We don’t live in the moment enough. We don’t take the time to drink in what is happening right now. We have been conditioned to look ahead, to take the next step, to build upon what has been so quickly that we often don’t recognize what is happening in the present. When we are young we seem to constantly look forward, longing for the things we haven’t gotten to yet. When we are old we spend much of our time looking back, longing for what we didn’t appreciate as much as we should have at the time. I think we would do well to realize that the past is what has been, the future is what will be but the present, this moment is what we have: live in it, embrace it, enjoy it, do well with it, it’s not just all we’ve been promised, it is everything we have been trusted with. John 6 began with a test of the disciples’ faith and the revelation of Jesus’ heart and identity. Jesus put the disciples in a position to be tested, to have their faith purified, to hear Him invite them to join in the Father’s will and live in the Father’s love. As we talked about last week, the voice of God is far more often an invitation than it is instruction. He’s not telling us what He wants or needs us to do, He is telling us what He has planned to do and inviting us to join Him in His plans. The will and work of God is not dependent upon us, but the heart of God desires to have us join Him in His work. The will of God is not what God is doing or going to do in our lives or even through our lives, the will of God is what God is doing to do. This is why Isaiah 55 can say that God’s Word goes out from His mouth and will not return to Him empty, but will, in every instance, accomplish what He desires and fulfill the purpose for which He sent it. The will of God is what is settled, it’s the kindness of God that invites us to join our lives to His will. As Mordecai told Esther, God was going to deliver the Jews, her opportunity was to join Him in that deliverance. Jesus invited the disciples to join Him in revealing His heart, love and identity to the crowds that had been following them and He was going to do all of that with 5 loaves of bread and two fish. The question where can we buy bread became the command to sit thousands of people down so that Jesus could make Himself known. Today we move from the feeding of the 5,000 to Jesus’ escape from the 5,000. After the crowd had seen the miracle, eaten the meal and given the disciples their leftovers, they declared, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” They suddenly knew that Jesus was the Messiah but rather than following Him or listening to Him they decided that they needed to make Him their King. They were not content to sit with Jesus in the moment, to let Him lead according to His will, they needed to take Jesus and push Him forward into their will, what they expected from Him and what they needed Him to do for them. This morning I pray that we will be open-minded enough to see that we can have the right King but try to live in wrong kingdom, that we can be right about who Jesus is but still be wrong about what Jesus came to do.