In The Garden
"Where Are You Going?"
Pastor Wayne Clabaugh

Osella and I Celebrate 35 Years of Marriage
TODAY! PRAISE THE LORD!!!

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Scripture: "But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat." Matthew 14:16 (KJV)

You know one thing I've found through my years as a Pastor, and in my experience as a human being is that there's a whole lot of departing going on.

The "inconvenient truth" is hitting people with a left jabs at the head and right hooks to the heart and they wiggle and the wobble but they don't fall down.

People don't want to hear the TRUTH these days and they are unwilling to even bring up the phrase, "What would Jesus do?" Why? Because nobody talks that way anymore! What? So who do you think we are: a bunch of sappy do-gooders?

I had to laugh when I was preparing for this message as the thought came to me, "What if when Jesus said, "They need not depart; give 'ye' them to eat..." Peter would have gone ahead and instructed the disciples to, "Go ahead and dismiss the people and let them get their own meals and I'll speak to Jesus about it. He gets this way when he's been speaking on faith all morning. There's no way we can POSSIBLY feed this multitude with five loaves and two fishes ANYWAY; and let's be sensible here... while some of the crowd may have grasped it, there's a bunch that'll never catch on... so, just make sure they get to the city and get fed, if if needs be we can cancel tonight's meetings."

Sound familiar? Have you heard anything similar to that in your own spiritual circles or maybe said it yourself? Come on now. If there's one thing we can all say about Christians - it's that we're so all fired up for Jesus, when things that the WORD says will work... don't work, we're very quick to make excuses for it!

One thing is for sure, after all of my years of study on the disciples, I'm really not sure how much they really knew or understood regarding the Jewish Law and The Priesthood. Why I say that is that is it seemed to me - even with all of the celebrated feasts that I'm sure they attended, they never seemed to grasp, at least not during their times as disciples, that it was the "presence of Jesus" that made all of the difference. In every feast we find the revelation of Jesus. Let's look at just a few shall we?

• The feast of the Passover - spoke of the coming death of Jesus on the Cross, and how His Blood covers us. (FULFILLED)

• The feast of The Unleavened Bread - Speaks of the Passing Over of the Lord in Egypt.

• The feast of the "First Fruits" - speaks of Our Lord's Resurrection

• The feast of Pentecost - Speaks of the "Presence" of the Holy Ghost.

In each case we see "the presence" of the Lord.

Now, let me stop and say here that while the Jews may have never passionately felt the Spirit of the Lord like many have done since Pentecost, they "believed" He was there. There was never a doubt! Yet here stands the Lord in the presence of the disciple's and they doubted - well let me put it in another way, they decided to do "a work-around" in order to meet the needs of the people.

But Jesus wanted to teach His disciples that while they were unlearned fishermen, and a tax collector and really all and all a motley crew... they would be his leaders. They needed to know that they had the power "in Christ" to do anything they asked. In fact Jesus said,

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." John 14:12 (KJV )

But wait! Look at what else Jesus says there to you and I today....

"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." John 14:13,14 (KJV)

But Brother Wayne... wasn't this taught AFTER the feeding of the 5,000? Yes, but Jesus had, throughout His ministry been saying, "According to Thy faith be unto you". What about....

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:" Matt 7:7

"Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you." Mat 9:29 (KJV)

"And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." Matt 17:20(KJV)

"Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." Matthew 18:19 (KJV)

That's just a few there in Matthew. If you want a few more - write to me and I'll email you a bunch of them. the point is... Jesus had been teaching them about His presence and His provision throughout His Ministry. If we believe the word of John 1:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." John 1:1-5 (KJV)

So you see that Jesus would have been in His right to say aloud to the People and to the Disciples in this passage found here in Matthew 14, "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

Oh friend, I can't tell you how many times I have stood in the face of God (Figuratively speaking) and had a need and turned away to go meet that need. This is the same God who allowed the Children of Israel to walk in the Desert for 40 years and never have their clothes or their shoes worn out. This is the same God who during 40 years provided Manna to fall from heaven to feed them so that they would never go hungry. This was the same God that caused the Red Sea to Part and made the sea's floor to dry up so that over 3 million Israelites could cross. This was the same God who provided a Pillar of Cloud to lead them in the daytime and the Pillar of fire at night to give them light. Now what do all of those events speak of? PRESENCE! PRESENCE! PRESENCE!

I would dare say that there is nothing in your life today that is too big for God - nor that could ever cause you to depart. It is time to learn to come to the source in these last days and realize that it is JESUS that will feed us and lead us and heal us and restore us. It is time to learn that, "The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." Pro 18:10 (KJV)

Friend let me declare it here this morning and for all eternity... He is all You need. Come unto Him and be saved.

Let's pray.

Father I come to you this morning with all of my needs and all of my fear and all of my doubts and I call upon Your Name. So many are already departing from the faith O Lord because they have been fooled into believing that Miracles have ceased and that those who believe what the WORD says are naive a best and just plain ignorant at worst. Forgive me Lord for the times when I doubted and the times when I sought out others to meet my needs, when you had it all worked out all along. Oh Father, Lord Jesus and Merciful Savior, soon coming King, Precious Holy and Abiding Spirit of God sent from the Father at the commission of Jesus Himself... I receive all that you have for me and I trust in thee. I go forth in THY Name and I bless you in all things. In Jesus' Name, Amen.