God Multiplies a Life of Service

A message from Student Takeover Sunday at The Woodlands First Baptist Church in The Woodlands, Texas

On June 28, 2026, something unusual happened at The Woodlands First Baptist Church. Students greeted at the doors, helped with the offering, shared their testimonies from the front, and led worship in a pop-up choir. Then Jordan Ramos, High School Minister at The Woodlands First, stepped up to preach.

Student Takeover Sunday is one of those mornings that reminds the church what it is building toward. Students from across The Woodlands had spent months growing in faith and preparing to lead. Many come from neighborhoods like Panther Creek, Indian Springs, and Cochran’s Crossing, attending schools including The Woodlands High School and College Park High School. What the congregation experienced that morning was the fruit of that investment.

The message Jordan brought was short, but it carried real weight. Drawing from Matthew 14 and the feeding of the five thousand, he submitted a single idea to the church: God multiplies a life of service.

A Life of Service Begins by Surrendering Your Yes

Matthew 14:15-21 puts the disciples in an impossible situation. Evening is coming, the crowd is enormous, and the only food anyone can find is five loaves of bread and two fish. The disciples’ proposed solution is sensible: send the people away to find their own food. But Jesus has a different response in verse 16. He looks at his disciples and says simply: “You give them something to eat.”

Jordan points out what Jesus does not say. He does not say, “If you feel comfortable.” He does not say, “If you have time.” He does not ask whether they think they are capable. He gives a direct instruction to a group of people who, by every reasonable calculation, cannot fulfill it.

The disciples’ instinct is exactly what ours tends to be. Before they ever take a step, they start calculating. They calculate the crowd size, the time of day, their available resources, and they arrive quickly at the conclusion that someone else should handle this. Jordan’s observation lands cleanly: we read this story knowing the ending. The disciples did not. Standing in front of thousands of hungry people with five loaves and two fish, they faced a real and disorienting impossibility.

But Jesus was not primarily concerned with feeding the crowd. He was shaping his disciples. He was teaching them to live with a posture that allows him to call them into service at any given moment, not when conditions are ideal, not when they feel equipped, but right now, with exactly what they have.

Matthew 20:28 says: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus modeled that posture throughout his ministry. In John 13, before the Last Supper, he wraps a towel around his waist and washes his disciples’ feet. In the ancient world, foot-washing was not a ceremonial gesture. It was dirty work, the task assigned to the lowest servant in a household. Dusty roads and open sandals made it genuinely unpleasant. Jesus never considered himself above it.

Jordan’s challenge to the congregation flows directly from that example. If we are only willing to serve when it is convenient, comfortable, or noticed, we have missed the heart of Jesus. Sometimes serving means walking into the dirt and grime of someone else’s life, through grief, addiction, loneliness, or brokenness. Those are not always the glamorous opportunities, but they are often the places where people most clearly experience the love of Christ.

A life of service does not begin with a full set of resources or a clearly marked road. It begins with a yes, offered to Jesus before the path is visible.

The World Sees Service as Something You Do. Jesus Sees it as Someone You Become.

Jordan draws a distinction that cuts to the heart of what makes biblical service different from any other kind. Worldly service happens when it is convenient, when there is extra time, or when generosity feels good in the moment. It is one more item on the schedule, subject to cancellation when something more pressing comes along.

High School Minister Jordan Ramos challenges The Woodlands First to stop calculating and start surrendering, placing what they have into the hands of Jesus.

Biblical service is different in kind, not just degree. It is not a good deed added to a busy life. It is a posture, a way of waking up each morning with open hands and saying: Lord, whatever you have entrusted to me today, my time, my gifts, my resources, my experience, it is yours.

He illustrates this with a story about watching the new Mandalorian film with his wife. A line in the movie about the old serving the young and the young serving the old stuck with him. He came home and tried to pass that wisdom on to their French Bulldog, Max, casting the dog as Grogu in his mind and delivering the line with full seriousness. Max looked at him, sneezed on his leg, and ran away. His wife’s response was immediate: if he felt so much like the Mandalorian, he could take Grogu outside.

The story is funny, but Jordan uses it to make a real point. Service is one of those ideas that nearly everyone agrees sounds good. Movies celebrate it. Schools teach it. People with no religious beliefs would probably tell you that helping others is worthwhile. So what actually separates worldly service from biblical service?

The answer Jordan gives is this: the world measures service by what leaves your hands. Jesus measures service by whether it ever reached his hands in the first place.

This is where Matthew 14 deepens. After the disciples report that all they have is five loaves and two fish, Jesus does not tell them to go find more. In verse 18 he says simply: “Bring them here to me.” Before he multiplied anything, he asked them to place what they had in his hands. Jordan argues that this is still how Jesus works today. He has never asked his people to bring what they do not have. He asks them to faithfully bring what they do have, however small it seems.

Paul captures the same truth in Ephesians 3:20: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” The emphasis is not on the five loaves or the two fish. The miracle was never in the amount. It was in whose hands the offering was placed.

Jordan heard N.T. Wright, the New Testament scholar, speak over several days as part of a graduate class. One phrase stayed with him. Wright described the kingdom of God as an upside-down kingdom, one that values love, service, humility, and unity over power, status, and recognition. Then he said this: “The church is meant to be the small working model of God’s new creation.”

That image reshapes what even the smallest acts of service mean. Greeting someone at the front door is not just opening a door; it might be opening someone’s heart. Serving in the preschool is not just watching children; it might be showing a parent the love of Christ for the first time. Delivering a meal, praying with someone after a service, sitting with a person who is alone: these are the very things God uses to draw people to himself. None of it is wasted. God has a long history of taking what seems ordinary and using it for purposes that outlast the moment.

Bring What You Have

Jordan closed with a reference to a song by Josiah Queen written from the perspective of the young boy in John’s account of this miracle, the one who offered his lunch to the disciples. Imagine being that child. Thousands of hungry people. Grown men looking around for a solution. And someone notices your five loaves and two fish. The temptation in that moment is to assume someone else must have more to offer.

But Jesus never asked the boy for something he did not have. He asked for what he did have. Jordan’s closing challenge to The Woodlands First was the same: whatever your five loaves and two fish look like today, whether that is your time, your gifts, your wisdom, your experience, or simply your willingness to show up, Jesus is not asking you to bring what someone else has. He is asking you to faithfully place what he has already entrusted to you into his hands.

Because the miracle was never in the amount. It was always in Jesus. And the track record of God is clear: he takes what seems insignificant, and he uses it to build his kingdom.

God multiplies a life of service.

If you are looking for a church near me in The Woodlands, TX where students are growing, serving, and leading, and where families from Panther Creek, Indian Springs, Cochran’s Crossing, and across The Woodlands are finding community, we would love for you to join us at The Woodlands First Baptist Church.

Learn More about The Woodlands First

► Watch the full sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMFdGTtYloc

► Plan your visit this Sunday: https://thewoodlandsfirst.org/new/

► Learn about our church: https://thewoodlandsfirst.org/beliefs/

► Student Ministry: https://thewoodlandsfirst.org/ministries/students/

Visit The Woodlands First Baptist Church

We offer worship services in traditional, modern, and Spanish-language styles across two campuses in The Woodlands, TX, along with Bible study classes, small groups, and student ministry for all ages.

South Campus: 11801 Grogan’s Mill Rd, The Woodlands, TX 77380

North Campus: 5148 FM 1488, The Woodlands, TX 77354

Phone: (281) 367-4317

Website: thewoodlandsfirst.org

Looking for a church near me serving families in Panther Creek, Indian Springs, Cochran’s Crossing, and The Woodlands, TX? The Woodlands First Baptist Church has been part of this community since 1979.