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EXAMINE             Ordinary

This morning you likely had breakfast. Imagine you had eggs & bacon. The chicken and pig both contributed to your breakfast with different levels of commitment. The chicken laid eggs but the pig was “all-in”.

At SPBC, we do not want to be chickens but pigs for the Great Commission – we want to go all in. All praying, all giving, all going either to our neighbors and/or to the nations.

In John 6 we see emphasis of God’s mission.

God’s mission is about Jesus – – > SPBC LOVE GOD (John 6:1; 5:24-29)

After this, Jesus…

• Jesus is the center of human history (dating time/calendars)
  • John 1:3 “All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men.
    
• Jesus is the creator of life and conqueror of death
  • John 5:24 “Truly truly, I say to you, whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
• Jesus is the one that crowds follow but there is difference between fans and followers…
  • All the Gospel’s show that Jesus could have thrilled crowds with supernatural miracles.
  • John’s Gospel shows that Jesus’ miracles were signs to point to something greater – the character of God and the fulfillment of His deity.

God’s mission is about people – – – > SPBC LOVE OTHERS (John 6:2-14)

large crowd followed Jesus…seeing a large crowd was coming toward him… [Jesus acted]

• Jesus spent time teaching, healing, and caring for people
• Jesus wanted to feed the hungry people. He tested Philip, “Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?”
  • Philip responded in terms of sight: 200 denarii (a year’s wages) cannot buy all the food
  • Andrew (Peter’s brother) found a boy with 5 loaves & 2 fish “but what are they for so many?”
  • Jesus responded in terms of faith: “Have the people sit down.”
• Jesus blessed and distributed the food to the entire crowd. His miracle fed 5-15K people.
  • This miracle is recorded in all 4 Gospels (Matthew 14:13-20; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17). Perhaps the reason is to show Jesus’ compassion for such a vast amount of people, but also to show Jesus’ identity as the soul satisfying food for life.
  • Jesus used this miracle as a teaching moment for the disciples. Each of the 12 gathered basket full of leftovers. This would fuel the disciple’s faith for later some of the crowd would stop following Jesus and He asked the disciples, “Do you want to go away as well?” And Peter responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-69)
    • They ate as much as they wanted!
    • Jesus gives generously… more than abundant. Jesus doesn’t do half-way.

APPLY/THINK

• The gospel – celebrating communion
  • Jesus taking our nothing to give us His everything.
  • Jesus teaching us to live by grace through faith in His provision and not our own.
  • THE BREAD: John 6:35-40 “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
  • THE CUP: John 6:53 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Revelation 12:11 “And they have conqured him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…”

• SPBC: We are defined by the gospel and will seek to proclaim the gospel with our lips and promote the gospel with our lives – making the invisible God seen through our words and deeds.
• SPBC: Today we will hear faith testimonies of God using His ordinary followers with little means to accomplish great ministry.

 

Testimony

• Share your name, church, and # of mission trip with brief reason why you went.
• Seeing Nicaragua, what stood out to you? (generally or specific; humorous…)

PD

• Discerning Needs vs Wants in seeing Nicaraguans, our team, and myself. I still have a long way to go in learning the difference. My action is to spend more time meditating on the beatitudes in Matthew 5.
• Evangelism results from gospel roots. Gospel intake will result in outflow of serving with good works & spreading of good news (Ephesians 2:10).
  • Simplicity… emphasis on people not programs
    • rule/motto: cannot have more services than seed sowing.
• Where/How did you see God at work in the people of Nicaragua, MPNICA, SENT Team 2014?

PD

• Feeding of 230 with Sandy Sparling. Somehow we kept digging into a pot of rice and ability to pour into bowls.
• Not being able to bless more… due to lack of resources or not wanting to spoil children. Spoiled children seek the blessings not the Blesser (Matthew 6:33).
• Spiritual Maturity & Group Unity are a process that we must persevere if we seek productivity.

 

• What are your personal take away’s… how do you hope to be different as a result of going?

PD

• Prayer. Prayer is difference between what I can do versus what God can do.
  • My devotional life.
  • My ministry and preaching.
  • Our outreach.
• Ministry Strategy:
  • What if we saw people over problems?
    • In relationships… instead of attacking people we attack problems
    • In community… instead of complain we seek to comfort & help change
    • In church… instead of growing a church we seek to bless a community/country
      • perhaps the former will be the result of the latter
      • What if SPBC relocated its ministry programming to neighborhoods?
        • TeamKID / Good News Clubs in homes
        • Bible Groups active in discipleship but also in fellowship/outreach… 1x mo.
        • What if SPBC adopted MPNICA to reach the Miskito people… then resulted into other people groups in other countries?The Great Commission is not optional. We must not be chickens who lay eggs but pigs who go “all in”.
• Open for questions…
• Response… à Gospel… à Growth in faith & obedience…