I believe the Lord has given us a foundation from which to build on. As a church here at Cache Point, I feel like God has, as He does for each church, a specific special plan. And He has that for us individually as believers, but He also has that corporately as a body of believers he has a plan a direction he wants us to go and I believe the Lord is building a foundation a springboard if you will to launch all so he's given us some things that will help us in your personal life the Lord uses challenges experiences As you face those challenges with the Lord and he uses those things to grow, but to prepare us for what we have in the future. So what he's doing in your life today is preparation for what he wants to do and direction he wants to take you tomorrow. The same is true with salvation. He is preparing us to go to live with him forever in heaven when you accept Jesus Christ. That's preparation for that. to live with God in heaven in a perfect place with a perfect body perfect environment so that preparation is made here when you trust Jesus Christ is your personal savior. You are then prepared to leave this world. And so that, of course, is of God's choosing. But that preparation is made here, at this time, on this side, for the future. So the same is true in our experience with the Lord. He is preparing us today. He's teaching us principles. He's showing things. As we walk with him and we have the experiences that we do, that's in preparation for where he wants to take us in the future. And so I've really been seeking the Lord on Sunday nights. I believe the Lord is speaking and giving me some scriptures and some stories to share in preparation for what he has for us as a church body. So I'm excited, I know the Lord has some big things, some plans for us, challenging things for us, but I am excited and so if you take notes, if the Lord gives you something that'll help you personally, that'll be great and I hope that you also glean and the Lord will unite us as we're looking for what he has for us as a church body. And so let's look at John chapter 6 tonight, beginning with verse 5. We'll just read through this. This is a story that all of you are familiar with. And I've entitled the lesson tonight, Learning to Trust God. Learning to Trust God. And the scripture begins with verse 5 of John chapter 6, when Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto him. He saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this he said to prove, or to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said unto him, There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes, but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so that the men sat down in a number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples. And the disciples to them that were sat down, and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you for these experiences that the disciples had with you, Jesus, that we can glean from the principles that you have us to learn in your word. I pray that you'd speak to our hearts. Lord, I pray that you'd show us what we need to see. Lord, challenge us in areas that we need to be challenged in. And Lord, we thank you for the privilege to be here tonight. We thank you for each precious soul that's here tonight. Lord, I pray that each and every one know you in an intimate way. And Lord, that we all walk with you and experience you in your fullness. We love you, Jesus. We thank you for making all this possible. We thank you for dying on that cross to pay for all our sin, for our selfishness, for our pride, for all the sins, the sins that we commit, Lord. We just thank you that your grace is sufficient, Lord, but we thank you that your blood can cleanse from all sin. And we praise you for that sacrifice, Lord, and for new life through you, Jesus, and the promise of heaven. we thank you for that we love you and we praise you and all God's children said amen amen so I want to give you a few things number one if we're going to walk with Jesus or follow him we have got to learn to trust him and I want to say begin by saying that by our nature our old nature we are not trusting people And sometimes that comes because we've been burnt in the past. That comes from past experiences, things that did not go well or somebody hurt us because we live in a sin sick world. So there are bad things happen to good people. And so sometimes it's hard to trust, sometimes we are challenged in trusting God because we look at man and we put our experiences with man and we transfer that to God. And I want to say that we have to work through that and we have to realize that God is perfect and man is imperfect. Man is a sinner. God is not a sinner. He's perfect. He's holy. He'll never lead you down the wrong road. He will never lead you to the end of the limb and cut the limb off unless He's there to catch you. He will take care of us. So we can trust Him. But we only learn to trust Him by experiencing Him. So He has called the disciples, called these 12 men who are following Him, These 12 men are walking with Jesus and they're following him but they're learning who he is. They're learning through Jesus who God is and how God moves and operates and they're gleaning that through personal experiences. This experience is one that the Lord knew ahead of time what was going to happen but he's going to use this time to work and teach the disciples and help them to learn to trust him. Number one, you wanna put down, I've got three things that I'm gonna focus on. Number one is tested by God. I want you to look at the scripture in verse six. And he's speaking to Philip, notice he brings up the issue, where are we gonna buy bread? In verse five and in verse six, what does he say? This he said to prove him or to test him. Now, one thing that I think is important that we realize that the difficulties or a situation that is challenging in this situation be, how are we gonna feed this multitude of people? Over 5,000 people, how are we gonna do that with little resources? So it's a challenge, and we have different challenges today. How are we gonna meet this need? How are we gonna meet that need? How's this gonna be done? And we have those challenges. Number one, the challenges and difficulties we face is not always of the devil. A lot of times if we face a difficulty, that's the devil. He'll give me a hard time. A lot of times that's not the case. So we have to be able to discern it could be a test The challenge that you face could be a test from God. So guess what? He's giving them a test. He's talking to Philip. He brings up the issue. He's giving him the paper, if you will. He's giving him the test. We've got all this. How are we going to feed these people? So that's the question before the disciples. And specifically, Philip, that's why he says, whence shall we buy bread? How are we going to buy bread? Where are we going to buy bread that these may eat? I don't know about y'all, but they're there. And if you're the disciples, you're kind of thinking, well, I thought we'd just take care of ourselves. It doesn't say what, but you can imagine all the thoughts. And they're going, well, I didn't know we'd come here to feed everybody. So Jesus brings this. He presents this problem. I kind of thought of the testing with Job and noticed that God brings before Satan. He said, Satan, have you thought about Job over here? You know, he brought up that issue. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't Job or it wasn't the devil, it was God who brought that up. Sometimes situations are tests. And one of the things God wants to teach us through the test is that we can trust Him, but we have to learn that. So God allows, you need to remember this, we need to remember this, I need to remember this, God allows difficult situations and even needs. He allows us to face needs. He allows us to be hungry, if you will. It could be spiritual hunger, it could be emotional hunger, but there's a need. I've got an emotional, I'm struggling here emotionally. I'm struggling here physically. He allows even us to face physical needs. that we're struggling and we're going you know Lord I want to do this I want to operate we've had a lot of surgeries we've had a lot of people that face physical challenges sometimes those challenges can be a yes by God and God allows that now we all live we live in a sense it world and we have disease and things but God uses those things and he uses it to teach so one thing if you think about we don't want to waste the difficult situations we face. We wanna learn and we wanna glean. We want to be productive in our life. The Bible says all things work together for good, okay? And part of that good is maturing and teaching us that we can trust him. Again, when we trust him, we'll follow him. No trust in God, awful hard to follow. So, number two, I wanna put the challenge of focus on supply and demand. Okay, now, if you see this, he's saying, okay, this is the problem, this is, we've got 5,000 people, but there's not enough money, there's not enough resources to feed these. Now, and that's what we do too, so we look and we're challenged by our focus, which is on the situation what we have or what we don't have and so you know as you look at this Jesus is bringing this up he's going like how are we going to meet this need But our faith is not to lie in our resources. Okay, but he's got to teach these disciples this. He's got to teach them that you've got to not focus on, you acknowledge the need. Okay, everybody got that? You acknowledge the need, you don't focus on the need. You acknowledge the supply and demand. There's a demand here and it's a lot greater than the supply. The supply down here, like more I don't have it up here, I don't have it is like I don't have a financially that we have and we're going I don't have what I need to meet that whether it be an issue with somebody we know or ourselves but we struggle with that but as we learn to trust him and learn to put our focus on God and not on our resources I want you to look to Psalms 50 look with Psalms 50 we'll be looking at verse 10 through 12 God wants us to operate, okay? He wants us to operate according to His resources and not ours. The Christian life is a supernatural life. The Christian life is not meant to be lived naturally. Let me tell you how we try to live it naturally. We try to be good. We try to keep the commandments. We try to go to church. We try to be good to people. And those things are not bad in themselves. But can I say, God has so much more for his people to experience than just going through the motions and being good. Just check it off a list. Well, I've done my part. I went to church Sunday, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. I checked that list off. We know I haven't done any major sins, I haven't done, you know, I check that good list off and we kind of check those lists off. That's a natural, that's the natural man doing that, okay? The Christian life is supposed to be lived, and can only be lived, supernaturally. That's the way God wants to, that's when we talk about love. Naturally, we love conditionally. It takes supernatural God for people to love unconditionally. Amen? That's not, that doesn't come natural. When somebody slaps you in the face, let me tell you what comes natural, you slap them back. Amen? Y'all with me? So it doesn't, but the Christian, Bible says that we're to love our enemies. How's that done? That's done supernaturally, okay? So again, the resources, and God's using, Jesus here with the disciples is using a physical, a supply and demand issue. He's going, we got all these people here, but we got a little bit, of money to take care of all these people. And the needs are a whole lot greater than the resources we have. Okay, that's the challenge before us. So the challenge is moving from operating with our eyes fixed on that because we're gonna be hindered, opposed to looking at God's resources and looking at what God has. So somebody, if you would, read, read the scripture, Psalm 50, 10 through 12, real clear, real loud, Psalms 50, 10 through 12. Go ahead, brother Jeff. I want you to get that. The world is mine. This is God. Guess who made the world? You don't know who made the world. God made the world. And he's in charge of it all. There's no door God can't open up. There's no problem he can't solve. There's no supply or need that a person has that he can't supply and he can't meet that need. So as we look, we learn, God has the resources. We don't have to have the resources, we look to the one who does have the resources. So remember, God owns it all, he knows it all, and he can do it all, okay? God is omniscient, omnipotent, And he's, what's the third one? Omni-present. He's everywhere. God can do everything. There's nothing God can't do, okay? He can do whatever needs to be done. So the Lord wants us to learn to trust Him for the resources. So what does He do? He puts a test. He allows a need to arise in your life, just like the needs of the 5,000. And the test is, are we gonna focus on the supply and demand? Are we gonna look at what we don't have and the needs that are there? Or are we gonna look at God who can meet every need? So we've gotta learn. So what we've gotta learn to do, we've gotta learn to close our eyes to what the devil would try to emphasize. You gotta close your eyes. Well, look, you can't do this. You know, devil, he says this a lot, you can't. you can't pray you can't do you can't win you can't talk you can't you know he says that a whole lot and he wants us to focus on our deficiencies but the Bible says that I can do as Paul said I can do all things through Christ which Strengthen us, okay? So we have Him who can do what we need to do. He makes up for deficiency. Is Jesus healthy? That's a simple question, right? He's got a glorified body. That body's gonna live forever, right? Gonna be forever. Jesus knows all, right? He's got all wisdom. Jesus knows what you're gonna face before you ever face it, and He has the supply if we'll turn to Him, okay? But the key is we've got to turn from, and matter of fact you're going to hear this a lot through this lesson, turn from and turn to. A matter of fact, that's repentance that's necessary. The Bible says that you have to repent to be saved. You know what that means? Repentance means you turn from walking away from God in opposition to God to where you're walking with God. You turn from not believing God and trusting God, not believing that Jesus died and that you even need a Savior, but you realize that and you accept Him and you start walking with Him. You start seeing things in a different light. let's let's look at verse 89 of the scripture so one of the disciples now look now I like this part too he says himself in verse 6 for himself for he himself knew what he would do so Jesus knew what he's going to do Jesus knew the situation before I don't know about y'all but this gives me comfort Jesus knows all about your problem before it ever existed before it ever happened so we kind of get all tore up but the Bible says that our lives are hid in Christ and we're operating in him that it's not we who are alive but Christ in us but what we do is we get all tore up about the situation as if it surprises us but we need to realize it did not surprise God God knew it ahead of time so if God knows it ahead of time he's got it figured out right so the Lord Jesus knew what he was going to do but he again he's testing them he's getting them to see where they are and where their focus is and he wants them to learn to trust in him notice this number two a little lad with a lad a young lad with a little young lad with a little so he says here Andrew is here and he says he speaks up says well here's a lad maybe maybe this is you know here's a little lad in verse 9 which have five barley loaves and two fishes but what that's contract but what are they among so many So isn't that what we do? Again, we look at the supply and demand. We look at what we have instead of looking at God who, and we read the scripture, who owns it all. Catalon of a Thousand Hills, he doesn't go hungry. He knows where it is. He owns it all. He can open the door. He can meet the need, whatever it is. I was thinking about the election. You know, we kind of get wound up about the election. you know who's in charge all that whether it be local we have a sheriff's race whether it be local you know what we do is we pray and we're going God you can put who you want in there okay that's what you do you pray say Lord and then you do whatever Lord lays on your heart Lord who do you who do you want me to vote for what do you what's my part to play and then trust God say to God I don't care what the shenanigans I don't care what happened Lord if you want that person in here you can put that person in here y'all believe that Bible says that he puts people in positions he put so we trust him he's looking again for people to trust him for us to trust God to do what we can't do notice here the search for answers so Andrew Andrew's looking and he finds it you can imagine Andrew's go okay well you know where we you know Andrew's looking through the crowd and he's looking through here hey I see a boy he's got a lunch with him he brought some food with him matter of fact as far as we know he's the only one but he spotted this little lad and he brings him to Jesus this one with the with the loaves and the fishes, and as you look at this, you think, and I believe this is appropriate, I call it knocking on the door. Well, maybe this is it. Well, maybe this lad, he has some food, maybe it's this. I want you to look at Matthew 7, 7 and 8. I want somebody to turn to that, and I want you to read this Matthew 7, 7 and 8, because it's very appropriate when we face challenges, there's a test before us, that we seek, when you're looking, you're taking a test, you contemplate, okay, is it A, B, C, or D? If it's multiple choice, you start looking and you're going, well, this doesn't fit, that's what Andrew's doing. I want you to get this, Andrew's seeking, he's looking, he's going, well, maybe, but he struggles with what he sees. He struggles, he's going, but that's a little lunch. That's only a couple of fishes and five loaves. What's that gonna do? But he's giving credit, he's searching, amen? He's searching. So somebody read that Matthew 7, 7, 8. Y'all have heard this before. I think it's appropriate at times that we ask and we seek, we're going, okay, God, what is this? Number one, you need to ask, is this a test? You know, Lord, is this, you need to know if it's of the devil or not. Bible says, resist him and he'll flee from you, so you need to know that. If you don't know it's of Satan, you can't resist him, so you need to know that. But say, Lord, is this, what are you, are you trying to teach me something through this? And so what you do is you start seeking, well Lord, is this how you want to work to meet the need? And what you do is you start searching and you start knocking on the door. And the Lord says, well Lord, maybe you want to use this person. That's what Andrew's doing. See Andrew got the little lad and he's going, well maybe he's, now he's struggling because the little lad only has a little. meet a great need so it's struggling with that but yet he's seeking and the Bible says if you ask seek and not God's gonna respond to that let me tell you the church is not asking enough we're not praying enough we're not seeking God if we you prayed Bible says if you seek him with all your heart if you want to know what's going on you ask the one who knows all that's going on If you want a heads up, now I'm not telling you God's gonna tell you everything, but He's gonna give you something enough to where you can walk in it, you can walk with Him, and in it, the more you walk with Him, the more you're gonna see, okay? We talked about that last time, that when you take a step, things get clearer. The closer you walk to Jesus, the more you walk with Him, the clearer things become, okay? But sometimes there's that process of seeking, and you don't know how it's gonna work out, but you say, well, maybe God's in this. asking somebody comes up to you and says something out of the blue and you're wondering and the Lord kind of tapping you on the shoulder take note of this take note well Lord why was there something in this meeting are you up to something in my life here are you are you doing something and so you start seeking Lord there's a great need here maybe this is how you want to work and let me tell you we need to ask him because All the time, don't say some of the time, all the time his plan is gonna be different than our plan. He's gonna provide in a way we hadn't thought that it's even possible for him to provide. So we need to ask him and we need to seek him. Andrew brings him before, he doesn't know what God's gonna do, Jesus is gonna do at this point. And he sees the fish and he's struggling with how he could even do anything like that. But Jesus would use one person, with very little to offer. He doesn't have to have, Jesus doesn't have to have a great supply. Whatever the need is, however great it is, Jesus does not have to have a great supply. God can touch, and he did it in different ways. He used 12 men, one betrayed him, ended up, of course, that was Paul, took that slot, I believe, anyway. But there were 12 that changed the world. He didn't use 120, he didn't use 1,000, he didn't use a million. He used 12 people. In this situation, there's 5,000 plus people, we don't know exactly, some people think there's maybe up to close to 20,000, but there were 5,000 plus people here, and he's gonna use one little lad, one young lad, with one little sack of lunch, if you will. The five loaves, two fishes. So we need to get this, because what stops us in our faith? What stops us in our faith is looking at the seen. But when you pray and seek God, he's gonna open your eyes up to the unseen, and who you're gonna see is God can do what I can't do. God has what I don't have. And if it's a little, guess what? You say, Lord, I don't have but this. I think of David Ring. How many of you heard David Ring speak? David Ring, who was born with a tremendous speech impediment, his body couldn't do it, cerebral palsy, you know what it is? That he couldn't do, he couldn't even feed himself, but yet God said, I'm going to use that man who can't even hardly function as a normal person, I'm going to use him to proclaim the gospel to a multitude of people. He's spoken to dignitaries. He's spoken to a lot of places. We've heard him speak. I remember when I was young, the first time I heard, and I'm going, man, it just takes God touching the little bit. God can use a lame man. He can use a dumb man. He can use a blind man. He can use a young. He can use old. The difference is God touches it. and we're gonna see that in this story. So it doesn't take a lot, it doesn't take a lot for God to do great things. It only takes a little, it could be a little. Our faith is not to be, say this again, our faith is not to be in the supply, but in the supplier, and that's God who owns it all. As we go back to the scripture, God owns it all. So whatever the need you face, the test is, Is your focus gonna be on the need and what you have or don't have or is the focus gonna be on God who can meet every need and wants to do something special through the difficulty? You've heard me say this before. Problems for God are opportunities. So none of us like, we don't sign up, Lord, I want a problem today so you can be seen. Most of us don't do that. What do we do? We try to do, we try, before we go on a trip, I'll check the oil, I'll make sure everything, I'll look at the tires, I'll go around, because I want to make sure that everything is right so we can make this trip. Now, that's the way we live, so what we do is we have insurance and we have this and we have that to give us security. But I want to tell y'all, sooner or later that runs out. Sooner or later, no matter, did you know that even brand spanking new vehicles break down the side of the road? So if you're thinking about, well, you know, 60,000, that's a lot, but it'll be new. I just wanna help you out with that temptation. Those can break down too. 60,000, they don't matter because human beings made it. But just saying, so we've got to focus on him who he has and that being God our God our Heavenly Father so how is God going to work who is God going to use when is he going to where is he going to seek God ask God ask God what are you up to in this situation Lord is it a test Lord what do you want to teach me through this test Lord, who do you want to use? How do you want to use? Lord, where do you want me to go? Start asking him, and when you ask him and you're flexible, then God begins to guide you and he begins to lead you. Okay, third thing I want to focus on, surrendering is the key to receiving. Now this is hard because we think, and our nature is to hold on. So if we're having a financial struggle, you know what we do? Our nature is, well, I've got to get all the money, I've got to save, I've got to do this, if we're struggling financially, and we're looking, and again, what we're doing is we're focused on what we can do instead of saying, okay, God, you are my supplier. Not my workplace, I want y'all to know this, don't ever let the devil tell you that people are your supplier, because you're in trouble if they are. God is our supplier, amen? We're to trust Him to feed us. We're to trust Him to protect us. We're to trust Him to lead us. He is our all in all. Now, does He use jobs? Absolutely. Does He use people? Absolutely. But behind all that, God is our provider, and we trust Him to provide whatever the need is. But for you and me to experience His provision, guess what we have to do? We have to surrender. surrender so guess what now doesn't say this in scripture clearly but we know that it happened because in verse 11 it says Jesus took the loaves when he had given thanks so Jesus didn't do this I promise you this he didn't get the lad in a headlock that's what I'm trying to say he didn't put him in a headlock and grab the meal from him He gave the meal to him. The lad gave the meal to him. Now it's important that we get this principle because we'll never experience the provision of God until we're willing to let go. Sometimes it's let go of our thinking. Sometimes it's let go of our stuff. Sometimes it's let go of a relationship. There are different things that the Lord calls us to let go of. But when we let go and we empty ourselves and we allow God to help us empty ourselves with different things, then God begins to fill and we experience his produce, his provision instead of ours. Again, the Christian life is not meant to be lived naturally it's a supernatural life we trust him we don't trust ourselves or other people we're trusting God to take care of so the meal was given to Jesus when the tendency was to hold on you could imagine a little lad well I brought my food that's everybody else's problem I should have brought I should have thought I had brought their food you know the disciples said well let's just park the food lesson we at least us you know we're with Jesus I think we should eat the fish you know well I mean we're out here doing we're the teachers I think it ought to be us and notice here what they said and I want to kind of go back to you on a scripture here because he said verse 7 I want you to look but take note of this again verse because this is worth it says that everyone so Phillip is talking to him and he's going we don't have enough that every one of them may take a little so this is what Phillip is saying says we don't even have enough to give them a little snack in essence. I want to tell y'all, God is more into, he's doing much more than giving us a snack. God is not into us just making it. Okay, he's not into us just surviving. And I know, and I'm not saying don't take it too far, I'm not saying that we don't struggle, but God wants to do big things in our lives through the challenges, through tremendous challenges that we have, he wants to be seen, he wants to be glorified. And our problems are God's opportunity to be glorified. So what we do is we look at things differently through His eyes and say, okay God, how do you see this from heaven? Or what do you want to do? What is it from your perspective? And let me tell you, God's perspective is always different from our perspective. And so we want to get that so we can walk in victory in that information He gives us, or that revelation He gives us. I want you to look at Genesis 22 and we struggle with this people we want to be blessed and now y'all heard me say the book the prayer of Jabez book and that scripture it talks about bless me indeed how many of you want to be blessed I mean, that's just natural, we want to be blessed, right? The problem is, we don't want to give up anything. We want to be blessed really, really big, but we don't want to sacrifice really, really big. But if you want to be blessed really, really big, if you want to receive, you're going to have to give. Okay? So let's look at this scripture in Genesis 22. And I got that. Somebody, well I'm going to read this because I've got a couple of different. So Genesis 22, 1 and 2, and y'all know this, this is a tremendous sacrifice that God is asking, requiring. As a matter of fact, this is another test in scripture. In verse 22, 1 it says, and it came to pass after these things that God did tempt or test Abraham and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, behold, here I am. And he said, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest. and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him therefore a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of now I don't know about y'all but he'd been waiting a long time for this promise the promise of a son and it was a miraculous birth that Sarah was able to pass the age and he has this and and this son out of the son is going to come generations and God's going to give him up now you know what our tendency is to hope well he's the only son I got He's the only one, if I give him up, now think how we would think, naturally thinking, but Abraham has seen and experienced God. Guess what, Abraham's faith has been, it has grown to where he believes. that God can have and he gives him the son that he believes that God has the power because he gave him a promise to raise him from the dead that's where his faith has grown that faith didn't grow there overnight but he's walked with God and when you walk with God your faith grows and you start seeing from God's perspective and see Abraham realized that son was given and got what God gives he has a right to take anytime he wants because it's all his, amen. We shared that this morning in Sunday school. Somebody had made the comment that the Lord owns it all, but it's on loan to us. Even our children are on loan to us. our lives here on earth all this is temporary on this side and so it's his now look at verse 15 through 18 I love this and folks if we get hold of this we would experience the provision of God I'm convinced absolutely convinced and some of you have and we have experienced this I want you to look at verse 15 Now Abraham has took him to the mountain to bring him up to speed. He's taken him to the mountain, Isaac up to the mountain. Abraham was willing to do exactly what God told him and kill him. God stopped his hand. He said, I'm going to... There was a lamb, a ram caught in a thicket was provided. And after all this, God's going to respond because Abraham has passed the test by surrendering that which was most precious to him. And that was Isaac, the promised one. And verse 15, everybody got that? Say amen. And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, By myself I have sworn, saith the Lord. Look at this. For because thou hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore. And thy seed shall possess the gates of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice." You think about the sacrifice that Abraham made, and Abraham is willing to let go. to release. that one, the son, to give up that most precious, because he trusted God. He had experienced God, and he trusted God. And he found out what God said was true, that God was faithful. Did it make sense to Abraham, Sarah being 90, Abraham being 100 years old? It did not make sense. But the Bible says that trust in what God said was counted to him for righteousness, and so he believed what God said. But it takes releasing. You know, to be saved is no different. You know what being saved, you surrender, you submit, you give up, you turn from. When you're saved, you're going, Lord, you're the boss. I like that person said that one time, you're the boss. Now my life is yours. It's no longer me doing my own thing. Now I've come under new management. Now my trust and my faith is on the Lord. Now folks, isn't this good? You and me don't have to take care of ourselves. We don't have to provide for ourselves. We don't have to figure it out. We don't have to do. It's God that does through us. All that the Lord is asking for us is to believe Him and to walk in what He says. to yield to his will and say yes, whatever it is. But what gets in the way is what we see. What gets in the way, what got in the way of the nation of Israel, God is moving the nation of Israel forward, and what gets in the way of them taking a great big step and experiencing the blessings, the provision of God, the grapes that they saw that was on their shoulders, The land that flowed with milk and honey, but what got in the way is they looked at the supply and demand. They looked and they saw, well, the giants are here and they're great, and we're here and we're weak, and there's no way we can meet, there's no way we can battle and win. Instead of looking like Joshua and Caleb who were different than the other people, Joshua and Caleb believed what God said and said, listen, God said that we can take the land because it wouldn't be them that faced the giants. It wouldn't be them that took the giants down. It would be Almighty God who made everything. It would be God that would fight the battles. He was just looking for somebody to walk with Him. He was just looking for somebody to walk around Jericho. He was looking for somebody that would believe God, that God said what He said, and He meant what He said, and all they had to do was do what He said. They didn't have to fight, and you know what happened? They walked around Jericho. Did I say Jerusalem? Jericho. They walked around Jericho, and they did what? That didn't make sense, did it? that wall that was stood had no telling how long it had stood that protected the enemy see let me tell you folks God is looking for us the church to get on the offense and get off of the defense that's why the Bible says the gates that protects the gates of hell should not prevail the church is always to move forward the light is to penetrate darkness everybody agree with that? The church is to be on the move, moving forward. How do we move forward? By faith. We move forward because God makes a way where there is no way. But what people do is they look and they get discouraged and they see and they're going, man, I can't do this, I can't make it. Let me tell you, it's not us that has to make it, it's God that makes it through us. And folks, let me tell you, if your faith and my faith is in other people, you're gonna be sorely disappointed. if your faith isn't what you got what you can do you're gonna you're gonna come up short I don't care how much you have don't care what sooner or later you're gonna get to a point and you're going I don't know how I'm gonna make it sooner or later that we're gonna we're gonna struggle with life you know just breathing sooner or later we're gonna struggle with these things but we have a Savior but the Lord requires us letting go and releasing And when a person is willing to let go and release, then that person experiences God's provision. God's provision in a great way. What did the disciples do? And I like this, Brother Spencer shared this message one time, it's called pass the bread. You know, what they did is God gave to them, and you know what they did? They transferred and they started giving it out, and they kept passing that, and it was multiplied as they were obedient to the word of the Lord. I said, you know, Lord, this is the same, we got the same problem, Lord, we got the same problem, we got five loaves and two fishes, you know, what, but as they passed, you know what God did, it was still, kinda like reminds me of the woman, the woman that Elijah went to, was Elijah, Elijah went to, But, and she just had that one enough for one last meal. She said, I'm gonna just eat that one, that last meal, that's all we've got. And he said, listen, you just bring that meal to me again. Letting go instead of holding on. There's a principle in scripture, all through scripture, this principle of letting go. And then, guess what, God began to, every time, well, there's another meal. Well, there's another meal. Well, there's another meal. And God multiplied. That's the way he did the fishes and the loaves. He multiplied those fishes and the loaves as they passed that food from one to the other. And 5,000 plus people were fed. Jesus wants us to trust him so that we might follow him and so that we might work with him. and be a part of his plan. I want to say this, Jesus invites us again individually to join him. Jesus invites and he's scanning the population of people today. And he's looking, who will trust me enough to follow me? Who will believe me? Jesus loves, God loves faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works you know what it's only Jesus that gets us that but we believe him we trust him for salvation we trust him for for sustaining us here we trust him for doing whatever needs to be done but he invites us to go on a great adventure so that we might experience who he is and know him intimately. You know, the more time you spend with somebody, you get to know them. It takes time. Again, not to preach the same message, but we're not into a long distance relationship. I had the opportunity, my son, we were up in up at Gatlinburg, or Pigeon Forge, and we had a little conversation the first night. It probably was a highlight of the thing, and we got into a spiritual conversation. And he started to share, and he started to speak. You know, when you experience things, then you have something to share. And so the Lord had started to teach my number two son, Nicholas, had started to teach him some things and start to work in his life. And I'm going, man, God, you're good, you're faithful. because I've been praying, been praying for him, praying for all our kids. All my kids know this, they know that me and Elizabeth, our greatest desire is for them to walk with Jesus. Because if they walk with Jesus, we ain't got to worry about nothing else, amen? They ain't got to worry about nothing else. They're good if they walk with Jesus. And so as I heard him, I'm going, Nicholas, You're experiencing God. God is speaking to you. God is teaching you. God is showing you. And you know what, I won't share all, but you know what I heard from him and learned from him is that to experience God is having to let go. and let go of some stuff. I said, Nicholas, when you let go, then you open up God's hands and he's free to do. He's free to provide, he's free to do whatever he wants to do, free to use you, but no telling what God will do. But you have to let go. You have to sometimes walk away. You have to leave. What did he tell Abraham? He said, Abraham, I've got a place I've got for you. I'm going to do something great. But you know what? Before, you're going to have to leave earth. You're going to have to move from this place. And you're going to have to step out. You'll have to let go of all that dietal worship. Let go of your family. You know, sometimes we use, and unfortunately, in the wrong way, we use the family as a priority. But I'm just going to say this as easy as I can. Nobody. is to take number one place above Jesus. Not your children, not your wife, not your grandchildren, not your job, not your hobby, nobody takes number one place. When Jesus is in the proper place and he's above even your family, He's in the right place. And you know what? You free him to work in your family. And when things get out of kilter, then we tie the hands of God, if you will. But when we place him first, he says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. We put him first. He wants us to trust him, to follow him, to walk with him. We have a choice. We have a choice in our lives individually. I have a choice to do things the way I've been doing them. A lot of times that's the way I want to do them. I can continue doing that or I can say, you know, Lord, I want to do them your way. We have a choice whether to hold on or let go. We have a choice whether to walk away or walk with God. We have that choice. He's again is seeking people, looking for people, and inviting people to go on an adventure with Him. He's looking for church bodies that will say, Lord, we want to follow You wherever it is. We just want to be where You are working. We want to be where You're providing. We want to be where You're protecting. We want to be where You're being glorified. And folks, he's looking for people, like he's looking for churches that'll step out. He's looking for people that'll leave tradition, that will dethrone the gods of religion, that will dethrone the gods of church pride. Well, you know, you've heard people say this, and we've all said it, and I've said it too, well, that's my church. Well, you know it's not my church, and it's not your church. It's God's church, and it's bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus. Amen? And his church is not a building at Cash Point. His church is not a building at First Baptist. His church is global. His church is a big church. God is a big God and God does big things. But you know what? He does it through little people. I'll share this. I got rebuked by a preacher one time. And it was a rebuke. and I thought I was being humble and we had some of y'all heard this story before I went down to a pastor's conference that they had at Huntsville at the Civic Center down there and David Jeremiah was the guest speaker and David Jeremiah was teaching a lot most of us were pastors or lay people and he was teaching he was talking and and he was coming through the line and we were signing books had a book that we could sign and you know we had a little just a couple seconds to talk to him and he's going well where are you from I'm in the line with him you know and I'm before David Jeremiah and I'm like oh you know and I'm I'm I'm I'm humble you know I'm gonna be humble and I told him this I said well I'm from a little church and I didn't get it out until little church and he stopped me And he rebuked me, Brother Ronnie, he did. And it was a lesson I needed to learn. And he looked at me and he said, there are no little churches. Now some of you are going, what did he mean by that? I'm gonna tell you what he meant by that. He meant it doesn't matter how small or how few, God can do a great big work. And I thought I was being humble, but I wasn't. And what he taught me was, listen, God can do anything. And it's not a little church. See, this little, this young, I say little, I don't know how big he was, but this young lad, and the little lunch that he had, in God's eyes, could feed more than a million people. Amen? There just happened to be, listen to this, there just happened to be only 5,000 plus people. It could have been 10 million people and the basket would have still fed that many. Amen? Because that's the God that we serve. I don't know about y'all, but that stirs my heart. That excites me that we serve a God that can take a little and do a whole lot with it. that excites me that he can take somebody that can't do or doesn't know like David Ring and God can use because I'm going well if he could do that with them he could do something with me if he can do that with me I told somebody this morning I said if God can use me he'd use anybody that means he can use you amen he can use each one no matter where you are what you have or don't have God can do great things Never discount yourself, say, well, I'm just this, or I'm just that, or I just go to this little church, say, you know, I'm God's child. I don't know what God's up to, but I want to see Him do something with my life. He doesn't have to have a lot, just a little bit. I want you to, we'll close with this scripture in 2 Timothy 4, everybody turn to 2 Timothy 4, 2 Timothy 4, 2 Timothy 4. I hope I've been able to convey a little bit what the Lord's trying to teach us. Again, He's trying to build some groundwork, help us for the future and what God has for us. and teach us that we can trust him. If you haven't watched the Morley movie, you need to watch the Morley movie. That's a great movie about one man who God did, used, no lie, one man to change a nation, present time. Watch it, if you haven't watched the Mully movie. My brother was so inspired by it, he watched it twice. It's a great movie, the Mully movie. Okay, Genesis, or excuse me, 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy, I'm in 1 Timothy. 2 Timothy 4, I like this. Verse 6, Paul is speaking toward the end of his life. He's looking back, he's reflecting on his life. In verse 6, for I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. We've said this before, people want to go to heaven, they just don't want to die to get there. They want to go to heaven, they just don't want to leave planet earth to get there. He said this, he said, I have fought a good fight. Now look at this part, I have finished my course. I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing you know what Paul's saying the course the path that God had for me I followed I walked it with Jesus the whole way what the Lord had before him and he finished that path that he had So I wanna challenge you, I wanna challenge you, and I'm gonna ask you a question too. The Lord has an invitation for you and for me. Will you go on an adventure? Hopefully, if you hadn't been saved, the beginning of that invitation is for you to accept Jesus Christ. That's the first thing you have to do. You're gonna walk with God. Jesus said this, he said, I am the way, the truth and the life no man comes into the father but by me he's the only bridge between union but you can walk with God when you accept Jesus Christ so I hope that you've done that hopefully we have and so if you've done that now he's asking us are you willing to go on an adventure are you willing to let go to leave where you are to go on and adventure with God. Are you willing to trust him and your future? Are you willing to let go of that thing that has taken the place of God? Are you willing to say, nope, that's an idol, nope, nope. Are you willing to look at that differently? Are you willing to look at things differently and see God in the light? Are you willing to put him first? Am I willing to do that? Are we, as a church, willing to go on an adventure with God? Are we willing to let go and go on an adventure with God? I think one of the first things God begins to do when he's got something, he begins to stir us and dissatisfy us with where we are. There was all, before I've told people this, before major changes in my life, I begin to be restless in my spirit. I begin to say, oh, you know, and just stir it up because God wanted to do something. Because then I begin to seek him, say, God, what are you up to? Maybe that's where you are. Maybe you're going, God, what are you up to through this? Why is this before, Lord is this a test? Is this a faith builder for me? What are you up to? There are no coincidences with God. I want you to get your hymn book. And we're gonna close with singing a good hymn tonight. 483, 483 is the hymn. One day, we're gonna stand before Jesus. Believers, the judgment seat of Christ. And I'm gonna tell you why Paul was confident and ready to go to glory, because he had walked the path before him. The adventure that God asked him to go on with him, that Jesus personally asked him to go on, Paul took him up on it, and Paul walked with him, and he guided him. Think about when the rewards are given and Paul was assured of his reward because he had been faithful to that call. So before you make a decision, before I make a decision, someday we're going to give an account with whether we accepted the invitation to go on this adventure with him, whether we followed him in his adventure or not. Someday we're going to give an account of that, amen? Has everybody got that except for the preacher? Miss Elizabeth, can you lead us? I want us all to stand. I want us to do two stanzas. And during this, so we're gonna have the invitation tonight. So as we do this, I want to ask you personally, individually, I want to ask you, As God begins to reveal or continues to reveal himself to you, are you willing to go on this adventure? Are you willing to let go? Are you willing to step out by faith? If you are, I think it's a good place to make a commitment. Lord, I want to experience more. Lord, I'm not satisfied with where I am. I want to experience more of you. I'm not trying to manipulate you. I'm challenging you as the Lord is challenging me. I'm just passing the bread. Amen? I'm just passing the bread. As we sing this, I pray it speaks to your heart. So we're gonna close with a prayer. And you do whatever God calls you to do. You just be obedient to him. Miss Elizabeth. First in the full, first in the last. Sweetly, Lord, have we heard thee call. Lead us to thee. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus where'er they go. Then at last when on high he sees us, our journey done, we'll rest where the steps of Jesus end at his throne. footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus where'er they go. I'm going to challenge you to come to an old-fashioned altar tonight. If you feel like God's good with you,