What Are They for So Many?

Spencer reads the feeding of the 5,000 from John 6:4-15 and sits with three questions. What does this show us about God? What about the boy who handed over his lunch? And how should any of it change us in 2026?

The answer to the first one stacks up fast. God sees people in their need. He has compassion. He loves to dwell with the lowly. He holds the power, and He's the one who provides. Jesus feeds more than 10,000 people from five loaves and two fish, then calls himself the bread of life.

Then there's the boy. He didn't have much. He gave it anyway, and Jesus did the rest. Spencer ties that to neverthirst's own start: one village in Wito, South Sudan, and a prayer that God would multiply it.

He leans on Richard Phillips, A.W. Pink, and the prayer-driven ministry of George Mueller, who fed thousands of orphans without a fundraising plan, a marketing team, or a podcast. Just his knees. The takeaway Spencer keeps coming back to: don't measure the need against your own poverty. Measure it against what God can do.

The episode closes with the story of Mey, a man in Southeast Asia who came to faith in 2025 after a neverthirst partner showed up to assess his village for a water project. Then a prayer focus for the Sokoto Fulani, an unreached people group in Niger.

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Connect with Spencer and the neverthirst team: neverthirstwater.org

Host: Spencer Sutton

To Learn More About neverthirst: neverthirstwater.org

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Production House: Flint Stone Media

Copyright of neverthirst 2025.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Alright, everybody, welcome back to another episode of For the Kingdom. This is the Number Thirst Podcast. I am your host, Spencer Sutton, and it's great to be back here with you today. Alright, thanks for coming back. I'm ready to share. What we're gonna do is we're going to read a story from the book of John. And it's a story you've all heard before. What I want to do is I want to I don't I want to consider uh I'm thinking of like three uh three kind of like themes coming out of this story. So we're gonna read the story, then we're gonna talk about what is the character of God? How do we see the character of God and Jesus Christ in this story? Then I'm gonna talk about uh just the the little the the the young boy in this story, and then uh lastly we're gonna talk about like what should our response be? How should how does this story um relate to us here in 2026 and uh in your life and in my life? And so let's kick it off with reading this story. Here are John chapter six, and I'm gonna start in verse four. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat? He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred deneri worth of bread couldn't be enough to feed each of them and to and for each of them to get a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many? Jesus said, Have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down about five about five thousand in number. So we know there were five thousand men. This doesn't include women and children, so uh you can double that, more than double that probably. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated, so also the fish as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who has come into the world. Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to a mountain by himself. And so what do we learn? Like again, these three things. What do we learn about God from this? What is the character of God? Because when we see this, when we see Jesus Christ doing this miracle, performing this miracle, we have to understand we're seeing God. As a matter of fact, Jesus said later in John chapter 4, verse 9, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. So the character of Christ we see here is really the character of the Father. Because he the Son does only what he sees the Father doing. And so what we see here, we see several different things. Number one, we see that God sees people in their distress and in their needs. He has compassion. So I mean, just think about this. He's he's always seeing people. When you and I know I've mentioned this uh in a different episode, but Jesus in Matthew, I want to say Matthew 9, he sees the crowd and has compassion on them. He he does the same thing here. Here we are in John chapter 6, and it's the same thing. He sees the crowd and he has compassion for them. I mean, I I love this. And um, and and so we see the character of God that he sees these people. And so I was just thinking, like, what do I see when I open my eyes? What do I see when I look at people? Do I have eyes that have compassion? Second thing is we see that like God loves to dwell with the lowly. If you think about it, he didn't he didn't come here and and Richard um I love this guy named Richard Phillips. He wrote a commentary on the book of John, and he says, Um, this miracle displays God's attitude about the world. Jesus did not dine in banquet halls from silver platters, but he ate bread with the poor. The Lord loves to dwell with the lowly in the meek. Isn't that beautiful? Like this is who he is. So not only does God see and have compassion, he loves to dwell with the lowly, and this is lowly of heart. Next we see that God has the power. There is no need to big. This miracle displays his power. He he already he says he already knew what he was going to do. When he saw the crowds and he knew they didn't have any resources, he knew what he was going to do. He had the power to do it. I love what A.W. Pink says. He says, uh He says this, he didn't scorn the low loaves because they were few in number, nor the fish because they were small. How this tells us that God pleases to use small and weak things. Dear Christian, perhaps he is ready to use you weak, insignificant, and ignorant though you may be, but mark it carefully. It was only as these loaves and fishes were placed in the hands of Christ that they were made efficient and sufficient. And so God has the power to take something so small and turn it into something great. So we see his power. Nothing is too big for him. And then last we see God is the provider. God is still like when you think about God leading his people out of Egypt, what did he do? He fed them in the wilderness. For forty years he provided food for them. And here Christ is doing the same thing. Like he's feeding his people and he's caring for their needs. And so God is always the provider. And ultimately, ultimately, Jesus is the bread of life. This is it. Like Jesus Christ is the bread of life. As a matter of fact, later he would say, you know, you came to me because I gave you physical bread, but here I am. I'm the bread from heaven. I am the bread of eternal life. And so this is this is what we see in the character of God. And so the second thing I wanted to see, besides the character of God, I I really wanted to focus in on the little boy who handed over his loaves and fish. And I just think it's a beautiful picture of surrender, of giving God whatever we have and allowing him to use it for his purposes. And I think, you know, this is the as I was thinking about, you know, how massive the needs are out there. How massive the needs are out there. And specifically when we think about this at Neverthirst, we're thinking there's 3.2 billion people without access to the gospel, and there's uh almost 700 million people without out access to clean and safe water. It's almost it's almost as as if we're the ones saying, what is this? Who are we for so much? Like there's so much need out there. Who are we? We're so small. We're so tight. Here we are, this little organization in Birmingham, Alabama. But and and really when we started the organization, this was the this was the whole thing. It's like, God, we don't, first of all, when we started, we didn't know what we were doing. Second of all, we were just saying, God, use us however you want to use us. You know what? Maybe we can start in one community, one village. And so we started in Wito in South Sudan. It was the one village we had visited. We said we can start with one thing. And then God if you want to multiply this, if you want to do something, then by your grace and by your goodness, your power, would you do that? And so I think I think this boy also gives us an incredible picture of how we should have childlike faith. And um, I think this really, really important. I love, I absolutely love the story of George Mueller. If you've never read his um journal, like there's a there's a autobiography of George Mueller, essentially his journal entries, and they're incredible. This is one of these things, this is one of the things that he wrote down, just thinking about this. He says, I and so huge who George Mueller is, he uh ended up um like serving thousands upon thousands of orphans. And what was so amazing about his journal is he did it all by prayer. He did not fundraise, he didn't go out and ask people for money, he didn't have a podcast, he didn't have development people, he literally, he didn't have a marketing team, he literally got on his knees and prayed. It's a beautiful picture. If you ever want your faith encouraged, I if you want your faith encouraged, I want to ask you to read this. It's incredible. So this is what he said in one of his journal entries. I desire to be allowed to provide scriptural instruction for a thousand orphans instead of doing it for 300. So he he had 300. That's what he had. He said, I desire to expound the holy scriptures regularly to a thousand orphanages instead of doing it to 300. I desire that it may be yet more abundantly manifest that God is still the hearer and answer of prayer, and that he is the living God now as he ever was and ever will be, when he when he shall simply, in answer to prayer, can have consented to provide me with a house for 700 orphans and with means to support them. So he was looking for 700 more. He had 300 and he prayed, God, I want I want to share the gospel with a thousand. I want to share the scriptures with a thousand. I've got three hundred, give me more. That's my desire. And guess what, people? God did it for him. Again, his story is incredible. So I think about that little boy. Um, so that those are the two first two things: God's character, the character of Jesus Christ for the poor and the suffering, and then also the little boy and his offering. I don't have much, but whatever I have, I'm gonna give you God. Do with do with whatever limited resources I have. You you can you can do whatever you want to with it. And then thirdly, the thing that I thought was really interesting is like, or not really interesting, like a thing I was thinking about is how should we respond? And specifically, how should we respond to these massive needs in the world? And kind of goes hand in hand with the little boy. I mean, if you think about the massive needs in the world. So I I think the first point that I would say here is we have a tendency to limit God by our own limitations. I mean, we if if I go back to the story, if I go back to the passage, what I see here is I see it says, uh Philip said, ge uh it wasn't Philip, it was Andrew. Simon Peter said, What are they for so many? So you can already see this limiting language that he's using. What are they? What are these loaves and this fish for so many people? Like 10,000 people. Like this is a that is a absolutely a natural reaction. And I'm not saying it's completely wrong because we we we probably do have that reaction a lot of times, but we tend to limit God by our own limitations. And and I think this sometimes can be my attitude in ministry. I I I'm like, hey, I I have by my little faith, I'm not praying for big and massive things. And I think it's a this is a good reminder, like as I was thinking about it, this is a good reminder that God doesn't despise small beginnings. When I think about this little boy, I think about also think about David was just a boy when God anointed him. I think about small beginnings are okay. Abraham was called, he he he and Sarah were called out to go and become a people. God said, I'm gonna bless you, I'm gonna turn you to a nation. And it was just the two of them, small beginnings. And then I think about our own Savior, Jesus Christ, born in a manger in Bethlehem. Small, small beginnings. God does not despise small beginnings. So we don't want to limit God by our own limitations, our lack of faith. And then like we should we should look at problems and judge by God's provision and not by our own poverty. Right? This is Richard Phillips wrote, This is the difference between those who do much for God and those who do not. The former judge what is possible by God's provision, not their poverty. That is the truth. Like God, what do you want to do? You can do more through me than I could probably ever imagine. And so we know in Matthew 21, 21, Jesus there talks about mountain-moving faith. Like God is able to do, based on his character, based on what we see in scripture, based on his promises to us, he's able to do more than we could ever imagine or think. And then when I think about just these two massive needs, I just think like probably one of the biggest things I think about is um like God's provision not only of access to water, but also God's provision for the gospel. And so I want to read you this quick story. Uh, there's this man, and he's in a country where we serve in Southeast Asia. His name is May, that's M-E-Y. And he recently uh uh wrote us, and uh when we were there visiting, he he like sat down with one of our partners and he told him a story, and and so we wrote it down, we captured him. This is what he said. He said, There are just a few Christians here. He's talking about his own community. He says, but I'm one of them. He said, I accepted Jesus as my savior in 2025 through a neverthirst staff member who came to our village for a site assessment. So when he's talking about a neverthirst um staff member, what he's really saying is a neverthirst partner. So our partners, the people that we partner with on the ground, go and do site assessments. And those site assessments are just like, hey, is this a community that needs access to clean water? And there's several different things that they got to go through, several like the process, and they have to assess everything. So it's a big ordeal to go do this these site assessments. And not everybody is chosen, like not every community is chosen. There's so much need out there. But this is what he goes on to say he says, This is our partner who's they're they're believers. And he said he often shared with me about the true God who created the earth, human beings, and everything we have. At first, I only listened casually because I thought he would just complete the assessment and leave, and and we would never get water. He said, I in my heart, I even told myself that I if our village were selected to receive a hand pump and clean water, I would believe that Jesus is the true God. A few weeks later, we were informed that our village had passed the selection process. Everyone was very excited and thankful. And at that moment, I remembered the promise I made in my heart. Since then, I accepted God and started following Him. So I just think, you know, it's really it really is amazing. It could seem overwhelming when we think about the needs in the world, when we think about those without access to clean water, when we think about those without access to the gospel. But I just I just want to remind us, and and I'm reminding myself as well, that like anything that we offer in God's hands, he can use to change somebody's story for all eternity. And so this man may, M. E. Y, may, if you want to pray for him, I just encourage you, he's a new believer since 2025. This man is like because of your generosity, he has heard the gospel and he's responded to the gospel. And so now he's a part of what he said was just a few believers in his community. And so that's what I think about. I think about you know what, Lord, it's not like we don't have to as uh Lord, you can do with never thirst whatever you want to do. If you want this, if you want us to provide access to clean water in the gospel to hundreds of millions of people, God, use us. If you want to use us to change one person's life, then use us. And I think that as I was reading the story and just thinking about this, this is the big takeaway for me is that I need to think not about my own abilities, I need to think about God's abilities, his power, his compassion. Like this is this is what we should be doing, what I should be doing. So I just want to say, I know I say this a lot on the podcast, but I just want to say thank you for uh changing stories like like this one, and for and for using your resources, for opening your hand and using your resources to share with people. And uh people are hearing the gospel sometimes for the very first time. Like this this man may he this was for the first time he was learning about a God who created all things, including human beings. So just really incredible. Okay. Now I want to turn the corner and we want to pray for a people group. Now, this is a people group. It's the the name their name is uh pronounced Sokoto Fulani. Sokoto Fulani. And so I'm gonna spell it S-O-K-O-T-O Fulani is F-U-L-A-N-I. And they're a people group uh around over 700,000 people, and they're living in a country called Niger, and they're a subgroup of the greater Fulani tribe that are on the border of Niger in Nigeria, and so one of the problems, so that they like most of the Fulani um are Muslim, and many of the Fulani are revered teachers of Islam, as a matter of fact, and they get a lot of respect for that, and so but one of the problems is polluted water, and so they suffer from malaria and other waterborne diseases, and so we just want to pray for missionaries, for engineers, for organizations that might be welcomed in their areas to provide access to clean water, and may God use that as a as a as a bridge to share the gospel. And so just want to pray. What I want to do is I want to pray. Uh, this is the prayer focus. 2 Timothy 2 21 says, Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. And so I'm just gonna ask you, pray that they would become useful to the one true holy God, and pray that this would be the decade when the Sokotu, Sokoto, Fulani have an unstoppable movement in Christ. Let's pray. Dearly Father Lord, we just pray, just so thankful for your word, so thankful for your character, your promises, who you are, and I'm so incredibly thankful for Jesus Christ, who came down to this earth and he lived this life so that we could see you. Whoever has seen Jesus has seen you, God. And so we praise you for your son, and we praise you for this miracle that we read about in John chapter 6. God, it was it was nothing for you to provide bread and fish for 10,000 plus people that day. And so, Lord, when when we become anxious about our own needs, Lord, I pray that you would give us uh just peace uh and give us faith to trust you. And Lord, also just Fulani people, the Soko Sokoto Fulani. God, I just pray for um for missionaries, for organizations, for people who will come in and share the gospel and use water. Just as we read, or just as I shared about this this man May living in Southeast Asia, God, I pray that the same thing, that water would be used the same way to reach this people group who has, to our knowledge, no believers. They're truly a kind of a frontier people group that they don't have any gospel witness. So, God, I pray that you that you would make them, that they would become useful to you, God, because you are the one true holy God. And that I pray, God, that this would be the decade that that they would experience an unstoppable movement in Christ. You have all of the means to do this, God. You have all the power, you deserve all the glory. And so in the precious name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. All right, everybody, that is it for this episode of For the Kingdom, and I'll be back with you in two weeks. Y'all have a great one.