>> Good morning. Welcome to Breen Community Church. And as you guys know, we have a retreat coming up next week. And so I want to remind you that next Sunday, we only have service at 11 o'clock. So we will have regular service here at 11. Pastor James Lee from Cross Life is going to be preaching.

And Pastor Peter Chung will also be here to help out with the service and lead worship. And so because of that, I want to remind you that if you are coming to the 11 o'clock service, we do not have child care here. We have it up at the retreat site, but we won't have it here.

And along with that, we do not have shuttle service. So I'm sure there will be enough parking in the area so you don't have to worry about that. But again, no shuttle service. And if you are in the middle of membership class right now, the membership class won't be taking place next week either.

We'll pick it back up on the following Sunday. So just to kind of give you a heads up. And then we have a men's prayer breakfast that we have quarterly that's coming up in September 9th. So sign ups are going to start taking place not after we come back from the retreat.

But I wanted to give you a heads up so that it doesn't catch you off guard. Again, 9/9, so September 9th on Saturday morning at our cafe. So please look out for that and sign up for that. If you haven't signed up for the Galatians Bible study, please do that as soon as possible.

Sprouts PTA meeting is also happening on September 10th. So if you're a parent of a Sprout student, there is a meeting that's happening at 2 p.m. So you're going to go grab lunch and then come back. And so that will be happening. And then intentional sisters fellowship, ISF, they're still taking sign ups for that.

And that's going to be starting on August 25th. So as you can see, we have communion. And so we want you to be prepared. I'm going to be explaining a little bit as we get ready. But the communion, again, the reason why we celebrate the way that we celebrate is because we want people to be intentional about coming up.

That this is not just some--you know, there's no superpower within it, like you came in and just took it and something happened to you. It is meant so that we would take time on our normal schedule and to think through the meaning behind it and what it means and the significance of it so that we can kind of recalibrate our spiritual lives according to what the table represents.

And so during the service, through the preaching, through the singing, that you would ready your hearts so when we ask to open the table that you would be able to come up and participate in it. I'm going to pray for us and we're going to take a minute to give the offering.

But the offering time is, again, we'll give you a minute to do that. But also if you are here and you need to give a physical offering, there is a box in the back on the way out. You can drop it off there. Okay? All right, let me pray for us and we'll begin.

Father, we thank you for the blessing that we have in you. I pray that you would help us to lift up our eyes, to know, believe, follow, and worship Christ who suffered and has given so much for us. Lord, if we have brought in a heart of ingratitude, or if we have been entangled with things, Lord God, that really does not have much to do with eternal things, help us, Lord, to open our eyes, soften our hearts, that we may hear and be willing, Lord God, to be searched by you.

I pray that you would bless our time of corporate worship. I pray that even in this giving, that we would give as an act of worship and may it be multiplied 30, 60, 100-fold for the sake of your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Church family, let's all rise together as we sing these songs to our God.

If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 6. And we're getting into the second half of the 12 disciples. And the second half obviously is going to go much faster because we don't have a lot of information about the disciples, with the exception of maybe a few at the tail end.

But I want to again refresh our memory of the text and the names of the disciples before we get started. Verse 12, "It was at this time that he went off to the mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also named as apostles, Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, and Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Aphaeus, and Simon, who was called Zealot, Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor." Let's pray.

Father, we pray that you would give us understanding, that your word would speak to us, that it was your word and your word alone. Help us, Lord, not to simply be hearers, but to be doers of your word. May your word and your word alone go forth and not return until it has accomplished its purpose.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, a few weeks ago, again, when we were out in Korea, we had an opportunity to speak with a group of Mormons out on the streets. And one of the things that I noticed clearly about this encounter is that how much of what they profess to believe, even 10, 15 years ago, they've altered.

And so whether it's polygamy or certain rituals that they have, they say, "Oh, we don't practice that anymore." You know, our elders or leaders have decided that the interpretation had to be tweaked, which is interesting because their book, according to record, has had 4,000 separate revisions within the 150-some years that they've existed.

4,000 revisions had to be made in the New Book of Mormons. Our text that we have, the Bible that we have, according to all records, with archaeological finds and what we have, we pretty much have 99.9% of what they had in the first century is the exact same thing that we have today.

There's no other historical document that has been preserved to this extent. That we know, whether you are a believer or not, we know that this is the text. These are the letters that were handed from the apostles to the churches, the individuals, and pretty much these are the letters that we have today.

And the reason behind this wasn't because of technology, it wasn't because of smart men got together and found out what's the best way to preserve the literature. It's because men and women literally gave their lives because they were convicted by this truth. So the preservation of this truth came through blood of martyrs, people who gave their lives.

No other historical document, again, whether you are a believer or not, is as accurate as when it was originally written 2,000 years later than the Bible itself. Not even close. There's no other historical things that we believe today that is based upon as much accuracy, as much evidence, than what we have today.

We know this because men and women literally gave their lives in order to preserve the word of God and to preach it for the next generation. I want to introduce to you as we jump into the text, a young lady. I know from that picture you can't really tell how old she is.

She's about 23, 24 years old in that picture. Her name is Ruby Kendrick. She was born in 1883, died in 1908. The reason I have this picture, or I have, is because while we were in Seoul, Korea, we went to one of the churches where they have all the missionaries who labored in Korea the last hundred and some years, were buried here, or at least a lot of them.

This young lady really stands out because she only labored for about nine months out in Korea. Typically, most of the people who are buried here have literally given their lives, their children's lives, and some of them, even their great-grandchildren, continue to stay and labor, and that's why they were buried in the cemetery.

But this young lady was only in Korea for about nine months before she passed away. But the reason why she's there is because she went at such a young age. She wanted to go when she was at the age of 20, right out of college, but they thought that she was too young.

So she had to wait a few more years, and afterwards had to be trained a couple years. And then in 1907, she was finally commissioned, and she went out to Seoul, Korea. And after about nine months, and they don't know exactly what the cause was. Some say that it was just exhaustion and fatigue, but she contracted something, and then she ends up dying.

And in her deathbed, she writes a letter to her fellow students in Texas, and in that letter, as she is facing death, one of the quotes that she says is, "If I had a thousand lives to give," go back to the other one, "If I had a thousand lives to give, Korea should have them all." And so that was written in her letter, and that kind of caused a spark and revival, and many other students ended up coming out to Korea and giving their lives to bring the gospel to Korea.

I wanted to read a letter that she wrote to her mom before this happened, just as an insight as to what was going on. If you can go to the next slide. It says, "Dad, Mom, this land, Chosun," which is what they called Korea at that time, "is truly a beautiful land.

They all resemble God. I see their good heart and zeal for the gospel. I believe that in a few years, it will be a land overflowing with the love of Christ. I saw children walking over ten miles on barefoot to hear the gospel, and the love of God in them encourages me.

But the persecution is getting stronger. Two days ago, three or four of those who have accepted Christ, less than a week, had been dragged away and were martyred. Missionary Thomas and James were also martyred. There were orders from the mission board to return, but most missionaries are in hiding and worshipping with those whom they have shared the gospel with.

It seems that they are all planning to be martyred. Tonight, I have strong desire to return home. I remember you, Mom, who resisted to the last moment of me leaving the port because of the stories of the hate of foreigners in opposition to the gospel. Dad, Mom, perhaps this may be the last letter I will be writing.

The seed that was sown in the backyard before I came out here must be filling our neighborhood with flowers. Another seed bear many flowers in the land of Chosun, and they will be seeds to other nations. I will bury my heart in this land. I realize that this passion for Chosun that I have is not mine, but God's passion towards Chosun.

Mom, Dad, I love you. This was written by a 23, 24-year-old who dedicated her life to a country that she did not know. And she was not martyred, but she was willing to be. And she died young, and as a result of her death, many other young people were willing to pick up their cross and come.

And so the history of Christianity is filled with young people, old people, who have given their lives, shed their blood, in order that they may have the gospel. As encouraging, as challenging as that is, this is not unique to Korea. Two thousand years of church history is filled with people like Ruby, who met Christ and was willing to give their life to get the gospel to the people who did not have it.

Because you and I live in a comfortable country, our natural tendency is to think that God's blessing upon our lives is health. It's good job, children who behave, a good retirement, a nice house, a good marriage. And so all that we do, how we evaluate God's blessing in our life, oftentimes is filtered by what we have accepted as normal.

But two thousand years of church history are filled with people like her. Thousands and tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people who thought that the gospel and Christ was much more precious than their own lives. And so you and I worship here freely because of that. You and I live in a free country and gather together and say we express our love for Christ because people have given their lives to get us to this point.

It's important for us that the calling of Christ is a radical call. We may study Philip and Bartholomew and Peter and Andrew and look at that and say, wow, these guys were men of courage and they did great things. They all died for their faith. And everyone did. Philip, as far as we know, was stoned to death.

Nathaniel was either crucified or was drowned because of the faith. And every single one of them literally gave their lives because they were so convicted. Whether you are a believer or not, one thing that is sure is that they believed it. Even if you don't believe it, there's no way that all of these people would have given their lives if they knew that this was false.

Now they've come up with all kinds of crazy theories of why they might have believed it, which I'm not going to get into today. But we know for a fact that at least they believed it. And it wasn't just them. The next generation believed it. And the generation after them believed it.

And the generation after them believed it. And as a result of that, people gave their lives so that you and I could have the gospel. I want to caution you as we study these men that we don't study these men as we're studying a textbook and look at that and say, "What was it about these people?" It was so crazy, almost kind of like we're studying history.

Like God did some great things with these people, as if we're removed. There's something spectacular about them, something spectacular about her. They must have known something. They must have experienced something that you and I don't know. And as a result, they were willing to give their life. But for the rest of us, God didn't call everybody to missions.

God didn't call everybody. What's wrong with having some wealth? What's wrong with having some fun? And we've made a subcategory of Christianity that doesn't look anything like what we see in Scripture. It's our culture, but it's not Christianity. In fact, the majority of the prejudice against Christianity has nothing to do with Christianity.

It's the culture of Christianity. The culture of Christians, nominal Christians, the majority of the prejudice that they have toward Christianity, at least when I hear it, has nothing to do with genuine Christianity I see in Scripture. In fact, genuine Christians were the ones who gave their life and fed the poor.

They're the ones who established schools. They're the ones who were compassionate. They're the ones who literally went to remote jungles to bring medicine to these people. But today, when you talk to somebody who hates the church and the way that they describe it, a bunch of hypocrites, they're no different, their practice of morality is no different than ours, is not a description of biblical Christianity.

That's a description of a church filled with people who have embraced a subcategory of Christianity that looks nothing like what the Bible teaches. When we look at these men and examine them, I want to highlight three things about their life. One, these men were just ordinary people. They were just ordinary people.

Philip and Nathaniel is only really mentioned in three or four texts, and in that four texts, only one text has any description of Nathaniel. And his name oftentimes is referred to as Bartholomew, if you look at the list. Philip's name simply means a lover of horse. And we look at that and say, was he going to be like some horse whisperer, and is this like some prophecy about what he's going to be doing?

It's like, no, it's just a common name. It doesn't have any significance, meaning behind it. It was just something that a lot of people had. He was just a lover of horse, at least that's what his name means, just like anybody else. Nothing special. Don't confuse him with the deacon, Philip, in Acts 5.

This is the apostle. We know that he's from Bethsaida, and this is where Peter and Andrew was from, so most likely they were friends. And they most likely grew up in the same synagogue, because typically in one area, they would have one synagogue. So we know that Philip, Andrew, and Peter most likely were friends and probably fishermen.

So they were buddies. I don't know if they were of similar age. Nathaniel is mentioned always with Philip. So it looks like they were really close friends, and they were from Cana, which is a few miles away from Bethsaida. And his Hebrew name, Bartholomew, simply means son of Tomai, so nothing special.

Greek name Nathaniel means God has given. Most likely he's a fisherman. Most commentators believe that. And again, there's nothing that stands out about them. There's no education, there's no pedigree. Financially, they're not necessarily significantly wealthy. But what we do know, that out of the 12 disciples, at least seven, possibly eight or nine, are fishermen.

We know at least seven of them were fishermen. Just blue-collar guys who lived generationally catching fish. They weren't experts in anything else. They weren't experts in the law. They're not experts in proselytizing. They're not experts in sacrifice, in finance or politics. They just know how to catch fish. And that's why I remember when Jesus is at the shore and says, "Hey, throw out the net." And remember what the disciples said?

It's like, "We professional fishermen have been fishing all night. We didn't catch anything. And you, a carpenter, is going to tell us. But because it's you, we're going to try it." And they do it, and they realize that Jesus knew what he was talking about. If there's anything that they knew more than anybody else, it was just fishing.

So how does that qualify them to be apostles? What is it about that character? There's nothing about their background that would cause them to stand down and say, "Oh, that's why Jesus chose them." In fact, not only were they just ordinary men, blue-collar workers, they were flawed men. The little that we know about the record that we have of them, it doesn't paint them in a great light.

I mean, they're not necessarily great sinners, but they weren't like giants of faith either. In 1 John 6, 5-7, remember when Jesus is feeding the 5,000? In verse 5, "Therefore Jesus, lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a large crowd was coming to him, said to Philip, 'Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?'" Now I want you to notice that Jesus specifically is addressing Philip.

He's not addressing the whole crowd. He's just addressing Philip. "Philip, where are we going to buy bread, so that these may eat?" Some people believe that maybe Philip was addressed because he was in charge of the food. Judas was in charge of the money, and maybe he was in charge of the food ministry.

And so Jesus specifically targets him. He was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was intending to do. Jesus wasn't asking this question because he was genuinely asking Philip, "Tell me what to do, since you're the master of feeding." No, he was trying to teach him something.

"Philip answered him, 'Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.'" In other words, we don't have enough. Now, Philip's response is a very typical response. I think that's a response that any one of us would give. Years ago, when our church was smaller, one of the benefits of having a small church is that we were able to eat together every Sunday.

Some of you guys, a few of you guys remember that period when we had less than a hundred, or up to maybe about three hundred. We were able to do that every Sunday. We started at a church, like a potluck, and then that got too big. We ended up going to restaurants, so we would shut that down.

Then we used to go to UTC, and our whole church would go there. We got too big, and then people would get irritated because we'd take all the spots. Eventually, we just couldn't eat anymore. Only recently, we've been talking about saying, "Hey, we really missed that period when every Sunday we stayed together and we ate." It's a great time of fellowship, builds community.

Right now, we're hovering right around a thousand, and in order to feed our church requires two, three months of planning. I remember our budget used to be $100 for food to feed the whole church because we didn't have much money. I remember some people who were in charge made pibimbap, and I don't know how they did it with $100.

Then some people made onion sandwich. Depending on who was running it, they were able to use that $100. Now, if we're going to feed our church, it would require a huge chunk of money, thousands of dollars in order to just feed one meal. It has to be a big deal.

We have to prepare way ahead of time, and we need to get tons of people, dozens of people involved. It takes a long time to do this. I can imagine if it's this hard to feed a thousand people, on record, it has 5,000 men, but we know that reality, including women and children, is probably 15,000 to 20,000.

That's the typical number that the commentators would give. When Jesus says, "They didn't bring food. How are we going to feed them?" The natural response of the guy who may be in charge of the food is, "Are you kidding? All year's worth of salary isn't going to be able to feed 20,000 people." I can't imagine if it's this hard feeding 1,000, 20,000 people, all of a sudden, too, with no planning, out in the wilderness.

How is this going to happen? We may say that this is probably a typical, normal response of anybody, except this was not a typical situation. By this time, all the disciples, including Philip, were eyewitnesses. Not from a distance, but they had front row seats to water being turned into wine.

He's already seen Jesus do this before. He healed the official's son. He saw Jesus cast out demons. Peter's mother-in-law being healed. He saw the miraculous catch of fish. He remembered just throwing the net after they couldn't catch all night, and then they bringing in hundreds and hundreds of fish.

Philip was there. He counted. He knew what happened. He was eyewitness to that. Healed a man of leprosy. Healed a paralyzed man. Raised the dead. Healed a hemorrhaging woman. Opened the mouth of a mute man. The scripture says that these are just the things that are recorded. If all that Jesus said and done had been recorded, there wouldn't be enough books to be able to record them.

So, these are only things that are recorded in the book for us. So, Philip was an eyewitness of all of this. So, you would think that when Jesus said, "Well, we have all these people, and what are we going to do?" that his response would have been, "Well, you look at all, remember all that fish?

You don't want to do all that, so this is nothing to you." Instead, he still stuck on his limitation. How is this going to happen? So, Philip is not the strong man of faith where he's like, "Yes, I believe you. You are a sovereign God. I'm going to do whatever you say." Right off the bat, the little that we know of Philip, he was a man of doubting.

He was a flawed man. In fact, in John 14, 8-9, at the end of his ministry, as he is preparing to go to the cross, he told his disciples, "I'm going to go to prepare a place for you." And so, they're starting to freak out. What's going to happen?

And so, Philip's response to him, in verse 8, "Philip said to him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.'" Like, I don't understand what you're saying. You say you're going to disappear. I know that the leaders are after you, but show us the Father. If you can just show us the Father, then we'll be okay with what you're saying.

"And Jesus said to him, 'Have I been so long with you, yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?" Jesus' whole ministry was to show him who he is. That's why, before he goes to the cross, he has that encounter with a disciple.

"Who do men say that I am, but who do you say that I am?" Because that was the whole point of his ministry. Not simply so that they can learn the techniques of going into villages, and eating without money, and how to catch fish. His whole purpose of why he gathered the disciples to himself was to reveal himself to them, so that they can be his witness after he dies and resurrects.

So, knowing that this is at the end of his ministry, and the one thing that he's been training them to do, Philip says, "Show me the Father." Can you imagine the frustration of Jesus? James and John are fighting to see if they can sit on the left or to the right.

Peter basically throws all of his other friends under the bus. "Those guys will all deny you, but not me." Then here's Philip, "Okay, just show us the Father." Can you imagine Jesus' frustration? In fact, Nathanael himself, in John 1.46, said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" When Philip tried to introduce him to Jesus.

Philip said to him, "Come and see." So, Nathanael's first response wasn't a "yes" of faith, it was "Nazareth?" Some think that maybe he was saying this because there was some rivalry between where Nathanael came from. He came from Cana, and maybe Nazareth had some rivalry, like the warriors against Lakers.

Can anything good come out of San Francisco? Some think that that is what's going on, but I don't think that's what's going on. I think the question that he's asking is, the Messiah, the King, the one that's prophesied in the Old Testament? From Nazareth, the temple's not there, that's not the religious center.

There's no education system there. Can anything good come out of nowhere like that? I think that's what he's asking. Because if somebody's going to be of prominence, even if we're selecting president, the president's like, "Okay, what school did he come from? What's his pedigree? What's his background? What's his experience?

What has he done? What company did he run?" That's a question that you may ask if you're going to be the leader of a country. What credentials do you have? And I believe that Nathanael is asking that question. What is his credential? How can the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament come from Nazareth?

There's nothing over there. In fact, even John 7, 3-6, even his brothers didn't believe it. And because they didn't believe it, they said, "Well, if you're going to go and do all these miracles, go to Judea." The epicenter of religious activity, if you're trying to become somebody, because they didn't believe either.

So Philip and Nathanael were flawed men. The literal information that we have, we know that they weren't giants of faith. But what distinguished them and all the other disciples is that they were seekers, genuine seekers. Now, let me distinguish between the way we understand seeker today versus what I believe the Bible talks about, genuine seekers.

In our culture, again, because of, we call the modern day church movement a seeker-friendly movement or church marketing movement, however you call it, the general understanding of a seeker is somebody who just doesn't go to church. They don't go to church, but they want to come to church, so there's a seeker.

But a seeker is not somebody who feels emptiness and wants to find some meaning in life, because that's the whole world. The whole world. They don't have an answer to life, so maybe, maybe there's some answer here. But a seeker is not somebody who doesn't have purpose in life and was looking for purpose.

That doesn't make you a seeker, because you can, there's a lot of people who go to the Buddhists and different religions for that. In fact, part of the reason why the cults are growing so fast in South Korea is because they're seeking for meaning and purpose. Many people end up coming to church because they want to belong somewhere, part of a community.

But according to scripture, that's not a seeker. A seeker is somebody who is specifically looking for Christ. Despite. A genuine seeker will seek Christ despite the consequences. Not for the benefits. See, that's a huge difference from what we understand a seeker is. You can come to church for all the benefits and be a Ian.

If you remember my sermon a couple of weeks ago. A Christless Christian is simply an Ian. Because you enjoy the benefits of Christianity without Christ. A seeker is not somebody who wants to belong somewhere. A seeker is not somebody who wants to be a part of a community and find meaning and purpose and raise our children with morals and do good things and be protected from this sinful world.

That's not a seeker. The majority of the people in the world want that. A seeker is somebody who hungers and thirsts for God. In fact, in many countries, the genuine seekers will come to Christ despite losing their community. Despite the fact that they may lose their job. Despite the fact that they may be stolen going to church.

Those are seekers who are seeking and want Christ and want truth. Not simply the benefits. See, if we look at the text carefully in John 1, 43-45. We see people who are actively seeking. It says in verse 43, "The next day he proposed to go into Galilee and found Philip.

And Jesus said to him, 'Follow me.' Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, 'We have found him, and we have found Moses in the law, and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph.'" The first thing that we find, why I believe they were seekers, is because Jesus runs into them in the wilderness, headed to Galilee.

Now the reason why that's significant is because that's where John the Baptist was doing his ministry. And remember, that's where Andrew was there as his disciple. And so, remember, John the Baptist's ministry, whole ministry, was to prepare for the coming of Christ. And you can imagine that every opportunity he got, he was talking about his older cousin, the Messiah, the King of Israel, he's going to come.

And his primary message was, when he comes, I must decrease and he must increase. He was preparing them for the coming of Christ. He was instilling in them the hunger and thirsting for Christ. And so they were already out there in the wilderness, and when Jesus goes and he finds Philip, and then he recruits Philip, and then Philip brings Nathanael.

So we know, just from that alone, that they were already seeking for him, when Christ found him. A seeker is somebody who wants Christ above everything else. See, the challenge that we have in our culture is that we kind of presented the chocolate, you know, we joke about, like when pastors get together, we joke about that, kind of like, "Oh, you want chocolate?

We have bingsu, we have boba, come to church." And then if we get enough people gathered together, it's like, "Broccoli! Jesus Christ!" Right? Or, "We want to put chocolate-flavored broccoli," so that more people would come. And so our churches are filled with people who are confused. Confused as to who Christ really is.

Because they've come for chocolate, and then when Christ is taught, it doesn't match why they came. A seeker is somebody who has actively, where the Holy Spirit is drawing you to Christ. And so your primary criteria of why you would come to any church is because you have found Christ there.

That you are hearing from Christ. That you are worshiping Christ. You are loving Christ. You are obeying Christ. Not because these people are friendly. Not because they are nice. Not because they're organized a certain way. Not because it's convenient. Not because there's people just like me there. A seeker is somebody who looks for a church because his primary draw to the church is Christ.

And the word "seeker" is not a passive term. It's not somebody who just sits and waits. It's like, "Oh, how come God doesn't show up?" You know, whenever we want something, we really want something, we actively make plans to get it. Or else, you'd be homeless. If you didn't actively look for a job, if you didn't actively get a career, if you didn't actively pursue somebody, you can't get anything.

Even at Costco, if you want to get in the line and they're serving ice cream, like, "Oh, they're serving ice cream today." And then you make sure your cart gets there and find out what row it is in. You know what I mean? You make active plans to get in the line and make sure that you get it.

They have enough of it, so you get there before everybody else gets there. Just something as simple as something that they're giving out free. It's like, "I want to get there." So you are seeking. You are seekers of ice cream, seekers of chips, whatever it is that they're giving.

But you're actively making plans to get there. If you're buying a house, you don't just sit there and say, "I wish somebody would just give me a house." You're saving down payment, seeing if the interest rate is going to go up or down. Is it the right time to buy?

What kind of loans should I get? What area is a good investment? You're genuinely seeking to make the proper decision for all of this. So everything that you do, even if you want to go on a trip, when's the best time to go? When is the ticket the cheapest?

What kind of rewards program? What kind of hotels? And you're actively planning and seeking. But for whatever the reason, when it comes to our faith, we just expect it to happen. So we come to church, it's like, "Nobody's reaching out to me." I come to church and I just say, "Just by showing up, you think it's just going to happen." Why do we become so passive and expect God to show up and move you and feed you and fill you and guide you while you're just passively sitting and waiting?

What does the scripture say? "You will seek me and find me when you search me with all your heart." In other words, once you've made up your mind, and you seek me like you seek everything else in your life that matters to you. So if Christ is my pursuit, how am I seeking him?

How am I seeking him? I mean, whether it's Peter or John or Andrew or James or Philip or Nathaniel, all these people that we've been studying, every single one of them, already left comfort and was seeking. They were looking. And even though Philip says to Nathaniel, "We have found him," the one that the Old Testament has been talking about, "We have found him." When you read it, it says, "No, Jesus found them." But when did he find them?

In the context of them seeking him, he found them. He says, "Once you make up your mind, that Christ is your primary pursuit." And that's the question, right? Is he your primary pursuit or is he a secondary pursuit? Is your primary pursuit your own safety, your own health, your own comfort, your own pleasure, your own retirement?

Is that your primary pursuit? Again, none of these things are necessarily unbiblical. But is it primary? Is it primary? I mean, every single one of us will be willing to sacrifice and not buy certain things because we're seeking to buy a house. We'll sacrifice our pleasure because I need that money to put a down payment on a house.

Or I need to go on a trip, so I'm going to reserve. Or I'm going to lose weight, so I'm going to sacrifice. So every single one of us, whatever it is that we're pursuing, is willing to sacrifice in order to seek that out. But when it comes to Christ, are we just satisfied with wishful thinking?

I wish. I wish God would answer my prayer. I wish I was more lively. I wish I knew the Bible more. I wish. Are we just satisfied with wishful thinking? If there's anything that stands out about any of these disciples that they were actively seekers of God. They sought Christ because Christ was seeking them.

John 6, 44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day." John 15, 16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you, appointing you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give to you." He seeks those who are seeking him.

We seek him because he is seeking us. Not simply passively waiting. In fact, John 1, 47-48, is the only text where we have any information about Nathaniel. And this is the way Jesus describes Nathaniel. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and said to him, "Behold an Israelite, indeed, in whom there is no deceit." There are two descriptions of Nathaniel.

One, he is a true Israelite. And second, he has no deceit. Now, he doesn't just say an Israelite, because obviously they are all Israelites. Every single disciple is an Israelite. Every single Jew, obviously, is an Israelite. Why does he say a true Israelite? What does he mean by that?

Remember when Jacob wrestled and God gave Jacob this name Israel, and from that moment on, all of his descendants were named Israel, Israelite. What is the meaning of that name, Israel, that God gave him, and he named his people this name? Do you remember what the name was? The meaning of that?

The one who contends with God, the one who wrestles with God, the one who is seeking God. Of all the names that he could have chosen for the nation of Israel, think about how many possibilities, every time you name your child, I know some of you guys are like, "Oh, that sounds pretty." Or maybe it's like, "Oh, no one has this name." But you put some thought into it.

Whatever the name is, maybe you went because it was a meaning, or maybe it was some family member, but you put some thought into it. Maybe it may not be biblical, maybe you just like the sound of it, or it's unique, but nobody just kind of like, "Ah, just put up any name." Imagine Christ, God is pursuing this nation, he was going to give his only begotten son through the avenue of these people, and he chooses a name, the one who wrestles with God.

There's a reason for that. It's not because they were perfect, it's not because they were going to do everything right. He says, "These people are going to be wrestling, and seeking, and looking." So when Jesus says of Nathaniel, "Here's a true Israelite," the literal meaning is, "Here's a true man who wrestles, who contends, who desires God." The reason why he says that is that, "Here's a man without deceit," and he said, "Well, how did you know me, Jesus?" Remember what Jesus says here?

"Before I ever met you, I knew you under the fig tree." What does that mean? Now you have to understand at that time, it's not like today, if I want to do quiet time, I go to my room and shut the door, and then, you know, just in silence, I can have quiet time, read the Bible, and pray.

The majority of people at that time lived in one room. It was like a studio. And children, parents, grandparents, may be in the same room. So in order for you to take some time away to pray, you have to go outside and find probably a shaded place, or somewhere, so you can be alone.

I think what Jesus is saying to Nathaniel is all that time that you were contending, and seeking, and praying, underneath that fig tree, "I saw you. I heard you. I knew you." So Jesus describes Nathaniel as one who contends and wrestles, and seeks after God. And that fig tree was where he did a lot of that, underneath that fig tree.

The primary question that we need to ask ourselves, for whatever the reason that we think, "Seekers are the people who come in that don't know Christ, but as soon as we become Christians, we're no longer seekers." We're perseverers. We're preachers. We're leaders. But the primary call of any Christian is to be a seeker.

To seek Christ with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You know, that passage that I read earlier, "You will seek me and find me when you search me with all your heart." The context of that text is God speaking to the nation of Israel, because they are going to be judged.

They're going to be taken into captivity. But he explains why he's doing that. In verse 11, it says, "For I know the plan that I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans for welfare, not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope." The whole reason why you're going into captivity is because you stopped contending.

Because you haven't been seeking. He said, "The calamity is coming, and the reason behind that is so that you may pick that back up again. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you." He said, "The reason why I'm disciplining the nation of Israel is so that you may call upon me again.

That you may seek me again with all your heart." Not just religiously attend, not just give meaningless sacrifices, but that he may stir up in you again a hungering and thirsting for Christ that cannot be quenched with anything else in this world. We look at Philip and Nathaniel, how they're so weak faith.

How can they have questioned Jesus' ability to feed the 5,000 when they've seen so many things of Christ already? We don't need to look at them. Look at the things that we struggle with. How many of you believe in a sovereign God? Don't raise your hand. How many of you believe that that sovereign God who created the universe loves you?

Again, don't raise your hand. How many of you who believe in a sovereign God who is all-powerful, who loves you enough to send his only begotten Son to die for you? If you are a genuine believer, you believe all of that. That you believe that heaven and hell is coming at the end of this journey.

And you believe that God who is sovereign, who loves you, has perfect plan, and has orchestrated all things for his glory, and ultimately for your benefit. And yet, believing, confessing, praising, singing, all of this, as soon as the service is over, we're bitter, angry, anxious, fearful, inconsistent with the things that we profess to believe.

Completely unmatching what you and I already believe. God sometimes places us in those situations because the purpose of your anxiousness is so that you may see Christ. The purpose of why God placed you in a place of fear is so that you may find peace in Christ. The reason why calamity comes upon Christians at times is so that you may call upon Christ again.

All that he does, good and perceivably bad, is so that we may call upon Christ. That we may be true Israel. That we may be true contenders who desire Christ more than anything else. They weren't special men. They weren't gifted men. They were flawed men. But they were men who were seeking Christ above everything else.

If there's anything in our life that we need to get right is this. And even as I was preparing this sermon, I had to wrestle with this the whole time. Yes, I'm preparing sermons and I'm counseling, I'm answering questions and expositing the text and making sure that the gospel is spread in the midst of all of this.

Am I really seeking Christ? Is he my primary pursuit? And I had to recalibrate my own heart. Because if I lose all of that and still have Christ, do I believe that I have everything? Do I believe if I lose everything that I have accumulated, including my family and children, and yet I still have Christ, do I believe that I have everything?

Or, you could have all of this, your wildest dreams come true, everything that you're pursuing comes to fruition. Maybe you're going to win the 1.5 billion dollar lottery. But you don't have Christ. Then I have nothing. Do you believe that? And if you believe that, are you seeking that?

Are you pursuing that? Are you wrestling for that? Are you planning for Christ more than planning for anything else? In John 1, 49 to 51, as Nathaniel encounters Christ, Nathaniel answered him and said, "Rabbi, you are the son of God. "You are the king of Israel." And Nathaniel is the first disciple who professes that.

You are the son of God, the king of Israel. The one who couldn't believe, like how can anybody come from Nazareth? You know who else says something that was first, even though he's known, and we'll talk about him next week, Thomas, the doubter. In Matthew 5, 8, it said, "Blessed are those who are pure in heart, "for they shall see God." Jesus says, "Here's a man with no deceit." It's not because he was sinless, because he was pure in his pursuit for Christ.

And because of that, God opened his eyes to be able to see Christ. I mean this from the bottom of my heart. I am a flawed man. I struggle with temptation. I struggle with fear, with anxiety, concerns, desire to give up. I struggle with all of that, and I have to keep, the benefit of preparing for sermons is I have to let this impact me first.

So I'm constantly being judged by the word of God that I'm preparing to give you. But as I confess this, I also confess the greatest thing that I have ever experienced in my life is the love of Christ. To know that he knows me. To know that he cares for me.

To know that my future is sound and in his hands. That even at times as I wrestle, I constantly recalibrate to the God that I met. So when I'm distracted, when I'm hurt, when I'm discouraged, it reminds me, return to Christ. Go back to Christ. Remember when you met him.

Remember when he was everything to you. Remember when you wanted his approval more than anybody else's. Remember when he was your refuge. Remember all those times you shed tears and only he knew what you were going through. Remember when you were in the church and you were going through.

I'm a flawed man. I struggle with everything that you struggle with. But one thing I am absolutely certain, Christ is the answer. Wherever you are, whatever you're struggling with, whatever you're wrestling with, Christ is the answer. Seek Christ above all. If you have Christ and you have nothing, you have everything.

If you have everything and you don't have Christ, you have nothing. I pray that that would be our honest confession. Let's pray. As our praise team comes up, if I can ask you to just take a few minutes to pray. Prepare your hearts for the communion. And as I ask the leaders to come and open up the communion table, so take some time to pray.

And as I mentioned, that when you come up, you're not worthy to take this table because you didn't sin or you lived a perfect life. We come here because we are weak and feeble people. The table is a reminder to us that only through the blood of Christ that we can have any kind of a relationship with God.

And we're not worthy to take this table because we didn't sin and have any kind of communion with our God. It is a place of celebration. It is a place of mourning. It is a place of rejoicing and thanksgiving. It is a place of repentance. So take some time as we open up the communion table and we ask that when you are ready, that you would come up one by one and please take the elements and go to the side and have a seat.

This is for people who are baptized believers. So if you have not been baptized, we ask that you would wait until that happens. And if you're here just as a seeker, you genuinely want to know who is this God? Again, we ask that you remain in your seat and come and talk to us.

We want to communion with you. We want to answer your questions. We want to support and help you. But again, the communion table is for baptized believers. So we ask that you would stay seated. Let me open for us in 1 Corinthians 11, 23, "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you will proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.'" If you have gluten intolerance, we have on the right side of me. So where Pastor Nate is at. So we ask that you would go to that table because there's elements that you can take on there.

And for the rest of you, whenever you are ready to come. Let me pray for us and then we'll open up the table and then just come as you are ready. Gracious Father, we thank you so much for what this day and what this activity represents. I pray, Father God, that you would instill in us again, recalibrate all our emotions, our pursuits, our desires upon what Christ has done on the cross.

Help us, Lord God, to apply your body that was broken for us and the blood that was shed on our behalf that our life may truly be a reflection of your grace. So I pray, Lord, as we open up this table that you would prepare your church sanctify us.

Let this be a time of celebration, thanksgiving, and genuine worship for the sake of your name. Amen. So whenever you are ready, we ask that you would come to the side and then go down appropriately. (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music)