John 6:1-9 After these things Jesus went
over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then
a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed
on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and
there He sat with His disciples. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews,
was near. Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great
multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy
bread, that these may eat?” But this He said to test him, for He Himself
knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth
of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a
little.” One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to
Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small
fish, but what are they among so many?”
This last Sunday, Pastor
Kyle continued in our church’s sermon series through the Gospel according to
the Apostle John. The word “Worry” is defined in the 1828 Webster’s dictionary
as: “to tease; to trouble; to harass with
importunity, or with care and anxiety. Persons are often worried with care and
solicitude.” We have all sorts of stresses and worries in life. It is no
shock that we seem to be always running into obstacles and having to stop in
order to pick up the pieces on our life’s journey. Sometimes, we feel like
we’ve used up every ounce of energy and are absolutely spent. Some feel ready
for God to move in their life, while others feel ruined and ready for a
breakthrough.
One of the names of our
Creator God is Jehovah-jireh, which translates to “God will provide”. But, our
Heavenly Father is looking for His children to transition from helpers to
leaders, trusting that God will provide us a place, a plate and a platform for
life. The ministry of “loving your neighbor as yourself” involves getting your
sandals dusty and your hands dirty. There will be successes and failures, but
the Lord expects us to failure forward in this fallen world. Do not get “bent
out of sharp about people that you’d never reach anyway. Remember that it is
the Holy Spirit working through us that transforms hearts. God is ready to move
and can work through you and I whether we are “on top of our game or we have
“hit rock bottom”. In ministry to others, it may look like we have only “five barley loaves and two small
fish” compared to the size of life’s issues in this world, but it is the Lord
that multiples and provides.
In the story of the feeding
of the 5000 is recorded in all of the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John. Pastor Kyle stated that in them we see three things. (1) That we
should pray when the circumstances are far from perfect. Jesus first withdrew
to an isolated place to pray to His Father in Heaven. Christ removed Himself to
a secluded place to be all by Himself, where there were no distractions that
could disturb or interrupt His “one on one” conversation with God. We need to
follow His example and find a private, isolated and quiet place, creating the condition to rightly pray to our
Almighty Maker God individually, with compassion; not frustration. But this principle of withdrawing to a place
free from commotion, disruption and
interruption also applies to corporate prayer with others.
Let’s continue with the
other two things that we see in the story of the feeding of the 5000 in the
next post.
In Christ, Brian
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