God Will Test You

In John 6, when the disciples saw the big hungry crowd following Jesus, Jesus tells his disciples to give them something to eat. Maybe this is where the idea of a church dinner first came from? Well,  anyway, our text tells what comes next. – John 6:5-7

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

Why would Jesus tell them to get food for and feed 5,000 people? Actually the text tells us. the Bible says, “He asked them only to test.” “He already had in mind what he was going to do.”

You too will face tough situations. You might not know what to do, but you need to ask yourself, “Is this a test?” If God is watching, and of course he is, then we need to remember that it is a test. Handle this crises so that God is pleased with your faith.

Proverbs 17:3, tells us God works this way with us. “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart.” Heat doesn’t make silver or gold. It merely reveals it. The heat and pressures of life don’t make you strong. They just reveal your true strength. Perhaps, even strength you didn’t know you had.

God is not bound by our human limitations. He can turn our problems into victories, our struggles into successes, and our weaknesses into strengths.

Lonnie Davis

Thousands of people were following Jesus to hear him preach, but thousands of poeple bring there own problems. They might not get tired, sick, or weary, but eventually they always get hungry.

With this background we begin with the reading of Mark 6:35-37

 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But he answered, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

In the middle of nowhere, a remote place, how do you feed more than 5,000 people? The disciples have a suggestion.

Send the people away. It doesn’t have to be our problem, they think. Let them buy something for themselves. Actually, I get it. There seems to be no other solution.

But Jesus has another idea. He tells the disciples, “You give them something to eat.”

Do you see the cycle? 

They say, Let them go somewhere to eat. In other words, let’s duck this problem.

Jesus said, “No, You handle it.”

There are a two great lessons to learn from this story.

#1. Handle your problems. 

If you ignore them, they won’t go away. They will get bigger.

I once knew a man who would, when a problem arose, would retreat into his bedroom until the problem went away. You may have some form of that yourself. They #1 way of hiding is to retreat into tomorrow. Tomorrow I will handle it. Then tomorrow there will be another tomorrow. Your may think the problem goes away because it seems to settle down, but unhandled, unresolved problems are usually still lingering just beneath the surface of life.

#2. God always has a plan, even if you don’t know it. 

“You give them something to eat” must have seemed ridiculous to them. They didn’t have enough resources, or so it seemed to them. The only ridiculous thing was for the disciples not to understand that when Jesus told them to do something, he would always provide the resources for them to do it. 

God still works in that way. Once you know what God wants them just do it. He will help!

Lonnie Davis

Our Scripture for today is John 10:7-10

Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Notice how he starts this teaching, “I tell you the truth…” 

And what is the reason for the truth that he was telling them? He shares the answer with us at the end of verse 10, “I am come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

So why do so many of us live lives that don’t feel like an abundant life? Perhaps it is because we do to drink in the full experience of Christianity. The following story is a great illustration of how we miss so much in life and certainly in the Christian life.

The story is told of a little boy who lived on a farm in the 1800s. When he was a twelve-year-old, he heard that a travelling circus was coming to his little remote town. He had never been to a circus and was excited about the possibility. When he first heard the news he ran home and asked, “Daddy, can i go?” He was from a poor family, but the father sensed how important this was to his son, “If you do your chores ahead of time, I see that you get to go next Saturday.” 

On Saturday morning, with chores done, he went to his dad. His dad reached into the pockets of his work clothes and dug out a dollar. It was more money than the boy had ever seen. His father cautioned him and sent him on his way to town. 

On the way to town, the boy feet hardly touched the ground.  As he neared the outskirts of town, he noticed people lining the streets. He worked his way through the crowd until he could see what was happening. It was the approaching spectacle of a circus parade! The parade was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. 

Caged animals roared as they passed. Bands beat their rhythms and sounded shining horns. Acrobats did leaps and flips while flags and ribbons swirled overhead. After everything had passed where he was standing, a circus clown, with floppy shoes, baggy pants, and a brightly painted face, brought up the rear. As the clown passed by, the little boy reached into his pocket and took out that precious dollar bill. Handing the money to the clown, the boy turned around and went home. The boy thought he had seen the circus when he had only seen the parade!

God has promised us great things, but too many of us upon seeing the parade, clap and then go home and think we have seen the parade. 

Jesus did not come to make life average. He did not come to make life tolerable. He did not come to make life good. He came to give you life to the full. The NAS and KJV say, “Abundant life.” Jesus meant for you to have an abundant life now. 

Lonnie Davis

The Main Job

Our text for today is Deuteronomy 6:5-9

Before I read, let me explain what I am going to read. There are two commands. The first is to all folks. The second is to those who hold the most important job on earth. It is not the job of a king or a president. It is not the job of a teacher or a doctor. It is a job of a Godly mom or dad. 

The first verse we read is to all of us. 

[5] Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 

This is the greatest command.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. But the greatest job is found in the next four verses. It gives instructions to mothers and fathers.

[6] These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. [7] Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. [8] Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. [9] Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

So the greatest job is to see that our children know about God. Nothing is more important. Remember these words from Deuteronomy 6. 

I will close with reading a poem that reminds us of why. It is called “The Bridge Builder.”

An old man going a lone highway, 

Came in the evening, cold and gray, 

To a chasm vast, both deep and wide, 

Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;

The swollen stream was as naught to him;

But he stopped when safe on the farther side, 

And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting your strength in labor here;

Your journey will end with the closing day,

You never again will pass this way.

You’ve crossed the chasm deep and wide

Why build you this bridge at eventide?”

The laborer lifted his old gray head,

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followeth after me today

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm which has been naught to me

To that young man may a pitfall be.

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim.

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”

Miss Will Allen Dromgoole

Remember to help build a bridge for your children. Build is so they will have an easier path to God. 

Lonnie Davis

I call this writing, “Religion for Losers”

 The title of this article is a description of Christianity by billionaire Ted Turner.

In the end of his life, he changed his view. He said that he regrets his fifty years of negativism toward Christianity. He apologized and said Christianity is a positive influence. 

Why he turned against Christianity a lifetime ago is a sad story. When he was 15, his 12-year-old sister developed terminal lupus. He prayed for her for one hour every day for most of five years. Over those five years he saw her in pain and finally her death. His conclusion was that God her and so he quit God.

His is not an unusual story. We see it all the time. Someone prays for a heartfelt, specific outcome and God does not grant it. The praying person becomes frustrated with God and quits Him.

 The quitting does not always manifest itself in a “religion for losers” mentality or an “I’ll never go to church again” attitude. Sometimes the quitter just quietly quits worshipping or maybe continues to frequent services, but settles into a duty bound, joyless religion.

There is such a thing as “religion for losers,” but it is not true Christianity. Religion for losers is a religion that does not feel the joy or power of God. Religion for losers often worships but counts the minutes until it is over. Religion for losers does not lead us to our knees in prayer.

When those with true faith pray, they do not always get what they ask for in exactly the way they asked. God is not a genie in a bottle and prayer is not like rubbing the lamp.

True faith knows that the Father knows best and is willing to leave it with him. True religion knows that when life tumbles in, when our hearts break, and when struggles surround us, God is faithful. (1 Cor 1:9)  

You may not always understand Him, but God is always faithful.

Lonnie Davis

Our reading today is from Malachi 3:10-11

“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts,

“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you   such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.

How to we learn to trust like this?

The Bible tells us about Abraham, who went to a place where God called him to go, even though he didn’t know where he was going. This has led some people to believe that we should always trust God, even when we don’t know what’s going to happen.

However, I think we get this wrong. Abraham’s faith was amazing, but God doesn’t ask us to leap into the dark. When the Israelites fled from the Pharaoh, he pursued them. Israel escaped to the Red Sea and the Pharaoh chased them there.

When Israel was safely on the other side of the Red Sea, an amazing thing happened. The water that had parted for God’s people came back and drowned the Egyptian army. Standing on the other side, the Israelites saw the bodies of the Egyptians that washed up on the shore. 

Moses tells us, “When the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in Him and in Moses His servant.”

Did you catch that? When they saw with their eyes, their faith grew. It is good to grow from experiencing God. This is not the only time this happened. Gideon asked God to show him evidence of His power. Moses struggled with faith even after seeing a powerful sign from God.

God calls on us to test Him. As our text for today said, “‘Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.'”

God knows we are made of clay. God knows we have weaknesses. He does not blast us for our weakness, but “leads us beside the still waters.” Our problem is not that we have tested God and found him to fail. Our problem is that we do not test Him at all. Learn to lean on Him. He is the only leaning post that will never fail you.

Lonnie Davis

Our text for today is John 9:1-3, 6-7

Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 

When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

The story of the blind beggar teaches us three important life lessons:

1.      God helps us with what we need, not just what we ask. 
The blind beggar never asked for anything more than a few coins. He was born blind and begging was his life. God worked behind the scenes to heal him, even though he did not ask. This is a reminder that God knows our needs even before we ask, and that He is always working to help us.

1. God can help in the most hopeless circumstances. 
   The beggar had been blind since birth. He had never known what it was like to see. He had lived his entire life in darkness. He was poor and had no means of support. He was forced to beg to survive. Despite all these challenges, Jesus healed the beggar. This is a reminder that God is not limited by our circumstances. He can help us no matter how hopeless our situation may seem.
2. Jesus meets our needs in ways we do not expect. When Jesus healed the beggar, he did not use expensive medicine or surgery. He simply made some mud with his spit and put it on the beggar’s eyes. This is a reminder that God can help us in ways we do not expect. We should never assume that we know how God will help us. We should simply trust Him and obey His commands.

We may not be blind beggars on the side of the road, but God is still ready to help us with what we need. Just as the blind beggar was ready to receive Jesus’ gift of sight, we should be ready to receive the gifts that God has for us.

Lonnie Davis

Our Text for today is Psalms 2:1-4: It reads:

“Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.’

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision.”

In this passage, David asks a question that has been on the minds of people throughout history: “Why do the nations rage against God?”

The answer, of course, is that they do not know God. They do not understand his power or his love. They see him as a threat to their own power and control.

But David reminds us that God is in control. He is the one who sits in the heavens and laughs at the nations’ attempts to overthrow him. He is the one who will have the last laugh.

This is a good reminder for us in a time when our nation is facing so much turmoil. It is easy to get caught up in the anger and frustration of the moment. But we must remember that God is in control. 

What does this passage mean for us today?

• It reminds us that God is in control, even when the world seems to be falling apart.
• It encourages us to trust in God, even when we are afraid.
• It gives us hope for the future, knowing that God will ultimately triumph over evil.

How can we apply this passage to our lives?

In this way – Don’t be afraid. God is in control.

Do you about Joseph in the Bible? Not not the one who served in Egypt and saved his family from famine. The one who is most overlooked. The Joseph who was the earthly father of Jesus.

We know about Mary and even his brothers, but Joseph rarely gets mentioned in the story of Jesus. He must have been a great man because when God decided to pick someone to be an earthly father to his only begotten son, he picked Joseph.

I want to share with you a little of his story and then point out one special way that he was great.

Matthew 1:18-19

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.

It is not a long reading, but it shows the special character of Joseph. Think about it. Joseph loved this special girl, Mary, but discovered that she was already with Child. What was he going to do? He could have exposed her behavior, but that is not what he did. He decided to quietly end the relationship. 

Why is that noble? To “secretly” end the relationship certainly exposed him to gossip. To secretly put her away meant that he was not going to tell everyone his side of the story. He would just leave.

We know how the story ended. Joseph stayed with Mary and obeyed God.

I wish I knew a whole book worth of information about this amazing man, but what I do know is that he is truly a great man.

If Joseph can follow God’s lead under very challenging circumstances, surely we can too.

Lonnie Davis

Our Text for today is

Genesis 3:1-6

1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 

³ “but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 

⁵ “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

From this great text, I would call your attention to the three great challenges of the serpent. He basically had three great questions for Eve. 

1.    First, he asked, “Do you know what God said?”

2.   Then he asked, “Do you believe what God said?”

3.   Finally, he challenged, “Wouldn’t you rather be your own God?”

Unless you read between the lines, you will not see these questions. Look closer.

In verses 1-2, he asked, “Has God indeed said?” His first question was about whether she knew God’s word. 

In verse 4, the serpent says that God is lying. “You shall not surely die.” 

In verse 5, the serpents tells Eve, “You will be like God.” He is really saying, “Eve, you don’t have to obey God. Ignore God’s teaching and decide for yourself.”

Satan’s strategy hasn’t really changed. He still challenges people. Do you know what God said? Do you believe what God said? Wouldn’t you rather just do whatever you want to do?

Unless you can answer these questions correctly, then you are in the same place as Eve. The devil tricked her. Don’t let him trick you.

Lonnie Davis