Ps.23:5 – You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.

David was very familiar with having a table spread for him in the wilderness. He had spent years hiding in caves and forests running for his life from King Saul. David had learned to trust the One who met him everyday, there was always a table prepared for him in the wilderness. The Lord has been setting these remote tables for years. Of course the most famous one was the provision for the children of Israel for forty years. There was not only a table but a cloud to guide them and shade them by day, a fire for guidance and warmth at night, and of course the bread from heaven every day, and the rock Paul called Christ that followed them spouting water for hundreds of thousands of people every day.
There was also Elijah who was being chased by King Ahab for months, living in the wilderness where the Lord commanded ravens to feed him everyday. When the brook dried up the Lord brought Elijah to a widow who fed Elijah miraculously for months from an “empty” barrel. The Lord is very good at setting tables in the wilderness. Then there was the famous story of Jesus feeding the multitudes with a little boy’s lunch, of course this also happened in a wilderness like area. No resources, no stores, only Jesus and He provided more than enough for everyone.
So that brings us to us today and Feed the Multitudes. Why do we have a free food festival anyway (this has been going on for thirty five years)? Well the obvious is that many people live in what you could call a wilderness today. Thousands live on the streets with nowhere to call their home, others live in extreme poverty maybe surviving on government handouts. Then there are the forsaken seniors and forgotten special needs people. There are hurting people by the thousands everywhere we look today. Sometimes we don’t even notice these wilderness folks, I know we didn’t until we found ourselves in a wilderness ourselves. Thirty five years ago our church was in its own wilderness, we had lost our way and it seemed we had come to our end. That’s when the Lord showed me all the wilderness people. He told our church to reach out to the hurting, start with a free food festival, and that’s why we started Feeding the Multitudes. Shockingly the Lord provided the resources that first year in 1990, He has also spread a table every year. We need Feed the Multitudes as a church. He helps us see what the work of God is really about.