Sermon
Matthew 15:29-16:4 | Kingdom Now: The Prerequisites of Grace
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Things.
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On the platform.
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Her name is Jen, I don't think.
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Is she in here still?
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There's Jen back there.
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Will you tell Jen?
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Great job.
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Love that. Love you.
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Jen is going to serve alongside in our worship
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ministry here on staff as well as women's ministry.
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And so she'll start mid-July and then beginning of August.
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Kind of a staggered start.
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But Jen is great having our platform this morning.
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I was so excited for your role and your leadership
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here with worship stuff and women's ministry stuff.
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It's just going to be a really, really significant time.
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So thank you.
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It was great to have you with you.
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I'm glad you're going to be here next service now.
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I'm super excited, but I'm not that excited
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because we're still like a month and a half away.
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So so be excited about about this.
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But you're like, I'm going to introduce some people to you
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and then you're not going to see them for a little while, but that's okay.
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They're coming. You understand? You understand.
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So you might not see Jen next week, but we're going to enjoy your today.
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But then she's coming. You got it okay.
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So make sure that you meet her, introduce yourself
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and make sure that she feels like a part of the family.
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A couple other hires they were here in
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the first service are not going to be over the next two services,
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so I'll introduce them later to you officially as a church.
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But just know that God is moving.
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He's providing, he is orchestrating,
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and we're so thankful for what God has done,
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for what he's doing and how he's positioning us in the future.
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Really, really exciting stuff.
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You're going to start seeing some new faces and hearing some new names.
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As you do, make sure that you're welcoming them into the family.
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As I pray you're being welcomed into the family as well.
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This morning we're going to wrap up chapter 15 and open up
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just the first four verses of chapter 16 of the book of Matthew.
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So it's taken us a long time to get through this book.
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There's 28 chapters long, and at the rate
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we're going will be in chapter 20, probably the beginning of the new year.
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So we're taking our time to go through it because there's a lot to go through.
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And so if you have a Bible and brought one with you,
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turn to Matthew chapter 15.
Matthew 15 chapter mention
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And I just want to read for you the end of 15, beginning of 16.
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So, so just follow along and listen.
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This is what the Bible says in Matthew 15, starting in verse 29,
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Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee.
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And he went up on the mountain and sat down there.
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A great crowd came to him, bringing with them
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the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others.
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And they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd
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wondered when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy,
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the lame walking, and the blind seen, and the glorify the God of Israel.
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Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I have compassion on the crowd
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because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat,
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and I'm unwilling to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way.
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And the disciples said to him, where are we to get enough
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bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?
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And Jesus said to them, how many loaves do you have?
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And they said, seven and a few small fish, and directing the crowd
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to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish,
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and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples.
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And the disciples gave them to the crowds.
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And they all ate and were satisfied.
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And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over.
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Those who were those who ate were 4000 men besides women and children.
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And after sending away the crowds,
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he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.
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Now for chapter 16.
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And the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test him and to test him.
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They asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
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He answered them, when it's evening, you say,
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it'll be fair weather for the skies red, and in the morning it'll be stormy.
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Today, for the sky is red and threatening.
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You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky.
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But you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
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You, in evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.
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But no sign will be given to it except sign of Jonah.
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So he left them and departed two groups of people.
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And I put these two the end of 15 and beginning 16 together,
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because I want to highlight these two groups of people that approach Jesus.
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One group comes needy and one group comes entitled.
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One group comes to Jesus with broken bodies.
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The other group comes to Jesus with hard hearts.
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One group comes to Jesus and receives compassion,
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and one group comes to Jesus and receives
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correction.
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As we look at this passage together,
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one big idea and I want this to sink in.
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Here's the big idea Jesus has endless compassion on those who come to him.
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Needy, but no compulsion to satisfy those who feel that they're deserving.
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Those who come to Jesus with empty hands, brokenness, and need.
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Jesus has unending compassion.
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But if anybody comes to Jesus
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with this sense of entitlement, as if they deserve something from God
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is under no compulsion to do anything
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for them.
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Though Jesus will gladly care for the needy,
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he refuses to perform for the entitled.
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And so it's really important that we understand how we come before God.
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It's really important how we that we understand the right way
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to come to church, but also to approach God in prayer.
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It's really important.
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And we'll see that in these two.
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In verses 29 through 31,
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just went on from there beside the Sea of Galilee.
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He went to the mountain, sat down a great.
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The great crowds came to him, bringing with them.
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Look at what the Bible says, the lame, the blind, the crippled, the many others.
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And they put them at his feet, and he healed them.
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And the crowd was wonder.
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They were in amazement that they saw the mute speak in the crippled healthy,
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the lame walking, and the blind seen, and they glorified the God of Israel.
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This crowd,
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we know, was from a place called the Decapolis.
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Everybody say Decapolis.
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What that means?
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Two Greek words deca and polis, ten cities.
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So this was a gentile and non-Jewish area of ten cities.
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So that's where Jesus is.
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And one of the ways we know that this is one of the where
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Jesus is, is because when they saw what Jesus did, what's the Bible say?
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They glorified? What's Bible say?
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The God of Israel wasn't there. God.
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And so so
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they're realizing, look, we're not part of the group here.
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But this was amazing what Jesus did.
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These people have no religious resume.
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They have no religious pedigree.
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They have no religious standing.
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They have no claim to God, no claim to his Messiah.
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They're not part of God's covenant, promised people.
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They're outside of all those.
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Yet Jesus receives them and has compassion on them because he's compassionate.
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Please understand this unworthiness
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is not a disqualification for grace.
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It's a prerequisite of it.
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Those who have nothing to offer God,
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those who have no standing before God.
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That that doesn't disqualify one from God's compassionate mercy and grace.
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That's the prerequisite to receive it.
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These people
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bring nothing of value to Jesus.
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It's just a parade of human helplessness.
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I want you to listen to this
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great crowds.
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This is verse 30 came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind,
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the crippled, the mute, and many others,
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and put them at his feet, and he healed them.
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What did they ask Jesus?
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Did you see that when you first read it?
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They made no request.
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They didn't pray, they didn't beg.
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They didn't plead their case.
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All they did.
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I don't even know what to say.
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I just have so much profound need.
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I can't even verbalize what it is I.
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And sometimes.
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Haven't you been there?
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God, I don't even know what to say.
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I don't know what's right. I don't know what's wrong.
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I don't know what I want you all.
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I can't even
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I can't even verbalize all I can do.
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Understand when these people brought all of this brokenness.
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And just here, the implication is, if I just get this to
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Jesus, he'll do something that I can't even verbalize what I need him to do.
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It's beautiful.
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Because what it does, it
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relies on the compassion of Christ,
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not the value of the bringer.
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They have nothing to offer.
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Nothing but their brokenness.
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And some of
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some today are so spiritually exhausted
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because you've been trying so hard
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to impress Jesus.
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Thinking that if I can just do stuff right,
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God will see my effort
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and extend his hand.
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When all that Jesus requires you to say,
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I got nothing to offer but my brokenness. So.
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So many people try so hard
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to defend themselves.
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To deny the fact of their own brokenness
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and error and wrong and sin because it's
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if I admit it, then maybe it's real and maybe I'm not really worthy.
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That's the point.
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Please hear me.
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Stop hiding your limp that he already sees.
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In verse 32.
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Jesus
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called his disciples to him and said, I have compassion on this crowd
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because they've been with me for three days.
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They have nothing to eat, and I am unwilling to send them away
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hungry lest they faint on the way.
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Listen,
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Jesus sees the need that they can't even verbalize,
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and he sees the need that they don't even know is coming.
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They're going to get hungry.
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Like right now.
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They don't even realize what they're going to be walking into.
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But I see it, and I have so much compassion on them.
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I don't want to just meet their immediate thing that they can't even verbalize.
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I'm going to set them up for my provision in the future.
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That's how much compassion I have on these people who don't even know
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what to say, who are outside of the scope of the promise of my father.
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And what put
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them in that position was simply admitting and acknowledging their own brokenness
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and needing inability to fix themselves.
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People came for healing.
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Jesus saw their hunger.
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It's beautiful.
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Because we don't have to perform for him,
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and we don't have to convince him.
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See, one of the things I love about my God is that
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Jesus does not need to be manipulated into mercy.
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God, I've been so.
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I've tried.
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So I've given.
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So quit manipulating him.
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Just come before and say, God, even
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I can't list for you the things I've done because I'm not.
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I can list for you
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my failure and how broken I am and how needy I am and how desperate I am.
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And I realize that doesn't
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put me in a super good standing, but I'm not relying on my standing.
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I'm relying on your compassion. That's it.
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And it's so beautiful.
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That is so simplistic,
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but it's so humbling.
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And that's our problem.
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Verse 33.
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And the disciples said to him, where will we get enough bread
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in such a place to feed such a great crowd?
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Okay.
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Do you remember what we read about in chapter 14 of chapter earlier?
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What was what was one of the things you read about just a chapter earlier,
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you Bible students, what did Jesus do?
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That relates to this story?
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What did he do?
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Yeah, he fed 5000.
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They just were in the exact same scenario.
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Except now they had less of a need.
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Jesus already did a bigger need.
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5000 men, besides 23,000 total,
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and gave an abundance of 12 baskets left over.
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And now they're in this scenario, not 5000, now only 4000.
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And they even have more supply now they got seven.
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Before it was it was 5 to 2.
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Now it's seven and some.
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And apparently at least this time they didn't
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have to steal it from some little boy like they probably brought.
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They learned a little bit and brought some of their own anyway.
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Like they got the the need is less and the supply and now they still.
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How are they going to do.
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Sometimes you look
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at these people and think what it is
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anybody. Yeah.
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Now if we looked in the mirror lately.
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Like why is it that we're like, oh God, I know what you did back then,
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but now there's a whole new ballgame now, I don't know.
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Let me suggest you there's something more going on here
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than just they forgot what God did.
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Let me suggest you why they asked this question. Now,
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it's not that they forgot what God did.
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It's because they remember who God did it for.
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See, when Jesus fed the 5000 and those were Jews,
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there's 4000 in the Decapolis.
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They're non-Jews.
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So the disciples, their problem is not with the supply of God.
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Their problem is with the scope of God's grace
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and his mercy.
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See the disciples.
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They knew that Jesus could feed our people.
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But what?
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Jesus really feed those people?
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That's their problem.
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Like God, we're kind of entitled
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because we're
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you fill in the blank.
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But those.
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Grace always feels generous until God gives it to
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someone you would have excluded.
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See, the disciples had seen the power of Jesus,
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but now they're going to learn the grace of Jesus.
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And so lesson for every one of us.
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Here's the danger of religious people.
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We believe in grace theologically, but we often ration it
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relationally.
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We love the fact that God is a gracious and merciful God.
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We love that.
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And we expect that from him.
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But as far as me and you, the moment you cross me,
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the moment I'm offended by what you.
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Like.
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We believe in it in theologically, long as it's coming from God to me.
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But when it's relationally.
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And now you've done that to me.
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See, one of the things I have to realize
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is that it's only needy people
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who get grace.
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And once we've received grace,
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once I've understood that Jesus
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paid the penalty and the price for my sin that I couldn't pay
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by giving his life on the cross for the forgiveness of my sin,
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and then raising from the dead to ensure eternal life.
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And that act alone deserves all of my allegiance.
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And once I've given my life and my allegiance
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to Christ, I receive this incredible grace.
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It's by God's grace that even did that for me in the first place.
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And the moment I received that.
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It is so disingenuous for me to keep that
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and not give the same grace that I've received.
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Even to those people.
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Now, the interesting thing about grace
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is you only get it if you admit you need it.
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If I always think that I'm in the right,
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if I always think that it's someone else's problem.
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If I always think.
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That they're the ones who need to.
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I'm never in a position
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to receive God's grace.
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Or if I think that I'm in right
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standing with God because of how I've lived.
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I've been righteous, I've been holy, I've been obedient.
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Of course I'm right with God.
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That attitude
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has removed that person from the grace of God.
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Have you ever heard the idea that someone has fallen from grace?
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Yeah, usually that
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is used predominantly when someone messes up real bad,
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someone who's not supposed to mess up and they mess up real bad.
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They've fallen from grace.
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That is such a diabolical, demonic understanding of grace.
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Because what that does is it keeps someone from the grace of God.
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The only time that phrase fallen from grace is used
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in all of the Bible one time.
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Galatians five.
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For you who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ.
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You have what?
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Fallen away from grace.
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You're trying to be right with God by how you're living.
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You think your behavior makes you right with God.
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You think you have the right to come to God based on your righteous behavior.
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You've just fallen from grace.
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When you're a sinner and you admit your sin,
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you fall into grace.
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The religious people fall out of grace.
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Do you understand?
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But it's only the people who admit their broken
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and worthless have nothing to offer God
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that are in a position to receive the grace of God.
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It's beautiful.
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It's threatening.
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But it's beautiful.
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Verses 3437.
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And Jesus said to them, how many loaves do you have?
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He said, seven and a few small fish, and directing the crowd
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to sit down on the ground, he took
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the seven loaves and the fish, and having given
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thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples.
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And the disciples gave them to the crowds.
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And they all ate and were satisfied.
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And they took up seven baskets full of broken pieces left over.
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Those who were those who ate were 4000 men besides women and children.
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And after sending them away, sending the crowds away,
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he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.
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Just says, look.
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Need is huge.
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Take care of it.
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And their response is we?
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Yeah, we'd love to.
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We don't have enough.
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Have you ever been in that position?
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Like God, I would love to.
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I just don't know.
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God, I would love to say.
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I would love to respond.
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I would love to do.
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I would love to give.
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I just don't have anybody.
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Yeah.
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This has been people's response from day one.
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Seven loaves, a few fish.
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Like it's not enough.
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I know what you've asked, God, but it's not enough.
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Listen, not enough is the raw material Jesus requires.
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That's all he's looking for.
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If you've ever felt like God, I hear what you're saying.
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I hear what you're asking.
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I don't have enough. You fill in the blank.
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God says that's exactly the raw material that I require.
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Any. Any of you Bible scholars.
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Let me ask you this question.
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You look in the Bible and show me where God asked
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someone who already had an abundance to give him a little bit of leftovers,
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or they had too much of.
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Doesn't happen.
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He always goes to those who don't have enough
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and says, listen, I want you to.
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I know you don't have enough.
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That's why I chose you.
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You don't get more excuses.
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See, a little bit in my hands is a little bit.
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A little bit in Jesus's hands.
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Feeds thousands.
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And so we don't get a say to Jesus.
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I would love to.
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I just don't have enough.
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Never say, Lord, I wish I had.
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Dot dot dot.
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Always say, Lord, here's what I have.
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Because Jesus not
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only uses what we have, Jesus multiplies it.
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You want more of the little you have.
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Say, here we go, Lord.
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Many people I mean not here because we're we do everything right,
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but other people who are trying to follow
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Jesus and other churches
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wait to obey and wait to do
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and wait to serve and wait to give until they have enough,
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and till they have enough time, until they have enough money,
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until they have enough strength, until they have enough confidence,
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until they have enough energy, until they have the time when their schedule.
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Jesus always starts
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with what looks inadequate.
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Everything that God has asked of you
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and of me that we've looked at and said, God, I wish I could.
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I just don't have enough.
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Jesus says, that's why I'm starting with you.
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Hudson Taylor says this I
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love this quote God's work does God done God's way?
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Never last. God's supply.
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The reason why you and I don't have enough,
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or God has asked us to do, is if we did, we'd give him leftovers.
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And we think that he's lucky to have us on a team.
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We have another way that this is said,
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kind of more modern way is where God guides.
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God provides.
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That's why we in this church have.
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We've always said yes on the front end of everything.
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Yeah, sure. Yeah.
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God will provide if we're confident God's doing it.
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It doesn't matter what it looked like.
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The situation looks like. Let's just say yes.
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Let's say yes and see what happens.
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Let's actually step on the water and see if we, you know, if he float or not.
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Let's just say yes.
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Well. God.
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Wait, wait. You want us to start a church planning movement in Cuba?
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It's illegal there, but. Okay.
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You wants to do this in Guatemala?
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Yeah. All right.
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What? Ukraine during a war.
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All right. Yeah, we'll say yes.
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Okay. Wait, wait.
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You're going to do something now in Israel.
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Well, all that mess is going on.
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Yeah, we'll say yes. Absolutely. We'll go there.
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Oh, wait a minute. Venezuela.
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After what we did to Maduro.
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You want to go? Yeah, sure. Yeah. We'll go.
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We've never, ever
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said.
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But God wants you provide.
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That's not art.
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We don't do that because it's not in the Bible.
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So let me just ask, what's that thing you've been withholding
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because you feel like you don't have enough of?
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That not enough excuse is pretty weak.
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See, Jesus
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didn't ask his disciples to create the bread.
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He just asked him to distribute what he would multiply.
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Friends, that's called ministry.
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We're not the source.
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We're the servants.
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We're not the miracle.
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You realize that.
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We just carry it.
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And so that's this one group that comes to Jesus.
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But here's this whole other group.
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Chapter 16, verse one.
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The Pharisees and Sadducees came to test him,
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and they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
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Answered them,
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when it's evening, you say it's going to be fair weather,
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not because the sky is red.
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Was morning is going to be stormy because the skies read threatening.
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Did you know that's like a navy saying red sky at night.
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Sailor's delight.
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Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.
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Yeah, I mean, so like, this is like.
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Oh, yeah, well, that makes sense.
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You know, and it says, well, you know how to interpret the signs that way,
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but you can't interpret the signs of the times.
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And evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign and none will be given to it.
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Set up the sign of Jonah.
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He left these Pharisees and said a very different group.
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Pharisees and Sadducees, let me let me help you understand who
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these two groups are.
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We don't read a lot about the Sadducees in the Bible.
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They they, they they really want that much of a concern to Jesus.
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The Pharisees we hear a lot more about.
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But let me just let me just tell you what they were like back then.
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You can extrapolate the
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implication and
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application to today, the Sadducees, both these groups
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and both a political and a religious group,
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one more political, one more religious, but had ties to both worlds.
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The Sadducees were the wealthy, the elite.
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I could say the near Nantucket.
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They were more concerned
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with their political power than their morality.
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They weren't overly religious if it interfered with their power
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and their money and their political control.
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They were religious but not evangelistic,
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and they rejected
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a literal heaven, a literal hell.
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They, quote unquote trusted the science,
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so they didn't believe in miracles.
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And then there were the Pharisees.
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They were the Scripture thumpers.
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They were the blue collar people.
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They were deists, meaning
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they were God fearing.
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And their religion
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was and their nation was built on godly principles.
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But they had a very wrong conception of the Messiah,
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and they
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wanted to make their nation great again,
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and they wanted to rid their land of all the foreigners
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that were in it.
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Again,
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I don't know how that applies to today at all.
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But when I look at Jesus's time and our time,
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the thing that runs through my head is Ecclesiastes one nine.
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What has been will be again, there's nothing new under the sun.
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Can you imagine
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what any of Jesus disciples,
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if they were to have come to him and said, Jesus, listen, here's the deal.
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Yeah, I want to follow you, but I also want you to honor my party.
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The matter of fact, what I would like to do
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is take your kingdom and attach it to my party.
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Can you imagine what Jesus would have said?
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He would have said, depart from me.
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I've never known you because you don't understand my kingdom.
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Everybody hear me a loud and clear.
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We don't attach Jesus to our political party,
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and we don't ask Jesus to bless our kingdom.
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We submit to his kingdom.
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So these two come.
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And here's how you know you're verging on this Pharisee
-
attitude.
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The Sadducees attitude,
-
when they looked at themselves and people,
-
there was self elevation and others evaluation.
-
They were masters
-
at evaluating everybody else and elevating themselves.
-
Anybody?
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So the crowds come with suffering.
-
The Pharisees and Sadducees come with suspicion.
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The crowds come simply, asking for mercy.
-
These leaders come demanding proof.
-
They're so arrogant.
-
And Jesus gives grace to the needy.
-
He doesn't do tricks for the entitled.
-
They had already seen.
-
If you said you want to sign.
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And the reason I don't know if you notice it says they demanded a sign from heaven.
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Not just a sign of sign from heaven. Here's why.
-
Because they believed that a sign from earth and earthly sign,
-
like anybody could conjure that.
-
But a sign from heaven, like Elijah on the on Mount Carmel,
-
the province of Vail calling a fire from heaven like that was from God.
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And so what they're saying, what we've seen of you, that could be a trick.
-
We want to see something. You want to prove yourself?
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Oh, we want to see something from the hand of God himself.
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And Jesus says, I'm not going to show you a darn thing.
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You've seen enough.
-
You've seen enough healing.
-
You've seen enough.
-
You've seen enough authority.
-
You've seen enough authority to for exorcism.
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You've seen enough fulfilled prophecy.
-
You've seen enough.
-
You've seen enough authority over nature.
-
You've seen enough authority over disease.
-
You've seen enough authority over demons.
-
You've seen enough authority to forgive sin.
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You've seen enough authority for miracle.
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You've seen enough.
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Our problem, like theirs,
-
is not a lack of evidence.
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Our problem is a hardness of heart.
-
God, if you'll just do this.
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God, if you'll give me this.
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God if you'll move in now.
-
God if you'll.
-
Listen.
-
Love does not manipulate.
-
And faith does not put Jesus on trial.
-
There's a great difference between bringing to Jesus your questions
-
and your wounds and demanding Jesus meet your conditions.
-
The vast difference.
-
Jesus has
-
compassion, but he will not be controlled.
-
And he is merciful, but he will never be manipulated.
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Just as you want to sign, I'll give you the sign.
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But it's not the sign you want.
-
I'm going to give you the sign of Jonah.
-
Now, Jesus had already talked about this back in Matthew 12, verse 40.
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I think the verse is it says the only sign you're going to give signage.
-
Jonah. He says it again here.
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What's the sign of Jonah?
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It's a sign of the resurrection.
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As Jonah was in the bill of the fish for three days and three nights,
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so will the Son of Man be in the belly of the earth, dead, resurrected.
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The only sign you get to see they wanted spectacle.
-
Jesus gave them the cross.
-
They wanted to show in fireworks.
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Jesus gave them an empty tomb.
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So that's the only.
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That's the only sign of your gift.
-
He says the same thing to me.
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And you.
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See, it's the cross.
-
The cross is God's answer to human need.
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And the empty tomb is God's answer to human doubt.
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Please, my dear friends, never interpret
-
God's love through the lens
-
other than the cross.
-
Never interpret
-
God's love through any lens other than the cross.
-
This is where we go wrong. So often.
-
We interpret God's love through my pain, through my circumstance,
-
through the paralyzed, been through through the injustice I've suffered.
-
And we think, God,
-
if you loved, if you were powerful, if you could. Why?
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And we interpret our pain and our difficulty
-
and our tragedy through something other than the cross.
-
The cross
-
is God's answer to every need we have, and the empty
-
tomb is the answer to every human doubt.
-
To interpret
-
our experience through something other than the cross.
-
To interpret God's love through our experience
-
rather than the cross, is to deny the cross
-
and is to less in God's love.
-
And if that continues to long, please hear me.
-
You will walk away from Christ.
-
If you allow yourself for too long to interpret
-
God's love through your experience and your pain
-
and your tragedy and your broken dreams and your broken life,
-
you will eventually walk away from him.
-
The cross.
-
That's how I interpret his love.
-
The cross is God's.
-
It's God's declaration that I am more sinful than I want to admit,
-
and I'm also more loved than I ever dare to hope.
-
The cross says I am so sinful and so broken.
-
I cannot be right
-
with God any other way but through the death of Christ.
-
But that same cross that condemns me
-
for how bad and sinful I am also then says,
-
but you are also more love than you ever dared hope.
-
And when you accept that.
-
I come to this loving God and say.
-
I'm relying on your compassion
-
and your mercy and grace,
-
what a beautiful way to live
-
and to experience the God of the universe
-
in my life.
-
Well, beautiful.
-
And if the cross
-
and the resurrection aren't enough to make you surrender,
-
no lesser sign will be enough
-
to satisfy you.
-
And I thank God
-
that he's picked me up when I fallen.
-
And he's
-
turned me around when I've walked away.
-
Not because I deserved it.
-
Because I came to God in my brokenness and said.
-
I'm relying on your compassion.
-
He is so good
-
and his love is so powerful and his cross proves it.
-
Do not come to him demanding.
-
Come to him broken and needy,
-
and he will have compassion.
-
Why don't you pray with me?
-
Father, you are a good God.
-
You've loved us with an everlasting love.
-
Thank you that there's nothing we could do
-
or not do that would make you change your love.
-
To love us less or love us more. Forgive us.
-
Forgive me for how I've tried to add your kingdom to my life.
-
Rather than surrounding my life to your kingdom.
-
Forgive me for my arrogance.
-
Forgive me for my pride.
-
Forgive me for thinking I had something to offer you.
-
The only thing I have to offer you
-
is my brokenness and my sin and my life.
-
And so I come to you right now with just open arms
-
and unexpressed desire.
-
Have mercy and compassion.
-
Oh, God.
-
Friends, I would invite you in this moment.
-
I don't want you to.
-
I don't want you to walk out of here
-
thinking something different about who God is
-
and his love for you.
-
He's worthy to give your life to.
-
And I want to invite you this moment
-
to say, God, I admit that I'm a sinner
-
and I have lived life on my own terms,
-
and I've done this religion thing on my own terms, and it's wrong.
-
Jesus,
-
I believe that you died on the cross for my sin that you were buried
-
in, that you were raised to life to save me.
-
So save me.
-
I commit to turn from my sin,
-
and I dedicate my life
-
and my allegiance to you and your kingdom
-
alone, above all others,
-
and empower me to love you with my whole heart and soul
-
and mind and strength, without delay and without hesitation,
-
I am yours.
-
Fill me with your spirit
-
and the power of your spirit
-
to desire and to live a holy life.
-
I am yours.
-
In your name I pray.
-
Amen.
-
Friends, listen, I love you.
-
I'm proud of you.
-
Good job. We're getting through, Matthew.
-
There's a lot there.
-
Yeah, yeah.
-
So this week, read chapter 15. Read chapter 16.
-
We're going to we're going to finish out chapter 16 next week.
-
You understand.
-
In the meantime
-
we thank God
-
because he's picked us up when we fall in because we fall.
-
And he's turned us around when we get stupid.
-
Yeah, yeah.
-
And he's worth giving our thanks to.
-
So here's the deal.
-
Stand up, use your open mouths, and let's sing this with a little bit of gusto.
-
You got it. All right.