SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 2025

I have uploaded the notes for today and a short 5-day devotional for you. 

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The Most Important Question

Personal Notes  Bible Study • Praise Chapel

 

This week, take some time to work through this study on your own.  Read each passage slowly, out of your own Bible if you can. Let the questions sit with you. You do not have to rush. The goal is not to finish fast, but to let God speak to your heart about how you follow Him.

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Where We Begin: A Question Worth Examining

 

Not long ago, someone came to me with a question. Really, it had been asked of a friend first, who then brought it to me. The question was this: “What is the benefit of being part of Praise Chapel?”

If a first-time visitor had asked it, I would understand. But this was not a stranger. This was someone who had been walking with the Lord a long time. And still, the question on his heart was, “What do I get out of this? What is in it for me?”

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Here is why that question is worth examining. It is the language of our culture. We are trained to think like consumers about almost everything. What do I get? What does it cost? Is this meeting my needs? And without realizing it, we can start approaching God and His church in the very same way.

But what Jesus offers is so much bigger than a few benefits. In fact, the whole story we are about to read shows us that the question “What is the benefit for me?” is not the most important question at all. There is a better one. Let’s find it together.

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Start by reading the story slowly:

 

John 6:5–15 (NLT)  —  Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. … When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!” When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself.

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Jesus fed thousands of people from a boy’s small lunch. It was an amazing miracle. But notice what happened the moment their stomachs were full: they wanted to make Him king by force. And Jesus quietly slipped away. He knew something about that crowd that we are about to see.

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For Reflection

1.  Be honest with yourself. In what areas of your walk with God do you tend to ask, “What do I get out of this?”

2.  The crowd wanted Jesus for what He could give them. Why do you think Jesus walked away instead of enjoying that popularity?

 

1. Following the Lord, Not the Loaves

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The next morning, the crowd hunted Jesus down. They got into boats and chased Him across the lake. If we saw a crowd that hungry to be near Jesus, we would call it revival. We would be thrilled at the momentum. But Jesus looked deeper, and He told them the truth about their own hearts.

 

John 6:26 (NIV)  —  Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

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You are not here for Me, He says. You are here for the bread. You ate, you were full, and now you have come back for more. He gently exposed the truth: they were following the free food, not the Lord who gave it.

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Then Jesus did something that no crowd-pleaser would ever do. Instead of making it easier for them to stay, He made the teaching harder. He began to speak about total dependence on Him, about a commitment that a free-lunch crowd was not ready to hear. He was not trying to hold on to the crowd. He was looking for the true disciples hidden inside the crowd.

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John 6:66 (NIV)  —  From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

The numbers dropped in a single afternoon. And notice: Jesus did not chase them. He ran no campaign to win them back. He let the ones who only wanted benefits walk away. Then He turned to the twelve who remained and asked them the most honest question:

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John 6:67–68 (NIV)  —  You do not want to leave too, do you? … Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

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Do you hear the difference between the crowd and Peter? The crowd asked, in effect, “What is the benefit?” But Peter asked, “Where else would I possibly go?” The crowd measured Jesus by what He handed out. Peter measured everything else in life by Jesus. One followed the loaves. The other followed the Lord.

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For Reflection

1.  Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” Have you ever reached a point where you knew there was nowhere else to turn but Jesus? What was that like?

2.  Sometimes following Jesus gets harder, not easier. When the teaching or the cost gets difficult, what tempts you to “turn back”?

3.  What would it look like this week to follow the Lord Himself, and not just the good things He gives you?

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2. Losing Your Life, Finding Everything

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We should be careful not to hear all of this as only a scolding, as if Jesus were against blessing or reward. He is not. Jesus had no problem with the crowd wanting something. The problem was how small a something they were willing to settle for. They wanted bread for a day. He was offering Himself. They wanted a full stomach. He was offering the words of eternal life.

 

Here is the surprising truth about the Kingdom of God: it does not work by grabbing and keeping. It works by laying down and giving away.

 

Matthew 16:25 (NIV)  —  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

 

The person who clutches his life tightly ends up losing it. The person who gives his life away for Christ finds a life he never could have bought. That is why “What is the benefit for me?” is a backwards question. It only asks what flows toward me. But Jesus does not deny that there is a return:

 

Matthew 19:29 (NLT)  —  And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will have eternal life.

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A hundred times over. So Jesus is not against gain at all. He is against how small the thing we were asking for was. We were bargaining for crumbs while He held out a feast.
 

Think of the rich young man who came to Jesus:

 

Matthew 19:21–22 (ESV)  —  Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Jesus held out a hundredfold and eternal life. And the young man walked away sad, because he could not let go of the one thing standing between him and everything: himself.

For Reflection
 

1.  Jesus said we find life by losing it for His sake. What is one area where you are still holding on tightly, trying to “save” your own life?

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2.  The rich young man walked away sad. What do you think he was really unwilling to give up? Is there anything like that in your own heart?

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3.  Where in your life might God be offering you something far bigger than what you have been asking Him for?

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3. Building for Something Better

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None of us came into this world to be a consumer. You were made for something far greater than the benefit-seeker will ever taste. Let’s look at four things God made you for.

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A Mission.

The church of Jesus Christ lives by mission the way your body lives by blood. Take the mission out, and no amount of programs, buildings, or comforts will keep it alive. Mission is the fuel for the fire of God. This is the very heart of revival. And God has placed something inside you that a comfortable, consuming life can never satisfy. You were built to rise to a challenge, to give yourself to something bigger than your own comfort. Listen to Paul, after all he had suffered:

 

Acts 15:36 (NKJV)  —  Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.

“Let us go again.” Paul could not rest while there was still one more city that had not heard. That restlessness is the Spirit of God moving in a surrendered person.

 

Serving.

On the night before He went to the cross, Jesus did the strangest thing. He wrapped a towel around His waist and washed the feet of His disciples — a job so lowly it was normally left to a servant.

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John 13:14–15 (ESV)  —  If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.

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The consumer walks into church and says, “Feed me. Bless me. Meet my needs.” But the disciple walks in and says what Paul said his whole life long: “I am a servant reporting for duty. Give me a job to do, because that is who I am.”

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There is a beautiful picture of this at the end of Paul’s letter to the Romans. After eleven chapters of deep teaching, Paul spent his final words naming and honoring the people who had served. One of them was a woman named Mary:

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Romans 16:6 (NLT)  —  Give my greetings to Mary, who has worked so hard for your benefit.

There is that word again — benefit. The man in our opening wanted the benefit for himself. But Mary is remembered forever because she worked hard for someone else’s benefit. One person wanted to receive a benefit. The other spent herself being one. Her whole legacy in the Bible is simply that she worked hard — and it has outlasted the Roman Empire, its emperors, and its kings.

 

The one who stops consuming and starts serving finds the very thing the consumer was hunting for and never found: joy.

 

Because you were not designed to be filled up. You were designed to be poured out.

 

Destiny.

God has a destiny on your life, and it is far too big to be measured by what you get out of it. Think of the missionaries of long ago, who sailed for lands they had never seen, knowing many of them would never return. They took their families. Some even packed their belongings in coffins, expecting to bury their own children in that far-off soil. And they went anyway — because obedience to God was worth more to them than life itself.

 

On an ancient wall in Jerusalem, someone long ago scratched a little drawing of a boat, and under it two Latin words: Domine Ivimus — “Lord, we went.”

 

Two thousand years later, we are still reading the trail they left. That is what a life looks like when it stops asking “What is in it for me?” and starts asking “Where do You want to send me?”

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Reward.

And yes — there is reward. Do not let anyone tell you that the surrendered life is a life without reward. Jesus promised that the Father who sees what you do in secret will reward you.

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1 Corinthians 15:58 (NLT)  —  So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

Nothing you do for the Lord is ever wasted. This is not just a nice thought — it is a promise God has bound Himself to:

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Hebrews 6:10 (NKJV)  —  For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

 

God is not unjust. He does not forget. And He tells us where to store what really lasts:

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Matthew 6:19–20 (NLT)  —  Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.

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The consumer stores up benefits that rot away. The servant stores up treasure that lasts forever. So which is the wiser one — the one asking what he can get today, or the one laying up a reward that will outlast the sun?

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For Reflection

1.  Of the four — Mission, Serving, Destiny, Reward — which one stirs something in your heart right now? Why that one?

2.  Mary is remembered because she “worked so hard” for others. If someone described your life in one sentence, what would you want it to say?

3.  Where is one place — in your home, your church, or your community — that God may be inviting you to serve or to “go” this season?

 

Your Response: Ask the Better Question

 

So let’s come back to where we started. A man wanted to know what the benefit was. And the honest answer is that he was asking a question too small for what God is holding out to him.

 

The crowd in John 6 asked for bread and walked right past the Bread of Life. Let’s not be that crowd. There is a moment in that chapter when the crowd is leaving in droves, and Jesus turns to the ones He loves and asks, “Do you also want to leave?” I believe He is still asking it today. When the teaching gets hard, when the cost gets real, when the benefits are not clear — will you also walk away?

 

Let your heart answer with Peter:

 

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

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And remember this promise. God is not unjust. He will never forget your work and your labor of love. One day, the Lord Himself will stand and say the words that no earthly benefit could ever match:

“Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

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That is the true benefit — not what you get, but whom you become, and what He says over you at the end.

 

There is a mission with your name on it.

There is a towel and a basin waiting for your hands.

There is a destiny God shaped you to carry.

And there is a reward that will continue to pay out long after this world is gone.

 

So this week, do not ask the small question. Ask the better one. Pick up a towel. Report for duty. Serve before an audience of One — and one day you will hear Him say, “Well done.”

 

For Reflection

1.  What is the “small question” you have been asking God? What would it look like to trade it for a better one this week?

2.  Jesus asks, “Do you also want to leave?” Write out your own honest answer to Him today.

3.  Name one specific step of serving or obedience you will take this week as your response to this study.

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