“Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained” (Matthew 14:19-20, NKJV).

I want to talk about serving the Lord. The disciples brought what they had. It wasn’t even from them; they got it from someone else. They took what they had (the five loaves, the two fish) and they give it to Jesus. Jesus gives thanks to the Father for it, blesses it, gives it back to the disciples and the disciples serve the people.

Everything that we have, we are to offer it to God, to consecrate: to consecrate, to make Holy, to set it apart for His purposes. We’re to offer ourselves, our bodies, as living sacrifices. We offer ourselves up to God. He doesn’t just take our life and kill us and take us to heaven when we come to faith. He makes us holy, sets us apart for His purposes. He gives us our life to serve Him, to work according to His purposes, to fulfill His purposes. Our time, our money, our energy, our talents, everything—every little thing—all your possessions, your house, your car. If you have it, you should offer it all to the Lord to bless, to consecrate, to set it apart for His purposes. And then all of it becomes His, for His work to serve others. None of it’s for you. Your life is not for yourself. You’re dead. Hopefully. That’s the goal. We’re dead. We don’t live for ourselves. We live as Christ. We live for others. Love is selfless. Love is other-focused.

We are the branches producing fruit because we have the life of Christ in us. Christ is the vine. If we’re attached to the vine, then we produce fruit because the vine produces the fruits. The Spirit flowing through the vine, who by the way is Jesus and is rooted and grounded in love—He’s not going anywhere. The life flows through Him into us; the Holy Spirit is producing the fruit. He prayed for us to produce much fruit. It is His will for us to produce much fruit, so we will if we’re just connected to the vine, because it’s His will and His work. He’s providing everything for it.

But what is fruit? If you’re the branch and you’re producing fruit, the fruit’s not for yourself. It’s for others to come and take. The fruit is for others. What we’re given is for others. It’s not for ourselves. And we never have to think, well, you know I don’t have the energy for that; I don’t have the time for that; if we give that money, we’re not going to have enough for…. You can’t think that way. One, it’s not ours. It’s all His. He gave it for His purposes, not for ourselves. It’s not for us to hoard and keep onto.

What happens if the fruit just falls off? It rots! It’s going to amount to nothing if we try to keep it for ourselves. We need to give it away. You can’t outgive God. They gave five loaves, two fish in one basket. They come back with twelve baskets! It was enough for all of them to give all that again to others and have a super abundance for themselves.

It’s not about you being continually poor and bankrupt. That is not God’s will. You may come into a season of testing where you have to trust Him day by day, moment to moment—for that time—and the energy and the money, and the provision, the protection, whatever, but you’re not going to constantly live in that place. That’s not where He wants you. That might be for a season, for your blessing, but He will bring you out of that. And you will live. Even during that time, it’s a super abundance because He always provides, He always comes through, He never fails. Love never fails.

I don’t want to just say these things. We’ve lived it. So, I feel like I have a little authority to say, “You can trust Him to do it. That you’ll have enough.” People think I’m hopped up on caffeine all the time because I get up very early in the morning, and they think I accomplish so much. I don’t use any caffeine. I don’t want to need anything but Jesus. It’s His energy; it’s His strength; it’s His work. He accomplishes it, and so much is accomplished because He does the work. I just offer myself to Him. It’s His work. He does it. We’ve given all our money away, we’ve given away our possessions, we’ve given away almost down to the last drop—more than once. But we don’t live in poverty, we live in super abundance because you can’t outgive God. He will always out-bless you.