TripAdvisor<\/a>. So I ordered the fish tacos. They were delicious. They were also $11 for two fish tacos. You can\u2019t feed even one person with 2 fish tacos. How do you feed 5000 families with 2 fish tacos?<\/span><\/p>\nIt takes faith.<\/span><\/p>\nThis is a story that teaches about faith.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n\u201c\u201cBut we only have five loaves and two fish here,\u201d they said to Him. \u201cBring them here to Me,\u201d He said.<\/i>\u201d (Matthew 14:17\u201318, HCSB)<\/span><\/p>\nIt took faith for the young boy to give up the food for his entire family and give it to Jesus. It took faith for Abraham to leave his country and go where God told him to go. It takes faith for a church to share hope with the community. It takes faith for you and I to follow God and do what He tells us to do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThis is also a story that teaches about multiplication.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThen He commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. Everyone ate and was filled. Then they picked up 12 baskets full of leftover pieces!<\/i>\u201d (Matthew 14:19\u201320, HCSB)<\/span><\/p>\nGod is on the business of multiplication. We think in terms of addition. We think: 2+2=4; 4+4=8, 8+8=16. We think that we add people to the church and to the kingdom of God. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGod thinks in multiplication. He thinks: 4\u00d74=16; 8\u00d78=64; 5 loaves and 2 fish = food for 5000 families.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGod did it with Elijah and the widow of Nain.<\/span><\/p>\nGod did it with the people in the wilderness.<\/span><\/p>\nGod did it with Hezekiah against the Assyrians by providing an unseen army.<\/span><\/p>\nGod did it here with this little boy and his food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThat brings us to the barrier to multiplication \u2013 scarcity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBARRIER TO MULTIPLICATION: SCARCITY MENTALITY<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n\u201c\u201cThey don\u2019t need to go away,\u201d Jesus told them. \u201cYou give them something to eat.\u201d \u201c<\/i><\/span>But we only have five loaves and two fish here<\/i><\/span>,\u201d they said to Him.<\/i>\u201d (Matthew 14:16\u201317, HCSB)<\/span><\/p>\nLet me illustrate it here:<\/span><\/p>\nIllustration:<\/b> Take a piece of bread and divide it among everyone. (Notice how everyone takes the bread, divides it and never asks for more. Now inform them. Hey, why didn\u2019t anyone ask for more bread? See, I some more here.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWe look at the financial and resource barriers and think \u201cno way.\u201d Fish tacos for 5000 people would cost over $55000. We can\u2019t do that. But God doesn\u2019t have these barriers. We have to ask in faith. We think in terms of scarcity. That\u2019s division of resources. But Jesus doesn\u2019t divide. He multiplies. He takes what little you have and multiplies.<\/span><\/p>\nThis is a story that teaches the importance of blessing.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThen He commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.<\/i>\u201d (Matthew 14:19, HCSB)<\/span><\/p>\nHow do you have faith? How do you multiply? How do you do impossible community service with so little?<\/span><\/p>\nLook at what they did in this story:<\/span><\/p>\nYou have to trust Jesus with the resources. You have to give it up to Jesus. You have to let Jesus BLESS what we give him. You have to do what Jesus says to do with the resources once He multiplies. You still have what is left over for yourself.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\nJesus\u2019s blessing is the key to the multiplication and the faith. After Jesus blesses, then you see multiplication. Question: Where did Jesus get the extra fish? We don\u2019t know. He never shows us. It is not like Jesus pulled out a replicator and reproduced fish. He doesn\u2019t have to do that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJesus makes stuff out of nothing. The theological term is: ex nihilo. God creates ex nihilo. Just as God created the heavens and the Earth out of nothing, He can take the little that we have and multiply out of what seems nothing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nUltimately, this is a story that teaches about sharing hope.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nJesus multiplies to give hope to the people.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAs He stepped ashore, He saw a huge crowd, felt compassion for them, and healed their sick.<\/i>\u201d (Matthew 14:14, HCSB)<\/span><\/p>\nNotice the two steps to sharing hope: feeling compassion and then healing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe disciples\u2019 thinking was in terms of scarcity.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWhen evening came, the disciples approached Him and said, \u201cThis place is a wilderness, and it is already late. Send the crowds away so they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.\u201d<\/i>\u201d (Matthew 14:15, HCSB)<\/span><\/p>\nTHREE EXCUSES WHICH FEED THE SCARCITY MENTALITY<\/b><\/span><\/p>\nLook at the excuses which come with the scarcity mentality:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nthe place is a desert (place has no resources),\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nit is late (no time to get the resources ourselves),\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nsend them away (it is not our job to help them).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBlessing overcomes scarcity and it gives hope to people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJesus was thinking: the people need hope. Bless them. He was thinking in terms of multiplication.<\/span><\/p>\nWe have fish and bread \u2013 resources which God can use to multiply His kingdom and provide for the community. They are right here. It\u2019s the building you are in. It\u2019s the parking lot. It\u2019s the closet. It\u2019s the pavilion. It\u2019s the activity center. It\u2019s this church building. These are resources which God has given to us in order for us to give back to Him so that He can bless it and multiply it. This is a very important spiritual principle. We have to stop thinking in terms of scarcity (what little we have) and start thinking in terms of multiplication and blessing. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nEnding: we take three teams and go out asking people to go to what Jesus has given us to pray a prayer of blessing over it.<\/span><\/p>\nPavilion<\/span><\/p>\nCloset<\/span><\/p>\nActivity Center<\/span><\/p>\nChurch<\/span><\/p>\n\n<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Matthew 14:13-21 Sharing Hope with Others Matthew 14:13-21 \u201cSharing Hope with Others\u201d \u2013 a sermon about overcoming the scarcity mentality with a multiplication mentality through blessing. Illustration: Fish City Grill I went to go see Guardians of the Galaxy Friday evening. Before the film, I met up with Josh and his friend Greg at Fish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2886,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,104],"tags":[383,830,831,980,1307,1391,1763,12],"class_list":["post-3354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matthew","category-sermons","tag-blessing","tag-fish-city-grill","tag-fish-tacos","tag-guardians-of-the-galaxy","tag-matthew","tag-multiplication","tag-scarcity","tag-sermon"],"yoast_head":"\n
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