Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, guys, this is Naim and you've reached the Mosaic Church podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it. So share this podcast you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity and I'd love for you to pay it forward. Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you. Enjoy.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Hey, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. How are you guys this morning? Good. I'm glad Quinisha's got you awake and ready to participate. That's good. I love it. Well, we are in week four of our series called It's Gonna Take a Miracle. But I wanna ask you a question before we jump right into it. See, this week, Pastor Naim and I were talking, we were having a conversation about the series and what is it that you guys need to hear from God? And we got into a conversation about things that people carry. Because I don't know if you feel this, but people are carrying a lot of things right now, right? Do you feel like you're carrying a lot of things? But I took it, you know, super not spiritual. And I was like, yeah, I make Peter carry all of my things.
He was like, what? I said, when we go out, I always make Peter carry my things. I'm like, hey, do you have room in your big pocket? Your big. Can you, like, just put my lipstick in there? Can you just carry this for me? Do you have gum also? Then you're technically carrying your own. See? But I'm like, if you have gum, can you carry that for me? And Naeem goes, I do that too. I make Ashley carry my things.
And he started listing off. He was like, my keys, my glasses, my gum, my phone. I was like, whoa, guy. Like, that's so much stuff. I just need Peter.
Listen, we don't want purses either. We only carry them because of the gender normative stereotype. Let's go. Don't hold us back.
Don't also get me off track. Okay, so we're talking about, right, These things that people Carry. And we are laughing at our own ridiculousness. But I wonder if you can relate. Are you someone that carries things or you are aware of what you're carrying, or would you rather have someone else carry things for you? See, I tend to think about what I want other people to carry more than I think about what it is that I'm carrying. But what happens when we do that is we forget that we're all carriers. I think we're all carrying things right now. And I wanna propose to you today that what you're carrying could be a miracle.
But what you're carrying probably is a miracle for someone else.
If we were to like metaphorically open our hands or literally if you feel like participating right now and we look down, what would we say to God and go, hey, what could I be carrying? What could I be carrying for the person next to me? It doesn't have to be heavy. It might be something that seems really insignificant. It might even be something that we take for granted and forget that we're carrying. But I wonder if the thing that you're really carrying might be someone else's miracle. And here's the reality of it, right? When you accept that and you realize it, you don't have to do anything with it. You can keep carrying this thing that you're holding. It's not gonna make your life any better. It's not gonna help you do anything. It's also not gonna hurt. It's not gonna hurt for you to continue to carry around this thing, but could be someone else's miracle. But if we were able to let go of it and to put it into the right hands, what could happen?
And could it be that maybe the person next to you was actually carrying your miracle in their hands? So that's what we're gonna look at today. We're in the fourth miracle of John as we're going miracle by miracle in this series. And so John is one of the four Gospels, but his is a little bit different than the other three. Matthew, Mark and Luke come in with the details and the facts. And so we are gonna borrow from those Gospels a little bit today. But John's a little bit different cause he can't be bothered to like write down the data.
What John gives us instead is the story. He wants you to feel it, he wants you to have the em.
So we're gonna kinda go back and forth between the two as we look at Jesus. Miracle of feeding the 5,000, which is one of the only stories that does take place in all four Gospels.
So what's happening is Jesus is teaching and he's doing miracles and he's healing people, and he's kind of moving from town to town. And people are starting to hear about this guy. They're starting to go like, hey, I think he's gonna be in the neighborhood. Maybe we should go check it out. Maybe we should go follow and find out where he's gonna be and see if we can hear his teaching for ourselves. See if we can see that these miracles and things that we're hearing about are actually happening. So that's what we're gonna pick it up today. In John 6, verse 5, it says, Jesus saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. And turning to Philip, he said, where can we buy bread to feed all of these people?
I love that John is like, he was testing Philip. John, the gospel writer, takes out his pen, his feather, and he's like, in my account, Jesus was testing Philip, and he did not know the answer. He just writes down whatever he wants, throwing shade, right? Also, John, my guy, you were also there. You were there, too. I'm pretty sure that when Jesus was teaching his group of disciples, it was like a collective effort between the 12 of them. So we'll go on. It says he was testing Philip for he already knew what he was going to do. Actually, before we move on, let me also say this was not that kind of test. It was not the kind of test of like, hey, pass or fail, Philip, do you know the answer? Who does know the solution to this problem? What the Jewish rabbis at the time would do as teachers is they wanted to get their students.
They wanted people to be able to think for themselves. Not just to jump in and say, hey, here's the answer. But their goal was for their students to wonder and to be curious and to ask questions. They wanted them to learn how to think on their own. Instead of just saying, here is the information, memorize it, like maybe many of us experienced when we were in school. So this test really was an invitation of Jesus to see which of them would stand, step into the problem.
So now we'll go on. It says, again, he was testing Philip for he already knew what he was going to do. Tell the person next to you, he already knew.
He already knew. Whatever situation that you're facing, whatever impossible situation that is before you, whatever miracle you're waiting on, whatever that thing is that seems impossible, and you're like, God, I don't know how you're gonna do this.
God already knew. And I would say, the same is true for you today. God already knows. And so Philip replied, even if we worked for months, we would not have enough money to feed them. Then Andrew Simon, Peter's brother, spoke up. So we had another one of the disciples jumping in. There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. I mean, I don't know what good that is in a crowd this size, but we've got it. So if you can picture the scene with me, right, Jesus and his disciples, all of his followers, are up there on a hill, this big grassy hill. And people have come from every direction. They're coming from all kinds of towns. And it says, recorded that there were 5,000 men. But that did not include the women or the children that were also present. And so theologians agree that easily, if we count all of the people, because now in this year of our Lord, we know that we count all of the people, not just the men. Amen. Okay? Theologians agree that there were easily 15 to 20,000 people on that hill. So you're sitting on that hill, you look around. There are people. Men, women and children. Thank you very much. As far as the eye can. Can see.
What are the chances?
What are the chances with all of these people that that little boy was the only person that had food?
What are the chances that that little boy was the only person that had food? There are not nearly that many of you in this room, and I guarantee you that at least one of you has a snack.
Somebody else is probably carrying it for you, actually.
But at least one of you has a snack, and you're only gonna be here for an hour. Okay? There is no chance that this little boy was the only one that had food. If they had made plans to leave their home and follow Jesus, they knew that they were gonna be out for a number of days. I'm sure they prepared food that would travel well. They probably rationed it out into Tupperware and Ziploc baggies for all of their family members. It was labeled with a Sharpie like, this is for breakfast. This is for lunch. They had food with them.
So I wonder what the difference is. If we think about these people in the crowd, how many of them looked around, maybe saw someone else that was hungry and was like, that is not my problem.
That is not my responsibility. Cause I packed food for me and mine. I've got family or food for my family. And I wonder how many of them justified holding onto what they had, assuming that other people would be someone else's responsibility.
But we hear about one Person. We hear about one person, this boy who offers his two fish and his five pieces of bread to Jesus. Why?
Why do you think he gave his lunch to Jesus? Did he want to make sure that Jesus wasn't hungry?
Do you think that maybe he had a fear that if people knew that he had food that they would try to take it by force? And what did his parents think when he came back to them empty handed and he was like, mom, I gave my lunch to Jesus.
Jehoshaphat, why would you give your lunch to Jesus? Do you know how long it took me to prepare all this food and to ration it out into Tupperwares and Ziploc bags? And now you don't have anything? I have to share my hummus with you now? You don't even like hummus. Don't ask me for a snack later. You think about this on the way home when you're hungry. If this is still a good decision.
Mary was right there. Why didn't she make Jesus the lunch? That's his mom. Hello.
What happened? What happened when he came back and was like, hey, Mom, I gave my lunch to Jesus?
Were his parents upset? Or maybe were they proud of him? Maybe had this kid heard about Jesus? Maybe he had overheard mom and dad or other people talking in the kitchen as they were preparing food to go on this trip. Maybe he was like, I actually think that I can be part of a miracle here if I decided to participate and give up my food. Maybe like Pastor Naim mentioned a couple weeks ago, he didn't have to see in order to believe, but he believed that a miracle was gonna happen. And then he got to see it actually take place.
We are going to jump over to the Gospel of Mark for just a second so we can get a little bit more detail of what it is that's actually happening. After he handed over this little thing that he'd been carrying, it says, so then Jesus directed them to have all of the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of how many?
Hundreds and fifties. Hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven. He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to whom?
The disciples. To distribute to the people.
He also divided the two fish among them. They all ate and were satisfied.
Luke and Matthew record these exact same steps that we just looked at in Mark. Three steps of action. Jesus takes the food and he breaks it into pieces.
Jesus then gives those pieces to the disciples. And the Gospels actually record him saying, you feed them.
Jesus said, here it is. You feed them. And then the disciples were the ones who took the pieces of fish and bread out to the people for them to eat until everyone was full.
Have you ever thought about when the miracle actually took place?
We just, we take for granted, right? We're like, oh, there were two and five, and then there was like a bazillion. But when did the miracle actually happen?
Were the disciples just carrying around baskets and all of a sudden they just got really heavy because they were full of food? Did they take those pieces in their hand? Did they have like four pieces? Jesus was like, go feed them. They're like, um, okay. And every time they picked up the last one to give it to somebody else, it just like magically appeared.
When did the miracle take place? I think this is one of the most important details that I want you to hold onto. This is the only thing that you remember from this message today is that Jesus gave food back to the disciples, said, you feed them. And the miracle happened in their hands.
The miracle happened in the hands of the disciples.
Jesus, yes, made the miracle happen, but they were the ones that carried it out. The disciples were the miracle workers.
And being a miracle worker actually requires for people to do something with what they have. And so it requires three things of us. The first thing is that miracles take sweat equity. It means there's work to do. Even in this miracle, there was work to do. Jesus said, go up and gather up the people. Get them into groups, count them off. 50, 51. No, I'm so sorry. You're going over here. You need to be in this group. We've already got 50 here. They had to make groups. They had to get people to move. They had to convince people to actually do what it was that Jesus said.
I'm not sure if you've ever experienced this.
Sometimes Jesus says to do something and people are real hesitant to do.
Takes miracle workers to put in the sweat equity and the work to keep circling up the groups of people and reminding them what it is that Jesus said.
Miracles also take faith. Like I said, surely as they were counting off and numbering off by 50s or 100, they were still unsure of how exactly the. The miracle was going to take place. Jesus didn't give him a whole lot of instructions or explanation other than just do this, take the next step, and trust that when you do the thing that I've asked you to do, I will handle what's gonna come next.
Miracles also take participation. The disciples had to decide that they were going to be part of what Jesus was doing. Jesus could have truly easily said, bring me literally anything, and I will feed these people with it. He could have just gone, poof. Here's a bunch of food, poof. Like he's Jesus. I don't know how miracles work. I do think they say poof when it happens, but we don't know. He could have done it any way, and it still would have been a miracle. No matter how Jesus fed 20,000 people from nothing, it would have been a miracle. But that's not what he chose to do. He said, you give me what you've got. You give me the little bit that you've got. I'm going to give it back to you, and then you will carry out the miracle. And he drew them in an invitation because he wanted them to choose to participate. He invited them in to join with him and be part of what was going to happen. Not because he needed them to, but because he wanted.
He wanted them to choose to be part of it.
And so Jesus made the miracle happen, but it was multiplied in the hands of the disciples, who looked at what they were carrying, who looked at what probably seemed really, really insignificant and said, only God can do something with this.
But they trusted and gave it.
And when they handed it over, a miracle happened.
The story ends with one more detail that I want to make sure that we don't overlook. It says in John, after everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, now gather the what?
The leftovers, so that nothing is wasted. So they picked up the pieces and filled. How. How many baskets?
Interesting. 12 baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves that little boy's lunch fed thousands of people.
Not only that, but it multiplied well beyond what the crowd could handle. It multiplied well beyond what 20,000 people could actually carry. Where 20,000 people sit back and go, I am so full, but please take away the Olive Garden breadstick basket, because I ain't got no more room for nothing like 12 baskets of leftovers. What kind of math is that?
That is even harder to understand than girl math.
My husband's laughing because I had to explain this to him. Let me explain it to some of you, okay? We're gonna have a math lesson really quick, all right? Cause did you know that not everybody has the same math? Some of you, the lady, some of y'all are like, no. What? Okay, let me explain this to you. Girl math, okay? So normally I rent my clothes. It's sustainable. I get to try on lots of fun. New things. That's why some of you right now are like, that is why I've literally never seen you in the same thing twice. Right? Okay? But every now and then, there's a piece that I'm like, oh, this is a need, Peter. This is a need for my closet. This is something that I have to have. This jumpsuit is one of those items. Exhibit A. I needed to have this, okay?
So I bought it for $100. How much? 100. $100. Here's the thing, though. The way I got this jumpsuit is that I saved up gift cards and I had returns for things that I no longer needed. And so then, you know, when you do a return, that money comes back in guys only. How much was this jumpsuit, girls? How much was this? Cause I used gift cards. Free. Yes, free.
That is girl math. Do you see? I paid $0 for this. Isn't that so amazing?
I love girl math. It's the best. It's the best thing ever. Okay, I know some of you are rolling your eyes. We're like, that is not how it works. That is not how math works. Math is logical. It is one for one. It is this plus this equals that. You have to take from someplace to add it to somewhere else.
However, I think that is just boring adult math. And we have to expand our minds, you guys. Okay? Expand our minds. Jesus said, come to me with the faith of a child. Do you know who don't understand math? Children.
So when you ask them, like, oh, today's your teacher's birthday. How old is she? They're like 100.
Okay, how many jelly beans are you gonna get in your Easter basket in a couple weeks? Like, a bazillion, right? Okay. Kids always overestimate. Kids always overestimate. And so I think when Jesus said, come to me with the faith of a child, this is exactly what he was talking about. Cause God is not into adding and subtracting. God has always been into multiplying. God's math always goes above. Beyond what we can understand. I think God, when he says, come to me with the faith of a child, is like, I need you to come with the understanding that logic will not always apply, that you cannot just rely on one plus one equals one when it comes to what we are asking God to do right now. We are even collecting stories. And we're seeing this happen as we go through this series. We're collecting your prayers and your praises. And we've seen a couple stories of people who, in a sense, are dividing their wealth and Seeing it multiplied. People who decided to start tithing, they were like, this is the year. I've been thinking about it for a long time. I knew this is something that I needed to commit to doing. And they committed to tithing, to financially providing for Mosaic. And then they got laid off and had to have the hard conversation of going, okay, well, I really feel like God called us to do this.
But now this income is not coming in. What do we do? And it's a wrestle. It's a wrestle for sure. But we've seen stories of people say, I'm gonna continue to give financially. And somehow, somehow all of their bills are still paid for. Somehow their family is still provided for. Even as they're dividing their wealth, in a sense, they are seeing it supernaturally be multiplied in a way that does not logically make sense to mathematicians. Per the checkbook.
Some of us will never see God multiply like this. If we are only dealing with a give one to get one kind of logical math when it comes to God, we can't expect for it to be God's job to multiply when we are only willing to add and take away like that.
God provided more than they needed after they gave the little bit that they were carrying.
Now, you've probably heard this story before, right? This is a really familiar one. But I wonder if it hits different today, and I kind of hope it does. One of our goals is, you know, there's only so many Bible stories to teach from every single Sunday.
But one of the things that's really important to us when we talk about what we decide to bring to you guys from the stage on a Sunday morning is it's not necessarily that there's gonna be a new story, but we want you to think about it in a different way. We are hoping that Holy Spirit is moving in your mind and in your spirit so that if you only thought of one part of that story before, every time you hear it, you can pick up on something different. And that doesn't mean that you didn't understand it before. That doesn't mean that you misunderstood the Bible or that you didn't have a big enough faith. This is actually why we talk about the Bible being, like, alive and active, if you've heard that phrase, because it means that as you are reading in different ages, in different stages of your life, God can reveal different things to you in every single reading.
So I wonder today who you related to the most.
If you related to Philip and the other disciples at the beginning, could it be that God Is, you know, quote unquote, testing you right now to see what problem is in front of you that he wants you to kind of start to wrestle through.
Are there needs right around you? Are there needs that God wants you to see?
Even if maybe you're hoping someone else will take the responsibility to figure them out?
Are there things that you are capable of, maybe even called to do right now, even if it's easier for someone else to do it? In a world of me and mine, what problem or need could God be putting in front of you right now?
Or maybe you do relate more to the people in the crowd and you're like, I'm just holding onto the things that are in the best interest of me and my family.
I wonder if God is asking you what it is that you're carrying like this close fisted for fear of losing it if you let go.
Maybe God wants you to have an honest conversation and ask yourself, what are the things that you are white knuckling holding onto because it's allowing you to live the life that you're living?
But what if those things, what if our privileges, what if our rights, what if our freedoms and our voices and these things that some of us often take for granted and forget are really there?
What if those things could be a miracle for someone else? If only we would know how to let go of them and to use them? How could those things that we're holding onto lead to someone else's miracle? Where is Jesus saying to you, you feed them?
No, you feed them.
Every week at the end of our service, we read our benediction from Ephesians, which we will do shortly in a few minutes. And it starts like this. It says now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work where within us, within us, within us. We say these words every single week. And I wonder as we're saying them, if we believe them or if we live like they're true, or even as we're saying these words, if we're actually believing something else.
I have this same passage in a different translation for you, which is very real and not at all made up. It's very made up. It is the rational believer's version.
And let's read this. I wonder. Here's a new version for you tomorrow. Cause I'm kind of busy today.
God will be able and hopefully willing do more than I expect him to do in this one specific area according to mostly my own abilities, but also His Power that is definitely in me somewhere, even though I'm not sure how to tap into it.
Is this what we really think when we are saying and claiming the benediction? I know this is what those are the words that we say, but is this what we actually believe? Do we live like we know that God's power is in. In us and ready to move? Do we only live with a head knowledge that says, I know God can do immeasurably more, I know God can do a miracle, but we don't expect for him to do it and carry it out through us?
Do we only have the head knowledge, or do we actually live and believe like it's true?
Miracles are going to go through your head hands.
Miracles are going to go through your hands only if we stop looking at what we have and saying, it's not enough. It's insignificant. It's too little. I don't understand. I don't know what God's gonna do with this. Because the question isn't if God can do a miracle. The question is, will we accept his invitation to participate in it? Will we be the kind of people who take what we have and say, yes, God, you can use this to perform a miracle for someone else?
And don't underestimate what you're carrying. Don't underestimate the thing that you have and say, oh, it's too little, it's not enough. Because you probably have been on the receiving end of a little miracle like this. If you've ever gotten a text message or a phone call or a comment or a message on Instagram or Facebook and you're like, that's exactly what I needed to hear in that moment. If you have these words in your mind that maybe you needed to hear from your parents and you never did, and now other people are saying those words to you and they're affirming things in your life, friends, that is a miracle. That is God moving through someone else to get to you. For God to say, hey, I see you.
I've got you. I'm in this with you. Maybe you've been in worship and there's a song or a lyric that's sung, or somebody says something up here and it just like, all of a sudden makes you emotional, or you've got goosebumps and you don't know what's happening.
That's the Holy Spirit moving through someone else to get to you. Because God wants you to know, I am in this. I see you. You are not forgotten. Your miracle is coming. Your prayers will be answered.
It takes people saying, yes, God, I will send this text, I will give this hug that this person doesn't think that they want until they get it. And then they're gonna realize how much they needed human interaction from someone else. Yes, God, I'm going to do this nudging thing that I feel in my brain. I'm going to go over and talk to this person after service. I don't know why, but I feel like I'm going to. So, God, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna move.
When we are willing to use the little that we have, God can do a miracle. Let's be people who say, what I've got is not a lot, but in God's hands, I know it could be a miracle. I wanna pray that over us this morning. And what I'd actually like you to do, if you don't mind, is just to close your hands up as I pray. And I want you to think about the things that you could be holding onto that God might be asking you to let go.
God, we thank you for who you are. God, we thank you that miracles are actually small and tiny and they're happening all over the place. God, would you help us to move away from expecting to see an ocean split wide open? God, in order to conceal something, a miracle, but instead help us to see the little miracles that are all around us, God, as we're holding our hands closed? Lord, would you show us the things that we are holding onto because maybe we don't trust you with them. God, would you show us the things that we're holding onto for fear of no longer having them for ourselves? Because the logic of our brain still says that if we share it with someone else, there will not be enough left for us.
God, even now, as we slowly start to uncurl our fingers and open our hands, God, would this just be a symbol to show you that we are willing to let go? God, would you show us the little things that we're carrying that could be a miracle for someone else?
God, Take the small, insignificant things that we have and use them, God, to bless and to change someone else, God, to point them to who you are in their lives.
Amen.
Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina. For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
