SURVIVAL, SUFFICIENCY, OR SUPER-ABUNDANCE?
John 6:5-13
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. A man died and went to heaven. Peter brought him in and guided him down a hallway with 1,000s of clocks on the wall. The hands of the different clocks were moving at different speeds.
2. Peter explained that everyone has a clock, and when they sin the clock ticks. One clock was barely moving, that was Billy Graham’s clock. Another clock was creeping along – it was Mother Teresa’s clock.
3. The man said, “Can I see my clock?” Peter said, “Yeah, we keep it in the office and use it as a fan!”
B. TEXT
5 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?” SURVIVAL 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” 8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish SUFFICIENCY, but how far will they go among so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was...about 5,000 men were there. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. SUPERABUNDANCE 12 When they had all had enough to eat [Gr. “eaten their fill”], he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled 12 baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.” JOHN 6:5-13, NIV
C. THESIS
1. Many Christians are just trying to survive. Others, thinking they are setting their goal high – shoot for some human measure of success. But God’s thoughts are much higher than this.
2. We’re making our plans considering only what WE can do, while God wants to impower us in ways only HE can do.
3. So tonight we’re looking at 3 common lifestyles: “Survival, Sufficiency, and Super-abundance.” Which characterizes your life and which would God want to see happen for you?
I. THE 3 LIFESTYLES PROMOTED IN THE MEDIA
A. SURVIVAL
1. I believe that there are 3 levels of living. The first is SURVIVAL. Too many of us are caught in this mode of living. We glamorize survival. We make game shows based on the idea of just getting by and out-lasting our competition.
2. We say things like, “If I can just make it through the week. If I can just make it from service to service. If I can just make it from youth camp to youth camp. If I can just get through high-school and into college. If I can get from this paycheck to the next.” Survival.
B. SUFFICIENCY/SUCCESS
1. The second level of living is success (reaching a certain goal of provision) or SUFFICIENCY. We all want to be successful. We run after success as if it is the ultimate object of desire. Success is our number one all-consuming goal and destination.
2. But you can sell all the books, CDs, be on every television show, make the “big” time and still NEVER be satisfied and content. Success is nothing more than a platform that God allows you to get on so that you can be heard and heeded. Success is nothing more than a catalyst to move you to the final level.
C. SUPERABUNDANCE
1. God desires and designed us to live at the third level of living, which is significance or SUPERABUNDANCE.
2. God wants us to do more than survive or be successful; He has something significant for us to accomplish. He wants us to live at this level. We have a destiny and a purpose that must be fulfilled in order for us to live at the level that God desires for us.
II. 3 BIBLICAL EXAMPLES OF THIS VIEWPOINT. Many times in Scripture we see all three levels of living repeated.
A. THE BOY’S LUNCH
1. In John 6:1-13, we see a crowd of up to 15,000 people who have no food to eat. The Lord Jesus, in His omniscience, saw their condition and that a God-sized miracle was needed.
2. He asked His disciples to meet the need and all they could see was a boy’s lunch (sufficiency for him). But Jesus took the one lunch and multiplied it into enough food to feed the 15,000 people. But that wasn’t all.
3 Jesus took it one step further. He over-multiplied it until there were 12 baskets extra. Everyone ate ALL they wanted and there was still 12 more baskets! Didn’t Jesus know they would be extra? Yes! He wanted us to see that He’s the God of more-than-enough! He’s a superabundant God!
B. THE WIDOW WITH SONS TO BE TAKEN
1. The same pattern is repeated in 2 Kings 4:1-7. A widow is in serious debt. She has way less than she must have. She goes to the prophet. He finds out what she has that can be multiplied – a cup of oil.
2. He tells her to go to all her neighbors and borrow jars. Specifically, he tells her, “Don’t borrow just a few.” In other words, ‘borrow every jar you can!’
3. When the miracle of the flowing oil begins, it doesn’t stop until all the vessels she borrowed are full. It turns out there was enough oil to pay all her debts, plus EXTRA -- enough to supply money for her family to live on for some time afterward.
C. THE PARABLE OF THE 10 VIRGINS
1. A third impressive example is the Parable of the Ten Virgins, in Matt. 25:1-13. In this story, 10 virgins are awaiting the coming of the Bridegroom. Their job is to keep their lamps burning, even if they have to wait all 12 hours of nighttime.
2. Five virgins don’t have enough and their lamps go out. They have to leave and go in search of more oil, and while they’re gone the Bridegroom comes.
3. It’s explained during the story that the reason the 5 Wise Virgins had enough oil to keep their lamps lit all night is because they bought and BROUGHT EXTRA OIL. Besides what was in their lamps, they must have had an extra container to refill their lamps.
4. This is God’s suggestion to us that we shouldn’t get just enough of the Spirit to make it for the present time, but get an additional quantity in case Christ’s coming takes longer than we anticipated or we face bigger challenges to our faith than we would normally be prepared for.
III. GOD HAS BIGGER VISION FOR US
A. WE ARE PEOPLE OF DESTINY
1. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. You need to understand who you are. You need to know what lies in you. You are a mighty man or woman of valor. You are destined for significance. You are a chosen generation. A royal priesthood. The head and not the tail. You are more than a conqueror and more than an overcomer. You are a world changer and a history maker.
3. We can become something significant. We can fulfill our destiny, we can change our world, and we can drive out the enemy because of God’s presence. If God be for us, who can be against us?
4. “The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future,” Herbert Spencer.
B. TO EXCEL REQUIRES PREPARATION
1. In all 3 biblical examples above, what made the difference was preparation. The boy had packed a lunch beforehand; the widow had borrowed an abundance of jars; the 5 wise virgins had purchased and brought extra oil. This tells us we should make extra efforts to become spiritually strong.
2. When you get built up in the Spirit & the Word, and you suddenly need something from God – like an answer to prayer, a healing, a new infilling, someone needs deliverance, you’re resisting a satanic attack – then you can turn toward God and make a withdrawal from your spiritual surplus. But if you haven’t been putting extra in, then there’s nothing in your spiritual account to draw out.
3. PREPARATION. The 9 disciples who couldn’t cast out the spirit (Mt. 17:19-21, NKJV) are a pitiful example of insufficiency. When tested, they didn’t have enough power of the Spirit in their lives to cast it out the demon. Jesus told them, “This kind comes not out but by prayer and fasting.” Jesus meant that the disciples were supposed to have prayed and fasted enough, beforehand, to gain extra power before they got into the test.
4. Jesus often spent evenings, mornings, and sometimes whole nights in prayer, so that when He faced implacable demons or severe healing-needs or resurrections, He was sufficient for the need.
5. If we want to be overcomers – not just to survive but thrive – we need to put some extra work in getting prepared in the spiritual realm.
6. We want miracles, but we don’t want to be put in the place where miracles are the only option. Divine moments look intimidating. The place of miracles is usually a place where you’re over your head.
7. God doesn’t need much to work a miracle. You contribute your “little-bit” and God will use/multiply it! A house divided against itself cannot stand. We will not be effective in OUTWARD warfare if we have never won the victory over INNER warfare. You cannot have power over the devil, if the devil still has power over you! The demons went when Jesus said, "Go!", because Jesus went when the Father said, "Go!"
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUS.:
1. A tightrope walker walked on a wire over Niagara Falls, easily. "Do you believe I can take a wheelbarrow across?” A few spectators said, “Yes.” He did it easily. “Do you think I can take the wheelbarrow across with a person in it?” The crowd excitedly shouted “Yes!”
2. The tightrope walker went over to a man on the front row and said, “Do YOU think I can take the wheelbarrow across with a person in it?” “Yes!”
3. "Good," said Tightrope, "then you get in the wheel barrow!" He backed away petrified. It’s easy to say that we believe Christ can do anything, it’s another thing to trust Him.
B. ILLUS. #2: HE CLAIMED THE PROMISE
1. William Penn, the founder of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, was well liked by the Indians. Once they told him he could have as much of their land as he could encompass on foot in a single day. So, early the next morning he started out and walked until late that night.
2. When he finally went to claim his land, the Indians were greatly surprised, for they really didn’t think he would take them seriously.
3. But they kept their promise and gave him a large area which today is part of the city of Philadelphia. William Penn simply believed what they said. Should we do less with God?
C. THE CALL
1. We can settle for survival, sufficiency, or super-abundance. Which would you rather have from God? To get the right result, there is something we will need to do.
2. As I like to say, “If we want to get things we’ve never gotten, we need to do things we’ve never done before!”
3. Let’s commit tonight to a closer walk with God, including an enlarged daily reading program of the Word and asking the Lord to fill us with the Spirit! PRAYER.
