Don't Have Much To Give? Good!

God uses inadequate people with inadequate resources.

John 6:5-13 Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for Him. Turning to Philip, He asked, "Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?" 6 He was testing Philip, for He already knew what He was going to do.

 7 Philip replied, "Even if we worked for months, we wouldn't have enough money to feed them!" 8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up. 

 9 "There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?" 10 "Tell everyone to sit down," Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) 

 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward He did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. 12 After everyone was full, Jesus told His disciples, "Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted." 13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.

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In the previous post we saw that the crowds that followed Jesus around were not really followers of Jesus. To them he was an amusement and a resource for free health care. They had a lot of nerve to say to Jesus "Show us a miraculous sign if You want us to believe in You. What can You do?" (John 6:30)

Jesus knows that they don't have enough money to feed all of these people but he also knows that there is a boy whose mom made him wait before he left the house so that she could finish packing his lunch. Again we are going to see that Jesus has a plan and he has an agenda.

Jesus has compassion for this crowd but he also has a higher agenda just like when he cleared the temple, when he healed the man by the pool on the Sabbath and when he "needed" to go through Samaria to meet a woman. Jesus always has an agenda. Jesus had compassion for them all but the greater end that Jesus is working toward has more to do with teaching the disciples a lesson than it does the feeding of a hungry crowd.

The disciples are looking for an easy way out, this crowd has been a pain for too long, perhaps they wanted to use this opportunity to get rid of them. Let's send them away so that they can buy their own food and we can have some peace and quiet. (Mark 6:36)

Jesus ruins that idea when he asked Philip about the local food supply. Philip should have said to Jesus, not too long ago I saw you turn water into the best wine, he should have thought that Jesus could give them food from out of nowhere just like the manna that God made fall from the sky for their forefathers. The disciples should have been ready to say to Jesus "You can feed these people you don't even need the little boys lunch to do it." (John 6:5-6, Deuteronomy 8:16-17)

These guys were low on faith but they were still obedient and made the crowd spread out and sit down. Maybe the fact that they were right there with Jesus and he gave them a direct order made them feel pressured to go ahead and do it. Usually a lack of faith makes me become disobedient.

Jehovah Jireh
Philippians 4:19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

Jesus proves that he is totally sufficient, he is in control, and he has unlimited resources. Imagine watching the first and second person get their food and you are next, you probably think that the food from that little lunch box is all gone, but then the food comes from somewhere. I have to wonder at what point the new pieces of bread showed up. Could the people see the next piece of bread suddenly pop into Jesus hands or did they pop into the basket just before Jesus reached back in?

Jesus uses the inadequate people who yield their inadequate resources to Him. What an awesome lesson for the disciples and one that we need to come to realize as well. God's people are inadequate to meet the needs of the people that they minister to and it is better for us if we realize that before we get busy in ministry. Without God we can't save them and we can't meet their real needs.

Sometimes we get overwhelmed by the needs around us and we can get burned out in serving the Lord because we are trying to meet those needs in our own strength, if we rely on God and his resources we will be freed from worry and we will become more generous as we prove his faithfulness.

Help me to be faithful to do your will, forgive me Lord for being disobedient when I can't see the resources to do what you want me to do.

Is Jesus The Lord?

The crowds try to make Jesus the servant.

John 6:1-5  After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias.

2  A huge crowd kept following Him wherever He went, because they saw His miraculous signs as He healed the sick.

3  Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with His disciples around Him.  4  (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.)  5  Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for Him. Turning to Philip, He asked, "Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?"

John 6:14-15  When the people saw Him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, "Surely, He is the Prophet we have been expecting!"  15  When Jesus saw that they were ready to force Him to be their king, He slipped away into the hills by Himself.

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The crowds that are following Jesus are continuing to grow, and why not? Jesus is doing some pretty cool stuff. After a big disturbance in Jerusalem he moved on to Galilee and he is really gaining in popularity.

In Galilee alone the Centurion's servant has been healed, the son of the widow of Nain is alive again, remember Jairus' daughter, the two blind men, the woman who touched His clothes, a demonic who couldn't speak. All of this has happened right here in Galilee!

Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses continued, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.

This crowd was looking for someone that would save them from the oppression of the Romans, they wanted to see the fulfillment of the hope that Moses gave them that another prophet would rise up to help them.

The crowds were looking for somebody that would make their life a lot easier, they wanted a Messiah who healed and fed them and was a physical earthly Messiah that would help their country. The free lunch and healing Messiah was all they wanted and sometimes Jesus disciples felt the same way.

What Can Jesus Do For Me?
John 6:29-30  Jesus told them, "This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the One He has sent." They answered, "Show us a miraculous sign if You want us to believe in You. What can You do?"

They were just like a lot of people in our world who want that same kind of Jesus. They want one who will just do everything for them and make no demands. They like the help but they don't want to hear that this Jesus requires something of them. They didn't have any thought of repentance at all.

One test of whether I am truly submitting to God is how I react to my circumstances. Am I grumbling or giving thanks when things don't go the way that I wanted them to go. If God choose this situation that I am in and he did so for my good then who am I to try to take charge.

Who is really the lord of my life? If I am using God then I am promoting myself to the position of lord and I am trying to make him my servant. Jesus does not want followers who use Him for their own purposes, but followers who grow to know Him and trust Him for who He is and allow him to be Lord.

Forgive me Lord for making myself the lord and putting you in the place of the servant. I want to live for your glory and be obedient to you instead of trying to get you to obey me.

How Deep The Fathers Love

God still loves me as I stand with the scoffers.

The ultimate example of love and devotion is often met with faithless and unloyal hearts that just cannot be true for very long. Despite the stack of blessings that we have to look at to remind us of how loved we are we still turn our backs on God and go our own way.

God IS love, it is who he is and what he does but we still reject him even though he loves us like we yearn to be loved. Our soul longs for such love and complete acceptance but we still rebell and walk away and even fight against him.

Isaiah 53:5-6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

Few of us can look at examples like Daniel and his three friends or Joseph and say that we come anywhere close to their example but that is what God is looking for. How about the example of Paul or the original disciples or Stephen.

But he was still willing to be pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

2 Chronicles 16:9 The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.

As I have grown through the circumstances in my life I have developed a stronger sense of loyalty and faithfulness to God but I don't imagine that I will ever come anywhere close to the examples that the Bible gives us.

Lord help me to grow in faith and love and to trust you completely everyday.