Shenandoah Bible Baptist Church
A Lesson Review from the King
I like that. Matthew chapter 15, please. In our Bibles tonight, Matthew 15. Amen. Back in Matthew again. And let's pick up in verse 29, if you would. Matthew 15, 29. Matthew 15, 29. The Bible says here, "And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and he healed them. In so much that the multitude wondered. When they saw the dumb to speak and the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see, and they glorified the God of Israel." Then Jesus called his disciples unto him and said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat. And I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. And his disciples say unto him, 'When should we have so much bread in the wilderness as to fill so great a multitude?' And Jesus saith unto them, 'How many loaves have ye? Sounds very familiar, doesn't it? It's like we just went through this very recently.' And they said, 'Seven in a few little fishes, quite just a little bit different there. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and break them, and gave it to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled, and they took up of the broken meat that were left, seven baskets full." Well, that's different. Last time it was twelve, wouldn't it? Now it's seven. Is this less of a miracle? No, I don't believe so. "And they that did eat were four thousand men beside women and children. And he sent away the multitude and took ship and came into the coasts of Magna." Lord, be glorified by your scripture tonight. And as we look to it, bring out what you'd like, Lord, and feed us with what you have for us tonight. And God, thank you for your word. In Jesus' precious name, amen. Now, in Matthew here, we're in chapter 15. And if you remember, just a few weeks ago, we were talking about the feeding of the five thousand, and that was literally the chapter right before this in Matthew 14. Now, did Matthew just get a little confused and say the same story a different time, a different way? No, he didn't. This is a whole different event, and Jesus would feed five thousand in Matthew 14, and he would feed four thousand in Matthew 15, two different groups. I'm going to tell you tonight, and I'm going to like to show you how I come to this understanding in the scripture here. I believe it's two different cultures of people, and I also believe it's in two different regions, and it's important that we understand that Jesus is not just the same story that's been told so many times, and the numbers get messed up. It's a completely different thing. And Matthew knew well what he was talking about when the Holy Spirit, working through him, when he penned these down, one chapter after another. Of course, he didn't write it in chapters. All right, we that divided up later. But unlike you to see this, would you take your Bibles, and we're going to compare two places in the Gospels, would you please keep your finger here and go to Mark chapter seven, please tonight. Mark seven, and we're going to look at some comparison on these two passages of scripture. Now, as you're turning there, and I'm going to ask you some questions, okay, if you want to help me tonight class, help me out with this. Where had Jesus been before this? If you remember, we talked about the feeding of the five thousand in Matthew 14. But then we saw he went up into the coast of another place that was outside the boundaries of that time of Israel, and he spoke with a Canaanite woman. Remember that? There was a woman where she was begging for some help, and he said, he said, I'm only sent to the to the children of Israel. Remember that? And she says, she says, yeah, but the dogs come eat the crumbs at the master's table. Remember that? Where was he at? Does anybody remember? He was up in Tyre and Sidon. Tyre and Sidon, that's back here in chapter 15 where we're at in Matthew in verse 21. It says, then Jesus went thence and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And I'm going to show you just a moment to where these things are at and understanding this. Now look with me in Mark chapter 7 and look at verse 31. Now we understand the feeding of the four thousand will be in chapter 8 verse 1, but we're talking about where he's at and he's healing people before he gets to that point. Notice verse 31 of chapter 7. Mark 7, 31, the Bible says, and again departing from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee through the midst of the coast of the capitalist. Now that's important. It's important that we see that. Alright, so if we go back to Matthew here and we're going to compare these two, it's okay to keep that marked. If you go back to Matthew here where we started was, it said in verse 29, and Jesus departed from thence and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee and went up into a mountain and sat down here. So Mark is just a little bit more detailed about where Jesus was. It was in a place called Decapolis. Let me, if I, if I, if I can hear, show us on the screen for a moment tonight. Decapolis. Okay, let's get our boundaries for a moment. And I know I'm teaching, but I'll get to the preaching in just a moment. And I believe this will be a help to us. Okay, let's get our boundaries. Here's the sea of Galilee right here. And here's the Dead Sea. Everybody with me? Get our boundaries so we know what we're looking at. Because, because on the map is highlighted Decapolis. Alright. And so Jerusalem would be somewhere around right here. And Tyre and Sidon would be up here, somewhere up there. Okay, along the coast of the sea of the Mediterranean Sea. So when Jesus went there, likely he could have just gone this way, like this. Okay, but there's, there's, let me do it this way. There's a bunch of mountains in here. And there's some openings in there. Alright, are we having fun? I like drawing. Okay, so just follow them with me. Alright. But the Bible says that he came to the Sea of Galilee. Let me erase all this. He came back to, he was up here. And he came back to here. But he came to there through the coast of Decapolis. What that means is he would have had to go on this way and come down around like this. Okay. Now what is Decapolis? Let me erase this here for a minute. What is Decapolis? Decapolis is 10 cities. It's a Greek origin, Greek name. And it is believed to come into existence somewhere between the death of Alexander the Great. And when the Roman conqueror of Pompeii was coming through. Okay. And so these 10 cities were established during that time. Pompeii came through, he recognized the Greeks there and these different cities. And he kind of united them under the Rome rule and put them all together under Rome. But Decapolis, yes, it's going to have Jews in it. Of course it is. Okay, do you remember back in Moses' day who settled in this region of Decapolis? The two and a half tribes. Remember that? Yet Manassas was one of them. And who was it? Was it Ruben and Gad and half of Manassas? Was that what it was? I'm trying to remember. What did you say? Anyways, it was two and a half tribes. Amen. And so there was Jews that settled on that side. They liked it for their cattle. Do you remember? Everybody with me? You follow me? It wasn't Gad. It was Ruben and Manassas and another one. But so they settled on that. So there's some Jews in this region. But mostly at this point in the day of Christ, it is mostly Greek. It's mostly, excuse me, Gentile is the way I should put it there. There's a lot of Greek heritage here in Decapolis. There are 10 different cities and they're on the east side of the Jordan River. Okay. So in Jesus, let me show you a different map here. And I know this is small. Let's get our boundaries again so we know what we're looking at. Here we go with this. Here's the Sea of Galilee and here's the Dead Sea. So Jerusalem's about right here. Okay. Just getting our boundaries in. Tire and Sidon are up here. Here's tire and here's Sidon up here. Okay. Along the Sea of Galilee there. I mean, excuse me, along the Mediterranean Sea up that way. If you can see it, I know it's small, but you see the big mountains right in here. Okay. So there is a passage that comes through here and goes on up to Damascus. And it's likely a road Jesus would have traveled because if he came to the Sea of Galilee and he came through the coast of Decapolis, he would have had to come this way and then come down around like this. If that's what he was going to do. So is it okay that Jesus took that route? Yes it is. I'm not here to tire. I wasn't living in the day of Christ and I wasn't following him, but I'm telling you what the Bible tells us and that he came to the Sea of Galilee through the coast of Decapolis. What that means is when he's healing people here, notice back in our scripture. We're in verse 29 and it says he came into the Sea of Galilee and he went to a mountain and sat down there and in verse 30 says, "A great multitude came unto him, having with them those that were lame and all the others." So he's in the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee in the coast of Decapolis and these people are coming out and coming to him and wanting to be, they're sick to be healed. Everybody follow me now? It's a different group of people. It's not primarily Jews. It's going to be primarily Gentile. Everybody follow me now? Who did he meet with when he was up entire inside him? He met with a Canaaniteist woman, Gentile, right? It's interesting now that his ministry is beginning to really increase to the Gentile people. Where the Jews had formally rejected him, John chapter 1, very clearly, he came unto his own and his own received him not. Do you remember John chapter 1, 11 and 12? "But as many as received him gave he power to become the sons of God." And I'm thankful that he did reach Gentiles. I'm thankful that Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles so that we could get the gospel. That's how we got the gospel through Paul and his going present towards Europe there. And so most of the majority of us here tonight, that's how we got the gospel. And so, anyways, that's the route that Jesus would have taken. You say, "Why are you showing us all that?" Because Jesus at this point where we're reading in the Scripture is somewhere right here on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee in a mountain and people are coming to him. And this is in between all those 10 cities. And notice that's when we get down to the feeding of the 4,000 and he says they've been with him. Look in Mark. You have that saved there. Look over in Mark and look in chapter 8, if you would. Look in Mark 8. It says here in verse 1, "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 now been with me 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 afar." Now, if they were coming from these different cities of Decapolis, then they would have come very far. Let me use a different color here. And if Decapolis, remember there's all those different cities and they're marked all around and one was up here and some of them were down here, they would have been coming from afar. It's like, yes, it makes a lot of sense that they come from afar and they would have been hungry on the way back home. I know that I'm speculating a little bit. I don't know the specifics here, but I'm giving you what I've got in the Word of God. Everybody follow me with me? Okay. Now, so that's the case then. Jesus here is ministering to a different group of people than he was in the 5,000. In the 5,000, he's ministering to Jews. They are in a desert place, which just means a place where there's no town, okay? They're out in the countryside, okay? And he was ministering to Jews at that point. Here, he's now outside of anywhere three days journey and all these people have come from so far that if he was to send them back home, they wouldn't make it. And he's having compassion on them. So understanding that background, and again, I like maps and it surely helps me to understand this, and I'm just going to leave that put there for a moment, and I want to go back to our Scripture now. We're in Matthew 15, and we see the folks that are coming. Look at verse 31, if you would. Matthew 15, verse 31. This is one reason I believe and I know that this must be Gentiles that he's reaching, because notice what the Scripture says. In so much that the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb to speak and the mane to be whole and the lame to walk and the blind to see, watch us, and they glorified the God of Israel. See that text there? It wasn't that the Jews were glorifying Jehovah. It wasn't that the Jews were seeing the Son of God being as the Son of David in their text, their vernacular, they would have said that. Instead here, it says they glorified the God of Israel. That right there points to me saying that he's reaching Gentiles here. Now, I'm going to get to preaching in just a moment, but I'm trying to teach you some specifics here as we're going along. Let's jump right into 32 and look at the 4000 being fed here. Once again, he says, "I have compassion." Don't you think the disciples would have recognized and knew the answer to this already? Wasn't it just? Didn't it just happen? Now, somebody helped me here tonight and I know we can pick on the disciples, but we're just as airheaded sometimes as they are. But if you watch Jesus feed 5,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fishes, let's say we had the car show, right? But it was times that many people, right? And we had Brother Rubio out there with three hot dogs. But somehow everybody got fed. I think we'd remember that. Don't you think so? I'm sure I'd remember it. Never happened before, and boom, it's happening. I'd be like, "Wow, man, yeah, I'm keeping you on staff. Praise God, hallelujah." Okay, but listen now, here in Usher's dating system, if you have dates in your Bible, it's the same year. It's not been that long of time. How long would it take you to forget about food being multiplied and all these people being fed? It's strange to me that here within a time frame, it could have been six months, it could have been a year, but it wasn't very long because again, man has tried to determine here approximately the same year. Jesus' ministry was only three and a half years on earth. Even in that three and a half years time, I don't think I would forget the feeding of the 5,000 because the disciples were going back to Christ and they were picking it up and taking it to the people to feed them. Okay, that would have been a pretty big deal. But here, I believe, if I can put it this way, remember our teaching in Matthew has been about the king. I believe tonight is a lesson review from the king. I'm speaking to my teachers tonight. Is that okay? A lesson review from the king, okay? Because they've already seen this and they've already gone through this and there's so many similarities here, but they're still missing a little bit. And he needs to go back over the last couple chapters of what he's been teaching in the book. You're with me? Okay, I'm teaching, teacher vernacular here. He's got to go back and review a little bit to make sure his students have got it. A lesson review from the king. And here he goes, and it's very, very similar. He says, I've got compassion on the multitude. I can't send them away. They're going to faint. And notice, I think it's a little bit of a test. He says, he doesn't even ask them what he should do. He says, I will not send them away fasting lest they faint in the way. He doesn't ask a question. I think he and perhaps a little test. I wonder if they're going to say, Lord, you've got this, no problem. You're just going to feed them like you did a couple of months ago, right? I don't know. Perhaps I'm looking at this, wondering, is it a little simple test? But notice verse 33, and his disciples saying to him, when should we have so much bread in the wilderness as to feel so great a multitude? Did they, did they forget? Did they doubt? Were they just tired? Or did they have a bad memory? What's the case here? I don't have the answer to that, but notice verse 34, and Jesus saith unto them, how many loaves have ye? He's getting little hints again, little hints again. Don't you remember this happened before? Don't you remember what it did last time? I'm still the same God. I'm still the same Son of God. I'm still Jesus. I'm still, I'm still, I created all these things, and I'm able to do this. I'm able to supply the need here that is needed. Remember, remember folks, I think it would be good for us tonight to remember that we still serve the same God. We've got some great victories and some great miracles of the past when God's answered prayer in our lives. And if you don't have that, I encourage you to start praying in faith and calling on God in faith for him to work some big miracles in your life because he can do it. When we pray specifically in faith, it's a little bit scary because we're, well, it's my faith big enough for this, right? It's very specific, but God can answer specifically when you pray specifically. If we pray generically, Lord, let us have a big car show or let us have a big VBS or whatever. But when we pray specifically, that's when we can see God answered specifically. Amen. Now, that being said, you know, I was praying for a thousand people for the car show and the count. Brother John, you know, he didn't exaggerate enough and he was somewhere around 700 inside that day and all that. But I talked to Mrs. Smith and she cleared it all up. She said, "There were so many people on property. It was a thousand, preacher. Don't worry." Okay, so Mrs. Smith cleared it right up for me. And so I'm not worried about it one bit, all right? 7,000? Okay, all right, great. So moving right along, though, moving right along. So he given him hint, verse 34, and Jesus said unto them, "How many loaves have ye?" And they said, "Seven and a few little fishes." And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. Remember, he did that last time. Last time he did it in companies of 50, the Lord likes order. He likes order. Let things be done decently in order. I preached about that last time. Verse 36, and he took the seven loaves and the fishes and gave thanks and break them and gave to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude. The Lord still wants to use you when he's working miracles. Did you see that? Jesus could have went like this and he could have put a big spread right in front of everybody. He could have. Did he not speak things into existence before? But instead, he took something that they had. He broke it and multiplied it and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take to the people." Folks, if we're not recognizing this, God built a church here for us not to come and sit and just soak it all in. He built a church here for us to serve him in. Amen? He built a church for us to get busy doing his work right here. And God's going to bless you and your family by serving Jesus Christ and serving other people through his name. He's going to bless you. God brings great joy in serving, in teaching the Word of God, in serving children and helping this and driving buses and all these things. Amen. He brings great joy. I remember when I went off to Bible College and a couple of weekends later, I led my first soul to Christ. It was actually a group of boys. It was three boys. First time I'd ever led anybody to Christ. And I just never had the opportunity to do that. I'm telling you what? I don't come unglued. I was levitating. I mean, I'm telling you, it was exciting because God used me to appoint somebody to the Savior to pass from death unto life. How awesome is that? Put all the rewards and the things that God's going to give us, soul winners crown and all that. Put all that aside. It was exciting to be the one saying, hey, there's Jesus. Have you met him? It was exciting. It was exciting time. Notice though, he's using the disciples. What does God want to do? What miracles does he want to work through you by using you and your family? Amen. All right. Just think about all the different ministries. I'm thinking George and Elizabeth, I'm thinking about bridge to recovery and thinking about people that've been saved through that ministry already and folks can get help through those things. I know it's not booming. We don't have so many people here. We can't fit them in the door, but there are help in some people. Praise God for you. Amen. Hallelujah. God's using people. Notice verse 37 and they did all eat and were filled and they took up the broken meat that was left. Seven baskets full. Now let me stop there for a minute. This is another reason why I know that he's reaching a different group of people, the Gentiles. If you were to define this word baskets in the Greek, it would be the word spurious, S-P-U-R-I-S. That's a Greek word, and it is a different word than was used the chapter before when there was 12 baskets. Follow me here now. 12 baskets, and I could get in the nitty gritty with all the Greek, but just follow me. 12 baskets was a personal handheld basket like a lunch basket. Literally something a Jew would carry around, a lunch box. If I can put it that way. Here, these seven baskets that were collected here, this spurious, this Greek word spurious, is the same word that is used in the book of Acts in chapter 9 when they let Paul down the wall in a basket. Does anybody here fit inside of a lunch box? No. Think about the size of that basket. Now, in our day and age, you're thinking about a little pale, a little lunch box that you take with the ninja turtles on it to work. Am I the only one? No, I'm just kidding. I'm teasing. You take the lunch box to work and you think of the difference of the size of that and a big tote you're buying at the store to store things at home. Literally these baskets were used by the Greeks to store their wares and store their supplies in. They might even put grain in it. It was a big woven basket, big enough for a man to fit in and to be lowered down a wall. It's a different size basket. 12 versus 7, but there's a lot of space in each one of these baskets. So again, I say that I believe he's reaching the Gentiles here because of the difference in their baskets here. And we move on. Verse 38, and they did eat, and they that did eat were 4,000 men beside women and children, obviously not just 4,000 people. And he sent away the multitude and took ship and came into the coast of Magdala. All right. As we, well, it's be hard for me to show you on this map, but the Sea of Galilee, if he's, if he is in the east side over here, he took a ship. Magdala is up over here. Okay. And so just to give you an idea of what we're talking about. Now with all that being said, the message tonight is a lesson review from the king. A couple, couple things to preach on and think about and then we'll be done tonight. Number one, his compassion is for everyone. The first time the feeding of the 5,000, he was speaking to Jews and he had compassion upon Jews, and he fed the Jews. But here he's with mostly Gentiles. There could have been some Jews in the mix, but mostly Gentiles, and he's feeding them as well. The Lord's compassion is for everyone. God is not a respecter of persons, and the Bible says that several times. It doesn't matter how you got to church today. If you drove in, if you got a ride from someone, or you rode a bus, God loves you, and he has compassion on you. Amen. It doesn't matter if your family has been in here for decades, and you grew up in this church, or if you're brand new here, and maybe some folks in this church has been a help to you get and say it, and you're brand new, and it doesn't matter. God loves you, and he has compassion on you. He wants to save you. He wants you to grow. We folks, this church knows that, but we need this lesson review. We need that reminder. Because sometimes we get so focused on how we want things in this building. Do we not? You've heard the horror stories about churches that quit running buses because they got new pews and carpet. You understand we need new pews and carpet in this building, and it'll be a big price tag when we do it, and we need to do it, and it'll happen sometime in the future. Can I tell you this? If we're going to have to trade the pews and the carpet for the buses, then I'm keeping the old pews and the old carpet. Because God loves children, and he loves the people of this area, and we need to have compassion on them, and I understand that sometimes that means stains come, and spots come, and things come, and more so than not, it's us, and it's not them. Because I see everybody walking around with their cokes and their coffees and all that such, and we're causing the stains, and we're blaming everybody else. Now, let's move on from that. Let me get off my opinion and get back on the Scripture real quick. Now, listen, God loves people, and he has compassion on everyone. His compassion is for everyone. Let us not reject people. I hate this would ever be said of Shenandoah, but turn on our nose up at people, or not having time, and not listening to people. We have visitors come in here. Don't let them sit by themselves. Let me get up. This has been my seat, bless God, for 40 years. So what? Get up and go over and sit. Well, hey, thanks for coming today. Do you mind if I sit with you? Well, I'll just get them to come to my seat. No, no, no, no. Go to where they are, and be kind to people. That's what a church, that's what we're supposed to be. Amen? Jesus' compassion is for everyone. It doesn't matter. Brother George is a drug addict coming off the street. We're going to love on them. We're going to give them the gospel, amen, and praise the Lord. Hopefully through the program they can get some help, but it doesn't matter. We're going to have some compassion on them, amen? Because the Lord's compassion is for everyone. Number two, tonight, his capabilities have not diminished. The disciples, they forgot. The feeding of the 5,000 now, they were like, yeah, what? What are we going to do? What? You're having compassion on people. What? Yeah, we got seven loaves. Please don't give those away. No, the Lord's capabilities are not diminished. We've got great stories, Shenandoah of the past. We had a great story from Sunday. I mean, all those people here in 11 say, I don't want to forget that, but I don't want to live in the past, either. I want to move forward and see God do some great things moving forward. Why can't we pray in faith and see some bigger things happening and see some miracles that our children can experience also? Not just here in what mom and dad have seen, but seeing some new ones for themselves. I served the same God I did when I was a child. Ladies and gentlemen, here and here that have been here a long time, you served the same God that you did 30 years ago. He's not changed. His capabilities, his power has not diminished. Praise the Lord forward. And third tonight, his commission to us remains. Did you see how he used the disciples? He could have, again, he could have went like that and the whole spread was out. Some of us just sitting on their little, you know, get the blankets spread out and forget the lunch pail. Man, it's all out there. Man, we're having a good old time out in the out in the desert, out in the wilderness, but he uses the disciples to bring the food. I know who I'm preaching to tonight, myself, and we do a lot of work around here. We're busy and we're active. I'm tired right now, aren't you? I know. I'm watching Dave here fall asleep. I'm having fun, Dave. I'm sorry. All right. I had to wake you up. All right. Thanks for letting me use you, buddy. Watch. We've done a lot of work. We've done a lot of service today. Tell me people in here taught a science school class or did a junior church today and a lot of them that did wrote on a bus too. And when you write on a bus, you're here early and you get in late and you get lunch later than everybody else. Amen. We have choir members that had to disrupt an afternoon nap to come in early so they could go through their songs. Amen. It's serving God is not always easy. It's tiresome. But listen, God wants to use us. And it's easy for us sometimes to just grow cold of that and start backing away and dropping out of things because, well, I'm just too busy or I'm just this or this or I'm a little tired. God wants to use us. He wants to use this church to reach this community. And can I tell you a church where we've got the reputation, we've got the name of being a soul winning church through the decades. But our soul winning lately is small. It's not booming. I know we have four different times throughout the week when we go soul winning and a lot of folks go to different ones. But it is not booming. I would think a church that has got the name and the history and the just the godly herages that we have in this place, we ought to be busting down these doors in Martinsburg and Hedgesville and falling waters and in wood and everywhere else. And I'm being a shining light on a hill that can't be hit. But we're not. Let's remember the commission that Jesus Christ has called us to serve him. We have a purpose and it still remains. It's going to be there until we hear the trumpet sound. How glorious would that be if it was tomorrow morning before I got done preaching right now? Wouldn't that be something? But remember, if the rapture happens and God's had somebody on your mind that you need to talk to, then we're going to meet the Lord without that person. That's convicting to me right there. Because I want to be a soul winner. I want to point people to Jesus. And so often times I come up with a reason why I have it. Been there? Yeah. I'm guilty. Let's get some tracks in our pocket. And even if we don't, I don't have time to give the gospel to every single person. They just pass. Remember that song we sang today? They pass you by, you see it in their eyes? But I got time to slip them something. Hey, what is what I do? I you probably have noticed. I like to drive through, okay? French fries. They call my name sometimes. And so I go through the drive through and I say, I say, has anybody invited you to church recently? And I get these young fellows and they're like, no. I said, well, I'm officially inviting you. And I give them a gospel track. And sometimes we have a conversation. And sometimes people are blowing on the horn behind me. But you know, but I can't, I don't have time to go through the whole gospel right there. But I can give them a gospel track. Do you know that I know a man that got saved by reading a gospel track in a restroom? He was actually here. You brought him in on my 40th birthday. His name was Mike Garrett. And he got saved by reading a gospel track that somebody left in a restroom store. I guess they taped it to the door. I don't know. Okay. But he got saved because he read it gospel tracks can do a lot. The commission that God has given us remains. Don't lose sight of that. So tonight, a lesson review from the king. His compassion is for everyone. His capabilities have not diminished and his commission to us remains. Let's pray. Lord, I love you. And I'm thankful for this passage of scripture and the memory. Lord, the, the, the, the account and the memory of this feeding of the 4000. Lord, may we, may we understand the differences here so we can learn from them. Help us please to be a people that are focused on your purpose. The disciples, they were tired. They were ready to be done. And yet, Lord, you had compassion on this multitude and you wanted to use them to reach these people. Lord, I first of all, I want to say thank you to reaching everybody, not just Jews, but Gentiles. Thank you for our salvation tonight. But God, help us not to lose sight. The fact that you have compassion that Lord, your, your power is not diminished. Your capabilities are not diminished. And Lord, your commission to us still remains. Do you want to use this to reach others? Bless now this invitation and help us to acknowledge where you're poking in our hearts tonight, where we need to do better, where we need to do more for you. And bless us, please. We ask this. Would you stand with me tonight?