SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we confess today that we are the loved by God, people of God.
SPEAKER_01: We also confess that the gospel is going to cause us to think thoughts that are so big and better and beyond us that we can rest ourselves in them.
SPEAKER_01: That's why when we sing that great old hymn, This is my father's world, in the next line we say, I rest me in the thought.
SPEAKER_01: That thought is bigger and better and beyond.
SPEAKER_01: And it's like a little kid crawling up in a bunk bed.
SPEAKER_01: We just crawl up in there and we go to sleep in that reality, knowing that somebody else is in charge of and responsible for the world.
SPEAKER_01: I am not the general manager of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: This all doesn't depend on me.
SPEAKER_01: And so I can stop acting like that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's our confession.
SPEAKER_01: We begin with that, and that's a great place to be because the gospel this morning, when we open the Bible, the good news of Christianity is gonna uh put up in our heads and in our hearts some truths and some realities that are so big that we can just get up in them and rest in them.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what I want for these people that I love, God.
SPEAKER_01: And just say something to them today that is so big and better and beyond them that they can just get up in it and rest in it and be sustained by something they had nothing to do with, and yet we get to experience.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we pray this for your glory and yet for our pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: And we pray it in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to John chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 6, we're going through the Gospel of John, and today we're at John chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read the first 15 verses, and I'll talk to you about this topic, the sufficiency of not much.
SPEAKER_01: The sufficiency of not much.
SPEAKER_01: And what do you mean by that?
SPEAKER_01: What I mean by that is that you're gonna find yourself in circumstances and situations in life where you do not feel like you have what you need, and you're gonna feel overwhelmed, and you're gonna be tempted to come up with a plan that's not God's plan, or tempted to do something, or what's worse, is you're gonna be tempted to think about God in ways that you shouldn't think about God because they're not right, helpful, or true.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Now let me pause right here because one of you smart electric, one of my smart golfing buddies said to me when he walked, I walked by and he saw my shirt.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Oh, Jimmy Buffett's preaching today.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you, yes, I hear you, I feel your disrespect, losers.
SPEAKER_01: Uh let me give you a minute to let your eyes adjust to my wardrobe.
SPEAKER_01: Uh The Grateful Dead had a garage sale, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I couldn't resist.
SPEAKER_01: Relax, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so I I just want you to know that you're gonna get in circumstances and situations where you're just gonna feel overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_01: That's what happens here.
SPEAKER_01: But look at me.
SPEAKER_01: You know this, right?
SPEAKER_01: God is never overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_01: God is never like, hey, what am I gonna do here?
SPEAKER_01: Uh-uh, whoa, this caught me off guard.
SPEAKER_01: No, not at all.
SPEAKER_01: Now, just by way of introduction, let me just tell you a couple things about this story we're gonna read.
SPEAKER_01: It's referred to as the feeding of the 5,000.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but actually, that's an incorrect statement, and we'll say why.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a couple of things.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to put these on like a pair of sunglasses and let them kind of tint the way you look at the text.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing by way of introduction I want to say to you is this is the most experienced miracle of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This is the most experienced miracle of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now, he said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Bible says there's 5,000.
SPEAKER_01: That was just the men.
SPEAKER_01: There was also women and children there because this was not like some kind of moose lodge or elk lodge where just men got to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_01: Women and children, matter of fact, no one did more uh to bestow dignity upon women than Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He changed the way men treated women by the way he treated women.
SPEAKER_01: And so, best we could tell, it wasn't just 5,000, it could have been as high as 15 to 20,000 people experienced this miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the second thing I want to say to you by way of introduction, this is the only miracle it's mentioned in all four gospels besides the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: And so the Bible's telling us something there when all four gospels, the four gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, first four books of the New Testament, all of those guys, when they when they sit down to record under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, hey, this is this is how it all shook out.
SPEAKER_01: All four of them included this feeding of the 5,000.
SPEAKER_01: Last thing I want to tell you, there's three kinds of miracles.
SPEAKER_01: There's creative, there's transformative, and then there's restorative.
SPEAKER_01: This is what's called a creative miracle.
SPEAKER_01: What's the difference?
SPEAKER_01: Uh a creative miracle, God creates out of nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Ex ni hilo.
SPEAKER_01: He takes something that's not there and makes something.
SPEAKER_01: Transformative, he takes what's there and he makes it better.
SPEAKER_01: Restorative, he takes what's missing and gives it back.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, God has the capacity to do that in all of your lives today.
SPEAKER_01: You know that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Let me back up and try that again.
SPEAKER_01: Spring break is over.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to work tomorrow, and better yet, your kids are going back to school.
SPEAKER_01: Can I get two claps in a Ric Flair?
SPEAKER_01: Woo! No?
SPEAKER_01: Y'all watch Wrestling growing up?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I was white trash in the trailer.
SPEAKER_01: Ric Flair was my hero growing up.
SPEAKER_01: Love me some Ric Flair.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, I'll go back to the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are like, we're a little slow here.
SPEAKER_01: Back it down, okay?
SPEAKER_01: When you read the Bible, here's what because there's all kinds of people in this room.
SPEAKER_01: There's people in this room that are Christian, there's people that are not Christian.
SPEAKER_01: There's people like, I'd be open to this.
SPEAKER_01: There's some of you that are like, I don't believe this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just here because someone made me come.
SPEAKER_01: Relax.
SPEAKER_01: If you ever get in a point where you read the Bible, ask yourself this one question: what do I see in the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: Don't listen to the internet, don't listen to talk radio and then bring that to the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Let the Bible speak for itself.
SPEAKER_01: Because when I read these first 15 verses, I asked myself, hey, what do I see in the text?
SPEAKER_01: And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read together.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 6, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: 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: Jesus went up to the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.
SPEAKER_01: 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: He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
SPEAKER_01: Philip answered him, Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.
SPEAKER_01: One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.
SPEAKER_01: But I mean, what are they for so many?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, Have the people sit down.
SPEAKER_01: There was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about five thousand in number.
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: And they had eaten their fill.
SPEAKER_01: He told his disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost.
SPEAKER_01: So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
SPEAKER_01: When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who is coming to the world.
SPEAKER_01: Perceiving then that they were about to take him, they were about to come and take him by force to make him king.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
SPEAKER_01: What do we see in the text?
SPEAKER_01: See, the way your eyes, the way the way your mind is oriented towards the truth, determines how you see the world.
SPEAKER_01: And so you need to let the Bible kind of inform the way you see the world.
SPEAKER_01: Four things we see in the text.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, I see motivation.
SPEAKER_01: I see motivation.
SPEAKER_01: Starting in verse two, there's two kinds of motivation.
SPEAKER_01: There's curiosity and there's religious tradition.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, those same two motivations are in this room right now.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize that?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are curious.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are kind of like, hey, I've heard about this God and Jesus thing.
SPEAKER_01: Or some of you are like, hey, I've heard about this church.
SPEAKER_01: I want to experience this church, see what it's about.
SPEAKER_01: Curiosity is a great thing.
SPEAKER_01: Unless you're a cat, but it's a great thing, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The second thing is religious tradition.
SPEAKER_01: You say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Here's where curiosity is.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: And a large crowd was following him because they had seen the signs that he was doing on the sick.
SPEAKER_01: Now you hear that?
SPEAKER_01: A large crowd was following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Not because they believed in Jesus, they probably were not even Christians.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't put their faith in Christ like our friend Bentley did this morning.
SPEAKER_01: She came to testify this morning that she's already done that.
SPEAKER_01: They came, the large crowd was following him.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the motivation, because they had seen the signs that he did on the sick.
SPEAKER_01: They saw, hey, Jesus has power, and I want to kind of be around this.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be in the realm in which this kind of stuff is kind of happening.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like I mean, it's like a just throbbing mass of humanity.
SPEAKER_01: And the longer Jesus does ministry, and the longer Jesus does what only Jesus can do, the crowds got bigger and bigger and bigger.
SPEAKER_01: So much so that in Mark's gospel in chapter 5, it it's like a concert, like the Who concert in Cincinnati in 1979.
SPEAKER_01: Someone yelled, the doors are open, and the crowd pushed forward and it compressed people so hard.
SPEAKER_01: It picked them up off their feet and moved them 40 feet.
SPEAKER_01: People died because the doors weren't open.
SPEAKER_01: People were around Jesus and they were just packed all around him.
SPEAKER_01: So much so that the disciples were like, hey, Jesus stopped the whole thing.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Hey, somebody touched me.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciples were like, Everyone's touching you, dude.
SPEAKER_01: What is a big deal?
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, No, somebody touched me because I felt power come out from me.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: You're like, you're in Mark, you're in John, drink decaf, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: The people, the crowd came because they saw in Jesus something they saw in nobody else.
SPEAKER_01: And if you would just put yourself under the teaching of the Bible, you would have the same experience.
SPEAKER_01: You wouldn't see Jesus as some moral example or teacher or prophet.
SPEAKER_01: You would come to realize that Jesus is the Son of God and He is God.
SPEAKER_01: Now they're curious.
SPEAKER_01: The second thing is a religious tradition.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Keep reading verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus went up on the mountain and there he sat down with his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews was at hand.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible just kind of gives that little, it sounds like a throwaway sentence.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.
SPEAKER_01: The Passover was a major Jewish holiday which commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.
SPEAKER_01: It's a celebration of freedom which lasts seven or eight days, and it takes place in the spring.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why are you telling us this?
SPEAKER_01: Because what John is doing is he's kind of grounding this.
SPEAKER_01: This actually happened.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's not allegorical.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a book that people sit down and wrote a bunch of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Because down there in verse 10, when Jesus tells them to sit down, here's another little simple phrase.
SPEAKER_01: But John's not just saying, hey, this happened.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying he's grounding this in a specific time, a season of the year.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, because the Passover took place in the spring, when John says in verse 10, hey, sit down, they said there was much grass in that place.
SPEAKER_01: Kind of like your kids' high school.
SPEAKER_01: There's much grass in that place.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, your kids go to private school.
SPEAKER_01: There's better grass in that place.
SPEAKER_01: Those kids got more money.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: So there's much.
SPEAKER_01: So look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Everything in the Bible happens in real time, in a real place.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a fairy tale.
SPEAKER_01: It's not something people just kind of thought this up.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's motivation going on.
SPEAKER_01: Some people are curious.
SPEAKER_01: Some people have religious tradition.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you here are curious.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, this is what you do on Sundays.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not, be careful that this sudden just kind of erode into socialization.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, it's what I do.
SPEAKER_01: I see my friends, I drink coffee, I hear a sermon, I leave, I go eat, I go home, I take a nap, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: Be careful.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let it get on autopilot for you.
SPEAKER_01: First thing we see is motivation.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing we see is testing.
SPEAKER_01: It's testing.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Lifting up his eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread?
SPEAKER_01: So look, these people may eat.
SPEAKER_01: He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
SPEAKER_01: Mark that in your Bibles, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: He said this to test Philip because Jesus himself knew what he would do.
SPEAKER_01: Let's be careful to not miss the fact that God always knows what he's going to do.
SPEAKER_01: You realize that today, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's not a situation where God kind of goes, oh my what now?
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't post anything on Facebook.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, does anybody know how to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a situation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm not just talking in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: In your life and my life, there's not a situation that you get in that God does not know what he's going to do.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why am I harping on that?
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're not careful, if you don't believe that, you don't get that in head and heart and how you think and how you feel, you'll get it flipped and twisted and you'll start making God, you'll start testing God and insisting that God prove himself to you.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible puts a big, big no-no on that.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Remember this.
SPEAKER_01: It is never your prerogative, my prerogative to test God.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you just a little history on testing.
SPEAKER_01: And the New Testament was originally written in Greek.
SPEAKER_01: And the Greek word, when it says there, verse 5, it says, He said this to test him, talking about Jesus testing Philip.
SPEAKER_01: It's a Greek word pyrazo, and it means for the purpose of ascertaining his quality of what he thinks and how he will behave himself.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: It's for the purpose of ascertaining his quality of what he thinks and how he will behave himself.
SPEAKER_01: Let me look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Good parents test their kids.
SPEAKER_01: You test your kids.
SPEAKER_01: You see it on TV every once in a while.
SPEAKER_01: They'll have a hidden camera at a playground.
SPEAKER_01: This is the one I can't stand when they do it.
SPEAKER_01: They'll have like a playground, and the parents go, Oh, we've talked to our kids about safety.
SPEAKER_01: And some guy will walk up with a dog leash and say to a little kid, Hey, have you seen my puppy?
SPEAKER_01: My puppy's name is Rudy.
SPEAKER_01: I can't find Rudy.
SPEAKER_01: Can you help me look for Rudy?
SPEAKER_01: And the mom's behind the hit in the van with the hidden camera, going, No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: And the kid goes, sure, let's go find Rudy and walks off with a total stranger.
SPEAKER_01: Epic fail.
SPEAKER_01: Now we see that and we're kind of like, yes, I understand you test your kid.
SPEAKER_01: God's the same way.
SPEAKER_01: He tests, not to disqualify you, but it's like the word says, hey, to know, hey, what to ascertain how you're going to behave yourself.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, he's been doing this all along.
SPEAKER_01: Don't turn there, but way back in Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 2, Deuteronomy is way back in the start of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: This is long before John.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus hasn't even come on the scene yet.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the way God describes the way he relates to his people, Deuteronomy 8.2.
SPEAKER_01: He says, And you shall remember the whole way the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commands or not.
SPEAKER_01: Now, however, here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: As long as God's been testing his people, he's been warning us against testing him.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: For as long as God has been testing his people, he's been warning us against testing him.
SPEAKER_01: This is Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at Massa.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that word for test used there is the Hebrew word, Old Testament written in Hebrew.
SPEAKER_01: It's the Hebrew word nasa, and it means to attempt adventure, to prove or try.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there's a reason I'm telling you this.
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting today, you're like nerd alert, nerd alert, I don't get that.
SPEAKER_01: Stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: I'll bring it down and put it right in your lap, okay?
SPEAKER_01: When the Bible says nasa, it's this word, and it means to attempt adventure or prove it to try.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: There's going to be times the longer you're a Christian, the more tempted you're going to be to get bored with how simple and clear the Bible is.
SPEAKER_01: And you start getting this sense of, and you don't use these words, but but it's exact words that are used here.
SPEAKER_01: You you begin to attempt adventure.
SPEAKER_01: You begin to prove or try.
SPEAKER_01: You begin to relate to God, like, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Just go in.
SPEAKER_01: It sounds like this.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, this church thing's not working for me anymore, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm gonna have church and just stay home and watch TV.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard this.
SPEAKER_01: The church has, you know, the church has podcasts and they have videos online.
SPEAKER_01: What's the difference in that?
SPEAKER_01: And me just watching my favorite TV preacher.
SPEAKER_01: And I say all the time, hey, great, stay home, watch your favorite TV preacher.
SPEAKER_01: That's wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: It's not what the Bible says you were called and created for, but if you think that works, knock yourself out.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is not an individual thing.
SPEAKER_01: And the person's like, months later, when their life falls apart, they don't call the TV preacher.
SPEAKER_01: Guess who they call?
SPEAKER_01: And I say, What, was Joel Osteen busy today?
SPEAKER_01: And they say back to me, Oh, it's not funny, preacher.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not funny because you want to pimp the church, you want to be lazy your entire selfish, self-centered life.
SPEAKER_01: And when your wife says, I'm leaving you because you're a weasel, then you want to use the church.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm the bad guy for that.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm like, don't use us.
SPEAKER_01: We're here for you, but this is not the way God created it to be.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: That's one expression of testing, and and and and God's kind of saying, Hey, you you you don't want to do this.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to attempt some new adventure or try something new.
SPEAKER_01: It happens when you go see the movie The Shack.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden, God's not who the Bible says he is.
SPEAKER_01: That God, that God, He hates sin.
SPEAKER_01: That God tells you no.
SPEAKER_01: The God of the Shack tells you yes to everything.
SPEAKER_01: Just a big warm, fuzzy hug, and let's all walk in the snow and catch snowflakes on our tongue.
SPEAKER_01: The God of the Bible says crazy stuff like, hey, forgive your enemies and pray for people that despitefully use you.
SPEAKER_01: And there's something in your head that switch gets flipped, and you're kind of like, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I want to go just walk with God in the snow.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean when he says, hey, you don't want to, you don't want to test.
SPEAKER_01: You say, now, uh, what do you mean when he says, hey, uh, don't do this.
SPEAKER_01: He says in Deuteronomy 6, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
SPEAKER_01: What God is saying is this we've been at this far too long for you to not know what I'm about.
SPEAKER_01: And when he says at Masah, he's referring to a specific place and time.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this.
SPEAKER_01: I want to bring this this little train of thought all together here, hopefully.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, when he says, do not put the Lord to the test as you did at Masah, that's a place, that's a little part of the country.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Bible talks about it in Exodus chapter 17, verses 1 to 7.
SPEAKER_01: What had happened was God had brought the Israelites out of bondage uh in Egypt, and he parted the Red Sea and then miraculously went through, and Pharaoh and his army came after him, and he drowned all of them, and God provides manna for them and all this stuff, and they get to Exodus chapter 17.
SPEAKER_01: They're in the wilderness out in the desert and they don't have water and they're thirsty, and they turn on Moses and they start saying, Why'd you bring us out here?
SPEAKER_01: You're a bad leader.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you what, this is horrible.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I can't believe this.
SPEAKER_01: And they grumble, and God goes to Moses and says, I mean, Moses goes to God and says, God, what am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: There's about to be an insurrection here, about to have a mutiny on the bounty.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Hey, that staff, by the way, God's so subtle.
SPEAKER_01: God says, That staff with which you parted the Red Sea, remember that?
SPEAKER_01: But God didn't, he just says, Hey, take that staff with which you parted the sea, and you go over to this rock and you strike this rock.
SPEAKER_01: And God, he didn't tell them what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: He just said, strike the rock.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses hit the rock and water gushes out of the rock.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why God was so bothered by that, because God looking at them kind of saying, Hey, who do you think you are having seen everything I've done for you?
SPEAKER_01: That you now on this day you act like I forgot how to be God, and you're gonna talk to me this way.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Bible says, Do not, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him with Massah.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what what the Bible is saying.
SPEAKER_01: The problem for the children of Israel wasn't their past.
SPEAKER_01: They believed God had delivered them and forgave them and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't their future.
SPEAKER_01: They believed in the promised land, they kept walking for 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: The problem for the children of Israel and the problem for many Christians in America today is the present.
SPEAKER_01: It's today.
SPEAKER_01: It's this mindset that says, you know what, God, I'm 23 and I'm not married to a six foot five chiseled Greek guy with a lot of money, and and so I gotta take matters into my own hands.
SPEAKER_01: It's today.
SPEAKER_01: It's like people that relate to God with this short-term memory.
SPEAKER_01: Every time something went wrong, they related to God like it totally caught him off guard.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't know what he's gonna do, but he better get an idea quick, or else I'm just gonna walk away.
SPEAKER_01: You better hurry up and do something.
SPEAKER_01: Remind you of anybody?
SPEAKER_01: I'll go first.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my confession.
SPEAKER_01: I am like Israel.
SPEAKER_01: I remember, oh, God's been so good in the past.
SPEAKER_01: I I got great eschatology, I believe, about the future, but every once in a while, I know none of you are this way, but every once in a while, in the moment, I forget who's in charge of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Like a couple weeks ago in staff meeting, I talked to the staff about hey, balance versus passion.
SPEAKER_01: And I said in ministry, there's there's not that many balanced days or weeks or months.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it gets crazy.
SPEAKER_01: Don't try to live in balance, live out of your passion.
SPEAKER_01: And I use this past week as an example because I was looking forward.
SPEAKER_01: I'm great with the future.
SPEAKER_01: I was looking forward, and I said, hey, uh in a couple weeks, we're gonna go to Florida to see my in-laws, and we'll get back on Tuesday, then Wednesday I'm gonna drive to Waco and see my oldest daughter, spend the day with her, take her out to dinner, and then I'm gonna drive back, and then this is gonna happen on this day, and then Friday I got a wedding rehearsal, and then Saturday I got a funeral here at 11 o'clock, and then Saturday night, I've got that the wedding down in Wharton, this beautiful outdoor venue.
SPEAKER_01: So it's just a crazy week.
SPEAKER_01: And so if I'm thinking balance, I'm gonna keep score and get overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, I'm thinking passion.
SPEAKER_01: I got passion for all of that, and then it because in the future, it sounds great.
SPEAKER_01: But when it gets here, not so great.
SPEAKER_01: And it was great.
SPEAKER_01: Went to see my in-laws, great.
SPEAKER_01: Went to hung out with my 20-year-old daughter, great.
SPEAKER_01: I'm now broke, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh and Thursday, I was supposed to be on vacation all week, had to come in, take care of some stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Friday, I drive down to the orchard at Caney Creek.
SPEAKER_01: It's a working pecan uh uh orchard and they have a wedding venue there.
SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful, it's scenic, it's wonderful.
SPEAKER_01: They have the rehearsal.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: All the all the groupsmen pull up and they get out, they all got Yeti coolers in the back of their truck, and they all walk in with a koozie with a can in it, and they walk down the aisle with a can in their hand.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife said, What are they doing?
SPEAKER_01: I said, They're just thirsty.
SPEAKER_01: It's hot out here.
SPEAKER_01: In my mind, I'm thinking this is gonna get off the rails and lickety split.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're sitting there, great rehearsal, great rehearsal dinner.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, we're gonna get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna go.
SPEAKER_01: We're driving back on 59 from Wharton back to Sugarland.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, they're working on 59 from here to Mexico, just in case you're wondering.
unknown: I
SPEAKER_01: I never go south.
SPEAKER_01: I'm driving back.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_01: You're weaving all around.
SPEAKER_01: People follow the cracks in the concrete, not the reflectors.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like honking, get in your lane.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife's like, babe, babe, don't babe me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need you to bathe me.
SPEAKER_01: People are goofballs.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that my fault?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, ladies, this is free.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we don't need you to ask us questions or try to fix us.
SPEAKER_01: You need to say, I'm sorry you're having to go through this.
SPEAKER_01: And then shut up.
SPEAKER_01: Bam.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're driving back.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in the fast lane.
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing 70 miles an hour.
SPEAKER_01: I got my cruise control set on my fourth pickup, and all of a sudden I don't see them, I feel them.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody comes up on the left, on the shoulder, and passes.
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing 70, and the guy flies by me and he clips the left fender of my truck.
SPEAKER_01: Boom.
SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't like, oh, and knock us out of control.
SPEAKER_01: It just grazed me.
SPEAKER_01: And I was kind of like, and then I was like, oh no, you didn't.
SPEAKER_01: My truck has an eco boost on it.
SPEAKER_01: You hammer that thing and it goes, ooh, ooh.
SPEAKER_01: I begin to suck in on the cow.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I looked over my wife's got her head pinned back, she's like.
SPEAKER_01: Because I went from preacher to redneck in 0.2 seconds.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm driving down the road and I'm reaching under my truck with my pistol under here.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you what, I'm gonna shift it, roll down the window, fire a warning shot.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, in that moment, I thought this time this is why I do not have a concealed handgun license right here.
SPEAKER_01: I look down, I'm doing 95, and that cat's pulling away from me.
SPEAKER_01: I can't catch up.
SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to get their license plate.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I was from Z Remo to full on redneck.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I'm gonna beat the brakes off of you.
SPEAKER_01: My wife said, Babe, babe, don't stand behind me, boss.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, oh, the horror of the and just ah.
SPEAKER_01: So I called 911 and I said, Calm down.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, God just clip me.
SPEAKER_01: I said, my truck still runs, but I gotta pull over somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't nowhere to exit.
SPEAKER_01: I got no shoulders, got those concrete barriers.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, she says, Well, where are you?
SPEAKER_01: How about you south of 36?
SPEAKER_01: I'm 59.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, pull over to 762.
SPEAKER_01: There's a Walgreens there.
SPEAKER_01: Well, officer, meet you.
SPEAKER_01: I just took a deep breath and I said, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, let's rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: That it could have been bad.
SPEAKER_01: He could have, we could have spun out, we could have wrecked, he could have flipped or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: We get there, we're waiting there.
SPEAKER_01: My wife's like, Well, I think you handled that great.
SPEAKER_01: And then the cop shows up and he looks at it, and it's actually not near as bad as I thought.
SPEAKER_01: It broke the edge off my aluminum wheel and it dented the piece of trim on my fender and it scraped my my bumper.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm probably gonna have to get that replaced.
SPEAKER_01: But the cop says, Well, uh, yeah, I mean, that's that's that's bad, but you might not want to even claim this on your insurance because if you do, it'll make your premium go up.
SPEAKER_01: I went from zero to redneck and again, I got you what?
SPEAKER_01: I'll pay insurance premium.
SPEAKER_01: No, they're paying for this.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody's paying for this, and it's not gonna be me, because here's what I'm thinking in my mind.
SPEAKER_01: I work for God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm driving in my lane, minding my own business, and somebody hauling drugs out of Mexico comes flying past me.
SPEAKER_01: You know, they're all bad people.
SPEAKER_01: When they when they transgress you, it's just craziness.
SPEAKER_01: You say, oh, whoa! We get home, and the cop says all that, and I was just like, Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: How much more injustice can I endure?
SPEAKER_01: We leave there, we drive.
SPEAKER_01: My wife now knows I do not need to talk to him.
SPEAKER_01: He's not in a good way.
SPEAKER_01: I get home and I'm mad at God because he's in charge of the world and he let this happen.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, you can't hide how you really feel about God.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all kind of like, oh, bless the Lord, and God's like, shut up.
SPEAKER_01: I was not, oh, bless the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, you know, help a man out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to do your work down here, and I got the forces of evil coming against me, God.
SPEAKER_01: So I went on my back porch and I just sat down and I was like, whoosha, whoosha, whoo, bullets, bullets everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: So I just sat down and I'm just sitting there, just kind of like, uh, and all of a sudden God got real quiet.
SPEAKER_01: Now, hey, when God's talking and then he gets quiet, you need to hold on to something.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, he said, you know what, Neil, you're just like Israel.
SPEAKER_01: You trust me with your past, you trust me with your future.
SPEAKER_01: But right now, and by the way, you're preaching on this Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: You aren't you preaching on the 5,000?
SPEAKER_01: Oh yes, Lord, I'm preaching on the 5,000, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you act like I already know what I'm gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus says to Philip.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he tested him.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, hey, we're gonna give bread to feed all these people.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I'm just asking you to see what's in you because I know what's in me, and I'm about to set the kingdom down on these people.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Lord, I'm sorry, and I started telling God how sorry.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, I don't want you to apologize, I want you to sing.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that old hymn?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I proved him o'er and o'er.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, for grace, I trust him more.
SPEAKER_01: Let's hear you sing that, Neil.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just took a minute or two and just honked it off.
SPEAKER_01: Because I know not you, but I'm like Israel sometime.
SPEAKER_01: On that day, two days, I lose sight of everything.
SPEAKER_01: I walk out this morning to get in my truck.
SPEAKER_01: My favorite word in the English language is crisp.
SPEAKER_01: On the corner of my bumper, my nice chrome bumper got a big black tire mark.
SPEAKER_01: I saw it, I was like, oh.
SPEAKER_01: And God's like, easy, easy.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about this on Friday.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to test you.
SPEAKER_01: Not because he's mad at you.
SPEAKER_01: It's because he wants to know, he wants you to be reminded of what's in you.
SPEAKER_01: He already knows what he's gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a situation you're in right now, and he doesn't already know what he's going to do.
SPEAKER_01: And you would you would be greatly served if you would not only remind yourself of that, but act like you actually believe it.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing you see in the text is just excess.
SPEAKER_01: Is excess.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7, Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.
SPEAKER_01: A denary is one day's wage.
SPEAKER_01: 200 denarii basically is about eight months' salary.
SPEAKER_01: And Philip says to Jesus, he's indignant, he's like, oh, 200.
SPEAKER_01: If we had eight months' salary, we couldn't buy these people enough bread for them to get just to get a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.
SPEAKER_01: But unless I sound optimistic, what are they for so many?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, Have the people sit down.
SPEAKER_01: There was much grass in the place.
SPEAKER_01: So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.
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: And they had eaten their fill.
SPEAKER_01: He told the disciples, gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost.
SPEAKER_01: And so they gathered them up, and they filled the baskets with fragments from the barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
SPEAKER_01: They filled it up.
SPEAKER_01: Now, three people in that little section from verse 7 to verse 13, three people speak.
SPEAKER_01: The first one's Philip.
SPEAKER_01: This problem's so big, if we had eight months of my salary, Jesus, we couldn't solve this problem.
SPEAKER_01: Philip thinks in terms of bread.
SPEAKER_01: Second person that speaks has got him Andrew, one of the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, there's a boy here with five barley loaves and two fish.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, by the way, barley was what poor people ate.
SPEAKER_01: I told you before that I didn't realize there was other kinds of lettuce until I got married, because all we had growing up was iceberg lettuce.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife said, Oh, we're gonna have green leaf and red leaf lettuce.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, What?
SPEAKER_01: She's like, There's no no nutritional value in iceberg lettuce.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, shut your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Don't insult my mother.
SPEAKER_01: When I got married, there's wheat bread too.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife said, We're gonna have wheat bread.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Wheat bread?
SPEAKER_01: How much don't put us in the poor house?
SPEAKER_01: She's like, it's like 75 cents more.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: All the humanity! Just couldn't believe it.
SPEAKER_01: Comes along there.
SPEAKER_01: And barley was what poor people ate.
SPEAKER_01: It's coarse, not very good.
SPEAKER_01: This guy comes along, Andrew's, the encouragers like, hey, I got this guy, this kid here.
SPEAKER_01: He's got five barley loaves.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like a loaf, it was like more like a little biscuit, like a biscuit on steroids.
SPEAKER_01: Stale, hard, and they got these two pickled fish.
SPEAKER_01: The fish is gonna make this stale bread seem a little bit more moist.
SPEAKER_01: It's not much.
SPEAKER_01: It's meager wages.
SPEAKER_01: If this kid was alive today, he would work as a pin setter at the bowling alley, didn't have automation, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Not doesn't bring much to the table.
SPEAKER_01: Andrew speaks up.
SPEAKER_01: Philip thinks in terms of bread.
SPEAKER_01: Andrew thinks in terms of people because he asked this question what are they?
SPEAKER_01: What are these five loaves and two fish for so many?
SPEAKER_01: Third person that speaks is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He thinks in terms of opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: You say, How do you know?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Bible says when he had given thanks.
SPEAKER_01: I just pumped the brakes for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: We're just about done.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: It's insurmountable.
SPEAKER_01: All these people there in town for the Passover.
SPEAKER_01: This throbbing mass of humanity, the curious and the religiously conditioned in tradition, are bearing down on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: His disciples are like, Man, if we spent eight months of my source Jesus, we couldn't get enough of these people to get a cracker, like a little piece of a cracker, like you have at the Lord's Supper, at communion.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, man, what are we gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: You already knew what he's gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: He thinks in terms of the opportunity, how do you know?
SPEAKER_01: Because all this is going on, Jesus gives thanks.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this question today.
SPEAKER_01: When you're facing insurmountable odds and you feel overwhelmed by the need, what are you thankful for?
SPEAKER_01: See, if you want to parent your kids in an effective way, it's some of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, ask them what they're thankful for.
SPEAKER_01: When their boyfriend breaks up with them, ask them what they're thankful for.
SPEAKER_01: And don't be a jerk about, yeah, what are you thankful for?
SPEAKER_01: But just, hey, hey, sweetie, in the midst of what you're feeling right now, do you feel gratitude for anything?
SPEAKER_01: What are you thankful for?
SPEAKER_01: This is all going on.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why we ask this question because gratitude breaks the spirit of self-pity off of us.
SPEAKER_01: And it kind of reorients us back to our God who's faithful, has been faithful, and will always be faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 12 and 13, by the way, Jesus says, hey, pick up whatever's left, so nothing will be wasted.
SPEAKER_01: They pick it up, they fill up 12 basketfuls, the Bible tells us.
SPEAKER_01: Now, look, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Don't think of the Bible like Old Testament's over here, New Testament's over here.
SPEAKER_01: It's all one story.
SPEAKER_01: And this is one of the things, remember when the first sermon I preached to you from the God from John's gospel, we said the purpose of John, it's found in chapter 20.
SPEAKER_01: He says, These things do I write to you, these unbelieving Jews.
SPEAKER_01: These things I write to you, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, remember that?
SPEAKER_01: That's who he's writing to.
SPEAKER_01: He's writing to these unbelieving Jewish people.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when the Jewish people, when they when they begin to increase, they divide it into tribes.
SPEAKER_01: How many tribes were there?
SPEAKER_01: Say it again.
SPEAKER_01: Twelve.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is winking at the unbelieving Jews, kind of saying, Hey, hey, I can provide for you guys too.
SPEAKER_01: Just like I provided for this 15,000, 20,000 people that are all here.
SPEAKER_01: Not just the 5,000 men, but their women and their children as well.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the Bible's real obvious and sometimes it's very subtle.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss it.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean for us in this room?
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: That means some of you in this room are like, I'm not sure how I believe about this, or God, or the church, or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: God's willing to provide for you as well.
SPEAKER_01: He's not mad at you.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't hold what you did seven years ago over your head.
SPEAKER_01: He knows every thought you've ever thought, He knows every dumb thing you've ever said.
SPEAKER_01: And he still says, Hey, I can provide for you.
SPEAKER_01: And I gladly do that.
SPEAKER_01: Last thing we see in the text is just refusal.
SPEAKER_01: It's verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, This is indeed the prophet who is coming to the world.
SPEAKER_01: Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountainside.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this question today.
SPEAKER_01: What do you need to refuse?
SPEAKER_01: Anything, anything coming at you, you just need to refuse?
SPEAKER_01: Because refusal is a spiritual discipline.
SPEAKER_01: We need to learn to refuse some things.
SPEAKER_01: You can't say yes to everything and everybody.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you do, you'll be conformed to their image and not God's image.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you just got to refuse some things.
SPEAKER_01: Students, sometimes you got to say to your to your buddies, no, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a part of my life.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you think you're better than me?
SPEAKER_01: I didn't say anything about you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here to represent me, and that's not a part of my life.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean by refusal.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus refuses the opportunity to be king.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me, and we're done.
SPEAKER_01: He refuses the opportunity to be king because he came to establish a kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And he doesn't want to be king by force.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he'll say later in John, no one takes my life from me.
SPEAKER_01: I lay it down for the sheep.
SPEAKER_01: They were like, hey, Jesus, we need you to run in 2020.
SPEAKER_01: We got a political action committee.
SPEAKER_01: We got some big donors gonna write some big checks.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna take back the White House and then the House and the Senate, and whoa! And Jesus says, No, no.
SPEAKER_01: He goes off by himself.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at this.
SPEAKER_01: Who would miss this opportunity to strike while the iron's hot?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, these people are fevered pitch.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, come on, man, we're gonna make you king.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, I didn't come to be king.
SPEAKER_01: I came to establish a kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Take a moment.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new to our church, we'd like to teach the Bible and then give you some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna sweat you.
SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna try to make you feel guilty.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna say, you are smart people.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself the simple question.
SPEAKER_01: What did God say to me today?
SPEAKER_01: And what do I do in response to it?
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about these.
SPEAKER_01: What do we see in the text?
SPEAKER_01: What thoughts did God put in your head today that you just need to crawl up and just kind of rest in them?
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about that.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we're mindful today that sometimes life gets us jammed up.
SPEAKER_01: And we just feel overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know where we're gonna get the main to do it.
SPEAKER_01: And so thank you that you've spoken to us today about the sufficiency of not much.
SPEAKER_01: When we don't have what you what we need, you do.
SPEAKER_01: And when we don't know what we're gonna do, you do.
SPEAKER_01: And when we don't know what you're gonna do, you do.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, forgive us for putting you to the test, making you prove yourself again today, like you have so many times in the past, and like you will so many times in the future.
SPEAKER_01: It's as if we've forgotten what you're really like and we've kind of said, Well, now I've got to test God.
SPEAKER_01: And to those kind of people, the Bible says, Who are you, O man?
SPEAKER_01: That you answer back to God.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, let us check ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Or we need to check ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Unless we start thinking that we get to test you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that you've warned us from of old and you continue all through the New Testament to say, Don't get this twisted, people.
SPEAKER_01: You you you you should by now you should know who I am and what I'm like.
SPEAKER_01: Don't hold out hoops for me to jump through.
SPEAKER_01: You you're gonna live and die with that hoop, and I'm not jumping through it.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have to trust me.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, we are better.
SPEAKER_01: That's the life we were created for, and we're better for it.
SPEAKER_01: And so we say thank you.
SPEAKER_01: We say thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, on your road there, there's a couple uh pockets, have a guest card in there.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully you pulled one of those and you'll fill it out.
SPEAKER_01: On your way out, all we ask of you this morning is you just drop it on these wooden boxes by the doors on your way out.
SPEAKER_01: For the rest of us that are part of this church, call this church home.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, that's where we'll receive our offering today.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if you're here today, look at me, and you don't have a pastor, I'd love to be your pastor.
SPEAKER_01: You say, what does it mean?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to just preach to you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to walk through life with you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so if you don't have a pastor, I'd love to meet you.
SPEAKER_01: Come up and just introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get some time, some of the time, but I just want to put a name with a face when I see you the next time, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let me remind you of three things by way of announcement.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, we have a marriage retreat with Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Dan Allender coming up, a marriage conference, excuse me, here at our church.
SPEAKER_01: It is uh May the 4th and the 5th.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Dan Allender is a nationally known, he's a therapist, he's a conference speaker, he's a writer, very prolific writer, brilliant man.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna be here on Friday night, all day Saturday for a marriage conference.
SPEAKER_01: You can register on our website at$65 per person.
SPEAKER_01: That means it's$130 for the two of you.
SPEAKER_01: Best money you will spend on your marriage this year, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Do not miss this opportunity because you'll regret it if you do.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing, I want to remind you, our women's retreat is coming up in April.
SPEAKER_01: They're in the lobby today.
SPEAKER_01: Restering for that.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about that, it's a great opportunity to get away, get to know some other women who go to church here, and just let your soul and your life breathe.
SPEAKER_01: Husband-free and kid-free.
SPEAKER_01: And all the women said ungrateful women.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, men, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: You make it easy for your wife to get away and get what she needs.
SPEAKER_01: That's your role.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing I want to remind you of men this Tuesday, our next men's breakfast is Tuesday morning from 6 to 7 out in the warehouse, which is the building at the back of our property.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we we have something somebody speaks for about 20 minutes, and then we sit around tables and just kind of talk, some discussion questions about it, and then your table leader will pray for you before you get out that day.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great time to just kind of come meet other men and grow in grace.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great combination.
SPEAKER_01: Breakfast is free.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody is invited, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: Let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Despite your consistent inconsistencies and the fact that your life leaks sometimes, and that you say one thing and you do another.
SPEAKER_01: Despite all of that, he still trusts you.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now and trust him back.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you to dismiss you.