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Podcast: Behind the Scenes: Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand, (Matthew 14:13-21) · North Raleigh United Methodist Church Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good day, and welcome to North Raleigh United Methodist Church Behind the Scenes Podcast, where we sit down weekly and talk about this week's scripture and sermon.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Kevin Van Hall.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: I serve as your host and moderator.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: And joining me today is one of the senior pastors here at North Raleigh, Laura Johnson.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, Laura.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, Kevin.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Glad to be here.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Glad to have you.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Last week we had Kevin, as you guys tag team and switch off as to which one is going to preach this week for the sermon, is the one that comes on our podcast, hence the sense, and a chance for us to sit down in a podcast.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I get to try to ask maybe some tough questions that people that are in the congregation might be hearing the sermon, might be thinking.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it gives us an opportunity also to give them a little bit of heads up and think about what they might see or hear on Sunday.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the purpose of this podcast, and this is why Laura is uh joining us today.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And just to recap, like I said, Kevin and I were uh talking about last week about the latest series that was launched, and it's called Small Things, Big Impact, and we're going to be in uh Matthew's Gospel.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh before when we were talking about the I am statements, we were in the John's Gospel, but this is lectionary, we're back into Matthew.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So we're caught up with the rest of the uh Methodist churches out there.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we talked about uh last week, Kevin and I did the kingdom of heaven is like, and where Jesus compares it to a mustard seed or yeast or even a hidden treasure, that once you find it, it is so great and valuable that you hide it away and you give up everything you have for it.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is a little bit different.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh we're still in Matthew chapter 14.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about necessarily a parable like so often we do.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're actually going to discuss one of the miracles.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And this miracle appears in all of the gospels, does it not?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's the only one that does.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: In all four gospels, it shows up.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we're leading you into Jesus feeds the five thousand.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in other gospels, also talks about a case when Jesus feeds four thousand.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: As well.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: But this, like Laura said, this is instance, this miracle is in all five gospels.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to sit down and maybe you can explain to us just why this is such a small thing that has a big impact.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: You got it.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, perfect.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you very much for uh joining us today.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So before we get into the meat of the subject, how about a word of prayer?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, Lord, we ask that you would open our hearts and minds to hear you speaking to us through these words of Scripture.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: We ask that you would help us to consider all the ways that you nourish us and that your word would nourish us today.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: So a little background.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: In chapter 13, when we were talking last week, um, we were talking about all some of the different parables.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: There was quite a few parables in Matthew, and it was a huge section of parables in Jesus preaching.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's is he in the beginning of his ministry here or in the heart of his ministry here?
• 3:09
  unknown: Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: He's in the heart of his ministry, and Matthew is an interesting book because in a lot of ways Matthew presents Jesus as a new Moses, as as this leader sent by God to lead people through the wilderness into the promised land, which of course is eternal life.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so here we see Jesus, this image of Jesus wandering the wilderness, so to speak, with the people and providing miraculous food for them, just like God did with the Hebrew folks in the wilderness after they escaped Egypt and on their way to the promised land, God gave them quail and manna to make sure they had enough food to eat, this miraculous provision.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: And here we see Jesus taking that to the next level, that he's offering this miraculous meal to these wandering folks.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Great comparison.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the manna you think of is the flat bread bread.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: We often think of manna is bread.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's not necessarily says it was like white flaky cake stuff.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: And is and unleavened bread was always for served at Passover for this.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: We don't necessarily know for sure if this is flat bread or if it had yeast in it.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: The parable just beforehand, we talked about yeast, so we know that they did cook bread with yeast.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: It was there.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but in like uh the yeast that can double or triple in size, Jesus does the same multiplication for them and to help feed them.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh something else to mention here.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus also, just before this happens, Jesus learns of some terrible news.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: So the book of Matthew begins with conversations around John the Baptist, who is the forerunner to Jesus.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: He's the one that God sends to prepare people's hearts to receive the coming of their Messiah.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: And in John 14, the very beginning of this chapter, Jesus learns that John has been beheaded.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: And John had been a leader of the people for so long.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: So this was a big blow to the Jewish folks who followed after John, and of course to Jesus, who was baptized by John.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, John was his cousin.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: But also he was such an instrumental leader in the kind of religious movement that Jesus was working in and working towards.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so this would have hurt him to hear of John's death.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, uh, in a sense of hearing this bad news slips away from everyone, the crowd, separates himself, and then when he comes back, after he goes out on the boat, comes back, the people never left.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: The people are there.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're waiting for him.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where we're going to pick up the story.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Laura's going to read for us again, chapters 14, uh, chapter 14, 13 through 21.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now, when Jesus heard this, and in this case, this is talking about John's death, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion for them, and cured their sick.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus said to them, They need not go away, you give them something to eat.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: They replied, We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Bring them here to me.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, and all ate and were filled, and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full, and those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's a beautiful story.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh strikes me right off the bat in verse 14, when Jesus sees all of them right away, he has compassion over them and he begins to heal them.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So often we think of just the feeding of them, but he starts off with healing them first.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: And there's there's references in the Old Testament of God having compassion on God's people like a sheep for his shepherd.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: And that's kind of how I envision this is Jesus sees all these people who have traveled great distances trying to find Jesus, and they find him, and he just sees them as a sheep who've lost a shepherd, like John the Baptist, and he has this immense amount of compassion for them and wants to heal them, nourish them through his teaching, and then of course through physical bread and fish as well.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: So after all day of being with them and healing with them and speaking with them, it's late.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can't send them away.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: There are no stores.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: What are you going to do?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Just send them out into the darkness and say, okay, go away now.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Go walk your 20 miles home without your food.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: So the compassion that Jesus has for us isn't just momentarily.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's always.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, not only did I have compassion with before Naomi, I still have compassion for them.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: They need to eat.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not just spiritual compassion, it is compassion for their actual physical needs.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the disciples, again, not having a plan or usually don't know what Jesus wants to do.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: They are just in the follow mode.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: I can totally I can totally picture them pulling Jesus aside and being like, Jesus, you've been teaching for four hours.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's about to set the sun's about to set.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Come on, you gotta send them away.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like I can see them getting antsy and probably hungry and being like, you know, we got to eat dinner.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: I know they gotta eat dinner.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is he had other plans.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So he's here to serve, as Jesus said so often.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: He is not to be served.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: He is here or came to serve.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a great example of that exact ministry.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: He came to serve them.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Do not send them away.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna serve them.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And like you set out the emphasis, you need to feed them.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I love that line that Jesus doesn't only tell the disciples, no, no, no, no, they're gonna eat here, but then he gives the disciples the command to figure out how to feed them.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: He says, you give them something to eat.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is your responsibility.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: And in a lot of ways, I see that as preparation for the ministry that Jesus is going to carry on to the church, that he's gonna hand over to the church after he ascends into heaven.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be the church's role to carry out Jesus' ministry.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is him preemptively saying, No, this is your responsibility.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: You figure out how to how to feed them.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Well, I think there's some lines here that might have not have made it into Matthew's gospel, like in uh doubting Thomas, going, How?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: How how are we gonna do this, Jesus?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Where wait a minute, all we have are a couple loaves of bread.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is I think a little bit of that didn't make it.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think you can if you if you like read with a with a mind of panic of verse 17, I think you can hear the panic in their voice.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like, come on, Jesus, look at the logic here.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: We've only got this.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: What are we supposed to do?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, you I imagine there were some other choice words involved in that too.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but again, but they follow, and Jesus first gives thanks, praise, blessings, the food, and then he instructs them to hand it out, and they just do it.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And just miraculously, the basket's never empty.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: And even after they're done, there's more left over than when they even started with.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: That goes along with the Jesus always telling us beforehand, almost in the Beatitudes, in the area when he's preaching to us, don't worry.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: God feeds the sparrows in the area, will he not feed you as well?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: And and I think it's it's showing to I mean, the people standing around there have no idea what's happening in the inner disciple circle.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: But they they see that the disciples suddenly have food, and and you have to imagine what's going on through their head as they're watching the disciples with these five loaves.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: And the people are gonna be like, well, that's not gonna be enough.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna get enough to eat.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: But then miraculously, as things are passed around, they all do.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so you can just thinking about it from the the crowd's perspective always blows my mind to think of what that must have felt like to have that feeling of it's never gonna, I'm hungry, but it's never gonna reach me.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then it reached them, and they're like, wait, there's even more to share.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And how how what a witness that is for how God's kingdom works and how God works of this abundance of grace.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Great, great ex of God's how the God's kingdom worked.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: If that happened today or in the past, you think of there'd be a fight.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, there's not enough food, I've got to get mine, versus just patiently sitting and and and just waiting.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: You just sit and wait and hope and pray that there'll be you'll get some.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you see that it all is and it all works out.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: If we would just stay peaceful and cared about one another, quit worrying about whether I'm gonna get mine.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And look, miraculously everybody gets some.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and and I that language that Matthew uses that is actually not only in Matthew, it's in all of the stories of the feeding the five thousand, is the Eucharistic language when Jesus, it's exactly what he did at the Last Supper.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: He took the bread, he blessed it, he broke it, and he gave it.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's a there's a lot of it in a lot of symbolism and theology behind Jesus' action here of him saying, This is what I'm gonna do for my body.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: This is how what I'm gonna do to my very life for you.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: And there's always gonna be enough of me to cover anything you need in your life.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so he is, you know, as we look at the story, we can also picture Jesus in the very bread itself.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: And when we sometimes worry, like maybe his grace is not enough, maybe his forgiveness isn't big enough, maybe his love doesn't cover this.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And in this story, we're reminded, no, it is, it's always enough, it's always multiplying.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: All right, and it meets the needs.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: All of our needs will be met.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Bread is also the typical staple that's in every it's always there.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: I and Jesus even talks to I am the bread of life.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm what you need to sustain yourself for life.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Where this bread on earth is gonna sustain your physical body right here.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um so he's literally both.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's giving you the bread that you need in your physical presence right now, and he's gonna be the bread of the life that you're gonna need after this.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think one interesting interpretation I've heard of this parable that I don't fully buy, but I think this podcast is a great time to tell this interpretation.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: Is some say that maybe the miracle was not necessarily Jesus multiplying these five loaves of bread.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe the miracle is Jesus and the disciples offered to share what they had and everybody else pulled out what they had and shared it around their own circles so that there was enough for everybody plus leftovers.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: This idea that like the generosity of the disciples and Jesus and the faith that it would be enough inspired the generosity in the others who then shared what they had, and it was more than enough.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: And and the question that has been asked is which would be the greater miracle of people freely sharing what is rightfully theirs, their own food to eat, or Jesus multiplying, Jesus who's the Son of God, multiplying bread.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's like commonplace.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like, of course, it's Jesus.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: He can multiply anything, right?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: But people freely giving what they have to make sure there's enough for all, maybe that's also a miracle.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't put it past you.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't see being just walking around in that in that time of day, not carrying around a provision, a little food.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: I do it right now, I keep a snack, and I got a car and I got a grocery store two seconds down the road, and I got a granola bar in my car.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I I don't find that hard to believe at all.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that fits perfectly into the small things have been that simple small gesture of sit down, we'll try to feed you, we'll share what we have.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Was contagious.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: It spread just like we talked about last week, like the yeast.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: How that that sense of sharing and caring and compassion for one another spread throughout the whole crowd and turned into a big impact, and everybody was fed, and nobody had to go hungry, versus I'm not gonna let anyone see what's in my bag because then somebody else is gonna want it.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Someone's gonna want my favorite type of bread or but isn't that what we do today?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Don't we have don't we have these ultra, ultra rich billionaires that don't want anybody else to have just a little bit and they'll let other people just go hungry and starving?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, and I think it's not just the billionaires, I think it's everybody.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: We all have like a sense of ownership of what is rightfully ours that i it's hard to be generous with it because we've earned it or it's been given to us, right?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um and if we shared it, what would it actually cost us, right?
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: And what kind of miracles might it produce?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've often heard the um you see you hear the stories and you hear the the comparisons and tales and people know people that were waiters and waitresses, the biggest tippers are the ones that have the least.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: You give a sandwich to a homeless person, and that person is more likely to break that sandwich in half and give it to their other friend who is also homeless and share that versus just and that's their only meal a day, keeping it for themselves.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Or or even it to their animal or to their pet or their dog.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: You hear about uh senior citizens that would uh go hungry and feed their their pets.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I I wish you know, you think that is what the kingdom of heaven is like.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if if it was just a little bit more like that here on earth, you know there's enough to go around.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: There is.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: How much food just ends and other things just end up getting thrown away or wasted that we just had a better way of doing things.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think a church potluck or a covered dish supper, as it's often called in parts of North Carolina, is a good example of a modern day feeding the 5,000.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because every church covered dish supper I've been to or putluck, someone there are several people who bring great food, large amounts of it.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: There are some who bring small amounts of it, because that's all they have.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then there are the those who forgot, or those who showed up for the first time, or those who can't afford it.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And the invitation to them is always, we'll have enough, we'll have enough.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: Come on, you can eat.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: And the first few years of ministry, whenever we'd have one, because at my first church we had one quarterly, I would always be like, We're gonna run out of food this time.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: There's not gonna be enough, because there's a lot more unexpected people here that didn't bring anything.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: And would you believe we always had leftovers?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Always.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone had enough to eat.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then I feel like that's for me a modern version of the feeding of the 5,000 is that when it things are given in faith and in community to one another like that, and all are oh welcome, it works out.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it sounds like that might be part of the lesson to learn, learn here.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just counting on Jesus to provide for all of our needs, even though he provides what it's what we need, but we can help one another and to provide for one another.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's what he said.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: You give them something to eat.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Excellent, excellent point.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: You give them something to eat, yes.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: So God Laura, now I gotta open up my wallet and give all my money away to the church and everybody I see.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta talk to your wife first.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: She would not mind.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Not to a good cause.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's no no argument to a good cause.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And all were satisfied, and twelve basketfuls of broken pieces were left over.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody, so after this, it doesn't end.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: The ministry continues, and I guess the people finally do go home, and the disciples go on their way and get on the boat, and then we get the great instance of uh when Jesus walked on the water.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: So the miracles are just beginning.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Just beginning.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: So your sermon this Sunday, what do you think you'll focus on?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think we'll all just have to find out.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh that's that yeah.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can come on Sunday.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: I will say that the Lord knows.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: I uh so I'll let everybody in on a little secret.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Laura, like most of the pastors here I know, write the sermon on Thursdays.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's correct.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: And it's Tuesday today, so I got some time.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's got some time.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully this inspires her, lights a spark.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it does.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna continue this uh discussion here with small things and big impacts, and this continues on for the rest of the month.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: It brings us all the way up to September, does it not?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um correct.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, almost.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: It brings us almost to the end of August.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: So what other small things had a big impact here?
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we can think behind the scenes here in this podcast.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: I bet this miracle had a huge impact on the disciples.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Either trusting in Jesus, believing in Jesus that he is the Messiah, we've made the right decision.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: It also probably had a huge impact.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the people that left here could walk away with a story and tell others of what happened.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And thinking about the disciples, the act of them handing over the little food they had had to have been very scary because, like you said, there were no suit there were no supermarkets.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: They could not just run down to the store and pick up some more bread.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like that had been handmade for them by somebody before they left someone's village or house, and there wasn't an easy way to replenish it.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so it had to have been very scary to hand that over to Jesus of like, okay, what's he gonna do with it now?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: And and I think that does have an impact when someone takes a big leap of faith and trusts in Jesus with something that is very valuable to them, it always has an impact, especially when it leads to something as enormous as this.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: So in this instance, it was just food, but and it can apply to many other different areas of our lives as well.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Giving it over to Jesus, trusting in Jesus, believing in Jesus.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's right, exactly.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then I think the um, you know, the the crowds who saw it, they'd already been healed, they'd already been taught, and then for this to be the crowning moment of their time together, I mean, the stories that they would have told about this man who could make this happen.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, excellent.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I look forward to the sermon on this Sunday, and if you're unable to attend church on Sunday, we do post the uh sermons now on this webpage along with this podcast, and you can also live stream the service and sit in uh at home and listen to it as well and watch the uh service.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Next week we are going to be off or gone.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: The pastors, both Kevin and Laura, will be gone that that weekend of the ninth.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: So there will not be a podcast um next week, but the following week they'll be returned and back to preaching, and that would be on back on August 16th.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: So But there will be a sermon on August 9th.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a guest pastor.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Her name is Beth Hood.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: She is the assistant to the bishop in the Office of Clergy Life.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: She's fantastic.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: You guys are going to love her, and she'll be here to talk about Peter and Jesus walking on water.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it'll be a great Sunday on the ninth.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's the ninth.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: So this Sunday, just to clarify, this Tuesday, uh this is Tuesday, the 28th of July, August 2nd, Laura is preaching.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's the following Sunday after that we have the guest.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: So hope for hope that's clear as much.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'd like to thank everybody for listening for uh to this podcast and supporting us and supporting uh the ministry here at North Raleigh.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have any uh questions or comments about the uh podcast, reach out to Laura.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Send her an email and let her know if you liked what you heard or didn't like what you heard.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'd love to hear from you.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: So so again, next week we'll be gone and then we'll return the week after that.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: But until then, goodbye.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: May the love of Christ be with you always.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Bye.