INTRO This will probably be a real shocker for many of you, but today our focus is…Jesus. He is at the core of everything we do, but particularly in this series, we are going to be looking at Jesus and then at ourselves. Not so much so we can be like Jesus, but so that we can find motivation for being like Jesus. We are going to explore the idea that God’s how is our why.
In our Gospel text for this week, Jesus feeds the five thousand with five loaves and two fish. Our focus isn’t the how, but it’s the why. Without having read the text, what would you guess that the motivation for this miracle might be? Right in the second verse of our passage, Matthew identifies Jesus’ motivation as compassion. Even though He wanted to spend some time alone, he saw the needs of those around him and met those needs.
So, this series begins with an opportunity to examine the serving ministry of the church. How do we see all the people in our community? Not just some of the people, but all of the people. How are we meeting the needs of folks within and outside of the church? Most importantly, it isn’t about amounts, though we do like to keep track of what we give and the number of hours we serve. But God can take a little and make a huge difference in the lives of those around us.
We have before us an opportunity to celebrate the abundance of God’s grace. Looking at our own personal lives, how has a little word, a small gesture, a seemingly insignificant moment made a great impact on us? What testimony can we give about the abundance of God’s grace in our own lives, or in the lives of those with whom we care?

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Because God Worship Series: YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING Matthew 14:13-21
My Aunt Ruby loves to post jokes on Facebook.

A boy was sitting on a park bench with one hand resting on an open Bible, shouting, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! God is great!”

Presently, a man…came along. He asked the boy about the source of his joy. “Hey,” the boy said with a bright laugh. “Don’t you have any idea what God is able to do? I just read that God opened up the waters of the Red Sea and led the whole nation of Israel right through the middle!”

The man sat down beside the lad and said, “That can be easily explained. You see the Red Sea in that area was only 10” deep at that time. The Israelites simply waded across.”

The boy’s eyes wandered from the man back to the Bible laying open in his lap. The man, content that he had shared his vast knowledge on the subject began to walk away.

Suddenly the boy began to shout and praise his God even more loudly than before. The man halted his steps, turned back toward the boy as he heard him say: “Wow! God is greater than I thought! Not only did He lead the whole nation of Israel through the Red Sea, He topped it off by drowning the whole Egyptian army in only 10 inches of water!”

When it comes to miracles, we know the different takes people have on them. Some write them off as fairy tales, or simply as a means of storytelling with no intention of their having any historical truth to them. Others feel the need to scientifically “prove” miracles for doubting mindsets. I for one hold that miracles are the work of an all-powerful Creator God, who can do as He well pleases.
It is a curious tendency of preachers and interpreters to try and explain miracles. Now you may fall almost anywhere along the spectrum of opinion on miracles but what we will be emphasizing in this series at least is that the “how” question isn’t the right question to ask.
So, before we ask a different question, let’s see where our text finds us. Jesus had just heard of John the Baptist’s death and got in a boat in an attempt to get some alone time in a secluded place. But instead, the people heard about it, and a crowd of them headed His way.
Though Jesus was exhausted and grieving, His heart motivated what He did next. He “felt [profound] compassion for them and healed their sick.” v14 AMP
Our text continues,

That evening 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 food for themselves.” v15 NLT

It sounds like they were worn out, too. Can’t you hear the exasperation in their request? “We’re whipped, Jesus! Get these people out of here!”
Now it’s time for the big question. Jesus was tired before this all even started yet He said to them,

“They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!” v16 AMP

Do you remember being tired and grumpy as a kid and just ready to hang it up, when your mom or dad said, “Before we quit, let’s wrap up this one last thing”?
You probably just wanted to scream! With Jesus’ reply, the disciples’ exasperation had to be ratcheted up several notches and they exclaimed,

“But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!” v17 NLT

You can almost see their fists clenched by their sides as they stamped their foot on the ground.
So, here’s the question. Was Jesus being serious when he said, “you give them something to eat”? He knew their mindsets. He knew that they’d freak out at His command. Now, He may have been teasing them a bit. I mean He does have a sense of humor – ever seen a platypus? But at the core of it all, He wasn’t kidding, He was dead serious.
If he was just messing with them, was He trying to get them to realize how much they needed Him? We all need that from time to time. We tend to think we’ve got our bases covered and forget that we need a Savior. Often, we need someone who can pull us out of the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into.
We opened this morning with an old home that I grew up singing. As I worked this week, I was curious as to the history of it and looked in one of my hymn stories books. (Yes, I still use books… Google is not the end-all for information!) In Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan, I found this story and I just had to share it. (pg. 287, ©2003, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, TN)

One snow-blanketed night, Canadian Fred Suffield awoke to an urgent pounding on his door. A half-frozen man reported that a train had stalled in the blizzard, and the passengers were in danger of freezing to death. Lighting a lantern, Fred followed the man to the site and led the travelers back to his house. Later one of the passengers, Kittie, wrote a thank you note. Fred replied, and Kittie wrote back. Their correspondence led to courtship and to marriage.

Some time later, Fred and Kittie attended a church in Ottawa pastored by Rev. A. J. Shea, and there they gave their lives to the Lord. As the couple grew in Christ, they entered the ministry of evangelism. One summer they invited Shea’s teenage son, George Beverly to spend a month with them in Westport, Ontario, holding evangelistic meetings. One night, accompanied by Kittie on the piano, Bev attempted to sing, but his voice cracked on the high notes, and he sat down mortified, vowing never to sing again.

Kittie wouldn’t hear of it, suggesting he sing in a lower key. He did, and he kept on singing, and singing, and singing.

Did you catch the young man’s name? George Beverly Shea, famed singing companion of Billy Graham. Robert Morgan shared that in 2000, Graham came to Nashville for a four-night mission. Morgan and his wife were privileged to attend a reception for the Graham team just before the meetings began, and George Beverly Shea, 92 at the time, rose to sing. His rich baritone voice broke into a song that had been written 73 years before by Fred and Kittie: Little Is Much When God Is in It.

God uses little things in great ways. A tiny acorn may produce a forest. A spark may ignite a revival. A small church might produce the next great evangelist.

What we have to offer is so often very small, at least in our eyes, but do you think that maybe Jesus was trying to get his disciples to see that their resources – paired with the power of God – were more than they thought…far more than enough.
Could Jesus have been trying to change their “glass half empty” attitude that said, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish!”? We tend to look at what we don’t have rather than at what we do have.
That’s one of the most difficult things for me when preparing sermons. There is so much in the Bible! And there are so many of you! I am one person. Sometimes it is outright intimidating! Compared to all those who stand before their congregations each Sunday, I often feel small and insignificant. But each of us is gifted in ways like no other. We each take the gifts with which we have been blessed, small and great alike, and give them over to God to use as He pleases.
In the written report to our District Superintendent, Rev. Fashbaugh, for my meeting this coming week, I included a passage that God gave to the prophet Isaiah. It is found in Isaiah 55:11.

…so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
…it shall not return to me empty
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
…and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. NLT

Our lives can be overwhelming – sometimes on occasion and sometimes every day feels that way! Where the problem lies is that when we feel that way, we often just let the vicious undertow of life and its struggles sweep us along in its unrelenting current. We feel that that is the only choice we have.
But my challenge for you, and myself, too, is when that starts to happen, that we take an honest look at what might seem like inadequate resources and allow ourselves to wait on the Lord and see what He can do with our “meager” assets.
And we can’t stop there! We may think our five loaves…and two fish might barely meet our own needs and we exclaim, “Send the crowds away” so that they can solve their own problems. God challenges us to push ourselves past those mindsets, but we balk and say that we have enough to deal with!
Jesus very clearly says, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!”
Jesus is not hindered by…well by anything! We look at our meager five loaves of bread and two fish and our crowd of 5,000 men – plus women and children and we stop dead in our tracks.
“Lord, I can’t do it! I…I…there’s not enough…nowhere near enough!”
And Jesus gives a little knowing smile as if to say, “Oh, yeah, you think so, huh? Child, you just watch and see!” And as He did in today’s narrative, He takes what we would deem “insufficient” and brings from it enough to meet the need with abundance beside!
So, my friends, take on the challenge, for we do not stand alone with just our small provision at hand. Our mighty God stands beside us and He is not a God of “just enough” to get by, but He is a God of abundance and blessing! When God gets into the equation, He is not just an addition to our resources – He is a multiplier!
And one more thing before we wrap things up, when we look at those fed out of Jesus’ bounteous hand, was there anyone left out? It sure doesn’t sound like it! “About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children!”
When we are about God’s work, we must remember that. In His mindset no one slipped to the margins, no one is ignored or diminished. And we need to make sure we make our application broad. We’re not just talking about food. The work God has given, yes, includes the hungry that are around us, but in also includes the tired and worn out, the despairing and depressed. Indeed, they are all our responsibility. You follower of Jesus, you give them something.

Core by DEREK WEBER / WORSHIP PLANNING / PREACHING NOTES

Aug 16th, 2020, Sun, 9:00 am