God is going to show you how He supplies.
He’s going to teach you by showing you,
first of all, the ways of the world
and then His way of doing it.
Are you ready for that?
Let’s go to John 6.
Alright, I’m going to read from verse 4.
“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?””
Do you think Jesus thinks the answer is in buying?
No, because the next line says:
“This He said to test Philip”.
“For”—I love this, “For He Himself knew"
"what He would do.”
Sometimes, the Lord comes to you and
asks you a question.
Just know this: “He Himself knew"
"what He would do.”
It’s just a test.
Amen.
There are times He tells me, “Are you willing to do that?”
I said: “Lord, it will cost me my time, you know...”
But the Lord said: “Will you do that?”
And I said: “Yes.”
Philip answered Him: “Two hundred denarii"
"worth of bread is “not sufficient for them,"
"that every one of them may have a little.”
So Philip answered in the natural.
Two hundred denarii is a lot of money!
More than half a year’s wage.
“It’s not sufficient to buy bread for them”
“that every one of them may have a little.”
A little!
How can we speak these words “a little”
in the presence of the great I Am?
We say “a little” based on what we see, not based on
who we are talking to.
So Philip’s problem is the vastness of the need.
They are—you know, he looked at it and said:
“It’s not sufficient for them that everyone may take a little”.
How can you say “a little” in the presence of the One
who flung the stars in place?
Amen.
The One who spoke into nothing and something came into being.
How can we say in the presence of
the Christ of God, that everyone may take “a little”?
He said this to test Philip.
With God, a little becomes much.
God met Moses at the burning bush.
He had nothing.
He left his princely life, his office with all
the royal regalia, and all the benefits
and the trappings of Egypt.
As royalty, he left it all, and became a shepherd
at the back side of the desert.
When God appeared in the burning bush,
he knelt down before God, stammering, and then
God asked him this: “What is that in your hand?”
God never asks you for what you don’t have.
God asks you for what you have.
“What is that in your hand?”
He said: “A rod, a shepherd’s rod,"
"a simple shepherd’s rod.”
“Well, that will do.”
And with the shepherd’s rod, when he raised it,
the Red Sea was opened.
When he touched the River Nile,
it became blood.
With the rod, when they were thirsty,
he hit the rock and out of the flinty rock
came rivers of living water for the people.
With that rod, when he picked it up,
it’s no more the rod of Moses,
it was the rod of God.
And thus it was called from that time onwards,
the rod of God.
Are you listening?
What do you have?
“I don’t have much, Pastor Prince.”
Just like the widow.
When Elisha came to her house,
she was actually being pursued by the creditors
at that point in time because her husband died.
He left behind a debt and she had two young boys.
And the creditor was coming to collect her debt
and she could not pay.
She could not pay and the creditor was coming
to take her boys as slaves.
So she cried out to Elisha the prophet
and said: “Please help!”
And Elisha said: “What do you have in your house?”
What do you have?
Many of us we look at, you know—
“I don’t think God wants this, it’s so little, you know,"
"and I don’t think God wants this.”
We look at the boy with the five loaves
and two fish.
What is this?
We look at the vastness of the need.
We despise what little we have.
So one of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother
said to Him, said to Jesus: “There is a lad here"
"who has five barley loaves and two small fish.”
Two small fish.
Don’t forget, they are two small fish.
In this one verse, there are
two diminutive terms.
One is the “lad”, the other one is “small”.
Small boy, small fish, five loaves.
Okay?
“There is a lad here who has five barley loaves"
"and two small fish.”
So Philip’s problem is the vastness of the need.
Andrew’s problem is the littleness of the supply.
He looked at the supply and said: “What are they?”
It’s just five bread, pita bread, five loaves
and two small fish.
He looked at it and he said: “What are they"
"among so many?”
So Philip looked at the people, right?
Andrew looked at what he had,
what they had, but then he says,
“What are they among so many?”
So Philip’s problem is the vastness of the need.
Andrew’s problem is the littleness of the supply.
Neither of them are looking at Jesus.
“Now, our company nowadays, I don’t know what’s happening”
“but we are going down a little bit.”
“So we got to make sure that this coming year”
“and all that…”
Hey, bring Jesus into the situation!
“Pastor, you don’t understand the debt I’m in.”
“I’m in debt.”
That woman I told you about just now?
Elisha, the creditor, was coming because
her husband owed them debts.
Read that story in 2 Kings.
The debtor was coming.
He (Elijah) actually said: “Borrow not a few (vessels)."
The prophet said: “Borrow not a few.”
So the two kids and her brought all the vessels
they could get from their neighbours.
And then he said: “Start pouring!”
“Close the door, start pouring.”
They started pouring from the little pot of oil.
And I looked up the word “pot” there.
The little jug of oil is the same kind of thing
that you find—a bottle they have in the supermarket.
An olive oil bottle?
That’s what they had left.
So they poured and the more they poured,
the more they poured, the more they poured,
the more they poured, it filled up, it filled up,
it filled up, it filled up, it filled up!
And then finally, the mother asked
to give her another vessel from one of her boys.
The boys said: “There’s no more vessel.”
Listen, the supply is always greater than the need.
He didn’t say: “There are five more bottles"
"but I think God stopped here so I think it’s enough already.”
That never happens.
When God was going down to judge Sodom and Gomorrah,
and He had a conversation with Abraham,
God never ceased granting mercy for
Sodom and Gomorrah.
God never stopped until Abraham stopped asking.
This is something that we need to receive,
because these are the ways of God,
the ways of heaven.
It’s completely different from this world.
This world is based on the law of supply and demand
and the allocation of insufficient resources.
So the idea of insufficient resources
is there already.
The economy in the world is based on that.
The world’s economy is based on scarcity.
So we talk like Philip, we talk like Andrew.
Either we look at the vastness of the need
or we look at the littleness of the supply
that we have.
What we have is little.
“What do you have in your house?”
“Just a small bottle of oil.”
“Go, that will do."
"Borrow.”
And this is what it says in 2 Kings:
“So the oil ceased.”
"Then she came and told the man of God."
"and he said: “Go sell the oil,"
"and pay your debt;”"
Do you think God stops there?
Just to pay your debt?
Many a times, we preach this
as if it’s just to pay the debt.
But look at the rest of the passage:
“And you and your sons live on the rest.”
When God gives, God gives with
more than enough!
Not only the debt— the problem was the debt,
but not only was the debt paid, there was plenty left over
for the rest of their lives to enjoy.
They can take a special vacation!
Hallelujah!
This is our God!
So He broke it, took the loaves.
He broke it and He gave it to the disciples.
Now, I like Mark’s account in Mark 6:41.
In Mark’s account, it says, “When He had taken"
"the five loaves and two fish, He looked up to heaven;"
"blessed or gave thanks, broke the loaves;"
"gave them to His disciples to set before them"
"and the two fish He divided among them all.”
This word, “gave them to His disciples”
“gave them to His disciples”
In John’s account, it does not portray it that way.
But in Mark’s account it is actually in
the indefinite tense, alright?
Which means?
He kept on giving.
It multiplied in Jesus’s hands because He kept on giving.
It was only five loaves!
How can you keep on giving, right?
He kept on giving, He kept on giving.
So the disciples will take the basket.
By the way, “basket” here is the word—
There are two Greek words for “baskets”.
There are two types of baskets.
One is a hamper basket, the other is a picnic basket.
Or a wicker basket, do you know what is that?
Where you put bananas and fruits and all that in.
Now, in the miracle of the five loaves and two fish here
they used the wicker basket, alright?
The small basket, the picnic basket.
Are you with me so far?
So then the disciples came to Jesus and they
brought this small basket and Jesus put in the bread.
They go down the row to distribute the loaves
and they had to come back to Him again.
We always come back to Him.
You cannot say: “I did, Pastor Prince!"
"Last week, I went to pray…”
You always come back to Him for fresh supply.
And they never came back empty.
His hands are always full.
I said His hands are always full.
And He doesn’t give with a stingy hand!
He gives lavishly!
How does He give?
He gives lavishly, abundantly, look at that.
Now, He kept on giving.
Go back to John 6, it says: “And likewise of the fish,"
"as much as they wanted.”
“As much as they wanted”— not as God wills.
Some people are satisfied with this.
What do you want?
The problem is not so much of the Lord,
it is you!
“Lord, I believe for so little, when you are so great.”
“Lord, enlarge my capacity.”
“I’ve dishonoured you, I’ve prayed for a job,”
“when actually, you want me to pray for a position.”
“But in my mind, how can I have a position?”
“The littleness of my education, the littleness of my experience,”
“the littleness of Singapore.”
“And the vastness of the demand of the boss.”
Hey, stop looking at the vastness of the need!
Stop looking at the littleness of
what we have and start looking to Him,
our inexhaustible supply.