Bible Text: Luke 9:10-17 | Preacher: Pastor Steve
Luke 9:10-17 And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.
But He said to them, you give them something to eat. And they said, we have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people. For there were about five thousand men. Then He said to His disciples, make them sit down in groups of fifty. And they did so, and made them all sit down. Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.
Will We TRUST In Him?
Luke 9:13 But He said to them, you give them something to eat
John 6:9 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?
Give Away And Be Blessed
IF we don’t give to the LORD THEN the LORD has nothing to bless and therefore the LORD cannot multiple our gift!
The Lord takes a little gift and turns it into a BIG GIFT
We tend to WAIT for the multiplication BEFORE we give anything AWAY. The Lord is TEACHING us that multiplication will happen AFTER we give!
Commit ALL of our resources into the hands of the Lord
WAIT for the Lord to bless it and touch it
The Lord asks us to SHARE what He blesses
Multiplication takes place AFTER we give
There will be MORE THAN enough when the Lord blesses
God Desires To Bless Us
Principle: We will not see our time, talent or finances multiply until we put them into the hands of the Lord and then HE puts them back into our hands to give. The miracle happened AFTER the resources were given away!
God doesn’t just add blessings; He multiplies blessings
Mark 8:5-10 How many loaves of bread do you have?  He asked. Seven, they replied. So Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, thanked God for them, broke them into pieces, and gave them to his disciples, who distributed the bread to the crowd.  A few small fish were found, too, so Jesus also blessed these and told the disciples to pass them out. They ate until they were full, and when the scraps were picked up, there were seven large baskets of food left over! There were about four thousand people in the crowd that day, and he sent them home after they had eaten.
God Asks Us To Trust In Him And Have Faith In Him And GIVE!
IF the disciples had not given to the Lord first THEN it would not have been blessed.
IF the disciples had eaten the loaves and fishes and NOT given them away, THEN it would not have multiplied, and THEN the people would NOT have witnessed a miracle that demonstrated that Jesus is the Messiah!
We have a choice, to keep God’s blessing or give it away so it can multiply THAT THEY MAY KNOW…CHRIST!