Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Hey, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: if you want to hear the word of God, somebody's
Speaker 1: saying the comments preach, preach, preach, saying, Bridge, Bridge. I
Speaker 1: was glad when they said, unto me, let us go
Speaker 1: to the House of the Lord. But then I couldn't
Speaker 1: go to the house of the Lord. So the house
Speaker 1: of the Lord, pay to me. Here it comes church. Amen,
Speaker 1: we bring you greetings, seasons greetings. Normally they say that
Speaker 1: at Christmas, but God is good in every season. Amen.
Speaker 1: And today we thanked Him for providing for us, for
Speaker 1: meeting our needs. Go ahead and let me know in
Speaker 1: the chat what else he can do? What else can
Speaker 1: he do? I wonder what else he can do? It's
Speaker 1: just a question. It's just a question. What if I
Speaker 1: told you that last week when I went home from preaching,
Speaker 1: I had leftovers, And what if I told you that
Speaker 1: it was fresh from the oven to the point where
Speaker 1: God was speaking to me so strong after last Sunday
Speaker 1: when I preached about when they found out, and He
Speaker 1: was speaking to me so strong. I had to call
Speaker 1: select members of our staff, or I had to call
Speaker 1: all the staff who aren't saved yet, all the ones
Speaker 1: who are under sanctified and need an extra dose of
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ and Holly plus Holly, and I said, let's
Speaker 1: get in here and get into this word. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to share with you again from a scripture that
Speaker 1: I made reference to. Should we replace this? Is this bad?
Speaker 1: Should we change it out? Chris? While I'm changing the south,
Speaker 1: we'll change it for the pulpit or something. Just bring
Speaker 1: me out the real pulpit. I'll preach a real sermon.
Speaker 1: Bring me a real pulpit. I don't need an unstable table.
Speaker 1: He prepares a table for me in the presence of
Speaker 1: my enemies. The Lord is my pulpit. Oh, this would
Speaker 1: be good. I was writing a remix of graves into
Speaker 1: gardens early this morning. I woke up at four point
Speaker 1: thirty and the Lord said, I searched the world and
Speaker 1: it nearly killed me. How many you know? I searched
Speaker 1: the world and it almost took you out, but God
Speaker 1: had a plan to keep you in. That's the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty graves into gardens. It nearly killed me, but it didn't.
Speaker 1: Somebody put in the chat, but it didn't. I am.
Speaker 1: It feels good to have you back regular pulpit. I've
Speaker 1: been quarantine preaching on a table like I'm calm, you know,
Speaker 1: my heart, I'm a preacher and I want to preach
Speaker 1: today from John chapter six. If you can stand where
Speaker 1: you are, that'd be great right there in your living
Speaker 1: room kitchen. I know many of our teams are starting
Speaker 1: to meet together and watch parties. I'm going to rename
Speaker 1: watch parties. I don't know what yet. I looked at
Speaker 1: it a little bit this morning, Like I said, I've
Speaker 1: been up a long time, and so I looked at
Speaker 1: that as well, and waiting for this to happen, waiting
Speaker 1: to preach it. I don't want to call it watch
Speaker 1: anymore because I really don't want you to think of
Speaker 1: it as spectator sport, because really, God, when he wants
Speaker 1: to build the church before he gathers us, he will
Speaker 1: scatter us. And I think part of what God is
Speaker 1: doing right now is really teaching us to take church
Speaker 1: to wherever we are, and we're going to see a
Speaker 1: great expansion in this season and I believe that. But
Speaker 1: for now we call him watch Parties. And I didn't
Speaker 1: tell the staff that yet. They found out, you know,
Speaker 1: I haven't talked about when they found out. Well, they
Speaker 1: found out just now like you did. So we're going
Speaker 1: to rename it, but I don't know what yet. But
Speaker 1: everybody worshiping today, whether you're just by yourself or you're
Speaker 1: not by yourself. Even if you're by yourself, you're not
Speaker 1: by yourself. And I want you to know that. And
Speaker 1: it's a privilege to stand here today behind this sturdy
Speaker 1: podium and preach God's unfailing word to you. John chapter six,
Speaker 1: verse five. This is the word of the Lord. When
Speaker 1: Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him,
Speaker 1: he said to Philip, where shall we buy bread for
Speaker 1: these people to eat? He asked this only to test him,
Speaker 1: for he already had in mind what he was going
Speaker 1: to do. Holy Spirit, give me discipline not to preach
Speaker 1: on every syllable of this text. While I read it.
Speaker 1: I love it. And Philip answered him it would take
Speaker 1: more than half a year's wages to buy enough bread
Speaker 1: for each one to have a bite. Another of his disciples,
Speaker 1: Andrew Simon, Peter's brother, spoke up here, somebody shot here.
Speaker 1: Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and
Speaker 1: two small fish. But how far will they go among
Speaker 1: so many? Jesus said, you want to find out. Have
Speaker 1: the people sit down, sit down, Sit down, and you'll
Speaker 1: find out. Sit down and you'll find out. There was
Speaker 1: plenty of grass in that place. And they sat down.
Speaker 1: About five thousand men were there. Jesus then took the loaves,
Speaker 1: gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated a
Speaker 1: little bitty bite. But they didn't get enough. I shouldn't
Speaker 1: put these scriptures on the screen, so y'all wouldn't know
Speaker 1: that I messed it up on purpose. It said, as
Speaker 1: much as they wanted. And he did the same with
Speaker 1: the fish. And when they had all had how much,
Speaker 1: When they had all had how much enough to eat,
Speaker 1: he said to his disciples, gather the pieces that are
Speaker 1: left over. Let nothing be wasted. He's speaking that same
Speaker 1: thing over your life. You know that God's not going
Speaker 1: to let it be wasted. God's not gonna waste a season.
Speaker 1: God doesn't waste a second. No, no, no, it won't
Speaker 1: be wasted. It won't be wasted right there in the chat.
Speaker 1: It won't be wasted. So they gathered them and filled
Speaker 1: twelve baskets with the pieces of the five the five
Speaker 1: barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. And
Speaker 1: to get to my title, go back to verse six.
Speaker 1: He asked this only to test him, for he already
Speaker 1: had in mind what he was going to do. And
Speaker 1: the title of this message is, and you got to
Speaker 1: say it like my kids say it. You're ready, did
Speaker 1: I ask? Look at somebody next to you and say
Speaker 1: did I ask? You may be seated. You may be seated,
Speaker 1: or stay laying down if you're still in bed watching this.
Speaker 1: Either way, here we go. Hey, do me a favor.
Speaker 1: Would you do me a favor? Put something in the
Speaker 1: chat for me? Or write it down with an inkpen.
Speaker 1: When you put this down, I'll explain it after. It
Speaker 1: starts with a question. It starts with a question. What
Speaker 1: starts with the question? Everything, whatever it is, it starts
Speaker 1: with a question. So when people will ask me where
Speaker 1: do you get your messages from? And I say, people
Speaker 1: ask me, It's not like people ask me that much.
Speaker 1: I think maybe ten people have asked me that in
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. You know, I see people
Speaker 1: get on social media all the time. They're like, I
Speaker 1: wanted to hop on here. A lot of y'all have
Speaker 1: been asking. I'm like, a lot of y'all. You mean,
Speaker 1: like your sister, Like, who is a lot of y'all?
Speaker 1: Do you ever wonder this stuff? Nobody's asking? That's what
Speaker 1: I want to say. But anyway, nobody asked. Nobody asked.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you anyway. But since since you
Speaker 1: didn't ask, where I get my sermons from? Usually is
Speaker 1: it starts with a question. And I'm kind of multitasking
Speaker 1: here because I've got all these campus pastors who came
Speaker 1: over to helped me preach today, all these I think
Speaker 1: of you as the soux chefs. You know, you got
Speaker 1: the chef and the soux chef. I think I use
Speaker 1: that correctly, And I thought that it'd be good to
Speaker 1: tell you always start your message with a question, not answer,
Speaker 1: because if we start, if we come to the text,
Speaker 1: if we come to the Bible, if we come to
Speaker 1: God with an answer, we're coming from our mind. But
Speaker 1: a good message doesn't come from your mind. It comes
Speaker 1: from the spirit of God, and the spirit of God
Speaker 1: is in you. And the message that I preached last week,
Speaker 1: the week before that, the weeks before that, any good
Speaker 1: message I've ever preached, and I'm not saying they're all good,
Speaker 1: but if it's good, it's because I didn't start with
Speaker 1: an answer. I started with a question. So like I
Speaker 1: got to John six and I was telling Holly by
Speaker 1: asking the question, where did the baskets come from? This
Speaker 1: is what I do while you're out doing like a
Speaker 1: real job. I think about stuff that the normal person
Speaker 1: is way too busy to think about, but I have
Speaker 1: to think about it. It said that they didn't have
Speaker 1: enough for everybody to have a bite, but then they
Speaker 1: had twelve baskets, and I was like, well, maybe these
Speaker 1: were very very small baskets. Nope, the same word for
Speaker 1: a basket that is used to talk about when they
Speaker 1: lowered Paul down from a basket if Paul was skinny,
Speaker 1: it was one hundred and fifty pound basket capacity. So
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, how did they at one moment not have
Speaker 1: a bite and then at the end they had twelve
Speaker 1: baskets And I never found out, But I moved on
Speaker 1: to another question. I moved on to another question. Not
Speaker 1: every question gets answered, you know, and I'll let you
Speaker 1: know when I find out. I read some theories, but
Speaker 1: I never really found an answer to that. What I
Speaker 1: do think is a better question. And this is the
Speaker 1: art of good living, right, asking a better question, Asking
Speaker 1: a better question. Jesus is the answer for the world today.
Speaker 1: You ever heard that that might be just like a
Speaker 1: Baptist chorus or something like that, above him, there's no other.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the way. But they said Jesus is the answer.
Speaker 1: Jesus asks three hundred and seven questions in the four Gospels.
Speaker 1: While we're rewriting songs, let's do it. Jesus is the
Speaker 1: question we want answers. But we have a God who
Speaker 1: would rather ask questions. And since God asked questions and
Speaker 1: Jesus asked questions, I thought it'd be good for me
Speaker 1: to be like him and ask a question. So the
Speaker 1: second question I asked was, you know, the scripture says
Speaker 1: they all had enough, They all ate as much as
Speaker 1: they wanted. They went home with leftovers twelve basketballs. I
Speaker 1: couln't figure out where the baskets came from, but I
Speaker 1: did want to know when did it become enough in
Speaker 1: a visual sense. I wanted to know when did it
Speaker 1: become enough? And I thought, well, they put it in Jesus' hands.
Speaker 1: They beat up the boy, took his lunch. You always
Speaker 1: thought the boy volunteered his lunch. There is no textual
Speaker 1: evidence that he he was a willing participant in this miracle. A.
Speaker 1: I think the disciples got desperate. You know how you
Speaker 1: do when you really need something from God and you
Speaker 1: get desperate, and you're like, I'm normally not a lift
Speaker 1: your hands kind of person, but I think I'll lift
Speaker 1: them right about now. I need you Lord. I got questions,
Speaker 1: I got questions. I'm running out of money, and I'm
Speaker 1: full of on questions. I'm running out of wisdom, and
Speaker 1: I got a lot of questions. So I don't know
Speaker 1: whether the boy offered it or not. I don't know
Speaker 1: if the disciples asked. I don't know if they asked
Speaker 1: them or if they just took it. But what I
Speaker 1: do know is that that there was eventually found in
Speaker 1: the crowd watch this five loaves, two fish, How many loaves?
Speaker 1: Five loaves? What kind of loaves? Barley loaves? What's the
Speaker 1: cheapest kind of bread? Barley? So the cheapest stuff produced
Speaker 1: one of the greatest miracles. Give him praise that God
Speaker 1: is a master chef. Hallelujah. Gordon Ramsey's got nothing on
Speaker 1: my God. I wish I knew a more current chef,
Speaker 1: but that's all I got. So what I wanted to
Speaker 1: know is when did it become enough? When did it
Speaker 1: go from a bite? Like Philip said, it wouldn't even
Speaker 1: be a bit, it wouldn't even a bite. How many
Speaker 1: feel like that right now? Like it wouldn't even be
Speaker 1: a bite? I mean I don't have enough time or
Speaker 1: close to enough time, or even if I had more time,
Speaker 1: I don't have enough energy. And even if I had
Speaker 1: more energy, I wouldn't know what to do with it
Speaker 1: because I don't have enough wisdom to apply the energy
Speaker 1: to the right places. So then that begs the question,
Speaker 1: when did it go from bite to buffet? What happened
Speaker 1: in between? This is what I do. This is what
Speaker 1: I do. I ask a question, and that's the wrestling process.
Speaker 1: Right have you ever heard of when Jacob wrestled with
Speaker 1: God in the Bible? Right? You know what? God gave him?
Speaker 1: A question? What is your name? Starts with a question?
Speaker 1: You know, the nation of Israel. That was Jacob's new name.
Speaker 1: You know, the twelve tribes came out of Jacob. When
Speaker 1: he found out his name. He thought his name was Jacob,
Speaker 1: but God asked him a question, who are you really?
Speaker 1: I know what people call you, but who are you really?
Speaker 1: It starts with a question. And everything that you have
Speaker 1: ever done in your life has started with the belief
Speaker 1: that you had about who you were. Who am I?
Speaker 1: It starts with a question can I keep going? So
Speaker 1: I wondered when did it become enough? Because I'm wondering
Speaker 1: in my own life? When will I be come enough?
Speaker 1: Because I'm wondering in my own life, when will there's
Speaker 1: going to be a magic Monday morning when I look
Speaker 1: at my bank account and I'm like, oh, that's plenty.
Speaker 1: I know it's coming. I had like ten milestones that
Speaker 1: were supposed to be that and they they're gone, And
Speaker 1: so I know it's going to be the next one.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be the next one. It's gonna be the
Speaker 1: next one. It's coming, next one, next one. SOI me enough,
Speaker 1: it's gonna enough. I know I'm eventually going to get
Speaker 1: enough compliments on my preaching. Wow, where I'm gonna know it.
Speaker 1: You know, I got this where I'm not gonna wake
Speaker 1: up at four thirty going should I call it off?
Speaker 1: Is it too late? Will it be too disappointing? When
Speaker 1: did it become enough? Because I'm wondering that. I wondered
Speaker 1: that at fourteen, I wondered that at fifteen, I wondered
Speaker 1: that at forty when did it be coming up? I
Speaker 1: was just asking the question and what got us last week?
Speaker 1: If you didn't watch it, you can watch it. It
Speaker 1: said that, oh, by the way, is free. I mean
Speaker 1: somebody gave so you could experience it. But you can
Speaker 1: go and get it. You can go and get it.
Speaker 1: You can go and get it. You don't have to
Speaker 1: buy it. You can go and get it. And it's
Speaker 1: right there. And we found out that it didn't become
Speaker 1: enough all at once. Yeah. In fact, y'all just bear
Speaker 1: with Larry Brod. He's not going to be able to
Speaker 1: handle himself when I show you this. It's just gonna
Speaker 1: it's gonna be bad. It's gonna be bad. On warning
Speaker 1: you you sit close to him if you want to,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be dangerous over there. Verse thirteen says, So
Speaker 1: they gathered the leftovers and filled twelve baskets. You got
Speaker 1: thirteen up there with the pieces of You got the
Speaker 1: verse for me, Yeah, the pieces of the five barley loaves.
Speaker 1: All five thousand men were fed, but the loaves never
Speaker 1: got more than five. So look at it, Look at it,
Speaker 1: Look at it. They gathered the twelve baskets. I don't
Speaker 1: know where the baskets came from, but I know where
Speaker 1: the miracle came from. It came from the five. It
Speaker 1: came from the five. It comes from the five. Go
Speaker 1: ahead and put that in the chat. It's gonna come
Speaker 1: from the five. It's gonna come from the five. So
Speaker 1: it never became more on the surface, it was never
Speaker 1: enough to the naked eye. There was never a moment
Speaker 1: where it became what it could be. But we learned
Speaker 1: last week this is just review. Please be seated, Be seated,
Speaker 1: Be seated. It became it became enough every time they
Speaker 1: went back to the one who was enough. Every time
Speaker 1: I go back to him, every time I lift my eyes,
Speaker 1: every time I praised him, every time I stepped his
Speaker 1: word as a lamp onto my feet, every time I
Speaker 1: go back. So it was never enough on the surface,
Speaker 1: but it kept coming. I wonder, is there anybody with
Speaker 1: that testimony. It was never enough, but it kept coming.
Speaker 1: We may as well have church early. We can do this.
Speaker 1: It was never enough, but it kept coming. I wasn't
Speaker 1: smart enough, but it kept coming. I wasn't good enough,
Speaker 1: but mercy kept coming. It wasn't enough, but it kept coming.
Speaker 1: Keep it coming, Jesus, keep it coming. Oh, keep it coming.
Speaker 1: How many have that testimony? It was never enough all
Speaker 1: at once, but it kept coming. When I tried to
Speaker 1: bite off more than I could chew, a choked. But
Speaker 1: when I said, give me this day my daily bread,
Speaker 1: it wasn't enough for tomorrow, but it kept coming. It
Speaker 1: kept coming. Brett kept coming. Oh kept coming. Hollylujah. So
Speaker 1: I kept coming. Peace kept coming, and peace by peace,
Speaker 1: he kept it coming. I'm not praising him because I
Speaker 1: got it all. I'm praising him because he kept it coming.
Speaker 1: Whoa he kept it coming. When did it become enough?
Speaker 1: In the process, they saw the provision. So it starts
Speaker 1: with the question. That's how my message started. And then
Speaker 1: so when I get in the question, that makes me wrestle,
Speaker 1: and when I wrestle with it, I get stronger. That's
Speaker 1: why he asked three hundred and seven questions, and he
Speaker 1: only directly answered eight. Jesus is the question. I know
Speaker 1: you thought God's logo was an exclamation point. God said it.
Speaker 1: I believe it. But what about Eve? Did God really say?
Speaker 1: Sin entered the world through a question? It starts with
Speaker 1: a question, did God really say? It starts with a question?
Speaker 1: Put it again in the chat. It starts with a question.
Speaker 1: My marriage to the beautiful, illustrious Holly Ferdick, the first
Speaker 1: lady of what I believe to be the greatest ministry
Speaker 1: in the world today, with the greatest people God ever made. Oh,
Speaker 1: this message started with a question. My marriage started with
Speaker 1: a question, and it wasn't will you marry me? Check
Speaker 1: out this Christian pickup line. We were at a Christian college.
Speaker 1: I said, do you want to join my summer ministry team.
Speaker 1: It was a leading question. I was headed somewhere with
Speaker 1: my question because if I could get her on the
Speaker 1: Joyful sound bus unloading JBL Eon speakers in Loris, South Carolina,
Speaker 1: I could get her to Charlotte and she would be
Speaker 1: my wife and we would be marital. We would do
Speaker 1: marital things and have marital union and have a mission
Speaker 1: for Jesus Christ to start it with a question, the
Speaker 1: question before the question. Try that on a I'm given
Speaker 1: the single seminar right now. Some of you boys need
Speaker 1: to ask, I mean directly ask. Put it like this.
Speaker 1: Eric is in sales and he taught me this. He said,
Speaker 1: don't ask you want to go out with me, say
Speaker 1: coffee or dinner. Don't ask a yes or no. Ask
Speaker 1: of this or that, coffee or dinner. What do you prefer?
Speaker 1: Breakfast or dinner? Italian or you know. Forgive them an option,
Speaker 1: but don't let one of them be no. You want
Speaker 1: to be on my ministry team. Try that. It worked
Speaker 1: for me. It started with a question, because when I
Speaker 1: asked y'all to come with me to start the church,
Speaker 1: that started with a question too. Chunks and Amy, Chunks
Speaker 1: and Amy Corbett the artist formerly known as James Brett
Speaker 1: Corbett namey Lynn Moody, James Brett Corbett, Chunks and Amy.
Speaker 1: But I just asked him at Golden Corral. In fact,
Speaker 1: the only reason we were Golden Corral is because of
Speaker 1: a question. I asked him, do you know a doctor?
Speaker 1: I just moved to Shelby, Shelby, North Carolina. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about this another time. You can ask me about that later. Shelby,
Speaker 1: North Carolina, was a place where I met the whole
Speaker 1: court team for our church. I didn't know why I
Speaker 1: was there. While I was there, there were times we
Speaker 1: really wondered. It wasn't a bad place. I love Shelby
Speaker 1: because people watch us from Shelby. Don't even come take
Speaker 1: us out of here. But I love Shelby. It was
Speaker 1: great for me. I didn't know why I was there.
Speaker 1: You don't know why sometimes you're there. Right now, I
Speaker 1: know you are even figure out what this is about.
Speaker 1: But I met Chunks and that's something. Now he's running
Speaker 1: the ministry on a day to day basis so I
Speaker 1: can preach God's work. And it started because I said,
Speaker 1: do you know a doctor? And he gave me Chris
Speaker 1: Dinning's phone number. I don't even remember what I was
Speaker 1: sick with, but I just asked him for a doctor.
Speaker 1: He was a physical therapist, and I thought, well, he
Speaker 1: probably knows a doctor. Then he ended up at my
Speaker 1: house eating fried rice, and here we are twenty campuses later.
Speaker 1: I started. It started now, But then came the question,
Speaker 1: you want to step out on faith and start the church.
Speaker 1: And here's what's crazy. He didn't find out and he
Speaker 1: didn't find out where we were going to start the
Speaker 1: church until after they said yes. So the details came
Speaker 1: after the yes was given. Should I stay there or
Speaker 1: move on? The details came after the decision. The details
Speaker 1: cat go to the land. I will show you. You
Speaker 1: want another one than we were singing about it earlier,
Speaker 1: dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. That's the
Speaker 1: command right check out Ezekiel thirty seven three before you
Speaker 1: go to bed tonight. It starts with a question, can
Speaker 1: this is God? Can they live again? Can they? That's
Speaker 1: God asking that? And Ezekiel said, I don't know, Lord,
Speaker 1: but the question opened the door to resurrection. Come on,
Speaker 1: I don't have the answer right now, and I don't
Speaker 1: know what He's gonna do. That's why I like that song.
Speaker 1: It says, is there anything that he can't do? Just
Speaker 1: ask the man who was strong? Just ask the stuff.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but he does, and I want to
Speaker 1: find out by faith. It starts with a question, and
Speaker 1: this might shock you, but not only this ministry, but
Speaker 1: Jesus ministry started with question, Yes, what gospel did I
Speaker 1: read to you from John? The first chapter of the
Speaker 1: Book of John. You know, there's all kinds of symbolic things.
Speaker 1: In John's Seven Signs, Jesus performed showing himself to be
Speaker 1: the son of God that you may believe and have
Speaker 1: life in his name, the seven I Am statements where
Speaker 1: he disclosed the reality. He revealed the essence of his
Speaker 1: nature in stages. Lesslie be overwhelmed all at once. He
Speaker 1: shows us in stages. In the beginning, this is how
Speaker 1: it starts. Was the Word, and the word was with God,
Speaker 1: and the word was God. In the beginning was the
Speaker 1: Word and the first read letters In the Gospel of John,
Speaker 1: where Jesus actually speaks, recorded by the gospel writer, he
Speaker 1: asks a question, and now I have a question about that.
Speaker 1: What is the word doing asking a question? Think about it?
Speaker 1: You use words. Jesus is the word. I'm not being
Speaker 1: d just to be cute. It's a great question. In
Speaker 1: the beginning was the Word and the first words he speaks.
Speaker 1: He asks Andrew and another disciple, what do you want?
Speaker 1: The first thing the word says in human flesh. That's
Speaker 1: recorded by John, isn't let there be? That's in Genesis
Speaker 1: in John the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Speaker 1: And the answer Jesus is the answer asked a question.
Speaker 1: It starts with the whole Gospel of John, and then
Speaker 1: it moves to revelation. You know, I am the Bread
Speaker 1: of life, I am the Good Shepherd, I am the Door,
Speaker 1: I am the Resurrection, I am the Way. But before
Speaker 1: any of those statements, it starts with a question. I
Speaker 1: wonder what you've been asking God lately? Because breakthrough starts
Speaker 1: with a question. The next level of a relationship with
Speaker 1: God doesn't start with you knowing the answer, so stop
Speaker 1: waiting for answers. It starts with a question. My kids
Speaker 1: ask questions. My kids ask questions. Some of them are dumb.
Speaker 1: The one you asked the other day when Mama was
Speaker 1: teaching you to boil eggs. I'm sorry to put you
Speaker 1: on blast like this, but when you said, do I
Speaker 1: crack it before I boil it? That's a dumb question.
Speaker 1: He's fifteen years old. That's a dumb question. And I
Speaker 1: take responsibility for him not knowing that. That's my bad.
Speaker 1: But then they'll ask deep questions. My son asked questions. Elijah,
Speaker 1: who's here right now. He asks questions that the staff
Speaker 1: doesn't even ask. He's asked me questions he's to asked
Speaker 1: me questions when he was nine, ten years old, that
Speaker 1: I'd go. I've never even had a grown, paid staff
Speaker 1: member ask me that. That's amazing, you know, because I'm
Speaker 1: not afraid to ask it. He just ask it. He
Speaker 1: just asked me to do stuff. He walked in one
Speaker 1: night and he didn't ask me. Could we go to
Speaker 1: the movie? Well, he asked me, but he asked me
Speaker 1: in the form of action. He brought me my shoes.
Speaker 1: He wanted to go see a movie. It was nine
Speaker 1: o'clock at night. This was years ago, and he brought
Speaker 1: me my shoes in my car keys. He asked me,
Speaker 1: but he didn't open his mouth. He just brought me
Speaker 1: something and we saw the movie. Because kids aren't scared
Speaker 1: to ask. Kids aren't scared to ask. They'll ask you anything.
Speaker 1: Abby saw a thing on the counter that said the
Speaker 1: most powerful people in Charlotte or something like that. It
Speaker 1: was some list. It had on the list Pastor Stephen
Speaker 1: Verdick Elevation Church. She came to me with the list.
Speaker 1: She said, Daddy, this was years ago now, She said, Daddy,
Speaker 1: if you're the most fifth most powerful person in Charlotte,
Speaker 1: does that mean you can pull a tooth? If it's
Speaker 1: not even loose. What a great question, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Fai. It's like a child, not childish, but
Speaker 1: child like. Where are the children of God? We can
Speaker 1: ask questions? Did I ask? Now? My kids say that
Speaker 1: to each other all the time, just to cut each
Speaker 1: other off. Did I ask? Did I ask? Buddy? They
Speaker 1: are professional button pushers and that was their thing for
Speaker 1: about six months. Abby came up to me and gave
Speaker 1: me this sermon title. She said, Daddy, this is last week.
Speaker 1: She Saidaddy, when you were preaching today, I thought you
Speaker 1: should have called that sermon. Did I ask? Because she
Speaker 1: heard where Jesus asked Philip, this is a nine year
Speaker 1: old girl. She said, you should have called it? Did
Speaker 1: I ask? I didn't even ask her what I should
Speaker 1: have called it. Sometimes God will give you something you
Speaker 1: didn't even know to ask for. Watch this through somebody
Speaker 1: you didn't even thing to ask, through a little boy
Speaker 1: with a lunch. So I was thinking about the sermon,
Speaker 1: and I was wondering when did it become enough? And
Speaker 1: then I was wondering where did it come from? Like
Speaker 1: we're all wondering where's it going to come from? And
Speaker 1: I don't know where it's going to come from. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure where it's going to come from, right, And
Speaker 1: I want to revisit the scripture in detail from John six.
Speaker 1: It's really beautiful how it's written, where Jesus, the Word
Speaker 1: of God, asks Phillip a question, where shall we buy
Speaker 1: bread for these people to eat? And then I'm thankful
Speaker 1: for the little side note. He asked this only to
Speaker 1: test him, where he already knew what he was going
Speaker 1: to do. Now, this is weird. You want the bonus thing.
Speaker 1: This is the cheer. This is not even the cherry.
Speaker 1: This is the stem on the cherry. When you get
Speaker 1: the other accounts in the Gospels, it says that the
Speaker 1: disciples came to Jesus and said they need to eat
Speaker 1: after he had taught all day. If you read that
Speaker 1: verse the moment they started coming, and I'll back it
Speaker 1: up and show you in verse five the moment they
Speaker 1: started coming. In verse five, the moment he saw the crowd,
Speaker 1: he already knew what to feed them. And here's what's crazy.
Speaker 1: They never even asked for a meal. Because He's going
Speaker 1: to feed them, all right, but they never asked for it.
Speaker 1: I don't know who this is for. I honestly don't,
Speaker 1: and maybe you'll tell me in the comments. But God
Speaker 1: in this season is giving you what you didn't even
Speaker 1: know you needed to ask for. You know, if he
Speaker 1: sins three twenty, he is able to do immeasurably more
Speaker 1: than we ask or imagine. So God is doing some
Speaker 1: things in my life right now that I didn't even
Speaker 1: know what to ask. Here's the thing about me. I'm
Speaker 1: a sheep. I need a shepherd. I don't know what
Speaker 1: to ask for, so he makes me lie down in
Speaker 1: green pastures. I don't want God to give me what
Speaker 1: I need. I want him to give me what he knows,
Speaker 1: because what I think I need and what he knows
Speaker 1: I need are two different things. Twenty seconds of praise
Speaker 1: that He's given you what you didn't know to ask for,
Speaker 1: more than you ask or imagine, more than you thought
Speaker 1: to put on your prairie question. Eh, thank you Lord.
Speaker 1: It starts with a question. Jesus said, where are we
Speaker 1: gonna get bread? Where we're gonna buy bread for all
Speaker 1: these people? I heard Philips say back, because Jesus was
Speaker 1: just testing him. Right. He doesn't ask questions for information.
Speaker 1: He asked questions for revelation, not so he can see something,
Speaker 1: But so you can see something? Should I sit down
Speaker 1: and finish this another time? Good? Because I haven't really
Speaker 1: started yet. I'm so glad you said that. And so
Speaker 1: Philip answered him verse seven, And I thought, well, there's
Speaker 1: the problem. Philip answered him. This whole thing is backwards.
Speaker 1: Philip answered a question that Jesus didn't even ask. What
Speaker 1: did Jesus ask, where are we going to buy enough
Speaker 1: bread for these people to eat? What? Did Philip answer?
Speaker 1: How much it's going to cost? And I heard Jesus
Speaker 1: saying to Philip, did I ask? Did I ask? Did
Speaker 1: I ask if we can afford it? Did I ask
Speaker 1: an accounting question? I hear God saying to somebody today,
Speaker 1: Did I ask if you were able? Did I ask
Speaker 1: if you've got what it takes? Did I ask if
Speaker 1: you know what comes next? Did I ask? Don't touch?
Speaker 1: Three people will look at them and say, did I ask?
Speaker 1: Did I ask? So it's backwards as backwards as backwards.
Speaker 1: We're answering when we ought to be asking. We're answering
Speaker 1: when we ought to be asking. And that's why you
Speaker 1: learn so much more as a kid than you do
Speaker 1: now as a grown up. You stopped asking, you stopped
Speaker 1: asking and started assuming everything is wrong with this text?
Speaker 1: What was he testing him for to see if he
Speaker 1: knew enough to know that he didn't know enough to
Speaker 1: tell Jesus Jesus wasn't trying to test how much do
Speaker 1: we have? Jesus wasn't asking for a bank deposit. Jesus
Speaker 1: wasn't asking for a balance sheet. Jesuaid, where are we
Speaker 1: gonna get it? He wanted to see if Philip knew
Speaker 1: where to go, we might not be able to play
Speaker 1: this when this might be too good for the general public.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to charge a subscription fee for this sermon,
Speaker 1: because if you keep coming back to where you got
Speaker 1: it from the first time, if you know where to go,
Speaker 1: if you know where to go, if you know where
Speaker 1: to go, if you know where to go, it will
Speaker 1: always be enough and you will never run out if
Speaker 1: you know where to go. But if you don't know
Speaker 1: where to go, you will meet your needs in ways
Speaker 1: that will hurt you worse in the air. And I
Speaker 1: think the best question, I think the best question for
Speaker 1: us to ask is where am I gonna get it from?
Speaker 1: When we know the answer to that, And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna break it down a little bit more so,
Speaker 1: like Jesus told the crowds, be seated in groups of fifty,
Speaker 1: about fifty people in the room, thousands online praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: Let me know where you're watching from. By the way,
Speaker 1: our teams pray for you. They go through every comment. Now,
Speaker 1: if you don't like the video, your prayer won't get
Speaker 1: answered anyway. So like the things, share it, subscribe, did
Speaker 1: the bell, and then put a comment, and we'll pray
Speaker 1: for you. But plenty of grass, green grass, Mark said,
Speaker 1: green grass, green pastors. He makes me. Now, there's a
Speaker 1: difference between a command and a question. And I always
Speaker 1: get frustrated when Holly ask the kids what they want
Speaker 1: to eat. I'm like, do not uh huh uh huh
Speaker 1: ask me what I want and feed them that I
Speaker 1: bought the bread? Is that bad? I bought it? So
Speaker 1: I get mad. I'm like, don't ask them what they
Speaker 1: want to eat. You're not a short order shell. You're
Speaker 1: the sexy woman of God, a fine young Christian, a
Speaker 1: fine young woman of God. She's so she so loves him.
Speaker 1: Though she'll ask them, she'll ask them. Jesus asked Philip.
Speaker 1: He said he gave the test before the lesson. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not fair, that's backwards. He didn't show him who
Speaker 1: the bread of life was until after he tested him.
Speaker 1: That's not fair. But that's what makes great faith. You know,
Speaker 1: the test is the lesson. You're in a test right now.
Speaker 1: Not a test. Do you know enough? Not a test?
Speaker 1: Do you have enough? Not a test? Are you good enough?
Speaker 1: But do you know where to get it from? Thank you, Jesus,
Speaker 1: you are my bread. You are the bread of life.
Speaker 1: You are the bread that comes down from heaven. And
Speaker 1: if I keep coming back to you, I'll always have enough.
Speaker 1: But listen, the bread was going to come from the
Speaker 1: same place as the need. Who did they need to feed?
Speaker 1: Where did they have to go to get it? I'll
Speaker 1: fill in the blanks in case my socratic sermon isn't
Speaker 1: really working for you right now, I just don't want
Speaker 1: to leave this undone. They needed to feed the crowd,
Speaker 1: and the meal that became a miracle was in the
Speaker 1: same crowd that they needed to feed. God is using
Speaker 1: every need in your life right now. Remember, the disciples
Speaker 1: were hungry too, They needed to eat too. Jesus used
Speaker 1: the need that they didn't want to meet to meet
Speaker 1: the need that they had. So when I preach, I
Speaker 1: don't start with this question would the people want to hear?
Speaker 1: What a boring thing that would be. I'd be a
Speaker 1: boring sermon. I'll start with what I need to get
Speaker 1: through the next week, and I don't apologize for it.
Speaker 1: I'd feed myself first, and then out of that, let's
Speaker 1: all eat. You know, God feed me because I needed
Speaker 1: to come from you. If it doesn't come from you,
Speaker 1: it'll be just the dumb stuff that goes through my mind.
Speaker 1: So I need bread from heaven. But the bread didn't
Speaker 1: come from heaven like the Mana did. That's the old testament.
Speaker 1: The new mindset is that the meal that Jesus multiply
Speaker 1: was in the crowd that he wanted to feed. So
Speaker 1: Jesus made the disciples, And here's what you've gotta do.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get real practical. Now you've got to ask.
Speaker 1: You've got to ask. When Jesus said how many, remember
Speaker 1: how many is different than how much? How many is plural?
Speaker 1: Five loaves? Those five loaves, it was all in the five.
Speaker 1: It was all in the five. But the five was
Speaker 1: in the crowd with a little boy. Like my sermons
Speaker 1: title was an abbey coming to tell me goodnight. And
Speaker 1: if you don't ever pay attention and open yourself up,
Speaker 1: you will miss what God gets. You will miss the
Speaker 1: miracles because you didn't ask the question they had to ask.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to ask, You're gonna have to ask.
Speaker 1: Give me James one five. James one five says that
Speaker 1: if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God.
Speaker 1: Ask ask ask, Oh, who my friend on Facebook? Who
Speaker 1: You're gonna ask? Ask God first? That's why it didn't work.
Speaker 1: It didn't work. Jesus didn't start the miracle when Philip
Speaker 1: said how much it was gonna cost? And nothing good
Speaker 1: is gonna flow through our life while we stay focused
Speaker 1: on answering the question what do I lack? Oh, I'm
Speaker 1: good at listening all the things I lack, all the
Speaker 1: things I like. I can tell you everything I'm bad at.
Speaker 1: I can tell you every reason God shouldn't use me.
Speaker 1: I can tell you every dirty, blemish, fought and wrinkle.
Speaker 1: When people say bad stuff about me, I think, well,
Speaker 1: you should call me. I give you a few more.
Speaker 1: You didn't even get to the real good stuff. I mean,
Speaker 1: they'll say you're this or that, I'm like you are
Speaker 1: in the PG. We could go PG. Thirteen, or we
Speaker 1: can make this thing terrible if you really want to know.
Speaker 1: It's not because I'm a hypocrite. I'm a human. I'm
Speaker 1: not the bread. But I know where to get it.
Speaker 1: Do you know where to get it? Do you know
Speaker 1: where to get it? If any of you lacks wisdom,
Speaker 1: you should ask God and it'll be given to you.
Speaker 1: Now this is cool. Write this down on one side,
Speaker 1: put bought on one side, put given. Jesus said, where
Speaker 1: are we gonna buy bread? The answer is we're not.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be given. It's gonna be given. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be given for what the law was powerless to do,
Speaker 1: and that it was weak in by the sinful nature.
Speaker 1: God did by sending his own son the bread of life.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be given. Open your palms like this to heaven.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be given. The wisdom is gonna be given.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be given. It's gonna be given. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna be earned, it's gonna be given. He's trying to
Speaker 1: shift them from a mentality that is like manna. It
Speaker 1: comes from somewhere else, to get them to see that
Speaker 1: the wisdom of God is given from within. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be given. Stay with me, Are you with me? You're
Speaker 1: not gonna buy it, You're not gonna earn it, You're
Speaker 1: not gonna achieve it. You're gonna receive it. That's what
Speaker 1: opens your hands. Oh, I thought about open hands. I
Speaker 1: thought about five, five loaves. I thought about five. I
Speaker 1: thought about it's gonna come from the five. It's gonna
Speaker 1: come from the five. It's gonna come from the open hand,
Speaker 1: from God's hand to your hand. It's gonna come from
Speaker 1: the five. Do you hear me? Put it right there
Speaker 1: in the It's gonna come from the five. God's gonna
Speaker 1: give it to you. Are your hands open? Or are
Speaker 1: you so full of assumptions that you stopped asking? Somebody
Speaker 1: told me the other day They said, well, you need
Speaker 1: to pray about it. And I got mad because I
Speaker 1: thought that's a cliche. I've already prayed about it. And
Speaker 1: I got away, and God said, but did you think
Speaker 1: about it? We said, you know, don't tell me to
Speaker 1: pray about it. I already prayed about it. But did
Speaker 1: you did you pray about it? Or did you calculate it?
Speaker 1: Overthink it? Pepto bismol and wake up in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night with a stomach ache? Did I ask?
Speaker 1: Did I ask? Codf This is so embarrassing to say this,
Speaker 1: but yeah, yeah, I'll tell you. I'll tell you a
Speaker 1: lot of times I work so hard on the sermon
Speaker 1: and I'm like, why isn't this coming together? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't even ask God to help me with it.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something else. So when Abby said,
Speaker 1: did I ask, it's your sermon title? I woke up
Speaker 1: the next morning, I said, God, will you just give
Speaker 1: me the sermon this week? I don't want to work
Speaker 1: as hard as I did last week. An hour later
Speaker 1: I had it. I'm not saying that I didn't study.
Speaker 1: It was already there. I just had to ask. If
Speaker 1: you knew what was in you, if you knew who
Speaker 1: was in you, you would ask. If you knew he
Speaker 1: was bred, you would never again let the devil keep
Speaker 1: you hungry or sell your birth right for a bowl
Speaker 1: of beans. You would stop going to places that can
Speaker 1: feel you and spending your wages on what doesn't satisfy.
Speaker 1: It comes from the five. It comes from his hand.
Speaker 1: You hear me, it comes from his hand. And when
Speaker 1: I know that I opened my hands and I ask.
Speaker 1: See I didn't ask. I didn't ask. And it's not
Speaker 1: just a one time thing. When Jesus said whoever comes
Speaker 1: to me will never hunger again, he wasn't talking about
Speaker 1: who comes to me one time. The word the voice
Speaker 1: of the of the verb is is the middle voice,
Speaker 1: and it only speaks to present or imperfect. That means
Speaker 1: either you're coming right now, or you're gonna keep coming
Speaker 1: John six thirty. Look it up. When they came to him,
Speaker 1: they were fed when they came to him, keep coming,
Speaker 1: keep coming for wisdom. Did I ask? I mean, I
Speaker 1: got in the middle of my day and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh man, I wish I did I ask? Did I
Speaker 1: ask God? Did I ask the people he put around me?
Speaker 1: I mean, in order for the miracle to happen, they
Speaker 1: had to walk through the crowd asking you know what,
Speaker 1: I might just have to humble myself and ask somebody
Speaker 1: to help. People can't read your mind, miss cleo. People
Speaker 1: can't flash back people outdated reference from the old preacher.
Speaker 1: People can't know that. People don't know what you need.
Speaker 1: You have to ask. When you ask, you activate. When
Speaker 1: you ask, you activate the same crowd that had to need.
Speaker 1: Was the same crowd that had the miracle, but they
Speaker 1: had to ask. Here's my question. Can I ask a question?
Speaker 1: How many people did they ask that said no before
Speaker 1: they found the five lows? You got anything? Remember last week?
Speaker 1: You got anything? You got anything, You got anything, you
Speaker 1: got anything. And I'm putting this point in because what
Speaker 1: keeps some of us from asking is our past rejection. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it can get so deep in you that you start
Speaker 1: assuming they they won't want to do that for me?
Speaker 1: Did you ask, oh, God, this is too much. It
Speaker 1: is what I'm about to say is too much. I
Speaker 1: almost didn't ask you to come do this ministry, I
Speaker 1: asked him. He almost said no, true or false? True
Speaker 1: or false? Yeah, he'd probably be either a professional tennis
Speaker 1: player today or maybe he'd be stringing tennis racket somewhere
Speaker 1: on the side of the road, who knows, somewhere in between.
Speaker 1: I almost didn't even ask you. I remember telling them,
Speaker 1: I said, Chris and bethn't want to be here. They
Speaker 1: want to go to Nashville. Something d me say, ask
Speaker 1: ask ask me now now? Now. Now, it's not ask
Speaker 1: people for things that God can give you, but sometimes
Speaker 1: God will direct you to people to meet the need.
Speaker 1: Remember Jess didn't say where we're gonna feed these people,
Speaker 1: and folks said we don't have enough, And Jesus said,
Speaker 1: Manna come didn't come from Mana, It didn't even come
Speaker 1: from man It came from a boy. That means they
Speaker 1: had to go all the way through the crowd. You
Speaker 1: think the boy was in the front of the crowd.
Speaker 1: How's a little boy gonna get to the front of
Speaker 1: a crowd. He's not even in the cow. Hey, not
Speaker 1: even I have a ticket to Jesus, Riach and Crusader
Speaker 1: don't remember crowds. This is a BC before Corona kind
Speaker 1: of situation here, back when they used to have crowds
Speaker 1: going through the crowd. You got anything, you got anything,
Speaker 1: You got anything. Some people are lying, some people are
Speaker 1: telling the truth. Some people are already ate. Some people
Speaker 1: are and they're all hungry. You got anything, you got anything,
Speaker 1: you got anything. Here's what I want you to do.
Speaker 1: Please do this, Please do this, especially if you've had
Speaker 1: a root of bitterness or you have a root of rejection,
Speaker 1: and it's like somebody in your life told you know,
Speaker 1: or something in your life has been knows so many times.
Speaker 1: I want you to when you when you hear no,
Speaker 1: I want you to think next. When you hear no,
Speaker 1: I want you to think next. So if God didn't
Speaker 1: let me do that next, if God didn't want me
Speaker 1: to do that, what's next? Now? I have to do
Speaker 1: this as a matter of survival because sometimes people do
Speaker 1: not say they want to be a part of this ministry.
Speaker 1: But if I stop when they say no, I will
Speaker 1: miss the miracle that was in the thing. So so
Speaker 1: I want somebody, whoever this is, I want you to shout,
Speaker 1: at the top of your holy ghost lungs from your diaphragm,
Speaker 1: say next. I gotta get through this crowd. I gotta
Speaker 1: get through this confusion. I gotta get through this shame.
Speaker 1: I gotta get out of this slack. I gotta eat.
Speaker 1: I can't die. I gotta have green grasp. No means next,
Speaker 1: whoa no means next. So I don't want anybody to
Speaker 1: leave me. But if they do, it's not like I'm
Speaker 1: just treating people as disposable. But they ain't bread. They
Speaker 1: ain't bread nowhere the bread is. Are y'all awake to
Speaker 1: help me celebrate the bread that came from heaven, The
Speaker 1: bread that came from heaven. The bread that came from heaven.
Speaker 1: What you're gonna hate? The bread that cave from heaven
Speaker 1: is coming from the five It's coming from the hand
Speaker 1: of God. By every word, that problem of God. Who
Speaker 1: if they said no, I'll just look for the next well,
Speaker 1: that's cruel, Pastor Steve. I mean, I've be come on, man,
Speaker 1: I've been married almost twenty years. I'm not saying relationships
Speaker 1: are disposable. I'm just saying that you got to go
Speaker 1: back to the place where you know in God that
Speaker 1: Moses can only give you manna for so long. It's
Speaker 1: just a question. It's just a question where are we
Speaker 1: going to get it from. That's what Jesus ask Philip
Speaker 1: should have said, why are you asking me? That's what
Speaker 1: he should have said. The whole thing went off the
Speaker 1: track when you thought you knew the answer. The whole
Speaker 1: thing came undone when you assumed, did you ask he
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to write songs with us? Did you ask? Now?
Speaker 1: Some of y'all are two asking God knows you are.
Speaker 1: I've been the comments of YouTube talking about do y'all
Speaker 1: have a YouTube channel? You are on the YouTube channel?
Speaker 1: I'm serious. People will say this kind of stuff on you.
Speaker 1: It's crazy stuff. People will say on YouTube, where'd you
Speaker 1: get that shirt? Somebody put on YouTube comment they said,
Speaker 1: we played a throwback sermon from twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: one of those years. Back in the day. Flashback said
Speaker 1: back when I didn't have my beard, and they said,
Speaker 1: I like you so much better with a beard. You
Speaker 1: know what I wanted to respond, Did I ask? Did
Speaker 1: I ask? You don't have to ask God everything. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you're asking God for stuff that he already told you
Speaker 1: that he put people around you to give you. It
Speaker 1: didn't it came from heaven, but it came through people.
Speaker 1: That's why Holly was saying, hey, join in Egrop. She's
Speaker 1: trying to get you fed. Yeah. Yeah, So when you pray,
Speaker 1: God give me comfort. But you don't tell anybody you're lonely.
Speaker 1: And I mean telling real people, not platforms. Did you
Speaker 1: read between the lines. We don't ask questions. We just
Speaker 1: make comments. Now we make comments online comments, comments, comments, comments, comments, comments,
Speaker 1: But did you ask going on somebody's page and going, oh, well,
Speaker 1: there's the liberal conservative. Did you ever have a conversation
Speaker 1: with somebody different than you in the last three years?
Speaker 1: Did you ask why do you feel that way? Why
Speaker 1: do you think that way? What does that mean to you?
Speaker 1: How do you see it? And the God who asked
Speaker 1: questions wants to know. Did you ask? Andrew asked, and
Speaker 1: that's when the miracle started. Andrew asked, He didn't even
Speaker 1: ask with a lot of faith. James say, you ask
Speaker 1: in faith? Nothing wavered. Andrew asked in doubt, and he
Speaker 1: still got an answer. You can pray something as unspiritual
Speaker 1: as help or else, help or else? How many of
Speaker 1: y'all are a helper ouse season in this season of
Speaker 1: your life? Help or else? God, I can't make it.
Speaker 1: So go back to verse eight. Andrew, Oh yeah, remember
Speaker 1: the first question Jesus asked, what do you want? You
Speaker 1: know who asked it to Andrew? Y'all thought that was
Speaker 1: a trick question? Was I was just setting you up?
Speaker 1: He asked, Andrew, what do you want? The first question
Speaker 1: Jesus asked in John one was Andrew another disciple. Andrew
Speaker 1: brought Peter to Jesus. Every time we see Andrew in
Speaker 1: the scripture, he's bringing something to Jesus. Do you think
Speaker 1: you need to give something? You need to bring something
Speaker 1: so he can give something. This is the miracle. He said,
Speaker 1: here's a boy. I went through the crowd. I asked everybody.
Speaker 1: I asked nineteen nine and ninety nine people, and this
Speaker 1: boy right here, this boy right here. But how far
Speaker 1: will they go among so many? The next sentence, Jesus
Speaker 1: gives first ten a command sit down, now, I can
Speaker 1: do something now that you asked? Did you ask? Did
Speaker 1: you ask, like, really asked? I know, in a technical sense,
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, yeah, man, I asked God to help
Speaker 1: me all the time. Did you ask or did you tell? Yeah?
Speaker 1: A lot of what we call prayer is us telling
Speaker 1: God's stuff he already knows, or telling God what he
Speaker 1: needs to do. Did you ask? Did you ask, why
Speaker 1: do I have this thorn? Or did you just assume
Speaker 1: it came from the devil? It might have come from
Speaker 1: God to help you stay humble? Did you ask? Did
Speaker 1: you ask God what he's doing in the life of
Speaker 1: that person you lead, whether it's a kid or someone else.
Speaker 1: Did you ask or did you just assume that if
Speaker 1: God didn't do through them what you thought he should
Speaker 1: do through them, that he failed. Did you ask? Did
Speaker 1: you ask God what he put in you and what
Speaker 1: he wants from you? Or did you just assume that
Speaker 1: what everybody else thinks you should do is the agenda
Speaker 1: you have to follow. Did you ask? Andrew asked? He said,
Speaker 1: how far can it go? And then he found out
Speaker 1: it starts with a question. It starts with a question.
Speaker 1: The crowd didn't get it because they were still waiting
Speaker 1: for a messiah like Moses. You know, even after Jesus
Speaker 1: spent them. They got the meal, but they missed the message.
Speaker 1: Ninety eight percent of people who tune into a sermon
Speaker 1: like this get the meal, missed the message. But I
Speaker 1: don't want you to. The crowd said, are you going
Speaker 1: to give us Mana like Moses? I don't know if
Speaker 1: you remember Mana? And Bibe was like the original frosted flakes.
Speaker 1: Sorry bad Joe. Wow. That was a tough crowded here.
Speaker 1: But it would look like that. It was flaky and
Speaker 1: it would come down and they said, what is it?
Speaker 1: That's what they named it. What is it? Question? It
Speaker 1: starts with a question. What is it? They didn't know
Speaker 1: who he was. He said, I am the brother of Lfe,
Speaker 1: but they thought it would be what it was? What
Speaker 1: is it? Not? What was it? That's where the miracle is.
Speaker 1: What is it? What is it, what is it to
Speaker 1: be me in this season of my life? What is
Speaker 1: it God that you're speaking to me? What is it
Speaker 1: that you're calling me to do in this moment? Did
Speaker 1: I ask? Did I sit down this week and ask, like,
Speaker 1: what's important this week? Really important? Did I ask? You know,
Speaker 1: as long as we're the ones giving the answers, we're
Speaker 1: going to be pretty limited in what we can access
Speaker 1: questions create access. I was with somebody a while back
Speaker 1: and they said they wanted to meet with me and
Speaker 1: talk to me about ministry. Because they were not as
Speaker 1: far along, they never asked me a question. I couldn't
Speaker 1: figure that out because now I guess I know that
Speaker 1: I don't know much. So from the time I was sixteen,
Speaker 1: I was always asking questions, what do you do about this?
Speaker 1: And what do you do about that? And why about this?
Speaker 1: And why about that? No questions, no questions. Have you
Speaker 1: stopped asking God? Just start assuming, just start filling in
Speaker 1: the blanks. Stopped asking God? What else is in me?
Speaker 1: What else can you do? I know you could engraves
Speaker 1: into gardens and bones, and what else can you do?
Speaker 1: What else can you do? This is the disciples whole
Speaker 1: problem through the whole gospel. They were always telling, and
Speaker 1: they stopped asking, stopped asking, stopped asking. That's why. That's
Speaker 1: why you're frustrated. That's why you're stopped. That's why you're lonely.
Speaker 1: You stopped asking. Oh, I asked you, did you? Did
Speaker 1: you really? Or were you? Like the disciples say, they
Speaker 1: saw Jesus talking to a woman. You remember this, He said,
Speaker 1: give me a drink? He asked, can I have a drink?
Speaker 1: Here he is again asking somebody who he shouldn't even
Speaker 1: have been talking to, can I have a drink? Oh?
Speaker 1: This is an annoyed verse because in John four ten,
Speaker 1: you got it, John four ten, This is so good.
Speaker 1: I was running around my bathroom looking at John four
Speaker 1: ten on my phone. Jesus answered her, if you knew
Speaker 1: the gift of God and who it is that asks
Speaker 1: you for a drink, you would have asked him and
Speaker 1: he would have given you living water. I'm preaching for
Speaker 1: breakthrough today. I'm preaching for hungry people today. I'm preaching
Speaker 1: for somebody who's really, really, really needing something today. He said,
Speaker 1: if you knew ready, if you knew what was in you,
Speaker 1: if you knew what was in you, it would be
Speaker 1: living water and no matter what's happening around you. If
Speaker 1: you knew what was in you, and greater is he
Speaker 1: that is in me, that he that is in the world.
Speaker 1: If you knew what was in you, if you knew
Speaker 1: what was in you, you wouldn't kill yourself. If you
Speaker 1: knew what was in you, you wouldn't let pornography strangle
Speaker 1: the creative life out of you. If you knew what
Speaker 1: was in you, you wouldn't hide yourself behind false personas.
Speaker 1: If you knew who was in you. Everywhere the enemy
Speaker 1: has planted condemnation in your life, I want you to
Speaker 1: replace it with a question. That's the devil's language. Condemnation,
Speaker 1: that's the devil. That's not how God talks. God asks questions.
Speaker 1: The wisdom that comes from above whispers within. Like you
Speaker 1: said to Elijah in the cave, what are you doing here?
Speaker 1: God ask questions up close. He knows you like that.
Speaker 1: If you knew, you would ask Wait a minute, I thought.
Speaker 1: If you don't know, you asked no. No. If you
Speaker 1: knew who was in you, you stop listening to everything
Speaker 1: around you so much. If you know who told you
Speaker 1: that you were naked? Who told you that you were
Speaker 1: nothing who told you it wasn't enough If you knew
Speaker 1: who you were talking to when you talk to yourself,
Speaker 1: if you knew. Thank you, Lord, thank you for the
Speaker 1: ministry of the Holy Spirit. I don't think I've ever
Speaker 1: felt you more than I feel you right now. And
Speaker 1: I thank you because I need you. I need you,
Speaker 1: We need you. Somebody needs you. On the other and
Speaker 1: through their tears, they see now that the answer is
Speaker 1: not standing outside of them. The living water is within
Speaker 1: and the bread is right here. Thank you. So Jesus
Speaker 1: is in Moses. Okay, Jesus and Moses. God's not going
Speaker 1: to do it like he used to to do it,
Speaker 1: but if you ask, he'll show you what He's doing
Speaker 1: right now in this moment. Speaking of Moses, remember when
Speaker 1: God came to him and said, I want to use you.
Speaker 1: He had to set a whole nation for we don't
Speaker 1: have that responsibility. But God's speaking to us too, He's
Speaker 1: calling us to. Moses asked a question, who shall I
Speaker 1: say sent me? God said, I am you are what
Speaker 1: that's the question? How you get to spend the rest
Speaker 1: of your life finding out the answer? Thank you, Lord,
Speaker 1: I am You're going to find out all that He
Speaker 1: is through the things you go through. But Moses, Moses
Speaker 1: said something to the Lord in Exodus fourteen, and I'll
Speaker 1: show you this before I close, because the Lord gave
Speaker 1: it to me like an image, like an image, like
Speaker 1: an image. He said, if you knew what was in you,
Speaker 1: if you knew what was in you, you would ask
Speaker 1: for strength. You would ask, I'm in you. So you
Speaker 1: can ask I'm in you. You got to get it
Speaker 1: in you. You got to get it in you, Moses said,
Speaker 1: after a whole series of excuses, you know, God asked
Speaker 1: him a question. He said, what's that in your hand? Said?
Speaker 1: In your hand? Moses simply had a staff, But that
Speaker 1: wasn't all it was. It was an instrument to part waters,
Speaker 1: to turn rivers to blood. It was an instrument. It
Speaker 1: was an instrument. What's in your hand? It's coming from
Speaker 1: the five. It's coming from the five, It's coming from
Speaker 1: the fis. What's in your hand? Did you ask? Did
Speaker 1: you ask? Or do you just assume it's not enough?
Speaker 1: Did you ask? We get in trouble when we answer
Speaker 1: when we answer instead of asking. So God said, I
Speaker 1: chose you, Moses. And in Exodus four ten, this is
Speaker 1: the picture of the Lord gave me. And the Lord
Speaker 1: must really want somebody to get this message, because it's
Speaker 1: so heavy on me. I can barely move. But Moses said,
Speaker 1: pardon your servant, Lord, I have never been eloquent, not enough,
Speaker 1: neither in the past nor since you've spoken to your servant.
Speaker 1: I'm slow speech and tongue. Now everybody has something like that.
Speaker 1: They could say why you can't make it, and why
Speaker 1: there's not enough, and why eight months wages wouldn't be enough.
Speaker 1: Everybody has an inner Philip, and the inner Philip will
Speaker 1: jump to conclusions based on the evidence that you can
Speaker 1: see with your eyes. But watch what the Lord said
Speaker 1: in verse eleven. The Lord said, did I ask who
Speaker 1: gave human beings their mouth? Did I ask who makes them? Death?
Speaker 1: From you? Did I ask? You keep telling me what
Speaker 1: you're not? But I didn't ask you that. You keep
Speaker 1: telling me what you can But I didn't ask you that.
Speaker 1: So don't say I'm just single, don't say I'm just young,
Speaker 1: don't say I'm too old. Did I ask High Lord?
Speaker 1: I am enough? Is it not? I come here, boy,
Speaker 1: come here, come in come in course, come I come,
Speaker 1: I come nick, come in come, in come, in come,
Speaker 1: in come here, comeick come in, come, here, comeick me.
Speaker 1: I need to undred sixty dollars. I need to hundred
Speaker 1: sixty dollars. I need to hundred sixty dollars. I need
Speaker 1: to undred sixty dollars. Oh, you didn't think you had it.
Speaker 1: But right up before I came to preach, I handed
Speaker 1: him my wallet and I didn't tell him why. I said,
Speaker 1: just hold this for me until I'm done. And I'm
Speaker 1: about to be done, because when I get to the
Speaker 1: end of my message, I'm gonna put something in my boy,
Speaker 1: And when I ask you for it, the fact that
Speaker 1: I ask is the proof that you have it. If
Speaker 1: I ask you have it, If I ask, I gave it,
Speaker 1: it's in you. It's more than at all. Count that
Speaker 1: money over that balalet. What's in that wallet? What's in
Speaker 1: that wallet? I need you sixty But I will never
Speaker 1: ask you for what I didn't get you to forget with.
Speaker 1: And if you run out of that, I got credit too.
Speaker 1: Now I've said my credit score. I'm putting in a boid,
Speaker 1: I'm putting in your duggers. I put it in your spirit,
Speaker 1: I'll put it in a fastt I'm put it in
Speaker 1: a bag I'm put it in a weakness, I'm pull
Speaker 1: it in a blone. I yeh folow I have the
Speaker 1: Lord why you're not, But I am that this bones
Speaker 1: live again. They cast ny. Wow, these bones can live again.
Speaker 1: You can't make it. You do have what it takes.
Speaker 1: Christ is in you. I hope you received that message.
Speaker 1: Did you receive it? Thank you so much for your
Speaker 1: partnership in the gospel. I know you don't think of
Speaker 1: it this way, but when you give, it's like you preach.
Speaker 1: You know, those of you that invest in this ministry,
Speaker 1: we're up there doing it together, bringing Church to people.
Speaker 1: And I don't think the world has ever needed the
Speaker 1: Gospel of Jesus Christ any more than we do right now,
Speaker 1: the Bread of life for hungry souls. Thank you for
Speaker 1: being a part of this ministry. Don't forget to share
Speaker 1: this message with someone who you know needs it. You know,
Speaker 1: one of the best ways for God to feed you
Speaker 1: is for you to share what you have with others.
Speaker 1: So in the meantime, until I see you again, just
Speaker 1: make sure that you remember this Christ is in you
Speaker 1: and you are enough. We love you.