[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our
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[00:00:25] Speaker B: Good morning.
How's everybody doing this morning?
Nice. Front row's doing well. You in the back. We gotta work on it.
There's some people in this world that have some pretty amazing skills and talents. I mean, skills that impact and change the world.
For instance, surgeons that can keep a patient alive with whatever it is that they're having the surgery on.
Entrepreneurs that have businesses that impact the world on a global level.
World class musicians that can play music so beautifully that it takes away all the fear and anxiety of those who listen.
[00:01:09] Speaker C: And then there's me.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: I have a unique talent that helps out absolutely no one.
I have this skill and this talent that I notice famous athletes in the wild.
I'm not talking about like at autograph signings or ball games or stuff like that. I'm talking about just in everyday life. They're doing their thing, I'm doing my thing, and I just notice them. I don't know if it's all the sports center I watched as a kid, like over and over again. I don't know if it's cause of my parents love sports and we grew up watching and talking about sports all the time, but it just happens. Some may say I'm a savant when it comes to noticing athletes in their natural habitat.
For instance, it's even athletes that I've never seen play.
I remember one time I was in Frisco meeting my family at this small mom and pop restaurant. And I'm walking in and this gentleman walks out and I noticed he's a little bit older, but he's in really good shape. And I look up and I'm like, I just know right away. I'm like, that's Randy White.
He's an NFL hall of famer, cowboy, great. I've never seen Randy White play, but I knew exactly who he was as soon as I saw him. I was in a hotel.
We had a youth meeting with a bunch of youth pastors and we were on a break and it was in this big hotel and I was on the balcony just looking over into the lobby and I looked down and right away I noticed that's Tony Dorsett.
Never seen Tony Dorsett play, but I knew who he was right away, and sure enough, that was him. He was having some meeting.
And so I even know obscure athletes.
So I was at Spaghetti Warehouse with my wife in Plano, and we're sitting there and I look up and I go, amanda.
[00:02:59] Speaker C: I go, that's Jeremy Warner.
And she goes, who's Jeremy Warner?
[00:03:05] Speaker B: I'm like, seriously, you don't know who Jeremy? I go, look over there. But don't act, you know, because you know when you tell somebody, hey, look over there.
So I tried to set her up, and she glances, she goes, I have no idea who that is. I'm like three time Olympic gold medalist Jeremy Warner. She was like, that's not him. So what do I do?
She goes, that's him.
But even at the Met, since I've been here, I've been in the lobby and I'll look up and I'm like, for instance, Antonio Davis, former NBA all star. I was out there one time, and he just comes walking through the lobby. Now, let me just. It's a little easier with NBA guys because he's 6 9, so he kinds of stands out. But I knew exactly who he was when I saw him one time. I was out there. And this is like when I first got on staff. And I'm sitting there and this family walks in. I look up and I'm like, that's David Murphy, Texas Ranger. And so you never know where you're gonna see famous athletes. And I know they're just normal people. And most of the time, I'm not very starstruck. But there was this one time where I was super starstruck.
It was somebody, Amanda. And Ezra was little, my son. And we were at this restaurant in Watauga, out of all places. And we're sitting there and I look up, I notice two couples in the corner eating.
And I look over and I'm like, oh, my gosh.
I see somebody who, when I was a child, impacted my life in such an amazing way because he was a part of one of the greatest sports trilogy movies of all time. And I'm sitting there and I tell Amanda.
[00:04:42] Speaker C: I go, amanda, look, but don't look. That's the guy who played the character Dwayne Robertson.
[00:04:49] Speaker B: And she goes, who is Dwayne Robertson?
And most of you probably have no clue who that is either.
Let me show you a picture.
Dwayne Robertson, the ice skating cowboy from Mighty Ducks 2 and 3.
And he was sitting right next to us.
He was the only One that I was starstruck on.
I was like, stop staring. I kept staring at him. You know, just. It made a huge impact. He's a sports icon, if, you know. You know.
And even though I'll see these athletes in public, I rarely say anything to them. Why? Because I know they're just normal people just having normal life with their families. They just happen to have a skill set that's a little better than most of us.
But I don't wanna interrupt them. I don't wanna go over in the middle of their dinner and say, hey, can I have a picture? Or can I have an autograph? Or can I have. Because I just. I think I'm like, I don't want to disrupt their evening. Who am I to go and disrupt their plans?
Well, the thing is, some of us, including myself, at times have had that same thought.
When we have plans of doing things
[00:06:07] Speaker C: in life and God comes and disrupts us.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: I mean, we say things like, yeah, I mean, I believe God is the creator of the universe. Yes. I believe God gave his one and only Son to pay the price and to pay for my sins so that I can have eternity with him.
Yes. I believe God is all knowing. I believe he's all powerful. He's all present. He is all good.
But when he throws a wrench in my plans, I say, why, God?
[00:06:39] Speaker C: What are you doing?
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Cause I think this.
I have a plan for my life.
[00:06:46] Speaker C: But can I tell you this morning that so does he?
[00:06:51] Speaker B: I heard a saying the other day, and it kind of made me laugh. It said, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans for the day.
Proverbs 3, 5, 6 says this.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, and always submit to him, and
[00:07:12] Speaker C: he will make your paths straight.
[00:07:16] Speaker B: Sometimes for God to make our path straight, or sometimes for God to get us on the right track, he has to disrupt our plans so that we can follow his plans.
Think about it. We see it in the Bible all throughout.
Jonah didn't plan on going in the belly of a big fish, but he did. Mary didn't wake up and say, hey, I think I'd like to become pregnant with the Messiah today.
[00:07:43] Speaker C: She didn't do that.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: If you were to ask the disciples, was the cross a part of the plan, they would say, no way.
[00:07:51] Speaker C: Why?
Because they were all disruptions.
But God's disruptions are the most loving thing God can do.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: This morning, we're gonna look at a story that most of us have heard a lot of times before, but we often overlook the disruption of God in one character's life.
And this disruption was actually something that we're gonna talk about today that led to provision. So we're gonna be in John chapter six. So if you have your Bible, go ahead and get that ready. If you're notetakers, get your notes ready. Let me just ask this this morning, how many of you, you like to take notes when you hear, okay, how many of you take notes no matter what, when you hear a message? How many of you only write down stuff that you think is important or good?
[00:08:41] Speaker C: Okay, no pressure.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: All right, so set up. John chapter six. The fame of Jesus was spreading like wildfire. And it was, you know, everybody has started to hear about Jesus. They this one that the Bible says performed wondrous miracles like no other, like this man. And no one had ever spoken with authority like Jesus.
So people everywhere wanted to be in the presence of Jesus, either to reap the physical benefits of the healings he was doing, the spiritual benefits, the preaching and the teaching that he was doing, or the social benefits. Just because everybody else was there. It was the most popular thing to do.
[00:09:23] Speaker C: People wanted to be there.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: But Jesus was tired physically and emotionally. Remember, yes, he was fully God, but he was also fully man. And having large and demanding crowds follow after you everywhere you go can be exhausting.
So to find rest, Jesus, he went on the other side of Galilee to be alone with himself and to be alone with those that he loved the most.
[00:09:49] Speaker C: This close.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: Went on the other side of Galilee and he climbed up a mountain.
But it wasn't good enough. The crowd followed. But Jesus being the compassionate Savior that
[00:10:02] Speaker C: he is, he didn't try to escape and he didn't send the people away.
What did he do? He noticed. Jesus saw that the people, the crowd, they were hungry and back in this
[00:10:14] Speaker B: day, we all know there's no food courts, there's no drive throughs, there's no Uber.
And so he wanted to provide for the people in their physical need.
But he also recognized that they had
[00:10:29] Speaker C: a much larger spiritual need.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: And even though they didn't know it, they were following Jesus not because they
[00:10:37] Speaker C: had an empty belly, but because they were spiritually empty.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: So we know that Jesus took this opportunity not only to give provision that all that were there, but also to use this for something even bigger, to
[00:10:54] Speaker C: declare who he was.
He also knew this would give an opportunity to help shape his disciples faith.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: So go with me this morning. John chapter 6, starting in verse 5.
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? Here's the thing.
Do you think Jesus didn't know the answer to this?
Anytime Jesus asks a question to someone in the Bible, anytime you feel like Jesus is asking you a question in your heart, it's not for him.
[00:11:33] Speaker C: It's for you.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: Jesus already knows. He just wants you to be on the same page. So we see this here. And then it goes on to say, he asked this only to test him why? For he already had in mind what
[00:11:45] Speaker C: he was going to do.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Philip answered him it would take more than half a year's wages, which was about 200 denarii, to buy enough bread for each one in this crowd to have one 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 5,000 men were there.
Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated.
[00:12:24] Speaker C: And as much as they wanted, he
[00:12:27] Speaker B: 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 12 baskets with the pieces of five barley
[00:12:43] Speaker C: loaves left over by those who had eaten.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: So what I want to do this morning is I just want to take a few minutes. I want us to look at this story and. And break it down into three parts. So if you're a note taker and you're ready to take notes, the first part we're gonna look at is the boy.
The boy.
Let me tell you everything we know about this boy from Scripture. You ready? Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish.
[00:13:12] Speaker C: And that's it.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: That's all we got.
Now this is all we know about a character who often gets overlooked in this massive, amazing miracle of Jesus.
Did you know that this miracle and one more miracle are the only two miracles that are captured in all four gospels of the Bible? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You got the feeding of the 5,000. And you know what the other one is? The resurrection of Jesus, which tells me that this story has some importance, that this story is one of two with the resurrection, which is pretty important as us, as Christ followers. So we need to pay attention to what Jesus is trying to tell us throughout this story. So we have the boy. He's got some barley loaves and two small fish. So what do we know? First of all, we know. Get ready.
[00:14:10] Speaker C: The boy was there.
[00:14:13] Speaker B: Now, I know this may seem kind of silly, but the truth is being there is the first step in following
[00:14:21] Speaker C: and being involved in what God is doing.
He was present.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: We don't know why.
We don't know if he just went with his parents.
We don't know if he just heard about Jesus and wanted to check it out. We don't know if he just followed the crowd. We don't know if maybe this is where he had lunch every day and everybody else was on his territory.
We don't know any of those answers.
[00:14:44] Speaker C: But we do know that he was there. He showed up.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: I've heard it said before that 80%
[00:14:53] Speaker C: of life is showing up.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: Showing up to be present, to be engaging, whether it be in your faith, your work, your parenting, your marriage, your friendships, whatever it is, show up.
[00:15:09] Speaker C: If he had never been there, he would never experience the amazing miracle that was about to happen. And guess what?
He had a part in it.
We would never be talking about a
[00:15:23] Speaker B: boy and his lunch thousands of years
[00:15:25] Speaker C: later in such an important story if
[00:15:28] Speaker B: he wouldn't have been present for the boy.
[00:15:32] Speaker C: His day and his lunch were. Were disrupted.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: No one in the crowd would have thought that this boy mattered. No one would have ever imagined that what he was carrying in his little basket not only would be the provision of the moment, but would also be the basis of the most significant sermon
[00:15:52] Speaker C: that we heard Jesus preach.
He was there, this little boy in the crowd with a little bit of seafood and a little bit of bread.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: But yet he had been chosen by
[00:16:06] Speaker C: God to be a significant part in
[00:16:09] Speaker B: Jesus's redemptive plan, not only for that
[00:16:11] Speaker C: day, but for the rest of human history.
Here's what I'm trying to say.
You never know which person God will use.
You will never know how he will use them. But he won't use you in if you are not there, if you don't show up.
If you wanna be a part, if
[00:16:32] Speaker B: you wanna be about what God is
[00:16:35] Speaker C: doing, be where God is.
Show up to those places. And it starts with us being present. It starts with us showing up and showing up for the Lord.
The second part is this. The bread. You got the boy and you got the bread.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: We know that the boy had a
[00:16:55] Speaker C: lunch, and we know what the lunch was made of.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: Five small barley loaves and two small fish. And back then, like, when I think about loaves of bread, I think about big loaves of bread, but it was actually pretty small. Barley loaves were pretty small. And what they would do is they would take the fish, which was more like sardines, and they would use them as a garnish and put them on
[00:17:14] Speaker C: the bread and they would eat them.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: It was nothing of extravagance.
It wasn't something that people would walk by and be like, man, I wish I had some of this. It was pretty typical. It was a pretty simple, basic, everyday
[00:17:28] Speaker C: lunch for most of the people that lived in this area.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: But what this little boy, what the people on the mountain, what the disciples, and what us today need to recognize is that even though it seems small,
[00:17:40] Speaker C: little is much in his hands in this moment.
All he had, all that he had with him, he brought it to Jesus for him to use.
He released it.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: He released what he had to the
[00:18:01] Speaker C: Lord and said, God, use it how you will.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: The boy taught us to bring what
[00:18:06] Speaker C: we have and allow God to use it.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: And then what we get to do?
[00:18:11] Speaker C: Sit back and watch what God is about to do.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: So I have a question for you this morning, and the question is this.
What's in your lunch?
[00:18:26] Speaker C: This is my real lunchbox.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: I use it almost every day.
[00:18:30] Speaker C: So if it's dirty, I apologize.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: So what's in your lunch?
I actually thought about doing, like, a magic trick and. And pulling out, like, a huge sandwich and it keeps going kind of thing, but I decided against it, probably for the best. So what is the first thing that we can bring that we have in our lunch that we can bring to God?
[00:18:49] Speaker C: And that is this?
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Your time.
We all have it.
We all have 24 hours in a day. We all have time in our life, and God asks us to bring it to him. Here's what I believe.
I believe as long as you have breath in your lungs here on this
[00:19:07] Speaker C: earth, God wants to use you to
[00:19:10] Speaker B: bring him honor, to bring him glory, and to bring other people to know
[00:19:15] Speaker C: the name of Jesus.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: But what does it look like, practically? I'm a practical person. I'd like you to tell me how can I apply this to my life and everyday usage? What does it look like, practically, to give God your time? How many of you, you live and die by calendars. You have a calendar. The first thing you say is when somebody says, hey, let's do lunch, what do you say? Let me check my calendar. And then as soon as you have that, as soon as you look and you're like, yeah, I got time, then
[00:19:45] Speaker C: what do you do?
[00:19:45] Speaker B: You put them in your calendar. How many of you, like, on one day a week, maybe Sunday afternoon. It seems pretty typical. You look at your calendar for the week, you make sure everything's in there.
We have some of those in here.
We do it. We do it for our week, our month, our year. Sometimes we look out and we put things in place that we wanna make
[00:20:05] Speaker C: sure we give time to. What if we did this?
[00:20:08] Speaker B: What if the first thing you put in your calendar every week was your
[00:20:12] Speaker C: time with the Lord?
[00:20:15] Speaker B: What if you put God in your calendar first?
What if you. On Sunday, you looked at your week and you said, okay, Monday morning when I wake up, I'm gonna spend some
[00:20:26] Speaker C: time in the Bible.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: I'm gonna spend some time in prayer. I'm gonna spend time with the Lord. I'm gonna give him five minutes. I've never done it before. Start with five minutes, whatever it looks like. What if you put that in first?
What if you put in attending church and being a part of what's happening at your church. If it's the Met, awesome. If it's not wherever you go, what if you put that in first and then everything else filled in around that?
So oftentimes, I'm guilty as well. So oftentimes what we do is we put everything else in our calendar. And when we have some spare time or when it, you know, it makes
[00:21:02] Speaker C: sense to us, then we add God in there.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: What if we made a decision as a person or as a family to say, this is who we are, this is what we're about, and God comes first.
[00:21:17] Speaker C: Imagine how different our lives would be.
What else is in our lunch here?
Our gifts.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: We all have some.
Some of us may think that they're
[00:21:32] Speaker C: not very big gifts, but remember what Jesus did with the little. He made much of it.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: What if we brought our gifts to
[00:21:40] Speaker C: the Lord for him to use?
[00:21:43] Speaker B: The thing about God is he's not looking necessarily for the biggest.
[00:21:46] Speaker C: He's just looking for that that is given.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: He will use whatever you bring to him.
However insignificant or significant you think it
[00:21:56] Speaker C: is, God can use it.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: So maybe for you, it's. You have an empathetic ear.
[00:22:03] Speaker C: You're a great listener. Maybe God wants to use that to
[00:22:06] Speaker B: help other people and just have somebody to talk to. Maybe you have a kind, counseling heart and you're really good helping people get through situations.
[00:22:16] Speaker C: Maybe God wants to use that.
[00:22:17] Speaker B: Maybe you have a musical gift.
Or maybe you have a heart for students or kids to know the name of Jesus.
Maybe you have a good smile and a firm handshake. I'm telling you, whatever it is, you
[00:22:32] Speaker C: bring it to God, and he will use.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: Maybe you're a savant like me, and you can pick out celebrities and sports athletes in the wild.
Can I tell you, even though that seems silly, I guess it was. A few weeks ago, I ran across a husband and wife on Instagram. And they just have a heart for celebrities.
And what they do is they go to all these, like, comic cons and these big movie things where people are gonna be. And they stand in line. They can do autographs and stuff.
[00:23:01] Speaker C: They.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: And what they do is they'll stand in line for hours just so they can spend about 30 seconds with these actors.
And what they do is they spend that 30 seconds to tell them how they've been praying for them, how Jesus loves them. If they have time, they want to present the gospel, but then they give
[00:23:19] Speaker C: them a Bible that's inscribed with their real name on the Bible,
[00:23:27] Speaker B: when whatever
[00:23:27] Speaker C: it is that God has gifted you with, I'm telling you, it's for a purpose and a reason, and he can use it.
And the last thing that's in our lunch is our bread.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: Now, I know, because I see it, too.
There are a lot of pastors in this world who have put a sour
[00:23:53] Speaker C: taste in the mouths of many people,
[00:23:56] Speaker B: especially Christians, because they think that all they want is money.
[00:24:01] Speaker C: I get it.
[00:24:02] Speaker B: And this is not the part of my sermon where I tell you, you gimme $5,000, God's gonna give you 10,000 tomorrow. It's not this part, but what I do know is what the Bible says.
And in the Bible, there are over 2,300 verses that talk about this.
Now, why would God spend more verses talking about money than he even talked about love?
It's because he knew then and now
[00:24:33] Speaker C: this would be one of the hardest
[00:24:34] Speaker B: things that we would deal with because
[00:24:36] Speaker C: this would have control over our life.
So what do we do?
We give it to God.
See, I think with all this stuff in our lunchboxes, I think it's a mindset.
[00:24:55] Speaker B: I really do.
I think what we do is we
[00:24:58] Speaker C: struggle because we think this is ours.
We think these gifts are ours. We think this time is ours.
[00:25:08] Speaker B: There's a. All over the world, in certain countries, there is a overpopulation of monkeys.
And so a lot of people, they catch monkeys either to help that population. Sometimes they're pests. They just want to get rid of them. Sometimes they just need some grub. And so they want to get the monkeys. And so. But it's interesting how they catch them, because what they do is they have this gourd. It's like a big pot. It's kind of heavy. And in the middle of it, there's a hole.
And what they do is they put food inside.
And the monkeys eventually will find out that there's food. They'll smell it, they'll come up and they reach their grubby little hands and they put it inside the hole. But as you go in and your hands extended, it fits.
And then they grab the food. And what happens when you grab the food is you make a fist.
[00:25:56] Speaker C: It makes it wider, and they can
[00:25:58] Speaker B: no longer get their hand out of the gourd.
Sometimes they're there for minutes, sometimes they're there for hours. Sometimes they are there for. For days. And they even see the person coming to get them for whatever reason. I mean, you would think they would think they're gonna be harmed or they're gonna be killed.
And as they're watching the person come to do whatever he's gonna do, come towards them.
[00:26:22] Speaker C: They never let go of the food, and they are stuck. And then they get taken because they think it's theirs and they won't release it.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: As followers of Christ, I believe that
[00:26:41] Speaker C: we need to have the mindset of everything that we have is not ours, but it's a gift from God that
[00:26:48] Speaker B: he has given us to be stewards
[00:26:51] Speaker C: of while we are here on this earth
[00:26:56] Speaker B: time.
[00:26:57] Speaker C: It's God's gifts in my life.
It's God, my finances, they're God's.
[00:27:07] Speaker B: God doesn't need our money.
[00:27:09] Speaker C: He wants our hearts.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: And releasing what we have in our
[00:27:13] Speaker C: lives is a heart issue.
[00:27:15] Speaker B: And knowing where it comes from and whose it really is allows us to
[00:27:19] Speaker C: release it to God, to sit back and watch what God is going to to do. Because just like the story, when we give what is ours to God, what does he do?
He blesses it. And that's the third part, the blessing.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: I love how it starts off.
[00:27:40] Speaker C: Jesus begins to organize everything.
[00:27:44] Speaker B: So he's thoughtful, he's proactive, and he's orderly. And he knew that what was about to happen, that this miracle is about if he didn't have some order, that it was gonna be chaos.
And so what does he do?
He has them sit down on the mountain.
Remember, there's 5,000 men counted, which means there was about 15 to 20,000 people, including the women and the children that were here on this mountainside. And he has them do what?
[00:28:12] Speaker C: Sit on the grass.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: And I think that's so key. And it got me thinking. I'm like, why would he sit him on the grass? And I understand that God, Jesus thought thoughtful and you know, the grass is a little bit softer than the mountainside, so he wants to give him a little bit of comfort.
[00:28:28] Speaker C: But it goes way beyond that because
[00:28:32] Speaker B: we know what is about to happen. And so Jesus is setting the stage to tell them who he is.
And he knows Psalm 23. And he also knew the people on the mountainside in the grass would also know Psalm 23. Let me read it to you.
[00:28:48] Speaker C: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
[00:28:57] Speaker B: He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
[00:29:09] Speaker C: fear no evil, for you are with me.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.
[00:29:21] Speaker C: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
He is setting the stage to continue to reveal who he is and what
[00:29:40] Speaker B: he wants to do for the people beyond their physical needs, but more importantly, their spiritual needs.
So he starts to show them this concept and this idea and this thought.
[00:29:53] Speaker C: Remember, sit down in the pasture.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: Sit down in the grass. Why?
[00:29:57] Speaker C: Because they're sheep. And who is he?
He is the good shepherd.
Jesus then took the loaves and.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: And he gave thanks and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted.
[00:30:11] Speaker C: And he did the same for the fish.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: Now nobody knows when everything kind of multiplied.
I mean, nobody, if you've seen gremlins, I don't know if you put water on them or feed them after midnight. I don't think it was anything like that. It doesn't really say when this happened. When I read it, I kind of
[00:30:30] Speaker C: see when he gave thanks and he
[00:30:32] Speaker B: put it out there.
[00:30:33] Speaker C: I can just see it just adding to the baskets.
And what's interesting is that he gave them more than enough to eat, more
[00:30:44] Speaker B: than they ever wanted.
Everybody, it wasn't just a bite, it was fill up, we got plenty to go around. 15 to 20,000 people had as much
[00:30:56] Speaker C: food as they could eat.
[00:31:00] Speaker B: And the cool thing is it says when they all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, gather the
[00:31:07] Speaker C: pieces that are left over.
[00:31:10] Speaker B: Let nothing be wasted. So they gathered them and filled 12 baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who
[00:31:17] Speaker C: had eaten this is what I love about God's blessings.
Not only are they enough in the moment to fill us up, but God delivers. He delivers and he likes to give leftovers.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: There was extra. There was plenty to go around for later down the road to bless other people. The blessings in our life not only blesses us, but can be used to bless others.
And so we skip ahead a couple verses and we're gonna go to verse 28. But here's what I want you to do. I'm just gonna read it to you. Cause I want you to place yourself there.
I want you to place yourself there on the mountain, seated in the grass. And if you're like me, I know you're thinking, man, I'm gonna have a hard time getting up cause my knees are bad. But I want you to place yourself. You're there. You're on the mountain. You just experienced this incredible miracle of God that Jesus took five loaves and two fish and was able to feed 15 to 20,000 people with all that they could eat. They were full, and then there was leftovers. You just experienced this.
But why?
Why? Why was I experiencing this when he knows that I have more than physical needs, but the most important thing is my spiritual needs.
So place yourself on the mountain and listen to this conversation.
Then they asked him, what must we do to do the works God requires?
Jesus answered, the work of God is this.
[00:32:51] Speaker C: Please catch this to believe in the one he has sent.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: So they asked him, what sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Remember what he just did.
And they're asking, what will you do to prove it? They say our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness as it is written, and he gave the bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, very truly, I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives
[00:33:25] Speaker C: you the true bread from heaven.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and
[00:33:32] Speaker C: gives life to the world.
Listen to this response.
Sir, they said, all always give us this bread.
[00:33:42] Speaker B: Then Jesus declared, here it is.
I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. And whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
[00:33:58] Speaker C: See, the true blessing was not the miracle multiplication of all of the food.
[00:34:04] Speaker B: It wasn't the multiplication of the bread.
The true blessing was being in the
[00:34:09] Speaker C: presence and hearing about the bread of life.
Jesus was using this to reveal who he was.
[00:34:19] Speaker B: See, what we need to learn to do is we need to learn to
[00:34:23] Speaker C: let Our eyes run up the beams.
Let me tell you what I mean by that.
[00:34:28] Speaker B: The sun sends out beams that come to Earth.
The sun, 93 million miles away, sends these rays down to hit the Earth and to do some pretty amazing things.
It causes plants and life to grow. It makes us warm, right? If we were like an inch closer, we would melt. If we were an inch further away, we would freeze. It keeps us the perfect temperature.
It produces vitamin D for our skin.
It enables us, because of the light, to see beautiful things in this world.
[00:35:03] Speaker C: Guys, that's where you hit your wife right there, okay?
[00:35:07] Speaker B: But what we do is we see these things and we say, wow, this is awesome.
I love to see plants grow. I love the way my skin looks because of the sun. I love to see these beautiful things. But what we're missing is. Is running our eyes up the beams
[00:35:27] Speaker C: to see who is producing it all.
[00:35:32] Speaker B: When we have disruption in our life, let our eyes run up the beams to see.
[00:35:38] Speaker C: Is this God disrupting my life?
[00:35:41] Speaker B: Because there's something in my life that needs to change.
Because when we do, not only do
[00:35:47] Speaker C: we see the sun, we see the sun of glory. Jesus Christ.
We see the bread of life.
[00:36:00] Speaker B: Jim Becker was a huge Green Bay packers fan.
And when he got back from the Korean War, he was a young husband with the family. And Green Bay packer tickets cost $12.
But $12 was a lot when he only got paid $50 a week.
And as his family was growing, he was like, there's no way I can
[00:36:22] Speaker C: take away from that.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: And then somebody shared with him a way that he can make $15 a week. That was more than enough to buy a ticket. And that was. He could donate blood three to four times a month. And he was like, I'm in.
So he started to do this. He did it in the 50s, all the way through the 60s and through the 70s. So he could go to these games and get. He would get $15, pay. Pay for his ticket, and he would go.
And in 1975, while he was filling out a medical history report, the doctors decided to run some tests.
See, Jim's dad had passed away at the age of 42 with a rare disease called hemochromatosis.
And what that was was your body absorbs more iron in your blood than you actually need. So they were worried. Cause most people don't live past 45. And Jim was turning 45 years old.
So they did all the tests, they checked everything. Come to find out he has it.
And they say, jim, man, we're kind of puzzled. We're not real sure why you're not more sick, like why your kidneys and your lungs and things haven't failed yet because of this, because it's a pretty brutal disease.
And he said, but we're going to prescribe a plan for you that we
[00:37:36] Speaker C: think can be helpful that can keep
[00:37:38] Speaker B: you from not getting sick in the future.
And here's what it is.
[00:37:41] Speaker C: We need you to donate blood three to four times a month.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: In 2010, Jim Becker, who was in his 80s, was inducted to the Green Bay Packers Fan hall of Fame.
[00:38:01] Speaker C: His extraordinary devotion to his team paid off in ways that he could never, ever imagine.
Imagine, how much more could God of the universe do with our devotion?
Show up, bring him what you have, and watch what God will do.
Let's pray, Father God, we pray this morning
[00:38:42] Speaker B: for disruptions in our life.
God, instead of turning our eyes to disappointment, turning our eyes to why, questioning, I pray that we would turn our
[00:38:55] Speaker C: eyes to the bread of life, that
[00:38:58] Speaker B: we would send our eyes up the
[00:39:00] Speaker C: beams to see you so we can see what you may be doing in our lives.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: Move us when and where you need us to be so that we can
[00:39:11] Speaker C: be on your path for our lives and not our own.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: Use what we have to provide what others need to draw closer to you.
[00:39:20] Speaker C: God, I pray this morning that our hearts are like this, that we realize you are the potter and we are the clay.
Make us and mold us to be more and more like you and God. If disruption's what you need to use, we pray that you use it.
May this morning may we release all that we have because we realize it was always yours. God bless it and do amazing things. We love you. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
