The Impossible Situation Have you ever been caught in an impossible situation? Ever found yourself in a position which does not seem to have any solution. A problem where you do not know what next to do. Perhaps you had a work assignment with a deadline. Your boss has been looking forward to your report. To finish, you need data from several of your colleagues but these do not seem to come readily. Either they are too busy or they are not cooperative. The deadline is tomorrow and you know that you are in an impossible situation. No way are you going to be able to finish the report for your boss. Perhaps you are in sales. Your monthly sales target is S$50.000. This is now the 23rd of the month. You had only reached S$15,000 not S$50,000. You have another S$35,000 to go. You have only about a week left. You are in an impossible situation. No way would you hit the sales target. Perhaps you are in the examination hall. You had been given 3 hours for a paper of six questions. On average you should be doing one question every half an hour. You looked at the time. You have only half an hour left. You had only finished three questions - three more to go. You are caught in an impossible situation. No way would you be able to finish all the questions in time. What do we do when we are caught in an impossible situation? Some people throw in the towel and give up. Some panic - perhaps feeling a bit wet at the bottom. We as Christians know that we have Jesus. When you as a Christian find yourself in an impossible situation, turn to Jesus - He will make the impossible situation possible. Today we will see how we can do this. How when we are caught in an impossible situation, we can turn to Jesus and how He will make the impossible situation possible. The disciples found themselves in an impossible situation. They had been ministering to a crowd of about 5000. Evening had come. Not only they but the crowd were tired and hungry. They did not have food enough even for themselves - less the crowd that was with them. The nearest place to get food was far away. But even if food was available no way would they have enough money to buy food for 5000 men not counting the women and children. What should they do? Let's read the story. Matthew 14:13-21 MT 14:13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. MT 14:15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food." MT 14:16 Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." MT 14:17 "We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered. MT 14:18 "Bring them here to me," he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children. The first reaction of the disciples was to get rid of the problem. Send the crowds away. Get rid of them. They are the problem. They need to be fed. Get them away and we would not have this problem of feeding them. Many react in the same way. Get rid of the problem. Stay away from the problem. Run away and hide. Sleep in and forget about everything. Just resign. Just walk out of the exam hall. Trouble is when we start running and hide, we will soon find very little place left in the world to do so. Somehow, that particular problem will resurface sooner or later. Problems seem to have a way in hunting us out. Others would pick up courage and work frantically - getting all stressed out and burnt out in the process. Some may be able to just manage. But how many? Often they fail because the situation is just impossible at the human level. Instead of sending them away, Jesus asked that they stay. They stay and be fed. Verse 16. ."They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." Huh? Jesus, don't you understand the problem? We don't have enough even for ourselves. We have only five little buns and two tiny fish. They are the lunch of this little boy here. "Bring them to me" Jesus said. After saying a prayer, Jesus began breaking up the loaves and handing them to the disciples. The disciples handed them to the people. All ate until they were full - they were very satisfied. All 5000 men and the women and children were fed. When the disciples encountered an impossible situation, they turned to Jesus - He made the impossible possible. The five loaves and two fish were handed over to Him - who would ever imagine that 5000 men not counting the women and children were fed on 5 loaves and 2 fish. It is impossible but Jesus made the impossible possible. Impossible in accordance to human thinking. Impossible in accordance to the physical principles of this world. Impossible when handed by man. But then Jesus is no ordinary man. He is the Son of Man. He is the Son of God. He is God the Son. If God can create the entire universe out of nothing - no molecule, no atom, no electron, no proton, no neutron - no nothing - absolutely nothing - if God can create the universe out of nothing - what is so difficult for Him to multiply 5 loaves and 2 fish and feed a crowd of 5000 men not including the women and children. Feeding a crowd of 5000 over people would be quite a feat by today's standard. Our largest ballroom can just take about a thousand. You would need a large field to do that. I wonder how many cooks you would need. I wonder how much ingredients you would need. I wonder how much it would cost. By today's standard feeding such a crowd would be a feat in itself. It would be an impossible situation. But not to God. Truly, what seems impossible to man is all possible to God. When you find yourself in an impossible situation therefore, turn to Jesus - He will make the impossible possible. That is what I, Sis Maggie, Winston and Wilmot realized as well. The incident I want to described happened several years ago. I have shared about it. Some of you have heard it. Others not. I think it is a good story to show that when we are caught in an impossible situation, when we turn to Jesus, He will make the impossible possible. Several years ago we were on way on vacation to Orlando. We had arranged for a resort there through our time share facility. Normally, the time share week will run from Friday to Friday. We flew into New York on the Wednesday because SIA where we were working did not fly into Orlando. When we arrived into New York we realized that we had hit into a long weekend holiday. New York was cold - very cold. So, practically everyone was traveling south into sunny Florida for that weekend. We were holding sub-load tickets - you can go on the flight only if there are empty seats. So, we did not want to take chances. Though we arrived on that Wednesday morning after a long flight, after checking into our hotel in New York we decided to go to the train station to see whether we could get seats into Orlando. We found nothing. Not a single seat for those few days. Then we went to the bus station to see whether we could get seats on any of those coaches. Again nothing. Absolutely nothing. What to do? We were caught in an impossible situation. That evening the four of us desperately turned to Jesus. We prayed and prayed and prayed. The first thing the next morning we went to the airport. We lined up for flights to see whether we could get on board. The staff at the counter for the first flight was very friendly. She checked our luggage in and told us to wait until all the commercial passengers had checked in. We waited. When the counter was closed, the airline staff started calling names for people on the waiting list. The list was not on a first come first served basis. They called those who paid the full fare first. Ours being subload tickets would be called last. Names were called. They were not ours. Then came to the last name. it was not ours. Great. Our luggage had got on that flight but not us. We said "okay, we will pick up our luggage at the Orlando airport when we get there." So, we waited for the next flight. No seat. Then the next flight. Then the next. Several flights had taken off. We were still in New York - waiting at the airport. Then, about noon, New York was hit by a severe snow storm. Flight after flight was being cancelled. Some took off but the majority of the flights were cancelled. About 2 p.m. we realized that there was only flight left. All the others were cancelled. And we were still in New York. Our luggage were in Orlando. What a situation! What are we going to do that night? We were really in an impossible situation. We have to get on this flight. We turned to Jesus and prayed real hard "oh Lord, please please please please help us." Passengers began to board the plane. The airline staff began to call those who were on stand-by. Name after name. we were not called. Then all of a sudden we heard and saw a commotion. A group of men were arguing with the airline staff. There were only five seats left. There were six of them and all of them wanted to board the plane. They have to be together. They were not prepared to leave one person back. They argued and argued. Then the airline staff apparently annoyed saw us "you want to go." "Do we want to go?" "yes of course." We took the boarding passes from her and rushed into the plane. When we reached Orlando we found that we had hit into yet another impossible situation. Our resort was booked from Friday. We had reached Orlando on a Thursday - one day earlier. We needed a place to stay. From the airport I started to call the hotels. One after another said that they were full for the night. I went down the list of hotels that I had. It came to the last hotel name. I prayed to Jesus - what would we do for the night if there was absolutely no room in the city for us. When I called the last hotel in the list, and heard that they had one room left, I could literally leap with joy. What a day it had been. Not just one impossible situation but two. In the midst of the impossible situation, we turned to Jesus and He made the impossible possible. The disciples wanted the problem to go away - they wanted the crowd to go into the villages to get food. Jesus asked that they bring the crowd to him. Then in the midst of the impossible situation, He asked them "what do you have as food?" Can you imagine what thoughts would have gone through the minds of the disciples? "Jesus I thought we already told you that this crowd is way too big to feed. What food can we have to feed this crowd? All we have is these 5 loaves and 2 fish. - if we read this incident in the other gospels we would note that this is the lunch of a young boy. What good will these do to feed the crowd?" Jesus asked them to give the 5 loaves and 2 fish to him. In the midst of an impossible situation we may be asked by Jesus to give to him whatever we have. To see a miracle we must have faith. Do we have faith enough therefore to give to Jesus whatever we have - even though whatever we have may not seem to be of any use to solve the problem. To see God act we need to yield. To give our very last cent. To give him our very self even though we may not see ourselves as being able Last July, AGBC ran into a deficit of S$60,000. When I realized the problem, I was stunned. Where in the world am I going to get the money to cover the deficit? I wrote to the churches. A handful responded. But quiet generally. I prayed- turning to Jesus. I got the staff and students ro pray. We prayed - we looked to Jesus. Then I took up the challenge. A challenge I think that was placed in front of me by God. Was I willing to give my own money to cover the deficit. I had some money placed in a bank's investment fund. Was I prepared to give that money to cover the deficit? As I waited on God, I felt led to do it. I then took the step of faith. Drew the money out from the fund and told my staff that if we absolutely need to, I will use the money to cover the deficit. Operations of the school continued. I saw the deficit begin to fall as donations came in. As we closed the financial year, I was told that we had a surplus. Where did the money come from? Till this day, I don't know. All I know is that we were in an impossible situation- we turned to Jesus and I was willing to give to God whatever was necessary and He made the impossible possible. When there seems to be no way God will indeed make a way. Today, are you in a situation where you do not know what to do? Turn to Jesus, be willing to give to Him whatever is necessary - He will make the impossible possible. Let us pray.

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