Our name | Mission | Vision | Leaders Ministries | Schedule | Directions | Contact Home   Gateway Church gathers for worship Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Location: 6425 Jefferson Rd. (Hwy. 129) in Athens, Georgia. For directions, click here. Ministry of the Word: Recent sermons Our quarterly e-magazine Gateway Today For the Gateway family Pastor Jerry's Weekly E-Mail A GATEWAY SERMON SUMMARY AUDIO God's opportunity Jerry Varnado, pastor Gateway Church, Athens GA September 28, 2003 Main Scripture text: Mark 6:7, 12-13, 30-44. Jesus has sent out the twelve apostles to do ministry, and things go very well. People were healed, demons were cast out. But then Jesus asks them to take on a quite different challenge -- not a "spiritual" task, but a practical one: feeding thousands of people. Jesus sees this situation as a teaching opportunity, not so much for the crowd, but for His disciples. Five things that I think we should ponder from this text. First: God uses humans but He is not limited by them. More often than not, God choses to work through people. But at the end of our human ability and resources, God displays His ability and resources. Jesus could say, "You give them something to eat" with total confidence because the command was under girded by His power. If we never push out beyond our own limits because we know our own resources are insufficient, or because we are afraid to give up what we do have, God has no opportunity to show His power. Second: They gave all they had to Jesus. It doesn't take a great person to be great Christian, but it does take all of that person. We have to give Jesus everything we have, even our very lives. Third: God's compassion touches every detail of our lives. This passage shows us that God isn't concerned only about forgiving sin and healing sickness. He's also concerned about people being hungry. He wants us to trust Him with the total of who we are, and He is faithful to show us that our trust is not in vain. Fourth: God's provision isn't always extravagant. In this scene there was more than enough to eat but barley loves and dried fish is not exactly a gourmet meal, even in that culture. We need to be content with God's provision. Fifth: God expects us to be good stewards. They picked up the leftovers! We need to careful of the attitude, "Hey, Jesus did a miracle today, He'll do another tomorrow." God's provision is often more than enough, and when it is, He expects us to use that provision wisely and not be wasteful. The bottom line: When we follow Jesus beyond our limited resources, we move into the unlimited resources of God. When we reach the limit of our physical resources, the limit of our understanding, the limit of our ability to fix what is broken or wrong, that's God's opportunity to show His power to us and to the world. I preached on this text in October of 1995, when we were purchasing our new church property. Listen to what I said: There is one thing that has been troubling me. Where in the name of heaven will we get the resources to relocate? I know that God provides; but I'm something of a realist; I want to see the pocket God is going to get it out of! This thing we are endeavoring is beyond our limits. I was right eight years ago -- it was beyond our limits, even we were at the pinnacle of our growth. Two years ago, after some membership losses, it was even more beyond our limits. But that makes it God's opportunity. Today we have that land paid for and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank to start building -- because God has done what we cannot. We will have more challenges before we move in that building, but we can face them knowing that when we reach our limits, that is just the beginning of God's opportunity. Supporting texts: Philippians 4:19 | Ephesians 3:20-21 | Philippians 4:6-7 (J. B. Phillips) | Acts 17:28 | 1 Timothy 6:8 | Philippians 4:11-13 A mp3 audio file of this sermon is here. (Download to a PC by right clicking on the link and choosing "Save Target As." Mac users: click, hold, and choose "Download Link to Disk." Depending on your connection speed, the file may take several minutes to download.) An audio tape of this sermon is available free of charge (U.S. requests only). Request a tape by calling or writing the Gateway Church office. Please specify tape number 030928a: God's Opportunity. © 2003 Gerald R. Varnado To the Gateway Church home page How to contact us