Give "it" to God

The “it” Factor. I believe that every one of us has a purpose and every one has been gifted by God to contribute to his kingdom advancing agenda. What your purpose is and what your gift is I don't know for certain. But I know that you have “It.” You have it.

(used to represent an inanimate thing understood, previously mentioned, about to be mentioned, or present in the immediate context)

It could be your giftedness, your job, kids, relationships, time, money.

Trust God’s Plan for it (v.6-7)

Verse six should serve as a great comfort to those who aren’t sure what God is doing in their life. Sometimes when we get to a crossroads and we get confused about the “what next” of life this verse, if nothing else, lets us know that God is not unaware but is planning on doing something about it.

· God knows exactly how he is going to fix the problem. While you’re trying to figure it out He’s already worked it out!

· Omniscience of God

· You are a part of the solution.

Trust God’s Hand with it

I give Andrew points because at least he had measure of faith to notice there was resources available. His problem however was that he considered the limits of the resources indicative of the limitations the source. He thought that just because they didn’t have very much, that Jesus couldn’t do very much with very little. But, let it be known to you on today that it does not matter what you are working with Jesus specializes in working with little do a lot.

Adam with dust,

Eve with one rib,

Destroyed two cities with two angels

Parted the sea with a walking cane

Brought water from a rock and bread from the ground and birds from nowhere

Joshua destroyed a Jericho with a Baptist choir processional

Sampson Killed 1000 men with a donkey jawbone

Gideon Killed thousands with just 300 men

David killed Goliath one smooth stone

Mary had a baby without a man’s help

Jesus turned made Merlot out of tap water

Where we struggle in trusting God’s hand is in the giving it to him in the first place. That requires us letting go. That requires surrender. That requires us to go into the unfamiliar place of voluntary discomfort and total dependence. You must release what you think is your safety and that is difficult. It is so difficult that Jesus has and in this text had to take the fish and loaves. They weren’t handed to Him.

God will Bless it

Jesus takes the items and he looks to heaven and blesses it. Now this wasn’t the blessing that we give during our dinner. You know the one, “thank you for this food we are about to receive. Bless the hands that prepared it. Let it be nourishing to our bodies.” The blessing that he gives per Hebrew customs dating back to the Babylonian captivity went something like this, “Blessed Are You G-d, our Lord, King of the World, who brings forth bread from the ground, everything was created through His words.” In this simple acknowledgement of God’s power and provisions he can do more with the bread than if it stayed with the disciples and the boy.

· What you have isn’t anything anyway. You need Jesus to bless it. They boy was working with the equivalent to a child’s launchable. It wasn’t a loaf as we know it or fish as you think. it wasn’t much but Jesus blessed it. Don’t ever think that what you have isn’t worth acknowledging as a blessing.

· Jesus will never reject you when you give yourself to him.

God will Multiply it

Y’all know how multiplication works. Right? If you multiply it with nothing you get nothing, if you multiply it with a value of one you just have what you started with, but if you multiply it with something great than 1 you get more.

Let me be the first to testify that it is an awesome experience to see Jesus do the impossible with your life.

I don’t know how he did it but somewhere the power of God moved in the molecular levels of the fish and bread and every time he handed it out it seemed like his hand never got empty.

In the disciple’s hand, it was two sardines and five bread sticks.

…It wasn’t enough

…It was insufficient funds

…a declined debit card

…impending death

…hopeless and depressing

…boring and lifeless

…too little to late

But in the hands of the Master

it was more than enogh

it was abundance

all that they needed and more

it healing for the soul

hopeful and joyous

great and life-giving

right on time

And breaking and the distributing of the loaves is ultimately symbolic of Jesus being shared through the obedience of the disciples.

left-overs

This is my body that is broken for you.