Jesus Feeds the Multitudes: Part 1

Redeeming Grace Church

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As we continue our series and as we go through the gospel of John, John's gospel and today's message is going to be on Jesus Feeds the

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Multitudes. Jesus Feeds the Multitudes is the reason I titled it that way because if you look in your

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Bible and most, a lot of people titles it Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand.

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As we will see, the text says only 5 ,000 men. It's not including the women and the children that were there.

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So you could probably, if you do a little math there, there's 5 ,000 men and how many women might have been there, we don't know.

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Let's just say another 5 ,000, give or take, that's 10 ,000.

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How many children were there? Actually we don't know how many children were there. So you could probably assume it was many, much more than 5 ,000.

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But nevertheless, there was technically a whole city there that was there following the

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Lord and we will see in our story why they were there following Him.

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Before we get started, please bow with me in prayer. Our Father in Heaven, we bow in Your presence now.

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Our heart cry as hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.

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Lord, we pray that You would be honored and glorified in Your preached word.

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Just not only here Lord, we pray that Your word would be preached in power and truth global.

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As Your people meet within this hour and a few hours later, depending on where they are,

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Lord, that You would bless. Open the eyes of our hearts, as it's already been said.

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Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord, that we may see the wondrous things from Your word.

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That we would behold the Lamb of God that was slain. And we ask these things in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Well, please open your Bibles with me, if you're not already there, to the

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Gospel of John chapter 6. Chapter 6 of John, I'd like to say this at the offset.

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This is one of the longest chapters in the New Testament. 71 verses.

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71 verses. Within this chapter begins Jesus' third year of ministry.

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This is actually the fourth sign that He performs.

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Many times you say sign, what are you talking about sign? Miracle. It's a miracle from God.

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That only God can do. So this is what we're going to look at. And let me say this.

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Because of communion today, this is going to be a quick introduction. It's going to be like a jet tour. So, I realize there's a lot of details

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I'm not going to be able to make this morning. That's why I called it part one.

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So, I don't know how many parts we're going to have, God willing. But we will have more parts. Because there's so much here.

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We're only looking at the first 15 verses. But again, if you go on to study this whole chapter, there's 71 verses.

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71 verses of God's Word. So John's Gospel chapter 6 is no doubt the longest and one of the most important chapters in the

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New Testament. We're only going to look at the opening portion.

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And this is one of the miracles that is recorded only here in John's Gospel.

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I'm sorry, it's in all four Gospels. In John's Gospel, this particular miracle helps us connect the dots between God's provision to Israel in the

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Old Testament and Jesus as the bread of life in the

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New Testament. So we will see that more clearly in the coming weeks, God willing, as we go through the verses and see it expanded and exposited.

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But today we are only going to look at the miracle that sets the scene. So this is going to be an introduction to everything we're going to be looking at.

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So John chapter 6, beginning with verse 1 to verse 15. Let me read this text to you.

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And then we will see what the Lord has for us in this text. It's a wonderful text. Verse 1 to 15, hear the word of the living

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God. I'm reading from the New King James Version this morning. After these things,

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Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude followed

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Him because they saw His signs, which He performed on those who were diseased.

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Jesus went up to the mountain and there He sat with His disciples.

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Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up His eyes and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him.

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And He said to Philip, Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?

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But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.

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Philip answered Him and said, Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.

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One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him,

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There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?

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Then Jesus said, Make the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down in the number about five thousand.

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Jesus took the loaves and when He had given thanks, His disciples,

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I'm sorry, given thanks, He distributed them to the disciples and the disciples to those sitting down, and likewise of the fish as much as they wanted.

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So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain so that nothing is lost.

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Therefore they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten them.

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And then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said,

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This is truly the prophet who is to come into the world. And verse 15 says,

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Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take

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Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

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May God bless the reading of His word to our hearts this morning as we come before Him to hear from heaven.

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Now, in the Old Testament, as you well know,

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God took His people Israel into the wilderness and provided bread from heaven.

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Scripture calls it angel's food. Angel's food that God poured out of heaven to feed

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His people. And here in John chapter 6, Jesus takes

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His people once again into the wilderness to provide bread again.

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You know, it's an interesting story here we have about God's compassion, about God's mercy, about His loving kindness,

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His patience toward His people and how Jesus cares for His people.

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How He provides for His people. Regardless of their waywardness, their murmurings and complainings, and we will see this, that God still provides for them.

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He cares for them as a great shepherd having compassion over His sheep.

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Now, again, the story is wonderful because that's the focal point and how

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Jesus cares for His people that He has ransomed and brought out of Egypt to serve them and love

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Him. Now, it's just not a temporary care. It's not something that's temporal.

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It's eternal. I want that to really sink in for all of us. It's just not something that God does daily.

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And He does do it daily. He takes care of us. But we need to see the eternal perspective.

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That God cares for us eternally. From everlasting to everlasting.

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That in the eternal mind of God, you matter to Him.

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God's people matters. Now, again, it cedes the temporal.

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It goes to the eternal. Not just care for them for a day or a week or a month, which is wonderful, isn't it?

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How many of us today can look back and see the hand of God in your life, my life?

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Hindsight's always better than foresight, isn't it? And many times we're in bad situations. And regardless of our waywardness and our sin,

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God still loves us. And while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us.

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And the reason for this is because of God's eternal love. That's the way God is.

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And God's unchangeable. He's immutable. No one changes His love.

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And He changes not. That's what He says. I am the Lord. I change not.

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Aren't you glad for that? And again, He cares for us from all eternity.

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Eternity past to eternity future. And here we are, creatures of time.

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Born into time. Born with an origin. We live and we die very short.

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Then we stand before the King. That's the way we should see it. Life is like a vapor.

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But while we're here, we should serve Him and love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Now, it's an everlasting love that endures for all time and eternity.

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It's an all -inspiring story. Here in John chapter 6, really it's about the insignificant little boy that comes to give his lunch to feed an entire city.

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This young little boy has a small lunch. What are these among so many?

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What are these among so many? It's about a couple of disciples by the name of Philip and Andrew, who we'll see later on.

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God willing, I'd like to expand on that next week about faith.

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About the test of faith. It's about a couple of disciples that really have no answers through whom

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Jesus provides to feed the multitudes here. It's a story also about God's awesome power from heaven and how

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He provides a miracle through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. His one and only

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Son in whom He's well pleased. And that comes down, this bread that comes down from heaven as angel food, as it did in the

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Old Testament, here the very bread of life Himself incarnate teaches them a lesson that He is that living bread.

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That's really the point of everything that He is teaching. Always remember this.

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In all the miracles that Jesus Christ performs before people, that miracle is not an end to itself.

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It always has a purpose and that purpose is Christ. You think of it.

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You think about what's being done here and what the Lord does. He feeds the multitudes and in this miracle

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He provides fish and especially the bread in which He's teaching here.

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And what is He saying? He's saying, I am that bread. This is a physical bread but I am that bread that comes from heaven spiritually speaking.

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And there's enough of me, Christ would say, to go around for everybody. The miracle always points to Christ.

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Always. And many people don't get that. Even in so -called

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Christianity today, they want to see miracles, miracles, miracles and just see something wonderful.

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Something extraordinary. But really it's all about Christ. It's about Jesus.

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So that's the purpose of the miracle. And the Lord does this miracle not only to fill us but He can also sustain us.

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Not only to satisfy us but also that you could be used for God's glory.

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That you could be a channel that God may pour His life through you to use you for His glory.

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That not only settles us in the deepest possible comfort but also in His word by faith alone.

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Also resettles us inside in the very heart of Jesus Christ our

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Lord to love Him and serve Him. Now, it's also a story about the faithfulness of God.

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The compassion of God as I've already mentioned. His loving kindness. It's about how we can trust in Him no matter what comes our way.

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You know, many times we think well these are impossible situations.

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Impossible. But God specializes in the impossibles. Amen? He is a

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God that is so large, so big and He says bring your petitions before Him.

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Bring your requests before Him. He desires to fulfill them and He desires to meet them.

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And it's just not in the sense of just about us. It's about God's glory.

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You know when we bring as we pray here at Redeeming Grace Church and we have prayer meeting you know the requests we bring before God and I believe

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Brother Ben mentioned this I'd like to start recording these and each request that we put down we'd like to see ok, let's just watch and wait and see

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God work by faith. And then see how God answers these requests. Because as God answers these requests according to His will and in His timetable it's really about His glory, isn't it?

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It's not about us. I believe Tozer said it like this if God answers our prayers it's not because there's something good in us or how good we prayed or how nicely we prayed.

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No. It's because God is good. God does good because God is good.

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And He answers our prayers because of His goodness. So it should be less of us.

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We're just here to serve Him and as we serve Him and love Him we should give our lives completely to Him.

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So really this miracle points to Christ and Christ alone is the bread of life. And it should also teach us that we should have confidence to believe that all things are possible in and through Him.

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All things, all things are possible that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently come before Him and seek

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Him and believe Him. That's the problem. And really if you look at it this is a everything that Jesus does it's an attack against our unbelief and Israel's unbelief.

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And you can see that in Hebrews chapter 3 and you can see this in the wandering of the wilderness as they had unbelief they did not enter into the promised land.

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So God says here I'm going to test you. Do you believe me?

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So we look to Him. He's all that we need and this is what Jesus is saying that He is the bread of life and bread is a it's a basic it's a basic substance it's a basic food, isn't it?

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Just about everybody here I'm sure eats bread. I used to be a bread man. I used to deliver a lot of bread especially when snows and storms came my goodness now

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I'm in the milk business but milk and bread the basics. Thank God I've been able to see this in this world in a sense but it always teaches me there's something more important than just the physical bread or the physical milk.

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It's the spiritual side of it that's in Jesus Christ.

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It's also a story about not only that we can see our insufficiency we should see

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God's all -sufficiency. We're insufficient God is all -sufficient and His all -sufficiency is in Christ.

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He's the all -sufficient Savior. So I like to use that as just two points today as we look at this as an introduction my two points is that we are insufficient our insufficiency the sinner's insufficiency and our

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Savior's all -sufficiency. Now before we can really see

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Christ's all -sufficiency we should first of all see our insufficiency.

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What do I mean by that? That's my first point. We are insufficient sinners redeemed by grace by His love makes me think about when

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Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount the very first thing He said at the very bottom when

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He began, He opened His mouth and the same here as He's about to do a miracle in John chapter 6 it's like a mountain there is a mountain there and we're going to revisit that again but the same thing in Matthew chapter 5 and seeing the multitudes

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He went up on the mountain and when He was seated His disciples came to Him and He opened

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His mouth and He taught them saying and what was the first thing He said? Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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That teaches us about our insufficiency that teaches us that we are nothing and we need to see that that humbles us to say we are nothing

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God is everything Christ is everything no one enters into the kingdom of heaven unless he goes down low and becomes nothing in this world it's opposite to be great in this world you've got to move up the ladder but in the kingdom of God you go down the ladder you go low and there's that beautiful paradox the way up is down the way down is up Jesus said it he that exalts himself shall be humbled but he that humbles himself shall be exalted that's the way it is in God's kingdom so we are insufficient we are insufficient sinners in order to see this and see ourselves as we should see it and that's the problem

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I think that we all have and struggle with we must see ourselves how we are before God that we need him we need him now let me read something go with me to Deuteronomy for us to really have eyes to see this

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I'm going to read this chapter very quickly chapter 8 of Deuteronomy for us to really see what is being said here and I think this is a great chapter for us to read of what the

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Lord is doing in John chapter 6 Deuteronomy chapter 8 this whole chapter is really about remembering the

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Lord our God what does it mean by remember well like we are going to have communion here today we remember the sufferings and death of Christ right well

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God, that's a covenant language God does not want us to forget and how often are we forgetful

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I challenge you I tell you how forgetful we all are next week

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I may ask somebody someone of y 'all here to challenge you did you remember what

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I preached on last week well maybe you will and then I may say can you remember the points and can you remember everything

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I said and how I conclude many times we forget those things that's important to the word of God we should be playing and being engaged and yes take notes

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I think that helps us remember right but unless you have a photographic memory and you can just take that in but so often we are prone to wonder because we are prone to forget and we forget

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God Deuteronomy chapter 8 is about remembering the

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Lord our God notice what he says in this he says the very commandment which

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I command you today you must be careful to observe that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the

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Lord swore to your fathers and you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and to test you to know that what was in your heart whether you would keep his commandments or not notice the insufficiency there that we need to know whether you would keep his commandments or not so he humbled you allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the

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Lord your garments did not wear out on you nor did your foot swell these 40 years you should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son as a man chastens his son so the

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Lord your God chastens you therefore you shall keep the commandments of the

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Lord your God to walk in his ways and to fear him for the Lord your

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God is bringing you into a good land a land of brooks of water of fountains and springs that flow out of the valleys and hills a land of wheat and barley of vines and fig trees and pomegranates and a land of olive oil and honey a land which you will eat bread without scarcity in which you will lack nothing a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper and when you shall have eaten and are full then you shall bless the

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Lord your God for the good land which he has given you then he says this beware that you do not forget the

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Lord your God by not keeping his commandments his judgments his statutes which

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I command you today lest when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and your gold are multiplied and all that you have is multiplied and when your heart is lifted up and you forget the

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Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage who led you through the great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water who brought water for you out of the flinty rock who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know that he might humble you and that he might test you to do you good in the end then you shall say in your heart my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth and you shall remember the

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Lord your God for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant which he has sworn to your fathers as it is this day then it shall be that if you by any means forget the

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Lord your God and follow other gods and serve them and worship them

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I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish as the nations which the

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Lord destroys before you so you shall perish because you would not be obedient to the voice of the

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Lord your God such blessing but such woe such sweetness but such bitterness

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God shows us in his love and you see the warnings of those who forget

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God you notice the chapter that it is God that supplies the wealth and for the children of Israel to be filled and yet they got filled and what happened?

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They forgot God they went against the commandments and the warnings that God gave isn't that a warning to us here in America?

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Here is a church if God blesses us and he widens us and whatever he does we must remember that it is him it is

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God's glory and God is not to be forgotten we always give thanks and you notice the story of the children in the wilderness the children of Israel in the wilderness what did they do?

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They murmured they complained they were unthankful for even the simplest thing, the food, the angel food from heaven and they complained you give us so much angel's food we get sick of it give us meat, give us meat and God sent the quail by wind and blew in the quail they even complained about that but God says

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I'm going to give you so much quail it will be coming just out forth and they were literally almost to the point of sickness now

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God does not want to be forgotten beloved and if you notice that Israel's 40 years in the wilderness was a time of God's affliction and testing so that the basic attitude of the people toward God and his commandments could be made known.

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Now God humbled them through these afflictions and these trials and God chose to sustain his people that were hungry in the wilderness by means previously unknown to them it was a miracle but God was faithful God was patient and he's patient with us and he's faithful that's what

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Paul said even when we're unfaithful God still remains faithful because God cannot lie, he cannot change that's his attribute it's one of his great attributes again, through this miraculous provision

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God both humbled the people of Israel as we just read, he tested them he tested their obedience now as we turn to John chapter 6 in verse 1 to 15 we see

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God doing the same thing again providing a miracle but except there's something greater and it's the greater one

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Jesus says a greater one than Solomon's here a greater one than Jonah's here

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Jesus is that greater one he's the incarnate bread of life and he does all that and more and it's through Christ his one and only son the bread from heaven himself think of it, there's a greater revelation they have greater light and much more they're going to be held accountable for and it should go for us as well, we have all this revelation

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I read something here previously, our brother David Miller, he's with the Lord now he was in a wheelchair and he was just a country preacher,

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I just love this man he spoke at the G3 what a couple years ago and it just, he couldn't turn to the

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Bible he just memorized it and he read like the whole chapter of Hebrews 1 he memorized the word of God so he just gave

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Hebrews 1 but the quote that he said I read here the other day he says, my biggest problem in sanctification is not having more revelation, my problem is applying the revelation that I have amen,

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I mean that's that's where we need, we need to apply the revelation that we do have and Jesus is that light, we have so much light, may

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God grace us and help us to live by that light and we all fall short of that don't we? I know

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I do but we need God's grace to help sustain us to go forward and live out in the revelation in our daily life, what we do have well

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God does a great miracle through His incarnate Son, the bread of life the living bread from heaven the greater revelation is

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Jesus Christ and He makes provision for His people now in the Christian life there's no other place to start than with our own insufficiency our own utter weakness to recognize that we are utterly weak and that we are utterly powerless and that God is all sufficient in Jesus Christ to humble us to keep us humble so that we can see that we are nothing and that Christ is everything now let's look at verse 1 and I'd like to touch on a few verses here and I'll try to go through this story as fast as I can but again we're going to look at some more details in the coming weeks,

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Lord willing next week we'll pick up where I left off today look at verse 1 after these things

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Jesus went over the sea of Galilee which is the sea of Tiberias let me stop right there, the expression after these things basically means a period of time here that has elapsed and that period of time has elapsed since the events in chapter 5 took place now we actually do not know how much time there is that there was

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I should say between chapter 5 and chapter 6 but we do know that Jesus traveled from the area around Jerusalem up to the sea of Galilee if you look at a map he goes northward up to the sea of Galilee which is known here which is also the sea of Tiberias when it says that he crossed the sea he probably means that he went from the north eastern shore to the north

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I'm sorry from the north western shore to the north eastern shore he traveled from the west to the east in that geographical setting so also the sea of Galilee was known as the sea of Tiberias why is that?

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well because the city Tiberias if you were to study this was located on its western bank so the city was the capital of the province of Galilee and it was named after of course an emperor by the name of Tiberias so that's pretty much the background of the sea of Galilee which is the sea of Tiberias verse 2 and verse 3 verse 2 says then a great multitude followed him now as you know this is a capital city and here are many many people a great multitude this is probably the height of Jesus' popularity in his ministry as his third year of ministry begins because they saw and this is very interesting don't miss this why were there so many of the multitude of people following him it tells us because they saw his signs the miracles which he performed on those who were sick or diseased so they basically the reason why they were following him is because he was a miracle worker but they really didn't see him as the messiah and as you will see in the scriptures they could just call him a great prophet that's all they saw him as as a great prophet but not as the messiah the son of the living god a great crowd of people followed him and again not necessarily because they were believers in him they followed him because of the miracles you still have this today don't you people are just miracle hungry but they don't care about who

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Jesus really is most of what is called Christianity sadly to say in America is because people are so called following Jesus only for the blessings and the miracles and not for who he is and how do we know this because anyone who preaches what

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Christ really says to be his disciple deny yourself if you are going to follow me

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Jesus says you deny yourself you take up your cross and you follow me you count the cost you repent of your sin and you follow

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Christ many many motives that people have but they want to follow Jesus just for the blessings but not all the way to the end but I am here to tell you beloved you read this

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Bible this Bible is soaked and dripping with blood this

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Bible is soaked with pain and suffering and affliction and that means if we follow

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Jesus there is the greatest of rewards before us in eternity but as far as Christ is what he preaches when you follow

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Christ now and you suffer with Christ now but we don't know this this is foreign to us in Christianity what is going to happen when real suffering hits then then the church is going to be cleaned up then we will see who really follows

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Christ you see when persecution comes but you see this in the

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New Testament church persecution made the church stronger now prosperity makes the church weaker sad to say but that's pretty much what you have in America the

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Americanized pseudo Christianity it's a faith that is founded on miracles and that's spurious and that's not pleasing to God that's founded and the kind of faith that's pleasing to God is founded on the word of God alone and that means it goes with suffering brother

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Ben mentioned it last week just read the closing verses in chapter 11 of Hebrews many of them suffered they went dens lions, persecuted, sawn asunder, look at the apostle

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Paul, his whole life was full of suffering but yet he was the greatest dynamo and the greatest missionary and the theologian that ever walked this earth for Jesus Christ so it's a gospel of suffering but there's a great reward people would say, why would you want to follow

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Jesus if you suffer so much, oh beloved if we get a glimpse of how he suffered our sufferings are nothing we catch a glimpse of him that took the pains of the wrath of almighty

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God while he died on the cross for our sins he forgave us and our little sufferings is not anything in comparison, that's why the apostles could rejoice when they were beaten severely for Jesus sake, they said don't you dare speak in this name again and they went out rejoicing that they were worthy even to suffer for him and they continued to preach

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Jesus Christ, that's the way the church should be they were unmovable militant but loving and gracious there was great grace there was great fear nothing could stop them the more they persecuted them the more the church grew, beloved oh that God would bring this and by the way, he's going to do it again we're heading down that road so take heed make sure you're part of the true church

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God's word should not require miracles, beloved to verify it God's word doesn't need that anything that God says is true he doesn't have to have miracles to verify his word he doesn't have to have archaeologists prove that his word is true archaeologists that found that have seen the chariots at the dead sea, they're there but we don't believe the bible because of what the archaeologists has found that those people have dug up like Noah's ark, they say it's on Mount Ararat in Russia we don't believe the bible because of what they say we believe the bible even if it wasn't there, beloved right?

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let God be true, Paul said let God be true and every man found liar

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I like what R .C. Sproul says here, when God speaks the arguments over folks there is no argument well

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God is sufficient we are insufficient and he's more than enough look at verse 3, and Jesus went up on the mountain and there he sat with his disciples literal translation here actually says that Jesus went up on the mountain top but it can it can read that a mountainous hilly region around the sea so again, you notice the mountain

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Jesus spoke the great sermon on the mountain as he was sitting down the sermon on the mountain

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God speaks from mountain tops he does something from mountain tops, let me just name a few here

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Mount Moriah God told Abraham to bring up Isaac as his only son to test

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Abraham's faith Mount Sinai God spoke to Moses to give the

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Ten Commandments Mount Carmel, God assured Elijah answered Elijah's prayer from Mount Carmel as the challenge was on against the false prophets of Baal which

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Jezebel had there and Elijah said a short prayer and then God answered by fire and consumed the sacrifice

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God answered with fire Mount Zion in Jerusalem Mount Transfiguration on the mountain top he preached the sermon on the mount and who can forget the greatest mountain top of all,

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Mount Calvary where God demonstrated his greatest miracle of all when his son died as the

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Lamb of God he spoke and that's how God continues to speak today, through his son

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Jesus Christ crucified between two criminals on Mount Calvary oh that mountain top oh these mountain tops that God speaks, aren't you glad well verse 4 according to verse 4

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Jesus performed this act, this miracle this fourth sign during the Passover notice verse 4 now the

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Passover, a feast of the Jews was near, it's interesting here during this time of the festivities of the

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Jewish people which was very important for Israel at that time it looks back to time to the time of the exodus from slavery in Egypt as God brought them out with a strong hand in his mercy and his loving kindness and then he gives the people of God his law to live by teaches them how to live but remember here what happened after the exodus

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God gave the law and then what happened they went into the desert for 40 years they started to get hungry and again they complained and complained and complained they grumbled and grumbled and grumbled it's important for us to understand

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God's view on this God wants us to have a heart that's thankful to complain and grumble and murmur is so hateful to God it's so hateful to God God despises it well what did

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God do as they grumbled well he still provided for them didn't he but at the same time there was lessons involved lessons involved the manna

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God gave graciously a sign of God's faithfulness for his people he could feed his people when it looked like there was no food even in sight and out of nowhere from the skies angel foods comes down God provides for his people fast forward a thousand years here now in chapter 6 we see

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Jesus the Lamb of God providing he does this great miracle but he also provides himself and this is what we're going to look at at the communion today that Jesus provided himself incarnate for us to partake of him you know

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Jesus was soon to be slain as we look as after this miracle they didn't know this but he knew it that his mission was to go to a cross and die and that bread would be broken that others may partake of by faith see the people that persecuted the

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Christians they didn't understand that they thought they were somehow cannibals what?

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partake of his flesh? drink his blood? you're cannibals Christians you're crazy but see we understand the spiritual significance of it right?

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that Jesus is that living bread from heaven we're one with him we partake of him folks do you see how important this is?

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that he is everything that we need this is what he's saying when he says when

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Jesus says I am the bread of life that means he is the very substance that all we need man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God well also something else that comes to mind that Paul said

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Christ is our Passover isn't it significant here? that in verse 4 now the Passover the feast of the

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Jews was near and here he is the Passover lamb the timing is perfect providentially

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God in his sovereignty has chosen it and his time right here here he is the

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Passover lamb breaking and multiplying the bread well much to say about that later on verse 5 and 6 let me just go through this very quickly and again

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I like to break it down later on but notice in verse 5 then Jesus lifted up his eyes and seeing a great multitude coming toward him he said to Philip and he always gives a question to test where shall we buy bread that these may eat that these may eat but this he said to test him for he himself knew that what he would do it's always a test always a test

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I like to look at that later on but he's testing Philip but this he said to him to test him for he himself knew what he would do

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Philip answered him 200 denario worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may have a little see actually his faith is little here and he's testing

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Philip but then you see in verse 8 one of his disciples

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Andrew Simon Peter's brother said to him there's a lad here who has five barley loaves two small fish and then he says but what are they among so many he said well we got a little bit but what is this little here among so many how what is this among so many but thank

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God for a young man that had a little of his little lunch right here and Jesus multiplies it

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Jesus said make the people sit down now there was much grass in the place so the men sat down in number about 5 ,000 like I said it's just 5 ,000 men so you got many many more got a whole slew a whole city that's in need they're in need doesn't that say something we are needy people many times when we're hungry we need to remember and I don't know about you when

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I get hungry oh wow I'm ready to eat up I'm ready to get filled up but you know there are times when hunger is very good for us to help us to remember that we are needy people that we need

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God you think about going without food three days then your stomach really growls doesn't it and you think you're going to perish but you know

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God has a way to teach us but God cares doesn't

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He doesn't God care doesn't He say this in Matthew not to worry about these things in Matthew chapter on sermon on the mount verse 25 of chapter 6 therefore

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I say to you do not worry about your life what you will eat or what you will drink we worry about things that really we shouldn't worry about right worry is sin this is

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Christianity 101 folks these are the little things if we can't trust

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God for the little things how can we trust God for the big things He says just know about your body what you will put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing and then

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Jesus teaches a wonderful lesson from the nature in which God made

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He said look at the birds of the air you almost could see as Jesus is teaching the birds flying by Jesus said look at the birds

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He takes them as a lesson of God's care and providence for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly

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Father feeds them He feeds them are you not of more value than they which of you by worrying can add one cubic to his stature so why do you worry about clothing and then

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He says then He talks about clothing I'm sure Jesus again takes something that's right in front of them

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He gives them a picture of live demonstration like the birds and a beautiful beautiful lilies consider the lilies of the field how they grow they neither toil nor spin and then

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He said this and yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these now if God so clothed the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven will

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He not much more clothe you O you of little faith therefore do not worry saying what we shall eat what we shall drink or what we shall wear for after these things the

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Gentiles seek after the heathens seek after you know what

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He's teaching us He's teaching us a great valuable lesson how we should trust Him no matter how bad it is how good it is we can trust

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God you can trust God because He never fails for your

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Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things and then He says this great verse and this is really the key verse folks but seek first the

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Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you

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He didn't say anything about Cadillacs and all these other things that you should have no the things clothing food the things that just the very material the raw small insignificant things

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God can take care of it and what He's saying if we can't trust God for those things how can we trust

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Him for the big things Christianity 101 verse 34 therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about its own things sufficient for the day of its own trouble well this is a great lesson for all of us let me try to bring this to a close because we have communion

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Jesus is all sufficient He's all sufficient and how does

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He show this sufficiency He shows it in verse 11 to verse 14 and Jesus took the loaves and when

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He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples and the disciples to those sitting down and likewise of the fish as much as they wanted

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I was talking to my daughter Elizabeth about this yesterday and you're absolutely right Elizabeth there was baskets there and as Jesus blessed and gave thanks from the

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Father in Heaven who makes all things actually what Jesus is doing here something is made from nothing isn't this the way

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He made the world this is talking about He is the Word of God made flesh and it was enough fish it was just multiplying out of those baskets

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He was just pulling the bread out constantly just feeding as He was distributing as it was coming up out of the baskets

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He was distributing the bread and the fish pouring out of the basket giving it to the disciples to give to everyone else so He's an all sufficient

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Savior so when they were filled He said to His disciples and I love this gather up the fragments that remain so that nothing is lost in other words down the road they're going to be hungry again so there's fragments there's leftovers nothing should be wasted in God's nothing is wasted in God's economy even the fragments the leftovers when they get hungry again there's going to be leftovers for them therefore they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments think of that 12 baskets 12 disciples they were filled up the leftovers they had they had 12 baskets leftovers of 5 barley loaves which are left over by those who had eaten then those men when they had seen the sign that Jesus did said this is truly the prophet who is to come into the world you notice again they said prophet they didn't say

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Messiah what happens after that well they say

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He's a great basically what they're thinking of this man this great prophet's a great miracle worker let's seize him he's going to be our bread king we're going to use him but guess what

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Jesus will not be used He's Lord right the

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Lord the master will not be used He uses us therefore when

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Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king he departed again to the mountain by himself alone he knew exactly what they were after they did not he knew that they did not care about him as the

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Messiah the savior of the world but they just wanted to use him as a bread king we don't serve

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God for the blessings amen we serve God for who He is and for Christ for who

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He is let me close with a story brother

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Keith reminded me of by George Mueller heard this story years ago and I don't know if you've heard it

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I'm sure you have if you have it it will bless you it's a story when

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Mueller back in the days when he was called to take care of an orphanage this man's faith was tested

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God tested him and all the orphans were out of food they had no food this is how the story goes the children are dressed and ready for school but there is no food for them to eat this is probably a few hundred it tells us the house mother of the orphanage informed

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George Mueller this so George Mueller asked her to take the 300 children into the dining room and had them sit at the tables what did

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George Mueller do did he panic no he didn't panic he thanked God for the food and he waited

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George knew God would provide the food for the children as he always did within minutes a baker knocked on the door

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Mr. Mueller he said last night

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I could not sleep somehow I knew that you would need bread this morning I got up bake three batches for you

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I will bring it in soon after the bread man says

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I got the bread for you soon there was another knock at the door once again it was the milk man

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I can relate bread man milk man it was the milk man this time his cart had his cart had broken down in the front of the orphanage the milk would spoil he said by the time the wheel was fixed so he asked

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George Mueller if he could use some free milk George smiled as the milk man brought in ten large cans of milk and all this was sufficient it was just enough for three hundred thirsty and hungry children praise

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God you see that Mueller was tested but he refused to panic and he praised and he thanked

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God he prayed and he believed he prayed and he believed we're going to have to make a choice beloved we're going to have to choose to believe by faith or walk in unbelief and not believe let us choose to believe our

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God as it says in Psalm 95 and I close with this oh come let us sing to the

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Lord let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation let us come before his presence with thanksgiving let us shout joyfully with him with psalms for the

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Lord is the great God and the great king above all gods in his hand are deep the deep places of the earth the heights of the hills are his also the sea is his for he made it and his hands formed the dry land oh come let us worship and bow down and let us kneel before the

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Lord our maker for he is our God we are his people the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion as in the day of trial in the wilderness when your fathers tested me they tried me though they saw my work for 40 years

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I was grieved with that generation and said it is the people who go astray in their hearts and they do not know my ways so I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest may that may the first verses of this chapter like verse 1 to 7 be us and may we not repeat the same sin that that generation did as they were in unbelief that grieved

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God I don't know about you I want to have the smiling face of God upon my life as we live before his face before the face of God and please him let us pray our father in heaven forgive us for the times

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Lord that we have complained and murmured against you and not trusted your faithful care you're so patient with us

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Lord and you're so good and you're so kind you're full of grace and you're full of truth mercy

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Lord you desire for us to believe and Lord you can help us what you command you provide in Jesus Christ the all sufficient savior so Lord I pray that you help us by your grace in Jesus to trust you and trust you not with just part of our heart

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Lord not a partial trust but a holy trust to trust you with our whole heart help us oh

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God I pray Lord we all confess we have fallen so short of this we have failed you in many times so Lord we need your grace to help us to trust you in the small things as well as the big things and Lord you said you provide you provide this and it's all provided in Jesus Christ Lord as the old hymn says they that trust you holy will find you holy true now

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Lord I pray that you bless the remaining of our time as we remember the sufferings and death of your dear son who has redeemed us with his love and mercy has purchased us with his precious blood help us oh

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God help us Lord to behold the Lamb of God and to gaze upon him who loved us and gave himself for us it's a sweet smelling sacrifice

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Lord we thank you for Jesus today we ask you just bless our time as we remember his sufferings and the broken body the living bread that came from heaven and the poured out blood that he shed on Calvary's cross for our salvation and we ask this in Jesus name