Transcription
[Music] [Music] hello I'm Sarah Hansen and you are watching the Potter stitch.
Every now and then we have those times when things are just going great and we can forget the guy that made all of those things happen. This message is a reminder that through the highs and lows of life, God is always in the mist. Take a look at saved the scraps and remember your guy.
I cooked a banana pudding out of the day. I didn't want to do it, but I'm under duress and coercion. I had to pull my apron out of storage and and fix the banana pudding. I told them banana puddings have nothing to do with Thanksgiving. I said that's the summer dessert with ribs and baked beans and potato salad. They said, well, it must be summer because we want you to fix and and and and. I learned something, or the children know something that I learned years ago. It's good on the first day.
[Applause] But if you wanted to really be right,
[Applause] it's all about those leftovers on that second day, when all of those seasonings have become so intertwined that you can't tell what's what, what one from the other, where the you can't the wafers have gotten together with the bananas and mixed all up. So Jesus says, here's my dilemma, here's my whole case this morning. Jesus says to them, when the whole event is over and everybody's about to leave, Jesus speaks to the disciples and says, gather up the scraps. And the Bible is careful to give us inventory of how much they had left. Twelve baskets full left. Now that's overcooking. When you got twelve baskets full left, you didn't count right. Twelve baskets full were left, and they loaded them on the boat to leave.
Now here's my dilemma. Why did he have them gather the scraps? And I would like to think in my mind that maybe he thought they would get hungry again. But my problem with that is, if they were scraps, fish bones, half-eaten pieces, crust off the bread, it doesn't seem very appetizing. That gathered leftovers stored in baskets could be preserved for a future meal. In the presence of a God who created something out of nothing, why do we need to make these kinds of provisions for the next meal when we didn't provide the first meal? I'm trying to just just help me. I'm trying to understand the logic of saving the scraps.
They loaded this scraps on the boat, twelve baskets full. It had been a long day for Jesus, perhaps one of the most important days of his ministerial career, because every other miracle, no matter how mighty or magnanimous it may have been, this particular miracle has distinction because this was the first time he had impacted that many people at once. 5,000 people had a piece of the miracle in their body. 5,000 people. Now I'll hit the streets talking about what happened. This is not like blind Bartimaeus. This is not like the woman with this your blood. This is not like Lazarus. This is not like the man in the tomb of Gadarenes, where one person left screaming, "Come see a man." 5,000 men, not to mention the women and children, have now hit the streets. Thought about, let me tell you what happened at church today. He knew that once he impacted these five thousand men plus women and children, that the news would spread rapidly. And with the blessing comes the burden of being blessed. Everybody wants the more. You know, give me more fish and give me more bread. Everybody wants the light, but they can't take the heat. When you get more of one thing, you get more than a fly at the end of a long day. Jesus now goes to the mountain to pray. I imagine he's saying, "Well, Father, I've done it now. I have set it off. Fifteen thousand witnesses have been dispatched into every village, every town, and every city with the personal testimony, with the miracle in their belly, proof positive that I am God in the flesh. There's no turning back."
He goes in the mountain to pray after putting the 12 baskets full on the boat and telling the disciples to cross to the other side. He goes on the mountain to get ready for the burden of being blessed. He spent more time preparing himself for the burden of being blessed than he did for the blessing itself. He did that just not breaking the fish and the bread, but when he saw the consequences that when you send out something, when it comes back to you, the pressure of the wave coming back is so strong. He said, "I better be ready to withstand the onslaught of all that will come out of being blessed." Are you prepared for the consequences of the blessing? He goes to the mountain apart to pray, and sends the disciples across on the boat, and and and. I'm through with the frame. Let's go to the picture.
It is he has prayed so long that the sun has gone down, the temperature has cooled, the owls have begun to coo, the birds have nests for the evening. He has prayed so long that the temperatures have dropped and the wind has began to blow. He has prayed so long that the weather has began to change and inclement weather has broken out in such dimensions that by the fourth watch of the night, the disciples are tossed to and fro on the boat. Jesus is on the mountain. The disciples are halfway across the lake of Gennesaret, which is the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus is on the mountain and knows that his disciples are in trouble. I wanted to her out. Stop for a minute and praise him. Not for his omnipresence, which means he's everywhere. Not for his omnipotence, which means he's all-powerful. But I want to praise him for something we seldom thank you for. His omniscience. Science, where we get science. I'm not all-knowing God, that he knows what we can't tell him. One of them was danger. The third one was distance. It was so dark at 3 o'clock in the morning. The distance was so great. The danger from the storm was so perilous. Either one of the three should have stopped the power from getting to the problem. But when God gets ready to get to you, I don't care how dark tonight. I don't care how distant the location. I don't care how dangerous the circumstance. When he gets ready to come to you, he that need to hire a boat to join you in the process and move at the same speed that you're moving at to resolve the conflict. He has the advantage of being able to walk on top of what is threatening to take you under. I'm talking about your God, my God, the water-walking God. I'm talking about Jesus, who walks on the stuff you're about to drown in. In the third watch of the night, in the darkness, through the distance, in the midst of the danger, here comes Jesus walking over the stuff they're drowning in. Still to come on the Potters Touch.
I have come as close and I am going to come. I have done as much and I'm going to do. Now the rest of it is on you. If you don't invite me into your situation, you will never see me snatch you out of a situation that you enjoy being in. The best miracles in your life take time. Discover your blessing is right around the corner with Bishop Jake's series. In between miracles, sometimes you've got to pitch yourself structured and in order so that you are ready to receive the magnitude for you. Don't get discouraged by your circumstances. God has a plan to bless you. Order this life-changing series today. Would you write to us? Visit our website or call 1-800-Bishop-2. I would have thought that he was coming to them, but he wasn't. Did you notice that he did not come to them? He came near them, but he did not come to them. They're over here, and he made as if he would pass by. After all, they didn't recognize him as being God anyway. In the storm, God looks like a ghost.
[Applause] They feared for their lives and said, "That's a ghost coming." But it was God. Sometimes the thing that you were apprehensive about coming to get you is God coming in another form. He doesn't always look like you think he ought to look. He was sharp in a circumstance that you said, "Lord, if that happens to me, it's gonna take me under." But never be afraid of him. He comes in many forms. And the problem with the disciples is, whenever Jesus showed up in another form, they didn't recognize it. And that's the problem with religion, because religion teaches you a limited point of reference for God. And if he doesn't look like you think he ought to look, and if he doesn't dress like you think you are a dress, and if he doesn't speak like you think he ought to speak, you will reject him and run from what you think of the ghost, not knowing that it is your answer. Just three people says, "Not a ghost. It's not a ghost. It's not a ghost." And they, he came near them, but he didn't come to them, because our God will never break into your calamity if he's not invited into it.
[Applause] Blind Bartimaeus would have never gotten healed if he didn't scream. The ten lepers would have never been cleansed if they didn't ask. The woman with the issue of blood would have never been healed if she wasn't ready to crawl over and touch the hem of His garment. Jesus coming near them without coming to them indicates our responsibility in the restorative process to become engaged. You can't just be a recipient of the blessing. You have to do something to make it happen. I don't know who I'm preaching to this morning, but God is saying, "I have come as close and I am going to come. I have done as much and I'm going to do. Now the rest of it is on you. If you don't invite me into your situation, you will never see me snatch you out of a situation that you enjoy being in."
[Applause] And and and. Before we criticize the disciples for thinking he was the ghost, understand that this is Gennesaret. The Sea of Gennesaret. It is understandable that they would think he were the ghost. This is the same sea when they cast the demons out of Legion, and the demons requested that they go into the pigs, and the pigs requested that they go into the sea. This is the same sea that drowned the pigs that were possessed with the devils. And out there in the dark, they started thinking about all those pigs dying in that water. And when they saw something coming, they said, "Oh my God, it's a ghost." See, whether you already been to hell and back, anything coming at you, friends, are all here. It comes again.
[Applause] Once you have had so many bad experiences, anything that moves near you, you saw apprehension. You already have a previous false idea as to what's going to happen next. If you've been abused and abused and a bill, when I raise my hand, you jerk. I could be trying to hand you a piece of bread, you jerk. But God said, "Don't be afraid of me. Fear not. I didn't I didn't come to hurt you. I didn't come to destroy you. I didn't come to repeat what was already done in your life. I didn't come to terrorize you. In fact, I was praying on the mountain when I saw the winds gathering and the lightning flashing and the thunder rolling. I was already coming to get you out of the situation." God doesn't wait till you get in trouble to come. When he sees trouble coming, while trouble is coming this way, he's coming down this way. Y'all don't hear what I'm saying. I wish I had a witness. I wish I had somebody who had had God snatched you out of trouble just in the nick of time, who had been through hell and back, and just when you thought you were going down for the last time. I wish I had a witness.
[Applause] Look at somebody say, "He did it for me." He did it for me. I was scared, but he did it for me. I was faithless, but he did it for me. I was nervous, but he did it for me. I was worried, but he did it for me. I was frustrated, but he did it for me. I was empty, but he did it for me. I was lonely, but he did it for me. I wasn't praying, but he did it.
[Applause] And the book says, the book says, said when he said, "Fear not, be of good cheer, it is I." The book says they didn't recognize his face. They didn't recognize his walk. They didn't recognize his demeanor. They didn't recognize his gait. They didn't recognize his acts, but they recognized his voice. He said, "My sheep know my voice, and a stranger they will not follow." When he said, "Be of good cheer, it is not I." I can't see in the best Jesus. We walk not by sight, but by faith. I can't see him, but I know he is there. And so my text says that Jesus gets on the boat, and then the wind ceased. Wait a minute. Then the wind ceased. This storm is not a storm at all. This storm is a teaching opportunity contrived in a controlled environment. He didn't rebuke the winds and the waves when he got on the boat. The winds of the way stepped back. They were only sent to create an environment for the disciples to have a discovery. I don't know who I'm preaching to today, but the trouble that has come in your life did not come to break you. It came to introduce you to your God in a new and a fresh way.
[Applause] It was never a storm. Since it was never a storm, it was the test. It was the test. Now I'm older than most of you, and I'm gonna take myself when I tell this, but we used to have what was called an open book test. It meant that the questions were in the book, and the answers were in the back. It was designed to teach you the research so that when you could not do your own mental capacities, remember the answer, you would dig to the back of the book and get the answers for the test. Suddenly, I recognized this storm is just a test. And the fish scraps better on the boat that I couldn't understand why they were there in the first place, seeing as you couldn't eat them as they were scraps. Now I understand that the scraps were the answer to the test. Oh, you're insane because when he got all the boat, he was not disappointed that they had a store. He was not disappointed that they were afraid. He was disappointed that they did not consider. He was disappointed that they did not consider two loaves, the lesson for the test before them was in the answer from the test behind them. God never intended for you to go through something and get nothing out of it. He intended that every time you go through a test, for you to come out of it with something else on your boat that you never had before, so that when you run into your next test, you will say, "If God did that, then he's able. He's able to do this too." Now you gotta help me preach. Now tug three people say, "Have you got any figures on your boat? If you got anything? Have you learned anything about God? Have you been through anything? Did he bring you out of anything? Did he make a way out of the way? Did he deliver you in a storm? Did he bring you out of a pest?"
[Applause] I have to type the message off right there, but you've just gotten a little bit of a taste. You'll have to join us next time. Before you go, we have a few messages for you to listen to. The best miracles in your life take time. Discover your blessing is right around the corner with Bishop Jake's series. In between miracles, sometimes you've got to get yourself structured and in order so that you are ready to receive the magnitude of what God has for you. He took a job at the house, and he took your car. Long as he didn't take your expectation, you can still get a breakthrough. Don't get discouraged by your circumstances. God has a plan to bless you. Order this life-changing series today. When you write to us, visit our website or call 1-800-Bishop-2. Love, redemption, sonship, you'll find it all in my Father's house. Stable provider, girding, guarding, godly, correcting. He had to come to the end of things before he discovered God. And I think that a lot of this church age has had to come to the end of things. He was there when it started. He was there when it ended. He was a stable place when everything was going crazy. When you didn't acknowledge him as God, they'll call him God. Who admit that you had a God? He was there all the time. For your best gift in helping us for each other, we'd like to give you Bishop T.D. Jakes' three-message setting in my Father's house on DVD. And when your gift is $90 or more, we'd like to add Manpower 2011, Breaking New Ground, 7 sold-stirring messages on DVD. Just visit our website or call 1-800-Bishop-2. And draw close to the Father today. Technology has created for us an opportunity to go into all the world, and you can come to us. Whether you're interested in going to Facebook, we're there. Whether you're interested in streaming online, TDJakes.org, we're there. Whether you want to catch notes, thoughts, concepts through Twitter, we're there. Whatever it is that, whatever form, whatever they've got, I'm there to share God's word with you. Don't miss it. I'm waiting on you. Please.
[Music]
Okay, I have a challenge for you. Next time you make it through a storm, or you see God move in a mighty way in your life, save the scraps. Don't let life take away those moments from you, those opportunities where you saw God show himself in your life. So many times we get frustrated and upset, and we forget that God has brought us through many things, and that he will bring us through yet another storm. Remember your God through it all. Save those scraps. Be encouraged and know that regardless of what you're facing, you have a God that is bigger and greater than all of those things. I hope that you enjoyed this message and that you'll join us here at the Potters Touch next time.