SPEAKER_00: We're talking about in his presence, we've been magnifying him.
SPEAKER_00: Let's magnify him through his word tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Thank y'all so much.
SPEAKER_00: That was so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: We do have a gift of God's friendship.
SPEAKER_00: How mystifying that we didn't deserve that, and yet we would be, God would call us his friends and his family.
SPEAKER_00: So um, Pastor Osteen always told my dad to preach out of the overflow.
SPEAKER_00: What has been filling you up?
SPEAKER_00: And I have been studying the book of John, and I have an overflow about the loaves and the fishes, and about John chapter 6, and about Jesus, the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna talk today about the bread of his presence.
SPEAKER_00: Can I have somebody roll this table out near me?
SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Bud.
SPEAKER_00: Also, um, I just want to say uh in the book of John, Jesus makes seven claims about who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants us to listen to all of them.
SPEAKER_00: In John 6, 35, he says, I'm the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: John 8, he says, I'm the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: In John 10, he says, I'm the door to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the door.
SPEAKER_00: In John 10, again, he says, I'm the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: In John 11, he raised Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: He who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
SPEAKER_00: Though he were dead, how many of you were dead in your sin and God saved you and you're living today?
SPEAKER_00: I know that's right.
SPEAKER_00: Though he were dead, yet shall he live.
SPEAKER_00: And then in John 14, he said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: I am that.
SPEAKER_00: And then in John 15, he said, I am the true vine.
SPEAKER_00: My father is the vine dresser.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna bear fruit in me.
SPEAKER_00: So when we talk about Jesus as the bread of life, and the title of my message tonight is the bread of his presence.
SPEAKER_00: And we sang about what a fitting song that we would sing tonight.
SPEAKER_00: The bread of his presence.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, now he he did say, and I already gave away the lead, he said, I'm the bread of life in John 6.35.
SPEAKER_00: He claimed that.
SPEAKER_00: And he was either a crazy, crazy person and completely self-centered, or he was who he says and is who he says.
SPEAKER_00: He is, and uh, and we can trust him.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you believe that he is who he says?
SPEAKER_00: He is.
SPEAKER_00: So um I'm gonna move this for a minute because I don't need this.
SPEAKER_00: James, can you come?
SPEAKER_00: Just I might need it later.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if I'll get to this or not.
SPEAKER_00: But um, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: A humble, humble servant.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I first want to read out of Leviticus to see where what in the world was Jesus talking about when he said, I'm the bread.
SPEAKER_00: And in Leviticus 24, uh it's describing a lot of different furnishings of the temple or the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: The tabernacle was uh was a tent where where the children of Israel worshipped while they were in the desert and they didn't have a permanent structure.
SPEAKER_00: Then later they could fold up the tabernacle and put that away when they built the temple, and they and then they could worship God in the permanent temple of Solomon, and then y'all know that got destroyed, they had to build another temple.
SPEAKER_00: So these were all um, these were all symbolic of the presence of God that we have today through Jesus and of the plan of redemption, and there are many things in there, but uh, since we're focusing on Jesus, the bread of life, let's talk about the bread of the tabernacle in Leviticus 24, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: And you shall take fine flour and bake 12 cakes with it.
SPEAKER_00: 12 cakes.
SPEAKER_00: This does not look like a cake.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why doesn't it look like a cake?
SPEAKER_00: It's flat.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I made a cake like this before and nobody liked it.
SPEAKER_00: It's flat because it doesn't have any leaven in it, is because it and leaven was a symbol of sin.
SPEAKER_00: It was a sin of just the worldly desires and flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And so there were certain times it was okay to eat leavened bread, and then there were certain holy feasts and times when it was not okay to eat leavened bread, and you ate flat bread, and still today people eat this flat bread.
SPEAKER_00: I bought it at Kroger, Thea bought it for me at Kroger, and it was um it's just matzah bread.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, it said uh two tenths of an epha shall be in each cake, it was very measured, and you shall set them in two rows, six in a row.
SPEAKER_00: So I got two rows of six right here, and uh uh on the pure gold table before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now I don't have a pure gold table, but I sent Lee a picture of one if Lee would like to sh flash that for me, or Miss Sheree has it possibly, and maybe at any moment that might appear.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there it is.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so they have uh more respectable looking bread there.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but they have a gold table and it has those poles so that it could be carried wherever they went.
SPEAKER_00: It was a nomadic situation here.
SPEAKER_00: Um and so you shall, and then so in front of the the bread, then you have uh you shall put pure frankincense on each row.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all know what frankincense usually represents?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: Shout it out now.
SPEAKER_00: Worship, worship, or yeah, so there, you know, that's what they that was the what the presence of God would smell like that.
SPEAKER_00: They always had that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so frankincense on each row, and so there was maybe a little bowl of frankincense here and bowl of frankincense here, and um that it may be on the bread for a memorial, an offering made by fire to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Every Sabbath, so only the frankincense would get burned to the Lord, but the bread would be saved, and uh every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in the holy place, for it is most holy to him from the offerings of the Lord made by fire, by a perpetual statute.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a covenant God made, and he didn't say it was ever gonna run out.
SPEAKER_00: But there's not a temple today in Jerusalem where you can go and find this.
SPEAKER_00: But we know that that this bread is uh it's symbolic of Jesus, and that um it did not, it was sinless, it doesn't look pretty.
SPEAKER_00: There was no form or comeliness, Isaiah 53, that we should desire him.
SPEAKER_00: But he was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.
SPEAKER_00: The one authentic thing about this cracker, this matzah, is that it was grilled on a grill, and so and then that would have been the way they cooked their matzah as well.
SPEAKER_00: It would have had stripes.
SPEAKER_00: And the other thing they had to do with matzah so that it um would cook more evenly is they had to pierce it.
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, they had six pieces over here and six pieces over here, and uh, and there are 12 tribes of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there are only two tribes today that anybody can trace their lineage to.
SPEAKER_00: The other ten are completely missing, and nobody knows what happened to them.
SPEAKER_00: I think I'm looking at them right here.
SPEAKER_00: There is not a chance this side of the Mississippi that you don't have some kind of Jewish blood in you from some tribe somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Is it Dan?
SPEAKER_00: Is it Asher?
SPEAKER_00: Is it Issachar?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But only the tribe of Benjamin and only the tribe of uh Levi can trace their lineage today.
SPEAKER_00: And so six and six makes 12, and they're united, and this and then they would get it had to get switched out every week because the bread would get old.
SPEAKER_00: The bread would get old, and uh, and but it was always, always there, and only, only Aaron and his sons could eat it.
SPEAKER_00: It was very special, it was very holy.
SPEAKER_00: Are you very special and very holy?
SPEAKER_00: Who can eat of the bread of life today?
SPEAKER_00: Are you qualified?
SPEAKER_00: Are you worthy?
SPEAKER_00: Was it because of something you did?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, it's because of what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: So he made you worthy.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's a simple.
SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus now turned to to uh John 6.
SPEAKER_00: John 6.
SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus says this crazy thing, I am the bread of life, people knew what that meant.
SPEAKER_00: What are you what?
SPEAKER_00: That's blasphemy.
SPEAKER_00: You can't be that show bread, you're just that guy from Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read it.
SPEAKER_00: But that means I have to get my glasses.
SPEAKER_00: Most as surely, um, oh, here it is in verse uh forty-seven, most as surely I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead.
SPEAKER_00: This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
SPEAKER_00: I am the living bread which came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
SPEAKER_00: And the bread that I give, that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the the bread which I give is my flesh.
SPEAKER_00: So um I have some thoughts about the manna versus the uh the manna versus Jesus' flesh.
SPEAKER_00: The manna versus Jesus' flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, how many of y'all remember the story of manna?
SPEAKER_00: In in uh in Exodus 16, verse 31, we can read, we can read all through 16 about all the different ways people uh use manna, how they got the manna.
SPEAKER_00: They got it because they complained that they were hungry in the wilderness, and they said, Oh, we wish we were back in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: We had pots of meat, and we had bread as much as we wanted.
SPEAKER_00: God said, Oh, I'll give you bread.
SPEAKER_00: I will give you bread from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So here's another symbol.
SPEAKER_00: This is a completely different.
SPEAKER_00: This now we're now we're not talking about no matza anymore.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about manna that came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And um, in verse 31, the house of Israel called its name manna.
SPEAKER_00: It means what is it?
SPEAKER_00: And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
SPEAKER_00: And it would they would find it every morning in the dew.
SPEAKER_00: The dew would fall down, and when they and when the dew kind of dried up, there would be this substance left over, and they could gather it.
SPEAKER_00: They were allowed to, even everybody was allowed to gather an equal share of it per person.
SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't matter if you're a big person or a small person, you could gather one omer of it for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you had a family of five, you could have five omers, and you had to gather it every single day, and you had to eat it that day.
SPEAKER_00: And if you did not eat it that day, the next day it had worms in it.
SPEAKER_00: You had to eat it that day.
SPEAKER_00: And um, but everybody got their portion.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh you got to thinking about that.
SPEAKER_00: What does what is that symbolizing?
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Well, one, you know, manna fed the flesh, and those people died.
SPEAKER_00: We just read that.
SPEAKER_00: They they are not here with this anymore.
SPEAKER_00: It was not eternal for them, they had to get it every day, but Jesus will feed our spirit if we will spend time in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this show bread, I'm gonna go back to the matza here in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: The show bread was also called the bread of the presence or the bread of the face, and it was on display all the time, 24-7, as a perpetual uh perpetual sign, and it was in the temple, but you could only see it.
SPEAKER_00: You couldn't eat it, only Aaron could eat it, and you could only see it in the temple, it wasn't at your house, wasn't on the street.
SPEAKER_00: You had to go to the temple in the holy place, and there it was.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so you're separated from the bread of his presence.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to partake of it.
SPEAKER_00: You're not fulfilled in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have, you're, you don't have that presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: No wonder they worshipped idols sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: They just they had to just by faith believe, trust God what God said and obey him step by step.
SPEAKER_00: They did not have the delicious bread of his presence that filled their soul.
SPEAKER_00: So they had manna that filled their flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Um, one manna is temporary, Jesus he feeds us eternally.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, both were given by the Father.
SPEAKER_00: God sent the manna and he sent his son, but the manna did not require sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, he couldn't distribute and can't distribute his spiritual bread to you, could not do it until he was broken.
SPEAKER_00: And in the breaking, he distributed it himself, he had to bleed, he had to break and bleed, and he distributed himself to you, and in doing so, he multiplied.
SPEAKER_00: And now you are like Jesus in the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And Pastor Joseph is, and Gwen is, and Irma is, and Leslie is.
SPEAKER_00: We get to stand for Jesus because he broke it and he multiplied in doing that, and then he was broken, and he brought us wholeness.
SPEAKER_00: So we don't have to be broken.
SPEAKER_00: His we we can say, oh, Jesus, we want to be like you, we want to suffer like you.
SPEAKER_00: We may suffer shame for his name, but we do not have to suffer physical brokenness and pain.
SPEAKER_00: He took that for us.
SPEAKER_00: He was bruised for our iniquities, he was he was striped and pierced so that we would not have to be.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So uh that's manna versus Jesus' flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I got a download this week, and so we're gonna backpedal in also in John 6.
SPEAKER_00: And I try to not use my back, my my download, and God would not let me get around it.
SPEAKER_00: So it's I'm gonna move through it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna move through it quickly.
SPEAKER_00: It's very familiar ground because I just ministered an offering on this very thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's the feeding of the 5,000.
SPEAKER_00: This is the whole thing about this miracle.
SPEAKER_00: This miracle where Jesus feeds the 5,000 with just how many loaves?
SPEAKER_00: Five loaves.
SPEAKER_00: And how many fish?
SPEAKER_00: Two fish.
SPEAKER_00: They're probably pickled or something because I don't know who dry who brings, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Are they salted?
SPEAKER_00: Who has raw fish hanging around?
unknown: Sushi.
SPEAKER_00: Sushi.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I like sushi.
SPEAKER_00: So five loaves and two fish feeds five thousand people.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know this story, and I recently read it.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'm not gonna read through it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna give you my 12 downloads um that I got from it, and I'm gonna apply it in a different way.
SPEAKER_00: Every time I read this, I can't help but, and it's not wrong to do so, to apply this to physical provision for your life.
SPEAKER_00: Because you, God cared about the people who came to Jesus cared when people came to hear him preach, he wanted to make sure they did not faint along the way home.
SPEAKER_00: He gave them spiritual meat and he gave them physical meat at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: He always did that, and so you can read this either way, and you should read it both ways.
SPEAKER_00: And you can go back and listen to my, you know, this later and hear it the other way.
SPEAKER_00: But today I am going to, but if we want to see the greater picture, you know, this miracle is the only one in the whole gospels, in all four gospels.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's recorded four times.
SPEAKER_00: Every every writer of every gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all wrote on this miracle.
SPEAKER_00: It's the only miracle like that except the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And so God wanted to make a point here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was saying, uh, it's important that you receive my bread.
SPEAKER_00: And so, yes, it's provision, but it's something it's also got to be something more more than that.
SPEAKER_00: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall a man live.
SPEAKER_00: So, Jesus, if we want to apply this to his word in our life, the knowledge of his word.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's what Paul prayed for his when he prayed for the churches.
SPEAKER_00: He said, God, I pray every day that they'd be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that that's the most important thing we could pray, that we would have knowledge about God.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we have knowledge about God, it'll fill us.
SPEAKER_00: It will fill us, and we'll have first we're filled spiritually, then we will be.
SPEAKER_00: We will be filled physically.
SPEAKER_00: There is no denying that we will also be filled in that way.
SPEAKER_00: So let's read it with those eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Um, first of all, uh, Jesus goes over the Sea of Galilee, and there's a multitude because they saw his signs which he performed on those who were diseased.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus went up to a mountain and there he sat with his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: So he was on display there.
SPEAKER_00: They everybody could see him on this mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And it was the Passover time.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say Passover.
SPEAKER_00: Passover would have been a time.
SPEAKER_00: Now, back to the matzah.
SPEAKER_00: Passover would have been a time uh that they had a tradition regarding unleavened bread.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's mat that matters, and we'll go back and cover that in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: But it was Passover time.
SPEAKER_00: And uh Jesus lifted up his eyes and he had uh he saw this great multitude coming toward him, and obviously compassion moved him.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say, compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Compassion will move you when you see people in need.
SPEAKER_00: Um, where shall and so he turned to Philip and he said, Where shall we break buy bread that these may eat?
SPEAKER_00: But this he said to test Philip, for he himself knew what he would do.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see this is one number one.
SPEAKER_00: Um Jesus tells the disciples to feed the people, and they will succeed in their mission because of their obedience to God's command, not doing what they what their own will is.
SPEAKER_00: They will only succeed if they are obedient to God's command.
SPEAKER_00: Did Jesus tell you to do something?
SPEAKER_00: What did he tell you to do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, a general thing, my dad, I call him Paul, Pastor Dad, preached this this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Mark 16, 15, go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature.
SPEAKER_00: Lay hands on the sick, these signs shall follow.
SPEAKER_00: Then him that believes.
SPEAKER_00: They'll lay hands on the sick, they'll shall recover, they'll cast out devil, they'll speak with new tongues.
SPEAKER_00: If they drink any deadly, all those things.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did what he wants us to make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Go therefore and teach all nations.
SPEAKER_00: So we have a mission, and we won't we won't succeed in it unless we just obey God and get out there and do something.
SPEAKER_00: And we're never gonna feel adequate.
SPEAKER_00: We're never gonna feel adequate.
SPEAKER_00: Now, so he singles out the first disciple he singles out is Philip.
SPEAKER_00: I just learned this today.
SPEAKER_00: Philip was actually from Betseida, he is from the area where they're standing right there, trying to feed all these people.
SPEAKER_00: It's like you brought your friend to church that day.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, Philip has all his, probably all his friends and family.
SPEAKER_00: He knows this crowd, he is from there.
SPEAKER_00: And he really wants Jesus to look good and to shine.
SPEAKER_00: And plus, he knows where all of the bread is, he knows where the vendors are and where he could buy it.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus just was messing with them.
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, where should we buy some bread?
SPEAKER_00: Sir.
SPEAKER_00: 200 denari worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that everyone may have just a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Um, let me just say this.
SPEAKER_00: So, so number one, Jesus tells the disciples to feed.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't feed them himself.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, Jesus singles out Philip, the local.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so, you know, when your reputation is on the line, you will care.
SPEAKER_00: You will need Jesus to come through for you.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, uh, eight months' fate wages would not would have uh would have been required, and so the command was bigger than the supply.
SPEAKER_00: The command is always bigger than the supply.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the thing uh don't you ever think that your knowledge of God is inadequate?
SPEAKER_00: You have enough.
SPEAKER_00: I have talked to so many, especially moms have this.
SPEAKER_00: They are so scared to talk to their kids about God and they just Instead, they just bring them to church.
SPEAKER_00: Or oh, or even their your friends.
SPEAKER_00: I know y'all don't look so innocent.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh, I was telling my friend about our church.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I just want to bring them to church.
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
SPEAKER_00: But did you bring them to church because you were scared to tell them?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, bring them to church.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: You're qualified to tell them.
SPEAKER_00: You are qualified to minister to their needs.
SPEAKER_00: You are qualified.
SPEAKER_00: You have enough knowledge of God if you will just believe, you can start distributing.
SPEAKER_00: You can start breaking off your little loaf and your little fish.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't look like enough.
SPEAKER_00: But as soon as you break it, look here, I'm getting ahead of myself.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, number one, no, and now I'm number four.
SPEAKER_00: Number four, the lad's lunch was the seed.
SPEAKER_00: There was a lad, and he had five loaves and two fish, and he gave, he gave.
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: Your revelation of God, certain things you know might come from an unlikely source.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it comes from a child, doesn't it, Miss Liz?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, Miss Carroll, sometimes somebody teaches us that is below us in society that we wouldn't have.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: They have some God has knowledge to pour out through them.
SPEAKER_00: They have distributed a little something, they have given something to us, and we should receive it and distribute that.
SPEAKER_00: All right, number five.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so and then what what kind of loaves were they?
SPEAKER_00: Did anybody notice?
SPEAKER_00: They're barley loaves.
SPEAKER_00: So this was an area known for its fine flour.
SPEAKER_00: Fine flour was the favored flour.
SPEAKER_00: Fine flour is what the show bread would have been made of.
SPEAKER_00: It would have been the fancy stuff, the pure, the nice stuff.
SPEAKER_00: This stuff was barley.
SPEAKER_00: It was rough, it was probably like animal feed, but they made a bread out of it.
SPEAKER_00: And um so I'm just gonna say this sometimes God will send hungry people into your life, and a hungry person will eat what you have to put in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: And if they are not hungry for what you have, you don't have to tell them.
SPEAKER_00: You wait for the ripe harvest.
SPEAKER_00: You wait for those people that are hungry.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but but all God gave me was barley.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have any fine flour.
SPEAKER_00: You give what you you know what?
SPEAKER_00: To the hungry soul, Proverbs says, every bitter thing is sweet.
SPEAKER_00: They will eat what you have.
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: Number six, Jesus had the people sit down.
SPEAKER_00: Tell them to sit down.
SPEAKER_00: So now what happens when they sit down?
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, they're expecting something now.
SPEAKER_00: He just crossed the line there.
SPEAKER_00: Because once you have them sit down, you're you can't be like, oh, sorry, we only have a little bit of you didn't get any.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, you you have made a commitment, an unspoken commitment.
SPEAKER_00: When you made them sit down, now they are expecting something.
SPEAKER_00: When before you share pearls of wisdom, pearls of ministry, love, care, concern, Christian uh word to someone in your life, make sure they expect something good.
SPEAKER_00: Make them find a way to build expectation.
SPEAKER_00: Find a way, make sure that they are expecting something good.
SPEAKER_00: And um, and and so yeah, go ahead, and that that takes faith.
SPEAKER_00: Once you say, you know, God's, I feel the presence of God here right now.
SPEAKER_00: I believe God wants to heal you.
SPEAKER_00: That's a like, that's an embarrassing thing to say if he doesn't come through, you know.
SPEAKER_00: That's like you just had them sit down.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what happens?
SPEAKER_00: God comes through.
SPEAKER_00: It builds expectation.
SPEAKER_00: If they're hungry, if they're willing to take a barley loaf, the people who eat fine flour all the time, you know, and maybe they are uh, you know, theologians or they are uh, I was just recently ministering to a friend, a young lady, um whose whose sister, whose older sister was uh debating back and forth a lot, and this young lady is loves Jesus and serves the Lord and wants in ministry, and but her sister um has kind of left the family and converted to Catholicism and has been drawn away from her faith that she was raised in.
SPEAKER_00: And um she said, Well, uh Miss Clara, do you think uh do you think it's possible that my sister can still be saved?
SPEAKER_00: You know, if she if she converts, if she's a member of the Catholic Church.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I I think it is possible.
SPEAKER_00: I think if she has a real relationship with the Lord, it's possible for anybody to uh call upon the name of the Lord and and be saved, um, to believe with their with their heart and confess with their mouth and in Romans 10.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that's possible.
SPEAKER_00: Within any structure, it's just not as likely that they're gonna hear that message in that way.
SPEAKER_00: And then and so we kind of dialed down.
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh and she had a problem because every time her sister was really smart and had studied all of these books and and these Catholic, you know, probably uh Saint Augustine and and you know, great Catholic thinkers, and she didn't know how to debate her.
SPEAKER_00: And so her sister was definitely not gonna, and plus she was a little sister, so the sister's not gonna listen to her.
SPEAKER_00: I said, you're in the wrong, you know, you're just in the wrong realm here.
SPEAKER_00: Um and my dad told me this a long time ago because I like to debate, so there are certain things I like to debate about, and I could have that in my personality, and that's almost never a win.
SPEAKER_00: You know what nobody can debate you on, your testimony?
SPEAKER_00: You're the expert on what happened to you, you're the expert on what God showed you, you're the expert on what God did for you in your life, what excited you today about your time with the Lord, what he showed you out of his word.
SPEAKER_00: I said to this young lady, why don't you just, as your sister is talking about her life, why don't you sprinkle in things about your life that God showed you and God did to you?
SPEAKER_00: And now you're loving her and you're not fighting with her, and you're letting her into your life.
SPEAKER_00: And while you're at it, why don't you pray for her?
SPEAKER_00: And we turn to Ephesians 3.
SPEAKER_00: We turn to Ephesians 3 and we we started dropping that sister's name into Ephesians 3.
SPEAKER_00: I love this scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Um because it prays, and I have prayed this over lost people and had them had them get gloriously saved.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 3 14.
SPEAKER_00: This reason I bow my knee to the Father Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant to call it your loved one, Diane, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through your for through his spirit and Diane's inner man, that Christ may dwell in Diane's heart through faith, that Diane, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ that's passes knowledge, that Diane would be filled with all the fullness of God.
SPEAKER_00: If I prayed that over Diane every day, Diane is gonna know the love of God, and that's gonna draw her into the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And if I'm also sprinkling, like when I get to talk to her, if I get to say, Oh, this cool thing happened, look what God did for me.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: And if I just follow compassion like Jesus did, then I'll be in a good place.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so uh expect, build expectation.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, and then number seven, Jesus gave thanks for the food he had.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have anything from the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have has he done anything?
SPEAKER_00: Has he shared anything?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know anything about the word?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God, Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, that I know that Jesus was a man touched with the feeling of my infirmities.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_00: If yet that's all you knew, you would have something to share with somebody else who's weeping.
SPEAKER_00: You have something to share.
SPEAKER_00: Do not let the devil talk you out of it.
SPEAKER_00: Give thanks for the what you do know about God.
SPEAKER_00: It's enough.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, number eight, Jesus used the disciples as distributors.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's kind of a repeat of number one, but still, he's you are a distributor of this bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: It is a life-giving bread that sustains and satisfies people.
SPEAKER_00: You have something they need, they have tried it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's the same concept as the living water.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the lady at the well, and she was just trying to go to that well every day, and she had five husbands, and the one she had now wasn't her husband, and Jesus read her mill.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: And she was so thirsty.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, give me this water that I would never have to come to this well.
SPEAKER_00: She was so thirsty.
SPEAKER_00: People are so hungry, they're so thirsty.
SPEAKER_00: They will take what you have.
SPEAKER_00: But you have to be a distributor.
SPEAKER_00: Every say, I am a distributor.
unknown: I am a distributor.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's so fun to preach this this way because it's usually just an offering scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And it works like that too.
SPEAKER_00: It really does.
SPEAKER_00: You can be a distributor for the kingdom of God, you can be a giver, but you can also, more importantly, give out the bread.
SPEAKER_00: As disciples distributed, their supply did not decrease.
SPEAKER_00: It increased.
SPEAKER_00: Do you want your knowledge of God to increase?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to know more about God?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know want to know uh the secrets of his kingdom that can help you in your own life be a distributor?
SPEAKER_00: Start breaking off what you do know.
SPEAKER_00: Start finally just giving a little bit here and a little bit there.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a mess.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_00: Um break it and give it out, and it will grow.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't, there are just things.
SPEAKER_00: Tiffany, where are you even in here?
SPEAKER_00: Tiffany, you shared this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You had it in your heart to give to the you you have just blessed our ministry all the ways you volunteer.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody would ever know that you've been through all of that.
SPEAKER_00: You're an absolute trophy for God.
SPEAKER_00: But when she gave her testimony this morning, I mean, here she had gone to camp to help the kids, but in the middle of helping the kids, she realized there was a broken place in her own life.
SPEAKER_00: And but she was a distributor.
SPEAKER_00: She was a distributor.
SPEAKER_00: And so when she just broke off some, God had a supply that rushed in and filled every, I feel the anointing.
SPEAKER_00: There's a supply that rushed in and filled it, and you grew through that.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a place in your life, the devil can never attack you there again.
SPEAKER_00: You closed the door on that when you did that today.
SPEAKER_00: You're a distributor.
SPEAKER_00: All right, number 10.
SPEAKER_00: People ate as much as they wanted.
SPEAKER_00: You have enough for every person.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but so many people are pulling on me.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I have this, I have that, oh, my I am the caught in between.
SPEAKER_00: I'm taking care of my parents and my kids.
SPEAKER_00: I am whatever, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm just pulled.
SPEAKER_00: My job, my boss says this, and my family and my husband says that.
SPEAKER_00: And I people feel so pulled, they feel so dry, they feel so.
SPEAKER_00: People, all the people, got as much as they wanted, and there was enough for everyone.
SPEAKER_00: You, if you're a distributor, God will give you the thing that you need in the time that you need it.
SPEAKER_00: Just make up your mind, you're gonna give them a little bit, and God will keep growing it.
SPEAKER_00: He'll keep growing it, he'll keep growing it.
SPEAKER_00: Recently, I was going through some of the um uh the just some notes that we wanted to share in one of our um in our start group, so that when when people come and they're new to the church, that they can grow and they can write Jody.
SPEAKER_00: And they yes, and so we were going over this content, and um, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Jimmy Smith, he is so full of the word, and he wrote a lot of that content.
SPEAKER_00: It was so good, it was like 97 pages of content.
SPEAKER_00: I'm joking a little bit, but it was a lot, and we had not enough time to share that content because we would have had to like we would have had to found a Bible school and y'all would have to come eight hours a day.
SPEAKER_00: So I said, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Jimmy, how can we, you know, how about we cut this part over here and then we just focus on this part?
SPEAKER_00: And every time I would cut a part, he'd have like five new parts, and he'd say, Yeah, but what about this?
SPEAKER_00: And he literally, it was like every I said, You're the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: I just kept trying to break it up, but he had so you know what though it's awesome because it's it's like the river of life flowing out of him.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all want to be like that?
SPEAKER_00: That just scripture just flows out of you.
SPEAKER_00: You know how he got that way by giving, by being a distributor, by being in a junior high class for 15 years, teaching your junior high kids.
SPEAKER_00: Now some of them are old and parents, and you know, he's taught a generation of kids in junior high, and they come back to him and say, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Jimmy, uh Angel did.
SPEAKER_00: Angel just came back to him and said, Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Jimmy, I remembered on my wedding day, I remember what you said.
SPEAKER_00: He's a distributor.
SPEAKER_00: Does he have needs in his life?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but he's got the answer.
SPEAKER_00: He he's always got an answer.
SPEAKER_00: Does the devil try to attack him?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but he's got an answer every single time.
SPEAKER_00: He's a distributor.
SPEAKER_00: Number 11.
SPEAKER_00: The leftovers were more than the original seed.
SPEAKER_00: The leftovers were more than original seed.
SPEAKER_00: How many baskets?
SPEAKER_00: 12 baskets.
SPEAKER_00: How many disciples?
SPEAKER_00: 12 disciples.
SPEAKER_00: So the disciples, I don't know if each of them got a basket.
SPEAKER_00: It did not say that.
SPEAKER_00: And if if y'all caught it maybe somewhere in another account of this, but what if they did get their own basket?
SPEAKER_00: Because they had to have generosity to begin with to decide to obey Jesus and feed the 5,000.
SPEAKER_00: They had to have faith, they had to use, they could have said, Jesus, we have needs.
SPEAKER_00: How come you didn't multiply our this or that?
SPEAKER_00: How come the money basket didn't multiply?
SPEAKER_00: How come my wife, you know, Peter could have said this or that?
SPEAKER_00: They participated in the distributing, they gave, and then what they got back was a huge, huge amount, way more than they started with.
SPEAKER_00: If you make up your mind to be a distributor, you will always have enough.
SPEAKER_00: You will always have enough for you.
SPEAKER_00: It will feed you, it will not just feed everyone else, it will feed you more than.
SPEAKER_00: I believe a basketful might be more than what everyone else got as their portion.
SPEAKER_00: They got a bigger portion because they gave, because they were a distributor.
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all get that?
SPEAKER_00: Number 12.
SPEAKER_00: Ha ha ha.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of this whole thing, the people were so impressed that they all ate and were full, and they were so impressed.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, they said, This is truly the prophet who has come into the world.
SPEAKER_00: This is the P, capital P, the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: So they came and they wanted him to be king, and that's where it went south.
SPEAKER_00: Um, your ministry to others will cause favor to come on your life, but it might always not always be for the right reason.
SPEAKER_00: So for the the Jews, they wanted him to be king because they wanted to escape the Romans.
SPEAKER_00: They had a completely wrong idea of Jesus' entire purpose and kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it doesn't work like that, it was never gonna work like that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to be your earthly king, I'm I'm trying to go for a universal, you know, heavenly, eternal thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of he went bigger than that.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, just he knew what was in people, so you just know what was in people.
SPEAKER_00: Get be a distributor, stay in your lane, and uh and God will bless you.
SPEAKER_00: So then what happened after that?
SPEAKER_00: You know, people must have been really, really, really um in love with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they but but wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as they really thought about what just happened, and then he went on and said, Hey, what I just did there was a sign so y'all would believe in me because I ain't I am that bread.
SPEAKER_00: I am that bread.
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden they didn't want to make him king anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Now they're mad at him.
SPEAKER_00: Now they think, Jesus, that is the weirdest thing we have ever heard anybody say.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: The Jews then complained, 41.
SPEAKER_00: Because you said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Is this not Jesus, son of Joseph, whose father and mother, we know?
SPEAKER_00: How is it then he says this?
SPEAKER_00: And then um, then he just kind of doubles down.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know where this goes.
SPEAKER_00: Most assuredly, verse 53 I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
SPEAKER_00: For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
SPEAKER_00: And he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
SPEAKER_00: When we spend time in his presence, we become one with him.
SPEAKER_00: Just like you are what you eat, you take him in, and he becomes a part of every cell of your being, spiritually first, and then physically.
SPEAKER_00: But they couldn't deal with that.
SPEAKER_00: That was too weird.
SPEAKER_00: And many of his disciples, verse 60, when they heard this, said, It's a hard saying.
SPEAKER_00: Who can understand it?
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe Pastor said that again in church.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor said that weird thing.
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe he said that.
SPEAKER_00: Right when my friend came, he said that weird saying, Pastor, why do you have to talk about puking in a bag again this morning?
SPEAKER_00: I wish he wouldn't have said that.
SPEAKER_00: It's the day my friend came.
SPEAKER_00: We can't hang with that, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew in himself his disciples complained.
SPEAKER_00: He said to them, Does this offend you?
SPEAKER_00: What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where he was before?
SPEAKER_00: It is the spirit who gives life.
SPEAKER_00: The flesh profits nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I fed you this food, and you thought it was all of that, and it was nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I want you, and Jesus was always doing this.
SPEAKER_00: He did something physical and they got all fixated on the physical bread.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: You didn't bring bread.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I you know, they were fixated on that.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Stop thinking about the bread.
SPEAKER_00: Start thinking about the bread.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Shere, I'm not supposed to jump.
SPEAKER_00: Messes up my microphone.
SPEAKER_00: So from this time, there are many of his disciples that went back and walked with him no more.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Do you also want to go away?
SPEAKER_00: He said it to the 12.
SPEAKER_00: And Simon Peter answered and said, Lord, to whom shall we go?
SPEAKER_00: You have the words of eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
SPEAKER_00: I know you are who you said you are.
SPEAKER_00: So you're gonna say some weird things sometimes, but I'm gonna love you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna stay with you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Even though he didn't really mean it for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: But he came back, right?
SPEAKER_00: And um Jesus, the bread of life, he fills us, he fills us.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell one more story.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and for that, we're gonna go to a different, we're gonna go to Passover now, because you know it's important.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna use this table, and it's no longer the show bread table, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I want y'all just clear that we're not we're not talking about the weekly Sabbath bread in the temple anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're during the feast of Passover.
SPEAKER_00: And can I have my tray?
SPEAKER_00: Please.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, thank you, James.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know there's this is a modern symbol today?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know in every Jewish household at Passover, which happens around Easter time, at Passover, there is, they still do this with matzah.
SPEAKER_00: There are, sorry, there are there are there's a plate at the Seder dinner table.
SPEAKER_00: So this is the Passover dinner.
SPEAKER_00: This is the same dinner that Jesus had that was his last supper.
SPEAKER_00: But they have a Seder meal in a Jewish tradition, and they have three crackers layered up on top of each other.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, when you hear the number three, what does it make you think of?
SPEAKER_00: The Father, Son, Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: That's a Y'all are smart.
SPEAKER_00: It's a Sunday night crowd.
SPEAKER_00: So they have three crackers and the middle one, and they represent um the priests, the Levites, and the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so that's what they represent.
SPEAKER_00: But we know what they represent.
SPEAKER_00: So the middle cracker, the middle cracker, in the meal, after they've washed their hands and at the beginning of the meal, they break the cracker in two parts.
SPEAKER_00: Like one, there's a big part and a little part.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And the little part gets to stay on the table.
SPEAKER_00: And the big part, they hide it, they wrap it up, and they give it to children.
SPEAKER_00: And the children go and they hide it somewhere where it can't.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna get crumbs on the keyboard.
SPEAKER_00: They hide it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's called the affikomen.
SPEAKER_00: That part is called the affikomen.
SPEAKER_00: The dessert, or you it's to be shared at the um, let me see if it is, and this is important.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the middle matza is broken in half, the larger piece becomes the affikomen, the Greek for dessert or that which comes after.
SPEAKER_00: That which comes after.
SPEAKER_00: And so they wrap it and they hit hide it for children to find later, or it's been stolen by children.
SPEAKER_00: And then the the smaller piece returns to the stack, and it's called the bread of poverty and affliction.
SPEAKER_00: Did Jesus take our poverty and affliction?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he did.
SPEAKER_00: He took it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this occurs early in the Seder before the retelling of the Exodus story.
SPEAKER_00: So they tell the story of the Passover and the blood on the door and the lamb that was slain.
SPEAKER_00: And then they start eating uh the different things.
SPEAKER_00: And then so the leader hides it, and then it's searched for by children, and the finder, the child who finds it, is usually the youngest one.
SPEAKER_00: He gets a reward.
SPEAKER_00: The first shall be last, and last first.
SPEAKER_00: So the youngest one finds the, and he says, That I found the combin.
SPEAKER_00: Yay! And he gets a prize.
SPEAKER_00: And but nobody eats that part until they've already enjoyed the entire meal.
SPEAKER_00: They eat their bitter herbs, their horseradish, they remember their tears of slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then they eat their Passover lamb and their bitter herbs together.
SPEAKER_00: But near the end of the meal, after the main festive meal, the hidden Afikomen is retrieved and eaten as the final food of the Seder.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing else is eaten afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: It recalls the Passover offering and must ideally be consumed before midnight.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all have a little chill about that right there?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is coming back.
SPEAKER_00: He is coming back, and he's gonna be the final finale, he is gonna be the main event, and we are going to enjoy him and feast on him forever and ever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: And the bread of affliction and suffering is gone.
SPEAKER_00: It's in our past, and we're gonna be with our Jesus forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: And ever.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 11, 23, for I received from the Lord, this is Paul speaking.
SPEAKER_00: He was not one of the 12 disciples, but the Lord gave him revelation.
SPEAKER_00: I believe God showed him this.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Paul was a distributor.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was a distributor, and so he got a high level of revelation from God.
SPEAKER_00: And so he in his he God showed him that the Lord Jesus, on that same night in which he was betrayed, he took the bread.
SPEAKER_00: And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_00: This is my body which is broken for you.
SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup of the new covenant, covenant of my blood, this do as often as you drink of it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: For as oft as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we thank you for your death.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your sacrifice for us.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your burial and we thank you for your resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we seek and find you when we search for you with all our heart.
SPEAKER_00: We seek and find you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You're not hidden from us, you're hidden for us, and you're precious.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we're gonna enjoy and feast with you forever.
SPEAKER_00: You are the bread of life that fills every part of our lives, that makes us a distributor and a supplier for others.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, we just we just give our hearts again to you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We can have you anytime we seek for you.
SPEAKER_00: And so we just say how hungry we are, how thirsty we are for your presence.
SPEAKER_00: It is the bread of the face-to-face presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we just come to your holy place.
SPEAKER_00: And now, Lord, it's not forbidden for us to eat of the bread.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, we just we don't live by natural bread, Lord, but we live by every word that you say.
SPEAKER_00: When we open our Bible, I say that every time you open your Bible, you will receive bread from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You will receive a daily word that will not rot.
SPEAKER_00: It will carry you through that day, and the next day there's another one, and the next day there's another one, and you'll distribute what you have, and the next day there's another one, and you'll distribute that.
SPEAKER_00: And it's growing and growing in baskets and baskets and multitudes and multitudes.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I just thank you that we're growing in your in our capacity to distribute your word.
SPEAKER_00: You're growing you're growing our gift to share your word.
SPEAKER_00: It's real, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: When we when the devil pokes us, the word flows out in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I just thank you that your word is preeminent in first place.
SPEAKER_00: Our meat is to do the will of the Father and to finish his work.
SPEAKER_00: It is sustaining and life-giving.
SPEAKER_00: We are not tired, we are not worn out, we are not overspent, Lord, because we cannot be defeated.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we break off, we are multiplied.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we give out, we receive back tenfold.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I thank you that we are truly distributors in your kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: What an honor, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We love you in Jesus' name.