Matthew pt. 51 - Hunger, Compassion, and Provision

You can turn to Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

What part do you think we're on in our Matthew series?

Anybody know you're cheating? You know, you see it all the

time. This is part 51 of, uh, of us

walking verse by verse through Matthew.

We're in no hurry to finish. And uh, yeah, we probably got

another another year to go. So we're in Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

Last time we were together. I missed you all last week.

It's good to be back. But the week before that, we hit

verses where, yeah, we we hit verses one through 14 or one

through 12 rather. And then we today we're picking

up here in verse 13. What do we need to know about

the book of Matthew? I want to remind you, Matthew

was a tax collector. So the Romans come in, they

conquer everybody. And they say, hey, we're still

going to let you have your little subculture, but we're

still going to be dominant over it.

But hey, who here would like to get rich and betray your own

people at the same time? And Matthew raised his hand and

said, that sounds good to me. I'm, I'm OK with that.

So Matthew becomes a tax collector for the Romans, which

means all the Jews now hate him because bro, you're working for

the Romans. This is not cool.

So not only did he work for the Romans and collect taxes for the

Romans, but tax collectors were notorious for padding and lining

their own pockets. The Romans paid you very well

because they want to, because you are giving up a high cost.

You're being completely kicked out of your society in one

sense, and yet you know your society really well, which is

why the Romans want you to do that job.

So Matthew is the tax collector, and he wrote his Gospel for the

Jews. So as we've gone through

Matthew, we've seen over and over and over why Matthew says

the things that he says and why he references things that he

references compared to some of the other gospel writers who

have a different audience. Matthew is writing to Jews and

Matthew is saying, hey, you know, that Messiah we're waiting

for. And they go, yeah, yeah, we're

waiting on him. He goes, you know, this prophecy

and this prophecy and this prophecy and this prophecy and

this prophecy. And yeah, yeah, yeah.

We know all about that. He goes, check this out.

Jesus fulfilled that prophecy. Really.

Yeah, he did. Hey, Jesus also fulfilled this

prophecy. And Matthew does it over and

over and over and over and showed he quotes the Old

Testament and then says, and then Jesus did this.

So the Jewish readers have to go.

Now. I have to reconcile with this,

right? The the classic Lord liar or

lunatic. If I call myself a scrambled

egg, you have a decision to make, don't you?

Jim? Michael is a scrambled egg.

It's true. That's one of your options.

Jim. Michael is a liar.

He knows he's not a scrambled egg and he's just lying to me or

Jim Michaels crazy. Bless his heart, right?

He thinks he's a scrambled egg, but he's not a scrambled egg.

Those are your only options. You can't say he's a good guy.

No, no, no, I didn't leave that on the table for you.

Am IA scrambled egg or am I not? You've got to do something with

that. Jesus, the Lord of all creation,

the Lord of every man, the government is on his shoulders.

Jesus is king over the government.

Jesus is king over households. Jesus is king over the church.

Jesus is king over everything, everybody, everywhere.

And he's the claims he makes about himself.

So you don't get to walk away from him and say he's a good

guy. You don't get to walk away from

him like every world religion does ago.

I think he was a good prophet. He didn't leave you that option.

You have to reconcile. You have to settle with what he

says about himself. Jesus is king, Jesus is Lord,

Jesus is master. And many even say, yes, I know,

and I still won't worship him, which is a choice that he allows

them to make. So we see that Matthew is

writing to the Jews and he's opening up their eyes through

the power of the Holy Spirit to say Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus

is the king that we've been looking for, that we've been

waiting for. So it's just a refresher of the

context of what we're doing here.

And now. Last week or two weeks ago, we

looked at John, the cousin of Jesus.

He's been brutally murdered for his faithfulness to God and his

proclamation that everyone should obey God's laws.

Everyone should obey God's laws, not just the people who believe

in God's laws. It's no different from the

parent telling the children, now it's time for bed, but the kids

don't want to go to bed. That's just as stupid as

whenever we think, well, the government should obey the laws

of Jesus and they should seek to obey King Jesus.

And people go, but they don't believe in Jesus.

Where did I lose you here? Jesus is king over everybody,

everywhere. But they have, they wrote

something different down in their founding documents.

Well, congratulation for your piece of paper and the ink that

you put on it. But Jesus is still king over the

United States Constitution, over the Declaration of Independence,

and over anything the whole world.

We could all unite, we could all March on the city of our

choosing, all 8 billion of us, and we can raise our fists and

say we declare and Jesus says I'm king.

So This is why John boldly steps up to Herod and goes, what

you're doing is wrong. And so last week we saw that

Christians most definitely should be involved in everything

in life, including politics. Why?

Because Jesus is political. Why?

Because Jesus established the authority that the government

has. Where do they get it from?

Where do they get it? You can't just make up

authority. It is delegated from King Jesus,

just like a man in his household.

You didn't just get your own authority by yourself.

That is delegated authority and you will answer for it just like

the elders of the church. You don't just have authority

because you wanted it. That is delegated authority from

Jesus. That should keep the fear of God

in you, and it should keep Jesus being glorified.

So John made no apology for that.

And yet, this kind of faithfulness has a consequence

at times, of course, even government officials, even

religious leaders can become corrupt.

Even household leaders can become corrupt in those three

spheres of government. And yes, speaking the truth has

gotten many of the faithful killed.

Most importantly, the King of all got killed for the same

thing, the Lord Jesus Christ. So yes, the church should be

involved in everything. Why?

Because the church has a function.

Remember, each sphere of government in the earth has a

function. The household has a function.

The church has a function. The civil magistrate has a

function. There's some overlap between the

three, but they are distinct. But the church's function is to

be the pillar of the truth in the earth.

That is not the function of the government.

The function of the government as assigned by King Jesus is to

reward the righteous and to punish the evildoer.

Thank you for the speed limit. We appreciate it.

Thank you for the border wall. That was a joke.

They haven't done that yet. They should, but they haven't

done it. Thank you for doing.

Thank you for creating love your neighbor laws.

That's your full jurisdiction. You don't have any jurisdiction

beyond that. Could there be some overlap?

Yeah, We can wisely navigate that.

But you know who's going to be the truth teller about it all?

The church. The church is the pillar of

truth in the. The church is not the

government, the government is not the church, the church is

not the household. So we understand that the church

is responsible to uphold a righteous standard.

And we also learned that we should suffer well.

When we are called to suffer, are we ever called to suffer?

Well, we're going to suffer. I would say it that way.

We're going to suffer maybe a lot, maybe a little, but

suffering is a part of the Christian walk.

So when we suffer, we should suffer well.

So Jesus has just heard the news about John, him being killed by

Herod, and now we come into verse 13.

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to

a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it,

they followed him on foot from the towns.

When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had

compassion on them and healed their sick.

Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said

this is a desolate place and the day is now over, send the crowds

away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.

But Jesus said they need not go away, you give them something to

eat. They said to him, we only have 5

loaves here and two fish, and he said bring them here to me.

Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and

taking the five loaves and two fish, he looked up to heaven and

said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and

gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the

crowds, and they all ate and were satisfied.

And they took up 12 baskets full of broken pieces leftover.

And those who ate were about 5000 men besides women and

children. That we honor your word again.

We thank you for the light and the life and the hope and the

revelation and the correction and every bit of it.

Every good, good thing that you want to give us, Father, we

receive it with gratitude right now, in Jesus name, Amen.

Jesus needed to be alone. Like many of you who are

mourning, like many of our friends and family who are

mourning right now, Jesus went to go mourn.

He went to be alone. He got in a boat.

He got the news of his cousin. They grew up together.

They had conversations together. Their parents, aunt, uncle,

there would have been there was that would have definitely been

times where both sets of parents and both of those two little

boys were being told here's how you were born.

The Angel came and said this, remember, remember Jesus, you

know, his uncle's talk, Uncle Zacharias talking to him.

Remember I went into the temple that day and Gabriel, Michael,

somebody, Gabriel, I think Gabriel, Gabriel appears to him

in the temple. He appeared to me and he spoke

to me about John. And John's whole life is to

point to you, Jesus, these these little boys growing up together,

hearing all the stories about what happened, all the prophecy,

Mary telling both boys, I hadn't been married yet.

I was still a virgin. And little boys and little girls

throughout ancient history understood how where babies were

made because they saw the barnyard animals.

We've kind of like put that to like wait till they're 25 years

old to have the birds and the bees talk.

But throughout all of human history, everybody understood

how mammals get their babies. So all of this, all this

knowledge, Jesus loves John. They had spent a lot of time

together. They're devoted to the call of

God. And now Jesus has lost John.

Jesus is going to miss John. Jesus probably doesn't have

anybody he can relate to in the same way that he could have

related to John. They had a calling.

They had a purpose. John understood who Jesus was

fully and completely. John said I'm not worthy to

untie his sandals. Anybody.

Anybody have a cousin talking about about you that way?

A sibling or a friend? I'm not worthy.

So he and John have a special camaraderie and Jesus saying I

need to be alone. He's been giving to the masses

over and over and over, but now he withdrew.

Why? That's the right thing to do.

It's OK to mourn. It's more than OK to mourn.

It's the right thing to mourn. There's a way to mourn and

there's a way not to mourn, but it is right to mourn and to

grieve. He needs to go be with his

Father. He needs to grieve.

He needs to pray. He needs to process Herod's

motives and Herod's plans. A lot of scholars think, you

know, there there's debate actually as to why Jesus left in

this moment. Did Jesus leave because the way

it's written in the previous verses, did he leave just

because he just found out the news about John?

Or did he leave because John had been killed far earlier and now

he gets worried about Herod's fear of Jesus because remember,

Harry's afraid of Jesus because he's afraid that Jesus is John

resurrected. Either way, Jesus is withdrawing

to be alone. I think, I think the fact that

he wants to be alone indicates he is mourning.

So that's that's the conclusion I've arrived at.

But he gets away. And now in verse 13, when the

crowds heard of it, the crowds heard of it.

They followed him on foot from the towns.

These people are so desperate to be with Jesus.

They don't have any expectation. He can feed them actual food.

They just want to be with Him because they want to be with

him. And Matthew makes a particular

point to let us know that they traveled on foot.

So these people are coming through the countryside.

Jesus gets in the boat and he cuts through from here to there.

I won't give you the geography on where where we think he went.

But the point is these people are having to hoof it.

They're hustling through the hills because they're going,

where is he? And they might have even had a

visual on him on the on the water as they're up on

cliffsides and they're going, what town's he going to?

Did you lose sight of him? So this is a massive, massive

crowd. Of course, when you're reading

the story for the first time, you're just like, oh, the crowds

are following. Few dozen people maybe.

Wouldn't that be a crowd? And we have a crowd this

morning. You know, what if it was 100

people? That's kind of, that's kind of

crazy. A few 100 people.

Wow, he really has quite the following at this point, doesn't

he? 5000 men.

Not to mention the women and the children.

This is a scrappy group of people who are hungry and

desperate to get to Jesus. These aren't people who have

wealth. They can't just take off a week

from work and go be with Jesus, but they're hungry and thirsty

for him. They want to be where Jesus is.

This pursuit that we see in them is a sermon in itself.

What does your hunger for God look like?

Is your love for Jesus the kind of love that can survive

inconvenience? I hope so, because if your

devotion can't survive even minor inconvenience, it's never

going to survive persecution. These aren't, these people

aren't saying, oh, if I had a chariot, then I'd go to see him.

Or if he comes to my door and knocks on it, then I'll open it.

But these thousands of people are coming from the villages and

you can speculate how many people were actually there.

You know when you have the men that you're going to have the

women and the children as well. So I think you could say

conservatively, you're looking at probably 10,000 people, some

of estimated 20 to 25,000. But still, let's just, let's

just stick exclusively with what's written.

If we only had 5000. And then we've got to have

women, plural. So two more women and children,

two more kids. We've got 5004 people.

I took my boys to the Hampton Coliseum.

We went to Monster Jam. There was not 5000 people in

there. Boys, it was not but 5000 people

desperately traveling, pursuing, hungering for Jesus.

So hunger looks like something. Hunger looks like pursuit, Love

for God in your heart will always find an outward

expression. Hunger and desperation will

always find an outward expression with anything,

frankly. Think about a guy who falls in

love with a woman and he wants to propose to her.

He doesn't. He doesn't get stuck, He doesn't

get trouble and go, I just don't know how to do it.

I just don't know how to do it. I need to get more information.

I need to read more books on how to propose.

I need to listen more podcasts on how to propose.

Maybe there's a class I could take on how to propose.

Now what does he do? The love that he has finds an

outward expression. He comes up with some, I mean,

some guys get really elaborate, but you, you find some way to do

it. You find some way to express

your love, your compassion that you have love for God will do

the same thing. Let's keep going.

We're in verse 14. When he went ashore, he saw a

great crowd and he had compassion on them and healed

all their sick. He's in the middle of mourning.

He's in the middle of praying. He's getting some much needed

time with his Father, and he's moved by love.

Jesus himself is in need in this moment.

But because Jesus is the Good Shepherd, he lays down his life

again for the flock that he came for.

The Shepherd needed to tend to his own wounds, but as the Word

teaches us, all of his wounds are for us anyway.

And now he turns his attention to his desperate flock.

Jesus is gone. I finally got away for a minute,

just to have some time to refresh, some time to

recuperate, some time to mourn, some time to talk with the

Father, to process how I'm feeling.

And he gets on shore and he sees them.

I don't know if they're coming out of the woods.

I don't know if they're coming down the hill and he's going

back to work. Not grin and bear it.

But it was the compassion that bubbled up.

Adam. He saw them again, like

Matthew's already told us, like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus loved him deeply, completely, fiercely.

He's angry at the corrupt Jewish leadership, the Jewish religious

leadership. Is Jesus angry at religious

people? Nope.

Jesus is angry at prideful, stupid people, though, who harm

his sheep. So Jesus is very compassionate,

He's very tender, and he sees the flock coming to the

shepherd. He goes, what will I do?

Turn away? Will I do?

Hop back in the boat and leave them again.

So the compassion of Jesus moves.

He had compassion on them and he healed their sick.

I mean, at this point healing is just kind of like, it's just

another thing, right? We're almost kind of over it at

this point. Jesus heals everybody.

Jesus heals everybody. Jesus heals everybody.

But compassion from Jesus does something.

Just another day with Jesus. But it doesn't say he had

compassion on them and taught them.

No, Christ the healer is at it again.

What does the compassion of God do, I wonder, when you're sick,

when you're ailing, when someone's struggling in their

body, what would the compassion of God want to do in that

moment? I don't know.

Who knows, right? Of course we can, though.

How can you know? Well, because Jesus is perfect

theology. So we look to Jesus.

Remember, church, as we've gone through Matthew, I've told you

we're going to count up all the times Jesus turns somebody away

for healing. We're going to add them all up.

What's our total so far? We're still at zero.

Yeah, So we're going to keep adding them up as we go.

We're going to get to the total spoiler alert, chapter 15.

Jesus tells somebody, no, we're going to come to that exception

and I'm going to teach, teach it to you.

But here the compassion of Jesus, He heals their sick,

thousands of people. How many people were sick, how

many people were ailing? We don't know, but that's how he

spent his day. How many people came up to Jesus

and he said hang on your lesson actually isn't finished yet.

Two weeks from now after the Father is has worked that

maturity in you and the patience that I wanted to accomplish,

then it'll be time or actually you're going to get healed in

heaven. Let's just stick with Jesus.

Let's keep following what he's doing.

He spends his entire day healing the crowd.

The compassion of Jesus doesn't just bring you his pity.

The compassion of Jesus brings you his power.

Amen. This is a good news testimony

for all of you. What does the compassion of

Jesus lead to? Not I feel sad for them.

I feel sad for them. Well, thank you Jesus, but that

doesn't actually accomplish anything or or do anything.

But the compassion of Jesus brings you the power of Jesus.

Jesus sees you following and he has compassionate power for you.

He loves you. He's sacrificed for you.

He's attentive to you. Not only you though, because

you're also moved by the compassion of Jesus.

Haven't you felt that before? Haven't you felt the compassion

of God rise up in you before you go?

That was different. It's different from that.

I feel sad for that person. There's a time where in an

anointing, a supernatural empowerment comes upon you and

it is the love of God through you for that person in that

moment saying you're to do something with that.

Don't stop there. In the same way that when you

and I feel conviction during a sermon or you and I feel

conviction when one of our brothers or sisters is sharing

something with us, There's all kinds of things that we feel.

And since that conviction is for a purpose, it's not to just go,

Oh, that was convicting. And now make sure you take Step

2 obedience. Oh, I'm so convicted.

Don't be comforted, don't get, don't, don't be falsely

comforted by conviction when you're not obedient to it,

because that is a trap that. Gets you in a Pew for 60 years

with no transformation, no renewal of your mind, and no

growth because you know so much. You have such good information

and even such great revelation. But if it did not take you all

the way through to obedience, that is a dangerous place to

live, a scary place to live. These people have been taking

action and Jesus has compassion on them.

When you see someone with the eyes of God, when you have

compassion on somebody, that power supply is available for

you to do the work of the ministry, the anointing, the

power, the supernatural supply to make the Kingdom come in that

circumstance. But what if that's the doubt

that comes? But what you should do is

respond to the word of God in faith.

Oh, I just want to go pray for that person.

Then do it. But that's a difficult

situation. He's in a wheelchair.

Jesus isn't scared of wheelchairs.

Jesus isn't scared of the NICU. Jesus isn't scared of the ICU.

Jesus isn't scared of the diagnosis.

Jesus isn't scared of the 5000 people.

He didn't have the disciples sort them out.

Hey, give me like some head colds.

Take all the tumors and stuff. Like tell them we'll get to them

later. Who's next?

What's up? What do you need?

Talk to me. And Jesus is healing people.

Why? That's how you make the Kingdom

come. That's one of the ways that the

Kingdom comes. That's why we pray at God.

Your will be done here on earth as it already is being done in

heaven. Amen.

Respond in obedience to the conviction and the compassion of

God. It will be a joy and a pleasure

for you. And it's going to be a

breakthrough for the person who receives it.

Keep going. Verse 15 Now when it was

evening, his disciples came to him and said, this is a desolate

place and the day is now over. Send the crowds away into the

villages and go by so they can go buy food for themselves.

So the disciples here, they have the right motive, but they did

it in the wrong way. Don't tell Jesus what to do.

It's a pretty simple lesson for the church.

We don't tell Jesus what to do. We remind him of his promises.

We walk in obedience to his word.

There's a lot we can say. Lord, remember you said, and

he'll keep his word. Do all of that with boldness

into the into approach the throne of grace with boldness.

Why I'm bold in the blood of Jesus.

I'm not bold because I've got a particular personality.

I'm I enter into his presence with boldness because I go,

Father, remember Jesus, what he's done that gives me great

boldness. Now I know that I have access to

you, Father, not I have to earn it.

No, Jesus earned it. Jesus earned my place in this

throne room. So I know I belong here.

Now they've got the right motive, but they do it the wrong

way. You can ask permission.

You can share your needs with Him.

You can ask God, may I, but don't tell Him what to do Why?

Because that's not submissive. We should submit completely and

fully to Jesus. Keep going.

Verse 16. But Jesus said they don't need

to go away. You give them something to eat.

Jesus is testing His disciples. This is a test God will test his

people. He's testing their faith just

like he does with Abraham, just like he's going to do in chapter

15 with the woman who's going to ask for healing for her

daughter, just like he'll do with you.

But he says you give him something to eat.

He doesn't even correct them. The fact that they just told

him, Hey, hey, Lord, it's been a good day.

It's been a good day. You've done a great job.

But now you know, we're, we're doing the wise thing.

Lord, we love the people and and we're thinking about the people

and Jesus says, tell you what, you give him something to eat.

He's wondering what do they know about him still?

He's still testing his disciples.

Do his disciples really know who he is and what he's capable of

or are they still limiting him? Do they still think that he can

only do the things they've seen him do or do they now know that

he can do anything as he's already told us?

Remember, he corrected the Father.

Lord, if you can do anything he said stop right there.

There is an if, but it's not on me.

If you can believe, then all things are possible.

I want you to know there is an if, but it's not on me.

Let's clarify that. And the Father said I believe,

help my unbelief. And of course Jesus and his

compassion again moves in power. So He's testing their faith.

He'll test our faith. Keep going.

We're in verse 17. They said to him we only have 5

loaves here and two fish. And then he said, bring it here

to me. Notice the disciples language

they use. We only have, this is all we

have. They see it as the small thing

and Jesus sees it as enough. Jesus takes whatever you offer.

Can we ever offer God enough? Well, I'll argue yes we can.

And here's what I mean by that. You can give God enough when

you've given God everything because that's all he asks for

him. He said, Lord, all I have is

this thing. He goes, that's all I want, but

all I have is $20. He goes that's all I wanted the

the widow and she puts in her 2 pennies the widow's mite she

puts it in Jesus said she gave more than everybody.

I don't measure, I don't judge, I don't weigh things that the

way man weighs and judges and measures things.

I weigh and measure things differently.

And of course the scripture doesn't tell us what actually

happened with that woman when she put in her last bit, but we

know exactly what happened to her.

We know exactly what happened. We know that when you give it

will be given unto you. We know that she has a provider

in heaven. So the Scripture doesn't have to

go on and tell us what happened next.

If you're ignorant of the Scriptures, you go.

I wonder what happened to that old lady.

Like what could have happened. Her provider provided for her.

She had a shepherd. She said, Lord, this is all I

have. Lord said, I'll take it, I'll

take it. I'm worthy of it.

Why? Because He's the great

multiplier and He can do anything when you give him

everything. He can do anything when you give

him everything. But giving him partial is not

enough. He never said it was.

He never pretended it was. The invitation that Jesus gives

to people is never A50 a 5050 proposition.

Hey guys, I got a wonderful plan for your life.

Come and follow me. And then a decade from now, he's

going to sneak it in there and go, hey, there's also this take

up your cross thing. That was never his invitation.

He gave the whole truth and nothing but the truth from the

very first invitation. If you won't hate your father

and mother, if you want to take up your cross and follow me,

you're not worthy to be my disciple.

That doesn't sound very nice. Jesus.

I'm worth it. Make your call.

I'm all in. Good, good decision.

I was hoping you would say that, but I wasn't going to beg you.

I wasn't going to chase you. I was just going to tell you the

whole truth of the situation. But Jesus wants everything.

God is jealous for his people not to be confused with jealous

of his people right as kids. I'm jealous of what my brother

has. I want to have it and him not to

have it. I'm jealous of my brother but

jealous for is the way a husband and a wife feel about each

other. I'm jealous for my wife will not

share 0.0% how much more so God saying I'm jealous for my

people. I don't want partial, I want all

partial is not enough and I can do anything when you give me

everything Abraham could have thought God, I've only got 1

Isaac though, this is the son of the promise.

This is the son of the promise between me and Sarah.

This is our only boy that we had in obedience to your promise.

And Jesus said you only got one one's all I'm asking for and

I'll take him. And Abraham said all right,

you're worth it and I trust your word.

Abraham believed God and he's, he thought to himself, even if I

as he sacrifice, God is able to raise him up from the dead.

Abraham hadn't seen that before. The disciples are working off of

what they'd only seen. But Abraham's just going God is

God, he can do anything and it pleased the Lord and that was

counted to him as righteousness. Faith, not his works, but his

faith was counted unto him as righteousness because God is

like this. God.

Just trust me and let me test Abraham.

Why would God test us for our benefit to draw us closer.

The same reason Jesus always divides a crowd.

Whenever you see the big crowd get ready, you know something's

coming. We've seen it over and over

through Matthew. The bigger the crowd got, the

more ridiculous of a statement Jesus is getting ready to make,

to divide and to separate. Because he knows everything here

isn't pure. Everything here isn't right.

And he doesn't want to drive anyone away.

He wants to draw everyone near. But he's going to clearly set

the terms. You don't come to Jesus on your

terms. You come on his.

Hey, yeah, I'd like to be in a great relationship with you.

And it's going to look like this.

He goes, hey, it actually doesn't work that way with me.

I, I, I control everything. Everything goes my way.

You submit to everything. You down with that.

Oh, that's different. But Abraham was pleased to

follow the Lord in this way. And when Isaac was truly given,

what does Jesus do with Isaac? He multiplies them into many

nations and and God fulfills his word to Abraham and he does the

same thing here. The point has often been made

with this passage, Bring, bring Jesus the little bit that you

have. But I actually think the point

is better stated. Bring Jesus everything that you

have. Whether you consider a lot or a

little everything is the standard.

We can throw ourselves off and go just bring Jesus the little

bit. No, bring Jesus everything.

Bring Jesus everything. And until you've given Jesus

everything, you don't get to hold a finger up to him in

accusation. He never will because he'll

always make good on his word, but bring Jesus everything.

What are you saying, pastor? I'm saying the Holy Spirit will

make your personal application for you.

I don't know what it looks like and I'm not going to misguide

you, but you know when you hear it, what is the everything that

you haven't given? What is the thing that you're

holding on to? He said I've given him partial.

When I can trust him with that partial, then I can give him

more. No, no, no.

You're not the manager of Jesus. You're not managing your

resources out to him saying be faithful with this Jesus and

then I'll give you more. No, my friend, it's the

opposite. You will be counted faithful.

You're being measured right now. And he's saying give me more,

give me more, give me everything, don't give me more,

don't give me partial, give me everything.

And yes, what will he do with it?

He'll multiply it because that's what he does.

Bring Jesus everything you have. Sure, it's still only a little

bit, but as long as it's everything, it's just right.

Keep going. Verse 19 Then he ordered the

crowds to sit down on the grass and taking the five loaves and

the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing.

Then he broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples, and

the disciples gave them to the crowds.

What's Jesus doing here? Jesus bring order to chaos.

It's getting late in the day. They've been there all day.

They've been chasing Jesus all day.

These people are tired. And then Jesus healed them all

day. You know, all of us

charismatics, you've been to some Pentecostal church

services. Sometimes it gets long, don't

it? As a little boy, I remember

sitting there like people getting prayed for him, just

sitting in the background. When are we going to leave and

go to lunch? We got thousands of people

waiting to just get to Jesus and people being ministered to.

When you're the one who's with Jesus, you care a lot and you're

very thankful. But sometimes it's easy to get

distracted. So you got the whole Mass here

and the disciples are going. We got to get these people out

of here. Maybe they're getting angry.

We don't know all the context, but it seems as though there's

some disorder. So Jesus makes them sit down and

then he prays and he thanks God. You should pray before you eat

as well. You should thank God for your

food. Why?

Because it's a gift. And we want to praise him again

for all of his blessings. Praise God, from whom all

blessings flow. The flavor, the texture, the

nutrient, all those good things come from God.

The microplastics and the pesticides, those come from

globalists who hate you. But when you pray, God will

protect you. We can't protect ourselves from

all this stuff, by the way. We're trying, and we should use

wisdom. And I want to continue to grow

and all that. And also, I have a shepherd.

I'm not the top, I'm not the tip of the spear.

I'm not the top of the food chain, but Jesus is King and I'm

a lamb in his pasture, so that brings me comfort.

You still probably shouldn't need tuna helper, though.

Maybe a homemade version. Yeah, a homemade kind, but not

the box kind. Keep going.

Verse 20. And they all ate and were

satisfied. And they took up 12 baskets full

of the broken pieces leftover. And those who ate were about

5000 men besides the women and children.

Verse 20 says they were all satisfied.

What a relief satisfaction. What a great word.

To be satisfied is a blessing from a meal, to be satisfied,

from a day of work to be satisfied, from quality time

with your family, to be satisfied.

There are many satisfactions that come in life, aren't there?

You know, we got a beautiful weather today.

Maybe you'll sit on your back deck this evening with your

spouse or your kids or loved ones or whoever and with a

friend. Or maybe you just go, I'm, I'm

just satisfied in the Lord. I'm just pleased and thankful.

Satisfaction is a delight, but nothing satisfies fully unless

it comes from Jesus. Amen.

Don't you remember? And don't you even know as a

believer, times when you're pursuing things other than Jesus

that don't satisfy? You can go on.

I ate the whole thing and I'm full, but I'm not satisfied.

I thought that was going to bring a pleasure, and it didn't

bring the the pleasure. I thought it was going to give

the thing, I thought, but it didn't give it.

That's what sin always does to us.

It always promises everything. Ho, ho, ho.

If I could just sink my teeth into that.

Until you do, until you've eaten, until you've digested it,

and then you go. This isn't satisfying.

But when it comes from Jesus, it's the right thing at the

right time. When you follow Jesus, He will

provide for you and you will be satisfied.

That's our big arc here as we look at this, look at all these

people. When you follow Jesus, this is

what the 5000, the 10,000, the whatever thousand was that day.

That's what they learned. When you follow Jesus, by the

way, take some real effort hustling and bustling over some

mountains and some rocks and come on, honey, and where's

them? I heard he went this way.

Well, then someone else said this village.

We went to the wrong village. We're here 4 hours late.

Following Jesus took effort that day.

But when you follow Jesus, he will provide for you.

And when you follow Jesus you will be satisfied.

The question we should ask is what do you want Lord?

What would please you? Lord, in the will of God we will

be satisfied. In the will of God we will be

cared for. When you follow Jesus, Jesus

provides for you. I was young and now I'm old, but

I've never seen the righteous forsaken or His children begging

bread. God is perfect in His promises,

and He is faithful at all times. Still, in verse 20, they all ate

and were satisfied, and they took up 12 baskets full of

broken pieces. Leftover Moses and the 12 tribes

of Israel had bread in the wilderness, and Jesus, the bread

of heaven, is the greater Moses who is providing for his people

again as they follow him. And Matthew is making this

plain. The 12 baskets would not be

missed by the Jewish reader. The Holy Spirit wanted to

emphasize this point. And there's 12 disciples.

So look again at Jesus and his care for his people.

Good job today boys. You worked hard and every

disciple now has a basket full of bread and fish, which I'm

sure Jesus would eat from as well.

But this wouldn't be lost on the Jewish reader.

They understand Matthew's always showing them the symbols that

are not accidental that the Lord did on purpose.

God provides for his people. And Jesus, of course, is the

bread that comes down from heaven.

We're going to partake of his body here in a moment together.

Now we'll close in verse 21. And those who ate were about

5000 men, besides women and children.

So the first time you read it, of course, you don't know how

many people it is until this moment.

All four gospels record this miracle.

This is the only miracle that the Holy Spirit decided to put

into all four gospels. Multiple gospels carry multiple

miracles, but there's no miracle that's covered in all four

gospels, apart from the resurrection, of course.

So this mattered. There was a lot here.

There was a lot for us to feast on.

This is massive. The original Jewish readers that

Matthew wrote, we're seeing that Jesus is working miracles.

They're seeing Jesus a working miracles, they're seeing Jesus a

working miracles. But the Holy Spirit had Matthew

put this in front of them over and over and over so that they

would believe that Jesus was the king that they were waiting for.

And the Holy Spirit puts it before you today so that you

will have what? That you'll have hunger for God,

that you'll have compassion for others, and that you will trust

in His provision. So we're going to prepare our

hearts now to receive communion together as we do.

Obviously, we've already confessed to sin together

through the Lord's Prayer. But if there's anything else

that is stirring in you, if there's anything else that the

Lord is bringing up in your heart as we prepare to receive

the body and the blood, now's the time to pray.

Now's the time to meditate on the goodness of God.