of 5,000 everybody's hungry and you're the only one who's gonna say hey I got something to eat would you do that took a great faith he did it willingly did it cheerfully didn't grumble he didn't complain didn't worry and did it immediately and as soon as he saw that was neat he said Jesus take my lunch and he get and he gives his lunch no hesitation now because of that we come to the fourth key to a miracle write this down expect God to multiply it I give God whatever I have I put it in the hands of Jesus and then I expect God to multiply it now notice what happens in mark chapter 6 verse 42 and 44 it says everybody ate that's all 5,000 they all had enough and it said afterwards they collected twelve basketfuls of leftovers I love this they're going on with doggie bags Jesus doesn't even just fill satisfy everybody he makes a spiritual lesson obviously the twelve is a symbol of the twelve tribes and his fulfillment but he said the twelve basket full and they're going home now I love this imagine this kid goes home and he walks home walks in with 12 baskets full of loaves and fishes and his mom says Jacob where'd you get all that food it was mom I gave it I gave my lunch of Jesus and you multiplied it go to your room and you stay there until your father gets home and you stay there till you're ready to tell me the truth really mom I gave Jesus my lunch and he he multiplied you just stay there wait till your father gets home I mean would you believe that story I mean it's it's mind-boggling that's why they call it a miracle now here's the fourth principle you might write it down whatever I give I always get back more whatever I give out I always get back more this little boy's lunch not only blessed 5,000 other people but he ends up being richer himself I could give you a lot of testimonies on that how God blesses you as you try to bless others that you cannot outgive God and he ends up with more than he started with now here's the point or the big lesson God likes to do miracles through people not independently he likes to work through the ordinariness of people and and what we wait for God to do for us God is waiting to do through us during daring faith this 10 week series God wants to turn you into a miracle machine he didn't want to just do a miracle for you he wants to do a miracle through you like he did through this little boy who gave him wasn't much but it was all he got how he had and he gives it to Jesus and God takes it breaks it blesses it and multiplies it God wants to do that in so many weary in your life now this miracle is so appropriate to our congregation right now because Southern California and America and even the world is spiritually hungry and they're starving to death for spiritual truth and God has said to Saddleback you feed them you you feed them I said Lord we can't do that he asked us to do the impossible but because of your faith and because of the faith of thousands of people in the last 35 years who gave their lunch thousands of people who gave their lunch Saddleback has reached and ministered to tens of thousands of people and influenced millions and has gone to every nation in the world and no other congregations done that why it's our choice it's our choice and the amazing thing about this congregation when I get a little teary about this is cuz it every single time in 35 years we've been faced with a challenge like this you have stepped up the bat and you have knocked it out of the park you've hit a home run and you have offered your lunch to Jesus time and time again that's what this church is built on and you have held up signs like we did years ago in the stadium where everybody held up the sign that said whatever it takes and you have said Rick just tell us how far how high where to jump what to do we're ready we're willing to go and as a result of that the Bible says mark 10 27 all things are possible with God the ultimate example of all things are possible with God and the reason we know that all things are possible with God is what we're going to celebrate this week it's called Easter Easter because if God could raise a person from the dead he can do anything if God can raise a dead human being he can raise a dead marriage if God can raise the dead human being he can raise a dead career if God can raise the dead human being he can raise a dead dream he can raise dead finances he could raise a dead body God can do anything Easter proves it the Bible says in the Old Testament is anything too hard for the Lord the answer is obviously no no an Easter is the ultimate example that the greater the sacrifice the greater the results jesus pays the ultimate sacrifice giving his life for the sins of mankind he didn't just die on a cross he died to take my guilt my shame to be my Lamb of God and in doing that it results in the salvation of the world all of us can enter in to that salvation so his ultimate sacrifice made it possible for anybody to be saved Jesus said it like this in John well a kernel of wheat must be given away and planted in the soil in other words a pack of seed over here it doesn't do anything sitting on the shelf a kernel of wheat must be given away planted in the soil unless it dies and is buried he's talking about his own death and burial it will remain a single seed but its death will produce many more seeds and a great harvest

Channel: Saddleback Church

Views: 168,297

Rating: 4.7848411 out of 5

Keywords: How-to (Website Category), Rick Warren (Musical Artist), Faith, Saddleback Church, Daring Faith, Grace, Small Groups, Life of Faith, Jesus

Id: SBF_HpUiNm4

Length: 49min 41sec (2981 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 30 2015