Peter was also there. We know he was there because in the next story we are told that the succeeding event happened because Peter and the rest of them hadn't grasped the significance of the miracle of the loaves. So, what's the lesson that we've learned? It is this: Human resources, however limited, willingly offered, divinely empowered are more than adequate to achieve divine ends. Now I'm going to give you that again.

The lesson that comes from this story is this: Human resources, however limited, willingly offered, divinely empowered are more than adequate to achieve divine ends. Now if you said that to Andrew when he started scurrying around and came up with a little boy with five loaves and two fishes, and said, "what do they amount for so many?" Or if you said that to Philip who was calculating how much food they had, and came up with the conclusion "if we spend everything we've got, we'll only give everybody a little." If you'd ask those two people, "Do you believe that human resources, however limited, willingly offered, divinely empowered are more than adequate to achieve divine ends?" the answer probably would have been, "No!"

Here's the challenge that comes to Peter at this point, and here's the challenge that echoes down through the centuries. It is this: Do we look at the enormity of human need confronting the Church today and say, "Send them away; they are not our problem!" Or do we say, "Okay, you've told us that they are our problem, but what in the world can we do?" or do we look at it and say, "Our resources are abysmally limited."

The need is so utterly enormous. What in the world can we do among so many? We must realize that Jesus Christ is the key, and He knows what He will do. Therefore, we willingly offer our limited human resources and anticipate that He will divinely empower our limited resources, and prove that they are more than adequate to achieve what He had in mind. Do you see the difference in attitude?

I believe the question that comes down to us today is a question about vision. Is my vision broad enough to embrace this principle? The principle that human resources however limited, willingly offered, divinely empowered are more than adequate to achieve divine ends. There's the challenge! Now you may want to stay there and not bother going on any further in the story. Maybe you want to ponder that?

For those of you who are going to continue with me, let me tell you what happened. Immediately, the people wanted to make Jesus king, which is not surprising. He fed them free, and didn't say anything about raising taxes. Anybody who offers a free lunch, and doesn't raise taxes will get elected. So they wanted Him to be king. He did not want to be king though, and He suspected His disciples might rather like the idea. So He decides to bundle them out of there as quickly as possible. Of course, He still has in mind that He'd like a little quiet, for it was only at the beginning of the day, and He'd heard about John the Baptist. But He's been so busy dealing with the issues, so He says to the disciples, that it's time for them to get in the boat and go home.