Let me turn this on. Turning your Bibles this afternoon to John chapter 6. I'm going to begin this long chapter, and it's going to take me quite a few messages to go through it, but we're going to be looking today at verses 1 through 14. So, let's look at this passage. Let me read to you John chapter 6, verses 1 to 14. After these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude followed him, because they saw his signs which he performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming towards him, he said to Philip, Where shall we buy bread that these may eat? But this he said to test them, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered, 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little. And one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there's a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sit down and number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to the disciples. And the disciples are those sitting down, and likewise are the fish, as much as they wanted. So when they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost. Therefore they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of five Bartilos, which were 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 has come into the world. Let us pray. Our Lord in heaven, we know that it is without your help we are nothing. To understand and hear your word, to really hear it with eyes at sea, Lord, to really begin to comprehend all that you would have for us from it. So Lord, I do pray that this afternoon that you would enlighten our eyes, Lord, that you would cause us to understand the depth of what is here. to draw near to you because of it. May your spirit work within our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. to name the top stories from the Gospels, not all the Old Testament, not all the New Testament, the top stories from the Gospels that you would have heard in children's Sunday school, maybe ages three all the way to ages second grade. And I would assume that you would probably list a few of the following. Jesus's birth, of course we have to have Jesus's birth, which would include the time of the shepherds and the wise men, there's no room at the end, those stories. Probably would include Jesus going to the temple at 12, because that's important for a young person to know and hear, right? Jesus going to the temple. And then the calling of the disciples, you know, the lowering of the nets on one side, you shall be fishers of men. Then maybe Jesus walking on the water. That's a big one because it helps our children to learn not to fear, right? And then you hear the story of the parable of the Good Samaritan. And that's always a good one to tell. These are all great, wonderful things for us to teach our children. It's from the Bible. It's from the Gospels. And Jesus taught them and lived them. But the parable of the Good Samaritan. And then there's, of course, Zacchaeus. You know, he was a wee little man. A wee little man was he. We have the story, the song that goes along with that. Some curriculum would skip Jesus' death because you don't want to talk about death to little children, right? Sometimes they skip that part. But Jesus' resurrection, of course, they talk about that. And, you know, we can name a few others, but I would say in the top 10 for me, as I think about it, as I think of the top 10 stories that are told, the one that we just read is one of them. Jesus feeding the 5,000. Now, it's very interesting the reason why so many people may include that story in the readings. It is a very, very important event in the life of Jesus. But the focus usually, whenever the story is read, is about the little lad, is it not? You know, the little lad is only mentioned in this one gospel. By the way, the feeding of the 5,000 is mentioned in all four gospels. Not everything is mentioned in all four, but it is mentioned in all four. But the only one that includes the lad is here. And the only passage that we have about the lad is this. There was a lad who had five barley loaves and two fish. That's all we know about him. But we tell these big stories about how his mother packed his lunch, you know, and all these kind of things, right? Well, all that's fine. I'm not putting all those things down. I have a point, though. The point is this. The lad is not the point of the story. It's not. And in fact, whenever we begin to look at... If we just look at the lad only, we miss the whole picture of what this story's about. And if we're not careful, we could separate this story from the rest of chapter 6. Chapter 6 really happens over two days. And there's a whole group of things that happen in this chapter that are all interconnected. And if we think about it, I just want to point out a few things, just as an introduction even to this chapter. Chapter 6 here marks this event, actually, because it is in all four of the Gospels, marks the real beginning of time when people began to flock to Jesus in large numbers and to seek Him, in large numbers. Yeah, we have a few other instances. I mean, His baptism. We just even looked at John, His baptism, the call of the disciples, those are people coming. His preaching in Judea and then Him baptizing, we don't know a lot about that. whenever he was there with his disciples before he came. And then the wedding at Cana, I'm sure that there was a lot of people there at that wedding, but not what we see in this passage. Nicodemus, of course, that was in the middle of the night, that was just him and Nicodemus. The cleanse of the temple, there were a lot of people there, maybe a thousand people there, but nothing like what we have here in this passage. Perhaps maybe the closest thing would be the Samaritan woman. I mean, the whole town came out, but how big was Samaria? I don't know. But it does say the whole town came out. But my point is that this was a big event. It was the beginning of Jesus' broader ministry. People began to really come to hear him. But there's a second thing here that this happens in chapter 6. It marks the first mention of many of Jesus' followers turning away from him. In fact, if you were to go to the end of the chapter, in verse 66, it says, from that time, many of the disciples went back and walked with him no more. So there's these two big things. He's really popular, but a lot of people quit following him after this event and what he talked about about it. Third, also another important thing about this chapter and its connection to things, it was the first of two miracles or signs that was directly observed and directly impacted thousands of people at one time. Let me just point this out. In Matthew it says, now there were those who had eaten were about 5,000 men besides women and children. It says in Mark, and they who ate the loaves were 5,000 men. Well, I wonder how many people were actually there. Well, I just think about this. Okay, let's just average it out. If we're going to be conservative, a family group, husband, wife, and a child. Well, there's going to be some people there who are single, right? There's going to be some people there who don't have children. There's going to be some people there who have 10 children. Let's just say it's three per person, three per family, three per man who was there. That's 15,000 people. 15,000 people participated in this miracle in the sense that they received something from it. 15,000 people actually observed it happening This was something that had never happened before like this, not in the ministry of Jesus. And I don't think it really happened again except for whenever he fed the 4,000, which those are two different events, historical events. There's a fourth thing here. Fourth, although the feeding of the 5,000 is recorded in the other Gospels, there are many topological parallels to the time here in John to the time of the Exodus and Moses. Topological. In other words, there's types here. There's things about this event that are very deep. Things that tie into things in the Old Testament in the book of Exodus that are very important to realize. Just a few of them I'll point out. I'll have to develop it later whenever we go into the other parts of the chapter. But think about this. There's a parallel between Jesus and Moses himself. Jesus was a prophet who was like unto Moses. And Moses brought the children of Israel out of bondage so Jesus would offer the Israelites away from their bondage to their own sin. And we'll see that develop. Jesus talks about it. We'll see also there's a parallel between this event and the Passover. Passover took place before the exodus happened, when they were about to go out of Egypt. But there was a lamb that was sacrificed, wasn't there? And there was a meal that they ate of. And there was bread, unleavened bread that they partook of. And as you think about all that tied together, you think about what Jesus spoke about even in verses 53 and 54. Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. Jesus being the Passover Lamb. There's a tie, there's a connection to those kind of things. There's a parallel with manna in the wilderness. This food that God supplied to the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness, it was there every morning whenever they got up. Well, Jesus fed the followers of God on this mountain. In this story, with food that multiplied that was there, He gave them what they needed. Later in this chapter, the people would demand, Our fathers ate the manna of the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Lord, give us this bread. Jesus wouldn't give it to them, and we'll see that, because he said that they should not be seeking, they should be seeking the true bread. And then he said, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger. There's a connection between manna and bread and all these different things. There's a parallel with water in the wilderness. You remember how Moses, he gave them water twice, right? God gave it through Moses, gave them water coming out of the dry ground twice. One time out of a rock. But Jesus even in this passage talks about he who believes in me shall never thirst. He supplied water that never thirsts. And there are many, many other parallels that we could look at at this particular chapter. All these things have to be developed. And it would take many more sermons to do. But there is a particular thing that we're looking at today. And the first step in understanding what's going on today in this passage is to look at this miracle itself. This first event in the passage. So as we look at this event, there are, I believe, five things that I want to bring to you today. First of all, we're going to see in this passage that Jesus retires with his disciples. Jesus retires with his disciples, verses 1 through 3 again. And after these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him because they saw his signs, which he performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. As we think about this particular event and what's taking place, we need to remember that this is not the only gospel that tells us about this event. Russell read earlier about the one that's more lengthy, and that's the one in Mark. And if we were to look in Mark, and if we were to look back in Matthew especially, we would see that there had been something that took place before this. If you remember in Matthew 10, was whenever Jesus sent out his disciples. He called them and then he sent them out to go into the cities of Samaria and to the reaches and their areas around there in the Galilee area. And they were to go out and preach the gospel. They had been preaching. They had been ministering to people. And we're going to find out that, and I'll tell you how it's all fitting together, but we're going to find out that chapter 5, between the end of chapter 5 and the beginning of chapter 6, it's probably been a year. between those two things that took place. So they had been out doing all this ministering to people, all in this whole region, in this whole area. And they had come back. And we're going to find out that as they came back, that in Mark chapter 6 verse 30 it says, Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And he said to them, come aside by yourself to a deserted place and rest a while. For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat, so they departed to a deserted place in a boat by themselves. You see, Mark is talking about how they had been out doing all these things. They were coming back, and they were so excited. They wanted to tell Jesus, here's what happened. We were preaching the gospel, and people started coming to hear. They were casting out demons. They were doing these miracles themselves. And they wanted to come and have time away. They needed to be ministered to. It was vacation time. They had a long season. It's time to rest and put up our feet. Right? That's what's going on. So, Jesus said, well, we're going to go over to Galilee over here. In fact, we're going to cross over. We're going to go over here and it doesn't mention the city, but it is the city of Bethsaida, where they went. And they were probably, it may have not been because he mentions that this is on the Sea of Tiberias, I don't know, but Tiberias is about 8 miles from there. That's probably where he had been, so they took the boat and go over to the other side. Bethsaida is a little old place. It's actually where Andrew and Philip and Peter, James and John, We're kind of from that whole little area. It's just a mile or so away from Capernaum. A little old place. A place to relax. A place to be. And you know, the Sea of Galilee is so enormous if you think about it. It is a very large lake if you compare it to Caddo Lake out here. Caddo Lake is about as wide as the Sea of Galilee. If you go from the Texas side all the way to the border to the other side and all the way in Louisiana. But as far as the height of it or the length of it north to south, It doesn't even compare. Caddo Lake is about 2 miles, I think. Sea of Galilee is 13 miles. It's a big place. A big lake. And I won't go into all the details about it, but my point is this, is that they're going to this little fishing village. They're going to go and they're going to relax. They're going to take it easy and everything's going to be great. Passing the time. They've worked hard and now they've, now they're going to go and relax. And I can imagine as they were, as they were looking forward to this little R&R, far from the maddening crowd, using the words of Thomas Hardy, they prop up their feet. It's the time to be ministered by Jesus. You know, we all have those times whenever we're ready for that, don't we? But you know what in this case happened? This is my second point. Something happened. The multitude followed them. The multitude followed them. Verse 2, going back to verse 2. Then a great multitude followed him because they saw the signs which he had performed on those who were diseased. They followed them over there. Oh boy. It's kind of like the paparazzi, isn't it? You go somewhere and they're here too. But they go over there. It was easy to see, though, how Jesus reacted to this situation that was happening. The Scriptures tell us in Matthew that Jesus welcomed them. Mark and Luke tell us that Jesus had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. You see, the religious leaders of the day had done nothing to guide them to the truth. They had wrapped themselves up in a religious worldliness. They pushed pride in the idols of the heart. They promoted their own forms of godliness. They twisted the law of God for their own self-promotion. And they had sheep, but they were no shepherds, these leaders of Israel, these religious leaders of the day. So Jesus had compassion on them. Luke tells us that Jesus had used the occasion to teach them, even concerning the kingdom of God. Perhaps it was somewhat like what we see in the Sermon on the Mount. But Jesus not only taught them, Mark and Luke tell us that Jesus healed them, for they had need of healing. He showed them signs that proved he was the Son of God, sent from God with power. And though the crowd came to him, Even the crowd that came to Him, the one that they were coming to Him, and Jesus having compassion upon them, He welcomed them. But you know what? He knew what their motives were, but He still did it. He welcomed them. And the Bible says, John tells us what their motives were. The reason why they followed Jesus was because they beheld the signs which He did on them that were sick. We're going to find out further in John chapter 6 just exactly what their motives were. They actually wanted more food. They had been, you know, whenever they followed Jesus to the other side, they wanted more food after he fed the 5,000. Really bad motives, right? But my point is this, that the multitudes did follow him But Jesus welcomed them and had compassion upon them, even though he knew their motives. Well, there's a third thing here that took place, and that is this. There was a practical problem that was presented to them, a very practical problem that was presented in verses 4 to 9. I'll read it here again. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming towards him, he said to Philip, Where shall we buy bread that these may eat? And by this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. And then Philip said, Two hundred an hour worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little. And one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they among so many? There was a practical problem that occurred. Practical problems happen in ministry, don't they? Brother Howell, practical problems happen in ministry, don't they? All the time. Just talk to our deacons. They are always dealing with practical problems around here that occur. You know, maybe something gets stopped up or somebody comes on and they have to have help or whatever it may be. There's practical problems that happen. We think that we're going along and everything's just fine, and then something disrupts everything. I mean, there were 15,000 people. And supposedly, if they walk from the other side from where Tiberius is, on the other side, it's actually about 20% of the lake, it's about 8 miles around that area. These people, most of them have walked 8 miles, probably, to get to Jesus. Women and children. You think about the crying babies there might have been in that group. They were hungry. And you know what? They sat down and Jesus started teaching them. And they were hungry. Mark tells us that when the day was now far spent, his disciples came to him and said, this is a deserted place, already the hour is late. Send them away that they may go into the surrounding country and village and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat. But our passage says, that Jesus asked Philip about the food. He said to Philip, where will you buy bread that they may eat? Well, who brought it up first? Did the disciples bring it up first? Or did Jesus bring it up to Philip? Here's how I think it played out. I think the other disciples asked Jesus. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes, like it says in our passage, and saw more people coming. I think there were already people there. If we parallel that with the other gospels, he'd already been teaching some of them. But more people are coming and they're pouring out. And then Jesus turns to Philip, who was from this city, by the way. You know, he knew where all the mom-and-pop stores were. You know, he would know. He's not going to ask somebody else who doesn't live there, hey, where are you going to get food? Because they're going to say, I don't know, but hey, we're going to ask the guy who thinks he probably knows everything about there is to know about here, and let's just see how he deals with this. So he asks Philip. He turns to Philip and says, he says, he asked him, he turns to him and says, where could they buy bread? But Jesus had a reason for asking Philip, the scriptures tell us. And the Scriptures tell us that it was to test him. Jesus already had a solution. But Philip tried to think it through, did he not? I mean, he's fumbling around just like you and I would probably be fumbling around. Here's our teacher, you know, saying, you know, where are you going to buy bread? Where are you going to get bread? Well, I know I'm the guy from here, but man, I don't know. Wow, I don't know how I'm going to do this. You know, if we think about denarii, well, that's a day's wages. Let's see, if we were to come up with 200 denarii, a day's wage for a family, that'd feed about 200 families. We're kind of outnumbered here. We've got a problem, Jesus. I don't know. I don't know what we're going to do. And then Andrew, I'm assuming because he wanted to help him a little bit out here, said, well, hey, Jesus, we did find a lad here who's got five martyrs and two loaves, but what's that among so many? They probably knew the lad. Maybe the lad was from that village. Maybe they knew the mob. Maybe they, you know, whatever. Andrew and Philip probably even both knew him. But it was a very practical problem, much like many of the practical problems that we face in ministry. What would you do with a dilemma like this? It was an impossible situation, or so it seemed. It was impossible for man, but for God all things were possible. So Jesus and His disciples are interrupted in their vacation time, And a problem arises, an unexpected crowd shows up at their doorstep, another problem happens, and they stay long, and it is time to eat. How will they feed them? Well, Jesus has a solution, and this is what takes place. This is number four, the miracle of Jesus. The scriptures tell us in verses 10 to 13 what happens. Then Jesus said to them, make the people sit down. So he said, sit down. Now, there was grass in that place, so they sat down, and then the man sat down, numbered about 5,000, and Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to his disciples. He took the loaves and he broke them. Then thirdly, he gave thanks for them. Though it was a very small amount, he thanked the Lord for it. There's an important lesson there, isn't there? You know, it's an important lesson to remember. There are so many similarities here between even the Passover meal and the reminder to give thanks in the Passover. Reminder of what we do in the Lord's Supper. in giving thanks for what Christ has done for us, who is the living bread. So many similarities. Fourthly, his disciples distributed it. They went out with it. And I'm not really certain how this all worked out. Maybe the disciples at that point were breaking it. I don't think so. From what I can tell from the passage, the disciples would have their basket and they'd break it, or Jesus would break it, and then always Jesus would be the one breaking it. I don't know. I don't know how that worked out, and I can't really tell from the passage. But one thing is for certain. Not only did he give them bread, but he gave them fish. And you know what? There's a similarity between even the manna in the wilderness and the quail. You see, in the wilderness there's not even fish, so you can't have that same similarity. But if you wanted to see that, there is meat there that Jesus supplied just like the manna and the quail in the wilderness. There's parallels here. But what's important to realize is that he gave them as much as they wanted. Now, that's important because, you know, when we have our hospitality meal, you know, sometimes we look at what's there and we think, there's a big crowd here. We kind of limit, you know, we've got to put just a little bit on everybody's plate. But in this case, it wasn't so because it just seemed to be, it kept coming, it kept coming, it kept growing, it kept, it was there. He gave them as much as they wanted. That is amazing. There was no limit to it. There's limitations with our resources, right? I mean, whenever you come up to have your meal at your house and you put three peas on the table, you don't expect them to multiply, right? That somehow everybody's going to be full from it. But these people were full. They had all that they wanted to eat. And that's important to realize. There's something that says about Jesus here, about what He gives. Not only did they do that, but they had leftovers. Exactly the right amount. There were 12 disciples. They started off with 12 baskets. Jesus broke the bread. The baskets are full. They go out. And the baskets are never emptied. Or if they were, they gathered up, like it says in the passage, what was left over. Maybe they put what was back that they didn't want to eat. And you get 12 baskets that are exactly the same amount. If you look at it, one for every disciple, but I also look at it as they got exactly what they needed. Now, if you think about even the parallels between man and the wilderness, and the children of Israel did so and gathered some more, some less, so that when they measured it by the omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Parallels there. Every man gathered according to each one's needs. But what a miracle. Who could have done such a thing? Every person saw what took place. Every person knew that they were hungry, and Jesus had physically given them exactly what they needed to fill them up. Exactly. Each disciple had exactly enough left over, and it showed the power of Jesus. It approved, it gave a sign that this man is from God. That's what this story is about. It proves that Jesus works from God. It was not a matter of just feeding hungry people. People are hungry every day. But it was a matter of proving that this is the Christ, the Son of the living God. So, we've seen the problem presented, we've seen a solution made, we see how it was filled by Jesus. But the last thing that we want to see from this passage is this, the reaction of the multitude. The reaction of the people. How did they respond to this particular event? In verse 14, Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, This is truly the prophet who is coming to the world. What prophet are they talking about? Are they talking about John the Baptist? No. Talking about Elijah coming back? No. No, they're talking about something that happened back, way back in Deuteronomy. Way back in Deuteronomy, chapter 18, verse 17, we're told, and the Lord said to me, Moses speaking, what they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you, Moses, from among their brethren, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I commanded him." The prophet that he is referring to is the prophet that was prophesied by Moses. The Messiah who was to come. And the people were saying, this is truly the prophet. who has come into the world. It was a sign. He was fulfilling a sign, showing the power that he had from God. We even see that fulfilled in Acts chapter 3. We talked about this last week, where Peter uses this exact quotation to reference this prophecy of the prophet from Acts chapter 3 and says it's referring to Jesus. He was a prophet like Moses, but he was a greater prophet. Just as those who did not listen to Moses were to be condemned and destroyed, as it says in Acts chapter 3, so also those who do not listen to Jesus will be destroyed. Read Acts chapter 3 in that passage. I don't have time to go into it. Read Hebrews chapter 2. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed by those who heard. God also bearing witness both by signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his will. You know what? These signs, this sign was confirming that Jesus was the great prophet. Moses was a prophet and presented the law, revealed and written by the finger of God. Jesus was the greatest prophet and lived the law and revealed God himself. Moses brought his people out of bondage to Egypt. Jesus brought his people out of bondage from sin. Moses performed many miracles like the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. Jesus performed greater miracles. You say, what greater miracles? Healing the sick, laying blind, and raising men and women from the dead and giving them new life. Moses could not do that. Moses gave them manna from heaven through the power of God. Jesus is the bread of heaven. Moses made water come out of the dry ground. Jesus is the water that quenches all thirst. Moses interceded for his people as a prophet. Jesus is the great high priest who gave his life for his people and sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding forever for his people. There is a connection here between Moses and Jesus, and between this prophet who's prophesied and Jesus. And I think that that's what we see in this story. These five things that have occurred in this passage, they're there for a reason, and they lay the foundation for everything that happens in the rest of the part of John chapter 6. From this very event springs forth all these other things. It is an important story, very important story in the life of Jesus. It put God's stamp upon him, proving by this miracle and being seen by 15,000 people. Well, what can we learn from this particular passage? And I just have a few minutes here, I'm going to speed up a little bit. What can we learn from this passage? There are several points of application. First thing is this, believe that things that are impossible for man are possible for God. Now, I don't know, you know, that seems so simple. But it is the truth. The things that are impossible for man are possible for God. Do you think the disciples thought it was impossible that they were going to feed these men? These 15,000 people? What do we do, Jesus? They're going to have to go home hungry, or they're going to have to stay here and be hungry. I don't know. I don't know what else to tell you, Jesus. That's all I know. Jesus had another plan. And He was able to make bread multiply. Who can do that? He raised the dead. He healed the sick, the blind, and the lame. If it is God's will, He can and will heal you of all your sicknesses and diseases. And you know what? If you're in Christ, there will be one day when you will be healed in heaven with Him forever. There is nothing beyond Him. Remember that He can put food on your table from sources that you do not know. You mean He's going to make it appear? No, but God has a way of dealing with other people. There's ways, I don't know about you, but there's ways that in our early life of marriage, whenever we were in a hardship time, people brought food to us. Out of nowhere. They didn't even know that we had the need. They just wanted to bring something over. Philippians chapter 4 verse 19, And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. God wants us to trust Him. that He can do the impossible. Remember that He has the power of sin, because sin is a bondage, is it not? But He has power over sin. He can make you like a new creature. He can give you a new heart. He can make your wickedness, the things that you are, He can make you different and save you from your sins. And as Fannie Crosby says, That moment from Jesus forgiveness receives, it can happen immediately. Are you threatened with death? Is He able to take you beyond the grave and into glory to be with Him forever? You know, that is something that we have to think about, is it not? When we're threatened with death. Do I trust that God can do the impossible, that He can raise this body from the grave? Do I really believe it? Do I really believe that there's a heaven? Do I really believe that there's a God in heaven who can do all these things? Can God help you to deal with your everyday problems in your life? He can do all things. So remember this. Believe the things impossible for man are possible for God. Secondly, remember the compassion of Jesus toward those who had wrong motives. You know, you may have come here today with all kinds of wrong motives. Maybe you came to eat lunch, to be religious, make yourself feel better. Maybe you came because your parents told you you had to. You may have had the wrong motives. But Jesus takes you as you are in a sense of you're a sinner and he can save you by grace. He changes you and molds you and makes you different and can give you a new heart despite your motives. And he calls us to come. Come unto me, he says, all you who are thirsty and heavy laden, I will give you rest. My friend Ken Poles has written a song. He's at Grace Baptist Church there in Cape Coral, Florida. He says, O sinner, come to Jesus Christ and find the riches He can give. In Him find all for life and peace. O sinner, look to Christ and live. This can happen today. Thirdly, don't be surprised when your schedule is interrupted. Oh, you don't like to hear that, do you? I mean, I got my schedule, I want it to happen, right? Don't be surprised when your schedule is interrupted. Be available to be used by God even when it's your time to relax and to be on vacation. Jesus had compassion on them because he saw that they were like sheep without a shepherd. Think about that. Jesus welcomed them. So should we. Fourthly, remember the means of grace are the hands of men. You know, I thought about this. God used the disciples. And they were passing out the bread. And they were participating in the miracle. You know, God uses us in ministry. This is His ministry. Whenever we tell others about the gospel, we get to participate in the means of grace in other people's lives. Think about the disciples. They were able to participate. Do you think they were excited about that? Jesus, this is great! Look what you've done! How much more so whenever God uses us to speak to someone else about Christ, and we see that God brings new life to their hearts. Not because of anything we've done, but because His Spirit has enlivened them, but He's used us in the process. Lastly, this, Jesus will often test us, though he already has his own plan. And that's hard, isn't it? We think we have our plans, and Jesus shows us something different, and he is often just testing us. He already has it all planned out. He's wanting to see how we're going to react, not because he doesn't already know, but because he wants us to see it. Well, I hope this is this short time that we've had this afternoon has been helpful to you. I pray that the Lord will use it in our lives today. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your mercy upon us. Make us to be Christians, followers of Christ who desire to have compassion upon others. who know not the gospel, to be willing to give of ourselves, to tell others about you. Lord, make us ones who will desire you above all things, who do not seek you just for the bread or just because we want to see some exciting things happen, but we seek you because we desire to know you above all things. Bring these back to our hearts. Help us to think about them and think about your word and what you've taught us this afternoon. For the glory of Christ, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.