John: Power Through Vulnerability

Maybe seated.

So uh John chapter six, we're still going through the book of John for now.

And so um this story is the story in John chapter six, Jesus is crossing the Sea of Galilee.

And so this is this is a big lake in northern Israel.

And so if you can picture just a big lake, picture Lake Lanier, um kind of barren hills kind of rolling up out of the lake, and so uh Jesus has crossed the lake with his disciples, and he he has gained kind of a bit of a following at this point.

He's done some of these miracles we've been reading about, and he's teaching some.

It's kind of this new revolutionary teaching, and so um, so people are following, people are interested.

They're following behind him, and so the his disciples get across the lake and they're sitting up on the mountainside, and kind of the way it reads, almost like maybe this is somewhere they they go regularly, we're not sure, but they're up there and they're doing whatever.

I don't we don't know what they're doing.

They're playing tic-tac-toe or taking selfies, or we don't know what they're doing.

They're up there doing, so they're hanging out, and then they he looks up and he sees a crowd coming.

He sees the crowd coming, and he knows what he wants to do.

It says that in the passage.

He knows what he wants to do, and even more so, he knows what he wants to teach through what he wants to do.

And so we jump in at verse 5.

It says, When Jesus looked up and he saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?

And he asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was gonna do.

And Philip answers him, it would take more than half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite.

And so Philip didn't have any bread.

He wasn't sure how this was gonna play out.

Andrew doesn't have any bread, but Andrew he goes and he finds this boy, and a poor, probably a poor, a poor boy because he had a poor little lunch.

This is five five loaves of barley bread, two fish.

This is a poor, this is a poor lunch.

And so this is this is what they have: five loaves, two fish.

Five thousand people.

I mean, so you I mean picture yourself that the the the challenge before you is to feed five thousand people.

You have five loaves, two fish.

I mean, what this is like, this is this is like being on stage at the Fox Theater, 4, uh 678 seats.

You're on stage and you have four little rough pieces of bread, two little fish, probably just enough just to kind of smear over the bread just to get a little bit of moisture so it's not quite as bad.

And and you just start in row one, seat one, and and you're and you're gonna make it to like seat three.

And then there's four thousand six hundred and seventy-five other people.

It's a great impossibility.

And the disciples knew this, that Jesus was putting before them something they could not do.

It was a hopeless situation.

So uh we get back from Orlando over New Year's, and so New Year's Eve, we get home the next day.

I have my schedule, I get kind of, you know, I get my schedule, and I want to accomplish all my things in the day, and so I have my chores, my errands I'm gonna run, and I get out to the garage and I go to crank up my car, which has been in the garage for a week, and and it's it's it's gone, it's dead, right?

I mean, there's like a little, but there's not much, and and so I go back in the house cranky, my car's dead, it's ruined my day, you know, I'm gonna have to deal with this now.

And so Josie's kind of intrigued by this, my little five-year-old little engineer mindset, and she said, Your car is dead, and she hadn't heard this before.

What is this?

What you know, and and I said, and I realized quickly she's gonna like this.

What's about to play out?

That little five-year-old engineer brain, she is going to love what she's about to see.

And so I said, Well, why don't you come watch this?

And so I take her out and I pull Christy's car up.

We know this, right?

I pull her car up to the front of my car and get them parked.

What are you gonna do?

And I said, Well, my car's dead, it won't start.

There's no there's no power in the car.

And so I pulled Christy's car up, and we get the back of Christy's car, and we're looking at all the secret compartments, which she didn't know about, and she thought, oh, that's pretty cool.

No jumper cables back there.

We go to the back of my car, find a secret compartment.

She loves, and I'm thinking next time this compartment's open, there's gonna be a bunch of little Barbie dolls and markers and stuff in there.

But I get the jumper cables out, and we pop the hoods, I pop Christy's hood, and I pop my lifeless car's hood over here, and I read, I need to read the directions of which one to connect.

I always I don't know if y'all so I read, you know, red and red, black and black, and I'm you know, connect and connect, and she's over there.

It's like, what?

You're connecting the cars?

I mean, what?

I mean, I mean, imagine if you've never seen this before.

And so connect, connect, connect, connect, and go and crank up Christy's car, and then go to my car, and I'm like, babe, here's what's gonna play out here.

This is we are taking power from from mom's car, and we are we are connecting it and moving it over to my car.

And and I I crank and cranks up.

Beautiful, right?

The issue, the issue was never that there was no power.

The issue was where was the power and and could I connect, could I connect to the power?

And could I bring it into the dead area that I had?

And Joe said, well, what do you call what do you call that?

What do you call the, what do you call that?

I said, Well, jumper cables.

She said, Well, that's like a that's like a like a sharing rope.

Like you share the power.

I'm like, that's probably better than jumper cables, actually, now that I think about it, a sharing rope.

Here's point number one.

I have two points this morning.

Point number one, um, this is not groundbreaking, by the way.

This is a kind of basic core Christianity, but it's something we need to just hear over and over and over again.

There are resources beyond ourselves.

And isn't that just, I mean, at least for me in my life, I mean, just to hear that there are resources beyond ourselves.

And sort of there's just part of me when I say that, and I kind of flash back to maybe having heard certain sermons, you know, raise up your five loaves and your two fish, and you've got a big house.

You know, I mean, just raise them up, you know.

You know, God will come and bless everything you do.

Just raise up the little you have, and you'll just, you know, you'll just be blessed.

You'll have money, you'll be healthy.

That does not happen.

That, well, first off, it doesn't really happen that way.

Um as it happened with me.

I don't know, I don't know if that's working out for you.

Um that's not what this passage is about.

It's not about like some prosperity of our physical wealth.

This is about an inner prosperity.

That becomes more and more apparent as we get into the chapter.

I mean, I was just thinking about this this week.

You know, I mean, thinking of past failures, I mean, stuff I don't even mention.

I mean, I had this failed online business, and Christy and I were talking about this week.

It was horrible.

It was right when we got married.

I mean, it was embarrassing.

It was, it was, it left me curled up on our bed weeping.

I mean, that's where it left me.

That's the end of a long story for another sermon, but that's the end of it.

And I was raising up five loaves and two fish, and and I ended me curled up on the bed weeping, is where it ended me.

I mean, this idea of taking this passage, five loaves and two fish, and just saying, you know what, this is prosperity, you know, this this is God will prosper you physically, monetarily, big house.

You'll be just raise up your effort, and everything's gonna be great.

This is so Americanized.

I mean, I was watching the news this week.

I mean, are we really gonna tell a child in the Central African Republic right now where the Muslims and the Christians are killing each other?

Are we gonna come to a child in that country who's watched their family be killed?

Are we gonna come to her and say, you know what, just raise up your five loaves and two fish, he'll give you a big house?

That's what we're saying over in our country.

At the end of that news broadcast where they interviewed her on NBC, she prayed to forgive her the enemies that killed her mom.

And then she prayed for her own forgiveness.

It's not reality.

But what what this passage is talking about, it's talking about something so much deeper, so much a kingdom bigger than nations, a kingdom bigger than situations, of how prosperous we are in some latter.

It's about an inner, inner prosperity.

Something that can never be taken from you.

Maybe you're here, there's some great impossibility before you.

Some feeling of meaninglessness, purposelessness, you're not quite sure which direction to take, where you're gonna head, and maybe your job's not as fulfilling as you want it to be.

I mean, maybe here's some addiction.

Can't you you know you should eat, but you you starve yourself?

Or maybe you can't stop eating, or maybe you can't stop looking at something you shouldn't be looking at.

Maybe it's a difficult child, and you just think there's I just can't even, I can't even, I can't even deal.

I can't even I don't have the resources in me to deal with this child.

And it feels like trying to feed 5,000 people.

Maybe it's marriage tension, betrayal.

I mean the idea of trying to forgive somebody who has wounded you.

Maybe it's not a wound recently, maybe it's a wound from childhood.

You haven't forgiven that person who victimized you.

And and you don't have to go and condone any of it, but to forgive it would bring such freedom to your life, just to say, I'm done with that.

They don't owe me anymore.

But but to get there, the resources to forgive that person, you look inside of you, God, I don't have that in me to forgive that person.

Maybe it's just a broken heart from a loss, from a disappointment.

And and we and it feels it feels like trying to feed 5,000 people.

That's what it feels like.

You don't know where to turn.

You know the resources aren't in you.

Jumping back into the story, verse 11.

Jesus then took the loaves, he gave thanks, he distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted.

He did the same with the fish.

When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, gather the pieces that are left over, let nothing be wasted.

So they gathered them and they filled twelve baskets with the pieces of five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

And so a miracle played out here.

God, Jesus multiplied the food.

There was enough resources in his power to multiply the food to feed the people.

You imagine all these people sitting there, maybe they've been following Jesus crossing the sea, they're sitting there, they're getting hungry, they hadn't been in a village, they're getting hungry, and they start to see the disciples hand food out, and the food starts to be distributed across, and you're sitting there, you're waiting.

You know how you're at a big you're at a big wedding, you're waiting for your table to be called to get to the buffet?

You're just sitting there waiting.

I mean, you can see the food, it's coming, but you're not there yet.

That's that feeling these people would have.

And then for them to be able to eat as much as they wanted.

And I'm hoping, I don't know, maybe reading into the story a little bit, what I'm hoping for is that Jesus, when he multiplied it, maybe he helped it become a little bit better and tastier, so it wasn't like these five poor little pieces of crunchy bread with like smeared fish on it.

Maybe it was like some really great buttered yeast, you know, rolls.

Anyways, it was good enough that they ate their full.

And there was more than enough left over.

There's a more than enough resources left over.

Here's what we tend to do.

What we tend to do with that need we have of the need for patience, the need for fulfillment, the need for righteousness, the need for contentment.

We we tend to say to God, and maybe we don't say it with our words, but we say it with with with the attitude of our heart and with our actions, we say, I have this.

Have it.

This forgiveness that I need to offer to somebody, this this um this contentment, this this feeling of loneliness, this I have it.

And and God is just waiting for us to get honest.

For us to say to him, I don't have this.

I don't have it under control.

And and when we can do that, then he then he says, I can now bring power into the situation.

See, there's this sharing, sharing rope, this jumper cable.

And see, God made himself vulnerable to us in Jesus, and that it allows the heart of God to be connected to us.

Here's the second point.

You're not gonna like the second point as much as the first point.

The first point was the really great news.

There are resources beyond ourselves.

The second point is not quite as good, and it tags on to it.

The first point, there are resources beyond ourselves, but it comes by vulnerability.

Philip has nothing.

Andrew has nothing.

All they have is this embarrassing little lunch.

I mean, you imagine bringing this to this kind of like well-known, he's kind of becoming a you know, hotshot rabbi.

I mean, people know him.

There's 5,000 people following him, and you go, hey, here's here's my here's my lunch.

I mean, this isn't Houston's.

This is this isn't even Chick-fil-A.

I mean, this is this is the hot dog at QT.

Like this is this is what I come to bring.

So you can back to the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, uh, verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs will be the kingdom of God.

See, we believe that material wealth, social status, you know, being first, strongest, the most courageous, this will, this is what if I project this, if I become this, if I project this, this will be the way forward.

But it's an illusion.

Wealthy people, poor people, middle class people, influential people, non-influential people, you know, you know what's common here?

Insecurity.

That's what's common here.

Doubt.

That's what's you know what?

It's people.

It's people.

Blessed in the poor in spirit is about just becoming honest about who we are.

And it's not to say we grovel in our guilt or we grovel on how horrible we are.

It's not just saying here's the honest thing is I'm a valley of dry bones, I'm a dead car battery.

I need power outside of myself to move forward.

And Jesus comes in, he turns the world upside down with his teachings about about how this is done, that it's not, it's not raise yourself up, pull your own bootstraps up, but it is about becoming poor in spirit.

And I'm hearing this this week, and I'm thinking about it, and this is scary.

This is very scary to a um independent, self-reliant.

You can you can do anything you set your mind to.

You know, project project a good image.

To become vulnerable?

Because what what I'm hearing this week is is is uh until you become vulnerable, your relationships will be shallow.

And I feel this all the time.

I mean, I've had lunches with a bunch of you people, uh dinners.

Do I do I expose myself?

Or do I just project some performance?

Do I let people in?

Do I let my wife in?

Like really?

Or do I sort of and then guard a little bit?

But here's the thing, see, the connection and the intimacy and the fulfillment that we want in life, not just in the marriage, but in friendships and in community, all of that is done by vulnerability.

This is true with people, it's true with relationship with God.

So the thing that I want, connection, fulfillment, the thing that I want comes by the means that I resist.

Vulnerability.

Just raw honesty.

I don't have this.

I don't have it all together.

What I have is I have five loaves of this horrible little bread, two fish.

Listened to a TED talk a couple weeks ago by this PhD researcher.

She's researching social work and sociology.

Her name's Brene Brown.

And so she was researching, years ago, she started to research shame.

And then out of that, she started to research, and eventually her research moved to vulnerability, but it came by the means of, she started to study people who have a strong sense of love and belonging.

So that's what she went after.

I'm gonna go study people who have a strong sense of love and belonging, regardless of religion or socioeconomic, and I want to find out, I want to find out what's what's in common here.

And here's what she discovered, years of research, here's what she discovered.

And she's presenting it at a TED talk.

Here's what she found.

They had the courage to be imperfect.

They had the courage to be kind to themselves and other people.

And connection with people was a result of authenticity.

They fully embraced vulnerability.

And it wasn't, vulnerability was not weak, it was not shameful, it was just necessary.

This TED Talk has 13 million views.

You can build an empire off of 13 million views of a TED Talk.

And I'm watching it and I'm going, this is really good.

This is not groundbreaking.

This is blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

This is why it has 13 million views.

She stumbled upon something.

She stumbled upon truth just by researching people.

What's interesting about it is it ended her up back in church.

A secular academic had ruled that out.

See, what we see in the gospel is we see that God did for us what we're not willing to do.

He became vulnerable to us when we were not willing to be vulnerable to him.

And he comes in his humility and in Jesus Christ, he humbles himself, belittles himself, and dies for us.

The great act of vulnerability.

Verse 14, after the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, Surely this is the prophet who's to come into the world.

Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, he withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

So these people, they're hearing all this, they see all these miracles, and what they're thinking is, these people, Jewish people under the reign of Rome at the time, they're thinking, I want free of Rome, is what I want.

And I want him, that guy with this power to free me from Rome.

Forget the inner, like Jesus is the bread of life, that message.

What I want is I want freedom from Rome.

And so their plan was is we're going to make him king, and Jesus knows this, and so he just moves away from anything of that.

Because he came for a kingdom bigger than nations, bigger than America, bigger than Rome.

I mean, use any of that, but one day our country won't exist anymore.

Do you know that?

You okay with that?

Um, the kingdom's bigger than America.

And one day America won't ever be here, and the kingdom of God will keep going.

This is a this is about a bigger kingdom.

This feeding of the 5,000.

He uses it to teach something greater.

We get that in verse 32.

He clarifies it.

Jesus said to them, Very truly, I tell you, it is not Moses, and if you want to get into that, there's a whole sermon that's kind of tied to last week.

It's not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven.

What did Moses give?

The law, the moral law.

That's not the bread from heaven, by the way.

That's not where life is.

Life is not in the standard of righteousness.

It revealed something to us.

It reveals how we should live, but we don't live up to it, so we need the bread from heaven to rescue us from our condition.

And so that's what Jesus is saying.

It's not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it's my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

And they said, Sir, always give us this bread.

And then he declares, it's me.

I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

What do you need to do?

That's always a question well, what do I what do I do?

What do I do?

You need to believe.

You need to place faith, move, shift faith away from yourself into what God did for you in Jesus.

I don't know your great impossibility.

I'm learning mine.

Sometimes it feels so ridiculous to catch myself doing something or thinking something.

I'm like, really?

Really?

Am I still operating that way?

I mean, that's how I operated when I was 14.

When I was in seventh grade, that's how I operate.

Am I really still doing that?

I catch myself.

Am I really thinking that?

Am I really about to do that?

Our way forward is extremely scary.

I mean, whether it's for you personally, whether for your family, for us as a church, our our way forward is extremely scary because it is not about raising up a banner of our strength.

It is about becoming vulnerable and honest.

So that people go, oh, okay.

I don't have to be perfect either.

Oh, so I could be there.

I could be with those people.

We need bread, we need inner feeding.

It's God Himself that we need.

We get it through His Word, we get it through His Spirit.

As we place faith in Him.

Everything does not become perfect.

But He begins to feed us, feed our souls with living bread, and we find our worth more and more and more in Him.

Let's pray together.

God, we thank you that you will take these little five loaves of bread we have and two fish and our meager efforts to feed ourselves and feed people around us and feed our family and feed a career and feed purpose and feed all these all these great impossibilities we have before us.

We're so thankful that there are resources beyond ourselves.

And yet, God, we would confess we are so independent and prideful and so scared when it comes to being vulnerable with anybody.

Being vulnerable with you?

Would you give us the courage and the faith for raw honesty?

That we might know you more.

That we might know your love more.

And that your love might produce great power in our lives.

And ultimately, this is for your glory and for your kingdom.

We pray this in Jesus' name.