The Gospel Feeds

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You made it through rain and one less hour.

Praise the Lord.

You should give yourself a hand clap for that.

Raise your hand if you got small children, too.

I mean, y'all take a look.

These people are heroes.

That's a lot.

That's a lot.

Man, we're thankful you're here this morning.

Want you to turn your Bibles to Mark chapter 6.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

I'm thankful on a rainy day with one less hour, there's visitors in the house.

And uh, we are thankful that you chose to be here.

And uh look forward to getting to know some of y'all better.

Uh in Mark chapter six, the only sermon.

That was good, Dave.

That was a good introduction to this.

Callie and I share a similar love and weakness.

And I know that y'all want to know about our weaknesses, so I'll tell you.

I had some experience with some of my other weaknesses this weekend.

One was a cinnamon roll, and it got the best of me last night.

I don't know if you know about the twice-baked cinnamon roll, but I put it back in the oven at 350.

It was beautiful.

That was beautiful last night.

Well, Callie and I really like Texas sheet cake.

I think we got a picture of Texas sheet cake that you can see, uh, maybe.

Anyhow, uh, we love and enjoy some Texas sheet cake, and Heather will make that a couple of different ways.

But on one occasion, Texas sheet cake was sitting there, and I know that I had two or three pieces so far.

I think it was made on Saturday and it was Sunday, and it was dwindling fast.

And so I looked over at Callie and I'm like, how many pieces of this cake have you had?

I was like, was it three or four?

She's like, No, I'm like, was it five, six, seven?

I'm gonna keep going.

Was it ten?

Ten pieces of Texas sheet cake.

Now you gotta take a look at her and know that must be an extreme weakness.

I was thinking about that cake, and you guys, you got some stuff like that.

You may be doing really good on your health and fitness, but there's like a kryptonite.

I have some kryptonites like that, and I'll just lose it.

I'll just lose it on this stuff, and I, you know, I'll lose a week's worth of work.

But I looked at that cake and I was thinking over this question.

What are you feeding on?

Because you are feeding on something.

Aristophanes said this hunger knows no friend except its feeder.

Say that again.

I think it's worth pondering.

Hunger knows no friend except its feeder.

Pray with me.

Father, we love you.

And we thank you for the opportunity we have this morning to be in your house.

I thank you for everyone, Lord, truly, who came out this morning with one less hour of sleep and in the rain and is faithfully here.

And I thank you for those visiting, God.

We're asking from the windows of heaven, Lord, that you pour out a blessing, that you would feed us.

God, get us out of the way, let your word do its work, and I pray for just a few moments, God, that you would just fill our hearts with exactly what we need.

You know every need that's in here.

You know the person and the soul that's here that needs a special touch from you.

So, God, I pray that you would feed us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

In Mark chapter 6, we're going to look at verse 30 through 32 as we open.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

I want you to see in opening, Jesus sees sensitively.

Look there at Mark 6.

That's the first point.

It says this, then the apostles gathered Jesus, gathered to Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught.

And he said to them, Come aside, the King James Version says, Come apart by yourselves to a deserted place, and rest awhile.

For they were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.

So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves.

Letter A is this the need of solitude.

It must be important that we cover this, because in this Gospel on the Ground series, I think this is the third time that we're coming to this point of restfulness in the ministry.

So we're gonna keep hitting it as it hits Scripture.

But he says, Come apart by yourself to a deserted place and rest.

And that passage that we just read comes after the events of Mark 6, 13, and I'm gonna read that, and then 27 through 29.

Why did he tell them to come apart by themselves?

In verse 13 of Mark 6, it says, And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

So they were doing a lot of ministry.

Verse 27 through 29.

Listen to what it says.

Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought.

This is talking about John the Baptist, and he went and beheaded him in prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.

When his disciples heard of it, they came and took away his corpse and laid it in a tomb.

These events came prior to Jesus' meeting with them, and he says, Let's let's come apart.

We need to come apart.

You've been going and ministering back and forth, I hadn't even had time to eat.

This has happened to John the Baptist, and Jesus recognizes that there is a need for solitude.

He sees with sensitivity.

Jesus knew his men needed rest to their bodies if they were going to be effective in their work for him.

So he takes them across the lake so they could be re-energized.

I want you to think on that.

God did not design these bodies to go like sometimes we force them to go.

So full of activity that no one could possibly get everything done and wake up the next morning with a daunting task of the list that's before you.

I think that it's come up three times in this study, it's matters so much because we're so tired and we are so busy.

If you're here today, most of you, if I'd asked you how you're doing, those words might have come across.

God expects us to take the times that our bodies need for rest.

If you don't rest, I've learned this in life.

If you don't rest, your body will make you.

You'll get sick, your body will make you lay down, it'll make you sit down, it'll make you rest.

But this is interesting because if you consider the seven-day week, it was not man's observation on the calendar to make the seven-day week.

That was God's plan.

And God planned it with an interval of rest.

In Genesis 2, 2, and 3, you can see it.

He said, God decreed that man should work six days and rest one.

Vance Habner said this: if we don't come apart, we will come apart.

The day of rest is a gift of grace.

It made me consider this example of Elijah, right?

Ministry and life is sometimes mountains and valleys.

And in the picture of Elijah, Elijah was working for God, living for God.

He was a man of God, and he had this struggle between the prophets of Baal, and there was a challenge.

And he went up to the mountain and one man against 850, and God brought down fire from the mountain and licked up the altar and everything.

And this challenge was over.

God showed up.

The fire fell at the mountain.

Elijah was done.

He gets on his way, and all of a sudden, a day or so passes, and Jezebel sends a nasty letter.

It's like you had the greatest day of your life, and the next day at work you got an email.

Anybody had an email that ruined your day before?

You're like, what do they mean by this?

Right?

And so he gets this letter and he goes from the mountaintop with the fire experience of God and he goes running to the woods.

I don't know what that letter said, but it must have been nasty.

Must have had a loud exclamation points, emails, you know what I'm saying?

Or dot, dot, dots.

What do they mean by that?

And all of a sudden he's in a cave and he's going before God and he's he he has a moment, he even kind of like pouts, I'm the only one that's standing for you, God.

And in this moment, interestingly, how God reaches down and shepherds Elijah.

In his moment in the cave, God doesn't say, get up.

You gotta have more energy.

Did you see what just happened against 850?

The fire of God fell.

Now you're the man of God, go.

He says, Lay down and sleep and have some cake.

Right?

This shepherding takes place.

The fire fell, this letter comes, and Jesus doesn't say, You gotta go, you gotta fight.

He says, You gotta rest and you gotta eat.

Letter B, I want you to see, is the need of shepherding.

Look at verse 34 in Mark 6.

And Jesus, when he came out, saw a great multitude, and he was moved with compassion for them.

Because they were like sheep not having a shepherd.

So he began to teach many things.

I want you to turn over.

We're gonna look at uh some of the words from John on Jesus and his shepherding and their need.

In John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

Jesus was moved with compassion for the crown.

John 10.

I want you to see the enemy's ideas against us.

It says, the thief does not come except to steal, John 10, 10, to steal, kill, and destroy.

I have come that they may have life and life abundantly.

Now go down to verse 14.

He says, I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I am known by my own.

As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep, and other sheep I have which are not of this fold.

Them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

Jesus says, He says, I am the shepherd of the sheep.

He was moved with compassion over the crowd.

Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.

His heart was to shepherd people.

Many of you know Psalms 23, which says, The Lord is my shepherd.

Hebrews 13, 20 says this, that he is the great shepherd.

In 1 Peter chapter 2, it says he is our shepherd and our bishop.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

He is the pastor over the pasture.

In 1 Peter 5, 4, it calls him the chief shepherd.

And I want everyone here to understand, you're not an island.

Everyone here needs shepherding.

Everyone has that need.

But as Jesus looked out over the crowd of 5,000, it says in verse 34 that Jesus was moved with compassion.

Now remember, they had been ministering and going back and forth, and he took the disciples on a boat ride across the other side, and the crowd moved with him.

They ran the lake with him and got around to the other side, and he gets to them, and Jesus doesn't look at the crowd and go, Oh man, more church.

It says he was moved with compassion by the big crowd.

But don't miss this.

He took the disciples apart because they needed time.

So his shepherdship, if you will, was not just over a crowd of thousands, it was also over his inner twelve.

I think about that.

That's like his connect group.

We have a crowd here that is great today, and I love this.

I'm gonna have 14 or so at my house tonight, unless you come and join me.

Could be more.

And I love that small group.

I was thinking about camp experiences.

We used 17 years we've been taking kids to camp, and the summer camp is this huge.

I mean, bells, whistles, everything.

There'll be over a thousand campers, and it's awesome.

It's loud, it's big, it's fantastic.

And the results, there may be a couple of hundred that come to Christ, or lots of big things, and then we do a winter retreat, and it's smaller, it's intimate, it's almost never more than a hundred, even when we've combined with groups.

But there's something special about that intimacy in that small group that is hard to even define the way that the spirit shows up in that group.

And so Jesus looked at this crowd, and he's moved with compassion over the crowd, but he had compassion back here with his twelve.

Heather and I went to Tennessee Temple and we went to a church there that had about 2,000 or more people.

And the services sometimes were like just robust and energetic, and they had a choir and they had an orchestra, and there were things that I'll know if we'll ever get to experience like that again, that it was magnificent.

And then last week we went to a funeral at the Or Street Baptist Church, and it was so sweet, and it was so precious, and we went to a conference that had 300 married couples that were pastors and pastors' wives and people that represented churches of all sizes, and we sat at a table almost the whole conference with John and Renee Mooney, pastor of 25 people.

And I learned more sitting with this gentle-spirited man and his passion for his 25 that has not waned.

And he's like, oh, that God would just give us some help.

And he there was no lack of passion over that 25.

And so I thought and thought about this, and I love Sunday mornings, but I love Sunday nights, and these things bless us.

I think the largest service that I preached at was a graduation service.

I think there were 800, maybe a thousand.

It was at Cornerstone Christian School.

I came in the kitchen last week and I saw my wife one-on-one with a small girl teaching her how to cook.

And I'm telling you, the big crowd was great, but that moment, seeing little Eve in her apron, so excited about a cinnamon roll.

That was shepherding.

That was ministry and its greatest.

And somebody told me a long time ago, it's not about what you're missing, it's the one in front of you that's the victory.

That's shepherding.

Jesus was moved by the big crowd, but I'm telling you, he loved his moments with his disciples.

Jesus had massive opportunities.

Evangelistically speaking, these meetings that were happening, like it was revival, it was a great awakening, it was all of it rolled up into one, like a moment nobody had ever seen before when he was preaching.

People being healed.

I mean, the the what was happening in that moment must have been such a large movement with people talking everywhere, and yet Jesus kept saying, We've got to come apart.

And he'd take his twelve and he'd pour into those twelve that mattered so much.

One of them was Peter.

I thought about Peter.

I want you to see something Peter wrote, and I'll give you some context in a minute.

Go to 1 Peter chapter 5.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

Shepherding.

Peter here writes the book on shepherding.

Says 1 Peter chapter 5, the elders who are among you I exhort.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed.

He says, Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

Peter writes the book on shepherding.

But remember this Peter quit the ministry once.

Peter had been shepherding, or he would have been being discipled.

And Peter says to Jesus in that upper room, everyone might deny you, but I will never deny you.

Not me.

And Peter then denies Jesus three times, and he goes off to himself and he's done.

He taps out.

He is so sick of Peter.

Anybody ever felt like this?

Like my want and my do have not matched.

I'm tapping out.

Paul talked about it.

The thing that I wish that I did, I can't do, and the thing that I don't want to do, that's what I do.

Like, you've ever felt this tension?

The Bible says the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

I'll come down on Sunday morning, I'll pray, I'll say, God, I'm going to change, and Monday hits, and the email hits.

And I go, the flesh is still there.

And so Peter taps out and he's over there and he's fishing.

He goes back to what he knew.

And Jesus finds him in this sweet moment and he pulls him back in.

And he has this conversation with Peter and he says, Peter, do you love me?

Three times.

He says, Peter, do you love me?

Do you love me?

You know what his answer is to that question to Peter?

He says, If you love me, feed my lambs.

If you love me, Peter, feed my sheep.

Feed my sheep, Peter.

Well, a big feeding is just over the horizon.

Jesus is about to feed 5,000, and it's going to be a supernatural thing.

I want you to see that.

That's point two this morning.

Jesus feeds supernaturally.

I thought about things being in Jesus' hands versus my hands, right?

If you put a basketball in my hands, it's worth about$19.

It may depreciate in value in my hands.

In Michael Jordan's hand, there was a time where it was worth$33 million a year.

If you put a baseball in my hands, it's worth about$9.

If you put it in Shoei O'Tani's hands, it's worth about$70 million a year.

Isn't that insane?

I thought about David and his slingshot.

In my hands, it's a pretty good toy.

In David's hands, it was a giant slayer.

And I thought and thought about these things.

Five loaves and two fishes in a lad's hands were a lunch.

And I want to remind you, church, in God's hands, in the world's hands, a cross is a torture device meant to take lives.

In the hands of Jesus, it was the redemption of every person in history.

I don't know if you've come to the cross, but I want to tell you, in God's hands, that thing can change what you think might be unchangeable.

Here's a question for you as we move into the miracle.

What if you were in the very center of God's hands?

What might he do with your life?

Let's look at letter A, the disciples and their faulty solution.

Mark chapter 6, 35 through 37.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

So Jesus sees the crowd and he's moved with compassion.

They're going towards the crowd, and when the day was they have done a lot of ministry, verse 35, and they get to this point.

When the day was now far spent, his disciples come to him and said, This is a deserted place, and already, Master, the hour is late.

Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat.

But he answered and said to them, You give them something to eat.

I want you to look at the disciples' faulty solution there.

They see a need, they see the needy, and their solution for the needy is get rid of the needy, and we will have gotten rid of the need.

It made me think about how many of you grew up having, if you grew up in church, you had services on the ground Sunday.

Anybody have something like this?

I had we had anniversary on the grounds at least once a year for the Anniversary, but we had some other on the grounds, but on the ground service meant this to a nine, ten-year-old.

We were going to church, and it was double the church.

Right?

We were going to church in the first service.

We would have a nine o'clock, there would be a speaker, they would have some kind of singers, and then we would have a second speaker that got up, and maybe some singers.

And then when we were done, we would go and we would have lunch.

You know, and I want you to know we're Southern Baptist Church.

We have a robust legacy of eating together.

Somebody said to us once about CCW, if we meet together, we eat together.

Amen.

And so we would go eat.

It would be in the gymnasium in the Christian school or sometimes in a tent, and we would have fried chicken, God's bird, and then we would have every manner of casserole known to man.

And my nine-year-old self was ready to explode.

And then you know what they did?

They said, let's go back to church.

And we would go back to church.

And this would happen about two o'clock, and we'd be in church from then another two services.

Somebody would preach, singers would sing, somebody else would preach, and I'm over there, like I am about to die.

Cause of death at nine years old, overchurched.

That's what it would read.

I died of church.

This is the disciples on this day.

They've been ministering.

It has late into the evening, and they're having service after service.

And they're seeing it, and I think at first they were excited.

That first round of music and that first round, whatever, and it was exciting.

And finally, they're looking at each other and like, have you eaten?

I hadn't got nothing to eat.

And finally they're like, We gotta get something to eat.

We've had all this church.

And so they bring it about like it's the other people, right?

They don't go, uh, Master, we're hungry.

You know, they wouldn't say that to Jesus.

They go, Master, all these people are hungry.

We should probably let them go.

We could end the church service, right?

They're getting hangry and tired.

They want the service to come to a close.

This was good, this was great.

The second wave was good, this was great, but we hadn't had dinner.

Some of y'all getting hungry for lunch, me just talking about it.

I see it on your face.

You're like, all right, Pastor.

You want to wrap it up.

Jesus sees these people hunger.

I think this is exciting.

The red letters in my Bible say this.

Well, you give them something to eat.

Jesus and the disciples acknowledge the same need, but the solutions are very different.

The disciples say, Well, let's get rid of the needy and we get rid of the need.

And then when Jesus says, Give them something to eat, I want you to see what they say.

Look at verse 37.

Ephrey says, You give them something to eat.

And then they said to him, Shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?

But he said to them, How many loaves do you have?

So immediately they begin to count the personal cost and what it will cost them to meet a need.

Hear me, church, there's lots of needs all around us.

And what many people will do when a need comes across their way, they begin to count the personal cost to them, the time to them, the effort to them, the energy to them, the finances to them.

Everyone here, church, should be giving to needs.

I hope that as you grow spiritually, that you'll be obedient to be a giver and to give to the needs.

But the disciples look at the needy and they can't fathom trying to meet that need.

My neighbor gave a testimony in our connect group, and he's here today.

And he was convicted as he heard preaching, and I want to share it with you from Malachi chapter 3.

Malachi 3 · chapter mention

He said, The pastor got up and said, Will a man rob God?

And conviction struck him.

Look at Malachi chapter 3, verse 8 through 10.

Malachi 3:8–10

Will a man rob God, yet you have robbed me?

But you say, In what way have you have we robbed you?

And tithes and offering.

You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation.

Verse 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house.

Hear that food, and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts.

If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing that there will not even be room to receive it.

In the Old Testament, tithe was a standard that was given, and it was God's, not anyone else's.

It was understood that you, as a steward or a manager of life, were given 90% to your life, and 10% was always given back to God.

And I want to share this with you.

Where your heart is, the Bible says, there will your treasure be.

But in Malachi, God almost says it in this way try me in this.

It was if God said, See if you can outgive me.

And he says, I will open up the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing that there will not be enough room enough for you to receive it.

How many of you raised your hands and said, I'm in for that?

Preacher, sign me up.

Is there a list out there?

Is there something on the app, Benji?

We need to sign up for the blessing so much that I cannot even receive it.

And hear me, listen, if you're visiting today, I'm talking mainly to our covenant members, but the principle helps anyone in life, the principle of being a giver and the principle of meeting needs.

But we sign a covenant of membership here at the church that says, I will be a giver.

And God says, when his people give, that he gives provision back so much that we can't receive it.

And then it further says, and I will rebuke the devourer for your sake.

Not only provision, but he says, I will rebuke the enemy for your sake.

He says, try me in this.

I don't know of any other passage where God is saying, try me in this way.

And I want to say this, and I want to say it because it's real and it's truth.

And if it makes you uncomfortable, I'm sorry, but if you're not giving, it's disobedience to God.

If you're visiting, it's important spiritual truth for meeting needs.

We don't have an expectation of you, but if you are a member, we do.

There's an agreement, there's a covenant.

Do you believe in that?

And here's what I want to say to you as a shepherd, as a pastor, would you prayerfully just consider what God would have you to do?

Why?

We want to meet needs.

We want to be a church that meets needs.

You say, well, that's that's Old Testament, Pastor.

Tithing is Old Testament.

Well, turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 16, real quick.

1 Corinthians 16 · chapter mention

This is New Testament.

Now, tithing is spoken of, spoken of in the New Testament, but it's not spoken of in the same manner.

The word giving comes into play.

1 Corinthians 16.

Now, concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the church of Galatians, so you must do also.

On the first day of the week, let each one of you lay aside something, storing up as he may prosper, that there may be no collections when I come.

And when I come, whoever you approve by your letters, I will send to bear your gift to Jerusalem.

But it is fitting that I go also they go with me.

So this principle is that it's done periodically, and it's done in proportion to what you've been given.

If our question is this, here's where I'm at, and I'm going to move on.

How little can I give and still please God?

Our heart is looking like the disciples looked at the matter of the needy.

How little can I give and please God is approaching the need with what is it gonna cost me?

Pastor Rick, if God would just give me more, if I just had the disciples, you want us to give all of this.

We've been saying week after week, the gospel on the ground is finding a physical need and meeting a need so that the spiritual door can open.

What are you doing with what you've been given?

God made you a steward, you're a manager.

Okay?

Some have 10, some have 20, some have 50, but you're a manager of what God's given.

And so we need to meet needs.

21st century hospitality, hear me, church, has not changed from the way that your parents grew up.

Hospitality is ever more needed, and the church is poised in a position to meet needs.

Here's four responses to a need.

The first response, this would be good for you to write down.

The first response to a need is apathy.

There's plenty of apathy in the world we live in.

Apathy is there's a need.

I don't really care.

That's not up to me.

The second response is sympathy.

Sympathy is a word that, in its definitions, is a harmony of feeling.

You see a need and you understand how somebody feels.

You have felt that way before.

That's sympathy.

I've felt that because I've been through it.

That is a response to a need.

I have sympathy.

Empathy is a little different from sympathy, it's a stronger emotion, and that is that you actually hurt with them.

Somebody's going through something, you see their need, and you feel that with them.

Well, the last one is what Jesus represented in Mark 34, there it says compassion.

Compassion is possessing the same feeling as others, but moved with a desire to help.

That's what Jesus, when he saw the crowd, when he moved over and they saw them running the lake, it says he was moved with compassion.

He hurt with them over their hurt, and he saw it, and he wanted to move to do something about it.

Jude 22 says, And some have compassion, making a difference.

You want to make a difference?

Be moved with compassion.

Well, let's see what they ate.

Let's see what happens.

Verse 38 through 41.

Let her be is the shepherd's fitting supper.

But he said to them, How many loaves do you have?

Go and see.

And when they found out, they said, Five and two fish.

Then he commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass.

So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties.

And when they had taken the five loaves and the two fish, he loaded, he looked up to heaven, blessed, and broke the loaves, and he gave them to the disciples to set before them.

And the two fish he divided among them all.

So they all ate and were all filled.

So where did this come from?

The supper.

The lad with the lunch.

The lad said, I don't know how this looked in the crowd.

I don't know who went looking, but here's this kid.

I've got some food.

And the size of the gift never seems to be a significant part of the story.

This kid has five loaves and two fishes.

I wish some of you parents this week would send your kids to school with five biscuits and two sardines.

I wish you would.

And I'd love to hear the stories.

Wyatt is balking for football, and this past week, one day, Heather sent him with four sandwiches.

And he ate them all.

That was not for the whole cafeteria.

We're not talking about a miracle.

The lad had his lunch.

Regardless of what this lad had to give.

He said, I have something.

I have something to give.

Can you imagine?

Five, it says 5,000 men.

Don't talk about the women and children.

Here's a lad.

I've got some food.

I'm willing to share.

Remember the widow in the New Testament?

It says she gave her two mites.

It was never about the size of the mites.

It was never about the size of his sacked lunch.

It was always about the heart of the giving one.

They were willing to give.

So I say this to you, church, we're not asking you to do something crazy.

Do what you can do and put it in God's hands.

Do what you can do to meet needs.

I've said to our staff about CCW, our church, if we cease to exist, what would be missed in our community?

How would the shepherding of CCW be missed?

What footprint would be looked at through the teens and the children and the families in our community that go, you know, we used to have this met, and there used to be this church.

What would be missed if CCW ceased to exist?

How are we shepherding our community's needs, church?

And I'm not talking about our staff, we're part of it.

It's us, our church, everyone, the whole body.

How are you?

How are we meeting needs in our community?

Do we see a need and do any of us feel like the disciples?

Let's get rid of the needy.

Let's not talk about my year's paycheck.

Let's how do we approach needs?

Jesus didn't need five thousand biscuits.

He needed one sweet-hearted lad.

Jesus wants the biggest heart, church.

And I know this church, and I want to say this, there are some big hearts.

And man, I'm thankful.

I know some of this may feel hard, but this church is so giving and so sweet.

And it is unbelievable what God has done through you on this piece of land in Westover.

It's not even Westover, at Harpersville, says the mailbox.

The 90 acres that we have, these buildings that we have with barely any debt, is God's people.

And the hundreds, if not thousands, of people that we get to minister to happens because of the heart of this people.

And I'm so thankful to be a part of it.

God's not looking for 5,000 biscuits.

He needs a big heart.

Well, it's interesting what Jesus does here.

He begins to organize the people.

It says they're on green pastures.

He sits them down in hundreds and in fifties.

Where else have you seen words like that?

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He what's he do?

Makes me lie down in green pastures.

I started thinking about the whole process in fifties and hundreds.

I'm doing division.

There's 12 disciples, there's groups of 50s and hundreds.

Each of them has a church of 400.

Right?

Right there on the ground.

If there was only 5,000.

But there they are, and they're in green pastures.

I think that's important.

Well, look at verse 41 again, and I want you not to miss what happens in this special moment.

It says, and when he had taken the five loaves and the two fish, look at this.

I would highlight this, I would keep this.

He looked up to heaven, blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them.

Jesus looked up to heaven.

That word for looked up means he received sight from heaven, and then he blessed.

The word for blessed is eulogio.

It's the same word that we get the word eulogy, and it means to praise and bestow thanks.

Not the bread.

When we say the blessing, a lot of people say, let's bless the food.

Let me make sure that you understand.

We are not blessing the food.

We're not going to the food and say, oh, wonderful pot roast.

We're blessing the one who provided the food.

And so we give the blessing.

And the blessing is to the one that provided.

It says he blessed his father in heaven.

We say the blessing.

We give thanks.

In fact, the word eulogio is thanks, EU, and a geo is logos.

Words to God.

Thanks to Lagos.

The word for blessing literally means thanks to God.

Every blessing you have, every time you say blessing, it is a thanks to God, the word itself.

And then verse 41, he goes through this process.

I don't want you to miss the process as he looked up to heaven.

His eyes to heaven, here's the process for the feeding of 5,000.

Eyes to heaven, mouth to praise, hands of Jesus.

Your eyes to heaven, church, your mouth to praise, and you put it in the hands of Jesus.

I'm giving you a process here.

If you want peace, if you want to lie down in green pastures, if you want to be beside still waters, he says, eyes to heaven, mouth to praise, and put it in the hands of Jesus.

How many of you here have a real need today?

You're going through something.

You got something in your life today.

You've got a storm, you've had a struggle.

He says, Eyes to heaven, mouth to praise, hands of Jesus.

How many of you need to be fed today?

My eyes to heaven, my mouth to praise, put it in the hands of Jesus.

How many of you need a change today in your life?

It can't stay the same.

He says, Eyes to heaven, mouth to praise, put it in the hands of Jesus.

Here is the process before the miracle.

Eyes to heaven, mouth to praise, and in the hands of Jesus.

Well, look at point number C or letter C.

The crowd is fully satisfied.

Look at verse 42 and 43.

So they all ate and were filled.

And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish.

Now those who had eaten the loaves were about 5,000 men.

All eat, right?

He takes the loaves, he prays, he thanks God for what's about to happen.

He takes his hands and puts it into the disciples, and all of a sudden, every mouth on that hill, every mouth in that grassy place was fed, and then there were fragments left over.

They all go home with to-go trays.

Anybody had a grandma that went to the buffet back in the day?

Remember the little napkin?

Anybody had grandma like that?

Napkin?

She put some rolls and stuffed them in her purse.

Y'all know what I'm talking about.

I'm sorry, you kids that don't go to buffets, you missed a good time watching grandma.

Put it, put it, put it right there.

They all went with their to-go trays.

It says they were full.

The word for fool there is hortazo.

This is neat, you want to know about this.

The root of the word hortazo, for fool, is the word hortaz, and it means a place of growing grass.

To be full, hortazo, the root is a place of growing grass where grass may grow, where an animal may grow.

The Lord is my shepherd, he makes me to lie down, you know what the word is?

In hortas.

Green grass is a place where I can be full.

If we went out today and I saw a grown adult laying in the soccer field, you know what I would think?

They don't have a care in the world.

They have no burden.

They're just laid up in green grass.

Why?

They don't care.

They must be content.

They don't care what somebody else thinks, they don't care about nothing.

They are experiencing green grass.

If I see you on the hill by the clock tower at Chelsea Park, I'm gonna think you don't care.

You are okay.

I might think you're crazy.

He says, to experience green grass, to be full, is to know that the Lord is my shepherd.

You know what that psalm continues?

He says, He leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.

They were satisfied.

These people that met with Jesus, and this need meets with them, they were satisfied.

Now the disciples, let's not miss them, they were fully satisfied, and they were sanctified in the moment.

They had been shepherded by Jesus.

And now they were given the opportunity, and here's where me and you maybe stand.

They were given the opportunity to serve people in great need.

Jesus put the food in their hands, and they were a vessel.

They were a vessel with food.

And every time they reached into a basket, and there was one roll in that basket, and they handed it to Benji, they looked down, and there was another magical roll, and they handed it to Brent, and they looked down over and over and over till 5,000 were fed.

They saw miracle after miracle.

And guess what?

They got to be the Servants of it.

When the Lord is your shepherd and you listen to and follow him, you are a vessel.

You don't know how sometimes, if you will just say yes, the thing's gonna happen.

But if you say yes to God, and your heart is the biggest heart, I'm not saying you have all the things.

He will provide and give and use through you.

And so they grew through this miracle.

What a great day in ministry.

Don't you think they talked about this later as they went?

Did you look down in the basket too?

Another roll.

And I look away, and another roll, and we fed, and we fed and we fed.

Is that not the heart of ministry?

Church staff ministry, don't we just want to feed and meet people's needs?

Over and over and over and look at God and go, I don't know how you did it.

God, it wasn't me.

It was you again.

Well, I wanted to share these last couple of Bible verses about that.

We should have a picture of them.

1 Corinthians 3.9 says this church, for we are God's fellow workers.

We are God's field, we are God's building in this.

And Ephesians 3.20.

Now him, now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

God is able to do more than you can even imagine.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit working in you, if you will commit to be that tool, that vessel for Him, the disciples got to experience that.

They were sanctified as the crowd was satisfied.

Well, the famished, we look again, we're satisfied.

Jesus fed every hungry person physically, and Jesus will feed every hungry person spiritually.

John 6.57 says, He who feeds on me will live.

John 4.14, he was talking to the woman at the well, and he made this statement: Whoever drinks of the water that I give, that person will never thirst again.

What does he mean?

Paul explained it in Philippians 4 this way.

He said, I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.

That contentment, that lying on green pastures, I can be content.

And you know what Paul said before he got to content?

He said, I know both how to be abase and how to abound.

He said, I can be I can be low and I can be high and still be content.

I can be physically full.

Why?

Because of Philippians 4 13, that we all misquote in a whole lot of ways.

He said, I can be content whether I'm high or low, because I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me, which means I can be content.

I can be full because of Christ.

Not because of the world, not because of all the other things, not because of my account, not because of a relationship, but Christ makes me content.

It's the only thing, church, that makes the whole in this heart content and full.

He says, You want to be full, you want to lie down in Green Pastures and be shepherded by the Lord, the one who is your shepherd.

But I think so often we're trying to be shepherded by everything else.

The Lord is my shepherd.

He feels.

Well, I saw this photo again this week, and I wanted to bring it to your attention.

The Vulture and the Child.

Some of you have seen this in magazines.

This photo won Kevin Carter, the most prestigious award that a photojournalist can receive.

He won the Pulitzer Prize.

His photo was taken in the midst of a famine that was in the Sudan.

And it depicts a child who mustered the energy and strength to take a few steps, as that child was about half a mile from a feeding center.

Kevin Carter caught this picture.

And as you look at the background, it's luminous because there's this vulture looking on to see if its prey will give it an opportunity to feast.

Well, the photo, meanwhile, when Kevin went back home and he had won that prize, it catapulted his life on the other side.

It soaked up all kinds of attention.

And here are some words that he sent to his parents.

He said, I swear I got the most applause of anybody.

He wrote back to his parents.

I can't wait to show you my trophy.

It is the most precious thing and the highest acknowledgement of my work that I could receive.

Editors at all kinds of major magazines wanted to meet with Kevin Carter.

Kevin Carter signed with Sigma, a photojournalist company that represented 200 of the world's top talents.

There were very few that had ever reached the pinnacle that Kevin Carter reached.

Kevin Carter, in a moment, looked at the epitome, church, of worldly hunger through the eyes of a child in famine.

Don't miss this.

Hear this.

Two months after Kevin Carter received the Pulitzer Prize, the highest prize, reaching the pinnacle of his world.

Two months after receiving that prize, Kevin Carter got into his car, full from the world.

Full as he could be.

Yet he was starving.

And in that car, he decided to end his bout with hunger.

And he left this world.

Two months after receiving the world's highest prize.

I want to read to you two scriptures in closing.

In John's version of the feeding of the five thousand, one day, he's teaching after that lesson that took place.

Jesus is, and Jesus says to the disciples, John 6, 27, do not labor for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.

And whoever comes to me will never hunger and thirst again.

I will fill you past all satisfaction.

Church, you are going to be fed today.

What are you feeding on?

We're excited you joined us for today's message.

Our heart is to connect with others in our community, to grow with one another, and build a bigger kingdom.

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Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.

We hope you'll make sense to join us in person on Sundays.