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Well, I always like to say it's a good day to be in the house
Speaker:of the Lord. Amen. It's a good day not because we're good,
Speaker:but because he's good. Is that true? Do we believe that he
Speaker:is good all of the time. I'm glad that you have come this
Speaker:morning. Welcome. If you're joining us on Livestream, we welcome you as well.
Speaker:I'm. I'm so glad to be with you today. I'm glad to see what the
Speaker:Lord's doing and in our lives and
Speaker:everything. And I love. Hello. I love you too. And
Speaker:you know, I tell you. You guys know why we do
Speaker:communion every week? We do communion every week and we place it in
Speaker:the service strategically because we come to the
Speaker:table every week to remember him. We
Speaker:come to the table every week to remember who he is and
Speaker:what he's done. It's not about us or what we've done wrong
Speaker:or our circumst is not about what we're going through. It is
Speaker:about him. And boy, I can't think of another
Speaker:springboard to a message than to
Speaker:springboard off of our focus being vertical and on him.
Speaker:Amen. Amen. God is so good. Would you look at somebody
Speaker:and say, I'm glad you're here this morning.
Speaker:I want to start with a couple of announcements. First of all, and I don't
Speaker:have time to unpackage, some of you will go, what is this place? What are
Speaker:you talking about? We're going to unpackage this at some point in the future, which
Speaker:I'm excited about. But for those of you who do know what
Speaker:Weary Housing is and where it is, we're having a work day
Speaker:on this Saturday and Curt and Tina Bryson would love to see if you're
Speaker:interested in that. And so they're right here. So come and see them if you
Speaker:need some information. That's this Saturday. And then next Sunday
Speaker:is our Fall festival volunteer luncheon. And guys,
Speaker:we need your help for this annual event. This is a
Speaker:cross ministry initiative. And so all of our
Speaker:ministries here at Springhouse are coming together. We have
Speaker:thousands of people come to this thing. And so we need your help. And so
Speaker:what we want to do is we want to feed you lunch. If there's one
Speaker:thing that I know about church folk is that we like to eat. And so
Speaker:we want to feed you lunch and tell you about the opportunity that is
Speaker:coming, which is Fall Fest next Sunday. You
Speaker:can sign up through the app. And then the following Sunday, if you are new
Speaker:or newer to Springhouse. And you haven't had an opportunity to
Speaker:eat with the pastoral team and learn about Springhouse, learn about
Speaker:our church and how to plug in. We invite you to come and be a
Speaker:part of a newcomer's lunch on November 2, which is happening the
Speaker:following week. And you can register by scanning that QR code going to
Speaker:our website. So we have food for you. So we'd love to have time
Speaker:dedicated and set aside for you
Speaker:as well. So we're continuing the
Speaker:Greatest Stories Ever Told. Has this series ministered
Speaker:to you this year? Has it been a good series? Yes, it's ministered to me.
Speaker:And you know what I love about the Greatest Stories Ever Told is that I'm
Speaker:a part of it. And it's not that I'm the greatest story. It's that Jesus
Speaker:and what he did, he's the greatest story inside me in my life
Speaker:and my story and in yours as well. And so we get to celebrate the
Speaker:greatest stories ever told because we are a part of
Speaker:this great story. So we're going to stand this morning and we're gonna
Speaker:read together perhaps one of the most famous stories in the
Speaker:Gospels, recorded in all four Gospels. And that is the feeding of the
Speaker:5,000. We're gonna take it from John's account, chapter six.
Speaker:So if you guys will stand, we're gonna read like you just had three shots
Speaker:of espresso. Here we go. Let's read. Sometime after
Speaker:this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of
Speaker:Galilee. And a great crowd of people followed him
Speaker:because they saw the signs he by healing the
Speaker:sick. Then Jesus went up on the mountainside and
Speaker:sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover
Speaker:festival was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a great
Speaker:crowd coming toward him. He said to Philip, where should
Speaker:we buy bread for all these people to eat? He asked
Speaker:for this only to test him, for he had already had in mind
Speaker:what he was going to do. Philip answered him, and
Speaker:it would take more than half a year's wages to buy enough
Speaker:bread for each one to have a bite. Another of his
Speaker:disciples, Andrew Simon Peter's brother, spoke up.
Speaker:Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two
Speaker:small fish. But how far will they go among so
Speaker:many? Jesus said, have the people sit down.
Speaker:There was plenty of grass in that place. And they sat down.
Speaker:About 5,000 men were there. Jesus then
Speaker:took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those
Speaker:who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the
Speaker:same with the fish. When they had all had enough
Speaker:to eat, he said to his disciples gather the
Speaker:pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.
Speaker:So they gathered them and filled 12 baskets with the pieces
Speaker:of the five barley loaves left over by those who had
Speaker:eaten. After the people saw the sign Jesus
Speaker:performed, they began to say, surely this is the
Speaker:prophet who has come into the world. Jesus,
Speaker:knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force,
Speaker:withdrew again to a mountain by himself. Father, I thank you for
Speaker:your word. I thank you that it is alive and active today. I'm
Speaker:asking today that you would move by your holy spirit, that you would anoint each
Speaker:one of us to receive from you. Let the words that fall from
Speaker:my mouth and our nonsense fall to the ground, but the words from
Speaker:you stick and change us for eternity. We love you. Today, in
Speaker:Jesus name, everybody said,
Speaker:amen. Storytelling,
Speaker:storytelling. I certainly love a good
Speaker:story, and I love the way that
Speaker:stories are portrayed and the way that people
Speaker:share stories. In our church, we have multiple speakers who come
Speaker:to the platform and share. Then all of us from time to time will share
Speaker:stories. If Justin tells a story, you'll start laughing before he even opens
Speaker:his mouth, because you know it's gonna have to be laden with some type of
Speaker:humor. If Barbie comes, you might be pricked
Speaker:emotionally because she comes sometimes in an emotional vein
Speaker:with truth as the foundation and from poetry and art. I love what
Speaker:she brings in that vein, and I just tell stories about how messed up
Speaker:I am. But we tell stories and we share stories.
Speaker:Jesus was a great storyteller. He was a great storyteller. And our
Speaker:stories convey the experiences that we live and the
Speaker:experiences that we have. Have you ever been in the middle of telling
Speaker:someone a story, and you are so excited about telling the story,
Speaker:but somebody in your inner circle is there with you, and they have a different
Speaker:perspective about the story that happened? And so as you're telling the story,
Speaker:they interrupt and correct the details along the way. But the
Speaker:details that they're correcting actually don't have much to do with the point of the
Speaker:story that you're trying to conve. And then you get frustrated that they've corrected
Speaker:this pathway only to know that they weren't trying to actually correct the things.
Speaker:They just wanted it to be accurate, but it really wasn't. The point of what
Speaker:you were trying to share, is that just me? Okay. Are you
Speaker:sitting next to the person that's done that to you?
Speaker:We may or may not have that dynamic in my family, and I won't tell
Speaker:you which does which. But
Speaker:storytelling is an effective way to Communicate. And
Speaker:the Gospels record this story, the. The feeding of the
Speaker:5,000. And it records multiple stories. Jesus, triumphal
Speaker:entry, the cleansing of the temple, Peter's denial, the
Speaker:crucifixion, and the feeding of the five thousand. All of these stories are
Speaker:recorded in all four of the Gospels. All four of the
Speaker:Gospels record them. But they come from different perspectives.
Speaker:They come from a different perspective and how it landed on the person. But what
Speaker:I love about the perspectives that we get is that the crux of the story,
Speaker:the point of the story, the foundation of the story is the same. And it
Speaker:all points. It all points to Jesus. It all points to Jesus. And so
Speaker:we're going to draw from mostly John, chapter six, but we're going to draw
Speaker:from some of the other accounts as well. Packaging together this morning what I
Speaker:believe the Lord has for us. Because sometimes
Speaker:the important stuff is found in the details. I'm going to say that again.
Speaker:Sometimes the important stuff is found in the
Speaker:details. So have you ever. Have you ever watched
Speaker:the movie Finding Nemo? Anybody watch the movie Finding Nemo? What would it
Speaker:be like if you went to the theater and you paid the $500 it takes
Speaker:to watch a movie these days and you got a popcorn and you got a
Speaker:drink and you sat down on the thing and the movie starts and
Speaker:Nemo comes on the screen and he's lost in the first scene
Speaker:and then it cuts right to his dad finding him with Dory. And
Speaker:then the credits come on five minutes into the movie and that's it.
Speaker:Or our family loves and enjoys watching the Home Alone series,
Speaker:the movies at Christmas time. What if you turn on the tv, you
Speaker:got your little chocolate ready at Christmas time, or your plate of ham or dress
Speaker:or whatever it is you eat and you turn on Home Alone and there's Kevin
Speaker:and he screams in the middle of the film, in the middle of the TV
Speaker:screen. And the vans have left, and in the next scene the mom is there
Speaker:and she says, I'm here. I found you. They hug and embrace and the movie's
Speaker:over. Well, that really makes for a pretty stinky movie. Because
Speaker:the fun, the wonderful aspects of these movies is
Speaker:what found in the middle, the details, what happened in between.
Speaker:It's very, very important. And so we want to look at some of
Speaker:these details surrounding this story. Now, I believe that most of you in this room,
Speaker:we just read it. So I know that you now have at least read the
Speaker:story. But you know, the story. The story is that there are a lot of
Speaker:people on this mountainside and Jesus is there with his friends
Speaker:and they're hungry. The people are hungry and they need food, and there was very
Speaker:little food to be found. And Jesus, through his miraculous power,
Speaker:feeds a multitude with five loaves of bread and two fish. That's the
Speaker:crux of the story. But let's look at what's happening here, surrounding this picture
Speaker:and see what we can draw from this
Speaker:story before we ever get to the miracle, before
Speaker:the bread is broken, before the fish are multiplied,
Speaker:before anyone eats. There's a detail in the story that I
Speaker:don't want us to miss, and it's what's happening in
Speaker:Jesus heart. Here's the context. Jesus is arriving on this
Speaker:scene and he has just lost one of his closest friends, John the
Speaker:Baptist. John the Baptist has just been beheaded. And so Jesus and I
Speaker:love the humanity that we see in Jesus. Jesus is
Speaker:grieving the loss of his friend. And in addition to that, all of his friends
Speaker:is a sign have just come off a mission. They've just come off of their
Speaker:mission field and they've come back and they are tired. They have been
Speaker:ministering in the healing and speaking the gospel and
Speaker:sharing about Jesus, and they are tired. And Jesus
Speaker:says to them, let's go to a solitary place. Let's
Speaker:retreat to a place and get alone and let's rest.
Speaker:Let's grieve. Have you ever been in a situation where you
Speaker:have just been out of breath and you just need a beat to stop
Speaker:and breathe? Anybody? Tisha was like, you know, hand in the air
Speaker:like that. Yeah, I have too. There are times, and I love that
Speaker:Jesus shows us and models this for us that it's not just you
Speaker:do this, but he did this himself. He was retreating to a place to
Speaker:rest. He was retreating to a place to rest. Shari
Speaker:last night, and I've seen this multiple times throughout, you know, her
Speaker:pregnancy. She'll come into the room and she's sitting there and she just sits on
Speaker:the bed and she goes and she
Speaker:closes her eyes. And don't you know, in that moment, it's the
Speaker:kid's favorite time to scream, mommy.
Speaker:Everything seems to unravel in that moment when she just
Speaker:is needing a moment to exhale. And being the great husband, I say, you
Speaker:better go take care of that.
Speaker:No. Instead of being frustrated,
Speaker:instead of sending them away, instead of saying, not today,
Speaker:the Bible says in Mark, chapter 6 that Jesus had
Speaker:compassion on them. Would you say the word compassion
Speaker:because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Speaker:Compassion. Oh, that we would be a
Speaker:people who would lean in
Speaker:to the area of compassion.
Speaker:Compassion is far more than just feeling sorry for
Speaker:someone. Compassion is a deep act of love
Speaker:that moves a person to respond to the suffering
Speaker:of others. Compassion,
Speaker:It's a heartfelt mercy that doesn't stop at emotion, but
Speaker:leads to tangible action. Several years ago, my wife
Speaker:Shari and I went to New York. And when we were in New York,
Speaker:I was, you know, if you've ever been on a trip with me, I like
Speaker:to go, go, go, go, go. I've got an itinerary on top of an itinerary.
Speaker:I like to get all the stops, check off all the licks and all of
Speaker:those things. And so we are at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and we're leaving. And
Speaker:I've got, you know, I can fit in something, you know, for that 30, 45
Speaker:minutes where we need to hit the train and get the airplane. And I think
Speaker:there was this flea market that I wanted to go see up in Brooklyn, and
Speaker:I wanted to go over there and see that. And. And so we're going. The
Speaker:preacher said, amen. We got out of that church and we went and we got
Speaker:on the subway, and we're walking up the steps of the subway, and I
Speaker:was so intent on where I was going that I got up to the top
Speaker:of the steps, and Shari wasn't with me anymore. And I looked down, and
Speaker:there's Shari. She is talking to a homeless person down at the bottom of the
Speaker:stairs. And I look down there at her doing that, and I would like
Speaker:to say that your pastor said, oh, praise God, let me start speaking in my
Speaker:tongue language or my prayer language. But what I did instead is I said, she
Speaker:better hurry up or we're going to miss this flea market. And
Speaker:so she's walking this guy up the stairs of the
Speaker:subway, and she gets to the top of it, and
Speaker:the guy looks at me and he says, mister, he didn't know my name. Said,
Speaker:mister, thank you for letting your wife just speak to me
Speaker:today. Because it's honestly the first real conversation I've had today.
Speaker:Oh, that we would be people of compassion.
Speaker:That we would be people who see others
Speaker:in their brokenness and in their. And in their need.
Speaker:This is where the miracle truly begins. Not with bread
Speaker:and fish, but with a savior, Jesus,
Speaker:whose heart breaks for broken people. Before he ever
Speaker:multiplies the provision, he multiplies mercy.
Speaker:Before he feeds their stomachs, he leans into their souls. And
Speaker:this is where the story here collides with ours. Because if
Speaker:we're honest, if I'm honest, so Much of our world and our
Speaker:lives are exhausted, grieving, and
Speaker:stretched thin. We scroll past the needs of people every day.
Speaker:We walk past hurting people, struggling people, and we
Speaker:walk past them and we say, I don't have time for that. It's the old
Speaker:adage of being in the hallway and saying, hey, how are you today? Hoping they
Speaker:don't give us enough honest answer because we don't have the time of day to
Speaker:really listen.
Speaker:It's not that we have become bad people.
Speaker:It's that our compassion has been numbed by the pace and the
Speaker:pressure of life. One of the most compassionate men
Speaker:I have ever met in my life is Pastor Will Sevier.
Speaker:Will opens his heart in his home at almost every
Speaker:opportunity. And I have seen this man operate in compassion
Speaker:in the most inconvenient moments, in moments where things
Speaker:are depleted, where there's not room, where he's stretched thin. But the answer
Speaker:on the table is yes, because the Lord has used him to
Speaker:have the eyes of Christ, to be the hands and feet of Christ.
Speaker:And I've seen him over and over again happen this weekend over
Speaker:and over and over again open his home, he and Tisha and his family.
Speaker:Oh, that I would be like Will. That I would be like the Jesus
Speaker:that Will loves. That I would have compassion and that my eyes would
Speaker:open because Will understands what the scripture says, that the Lord is
Speaker:gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and
Speaker:rich in love. The Lord is gracious and compassionate. But,
Speaker:guys, I have to tell you, we're often quick to anger and depleted on love.
Speaker:Jesus shows us something extremely important here, and this is it.
Speaker:He says it's that compassion is not convenient,
Speaker:commitment. If I'm going to be a follower
Speaker:of Christ, I must be willing to commit to a lifestyle
Speaker:of compassion. Jesus exudes
Speaker:compassion to broken people.
Speaker:Compassion is not convenience. It's commitment. It doesn't wait
Speaker:for perfect conditions. It shows up when you're tired, when you're hurting,
Speaker:when you feel like you have nothing left to give. And it reminds us
Speaker:that ministry doesn't start when you feel
Speaker:ready. It starts when you allow your heart to
Speaker:be moved. And he's the one who moves our hearts.
Speaker:If we want to see God move through us like he did here,
Speaker:we have to start by letting him soften our hearts again. Oh,
Speaker:Lord, please soften my heart. To see people not as
Speaker:problems, but as precious to him. And so the
Speaker:disciples in the story, they have a solution to the problem. Their
Speaker:solution is, let's send the people away. And
Speaker:oh, if we are not careful Our first solution would be
Speaker:to send people away. But can I tell you, I don't see that being the
Speaker:heart of Christ. What I see is this. Jesus doesn't send people away. He makes
Speaker:a way for people to draw closer. He makes a way
Speaker:for people to draw closer. And sometimes he
Speaker:renders us. He gives us the tools and equips us to be
Speaker:the agents of grace that allow him to draw closer in their
Speaker:lives, in people's lives. The Word tells us that when he is lifted up, he
Speaker:will draw all men to Himself. And so
Speaker:Jesus paves the way for people to lean in, to draw
Speaker:closer. And that's what we see Jesus do here. Compassion wasn't
Speaker:something he felt, it was something he did. It
Speaker:was something he did. Compassion made him stop when he had
Speaker:every reason to keep going. Compassion made him teach when his
Speaker:heart was heavy and his body was tired. Compassion made him
Speaker:feed when every logical reason
Speaker:said, this is too much. Even in his own
Speaker:weakness, Jesus leaned into strength. I don't know
Speaker:about you, but it's often when my emotions
Speaker:are thin and when I have nothing else to offer that the Holy Spirit
Speaker:is ready to work within me, when I have nothing left to
Speaker:give. There have been so many moments when I have been depleted. And
Speaker:that is the time when people show up with their need. But can I tell
Speaker:you something about this gracious God? Anytime you render
Speaker:yourself available, when you are empty, he is
Speaker:so powerful and so good that not only will he give you the
Speaker:strength that you need for them, but he will also, in the overflow, fill
Speaker:you up. He will also, in the overflow, fill you
Speaker:up. Second Corinthians 12 says, My grace is
Speaker:sufficient for you. Anytime we look at a situation and
Speaker:say, this is impossible, I cannot do this,
Speaker:it's because God's grace is not apparent. We've not leaned into the
Speaker:sufficiency of Christ. We're saying, christ, God, you are not
Speaker:sufficient for this particular situation. But he says, his grace is
Speaker:sufficient. I need his grace. I don't know about you, but I need his grace
Speaker:in my life. I need it to be sufficient in every problem and
Speaker:every issue in every situation. So when that my strength ends,
Speaker:his begins. When I run out of love, his love keeps
Speaker:flowing. When my patient wears thin, Ruby,
Speaker:his mercy is steadfast.
Speaker:And that's why we must never underestimate the impact of
Speaker:compassion, because it's not fueled by our strength, it's fueled by
Speaker:His. And if we want to be like Jesus, then this
Speaker:must become our posture to let compassion interrupt us
Speaker:Inconvenience us and move us into action,
Speaker:even when it's the last thing that we feel like doing. Because it's
Speaker:exactly what he did for us. But the story doesn't stop with
Speaker:compassion. It continues. What happens next is just as important
Speaker:because it's the moment that not only we see that he's ministering to the
Speaker:crowd, but he's also ministering to his disciples.
Speaker:And so here's the deal. They arrive on the scene and
Speaker:Jesus is cognizant of the numbers of people and their condition of
Speaker:being hungry. And he asked Philip this question. He says, where shall we
Speaker:buy, excuse me, bread for these people to eat?
Speaker:Now, it wasn't that Jesus didn't have the answer. Jesus always has the
Speaker:answer. But he asked this question the Word tells us because of this. He said
Speaker:this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Now
Speaker:my friend Vonda would say, this is a pop quiz.
Speaker:This is an opportunity for you to actually exercise what
Speaker:you have learned. Exercise what you've experienced. Do you
Speaker:understand that being a follower and a believer of Jesus
Speaker:Christ requires more than just coming in for an hour a week and hearing
Speaker:somebody tell you what you're supposed to do and just let it sit in your
Speaker:brain? There's action required to faith. There's
Speaker:action required to faith. And so we want to put our faith in
Speaker:motion. And so he will test us. Yes, the God of the
Speaker:universe will test you. He will test
Speaker:you. Jesus already knew the solution here. He
Speaker:already had the plan. He already knew how the story would end. But he asked
Speaker:the question anyway. Not because he needed their ideas. That's a foolish
Speaker:concept. Lord, you need my idea on how we're going to solve this
Speaker:situation. Can you imagine some of the crazy things we come up with?
Speaker:And he's just looking at us like we're a two year old toddler down there.
Speaker:You're so cute. You are just so adorable. Right?
Speaker:He didn't need our ideas, but he asked questions because he
Speaker:wants to reveal our hearts. He wants to
Speaker:reveal our hearts. This is where many of us live every single day. In the
Speaker:space between the problem we see and. And the God who
Speaker:knows. The tension between the two is the training
Speaker:ground, the basic training ground of faith. He was
Speaker:testing their vision. Could they see beyond their own
Speaker:logic? He was testing their
Speaker:trust. Would they rely on their own
Speaker:strength or would they depend on his? He
Speaker:was testing their response. Would they send the people away or would they bring
Speaker:what they had to him? And guys, we face the same type of
Speaker:tests. We look at impossible situations
Speaker:like broken marriages, dwindling bank accounts,
Speaker:unanswered prayers, cancer diagnoses,
Speaker:a fractured friendship. And we calculate and respond based on
Speaker:what's in our hands and what we see instead of who is standing right in
Speaker:front of us. We often try to solve spiritual
Speaker:problems using human strategy.
Speaker:But you know that there is nothing man fashioned in this world that's going to
Speaker:work in the spiritual, supernatural realm. Jesus is
Speaker:the answer. The Word tells us in proverbs, trust in the Lord
Speaker:with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. And can I
Speaker:tell you, I fail miserably at this. I lean on my
Speaker:understanding a lot. And the Lord reminds me, I want you to
Speaker:trust in me. The way that you see it, Kevin, is not always just
Speaker:the only way. And just because it's
Speaker:a right path, even though I could justify it through
Speaker:even the Word, I can justify this is the right path. This is the right
Speaker:way. Jesus may have another way in his Word that he's wanting to
Speaker:justify the path. He may want to do it a different way because what he's
Speaker:doing in the test for me is not about me being right. Kevin's right
Speaker:here. It's revealing my heart posture when we don't do it my
Speaker:way way. It's about
Speaker:revealing where my heart is when we don't do it the way I think we
Speaker:should do it.
Speaker:God is all about revealing the heart. Do you know that
Speaker:God's actually not concerned, as concerned as we are with the
Speaker:outcome? He knows the outcome. He's the God
Speaker:who breathes stars. We get so fixated on
Speaker:going down the journey thinking it's not working out the way I think it's supposed
Speaker:to work out. So let me get in there and mess with it. And the
Speaker:Lord says, no, be still.
Speaker:Let me do the work here. Get out of the way.
Speaker:Be obedient to what I tell you to do. Don't do more and don't do
Speaker:less. Do what I tell you to do. The precious gift
Speaker:of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker:The danger is that we often get tunnel vision. We convince ourselves that there's only
Speaker:one solution, one pathway, one right way to make sense of a situation. And it's
Speaker:our way. Yet the. The scripture clearly says this. There is a
Speaker:way that seems right to a man, but in its end, it's the
Speaker:way to death or destruction. Now, when I see death there, sometimes I
Speaker:think human death. It's like, ooh, if I misstep, somebody's gonna die. It's not just
Speaker:people. It's relationships,
Speaker:businesses, ministry, things you put your
Speaker:hand to might be led to death when you do it in your
Speaker:own strength and you do it your way. So what do
Speaker:I do then, Lord? I believe that the direction
Speaker:I'm going is the right way. And I want to take a step here, and
Speaker:I want to go in this direction. I believe it's from you. And he says,
Speaker:okay, I want you to surrender that way to me,
Speaker:because if it is the right way, you don't need to do anything but give
Speaker:it to me and allow me to do my powerful work.
Speaker:You can step in that way and you begin to step and you go, oh,
Speaker:wait a second. This feels like a misstep. This feels like this isn't quite right.
Speaker:The Lord says, give it to me. I'll show
Speaker:you the way. I'll show you the
Speaker:way that this will work out. I was ministering to
Speaker:a guy, probably it was about a decade ago. I remember it
Speaker:being right here. This is way back. I remember Ernie and Anna Urias were here,
Speaker:and I was ministering to a guy, and he came up with some sin issue,
Speaker:and he needed a way out. He needed accountability. And so
Speaker:immediately I addressed the sin issue. And I said, hey, here's some tools. This is
Speaker:what you need to do. You need to do this. This is how you get
Speaker:out of this. You start step one, step two, step three, do this, get rid
Speaker:of this, do this, and all of this. And I mean, it sounded like a
Speaker:really great plan, and he thought it was a really great plan. And he went
Speaker:out and he employed that plan. In about two weeks, I saw him again, and
Speaker:he came to me. I said, how you doing? He said, I'm worse than I
Speaker:was before when I talked to you. And I said, oh, really? I said, well,
Speaker:did you do this? Did you do what we said here today? He said, yes,
Speaker:yes, yes, I've done all this. I said, okay, well, let's pray. And if you
Speaker:just keep doing this, I believe that you'll be set free. And so he went
Speaker:away and he started employing all those tactics or whatnot. Well, I. I didn't see
Speaker:him again for like six months. And he came back in six months, and we
Speaker:got to talking, and of course I brought up the sin issue he had brought
Speaker:up. I said, how's it going? He said, I've been set free. And I said,
Speaker:hallelujah. And he said, yeah, but your method pointed me more to my
Speaker:sin than it did to Jesus. So somebody else had to tell me to look
Speaker:at Jesus instead of My sin, you
Speaker:see, I thought it was the right way. And if I were to uncover everything
Speaker:about this, you would say, well, that was a logical step. A logical step, a
Speaker:logical step. But everything that I was telling them to do had them
Speaker:examine their sin and not go to the one who could set them free. The
Speaker:brother that ministered to him and actually helped him change said to him, listen,
Speaker:if you will replace what you're doing by focusing in on him, if you will
Speaker:replace what you're doing with getting into the scripture and prayer, he'll set you free.
Speaker:And he did it. There's a way that seems right to
Speaker:a man, but in the end, it leads to death. What feels
Speaker:like the most logical option, the most reasonable choice can lead
Speaker:us from. God's best human reasoning might point one direction. But Jesus is
Speaker:the only one who knows the destination. His perspective
Speaker:is higher, his plan is wiser, and his ways are always better. Of
Speaker:course, the Scripture says, my thoughts. Jesus thoughts are not your
Speaker:thoughts. Neither are your ways. My ways, declares the Lord. And I'm so glad, Kurt,
Speaker:that his ways are not my ways, because I would cause a lot of destruction.
Speaker:I cause a lot of chaos.
Speaker:The test is not meant to expose what
Speaker:you lack. It's meant to reveal who he is. And can I tell
Speaker:you, friends, here's the beautiful thing. The Lord never gives you a
Speaker:test to shame you. He gives it to shape you.
Speaker:The tests that we have in our life from the Lord are not there to
Speaker:shame us. They're there to make us look more like
Speaker:Jesus. Revealing your heart always
Speaker:will make you look more like Jesus. It's so uncanny to
Speaker:me how many times I go back to the place of trying to make the
Speaker:thing, the thing. And it's never about the thing. It's always about the heart.
Speaker:It's always about the heart. And so he's revealing
Speaker:the heart as he shapes us. As he shapes us and forms us into his
Speaker:image. The disciples were not failing here. They were
Speaker:learning. And the same is true for you. When you're in a space
Speaker:where you need, what you need feels bigger than your supply.
Speaker:Don't panic. That's not the end of the story. It's the
Speaker:beginning of a miracle. The lesson of the
Speaker:test wasn't just to show the disciples what they couldn't do. It was
Speaker:to show them what Jesus could do.
Speaker:And that brings us to one of the most powerful moments in this story.
Speaker:Standing in front of thousands of hungry people, the
Speaker:disciples take stock of what they have. And let me tell you what they
Speaker:have is laughable in this story. Five
Speaker:loaves of bread and two stinky fish.
Speaker:Defeat a multitude. Defeat a
Speaker:multitude. You can almost hear
Speaker:the frustration in their voices. What are we going to do? We ought to send
Speaker:them away, hope they brought money.
Speaker:And if we're honest, that's a phrase we've spoken to ourselves.
Speaker:This is all the strength I have left. This
Speaker:is all the money I have left. This is all the
Speaker:patience I have with this situation or this person.
Speaker:We measure the weight of the need against the smallness
Speaker:of what's in our hands and decide not enough.
Speaker:And let me tell you, it's not enough on its own.
Speaker:The miracle was never about what they had. It was about
Speaker:who was standing in front of them. It was
Speaker:about who was standing in front of them. All they could see
Speaker:was five loaves and two fish.
Speaker:But standing with them was the one who breathed stars,
Speaker:the one who created the moon and the planets, the one who opened
Speaker:blind eyes and raised the dead to life. And they said to that
Speaker:God, they said, all we have is five loaves of
Speaker:bread and two fish.
Speaker:But might I suggest to you today, they had Jesus and so do
Speaker:you. They had Jesus and so do
Speaker:you. Listen. Listen. Jesus changes everything. He says in
Speaker:John 14, I am the way, the truth and the
Speaker:life. There are people here that have lost their way. You
Speaker:need to figure out the way. And you think it's on you to figure it
Speaker:out, but Jesus says he is the way. Some of you have
Speaker:bought into some lies. You've started to go down paths and you
Speaker:believe you're going the right direction because you're allowing yourself to be susceptible to
Speaker:the these things. And you want to, but guess what? He says he is the
Speaker:truth. So you look at
Speaker:situations that seem to be just headed right to the grave. But can I tell
Speaker:you, Jesus says he's the life, he
Speaker:is the way. He is the truth,
Speaker:and he is the life. And can I tell you, if
Speaker:Jesus is the way, I don't want to be in his way.
Speaker:Here's the thing. Jesus isn't part of the answer.
Speaker:He is the answer. The solution to shortage
Speaker:isn't more stuff. It isn't more money, more connections, more clever ideas, more
Speaker:human effort. Listen, the solution to your shortage isn't more
Speaker:stuff. It's more Jesus. If
Speaker:you're coming up short somewhere, more Jesus,
Speaker:more infusion of the Lord in your
Speaker:life. And when you put what you have in his hands, something
Speaker:miraculous happens. What looks small in your hands
Speaker:becomes mighty in his. I remember
Speaker:Fall Fest many years ago. Arwen Jones and Margaret
Speaker:Meek and I, we were getting the candy together. It was the middle of the
Speaker:fall fest, and Margaret came through. And I always knew something was. Margaret was.
Speaker:Something was going on in her brain when she would grab her necklace and she
Speaker:would start doing this with it. And she walked in and she said, guys, I'm
Speaker:very concerned. Think we're going to have enough candy? We really. And I
Speaker:thought to myself, oh, I'm going to have to give up my bag of Reese's,
Speaker:you know? And so she's there and said, we need to pray.
Speaker:There's a lot of kids here. I don't know if we're going to have enough
Speaker:candy. And we did. And here's the thing about Margaret. It wasn't let's pray. It
Speaker:was. We prayed. And then she walked away. And so Arwen I
Speaker:were there, and we had to keep going out and filling all the buckets. Do
Speaker:you know we had so much candy at the end that we were just forcing
Speaker:kids to take copious amounts of candy home? He
Speaker:multiplied the candy. I truly believe that. I believe he multiplied the candy. Do
Speaker:you know that you can have a five bread, five loaves, and two
Speaker:fish experience in your life when he gets involved, he is a
Speaker:supernatural miracle working God. Do you know that you can go to him when
Speaker:you fall short, when you come up short, he'll come. He'll answer your
Speaker:prayer. He'll give you what you need. Aren't you excited that you serve a God
Speaker:who will meet you in that way? He's a great God. And when he
Speaker:does, you need to tell the story because there's somebody else who needs to hear
Speaker:the fact because they might be in a place where they're coming up short and
Speaker:they need to hear your testimony. Rod, thank you for sharing that testimony this
Speaker:morning. There's somebody here who's still believing for a prodigal come home. And I'm so
Speaker:glad that Rod had the courage to come up and share what God did.
Speaker:This is the heart of the kingdom. Math. God doesn't ask you to
Speaker:manufacture the miracle. He asked you to
Speaker:surrender the material. Our job is obedience, and his job is
Speaker:overflow. If we will place what little we have in his hands, he
Speaker:will get involved. And here's the thing. When you surrender, he will multiply.
Speaker:And he doesn't just provide enough to get by.
Speaker:He provides more than enough. There were 12 baskets
Speaker:left over. That's not coincidence. That's
Speaker:a picture of the kingdom of God. God doesn't want you barely
Speaker:surviving on Scraps. He wants you living out of the overflow.
Speaker:So many of us try spending our lives multiplying what's in our
Speaker:hands. We try to hustle and strategize, manipulate and plan. But the
Speaker:kingdom multiplication doesn't come from humor and effort. It comes
Speaker:from surrender. It comes from a life that's surrendered. You know, Shari and I
Speaker:do not have a life. Large bank account. We don't have a large savings account.
Speaker:You know why? Let me tell you why we don't have a large savings account.
Speaker:Because I'm afraid that if I save up enough money,
Speaker:God's going to ask me to give it all away. And so I said, why
Speaker:not enjoy the process day in, day out and just give it away as I've
Speaker:got it, you know, Because I'm going to tell you, I know
Speaker:myself well enough. If I've got my fists holding on to cash back here and
Speaker:it gets to a certain amount, I might have trouble letting this go.
Speaker:And here's the thing. So many of us order our lives and say, God, I
Speaker:will step out in faith. As long as I got my backup right here, as
Speaker:long as I got a backup, as long as I got that 401k, as long
Speaker:as I got that savings account, as long as that relationship's intact, as long as
Speaker:that situation is panning out, then, yeah, God, you can have my all. But guess
Speaker:what he's after. He's after you surrendering what you're holding onto.
Speaker:The kingdom is about surrendered lifestyles,
Speaker:surrendered materials. Yes, he is a God
Speaker:who can take five loaves of bread and two fish and feed
Speaker:5,000 people. Have you ever heard of such?
Speaker:So important that we have four people telling it in the Gospels and their
Speaker:various perspectives. What's the story
Speaker:you're telling and are you around people who are telling their perspective
Speaker:and saying, I saw you heard that testimony Barbie shared. I was there. I
Speaker:got to see what God did. And let me tell you how it impacted me,
Speaker:impacted my life. And Vonda, weren't you there, too? And I remember how the
Speaker:overflow of that testimony worked out in the school that you teach at.
Speaker:And Marcus, whenever you were at Triveca and you were leaving and that
Speaker:testimony and all of the. It just kept going and going because he's the
Speaker:God of the overflow. He's the God of the overflow.
Speaker:What you surrender, he knows how to multiply.
Speaker:So at this point in the story, something unexpected happens. At least we
Speaker:think unexpected. But it's very expected out of human beings. This is what
Speaker:it Says Perceiving then that they were about to come and
Speaker:take him by force to make him a king. Jesus withdrew again
Speaker:to the mountainside by himself. Can
Speaker:I tell you, you can't force somebody to be a king who
Speaker:already is a king. You
Speaker:see, they experienced a miracle and then they
Speaker:moved to plop Jesus into their situation to
Speaker:say, I want you to be the king of my politics. I want
Speaker:you to be the king of my issues. I want you to be king of
Speaker:my situation. Guys, I'm sorry to tell you this might mess with your theology a
Speaker:little bit. Jesus didn't come to be a king of our politics here on earth.
Speaker:He didn't come to be the king of your issues. He didn't come to be
Speaker:a king of the situation you're to going, going through. He came to be the
Speaker:king of your heart. And when he's the king of your heart,
Speaker:everything else changes. The perspective of everything else
Speaker:changes. He is after your heart. And if you will give him
Speaker:readily your heart, he'll meet every single need.
Speaker:He'll meet you in every single juncture. There won't be a place. And when you're
Speaker:faced with the question, how are we going to feed all these people? I don't
Speaker:know, but I know who can. What would it
Speaker:look like for Philip to say, jesus, you have the
Speaker:ability to do this? Oh, that would have been a moment recorded
Speaker:in all the gospels that somebody had the
Speaker:faith enough to recognize Jesus being right in front of them.
Speaker:Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world.
Speaker:He's coming to destroy this world one day.
Speaker:He's after our heart. And so we think the
Speaker:solution is to fix what's around us. But Jesus came to
Speaker:transform what's within us. We think the
Speaker:answer is to change the situation. Jesus came to change our
Speaker:salvation. We think we need a
Speaker:king to rule over the world. Jesus came to rule our hearts.
Speaker:And this is the invitation at the end of this wonderful,
Speaker:famous story. It is for each of us to stop making
Speaker:Jesus fit into our kingdom and instead surrender
Speaker:our kingdom to him. Would you stand with
Speaker:me this morning?
Speaker:Friends, I believe. Listen carefully. I believe
Speaker:that it is possible to be around Jesus,
Speaker:to receive from Jesus and still miss Jesus.
Speaker:We can be around the things of Jesus and we can receive from him and
Speaker:we can miss him. And the point of the whole thing,
Speaker:it's our heart. So if you're here this morning, if you're gonna, if
Speaker:you're gonna minister, if you'll come forward, if you're here this morning
Speaker:and you're in an impossible situation. You're in a
Speaker:situation that you see no light. You don't know how to get out. You don't
Speaker:know how reconciliation is going to come. You don't know how the provision is going
Speaker:to come. You don't know. Lord, I just don't know. Guess what? You're
Speaker:standing right there with the one who has the answer.
Speaker:Maybe you've gotten mixed up in trying to make things happen your own
Speaker:way. Man, I do that so often and I always end up in a ditch
Speaker:making it, trying to solve it, trying to do it my way. And Jesus said,
Speaker:get your hands off of it. Have. Maybe you're in that situation.
Speaker:Why wouldn't you come today and agree with one of these, you know, these
Speaker:people behind me, Their lives are perfect and they've got it all together.
Speaker:These people behind us know the king of the
Speaker:universe who knows how to come into your situation and change everything.
Speaker:They also need the king that you're coming to ask for.
Speaker:And so why would you leave here the same way you came? Why
Speaker:would you leave here holding on tight to whatever it is that boun binds
Speaker:you? No. We have a king.
Speaker:Let's let him be the king of our hearts. Let's worship.
