Mathew pt. 59 - The Shepherd Feeds His Flock

Matthew 15, we're now in verse 32.

We're still in the same moment to give you quick context.

So remember, we've we've seen healing faith the the Canaanite

woman. Will you heal my daughter?

No, this woman was being tested. Of course, that's the only time

Jesus ever told anybody no. And of course, it actually

turned out to be a yes. And then we come across Jesus

healing many on the mountainside.

We looked at how all the people came there throwing people at

Jesus's feet. It's thousands of people,

thousands, many thousands, 4000 men is all that there was

counted of the men. So that means very likely their

wives, very likely all their children as well.

So it's very easy to say there's 12,000 plus people here.

Conservative estimates would say that so many thousands of people

here rejoicing, celebrating, being healed, who's being

healed? The lame, the blind, the

crippled injuries, maimed limbs are growing out, all the things,

all in a day's work for Jesus, healing everybody, physical

healing, blind seeing, and they're glorifying the God of

Israel. Now we come to verse 32.

Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I have

compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three

days and have had nothing to eat, and I am unwilling to send

them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.

And the disciples said to him, Where are we to get enough bread

in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?

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

They said seven and a few small fish, and directing the crowd to

sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish.

And having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the

disciples. And the disciples gave them to

the crowd. And they all ate and were

satisfied. And they took up 7 baskets full

of the broken pieces, leftover those who ate or 4000 men

besides women and children. And after sending away the

crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.

Let's pray, God, we're thankful for your word.

We're thankful for your compassion.

We're thankful for your provision.

We're thankful to have the opportunity to be in your

presence. You're worth pursuing 3 days

without food or longer, no matter what the challenges may

be or what the tests may include.

You're worth it and You're worthy of it all.

Lord, as we go through Your word today, I pray that You would

help me to make the right and appropriate application for your

people. That they would be well fed and

that they would see their Christ and their King clearly.

That they would love you more and that they would trust you

more. That they would know that not

only have you done things for others, but that you will, you

will still do things for them. Your compassion is never ending.

Your provision is also never ending, and in Your presence

there is fullness of joy. So bring us near to you this

morning as we come near to Your word.

Open up the eyes of our hearts. Bring us light and revelation.

Destroy the works of the devil God.

Destroy lies that are believed. God build our faith that we

would expect that we would be those who pick up the book of

God and read it and believe it in Jesus name we thank you,

Amen. I'm going to I'm going to make 3

applications, at least three applications of our passage

today. And as is our custom here in

Salt church, we're not going to use any fancy footwork.

We're going to make straight line applications from the word

of God and we're going to say, here's the scripture and then

we're going to apply that thing. So I've always done that with

you and we're going to continue to do that.

It's important to recognize that there are multiple things that

can be seen in a passage. So we we acknowledge the depth

of the word of God. And I don't think I'm going to

Plumb the depths for you this morning.

I think I'm probably just staying on the surface.

But thankfully we have all eternity to go through the best

Bible studies ever, where King Jesus will be continuing to

unpack his word. The word made flesh will unpack

the word for us forever, but we're going to make a few

applications. We're going to make the

application that says God is compassionate and that he loves

us. We're going to make the

application that says God will provide for us.

And we're going to make the application that says we should

pursue God's presence and his and and near fellowship with

him. So the first thing that we'll

notice here, Jesus calls his disciples to him and he said, I

have compassion on the crowd because they have now been with

me 3 days and have had nothing to eat and I am unwilling to

send them away hungry lest they faint on the way.

Jesus had pity on the people. That word compassion, it means

pity, but it's not just a pity that keeps you stationary.

In God's Kingdom. Pity leads to action.

We've talked about this before. The difference between saying,

well, I feel sad for that person, well, that's not

nothing, but it's not much. Just to feel the thing and then

not take any action to go along with it.

In the Kingdom, though, we're moved with compassion.

We're not stationary with compassion.

We're moved with compassion, and Jesus is moved with compassion.

This is what Kingdom compassion looks like.

For God so loved the world that he did what He took action.

I love them so much. They're doomed.

I love them so much. Too bad that they sinned against

me. And there's nothing that anyone

can do. God loved the world so much that

he took the greatest action that's ever taken place.

He sent his son to come and save and deliver.

That's what compassion. That's what love looks like.

It looks like something. It can't look like nothing.

I love my wife a lot, and that looks like something, right,

brother? Well, you know I love her.

I just feel it in my heart. Well, that.

But that has to have some sort of outward expression.

Love is always going to have some sort of action to go along

with it. I really love that person a lot.

Yeah. Well, then there there's going

to be some action. There'll be some evidence there.

There will be enough evidence to convict you of loving.

God pities us, and God acts on it.

And he calls it compassion. He did not leave us in our sin.

He did not leave us in our suffering.

He did not leave us in darkness. He came and he delivered us from

all that evil. He's father, He's shepherd, He's

brother, He's friend and he cares for you and he cares for

all of your needs. He has moved with pity.

He is not stationary with pity. Our application is we should do

the same. We should be the same way.

What did Jesus say? He said it out loud.

It's interesting. It's the only time we see him

doing this. As it says, I have compassion on

them, He told his disciples. He's looking out over the crowd.

He's been there three days with him seeing people.

People are coming up. This person is healed.

That person is healed. This person is healed.

People are over there singing, people over there praying.

People are over there just sitting together.

Children are running and playing.

It's on a mountainside. Maybe they can all see him.

Maybe he's in the highest position and they're all looking

up the hill and they can see him.

He's looking down on him and he's sitting there with the

disciples. He's going, I love these people.

I have compassion on these people.

He's been healing them and rejoicing over them and

delighting in them and fulfilling the will of God in

their lives. Interesting note.

It's likely, it's very likely that he was preaching and

teaching, but the scripture doesn't tell us that he was.

What does the scripture tell us? He spent three days doing,

healing their physical bodies, and now what does he do?

He looks out on with great compassion upon them and he

goes, I really just want to give them spiritual food.

No, no, I've been healing their physical bodies and now I want

to give them physical actual food to put in their mouths so

that they can be fed. I want to provide for them.

Why? Because that is an objectively

good thing to do. That is a good blessing that he

wants to give. And he said it out loud.

I feel that compassion. We should do the same thing.

When you feel compassion, I think it's a good habit to say

it out loud. Let that help you to break your

stationary position to actually put words to the thing that's

going on inside of you instead of just that hit me.

Yes, yes, yes. That's good.

Let's take a next step. Let's build a staircase or let's

build the whole house. Now you got the foundation of of

the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

You got the you got the foundation.

That means you're a Christian. That's good.

That's a good witness to you right there to go.

Oh, I feel something. I care for that person.

Maybe it's just the news story. What am I supposed to do?

Something something, always pray.

But I feel I sense a compassion. So don't just sense love, don't

just sense pity, don't just sense care.

Say I'm moved with compassion for them and then pray for their

situation. And expect the Lord to give you

any other direction that he may have for you after that.

So if you're praying for somebody halfway across the

world, it's very likely that prayer is the highest and best

thing you'll be able to do for them.

Maybe the Lord will give instruction after that, maybe he

won't. But when it's your neighbor, the

person closest to you, it's very likely you will be able to show

love and show compassion and show pity.

Even after you pray. And as you're praying for them,

the Holy Spirit will give you creative thoughts and ideas and

go, ah, I want to bless them in this way.

I want to do this in that way. Haven't you had that experience

before? You're praying for someone that

you're close to and you're going, God help them to this and

help them to that and help them to this.

And all of a sudden, like ideas are coming up and now you're

excited you're going. It's better to give than to

receive. I've prayed for them.

And the Lord goes, I want to do it.

I want to do it through you. The Lord can use whatever means

and method He chooses, but don't you want Him to choose you as

His means and method? I want to be a part of the work.

I want to be a part of the mission.

I want to be effective in His harvest, and I want to serve His

church faithfully. So it's a delight when I get to

be a part of it. This applies no matter what age

you are. This applies to younger people

or young men who we've got in here this morning.

This would apply to each of you. You're not supposed to wait

until you become an adult to get into the fight for God's Kingdom

come, for his Kingdom to come and his will to be done.

You're a Christian, so you get a gun and you go to join the

fighting lines right away. That's the interesting thing

about the body of Christ. We don't have like the front

lines, and then there's like the back lines and the other lines

and the support. Everybody's just on the front

lines together with the King. So kids should pray and obey.

Older believers you should pray and obey, Newer believers you

should pray and obey. We don't have ranks.

You are qualified and you are well able to talk straight to

the General himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, and make sure you

are moved with his compassion. You are already sensing his

compassion. I know you are because you're a

Christian. Now what do you do with that?

You take it to the Lord. Say Lord, I'm sensing your

compassion, I'm sensing your love.

How do I move forward? What would, what could I do?

What should I do? Maybe he'll say I want you to

pray, I want you to pray. I'm working and I'm moving, but

praying matters and it's needed. What else do we see here?

Well, I'll make the point I've made to you with many passages

as we've come to the gospel, that when we come to any

passage, we should prioritize the direct application.

The primary application should be our primary application.

The secondary application should be a secondary application.

I've told you how many times there are many faithful pastors

who I love godly men, and I'll listen to their sermons and week

after week they will handle the text that's right in front of

them. And they'll say the Bible says

this, and therefore it means this.

And it's just a straight line application to go praise God,

Amen. And they'll do it over and over

and over and over and over. And then you'll come to a

passage on healing and they'll say the Bible says this God

healed blind Bartimaeus, and that means that he wants to heal

the spiritual blindness and each of us and they go, oh, why did

we take this hard left turn? That's such a weird thing to do.

There. You were doing so good, pastor.

How did how did we come to that conclusion?

So like I said, this is where we're not going to get any fancy

footwork and we're not going to twist ourselves into a pretzel.

We're just going to say that seeing the feeding of the 4000

plus, we should not over spiritualize this event and say

this only means that God will give us spiritual food.

Will God give us spiritual food? Say yes, yes, he will.

Thank God he will. Wasn't there another occasion

where Jesus was talking to a woman about water and he told

her, hey, you should ask me for the spiritual water?

So didn't he do it in the in the other direction before?

He most certainly did. And you know how we're going to

preach that passage exactly as it was intended in the Word.

That's how we're going to preach that passage.

We're going to emphasize what the Scripture emphasizes and the

way the Scripture emphasizes it. And I won't adjust it for your

comfort or for mine. And we'll take the Word as the

Word comes. So with this passage, we

shouldn't over spiritualize and say God will only give us

spiritual food. Oh, He most definitely will give

us spiritual food. But was that the Lord's

intention that day? They've been with me 3 days now.

So now I should give them some spiritual food.

No, that wasn't the lesson. He probably had been feeding

them spiritually, but like I said earlier, The funny thing is

we only know that he was meeting a physical need for sure.

Of course, right after he was meeting another physical need

that many Christians would be quick to tell you is not that

important. It's not that important.

He was healing everybody. So like I said, we're making a

straight line application. Will God actually provide?

Will God actually meet our needs?

Yes, yes, God fed thousands of people.

God will feed you literally with food.

God is feeding you. Maybe the normative means, maybe

most of the time the means that he's using is income through

your employer. Well, that's fine.

His means and his methods are whatever he wants to do.

But God provides, which is why we pray before we eat and we

say, God, thank you. I don't sit at the dinner table

and have the family look to me and go, you know who did this,

right? It's me.

I work, I make those things happen.

Is there an appropriate way to do that?

Well, sure. But I humble myself with my

whole family and say, God, you've provided.

You've provided. If you lose your employer

tomorrow, do you now have no means for provision?

Did your God die? No, just your employer has fired

you or your employer had to shut down the business.

This is why I will I will emphasize the supernatural, but

I will not chain you to the supernatural.

Why will I emphasize the supernatural?

I will emphasize the supernatural.

I will emphasize the miraculous because you and I grow so

accustomed to the natural means that God often uses.

And the problem is we can begin to trust those natural means as

the actual source instead of God himself, so that when those

things vanish, or when those things change, you and I can

feel doubt and unbelief and fear, because we are not

comfortable with and familiar with the supernatural and the

miraculous. So the moment our employer ends,

we go, I must find another employer.

But because I will not make it without that, you go.

Well, another employer might be the right move.

Sounds like a good idea. And also you have a shepherd and

he fed thousands of people on a hillside.

He'll feed you. So is this just a spiritual

application we should make? Well, we, we can make spiritual

applications. But no, not only a spiritual

application that we should make. God has made actual food fall

out of the actual sky to feed millions of people before he's

done it. He has had Ravens.

The greediest bird there is. Brings someone actual meat.

He's done it. He will multiply your bread and

your fish. He's done it.

Oh, and just in case you thought they were talking about he's

only willing to meet your extreme needs for physical

survival. Don't forget that his first

miracle ever was to provide wine for a celebration that had run

out of it. So is he only going to meet my

needs? Yeah, he'll he'll just just

expect your bare minimums to be met.

Well, not so fast. Remember, the book shows us

something else. His first miracle ever was, hey,

we ran out of ice, could you help us with our party?

We ran out of Doctor Pepper. Could you help us with our

party? And Jesus goes, yeah, I want to

bless this celebration and I want to put my blessing and

approval in the celebration. And I'm going to spare this

person the embarrassment and I'm going to spare the crowd the

going without. I'm going to provide.

Why? Because he's good.

And as we've said often a six year old knows what good means.

Good is an objective definition, not some strange one.

God is so good. And that's why Pastor Michael

got run over today as he left service.

Well, hang on a second. God is good no matter what.

Passenger Michael got run over after service.

Why? Because the world is broken, the

devil is bad, and Passenger Michael was stupid because he

ran out into the road. Those are the those are why the

bad things happen. Well, will God work something

good out of it? Of course he will, because he

specializes in resurrection. He's good.

And are you going to mourn? Yeah, a little bit, but not as

non believers because we're going to be together forever and

you're going to get to see me again and go.

Dude, remember that day you ran out in traffic?

That was so stupid. I go.

I know, but lucky me, I got here sooner than you.

So ha ha. I win.

I'm not laughing, Natalie. Natalie didn't think it was

funny. Don thought it was funny.

Don appreciated it. So God is good, Turn to somebody

and say God is good. Turn to him and say he is better

than you think. God wants to provide for the

physical needs of His people. My point is not that He will

always do so in a spectacular way, although He might.

My point is that His people should trust Him to physically

provide for them and that they should be encouraged when they

see the spectacular lengths that He is willing to go through to

do so. So we're, we're not stupid.

You're not stupid. You're a wise and mature and

godly people. So you understand that I'm not

saying that you can just go out and claim the thing that you saw

in Scripture as a, as an exact duplicate, right?

We've talked about how faith is not formula.

Your responsibility is to believe God to be your father,

your shepherd, and your friend who will provide for you.

That's your responsibility. The method and the means are not

your jurisdiction. That's not my responsibility.

This is what it means to be childlike in our faith.

Remember being a little kid, like you didn't even know what

your dad did for work. It's just like, I don't what

what? What is daddy like?

I don't know. He works.

He's like in grown up world. I don't know.

I don't care. Like dad goes to work, he buys

me GI Joes. I play with the GI Joes.

Like that's all that matters to me.

Like that was the arrangement. He was happy with it.

I was happy with it. I don't need to know what he

did. Just a few short years ago, I

asked Hudson what Daddy did for work.

He had no idea. He was like, I don't know, it

was kind of funny. He said, he said you, you help

your tax clients, which is like, Nope, not at all.

But in his mind, I guess like all grown-ups just do is taxes,

right? Like when you're a kid, like

what are grown-ups do? Taxes, I guess vote and pay

taxes, like send faxes and pay taxes, grown up stuff.

That was it. That was all I had to work with.

So that is that's the place we want to be childlike in our

pursuit, childlike in our faith, believing and going well, that's

that's his jurisdiction. But that's what you should be

encouraged by. You should see the miraculous

and go, yeah, God will do that. He'll do whatever he needs to

do. He'll do whatever needs to be

done. And you should know that your

situation is not out of his reach.

When you read things in the word, you're not supposed to

only say, yeah, I guess God can do that because of course he can

do that, Of course he can do that.

He can do anything. He made the whole universe.

Did you really think he couldn't make the sun stand still for a

day so Joshua could fight in the daylight?

He designed the molecule. Did you really think he couldn't

make an axe head float so that a man could return the tool that

he borrowed? These are things that actually

happened in your Bible and you believe them Saints, Of course

God can do anything. You need to believe that He'll

do anything for you. You need to believe that He will

provide for you when you lose the tool that you borrowed from

a friend and you pray instead of going, well, I either can find

it or I can't, and it's on me. What?

I thought you had a shepherd. I thought you had a God.

I thought you had a king. Can't you trust him for these

things? Well, I can't demand that.

It'll be miraculous. You don't have to demand

anything, but you should expect, and he can do miraculous.

It's not hard for him. You've got categories of

difficulty. He doesn't.

So prayer is our first step instead of what we often make is

our last line of defense. God cares for you.

That's what he cares about. Does God care about this?

Does God care about that? Wrong question.

God cares for you. It was just yesterday.

Brock and I, we've been fighting something on a video game for

his for a while. He's got a a gift card and he

wants to be able to purchase stuff in the game so that his

character can, He wants to dress his character up as a Christmas

tree or he wants to dress his character up as a snowman or he

wants to dress his character up as a superhero or Donald Trump

or whatever. Like you can turn your your

character to look for however you want, but we could not

figure out how to do it. I'm not a stupid man and I do

understand a little bit about technology and I and I've done

all the things we fought this for months now, right?

I think we tried last Christmas and I just gave up.

We're changing passwords, we're logging in, we're answering the

e-mail, we're doing the two factor authentication.

Daddy's getting frustrated. Brock's got like tons of gift

cards just building up in the and we just can't do anything

with them. And I'm, and yesterday I was

just going through it all again. I'm like, I'm going to, I'm

going to figure this out for my son.

I've got it. There's got to be a way people,

we, we are begging you to take our money.

Why won't you just take our money?

I can't believe they made it this complicated.

And we stopped and we prayed and, and I asked God to help us.

You prayed and asked God to help you purchase your son's skin in

a video game, they call it a skin The, the, the character

that they wear. You prayed for God to do that.

Yes. And guess what happened within

like what a minute, Brock? As soon as we, as soon as I went

in and like within two minutes, it was done, wasn't it?

So it's taken me a year and a half to fight with and argue

with. I ain't doing it today, Brock.

I'm sick of it. They're dumb.

Their system's complicated. And then when we pray and say,

God, would you please help us to get through this thing so the

Brock could just have these characters and all this stuff,

and now he has them. We're just using the rocket gift

card. Yeah, we'll Brock can Brock into

a clinic after service. Because it actually wasn't.

It actually wasn't a miracle. It was actually a systematic way

it had to be done. It's still stupid.

It's still incredibly complicated and ridiculously

absurd. Don't know why they make it that

hard, but we were able to get all the way through and figure

it out and get it done after we prayed and we asked God, it's,

it's one thing to say God did it for them, but let's walk this

through. Come let us reason together for

a moment. Why did God want to do it for

them? Why, why did God want to do it

for that person? Because he cared for them,

right? I mean, I'm curious.

I'd be curious to hear, you know, the opponents of this

teaching, like give their rationale that why did God want

to do that? They can't say that Jesus wanted

to heal people because it was a means to broadcast and and make

his ministry bigger when he literally threatens people and

says, don't you tell anybody what I just did.

So that one's out. So he had to have done it

because he loved him, right? Hang on.

A second opponent of this message.

You mean to tell me that when you love somebody, you'll want

them actually better off physically instead of worse off

physically? There wasn't a trick or a trap.

I'm just trying to follow here. I'm not.

I don't want to get you with a gotcha.

I just wanted you to be consistent in your thinking.

So you walk through this and you go, well, God did that because

he cared for them. Did God care for Bartimaeus more

than he cares for Linda? Everybody say no.

So he wanted to heal Bartimaeus, his blindness.

Does he not want to heal Linda's vision?

He of course he does. Of course he does.

How could you say that, pastor? Because I know how to read.

Remember, that's my claim to fame as your pastor.

I know how to read. Good.

So we keep coming back to the Scriptures and we see what God

has done not only to go, wow, I'm amazed that he did that for

somebody one time. But we say, well, I just learned

about his nature and his character through what happened

there and also know that if he did it for them like they're

nobody special, can you really make that argument?

I sure can. Why?

Well, because James did turn in your Bible to James chapter 5.

James 5 · chapter mention

This is literally the exact point that James is making with

this passage. Can you just look at somebody in

the Bible and think will happen for them, but can't happen for

me or it happened for them so it should happen for me In James

James 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 and verse 13 actually is where I'll take you.

The context is physical healing. Everybody say physical healing.

I promised you no fancy footwork and no pretzels.

Let's read together or I'll read you.

Watch along in your Bible, verse 13.

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.

Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of

the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil

in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will

save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and

if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one

another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person

has great power in its working. Thank you, James, that really

encouraged me. James goes.

I'm not finished. Elijah was a man with a nature

like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain

for three years and six months on the earth, and it did not

rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven

gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

James is trying so hard to make the point to go pray and believe

God, pray and believe God, pray and believe God.

Hey guys, Elijah prayed and believed God and he knew his

audience would go. Elijah the great prophet who was

carried up in a chariot and didn't die.

And James goes he, he was a man just like us.

He was a man just like us. And he prayed that it wouldn't

rain on the earth. So for anybody, I I would have

never taught this if it wasn't in the Bible, I would have never

made this leap. James did it for me, though.

I would have never done this. I don't know.

Like, yeah, if you came to me and this verse wasn't in the

Scripture, I'll just be honest with you.

If you came to me and you're like, pastor, I see in my Bible

where Elijah prayed that it wouldn't rain for 3 1/2 years on

the earth, and it didn't. And then he prayed again and it

rained. Can I do that?

I'd be like, absolutely not. That was prophet stuff.

That was prophet stuff. No, no, and no.

But now James comes and turns that upside down.

Now the exact example is where you would get lost if you would

go can I pray for, well, do you have that need?

Do you need it to not rain on the earth for 3 1/2 years to

bring judgment against, you know, wickedness?

Like, is that your power? No.

OK. Well, then that's not really the

relevant point that James wasn't trying to tell everybody.

So therefore that wasn't his connection.

His connection was for physical healing.

For physical healing. He's saying, look, Elijah could

pray. He's just a man like us, and

everybody's going, what do you mean he's just a man?

He's a prophet of God. And he's going, well, yeah, he's

the prophet of God, but also he he's just a man.

And God honors faith and God will respond to your faith when

you're praying for healing. Did I do anything fancy there or

did I do like straight line stuff?

I thought so. But you keeps you stick with the

book. You stick with the book.

The word of God is safe. The book of God is safe for the

common man to pick it up, read it and believe it.

You know, Christians have enough struggle with doubt and unbelief

without their pastor being an additional speed bump for them

or other Christians getting in their way.

Bartimaeus knew about that too, right?

He remember the story. Bartimaeus, he's crying out.

He hears Jesus is going by Jesus, son of David, have mercy

on me. Go shut up, shut up.

He's a preacher. He's a teacher.

Please have have mercy on me. He's a preacher, he's a teacher.

And then Jesus goes, bring him to me.

And they go, Bartimaeus, the master's calling you.

Oh, let me, I'll walk you up front.

Oh, thank you, thank you. I thought I wasn't supposed to

get with him. It's almost as though Bartimaeus

persistence mattered, right? Just like the woman who we just

saw just a few weeks earlier who Jesus was testing told her no

when he meant yes because he wanted to bless her and her

daughter. This verse here in James is

saying explicitly what other verses say obvious, what other

verses obviously imply. What is that?

That God is not random or arbitrary with his blessing,

with his goodness, or with His power.

He responds to faith. And there is no age of miracles

or man of miracles, but there is a God of miracles.

Trust your God, Christian, you will not be put to shame.

Amen. Trust your God, trust His word.

Again, I'm not attempting to overemphasize the supernatural,

although I'm certainly not de emphasizing it because again,

there's not an age of miracles, but there is a God of miracles.

But I am putting the emphasis on believing God to come through.

The details are His responsibility.

The means, the method should be irrelevant to you and I.

He could use your financial, He could use your employer to meet

your financial need. He could do something else.

He could do something so spectacular I can't even think

to give an example of it. Just like I didn't care what my

dad did for work. I just trusted.

I just believed. Believe God more than you

believed your parents as a child growing up.

If you asked your earthly father for bread, he wouldn't give you

a stone. Who am I quoting?

Jesus, if you asked your earthly father for fish, he would not

give you a snake. Him being evil, if he would do

that, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts

to those who ask him? Jesus again makes straight line

connections for us on what good and bad is.

He's saying. You guys being evil, you know

how to give good gifts to your kids.

Wait, did you just call bread and fish good?

Yeah, yeah. Don't get weird, man.

That's weird. Like, well, sometimes the Lord

might want you to starve to death.

Do you want your kids to starve to death?

Well, no. Oh, because you're better than

God. Well, no, no, no.

His goodness is like, twisted and different, though.

His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our

thoughts. Yeah, but he wants them to be.

I appreciate that you're quoting that, but the point was he wants

our thoughts to be his thoughts. He wants our ways to be His

ways. So if a earthly father knows how

to give good things, how much more does our heavenly Father

know how to give good things? God is good.

He's better than you think. So what are you saying, Pastor?

I'm saying God will provide for you.

Believe His word when you see him feed many thousands with a

miracle on a mountain. Don't just say wow, but no.

And remember, Elijah was just a man.

Those other people, those people on a mountain were just people,

and the only thing they had was that they were close to God.

And that matters. And that's not nothing.

That's big. So let that be your other

application here. We're closing.

They had been with Jesus. Let that be true for us, that we

are faithfully following Him, loving God, and enjoying Him.

We'll close in Matthew chapter 6, verse 25.

Matthew 6:25

Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what

you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body what

you will put on. Is not life more than food and

the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your

heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than

they? And which of you, by being

anxious, can add a single hour to His span of life?

And why are you anxious about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon and

all his glory was not array like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is

alive, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much

more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith?

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, what

shall we drink, what shall we wear?

That the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly

Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and

all these things will be added to you.

Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow

will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its

own trouble. God cares about the birds and He

feeds the birds, so that's important to Him.

Are you of not much? Are you not worth much more than

a bird? Your Father knows what you need.

This is the reassurance of Jesus.

Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these

things will be given to you as well.

All these things given to you How?

That's not my problem, that's not my business.

I have a father for that. That's up to him.

And I will certainly not rule out the miraculous.

And there will be certainly times in life where you will

need the miraculous. There will be times where you go

on, OK, all natural measures have been used up, so we need

something to happen here. Miraculous, OK.

Your job will be the same though, to just say God, I

believe you, God, I trust you, I believe you, I trust you, My

creativity is limited, Lord, but the Holy Spirit will rise up in

you with faith. That is not a formula to cause

you to believe and trust God. And then they will have action

to go along with it. He'll give you something to do.

He'll give you a prompting, He'll give you an obedience, but

all of this comes out of fellowship with him.

That's the thing that these people had going for him.

If he came with Jesus for that first day and you left in the

fish on day three, no, But those who were there, they stayed in

his presence. They decided he's worth it.

When are we going to eat? I don't know if we're going to

eat, but we're with Jesus and I don't know if we're ever going

to experience anything like this ever again.

This is a special moment, and it's worth whatever we have to

give up, whatever suffering we would endure.

So we have times, we have seasons.

We have moments of trials, we have moments of testing, we have

moments of difficulty. But we don't need to wonder.

Or be confused about the nature and character of God during

those things and we don't need. To wonder be.

Confused about the final outcome and what the Lord's will is for

it to look like? Look at the compassion of Jesus.

This is the. Compassion that he has for.

Those who are close with him, he says.

I have compassion on them. I don't want them to faint.

We're reminded by Isaiah. They who wait for the Lord shall

renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings

like eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint. Amen.

It's in the. Presence of the Lord.

Where fainting is prevented. God's promises are.

Conditional Amen. Those who wait for the Lord, it

doesn't just say everyone everywhere all the time shall

renew their strength. But many Christians read their.

Bible that way. Everyone, everywhere shall

mount. Up with wings like eagles all

the time. Everyone everywhere shall always

run and not be weary. Everyone everywhere shall always

walk and not faint. There was an important,

important statement at the beginning.

They who wait for the Lord. Do I qualify for?

The promises that follow. If I don't, I won't.

Get into condemnation. I will get into his presence.

And I'll say, God, I love you. God, I need you.

I haven't been seeing your power.

I do feel dry. I do feel weary.

I do feel faint. Well, what does that tell you,

John? Michael, where have you been?

Apparently not on the mountainside.

God is compassionate for you. God is going to provide for you

wanting to. Look around and get eye.

Contact with every you as I say it.

And you? Pursue the Lord.

You pursue the Lord. You pursue him and His presence.

All these other things will be added unto you.

God, we thank you for your. Promises We thank you for your

protection. We thank you for your provision.

We thank you for your compassion.

We thank you for your love. You're so good and you're

perfect in all your ways. I thank you for blessing your

people. And caring for them.

You are better than any earthly father, and we have known some

good fathers on this earth. We've seen some loving and.

Kind and compassionate, caring fathers.

How much more how? How they must just be a?

Small token, a small emblem, a small representation of the.

Bigness, the greatness. Of your goodness, you're so

wonderful and you're better than we think.

Build our faith. Help us to.

Trust you more, not just for ourselves but for others.

They we would be the ones who see the Kingdom come and your

will be done as we pray for it, as we pursue it and as we as we

are the hands and feet for it. Glorify your name among us.

God move in power in Jesus name. And now the Lord bless you and

keep you. The Lord make his face shine

down upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you great

peace in Jesus. Name.

Amen.