WHEN THE CROWD GETS HUNGRY

good morning church that was awesome that was really loud i apologize for your eardrums um good morning we just want to welcome you guys in-house and online thank you so much for joining us here and we have a great surprise pastor danny bean is back on the scene this sunday i'm still recuperating from thanksgiving well pastor jenny bean since you're on the scene might as well kick us off with some announcements all right we have some announcements so uh listen up uh as i said before there's no more ironman meetings through december we'll cut things back up in january we have great great things on the horizon i've been working on a lot of different things for iron men we're going to be doing a series called wild at heart we're going to be doing another series called taking it back we're going to be doing another series called conquer it's a purity class it's gonna be awesome gonna be important for the iron men also in the marriage matters we're gonna be doing a divorce recovery class sometime in the new year that's gonna be important and beneficial as well as a financial peace uh thing coming up this year so there's a lot going on that's a lot of stuff that's a lot of stuff a lot of areas to get plugged in if you're ages 18 to 25 and have not gotten plugged into the global vision young adults you are missing out we have bible studies every saturday we have big events at the end of every month and this coming up saturday the 11th we are going to have a young adult christmas party we are going to be wearing pjs we're going to have games lots of food and lots of fun times so if you would like to get plugged in please come see me or my husband on the front row yes we need volunteers big time everybody's always coming to me hey how can i serve i'm like go to the table back here in the back and volunteer sign up there's lots of areas uh we need uh help in production parking ministry nursery preschool kids man it goes on and on and on so we need your help as we grow man i tell you this is so important that we fill these volunteer spots amen i agree amen all right um ladies don't forget if you registered for a mom's secret place christmas party it is tomorrow night at 7 00 pm um so don't forget about that also make sure your kiddos wear pjs because it's going to be a little kiddo pj party while the adults have fun and do christmas stuff i like your fashion wear thank you pastor danny it looks like we are matching yeah it matches your sparkling personality i agree yeah amen hey you loved that didn't you come on well hey you ready for some church we are too i'm excited to see what god's going to do today amen all right all right god bless he goes foreign ah ((music playing)) welcome to church come on let's stand up ((music playing)) he's coming on the clouds ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) and ((music playing)) the world his blood breaks the chains oh when every knee will bow before everybody ((music playing)) so open up the gate make way before the king of kings ((music playing)) our god who comes to save is here to set the captains who could free the lord ((music playing)) our god is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) do you believe that this morning ((music playing)) ((music playing)) who could stop the lord ((music playing)) who could stop the lord ((music playing)) who can stop the lord ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) our god ((music playing)) the is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) come on it's good to be in the house ((music playing)) knows ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) ((applause)) hello ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((applause)) singing ((music playing)) me ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) now so ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) come on are you filled with wonder come on in every season of your life ((music playing)) i will pray ((music playing)) i will foreign ((music playing)) ((music playing)) no higher ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) wanna is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) lift up the name of the lord in this tent this morning global vision family lift him up shout to the lord i believe you got a better shot than that this morning yes hallelujah ((music playing)) hallelujah we ought to be mesmerized and he is all in his wonder amen if you believe he's a miracle working god shout amen hallelujah you may be seated all over the house thank you for being here we are honored to host each and every one of you whether you've been here many many times or you've just be bopped under the tent for the first time we are honored that you are here and we are super humbled and excited at all that the lord is doing in our midst amen these are crazy days but these are exciting days as far as i'm concerned i've told you many times i'll say it many more we are living in the days that the apostles wish they lived him they wish they could see this tent they wish they could see what's happening in this crazy nation right now i'm telling you they said even when it all comes against us in this present world we can still be righteous we can still raise godly kids we can still have an excited church and we can still be the remnant that's rising on the scene to proclaim that jesus christ is king of kings and lord of lords amen we win in the end god wins in the end and it's all about the vindication of his glory and so it never needs to be about see there we told you so it always needs to be about look here god was always right the whole time amen and we are here today because god is good and god is right and so thank you for being here and for those that are still coming in it's always beautiful to watch what the lord's doing we want to honor our folks that are not from the state of tennessee that drove a long way flew a long way cruised a long ways hitchhiked a long ways and you laugh at that but we have some people show up in very unusual ways at times and just kind of sit around in the parking lot waiting for things to start but if you are not from the great state of tennessee and you have traveled to be here today for this service would you stand up all over this room so we can honor you for being here today wow thanks be unto the lord ((applause)) hallelujah thank you for being here you may be seated and already met people in the first meet and greet that have just moved here or in the process of moving here or thinking about moving here and so the answer is yes amen we'll take you praise god we know a good church and it's just been a it's been a good week and i've been traveling around me and in the morning we will change things this week to wednesday i apologize for that but i'll be leaving for new york super super early in the morning i think my flight leaves about 5 45 and so i'll be preaching in batavia new york tomorrow night outside of buffalo wherever that is and uh they actually the seats filled up weeks and weeks and weeks ago i don't know what's going on with their communistic governor and all of that kind of stuff but we're going to show up and preach anyhow even have a beautiful time and uh so then we'll be back early on tuesday newsmax was trying to get us to stay over they want us to drive six hours to new york city and be live on newsmax and i said look sometimes i just got to say no i just got i got to go home amen and and so we're not going to be doing that and we'll worry about that later but we'll be back on tuesday so me and wednesday morning at courtney's restaurant 6 a.m i didn't want to forgo and cancel all of it and so make sure you are there for that well we want to ready ourselves to give today to be benevolent to the work of god to be sacrificial to god's kingdom and you folks are such beautiful beautiful givers always like to let you know not just when we have things that we have to purchase or you know gravel and dirt and trucks and rental equipment and all of that that's super expensive but let me tell you why one of the many many reasons that that i love our congregation right both in-house and online because i'm telling you our online crowd they're so very very faithful matter of fact welcome them to the tent today amen they're watching right now by the tens of thousands we love you guys we don't ever forget you we don't minimize you because you give you pray you fast and they they do as much with us as we do ourselves and there's people all over america right now watching us on sheets and big screens and ipads and iphones and androids and so it's just beautiful but one of the things i love about our church is the other day i was preaching for a dear friend of mine in the state of florida and uh you know he's just he's has a simple church it's an average size you know american church little american town and he has seven kids right and they they live with no complaints and they've done it for the last few years they live in a little bit more than a 600 square foot sunday school room on the church campus right and so you know obviously they're they're not in this for any kind of filthy looker right they're in it to do what the lord wants them to do and so we had a great time we went down the other day and the building was just jam-packed capacity had had a beautiful time but let me tell you why i share that with you because from our vantage point as a church it's encouraging to me as a leader and a shepherd to be able to make financial decisions on behalf of other people that i know our people are cool with because you just know about giving and and loving others and blessing others so we went down and of course we don't we never require anything i i know google says i'm worth 130 million dollars that's stupid nonsense but we we never charge to preach we don't charge churches for for tickets or anything if people want to reimburse whatever we don't ever we we take care of all of our own expenses in our own pocket and so when it went down there he said hey we want to take up an offering for the man of god and he didn't require it and i never do and i never will and so i knew that they were going to do their best to give you know just to give me an offering i've been his pastor you know for a long time kind of sent them out many many years ago and so what was beautiful was i don't even know what the offer was the next day and i don't care i don't preach for that so i never even looked and so he they gave it to me and so the next morning i got up and i i knew kind of round about what it was a little cash offering i looked at it and just even waited till the next morning and so what was beautiful is when we got to the airport i already knew because god already said take a blank check right i already knew take a blank check and so it was interesting that you know they were able to give me a certain amount but our church just right off the top was able when i got on that airplane and he texted me said man this changed my life i was able to just write from our church because i knew i knew how our people think i was able to bless that man of god more than three times what they put in that envelope just giving an offering to me i said our church is gonna triple that and we're gonna bless you we're gonna give you money in the name of the lord for all that you're doing for the kingdom and so preachers let me tell you something preachers are envious of that ability that we have at this church to be able to do that and i'm telling you i wish every preacher would finally just take a stand against his stingy congregation and say look we're going to be givers we're going to give our money away we're going to bless men and women of god we're going to bless other ministries we're going to bless homeless people we're going to bless single moms we're going to bless the hurting people of our community we're going to feed people house people clothed people we're going to bless folks and so people ask me all the time well who votes on giving all that money the holy ghost that's who votes on giving all that money away amen and so it was just beautiful for us to be able to just turn right around and just just bless them so exponentially and so we're able to do that because of your giving and because of the online givers the people that mail tithe checks here faithfully every single week and so i always let you know when we do big stuff like that because we just want to be up front we want to be honest we give more away than we spend on ourselves in a month's time and sometimes we spend a lot on ourselves with all of this expansion and then the expansion looking good down there by the way amen i'm telling you you can see this tent from miles away it seems like and so yeah we have a lot of expenses and a lot of things going into the holiday season and all of that and so let's just be faithful today right a lot of times we'll take up a special offering for somebody or something today we're just giving we're just given to the work of god because i know this week there's going to be a great number of needs of people that we have to help sometimes i feel like shark tank right i'm sitting in my office and there'll be a line of people that just show up and they don't have to sell me their product because i know when they walk in the door they have something i'm going to do my dead level best just to meet them and sometimes i i feel like a bible broker i just kind of sit in my office sometimes for hours on end you you ask people that come around here and people just line up the parking lot and people just call single moms and widows and people that just need help and you know it's difficult to tell every single person yes but it's difficult for me to tell anybody no right and so we give a lot of money and we bless a lot of people and we don't apologize for that but we have to have the resources to do that and so i want you to give today because we're going to help some people this week and i don't know who they are yet but god does and so especially as we get around the christmas season and so you just pray about what the lord would have you to sow into his kingdom work today global vision is just a conduit it's just a simple condo just comes right through this pipe and it goes right out into the kingdom it's not about our campus it's about his kingdom and so in-house and online today globalvisionbc.com give i want you to give and just watch the lord bless and i know he's going to father we thank you for this opportunity that we get to be released in a spirit of giving in a spirit of submission obedience because lord we know that the favor of god follows the obedience to god and lord we have a exciting text exciting narrative to talk about today and i'm so excited about the teaching time but lord we look forward to more worship wow what a beautiful time to stand in absolute awe and adoration of who you are and all that you are and it's not about what you do for us it's about who you are to us you just happen to do a lot of wonderful things and we thank you for that when things aren't good god still is you are still on the throne i don't care how crazy and buckwild this culture gets you are very much on the throne and we thank you for that so lord bless this offering those that will mail in those that will give online those that are giving right now lord i pray that you would anoint this offering so that we indeed can bless so many other people in this community and around the world we love you and we thank you for the privilege and honor of even saying that because you first loved us bless this offering bless our worship and bless the word of god to our hearts in jesus name and all of god's people said god bless you as you give faithfully this morning ((music playing)) it's so good to be in the house of the lord today there's such a sweet spirit here ((music playing)) this is my favorite time of the year it's a focus in on family and and on jesus and i feel like sometimes especially lately you can get caught up in the hustle of the season and forget the reason for the season ((music playing)) so i am so grateful that we get to start our week off and bring our first fruits our first offerings our worship for the week we get to begin our week we get to begin this christmas season remembering why we celebrate remembering why we come together why we set time aside for our families and our friends and not forsake the purpose of these gatherings because they are to exalt the king of kings the lord of lords the christ who came that we might live and have life more abundantly so whatever season of life you find yourself in this is going to be a time for us to just set it apart to worship him so let's stand together ((music playing)) because it's jesus at the center ((music playing)) of everything that we do have everything that we are ((music playing)) our gift of praise to jesus jesus ((music playing)) from beginning ((music playing)) it's always been you jesus ((music playing)) jesus cause nothing else ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) jesus you jesus ((music playing)) jesus ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) jesus ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) it's all about it yes it's all about you from my heart ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) jesus be the center of your church jesus be the center of your church and every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess you jesus said jesus ((music playing)) oh jesus ((music playing)) ((music playing)) jesus ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) it's all about is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) oh jesus there's nothing like jesus oh my jesus come on say his name ((music playing)) ((music playing)) you were ((music playing)) foreign ((music playing)) oh oh is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) is oh ((music playing)) is i am us oh ((music playing)) oh oh foreign ((music playing)) ((music playing)) we give you ((music playing)) we give you ((music playing)) ((music playing)) yes give him glory give him glory this morning he is worthy of it all amen church wow he is worthy of it all well i want to invite you in the word of the lord today to john chapter number six if you turned there for a little while the gospel of john and the sixth chapter and just have some things on my heart and the first number of verses that i want to share with you for many of you perhaps this story this narrative this context is extraordinarily familiar but for many of you perhaps it's brand new whether you're in house or watching online now or we'll watch this later i'm going to make some application i'm going to do something today that i haven't really done in a long time other than wednesday nights and that is i have some principles that i actually want to want to teach you through and want to give you sometimes when we can take a text like this and divide it up a little bit and make it manageably able to be eaten then we can we can feed ourselves a little bit more and so it's my job sometimes to slow down and to feed the flock of god that is amongst us and so i want to feed you some things today and so by doing that i want to get as far as i can in the text with a number of principles that i want to share with you many of you will remember some of you won't because you weren't necessarily here in the formative days of the explosive growth the exponential growth that we have but when we were still in the building we call it a little wedding chapel when we were still there many of you know that i was going verse by verse and story by story through the 38 miracles of the lord jesus christ it was a beautiful beautiful time that we had and every single week we had multiple principles and we had a different miracle that we would preach about and eventually we'll finish out those miracles but the one that we stopped on is the one that we're actually going to talk about today it's the 19th miracle of the lord jesus christ the feeding of the 5 000. now i want to say this just before we pray i want to get this out of the way before we read the text and that is this don't let anybody confuse you and say that there are contradictions in the bible because they will say there's a time in the word of god where it says jesus fed 4 000 men and then there's a time in the bible where it says jesus fed 5 000 men and the answer to that is yes both of them are correct he fed people on two different occasions that we know of we know that because the crowd was different the message was different and we know that because the leftover amount was different and so there's no contradiction the bible has been explaining itself for a very very long time and if you would take the opportunity to every now and again turn off facebook and netflix and read a bible you would find out that the greatest commentary on the bible is the bible itself it explains itself so there is no contradiction jesus fed multitudes on a number of occasions but two of them that we know four thousand men at one time five thousand men at the other today we deal with the situation in which he fed five thousand men plus let me remind you the women and the children that's important we'll see that in just a moment so let's dive right in and we're going to pray and ask the lord to move on our behalf after we read the text on sundays i've been having you stand so stand with me please out of reverence for god's word john chapter number six we'll begin together in verse number one and read down through verse number 15. john chapter number six after these things jesus went over the sea of galilee which is the sea of tiberias and a great multitude followed him because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased and jesus went up into a mountain and there he sat with his disciples and the passover a feast of the jews was nine verse five when jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto him he saith unto philip whence shall we buy bread that these may eat and this he said to prove him for he himself knew what he would do philip answered him 200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may take a little one of his disciples andrew simon peter's brother saith unto him there is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes but what are they among so many great question by the way and jesus said make the men sit down now there was much grass in the place so the men set down in number about five thousand and jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would when they were filled say field he said unto his disciples gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost therefore they gather them together and fill twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above unto them that had eaten then those men when they had seen the miracle that jesus did said this is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world when jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a king he departed again into a mountain himself alone thank you for standing you may be seated father bless the word of the lord to our hearts in the course of these next few moments empty me of greg locke and global vision and fill me with the power of the holy spirit and i pray lord as much as you help and encourage me to teach the bible help and encourage my friends to soak it up like spiritual sponges and when we leave may we refuse to be the same people we were when we walked in and we're going to thank you for what you're about to do in this room and all around the world in jesus name and all of god's people said when jesus reaches the pinnacle of this magnanimous 19th miracle in john chapter number six some principles begin to emerge to the surface some things begin to come to the forefront that if we're not careful we've heard a story like this so often in so many times that we miss the details but know this god is in the details this is not called the thoughts of god the ideologies of god or the stories of god it's called the word of god because the words of god are important and we need to pay attention because every word of god first peter says is for our learning and for our admonition and so you think well you know a miracle is a miracle i've read the miracles i've heard this story since i was in vbs king's kids and my flanograph days you can't teach me anything about this story that i've never heard maybe not but i promise you if you'll read the bible the holy ghost will teach you some things this morning that you have overlooked for decades there's no doubt about that because this story is just as real as if it happened under this tent last night i'm telling you the bible is the word of god the ink is still wet and inspiration still oozes off the page of this book we call the bible so i want to show you this magnanimous miraculous opportunity that jesus had when he saw a crowd that was hungry now i want to stop and say this before we go anywhere in the text i believe one of the reasons god is blessing what we are doing here on this rocky hill is because we have a crowd of people that are hungry and they're not just looking for loaves and fishes they're not just looking for handouts they're not just looking for christmas presents under the tree they are looking for something a move of god because there's a hunger in this generation to want to see more and to want to do more and to want to know more flannel graph days are done just simply riding a van the church is done people want to break through and they want to watch god show up and show out people are here today because they're hungry for the word of god they're hungry for the word of god people are watching by the tens of thousands because they're hungry for the word of god whether church is closed or not is not the issue the issue is you're here today because you're hungry and jesus recognized hunger in this crowd i recognize the fact that in the context it was a physical hunger but the application is still true they were there to hear the word of god spiritually and in the midst of their spiritual feeding they got a little bit hungry in their belly and how many of you know if you want to reach somebody's heart sometimes you got to do it through their stomach and so jesus understood it wasn't time to keep preaching it wasn't time to keep doing all of these things he had to slow down to meet the needs of the people so watch what happens in verse number five when jesus then lifted up his eyes i love the fact that jesus paid attention to the people that were around him stop ignoring people and praying for god to give you more opportunities some of you been praying for opportunities and god says shut that down because i give you a hundred opportunities every day and you've not been obedient to one of them you can talk to people at a gas station you can talk to people at walmart you can talk to people under this tent opportunities come in the form of people every single day of your life you do not need a spirit of opportunity you need a spirit of obedience amen church and so he lifted up his eyes he paid attention to what was going on around him and he saw a great company come unto him and he saith unto philip whence shall we buy bread from where shall we buy all the bread that these may eat now we're going to take this verse by verse phrase by phrase in the context of the story it's important now i want you to pay attention to this first principle i'm going to break down i could have just easily smoothed right through the text skipped over some stuff but uh look we didn't have an extra speaker today like we've been having the last couple of weeks so i'm gonna preach for a little bit all right and so don't don't die on me don't look at your watch i'll penalize the whole class for 15 minutes if you do okay i've got one and uh so i want you to write a few things down and again it's on me that i did not get it to the media team i wasn't high-tech redneck this morning but they are quick i can already see they got number one and they're waiting they're in the little crows and they're just waiting for me to talk so i'm gonna give you this first principle write this down and remember physical needs are an opportunity for spiritual development physical needs are an opportunity for spiritual development the people were hungry physically and jesus used it as a spiritual moment to develop them do you know why god allows you to go through lack so you can be reminded that he's the only one that can feel the void in your heart you remember elijah was taken down to the brook and the bible says that he was there and the ravens brought him food every single day and there was this crystal clear spring water bubbling up out of the ground that fed that little brook and the bible says and it came to pass after a while not after a day not after an hour not after a week after a while that the brook dried up the brook dried up you know why because if we are not careful we will begin to trust in the provisions that god gives us rather than the god that gave us the provisions to begin with and sometimes my my my the brook will go dry so you can be reminded it is god that gave it to you and sometimes god will let things get lean sometimes there'll be more month than there will be money say amen right there sometimes you are all nervous and you are as frustrated as a bald-headed hippie and you are thinking to yourself oh my goodness how are we going to pay the bills how are we going to pay the mortgage how are we going to feed the kids the same way you did last month you're going to trust god and you're going to watch god give water out of a rock and god's going to provide quail and god's going to provide manna but sometimes he will allow a physical need to develop you spiritually because what you need to do is stop seeking god's hand and start seeking god's face ((applause)) now let me unpackage that for you some of you are looking for a handout some of you are like god give me this give me this god says stop looking at what my hands can give you and start seeking what my face can give you ((applause)) and when you find yourself in a physical need and after all it's christmas time i guarantee you you're in a need have you seen the gas prices have you seen this nonsensical inflation which by the way is going to turn into hyperinflation before we get into the spring it's going to be a mess okay we've had a very small run of what it looks like to be socialist and i don't like it can i get a witness so god's allowing some hunger he's allowing some things to happen because if we're not careful we seek the hand of god the hand of god the hand of god look start seeking the face of god and you'll get from the hand of god what you need every day of your life and so in the context jesus looks up and he sees the people are hungry and he says hey where are we going to go to buy enough bread that these people may eat he allowed a physical need to bring about spiritual development hear me and hear me well god will never waste your trial he will never waste a sleepless night he will never waste your tears matter of fact david said god put my tears in a bottle god knows how many i've cried weeping man do it for a night but joy comes in the morning psalm 30 and verse 5. and so you know this god never wasted your problem he never wasted that brokenness he never wasted that temptation he never wasted that divorce he never wasted that disease in that sickness he is teaching you spiritual development through a physical need and i wish the body of christ would recognize that fact sometimes he lets us see what it would be like without it so we can be content with who he is not just what he does but then notice all of a sudden it says in verse 6 and this he jesus said to prove him phillips in the context for he himself knew what he would do i like that by the way he still knows you're like oh my goodness what am i going to do what am i going to do don't worry about it god knows what he's going to do and what he's going to do is going to be better than what you're going to do i promise you your plans do not compare to god's plans because his ways are not our ways as the rain coming down from heaven upon the earth so are his thoughts above our thoughts so are his ways above our way stop playing god stop playing god i've told you before i'll tell you again two things are true in life number one there's a god number two you're not him ((music playing)) when you play god in your marriage you'll hurt your spouse when you play god with your kids you'll hurt your kids when you play god in a church the church will suffer stop playing god he thinks better and bigger than you do that's why the bible says in ephesians 3 20 he can do exceedingly abundantly above all you could ever ask or think why because your thinking is limited god's thinking is not limited and so right here philip says i don't know what you're talking about lord there's no way we can feed all these people are you kidding me but jesus already knew he was going to respond that way it was opportunity for this man to grow and all of a sudden he became a miserable failure and i remind you that f means failure not fantastic right and so this guy looks at jesus he said there's no way we can feed these people we'll see that in the context but jesus says look where can we go to buy all of these people some bread where can we go to make sure everybody gets fed why did he ask that because he really needed to know do you think that you know his app wasn't working on his phone so he couldn't figure out what grocery store was still open oh man all these 37 miles from here what am i going to do no he knew what he was going to do he said it to prove him the word proven the king james means to test he said it to prove him because he already knew what he was going to do so write down principle number two your faith will be tested listen to me global vision your faith will be tested i know people don't like that but here's what you need to understand a faith that is never tested cannot be trusted don't trust very many people that have everything together in life every night again you got to meet somebody that runs into a crap fest to figure out their faith has been tested and they have come through as pure gold and he himself he himself he himself knew what he was going to do but philip didn't know and we don't know and god tests our faith and in testing our faith he's testing our level of dedication and by the way wouldn't you say the last 18 or 20 months has been nothing but a faith test you know i don't know if they still do this because i don't mess around with tv a whole lot but you remember when you was a kid you'd get something you'd be going with it little dukes of hazard hall amen you'd be watching a show things would be happening and right in the middle of it ((music playing)) them stupid rainbow colors would come across this is a test of the emergency broadcasting network nothing is wrong you don't have to change your money years this is just a test well sometimes you can be reading your bible you can be fast and you can be going to church you can be running the aisles you can be prostrate before the lord you can be saying oh god i'm tithing i'm giving i'm telling people about jesus i'm being a soul winner and right in the middle of everything going well it'd be nice if a voice would say this is only a test you're not know the ilia that you feel like you are right now this is only a test i'm here to tell you god's going to test your faith and when he tests your faith he can trust your faith because god's not going to bless you until he can trust you stop praying for god to give you more stuff when you can't handle the stuff you've got right now because if god gives you more stuff and you can't handle this stuff the other stuff's going to kill you you got to expand god's got to strengthen your faith but he's got to test it in order to do that that's why the bible says in hebrews 11 6 without faith it's impossible to please god not improbable not some can some can't he said it's absolutely positively totally biblically impossible to please god if you don't believe god what do you believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him so when you seek his face not just his hand god will honor your faith but he will also test your faith so that he can have something to honor how many of you would say let's just narrow things down to the last month the last month how many of you would say you've gone through a faith test in just the last month my hands up yeah hands all over rest of your life i missed it next week i'll ask a question again bucko c.h spurgeon the great prince of priesthood says you are either going through a trial you are in a trial or getting ready to walk right back into another trial because life is a series of faith tests and he said where shall we go this he said to prove him because he already knew what he would do so guess what stop laying around with basketball-sized ulcers god already knows what he's going to do and he doesn't need your permission or mind to do it so i love what happens next because this is the realm that we live in right here verse 7. philip answered him 200 penny worth of bread it's not sufficient for them that every one of them may take a little he said how do you know what his voice sounded like because i'm preaching that's why i know what his voice sounded like he'll billy and all so jesus knew what he was going to do and how he was going to respond but he allowed philip to respond nonetheless he's like look 200 pennyworth now a penny in their day is not the penny of our day it was a dinera and basically it was a day's wages so i'm not real good at math matter of fact i get nervous when i have to preach out of the book of numbers but i can do enough math and calculation to figure out what he just said is this we could work every day for seven months seven months and not even to give this crowd a piece of ends a small crumb of bread seven months 200 penny worth is not sufficient at all that every one of them may even have a little he said we can't even half tease and feed this crowd with seven months worth of wages and you can almost sense that the next words he wanted to say is so you're crazy to even try to think of something miraculous at this point five thousand men that'd be enough but then dudes had women and children and them bible folks had some children they was fruitful multiplying the earth i mean they had little tribes of people with them you say well the bible says it was the men so how do you know there were other people there because the guy that's going to swoop in and be the hero to the story was a lad just a little kid that's why so we know kids were there and we know matthew says sit the men down first because god works through rivers of authority now i know people have a hard time with that let me switch gears a little bit i know people have a hard time with that oh my goodness the bible is so misogynistic the bible says that women are supposed to submit to men no it doesn't that ain't nowhere in your bible it says a woman supposed to speak to her husband that's different your wife ain't supposed to submit to me my wife ain't called to submit to you my wife is called to submit to me your wife is called to submit to you a woman is not called to submit to a man a woman is called to submit to her husband that's authority is what the bible teaches ((applause)) so if your husband tells you something biblically other than what your pastor says you submit to your husband not your pastor that's what the bible says but the bible also shows us that the men sat down first because they were the authority they were the head they were the order of the home and so then the ladies and the children followed them what children they could get settled because some of us got some crazy children but nonetheless he says look lord it's not even sufficient say sufficient he's like there's no way i've done the math i've done the numbers you ever noticed that uh you cannot put god on a piece of paper and explain him people like wow we give to the kingdom we tithe we sow into the work of god and we just can't figure out how it works god won't let you figure it out it's a principle it ain't mathematical it's supernatural which brings me to the third principle that i want you to write down change happens when you shift from natural to supernatural thinking change happens when you shift from natural to supernatural thinking we think way too small church and philip said oh my goodness 200 penny was seven months of working every day would never even give these people a breadcrumb and the problem was he was naturally thinking about the issue and so many of us do that do we not we look at what the boss has said we look at what the bank says or the lack of what the bank says we look at the end of the month when there's no more money we look at christmas coming up what are we gonna do for the kids we look at new year's we look at all these people losing their jobs we look at gas prices skyrocketing we look at you know milk and bread being at an all-time high and we think to ourselves what are we going to do we're going to shift from the natural to the supernatural because no matter how broke america gets god is still very rich proverbs 13 22 says the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just what that means that means god will take money from wicked people and make sure godly righteous people can pay their bills with it and if you don't believe that you don't believe a female full of the bible and so right here philip is like oh my goodness this just doesn't make sense it never does supernatural never makes sense you see for years i try to put god in a box and try to figure him out because if you can figure out somebody you have a better chance of controlling them at the end of the day and so i thought now wait a minute we don't want things to get out of the banks here lord i got to be able to understand what you're doing i got to understand these gifts i got to understand this so if i understand it i can control the flow of it a little bit better so don't show up and you know embarrass me lord don't don't show up and try to mess up what we got going now let's be honest we think that way so many times it's kind of like we wouldn't say it out loud but it's almost the same feeling when you're eating with your family and your spouse is thinking please honey do not bring up trump in politics please i'm begging you and so sometimes we come to church and we inadvertently think this and we're like lord look i'm really hungry today and so if he could just finish in like 40 minutes that would be a beautiful thing please don't let too many people get baptized please don't let the spirit fall on folks please don't let people start getting healed in the name of the lord jesus please don't let people start getting saved my goodness he gonna get fired up get up there like porky pig and jump all over the place he's gonna preach and preach and preach and pray please don't let that band sing another verse of that song please look we just won't get in we just won't get out we wouldn't say that naturally but we thank it because we want to control the narrative right we're no better than the left when it comes to that we want to control god's narrative we want god to give us what we want when we want it how we want it where we want it at the moment that we want it and we're going to show up and we're going to start church at 10 35 and i'm telling you god by 12 o'clock you better have said what you need to say i don't know what's going to happen when one day also and i just get to preach and we get to singing people get to falling out and things start happening we go to about three or four o'clock in the afternoon praise god i don't know what you're going to do then because if god says keep on going we're going to keep on going if you've got to leave you leave praise god ((music playing)) ((applause)) if you got to get up out of here right at 12 30 and go to golden corral you go right ahead they won't be aligned when you get there because you shouldn't be eating a golden corral no hell but nonetheless ((applause)) at the end of the day said that from a wife but at the end of the day you got to shift your thinking you need to check up from the neck up you got to change your stinking thinking you got to go from natural to supernatural hey what we're seeing is supernatural there's been plenty of times i sold god short and i was on a sunday morning you know rant in my spirit licking my wounds thinking oh my goodness that's a big tent and it's cold outside surely people that have watched us on the live stream have been here by now this will be the day lord that 55 people drive into the parking lot and i'm going to be preaching to bb's bouncing around in a box car what are we going to do and every week supernaturally you just keep showing up you know why because i think too small and people say i think too big sometimes and i'm like i ain't even started thinking yet if i pulled a whiteboard up here big as one of these screens and started telling you everything god's downloaded in me it'd freak you out you'd be like oh my goodness you really believe that yes i believe that yes i believe it's here yes i believe it's coming god's doing a new work god's doing a new work in this house we got to shift the way we think ((applause)) stop looking at the problem and start looking at god who is the solution to every problem you have you got to shift your thinking but then notice verse 8 one of his disciples andrew simon peter's brother sayeth unto him there is a lad here let me stop and say this i think this is beautiful there's a few times in the bible that you read about andrew simon's brother do you remember who brought peter to jesus andrew his brother you know almost exclusively every time you read about andrew he's bringing somebody to jesus it wasn't philip that found this little kid it was andrew simon's brother that found this little kid there is a lad here and so it's not what i'm preaching on it's not even a principle but it's a beautiful principle to live by be the person that brings folks to jesus not repels them from jesus amen church every time you see andrew he's going out of his way to bring somebody to the kingdom to introduce somebody to jesus and so we find that this man looks up in verse 9 he says there is a lad here just a kid probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 to 14 or 15 years just a lad which what does he have well meager amounts of food but notice five barley loaves i don't think this guy's got like five big old things of sun being bred crammed in his little sack right he's like hush puppies and sardines right here so he had five barley loaves two small fishes but what are they what a question and it's right to ask it what are they among so many how's this bread and these fish gonna ever feed such a daunting size multitude of people when you shift your thinking from natural to supernatural you can see exactly how it's gonna transpire now we got the end of the story and so we understand what comes next they didn't know what was coming next and so the bible says that here's this lad now here's what's interesting did you know there's only a handful matter of fact less than you can count on one hand four that i can think of this being one of them there's only four times in the gospels matthew mark luke and john that the same story is told in all four gospels did you know that you see usually john talks about things completely different than what matthew mark and luke taught about now let's slow down and uh and kind of teach you a little something all right and this is not just seminary level stuff as a shepherd i just want to i want to feed you a little bit matthew mark and luke are theologically what we call synoptic gospels the word synoptic means the same message so matthew mark and luke all talk about the same thing just various different ways of going about it if we all saw the same car accident we all saw the same stuff but we would all identify different details of the accident based on the personality that we have some people be like oh my goodness things are going everywhere somebody has to be like well you know just kind of a little flat on the side of the road somebody has to be like man 40 people died and so it's the same wreck but we all have different eyewitness details so matthew mark and luke all talk about the same stuff john is the most evangelistic of of all of them john has more preaching more teaching more crowds more miracles in 21 chapters than matthew mark and luke even combined they talk about totally different things but there's four times that i can think of maybe five but four that i know of this being one of them where the same miracle is repeated in matthew mark luke and john but here's the interesting thing of the four times that this story is mentioned the feeding of the five thousand the gospel of john right here chapter six where we are in our context is the only one of the four times that tell us how jesus got the groceries to perform the miracle matthew mark and luke just assume that he got him so do we but john tells us exactly how he got the groceries there is a lad here there's a lad with some bread and some fish but what are they among so many so i find it interesting that somehow or another this kid b-bops into the mix of 15 20 000 people and his mother was like the only wise person on the planet to pack this kid a sack lunch ((applause)) this is like the miracle before the miracle this is like the only kid that had a mother that actually gave the kid a backpack when he left the house and everybody else is just there like oh man we're hungry this kid's like uh am i the only one here with bread fishing a mountain dude and he's like hiding behind a cedar tree back here all of a sudden the speaker starts walking up to him you know and this kid's like uh don't you have a mom at home he's like hiding his backpack behind his back you know and they're like hey we would like to have your food he could have said yeah i bet you will bucko where's your wife's mama huh where you been skippy boy scout why don't you pack your own food next time i'm gonna eat mine and this boy by the way could have eaten his own lunch and guess what the story would have been totally different because i want you to write this principle down and everyone should forget this being used by god is your choice it's that simple it's an honor and it's a humbling thing to be used by god but it's your choice if you want to be used by god or not he said there's a lad here and he could have been filled with intimidation and anxiety and been like well you know i'd love to give you know a little piece of it but i'm hungry too how come my mama was the only wise woman in all of the area that packed me a meal right i mean we laugh at it but we know it's the truth and where's all the other food if 15 20 000 people this one kids has a paper bag he's the only one he became a target quick and so jesus walks over and i don't know exactly what the conversation entailed i don't know what it ensued like but it had to be something like hey do you got some food and he could have been like yup but he doesn't he relinquishes what he has because he knows at the end of the day that what he has is barely even going to feed him it certainly is not going to help anybody else so you have a choice you can go through life feeding yourself or you can go through life feeding multitudes when you surrender your life to jesus christ but you cannot do both and you will not do both so you better stop blaming everybody else for why god's not using you and your gifts because it's nobody else's fault it ain't trump's fault it ain't biden's fault it ain't my fault it ain't your spouse's fault it ain't your dog's fault it is your fault for the reason you don't serve god it's me it's me it's me o lord standing in the need of prayer not my mother not my brother let's see oh lord standing in the need of prayer we want to blame everybody else well you know i tell you i didn't serve the lord because i just didn't have a good education get over that i know people ignorant as a brick that have done more for the kingdom than i've ever imagined to do people say well i tell you one thing i just don't understand words in the bible my granddaddy had a third grade education spit tobacco and understood the bible just fine it's the teacher that you have to submit to and so at the end of the day god's not looking for a phd he's not looking for a doctor of theology he's not looking for a sister wiggle jaw he's not looking for the smartest person in the room the sharpest knife in the room he's not looking for the most rich and the most brilliant and the most prosperous and the most healthy he's looking for the most available is what he's looking for and this boy just happened to be available he could have said no he could have been like absolutely not and by the way jesus still would have performed the miracles somehow but not with that kid and by the way his name's not important and at the end of the day neither is mine and neither is yours they're saying about greg block this thing about global vision it's about the glory of jesus christ it's about the glory of god this is about the glory of the father it's about the glory and power of the holy spirit that's what it's about ((applause)) and so they said hey here's a lad here there's five barn loaves two small fishes but what are they among so many it was a daunting sized crowd for a minimal meaningless size offering and yet he gave it he simply gave it so my question as we just go into the next verse is what's in your bag that you're holding back this morning from god what are you not willing to surrender you see because let's be honest about it whatever it is in your life that you will not willingly give to god is your god we think well you know the bible says thou shalt have no other gods before me and so i'm not like bowing down worshiping statues you know i don't have a swiss army knife and whittling a buddhist at you and you know giving orange peels and rice and burning incense to it and so i'm not much of an idol worshiper if you've got anything before jesus it is your jesus any person any place anything anything in your life that you put above god that you will not surrender to god has become your god and that's just the real raw facts of christianity right there christianity 101 elementary what's in your bag that you won't give up what's in your lunch that god could use to feed multitudes but you are hindering the work of god in your own life because of your negligence and because of your disobedience and your rebellion oh my goodness brother you said i'm rebellious oh yeah if you hold that back behind your back and don't give to jesus you're a rebel i don't care what your cause is you're a rebel and if you want to be used by god that's your choice i can preach to you i can fire you up and say hey get used by god rah-rah bish kumbha three cheers for jesus but if you get used i didn't know me that's on you if i get used or don't get used that ain't on you that's on me because if you want god to use you that's your choice nobody else's you do not have a lack of opportunity you have a lack of submissiveness that's what the bible teaches and this kid could have given his lunch to jesus or kept it for himself we know what he did and we know the story so check this out verse 10. and jesus said make the men sit down by the way we can preach on all these principles for such a very very long time they're beautiful beautiful principles what a story make them into sit down now there was much grass in the place so the men sat down in number about five thousand and jesus if i say jesus you see the boy gave him the stuff but only one person could perform the miracle i'm just honored that god lets me give him my stuff so he can perform the miracle you remember in john chapter number 11 just a few chapters over he raises lazarus from the dead he said lazarus come forth and had to be specific or the whole graveyard would have got up went home praise god but before that takes place remember what he said to the people that were standing by he said roll ye away the stone but he did not say stand there and help me raise the dead because he gives us a part in the miracle but he has to do the miracle performance himself we can roll away the stone we can put out chairs and cedar chips and heaters and lights and tents and screens and we can do all of that we can just roll away the stone but jesus still has to call people back from the dead and so this boy had a choice and so he chose to surrender what he had so jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks verse 11 he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that were sat down and likewise of the fishes both elements as much as they would it's almost like it just kept showing up the more they gave out the more there was which reminds me of something that happened last night pastor danny i'm going to share your miracle and this is a perfect i i didn't think about this when he told me he came out last night when i was leaving the 633 prayer meeting which by the way you ought to be at praise god it's a beautiful opportunity to pray over this tent but he came out and he hugged me and he had big tears in his eyes he said i believe i just witnessed a miracle lord and i said what was it tell me about he said man i'm telling you the lord's all on me and he began to talk about the ten virgins and how they were prepared and not as equally prepared as they thought but he had a little bottle of oil a little vial of oil and god told him to come into this tent we got people that pray over every chair but god told him to touch every single chair under this tent with that oil just to put it on his finger and put the oil on the back of the chair and keep praying and keep walking and he said he got somebody saw it he said he got halfway through last night and he didn't bring him that didn't prepare enough so his bottle was empty he showed it to me his haul is a gourd empty nothing in it no one don't residue land is empty but he felt like the holy spirit said i told you to anoint all the chairs so just keep doing it now if i'm lying i'm done this man was torn all the pieces i saw a miracle from the lord pastor he said i got halfway through my bottle was empty but god said keep on going he said so i put my finger on he said there'd be a little hole on it i'd put on a chair he said i put my finger on it it'd be some oil he did the rest of the tent and never ran out of oil with an empty bottle praise god i'm telling you god's got enough he's got enough he's got enough for his children am i telling the truth man of god i'm telling the truth and i'm telling you as much as they would when they wanted seconds they got fourths he gorged them up fed them good and so the bible says that verse 12 happens now when they were filled it wasn't like well you get a little bit you get a little bit but we got a ration no no they were filled to overflowing he said unto his disciples gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost nothing be lost now i'm not big on leftovers but apparently jesus was praise god so i got to work on that therefore verse 13 they gathered them together and filled so now the people are filled but now the baskets are filled 12 baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remain over and above unto them that are eaten i find it interesting that he filled up 12 baskets but he only filled it up with the bread because jesus had enough sense to know the seafood wasn't going to last he fed him bread he fed him fish they got food but he only saved the bread because jesus didn't want no stink on that boat you understand right thinks of everything he thinks of everything verse 14 then those men when they had seen the miracle that jesus did they said this is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world these guys look at each other like did you see what we just saw did you taste what we just tasted did you hear what we just heard we watched a man take a brown paper sack full of hush puppies and sardines and feed everybody on this mountainside are you kidding me and they're like that's him that's him this is the one that the prophets have been predicting and foretelling all of these years and so they kind of got out of order they didn't mean to but sometimes our sincerity makes us act stupid at times right when jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force now it's not like they were there with the pitchforks ogre oh no no they were there to crown him they were like wow you can do all of that i wonder what else you can do could you deliver israel from roman tyranny could you show up show out and help us and they came to take him by force to make him a king but what did he do he departed again into a mountain himself alone by the way this chapter started with him alone and this passage ends with him being alone i know he's jesus but we're supposed to follow in the footsteps of jesus so know this and know this well the greatest things god will ever do in your life will be when you are alone with the holy spirit not when you're in a crowded tent with everybody else the biggest miracles god's ever done in my life ladies and gentlemen have been done when i have been in secret and solitude and thy father that sees you in secret shall reward you openly and when he rewards you openly then it'll take you public but sometimes you just got to go on the mountain and be alone be alone but i want to say this for a final principle and to our crow's nest folks that are listening there's actually going to be three little bitty tiny sub splash points beneath this one so catch me on the fly if you can catch me outside how about that but nonetheless so jesus does something not just unusual how would you agree by saying amen this was crazy unusual yeah i thought so for the five of you today men now it was unusual but it was also orderly you see god is not the author of confusion first corinthians 14 33 and he also has not given us the spirit of fear but of love power and sound mind so if you feel confused about a situation you don't have enough wisdom from god yet because god didn't give you the confusion your anxiety did so you wait on the lord you wait on the lord you wait on the lord until the anxiety passes in the confusion and the chaos is gone because god is not about chaos a lot of people are but god's not about chaos so he does something orderly so i want you to write down this fifth and final principle and that is this god has a process for how he works through us god has a process now if you want to be used that's on you but once you submit to being used god has a process by the way you don't get to choose the process god does because he's the one using you so god has a process for how he works through us now in the text the bible says that when the young man relinquished his rights to his hush puppies and sardines as it were matthew mark luke and john all tell us what happened but each of them give different details the bible says that he took it from him he broke it he blessed it and he gave it to the multitudes and they were filled individually and then the baskets were filled because we serve the god of abundance the god of abundance but there is a process in which jesus takes us through the exact same thing he took this food through to make sure the people were fed well god works in order he works in a predictable fashion not for predictability but for principle sake he works six days he rested on the seventh why because he was sleepy no he's god to show you that you ought to work six days and rest on the seven that's what the bible teaches right and so he teaches us principles that are just as real as the law of gravity so god is a process that he works through so what happens is we get saved we get baptized we get right with god we finally pull our little brown paper sack out from behind our back and we give it over to jesus and we go out of the gate hot and if we're not careful you'll go up like a rocket and come down like a meteorite because there's a process that god takes you through so that you are usable to him in the life of others here's the process number one he breaks us he breaks us he took the bread and he broke it you will never be used mightily by god until he breaks you you just won't i i know that's not the message that some of you flew from timbuktu thailand to here but it's the truth a.w toaster put it this way it is doubtful that god will ever use a man greatly until he hurts the man deeply how many times do we have to say everybody wants the power nobody wants the nobody wants to process but the process is before he ever was able to distribute to the people he broke what he was using and god's going to break you god's going to show you who you really are when you look in the mirror tomorrow morning sometimes he'll take all of our prayers all of our goals all of our dreams all of our ambitions and it almost seems like he incinerates them to ashes in front of our very eyes because he wants us to trust in him not them and god will break you nobody likes brokenness nobody likes depression and anxiety sleepless nights basketball size ulcers nobody likes financial instability nobody wants to hear cancer nobody wants to have to walk through some horrible disabling marital situation nobody wants a relational disconnection nobody wants a prodigal child a son or a daughter nobody wants a church split nobody wants crazy stuff going on in the nation but i'm telling you if god's going to use you he's going to break you first because here's what happens if god uses greg locke before he breaks greg locke then greg locke is the one that thinks he did all the using and he gets all of the glory and all the excitement and all the pizzazz and gets to sign all the books but when god breaks you he reminds you how fragile you really are how disconnected without him you really are john 15 5 for without me jesus said ye can do nothing why because without him we are nothing galatians 6 3 if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself we are zeros with the circle rubbed out we are nothing without him we are nothing without him he took the bread in a process and he broke it so he breaks us then he blesses us he breaks us then he blesses us and everybody wants the blessing not just before the breaking everybody wants the blessing without the breaking nobody wants to hurt nobody wants the solitude nobody wants the embarrassment nobody wants to have to go down that road but you got to go down that road you've got to go down that road and it's a lonely street you find out a couple of things you find out number one just how faithful and good god really is you find out number two who's gonna stick with you when all hell breaks loose and you're fighting satan by the acre you'll find out who your real friends are and then you will find out just how desperately much you want the power and presence of god in your life or how much you don't want it he'll break us before he blesses us and we want the blessing yes but you got to have the brokenness before you get it it's just the way god works it's an orderly sovereign predictable principle that you cannot circumvent yes amen thanks be unto god even he believes that this morning right on cue buddy right on cue ((applause)) huh little dude said all these humans ain't gonna worship god i'm gonna bark and worship jesus at his house we're gonna let the rocks cry out if we don't believe what the man of god is saying if snoopy can get it you can get in church he's going to break us then he blesses us and number three in closing then he distributes us man i want to be used by god not to feed myself but to feed multitudes you know our church could take care of itself like most churches do and i'm not minimizing most churches i'm just saying at the end of the day you've never really belonged to a church like this because we're not the church down the road we're not your grandmother's church we're not the church we grew up in we're just not we're just us we're who we who we are as my old preacher friend used to say be who you is and not whose you ain't so look we could be an average church that just feeds ourself let's just use all our resources on us let's just use our stuff about us let's just be about us we got to protect us us okay we can do that and still feel like we're in some measure of revival but why would we do something so selfish when life is so short and the kingdom is so real why wouldn't we want to feed multitudes thousands and thousands and tens and thousands and hundreds of thousands yeah millions why wouldn't we want to feed millions of multitudes of people all over the planet somebody said why did you call your church global vision because we got a vision to reach the whole world that's why go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature mark 16 15. i want god to distribute us i want god to use us i want god to bless us but he's going to break us first now i think i'm not god and so i don't speak for him i think we are in a great place now of blessing and distribution and usability because collectively we've gone through a lot of brokenness together we've had to figure out some stuff and so so i think collectively not all of it but collectively we're through a lot of the the brokenness and so now god's blessing us and using us and multiplying us and distributing us to the multitudes that doesn't mean all the brokenness is gone but individually there are some of you very much in that process this morning you're just broke i mean you're broke because the bank said you're broke you're broken your spirit you're broke in your marriage you're broke with your kids you're broke because somebody told you a long time ago that you can never use the word depression and anxiety but you're so full of it you don't even know what to do with yourself because you can't even explain what's wrong with you and it makes you mad when somebody asks because you're filled to overflowing with depression and can't even explain it and the bible says when my heart is overwhelmed within me lead me to the rock that is higher than i and some of you need to be led to the rock today ((music playing)) some of you have just faced a job situation some of you are facing a job situation you're going to be let go and you know it you say why would god forsake me god's not forsaking you god's elevating you but he's gonna break you first before he can bring about the blessing and so when i read what a.w tozer had to say i was had to say i was 17 years old 17 years old ((music playing)) somebody gave me a book called the pursuit of god not in pursuit of god the pursuit of god one of the greatest books outside the bible i've ever read i used to read it religiously i've probably read it a hundred times it's eight chapters long it's not something you just sit down and read in one sitting it's deep ((music playing)) but in chapter four talking about abraham ((music playing)) the father of nothingness he called him the blessedness of possessing nothing no house no land go and when you get there i'll tell you and about halfway through that fourth chapter he says it is doubtful that god will ever use a man greatly until he hurts a man deeply he'd been hurt you've been broke some of you are there right this minute my beautiful wife's about to pray we're going to go into a time of invitation but i always can feel when the lord changes things in the atmosphere see some of you came here today and i'm grateful for and i'm gonna meet you in a few minutes if i hadn't already and you've seen enough on the news to have a preconceived notion of what you thought you were gonna hear when you showed up but that stuff serves a season and serves a purpose it's not why we're here ((music playing)) we're here to embrace the brokenness that god has brought about as a body and as individuals and i'm telling you right now as i get ready to hand this microphone off to my wife there's some men there's some ladies there's some young people whether you come across the street or across the state or across the entire united states you ought to slip out now i'm talking about right this second johnny on the spot and you ought to get down here to this altar and you ought to get on your knees and say god i'm going to embrace what i'm going through in my marriage right now i'm going to embrace what the doctor told me i'm going to embrace this horrible situation in my body i'm just going to accept the fact that right now you're trying to break me so that you can bless me so that you can use me so that you can distribute me to the multitudes and some of you need to surrender some of you got a bag you better give it to god quit making all these lousy excuses well i've got my own meal now quit feeding yourself and start feeding your family start feeding other people for the glory of god and the power of the gospel come on right now come on right now come embrace what god brought you to this place for embrace what god brought you to this tent for today ((music playing)) if you need somebody to pray over you we got some folks we'll go ahead and have some of our prayer team folks come right down here to my right we'll pray over you we'll lay hands on you we'll bless you in the name of god we'll help you any way that we can you come let somebody pray with you today you need some wholeness you need some healing you need a breakthrough you come let somebody pray for you today you let these tears flow on this floor on this ground shortest verse in the bible doesn't say jesus preached it said jesus wept somebody to embrace that brokenness today come on ((music playing)) make me a vessel make me not free make me whatever you want me to be i came here with nothing but all you have given me jesus ((music playing)) make me an offering make me whatever you want me to be god i came here with nothing but all ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) me ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) father lord we come to you today lord we thank you for your presence here that is so very sweet lord we thank you that it is in our brokenness that we understand that you are the god that makes us whole your word says behold i do a new thing father would you do a new thing for us today lord lord would you show us a new way father would you put a new word in our mouth lord lord because we can come to you in our brokenness lord and we know that you are faithful god we know that you are faithful to restore we know that you give back the years not just what the enemy took from us god you give back the years that the locusts took from us father and lord we thank you that today you are pouring out new wine among your bride father lord lord that you are bringing us into newness and into wholeness god lord that when we come to you and we surrender father lord that you take what is broken in us god and you use it for the multitudes of people lord lord that you put us in a position to be able to relate to one another father that we know that we truly are nothing without you god lord there is nothing good in us except for you father so lord we take our brokenness god lord and we recognize that every single thing that you have taken us through is to prove not just to you father but to ourselves lord to prove to us that we have a faith that cannot be shaken we stand on christ alone our cornerstone father and lord we thank you for that we thank you that in his name there is healing lord lord we thank you that in his name there is redemption father lord lord we thank you that in his name there is restoration lord we thank you that in his name there is wholeness lord and lord today we can come and we can get stirred up father and lord we can know in our spirits that you are the one that sits on the throne room of heaven but lord when we leave here today would we take that stirring with us lord do not allow us to leave it here in this tent that when we walk out those doors god that we would be stirred to newness in you lord lord that you would stir us up and stir us up and stir us up every single day of the week lord that your spirit would fill us to overflowing that our cups would run over father lord because lord we know that you are the god of abundance lord and we thank you for that father father lord we thank you that we can come to you just as we are lord and lord that we leave changed knowing that we do not have to carry this with us anymore lord if we would come to a place of surrender lord the power that works within us father can bring life where there is death lord lord today we speak life over your church god lord we speak love over your church father we speak mercy over your church father we speak grace over your church father lord we speak wholeness over your church father we speak healing over your church today father lord knowing and believing that you are able it is the god that you are and you cannot ever cease to be who you are lord and lord we thank you for that we thank you that you are the constant one father lord and when everything in us seems wrong god you are still right and you are still good because you're a good father lord and your desire for us is wholeness lord god would you anoint our eyes with us out today that we may see god that we may see who you are lord lord we say all the time we have tasted and seen the goodness of god god would you allow us to see your goodness in our trial father because lord you are good you are good when everything is wrong father lord lord you are a good good father god and lord we thank you for that lord would you drop scales from our eyes that we may sit in the goodness of who you are god because every single day in every trial and every situation god your goodness runs after your children father lord lord that we are able to know without a shadow of a doubt that we belong to the most high king the king of kings and the lord of lords god you have called us sons and you have called us daughters god we have been adopted into your kingdom father lord and we thank you for that lord we thank you that our identity is found in you lord and lord we thank you that no matter the mess that we are god that you look into our brokenness and you say i choose you i choose you and i choose you and i choose you and i choose you and lord we thank you for that we thank you that we have been chosen god that we have been bought for a purpose ((music playing)) and lord we thank you for every season of our lives because you're the god of every season you're the god of every mountaintop and you're the god of every valley and lord we thank you we thank you because your mercies truly are new every single day every single day god would you teach us not to miss what you are doing in this time lord lord do not allow the root of bitterness to be planted within us god lord would you give us a heart of forgiveness lord god would you give us a heart that just says i want more of you lord i want more of you lord because lord there are so many more deeper levels of you that we can't even fathom our minds can't even wrap around the holiness of who you are god and so lord would you teach us to go deeper with you father teach us to go deeper with you lord that we can sit in your presence and that we can know that you have touched our lips you have put a touch upon us father and lord we thank you for that and we worship you because you truly are worthy of it all god you truly are and there is no way that we will let the rocks cry out in our place because you deserve all honor and all glory and all praise ((music playing)) we exalt you father be exalted father because when we exalt you lord you become over all things in our lives lord can we exalt you above the problem can we exalt you above depression exalt you above anxiety exalt you above grief father god can we just exalt you teach us to exalt you above all things in our lives lord would you teach your church to give you your rightful place in our lives that we would no longer put other things before you father but lord that we would come to you and humbly sit before your feet and worship you for you are the king of kings you are the lord of lords and we love you in jesus name amen if you're here today for our baptismal celebration just begin to make your way around my left your right and spilly and the team of volunteers will be there and we'll get you all ready to go and signed up you can certainly take as long as you want to down here kneeling before the lord in his presence but if you're one of our baptismal candidates and you're here today to follow the lord and believer's baptism and just slip right over here to this side of the tent my left your right and we'll go into a time of baptisms it'll be on the screens i know some of you like to gather around and be able to get pictures i'm going to ask you this one question for those that are still remaining i wonder if there'd be somebody here today and you'd say pastor i want prayer i need you to pray for me i'm not going to call you out i'm not going to stick a microphone in your mouth not going to come to your seat but just right now where you are you would say you know what the real brokenness of my heart is the brokenness of my soul because i've never been saved there's never been a time in my life that i've ever repented to believe the gospel i've never been forgiven of my sin i want to know how i want to experience new life in christ i want to know that heaven's my home that when i die and leave this world i'll be in the kingdom of god with christ i want to know that i'm not sure i didn't ask you are you religious i don't care if you're wicked my question is are you born again do you know that you know that you know that jesus christ is your savior if that's not you if you're not sure of that today but you would like to pray and you would like to be sure and you would like to know and have that peace in your heart right now all over this room wherever you have we have one or two or three people that be honest and say preacher i just want to pray right now i want you to pray with me slip your hand up wherever you are i'm not sure that heaven's my home i'm not sure that christ is my savior thank you so much thank you is everybody else try to talk to the lord because the one prayer god wants to hear is the cry of repentance from your heart and right where you are the best you know how i want you to converse with the lord and say something like this dear father i know i am a sinner and i know for my sin i deserve hell but i believe jesus took my punishment on the cross and died for my forgiveness ((music playing)) i believe he was buried and rose again from the dead and today lord jesus the best i know how i ask for forgiveness cleanse me from my rebellion ((music playing)) and i ask you and you alone to come into my life be my lord and savior to not just forgive me but to change me to transform me and give me faith father to believe ((music playing)) that you will carry me into your presence when i leave this world let me ask you this question as we're about before the lord will there be one man one lady one young person two three four ten anybody would there be somebody here say pastor i meant that i prayed that and right now where i am in this seat the holy spirit has met me i have trusted jesus christ to be my savior today and if that's you can we rejoice with you would you slip your hand up you prayed that prayer you trusted the lord jesus stick your hand up high god bless you thank you god bless you thank you god bless you right here god bless you sir thank you hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah welcome to the family of god amen welcome to the family of god we're going to have our baptismal celebrations again if you watch it on the screen so if you want to come down here and get some pictures and uh let's just baptize some folks my wife and i will be in the hospitality tent in just a moment to my far right right over here the far little corner cave hole area and you can suck the line up there in a few moments and we'll be glad to see you guys shake your hands we love you let's have some baptisms amen god ((music playing)) bless you ((music playing)) ((applause)) fear foreign ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) all right brother zach upon your public profession of faith in jesus and the power and glory of his gospel it gives me a great honor my brother the lord to baptize you before these witnesses in the name of the father son the holy spirit buried baptism raised to walk in newness of life ((music playing)) all right my young brother isaac upon your public profession of faith in jesus and the power of his gospel it gives me a great honor before these witnesses my brother and the lord to baptize you today in the name of the father son of the holy spirit bear in baptism raise to wall get newness of life ((music playing)) all right miss isabel upon your public profession of faith in jesus and the power and glory of his gospel it gives me a great honor my sister in the lord to baptize you in the name of the father son of the holy spirit bear in baptism raise to walk in newness of life ((music playing)) um ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) all right miss aliyah upon your public profession of faith in jesus and the power of glorious gospel it gives me a great honor my sister in the lord to baptize you before these witnesses in the name of the father son the holy spirit married baptism race to walk in newness a lot ((music playing)) all right brother dalton upon your public profession of faith in jesus and the power glory of his gospel gives me a great honor my brother in the lord before these witnesses to baptize you sir in the name of the father son the holy spirit buried baptism raised to walk and then it's alive ((music playing)) well all right my brother brand upon your public profession of faith in jesus and the power and glory of his gospel sir it gives me a great honor before these witnesses to baptize you in the name of the father son the holy spirit bear in baptism raise to walk in newness of life ((music playing)) all right sister cam upon your public profession of faith in jesus and the power and glory of his gospel it gives me a great honor before these witnesses to baptize you in the name of the father so in the holy spirit buried baptism raised to walk and then it's alive ((music playing)) thank you all so much for being here today we will see you wednesday night at seven o'clock make sure you come join us for our prayer service and let's praise the lord for what he's doing in our midst bubble vision ((music playing))