Becoming a Responsible Manager Part 2 - A Manager's Reasoning

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. Fellowship together. [00:00:17] Speaker B: At this moment, we can just focus [00:00:20] Speaker A: our minds and our hearts on you, [00:00:27] Speaker B: Remove the obstacles of the day and of the week and focus on you. And so, first of all, Father, let us come before your throne with hearts of repentance. For all of the ways that we have dropped the ball, for all of the ways that we have offended others, for all of the ways that we have let our minds wander in ways that would not be pleasing to you. For all of the ways that we have disappointed you this week in the way that we have chosen idols over choosing you. Father, I pray that you would forgive us as a people. We come before you praying together from our hearts and from our minds, asking, Father, that you would wash us clean. Once again, thank you for your word that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and just and you forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And thank you. That's an ongoing process. And so as we come and we lift up these tongues and these voices, I pray that you would receive our prayer praise from hearts that are clean. And as we listen now to your word and as we receive what you would have for us that's been prepared over these. These last few weeks, that has been put on a plate and now will be served to us, I pray, Father, that our hearts would be hungry to hear what you would say to us. That we receive it like. Like as if it were a feast that you were feeding us yourself. A feast of grace, a feast of truth, a feast of encouragement and hope. And so, for all the needs that are represented in here, Father, I pray that your word would meet every single one, your spirit would speak to every single heart and that you would change us from being in this place during this time. Father, thank you for our church. Thank you for this haven that we have, that we can come together and remind ourselves that you are still in control in a world that spirals out of control, with politicians that let us down and politicians that make us wonder about their real goals and objectives, with bombs that are dropping and wars that go on. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We pray for the peace of this world. And Father, may you be glorified in this world. And may your church rise up even in the darkest moments, so that we can be a light to those who desperately need to see it the most. Thank you for revival that is breaking out all around us. Thank you. Thank you for this generation of young people that are rising up to worship you. And Father, I pray that they would lead the way for a new generation that would bow their knee before you and call you Lord and Savior. We give you thanks for all of your blessings. Ask Father you would visit us in our time of need, speak to us in only the way that you can, and thank you, Father, for allowing us this opportunity. All because of your son, Jesus Christ, who paved the way, broke down the wall of hostility, and allows us to have a relationship with our Father once again. We come as prodigals, anxious to hear, anxious to receive the love of our Father. Once again. I pray this all in Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated. We have the great opportunity. Oh, my name is Craig Jarvis, if I haven't met you yet. I'm the lead pastor here at Village Church East. And we have a great opportunity this morning to welcome in some new folks that have been coming to our church that have been actually been involved in our church in various different ways and who have decided that they would like to make this a formal thing. So at our church, we have, of course, everybody that comes is part of the family. You're more than welcome to attend and just kind of get to know us. But once in a while, we have some folks that are saying, I'd like to get in a little further. I'd like to lock arms with the church and use my gifts with this church, maybe explore some ways that I can help lead in different ministries. And in order to do that, we bring these folks in and we call them members. And so we have a group of people this morning that have gone through our get to Know Village class, our Discover Village class, and they are going to be joining us this morning as official members. And so hopefully you've been reading your newsletter and you already know these folks or you've already met them in our church. But I'd like to call them this morning up, if they would come this morning, and I'd like to introduce them officially to you. So if you're going to be joining this morning, this is your opportunity to make your way up to the front. And I will officially introduce you and you can have this opportunity to let your face be put on camera. So come on up here right in the light. You got to come up in the light, if you don't mind. Yeah, nobody can see in the dark down there. Yeah, well, so this is. This is our group. We have. We have a few more that will be joining us later on, but this is the group this morning. And it's bright up here, isn't it? Yeah, I know. Burn your retinas all Right. So I am so excited, all of these folks this morning, that I'm. That I'm looking at this morning. You probably have already come to know them to some degree, because most of them, if not all of them, have used their. Their gifts in our church in one way or another already. And so Brent, one of our elders, has taken them through the membership class, and they have decided that they would like to officially join us this morning. So I want to start. I'll just start from here, closest to me, and we'll work down the row, and I'm just going to ask them tons of questions. Yeah, no, I'm not going to put you on the spot. I'm not going to put you on the spot. All right, so. But I will ask you, like, Lindsay, you're first to my left, and you have been involved a lot with the church already. Can you tell us one of your favorite things that you have already? Well, you can introduce yourself and then tell us one of the favorite things you've already done here at Village. [00:06:09] Speaker A: Sure. [00:06:10] Speaker C: I'm Lindsay. My husband Tom back there. And you've probably seen my three kids running around. Rose, who just got baptized, and my little guy Jacob. So I am in the hospitality committee. So I help with breakfast and setting up the kitchen. I've also gone on the youth group mission trip last summer. Just a couple of the things that I've done. [00:06:44] Speaker B: And you may not know. Oh, sir, you may not know this, but that sign that you see when you walk in the church with Nehemiah, the passage they put their hands to, the good work that was done by Lindsay and her family. So you may not know that, but we are very grateful for you. All right, so what's your. One of your favorite things here? What's one of the reasons you might want to join and make this an official thing for you right now? [00:07:08] Speaker C: Yeah, for me, it's all of you guys. I love coming here. And it's like you've always say, it's not the place, but it's the people. I feel like I'm home when I'm here. It's like a second family. My brothers and sisters of Christ. [00:07:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:25] Speaker C: That's awesome. [00:07:26] Speaker B: Yeah, awesome. Good. Well, we feel like you're family, too. All right, this is Mary. Mary's one of our newer attendees, and we're so glad that you've been coming. You've been coming for three. About three or four months. Yeah. So. Oh, that's good. Thank you, Lindsay. Yeah. So Mary has come because she got invited by one of our good friends here. And Theresa. That's right, Theresa Berger. And we are really grateful that Mary has decided that she would like to become a member here as well. So, Mary, tell us, what is one of your favorite things about East? [00:08:01] Speaker A: I really enjoy, you know, all of the people here. And one of the things that I had told Pastor Craig was I felt like I was coming home. [00:08:14] Speaker B: That's excellent. Good. Have you. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Nice job. [00:08:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:20] Speaker B: You want to say anything else? Anything to follow that up with? That was pretty good. [00:08:24] Speaker A: No, I haven't really joined a lot of things yet other than the Bible study. [00:08:28] Speaker B: You've been in the Bible study for a long time? Yeah. That's excellent. All right. All right. Thank you, Mary. All right, next. You don't have to move if you don't want to. I'll just come down. This is. Yeah, you can stay there. Chuck and Kelly. Chuck and Kelly. You have recognized them. I know, because they have been coming for, like, over a year now. You started coming when we were at Fountain View, and then we were able to wrangle Chuck into doing some work for us. And a lot of what you see around here is because of his handiwork. And Kelly is, like, one of the best servants I have ever known in my life. It's like you drop something on the ground, and you turn around and it's gone. You're like you're at Disney World. That's Kelly. She'll just come along and pick it up, and you won't even know it. And she's always asking how she can help. And you have been a wonderful blessing. So, Kelly, tell us, what is one of your favorite things about East? [00:09:21] Speaker A: I just like how welcoming it is and how everyone's willing to share with you. And I enjoy helping people who are here. [00:09:31] Speaker B: Yeah, you do. Yeah. So what's one way that you like [00:09:34] Speaker A: to use your gifts most right now? I mean, I really enjoyed the building of this church, and I'm getting more involved in helping Diane with women's ministries. Yeah. [00:09:48] Speaker B: Excellent. Very good. Thank you, Kelly and Chuck, this is your turn now. So Chuck is very handy, as you can tell, because of a lot of the things that get done around here. And I am grateful that we had that lunch, that infamous lunch where your wife said, hey, did you know that Chuck flips houses? And I said, no, but we have some work that needs to be done. And you volunteered or Kelly volunteered. I'm not sure how that happened, but it did. So, Chuck, you guys have been coming for quite a While what is. What is one of your favorite things about East? [00:10:25] Speaker A: It makes you feel welcome and at ease. There's no pressure. Okay. Makes you feel welcome and at ease. There's no pressure. Being here. It's very relaxing and informative with the teachings of the scriptures. [00:10:43] Speaker B: Awesome. And something very special happened with you guys just a couple of moments months ago. What was that? [00:10:51] Speaker A: Both of us had our baptisms here. [00:10:53] Speaker B: Yes. So we're excited to see you growing in your faith, and you are on my prayer list constantly. So I'm grateful for both of you. All right. And last but not least. Okay, Melissa, you can come over here. There you go. All right. So this is Melissa, and she has become one of my favorite people around here. She has used her gifts incredibly, not only in the move, but even before that. How long have you been coming here? [00:11:22] Speaker A: About two and a half years now. [00:11:24] Speaker B: Yeah. So. And Melissa is. Your heart is about the biggest thing on you, I think. And you give that to everybody that you see, and I'm really grateful for that. And I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I love it. One thing that I typically say about Melissa is. And you may not know this, but this floor underneath of this carpet is filled with verses and names of people that we're praying for. And on the day that we did that, Melissa was. I think she was the first one here, and she was the last one to leave. And a lot of her handiwork is on this floor right beneath you. Of verses and promises in scripture that we claim together as a church. So I'm doing all the talking. Melissa, introduce yourself. [00:12:06] Speaker C: Hi, I'm Melissa. [00:12:07] Speaker A: And just like everyone else said, this place is, like, just full of good people. But the best part, it's like, good people that are good, that are doing good stuff. And so, like, who couldn't be excited about that? So for me, it's awesome. Like, yay. We're. I love you guys. [00:12:21] Speaker B: Well, we love you, too. That's awesome. And, Melissa, you have a guest with you. [00:12:26] Speaker A: My husband's here today. Camila. [00:12:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:29] Speaker B: Good to see you. Yeah. Awesome. Well, listen, before you go, we have some gifts that we would like to give to you. Just take one, if you wouldn't mind. All right. There you go. It's like communion. All right. These are. These are actually keychains that have our. OUR logo on them. And we. We're really grateful to have you as a part officially of our church and anxious to see how the Lord uses your gifts with ours to bless the community of Carol Stream Church, Would you pray with me as we dedicate these servants to Christ? Father, I'm grateful that we have the opportunity to bring these folks in officially as a part of our church. We're anxious to see what you will do with them, how you will combine their gifts as you have already with ours so that we can make a bigger impact for your kingdom in Carroll Stream. I pray, Father, that you would bless each one of them. Each one represents specific prayer requests and needs and just ways that this church can bless them. So teach us, Father, how to carry loads for. For them. And teach us, Father, how to bring them in as a part of our family so that together we can do more and we can grow our roots stronger and we can be a stronger foundational family of the Lord Jesus Christ here in Carroll Stream. So blessed day. It's awesome. And I pray that you bless each one of these folks and the families they represent and for all the prayer requests that they have. We lift them up before you and ask that you would answer their prayers in Jesus name. Amen. All right, thank you all. Very good job. Can we give them a hand? Yes. Thank you. Oh, yes, yes. Yeah. All right. So today you are really blessed also this morning because we have. We have a special speaker this morning, one of our elders, Darren is. He and I got together and we've been talking about the stewardship series that we're doing. And he said, hey, Craig, could I do one of the messages? And actually, no. I asked him if he would. If he would mind doing one of the messages. Darren, I've introduced you before as one of the best speakers that I know, and I think that's because you speak from your heart. And so I'm anxious to hear what. What the Lord has laid on your heart as you speak to us again this morning about the subject of stewardship. So if you haven't met Darren yet, this is Darren. Come on up, Darren, and you'll get to know him this morning. Thanks, brother. [00:15:03] Speaker A: Thanks, Craig. Am I on? I'm on. All right, good. Well, good morning, everybody. Thank you, Craig, for that introduction and congratulations to our new members. Wow, that's so exciting. I remember when I became a member here, and one of the things I heard this morning from all of them is about our church just being a place where it's welcoming a church that loves one another. And I remember that was exactly how I felt when I came in here. I just said, this is a church that loves. And I was just so, so grateful for that. You know, I was thinking as we were getting up here. This is just a total side note. You know, the person who came up with daylight saving time probably never had to be in church on Sunday morning. You ever think about that? The person who said that said, yeah, there's nothing going on on Sunday morning. Let's just stick it there, right? But for those of us who've been in church for any period of time, you know, that this affects things. I remember as a kid sometime, you know, in the fall when we set the clocks back, I remember one time going over there with my parents and the parking lot was empty because we'd forgotten to set our clocks back. And we were there early or in the spring, you know, you're sitting here, it's the middle of church, and then someone walks in like 45 minutes later, you know, now all our clocks just set automatically. And the fun is kind of taken out of it, I guess. But. Right. And anyway, well, I'm excited about the message today. And as we get into it, I just want to start with a word of prayer. So would you join me, God, so grateful that you listen to us when we speak. We're so thankful that you accept our prayers, that you accept our worship and you accept our singing. We're fallen, we're feeble. What we have to offer is so little, and it seems like it's not very much. And yet, God, you receive it and you bless it. And so, God, as we come to you now, as we listen to what you have for us, would you just give us open hearts and open minds, Let us receive it with gratitude. Maybe if there's a point of conviction, speak to us there. In any case, Lord, however it is, may we not be the same when it's done. Thank you, God, for this opportunity. And I'm sorry, God, that I know this week I didn't always do what I should have done. And yet you have chosen to use me for this purpose now. So would you accept this as an offering for you in Jesus name? Amen. Well, as Craig said, we're continuing this series on being a good manager. And last week we looked at the parable of the Talents. Great story. It really epitomizes what it means to manage the things that God gives us. And it's vital and it intersects into our giving as well. How we manage the things God gives us affects how we give. And one of the things that we're gonna talk about today is how trust intersects with the topic of managing the things God gives. You know, if you think about all of our relationships, in life are built on trust. Marriage is built on trust. Relationships with our kids are built on trust. Relationships with employers, those things are built on trust. Everything is built on trust. It plays a major role in our lives and it plays a role in our giving and managing the things God gives. We saw that as well through the parable. But trust isn't always easy. There are things that sometimes hold us back from it. Sometimes a previous experience. Experience keeps us from trusting. If someone has violated your trust at some point, it's hard to trust that person again. We've had situations like that happen in our lives. Or sometimes someone has violated our trust and we've been so hurt by it, we're not willing to trust someone else. Maybe you've had a bad relationship at some point in your past and your heart was broken, trust was broken, and now you're reluctant to trust again with someone else. Those things can be barriers to trust. Another thing is perceived suspicion. Sometimes we don't have all the facts. We don't know everything that's going on. Or maybe we listen to gossip or something and it makes us distrustful because we don't know everything that's happening. Or if we tend to read ulterior motives into things, it can really bias us and make us suspicious. And I think issues concerning money seem to exploit our suspicions more than anything else. For example, you take your car in for service. You take it in for an oil change, right? You've had this experience, right? You take it in for, you know, it needs to have the oil change. And the service technician comes out and tells you it needs a lot of other things too. And your first thought is, wow, I am so thankful. He told me about the $2,000 worth of repairs that I also need get done. He must really care about me and he doesn't want to see me stranded on the side of the road. No, that's not what we think, right? We think, no, this guy's just trying to make some more money off of me because I don't know anything. Or how about medicine, medical treatment, insurance, right? Several years back, the dentist told me I needed. I was grinding my teeth and the dentist said that I should go see an ent, a near nose and throat doctor, because maybe I had sleep apnea and maybe that's why I was grinding my teeth. So I went to see the ent, and the ENT said he didn't think I had sleep apnea. And I went back to the dentist and the dentist said, well, you should get a night guard, a night guard is like a retainer. If anybody's ever had braces, you know what I'm talking about? You wear a retainer to keep your teeth in place. That's all this is. It's something that kind of. It's a little piece of plastic. You put it over your teeth and it keeps your teeth from the making contact so you don't grind them. So the dentist said, we can get you a night guard, but the insurance doesn't cover it. Well, of course. Right. Well, how much is it? $800 for that little piece of plastic? Oh, no way. Right. Well, then about a year later, this conversation came up and the dentist said, yeah, you know, we can get you that night guard. And I said, well, how much? And they're like, it's 150. Like, really, like, what happened? Right. Yeah, I'm a little suspicious there now. Right. Or how about mobile phone plans? Right, There you go. Me and a brother from the church, we were just at the phone store the other day. Upselling confusion. Right. Well, you need this and that. You have no idea what they're talking about or what you need at the end. Right. And we just kind of feel like they're just trying to get more money out of us. And some of these suspicions are warranted, but here's the result of that. It bleeds over into other areas of our lives and we start to become suspicious about all sorts of things. And it really makes us think that everyone's just out to get us. Everything is about money. Everybody's trying to rip us off. And then there's also another thing that can hold us back. And it's just our personal attitude. Right. Sometimes it doesn't have to do with the personal experience that we've had. Sometimes it's not because of some preconceived suspicion. Right. It's just grounded in our own negative attitude. You know, we live in a world where people are constantly suspicious and they're critical and quick to judge. It's easy to carry around a bad attitude and it's easy to approach other people with a natural distrust. Attitude is important. You know, we saw in the parable of the Talents how the attitudes of the servants affected their trust of the master. For example, the one servant, the wicked and lazy servant as he's described, he viewed his master as a hard man and he was afraid of him. He had a fearful attitude, so he didn't trust the master. On the other hand, it says that the good and faithful servants took joy in the master because of that joyful Attitude, they trusted the master. So we see here that fear can lead to unfaithfulness, but joy leads to trust. Personal attitudes matter a lot. Generally, when someone has a positive attitude towards a task or a positive attitude towards someone, the work they do is joyful. Even if it's hard, it can be joyful. And even if it involves risk. On the other hand, when someone has a negative attitude, even simple tasks become overwhelming and they easily become lazy. When I was younger, I'll use another car example. My dad would show me how to do the brakes on the car, you know, because I could save some money and I guess learn something right now. My dad showed me how to do this multiple times, but I hated it so much I never learned how to do it. I couldn't grasp it. In fact, I remember one night he's showing me how to do this, and all I was thinking about was how much I just wanted to get it done so I could go out later. It was a burden to me, so I wasn't able to grasp it. And what's worse, I realize now I really didn't appreciate that time I had with my dad either. Fearful people can't be generous. They can't give, they can't manage things well because they're afraid of what they might lose. But joyful people, joyful people are eager to trust God because they they know that he has given them what they have for a reason. When I'm afraid, I become selfish. It happened to me just recently at my job because of some changes going on there. And the result was I became unmotivated and lazy. But when I'm joyful at my job, when I view my work as a joy, I'm really eager to give my best. I'll even put in extra time. And it's not burdensome to me. Attitude makes difference. Now all of that is really just an introduction to where we're going today. So if you want to turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter nine, we're going to look at a familiar passage today. Luke chapter 9, verses 11 to 17. This is where we're going to spend most of our time today. Luke chapter 9, verses 11 to 17. This is a story that you've heard before. It's the feeding of the 5,000. And it's a really interesting look and it really intersects with attitude. And it really shows us how joy and trust affect how we manage things. And we really see it through the disciples as they learned what it meant to have to trust Jesus with what they had and trust him to provide what they didn't have. So Luke, chapter 9, verses 11 to 17, verse 11 is what starts everything off. This is kind of a context here. It says that when the crowds learned it, it means when they learned where Jesus was, because Jesus had been around. And when they learned where he was, they followed him and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing. So here there were these crowds of people following Jesus. They're listening to Jesus, and Jesus basically spent the entire day teaching them. And he. That was what his day was like. Mark's gospel even says that it was a great throng. It was a great crowd. It was a big crowd. And Luke, footnotes for us that there were about 5,000 men. And I know somebody's saying, well, how come they only counted the men, right? Women and children don't count. Well, you know, maybe it was just an easy way, you know, if you just count the men and then you can estimate the total number of people, right? I don't know who got tasked with that. Maybe they said, hey, Matthew, go count everybody. You're good with numbers. In any case, There were about 5,000 men, it says we can estimate that there were therefore probably in total, somewhere between 10 and 20,000 people total. Because when you factor in women and children, that number goes up significantly. That's a big number. Just to put this in perspective, there's 40,000 people in Carroll Stream. This would be like half the village of Carol Stream coming out to see Jesus listening to him and him healing them. It's a big, big crowd. Now, Jesus is doing this all day. And as often happens, people start to get hungry, right? Time goes on, it gets late. And the disciples, to their credit, they recognize that the people might be getting tired and hungry. And this is where we start to see some of their attitudes emerge in terms of how they deal with this problem, if you will. And the first attitude, we're going to call it this, the first attitude is, this isn't our problem. The first attitude is, this isn't our problem. Look at verse 12. It says, now the day began to wear away, and the 12 came and. And said to him, send the crowd away. Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions for we are here in a desolate place. The attitude of the disciples was Jesus was there to teach the crowds. He wasn't there to feed them. So when it got late and when the people got hungry, their response actually seemed very natural. I think they even thought it was reasonable to think this way. After all, they're in this kind of desolate place, so they should just go take care of it themselves. Send them away. Send them away. You know, this is the easiest way of dealing with a problem, right? I mean, this is kind of like the default too, right? Just why even try to come up with a solution if we can just get out of it altogether? Let someone else take care of it. Don't get involved. Let people solve their own problems. Send the crowd away. Let them get their own food. I used to have a manager at Burger King who would take this approach to problems. Sometimes he would call me at night and he'd say, this wasn't done or that wasn't done, Darren. And I'd try to explain why I hadn't done what I was supposed to do. And this was always. This was his phrase. He'd say, darren, just make it go away. I'd say, but I can't. He's like, just make it go away. Just make it go away, okay? And he did the same thing for customer complaints. He'd say, look, Darren, just make them go away. I'm like, come on. He's like, look, just make them go away, okay? Maybe he got that idea here. He was reading here and he said, oh, that's a good management system strategy. Make it go away. Yeah. You know, I really don't think the disciples were being cold hearted. I don't think they were being uncaring. I think in many ways this sounded reasonable because based on the circumstances, why not? What were they going to do? In fact, they might have even thought it was the compassionate thing to do. Because after all, they took the initiative to say that this was an issue. You know, when it comes to giving, when it comes to managing things for God, we can easily fall into this same kind of reasoning that someone else will take care of it or that someone else should take care of it. Maybe someone who has more than us, you know? Perhaps one reason the unfaithful servant in Matthew 25 buried the money was because he thought that. That it was the other servant's responsibility, it wasn't his. But Jesus challenged the disciples and he challenged this attitude. Look at what he says next. He says, you give them something to eat. The disciples said, send them away. Jesus said, you give them something to eat. Give them something to eat. To Jesus, it was their responsibility. Jesus wanted them to do something about it. They had to take ownership of this and not think that someone else would do the giving for them. So that's the first attitude we see of the disciples. The second one is this. It's called we don't have enough. Second attitude is, we don't have enough. Jesus said, you give them something to eat. And they said, well, we have no more than five loaves and two fish. We don't have enough. This is it. Nothing else. It's the best we can do. And Jesus, this isn't enough. And again, it sounds very reasonable. Five loaves and two fish, that's not very much. And when you think about what five loaves and two fish were, it's really not very much. And I have a little visual illustration here. So, you know, in the Bible, when it talks about loaves of bread, we think of, like, big loaves you buy at the time, same store, right. But it might have been more like this. Some people think that they were more like little crackers or whatever. Little crackers or biscuits. Right. And I have an assistant there who actually has some crackers. He's going to pass out. And each side you can get some. Just take one, though, because we don't have enough. Maybe there will be enough for everyone. I don't know. But these are tasty little Ritz crackers. I don't know what they had there. In any case, that's hardly enough. You know, that's not even enough for me to have a snack. If I had to pass this out to all of you, I mean, you'd get like a little crumb. Imagine feeding thousands and thousands of people. What about the fish in the King James version, in John's account, it actually. It says that they were two small fish. These were not large salmon. You know, I like salmon, right. They're, you know, really big. No, these were like. These were like small sardines. Yeah, yeah. I was just going to say. I know what you're thinking. Is he going to open them up? No, I'm not, actually, because these are in mustard and I actually like these. I'm gonna hold onto these. They'll go really good with those crackers, though, I'll tell you. You know, when I was a kid, I didn't like sardines. Kind of like, I don't like National Geographic magazine, but that's a different sermon. But I got over it. And I like sardines. This can of sardines, I think there's probably about four or five in here. That's a small amount. That's the size fish that the disciples had. And they only had two of them. Two little fish to go With a few little crackers, it's like a little garnish put on it. These were very, very small portions. And that's what I think we really need to take away from this. It was barely enough for one person. It was much less for thousands. And the disciples understood this. In fact, in. In John's Gospel, they even raised the issue and they say, well, how much is that for so many people? How's it going to feed everyone? What does it even matter, Jesus? I mean, this is what we got. How's that going to help? You know, when we have so little, we're often tempted toward two ways of thinking. Two ways of thinking when it comes to giving, especially number one. On the one hand, we. We think, well, it's so little. It's all I have. I can't afford to get rid of it. This is mine. I gotta just keep it, right? On the other hand, we think, well, it's so small, it's not worth giving. It's not gonna make a difference. And so we don't give it then. And either way, the result is the same. We end up holding onto it instead of sharing it. The disciples seem to believe that this wouldn't make a difference since it was such a small portion. The need was too great, so why bother with it? You know, the unfaithful servant may have looked at the larger amounts of money the other servants were given, and he might have thought, well, what he had really wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to work with. It wasn't really worth his time, so why do anything with it? Just go bury it in the ground and give it back later. You know, I want to tell you, in a sense, we're never going to have enough of anything. We're always going to want more money. We're always going to want more time. We're always going to want more leisure. We're always going to want more energy and more resources and more, more, more, more. This. I mean, you can fill in the blank with whatever you want. We're always going to say it's not enough. And that's why this is a matter of trust. Because we have to learn to depend on God in. Even when what we have doesn't seem like it's sufficient, even when it seems like it's not enough. Here's the third attitude we see from the disciples. It's called it's too difficult. So first, it's not my responsibility. And Jesus said, yeah, it is. Go feed them, okay, well, we don't have enough, okay? Well, it's kind of hard. It's too difficult. This is what they said. They said, we have no more than five loaves and two fish. Unless we're to go and buy food for all these people. Unless we go. I mean, we could do it, I guess. Jesus, that's kind of what it is. It kind of seems like a half hearted concession if you think about it. In Mark's gospel, it's phrased as a question. They say, well, shall we go? It's like saying to Jesus, well, if you really want it, I mean, we can go buy it. I mean, right, Peter, what do you think? Peter? Yeah, sure. Yeah, I guess. Right. We really get the strong impression they didn't want to do it. And why? Because it would have been an enormous hassle for them. And you know what? They were right. It would have been an enormous hassle. Remember how many people there were? We said there were between 10,000 and 20,000 people. Let's pretend there were only. Only 10,000 people, okay? So the disciples say, okay, well, we'll go buy food for everybody. Each disciple would have had to carry back food for more than 800 people, each one of them. You ever carry food for 800 people on your back? Yeah. No, I haven't. When we had Alpha in here, we had to. Part of Alpha is providing meals. Right. And I know some of you know this because you were here, right? And we had to bring the food up from the car and bring it up and set it down and go back and get another one. It took some effort and that was only for a few dozen people. Imagine what it would be like to serve thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people. It's a huge thing. Yeah, it would be a huge hassle. It would have been a huge work. And remember this too. The disciples were tired and hungry. They weren't different than the crowds. They'd been sitting there all day. Also, it would have been physically and emotionally draining for them to do this. So again, their reasoning seems logical because they had practical limitations here. Here's the reality check for us. It can be difficult to manage the resources God gives us. The faithful servants had to work hard in order to make more money for the Master. That money didn't just come to them and then just magically become more money. They had to do something with it. Giving isn't necessarily easy. Jesus wasn't telling his disciples to feed the crowds because it was easy. He was telling them because he wanted them to trust him. They just didn't seem to get it Though. And so we see attitude number four here. Attitude number four is, it's going to cost too much. It's going to cost too much. Again, verse 13, they said, well, we don't have any more than five loaves and two fish unless we go and buy food for all these people. So there's labor, there's hassle involved, but it's also an expense. In Mark's gospel, it actually tells us this. The disciples said, should we go and buy 200 denarii or worth of bread and give it to them? Now, a denarii, that's plural for denarius. A denarius in that day was about a day's wages. About a day's wages. So people didn't work on the Sabbath. They didn't work on other festivals. So in a month, maybe there were about 25 working days. So if you divide this out, you know, 200 denarii by how many days wages it was, it would come out to about eight months. In other words, what the disciples were saying is it would cost eight months worth of money to buy food for all these people. And just pause on that for a moment. Think about how much money you made in the last eight months. That's how much it would cost to feed all these people. It's expensive. It's an enormous expense. In fact, it's very interesting because even if they'd spent the money, it still wouldn't have actually been enough. Philip, in John's gospel, when he's talking to Jesus about this, he said 200 denarii worth of bread wouldn't be enough for each of them to get even a little bit. The disciples didn't have that much money, first of all. Even if they did, and even if they had somehow found a way to carry back all that food, each person would only end up with maybe just a little bit in the end. It wasn't going to provide a feast. The disciples really, like many of us, were only focused on what it was going to cost them. And yet again, we understand here this is a very reasonable thing. It's good to be wise in how we handle finances. Being wise about how we spend money, though, wasn't the problem here. The problem is that it wasn't just a financial issue. It was a spiritual issue concerning their faith. It was a spiritual issue because it had to do with whether or not they trusted Jesus. Here's something else we need to be aware of. We live in a world that is driven and dominated by economics. You know, we think about money all the Time constantly, right? I mean, it's in the news all the time. Inflation reports and how much gas is and this and that and everything. And you go to any website and there's sales and save this much money, right? We're thinking about money all the time. And mostly, mostly we think about how little we have and how much better off we'd be if we just had a little bit more. And in our minds, we know money doesn't really make us happy, but somehow, somehow we think maybe if we had more, it would work. When I started working at Burger King, long, long. This is a long time ago, minimum wage was $4.75 an hour. The manager started me at $5 an hour because I knew somebody who worked there, and I had a recommendation. He never did that for anybody, but he did it for me. And I was like, wow, this is great. It was more money than I had ever made in my entire life. And I only worked part time. I was thrilled, and it was okay. And it was okay for a while until I wanted a little bit more, right? And a little bit more. I don't know, somewhere along the way, I had in mind, or I thought, wow, if I could make $6 an hour, I'd be making a lot of money. So I got some raises. I got some raises. And you know what? Eventually I made $6 an hour. And I was happy for a little while anyway. And then I thought, boy, if I could just make a little bit more, just a little bit more, you know, Maybe I make $6.50 an hour, right? So I got some raises and. Okay, by the way, this took place over the course of, like, seven years. Okay? This wasn't like this didn't happen in three months. Okay, all right, maybe I can make a little bit. Maybe I make $7 an hour. $7 an hour. I'll be happy for a little while. For a little while. I was never happy. You know what? That's the story of my life. And it's still continuing even today. You know, this is the sinful part about it, is that I still think that if I get a little bit more money, everything will be okay. I still think that way. And I'm well beyond $5 an hour. That's what's in our heart, though, you know, if we only think about the cost, it's always going to get in the way of being generous. Always. The issue here wasn't about how much or how little the disciples had, but about what they did with it and whether they had faith in Jesus and This really brings up the fifth and final attitude here. This is the attitude, Jesus, we don't trust you to provide. Now, the disciples didn't come to Jesus and say, jesus, we don't trust you. Of course not. Right? But all their other attitudes really get summed up in that statement. We see it again and again in the things they, they said that negative thinking was all grounded in the fact that they didn't trust Jesus. And we might wonder, well, why was that so hard for them? I mean, Jesus is right there. I mean, you and I, we think it's a little hard to trust Jesus. I don't see him sitting next to me in the pew today. And I mean, right? We kind of think like that. But Jesus was right there. Why was it so hard for them? And I think a big part of this is because they lacked joy. We don't have any sense that they were joyful in this endeavor. In fact, they seem a little inconvenienced by it. They seem annoyed by it. They seem very frustrated by it. You know, I was thinking, let's suppose after the service today, Craig comes up to me and he says, darren, that was a great two and a half hour sermon. You should buy everybody lunch today. And I say, here you go. Right? Or I say, here's my credit card. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Right? Really, I mean, I'm making light of it, but what if somebody seriously told me that. I don't want to disappoint you. You're not getting lunch today from me. Okay, the two and a half hour sermon, I'm not sure yet. We'll see what time is. Okay? No, I'm kidding. The point is this. How do we respond to those things though? Do we see it as a burden or do we approach it with this sense of joy? Even when the disciples recognized the need, it was kind of like, come on, we got to get rid of these people. They're here, they're hungry, let's send them away, make them go away. We don't have a sense that they were joyful about doing anything. And even when Jesus said, give them something to eat, they didn't seem real thrilled about that. The fact is, joyful people are eager and able to trust God because they know that he has given them what they have for a reason. They know that he's given them what they need. They know that he has only their best interests in mind. When Jesus told the disciples to feed the crowds of people, he knew they couldn't do it. On their own, of course, it was impossible for them. There's no magic in this, okay? You're not going to feed 5,000 people with this. But that was the whole point. They needed to trust him, and instead they tried to figure it out with what appeared to be very reasonable ideas. But their reasoning, they got in the way of trusting Him. And not only that, it became a source of frustration because they couldn't figure it out. And again, we go back to the parable of the talents. Here, the faithful servants, they took joy in the Master. They trusted Him. And because they trusted him, they ended up being good managers of what had been entrusted to them. You know, the question for us is, do we find joy in our Master? Do we find joy in our relationship with Jesus? If so, then we can gladly trust him and we can manage what he's given us. The Lord doesn't ask us to come up with clever solutions on our own. He just wants us to trust Him. This joy is really at the center of what allows us to trust God and to give generously. In Second Corinthians, chapter 9, verses 6 to this is what Paul says when he talks to the Corinthians about giving. He says this. The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he is decided in his heart, not reluctantly, not under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, he is distributed freely. He is given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. The main point, the focal point here is God loves a cheerful giver. Everything about giving focuses on that principle. Because what does Paul mention before cheerfulness? He says, whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly. But whoever sows bountifully, in other words, whoever sows generously is going to reap generously. Generosity. Generosity is what's there. Why? Because generosity flows from a joyful heart. Generosity comes out of a heart of joy. What does Paul mention after cheerfulness? It's the word sufficiency. He said, God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. Why does sufficiency come after that? Because joyful hearts trust God to provide a joyful heart is a generous heart. A joyful heart trusts the Lord to give us what we need. When I'm joyful about something, I want to do it. I'm more likely to give my best. But when something is tiresome or exhausting, I'm completely demotivated. And then I'm more likely to do the bare minimum or to get out of it altogether. Just make it go away. I don't have enough. It's too difficult. Joyless hearts guard. They guard what they have. They hold onto it. They don't give. They try to hold on to what they have instead of sharing it and handing it out. Joyful hearts, though joyful hearts are generous hearts. Joyful hearts are hearts that trust God. So with that in mind, let's think about what the reasoning and attitude should be of a joyful manager. And it's the antithesis of what the disciples had. Number one. That the attitude is, it is my responsibility. Don't assume that someone else is going to do it or pick up the slack for you. If you see a need, don't try to make it go away. Think about what you can do about it. It's my responsibility. That's the reasoning and attitude of a joyful manager. Second, the joyful manager says, what I have is enough. So we don't wait until we win the lottery to start being generous. Oh, my goodness. You'll be waiting a long time. Then start now with what you have. Let's not despise the small things we have to offer, because what we have is enough. Number three. It's difficult, but it can be done. But remember, here's the key. It can't be done on your own. You know, it's difficult to feed 5,000 people with only five loaves and two fish. I suppose you could break them into little crumbs and whatever. That's difficult, but it's impossible when you try to do it by yourself. When we put those in the hands of Jesus, though, something amazing will happen. Number four. It's costly, but it's worth it. Generous giving always involves sacrifice. Now, I'm not suggesting that we stop paying the mortgage and just give it all away. And you know, that's not what the Lord is asking about here. But you know what? Maybe small changes are all that's needed. I was thinking about myself. I don't even want to admit this because it's shameful. But what if I ate out last? What if I just didn't go out to eat so much? What if I didn't stop at McDonald's to buy a Dr. Pepper every time I feel like it. Can I give that up? Am I willing to? What if I forego some small pleasure so I can put more toward the things of God? That's where it is for me, right there. Am I willing to give up some of those things so that I can give more and do more? It will be worth it. Number five. The attitude is I will joyfully trust Jesus to provide, not resentfully. We don't resentfully, okay, Jesus here, you know. No, it's joy. I joyfully trust Jesus. And this is a real act of faith. And really that's what makes it hard, because we're not always sure of what's going to happen. We want things to be definite, we want things to be certain. We want everything to be wrapped up nice and tight. But we joyfully trust Jesus. And here's what happens when we do. Go back to the Go back to the story of the 5000. This is what happens when we joyfully trust Jesus. Starting in verse 14 of Luke, chapter 9, Jesus said to his disciples, have them have the crowd sit down in groups of about 50 each. And they did so, and they had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up 12 baskets of broken pieces. That's what happens when we trust Jesus. And like the faithful servants in the parable of the Talents, we may need to take a risk to see what happens. But. But we're never going to know unless we do it. Consider this for a moment. God has entrusted us with a lot. It says a lot about the character of God that he would entrust anything to us. What does it say about us when we don't trust Him? So what? First of all, joyful hearts are generous hearts. Remember, attitude determines willingness. When something is a burden, there isn't much desire to do it. But when something is joyful, it's easy to give. Joy isn't something you can manufacture, though. The Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience. You know, it comes from the Spirit. It comes from our relationship with God. The better our relationship with God, the more joy we're going to have. So here are some ways we can build the relationship with that we have with the Lord. And this is really just a reminder, because I know you know all this already. But number one, one way we can build our relationship with God is read the Bible. We need to listen to God. The more I listen to God, the less I listen to the news, the less I listen to politicians, the less I listen to negative ideas, the less I listen to economic reports and all that. The more I listen to the Bible, the more joyful I become. And I don't know how that works. I just know that it does. I cannot read this book and not be joyful. Read the Bible. Number two. Pray. Speak to God. You know, there is a joy that comes from knowing that he hears us and cares for us. Isn't that amazing? We're in this place today. We're praying, we're singing songs. We're not just doing it in the thin air. Jeez, I hope not, right? We're doing it because. Because we know that the Lord hears us. And there's a joy that comes from that. So pray, pray. And number three, this is important. Confess your sin. You know, the easiest way to confess sin is to start by apologizing to others when we wrong them. Even for small things, you know, there's so many things I do that offend other people. And I think, well, it's just kind of a small. I don't really need to apologize for that. But that's exactly where I need to start. I need to start by saying I'm sorry. Because sin always, always robs us of our joy. After David committed adultery with Bathsheba, he confessed his sin in Psalm 51. And he wrote these words, restore to me the joy of your salvation. The joy of your salvation. Joy comes from knowing that Christ died and rose again for our sin. And when we think about all that God has done for us, it helps us to be generous, for he himself was very generous with us. Romans chapter 8, verse 32 says that he, meaning God, who did not spare his own son, Jesus, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also, with him, graciously give us all things? The key word there is gave. God gave Jesus up for us. Us. It was difficult, it was costly. But Jesus did it for the joy that was set before him. Who was the joy? Us. The cross was expensive, but the joy was our salvation. Number two, watch out for negative attitudes that sound reasonable. The disciples came up with a lot of things that all made sense, humanly speaking. It sounded reasonable, it sounded good. But none of them were grounded in trusting Jesus. And here's the. That's a short list. The devil will give you a hundred good reasons why you should just take your treasure and go bury it in the ground. The issue of money and how we manage what God has given us isn't just a business matter. It's a spiritual one, too. You know, the struggles that the disciples had, those are mine, too. I've shared some of that this morning. I'd like to think that I'm just being frugal and wise with what God has given me when I. I hold it back. But the fact is I'm stingy. If serving God through giving isn't a joy for me, then maybe it's because I'm not trusting him. We have to watch out for those negative attitudes. And my attitude based on this is now this. It is my responsibility. And what I have is enough. Even if it's just a little, that's enough. And I can joyfully trust the Lord. What about you? Would you joyfully trust the Lord with what God has given you? No matter how small, no matter how big it is, whatever it is, would you trust him as well? Let's pray. Father, we're so grateful. We're grateful that you hear us. We're grateful that you listen to us. And we're grateful, Lord, that you love us. And God, we're so sorry. We have held onto the things that you have entrusted to us. We've buried them in the ground. We fail to be generous sometimes, God, we're just not good givers. We're not good managers. We think about the cost. We think about how difficult it is and all of it, because we don't have joy in our relationship with you. And we don't think you're going to come through for us. We don't trust you. We just confess now, God, that we're sorry for that. Instill in us a desire to trust you and instill in us a joy. A joy that comes from giving. A joy that comes from knowing that that pleases you. So, God, would you just work in our hearts as only you can. And thank you, Lord, for this time. In Jesus name, amen. [00:59:46] Speaker B: We finish our service today.