SUNDAY, JULY 16, 2023 AM
RETURN TO HOLINESS: UNTHANKFULNESS – WHEN LITTLE BECOMES MUCH
(PRINCIPLES OF MULTIPLICATION)
MIKE TEEL, PASTOR
FOCAL PASSAGE:
15 When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” 16 But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” 17 And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” 18 He said, “Bring them here to Me.” 19 Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. 20 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. 21 Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. —Matthew 14:15-21
The first principle for today is …
IT HAS TO BE
BEFORE IT CAN
.
17 And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” 18 He said, “Bring them here to Me.” —Matthew 14:17-18
–OVERCOMING
–PRINCIPLE OF THE
–WHAT ARE YOU
The next principle is …
IT HAS TO BE
BEFORE IT CAN BE
.
19 Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.
—Matthew 14:19
–HOW DO WE GET GOD TO
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” —Genesis 1:28
–Missionary Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
–FOCUS ON WHAT WE
–LAW OF THE FIRST BORN
–When we give the first He blesses the rest!
The third principle is …
IT HAS TO BE
BEFORE IT CAN
.
19 Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. —Matthew 14:19
–Question: What would have been the results if the disciples consumed what Jesus blessed?
–LAW OF THE
5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given. 6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. —II Corinthians 9:5-7
–To have a harvest you must plant seeds. We plant by our willingness to give away what we cannot keep anyway.
LIVE IT OUT
–Multiplication first begins with surrender!
–What stage are you in today – surrender, blessed, giving away?
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. —Malachi 3:10
–What do you need to do today to experience the principle of when little becomes much?