Jesus Is Greater Pt 1

Good morning. Would y'all stand? Yeah. Okay, we'll see if we can have you sit down before the whole thing is over. I bet you felt very, yeah, what's that man doing? He keeps, he hadn't told us to sit down yet, no. We want to welcome all of you here this morning to Calvary Chapel and those of you online participating with us. Would you join me in prayer? Bow your

heads, please. And Father, we thank you again for this opportunity we have to gather in this building to worship you in song, to study your word, Lord. We thank you for that opportunity, Lord. Father, would you give us hearts, Lord, focused on you this morning? I know that you're here. I know that you're here. I know that you're here. I know that you're here.

I know that we each face different things and may have things on our mind, whatever it might be. Father, without you, we can do nothing. We need you, Lord. We praise you. May we express your worthiness, Lord. You are worthy of our praise, Lord. Worship. May we worship you from our hearts just as we are by faith. We may feel different ways, but Lord, we look to you this

morning. We stand and lift up our hands for the joy of the Lord is our strength. We bow down and worship him now. How great, how awesome is he. And together we sing. Holy is the Lord with his glory. Holy is the Lord. We stand and lift up our hands. The joy is our strength. Worship him now. How great, how awesome is he. And together we sing. Praise you, Lord. It is rising up all around. Amen. You may be

seated. We praise you, Lord Jesus, this morning. Bless our time together as we worship you in song. Who breaks the power of sin and darkness? Whose love is mighty and so much stronger? Who shakes the whole? Only thunders breathless in awe and wonder. The King of glory. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. He says, as I sing for

all that you've done for me. Back into order. Who makes the orphan? A son and daughter. The King of glory. The King of glory. He shuns with truth and justice. Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance. The King of glory. The King above all. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would each step with praise of God. this is something live, life said our temerity around us is music. That the God of

praise won't let us down. Yet God's LSUS meets our eyes and the kittens get sighed. And in my Among you, vidae, I live, I will live, for you are my life He hears the water of life. Allow the music for That you've done for me Is a lamb who was slain Is a king who conquered the grave Worthy is the lamb who was slain Conquered the grave Worthy is the lamb who was slain The grave Worthy is the lamb who was slain This is amazing grace This is unfailing love That you would take my place That you would bear me Set free as I sing for All that you've done for me In my with your hands Known and I took up Remind me you're an artist And a potter I'm the canvas and the clay Make all work together Though I walk I see clearly Nothing has Been wasted Missed aid

I'm the canvas and the clay I'm the canvas and the clay Been wasted No failure or mistake Potter I'm the canvas and the clay No you're not finished with me yet And a potter I'm the canvas and the clay I know nothing has been wasted Missed aid Potter I'm the canvas and the clay I'm the canvas and the clay 杆 I'm the then da

Making and Moulding you some shaping us truly without I'm standing in the fire I will not be Оf the shatter Fertilizer Yes I am NOT I see your light is breaking OUTSIDE Lord you fight my ever battle We follow right at the head of You battle for my strength, my refuge in the storm. Through these trials, through these trials, you owe to my God so good. Praise you, Lord Jesus. Would you all stand this time? Thank you,

Lord Jesus, for your love and your grace. Worship you. Worship you. You are here working in this place. Worship you. Worship you. Promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are. Promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, that is who you are. Touching every heart, I worship you. I worship you. You are here. Worship you. Lord, I worship you. Turning lives around, I worship you. I worship you.

Worship you. Promise keeper, light in the darkness, who you are. Promise keeper, light in the darkness, that is who you are. Worship you. Worship you. You never stop. You never stop working. You never stop. You never stop.

You never stop working. You never stop. You never stop working. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you always keep. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you keep. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you always keep. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you always keep. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you always keep. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you always keep. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you always keep. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you always keep. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you always keep. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you always keep. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you always keep. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you always keep. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you always keep. Light in the darkness, my God, that is who you always

Lord, that is who you are this morning. God, you're an awesome God. You're mighty.

Lord, I just pray that this morning, God, that you would just do mighty work in our hearts, Lord. In that voice, I'll say it one more time.

In the darkness, that is who you are. I'm his keeper. Light in the darkness. That is who you are. That is who you are. For the children's church down there too, for those teachers. Give us each one listening ears to hear. In Jesus' name, amen. Lord bless you. Have some fellowship time.

Good morning. If you would begin locating your seats, grab a bulletin.

A handful of things to take note of here in the middle section of your bulletin. First of all, a reminder to the ladies that this coming Saturday, May 14th, is the ladies' breakfast at Bricks at 8 a.m. So ladies, join up there. Also, we've got coming up Saturday, June the 4th, is the third annual Servants Conference that the Calvary Fellowship over in Wellesley.

That's what LinkedIn puts on. We basically get a bunch of pastors from the Calvary Chapels in Kansas. We get together and we study the Bible. And it's a great time. It goes from about 8 a.m. to 4.30, 5 o'clock p.m. You can come for as little or as much as you want to. And lunch is provided, but it's a great time of fellowship this year. We're going through the book of 1 John.

So the title of the conference, I think, is Words of Assurance for Times of Uncertainty. So it should be a... It should be a great time. And they made me be the last speaker so that I wouldn't leave early. So come on out. It's going to be fun. They said, no, you have to stay the whole time. I was the last one to respond to the text, actually, I think is what happened.

And so he goes, well, you get the last time up. So come join that. And then also as a reminder that the Marriage and Family Study is tonight. So if you can make it, come on out for that. For our unison reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 100. Psalm 128, Psalm 128. We'll be looking at the New American Standard so that we all sound the same. If you need a copy of the New American Standard, there should be one in your row.

And so as you are turning to Psalm 128, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

And as I said, we will all read together. So if you'd read along with me, Psalm 128, a song of a sense. How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. Who walks in his ways. When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and it will be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children like olive plants around your table.

Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion. And may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem. All the days of your life. Indeed, may you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel. And Father, I do pray that we would be those people who fear you. In everything that we do, Lord, that we would live according to the mature fear of the Lord.

So Father, I pray that right now as we spend time in your Word. That your Holy Spirit would prepare our hearts for what you want to share with us this morning. That you would prepare our hearts to be convicted where there's areas of our lives. That need to be revealed to us where there's sin. Lord, that we would be comforted in those areas where there is brokenness.

And Father, that we would be instructed in those areas where we're not sure which way to go. And so Lord, do that work by the power of your Holy Spirit this morning. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 14. Matthew chapter 14. Oh, do we need to have him come up and make a question? Quick announcement.

Since my wife is pointing to me to say that. Hey, Nick, come on up.

Hey, good morning. Quick announcement about kids' church camp this summer. It's happening June 22nd through 25th. So if you have any kids in that age group, we highly recommend signing them up. Amazing camp speaker and theme for this year. It's going to be held at Prairie View Christian Camp. If you have any questions, ask myself or Pastor Ryan. But it's right here in Ark City, which is great.

The cost is $195. But it's well worth it. And we'd love for you guys to be there.

Perfect. I'm glad we made that announcement because I'm excited about getting some kids to go to camp this year. Also, I'm really glad my wife pointed that I needed to say something else because I almost forgot to mention, even though it's here, in really bold, colorful, flower-filled words, Happy Mother's Day. So to all of you ladies out there, I am so thankful for all of you.

All of you and the wonderful job that you do in raising kids. And as I've mentioned before, there are so many ladies in my life that aren't necessarily my mom, but they have played a motherly role in my life. And I'm so thankful for them. And I know that sometimes maybe you don't have kids, but you still play that role in someone's life. And I'm so thankful for all of you ladies that are willing to step up and play those roles that are so important.

And so we want to give you a little gift to say thank you for who you are. As mothers. And so there's a little something out there. If you go see the ushers after church, they've got a little gift for all of you ladies. So, okay, now we're into the word. If you would, turn to Matthew chapter 14. Today, as we come to Matthew chapter 14, we start really kind of a new section of the book of Matthew.

The title for this morning's message is Jesus is Greater. And in your bulletin, it just says Jesus is Greater. But this is actually going to be part one. I thought maybe we could cover. Everything in chapter 14 today, alas, we shall not. As we ended chapter 13, Jesus really had ultimately been rejected by the people. That final rejection will come at the very end when he stands trial there in Jerusalem.

But he'd been rejected by the religious leaders, which is why he began speaking to them in parables. And then he was rejected by the people of his hometown. And so now you move almost into a little bit of a different phase of the ministry of Jesus, where he seeks to focus more on his disciples. And preparing them for what's coming. But what we find is that Jesus has a hard time really focusing on only his disciples.

Because there's always people to be ministered to. And so as we come into chapter 14, we see some stories very similar to that. As a matter of fact, there's three areas in chapter 14 that we'll look at that show us that Jesus is greater. We'll cover the first two today. But the three we'll cover in this chapter is we'll see that Jesus is greater than our grief.

We'll see that Jesus is greater than our inability. And that Jesus is greater than our sin. And that Jesus is greater than the storms of our lives. And so this morning we'll look at these first two. And we'll start off here with Jesus being greater than our grief. And so we look at chapter 14, verse 1. And this is what it says. At that time, Herod the Tetrarch heard the news about Jesus.

He said to his servants, this is John the Baptist. He has risen from the dead. And that is why miraculous powers are at work in him. For when Herod had John arrested, he bound him. And put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. For John had been saying to him, it's not lawful for you to have her. Although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd because they regarded John as a prophet.

But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. So much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Having been prompted by her mother, she said, Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist. Although he was grieved, the king commanded it to be given because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests.

And he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl. And she brought it to her mother. His disciples came and took away the body and buried it. And they went and reported it to Jesus. Now as we move into chapter 14, the first thing that we see is we see a story about a guy by the name of Herod. As a matter of fact, this first section is called Jesus is Greater or parenthetically,

Jesus, John the Baptist, and Herod. Now a name comes up a lot throughout not only the Gospels but also into the book of Acts, and that's the name Herod. Now you need a little bit of a program to keep up with all of the Herods because there's more than one of them and they all bear the same name. There's usually Herod the... Anyway, their title follows that.

The first Herod that we read about in Scripture, at least in the book of Matthew, is who's known as Herod the Great. Herod the Great was the one that when the wise men came along and were looking for Jesus, said, hey, let me know where you find him because I'd like to go and worship him too. Of course, in a deceptive way because he then had all of the babies two years old and under murdered that were in the land because he was trying to deal with this Jesus. Well, of course, Jesus and his family fled to Egypt until that Herod, Herod the Great, had died.

And when they came back, they did not move back to the region of Bethlehem. Because Herod the Great's son, Herod Antipas, had taken over and he was every bit as evil as Herod the Great was. This Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, is the one that we're reading about today. It will be him that perpetrates this great crime against John the Baptist. And so, Herod was seeing all of the things that Jesus was doing

and as he was seeing all of the things that Jesus was doing, he had a guilty conscience issue. As a matter of fact, he started thinking, this must be John the Baptist who's come back to life. That's why he's able to do all of these miracles. We'll talk about why that's important in just a minute. He probably is able to do all these miracles because it's actually John the Baptist brought back to life.

Now, most historians and commentators agree that John and Jesus probably did look decently similar. They were family after all. They were related to each other. And so, the thought that there was some family resemblance is completely possible. But what really was getting at Herod was the guilty conscience over what he was doing. A guilty conscience over what he had done to John the Baptist.

You know, a guilty conscience when it forces us to follow the Lord, to repent of our sin and seek the Lord, can be one of the greatest tools in the hands of God possible. And it can be one of the greatest things that ever happens to us. But a guilty conscience that continues to be suppressed in unrighteousness can actually drive us to madness. And that's one of the things that you'll see end up happening with Herod.

Actually, the sad story about Herod and his wife Herodias is that they ultimately ended up being exiled to an island where they ultimately committed suicide. Because that's what happens when a guilty conscience is suppressed and never dealt with. It ultimately drives you to madness. Well, this Herod is who we're talking about. And so, Matthew gives us the backstory of what had taken place.

It says this Herod had had John arrested. He bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. For John had been saying, it's not lawful for you to have her. We've discussed this a little bit before, the last time that we talked about John the Baptist. But Herod had been married to a woman and he had gone to visit his brother Philip.

And when he went to visit his brother Philip, he saw his sister-in-law, Herodias, and he found himself attracted to her. So ultimately what he did is he seduced his sister-in-law so that she would want to marry him. He then put away his wife, he divorced his wife, and then married his sister-in-law. Sort of like days of our lives, right? Only the Roman version.

That's what takes place here in the life of Herod. Well, John the Baptist, being a godly man and knowing that this man was a leader, started calling him out for his sin. There were two ultimate sins that Herod was perpetrating at this point in time. Number one, he had divorced his wife unlawfully, therefore he was committing adultery. But number two, he had violated Levitical law

because Levitical law said a man should never marry his sister-in-law. And so he called him out for it. Now here's the funny thing, is that John didn't just do this once. As a matter of fact, where it says here, for John had been saying to him, it's not lawful for you to have her, the Greek tense there would indicate to us that John said this over and over and over and over again.

As a matter of fact, he didn't just say it once and call it good. He said it until something was done about it. He thought to himself, one of two things is going to happen. Either one, he's going to repent of his sin, or two, I'm going to jail. But either way, I'm not quitting because the truth is heard. And so he was willing to do that. You know, it's a dangerous world that John the Baptist lived in

when you couldn't call out leaders for their sin and it might land you into prison. It kind of sounds familiar, does it not? Because in the world we're living in today, there are people in high places that are living in sin and when they're called out for it, they want to suppress that voice. As a matter of fact, we have a nation that wants to live in sin and when people want to call it out for what it is, that voice is suppressed.

And that's exactly what happens to John the Baptist. So as John the Baptist is put into prison, I want you to notice how Herod responds. It says, Herod wanted to put him to death, but he feared the crowd because they regarded John as a prophet. In other words, prison wasn't the only place that he wanted him to go. He actually wanted to put him to death, but he knew that that would get him in trouble with the people

because everybody respected John the Baptist. You may not have agreed with him. You may not have thought everything he said was true, but you at least respected him, because he lived up to everything that he taught. And as a matter of fact, if you looked at Mark's account of this, you would find that even Herod found himself in a place where he respected John the Baptist and would go and hear him all the time.

And so he kind of came to a place where, because of his wife, he didn't want to let him go because his wife knew that he would continue to call them out for sin, but he also couldn't find himself in a place of dealing with John the Baptist the way that he thought he should because he feared the people and he kind of respected him himself. And so here John the Baptist has been dwelling in prison this entire time until one singular event took place. Verse 6,

Now Herodias' daughter, most historians believe, was probably between the ages of 16 to 18 years old at this point in time. Can you imagine a group of old men sitting around, staring at some young girl, dancing lasciviously in front of them? Unfortunately, it happens a lot more than we would all want to admit, does it not? You see, it was Herod's birthday, and Herod's wife knew exactly what he would be doing, that he would gather around with a group of his friends, and two things would take place.

Number one, they would drink a lot of alcohol, and number two, they'd be willing to stare at women. And because of that, John the Baptist would be killed. Because as this young lady danced for these men in this lascivious sort of way, they were so taken in by her beauty and by her seduction that Herod found himself saying, I'll give you anything. Fellas, what a terrible place for a culture to end up when men find themselves to only be creatures that drink alcohol and stare at women that dance seductively.

And yet, unfortunately, this did not just happen during the Roman time. It happens today. And I'm afraid that sometimes it even happens to Christian men. And fellas, we need to get our heads on straight and start being the men that God has called for us to be. And if those things have become a problem, then it's time to surrender them to the Lord. Because this is what it caused Herod to do.

He said, I'll give you whatever you want. And of course, she'd already been prompted by her mother. You see, Herodias knew what would happen. And she said, this is what's going to happen. They're going to be sitting around. You're going to dance. Herod's going to like it. And then he's going to say, I'll give you whatever you want. And when he says that, this is what I want you to tell him.

What I really want is the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Now listen, I've heard 16-year-old girls ask for odd things for their birthday and things like that. I can't ever imagine one being like, you know what I'd really like for my 16th birthday? A head on a platter. Right? That's the weirdest thing anybody's ever said. But that's exactly what takes place.

Now, you would think at this point in time, Herod's a powerful man. And he could have at any point in time said, no, I'm not going to do it. I will go so far, but that is too far. But you see, Herod had another problem. Notice what happens. It says, although he was grieved, it bothered him. The king commanded it to be given because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests.

You see, he knew that what he was doing was wrong. He knew that for him to make this decision was wrong. But he also knew everybody was staring at him. And if he backed down now, it would test his pride. It would make him look bad in front of all of the rest of his friends. If you will, he cared more about what all of his friends thought about him, what all of his dinner guests thought about him,

than what was actually the right thing to do. And so, as he has this moment, it says he sent, verse 10, and had John beheaded in the prison. And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. What a tragic scene. What a tragic scene indeed for Herod. But may I say, can you imagine John the Baptist walking into glory?

What was the greatest heartbreak for his friends was the greatest day for John the Baptist. But you know what? His friends were still left behind to deal with the aftermath of this grief. It says, and his disciples came, and they took away the body and they buried it. And they went and reported it to Jesus. Now as I was reading this the other day, I thought there's kind of a handful of things

we could take away from this. And before I get to the things I've put up on the screen that I think are important for us to take away, there's two little practical lessons I think that we learned from Herod. Two things that I think that we should, as believers in Jesus Christ in the 21st century, pay attention to. Number one, Herod was a man that was ruled by his flesh.

As a matter of fact, there was nothing about the story of Herod that does not indicate that he was a man that was ruled by the sins of his flesh. The entire reason that he ended up being married to Herodias is because he couldn't tell his flesh no. He saw something he wanted, and he did anything he had to to get that. Then the whole reason that he put John into prison is because he knew what he was doing was wrong, and John was telling him it was wrong, but his flesh wanted it, so he was gonna silence any voice that told him that it was wrong.

The whole reason that he had John the Baptist beheaded is because he was guided by his flesh through alcohol, and he was guided by his flesh through lust, and so he ultimately had to end up saying, I'll do whatever I need to, because after all, the most important thing in my life is the lust of the flesh, and brothers and sisters, I need us to be aware of something. You will serve one of two things. You will either serve your flesh, or you will serve the spirit. There's no happy middle ground, and the serving of the flesh will always lead to death, whereas the serving of the spirit will always lead to life.

I think sometimes in this sanitized world that we live in, in this me-centered world, this me-centered church world that we live in, we think that there's some happy middle ground where I don't necessarily have to be fully committed to the Holy Spirit, but I'm also not fully committed to the flesh, and we think, oh, this is a happy middle ground. Do you know what Jesus calls the happy middle ground? Lukewarm. Do you know what he says he does with lukewarm?

He vomits it. Brothers and sisters, there's only one or the other, and my prayer is that if we are guided by the flesh, we will begin choosing the spirit, because that was the problem at Herod's. That's what Herod had as he was guided by his flesh. But you know, there's a second problem, and I think a second practical lesson that we learn as people. Herod had an idol in his life.

We've talked about this idol before, and I think it's one of the greatest idols dominating our culture right now. The idol that Herod had in his life was the opinion of others. You see, as Herod was going through all of this, his life was guided by what other people might think of him. Why didn't he have John the Baptist killed in the first place? Why would he have him arrested?

He didn't actually have him killed. He was the king. He could have done that because he feared the crowds. He feared the people. That was a good moment when fear was important. But why did he go through with it after this party? Why did he go through with it? Even though it grieved his soul to know that he had made this vow, made this rash vow, why did he go through with it?

Because he feared the opinion of all the people that were sitting around him. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are a people who fear the opinion of others. We are a people who fear what other people have to say to us, what other people might have to say about us. I think that's why it's so hard to make a stand on abortion right now. I think that's why some of these men in the Supreme Court

will probably have a hard time making the right decision when it comes to what we're going to do with Roe versus Wade, which, by the way, is bad law. I don't care how you feel morally about it. It's not a good law. But quite frankly, it's why many times we don't speak up and say, all of your excuses for why you think abortion should be legal are ridiculous.

There's this thing that's been floating around social media. It's like, I'm not pro-abortion. I'm pro, and it lists all of these other things. And all I could think was, all of the things that it mentioned could be put into three camps. One's called a miscarriage. You don't need an abortion clinic for that. Two is called sexual satisfaction. And all you want to do is please yourself.

And so I'm going to sacrifice my baby at the altar of convenience. And the third sometimes become no-brainers because you have to choose a life, and one of you is not going to make it, and you've got to make hard decisions at that point in time. That's now between you and Jesus. You don't need a clinic for it. You don't need an abortion clinic for it. And brothers and sisters,

we've got to start making some hard stands, even though they're not going to be very popular. We should start making hard stands, even though popular opinion may be absolutely opposed to it. Because when it comes right down to it, there's only one opinion that matters, and that's the opinion of the one who created us. That wasn't the point of where I was going with this entire thing.

The Lord just sort of laid that on my heart. Because the point of this is that Jesus is greater than our grief. Now, you've probably read this story before, but it really struck me this time as I was reading it, the aspects of grief that go into it. And so there's two things I would like to point out to you as far as Jesus being greater than our grief. And the first one is this.

Jesus knows what it's like to lose. Jesus knows what it's like to lose. I was really struck by this last year. As a matter of fact, around the time I put my Christmas Eve message together, the Lord really said, do you know that I even understand what it's like to lose somebody that you love, to lose somebody that you're close to? I have to believe that Jesus and John the Baptist

had a decently close relationship, if not in the beginning of their life, at least once ministry began. Because remember, Jesus is the one that baptized, or John is the one that baptized Jesus, right? And so, as John the Baptist has this happen to him, Jesus would have dealt with all of that same grief that you and I would deal with if we found out that somebody that we're really close to was killed or had lost their life. And so as you think, but Lord, I don't know if you really understand what it's like to lose.

Jesus knows what it's like to lose because he knows what it's like to have somebody that he cares about have their life taken from them. And so as you go to Jesus with the grief that you have, as you go to him with the pain that you have inside of you in those times of loss, you're not going to somebody who can't relate to you. You're going to someone who has been through everything that you have been through and yet without sin. He has seen everything that you've seen.

He's been through all of the things that you've been through. And so it's not a shock to him. You know, when you're going through stuff like this, sometimes what you want is somebody that's not going to give you all of the right answers, but somebody that's just going to listen and somebody that's going to be willing to just let you be an absolute mess in front of them because sometimes that's all you need. And do you know that Jesus at that point, he's that guy.

He's the one that he's not necessarily from the word go going to tell you, you know, this is what you need to do. Jesus is just going to say, let it all out because I'm big enough to take it all in because I know exactly what you're going through and I know exactly how it feels. You know, it also occurred to me that in the gospel accounts, we never read about Jesus's earthly father, Joseph. We never read about him.

And the reason why is most commentators believe that Joseph probably died at a much earlier age, at least when Jesus was at a much earlier age. You know what that tells me? Jesus also knows what it's like to lose a father. You ever thought about that? Jesus knows what it's like. While Joseph was not truly his father, he was his earthly father and the one who raised him.

And he knows what it's like to lose that. So when we go to Jesus with our loss, he knows exactly what we're talking about. But you know, the second thing that stuck out to me is that John's disciples took their grief to Jesus. Did you notice what it says here in verse 12? His disciples, meaning John's disciples, came and took away the body and they buried it

and they went and reported it to Jesus. I don't know how you've read that in the past. I don't know how you're reading that right now. But in the past, I viewed that more as like they were a news reporter. They simply came and told Jesus, hey, these things went on. Oh, and by the way, John died. I don't think that's how it happened. I think they came to Jesus and they said,

you're not going to believe this. John's gone. He died. You'll never believe what Herod did to him and recounted the story and they're going, I don't know what I'm going to do now. Obviously, we believe in you, but he was our mentor. He was the one who had taught us. He is the one who had trained us. We've spent the last however many years with him and I don't know what we're going to do now

because I was as close to him as I was my own dad. I was as close to him as I was my own brother. What am I going to do now? He died so young. We forget that John the Baptist was probably 32 when he died. What are we going to do now? But they did the most important thing they could do and they took all of that grief to Jesus and they allowed Jesus to do what only Jesus can do in their lives.

There's a psalm that I like to share a lot at funerals that I do. Write down the reference and then I'll just tell you what it says because it's very short. It's Psalm 147, verse 3. Psalm 147, verse 3. This is what it says. It says, He heals the brokenhearted and he binds up their wounds. If you've heard me share at funerals before, please bear with me while I share this one more time.

But there's three words in there that have really stuck out to me a lot. And over the years of me doing some funerals, these words have become really, really important. The first word that really sticks out to me is the word brokenhearted. You know what the word brokenhearted there means in the Hebrew? The word brokenhearted means to shatter into pieces. And I always use this illustration

because it's the best illustration I've ever come up with. I used to have this coffee cup and it was one of my favorite coffee cups because it had pictures of my daughters when they were tiny all around it. It was great. I think they got it at like Shutterfly or something like that. And so I took it to work with me because I took it everywhere with me because I loved it.

And I set it on the end of the workbench and as it was sitting on the end of the workbench, one of my co-workers who was a little, uh, clumsy, knocked it off the workbench. And when it fell off that workbench, it hit the floor and shattered into a whole bunch of pieces. And I was like, Oh, no! Not only because there was coffee in it, but because that was my favorite cup.

And my favorite cup just got shattered into a million pieces. You know what I thought at that point in time? I was like, what am I going to do now? I could never put that back together. I'll never be able to get that whole thing put back together. It'll never be the same again. Perhaps you remember the time that you got a phone call or a text message or you heard the news

about somebody that you cared so much about that died. That you lost. And I bet your heart felt exactly the same way. Like it just got knocked off the end of the workbench and shattered into a bunch of little pieces and you thought to yourself, What am I going to do now? I can't ever put that back together. What am I going to do now? It shattered into a million little pieces.

Because that's what happens at that point in time. And so that Psalm not only presents to us the problem, but it also presents to us the solution. Because what it says is that God heals the broken heart and He binds up their wounds. Well, the second set of words that stick out to me and that are the words to bind up. Because the words to bind up in the Hebrew

mean to wrap up for the purpose of healing. To wrap up for the purpose of healing. Picture, if you will, someone who has a broken arm. And once that broken arm gets reset, they take it, they put a cast on it. Why do they put a cast on it? Well, because it's been wrapped up for the purpose of healing. It holds it in that solitary place while it can be healed.

So that it can be restored. And that's exactly what God wants to do with a broken heart. A heart that's been shattered into a million pieces. And He will protect that thing until it is at the point of healing. He wraps it up. He binds it up for that purpose of healing. And that's what He's able to do with it. And then comes that third word. That word that's so important.

It's the word healed. The word healed in the Hebrew there means to make whole or to restore to normal. Because that's exactly what God does with a broken heart. As God not only binds it up, wraps it up for the purpose of healing, but God restores that heart back to normal. Back to the place where, sure, you may remember what happened, but at least you can live again.

At least you can feel again. At least you feel like life is normal and it's restored. But do you know what the key to that entire Psalm is? You have to take all of those shattered pieces to Jesus. You have to collect all of those little pieces and you have to carry them to Jesus. And you have to say, I don't know what to do now. You're going to have to do something with this.

You know what I fear? Maybe I should say, do you know what I feel? I felt this way first service too, and I don't know if it's just because there's a lot of people here in the world that feel this way right now, but I feel like there's some people that still have some shattered hearts. And you're scared to take them to Jesus. As a matter of fact, here's what sometimes happens as we think,

no, I have to stay strong for everybody else. No, I have to be the one that's strong and after all, I don't want them to see me cry. Listen, take it from somebody who knows, you get used to it. I don't want them to see me cry. I don't want them to see me hurt. I have to be the strong one. I have to be the one that holds everybody else down. I have to be the one that knows

that Jesus is the one that really holds everybody together. And because of that, because you've pushed everybody, everything else away, including Jesus, when it comes to that shattered heart of yours, it's never been healed. And because it's never been healed, you are not restored back to normal. And there is still a brokenness in you that Jesus wants to heal and he can't because you won't take those pieces to him.

I want you to know today it's time to collect all of them. It's time to put them on a little dustpan, take them to Jesus and say, you got to put it back together, because I can't. Because he wants to take it wants to bring healing to your heart. He wants to restore it, but he's the only one that can. You're the only one that can take him to pieces. Jesus is so much greater than our grief.

Well, we move on to the next story because the next thing that we see is that Jesus is greater than my inability or Jesus feeds the 5,000. Verse 13, now when Jesus heard about John, he withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by himself. And when the people heard of this, they followed him on foot from the cities. When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came

to him and said, this place is desolate and the hour is already late. Send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves. But Jesus said to them, they don't need to go to the villages. They don't need to go to the villages. They don't need to go to the villages. They don't need to go away. You give them something to eat. And they said to him,

we have here only five loaves and two fish. He said, bring them here to me. Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, he took the five loaves and the two fish and looking up toward heaven, he blessed the food and breaking the loaves, he gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowds and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, 12 full baskets.

There were about 5,000 men who ate besides women and children. Now, the first thing that we see is that Jesus is going to go away to a secluded place. Now, I don't remember if I said this out loud yet or not, but chapters 14 through 20, Warren Wiersbe, oddly enough, has labeled the retirement of the king. And the reason why is because you continue to see Jesus retire to the countryside or to try to find some place of seclusion or to find some place kind of off by himself because he wants to go to a secluded place. And he's going to go to a secluded place. And he's

going to go to a secluded place. And he wants to get his disciples prepared for what's coming and perhaps himself prepared as well. Now, what it tells us right here in verse 13 in the New American Standard is it says, now, when Jesus heard about John, he withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place. Now, you'll take note if you're reading the New American Standard that the words about John are in italics. That means that the translators added those for emphasis or added

them for clarification. If you were reading the New King James or the Old King James, you would find that it just says, when Jesus heard about it, that he went into a secluded place by himself. Was it because of John that he went to this secluded place? Hard to say. I think that there's a handful of reasons why Jesus went off by himself at this point in time. I think perhaps he went off by himself because of the

threat from Herod. Because he knew Herod was looking for him. He knew that Herod was seeking after him and he knew it wasn't his time yet. And so perhaps going a place where the heat from the government would be off of him just a little bit so that he could continue the work of the ministry. He went off to a secluded place. I think that there's a possibility that Jesus went away because

he needed to deal with the grief of the loss of somebody that meant so much to him. I think Jesus could have gone off to a secluded place because he needed to spend more time pouring into his disciples. I also think Jesus could have gone to a secluded place because quite frankly, the pressures of ministry get to be a lot after a while. And he just needed a little bit of time because after all, while he was fully God, he was also fully man and dealt with the tiredness that comes with ministry. Whichever of those reasons it is, he goes off to a secluded place

by himself and he takes a boat across the water. And as he takes this boat across the water, everybody else heard that Jesus had left. And so what did they do? They followed him on foot. They followed all around him. Now you can picture how this goes, right? Jesus is just getting ready to pull up to the shore and he's like, who are all of these people? Where did they all come from?

Now in my flesh at that point in time, I would say, Peter, turn the boat around, right? Because he's trying to get off by himself, but he doesn't do that. That's not what Jesus does. And so he sees all of the people. He saw the large crowd, verse 14. I want you to notice what it says. He felt compassion for them and he healed their sick. The word compassion is really important in the life of Jesus and in the ministry of Jesus. As a

matter of fact, so many times that we see Jesus minister, it starts off with him feeling compassion for the people. I think the best definition I've ever heard, for compassion is when it hurts so bad that you have to do something. And I think that that same heart of compassion, God wants to work into our own hearts. Now I want to add a quick addendum here. It is still important that Jesus took some time away. And what we'll find is that after he's done

ministering to the people on this day, and we'll talk about this next week, he does go off to spend some time with the Father by himself, because that is important. In the busy culture that we live in, where the world says, if you're not going 90 to nothing from the word go until you die, you're doing something wrong. I think it's important for us to remember that Jesus did take time away with his Father on his own. But at this point in time, he felt that heart of compassion and he just had to do something. So he starts ministering to the people and healing

the sick. And he does so all day, because notice what it says. When it was evening, the disciples came to him, and said, this place is desolate. The hour is late. Send the crowds away that they may go into the villages to buy food for themselves. Now I appreciate this because this is code from the disciples. And if you have kids, you know the code, right? When they're trying to be polite

and they're like, hey, they're all hungry. You should send them to get food. We all know what the code is. Hey, we're hungry. Make them leave, right? My daughter does this to me after church on Sundays. I love visiting with everybody and hanging out. She's like, dad, aren't you hungry for lunch? And I'm like, well, I mean, yeah, but I'm visiting right now. And I know what that really means is, dad, I want to go eat lunch. And she says it a lot

of times. And eventually the code stops being code. And then I say, okay, now it's time to go. That's what the disciples are doing right now, at least I think. They're going, hey, Jesus, look, I think they're hungry. That kid just passed out. Let's send them away somewhere to go get some food. And there's not enough food. There's not enough food. There's not enough food. There's not enough food.

food here. Let's send them to the villages. Make them leave. Jesus, this was supposed to be our time. We were supposed to be spending time together. Make all the people leave. And then Jesus says something great to him. He goes, they don't need to go away. You give them something to eat. Now we're given the little commentary at the end of how many people are here. And that's 5,000

men plus women and children. Now let's be incredibly conservative and say that that means there were 10,000 people. Although many estimate that there were closer to 15 to 20,000 people. That's a bunch of people. And they don't have anything to eat. And Jesus looks at the disciples and says, you guys give them something to eat. And you know the thought that they had go through

their head. How? How are we going to give all of these people something to eat? Meanwhile, they were hoarding a lunch that a little kid gave them, right? And they're like, all we've... All we've... All we've... All we've... All we've got is five loaves and two fish. Jesus is like, you didn't even mention that. That's all we've got. It's not enough for all of these people. Now where did they get it? Well,

as I mentioned before, it's from a young boy. A young boy came to him and said, I want to give this to the work of Jesus. He said, I want to give this to him. And so they've got these five little loaves and these two fish. Now I don't know what you picture when you picture loaves, but it's not what we think of with loaves. They're little loaves, right? And they're loaves of barley.

That's like the cheapest grain ever, right? It was the saddest meal of fish and chips anyone had ever seen. And who is it intended to feed? A boy, a lad, a little guy, right? It's not even enough to feed one of the fishermen, let alone 10 to 15, maybe 20,000 people. And so what do they do? They say, we have only five loaves and two fish. And so what does Jesus say? I love it. It's just, it's just,

you know, a handful of little words. He says, bring them here to me. And that great. Jesus isn't like, and then this is what I'm going to do, right? I like details. I want him to say, give them to me. I would have been like, and what, what happens after I give them to you? Are you going to, you know, multiply these things? Are you just going to eat them yourselves and say, gosh, I hope you guys can figure something out. That would have been the

greatest ending to this story ever. And then Jesus ate the fish and chips and sent everybody else away. That is not what happened. Like, what is he going to do with them? Jesus says, bring them here to me. And then notice what it says. He says, verse 19, I think this is the greatest miracle of the whole thing. He says, ordering the people to sit down on the grass. In the gospel of John's

account of this, it says he sat them down in companies of people. The idea is in a military sort of regimen. In other words, he sat them in groups. People, I have worked with people my entire life. Well, at least for the last 20 years, do you know what's impossible to get everyone to do? The same thing at the same time, right? It's impossible. Everybody has their idea. Everybody, well, no, I think we should do this over here. Nope. I meant

what I said. Just 10 of you in a row right there. Well, can we make it a diagonal? Nope. I want you to be a straight line. Can there be 25 instead of 20? Oh my gosh, just sit down, right? Like, that's what happens when you work with people. Some of you are laughing because you've tried to do this before. Everybody says, oh, it takes a special calling to work with kids because kids

don't listen. Where do you think they learned it? They learned it from us. We don't listen, right? Anyway, so he has them all sit down in companies, and then notice what happens. He gets them all organized, and then he takes the five loaves and the two fish, and he looks up towards heaven, and he blessed the food. I undoubtedly believe that he held them up and

said, thank you, Father, for providing this amazing meal for us. And you know, the entire time, these great men of faith, these disciples were like, that is not enough food. I mean, I guess he's thanking God that one person might eat, but that is not enough food. So Jesus breaks the loaves, and he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. I mentioned this during first service, too. This is one of those miracles I

want to see on DVR in heaven, and I'll probably replay it a bunch of times because I want to know what happened. Like, did he break the loaf off, and then like it grew back? So he got the same thing in his hand the whole time, and they're like, dear God. What is in his hand? He just keeps pulling bread out of there. Are the loaves multiplying? Does he break one up, give it out? He just keeps pulling. How does it happen? I don't know, but he's breaking

it out, and they're carrying it out to the people. They come back, and they're like, that is unbelievable. He just keeps carrying it out to the people, and maybe the second greatest. Listen, I think the third greatest miracle in this whole thing is the breaking of the bread thing. The first one is that he got them all to do the same thing at the same time, but

the second greatest miracle takes place right here. It says, verse 20, and they all ate and were satisfied. Listen, if you can get five people to be satisfied, you've really done something. If you can get 5,000 people to be satisfied, that's a miracle, right? Nobody was like, my fish was overdone. Mine was too cold. My bread was hard. I wanted mine toasted. I needed butter. My butter wasn't soft enough. My butter was too soft, right?

Everybody was just satisfied. Now, of course, that's not what the word means. The word means literally that their stomachs were full. They didn't want to eat anything else because they were completely satisfied. I love that word that's used there because we're reminded in the Gospel of John, Jesus goes on to teach about the fact that he is the bread of life, and that once you have taken him in, you don't need anything

else. Why? Because once Jesus comes into your life, your life is satisfied, and you have need of nothing else. Well, it wraps up by saying that as they were all satisfied, they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, 12 full baskets. Fun fact, how many disciples were there? 12. Isn't that amazing? Each disciple got to take dinner home to his parents, or got to take dinner

home to his family. Maybe his parents were there too. I don't know. Maybe it was Mother's Day. Mom didn't have to cook that day. Got to take a meal home to his family because when God does something, it's always exceedingly abundant. God does something, it's always exceedingly abundant. Above all we could ever ask or think. Well, it's a beautiful passage, and it's a beautiful message,

but I think that there's something that's true there about how Jesus is greater. You see, what these disciples had to do here was impossible. What these disciples had to deal with was an impossible thing, and yet Jesus was able to do something miraculous with it. And so, as we bring a little bit of application to this story, I think that there's three things that we need to pay attention to. Number one,

the need is great. The need is great. Think about what they faced at this point in time. He said, you should feed all of these people. That's a pretty great need, right? Because that's a lot of mouths to feed. That's a lot of people to try to put food on the table, and the need was so great that it was insurmountable. It was impossible. It was absolutely something that in their humanity,

in reality, they could never take on because the feeding of that many people is something that's completely impossible because the need is so great. Well, you may not be dealing with the feeding of 5,000 people, although a couple of your families are working on it. You may not have to deal with feeding 5,000 people, but you know what? You're still facing a need that's greater than you can ever overcome in your life. Some of you are trying to overcome addictive issues in

your life, and it's going to take, and the need is greater than you can ever imagine. Some of you are trying just to simply walk with Jesus and become who God wants for you to be, the need is great because you see your own inability, and it's so much more than you can ever do. If you're like me, you're looking at the world around you, and you're seeing the hopelessness of the world around you, and you're seeing the world that your kids are growing up in, and you're going, my gosh, what are we going to do? The need is just so great because the gospel needs to be shared with so many people, and it feels like the gospel keeps getting tainted, and the need is

greater than I can ever imagine because the need is just so great. May I say sometimes to bring it home to you moms. I know that as you look at the raising of your kids, you realize that the need is great because you want them to become who God wants for them to be, and you want to give them the right kind of home. You want to give them the right kind of experiences. You want to

give them the right kind of teaching. You want to be the right kind of mother, and the need is just so great, and because the need is so great, sometimes it can be really, really overwhelming, but if we will admit that the need is great, we can do it. If the need is great, then we can start looking outside of ourselves for something because that brings me to the second thing. My ability is insufficient. I promise it's going to

get happy in just a minute. The need is great, and my ability is insufficient. I want you to think about what the disciples had to have thought when they said, all we have is these five loaves and these two fish, and Jesus said, okay. They're looking at five loaves, and they're looking at 10, 15, maybe 20,000 people, and going, my ability is insufficient because all I've got is five loaves and two fish. I can never do this. This will never be enough. This is completely insufficient for the

need that is so great that sits in front of me today, and you know what? You probably feel the same way in your life. You know that the need to become who God wants for you to be is so great, and all you seem to be able to offer is failure. All I can seem to offer is the fact that I'm not always good at doing what Jesus wants me to do. Matter of fact, in my flesh, I fight against obedience because the need is so great.

We look at a world that is in so much need of the gospel, and I go, all I am is a guy that has some words that don't even always make sense because the need is so great, and my ability is so insufficient. I want my kids to know Jesus, but I don't know how to communicate with them. I want my friends to understand the truth, but I don't know how to tell them. I want to stand up for what's true, but there's just not enough boldness in me. I'm looking at the world, and all I can say

is, all I got is these five loaves, and these two little fish. What's that amongst so many? My ability is totally insufficient. But may I say again, it is so vitally important that at this point in time, we be honest, not only with ourselves, but with God, and own up to the fact that our inability, or our ability is so insufficient. One of my favorite song lyrics

goes like this, I thought I was a good man, but I fell short of my standards. And now what am I left with? All of nothing and my first taste of freedom. Do you know that the minute that you are willing to admit that you don't have any sufficiency in yourself is actually the most freeing moment that you'll have in your life? That's where real freedom begins to come from.

Because freedom comes from the fact of me going, I will never measure up. I will never have enough. I will never be enough. There's these t-shirts going around right now, and I know the thought behind them is really good because we want to bolster confidence in people, but I feel like they're very theologically incorrect. And these t-shirts say, you are already enough.

If you have one of these t-shirts and you're wearing it this morning, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to criticize or call you out. But what bothers me is, you're not. Neither am I. The more I can come to a place of realizing that, the lighter I am, the freer I feel. Because if I start thinking, I am enough, all of a sudden I just put a lot of pressure on myself, right?

I'm enough to do the job that I have to do. I'm enough to raise the kids that I have to raise. I am enough to be the man that God has called me to be, and that's a lot of pressure. You know why? Because I suck. I suck. I'm not good at those things. I'm not good at any of those things. But the moment that I say, I will never be enough, and that's okay, because I don't have to be enough,

then all of a sudden, I take that burden off of myself, and I start to put it squarely where it belongs, which brings me to number three. My inability in the hands of God is more than enough. And it's not because of who I am. It's because of who He is. What did they do with those five loaves and those two fish? Well, what did Jesus say? Bring them here to me.

Bring them here to me. Put them in my hands. Because in your hands, they're absolutely insufficient. But in my hands, they are absolutely more than enough. Because I am so much greater than your inability. I am so much greater than your insufficiency. I am so much greater than your inadequacy. And moms, can I just specifically talk to you for just, just a minute?

You have got to start putting these things in the hands of Jesus. Because I know some of you moms put so much pressure on yourselves to make sure that the crafts are always right, the pancakes are always right, the food's always cooked right, the house always looks like it's supposed to look, the kids are always dressed right, everything is perfect, and quite frankly, you're wearing yourself out. Because your adequacy does not come from all those things. And unfortunately, we live in such a culture where we judge each other constantly on all of those things.

Oh my gosh, that kid's... Oh my gosh, that kid's... Oh my gosh, that kid's got food all over their face. Yep, me too. Oh my gosh, their house is a mess. Mine too. Okay? It's never going to be perfect. Right? You go out and look at my car right now and you'd go, okay. Because it'll never be right. And you know what, moms? That's okay. It's okay that it's not perfect

because your adequacy does not come from what everybody else in the world says it comes from. Your adequacy is in Christ. As a matter of fact, go with me one more place in Scripture. Go to 2 Corinthians. I want you to look at 2 Corinthians chapter 3.

And we're going to read verses 4 through 6.

And this is what it says. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant. Again, all you moms out there, I want you to hear this. Your adequacy comes from Christ. The need is too great.

Your ability is insufficient. But your inability in the hands of your Savior will always be more than enough because He is able to take that which seems insufficient and make it more than you could ever imagine because Jesus is greater. Amen? Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me.

Father, I want to lift up this body to you right now. Lord, this body of believers. And Lord, I want to pray that you would take of your word and you would minister it to their hearts. Lord, that you would take all of my inability and make it more than enough in your hands to do what needs to be done in the hearts of these people. Lord, I lift up each and every mother that's here.

This morning. And I thank you for who they are, for what they've done, and the work that they continue to put in, whether they have the tiniest little babies or whether their kids are grown and out of the house and have kids or grandkids of their own. Lord, that job never stops. And so, Lord, I pray your strength in their lives. And I pray that for each of us

that are either holding on to too much grief because we won't take the broken pieces to you or holding on to too much pressure because we won't admit that we're not enough. Lord, I lift up each and every one of you that we're not enough. Lord, that we would surrender those things to you today. Father, I thank you for the work that you can do in our hearts, the work that you will do in our hearts.

We just praise you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. In the morning when I rise In the morning when I rise In the morning when I rise Give me Jesus Give me Jesus Give me Jesus You can have all this world But give me Jesus When I am alone Give me Jesus Give me Jesus Give me Jesus You can have all When I come to die And when I come to die Give me Jesus Give me Jesus You can have Give me Jesus You can have You can have You can But give me Praise you, Lord Jesus.

We look to you, Lord. Blessed now as we step out into another week, Lord, with you. Give us your wisdom, your strength, your might to live this Christian walk in you. If there be any among us that don't know you, Lord, I pray you touch their hearts, Lord, that they would respond to you and merely ask you into their heart just to forgive their sin. They've missed the mark.

And they'll keep missing, but you forgive us, Lord. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you all. Have a good week. God bless you all.