Welcome To The River. City Church podcast and a
message by our lead. Pastor Jason Powers our prayer
is that this message would Inspire and encourage you, build
your faith. And point you to the
life-changing love of Jesus, may you enjoy the goodness of God as
you follow him today, we're going to jump into the messenger
second, but we begin with our confession and we put our
confession aside for a few weeks.
So if you have come since the beginning of the year, you may
not have heard our confession yet, and we're going to it.
And that's, that's it. That's okay.
The reason we step back from this because we wanted to make
sure that we're not just kind of skipping through it, right, that
we're not just kind of saying it, but that we understand what
we're talking about, right? And so, for the first three
weeks, when we saw God's design, his order for creation, and then
the fall, and then how he begins to bring us back, it gives us an
understanding of exactly what it is.
When we confess and our confession has churches that
we're badly broken Yes, you are Grace and peace to you.
We began this Redemption Journey that's going to lead us to
Eastern. We saw last week of Jesus came
and really begin talking about the kingdom.
The Kingdom of Heaven, the kingdom of God is at hand, the
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And what was saw in the kingdom,
was Jesus coming to reinstitute? The order of the Garden of Eden,
we saw in the garden, right? That God created everything in
order and he placed mankind there to work it and he said
that was Mankind's vote. Haitian our work, our role in
this creation, was to take God's goodness and His glory and
reflected into creation by multiplication to make sure that
the Earth was full of the glory of God that everywhere you look,
you said, oh my gosh, this is amazing.
Look at all of the order. Look at how things Bloom when
they're supposed to how there's things that are healthy in the
whole earth is created, but we sin and we said, yeah, we'd
rather not have you or we like to have your stuff if we could
have your stuff without you, Jesus, that would be Great.
And the father was like, you chose and so we walked out into
the middle of the story, and until we come to Jesus, we find
Jesus beginning to put the story back together.
And when you go back to the garden and you see this Kingdom
that Jesus called us into its all about peace, right?
Like we saw this Adam and Eve and God were walking in the
garden. There was peace.
And we saw the animals came to them and they named them and
Adam and Eve were naked. And they weren't in it, they
weren't ashamed. And so they walked around and
they were content. They had enough, they And what
they needed and that's what God created, that's his design,
that's his ordered, that's what he wants to call us into.
He wanted to call us into a life of fruitfulness.
You know the thing is Adam was created outside of the garden
and so when Adam was placed in the garden it was already
blooming. Adam didn't have to go.
How am I going to get the grass to grow in a drought?
He walked into a garden and said it's already going.
His only job was to take what existed and multiply it and
expand it and spread it based on what was there on, what God had
provided and I was Community God and Adam and Eve enjoying the
garden enjoying creation and enjoying each other.
And the thing is that description resonates with most
of us, right? Like when we think about
fruitfulness, like don't you think, wouldn't you love the
idea of going to work and just having your job in your when you
come on every day? You just go.
Oh my gosh. It's like I did ten minutes of
hard-working. Got hours worth of fruit of
that. Wouldn't you just love to Come
home and just go seems like every single thing that I touch
is beautiful, wouldn't that be wonderful wouldn't be wonderful
to look at people in the eyes and know that the deepest parts
of yourself are not only known but accepted and that you are
loved in spite of, who are the people will look at you and just
assume the best. Even if it's contrary to kind of
what they see, and they just go. Hey, I believe that in you.
I believe there's something in you that God wants to get out.
Wouldn't your world be better? Wouldn't we like that?
When we love it, if all of the piece we just walked around and
we just knew we're going to be it's going to be okay, right.
So we want all these things and I think it's fair to say the
reason we want these things is because whatever it is that
we're trying isn't producing them, right?
And that was Genesis 3. That was the curse or The God
says you're going to do the same things that you've done and the
garden. You're going to live together.
You're going to have relationships with their not
going to be fulfilling like they were Were absent God's presence.
You're going to still have work, but it's going to be toil in the
ground is gonna produce thorns and thistles.
And that's what it's going to be about.
And so, our methods, our way of life doesn't produce what it is
that we're looking for. And so we searched and we
searched and we searched different ways, right?
We just say, well, I'm going to double down on this fruitfulness
part, right? So I'm just go, I really want to
see us, so I'm gonna go to work. I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna
get it, get it, get it. So we start to see our work grow
and grow, and grow, and build were building this thing in our
hearts, get attached to it. And we look around her, kids are
off the reservation and our families are Our part because
we're focusing so much of our attention here and then we go,
oh my gosh, I can't abandon my kids and so we go and we focus
on our marriage. We focus on her kids and we try
to make peace. And then we see, oh well, the
bottom line comes and we look and we just go his there ever
enough? This is the problem of scarcity,
by the way, see when mankind walked out of the garden and out
of the presence of God, what they left behind was the god who
created all things, the God who said, let there be and there
was. And so when Jesus Shows up and
starts talking about repent. He says, repent because the
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, he confronts us with this
invitation, right? And he just says, Hey, follow me
and I'll show you the Kingdom. So the question that the
disciples face, it's really the same for us.
The question that we face today is, do you really believe that
the things that Jesus Promised are in operation today?
Do you really believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, it
is in our time and in our space or do we believe that the
Kingdom of Heaven is just some nice neat ideas, some good
things that Jesus said there really mean when we die we're
going to sit on a cloud and play a harp.
Because Jesus Took the kingdom of heaven with utmost
seriousness, and he calls the disciples to the same and
Everywhere. You See, Jesus going.
And every time you see Jesus saying, the Kingdom of Heaven is
at hand, you find him touching somebody and healing them.
You find him feeding somebody who is hungry, you find him
comforting, and encouraging someone who is sick or lost or
lonely. And so, every time that Jesus
talked about the kingdom, he spoke in terms of or he spoke
and then he acted. And so we're going to see one of
those actions today. And we kind of alluded at it,
eluded to it last week, we're going to get Mark chapter 6
today. And I'm going to try to hurry,
right? And hit and hit some of these
things. You're like, yeah, but you're
not gonna and you're probably right, but we'll do our best,
right? So this idea of the Kingdom,
right? Of Jesus, trying to get his
disciples, not just to understand intellectually, the
idea that the kingdom is at hand, but actually to live into
it to physically Express those Kingdom realities.
And what I would say to us is, if we're here followers of
Jesus, this is the same invitation that he extends.
Us. And if you're here, and you're
not a follower of Jesus, like, somebody just drugged you here
and you're like, they said, they would buy me lunch.
Well, let me just tell you. If they're in a buy, you lunch,
you made a good choice. I'm glad that you're here,
right? And that's all we need.
But while you're here, you may, you know, learn something as
well, right? And so, this is the idea that
Jesus wants us to, really believe that the kingdom is a
real thing. And it's really at hand, and
it's really present, and it's really for us.
So, let's see the shape that that takes.
We started Mark chapter 6, in verse 30.
If you look before this, Jesus had sent them out about the
King, right? And he said, Hey listen, I want
you to go heal diseases. Okay?
So listen when he says he'll diseases, who does that impact,
right? I'm going to say a word is going
to be the answer to everything so you can repeat in your son,
really smart. The reason Jesus wanted to heal
diseases was because of people. Why did Jesus want to feed
hungry people because hungry people are people.
People is a thing, right? Why did Jesus tell to heal the
disease of the people because he wanted to elevate the condition
of what people see. It's really about People see,
Jesus is about the people, so let's see what happens.
Now, verse 30, the apostles returned to Jesus.
Then they told him all that they had done and taught and Jesus
says to me, Come Away by yourselves to a desolate place
and rest a while for many were coming and going and they had no
leisure even to eat some. This message, this passage in
Mark, chapter 6 is about a lot of things it's about provision.
It's about miracles, it's about multiplication.
It's about disciples and it's about all of that.
But among all of the other things, the one thing the aspect
of this die, I'm that I want to dial in on today is that Jesus
invites his disciples to rest. To rest.
Now I want to ask you. What does that mean to you?
Some of you may believe that Jesus really isn't interested in
that arrest. Jesus Took a cross for you and
by God, you'll serve him until you're done and if you die along
the way, well at least he took a cross for you, right?
We get it. We do so much like spiritual
exercise and engine. We just go and just tired.
So the question is, when was the last time you were arrested?
And I don't mean inactive, right?
Because Stillness isn't equivalent to rest like so
Friday is Fridays, are my Sabbath now, I know if I sit
down on Friday and I spend all day Going through Tick-Tock.
Now my my muscles may be at rest but is my heart in my soul going
to be at rest. I'm gonna go to bed that night
and I'm going to feel just as bedraggled and beat up and weary
and my soul as I was when I went to bed because it's not always
just about Stillness. How about this?
And this will be foreign to some of you.
But some of you know what it's like to spend all day on the
couch because the fear and the anxiety in your heart is so
compelling and deep and Rich that you can't get up.
You're afraid of outside the door and so, you know, that's
not rest. If you look at the outside of
it, it looks like you're just sitting down, you're sitting but
you know, it's not rest in your soul, but also it's the reality
is sometimes activity is actually restful.
I used to coach my daughter's softball team and let me just
tell you, it was a lot of work, lots of practices, and games,
and four nights a week and do all that stuff.
It was one of the most rested and restful seasons of my life,
because it was all the things that I love.
I love softball of the baseball and I love investing in people.
So softball coaching. Softball was busy, but it was
restful every time I go play golf.
Now, I come back and I had to take a nap and I've eat a big
lunch and I feel rested in my soul.
Because of activity because acting and doing things makes me
feel at rest. So then the question becomes if
it's not just Stillness and if it's not just activity.
Then what is rest? What is this thing?
That Jesus called his disciples to and I want to ask, what does
the picture of rest? Look like to you, maybe it looks
like that. Yeah, you know it's so restful
about that all the people are behind the camera or gone.
That's what I look like. My rest is actually more like
this. That's the one we're going to go
a little less grainy and hazy. Probably higher resolution but
you know, you go on places and you always see these pictures
right there. Like, would you live here for a
year with? No.
Wireless internet for a million dollars?
I was like I'll give you a million dollars to let me live
there for a year with no Internet, right?
And so the question is, what is that?
Is that what rest looks like to you?
Because here's the deal if that's what rest means.
Then we're kind of in trouble, right?
Because most of the time we can't get to their right if I
feel overwhelmed and burned on a Wednesday afternoon.
I can't just get to that beach because we live in Texas on that
beach is not in Texas. Some of you Florida people like
right. But right, if that's all the
rest is the most Us are settled in for a lifetime of weariness
because we can't always get there, but Jesus called his
disciples to rest, right? And here we go, verse 32.
What does it say? And they went away in the boat
to a desolate place by themselves.
You're like, thank you, Jesus. You did, we got the beach and we
can just sit there and you have coconuts and make a fire and
tell stories. Be one, it'll be fun right verse
33. Now many saw them going and
recognized and they ran their on foot from all the towns and they
got there. Ahead of them.
So you can imagine, they're on the boat and they're like, oh,
I'm gonna have my tie Jesus and I mean, just be sitting down and
read my book. I'm going to start a fire and
I'm gonna do all that, and then they look over.
And at the end of the story, we told that they were 5,000 men,
which means there may have been, as many as 15 to 20,000 people.
Hi everybody. So, the question is, when you're
expecting a rest, when you feel like you've been called away, to
get some rest with Jesus and his people and 20,000 people, Are
staring you in the eyeballs. Needing something from you.
Do you feel rested? Because it may not be 20,000.
People wanting Sermon from you, but it may be three kids needing
to be different places every night of every week for the rest
of your life, it seems a right? I mean, that's where we are
right now. What do we what do we do, right?
Like Lord, how do I rest when I've got high school baseball in
middle school, cheer, and high-end and middle school plays
and, and and Lord, I want to do something sometime to write.
Like, how do we find rest in the middle of the chaos, right?
And we see this, I'm always comforted because I see the I
see the Disciples. Right?
And and, you know, the crowds are coming first and see like
what does Jesus do, okay? Because this is important, when
we read the scriptures and you see Jesus, we're not Jesus in
the scripture, right? Like you can't.
Look at just go ahead and look how I resonate with that, right,
where the disciples, right? So, let's first, let's see what
Jesus. Now, again, Jesus is a busy guy
to write. Jesus is doing Ministry and all
this stuff. And here we come verse 33.
Now many verse 34. When he, when Jesus went ashore,
he saw a great crowd and he had compassion, On them for a
reason, right? Because they were like sheep
without a shepherd and he began to teach them many things.
I just want to say right now that some of you think when you
get busy and you get worn out and your heart gets empty and
you feel like you're out of energy, some of you think that
what Jesus is saying to you, is what's wrong with you?
Why don't you have more What happened to the energy?
I gave you last week and what I want to say is when you are
searching and you are seeking and you are like a shepherd and
you are wandering around and you go I don't know what's coming or
going or where I'm at and you look up what I want to know is
when Jesus looks on your condition and your situation and
your lost and helpless and searching what Jesus feels for
you, it's compassion. That's so important because if
you think that Jesus is angry with you for, not measuring up,
you'll miss it. You'll never find the rest that
you seek, you will always be working and trying and going and
getting their right. But Jesus feels compassion now
what are the disciples do verse 15?
And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and he
said, this is a decibel desolate place and the hour is now late.
So send them away to go into the surrounding Countryside and
Villages and buy themselves something to eat now.
It's real nice. Yeah, let him go get something
to eat but You can hear behind their voice.
We want rest, I'm tired of working.
I'm tired of all the people neat.
You got to preach a sermon. Glad your ministry is going so
good. Jesus, send them away because
you talk to us about rest. Now the question that I want to
say is why was Jesus able to respond differently
instinctively differently than the disciples.
If you'll notice this there's not this sense of Jesus stand
about going. Oh my gosh what should I do what
it says is that Showed up, he gets off the boat and he just
instinctively and naturally has compassion for them.
And what did the disciples naturally and instinctively have
disdain? Send them away?
Because we often I think see people as the problem even when
it comes to busyness, right? If my kids coach would just not
call practices all the time kids coaches in the room, by the way,
which is always a fun thing. Right today, I write if they
were just not schedule so much salt, then I would be at rest
here, right? And maybe it's not about the
coach, maybe it's about something else, right?
Here's the good. Here's a good news in this,
right? Comes from a question, can there
be rest in chaos? Can there be peace in busyness?
Because if Jesus only calls us to rest on a beach, most of us
will spend most of our lives unrested.
And that's just not the picture that we find in scripture,
that's not the invitation that we find, Jesus getting his
people. And so we find are these two
instinctive responses and the word for an Did response is
habit. You know habits, right?
Addictions are habits right. Talk about what's a, what's a
habit, right. Smoking is a habit chewing your
nails. I'm a nail biter and they'll
sure it's gross but it's a habit.
I don't want to do it. I just find myself that I have
done it, right? And we think about those things.
Those are some habits that we have, right?
And your mom may be thinking about a habit that you have.
But listen, all kinds of things can be habits.
Anything that comes up. Instinctively is a habit.
Did you know anger can be a habit?
You ever just go suddenly I'm furious at everything, right?
Like, why can a nine-year-old setting a cup in the sink?
Send me over the moon, right? Like because anger is a habit,
fear can be a habit and what we're seeing here is Jesus
intentionally, right? What is he doing?
He's confronting his disciples with scarcity.
Scarcity says there's too much need and not enough.
Resource, right? So Jesus has compassion, the
disciples have a freak out. And so the question now becomes,
what does Jesus do when confronted with scarcity?
When we look around the world, and we look around the room, and
we look around our life and we say, there's not enough, there's
not enough money, there's not enough hope.
There's not enough goodness, there's not enough, right?
There's not enough in this world.
What does Jesus do? Does Jesus step back and
especially in this idea of rest, right?
Because we're running and we're going and we're striving for all
these things. We love Jesus.
I want all the things that you want, how get beer, I don't want
peace, and fruit and community, and all that who were just
running, we're going. And the question is, is Jesus is
invitation and His call to rest. Is it a big joke?
Did he just do Polly? Hey guys, come follow get some
rest with me so that they could be like his servants and like
his slaves. The resounding answer has to be.
No Jesus doesn't give in to the fallenness for an instant
because he knows because he knows there's a greater reality.
The reality is the Kingdom, right?
So, what does Jesus do, verse 37 are like, Jesus, send them away.
There's too much Reese. There's too much need.
There's not enough resource. And verse 37.
Jesus says You give them something to eat.
Hey, you go feed 20,000 people. See, this is what Jesus does.
He does this start, can you imagine being in the room?
You look around. You're like I like I'm hungry
Jesus. You said, if I follow you we
would get away and then you leave me do like a Ministry
rally and I'm hungry, and they're hungry, and Jesus like,
well you give him something. Now, let me just real quick,
pause and and make sure that we're making all these
connections to the big picture in the big story.
Right? What did God tell Adam and Eve
to do in the garden to be fruitful and multiply right?
And what he said right like Maintain the order of the
garden. Now, here's a question and the
Garden of Eden was there, ever anybody or anything hungry in
the Garden of Eden? Was there anyone like where the
deer are like? Hey, we're gonna have to split
this apple because there's not enough apples in the Garden of
Eden, right? No, there was plenty of
everything. So, here's the deal, we can say
that a hungry crowd is the antithesis of the kingdom of
God, isn't it, right? So what did Jesus do to his
disciples fellas? You've got a vocation.
You better get after it and so this I think this very well may
be the thing that keeps us from truly and actually feeling, and
being rested and our lives. Are you ready?
Nope. Because I know, as I was writing
this all week long, as I think I'm missing this Jesus, because
it doesn't make sense. And what I meant when I said it
doesn't make sense is Lord. I can't comprehend in this
little brain, how all of that works because what it sounds
like is it sounds like counterintuitive, right?
But Jesus called his disciples to rest and I don't think Jesus
saw the boat companies. Like, oh my gosh.
Now what now, what am I going to do?
How are we going to go ahead? And I don't think Jesus like,
hey, I'm so sorry guys, man, I didn't know what I'm sorry, but
we'll go rest now, right? Right?
With Jesus said, as you give them something to eat.
And so when Jesus, Faces weary and tired disciples like you
maybe Jesus engages them in the deep.
Rest of Kingdom work and you're like those are opposites rest
and work. Now let me just say I ask real
quick and just say that we have that Paradigm, right?
And we believe it rest and work are opposite.
Here's the deal. If that were true wouldn't we
all be more rested? If we knew what actually made
rest, wouldn't we be more rested?
And so, what Jesus does when faced with weary disciples is,
he reminds them of what they were created for.
He reminds them of their vocation and he points their
eyes, and he goes. Listen, hungry people is not a
problem that we in the kingdom are supposed to are supposed to
have. We're supposed to meet that
need. And so, you disciples, as
citizens of that Kingdom, you should go fix that.
You fix it, right? And so, What happened is they
were tired? They were fatigued.
If you go back before Matthew 6:33, Jesus sends them out by
himself. And now he comes back and
they're still hungry people. They're still lost people.
They're still hungry hurting people, right?
And Jesus calls them to rest and then he stands with them and he
walks. And so, here's a new and a
different, I hope. And I think a better definition
of rest rest is the habit of being with Jesus in a chaotic
world. We don't get to just live our
lives on the beach. And listen, I would say that,
even if you could, every once in a while, you talk to somebody
who's retiring, right? And you just ask them about, hey
what are you going to do when you retire and what do they do?
They sell him to go. Sit on a beach somewhere.
I'm going to do nothing. The reality is that usually
doesn't last very long. Do you know why?
Because we were created for purpose.
We were created for a vocation. So what I hear someone who says
I'm just going to go sit on the beach for months what I think
is. That's a person who's tired.
That's a person who is exhausted.
That's a person who has been working and not seeing fruit and
peace and Immunity and life into their world, right?
And so the thing that the matter of rest for us is not as much
what we're doing as who we're doing it with.
Now, the reality of that is if we start focusing, not just on
what we're doing, but on who we're doing it with immediately
will realize, there are some things that will stop doing
right, I'll stop controlling people.
Stop manipulating people will stop having voice will stop
dividing, right? But what happens is we don't
have to Kiss on those things so much.
They just become habits they become Instinct.
And so, what we're going to do real quick, I'm going to try to
blow through this and show. What I want to in show is some
habitual responses that Jesus had in this series, that allowed
him to overcome scarcity, right? Some habitual responses that
Jesus had and how those habits how we can practice those and
build this. Because this is Lent, right?
And Lynn is a season, right? Where we're giving things up and
we're trying new stuff. So what is Don't mean for our
spiritual formation. Alright, so here we go.
We're going to start in the second half of verse 37 and
we're just going to pick up what I think.
Think, think some things that Jesus just did that are
instructive for us. Okay, Mark 6:37.
Second part of 37 says this. And they said, well, should we
go buy 200? Denarius worth of bread and give
them to eat. A Denarius was about a day's
wages, right? So you can see them just going.
If we had nine months worth of wages, here, we couldn't Feed.
All these people, this isn't like, hey, I've got two pizzas
and 12 youth and there's no way they're going to.
They're going to eat all of this, right?
This is like a ridiculous overwhelming amount of need and
as of yet zero provision and Jesus is like, oh yeah, I just
go have just feed them. Oh yeah, they're hungry.
You just feed him, right. He said, should we go do this?
And Jesus said, or how many do you have?
Not 20,000. If they all had enough, maybe
fool right now. They wouldn't eat rice like.
So how much do you have? And when they found out they
said five Five Loaves and two fish.
Now I know what you're thinking. You're like thing in love, like
I little baguette, right? I've seen French bread light,
it's long and 8 feet long. You're right.
If we get a couple sailfish, maybe we can feed them.
All right, false. Sardines and like crackers
barley loaves, they would have fit in your hand.
It's a little boys lunch. It's a little boys lunch.
Would you like well, hey, 20,000 people there.
What do you have, right? And so this is an example of
scarcity, right? When you look and just go,
there's too much month at the end of the money, right?
When you go, there's not enough self confidence in me to stand
up and to do the right thing. There's not enough discipline in
me to get up and go to church. There's not enough courage in me
to make my kids. Do what I want to do, there's
just Just not enough, there's this habit that we practice of
scarcity, right? And so the disciples habit and
so what is Jesus do? He says will you give them
something right? And so here's the thing that I
just want to tell you, right? When you go, like we said,
right? When you go to the Garden of
Eden, there's no scarcity, there's no sense of the deer
fighting over the last a corner, anything like that.
And what we find Jesus doing is Jesus is living in that world in
this moment. Because what Jesus knows is that
Kingdom. Abundance is experienced in
habitual. Generosity.
Listen, did you know that the secret to not being afraid of
not having enough is to give your like Pastor that's dumb.
I know, right? The here's the thing I would
just say talk to me when your way produces the kind of rest
that I want to see. Right?
What we have is these ideas that if I do it my way, then it will
lead to what one? And what Jesus says is if you
want to know that you've got enough start giving it away.
See the problem is we practice scarcity.
And so we believe it every time we start to run out, what do we
do? Well I got kit, othrys mine,
stop mine, find out, right? That's the decide, right?
Send them away. Jesus.
And she's like, you've got something that you eat, right?
And so we hide. And we hoard, right?
Then we practice. And Jesus like what have you
just practiced abundance? You know, we're so we're moving
into fried Village and we are surrounded by restaurants and
and all that. Do you know what their greatest
fear of Us coming is guesses We're gonna take all the parking
space. Do you know why that's a worry
for them particularly restaurants?
Because church people, you know what though?
I was a waiter for a while. Do you know what?
The Worst Album everybody says it Sunday, lunch is the worst is
the worst, right? You know why?
Because Christians will come in, they'll be meet Christians,
right? Will be mean to the waiters and
the leave them a track. Hey, we're not gonna do that.
When we show up, here's the deal.
You want to practice general? What it would you like to
overcome scarcity? Right.
Like you like to have that idea. Here's a practice become a 30%.
Tipper /. Just because go well, they're
terrible service. Hey, you're not Jesus.
You're not the judge of their wait, staff ability, and you
don't have any idea what's going on in their life.
You don't give them 30 percent because they have somehow earned
it, you give 30% because you're a child of the king and you have
the ability to be so full of grace and peace in this world
that it absolutely overflows. I would love to have every
stinkin Sunday a line of people with Food on their shirt, in
their apron on to just go. Hey, I gotta find out what's
going on over here because your people come in, and they're
friendly and they're nice and they're kind, and I'm rich now
because of y'all. Yeah, right.
Yeah. You know what?
Because you know what happens, then, people start going, they
talk about this Jesus, who's a giver and then they do it.
What's going on? See what happens is, generosity
disciplines, the fear of scarcity out of us.
Now listen I'm not saying anybody's gotta go give a
million dollars. What I'm saying is who did Jesus
celebrate their gift in the scripture?
One woman who gave two pennies and Jesus stops everybody in
their tracks is like, look at that.
I'm not telling you got to give as much as me or as much as
anybody else. What I'm saying is, are you
positioned towards though, in? Are you positioned in the world
as a giver because listen, the kingdom, if you're at now,
listen, if you're not a follower of Jesus, you're on your own,
good luck, right? Because this is what we've all
experienced, right? But the idea that Jesus says,
is, if you'll follow me, Following him means, living like
the kingdom is real. If you will live like him, and
if you will follow him in faith, what you'll see is.
Hey, it just never runs out. The only way to believe that is
to practice it, so be it Tipper, be a giver be at either give to
the church, right? And here's the thing, I promise
you, if you're new here you haven't heard me.
Give this school yet. I don't look at who gives, I
don't know whether you give a penny or a million dollars at
all and I don't want to know. Do you know why?
Because you're not giving to me, you're getting to Jesus and I
don't ever want to be able to manipulate you and I don't, I
don't ever want to have to worry whether something comes up and
I'm going to say, Say you know, I don't want to say something to
them because they give a lot of money and I don't do we don't do
that here. It's Jesus.
We have one Giver at River City Church.
His name is Yahweh and boy, is he generous now?
He'll put a lot of it in your pockets and the reason that
he'll do that is because he wants you to know.
If you give it away I'll put it back.
So practice, that's what lent is for.
Jesus had a habit of just being generous of just giving things
away when he found someone who had need, right?
So what I want you to do for Linens to give up scarcity?
Give up the fear of not having enough.
And the only way to do it is to discipline and to practice it,
second verse 39, then he commanded them all to sit down
in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups by
hundreds and fifties. Okay, so there's 20,000 people
right? And sit them down by hundreds
and fifties real quick. Let me just say this.
This is not the most efficient way to do this, you know, the
best way to feed 20,000 people line up, right?
Sarah out. Headed out.
Good He's done, right? Right.
But guess what? Jesus is not nearly as concerned
with efficiency as we are, you know, what happens?
When you sit 50 to 100 people down in a circle on the grass,
and you start to feed them, they start going, my name is Jason
and I'm a pastor at River City Church.
Who are you? What do you do?
And what that is called is community.
Right. And then what he does is he
tells his disciples, it gives them you.
Give them these Loaves and these fish and he starts sending them
out, and he starts telling to do it that I read that, right?
So he set him down and he says that, and what happens when like
Jesus is the host, right? Like he's hosting on these
people and he gives it to his disciples and I start going out.
What those disciples and Jesus are doing is they're practicing
a very important spiritual discipline called Hospitality.
You see it everywhere that Jesus goes, Jesus is in a home
comforting. People bringing people in Jesus,
loved Hospitality. Because what hospitality is, it
is a friendly reception of Our Guest Hospitality.
Looks at people and says, I see that you're weary, put your feet
up. Now, here's the thing, here's
what's great about this and this is why this is so instructive to
us when the disciples Peter and Andrew James and John, all the
people that are sitting in groups, right 50s and 100's
here, when he saw every one of those people coming over the
hill, what did he say to them? What was their response to them?
They're the problem. Jesus, get rid of them and
within a few minutes, Jesus is actually going to do you serve
them, they're not the problem. Peter, the problem is that you
live in the world. Like there's scarcity, like
there's goodness or like, there's not enough goodness to
go around. And so what happens now is,
Peter is taking this and the same guy that was a that was an
affront to Peter's rest just a second ago.
Peter gives it to him. Now now is Five Loaves and two
fish. So he's like well, at least I
don't have to do that again, right?
Then he goes. Back and Jesus just hands him
more and we'll have all of a sudden.
He's like, I got to feed all of these people and Jesus is like
that's what the practice of hospitality does.
And you know, what Hospitality does it destroys your enemies?
You know how I'm making them friends might make them family
and by making them people to you, people with needs people
with once, and guess what people with needs are just like me.
If I can identify a person's need then they have nothing in
common with me. Whatever else may be, right?
We have nothing in common but Jesus said, I want you to
identify with them and identify with their need.
What happens is practicing Hospitality helps us grow in
love. Have you ever read these
commands of Jesus? Right.
Love your neighbor as yourself. You're like that's so hard.
Maybe you're like me, you've read that and you're like, I
don't want to do that. Jesus.
Do you know who my neighbors are?
Unfortunately, neighbors aren't in this room right now.
So that's a good thing, right? But but that's what we practice,
right? And what happens is?
Yeah, Peter you start to go. Hey, that's not guys, not what I
thought. That's not how I thought it was
going to go. So what do we do for Lent?
How does lint impact us this? Well for Lent what you could do
is, if you say this is the thing, right?
You just go, and here's what this looks like you have
enemies. He's right people who make you
uncomfortable nervous, people, who when you watch the news you
go, oh they're the problem that person is the problem, right?
Well, guess what? What happens is Hospitality
practice, it helps us grow in love, right?
So what you can do for Lent is you can give up three to four
nights a month per month to have a couple things.
Number one, have a small group in your house five or six people
in your house and just show them hospitai.
Listen, my wife, how I believe, she has a spiritual gift of
hospitality. When you just walk into the
house, it just like It smells good, right?
I'm like how we have teenagers. How does this happen right?
It's clean. All this right.
She has a spiritual gift. You may not have the spiritual
gift but you can make your home a place where people love to
come or maybe you just go. No, I'm not cleaning my house
for people. I get it.
You can go to somebody else's house and make them feel
comfortable and feel welcome by attending to them by listening
to them by making them feel safe and hurt.
And here's the thing we already do that a lot with people who
are just like us bless you. So So the the thing to do in
this right for Lynn is we give up that and we invite people who
are very different from us and with a hospitable heart we begin
to understand them. The Republicans inviting the
Democrats over for dinner and not talking about tax policy,
but talking about children and love and the mission and the
ministry of the kingdom and you begin to understand them.
Or if you're Democrat having a republican over or having a gay
person, and listening to them, and talking to them and praying
with them and not having an agenda, Other than to love
people where they're at and you don't have to, you know, like
just just love them, and you have to go to bed with like, oh,
I'm War, right? Did Jesus lecture all these
people? Like the reason you don't have
enough food is because you're full of sin.
He's like, hey, they're all Sinners.
Peter just like you and Judas is over there, right?
Judas you go give them fish. I all of that.
And Jesus seems to be okay. It's his disciples who aren't
Jesus had a habit of hospitality.
When people showed up, he made them feel welcome and he made
them feel good, right? So we go down to verse 41, and
taking the Five Loaves and two fish.
He looked up to heaven and he said a blessing and he broke the
Loaves and he gave them disciples to set before the
people and he decided, and he divided the two fish, among them
all, and they all ate and we're satisfied.
So I have this character trait I'm not proud of it, it's
cynicism. And I'm cynical.
Because when I grew up, I thought it was cool.
Right? Like I watched the much James
Dean movies, and I just wanted to, I just wanted to be like
that. And so I imagine my cynical self
is Jesus raised these Five Loaves and two fishes.
And he holds the entire meal in his hands, right?
And hold them up to heaven, and he just goes father, God, thank
you for your abundance. Father, thank you that you have
provided this. If I was Andrew I would be
looking at Peter going. Did you hear what he just said?
You're like Jesus definitely about to eat that and run,
right? Listen, if he goes that way, you
get him right because I'm cynical because I look at it, I
just never enough, the need is so great.
Jesus, you come on, you crazy man.
You feed four people. Hey, make me first.
Geez, me first write that. You're crazy, right?
Because I'm cynical, right? But what's crazy is Jesus isn't
cynical. Maybe you're cynical.
I was reading an article in Psychology today.
Cynicism is often the first visible sign of burnout.
People who lose the ability to see positive people, who lose
the ability to see good and to see potential in to see
possibility. And instead they just see the
failure in the shortcoming in the weakness of everything.
Let me just say, I say there's a lot of love that I can.
Muster criticism is a cheap gift.
See the holes in a plan and not be able to offer Solutions or
cheap. Everybody has that gift.
You don't have to practice it or or exercise it, right?
But what Jesus did was practice gratitude.
My cynicism is a habit and it's a habit that keeps me from
fruitfulness often but Jesus practice the discipline of
gratitude and gratitude overwhelms, cynicism because it
recognizes God's goodness. Now, here's the deal.
You know what you can look at Jesus before he passes out the
fish and just go, that's stupid Jesus.
But here's the deal. How about we wait to the end to
just Judge. Because what we're told is that
everybody had enough? Everybody had plenty and this is
the thing. Here's the thing, it doesn't
matter what you don't have, you're not responsible for what
you don't have. Jesus didn't tell his disciples,
give them what you don't have. He said, what do you have?
And they took it and they gave it to him and it was enough.
Here's what I want to tell you. Your house is enough.
It may not be the biggest one on the Block.
Listen, you may not even have a new floor, your carpet, me
smell. You may have holes in the walls,
but I can just tell you. Jesus doesn't care.
And if you love your kids, your kids don't care.
And if you invite me over to dinner and you cook me something
good. And you show Hospitality.
I don't care either. Your house is enough.
Your car is enough. We have enough if we have Jesus
and practicing gratitude doesn't mean ignoring reality, it means
sing both as reality. What it means is seeing that the
kingdom is real, and in the Kingdom, Jesus assures that
everybody has everything. So, start a gratitude journal,
what? I'm trying to do and I'm suck at
this. God, I'm so bad.
It's try to give up sarcasm. It's going great.
My wife helps me, ha ha. She reminds me, I need help.
I truly, I need help. She's loving.
She just asked me. She goes.
Was that sarcasm? I was like, well, if you have to
ask it's not very good sarcasm, so I don't, I don't know, but
truly give it up. And the question is, did I
really mean what I just said? Did I really mean that it's
going great? Because if not, I'm terrible at
giving it up. But you know what?
Even in the midst of that, I find the kingdom because my
failures don't Define me. My failure doesn't have a last
word. I'm terrible at not being
cynical but I hope I'm better tomorrow and I hope a little
better the day after that and I hope that ultimately.
And finally some day Jesus will make me the kind of person who's
able to have gratitude even when I'm holding up some ridiculously
impoverished, reflection of provision for Jesus to multiply
and fill the Earth with, that's the kingdom and that's the
garden. And so Jesus is grateful and
thankful and verse 43. And they took up twelve.
Baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish and those who
ate the lows were 5,000. So when they pick them up and
they walked away, you know what that means?
You know what? They ate tomorrow bread and
fish, my family hates leftovers. Right.
What's the word I did that last night?
I don't think the disciples were saying that right?
I think they had a different provision.
They just saw something different and listen, here's the
thing. The discipline of simplicity he
is powerful to discipline of just saying, I don't need more,
I need less, I can do with fewer, I can do that and what
happens is Simplicity starves boredom because what boredom
does that looks around? And says, I've tried all of that
and none of that is good for me. I don't need any of that, right?
And what Simplicity says is, I'll have that every day.
Guess what? Listen, the sun comes up in the
East every single day, and you know what, the Lord says.
Every day I can make that new You know what, most beautiful
things about innocence, that drives me crazy as a parent
because I'm Not Innocent do it again.
You ever had a kid tell you to do it again until you wanted to
be dead. I get it.
But man, I look at the fact that the sun's been coming up the
same way everyday, for all of history and Jesus hasn't gotten
bored yet. What if the beauty of Jesus is
innocence, is that he's willing to look at it and go do it
again. And so every morning when you
wake up, he's equally fresh to see you.
He's equally excited to welcome you into the day to go.
Wait till you see what I've got for you.
And so this process of simplifying is a big deal.
I'm about to get in your business or you ready?
If it's in a storage unit, you don't need it.
Sell it and give it to charity, but Juniors.
Tennis shoes are in there. I know he's not, he's too big
for him now. Give them to someone else.
Who may need them? Give them to a poor family who
can't have nice Nike kicks for their kids.
Give your stuff away to a charity.
Have a garage sale and sell everything.
Give it a charity. How about this?
Don't go to a restaurant during Lent.
How about for Simplicity. We just say we will spend our
money on groceries, and that is it.
We will fight. We will go for a walk.
Remember, when we were in covid, and we couldn't do anything, and
we were all stuck at home and we watched All of Netflix, right?
And so what do we do? We walked around the
neighborhood. Right?
And we just did things together. I'm going to stay in your
business since I'm already here just for a little bit.
You know what my concern about our culture of idolizing and
worshipping our children is, I mean we worship them like we
just send them to every Sports thing and every everything that
we cancel their, you know, you know what gets lost and all of
that family. You stopped sitting down to
dinner and you stop watching TV together.
You stop going places together and you start getting your life.
You start getting your moments on car rides.
And if you have more than two kids, Divided car ride.
So Mom can be there and dad can be there.
What if we just stopped doing that?
And what if we said you get one League, you get one time, you
get one practice and will go and we will support you and then
we're going to sit down and we're going to have dinner
together. We're going to talk about your
day and we're going to do homework together and we're
going to simplify our lives and we're going to do fewer things
so that we can do them all I believe.
When we do that, we better position ourselves to see him as
he is. Right?
So Jesus called his disciples to rest and then he put them to
work, and you're like, that sounds about, right?
But listen, Matthew chapter 11, Jesus standing up in, this is
his invitation to you, and me, and Peter, and James, and John.
And whoever will listen, come to me, all you who labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
You don't have to go somewhere else for rest.
And in fact, what I would say is there is nowhere else that has
rest. He says take my yoke upon you
which means that there will be effort and energy involved.
We will move there will be activity, which is good because
you were created for that. You were given a purpose, you
were created to walk in this life.
But the thing about a yoke is Jesus is the big Ox, Jesus is
the strong Ox. We just get to go as Jesus puts
his world in creation and his Creation in order and we get to
see all of it. He says, for I am Gentle and
lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.
The secret is in gentleness and lowliness, not filling our life.
And our days, with all of the things that we want, the
trusting him to bring it and he says, for my yoke is easy and my
burden is light, lent is about discovering Resurrection Life by
surrendering Fallen habits. So what do we do, you want the
kingdom? Do you want to see the kind of
provision and multiplication that Jesus did on a beach that
day for 20,000 people? People practice choose two of
these habits and practice them. You know what practice means?
When you practice them, that means that you're going to be
terrible at them. That means you're going to try
it. And you're going to fail,
cynicism sarcasm. You're going to try it, right?
But that's the whole idea. It's not in our strength.
We can't do it. So, when you fail, you look at
Jesus and, you know, here I am again, Lord unable to do what
you ask me to do in my own strength, and the Lord will look
at you with a smile and, with compassion and he'll go.
I know. Let's get It me and you and you
know what he'll do you give him something to eat?
Laura, the world's terrible. Listen that world that votes
different Youth and sees different from you.
That loves different things from you that thinks that you're
their enemy, they're hungry too. They just don't know where to
go. But when we beat people up for
their hunger or we judge them and we stay away from them from
their hunger, we miss Jesus command, you give them something
to eat. So Jesus, I pray that you would
make us able to rest in you. But I prayed that we wouldn't
see our vocation and your kingdom as enemies of that rest.
So Jesus, give us the courage and the discipline to practice
these this week to practice something.
And I pray that as we do, we would feel your grace.
We would feel your joy in your pleasure and I pray that we
would see the Kingdom. So, father, we love you, and we
thank you. And we ask all of these things
in your name, and for your glory.
Amen. Thank you for joining us today.
River City Church is all about experiencing and expressing
God's love in our lives and community.
And we hope that you've been able to experience that today as
grateful. As I am.
That you've spent this time, listening.
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May the Lord bless, and keep you in all Grace and peace.