Latest / Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms / #206. "What Do You Have? Give it to Me" : Trading Our Inadequacy for the Sufficiency of Jesus Christ | Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9

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#206. "What Do You Have? Give it to Me" : Trading Our Inadequacy for the Sufficiency of Jesus Christ | Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9 · Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms

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  This is The Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.
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  I'm Stephanie Hickox.
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  Today we're looking at Matthew chapters 14, Mark 6, and Luke 9, We'll also glance over at John chapter 6 because today we're studying The only miracle recorded in all four Gospels, other than the resurrection, that is.
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  Do you know what it is?
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  It's the feeding of the 5,000 And really it should be called the feeding of the 5,000 plus because scripture tells us that it was 5,000 men plus many women and children not only did all four gospel writers believe
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  this was a pivotal account to include, it's one of those scriptures that God brings me back to over and over in my motherhood.
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  And as I've shared it with many other moms, I've watched it lift their countenance and clarify their calling, And I believe it will do the same for you.
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  But because context matters, I want us to glance back at what happened before Jesus performed this miracle So our reading today will be the entire chapter of Matthew 14.
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  At that time, Herod the Tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus.
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  And he said to his servants, This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him."
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  For Herod had seized John, and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because John had been saying to him, It is not lawful for you to have her."
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  And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet.
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  But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.
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  Prompted by her mother, she said, Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter."
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  And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given.
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  He sent and had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl.
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  and she brought it to her mother.
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  And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.
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  Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.
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  But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
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  when he went to shore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
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  Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, This is a desolate place, and the day is now over.
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  Send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves."
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  But Jesus said, They need not go away.
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  You give them something to eat."
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  They said to him, We have only five loaves here and two fish."
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  And he said, Bring them here to me."
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  Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing.
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  Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds and they all ate and were satisfied.
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  And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over, and those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
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  Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.
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  And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
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  When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.
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  And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.
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  But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, It is a ghost!"
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  And they cried out in fear.
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  But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid."
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  And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come out to you on the water."
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  He said, "Come."
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  So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.
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  But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, Lord, save me!"
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  Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, O you of little faith, Why did you doubt?"
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  And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
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  And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly, you are the Son of God."
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  And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret.
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  And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment.
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  And as many as touched it were made well Let me just explain what was going on with Herod and Herodias so you understand what John was speaking about the Herodian dynasty was very wicked, they were ruling over the
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  Jews but certainly not submitting to the Torah.
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  this family tree gets complicated.
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  So I'm just gonna read a couple portions from commentaries Herod the Great, the one who tried to kill Jesus as a baby, he had a lot of sons.
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  he killed several of them while he was live.
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  But now we're reading about one of his sons On a trip to Rome, this son, Herod, had stayed with a half-brother, Philip, who was married to Herodias.
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  Though he was married, Herod fell in love with his sister-in-law and persuaded her to return with him to Israel.
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  They divorced their spouses and married, totally contrary to Mosaic law.
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  John the Baptist fearlessly denounced them for the Mosaic law applied equally to all in Israel, even rulers.
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  Herodias became so angry with John that she wanted to put him to death.
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  But Herod had locked him up in prison, thinking he could silence his preaching.
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  Herod was actually afraid of John, for he was a righteous and holy man.
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  He enjoyed listening to him but was confused by John's words.
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  He did not want to recognize his own sin and repent the Moody Commentary continues, Herod was hosting his birthday party with his lords and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee present.
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  During the party, the daughter of Herodias, Salome, danced for the guests.
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  No Jewish mother would have encouraged her daughter to dance before a group of men."
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  This is certainly a sensual dance and it provides an opportunity for Salome to ask for her mother, Herodias's wish to be granted.
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  John the Baptist's head on a platter John was killed for speaking for righteousness.
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  he did not compromise his integrity even while he was in prison This is the circumstance in which Jesus performed the feeding of the 5,000 plus I've always been struck by the timing of this miracle.
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  Isn't it absolutely incredible that Jesus performs this right after he finds out that his cousin, the man who prepared the way for him, has been beheaded?
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  Jesus is grieving the reality of sin and pain on this earth That a righteous man, has been killed for speaking the
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  Speaker 6: truth
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  Now Jesus understands and has an eternal perspective he inspired the psalmist to say, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."
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  And he'll later help reveal to John a vision of those that were martyred for the Lord being glorified and elevated in heaven just a few chapters ago, he had told the people, "Blessed are those who are persecuted because
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  of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
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  Jesus can have all this in mind while still understanding that his painful death is imminent He's watching the impact of sin on this earth And what's necessary to destroy it will cost him dearly and in the midst of
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  that, he understandably removes himself from the people and goes away to pray, but the crowds keep following him He doesn't turn them away.
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  He heals them.
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  And it might even be in compassion that the disciples want to give him a break by sending the people away to go eat but it's Jesus who understands that despite what we're feeling emotionally, we still have physical needs
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  and he takes this opportunity to provide for the people You know, the Bible doesn't provide a lot of adjectives and colors and descriptive details I see those things most prevalent when God is describing what the temple is to
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  look like.
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  And that's why I think it's so sweet that in Mark 6 in verse 34 it says, And Jesus had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd."
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  And in verse 39, Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass."
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  Does this make you think of Psalm 23?
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  The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
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  He makes me lie down in green pastures."
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  Jesus is showing them the good heart of the Father to care for them But I absolutely love the source that Jesus uses to provide this bread In John chapter six, verse eight, one of the disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's
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  brother, said to him, there is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.
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  But what are they for so many?"
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  We don't know exactly how this food was offered to the disciples But I don't know that these grown men went to a little child and said, "Hey buddy, you've got food there.
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  How much do you have?"
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  I wonder if this little boy, in faith, approached the disciples and offered to share his lunch with the Son of God.
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  when John includes that they're barley loaves, He's wanting us to think back to Elisha's miracle in 2 Kings 4 when Elisha had 20 loaves of barley and fed a hundred men with them Jesus can do that and so
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  much more, Showing he is the prophet They were also, of course, to think back to the manna that God provided in the wilderness And how can we not notice that at the end of distributing the food to all
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  the people that there are leftovers?
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  and the amount of leftovers is significant.
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  There were 12 baskets left.
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  How many disciples were there?
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  12 These Baskets were what the disciples would have continued to carry on their journey.
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  Jesus intentionally created the perfect amount so that the disciples had something to carry away from the miracle and in researching this story, I think I'm going to make an official change in my house.
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  How fun is this fact?
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  The word for leftover here is the Greek word perisseio, which means abundance So everyone is filled and is satisfied, and there was an abundance left over instead of saying to my family, Should we have leftovers tonight?"
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  I think I'm gonna start saying, "Should we eat from the abundance that God has provided?"
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  Maybe that'll give them a little bit more of a grateful perspective on the things in our fridge I told you at the beginning that this has been one of the main passages that God has brought me back to
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  about my motherhood I've shared several times on this podcast that because of my husband's health circumstances, God has called me to work full-time for our family and I also still homeschool three of my kids and you know, getting
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  that fourth one to school and following up with all his school emails and homework Isn't always a walk in the park either On a daily basis, I feel completely inadequate for what I'm called to do the plans and
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  ideas that I have in my head And the things I wanna do for my kids don't always make it to fruition And when most days end with an unfinished to-do list.
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  I've had to learn to put my hands up in surrender and trust the Lord that He'll help me accomplish all He wants me to do for His glory I've realized that a huge part of my motherhood is to
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  recognize my insufficiency and to point to the sufficiency of my Savior, Jesus Christ.
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  When I model that I'm not enough and how desperately I need the Lord I'm pointing my kids to Christ more than if I could accomplish things with a supernatural supermom strength When Jesus refers to the five loaves and
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  two fish and says, "Bring them here to me," in essence, He's saying, What do you have?
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  Give it to me And I've learned that that has to be the banner over my motherhood.
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  I look at myself and I see weakness and limitation But I've realized that the most wonderful thing I can do is to trade in all of my hopes and my intentions and my dreams for my family, and to
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  say, "Lord Jesus You take it and you multiply it, to bring you glory Can you resonate with that at all?
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  That you just can't be and do all that you wanna be for your family And so I encourage you once again that doing life with the Lord and pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ is so much more satisfying
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  when we open our hands in surrender and say, Jesus, in my weakness, be glorified."
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  In those moments where you feel overwhelmed, inadequate, exhausted, nauseous from a new pregnancy, Heartbroken over health, frustrated over finances.
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  Can you hear the Lord Jesus saying, What do you have today?
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  Give it to me."
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  Heavenly Father, we're so thankful that you are the Good Shepherd Thank you that because of the satisfaction that we have in you, we need not want We confess our desires to be sufficient in ourselves to provide for our
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  families and to be all that they need But we thank you, God, that in your faithfulness and in our weakness, you are glorified we pray we would be diligent yet humble Faithful yet surrendered In our moments of insufficiency,
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  I pray that we would be quick to run to You, asking You to multiply and to cause growth that we cannot do on our own We also thank you for your example, Jesus, Of serving when you wanted to
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  be alone, We pray we would enter in with you The Servant King and lovingly meet the needs of those around us We pray that we would feel your nearness as we surrender our own desires and our own emotions
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  to serve those you've placed in our lives It's in your generous, sacrificial, loving name that we pray, Jesus.
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  Amen