A short Christmas-themed message by Holly Furtick encouraging gratitude, generosity, and staying close to Jesus. Using the loaves-and-fishes metaphor and personal anecdotes about preparing a family meal, she teaches that giving what you have to God results in abundance, emotional fullness, and spiritual nearness (Emmanuel). The talk urges listeners to offer time, resources, and talents, remain near Christ, and expect God to multiply their offerings and supply energy to serve.
Chapters
When you give God what you have, when you give him what time you have, when you give him the ability, you have, the resources that you have, you will always have more than enough. Someone's gonna throw some fish into the pile. There's always enough. The key is to see what you have. Count your loaves this morning and thank God for them. Ask him to bless them. So this looks like you wake up in the morning and you say, God, here's my bread today. Thank you for my health, thank you for my job, thank you for my family. Thank you for the home that we have to host people in. Thank you for the car that I have to go Christmas shopping in. Here's my time, God. Here's my day. Change how I see and interact with people today. Show me what I have in my hands. We're not going to get it right every time. We're human beings with feelings and emotions, and we're navigating our own hunger while simultaneously trying to feed others. But the faith to feed is directly connected to your proximity to Jesus. Think about the order the disciples gave Jesus the bread. Jesus blessed it, gave it back to them. They passed it out over and over again until 4,000 people were fed. Last Christmas, I was making a big meal for our family. And, you know, first I made a cake. We have this chocolate chip pound cake that everybody likes. And so I was making that. And of course, I lick the batter because that's the privilege of being the cook. And then I made a cheese board. Cause I wanted us to have appetizers. And so I was snacking on the grapes and the cheese, and I had to make sure the crackers weren't stale. And then I sliced the bread and that we were gonna. I was gonna warm in the oven. And so I ate the little end piece. And I was making mashed potatoes. And I had to taste those to make sure that they had enough salt. And you know what? By the time I sat down to that meal with my family, I don't know if this ever happened to you. I wasn't really hungry at all. Because the people in the kitchen have the most access to the food. And don't you think that the disciples were eating the bread and the fish as they passed it out? Of course they were. They got to it first. As long as they stayed close to Jesus, there was plenty for everyone. And when you're feeding others, it's an act of service. Of course it is. But you benefit from it. And I'm giving you permission this Christmas to lick the bowl Watch God do something through your hands. He will supply you with everything you need. He will not only give you the compassion for the people you interact with, but he's also gonna give you the energy to distribute it. If you remain close to him. Stay in the kitchen this Christmas and experience. Experience the feeling of being full while you serve. Watch the energy shift in your heart and in your home while you see the people and you watch God do what he does with the bread that you have before Jesus. They had seven loaves. After they gave what they had to Jesus, they had so much left over, they couldn't even eat it all. They no longer had seven loaves. They had seven baskets full. And the basket was the Hebrew word for the basket meant it was like the basket that Paul hid in. It was a basket big enough for a man to fit in. They had seven basketfuls left over. And I wanna tell you that joy and peace and contentment is what's going to be in your baskets this Christmas. And you won't even know where it came from to stay close. The prophet Isaiah said, the virgin will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. Don't miss out on the nearness of Christ this Christmas. Fight for it with everything you have. Let the pain and the disappointments that you face this season draw you closer to Christ. Let the hardship and the questions that you have draw you closer to Jesus, because everything flows from that close relationship with Him. Hey, thanks for watching. I hope that encouraged you today. Make sure that you, like, subscribe and hit that bell to turn on notifications so that you don't miss out on other videos just like this one. And I'll see you back here next time.
