Opening illustration: In the Wizard of Oz … as the narrative winds down, every step of the way down the yellow brick road, Dorothy grows larger and larger, while the seemingly powerful adults around her grow smaller and smaller. Finally, the curtain falls away and she learns what all children eventually learn: that adults are very good persons, but very bad wizards. The Wicked Witch of the West sums up their impotence: "Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my wickedness," and as she melts away, Dorothy grows up.
The same thing happens in our Scripture this morning. The big adult disciples melt into a puddle, while a little boy grows up into a giant of faith. This passage describes the only miracle of Jesus to be depicted in all four of the gospels. It really must have been something.
Introduction: In this narrative it seems that this young boy has come to this meeting without his parents and did not hesitate to give all that he had to Jesus. He did not consider all that he was entrusted with to hand over to Jesus. It may have even crossed his mind that this is just food and is not very important. He might have even thought what he would eat if I he gave everything to Jesus. He gave it away anyway. He did not hold back anything. The amazing thing is his giving to Jesus made all the difference. He set the bar for exemplifying before all the people and his giving became a blessing for all.
How can you impact with what is in your hand?
1. Don’t think it is Insignificant (vs. 8-10)
If you have studied business economics, there is the logic of the law of supply and demand: "On the demand side Lord, here are 5,000 ravenous people. On the supply side: 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. 5 + 2 does not equal 5,000. It's simple arithmetic, Lord. It can't be done. We might as well give up." According to the logic of the world, the supply from the lad is insignificant compared to the demand. Why should he even give it to Christ as he might not ever get it back and anyway it would not suffice for the abundant need of the entire crowd.
Many a times we may consider what is in our hands as unimportant and insignificant to the world therefore we think that God looks at it in the same manner. Apparently God’s ways are not our ways and neither does He think like us. For Him anything we have is game as this will show His glory through that insignificant thing that is in your hand.
So what is that thing that you have in your hand which seems insignificant, which you have already credited to be useless and say, ‘Oh God cannot use that! Are you out of your mind?’ Well He is God and you cannot make a judgement call on His behalf. He can use anything as He has made the world out of nothing. He just said it, and it was done. So who are we to say whether it is significant or not!
This is a time for us to not consider anything placed in our hands as insignificant as God can use anything for His purpose and glory. You see God delights in using ‘little people’ to accomplish great things, when they don’t even know that God is using them in this way!
Illustration: March of 1981, President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Jr., and was hospitalized for several weeks. Although Reagan was the nation’s chief executive, his hospitalization had little impact on the nation’s activity. Government continued. On the other hand, suppose the garbage collectors in this country went on strike, as they did in Philadelphia not long ago. That city was not only in a literal mess, but the pile of decaying trash quickly became a health hazard. A three-week nationwide strike would paralyze the country. Who is more important—the President or a garbage collector? In the body of Christ, seemingly insignificant ones are urgently needed. As Paul reminds us, “The head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable (I Corinthians 12:21–22).”
2. Don’t hold on to it! Surrender to God (v. 11)
No one in this multitude, it seems, except this lad, brought anything to eat. Whether this was a lunch his parents put up for him, or what he brought along with him to sell, we do not know. The fact that he had the loaves and fishes is mentioned to Christ who considered the fact of some importance. For He called the boy to Him, and then took what he had, and made his few loaves and fishes answer for the wants of all. Nor could anyone have been more astonished than the boy himself to see how those loaves and fishes lasted. Christ can use children if they are willing, and sometimes they have been of great service. He can use their gifts, whether they be the pennies which they have earned, or some piece of handiwork they have made. None are too young to serve Jesus, and such have often been employed by Him to accomplish good.
This boy would have missed a great deal if he had decided to stay back and hang around his friends or just play some video games and vile away the precious time. He gave away all that he had. He did not hold anything back. He surrendered everything that he had to Christ. It was not about the fish and loaves … He did not hold on to a loaf or fish for himself but volunteeringly gave it all up. How about us? When it comes to surrendering what is in our hands to God, what do we really do? Do we give it all up or do we hold on to a part of it just for safety reasons (shows our distrust of God) or we don’t give anything to Him? Why should I? God already has enough; in fact everything is His because He created it.
I suppose that, in principle, God owns everything, but he willingly gives up his sovereignty over our lives. In this sense, we do, in fact, “own” our own lives, our time, our thoughts, our possessions etc. because God gives us these things as our own. Jesus said in Luke 14:33, “any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” The very statement Jesus made implies that from Jesus” (and therefore from God’s) perspective, we have things which we can voluntarily give up. God does not need anything. He does not need our stuff. He does not need our devotion. What he wants is our heart and our love. He does not demand these of us. He gives us a choice whether we will have a relationship with him on his terms or not, and whether we will devote the things he has entrusted to us to serving him.
Mary DeMuth writes in her new book “Everything”: “He [Jesus] wants all of us, all the time, our minds and hearts deeply engaged with His so we will joyfully follow Him toward every single adventure He plans for us. This is not me vowing to be a good girl or me planning to be holy. This is me (and you) daring to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit of God.”
Mary makes a crucial point here. This is not about us forcing this letting go happen. This is not about us making this happen. This is about us letting God’s grace do his work in us. This is about us daring to trust God and only God.
Giving up for God costs us everything, at least it costs us everything that seems familiar and secure but it also burst the realms of our imagination with new possibilities for life and faith that we have never thought possible before. I am constantly humbled by the paradoxical ways in which God works. I have often thought that I was giving up life but in actual fact I was finding life – God’s life in my own life.
Illustration: Billy Graham tells the story about a little child who was playing with a very valuable vase. He put his hand into it and could not withdraw it. His father too, tried his best to get it out, to no avail. They were thinking of breaking the vase when the father said, “Now my son, make one more try. Open your hand and hold your fingers out straight as you see me doing, and then pull.” To their astonishment the little fellow said, “O no, dad, I couldn’t put my fingers out like that because if I did I would drop my dime.”
Smile, if you will but thousands of us are like that little boy, so busy holding on to the world’s worthless dimes that we cannot accept liberation. Drop the trifles in your life. Surrender! Let go, and let God have His way in your life.
3. Let it Bless others (vs. 12-14)
Andrew, another disciple on the hillside that day, musters a smidgeon of hope: "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish ..." But then Andrew also melts: "How far will they go among so many?" Andrew was not a pessimist. We might think of Andrew as a realist. A realist is the sort of man who would place the following ad in a South Georgia newspaper, "Farmer aged 36 wishes to wed woman about 30 who drives tractor. Please enclose picture of tractor." Andrew was practical. As you heard, his logic follows the law of supply and demand: "On the demand side Lord, here are 5,000 ravenous people. On the supply side: 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. 5 + 2 does not equal 5,000. It's simple arithmetic, Lord. It can't be done. We might as well give up."
Ah, but if we alter Andrew's equation just a bit, we get 5 + 2 + X = 5,000 — and in the ancient writing of the church, X is always the symbol of Christ. Friends, have you factored Christ into the equation of your life? If so, you know that you plus Christ are equal to any challenge.
I cannot imagine a life that is more fulfilling than the one I live now. In my wildest dreams as a young adult I never imagined God could use my life to impact the lives of hundreds of folks. Sometimes I have felt that I was giving up faith too but I realize now that what I was giving up was my narrow culture bound vision of God to plunge into an ever expanding understanding of the love of God. And yet I know that no matter how much I learn I will always only scratch the surface of what there is to know about God. There is great power in giving blessings, not just for the recipient of the blessings, but also for the one giving the blessings—you! To bless someone is to enchant them. Through the act of blessing,
In the future I suspect there will be many more times that God will ask me to give up something I am holding onto tightly and I know that the giving up will never be easy. My prayer is that I will always be able to trust that in the giving up I will learn more about God and become more of the person God intends me to be. The more I give of myself to God, the more He will use of me. The young lad in this narrative was unaware that Jesus would use what was in his hand which would eventually become a blessing for many. Many a times what we may reluctantly give away something for God to use but He would make it a blessings for many. There are times when we regret not giving something that we could have so easily given to Him but our pride and selfishness doesn’t allow it. Later on when we perceive what our giving to God could have done, we cry over and are in a state of self-condemnation. That doesn’t really help, because now we are left in a place where we have to act on what God has given to us in our hands.
The lad gave his entire packed lunch to Jesus without extracting anything for himself. He did not have a mindset of saving something for himself in case all that Jesus took would not return for him or for that matter for anyone else. He gave all in faith and surely his faith brought about abundant blessings for the entire crowd. What are waiting for? Are we waiting for someone else to give what is in their hand or for us to step up and make the first move of setting an example for others. Here a young lad set an example for all the adults. What step will you take?
Illustration: Early one morning a pastor was walking through this sanctuary and found an offering envelope, just like the ones you can find in the pews, lying on the Communion table. I could tell there was something in the envelope, and scrawled across it in pencil were these words,
Dear God, I hadn't visited in a very long time, but tonight my car seemed to drive me here. For several years I had lost faith, but no longer. I will be around. I need help though. I am in college and life is so confusing. I got diagnosed with MS this summer and my grades are slipping. I truly want to succeed in life. But how? Please accept this as all I have right now. But I will be in, most definitely...
Inside the envelope were stuffed several bills of currency. It wasn't a lot, probably only enough to go down to Eatzi's and buy five French baguettes and two fillets of smoked salmon, butut it was all that person had. And God will do a lot with a little if he has it all.
Application: Does God have your life this morning? Have you placed your life in his hands? Until you do, you'll never know the difference you can make. How can you impact with what is in your hand? How can you make a difference with what is in your hand? How to powerfully use what is in your hand? How to make it explosive with what is in your hand? I almost tremble when I think of all God is going to do with the insignificant gift He has given me.
