Bringing What We Have - Finding Satisfaction: Mark 6:30-44

The Word of God, Mark chapter six, beginning to read at verse thirty.

The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught.

And he said to them, Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest awhile.

For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure, even to eat.

And they went away into a on a boat to a desolate place by themselves.

Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

And he began to teach them many things.

And when it grew late his disciples came to him and said, This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late.

Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.

But he answered them, You give them something to eat.

They said to him, Shall we go and buy two hundred deneri worth of bread and give it to them to eat?

And he said to them, How many loaves do you have?

Go and see.

And when they had found it they said, Five and two fish.

Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.

So they sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing, and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people.

And he divided the two fish among them all, and they all ate and were satisfied.

And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish, and those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

This is the reading of God's powerful, majestic word.

We need to pray.

Lord Jesus, as you fed the five thousand that day, we thank you that you're still feeding your disciples today.

Feed us, bread of heaven, this morning.

Holy Spirit, make the truth real to us.

Lord, make the truth desirable to us.

Empower us by your word this morning, we pray, Jesus.

Amen.

Last few weeks in this sermon series through the month of March, Vision 2026, multiplying kingdom impact in our church, our city, and our world.

As we said last week, this is about discipleship.

This is much more than planting a church in Mount Vernon.

This is much more than paying off one of the mortgages on this building.

This is much more.

We pray includes all of that, but it's more than that.

This is about your spiritual growth.

This is about my spiritual growth.

We want to go deeper in understanding what it means to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

That's what the elders believe that this is about.

And so today, once again, as we think about giving our time, our talent, our treasure, and oh yes, there is a fourth T.

What's that fourth T?

Testimonies.

These testimonies this month have been so powerful.

And I've been thinking about that.

I think there's a problem.

If in giving our time and our talent and our treasure, we don't have a testimony.

Is that right?

You can give your time, you can give your talent, you can give some of your treasure, and that doesn't mean you necessarily have a testimony.

Our prayer is that everyone in this room will have a testimony as a result of this journey as we give Jesus these gifts that he's given us.

Today we see the true multiplying kingdom impact as Jesus feeds the 5,000.

Is there a better-known story in the Bible?

I don't know.

Jesus still works today in his people.

If we go back two weeks ago, we saw Jesus sending out the 12 apostles, and they went out, they had been equipped by Jesus for several years.

They'd been gifted by Jesus, sent by Jesus.

And remember, travel light, gentlemen.

Don't take an extra set of clothes, don't take anything extra.

You're gonna have to depend on me.

You're gonna have to pray like you really need to pray.

And God's gonna give you everything you need.

And they did.

And you remember they came back.

They came back exhilarated from what God did working in them and through them.

They healed the sick, they cast out demons, they preached the word of God with power, and people's lives were changed.

They came back exhilarated, but they also came back exhausted.

And so Jesus says as we read, gentlemen, it's time for us to get away.

We need to rest.

Let's come apart from the crowds.

And so they went.

They left in a boat to a solitary place, and they took probably, commentators think, maybe about a four-mile boat ride across the sea again.

But meanwhile, the word of what Jesus was doing through his apostles and himself, it's just like spreading like wildfire all over the area.

And people could not get enough.

They were like the paparazzi of their day.

They had to see this star.

No one had ever seen anything like Jesus.

And so they hear, they get wind that he's going over there to that part of the Sea of Galilee on the shore.

And so you read it, and it's almost suggestive that there's like a stampede.

They race to get there.

Scholars estimate that that was probably about a 10-mile hike.

Run.

What happens?

This is the only gospel recorded in all four gospels.

Excuse me, the only miracle recorded in all four gospels.

The only miracle.

When Jesus saw all the crowds, the 5,000 men, and were there women and children?

Was it really like the feeding of the 10,000, 15,000?

We don't know.

But when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

We could preach a whole message on that.

Every one of us in this room knows people who remind us of that.

They just seem lost.

They seem beaten down by life.

They seem hopeless.

We all know people like that, and sometimes maybe that's how we feel.

We have a shepherd who still looks for those who are sheep without a shepherd.

Our shepherd, our good shepherd, is still moving toward those people with compassion today.

This morning we're going to look quickly.

An impossible situation, an improbable solution, and a growing realization.

An impossible situation.

It certainly seems like it was, doesn't it?

All right.

Get the picture in your mind.

This large land, Sharon and I drove down to see the cherry blossoms the other day.

We do that every year.

Are we nuts?

You get in the you get with all the crowds, and we just gotta do it.

It's breathtaking to take it in.

And we were driving by the Washington Monument, you know, circling, and I looked over, you know, that big lawn by the monument.

I said to Sharon, I'll bet you that's just about enough room for like 5,000 people.

And we just kind of stopped and we looked at that lawn and just imagine like 5,000 people out in the desert, the wilderness.

Don't think arid desert.

This is away from the towns, but it is a remote place.

And there are no fast food restaurants, we know.

And it was the end of the day.

And Jesus had been teaching them.

They couldn't get enough.

And now the disciples said, Jesus, it's time.

You better shoe these people away.

I mean, we don't want this on our heads, you know, that people starve or whatever.

And Jesus says something that seems ridiculous to them.

You give them something to eat.

In the Greek language, you is emphatic.

Like, no, you.

Okay, not just say, give them something to eat.

It's like he's looking them in the eye and saying, you give them something to eat.

And you can imagine, if you're one of the disciples, what?

Are you kidding?

What do you think we have?

It would take eight months' salary to feed this group today.

And Jesus has a very important question.

What do you have?

What do you have?

Isn't that the question that we've been asking of ourselves this past month with Vision 2026?

What do you have?

What do I have?

Well, we have some time.

And again, Jody, thank you for reminding us that sometimes when we think we have no time, we actually do have time.

My friend Bob Morrison said something that struck with me shortly after I came here.

He said to me, Tom, you know, I found in my life that it's not the amount that I do often enough, it's whether what I do depletes me or energizes me.

And I've never forgotten that.

How can I join in with what Jesus is doing that energizes me?

And the way we even think about what we do has something to do about that, doesn't it?

How we think about our work, how we think about our rest, how we think about our service has something to do with the lens through which we see it.

Jesus says, What do you have?

It might well appear to be very little to us as well as it did to the disciples.

You see, we can't really understand this story if we don't get it.

And what it is is when Jesus says, you give them something to eat, it's ridiculous.

What?

Have you ever had that experience in ministry?

Jesus says, you give them something to eat, and you look at what you have, and it's like, are you serious?

Do you see how little I have?

Do you really expect me to be able to make a difference in people's lives with this?

Now we're starting to understand the story, what's going on?

Our time is a gift from the Lord.

Mark, you reminded us in the breakfast a week ago.

Was it 1440?

Is that what you said?

1440 minutes in a day.

What do we do with those 1440 minutes a day?

Our talents are a gift from the Lord.

I'm so encouraged to see so many of you responding to the Equipping the Saints survey.

They're going like hotcakes.

Keep it up.

But don't put it away in your closet.

All right?

It's not intended to lay in your closet.

Pick it up.

Spend some time exploring what are the talents, the gifts that the Lord Jesus gave you when he ascended to heaven.

That's a beautiful thing.

And to say, Jesus, these talents, these gifts are yours.

Show me what you want me to do with them.

Last week we looked at our treasure.

What did we say?

It's his.

It's his money.

We are money managers.

We are stewards of the money he lends to us.

Don't grab it.

Even when you feel like, yeah, but Jesus, I really need it.

You don't understand.

He says, I do understand.

I'm waiting for you to start trusting me, even with that which is so precious to you.

I want you to trust me, and I will show you that I am enough.

I am not going to let you down.

But you have to take that step of faith.

That's just the way it works.

Take a look.

This is a time for us to look back at what we have and to give it to Jesus.

God delights to teach us in desolate places, wildernesses.

You probably have found the same thing out I have.

There are times in our lives that he says, I know I need to take you into the desert.

So I really get your full attention.

So you won't be so distracted.

He's not afraid to take us into the desert.

And it's always for our good if we're listening, if we're responding.

God delights to teach us in the desolate places, a recurring theme in the Old Testament, the Word of God.

40 years in the wilderness, the Israelites.

That's a long time in the wilderness.

40 years.

I'll bet half of you haven't even gotten to 40.

And you're thinking, my whole life?

In the desert?

Every day dependent on that manna from heaven.

And though you couldn't store it, you couldn't keep it, or it would rot.

God was teaching his people to wait on him every day.

Look up.

Look up.

Lord, give us what we need daily.

And watch what he'll do in your life.

See, this is an impossible situation, so it seems.

Secondly, it's an improbable solution.

Verse 41.

And taking the five loaves, because the other gospels tell us, Andrew found a boy who took his lunch.

Five barley loaves.

And this is not um deli bread.

Don't think of your favorite bread.

Barley bread was the bread of the poor.

Five little barley loaves and two small fish.

This little boy offers it up.

And Jesus says, I can work with that.

I can work with that.

He takes the loaves, and then what does he do?

He looks up to heaven and he prays a prayer of thanksgiving to the Father once again who provides for all of our needs.

And then he breaks the bread, he breaks the fish, and the disciples become the waiters, the servers.

And lo and behold, over that massive area, they just start going out and serving these people in these groups of hundreds and fifties.

You say, how in the world did that happen?

Right?

How did that happen?

Well, it's a miracle for sure.

No question about that.

The Greek language is very interesting.

This is what it says.

He kept giving.

The word them is supplied.

It's not in the Greek.

To stand out.

He kept giving.

It's in the imperfect tense in the Greek.

That means an action that starts but continues going forward.

Something that happens in a moment, but then it continues.

He kept giving them the bread and the fish.

The language suggests that as the disciples kept coming back, Jesus kept multiplying more.

It's like crazy, huh?

But it's true.

Because Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus is divine.

Jesus does things that nobody else could do.

And so can you picture the disciples?

They go back to Jesus.

He's got more?

Wait a minute, we know what he started with.

And so you come back and you hold out your hands, and he is still giving more bread.

More fish.

And can you imagine what they do?

They go back and they serve their 50?

They serve their hundred?

What do you think they were thinking on the way back to Jesus?

When is this going to stop?

What do you think they were thinking on their tenth trip back to Jesus?

Do you think they were learning more about who he is?

I do.

I think we do.

When we do.

There would be enough left over at the end to use twelve baskets to contain the leftovers.

This begins with the disciples looking at what they had.

So this morning, let's take a look at our five loaves.

Okay?

This morning.

Let's take a look at our two small fish.

Our time, yes, our talent, our treasure, our testimonies.

I think it's more than that.

Our love or lack of.

Our patience or less lack of?

Our kindness, our gentleness?

You see, you can't live the Christian life very well if you don't stop and take inventory often.

If you just assume that you have all of these things in full and good supply, you're not going to be you're not going to be living by faith.

You have to stop and actually look.

Am I a patient person?

Am I a kind person?

Am I an angry person?

Am I an impatient person?

What do I do with the things that Jesus gives me, including my heart?

Let's bring it to Jesus.

This morning.

This season.

Let's bring it to Jesus.

Ask him to.

Bless it.

Ask him to multiply it and see what he does.

Charles Burgeon said this, he said, Truly I have often felt that I had neither bread nor fish, and yet for some 40 years and more, I have been a full-handed waiter at the King's Great Banquet.

Man, that's good, huh?

It's true.

The waiter doesn't make the food, do they?

They simply deliver it.

There's somebody back in the kitchen making it.

We don't make ministry.

We are servers in the service of King Jesus.

And he says, you come to me and I will give you what you need.

Your job is to keep coming back to me.

I will give you what you need.

Do you believe that?

Only the Holy Spirit can convince you of that.

The very simple, this very simple meal in the desert does in fact remind us of the manna in the wilderness.

But it reminds me of something else.

It reminds me of that promise in Isaiah chapter 25, verse 6.

Isaiah 25:6

The day's coming when there's going to be a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food, of a wine well refined.

You know, that's the wine that you can't afford.

The wine that you can't afford, one day you're going to drink.

In the new heavens and the new earth.

And it's going to be free.

And it's going to be delicious.

And that banquet is going to outstrip any banquet you've ever had on earth.

And you won't have to leave that banquet.

You know, you go to a really good party, right?

Everybody loves a good party.

You go to a good party with good food and good company and good music and you don't want to leave.

The day's coming when you're not going to have to leave.

What a day that's going to be when we will be with Jesus.

Alexander McLaren, good Scottish Presbyterian pastor, put it like this.

The pieces of bread grew under Jesus' touch, and the disciples always found his hands full when they came back with their own hands empty.

That's worth a repeat, right?

The pieces grew under Jesus' touch, and the disciples always found his hands full when they came back with their own hands empty.

Your hands need to be empty to be filled again.

Our hearts need to be empty to be filled again.

When we think we're full, when we think we're satisfied, we don't go to Jesus very well, do we?

Don't we?

No, that's when we feel a little self-confident.

That's when we don't really pray.

You know why you don't really pray?

You're satisfied.

You think you've got what you need.

Or if what you do need, you're not going to find it in Jesus, you're going to have to go work it up yourself.

This is how he's calling us to live, friends, as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Go receive what he gives.

Go.

Don't just stay there.

Don't just stay there Sunday after Sunday after Sunday with what he gives you through his teaching and feeding and just stay there.

Go.

Isn't that what this is about?

Isn't this what the Christian life is supposed to be about?

We have to get before we give to others.

What is it that we have to get?

Well, again, the testimony this morning from John 15.

Jesus says, I'm the vine, you're the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit.

Tom, apart from me, you can't do anything.

But the flesh wants to tell me, no, you can do something.

Jesus says, no, you can't.

Not meaningful, not impact for the kingdom.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

As if this wasn't enough.

You want to burst the banks?

Here we go.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

That is sweet music to our souls.

I love you as much as the Father loves me.

And then he says, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he's going to give it to you.

This is in one sense a parable for gospel ministry.

Whatever we have is insufficient, yet Jesus takes what we do have, and by his supernatural power, he uses it to help people.

You can make a difference.

Do you believe that?

I really wonder how many Christians believe that.

It's true.

You can have an impact for eternity.

Through deeds of mercy, through words of grace, through lives of holiness.

You can touch other people.

I love what Dick Halverson, Senate Chapman, said years ago about Washington, D.C.

He said, you touch Washington, D.C., and you touch the world.

It just goes out.

It goes out.

We've seen that so many times over the years.

But he also uses us in the process.

He gives real bread through us, not because of us, but through us.

And we have a part to play in the work that Jesus is doing on earth.

We are over two and a half years into this new building.

And I confess to you, I still haven't gotten over it.

Maybe it has something to do with being 25 years in the basement.

My office was in the basement.

I had no window.

I looked out at a cement block.

I was thankful God gave it to us.

I can't come in here today.

So this past week thinking about Vision 2026, I spent a lot of time just walking around this building and walking through this building.

And my heart just erupts in thanks to God because I know what little we had at that time.

I'm still not over it.

Lord, thank you.

Thank you for this beautiful space.

Oh, the ministry that's taken place since we came here.

It feels to me like it's a whole different situation, ball game than it was before.

And I thank God for what he did those 25 years at Delray.

He did a lot of amazing things, but the ministry is exploding among us, around us, and through us.

But it's Jesus.

It's Jesus.

Thirdly, as we close, a growing realization.

You know by now, right?

Maybe some of you can guess what that point, this point's about.

A growing realization.

What did the disciples say after the storm?

Jesus calmed the storm in the boat.

They thought they were going to die that night and they didn't?

Remember what they said?

The question they had.

It was kind of a rhetorical question.

Who then is this?

Is this a growing realization in your life, this season of your life?

Are you starting to re-examine what you know about Jesus?

I am.

Jesus, I thought I knew you.

But as you continue to reveal yourself to me, sometimes I just gasp.

How beautiful you are.

How forgiving you are.

How faithful you are.

Look what you're doing.

At the end of Mark chapter 6, verse 52.

Mark 6:52

I don't want to be a downer, but it does say this.

For the disciples had not understood about the loaves, and their hearts were hardened.

I think that's in there for a reason.

So none of this just goes to our heads so that we start getting proud about this.

Thinking that we've got it all figured out.

Thinking we have Jesus all figured out.

We don't.

But do you have a growing realization in your life?

Are your eyes opening up more to see the real Jesus?

That's what he wants.

Overcome my hardened heart, Jesus.

Overcome where I'm not forgiving people who have hurt me.

Overcome where I'm not believing by faith.

I'm not living by faith in these ways.

Overcome my unbelief, Jesus.

That's a good thing.

Jesus, the beloved, the one who earlier refused to make bread out of stones for himself, now is making bread for thousands.

And he's still doing it today.

He hasn't stopped.

The bread of life, Jesus, in order to feed us, had to be broken, didn't he?

You know, you can't eat a loaf of bread.

Have you ever tried?

I'd better qualify that.

Some of us maybe have.

But you can't eat a loaf of bread without breaking it.

It has to be broken.

The reason we're here this morning, friends, is because that bread was broken.

Jesus' body was broken for us.

So that we may eat and we may be fed and we may be satisfied.

And we have the privilege of being his ambassadors, his workers, and his kingdom work.

Are you growing in your understanding of all of this?

The joy of being his disciple.

Join me in prayer.

Father, we thank you.

We thank you that you so love this sinful, broken world that you sent your perfect Son, Jesus, so that we broken, sinful people, believing in him, may have everlasting life and not perish.

You gave us your Son, the supreme gift.

And in response, we will bring our many little gifts back to you and say, use them as you see fit.

Lord Jesus, may we grow in our understanding of who you are in new ways.

Amen.