SPEAKER_00: I invite you to open your Bibles if you got one to Luke chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: Today we're looking at verses 10 through 17.
SPEAKER_00: So Luke 9, 10 through 17.
SPEAKER_00: And as you flip there in your Bible, I want you to think for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the greatest need that you see in your social circle right now.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not talking about your own individual needs.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even talking about the world's needs.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about the people in your life, the people who surround you, your friends, your neighbor, your family, your coworkers.
SPEAKER_00: Think about what they need.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe it's a child who's having significant trouble at home or at school.
SPEAKER_00: Think about uh maybe it's a coworker who's going through a nasty divorce, or a neighbor who's just lost his job, he's almost out of savings, a single mom who's barely squeaking by, a friend who is being choked to death by his own sin.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that person.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that need.
SPEAKER_00: And let me ask you do you feel like you have what it's going to take to serve that person?
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel equipped?
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel prepared?
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel provisioned to fulfill that need?
SPEAKER_00: See, people come to me all the time for advice when they've got someone in their life who's struggling.
SPEAKER_00: And when they feel like they don't, when they can't say yes to that question, they don't have what they need, they're not equipped, they're not resourced, they don't know what to do, they don't know what to say, they don't know how to help.
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, it's it's often not because they haven't been equipped.
SPEAKER_00: The people who come to me for advice, they know their Bible, they know where to get access to resources, they're good people, godly people, mature people, but in the face of great need, they feel it, we all feel it, our weakness, our our our lack.
SPEAKER_00: And heck, you know, I I feel it too.
SPEAKER_00: I spent a decade in seminary.
SPEAKER_00: I've read the Bible who knows how many times.
SPEAKER_00: I've read hundreds of books on scripture and theology.
SPEAKER_00: I've been doing ministry in one way, shape, form, or another for 15 years.
SPEAKER_00: But I still regularly self regularly find myself on the phone or sitting on my office or across the table from someone.
SPEAKER_00: Heck, this happened even yesterday afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: And just listening to them share with me this thing they're up against.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking to myself, Lord, I've got nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to say to this person.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to help them right now.
SPEAKER_00: Makes you feel really confident about coming to counseling with me, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so I sit there and I pray, right?
SPEAKER_00: I pray and I listen and I pray and I listen and I pray and I pray some more.
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: Eventually God shows up.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually God shows up and gives me what I need to meet that person in that moment and serve them the way they need to be served, just like God promises to show up and help all of us as we lean into the mission that he has for us.
SPEAKER_00: See, that is what today's passage is about.
SPEAKER_00: The story is a very familiar one.
SPEAKER_00: We've probably heard it a hundred times, where Jesus performs this miracle in order to feed 5,000 people.
SPEAKER_00: But as we've seen in Luke, as is often the case, Jesus doesn't do that just to show off, just to flex, just to demonstrate for everybody that he's divine.
SPEAKER_00: He does it in order to teach his people a lesson.
SPEAKER_00: He does it to show us that when he calls us to meet a need, even when it's a great big need that we know is way beyond us, when he calls us to meet a need, he supplies the resources.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can lean into the hard stuff.
SPEAKER_00: We can lean into the humbling stuff, the scary stuff, the stuff we don't know how to deal with because we know that Jesus will never leave us hanging.
SPEAKER_00: He'll give us what we need.
SPEAKER_00: So, with that in mind, I'll invite you to rise.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to read today's sermon passage.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's Luke 9, verses 10 through 17.
SPEAKER_00: On their return, the apostles told him all that they had done, and he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida.
SPEAKER_00: When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God, and cured those who had need of healing.
SPEAKER_00: Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.
SPEAKER_00: But he said to them, You give them something to eat.
SPEAKER_00: They said, We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we are to go and buy food for all these people, for there were about five thousand men.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to his disciples, Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.
SPEAKER_00: And they did so, and had them all sit down.
SPEAKER_00: And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and set a blessing over them.
SPEAKER_00: Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd, and they all ate and were satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: And what was left over was picked up twelve baskets of broken pieces.
SPEAKER_00: The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Help us this morning to hear your word.
SPEAKER_00: May it equip us and provision us so that we can go forth and do your will and to meet the needs that you have placed in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: So, as I said last week, Luke 9 is a long chapter with lots of twists and turns.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot going on in this chapter, but the main thing it shows us is the disciples' preparation for ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is equipping the twelve, his inner circle, his apostles, so that they can take up his mission after he goes.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we saw him empower these men to proclaim the kingdom and to heal people, which they went forward and did with great success.
SPEAKER_00: And this week, our passage opens with the twelve apostles returning to Jesus to tell him about all that they had done.
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine those stories, right?
SPEAKER_00: The blind receiving their sight, the lame getting up to walk, the demon-possessed being delivered, the kingdom breaking out in words and in wonders.
SPEAKER_00: So they come back and they tell Jesus about all of that, and he put essentially pulls them aside and he tries to take them to Beth Saida.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say exactly why, but he's probably going to debrief them and to provide them more teaching, more training.
SPEAKER_00: But they never make it.
SPEAKER_00: They never make it to the city because as they're on their way, a great crowd amasses behind them.
SPEAKER_00: They're following Jesus, they want to see Jesus, they want to hear more from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of shooing them away, verse 11 says that Jesus welcomes them.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus embraces them even.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks the kingdom of God and cures those who have need of healing.
SPEAKER_00: If those words sound familiar, it's because those are pretty much the words that Luke used to describe the 12's mission at the beginning of chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: This is what they've been doing: teaching about the kingdom, proclaiming the kingdom, uh healing diseases.
SPEAKER_00: So they've been out doing it, and now they get to sit and watch as their master shows them how it's done.
SPEAKER_00: But in verse 12, an issue arises.
SPEAKER_00: The day is wearing away.
SPEAKER_00: And it appears that nobody in the crowd is prepared to spend the night out in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: They just they just kind of showed up, right?
SPEAKER_00: They didn't plan for this.
SPEAKER_00: So the 12, they're they're they're becoming attentive shepherds, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're tuned into the needs of the people.
SPEAKER_00: And so they come to Jesus in verse 12 with a with a sense of urgency about the problem.
SPEAKER_00: They even dare to tell Jesus what Jesus needs to do, right?
SPEAKER_00: Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some commentators think that the 12 are kind of exasperated here, that they're getting impatient with Jesus, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I think they're kind of responding to the circumstances the way any one of us would respond to the circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of rebuking them for that, Jesus uses this moment to teach them and to teach us that no matter what we come up against, no matter how big the circumstances are and how massive the need is, he's got us covered.
SPEAKER_00: He's got us covered.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna give us what we need.
SPEAKER_00: So, three headings we're gonna consider as we work our way through this story: a divine commission, a faulty assumption, and an outrageous provision.
SPEAKER_00: So commission, assumption, provision.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the roadmap for today.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll start by talking about the divine commission.
SPEAKER_00: If you've you know, if you've been a part of a church for a while, this is probably your deal.
SPEAKER_00: You've had an idea for an outreach or a ministry, and and you've you've pitched it to your pastor, and what has the pastor said in response?
SPEAKER_00: That's a great idea.
SPEAKER_00: You want to lead it?
SPEAKER_00: You may not have liked that answer, but we're just following Jesus' example in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the people are hungry.
SPEAKER_00: We need to do something about that.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah?
SPEAKER_00: You give them something to eat.
SPEAKER_00: Great ministry idea.
SPEAKER_00: You lead it.
SPEAKER_00: Let me know if you need anything.
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine that caught the 12 off guard.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, here they are thinking that the best way to deal with the issue is to send the people off to fend for themselves, but Jesus says, no, you guys deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why would Jesus do that?
SPEAKER_00: The surface level answer, of course, is he's preparing these guys for ministry.
SPEAKER_00: They need to know how to deal with these things.
SPEAKER_00: They need to know how to plan a potluck on the fly.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a more fundamental question that we need to ask and answer about this.
SPEAKER_00: Why does Jesus ask the twelve to do anything at all?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the God man.
SPEAKER_00: The mission is his mission, the power is his power, he can preach his own gospel, he can heal all the sick people himself, he can feed the people without the disciples' help.
SPEAKER_00: So why bother using them at all?
SPEAKER_00: Why not cut out the middleman?
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: Why bother using any of us at all?
SPEAKER_00: See, these questions tap us into a fundamental reality that is as old as creation itself.
SPEAKER_00: God is completely independent.
SPEAKER_00: The theological term for that is asse.
SPEAKER_00: God's asseity means that he exists completely of himself.
SPEAKER_00: He has no need of anything outside of him in order to be who he is or accomplish what he wishes to accomplish.
SPEAKER_00: God is asse, God is independent.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, God made this world as a theater of his glory.
SPEAKER_00: And he made us, he made human beings in his image to share in the manifestation of that glory.
SPEAKER_00: So we, made in God's image, were created to glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: Not because he needs us, but because he wants us.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to participate in his glory and the promises that for God's people, his glory will forever be our joy.
SPEAKER_00: So when we come to the Gospels and we see Jesus sending people on mission, it's not because he needs them, it's because he wants them to share in the glory of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: When he tells the disciples to give the people something to eat, it's not because he's too busy to do it himself or because it's beneath his pay grade.
SPEAKER_00: It's because he is about to do something glorious.
SPEAKER_00: And he's inviting them to share in it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, Jesus is inviting us to share in the same thing today.
SPEAKER_00: He's inviting us to share in his redemptive mission.
SPEAKER_00: The church is Christ's missionary body.
SPEAKER_00: If your faith is in Christ, then you're a missionary.
SPEAKER_00: And he is inviting you to share in the glory of his redemptive mission to seek and to save the lost.
SPEAKER_00: That means that God, by his Holy Spirit, has given each and every one of us gifts.
SPEAKER_00: So that we can play our own unique part in his mission.
SPEAKER_00: God has placed you in your circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: He has dropped you into the midst of a particular set of broken and needy people.
SPEAKER_00: The people he's placed in your life, they're not there by accident.
SPEAKER_00: He's placed them there.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying to you now, hey, you give them something to eat.
SPEAKER_00: You minister to their need.
SPEAKER_00: You become a conduit of my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: You slip the check under the single mother's door.
SPEAKER_00: You take the friend to lunch after he's had a bad week.
SPEAKER_00: You speak a kind word into the chaos.
SPEAKER_00: You give them something to eat.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe literally, maybe figuratively, maybe both.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus calls us to do.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to remember that when he does that, he promises to give us whatever resources we need to meet that moment according to his own will, according to his own wisdom, and according to his own kindness and goodness and grace.
SPEAKER_00: So that leads us to our second heading, a faulty assumption.
SPEAKER_00: Because when Jesus said, you give them something, how do you think the disciples responded to that?
SPEAKER_00: Or how do you think they should have responded?
SPEAKER_00: They should have said something like, Yes, Jesus, we don't know how, but we will take care of it.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll trust you to give us what we need to do that.
SPEAKER_00: But no, that's not how they respond.
SPEAKER_00: They respond the same way any of us would respond with confusion.
SPEAKER_00: They kind of look around at what they got.
SPEAKER_00: Five little loaves of bread, two fish.
SPEAKER_00: John 6 tells us that those aren't even there.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna have to commandeer a little boy's lunch in order to try and feed the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: And clearly, that's not gonna be enough.
SPEAKER_00: So they keep thinking out loud, that's what we got, unless maybe we're supposed to go and buy food for the people.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's what Jesus means.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's what he wants us to do.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to go into town and load up our carts with Chick-fil-A and bring it back to the crowds.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, that's not gonna work.
SPEAKER_00: How are you gonna pay for and transport enough food for 5,000 men, let alone their women and children?
SPEAKER_00: There easily could have been 10,000 people in that field, maybe more.
SPEAKER_00: There's just no way to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has given them an impossible task, and they're wrestling with it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't want to be too hard on the 12th, because I'm not convinced that I would have done any better than them in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: But have they already forgotten?
SPEAKER_00: Have they forgotten what they've been through?
SPEAKER_00: Have they forgotten everything that they've seen?
SPEAKER_00: Have they forgotten that like five minutes ago Jesus gave them the power and authority to proclaim the kingdom and heal diseases and cast out demons?
SPEAKER_00: Have they forgotten how Jesus sent them out with nothing but clothes on their backs and he still made sure that they were taken care of at every step of the way?
SPEAKER_00: Have they forgotten?
SPEAKER_00: Whether they have or not, they're not making the connection between what Jesus has done for them then and what Jesus could do for them now.
SPEAKER_00: They're acting as though the well of God's provision has run completely dry and now they have to all of a sudden figure out how to fend for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: You ever do that?
SPEAKER_00: Do I ever do that?
SPEAKER_00: See, we are a forgetful people.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of our deal, it's kind of our problem.
SPEAKER_00: It's why God commands us to get together every single week to partake of his word and be reminded of who he is and who he is for us.
SPEAKER_00: All the same things.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about a lot of the same things every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because we got nothing better, well, it is because we got nothing better to talk about, but it's because we need to be reminded again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever we find ourselves face to face with a need that just seems way too big for us, that we can't handle, we can't comprehend, we don't know how to step into it, we forget.
SPEAKER_00: We forget about all the times that God has provided for us in the past.
SPEAKER_00: We forget about how he's clothed and fed us every day of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We forget that he's the one who puts a roof over our heads, he's the one who puts the air in our lungs, he's the one who, when we were dead in our sins, sent his son to bring us for from death to life.
SPEAKER_00: We forget.
SPEAKER_00: We forget just like the 12 forgotten.
SPEAKER_00: When we forget, we make the same faulty assumption that they did.
SPEAKER_00: We assume that God is done providing for us and now we're on our own.
SPEAKER_00: He gave us everything we needed to get the ball rolling, to get started on our mission, but now it's on us to figure out where we go from here and how to make it all happen.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how the 12 don't even ask Jesus to help them out.
SPEAKER_00: They tell him what to do, he tells them what to do, and they don't even ask him for help.
SPEAKER_00: They just start trying to figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they know he can do it, don't they?
SPEAKER_00: Several of them were present with him on the lake when he scared up two boatloads of fish.
SPEAKER_00: Surely he could do something like that again here.
SPEAKER_00: But they don't ask, they try to figure it out themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if God hasn't already, he is going to bring you face to face with a need that seems way bigger than you can handle.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to call you to fill a gap that just simply blows your mind.
SPEAKER_00: And when he does, you're going to be tempted to forget.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be tempted to try and fulfill that need out of your own storehouse.
SPEAKER_00: And when you realize that you've only got five loaves and two fish in there, you're going to break.
SPEAKER_00: Unless, unless God rescues you from yourself and reminds you that you've got this because he's got you.
SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to our third and final heading, an outrageous provision.
SPEAKER_00: It's true, the disciples didn't ask for help like they should have.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the great things about God is that he doesn't always wait for us to figure out what we need before he gives it to us.
SPEAKER_00: He sometimes answers our prayers before we even think to say them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens here.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 14, Jesus tells his disciples to have everyone sit down in groups of 50.
SPEAKER_00: We're not sure why exactly it's groups of 50.
SPEAKER_00: He might be hearkening back to something in the wilderness generation about how Moses split the people up into groups of 50, uh, or it might just be a nice round number.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But we do know that the disciples, according to whatever logic Jesus has, they follow the instructions.
SPEAKER_00: And notice something about the instructions.
SPEAKER_00: He tells them how to sit down and divide and all that, but he doesn't tell them anything about ritual purity.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say anything about washing their hands before they eat.
SPEAKER_00: There's no concern for the precise preparation of the food.
SPEAKER_00: There's no checking to make sure that the bread and the fish are kosher or that whatever he's gonna produce is kosher.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing like that.
SPEAKER_00: It's just it's not a thought.
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus was in a predominantly Jewish area.
SPEAKER_00: Predominantly Jews in the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: There may have been some Gentiles there, but mostly Jews.
SPEAKER_00: But even in a predominantly Jewish area like Galilee, good Jews always took precautions to make sure they were eating the right food with the right people in the right way.
SPEAKER_00: It was a matter of faithfulness to the Mosaic law.
SPEAKER_00: It was a matter of desiring to maintain their character as a holy people set apart to God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is all for faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is all for holiness, but a part of what he's showing us here by kind of leaving those things aside is that there is room for everyone at his table.
SPEAKER_00: He is the generous host that invites any and everyone to come and sit at the table with him.
SPEAKER_00: And he shows himself to be that host when he offers the blessing in verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: You go over to someone's house to eat, they offer the blessing.
SPEAKER_00: That's how it works today, that's how it worked then.
SPEAKER_00: But there's something strange about this process.
SPEAKER_00: Particular blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Typically, the host blesses God for the food he's provided.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus blesses the bread.
SPEAKER_00: Why does he do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if we flip back all the way to Genesis 1, we see God create the living creatures and call upon them to multiply and fill the earth.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the differences between the plants and the living beings.
SPEAKER_00: The plants produce according to their seed after their own kind.
SPEAKER_00: The animals, the living creatures, multiply.
SPEAKER_00: And that multiplication is contingent upon God's blessing.
SPEAKER_00: God's blessing is the thing that brings about multiplication.
SPEAKER_00: No blessing, no multiplication.
SPEAKER_00: Blessing, abundance.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus blesses the bread and the fish so that by his blessing they might multiply.
SPEAKER_00: Just one of those many, many ways that Luke is cluing us into the fact that the power Jesus wields is a divine power, because Jesus is a divine person.
SPEAKER_00: He's God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And so just like he did with the wind and the waves in chapter 8, Jesus commands creation here to do his bidding.
SPEAKER_00: He manipulates nature in order to provide for his people.
SPEAKER_00: That's incredible.
SPEAKER_00: He does it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we can pray to him and ask him for stuff that seems impossible.
SPEAKER_00: But as incredible as it is, here comes what I think is the most important part of the whole story in the second half of verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says the blessing, he breaks the loaves, and then what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: Does he hand the food out to the crowds?
SPEAKER_00: No, he doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: He hands the food to the 12.
SPEAKER_00: And the 12 put it out to the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: That detail right there is the whole ball game.
SPEAKER_00: And we probably often skip over it because we've heard the story a hundred times.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus blesses and breaks the bread and then he hands it to the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So that they can do what he told them to do.
SPEAKER_00: You give them something to eat.
SPEAKER_00: So the point here isn't just that Jesus fed this whole big crowd of people, as incredible and important as that is.
SPEAKER_00: The point is that he provided his disciples with the resources that they need to meet the impossible need.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't take the mission away from them.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't set them on the sideline to do it himself because he didn't like the way that they responded to his words.
SPEAKER_00: No, he stepped in and gave them what they need so that they could faithfully fulfill what he had called them to.
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't just give them enough to squeak by, he gave them enough to satisfy the hunger of every man, woman, and child in the crowd, and then some.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17 says they packed up 12 baskets full of leftovers, each one of those baskets serving as a personal testimony to the 12 that Jesus was able to supply their every need.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, this chapter, this whole chapter, is about preparing the 12 to lead the church in Jesus' mission after his ascension.
SPEAKER_00: They've got a big job ahead of them, and there is going to be a whole heck of a lot harder stuff before them than just feeding a crowd of 5,000 men and their families.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is drilling into their consciousness here.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that there is no need that is too great for him to supply.
SPEAKER_00: He's given the disciples all the power, all the authority, all the resources, everything they need so that they can do what he's calling them to do.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You may be here with us this morning, and maybe maybe you don't identify with the 12 so much as with the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: There are needs in your life, but they're not other people's needs.
SPEAKER_00: You can't, they're your needs, and you can't get past your needs in order to see the needs of others.
SPEAKER_00: You might not be convinced about all the things that we Christians believe about Jesus, but here you are, because there's something in you that cannot ignore who this Jesus is and what he might be able to do for you.
SPEAKER_00: There's a hunger in you that you haven't figured out to name or figured out how to name.
SPEAKER_00: And he seems like the only one who might be able to satisfy it.
SPEAKER_00: In John 6, we have another account of the miraculous feeding that we've been reading about this morning.
SPEAKER_00: In that account of this story, it focuses on the people coming to Jesus the day after.
SPEAKER_00: And when they come to him, he tells them that the bread he gave them was just a token, that ultimately he is the bread.
SPEAKER_00: He is the bread of heaven that gives life, and that whoever comes to him will never hunger.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever believes in him will never thirst ever again.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, Jesus is the bread of heaven that allowed himself to be broken on the cross so that if we partake of him through faith, we can be filled to the full.
SPEAKER_00: And he promises that if we come to him by grace through faith, he will never send us away empty.
SPEAKER_00: He will never cast us out with empty hands.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you find yourself in the crowd here with us today, that's Jesus' word for you this morning before any other word.
SPEAKER_00: But for those who have been fed by Jesus, for those who've trusted in him as our Savior, and who have been joined by faith to his body, the church, then our place isn't in the crowd so much as it is with the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is standing beside us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is placing his hand on our shoulder, as it were.
SPEAKER_00: And he's standing there with a full basket in his hands saying, Hey, go give them something to eat.
SPEAKER_00: Grab something out of the basket and go give them something to eat?
SPEAKER_00: Do we see those people?
SPEAKER_00: Do we see Jesus as he stands there holding the basket full of everything we need to serve them?
SPEAKER_00: And do we believe that when Jesus brings us face to face with that incredible need, whatever it might be, that he will give us everything we need to fulfill it?
SPEAKER_00: Do we believe that?
SPEAKER_00: George Mueller, if you've been in the church a while, you've probably heard his story or maybe read his biography, his autobiography.
SPEAKER_00: But George Mueller was an evangelist, a Christian teacher, preacher.
SPEAKER_00: He lived in England in the 19th century.
SPEAKER_00: And God put it on his heart to care for orphans.
SPEAKER_00: And so in 1836, he opened up an orphanage, and he did it with the radical conviction that he would not ask another human being for support in any way.
SPEAKER_00: He wouldn't raise funds, he wouldn't take out loans, he wouldn't go from church to church, he wouldn't do any of that.
SPEAKER_00: He would simply pray to God and trust that God would give him everything he needed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that's necessarily what you need to do if you're starting a ministry, but it's what he did.
SPEAKER_00: Because he wanted to witness to the secularizing England of his day that God still does stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And God did stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Muller, he he kept extensive records and journals.
SPEAKER_00: You could read about this in his autobiography or in his journals.
SPEAKER_00: He would keep a tally of his prayer requests in all of the ways in which God answered them.
SPEAKER_00: And it's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: When the orphanage would need more beds, beds would just show up.
SPEAKER_00: When they needed more space, people would just come out of the woodwork and offer them money and real estate.
SPEAKER_00: When food ran out, they'd be preparing to sit down to a meal and they had nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And carts full of milk and bread would just show up at their door.
SPEAKER_00: Crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Time after time, miracle after miracle, God would give Mueller everything he needed, exactly what he needed, to care for thousands and thousands of orphans.
SPEAKER_00: To meet this immense and incredible need in England and to do it in a way that brought God all of the glory.
SPEAKER_00: We are surrounded.
SPEAKER_00: We are surrounded by needy people.
SPEAKER_00: It may not seem like it.
SPEAKER_00: Our county is the second most affluent county in the state, but roughly 10% of our neighbors still live below the federal poverty line.
SPEAKER_00: And in our schools, 30 to 35% of the children qualify for free and reduced lunches.
SPEAKER_00: So there are needy people all around us.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to go too far either direction in Lebanon Road to see them.
SPEAKER_00: But this is about more than just food.
SPEAKER_00: There's more than one way to be hungry.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we come to a close, I want to bring us back to where we started.
SPEAKER_00: Who comes to mind?
SPEAKER_00: What comes to mind when I ask you about the great needs you see in your world today?
SPEAKER_00: And what would you do, as you're thinking about that need, what would you do if Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to whisper in your ear right now, you give them something to eat.
SPEAKER_00: Would you look around and say, sorry, Jesus, I've only got a couple of loaves of bread, a couple of fish.
SPEAKER_00: I can't take care of that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel equipped to deal with that.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody else is going to have to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Or would you say to them, Jesus, this is more than I know how to handle?
SPEAKER_00: But I know you've got everything I need.
SPEAKER_00: And I trust that you're going to help me.
SPEAKER_00: I trust that you're going to provide for me.
SPEAKER_00: I trust that you're going to show me the way.
SPEAKER_00: I trust that you're going to use me to meet this need in one way or another.
SPEAKER_00: What would change?
SPEAKER_00: Would you lean in?
SPEAKER_00: I think you would.
SPEAKER_00: And so would I.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we so often feel so small.
SPEAKER_00: Because we are so small.
SPEAKER_00: There are needs that are placed before us.
SPEAKER_00: There are circumstances that we don't know how to handle.
SPEAKER_00: People we don't know how to serve.
SPEAKER_00: Systems that we don't know how to fix.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, as we find ourselves face to face with these things, yes, help us to be humble, but also help us to be bold.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing that if you are in us and you are with us, then we've got everything we need.
SPEAKER_00: Not in ourselves, but in you.
SPEAKER_00: Not of ourselves, but of you.
SPEAKER_00: Not for ourselves, but for them and ultimately for you.
SPEAKER_00: We long to glorify you in all that we do.
SPEAKER_00: We long to do good for the people you've placed in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We long to make much of the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We long to declare the gospel to the ends of the earth, the gospel in its fullness, the gospel in its beauty, the gospel as it ministers to both soul and body.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray, Lord, that as we go today, as we go back into our world, as we interact with the people we interact with at work, at home, at school, in the neighborhood, I pray that you would make us sensitive to the needs that you've placed before us.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, when we do come face to face with them, you would move us to lean in rather than to back out.
SPEAKER_00: Give us what we need and help us to encourage one another in this work.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray, Lord, that as we do, as we go, you would be made much of.
SPEAKER_00: That the name of Jesus would be lifted high and proclaimed, and that people would see you in us, and that they would come to know a better story than one they could ever have written for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: The story that you're writing in your world for your glory and for our joy.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Going to invite our ruling elders forward now to prepare our um prepare the table.
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: We got four.
SPEAKER_00: It is so fitting that we would be able to come to the table and to be fed by Jesus after he fed the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: This table is the gift that Jesus gave to his church before his death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: He instituted it as a sacrament to be observed in the church until the day he comes again.
SPEAKER_00: This time where we come and partake of bread and wine and we're reminded of the broken body of Christ, and we're sealed in the new covenant that was ratified by his blood.
SPEAKER_00: So if your faith is in Christ, then the invitation is to you.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, if you have joined yourself to the body of Christ by belonging to this or another Bible preaching, Bible teaching, evangelical church, come to the table.
SPEAKER_00: Come be fed by Jesus so that you can be reminded that you have everything you need to go out and meet the needs of others.
SPEAKER_00: Come get full so that you can be out on the lookout for other beggars like you, and so that you can tell them where to find some bread.
SPEAKER_00: But if that's not your story yet, if you've not yet come to terms with this Jesus, if if you're still out there in the crowd trying to figure out who he is and what he means to you, then you are in the exact right place, and no one will shame you for being here and being where you are.
SPEAKER_00: But Scripture says if that's where you're at, don't come to the table.
SPEAKER_00: Not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Get right with Jesus first before you come to his table.
SPEAKER_00: And getting right with Jesus is a lot simpler than you might think.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to talk about that, if you want to learn more about that, please find one of us.
SPEAKER_00: We would love to talk to you about it.
SPEAKER_00: But for now, I'm going to pray and ask God to bless this meal.
SPEAKER_00: We'll come get the elements.
SPEAKER_00: When everybody's been served, we'll partake together.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for this meal.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for feeding us in every conceivable way.
SPEAKER_00: Our deepest hunger can only be satisfied by you.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray, Lord, that as we come to this table in faith, you would give us a token of that satisfaction.
SPEAKER_00: And for those, Lord, who are here today who might be hungry, yet not yet ready to come, I pray that you would deepen the hunger so that it might be satisfied by you.
SPEAKER_00: Pray all this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.