You are invited to examine your heart and resources today to see where your treasure truly lies. Trust God with what you have, knowing He multiplies what is sown generously in obedience to His word. Walk in faith even when it doesn't make sense, and experience the abundance He promises.
Welcome to The Real Church Podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
So Galatians-2:20, it says, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, that's Jesus, who loved me and gave himself for me. That's exactly what happened when those 17 people were baptized. We we we set it as a a "burial ceremony". I don't know if you've ever heard that, but that's what baptism is.
It's a burial ceremony. You're going under the water. Right? And, it's it's representing that you've died with Christ. The old you is completely and totally gone.
That's no longer you anymore. You've been "born again" in him. He's given you his life, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his gentleness, his meekness, his self control. His life is reproduced in you and through you. It's no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us.
How amazing is that? Isn't that wonderful? And, I've quoted that verse, and I've quoted these next verses a couple of times, but it's important because it lays the foundation for what we're gonna talk about. Generous. First, we have a generous God.
So, *1 John-2:5-6* says this, verse 3, we know we have come to know Him if we keep His commands. Whoever says, I know Him, but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys His word, *love for God is truly made complete in them, this is how we know we are in Him. Verse 6, Whoever claims to live in Him, in Jesus*, must live as Jesus lived. So we're in Him there, depicts that living as Jesus lived.
And then 1 John-4, we're gonna start in verse 15. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them, and they in God. So living in them, and they in God, which is amazing and wonderful and miraculous. And so we know and rely on the love that God has for us. God is love.
Whoever lives in love, lives in God and God in them. There it is, that picture of us in God and God in us, is *miraculous*. This is how we know that love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment. Listen to this. In this world, we are like who?
*Jesus*. In this world, we are like Jesus. Why? Because we are in him, and he is in us. Now, we're talking about generous.
Why is this important? Because if we identify Jesus as generous, understand who we are in Christ, and we understand who he is in us, more and more and more, as Romans-12:2 says, as we renew our mind to the reality of who he says that we are, and quit believing the lies of what everybody else says that we are, we begin to reproduce his life in and through us, and it changes everything around us. So, was Jesus generous? I think is the question. Because if he was, then we are.
And to the extent, in the same ways that He is generous, we are generous and have the potential there if we follow Him, if we listen to Him, as we learn to walk by faith following what He says. Amen? Well, what why why do I say that? I say this. I say it because of this.
*Luke-6:43-44*. No good tree bears bad fruit nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Right? So each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick pick figs from thorn bushes or grapes from briars.
So so we're either we're either bearing the the fruit of our old life or we're bearing the fruit of a life that's in Christ. We're bearing the same fruit that He has in His life. And, if I had more time, I'd talk about grafting. That's for another whole another message, which is an awesome analogy, by the way. So, is Jesus generous, and how is Jesus generous?
The definition of generosity or the definition of generous is showing a readiness to give more of something than is necessary, showing a readiness to give more of something than is required. Now, we can be generous all day long, but there's something different about being generous when he speaks. That's a kingdom type of generosity because we're in his kingdom now, and kingdom generosity results in multiplication, which is pretty cool to think about. So, let's talk about it. When I think about the stories of Jesus being generous, there's multiple different stories that I could talk about, but there's 1 in specific, 1 that's very significant, and it's so significant that it's written in all 4 of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
They all thought it's so important that they wanted to write it down. That story, maybe some of you guys have heard about it, it's the story of the 5 loaves and the 2 fish, where Jesus took those "5 loaves of bread", so 5 pieces of bread and 2 fish, and he fed, it says something like "5,000 people". Is that right? Is that right? You guys are awake.
Heck yeah, I hadn't put you to sleep yet. I love it. Okay. So, what we're going to do is we're gonna read that story, and then let's just read the story first. Luke-9.
Luke-9 and starting in verse 12, it says this. Excuse me. Late in the afternoon, the 12 came to him and said, send the crowd away so that they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging because we are in a remote place here. He replied, that's Jesus. You give them something to eat.
They answered, we only have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, unless we go and buy food for all this crowd. About 5,000 men were there. But he said to the disciples, have them sit down in groups of about 50 each. The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. Taking the 5 loaves and the 2 fish, looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them.
Then, he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. And, the disciples picked up "12 baskets fulls" of broken pieces that were left over. Now, maybe you've read that before. Now, we're gonna go back through it.
We're gonna go back through it in the way that my wife likes to go back through Bible studies, because she does awesome. And maybe if you were here for the Hearing God series, you you would know that these aren't just stories that, you know, we can think about as historical things that happened a long time ago. You would know that they were people just like us, as it says in James-5:17 through 19. So being people just like us, they're not just historical stories, but if we could see ourselves in them because what they experienced in their daily lives, we can experience the same thing in our daily lives. Where they failed, we see in our lives sometimes we fail in the same types of areas.
They're real, and it really happens. So, my wife, when she goes through these Bible stories, she likes to imagine that she was 1 of the disciples there, and how would she have felt if Jesus would have said those things or these things? So, when I go back through the story now, I'm gonna kinda tell it in story mode, and I'm gonna mix Matthew, Mark, John's, and Luke's version all together. So, if you wanna catch all of the details, go study them all, just to make sure that what I'm saying is alright. Alright?
You can do it. It's gonna be fun. You guys ready? Because I am. Okay.
So you have to know the context here. The context is the 12 disciples, they've been following Jesus for a little bit. He had picked him up and following Jesus, and and Jesus, he's performing miracles. He's healing the sick. He's casting out demons.
He's curing diseases. He's doing amazing things. But then, he he does this crazy thing. He brings the 12 to himself, and he says, hey, you guys, I give you the authority to cure diseases, to heal the sick, to to cast out demons. Go into the surrounding villages and preach the good news of the gospel.
This happened just before this. Okay? Preach the good news of the gospel and and proclaim the kingdom has come. Alright? So the disciples go out, and these are a ragtag bunch of, you know, fishermen and tax collectors, and, you know, they go out, and now, they left their day job to follow this Jesus guy.
Now, they're doing the exact same things that he did. They're healing the sick and and doing all this stuff, and it's crazy. And, can you imagine the amount of excitement they felt the first time that they prayed for somebody, they actually got better? Oh my gosh, this happened. Right?
So they just got done traveling to all of these cities, and towns, and villages, and stuff doing this, and they're probably really exhausted because they've been giving out of themselves over and over and over. They're probably exhausted. They go back to Jesus with lots of excitement, because it says so. And, Jesus says, alright guys, hey, this is awesome. I know I know you guys have been working hard.
Let's go relax. Let's go to this town. I got this town called Bethsaida. It's kind of remote. It's out in the middle of nowhere.
Let's go relax here and just kind of recuperate from what's going on. So, they begin to go, but somebody, probably Peter, because he's the boisterous 1, he's the 1 that, you know, usually would you would think he would let the cat out the bag. Somebody let the press know that where they were going. They weren't just going to this remote place. Alright?
Or, that they were going to this remote place to relax. So they get to Bethsaida, they're they're relaxing, they're and they look out, and they see this crowd of people coming. And they're supposed to be just relaxing. And, it's not just a crowd. So, says 5,000 men here.
Right? So, it's not just 5,000 people. It says 5,000 men. And in Matthew, it says, not including women and children. So it was much more than just 5,000 people.
If we were to look at history, it's more likely or it's likely in that time that they had 4 to 5 kids per family. Now, let's not assume that every husband and wife had 4 to 5 kids, so we're just gonna take a conservative number of 2, kinda like today's age. So you have a husband, wife, 2 kids, 5,000 men. 5 times 5,000 times 4 is 20,000. Theologians would agree, all the smart people out there, that there was about at least "20,000 people" in this crowd that Jesus ended up feeding, which is pretty amazing and miraculous.
And yes, it's very generous of Jesus doing more than what is expected to feed this whole crowd and have 12 basketfuls of fish and and stuff left over for the disciples. Isn't that? That's generous. Right? So back, we're at Bethsaida, you know, we're the disciples.
Right? Me and you. And, we're chilling with Jesus, and we look out, and there's a crowd of 20,000 people coming on the horizon, and everybody looks at Peter. Really? Again?
*Jesus*, in John-6 it says, he knew what he was about to do. Which we learned in previous series that the Holy Spirit speaks to us and communicates all truth to us, and shows us what's yet to come, so we can know just like Jesus does. Isn't that amazing? That's John-16. So so Jesus, knowing what he's about to do, he said something to test them.
He calls out Philip. He says, hey, Philip. Amen. Where are we gonna buy bread for all these people? So he's starting to put the responsibility on them, and Philip has no idea.
He says, man, it would take it would take half a year's salary to be able to buy bread, and not even everyone, like, everyone would only be able to take like 1 bite. That's almost impossible. How is that? I don't get it. See, Jesus is prepping them for the miracle that He wants to do in and through them.
You know, a lot of times, when Jesus wants to do something radically generous, he doesn't just do it by himself, because we're his body. He wants to do something radically generous in the world, because we're his body, we're the body of Christ. He wants to do it in us, he wants to do it through us, and as a result, it will come around back to us. And before he does it, he uses usually preps us and gets us ready for what he's about to do. You guys follow me so far?
So, you know, he says this, now, the people come and it says he had great compassion on them, and he began to teach them. Now, he didn't just teach them. It says, late in the afternoon, the 12 came to him and said Now, that is also, in other translations, it's translated as the as the day, like, the day was almost to an end. The day was coming to a close. So Jesus began to teach them, and it's kind of like coming to a Sunday morning service, and I just keep going on and on.
I'm supposed to be done at, you know, 12:35, 12:40, and it's 01:00, and you're starting to look at your watches, and like, woah, what's going on? 2 o'clock, hey, I'm getting hungry right now. 03:00, 04:00, I'm just gonna get up and leave and be rude in a minute, except this is Jesus, so like, it's a little bit it's it's amazing. But, the disciples, they've they're tired, and they're I imagine, maybe they're in the corner, and this is just kinda me using the freedom of imagination here. Okay?
But, imagine they're in the corner, and and they're thinking, man, we're hungry. And once again, Peter is like, man, I'm so hungry, I'm about to die. Like, we gotta we gotta do something. And they think, well, *Jesus loves* the people, so why don't we go to Him and say, hey, the people are hungry, then we can get something to eat. I mean, that's that's, you know, getting what you want.
Right? So so the people are hungry. So now Jesus is teaching these 20,000 people, and there's no speakers like this. They don't have like a countryman mic on, you know So he's probably really, really loud and proclaiming, there's it doesn't say that Jesus stopped. They they might have interrupted him, maybe.
So they send someone, hey, Peter, why don't you go? So Peter goes up to Jesus. I just kind of see this in my mind's eye. Hey, hey, Jesus. And Jesus is still preaching.
*Jesus*. Yeah, Peter. Stops what he's doing, teaching the biggest crowd possibly that has ever been there. A lot of the theologians were those smart people would say that. And, Peter says, we, I mean, the people are hungry.
We need to feed them. And so maybe you should dismiss. You should wrap it up and dismiss it and send them to their lodges and to the places to eat. And Jesus turns to them. Now, is Jesus?
*John-1:1. He's the Word of God*. The Word become flesh. Right? And Jesus speaks a word, and I think this is very powerful what he says.
He says to Peter or to the disciples, it doesn't necessarily say Peter, it's just for fun. He says, you give them something to eat. Now, if I'm Peter, imagine what he's Or, if I'm the disciples, imagine what they're thinking. Like, I I've been traveling. I don't have anything except a pen.
I don't have anything in my pockets. I I don't have any Like, how am I supposed to give them something to eat? I don't get it. See, that's how Jesus works. A lot of times, he When he wants to do something *miraculous* through you, and he wants to be miraculously generous to those around you, he will challenge you in ways that seem impossible, seem like there's no possible way.
It takes a radical step of faith to do it. Now, remember, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord. Now, the word of the Lord, who is Jesus Christ, just spoke to the disciples and told them, you feed them. So they had a word from God, so there had to be some faith built up. Now, just because there's faith built up doesn't mean they don't doubt.
You follow me so far? Just because there's faith doesn't mean there's there's no doubting. So they heard the word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word. They heard it.
He replied in verse 13, you give them something to eat. They answered, we only have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, unless we go and buy food for all of this crowd. So how is that possible? I don't get it. There's 20,000 people there.
And how did they get that 5 those 5 loaves and 2 2 pieces of fish? Because they didn't have it. It was a little boy that was walking by that happened to maybe he snuck into town or something and got some food. He happened to have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. And I just imagine, maybe the disciple said, hey, could we use that?
And, here's the first act of obedience, the boy actually gave all that he had to the disciples. If the boy wouldn't have given all that he had, the 20,000 would not have been fed. So the boy gave what he had to the disciples, and the disciples gave they didn't know what to do, but they knew that God told them to do something. Their Lord and Savior told them to do something, and there was no possible way that they could do it on their own. Yeah.
What if they would have just been generous, taken the 5 loaves of and 2 pieces of fish, and began to hand it out? That would have been nice. It would have been kind. Like, people are generous like that in all kinds of situations. But, when it's not in obedience to his word, in partnership with him, it's just your own doing.
It's nice and kind, but it's not life changing for everyone around. Because kingdom generosity results in a multiplication that changes everything. And that happens only in response to his word. *Jesus* said, you feed them. They didn't have enough.
They realized they were ins In and of themselves, there's no way that they could do that. So they gave back to Jesus what they had. Jesus, we have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Look what He does next. So, after they gave Him that, He said, but He said to disciples, have them sit down in groups of about 50 each.
Okay. You ever been to that point of radical obedience where you've surrendered all of your life to God because everything that we have is his? Our time, our talents, and our treasure. We In order for this *kingdom* generosity like Jesus, this radical amazing generosity multiplication happen, we have to let control, let go of control of what we have, and how we think we need to use it, and just place it back in God's hands, which is what the disciples just did. So, they place it back in his hands.
And you ever done that and expect, there should be a miracle right now. Like, I'm ready. Only to get more instruction? And not just any instruction, but Jesus says, have them sit in groups of 50? Have you ever tried to make 5 little kids sit in a group?
I have a 6 year old, a 4 year old, and a 3 year old. 3 is hard enough. I'm amazed at my wife who works at a preschool, and how they have a group of 10 kids sit. There's 20,000 people here. Husbands, wives, and children.
20,000 in groups of about 50. Really? How long do you think that took? More than 30 minutes. And they're hungry.
They're probably hangry by now. Right? Grumpy, having these people But, why do they keep moving forward? Because they heard the word of the Lord, they believed it, they had faith in it, and so even though they doubted it, even though they didn't understand what he was telling them to do, even though it made no sense to the mind's eye, because they heard what he said, it built a faith in them to continue moving forward with what he was saying, even though they didn't see results yet when they thought that they should. I've been there.
So they continued to be obedient. As we talked about last week, There's more to just hearing the voice of the Lord, but you receive it, and you say what you hear him saying, just like Jesus did. Jesus said, I do nothing unless I hear my I say nothing unless I hear my Father say it, and I do nothing unless I see my Father doing it. So, as we as God speaks to us, we speak it, or we do it what we see Him doing, and there's power in the response because faith without works is dead. It's not faith at all.
But, as you hear his voice that builds that faith, and you keep moving forward despite what you see, that's what they're doing. And, it's miraculous, and it's amazing. Watch what happens. So the disciples finished their task. They were prepping.
Prepping. It was all preparation for the miracle. All preparation for this radical act of generosity that God was gonna do in and through them. *Disciples* finished their task. Verse 16, taking the 5 loaves and the 2 fish.
*Jesus* taking the 5 loaves and the 2 fish. And looking up to heaven, he gave thanks, broke them, then gave them to the disciples to distribute. Now, I don't know if it's movies, because I grew up in church and I saw these church movies, or it's just my own imagination or how it's been taught to me before. But you have this picture of Jesus having these 5 loaves and 2 pieces of fish that were handed to him from the disciples, and him like putting these plates up into heaven and this holy light shining down on him, kinda like the spotlight there. And him, it says giving thanks, other versions say he blessed them.
The original text says he blessed them. So blessing them. He's blessing these these 5 loaves and 2 fish and brings it down, and you know, in my mind's I always thought, man, there's you know, enough fish and bread now to feed 20,000 people just right there. Boom. After Jesus prayed.
He would have had to have some guns to hold all that. But that's not what it says. Let's look at it again. It's pretty amazing. Verse 16, taking the 5 loaves and the 2 fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them.
Broke what? The 5 loaves and 2 fish. Then he gave them, he gave the broken 5 loaves and 2 fish to the disciples. The multiplication to feed the 20,000 didn't happen in Jesus' hands. It happened in the disciple's hands.
It happened as they gave away what he gave them. As they were radically generous with what he entrusted to them. The principles all throughout scripture, but I want to drive that point home. *Jesus*, they gave control of what they had to Jesus. Jesus blessed it because they had surrendered it to him.
He blessed it, then he gave it back to them to give away, to feed them. Cause he said, you feed them. If he spoke it, then he's gonna empower them to do it miraculously. So I imagine Peter taking this broken piece of a loaf and maybe a piece of a fish, and he's going to the first person in faith because it doesn't look like it's possible and he's saying here, take a little, really little. And he as he continues to give it away, next thing you know, he gives a little away and a little bit gets it grows in his hands.
And as he gives a little more away, a little grows in his hands. And he gets a little more confident of this kingdom principle of generosity. So then he gives, hey hey, you can take a little more and a little more grows in his hands. So next thing you know, he's given more and more is growing. Next thing he's, hey, get as much as you want and a ton is growing in his hands because as he's giving it, it's being supplied back to him.
Because he's responding in obedience to what Jesus spoke because he trusts him and with that, there's this principle happening that's miraculous and amazing. Can you can you see that in your mind's eye how amazing is that? And as they give out all that they have, it's supplied more and more to where everybody is filled, everybody is satisfied, and not only that, the disciples are taken care of where there's 12 basketfuls. 1 for 1 a doggy bag for each disciple. And they started with nothing except his word.
That's amazing. What would have happened what would have happened if after Jesus, they gave all that they had to Jesus and Jesus blessed it and gave it back to them, they wouldn't have gave it away? What would have happened if they wouldn't have originally followed the command other than to say, all I have is yours God. He says, good, well take it and feed those around you. And they just ate it themselves.
The 20,000 wouldn't have been fed. And they would have only had 5 loaves and 2 fish instead of 12 basketfuls. It had to be given away for it to multiply. Given to Jesus, blessed by Jesus, broken by Jesus, then given away because of a radical trust in Jesus. *Luke-6:38* says, "give and it will come back to you".
Good measure, "pressed down, shaken together", running over, will be poured into your lap for the measure you use, it will be given back to you. So in order for this to work, there has to be a trust to give up control to him. What would happen, and it's possible, what would happen if there was a God trusted you? What would it be like if God trusted you with his resources? What does that take?
I will tell you this and I'll prove it to you in his word. God trusts the radically generous with what he has. Because the bible says, where your treasure is, there your heart is also. Where you put what is most valuable to you, which for most of us it's money. Where you put those things, that shows where your heart is, where your trust is.
And if you put your treasure where he says to put it, then he can trust you with his treasure. *2 Chronicles-1:7*, maybe you've heard the story. Oh, it's chapter 1. Yeah. Verse 7.
Maybe you've heard the story, but it was nighttime. Solomon, King Solomon had a dream. And he dreamed that *God* came to him, and it was true. It actually happened. God came to him and said, ask for me whatever you want and I'll give it to you.
That's a trust there. God trusted Solomon to tell him to ask for whatever he wanted. Why did God trust Solomon? It was at night, so if you look back to see what happened in the day, you'll see. The verse before it, 2 Chronicles-1 verse 6, Solomon gave a burnt offering.
Now, it's customary in that day for a burnt offering, it's to be your best. It to be a you know, 1 of the ways to do it was a bull, which is like super expensive and amazing, and and he gave the his bull, a best bull, and it was customary for someone to give 1 bull. That's normal. That's expected. That's but radical generosity is above what expected.
Solomon didn't give just 1, he gave 1,000 of his best bulls. This radical generosity because of that, because his treasure was in a, you know, burnt offering couldn't be used after that. It was just dedicated 100% to God. Because his treasure was there, his heart was with God. God trusted him to say, whatever you want, I'll give to you that night.
What does that look like in our daily lives? *2 Corinthians-9*. Says, you will be enriched in every way. Now, let's back it up. Verse 6, remember this, whoever sows sparingly, whoever gives sparingly will also reap, will get back sparingly.
And whoever gives generously or sows generously will also reap or get back generously. Each of you should give what you've decided in your heart. It's between you and God, what he says. Not reluctantly and not under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.
So not because you feel obligated to or it's just habit or whatever. No. It's in response to his word. That's where the power is. Because you hear him respond to him obedience to what he says.
And God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, everyone say all things. At all times, all times. Having all that you need, say all that you need. Will abound in every good work. You will man.
Verse 10, now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge your harvest, the harvest of your righteousness. Verse 11, this is this is where I wanted to get to. This is where he trusts you. You will be enriched in every way, so that you can be generous on every occasion. Can you imagine?
Generous on every occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. I want to be a church. We are a church and will be more and more a church that is generous on every occasion. I want to be a husband, a father, a friend, a person who is generous on every occasion because I trust him to give him control of everything that I have.
When he speaks, walk in obedience to what he says, even if it doesn't make sense in the moment because I know Jesus is generous and Jesus is amazing. Therefore, I'm generous, even though I don't feel like it sometimes. Because of that, his power, who he is, his grace will empower me to overcome my feelings, and it'll be amazing. We can live like that, church. We can be radically generous because he's right.
That's awesome.
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