Are you feeling overwhelmed by life's demands and wondering if you have enough to give? What if the key to abundance lies in surrendering your scarcity to Jesus? Discover how He transforms our limitations into miracles. Let's dive in together!
it'd be easier if I don't try to help
fix your issues cuz I'm too broken. But
Jesus uses the broken disciples and he
says, "I'm going to bring my church, my
gospel through you." He says, "You feed
them." The disciples knew they didn't
have enough. Jesus didn't care about the
reservations of their inconvenience. He
cared about the people, the crowd that
was there. The first move of every
miracle is his mercy. And when he moves,
he often moves through ordinary people
like me and like you who are willing to
hand over the little they have.
So we are glad that you're here in this
time where we just get to dive into
God's word and see what he has for us.
And I want to encourage you if you have
a Bible, go ahead and grab it and open
up to Matthew chap 14. Matthew chapter
14. And we're going to be starting in
verse 13 in a second.
And today we're going to spend the
majority of our time here planted in
this passage, but it's also going to
kind of launch us into John chapter 6.
And eventually we'll end at John chapter
14. But as we dive into this text, we're
going to see this topic that naturally
comes up is, do we have enough? You
know, that's a question that I spent all
last week asking because school ended
and in the Bailey households, we have
four kids in our house and two of them
who have been in school now all of a
sudden are in our house the whole time.
And the question me and my wife is, do
we have enough? We do not have enough
food. We go to Costco a lot. I think
we're going to have to go to Costco
twice a week and the food just never
ends. And then I'm like, are we do we
have enough food? The question is, no.
Do we have enough money to buy all this
food that they keep on eating?
Nobody financially prepares you for the
very stage of kids' lives. Like little
kids. Like my wife's like, "I bought
blueberries." I was like, "How much were
they?" They were like $8. I was like, "
$8 for blueberries?" Like, "It was it
was at Sam's Club. It's fine." I'm like,
"Just do." They're like, "They like it."
I'm like, "Well, tell them to like a
different fruit.
find a neighbor who we can steal it off
their tree.
But as I'm looking around my house, I'm
like, do we have enough? Do we have
enough? And today when we come to our
passage, we ask the question, do we have
enough? And Jesus answers it. Because
today, as we come to Matthew 14,
starting in verse 13, we're going to see
that Jesus addresses this issue of
scarcity.
Now, if you've been with us through this
series, we've been going through the
miracles of Christ, and he's addressed
storms and demons and sin and darkness
and death. And you're like, scarcity?
Like, I don't know if that's on the same
level as the rest. But scarcity is
something all of us must face. Scarcity
is the voice that whispers that there is
not enough, that there is not enough
money. Can I get an amen on that?
There is not enough time. Can I get a
bigger amen on that? That there is not
enough margin in your life. That there
is not enough sleep. I have four kids,
nine and under. There is not enough
sleep.
There is not enough patience
to deal with the problems of your day,
to deal with the kids in your life, the
job you are doing. There is not enough
years
to maybe accomplish and do all that you
wish you could do. There is not enough
of you to go around.
You see, I don't think I have to
convince anyone in this room that
scarcity is a very real thing. That you
woke up this morning aware that in some
area of your life, you do not have
enough. In some area, there is something
missing. Maybe the bill that you can't
pay, the child that you can't reach, the
marriage you can't heal on your own, the
diagnosis that you cannot heal, the hope
that you cannot quite muster anymore.
And the question this text is asking is
the question I want us to wrestle with
this morning is what does Jesus do when
we don't have enough?
So, if you'll read with me in Matthew
14, starting in verse 13, it says this
that when Jesus heard about it, he
withdrew from there by boat to a remote
place to be alone. When the crowds heard
this, they followed him on foot from the
towns. When he went ashore, he saw a
large crowd. He had compassion on them,
and he healed their sick. When evening
came, the disciples approached him, and
they said, "This place is deserted and
is already late. Send the crowds away so
that they can go into the villages and
buy food for themselves.
You don't need to go away. Jesus told
them, you give them something to eat.
Verse 17, but we only have five loaves
and two fish. The disciples replied to
him, bring them here to me, Jesus said.
Then he commanded the crowds to sit on
the grass. He took the five loaves and
the two fish. Looking up to heaven, he
blessed them. He broke the loaves and
gave them to the disciples. And the
disciples gave them to the crowds.
Everyone ate and was satisfied.
They picked up 12 baskets full of
leftover pieces. Now, those who ate were
about 5,000 men besides women and
children.
Let's pray to our father as we start
this study. Dear Lord, I thank you.
God, I thank you that as we come to this
passage where we wrestle with what is
enough, Lord, you answer it for us in
yourself.
God, I just thank you for all who have
gathered here today, I thank you for
this Memorial Day holiday where we
reflect on maybe those who have we have
lost, maybe those who have paid a
sacrifice and there are still hurt in
our families and in our friendships of
those who have paid great prices. Lord,
let us remember them. Let us honor them
and ultimately let us worship you as the
God over everything. Lord, we just thank
you for this time and we ask that your
presence be in this place and we lift
all this up in Jesus' name. Amen.
As we dive into this passage, we need a
little context as we start in at verse
13 because right away it says, "When
Jesus heard about it," and we have to
ask, "What did Jesus hear?" Well, what
immediately precedes this is Jesus's
cousin John the Baptist had been
arrested and he had been killed and
beheaded by the queen and these wicked
people around him. And when news of his
cousin, his friend, the one who baptized
him, the one who was the next coming of
Elijah, who had foretold that he was
coming, when news of John's death had
reached the ears of Jesus, we dive into
this scene. And in verse 13, it says
when he heard about it, this trigger
word here, he hears the news and Jesus
withdraws.
He's grieving. He's having he's heading
for solitude. He gets in a boat to be
alone, but the crowd finds him. And what
we see happen next in this story is
really just preaches straight to us. And
I think as we start this, the feeding of
the 5000, this miracle that we're going
to unpack, it shows us two things. And
the first thing it shows us, it shows us
compassion for our hurts. As we said,
Jesus has just gotten the worst news of
his earthly life. He he crossed the lake
to be alone. You know when you try to go
somewhere alone and people follow you?
If you got little kids in your house,
you try to go to the bathroom alone and
they follow you. Maybe you've been
married for a long time and you try to
go to the bathroom alone and your spouse
follows you. You can be like, "Can you
leave? Like go away like far away on the
other side of the house." Okay. And and
Jesus was just like looking for a quiet
place to grieve. This was before there
was restrooms with shut doors and then
you could just be and scroll on your
phone for an hour. Um, which gets you
hemorrhoids and that's I'm sorry
THAT IS NOT IN MY NOTES. WHY DID I SAY
THAT?
What are we talking about?
Gets away from me quick. Don't listen to
the voices in your head. Anyway,
so Jesus goes to be alone and he gets in
this boat and hits land and then he's
greeted by thousands of people. It says
that right in verse 14 it says as he
stepped ashore he saw a large crowd. Can
you just picture this for a second that
Jesus going to be by himself to be alone
he steps offshore and he steps there and
he sees this huge crowd. If I am Jesus
in this standpoint,
I'm slipping out the back door. I'm
trying to disappear. I'm done. I have
nothing left to give. But that's not
what Jesus does. And this is the
beautiful thing over and over again when
we look in the Gospels and we see Jesus
be like, I would do this. Jesus usually
does the opposite. Why? Because he is
God. And here's what it says. When he
saw the large crowd in verse 14, he had
compassion
on them.
The Greek word for this word compassion
is splatinazimo.
Or it's even harder to say than that. I
actually listened to it 10 times over
the week and I still got it wrong. It's
a big word, but here's what it means.
It's this gut level word. It means that
the insides, his gut was moved when he
saw the crowd. It's like when you have
someone you love, a child or a spouse or
a close family member when they are sick
and you're like, I wish we could just
trade places. I see you in pain. I see
you in agony, in this gut level
compassion
just comes up. This deep physical ache
that says, I cannot leave that person
where they are. And that is what Jesus
felt when he looked at the crowd that
had ruined his grief. You know, as I was
reading it, I was like, you know, this
is honestly as as I was like trying to
get into the mindset of Jesus, I was
like, this is the hardest part about
being a dad or being a mom is that some
times there are just no days off.
I I I found tried to look for the time
clock of where I could clock out being a
dad and I could not find it.
And we can't clock out from being a dad
or a mom or a spouse. It's something we
do all the time. And sadly, we fail time
and time again at that. But the hardest
part of opening people into our lives,
in being a part in leading, in loving
people is there are no days off.
And here's the thing, Jesus compassion
for us, it didn't take a day off even
when he was hurting. And here's the
beauty of this. There has never been a
moment in the history of the world when
Jesus has been too tired, too sad, too
overwhelmed, too disappointed to feel
compassion for you.
Hebrews 4:15 says that we have a high
priest in Jesus Christ who is able to
sympathize with our weakness. That's why
he came here on earth to understand how
messed up and weak humans are to know
what our experience is like. And Jesus
didn't just have compassion when his
tank was full. He had compassion when
his tank was empty.
And then it moves on to verse 15. And I
love it cuz this one stings because I
see myself in the way that the disciples
answer here. They they basically come up
to him and say, "Hey Jesus, send them
home." They're like, "It's getting late.
They're hungry. They need to figure it
out for themselves. This isn't our
problem." He literally says, "Send them
in the villages so they can eat." He's
like looking around. He's like, "There's
no Chick-fil-A out here.
Go tell them to go somewhere else." He's
like, "It's like being in like Tucson.
There's nothing good there. Go somewhere
else."
That wasn't in my notes either, but it's
the first thing that pops in my head.
But he's like, "Hey, this is not our
problem, Jesus. Let's not take this on."
But I love Jesus' answer in verse 16.
It's one of the most striking lines in
all the gospel. He says, "They don't
need to go away." And then he puts it on
the disciples. You give them something
to eat.
And the disciples, they wanted to
dismiss the hurt. But Jesus wanted to
address it. And he didn't want to just
address it. He wanted to use them to
address it. Now, now church, think about
what is happening in the story. As we
come to 2026, the world is full of
hurting people. And the temptation of
every church member, every disciple in
every era is to say, "Send them away.
It's not my problem. Let them figure it
out. I'm tired. I'm tapped out. I'm
dealing with my own stuff. Let them
figure it out."
But Jesus looks at his tired, grieving,
underresourced disciples and he looks at
us today and says, "You feed them."
You see, it's hard to love and feed our
world because it takes a lot of energy
that Christ calls us to be. Over the
past year, we kind of rolled out in our
church. We say our mission is to make
Jesus known. But we ask like, how do we
know we are making Jesus known? like
what is he doing in building in us and
creating us to know we're headed the
right direction. And one of the things
we unpack here at Christ Church is
surprise is we will know we are making
Jesus known and being effective when we
are hungry, humble, and hospitable. When
we are hungry, that we are chasing after
Christ. We're getting closer to him.
We're spiritually craving on him. Where
we are humble. where we stop thinking
that we are on second base because we
hit a double, but we realize that God
has moved us and provided so we can give
our time and energy to others. But we
also talked about this last one. I think
the hardest one in the suburbs of
surprise is to be uncomfortably
hospitable.
And when we said we want to be
uncomfortably hospitable, we said we
want to bring people into our homes.
those who are church members and saints,
but those who are also sinners of our
neighbors and those who are hurting
around us. And let me tell you, it's not
always easy to host and love people in
your home, to get meal, to break bread,
and to do life together. Me and my wife
have fully embraced this through
ministry. And God has challenges this
more and more. And I and I love having
people over. I love having family. Just
last weekend, we had families over. And
uh whenever we invite like two families
over, it ultimately ends like there's
like 20 kids in our house just because
we have so many and they have kids and
it's just chaos. And I love cleaning up
our house and making the food and doing
all that. But sometimes even unforeseen
things happen. Like the hardest part of
hosting for us now isn't the cleanup. It
it isn't the food. It isn't making sure
our kids aren't jerks and hit other
kids. It is the stuff that sometimes
happens after the fact. This past
weekend, we had two families over.
Everything went great. We enjoyed it.
And then at 11:00 p.m. at night, my
2-year-old daughter, Alice, started
throwing up in her crib.
So, that meant we had to text the other
families to be like, "Your kids are
going to start throwing up any minute
now."
And and it was almost like this
gut-wrenching thing. Even when we're
trying to do the right thing, even when
we're loving our community, even when
things are going well, sometimes there's
a temptation of like, I I don't know if
I can do enough. I it would be easy if I
just like put my kids in a bubble. You
put your kids in a bubble. We don't even
do life together. It'd be easier if I
don't try to help fix your issues cuz
I'm too broken. But Jesus uses the
broken disciples and he says, "I'm going
to bring my church, my gospel through
you." He says, "You feed them." And you
see, the disciples knew they didn't have
enough. They knew they didn't want the
liability of getting all these people
out here, feeding them food, and them
throwing up after and then be like,
"Oop, that was bad." But here's the
thing. Jesus didn't care about the
reservations of their inconvenience. He
cared about the people, the crowd that
was there. And in this front half of
this passage, here's what I think we
need to see. Jesus has compassion for
our hurts.
The first move of every miracle is his
mercy. And when he moves, he often moves
through ordinary people like me and like
you who are willing to hand over the
little they have. Which leads us right
into the second thing this miracle shows
us. Not only the compassion that Christ
has, but it also shows us the resources
for our needs. The resources for our
needs. You you look at verse 17 as the
story keeps unwinding. It says here as
he's telling them, you feed them. The
excuses come. But but we only have five
loaves and two fish here. They said to
him, "Five loaves, two fish." And now
we're talking about a small little
packed lunch. These five loaves are
probably like the size of a biscuit.
This was not like your sourdough bread
that you might bake in the oven if
you're in your sourdough era and your
starter hasn't died. Some of you know
what I'm talking about, right?
These are like tiny little bread little
baskets like little things you you get
at without the cheese at Red Lobster.
Okay, so like less than that but small.
And then these are two fish. These
aren't like big old fish. These are
probably dried fish almost like the size
of sardines. And all this this was this
little boy's lunch as John tells us in
his account. This was all they had.
You think about this for a second from
the disciples perspective is do you know
what it's like to feel like your food is
always disappearing and the shelves as
soon as they get stocked are just empty
again. They were probably going around
they're like there's got to be some food
here. Maybe I'll look in this area.
Maybe I'll look in that area. And
everywhere they tried to look there was
just not enough.
But check out what God does with this.
As he sees that there is not enough
food. It then turns to it gets the
problem gets more complex because then
all of a sudden they see there's not
enough food because they start counting
the crowd. Verse 21 it says, "Now those
who ate and and we're skipping ahead,
but we'll get to how they ate in a
second were about 5,000 men besides
women and children."
It says 5,000 there. And this is why
this miracle is commonly called the
feeding of the 5,000. But they only
counted the men. They didn't even count
the women and children. Ancient
estimates said this size of the crowd
was probably more like 15 to 20,000
people.
15 to 20,000 people hanging out in the
middle of nowhere in a wasteland
slightly better than Tucson waiting for
some food.
And all the disciples can bring to Jesus
is five little loaves of bread and two
small fish.
And what does Jesus do with it? Well,
we're told in verse 18 as they collect
these and it's the only thing they can
find in the whole sea of 15,000 to
20,000 people, they bring it to Jesus
and he says this in verse 18, he says,
"Bring them here to me the stuff they
had." Then he commanded the crowds to
sit down on the grass. He took the five
loaves and the two fish and looking up
to heaven, he blessed them. He broke the
loaves and gave them to disciples. and
the disciples gave them to the crowds.
Now, slow that down. There are four
things that Jesus does right here. He
took the elements that he was given. He
blessed them. He broke them and then he
gave them out. These four words will be
used again throughout the gospel. These
of he took, he blessed, he broke and he
gave. And the next time Matthew will use
these four words is actually in Matthew
chapter 26 where he talks about the
first Lord's supper that the night
before Jesus was crucified when he sits
down with his 12 disciples in a room
they are going to do the same thing as
Jesus is pointing forward to that
miracle of what he will ultimately
perform on the cross.
And as Jesus takes and he blesses and he
breaks and he gives, in verse 20, we see
the results of this. It said, "Everyone
ate and they were filled and they picked
up 12 baskets full of leftover pieces."
Now, I don't think there's an accident
here that there are 12 baskets.
There's one for each disciple that was
present. And I don't think that's an
accident or coincidence. The disciples
started that day saying, "We don't have
enough." And then each one of them got a
whole basket overflowing with food,
showing them how wrong they were.
Jesus didn't just meet the need of the
crowd. He outpaced the doubt of the
disciples that were following him. And I
think here's what the text wants you to
see. that five loaves and two fish in
your hands in the hands of disciples,
that is a problem to feed 20,000 people,
but five loaves and two fish in the
hands of Jesus is a feast that will
never end as long as he doesn't want it
to.
I love this because as we read this
passage,
I think about how God often calls us out
of our comfort zone to show how he can
provide. If this is your church family,
in March, we launched an ambitious
2-year campaign called Let's Go. You
heard about our Let's Go launch, which
is our internship program where we want
to raise up leaders in the church. But
our Let's Go in March, we talked about
how we also want to raise up the
resources for this. And over the next
two years, we asked our church family to
say, "Hey, what would it look like for
you to commit to funding the mission of
how can we start more churches in more
areas so the gospel and Jesus can be
made known in a greater impact that not
just has an impact today, but for
generations to come?" And if you've been
part of Cross Church, we're already
doing this in our collective. By the end
of the year, we'll have six locations in
Arizona where we have pastors at each
locations preaching and teaching and
leading worship. That's already six of
those in Arizona. We have three of those
internationally. But we're asking God of
like, how can you continue to do this
more? How can you multiply what you
already doing in a way that we can't
even understand and we can't take the
credit for? And here's the thing that I
had the same mentality of the disciples
as we came into this. Like, God, I I
don't think we have enough. I know I
don't have enough in my bank account. I
don't know if I have any more time. I
don't know if I have any more margin. I
have any more bandwidth. I can only do
this much. And sometimes when God calls
us to big things, the first thing we say
is like, I I don't think I have enough
God. Like I I just have this little bit,
these five loaves, these two fish.
They're not going to contribute to the
church. They're not going to contribute
to the kingdom. And most of us, if we're
honest, we rock around clutching what
little we have, terrified to hand it
over. But here's the thing. The only
path to a miracle is when we hand over
the little that we have to Christ and
watch how he uses it in more abundance
than we ever could.
He says, "What's underlying all this
story? What is in your hand this morning
that you've refused to give it? When you
give it to Christ, he will do more with
it than you can do alone. Your money,
your gifting, your story, your hurt,
your pain, hand it over. And watch how
God uses it.
And you see, this is exactly what this
miracle shows us. But here's what I love
about this story is this is not where it
totally ends. This is where Matthew's
account ends. But what I love about this
miracle is the feeding of the 5000 is
the one miracle that's actually recorded
in all four gospels, Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John. And when you flip over
to John's gospel in John 6, looking at
verse 32,
he gives some commentary on this miracle
and why it's so important.
And after Jesus does all these crazy
things, here's what I love is not only
does it show us his compassion for us,
not only does it show us how we need, it
resources our needs, no matter how
little we have, but the feeding of the
5000 then points us to something. And
what it points us to first is it points
us to recognize who our true provider
is. Let's keep going in in in this in in
John 6:32. I love that the next morning
after the feeding of the 5000 happens,
the same crowd who just got fed all this
delicious bread and fish, they come back
and they track Jesus down again. Like
Jesus left and they find him and they
find him and they're like, "Dude, we
want another meal. We want another
miracle. We want another show." They
wanted him to keep performing for them.
And then Jesus says something in John
6:32 that pivots the entire
conversation. He says, "As Jesus said to
them, the crowd who was looking for
their next meal ticket," he says, "Truly
I tell you, Moses didn't give you the
bread from heaven, but my father gives
you the true bread from heaven. For the
bread of God is the one who comes down
from heaven and gives life to this
world."
You see, the crowd was thinking, they
knew their history and they knew their
Old Testament and they knew this story
about Moses as he was leading a million
Jews through the wilderness, escaping
Egypt, trying to get into the promised
land. And they knew their stories and
they knew that story of like, hey, God
kept feeding them for 40 years. There
was no Chick-fil-A in that wilderness.
All right? For 40 years, God sent mana
and dew to feed a million people.
Mindblowing.
And they're like, I think we just found
our Moses. We found our next meal
ticket. Like, let's stop working. Let's
stop providing for our food. Let's stop
being farmers or carpenters or whatever.
Let's just follow this guy and he will
provide. He will give us everything we
need. And Jesus says, "Stop right
there." He's like, "Moses didn't give
you that bread."
He says, "My father God in heaven did."
And he says this, then he ups it. And he
says, "And the real bread of heaven is
not falling on the ground every morning.
It's not being multiplied in baskets
from a little boy's lunch." He says,
"The real bread is standing right in
front of you." What a mic drop moment.
Jesus told them, he's like, "I am not
the new Moses handing out the meal next
meal. I am the bread itself to meet
every hardship and hurt that you will
ever have. You see, church, this is huge
because if we're honest, I think often
we're like the crowd and we come to
Jesus the same way. As we come to Jesus,
we're like, "Jesus, I got some more
messed up stuff in my life.
I really need you to pay this bill
because because it's hurting and I don't
know how I'm going to do it. Jesus, I
really need you to heal uh this sickness
that I'm going through because I I don't
see around it. Jesus, I really need you
to fix my relationship that I've been
stupid and the reason it's so messed up
is because I've made it messed up. But
Jesus, if you could just fix it all,
that'd be great. Jesus, if you could
just make my wife love me more and fix
my marriage because I said some dumb
things and bail me out of this, that'd
be great. Jesus, I haven't fathered and
and led my kids the way I should. But
Jesus, if you could just make them
better kids, that would be awesome.
Jesus, I really haven't put my full
effort in at work, but if you could just
make me a better employee and make my
bosses like me, that would be great. And
maybe you're not as superficial as that,
but you come to Jesus, often just
looking for the next meal, the next
little hold over, the next fix to get
you through the day. And we come with
our hands out to Christ, just looking
for him to give the things we need
instead of give something lasting that
goes beyond it.
And hear this before you're like, "Man,
that's that's a bummer." Because I do
pray to Jesus for all those things. And
you should because Jesus does fix our
problems. He does do miraculous things.
He does pay bills sometimes and restore
relationships. And there's story and
story after that. But Jesus refuses to
be reduced to a vending machine of
miracles.
He came to give us not the gift, but to
give us himself in the giver.
not to just give us the bread but to
give us his very body and himself. And
you see what's happening in the story is
the crowd wanted continual provision.
The crowd wanted heavenly handouts.
But Jesus as the provider, he's the one
who gives heavenly handups.
I was at our Phoenix location, Cross
Church Phoenix. That's where I started
with Cross Church 10 years ago. And I
was there for about 8 and 1/2 years. And
I love that church and is thriving and
doing amazing things. But one of the
things I was most proud about and most
excited that I think when we just lend
we leaned on God and he did a great
thing is starting a celebrate recovery
ministry. And it still goes to this day
every Wednesday at 6:30. Actually
another pastor in the area asked me if
we're still doing it. I'm like
absolutely. And what I love about
Celebrate Recovery is it's saying we
want to help people to have freedom from
their hurts, habits, and hang-ups. And
here's the deal. People come to CR, we
have help and needs there. We'll we'll
give out food. We'll we'll give out
provision that they need. But what we're
trying to point them to is how do you
find ultimately your value in Christ
that will then teach you the disciplines
that will change your life forever? And
instead of saying, "Hey, I just need
this little more to get through and I'll
be fine." How do you change your entire
life? to organize it around Christ
himself and watch how everything changes
as a result. And then instead of coming
to Jesus just for your next problem to
be fixed, you start coming him to
continually to change who you are and
change how it affects you. And here's
the deal. Until you recognize that
everything you call provision in your
life, your job, your house, your
savings, your relationships, your
health, and your family, until you
realize it is from him, and it is only
ever a picture of him, then you will
spend your whole life just seeking Jesus
for the next thing instead of seeking
him to change everything about you.
You see, the feeding of the 5000, it
points us to recognize our true provider
in Christ. But it also points us to
embrace our true need.
As this story is going and as Jesus
already disappoints them because they're
like, "Man, I wanted more bread." And
he's like, "Bro, the bread is right
here." And they're like, "I don't get
it. What is he talking about? Is he
saying we should be cannibals and eat
him?"
But he stops there in verse 34 as they
respond
and and they say like I I just want my
bread. They say in verse 34, it's so
revealing of their hearts. They then
said, "Sir, give us this bread always."
Like, "Okay, so you are the spiritual
vending machine. Just keep giving us
more bread." That they still didn't get
it. They still thought they were at a
buffet line. They still thought they're
at the Golden Corral. Thank goodness
those are all closed, right? They're all
disgusting. You all get stomach bugs and
throw up after anyway. So, sweet
tomatoes. All those are gone. Actually,
there's still sweet tomatoes. You know
where it's at?
>> Tucson.
>> Tucson. Yeah,
it came back around. That was the Holy
Spirit planting that joke in early. All
right. I didn't have it in my notes. Uh
anyway, um what were we talking about
again? I don't know.
But here, they're like they JUST WANTED
MORE. THEY WANTED MORE FOOD AND THEY'RE
NOT UNDERSTANDING WHAT CHRIST SAYS. AND
THEN I love this in verse 35. This is
one of the great I am statements of John
that Jesus lays them on as they're like,
"Give us this bread. Give us more. We're
just going to hang out with you and
you're going to feed us. We're going to
become fat on our laziness and just
seeking you, but not actually doing what
you say." And then Jesus says this, "I
am the bread of life."
Not the bread that you keep getting that
you eat, but the bread of life. And then
he adds this statement. No one who comes
to me will ever be hungry and no one who
believes in me will ever be thirsty
again.
Just stop for a second
and feel the weight of that statement.
He says, "You'll never be hungry again.
You'll never be thirsty again."
And guys, he's not talking about food.
He's talking about something greater
than food. He's saying, "You're not
going to be hungry for purpose. You're
not going to be hungry for love. You're
not going to be hungry for peace. You're
not going to be hungry for meaning.
You're not going to be hungry for
forgiveness. You're not going to be
hungry for hope. You will never be
hungry again because something greater
will fill you."
You know, we're Baptists, so we don't
often talk a lot about fasting
because we like our potlucks, okay?
But here's how fasting actually works.
Is when you're deprived of food,
you're depending more on God to provide
for your needs. And it keeps you going.
And here's the crazy thing. I'm not
telling you guys to stop eating food,
cuz you do need to still eat food. All
right? But when you fill yourself with
the spirit and you seek God and you love
God, sometimes it fills you up that the
other stuff, the superficial things of
life like food and drinks and all those
things like I don't even need Red Bull
on Sundays if I'm being honest. I drink
it because it gets me up. But I get
jacked up on Jesus before I get jacked
up on Red Bull. Okay? And here's the
thing. Sometimes when the spirit is
filling us up and we are seeking God and
we're finding our sustenance from God,
we don't even need those things. Here's
what's funny. after church on Sundays is
like I never have an appetite and my
wife's like, "You want anything?" Our
our our routine is we pick up salad and
go and Wendy's on the way home to eat
for the kids. And I'm like, "I don't
even need food. Like, I'm not hungry."
Sometimes I force myself to eat cuz I
think I need it. But I'm just like so
filled with Jesus from being with my
church family and being with the word of
God that I'm like, I don't even need
food. I'm just going to go run until I
pass out cuz I'm full with Jesus right
now.
One person thought that was cool. All
right, that wasn't a clapping moment.
I'll get you later.
But here is our problem, church. We have
spent our whole lives trying to satisfy
our deepest hunger that our world has to
offer with the wrong food. We've tried
to filled our stomachs, our spiritual
stomachs, our emotional stomachs, our
mental stomachs with things like
achievement, with approval, with
possessions, with relationships, with
substances, with screens. And every time
we leave the table, we are still hungry.
CS Lewis diagnosed this beautifully. I
love this quote. He says, "If we have
desires nothing in this world can
satisfy, that is you. You have desires
that you fill with thing after thing
after thing and you are not satisfied.
He says the most likely explanation is
that we were made for another world. Oh,
that's good.
And here's the deal is you were be made
you were made to be filled not with the
stuff that we make in our world that
just get us day by day. Is you were made
to be filled with the bread of life,
Jesus Christ himself. And until you
embrace that need, until you stop trying
to feed your soul on five loaves and two
fish substitutes, you will never know
what enough actually feels like. And
here's what I love cuz this is the real
message of this whole miracle that it
points to and comes to fruition in John
14 is after Jesus has multiplied lunch
and he has said he is the bread himself.
I love this because the disciples who
saw this in John 14:8, Philillip, one of
the dude who collected a basket full of
food, he says this, Lord, show us the
father and that's enough for us.
Philip's like, okay, I get it. We need
more than food, but but show us God the
Father and we'll be satisfied. And
Philip thinks he's made this huge leap.
He thinks he's theological. He thinks
he's smart. It's the cry of the human
heart. He said, "Show me what's enough.
Show me what fills me. Show me what
satisfies me." And Jesus answers in
verse 9, and I love this. He says, "Have
I been among you all this time without
your knowing me, Philillip?" He says,
"The one who has seen me has seen the
father." Here's what Jesus is saying. If
you know me, you know your creator. You
know God the Father. You know everything
you need to know. In other words, fill
up what you're looking for, EVERYTHING
YOU STRIVE FOR, EVERYTHING YOU'VE PUSHED
FOR, IT IS ALL FOUND IN CHRIST. AND HERE
IT BUILDS TO THIS miraculous truth that
we see in this passage that you will
never have enough, church. You will
never have enough that you try to fill
your life with. All the achievement, all
the money, all the success, ALL THE
FAMILY, NONE OF IT will be enough until
you accept that Jesus is enough. All
right? Do you hear this?
None of it will be there. You will never
have enough until you accept that Jesus
is enough. You'll never have enough
money until you think that Jesus is
enough. You will never have enough
success until you know Jesus is enough.
You'll never have enough recognition,
enough security, enough control, enough
comfort. Man, we love OUR COMFORT HERE.
WE'LL NEVER HAVE ENOUGH OF ANYTHING,
ENOUGH RELATIONSHIPS, ENOUGH ADDICTIONS,
anything until you come to the
foundation that Jesus, you are enough.
You see this boy?
He gave Jesus five loaves and two fish
that were not even close to enough to
feed 20,000 people.
But Jesus did it
because he can take in your life what is
not enough.
He can multiply it. He can make it
enough. and he can give you himself.
That is all you need.
So here's the questions that we need to
wrestle with this morning.
At first, if you are a believer in the
room today,
if you say, "I am a follower of Jesus. I
have said that Jesus is enough."
You need to ask the question,
what are you still trying to feed your
soul?
that only Jesus can feed you.
What are you trying to seek after?
What's the loaf that you keep reaching
for that always leaves you hungry?
Surrender it.
Give it up.
Hand it over.
Stop chasing crumbs at the feet of a
savior who is offering you the feast.
And maybe that's not you today.
Maybe you don't know Jesus yet.
And maybe you've never trusted him
before.
I want you to hear me that we get this
truth from God's word.
That you've spent your life
trying to find enough.
And I know if you're honest, you haven't
found it.
You haven't found enough purpose,
enough love,
enough peace,
every meal, every hack,
every lie that the world has fed you has
left you hungrier than you were before.
But there is a savior
who took five loaves and two fish and
fed 20,000 people.
But this same savior
took his own body.
He broke it on the cross for us. He died
in our place for our sins.
And the miracle is he rose again to
defeat those sins
so that you can be forgiven.
so that you can find purpose
so that you can have a life that is
enough.
He is the bread of life.
He is the offering himself to this
morning
that you will never have enough
until you accept
that Jesus is enough.
church.
He is enough.