Lunch with Jesus | Unlocking the Power of Prayer

A New Beginning presents a new book from Pastor Greg Laurie. We are offering a brand new resource called The House of David Devotional and it's based on the great Psalms of David as well as the life of David. So I'm going to put this brand new devotional in your hand so you can learn from this man of God. Or your gift of any size at harvest.org.

It's the official companion resource for the new Amazon TV series also called The House of David. 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?

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 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. 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 passes. 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 work. Not only did that parrot not talk. He died. The man said, did he ever say anything to you at all? She said, he didn't 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 Tiberias. A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went because they saw the miraculous signs as he healed the sick. Then Jesus climbed the hill, 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 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 I don't know what to do with this and you know 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.

It'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 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. We love to hear stories of how lives have been changed through the teaching of God's word like this one. Pastor Greg I grew up in Southern California with a tough abusive father but an amazing mother. During that time I attended Harvest in Riverside but then eventually moved back east where I began to fall away from God. I started abusing alcohol and losing friends in the process but last fall while reading some of your teachings I declared to myself that I would dedicate my life back to Jesus, read the Bible and live a life of sobriety. I want to thank you Greg for helping me begin this healing process. We're so grateful to hear of the changed lives through Harvest Ministries and if you have a story to tell of how these studies have touched your life I hope you'll contact us today. Tell us your story by calling 866-871-1144.

That's 866-871-1144. Well 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.

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's this one scene people really love and it's 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 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 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 I said I'll go and I even sounded that way. I'll go.

Okay great 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's 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're 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.

Okay 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's the story of how we got our church. So but here's 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's 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're 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 opened. 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. 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 five thousand. And he tells that 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 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.

Uh 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 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 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 2nd 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're considering the rich insight we can draw from various dimensions of the feeding of the 5,000 and there's more to come. And then Pastor Greg I know you had a further word you wanted to share. So as you've been listening today maybe you've thought to yourself man I wish I had this relationship with God that is being talked about.

Well you can. He's only a prayer away. You see becoming a Christian it doesn't take years. It doesn't take months. It doesn't take weeks.

It it doesn't even take hours. It can happen in a moment. The Bible describes it as turning from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. But before that happens the Bible says you need to have your eyes open and here's the amazing thing. It's just like in a flash a light goes on and you say this is all true.

That's how it happened for me. I just heard the gospel and all of a sudden I realized this is all true and maybe you've realized that as well. Let me ask you would you like Jesus Christ to come into your life? Would you like him to forgive you of your sin?

Would you like this relationship with God we've been talking about today? If so why don't you just pray a simple prayer with me. You could pray it out loud if you like but say this to God. Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Jesus I turn from my sin and I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my savior and Lord as my God and friend. Thank you for hearing this prayer and I ask this in Jesus name amen. Hey did you just pray that prayer? If so I want to send you at no charge what we call a new believer's bible. Here's Dave to tell you more and let me just say congratulations you've made the right decision. Yeah yeah that's right and to help you begin to live this new life this life where you're at peace with God and can begin to enjoy the peace of God let us send you pastor greg's new believer's bible it's the perfect resource for someone who's new to the faith we'll send it free of charge if you'll just contact us and request it call us at 1-800-821-3300 that's 1-800-821-3300 or write a new beginning box 4000 riverside california 92514 or go online to harvest.org and click no god and then let us take a moment to thank you for praying for this ministry and for supporting it through your generous donation it's an investment in kingdom business isn't that right pastor greg yeah it's really true dave and i believe it's so important because you know the gospel saves lives it saves eternal lives because when a person believes in jesus according to scripture they pass from darkness to light from the power of satan to the power of god and then of course that changes the course of their future that impacts their children and their children's children the gospel changes everything and thousands and thousands of people respond every single year thanks to the lord also thanks to you for your investment in this ministry enabling us to reach people wherever they are so if this is something you care about i encourage you to make a financial investment in a new beginning and harvest ministries yeah that's right and we really do appreciate your support thanks for partnering with us today it can make a real difference not just for today or this week but for eternity so get in touch with your support today by calling 1-800-821-3300 that's a 24 7 phone number 1-800-821-3300 or write a new beginning box 4000 riverside california 92514 or go online to harvest.org well next time more rich insights from our studies in john chapter 6 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 lorry