Survival, Sufficiency, Or Super-Abundance?

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!