Kingdom Math

Welcome Home

Good morning, and welcome home to Cross Creek Community Church. I’m Amanda Stiles, and it’s a blessing for me to be teaching today from the book of Luke chapter 9 - if you’d like to get that ready we will be diving in shortly.

If you’re joining us online, we stream live on Facebook @crosscreekfl every Sunday at 10 am and upload the trimmed recording to YouTube @crosscreekflorida by Monday afternoon. Let us know where you’re watching from, we’re glad you’re joining us today.

Opening

Our sermon series “True Riches” is coming to a close today, and you’ll be getting a little break from me for the next couple of weeks. Before we dive into the text, I want to give a quick shout-out to Deryl Hurst at DOVE Westgate for some of the content I’ve been using over this series - his sermon series “the blessed life” helped me outline some of my main points and he was especially helpful with some of the jokes!

Speaking of jokes - do you know why Satan was made into a snake in the garden of Eden? because snakes have no arms and no legs - he’s been disarmed and defeated! Okay okay here’s a better one, If you’ve got five loaves, two fish, and Jesus, how many people can you feed? Well, for that one, you’re going to have to wait until a little later for the punch-line.

I know, I know, my jokes need a little help. I’m not a joke person. And as for that last joke, and our staff will surely tell you - I am not a numbers person either. You start talking numbers to me and the digits just seem to swim around in my brain, and I’ll be very the first to admit that I never fully memorized my multiplication tables like my mother told me to do. Oh! Seriously, math to me is like Charlie Brown’s teacher up here - if you’re old enough to remember what that sounded like - all I hear is ‘waah, wahh, wahh, waah wahh’.

But even though I’m no math whiz, I do know this: multiplication is infinitely better than addition when it comes to what we’ve been talking about, right? Managing our resources, we’d much rather see them multiply. That goes for our faith, or our personal finances, and it goes for building the Kingdom too. God is not a God of slow accumulation. Our God is a God of multiplication.

Introduction

The problem is, we don’t live in a culture that understands God’s kind of multiplication. We live in a culture that is utterly consumed by numbers, commerce, buying and selling - every transaction we make, we’re either adding to or taking away from our lives. Day in and day out, we wrestle with the desire for more, the fear of scarcity, and the relentless pressure to be entirely self-sufficient. There is this ambient cultural anxiety whispering in our ears that we will “never have enough.”

We naturally default to a system of “addition and subtraction” just to survive. We tightly clutch what we have, trying to add a little more here, trying to avoid subtracting anything there, and it leaves us feeling completely self-reliant, totally exhausted, and constantly lacking. We are caught in a cycle of scraping for an advantage, treating life like a zero-sum accounting game of debits and credits where if you give something away in this column, you automatically have less in this one.

We all have these financial and emotional battles, don’t we? But as God’s people, we are not called to do things the way the world does them. We have to remember that we have absolute victory in Christ! Because of His great love for us, we don’t have to scrape for a scrap of advantage. The Creator of the universe is our loving Father, and we automatically have access to everything we need in His Son, Jesus. No matter what tactic the enemy throws our way, no matter what supernatural forces are lined up against us, no matter how dire the data looks - the truth is we were made to multiply.

Pray

Made to Multiply

The very first directive God gave to humanity in Genesis 1:28 was “Be fruitful and multiply” He blessed Abram in Genesis 17:2 saying, “I will multiply you exceedingly.” Exodus 1:7 says the children of Israel “...were fruitful and increased abundantly, [they] multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty...” From the garden of creation and all the way down to the blood of Jesus, multiplication has always been God’s native language. It was never meant to be an end in itself, but a means to reflect His generous character to the world.

Multiplication is God’s Kingdom math.

So, what does this Kingdom Math actually look like? Well, here’s another riddle for you. You can count the seeds in a single apple, but can you count the apples in a single seed?

Think about seeds for a moment. We take a seed, and we bury it in the dirt. Once it’s in the earth, we no longer have it in our possession. From a worldly perspective, it’s as good as dead to us for as long as it takes. If the soil is good, and if there’s enough water and enough sunlight, maybe - just maybe - that seed will break through the darkness and produce a crop. Every seed takes faith to put into the ground. It takes faith to sow a single seed, and it takes even greater faith to sow many seeds.

You see, God’s Kingdom Math operates entirely on faith. Every seed sown into the Kingdom is a tiny drop of faith full of unseen promise and hope for the future.

This is why Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:6 “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” This is the timeless biblical principle of sowing and reaping. And this principle depends entirely on the farmer - that’s us - believing in the inherent concept of the seed. It requires us to trust that whatever the seed is: whether it’s our money, our faith, or our time, we are sure that it will multiply simply because we’ve trusted it to the Lord. It all depends on the faith of the farmer.

God’s Kingdom Math applies to every asset you’ve been given in this life: your material wealth, your spiritual capacity, and even your calendar. There are so many scriptures about this Kingdom principle, but it all boils down to how you use what you’ve been given. Whether it’s in the wisdom of Proverbs, Jesus’ parables, or Paul’s letters, time and time again, we read that passivity creates its own consequences, but active investment of our resources generates increase. Growth follows generosity, while greed invites loss.

Jesus feeds the 5,000 (Luke 9:12-17)

Let’s look at a well-known illustration of this Kingdom Math in action from Luke chapter 9

Let’s start in verse 12, “When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him [that is Jesus], ‘Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.’ But He said to them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ And they said, ‘We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.’ For there were about five thousand men.”

Now, let me just pause here for a minute. Many people think that Jesus fed 5,000 people in this story, but that’s not the case. The parallel account in Matthew 14:21 says “Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.” In Jewish culture of that time, they only counted family units by the number of adult men. If you add the women and children on that hillside, we can estimate closer to 15,000 or even 20,000 people... And they were all fed with five loaves and two fish.

Okay, let’s go back to verse 14, “Then He said to His disciples, ‘Make them sit down in groups of fifty’ And they did so, and made them all sit down. Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.”

Now, I want you to imagine that you are one of the twelve disciples in this scene. Do you ever put yourself into these Bible stories? I know I do. Let’s pretend that we are one of these twelve young men, and we’ve been serving on the M.S.C. (that’s the Messiah Search Committee). Remember, the Jewish people have been watching, waiting, and praying for hundreds of years for this promised Messiah to show up.

And here we have this great candidate showing real promise - healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons. He even walked on water for some extra “wow” factor, so you’re pretty excited about where this is going.

Now, you have this big outdoor rally planned, and you’re hoping for a high attendance weekend. You create a Facebook event, invite all your friends, post flyers all over the Town-Center, send out an email blast - and it actually works! The largest crowd Jesus has ever spoken to shows up.

You kick things off at 10 am (ish) with some awesome worship, the Messiah starts speaking around 10:30, and you figure that by 11:30 - at the latest, He should be wrapping things up.

But He just keeps going.

And don’t get me wrong, it’s really good, but He doesn’t seem to have any intention of stopping. Pretty soon it’s noon, and you’re starting to think about lunch. Now its 1 o’clock and He’s still going - and at this point, you realize you’re going to miss kickoff for the 1 o’clock game. Now it’s 2:30, 4 o’clock, 5.… and He’s still going!

Hey, listen, I’m not exaggerating the text here at all. Verse 12 explicitly says, “When the day began to wear away.” Do you know how that reads in the original Greek? It says, “When the day began to wear away.” Now, just drawing from my own experience in ministry, I think the disciples probably formed a little committee in the back, saying, “We’re going to have to do something here… this is amazing stuff, but it’s getting out of hand. We’ve been going all day. No lunch break, no snack break - if I don’t eat soon I’m going to die!”

So, they decide to approach Jesus with a clever strategy. They tentatively tap His shoulder and whisper, “Uh, excuse me, ah, Lord...this has been amazing. But uh, we think the people are getting hungry, and, uh, we’re getting concerned for, uh, their welfare. Now, don’t misunderstand here, Jesus, uh we could listen to you all night long, really. But, uh, if you check the time, the Bistro and the BREW and all the restaurants in town are just about to close. So we just feel like it would prudent, and totally understandable, if.. you know - if you would just, uh ‘wrap it up.’”

And Jesus looks them straight in the eye and says in verse 13, “You give them something to eat.” (Luke 9:13)

Talk about an absolute logistical nightmare! The committee has zero refreshments budgeted for this event, and they’re out in the middle of nowhere. But right before panic sets in, Peter spots a kid walking by with whatever his momma packed for his lunch that day. He grabs the kid’s take-out bag, they open it up, and all they find is a two-piece fish basket with extra dinner rolls.

So they bring this little doggie bag to Jesus, fully expecting Him to see how ridiculous it is and finally realize the obvious: He has to send everyone home. Because common sense tells you that you don’t even attempt to feed a sea full or people with a couple of fish filets and a handful of rolls. It’s obvious.

But that’s just the point here: God’s Kingdom Math does not make logical sense.

Tithing doesn’t make logical sense. Giving 10% away and expecting the remaining 90% to somehow go further makes absolutely zero mathematical sense. Giving away the cash in your wallet to a person in need and expecting it to make any difference seems foolish. But God’s Kingdom Math tells us in Proverbs 11:24, “The one who scatters, increases more; And the one who withholds more than is right, comes to poverty.” Doing things God’s way rarely lines up with human logic; but it works every single time!

So, Jesus looks at their pathetic little doggie bag and says, “Great! That’ll do. Have them all sit down in groups”

Now the disciples are getting all these people organized, and I bet someone started to suspect that Jesus might be up to something. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone whispered, “I bet Jesus is going to pray over the food and multiply it… Just watch, when the Lord prays over it, it’s going to multiply right there in front of us, so that there will be a massive fountain of food - enough for everyone.”

I can just imagine Peter grabbing one of those rolls and running over to Jesus and saying, “go ahead, Lord, bless it. Pray over mine first!” And he’s watching over his shoulder at the other disciples, smirking and saying, “Watch this guys, just watch. It’s about to multiply.”

And you know what? That’s exactly what a lot of Christians today actually believe happened. We have this mental picture that when Jesus prayed, the basket suddenly overflowed with a supernatural buffet right there on the spot. But is not how the Bible says it happened.

Verse 16 says: “He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.” (Luke 9:16)

So, imagine Peter standing there, eager for a fountain of food to cascade from Jesus’ hands right before his eyes... Jesus takes the roll, lifts it up, blesses it, breaks it, and hands half of it right back to Peter.

Peter stands there blinking. “Ah… Lord, are you done praying?”

“Yes, Peter, it’s fully blessed. Now go and give it away.”

Now, I understand it doesn’t specifically lay out every visual detail in the text, but the Kingdom principle is still right there: After you bring what you have to the Lord first, and after He has placed His blessing upon it, you have to put action to your faith before anything’s going to happen. Because God says, “You bring it to me first, and I’ll bless it, and because I’ve blessed it, you just watch what happens when you do your part.”

I can imagine that Peter walked up to the very first person with his half a roll and said something like, “Take just a little piece,” I mean really, what would you have said? {go down the line} “Take just a little piece. Little piece, little piece. Not so much, you glutton!” And he goes down the line, and he is breaking into a cold sweat because he has no earthly idea what he’s going to say to the last 20 people standing in that group.

But right when he think’s the roll is completely gone, right when he looks down at his empty palm, that last tiny piece is suddenly bigger - it just grows right there in Peter’s hands. And his eyes go wide, and he starts shouting, “You know what? Go ahead and take a whole handful! That’s it! Take some more!”

Okay, now listen to me very closely: The miracle did not happen in the Master’s hands, the miracle happened in the disciples hands. {pause}

Summary - {Troy come up}

It was the disciples’ raw faith to take what Jesus had blessed, step out and give it away that brought the miracle. They applied their faith in active partnership with the Master’s blessing, and that made the miracle of multiplication happen. God can turn our faith in His illogical Kingdom Math into radical freedom from lack in every single area of our lives, if we will just stop hoarding the seed.

In Luke 6:38 Jesus gives us the formula, “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

So I have to ask you individually today: What do you have in your hands right now that you are holding onto because you feel like it’s “not enough”? Are you telling God, “I don’t have enough time to serve, I’m just too busy”? Are you telling Him, “I don’t have enough money to tithe, the budget is too tight”? Are you telling Him, “I don’t have enough faith to take that scary next step”?

Can you, like the disciples on that hillside, dare to take your meager two-piece meal, walk past your fear, and place it directly into the hands of the Master? As He gives His blessing , can you step out in faith and give what you have purposed in your heart?

Closing

Imagine for a second what this community would look like if we actually lived this way. Imagine a fellowship of believers completely and totally free from the suffocating spirit of scarcity! What would that church look like? How do we get to that place of freedom?

40 Days of Breakthrough Prayer

Well, because we want to break the spirit of self-reliance once and for all, we aren’t just going to stand here and talk about Kingdom Math - we’re going to put it into action. Starting this very week, we are entering a 40-day season of breakthrough prayer as a church family.

There is a prevailing spirit in this generation, and it’s highly active right here in our community. It’s a spirit that arrogantly whispers, “I have everything I need, I don’t need God,” and then fearfully turns around and snaps, “I don’t have enough to share with God or His people.”

Scripture calls this spirit “Mammon” - an ancient false god of self-sufficiency. We saw its birth in Exodus 32 when Moses went up Mount Sinai. The Israelites got tired of waiting on God, panicked, melted down their jewelry, and built a golden calf. They bowed to a statue and said, “This is the god that rescued us.” Which, of course, it didn’t do any such thing.

They were defiantly proclaiming: “We did it ourselves, with our own resources. We don’t need to depend on a hidden God.” They relied on human math, and it brought them straight to spiritual bankruptcy. That false god they were worshipping was the exact same spirit we are fighting today: the spirit of Mammon.

But Moses didn’t give up on them. He had compassion. The Scripture says he went face-to-face with God, and spent forty days and forty nights on that mountain interceding for their lives.

Coincidently - if you believe in coincidence, I say it’s God’s timing - this past Friday marked the beginning of Teshuvah - an ancient 40-day season in Jewish tradition that commemorates those exact 40 days Moses spent praying on the mountain for the people’s hearts to return - that’s what Teshuvah means - to return to the Lord.

In obedience to that divine timing, our elders and intercessors are committing to spend just 15 minutes a day for the next 40 days praying for breakthrough in this community. If you want to break the stronghold of scarcity in your life, or if you just want to see this church breakthrough into the heart of this community, join us. We will be praying from wherever we are every single morning from 10 - 10:15 am, and here on Sundays from 9:15 to 9:30 am.

We are putting our faith in partnership with the Master’s blessing upon this church. Faith turns the human heart toward God, but prayer turns His sword against the enemy. This is how we fight our battles.

Pray (Stand)

Benediction

You are all welcome to join us on the beach at Van Avenue Park this afternoon to celebrate new life in Christ with several Baptisms at 2:00

Go in His strength, walk in His victory, and remember that you were made to multiply.