Jesus Feeds Five Thousand

10-23-2009
Jesus Feeds Five Thousand

I had a lunch meeting with an old friend/mentor of mine, Brian Summerall, which I hadn’t seen in a while. This is the man God used to lead me to Christ. He was the head of Young Life in Richardson, Texas at the time, and he had invited me for well over a year to attend a Young Life event. They occurred every Monday night at 7:29, and I always had an excuse as to why I couldn’t go. Young Life is geared for high school aged kids where all are welcome. On any given night they will sing songs, have talent shows, slam dunk competitions, you name it, and for about five to 10 minutes they will speak about Christ. It’s an amazing outreach program that doesn’t feel at all like church, yet delivers amazing messages week after week about life and where Christ fits in to the entire scenario. Needless to say, I went once, and never missed another Young Life again. For those of you that have kids, I want to encourage you to get your kids plugged into their local Young Life club as it changed my life and ultimately led me to accepting Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Matthew 14:13-21 says the following:

13When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
15As 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."
16Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."
17"We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered.
18"Bring them here to me," he said. 19And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.”

Jesus used five loaves of bread and two fish to feed five thousand people. How often do we feel our efforts are insignificant? Do we truly understand how God can multiply our efforts into everlasting and eternal results?

Brian Summerall and Young Life were the platform God used to lead me to my eternal destination. As a result, we have a Christ centered baseball organization (www.dallaspatriots.com), I went into youth ministry, etc. The moral of this story is God uses us in ways we can’t even fathom. After sitting down with Brian, I don’t think he even understood the impact he had in my life. When we feel our contribution in this world is minimal, just remember that Jesus can multiply our efforts and does!

Application:
1. Read Matthew 14:13-21
2. Stay focused on making an impact, and allow God to multiply your efforts!