An Encounter with Jesus: Activated Faith

Come on, hey, can we just give it up one more time for

our Kids ministry? And I'm an awesome BBS, so proud of Pastor Kaylee

and Kayla and Grace and our whole kids seem all the volunteers that came out.

We even had our kids pastor from the Spokane campus drive all the way

over and serve all weekend here. Just an awesome, awesome church win,

good job venture church, wait to go pump. And also I hibernated for

about twelve hours after that, but that does not matter. Hey, welcome

to Bench Church. Thank you for joining us online. If you're here,

joining us as well. Minu is Morgan Butcher blessed to be one of the

pastors here at our Mill Creek campus, and I'm glad to have you here

this morning as we are winding down our series Encounters with Jesus, only a

couple of weeks left in this series. Have you guys enjoyed this series?

It's been going. I feel like it's been going for a while. But

before we do that, you just saw the highlight of VBS and one an

incredible win. Ten kids baptized, one hundred kids giving their life to Jesus,

I mean, praise God. The next event that we have coming up

at the church that we're really excited for, specifically with our next Gen team,

is Pastor Johnny is getting ready to take our largest group we've ever taken

in the history of our church to Summer Camp, our junior, higher and

high schoolers. I think we have about seventy kids that are getting ready to

go to summer camp with the Northwest Ministry Network. And I actually want to

give our church an opportunity to help make sure that every kid who wants to

get to camp can get to camp. These prices of camps have gone up

over the years, and the prices have gone up over the years, but

let me tell you that it's the same Jesus that's transforming lives at camps.

And I was a youth pastor for ten years. I saw firsthand the life

transformation that can take place in a kid's life by attending one of these camps.

And we do have some needs and families are in needs of a need

of some assistance getting their kids to these camps. And I want to just

give us an opportunity to partner together and say, hey, let's get them

to camp. Okay, there should be no excuse then every kid can't get

to camp. And so if you go to the Venture app right now and

you click the give now button, there's going to be a drop down menu,

and at the very bottom of that menu is an opportunity for you to

give specifically to scholarships for summer camp. They leave next week and we still

have about ten or twelve kids who are wanting to get to camp. We

need to raise around twenty five hundred dollars and I just believe that we can

do it. I believe that every kid is going to get to camp.

This here, amen, and so let's work together as a church and let's

get these kids to camp. Lastly, before we dive into the message,

I do want to just acknowledge what is obvious news to everybody, as you've

heard by now, yesterday in Pennsylvania there was an at ten to assassination of

our former president Donald Trump. And to be honest with you, I was

driving down to the Kenny Chesney concert and heard the news, watch the videos.

Was in shock, and I haven't even fully wrapped my head around all

my thoughts or what occurred yesterday. But here is what I will say,

Church and here's where we come together. If you have not taken time already

in the last couple of years to get on your hands and knees and pray

for our nation every morning, the time is now. I heard it said

said once that a divided nation desperately needs a unified church. And the way

that we unify together as a church is we do that through prayer. And

so I want to encourage you to spend time this week. Wake up ten

minutes early, set your alarm clock ten minutes early, get on your hands

and knees, Pray for the unity, the loves, the peace of our

country. Pray for the protection of all leadership of all people in our country.

That was an evil, wicked act, and we will stand against that,

and we will pray against wicked acts in our country and in our world.

Amen. And so let's pray. Let's pray that God's people unite together,

and that God comes and intervenes on behalf of our world today. I

want to dive into the message though Matthew. Chapter fourteen is where we're going

to be In my Bible, it's titled Jesus Feeds five thousand. But before

I dive into that, let me pray and then we'll get going. Are

you guys with me this morning? Here we go. I'm ready, right,

here we go. Let's pray. Father, God, thank you so

much. Your word is alive, and it is active, and it's already

transforming people's hearts to God. This morning, I pray that we would lean

in and God, even as we do that, God, we pause for

a moment, and we do God. We even start right now as a

community of believers, we pray for our nation. God. We pray God,

would you bring your peace in your reconciliation. God, would you bring

unity where we feel like unity is impossible. God, we know that you

hold the world in your hands. God, all things are possible through you.

And so Father, we ask for you, by your spirit, take

irvine on behalf of your people. God. We need you, God,

we desperately, desperately need you. God. We love you in Jesus name.

And everyone said, hey, man, let's get into the word.

Chapter fourteen of the Book of Matthew, Jesus feeds five thousand. Here's what

it says in my Bible. Maybe it says the same in years. Here's

what it says. When Jesus heard what had happened. He withdrew by boat

privately to a solitary place. Why is Jesus withdrawing to a solitary place.

Well, if you read what happens right before this in my Bible, it

says, John the Baptist is beheaded. I'd go away to pray too.

John the Baptist, the individual who baptized Jesus himself. He's mourning over the

death of his friend, the brutal death of his friend. He's going away

on a boat to pray in a solitary place. And hearing of this,

the crowds then followed Jesus on foot from the towns, which I'm sure was

a little counterintuitive to what Jesus was trying to do, going to a solitary

place. You ever, like just tried to get away, and if you're

a parent, you know like you can't. They're like, there's no safe

place. That's real, that's real. When Jesus landed and he saw a

large crowd, he had compassion on them and he healed the sick. He

healed each and every person, and evening approached the disciples came to him and

said, this is a real place, and it's already getting late. Send

the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.

And Jesus replies, and he says, they don't need to go away.

You give them something to eat. We have here only five loaves of

fish, five loaves of bread, and two fish. They answered, Bring

them here to me, he said, And he directed people to sit down

on the grass, taking the five loaves and two fish, and looking up

to heaven, and he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave

them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They

all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up the twelve basketfuls of

broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about

five thousand men, besides the women and children. I recently heard a story

of this English teacher who was teaching her class old proverbs, not like proverbs

from the Bible, but you know, like the old ancient proverbs that are

handed down from generation to generation, the mini sayings that we have used over

the years. And then she was teaching them that all week, and next

Monday came and she put it to the test. She wanted to know how

well these kids had remembered these old sayings, these old proverbs, and she

put them to the test. And here was the test. She said the

first half of the proverb, and then the class was supposed to write down

the second half of the proverb. And I thought that I would just share

with you some of the answers that the teachers got from her students on that

quiz that day. Maybe you've heard of some of these proverbs. Maybe if

if you know them, maybe you can say them out loud. It's always

darkest before. That's a good answer, But I think you're wrong. Actually,

this student said it's always the darkest before I wake up, which is

probably true. How about this, don't bite the hand that wrong looks dirty.

Don't bite the hand that looks dirty is actually the correct answer. If

you lie down with dogs, you'll stink in the morning. How about that

wisdom An idle mind is boring? Okay, I like this one. A

penny saved is not much. It's really not a whole lot. It's not

gonna do you much good. Here's one, two's company threes, the Musketeers,

all for one on one for all. Baby, If at first you

don't succeed, get new batteries. I have a feeling that kid was playing

video games the night before. Here's my favorite, when the blind leadeth the

blind get out of the way. Let's get out of the way. Even

though the students in this class had studied these sayings all week leading up to

this quiz, when the quiz came, they had trouble getting the answers right.

And if you've been following along in this series, what you might be

realizing by now is that even though Jesus, Jesus's disciples were walking with him

everywhere he went, even though they were watching him and learning from him,

and they've been following him for months and months on end, and everything that

they're doing, he's doing, they're paying attention to, and they're seeing and

they're drawing the wisdom from him from months and months and months, they still

had trouble getting the answers right. Think about all that the disciples would have

seen in the time that they'd been with Jesus, even just up to Matthew

chapter fourteen, where we're re today, the disciples would have witnessed Jesus healing

a leper, Jesus healing the servant of a Roman centurion. They would have

witnessed him healing Peter's mother in law. Think about this, the disciples would

have witnessed Jesus raising a girl from the dead. How crazy would that be

to be in the room when Jesus raises this girl from the dead. They

had seen all of this, they had heard his teachings, they had heard

his wisdom, they'd followed him every they'd seen his power up close and personal,

first hand experiences that they documented themselves in scripture. But now it's late

in the day in Matthew chapter fourteen, and it says that they're out on

a hillside in the middle of nowhere. In other Gospels, it records the

same passage of scripture, the same encounter with Jesus the Feeding of five thousand

and another passages of scripture. It literally tells us that Jesus went away on

a boat to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, to a place

called Beseta. Besaieda would have been a boat right away, and so when

it says that Jesus arrived on shore, it implies that Jesus has taken this

boat to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Here's the problem of

about trying to escape to a solitary place and the Sea of Galilee on a

boat is that the Sea of Galilee is more like a Lake of Galilee.

It is not all that big, and you would be able to see exactly

where the boat is going to the other side of the lake. And so

as it says, the crowd followed to where Jesus was, they could kind

of see where he was going, and they follow him around. And now

they're in the middle of nowhere, in this remote place on the other side

of the Sea of Galilee, and we've got a bunch of hungry people on

the hands of the disciples and Jesus and the disciples they're practical men, okay,

they're very simple men. And seeing the crowds gather, they've been out

there all day. These people have come from far away. They're away from

their homes, they're away from any sort of food or anything like that.

Jimmy John's is not right down the street, right, there's no freaky fast

delivery. Okay, they are in the middle of nowhere and go to Jesus

and they're like, dude, we got to wrap this up. Man Like,

people got to go home. They got to get something to eat,

like we've we've got to we've got to tighten up the show. It's like,

it's like Pastor David when we go over on a service too long,

right, He's like, come on, you gotta like wrap it up.

And then Jesus says the most unusual thing to them. He says, they

don't need to go away. What do you say? He says, you

give them something to eat? Oh oh, Jesus me. Well, this

would seem like a practical solution to the problem at hand, except for a

couple of things. There's a couple of problems here we've already talked about.

There in the middle of nowhere, there's no shops, there's no homes,

there's no places for people to find food to eat. Right then and there

in this place, it was going to take them a while to get back

to any place where there was food. And not to mention, Scripture says

that there are five thousand men, and sure does this. Often when they're

counting groups of people, they will oftentimes count the men in the crowd,

and that doesn't necessarily give us a full picture of the crowd that was gathered

there. Most scholars believe that five thousand men would equal anywhere between fifteen and

eighteen thousand people that were gathered to be with Jesus this day. How'd you

like to go away for a day of solitude and have fifteen thousand people show

up with you? Like? Okay? And not so much. When we

look at the same exact story in the Book of Mark, the same recorded

story from Mark's perspective, he shares with us another part of the conversation that's

happening. When Jesus says that they should feed the crowd. The disciples begin

to talk to themselves, and they talk to Jesus and they're like, Jesus,

that would take eight months of our wages, not to mention that we're

following you. We don't even have jobs, and you don't pay very well

Jesus, Like, there's no four to one k, there's nothing, And

they say, are we to go spend that much money on bread and give

it to them to eat? They're starting to wonder, like, how how

were we even going to provide for this? Now? The Book of John

records the same story from a different perspective, and John says that Jesus has

been speaking with Philip when he's telling them that they should feed the crowds.

And in John six six it says this. It says he asked he being

Jesus, Jesus asked this only to test him, for he already had in

mind what he was going to do. And when I got to looking into

all the miracles that Jesus had done up to this point in the Gospels,

I suddenly realized what was going on. Up to this point in time,

Jesus has been doing all the work. Think about it. Jesus has been

teaching the people. Jesus has been the one ministering to the crowds. It

was Jesus who got up on the shore, saw the needs of the people

and began healing the people around him. Jesus is the one who raised the

people from the dead, and the disciples they were there for all of it.

Don't make no mistake. But do you know what the disciples were primarily

doing with Jesus while all of this was going on. They were watching,

They were witnessing, They were seeing what was happening. They were learning from

what Jesus was doing. They were observing everything that was happening, and what

Jesus was doing in their midst and all of a sudden that begin to make

sense what Jesus is doing here. It's a test. This is a test.

It's like the teacher who set the stage for her class by citing the

first part of the proverb and then expected to fill in the blank afterwards.

In the same way, Jesus has set the stage for his disciples. He's

given them what seems like an impossible situation. He's confronted them with nearly fifteen

thousand hungry people, and he tells the disciples to feed them. And this

is the question that is on the test that Jesus hands to the disciples.

How are you going to feed them? And how did disciples answer? Well,

we know that the disciples they began to consider how much money it would

cost for their wages, how much money would cost to get that much bread.

And they think, well, we don't have enough money. Wrong answer.

They think, well we only have two fish and five loaves. Wrong

answer. And if those are the wrong answers, what was the answer that

Jesus was looking for? Can I share with you what I think that answer

was that Jesus was looking for from the disciples that day, which is perhaps

a lesson that we can learn in our lives today. The lesson that I

think Jesus was trying to teach the disciples that he's also teaching us right now

in this moment, is that our job is to give Jesus what we have

and to trust that what he returns into our hands is more than enough.

Let me say it again, give Jesus what you have and trust what he

returns will be enough. Church. I've seen this so many times in my

own personal life. There have been so many times where I felt like what

I had was not enough, that maybe even the person that I was was

not enough. There have been times where income just didn't seem like it was

enough to cover all the expenses. Amen you been there. There have been

times where I didn't feel like I had the skills or the abilities to accomplish

the goals or the tasks that were in front of me. There have been

times where I didn't think that I was a good enough leader to lead through

the certain situations that were in front of me. There was a time when

I didn't think that I was prepared or good enough to be a father,

and I was kind of right on that one. But here's what I have

learned firsthand, over and over and over and over again in my life.

It's that when I am faithful to place what I have into God's hands,

he is faithful to take what I have and give and return back into my

hands. The belief, the provision, the skill, the aptitude, the

courage, the belief that it is more than enough for my life. He

gives something back in when I trust what I have in my own hand in

his hands. Let me put it in basic math terms that are actually more

like god math terms. If God wants seven and you have three in your

hand, if you are faithful to give three, he will add four.

If you have four, and he'll add three. And no matter what you

give him, can I tell you that He is capable of adding or subtracting

whatever he needs to get the desires for your life that He wants for your

life. Hebrews eleven six. This is our memory verse for the week.

It says, without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone

who comes to him must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who

earnestly seek him. Church, if we earnestly seek his involvement in our plans,

in our life, in our situations, in our struggles, in our

roadblocks, even when we feel like what we have is nothing much to the

bring to the table. Can I tell you, friends, he fills in

the gaps. His strength will make up for our weakness. And that right

there is the essence of faith. Amen. That's it. Jesus is teaching

the disciples and us today an important lesson about faith. Jesus performed an incredible,

incredible, incredible miracle that day as thousands of people were fed from five

loaves and two fish. But while all these people are being fed, Jesus

was also teaching the disciples some important lessons of their faith that they would ultimately

need in the near days to come in their life. The first thing that

Jesus is teaching them and he's teaching us today. And here's the news that

you probably need to hear in your life. If it hasn't happened already,

there will come a day where God will test your faith. There's going to

come a day where your faith is put to the test. Can I just

tell you God wants to mature our faith? How sad would it be if

the essence of our faith started as a mustard seed, and it stayed a

mustard seed our entire life. Can I tell you that God desires for that

small bit of faith that He planted in your life the moment that you knew

about who He was. He desires for that to grow in your life,

for it to sprout, for it to dig roots, for it to grow

high and deep and wide. He desires for our faith to mature, and

in order to get us to do that. In order for our faith to

mature, he often puts us in situations where there seems to be no way

you ever been there. There seems to be no man made solutions for what

we are going through in life. And that's what Jesus is doing with the

disciples. Here. He had put in front of them a situation that they

could only accomplish if God did a miracle. There is a British missionary by

the name of Hudson Taylor, and I think he summarized at the best when

he said this. He says, unless there is an element of risk in

our exploits for God, there is no need for faith. In less there

is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need

for faith. Do you know what he's saying? If we could do it

all by ourselves, what would we need God for? We wouldn't. This

is one of the things that I admire so much about our lead pastors who

are away on sabbatical right now. I admire Pastor Brandon and Diabeel so much

because over the this fall will be seventeen years of me Nicole being here at

Venture Church. And over those seventeen years we have witnessed over and over and

over and over again. We have seen story after story unfold of watching our

pastors make bold and courageous not just little baby faith steps. I'm talking like

huge faith leaps, believing that God would come through for our church. It

was not too long ago that the very place that you sit in right now

was nothing more than an old, dilapidated dome building that was quite literally falling

apart. We'd have a thousand people every week come through that building, actually

more than a thousand, a thousand people on a Sunday come through that building.

Can I just tell you there was never a building established that was put

on septic, that was made for a thousand people. Not even God can

create that, right, that building was falling apart under our feet. We

were running it into the ground, and we knew full well there was no

long term future for our church to stay in that building. And I remember

sitting in the room when the decision was communicated to the team that even in

spite of not having a loan secured for a new building, in spite of

not knowing what the future would hold, we were going to demolish the existing

dilapidated building so that we could begin the process of believing and hoping for the

building that we are sitting in today. And I have the video of standing

on the property and watching bulldozers tear down the building, and I was watching

it last week and I can hear my voice in the background and I'm literally

saying, well, there's no time back now, right, And church hear

me say, That's what faith is all about. That's it. It's trusting

God to do something that we cannot do on our own, trusting God to

provide a solution even when we are haunted with the reality of not knowing what

the future holds. But friends, if you have just a little bit of

faith, and you can surrender what you have and seek God to be a

part of the solution. Hear me say, you and I can believe for

the impossible. And it is in that risk that God stretches our faith.

Because unless there is an element of risk in our decision, there is no

need for faith. There's going to come a time where God will test your

faith. And maybe you are facing a health diagnosis in your life right now

and the doctors don't have an answer for you. Maybe your marriage seems irreparable.

Maybe your kids are so far from God and you are like, I

don't even know how they're going to make their way back. Maybe you're facing

financial crisis. Maybe you just lost your job and you're like, God,

I don't even know how You're going to provide for us. And you're sitting

here wondering, God, how are we going to get through this? Can

I just ask you a simple question today? What do you have? Because

if you even have a small amount of faith, if you even have a

small amount of courage, do you have a just a little bit of time

to give hear me this morning, surrender what you do have and trust that

what He returns into your hands will be more than enough for what you need.

God will test your faith friends. But what Jesus is also showing us

here through this encounter with him is that he tests your face faith. He

tests your face. Sometimes it feels like you're just getting beat over the head.

Yah, I guess God will test your faith. Not just to test

you. He will test your faith because he wants to activate your faith.

He wants to begin doing something through you. God wants to activate your faith.

What does Jesus say to the disciples? What does he say? He

says, you feed them? You feed them. Remember, up until this

point, Jesus has been doing all the work. The disciples have been observing

and watching and learning. But now he looks at the disciples. He says,

it's your turn. What have you learned? What have you seen me

do? What faith do you have that a miracle could be provided in this

moment? It's your turn. You give them something to eat? And how

much food do the disciples come up with? Man? I love this.

The disciples are like, Okay, we got to feed them, guys,

what should we do? What should we do? And their plan is like,

let's see what people have, right, And they're like going around in

the crowds and they bring back to Jesus two fish and five loaves. Do

you know that a normal meal for a person then would have consisted for one

person, it would have consisted of about eight loaves of bread. That's like

their daily amount of bread that they would have eaten. It was the main

source of substance in their life, much more creative than bread. Bread was

at the root of everything they ate. They had five loaves of bread and

two fish. And guess what it wasn't even theirs. They jacked it from

a kid, right, They didn't even provide it themselves. They stole a

kid's sack lunch. They needed a catering service, and they got a sack

lunch, and they gave it to Jesus. But listen to me, Jesus

is not offended by what they put into his hands. Somebody needs to hear

this this morning. Jesus was not offended with what they put in his hands.

He wasn't offended by the sack lunch. He wasn't offended by the five

loaves and the two fish. Listen to me, Jesus is not offended by

what you put into his hands. He takes what is given, and what

does it say? He does? He blesses it, Matthew fourteen says he

directed the people to sit down on the grass, taking the five loaves and

the two fish, and looking up to Heaven. He gave thanks, and

he broke the l Then he gave them back to the disciples, and the

disciples began to give it to the people. Here's what I felt like God

was speaking to me this week that I feel like we need to hear as

a church. There's some individuals in here. Maybe you need to hear this

conviction from the Holy Spirit in your life is that many people will spend a

lifetime attending church but never activate the faith that has been cultivating inside of them.

We will spend weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and months and years

of our life attending church, sitting in services, raising our hands in worship,

and never activate the faith that God has been cultivating inside of us.

Through the Word of God, through the worship, through the teaching, through

the message. We will never cultivate and activate the faith in our life.

And why does this happen. It happens because we so often look at what

we have in our hand and we disqualify ourselves before we ever get a chance

to do anything. Come on, you know this is relatable, or maybe

I'm just the only one. We reason things like, well, I'm not

the best teacher, so I can't possibly lead a growth group. That would

be impossible for me. We got people like Barney Armstrong, and we got

people like you know, we got we got people, all these smart people.

We've got all these great teachers. We've got all these people who can

teach. That's not me. I can't. I can't do that. We

reason I'm not the best singer. I'm not Pastor David. I'm not out

here tickling the ivory and singing beautiful songs and maybe people cry and raise their

hands. That's not me. I can't. I couldn't possibly do that.

I'm certainly not the most outgoing. I can't stand there with a sign and

be friendly in the morning. Do you know how many cups of coffee it

takes me to wake up. I don't have a lot of money, so

I can't possibly give right now? Well, what could God do with the

little bit of money that I have. I'm not good with my words?

Well, you know, I'm pretty dang busy. We disqualify ourselves, But

can I encourage you this morning. God isn't asking you to be the best.

He isn't asking you to supply all of the needs that exist. But

what God is asking you and I to do is to bring our five loaves

and our two fish that are in our hand, and a little bit of

faith that God can take what we have and put it in his hands,

and what He will give us back is far greater than we could ever imagine

that God could do something in our life. He's asking us to be faithful

with what we have. God is often just asking what do you have?

And our job is not to question if what we have is enough or if

what we have is good enough, but rather to bring what we do have

and trust that as we lay it into God's hands what we have, He

is going to put back into our hands something that will go so much further

and be so much greater than we could ever ask our Father. What a

scripture say? It says that they brought what they had to God, the

five loaves and two fish, and God receives it, he blesses it,

and then do you see what he does? He puts it back in their

hands, and the disciples begin to distribute it to the people here is the

kicker. Friends. Your faithfulness to put into God's hands. The little bit

that you have will activate you to give back something to those around you that

previously you felt like you were disqualified to give. God wants to activate your

faith, and the activation of our faith comes through trusting God. I know

that what you have given me is worthy to be used by you. It

might not look the same as somebody else's. It might not be as great

as somebody else's. My bank account might not look as great as somebody else's.

My attributes or my skills, I might think that they're less than somebody

else's. But my job is not to ask if what you have given me

is good enough. My job is to say, God, this is what

you have given me, and I'm gonna be faithful. I'm gonna be a

steward of what you were giving me, and I'm gonna put it in your

hands so that you can do more through me than I could ever ask or

imagine. And this causes people to ask some funny questions like why would Jesus

do it this way? Anybody else like this is a weird game. You

play Jesus like you're Jesus. Anybody like dude, he didn't even need to

ask for food. Jesus could have just been like Wam fall from the sky,

food full of buffet tables and wait staff. It could have been all

there. So why did he do it this way? Can I tell you

why? Because he wants to partner with you in ministry. He wanted the

disciples to realize that this wasn't always going to be about me. It's not

about me. It's about me and you partnering together doing the work you feed

my people and friends today. I believe that He is looking at us today,

two thousand years later, and he's saying, I want to partner with

you. And can I just say this is not my notes, but can

I just say, what an incredible blessing, What a gift that the God

of the universe, who could do all things at the clap of his hands,

at the snap of his fingers, would reach down and say that we

are worthy of partnering with him. That should breathe some confidence into you,

like God wants to partner with me. God doesn't want to just stretch your

faith. He wants to activate your faith. He wants to partner with him

and friends. This is why I will gloat all day about the people who

came and served at VBS this last week, man, because I walked around

that place and like, I'm like, I'm in awe of all these people

who have just come out to faithfully serve His kingdom. Like you people have

jobs. You said no to your job, you said no to making money,

so that you could say yes to loving on children. I saw these

two ladies right here for weeks and weeks on end, cutting and carving and

pasting like the craziest elevant sculptures I've ever seen in my life, just so

that a kid could come into an environment and meet Jesus. I saw people

who were card long jobs. Man. I saw a guy named Jalen who

I love, who's a firefighter and he works like a dog and he is

tired at the end of a week. And he came in here and he

said, Hey, I'm off for the next three days, so I'm gonna

go love on some kids this week. And you know what, I saw

him last night at the Kenny Chesney concert and he's like, dude, I'm

tired. He's like, dude, that was crazy. I was not prepared

for that. But you know what, he also said, he said that

was more worth it than I could have ever imagined. Can I just say

God delights in seeing our hands at work in his kingdom? Bill Hibels once

said this, He said, I would never want to reach out someday with

a soft, uncalloused hand, a hand never dirty by serving, and shake

the nailed pierced hand of Jesus. God is going to test your faith because

he wants to activate your faith. And as you activate your faith, you

are going to begin to trust Him with what you have. Something will begin

to happen in your faith. You see, God will test your faith because

he wants to activate your faith. But when you start to activate your faith,

do you know what happens? God begins to build your faith. Over

time, your faith will grow, your trust and your belief, and what

He can do through your life will grow. In my own life, I

have discovered that the hardest tests have led to my greatest testimonies. And that

is such a cheesy line that a pastor would say, But can I just

tell you it's so true. The hardest things I've had to walk through in

my life have been the greatest stories of faith that God has grown in me.

And can I also just say that some of those testimonies, some of

those stories that I now tell, were painful stories to learn. They're not

all victory stories, but they are always stories that come with the lesson that

God is using to build my faith the times when I've been most challenged,

has given me some of the greatest stories, and I tell them over and

over and over again. You can ask my wife, Nicole, God tests

the realization that God really wants to use me, and can I tell you?

As your faith grows, you know what also grows your belief that you

have value and purpose in His kingdom. And that's the effect that the Miracle

of five thousand had on the on the disciples. I'm gonna invite the keys

to come out, but I'm gonna close with this. Do you do you

realize that out of all the miracles that we've talked about in this sermon series,

out of all the things that we've heard, out of all the miracles

that happen, that the one miracle, the only miracle that shows up in

all four Gospel messages from the perspective of Matthew, Mark Luke, and John

separate accounts of the same miracle. Do you know the one miracle that is

recorded in every single gospel. It's the feeding of five thousand. It's the

only one, not the raising of this girl from death, none of none

of the other ones have the honor of being in every single gospel. It's

an incredible miracle. But but I think that the lesson that the disciples were

learning through the testing of their faith and the way that Jesus was preparing them

was what stood out so much to the disciples. It's why all four of

them took specific, detailed notes of what happened in that encounter with Jesus.

This encounter clearly taught the disciples something profound for it to be the only miracle

recorded in all four gospels. And yes, it's an incredible miracle, but

there was more happening than just a miracle. We know that fourteen chapters later

in the Book of Matthew. Most scholars believe that this would have been a

time span of about a year to a year and a half from the moment

of Jesus feeding the five thousand to Matthew chapter twenty eight, when Jesus dies

on a cross and is raised from the tomb. He's resurrected and he appears

to the disciples on the Mountain of Galilee. And Jesus appears to the disciples.

And you know the instruction that Jesus gives the disciples in Matthew twenty eight.

It's the ultimate test. Jesus put them to the test in Matthew chapter

fourteen to see what their faith really looked like. But it was Matthew chapter

twenty eight the ultimate test as Jesus returns as resurrected king, and he gives

them the ultimate invitation to partner in ministry with him when he says in Matthew

twenty eight, therefore go and make disciples. Can I just add one little

three letter word that should hit this home for us today. Therefore you go

and make disciples. It's your turn. You've seen it, you've read it,

you've heard it, you've seen the miracles, you've seen what God has

been doing in your life. You've seen the stories and the testimonies that have

been building your faith for this moment. He says, therefore, you go

and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father

and the Son in the Holy Spirit, and teaching them the same way that

I taught to obey everything that I've commanded you. And surely as you go,

know that I'm with you always to the very end of the age.

Because I'm partnering with you in ministry church, I would say the same invitation

that Jesus gave his disciples two thousand years ago reigns true for here in twenty

twenty four. Therefore you serve my people. Therefore you lead my church.

Therefore you share the Gospel with your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers,

your family. Therefore you stand courageously in your situation. Therefore you take courage

and believe that I am with you. Therefore you give what you have.

Therefore you bring all that you have, and trust that I'm with you to

the very end of the age, through every doubt, every discouragement, every

difficulty, every obstacle you face, partnering with you to do more than you

could ever imagine in your life. And it's with that encouragement, it's with

that invitation that I don't want to pray for the spirit of faith to rise

up in us, as Jesus says there for you you go, you do

as I have done. Would you bow your heads and pray with me this

morning. If you're here this morning, and you would say, Morgan,

I want that prayer of faith to be prayed over me today. You see

what's going on in my life. You see some of the challenges and the

oppositions that I'm up against. God. Maybe you even are recognizing the way

that you have disqualified yourself from stepping into being activated into God's plans for your

life. If that's you here today, would you just slip your hand up

just so I can see who I'm praying for. Yeah, this is just

how saying. God, would you birth into me spirit of faith to be

used by you. Let's pray this morning. Father, God, we thank

you for who you are in our life. God. I thank you Father

that you look at us and you say you are worthy of partnering with me.

What a gift. And God, I pray this morning for each and

every person in this room. Father, for those who have disqualified themselves from

being used by you. Father, God, I pray that you would speak

courage into their life. God. I pray that the perspective that they walk

with is not to doubt or diminish what is in their hands, but God

for them to be good stewards of the gifts and the skills and the provisions

and the things that you have placed in their life. And God, I

pray that as they trust you and place those things into your hand, God,

that you would be the faithful God that we know you are, and

what you would return back into our life is something that goes so much further

through us than we could ever imagine. And so God, we just asked

for you to come into our life, for you to fill us with your

spirit of courage, your spirit of faith. We love you, We thank

you in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen, will you thank Pastor

Morgan. Great message,