The SUPERSIZED Happy Meal

Matthew 14:14-21

We are going to talk about a little lad and his loaves, his lunch and how God super sized it for 5,000 men plus woman and children – perhaps 15,000 – 20,000 people.

 

14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. 15 And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.vitals 16 But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. 17 And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. 18 He said, Bring them hither to me. 19 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to [his] disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. 20 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. 21 And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.

PRAY

This was a miracle of God – Jesus supersized this little meal this boy gave.

 

Our God is a God of miracles, and I still believe in miracles today and nothing is impossible with Him!  He can meet every need that arises.  Feeding tens of thousands with a couple of fish and chips was a small thing for Jesus. 

How did He do it? 

It was a McMiracle!  Jesus supersized what little they had and everyone had themselves a happy meal!  And He can meet your needs today, and is working miracles today in the church that trusts in Him!

 

We are going to look at THE MULTITUDE and THE MASTER and THE MIRACLE.

 

1.     The Multitude

v. 14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them,

The first thing you have to do is to see what is there   

Prophet Jeremiah  says 

Lam 3:51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart what you see can have an effect on your heart but not if you don’t go and not if you don’t see them.

Jesus went where the people were – where the sinners were.

 

Multitudes today are hungry. – Physical / Emotional / Spiritual

        a.     Physical hunger – if your not hungry yet, by the end of this happy meal message you will be.  

 

Did you know 1/3rd of the world is underfed,

1/3rd is starving,

we are part of the other 1/3rd that is far from underfed or starving.  But many even in America, and certainly some in our town, go to bed hungry, and when they awake, they are no better. 

We are bombarded w/ images of starving children in Africa on TV…we should be careful not to allow ourselves to be desensitized to the very real epidemic of hungry people. 

 

We have great opportunity to help the hungry in our area, and sometimes in our church.  Jesus met physical needs before spiritual needs.

Our food pantry is empty right now – what will you decide to do?

 

What a ‘happy meal’ this was to that enormous crowd on that hillside 2000 years ago.  They couldn’t focus on their eternal needs until their temporal needs were met.  Their bellies cried out so loudly that their spirits could not focus on their need.  But Jesus met their physical need and included a prize inside far better. 

Prize:

It was the bread of heaven, and a living water thru which they would never thirst again…and He supersized it for all who would accept it that day!

 

        b.     Emotional hunger

We have a world around us that is hungry for acceptance,

World that is hungry for understanding, and

world that is certainly hungry for unconditional love. 

They are looking for meaning in life and a purpose for their life. 

They are looking for a church that will accept them and not judge them by their outward shell – Jesus saw people for what they could be and not what they were!

 

Self help books are best sellers by the thousands as people search for something real. 

World does not understand unconditional love and are searching for it.

The Bible predicted that in Romans1/2Tim 3 says in last days that there are people who are ‘without natural affection’ – we usually only apply that to homosexuality because they are doing something unnatural

But natural affection is not only love but unconditional love.

Our world today is void of unconditional love.

So we need to share the love of Jesus with them…He’s the one who can help them.  An entire generation exists today who has not been truly loved.  They grew up something less than acceptance and unconditional love and no wonder they don’t know how to love or be loved.

 

We live in a performance based society – everything is - - you meet the conditions - - then maybe I will show you the love.

 

        c.     Spiritual hunger

People, weather they realize it or not, have a spiritual hunger. Weather it’s you here in church realizing that you want to hear God’s word, or weather it’s someone out there who has no idea they have spiritual hunger, they have it.

This is the need in our lives for forgiveness…to be cleansed of sin.  Remember the time in your life before you were saved?  Remember the spiritual hunger?  Remember the emptiness and the void in your soul?  God filled it when you were born again! Amen

 

Ill. — a man had a passion for precious stones which led him to a barren desert known for being rich in gems.  But he got lost and soon ran out of water.  He was dying of thirst, and got to the place where he could barely crawl…he was on death’s doorstep.  Just then he saw a canteen that must have been dropped by someone else.  He mustered up enough strength to crawl to the canteen, picked it up, and it was heavy, oh what a relief this will be he said as he opened it up, only to find it had been filled not with water, but with rubies.  He dumped them out, threw the canteen aside and died.  The very thing in life he thought he needed the most meant absolutely nothing to him in the face of death.

 

Rich people commit suicide at the same rate as the poor, because THINGS don’t satisfy, and nothing can fill the void properly except Jesus. 

The rich may have plenty of food, but they are starving spiritually, and their hunger can only be satisfied thru Christ!

 

People live for power and pleasure and prestige but they find them empty, and we need to be waiting in the wings to bring them real sustenance for their souls in the desert of their days. When they realize that nothing else can satisfy, we need to be waiting there with the answer. Lest they die in the desert of their days.

 

Now this multitude was not present for the right reasons.  They were there simply to see a miracle.  “Show us your tricks we have heard about,” they said.  Time went by and they got hungry, and Jesus saw His opportunity to give them what they wanted, to do one of his “tricks,” and it led to an opportunity to give them what they really needed. 

 

The point:  this crowd didn’t deserve to be fed, they were there for the wrong reasons but Jesus fed them anyway.  And you and I don’t deserve to be saved, but Jesus saved us anyway.  Our church doesn’t deserve God’s blessings, but He gives them to us anyway!

 

Well, the book of John says Matthew calculated that it would take 6 month’s wages to feed this crowd one meal.  But he was making a critical mistake…he was looking at the multitude, when He should have been looking at the Master! That leads us to number 2.

 

2.     The Master

        a.     He is A Personal Master

He adds His personal touch to this miracle and to all His miracles.

A Personal touch

It is when people touch him or when he would touch them that the miracles would happen – touch the blind eyes, take the lame man by the hand, even as he touched the bread.

He touched me and made me whole.

 

 

He is a personal master look at v. 18  And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. 18 He said, “Bring them hither to me.”

It was Andrew who found a little lad w/ a little lunch.  But little is much when God is in it, and v. 18 is where it gets personal, when Jesus said, “Bring them to me.”

 

And just a little bit that you have, when placed in Jesus’ hands, becomes a whole lot!

If you place it in God’s hands it becomes a lot! We all have a little to offer.

 

Ill. — a great violinist stood before royalty to play, but as he tuned a string broke, and then another, and another, and he was left w/ only 1 string.  The crowd gasped, but he proceeded to play music that seemed divine.  When he finished the crowd followed the king in a standing ovation.  Why? It was a broken violin, but in the hands of a master!

Only the master can take little and make much of it.

        You are just one…one life scarred by sin, marred by sin, but put that one life in the hands of the Master and watch what He can do!

 

        b.     He’s A Practical Master He made something happen that needed to happen

v. 19 he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed,if Jesus blesses His food shouldn’t you and brake, and gave the loaves to [his] disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.     

The book of Mark clarifies that Jesus told the disciples to organize the crowd by 50s and 100s.  Our God is a God of order. 

Talking about the house of God 1Cr 14:40 Let all things be done decently and in order.

You can see order and design in the universe, and in His masterful plan for redemption.  He loved us from the beginning. He’s the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

So why do many churches feel it is unspiritual to be organized? 

Why do many Christians not want to live on a budget, or by a schedule? 

Why would a preacher get up to speak without studying and preparing to give God’s Word to the hungry people?

Its only right to do our part in advance.

 

I’m all for the Holy Spirit (he’s right here in our midst – as he promised he would be) and his leading, but I’ve been in some services where they stand up and say, “We don’t know who is going to sing or speak or how this service will go, and we’ll just follow the Spirit’s hand.”  I want you know that what I experienced in those services I wouldn’t want to blame on the Holy Spirit.  I believe we can have His leading in our studies, preparations, and in our planning, and then ‘in the moment’ as well!

 

Jesus is a personal and a practical Master.

 

3.     The Miracle

v. 19-20 20 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. 

Only God can do that. I love leftovers! And I believe that all these leftovers were eaten later on – and it was probably better the second time around.

 

End of vs 19 I like the fact that He used the disciples to distribute the bread. He didn’t give directly to the crowd; he gave to his own people – his servants. He didn’t have to do that, He was creating something out of nothing and those baskets could have appeared on their laps

but He chooses to use us. 

We don’t manufacture the bread, we can’t create fish

Some hobby fisherman probably would like to be able to create fish so then they could catch some.

but we are called to be delivery persons. 

I’m a bread man, and proud to be so! All any of us should be is one beggar showing other beggars where to find bread.

 

What can we learn from this miracle?  I see what to do in an impossible situation.

v. 16 But Jesus said unto them, (his disciples) “They need not depart; give ye them to eat.”    

Jesus told the disciples, ‘you feed them.’ 

Jesus put the disciples in an impossible situation – He asked them to do something He knew they couldn’t do. Feed them.

Our God wants us to come to the end of our rope so we can see we can’t.

Sometimes that is the only way we will fully realize that He can and we will turn to Him.

God wants us to be dependant on Him!

It was an impossibility. 

And some here today are facing impossible situations…maybe it’s at work, or in the home, or you may look at your finances and say that is impossible. 

“What in the world are we gonna do?!”

 

Do this:  Do what the disciples did! 

 START WITH WHAT YOU HAVE!  Don’t wait for everything to be perfect, have some faith and start with what you have. 

 

Right after verse 16, the disciples did just that. Jesus said, “Feed them,” and the disciples went to him and said, “This is what we have. It’s not much, but 5 loaves and 2 fishes.” They didn’t say back to him, “Lord, it’s impossible.” They did the right thing. They started with what they had.

 

Give what you have…you can’t give what you don’t yet have, and you’ll never have it if you do nothing! Do what you can with what you have. God will do the rest.

 

The wonderful thing about our God is that He takes us where we are and uses what we have.  He sees down the road to all He desires to make of us miraculously. 

 

Ill.—God asked Moses to deliver His people from slavery in Egypt.  Moses made excuses and said, “I can’t.”  God said, “What is that in thine hand?”  It was just a rod.  Then God showed what he could do thru a stick, when it is placed in His hand!

        But then, even after seeing the rod turn into a serpent and back into a rod, Moses said, “I don’t have the inclination.” After all the excuses he came up with (he said he was “of a slow tongue” – meaning he was not a “people person” – and there were several others), and after God works this miracle with the rod, he finally just said, “I don’t want to!”  I don’t want to deliver your people. Thankfully God got his attention and he made a better decision.

You see, we need to obey what God has told us to do. We need to not be people of excuses. We need to start from the beginning, not making excuses, and tell God the truth – “I don’t want to.”

I don’t want to invite people to church.

What has God laid on your heart to do?

 

You may look in the mirror at your gifts, talents, and abilities, and it may not appear to be a full meal deal.  I like the double quarter pounder. 

but it doesn’t matter if I’m a Happy Meal with the tiny little ‘where’s the beef’, pickle-sized patty…all that matters is that what little I do have is placed in the hand of the Master! Little is much when God is in it!

 

The Bible says obey in little things, or I’ll never entrust you with big things to obey with. Do what you can with what you’ve got.

 

For some, the problem is not knowing what to do, but doing what they know already. 

What do you have to give?  Like the commercial - What’s in your wallet?  What’s in your hand?  The disciples didn’t have to obey God’s commands, but they believed and did what they could with what they had.

 

I’m proud to be one of God’s bread deliverymen! And I challenge everyone in the church to go out and do the same.

Start with what you have.

 

-Pray-

Help us to do our best and trust you with the rest – Help each one of us to hold out to you what we have to offer

May we serve you with our lives and be obedient.

We ask that you do miracles in our midst. . . .