Let's turn then to Luke chapter 9. We're going to begin our reading today in verse 10, and we'll read through verse 17. A very well-known portion of scripture, Luke chapter 9, verses 10 through 17, where Jesus feeds the 5,000. Without anything by way of introduction, we just want to read the passage. I trust that the Lord will give us words to say from there. Verse 10, on their return, you remember the journey that the Lord had sent the apostles on. We just recently now discussed that. And on their return, the apostles told him, that is Jesus, all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing. Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place. But he said to them, you give them something to eat." They said, We have no more than five loaves and two fish, lest we are to go and buy food for all these people. For there were about five thousand men. And he said to the disciples, Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each. And they did so. And had them all sit down, taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to the heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up. Twelve baskets, broken pieces. As we've said, the short missionary journey that the Lord had sent the apostles on has now come to a quick resolution. They were not on it long. But they have now come back and after having completed that commission of the Lord, I wonder what those conversations must have been like as the apostles came back and were told that they told Jesus all that they had done. I can imagine the smiles on their faces. I can imagine them talking about the houses that received them and the people that welcomed the message and began to follow Christ as a result of their journey. I can imagine what that must have been like. And I can also imagine them perhaps in tears, sharing about the villages that rejected them and the dust that they had to wipe from their feet. What an incredible time, I believe that it must have been. But that journey has come to a conclusion, and Jesus is bringing his apostles and those that are following, his other disciples, and he brings them apart, we're told, to Bethsaida. It's like he's wanting to have some time with them, and they shared with the Lord all that they had done. But now the scene changes. and another crowd arises. And as we begin this morning, I want to tell you, you may have heard of a man named George Mueller. In the 1800s, George Mueller cared for orphans in Bristol, England. And what was unique about him was that he never went into debt. He never asked for any donations. It's said that he cared for some 10,000 orphans in his life there in Bristol, England. And he would often have no food. for the children. This was something that would happen in some regularity. There's a number of books been written about him. I encourage you to do reading about him on your own. But in those books and in his own autobiography, he describes many moments when he didn't have any food to give to the children. But again, no debt and no outward public request for donations. Time and again, He was in a position where the provision that he needed, he didn't have. But time and again, that provision arrived. And sometimes, in some moments when he described them, those moments, they arrived just in time. Once, we're told, Mueller sat the children down at tables, and he began to give thanks. And he set the table for them, but they had no food. And moments later, the story is told that a knock came at the door, and a baker of bread said that he had been awakened with a burden to bake extra bread, and came by and gave it to them. And the story is told that at the same time, that there was a milk cart that broke down right outside of the orphanage, and they had bread and milk. And that's just one of many occasions that you can read about in George Mueller's life, again, as he cared for so many children in his life, and he demonstrated that God supplies. what He commands us to do when we step forward in faith. Even though our hands may be empty of the things that we need, God will provide. He will often not provide until the very moment that the need arises. And as the need approaches, we can find ourselves doubting and in fear. And there are times when, in our estimation, God doesn't provide what we would expect. But nonetheless, God does provide. And what I was struck with, there are many things in this passage of scripture for us to take and to look deeply at. And there are so many lessons and so many things that we could pull from this passage that you've heard many times, many sermons, no doubt, even Sunday school lessons and Bible studies on this feeding of the 5,000, this miracle. And there's so many things to focus on and none of them wrong to focus on. But what stood out to me today in this passage is when Jesus said in verse 13, you give them something to eat. The title for today's message is you feed them. You feed them. I would like to speak to you today about times when God gives commands that we don't know how to obey and that we don't know how we would even begin. to obey and yet he still commands. Can you imagine being there on this day and Jesus looks at you and he says to you, you feed them. You give them something to eat. A command that I believe the disciples and the apostles might have looked at one another and thought, how? Maybe God is moving you or us even together as a church in a direction and we don't know the how you don't know the how you don't feel that you have the ability and in reality you don't have the ability and yet you have a desire to obey what God has placed on your heart I ask you today to examine your heart and see if there is something there that God may be impressing you with to do some act of service some Perhaps, and far be it from me to give you ideas that don't come from God. So be very careful as I say these things to examine your heart before God and not me. But maybe something that would dramatically and drastically change your life, but you're thinking, I don't have what's needed. Father, I want to obey you, God, but like the disciples on this day in their situation, you might say a similar thing. I don't have the ability. to see to what you've called me to do." Well, Jesus, I think, here shows us how we are to obey such commands like you feed them. The crowds, we read in verse 11, heard that Jesus was in Bethsaida. They followed Him, we're told. And Jesus welcomes them. He teaches them. He heals them. And then He provides for them. I am struck once again at the compassion and the love of Christ as He lived His life in service to the crowds and to, most ultimately, His Father. If you've ever been in a situation I've been in a situation in other countries when a doctor is present and how the people will throng that doctor for care and medicine that they can't get anywhere else. And the doctor is often the most wearied person on a missionary effort because of the constant desire of the people to have his time and his effort and his provision. And Jesus here teaching these people once again, And it's easy, I think, for us to focus on the miracle of the Lord providing food for all of these people and discount the reality of what had actually already happened, Jesus teaching and healing them. He was speaking to them of the Kingdom of God. He was telling them about eternity, how to be right with God, how to have peace in this life and peace in the next life. He was giving them the teaching of God and that teaching was astonishing to them. As astonishing as the miracle was of the feeding of the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, as astonishing as that is, I don't want us, and I don't think we should ever lose sight of the fact that what really impacted the people even prior to that was the teaching of Christ. And how even today this is the case, how the miracle that we are all perhaps looking for in our life is often the thing that we're most concerned about when being so focused on the miracle that we're not listening to the message. But we're told even in Luke, we've seen it already as we've made our way through this gospel to this point, we've seen how the people were astonished at his teaching. It was not like the other teachers that they had heard. It wasn't like the scribes and the Pharisees who would give you a long list of things to do and not to do. Religion can become that for us so easily, and it can be about doing the right thing, and doing this and that, and that wrong thing you must shun, but Jesus' teaching reached down into the hearts of the people, and they went away astonished at His Word. Has God ever gotten a hold of your heart? Has God ever spoken deeply to you to such a degree that you heard Him and that message changed everything? If you've been saved, I think the answer to that question is yes. That has happened to me. I remember being saved. I remember the Lord convicting me and I didn't have all the the terms theologically that I can now apply to that moment, but in that moment all I knew was I was lost and I didn't know God and that rightly I was judged a sinner by the Spirit of God. There was no one else there who was telling me that. The preacher was simply saying Jesus came and He died and He loved, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son and His Son died on the cross and that day that message resonated with me like it never had before. Jesus Christ died for me. Not just the whole world, but for me. And he died for me. Why? Because I was a sinner. I chose sin. I came forth from my mother's womb speaking lies, as David said. And Jesus on this day was sharing this message. This message of the Kingdom of God, and you say, I don't read in here where he's talking about any of that, but I refer you back to what Luke had already said. Jesus came proclaiming, repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. But that day, the Spirit of God got a hold of my heart, and I remember when I was 19 years old. God can again coming in a way as I was sitting in church on a Wednesday evening listening to a preacher preach and the Lord just continually brought the word that he used was just simply preach it just came over and over to me preach preach preach and at that moment I knew what he was calling me to God's teaching, the Lord's teaching has the power to absolutely change your life. And that's what we desire today, is that God's word here, even today. That it would move upon you to such a degree, whether lost or saved, that you would cling to the Word of God and you would obey Him, even if He is saying for you to do something that you know you can't do. As Jesus looked at these disciples and said, you feed them. You feed them. Let us not forget the message obscured by the miracle. This teaching, this message of Christ, these people had never heard anything like it. It was teaching that resonated in their hearts with power and authority. May we not ignore Jesus' message while looking desperately for His miracles. Sometimes, in fact, the miracle that we seek can be the very obstacle that keeps us from hearing His message. So, so consumed with whatever problem we're asking God to solve for us, we're unwilling to listen to what He has to say. And we simply come into His presence and say, God, I need you to take care of this. I need you to take care of that. I need you to provide this. I need you to provide that. And He's trying to tell us something all the while, but all that we have eyes for and ears for is Fix my problem. Make my life better. Solve and heal my disease. Jesus is trying to tell you about the kingdom of God. He's trying to tell you about eternity. He's trying to tell you that this life, if he solves your problem here, another one is right around the corner because we now live in the land of sin and sorrow and death. But one day, if we know Him, all will be made well. But in this time that we live here, on this side of eternity, there's going to be one problem after another. I have found that to be the case in my 51 plus years of life now. One problem is solved. There's a whole host of others that are just waiting to show up. God is not interested in solving your mere momentary problems. He's interested in solving your eternal problem. And that eternal problem is sin. And so Jesus was teaching, and we don't want to miss that. He was teaching them about the Kingdom of God. Yes, He was healing their disease. And now the time comes when things start to change with the disciples as they observe the day. But briefly, before I move on, I do want to ask you this. I wonder if any of us are waiting on Jesus' miracles instead of actively reading and listening to His message. What message might you be ignoring? Might I be ignoring while we cry out to Him for His miracle? Verse 12, the day's beginning to move on. It's getting late in the day. The day began to wear away. That's what days do. They wear away. I like to get early starts most of my days and it seems like I get started and typically if I am in a position to do so, I start out with study or Then you get right into work and you look up and it's noon. And the day just wears away. And now I see that life is a lot like that as well. It just wears away without having to do anything. And this day began to wear away. It began to get late in the day. The twelve came and said to him, that is to Jesus, send the crowd away. Send them away so that they can go into the villages and the surrounding towns and get something to eat and a place to stay. It's not like there were hotels. on the side of the road. The disciples have practical concern to disperse the people so that they could provide for themselves. And so they say to Jesus, their solution to the problem was send them away. There's a tension here. The disciples say, send them away. And Jesus says, feed them. It's as though, however, the disciples thought the crowd, maybe they thought as they watched the sun throughout the day, and as the day wore on, they thought, well, these people are surely going to begin to disperse. Surely they're going to be leaving. Surely they're going to go to their homes. Surely they're going to return. Surely they're going to go take care of themselves. But apparently the crowd just stayed. It didn't disperse. And so the disciples say, Lord, you're going to have to send them away. We don't have the ability to feed them five loaves and two fish. Oh, by the way, that barely seems enough for Jesus and his apostles, much less the multitude. But I believe that the motivation we want to ascribe good things to these followers of Christ, these apostles. And I think their motivations were sincere about a concern. Look, these people are going to need provisions. They're going to need to eat. They're going to need a place to stay. Lord, you can't keep them here. It's unreasonable. You can't do that. Looking at the large gathering, they knew they could not see to that crowd's needs and that the crowd would have to go for themselves. But this is when the scene changes. And sometimes we think we know the right thing to do, don't we? Lord, look at what just happened. What do you think? Jesus doesn't know what time of day it is? You think Jesus doesn't know that they're going to need food and provisions and lodging? You think he's unaware of this? Do you think the people are unaware of this? Sometimes we can think we know the needs of the hour when it is not at all what the hour needs. Jesus alone knows what that is. But they come to Jesus and they say, send them away. Jesus says in verse 13, and again, this is the verse of this particular passage that grabbed the hold of my heart as I can imagine Jesus looking right at them and saying, you give them something to eat. to which they said, Jesus, all we have is five loaves and two fish. Are we to go and buy for all these people? In this account, according to Mark, and I believe John, they announced to him, it costs 200 denarii for us to buy bread for this crowd. The task you're giving us is an impossible one. We don't have it. That moment though when Jesus told them, you give them something to eat, it must have been a difficult moment for them. Just like it is for us when Jesus tells us and calls us to do something that we often in prayer can respond right back to him, we can't, I can't do what you're asking me to do. What is God asking you to do with your life? Maybe he's asking you something that is as crazy as You feed them. 5,000 men. The crowd in the estimate of many and most seems to be in the neighborhood of 15,000 to 20,000 people. You feed them. Lord, I can't. I don't have the ability to do that. And I believe that these apostles, we've seen it already in going on the journey that Jesus sent them on and following him to this point. Their hearts were, I believe, set on obedience. They wanted to obey. They'd proven it. But what Jesus was asking them now is something they didn't even know how to start to do, I think. Where do we even begin? At least on the journey that he sent them on, they at least knew how to start. He kind of gave them pretty specific instructions. This is how I want you to go. Go. So they at least knew how to start. They knew how to walk. With this command, they didn't even know that much. I can just imagine the perplexion, how perplexed that the apostles must have been by these words. Again, Mark and John, they state this 200 denarii. And if you remember that a denarii was a typical day's wage for a typical laborer, this amount of money is seven and a half months worth of work. They didn't have it, although we're not told whether or not they had it. Actually, the scripture doesn't tell us. But at any rate, it's an enormous amount of money. We assume, I think safely so, that they didn't have that. But I want you to notice something very carefully. As that scripture lodged and grabbed a hold of me, you feed them. And that immediate response is, how? I don't have the ability. This might be splitting hairs. And if it is, I just ask you to bear with me then. Because I think we need to notice very carefully that Jesus doesn't say, go find them food. He says, feed them. Jesus knew very well that they didn't have the ability to feed such a crowd as this. He knew that. It was obvious. He wasn't asking them to do the impossible. He was asking them to share what He would make possible. He wasn't asking them to do what they could not do. All He says is, you give them something to eat. And they did have a start. They had five loaves and two fish. Sometimes as we think about this, when we think Jesus gives us calls to do the impossible, I think what we might want to think about is, am I truly understanding the call itself? Because we think rightly. We can't save people. I can't save anyone. No preacher on the face of the earth can save anyone. No mom, no dad. We can't save anyone. No grandpa, no grandma. None of us. No friend. No brother, no sister. We can't save anyone. We can't heal people. Not in the miraculous sense of the idea. We can't heal them. We can't lay hands on them and heal them. I believe those gifts that God gave specifically and uniquely to these men in the scriptures that we read about died with them, that ability. I believe that. We can't heal people today. We can't even solve most, if any really, of the problems that people come to us with. I can't make it better. I can't solve it. I can't turn back time. I can't do the things that you're looking to have done. I can't perform the miracle that you're looking for. But God doesn't ask us to do the impossible and He never does. He never has and He never will. God's not asking these men to do the impossible. He's asking them to share what He soon is going to make possible. If God is calling you to something, then even if you don't have the provisions and you don't know where the food's going to come from, it's just time to start doing what you can. You've got five loaves and two fish. Give it to the Lord. See what He does with it and start to obey. Verse 14, there were about 5,000 men were told. He said to his disciples, OK, have them sit down in groups of about 50 each. So the Lord gives them something to do. And by the way, I don't think we should over or underestimate the administrative effort that it would have taken to get 5,000, actually 15,000 to 20,000 people settled into groups of 50 and in Mark, I think, and hundreds. That was something, that was a, I don't know how long that took. That had to take time to get that, to make that happen. They didn't have loudspeakers. They didn't have phones to text everybody and say, we need you in groups of 50 and 100. They had to do this administratively. God gives them something to do. And so when God calls us to do something that we think is impossible, we look for the one thing that he tells us immediately to do. And we take that step. That's the encouragement I want to give to you today. What's the next step? What's the next step? What's the next thing? What is the thing that is right in front of you that Jesus says, I want you to do now, because I'm calling you to something even greater. I've told you to feed this crowd of 20,000 people. I know you don't have the ability, but you're not looking to do the impossible. You're looking to me to do that. What you're doing is looking to me, what am I supposed to do right now? Today, this moment, If he's done that, then do it. But the disciples, you know, if they were like me, then I think they were no doubt better, which isn't saying much. You know what I probably would have thought? Okay, Lord, and then what? Just because you split them up into groups of 50 and 100 doesn't mean we're going to somehow have the food that we need to feed them all. And then what? How many of us fail to follow the Lord because we ask that question? And then what? And then what, Lord? What will happen then, after we get them in these groups? Following the Lord, I've said this before, I will continue to say it to you and to others, whoever asks, following the Lord, it is a one step at a time thing. It's one step at a time. But again, if you're like me, you'd love to have the whole puzzle put together in your mind and understand how it's all gonna work before you take the first step. And the problem with that is you never take the first step. You're overcome with the idea that Jesus has just said, you feed them a task you know you can't do. And instead of taking the first step and just getting the people divided up into groups of 50s and 100s, you just don't take the first step because you sit there and ask, and then what are you gonna do, Lord? Once I take this step of faith and I'm obedient to you in this thing that you're asking me to do now, then what? Oh, the days that have been wasted looking to God, asking that question, and then what? Listen, rarely, if ever, Rarely, if ever, do we really have the full picture of why God works in the way He does. We wouldn't be able, I don't think, to begin to comprehend all of the impacts of our actions, and learning to follow the Lord involves learning to obey Him. And I hope you understand what I'm saying when I say this from a place of relative ignorance. I don't know what all the Lord's going to do with this. I don't know what his intentions are. I don't know what this action that I'm taking today is going to do, but I just know he's asked me to do it and he's called me to do it. I know it's from him. I've tried the spirits. I've confirmed it. I've wrestled with scripture. I've talked with trusted friends, if needed, and we've prayed together about what I feel the Lord is calling me to do. And if he has called you and the first step is clear, take the first step. You don't know what's going to lead. You don't know where it's going to stop. He does, and as they call it, the butterfly effect, right? Wings of a butterfly flap on the other side of the world and it brings a hurricane. I don't exactly know all of that, but the idea is we don't know what all our actions are going to mean, and that one step of faith that we take can have an incredible impact on the work of the Lord. You've heard the story of Charles Spurgeon, a man who spoke to millions and millions. His sermons are still read and studied, and his books that he wrote are still read and studied. A man used unimaginably by God to reach untold numbers of people. He made his way on a snowy day to a church that had six people, and the preacher couldn't make it because of the weather. A deacon stood up and read scripture and said, look to the Lord, and Charles Spurgeon was saved that day. in a group of six people that made it to church, and a deacon who read the scriptures and encouraged people to seek the Lord and look to Him. We don't know. We don't know. Don't ask, what then? Don't ask, what will happen after I obey? Ask, now what? Now what, Lord? I've done that. Now what? Now what? They couldn't feed these people, but they could arrange them in fifties and hundreds. They could. They could do that. Their obedience to this command, I believe, demonstrated their faith in Christ. They didn't know what Jesus was going to do. I'm sure they had their suspicions, but they did not know that Jesus had told them to arrange the crowd in this way. They didn't question it. And look, I am not one who believes that faith is blind, that it is without evidence, without thought. I don't believe that. But I do believe this. When God speaks to us and says, I want you to do this, we don't ask him, and then what? We just get busy doing the now what. Jesus verse 16 makes it very clear. No one is going to question where the provision comes from. No one after this. He takes the five loaves and two fish. He looks up to heaven. He says a blessing over them and he broke the loaves and gave them to disciples to set before the crowd. There would again be no doubt in the people's minds where this food actually came from. It wasn't from the apostles or the disciples. They knew this. Jesus said, you feed them. They didn't know with what, and Jesus is going to provide them with what. But you know what we're not told here? I don't know what your mental picture, as you think about this day, what comes to your mind mentally as you think about it, but we're not told that immediately upon blessing the loaves and the fish, that it multiplied into this unimaginable abundance of food. It's not what it seems happened. And I think this is important. In fact, in Mark, the Greek verbs used about Jesus giving and breaking the bread, the verbs are in an imperfect form, which again, that means it's like it said he kept on giving. The scriptures are not specific, so I know that there's dangerous conjecture that can almost happen here. But in my mind, until this time, as I've read and studied and thought through this, in my mind, I just thought that the baskets that the disciples and the apostles had It's like the widow's barrel that never emptied of oil. It's like their baskets somehow just miraculously never emptied. But I don't think that's actually how this took place. I think their baskets did get empty, and I think that's what Mark is talking about with the use of his words. Jesus kept on breaking the bread. They kept going back to Jesus for more when their basket was empty, and somehow, miraculously, He still had some. This suggests to me that the disciples returned repeatedly with empty baskets, yet Jesus' supply never ran out. It will often feel as though we run out again and again and again as we try to serve the Lord. In my life, I have experienced it a number of times. Lord, I'm empty. I have nothing left to give. Your heart breaks for your inadequacies and for your weakness. But you say to him in honesty, my basket is empty. I have nothing more to give. You've told me to proclaim the gospel. You've called me to preach. Lord, I have nothing more to give. Lord, you've given me children and I have raised them. I have loved them. mother's heart you've you've watched out for them and and you've given them all and a mother's heart never runs empty but at the same time your energy can your wisdom can it might feel like the needs are endless and the supplies are always limited our strength runs out our ideas run out our money runs out our time runs out the basket is empty again But then we look up and we look over at Jesus and he's still breaking bread and we can still go back to him and get resupplied because there are still hungry people who he's told us to feed. I can imagine as the basket would empty and as a disciple was among a group of 50 and his basket is empty and the looks on the eyes of those that didn't get anything, but they could say, just hold on a minute, I'll be right back. Once I get back to Jesus and He resupplies me, I will be back. Verse 17, we're told they all ate, every last one of them, and they were satisfied. The provision here wasn't just enough, it was enough to satisfy. And by the way, if you're looking for the world to satisfy, you will be looking until your eyes close in death, and you will have never yet found it. no amount of money, no amount of health, no amount of relationships that go well, or no amount of anything, no amount of power in a position, no amount of leisure, no amount of enjoyment in some hobby, it won't satisfy ultimately. Only Jesus, only God will satisfy your human heart. But Jesus, we're told here, once these people had eaten, they weren't just satisfied. Or excuse me, they weren't just enough, just barely enough. satisfying. Jesus' provision always satisfies. It's not merely just to get us through. It's enough and more than enough. Jesus' plan for you and me, I believe, is not to provide just enough, even though our obedience to Him is similar in that it's just what now. I'm not asking you then what. I'm not asking you to give me the full picture, because I know that that is in your plan, that is in your purview, and it's not mine. I'm simply your obedience servant, whom you have saved, and you've given all that I can possibly need, and you satisfy me, Lord, not with just barely enough to get by, but you satisfy, enough to satisfy Him with confidence that with Him there will be supply enough. And as they gathered up the 12 fragments when everybody was finished eating, we are seen, we are told very clearly in picture with Jesus, there will always be enough. But I want to say this as we work toward a close today, having their physical needs satisfied, they, you know what I think, and the scriptures don't, they don't say this specifically, and I always hesitate to try to think about what might have happened when the scriptures are silent. I do want to share with you, though, what I think this might have happened. Remember, this was towards the late in the day. The crowd wasn't dispersing, which means, to me, I think they were still clinging to everything he was saying. But they had this issue. They needed to be fed. They needed provision. Do you know what this provision did, perhaps? Set them up to keep hearing. Okay, the food's taken care of. Jesus, keep teaching. Keep telling us about the kingdom of God. Keep proclaiming to us the truth. Having their physical needs satisfied, they could now continue to listen to Jesus and have their spiritual needs satisfied as well. I think that this was the true blessing of being fed. And if you have enough physically in your life, you realize very quickly that physically having enough is not enough to satisfy your soul. In fact, I've often thought of this, and I haven't thought about it in these words before, but think outward abundance can so easily lead to inward apathy, so easily lead to emptiness on the inside. But having been fed and had their physical needs seen to, these people now are in a place again where they can hear from the Lord. Feeding the hungry is good and biblical. We've talked about that already. It's part of the mission work that we are to do, I believe. But listen, if we are feeding physical bodies of the poor or the needy, without an accompanying desire to feed their souls with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we may fill a lot of bellies, but we will never fill any hearts. Because only the gospel of Jesus Christ does that. And we're called to do this, both. But it's the Lord that actually supplies the need in both situations, physical and certainly mostly spiritual. So you feed them. Who's Jesus asking you to feed? Are you feeling as though the thing he's calling you to do, in like manner, as he told the disciples, you think, I don't have, I don't have the beginning of the beginning of what's needed to do that. But yet you feel him saying, you feed them, you feed them. We often look to God and expect him to work miracles without ourselves lifting a finger. But when we do this, we forget the unspeakable blessing that Jesus allows us to offer ourselves in his service alongside him and distribute what he has made possible. If you feel as though God is asking you to do the impossible, I would ask you to examine how you understand the calling, and ask God to give you clarity of what He's actually asking you to do. He says you feed them, and then He gives them something very material they can do. Okay, put them in groups of 50. What's the task God's calling you to do that matches to that? Put them in groups of 50s and 100s. What is that? Find clarity there, and just get about it. because he's getting ready to do miracles. He's getting a people ready, perhaps, to hear Him and to hear the message of His kingdom and that people might be saved and have in their hearts an awareness that it is well with their soul. There's no greater gift than that. And so, as I close, let's maybe take a page from George Mueller. When Jesus says to feed the orphans and we don't have the food, let's at least set the table. We can do that much. What is it that you can do to take the step toward God in obedience to what He's calling you to be and to do in your life? Take that step. You feed them, Jesus says. And may we reach out to those people and trust Him every step of the way. And when He provides, may we give Him glory and honor. You feed them.