Shaped to Trust His Provision (Kirk Giles) | Shaped by Jesus

Good morning, everyone. Take your Bibles.

Open up to the Gospel of Luke Chapter 9.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

Luke Chapter 9. That's page 919.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

If you're using one of the Bibles in the seat underneath of

you, for those of you who have asked me the question, those

Bibles in the sea, are we allowed to just take them?

And the answer is yes. It is our gift to you as a

church. We would love for you to have a

Bible that you can bring home with you.

I want you to think about a time when you came face to face with

your limitations as a human being.

I remember one time my sons were sharing a bedroom and they

wanted me to paint their bedroom Spider Man colors and being a

good dad I thought this is a great thing and I'm going to go

paint their bedroom spider man color.

So I spent all this time painting it the red and the blue

and it looked awesome. And I called Shannon into the

room to show off my work to her and she said, so what's with the

paint all over the carpet or the ceiling?

And I, I just like the color outside the lines a little bit.

It's fine. But it, it was like, moments

like that have happened so many times in my life where I

recognize that Bible college does not train you how to use a

paintbrush or a drill or anything like that.

I, I come face to face my limitations all the time at

home. And because you're a human

being, I know I'm not alone. I know you've got your set of

limitations as well. You've got moments that happen

where your limitations are exposed, moments where you

realize you don't have enough resources to fix the problem.

Even worse, you don't have the skills or the strengths or the

personality that you would need to step into the situation that

is in front of you. We all have limitations for all

kinds of different reasons, whether it's your genetics,

nobody's ever taught you, maybe it's your age.

Sometimes you've got limitations because you're younger and you

don't have all the experience that other people have.

And sometimes those of us, as we get a little bit older, we start

to feel some of our own limitations as well because we

can't do all the things that we used to be able to do.

If you've got poor health and health challenges, you are very

acutely aware of some of your limitations.

So what is your normal response when you come up against your

limitations? What what's the way that you

normally react to them? Do you just get stressed out and

anxious? Do you get angry and frustrated?

Do do you feel like a failure or a loser or not enough as a human

being? Do you just go, I'm just going

to power through this and figure it out.

Or maybe you're just someone who just shrugs your shoulders and

goes whatever, and you just accept the limitation and you

move on. Well, we're walking through Luke

Luke 9 · chapter mention

Chapter 9 and we're talking about how Jesus shapes people's

lives, how he shapes us to be the people that God wants us to

be. And as we come to Luke 9 today,

here's what we're going to discover.

Jesus is going to use your limitations to shape your trust

in God. That from God's perspective,

your limitations are not something for you to get

stressed out over or anxious about.

They're not something for you to power through and just figure

out. They're not even something to

just accept and move on from now.

And in reality, the limitations that you have are an opportunity

for you to find a greater closeness in your walk with God.

It's an opportunity for you to find rest for your soul and for

your relationship with God to be strengthened.

Now, I know that there's a lot of people who don't like to

admit that they've got weaknesses and limits.

We, we, we are filled with a little shame sometimes around

that. But throughout human history,

the human race has tried to show that we've got no limits.

We can do anything. Your mom probably told you you

can do anything. She lied.

You can't. Even the development of AI has

created a world where some people imagine a life without

limits. And while humans are capable of

doing some pretty extraordinary things, no matter how hard we

try, we will always come face to face with things that are beyond

our ability for one simple reason.

You're not God. You're hardwired by God to be a

person who points to what God is like, but you are never going to

be able to be and do everything that God does.

In Luke 9, the disciples of Jesus are going to come face to

face with Him, shaping them through their limitations.

This is where we pick up beginning in verse 10.

When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus all that they

had done. He took them along and withdrew

privately to a town called Bethsaida.

When the crowds found out, they followed him.

He welcomed them, spoke to them about the Kingdom of God and

healed those who needed healing. Late in the day, the 12

approached and said to him, send the crowd away so that they can

go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find food and

lodging. Because we are in a deserted

place here. You give them something to eat.

He told them. We have no more than 5 loaves

and two fish. They said unless we go and buy

food for all these people. For about 5000 men were there.

Then he told his disciples have them sit down in groups of about

50 each. They did what he said had them

all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and

the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke

them. He kept giving them to the

disciples to be set before the crowd.

Everyone ate and was filled. They picked up 12 baskets of

leftover pieces. So the very first thing that

happens in this passage is that is that the disciples of Jesus

return and they're reporting to Jesus on what they had done.

This is referring to what we talked about two weeks ago,

where Jesus had sent the disciples out to go on mission

to go and heal people and proclaim the good news of the

Kingdom of God. So now they've come back to

Jesus and they're telling him stories of what went on while

they were out doing the work of ministry.

They've been busy. They've been giving their all to

love people and meet their needs.

When the Gospel of Mark shares this same story, he says that

the disciples had been so busy serving other people they had

not even had any time to eat yet.

Matthew adds one more layer by saying the disciples had just

found out that John the Baptist had been killed and they had

gone and taken John's body and buried John.

So this group of men who had been out on mission giving

themselves over and over again to help other people, they are

worn out. They are worn out physically,

they're worn out emotionally, they are worn out spiritually.

And the very first thing that Jesus does is he takes them away

from the noise in the crowds to a place called Bethsaida to be

alone with him so he could care for them.

And right away, Jesus is ministering to his disciples in

their limitations. And here's what I want you to

hear today. When you are weary and you are

exhausted, come to Jesus. I know that in this room and

watching online, there are many, many people who are just simply

exhausted. You're working hard, some of you

are working multiple jobs, and it doesn't seem to be enough.

You're caring for family and friends who are going through it

right now, and you're caring. You're so invested that you

don't even have enough time to eat proper meals or exercise or

take care of your own health. Some of you, many of you are

faithfully serving in the life of our church family.

You are giving and giving and giving of yourself to others for

for their benefit. And and you're almost afraid to

stop because if you stop, you don't know what might happen

when the adrenaline comes crashing down.

That's how tired you are. And if that's you today, if you

find yourself in a place where you are just tired and your soul

is feeling weary by the grind of life, I want you to know Jesus

is not a slave driver who is just going to say to you, suck

it up and learn to work harder. The exhaustion you're feeling is

God's way of showing you that you've got limitations, and it's

also an invitation from Jesus for you to find rest and

refreshing from Him. I don't know what you do to

refresh yourself, but if you're like most people, you probably

take a vacation or you've got hobbies that you use.

You like to take a nice long nap, long nap.

All those things are great things to do, but there is

something unique about going and being alone with Jesus and

allowing Him to speak into your life.

He's going to give you something that no other outlet you have to

be refreshed can give you. He's going to renew your soul.

Jesus is the one who knows exactly what your limitations

are, and Jesus has compassion for you.

He is the Good Shepherd who loves you.

At the core of the Christian story is not a whole bunch of

responsibilities or tasks that we have to accomplish.

It's not about how many ways am I serving the needs of all the

other people. Everything about the Christian

story is rooted and flows out of a love relationship with God.

Jonathan Edwards said it like this.

He said a true Christian delights at times to retire from

all mankind. Now doesn't that sound awesome?

Who doesn't want to retire from all mankind sometimes, right?

But this is not that's not the whole sentence.

Here's what his full sentence is.

A true Christian delights at times to retire from all

mankind, to converse with God in solitary places.

It's the words of David in Psalm 42.

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so I long for you, God.

Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus is the living water.

And when you're exhausted and worn down, he sees you and he

simply says, hey friend, come here and and let me refresh you.

So when was the last time you turned off all the noise and you

stepped away from all the responsibilities?

Not just to go on a trip somewhere or go up to a cottage

or take a vacation. But when was the last time you

did all those things so that you could just simply sit in the

presence of Jesus? Not, not to tell Him all the

things that you want from Him, but to receive what He wants to

say to you and speak into your own heart and soul.

Some of you may not even know what that even looks like or how

to even do that. So I want to just take a minute.

I want to kind of give you some practical handles of what that

might look like for you if you've never done something like

that before. First of all, you don't have to

go far away to have this kind of time with Jesus.

You don't have to sit there and think, OK, how do I go to the

desert somewhere or up to a mountaintop somewhere to have

this kind of time alone with Jesus?

The disciples are brought to Bethsaida.

Bethsaida was the hometown of three of Jesus disciples.

But what Jesus does is he keeps them close to home, but he takes

them to a deserted area, probably just outside of

Bethsaida, an area where they could be free from the

distractions and free from all the things that are going to

take them away from hearing what Jesus wants to speak into their

life. And so turn off your phone, turn

off your television, turn off your computer.

If you are dealing with young kids and the reality of your

home and you're going Kirk, silence is not a thing.

Tag team with each other. Seriously, your team work

together so that each other can have some time alone with God.

If you're a single parent, tag team with other single parents

and create some space, support each other in being able to do

this. And then take 20 minutes or an

hour or half a day or a full day, whatever it looks like,

whatever you can take. Get alone with God.

And then you're probably going to need to take a few deep

breaths. Because if you're like me, your

brains kind of still in about 500 different spots and you're

going to need to take a few deep breaths and just remind

yourself, OK, I'm here right now and I just want to hear from God

and invite God. Like God, would you come and

minister to my heart and my soul?

Would you speak to me? The things you want to speak to

me, you open up to places in the Bible and verses like Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd. You read passages throughout the

Bible that talk about the amazing gifts that God gives to

you because you're his child. And just listen to what the Holy

Spirit wants to say to you from Scripture.

I promise you, God doesn't just want to speak to somebody like

me who's standing on a platform as a posture.

God wants to speak to all of his children and minister to your

heart and soul. Sing worship songs, fix your

heart on God, invite him to minister to you.

And I, it's going to feel weird at first.

I'm just like, if you've never done that before, I promise you

it feels weird at first, but I'll tell you, there's nobody

who loves you more than Jesus does.

He delights in caring for you and ministering to you.

Enjoy His presence and His love. Now the reality is this,

spending time alone with Jesus does not remove all the

pressures and responsibilities. They're going to still find a

way to find you. And if you've ever gone away on

vacation, you know that's true when you come back to work after

a vacation. And the same thing happens here

in this story to the disciples in verse 11.

The crowds find out where Jesus and his disciples are, and they

go to them. They go chasing them down.

Jesus is trying to be alone with his disciples to minister to

them. And the crowds just keep coming

and going. Give us more, Jesus, Give us

more. So Jesus starts ministering to

these people. He's healing them.

He's speaking to them about the Kingdom of God.

And the day is going on and on and on and getting longer and

longer. And, and the disciples, they

come to Jesus and they say, hey, Jesus, hey, we're really tired.

Could you just send the crowds away, please?

Could you just get rid of the people?

We're in a deserted place here, Jesus.

We're tired. There's no food to eat.

There's nothing here to help these people other than you

meeting their spiritual needs. But practically, there's nothing

here for them, Jesus. Just send them away to a place

where they can get their needs met.

And really, it's a very logical response from the disciples.

There's a clear need here. These people are getting hungry.

We need to feed them. And the only solution is send

them away to the villages where they can get some food.

But Jesus has a different idea. Jesus looks at his disciples and

then he looks out at the crowd, looks back at his disciples and

he says, you give them something to eat.

That is such a wild response from Jesus because he's actually

the one who created all the realities of the limitations

that are happening right now. First of all, he brought the

disciples out to a deserted place where he knew there was

going to be no food. Second, earlier in Chapter 9,

Jesus had told his disciples don't bring any food for the

journey, so they didn't have a whole bunch of extra snack food

in their backpacks. In the end, they're in a

deserted place that Jesus brought them to.

And then Jesus says you give them something to eat sometimes.

Jesus is going to create the limitations in your life to

teach you this lesson. When the need feels

overwhelming, don't just pass it off.

We live in a culture of constantly outsourcing our

problems to other people. We, we can easily identify all

kinds of things that need to be addressed.

And we also quite easily go, I don't have the ability to help

these people with these things. Like you, you look at some of

the people in your own life and you go, man, I, I see all the

things that they need help with, but, but I don't have the skills

to give them the counseling they need or the finances to help

them get out of the trouble that they're in.

So what do we do? We, we outsource the solution.

We, we say, well, you should go here for counseling and you

should go check out these places to get all the supports and

resources that you need. One of the things that happened

in a church all the time is people go, I think you should

talk to the pastor about that. You should sit down with him and

and let him solve the problem for you.

And we outsource all this stuff to pastor or to staff members.

God is going to bring people in needs into your life that

sometimes are going to feel too big for you.

Do not automatically pass the buck to someone else.

Start by asking how can I be part of the solution?

Now I I know some people immediately you're thinking, but

Kirk, you don't really understand how big some people's

problems are. There is no way I can do

anything to help. You want to talk about a big

problem? These guys in this story are

facing a big problem. They're about to come face to

face with 5000 very hangry men. It is about to become a big

problem. And that's just men.

This is not a men's conference. Probably it doesn't count the

women and children who were probably there.

They were probably looking at how do we feed 15 to 20,000

people? So there's this huge need,

there's no food, and Jesus says, I want you to do something about

it instead of just passing it off to someone else.

So what do you do in a moment like that, assuming you would

say yes to Jesus, you probably would do the same thing.

What the disciples did you look to see?

Well, what do we have? Let's see what?

Let's do a bit of inventory and see what we have to be able to

feed all these people. And then once you figure out

what you have, you think to yourself, what I have to offer

is not nearly enough for the size of the problem.

And here's what Jesus is teaching his disciples.

When you feel like it's not enough, bring what you have

anyway. In verses 13 and 14, the

disciples tell Jesus, hey, we only have 5 loaves and two

fishes. Thousands of people hungry. 5

loaves, 2 fish. Now 5 loaves isn't even as much

food as you, and I think 5 loaves is because back in that

day a loaf was a smaller loaf of bread.

It actually took three loaves of bread to feed one person, so

it's even less food than you. And I think about the math is

not math thing in this story. And you will encounter moments

like this in your life where you come face to face with your

limitations and Jesus says, I want you to still bring what you

have to offer and you go, I don't have much to bring.

And moments like this are quite often a defining moment in our

lives. What do you do when you don't

have enough to meet the need? Do you just give up?

Do you send people somewhere else?

Or do you obey Jesus and bring what you have to Him?

See, the temptation in moments like this is to forget all the

promises that God has made to us would have been the same

temptation the disciples faced. It would be so easy in that kind

of a moment for them to forget the promise that Jesus had made

to them. Just a few verses earlier in

Chapter 9 where he said, I am sending you out with all of my

power and authority. So this group of men are given

the power and authority of Jesus to go out, and now they're at a

spot where it's getting real. Like there there are times where

our faith is theoretical. We know that this is the right

thing. We know what the Bible says.

You've been sent out with power and authority, but then you're

presented with a moment where the odds don't make any sense

and you know what Jesus has told you to do.

But you're like, that doesn't add up though.

What do you do? The odds don't look good.

But in those moments, are you willing to trust Jesus?

Are you willing to do what Jesus would want you to do, even if it

doesn't make sense? See, that's what it means to

bring what you have to Jesus. It just means being obedient.

Give what you have financially, give what you have physically,

give what you have emotionally and relationally to what matters

to Jesus. That's what one boy does in this

story. When John tells this story, he

talks about a young boy who is the one who provides the five

loaves and two fish. And John puts in this little

piece where he says it was barley bread.

And what we learned from that is that this boy really is bringing

nothing to the table of significance.

You see, barley bread is the kind of bread that was only used

in homes where people were poor. Wheat bread is what was used for

people who had money to be able to make bread for themselves.

Giving up this bread to this boy was not only costly to his

stomach, it was costly to his wallet.

But he brings it to Jesus anyways.

God doesn't ask you just to bring what you don't have.

He asked you to trust Him with what you do have.

Some of you right now, you are in the middle of some incredible

challenges. There's someone you love who's

very sick, your family or your marriage is just stretched to

the limit. Your friends are in crisis.

And the question you need to ask yourself is, what is it that

Jesus would want me to do in this moment?

And bring what you have. Take the skills and the wisdom

and the experience that you have and bring it into the situation

and love people. And you might think, but Kirk,

some of the problems are so big. I, I, it's not going to be

enough. You might think, I, I, I just

have this limitation. Do it anyway.

Bring what you have anyway. I've heard multiple stories over

this past week of people in our church who are engaging in

spiritual conversations with people who don't have any faith.

And there's this temptation when we talk to people who are

exploring Christianity or struggling with spiritual

questions. And the temptation is I'm not

going to be able to answer their questions.

I don't know how to respond to them.

So I'm going to invite them to go to AA, will fix the problem

for them. You'll get your answers there.

And Alpha's great. It's good that you invite people

to Alpha, but what if before you just sent someone away, you

brought what you have to that person?

Like if you're already a follower of Jesus, you have the

Holy Spirit of God living in you.

You're empowered by God to go and make disciples.

Alpha's awesome. It's a great resource for you to

have, but it's not meant to replace you going and sharing

the story with other people. You want to talk about a big

challenge. As a church, we face huge

challenges. You look at the thousands upon

thousands of people all around us in our region who don't know

Jesus, and Jesus says go and make disciples.

You talk about all the people who are struggling with mental

health and financial issues, and it's like, how can a church like

us possibly meet all the needs in our area?

And then on top of all of that, we have a building that requires

a lot of work to be done to it, a few $1,000,000 worth of work.

How in the world are we going to do all of that?

See, the truth is limitations are simply an opportunity for

you to experience God's provision.

There is something really incredible that happens in this

story. They've got nothing compared to

the need. And then Jesus says to them, OK,

well you've got 5 loaves and two fish.

Now I want you to have everybody sit down in groups of 50.

He takes the bread and he takes the fish and he blesses it and

he says to them here, just start with this group of 50 over here

and let's, let's see how far we can get the food.

Like forget trying to feed 5000 men, feeding 50 from 5 loaves

and two fishes is a miracle. And you can imagine the

disciples taking this food that Jesus has blessed and given to

them and they start to distribute it and, and then they

get to the end. It's like, oh, there's enough

food. We can, we can go to the next

group of 50. Oh, hey, Peter, there's more

food. We can go to the next group of

James. There's more food.

We can go to the next group of 50.

Oh, John, we can go to the next group.

And then before you know it, like 100 plus groups of 50

people have all been fed. Jesus says this first, He goes

just feed this first 50, and after a while you're going to

reach a point where you look back and you go, wow, how

amazing is the faithfulness of God.

Sometimes in my experience, when you come up against some big

challenges or even big opportunities in life, Jesus

does not show you the whole story.

He does not show the disciples how they're going to feed all of

those thousands. He just takes it one group of 50

at a time. Sometimes, many times, Jesus

just calls you to take the next step.

You don't know what the whole story is going to look.

You know what the whole need is, but you don't have a clue how

you're going to meet the whole need.

What Jesus is just saying, trust me to get there, just take the

next step. Sometimes we miss experiencing

the provision of God because some of us just need to see the

whole story mapped out for us before we're going to take the

first step of obedience. I've got to tell you, it's, it's

scary, but man, it is an amazing ride when you just trust God to

take you through the journey. The ability to look back at the

faithfulness of God to to sit there and go.

How in the world did we get from there to here?

And here's what's even more awesome about this part of the

story. Not only did everyone else leave

full, there is enough leftovers for each disciple to have one

basket full. Jesus doesn't only care about

you meeting the needs of everyone else.

Jesus will take care of you too. It's so radical because we are

taught look after yourself. Look after yourself.

But what if the best way to look after yourself is to trust your

entire life into the hands of Jesus?

God created you and me with limitations, but bringing those

limitations and offering them to Jesus is an opportunity for you

to experience just how much God loves you.

God is your provider, not just with your physical needs, but

with your emotional and spiritual needs too.

The single greatest limitation that every person has is your

inability to be good enough to measure up to God's standards.

You are not a perfect person. Maybe you know that already, but

it has a far greater consequence than you realize.

Every single one of us. We are all sinners, the Bible

says, and no matter how much you try to be a better person, you

will still fall short. The book of Romans tells us all

have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but Jesus is

God's abundant provision for you.

Jesus makes up what you cannot. He was perfect for you while you

were still a Sinner. Jesus Christ died on the cross

for you. He died to provide you with

eternal life, to provide you with the opportunity to have a

reconciled relationship with God, and to give you all the

blessings that come from being a child of God.

You can experience God's provision for you spiritually

when you get honest with your own limitations, when you stop

trying to measure up and you start to put your life into the

hands of Jesus. And for those of you who are

already believers in Jesus, let me ask you this question.

Where right now in your life are you sitting and thinking, Hey,

I, I don't have enough to meet that that need that exists.

I don't have enough. Where in our church are some of

you thinking, hey, we don't have enough to be able to do this?

Now I want you to imagine something.

Imagine how your life would be different if you stopped looking

at what we don't have and started looking at what God is

capable of doing if we simply take what we do have to Him.

Several decades ago there was a man who worked as a butcher in

Brantford. His name was Ray.

Ray was a blue collar guy, typical butcher, rough around

the edges. Through a whole series of really

miraculous things, Ray started to realize that he needed Jesus

in his life. A bunch of people had come to

him and started talking to him about the Lord and and he

realized he needed Jesus. So he he put his faith in Jesus,

surrendered his life to Jesus, started going to church, started

reading his Bible, started doing all the things that a Christian

does, and over a period of time he kept growing in his faith.

And Fast forward a little bit while longer and God started to

call Ray to go into full time Christian ministry as a pastor.

And Ray was really struggling with it.

He, he thought God was calling him to do it, but didn't totally

make sense because he had two really big problems.

Ray had a massive stuttering problem, which is kind of a big

deal when you're a pastor. And second, he had no money to

pay for his schooling. All kinds of debt.

So Ray just kept praying, kept talking to his wife, they kept

trying to figure out what they should do.

And then one day, after a whole series of time of praying, the

two of them agreed that, hey, let's just fill out an

application for Bible college and see what happens.

Let's just take the next step. The whole story doesn't make

sense, but let's just take the next step.

So they filled out an application to go to Bible

college, and within a matter of days, Ray's stuttering stopped.

He could just talk normal without any stuttering.

And within a matter of days after that, someone contacted

him and said, hey, you're thinking about going to Bible

college. I want to pay for you to go to

Bible college. I've become convinced that one

of the reasons people struggle with their faith, like sometimes

long time Christians struggle with their faith and sometimes

even get bored in their faith, is because we've stopped

experiencing the reality of God in our lives.

For a lot of us, the Christian life is simply a whole bunch of

information. We gain a bunch of facts and

knowledge and truth, which is great and important, but it was

never meant to end there. The Christian life is meant to

be a real living relationship between you and the God of the

universe. And I'm not going to promise you

that God's going to stop your stuttering problem or he's going

to give you all kinds of money. In fact, He probably won't give

you all kinds of money, but I am going to tell you this in every

single opportunity and challenge that God's God brings your way.

Don't lean into your limitations.

Lean into the God who wants to provide for you.

In those moments. Watch what God does.

Bring what you have to Jesus. Be obedient what He would with

what He would want you to do. Don't worry about the whole

story, just take the next step and watch what God does.

He is your provider and He loves you.

We pray. Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you for your great love for us.

That is not just a theoretical love, but it is a very real

practical love that shows up in the everyday of life where we

can experience Your provision for us.

Help us God, help us to receive from you, to trust You, shape

our lives to be people who are filled with faith of the living

God because we are confident the Lord will always provide God.

I know that some of us are wrestling with real fears around

doing that. Fears of letting go, fears of

what ifs and what might happen and what might not happen.

Father, I pray that your spirit would set your people free from

fear and help us to fix our eyes on the greatness of a God who

deeply loves us. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Amen. Let's stand together and worship

our God.