Broken for Blessing

Scripture: John 6:1-15, 35; Mark 8:5-7

Sermon Title Suggestion: Broken for Blessing: The Dynamics of Multiplication

Intro: Deep gratitude for Radiant church – our "you're not crazy cousin"! You embody shared family values: unwavering commitment to Scripture's authority and the Gospel's centrality, a deep hunger for the Holy Spirit, and a wild hope for revival. You believe God isn't done with California, value elder-led teams, local roots with a global heart, and dream of multiplying churches. This message, drawing from "Broken for Blessing," is to fortify you for your next 20 years of fruitfulness. May this be a fresh, specific word from the Lord for Radiant.

Key Points: 5 Dynamics of Christ's Multiplication (John 6)

1. Life is in the Message, Not the Model (John 6:35): The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the true Bread of Life, is the multiplying power. Church planting models ("baskets") are secondary and will change; the message of Jesus' brokenness for our wholeness is eternal and what truly nourishes. Don't merely become experts in models; remain passionately in love with Jesus and His message. Remember: "My bad... You're good" – this is the Gospel!
2. No Multiplication Without Subtraction (John 6:11): Just as the boy offered his entire lunch, true multiplication demands sacrifice. Jesus will ask us to put our best resources—our time, finances, and even our best leaders—into His hands, sometimes leaving us feeling hungry or stretched for a season so others might be filled. This is vital for a faith legacy that inspires future generations, fighting conservatism and embracing holy risk.
3. Anointed Administration is a Jesus Thing (John 6:10; Mark 6:40): Jesus didn't just perform a miracle; He organized it, having people sit in groups. Effective administration is a spiritual gift, partnering with the prophetic, not opposing it. Radiant, as you grow, don't resist God-given systems and structures that facilitate further healthy multiplication.
4. God's Abundant Provision AND Disruption (John 6:12-13): God always gives back more than we offer (12 baskets full!), but it often returns as "fragments"—raw potential, not always the finished product. This means a life of continual formation, raising new leaders, and embracing the disruption this brings. This keeps the church healthy and reliant on God, not just a few gifted individuals.
5. Disciples Catch a Culture of Multiplication (Mark 8:5-7): After witnessing the feeding of the 5,000, the disciples offered their own loaves for the 4,000. A culture of multiplication is caught. When we see God move and willingly offer our unique "loaves and fish," we participate in His incredible multiplying mission.

Conclusion: Ultimately, multiplying disciples and churches isn't just about growth; it’s about Jesus receiving the reward of His suffering. He, the Lamb that was slain, is worthy because He was wounded for our healing and wholeness.

Call to Action: Today, consider: what are your "loaves and fish"? Is it your time, talent, home, business, or finances? Jesus invites you to freshly place them in His hands. Respond with, "Count me in, Lord. You can count on me." Let's desire that the Lamb receives the full reward of His suffering through us.

Transcript

Alan and Rinal have been such a resource to our church. They're quite the older brother and sister we never had.(...) And along the way, especially as we've grown and face certain challenges, I often... There was a time where I left a staff meeting. I was so perplexed by what I was facing. I left a staff meeting and drove straight to Alan and Brea. So I drove to Los Angeles, washed up on his shores with some questions. "What do you do when you're facing this?" And we've continued to do that for 12 years. Look to them and allow them to kind of guide us. And so they're a couple steps ahead of us and so they've been a huge resource to us and just dear friends.(...) So we invited them to come. There's a message in particular that Alan Carries that we feel like is for us and the elders and deacons at Radiant Tulare actually watched this and were just moved. And so we were unanimous. We agreed. Let's come together and let's ask Alan to impart something to us at our 20th anniversary. So would you join me in blessing him and blessing Southlands and all that he's leading?(...) Jesus,(...) I'm grateful, just deeply grateful for my friendship with Alan and I'm thankful for the ways that you provide for your church through people.(...) We do ask Lord as Southlands gathers this morning and churches that Alan oversees just that your hand would be upon them. We pray for favor in the days ahead and just that you would fill them up as they're here with us.(...) And everyone said, "Amen."(...) Thanks Trav.(...) Am I on? 

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 Good morning.(...) Absolute delight to be with you in this amazing family celebration, family reunion.(...) I'm glad I got the memo about the striped shirt.(...) Thanks Mark. 

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 And I just before I start preaching I want to give a brief thanks to you.(...) You know at family reunions there's always the the crazy cousin that you're not sure if you want to be associated with that cousin.(...) But then there's another kind of cousin at family reunions and it's what I call the you're not crazy cousin. And the you're not crazy cousin is exact opposite from the crazy cousin.(...) It's the cousin who actually is carrying the family values, living them out in a unique way and causing you to go, "Man, our family values actually work."(...) And I want to say from the bottom of our hearts, you are our you're not crazy cousin. 

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 Rinal and I often say we don't know of another church in California that's more similar to Southlands than radiant.(...) And we're not exactly the same but we're crazy enough to believe that Jesus builds his church with a deep commitment to the authority over the Scriptures and the centrality of the gospel. But that Jesus also builds his church with a hunger for the Holy Spirit and a wild hope for revival.(...) That that's crazy enough to believe that God's not done with California.(...) I remember in the middle of crazy 2020 some of you open up your farmhouses for some of our pastors and it was a sanctuary, thank you so much. And then we began to dream because many of our friends were leaving for safer and more conservative and cheaper states.(...) And we just went we get that but God's not done with California. Let's have a moment and we we gathered in your backyard with that California calling. Any of you there for that? And I want to tell you for us and the churches we work with, it was a moment of fortifying grace. And we're like we're not crazy. You're also a church that's crazy enough to believe that God builds his church with elder shepherds in teams led by not CEOs but first among equals with teams of deacons, servant leaders. And when we see it working it fortifies us to keep working that.(...) You're crazy enough to have a local rootedness but a global heart and that fortifies us in the same way.(...) Crazy enough to send people and be part of this global apostolic family and not to have necessarily a one mega church dream but actually a multiplying church dream and I want to say thank you. You're the you're not crazy cousin.(...) And so I hope to come and fortify you on your journey.(...) I spent nine years putting together a thesis, master's thesis about multiplying gospel-centered spirit empowered churches on mission and that was distilled into a book called Broken for Blessing and I just want to say to you I've preached this many times but in prayer I've been saying Lord I don't want to just microwave a message. Won't you just ignite this message for radiant as a people that it lands with them. There's some universal truths here in the Gospels but that it lands with them and they say we can own this. This is a word from the Lord for us. Is that alright?(...) I hope it's going to be alright.(...) We have not known anything other than leading multiplying churches. My wife and I are childhood sweethearts grew up in Durban, South Africa and in our first year of marriage moved to a little church in a school hall. 50 people that had a vision to plant churches around the world.(...) Seven years later we moved on to the next church but by then this little church had planted a church in Botswana,(...) in Zululand, in Pasadena and was soon to plant another church in Scotland.(...) That's all we've known.(...) 2007 we came to Southlands and it was a church that had multiplied 12 times in 14 years.(...) It was a medium-sized church, very fruitful church and like any mom that's had 12 babies in 14 years very tired,(...) exhausted.(...) And there was something of our hearts to say, "Lord we've got to find a sustainable way of multiplying." So we pressed pause for three years because we were a church that was winning its away games but losing its home games and we wanted to be a team that won away and home games and so we were like what is it to win the home game, to make disciples of Jesus in Brea, California and to get out of debt and to just love our city etc etc and God began to grow us to health and then 2013 we felt a release to start planting again and we're about to plant our ninth church in the last 15 years.(...) Churches for us, thank you,(...) churches for us are not notches on the belt.(...) They are not pins on a map.(...) We multiply churches and I know you do too because we honestly believe it's the most effective way of fulfilling the Great Commission.(...) Ed Stetser,(...) President of LifeWay Research and now Dean of Talbot Seminary at Biola said this, "In winning new converts to Christ, church plants are light years ahead of the average church because of their focus on reaching the unchurched.(...) Healthy new churches have an outward focus from day one communicating every month that the goal is to be a multiplying church." This is our why,(...) this is our why and I believe this is your why. The how changes over years. We've done multi-site, multi-congregational, autonomous, missional church plants. The how changes but the why remains the same. 

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 The gospel must be embodied by a community of Christ lovers and Christ followers and make no mistake multiplication is a wild ride.(...) Like you we've had to close down a church and that is a grievous thing and yet as we closed down one we planted another and we've seen God grow some of our plants to way beyond what we are, Southland's Brea in Southern California and some are small and some are large, we don't moralize size but we've seen that these are magnificent disciple making communities of faith.(...) I want to ask you this morning at your 20th anniversary as you've been incredibly fruitful as a multiplying church and you stand and your elders have asked me to say encourage us and catalyze us for the next 20 years of church planting.(...) Let's do it again. What does that look like? About 10 years ago we sat with a father figure called Terry Virgo, many of you would know him and one of the American church planters said, "Terry what's the difference between a British church planter and an American church planter?"(...) He stroked his chin and said, "Well you know Americans especially Californians are so creative,(...) so innovative,(...) we're learning so much from you in terms of new ways and new techniques, new systems." But he said, "You know us Brits, we are sons and daughters of Churchill, we will never, we will never, we will never give up."(...) He said, "I think that we've learned a resilience that perhaps you could learn from."(...) And I want to ask what is it to be resilient in multiplication and the words of Eugene Peterson a long obedience in the same direction? What does that look like? And I want us to open John chapter 6 because this passage more than any other has helped us to not give up on multiplying churches. And some of you are saying, "Well I'm not a church planter, this doesn't apply to me." The life of the Christian is a life of multiplication.(...) And so these dynamics apply to multiplying disciples, multiplying leaders, multiplying businesses, multiplying ministries and churches. These are the dynamics of Christ multiplying. And it's a very well worn text. Jesus feeds the 5,000. I'm gonna ask that we don't glaze over with familiarity. After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, John 6.1, which is the Sea of Tiberius and a large crowd was following Him because they saw the signs that He was doing on the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and there He sat with His disciples. Now the Passover, the Feast of the Jews was at hand. Lifting up His eyes then and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward Him, Jesus said, "Philip, where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?" He said this to test Him for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little." And one of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother said to Him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?"(...) Jesus said, "Have the people sit down."(...) Now there was much grass in the place so the men sat down about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves and when He had given thanks He distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.(...) And when they had eaten their fill He told His disciples, "Gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost." So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.(...) When the people saw the sign that He had done they said, "This indeed is the prophet who is to come into the world."(...) And perceiving then that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him King, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by Himself. And then verse 35, "Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life.(...) Whoever comes to Me shall not hunger and whoever believes in Me shall not thirst." This is the Word of the Lord, amen.(...) Whenever I read this account,(...) Jesus multiplying bread and fish to the thousands, I can smell the play dough in our Sunday school classroom.(...) And I can see the pictures on our flannel board walls.(...) And I can hear my Sunday school teacher ask me the question, "What would you do if Jesus asked you for your lunch?"(...) That's an important question. What would you do if Jesus asked you for your lunch? So Jesus performs this multiplying miracle of great magnitude with bread and fish from a boy to feed 5,000 people. Commentators say it was more like 20,000 because they counted the men.(...) So with women and children about 20,000. With 12 baskets full of fragments.(...) And the miracle of course was not just a miracle, it was a sign. The Gospel of John is full of signs. In fact at the end of the Gospel of John, John says, "Jesus did many other miracles that were not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that by believing you might have life in His name."(...) This was not just a miracle, it was a sign. It was a sign pointing to the fact that Jesus is the bread of life. And His body would be broken to satisfy the souls of billions.(...) And what's fantastic about this is as Jesus gave thanks as He broke the bread, the word is Eucharistasis, which in the Greek means Eucharist. In other words, Jesus was preshadowing, foreshadowing billions of people breaking bread and drinking wine, remembering the body of Christ broken for them. This miracle filled hungry stomachs, but that miracle would fill hungry souls for thousands of years, billions of people. So this was a sacred moment.(...) And the miracle has become something of a parable of multiplication.(...) Five dynamics of multiplication. Firstly, that the life of any multiplication is in the message, not the model. Life is in the message, not the model. This is why I took us to verse 35. In fact,(...) more verses are given to the significance of the sign than the actual miracle. And Jesus is saying, "You came to me so that I could fill your stomachs, but I am the bread of heaven. Come down to fill your salts." In fact, at the end the crowd went from 5,000 to 12 because He said, "Unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you have no life in you."(...) This was an invitation. The sign was pointing to the deeper reality that Christ came.(...) His wounds, His brokenness would make us whole. Amen? And beloved, in your multiplying of disciples, of ministries, of leaders, and of churches, please never forget that while Jesus had a model, He had a model. He had baskets. He had people sit in groups of 50s and 100s. He had a model. But the model was not the multiplying power. It was Jesus' voice Himself, His multiplying power, that actually caused the miracle.(...) Over decades I found myself invited into church planning conferences. At first I had FOMO if I wasn't invited.(...) Now I have, not the fear of missing out, I have phobia, the fear of being invited.(...) I'm telling you because it's often just the same thing. People with their new cool basket, this model, our new way.(...) And man, if you get this right, you'll multiply a thousand of churches and that's not the gospel.(...) The gospel is the very voice of Jesus, the Word of God, the message of the cross. That is the power. That is what we're not ashamed of.(...) And to our shame, it took us until about 15 years ago for a man from Kenya called Michael Eaton to come and hang with us for a week. And he said at the end of the week, he said, "You know what, you guys are experts at your model of church planning and you are novices at the message of Christ."(...) And it was this gut punch because we realized if you cut us, we would talk about prayer meetings and gifts of the Spirit and leaders and teams and apostles and prophets and I'm passionate about all that stuff. But that's a model. That's not the message of Christ.(...) That flows out of the message of Christ.(...) And I simply want to ask you in your next 10 to 20 years as God catalyzes you on a multiplying journey, if you get cut open, can you bleed passion for the man Jesus and the message of the gospel? Because the basket will change. Your basket of multiplying right now is cool. In a few years time, it'll wear out.(...) Have you ever tried to eat a basket?(...) Not very nourishing.(...) But actually the baskets will have to change. It's the bread of life that will always fill your souls.(...) In the last 15 years, we've asked Lord Jesus,(...) as the basket of multiplying changes, help us to remain faithful and committed and passionate for you and your presence and your message. And you are that radiant, but I'm asking that you would never grow tired of the bread.(...) That you would always lead with the bread. That you would keep on asking Jesus to reveal more depths of the beauty of the gospel.(...) We're playing softball in a moment and on our gospel journey, wiffle ball, softball, whatever, we arrived 18 years ago from South Africa and I thought I've got to pick up an American sport.(...) And so I joined a softball team.(...) Quite kind of weird, you know, it's like not throwing, just like whirly thing.(...) And it wasn't a great team, but it was a good team dynamics. And whenever someone would miss the ball or miss a catch, the guy would say, "My bad."(...) It's like, "What is going on? My bad." And then the team would say, "You're good."(...) I'm just going, "You're good. You're not good. You just missed the catch." 

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 So eventually I go to the captain, I say, "What is this? My bad. You're good." And he says, "Well, when someone says my bad, it's, it's, they are admitting fault. My fault. I got it wrong." I was like, "Okay, well, that's great, but why don't this team then say, "You're good?" Because the guy's not good, he's useless."(...) And he says, "No, no, no. When they say, "You're good," they're not saying, "You're good." They're actually saying, "It's good. It's, it's forgiven. We forgive you."(...) And I went to the captain, I said, "Dude, do you know that is the gospel?(...) That is the gospel when we are able to accept fault. My bad. We're not blaming anyone else. That was my fault."(...) Then God actually says to us, "You're good." 

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 But when he says, "You're good," he's not actually saying, "You're good." He's saying, "It's good because my perfectly good son gives you his perfect goodness and takes your broken badness. That is the gospel. That is justification. That is righteousness." I mean, the captain got a little gospel message he was never expected. But I want to say, "Beloved, that is the life at the heart of multiplication. Don't become experts of the model.(...) Become passionate and remain passionate about Jesus and his message. Secondly, there is no multiplication without subtraction.(...) There's no multiplication without subtraction. Whether we talk in community groups, ministries, businesses,(...) disciples, or churches. Verse 11, "Jesus took the loaves and fish, gave thanks for them, broke them, and distributed them to the crowd." So a little boy gives up his bread and fish. And I've just got questions about this because I want to know how willingly he gave it.(...) The Bible doesn't actually say he gave it. The Bible says Jesus took them. 

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 (Laughter) 

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 We know Andrew found the boy, but was there kind of a bread tug of war going on? 

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 And why a little boy? Why someone who had no replenishing resources? 

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 And even more, why his whole lunch?(...) I mean, for heaven's sake, if Jesus had multiplying power to take five and two and make it five thousand, why couldn't you have just said, "One fish, one loaf will do, buddy."(...) See, for me, this is the rub in this passage. For some reason, Jesus was okay 

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 with invading the margins, the resources of a little boy, and leaving him hungry for what must have seemed like a long time before he got any of the bread himself. That is the heart 

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 of multiplication. That Jesus wants every single one of us to put our bread in his hands. 

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 And actually, we know he's good, and we know he's generous. In fact, we know he's abundantly generous, but he is okay to leave us hungry for what might seem like a long time that others might be filled. There is no multiplication without subtraction.(...) And everyone wants to be part of the multiplying miracle, but not so many people want to actually be part of the subtraction, because that is painful.(...) And I don't know about you, but as I get older, as our church matures, I like resource margins.(...) Who knew that this guy would rarely enjoy saving money? I do. 

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 I love big leadership teams. I love big volunteer teams. I love a big room full of people. But because Jesus has invited me and our church into his multiplying miracle, he's saying, "Can I invade your margins, please?"(...) And I understand the tug of war. 

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 We are about to sow a son and daughter up into Portland, Oregon next month. They arrived as(...) Biola students 15 years ago.(...) I married them.(...) They joined our leadership team eight years ago. He is our best preacher.(...) And now we're putting our bread in the master's hands, and I'm feeling hungry.(...) And I know, radiant, you have experienced that time and time again, because you've done the same. And I just want to say, you are in good company. You're in good company with this boy.(...) As a church grows,(...) so should its margins grow.(...) Jesus is not against margins. He's simply asking, "Can I invade them for the sake of multiplying?" 

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 There's a startling stat,(...) also from Ed Stetzer, that says only 1% of American churches that are under a thousand ever multiply, because they're all waiting to grow big.(...) One day when we grow big, we'll multiply.(...) But actually, Jesus did not wait until this boy grew big.(...) Sometimes he's had to prize open our hands.(...) But now we have muscle memory, because we've seen what God does as we send some of our best.(...) Send resources,(...) financial resources, ministry resources, leadership resources, and see other people being filled. It is worth it, radiant.(...) I want to I want to implore you,(...) beyond thinking about multiplication, 

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 but thinking about a faith legacy that goes to the next generation. 

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 Gen Z is looking for a faith with risk. And if the gospel is to go beyond Gen Z,(...) especially those of you who are more mature seasoned saints,(...) you and I are going to have to fight the spirit of jadedness, and the spirit of conservatism, the spirit of sitting in the back of our seats and saying, I've seen this. I used to be radical, but man, now I'm just a pillar in the house of God. 

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 And I want to say the house of God needs pillars, but the house of God needs those pillars somehow to move forward too.(...) And I want to ask you to live out of faith that has the next generations sitting on the edge of their seats, saying this would make no sense unless Jesus had been raised from the dead.(...) There must be something about your life individually in your families and your life together that would make no sense unless Jesus had been raised from the dead.(...) I'm not saying that you don't give yourself to wise practices, but this was a risk.(...) And I believe every single one of us sitting here, God wants us in moments where you go, God, here it is. Here are my resources. Here's my finances. Here's my time. Here's my gifting. Here's my living room. Here's my fridge. Here's my family. Here's my planet. Here we go, Lord. It's in your hands. Well, you got to come through, man. I'm like, whoa, God, please. You got to come through. 

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 A church that passes the baton of faith down from generation to generation must have risk about it. 

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 Don't become risk averse as you go more mature. 

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 There's no multiplication without subtraction. Very simply, having a lasting multiplication vision is a willingness to have less resources and less margins for the sake of others. Are you willing? Third,(...) and this is a fun one,(...) administration,(...) anointed administration is a Jesus thing. 

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 And this might seem a counterpoint to the first point, but in verse 10 it says, "He made them sit down on the grass in small groups."(...) In Mark 6, verse 40 of the same(...) passage, same account, it says, "He made them sit down in groups of hundreds and fifties." We love that Jesus had multiplying power. We love the significance of this miracle, but do we believe that Jesus had an administration plan?(...) It's an amazing thing to think that the same voice 

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 that blessed and brought this multiplying miracle also told people to sit on the grass in groups of 50 and 100.(...) He is committed to administration.(...) Do we have a category for the spiritual gift of administration?(...) He had an appropriate plan. He had a distribution plan, baskets.(...) He had a seating arrangement, a wise collection plan. He even had a fundraising plan. Go and find a boy.(...) It was a plan. It worked.(...) Very often in churches like yours and mine, where we have a high view of the prophetic, we will have a low view of administration.(...) And I want to ask you, don't play those two off against each other.(...) Romans 12 has the spiritual gift of prophecy and the spiritual gift of administration, and they partner together. I want to say, I want to be a little cheeky. Radiant, you are no longer 

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 an indie garage band playing in your parents' basement.(...) You are no longer that. There's something beautiful about the radiant dynamic in that it is self-effacing. It's humble.(...) It's not trying to be flash.(...) And actually, Treventiff embodied that. You know how they say that the way you play golf is the way you do life.(...) I played golf with Treventiff a few months ago,(...) and he arrived 20 minutes late.(...) And he arrived in his orange, whatever that thing is, that(...) beautiful monstrous bus, because it had broken down. But also, he'd had a pastoral visit on the way that he'd had to make, and he had to borrow golf clubs. And so I was waiting on the tea, dressed to the nines with my new clubs, and I arrived, and I was like, this guy is a mess. He's going to embarrass me on the course.(...) And he proceeded to beat my butt. 

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 He's this like self-effacing genius who looks like he's going to mess up the course, and then he beat me by 10 shots.(...) And that's a beautiful thing, and you kind of embody that. You've got this like, well, we just don't know what we're doing, but you're knocking it out the park. And I want to say that there's something beautiful about the humble rootedness of that. Don't lose that, but also don't resist the spiritual gift of administration,(...) because if God is going to multiply you, you're going to have to get some systems, 

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 and you're going to have to all cooperate with the systems. And the more seasoned saints can't just go, well, that's not the way we did it. I remember like Jared said when we were in that like little room and it's smell of gasoline and anointing oil.(...) I mean, that's cool, but that's not you now.(...) And somehow you need to trust God that he can keep the uniqueness of who you are, but actually grow you as a people with an administration plan.(...) Fourthly, in doing God's abundant provision and disruption.(...) I want to focus for a moment as we start to land, preachers love to say that, as we start to land. 

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 That actually not only were 5,000 people fed, but there was an abundance left over.(...) 12 basketfuls of fragments left over. What does that talk about? It means we can't outgive God.(...) What we put in his hands, he will multiply abundantly.(...) But I want us to hear this word that is repeated three times in John 6, and it is the word fragments. Can you say that word? 

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 Fragments. Fragments. Verse 12, they gathered up 12 baskets full of fragments of barley loaves. 

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 No fish left. You know, they were obviously doing the keto or something, you know, they love the fish, not so much.(...) The carbs.(...) But the beauty of this miracle is that Jesus gives an abundance back. "More than was given, he gave back." Isn't that beautiful? That's the assurance as we put our resources into his hands, we cannot outgive him.(...) But this word fragments, we have to see it. Because he has the problem with multiplication.(...) They were given a feast of fragments like breadcrumbs. Have you ever watched Mary Poppins feed the birds, tuppence a bag?(...) Breadcrumbs. 

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 And you can imagine these disciples going, I mean, we sowed something that was whole, aloof, and we got fragments back.(...) He has the truth here. 

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 That multiplication means abundant provision, but also abundant disruption. 

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 What we as a church have put in Jesus' hands has been returned more than we anticipated. 

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 We've sowed dollars and we've got whole buildings back. You will too. 

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 You sow one rarely formed, gifted preacher and you get five hungry preaching interns back. 

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 You sow your best worship leader and you get four rarely gifted rookies back. 

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 The life of fragments is a life of formation.(...) You never stop forming because you actually are often sowing what is more fully there and you're getting back what is raw that needs to be formed. If you are going to be faithful over the long call with multiplication, it means you will never stop raising up leaders and you will never stop taking risks.(...) And you know the beautiful thing about that is it doesn't just bless those that you send your best to, it actually keeps you healthy at the sending base because people don't get overly reliant on the most gifted person in the room. And they're willing to have other leaders come through because you're willing to take risks. And people that were sitting on the bench get on the field of play. This couple that we're sending up to Portland, Oregon, I mean they are almost, is anyone the finished product? No, but they're almost the finished product.(...) And when we announced it a month ago, one of the guys that's been in the church for 20 years came and said, you know what, that guy's indispensable. You're missing it. We can't do without that guy.(...) And I said to him, look, I get it. I feel that in my weaker moments too. I feel that, oh my gosh, what are we going to do without him?(...) But I said, you know what, I remember the very first time 10 years ago when I had him preach and this guy who's apparently indispensable, you came and complained.(...) You said he's too young.(...) He's too opinionated. He doesn't have experience in life. And now apparently he's indispensable.(...) So I want to tell you what, we're going to send him because he's not indispensable and we'll take a bunch of risks on a bunch of other raw preachers and you'll complain and in 10 years they'll be indispensable again. 

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 That is the life of a multiplying church.(...) Fragments means you'll always be forming(...) leaders and the degree to which we are willing for Jesus to disrupt our normal 

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 is the degree to which we will multiply.(...) Finally, as I land, disciples can catch a culture of multiplication. I love the fact that after the feeding of the 5,000 there's the feeding of the 4,000. Not quite as spectacular but still grand.(...) And this time in Mark 8, Jesus said to his disciples, "Boys, how many loaves do you have?" And the disciples said,(...) "Seven."(...) Jesus must have just smiled and said, "Yeah, the boys are catching on." Before they're like, "Well, we have nothing. We could never feed this crowd. Let's find a boy."(...) But after they'd seen Jesus multiplying miracle, now they wanted to be on board. I want to put my loaves in Jesus' hands. 

 (...) 

 And we have seen that. People are going, "I don't have enough. Beloved, none of us, even the most gifted, even the most wealthy, none of us have enough.(...) But Jesus is saying, "What you have will you place in my hands for the feeding of the multitudes?"(...) And I want to pray that you would be caught up today, freshly, in Jesus'(...) multiplying mission.(...) What are your loaves and fish? Is it your time?(...) Is it your talent? Is it your home?(...) Is it your business?(...) Is it your finances?(...) Jesus is worthy. We are stewards.(...) He is the owner. He is worthy.(...) But there's something compelling, enthralling(...) about being a part of his multiplying miracle.(...) And today's a day to say, "Count me in and you can count on me." 

 (...) 

 I've been so taken with the Moravians who had a 100-year prayer meeting praying for God to revive them in Europe.(...) God visited them by the Spirit.(...) But then God began to commission them 

 (...) 

 to go and reach people who had been unreached.(...) And stories are told of the Moravians sending off missionaries who would sell themselves into slavery to reach slave colonies in Barbados. And as these slave ships would leave the Shor's, 

 (...) 

 they would shout this encouragement to one another. "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering." 

 (...) 

 Beloved, there is a great reward in multiplying. But actually multiplying ultimately is Jesus receiving His reward for being broken for us.(...) There is only one God who was wounded for our healing. 

 (...) 

 As Edward Shalito said,(...) "The other gods were strong, but Christ was weak.(...) They rode, but Christ stumbled to a throne. 

 (...) 

 And to our wounds only Jesus' wounds can speak, and not a God has wounds but Him alone."(...) Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are the worthy one because you are the wounded one. 

 (...) 

 We thank you that you were broken for wholeness. 

 (...) 

 Your blood was shed for forgiveness.(...) And we thank you that you include us 

 (...) 

 in this breaking and multiplying.(...) And I want to say thank you that you have blessed and broken so many here, so many have given themselves in such amazing ways. But in this invitation to do it again, I pray that you would be seen again as worthy, worthy of all we have, and that we would freshly place our bread in your hands. And everyone said,(...) Amen.