There are times in our lives when we feel like what we have is in short supply.  We just don’t have enough energy.  We don’t have enough patience.  We can’t get done what we know needs to get done.  The problems that surround us just seem bigger than the little bit we have to attack them.  Sometimes we’re just about ready to give up.   Sometimes it feels like we just don’t have enough.

     Here’s what I want to say to you this morning.  God is in the multiplying business.  God takes what we have and multiplies it.  What we have may seem like it is in short supply, but what God has is in abundance.  Something the Lord is good at is multiplication.

     Let’s try a little multiplication.  What’s 2 times 2?  What’s 4 times 4? What’s 16 times 16?  What’s 256 times 256?  What’s 65,536 times 65,536?  42,949,672!  It doesn’t take a whole lot of multiplication to produce a whole lot more than you started with.  You start with just “2” and in just five multiplications, you have over 42 million!  That’s what multiplication does.  It takes just a little and makes it into a whole lot.  That’s what God does for us.  God takes the little we have, the little we are, the little we can use to attack the problems around us, and God multiplies it.  God is in the multiplying business. 

     Let me illustrate this with water.  Water doesn’t look like very much.  It’s so common, we take it for granted.  We see it every day.  We turn on the faucet, and it comes running out.  A few drops of water; what difference does it make?  It’s hardly worth mentioning.  A cup of water?  We take water for granted.  We hardly notice it.  But wait a minute.  There is hardly anything more important than water.  God uses water to do great things.  There’s a water cycle going on that produces life.

     The water cycle is something that God created in order to use and recycle water.  It’s controlled by the sun, which produces energy in the form of heat.  This heat energy causes water in the world’s oceans, lakes and even the puddles on your sidewalk to warm up and then to evaporate.  When water is heated, it changes from a liquid to gas.  This gas is called water vapor, and the process of changing from a liquid to a gas is called evaporation.  When water evaporates, it rises into the cooler air, collects and forms clouds.  There the water vapor molecules cool down and change back into liquid water. This is called condensation.  As more and more water vapor cools in the clouds, the water droplets that form the clouds become larger and larger.  These droplets get so big that the swirling winds in the atmosphere can no longer hold them up.  The drops fall from the sky.  We call that precipitation, which comes in the form of rain, snow, sleet or hail, depending upon the conditions of the atmosphere.  Some of the water that falls in high elevations becomes run-off water, which is water that runs over the ground to lower elevations to form rivers, lakes, and valleys.  And then, after a while, evaporation starts again, and whole cycle begins again.  It’s only water – but it’s a pretty complicated process!  Look at all the history these drops of water have.  Who can imagine where they’ve been?

      By the way, I’ve just explained this in a modern scientific way, but the people in the ancient Scriptures understood all of this.  Look at Isaiah 55, verse 10:  “…the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater…”

     God takes something little, like water, and does incredible things with it.  God multiplies its effectiveness.  It’s just a little water, but it is part of a whole worldwide cycle that produces and sustains life.  That’s why I say that God is in the multiplying business.

    Or, take the example of a seed.  A seed doesn’t look like very much; you can hardly see it.  If you didn’t know what a seed was, you’d probably say, “Throw it away.  What difference could it make?”   But God multiplies the effectiveness of seeds, and great things happen.

     It doesn’t happen right way.  There’s nothing happening with these seeds here right now.  Seeds remain dormant or inactive until conditions are right for what is called germination. All seeds need water, (well, we already talked about the importance of that), and oxygen, and proper temperature in order to germinate. Some seeds also require proper light.

     When a seed is exposed to the proper conditions, water and oxygen are taken in through the seed coat. The embryo's cells start to enlarge. Then the seed coat breaks open and a root emerges first, followed by the shoot that contains the leaves and stem.

     Many things can cause poor germination. Over-watering causes the plant to not have enough oxygen. Planting seeds too deeply causes them to use all of their stored energy before reaching the soil surface. Dry conditions mean the plant doesn't have enough moisture to start the germination process and keep it going.  It’s all a pretty complicated process.  Who would think that it could ever happen through little things like seeds?  But little seeds can produce great things.  Even the people in the Bible, who didn’t know all this science, understood that.  Jesus told a parable.  He said, A farmer went out to sow some seed….and it brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  It only takes a little seed to produce a great field of grain.  It only takes one seed to produce a mighty tree.  God takes little things and makes them into big things.  God is in the multiplying business.

     Here’s what this is leading up to.  God multiplies us as people.  As individuals, we don’t look like much.  By ourselves, we feel pretty helpless.  Especially when we look around at all the problems that surround us.  We’ve got a war in Iraq.  We’ve got poverty in Africa.  We’ve got violence on our streets.  We’ve got children who don’t know how to read, and families that are falling apart.  We look around at all the problems and we feel like a drop of water on a great mountain or a little seed on a large field.  But wait a minute!  God is in the multiplying business.  When God gets done with us, we are going to look a whole lot different than when we started. 

     That’s true for us as individuals.  God takes us and changes us into something bigger than we could ever have imaged.  We get filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit works great things in us.  Instead of being filled with despair, we can be hopeful.  Instead of being filled with anger and hatred, we can be loving.  Instead of seeking revenge, we can look for reconciliation.  When the Spirit of God gets working in us, great things begin to happen.  Little drops of water can produce rainfall; little seeds can produce fields of grain; and God can cause us to do great things.

     And God does great things in us as a community of people too.  God can  take  our  individual   efforts  and   multiply  them   when  we   come together.  One person singing may not sound so good, but when we sing together, we can make beautiful music.  One person crying out for the hungry of the world may not make much noise, but when we join our voices together, we can make a great shout for justice.  One person’s contributions to the ministry of this church may not seem like much, but when we join our efforts together, mighty things can happen.  God takes our efforts and multiplies them.

     The greatest sin that we ever commit is to give up on the power of God, to think too little of what God can do.   We give in to the despair in our world, and we think that we are always going to be stuck where we are stuck, that we are always going to be helpless.   When the people of  Israel were in captivity in Babylon, some of them did give up.  They figured that their situation was hopeless.  After all, there they were in a foreign land, taken captive, no freedom, no chance of escape.  But a prophet came along, and he told them that they could rely on the power of God, and that great things were going to happen.  He said that when the Word of God is proclaimed, mighty things begin to occur.  Isaiah 55:   “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do nor return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”    God was saying, I made you a  promise, and you can depend on it.  Your power may not look like much now, but I’m in the multiplying business.  And the people were set free.