The phone in my pocket

Pastor Max Lyons opens with a morning he could not find his phone while rushing the kids to school. He interrogated Pastor Juliet and each child in turn, zeroing in on his daughter London, only to discover the phone in his own jacket pocket. He had blamed everyone else for something that was his own responsibility. We do the same in our faith when we expect other people to be our source. People can pray over you, but nobody else can open your mouth and pray for you. Maturity means taking responsibility for the right things.

There is food in the house

Pastor Max pushes back on the familiar complaint, "I'm just not being fed." Babies are the only people who need someone to feed them. Elan Church preaches the word every Sunday, offers Groups that go deep into Scripture, and partners with Moody Bible Institute, and everyone has a Bible an app will even read aloud. Our culture loves to play the victim, but Paul in chains declared himself free in Christ. Pastor Max also warns the church to be careful what it prays for. Revival carries weight: hundreds of new believers to follow up and teams to build. We cannot ask God to move and then abdicate our part in it.

Never a bad time to come to Jesus

Matthew 14 finds Jesus withdrawing by boat after learning that John the Baptist has been beheaded. The crowds follow him anyway, and instead of sending them away, he has compassion and heals their sick. Even in his hour of grief Jesus did not turn people away. As evening falls it is the disciples, not the crowd, who want everyone sent off to find food. Jesus answers, "They don't need to go away. You give them something to eat."

Jesus involves His people

Jesus could have made food fall from the sky, but he fed the crowd through his disciples, and he is still advancing his kingdom through his people today. In 2010 Pastor Max was living in Manhattan when he visited a friend's ministry in the South Bronx that mentored kids growing up without fathers, so trusted that even Muslim families sent their children. He went home and prayed that God would send more people to help, and sensed God reply that He was doing something and wanted to use Max to do it. An Idaho kid in the birthplace of hip-hop, he spent a year in the South Bronx mentoring kids like Tiero and pointing them to Jesus.

Bring what you have

The disciples' first response is what they lack: only five loaves and two fish. Pastor Max compares them to Moses at the burning bush, offering excuse after excuse until he finally asks God to send someone else. He recalls his own reluctance when first asked to lead a community group as someone who had not grown up in church. He said yes, was bad at it for six months, and watched God bless it. Then came a volunteer team, a ministry, a campus, and finally a church plant in Chicagoland. You are never ready when you step into God's call; He gets you ready on the way. "God is not looking for abundance. He is looking for obedience." It is only when we step out of the boat that God does a miracle.

Jesus multiplies what we surrender

The disciples bring the food to Jesus, he blesses it and hands it back, and only then is it multiplied. We want to see the whole path before we step out, but Jesus works through surrendered people. Pastor Max recalls debating with Juliet whether a brand-new church should attempt its first Heart for the House offering; she insisted they start with what they had. That first year brought in about $19,000, then $30,000, then $125,000 the year Elan moved into its building, then $250,000 last year, and the church is now believing for $325,000. God multiplies the steps we take.

Jesus fulfills what we cannot

Everyone ate and was satisfied, with twelve baskets left over, but the miracle pointed beyond full stomachs. Like Moses providing manna on the way to the promised land, Jesus was revealing that He is leading His people into a coming kingdom and providing along the way, and that He Himself is what they had been searching for. Pastor Max remembers meeting an old friend at Denny's at eleven at night shortly after becoming a Christian. The friend confessed he had nearly taken his own life weeks earlier. Max simply shared what Jesus had done for him; they prayed together in the car, and his friend said everything felt different. Substances, relationships, success, and even bread leave us empty, but a relationship with Jesus fulfills a need nothing else in the world can. When we say yes to Him, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us and empowers us from the inside out.