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Colin Smith: Someone here today facing an overwhelming task and you look at what's in front of you and you have a profound sense of your own inadequacy. And you know what it is to say with the Apostle Paul, "Who is sufficient for these things?"

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I'm Steve Hiller, glad that you're listening today. And Colin, I think there may be a lot of us who can relate to what we just heard. We are faced with some sort of task and we just feel inadequate for that. What would you say to the person who's feeling that today?

Colin Smith: Well, I think the first thing is that what you are feeling is right there in the Bible and it was the experience of none less than the Apostle Paul himself. He said, "Who is sufficient for these things?" This is part of Christian experience that God actually puts us in places where we feel our own inadequacy.

It's actually part of the purpose of God to put us there. And the answer to it is just a little later after Paul says, "Who is sufficient for these things?" He says something else that's the answer. He says, "Our sufficiency is of God." You're not to look for sufficiency in yourself. You're to look for sufficiency in God. God is able, and God will enable you to do all that he calls you to do.

We're going to look at a wonderful story today that's really a story about a person who had very little to offer to the Lord, but he offered it anyway. God used what he offered and God's wonderful purpose was accomplished as a result. I hope it's going to encourage you. It's a great story of what God can do even with the very little and insufficient that we are able to put into his hands.

Steve Hiller: Well, we find this story in the book of Second Kings, chapter four. We're going to be looking at verses 38 to 44 today as we continue the message, God Will Feed Us. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: This is a very wonderful truth that God's marvelous grace protects us from the worst effects of our own folly. And you see it very beautifully illustrated in the Garden of Gethsemane. The soldiers come to arrest Jesus. They're armed and there's a mob with them with swords and with clubs. And you remember that Peter drew his sword and brought it down over the head of the High Priest's servant. The man's name was Malchus and Peter cut off his ear. And Jesus said to Peter, "Put away that sword. No more of this." And then he touched the ear of Malchus, the High Priest's servant, and healed him. God protects by his direct intervention. His hidden hand saves us from untold disasters.

But there's something else here that I want us to see and it's very practical. Not only does God deliver us from the worst effects of our foolish mistakes by direct intervention, but God also protects us through wisdom that is given to others. Now think about this with me for a moment. If the young student had taken with him into the field someone who actually knew the difference between a plant you could eat and a plant that was poisonous, he would not have picked the plants that poisoned the stew. The problem was that in his enthusiasm and his self-confidence, he picked these plants on his own and he didn't know what he was doing.

Now think about this. Here's a question. I won't ask for a show of hands, but if you were out in the forest, would you be confident that you know the difference between the berries that are safe to eat and the ones that might be poisonous? Because if you can tell the difference, well, go ahead. You can pick the berries safely. But if you can't tell the difference, you'd be very wise to take someone else with you.

Now here's another question, more important. Are you sure that you can tell the difference between what will nourish your spiritual life and what will diminish your spiritual life? See, picking berries in the forest can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. And the same is true when it comes to who you listen to, who you read, who you follow.

And let me say from the heart here today, this is just one of the reasons that God gives pastors to churches. Your pastors can help you to know what is healthy and they can guard you from what might make you sick. And God protects through wisdom given to others.

Listen to how Solomon speaks about this in the book of Proverbs. He asked this question: "Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than there is for him." Now you see what he's saying. If you're going through life thinking that you have all the wisdom you need in yourself, there's more hope for a fool than there is for you. Because God protects us from many foolish mistakes through the wisdom that he gives to us through others.

Now, dear friends, this is a marvelous and wonderful truth. And I speak from the heart today when I tell you that one of the greatest blessings I have enjoyed in all of these many years of serving this church has been the wisdom that I have received from others. Where would I have been if it were not for the godly men and women, some in heaven and some still here, who have walked beside me and have given me wise counsel? It's one of God's great gifts. We should cherish it, seek it, value it. God protects us from foolish mistakes through the wisdom that is given to others.

So here's my counsel to you today. If you want to be really useful in serving the Lord Jesus Christ, find two or three Christians you admire, cultivate a relationship with them, make the habit of asking for their counsel, and listen to what they say.

So this is a strange but rather wonderful story with a very practical application that's encouraging for us all. God's work continues despite our many foolish mistakes.

And then there's a second story that we'll look at more briefly this morning. And it teaches us that God's work advances despite our obvious inadequacies. Verse 42: "A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God—that's Elisha—bread of the firstfruits." Now, this second story, again in a time of famine, a time where food was scarce, it's about a farmer who arrives at the college and he brings with him a gift of food for the students.

And I want you to picture the scene as this farmer with his cart arrives. He comes to Elisha and he says, "I have come to bring you the firstfruits of my harvest for your students." And you can imagine the excitement among the students. They're living through a time of famine, and this farmer has brought them food. He says that he's brought the firstfruits of his harvest. Wonder how big his farm is?

Well, if this farmer has brought food for a hundred men, it's going to take a whole team of students to unload the cart and to bring the food into the kitchen. So they all rush out to help unload the cart. And when they get out, to their great disappointment, they see that the cart is almost empty. In fact, there's only one sack in the cart. And in that sack, just twenty loaves of bread and some grain. What is that for a hundred men? It must have been a massive disappointment.

Elisha called his servant and he said to Gehazi, "Give to the men that they may eat." And of course, verse 43, Gehazi then said, "How can I set this before a hundred men?" And Elisha gave him the same command a second time: "Give them to the men that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, 'They shall eat and have some left.'"

God had spoken. And this pitifully small amount of bread that had been brought to Elisha would be more than enough to feed a hundred men. And God multiplied the food. We read verse 44: "So he set it before them and they ate and had some left according to the word of the Lord."

Now, this is wonderfully encouraging for all of us today. If you want to be useful to God but find yourself perhaps often thinking that you don't have much to offer, I want you to remember the farmer from Baal-shalishah. His firstfruits didn't amount to much. And he might easily have said, "Well, look at the firstfruits. Twenty loaves of bread. Not much. It's not going to be much of a harvest for me this year. I'm going to need to keep all that I have. This is a lean time, and I'm not going to have much, and I need to hold on to what I have. And besides, they have a hundred men at that college. I mean, they need this vast—what difference will my pitiful twenty loaves make over there? I'll just stay at home."

But you see, this man has a very different spirit. He wants to honor God with all that he has. And he says, "God has called me to give to him the firstfruits of my harvest, however small or however big it may be." You'll find that command, by the way, in Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 14. God has called me to give him the firstfruits of my harvest, and that is what I'm going to do. And so he brings his twenty loaves. And twenty loaves in the hand of God feeds a hundred men. Never underestimate what God can do through your faith and your obedience.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called God Will Feed Us. It's part of a series where we're taking a look at the life of Elisha called In God We Trust. And if you ever miss a broadcast in the series, you can listen online. Come to openthebible.org. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. You can also listen if you have the Open the Bible app, which you'll find for free at your App Store. Or another way to listen is to get the entire series In God We Trust on CD. Ask about that when you call us at 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365, or again the website is openthebible.org.

Open the Bible depends on your generosity to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching each day. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a copy of Lincoln's Daily Devotional. We'll find out more about that in just a few minutes, but let's get back to the message now. Once again, here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Never underestimate what God can do through your faith and your obedience. Now, obviously you can't read this story in the Old Testament without immediately thinking about the greater miracle to which it very obviously points. And you'll already have got there ahead of me, I'm sure, and you'll be thinking about the day when a large crowd gathered to listen to Jesus in a desert place. It was late in the day and the people were hungry.

And Andrew was doing some research to see if there was any food in the crowd, and he came back very disappointed. "There's a little lad here," he says to Jesus, "and he's got five loaves and he's got two fish, but what are they for so many?" Well, you see, that was exactly Gehazi's question, wasn't it? "How can I set this before a hundred men?"

But you remember how wonderfully the five loaves and the two fish were multiplied in the hands of Jesus and a vast crowd of people were fed. Elisha fed a hundred men with twenty loaves. Jesus fed five thousand men with just five loaves and two fish, and besides that, there were many women and children as well. And at the end, there were twelve baskets of food left over.

Now, obviously, the scale of these stories is very different, but the principle very obviously is the same. And the principle is that God's work advances despite our very obvious inadequacies. And there will be someone here today facing an overwhelming task. And you look at what's in front of you and you have a profound sense of your own inadequacy. And you know what it is to say with the Apostle Paul, "Who is sufficient for these things?" And you need to hear and remember the answer that the Apostle Paul gave a few verses later: "Our sufficiency is of God." What we're counting on is not what we can do, but what God can do.

Listen to these words of Jesus that were spoken first to just eleven men: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." How in the world are eleven men with their track record of foolish mistakes and with their very obvious inadequacies, how are these eleven men to go and make disciples of all nations? And the answer is because of what Jesus said first. He said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore." In the light of my power, in the light of my authority, in the light of what I am able to do with so very little, you go and you make disciples of all nations.

Do you see? Christ advances his work despite our obvious inadequacies. And this happens because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. So here's what we have learned from these two remarkable stories today. God's work continues despite our foolish mistakes. God's work advances despite our obvious inadequacies.

And very briefly in these last moments, I want to ground this by saying that these very important truths should have three practical effects in our lives. First, they should humble us. God's work does not continue and advance because of some greatness that is in us. It really doesn't. It continues and advances despite our obvious inadequacies and our many foolish mistakes. And when you know that and take that in, well, it will help to keep us all humble.

Second, these truths should not only humble us, they should comfort us, especially when we feel our inadequacy, especially when we've made just really foolish mistakes. Remember, God's story is always a story of redemption. So don't ever let your foolish mistakes or your obvious inadequacies crush you. Instead, use your foolish mistakes to learn wisdom, and use your obvious inadequacies to grow in faith. And always remember that the Christian life is not about what you can do for God, it is about what God can do through you as you place yourself wholly into his hands.

These truths should humble us, they should comfort us, and most of all, they should encourage us. I mean, think about it. If God can work through a student who can't tell the difference between a plant that's safe and one that's poisonous, then God can work through me. If God can work through a farmer who's so poor that his firstfruits only amount to twenty loaves, then God can work through me.

Listen to these words of scripture and try and take them in. The Apostle Paul says, "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God."

Friends, take this in, hide it in your heart today. God works through people who make foolish mistakes. God works through people who have obvious inadequacies. And what that means is that God can work through you, and he can work through me.

Steve Hiller: I hope you're encouraged by that as we wrap up our time together. I know I certainly am. You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, a message called God Will Feed Us. It's part of a series where we're taking a look at the life of Elisha called In God We Trust.

Open the Bible depends on your generosity to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching each day. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a copy of Lincoln's Daily Devotional. And Colin, who is this book for?

Colin Smith: Well, I think it's for anyone who really loves the Word of God, but especially, I think, for anyone who's looking for something fresh or anyone who's looking for something really short. This little devotional that was actually used by Abraham Lincoln himself simply offers a verse of scripture for every day. They're organized by themes, a different theme each month. They go through the experience of a Christian believer in the various parts of life that we go through, and it gives to us just a verse that you can meditate on.

So if you're looking for something really short just to pop a verse of scripture into your mind each day, then this book does it very simply, very wonderfully. It does it from the Old King James Version, of course, which so beautifully expresses the English language. And I think, too, for someone who feels I just want to do something fresh and different, I find it helpful to change up what I'm doing in my own devotional life to move from one thing to another, one part of scripture to another, to use different books and devotionals and aids at different times.

And here's something that might just be fresh for someone today. A verse of scripture each day from Abraham Lincoln's devotional that will help you to meditate on the word of God, take in its truth, and live in its beauty and in its power.

Steve Hiller: Well, we want to send you a copy of Lincoln's Daily Devotional as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365, or again the website is openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.

This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." God's word is the food that will nourish your soul. You need it every day. And Open the Bible Daily is a daily devotional that will open the Word of God and lead you to Jesus. It's available for free on our website, openthebible.org. For more information, visit openthebible.org/daily. That's openthebible.org/daily.