Well, I have some some bad news to start out with this morning. There is no pot luck after service today. I know it was awesome, but y'all got to figure out your lunch for yourself. And I have a question. Want to take a quick poll this morning.

What is your after church goto. Do you go like leftovers. Anybody for leftovers.

I'm like Yeah. So, you're making a sandwich though. Who goes home and makes lunch.

>> Homemade pizza. Some people make lunch. Who just says forget lunch. There are some people who just say, "Forget lunch.

, some people Okay, got to ask this. Anybody like fast food. I'm just going to stop like right after. Get some fast food. Aaron's the only honest person in the room.

, let's just be honest. We all like have to have to from time to time stop for fast food. And typically if we're being honest, sometimes we stop for fast food when like we actually just don't want to cook. And so like this is me and I remember coming home from a long weekend on tour with with my band and we were coming home.

It was late and we're getting back and I'm thinking I have food at home, but the there's one huge problem with the food at home. I had to cook it. Okay, I don't want to cook it. And then I see golden arches in the distance like a cloud from heaven is saying, "Stop, Big Mac. " And like, "Get it here now.

" and and I get it and I just like you know what. Forget the food I have at home. I'm going to eat that.

I pick it up and it tastes like food. And and I it keeps me It makes me feel full for just a little while. And then all of a sudden I get home and I'm hungry.

I'm I'm I'm hungry again. And so I end up cooking the food, eating the food, and now I've doubled the calories and I've doubled my intake. And you know trying to watch the figure and all that, but a and all of a sudden I had the appearance or the feeling that I was going to be full but yet I was still empty.

And this is kind of where we're picking up our message series today is talking about why we feel so full, but on the inside we feel so empty, like there's something missing. Like on the outside we have busy lives, busy schedules. There's always something to do. There's always something coming up.

But yet on the inside, in those silent moments, we feel like something is missing. And so that's where we're continuing this week in this message series that we're calling Who is Jesus. And we're looking at the life of Jesus. We're learning from who Jesus is to answer some of these big questions. So again, the question is, why do I still feel empty when life feels full.

And to answer that, we got to do what we do every week, which is pull open the word of God. So turn there to page 916. , by the way, as Wes said, we give away Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, please take that one home with you, but make me a promise that you're going to read it, okay.

It is your lifeline, your offensive weapon here in the world. , and now this story that we're going to look at, I'm really fired up about because this is one of those stories. It's told across all four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And it is the only thing aside from the crucifixion that is told in all four gospels. It is the only story. So, you know that it's a big deal. And now listen to me. I need you guys to lock in before we read scripture here this morning.

, I need you to treat me this morning like a mailman. And this is what I mean by that. , when you get a bill in the mail that's unexpected, you don't blame the mailman.

You go to the person who gave you the bill. I am the mailman. If you don't like what I have to say this morning, take it up with the boss.

, I I premise that not because I'm going to say or there's something in this scripture that's specifically going to point some of that stuff out, but sometimes we sit in church in Sunday mornings and we have this kind of convicting feeling. I want you to know that's not the mailman. That's the Holy Spirit working in you. So, let's read this story starting in verse one here. It says sometime after this.

By the way, what is after this. , here's your way to know what's going on. Go back, watch all the messages in this series so far, okay. Jesus is doing healings.

Okay, he's doing a lot of healings. His ministry is taking off. So, sometime after this, Jesus crossed to a far shore of the Sea of Galilee. And a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs that he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountain side and sat with his disciples and the Jewish Passover festival was near.

When he looked up, he saw a great crowd coming towards him. Some of the other gospel accounts will say Jesus had compassion over the crowd. And he said to Philillip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat.

" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. By the way, that is a comforting statement if you really think about it. Do you know whatever it is you're going through right now, Jesus already knows what he's going to do about it. Okay, just remember that.

This is what Philip's response is. Philip answered him, "It would take more than half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite. " Okay, let's pause there because this will give us the the first thing that we need to take away for when our lives feel empty. To recap, there's about 5,000 people here. Now, by the way, when they say 5,000 people, it wasn't 5,000 people, it was 5,000 households.

Back then, when they took a census or a count, they would count the head of the household. And so, there is more than 5,000 people there. And so this would be like the equivalent of me coming up to you and saying, "Hey, after service today, I want you to help me feed half of East Bethl lunch.

" And we're not going to feed them McDonald's. We're going to feed them some good stuff. And you would automatically say, "Okay, , how is that going to work.

" Or you might go to the logistic and, , sorry about that. You might go to the logistic and think, well, I gotta calculate that down to the last bite. And that's what Philip does here.

He goes down to the last bite and says how much it would take. And this shows the first thing is that we feel empty because we're living by sight and not by faith. And if we're being honest, , a lot of us follow trends, statistics, facts, different things to pick up on trends and to pick up on different ways that that we can learn about what's going on.

Is my mic on or do I need to like I'm sorry you guys, my head is like two times smaller today than it was last week. I don't know. Maybe I was just like really excited about the baptisms. Is it in the back, too. I just forget it.

Where's the other microphone. Sorry, guys. There we go. There we go. Much better.

You guys hear me. You guys can hear me. So, anyways, as I was saying, this is us living by sight and not by faith.

And that's what Philip's response is. His response is one of like supply and demand is kind of what we call it in the economics world. He's looking at the demand, the demand of people that need to eat and he's looking at the supply and saying there is not enough.

There's not enough. And can I tell you this happens still to this day. Okay, last week I cannot tell you how many people called or texted me and said, "Hey, there's a lot of people coming to the baptism service.

Are we going to have enough for the potluck. " So many people called. And I I responded, "We're going to have enough.

I'm I'm responding in faith. We're going to have enough. " for those of you who were here last week, did we have enough.

>> We had enough. Thank you, Laura. Everybody thank Laura for that. We had enough. , and we also had leftovers.

Okay, spoiler alert. That's how this story is going to end. , we had leftovers. We had enough to feed.

But all of us think in this logical sense. But here's the truth is that full lives, if we want to live a full life versus an empty life, full lives live fully by faith. That means they're not responding in or they're responding in faith instead of in fact.

By the way, let me just say by you sitting in this spot where you are today, you are responding in faith instead of in fact. Okay, let me explain how. The fact is is that on paper, starting a brand new church makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, you guys could go, this is not telling you to go there, but you guys could go somewhere and probably find more comfortable chairs, right.

You could find a church that has a lot of gimmicks and a lot of things that would draw you in and keep you in. But here's the truth. You guys sitting in these chairs are displaying faith by saying, "I believe that God is doing something here.

And I believe that as I look around at our supply that it can meet the demand of people who don't know Jesus in East Bethl and St. Francis and beyond. I believe in faith that God is going to use this church and I'm willing to sit and be a part of it by serving, by giving, by being here and praying for people that are lost. That's what you guys are doing in faith. And so carry that same idea into other parts of your life to live fully by faith.

And so sometimes though, in order to do that, you have to dismiss some of the fact to know that Jesus is going to do something with your faith. And that's what happens next. Let's look verse eight. It says this, "Another disciple, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up," "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish. But how far will they go among so many.

" Jesus said, "Have them sit down. " There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down. About 5,000 men were there. And Jesus took the loaves.

He gave thanks and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. And he did the same with the fish. So, here's a boy. He's got some Swedish fish and some Cheeits.

Like he's just he's like I think that's what they're doing in kids ministry. No, I'm just kid. But he that that's what he gives. He gives just a very small portion, but it was all that this little boy had.

And this is the second reason why our lives may feel empty and full is that you're holding on to what God is calling you to give. So, here's something that I find interesting about this story. You mean to tell me that there are 5,000 households there and there is not one mom in that crowd with a backpack full of snacks.

Like that's what I I'm just like trying to think logically here. And I think what happened is that this is the Josh Myers translation of the Bible. You don't have to take it as as truth here. I I think what happened is that this little boy was the first little boy that said, "Hey, I got something that one of the disciples could find. " Now, think about the faith of a child for a second.

Okay, you guys all know kids at least or have had kids and you know that when they're really young, you can say, "Hey, get in the car. We're going. " And they might ask, "Where are we going.

" Even though they might not fully understand it, they will get in the car because why. Because they trust you. Because they trust you.

And this is the same thing for us is that, hey, we don't know where things are going to go, but we know who we're going there with. And who we're going there with is Jesus. And so this child knows, but he had no clue what Jesus is going to do with his lunch.

But he was still willing to let go of it all. Here's a tough question. Don't hate the mailman.

Are you Are you willing to do the same thing. Because sometimes what we do is we look at giving to God and we almost look at God like he's he's kind of taking our lunch money. Like can you imagine if this boy started like pretending like, you know, don't take my lunch. This is mine. This is my lunch money.

, I I'm thankful that I didn't grow up in a time where I got like beat up on the way to school to get my lunch money taken. But here's a fun fact. I still got my lunch money taken.

Can I tell you about how. My name, my full name is Josh Meyers. Until I reached my senior year, I was the only Josh Meyers in my high school. Guess what happened with the incoming ninth graders. There were not one but two Josh Meyers spelled the exact same way.

I didn't know this. So, I'd go to put my little check into the the slot for my lunch money and then I'd go and I would go and get go to get lunch and snacks and I'd be like, "What the heck. " And then I'd go back to my mom and say, "I need lunch money. " And she'd say, "What.

I just gave you some. , and so I had to do some investigative work and I found out that other Josh Meyers are just imposters. They're like taking my money, right. And so I had to like figure out, okay, a new system for this.

But here's the point. The point is a lot of us view God like this. When we give, we almost view God in a sense of saying, "Okay, God, I will give you what I have left over or whatever you can take out of this. Now, this isn't necessarily about a message about tithing or giving, but what we see here from this little boy, from the faith of this little boy, is he was he he was willing to give up not just a little bit, but all he had.

Okay, this is the difference between a tithe and a tip. Okay, if you haven't been in church for a long time or or heard about about giving before, there's a real big difference between tipping God and tithing. For us, God calls us into tithing.

That is 10%. And that's not the the ceiling. That is the floor.

That is the starting point. That means for every like $100 you are putting $10 and giving it back to the kingdom. But what we often do, and I'm guilty of it, too.

Just because I'm talking about it doesn't mean I haven't done it. Let's get that clear. But what a lot of us do is we'll tip God.

Whatever we have left over in the bank account after all the expenses are paid or whatever we have that we deem is worthy of giving to God. Okay, but here's the thing is a lot of us then what we will do is live with closed lunchboxes and we won't get to see the blessing that God has for each of our lives. Okay, let me just tell you this.

I don't care where you give. I just want you to give because I want you to see what God does with your open hand because God knows that where your treasure is, where the money is, there your heart will be too. Now think about this from the boy's perspective.

He was so willing to act in faith to give Jesus all he had. And then he got to sit back and watch what his giving did. It multiplied and it fed thousands of people. Can I tell you when we talk about offering up here, it multiplies. I need you to hear this.

So when you are giving to this tiny little church plant, you know what it's doing. It's helping 12 people get baptized. It's helping four people come to faith in Christ, which I'm going to tell a story later about that that I'm so excited for.

Your giving is doing that. God is taking the the faith that you have to say, "Here, I I believe, God, that you're going to do something with this. " , I want to end this section by just sharing a quote with you. And the quote goes like this. You make a living off of what you get, but you make a life off of what you give.

If you want to see God move in your life in this way where you can see the fullness of his blessing unfold in different areas of your life. Here's my challenge to you. It's the only time in the Bible that that God says, "Test me in this. Bring the whole tithe to the storehouse and test me in this and see that I don't bless you. " Now, that doesn't mean that God works like a genie, but what that does mean is that God is going to do what he did with this little boy's lunch.

He is going to multiply it, and that is going to bring you into this full life. Cuz look at look at what this little boy gets to experience. Now, look at verse 12. It says, "When they all had, what does this say.

Enough to eat. They didn't just eat. They had full stomachs. He said to his disciples, "Gather the leftovers.

" There was leftovers. Remember Swedish fish and Cheezits. There was leftovers. Okay, let nothing be wasted. So they gathered them and filled 12 baskets with all the pieces of the five barley loaves left over from those who have eaten.

By the way, I like to picture the little boy bringing one of the baskets home to his parents and saying, "You guys are never going to believe what happened to me today. " Like he he had been so pumped about that. And what's really cool about this story is that as these as the fish and the loaves were being distributed, what we learn by the other gospel accounts is that Jesus is not only handing out the bread and the fish, but his disciples are too. Now, stop and pause for a minute and think about this from the disciples perspective.

Think about it. If you were one of Jesus's disciples, he's saying, "Hey, go back into that basket and grab some fish and loaves. Pass it out to that group and then to that group and then to that group. " And you're like, "What.

But yet they went back and instead of the logical thing, which would be to take stuff and then it would slowly shrink, they would go back and it would just be where it was when they left it. That's multiplication in the hands of people that were following Jesus. This is another reason why our lives start to feel empty when Jesus wants us to have a full life is because our lives aren't multiplying.

Your life isn't multiplying. And when I say multiplying, I don't just mean, you know, Genesis verse where it says, "Hey, be fruitful and multiply. " And some of us will translate that to go have a happy life and and have kids. No, it's more than that. It's multiplying kingdom impact.

It's changing generations. It is making things new through what Jesus puts in your hands. Okay, I've been so excited for this point in the message. Okay, can I just tell you about how this happened last week. So, the first person on stage that I got to interview and baptize was my niece Riley.

She's in kids ministry right now. And Riley and I had been talking about baptism for a while. And she told me, "I don't feel like I I want to go up and necessarily share a story because I didn't have one of those like radical conversion stories. Like I grew up in a Christian home and I guess my story is just like really no big deal which you guys have heard me say this before is a lie.

Okay, you guys all have a story and all of the stories are good if they're a God story. And so I encouraged her and I said, "Come up and share your story. " And the first thing that Riley said out of her mouth was, "I gave my life to Christ when I was seven.

Do you know who was sitting out in the seats last week. A seven-year-old boy who turned to his family and said, "I'm seven. Can I follow Jesus. " And he was one of the kids that raised his hand last week. This is Riley and and him last week.

And so she got to then do my job. And she got to talk to this kid about faith. Isn't that amazing. Like that is so cool. This is what I mean by multiplying.

I don't mean like numerically multiplying. I mean that your lives start to impact others and start to impact those kids that are back there. A lot of you have been sitting and you've been consuming the bread and the fish for a long time, but Jesus is calling you to come and take up some of that and start to distribute it to others.

Okay, I'm going to make that real plain for you. Some of you are called to teach. Okay, some of you are called to lead.

Some of you are called to help kids and youth and the next generation to come to know Jesus in that way. Some of you are called to help heal the broken family. Some of you are called to heal the broken world.

Whatever it is that you are called to, God is putting this blessing, these gifts into your hand in order for you to multiply the impact. And that's what it looks like. And so, here's this story then of the what this boy gets to experience, the disciples. But let's read on. Look at verse 14.

We're going to kind of speed up a little bit. Verse 14 says, "And after the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, surely this is a prophet who has come into the world. Jesus knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force.

" What a sentence that is, by the way, withdrew to a mountain by himself. Anybody else want to duck out of you know, being in the spotlight. Jesus did right here.

He was like, "I'm getting out of here. I'm going to a mountain. Now, there's a little side story that happens here that we're not going to visit today, but I have to mention so you get the context because we believe that we're not going to take the word of God out of context here at Destination.

And so, here's what's going to happen. Now, he's going to go up on a mountain side and the disciples are going to get in a boat and they're going to cross a like a sea, okay. And the crowds are going to be looking for Jesus and the disciples after they kind of just pieced out. And then Jesus is going to come and walk on water in a storm. Great story.

We'll get to it someday. And I also said it at the beginning of destination. So go back and and watch it.

But here's what happens then is everybody kind of reconvenes on the other side. Look at verse go down to verse 24. It says this. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor the disciples were there, which how do you not know. They got into the boats and they went into into Capernaum in search of Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked, "Rabbi, when did you get here. " Jesus answered, "Very truly I told you, you were looking for me, not because you saw signs that I performed, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval. Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the work God requires. " You ready.

Jesus answered, "The work of God is this, to believe in the one he has sent. " Okay, let's pause here for a second. Jesus has the validation of the crowd and he has he has all of the stage and the platform to just carry his influence.

But what does he do. He calls this group out. He says, "Listen, you only want me because I'm going to give you more bread and more fish.

" That's a hard truth. And sometimes, if I'm being honest, I don't always approach Jesus in this way. Sometimes we may not either.

That we may go to Jesus to meet our needs instead of following Jesus. And this is an overarching theme that you will see throughout the book of John. Throughout the book of John, you will see so many people coming to Jesus for a need.

And not only does he meet that need, but he then says, "Do you know what you need even more than this need is you need me. You need Jesus. " And so a lot of us though is we can come with some of the the wrong motives towards Jesus. What can I get.

What can he give me instead of following Jesus for who he is. And then Jesus says the work of God is this to believe in the one who he has sent. He's talking about himself.

So he's saying listen, you need to the the the number one thing you need to do is not call me out on this whole bread thing. What you need is me. Because if you have Jesus, you have all you need.

If you have Jesus, you have all you need. And so this is what the the conversation continues in. Look at verse 30. It says, "So they asked him, 'What sign will you give us.

" Are you serious right now. Can I guess I'm going to be the only one finding the Bible hilarious. It's about to get really funny.

Okay, in my opinion. So they asked him, "What sign will you give us that we may see it and believe you. What will you do. " Like literally, did he not just multiply fish and bread.

And then they say this, "Our ancestors ate the mana in the wilderness as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. " Okay, pause for a moment. This is talking about the Old Testament where Moses was wandering in the desert and God rained mana, bread from heaven. Okay, so the crowd is saying, "What sign will you give us. " Like they already haven't given him a sign.

And then they say, then they start weaponizing scripture and saying, "Listen, hey, we know that God could re bread from heaven and so if you're the son of God and we're supposed to believe in you, let's see you do it again, right. " And that's what they're doing. Side note, sometimes the crowd and the crowd's perspective of that Bible verse is not right.

Okay, hard truth again. But now listen to what Jesus's response is. He says, "Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you bread from heaven.

But it is my father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives what is this word. It gives life to the world.

" Sir, they said, always give us this bread. Then Jesus, ready for the mic drop moment. Jesus declares, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

But as I told you, you have seen and you still don't believe. " So this is what Jesus does is Jesus points everything back to him. Do you see that physical need that you that you are talking about.

Are you know how you're talking about mana coming from heaven. Well, I am the bread. I came down from heaven. And I'm here for you now.

I'm here not only to meet your needs, but I'm here to give you hope and to give you a future and to give you a new life. But I want you to come to me for that. And so here's the big point of all of this is to be able to follow Jesus for a full life.

If you've been living in a way where you're doing all the things, you're checking all the boxes, your busy schedule, all of your things, and yet still inside there is something that feels like it's missing. It's because Jesus is calling you to himself in a deeper way of following him, in a deeper way of being generous, in a deeper way of being faithful, in a deeper way of leading and multiplying. And so what happens now is that the crowds start to get divided. They start to argue and they start to talk amongst themselves.

We're going to talk about this next week. And there starts to be confusion. And you would think that Jesus would want to kind of like clarify the confusion.

But he brings the confusion even deeper. Skip down for me to verse 48. He then reiterates in verse 48, I am the bread of life.

Your ancestors ate mana. So he's addressing their concern. He says, your ancestors ate mana in the wilderness, yet they died.

But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that comes down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh which I have given for the life of the world. This would be the first account in the gospel that leads us into what we know as communion into Jesus's last moments in the last supper when he took the bread and he said, "This is my body given to you.

Do this in remembrance of me. " And then he took the blood and said this is or he took a cup and said this is my blood shed for you. You see Jesus is pointing towards this sacrifice.

But you have to think of this from the disciples perspective and from the crowd's perspective. Jesus is talking about about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Like that sounds very cultlike, right. But what Jesus is doing here is he's showing look a full life in full submission of the sacrifice that I made for you. That I made a sacrifice for you when I went on the cross.

It's so that you could have a full life here on earth and an eternity with me in heaven. And I don't want you everybody in this room, my pastor heart for you is that that everybody in this room would not live a full busy life but be empty on the inside, but to see the fullness of what God can do in each and every one of you. So, here's how we're going to respond. , I'm going to invite the worship team up and, , for the rest of you, just bow your heads, close your eyes.

I just want this to be a moment between you and God where you reflect on on what God's been speaking to you. Again, I believe that that God is speaking to each and every one of us on a certain thing here. But I think the most important thing that we can leave here with today is by taking communion together. Communion is a remembrance of what Jesus has done.

And it reminds us as we take the the bread or the little cracker, it reminds us that his body was broken for us. And when we we take the cup and we drink from the cup, we remember that his blood was shed for us. And listen, he did this so that you could have this full life in him. So that you could come to him when you're hopeless, when you're hurting, when all of these things in the world seem to pile up and seem to happen.

That you can come to Jesus and he will not only feed you and meet your every need, but he will walk with you through that. And he's saying just seek me. I am the bread that when you feel hungry, when you feel empty, I am the bread. I am the bread of life.

And so communion as you come up and take it is open to those who believe. But maybe you're here and and you haven't said I believe. Maybe you're here and and a yes is something that you've never given to God before.

And so if you're here and you feel hungry and you feel like you've been running on empty and you just want to say yes to Jesus in a moment of boldness, would you just raise your hand if you're here. Just so I know who I'm praying for. There's somebody here that just needs to say yes to Jesus. Well, I'm going to pray and I want to pray for just those of us who are saying yes to Jesus and also for all of us as we remember these words.

God, we thank you so much for what you've done. We thank you that you are the bread of life, that you come to satisfy our souls. And so God, I pray that you would come, that you would bring us peace, that you would bring us hope, that you would bring us joy in your name, that we would come to you, that we would follow you for the full life that you have for us. So God, as we come forward and we take communion together, let it be a time of reflection on all the amazing things that you've done for us and the most amazing thing, giving yourself on the cross.

We thank you so much, Jesus. It's in your name we pray.