What Do You Have to Give

Situation

As we approach we see that the followers of Jesus had multiplied. It was evident that many people were following Jesus for a number of reasons but nonetheless he had a number of followers. Many people were following and searching for a leader. They were searching for peace from turmoil in life. They witnessed his signs, they witnesses his teaching and needed something in their life that was profitable.

One of the things that changes once we have decided to follow we start to think about what we can give to benefit the kingdom. The confusing part about giving anything is we can get in our own way by over-analyzing what we can give and if it is profitable or not.

Instead of depending on Jesus often times we do not give anything because we think it is miniscule and will not be enough. Sometimes we even stifle kids because we put our talent meter on what they have the ability to give. Understand contribution has to be taught. If we do not teach our children about sacrifice, if we do not teach our children about giving we cannot expect them to be good stewards of what God blesses them with in the future.

This account of two fish and five loaves is documented more than once in the gospels. John takes things a little bit further and explains who the food comes from. There is a lad here who has five barely loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people.

Be mindful a child came prepared meanwhile there were many adults who did not come prepared with food. We would be surprised how much children pay attention to what we do and prepare themselves accordingly.

Similarly, when we go somewhere my son Vinnie typically does not like to leave the house without his backpack. Typically he has toys, snacks and other items in his backpack knowing that sometimes we leave the house to be gone all day and he wants to be prepared.

Are we Prepared Growth?

We want growth but are we truly prepared for it. It is apparent that the disciples were prepared to teach and serve but the instantaneous growth to 5,000 was met with difficulty. We can want to grow but if we are not prepared for growth the inability to sustain the needs of the growth will cause the church to implode.

We know why we grow. People are searching for Jesus, people are searching for peace but once the search is done are we prepared to meet the needs of those who are here, especially our children.

Jesus knows what to do, he’s at the highest vantage point to see the needs of the people. The issue comes in when our faith is put to the test at the ground level.

Verse three explains that Jesus went up on the mountain…

He could see the need.

Therefore if Jesus can see the need we know he knows how to meet it, the problem is often times we want mountain top results with a valley view.

Jesus ask a question “where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat”?

He ask Phillip a question, understand that our name has an identity attached to it. Phillip’s name actually means lover of horses. Think about a horse in a race, no matter how much training or how great the line of breeding is that horse has to run the race with blinders on so it does not get distracted.

Even when you do not see a solution, do not get sidetracked. Keep your eyes and mind on Jesus. Even though Jesus is right there Phillip gets distracted by the few resources they have compared to the amount of people they need to serve.

Jesus sees the need, a panoramic view to meet the need of the multitude. Jesus knows what to do, the issue with us sometimes is our view doesn’t meet the vision that Jesus has for his people.

Sometimes as adults we are looking in pockets that can barely feed our families to meet the needs of the kingdom. It’s not about what we can do, it’s about what God can do through us.

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

Phillip starts counting before he reaches out to Jesus. Verse 7, lets us know that Jesus knows what Phillip is about to do. Sometimes we fail to trust in Jesus so much that we become predictable. We have to stop planning first and trust first then become good stewards of what Jesus gives us.

Sometimes we cannot find a solution because we become embodied by what we love rather than the Jesus who loves us and will not let us down...

The problems

They are in a desolate place.

They do not have enough money to pay for food for those who are with them.

The money did not matter because they were not in a place geographically to buy anything anyway.

The Solution

Jesus

We have to stop counting on what we have and start depending on what Jesus can do.

The Blessing of a Prepared Child

The bible says Andrew finds a lad or a child that has brought his lunch. That word lad or pais (paheece) means child under strict training. A child in development or training to reach their highest potential.

When we train our child right they are always prepared. Sometimes a child is better ready to serve than we are because they are prepared to give what they have.

Never underestimate what God can do with what a child can give. The child was trained properly. He could have refused to give what he had, but he did.

J.D. Jones states “Duty is not measured by ability, and ability is not measured by the sum-total of our resources”.

We push people into duty because of ability we see rather than trusting in God to put the right people in the right positions for the right outcome.

We think ability is determined by who has the most experience or the most money when God is just asking us to give what we have. Our resources in the hands of Jesus can go longer than we could ever think or imagine we just need to be ready to give when our number is called.

The reason why we do not give like we need to is because we are prepared and we have not trained properly. Understand that this young lad gave all that he had.

Once we Give It, We have to move Out of the Way.

Trust your training. Our problem is we give it and then want to control how it is dispersed. If you are going to give it to Jesus you have to let him control the situation accordingly.

We have to let Jesus take control of the situation.

Verse 10 - Jesus said, Have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

Jesus did not think about how it was going to be distributed, the first thing he did was reach out to God. It says he gave thanks then distributed it.

Sometimes we do not want to do the work, so we will distribute and sell God short by saying “well that’s all I had, or that’s the best I could do”.

Another thing we see in this text is obedience. the bible says Jesus distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted.

Jesus gives freely, but we have to obey. When we come up short we have to reflect and find out if we are truly being obedient like he needs us to be.

Sometimes you just have to sit down and let Jesus do the rest. Be still and know that I am God! Sit down and observe the goodness of Jesus moving around you.

Sometimes we have few resources and the complainers might say “now what is he going to with that”. I’m not going to do anything, I am going to give it to Jesus and let him figure it out. The blessing here is that when we give all we have God provides leftovers when we sacrifice. We do not have to worry about having enough, we need people who will continue to serve so that we use the abundance in the best way Jesus has asked us to.