Introduction:
Things Jesus Wants You to Know About His Provision: (John 6:1-15)
- He Already has a plan. (John 6:5-6)
- He requires Child-like faith. (John 6:7-9)
Matthew 18:2-4 - And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
- You need to Thank God ahead of time. (John 6:10-13)
John 11:41 - And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me..."
Mark 11:24 - Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Colossians 4:2 - Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
- The provision itself isn't the Endgame . (John 6:14-15)
Deuteronomy 18:18 - I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:10-01:11
All right, John chapter 6. Are you there?
01:13-01:22
All right trivia question, you know The Bible records all kinds of miracles that Jesus did right all kinds of different miracles Jesus did but do you know?
01:23-01:39
There are only two miracles of Jesus that show up in all four Gospels Do you know what they are? You know what they are only two miracles are in all four One of them is the big one his resurrection, right? That's in all four Gospels But there's another miracle that shows up in all four.
01:39-01:41
You know what it is? If you know what it is, shout it out.
01:42-01:44
Feeding the 5,000, that's right.
01:44-01:46
And that's exactly what we're going to be looking at today.
01:47-01:57
Everyone, I would guess, has heard, at least heard something about this miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000.
01:57-02:00
Why is it so prominent? Why is it in all four Gospels?
02:01-02:03
Well, it was the biggest miracle in scope.
02:04-02:05
Okay? Just by the sheer numbers.
02:05-02:14
And I think it's such an important miracle in the Bible, and it's so well known, is because it's a miracle that can't be denied or debated, right?
02:15-02:16
There were just too many witnesses.
02:16-02:27
The people walking around like, "Jesus didn't perform miracles." Like, "We got thousands of people that were there and saw this one." All right? So we got a lot of witnesses here.
02:27-02:30
Now, the Bible says there were 5,000 men.
02:31-02:34
Which means, you know, where you find men, you also find women.
02:35-02:38
and where you find men and women, you find children.
02:39-02:40
So I wasn't there, obviously.
02:41-02:50
But the best guess is there could have been upwards of 20,000 people that were there, 5,000 men plus women and children.
02:51-02:53
So conservative estimate, 20,000 people.
02:54-02:58
And I like to try to put things into sort of a perspective that I can understand.
02:59-03:02
And I thought, OK, 20,000 people, what's that like?
03:02-03:03
Corinne, you know what I'm going to say.
03:03-03:04
PPG paints arena, right?
03:05-03:07
How many people does that place hold?
03:08-03:10
19,758.
03:10-03:10
Thank you, Google.
03:11-03:12
19,758.
03:12-03:21
So in my mind, for this miracle, I just kind of imagine Jesus-- walk with me on this-- Jesus standing center ice and like every ticket sold.
03:22-03:26
That kind of gives you an idea, if you've been in there, how many people we are talking about here.
03:27-03:28
So let's get to it.
03:28-03:29
Verse 1, chapter 6.
03:29-03:29
You there?
03:30-03:36
It says, "After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.
03:36-03:42
And a large crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.
03:42-03:46
Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
03:46-03:50
Now, the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.
03:51-04:01
The Bible tells us the Passover was at hand, but these crowds were following Jesus, who just wanted some time alone with his disciples.
04:03-04:09
Why were these crowds that were supposed to be heading to Jerusalem, why were they following Jesus instead?
04:09-04:13
Well, verse 2 tells us, says they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.
04:13-04:18
You know, for these crowds, I think for a lot of them, they just didn't want to miss anything, right?
04:18-04:28
He's doing all these miracles, like, "You've got to see this guy." I think that's a lot of them, but you know, I think for a lot of the people in the crowd, I think maybe they wanted a miracle, right?
04:29-04:40
You know, I do a lot of reading, commentaries, and pastors, and scholars, and when you get to this crowd, it becomes very easy to criticize them.
04:41-04:44
People say, "Oh, they just wanted healing.
04:44-04:47
They just wanted something from Jesus," which is why they followed.
04:48-05:19
And I've got to be honest with you, I would have been with them, especially considering in the day, there wasn't, you know, hospitals and, you know, MedExpress and, you know, doctors and nurses and clinics on every corner. They didn't have that. And there was a lot of mystery surrounding disease and disorders and, okay, so if you're sick or you have a sick kid, you kind of get the crowds, don't you? If you've ever been desperate for something, You get it.
05:20-05:28
And I thought, you know the people that criticize these crowds, these are probably people that have never dealt with an illness and these are probably people that have never dealt with a sick kid.
05:29-05:30
I probably would have been with the crowd.
05:31-05:37
Let me ask you, did you ever just need God to provide?
05:38-05:47
Like what I mean is, you've been in a situation where you're thinking to yourself, I don't see any way through this situation unless God shows up.
05:47-05:48
I just don't see a way through it.
05:49-05:50
Have you ever been there?
05:50-05:55
Now please, I'm not talking about, you know, I have the sniffles.
05:56-06:00
Like, yeah, we pray about that, sure, but that's not really a desperate situation.
06:00-06:09
I'm not talking about, yeah, money's been really tight this month, so I've had to buy the generic Pop-Tarts instead of the brand name Pop-Tarts.
06:10-06:12
That's how hard things have been for me this month.
06:12-06:17
I'm not talking about that stuff, Nor would I ever encourage you to buy generic Pop-Tarts.
06:18-06:20
There's some things you just don't buy generic.
06:21-06:23
Pop-Tarts, ketchup, Oreos.
06:25-06:26
That's not what I'm talking about.
06:28-06:35
I'm talking about the real, desperate, things look hopeless, need the Lord to provide.
06:35-06:39
I'm talking about there's too much month at the end of the money.
06:40-06:45
I'm talking about my marriage is on its final breaths.
06:46-06:51
I'm talking about I got this health thing that doctors can't seem to get a grip on.
06:52-06:54
And I don't know what I'm going to do.
06:54-07:01
I'm talking about I've been under so much stress and anxiety over some situations that I'm at the end of my rope here.
07:02-07:06
I'm talking about the person that recently lost that job.
07:07-07:09
And I've been working there for years, and they just let me go.
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and now what?
07:11-07:15
Now what about income and insurance and the bills?
07:15-07:18
And what are we going to do now?
07:20-07:21
We've all been there, haven't we?
07:22-07:22
We've all been there.
07:24-07:28
And today we're looking at the most famous picnic ever.
07:30-07:37
And we're going to discover that this account teaches us a lot more about God's provision than maybe we realized at first.
07:38-07:40
So when I say we, I mean me, because I'll be honest with you.
07:41-07:45
Beginning of the week last week, I'm like, oh, feeding at 5,000, I know everything about this story.
07:45-07:46
I learned a lot this week.
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And I'm excited to share that with you.
07:50-07:57
So the Harvest Bible Chapel this year, we're learning, we're pursuing, we're growing towards knowing Jesus.
07:58-08:03
So today, very simply on your outline, things Jesus wants you to know about His provision.
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This is the story of Jesus' provision.
08:07-08:11
And there's things in here He wants you to know about His provision.
08:11-08:14
And number one, He already has a plan.
08:15-08:17
He already has a plan.
08:17-08:22
Okay, so you're on the scene of Jesus with the disciples up in the mountain, trying to spend some time with them.
08:22-08:24
Here come the crowds.
08:24-08:25
Are you with me?
08:25-08:59
And then verse five says, "Lifting up his eyes then, "and seeing a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?" He said this to test him for… Look at this phrase, "For he himself knew what he would do." Just want you to look at that last phrase, "He himself knew what he would do." You know, I was thinking about that phrase a lot this past week.
09:01-09:02
Jesus had a plan here, right?
09:02-09:03
We can all agree there, right?
09:03-09:05
Jesus had a plan, right?
09:05-09:05
You with me on that?
09:06-09:06
All in favor?
09:08-09:38
Opposed? Okay, Jesus had a plan. But here's the thing that I was rolling around in my head, and I'm not sure I have an answer for this. How far ahead do you think Jesus knew? Do you think it was as the crowd was coming? Jesus is like, "Oh, I know." Or do you think it was before the crowds even showed up? Jesus is like, "I know the crowds are coming, I know what I'm gonna do." And then I got to thinking, was it an eternity past that he knew in the incarnation at this point what was going and what he was going to do.
09:39-09:39
It's fun to think about.
09:41-09:43
The Bible doesn't tell us how far ahead he knew.
09:44-09:45
But here's one thing we know for sure.
09:47-09:49
Jesus wasn't surprised, right?
09:49-09:51
He knew what he was going to do.
09:51-09:52
He wasn't surprised.
09:52-09:57
So when he turns and asks Philip, understand he wasn't fishing for information.
09:57-10:01
He wasn't looking for ideas like, oh my gosh, here comes all these people.
10:01-10:02
What are we going to do?
10:02-10:07
He Himself knew what He would do.
10:09-10:15
And I want you to burn that phrase into your head and into your heart right now.
10:16-10:18
Because if you don't need it now, you're going to need it tomorrow.
10:20-10:22
He Himself knew what He would do.
10:23-10:28
We're facing this seemingly impossible situation.
10:29-10:34
And Jesus, instead of panicking, is like, "Oh yeah, I already know what I'm going to do here.
10:35-10:49
I'm already on top of this." You see, we get to these mountains of need in our lives and we say, "How's God going to provide the money for this need that I have?
10:50-10:51
It's a lot of money.
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How's God going to provide it?" Or "I lost my job.
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Now what's going to happen?" Or "My car just died.
10:59-11:00
I need that car to get to work.
11:01-11:02
What is going to happen now?
11:04-11:04
So here comes the crowd.
11:06-11:08
And here's Jesus, knowing what he's going to do.
11:09-11:11
And he asks Philip.
11:15-11:16
This is kind of funny to me.
11:16-11:19
Jesus asked Philip, where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?
11:20-11:22
That is really scary when you think about it.
11:22-11:26
Jesus asked Philip where they were going to buy bread, right?
11:26-11:28
That is really scary.
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How is that scary?
11:29-11:30
Well, think about it.
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Imagine going to the doctor.
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You have this very serious health issue.
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And you finally get in this appointment to see this specialist.
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And you go into the doctor.
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You're like, doctor, my health is horrible, and I have this horrible problem.
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And the doctor looks at you and says, so what medicine do you think you should be on?
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That's why I'm here.
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You're supposed to tell me, right?
11:53-12:01
Or you're on a trip, and you're getting on the airplane, And you walk into the plane, and the pilot's standing there.
12:01-12:08
And the pilot grabs your arm and says, by the way, before we take off, which direction do you think I should go?
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Like, you're the pilot.
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You tell me what direction you think we should go.
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You see the point?
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Here's God, Jesus, turning to Philip, saying, here comes a big crowd.
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Where are we going to get the money for the bread?
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Like, you tell me.
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And we'll both know, right?
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But Jesus knew what he would do.
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And notice your Bible doesn't say, "Jesus knew what would happen." Yes, Jesus knew what would happen, but the Bible doesn't say that.
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The Bible actually says something much more specific.
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It says, "He knew what He would do." And sometimes the Lord allows us to be in these desperate situations so we can see what He will do.
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And I know I could line people up here on the platform today.
12:56-13:14
I know I could, and say, "Give testimony of a trial or a season of life that you walked through that was just so difficult and it was so hard and the Lord brought you through it and it didn't make sense at the time, but you were able to look back." And you say, "I could line people up that can tell you this.
13:15-13:31
I didn't understand why God allowed me to go through that trial, but I see it now." or, "God let me lose that job so that I eventually ended up in this better place." I see it now.
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I didn't see it then, but I see it now.
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Sometimes what God is doing, it makes sense to us looking backwards through time.
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We're sort of looking in the rear view mirror going, "Oh, it makes sense what He was doing.
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I get it." But you see, from Jesus' perspective, He's not looking in the rear view mirror.
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Jesus is looking forward in time.
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He sees all of this ahead of time.
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In other words, talking about the job loss illustration, Jesus, in essence, is saying, I'm going to allow you to lose that job because I want you over here, because I'm going to do this through you over here, not over here.
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I'm going to allow you to lose that job so you're here.
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And it's going to seem hard, and it's not going to make sense for a while, but you're going to see, I know what I'm doing.
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So whatever huge need you're facing, or whatever's going to come tomorrow, you have to start here.
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Jesus already has a plan.
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He already has a plan.
14:30-14:31
He's not surprised.
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Right?
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Number two, things Jesus wants you to know about his provision, he requires childlike faith.
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OK, so we have a test.
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And it was directed specifically for Philip, But there are actually three people mentioned who respond.
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Look at verse seven.
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"Philip answered him, 'Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.'" OK, so the first person that responds here is Philip, right?
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Jesus asked him the question.
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Now, at this point, Philip had been following Jesus probably about two years.
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Like, well, we're not very far into John.
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Well, John leaves out a huge chunk of Jesus' ministry.
15:19-15:23
In Galilee, John's basically like, "You can read the other guys for that.
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"I'm not covering that." John's covering some other things.
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But at this point, Philip would have been with Jesus for quite a while, and he would have seen a lot.
15:34-15:43
So Jesus directly asked Philip, "Where are we gonna get the money "to buy bread to feed these people?" And you know, that question really doesn't have an answer.
15:44-16:15
Jesus was sort of presenting to Philip this impossible situation because where they were geographically on this mountain there were there were no villages nearby there were no stores there was no uber eats is that a thing uber eats am I saying that right where they like you get on the intranets and they bring you food to your is that a thing am I saying that right Justin is that right uber eats largely correct mostly mostly correct all right good "Stay in your lane with the Bible, Pastor Jeff.
16:15-16:19
You leave Uber Eats to other people to explain." Well, they didn't have that.
16:20-16:21
And they certainly didn't have the money.
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And Philip did the math.
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This math is kind of interesting to me.
16:26-16:34
Philip said to Jesus, "Two hundred denarii wouldn't be enough so everybody could have even a little bit." A denarius was a day's pay.
16:34-16:44
So Philip is basically saying, "Even if I had eight months' worth of pay right here, We wouldn't be able to buy enough food for everybody to even get a bite.
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And then I got thinking again like the PPG paints thing.
16:47-16:51
I was thinking, okay, eight months pay, what is that in our culture?
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So again, thank you Google.
16:53-17:02
What is the average pay for somebody in our country and multiply that out, etc., etc., do the math, carry the one.
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And it came out to about $30,000.
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Why did Philip pick that number?
17:09-17:11
I don't know, it just seemed to kind of pull it out of the air.
17:11-17:27
But he's basically saying, "Jesus, if I had $30,000 right here, and a restaurant or a store, that wouldn't be enough money to feed these people." That's Philip's response.
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Look at the next response.
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Somebody else speaks up.
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Verse 8, "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, but what are they for so many?
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Okay, so Philip responds.
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Now, Andrew responds.
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He's another disciple.
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He would also have seen everything that Jesus did the past couple of years.
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Well, what was Andrew doing?
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Well, jot this down.
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You don't have to turn here now, but this is important.
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Mark 6:38.
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Jesus told the disciples to see what was available.
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That's what Andrew was doing.
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Jesus is like, "Go see what food is available," Mark 6, 38.
18:13-18:30
Okay, so Andrew was listening to Jesus, "Okay, let's see what food's available." Now I imagine, I don't know, again, I wasn't there, but I imagine it would have been hard for Andrew not to laugh when Jesus says, "Let's see what food we have available." And basically, Andrew comes back with a kid's lunch.
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All right?
18:33-18:37
Again, PPG Paints Arena, 20,000 people, you see it.
18:38-18:44
Jesus is like, "Let's see what food we have." Andrew comes back, this kid, I imagine he had like a Moses lunchbox, right?
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And he's like, I imagine Andrew's like, "Hey, Jesus, I found some food.
18:53-19:04
Everybody dig in!" Like, I imagine Andrew was laughing, but we don't know, but he said, What is this for so many people?
19:06-19:08
But there's a third person who responded.
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Same verse.
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Look at verse 9 again, same verse.
19:12-19:28
It says, "There is a boy here." Let's talk about the boy, "who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?" Let's talk about some unnamed boy, because the two disciples who should have had all this faith completely missed it.
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But there was one person, as far as I can see, there was one person who was on board with Jesus here, and it was this unnamed kid.
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The boy gave up his lunch, and his lunch was fish and barley loaves.
19:43-19:50
Now I gotta confess to you, when I heard this story as a kid, and it said the kid had five loaves of bread, I'm like, what kind of mother did he have?
19:51-19:52
He's five loaves of bread?
19:52-19:58
Do you know there's like 20 to 24 slices of bread in every like town talk loaf, right?
19:59-20:03
So I imagine this kid had like these five loaves of town talk, and he's carrying these two fish.
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I'm like, I don't want to judge anybody's parenting.
20:10-20:12
That kid's mother was whack, right?
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Hey, I'm going to see Jesus.
20:15-20:20
All right, I think there's five loaves of bread in the cupboard.
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OK, I'll take that.
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Well, then I found out their loaves, what they called a loaf, wasn't like our loaves, right?
20:30-20:32
Their loaves were more like biscuits, OK?
20:32-20:34
That makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?
20:34-20:38
So this kid would have had like five little biscuits.
20:38-20:40
Some people even say they were more like crackers.
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And he would have had two fish, maybe a couple of pickled fish.
20:46-20:49
I don't know what kind they were, but that makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?
20:51-20:53
But I also have to wonder how that talk went.
20:54-21:00
When Andrew's walking around, hey, okay, Jesus said to look for food, Jesus said to look for food.
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Oh, I found one person out of 20,000 that has food.
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Okay, hey kid, with the only food on the mountain, what you got in the lunchbox?
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I'm like, well, my mom packed me this lunch and Andrew's like, okay, how about this?
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How about you give it to me?
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No, mum packed this for me.
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That's not what my Bible says.
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My Bible just says he gave it up.
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Is that what your Bible says?
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And I have to wonder, what if you were there?
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What if you were there that day?
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Just let's not get super, super religious here.
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Well, let's just imagine you're sitting there on the mountain.
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You came to see Jesus.
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And one of the disciples goes, oh, you're the only person who brought a lunch.
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OK, give it to me.
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How many of you would do that?
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Get your own stinking lunch.
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Hey, I thought ahead.
21:59-22:01
Don't punish me for being smart.
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Not this kid.
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This boy, apparently, from what I can see, he didn't ask why.
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He wasn't reluctant.
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He wasn't doubtful.
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The only thing we knew for sure about this kid is he was willing to give up what he had.
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And with this boy, we see a childlike face.
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And here's the thing, church, boy you can't miss this.
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Jesus doesn't just commend childlike faith.
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Jesus doesn't just praise childlike faith.
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Truly, Jesus requires childlike faith.
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Look at Matthew 18.
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I've got it on the screen here.
22:54-23:13
It says, "In calling to Him a child, Jesus put this child in the midst of them," the disciples, "and said, 'Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'" Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
23:15-23:24
Childlike faith, the kind of faith that, "Hey, kid, you're the only one sitting on a mountain that has any food and Jesus wants it." Okay, he can have it.
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"Really?" Yeah, he can have it.
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But you know, so often, church, when we're faced with a great need for provision from God, we reason our way around it.
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"Oh, it looks hopeless.
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We don't have enough.
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We're not going to be able to get enough." In that case, we are guilty of just being like the disciples, right?
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Think about it.
23:48-23:53
Philip and Andrew answered Jesus no differently than an atheist would have.
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They were looking for a human answer to a divine problem.
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Like guys, have you not been paying attention to who you've been with for these past couple of years?
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Did you not see the water into wine?
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Have you not... did you not see the healing that's taken place?
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Did you not see what this one is capable of?
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God meets needs.
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God provides.
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And many times, dare I say almost every time, God chooses to provide through other people.
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You think, "Well, what kind of people?" who are willing to hand over to God whatever they have. Like this kid with his lunch.
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What kind of people are these? These are people that have a childlike faith, that they don't reason themselves out of trust in God. And church, I want to encourage you, next time you feel called to give, whether it's to missions, whether it's to that needy neighbor, whether it's to the church, whether it's to get a cow out of your yard, or whatever it is, if You think to yourself, and we've all been there, you think to yourself, "Oh, I would love to give, but I don't have much to give." I want you to think of this kid, because his childlike faith trusted and learned a lesson that you've got to learn.
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A little bit in Jesus' hands becomes a lot.
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Like, "Oh, I would really love to give to that.
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That seems like a good cause, but I only have five dollars." What do you think $5 is going to do in Jesus' hands?
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Oh, we didn't get to that part of the story yet.
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But when you're willing to give it up, when you're willing to hand it over, you're going to see, like this crowd, the Lord's going to do things that will change your life.
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You've got to give it over to Him.
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All that Jesus needs from us is what we got and are willing to give Him.
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Third thing Jesus wants you to know about His provision is you need to thank God ahead of time for it.
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Look at verse 10.
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OK, you have the scene here, kid gives up his lunch.
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Verse 10, Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." Now, there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about 5,000 in number.
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Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated.
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So also the fish as much as they wanted.
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And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost.
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So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.
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Stop there. You need to thank God ahead of time.
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So Jesus gives thanks for the food.
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Then he takes this little lunch and boy, I tell you what, I've thought about this so many times this week, like trying to envision what this looked like.
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Jesus just kept multiplying.
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What do you think that looked like?
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He just kept multiplying it and multiply.
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OK, have everybody sit down. OK. All right.
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Do you guys get enough? OK.
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And they're passing it out, passing it out.
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And Jesus just keeps pulling out of this Moses lunchbox.
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Right. Just he's pulling it out, pulling it out.
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and food, loaves and fish, and loaves and fish.
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He just kept giving it and giving it and giving it.
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And the Bible says that the people ate as much as they wanted.
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Then came clean up time, and it says that they picked up 12 baskets of leftovers.
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That's a pretty exact number, isn't it?
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What do you think that was for?
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I think it was for the disciples.
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I think Jesus had the disciples take care of others first and then discover that they had already been provided for too.
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And that's a whole other sermon.
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What I want to talk about today is this.
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Jesus gives thanks for the five loaves before the miracle takes place.
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Did you catch that?
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We talked about this last week.
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There is a direct connection between faith and thankfulness.
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We talked about that, Romans 1.
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And Jesus clearly modeled that, thanking God before this miracle happened.
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And this isn't a one-off, by the way.
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We're going to get to this, Lord willing, down the road.
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And John chapter 11, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.
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Do you remember this story? We're going to get there.
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But the Bible says before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, look at verse 41.
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Yeah, this is what Jesus and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me." He said that first.
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He said that before Lazarus came walking out of the grave.
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And Jesus didn't only demonstrate that on the mountain here at Lazarus' tomb.
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Jesus taught this.
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Mark 11.24, Jesus said, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours." Believe that you have received it.
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Thank you.
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I'm asking for this and I'm I'm thanking you now as if you already gave it to me That's why Paul says in Colossians 4 to continue steadfastly in prayer being watchful in it with there it is again Thanksgiving do you see a trend you see it?
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It's thanking God beforehand because here's the thing if you say thank you to God After he provides and you should but if you say thank you to God after he provides that's called But if you say thank you to God before He provides, that's called faith.
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That's called faith.
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Like, "God, I'm trusting you.
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I believe that you're going to do it." That's what the Bible clearly prescribes.
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It's faith.
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It's believing God's already at work.
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And I know He's already at work because I just learned a few minutes ago that He already has a plan to take care of whatever it is that you need.
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So this week, you should do this every week, but since it's going to be fresh in our minds, I want you to start a new habit this week.
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you pray? Can you pray just like a child talking to his dad? Just childlike faith?
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Can you put yourself in that scenario and say, "Okay, I'm just gonna pray like as unashamed and uninhibited and trusting as a little kid would talk to his dad." And as you pray, thank God for what he's done, and whatever you're asking for, whatever you're asking for, thank him that he already has a plan, and thank him for what he's going to do. You will see God at work in your life in ways that you never have before. Jesus gives us a great example here. Thank God ahead of time.
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And finally for today, things Jesus wants you to know about his provision. The final thing is, the provision itself isn't the end game. The provision itself isn't the end game. Look at verse 14. It says, "When the people saw the sign that he had done, They said, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world." I go, "What's that all about?" That's about Deuteronomy 18.
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Back in Deuteronomy 18, God says to Moses, talking of the coming Messiah, the coming Christ, God says to Moses, "I will raise up for them, for Israel, a prophet like you from among their brothers." God's saying, "I'm going to raise up a Jewish prophet "from among your brothers, "and I will put my words in his mouth, "and he shall speak to them all that I command him." Okay, so Israel always had this idea.
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God's gonna give us a prophet like Moses.
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God's gonna give us a prophet like Moses.
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He promised God's gonna raise up this prophet, okay?
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And remember back in the very beginning of the sermon, we saw what season it was.
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It was Passover season.
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So what was every good Jew thinking about?
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Moses, right?
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They're going to celebrate the Passover, they're thinking about Moses, and these people would have made a connection right here.
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Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
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God, during Moses' day, fed people in the wilderness with miracle bread, right, called manna.
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This man on the mountain is feeding us with miracle multiplying bread.
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You're the one that Moses promised.
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Moses was sent to deliver us from Egypt.
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You must have come to deliver us from Rome.
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They made the connection, right?
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Because verse 15 says, "Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again the mountain by himself. They tried to force him to be king, but Jesus knew they were looking for him to be a very different kind of king than he is. So he went away by himself because he wasn't going to be forced to be that kind of king.
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There's a lot more I want to say about that, but that's really a key theme in chapter 6 and we're going to be talking about this in the next couple of weeks. So before we get I just want you to see this church feeding the 5,000 wasn't the end game.
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Right?
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Like, well, why'd he do it?
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Well, first of all, he's compassionate.
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He loves people.
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But the second thing is it gives him the opportunity to teach, right?
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So if he didn't feed them, they got hungry enough.
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They're just going to go home, wander back wherever.
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He's like, but if I feed them, it'll give me the opportunity to minister to them.
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The truth of God's word, right?
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It's sort of like when our church would go and we'd go to the Mars Home for Youth and play soccer with the kids.
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It wasn't because, you know, like Russ and I and Dr. Andrew were sitting around like, "Nobody wants to play soccer with us.
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Let's go find somebody to play soccer." And that was where the only people in the entire Pittsburgh area that were willing to play soccer with us.
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And then they saw how good Dr. Andrew was at soccer and they didn't want to play soccer with us anymore.
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That's not why we did it.
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We did it because we knew we'd have an opportunity to interact with the kids and share the love of Jesus Christ with them. In the same way, Jesus' miracles were never for a show.
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They always pointed specifically to something. Jesus' miracles were to point to spiritual realities that he was going to fulfill someday. You get that? The miracles weren't arbitrary.
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They pointed very specifically to things that Jesus was going to ultimately, globally fulfill someday. In other words, why did Jesus heal people? Because He was pointing to the day that there will be no more sickness. Done. Why did Jesus cast out demons? Ultimately that pointed to the day that there will be no more evil. Done. Why did Jesus raise people from the dead? He was showing that ultimately there's going to be the day that there is no death. So why did Jesus feed the 5,000? Because Jesus was pointing ultimately to the day that there will be no hunger. And I mean that physically, and I mean that spiritually.
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That satisfaction, true satisfaction is found in Jesus Christ.
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So you think Jesus' endgame here was to just provide a meal? No, no, no, no, no. That wasn't the goal anymore. The manna was about providing a meal for Israel. Why did God give every single day. I trusted him yesterday, okay do you trust him today? I'm learning.
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I'm learning. In the same way the purpose of Jesus feeding the 5,000 was for them and for us to see that Jesus can provide even when it looks impossible for provision to be made because the provision itself isn't the end game.
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It's just to bring you one step closer to knowing Jesus. That's why he wants to provide for you. So we're done with this part of worship. And you know, you look at this story and you're like, "Man, I want to emulate somebody in this story." Well, like, it can't be Jesus, right? I can't take a lunch and feed multitudes. I can't imitate that. And I'm not sure that I want to imitate the disciples in this particular account. So I would encourage you, church, be the kid. Be the kid! Because that kid said, "You want to do great things? I'm on board. Here, use whatever I have to do what you want to do because I know you have a plan and I'm going to thank you ahead of time for what you're about to do." Be the kid. Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, I pray for us as a church that as we mature in Christ, we see our faith becoming more childlike. That's a paradox that I can't wrap my brain around.
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Growing in the knowledge of your Word, growing in the relationship with Christ, growing in that walk with Him daily, and the result is a more and more and more childlike faith.
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That's what Jesus requires.
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Father, there are people sitting here and there are people who are going to be listening this online later that have a huge need and it looks impossible and I pray that you would bring this story to their hearts and minds. Father we would thank you ahead of time for whatever it is you're going to do because we know God you have a plan. Father we're willing to just offer up to you anything we have even if it doesn't look like much because a little in your hands is a lot.
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Father we thank you that you are a God who truly satisfies every need that we have. Teach us to come to You for that. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 6:1-15
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
What do you think was the purpose of Jesus giving the “test” (John 6:6)? Why do you think the disciples, despite all they’ve seen from Jesus, “failed” the test?
Read Matthew 18:2-4. How does this child-like faith show up in John 6:1-15? How can you begin praying with child-like faith if this is not something you have done before?
Why did Jesus thank His Father ahead of time, i.e., before the miracle? What does this say about how we should approach asking the Lord for things in prayer?
Breakout
What do you need God to provide? Pray together - thank God that He already has a plan, and ask Him to give you the child-like faith to believe Him.