By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
Picture Jesus preaching on the hill side. There are kids at his feet and men and women, maybe 15-20,000 altogether, listening. Even the children are being quiet. Mesmerized by the words of Jesus.
Did you ever think what the little boy who offered his lunch to Andrew must have thought? He’s heard that they need to find food for the thousands listening to Jesus, so he offers his lunch basket.
Think of it as the lunch pails we used to carry to school. He had enough for himself but even a young child must have realized that it is nothing but a drop in the bucket to the need, but he offers it anyway.
Willingly sacrificing his own lunch for the greater need. Giving Jesus something to work with. So, here he is, in the front row when Jesus prays and begins to distribute the food to everyone.
The fish just keep seeming to come. And the bread doesn’t run out. Maybe most of the crowd doesn’t know what is happening but he does. He’s right there witnessing this miracle.
Now, fast forward 40 years and this man, a believer, is in his home church when a letter from John is passed around and read. And they get to chapter 6 and he hears the story he was at the center of.
Now imagine, what the others think when he stands up and says “that was my lunch basket!”. You can hear his friends joshing him, teasing him for telling such a whopper. But, then the group realizes that he’s not being funny.
That he is serious about being there that day and about it being his lunch that Jesus multiplied. He got to witness a miracle that John chose to include in his gospel. And it has kept him faithful ever since. There’s a lesson here for us.
We need to give God something to work with besides good intentions. Too often, we tell God we’ll do such and such or go to so and so just as soon as things turn around for us.
I can’t tell you how many people I have known who have said in all sincerity that when they win the lottery, they’ll give 50% to the church. They don’t generally appreciate my response. I tell them that they won’t win the lottery until God can trust them with the money he has already given them.
Begin to tithe and spend your money responsibly, then God has something to work with. His version of the proverbial lunch basket. We have to be faithful in the little things before God will bless us with larger responsibilities. Luke 16:10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.”
Let’s get those lunch baskets out there for God to work with. Maybe it’s a talent you have or a passion you have or a calling you have or whatever moves you off the couch and into the battle.
Then God can use you to accomplish great things. Someday, maybe someone will even tell your story as an encouragement to others to give God something to work with.
Let me tell you one of those stories today about a woman named Co-Co. She has gone to glory, but her story remains one of unbelievable blessings. Co-Co was about 5’ tall and about as wide. And, honestly, she didn’t always smell too good.
Some of you went to school with her. Maybe some of you helped her when she called looking for clothes for a man in the drug program or homeless shelter downtown. Those phone calls started people believing that we needed clothes so in the spirit of generosity of this community, they brought them…by the car full, by the pick-up full, by the trailer full. Some mornings, it would take me 30 minutes to move all the clothes people left in front of the downtown church overnight just to get into my office.
Co-co spent 5-6-7 hours every day sorting clothing along with a number of other women. Ultimately, the church was sending out 5-6 large tractor trailer loads of clothing every year to missions in Europe and Mexico.
Because this one woman saw a need for a few guys to get clothing, God took her “lunch basket” effort and multiplied it to His glory and literally, thousands of people were being clothed around the world every year.
If you want to be used by God, you’ve got to give him something to work with. Co-Co was nothing special. Truly, she was the opposite. She was banned from one ministry because she gossiped too much.
She could take all day to do a simple task because she was so heavy. She wasn’t the kind of woman most churches would count as wanted or useful.
But God saw in her a heart for the “least of these”. And He used her to change lives for 10s of thousands. Her reward in heaven will be great. All because she gave God something to work with and He took it from there.
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.