Lessons in Ministry

Well, we learn in at least two different ways. Not only do we learn, we are discipled in at least two different ways. There is formal instruction and there's practical experience. And in both of those ways, we learn how to do things. Both of them are equally important, both formal classroom type instruction and hands-on experience. They're both important. In the medical field, you know, I don't want a doctor doing open heart surgery on me. He's never had any classes and doesn't know a sternum from a sternum. I wouldn't want that, neither would you. But I wouldn't also want a doctor who's never had a residency and who's never done some work on actual people and served in a capacity of helping someone. I wouldn't want an airline mechanic to be working on an engine of the plane. I was going to fly on who'd never had any classes in knowing what the parts of the engine are and studying that wouldn't know a piston from a pistol. I wouldn't want that, neither would you. And I also wouldn't want an airline mechanic who would never had a wrench in his hand and didn't know anything about the practical side of it. Both are important. And in Jesus' training of his disciples, he does both. The discipleship is also a hands-on experience type thing but also some formal instruction. And Jesus did a lot of formal instruction, the sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 through 7, the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and 25, the Upper Room Discourse in John 14 through 16, Parables the Kingdom, Matthew 13, lots of places where Jesus formally taught and instructed as disciples. But he also gave them lots of hands-on experience. And the story we're going to look at today in John 6, the feeding of the 5,000 is one of those times where the disciples learned a lot more from what they experienced than what they heard. And so Jesus is going to take the practical experiences of a day and teach his disciples some very important lessons in ministry. Now we won't get them, we won't see the full significance of them, unless we see the full setting of this story. The feeding of the 5,000 which is recorded for us in our passage in John 6 is the only miracle of Christ that is recorded in all four of the gospels. And each of the gospels adds a little different detail here and there about the story. You really have to put them all together to get the full scope of the story. For instance, Luke tells us that the disciples have just returned from a preaching tour of Galilee. And they're reporting to the Lord about the great things that have happened and all that God has done and his power through this preaching tour. The Bible also tells us in Matthew that Jesus has just heard about John the Baptist's death. And he's also heard that Herod is out to get him and apprehending because he wants to meet him. He's heard a lot about him and superstitiously he thinks John the Baptist has been raised from the dead as come back to haunt him because Herod is the one who put John the Baptist to death. And so Herod's trying to get his hands on Jesus. Mark's Gospel tells us that the multitudes were going and coming to such an extent that Jesus and His disciples did not even have a chance to eat. So put all those factors into the beginning of this story. Jesus is being hounded by Herod who wants to apprehend him. His disciples are needing to process their ministry trip and tell him all about what's happened to kind of give it a report to him and maybe get some further guidance and instruction on that. And then they're just plain tired because they haven't even had a chance to eat with all the pressure of the crowds around them. And so for that reason Jesus takes them away to a private place, to a place where they can get away from the crowds, to a place where they can kind of unload and refresh and report and hide, if you will, it's supposed to be a retreat for them. But the events which follow, Jesus will use to teach them some very important lessons about ministry. Let's pick it up in John's Gospel chapter 6. With the first lesson he teaches them in the first five verses, a lesson in compassion. And what we will see first in these five verses is Jesus compassion, the compassion of Jesus. Look at the story, verse 1, sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the sea of Galilee, that is the sea of Tiberius. Now remember, we've seen from the other Gospels, particularly Mark's Gospel, that the whole purpose for that was for them to rest. Get away from the crowds, be able to have some time with him to report on their ministry, and Jesus is trying to get out of some public attention as well. And so there's a very specific purpose for this trip, but look at verse 2. And a great crowd of people followed him, because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Again, the other Gospels fill in a few details. Mark tells us that some of the people actually beat Jesus into disciples to the landing spot. They followed along the northern shore of the sea of Galilee as they watched the boat go across the sea. It's not a big sea. Sea of Galilee is six miles wide, 13 miles long, and they're going across the northern top of it. And so they probably can see the boat, and some of the crowd actually beats them to the landing spot. Mark's Gospel says, put Mark and John together, and you find out that Jesus reached the shore, and then did take his disciples up. John tells us in verse 3, Jesus went up on a mountainside, sat down with his disciples. So he does go up on the mountainside to begin processing their ministry trip with them, and giving them a little R and R. But the Bible also tells us Matthew and Mark's Gospel says that a crowd is gathering at the base of the mountain. The rest of the crowd that didn't beat Jesus to the landing spot has now caught up. And those Gospels also tell us that people are coming from all the surrounding villages and towns to be a part of this crowd. John tells us in verse 4 that the Jewish Passover Festival was near. Now why would he mention that? Probably because that's like Independence Day for the Jewish nation. That's like July 4th to them. The Passover festivals when everybody made a journey to Jerusalem and celebrated their Independence from Egypt. Their Independence from slavery. And so it was like Independence Day holiday and people would gather in mass hordes from Galilee and travel down to Jerusalem. Those groups of people are already gathering and they are also swept into this crowd on this day. And so a huge multitude of people is gathering. Mark's Gospel tells us that Jesus saw the multitude and felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So Jesus is here to rest with His disciples but he looks at this gathering crowd and he just can't help his heart goes out to them. He has compassion on the because he sees them like sheep gathering without a shepherd to lead them. And so Luke tells us that he went down from the mountain, welcomed the crowd warmly and began to heal their sick and teach them. And that ministry lasted the rest of the day. Now remember they were out there to get some R&R. In fact look at this verse in Mark's Gospel that we'll put on the screen just to show you this. This was the express purpose for them going here. Then because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat. He said to them, come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. But when they got there they were not by themselves. It was anything but a quiet place and they didn't get any rest. So what Jesus is going to teach his disciples is a lesson in compassion. When Jesus looked down the mountain and saw the crowds he was moved with compassion. What did he do? Did he say this was on my schedule three months ago? I am going to take this vacation, come whatever I am not going to go down the mountain. Though Jesus went down to the mountain. The base of the mountain started ministering to the people. This is the lesson he's teaching his disciples. Ministry means putting the needs of people first. Ministry means putting the needs of others first. That's a great lesson to his disciples. It's a practical lesson, a hands-on lesson. This is supposed to be their day off and Jesus will show them that there are people with needs that must be ministered to. Now that lesson applies primarily to those who are in ministry as a vocation. But it also applies to all of us as Christians. And that is that we need to put the needs of other people first. In ministry it means that you are 24-7 on call. You go anytime. You drop your own plans if necessary. And you catch up on other work when it can get done. But the needs of people come first. If you're not ready to make that level of commitment to ministry, then you will be a poor shepherd of people. Now having said that, and I think that's the lesson that Jesus is getting across. I want to give a couple of caveats, a couple of balancing statements to that. So I think that's the overriding lesson here. We went to get rest. The situation did not allow that. The people needs were greater and so Jesus ministered to the needs of the people all day long. I think that's the overriding lesson. But let me give a couple of balancing cautions along with that from other parts of scripture. Because this can be taken to an extent that is not wise by some people. First of all, let me give a caution to those with families. And I'm speaking now to our pastors, but also for the insight and information and hopefully blessing of our whole congregation. For those who have families, they are also your ministry. In fact, they are your primary ministry. Our primary ministry is to our family. God gave us them before He gave us in most cases our ministries. And so yes, while other people's needs take priority, we cannot neglect our families for the sake of the needs of everyone else. Paul admits as much in 1 Corinthians 7 when he says that's the advantage that singles have in ministry. If you don't have a family, he says you can give yourself wholeheartedly to the ministry and never think about anything else. But he says if you have a family, you've also got family to think about. He admits that in 1 Corinthians 7. He says I wish everybody in ministry was like me without the incumbrance of a family. But he said if you've got a family, that's a primary ministry and don't forget that. And I will confess that I have not always been wise in managing that. There are still some marks, although I have a great relationship with my three girls. There are a few marks there because of some unwise choices I made in that regard. And I take full responsibility for those. Something I've had to learn in managing and leading a staff is that those of our staff who have young children need more flexibility and more leeway in scheduling because of the very thing I'm talking about. People need come at all times and yet they have children at home. So please understand that as a congregation for especially our younger pastors with families at home. They've got to be daddy's too and all of us need to be husbands as well. And so there's a caution there to balance out what I'm saying here about compassion and the needs of people coming first. A second caution is a caution about over commitment. It is possible because of the unceasing demands of ministry, the 24-7 on call, you can become over committed. And it's very possible to do that. It happened. It was happening in the first century to the apostles in the book of Acts. The church was booming with growth. Thousands were being saved. And with those thousands of salvation decisions and people being added to the body, they were increasing complexities of leadership and managing that number of disciples. And one of the management issues that became a crisis in Acts chapter 6 was the feeding of widows. And there was a little bit of a difficulty with greasian widows who felt like maybe because of their ethnicity they were being neglected. More so than the Hebrew widows and weren't getting their fair share of help from the church. And so they started raising some complaints. And you know what the apostles said, the apostles said in Acts chapter 6 and verse 4, it is not wise for us to leave the ministry of the Word of God in prayer to serve tables. Now were the apostles above serving tables? Were they saying that's low people's work? We're above that. No, no, they were not saying that at all. What they were recognizing is that if they got intimately enmeshed in every organizational detail of the early church, they would soon become over committed to the point that they could not give time to the priority of their ministry, which was the ministry of the Word and prayer. And so here's their solution. They said, let's choose some other people that can do this kind of hands-on ministry and Acts chapter 6 verse 6. We will devote ourselves to the ministry of the Word and prayer. Now I'm going to stop preaching for a moment and I'm just going to talk with you a little bit. Okay? I will not always be here. I'm not making any announcements or anything like that. As far as I know, my health is good. I could stand and do a few pounds, but other than that, health's good. I have no plans to leave anything like that. But I'm getting older. In case you hadn't noticed, and I'm sure you hadn't. But I'm getting a little older. And so I will not always be here. And what I want to say next, even by way of giving a little history, is for the sake of those who will follow me. I've had a wonderful, wonderful 22 and a half years of ministry here. God has blessed me abundantly here. And I love this place. This place is my heart. We had to make some transitions along the way that were not easy, either for you or for me. When I came to Johnston Chapel, the church in the decade of the 90s, by God's grace began to grow some. And it had had growth experiences in the past and those are ebb and flow kind of things. But the church over a period of seven or eight years grew from an average of about 350 and attendance to about 470. We were bumping up against 500. And I was still doing all the visitation and all the counseling and in addition to speaking, actually eight times a week at that time, because I was doing three, three lessons in chapel, the Institute on Thursday evening and preaching two services on Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night and other things as well. And so I was I was beginning to stretch my family to thin. I was out five evenings a week. I wasn't doing right by staff or anything else. And I my ministry was beginning to suffer. And I don't know if you remember us having a guest speaker in in 1997, Walt Hanford from South Side Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina. And he sat me down and read me the riot act. And said, you've got to do something or you will be dead in five years and you won't have any family. And so we did. I started talking with the deacons and we decided to hire another pastor who would focus on two primary concerns, counseling and visitation. And that pastor was Jim Simmons 15 years ago this fall. We hired Jim Simmons to do those two primary things, visitation and counseling. It was a huge shift for us and it was difficult. It was difficult for me. It was difficult for our church. I know. Because you know in a smaller church, you're used to seeing the senior pastor there every time you're in the hospital. Now if I show up, you think you're dying. You know, it's really got serious. No, not really. I still do some hospital visitation, but not like I used to. I still would love to be the one showing up at the hospital all the time. I love that people contact. I still would love doing all the baptisms, all the weddings, all the funerals because those are bonding times for shepherds with their sheep. And I missed that, but I knew that I couldn't continue to do all of that and focus on the primary ministry of the word and prayer. I've read an article recently by a well-known pastor in our nation who basically said that's a sacrifice and a burden that a senior pastor has to make as a church grows. And you understand we've got a thousand folks in this church, over 900 members. Obviously we can't find them all on Sunday morning, but we've got that many members. And more people who call this their church that we minister to, and so it's impossible for me to do the hands-on stuff with everybody like I used to. I love that, but I can't do all of that and focus on the ministry of the word. It was a difficult transition, as I said. It was difficult for our church. I knew a lot of people didn't understand, and I heard a lot of things. I heard that I no longer had a heart for ministry that I spent too much time in my study, that there were unflattering comparisons with our beloved founding pastor, Jimmy Jones. And I understood all of that, although it hurt, I understood all of that because I knew we were in a transition kind of phase in our ministry. I'm saying this for the benefit and sake of the next pastor. Give him the freedom to do what God's called him to do. Without the expectation that he will always be the one at the hospital or always be doing everything else, we have other pastors who are capable and do it much better than I could, I'm sure. But just like the apostles, there's a danger of over-commitment to the point that you lose your family, you lose your health or sanity, and you're not doing the church much good either. So from the get-go, I've always seen my ministry here as kind of transition, you know, transition from the old days to maybe another kind of future. So that's one of the ways I see us transitioning to more of a biblical staff model of like the apostles taught in Acts 6. So danger of over-commitment, I want to go back to preaching now, okay? The lesson remains in spite of the cautions and they are necessary cautions. The cautions about over-commitment and the cautions about those with family are needed cautions. But the lesson is still there. Ministry is about people and people needs come first. Jesus modeled that. He had expressly taken his men away from for some R&R and when the people needs were right there in front of him, the people needs came first before the R&R, before the day off, before the vacation time. A lesson in compassion, second lesson he taught them is a lesson in faith. A lesson in faith and this is a lesson that did not come easy for these men and it does not come easy for us either. Notice if you will, the test of faith, particularly for one of the disciples, but it was really a test for all of them. The test of faith in verses 5 through 7, when Jesus looked up and saw great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? When Jesus sees all this multitude and this is early in the day, Jesus says where are we going to get bread for all these people to eat? Now this is the only time in the gospels Jesus ever asks for advice. It almost sounds like he doesn't know what he is going to do. Where are we going to get bread for these people? I have no clue, so I am asking you Philip, but just so that we understand that is not the case, John in writing this adds verse 6. He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Jesus already knew how he was going to feed the multitude. What is going to happen miraculous in this story? Jesus already knew what he was going to do. The question was asked to test the faith of Philip and by extension all the other apostles, verse 7. Philip answered him, it would take more than half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite. Did you notice Philip didn't answer the question? The question was where are we going to get bread to feed these people? Philip doesn't say, well, there is a crovers down there around the corner, they got all kinds of bread. He didn't answer the question. He started calculating, he started figuring. Okay, look, this crowd of people, I would estimate somewhere around 5,000 men probably, I don't know, maybe 10,000, 12,000 people, I don't know which a bite of bread would cost. Eight months wages it would cost to feed this crowd, Jesus, even just a little bite. He didn't answer the question, but he failed to test. Now, what's important to recognize is, again, if you put all the gospel accounts together, there is a break between verses 7 and 8. And there's a lot that happens. Again, you put all the gospel records together, you realize Jesus asked Philip this question early in the day and he lets Philip's response just sit. And he goes about healing and teaching the rest of the day. Letting the disciples think about the question. Letting the disciples think about Philip's answer. Our later, at the end of the day, the disciples come to him and give him their solution. And their solution is this, the other gospels tell us, send them away to the surrounding villages, let them get themselves something to eat. Otherwise, we don't have the resources to do this, we can't do this, let them go find something to eat. And it is then that Andrew asks, or brings the little boy in verses 8 and 9 with the five small barley loaves and two small fish. We'll get back to that in a moment. I want to focus for a moment on Philip's response. He failed the test of faith. He was very matter of fact. He was very calculating. He was very business-like, but he showed limited vision and faith. In Philip's mind, the answer to whether or not we can feed this crowd is totally dependent upon the resources we have at hand. And so he begins with his equations, with his math, with his calculations. Totally forgetting to factor into that equation, the power of Jesus. The power of Christ. Totally absent in Philip's mind from the mathematical figures. And when we live life that way, we will always end up finding reasons why it can't be done, why it's impossible, why I can't face this challenge, or I can't do that ministry, or we as a church can't move forward. When all we have is business-like acumen, we will always come short of what God wants to do. Now I'm not appealing for unbusiness-like lack of restraint. I'm not appealing for throwing caution to the wind and being unwise stewards of what gives us. I'm not appealing for that. But I am saying when God puts us either individually or as a church in a position where we're facing something that is staring us in the face and needs to be done, we cannot beg off because of lack of resources. We've got to learn different math. We've got to learn how to do equations differently when it comes to that. And we've got to learn to factor into power of Christ. And to lesson for all of us here, sometimes God puts all of us in situations that look absolutely humanly impossible. It may be the loss of a job. It may be an unexpected bill. It may be a tragic turn of events. It may be a problem at home for you. It could be an important decision that you're facing and you have no clue what to do. God puts all of us in situations where the task before us looks impossible. And if our first response is to only meet that challenge with the resources we have at hand, we fail the test just like Philip did. Now with a church, it often looks like finances. With a church, it often looks like this. God wants us to move in a certain area, to do a certain ministry, to be aggressive in sending the gospel to the world. And yet we count our shekels and there just doesn't seem to be enough to do that. And so we back away. Could it be that God is testing us like he was Philip? Could it be that God is testing us like he was Abraham? When he told Abraham, I want you to go to a land that I'm going to tell you. And he didn't tell him. Read Hebrews, it's there. He went to a land he didn't know. And he didn't know where to stop until God told him to stop. So his whole journey was blindly following the leading of the Lord. He never knew where he was going to end up. Most of us would never think of doing that without a GPS or a trick-tick. But God said, I'm going to take you to a place and I'm not going to show you where it is. Just follow me. He was testing his faith and God may sometimes test our faith that way. God may be testing us like he did the children of Israel. They come to the border of the Promised Land and the Jordan Rivers in the way. Now the Jordan River is not a real big river in the normal time of year. It's not that big, but Joshua said it was in flood stage, which means it would be 12 to 14 feet deep. And it would overflow into the surrounding valleys. You talk about getting old people across that, getting animals across that, getting babies across that. It's a formidable obstacle. And God leads them right up to the verge of it and says, now here's what we're going to do. You're going to gather up and put the ark of the coming out in front, 2000 yards out in front. Everybody can see it. And the whole nation can see this and the priests are going to carry that thing. And I'm going to move you toward the river with only the promise that I will roll it back. And so they start walking toward the river and it's still rolling. It's still flowing. And they're getting closer and it's still flowing. And it doesn't stop. God doesn't roll it back until the priests actually step into the edge of the water. I don't know about you, but the way I like to operate is let me see it roll back first. Then I'll move. God doesn't sometimes work that way. God may be testing us like He did them. God may be testing us like He did, Joshua Fed. I've been reading in Second Chronicles. There's a great story in Second Chronicles 20 about Joshua Fed facing the armies of Midian and Amelie. And these two armies far outnumber Judas army, like Pinda One. And Joshua Fed goes out to battle. And in Second Chronicles 20 verse 12, he says, Lord, these armies are too big for us. We cannot defeat them. And then he says this amazing thing. He says, and we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. Wow. I don't live that way a lot. I'll be honest with you. My eyes are on the problem. My eyes are on the resources to meet the problem. My eyes are on my ability to figure things out. When in reality what I need to do, if God's put me in a position where there's an obstacle too big for me, my eyes need to be on Him. Yes, the army is too big. Lord, I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on you. My eyes are on you. That's a test of faith. One lady by the name of Eileen Flow Myers in a book that she wrote told this story. While my husband was making preparations for a trip through the Eastern States, I was adding up the expense of a dog kennel, motels and restaurants. When I decided it was too costly to travel, he just left, came back a little while later with a piece of paper in his hand. He said he composed this epitaph he was going to put on my gravestone. Here's what it said. Here lies the body of Eileen Flow. He wanted to travel and she wouldn't go. She saved and saved and saved a lot and with the money he bought this plot. You know what's really sad is that same epitaph could be put on many churches. God wanted to travel and we did not. God wanted to go and we did not because we were counting the cost. We saved, saved, saved, saved and with it bought our own burial plot. It's possible for the epitaph of a church to read the same thing. It's possible for our life history to read the same thing that we would never move unless I had the resources to meet the challenges. And we never once trusted God. Never wore our eyes on Him. Never did we approach the Jordans with faith. Never did we go to the land of Canaan not knowing where we were going to end up. God sometimes tests our faith and there's a reason for faith. Notice if you will there was a good reason for them to trust Christ and it was in what they saw Him do. In verses 10 through 13 we'll come back to verses 8 and 9 in just a minute. But look at verse 10. The reason for their faith was that Jesus showed they could trust Him. Notice what He does. Verse 10. Jesus said, have the people sit down. There was plenty of grass in that place and they sat down about 5,000 men were there. With women and children some estimate 10 to 12 maybe 15,000 people in all 5,000 men. Oh by the way, Jesus does believe in organization. Did you see it there? He said have them sit down. Obviously two reasons for that. You start handing out food if you've got 15,000 people in an uncontrolled situation. There's a mass mob toward where the food's been passed out. Almost every refugee crisis faces that. Just watch the news. But it's also going to be easier to serve them for the disciples if they are in groups of the other gospels tell us 50 to 100 people. So Jesus is not against planning ahead in organizing. In spite of what I've just said about sometimes He puts us in places where we do not have the resources. He does believe in organizing and planning ahead. There's a balance here. So he says, okay, organize them have them sit down in groups of 50 to 100. And then I love what he does next. Verse 11. Then Jesus took the lobes. By the way, we hear that word lobes and we think of, oh this is French bread. Maybe that long. Or at least one of our loaves of bread. The Greek word for loaf here is a word that was used in the first century of a small biscuit. Size piece of bread. Kind of like it was pita bread probably but kind of biscuit size. We're going to see in a moment it was a small loaf and the fish were small. By the way, the two fish the word used for fish is not an 18 inch out, 18 inch long trout. It's a very small fish that was just included with the meal to give a little bit of taste to the bread. They were about the size of sardines. So somewhere between anchovies and sardines is what you're talking about here. It's not this not big stuff. But I love what Jesus does. He took the lobes gave thanks. Now stop there for a moment. I would love to have seen this. Here's maybe 15,000 people seated ready to receive a meal. Jesus opens a little lunch bag there before him sits down. Actually it would have been a little basket that was carried on the waste band, the belt that could carry a day's provision. But let's just imagine that in our setting he's got a little school lunch bag there before him. He opens it up. Here's 15,000 people and he's starting to pray and give thanks like he's going to start a meal. I would love to have seen the disciples sneaking glasses at each other during the prayer. You know? I can just see what is he thinking? This little bag, look at these people, I would love to have seen Peter. And what he must have been thinking during this prayer, but Jesus has just opened it up like he's going to start a meal. Giving thanks. Oh my. And then, verse 11, distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted he did the same with the fish. Now the Bible doesn't tell us exactly how the miracle happened. I don't think it was in the hands of the apostles. I think it was in the hands of Jesus where it happened. It's like his other miracles that would stand a reason. So if you can imagine it, which I love to do with these stories, not just read over them, but imagine being there. Imagine Jesus reaching down into that little basket. And he says, Peter, come over here. Open your basket and Jesus starts dipping bread into it. Now remember, there are only five little biscuits. He's already given Peter about 20. And then he says, James, you come over here. Starts passing it out to him. I think it was kind of like the miracle of the widow in 1st King 17 with Elijah, where you've got just enough oil and meal for one meal. And the miracle was that it will never run out. You'll always have enough for the next day. I don't think all of a sudden there was an explosion of bread out of that little basket line all over the ground. I think Jesus just kept handing it out. Amazing. They could trust him. You see what he's doing? You see his power? Verse 12, when they all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, gather the pieces that are left over. They were all waiting to be wasted. So they gathered them and filled 12 baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. These were good folks. They ate all the meat, left some of the bread. 12 baskets full. If you're doing the math, that's a basket for every one of the disciples to take with them. Jesus can be trusted. What a rebuke to the disciples. They had calculated. We can't do this. Send them away. Let them get their own food. What they forgot to factor into the equation was the power of Christ that he can take a little and fill them up with it. He's able to do that. And all how I lack faith in him, all how I think sometimes we all lack faith in Christ and his ability to do what looks impossible to us or at least kind of scary or unusual to us. When we know that God is moving us in a direction and he's saying to do something, we cannot use meager resources as an excuse not to move. We've got to just step forward and trust him. Many of you know that my wife, Jeannie, is going to Haiti this Thursday. She's basically going to help our daughter Ruth and her husband, Robert and their three children on a mission trip to Haiti. Back in March, they took a group of Moody students, been to Haiti on a mission trip and fell in love with the work there in an orphanage. And want to go back with their whole family this summer. And so Robert can't go for the first week. Ruth called Jeannie back in March and said, can you go with me mom? And immediately that kind of through a test that us Jeannie has some pretty serious ear problems and has had numerous eardrum ruptures. And finally after a flight about two and a half years ago when she got another infection eardrum ruptured the doctor, her ENT doctor said no more flights, no more flying. And so when we were asked this and really Jeannie had a burden to do this. Lots of reasons why felt like it was necessary to be there with Ruth and Robert. And so she really had a burden to do it. And so we said, okay, Lord is this something you're wanting or is this just off the wall? So we decided to ask the Lord to do something to show us. Obviously this was not a trip we had planned for. It was not something we had budgeted. And so you just don't come up with those kinds of funds for the flight and that kind of a trip quickly. And so we said, okay, Lord, if you are really in this and we need to know that it's going to be okay for Jeannie physically. And if you're really in this, we're asking you to show us by providing the funds. And we could have come up with it in some way. But we want to know if this is a view or just of us. Within a week, I got a letter from the IRS. Don't you love those letters? Don't you cringe whenever you get one. I opened it up and it said there was an error on your tax return. Actually what it ended up being was the form that I downloaded from their website on self employment tax. The part of that that we had a wrong percentage on it. And I remember when I filled out my taxes, I looked at that and I said, boy, they've really bumped up the percentage this year. And that's going to cost us. And so we ended up having to pay some and they wrote back and said there was an error on the form, the computation of your taxes is not correct. You are actually owed a refund within a week of us asking the Lord and it was just over what she needed for the trip. And so we said, okay, Lord, we believe this is a view. We actually got to check the next day. I don't believe IRS letters for one thing. So that check actually came the next day. And there it was. And that Friday we got to check on a Tuesday that Friday she had an appointment with her ENT doctor. And we're kind of thinking, okay, Lord, this is the next part of the test. Isn't it? What's he going to say when she tells him she's planning on flying? And she said to the doctor, told him the story. I want to do this. In your opinion is it okay. He said, I'm not going to tell you you can't fly. After hearing the story, I'm not going to tell you you can't fly. I'll give you some extra medicine. You can take it with you. If you have a problem, you can handle it. You know what to do. But yeah, you got my blessing. Go ahead. And then all this chicken gumbo fever or whatever chicken munga chicken munga fever came up in the last couple of weeks. And people have started asking, so are you still going to Haiti with all that dreaded fever going on through that country? And her answer, I'm a little uptight about it, but her answer is basically God opened the way to go. He wants me to go. He'll take care of me. I mean, she's not going to be foolish. She's going to take a mosquito net and bug spray and take medicines and all that kind of stuff. But can we trust God? And even if she does get chicken munga fever, is that okay? If it's in God's plan? You see, we can trust God. When he asks us to do something that looks difficult or impossible, if we know he wants us to do it, he can provide. He can make the way clear. We've got to trust him to do that as individuals, as churches, as our church. We've got to trust God rather than just figuring our resources and making every decision based on whether or not we have the resources in hand to do it. We've got to trust God that he will grant the resources. And when we step out on faith and we know it's something he wants us to do, he will honor that faith. It was a test in faith, but quickly our time is almost up. There's a lesson in availability here as well. A lesson in availability. I want you to see Andrew's faithless offer in verse 8. Now remember the timing of this. This is what makes it so beautiful. Jesus asked the question to Philip early in the day. Let's them mold it over all day long. They come back to him at the end of the day and saying it's late in the day, send them out to the neighboring villages to get themselves something to eat. And Mark's Gospel tells us, I think Mark and Luke both maybe say, Jesus told them you give them something to eat. Exclamation point. Whoa boy, the monkey's really on their backs now. In fact, one of the Gospel says he said to Andrew, go see, go and see. How much bread do we have? Go and see. And Andrew comes back with this report. Oh, I'd love to have seen this. Another of disciples, verse 8, Andrew, Simon Peters rather spoke up. Here is a boy. Again, the Greek language is so precise, there's a double diminutive here, which basically means it scales it down in size twice. What he's basically saying is there is a little, little boy here. Basically, all we got is a tiny kid. Look, notice the emphasis on small on meager resources. There's a tiny, tiny kid here with five small barley loaves. Notice the word small when you've read this story before, biscuit size, barley, those. And by the way, barley was the lowest kind of grain to be used in that day to make biscuits with. It was only used by the poor. We got a little, little kid here. He's only got five small loaves and they're made out of the cheapest kind of barley you can get. And then two small fish. See the word small again. Every effort is made to highlight the fact that the resources are very meager. And Andrew asked, as I probably would, in a faithless way, but how far will they go? I'm like so many. Lord, how far will they go? Lord, what do you want us to do with this little kid? Five small little biscuits and two little sardines? Jesus basically saying, all I want you to do is make them available. There's a lesson in availability here and the lesson is this. God can multiply our meager resources. He really can. And that's what makes the difference. It is good to see for Andrew, for Peter, for Philip, for all of us. It is good to see that God can take whatever we have available and multiply it and use it. It is not what we have to offer. It's whether or not we make it available to him. And then he can multiply it and use it. God can do that. Can we trust him to do that? It's not how much ability you've got. It's not how much intelligence you've got. It's not how much money you've got. It's not how much experience you've got. Whatever he has given you, you make available to him and he can multiply it and use it. God may be stirring you to serve. You may hear a missionary like you did a couple weeks ago and at Williams. Or you may hear a missionary come and God stirring your heart and you're giving him 50 reasons why you can't do it and all of them have to do with your limited resources. You don't understand the face of life I'm in. You don't understand my financial obligations. I can't do this. I don't have the intelligence to do that. I don't have the experience to do that. I don't have the ability to do that. And God all the time is just saying, give me what you have. I will multiply that and I will use that. Don't ever let me go resources personally individually. Stand in your way of serving God. Don't ever use that excuse. God can take whatever you're willing to offer him and use it for his glory. He will. What a tremendous lesson. What a tremendous lesson in ministry. I was 17 years old when God began dealing with me about going into ministry and I was scared to death of it. Honestly, I was. Those of you who knew my dad probably know this. My personality is more like my dad's than my mother's. I'm hesitant to take leadership. I don't like being the one up front. Honestly, when I first started preaching, I would get sick to my stomach every Saturday night. I still have butterflies. They've learned to quiet down just a little bit, but they still are there. It is not in my nature to do what I do. God has taught me a lot and been very gracious to me and I have never had any question about where. Whatever's needed comes from to do what I do because I don't have it in myself. Honestly, I do not. I have meager resources. I don't know how to evaluate my ministry. I'm not even sure it's possible to do that. I just know I've been in it 41 years. And I'm like Paul, I don't want to judge until the day when Christ will do the judging and he'll sort everything out. But if anything has ever been done constructively or in a spiritual way through my ministry, I have no question where that came from. It does not come from me. I have no question. And God had to deal with me on this early in my ministry because the first church that asked me to come when I was 21 years old, I said no without even praying about it. I was their youth pastor. They wanted me to be their pastor. I said no. And God took me through a valley and taught me. When I present you with an opportunity, don't use your excuses and I gave them all 21 years old. I don't have any experience. I'm still in Bible college. I got a year and a half of Bible college left. And finally God just brought me down and said, this is what I want you to do. And he's been doing that ever since. I can tell you from firsthand experience, all of us have meager resources. None of us have what it takes to do what God wants us to do. And all of us could use that as an excuse. Just make yourself available. God will take you and multiply whatever you have and use it for his glory. God taught his disciples that they a lesson in compassion. And ministry means putting the needs of others first. He taught them a lesson in faith. You can trust me to meet impossible odds in your life. And he taught them a lesson in availability. Don't use lack of resources as an excuse. Just give me what you have. I don't care if it's a teeny little kid with five little biscuits and two sardines. I can feed 15,000 people with it. God can do that. How we limit him and lack seeing his power because we've not learned these lessons. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to journey with you through the pages of scripture and what's recorded of your life. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to journey with you through life and believe that you can do the same today that you did yesterday. You can still take me go resources and use them for your glory. Multiply them. Mother, help us to learn the lessons of compassion for others. Putting others needs first. Help us to learn the lesson of trusting you when our faith is tested. Help us to learn the lesson to give you whatever we have, how meager, however meager it may be. And trust you to use it in a way that you want to. In Jesus precious name we pray. Amen.