Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our
Speaker 2: podcast and I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope
Speaker 2: it gives your perspective to see God is moving in
Speaker 2: your life. Enjoy the message. This week, we want to
Speaker 2: look at a scripture in John chapter six, verses one
Speaker 2: through thirteen. I'll read it and I may interrupt myself
Speaker 2: if I get excited about something that I see while
Speaker 2: I'm reading, and you just hang in there with me,
Speaker 2: and they'll put it on the screen. And so they'll
Speaker 2: follow along with me. They are trained professionals in the back.
Speaker 2: And if I stop, they'll stop, and if I go,
Speaker 2: they'll go, and we'll all get there together in Jesus' name,
Speaker 2: John chapter six, verse one.
Speaker 1: Are you excited? Say ah?
Speaker 2: Sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of
Speaker 2: the Sea of Galilee, that is the Sea of Tiberius,
Speaker 2: and a great crowd of people followed him because they
Speaker 2: saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick.
Speaker 2: At this point, they are following him for the stuff
Speaker 2: he can give, not for who he is. It is
Speaker 2: the first stage of following Christ. At first, you follow
Speaker 2: him because of what he can do for you. Progress
Speaker 2: with him long enough, and your question will no longer
Speaker 2: be what can he do for you?
Speaker 1: It will be what can He do through you? Now
Speaker 1: Jesus is on a boat. We studied about the boat
Speaker 1: in a previous week. We learned that.
Speaker 2: Jesus picked Peter not because he was such a great preacher,
Speaker 2: but because he had a car or a boat in
Speaker 2: this case. You know how some friends that you have
Speaker 2: you have because they can give you a ride. Well,
Speaker 2: Peter was like that for Jesus in some sense, some kidding,
Speaker 2: of course, but the truth needed transportation. Jesus is the Truth,
Speaker 2: and in order for the Word to get out is
Speaker 2: going to take a vehicle. It's going to take a vessel,
Speaker 2: in this case a boat. And since his ministry was
Speaker 2: happening primarily around the Sea of Galilee, Peter had what
Speaker 2: Jesus needed to get around, and Jesus had what Peter
Speaker 2: needed that he couldn't be without him. How many of
Speaker 2: you want God in your boat, God in your life,
Speaker 2: God in your decisions. And so Jesus had been healing
Speaker 2: many people and crowds had been coming all because Peter
Speaker 2: was willing to say, yeah, sure, use my boat. They
Speaker 2: launched out ministries growing people.
Speaker 1: Here. Jesus is so successful that.
Speaker 2: He can't even get away for a little bit of
Speaker 2: a retreat you see in verse three. Then Jesus went
Speaker 2: up on a mountain side and sat down with his disciples.
Speaker 1: The Jewish Passover feast was near.
Speaker 2: When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming
Speaker 2: toward him, He said to Philip, where shall we buy
Speaker 2: bread for.
Speaker 1: These people to eat?
Speaker 2: And he asked this only to test him, for he
Speaker 2: already had in mind what he was going to do.
Speaker 1: He already knew what he was going to do.
Speaker 2: Can I tell you something about Jesus hanging on that
Speaker 2: cross while everybody wept and thought that the light of
Speaker 2: the world was extinguished.
Speaker 1: He already knew what he was going to do.
Speaker 2: Can I tell you about every situation in your life
Speaker 2: that you didn't see a way out before God ever
Speaker 2: lets you get in it. He already knew what he
Speaker 2: was going to do to bring you out with a
Speaker 2: mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
Speaker 1: I can't find any help.
Speaker 2: At elevation Ballatie to preach about the way maper. So
Speaker 2: Jesus is messing with Philip because he is the Messiah
Speaker 2: after all. Whatever Philip answered him, I think he took
Speaker 2: a little while before he answered, because he gives a
Speaker 2: pretty precise calculation.
Speaker 1: He doesn't guesstimate. He says eight months wages. Hold on
Speaker 1: a second. If we took eight months.
Speaker 2: Wages, we still couldn't pass a crumb out to everybody
Speaker 2: who came to hear you preach.
Speaker 1: It's five thousand men out here. Many of them brought
Speaker 1: their wives.
Speaker 2: Crumb snatching kids are running around. Eight months wages would
Speaker 2: not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite.
Speaker 1: And another of his disciples, Andrew Simon.
Speaker 2: Peter's brother, spoke up, here's a boy with five small
Speaker 2: barley loaves and two small fish.
Speaker 1: But how far will they go amongst so many?
Speaker 2: And Jesus said, have the people sit down and be humble.
Speaker 2: There was plenty of grass in that place, and the
Speaker 2: men sat down, about five thousand of them.
Speaker 1: Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks.
Speaker 2: Huh can you say thank you over a little bit?
Speaker 2: Can you be grateful over what seems to you not enough?
Speaker 2: If I look at this passage. I see the theme
Speaker 2: not enough. Look, it's not enough. Now the Bible says
Speaker 2: in verse ten, there's plenty of grass, but we don't
Speaker 2: need grass.
Speaker 1: We need grub, and it's not enough.
Speaker 2: But Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks over what was
Speaker 2: not enough, and distributed to those who were seated as
Speaker 2: much as they wanted.
Speaker 1: And he did the same with the fish.
Speaker 2: And when they had all had enough to eat, he
Speaker 2: said to his disciples, gather the pieces that are left over.
Speaker 1: Let nothing be wasted.
Speaker 2: So they gathered and filled twelve baskets. Each of them
Speaker 2: got to take one home, twelve disciples, twelve baskets with
Speaker 2: the pieces of the five barley loaves left.
Speaker 1: Over by those who had eaten.
Speaker 2: I told the Lord I didn't want to preach this
Speaker 2: text because I preached it so many times before that
Speaker 2: there would be many in the church who would think
Speaker 2: I didn't have time to study this week. And I
Speaker 2: reached and grabbed something from Sunday School. And plus, I said,
Speaker 2: all the Sunday school people in the church are going
Speaker 2: to look at me judgmentally when I read the text
Speaker 2: about the feeding of the five thousand, because.
Speaker 1: I already know this starring, and I.
Speaker 2: Know how it ends, and I know I am aout
Speaker 2: the little Boy, and I know i'mbout the leftovers, and
Speaker 2: nothing you can say about John chapter six now I
Speaker 2: don't already know, and I already know that this is
Speaker 2: the miracle, the only miracle other than the Resurrection that
Speaker 2: is recorded in all four of the Gospels. And so
Speaker 2: are you really going to bring me out here today
Speaker 2: and preach about this little Bible vacation, Bible school, backyard
Speaker 2: Bible club story in the Bible? And I told the
Speaker 2: Lord I didn't want to preach it, and he said, fine,
Speaker 2: you can stop preaching it when you get it right.
Speaker 2: So what I began to see because the Bible to
Speaker 2: me is much like my relationship with Holly in that
Speaker 2: it continues to unfold for me over time with new
Speaker 2: levels of transcendence and beauty. I was talking to one
Speaker 2: of my friends who has a little bit of a
Speaker 2: different belief system than me, and he said he admitted
Speaker 2: it that he said, I don't see the.
Speaker 1: Bible like you see the Bible.
Speaker 2: I think the Bible is a good starting place, but
Speaker 2: he said, I look at the Bible as basic instructions
Speaker 2: before leaving Earth you know b ibl e And just
Speaker 2: because you can make an acronym out of it doesn't
Speaker 2: mean it's true. He said, the Bible is a good
Speaker 2: place to start, but then you should progress past the Bible.
Speaker 2: I've never had that problem, because for me, the Bible
Speaker 2: is not only a starting place for me to understand
Speaker 2: my own life, life, my own needs, my own psychology,
Speaker 2: my own psychopathy, that a thing.
Speaker 1: My own. Is not only a.
Speaker 2: Place for me to discover who God is in his fullness.
Speaker 1: But I find that the.
Speaker 2: More I read the Bible, the more the Bible starts
Speaker 2: reading me. And so something so simple as this story
Speaker 2: can unfold with new layers and levels of meaning, not
Speaker 2: only from the customary background in which it was written,
Speaker 2: but also in seasons of our life. We will see
Speaker 2: our needs differently, and there may be a sense in
Speaker 2: which the driving point of this passage is what.
Speaker 1: To do when there is not enough.
Speaker 2: I thought it would be a good time of year
Speaker 2: to preach about not enough, in a time of year
Speaker 2: where there is so much demand and so little supply,
Speaker 2: so little time here in Charlotte, we have people all
Speaker 2: over the world. It's getting dark right now, about two
Speaker 2: thirty in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: Not enough. They like, not enough patience.
Speaker 2: Do any of you have any family members that there
Speaker 2: is no supply.
Speaker 1: Of patients that could equip you? Oh, y'all are gonna
Speaker 1: look at me like that? Not enough. I like this
Speaker 1: author named Brene Brown. She's you. Like Brene.
Speaker 2: She says that the mantra of our day is never enough.
Speaker 2: She says we live in an age of never enough.
Speaker 2: And she's right because no matter how much information we
Speaker 2: seem to put out into the world, we come up
Speaker 2: with more ignorance, less wisdom.
Speaker 1: She says that often we wake up.
Speaker 2: In the morning and our first thought is I didn't
Speaker 2: get enough sleep. We go to bed at night and
Speaker 2: I didn't get enough done. We earn a lot of money,
Speaker 2: but we don't have enough opportunity to enjoy it. We
Speaker 2: have opportunity to enjoy our lives where we don't have
Speaker 2: enough money to get out the house.
Speaker 1: Never enough.
Speaker 2: But when I read the passage this week in preparation
Speaker 2: for the season that we're in as a church, God
Speaker 2: spoke something new to me. When I began to realize
Speaker 2: that this in John chapter six is the collision of
Speaker 2: too much and not enough.
Speaker 1: And God said, I want you to realize that.
Speaker 2: With my spirit within you and the power of my
Speaker 2: word on your lips. In Christ, who is enough, in Christ,
Speaker 2: who before all things.
Speaker 1: Existed, was all things, and now.
Speaker 2: Is the Word made flesh to dwell among us in Christ.
Speaker 2: You are never not enough. Say it with me, never
Speaker 2: not enough. I don't know what a little bit of
Speaker 2: bread you've got in your cupboard today, but I want
Speaker 2: to tell you, in the hand of the Master, it is.
Speaker 1: Never not enough.
Speaker 2: I feel a spirit of faith rising up.
Speaker 1: It's never not enough.
Speaker 2: Push your neighbors so hard they think they're gonna fall over.
Speaker 2: Tell them it's never not enough. It is never not enough.
Speaker 2: And what a powerful practical passage where we can see
Speaker 2: this principle illustrated dynamically. Never not enough, Never say it,
Speaker 2: never not enough, never not enough, never not enough, never
Speaker 2: not enough, never not enough, even in a draw, even
Speaker 2: in a famine, never not enough. God will send a
Speaker 2: bird to drop food where you are, if you will
Speaker 2: be in position.
Speaker 1: It is never not enough.
Speaker 2: I got a little bit of oil, Gets your a
Speaker 2: little bit of oil. Get some jars from your neighbors.
Speaker 2: It's never not enough. Give me something to feel. I'll
Speaker 2: fill it. It's never not enough. I thought scarce was
Speaker 2: a situation, but now I found out it's a sensation.
Speaker 2: Because I found out that there can never be enough
Speaker 2: money to make you feel like you have enough. Until
Speaker 2: God within you becomes enough.
Speaker 1: It will never be.
Speaker 2: I thought enough people could compliment you where you would
Speaker 2: get enough compliments, where you would have confidence. But I
Speaker 2: found out that if Christ is not the cornerstone of
Speaker 2: your core concept of yourself and your character, it'll never
Speaker 2: be enough. But now, when He speaks over my life,
Speaker 2: who I am in him and what I have because
Speaker 2: of Him, there is no shortage in this world that
Speaker 2: can disconnect me from my supply. You hear what I
Speaker 2: appreciate to you this Christmas season.
Speaker 1: It's enough. And the disciples are going to learn this.
Speaker 2: And in order to learn this, there are three things
Speaker 2: they must do. I would love for you to take
Speaker 2: that pen that we generously gave you because of the
Speaker 2: financial support of our ministry partners and write these three
Speaker 2: points down. And the first thing that the disciples had
Speaker 2: to do that we must do if we are to
Speaker 2: receive what God has promised to us. Because God's promises
Speaker 2: are optional. Though they were promises, they are but the
Speaker 2: promise is always attached to a principle, and you cannot
Speaker 2: separate the promise from a process that creates it. So
Speaker 2: he promises peace, but the process of peace is keep
Speaker 2: your mind stayed on me. He will keep you in
Speaker 2: perfect peace. If you keep your mind stayed on him,
Speaker 2: you can't fill your head with facebook. And then ask
Speaker 2: God to cancel out the empty calories of ignorant opinions
Speaker 2: and provide you with supernatural, celestial, extraterrestrial peace.
Speaker 1: Peace is produced by.
Speaker 2: A process, and so it is provision. Both are in
Speaker 2: the passage. But the first thing we must do to
Speaker 2: receive all that God has will to supply is to
Speaker 2: do what many of you are doing, especially in the
Speaker 2: first few rows today, lean In.
Speaker 1: Lean In, I mentioned.
Speaker 2: That this miracle is recorded in all four gospels. It
Speaker 2: seems to be an insignificant miracle to record in all
Speaker 2: four gospels. I don't mean that it's not cool. It's
Speaker 2: very cool, very impressive, very entertaining.
Speaker 1: But to choose one miracle.
Speaker 2: To record across Matthew's gospel his record, and Mark's gospel
Speaker 2: his record, and Luke's gospel his record, and then.
Speaker 1: John wants to talk about it too.
Speaker 2: When we see people getting up off of stretchers when
Speaker 2: Jesus walks through the street, and that's not in all
Speaker 2: four gospels. We see little girls being raised from the dead.
Speaker 2: Even Lazarus didn't make all four gospels.
Speaker 1: But this little boy did with some barley bread.
Speaker 2: Barley bread, the cheapest bread available in the day.
Speaker 1: This is not a yeast roll, This is not a
Speaker 1: cheese biscuit. This is not even pumper nickel.
Speaker 2: And yet it's recorded in all four gospels, which is
Speaker 2: fortunate because John leaves something out that I need to
Speaker 2: know about the situation that created the provision. Okay, And
Speaker 2: what John says is verse one. Sometime after this, Jesus
Speaker 2: crossed to the far shore, like it was a good
Speaker 2: time for a retreat and a good time for a buffet.
Speaker 2: But it wasn't, because the other writers tell us that John,
Speaker 2: the Baptist, who had been the forerunner of the message
Speaker 2: of Jesus Christ, the one who prepared the way for
Speaker 2: the Lord, had just had his head taken off by
Speaker 2: a king who didn't want to hear the truth. On
Speaker 2: the heels of this news, in an effort to get
Speaker 2: away and regroup with the disciples who would have no
Speaker 2: doubt been confused by this turn of events. Jesus is
Speaker 2: met by a crowd. Now every mother of a three
Speaker 2: year old can relate to.
Speaker 1: The time when you finally.
Speaker 2: Get five minutes for a shower and hear somebody banging
Speaker 2: on the door of the shower.
Speaker 1: This is the situation for Jesus.
Speaker 2: He is finally on the boat and he gets up
Speaker 2: to situate.
Speaker 1: And he sits down.
Speaker 2: To tell his disciples whatever he wants to tell him,
Speaker 2: and here come people. Write it down. Your greatest opportunities
Speaker 2: will come at the most inconvenient times. You won't be
Speaker 2: in a good mood, you won't feel ready, you won't
Speaker 2: have an extra fifteen thousand dollars laying around, and no kids.
Speaker 1: Going to college.
Speaker 2: Uh, God is going to show up in a time
Speaker 2: of shortage to see do you really trust me or
Speaker 2: do you trust stuff?
Speaker 1: That's the question.
Speaker 2: And the disciples first instinct it was a pretty logical one.
Speaker 1: It's Jesus.
Speaker 2: Jesus is irrational, and Jesus will just teach people all
Speaker 2: day long.
Speaker 1: Who needs to be healed? I got all day I'm eternal.
Speaker 2: But the disciples it was like, hey, man, probably they should.
Speaker 1: Eat and Matthew Records it.
Speaker 2: He said that the disciples came to Jesus with the
Speaker 2: suggestion send the crowds away. Okay, there is always a
Speaker 2: temptation to send away the very thing that God sent
Speaker 2: to supply you with, the very thing you prayed for. Remember,
Speaker 2: they followed him because they wanted to make a difference.
Speaker 2: Now here comes a chance to make a difference, and
Speaker 2: they do this because they were operating by this. They
Speaker 2: were operating by this, not by this send them away.
Speaker 2: If they had sent the crowds away, not only would
Speaker 2: this miracle not have occurred, but.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't have had lunch. Can I tell you how
Speaker 1: I know that?
Speaker 2: Because it was a little boys lunch that ended up
Speaker 2: feeding the multitude.
Speaker 1: Not Peters.
Speaker 2: Peter didn't pack a sandwich. Why are you pointing that out?
Speaker 2: Because the very provision was in the inconvenience, you see it.
Speaker 2: It was what they wanted to go away, that was
Speaker 2: carrying what they needed that they signed up for in
Speaker 2: the first place. And so when you come to church,
Speaker 2: there are certain things that the preacher will say that
Speaker 2: you will lean into because your neighbor needs to hear that,
Speaker 2: because you've been trying to tell your husband, and would
Speaker 2: you Please listen to Pastor Steve and he's.
Speaker 1: Saying something important stuff right now, and you lean in
Speaker 1: to that.
Speaker 2: Can I tell you the word that you need the
Speaker 2: most in your life is the one that you resist
Speaker 2: at first, that one that makes you cross your arms
Speaker 2: and look at me like you think you're Connor McGregor.
Speaker 1: That word, that's the one you need to lean into.
Speaker 2: The one that makes you uncomfortable, the one that makes
Speaker 2: the one that makes something inside of you conflict with
Speaker 2: something else inside of you.
Speaker 1: That's the tension that produces growth.
Speaker 2: That's the one, the one, the one that challenges your
Speaker 2: comfort zone.
Speaker 1: That's the one that's.
Speaker 2: The one to lean into, even if you got to
Speaker 2: lean in with crossed eyes, even if you got to
Speaker 2: lean in with sweaty palms. It is the word that
Speaker 2: God brings to you that you most fiercely resist at first,
Speaker 2: that often releases the resource that you need the most.
Speaker 2: So are you leaned in to where we're going as
Speaker 2: a church in this season? Because not everybody is. Some
Speaker 2: people come to church and sit back, and sit back
Speaker 2: and leave early to avoid traffic and watch football. We
Speaker 2: announce an offering and some people go here, we go.
Speaker 2: I heard about this. I knew it was coming. Of
Speaker 2: course it was coming. You think God was gonna let
Speaker 2: you sit there in your comfort and never challenge you
Speaker 2: to take your own step of faith. Of course it's coming.
Speaker 2: This is what we signed up for. Oh you thought
Speaker 2: Jesus was your burger king where you could have it
Speaker 2: your way, And now you sit back at the time
Speaker 2: when the very thing that he came to do is
Speaker 2: being done. Lean in in your marriage.
Speaker 1: Lean in to.
Speaker 2: The difficult conversations if you want to stay married. It
Speaker 2: was the thing they wanted to send away that held
Speaker 2: the supply that they needed to accomplish the mission.
Speaker 1: That they signed up for.
Speaker 2: And that's why the man said, Ah, he's leaning in.
Speaker 1: That's why we give with a cheerful heart. I'm leaned in.
Speaker 1: I'm leaned in.
Speaker 2: How can you be a part of what you're not
Speaker 2: leaned in towards? How can you receive from God if
Speaker 2: your posture is this? But if you lean in I'm
Speaker 2: not talking about physical posture is fine. I know you
Speaker 2: got a back thing and you're paying attention, but you
Speaker 2: just need some lumbar support. I know. I'm talking about
Speaker 2: the posture of your heart.
Speaker 1: Blake me.
Speaker 3: The posture of your Heartlake Norman, and the posture of
Speaker 3: your heart is most reflected in where.
Speaker 2: You put your treasure. Your treasure. Where your treasure is,
Speaker 2: there will your heart be also. So they had to
Speaker 2: lean in. And here's the second thing that they had
Speaker 2: to do, not only to lean in to the situation
Speaker 2: that they wanted to send away, but after they had
Speaker 2: leaned in, they had to number two, look down. Maybe
Speaker 2: you think I made a mistake on my text, because
Speaker 2: if you were paying close attention to all these little details,
Speaker 2: the Bible says that when Jesus went up on a
Speaker 2: mountain side verse three and sat down with his disciples
Speaker 2: verse five, he looked up and saw a great crowd.
Speaker 2: So intuitively we would say look up, But studying the
Speaker 2: passage a few more times, I realized that as Jesus
Speaker 2: looked up at the crowd, he was looking down from
Speaker 2: the mountain.
Speaker 1: Watch it again. Verse three, Jesus went.
Speaker 2: Up on a mountain and sat down with his disciples
Speaker 2: verse five when he looked up. So it matters your
Speaker 2: vantage point in terms of what your decisions will be.
Speaker 2: It matters where you're seeing it from, It matters at
Speaker 2: what altitude you are looking at. Your situation, what conclusions
Speaker 2: you will come to now?
Speaker 1: I would suggest to you that the only reason.
Speaker 2: Jesus was able to see the needs of the crowd
Speaker 2: is because he saw them from Heaven's perspective. If he
Speaker 2: had not been on that mountain side seeking the will
Speaker 2: of his father in Heaven, he would have seen the people.
Speaker 1: As an inconvenience.
Speaker 2: But because he had been on the mountain side spending
Speaker 2: time with God, when when they saw an inconvenience, he
Speaker 2: saw an invitation.
Speaker 1: It was where he.
Speaker 2: Saw it from that determined what he saw.
Speaker 1: And if you look at your.
Speaker 2: Life from the level of your life, you will only
Speaker 2: ever see problems obstacles.
Speaker 1: If you ever look.
Speaker 2: At your life from the vantage point of your heavenly Father,
Speaker 2: who knows the hairs on your head, and not one
Speaker 2: sparrow falls from the sky, you will not see shortage.
Speaker 2: You will see opportunity. You will see space for God
Speaker 2: to move, You will see room for God to maneuver.
Speaker 2: But you have to you have to go up to
Speaker 2: look down. This is such a powerful principle. If you
Speaker 2: would let me, I'd like to explain it one layer deeper. Okay,
Speaker 2: all right, we have to break away from the Bible
Speaker 2: for one moment to get this because you got Philip,
Speaker 2: you got Andrew, and they are both employing two different
Speaker 2: methods of information processing. This is the psychological terminology. Okay,
Speaker 2: not the biblical terminology.
Speaker 1: But there are two ways of processing information.
Speaker 2: One is called bottom up, one is called top down.
Speaker 2: Bottom up processing is when you look at something and
Speaker 2: don't have knowledge about it, and so the way you
Speaker 2: look at it is based on your visual or sensory
Speaker 2: perception of it. It would be like you looking at
Speaker 2: this microphone. You would know certain things about this microphone.
Speaker 2: Through your sensus. You would see that it is perhaps
Speaker 2: a black microphone, a black cordless microphone. So I can
Speaker 2: move all around this church a big black cordless microphone,
Speaker 2: a big black, loud cordless microphone, and then most of
Speaker 2: you would be done. Why because you can only describe
Speaker 2: it according to your senses. However, if Zach Kimri, who
Speaker 2: is on our tech team, and I believe he's off
Speaker 2: this weekend so I can say whatever I want about him,
Speaker 2: if he came up to talk about the microphone, he
Speaker 2: would bore you to tears with details about this microphone
Speaker 2: that you never asked in your life to hear about.
Speaker 2: He would tell you what frequency this microphone must be
Speaker 2: on to cooperate with the equipment that lines up with
Speaker 2: the solar eclipse, and how it was engineered in the
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty twos by a German.
Speaker 1: And he would tell you he knows more.
Speaker 2: About this microphone than he knows about his wife.
Speaker 1: Is scary? Is scary?
Speaker 2: They'll go on and on, how is a special thing
Speaker 2: on the microphone? And which battery and what all these
Speaker 2: little numbers mean on the microphone?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 2: Because he brings his knowledge and experience to the situation.
Speaker 2: That's not bottom up processing. This is called top down processing.
Speaker 2: It means I take what I know and I apply
Speaker 2: it to what I see. So I don't start with
Speaker 2: what I see and guess about what it is.
Speaker 1: I start with.
Speaker 2: What I know because of what I've seen, and I
Speaker 2: apply it to.
Speaker 1: What I'm looking at now.
Speaker 2: So I want to ask a question, Church, are you
Speaker 2: living life from the bottom up or the top down?
Speaker 1: Because when you have a revelation of.
Speaker 2: The faithfulness of God, I'm trying not to holler, Hollywood,
Speaker 2: I'm getting excited. When you see him move the mountains
Speaker 2: in your life. You look at the next mountain, You
Speaker 2: look at the next need, you look at the next man,
Speaker 2: you look at the liath, you stare him down and say,
Speaker 2: God's got this.
Speaker 1: I've been there, done that, But the slink shut. Bring
Speaker 1: it on.
Speaker 2: I got my stick up to this too.
Speaker 1: I'm living from the top down. And the word.
Speaker 2: Became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
Speaker 2: I know his glory. I know he's good. I know
Speaker 2: he's a provider. He's Jehovah Zira. He's been there for me.
Speaker 2: He'll see me through.
Speaker 1: Tot.
Speaker 2: Somebody say I know something, I know something, I know something.
Speaker 2: Jesus knew something that they didn't know, because he came
Speaker 2: from somewhere they hadn't been.
Speaker 1: The only way I know.
Speaker 2: This is because of what he said later in John
Speaker 2: chapter six, and it was the first of seven statements
Speaker 2: that he made that started with two English words, I am.
Speaker 2: The background of this phrase is so sacred. It is
Speaker 2: the very name that God gave Moses. When Moses wanted
Speaker 2: to know how. God did not answer the how, he
Speaker 2: answered the who never not enough. He left a blank.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 2: I am what you need I am.
Speaker 1: So he performs the miracle. He feeds the people.
Speaker 2: And then he reveals his identity and he says something
Speaker 2: very challenging to his Jewish audience. I am the bread
Speaker 2: of life.
Speaker 1: If you're hungry, I am enough for every appetite.
Speaker 2: Do you believe this or do you have to go
Speaker 2: get your needs met somewhere outside of God.
Speaker 1: I am the bread of life.
Speaker 2: When you bring your offering next weekend, you will be
Speaker 2: declaring who God is to you. Is he a bare minimum,
Speaker 2: is he an insurance policy?
Speaker 1: Or is he the bread of life? He said?
Speaker 2: I am the bread of life. So what you're searching for,
Speaker 2: I supply.
Speaker 1: What you need.
Speaker 2: I am the next thing, he said, refers to darkness.
Speaker 2: For the times that you live in confusion. I am
Speaker 2: the light of the world. There will never be so
Speaker 2: much darkness that my light cannot guide your path. The
Speaker 2: world will never get so dark that the witness of
Speaker 2: a unified church cannot shine brightly the love of God.
Speaker 2: You are the light of the world. A city on
Speaker 2: a hill cannot be hidden. But this light is not
Speaker 2: up you. It shines through you. I am the bread
Speaker 2: of life. If you're hungry, I am the light for
Speaker 2: all those who walk in darkness. I am somebody shout,
Speaker 2: I am I am the gate for the sheep.
Speaker 1: I am your way out. I am your way in.
Speaker 2: Feel trapped, I am feel stuck. I am feel locked out,
Speaker 2: feel feel feel unincluded.
Speaker 1: I am feel unwonted.
Speaker 2: I am I am passage to greener pastures. Not only
Speaker 2: am I the gate, I am the good shepherd.
Speaker 1: You need some direction in your life.
Speaker 2: Get behind me and follow me through the valley, through
Speaker 2: the pain, through the toil, through the pestilence.
Speaker 1: Follow me. I am the resurrection. Even if it.
Speaker 2: Does if I say, get up, it's gotta live. I
Speaker 2: am the Resurrection and the Life. I am the true vibe.
Speaker 2: If you feel disconnected, hook up with me. You looked
Speaker 2: up with everybody else and they left you like they
Speaker 2: found you. But when you get connected to this, I
Speaker 2: am the true vibe. I am the Way, the truth,
Speaker 2: and the life, and I'm making a way for everybody
Speaker 2: who will walk by faith. Shout if you.
Speaker 1: Believe you.
Speaker 2: I'm seated in heavenly places with Christ. Philip, shut up
Speaker 2: for a minute. You're doing your calculations how we can
Speaker 2: buy bread, and we're standing right in front of bread.
Speaker 2: He is what you don't think you have enough of
Speaker 2: thank God for Andrew. Andrew saves the day Philip from
Speaker 2: the bottom up.
Speaker 1: Let's see, it's about five thousand million, and.
Speaker 2: There are CPA anointing on Philip about to mess up
Speaker 2: the whole miracle, and that will always mess it up. Okay,
Speaker 2: are you going to do this by reason or revelation? Well,
Speaker 2: let's see they're doing the offering at the church. Honey,
Speaker 2: I think we'll give them a little bit on nerves
Speaker 2: over there, and then a little bit to the fire
Speaker 2: department and it'll just be great.
Speaker 1: Want to be wonderful. He wasn't wrong. What he said
Speaker 1: was correct.
Speaker 2: It was just incomplete, just failed to account for the
Speaker 2: greatest resource they had.
Speaker 1: So watch this, watch this, lean in, look down, listen up.
Speaker 2: The Bible says something it never says again. Here Andrew
Speaker 2: spoke up. You never see him talk again in the
Speaker 2: whole Bible except this one time. And thank God he talked,
Speaker 2: because what he said next led to a miracle that
Speaker 2: all four Gospels would record. He spoke up, He spoke
Speaker 2: what he spoke up, he was hearing something else. All
Speaker 2: Philip heard was Reason's excuses.
Speaker 1: But Andrew, he hears something different.
Speaker 2: In Jesus question he said, women, he wouldn't be asking
Speaker 2: us this if he didn't know what he was going
Speaker 2: to do. God will never ask anything for you that
Speaker 2: He will not give to you. Please believe that. And
Speaker 2: that's how I can say that my God shall supply
Speaker 2: all my needs according to his glorious riches from the
Speaker 2: top down.
Speaker 1: As never not enough.
Speaker 2: But if you listen down, you'll find a thousand reasons
Speaker 2: why not to trust, A thousand reasons why not to pray,
Speaker 2: A thousand reasons why not to forgive? A thousand reasons
Speaker 2: why not to stay, A thousand reasons why.
Speaker 1: Not to participate.
Speaker 2: You have an opportunity next weekend to come before God
Speaker 2: not with empty hands, but with the faith filled heart.
Speaker 2: We have preached these messages that have built your faith.
Speaker 2: Many of you have experienced healing in your life, and
Speaker 2: now you get to make that same way for somebody else.
Speaker 2: There will be another voice after I put the mic down.
Speaker 2: It will tell you all the reasons it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2: It will be the voice of calculation, not the voice
Speaker 2: of faith, and it will keep you from seeing what
Speaker 2: God can do through you. Andrew spoke up, and he said,
Speaker 2: it doesn't seem like enough, and it doesn't make sense,
Speaker 2: but here's what we have.
Speaker 1: He asks a question of his own, though, how far
Speaker 1: will it go?
Speaker 2: Among so many? Is that the question isn't enough? Will
Speaker 2: it even matter? Will I have enough? If I give
Speaker 2: to God? Will I have enough? It depends on who
Speaker 2: you think he is. If he is bread, how could
Speaker 2: you ever need bread? See, there's a question in verse nine,
Speaker 2: how far will they go?
Speaker 1: Among so many?
Speaker 2: And I think there's an invisible verse in here that
Speaker 2: didn't make the final cut. I think it's the verse
Speaker 2: where Jesus said, you want to find out, bring it
Speaker 2: to me, because you have seen what it can do
Speaker 2: in your hands. You have seen how many fish your
Speaker 2: boat could catch without.
Speaker 1: Me in it. Put it in my hands. I'm not
Speaker 1: giving my offering away next weekend.
Speaker 2: I'm transferring ownership to someone who knows what to do
Speaker 2: with it.
Speaker 1: It's an investment.
Speaker 2: By the way, where did the twelve baskets come from?
Speaker 2: You think it's possible that Jesus put them in the
Speaker 2: boat before they ever got in, because he already.
Speaker 1: Knew what he was going to do.
Speaker 2: He already knows, he knows all those voices that would
Speaker 2: keep you from doing it, and he allready knows your needs,
Speaker 2: and if you have the faith to believe it, I
Speaker 2: declare that they are all ready met in His name
Speaker 2: this day. What are you doing in this offering next weekend?
Speaker 2: I'm living from the top down. I am declaring who
Speaker 2: God is to me. Father, I thank you for the
Speaker 2: word that has gone forth today. This word registered so
Speaker 2: deeply in somebody's heart that they will be set free
Speaker 2: in a way that will change the rest of their life.
Speaker 2: I believe it and declare it in this moment. We
Speaker 2: thank you for this church that you are building, this
Speaker 2: ministry that you have established. We feel privileged to be
Speaker 2: a part of something that is touching the world. I
Speaker 2: want to pray right now, God, for every person in
Speaker 2: every sea, watching on every screen, that this message would
Speaker 2: not just provide a moment of inspiration, but that you
Speaker 2: would speak now giving clear instruction to your people.
Speaker 1: Faith without works is dead.
Speaker 2: So show them what to do with what they've heard,
Speaker 2: Show them who you are, and then allow them to
Speaker 2: see what they're going through through the lens of who
Speaker 2: you are. We don't want to live by reason. We
Speaker 2: want to live by revelation. And you are the bread
Speaker 2: of life. You are the light of the world. You
Speaker 2: are the Gate, You are the Shepherd. You are the
Speaker 2: Resurrection and the Light. You are the Vine. You are
Speaker 2: the Way. And now God, we want to be way makers.
Speaker 2: We want people to find you through us. That's what
Speaker 2: we're here for. Stand to your feet, no one moving.
Speaker 2: I like to take my hands like this sometimes and
Speaker 2: just put them out in front of me. If you
Speaker 2: would do that now, please. All that I have comes
Speaker 2: from you, God, and you are more than enough for me.
Speaker 2: Declare over these people today that no area of shortage
Speaker 2: in their life is greater than your glory.
Speaker 1: You are enough for me.
Speaker 2: Speak to our hearts good, speak to our deepest needs.
Speaker 2: Made the knowledge of who you are be greater than
Speaker 2: the fear of what it is or what it's not.
Speaker 2: I pray that we would see a true mint, this
Speaker 2: release of faith and a tremendous release of provision on
Speaker 2: behalf of your people as this year ends. Many need
Speaker 2: miracles in their families, in their bodies, in their minds,
Speaker 2: and you are the great I am thank you for
Speaker 2: joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give
Speaker 2: generously to this ministry.
Speaker 1: Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.