Eating a Miracle for Dinner, Part 2

We've grown so accustomed to hearing the familiar story that we often fail to celebrate the phenomena. When Jesus fed 5,000 men and all their families using nothing more than five loaves of bread and two fish, it was nothing short of miraculous. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Squendall reignites our sense of wonder for this awesome act of God. No one but Jesus could perform such a miracle.

We're looking at Matthew chapter 14. Resuming a message started on Friday's program, Chuck titled his message, Eating a Miracle for Dinner. And we begin with prayer. This is why, our Father, we reserve the word awesome only for you. You are awesome God of heaven and earth, our awesome creator, our awesome provider. We're reminded again, our Father, how much you can make of so little.

How our impossibilities become the platform on which you prefer to work, because we have come to an end of ourselves and our strength and our ability, and that's where you get started. Beginning there, you provide over and over an abundance of what's needed. No wonder we call it amazing grace. Amazing grace. For disciples who doubted and people who would have never believed that day because of your amazing grace, you provided all they wanted and even much more, and you're still doing that. So seal our lips from reminders as we tell you what cannot be done and open our hearts to what you do best, namely the impossible by your amazing grace. You give us our occupations and through that we earn a living and from that we give, like now, with great gratitude for your provision. Use the gifts for your purposes and glory. May they touch lives of people we will never meet, in places we will never go, in ways we could never imagine. And so make us generous, our Father. This we pray by your grace in the name of Jesus Christ. Everyone said, Amen. The disciples are getting hungry and they're getting antsy. I don't know about you, but I do pretty well until I get hungry.

And then only my wife would tell you I'm probably as close to dangerous at that point as I am at any other time in my life. And I'm sure most of those disciples were like that, which is why they said what they did in verse 15. Jesus, this is a remote place.

It's already getting late. Send the crowds away so they may go to the villages and buy food for themselves. You read nothing of compassion in those words. I like Jesus' response. Jesus said to them, that isn't necessary. You feed them. And here's a little boy that brought a sack lunch, brought the loaves and the fish and was looking forward to munching on it for his meal. And Andrew talked him out of it. And they look at the five loaves and two fish and they say, all we have are five loaves of bread and two fish. Stop.

It's called an impossibility. So he says to them, look at the verse 18. Bring them here. He's holding the bread and the fish in his hands. A little tiny bit of food.

And what do we read? He looked up toward heaven and he blessed them. And he broke the loaves and the fish into pieces.

He kept breaking. That was where the miracle took place. By the way, will you notice what he did with that? He handed them to the disciples. He has the disciples serve them.

Nice touch, huh? You men pass out the food and distribute it to all of the people. And these people there by the thousands began to eat and began to eat. And please observe the grace and the goodness of our Lord seen in that 20th verse. They ate as much as they wanted, not as much as they needed, but they ate as much as they wanted. Why would there be any question regarding his ability to turn this meal into a feast in light of what they have experienced? Well, the same could be asked of us.

How much does God need to do again to remind you of what he's able to do? I was with the seminary students at Dallas Seminary this past Wednesday and we had a great time together as I had a chance to speak to them in the chapel service. And I told them what happened to me when I was a student because many of them often think they're the first ones to go through this or their situation is the worst it could possibly be or the difficulties they're dealing with or just earth shattering. So I said, let me tell you what happened to me. I mean, we went to seminary with nothing.

Zip. Sandy didn't have a job. I didn't have a job.

And we came to Dallas and and we moved from Houston to Dallas. And while there, the Lord opened up an opportunity for her to work for a gentleman and then from that to work at a bank. And he was earning the living and I was studying and it was a it was an existence for us. Well, we lived in little apartments so small you had to go outside to change your mind.

Really little little apartment. And and yet we began to read Hudson Taylor's spiritual secret. Which is the story of how God provided for Hudson Taylor in his work in inland China. And we were we read it together.

It was a was a great read. And and we said to each other, why don't we why don't we do this? Why don't we just do what he did without announcing anything to anybody or sending out a prayer chain letter or appealing to people's hearts and all we let's just leave it with the Lord. Let's just tell the Lord we don't we don't have the tuition.

We don't we're not able to provide for our own here and yet you called us here. So how can we say I'd already been accepted on probation, which was great. I was so grateful for that.

I didn't care if I had to read everything out of a mirror. I mean it was it was grace that got me there. So I'm I'm grateful and second semester came and we had scraped up enough to pay that tuition and I went to the counter to pay it and she said, Oh, what's your name? And I told her and she goes, Oh, it's been paid. I'm like, great man of faith.

No, the name is swindoll Charles swindoll because she goes, Yeah, that's that's it. That's what I'm reading here. In fact, your tuition is paid from now till you're through your years at this school.

I go let me see that paper. Is that amazing? Not to God. In fact, would you believe that the man who provided for our tuition and from then on the rest of our years, did that for 17 other students as well. And never wanted his name mentioned publicly. So I told the students last Wednesday, I'm not able to give you his name.

In case you're wondering, they all laughed. But I'll tell you who the name is. God.

That's the name to remember. I could tell you other things that I won't but one after another when we finally realized we don't have it in ourselves to meet the deepest needs of our lives. God stepped in. And interestingly, sometimes we thought there were needs and they weren't needs. We didn't meet that need. We didn't need that. We thought we did. Now these people needed food.

So he provided for it. It was impossible for the disciples to do that. Which brings me to the major point. As long as you operate your life from the horizontal point of view, the only thing you will see through your life is impossibilities. As long as you exist in that horizontal level, looking only at the human side of things, you will come up against it over and over and over again.

And your life will be marked by the negative. What cannot be done. The situation is impossible. My marriage is impossible. My adult child is impossible. My employment situation, impossible.

My medical need, impossible. The legal battle we're going through, it's impossible for us to even meet the demands of the attorney fees. The financial reversal we've been in. The emotional struggle, I'll never get on my equilibrium. This relational breakdown, it's impossible for me to put that back together.

You want me to name a big one? Our national situation. You listen to the candidates, you watch them in action, and you look at one another within the same room and if you're not careful, you turn everything off and say this is impossible.

Really? Well, maybe you need to tell God, because he doesn't know that. How laughable for him to hear the word, impossible, as if he's out of control. Isn't it interesting how we inform him during our prayers and we have to let him know the details of our situation.

I think God must think at times, just get to the point. Just ask. You don't have because you don't ask. So we asked for tuition. Now he doesn't always provide like that. In our case, by his grace, he did.

And for 17 other classmates, he did. And in your case, it may be a healing. It may be that letter from your long lost beloved daughter or son.

You live your day waiting for that to come, where they tell you of the whole change in life and in heart. You see, what I want you to get from this is a shift in your thinking. So that you really do have a mind-boggling thought here. God operates in the realm of possible. God, any rivers you think are uncrossable.

God, any mountains you cannot tunnel through. God specializes in things fought impossible. He does those things others cannot do.

And he finds great delight in doing them at the most unexpected times. I might add, almost without exception, it's always later than you wish. Always takes longer than you thought it may have taken. But you look back and realize he has been at work.

Now in this case, the miracle is instant. So what am I saying? Well, I've given you an outline at the bottom, a place to write something. In order for you to remember it, you'll need to write it down. So here we go.

Pull out a pen if you haven't won. I'm going to give you a line I want you to memorize. And I want you to repeat it to yourself enough that you can say it almost second nature. I've done that and I say it second nature.

I want to give you the words so that you can write them and remember them from now on. This is what we learn from this feeding of the 20 to 25,000 people. Here we go. We are all faced with a series of great opportunities. We're all faced with a series of great opportunities, brilliantly disguised as impossible situations. We're all faced with a series of great opportunities, brilliantly disguised as impossible situations. Let me be quick to add that when God does what is impossible for us, it may not be a miracle. And be careful about reading every surprise and putting the word miracle on it. I like reminding people finding a parking space at Nordstrom's during Christmas time is not a miracle. That happens to be someone pulled out, you got to pull in right there. If somebody else didn't get in in front of you, you know how that is.

That's the miracle that they don't get in in front of you when you run park there. Or that every meal that's provided is a miracle. It's not necessarily a miracle.

Unless of course it cannot be explained in human terms. And then you've got a miracle in your hands. I have a good friend who had cancer of the tongue. It was growing. He called a handful of his friends and I was one of them. And he said, I'm getting ready to go to Mayo's. I'm taking the x-ray. He happened to be living in Dallas.

I was living in California at the time. He said, I'm taking my x-ray with me so they'll see it. And he said, I want us all to pray. God's will be done. That's all I ask you to pray. Just claim with me the will of God, because if this doesn't change, they'll have to take, if not all, part of my tongue. And if it's going to be done, I want it done at Mayo's. So we all began to pray.

Matter of fact, you know what? I wasn't living in California. I was living in New England.

That's how long ago it was. I went down to our basement and I had written out a note and I took the note before the Lord and I prayed for him by name. I prayed specifically for the particular health situation he was facing. They had done all they could do here, so we went to Mayo's to get it looked at. And once he got there and checked in, he went to see the oncologist and he brought his x-ray and the oncologist took a new x-ray and looked at the one he brought with him. And there was no cancer on the new x-ray. So the doctor, being a man of great faith, said, you brought the wrong x-ray with you. And my friend said, is my name at the bottom? And the doctor reluctantly says, well, yes.

Is the date such and such? Yes. Is the doctor who was responsible, is that name in there the radiologist?

Yes. That's it, Doc. And Doc said, you have no sign of cancer. My friend has since died, but not of cancer.

His tongue never gave him a bit of trouble from then on. I know. I know. Some of you still are not convinced.

You think something happened that other x-ray can't be. And you know, I'm sorry for you, because you've got your hands all full of all the answers. God doesn't fill hands full. He fills empty hands. One by one, God took them from me all the things I valued most till I was empty handed.

Every glittering toy was lost. I walked Earth's highways grieving in my rags in poverty till I heard his voice inviting, lift those empty hands to me. So I turned my hands toward heaven and he filled them with a store of his own transcendent riches till they could contain no more.

And at last, I comprehended with my stupid mind and dull, God cannot pour his riches into hands already full. As you get your education, your tendency is to fill your own hands. As you begin to be blessed with this world's goods, your wealth tends you to fill your own hands. As you enjoy good health through life, your good health tends to fill your hands.

As you grow in your skepticism, your skepticism fills your hands. And before long, that's the way you live your life, with hands full of empty stuff. God longs to do for you what he does for those with empty hands. I urge you to leave this place with nothing, nothing in your hands. Nothing.

Trust him with that impossibility that you have been laboring over and struggling through and worrying about and complaining over. Empty your hands. I'd like you to bow your heads, but don't close your eyes. I want you to look at your hands. There are marks on your hands.

There are lines there and your hands are empty. The Lord knows our ways as clearly as we know our own palms, our own hands. If there's not a place in your past where you trusted in Jesus as your own Lord and Master and not a place where you can remember ever giving him your life, well, it's because you're full of yourself. And to come to Christ means you push self aside and you trust in the Lord Jesus with all, not most, but all your heart. You let him take his place in your life.

Do that now. Or maybe you see the name of the one you're so concerned about or written across the palms, as you imagine, is that situation at work or in the courtroom or in that relationship or the financial matters or wherever that great opportunity hides. It's an opportunity for the Lord God to fulfill his will in his own time by his grace. Let it go.

Whatever is coming between you and your trust in the living God. With empty hands, our Father, we bow before you. We spent our lives filling our own hands. That's why we look out for our own selves more than anybody else because we're by nature selfish.

That's why we have all the answers as to why this won't work out or that one won't change because we've learned over the years that we're self-sustaining. We don't need what you have until today we realize we don't even have what we need and only you can provide that eternal life. The solution to the things we've struggled with, the answers over this long period of time where we've not had relief, we ask for that by your grace, by your grace. And thank you Father ahead of time for what will occur in your own way and will and timing just this week to say nothing of the rest of this year. Meet our deepest needs which only you are able to do through the matchless name of Christ, I pray.

Everybody said, amen. This is Insight for Living, and if you'd like to learn more about this ministry, please visit us online at insightworld.org. It's possible you feel like the person Chuck described earlier who has open hands eagerly awaiting a miracle from God.

Maybe you're faced with a dire medical condition or perhaps it's a relationship that's broken and your loneliness has caused you to doubt God's presence. Well Chuck wrote a helpful book on this topic. It's called Faith for the Journey, Daily Meditations on Courageous Trust in God. We believe the biblical principles in this devotional book, if applied, will lift your perspective. Supplies of this book from Chuck are limited and so we encourage you to reach out to us right away.

To purchase a copy, look for the book called Faith for the Journey at insight.org slash offer. And then we'd like to say thank you to all those who gave generously last month. Your voluntary gifts make it possible for us to provide these daily Bible teaching programs and it's not too late for your gift to have an impact. You can give a donation today by calling us.

If you're listening in the US, dial 1-800-772-8888. Make no mistake, your gifts truly make a difference. Recently we heard from a listener near Fresno, California. In his retirement years, he decided to employ his teaching background in the state prison where he's instructing inmates how to read and write. He said as you can only imagine, going into that work environment has many challenges. To say that one needs to be prayed up is an understatement. He went on to describe his gratitude for the spiritual direction he receives from Insight for Living. Well I thought you'd be encouraged to hear that your gifts are leveraged through the ministry of others who apply what they learn on Insight for Living, even behind bars with those who are often forgotten.

Once again you can reach us by calling us if you're listening in the US, dial 1-800-772-8888 or give a donation online at Insight.org. You've heard him teach about the Holy Land, using word pictures to make us feel like we're actually strolling through the Old City. Thinking about Jerusalem is fascinating for sure, but seeing the land of Israel with your own eyes is life changing.

In fact, it's absolutely magnificent. And now you can see Israel with Chuck Swindoll and the gracious hosts and experts assembled by Insight for Living Ministries. Join us on an unforgettable 12-day tour, March 6th through 17th, 2022. At special sites along the way, I will teach from God's Word, we'll worship at the Mount of Beatitudes, and share the Lord's Table at the Garden Tomb. In fact, we'll sail the Sea of Galilee together, and we'll visit places where Jesus walked and taught.

To learn more, call 1-888-447-0444. Just imagine walking along those sacred sites and seeing the Bible come to life before your very eyes. Mark your calendar for March 6th through 17th, 2022. And make your reservation by calling 1-888-447-0444 or go to Insight.org slash events. Insight for Living Ministries Tour to Israel is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. I'm Dave Spiker, inviting you to join us again Tuesday when Chuck Swindoll describes what brings us to our knees, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Eating a Miracle for Dinner, was copyrighted in 2016 and 2021, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.