Every Day Faith

Greeting

Good morning Lighthouse!

It is so good to see you this morning. I want to thank Corey for doing a great job with the welcome. Well done Corey!

I have to double down on Connect Groups this morning, and we have awesome groups here at Lighthouse. There are two groups that I want to highlight because as your Pastor, there are two groups that I want everyone to take at this church at some point. The sooner, the better.

The first one is a brand new group that is actually more than a group, it is Boot Camp for a Christian, and that is Rooted. I want the entire church taking Rooted. At some point, you won’t be able to join our Leadership College without taking Rooted. Not now, but at some point. And it will be led by Pastor Rosemary, but taught by a collection of all of our Pastors. If you have recently been baptized, this is especially for you. If you are new to faith, and you aren’t sure about Baptism, this is for you as well. And again, I want all of the church taking Rooted at some point so that we all together have been through our discipleship model together.

The second group that I want for you is Financial Peace University, FPU. And the reason is, we are taught a lot of things in school, but managing money and budgeting is something we are more taught. And, more importantly and far more spiritually, is stewarding your resources. That is more than just money management. That is knowing where your resources come from and stewarding what God has given you. It is learning and applying Biblical principles about finances to your home and family. Said differently, it invites God into your finances.

OK, so two groups I want all of you to take at some point, and the sooner the better.

We’re going to get into our message now, and I’m excited to bring to a conclusion our series, Family Ties.

Reading

John 6:5–13 NIV

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

Introduction

Over the years I’ve had the privilege of officiating a lot of weddings. They are special days for so many reasons, and one of my favorite parts of the ceremony is when the couple will say their vows. I can see the married couples in the audience cuddle up with their spouse we they remember their own vows that they made on their wedding day. The ones that want to get married, and maybe they are seated with their significant other, it’s like they start dreaming of the day when it will be their turn.

And over the years, I have learned to treat the traditional wedding vows with a small amount of contempt.

Let me explain myself because you at me.

We say: “For better or worse, for richer and poorer and in sickness and in health.”

There is a dichotomy in the vows. We vow to be there in the good and the band. The highs and the lows.

But what is most noticeably missing from those vows is where a couple and a family will spend most of their time… and that is in the in between.

In the middl of the highs and lows.

In the ordinary.

In the every day, coming and going, regular days of our lives.

Most of our time is in the Middle.

Most of our time is there, and yet, so little of what we think about when we think about our marriage and family is that place.

Transition

And it’s important that I give you some theology for that middle space today, because often times its in that middle place that marriages start to flame out.

It’s in the middle when our marriage start to feel… routine.

It’s in the middle where all the annoying things about your spouse, somehow, get magnified.

[Pause]

You see, too many of you grew up with Disney expectations for your marriage.

You’d get married, have 2.5 kids, buy the house, go on vacation every year, you’d always only get raises and promotions at work every year until you retire…

But what happens when you live in San Diego, and can barely afford the house.

What happens when you get laid off from the job because the world changed and your skill set is longer considered essential.

What happens when you can’t take the trip to Paris… so you go to Paris, CA, instead?

That’s the ordinary, every day, middle of the highs and lows that we all live in.

And my goal is to get you to see what God sees in the middle.

And we’re going to do that through this well known Bible story that we just read.

Textual Observations

If you grew up in church, you know this story. And if you are new to church, don’t worry about not knowing it, because I am about to preach this thing different than most people have ever heard it anyway.

This is the story of how God used the small lunch from a young boy to feed 5,000 people. There are a few characters in this story that we know about, but I want to give you some perspective about one person in this story that is not even named.

So let’s start here with this moment that Jesus tests Philip.

John 6:5–13 NIV

he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

Notice that Jesus already has in mind what he wants to do; he wants to miraculously feed the crowd.

[Pause]

Have you ever wondered what compelled Jesus to perform miracles?

What I mean by that is, there were times that he would work miracles, and then there were times that he didn’t. He would teach.

Remember that time in scripture when the 4 men brought their friend who was paralyzed down through the roof of a home and Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven”?

That was confusing…

Everyone EXPECTED Jesus to heal him, and instead he said, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Yes, he eventually went on to heal him, but only after everyone questioned why He heal him, as if forgiving this man’s sins wasn’t his greatest need… and it actually was.

Or how about when Jesus was in his home town, and yet he didn’t do miracles.

He said that a man is without honor in his own country.

It wasn’t because he couldn’t supernaturally do miracles, because He is God and could have done ANYTHING that he wanted to do. But knowing their hearts and knowing their lack of faith, he chose not to.

God is not bound by our lack of faith. He is moved by our faith. There’s plenty of scripture for that. But he’s not bound by the lack of our faith.

[Transition]

But today, on this day when 5,000 would come to see Jesus… it was a miracle day!

We know that because the scripture says, “Jesus already had in mind what he was going to do.”

It’s as if Jesus put on a T-shirt that morning that read, “Today is a good day for a miracle.”

Lack of Faith

Now, let’s observe the four types of faith that we see at work in the text. First is the faith of Philip. He said to Jesus (the man with the plan):

John 6:5–13 NIV

Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

How skeptical was Philip?

He told Jesus it would take a lot of money just for people to have a bite to eat.

It’s like when you are at a wedding and they need to kill time after the ceremony and the reception so they start serving you the ‘small bites’.

That’s what Philip was saying. We would have to raise half a years worth of salary to serve small bites. Not a meal, and certainly not an all you can eat buffet. Small Bites.

Philip had a lack of faith.

Faith that is moved more by what we see than what we know.

Philip saw 5,000 people and believed that the 5,000 was greater than 1 that was standing right beside him.

It’s easy for us to side eye Philip, but we’ve done the same thing when we get the bad news or the bad diagnosis.

We look at what we see in the natural, and forget about the one who fights for us in the super natural.

[PREACH THIS HERE]

Little Faith

So the story shifts to Simon and here’s what he said:

John 6:5–13 NIV

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

Simon shows us with little faith looks like.

I mean, sure Jesus. We can take this small meal and feed some of the people here, but how far could it possibly go?

His faith is better than Philip’s, but his faith doesn’t match what Jesus had already planned to do.

Can we just pause there and think about that for a second?

What if, God had plans for us that are bigger than our faith for those plans?

I think, most often, we don’t have faith big enough for what God wants to do. We have some faith. We have little faith. But remember, God already had in mind what he wanted to do.

[PREACH THIS]

Willing Faith

We have another person named in the story who has faith, and that’s the boy.

John 6:5–13 NIV

Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

He has what I am calling willing faith.

What is willing faith?

When he heard about the crazy plan being hatched by Jesus and his disciples he willingly gave his lunch to them.

We cannot discredit willing faith.

We need willing faith when we’re looking at an impossible situation, and we trust God anyway.

The math ain’t mathing, but because we have willing faith, we say yes anyway.

Willing faith doesn’t hold onto resources, but sows resources.

Willing faith stares down impossible situations knowing that if God is going to do a miracle, I’m willing to go with Him!

Everyday Faith

But there’s one more person in our story that we have to talk about… and that is the little boys mother. It’s the parent back home that on that morning did the small and often overlooked task of preparing a lunch for their son.

We don’t put much thought into the child’s parent, but we need to. Without the parent making the lunch, there is no story written down and handed down from generation to generation.

Because that parent got up and did the small mundane chore of packing their son a lunch, it gave legs to what “God already had in mind.”

I call this Everyday Faith.

And that is my sermon title for today.

Everyday Faith.

You see, most of our lives are lived in the ordinary… in the every day.

This summer was the first time that my middle son went to youth camp, and the day after he said to me, I wish we could be back at camp right now.

Why?

Because that’s not the every day.

It is literally, a mountain top experience.

It’s a spiritual high.

Then, there are vacations… how many of you love a good vacation? The kind that makes you forget that you are in another time zone and you don’t even know what day of the week it is.

That’s the best right?

But, it’s not the every day.

The truth is, most of our time isn’t on a peak and it’s even not in a valley. It’s in the ordinary, and in the every day.

But this miracle shows us that God uses Every Day faith.

Think for a moment what it might have been like for this boys mom. We don’t know this, it’s conjecture, but it seems as though she wasn’t able to get to where Jesus is so she sends her son and makes sure that he has his lunch.

Isn’t that everyday faith?

That as parents, we want for our kids even the things that we can’t have for ourselves.

How many times have we sacrificed so that our kids can be ahead?

It’s the 9 pm “I needed this for my project…” and we go.

It’s sacrificing a line item in our budget so they can make it to the camp.

It’s giving up your weekend to sell Girl Scout Cookies because you are going to make sure they don’t miss their quota.

That’s a bit like the boys mother. She couldn’t go, but she wouldn’t let him go without.

So she makes his lunch in the kitchen that morning not knowing that she wasn’t feeding one person, but was feeding five thousand.

Yes, I know that it was Jesus that did the miracle, but she did the ordinary.

Listen to what I’m going to say…

Miracles are made possible by every day sacrifices.

The ordinary, routine, repeated things become the tools by which God will move heaven and earth to get to his children.

Conclusion/ God Sees You

Let me talk to the couple and the family that is in the think of the every day, ordinary, routines… God sees you.

You feel unseen because at home, it’s nothing but laundry, and dishes, and packing lunch, and making meals.

But God sees you.

He sees you just as much as he sees the Pastor.

He sees you as much as he sees the business owner.

He sees you as much as he sees the entrepreneur.

The work you do isn’t any less than what they do, you are like the mother of this boy, doing the ordinary so that one day God can show up and do the extraordinary.

Let me take you back to the very beginning of our reading.

John 6:5–13 NIV

he already had in mind what he was going to do.

When do you think he made up his mind?

When he saw that boys mother in the kitchen that morning.

The God of this world who knows all things and sees all things, saw a mother making a way for a miracle.

So the next time you are in the ordinary, and mundane moments of your life, remember that there is someone seeing you. And you may be making a way for another miracle.

I want to close by reading a verse that we already read in this series, but I want to read it from The Message translation.

Romans 12:1 The Message

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Call

I want to pray for the person who is feeling overcome by the ordinary. I want to pray for the person who is looking at everything going on at home and is starting to feel worn out. I want to pray that God will strengthen you, and give you fresh vision for the ordinary.

God sees you in the ordinary.

God wants to met you in the ordinary.

God does miracles with the ordinary.