SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned earlier, it's our privilege to have Eric Rebels with us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: He was on staff at Briarwood for over 29 years, doing a lot of things over those years.
SPEAKER_00: His heart is in discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: He now has his own ministry called Uncommon Ministries.
SPEAKER_00: But I emphasize again a real heart for discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: And his wife Tiffany is here with us as well.
SPEAKER_00: Aaron and Chris Fleming, I stumbled over the name a minute ago, are here too as well.
SPEAKER_00: Dear friends of mine, but really uh I hate to say, Aaron, we're fathers of the faith now, but a father in the PCA who's also very committed to discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: So I know you have a great connection with the Flemings.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Eric, for being here this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_01: It is so good to be with you guys.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we've been worshiping a little bit with you guys over the past few weeks as we transition away from Briarwood, where I worked, as Claude said, for about 30 years.
SPEAKER_01: Um and worked with evangelism and discipleship and just have loved that over the years.
SPEAKER_01: Also, the first 12 years worked with the children, not children's ministry, with youth ministry, and did that with children in college and so forth.
SPEAKER_01: So, but it's a real privilege to be here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I guess my claim to fame, in a sense, is that we know the Stubbs very well.
SPEAKER_01: We love Olin and Lena.
SPEAKER_01: They are dear friends of ours.
SPEAKER_01: Um we're they're younger than we are, than Tiffany and I are, but just by a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: But our kids are the exact same gender and same age and went to school together and we're friends.
SPEAKER_01: So it's really neat to be with them over the years at Briarwood and to have our kids kind of be friends with each other.
SPEAKER_01: And uh so it's privilege to be here with you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm already recognizing that the Lord did not answer one of the prayers that I had.
SPEAKER_01: When Olin asked me if I would come and preach, um, I began to pray that the Lord would have nobody here because it's Labor Day.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is not something that I'm really familiar with.
SPEAKER_01: I don't preach a lot, um, but he answered it in a different way.
SPEAKER_01: So it is a tremendous honor to be with you.
SPEAKER_01: Um just uh just quickly a little bit about who we are and and what we do.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you know about our service at Ole at Briarwood.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're transitioning to work with a ministry called Globe Works, and it's an international missions organization, and the primary focus is to help plant church planters all around the world and and in really the hard-to-reach areas as well.
SPEAKER_01: So please pray for that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but also one of my responsibilities is going to be to start a ministry called Uncommon Ministries that'll focus on discipleship and evangelism.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord willing, God will bless those efforts.
SPEAKER_01: And Tiffany and I, that's our heart.
SPEAKER_01: We love Jesus because we've seen the tremendous grace that he has poured into our lives and in the lives of our children, and we want to share that with the world and with the lost.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we take uh to heart the great commission call.
SPEAKER_01: And I and I recognize from Cahaba Park that that's true here, and it's been such a blessing to witness that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you'll notice we're gonna be looking at John chapter 6, um, and I'm gonna try hard to do this quickly because I would really like for us to look at verses 1 through 40.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have those all there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go through those first few verses, uh, and then we'll get to the heart of what I have there in your bulletin.
SPEAKER_01: But I did want to start at chapter, I mean, excuse me, at verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: So bear with me.
SPEAKER_01: And what we're gonna be looking at here, and we're hoping to answer, is some really important questions.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, what do you have for me?
SPEAKER_01: Us individually, as followers of Christ, as we seek to honor Him with Hit with our lives, like Paul, servant of Christ, what do you have for me?
SPEAKER_01: What is my calling in life?
SPEAKER_01: How can I be a witness for you?
SPEAKER_01: How can I let my light shine before men that they may see my good works and glorify you in heaven?
SPEAKER_01: Um, so so that would be our desire that we would see Jesus and we'd magnify him as we look at John chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: I've been blown away.
SPEAKER_01: You know this if you've ever taught before, whether it's children or what.
SPEAKER_01: When you study the word of God in order to prepare to teach, you learn so much.
SPEAKER_01: And God's richly blessed me this week as I've been studying through John chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: But let's look at the first few verses, and then we'll just kind of work our way through and make a few comments.
SPEAKER_01: But John chapter 6, verse 1, it says, After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just stop for a brief moment and say, Jesus loves people.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus loves people and he's patient with them.
SPEAKER_01: He's patient with the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: And and he's and he steps up on the mountain where he can speak to them and help them and bless them.
SPEAKER_01: We should do the same.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, one of the things that I have to often remind myself, and and one of the things I did at Briarwood, is I would do practical evangelism.
SPEAKER_01: So we would form groups and we would go out every week.
SPEAKER_01: We would go to places like UAB.
SPEAKER_01: We would even go knock on apartment doors and we would share the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to encourage you before you say, Well, does that even work anymore?
SPEAKER_01: We got to speak to hundreds of people over the years that I was doing this.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe a thousand, maybe more.
SPEAKER_01: And we saw, I would say, easily a hundred people come to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: One guy in particular, I'll tell you this very briefly.
SPEAKER_01: His name is Doug.
SPEAKER_01: I won't go any further than that.
SPEAKER_01: We knocked on his door.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't a part of this group, it was one of one of the groups from our team that went out.
SPEAKER_01: Knocked on his apartment door, he answered the door with his wife.
SPEAKER_01: He was not a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: And they shared the gospel with Doug.
SPEAKER_01: And Doug heard the call of the Lord in his life, and he prayed to receive Christ, and he came, came to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why is this unique?
SPEAKER_01: It's just a guy named Doug.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think it's unique because one, the next day I received a phone call from our bookstore, um, the lady that runs our bookstore, and she said, Hey, we've got a guy in here with his wife, and and he's buying a and sometimes you never see the fruit of this.
SPEAKER_01: She said, He's he wants to buy a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't have a Bible, and he wants to buy his first Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, that is amazing, praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so she sold him his first Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and and I had not yet met Doug.
SPEAKER_01: I had just heard the story about him coming to faith in Christ through our group, going to knock on their apartment door.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it was a few weeks later, we were having Christmas uh uh at Christmas time at Briarwood, we were having the walkthrough Nativity, and I see a guy, and in my spirit, I just thought, I've never seen that guy before.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder if that's Doug, as crazy as that sounds.
SPEAKER_01: And so I walked up to this guy and I said, Hey, is your name Doug?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yeah, how do you know?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, I've heard about you, and I'm so delighted to meet you and praise the Lord that you're here.
SPEAKER_01: And you could just see the love of the Lord was just written, just written all over his face because he had been saved.
SPEAKER_01: It was incredible.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you a little bit more about Doug.
SPEAKER_01: In the preceding weeks after I got to know Doug and spent time with him, he started to share with me his love for the Lord and what Christ had done for him.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I want to start telling my family members about Christ.
SPEAKER_01: How can I do this, Eric?
SPEAKER_01: How can you help me?
SPEAKER_01: They live in Colorado.
SPEAKER_01: What can I do?
SPEAKER_01: So, well, we'll call them, talk to them, talk to them about what the Lord's done in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And he began to do that.
SPEAKER_01: He began to share with his brother and with his dad, and his brother became a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe his dad has become a Christian since as well.
SPEAKER_01: Again, why is Doug important?
SPEAKER_01: Here's one reason Doug's important.
SPEAKER_01: Doug's great-grandfather was the first Muslim imam in America who planted his roots in Michigan.
SPEAKER_01: How awesome is that that God would reach down into this family and save Doug out of that.
SPEAKER_01: So I just praise the Lord for that.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm sorry it took so long to tell that story, but I just, I just rejoice in the Lord and what he's doing through evangelism and through people telling other people about the gospel of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I hope that it resonates through what Jesus did here in John chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so Jesus loves people.
SPEAKER_01: We need to love them as well, and we need to share the gospel with them.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4, it says, Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that I want to say here as we look at that quick verse is Jesus loved the Passover, right?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus loved the Passover because he came to fulfill the Passover.
SPEAKER_01: The Passover was about Jesus ultimately.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't about the blood of an animal called a lamb that was painted over the doorpost to save the Israelites.
SPEAKER_01: It's about the blood of the lamb, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And he loved the Passover and he celebrated it, and he celebrated it in a unique way, as we'll see here in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5 7, he says, For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
SPEAKER_01: Paul proclaims that Jesus was the Passover Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5, lifting up his eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?
SPEAKER_01: And he said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: I hope we see ourselves here as we study John chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: I hope we see ourselves in the lives of the crowd itself and in the lives of the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Philip should have known better.
SPEAKER_01: We should know better when we're faced with trials like this.
SPEAKER_01: Philip should have known better.
SPEAKER_01: And yet Jesus tested Philip, and Jesus will test us, right?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus tests us.
SPEAKER_01: Now, one of the reasons why I say Philip should have known better is because if you read in chapter one of John, you know that when Jesus called Philip, right?
SPEAKER_01: Philip was great.
SPEAKER_01: And he recruited Nathaniel as well.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what it says in John 1.48.
SPEAKER_01: Nathaniel said to him, How do you know me?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus said, I knew you, and I've known you.
SPEAKER_01: He said, uh Nathaniel answered him, excuse me, he said, How do you know me?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answered him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.
SPEAKER_01: Now Nathaniel, he proclaims the glory of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And the thing that Philip should know here in chapter 6 when it comes to feeding the people.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Nathaniel said.
SPEAKER_01: Nathaniel answered him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: You are the King of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, Because I have said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?
SPEAKER_01: You'll see greater things than these, right?
SPEAKER_01: And how many of us have seen greater things than those, right?
SPEAKER_01: In a sense, in our own lives.
SPEAKER_01: We have seen such great things if we follow Christ, if we follow Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And yet we're going to face trials, right?
SPEAKER_01: And that's the thing that I hope that we reject, in a sense, in the prosperity gospel, the fallacy of that, that false teaching.
SPEAKER_01: What does it say in James?
SPEAKER_01: In James verses one, chapter one, verses two and three.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Count it all joy, brothers, when you face trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus wants to produce in a steadfastness, steadfastness when we're tested in our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And he wanted to produce that in Philip.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, uh verse seven.
SPEAKER_01: So Philip answered him, 200 denarii would uh worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.
SPEAKER_01: So Philip's struggling again, right?
SPEAKER_01: He's seen Jesus do all these miracles, and then he's he's like, Man, we don't have enough money to provide, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You ask me how we're gonna do this.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have enough.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have 200 denarii worth of bread.
SPEAKER_01: And then verse 8 One of the disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: They're all like, Man, what are we gonna do, Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: You know, what are they for so many?
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus said, Have the people sit down.
SPEAKER_01: Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about five thousand in number.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, when we reference this miracle that Jesus did, we say he fed the five thousand.
SPEAKER_01: But in reality, we all know it was way more than five thousand, because that was just the men.
SPEAKER_01: So it was thousands upon thousands that he fed.
SPEAKER_01: All right, verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, let me pause there for a second.
SPEAKER_01: I want to encourage us all, right?
SPEAKER_01: I I'll go back and forth with this at times, but when I sit down to have a meal, I need to give thanks to God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus modeled that.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I overlook that?
SPEAKER_01: He gave thanks to God.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and in fact, in Mark, it says that he lifted up his hands to heaven and he gave thanks to God.
SPEAKER_01: And he was he was evidencing his faith in God, maybe for the rest to see.
SPEAKER_01: And he was praising God for his supplication.
SPEAKER_01: So, verse 11 again.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated.
SPEAKER_01: So also the fish, as much as they wanted.
SPEAKER_01: I just think that's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: As much as they wanted.
SPEAKER_01: Five barley loaves, which were, if you understand correctly, and R.C.
SPEAKER_01: Sprohl does a good job of explaining this, they were little bitty loaves.
SPEAKER_01: They were tiny, they were small, uh, and two fish.
SPEAKER_01: And he feeds the people, the thousands of people, as much as they wanted.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I would say to you, in the first century or or in the in the time that Jesus was here, people probably didn't get to eat as much as they wanted, right?
SPEAKER_01: They probably didn't get to eat until they're fill like we do.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I remember being in Uganda and had the privilege to go to Uganda to do an evangelism clinic there.
SPEAKER_01: And we were in the uh northwest corner in a small village called Goli, up on the top of this mountain.
SPEAKER_01: And y'all, I was so impacted.
SPEAKER_01: Um, what a privilege it was to be there and to help encourage people in sharing their faith.
SPEAKER_01: And we would go hut to hut and tell people about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But I was so encouraged to look around the room because we hosted an evangelism clinic there, and there was at least a hundred Ugandans and people from other countries that were there.
SPEAKER_01: And I and I remember asking uh some of the indigenous people there, how do folks get here?
SPEAKER_01: And they say, Well, a lot of them walk, and it takes days, maybe weeks, to get here for this.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking, man, I I flew on a plane and rode a bus, and I've had everything catered to me.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, in fact, women would get up early in the morning before the sun rose and they would heat up the water.
SPEAKER_01: So when we had splash baths, we would have warm water.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, and and then when they fed us, I remember eating the chicken that they gave us, and the the chicken legs were this big, they were enormous.
SPEAKER_01: And I realized and talking to them that it was the chickens that they had had for several years, right?
SPEAKER_01: And they they they kept them for a special occasion, and so they slaughtered them for us.
SPEAKER_01: I just, I mean, I was under conviction, thinking, wow, uh, what blessing I have.
SPEAKER_01: But these people, they were filled and they had as much as they wanted, and that's what we have in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not preaching and teaching prosperity gospel, but I'm saying in Christ, we have everything that we need.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that we could ever need, everything that we could ever want in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost.
SPEAKER_01: There's something said here about waste.
SPEAKER_01: I tend to hate waste.
SPEAKER_01: We've got our four children, and it's like you, you know, you give them a uh bottled water or whatever it may be, and they drink one sip and then they're done.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, uh I tend to hate waste, how I was raised.
SPEAKER_01: And I think Jesus, I'm not saying he hates waste, but he's he's he's gathering up that that nothing may be lost.
SPEAKER_01: And I think he's actually referencing something much, much, much, much bigger.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he left the 99 to go after the one, right?
SPEAKER_01: And he wants none to be lost.
SPEAKER_01: It's his desire that all be saved, but he's called us.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just do it again.
SPEAKER_01: He's called all of us to proclaim the good news of the gospel and to share the good news of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13, so they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
SPEAKER_01: That's a miracle to take five barley loaves and two fish, and to be able to fill five baskets of fragments full.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 14, when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who has come into the world.
SPEAKER_01: So they proclaim that Jesus is the prophet, and they're excited.
SPEAKER_01: And let me submit to you why I believe that they're excited.
SPEAKER_01: One, they see him as a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: Who else did they see as a great prophet?
SPEAKER_01: Well, King David.
SPEAKER_01: King David was a great prophet because he gave us the psalms and he proclaimed the truths about God.
SPEAKER_01: But also listen to what Jesus says in verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain to himself, uh, or by himself.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus moves away from that.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that they're coming to make him king.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that they see he's prophet.
SPEAKER_01: David himself is known as a king and as a prophet, as a prophet and a king.
SPEAKER_01: And they wanted another David.
SPEAKER_01: They wanted a ruling king who would establish his kingdom here on earth by might, right?
SPEAKER_01: David was known as a man of bloodshed.
SPEAKER_01: He couldn't build the temple because of it.
SPEAKER_01: And they wanted another uh conquering king, and they begin to see Jesus in that way.
SPEAKER_01: And though Jesus is the prophet and the king, it wasn't his time.
SPEAKER_01: And the real reality is that Jesus is not the prophet and king like David was, he's different, he's much, much better.
SPEAKER_01: He is the prophet because he is the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: He is the word of God, and he created us, he created the world, and whatever he said is the word of God, and it is true.
SPEAKER_01: And so he he pro when he speaks, would the words of God come forth.
SPEAKER_01: He he is the king, right?
SPEAKER_01: And he establishes his kingdom, not uh for a worldly kingdom, he establishes his kingdom in our hearts individually.
SPEAKER_01: And so, King Jesus, come and rule in our hearts, reign in us, that the things that we do would be pleasing to you as we seek to serve you and honor you.
SPEAKER_01: And of course, he was a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus, I believe, is the only prophet, priest, and king.
SPEAKER_01: He is much greater than what the crowds wanted him to be, and yet they didn't fully understand it.
SPEAKER_01: All right, continuing on, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't know why Jesus, it doesn't say here necessarily, but Jesus went up on the mountain.
SPEAKER_01: I believe he went to spend time with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And he must have sent on the disciples, and they started across the sea of Capernaum.
SPEAKER_01: So here's a good point.
SPEAKER_01: They were in the boat by themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I want I want you to visualize that, visualize that and think that and understand it in this story.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a parable, but as R.
SPEAKER_01: C.
SPEAKER_01: Sprohl says, it is uh a story that presents a parable to us in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So the disciples get in the boat and they begin to cross to the sea of Capernaum, and it was now dark.
SPEAKER_01: Verse uh 17 continues on, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18, and the sea became rough because of a strong wind was blowing.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and we understand in the other um by the other gospels that it was it was bad, right?
SPEAKER_01: And they were in many ways afraid for their lives and feared for their lives.
SPEAKER_01: So the strong wind was blowing.
SPEAKER_01: They're trying to cross the sea, verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus on the sea, and coming near the boat, they were frightened.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I would imagine all of us would be frightened if we had seen that.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and and maybe they didn't recognize him initially.
SPEAKER_01: But the point is they're in the boat, they're crossing the sea, and it's tumultuous, and they're afraid, and they're afraid they're gonna perish.
SPEAKER_01: And I would submit to you, as our sea sprawl does, that that's our lives.
SPEAKER_01: When we are in control of our lives, when we're in the boat and we're trying to row on our own, right?
SPEAKER_01: The the storm winds come and they begin to blow against us and they're dangerous, and and we have fear, but when we get Get our eyes fixed on Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus steps into the boat, as it says he does, and he takes over, let's see what happens when Jesus gets in the boat.
SPEAKER_01: So they're frightened, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: But he said to them, It is I, do not be afraid, verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: Then they were glad to see him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we just read over that and we think, well, it just happened to be maybe they were just on the shore.
SPEAKER_01: And no, they're out in the middle of the sea, and they're afraid out of their mind that they're about to perish because of the storm.
SPEAKER_01: And then they see Jesus and they take their eyes off of the storm, he gets into the boat, he takes control of the boat, and they're immediately at the shore.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what Jesus does in our lives when we trust in him.
SPEAKER_01: He comes into the storm of our lives, he makes sense of it all, and he brings us to the safe shore.
SPEAKER_01: And we praise him for that.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So after we read and study these incredible miracles that Jesus has done, then the question should begin to be asked for each of us.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what I want to ask is do I simply marvel at the signs and works of Jesus, or do I submit to the evidence that he is the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, and that He is the only Savior of the world who was sent by God the Father?
SPEAKER_01: And do I by faith surrender to him to be Lord of my life?
SPEAKER_01: Now, in a church like this, which I've been blown away and just really fallen in love with how y'all worship the Lord here, but in a church like this, this question is still very applicable to each of us.
SPEAKER_01: One of my prayers that I pray all the time is, Lord, please help me to stop living a duplicitous life.
SPEAKER_01: One moment I'm walking with you and I and I've got my minds on mind on the right things, and I'm trying to serve you with my life.
SPEAKER_01: And the next moment, I don't want to share out loud what I think.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help me not to live such a duplicitous life.
SPEAKER_01: Let me be sold out for you.
SPEAKER_01: Let me be surrendered to you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, you are the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_01: You are the King of Kings.
SPEAKER_01: And I trust you.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to be sovereignly in control of my life.
SPEAKER_01: And so I would encourage each of us to say that prayer, to have that prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And as you see in your bulletin, the question that I ask is, what type of work do you do?
SPEAKER_01: What type of work does each of us do individually?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: What do we do?
SPEAKER_01: How do we serve in the kingdom of God?
SPEAKER_01: How do we please the Lord with our lives?
SPEAKER_01: That's what we truly desire to do with this uncommon ministries that we're hoping to start.
SPEAKER_01: And I would just ask again, please pray for it that it would be about that type of ministry in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, and this is silly, but it just comes to mind.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have seen Star Wars, right?
SPEAKER_01: You remember what Darth Vader used to say?
SPEAKER_01: What is thy bidding, my master?
SPEAKER_01: As silly as it is, we should say that to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, what is your bidding for my life?
SPEAKER_01: What would you have me do?
SPEAKER_01: What type of work would you have me do that I could see your kingdom grow and the gospel go forth?
SPEAKER_01: All right, let's continue on.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: On the next day the crowd was uh that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone.
SPEAKER_01: Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord was had given thanks.
SPEAKER_01: Um, verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So the crowds are following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I would say, like nominal Christianity in the South, right?
SPEAKER_01: This should convict all of us, but like nominal Christianity in the South, they seek to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they want something from him.
SPEAKER_01: Whenever it's convenient and wherever it fills their bellies, it seems like most good Southern Christians, they follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: And these are the verses really, as it's in your bulletin that we want to focus on.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25, when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here?
SPEAKER_01: Teacher, when did you come here?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 26, Jesus answered them, Truly, truly I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
SPEAKER_01: Not because you saw the miracles that I did, and because you proclaimed that I am the Messiah because of what I have proven to you, but because you got your bellies full.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you're following me.
SPEAKER_01: And I just, again, I say to each of us and to myself especially, is that why I follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because he provides things for me?
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help that not to be true.
SPEAKER_01: So the reality is that they wanted to be fed again.
SPEAKER_01: They want food that their bellies, uh, that their belly um that they could put into their belly that will last forever.
SPEAKER_01: And physical food brings temporary help, but Jesus is offering eternal food.
SPEAKER_01: And he and he questions them because they got their fill of the loaves.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 27, do not work, Jesus says, do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.
SPEAKER_01: For on him God the Father has set his seal.
SPEAKER_01: Then he said to uh then uh they said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God?
SPEAKER_01: Good question.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answered them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent.
SPEAKER_01: And let me stop there.
SPEAKER_01: That's the work of God.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all, so many times we go down to places like UAB and we interact into conversations with people and we'll ask them these questions.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, would you mind if we ask you a couple of spiritual questions?
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
SPEAKER_01: Um, we're from Browerwood Church.
SPEAKER_01: Great.
SPEAKER_01: Um, have you come to a place in your spiritual thinking where you know for certain when you die that you'll go to heaven?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, do you tend a place of worship regularly?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I sure do.
SPEAKER_01: I go to X or Y church.
SPEAKER_01: And they're great churches that I know preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: How long have you been there?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I've been there 30 years.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but you don't know for sure that when you die, you're going to heaven?
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you know for sure?
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I'm just, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I just sometimes, you know, I don't know if I'm doing enough good for the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And and I'm dumbfounded by that answer because I know that they've heard the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I know I've heard the gospel, and and yet so many times in my life I think, man, am I doing enough for the kingdom?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, How are you saved?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, This is the work of the God that you believe in him whom he has sent.
SPEAKER_01: The only way that we're saved, can we can we make this declaration for everyone in here to hear and to know and place firmly in your heart?
SPEAKER_01: The only way that any of us is saved is by the finished work of Christ on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: God requires perfection.
SPEAKER_01: That is true.
SPEAKER_01: But it's not our perfection.
SPEAKER_01: He transferred that on to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Christ bore our sins on the cross, past, present, and future.
SPEAKER_01: And he died for them, the perfect Lamb of God, the sinless Lamb of God.
SPEAKER_01: God Himself died on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: It's enough.
SPEAKER_01: He has saved us.
SPEAKER_01: And we should rejoice in that.
SPEAKER_01: That should bring us joy at every moment of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said that it's if you believe in me.
SPEAKER_01: And let me give you a few other verses.
SPEAKER_01: This is one we use all the time when we share the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is Romans 6.23.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody knows this.
SPEAKER_01: For the wages of sin is death, right?
SPEAKER_01: If it's left up to us and whether or not we earn our way to God, it's death.
SPEAKER_01: The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And I would say to you, you must trust in Him to be Lord, right?
SPEAKER_01: He says, Lord, our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And I grew up in Homewood, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I did not grow up in a Christian family.
SPEAKER_01: If you would have witnessed my family growing up, you would have said, there's no way that this kid comes to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I was a terrible human.
SPEAKER_01: I used to get in so much trouble.
SPEAKER_01: And yet the Lord and his love and his grace began to proclaim the gospel message in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And I heard the gospel and I was in the ninth grade and I wanted to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to go to hell when I died.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember inviting Christ to come into my life to forgive me of my sin.
SPEAKER_01: But I did not want to surrender to him to be Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't until the springtime of my freshman year at high school that I got arrested for fighting at the Five Points Fountain down in Southside.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I promise you, that's just the tip of the iceberg of what type of a human I was without Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember that being the lowest point in my entire life as I sat in the paddy wagon about to be hauled off to juvenile detention, right?
SPEAKER_01: And the guy that I just gotten in a fight with is right over here beside me, handcuffed, and he's cussing at me and talking about my mama and all these things.
SPEAKER_01: It was a surreal moment.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what resonated by the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit in my mind that I kept hearing, He, I haven't surrendered to you to be Lord of my life.
SPEAKER_01: I haven't surrendered to you to be Lord of my life.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember saying, That's it, God.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the mess I'm making in my life.
SPEAKER_01: I surrender to you now.
SPEAKER_01: Please come into my life and be sovereign and be Lord of my life.
SPEAKER_01: And he did.
SPEAKER_01: And is um by the grace of God and to the glory of God has radically changed my life.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 10, 9 says, Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
SPEAKER_01: Let me finish, uh, and I'm gonna get through this.
SPEAKER_01: Um verse 30.
SPEAKER_01: So they said to him, Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?
SPEAKER_01: What work do you perform?
SPEAKER_01: Our father ate the man in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 32, Jesus said to uh then said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gave his life, and in return he gives life to the world.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 34.
SPEAKER_01: They said to him, Sir, give us this bread.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever comes to me shall know shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
SPEAKER_01: But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe.
SPEAKER_01: God, his spirit, must give us eyes to see and ears to hear, and to understand the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, do it, please, and please do it through us here.
SPEAKER_01: Use us as your instrument to bring life to a lost world.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 38.
SPEAKER_01: For I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
SPEAKER_01: For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and will raise him up on the last day.
SPEAKER_01: So in conclusion, there's a lot of us who continue to say, Jesus, show us another sign, show us another miracle, that I may believe, feed me some more bread that I may believe.
SPEAKER_01: But are we seeking Jesus simply to get our fill of the world and its treasures?
SPEAKER_01: Have we said to Jesus that we desire for him to be our treasure for all eternity, no matter how this life will look, and no matter what type of sacrifice or tests that he puts us through?
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you briefly about a man who gave himself for the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: His name is Bill Machesny.
SPEAKER_01: He was born in 1936, and he went to the Congo, right, and to Zaire, Africa, or Zaire, Africa, and he went to serve the Lord and to share the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you what happened to Bill, and this is how I'll conclude our time together.
SPEAKER_01: On November 24th, 1964, the rebels took Bill Mechesny from prison.
SPEAKER_01: His friend Jim Rogers, a solemn British missionary who would not be parted from Bill and leaped into the truck with him.
SPEAKER_01: Bill was seriously ill from malaria and needed someone to help him.
SPEAKER_01: Even so, the rebels' soldiers beat him mercilessly the whole way.
SPEAKER_01: Jim had to carry him into the prison.
SPEAKER_01: The next morning, when Bill acknowledged that he was an American, the rebel colonel ordered him killed.
SPEAKER_01: Jim stood beside him.
SPEAKER_01: If you must die, brother, I will die with you.
SPEAKER_01: Attacking Bill mercilessly with clubs and fists, the rebel mob quickly killed him.
SPEAKER_01: He was 28 years old.
SPEAKER_01: Jim laid his body gently to the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Then the rebels knocked Jim down and trampled him to death.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I mention Bill McCesney?
SPEAKER_01: He was an amazing man and an amazing missionary for Christ, and he took the calling of Christ serious in his life.
SPEAKER_01: But let me share with you just briefly a poem that Bill wrote as he was wrestling with whether or not to go serve the Lord in Africa.
SPEAKER_01: And it's called My Choice.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what Bill said in this poem.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I want my breakfast served at eight with ham and eggs upon the plate, a well-broiled steak I'll have at one, and dine again when day is done.
SPEAKER_01: I want, and remember, this is this is in the 50s when he wrote this, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Um I want an ultra modern home and in each room a telephone, soft carpets too upon the floors, and pretty drapes to grace the doors.
SPEAKER_01: A cozy place with lovely things like easy chairs with inner springs.
SPEAKER_01: And then I'll get a small TV.
SPEAKER_01: Of course I'm careful what I see.
SPEAKER_01: I want my wardrobe too to be of neatest, finest quality, with latest style in suit and vest.
SPEAKER_01: Why shouldn't Christian have the best?
SPEAKER_01: But then the master I can hear, in no uncertain voice so clear, I bid you come and follow me, the lowly man of Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: Birds of the air have made their nest, and foxes in their holes find rest.
SPEAKER_01: But I can offer you no bed, no place have I to lay my head.
SPEAKER_01: In shame I hung my head and cried.
SPEAKER_01: How could I spurn the crucified?
SPEAKER_01: Could I forget the way he went, the sleepless nights and prayer he spent for forty days without a bite?
SPEAKER_01: Alone he fasted day and night, despised, rejected on.
SPEAKER_01: He went.
SPEAKER_01: He did not stop till veil he rent.
SPEAKER_01: A man of sorrows and of grief, no earthly friend to bring relief.
SPEAKER_01: Smitten of God, the prophet said, mocked and bruised, his blood ran red.
SPEAKER_01: If he be God and died for me, no sacrifice too great can be for me a mortal man to make.
SPEAKER_01: I'll do it all for Jesus' sake.
SPEAKER_01: Let me close this in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, you call each of us to sacrifice our lives to walk humbly with you, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord Jesus, you didn't just tell us to do that as you could as God, our creator and our sustainer.
SPEAKER_01: You could have just said, go do it.
SPEAKER_01: But you came and beautifully modeled it.
SPEAKER_01: And you lived a perfect and righteous life, holy and pleasing to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And then you went and you suffered pain that we could never imagine, and you died on the cross for our sin.
SPEAKER_01: And you love us and you rose again and we praise you for that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Lord, what is the work that you are calling us to do?
SPEAKER_01: What would you have us to do?
SPEAKER_01: How would you have us proclaim the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: Lord, may your spirit fall fresh and anew on each of us that we would be bold ambassadors for Christ, much like Bill Machesny was, and exactly like our Lord and Savior was.
SPEAKER_01: May we live as a living sacrifice to and for you.
SPEAKER_01: We ask it in Jesus' name.