Lunch with Jesus | Trusting God's Faithfulness

A New Beginning presents a new book from Pastor Greg Laurie. We are offering a brand new resource called The House of David Devotional and it's based on the great Psalms of David as well as the life of David. So I'm going to put this brand new devotional in your hand so you can learn from this man of God. Or your gift of any size at harvest.org.

It's the official companion resource for the new Amazon TV series also called The House of David. A crisis hits, unexpected problem comes and you freak out. You have a complete meltdown. Wait, has God not been faithful to you up to this point? The more we focus on our challenges the bigger they seem. Pastor Greg Laurie urges us to focus on our God who's bigger than them all. Somehow you have a case of spiritual amnesia. You forget everything and you think this is the end.

Here's the problem, we forget what we ought to remember and we remember what we ought to forget. How many of us are up in the wee hours of the morning worrying if the sun will rise? Didn't it rise yesterday and the day before? Has it not risen every day in all of human history?

When something has been that reliable in the past we can trust it'll be reliable in the future. Well today on A New Beginning Pastor Greg Laurie helps us pause and consider the faithfulness and reliability of the Lord. In addition to making the sun rise each morning we'll see just how well God takes care of His own. Turn in your Bibles to John chapter 6. John chapter 6 and the title of my message is Lunch with Jesus. How many of you like to eat? Raise your hand.

Ah nice. You're my people. You're a very gluttonous bunch I might add. How many of you don't really care much about food at all? That food who cares about?

Nobody's raising their hand. All right so hey I love to eat and you can set a clock by my stomach. I don't have to look at my watch and say is it almost lunch time? My stomach tells me about an hour out 10 o'clock.

I eat 11 by the way. I'm an early eater. I eat dinner at five. I eat breakfast early early.

My stomach says it's coming it's coming let's go you know. And my favorite meal of the day is lunch followed by breakfast and dinner. But I love to eat. Guess who else loved to eat?

Jesus Christ. When He walked this earth we always are reading in the gospels of Him eating with His disciples. Because a meal back in those days was sort of the main event of the day.

You would relax. You would take time to enjoy the meal. They didn't have fast food back then.

They didn't have you know McDavid's you need right through in your chariot. Order a falafel. Something like that you know. No they enjoyed a meal. It was a time to talk.

It was a time to communicate. Even after Jesus rose again from the dead one of the first things He does is He eats a piece of fish. He was waiting for the disciples by the sea of Galilee with a fire going. And He said bring some of the fish that you have caught. And He cooked it up for them and He said come and have breakfast. Eating a meal with Jesus.

How amazing would that be. And He even used this metaphor of eating to describe His desire to have a relationship with us. He says in Revelation 3 20, Behold I stand at the door and I knock.

If any men will hear my voice and open the door I will come in and dine with him. King James says sup with him. Some translations say have fellowship with him.

But the idea is He wants to have a long leisurely meal with you or to put it more directly He wants a relationship with you. Well this miracle that we're going to look at is the only miracle found in all four gospels. It's a story of the feeding of the five thousand. Now this is a series we're doing called the seven signs of Jesus. We've already looked at Jesus turning water into wine that was sign number one. Cleansing the temple sign number two. Healing the centurion's son that's number three. Healing the layman in Jerusalem that's number four.

Now we're at number five. The feeding of the five thousand. The author of this gospel John uses these signs like building blocks. The seven signs crescendo. And the final seventh sign where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

So it starts with a wedding and it ends with a funeral. And more specifically a resurrection. Because that was the ultimate sign.

Everything's pointing to the ultimate sign. What is the most significant sign that Jesus gave? It wasn't the raising of Lazarus. It wasn't the restoration of sight.

It wasn't feeding the five thousand. It was his death and resurrection again. He said a wicked and an adulterous generation seeks after a sign. And no sign will be given to them but that of the prophet Jonah. And as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish so I the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Let's paraphrase Jesus as saying you want a sign?

Here it is. I'm going to die on the cross through your sin and rise again from the dead. So with that in mind let's look at this very familiar and powerful story of the feeding of the five thousand. We're going to read about 14 verses together and I'm reading from the New Living Translation. John chapter 6 starting in verse 1. After this Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee also known as the Sea of Tiberius. A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went because they saw the miraculous signs as he healed the sick. Then Jesus climbed the hills sat down with his disciples around him. It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration. Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him and turning to Philip he asked where can we buy bread to feed all of these people. Verse six this is very important you might underline it. He was testing Philip for he already knew what he was going to do.

Philip replied even if we worked for months we wouldn't have enough money to feed them. Then Andrew Simon Peter's brother spoke well there's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with such a huge crowd. Jesus said tell everyone to sit down. They all sat down on the grassy slopes. The men alone numbered about five thousand. Then Jesus took the loaves gave thanks to God and distributed them to the people. Afterwards he did the same with the fish and they all ate as much as they wanted. After everyone was full Jesus told his disciples now gather the leftover so nothing is wasted.

So they picked up the pieces and filled 12 baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves. When the people saw this miraculous sign they exclaimed surely he is a prophet we've been expecting. We'll stop there. Heard a story about a little boy that was asked what is your favorite miracle in the bible. The little guy answered I like the one where everyone loaves and fishes. So I don't you know that's a great way to look at it but here's something that is happening before us now. Jesus his ministry is building. Looking back chronologically you could say he was sort of on a roll. His fame was growing. The crowds were growing. Everyone followed him everywhere to see what he would say or do next. But why were they following him?

The answer is clear. Verse two of John six. A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. Unfortunately they were not following him because they understood this is the messiah. This is the savior. They were following him because hey he does amazing stuff.

What's he going to do next? They were dazzled. They were entertained. But they were missing the point. They were into the signs but they weren't looking at where the signs were pointing. These things were written according to John 20 that we might believe.

So there was a purpose for these signs. You know sometimes we want the benefits of the Christian life but we don't want to make the commitment. We want the healings. We just don't want the healer. We want the benefits but we don't want the cure.

And Jesus could have dismissed these people because he knew what was going on in the human heart of mind. He could have said you know you guys you're just a bunch of thrill seekers. You're waiting for me to do my next trick in your estimation. You're not following me for the right reason. And besides I know all y'all are gonna eventually turn on me so I'm not gonna feed you today. In fact I'm gonna eat in front of you. That's what I would have done.

I would have pulled out an In-N-Out Burger. Where did you get that? It's from the future. Can we have one?

No it's mine because you're gonna turn on me. God Jesus he cared about the people. In fact we read that he had a heart of compassion toward them. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.

Don't miss House of David a brand new original television series on Amazon Prime. Can one stone change the course of history? I will tell you the story of David who became one of the most famous kings who ever lived. It's not about the greatness of the giant. It is about the greatness of God.

Can one stone change the course of history? Well if you listen to A New Beginning you know that I like to tell Bible stories. I try to tell the story as accurately as I can then get the context of the background of it and then apply it to our life right. So in the same way we have something very special that we have put together called Beyond the House of David. It's a companion piece to the series streaming on Amazon right now called House of David and in Beyond the House of David I go on the sets I go to the places where they shot the film and I apply the teachings of David's writings and the Psalms and the principles from his life to the listener to the viewer to you. So we kind of pick up where the series leaves off.

It's beautiful it's cinematic and it's something I think you're really going to enjoy. You can watch it with your whole family so go to Harvest Plus that's our streaming platform download that app and you can start watching our special new documentary series Beyond the House of David right now. Well we're considering the first 14 verses of John 6 and Pastor Greg's message today titled Lunch with Jesus.

Let's continue. So there are three primary characters that stand out in this story. Philip, Andrew and the little boy.

We don't know his name but he's a big part of the story. Let's start with Philip. Understand that every one of the disciples had a distinct personality just like people you know. They were just like you.

There was Peter. Brash, outspoken, dominated conversations, said things when things shouldn't be said. You know someone like that. You invite them over they're going to dominate the whole conversation. Nobody gets a word in edgewise or maybe you are that person. The problem is when you are that person you usually don't know it.

Someone else needs to tell you so if they're that person kind of nudge him and say that's you right. So that was Peter. But then there's James and John. These guys are fiery. You know people that get all worked up. They love to argue. They love to debate. They're always worked up about something. That's James and John. They're worked up guys. They were passionate guys. You don't get the nickname Sons of Thunder for nothing. They were alive today.

They'd probably be in an outlaw motorcycle gang. And then there's Philip. Now Philip is more quiet. More perceptive.

A deep thinker. And it is worth noting that Jesus turns to Philip with a question. His first test. And by the way Jesus never asked anyone else for advice ever. Except on this occasion when he turns to Philip and asks John 6 5. Turning to Philip he asked where can we buy bread to feed all these people.

He was testing Philip for he knew what he was going to do. Seems like a no-brainer. Philip could have said well considering the fact that you've already done all these amazing miracles starting with turning water into wine.

I would think this is pretty easy for you. You could just speak the word and and everyone would be fed. But instead Philip is perplexed and he says well you know even if we worked for months we wouldn't have enough money to pay for the food to get to all of these people. I mean despite two years at this point of walking personally with Jesus and seeing him do miracle after miracle Philip is like I don't I don't know what to do with this.

And you know we can criticize Philip but isn't that just like us. Haven't you ever had a moment where you've had doubt in your mind? A crisis hits. Unexpected problem comes and you freak out. You have a complete meltdown.

Wait. Has God not been faithful to you up to this point? Has he not met your needs?

Has he not taken care of you? Somehow you have a case of spiritual amnesia. You forget everything and you think this is the end. Well that happens all the time. It happened to the disciples. They didn't simply see that God could do something in this set of circumstances.

We often forget how faithful God has been. Here's the problem. We forget what we ought to remember and we remember what we ought to forget. I have a lot of useless information in my brain.

I don't even know how some of it got there. I know the words to stupid songs going back 40 years. Some of them songs I wish I knew I wish I never knew. Going back to my childhood. One eight seven seven cars for kids. Okay that's just. You ever heard that song?

Let's make them stop now. Or other songs. I remember really old jingles. I don't consciously remember. I will now memorize these lyrics but they're in there and then I forget stuff I should remember. Oh wait what was that verse again? How did that go again?

So we need to be reminded over and over of certain spiritual truths because sometimes we forget things that we've learned. When I was in school I would get called out by teachers all the time because I disrupted class. I was disrespectful toward teachers. I would say stupid things.

I'd be sent to the principal's office constantly and a teacher would say to me Greg Laurie will you just grow up? And I think sometimes some of us need to grow up spiritually. We still act like little babies in our spiritual life. We need to be spoon fed spiritual truths.

We still need to be dazzled. It's time to grow up. Become a mature believer. Some of us have known the Lord 10, 15, 20 years and and we don't know the basics of Christian theology. We need everything cut up in little pieces and spoon fed to us. We haven't learned to just open up the Bible and read it and study it and learn for ourselves. We're still like little babies. In fact the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 5 12 you've been Christians a long time now. You ought to be teaching others. Instead you need someone to teach you again and again the basic things a beginner must learn about the scriptures.

You're like babies who drink only milk and you can't eat solid food. So don't forget God's faithfulness to you. He's been faithful in the past. He'll be faithful in your present.

It'll be faithful to you in your future as well. Now it's Andrew's turn. Philip didn't do too well.

If we were grading him I don't know what grade we would give him. It wouldn't be very high but Andrew chimes in. Interestingly Jesus doesn't ask Andrew for his opinion but he has one nonetheless and Andrew is a really interesting guy. He was more of a behind the scenes person. He was a person who liked to connect people to Jesus. His brother was Simon Peter. That meant that he was overshadowed for his whole life because Peter dominated the conversation. Peter was the one that always sort of take control. Andrew was kind of in the you know shadows a little bit but Andrew had this great gift of pointing others to Christ.

And in fact it was Andrew that brought his brother Peter to Jesus. And here we have Andrew showing up with a little boy and he's really close to the answer but not quite. Well he says to Jesus there's this little kid here.

He has five loaves of bread and two little fish but then he quickly says but what good is that with such a huge crowd. That brings us to the little boy. Who was this little dude anyway? We don't know his name but what an amazing kid he is. Here's all these adults perplexed by this problem and here's a little kid that says well I've got this if this could be of any help I'd like to offer it to you Jesus. So what do we know about this little boy? We know he was poor and the reason we know that his barley bread was the cheapest of all bread.

And in fact it was held in contempt. It was thought of as food for animals not people. And he had two small fish. Not big fish.

Small fish. It's like having crackers and stale crackers at that. Crackers and sardines. Or maybe spam and Wonder Bread.

Now some people love spam right. In Hawaii it's kind of a delicacy but spam Wonder Bread crackers and sardines whatever you want to use as an illustration it wasn't a gourmet lunch. It wasn't a lot. But that little boy gave his lunch as poor as he was to Jesus. The lunch was as insignificant as it could be.

The little boy was as insignificant as he could be. But here's the point of the story. That which was insufficient and insignificant became sufficient and significant when placed in the hands of Jesus. Let me say it again.

That which was insufficient from the hands of the insignificant became sufficient and significant when placed in the hands of Jesus. I think sometimes we feel like well I don't have much to offer. I'm not talented like that person over there. I'm not gifted.

I have nothing to bring to the table. You have more than you think. Why?

Because God can do a lot with a little. Okay. So here's a guitar in the stage. I could walk over plug that guitar into the amp turn it up all the way and hit maybe five chords. And you would say that guitar is a piece of junk.

Why? Because I really have no skills playing guitars. But if I were to take that same guitar and place it into the hands of Eric Clapton who is one of the greatest guitar players of all time and he did a few riffs on it you would say I want that guitar.

In fact if he signs it it will be a collectible. See it's not about the guitar. It's about who is playing the guitar. And in the same way for us it's not the magnitude of the gift. It's into whose hands the gift is given. So you say Lord okay here I am.

I don't have a lot to offer. But I do give it to you. And I give it all to you. And I ask you to take what I've given and use it for your glory. So I encourage you bring your loaves and fish to Jesus. Bring your Spam and Wonder Bread.

Bring your crackers and sardines and watch what God will do. Pastor Greg Laurie with great encouragement today on the blessing of placing our trust in the Lord. And Pastor Greg has more to come from this message here on A New Beginning.

It may go without saying that being used by God requires having a relationship with God. And that comes from accepting Jesus as our Savior. Pastor Greg what would you say to the person who's frankly not sure if they've ever come to the Lord and asked him to be their Savior? Yes I think they need to make this commitment to Christ. Here's what the Bible says.

Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So you need to reach out to God. Not just think about it. Not just say one of these days I would like to. Just do it.

In fact you can do it right now. You say well how do I call out to the name of the Lord? You do it through prayer.

God is just a prayer away. He desires a relationship with you. He wants you to know him.

He wants to reveal himself to you. So you just need to call out and say Lord save me and help me. How about if I lead you in a prayer and you could pray this prayer after me. You can pray it out loud if you like. You can pray it quietly in your heart. But direct this prayer toward God and you could pray it after me right now.

You ready? Pray this after me. Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the Savior and I want a relationship with you. So as your word says I'm calling on the name of the Lord. I'm asking you to save me from my sin and I'm asking that we begin a new relationship today.

Thank you for loving me and sending your son Jesus to die on the cross for my sin and then raising him from the dead. I now put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ and I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Listen if you have just prayed along with Pastor Greg and if you've meant those words sincerely let us be the first to welcome you into the family of God. And we want to help you get started off right in this new daily walk with the Lord. Pastor Greg would like to send you his New Believers Bible. It's a special edition of God's Word for those who are new to the faith with scores of helps for new believers written by Pastor Greg.

So get in touch and ask for the New Believers Bible. We'll send it your way free of charge. Just call 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click the words know God. And then let us say a word of thanks to those who support us financially. Those who make it possible for us to bring you these studies each day. We're definitely a listener supported ministry. It's the generosity of listeners that help us be here with these programs. So if you've partnered with us, thank you. And if you have yet to partner with us, well I hope you'll get in touch today and let us know that you're standing with us. Even a small investment would help. It's actually an investment in changing lives.

Thank you for partnering with us. You can donate securely online at harvest.org or write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300. Again, that's 1-800-821-3300. Well next time, more insight from the story of the feeding of the 5,000. It's part of Pastor Greg's series, The Seven Signs of Jesus. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Lauren.