A Miracle in a Lunchbox

And last week we talked about the miracle of walking on water and what God does in our lives and seeking a miracle. And the idea of this message series is to help you understand and help you believe. Because a lot of times I believe, I believe, we believe, right? I believe, we believe that miracles aren't possible. Maybe because of our circumstances, the things we're going through, and we haven't had a win in a long time.

And sometimes it's hard, you know? It's hard to believe that God can do miracles. But God can do miracles. We believe as a church that God is a God of miracles. And our theme verse is from Psalm 77 14.

It says, you are the God of miracles and wonders. You demonstrate your awesome power. You still demonstrate your awesome power. I left out a key word there. You still demonstrate your awesome power.

He still demonstrates his awesome power. And today we want to look at another miracle. And I call it a miracle in a lunchbox. Miracle in a lunchbox. I remember when I was a kid starting school, the excitement of getting, you know, the brand new backpack and the brand new, you know, today I'm like, oh gosh, you know, that means school's back in.

But then, I mean, there was something exciting about that. You know, the backpack and you get the pencil and pencil sharpeners and you get the, y'all remember Trapper Keeper? Yeah, you had the Trapper Keepers, man. And you got the coolest Trapper Keeper. And you're pulling it out in class to show the other students.

And then you had the lunchbox. Now, some of you may have had public lunch. And that, you know, I had that time period. And then I was in private school and you had the lunchbox, you know, that you had to take there. And sometimes, and even when I was in public school, I had a lunchbox that I took with me often.

And there's something cool about getting a lunchbox. And I had this super cool 10 Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox, man. It had the whole crew on the front of it, man. I don't know why. Other kids had Transformers.

Other kids had, you know, Care Bears and My Little Pony and all that. The girls had those things. But I had my Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox, man. I like that thing. You know, I was cool.

I had my Dukes of Hazzard. And then you open it up and you get, you get like this, this thermos, you know, to flip open thermos. You're like, man, this is so cool. I've got a Dukes of Hazzard thermos. I've got a Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox.

Here's my lunchbox. And man, we are proud of our lunchbox. But sometimes we open up that lunchbox and actually look at the food in it. And mommy packed me some vegetables, you know, like some broccoli. Come on, mom.

Broccoli? Now some broccoli? Oh, a banana? I guess that's okay. So what are kids doing?

They're getting together at the table and they're like, man, I'll trade you. I'll trade you, man. My banana, this is a good banana. Look, it's yellow. And it's like, yeah, I'll trade you two cookies for this banana, you know?

This is a good, this is a good, you had to sell it, you know? And often, you know, you look at your lunchbox and you're kind of comparing your lunchboxes. You're comparing the stuff in it. And, and what's interesting is we do that often in our spiritual lives. We look at our lunchboxes and we say, is this it?

Is this all? Is this what I'm given? How am I going to use this? How am I going to do this? Who am I going to trade this with, you know?

Can I trade this? Can I forfeit this? Can I get something else? And that's how we act and that's how we think as, as people. And today I want to look, did you know there's actually a lunchbox in a story in the Bible?

One of the miracles consists of a lunchbox. It talks about a lunchbox. And this is in the gospel message of the miracle, the 5,000, the 5,000, the feeding of the 5,000. Many people are familiar with the, with the feeding of the 5,000. If you're not, um, you probably live under a rock, but that's okay.

That's why we're here and you're okay. You're in a good place because you can actually learn about, uh, Jesus and the miracle of feeding the 5,000. And, uh, what's interesting about this story is that it's recorded in every gospel. It's one of the only miracles recorded in every gospel, meaning there was a lot of perspective on it. Everybody looked, uh, there was a lot of witnesses.

Everybody knew something about it. Everybody had a different story about it. Everybody had a different direction of looking at this particular miracle. It was, it was a big deal. There were 5,000 people or men actually that were present in this miracle.

And that wasn't including children and kids. The children and kids would have added up for another two to 3,000 people. So you're talking about a lot of people. So there were a lot of witnesses. There's a lot of people seeing this.

And in the context of this, this is right when Jesus learns about John the baptizer being beheaded. He was just martyred. And Jesus is dealing with, with this issue of, of his, uh, a companion in ministry, losing his life. So he's moving forward, uh, uh, away from the crowd. He's, he's with the crowd.

He's, he's ministering to the crowd. And he's like, when he hears about this, he's like, we've got to get away for a while. So to set this up, Jesus, Jesus is, is moving away from the crowd. He's, he's going, he's going by himself to get away for a, for a little while. Matthew's account says Jesus heard about John and he withdrew to a secluded place by himself.

And, uh, uh, some of the other gospels talk about him going away. Uh, John particularly, he doesn't actually say he went to a secluded place, but he went somewhere else. He w he was going away, uh, to, to get away from the crowd. So we're looking at John six, uh, one through 14, and we're going to kind of roll through this. This is kind of a scripture by scripture type thing here.

We're going a little deeper today to look at this scripture and, and, and learn something from it. So let's see what's in the lunchbox. So it said sometime after this, Jesus crossed too far sure, uh, to the far shore, excuse me, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the sea of Galilee. This is the sea of Tiberias and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples.

So he went away. Other versions say he went away. He had to get away because of what he just heard, what was going on. He was healing people. And then, and, and, and he was just, you know, like all of us, we get, we get tired.

Sometimes we just get tired. We get, we get, it's time to, to get away, to, to, to relax a little bit, to recharge, right? And, and to ponder what just happened, to think about, okay, you know, I, I, all this stuff is happening in the world. All these things are happening. Even in ministry, we need a time to take a break.

Jesus teaches us that is that there's a time to take a break. But he's, and it says, and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up to the mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover festival was near. And when Jesus looked up and saw the great crowd coming towards him and out This is very interesting, okay, when he saw the great crowd towards him, and let me just stop there.

Matthew's account says this, and I love this part because in Matthew's account it said he felt compassion for them and healed the sick. So he was going away, he was retreating, he'd heard about John the Baptist, but he sees these people coming. And some accounts even say that the people were beating him to the other side of the water when he was crossing the water. So this was like, like he couldn't get away from these people. He couldn't get away from these church people.

He was trying to get away from the church people to have some time by himself, and the church people were following him, right? This is a good thing and maybe it's a bad thing. I don't know. But for Jesus, it was okay with him. And this is the beauty of Jesus.

This is the beauty of our God. He does have compassion for us. He does love us. He does care about our every need and our every want. And here he is, he felt compassion.

He looks at the people, he feels compassion for them, and he begins to heal the sick. In Mark's account, he says he felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So Jesus' heart looks to these people. They're running, just picture that. They're running across, around the land on the other side of the sea to catch Jesus.

And he looks at their faces and he feels compassion for them because he knows they you're lost. So he begins to minister to them, teaching them, healing them, touching them, loving them, ministering to them, spending time with them. Jesus cares about his people. Jesus cares about you. Jesus, at this point, even now, feels compassion for you, for me.

He's interceding at the right hand of the Father, praying for us on our behalf to the Father. And any need we have, he's feeling that need. And he wants to fulfill that need. So the beauty of it is you can go to Jesus. Just a side note, you can go to Jesus.

Jesus is a compassionate God. And then he said this, he said to Philip, where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? Because it's been a long day and these people weren't going home. And he asked this only to test him for, he had already in mind what he was going to do. So Jesus knew what was going up.

So he's kind of setting up a situation here. And Philip answered him, he said, it would take more than a half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each of these to have a bite. It would take more than half. I mean, I can just imagine, Jesus, what are you thinking? I mean, we've got thousands and thousands and thousands of people out here.

And you're talking about, let's get some bread for these people? I'm looking at the money pouch, and I don't see enough money here to even last us to the next ministry, God and Jesus. And now you're telling us that we need to find bread for these people? people? That's just not possible, God.

This is all I have. This is all we have. And then Andrew jumps in, and he says something, but he equally has a little doubt here. But at least he's a little further along. So it says another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, so this is Peter's brother, spoke up and he says, here is a boy.

And this is the only account of this miracle. It actually mentions a boy. So that's why I went to John because that's real significant here. A boy. Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish.

But how far will they go among so many? So here's a boy with a lunchbox. What can we do with that? Is it even possible? He's a boy.

He has a lunchbox. He has a little bit of food in it. There's 5,000 plus people here. How far will they go among so many? And Jesus just doesn't even answer the question.

He just says, have the people sit down. I'm getting ready to show you something, Andrew. And I'm getting ready to show you something, Philip. And I want y'all to see this and believe this and know that God could even use a boy with a lunchbox. And Jesus said, have the people sit down.

There was plenty of grass in the place and they sat down. About 5,000 men were there. Seven, 8,000 probably if you add up every one. And Jesus took the loaves. He gave thanks and he distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted.

And he did the same with the fish. And when they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, gather the pieces left over. And I can just imagine this. What pieces left over? It's already a miracle that you've distributed all this stuff.

Now you're asking me to go out and do that, to pick this up. And there's nothing going to be left over. I'm sure I would have that question in my thoughts. A very practical thinking person, right? How could you, why are you even doing this?

And he said, no, go out. Gather the pieces that are left over and let nothing be wasted. So they gathered them and filled 12 baskets with pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. And after the people saw, and this is, this is it. After the people saw, they saw, they saw the sign Jesus performed.

They began to say, surely this is a prophet who has come to into the world. Surely this is the son of God. Now there's a lot we can learn from this passage. Not only does God want to work a miracle in our lives, as we've been talking about the last few weeks, believing in a miracle, believing that God can do something, that God can come into your situation, that God does have an answer to that impossible situation that you're in, that God can actually do something. We've been talking about that, but that God actually wants you to be involved in the process of a miracle for someone.

In fact, that's kind of part of our calling is to be a part of his plan. He's got a miracle working plan, an overarching plan, a destiny for all of us. And in this, I think we can learn that this, this is the stuff that every person is dying to be a part of. They, they want fulfillment. They want destiny.

People want this. We're all hungry for this. We want to be a part of something greater than ourselves. And he says, Philip, Andrew, all of the Philips and Andrews out there, I want to invite you into something extraordinary. Extraordinary.

But the problem is, we often limit ourselves because we're thinking about like Andrew and Philip. We're thinking, God, this situation is just too big for you. You couldn't possibly reach into this problem that I'm having and make it better. And more importantly, we limit God. We limit ourselves, but we limit God because we just don't believe.

We don't believe. So there's three areas in this scripture that I want to kind of speak on which we limit God. And the first one that we can gather is we limit God to our resources. We limit God to our resources. So often we limit what God is capable of doing based on the amount of resources.

We limit God to our resources. We have available, because we don't believe that God can use these, this little lunchbox that we have here in front of us. Maybe, maybe God is asking you to step out somewhere, but you can't believe it. You can't receive it. You don't know if you're capable of doing it because simply you don't trust God.

And that's what Jesus was communicating to Philip. He says, listen, guys, y'all can say all that, but let's have the people sit out in the grass and I'm getting ready to prove something to you. And some, and God may be saying that to you. Hey, hey, let, put the people out on the grass, take your resources, and let me show you what I can do with those resources. But I don't have much money, God.

I don't have much influence, God. I don't have a lot. And perhaps we have little because we don't give God an opportunity to use the little that we have. He blesses us to be a blessing, yet we don't bless. We get blessed and we don't bless even with the little that we have.

And perhaps God wants to form a, perform a miracle in you with your resources. Second thing is we limit God in our inabilities. We limit God in our inabilities. John 6, 9 says, here is a boy with five loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many? So he first focuses on the boy and the lunchbox.

And in the, and, and, and if we understand what was happening here, okay, you have this small boy. He walks up with two fish and five loaves of bread. And these weren't king mackerels by any stretch of the imagination that was sitting in his, his lunchbox. Okay. And these weren't, um, big pieces of some, you know, extra large, some being bred by, by no stretch of the imagination.

No, these, these weren't, these were very small fish. Some commentators actually say they were the size of maybe anchovies because it was a child's meal perhaps. And, uh, the bread, very small, very bite size. Um, maybe, maybe not as small as croutons, but I'm thinking in my mind, I'm looking at a, uh, a kid with a basket with a two anchovies and five croutons and Jesus, you want us to feed these people. We're unable.

This, this kid is offering something or all that he has. There's a lot of inabilities for this kid. This kid is, is, is probably not educated. He's probably, he's very, very young, but, but he has a lunchbox and he offers it to God. But often we, you know, we have a lunchbox, but we don't, I'm, I'm even afraid to offer it to God because I'm, I'm, I'm embarrassed by it.

Right. Often we, we don't give God a chance lunchbox. And, uh, what could this boy offer in his small lunchbox? Let me just say this, a young, insignificant farmer boy from North Carolina goes into a revival meeting. What comes out?

Billy Graham, an insignificant little boy that works on a farm in Western North Carolina hillbilly country, right? What could he accomplish? The greatest evangelist in the last century. God can use anything, anybody. God can use you.

And often our insecurities get involved. We're, we're insecure about it. What, what if, what if they don't like me? What if people ostracize me? What I'm, I've never been top of my class.

I've never been a major influencer, but God doesn't care about any of that. He used two fish and five loaves of bread to feed 5,000 people. What part of the story do we not get? Right. He can use your little thing.

And, and truthfully, we probably have a lot more than this little boy had to offer. It may not seem like much to us, but we have a lot to, for God to use because a little is a lot in God's kingdom. Can we trust him with a miracle? Can we trust him with our, our things, our stuff, the little things that we have to make a big impact? And thirdly, we limit God in our reluctance.

Well, since I don't have it, send them somewhere else, you know? Send them off somewhere else. In Matthew 14, 15, it says this, as evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, this is a remote place and it's already getting late. Send the crowd somewhere else, right? Let, let them find their own food.

Let them do it. Send them to somewhere else. Maybe somebody over in the villages can take care of them because we certainly can't because we don't have the capability. The truth was God wanted to do something miraculous, wanted to show these guys. Jesus wanted to show these guys you don't need villages.

You don't need other people. You just need what you have in front of you. God will bring the rest around. God will provide everything that we need to feed these people, to feed our community, to feed these people that are lost without a shepherd. This is our calling.

This is what we're called to. It's miraculous. So what's in your lunchbox is the question. What's in your lunchbox? Let's get a little practical here.

When we think influencer, we don't think of ourselves often. When we think leader, we think influencer, right? When we think mayor, we think influencer. When we think president of the United States or president of any company or business leader or CEO, automatically, man, those people can do it. Those people have influence.

But did you know anyone can have influence? That anyone is a leader. You may not be leading hundreds or thousands of people, but everybody has the potential of being a leader in God's kingdom, of being an influencer in God's kingdom. So God's given us something in our lunchbox. He's all given us something.

So we need to look into our lunchbox. Let's open up that Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox. Let's look down in it. Let's find what we have and pull it out and begin to allow God to bless others so we can be a blessing that God wants to do something supernatural, wants to do something miraculous in us and through us. He's got amazing things in store for us.

In the Greek New Testament, there's a word called oikos, and it's not Greek yogurt, guys. That's the name brand of Greek yogurt. I know you are thinking, oh, is that yogurt? You know, if you're familiar with that brand. And it means household.

And we see household used quite a bit in Scripture when someone comes to the knowledge of Jesus, when Jesus meets them, or when the apostles met with people. What did they do? They went to their household. They went to their household. They went and shared the news with their household.

The woman at the well, she went to the city. She went to her household and shared the good news. When Paul and the centurion, when the centurion man came to Jesus and they went to his household, we see them going back to their household to share the news, meaning that they are influencers and you are influencers. So my first point here is everyone has a sphere of influence. We all have a sphere of influence.

We all are influencers. And what are those things? When we look into our influence box, who are we capable of reaching? There's people that You're capable of reaching that I'm not capable of reaching, and I have people that are capable of reaching who you're not able to reach. So who are you reaching?

Who's in your world? So my first point is my people. My people are a part of my lunchbox. Who are my people? Who are the people that I influence?

It could be your family, your friends. The household isn't just limited to your friends. That oikos word isn't limited to a household as in a last name. It's those in your community. It's those that are your neighbors.

Those that are your classmates. You have a sphere of influence. You're around people all the time that you can influence. And there's a reason your neighbors are your neighbors. And there's a reason your classmates or your classmates because every body is connected somehow for a reason, for a purpose.

We believe in a God who orchestrates and organizes things in such a way where you can be an influencer in your world. You have a world. You have a people that you influence. Sociologists say we all have about 12 people that we spend at least an average of an hour with every week. You have at least 12 people in your life, in your life, in your community, in your friendships, in your fellowships that you can influence.

So it's our people. Mark 5 19 says, but Jesus would not let him, he said, go, go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. He said, go. This was, this was the context of this is, um, Jesus, Jesus, uh, was telling the people that he healed, the people that he, he connected with the people that come to believe him as the son of God. He says, go to your household, go to your household.

Tell that, that could be your story. Everybody has a story. Did you know that you have a story? All of us have stories. And he's simply saying, go and share, go and tell your story.

You know, we should be able to share our testimony. Testimony is our story. We should be able to share our testimony in two to three minutes. Can you share your testimony in two to three minutes? Who are you communicating with?

Who are you pouring into? Who can you, if you're at work or maybe it's just a complete stranger that you run across, then you have that opportunity. Are you able to share the good news of what Jesus has done for you in two to three minutes? We all have a story. And are you sharing that story?

The second point I want to make is my place. We all have a place. We have people and we have a place. Acts 17, 26 says he determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their land. Meaning that before you had that piece of land, before you had that house, before you had that job, God preordained, predetermined where you were going to be, the places you were going to connect with, the place that you would have your influence.

He predetermined that. And it's no coincidence that you are where you are. You moved here or you grew up here or your parents were in the military and you ended up here and just never left. Or you go back tradition, you know, back generations and generations and you have family that, that, that grew up here. It's no mistake.

No matter what your path was to get here, it's your path. And God determined that path because he has you specifically here on an assignment. He has a, he has something for you to do. So he's, he has a place for you. He has people for you and he has a place for you.

Psalm 90, 17 says, may the favor of the Lord our God rest on us. Establish the work of our hands for us. Yes. And then he just repeats it. Establish the work of our hands.

God, use our hands. We need to be praying. God, use my hands. Establish the work of my hands. Your hands is my hands.

Lord, establish it. And you've brought me to this job. You brought me to this place. You brought me to this time. You brought me, you brought me to this position and you're not there just to make a living.

Your vocation is your location. Your vocation is your location. Your ministry is your location. I had the opportunity to, to, to do some missions in Africa. And I, being able to, to see the local church there is, is pretty amazing.

I can, I can say that it's, it's nothing like what we experience here. And, uh, we had, uh, we, we traveled up into the mountains of Kenya and there was this little village, uh, near Embu is the name of the city near there. Beautiful country. I mean, God stuff, man, you, you, you stand out there and you look at the country, you look at the land, you see tea farms and coffee farms. As far as you can see, it's just, it's just a beautiful sight.

And we went to the small village out in, um, in the middle of the mountains. And I got to walk around the farms and, and, uh, you know, they had little houses here on the side of hills. I mean, there was little, little shacks, little shanties, little, little places. And, and the pastor, he was, he was so proud. He had this little, little house that they built.

Um, um, I felt like I was suffocating in there at night because there were no windows or anything like that. I mean, it was like, it was really modest, you know, it was nothing but a big concrete, um, building, but he was so proud because the Lord had blessed him with it. And he wanted to, he was blessed to be a blessing and he wanted to take care of us and he was feeding us. They're giving us, oh man, the tea there. Oh my gosh.

I just, I don't want to drink any tea here after I've been there, uh, to drink that, that fresh tea. But what I, the most important thing that stood out to me being in MBU is people's heart for their community, their place and their people, because it wasn't about just coming to church on Sunday and getting a 45 minute little message to get them through the week. They lived every moment, every day for the glory of Jesus. Everything they had was not theirs. Their jobs were not theirs.

Their, their, their church was not theirs. They, they all gathered together. They celebrated together, but, but everything they did was about how are we going to get to the next step to reach our community? How are we going to pull together our resources? The little bit we have, we're going to pull it together and everything.

It wasn't, it was this, this, this church in the middle of this village, in the middle of this community. And it wasn't like the village operated. And, and then there was this church there. It was like everything operated from this church and they would go out and they would go into the community and they resource people and they would, they would, uh, do, you know, just do all kinds of things through this church. And these people were just so excited to get back together to get the church, man.

These people couldn't even play. I mean, they had like this keyboard. They, they did have electricity out there, not much, but they had some electricity and had this keyboard and this guy couldn't even play. I mean, it was out of tune. You know, he's playing all over the place and they got these, these guitars and they're not even in tune and they're just playing the heck out of them.

And they're just, they're just praising Jesus. And then, and then there, uh, then there's like a 50 people up front. That's their staff. I mean, they're like, like, here's the assistant man's director and here's the assistant to the assistant man's director. And here's the associate man's director.

And I'm like, how many people do you need for one ministry? But they were so excited to be a part of what they were doing. They, they just had a heart for their community and a heart for people. And they were all about that. And it really convicted me.

I said, we're, you know, we're just lucky to get to church once a month on Sunday morning, much less change an entire city, change an entire community. And they did church outside of that building. They were happy with their building. They liked the building. There wasn't anything wrong with the building, but they realized that it wasn't about the building.

It was much more than that. It was about their people out there. Their household. Their community. Their place.

And the third thing is my passion. My passion. Psalm 37 verse 4 says, Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. What's your passion? God's given you passion so that you can connect best with people.

You might have a heart for the city, the nation. Maybe it's an activity that you're into. I love surfing. I grew up surfing. Been in the surf culture for a long time.

God called me. I said, what better way to minister to people is through the surf culture. So what do you know? Let's start a church a couple blocks off the beach in a little brewery. Start inviting the surfers in, right?

Let's start somewhere. Yeah. Because I had a passion. I was able to connect with people. And you can connect with people with your passion.

Maybe yours is administration. Maybe yours is giving. Maybe yours is outreach. Maybe you can connect people together with some outreach projects. Maybe yours is politics.

Maybe you just want to get together and talk to them. Maybe you can talk politics. I try to talk politics. I try to stay away from politics. But some of you guys like politics.

So go and how do you connect with people? How do you influence people? What are your passions? What do you have a passion for? And then my purpose.

The next point is my purpose. And this is what it all comes down to. We often think that miracles are just extraordinary acts. But sometimes they are ordinary acts doing extraordinary things. We don't know what's going on.

We don't know what's going on underneath the things that we're doing when we're just simply connecting with somebody on a very simplistic level. God is doing more than we think. He's this lunchbox that I have. This 10 Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox with stinking vegetables in it. What am I going to do with this?

You know? Nobody wants vegetables. Yes, they do. Some people really like them, right? Some of you are like, I want those vegetables.

All right? First Peter 4, 10 and 11 says, each one should use whatever gift. You have gifts. Everybody has gifts, right? Whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.

If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the, underline this, very words of God. He's speaking the very words of God. Wow. Wow. And if anyone serves, he should do it as if the strength of God was providing with the strength of God that God provides.

So that in all things, God may be praised through Jesus Christ. That God would be praised through all things, through Jesus Christ. That's why we do this, so that God is glorified. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

So you've got to figure out what your purpose in life is. This is really what it comes down to. This is why we do what we do as a church, because we want to help people connect to their purpose. We want them to know God, discover freedom, and then connect to their purpose in life, and then go out and make a difference. You're a miracle.

God wants to use you. Your story's a miracle. God wants to use that story. Your passion, your purpose. You know, 87% of people don't know where they belong, don't know what they belong to, don't know their purpose in life.

Did you know that statistic is out there? That most people walking this earth have no clue who they are. And it can be right there in front of them, through Jesus. We can discover our gifts. He wants to use our gifts, our passion, our purpose, our personality.

You know, you may have a lousy personality, but God can use that too, okay? Right? Maybe you have a bad attitude. Well, he wants to turn that attitude around and use it for his good. Nothing is limited.

Nothing is limited. Nothing limits God. God can do anything with whatever you got. What is in your lunchbox? What can you do with this?

This bread, these croutons, God, these ancient, what are you going to do with these things? God wants to do something with them. So here's some action steps you can take today as we close out, and then we'll go into our communion. First of all, you've got to pray for open doors. Pray for open doors.

Man, I want to be used as a miracle. If you're here today, and you're like, God, I want you to use me to do something awesome. I want to be purposeful, Lord. I want to do more than just come to church and sit in a seat, Lord. I want to do more than just come up here and play drums or play guitar.

I want to do more than just run a sound board. I want to do more. I want to do more. These are just platform. This is all platform stuff that sets us up for the greater things that God has in store for us.

This is just a training ground. This is the equipping ground. This is all it is. It's great. I love it.

Keep coming. Yeah, don't let, you know, we need to come together. We need to be inspired. We need to be equipped for ministry. We need to be, we need this.

We need each other, right? We need to pray for each other. We need to define our gifts. We need to get together in small groups to grow together. We need to do outreach together because we are better together.

Amen? We are better together. But pray for open doors. Pray for open doors in your life. Colossians 4, 2, and 3 says, devote yourself to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

Devote yourself to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Lord, I'm looking and I'm praying and I'm thinking, what can I do, Lord? Where will you have me, Lord? Pray for open doors. And if you pray for open doors, he will open doors.

I've seen it way too many times. Alex Rubio back there. I prayed for him to be a part of this church when we were in a house. Me and Seth, we prayed for him, didn't we, brother? Father, we knew that Alex had a ministry calling on his life.

Alex is a pastor. By nature, he's a pastor. I knew it. He wasn't in church. He wasn't doing anything for the Lord.

I knew God wanted him. We prayed for that open door to be able to reach him. Guess what? He showed up at our door. God will answer your prayers.

I would walk out in the community, you know, before we were even a church. I'd walk around. I'd walk around the beach, the ocean front, and I'd just pray for open doors. Pray, God, just connect me with somebody. Connect me with somebody.

Guess what? He would. He would connect me. He would connect me. I'd be doing my thing.

Just be doing my thing, going around the community. And God would just constantly connect me with people. Great relationships. Friendships, opportunities for me to be a blessing to others, for God to use me for more than just what I want, but what he wants. So we need to pray.

Secondly, seize every opportunity. Seize the opportunity. Seize every opportunity. Because when they present themselves, go for it. It's so easy to say, ah, I don't know.

1 Peter 3.15 says, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. I call these divine appointments. In Christian faith, we call them divine appointments.

It's like God crosses a place. There's a crossroads with somebody that we run into. So we're praying for these open doors, these opportunities, and then when God reveals them to us, we seize the opportunity. Seize it. Seize every opportunity available.

Every day you need to be, before you walk out of the house, you pray, God, give me the opportunity. And when that opportunity shows up, amen, I'm going for it, Lord. I can't tell you the amount, and I don't have time today to really give you a lot of examples, but I can't, I'll just say this, I can't tell you the amount of times if I hadn't had stopped and talked to somebody, when the opportunity was available, where they would be at today. God is putting people across your paths all the time. Work, play, neighborhood, opportunity.

Take hold of the opportunity. You have the opportunity even here with Salt Church, Easter Sunday's coming up. Are you going to take the opportunity? Are you going to pray for open doors? We've given you cards.

We've given you door hangers. If you need anything else, we'll be glad. Glad to give it to you. You need training. You need us to help define your gifts.

We've got lunch with Leon. It starts there. We go to the next step. We can help define your gifts, put you in the right place, get you launched out, doing what God has called you to do. And I promise you, you'll never experience anything greater than doing exactly what God has called you to do and how God has equipped you to be.

You'll never experience anything greater.