The Lord can do a lot with a little
John 6:1-13
Slide
Good morning,
I am glad that you made it out today for our family Sunday.
It is always a blessing when our families get to be together and worship together.
Today is going to be a little different.
Instead of a sermon, we are going to have more of a story.
A story that I hope will help us to realize that even when we think we have only a little to offer, God can do amazing things with it when we offer it to Him.
Now before we get into our story, I want to ask you a question.
Playdoh
How many of you have ever played with Playdoh?
The easiest thing I used to make with Playdoh was pancakes. They were easy to do.
I need someone who can make me a stack of pancakes with playdoh.
(Have a 4th or 5th grader come up and give them just a little bit of playdoh to work with)
When you only have a little bit of something, it is hard to do a lot with it isn’t it?
Sometimes we feel that we have hardly anything to offer anyone.
Maybe we feel we are too young, so we can’t do anything.
Maybe we feel we too few skills, so we aren’t valuable.
Maybe we feel we just have too little to offer and you can’t do much when you only have a little.
While that may be true for us, that is not true for the Lord.
This morning, we are going to learn that
Our Lord can do a lot with a little.
Slide
I am going to invite all of our powerzone kids to come up this morning as Dawn Mollo comes up and reads the story we are going to look at today from “The Jesus Storybook Bible.”
Slide
Dawn reads Bible story
Bible story slides
Wow, that is amazing.
Jesus did a whole lot with not very much at all.
Thanks for reading that for us Dawn.
This morning, I want us to stop and take a look at the boy who gave these 5 loaves and 2 fish that Jesus used to feed this huge crowd.
It is my hope that as we look at this boy, we will realize that no matter who we are or what little we have, when we offer it to Jesus, he can really do a lot with it.
Now there is a bit more detail given in the Jesus storybook Bible than an actual translation about this boy.
The only place we find mention of this boy in Scripture is in John 6:8-9
After Jesus told the disciples to see what they had, this is what it says.
John 6:8-9
Slide
8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"
So the only thing it tells us on the surface is that this boy had 5 small Barley loaves and 2 small fish.
But we can discern a few other things about this boy from what is said here as well.
Barley Loaves = Poor
First, it tells us that the loaves he had were Barley loaves.
That tells us he was probably poor, or from a poor family.
Barley bread was more common for those who were poor while bread made with wheat was more common for those with more money.
So this boy was probably poor.
He is probably there alone
Second, he is probably there alone.
The text doesn’t say, “here is a man or a woman with a son who has five barley loaves and 2 fish,” it only says “here is a boy…”
You would think that if he was there with parents, they would have been the ones offering up what they brought as a family if that was the case. The boy probably wouldn’t even have this food if he was with his family, his parents would.
So, this boy was probably there alone.
Now what would this boy who is poor be doing out there alone with 5 small barley loaves and 2 fish?
Kids helped support family
Well, we know that in the society at that time, the whole family usually helped out in supporting the family. Everyone had responsibilities. We saw Joseph and his brothers taking care of the flocks in their family.
It would be normal, especially in a poor family for this boy to be helping out the family in some way.
Sea of Galilee
We also know that this whole scene is taking place on a hillside by the Sea of Galilee.
This story begins in
John 6:1-3 - Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples.
Jesus crossed over the Sea of Galilee and crowds followed him so he had compassion on them and went up on the mountainside and healed those who were sick and taught the people there many things.
Here is a picture of the region of the Sea of Galilee. The sea is right there pretty close to the mountains.
Slide
So, Jesus was up on a hillside speaking in an area that was still close to the Sea of Galilee.
Late in the day
One other thing we find from the text is that it is late in the day.
Matthew 14:15 tells us that evening was approaching
15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."
That is why the disciples wanted to send the people away, because they were out there and it was getting late and they didn’t have any food.
Ok, so what we can know from our text is that this boy who is poor out by the Sea of Galilee alone late in the day.
What would he be doing carrying 5 small barley loaves and 2 small fish at this time of the day, out there all alone?
While we don’t know for sure, I think a likely possibility was that this boy had gone fishing that day to help provide for his family. Maybe his mother packed some barley loaves for him to eat during the day while he was out there trying to catch some fish for the family to eat.
He went out and only caught a couple of small fish on this day, but maybe he didn’t eat all the bread that his mother gave him that morning and now that it is late in the day, he is starting to return home with his leftover bread and the 2 small fish he caught.
Can you imagine being a boy of maybe 11 or 12 years old, trying to be a help to your family and only catching a couple of small fish.
And while we don’t know this for sure, this could very well be the situation from what we know from the Scripture.
I bet this boy could be feeling like he is worthless, like he has nothing to offer.
He can’t even catch enough fish to be a help to his family.
Heading home
Now this boy is heading home and there is a huge crowd of people. What is going on?
He over hears some people talking about Jesus and about
the things he was teaching and
the sick people that were healed that day.
Kids vs. Grownups
Kids, have you ever heard grownups talking and you wanted to be part of the conversation, but they thought you were too young?
That is the way this boy might have felt.
He has heard about Jesus before. Everyone in the village had been talking about Him and the things He was doing and teaching. His parents had talked about him.
He wanted to see Jesus, so he started to move through the people toward where it was most crowded. He figured that Jesus must be there if He was anywhere.
Now this crowd was pretty big. We are told that there were 5,000 men not even including the women and children. There could have been close to 10,000 there if we counted them too.
Now as this boy makes his way through the crowd, there are some men that are coming and saying that Jesus wants to know if anyone has any food.
Now, the boy, thinking he might get to see Jesus, says “I have some.”
The man, Andrew asks what he has. He opens his bag and says he has some bread and a couple of fish.
Andrew peers into the bag. Not much indeed.
Andrew’s thoughts
I wonder what Andrew is thinking here.
Jesus had told the disciples to give them something to eat, but they didn’t have any food, and there were thousands of people to feed. It would have taken 8 months wages to feed this crowd.
Then Jesus told them to see how much food was available.
So the disciples were out seeing if anyone had any food to share.
I wonder if they felt that what Jesus asked was pointless. There wasn’t going to be enough food here. Why would Jesus ask us to do something like this? It is just a waste of time.
And now, considering that the only thing that Andrew found was this boy with 5 small barley loaves and 2 small fish, he probably knew it was a waste of time.
What could you do with so little?
So, Andrew brings the boy to Jesus and says
Slide
John 6:9 - "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"
Jesus takes what the boy offers to him and gives thanks for it.
Imagine that. He gives thanks for something so small, something that, to us, seems more like something to complain about than to give thanks for.
Then Jesus tells the disciples to have the people sit down and pass out what they have.
The disciples begin to reach in to the boy’s bag and hand out some bread and some fish.
This won’t take long, they think.
But as they distribute the fish and the loaves, there seems to be more than they started with. They have already distributed more than they started with and there is still more to give.
It seems the little that they started with has turned into a lot, a whole lot!
The boy is standing there amazed watching the loaves he had taken that morning for his lunch and the fish that he may have caught, feed thousands of people!
In fact, Jesus fed everyone there with those loaves and fish, and everybody did not just have a little to eat, but he fed everyone until they were full and there were even 12 baskets of leftovers.
Jesus took what this boy from a poor family had, this boy who probably felt like anything he had was too little, far too little to be of any help, and Jesus takes this little bit and does a whole lot with it.
Application
Maybe you kids here today are thinking that there is not much you have to offer the Lord that could be useful to him. I want to tell you that you don’t need a lot, you just need to offer the little you may have to the Lord so He can do a lot with it.
We got to see some of our youth come up and glorify the Lord by leading our musical worship this morning. You don’t have to be old to be used by the Lord.
Help Greet
Maybe some of you kids could help your parents who are greeters to welcome those who come into our church. There is nothing more exciting than seeing the smiling face of a young person when you come.
Tell friends
Maybe some of you who have received Jesus as your Savior could tell your friends about Him.
Invite friends
Maybe some of you who come to AWANA could invite your friends to come out so they can have fun, learn some Bible verses and hear about Jesus.
I am sure there are adults here who also wonder if they have anything that the Lord can use. Sometimes, for all of us, it seems we have too little to be of value. But that is how the Lord glorifies Himself. When we offer Him the little we have, He takes it and does unbelievable things. It not only glorifies Him, but it is a blessing to us.
We get to see and be part of the miracles that God does.
Our job is to offer up to Him what we have trusting that He can do amazing things with it.
We don’t need to have a lot to have the Lord work through us.
God wants to use you.
Are you willing to be used by Him?
Are you willing to offer up to Him whatever it is you have?
Your talents, your Treasure, your time?
Maybe you have been feeling like this boy recently.
Like you can’t do much, like you don’t have much to offer.
I want to tell you that God doesn’t want to use what you don’t have. He wants to use what you do have.
Conclusion
We are going to close in moment and pray.
God wants to do a miracle through us
As we do, I want you to realize that God wants to do a miracle through you.
With the little that you think you have, God can do amazing things when we offer it up to Him.
I want our prayer this morning,
to thank the Lord for what you have, no matter how little you think it is,
and to offer it up to Him to use.
God can do a lot with just a little. We just need to give Him the little He has given us and watch Him do amazing things.
God wants to do a miracle in us
But before God will do a miracle through us, He wants to do a miracle in us.
He wants to transform you by putting His Spirit in you.
The Lord puts His Spirit in us when we receive Jesus by believing in Him.
Ephesians 1:13-14
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession-to the praise of his glory.
His Spirit comes and lives in us permanently when we believe in and receive Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Romans 10:9 says “if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Experience the miracle of salvation by receiving Jesus by doing just that, confessing your belief to God that you believe that Jesus is the Lord and that you believe He died for you and resurrected from the dead and that you receive Him as your Savior.
When you do that the miracle of salvation occurs in you.
If you have never received Jesus as Savior, why not do that now as we close.
Pray.
We are going to close in worship singing about the wonderful miracle of salvation that God gives us.
Stand with us as we sing “Salvation is Here”.
