Take God's Word tonight, please. Open to the Gospel of Mark. Gospel of Mark, good to see you here tonight on our Wednesday night. And the Gospel of Mark, chapter eight, verse number one. And I wanna welcome, we have a dear pastor visiting with us from Nigeria, Africa, and we're so glad to have you with us. God bless you, sir, and I look forward to getting to meet you more after the service. Yeah, give him a hand. It's a difficult area. I was just on the phone yesterday to David Smith, who is our board member at Faith Theological, and they're talking about a project in Nigeria about a Bible display, and he's working with some people, so I need to talk with you about what's coming up, some things we have planned in Nigeria. But we're praying for that country because we know that the Word of God is being preached there, but there's some persecution going on in Nigeria, and we really need to pray for the churches and the Christians who are there. But look in the gospel of Mark chapter eight tonight, and we're gonna look at the first eight verses. So let's read a few of these verses with you, verse one of Mark chapter eight. In those days, the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way, for divers of them came from far. And his disciples answered him, from whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in this wilderness? Lord, where are we going to get the bread? Where are we going to get the food to feed this multitude of people, 4,000 people? You might remember in the Old Testament when God delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, many of the Israelites complained. And their complaining was really due to their unbelief. They thought that God could not provide for that many people in the wilderness. There was, by a lot of reckoning, different scholars say that if you added everyone up, there was about two million Jews in the desert. How's God gonna feed two million people every day in the desert. And in their unbelief, they questioned God. They complained against God. And Psalm 78 verse 19 records how they complained. It says, yea, they spake against God. They said, can God furnish a table in the wilderness? There's a question that drips with doubt. Is God able to give us a table in the wilderness? Well, of course he can. He's God. Nothing is impossible for him. And of course, you know the story. God did furnish a table for them. He fed them every day with manna from heaven, and the manna never ran out until they had crossed over into the promised land. Now, 1600 years later, the same question is being asked. We just read it in chapter eight, verse number four. And the question is not being asked by Jews in the wilderness, however, it's being asked by, of all people, the disciples of Jesus. This is the story of the feeding of the 4,000. Not the 5,000, but the feeding of the 4,000, and there is a difference. Now, in this particular part of Jesus' earthly ministry, he is in Gentile territory. He's coming really toward the end of his earthly ministry. He's going to make the journey into Jerusalem, but here he takes his disciples all the way up north. If you go along the Mediterranean Sea, you go all the way up north, you go past Tyre and Sidon, and he's in Gentile territory. And he's going to circle around and he's going to travel down on the other side of the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee to the Decapolis, those 10 cities that are in that Gentile region. And he's been trying to teach his disciples the truth that his message, the message of life, is not just for Jews only, but it's also for Gentiles. You see, as religious Jews, the disciples would have been raised to consider Gentiles off limits. They would have been taught to have no contact with Gentiles. Jesus, however, wanted his men to understand that he came into the world to save people wherever they may be found, no matter who they are and where they're from. And so, to drive home this point, Jesus takes his disciples into this predominantly Gentile area. And while he's there, he heals the Syrophoenician woman's daughter. He heals a man who was deaf, who had a speech impediment. And as soon as that miracle is accomplished, Jesus begins to teach people the word of God. And when this passage opens here, we see that He has been teaching this multitude for three days. Think about that. They stayed for three days. Without eating, they're with the Lord Jesus. How much do you want to hear God's Word taught? Are you willing to stay for three days without any meal? And so, When Jesus finishes, he knows that the people have not eaten. He can't send them away fasting. If he does, he knows some of them will faint from hunger. They're not gonna be able to make this long journey back to their homes because some of them came from a very, very long distance. So Jesus decides that he will feed them. And the disciples, in their unbelief, asked a question that sounded very much like the question that the Jews in the wilderness asked 1,600 years earlier. How are we gonna do this? How is God, or how can anyone satisfy, or can a man satisfy these men with bread here in this wilderness? Now this question, again, implies unbelief. It drips with doubt. Now, in Mark 6, if you just go back a few pages, what you have in Mark 6 is the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus had already done that. That's in Mark 6, verse 30 to verse 44. And you would have thought that the response of the disciples would be something like this, well, Lord, we were around not too long ago when you just fed 5,000 people, so 4,000 shouldn't be a problem. But that's not the response that they had. Instead, they give this skeptical question. Who, what man can furnish a table in the wilderness? Well, man can't do this, but God can. And here we're gonna see another miracle that demonstrates that Jesus was not just a mere man. He was God. The disciples seemed a bit like slow learners. Didn't they remember what Jesus did? But remember, they're still coming to grips with who Jesus is. Now, later on, Peter, the spokesman for the disciples, he's going to make the great confession in chapter 8, verse 29, you know, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. But what is happening is these disciples are kind of growing in their theology, and they're learning more and more with greater certainty that Jesus is indeed all that he claimed to be, that he is indeed the son of God. But here in this chapter, we see some of the doubts that they're still wrestling with. And so, they even manifest kind of a hardness of heart and Jesus has to give them a mild rebuke. Look in verse 21 here of chapter eight. Just drop down to verse 21. And he said unto them, how is it that you do not understand? Talking to his disciples. How is it that you still don't get it, guys? I mean, we've been together here for a while. You've seen me do some miracles. You're still not getting it. getting it, why is that? And this is a mild rebuke, and it may be that the Lord might be rebuking you here with the same question tonight. It might be that you are wrestling with doubts about a certain circumstance that you're in, and you say, can God deliver me from this? Can God help me out of this situation? Can I trust God in this desert circumstance that I'm in? Because you're looking around and there's no help from man, but the question is, can God? And so if that's true of you, then this story here is for you. And I want you to see three parts here in this story. First of all, the multitudes and their lack. Look in verse one here of chapter eight. In those days, the multitudes being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat. Now, critical scholars, when they look at this story, they deny that there were two feedings. What they basically say is that this is really the same story. And they say that a scribe in the early centuries mixed up the pages of his manuscript and repeats this narrative, the same narrative that we see in Mark 6, verse 30 to 44. He kind of gets the pages of his manuscript mixed up, and he repeats the same, story, so somehow Mark got the tradition confused. And this is actually the same story being repeated. And they argue this point based on the similarities between the feeding of the 4,000 and the feeding of the 5,000. And there are some clear similarities between the two stories if you compare them. Both miracles involve huge crowds. Both miracles took place in a location where no food was available. In both miracles, Jesus was moved with compassion. It records that in each of these. In both miracles, Jesus used a small amount of food to feed a large group of people. In both miracles, he uses bread and fish. In both miracles, Jesus involves the disciples. In both miracles, the disciples doubt the Lord's ability to meet the need. And then in both miracles, Jesus asks the same question. How many loaves do you have? How many loaves do you have? Same question. In both miracles, Jesus took what he had, he gave thanks to God, and he'd break it, and then he began to distribute what he had. And both miracles, the bread and the fish, multiplied in the hands of Jesus. And both miracles, the crowds were entirely satisfied. In both miracles, a large amount of food was left over. In both miracles, Jesus left the crowds by boat to go to another part of the Sea of Galilee. So you can see how certain critical scholars would say, ah, this is the same story. Look at all the similarities here in this story. This has to be repeated material. But what many critical scholars fail to do is to recognize the differences in these two accounts. These are distinct differences. If you look at these stories very carefully, these are two different events. For example, the number of people fed is different. There was the feeding of the 5,000 mentioned in Mark 6. Here it's the feeding of the 4,000. The amount of bread used in the feeding of the 5,000 were five loaves. Here it is seven loaves. The amount of food left over in this miracle is different, whereas before it was 12 small baskets were left over. Here there are seven large baskets. that are left over. The first miracle took place after a day of his teaching. This takes place after three days of Jesus' teaching. Also, in Mark 6, when Mark uses the word fish, it was a generic Greek word for fish, but here in Mark 8, a different Greek word is used for fish, and it's a word that refers to sardines. Sardines. I know on announcement a few weeks ago, Aaron said, don't bring sardines. Evidently, I don't know why he mentioned that. Maybe you like sardines and you want to give yours away. I do tell you this, Jesus evidently had no problem with sardines because he multiplied them. you know, here in this story, but this is what the Greek word is here. Also, there's two different Greek words for basket. The word for basket in Mark 8 is different from the word used in Mark 6. The Greek word used in Mark 6 for a basket is a word that refers to a small wicker basket, kind of like a lunch basket. It would be small, enough for one individual. But the Greek word for basket here is spuris, which is a large basket. Picture a hamper-sized basket. This is a big one. So it's two different words here for basket, which tells us this is not the same event. This is something different. But if that's not enough evidence for you, the coup de grace that really, to me, settles it, silences all theories of textual errors that Jesus mentions, is that fact that Jesus mentions both feedings in a single discussion. Look again in chapter eight, look down in verse number 18, where Jesus said this. Having eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not? And do ye not remember when I break the five loaves among the 5,000, how many baskets full of fragments ye took up? And they said unto him, what? 12. And when the seven among the 4,000, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said unto him, seven. And he said unto them, how is it that you do not understand? Now, he wasn't directing that question to critical scholars, but we should direct that same question to critical scholars, because here Jesus makes it pretty clear that this is two different miracles here. How is it that you don't understand this? How is it you're still trying to put all this together as one miracle? And so this is a different miracle. And another thing that distinguishes this miracle is in verse one where it says, in those days, what days? Again, this makes a distinction. In the days when Jesus traveled up to the Northwest area and then came down the Southeast region to the Decapolis. And here's another difference. The 5,000 were fed by the Sea of Galilee. The 4,000 were fed in the region of the Decapolis. Jesus was having a conference, a three-day conference, giving them the Word of God. Wouldn't you like to be in on a three-day conference with Jesus teaching the Word of God? And so, men and women had come from all over the Decapolis. Again, these were Gentiles. These were not Jews. And so this was kind of something new to them. Maybe that's the reason it took Jesus three days rather than one day when he taught the people the feeding of the 5,000. He took more time to instill to them the truth of God's word. And finally, when it was time for them to go, Jesus did not want to send them away with no food. Two times it says, having nothing to eat. And so he provides for them. We announced about me going to India and you all giving money because what we're doing basically with that is these are pastors in this area of Hyderabad, all over that area of southern India that are coming. And a lot of these men, they just don't have a lot. They work another job trying to take care of their family. To pastor in that region, again, there's persecution against churches and Christians. And so for them to travel and to come to a place and to hear the word of God, I mean, it would be an expense for them. And so what does all this offering that we're taking up for them go for? Well, it helps them to travel to get there. This hotel that we're gonna have the conference in is by a train station, so a lot of them are gonna be able to come in. And it's going to be in a hotel conference room, that way they can come and it could be a nice place for them to stay, and they're going to be sleeping in rooms there, and then getting up and eating the meals, and just being ministered to, and just being taught the Word of God, and encouraged. So, whatever money you feel led over the Lord to give to that project, it goes to feeding this multitude. that's gonna be there, and pretty much helping them out just to come and be refreshed. I taught this group before. Many of them are from churches that are being under severe persecution. And I think about that when I think about this story here. Jesus is teaching them. He doesn't want to send them away, excuse me, without anything to eat. And so, because he says in verse three, for divers of them came from afar, They come from such a far distance. And so, He sees their need, and He wants to meet their need. You know, this tells me about Jesus. He knows your need. He knows exactly what's your need. And He wants to meet that need. So there is the multitude in their lack. But then number two, write this down, the master and his love. Again, we see in verse two, I have compassion on the multitude, Jesus says. Now, compassion involves deep emotions. The word for compassion here, again, is a very, very descriptive Greek word. You've heard me talk about it before. It really just means your midsection because deep emotions come from that mid area of your being and it just kind of rises up within you. And, you know, really this means that his heart went out to them. He felt deeply for these people. Jesus, during his whole earthly ministry, is constantly showing compassion. Five times in the gospels, it's recorded that Jesus was moved with compassion. He knew what it was like to be hungry. Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and then was tempted of the devil. Jesus knows what it's like to be without food, and so he's moved with compassion here on the multitudes. Someone said that people don't really care what you know until they know that you care. And I think that the reason these people were staying there and listening to Jesus is because they can see his compassion for them, his love for them. Many Christians have lost their compassion for those that are without, those who don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. It's very easy to get wrapped up in our own world, in our own schedule, in our own life, doing our own thing, and forget about all the needs that are out there, all the hurting people that need to be ministered to. One time a young captain in the Salvation Army wrote to General Booth, who was the founder of Salvation Army, and he said, I'm not seeing converts. People don't seem to be responding to my message. And General Booth replied by telegram with just two words, try tears. and there is a dire need for compassion. But also compassion involves decisive action. It's one thing to feel for someone, but compassion doesn't just feel, it's moved to action. You have to do something. And so it doesn't really do any good if you're not gonna do anything about it. And here Jesus, he's going to do something. He's going to take care of the needs of these folks here. So we see the multitudes in their lack. We see the master and his love. But here's the third thing I want you to see, the miracle and its lessons. The miracle and its lessons, verse four. And his disciples answered him, from whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in this wilderness? How are you going to feed these people in the middle of this wilderness? The disciples again wondered, how is this going to happen, Lord? And so, now it may have been And again, to me, it's just surprising that the disciples seem to forget so quickly about the previous miracle of the 5,000. But it may be, however, as D.A. Carson noted, that the disciples really didn't forget what Jesus had done previously, they just didn't expect Jesus to do that for Gentiles. that he did it for the Jews, his own people, but would Jesus do that, again, that kind of miracle on that kind of scale for people that were without? for people that were Gentiles. Again, D.A. Carson kind of makes this note when he says, if they realize the first miracle anticipated the Messianic banquet, they may not want to extend that privilege to the Gentiles. The Gentiles surely are not gonna be privileged to be part of this kind of treatment. And so, just to show, again, Jesus is making a point that his love, that his message, the gospel, All of it is for not just Israel, it's for all people. It's for Gentiles as well. Now, let me just give you a few lessons we can learn from this miracle. First of all, yield what you do have, not what you don't have. Look at verse number five. And he asked them, how many loaves have ye? How many loaves have ye? Do you think Jesus asked that question because he didn't know? No, why is he asked that question? Because he wants them to yield it up to him. That's an invitation to give me what you have. Whatever you have in your hand, whatever you have that's available, just give it to me. Yield it to the Lord. All they were able to round up were seven small loaves and a few fishes. There was no place really to go buy bread for 4,000 people. There's no supermarket. They're in the middle of a desert. Even if there was a market close by, they don't have enough bread for 4,000 people. So Jesus didn't ask him for what they didn't have, but he asked them to give to him what they do have. Just yield to me, give to me what you do have. That sounds very simple and obvious, but it's so true. We make up excuses about why we don't do certain things. I don't do this, I don't have this, I don't have that. Well, what do you have? Just give the Lord what you do have. And watch God use what you give to him. But here's the next thing, obey what he commands. Look at verse number six. And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground. I love this. The word for sit, the Greek word is anakalino, anakalino. It's where we get the word recline. Recline. In other words, back in that day, if you were going to eat at a banquet, you would just kind of recline on an elbow. They didn't sit in chairs on tables like we do today, especially if you're out in the middle of the wilderness, right? What do you do at a picnic? You throw out a blanket and you recline on an elbow, right? But that's the way they would eat. They would just sit down with maybe some pillows and they would recline like they were going to eat at a banquet table. That's the typical posture. And this gives the impression of what the Lord is going to do. I guess if we use the vernacular today, or our like figure today, it would be something like keep your fork, or get your plate ready, something like that. In other words, it's the anticipation that you're gonna eat something here. Jesus is about to give them a meal. They're about to be part of a banquet, and the disciples are gonna be the waiters. But here's the next thing. Trust Jesus to meet needs through us. Next, Jesus takes the loaves and the fishes, and notice the next three verbs. Look at verse six. He commanded the people to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves and gave thanks. So first of all, he blessed, he gives thanks. Greek word eucharisto, to bless, give thanks. God, Father, bless this. You know what, without God's blessing, we're wasting our time, you realize that. No matter what we do, if we don't have the blessing of God, we don't have anything. We need God's blessing. Unless the Lord builds a house, they labor in vain that build it. Do you covet God's blessing in your life and in your labors? The problem in many churches today is they've learned how to get along without the blessing of God. and we need his blessing. But next he breaks in verse six. He gives thanks and break. And then in verse seven, again we see and he blessed. And they had a few small fishes and he blessed. So what we see here is blessing and brokenness go together. You won't find God blessing apart from God's breaking. And you can see it in the lives of people that God uses. The people that God uses are people that God has broken, and then he blesses. Think about Abraham and Sarah. They were past their ability to give children, to produce a child before God gave them Isaac. They had to come to the place in their own life where they were completely without strength. You could say weak and broken before the Lord, and then God stepped in. Jacob had to be crippled. before he could be someone that could wrestle and prevail with God. Moses had to fall on his own strength, excuse me, fail on his own strength. He had to spend 40 years tending sheep in the wilderness before God used him to deliver Israel. The Enshabner said this, God uses broken things. He takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter weeping bitterly who returns to a greater power than ever." You know, the problem with us is that it's not that we're too weak to serve the Lord, it's that we're too strong to serve the Lord. And God, before he can use us, he has to make us weak. He's gotta break us down. God doesn't want our adequacy, what we think is adequate. He wants our inadequacy. That's what he uses. God can supply the adequacy. But he puts his treasure in earthen vessels. And that's the thing that we have to learn. Why? So that the surpassing greatness of his power is clearly from God, it's not of us. It's from God. So he's gotta weaken us, he's gotta break us. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. So Jesus blesses, he breaks, and then he gave. Again, we see this in verse six. And gave to his disciples to set before them. Again, we see this in verse seven. He commanded them to set them before the people. Now the verb implies Jesus here then multiplies the bread. and he kept giving and giving. He gave to the disciples, and the disciples in turn just gave to the people. So here's Jesus, he just keeps giving. I can just picture in my mind, here's Peter next to Jesus, and he takes this from Jesus, and he gives to the next guy, and they're giving it out. He thought maybe that was the last thing he turns, and there's more. And then he just gives it out and turns again, and it just keeps coming. Jesus keeps multiplying it. The bread multiplied in Jesus' hands as he breaks it, he just multiplies it. I mean, it's just incredible. It's just like the feeding of the 5,000, same thing. And what I want you to see here in this is that Jesus is using weak, inadequate people to meet the needs of other people. Jesus is teaching his disciples that he meets the needs of people through people. That's the way he chooses to work. And you know the kind of people he uses? inadequate people, weak people. Jesus didn't really need them. He could've done this by himself. He could've performed this miracle any way he wanted to. I mean, he's God. He could've called down manna from heaven just like Moses did in the Old Testament. That would've been impressive, just to see manna come from heaven. That would've been easier on the 12. It would've been more efficient. You know, get the food doing quicker. Talk about fast food. You know, it's just raining from heaven. But he didn't do it that way. He could have spoken the word and the loaves and the fishes just appear in everyone's basket. He just could have spoken, it was there. I mean, he could have done that. I mean, that would have been pretty cool. Everyone would have been aware of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this miracle would have been just incredibly impressive. He could have used angels. He could have gotten angels from heaven just to bring bread down and just give it to the people. He could have done that. People would have been amazed about that. They would have been talking about that for a long, long time. But he didn't want to use any of those ways. How did Jesus choose to minister to these people? He used disciples to distribute the loaves and the fishes. He used his disciples. Christ meets the needs of people through other people. And what kind of people? Inadequate people, inadequate people. He uses tired people. They've been there for three days, ministering. You guys look so tired tonight. But you know what, that's the kind of people Jesus uses. He uses tired people. Jesus uses people who lack the resources. They didn't have the cash. They didn't have the time. They didn't have the energy to get bread or to make bread. They just didn't have those resources. They were emotionally drained. They lacked all the resources. He used people that lack faith. I mean, the disciples were like, I don't know how we're gonna do this. I don't see how this is gonna get done. And yet, the Lord didn't bypass them, the Lord chose to use them. I'm so glad that things don't depend upon my weak faith at times, because God uses people who lack faith. They showed little faith, and yet God used them in spite of their lack of faith. You see, here's the point. Give your inadequacy to Jesus. Just give it to Jesus, and watch him take our inadequacy and do something great with it. So the next thing we see here is that he satisfies them. Look at verse eight. It says this, and so they did eat and were filled. The emphasis in verse eight is on being filled or full. Matthew's account uses the word all, everybody ate, were filled. Filled to the full is the idea there. They ate to the full. They were stuffed like it was a Thanksgiving meal. Guys, remember how you feel after a Thanksgiving? I know some of you are looking forward to that already. We're close to it. Just stuffing yourself on Thanksgiving. That's the idea, filled to the full. And then there were still, Some left over, and so in verse eight again we see, and they took up the broken meat that was left, seven baskets. Again, the word for basket here is different from the word from the feeding of the 5,000. This word here is a word that's talking about a big basket. This was the same word that was used in Acts 9, verse 25, when it talks about Paul, when he had to sneak out of town. He left the city of Damascus. They let him down over the wall in a basket. That basket had to be big enough for Paul to fit in it. And that was the basket that they would normally use to put fish in it, you know, dead smelly fish. I'm sure that wasn't a nice little ride for Paul down that wall in that smelly basket. But it was a big basket, and this is the word that's used here. And so, they ate, and look in verse number nine, and then he sends them away. And they that had eaten were about 4,000, and he sent them away. Jesus did not preach to them a sermon on the bread of life like he did to the Jews in the feeding of the 5,000 after he fed them. They had already heard Jesus for three days, so it was time for them to go. Besides, they probably wouldn't really get the story of the man in the Old Testament, the bread of God. That's what Jesus told the 5,000 after he fed them. Again, these were Gentiles. And Jesus always adapted his teaching to the needs and the understanding of the people that were in front of him. But here's the last thing I want you to see. Ask for God to give you understanding about who he is. Every miracle, that Jesus did was a sign that pointed to something about himself. Every miracle had some theology lesson in it that the Lord wanted them to understand. So ask God to help you to understand. And later again, Jesus will rebuke the disciples for being blind. We saw this in verse 21. How is it that you do not understand? Come on guys, how come you're not getting this? How many times do I have to do this miracle before you get it? What are the lessons? Jesus is God. Again, this is a lesson he demonstrated to the Gentiles, and they believed it. Only God can create. Only God could have multiplied those loaves and a few fish. Only God can create healthy tissue to replace diseased ones. Only God can take deformed limbs and make them whole. Only God can recreate eyes to make them see. The miracles that Jesus did while he was in that region, culminating with this miracle here, all pointed to the fact that he was the divine creator, God. He created those fish. He created those loaves. He bypassed all of the normal processes that it would take to get fish and loaves. I mean, what does it take to make a loaf of bread? You ladies know, you know, all the process that's involved, how much time it takes. You know, that's why it always bothers me when scientists say, well, we believe in a old earth theory, you know, it couldn't be 24 hour days because all this couldn't be created in that amount of time. Scientific data doesn't back it up. Really? Is that so? What if you were there on the day Adam was, what if we had some scientists there on the day Adam was created? and they wanted to do an experiment on Adam. And they looked him over, and they gave him a blood test, and they checked his weight, and they did all the physical exam, and they write in their charts, well, this guy's probably about 33 years old, according to our data. He's a man, he's got strength and fully mature. He's a fully mature man, therefore, we postulate that he is about this, no, he's one day old. All right, not even that. God just created them out of the dust of the ground. There's no scientific data that's gonna back that up. It was a miracle of God. You either choose to believe it or you don't, because God is the creator, and that's what he did, and that's what the Bible says. So don't come to me with this, oh, you know, the universe. Look, it was a miracle. God created a fully mature earth and universe in six days because that's the way he chose to do it. And you can't use scientific data to try to come to some conclusion in your own pride to try to explain how it all got here. There's only one person who can explain it, and that's God, and he wrote it in a book. You either believe it or you don't. Right? So, amen. Thank you, brother. Thank you for that testimony. Jesus is the universal savior. Again, not to belabor the point, but Jesus, what he did for the Jews in Jewish land and feeding the 5,000, he does for Gentiles in a Gentile land in the feeding of the 4,000. Jesus is the bread of life for everyone. And Jesus is sufficient to meet all the needs of all people Again, that's the whole point here. He's able to meet the need. Whatever your need may be, Jesus is sufficient for that need. That's the point. So can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Yeah, he can. What's your issue? What do you need? And your question tonight might be, can God? Well, yeah, he can. Yes, he can. Are you willing to trust him? Are you willing to yield to him whatever you do have? Give your inadequacy to him and trust in him. Let God take care of that need. Put it into his hands, whatever it is, just put it into his hands and let him work on your behalf. Let's bow for prayer together. So, Father, thank you again for your Word and this beautiful story that reminds us again of how sufficient our Savior is for whatever need that we might have. And a reminder to us, Lord, that we need your blessing on what we do. We are inadequate in and of ourselves, but Lord, you don't want our adequacy. You don't want our strength. You want us to give to you whatever we have, whatever's in our hands. Give to you our inadequacy and trust you, Lord, to do the rest. And I pray, Lord, that there's someone here tonight that just has a question in their mind. Can God? They're in a situation. They're facing a dilemma. They're in a desert place in their life right now. And they're asking, can God, can God do this? Lord, strengthen their faith. Let this story minister to their heart. And may they place into your hands whatever situation they have. And Father, we pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.