Faith in Action: Beyond Materialism to Divine Purpose

"The reason is that Moses represents the law and Elijah represents the prophets. And up until that time, the Hebraic scriptures were really a combination of the law and the prophets. So when Jesus came with the new covenant and they're all getting together here, getting along well, it was really a foreshadowing and a proclamation that everything Jesus was doing, even though it was new, it was not there to do anything to refute the law and the prophets. In fact, when he first came on the scene and began to preach, he said, I am not here to say anything contrary to what you've already been taught. I am here to take everything that you have been taught and take it to a whole new level." [00:01:40]

"And Jesus is trying to get us to move beyond the material into the spiritual and then from the spiritual re-approach the material. And that is the whole essence of faith. You see, in the incident that we talked about last week, when Jesus heals this boy who was given to seizures, would be thrown into fire, would be thrown into wire. Into water, was deaf and dumb." [00:04:47]

"And he didn't put any qualifiers on that. He didn't say healing is possible. He didn't say your financial situations can be corrected. He didn't say wars can be stopped. He said, all things are possible. to those who believe. And since I, like you, believe that the words of Jesus are true, that means that our faith, other than our very salvation, is the greatest commodity we have as human beings. Our faith is what can move the material." [00:05:40]

"The great thing about having faith in God, the great thing about having the faith of Christ, the great thing about being Christians and being Christ-like in this world, that means people who bring peace, and people who bring healing, and people who bring understanding, and people who bring unity, and people who are able to transform personal lives, and families, and communities, and the world to be agents of God in this world." [00:06:16]

"faith is something you have it's like a spiritual commodity if you were but belief is something you do it's a application of it and so it's one thing to have faith but it's another thing to exercise faith and so what Jesus is saying he says everything is possible if you are able to exercise this faith that I'm talking about in your life you can change everything now I've told you all I used to play sports and I guess you just believe me because you think I'm a nice guy because I certainly don't look like it amen I know it all right but you know even though eventually I did get good when I was young I was terrible I was the worst my brother was great he was a born athlete he used to rub it in the man all the time you know he could just he could dunk over me run over me catch over me everything I was I was terrible but the worst thing I was at was was at catching a football I was terrible like you know you guys watched Charlie Brown with the mitt and they throw the baseball that hit him right in a bit and drop to the ground that was me okay couldn't catch a thing" [00:07:20]

"a whole new way and after that I still dropped the ball but I was at least able to practice and learn and get better I did get better eventually all right but you know faith is like putting on a new set of glasses it's like seeing the world in a whole new way it's when you think you know everything but really all you know is what you're able to see at that point in time and so since that's your everything your description of everything is much limited you just don't know it you've heard the saying you know that person doesn't know what they don't know right okay and so what is faith I would suggest to you that faith is enlarging your sphere of awareness the detail and the understanding of what you know and what you're able to see at that point in time understanding of it understanding that there are clouds of angels on your behalf working for you understanding that God not only knows your situation in detail but he also knows a potential pitfall or pothole and is able" [00:10:14]

"So what Jesus is saying here is, you guys are talking about bread. I didn't do the miracle just to feed people's stomachs. I did the miracle to tell you something. Did you hear it? I did the miracle to show you something. Did you see it? And I think so often we get so caught up in the material that all we think about is, did I get what I wanted now to feed my particular appetite, whatever that might be. You know, whatever, I needed a spouse. Did I get that spouse? I prayed, I needed food. Did I get that food? I needed a new car. I needed a new house. I needed a job. Did I get, oh, I got it, great. But we forget that everything that God does has purpose and has message and has meaning. And he's asking us whether we're seeing that or not, whether we're seeing God in the midst of God's work." [00:15:04]

"And here, right after, after that incident, as the scripture was well read, after that incident, he heals a man who was blind. And it's like they still don't get it. I'm healing the man who's blind because I want to reinforce in you the necessity for you to open your spiritual eyes." [00:16:49]

"the feeding of the 5 ,000. It's interesting, by the way, that he mentions both, because sometimes you might read the scripture and wonder if maybe one of the disciples made a mistake. I mean, he certainly couldn't feed thousands of people twice, right? So maybe he just, you know, maybe he only fed the 5 ,000 and somebody else got it wrong and called it 4 ,000, right? You know, when I used to read that as a kid, I kind of wondered that. But no, guess what? He did both. Both. He fed the five and the four. And then here he says, don't you remember what happened when I fed the five? Don't you remember what happened with the four? What happened? They answered, and they still didn't get it. So guess what?" [00:17:27]

"Five loaves, two fish. There is a bit of foreshadowing here because he makes a Eucharism, why we call it the Eucharist, and he breaks the bread. It's the, it is a giving of thanks. It's a foreshadowing. He takes bread and he breaks the bread and he gives thanks. And then after he does this Eucharistic act, he combines this broken bread with these two fish, feeds the people, and has 12 basketfuls left over." [00:18:08]

"And that means that we have to connect with Christ to serve the world. And when we serve the world in our connection with Christ in faith, then he builds the church. But I found that every church is different. Every church has its own personality, has its own character. It's like an individual. It's like a person has its own character." [00:23:24]

"the resource and that whatever limitations you perceive they are only perceptions and if we listen to the message of Jesus here that the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod is materialism that a little bit can go through the whole dough the material is important but it's not what we put our faith in we put our faith in God and God gives us the resource if we take what we have we break ourselves of our carnality and our self-centeredness become focused on the needs of those around us God will bring it in he'll build the church through faith if we step out in faith amen" [00:27:36]