MATTHEW 14 LET GOD MULTIPLY YOUR MINISTRY2020 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Matthew 14 Let God Multiply Your Ministry

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2020. Well, as we look at Matthew chapter 14 this morning, I've titled the message, Let God Multiply Your Ministry. And I want to encourage you this morning to let God do that work

That he would have a multiplication of the ministry that you have been given. Every Christian has ministry. That is a role in the work of God. A part in the plan of God and ways to serve God. Ministry is not just for Pastor Pule. Ministry is for every Christian. It's what God calls us to. It's our response to him in serving him.

And here as we look at this account, we have this amazing event that took place where 5,000 men, not counting women and children, this huge multitude were fed by the Lord. It sets for us some patterns, some great examples to consider in regards to the ministry that God has entrusted to us.

and the ways that God has called us and given us the opportunity to serve him. And there's a multiplication that God wants to do of the effect and the power of the work that he has called us to. Now, because this is a familiar event, a familiar passage, sometimes these passages can, for us, kind of lose their weight and lose some of the impact that they have as we read through them. And so as I was going through this passage again,

I tried to think about it in a different way than I had thought about it before. You know, sometimes you think about the crowd and you try to estimate the numbers of the crowd and that's perhaps, you know, something you've considered and tried to understand a little bit. But I began to think of it instead about the amount of food that was at play here. And it's interesting to consider that. I considered it in this way specifically. How many pizzas would it take?

To feed 5,000 people. Have you ever thought about that? How many pizzas does it take? If you're interested, there's some calculators that you can find online that you go in, you type in, you know, what the size of your pizza party is and what their appetite level is and, you know, what kind of toppings they like. And then you can kind of get a calculation. So I did a little bit of calculation. I did a little bit of math and figuring conservatively about two slices per person. That gives you one large pizza for four people.

You do the math for 5,000 people and that gives you about 1,250 pizzas. So 1,250 pizzas for two slices for each adult, for each male. Now, if you take 1,250 pizzas in their boxes and then you stack them on top of each other, the pile would be, the stack would be about 182 feet high. I don't know if you could imagine a leaning tower of pizza. 182 feet high. Now,

Going right at Papa John's these days for a large pizza is about $14. That would cost you about $17,000, $18,000 to order 1,250 pizzas. And as I was marveling over those figures and numbers last night, Kim said, what are you so amazed about? And I said, like, look at these numbers, $17,000 in pizza. Can you imagine ordering that?

And so Kim told me, no, they'd have to eat Little Caesars. We couldn't have Papa John's. That's too expensive. So get ready to go take out 1,250 pizzas. Now, when you walked in this morning, you may have noticed, you may not have noticed, but there was some blue tape on the floor. And that was to kind of help us picture what this amount of pizza would look like.

But I'm not going to order from Papa John's. I'm not going to order from Little Caesars. I'm going to start my own pizza place, and I'm going to call it Little Jerry's Pizza. And so here's a pizza box. It's a standard large pizza box. So 14 inches by 14 inches by an inch and three quarters. And the amount of pizza boxes that it would take, well, it would fill up that square, that blue square, which is four pizzas wide by five pizzas wide. It would fill up the whole square, and then it would be nine feet tall.

1,250 pizzas would fill up basically that whole entryway of our sanctuary. Or another way of visualizing this, here's 20 rows, 20 stacks of 62 pizzas, nine feet tall. That little person on the side there, that's my height, 5'8". And so nine feet tall of pizzas with 20 stacks would give us two slices per person for about 5,000 adults.

Now, it's interesting as you look at this passage and consider it, there's, this is one of the events in the life of Jesus that is recorded in every gospel. So we have it here in Matthew, but we also have it in Mark chapter six, in Luke chapter nine, and in John chapter six. And we learn different things as you look at the different passages about this event and get a little bit more detail. One thing we learned from the apostle John in John chapter six, it tells us that Jesus took the loaves and when he had given things, he distributed them to the disciples and

And the disciples to those sitting down and likewise of the fish. And then notice that last little piece there. As much as they wanted. Now, I don't know about you, but you, you know, show up for a pizza party. Two slices is not as much as you want, right? That's not all you can eat pizza. That's, that's okay. It's a little snack, right? So two slices of pizza for an adult, you know, it'll get you by, but it's not as much as you want.

The word, when it talks about the people being filled, it talks about them being like super stuffed, like they're so stuffed, they're uncomfortable because they ate so much kind of stuffed. And that's the idea here is that they consumed so much and they were filled. It was as much as they could eat. And so we're not really talking about two slices of pizza per person.

We're probably talking about, well, minimal four slices per person. That's more like as much as you want. Well, depends on who you are, right? Four slices is as much as I want when my wife's present. When my wife's gone, just give me a whole large pizza on my own. I can do it. I'll take it. I can handle it. Trust me.

But four slices per person, well, of course, it doubles it. So now we're talking about 2,500 pizzas. We're talking about $35,000 worth of pizza, 40 stacks of 62 pizzas high. It's an incredible amount of food that we're looking at. And of course, we're not, you know, counting the women and children. We're not given those numbers. We don't know exactly how big the multitude was.

But just looking at 5,000 men, we're looking at $35,000 worth of pizza. Now, on your own, you know, you can do your own math for In-N-Out, for Jersey Mike's, or Chick-fil-A, or, you know, whatever you want to do. But you get the point here is that we're talking about this incredible amount of food that came from something so small. It's huge multiplication. And I would encourage you to consider this morning, do you want that kind of multiplication in your ministry?

In the work and the service that you do unto the Lord. Do you want to have this kind of impact? Do you want to have this kind of increase? Do you want to have this kind of work take place in your life and through your life? And so let God multiply your ministry. There's four points that we'll look at, four things to consider for God to multiply the ministry in our lives. And the first one is found in verse 13 and 14. And that is, let the Father change your plans.

Let the Father change your plans. Looking at verse 13 and 14 again, it says, Here as we begin to look at this account, we're really taking a moment to consider the humanity of Jesus.

Of course, Jesus is God, but he is also God who became man. He put on humanity and experienced human life with some limitations different than what he was used to in his existence eternally as man.

God, equal to God the Father. But in his humanity, and we see this throughout his ministry, he operated in the restraints of humanity. And so all that he did, he did in the power of the Holy Spirit. He did by the will of the Father. And there is some important things to note as you consider that aspect of the nature of Jesus. But as you consider that here in this passage, you can see that Jesus had a plan.

The plan of Jesus was to get away, to be alone, to have some quiet time with just him and his disciples. It tells us there in verse 13 that he departed from there. He was there in Capernaum, the city right on the top of the Sea of Galilee. And he departed from there by boat to a deserted place by himself.

That he was seeking to have some alone time with the Father. He needed some space, some quiet time. And why is that? Why did Jesus have this plan to get away, to have some time alone? Well, there's a few things for us to consider in that. One aspect, which is not directly stated, but I would encourage you to consider, it's implied from the passage, is that

There was some emotion that Jesus was experiencing, some emotion that Jesus was processing as this event follows right on the heels of the death of John the Baptist. Just a couple of verses earlier there in Matthew chapter 14, you see that John the Baptist was beheaded in prison.

And then the disciples of John the Baptist go and take his body and bury the body of John the Baptist. And then in verse 12, it tells us that then they go and they tell Jesus about what happened. So that happens in verse 12. And then in verse 13, it tells us, and when Jesus heard it, so hearing the news from John the Baptist's disciples, he departed from there by boat. And so on receiving this news, he heads out to get some time alone.

Perhaps to process the emotion, the sadness. Here's his cousin, John the Baptist. Here's the forerunner of his ministry. Here's also a signal of the intensity of the ministry that Jesus is about to enter into as he enters into that final season, that final phase of ministry before the cross.

He says, I need to take some time away. I need to take some time to process, to spend some time with the Father, to feel what I'm feeling. And there's a great healthy perspective to consider in handling emotions that way, recognizing that emotions are real, that they really do affect us. And sometimes we need to have that time away. And so perhaps Jesus had this plan because of what he was feeling and experiencing internally.

But we also see, as we look at this passage and the other Gospels as well, that this was in response to the level of fatigue that Jesus and the disciples were experiencing. Not only is this event right on the heels of the death of John the Baptist, but it's right on the heels of the ministry tour that the disciples had just been through.

You might remember as Jesus gathered together the 12 disciples and then he sends them out and he says, heal the sick and preach the gospel, announce that the kingdom of God is at hand. And their charge, their commission was to go into all the region of Galilee and all the towns and all the cities and give this message and to represent Jesus. And then the plan was for Jesus to go through the cities after them and teach the people and minister to the people.

And so right after all of this had taken place is when this event occurs. In Mark chapter 6, it tells us, the apostles gathered to Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And he said to them, come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while. For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So this event begins with Jesus and the disciples saying,

just completely exhausted, tired. They just had a flurry of activity, a flurry of ministry as they went from town to town, as they ministered in all of these different places. And they need some rest. And the disciples are excited. They're kind of like, you know, pumped up on adrenaline because they're coming back and they're telling Jesus about all the things they had done and taught and everything. And

They may not even know how much they need the rest, but Jesus says, you know, what we really need at this point is to have a time of rest. It tells us there were so many people coming and going now. Like the advertising campaign worked, right? Their marketing efforts were rewarded with a lot of attention and there were so many people coming, they couldn't even squeeze in a meal because so many conversations had to be done and so many people wanting to talk and to be healed and there was so much need that

It was so pressing, they were overwhelmed. They were tired. And so Jesus makes a plan. It's time for us. We need to break away from the crowd and get some rest. It's a reasonable plan. It's a responsible plan. It's a healthy plan to move to a deserted place to get a break and some time away. We all need rest. We all need breaks in times of busyness and processing and handling emotions that we experience.

But what's interesting about this is that this is the plan. This is what they set forth to do. But then the father changes the plans of Jesus. In verse 14, it says, Here is Jesus expresses the need for them to get some time away and to have a break.

When he lands on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, he finds they didn't actually get away. There is the multitude there ready to meet them. And the Sea of Galilee is not that big. And so as Jesus got into the boat with his disciples and began to head across the sea, the people could see the boat in the water. They could see the trajectory. They knew where he was going. And so they ran ahead around the outside of the lake and ran around to the other side to go meet him there. And so they were waiting for him. This multitude was there waiting.

when he arrived they did not escape the crowd that was seeking to meet them you're tired you're hungry you're emotional and there's this disruption to your plan how do you react right i don't react very good but here's jesus he sees the multitude he sees the crowd it tells us that he was moved with compassion for them he's moved with compassion

This idea of being moved with compassion, it's a pretty strong word. There's an intensity to it that it's more than just seeing something and having some sympathy towards it. But it indicates here, this is something that the father was doing. And Jesus here is understanding and recognizing the change in plans that the father is giving that he has this, we might call it a burden here.

He sees this multitude. He sees the need. He sees them as sheep without a shepherd, it describes in one of the other gospels. And so he's moved with compassion. This is the will of the Father being revealed within him. In John 5, verse 30, Jesus says, I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.

Again, the humanity of Jesus is something to consider. He says, I can do nothing of myself, although he's God, but he's not operating in his deity. He's operating in his humanity. And so he says, I'm here to do the will of my father. And here in this place of needing a break, needing some space, needing some time away, he seeks that out, which is a good and reasonable and right thing to do. But at the same time, when the father reveals that's not for this time,

Jesus is moved with compassion and begins to minister to the crowd that is there. Now, later on, Jesus does get the alone time that he needed. After this event happens, when he dismisses the multitude, he goes up on the mountainside by himself. He sends the disciples across the sea. They get some alone time in the boat. He gets some alone time on the mountain. They get the time and the rest that they need. It was a good plan, but

But the timing was a little bit different than what the father desired. So here the father says, look, I want to change your plan. He gives Jesus a burden for this multitude. And Jesus begins to minister to them. I would ask you to consider this morning. Are you interested in serving God to a greater degree? To having a greater impact and effectiveness in the ministry, in your ministering to people around you and your ministry today?

wherever God has you involved or the conversations that you have in your family and the people around you, if you want God to multiply your ministry, you need to be willing to let him change your plans. You need to be willing to let him call the shots and move things around. Sometimes God wants you to minister to others when all you want is to be alone. And your plan is to be alone. Your plan is to get away. Your plan is to take a break. And God says, it's a good plan and you do need it, but you

But maybe the timing is not quite right. Or maybe you're the kind of person, you have a plan to be busy and you've got all kinds of things lined up. And maybe the father would say, you know, you need to change the plan. A better plan is for you to take a break right now.

Not wait until later and take a break, but right now you need to take a break. Or maybe your plan is to serve in this capacity, to have this conversation with that person over there. And the father has a different plan perhaps. You need to let the Lord redirect and change, even when you're tired and hungry and emotional, and let him lead and prompt you and move you in the plan that he has for you.

If you want God to multiply your ministry, let the Father change your plans. Well, continuing on in verses 15 through 18, we get the second thing to consider this morning, and that is you need to let God have your little. The little that you have, the little that you can offer, you need to give it to God.

in order for him to multiply the ministry that he's given to you. Verse 15 again says, when it was evening, his disciples came to him saying, this is a deserted place and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food. But Jesus said to them, they do not need to go away. You give them something to eat. And they said to him, we have here only five loaves and two fish. He said, bring them here.

Are you ever conscious of how little you have to offer God? It's not a comfortable place to be, but it's a good place to be. In fact, we need to be uncomfortable and kind of alarmed when we're impressed by how much we have to offer God. The reality is we have so little to offer. We have very little to offer God, but God can use the little that we have. And that's what we see demonstrated throughout this passage. Now here in verse 15, we see that the disciples are concerned. They're concerned.

They've been there for several hours now. Now it's evening time. They're in a deserted place. They say the hour is late and you should send the multitudes away so that they can buy themselves food and find lodging. And it's probably reasonable to assume that the disciples are hungry themselves. And so they're thinking about the crowd. They're thinking about, you know, how hungry they are. We need to do something. And so they came up with their own plan. But Jesus is in tune with the Father's plan.

And again, the father has a different plan than the disciples. Jesus says, they don't need to go away. You give them something to eat. And so here's this crowd of 5,000, including the women and children. We don't know how big the crowd was. Maybe twice as big, a little bit less, a little bit more. Very likely. But dealing with the 5,000 that is specified here, here's 5,000 people. And Jesus looks at you and he says, you give them something to eat.

How do you do that? How long would it take you to go, you know, cook up some scrambled eggs for 5,000 people in your kitchen, right? It would take a couple days probably. Like, how do you do that? How do you handle that instruction? What's interesting as you look at this though is that Jesus, he was in tune with the Father's plan from the beginning. And so he began to plant some seeds of thought and consideration in his disciples early on. In John's account,

of this event in John chapter 6 verse 5. It tells us that Jesus lifted up his eyes and seeing a great multitude coming toward him, he said to Philip, where shall we buy bread that these may eat? And so here we have this recording a little bit of extra detail where before the crowd and Jesus meet,

So whether that is, you know, Jesus and his disciples are on the boat and they're going along the shore and they see the crowd, you know, and they're like, oh my goodness, we're going to meet and they're going to be there for us when we arrive. Or maybe that Jesus and his disciples had landed, but here comes the crowd. They see the multitude coming. There's this massive amount of people. And Jesus at that time begins to nudge Philip and say, hey, Philip, think about this. Where can we buy bread for all these people? And Philip wrestles with it. He says, nowhere. I mean,

200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them. 200 denarii is a day's wage. So he's talking about 200 days wages, about six months worth of wages. He says, that's not enough to feed all of these people. We can't buy food for them. But now later on in the evening, the disciples are coming to Jesus and saying, hey, we need to send them away.

They weren't the ones who began to think about the need and the necessity of food. Jesus had already thought about it. He knew what he was going to do well in advance. But he began, he put the prompt in Philip's heart. He planted the seed in his mind. And now Philip, during this whole time of ministry, is thinking, yeah, where are we going to get bread for these people? Perhaps he's talking to the other disciples. Jesus asked me where we could get bread for all these people. How are we going to buy that? What do you guys think? What are we going to do? And so again, their plan is, well, let's

Send them all away. But Jesus has a different plan because he's in tune with the father's plan. And so when they come to him with this idea, let's send them all away. Jesus says, no, how about this? Why don't you go investigate and find out how much food do we actually have? In Mark chapter six, verse 38, Jesus says to them, how many loaves do you have? Go and see. And when they found out, they said five and two fish.

Jesus is the one who planted the thought to start. And then when they came to him saying, send everybody away, he says, why don't you do this? Go investigate. Hey, does anybody have any food? We're trying to figure out what to do for dinner. And they're going through the crowd. They're investigating. They're researching, right? They're finding out and inquiring. And then they come back to Jesus and report, here's a little boy who has five loaves of bread and two fish. And so Jesus is the one who sends them to investigate.

He's the one who plants the thought. He's the one who brings them to this awareness of how little they have. And so they come back and say, we have here only five loaves and two fish. They're very aware of how little this is. Andrew, the one who brings the boy to Jesus, says, but what are these among so many? We have so little and the need is so great. But Jesus isn't concerned about that. He says, bring them here to me.

Because he knows the Father's plan. He's in tune with the Father's plan. It tells us another gospel also that he knew what he was about to do. So he's preparing and he's saying, look, I'm going to multiply this, but you guys don't know it yet. So bring it here to me, the little that you have. Go find out how little you have. Be thinking about ahead of time, you know, how little you have. Be aware of how little you have, but then take that littleness and bring it to me. Do you ever quit before you start because you have too little?

I mean, I could give you a thousand stories of my own life where it's like, it's never going to work. The math doesn't add up. I don't have enough. So I'm going to quit before I start. The disciples could have been the same. We're never going to find enough food for these people. All we have is these five loaves and two fish, right? It's not enough. It's not even like close. Like, okay, well, you know, maybe we can just, we don't have to be filled to being stuffed like Thanksgiving. Like maybe we just can all have a little snack. Five loaves and two fish, right?

in Jesus's hands can turn into a banquet for this huge multitude. One large pizza in God's hands can turn into 2,500 pizzas, enough for every man to have four slices each, plus now additional pizzas for the ladies and the children. It's enough to put Papa John's out of business. Like it's this massive amount in Jesus's hands, one large pizza.

Now, I keep using the example of a pepperoni pizza, but Richard instructed me that I should use the anchovy pizza because then it's the fish and the bread. But I don't like anchovy pizza, so I'm going to stick with pepperoni. But one pepperoni pizza, one large pizza in Jesus' hands can multiply so greatly that it feeds this massive crowd, this multitude. Are you interested in serving God more? Do you want that kind of multiplication in your ministry?

in your conversations with people, in your work in the kingdom of God, a greater degree of effectiveness, a multiplication of the little that you have to offer, then give it to God. Let God have your little. Remember when Jesus was hanging out with the disciples at the temple and they were observing the people who were giving to the Lord and there was all these, you know, massive gifts by all these wealthy people. But then there was the widow with two mites and Jesus nudged his disciples and said, look, she's given two little coins. It's all she has.

and she's giving more than everybody else. It's little, but it's what she has, and she's giving it to God. Her heart's in the right place. God can multiply. It counts for so much more. It's much more effective. Let God have your little. I don't think this has to be, you know, really complicated or complex, like how do we let God have our little, you know, and we could kind of wrestle with that, but I would suggest it's a matter of just prayer. Like,

When the prophet Samuel was a boy and God was calling out to him and he couldn't figure it out for a while. And then finally Eli says, look, go back. And when the Lord calls you to say, speak, Lord, for your servant listens. Just present yourself to him as a servant and say, here I am. Or like Isaiah, when there was the need, who shall go for us? The Lord said, and Isaiah said, here I am. Send me.

It starts there. For us to recognize we have a little. Lord, I don't have much to offer. I'm not super talented. I'm not super gifted. I don't have, you know, amazing resources to offer you. But I do want to serve you. Here I am. Lord, use for your glory, for your purposes, these aspects of my life. It's about offering these to the Lord in prayer. Letting God have your little. Well, then in verse 19, we get the third point. And that is let God give through you.

Verse 19 says, Did you notice in this verse that Jesus breaks our prayer traditions? We talked about traditions last week, right? Our tradition, fold your hands, bow your head, close your eyes, pray. Jesus looks up to heaven.

and blessed the food. It's okay to break those kinds of traditions. We can talk to God, however we are, whatever posture. But as you look at this verse, notice the chain of custody. The little that they have, five loaves, two fish, brought to Jesus. Jesus takes it. He blesses it, breaks it. Then Jesus gives the bread to the disciples. And then the disciples take what Jesus gives them, and they go and deliver it to the multitude.

And this process really pictures for us very well the way that ministry takes place, the way that ministry should work. Pastor Warren Wiersbe in his book on being a servant of God, famous book on serving God, he says, ministry takes place when divine resources meet human needs through loving channels to the glory of God.

And you really see this illustrated and demonstrated here in this event. Ministry takes place when divine resources, Jesus breaking the bread, blessing it, breaking it, it's divine resources to meet the human needs. Here's the crowd, they're in a deserted place and they're hungry. So here's this very real need.

And these divine resources that are there. And so Jesus, through loving channels, now I know it's a bit of a stretch to call the disciples loving channels, right? They're working towards it. They're getting there. And so through these loving channels, the disciples are now giving these divine resources to those who are in need. And it's to the glory of God. In that same book, Warren Wiersbe describes this whole concept of ministry and that we are distributors, not manufacturers.

That's our role in ministry. In serving God and wanting to be part of his work and for his kingdom, for his glory, our job is not to manufacture. Even though Jesus told the disciples, you don't have to send them away. You give them something to eat. He didn't actually require them to come up with the plan. They didn't have to open a kitchen and start baking. They didn't have to, you know, figure out a way to make this work. They weren't the manufacturers.

He still had the plan. He's the one who had the resources. And then he gave to them the resources they need for the work that he had called them to. They were distributors, not manufacturers. And this is the way that God wants to work through our lives as well. We see this time and again throughout the scriptures. You can think about Moses. Moses did not manufacture the Ten Commandments. He didn't, you know, write down, okay, what's a good...

example of some commandments that we should, we should probably have 10, five on one tablet, five on the other, you know, makes sense. And so he didn't like, okay, here's what we should do. I'm going to put them in. No, let me change this order. And he didn't have to make up the 10 commandments. He went up on the mountain and God gave him the 10 commandments. He didn't have to make up the Levitical law and the sacrificial system. He didn't have to invent the tabernacle. He went up on the mountain and

And God gave him all of those details, all of those dimensions, all of those laws. God gave him those things. And then Moses came down and brought, he distributed the message from God, the commandments from God, the instructions for the tabernacle from God.

You can look at it in the New Testament, the disciples. Jesus said, look, I'm going to my father. Your commission now is to reach the world with the gospel, but wait here in Jerusalem until you receive the Holy Spirit. You can't do this on your own. Don't try to do it. Don't try to manufacture it.

The Holy Spirit, he's going to empower you. He's going to remind you of the things I already taught you. He's going to teach you new things that you're not ready to hear yet. You're going to receive from God through the Holy Spirit all that you need to then distribute the word, the message, the gospel that the world needs to hear. This is the way that God works in our lives and through our lives. He doesn't call us to be the manufacturer. He calls us to be the distributor.

Are you interested in serving God more? To a greater degree, to have a greater effectiveness? Let God give through you. And perhaps your ministry is, well, the conversation that you're about to have with that person. And it's very easy to use my words and to give my counsel and my insight and my advice. And I've seen some things in my life. I have some experience with certain situations. And so I can give my two cents. And there's room for that. There's times for that.

But at the same time, we need to recognize and make a distinction. Ministry isn't me giving my advice. It's me receiving from the Lord and passing on to those that I'm ministering to. Ministry isn't me giving my words. It's hearing from the Lord. It's receiving from him and then having a meaningful conversation. It's letting God work through me.

I can look at my bank account and decide I have $20 to spare and then give that to the work of the Lord in some way, just my own decision, my own ideas, my own resources. Or I can go and look to God and say, God, what have you portioned for me? What is the amount that you've given? What are the resources that you've provided that you intend for me to pass on in some form or fashion that you might accomplish your purposes for your kingdom and for your glory?

Again, we take the little that we have. We take it to the Lord. And what Jesus does is he multiplies that and gives it back to us that we might then distribute it to those who are in need. Now this, you know, I'm applying it in a few simple examples. But hey, you only know three chords? Give that to the Lord. If God wants to call you to worship, if he wants your ministry to be a worship ministry, give it to the Lord.

and you only know three chords, that's okay. Take that little that you have to the Lord. Let him multiply it, and then you'll know six chords, or 6,000 chords, or maybe you still only know three chords, but then God will bless your time of worship beyond understanding, beyond what we would consider, because he's able to work in ways that we don't understand. But again, the point is, it's about us bringing the little that we have.

and then letting God work through us. Receiving from him the more that he has, the vast wealth of resources and insights and wisdom and counsel, the empowering of the Holy Spirit. You want to see God multiply your ministry. Let God give through you. Well, we're going to finish up in verse 19 and 20 for the fourth point this morning, and that is, let God's instruction override your understanding.

You want to see God work in your life to a greater degree? You want to have a greater impact in the work of the kingdom of God? You want to serve God in a way that's impactful, mightily? Let God's instruction override your understanding. Again, verse 19 says, then he commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass and he took the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled and

And they took up 12 baskets full of the fragments that remained. As I look over this account, I easily begin to wonder if I would have obeyed Jesus in these circumstances. I mean, as you look at the sequence of what happens, and if you're familiar with the account, you already know what happens when you start in the first verse, right? But try to picture it from the disciples' eyes. They did not see the 12 basketfuls until after everyone was done eating.

until after everybody was filled or glutted, they didn't see the end result. What did they see? I try to put myself in their shoes and I don't see the stacks and stacks and stacks of pizza that we've been talking about. I see Jesus holding one pizza box and he takes out two slices and puts it on a plate for me. And he says, okay, go give this to the people. And I just picture myself just, okay, here's Jesus handing me two slices. And what exactly do you think I'm supposed to do with this?

take this to the crowd? Like, that's kind of cruel. Whoever I give this to, everybody around them is going to smell really good pepperoni pizza or anchovy pizza. They're not going to get enough because there's not even enough to give two slices to each of the disciples, much less the multitude of 5,000. So Jesus, I mean, I understand. I mean, it's nice that you're trying to feed somebody, but

It's kind of a lot of people and this is not going to cut it. What do you want them to do? You want them to like slice off everybody, you know, just get like a little nibble from the pizza. What's the whole plan here? How are you going to do this? I mean, I could see myself really kind of wrestling against this instruction. Jesus says, go and take this to the multitude. Would you obey? Or would you have to wait to understand the whole work before you begin to obey?

I think another interesting aspect of this to consider is how long would it take to serve 5,000 people? You divide that up between the 12 disciples, it's about 400 people each. And so just picture that for a moment. Here's Jesus. He hands me two slices of pizza on a plate. 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, 7,000, 8,000, 9,000, 10,000. Pastor Pooley, have some pizza. 10 seconds. 10 seconds.

Maybe I walked too slow. 10 seconds to deliver pizza times 400 trips. It's over an hour. Maybe the disciples hustled, you know, but running back and forth and one end of the crowd to the other. But then they're all sweaty. It's getting all over the bread. You know, that's not a good picture. So this is not an instant thing. It's taking some time. And as the time is unfolding, think about how this must have played out. Here I am. I'm like, I don't understand. But okay, Jesus told me to take two slices. And so I take two slices to Paschal Pule. Okay.

And then I walked back saying, now what are we going to do? Then I get back and then Jesus has two more slices for me. I'm like, what just happened? Okay, okay, I'll take it.

And I come back a little bit quicker this time. Like, is he going to have two slices again? And he has two slices again. And then I go. And after a hundred times, I begin to expect it. And I'm excited now. Like, Jesus has two more slices. Okay, now, okay, okay. This crowd's hungry. Can I get four slices? You know, like, all this, the excitement. Can you imagine the disciples just like, as they're donning, all of this is coming out of one pizza box.

And they're just seeing this miraculous work. They're just seeing and they're excited and the crowd's getting excited and everybody's just celebrating and having good pizza. And it's just amazing because they obeyed even when they didn't understand. Faith is obedience to God at his word. It's obedience to God at his word. If I wait until I understand, I will not obey. I don't have to have the whole picture. I don't have to know the end from the beginning. I do have to catch my breath. That was too much running around for me.

I need to hear from God and do what he says, regardless of what it makes sense to me or not. And if I wait until it makes sense, if I wait until I understand, I'm going to miss out. I'm going to watch other disciples take those steps of faith and see them participate in the work and see their ministry multiplied and miss out on the work that God wants to do through me. Are you interested in serving God more to a greater degree, to have a greater impact on

on the kingdom of God and your service unto the Lord? If so, let God's instruction override your understanding. Take what God says and then put it to work. Begin to do it. Whether or not you understand it, whether or not you can see the results or see the wisdom in it or see the reason why, Jesus was in tune with the Father. That's all that mattered. The Father's plan, His will. It's much better than ours. Let God multiply your ministry. That involves letting the Father change your plans.

Let him change things up. Maybe your plan was to minister to this group of people and God says, no, actually I want you to do this instead. Maybe your plan was to take a break and God says, I want you to get more busy. Maybe your plan was to get more busy and God says, I need you to take a break. Maybe you get the point. Whatever your plan is, that's good. You need to plan. You need to have a plan. That's good. But what's God's plan? Have you given him an opportunity to redirect, to instruct, to change things up? And are you submitted to him in a way that

He shows you a different plan and you're willing to say, okay, let's do that. I mean, I'm tired. I didn't think I had any more to give, but okay, here's another crowd. Here's more ministry to be done. Lord, I'm going to do what you've called me to do. Let the Father change your plans. Let God have your little. You just have a little bit. That's normal. That's all of us. None of us have a lot to give God. And whenever we think we do, we're wrong and we need to repent. We have very little to offer God.

But what we offer to God, God is able to multiply, not just, you know, double it, but to turn one pizza into 2,500 pizzas. He's able to do an incredible work as our hearts are right with Him. And as we give to Him the way He desires, then He gives to us. And He's able to work through us if we'll just obey before we understand. You know, sometimes the Lord will be prompting our hearts for something, but we're resistant. We're holding back because sometimes

Well, if I go pray for that person, what am I going to pray? What kind of prayer can I offer that person? I mean, that person already has, you know, great spiritual life. What kind of prayer could I offer? And I begin to talk myself out of praying for someone because I can't imagine what kind of things I would pray. But if God's prompting my heart to go and pray for somebody, you know what I should do? I should go pray for them, even if I don't even understand what I'm going to pray. Because, well, he's going to give me what I need when he wants to give it to me.

We don't have to wait for the whole thing. Sometimes we hold back from having some conversations with people. Maybe the Lord is prompting your heart to share the gospel. What about, you know, what if they ask this question? What if they ask that question? Or what if they have this challenge? Or what if they, I don't know what to say to a person who's suffering like that. Like, how do I handle this situation? And because we don't know, because we don't understand the whole picture, we don't respond when God's prompting our hearts. Let God's instruction override your understanding.

Respond as he puts things upon your heart. As he moves compassion upon your heart, just like Jesus was moved with compassion. As he puts those burdens on your heart, as he leads you in those ways, let his instruction override your understanding. Now, the cool thing about the event that took place here with the feeding of the 5,000 is the disciples got to see this unfold right away. But I would just finish up this morning by reminding you of the example of the farmer. We see this throughout the scriptures.

The work of God, sometimes you get to see the fruit of it right away, but sometimes it's a lot more like farming. It's just a barren, dry field. And then the season of sowing comes, and it's time to dig and plow and sowing seed. And then after that comes a season of watering, and it's some time that passes, and the watering continues, and you don't see any growth for a little bit. You don't see it for a time. You don't see anything happening at all.

But then you begin to see a little bit and then there's some maintenance that needs to happen and some weeding and some additional work to go on as it continues to grow until finally the season of the harvest comes and you get to see the fruit and the result. And it's a good picture of ministry. The work of God is often like this. Sometimes we get to see the results immediately, but sometimes we have to continue to walk by faith, continue to walk

obey God even when we don't understand for long periods of time, for seasons of our life, as we sow and water, trusting God that there will be fruit. We will see the 2,500 pizza boxes when he fulfills his plan, but it might take some time for us to see that. But we can trust him to multiply the little that we give to him in service of him for his glory. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word and the encouragement in our lives this morning. We

Thank you for the opportunity to be part of your eternal work, of your plan and purposes that have rewards that last forever and ever and ever. But it's so incredible that you give us this opportunity. And so Lord, we look to you this morning and we ask that you would help us to recognize these opportunities. When you're wanting to put a burden on our hearts, when you're wanting to move us with compassion and lead us into a work that you have set before us.

I pray, God, that you would help us to recognize the leading of your Holy Spirit. And as we walk down those paths that you set before us, help us, Lord, not to trust in our resources, in our wisdom, in our plans. Lord, help us to come to you with the little that we have, to give it to you and then receive from you what truly is needed and what's beneficial for the work at hand, the things that you want to accomplish. And Lord, we may not understand it. The steps you call us to take are

may not be clear, but help us to trust you and to take those steps anyways, to obey as you prompt our hearts. Lord, that we might get to see you do your work through us in ways that far exceed what we could ever ask or think. And so Lord, would you help us to walk with you in this way? I pray God that you would baptize us, fill us with your Holy Spirit, that we would be empowered by you with all that we need for the work that you desire to do.

in our lives, in our family, in our workplace, wherever you send us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.