LOOK BEYOND THE NATURAL

 John 6:1-15 (The feeding of the 5,000)

In verse 5, Christ was testing the disciples when He asked: "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" Philip's response in verse 7 shows where his faith was. He quoted a dollar amount that wouldn't even be sufficient for each one to have just a little bread. Andrew's response wasn't much better-- a young boy who had 5 loaves of bread and 2 small fish-- "but what are they among so many?"

Many times, we as Christians respond to needs in the same way. We look at our insufficiency. We look at what we have and we say it's too little. Looking at what we have or don't have- we then feel insufficient and our faith is low. But the truth is--- what we have IS insufficient!

Jesus told the disciples to set the men down and then He took what He had- the 5 loaves and 2 small fish-- and when He had given thanks for what He had- God created a miracle right then and there! Jesus was trying to get the disciples to look past what they saw in the natural and look to the spiritual. God has a way of multiplying when we look past the natural-- what we see-- what we have--what we are able to do. We must go past the physical things we see and know and get into the spiritual realm.

1 Kings 17:8-16 describes the story of Elijah and the widow. She only had a handful of flour and a little oil, but Elijah told her to prepare a cake for him first. The woman had to look beyond what she had in order to see what God was going to provide. Also 2 Kings 4:1-7 tells the story of another widow and Elisha-- she had no money and the creditors were coming for her sons. Elisha told her to do something beyond what she could see with her natural eyes. But in the end- God brought a miracle. God has a way---He multiplies what we have when we turn our eyes towards Him, look past what we see--and trust Him for the miracle.

In these days, especially, God is trying to get His disciples to look past what we have, what we see or feel-- and look at the all sufficiency of God. 2 Corinthians 3:5 states Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God." We must realize that our Source is God. There may come a time when we have little or nothing- and we must rely on the Lord to create miracles on our behalf. He did it for the Hebrews during their journey through the wilderness. He is more than able. We must look beyond ourselves- look to Christ- the author and finisher of our faith-- look to Christ. He doesn't just have the answers, He IS the answer.

Look beyond the natural. Look to the spiritual-- look to Christ.

(Taken from Pastor Keith's sermon- 10/7/2012)