What If I'm Broke Series

“What If I’m Broke?”

John 6: 4-14

February 14, 2016

Intro: I’m not a gambling man but I have to admit I was pretty intrigued by Powerball last month when I saw that the prize had risen to $1.6 billion! People were lining up all across the country to purchase a ticket in the hopes of becoming overnight billionaires. Several of you told me that if you won that you’d give a large chunk of it to VillageChurch.

-Oh well. Maybe next time. But people are drawn to the idea of winning big b/c we think if we win big it’ll solve all of our problems. And there’s no doubt there are quite a # of us that are in need of winning big.

-Let me share w/you the financial situation most Americans are in. A new report released by the GoBankingRates, which tracks interest and banking rates nationwide, found that the average American is more than $225,000 in debt with many having less than $500 in savings. In case you’re wondering…that’s not good.

-So most people are living under quite a bit of financial strain. And then, to top it off, you come into the church and hear that we’re going thru a series of messages entitled “Give.” You might be thinking, “How in the world can I give when I’m broke? How in the world can I be generous when I’m struggling just to pay my bills?”

Sermon Idea: Today in our passage of Scripture we’re going to see Jesus ministering to a bunch of people who had a lot of needs. If anything, these people needed Jesus to give something to them. But what we’re going to see, was that before these people could be blessed by God it would require them to take a step of faith.

TEXT: JOHN 6: 4-14

Bckgrd: Just last month Emily and I were on a boat in the Sea of Galilee. And we were able to view the area where Jesus performed the miracle of feeding the 5,000. What’s interesting @ this miracle is that it’s the only miracle Jesus performed that’s mentioned in all 4 Gospels.

-I’m sure it was a big story b/c of the size of the crowd. We’re told 5,000 men PLUS women and children gathered on the banks of the Sea of Galilee to hear Jesus teach. That’s made many scholars believe this crowd could’ve been anywhere from 15,000-20,000 people.

-Why was there such a large crowd there? Well, b/c Jesus was renowned for being an incredible teacher. Crowds were drawn to Him b/c He taught w/power and authority. But the crowds were also huge b/c Jesus had performed miracles. He’d healed people of diseases, cured blindness, turned water into wine. Do a few things like that and people are going to come and see you for curiosity’s sake.

-There are a lot of lessons to take from this story but one of the lessons we’re going to see is a lesson on giving. How in the world can we give when we’re broke? How in the world can we give when we don’t have anything?

-Thru this story Jesus let’s see how we can approach giving when we don’t feel like we have anything to give. The 1st approach to giving is:

DIV. 1: START WITH WHAT YOU HAVE (vv. 4-9)

Exp: One thing I learned when we were in Israel was that the fisherman in Galilee basically traveled the shorelines and didn’t travel much in open water b/c it enabled them to get out of a storm quicker if it popped up. So it made it easy for this crowd to follow Jesus to the other side.

A.So why in the world were they so intent on following after Jesus? V. 2 gives us the answer. It said they’d seen Jesus healing people and they were eager to see more of it! Who wouldn’t be? If I saw a blind man cured by someone, I’d be looking to see where that guy was going next so I could get front row seats.

1.But why were there so many people following after Jesus? We can answer that question partly b/c it was near the Passover. And hundreds of thousands of people would’ve been making their way down to Jerusalem so they could go the Temple.

a.The crowd that was following after Jesus was substantial. We’re told that the crowd was made up of 5,000 men. One you put women and children into that #, many scholars say the crowd would’ve been up to 15,000-20,000 people.

b.Ego-wise, I’d be feeling pretty good @ myself. I’d be thinking, “Look at that! 20,000 people are following my boat b/c they want me to touch them.” But it’s interesting to see that Jesus wasn’t thinking @ Himself and how great He was at this time.