Vacation!

The pastor is on vacation from August 10th through the 24th.  If you are in need, please call a member of the Consistory or the church office.

Join us for worship at 10:30 AM on August 16th and 23rd when our guest preacher will be Elder Bill Galloway.

Reformed Wisdom

On John 4:47 – 

“For miracles are merely seals and witnesses.  A seal certifies nothing new except what has already been committed to writing.  In the same way, witnesses say nothing new, but they bear witness to things which have been heard or seen.  Thus, miracles do not confer faith, and they do not take something uncertain and make it certain, but they confirm something that is already certain.  They do not make believing persons out of unbelieving persons, but they confirm already believing persons in their faith.” – Johannes Brenz in Reformation Commentary on Scripture:  New Testament IV:  John 1-12,152.

"Comfort Ye" Sermon: John 6:16-21

“Comfort Ye”

[John 6:16-21]

August 9, 2015 Second Reformed Church

            Last week we saw that the crowd followed Jesus around the Sea of Galilee because they wanted Him to continue healing the sick – some wanted the sick healed out of compassion, some just loved the show.  However, they did not get the point of the signs, that Jesus is God the Son and Savior.

            Jesus decided to test the disciples and asked them where they could get lunch for the crowd of some fifteen thousand people.  The disciples also failed to understand and explained to Jesus that they neither had the money nor the food to share with that big a crowd.  But Jesus took what was on hand, five loaves and two fish, and fed everyone until they were stuffed, and then they collected twelve baskets of food left over.

            The people responded by associating a prophecy about Jesus with the coming Passover, and wanted to force Him to declare Himself king against the Romans.  (How could they be wrong, Jesus was a healer and provided unlimited food?)

            But Jesus knew they were wrong and went back up into the mountain, leaving the disciples with them.

            And now we have this morning’s text.

            Did it seem like something was missing as I read the text?

            One thing that John leaves out is Peter’s walking out on the water to meet Jesus and then sinking.  He also leaves off the explanation that Jesus left the crowd and went back up into the mountain to pray and that Jesus told the disciples to go on ahead of Him.

            Remember that Hebrew history is written to make a point – it is true, but it is written and organized in such a way to make a point – that is why there are differences among the Gospels in the order of events – it’s also why the bulk to the Gospel is:  Jesus was born, turned thirty and began His ministry, and in the last week of His life, all these things happened, and He physically rose from the dead – most of Jesus’ biography is missing.

            So, John is not denying that Jesus went to pray, told the disciples to go on ahead of Him,  and that Peter walked out on the water to meet Jesus, he just didn’t mention these things because they were not necessary to the point he was making.

            Remember John’s overall point:  “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31, ESV).

            John wrote his Gospel and ordered it as he has so the reader will be convinced, by the Grace of God, that Jesus is God the Son and Savior.  And this is what we see as we go through this Gospel – again and again, the point is – “See, Jesus is God the Son and Savior.”

            

             So, let us turn to our text:

            

             And we see first this morning, Jesus is sovereign over Creation.

“When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum.  It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.”

While Jesus was praying, the disciples went down to the boat and set sail across the sea to Capernaum – as Jesus had instructed them.  By the time darkness came over the land, Jesus had still not come to them.

In other words:  Jesus was in prayer for a long time – certainly several hours.

“The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.”

The calm sea suddenly became violently rough due to a strong wind.  It was – and still is not – unusual for sudden and violent storms to come up on the Sea of Galilee, due to its structure and location.  Sailors and fishermen would have been trained to fight and sail in such a way that they would be ready for and survive these intense storms.

“When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.”

Picture yourself on a boat.  You are making your way across the sea – which is about eight miles wide – and a violent storm suddenly rises up.  You are with skilled fishermen, so you have hope in surviving the storm. 

The sailors row feverishly, and made it to about the mid-point of the sea – about three or four miles across.  You are thinking, “Half-way there – we have made it half-way.”   And, suddenly, through the storm, you see Jesus walking across the sea, as though walking across dry land – drawing closer to the boat.

What would you think?

John tells us they were frightened.  The other Gospel writers tell us they cried out, “It’s a ghost!”

Does the Creation make you think of anything?  Do you have any response to the Creation?

When you see all the different living creatures that live on this planet, as well as the  mention of spiritual creatures in the Scripture, when we see the variety of plants and their complexities and uses, when we see the crystal calm sea and the blazing sun, the miles of farmland, storms and wind and volcanos and earthquakes – do we draw any conclusions – any overarching conclusions?

When I interact with animals and the plants in my garden and consider them and their existence, I am humbled by the Mind behind them.

When I stand in the surf of the sea and feel the pull against me into the vastness of deep blue ocean, I know Paul is right:

“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.  So they are without excuse” (Romans 1:18-20, ESV).

If we have any sensory contact with the Creation, it is abundantly obvious that there is a God and that this God is Powerful and Creative and Good – the Creation cries out, “God exists!”  Why else would we cry out to God when there is violence and disaster in the Creation?

When tidal waves hit the Philippines, when hurricanes hit the Caribbean and the United States, when thunderstorms pass through – some of us find thunderstorms scary – we call on the God Who is known through all of His Creation.

Surely as the violent storm threatened the fishing boat the disciples were in, they raised up their voices in prayer to YHWH, asking that He would intervene and protect them through the storm, because YHWH, the God is Israel, is sovereign over His Creation.

But, off in the distance, the disciples saw a figure moving towards them – walking across the stormy sea – it was their rabbi, Jesus – or at least it looked like Him – it couldn’t be Him, because people don’t walk on water, especially through a storm – right?

But Jesus did.  He walked the three to four miles out across the sea, through the storm, and caught up with the struggling disciples, as though it was nothing to Him.  And the disciples were afraid.

If we saw video of the Philippines during the tidal wave, and we saw Jesus walking over the tidal wave towards land, we would be afraid, wouldn’t we?  If we saw video of Mt. St. Helen’s exploding in volcanic eruption, and Jesus walked out over the lava, away from the volcano, we would be afraid, wouldn’t we?  If we saw Jesus walking down the stairs where the Twin Towers use to be – through the air, we would be afraid, wouldn’t we?   Mere human beings can’t do that.

But Jesus can and did; Jesus walked three miles across a storm-tossed sea to catch up to the boat with His disciples.

With what we know about God from the Creation, what does this event tell us about Jesus?  Jesus is sovereign over the Creation, because He is God.

We may remember another time when the disciples were sailing across the sea and a storm arose, but Jesus stayed asleep, and the disciples woke Him up and asked Him if He didn’t care that they were all going to die. 

“And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace!  Be still!’ And the winds ceased, and there was a great calm” (Mark 4:39, ESV).

So Jesus walked three miles across the sea during the intense storm.

“But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’  Then they were glad to take him into the boat,”

Jesus is Sovereign over Creation; He is the God Who created everything that is – and all of Creation is acting according to the plan that God had from the beginning.

No matter if the sun burns away all our crops, or tidal waves destroy all our cities, or earthquakes swallow up the cities into the ground, or twenty-four feet of snow falls in day, smothering the world, Jesus is Sovereign over Creation.  He is completely in control.  The Creation bends to the Will of God.  We can call out to Him about the Creation, and He will hear us and act in accordance with His Will.  Everything in Creation happens according to His Sovereign Good Purpose; nothing happens by chance.

We ought to find comfort in knowing that Jesus is Sovereign over the Creation, just as the disciples did and gladly welcomed Him into the boat.

Second, Jesus is sovereign over time and space.

Before Genesis 1:1, God is.  God has always been and will always be – One God in Three Persons.  God existed in community and joy and love with Himself in Trinity, and before everything was created, God.

It is difficult for us to talk about “before the Creation,” because we have only experienced “after the Creation.”  It is especially difficult, because, before the Creation, time and space did not exist.  God existed in a timeless time and a spaceless space before the Creation, and then God said, “Let there be….”

Before the Creation, God decided everything that would be and when and how it would happen – God set an inalterable plan in motion, and it continues.

Without getting too speculative, let us just understand that God created time and space, God is sovereign over time and space, God is outside of time and space, and God knows how time and space function better than we do.  And time and space must bend to the Will of God.

Why does this matter?

Because our text says, “and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.”

The boat was in the middle of the Sea of Galilee – about three or four miles from shore.  Jesus got into the boat and then, John uses a word which means, “immediately, at once, right away, without the passing of another moment,” they arrived at the other shore.

Somehow – by His Sovereign Hand and Will, Jesus caused the boat to travel three to four miles in no time and without them noticing it.  Jesus stepped into the boat, and before they could say, “Shalom,” they were on the other side of the sea.

Why does John tell us this?

So we will know that Jesus is God the Son and Savior – the God Who is sovereign over time and space.

And so we will trust Him with our time.  Jesus told us not to worry, but gave us the prayer through the mouth of Moses, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12, ESV).

And Paul warns us, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unaware but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16, ESV).

Do we not have enough time for what we desire to do, let us pray that God will extend time for us and/or change our desires.  Is something carrying on – like the wickedness of these last days – which causes us to mourn and cry out to God, let us pray God will shorten the time of wickedness without losing one that He came to save.

We ought to find comfort in knowing that Jesus is Sovereign over space and time, just as the disciples did when they immediately found themselves on the other shore.

If we have savingly believed in Jesus as God and Savior, let us not be afraid, but let us be comforted, for Jesus is Sovereign and causes all things to occur according to His Will, and as we pray to the Father, through the Spirit, and in Jesus’ Name, He will answer our prayers in accordance with His Will for the good of all we who love Him.

So let us pray, but let us not worry.  Nothing is out of control.  Nothing is happening by chance.  God is Sovereign over all.

As Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air:  they neither sow or reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you can add a single hour to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  they neither toil nor spin, yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:25-33, ESV).

Comfort ye, little flock.  Jesus, our God and Savior, is sovereign over all of Creation, including time and space.  Trust Him.  Seek Him.  Believe Him.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we are impressed by Your creative power and by the signs Your Son did on earth to show that He is God and Savior.  Help us to believe and to trust You for all things and in all things, whatever may happen.  For You are our loving Father Who gave His Son to be our Savior.  And it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

Reformed Wisdom

On John 4:33 – 

“Barren fields need more manure than fertile fields.” – John Major in Reformation Commentary on Scripture:  New Testament IV: John 1-12,142.

Reformed Wisdom

"Adiaphora starts to smell after four days." -- The Uncollected Aphorisms of Joseph Christian.

"God of Creation" Sermon: John 6:1-15

“God of Creation”

[John 6:1-15]

August 2, 2015Second Reformed Church

            God created everything that exists out of nothing.  Before God created, there was God – One God in Three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – perfectly equal, perfectly united, perfectly in harmony and in love with Themselves.

            Then God created to glorify Himself through creating, because He is worthy.  And He created everything that is and was and will ever be.  So, everything that is belongs to God; God is the Owner of everything in existence.  And God can do whatever God wills to do with everything that He has created.

            If that is all true, and God the Father loved us and sent His Son to make us right with Him – as we see in John 3, is God not able to give us everything we need – even more – much more – than what we need?  Do we believe that God loves us in such a way that He will give us what we need, and even more?

            Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.  Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7-11, ESV).

            And again, Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14, ESV).

            With this in mind, let us turn to our text:     

“After this”

            Chapter six of John picks up about a year later – after Jesus’ Galilean ministry – about which John says almost nothing. 

It is about a year before the crucifixion.

“Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.  And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.  Jesus went up on the mountain, and then he sat down with his disciples.  Now, the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.”

We see first, that the people followed Jesus for the sake of the signs, not for His being God the Son and Savior.

Specifically, the people saw Jesus heal the sick and they went after Him.  Some went after Him wanting to be healed – or to have a friend or relative healed.  Others went because they wanted to see the signs continued – they wanted to see another sign and another sign.

And it is certainly not wrong to desire to be well; it is not wrong to desire that our family members or friends be well.  We are encouraged to bring our concerns before God the Father and pray through the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ Name for whatever is on our heart.  And Jesus promised that whatever we pray for that is according to His Will, He will do it.

The problem with the crowd was they were very interested in the signs – and the benefits of the signs – but they did not desire the Savior of sinners – they did not go past the signs to the One the signs pointed to.

We have said that the point of miracles is to point to Jesus as God the Son and Savior.  Miracles are also called “signs,” as we see here – because the primary point of a miracle or sign is not what is done, but the One it points to.  The point of Jesus healing all of those sick people was not first and foremost to heal those sick people, but to reveal through what He was doing that He is God the Son and Savior.

The darker side of this mistake is seen in the TV “healers” who make their money off of people parading across the stageas they “throw” the Holy Spirit at them, causing them to fall to the ground and rise up healed – unless the response wasn’t big enough – then the person gets up, but needs another “wallop” of the Holy Spirit to be well again.  This is, at least, mistaking the sign for the One it is pointing to, and more frequently, an actor devilishly confusing desperate people.

And then there are those, like this crowd, whose blindness doesn’t allow them to look past the sign to the One it is pointing to.  It is like coming upon a stop sign and admiring its shape and color scheme, the metal it is made out of, where it is placed, the pole on which it rises, but not having a clue as to what it means.

Have we ever wanted to hear a speaker or go to a church because the pastor is famous, well-spoken, well-dressed, handsome, has a big church, has lots of money, has a beautiful wife, is funny, is a great writer, and associates with other famous, well-known, and rich people?

The man speaking or preaching is only a herald – his only importance is the message he is giving – he must be pointing to the One Who is the Gospel – Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior.

Jesus started up the mountain, and sat down with His disciples, looking at the crowd walking across the plain.  And we are told that the Feast of Passover was at hand – the Feast during which the people of Israel remembered and celebrated God’s deliverance of them from slavery in Egypt into the freedom of the Promised Land.

“Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread, so these people may eat?’  He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.”

Second, we can become so anxious about our problems that we forget He Who is the Answer.

As Jesusconsidered the crowd forming before Him, He decided to test Philip and the other disciples to see if they understood the point of the miracles – the signs.  And we find out as we continue in our text there were about five thousand men in the crowd – and if we estimate that there were an equal number of women and children – there could have been around fifteen thousand people sitting on the grass before Jesus.  Fifteen thousand people.

And Jesus asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so these people may eat?”

“These people have followed us from the other side of the shore, walked around the Sea of Galilee.  The hour is getting late; they must be hungry and tired.  Where can we get them all a meal?  Where can we get lunch for fifteen thousand?”

How would you have answered?

When we see that we received about $400 a week in income, and we have $2,500 a week in expenses, and the question is raised, what can be done?  How do we answer?

When you are out of work, seeking a job – any job – with all your might, but nothing comes, and you are being as thrifty as possible, and you still can’t pay your bills, what can be done?  How do you answer?

When the government seems corrupt, wherever we look, and the average person is no better, and we hear of potential wars, and secret evil deals, and lies function as the “news,” what can be done?  How do we answer?

When we have a problem and have exhausted everything we can think of to solve the problem, and it is still haunting us, what can be done?  How do we answer?

“Where can we get lunch for fifteen thousand?”

Minimally, our answer to this question, and in times when we don’t know how we can get to a God-glorifying result, should be the same as Ezekiel’s when God presented to him a valley full of dry bones that were very dry, and God asked him if those bones could live.  Ezekiel answered, “O Lord God, you know” (Ezekiel 37:3b, ESV).

“Where can we get lunch for fifteen thousand?”

“Lord God, I have no idea how it would be possible, but I know You know.”

And even better answer from someone who had spent the past two years with Jesus, seeing His signs and learning from Him, would be something like:

“Lord Jesus, You are the God Who created everything that is out of nothing.  You are the Sovereign God and Owner of everything in all of Creation.  And just as You changed the water into wine at the wedding in Cana in overwhelming abundance and highest quality, I know that, if it is Your Will, You can bring forth a meal for fifteen thousand out of Your great storehouses.”

Jesus tells us not to be anxious about our lives.  He said not to be anxious about our food and drink and clothes, but to look at the grass and the birds and see how our Father cares for the Creation and to remember that He loves us more – He has sent His Son to live and die and physically rise to be our Savior.  If God our Father owns everything and loves us enough to send His Son to become a human and suffer and die, will He not give us everything we need and more, as we ask according to His Will?

James wrote, “You do not have, because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:2b-3a, ESV).

If we do not ask, we can’t complain that we didn’t receive.

If we ask and plead before our Father, and we do not receive, it is because what we thought we needed was not what we needed.

But if we ask and plead for what we believe we need, and it is what God wills for us, God, our Father, is able and will provide.

Are we asking?  Are we asking?  Do we trust our loving and able Father?

How did Philip and the disciples respond?

“Philip answered him, ‘Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.’  One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?’”

“Fifteen thousand people!  Two hundred days wages wouldn’t be enough money to buy bread for them – and we certainly have nowhere near that much money.”

“Wait a minute!  This boy has five barley loaves and two fish – but that’s not going to go very far, will it?”

What was this panic and dismay?  The disciples had been with Jesus as He had healed and some of them had been with Him when He had turned water into wine.  They were with God the Son and Savior, Creator and Owner of everything that is.  How could they not know that He had a way already planned to feed the crowd?

How can we, looking back with the surety of Jesus’ death, physical resurrection, and ascension – with the clear history of the Gospels and all of Scripture – and be anxious and doubt?

We may lack due to our sin.

We may lack because we are being disciplined.

We may lack because God knows it would not be best for us.

Or, it may be that we lack because we have not asked, believing that our Loving Father is able to do all things according to His Will with everything in existence.

“Jesus said, ‘Have the people sit down.’ Now there was much grass in the place.  So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.  Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated.  So also the fish, as much as they wanted.  And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.’  So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.”

In Jesus’ familiar way, He took the five little pancakes of barley bread, and He gave thanks for them, and then He broke them and gave them to the crowd.  And in the same way He took the fish, and gave thanks, and broke them and gave them to the crowd.

So Jesus did this sign, and He fed the crowd.

But that’s not it, is it?

For, third, we see that when God gives, He gives lavishly.

Jesus did not just miraculously make five loaves and two fish enough food for the crowd.  No, He made enough food for the crowd to eat as much as they wanted – and – for there to be twelve full baskets of pieces of bread and fish.

Jesus did not just make this small lunch into enough food to feed all fifteen thousand people a small lunch.  No, Jesus made there to be enough food that everyone could eat until they were stuffed and, when the disciples collected the leftovers, there would be far more food leftover than what they began with.

We live in a culture and at a time when it is hard for us to recognize the lavish way in which we live.  We tend to think we live modestly and actually deserve more, when the fact of the matter is that we have more than most people in the world.  And we have far more than we realize.  Are we alive?  How is our health on a scale from dead to ten?  Do we have a place to live?  Do we have family?  Friends?  Clothes?  Food?  Any money anywhere?  A TV?  Books?  Music?  Cable?  Phone?  Internet?  If we listed everything we have, we will likely be surprised at how much God has given us – because everything is God’s – and He owes us nothing – so hasn’t He been generous to us?  Hasn’t He been lavishly generous to us?

That is not to deny that there are people in real need – and we have been given so much – especially in this country, so we can help meet the needs of those who truly need as God’s means of providing for them.

Please – let each of us consider all that we have and give thanks to our God Who gives us far beyond what we deserve – let us raise our voices in prayer and praise to Him Who freely gave us some of all that is His so we would glorify Him for Who He is.  And let us find a way that we can give more to others in thanksgiving to God for His bounty to us.

The disciples saw that Jesus has the ability to provide for our every need – do we know that and believe it? 

Yet, we know from the “health and wealth gospel” that we can turn this lavish generosity of our Father and make promises to ourselves that God has never made:  “God wants us to be healthy and wealthy,” God never promised.

“When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is coming into the world.’

            “Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountains by himself.”

            Fourth, the people missed the Savior for the sign.

            Having fed the crowd like an American Thanksgiving dinner, with grunting and opening pants for comfort, they remembered a prophecy:

            “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers – it is to him you shall listen – just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear gain the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die’” (Deuteronomy 18:15-18, ESV).

            Moses told the people of Israel that God was going to send a human like them to be a prophet before them, and God would not bring them into His Presence to hear His Voice again; He would be the Mediator between God and Israel.

            The people saw Jesus – the rabbi Who healed the sick and produced massive amounts of food out of – almost – nothing – and the people were elated!  “This must be the Prophet Moses spoke of – He will heal us and keep us in food so we never have to work again.”

            And remembering the coming of the Feast of Passover – with its presentation of God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt – the people jumped to the conclusion that Jesus was Prophet and King – He had come to overthrow the Roman government and free Israel once again – setting them up in a land of health and wealth and abundance of food.

            Jesus was warned in His Divinity that this was what the crowd was thinking, and before they could take Him and force Him to announce a kingship against Rome and the restoration of Israel, Jesus went back up into the mountain away from them.

            Our God and Savior is the Almighty God, Creator and Owner of everything in existence.

            God, our Father, loves us and sent His Son to save us from His Wrath.

            God gives all of us more than we deserve and most of us lavishly more so we can use what He has given us to help others and glorify Him.

            But we have a tendency to be anxious and throw up our hands as though there is no one who can meet the needs before us.

            And at the same time, we have a tendency to think that we deserve anything and everything, “just because.”

            Yet, we don’t ask, believing that God is able and lovingly desirous to meet our needs to His Glory.

            Above all, we still miss the Savior for the sign:  God does love all we who believe in Jesus savingly, and He does tend to give to us lavishly, but the great reason for this is so we will see how great and worthy our God in Trinity is of worship.

            Ultimately, it’s not about my being healed, or your getting food, but it’s about God being glorified for Who He is.  God created and entered into relationship with us so we would know Him and be in awe of Him and love Him and worship Him for Who He is.

            So, let us be thankful and give all praise to God.

            Let us ask for what we need, believing that God is able and will give lavishly according to His Will.

            And let us be thankful, knowing we deserve nothing, but have been given everything through Jesus Christ our God and Savior.

            Let us pray:

            Almighty God, our Father, we come boldly into Your throne room through the Blood of Jesus Who has saved us.  We thank You for Your unmerited generosity to us, and we ask that You would help us to believe that You are able and willing to give in great measure out of the storehouses of Creation.  Cause the Holy Spirit to well us up in prayer, confidently asking You for all we need to be Your people in this world.  Help us to show the Light of the Glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through all we receive and all we do with what You have given us.  Make us faithful and thankful stewards who turn to You, not in sin, but to wonder that You have chosen to make us Yours and provide for us as Your children.  For it is in Jesus’ Name, Amen.