LEFTOVERS

Mark 8:1-21

I came from a poor family. Every 2 or 3 days I had to eat leftovers from a previous meal.
Sometime the leftover food was tasty but many times no so tasty. If no one sees me I
drop the food on the foor for the dog to eat.

Leftovers. (Pause)

In our story today we read about some leftovers. Mark 8:8 tells us that “the disciples
picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.”

Now ordinarily, leftovers are foods that’s been left over and I have prepare them a 2nd
time, and a 3rd time, and a 4th time…

Jesus says: “If I send (the crowd) home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because
some of them have come a long distance."
His disciples answered, "But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread
to feed them?"
"How many loaves do you have?" Jesus asked.
"Seven," they replied.”

Jesus is serving up leftovers.

Paul wrote: “… my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in
Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

We all struggle with the faith to believe that God will supply all our needs according this
glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

ILLUS: I have a friend who told me of a number of times that God had worked in her life.
When she was younger, she was pregnant with her first child… but there was a
problem. Her baby was upside down in the womb and there was a chance she’d lose
the child. She went to a prayer meeting at church and the women there prayed for her.
And she says that while they prayed for her, she literally felt her child flip over in her
womb.
And that was just one of many stories she shared with me.
But recently life has taken some hard turns for her and she’s begun to believe that
prayer won’t make any difference for her life. She’s begun to doubt that God can supply
all her needs according to His glorious riches in Christ.

ILLUS: I once a conversation with a man from another church some time back. He
shared how he’d gone to Bible college, and how he loved to go to church. And he loved
to sing, and he loved to lead singing.
But he had hit hard times. I think his wife had left him, and I believe Christians had
mistreated him and hurt him. And life had gotten so rough that he openly challenged the
idea that God would help him… or anyone else. He openly doubted that God could
supply all his needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

And at one time or another, this kind of doubt troubles many of us.
Why does this happen to us?

• We have to make money.

• We have to pay the bills.
• We have to make repairs on the house.
• We have to put petrol in our cars.
• We have to do this/ have to do that.
And God doesn’t do that stuff for you. You do. It’s called being a responsible individual.
It’s called doing what has to be done.

But then something happens in our lives that we can’t do. Something happens that we
can’t control and we can’t overcome. What do WE do then?

You know what happens when that happens to me?

I’ve been a pastor for 20 years or so, so I know exactly what happens when life gets
hard and things get difficult. You know what I do when that happens?
I get angry
I get frustrated.
I go into panic-mode.
Sorry, I know I should give you a more spiritual answer than that… but it’s the truth.
And if it’s MY fault that things are going wrong… I get REALLY upset.

But over 20 years of preaching I’ve learned a few things. In 20 years I have been
preaching to myself as well, and I’ve learned to not STAY upset. When I go into panic
mode, and when find myself becoming frustrated and angry, I don’t let that control me.
I’ve learned how to control those emotions by two simple disciplines.

First I pray. I tell God “I can’t do this. I don’t how to fix this. I don’t have any resources or
power to overcome this obstacle in my life. So God I need you to do what I can’t.”
Then I got to bed.
If it’s in the afternoon, I take a nap. If it’s in the evening, I go to bed for the night. It
doesn’t matter what time of the day it is… I just go to sleep. Because I’ve found that –
when I get up from that sleep – the problem is still there, but the sleep I’ve had takes
away the anger of my frustration.

I once read the story of a mother who was putting her daughter to bed. But her daughter
was a little scared of something and was having trouble getting to sleep.
They got to talking about God and her daughter asked: "Does God ever sleep?"
"Oh, no honey, God never sleeps." "Oh," said the child quietly. Then she thought about
that for a moment and said: "Well then, if God’s going to stay up all night, there’s no
sense both of us staying awake." And with that, the little girl turned over in bed, pulled
her blanket up to her neck and fell asleep.
This is a message repeated in the Bible. Waiting on God.
We need to learn to Wait on God.
Psalm 27:14 says “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the
LORD.”
And how am I supposed to “wait?”
Psalm 5:3 says “…I lay my requests before you and wait IN EXPECTATION.”

In expectation?
How could I possibly wait on God in expectation.
Well, I can wait in expectation because I know God has acted in the past, and because
He’s acted in the past I’m confident that He will act in my life in the future. So I wait in
expectation knowing God will act in my life.

And the way I know God has acted in the past is if I learn to look for the leftovers.
How do I know God will supply for my needs?
I look at the leftovers.

The 12 disciples are sitting in the boat looking at one loaf of bread wondering how
they’re going to split it up between them. And Jesus says: “Don’t you remember?
When I broke the 5 loaves for the 5000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick
up?"
You can almost hear them shyly say: "Twelve".
"And when I broke the 7 loaves for the 4000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you
pick up?"
They answered, "Seven."
He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"

Look at the leftovers, Jesus says.

Learn to look for what God has done for you in the past.

I’ve been a Preacher for years and I’ve been blessed with a whole list of leftovers. If you
sit down and ask me to tell you of the things God has done in my life over the years I
could talk all day long. And I’m hardly ever the hero in those stories. God’s the hero.
They’re His stories. They’re the stories of how God has fulfilled all my needs according
to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

I’ve got a lot of leftovers I’ve seen in my life.

But now, what if you don’t have those personal leftovers to chew on? What if you’re new
to the faith? Or what if you haven’t had much experience with God’s kindnesses in your
life?

Well, if you don’t have your OWN personal leftovers God says: “Here let me give you a
few”. That’s what Romans 15:4 is talking about when we’re told:
“…everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through
endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
If you don’t have your own leftovers to feed off… feed off the stories and there are many
stories in the Bible.
I feel sorry for the people who don’t believe what God has written down for them,
because they go to bed hungry. They have nothing to feed their hunger for hope and a
future. They don’t believe in a God who can supply all their needs for them according to
His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Now, does that mean I should sit back and do nothing but wait on God?
Do I just sit back in my easy chair and put my feet up and say “never mind lah! Ok Lah!
and just don’t do anything?
No… that’s not the way this thing works.

And when Jesus fed the 4000 do you know what He said to His disciples?
“How many loaves do you have?" Mark 8:5 (Seven loaves)

Are you seeing something here?

What do you have to give to God? What can you supply?
Well then give it?
But Pastor, it’s not enough!!!!
That’s ok… God will make up the difference.
If God wants 10 and all you have is 2… God will make up the difference.

He wants you to believe so strongly in the fact that He can do what He promises that
sometimes he expects you to pony up… and do what you can. Not because He needs
your strength or your resources or your influence in the miracle.
God wants you to partner with Him in His miracle.
He wants you to share in the wonder of what He’s going to do in your life.
He wants to give you a story all your own.

CLOSE: Now, one last thought.

I like leftovers … but I can get real tired of them after awhile.
Sometimes I just want to go out on the town and get a meal I haven’t cooked.
I want to go out to KFC or roti canai or Hakka mee.
I don’t do it often… but when I do, I really enjoy it.

We need the spiritual leftovers God gives us. They’re important for us to feed on. But
you know the day is coming when we won’t have to be eating Spiritual leftovers. One
day God is going to prepare a great banquet just for us and there won’t be one left over
on the table.

In Luke 13:29 Jesus said “People will come from east and west and north and south,
and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

In Revelation 19:9 an angel tells John, "Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the
wedding supper of the Lamb!’”
It’s going to a special meal
And we’ll never be hungry again and we’ll not need to worry about leftovers ever again
because we’ll be forever in God’s presence and eating at His table.
But you can’t take part in that great meal until you first belong to Jesus.