Best Year Ever | Part 3

Hey there. How's it going? That's alright. There you go. You know, I don't know if you're like me in this, but I have a propensity that when I when I need to do some type of project or something, the way I imagine in my head and then my plan and how I go about doing it,

never works out the way it imagines in my head. I don't know about you, matter of fact, when I have to go do certain things, I get this plan in my head and what I do, it actually turns into what it literally could be a sitcom. I even have a name for it. I call it the Bush Way.

And it just always happens this way. I'll set off and and it's usually because of how I try to focus on. I just I just I don't know what it is. I I I turn into I love Lucy or something. I get all goofy

because I have plans and let me give you example. A couple years ago before we moved, we had a old hot tub in our backyard that had been broken for a long time. So, if I'm going to sell the house, I gotta get rid

And and so I called around to find a company with somebody come take this away, and they wanted ridiculously too much money. I don't have that money. I don't wanna spend the money. So then I thought, well, I could get some friends, get it on a flatbed and pull it out to the dump. That'll cost some money. I didn't wanna spend that money. But it also say that'd be so much time. I'd have to find a friend, get them to agree, get someone with a trailer, do all this. I didn't wanna do that. So then I here goes the Bush way.

I concocted an idea. I go, what I can do is get four of my friends, and let's just put it out on the curb and let bulk trash deal with it. And and I thought that'd be a good idea. So as I carry it out, my wife's like, well,

did you call? Because I've heard people say there's no way they'll pick that up. And I go, no. I don't wanna call. Why don't you just call and ask? Because then I'm afraid. I go, well, if I call and ask, they might say, where do you live? Then they'll put a notation. If you find a spot, they definitely don't pick it up. You know? So I was like, I don't wanna give them advance notice that that I'm doing something. I'm hoping maybe they'll it. And then in the back of my mind, I had a secondary fallback plan was that

whenever we put bulk trash out, there's people that drive around with trailers looking for something they think they might wanna keep. And I thought, this still looks nice. It's just though maybe someone will take it. And then I wanted to deal with it. So so so I put it out there. And then after my wife said, you know, that that that nobody's

taken it. Now we're a few days before bulk trash. And I start to go. She goes, you know, if they don't take that, it's gonna be stuck there, and then we're gonna have a problem with the HOA. I'm like, well, I don't want that. So then I go, but I don't still don't wanna find someone or spend the money.

So then here's where it becomes a sitcom. I thought to myself, they might not take a whole spa, but I've seen the piles of traps that they will take. So what if instead of an entire spa, I make it into a pile of trash? So I'm going to go break down this spa.

So I didn't wanna spend it. So I went with what I had, a hacksaw and a sledgehammer.

And I go outside. I go, honey. And she even made fun of me. She goes, most guys say I'm gonna go work on the yard. My my husband goes, I'm gonna go saw down the spa. You know? And then when I go out there and and and and I decide I'm just gonna you know, it's fiberglass and some wood and PVC pipe. How hard can it be to hit it with a sledgehammer? So I started taking the sledgehammer, and just was like

when I'm like, what is this thing made out of? Vibranium? That's Captain America's shield right there. It's just I I I could've

hit that thing for two months and it wouldn't break apart. So I was like, this isn't. I grabbed the hacksaw. I was like, why am I even trying? That's not gonna do anything. So then I'm like, now what am I gonna do? And I look over my friends in his garage and I'm like, I'm going go and borrow one of his sauce, one of his power sauce.

So I'm walking over there and and and I asked him to borrow and he gives me a saw and so I started working. I actually have a picture of me working on this thing. Actually, my wife took this picture because she wanted to document my stupidity.

And so there I am hacking on it. And if you notice, that's the kind of saw I had. It's a sawzall, which is basically a glorified turkey carver. You know? It's like, save the neck for me, Clark. That's what's going on here. So so if you look at that chunk I sawed out, that took over an hour because

as I saw it down through, it started okay. But as it went down, the blades would get all warped and then I started breaking blades. And and so it's taking forever. I go, this is taking a while, but now I'm committed. I'm in. So, I keep going and and and and and it's it's July by the way.

So, now, I'm sitting here doing this forever and ever and ever. I keep breaking blades. I gotta reload the blade. That takes me forever. I gotta do that and then right near the end, I burned out the sawzall.

So I wanted to save money, and now I go, I gotta go over to Lowe's now because I gotta buy another saw and the blades. And now I've been out here for eight hours.

And the reason it took me eight hours, it wasn't literally eight hours, but I'd said it was July. Right? And it's because about every forty five minutes or an hour, about four different times, I had to go lay down and and and cool down thinking I might be having heat stroke. So so now I keep it fighting heat stroke.

I'm wasting the time. I'm wasting the money. But then finally, eight hours later, I had this. There you go. I did it.

It's my victory walk off. I beat the spa. So now it looks like, you know, FEMA needs to show up and give me aid because something bad has happened.

But I did it, but my my wife came out and said, this looks terrible. It's a huge pile. I know. And he go, they'll take piles. I go, yeah. But will they take piles of old foam and all? Was like, are you sure they're gonna pick this up? And and then she planted the seed of doubt in my head, and she goes, because if they don't pick that up, that's a bigger problem than when it was just a spa,

because that's gonna be a pain to try to get rid of. And I'm like, you're right. So now I walk in, and so now I spent money. I didn't plan on spending. I spent a lot more time that I said I didn't have. I had heat stroke and health issues now because of it. And then on top of that, I spent this is Saturday.

Bulk trash doesn't come till Monday. Now, I'm living under anxiety and stress going, I hope they take it, and I don't get in trouble with the HOA.

So I stressed out over it until Monday. I'm sitting there. Bull trash shows up. I'm like, hope they're gonna take another thing. And I go, look. They started they you see them get out, and they look at this thing. They're like, I go, oh, no. And then they start shoveling the stuff up and throwing it, they're doing it. I'm like, yay.

I'm like, they're taking it. See, sweetie, see. I told her, I was totally right. I didn't need to call, I just did it. And then I walk out there and I'm going, I'm so glad you guys are taking this. And they're like, did the spa come this way? And I go, no. I I I broke it down so you could take it. They go, you know,

all you had to do was call us

and tell us you had a spa. And we bring the when we know we have enough big jobs, they bring the little lift thing and we could have done it. That's all. All you really need to do is take it from your backyard to the curb and make a phone call.

The Bush Way. That has nothing to do with the sermon today, it was just irritating me. So, no. No, that's actually a reminder of what I want to talk about today. What we want to unpack today is our last part of this Best Year Ever series.

I want to kind of that's like an example of what we want to talk about today because see what went wrong in that story was I was focused on what I had.

I was, I go, I only have this much time, only this much money, only this much emotional energy, have only this much. And so I concocted a plan that was based solely on what I had.

And as it kept going wrong, in the end, by focusing on that, I end up spending more time, more money, more emotional energy, more physical energy, more everything than I would have because I refused to trust the city. I refused to make a phone call and just do what they asked me to do.

I was more focused on what I had instead of who they were.

In the same way, what we're talk about today is a lot of us, that's our struggle when it comes to our faith, when it comes to our relationship with God, is that we we we focus on the wrong thing. So, the big idea I want to talk about for a few minutes here is simply this, if I really want to have the best year ever,

I need to focus on who Jesus is, not on what I have.

I need to be somebody who focuses on who Jesus is, not what I have. Now, how does this fit in? This whole series has been best year ever. We've been talking about the idea when you come into a new year, you make New Year's resolutions, and we get all excited, but it's basically all those resolutions come out of desperation.

Like, I need to work out more, which means I'm not working out. I need to eat better because I've been eating bad. I need to budget because I don't have any money, and I've been spending it wrong. You know, all these I go, what if we realigned our our our our focus? And what if we made resolutions around our faith?

And so we've looked. They they all three of these go together. We looked at the first week as, what if I went from a more desperate faith, just always in desperate moments calling out? God will put us in desperate moments, I said. But instead of living there, what God wants to do is move us from desperate to deliberate.

What if I chose to live a more deliberate faith

instead of just always in desperation mode? And then last week, this weird looking guy named Daniel, sitting over here somewhere right now, he got up here and and he preached a very good message, by the way. Good job, buddy. And and and he preached a message on about we need to be willing,

not just wanting. So what if we move from desperate to deliberate? What if we move from wanting to willing when he talked about a man who Jesus came to heal, who had been lame for for years and years and years and he said, do you really want to get well? Which seems like a stupid question, but what Jesus was really saying is, I do have the power. I'm gonna heal you. But

are you ready to walk out what that means? Because if I heal you, your life is gonna change.

It should change. He shouldn't go back and stay doing the begging and all the things he was doing. And many of us, we we we we go, you know, we're desperate, not deliberate, and then we sit here wanting, wanting, wanting the healing and the power of Jesus in our life, but we're really not willing

to walk out what that means. And then this last step is we need to have focus. We need to focus on who, not what. Focus on your soul. So the best year ever is deliberate, willing, focused faith.

What would happen if that's what we did in our faith? So today I wanna talk about what does it mean to focus on who Jesus is, not what I have, and we've been going through John chapter four through six in this series, and we're in John six,

and we're gonna look at a story, and I really wanna focus on the interaction that Jesus had with his disciples in this story. It's a very well known story. It's called the feeding of the 5,000. You ever hear the story of the feeding of the 5,000?

Well, right off the bat, that's an inaccurate thing. It says it right in the middle of the passage that there was just 5,000 men there and whenever they would eat in those days, the men would sit together, the women and children would sit somewhere else. So, it's trying to point out that this was such a huge crowd, just the group of men was 5,000.

So, if you add that up, it was most likely closer to 10 to 15,000 people that are here. So it's a big crowd, and and I want you to show that Jesus walks them through, really his disciples through this idea of your focus is wrong,

and you need to focus on who I am, not just what you have. Because that will limit you. That will limit your life. You will not have the best year ever, the best life ever, the best whatever ever. And in here, as we dive into the story and take it apart, we're going to draw out two questions

that we need to ask ourselves. Two life changing questions. I'm gonna challenge you to really reflect on these two questions because these two questions will determine where is my focus. Where is my focus?

So here we go. John chapter six verse one. After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea Of Galilee, also known as the Sea Of Tiberias. A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down

with his disciples around him. It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration. Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Now I wanna stop there. He's gonna turn to Philip and ask him a question. But what we gotta understand is this particular story is in the other gospels as well, in in Mark and Luke.

And so sometimes when you take the stories, the writers are emphasizing a point they want to make. So one writer will have details that the other ones don't. This story is the only one that talks about the conversation with Philip.

But in the others, we have other details that John left out because John's trying to make a specific point. But when we put it all together, they're not contradictory, they're actually complementary. We get the whole story. What we know from putting them all together is the reason they went, they left, is they've been teaching a lot and Jesus, come, let's go away and get alone. Us and the 12, let's spend some time resting, relaxing, and talking amongst ourselves. When they got over there, a huge crowd followed him because of all the miracles Jesus had done and so they follow him and he says he felt compassion in in Mark on them and so he taught them all day. So, now, this was workday

that wasn't expected. They're supposed to have a rest day. Now, they're working. It's later in the day. They do two main meals a day. This would be the biggest meal of the day and it's getting to that time. They're out in the middle of where I think the disciples then ask according to the other gospels. The disciples say, Jesus, you need to send everyone away. You're going too long. He's the classic long winded preacher. He goes, send them away so they can go find some food. It's we're out here in the middle of nowhere. They need to go have their meal. In other words, what disciples are probably saying, we're tired. We're hungry. Can we please be done with this so we can go eat? Jesus says in the other gospels, he looks at all the disciples. He goes, well, you feed them.

So we know that happens. Now what John is adding to the story, he's leaving that part out. He just picks up at that point. You feed him, he then turns to Philip and starts this conversation.

So after he says you feed him, it says, he he says, turning to Philip, he asked, where can we buy bread to feed all these people? So he's like, you guys feed them. And Philip,

where can we get the bread? Where's the local Panera? Is there is there something we can go to? What do what do we need? And and it's it's interesting because he's like, so skip verse six, go to seven, we'll go back to six. So so in verse seven, here's what Philip says. Philip replied, even if we worked for months,

we wouldn't have enough money to feed them. Isn't it interesting? Jesus didn't ask him, can we do it? Jesus asked, where do we get the bread? He asked a where question, and he got a how response. He said, where are we gonna get this done? And and Philip says, how is this even possible? And not even how. He says, it isn't.

It it it we don't we we couldn't even go get doesn't matter if there's a place to get bread. We don't have the money for it. And and and Judas is in the corner going, hope he doesn't figure out why we don't have the money, you know, whatever. That's funny. There you go.

But but they're sitting there. So so so he asked a question. So basically, he's like, guys, you're gonna feed him. And Philip, where are gonna get the bread? And Philip's like, that's an impossible task. You've asked me to do something impossible. Is Jesus

asking you to do something that you don't think you have enough for?

Why? Well, if you look at verse six, it says, he, meaning Jesus, was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was gonna do. He already knew what he was gonna do. So he's asking Philip this question,

and in front of the disciples, he told them to feed them. Then he asked Philip, where are gonna get the bread? It was a test by Jesus. But it what the question so those questions weren't really questions Jesus needed answered. They were questions that the disciples needed to answer. It wasn't for him. It was for them. He was redirecting them back and challenging them to what are you focusing on in this moment?

Are you focused on what you have? We have this much money in the bank. Or are you focusing on who I am? Because if focus on who I am, you'll choose to step out and do what I ask you to do, even if it sounds stupid, even if it makes no sense, even if it's crazy. See, why?

Why why why does Jesus ask have these he gives a test? Like I said, he doesn't need it, but you know what he's doing? He's putting them in a situation to stretch their their faith, strengthen their hope, and show his love. Or in other words, to get their focus back on the right thing.

And out of that comes this first question. Here's the first life saving question we need to ask ourselves because it's really kinda what's happening here is, what have I decided is too little for God to work with? What have you decided you can't do what God asked you to do? Because what you have is too little. What

what does he ask you to Is he asking you do something with your time? I I don't have enough time to do that. Is he asking you to do something with your money? I don't have enough money to do that. Has he asked you to do something in a relationship that you're like, I don't I I don't have the emotional energy for that. Has he asked you, like, where is he asking you to step out and say, hey, I need you to feed someone? Meaning, I have a tasker. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to step out this way, And you're like, I can't because what I have isn't enough.

In other words, fill in the blanks for this question right now. I will blank as soon as I get blank.

Is that how your faith is right now? Is there something that you heard from god's word, preaching at god's word, praying, or thinking about or looking at that god saying, hey, this is what I need you to do as my follower. Here's what I'm going to invite you to go and you're like, well, I'll do that,

whatever it is, as soon as I get I'll serve as soon as I have time. I'll give as soon as I get more money. I'll love as soon as the other person can be lovable enough that I have the energy to do it. I'll choose this path as soon as I get this resource.

That's what we're talking about here. That's what the this Philip's doing in this moment. He is making a decision. He's already deciding. He has decided right here in this moment what he that what they have is too little for God to work with. We can't do it because and here's the one we're gonna miss out on that moment.

We're gonna miss out because Jesus will put us in these moments that are tough in order for us to see who he is, in order to stretch our faith. He will often put us in situations that will magnify our need in order to magnify our need for him.

Because let me let me explain this. There's something I I gotta tell you. There's I'm gonna get on a a soapbox right now. I wish I had one. Literally, soapbox. I'm gonna give you a little rant here and I'm just gonna warn you right now. Some of you probably just tilt your head back now because your throat's going be massively exposed in this moment. There there there's a there's a phrase here I want to talk about that many of us say. Many of you use it. Many of you thought it right now. Many of probably told friends this when they're struggling

and and and it's this phrase. God won't give you more than you can Exactly. Some of you said that. Right? God won't give you more than that. Can can I just give you one little piece of advice on that? Just one one simple thing when it comes to that statement. Stop saying it. Okay? That's not true.

It couldn't be further from the truth. That is like a lie from the pit of hell. That is so unbiblical. It's not even crazy. I mean, Jesus hears that phrase. He's probably face palming over and over again. God

doesn't give you any more than you can handle. If god will never give us more than we can handle, why do we need him? Amen. What does that teach us about faith?

If if if oh, I'm not gonna get more than I can handle. That means I don't need Jesus. I just gotta buckle down, and I'll be able to get through everything on my own. And then think about it. If you tell your friends that or even believe it yourself, you know what you're setting yourself up for? Failure, confusion,

frustration, and anger.

Because there are lots of situations you're gonna be in that God put you in that's gonna be way more than you can handle. And when you can't handle it or you told that friend you can handle it, and then they realize they can't handle it, they're gonna go, there's something wrong with me or there's something wrong with God. Somehow, I'm the exception. How can I possibly be in this situation that I can't handle? Because you know what the truth is according to scripture that we see right here. Jesus does this as a test. This is not the exception. This is the rule. God does this all through scripture. He constantly puts us in situations

that are way beyond what we can handle. The phrase shouldn't be God won't give you more than you can handle. God won't give you more than he can handle if you choose to trust him. That's how it works.

But if I hold back because what I have is too little and I'm waiting, I'm holding what I won't give, I won't serve, I won't do that, I have to get this first. You are gonna live in a very frustrated place because you're never gonna get to see what God can do. Your life will be lived only experiencing what you can handle.

And then you'll be frustrated. Does that make sense? That's what's happening. So so he puts Philip in this situation and all the disciples, and he's testing them. He's like, basically, he's saying, don't measure your problem. Don't measure, not even as a problem, what I've asked you to do. Don't measure your mission

according to your power. We only need to measure it according to am I willing, am I deliberate, am I willing, am I focused. That's what I need to do. Because if I don't, I'm gonna miss out what Jesus wants to do. So that leads to the the next question we'll see here in a minute when we look at the next verse, verse eight. Then

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother spoke up. So they're all sitting there listening to this conversation,

and and Andrew finally did something about it. So there's some time that elapsed. He speaks up. He goes, there's a young boy here

with five barley loaves and two fish. So the first one is a lot of times we'll hold what we have because they're like, I can't do. I can't give God what he's asked me to do. I can't step out and do this because I don't have enough.

Well, now it seems like Andrew was willing to step out. He went and found what do we have. And he found a boy. Hold that point. The boy is gonna teach them all lesson in a minute. But but but he's like, he found this point. He brings it. Goes, well, here's what we do have. So he's at least willing to bring what they have to Jesus. He does he does bring it. So that sounds, yay. Andrew gets the gold star for the day. Right? It would have been great if he stopped talking right there. But

he says the next sentence and he starts it with a but which is a bad idea. He goes, but what good is that with this huge crowd? He's like, I got this. Here's what we have.

But what good is that with this huge crowd? The crowd is huge. It's a huge crowd. We can't deal with the huge crowd. He's like, what good is he goes all eeyore. Well, we have this, but it's not gonna do anything. See, the first question was what have I decided is too little? I don't have enough, so I can't let God work.

This is really closely related, but slightly different. You might be willing, you might say okay, but I'm not happy about it. So the next question is what have you decided is too big for God to accomplish?

See, if I think this is too little for him to work with, I also then kinda slide over to, and what does it matter? Because even if I do give god what he wants, even if I choose to trust him, this this whole thing is too big for him to fix. This whole thing is too big. If I trusted him with my marriage,

if I did what he asked me to do, okay, I'll love someone who's acting very unlovable because that's what God's asked me to do. But you know what? You still go in with an ad that says, but it's not gonna work. It's not gonna work.

It's kinda like, alright, I'll do it. And then you're gonna see what a stupid idea this is. It's kinda what Andrew's doing.

And so they they they're looking. He's like, what about you? Is there something in that you've decided that that is too big for god to accomplish? Because here here here's the thing. When I think I don't have enough, I have too little to trust God in what he's asked me to do because it's impossible. And then an and the

little isn't gonna really do anything anyways. God can't really do anything. What I do with my little is I hold it like this, and I won't give it up. And you know what you do when you have little like this? It becomes littler. But what he's trying to say is our little in Jesus' hands becomes much.

Our little becomes much. If you hold on to your little, it becomes littler. If you offer it to Jesus and do what he's asked you to do, the little becomes much. It becomes much, much more. It becomes mucher. Littler or mucher? Which one do you want? Much moods, much, mucher, much, muching? Mucher. Alright?

That's what he's saying is that he'll do that. He's about to show him in a minute that he will do that, but you have to trust him. If you don't trust him with the little, you're not gonna get to see what he's gonna do with it, and you're gonna be stuck in a conundrum.

And many of us are stuck here right now. And I'm not talking about people that are far from God. You might be in church every week. You might go to Bible studies, you might serve, you might get but there are some things that God is saying, I want you to do this. I want you to trust me in this. And it's not just about problems.

You realize that that that that that that Bible talks about there are good things, things God called us to be as Christians, as followers of him. And when we don't do the good thing, he calls that sin, just like doing the bad thing.

We get to a point of maturity as followers of Christ that we're not just fighting doing bad. We have to understand that the good he's called us to isn't optional. Not doing the good is just as wrong at choosing the bad.

The reason we won't do the good he's called us to, the reason, I'll be honest, in our culture, I'm not gonna stress him with my time. I'm gonna him with my money. I'm gonna stress I'm holding my little here. I can't do it until I get. And what you're gonna miss out on is is is is you're gonna go to one of two ways.

I guarantee this. I see it in scripture. I've seen it in twenty whatever years of ministry I've been a pastor for, twenty nine, is this. You will either finally surrender or you'll attack. You will not sit in the middle forever. You'll either surrender

or you'll finally just attack. God, this is unfair. This is wrong. And the way you attack is I can't believe that church has told me to serve, told me to give. Don't they know my scenario? Don't they know? How could god how could they possibly expect me with how little I have to actually do something with it? Because you know what? Even if I did, it's not gonna accomplish anything, and I'm just gonna suffer. That is unfair of you to ask. That is unbelievable that god would do it. How ridiculous? Because you know I wouldn't do it? Because god would never ask me to do anything I can't handle. Baloney.

The reason you're in this situation is god wants you in that situation because it's an opportunity to watch god do something amazing but you have to trust him. That's how you get to the best year ever, or you're just gonna have the same year over and over and over again. And some years, it's gonna be same verse, you know,

same as the first, a little bit longer, a little bit worse.

So, he's challenging him. He's challenging him to do this and when when he says that, think about it. Philip already replied, we don't have enough. Simon Andrews, Andrew says, what good will what little we have do? Man, the only one that really trusted Jesus, little boy.

Think about it. He's not, he's smarter than him. He has more faith than he's smarter because there's like what? 10 to 15,000 people there and he's the only one that brought any food. He was the only one that said, you know, know that Jesus man and the crowd, he gets going and this is gonna take a while.

I'm gonna pack a Filet O Fish and go out there with it. And so he brings it with him. He's the only one that was smart enough to bring food, but then he was the only one that was filled with enough faith to say, you know what? I trust you, Jesus. You want my lunch? Here you go. Everyone else is arguing with him.

He's willing. I often wonder when Jesus is sitting like, we don't have enough. It won't do anything. And this boy is going, here you go. It doesn't say. What was Jesus' facial expression? How did he respond? I often wonder in these moments if Jesus just didn't do this.

Anybody have ibuprofen? I got a headache like there's no headache.

Because what he says next is interesting. He goes, tell everyone to sit down. He basically said, alright. You don't think this is gonna work? Let me show you this boy's willingness to do what I'm challenging you to. He's more focused on who I am, not what he has. And let me show you.

And when he says tell him to sit down, that's powerful. That's so powerful in this passage. When you read the Bible, it's amazing, especially when you understand it's written in Greek, the New Testament is, and so the language can mean more than what it seems to say. That, tell everyone to sit down. There's different terms in Greek that tell everyone to sit down there is to sit down literally means to sit,

to recline, to eat a meal. You see in our culture, they didn't sit at tables like we do. So when he says to sit down, it's not just sit down, I'll figure this out. He's like, get into your eating positions.

So, it'd be like for us, it wouldn't be like, alright, sit down guys. We'll eat in a little while. We'll figure this out. He it would be like, hey, get in line at the buffet. Here, grab your plate. You go around that way. Here we go. He wasn't saying we're feeling. He's like, time to eat.

And and and imagine what the disciples like, wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. You're telling them all to sit down to eat. What's gonna happen? You're gonna did you get what? How is this gonna work? And and and then look, it says, he goes, you know, sit down. And then verse 11, then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to god.

What do you think the disciples were thinking as he prayed that? Lord, we thank you for this meal. He's like, they're I bet you anything. Andrew's like, he won't be thankful after the second person and the food runs out and we have a riot on our hand, then he won't be thankful. We'll be running for our lives.

You know, that's probably what they're thinking. He's thanking god. And then he says and he distributed the then distribute them to the people. There's another. In the other gospels, we learned that how Jesus distributed,

it wasn't Jesus walking around. He did exactly what he said. You're gonna feed the people. And you're gonna take what I was given,

and I'm gonna pass it to you because they split them up into groups, and you're all responsible for a group. You're gonna take the food to the people. That's how it worked. So imagine what's that like. Every time Jesus does a miracle like this, when you read in the Bible where where where resources lasted, it's not like all sudden he just dropped a huge truck full. Like, it's not like it rained Happy Meals from the heaven. It was more like, you get the idea that it probably happened more like this. He just started tearing off, here. Here's bread for you. Here's bread for you. He's like, wait. There's only five loaves. And all a sudden, he gets to the sixth disciple. Here's one for you. Here's one for you. Here's one for you. Judas, here's one for you. But we're gonna talk later. And then and then then they they just keep going. And then think about it. He starts handing out, then they go out and give it to people. They come back. They give it imagine what it's like, like, wait. That we should have ran out a long time ago. How is this even possible? And Jesus keeps going. Here you go. Here you go. Hammond's like, bang bang bang bang bang bang

bang. And all of he looks like Buddy the elf a snowball fight. And he's just tossing it to him. And they're keep going. They keep going. They keep going. And imagine what it's like for them.

They're like, what in world is going on here? This isn't possible. Yes, it's not possible under what you can handle with what you have, but it is definitely possible if you give what you have, what Jesus asked you for to him and let him do it. He'll hand it back to you and do something through you. That's how life works. That's how to have the best year ever.

And because look, look at what happens. I love this. He goes on. It says, afterward, he did the same with the fish, and they all ate as much as they wanted.

And he says, after everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, now gather the leftovers. They ate so much as leftovers. So they kept passing up, passing up people, all taking their loaf bite. They got to the point that they weren't just ordinary full. This was like Thanksgiving full.

You know, the type of full that that you're the meal is not over when you're full. It's over when you hate yourself. That's the kind of full they were. Because back then, you didn't turn down food. If you were so full, you're like, here, take this loaf back. Take this fish back, I'm not eating it. You were

filled to the rafters full. And then they had leftovers. Why did Jesus keep going? Why did he know? He knew. Says, remember? He said he already knew what he was gonna do. Verse 13, I think, is the most powerful part of this whole story. And most of us have missed it whenever you've read this or heard it taught.

Because in the beginning he goes, I already know what I was gonna do, I'm testing my disciples. And look what it says in verse 13. So they picked up the pieces and filled 12 baskets with scraps left by the people. How many baskets? 12 doggy baskets. Not bags, baskets. How many disciples were there?

Jesus already knew what he's gonna do. Here Philip, remember we said we didn't have enough money we couldn't do this? Here's your doggy basket, which ironically is more food than we started with. Andrew, we can give but it's not gonna work. How do you like them apples?

There's an apple in there, go ahead. Here you go, here you go, here you go. And he probably looked at that boy, gave him a wink. Good job. Faith in a child. See, the child had one thing over the adults in the room. He focused on who Jesus was, not on what he had. How about you? What

in your life are you focusing on what you have, not on who Jesus is? So you won't trust him. You won't trust them. You're holding back. It's gonna change everything. Where in your life are you saying, okay, I get it. I'll do that when I get. What is it?

Seriously, because here's the thing. Jesus knew He had to prepare these guys. He wanted to stretch their faith just like He does. He put them in these situations.

So if you focus on Jesus, then they can accomplish everything God asked them to do. And you realize Jesus goes on to tell His disciples, which includes those of that know Jesus' day, he goes, when I go and I send the helper, the Holy Spirit,

you're gonna do greater things than I did. And what do mean by greater? God the greatest. God died for us. God saved us. What he's talking about, he's referring to these little miraculous things, the feeding of people, the the helping needs, pointing the people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. He goes, you're gonna do things of greater numerical value. You're gonna do things that are even bigger than this. And we look at this story and go, feeding of 10,000 people at one moment in mirror. You know, Jesus must be talking metaphorically

or something. There's no way at one time we're gonna just all of a sudden, miraculously, we're gonna be able to feed all these people and do greater things.

How many of you were here a couple weeks ago when we we did the feed my starving children? Anybody here to pack the things? Yeah, we we did boxes, and and and we and what it is is it's to send food out to areas of the world where kids don't have food.

And so we do this, you know, we did it this year, and we did this this one day. We started in the evening, then the next morning.

And you know what, we packed, and we packed these boxes, and some of us packed more than others, my two, but okay.

But you know what, Jesus fed 10,000 in one time, so that's 10,000 meals, right? We packed 110,000 meals in our event. Do the math. What did Jesus say? We would do greater. How many meals did we just do? That's 11 times. 11 times. And you know how that happened? Because everyone in this room that gave the little they had,

some of us gave a couple hours of time, and every one of us that gives financially to this church, that's where we bought the supplies from.

That's where it came from. If you gave in the missions box, you could tell, some of you took it serious. We do those mission boxes every year. I go, it's a great thing to teach your kids about this. And I saw parents coming. You taught your kids, you come in. They wanted to give you their dollar, their $2, their $3 Guess what that did?

It fed kids. That little became much in the hands of Jesus. 110,000, but you know what that comes out to? 300 kids get fed for the entire year. An entire year, 300 children that were starving. That is 300 children about to have the best year ever. Because

people were choosing to be faithful so Jesus could be famous. And here's the point. Jesus did it, but how did he do it? Just like in the story. He did it through us. That's what he wants for us. That's what he wants. So, guys, that's why I'll never apologize

for challenging you to give. I will never apologize for challenging you to serve. I'll never apologize for for to find the meaning of what Jesus asked us to do, not to come to church, but to be the church, to go point people to him by loving him the way he loved because he promises he'll pour his power into that. In our life, we'll have meaning. We'll have the best year ever. Matter of fact, when I started this church, my biggest prayer for us, I said, god, no matter what we do here,

may we be a people that where we get so engaged in trusting you, that you take our little and you make it much in such a way that if they were to write the history of this area years from now, they couldn't write it honestly without mentioning Rock Point Church.

And to follow-up with that is not just because it's about us. I want them to mention us, and I wanted people to look at what's happening at this church and scratch their heads. Not go, of course, they could do it. They're right. But say, how did those guys do that? How were they how was that even possible?

We want that Philip question. We want them to say, I didn't think that was possible, but they did it. How? And I don't want the answer to be because they're incredibly mucher gifted oratorical skills of their really good looking lead pastor. I don't want that to be the reason. That might be true.

Just kidding. But that's not the reason.

It needs to be because everyone of us took the little we have, and when Jesus says, here's what I want you to do, and it sounded impossible, we just believed him. We just believed him. And then watch what he does through us. And when you see god work through you, all the anxiety of the little things start to go away.

Or you can hold on to your little, fight with God, try to live this Christian life kinda half in, half out, half blank. I won't say that word. And and and and and and live it that way. And you're gonna be frustrated, fearful, not content, not full. It's it's not gonna work. You wanna eat till you're full?

Focus on who Jesus is. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna close with a song. It's a little bit different. It's the end of the series.

What we're gonna do they're gonna sing, we're gonna put the words on the screen, but the first time through or so, I'm not inviting you, you don't have to stand up and sing right away. What I'd like you to do is turn this into a reflection moment.

Reflect on the words of the song because the words of the song really do sum up what we're talking about here. And ask yourself, where in my life am I focusing on the what? What I have, what I don't have, what I need more of, instead of the who. Who is Jesus? He's God. You can trust him.

And then as as as you do that and you do some business talking to God, if you get to that moment, you're like, I I get it. I want this. Maybe you can start singing, but don't sing it like you're just singing a song. This needs to be your prayer. Let this be the cry of your heart that I want the best year ever.

And

Jesus

you don't owe me anything I just want you

And I just sang another song. Take me back to where we start. I open up my heart to you.

Anything and more than anything that you can do I just want you

I just want you. And nothing else. And nothing else. And nothing else will do. I just want you. And nothing else and nothing else

Jesus you don't owe me

anything

Is that the cry of your heart? Can be. When you can just realize that nothing else will ever do. Don't pursue Jesus because you think you need something else. Pursue Jesus with what you have and what you are because there's nothing else but Jesus. In other words, you wanna have the best year ever, the best life ever?

Simply cry out, I just want you, Jesus. Father God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you that we can cry out, we just want you because you chose us. You chose to love us when we're unlovable. You chose to pursue us when we ran. But Lord, over and over and over again, every time we run, we find out

that wherever we go, you are already there. Now, when you ask us to do stuff that seems impossible, it is. If it's all about us and what we have but when we focus on you, we open the door to our hearts, the opportunity to experience more than just what

And that's you. That Lord, these challenges you do are out of your grace and your mercy and your love.

And Lord, we do understand that I know in my life, every time you challenge me with a scary moment, I need that moment. Maybe not for what's now, but for what's next. You're preparing me for what's next.

So, lord, I pray for myself and every person in this room as we go from here. If we take nothing else from this this moment, this holy moment, may we take away a cry in our heart that says, I just want you. And I thank you that we can do that and I pray this all in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.