The Miracle of Multiplication

Have you ever faced an impossible situation? Have you?

What was it? How about this one? Jesus asks 12 disciples to feed 5,000 people and they have no food and no resources, no stores, no McDonald's, no Bojangles, no Wendy's.

None in sight. Utterly impossible. There are 5,000 men, we're told. So, if you calculate the woman and the children, you've got a multitude of about 20,000 people. Imagine being told by the Lord Jesus to feed them and you've no resources.

An utterly impossible situation. And then, right before their eyes, Jesus is demonstrating. He's known by a prophet. He's not just a great teacher, He is in fact God incarnate.

That's right before their eyes. He feeds a multitude. In His hands, the impossible becomes possible. Incidentally, this is the miracle mentioned by all of the Gospel writers, that is other than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all record the miracle that we're going to read. Last week in missions, we were challenged to go and make disciples of all the nations.

We were challenged to get involved, to go to our neighborhood, to go to people at work, and perhaps to go overseas and tell people about Jesus. And often that seems impossible to us, doesn't it? Impossible situations. Or perhaps you are facing, personally, an impossible situation in your family, yourself at work, some situation, something as you look at, seems utterly impossible.

The wall is too thick, it's too high, and perhaps you've hit your head against it time and time again. All of us face, don't we, what appear to be impossible situations. Today, we're going to learn a very simple truth, but a very difficult truth to put into practice.

That when we surrender all that we are and have to Jesus, the Son of God, in the miracle of multiplication, all things are possible. If you've got your Bibles, I hope you have, turn with me to Matthew chapter 14. If you're visiting with us, thank you so much for worshipping with us at Calvary Church.

Thank you for listening online or on Facebook. And we're going through the Gospel of Matthew consecutively, so I don't choose the passage that was chosen for me. And today, we come to a wonderful passage, Matthew chapter 14, and we're going to read from verse 13. Can I say how wonderful it is that here in Charlotte, North Carolina, we have the freedom to come together and to open our Bibles and to read it. You know that's not always true in parts of the world, that we can do this. And I thought it was very tragic and very telling and very sad that recently in the Congress of the United States, a Congressman, Jerry Nadler, in response to the reading of the Word of God by one of his fellow Congressmen, you may have read about it, one of the Congressmen dealing with the Equality Act, stands and reads the Scriptures, and Jerry Nadler said this, and I quote, now this is in the United States Congress, not in Communist China, not in the regime under Putin, but in our own Congress, he said this, what any religious tradition ascribes as God's will is no concern of this Congress.

Really? In the United States of America, in terms of all of the impact of Scripture and the Word of God in this nation, now in the Congress, what God's will is as contained in the ancient Scriptures are of no concern? What is concern to you, Jerry Nadler, and what do you base these laws? And with that throwaway line, hundreds, in fact thousands of years of biblical teaching is dismissed at the altar of the LGBTQ lobby, which was the point. It's not unreasonable to think then, is it? That in the future, here in this country, the public reading of this book, yes, all of the book, Genesis through Revelation, that the public reading of Scripture is going to be called an act of bigotry, is going to become the basis for a discrimination complaint. We can almost see it coming, can't we? That's another reason incidentally why how important it is while we value live stream and Facebook and all of that, how it is essential that the church of Jesus Christ comes together as we are doing now.

What happens in your home? And I understand there are people who can't come out because of COVID and I understand all of that. But the Lord Jesus and the Scriptures commands us to come together and the most important thing that we do as the people of God is to open this book and to read it. It is the living Word of God. Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy, in the first Timothy or other, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture.

And we're going to do that. And on that, there can be no compromise. There are things that we may compromise but there can be zero compromise when it comes to the Word of God. Let me ask you to stand. I realize you've got your mask on so I won't ask you to read it with me.

You can take off your mask if you want. But I'm going to read the Word of God, Matthew chapter 14 verse 13. Here's the Word of God to us. Now when Jesus heard this, that was the death of John the Baptist.

We thought of that the last time I spoke. When Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, this is a desolate place and the day is now over. Send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves. But Jesus said, they need not go away.

You give them something to eat. They said to him, we've only five loaves here and two fish. And he said, bring them here to me. Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing.

Can you see this? That he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowds and they all ate and were satisfied. And when they took up, and they took up 12 baskets full of the broken pieces left over.

And those who ate were about 5,000 men besides women and children. Amen. Please be seated.

Matthew of course is demonstrating that the one who had given the great teaching and what we call the servant on the mount, the one who was speaking, the one who had given these wonderful parables that we thought of in Matthew chapter 13 is none other of course than the son of God, God incarnate who feeds the multitude with five loaves and two fish. Now first of all, we want to learn as we look at this passage, have compassion for people not irritation. You ever irritated by people? You realize that you're sometimes irritating? My wife from time to time has told me I'm irritating.

I can't believe it. We always think it's the other person that's irritating, don't we? But we're to have compassion for people not irritation. Notice verse 14, when he went to shore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and healed their sake. And Jesus, who's going to feed the multitude, and you notice he instructs them verse 19 to sit down on the grass and he's going to feed them.

What does that remind you of if you know your Bible? Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd and what does the good shepherd do? Yes, he leads the flock by the still waters and he makes them to lie down in green pastures that our Lord Jesus Christ is the good shepherd who guides the sheep, who loves the sheep and who feeds the sheep.

He's the very bread of life who comes down from heaven and gives food to those who come to him in need. It's wonderful to know as you go through life that the good shepherd loves you, has compassion on you. And if you follow the good shepherd, you shall not want fearful about the future, remembering what's going to happen, no need to fear. He's going to lead you, he's going to provide for you, he's going to guide you that the good shepherd loves you with an everlasting love. Isn't it wonderful to know that because I'm saved by the grace of God, I am eternally loved for all of my life, through death and for all of eternity, that there is nothing in the whole universe which can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Paul says at the end of Romans 8. And here we see the compassion of the good shepherd for the sheep. He sees you and he loves you.

Did you know this? Verse 13 and again repeated in verse 15 that Jesus goes to a desolate place. When Jesus heard this verse 13, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. Throughout the gospels we read this of Jesus going to a desolate place, of Jesus going to a high mountain to pray, of Jesus leaving his disciples, leaving the multitude and going to pray in a desolate place.

And he's there when the crowds come to him. You know, if you're going to be a blessing to others and we all want to be, you need a time of silence. You need a time of solitude.

Now if you're a young mother, you say that would be wonderful. Solitude and silence. We're not very good at it, are we? It's a huge problem in our culture. Everything's noisy. I've said this before, I can't even get gas and there's blaring out at me as I'm filling my car. You go to a store and before you get into the wretched thing, there's music outside. And you say, where's the silence? The sound of silence that the Simon and Garfunkel sing about.

I mean where is it? A time of silence, a time of solitude. I think we're afraid of it, aren't we? We're afraid to be silent.

We're afraid to get away on our own. What do we do when we're waiting in line? What do we do when we're in line in a grocery store? What do we do when we're in line in Starbucks? Have a conversation with people? Meditate?

Rehearse some word of scripture that we're memorizing in our minds? No. No, what do we do? We take out our idol.

Mine is a little black thing. It's called an iPhone. And we pull out our iPhone.

Are you clapping about idols? We pull out our iPhones and we consume largely frivolous information or we're checking how many likes someone has liked a picture of us drinking a cup of coffee or something else. Totally frivolous, right?

I mean it's as if this is all important. What about silence? What about putting it off? What about getting away from it?

The Lord Jesus did. I don't know where that place is for you, perhaps in your own house. I realize not all of you have what I have.

I have a study in my home. I realize that's not possible for everyone. By the time of solitude, it's time of quietness. Winifred Gallagher said, few things are as important to your quality of life as your choices about how to spend the precious resource of your free time. How do you spend your free time?

What about this week? Practicing silence. What about putting off your iPhone for some time? Now if you're at work and you have to keep it on, I understand that.

But you know what I mean. In your free time, Jesus, the Son of God, God incarnate, the perfect Son of Man goes throughout the Gospels to a desolate place, to a time of prayer. Now He does this and the crowds come.

And isn't it marvelous? Our Lord must have had great joy in these times of quietness as He communes perfect communion with His Father and His God. But the crowds come and interrupt Him.

And what does He do? He has compassion for them. What about the disciples? The disciples found the crowds irritating.

Rather than having compassion for the crowds, notice verse 15, the disciples want the crowd to go away, to fend for themselves. We've had enough of people. Send the people away. Keep them away from us.

We don't want to be bothered with them. At the end of verse 12, verse 12 says, when John the Baptist was beheaded, his disciples came and took the body and buried it and they went and told Jesus. Now when Jesus heard this, that is the death of John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by Himself.

If you've gone through bereavement, you know that much as you appreciate people around you to help you, there's a time when you want to be alone, don't you? With your own thoughts and prayers. And here is Jesus. This is why He went and I'm sure the disciples thought this would be a wonderful time to be alone with the Lord and He would explain why this marvelous man, this great man that Jesus said was the greatest of the prophets, He had been beheaded.

Tell us about Him, Lord. And they would have valued that time, but instead you've got this wretched crowd coming and interrupting our time, our quality time with Jesus. Send them away, send them away.

What about you, what about me? You have people around you, perhaps a next door neighbor, perhaps someone in your own family, perhaps a brother or sister here and you find them rather irritating, perhaps you find them rather demanding, and perhaps you want to, like the disciples, send them. You just had enough of them, send them away. You know, compassion, which the Lord had is love in action. Compassion isn't saying, oh, I feel sorry for you. No, compassion is action.

Jesus is going to demonstrate His compassion for the crowd by feeding them. Compassion. Think of the broken people around us. We sang or the trio sang in that wonderful song, We Believe, it began with this desperate society, with this broken generation. Yes, we are in a broken generation, they're bruised and battered people and there's lost people around us and there's people with their lives terribly messed up as we had. And how wonderful that God in His grace just puts us in that bank, in that school, in that neighborhood, in that family to minister to that person, to tell them of the love of Jesus, to tell them of the beautiful message, the old, old story of Jesus and His love.

So many people feel marginalized, so many people feel on the fringes of society or feel patronized by people. Here's the first lesson we can learn in the miracle of multiplication. When God has used you, have compassion for people, not irritation. And of course, the main lesson is, surrender all you are and have to Jesus. Left to themselves, the disciples are totally unable to feed the crowd. But verse 16, Jesus says, you give them something to eat. Here's a problem, you've got hungry people and I'm putting that at your door.

You do it. Disciples, I want you to feed the multitude. And of course, the disciples can't handle this. As you read the four accounts in the gospel, this is impossible. You're commanding us, Lord, to do something which is absolutely impossible.

That's the point of course. The disciples are thinking of what they can do by themselves rather than believing what Jesus can do through them. They're thinking, there's 12 of us, we've got no food, we've got no resources, there's no fast food around us.

There's nothing we can do. And the forgotten that right in their midst is God incarnate. The one that they had seen touch and heal the leper. The one that they had seen to raise the dead.

The one that they had seen that the woman who had that problem for 12 years, she just bent and touched the fringe of his garment and she was healed. He's God incarnate right in their midst and they've forgotten that. It's a difficult lesson for us, isn't it? To turn to Jesus, to depend on Him.

We're so self-reliant and we're so overcome by self-pity and thinking, I can't handle this. And we've forgotten that in our midst is the Lord of glory. Jesus taught in John chapter 15, the vine and the branches. He says in verse 5 of John 15, I am the vine, you are the branches. His disciples, you are His branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

How wonderful. Brothers, sisters, as you abide in Christ the true vine, you keep your eyes on Him as you follow Him, as you obey Him, you will bear much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing. The branch severed from the true vine can do absolutely nothing.

You think you can do it on your own, in actual fact you can do nothing. And you say, well Calvary Church is a big church, we've got a wonderful campus, we've got tremendous resources, we've got very gifted people and we can do a lot. Yes, we can do a lot but we can do absolutely zero foot that pleases God by ourselves. Do you understand that? You understand that? You think you're that gifted?

You think you're talented? Yes, everything you have comes from God. But a reminder that apart from God, unless the Lord builds this house, we labor in vain. Psalm 127, you know that as a father, you know that as a mother, you can do a lot of activity in your home and you can provide wonderful resources for your children and you can get them very socially accomplished and musically right at the top and academically they're getting the scholarships. You can do all of that unless the Lord is in it, you labor in vain.

Apart from me, you can do nothing. Last week in our mission's emphasis, we were challenged once again to obey the command of Jesus, Matthew 28, to go and make disciples of all the nations. You say that this is impossible. You were challenged to get involved in some ministry, whether it's the homeless, whether it's the prison, whether it's CHAMP, whether it's Be A Light, whatever it is. And you say, well this is very, very difficult.

I don't have the training and I deal with very, very difficult people. And all of us in our personal lives and family lives face impossible situations, don't we? And we get discouraged. Situations seem hopeless.

Yes, at a purely human level. Here's the point. You know this. I'm reminding you. I'm reminding you today of basic Christian truth.

But you may have forgotten it. When you bring your problem to Jesus, when you surrender everything to Jesus, He will work through you in unimaginable ways. In the miracle of multiplication. Without Jesus, you can do nothing. Says Paul though, Philippians 4, I can do all things. All things, Paul. You're bragging.

No, I'm not bragging. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That God will give you all of the power, all of the help to do His will.

This morning and again, this morning at 8.30 and again now in the baptism. So we've had three young men and young women getting baptized today who have all chosen the verse that God has plans and purposes for us. Jeremiah 29.

That God has a future for us and there is hope for us. Yes, that's true. Provided you repent of your sin, provided you follow the Savior. You can't claim that verse and just live like the devil.

No. But if I do all things through Christ, if I surrender everything to Him, if I bring my problems to Him and I depend on Him and I abide in the true vine, I will bear much fruit. I'm saying to you today, surrender everything you have to Jesus, including yourself. Yes, I'm right.

Surrender everything you have to Jesus. The disciples discovered this boy has five loaves and two fish. John tells us it was a boy. Someone asked me after the first service, did the boy have more faith than the disciples? I don't know.

All I know is this. There's a wee boy there among the 20,000 people and here's a very big miracle I think. He had not yet eaten his lunch. You can imagine his mom making him lunch, these five little rolls and two little fish and say, there you are son and he becomes part of the crowd because he wants to go out and be with Jesus.

How wonderful. Just an ordinary boy. One of thousands. Nothing special about him that the Scriptures tell us. He's just a boy. He had five loaves and two fish. You say, well, what difference does that make? That's what the disciples ask. But Lord, what's that among so many? I mean, what's the point? It's so small, so insignificant, so ordinary. Five loaves and two fish and there's 20,000 people. Why are we even talking about it? This is hopeless.

No, it's not. You picture it. The five loaves and the two fish, small, are put in the hands of Jesus. I love how Matthew and the writers say this. Did you know this?

I can almost picture it. He took the five loaves and the two fish, verse 19, and he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. See, everything the Son does is in perfect submission to the Father. Just as everything that we do is to be in perfect submission to our Father through His Son, our Lord Jesus. Thanking God for this little lunch? Yes. Thousands of people cannot be fed from two fish and five loaves, can they?

The meager resources are mentioned to demonstrate the impossibility of the task. Just five loaves. Five little rolls.

Don't think of them as big loaves. Five little rolls and two fish. Everything that the boy has, everything that the boy has is put in the hands of Jesus and thousands are blessed.

I admire this little boy. One was he hadn't eaten his lunch by this time. Secondly, he gave it all to Jesus. Now come on, most of you would have kept a couple of rolls in a fish, wouldn't you? I mean, you would have said, after all, it's mine.

My mom gave it to me. And okay, you can have two or three of them, but I want to keep at least one fish and a couple of the rolls. That's generous.

I'm giving more than 50% of my lunch to you and after all, you should have brought your own and we wouldn't be in this dilemma. All of it. That's the point, isn't it? He holds nothing back. Everything is put in the hands of Jesus.

There's another miracle as well. No one said, I don't like fish. No one asked, does this fish have bones in it? Answer is yes. Does the fish have a head on?

Yes, it does. Does it taste fishy? Yes, that's what fish is. Could you imagine that given to an American crowd?

Oh dear, right? When we go to Israel and we're fed fish, I hear all of this, please, right? So for those of you going in October, no comments about the fish we're going to eat, right? I'm going to take it in my hands. I'm going to thank God for it and we're all going to eat it with a smile, right?

And I love it when they bring the head there because it really freaks out some people. Seriously, have you noticed verse 20? And they all ate and were satisfied. Every single one of the men, of the women, of the children, they all ate the fish and the loaves and were satisfied.

Of course they were. The bread of life given to them by the Lord Jesus Christ. They ate to the full. No one was hungry. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, totally meets all of our needs. He never leaves you hungry. He never leaves you thirsty. If you come to Him, you will hunger no more and you will thirst no more. He is the living water.

He's the bread of life. We're surrounded by people, aren't we? Crowds. Do you realize we have hundreds of children coming to Calvary?

Not always. Some of you have compassion on our children. Some of you have compassion on the little babies and toddlers we have. Why is it sometimes with difficulty getting people to take care of our children? Think of the thousands that come through our doors, our Calvary Development Center on a campus with Champ Sports.

Thousands and thousands of people. Do you see them? You say, well what can I do? Oh, I'm glad you've asked. I'm going to tell you what to do.

I want you to surrender everything you are and have to Jesus and be available for Him to use as He directs. Are you truly, answer this question. I asked myself it this week. Are you really filled with compassion for people or are you so caught up in your own little world? You know, through COVID people talk about being in a bubble. A family's in a bubble or we're in a bubble, and we just have so many people and we keep COVID out in our little bubble. I've never been in a little bubble.

I don't like the sound of it, but I'm not talking about that kind of bubble. I'm talking about a bubble where we've made a very comfortable life for ourselves. Life is good. It's nice. We're very good, thank you.

We're very comfortable, thank you. And we've created a bubble and we've lost sight of those around us who are lost, who are on a broad road leading to destruction. And it could be that you are greedily holding on to your own comfort, to your own little way of life, your own loaves and fishes. I'm asking you to surrender everything you have to Jesus. I've noticed over the years, I've been in many meetings with elders, committees, pastors, conversations with people in churches. I've noticed, and I've been guilty of this myself, one of the most common mistakes we make when God gives us a challenge to do something. True as a church, true as individuals, you're presented with a challenge.

Someone asks you, are you going to serve in such a way? We need people to be a champ coach or to serve in a nursery or to go to prison, whatever it is. Or we're going to build a new life center as we did a number of years ago. You know what the common mistake is that we hear? You know what we focus on? We don't focus on the vision. We don't focus on the people.

We focus on ourselves, our limitations, our weaknesses. Oh, I could never do that. I couldn't serve in a nursery. That's not for me.

Ten years ago, I took a baby and the baby started crying. I could never do that. We focus on our lack of resources.

We point the finger at other people. That is, we focus on what we don't have rather than thinking of what we do have and thinking above all of our magnificent Lord Jesus Christ who still says that we can do all things through Him who strengthens us. So instead of focusing what you can't do, instead of focusing on your weaknesses, oh, I could never sing like these people. No, I couldn't. Take it from me, I can't. I could never teach that life.

Well, perhaps you can't. But you know, when God calls you, have you understood this? If you really want to live that life of a hope and a future of Jeremiah 29 that we heard at least three times today, if you really want to live that kind of life, you've got to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and you have to obey Him. He's Lord. Yes, He's my Savior. He's cleansed all of my sins. I'm saved by His grace, but He's my Lord and He commands me to go and to serve Him and to submit to Him.

He's my Commander in Chief. I have to obey Him, first time obedience. And as I obey Him, as I trust Him, He will give me all of the strength, all of the power, all of the resources to do His will. Now do you believe that?

You say, of course I believe it. Why don't you live that way? You surrendered everything to Jesus. Do you look on everything that you have, your gifts, your talents, your education, your family, your home, your possessions, your car?

That's a tough one for me, I like my car. Your car, your bank balance. Do you realize that that is all to be put in the hands of Jesus? Now don't hold it like this. Have it like this, that everything you are, everything you have, it's been given to you by God.

So why are you holding onto it as if it's yours? Think of it as God giving it to you so that everything you are and use is for His glory. And many of you have experienced this, that when you surrender everything you have to Jesus, all of your needs are met. What's one of the Scriptures I keep quoting as we go through Matthew? Matthew 6, 33, seek first, there it is. Seek first, number one priority, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. If you put the Lord Jesus Christ first in your life, if you follow Him and seek in His grace to obey Him, all of the other things in life will fall into place. Do you think God is ever in your debt?

But that is to say you can't out give God, of course you can't. Everything to the Lord. And the multitude is satisfied. And did you notice that there were twelve baskets left over, one for each of the apostles, the disciples, demonstrating the abundance of the compassion and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only does He feed the multitude, that's a tremendous miracle, He feeds them abundantly so that there are twelve baskets left over. That is when God acts, He acts with superlative abounding grace. Grace upon grace upon grace.

I've used this illustration before and I thought of it as a few days ago, Goody and I were walking on Daytona Beach and the waves keep coming in, wave after wave after wave after wave. That's the grace of God, isn't it? It's grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. Do you think God's grace ever is going to run out? Do you think God's kindness and compassion and provision for you is ever going to run out?

No. John says in his prologue, it's grace upon grace. Paul says in Ephesians 1, in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us. God's grace is rich, it's infinite and God's grace doesn't come to you just a little bit. Your sin, however deep it is, however bad it is, is not beyond the grace of God. There is always more grace in our Lord Jesus Christ than there is sin in you. That's Romans 5, His grace is abounding grace, it's greater than our sin and God when He blesses us, He doesn't do just a little bit, He lavishes, lavishes His grace upon us. When we surrender to Jesus, this is humbling isn't it? He uses us to bless others.

I hope you've experienced that. Just think that you and I can be spiritual blessing to others. The boy gives his little lunch to the Lord and thousands and thousands are blessed.

I love it. Surrender it to Jesus and He'll use it, small things. He'll use it to bless others. Five loaves and two fish, insignificant, trivial, very small, just an ordinary little lunch. No, not in the hands of Jesus. The tiniest thing to Him you may bring, blessed by His touch, the least is much. Here in the history of Israel is a tremendous challenge to the Israelites.

They don't know what to do with it. There's a huge giant, he's nine feet tall, his name's Goliath and he's got a spear, he's got a sword, he's got his armor bearer and he's a nasty arrogant individual and he's defying the hosts of God and all of the great soldiers, they can't deal with him. I mean how are you going to deal with this man?

He's huge. God calls David, young man probably still in his teens. He goes, what does he use? A slingshot, five stones, in fact he only needs one. One stone directed by God right at the forehead and Goliath comes crashing down and David takes his sword and cuts off his head. The least is much. Here is in 2 Kings 4, here is a poor widow and she's in terrible debt, she can't pay her bills. There's only one thing in her house, very insignificant thing, a jar of oil. Prophet Elijah comes and he takes it and he pours it out and the oil keeps coming and coming and coming and coming and fills up all of the vessels of her neighbors so that she can pay off her bills.

Just a jar of oil, the least is much. 2 Kings 5, there's a young woman we don't even know her name and she's taken captive by the Syrians. She's an Israeli, she's a child of God and she's taken captive, she's a slave in a very wealthy man's house, Neiman. He's the captain of the host of Syria, he's the commander in chief of the Syrian forces and he's a strong man, he's a mighty man, but he's got a huge problem, leprosy is broken out and there's no cure for leprosy and this little girl thinks, well I know a man, he's a prophet, Elisa.

I think he can heal this man, this pagan as he was then of his leprosy. And that's what happened, a little girl she tells her mistress, in his hand the least is much. The time of the Lord, here's a widow and she's coming up the temple and as she comes the rich people are putting in a lot of money into the treasury as well they should. And this widow, she only has two coins, two mites, the smallest coins in the currency. That's all she has to live on and she throws it in to the offering and Jesus said, she has given more than all of them because she gave everything she had, the least as much. Will you surrender your time, your resources? You say, I have no particular talent, I'm just an ordinary person, of course you are.

Thank you for acknowledging it, we already know that. Ordinary people, yes we're ordinary people, but God can use you. Nothing, nothing is too difficult for Jesus. He's God, that's what Matthew is telling us. Matthew is giving us this illustration, not just as a cute little story, but to demonstrate the power of Almighty God that Jesus in fact is God. King of kings and Lord of lords and when you put things in His hand, the miracle of multiplication takes place. Says Paul, now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us and in the church and in Christ Jesus, to Him be the glory forever and ever, Amen.

And that great benediction at the end of Ephesians 3 that our God is able to do more than you can even imagine, more than you can dream about, more than you can ask, such is the power of God blessed by His hand, the least as much. Isn't it interesting how Jesus works? Did He need the five loaves and two fish? Did He need that to feed the thousand?

Of course He didn't. He's the Creator with one word, the best meal in the world could have been served. He's the one who spoke the world into existence. He's the one by whom all things exist. He is the eternal God. He's the Alpha and the Omega. There's no one like Him, but think of His grace, think of His compassion.

He takes a little boy's lunch. You and I would have laughed at it. We might have thrown it away, thrown it to the dogs. He takes it and blesses it. Did He need the disciples?

No. How gracious, even though they wanted the crowd sent away, He uses the disciples to feed the multitude just as He uses you and me to feed others, your children, your neighbors, your friends, those in that Bible study. He uses us.

Here is the heart of God, graciously using a boy's lunch, graciously using the hands of the disciples to feed the multitude, graciously using you and me in our weakness, in our limitation, in our failures, that over and over again He takes us and uses us and blessed by His touch the least is much. Early this morning, while many of you were still in your bed, we had some of our brothers and sisters come here. They're greeters. They're ushers. They were here before I came, getting organized, praying, so that when you come in you're welcomed, so that when you come in someone can graciously show you to a seat. What do you say? They're just ordinary people. Are you even mentioning, John, ordinary people?

Yes. But surrendering themselves, prepared to get up early on a Sunday morning, prepared to stay through two services, prepared to disinfect this place between the services, taking themselves, the resources, the health and what they're doing, presenting as an offering to Jesus. Also, while some of you were still in your bed, we have musicians that come. They rehearse.

They get organized. Here's a college student. He's got a guitar. What does he do? He presents that as an offering. Ordinary guitar, yeah.

He likes his guitar. Here's a young woman and she has a cello and over the years she's practiced and practiced and now she comes and uses that cello to bless thousands as we hear. Here are men and women who have had some musical training, using their voices, using their abilities to do well, putting it in the hands of the Lord. You say, well, they're there just showing off what they can do.

No, no, no, no, you've totally missed it. It's using their abilities as an act of worship to God and to bless thousands of us as they help us and lead us in worship. Here is a young woman. She is an ultrasound technician. She's trained, she's received training to be able to use the ultrasound and here she is with Human Coalition that we support here at Calvary, which are preventing abortions taking place. And here is the result of her placing her training in the hands of Jesus. Here's the result and I quote, this is right from Charlotte. I just wanted to let you know that I canceled the abortion and will keep the baby.

When we heard the baby's heartbeat, we changed our decision so I want to thank the ultrasound tech a ton. Isn't that interesting? You say, well, Jesus is an ordinary technician.

No. Instead of using her training for other reasons, she brings it to be used in the service of God. And so, in the wonderful compassion of God, a young mother decides, no, I'm not going to abort my baby.

Thank you for showing me the ultrasound. This is what Jesus does, doesn't it? Don't live like an atheist. Don't live at a purely human level. Surrender all to Jesus.

Place all you have in His hands, including yourself, and completely trust Him to do the rest. You say, how will this work out? I don't know. Don't worry about that.

That's not your concern. The disciples didn't know what Jesus was going to do with the loaves and the fishes, but as brought to Jesus, that's the point. And experience the miracle of multiplication. Pray, Lord, here are my loaves and fishes. I don't know what they are with you. Here they are. Break them. Use them.

Multiply them. The tiniest thing. The smallest thing. The most ordinary, insignificant thing in the hands of Jesus.

Blessed by His touch, the least is much. You say, what are you saying today? I'm saying, first of all, that Jesus is God. And first of all, I'm saying if you don't know Him as your Savior, you need to repent and come and experience firsthand His grace in forgiving your sins and giving you eternal life. And I'm saying secondly, if you are a follower of Jesus, surrender everything, everything to Jesus, including yourself, and experience the miracle of multiplication. I'm going to pray and then we're going to stand and sing a wonderful hymn, a simple hymn, and a hymn of surrender.

And as you sing it, will this truly be the reflection of your heart that you surrender everything to Jesus? Help us, Father, to do that. We confess we're selfish.

We confess that we often pursue our own comfort rather than your will. Forgive us, our Father, we do pray. There are some here who have not yet come to the Lord Jesus.

They perhaps have never experienced the forgiveness of sins. We thank you that Christ died for our sins and rose again and pray that they'll come to the Savior. Many here are following Christ. I thank you for these young men and women who were baptized today and I pray that they truly will love the Lord with all of their heart. That they will always seek first the kingdom of God and we pray that for each one of us. We surrender everything to Jesus. In His precious name, amen.