forgot to post last weeks sermon.....
The Pope, Billy Graham and Oral Roberts were in a plane crash together. Tragically, they all died and went to the Pearly Gates.
"Oh, this is terrible," exclaimed St. Peter, "I know you guys think we summoned you here, but this is just one of those coincidences that happen. St. Peter was fretting, "Since we weren't expecting you, your quarters just aren't ready. We can't take you in just yet and we can't send you back."
Then he got an idea. He picked up the phone, "Lucifer, this is Pete. Hey, I got these three guys up here. They're ours, but we weren't expecting them and we gotta fix the place up for 'em. I was hoping you could put them up for a while. It'll only be a couple of days. I'll owe you one."
Reluctantly, the Devil agreed. But ... two days later ...
"Pete, this is Lucifer. Hey you gotta come get these three clowns. This Pope guy is forgiving everybody, the Graham fellow is saving everybody, and Oral Roberts has raised enough money to buy air conditioning."
Isn’t it great to be able to sit back and take it all in?? Time to get some food. Physical food as well as spiritual food. Jesus had sent out the 12 disciples to preach repentance.
In vs 13 they drove out many demons and healed many people. They were on the top of the mountain. Can you imagine the scene when they got back? “Peter, you should have seen it. I called a demon out of this kid who was doing everything he could to hurt himself. He would run into walls, cut his arms and legs, and gorge himself on food or poisonous roots. It was terrible. But I called out the demon In The Name Of Jesus and the demon obeyed. It was amazing.”
“I know,” Peter says, “I walked into town on the third day away and all I had was my staff. The old lady I stayed with had a small bottle of oil and she was a nurse at the local hospital. I went with her to work and we went room to room with that bottle anointing each person there and praying for their healing. They got right up and walked along with me just as good as any healthy person.
I could hardly believe it.” There would be a lot of stories like this. It’s like when some people get back from their Emmaus Walk. Their eyes were opened to Jesus and it transformed them. Or I heard the commercial for Promise Keepers yesterday.
It was a couple kids talking about their dad that before PK he was never around and not interested in them, but after PK his life was transformed and his priorities have been changed. Now he is the one who cheers the loudest at the games and tries to help with homework every night.
If you’re interested in knowing more about the Walk to Emmaus there are 3 more men’s and 3 more women’s walks this year. Just come ask. I can’t guarantee your journey with Jesus will be brought to its closest point ever, but I can show you many people here in this congregation and many others where their life was transformed on their Emmaus weekend.
Well all the disciples are together with Jesus and he finally gets them calmed down. “You guys look excited but exhausted. Let’s go across the lake and get some rest.” Do you ever want to do that?? Just get away from it all??
You leave church on Sunday. Monday rolls around. Some of you go to work, some to a ministry you’re working with. But Monday goes by, then Tuesday, then Wednesday and you wake up Thursday wondering where the week went.
You think back and have not prayed much during the week. It’s easy to justify. I do it to. “I was so busy Lord. Monday Brandy had a migraine and Julia was feeling sick like they did last week during Sunday School. I got to work and there was an unhappy surprise waiting for me.
I got home late and just went to bed. Tuesday was about the same. Wednesday I made it to work and narrowly missed being hit 3 times on Interstate 35. We prayed before choir practice. That preacher is really good, but he is stretching us. It’s the end of the week now. What am I supposed to do?”
Jesus knew what the disciples needed before they did. You need some rest. Your going to come off this mountain high you’re on and without rest, you will go down hard.
Why would they choose not to rest? What in us drives us to keep going???
I’m sure you have experienced that mountain high. You get back from a mission trip where you fed 116000 Ethiopians and you are on cloud nine. The gospel was spread.
The doctors healed. You fed many. Now you come back to your regular life and it won’t really compare. The disciples were talking over each other. What next? Who can we heal? What demon can we destroy? What does Jesus say???? Come with me. It’s time to rest.
But they get to the other side of the lake, and people are there waiting with more coming. Some need to be healed. Mostly they need to be led. Jesus sees them as sheep without a shepherd.
Sheep are stubborn creatures. Without a leader they are confused and disorganized. They don’t know what to do. It’s like the diet fads that come and go. Have your heard of any of these or been on any of these??
The backwards diet. Adkins diet. South Beach diet. Vegan diet. All chocolate all the time diet? Sounds good huh. How about this one? Exercise at least 45 minutes a day, cut back on your calorie intake, no fast food, cut out the soda. Interesting how that one always comes back in as working.
Jesus sat all the people down. Your fat, he said. You’ve been on this diet of high calorie laws and traditions that don’t get you to the goal you are seeking. Sit down and let me teach you.
But it was late. The disciples urged Jesus to say a benediction and let the people go home and eat. But Jesus had other plans. You feed them he says. There are 5000 people here and you want us to feed them with just a few loaves of bread and 2 fish??
The disciples had just gotten back from healing and preaching when Jesus was not with them. Now Jesus shows them something very important.
The disciples didn’t want to feed those people. They were getting tired. They wanted that rest now. They were ready to be fed, but Jesus is telling them to feed. He wraps up the bread and fish in some baskets and prays.
The disciples go and feed everyone until they are full. No one goes hungry. Did you notice something? Even though the disciples were ready to stop ministry for the night, it still went on. The power of God can work thru them, or it can work without them. The people wanted to be fed.
They were looking for physical nourishment and spiritual nourishment. They wanted to hear Jesus, but he knew they were not ready. Homeless shelters are the same way. What happens first??
Take food to the people. Then when they have eaten, they will be receptive to the gospel and you bring them spiritual nourishment.
But there is more. I talked to a guy the other day. He had just gotten married. They are both in their late 40s early 50s.
He said, “We are looking for a church, but right now we don’t want to get to work. Right now, we really just want to be spiritually fed on Sunday morning to last us the week.” I can’t fault him for that.
That’s how many people see Sunday worship. Get the good word, your spiritual gas tank is filled up, you’re ready to tackle the secular world for another week.
Is that a bad thing? We all have this spiritual lake. There are many rivers flowing into it. Here is a list of what the rivers may be…Sunday worship, Emmaus group, prayer group, bible study, singing in the choir, 5th Sunday.
Then you have rivers going out. Work, kids, spouse, ministries your involved in, pastor calls and asks you to be on another committee. You have all this water going in and also all this water going out. If you go dry, you go down hard.
When your lake gets low, you need to sit back and take it in. you need to recharge. You need extra prayers at the prayer time on Sunday night. So no, it’s not a bad thing.
It can’t last though, unless you’re on the fad Christian diet. I read a book the other day about one guy while he was in school would go from one church youth group to another. He would attend whichever one entertained him the most.
Adult Christians can be the same. It could be entertainment. It could be something else. But if all the rivers are flowing in and none are flowing out, the lake overflows it banks.
You see, those disciples that want to go farther on the journey to discover more of Jesus are not satisfied by constant passive intake of Christ. They will get filled up.
They can tell when their lake is getting low and need to be filled. They also want to be ready.
When Jesus says Feed My Sheep, they want to go. Fresh water in, fresh water out. If you need to be fed, we can do that. Get your hunger satisfied. Then go and open the flood gates and let the river flow. The rivers need to have a steady flow both
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