May 15, 2022 Sunday Worship Service (Steve)

Nikes for that. Good reading for thankful, for Keith and for his efforts and his good skills and reading and we're thankful that he's growing in Christ, and as he's getting older getting that experience. We're thankful for that because we're going to need him in years to come. Right? That's right. We're going to need and we need them. Now. But we are thankful to be here this morning to be with you. And and we can worship Our God together and praise His name for everything that he is done for us. And so if he can't read that cartoon, we're talkin about the 5000 that Jesus is going to feed. If Jesus tried to feed the 5000 today. There's Jesus's. Got the fish in the bread, and the first group says, I can't eat that. I'm a vegan.

Got a funny kind of true. But before we get underway reminder, that we are two weeks away from having our 100th, anniversary celebration. And so we're looking forward to that. I hope that you all will be here and to take part in that. I also hope that you're going to invite people to become a enjoy that day with us. And it's not just one day. It's actually Saturday Saturday. We're going to have a picnic. It is Memorial Day weekend, but we're going to have a picnic on Saturday from 12 to whenever we get tired. And so you're all welcome to come or they will have hot dogs and hamburgers and all the picnic food that goes with hot dogs and hamburgers, and then Sunday, we'll have our regular worship. Our they will be a few changes in the scheduling within that hour. But the Brother Don Cherry will be here to bring the lesson that morning and Brother. Don Martin will be here, leading Us in singing. So we look forward to their appearances here and we look forward to after the service. We're going to have pictures and we're going to have people giving talks and talking about the history of this church, and whoever wants to get up and talk about some of the things that they have done here over the years. They'll be welcome to that. There ought to be some videos, some important videos, and I think you all will want to be here to see those videos and then we'll break for a fellowship meal and and then we'll have some singing and then we'll call it a day. I look forward to that.

so as her brother Chief Red, Talking about feeding the 5000. You know, that's the only Miracle besides the resurrection is the only Miracle that's recording all four Gospels. And so God, evidently think it's and thinks it's important that it be restated, four times in those four gospel accounts. And so if it was important for then it must be important for us to read it and to understand the facts about it. But as we think about the idea of Jesus feeding the 5000 with five loaves of bread and two fish, we are mindful of the power of God and we're mindful of his greatness, the things that he can do. Now, the background to the story to the event. Is that? John the Baptist that just been beheaded. And just prior to, that Jesus had sent out his disciples, his 12 on a limited Commission. Where they would go and preach the gospel and they would cast out demons and do all sorts of things. And when they returned, they told Jesus everything about it, but then of course, they were told about John, the Baptist being beheaded, by the order of Herod. All because his wife herodias was offended. John the Baptist for his preaching. And so we come here to the feeding of the 5000, or they had gone over to the other side of the lake. And that would be the Sea of Galilee and Thursday were going over, the crowd, followed Jesus. And so, in fact, Mark tells us that all the people were running. Now, it's a good three or four miles in a direction to where they were going on the other side of the lake. They weren't going clear across the other side, like they're kind of going on a diagonal. And as they got to the place, it says, the people were already there. The people were already, there. They have run. And so we find here, the multitude of people kept coming in and kept coming in, in the Bible tells us that there were five thousand men. I'm here, which means male species. So we understand that there were more than just $5,000. Then there were five thousand men, but there were women and children. And they were bringing the sick and the infirmed, and those who needed to be healed, and they were wanting Jesus to heal their friends, and their family and their neighbors. And so, all of these people are now pushing in Upon Jesus and his disciples, his apostles. It's funny that they were originally going over to the other side. To take a rest. They wanted a little bit of rest after all they just come back on their limited commission and you're tired. And Jesus is tired. And I want to go take a rest. And so they go to the other side to do that. Very thing to sit under a shade tree and it just fall asleep at the rest, their minds and rest, their bodies and lo and behold, there's a crowd of people there already. And the Bible tells us in Jesus had compassion on them. For they were like sheep without a Shepherd, Black Sheep without a shepherd and I want to point your back to the Book of Ezekiel because that's exactly what is Ezekiel was. Describing concerning God's people. They were sheep without a shepherd.

Ezekiel chapter 34 says and the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, prophesy against the Shepherds of Israel prophesying say to them. Thus says the Lord God to the Shepherds, go to the Shepherds of Israel.

Woe to the Shepherds of Israel, who feed themselves. Now, the Shepherds here. They are the religious leaders of the people and look what's the religious leaders are feeding themselves before the people. They're supposed to be Servants of God. And what do we know about service? What do we know about being a servant of God? That we serve others first and then ourselves, right? But these were the leaders of the people and they felt that they were worthy to be fed first. They were better than all the people. So God says, woe to the Shepherds of Israel who feed themselves. Should not the shepherd's feed the flocks. You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool. You Slaughter, the fat legs, but you do not feed the fluff the week. You have nots Franklin, Northbound up the broken, nor brought back, what was driven away, nor sought what was lost, but with force and cruelty, you have ruled them. Kind of sounds like some of our leaders today. Thankfully not in this church. Thankfully, we have an elder ship, a leadership that is devoted themselves to Christ first and then to the flock and we have those leaders today who are doing well in leading us and feeding the flock. Helping one, another were thankful for that. But there's a lot of places in the world where this is not. So. And people are often forgot. But was forced and cruel to you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no Shepherd and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered my sheep. Wander through all the mountains and every high heel. Yes. My flock was scattered over the whole face of the Earth and no one was seeking or searching for them. Not only is Ezekiel talking about * present. He's also talking about future and this is where we find ourselves. We find ourselves where Jesus is now come to the, for his Fame is spreading. He's becoming famous among the people. His name is spreading so much, so that you have thousands upon thousands of people coming to him for teaching, and For healing.

And so this was the way it was at the time. People are, or need of a Shepherd. They didn't have one. The priests were in it for themselves, the Pharisees and the scribes in the Sadducees. They were in it for themselves. They forgot the people. They were not leaders among the people. And here we are seeing what happens when people do not have leaders, especially Godly leaders. And here we find Jesus. Becoming the shepherd of his people. But in particular, I want to focus our attention on one aspect of the story and that's verses 12 and 13, just one that they began to wear away. So the begin at 11 a.m. Jesus is preaching. And the disciples are gathered there with him and I'll probably off to the side as they listened to him, preach to the multitude of people 11 a.m. 12 a.m. Or 12 p.m. 1 p.m. 2 p.m. 3, p.m.

4 p.m. 5 p.m. 6, that's when the day is wearing away about 6. So, Jesus is preaching and All Day sermon, if you will know, you would despise that. If I were to attempt that here today, but I'll promise you, I will not do that. But we do know this is that. While Jesus is talking. I want you to put yourself in the story. When I read the Bible. I always put myself in the story. How would I react? What would I say? What would I do? In a lot of times, it turns out that I would say and do some of the dumb things that these people do because I have done them in the past. And so if you put yourself in the story and I'm thinking along this line, Jesus is here preaching and they're looking at their watch. All right. That's an hour.

2 hours.

3 hours.

4 hours.

5. 6. What's up, let's go over to the master in. Let's talk to him. Let's let's tell him that the that the people are hungry, grandchildren, doing that to stay. Maybe you guys were getting hungry as you passed by a McDonald's, right off at McDonald's. So you can have your McDonald's food.

We're going to go to Jesus and say, listen.

You know what you have said? First of all is great. Love your preaching doing a great job. That's right. Wonderful, but I want to let you know, Lord hungry. And I'm thinking we need to send them away Jesus responds this way. You feed them. You feed them. So nigen the response but we'll talk about that. Just a second, someone that they began to wear away. The 12 Pains said to send them into the surrounding towns and Country Inn lodge and get Provisions for. We are in a deserted place here, but he said to them, you give them something to you feed them. Well, in John's account. We have some more chronological aspects to consider.

Jesus had come to Philip, I said, where are we to buy food so that these people may hate. So this is already been brought up. But this he said to test him. So just this is Jesus speaking to Phillip. Where are we going to get food to feed all these people? Because it is getting late in the day. And so he says here, but this he said to test him for, he himself knew what he would do. Jesus already had a plan was already in the books. And so, you just testing, Peter Philip, but not just Philip the rest of the Apostles account. Again, and 200 in Ira, worth of bread, is not sufficient for them. Every one of them may have a little Then we go back to Luke's account and he says, alright, then you feed them. You feed them. So, what's the point? Jesus is testing the apostles. Jesus is testing them. He's wants to know what their faith is all about in him. Because just after this event, he's going to ask them who do the people up. That are all gathered here today. Who do they say that I am? And they are, he asked that question to the apostles, and you can read of a deeper, were further account in Matthews account and nephew chapter 16. And Peter stood up and he said, well, some some say that you're John the Baptist. I'm say, Elijah some say Jeremiah or one of the prophets and a Jesus said, but who are you say that I am and Peter stood up and said, you are the Christ, the son of the Living God. And so they knew right away. What that answer was? They know it was Jesus. They knew Jesus was looking for that answer, but they also knew they had no way or no reason not to say that. He was the Christ. And so Jesus is testing the 12 testing their faith in him. And then Jesus asked 12, who do the craft fair, that I am the Christ of God or The son of the Living God, according to Matthew's account this the 5000 a little bit deeper. We find that when you put an effort into something. You do so because of who you're doing that effort for. So another words when these people realize I'm talking about the apostles, when they realized who Jesus is. I just as an aside, that ain't they know who Jesus was to appoint to a degree. Now, just like the revelation of scripture or how God communicates a man took place over thousands of years. God would say something. The person to whom he would speak spoke to with speak to the people. People would write it down. And so they would have the beginning of scripture and then over a. Of time, maybe hundreds of years, God would speak again and then they would write it down and so they would have another piece of scripture to add to the collection. It's all this took place over sixteen hundred years by 40 different writers and we have it all here in the Bible. We call it scripture, and the ideas that God had communicated with me that it just happened. Kind of like succinctly, just that way, but it didn't happen. Of time. But now we have everything for us and when God speaks and he asked his people to do things for him. You always put in a good effort, and that's exactly what the apostles are going to do here in just a second. But as you think about the idea of that, so The apostles gathered together and they're going to find out. Now that there's a boy in the crowd one boy in the crowd, who's got this back for Long? John Silver's if you will and he's got five rolls into fish. And so proud, that boy go. Jesus is bad, this the sack of food and we can tell them that this is all we have. And then he's going to have to disperse the crowd. And so that too is part of the chronology of what's going on here. When you read, Matthew's account marks account, Lux account and John's account. So they conspire together and I say, let's go tell the Lord. What we have, we have this five roles and two fish, Lord and Jesus.

You see them?

The Lord. We did you hear us? We have five locals and two fish. Do you think that's going to cover it? And so it won't. He says, well, let me have that. Check food. And he takes the sack of food Five Loaves and a two fish and eat. Blesses it.

But here's the miracle. He blesses the food and he takes it apart. He takes both the bread and the fish apart and he gives a piece to this Apostle and it gives a piece to this Apostle and so forth on down the line. And so they've got half of what they already had in the bag portion of bread and a portion of fish and I want you to stay put yourself in their place that you're going to go down the line with these emblems with these pieces of food and you're going to hand them out to the crowd. So you're going to step over here, and you're going to go to the first person you're going to say.

It didn't take place when Jesus blessed the bread and blessed. If it said he blessed it. David. And they.

And so it was in their hands when the miracle took place. The purpose of G. Sustaining their faith by this miracle. Remember they're just the back to answer the question. Who do you say that? I am? I saw this miracle kind of settles it right then, and there for these these 12, but it's going to take another miracle where Jesus walking on the water. And as he's walking, Peter says, hey call me at Lord And I'll come out to you in the course of his faith in Jesus saves him and he comes back to the boat and the rest of the Apostles in the book, begin to worship Him. And they worshipped him because truly this is the Son of God. That is what Jesus is trying to get out of the mouths of his disciples. They needed it. Remember they're going to go on a Great Commission in a year-and-a-half. This is halfway through Jesus ministry. I've got a year-and-a-half prepared and they need to know and be assured of

And they need to know that he is the Son of God and so they could do those things carry out that message and do the things that Jesus desired of them because they understood to be the Son of God. How about you? We Gather here today, did you gather here today? Because you had to How did you gather here today? Because you're coming to meet the son of God. You coming to be in the presence of God almighty? Including Jesus. We're coming here to remember God Almighty. Jesus Christ, the one for you and me, other than just to be here. So, you can say, I went to church on Sunday. No, as Disciples of Christ. What Jesus is calling for within us, is a deeper convictions in that superficiality. He wants truthful as he wants some therapy. He wants every fiber of your being. that's why Paul would say I beseech you, therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that you resent your

Holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. That's just another way of saying what? Love the Lord, your God with what with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. With every fiber of your being, give yourself, totally.

Another word shell out to Jesus.

The disciples faith has been bolstered here. We see how their faith has now been changed. They went from a small Faith or weak Faith to a strong faith. But like every time we think about Abraham being the father and say he's the greatest example of Faith, isn't he? And so, Jesus uses Abraham as that great example of thing. But what do we know about Abraham? He made plenty of mistakes along the way, didn't he? But he was faithful. And what does that mean? It means in our if we think of ourselves as Christians followers of Christ. We often think that our faith ought to be great. Well, we're living in a Dreamland if we think that our faith is not always that this high level. Like Abraham, we have moments of great faith. And then we head down to The Valleys of doubt. Valleys of sin and then we spring back up a little bit. We get greater Faith. But the point is, is that our faith is never totally 100% on fire for God because of those things because of our weakness. Because we don't make the right decisions. If we made the right decisions, we wouldn't need God. We would be done.

And so, we need to rely upon God. And Upon Jesus of the van. He was sacrificed and that's what Jesus was there for. He's there to help us along the way. He's also there to lead us to believe. He's also there to give us a hand to pull us out of the mire and he becomes our Focus. He becomes the direction we need to go in. And so this morning when Jesus said he that believes and is baptized shall be saved. You can believe that if you want to and if you do, you're going to do what Jesus said to do you that believes and is baptized shall be saved rap. Some of you have done that this morning, perhaps you have been like up in the mountain tops or face at times and then somewhere along the way, you've hit the valleys of little faith ever. Have you stayed there in that desert playing for a long time, having a little bit of Now is the opportune time to raise that thing? Jesus said, all you need to do is repent of your sins and you will be forgiven and you can come back home and be a part of this family again. And what a powerful statement that is, when we consider that God loves us so much that he gives us a second chance, and a third chance, and a fourth cancer and an Infinity. He gives us all the time and it's time that we need to take hold of those opportunities. So if you're in this morning, want to be a part of the Lord's Kingdom this morning, you can put Jesus on a baptism or perhaps you want to turn from the ways of that you've been want walking and wandering and you want to return home to the Lord. You can do today while Together We Stand and say,