God Empowers the Weak Part 2 - David Eells - UBBS 9.9.2026

God Empowers the Weak (2) (audio) David Eells, 9/9/26 God wants us to trust Him alone. (Jer.17:5) Thus saith the Lord: Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. God calls this “departing from the Lord” when you trust in the arm of the flesh. That’s departing from the Lord. When you do it the way the world does it, when you don’t have any difference, any separation, any sanctification between you and the world, that’s departing from the Lord. (Jer.17:6) For he shall be like the heath (or like a tumbleweed) in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. (7) Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose trust the Lord is. (8) For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreadeth out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat cometh, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. Now that sounds like the wilderness that’s coming, doesn’t it? And he’s telling you who will make it through and prosper and be blessed going through it. It’s the person who puts his trust in the Lord. But the person who trusts in the “arm of the flesh” is going to be blown away like a tumbleweed. That’s why we’re preparing to get in the Ark now. There’s a flood coming that’s going to take a lot of people away and it’s not only the fault of the teachers, but the people who listen to them because it’s the easy way. There’s no death-to-self in it; there’s no becoming like a child in it. God is preparing to show you there’s a difference between His method and the method of the world. (2Ch.16:11) And, behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. (12) And in the thirty and ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet; his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. (13) And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign. (14) And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had hewn out for himself in the city of David … What offended God here is that Asa sought his help from the physicians and not from the Lord, meaning that there is a difference. But Asa’s problem was not in just that area. He began to trust in the arm of the flesh in so many things. When Asa ruled over Judah, Judah was at war with the northern 10 tribes. (2Ch.16:1) In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not suffer any one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. (2) Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house, and sent to Ben-Hadad king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, (3) [There is] a league between me and thee, as [there was] between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent thee silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me. Judah was bribing the Syrians to break their league with the northern 10 tribes of Israel, so that they could whip them. Well, Asa made a big mistake because he robbed God in order to bribe these people. He looted out of the Lord’s treasuries and hired himself some insurance. He took God’s money to do this. And you know, we do the same thing a lot of times. If the enemy seems too big, many times we’ll take God’s money to try to whittle him down a little bit. That’s not permitted, and God rebuked Asa for it. In the first place, Asa was bowing down to the god of fear because the enemy was bigger than he was. But throughout history, the enemy was always bigger than God’s people when they won, so he shouldn’t have bowed down to fear in the first place. In the second place, Asa should not have used God’s money. Did you know that all of your money is God’s money? It’s not our money, so Asa shouldn’t have used God’s money to buy insurance against his enemy or to strengthen himself against his enemy. But he didn’t know God’s plan. God had a great plan. (2Ch.16:4) And Ben-Hadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel (the northern 10 tribes); and they smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-maim, and all the store-cities of Naphtali. (5) And it came to pass, that when Baasha heard thereof, that he left off building Ramah, and let his work cease. (6) Then Asa the king took all Judah; and they carried away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha had builded; and he built there with Geba and Mizpah. Look! He had success! He bribed the Syrians to break their league with his enemy and it worked. You’d say, “Well, he accomplished what he wanted to do. In a way, he won the war.” Asa used God’s money to do something that worked; he hired insurance and it worked, but God didn’t see it that way. (2Ch.16:7) And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand. You see what God was planning? He had planned to give to Judah both Israel and Syria. He was going to let Judah conquer both of them. Instead, Judah got worried, and they bribed Syria to break their pact with Israel, so that they would only have one to conquer. However, God said, “You’ve made a mistake. I was going to give them both to you. It would have cost you nothing and I was going to give them both to you.” That’s the way it is when we run for our insurances and our assurances of the world in our strengthening ourselves. See, God wants to give it all to us. Look. (2Ch.16:7) ... Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand. (8) Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge host, with chariots and horsemen exceeding many? yet, because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thy hand. (9) For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him. Herein thou hast done foolishly; for from henceforth thou shalt have wars. Do you understand what God was saying here? He was saying, “Look, if you’d have done it My way, you wouldn’t have had to conquer this problem again. This would have been the end of it. But, okay, since you did it your way, you’re going to have wars from here on.” So we won’t necessarily have to fight if we just do it God’s way the first time. God would have given the whole enemy, vastly outnumbered as Judah was, He would have given all of them to Israel, but Judah used money to make themselves strong. God gives you His help for free, but the alliance that you make with the world using your money is costing you something. When you make yourself strong with the strength of the world with your money, which is really God’s money, it is taking from God. Think about that now. It’s not your money; it’s God’s money. You’re taking God’s money and you’re giving it to the devil’s kingdom to make yourself strong against an enemy that God would give you anyway and give you for free. An alliance with the world is not God’s method, and it wasn’t His plan for Asa. That was Asa’s problem. Asa had fallen into this trap of putting his trust in the arm of the flesh and it made Asa angry when God rebuked him. (2Ch.16:10) Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in the prison-house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing…. Many of God’s people are doing the same thing with their money when they bow down to the gods of insurance. What are you doing when you buy insurance? Isn’t it because you don’t believe the Word of God? “Oh, we need insurance,” you say. Oh, really? Think about why we need insurance. Is it not because you trust the security insurance companies provide with their large financial reserves? You’re trusting in them in case something happens, as if God isn’t on His throne. God knows things are going to happen. He also knows He’s going to provide. So what you’re doing is robbing God’s money and giving it to another god. I’ve hardly ever seen a greater miracle than when God told me to get rid of my insurance. And, let me tell you, when I called my insurance man and got rid of my house and car insurance, it really shocked him. But I don’t think it was maybe a week or two later that I saw one of the biggest miracles I’ve ever seen, and God proved to me that dropping my worldly insurance was His way for me because He blessed me so abundantly. I had pulled my car into this little old quickie supermarket and gone inside when I heard this big crash. The whole front of the store, all the glass in front of the store, just shook. A car had run up in that parking lot and slammed right into my car, and I had just gotten rid of all of my insurance. It slammed right into my little Datsun station wagon that wasn’t but a little tin box anyway. I knew something had happened when I looked out of that store, but when I went outside, I tell you what, I was just totally awed by the power of God. This big old Buick had just wrapped itself around the corner of my Datsun station wagon. I mean hit it right on the plastic tail lens of my Datsun, and it just notched the front of that Buick from top to bottom. The hood, the grille, the bumper- they were all caved in about a foot. The plastic tail lens of my Datsun had caved in that car from top to bottom. It was an old Buick, too – an old heavy car built like a tank; hit my car and it literally wrapped around my car. When I went outside, the driver had backed up about a foot and was out there looking at it with his eyes just as big as saucers. I said, “Oh, man!” If I hadn’t seen that, I’d have never believed it because it just totaled out the whole front of his car. And there wasn’t a scratch on my car. While he was standing there looking at it, I took my thumbnail and I scraped the paint off of the plastic tail lens where his hood hit my wrap-around tail lens on the corner of that Datsun station wagon. That was the only mark on my car! No, he couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it, either. But you see, I didn’t have any insurance. I’d put myself in the hands of the Lord. You know, I’d become like a child, in a way, because I put myself in the hands of the Lord. Now we have to obey the law, but at this time in Louisiana, we didn’t have to have any insurance, and I didn’t have any insurance. Nobody ever collected off of me, but boy, I collected off some other folks. I don’t say that to be bragging; I’m just saying God did miracles for me because of that. In every way that I didn’t have insurance, He was my assurance. Well, I wasn’t even thinking right when I saw this; I was just awed. I mean, the guy got in his car and took off, and after he left, I thought, “Boy, I missed the best chance in the world of witnessing to somebody,” so I jumped in my car and caught him at the next red light. I got out and I witnessed to him. I told him that was God! I said, “God did that because I didn’t have any insurance.” When I said, “It’s a miracle,” he said, “It must be.” I remember the first thing he said when I went outside and looked at the car. He said something like, “Boy, they sure must build them better than they used to.” You know that was totally stupid. His car would have cut a path right through the middle of my car, and he wouldn’t have been scratched. It would have been the other way around. Those old Buicks were tough, and mine you could dent with your elbow. A Datsun station wagon? You could knock the car tail lens out with your elbow. I’m telling you there’s just nothing there. This was one of those positions I was put in where I was made so weak and the situation I was facing was so strong that it was totally ridiculous. But I’d just gotten rid of all my insurance. When you put yourself in the hands of God, He takes that very seriously. Whatever you do and however it turns out, when you put yourself in the hands of God, you’re going to be the blessed one. Another time when I got in a wreck, God didn’t protect my vehicle, but I was so glad He didn’t. I had a little Toyota truck that I loved. I was going down the interstate on my way to work, and I saw the car in front of me slowing down. The whole line of traffic was slowing down because somebody was stopped in the middle of a bridge, and I was slowing down, but the fourth guy back was looking off down the river instead of looking at the bridge, and he just scooped us all up. Bang! Bang! Bang! It was just one right after another. Well, the guy in front of me was hurt really badly. He had slammed into the steering wheel, and it jammed up in his chest, and he had lung blood just gushing out of his face. I’ve shot enough deer to know that it was lung blood. It was bright red because it has a lot of oxygen in it. So I got up in his cab, and I pulled him out, and I laid him down on the concrete there beside his truck, with his head on the curb like it was a pillow. And the lung blood literally piled up from the road up to his face. That’s how it was coming out of him. It came out jelly-like. I’m just telling you what a miracle God did. I knelt down there right beside him, and I prayed for him, and I commanded him to be healed in the name of Jesus. There were people all around me just looking at me doing that. Then the medics came and put him in the ambulance. I immediately left there and went home to call the hospital, and they told me there was nothing wrong with that man. The nurse said, “We turned him loose. He went home.” I said, “Lady, if you’d seen the pile of blood out there on the concrete, you’d know there was something wrong with him.” She said, “Well, I don’t know, maybe he had a scratch in his nose or something, but there was nothing wrong with him we could see. We turned him loose and he went home.” Praise the Lord! Now, even though my truck was totaled out and at that time I didn’t have any insurance, I got my truck fixed, and I still had $1500 in my pocket. It was a real blessing. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. Not only that, what really tickled me the most was this: While I was standing there beside the highway with that man’s blood on my arms from picking him out of the cab, somebody from work also came by. It was a Christian guy and he knew I’d preached walking and speaking faith. He saw me standing there with that blood on my arms and said to me, “You’d better go to the hospital.” I kept saying, “There’s nothing wrong with me,” but he thought I was speaking faith. He insisted, “You better go to the hospital!” I told him again, “There’s really nothing wrong with me,” so he drove off, and he went and told my boss. When I got to work, he and my boss and a bunch of people were standing around waiting for me. They were giving me the once-over with their eyes. They were looking me up one side and down the other, and I told them, “Look, I told him there was nothing wrong with me. It wasn’t me. It’s the other guy who got hurt. There’s nothing wrong with me.” It was really hard to convince them. They thought I was just speaking faith. Well, anyway, that time God fixed my truck. The next time, of course, we didn’t have any insurance either and God bought my house with their insurance money. He plundered Egypt right on down and bought my house and car with their insurance money. You know, even in our ignorance, sometimes God blesses us, right? Sure, there is a worldly method that can bring success. Didn’t Asa get success by bribing Assyrians to break their pact? But God didn’t agree with his method. Asa’s method worked. He conquered his enemy and, in fact, it broke the war off totally. But even though it was successful, Asa used God’s money to do it. He used God’s money to buy insurance. God didn’t agree with it. This is not to condemn anybody. This is just so that we know for the future what God can do. God doesn’t appreciate insurance because it’s a false god. It’s something that we’re counting on for our salvation in the future. And here’s something we really ought to think about: Suppose things come on us because we have insurance. I’ll give you a good example that just stuck with me so well, which the Lord showed me. When I worked at Exxon, I was working with this guy on pumps in the field; his name was Melvin. One day we were working on this old slurry pump. It’s an old crude pump. Crude is real bad about staining. It’s almost like paint. If it gets on you, it will stain you almost permanently. And so I was working with him on this old pump, and the gauge on the top of the pump showed that it was empty, no pressure. The bleeders were open to make sure that there wasn’t pressure, that when we broke into it, we wouldn’t come into pressure. The bleeder was plugged and the gauge was broken, so when we were breaking into this thing, we were breaking into a pump that had pressure on it, and it was pressurized crude oil. So, he and I were working on the head of this pump and we’d taken all the bolts out, but the gasket was holding the head stuck onto the thing. I tapped on it a little bit, but it wouldn’t break loose, and Melvin was standing right there beside it. I walked away from the pump to get a bigger hammer so I could rear back and hit that plate and it would break the gasket surface. The minute I walked away, the thing popped off and blew crude all over him. Just all over him. Now I’d been talking to Melvin about the Lord a lot. In fact, he’d been converted to the Lord by my testimony to him. But he said, “You planned that, didn’t you?” It was like I just walked away and all of a sudden BOOM! and it was crude oil all over him. He was black from top to bottom, clothes and everything. And he said, “Well, don’t worry about it; I have a change of clothes in my locker.” I said, “Oh, that’s the reason you got it and I didn’t get it. I don’t have a change of clothes.” So God knew I couldn’t afford to get that way because I didn’t have a change of clothes. You get the point? Melvin prepared for a disaster and he got one. He had full faith that he was going to have one, and he got what he believed for. See, we don’t realize that God is sovereign. If we prepare or we insure for disaster, He can bring one. Sometimes we think, “Oh, thank God I prepared!” But actually, we could have brought on the disaster in the first place. Melvin and I left this pump, and after he had changed his clothes and everything, we went to another pump. This is a very rare thing. Well, believe it or not, this other one was the same kind of pump, and almost the same thing happened. And I was standing right beside him this time, right beside him when the flange broke open. It was amazing to me how two things in a row could happen like this. The flange broke open and it squirted out of one place from that thing and drowned him from top to bottom with crude oil. But just before this happened, Melvin said, “You’re never gonna get me like that again.” I said, “Melvin, you better watch those positive statements. God is listening.” We left right there and went over to work on this other pump. Sure enough, we had checked that one even with a rod, but evidently it was plugged up somewhere else- the bleeder with a rod and everything- and the plate just backed up just a little bit. It squirted a stream and hit Melvin and squirted him from top to bottom with crude oil. I said, “I told you about those positive statements, Melvin.” This was the second time. It was a good thing he was a good-natured guy, and he really was, but he got it twice in a row. Well, I’m sure he learned something from that because it was impossible for something like that to happen twice. It was just impossible for us to be working on the same kind of equipment because we worked on everything from turbines to motors to pumps to drivers, and here we were working on a reciprocating pump. There weren’t even that many of them out there, and we worked on one right after another, and he got it on both. God takes offense when you insure yourself, and when you do, He causes you to lose the battle. In the last case we looked at, it seemed like they made the right decision because what Asa did worked. The only thing is, he robbed God by trusting in a false god. God even gave Asa temporary victory in it, but then the prophet came and prophesied to him that he wasn’t going to get out of wars because of that. In other words, he didn’t do it right that time, so another war was coming. We have to understand that if we don’t do it God’s way, we haven’t gotten out of anything. Another trial just like it is right around the corner because these trials are put there for us to be overcomers and to overcome something in us that’s wrong. And trusting in the world is wrong. It’s offensive to God. (2Ch.20:35) And after this did Jehoshaphat the king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah the king of Israel; the same did very wickedly: (36) and he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish; and they made the ships in Ezion-geber. (37) Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath destroyed thy works. And the ships were broken so that they were not able to go to Tarshish. (21:1) And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David…. So we see that Jehoshaphat lost his life because of his insurance, and Asa lost his life because of his insurance. They trusted in something other than the Lord. You know, our help does not come from anything that we can do or anything that we can eat. (Exo.15:26) … I will put none of the diseases upon thee, which I have put upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee. Help comes from God. Divine help comes from God. It doesn’t come from anything we can eat. In fact, whatever you eat, God says it’s good and to be received with thanksgiving, if it is sanctified through the Word of God and prayer (1 Timothy 4:4,5). See, God sanctifies your food. He makes it what you need. Whatever you eat, God will make it what you need, if you sanctify it through the Word of God in faith. As a matter of fact, I want to show you something. See, there are all kinds of insurance. We think, “Well, we’re not getting enough vitamins.” That’s not what the Bible says. Now we’re not putting anybody under laws about vitamins; this is just an example. (1Ti.4:1) But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, (2) through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron; (3) forbidding to marry, [and commanding] to abstain from meats…. Why do they command to abstain from meats? Because they say they’re unclean. They say they’re not healthy. Why does the world say that pork, for instance, is not healthy? Because they have statistics to prove that pork is not healthy. But who is that talking about? It’s talking about the world. We are not the world. The statistics that work for them don’t work for us. Paul says this is a doctrine of demons to us. Now, they have the statistics to prove that for the lost world, pork is not a healthy meat, but that’s not us. Read what it says to Christians. We are the ones who are delivered from the curse. They are not delivered from the curse. We are delivered, so he calls it a doctrine of demons “to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth” (1Ti.4:3). See, if you know the truth, you can eat those meats because you’re free from the curse, if you know the truth. If you really believe what he’s saying, you can do this; it will have no bad effect upon you. He said they are “created to be received with thanksgiving.” God created them for that purpose for those who love the truth and know the truth. Only those people won’t be hurt. These doctrines of demon teachers are going to tell you they’re not all good; some of them you better stay away from, and they take that from Old Testament doctrine about unclean meats. But what did those unclean meats signify? Remember that Peter saw the unclean animals coming down out of Heaven on a sheet (Acts 10:11,12) and God said, “rise, Peter; kill and eat (Act.10:13). (14) But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common and unclean. (15) And a voice [came] unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, make not thou common.” And God did this to Peter three times (Acts 10:16) to make sure he got the point. The sheet came down out of Heaven. God said, “What I make clean, don’t you make unclean.” Then three men showed up at his door, inviting him to come and preach the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 10:19). And when Peter went before the Gentiles, he said he perceived that they were acceptable to God (Acts 10:28) because of the revelation he had just received about the unclean animals. You see, men are beasts. Gentiles represent unclean animals in the Scriptures. We’re not to partake of unclean animals. If you listen to unclean people, to Gentiles, pagans, their thinking gets into you and, in a way, you’re eating what they’re saying. Jesus said you’re supposed to eat of His Body (John 6:51). His Body is clean. His Body represents the Word, right? He was the Word made flesh. If you eat His body, it goes into you and becomes you. It becomes a part of you. If you do that with an unclean person, you partake of their thinking, their word; it goes into you, and it still becomes a part of you. So God said not to partake of these unclean people, whom the unclean animals represented. That’s the revelation that God gave to Peter. (1Ti.4:4) For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected…. Nothing. Because He said it’s good. If God said it’s good, it’s good: “What I make clean don’t you make unclean.” Remember what God said to Peter. “If I say it’s clean, it’s clean.” In fact, when the disciples were talking about eating only certain things, Jesus said, “not that which entereth into the mouth defileth the man; but that which proceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth the man (Mat.15:11). (18) But the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart; and they defile the man. (19) For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings: (20) these are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not the man.” Out of his thinking are unclean thoughts. These defile man. It’s not what he eats or his unwashed hands. It’s what comes out of your mouth, what comes out of your thinking, that defiles you. Worry about that. Don’t worry about eating pork is what He’s saying here. (1Ti.4:4) For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving: (5) for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer. It is to be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified through the Word of God and prayer. “Sanctified” means “set apart unto God.” Can the world do that? No, they’re under the curse. They can’t do that. Jesus told the disciples, And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you (Luk.10:8). (Eat what is put before you.) (3) Go your ways; behold, I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves. (7) And in that same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. (8) And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. (1Ti.4:6) If thou put the brethren in mind of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which thou hast followed [until now:] (7) but refuse profane and old wives’ fables…. And that’s what these rules of men are. “Don’t do this, don’t do that; take this and take this,” and all that other garbage. That’s not God’s plan. That’s just like the insurance. That is going after other gods. That’s putting your trust in other things. You don’t need that. Where does our health come from? It comes from the fact that Jesus became cursed for us so that we could be blessed (Galatians 3:13,14). He bore the whole curse. If I’m blessed and He took all of my curse, then I have to be healthy. I have to be delivered. That’s where my faith should be. I am healthy. I don’t have to go looking for health by listening to a bunch of quacks who think this drug or this herb or this vitamin is going to heal or keep me. No, that’s just crazy, and it’s just not Biblical. Our health comes from what Jesus did on the cross. It’s something that you accept because of what happened; it’s past tense. But people don’t believe that’s enough, so they think, “I have to do something else to get health. The cross is not enough. Jesus is not a good enough provider, so I’d better get insurance.” Stop and think about these things we’re doing. We are trusting in false gods. It is offensive to God. Insurance is common sense to the world, but look at how many times the insurance is the very thing that caused God to bring the curse. And everybody says, “Oh, praise God! Thank God I had that insurance!” No. The curse came because you have insurance. Read here carefully and see if you get the point Jesus is making. (Mat.16:5) And the disciples came to the other side and forgot to take bread. (They didn’t provide for themselves.) (6) And Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. (7) And they reasoned among themselves, saying, We took no bread. (8) And Jesus perceiving it said, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have no bread? (9) Do ye not yet perceive, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? (10) Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Do a little arithmetic in your mind here to figure this thing out. (11) How is it that ye do not perceive that I spake not to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees? (12) Then understood they that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. See, before we look at this carefully, what was the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees? Their teaching was the Law, salvation by works. In everything, salvation was by works to the people under the Law. Now, the disciples thought, “Well, we don’t have provision, we didn’t bring bread. We should have stored up some bread and brought it with us.” That was what they were thinking, but Jesus wasn’t talking about that. He said, “Don’t you remember the five loaves of the 5000 and how many baskets you took up?” And that was 12. Remember, there were 5000 people to feed. They had five loaves to feed them, and after the miracle, they took up 12 baskets of leftovers. That’s a miracle, right? Jesus wants you to compare these two miracles. In the next miracle, He says, “the seven loaves of the 4000.” There were fewer people to feed and they started with more to feed them. They had seven loaves and the baskets they took up were only seven. In other words, when they put in more, God put in less, and there was less left over. Jesus is saying to the disciples, “Look at these two miracles carefully. Don’t you remember? When you didn’t put in, God made a bigger miracle. When you put in, God made a lesser miracle and there was less left over. Understand the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They think it’s by their own strength.” And that’s how the Law worked, by the way. God just gave them the Law and said, “Okay, you keep it or else.” The strength of the Law was the individual’s own strength. But what Jesus was saying is, “Don’t worry because you didn’t bring bread. God’s still here. This is not a problem. Don’t you understand? Don’t you remember what happened?” Look, when you put in less, God puts in more. The less that you have to put in, the more God puts in to show you that it was Him. But the more you put in, the less God puts in. It’s that way in everything. The more of self that goes into something, the less of God is going to be there. We must decrease so that He may increase. Remember John the Baptist? (Joh.3:30) He must increase, but I must decrease. That’s the truth. That’s for all of us. The more we decrease, the more God will increase. Remember, God wants salvation to be by grace – unmerited and unearned, not of your wisdom. (Ephesians 2:8). God is not dealing with us the way He deals with the world. Don’t look at the world and think that’s the way God wants to deal with you. The world is totally different. He wants all of our salvation, deliverance, prosperity and blessing to come by grace. It has to come freely and trusting in the promise of God. He’s called us out of this world (1 Peter 2:9) and He’s dealing differently with us. When this life is over, we’re going to see how great God is and how little we are. This is the whole point. (Rom.4:4) Now, to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. See, if you could earn it, God would owe it, but God will not permit that. Think about it again now. “To him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt.” That’s your works, right? This salvation would not be by grace. You’d be making your way to Heaven and God would owe it to you. Think that’s ever going to be possible? It’s not possible. He’s sovereign and He’s not going to permit it. Even where God permits the world’s works to save them, He won’t permit your works to save you. (Rom.4:5) But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. You see, God calls a person righteous because they walk by faith. (Rom.4:17) (As it is written, A father of many nations have I made thee) before him whom he believed, [even] God, who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were. (18) Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations…. See, it looked hopeless. God made a promise and then He waited 40 more years until Abraham and Sarah were ancient, when it couldn’t possibly come to pass. God waited because, if He had done it right there, everybody would have said, “Oh, it’s possible; maybe Abraham did that.” No. God waited until Abraham couldn’t do that, and then God brought it to pass to prove it was Him. He wanted all the credit. In our circumstances, it may also become increasingly impossible. Don’t lose faith, because the more impossible it gets, the more possible it is for God. Why? Because when you’re in the position of weakness, that’s what God likes. It’s where He wants you to be. It’s where He gets all the credit for the miracle, and He looks greater in the eyes of the world when these great things happen. (Rom.4:18) Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, So shall thy seed be. (19) And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; (20) yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, (21) and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. Now, there was one time when Abraham and Sarah decided to have a little insurance (Genesis 16) and God permitted them to do that, but ultimately, it brought a great curse upon his seed. God’s plan and what He is doing is so wonderful. You should have more courage and more faith when things get impossible, because every time in the Bible, that’s where they were when the miracle came. Be encouraged when you see the odds against you, as the world calls it, because that’s when they’re in your favor.