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God of Abundance
Greetings!
In the sermon The Culture of Scarcity,
George Haynes focuses on three biblical passages in which large groups of people are fed abundantly. I had the opportunity to hear George preach this sermon and found it to be very powerful. In all three passages, God does not simply feed all who ask for food; God makes sure they are "stuffed." Our God truly is a God of abundance.
The following is an adaptation of George's sermon.
Grace & Peace,
Jerry Hoffman
Director of the Center for Stewardship Leaders
Luther Seminary
The Culture of Scarcity
By George Haynes
2 Kings 4:42-44
John 6:1-13
Numbers 11
We learn in the first reading that, "They all ate—and we're talking about 100 people—"They all ate and had some left."
Similarly, in the second reading we learn that, "They ate until they were full." All 5,000, every single one, ate until they could eat no more.
In both stories God abundantly provides for the two groups of people. The first reading makes it very clear that there wasn't just enough food but an abundance: "They all ate and had some left." In the second story even after all 5,000 of them ate until they were "stuffed" (which is the exact meaning of the Greek word used in that sentence), there were still 12 baskets full of food that hadn't even been touched.
Let me give you another example of God's abundance. When 600,000 Hebrew people begin to complain about not having meat, Moses, their God-appointed leader, comes before the Lord, crying, "Where am I to get meat to give all this people? I am not able to carry this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. For they come weeping to me and say, 'Give us meat to eat.'"
"Gather the people," Moses is instructed, "[and] tell the people, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow and you shall eat meat, for you have wailed in the hearing of the Lord ... Therefore, the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat ... You're going to eat quail until it comes out of your nostrils!'"
But Moses said, "The people I am with number 600,000 ... Are there enough flocks and herds to slaughter for them? Are there enough fish in the sea to catch for them?"
The Lord said to Moses, "Is the Lord's power limited? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not."
Hang on, here it comes! "Then a wind went out from the Lord and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day's journey on this side and a day's journey on the other side, all around the camp, about three feet deep on the ground."
A truth of these three stories is that no one who comes to the Lord ever goes away hungry; no one who enters into the presence of the Lord ever goes away empty—no one.
How can this be? The answer lies in a second truth of the stories: our God is a God of abundance.
What we have been seeing and hearing is absolutely typical of God's behavior. You would be terribly mistaken if you think this kind of abundance is a thing of the past, limited to the pages of Holy Scripture or biblical times.
Whoever has ears, let them listen: our God is a God of abundance.
To access the entire sermon click on The Culture of Scarcity.
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