The Little You Have Is Always Enough, If You Put It in God's Hands

I'm going to share something very brief from the word. It's in Mark chapter 6 and I think it's very appropriate in the context of what we're celebrating. It is something that many of us know when Jesus did the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. It is in Mark, chapter 6, verses 30 to 44, which is what we are going to read tonight.

“…Then the Apostles met with Jesus and told him what they had done and what they had taught. He told them, “Come aside to a deserted place and rest a while,” because there were many who came and went so that they did not even have time to eat. And they went away alone in a boat to a deserted place, but many saw them go and recognized him, and many went there on foot from the cities and arrived before them and joined him. And Jesus went out and saw a great crowd and had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. When the hour was very late, his disciples approached him saying, "The place is deserted and the hour is already very late. Send them away so that they can go to the surrounding fields and villages and buy bread because they have nothing to eat."

Responding he said to them, "You give him to eat." They told him, "That we go and buy bread for 200 denarii, approximately 28 dollars, and feed them?" he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see it.” And when they heard it they said, “Five and two fish,” and he commanded them to make them all lie down in groups on the green grass. And they sat down in groups of one hundred and one hundred and 50 by 50, and then he took the five loaves and the two fish, and raising his eyes to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples so that they could set them before him and distributed them. the two loaves, the two fish among all and they all ate and were satisfied and collected 12 baskets full of the pieces and what was left of the fish and those who ate were five thousand men..."

And basically what I want to share with you before praying to share the word of God, an idea that I wrote around this text and that perhaps, what I want to share with you in essence is the following, the few resources you have at this time , placed in the powerful hands of God and blessed by him are always enough to fulfill God's eternal purposes of extending his Kingdom through you.

Let's pray. Father, this is a night of spiritual banquet, of rejoicing, of joy to see your wonders, your miracles, your powerful works in favor of your people, Lord. thank you for this church that you have placed as a bulwark in the center of Boston, Lord. and where you have done great things and will continue to do them for your glory, Lord.

Allow us now that we are going to briefly expose your word, may the powerful anointing of your spirit, Lord, continue to bless and minister to us and help us to understand the wonders of the Kingdom of God in our lives. We ask this, Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

Those who have a Bible in Mark, chapter 6 will realize that this passage is surrounded by multiple things. In the first place, at the beginning of chapter 6, they notice that even Jesus in his own land of Nazareth had serious problems, serious questions, and isn't this the son of Mary, the carpenter? And how is it that he preaches these things to us, etc.? and the word still says in verse number 5 that Jesus could not perform any miracle there, and was – verse 6 – astonished by their unbelief.

Then, further on, in verse 7 Jesus sends out his disciples and he sends them out two by two to roam the earth, to preach the Gospel, to heal the sick, to cast out demons, etc. And then further on, in verse 14 to 29, a young boy of maybe 17, 18 years old, starts dancing in front of King Herod and asks as a gift and reward for the head of Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist. . And all this happening, if you look at verse 1, Jesus came out and after this, verse 7 says, and immediately this other thing happened, and everything piling up, one after another.

And it is the context in which verse 30 begins. If you look at the Apostles who have just returned from their day, they begin to tell Jesus everything they had done, and what faith did Jesus' reaction? Verse 31, he tells them, "Well, let's withdraw to a deserted place and rest."

And look at what verse 31 says, "There were many who came and went so that they didn't even have time to eat." I mean, I don't know if some of you have been in situations like this. I have been in refugee camps where thousands of people, hundreds of people and it seems like it will never end and we sometimes need to rest in the powerful hands of God and believe, as Greg said, that God is guiding our decisions.

And I was precisely facing this when, after finishing my doctoral studies, and I had many offers to stay here or go to other countries, etc. and yet we felt God with my wife, returning to Honduras, a small piece of land in Central America, 8 million inhabitants. At this time with the highest homicide rates in the world, higher than Afghanistan, higher than Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, that is, several cities on the north coast are between 80 and 100 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. This means that with 8 million inhabitants there is a minimum of 6 thousand homicides per year in the country. In the last 5 years, 30 thousand homicides. Most of them are between 15 to 24 years of age. 60% are men.

And we feel from God to go there. And just the next year that we were there, Hurricane Mitch. And again, we went to serve a poor, rural area of Honduras, that is, following the will of God, I ended up being the head of the emergency committee of Catacamas, the largest municipality, in Olancho. And I think that God used us, that is, he took us there to save many lives, and I think that the fact that we were trained in the United States helped us, one to be sensitive to numbers, that is, it was said a lot on television. and over the radio, “so many millimeters of rain are going to fall and I don't know what.” Perhaps it's very familiar to you, because you're used to it, but for a Honduran, so many millimeters, that is, it's going to rain a lot. But we, who I believe that God had trained us in all of that, from the moment we heard that, we approached the army and they put themselves at our command and I practically used a bit of autocracy, brothers, it was not democracy, but or it was It leaves voluntarily or I take it from the river banks. And thank God no one died in Hurricane Mitch.

My daughter and my wife helped us build the first refugee camps in that area. I forgot to give my daughter the Hepatitis A vaccine so she caught Hepatitis A, with wild jaundice and there we are, serving.

And another of the important things, brothers, is that God gave us leadership within the church as well and we went with the pastors, and we went just like with brother Roberto, he wants to have the privilege, brothers, of having a refuge in his church . And the thing was to open the church and for the brothers to contribute to support the refugees, not even, because the country was completely destroyed. And look brothers, those few resources of God, as I was saying, placed and blessed, you have no idea how God uses them, God multiplies them.

At a certain moment God gave us grace with the ranchers. Sometimes we had up to 12 or 20 standing cattle, donated by the ranchers for the camps. I had to go and fall in love with other butcher brothers, so that they would butcher my meat, but God provided. In other words, God provided, brothers, God always provides. God provides.

And again, I repeat, the few resources you have, give them to God. The disciples at one point wondered what is the only thing we have? A few fish and a few loaves, but if you dare to release them to give them to God, you have no idea what God is going to do with them, brethren, what God is going to do with them.

And finally, to be a little brief, perhaps I will end with my daughter's testimony, that is, my daughter, God opened the doors for her. She did her MBE in molecular biology before in the United States, God opened the doors for her at a good evangelical university in Chicago and then she felt in her heart to go as a missionary to Nigeria, to [inaudible], there in Africa. However, the economic crisis came in the United States, the church that was going to help her could not support her, and she returned to Honduras.

And we arranged work for her in the Department of Lempira, a remote area, very poor, working in a Christian work, graduated from the United States and everything, and she serving the Lord in that remote area. And one day she called me with tears in her eyes, and said, "Look, dad, you know that I've always been a good student," and it's true, when we studied here in Boston, I was in the top, in the best Massachusetts students. “And yet I am here, in this remote area. I would like to continue studying," and she tells me crying, "what do you advise me? What I can do?" in those very moments when I believe that God inspires you as a father, and I told her, "Look, daughter, what I recommend to you, rejoice in the Lord, serve God with all your heart and study and apply it, but what The most important thing is to serve God where God has you at the moment.”

And you know what happened, brothers? Two months later, he was awarded a scholarship to the Yale School of [Inaudible]. And we have just been, on Monday of this week, at the graduation. It's a miracle for us, don't ask us how but God opens doors, brothers. God opens doors.

The few resources that you have, brothers, give them to God, put them in God's hands and leave the rest to God. And God always will. Amen.

And perhaps this is the brief thing that I wanted to share with you, brothers, so that we rejoice, we rejoice. God is good. God is good. God is good.

Brethren, I rejoice and thank you for this church that has no idea what a tremendous blessing it has been in our lives and how it has helped us throughout our training in Boston to always keep things in the proper priority, may God always is first. Amen.

Sister Rosa María, if I may ask you to come in, we want to pray for you one more time. We can't let him get away. God bless you.

Perhaps something I want you to pray about, brothers, perhaps two things: one, remember our country, it is a country that I feel has tremendous spiritual chains that can only be broken with prayer, with praise, with intercession. I know that León de Judá is that, it is a powerful, warrior church. Remember our country and then, I have the privilege of being part of the World Vision International Board of Directors, which has about 28,000 employees, more than a million and a half sponsored children in very vulnerable areas of the world, and God has placed us this new task. For us it is a tremendous honor, a privilege to be part of the world board of this institution and we want God to guide us and be instruments for his glory.