Welcome back to Help for Today. We’ve been in the feeding of the 5,000. We saw that the purpose of ministry is people. Jesus had compassion on the multitude and was moved to teach them. But then the disciples came to Jesus with a problem. This great multitude of people, they had needs. And so the question then was, who’s going to meet the need? Where is the provision going to come from?

The disciples wanted to send them away, but Jesus said, “No, I want you to feed them.” The disciples then began to gather together, and they did probably what any of us would have done. They began to see, “What do we have? What are the resources that we have?” If we all pull our resources together, and they came up with a count of 200 denarii, which was the currency of the day. And they figured that if they were to go to the store and buy bread with the money they had, it wouldn’t be enough for every single person to get just a bite, let alone meet the need. You know, so often in life, we’re confronted with the same problem. As we seek to minister to people, who’s going to meet the needs of the people?

I think the reality is that the disciples, although they tried their best, they missed the fact that, humanly speaking, they could not meet the needs of the multitude. As we seek to serve people, as we seek to make a difference in the lives of people, our reality as Christian servants must be the same, that in our own strength, our own ability, our own talents, that the resources that we have, it will never be enough to meet the multitude’s need, to meet the needs of the people.

It’s only when we turn to Jesus and say, “Lord, I can’t do it, God, I can’t do it on my own, God, I can’t teach this Sunday school class, God, I can’t lead my bus route, God, I can’t do what I’m called to do, and so, Lord, I’m looking to you. Lord, I need your help,” and it’s only when we turn to God, that God can say, “Bring me what you have and I can bless it and I can use it.” Tomorrow we’re going to look at this thought of the providence of God’s provision. The providence of God’s provision. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

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Chris Fanara

Chris Fanara, Christian School Principal

Bro. Fanara serves as the Principal of North Valley Baptist Schools. He and his wife, Tabitha, are graduates of NVBS and have been faithfully working in the school for thirteen years.