One Day To Feed The World

As we've been preparing for this week, one of the things that we wanted to see is just everybody participate in the mission of God and what God is doing. And our Kingdom Builder partner, Convoy of Hope, has been one of our most consistent partners over the years, and they're doing so much. And in a moment, you're gonna hear about what is happening around the world. But when it comes to trust, we trust Convoy, and we're grateful for their stewardship of the dollars through Kingdom Builders that you've given over time, a partnership with the project in Madagascar that we do, and it's really a part of who we are. And I want you to hear what God is going to speak to you, not just about what God is doing at Convoy, but I believe that today, God wants to speak to you something special. So get ready to take some notes, get ready for what God wants to do in you. And I wanna welcome to the platform Brad Rosenberg from Convoy of Hope. Would you give it up for Pastor Brad? Former lead senior pastor of a church, and then you went to Convoy, and we were just chatting about things we have in common. We both graduated in the same year, high school, in a previous century, in a land far, far away, in a previous millennium, actually.

And yet, I feel so much like he is sent for here. He matches our church. Would you give it up for Brad? Oh, thanks. Stay here, Pastor Nate. I was talking with Pastor Nate before, and then I walked in. He's a very intimidating guy. And I just thought that the two of us standing together make the perfect 10. He's the one and I'm the zero, but I love you, bro. You're my hero. Emmanuel, you guys are amazing. This is a church that for decades has cared about the least, the last, and the lost. And on behalf of millions who've been served through Convoy of Hope over the last 30 years, I wanna look you in the eyes this morning and just say, thank you, thank you. Our media team back in Springfield has put together a quick highlight reel of what happened in 2025. Check this out. Thank you. See you guys March 31st. Thanks. We're gonna do the Me And In Brittany thing, with Instagram inside. And when this airs, we will be supervising the campaign for you and us

to make 5G more reliable. And you'll soon have the chance to take part on a YouTube channel. There's a link in the description of this video for the coronavirus event, you'll find it. Thank you so much Emmanuel. You guys are amazing. That only happens because of friends like you. And you guys have been such unbelievable supporters and partners. And so I just wanted to say a huge thank you this morning. I do wanna say thank you to Pastor Nate and Jody and their kindness where the very kind invitation to be here today. What I'd like for you to do this morning is it may require a little mustard seed faith. But I want you to pretend for a moment that the Vikings have won the Superbowl. And I want you to clap and cheer and whistle and holler and let Pastor Nate and Jody know how much you love and appreciate them. Would you do that right now? They are just the best. And you guys are so blessed to have them. It was pretty fast and hard hitting on that video. But I wanna give you a couple highlights from that video that you may have not seen or weren't looking when it happened. But Convoy of Hope currently feeds over 677,000 children

every school day around the world in over 4,300 feeding programs. That only happens because of friends like you. Just in 2025, we empowered over 78,000 women with their own micro business enterprise. You say, what does that really mean? It's not a loan or anything like that. It may be a sewing machine. It may be, well, I was in El Salvador, two hours up into the mountains, and we gave this lady in our women's empowerment program, we gave her 15 hens. And we said, when they have eggs, sell those eggs where the two dirt roads meet in the village, and you'll have money to take care of your family. She sold some eggs. Guess what she did? She bought a rooster. This is an above average intelligence crowd. I went back 18 months later to check up on her. She had converted those 15 hens into 150 hens. She had enough money left over that she built six chicken coops and enough wood left over that she built the first convenience store where those two dirt roads met in the village where she sells soap, toothpaste, deodorant. I know that next Sunday is Mother's Day, but how many of you know when you take care of mama, mama takes care of everybody?

And that's what Convoy did for 78,000 women just last year. We empowered over 49,000 farmers because we know that agriculture breaks the cycle of poverty. We have a, yes. We have a farmer in the house. God bless you, friend. Because we know that agriculture breaks the cycle of poverty and creates sustainability in that village. We use a phrase at Convoy. We say, we're gonna feed your kids, but God willing, we won't be feeding their kids because we wanna break that cycle of poverty and give them the dignity of taking care of themselves. You say, well, why would you wanna work yourselves out of a job? Because this world is a very big place. We'll just go 13 miles down the road and do it all over again. But God is doing amazing things through agriculture. All of these things only happen because of friends like you. And it requires people living open-handed, not tight-fisted. It's this word called sharing. Everybody say sharing. Sharing. Sharing is the process of moving from tight-fisted to open-handed.

And when we live open-handed, God has the ability to get resources to us to bless others. How many of you know we are blessed to be a blessing? My dad used to say, if God can get it through you, he will give it to you. He's just wondering if you're gonna be a conduit that he will be able to flow through. There's a chapter of Scripture found in John chapter six that deals with this whole concept of sharing. And I'd like to start there this morning. If you have your copy of God's word, you can go to John chapter six, or it will be up on the screens. Starting with verse one. Sometime after, this Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee, that is the Sea of Tiberias, and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. Then Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover feast was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Verse seven, Philip answered, eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite.

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up and said, here's a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will that go among so many? Jesus said, have the people sit down. There was plenty of grass in that place. And the what? And the what? And the men sat down about how many? 5,000 of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated, check this out, as much as they wanted. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first biblical recording of the very first Pizza Ranch. You guys are more caffeinated than the first service. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, gather the pieces that are left over, let nothing be wasted. So they gathered them and filled how many baskets? 12 baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. That story is crazy. Some of you are looking at me like, it happens at my work every Tuesday. This story is bonkers. Let's do the math here. Are there any teachers in the room?

Any teachers here? Yes, yes, okay. Let's show some love and appreciation for our teachers. Are there specifically any math teachers in the room? Okay, yes, down here, any others? It's okay, be proud, yes. Has nothing to do with my sermon, but I ran into my high school algebra teacher at a basketball game over Christmas. And I said, Tom, I just want you to know, this is the 38th year in a row I haven't used algebra. He said, you were an idiot in high school and you're still an idiot today. Okay, here we go. With the help of the teachers in the house. Here we go. You ready for this? Okay, I'm gonna start out on an easy one. Yes, this little girl on the second row. She's like, that's seven. Great. That's what it is in Missouri. I'm glad Minnesota still has the same math principles. Good. Except when God is in the equation. When God's in the equation, all bets are off. And friends, you want God in your equation. So let's try this again. We just read in scripture, and what did we discover? Five plus two equals what?

5,000, okay. Somebody was belting that one out. They were ready for this one. 5,000. But I know that this church cares about women and children. That said 5,000 what? Right. So the women and children were there. Conservative Jewish theologians would say, at the very least, three or four children. So let's try this again. Five plus two equals what? 20,000 is a great number, okay. But Pastor Nate is a great Bible teacher. He preaches the full context of the word, which means you have to include the end of the story, which means what was left over? 12 baskets. So now we're at five plus two equals 20,000, remainder 12. Okay. All right, I know there's very smart people in this room. This is not a trick question. The first one says five plus two equals seven. The last one says five plus two equals 20,000, remainder 12. Lean in just a little bit. Which number is bigger? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

I was a little concerned at the pause in the house. It was pretty long today. God, friends, when God is in the equation, all bets are off and you want God in your equation. Now, I believe that what we're about to do in this church is to be a little bit more open-minded. I believe that what we're about to do in this room might be the most miraculous day in the history of Emmanuel Church because when we care about what God cares about, we are positioning ourselves to be under his favor and blessing. In case you didn't remember, God cares about the poor. God cares about the widow. God cares about the orphan. God cares about the marginalized. God cares about the forgotten. God cares about the discarded. And when we care about what God cares about, we are positioning ourselves to be under his favor and blessing. Friends, that's what today's service is all about, one day to feed the world. The reason this day is miraculous is because, number one, a miracle always starts with somebody. If this boy doesn't share his lunch, we don't even have this story in Scripture. In fact, I have three kids.

All of them are in their 20s. Two of them are boys. I would submit that a teenage boy sharing his lunch might be more miraculous than feeding 20,000 people. A miracle always starts with somebody. Turn to the person next to you and say, you're a somebody. Now I want you to turn to the other side. And say, how about you taking me to lunch? All right. Here we go. I may have just lost you. A miracle always starts with somebody. Number two, miracles happen in the atmosphere of obedience. I'm gonna give you another formula. It's not mathematical, but you might wanna write this down, put it on your nightstand or your bedroom mirror. It's simply this. God's prompting plus obedience equals the miraculous. God's prompting, whatever it is that he's nudging you to do, plus saying yes to that prompting equals the miraculous. When God nudges you to say yes to that prompting, you to do something, and you have the courage to say yes to that, be prepared for the miraculous you're gonna say yes to that prompting. You're gonna say yes to that prompting. to happen in your life. Because miracles happen in the atmosphere of obedience. Number three, when we do what we can, God himself does what we can't. Some of you came in today and you knew

it was the one day offering, but you're thinking, you know, whatever I'm gonna do probably isn't gonna move the needle, and that's where I'd say you're wrong. This young man had no idea that when he shared his lunch, that act of generosity, that act of open-handed sharing, was gonna be the answer to the prayers of 20,000 people. Because when we do what we can, God himself does what we can't. Number four, it's all about listening to the prompting and acting in obedience. How many of you've ever felt like God was dropping something on your heart, or talking to you, or nudging you, let me see your hands. How many of you, after you heard what that was, your first thought was, oh man, that can't be God. We've all been there. We've all been there. It's all about listening to the prompting and acting in obedience. Did you know that you can be obedient and still have a bad attitude and the wrong heart? If you're not sure how that works, if you ask your teenage son to take the trash out on Thursday night, there'll be a big skid of liquid where he drug the plastic bag the whole way, but it got to the end of the road. That's obedience with a bad attitude and the wrong heart. I'm about to share a story with you, but me personally, after you hear this, you're gonna say, thank God Pastor Nate

is our pastor and not Brad. I pastored as the lead pastor in Cincinnati for 21 years. We had a staff meeting on that Tuesday. It was a very full day. The receptionist paged me up in the office and she said, Pastor, some guy just called the church. He doesn't go to our church. He's never been to our church. You don't know him, he doesn't know you, but his son is on life support at Mercy Hospital and they're turning off the life support because he has no brainwave activity. He wants you to come over and pray last rites over him. I'm like, man, I got a busy day. I'm booked up. I don't know this guy. He doesn't know me. I'm not Catholic. I don't know how to pray last rites. How many of you know you start giving the Lord a bunch of reasons why you don't need to do something and then he says, go to the hospital. If I get in the car, I go to the hospital. Go up to the third floor, find the kid's room. I see the dad standing at the end of the bed and I just start praying for him. Father, your word says, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. And while I'm praying for the father, I feel like the Holy Spirit says,

put your hand on the kid's head. So then I have to explain to him, it's not the kid that needs prayer, it's the father who's going, have any of you been a consultant for the Lord down here? Tell him what's going on. My algebra teacher was right. So I put my hand on this kid's head. It was as hot as setting it on a stovetop. His brain was just burning up. I did what I felt the Lord wanted me to, but then I go back to praying for the dad. Lord, your word says you're close to the brokenhearted. This father's heart is crushed today. And while I'm praying for the dad, with my hand on this kid's head, he sits straight up in bed. Scared me to death. I almost died of a heart attack. His dad goes, what did you do? And I said, I don't know. And the nurse comes running in from ICU and she goes, what did you do? And I said, I don't know. And I was looking down to see if I was standing on his oxygen line. Thank God I wasn't. Friends, God wanted me to learn early on in my ministry. God wanted me to learn early on in my ministry that anything good that ever happened

had nothing to do with me and everything to do with him. Friends, because when God is in the equation, all bets are off and you want God in your equation. Thought number five. He gave what he had in his hand and he celebrated the miracle the rest of his life. I mean, this story's unbelievable. I just, I like to get in the Bible stories. I imagine, fast forward the clock 50, 60 years and his grandkids are going, Grandpa, Grandpa, tell us the lunch story again. You took your lunch to Jesus, he fed 20,000 people and then you took 12. baskets of leftovers back to grandma. I mean, you know, that's the story Uncle Carl's not gonna top at Thanksgiving. That's the, he gave what he had in his hand and he celebrated the miracle the rest of his life. My wife and I had a similar crazy experience. We were youth pastors in Baltimore back in the early 90s. We couldn't afford to have a house on the East Coast, so we went 26 miles into the woods of Maryland. We still had to use I-95 to get to work, which took us over an hour each way. So I was always a work smarter, not harder guy. I had a 1985 Honda Accord with a tape player. Oh yeah. And I had those Hosanna Integrity tapes. How many of you remember those?

With Don Moen or somebody? Pop one of those bad boys in my 85 Honda Accord. And Angie and I would listen to worship and then she'd read a chapter of scripture and then I'd pray. And by the way, when you're driving and praying, God always wants you to keep your eyes open. And I was praying and I said to Angie, hey, I just feel like the Lord dropped something in my heart that we're supposed to give this guy that we work with $100 and tell him to take his boys out for pizza tonight. And Angie goes, my spirit totally bears witness with that. She goes, but I think you need to tell him to take his boys to Chuck E. Cheese. I'm like, as the spiritual head of this home, God talks to us about blessing people and giving. He doesn't ever address the topic of Chuck E. Cheese. You want something worse than COVID? Go to Chuck E. Cheese. Get in the skeeball section. She's like, whatever. So then we had to pop in the Don Moen tape, get our hearts right again. I get to work, she calls me at noon. She goes, have you done what God told you to do? I'm like, no. She goes, you better do what God told you to do. I was like, you better go back to work. And then I had to pop in my Don Moen tape,

get my heart right again. And then I had to pop in my Don Moen tape, get my heart right again. Listen to some worship. She called me at five o'clock. I knew what she was doing. She says, did you? I'm like, I'm on my way. I walked down the hallway. There were seven guys on staff of this church. I didn't want to pay all of them, you know. Not that spiritual. I go down, I knock on the door. This guy goes, come in. I'm like, hey man, I don't want this to be weird or awkward or anything, but you know, Angie and I were praying today and I just felt like God wanted us to do something. We were supposed to give you this money and them being the mighty man of faith I am. I threw my wife under the bus. I was like, and Angie thinks you should take the boys to Chuck E. Cheese. Because I'm like, I'm not tying my name to that. And the guy gets up from his desk. It was the wildest thing. He walked around to the front of his desk and he leaned back on it. He kind of sat on the front of the desk. He put his head down.

His glasses slid to the front of his nose and the tears just started pouring out from underneath his glasses. I'm like, what's going on, man? I'm like, I've missed God before. I'm sure I'll miss him again. He's like, no, you don't understand. I said, what's going on? He said, today is my son Joey's ninth birthday. And he said, when I was pulling out of the driveway this morning, he came running out into the front yard. I rolled my window down on the van and he goes, dad, dad, is there any way we can go to Chuck E. Cheese for my birthday? Friends, that's become the miraculous story of our lives. To know that in that moment, Angie heard the voice of the creator say, do this. We didn't have kids. We weren't even thinking about having kids. We didn't know this little boy had a birthday that day and we definitely didn't know his only desire was to go to Chuck E. Cheese. Friends, when God is in the equation, all bets are off and you want God in your equation. Let me give you the final thought this morning. The final thought is that charity says you can have the crumbs and the leftovers from my table. But radical generosity says I'll give you a seat at the table. Thank you, Emmanuel, for being a church that gives people a seat at the table.

God may not be asking you to feed 20,000 people this morning, but I can promise you, He is asking you to share what you have in your hands. Did you know that if you make $38,000 a year, that puts you in the top 1% wealth of the world? That means that God has so trusted us with resources that He knew the people in this room were going to live open-handed and not tight-fisted to be the answer to the prayers of millions who have nothing. Every gift we have is a gift from God. Here's some harsh realities that we're dealing with at Convoy. Did you know that 2.4 billion people in the world live on less than $2.50 a day? Did you know that every single day, 16,000 people die of dirty water or hunger-related issues? That number is so big, we can't wrap our head around it. I was trying to figure out how can I explain 16,000? Did you know that a 747 jet holds approximately 500 passengers? That means you get up tomorrow morning, you're watching the Today Show, and the lead story in the Today Show is that 32 747 jets plunged into the earth and everyone was killed. That's 16,000 people. But here's what's even more horrifying. On Tuesday, you get up and you watch Good Morning America. That is the exact same lead news story with a different 16,000 people. We don't have to do this today. We get to do this. We are blessed to be a blessing. In a few moments, Pastor Nate's coming to close our time together. Some of you may be thinking, well, how can I help? I don't know about you, but every time I've gone into a mission service, I've had an idea of what I thought I was going to do, maybe a number in my head, and then I prayed about it. And then God gave me a different number. I don't know about you, but every time God's number has been bigger than my number.

Anybody ever have this happen? But here's what I've discovered after 30 years of faith-promised living. I would rather do God's number with his help than my number by myself. Because when God's in the equation, all bets are off. And friends, you want God in your equation. Just a couple weeks ago, I was in, actually a few months ago now, I was in Honduras. And I met a little boy in one of our feeding programs, two hours up into the mountains. And in our feeding programs, we don't just give them rice and beans and bread and water and vitamin powder. We give them the bread of life and we give them living water because Jesus changes everything. Every feeding program, every feeding program is tethered to the local church. Everything we do is in and through the local church because we want the local church to be the hero in their community, not convoy of hope. So we disciple these kids. So I meet this little boy, his name's Jose. They're way up, two hours into the mountains. That day, our spiritual life director was teaching. Here's what he was teaching on. You ready for this? With God, all things are possible. With God, all things are possible. He's preaching that to a child who doesn't have a restroom in their home or running water. With God, all things are possible. And then he tells the children, God has a dream for your life. God wants to use you. God has a purpose for your life. And he asked the kids to take a canvas sheet that was wrapped on wood with paintbrushes and paint what they believe God's dream for their life is. This little boy Jose, he paints this. He paints this truck.

I said to the interpreter, what does that even mean? She said, he said that his dream, what he's believing God for, is that one day he'll get to be a truck driver in Honduras for Convoy of Hope, delivering food to kids all over this country. And when that happened, friends, that wrecked me. I had my arm around this little guy and I said to our videographer, man, I got to buy this kid's picture. And he said, well, you need to talk to the national director. I talked to the national director. She said, well, if you buy his picture, you'll have to buy every kid's picture in the program. We're feeding 50,000 children in that program down in Honduras. I said, oh man, she said, I'm sorry. I said, I'll get a picture with him. But man, I would have loved to have that painting. Just to say this represents a million kids around the world who have dreams just like Jose, but we don't have the resources to take care of them yet. Two nights later, I'm sitting at a dinner in the capital city of Honduras with a bunch of pastors. Our national director, we're wrapping up and she goes, oh, wait, before you go, there's something else I want to tell you. She said, some of our team members just saw how you connected with Jose. They drove two hours back up into the mountains. They found his house and they told Jose what you wanted to do with this painting to represent the million kids around the world. And she said, oh, thank you, Pastor Nathan. She said, oh, Pastor Brad, Jose wanted you to have it.

Oh. I take this everywhere I go. I carry this in my carry-on everywhere I go. This represents a million children around the world who are waiting to get inside the fence of our programs. Friends, we don't have to do this, we get to do this. I don't know about you, but when I was in elementary school, my third grade teacher said, you better memorize your times tables because you'll never be carrying a calculator around in your pocket. Boy, was she wrong. Every person in this room has a calculator. Every person in this room has a calculator in their pocket. It's called a phone. We've had this idea for a while, just to take your annual salary, divide it by 365 and say, I'm gonna give one day, one day to care about the poor and suffering. I can promise you that your one day will change their every day. I was speaking last week in Des Moines, Iowa. I felt like the Holy Spirit said, quit telling them to give one day, tell them to ask me what I want them to do. You ever been punched in the mouth by the Holy Spirit? And I said, you know what, everybody could do one day, but God may be asking some of you to do more. This lady came up to me and she said, I work at a law firm.

She said, when you asked us to ask God what he wants us to do, she said, the Lord said to me, crystal clear, don't divide it by 365, divide it by 52. I want you to give a week of your annual salary to care for the poor and suffering. Friends, when we do what we can, God himself does what we can't. Because when God's in the equation, all bets are off. This morning, we have an opportunity to make a difference in the hundreds and thousands of kids' lives. Emmanuel has taken on a project to help in Madagascar. And if I could take all of you to Madagascar, you would be wrecked this morning. But we have an opportunity to make a massive difference there. I believe with all of my heart, however God's accounting works in heaven, but when we get there, you'll be able to see the children who found Jesus because of your kindness and generosity. So if you want to take your phone out, type in your annual salary and divide it by 365, that's kind of a basic way to do it. Divide it by 365, that's kind of a baseline. Everybody try to do it one day, but God may be asking you to do something more. And I'd love the privilege just to pray for you right now to say, God, would you speak to us in this moment?

Would you please bow your heads? God, right now across this room, we want to care about what you care about. And Lord, I pray right now that as each person is saying, God, what do you want me to do? What are you asking me to do? God, would you give them the wisdom to hear your voice and the courage to say yes? Right now, would you just in childlike faith, just say, God, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do today? I want to say yes to your prompting. Lord, as they take the step of faith and as they move forward with courage to say yes to your prompting, may favor and goodness and blessing fall upon them, rest upon them. I pray that you would heal marriages. I pray that you would remove diseases from bodies. I pray that you would bring prodigal children home on this miraculous day. Let the miraculous happen in this building. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We have so much to be grateful for. We just want to say thank you today. Bless these precious friends at Emmanuel in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.