Dock Resource Kit
Sunday sermon, 2 November 2025
Summary
This week, Brigid spoke to us about the economics of God’s kingdom — a radically different way of seeing the world. In 2 Kings 4, Elisha feeds a hundred men with a small offering of bread, showing that God’s provision isn’t limited by scarcity but multiplied by trust. From manna in the wilderness to Jesus feeding the 5,000, Scripture reveals a God who delights to turn “not enough” into abundance. Brigid reminded us that formation happens as we loosen our grip on fear and self-sufficiency and learn to depend daily on God’s sustaining grace. In Jesus, our insufficiency becomes the very place His abundance begins.
Key Points & Takeways
Formation happens in the tension between scarcity and trust. Our culture forms us to live by fear — to clutch, control, and self-protect. God invites us into a different economy — one of faith, generosity, and dependence on His promises.
God provides enough and often more than enough. In 2 Kings 4, Elisha trusts God’s word despite visible scarcity, and all are fed. The same God who sustained Israel with manna continues to sustain His people through Christ.
Dependence is formational. God used scarcity in the wilderness to form His people — to teach trust and humility. The practice of daily dependence reshapes our hearts from anxiety toward faith.
Jesus is the Bread of Life, the ultimate abundance. The feeding of the 5,000 (John 6) echoes Elisha’s miracle but goes beyond it. God doesn’t just give us bread; He gives us Himself. Our “not enough” becomes enough through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Our weakness is God’s starting point. God delights to work with what seems small, insufficient, or ordinary. What we bring — even when meagre — becomes more than enough through His grace.
Formation in community. Scarcity isolates, but generosity and faith unite. In God’s kingdom, our little becomes plenty when shared.
Dock Discussion Questions
Where in your life do you most feel the pressure of “not enough”? What might it look like to bring that area to God and trust Him to sustain you?
How does God’s “economics” — where generosity, trust, and dependence replace control and fear — challenge the way you normally think about resources, success, or provision? Are there particular areas of your life in which you could benefit from a greater trust in the economics of God’s Kingdom?
How do seasons of scarcity (emotional, financial, relational, spiritual) shape our faith? Can you think of a time God used “not enough” to form you?
What does it mean for you that Jesus Himself is the Bread — not just the giver of provision but the provision? How does that truth change the way you face your daily needs?
Long-form, edited transcript
Formation
Formed by Scarcity, Fed by Grace.
2 Kings 4:42–44
1 Kings 19:18, Exodus 16, Deuteronomy 8:2–3, John 6:5–13
Introduction
We are right in the middle of our series ‘Formation’ looking at the lives of Elijah and Elisha, and what they can teach us about how God is forming us. Last week we explored the moment when Elijah hands over the mantle to Elisha and so from this week we are moving into the stories from Elisha’s life. But before we get into that, I want to talk about maths.
I really didn’t like maths at school. I actually had great maths teachers - shout out to Mrs Hush and Mr Priest - but me and maths just didn’t get on. It just didn’t make sense to me. I then did geography at university and managed to side step any modules with any hint of maths in them. Then when I came to London to do a bit of further study, I hit a problem. I’d overlooked that the course that I’d signed up to had a compulsory economics module. My first thought - uh oh, sounds like maths. Suddenly, I was knee deep in market theories and other phrases I didn’t understand and I realised that economics is maths, but worse.
I remember preparing for the exam at the end of that year and thinking “God, I just don’t have what it takes to study this. I don’t have enough brain power for this. I’m not smart enough and I don’t have enough time to do it.” But here’s the thing. In fact two things, I have realised since then.
Firstly - The context and narrative of our cultural moment, London 2025, is so often that we aren’t enough. Aren’t smart enough, aren’t clever enough, don’t have enough time or money or emotional capacity. That narrative is how marketing persuades us to buy things, and that brain pattern is something we all fall subject to. The pressure to have it altogether, keep up, make sure we are being enough. Our culture trains us to clutch what we have, to protect ourselves, to look after number one. Individualism is the mantra: “If you don’t sort yourself out, no one else will.”
It’s anxiety inducing. And we know that the generations becoming adults now are more anxious than ever about being enough and doing enough and having enough. And living in this cultural context will form us. It forms us to think that generosity is risky, involving others deeply in our lives is naive and trusting God is a bit wacky.
The second thing I realised - I find economics hard, but actually, when I start to think about the economics of God’s kingdom, I get quite excited and can get on board with that economics study. I’m going to explain what I mean.
42 A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.
43 “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked.
But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” 44 Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord. - 2 Kings 4:42-44
There’s a famine in the land at the time of this passage and so scarcity is very real, and the fears that come with that I’m sure were rife. How will we have enough? And yet in the midst of that, this man from Baal Shalishah has chosen to come and bring an offering to Elisha. What’s going on here?
Well the reason he has brought the bread is because he wants to offer his ‘first fruits’, the first portion of the harvest to God. But in a land where Baal is being worshipped freely and the kings and leaders are encouraging that, where can he take this offering to Yahweh? Well to a man who he knows represents the true God Yahweh - Elisha. This might seem like a random detail but actually it shows us something really important.
Back in 1 Kings 19, after Elijah has shown that Yahweh is the true God by crushing the prophets of Baal with a display of God’s might, he ends up in a low place, hiding out in the mountains and convinced that he is now alone. Abie looked at this passage with us a couple of weeks ago, so do check it out, but I want to draw your attention to one verse: 1 Kings 19:18. In it God says to Elijah: Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal.
In other words, go and carry on with what I have called you to do, because you are not alone, there are seven thousand who still follow me. Be encouraged. And here we have one of those men, desperate to worship Yahweh, not Baal. Showing us that God keeps his promises. Which is crucial for what Elisha does next.
So, back to economics. Let’s have a think about the economics going on here. Small amount of bread. One hundred people. When Elisha instructs the servant to give out the food, he does some quick maths and sees that there simply isn’t enough. How can I set this before a hundred men? Seems a reasonable question. But there’s a part of economics in this scenario that the servant has forgotten. God, Yahweh is involved. Simple supply and demand issues aren’t an issue for God.
During lockdown, I know there was anxiety about running out of groceries. One of my neighbours was particularly worried about a toilet roll shortage and I remember walking past their door one day to see toilet roll packets stacked from floor to ceiling. They were set not just for lockdown one, but two and three as well. That’s how fear of scarcity works, it makes us cling, protect, stockpile, just in case. But that isn’t the attitude that Elisha takes. He has been formed to live by a totally different economy. Not one rooted in fear or scarcity, but in God’s promises.
Now, Elisha could have kept all that bread for himself. I need to protect myself first. Or rationed it out over the coming days. There’s a famine going on. We could probably understand that. But instead because God has promised ‘They will eat and have leftovers’, Elisha makes a different call. We’ll take God at his word and share. Yahweh will look after his people. One scholar puts it like this: “If it’s a choice between what you can see with your eyes and what Yahweh promises, take Yahweh’s word.”
This isn’t the first time that God has provided food for his people. Elisha would have known the stories of God’s people walking through the wilderness after their escape from slavery in Egypt. How they were dependent on God for directions, guidance on how to live and their daily food and water supplies. In Exodus 16 we see the people complaining to their leader Moses that God has brought them into the desert to starve but God says this:
“I’m going to send you food from heaven like rain. Each day the people should go out and gather only what they need for that day.” - Exodus 16:4
So that’s what they did - some gathered more, some less - and when they measured it all out, everyone had just enough. Those who tried to save extra for tomorrow found that it became full of worms. God gave them what they needed - no more, no less. They didn’t live because they had enough manna. They lived because God sustained them.
Can you imagine each morning the people going out of their tents and seeing the food on the ground, and realising ‘We are alive today because God has decided we will be sustained?’ How that would form you. It is the same for Elisha and those around him, and it’s the same for us. Behind every full cupboard, even every breath we take, is the quiet decision of God to keep us going. That’s why later Moses tells the people in Deuteronomy:
2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. - Deuteronomy 8:2-3
There were lessons for God’s people to learn about how God does economics that they could only learn in that time of scarcity. It seems Elisha has learnt it. We will have enough, not because it looks like it, but because God says he will sustain us. In 2025, we walk the supermarket aisles and see stocked shelves, yet read stories of families struggling to put food on the table, here and far away. It can feel like a tension or a clash. Surrounded by abundance, we can start to believe we’re self-sufficient. Surrounded by scarcity, we can start to live afraid. Both tempt us to forget who really sustains us.
The danger of living in an age of plenty is that we can start to trust how full the shelf is, or the bank account, instead of God’s promises. We begin to believe our lives depend on our planning, our paycheques, our performance, rather than on God’s faithful provision. But Scripture keeps pulling us back to a different truth: We live not because we’ve secured enough, but because God sustains us.
Now this truth doesn’t mean we’ll never face need. Faith doesn’t keep us from hunger, loss, or hard seasons. There are times when the cupboard feels bare, when the job falls through, when the relationship breaks, when the energy runs out. God’s people have always known what it is to walk through scarcity. So yes, we may still face need. Sometimes, that need is the very place God forms us. Scarcity teaches dependence. It loosens our grip on self-sufficiency. It reminds us that our security isn’t in what we can see - not in the savings account, not in the plan, not in the strength we think we’ve got - but in who is faithful.
Practising daily dependence on God trains our hearts to live by faith rather than fear. It frees us to be generous even when it doesn’t look sensible. Because famine doesn’t dictate the behaviour of God’s people, Yahweh’s promise does. So we ask: What are the promises God is keeping for us today?
The promise of His presence.
The promise of His care.
The promise that He knows what we need before we ask.
Every act of trust, every time we loosen our grip on what feels scarce, is forming us into people who live from promise, not panic. This is living by the kingdom economy. That formation will influence our anxiety and fear levels, how we feel able to be generous, how we live with faith. As we’ve seen again and again in this series, God cares about our physical needs. He provides for today, and will provide for tomorrow. Teaching us to depend on him. He is the giver of life.
But the story, and our formation, doesn’t just stop there. These stories - manna in the wilderness, Elisha’s loaves - point beyond themselves. They aren’t just about food. Because God doesn’t only want to fill our stomachs. He wants to fill our hearts, our lives, with more than just provision. He doesn’t just sustain our life - He gives us His life.
There’s another moment in the Bible where people are miraculously fed. In all the accounts of Jesus’ life found in the gospels we read about Jesus feeding 5000 men, plus women and children on top of that, with just a few loaves of bread and some fish.
“When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.” - John 6:5-13
Can you see the similarities between Elisha and Jesus here? Someone says to them - surely this isn’t enough? And they reply - God will see these people provided for, and we’ll have some left over. And Jesus feeds more people with even less food. The story of Elisha feeding a hundred forms us to know that God has enough to sustain His people.
The story of Jesus forms us to know that God is enough to save His people.I really enjoy cooking and if I’ve got people staying at my house I love the chance to try out new recipes or go all out with a lovely breakfast. Yes, the meal itself matters - it’s good to feed people who come to stay at your house - but it’s more than that. It’s a way of communicating love and presence and relationship.
Every loaf that is shared in Scripture does the same thing - from manna in the desert to Elisha to the boy’s lunch that Jesus multiplies - it’s a message from God to communicate ‘I am with you, I will sustain you’. Then in Jesus, the message becomes a person. The bread of life himself.
As Jesus multiplies that packed lunch, and then there’s enough left over after feeding thousands of people, it’s a reminder that we can come to Jesus with our little offering. Our ‘not enoughs’. Our weaknesses, our sins, our fears, our meager faith. And it is Jesus who makes it enough. He takes what little we have, and multiplies it with grace.
The miracle of our lives really is not that we have a lot, but that we have Jesus. Our deficiency is no problem for Jesus’ adequacy. That’s the craziness of kingdom economy. Formationally, this is huge. Learning to trust God for daily bread trains us to trust Him for our greatest needs - to be loved, to be known, to be forgiven and set free from things that bind us.
Learning to live with hands unclenched in the supermarket or in our daily anxieties helps us to bring our weakness, our insufficiency, and even our sin to Jesus. And there, in Him, we become enough. This isn’t just about bread for the body. It’s about Jesus Himself - the one who satisfies, the one who transforms our scarcity into abundance.
Our formation, then, is to practice daily trust with God’s provision, so that when we come to Christ with our ‘not enough’, our hearts are already open to receive the abundance only He can give. God is not surprised by our inadequacies. Or by our feeling of being ‘not enough’.
Think about it: God specialises in creating something out of nothing. God created the universe out of nothing, brings dead things back to life, puts flesh on dry bones. ‘Nothing’ is God’s favourite material to work with, God’s favourite place to start. Perhaps God looks upon that which we dismiss as “nothing” “Insignificant” “worthless” and says “Ha! Now that I can do something with”.
It’s easy to forget that those who received sustenance on those days - in the wilderness, with Elisha, with Jesus on the mountainside - weren't there because they had earned a space there. They hadn’t won a prize draw to receive special bread that day. They were simply present and hungry. Their hunger and their lack was what qualified them to participate in the miracle.
It’s too easy to look at the world around us - the need, the demands, the marketing that you need this extra thing - and think we come up short. Too few skills, too little knowledge, too little money, too little courage or compassion. Whatever it is. When I am relying on my own strength, on the capacity of my heart and brain, amidst rough waters and stormy seas of life, I know I’ll end up full of fear.
And yet God asks us to bring our little bit anyway. Because what we consider “nothing” is exactly what God delights to work with. Our weaknesses, our fears, our “not enough” - these are the very materials He multiplies. I too often find myself overwhelmed by feeling not enough. I look at my own small resources and think, It’s never enough. I don’t have what it takes. And then I remember: I am in the category of hungry people, and He is in the category of Bread.
Formationally, this is profound. What we each can bring is enough because it is never all there is. In God’s economy, what we bring is not limited by scarcity, it is multiplied by His grace. And we are not alone. We have each other. We are part of a community where scarcity isolates, but faith and generosity build. Charles Spurgeon reflected on this story of Elisha saying this:
“What can these few cakes do towards feeding a hundred men? They forget that God can multiply them. Ye limit the Holy One of Israel. Do you think He needs our numbers? Do you think He is dependent upon human strength? I tell you, our weakness is a better weapon for God than our strength.” - Charles Spurgeon, The Great Pot and the Twenty Loaves.
So be generous, yes, because that little boy’s lunch went so far in Jesus’ hands. But this is about more than generosity. It’s about loosening our grip on our fear, our need to control, our drive to have and be enough. Our survival is not dependent on our hustle, our cunning, or our resources. We can unclench our hands because He will not loosen His hold on us.
The faithfulness of a few - a boy with five loaves, Elisha with his bread, you and me with what we bring - can impact many. Your “not enough” is enough for God. Let Him work, and watch as He multiplies it for His glory, sustenance, and the building of His kingdom. Where in my life am I holding too tightly, afraid I don’t have enough? Where could I bring what little I have and trust God to multiply it?
You don’t need to have it all together. You don’t need all the answers, all the skills, or all the resources. You are in the category of hungry people, and Jesus is the Bread. Bring Him your “not enough”, your fears, your weaknesses, your meagre gifts and watch Him make it enough.
Closing Prayer
God, our provider,
Thank You that in Your kingdom, nothing is wasted and you can use our smallest acts of faith and obedience.
Thank you that you take our fears, our scarcity, and our “not enough” and make them signposts of Your grace.
Forgive us for how tightly we grip onto what we have, teach us to trust You for our daily bread, and to rest in Your provision.
Where we see lack, help us to remember Your faithfulness, and give generously.
Where we feel empty, fill us again with Your presence, the Bread of Life.
Form us, Lord, into a people who live by promise, not panic, a people who bring our little and watch You make it enough.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.