Speaker 1: Hi everybody.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for subscribing to our video podcast here
Speaker 2: at Elevation Church. We trust that these messages are speaking
Speaker 2: directly to your heart. Beginning January seventh, we're moving to
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Speaker 2: Elevation with Stephen Ferdick. If you'd still like the video,
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Speaker 2: Thanks again for being a part of the family.
Speaker 1: We'll see you soon. Well, welcome to Elevation.
Speaker 3: Hasn't this been an amazing time of worship already at
Speaker 3: all of our locations.
Speaker 1: Those of you joining us online, Merry Christmas. You did it,
Speaker 1: you're here, you made it.
Speaker 3: What a beautiful time we've had together this morning. And
Speaker 3: I love coming to church, but I love coming especially
Speaker 3: this time of year, because it forces me to stop
Speaker 3: thinking about all the things that I have left to
Speaker 3: do this week and just spend an hour focusing on
Speaker 3: why we really celebrate Christmas. That Jesus came, he was
Speaker 3: born in a manger, and we worship him. And so
Speaker 3: today I'm really excited about the word that God has
Speaker 3: given me to say to you. Stand on your feet.
Speaker 3: I'm going to share our scripture and we will jump
Speaker 3: right in. All right, turn in your bible if you
Speaker 3: have one, to mark chapter eight, and we're going to
Speaker 3: start in verse one. During those days, another large crowd gathered.
Speaker 1: Since they had nothing to eat. Jesus called his disciples to.
Speaker 3: Him and said, I have compassion for these people. They
Speaker 3: have already been with me three days had and have
Speaker 3: nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they
Speaker 3: will collapse along the way, because some of them have
Speaker 3: come a long distance. His disciples answered, but where in
Speaker 3: this remote place we can anyone get enough bread to
Speaker 3: feed them?
Speaker 1: How many loaves do.
Speaker 3: You have, Jesus asked, seven, they replied, and he told
Speaker 3: the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he
Speaker 3: had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke
Speaker 3: them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to
Speaker 3: the people, and they did so. They had a few
Speaker 3: small fish as well, and he gave thanks for them also,
Speaker 3: and told the disciples to distribute them.
Speaker 1: The people ate and were satisfied.
Speaker 3: Afterwards, the disciples picked up seven baskets full of broken
Speaker 3: pieces that were left over. About four thousand were present. God,
Speaker 3: would you've blessed this word today? We love you Jesus name,
Speaker 3: We pray Amma. All right, give a couple of good
Speaker 3: Christmas hugs before you.
Speaker 1: Take your seat. Thank you worship team. That was amazing.
Speaker 3: I think Jenna and John sou should do more duets. Hey,
Speaker 3: I was really beautiful.
Speaker 1: Okay? Is it okay?
Speaker 3: If I give you a Christmas sermon that's not from
Speaker 3: a Christmas Bible passage?
Speaker 1: Good because I already am. First, I want to tell
Speaker 1: you of a short story.
Speaker 3: Don't for all those of you don't like long stories.
Speaker 3: I like long stories, but have a short.
Speaker 1: One for you today.
Speaker 3: Many of you know that Stephen and I we got
Speaker 3: married when we were practically babies. Right three weeks after
Speaker 3: our college graduation, at twenty two years of old, twenty
Speaker 3: two years of age, we got married and we basically
Speaker 3: moved out of our dorms and into our first apartment.
Speaker 3: So during our first year of marriage, we were figuring
Speaker 3: out everything together.
Speaker 1: We were figuring out how to get along.
Speaker 3: How to budget, what we did after work, how to
Speaker 3: celebrate holidays.
Speaker 1: What we did on weekends, And we had so many any.
Speaker 3: Conversations about how his family did this and my family
Speaker 3: did that, And little by little I began to realize
Speaker 3: that there were things in my childhood that I thought
Speaker 3: were common place.
Speaker 1: And they were actually weird. So here's an example.
Speaker 3: One night, after I got home from teaching school, I
Speaker 3: said to Stephen, I said, hey, I need to get
Speaker 3: groceries for the week.
Speaker 1: Let's just go eat dinner at the grocery store. I
Speaker 1: need to look back at.
Speaker 3: Me, and he said, you mean go out to eat
Speaker 3: after we get groceries.
Speaker 1: I said, no, we'll just eat while we shop.
Speaker 3: And like by the look on his face, I had
Speaker 3: one of those moments where I realized my family was
Speaker 3: not normal. So you see, my family occasionally, not like
Speaker 3: once a week or anything, but occasionally we would eat
Speaker 3: dinner at the grocery store.
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about go to Costco and eat
Speaker 1: the samples. We did that too. I'm talking like sometimes
Speaker 1: when my.
Speaker 3: Mom had a busy week and long list of groceries
Speaker 3: for our family of five, we would all go to Public's.
Speaker 3: We're shopping is a pleasure, and while my parents put
Speaker 3: items in the cart, we would open things up and
Speaker 3: eat them as we walked along, so a deli meat
Speaker 3: and cheese slices. You know, you roll it together and
Speaker 3: Dorito's straight out of the family sized bag, and you're
Speaker 3: helping me know that this was not normal. I didn't
Speaker 3: know you were going to laugh that much. And then
Speaker 3: when it came time to check out, they would just
Speaker 3: pay for the open items along with the other things
Speaker 3: in the cart. And I specifically remember complaining to my
Speaker 3: mom one night because I didn't want to eat dinner.
Speaker 1: At the grocery store and she.
Speaker 3: Was like, well why, And I said, I want a sandwich.
Speaker 1: I don't want to just eat meat and cheese from
Speaker 1: the deli.
Speaker 3: And she said, well, just open the bread and make
Speaker 3: yourself a sandwich, and I did, and a decade later
Speaker 3: I realized that other families didn't eat.
Speaker 1: Dinner at the grocery store.
Speaker 3: The title of my sermon today is the Bread is
Speaker 3: in your hands.
Speaker 1: Let's go back to the disciples for a minute. I
Speaker 1: shouldn't need to give you too.
Speaker 3: Much backstory on this because Pastor Stephen preached on this
Speaker 3: story just a few months ago and the sermon was
Speaker 3: called Navigating not Enough.
Speaker 1: Does anybody remember that one? It's the one where he.
Speaker 3: Talked about girl math and God math and how.
Speaker 1: And yeah you remember that one, and how enough is
Speaker 1: not a feeling, it's a place of faith. It was
Speaker 1: so good.
Speaker 3: If you missed it, you got to go back because
Speaker 3: this is part two of that message.
Speaker 1: And today I want to open.
Speaker 3: Up that phrase. Enough is not a feeling, it's a
Speaker 3: place of faith. So what is a feeling? A feeling,
Speaker 3: especially this time of year, is tired and irritated, overwhelmed.
Speaker 3: And we feel these feelings when we're faced with a
Speaker 3: situation or a season where we wonder.
Speaker 1: If we have enough.
Speaker 3: And when I find myself in a place of not enough,
Speaker 3: I automatically think that the solution is more right, more time,
Speaker 3: more money, if I had more help.
Speaker 1: But the problem is in the moment, more is outside.
Speaker 3: Of your control. You don't have more. If you could
Speaker 3: get more, you would get more. So sometimes the solution
Speaker 3: is right there in your hands. And what you need
Speaker 3: is the faith to see what you actually have. You
Speaker 3: don't actually need more. You need the faith to see
Speaker 3: what you already have and the courage to turn.
Speaker 1: It over to Jesus. Now, I don't want to be
Speaker 1: too hard on the.
Speaker 3: Disciples, because I do think that following Jesus would have
Speaker 3: been simultaneously the coolest thing ever and the hardest thing ever.
Speaker 3: But I do have some questions for the disciples, particularly
Speaker 3: about this story.
Speaker 1: Now, you might have noticed in your Bible that this.
Speaker 3: Story is called the Feeding of the four thousand, and
Speaker 3: that's because just two chapters back, we have almost the
Speaker 3: same story, but it's called the Feeding of the five thousand,
Speaker 3: and the two stories are almost identical, so much so
Speaker 3: that if both if both Matthew and Mark, they tell
Speaker 3: both stories, so they both tell the Feeding of the
Speaker 3: five thousand feeding in the four thousand. Some people would
Speaker 3: argue that maybe they were the same thing and people
Speaker 3: got mixed up, but they're not so. In the Feeding
Speaker 3: of the five thousand, the crowds gathered around Jesus and
Speaker 3: he healed people, and he taught them, and they were
Speaker 3: hearing and understanding the good news for the first time,
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, so much time had passed
Speaker 3: that there was not enough food for the people to
Speaker 3: journey back home, because obviously, for a crowd that size together,
Speaker 3: they would have had to go out to a remote place,
Speaker 3: and many of them had come from several towns away.
Speaker 1: And Jesus felt compassion for the people. He wanted to
Speaker 1: give them something to eat.
Speaker 3: Now I get it this time why the disciples were
Speaker 3: baffled when Jesus told them to feed the crowd.
Speaker 1: And in this particular passage, Jesus just looks.
Speaker 3: At them and he says, you feed them, and they're like, Jesus,
Speaker 3: it would take more than half a year's wages to
Speaker 3: feed all of these people.
Speaker 1: And Jesus said, go see what you have.
Speaker 3: And then the disciple Andrew, does anybody remember this story?
Speaker 3: He finds a kid with five loaves and two fish,
Speaker 3: and they bring that to Jesus and he takes it
Speaker 3: and he blesses it, and they all eat and they're satisfied.
Speaker 3: The Bible tells us it wasn't just five thousand men,
Speaker 3: but it was five thousand men plus the women and children,
Speaker 3: and they had twelve baskets full leftover.
Speaker 1: A miracle. I mean, the.
Speaker 3: Disciples must have been flying high to be a part
Speaker 3: of feeding that many people, right. So two chapters later,
Speaker 3: Mark gives us the account of Jesus feeding the four thousand,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, how much time could there have been
Speaker 3: between these two stories?
Speaker 1: So I googled it.
Speaker 3: Most scholars think, of course, you think I looked it
Speaker 3: up in like a commentary or something.
Speaker 1: I googled it. Most scholars think that it was about.
Speaker 3: Six months, so only six months after the disciples found
Speaker 3: themselves in almost the same exact place.
Speaker 1: Crowds gather so large they have to go out to
Speaker 1: a remote place.
Speaker 3: Jesus teaches and heals, and so much time passes, they
Speaker 3: run out of food and they won't be able to
Speaker 3: make the journey back home.
Speaker 1: Okay, look at the passage again.
Speaker 3: Jesus says, I have compassion for these people. They've already
Speaker 3: been with me three days and have had nothing to eat,
Speaker 3: have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry,
Speaker 3: they will collapse along the way, because some of them
Speaker 3: have come a long distance. His disciples answered, but where
Speaker 3: in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to
Speaker 3: feed them?
Speaker 1: Seriously, not one out of the twelve.
Speaker 3: Things to say, Jesus, let's go, We got seven loaves.
Speaker 1: Do that thing again, will multiply the bread. And then
Speaker 1: another disciple maybe starts singing.
Speaker 3: Dun dun dun, dun, dun, dun dun dun, And then
Speaker 3: they're like, and I believe I.
Speaker 1: See wo there's twelve of them and not one of them. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe they really.
Speaker 3: Did forget about the feeding of the five thousand just
Speaker 3: six months before. Maybe they had seen Jesus do that
Speaker 3: many miracles and they weren't thinking about that one. And
Speaker 3: I do know that in my life there are many
Speaker 3: times where I forget the things.
Speaker 1: That God has done for me. Right like when I
Speaker 1: think of.
Speaker 3: The miracles that God has done in my life and
Speaker 3: the things that I have seen God in the life
Speaker 3: of this church, it's insane. I still to this day
Speaker 3: can smell the smell of the Providence High School drama
Speaker 3: dressing rooms.
Speaker 1: That's where we first started.
Speaker 3: And I remember peeking out from behind the curtain because
Speaker 3: back then I was one of the background vocalists.
Speaker 1: You didn't know that about me, did you.
Speaker 3: Because we didn't have anyone who could really sing yet,
Speaker 3: and so I was getting the job done. And I
Speaker 3: remember peeking out from behind the curtain and wondering if
Speaker 3: people were going to show up because we'd added a
Speaker 3: second service, and every week they did. And I remember
Speaker 3: during COVID wondering if people were really going to watch
Speaker 3: church online from their homes, and they did. And I've
Speaker 3: seen so many miracles in my own life and in
Speaker 3: my own family, and yet sometimes when a tough situation arises,
Speaker 3: I get this like sudden onset of spiritual amnesia, and I.
Speaker 1: Completely forget all that I have seen.
Speaker 3: God do with my seven loaves of bread. So maybe
Speaker 3: they did forget. That's still a possibility. But just go
Speaker 3: with me here, because my December imagination was going, and
Speaker 3: I started thinking, what if they didn't forget about the
Speaker 3: feeding of the five thousand? What if they actually remembered
Speaker 3: how much work it took to feed five thousand men
Speaker 3: plus women and children. Because look, in my house, I
Speaker 3: am in charge of feeding five people. I always planned
Speaker 3: for a straight teenager or two as well.
Speaker 1: And some nights I cook a lot. I like to cook,
Speaker 1: so some nights I cook, some nights we order food.
Speaker 3: And my strategy is always never throw food away, because
Speaker 3: unless it's bad, which in my house my kids know,
Speaker 3: it has to look bad or smell bad, otherwise you
Speaker 3: can eat it, or if it tastes bad, spit it out.
Speaker 3: It's fine because I don't throw it for it away
Speaker 3: because there's somebody who's always hungry in my house, and
Speaker 3: so I always make sure that there's enough food in
Speaker 3: our fridge and in our pantry. And so some nights
Speaker 3: when I'm too tired to feed people and I don't
Speaker 3: want to go to the effort of cooking, and I
Speaker 3: don't want to go to the effort of ordering and
Speaker 3: spending the money to order food, I'm just gonna be
Speaker 3: honest with you. When a teenager looks at me and
Speaker 3: asks me, where in this remote place can we get
Speaker 3: enough food, I have a hard time mustering up the
Speaker 3: compassion of Jesus. So we don't break bread, We eat cereal.
Speaker 3: Feeding people is a lot of work. And I just
Speaker 3: wonder if the Disciples remembered how much work it was
Speaker 3: to distribute food to thousands and thousands of people. Remember,
Speaker 3: they had been there for three days too, and they
Speaker 3: were tired too, and they had just enough left to
Speaker 3: split between the lot of them and go home.
Speaker 1: And so as I was.
Speaker 3: Feeling like I did not have enough during this busy
Speaker 3: Christmas season, it made me wonder if in this moment,
Speaker 3: the disciples problem was not enough bread, but if their
Speaker 3: problem was not enough compassion.
Speaker 1: Stephen told us in his message.
Speaker 3: That the disciples saw crowds. When Jesus saw people, he
Speaker 3: had compassion for the people.
Speaker 1: He said, they've been here three days.
Speaker 3: They won't make it home if you don't give them
Speaker 3: something to eat. And when we're faced with a not
Speaker 3: enough moment, our first prayer should be, Lord.
Speaker 1: Change what I see.
Speaker 3: I think the disciples wanted to eat their seven loaves
Speaker 3: and go home and get a shot and get some sleep.
Speaker 1: But Jesus had compassion on the hungry people, and he
Speaker 1: knew that he had more to give them.
Speaker 3: Jesus wanted this crowd to go home full physically and spiritually,
Speaker 3: because he knew that often our physical needs are directly
Speaker 3: connected with our spiritual needs, and he wanted to feed
Speaker 3: the people through the hands of the disciples.
Speaker 1: Lord, change what I see. I want to see people,
Speaker 1: not problems.
Speaker 3: I want to have compassion for the hungry people around me.
Speaker 3: Every day, sometimes all day long. We're all dealing with
Speaker 3: hungry people. The person you work with, the lady bringing
Speaker 3: you up at target, your kids, your kid's teacher, your
Speaker 3: mother in law, your neighbor, your spouse, the person standing
Speaker 3: too close to you on the subway. And it's complicated,
Speaker 3: and I know it's not easy, But each moment we
Speaker 3: have the opportunity to choose to see faceless crowds or
Speaker 3: hungry people.
Speaker 1: When you see hungry people, you will.
Speaker 3: Feel empathy and you will be moved to compassion. Something
Speaker 3: inside of you, somehow sees someone's pain and responds to it.
Speaker 3: When you see faceless crowds, you're thinking about yourself. And
Speaker 3: this time of year, it is so easy to just
Speaker 3: get through. You're tired, you're worried, you're running out of time.
Speaker 1: But here is what I want to say to you today.
Speaker 3: The level to which you are able to feel the
Speaker 3: presence of Christ this Christmas is directly related to how
Speaker 3: you treat the people in your every day life.
Speaker 1: This is not an easy message.
Speaker 3: I don't think a lot of people are going to
Speaker 3: be like aymen, this is a hard one for me.
Speaker 1: But what I want to he's about how I want
Speaker 1: to say it.
Speaker 3: I am learning that I feel closer to God when
Speaker 3: I am kinder to others. Write that down, because that's
Speaker 3: the main thing I want you to remember from this sermon.
Speaker 3: I feel closer to God when I am kinder to others.
Speaker 1: Now, I was raised in church, and I was taught.
Speaker 3: So many wonderful things about the Bible, and I was
Speaker 3: raised to understand the importance of reading my Bible and
Speaker 3: praying every day. And I was taught how important it
Speaker 3: is to attend church and serve and tithe and give,
Speaker 3: and all of these things help us to hear God
Speaker 3: and to know God and to grow in our faith.
Speaker 3: Those things are the essentials of our faith and elevation.
Speaker 3: Church would not be what it is today, reaching people
Speaker 3: around the globe without the amazing people here who serve
Speaker 3: and lead and give and tithe.
Speaker 1: And if you're one of those people, thank you.
Speaker 3: We're still in the process of receiving our year end offering,
Speaker 3: and last week many of you came forward and you gave,
Speaker 3: and that money enables us not only to spread the
Speaker 3: gospel further with the messages of this church and the
Speaker 3: amazing messages from our pastor and the songs and all,
Speaker 3: but it also helps us to truly be able to
Speaker 3: show the compassion of Jesus to people who are actually
Speaker 3: hungry and living in poverty.
Speaker 1: It enables us to provide disaster.
Speaker 3: Relief where it's needed, and fund education programs and so
Speaker 3: much more. It's amazing what God can do when we
Speaker 3: give him our loves. Right, however, you can do all
Speaker 3: of those things and miss the point. I heard a
Speaker 3: preacher once say that the greatest indication of your relationship
Speaker 3: with God is how you treat others, and not just
Speaker 3: how you treat the people that you love, although some
Speaker 3: of us treat the people we love the worst.
Speaker 1: But it's how you treat the people you don't understand.
Speaker 1: It's how you treat the people you don't agree with.
Speaker 3: It's how you treat people who have perhaps treated you poorly.
Speaker 1: In Luke six. In Luke six, Jesus.
Speaker 3: Says, if you love only those who love you, why
Speaker 3: should you get credit for that?
Speaker 1: Even sinners love those who love them.
Speaker 3: Love your enemies, do good to them, lend to them
Speaker 3: without expecting to be repaid.
Speaker 1: Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and.
Speaker 3: You will truly be acting as children of the most High,
Speaker 3: For He is kind to those who.
Speaker 1: Are unthankful and wicked.
Speaker 3: You must be compassionate, just as your father is compassionate.
Speaker 3: Because the scary thing is that the people that Jesus
Speaker 3: was the most harsh with in the Bible were the
Speaker 3: religious people, people who followed all the rules and attended
Speaker 3: church and prayed the prayers and made the sacrifices because
Speaker 3: these people have begun to think that doing those things
Speaker 3: made them closer to God and also.
Speaker 1: Better than everyone else.
Speaker 3: And there have been times in my life when I
Speaker 3: thought memorizing scripture and participating in Bible studies and abstaining
Speaker 3: from certain substances would make me feel closer to God.
Speaker 3: And don't get me wrong, because all of those things
Speaker 3: play a huge role in my growth as a Christian.
Speaker 3: But the actual growth comes when I apply all of
Speaker 3: those things that I'm learning to my relationships and my
Speaker 3: interactions with others. And the longer I walk with God
Speaker 3: here it is again, the more I realize that I
Speaker 3: feel the closest to God.
Speaker 1: When I'm kind to others.
Speaker 3: Jesus says later in the Book of John a new commandment.
Speaker 3: I give you love one another as I have loved you,
Speaker 3: So you must love one another. By this, everyone will
Speaker 3: know that you are my disciples if you love one another.
Speaker 3: The way we treat others is what sets us apart
Speaker 3: as believers in Christ.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you this, if the.
Speaker 3: Only way for people in your life to know that
Speaker 3: you are a Christian was not by how often you
Speaker 3: went to church or how many Bible verses you knew,
Speaker 3: but was by how you.
Speaker 1: Treated other people? What would they say about you? Now?
Speaker 3: Listen, Our outward actions do not change our status with God.
Speaker 3: The way I treat others makes me feel closer to God.
Speaker 3: But we're all covered by his grace, Thank God, because
Speaker 3: we all have moments. Right, not too long ago, I
Speaker 3: went to home Goods and I think it was a
Speaker 3: Saturday because God and everybody was there.
Speaker 1: And I drove around and there was only one parking
Speaker 1: space available.
Speaker 3: And I drive a really big mom Suv, but I'm
Speaker 3: really good at parking it, and so I whip.
Speaker 1: Into this space and it was close, but it's a
Speaker 1: big car. That's how you drive it. And and so
Speaker 1: you know, I whip into this place.
Speaker 3: And the owner of the car that I got really
Speaker 3: really close to, like probably inches, she happened to be
Speaker 3: sitting in her vehicle and she watched the whole thing,
Speaker 3: and she looked at me and she was like, you
Speaker 3: almost get my car, And I'm you know, I've been
Speaker 3: driving around looking for this space for a while.
Speaker 1: And so I looked back at her and I was
Speaker 1: like what, because.
Speaker 4: What was the best word I could think to say
Speaker 4: in the moment, you know, the best thing that could.
Speaker 4: We all have moments, moments we wish we could take back,
Speaker 4: moments I'm not even.
Speaker 3: Gonna share with you here that are a lot worse
Speaker 3: than what happened at Home Goods. We all have moments
Speaker 3: that we know are covered by God's grace, but we
Speaker 3: hope that they're covered by people's grace too. And there's
Speaker 3: always forgiveness to be found in Christ. But we have
Speaker 3: to realize that our outward actions and our responses to
Speaker 3: others can affect our ability to sense the presence and
Speaker 3: the peace of.
Speaker 1: God in our lives.
Speaker 3: And if you're wondering this Christmas why you don't feel
Speaker 3: close to Christ, why you don't feel peace in your heart,
Speaker 3: maybe you should check how you're treating other people. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: we don't get to choose the people that God has
Speaker 3: placed in our lives and on our paths.
Speaker 1: We don't get to.
Speaker 3: Choose the family that we're born into. Maybe you didn't
Speaker 3: have to eat dinner at the grocery store. Married didn
Speaker 3: get to choose those who came to worship Jesus that
Speaker 3: night in the stable. But we do get to choose
Speaker 3: how we see the people in our lives, and I
Speaker 3: know that the people in your life are messy. It's
Speaker 3: messy and loving them is complicated. It's like the farthest
Speaker 3: thing from simple what I'm asking you to do today,
Speaker 3: Because I know there's history, and there's pain, and there's
Speaker 3: things that have been said, and there's the way people
Speaker 3: always have acted.
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 3: I'm just asking you to think, if you feel far
Speaker 3: from God this Christmas, you might need to ask God
Speaker 3: to help you change the way you see His sons
Speaker 3: and daughters, because you can have boundaries and be kind
Speaker 3: at the same time. You know that phrase hurting people
Speaker 3: hurt people. I want to change it a little bit
Speaker 3: today and tell you hungry people hurt people. Have you
Speaker 3: ever been angry in the worst mood because you haven't
Speaker 3: eaten anything, And if you would just eat something, everything
Speaker 3: would change. What if you could change someone's day by
Speaker 3: sharing some of your bread with them.
Speaker 1: The people that.
Speaker 3: You encounter this Christmas, your family workers, your co worker,
Speaker 3: your family workers, your family members.
Speaker 1: Your co workers, the person.
Speaker 3: In front of you in mine at the grocery store.
Speaker 3: They're all hungry. And I know you're hungry too. But
Speaker 3: I believe that God sent me here today to tell
Speaker 3: you that there is bread in your hands. Look back
Speaker 3: at the scripture. I have compassion for these people. They've
Speaker 3: already been with me for three days and have nothing
Speaker 3: to eat. If they send them home hungry, they will
Speaker 3: collapse on the way, because some of them have come
Speaker 3: a long distance.
Speaker 1: The disciples answered, but where in this remote place could
Speaker 1: we get enough food to feed them?
Speaker 3: How many loaves do you have, Jesus asked seven.
Speaker 1: They replied seven was not much. They would have needed
Speaker 1: thirteen for each of.
Speaker 3: Them to have one, but they had seven, and so
Speaker 3: they gave their seven loaves to Jesus.
Speaker 1: You know that you.
Speaker 3: Don't have to give everyone a feast. You don't have
Speaker 3: to stop and pray with the waitress at lunch today,
Speaker 3: but you can smile and say thank you and give
Speaker 3: her a nice tip whether she got your order perfectly
Speaker 3: right or not. You don't have to be an annoying
Speaker 3: Christian to have compassion on the people around you. You
Speaker 3: can be kind within your own giftings and within your
Speaker 3: own personality. And I just want to say that extroverts
Speaker 3: aren't better Christians. They just like talking to people in
Speaker 3: line at target times. Kindness is listening, not talking listening
Speaker 3: to a story you've heard before, listening to an opinion
Speaker 3: that you don't agree with. Sometimes compassion is just walking away.
Speaker 3: Sometimes the gift of compassion is biting your tongue. Sometimes
Speaker 3: kindness is making eye contact. I'm telling you it's it's
Speaker 3: way simpler than you're making it out to me. Stephen
Speaker 3: says that I am a no eye contact person in public,
Speaker 3: and it's true. I don't know why I'm in Harristeter.
Speaker 1: I have a job to do. I have hungry teenagers
Speaker 1: to feed.
Speaker 3: And sometimes I have my audio book in and I'm
Speaker 3: playing candy Crush.
Speaker 1: At the checkout.
Speaker 3: Okay, like I'm that, But sometimes I do that at
Speaker 3: home too, and I'm checked out. How can you even
Speaker 3: begin to.
Speaker 1: See the people in your life?
Speaker 3: How can I even begin to see the people in
Speaker 3: my life when I'm instantly staring at my phone? And
Speaker 3: so while I'm up here preaching to myself, I feel
Speaker 3: like I should say to some of the people in
Speaker 3: this room that are running around and trying to make
Speaker 3: everything perfect and getting the gifts under the tree and
Speaker 3: wrapped and beautiful, and the holiday meals and the class
Speaker 3: parties and the Secretsanda and the family Christmas card and
Speaker 3: all of those wonderful, beautiful things. But you know what
Speaker 3: your family wants from you for Christmas this year. They
Speaker 3: want you to not freak out about the trash on
Speaker 3: the floor at eight thirty am on Christmas morning. I'm
Speaker 3: saying that to myself. I know you're hungry too, but
Speaker 3: don't put kindness.
Speaker 1: On your to do list. Be like my mom. She said,
Speaker 1: you want bread, there's bread right here in the cart.
Speaker 1: God didn't ask the disciples to prepare a five course meal,
Speaker 1: He said, how much bread do you you have? What's
Speaker 1: in your car? How can you see the people around you?
Speaker 3: Sometimes compassion is simply stopping to encourage someone that you
Speaker 3: know is going through.
Speaker 1: A difficult season. It's that simple. Two weeks ago, on
Speaker 1: a Saturday night, I was really stressed.
Speaker 3: I had a list a mile long to take care of,
Speaker 3: and I was also trying to prepare a sermon for
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of people, and I was trying
Speaker 3: my best just to you know, tackle one thing at
Speaker 3: a time. And I think I did a pretty okay
Speaker 3: job not taking it out on my kids and my family.
Speaker 3: But by the time that I went to bed, my
Speaker 3: stomach was in naughts. And I don't know if any
Speaker 3: of you ever go to bed and you're just praying.
Speaker 1: You're like, God, just help me not forget anything that
Speaker 1: I've committed to do.
Speaker 3: And I woke up the next morning to a text
Speaker 3: from a staff member and a friend. Her name is Daytona,
Speaker 3: and she texted me and she said that she had
Speaker 3: woken up in the middle of the night and felt
Speaker 3: led to pray peace over us, and she just typed
Speaker 3: out a prayer about the peace of God having authority
Speaker 3: over me.
Speaker 1: That was bread.
Speaker 3: I woke up to bread right there on my phone
Speaker 3: because someone else stopped for a second to think about
Speaker 3: someone other than herself. You don't have to be a
Speaker 3: preacher or a Bible scholar or you know, Mother Teresa
Speaker 3: to feed the hungry this Christmas. And if you're listening
Speaker 3: to this message and you're thinking, great, now I have
Speaker 3: to add more to my list. I need to find
Speaker 3: a soup kitchen for my family to serve out.
Speaker 1: You're totally missing the point.
Speaker 3: Obviously, if the opportunity arises for you to serve at
Speaker 3: an organization like that, you should do it. But the
Speaker 3: point is having compassion is less about signing up to
Speaker 3: serve and is more about what is right in front
Speaker 3: of who is right in front of you. A good
Speaker 3: friend of mine has been letting a teenage girl in
Speaker 3: her neighborhood live with her for weeks this Christmas because
Speaker 3: she has nowhere else to go except the foster care system.
Speaker 3: That is the compassion of Christ.
Speaker 1: When you have the faith to pray, Lord, here is
Speaker 1: my bread. Use what I have.
Speaker 3: God will always present you with an opportunity. And Mary's
Speaker 3: prayer the one that she prayed after the angel came
Speaker 3: to her and told her that she was going to
Speaker 3: carry the son of God. She starts off by saying,
Speaker 3: my soul magnifies the Lord. My heart rejoices in God,
Speaker 3: my savior, for he lifts the lowly. And then she
Speaker 3: goes on to say this beautiful thing she says, for
Speaker 3: he has filled the.
Speaker 1: Hungry with good things.
Speaker 3: God has compassion for the hungry, and the good news
Speaker 3: is he wants to feed them through you.
Speaker 1: The power came from Jesus, but the bread was in
Speaker 1: their hands. Here's the funny thing. Look at verse six.
Speaker 3: He told the crowds to sit down on the ground
Speaker 3: when he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks
Speaker 3: he broke them and gave them to his disciples to
Speaker 3: distribute to the people, and they did so. They had
Speaker 3: a few small fish as well. He gave thanks for
Speaker 3: them also and told the disciples to distribute them.
Speaker 1: Where did the fish come from? The disciples never mentioned
Speaker 1: any fish.
Speaker 3: But maybe someone saw the bread going around and they
Speaker 3: just threw their fish into the lot. When you give
Speaker 3: God what you have, when you give him what time
Speaker 3: you have, when you give him the ability you have,
Speaker 3: the resources that you have, you will always have more
Speaker 3: than enough.
Speaker 1: Someone's gonna throw some fish into the pile. He always enough.
Speaker 1: The key is to see what you have, count your
Speaker 1: loaves this morning and thank God for them, ask him
Speaker 1: to bless them. So this looks like you wake up
Speaker 1: in the morning and you say, God, here's my bread today.
Speaker 3: Thank you for my health, thank you for my job,
Speaker 3: thank you for my family, thank you for the home
Speaker 3: that we have to host people in. Thank you for
Speaker 3: the car that I have to go Christmas shopping in.
Speaker 3: Here's my time, God, here's my day. Change how I
Speaker 3: see and interact with people today.
Speaker 1: Show me what I have in my hands. We're not
Speaker 1: going to get it right every time.
Speaker 3: We're human beings with feelings and emotions, and we're navigating
Speaker 3: our own hunger while simultaneously trying to feed others. But
Speaker 3: the faith to feed is directly connected to your proximity
Speaker 3: to Jesus. Think about the order the disciples gave Jesus
Speaker 3: the bread. Jesus blessed it, gave it back to them,
Speaker 3: They passed it out over and over again until four
Speaker 3: thousand people were fed. Last Christmas, I was making a
Speaker 3: big meal for our family, and you know, first I
Speaker 3: made a cake. We have this chocolate chip pound cake
Speaker 3: that everybody likes, and so I was making that, and
Speaker 3: of course I licked the batter, because that's the privilege
Speaker 3: of being the cook.
Speaker 1: And then I made a.
Speaker 3: Cheeseboard because I wanted us to have, you know, appetizers,
Speaker 3: and so I was snacking on the grapes and the cheese,
Speaker 3: and I had to make sure the.
Speaker 1: Crackers weren't stale.
Speaker 3: And then I sliced the bread and that we were
Speaker 3: gonna I was gonna warm in the oven, and so
Speaker 3: you know, I ate the little in piece. And I
Speaker 3: was making mashed potatoes and I had to taste those
Speaker 3: to make sure that they had enough salt.
Speaker 1: And you know what.
Speaker 3: By the time I sat down to that meal with
Speaker 3: my family, I don't know if this is ever having you.
Speaker 3: I wasn't really hungry at all because the people in
Speaker 3: the kitchen have the most access to the food.
Speaker 1: And don't you think that the.
Speaker 3: Disciples were eating the bread and the fish as they
Speaker 3: passed it out?
Speaker 1: Of course they were. They got to it first. As
Speaker 1: long as they stayed close to Jesus. There was plenty
Speaker 1: for everyone. And when you're feeding others, it's an act
Speaker 1: of service, of course it is, but you benefit from it.
Speaker 3: And I'm giving you permission this Christmas to lick the bowl.
Speaker 3: Watch God do something through your hands. He will supply
Speaker 3: you with everything you need. He will not only give
Speaker 3: you the compassion for the people you interact with, but
Speaker 3: He's also going to give you the energy to distribute.
Speaker 1: It if you remain close to him.
Speaker 3: Stay in the kitchen this Christmas and experience the feeling
Speaker 3: of being full while you serve. Watch the energy shift
Speaker 3: in your heart and in your home, while you see
Speaker 3: the people, and you watch God do what he does with.
Speaker 1: The bread that you have.
Speaker 3: Before Jesus, they had seven loaves after they gave what.
Speaker 1: They had to Jesus. They had so much left over
Speaker 1: they couldn't even eat it all.
Speaker 3: They no longer had seven loaves, they had seven baskets full.
Speaker 3: And the basket was the Hebrew word for the basket
Speaker 3: meant it was like the basket that Paul hid in.
Speaker 1: It was a basket big enough for a man to
Speaker 1: fit in. They had seven basketfuls left over.
Speaker 3: And I want to tell you that joy and peace
Speaker 3: and contentment is what's going to be in your baskets
Speaker 3: this Christmas, and you won't even know where it came from.
Speaker 3: To stay close, the prophet Isaiah said, the Virgin will
Speaker 3: give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel,
Speaker 3: which means God with us. Don't miss out on the
Speaker 3: nearness of Christ this Christmas.
Speaker 1: Fight for it with everything you have.
Speaker 3: Let the pain and the disappointments that you face this
Speaker 3: season draw you closer to Christ. Let the hardship and
Speaker 3: the questions that you have draw you closer to Jesus,
Speaker 3: because everything flows from that close relationship with Him.
Speaker 1: Before I close, I want.
Speaker 3: To remind you also today that God's kindness and compassion
Speaker 3: is for you too, And maybe you should try being
Speaker 3: a little kinder to yourself this Christmas as well. Sometimes
Speaker 3: the person that you're the least kind to is yourself.
Speaker 3: You can't stop thinking about all the ways that you
Speaker 3: have messed up, and the enemy wants nothing more than
Speaker 3: to get in between you and Emmanuel. So the enemy's
Speaker 3: going to say to you you should be farther along
Speaker 3: than you are now.
Speaker 1: When he does, you press in to Emmanuel and you
Speaker 1: remind him how far God has brought you.
Speaker 3: When the enemy says to you, your kids deserve better
Speaker 3: than you, you remember that just like God placed Jesus
Speaker 3: in Mary's hands, God sovereignly placed your child, your children
Speaker 3: in your lap. And the breadth that's in your hands
Speaker 3: is enough for you and for them. When the enemy
Speaker 3: tells you that you've made too many mistakes, you tell
Speaker 3: yourself that Jesus came to earth and died so that
Speaker 3: his grace would not only cover all of your sins.
Speaker 1: But empower you to live for him.
Speaker 3: John ten ten Jesus said, the thief comes to steal,
Speaker 3: kill and destroy, But I have come that they may
Speaker 3: have life and have it to the full. The message
Speaker 3: of Christmas, this of Christmas is that Jesus humbled himself
Speaker 3: by becoming flash and coming to earth, the word became flesh.
Speaker 1: And it dwelt among us. His love for you is
Speaker 1: that great.
Speaker 3: Em Manuel, God with us, looks at you with the love.
Speaker 1: And compassion and patience of a father. Today. He paid
Speaker 1: a great price for you. He took our guilt.
Speaker 3: And our sin and our shame so that we could
Speaker 3: have life to the full, not running on empty, running
Speaker 3: on full.
Speaker 1: Let him satisfy your soul today.
Speaker 3: As I close, I thought I could take the remaining
Speaker 3: moments that we have to just reflect on what we've
Speaker 3: heard today and on the wonder of Christmas and the
Speaker 3: Holy night when God became flesh came to earth that
Speaker 3: we might experience his love and compassion for us. Lev
Speaker 3: Thank you for your word to us today. Would you
Speaker 3: seal it on our hearts. Thank you for your kindness
Speaker 3: to us. Lord, Thank you for your nearness to us
Speaker 3: in this moment. Maybe go out of here today full
Speaker 3: of the love and compassion of Christ for ourselves, and
Speaker 3: may it overflow to all those around us.
Speaker 1: We love you, Lord.
Speaker 3: Thank you for your love and your kindness and your
Speaker 3: patience with us. Thank you for your grace that covers us,
Speaker 3: and most of all, we thank you for Jesus that
Speaker 3: he came to earth as a baby so.
Speaker 1: That we might know you and Jesus name.
Speaker 5: I pray Amen, thanks for joining us today. We pray
Speaker 5: that God has spoken to you in a unique and
Speaker 5: powerful way through the message. Well, we are in our
Speaker 5: year in Offering season as a church where we get
Speaker 5: the opportunity to reflect back on all the ways that
Speaker 5: God has been faithful to our ministry this year, but
Speaker 5: also to look ahead at what we're believing God for
Speaker 5: in the upcoming year. And each year as a church,
Speaker 5: we get to come around a special offering and offering
Speaker 5: that contributes to both outreach efforts in local and global
Speaker 5: cities and as well as the expansion of our ministry
Speaker 5: continuing to reach people all over with the hope of
Speaker 5: the Gospel. And we'd invite you to take part and
Speaker 5: participate in our year end offering. To do so, you
Speaker 5: can go to Elevationchurch dot org. Just click the banner
Speaker 5: there at the top and then you'll be able to
Speaker 5: see everything that you need to be a part of
Speaker 5: our year end offering. You'll see two options. The first
Speaker 5: is to begin tithing. Maybe you've been wanting to prioritize
Speaker 5: God in your finances, but you haven't taken that step
Speaker 5: to make a commitment to doing so. This is a
Speaker 5: great place to begin. Or perhaps you've been giving consistently
Speaker 5: in this season, God may be challenging you to stretch
Speaker 5: above and beyond the tithe to give a sacrificial gift
Speaker 5: to our year end offering. If you're part of one
Speaker 5: of our physical locations, you can choose your campus there,
Speaker 5: or if you're part of our online ministry, of course,
Speaker 5: you'll choose Epham or online and then enter the amount
Speaker 5: that you'd like to give. We are believing for all
Speaker 5: the ways that God is going to stretch our faith
Speaker 5: in this season through our year end offering, and we
Speaker 5: can't wait to see what God does through you.
Speaker 1: God bless and we'll see you soon.