Lunch with Jesus | Feeding the 5,000

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Sign up at harvest.org. We need to come to God and offer what we have and let him multiply it. We all want to be used by the Lord, and he wants to use us. Today, Pastor Greg Laurie says the Lord gives us gifts to equip us for effective service for his kingdom. Gifts from God don't come fully developed.

You have to cultivate them. That's why Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1.6, fan into flames the spiritual gift that God has given to you. Sometimes we treat prayer as a last resort.

In reality, it's our best option, and sometimes it's our only option. So many of us could testify to the power of prayer and even tell a story of how God came through just in the nick of time. So why aren't we calling on God more often?

And why don't we let him use us to step out boldly for him? We'll consider those questions today on A New Beginning as Pastor Greg Laurie helps us examine the feeding of the 5,000 in John chapter 6. So I heard this story about an elderly woman. Her husband had died. She was lonely, lonely, and she wanted someone to talk to. She heard that there was a parrot down at a local pet shop that talked a lot. Someone suggested, you want to buy that parrot.

Then you'll have someone to talk to. So she went down to the pet store and said, I'd like to buy this parrot, but you have to guarantee to me this parrot will talk. The pet shop owner said, ma'am, this parrot will talk. So she bought a ticket home. A week and a half went by. She came back to the pet shop and said, that parrot hasn't said a word. He hasn't said anything. The pet shop owner said, did you buy him a mirror?

No, she said. Oh, a parrot will talk if it has a mirror. Get him a mirror.

You'll see. So she bought a mirror, took it home. Another week and a half passed. Then she comes back to the pet store. The parrot still isn't talking. Oh, did you get the parrot a ladder? Every parrot needs a ladder.

If he has a ladder to walk up and down, he'll start talking. She said, okay, I'll buy the ladder. Took it home.

Another week and a half passes. She comes back to the pet store. The parrot still doesn't talk. Did you get him a swing? The pet shop owner asked.

No. Get him a swing. If the parrot has a swing, he'll start talking.

Okay. She bought the swing. Took it home. Still the parrot wasn't talking. And two weeks passed and she came back to the pet shop and she was so angry.

She said, none of those things worked. Not only did that parrot not talk, he died. The man said, did he ever say anything to you at all? She said, he did say one thing.

Really? What did he say? He said, do they have any food down at that pet store? Now that's not a true story because, oh, it's so sad. There's no parrot.

There's no old woman. It's all fiction. But it's about eating. It's a story of the feeding of the five thousand. John chapter six, starting in verse one. After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberius. A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went because they saw the miraculous signs as he healed the sick. Then Jesus climbed the hills, sat down with his disciples around him. It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration. Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. And turning to Philip, he asked, where can we buy bread to feed all of these people? Verse six, this is very important.

You might underline it. He was testing Philip for he already knew what he was going to do. Philip replied, even if we worked for months, we wouldn't have enough money to feed them. Then Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke, well, there's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with such a huge crowd? Jesus said, tell everyone to sit down. They all sat down on the grassy slopes. The men alone numbered about five thousand. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterwards, he did the same with the fish, and they all ate as much as they wanted. After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, now gather the leftovers so nothing is wasted.

So they picked up the pieces and filled 12 baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves. When the people saw this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, surely he is a prophet we've been expecting. We'll stop there. So there are three primary characters that stand out in this story. Philip, Andrew, and the little boy.

We don't know his name, but he's a big part of the story. Let's start with Philip. Understand that every one of the disciples had a distinct personality, just like people you know.

Now, Philip is quiet, perceptive, a deep thinker. And it is worth noting that Jesus turns to Philip with a question, his first test. And by the way, Jesus never asked anyone else for advice ever. Except on this occasion, when he turns to Philip and asks, John 6, 5. Turning to Philip, he asked, where can we buy bread to feed all these people? He was testing Philip for he knew what he was going to do.

Seems like a no-brainer. Philip could have said, well, considering the fact that you've already done all these amazing miracles, starting with turning water into wine, I would think this is pretty easy for you. You could just speak the word and everyone would be fed. But instead, Philip is perplexed. And he says, well, you know, even if we worked for months, we wouldn't have enough money to pay for the food to get to all of these people. I mean, despite two years at this point of walking personally with Jesus and seeing him do miracle after miracle, Philip is like, I don't know what to do with this.

And we can criticize Philip, but isn't that just like us? Haven't you ever had a moment where you've had doubt in your mind? A crisis hits, unexpected problem comes, and you freak out.

You have a complete meltdown. Wait, has God not been faithful to you up to this point? Has he not met your needs?

Has he not taken care of you? Somehow you have a case of spiritual amnesia, you forget everything, and you think this is the end. Well, that happens all the time. It happened to the disciples. They didn't simply see that God could do something in this set of circumstances. We often forget how faithful God has been.

Here's the problem. We forget what we ought to remember, and we remember what we ought to forget. So don't forget God's faithfulness to you. He's been faithful in the past.

He'll be faithful in your present, and he'll be faithful to you in your future as well. Now it's Andrew's turn. Philip didn't do too well. If we were grading him, I don't know what grade we would give him.

It wouldn't be very high. But Andrew chimes in. Interestingly, Jesus doesn't ask Andrew for his opinion, but he has one nonetheless. And Andrew is a really interesting guy.

He was more of a behind-the-scenes person. He was a person who liked to connect people to Jesus. And here we have Andrew showing up with a little boy, and he's really close to the answer, but not quite. Well, he says to Jesus, there's this little kid here. He has five loaves of bread and two little fish. But then he quickly says, but what good is that with such a huge crowd? Here's all these adults perplexed by this problem, and here's a little kid that says, well, I've got this.

If this could be of any help, I'd like to offer it to you, Jesus. The lunch was as insignificant as it could be. The little boy was as insignificant as it was, as insignificant as he could be. But here's the point of the story. That which was insufficient and insignificant became sufficient and significant when placed in the hands of Jesus.

Let me say it again. That which was insufficient from the hands of the insignificant became sufficient and significant when placed in the hands of Jesus. So you say, Lord, okay, here I am. I don't have a lot to offer, but I do give it to you. And I give it all to you. And I ask you to take what I've given and use it for your glory. So I encourage you, bring your loaves and fish to Jesus. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. And I want to personally invite you to the Harvest Ministries Israel tour, April 9 to 19, 2024. Listen, this is your chance to walk in the steps of Jesus, literally in what we call the Holy Land. Learn more at Israel.harvest.org.

Shalom. We're taking a close look at the feeding of the 5,000 in John 6 and Pastor Greg's message today, Lunch with Jesus. Another thing I love about Andrew is maybe he wasn't the most outspoken one and the one people noticed, but he helped bring people to Jesus and help people find their spiritual gift. And maybe that's you. You're more of the behind the scenes person, but you're significant too. And you see the potential in someone. Sometimes someone else can see your giftedness better than you can see it. And they might say, I've just noticed that I think you have this gift. No, not me.

No, you do. I see it. Maybe you should help out in the church and serve in Sunday school or maybe you should help out over here or do this other thing because you have a gift here. I'm so thankful that Pastor Chuck Smith saw something in a 17-year-old kid named Greg and gave me a chance when I showed up at his house unannounced and uninvited and knocked on the door. And I said, hi Chuck, my name is Greg and I have this little cartoon track that I drew and I don't know if it could be of use to anyone. And Chuck said, hey, let's change the format of it and print it. And now I want to talk for a moment just about the Jesus revolution film because there is this one scene people really love. And it is when Chuck gives the keys to Greg for the new church.

Right? And someone asked me the other day, what was it like when Chuck gave you the keys to your new church? I hate to break this to you. This never happened.

It didn't happen. Now in a way the essence of the story is true. But let me tell you the whole story. So I started serving the Lord and helping out and volunteering to do whatever I could at Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. And there were a group of pastors there that were all around eight or nine years older than I was. And I had my drawing board set up in the back office there.

And so I would do what no one else wanted to do. So when they would go to lunch they would let me answer the phones in the church office. Someone's calling for counsel. They're getting advice from a 19-year-old kid. It's only been a believer for two years.

But they gave me that opportunity. So how did the whole thing with the church happen? Okay so Lonnie Frisbee was invited up to Riverside to start a Bible study because they wanted to have a Jesus movement like they were seeing happening down here in Costa Mesa. And so Lonnie was invited up to Riverside. He began this Bible study and it grew to 300 people. And it was going really well.

But then Lonnie left for Florida. And so it was being passed around to various Calvary Chapel pastors there. And so one day I was sitting in the back office and someone said, who's going to Riverside this week? Another said, well I went last week. I don't want to go. Another said, well I'm going in two weeks. Do you want to go? No one wanted to go. And I'm sitting back there and they said, I'll go. And I even sounded that way. I'll go. Okay Greg go for it.

Okay. So I went to Riverside and it was about 30 people at this point. And I began to teach God's Word to the best of my ability. And it began to grow and grow a little more. And then it was getting kind of like a church in a church.

This was all happening at a church called All Saints Episcopal Church. So we outgrew this building. We needed our own building. So I went to Pastor Chuck and I said, Chuck we need a building for our church. He said, Greg start looking around. And I did. And I found this building that had been abandoned because they had a church split.

That is shown in the movie. And so I said, Chuck I found this building. Will you come look at it? So he drove up and we are walking around looking at this building imagining its potential. And I see Chuck sitting in the front pew talking to the realtor. And he pulls out his checkbook and he writes a check and gives it to the realtor. And then he walks up to me and says, well Greg you got yourself a church and he got in his car and drove home.

Ok so this is the true story. Now Chuck did not write a check for the purchase of the church. He wrote our first payment because we had no money for the lease of the church. He later gave us a loan which we paid him back with full interest because Chuck was a good businessman as well. And that is the story of how we got our church. But here is what I want to tell you is that it would have never happened if he didn't have that vision.

It would have never happened if he didn't give me that chance. So Harvest exists today because of the faith of Pastor Chuck Smith. That is important. So back to our story.

Here are the people. They have a need. And when you have a need you need to call on the Lord.

Do you have a need right now? Is there something in your life you need from God? The Bible says, you have not because you ask not.

Have you prayed about what you are facing? Don't worry about anything Paul reminds us in Philippians 4. But pray about everything. Jesus said, ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find.

Knock and the door shall be open. Pray about it and know this. God loves to answer your prayers.

I think sometimes we think God is kind of you know reluctant to answer our prayers. Really? You again? Come on.

Oh no. Jesus said, fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. I love that. It's his good pleasure. He loves to give you these things.

He loves to bless you. I heard a story about a very wise father whose son was going to leave for college. And the father said, son I'm going to pay all of your bills for college.

I want you to just study hard and enjoy the process. But I'm just going to do this every month. I'll give you your check with this condition. You have to come home in person and get your check.

I'm not going to mail it to some address. You come home and I'll write you your check. That son came home every single month.

Right? So God says to us, I'm going to provide for you but I want you to keep coming to me for it. God doesn't give us everything we want in one big lump sum. Here's all of your blessings. All of your healings. All of your provision.

Kaboom. Now he says, I want you to keep coming to me over and over again so you remember who gave it to you. Remember in the Lord's Prayer Jesus taught us to pray, give us this day our daily bread. So that's the principle here. So Mark gives us a little detail in his version of the feeding of the 5,000. And he tells that Jesus had the people sit down in groups of 50 and 100.

So it was very organized. And then Mark describes it this way. Jesus took five loaves and two fish, looked up to heaven, asked God's blessing on the food, breaking the loaves into pieces, and kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples to give to the people. It's not like Jesus just extended his hand and there was a mountain of bread. Bread. Now here's a mountain of fish.

Fish. No he says just fill the baskets, distribute it, then go distribute it, come back. Oh there's more. Yeah just keep giving it out.

This is how he did it. Listen to this. God gives you what you need when you need it.

Not necessarily before and never after. Okay so sometimes you'll look at somebody going through some hardship. You'll say man I could never do what they're doing.

Yeah you could. If God had you go through that hardship he would give you the strength you need to deal with it. He's giving you the strength you need to deal with what you're facing right here right now. That's what he did right now.

That's what he did for us. So in the same way we need to come to God and offer what we have and let him multiply it. Gifts from God don't come fully developed.

You have to start somewhere. You know you have to cultivate your gift. If you're a musician you practice. If you're an artist you practice. Ever since I was a little kid I always loved to draw. And for me my little cartoon world was a place for me to escape to when I was waiting for my mother to be done in some smoke-filled bar.

And so you know my mom was married and divorced seven times and she had a lot of boyfriends in between. So one day she brings home a man who says he's an animator for Disney. I didn't believe him. He says no I'm an animator for Disney.

I said prove it. He pulls out a pencil and he draws a perfect Donald Duck. By the way Donald Duck is very hard to draw. And I was like wow wow.

And he said I'll tell you what Greg. This is a magic pencil. This is a true story.

This is a magic pencil and if you place it under your pillow when you wake up in the morning you will be able to draw just like me. So go to bed now. Now as an adult I look back on that and say uh-huh.

I know what that was all about. But I believed him. Sadly I was 30.

Not really. I was 28. But still no I was I was very very little. I put that pencil into my pillow. I was so excited I could hardly sleep. I woke up the next morning grabbed the pencil went over to a piece of paper. I'm going to draw Donald Duck.

It was the same old me. Because gifts don't come fully developed you have to cultivate them. That's why Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1 6 fan into flames the spiritual gift that God has given to you. Great encouragement from Pastor Greg Laurie today here on A New Beginning.

We are considering the rich insight we can draw from various dimensions of the feeding of the 5000 and there's more to come. Pastor Greg. Hey everybody I'm in studio here with Shannon Bream who has written a number of books and her newest is called The Love Stories of the Bible Speak. Now it's not just romantic stories she does talk about Adam and Eve and the Song of Solomon and some not so great romantic stories like Samson and Delilah but Shannon you also have a chapter on the relationship of Jesus and the Apostle John. John is described well he describes himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved and that can almost appear arrogant but I don't think it's arrogant at all in fact I think it's the opposite if he said the disciple that loved Jesus that would be one thing but he didn't boast of his love for Jesus he boasted of the love of Jesus for him. And it reminds us that when Jesus was here on earth he was fully human like we were so he had friendships and he had relationships and we can look at those and see how these people related think about I talk about in the book The Amazing Race if you've ever seen the show I love this where people pair up it could be a family member a friend they go on these crazy you know jaunts all over the planet solving clues and doing these things but at some point you see a meltdown and you think like when you're under pressure and you're traveling and you don't have food you don't have water like that's what Jesus and his apostles were doing a lot of the time that's where their relationships were formed and we see John at one point you know he was he and his brother were called the sons of thunder because he would want to call people out and like Jesus do you want me to call you know fire from heaven down on them like he was in Christ really walked him through like no if people are doing things in my name and for my heavenly kingdom and glory there's no reason for you to judge and you know wipe them off the face of the earth so you see his relationship mature as he grows but we see very real friendships that Jesus had as a human being and we would read that he would lean his head on Jesus chest you know so almost as though not to miss a thing and then John outlived all the other apostles and they thought they'd never hear from him again according to church tradition he was put in a pot of boiling oil and survived it and they banished him to the island of Patmos and God gave to John the book of revelation that's incredible but he one of his big messages and you see it in this epistle is love one another yes absolutely and we see too that this strong relationship this bond that they had he was there at the cross remember almost everybody had abandoned Jesus the women are there John is there and you see that moment where Jesus knows that he's going to have his earthly death and he says um you know basically you're going to be the one to take care of my mother now this is your son this is your mother um and so to entrust John with Mary um who was then a seed they both were of the early church um so many people had abandoned Jesus and were rightfully frightened for their own lives at that point but John stayed to the bitter bitter end there that's just one of the things Shannon Bream writes about in a brand new book the love stories of the bible speak and we're offering this book to you for your gift of any size this month to help us to continue to bring God's word to people and proclaim the gospel yeah and Shannon highlights a number of relationships in scripture more than a dozen in fact including Adam and Eve David and Abigail Ruth and Boaz Mary and Joseph and many others we learn so much about the different aspects of love spoken of in scripture we'd like to send this new book your way to thank you for partnering with us so these daily studies can keep coming your way we're completely listener supported so ask for the love stories of the bible speak as you donate today you can call us at 1-800-821-3300 call any time 1-800-821-3300 or just go online to harvest.org hey everybody what are you doing this weekend i'd like to hang out with you at Harvest at Home when is Harvest at Home it is a time of worship and bible study exclusively designed for people that are viewing in from all over the place so you can be a part of our extended congregation at Harvest at Home join us this weekend saturday and sunday for Harvest at Home at harvest.org well next time more rich insights from our studies in john chapter six we're learning how to fan into flame the gifts god has given to us join us here on a new beginning with pastor and bible teacher greg laura a new beginning is a podcast made possible by harvest partners helping people everywhere know god if this show has impacted your life share your story leave a review on your favorite podcast app and help others find hope