The Church of Eleven22 - Feeding of the 5,000 - Impossible to Possible - Matthew S5E3

Episode Date: June 14, 2026

What might happen if you took one step of obedience and trusted God with the results? In Matthew 14, Pastor Joby Martin walks through the feeding of the 5,000 and reminds us that God can do immeasurably more than we could ever ask, think, or imagine. Through the compassion of Jesus, we see that faith is not about how much we have, but about trusting the One who holds it. This message challenges us to lead with compassion, live with open hands, and take the next step of obedience, trusting that God can multiply what we surrender to Him. When we bring what we have to Jesus, He does what only He can do. Supplemental Resources From This Week: • Sponsor a Compassion Child • One Small Step. One Faithful God. - Gretchen's Compassion Story • The Heart of Compassion - Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin: Matthew S5E3 • Feeding of the 5,000 - Impossible to Possible - Matthew S5E3 (Full Service) • Matthew Season 5 About The Church of Eleven22 The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://coe22.com/donate

Amen and amen and amen. The Bible says he who finds a wife finds what is good. Amen? Church of 1122, we do join me in honoring the First Lady of 1122, Ms. Gretchen Martin. Way to go. Dave, you got your Bible. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 14 as we march through the book of Matthew all year long.

I want to welcome everybody that's watching at every campus. Those of us that are sitting in the rooms, those of us that are watching at outposts and all over the world. I met a brother at a new outpost in Australia this week. How about that, man? We got 1122 in Australia. What's up? The true Southerners of our world.

Hey, welcome to Compassion Weekend. If you're new at 1122, this is what we do at least one time every year. And I've got a couple of goals. I want to make this very, very clear. My ultimate goal in our entire time together is that we bring glory to God. That's why we exist. That's why you come to church. It's not actually for you.

It's not what you can get out of it. You're thinking about it wrong. The reason we exist, the reason that we gather is to bring glory to God. And so we want to do this in two ways. One is in preaching and receiving the word. Remember the parable of the sower? I hope you did your part. I hope you tilled up your heart so that it's good soil because I'm going to say some offensive things.

And if you get offended, it's because you're a sinner. All right? So just receive that. Got it? But I do. I don't want you to get up during the middle of the. sermon or whatever, okay? I want you to receive the Word of God. And then my second goal is it will do what the Word says and that we're going to sponsor several thousand compassion kids today.

They're going to release them from poverty in Jesus' name. That's what we're going to do. And both of these things, the receiving of the Word of God and the sponsoring of these kids, is going to have an eternal impact. If you don't believe me yet, you will in the next 50 minutes. And I would never ask you to do something that I don't do myself, okay? First Corinthians 11-1 is a haunting verse, especially if you're in ministry. The Apostle Paul has the audacity carried along by the Spirit of God to write down these words to a church in Corinth. He says this, follow me as I follow Christ. And so this whole sponsoring of compassion, kids, I just want you to know that my family and I,

as you just heard testimony, that we're all in on this thing. and we have been blessed so much. You think you do it to be a blessing. You're actually the blessed one. And so if you haven't sponsored a kid, then today's your day. And what I would really like you to do is however many people live at your house or how many people are on your insurance, that's a good starting spot to how many kids you should sponsor. So over our marriage, the last 26 years, we have sponsored 40 children.

I didn't know that. 40 kids. That's a lot. And currently, right now, today, we sponsor nine children. Okay? Here's Jelana. She's from Brazil. She's seven years old.

We have sponsored her for the last three years. This is my man, Matea. He is from Brazil. He's 18 years old. Look how big he is. Isn't that great? We sponsored him for three years. This is my man from Uganda, Samuel.

He's 15 years old. I plan to go see him next year. This is Sonia. She lives in Indonesia. She's 17 years old. We have sponsored her since she was three, three years old. Remember we did, for those of you, OGs, we did the compassion mobile experience, and we took our kids through that thing 14 years ago, and that's where we sponsor her.

This is my man from Brazil, Vitor. I picked him because there's a UFC fighter named Vitor Belfour, and I thought that was cool. And so whatever, I don't care. And now he's a pastor, by the way. I don't know if you know that. Vitor is. My man Vitor is Vitor, this Vitor, not the UFC champion, is the left. We've sponsored him for seven years.

This is my man, I don't know how to say his name, looks like dinosaur, I don't think that's how he says it. Denison, he's from Sri Lanka. He is seven years old and he turned seven yesterday. Praise God for him. This is my man, good look. A, B, A, A, T, R, D, O, U, R, O, Z. We call him A-B-Z.

That's what his name is? All right, but when you write it, it just, he thinks you know how to say it. I don't know how to say it. He's 18 years old. He lives in West Africa. We've sponsored him for six years. This is my man Carlos.

He's in Brazil. We've sponsored him for nine years. And then this is Brandy. Brandy is 17 years old. And we started sponsoring her when she was two. I was on a mission trip where my man Kevin from Compassion sitting right over here. And we were at a child survival program where they're taking care of like teenage moms that got pregnant and could not take care of their babies. and so one of the teenage moms, mom named Grace,

comes walking into this thing as I was visiting, and when Brandy was a little tiny baby, man, months old, I'm not good at ages with babies, okay, about that long. Now she's about maybe that long, okay? Just crawled up in my lap. And I was like, Kevin, you need to figure this thing out, put a low jack on her, and when she is able to be sponsored, she is ours, okay?

I got a little bit of Calvinism in me, and so this has been predestined before the foundations of your, earth, that she would be ours, and so this is Brandy, she is 17 years old. This is what my family does, this is what our church family does, and if you haven't sponsored a kid yet, or maybe you've only got seven and you want to get to nine, today's your day. This is what we're going to talk about. Matthew chapter 14 is going to talk about what happens when we are faithful to God.

Beginning of verse 13 starts this O.A., it says, now when Jesus heard this and the this that he heard is that his cousin, John the Baptist, has just been killed. By the way, thank you, Pastor Onee last week for bringing the word, amen? Y'all like Onee? You're welcome. I hired him, so whatever. That's right. So Jesus hears that his cousin, John the Baptist, has lost his head.

And so he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. Why? Because Jesus knows that it's time to mourn. This is crazy, man. Jesus is not surprised by any activity that's ever happened under the heavens. He knows all things before they're going to happen. He knows the very thoughts that you're going to have before you think him, and yet he is the great I am, which means he is eternally present in the right now. And so when sad things happen, Jesus took time to be sad. Don't you ever let anybody tell you that to be a strong man means that you've got to stuff down emotion. I don't know who said that, but they're dumb, and you can tell them, I told them that.

How do I know this? In John chapter 11, Jesus' friend dies. His name's Lazarus, and Jesus sits down with Lazarus's sister Mary, and you know what Jesus does? He weeps. Jesus wept, shortest verse in the whole Bible, and he's the strongest man that ever lived. And so you should not withhold your tears in order to be strong. You should be strong, and when it's time to cry, you should cry. And that's what he does.

And so he knows that it's time for him to mourn. And Jesus often, when the crowd would kind of suck him dry, he would go and find a desolate place to be with the father to kind of recharge his batteries. Why? Because he knows if he's going to spend a life of ministry being poured out. If he had got nothing to pour out, he will not be available to his people. This is important, man.

By the way, you need a desolate place too. I hope and pray you have the kind of rhythm where it's not just go, go, go, go, go, go, go, but it's go, go, go, rest. This is what the Sabbath principle is all about. That you would reconnect and you would refuel so that when it's your time to pour out, you actually got something to pour out. This is what Jesus is doing. But the crowds heard it, and they followed him on foot from the towns. Here's the thing about ministry, man. People don't really check with your calendar to see how you're doing.

I don't know if you realize that. And so why Jesus, he kind of wants a break. They follow him. And then look at verse 14. And when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd. And Jesus had, underlined this in your Bible. Compassion on them. So it doesn't take a biblical scholar to figure out why we picked this weekend as Compassion Weekend.

So Jesus sees this crowd, and they want and they want and they want. And when Jesus sees them, he's not mad at them. He has compassion on them. The Greek word is splogitzomi. Say spagetso my. You got to spit on the neighbor in front of you a little bit. Spaghetti-o-mai. You know what it literally means?

It means from the bowels, from the guts. A pretty good translation of this would be like he was heartbroken over them. When he sees the crowd, even though he could legitimately, say, hey man, I'm heartbroken, I got needs of my own, I don't have time for you, that's not what he does. He's heartbroken over these people. He has compassion on these people. Why?

They have been burdened with these religious legalities by the Pharisees of all the things that they have to do in order to be made right by God. They are like sheep without a shepherd. And when he sees these people, his heart breaks for him. Let me ask you some questions. When you see people in need, do you feel compassion or judgment? Like which one's the lead foot? When you see that guy on the street corner with nothing, do you look at him and say,

well, you know, you're just at the end of the road of the decisions that you've made and that's why you're here. Is that your first thought? Or do you feel compassion when you see people hurting? Do you first think about yourself and what you want? want, or do you think about other people's needs? Which one goes first? I mean, Jesus just lost John the Baptist. By the way, he has high praises to say it about John the Baptist. He says, of all the men born of women, there have been none born greater. You know what that means, bro? I know

you think you're awesome. You're not as good as John the Baptist. Jesus dug John the Baptist and his heart's breaking for him and yet when he sees people in need he does that first think about himself he first thinks about what these folks need he's filled with compassion listen to me church and I don't mean just our church I just mean the church in general we need more compassion in this world we need more compassion and there ain't a lot of it out there is there and so let me step on your toes a little bit listen when your political idea I is your identity, then you'll begin to see your opponents as object to be despised instead of people to be loved. And when you sit on the couch every night and you feed that political ideology by just feeling your brain with whatever paid for cable news that you like to listen to most,

then when you see people, you will not see them as objects of the grace of God that he poured out his blood for. you'll see them as people that are enemies of yours that are to be despised. Regardless of how you vote or your political ideology, whenever we see people in need, may we be the people that lead with compassion. Because what begins to happen is you get all caught up in your political ideologies about who's right and who's wrong and what war is okay and what war is not okay. Listen, anytime people on the planet are hurting, the believer's heart. should break for those people.

Regardless, man. That should be our first step. And I know somebody, so you begin political? Yeah. We follow King Jesus first, and he gave you son to die on a cross for human beings that were lost. I mean, I can tell you where it hit me this week. I'm not like a YouTube person. I know I'm on it.

Like, my face is on it all the time, but my face ain't in it, hardly ever, okay, unless I'm watching highlights of Georgia or hunting videos, all right? And this week, you know, it comes across my algorithm that that couple, I don't know where they are, that YouTube couple decided to abort their child because they found out he was special needs. And my first instinct was rage, man. What are you doing? Because he doesn't make you comfortable? Are you kidding?

He was diagnosed with a very high probability. of having down syndrome so they decide to end the life of the human being that for the previous 19 weeks they had called baby and I and yeah I got mad I got mad you know like what are you doing man maybe if you came to 1122 and you saw us roll out the red carpet with families of kids with special needs you would see these kids as a gift from God and not a problem are you kidding me I mean are you kidding me to quote the great Modern day prophet Shane Gillis, his cousin has Down syndrome. And a guy's like, how's he doing?

Just the best ever. He's the happiest guy ever. I mean, you're all wrapped up in all your problems. This guy is living life. What are you talking about? Then it began to shift, man. I begin to think this is the downstream consequences of a culture of death where this man and this woman, the air that they have breathed their entire life is that their wants and their comforts

were primary. They are victims in the hands of the enemy, and I began to pray for them. I began to begin to pray that their eyes would be open and that God would redeem them and soften their hearts and break their hearts for what breaks his, and they would surrender their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I hope and pray.

Listen, when I do this stuff, do you feel judgment or compassion? I usually feel judgment, just confession time. I'm preaching to me here. I hope somebody else will pick up on something, too, but I'm just telling you, I want to have the kind of heart Jesus has, and when I see somebody in need, my first thought is not about, did you do this? No, no, no.

I want my first thought to be, how can I help? Because that's what Jesus thought. You know, why we should think that? Because guess what? When I was an enemy of God, not just lost, that's not even strong enough word, I was an enemy of God, a child of wrath. I had rejected the Almighty God. literally the Bible says I was an enemy

and instead of receiving the judgment of God I received the grace of God he had compassion for me and he didn't just think a thing and feel a thing he did a thing and he sent his only begotten son to die on a cross that I would be rescued and redeemed into his family and if that's what he thinks about me

a crooked, wretched and depraved blackhearted sinner then may I have eyes to see people the way he sees people Jesus had compassion on them and he healed their sick you know what Jesus did Jesus did what he could do he could heal

and so he healed guess what today you have an opportunity and when we get finished with the service you can go over to the sides or where it's all different at every campus you can go where all the compassion packets are and you can see a need and I pray that the spirit of God moves in you and that you have a heart of compassion, and then you can just do whatever you can do. And release one of these children from poverty in Jesus' name.

Verse 15, now when it was evening, the disciples came to Jesus, and they said, this is a desolate place, and the day is now over. Send the crowds away and go into the villages and buy some food for themselves. So the disciples look at the situation, they're like, hey boss, you've been teaching for like eight hours or something. So give me a break on my 55 minutes if you don't mind, okay? They're there all day, and he's teaching them,

and they realize we've got a problem. These people are going to be hungry. What are we going to do? By the way, this miracle is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels except the resurrection. That makes them in all. And if you go over to John chapter 6, don't turn there, I'll just tell you what it says.

In John chapter 6, John records that Jesus and Philip have a conversation. it. And Jesus already knows what he's going to do, but he says to Philip, he asked him, how are we going to feed all these people? And he asked him that to test Philip. Whoa, whoa, does God test us? Yeah. And guess what? We got to test today. Actually, we got a few thousand tests hanging up in our worship centers all over the place. We got a few thousand tests with the faces of these little kids. And you got an option, man. you can do what you have the ability to do, which is to sponsor a kid to rescue a child from poverty in Jesus' name,

or you can just think about you and do whatever you want to do. Now here's what Philip does in John chapter 6. Philip immediately looks at all his circumstances. He begins to look around. He's like, boss, I don't think he's going to work. I mean, we better send them because we don't have enough food to feed all these people. And then in John chapter 6, guess who steps up and speaks first? Peter.

Peter's like, hey, I've been eavesdropping in your conversation, and I would like to say a couple of things. And here's what Peter says. He's said, hey, there's a little boy over here, and he's got a little bit of food. He's got five loaves and two fishes. Now, I know it's not much, but he's got something, and here's what I love about this. Peter comes to Jesus and says, hey, it's not much, but it's something, and I think Jesus is going, you know, I can work with that. I can work with that. Even if you've got a tiny little bit of faith, it is the object of your faith that matters, not the amount of your faiths.

If you'll remember a couple of weeks ago when he went back to his own town, because of their lack of faith, Jesus didn't do miracles in his hometown. And now Peter's got a little bit. I don't know what we can do with this a little bit, but here's what we got, and Jesus is going, that's plenty, because I can take your natural and put some super on top of it, and you're about to see a miracle. And he does more than anybody could ever imagine. In verse 16, and Jesus said, they need not go away. Pay very close attention to this. You give them something to eat. Well, that seems impossible, right?

But I got good news. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. He says, how about you give them something to eat? So let me tell you, I mentioned this a few weeks ago, I'm going to say it again because somebody paid attention. Be really careful when you've got some kind of ideas. for the Lord. Be very careful when you begin to say things like,

well, you know what the church ought to do is, who do you think the church is? It's all of us here together. And if God has given you this burden on your heart, you could be the very one that he's calling to do something about it. I mean, the moment you begin to say things like, God, why don't you do something about the hungry? And God, why don't you do something about the needy?

And God, why don't you do something about those that can't protect themselves? And God's going, you know what's funny? I was going to ask you the same. exact question. Because here's the thing, man. Does Jesus need the fishes and loaves to feed anybody? No, he could have rained down manner from heaven. He did it in the Old Testament.

He can do it in the New Testament. And yet he would love us so much that he would desire that we get to be partners with him in the miraculous. And so he looks at him and he says, why don't you feed them? Let me tell you some of my favorite stories around here. is when people have a burden placed by God on them and then they just do whatever it is the Good Shepherd tells them to do.

I've shared this one a million times and I'm going to do it a million more. My man Mike Drag it's with Project Savior Outdoors. Anybody involved in Project Savior Outdoors? You know what happened? Mike gets home from fighting in the Middle East and all his Marine buddies start killing themselves and he says, somebody's got to do something about that.

And the Lord said, I agree. I think you're the somebody. And so he starts Project Savior Outdoors. and we support it like crazy, but we didn't start it. He started it. One of my brothers named Chad Starkey, he usually sits right over in that area. I've known him forever, okay?

He goes on a mission trip with me one time to Jamaica, and then he comes back and says, I'm going to start my own missions organization called Surf Fish Serve, because all of my friends wouldn't qualify to be missionaries because I make people memorize scripture and share their testimony, and he goes, all my people, they're not even Christians at,

and I want to use the trip to lead them, to Christ. And so we're going to serve. We're going to serve, and they'll sign up for that, and we're going to fish, and then we're going to serve. We're going to do Bible study at night. And he just had a burden on his heart, and he began to do it. Let me give you another one. There's a guy named Ron Armstrong. Maybe you know that name. Ron Armstrong. You look at his mustache, and it just says Armstrong.

I took him on a mission trip, which was actually a compassion trip to Brazil. He's married to Caitlin Armstrong. wrong. I'm pretty much sure that's where the whole like courting and all the things that they knew each other before and I think that he proposed when we got home. So you never know. Maybe you're going to need to go on a mission trip ladies. All right. So anyway.

So he sees the need in Brazil. His heart is wrecked. By the way, Ron was like a drug dealer in some small town in Florida back in the day. Comes to 1122, get saved shortly after he's going on a mission trip with us. Then he begins to see this similar kinds of needs right here

in Jacksonville and he thought, somebody's got to do something about that and the Lord went, you know what, Ron, you're somebody, why don't you do something about it? And then he started sponsored by grace. He didn't come to me and say, the church ought to. He said, I'm going to do this, and so we partner with them. And now the brother's running for mayor. Yeah, praise God, dude.

Praise God. He's just doing what the Lord has told him to do. By the way, if you have not signed the petition to get him on the ballot, you should. Because you know what we need in Jacksonville? Regardless of who you're going to vote for. I'm not endorsing candidates. That's not what I do. But boy, you know what would be great?

It is to have a gospel-saturated, godly person in all the conversations about the future of our city. Yeah, man. So he says, they need not go away. You give them something to eat. You see this little girl right here? Brandi. Her mom was a teenager when Brandy was born.

And the Lord looked at me in Uganda. Sitting at this little church, everything compassion done is through the local church, man. And Lord said, you give her something to eat. Now she's 17 years old. Doing great in school. Isn't that great? And here's the thing I think of all the time, man. What if this was your kid?

What would you do? And what if you lived in a system? And what if, I mean, she grew up with a single mom. And her mom, Grace, is doing the best that she could do working as hard as she can. but she just couldn't put it all together, man. And what if, what if you had some brothers and sisters somewhere on the other side of the world? And for $43 a month, they got three and a half coffees a month.

You know what I mean? I'm not against coffee, but if you're spending that much, I'm like, good gosh, man, what are you doing? And you knew that the people of God could do something about it. Like during our Connect moment, it was mentioned that we got a book that just came out, right, the big, brave choice. You know why we do that? Because when we were raising children, we had a hard time finding gospel kids curriculum to, like, tell gospel stuff to our kids.

It was all morality-based. And so I did that to try to do something for our children here at 1122. Lori Newell and I did. These folks are just trying to get some food on the table. They're just trying to get them into school. They're just trying to get some medical help. Imagine Jesus right now says to you, why don't you do something about it?

Verse 17, and they said to him, we only have five loaves here and two fish. And by the way, when you think fish, don't think like a slot red. That's not kind of fish they rolled around with. Bread was the primary meal, and the fish that they would have in the first century were like these little sardine things,

and they would wipe it on the bread to give it a little flavor. A little sardine flavored bread. Doesn't that sound delicious? That's the kind of fish they're working with. and he said we ain't got much now I'm gonna I know this is what the Bible says we have only five loaves here and two fish and I'm going

are you serious the Bible's going to say there are 5,000 men that does not count the women and children I grew up in the low country of South Carolina anybody know what purse bread is you know what purse bread is we ain't got no old country people in here all of Palacca just like oh I got

See, my grandmama, wherever we went at the end of the meal, she would ask for some more bread. And when the bread came, she would take that big fat yeast roll and put a napkin around it and stick it down in her purse. Why? Because you don't know you might run out of gas on the way home, and we ain't going to starve, because Mert had some purse bread. She'd pull it out and divide it up and give it, you know, it tastes like a mothball and a mint and a butterscotch. You mean to tell me nobody had a little bit of purse bread? or my dad used to work for Lance crackers. You know what that is?

When we were going up, we called him to Cracker Stacker. That's what he did for the living. And he'd have a little pack of toast cheese somewhere in some boot or pocket. And if you got starving, he'd pull that thing out. Or if we were in our truck, I'm telling you, if you took a hard left, two cans of vienna sausages would come rolling out from under the bench seat. And we carried vayinas around because that lasts forever. They're not good to begin with.

So how does it go bad? It can't go bad. So you mean to tell me. me, nobody's got a vina, a cracker, or some purse bread out of 15,000 to 20,000 people? I don't think that's true. I think what's actually going on is people looked around and saw the need, and they got real stingy with what they had, and they think, I got to hold on to this. And there's one little boy that's got enough fate to go, I ain't got much, but I think if I

got the little bit, if I take the little bit I have in my hands, and I put it in Jesus's hands, I think it's going to be more than if I kept it to myself. That's what's happening in this moment, which makes me wonder. I wonder how many miracles are still floating around in some purses because they didn't get released to God to say, God, I think you can do more with this than I can do with myself. So let me ask you, so what you got in your hand? You think he got $43 a month?

You ever seen a miracle? you want to sponsor a kid. Did you ever think in a million years that you could be a part of the Great Commission on the other side of the world and release a child from poverty in Jesus' name? You can. You just got to take what's in your hand and say, all right, Jesus, I'm going to give this to you and see what you want to do. So he says, we only have five loaves and two fish. And Jesus said, bring them here to me.

And I'm telling every single one of us to look at what God has put in our bank accounts, in our pockets, in our stored resources. And God, what could you do with this? And you say, even if it's not much, hey, first and foremost, what you have to understand is everything we have is a bloodbought grace gift from him. First and foremost, you have to understand it's all his. You really think it's yours? Well, then take it with you when you go. It's going to stay right here and it's going to be somebody else's because the reality is we don't own anything. We are but stewards for a few decades of what God has given us.

And there's three attitudes when it comes to money and when it comes to stuff and it comes to possessions. Most Americans think this, what's mine is mine. Now when your kids do that, you call that selfish. When you think what's mine is mine, that is selfish. the way, as long as your fists are clenched around the stuff you have, your hands will never be open to the blessing of God to give you anything else. The second attitude, which is getting a lot more popular these days, there's a lot of people that think this, what yours is mine.

That's called stealing. When a bunch of people do it, it's called socialism. Let me just be as clear as I can. Jesus was not and is not a communist or a socialist, period. it. And some people were like, what about Acts 2? They sold their property, sold their houses, and gave all that they had to the church. Yeah, they owned houses. That was called personal property. And they did not sell it by threat of violence from the government. They sold it out of the generosity of their own heart because God had stirred them to and they cheerfully brought it to Jesus

through the local church. And then, by the way, not every single person did that because after that, where they met. They met in houses, which people own. Listen, man, giving away other people's money is not generosity. It's fevery. So some people think, well, as mine is mine, that's selfish. Some people think, what yours is mine, that's stealing or socialism. But the Bible teaches what's mine is yours. That's called stewardship. That's why around here, we bring our first and best to him, because we know it all belongs to him. And Jesus says where your treasury is there, your heart will be also. And every single time we bring our first and best to him,

we're saying, Jesus, I want you to have my heart. And I don't want to grab onto something and then realize that it has a hold of me. And so Jesus says, bring them here to me. And then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and he said a blessing. And then he broke the loaves and gave them to the decisive. Man, I wish I had time to preach a whole sermon on that's the picture of sanctification right there. God will not give you away until he breaks you, but I don't have time to get into that.

But here's what it does. He breaks the loaves, and he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. So technically, Jesus didn't feed the 5,000. The disciples fed the 5,000. Now, all the power came from Jesus. All the miracle came from Jesus. but it was in the hands of the disciples that the miracles happened. I mean, think about this for a second.

And Matt, some of us run by this stuff too quick because you're so familiar as soon as I started reading the text, you're like, well, I know this, okay? I want you to think about this. I mean, you're a disciple. And you're like, hey, boss, we have 15,000 people here. And he's like, I got it. And he takes five loaves, and he prays, and he breaks it.

And then he hands you one-twelfth of five loaves and two fishes. You got that? So you got a sixth of a sardine and a little bit of bread. And he's like, all right, feed everybody. And you're looking at Jesus and you're looking at the people. You're looking at Jesus. Like, how's this going to work out, man? I'm about to look like a fool. And everybody's sitting down all orderly and you walk up to the first person and you're like, can I get you some fish and bread? And you're looking at the second person. And you're looking at the second person. I mean, this little kid, this was his dinner, man. This little kid was going to eat five loaves and two fishes by himself. And now you're sitting there to a grown person, be like,

and two people over you're like, I don't think you're going to get any. I don't know how this is going to go. And I don't know how it happens, man. Matthew doesn't give us all the details, but somehow in the hands of the disciples as they just take one step of obedience, even when they think they might look like a fool, the miracle begins to happen. And they start handing out a little bit of fishing brand and a little bit of fish and brand. They look down and they're like, I still got something to give out. And I still got something to give out. And they give it out and they give it out and they give it out.

Let me ask you this. When's the last time God called you to do something that you knew if he didn't come through, you might look like a fool to this world? And if you can't think of a thing, you might not be listening to the commands of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Why? Because with man, these things are impossible, but there is no impossible thing when it comes to God. What has he called you to do?

This happens in the hands of the disciples. And they hand out the food, and they hand out the food, they hand out the food, and then at some point they begin to enjoy being a part of the miracle. I mean, think about that. When you got that first row done, you're like, I think this is going to work, you know? You're on that second row.

You're still handing out, you're still handing out. You're looking down and you're like, yo, Pete, what you got? And he's like, I don't know how this is happening. And he's handed out, you know, Bartholomew, what? You know, is it working? Yeah. And then got on the third row. He's like, hey, man, I can get some more fish.

You can have all the fish you want. And the more they give out, the more is multiplied in their hands. Listen to me, church. I want you to experience what radical obedience feels like. There's nothing like it. See, because when you are always in control of everything that you do, then all you can do is what you can do. Trust me on this one.

When you let God call you to do something that doesn't make any sense in the natural, and then you step out by faith and you just do whatever he tells you to do, that's where freedom is. And you're like, what are you talking about, pastor? I know it doesn't seem like a big risk right now, 2012 when we felt like the Lord said, I want you to plant a church. I'm like, well, I hope, blah, and we went all in, man. I'm signing documents.

And I was like, Petey, Lars Peterson, he's on an elder board. I was like, what happens if nobody shows up? He's like, two things. You're going to go to prison. And you're going to be out dozens of dollars because that's all they can take from you because that's all you have. You know how free it is to just trust God and do whatever. he says, and just trust him with results.

You'll me give you another example of God doing immeasurably more than what anybody ever hoped or dreamed or imagined. All of this started with the obedience of one fateful 23-year-old girl who was my wife. Yeah, man, she brought that packet over at that youth specialties conference. We just got married. We've been married a couple of months, a few months, man. She said, we need to do this. And I was like, we can't do this.

We got no money. And like the video said, she's like, well, I mean, we got cable. And I'm telling you, my first thought was not compassion. My first thought was, how am I going to watch the Bulldogs? They didn't have streaming and stuff yet. This was 2000. And that one step of obedience, that one step of obedience. Not by a pastor and elder, a professional,

about a 23-year-old faithful disciple of Jesus that felt the nudge of the Spirit of God that heard the voice of the good shepherd and simply did whatever it is that he told her to do. That one step of obedience has led not only to 30,000 kids being sponsored here, but we've planted seven churches with compassion international. And not only that, we use our retreat center

to kind of bait and switch a bunch of pastors. We invite, hey, you want to come down on a relaxing week at the retreat center and fish and hunt pigs with Pastor Jobi? And we sure do. And then we do it like a timeshare thing. We're like, ha, ha, while you're here and we make them sponsor kids. That's what I do every time. I don't care. 20,000 more children have been sponsored through us taking pastors to the retreat center.

All of that, all of that can be traced back to, it's like one little boy. I ain't got much. What if we just sponsor this one little kid, Blue Boots? You have no idea. And honestly, sometimes when I'm talking to pastors, they'll say this to me. They'll say, Pastor, aren't you afraid that if you keep doing the compassion thing with your people that will hurt the 1122 budget? I'm like, bro, I don't even, what are you talking about? I've heard you preach sermons all the time.

You can't out give God, but you don't believe it for your church. What are you talking about? Look, my job is not to make budget. My job is to make disciples. and Jesus will build his church. And here's the thing, man, generosity begets generosity. Like our most generous people also sponsor our most kids.

It happens all the time. And I don't care which one goes first. I'm just telling you the job of the believer is to make disciples, and Jesus said upon this rock, I will build my church. And here's the deal, man. You have no idea what hangs on the balance. We've been doing this long enough

that we've gotten a lot of letters. from 40 different kids. And you sponsor a kid, and then you begin to see that you get to make disciples to the very ends of the age, the very ends of the earth. You think, how in the world? I didn't know God could use me

to make a disciple in Sri Lanka. Let's be honest, most of you don't know where Sri Lanka is. And then you get that letter, and that kid grows up and graduates high school, gets a job. gets married, has a kid. That kid grows up and as a leader in their community. That kid gets called into the ministry and as a pastor, that kid gets called into the mission field.

And God used your little step of obedience to do something that you can never, ever dream up on your own. And then look what happens. Look at the crowd. And they all ate. How many ate? All. They all ate and were satisfied. for a minute because the temporary things of this world can only temporarily satisfy you.

But you want to talk about satisfaction? You get a letter from your kid and you read about what the Lord is doing in your life. Listen, man, think about how many times you've wasted $43 on things that don't, I mean, you go to Chili's. And you walk out of there with regret. I've never regretted sponsoring a kid. not one time ever how about the satisfaction of hearing that the kid that you sponsored got saved

or graduated they got married man and they all ate and they were satisfied and then look at this God is not a God of waste and they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces left over 12 they had leftovers man

you think God's in heaven right now back in his fingernails going I really hope they can come up with $43. No, man. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. It's all his anyway. He's actually just inviting us into the miraculous, and we get some satisfaction out of it.

By the way, don't miss this. Remember Matthew's writing to a Jewish audience. You notice how many baskets are left over? There's 12. John's going to say right after this that Jesus says, oh, you want some bread? I am the bread of life. We're not going to repeat this event, but in a few weeks we're going to get to the feeding of the 4,000.

This for whatever reason, this one, I can get a lot of press. At the end of the feeding of the 4,000, there's seven baskets left over. Like, what does seven have to do with anything? When Joshua moved in to take over the promised land, the land of Canaan, there were seven different pagan tribes there, seven. And so what Jesus is going to do with the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000, is that there's room for the 12 tribes of Israel to come to Christ, and there's room for all the Gentile tribes to come to Christ. You know what Jesus is saying through these two miracles is that this thing that he is starting is a movement for all people to discuss. and deep in a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying.

And those who ate were about 5,000 men beside the women and children. So if everybody had a date and a kid, man, that's 15. Somewhere between 15,000 to 20,000 people show up. And so here's the question. So in this miracle, I don't like to call it a story because the same veggie tale is the same flannel graph. This is an actual event.

So in this event, who's the blessed one? The people that ate, sure, they were blessed. They were in a decibelate place. They were hungry. Jesus had compassion on them, and their stomachs were full. Of course they were blessed. But you know who else was blessed? The disciples were blessed.

The disciples got to participate in a miracle, man. It happened in their hands. You want to talk about a blessing? That's a blessing. Have you ever been used by God to do something that you thought you could never do, there's blessing in that. You know who else is blessed? The little boy.

Can you imagine this cat when he gets home? He's going to like, Mom, you're not going to believe what happened. She'd be like, what's that big old basket you got? He's totting it in like this. He's like, I know I came with a lunchable, but look at what I got here. Where'd you get that?

Jesus. That I took a little bit in my hand, and I gave it to him, and not only were 20,000 people satisfied and 12 disciples participate in a miracle, but look at all that we have. He was blessed. But here's one we forget about all the time. You know who else was blessed?

Jesus. You're like, really? Yeah. So many times when we use the word blessing God, what we say is, God, please bless me. Did you know that we can bless him? my friend Ruslan Katie runs this event out on the left coast. I'm going to go to it next year called Bless God,

and Bless God Summit. I love it so much. And he talks about how we can leverage our time, talent, and treasure, not to just always be on the receiving end of God's blessing, but that we could bless God. Listen, Jesus was blessed in this. That Jesus was blessed in the obedience of his disciples. Like, where do you get that?

If you go to Matthews chapter 25, we'll be there. in the fall. Jesus is talking about the end of the world, how the old thing's going to go down at the end. Chapter 24 can be very confusing. He's talking about the end of the world. The disciples are like, hey, boss, tell us about the end of the world. He's like, all right, there's going to be the abomination of desolation

and wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes, and they're all like, what? And he's like, all right, let me tell you some stories. He tells three stories. He tells the parable of the virgins. It doesn't mean what you think it means. It means don't miss the party. Get saved. Then he tells the parable of the talents.

That means don't waste your life. You leverage everything you have for the glory of God. And then the third one he tells is called the parable of the sheep and the goats. He says he's going to gather everybody in front of him. And he's going to separate them. Sheep on the right, goats on the left. And to the goats, he's like, y'all going to hell. Sorry you said over there.

I'm not saying you are. Put your faith in Jesus if you are. And he won't have to. And he's like, y'all going to heaven. And he says, because when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. And I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. And I was in prison and you visited me. And I needed clothes, and you clothed me.

I was sick and you visited me. And the people are kind of surprised. When did we see you in need? And then Jesus says these words in Matthew 25, 10. And the king will answer them. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these brothers. Others, you did it to me. You want to bless God?

Sing to him. He's into it. He told us to. We bless God when we join our voices together and sing true things to him and about him and pour out our heart to him. No doubt, man. You want to bless God?

Receive the word of God diligently. You want to bless God? Then whatever you do for one of the least of these, it's a one-to-one blessing to Jesus himself. And so here's, if your neighbor's asleep, wake them up. Here's what you missed. What is possible when we take the little bit in our hands and trust it to Jesus is immeasurably more than we could ever hope, dream, or imagine.

Don't you want to get in on that? So here's how we're going to close. We're going to sing, we're going to bring, we're going to pray. And we still bring. We're going to bring our first and best to Jesus, our ties. And so all of our nine kids that we sponsor right now, that is in addition to our first and best here at the church.

And we're going to do that, because this is what we do. And then we're just going to do what Gretchen did 26 years ago when she felt the nudge. We're just going to do what the little boy did 2,000 years ago. And it's like, I ain't got much, but here, I'll put it in your hands. and all I want you to do is do whatever he tells you to do. And in just a minute, as we sing and we bring and we pray, we're going to leave the lights up, and you're going to go to the packets,

you're going to sponsor a kid. We need you to fill out that packet right here, right now. Because these are not random packets. Every single one of these packets represent that is that kid's packet. There is one picture for one kid, for one packet. And if you take it and put it on your dashboard and leave it, this kid gets out of the rotation for a long time. And that would be a travesty.

Okay? So we want you to feel that out right now. We got people all over the place to try to help you if you can't see good. If you need help. Also, if you're watching online, then you can sponsor too. And we're going to put it on the screen. You text the word sponsor to 83393. And listen, this is where you just got to trust the sovereignty of God.

If you text that number, God himself is going to pick a kid for you. your kid, congratulations. If you don't like that one, get another one. Get a third one, get a fourth one. Keep going until you get the birthday you're looking for. I don't know what to tell you, all right. But don't put your own wants in front of the needs of these kids. Listen to 1122.

We might be the most blessed church in all of America. You realize this? I mean, we just baptize all those people, and the national news is covering it and all of that. The grace of God will not terminate on us. But may we be a conduit of the love of God, and it flow through us to Jesus by releasing these children from poverty in Jesus' name. Would you please stand to your feet? Let me pray for you.

Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray right now that the real preacher here, the Spirit of God, would just take over. Lord, I pray that you would just call your people to be obedient to what you have called us to. Lord, for the folks that think they don't have enough, Lord, I just pray. that they would trust you. Lord, for the folks that know they have plenty, Lord, I pray that they would trust you and that, God, this would be for your glory, your name, your renown. And God, I pray for every single one of these kids that are about to get sponsored. Lord, I pray we sponsor every single one of them.

The compassion trusted us with when they gave us these packets. And Lord, we do this for you and you alone. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. that we're going to sing, we're going to bring, and we're going to pray. And let me tell you what's going to happen. You're going to walk over there, you can get a packet, you're going to fill it out. And then it takes a couple of weeks or so for all the processing that happen.

It goes through Colorado Springs, and then it goes out. Let's say you pick a kid from Uganda. Here's what's going to happen. They're going to have that little compassion program. And one of the teachers, one of the compassion workers, one of the local church folks, are going to go up just your little kid that you pick. I'm going to tap them on the shoulder. I'll say, can I see outside for a second?

And that little kid is no different than your kids. And they're going to think, oh, no, I'm in trouble. And they're going to hold that kid by the hand, and they're going to walk them outside, and they're going to explain to them a picture of the gospel. They're going to say a person that you can't see. And a person that you've never met in person. This person loves you so much that they chose you. and they're going to leverage that conversation to say,

and there's a God that you can't see, and maybe you haven't met him yet, but he loves you so much that he chose you and was willing to pay the price for you. So let's sing, let's bring, let's pray, let's sponsor kids. Let's respond.