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A Quiet Place: Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast the First
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Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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On this podcast, the goal is not just to share our sermons, but
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to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're learning and
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what God is doing in US and in our community.
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This fall, we're living in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke,
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and John and learning how to live from our model, Jesus.
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This sermon is part of our series The Gospels.
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You can find. Out more information about our
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church at fumccollingswood.org. Thanks for listening.
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This morning's reading comes from the Gospel of Mark chapter
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6. Starting in verse 30, the
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apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him
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all they had done and taught. Then Jesus said, let's go off by
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ourselves to a quiet place and rest a while.
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He said this because there were so many people coming and going
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that Jesus and his apostles didn't even have time to eat.
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So they left by boat for a quiet place where they could be alone.
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But many people recognized them and saw them leaving, and people
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from many towns ran ahead along the shore and got there ahead of
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them. Jesus saw the huge crowd as he
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stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because
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they were like sheep without a shepherd.
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So he began teaching them many things.
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Late in the afternoon, his disciples came to him and said,
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this is a remote place and it's already getting late.
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Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and
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villages and buy something to eat.
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But Jesus said you feed them with what they asked.
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We'd have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food
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for all these people. How much bread do you have?
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He asked. Go and find out.
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They came back and reported we only have 5 loaves of bread and
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two fish. Then Jesus told the disciples to
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have the people sit down in groups of the on the green
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grass. So they sat down in groups of 50
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or 100. Jesus took the five loaves and
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two fish, looked up toward heaven and blessed them.
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Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread
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to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people.
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He also divided the fish for everyone to share.
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They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward the
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disciples picked up 12 baskets of leftover bread and fish.
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A total of 5000 men and their families were fed immediately
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after this. Jesus insists insisted that his
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disciples get back into the boat and head across the lake to
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Bethsaida while he sent the people home.
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After telling everyone goodbye, he went up into the hills by
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himself to pray. This is the word of God for the
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people of God. Thanks be to God.
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Amen. Thanks, Tim, for reading for us
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this morning. All right, kids, you are invited
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to head to children's church, Miss Jennifer.
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All right, great. Well, imagine with me, if you
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would, what it might feel like to have people clamoring for you
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all the time, All right? People at work clamoring for
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your attention to some matter. People within your family coming
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to you with needs that they want you to meet.
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People in your social circles who expect more of your energy
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than you have to give. People who are challenging you
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in public and questioning your character.
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You with me. All right?
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You're, you're feeling worn down and stressed out, stretched
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thin. And then on top of it all, you
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get bad news, right? There's an unexpected diagnosis.
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You or your spouse loses a job, plans you'd been looking forward
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to fell apart, or or maybe someone you love passes away.
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Suddenly it can all feel so overwhelming, like you're
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treading water right, and just trying to keep your head above
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the waves that just keep breaking, knowing the next one
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could be the one that pulls you under.
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You able to imagine something along those lines?
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Do you know that Jesus felt overwhelmed too?
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That there were times when the demands that were placed on him
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felt like too much? That's where the story today
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finds Jesus, right. Jesus has been healing people
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left and right, sometimes even whole towns or villages,
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gathering and bringing their sick to have Jesus touch them
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and heal them. He's been confronting the
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demonic and setting demonized people free.
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He's been in conflict with the religious leaders.
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They're they're challenging Jesus and questioning his
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character, even going so far to say that Jesus was drawing his
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power from the Prince of demons who was possessing him.
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His family doesn't understand what he's doing.
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And we're putting demands on him.
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He's been teaching crowds of people in addition to these 12
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apprentices that he's called to be with him and follow him.
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And then he goes to his hometown where he's ridiculed as the
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illegitimate son of Mary and Joseph.
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And according to Luke, there in Nazareth, they even tried to
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throw him off a Cliff. Talk about a rough day at the
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office. All right.
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And then, then Jesus finds out that his cousin John the Baptist
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has been killed. It's overwhelming.
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It's too much. So what does Jesus do in a
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moment like this? How does he respond to the
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situations and the circumstances that are swirling around him and
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the emotions that were surely swirling within him?
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What's he do? He calls a time out right with
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when everything felt like too much to handle, when he and the
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disciples didn't even have a moment of time to eat.
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Jesus gets away from it all. He he goes to to make some time
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to be with the Father. Or that's almost what he does,
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right? Because here in Mark 6, the
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passage Tim read for us this morning, it tells us that Jesus
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didn't just go off alone by himself.
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He invited the 12 to disappear with him for a while.
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He said, let's go off by ourselves to a quiet place and
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rest a while. You see, in this apprenticeship
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to Jesus, he wants to teach these followers about the
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rhythms that are necessary to sustain a life lived with an
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orientation toward others. All right, Matthew, Mark and
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Luke place this story shortly after the sending out of the 12
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apostles, which we spoke about a couple weeks ago.
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And and Mark tells us right here at the beginning of the story
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that Jesus's invitation comes not just on on the heels of the
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news about John the Baptist, but upon the apostles return from
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their mission trip, right? They're telling them all about
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what they had seen and done and experienced.
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But Jesus wanted to teach them about the importance of quiet
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and rest in the midst of the busyness and the pains of life.
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But this isn't just a teachable moment for Jesus and the 12
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right? It's, it's more than a lesson in
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this invitation. Jesus is inviting those 12 men
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into his inner life, right? He's he's pulling back the
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curtain, so to speak, so they can see how he sustains his life
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of self giving love because it's in the quiet solitude that Jesus
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connects with the Father. And this isn't the first or only
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time that we see this in Jesus's life in in Mark chapter one, we
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read this little vignette of Jesus's life.
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Sorry I didn't put a bookmark there.
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Mark one beginning in verse 32. It says that evening after
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sunset, many sick and demon possessed people were brought to
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Jesus. The whole town gathered at the
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door to watch. So Jesus healed many people who
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were sick with various diseases. He cast out many demons, but
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because the demons knew who he was, he did not allow them to
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speak. That's the evening before
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Daybreak. The next morning Jesus got up
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and he went out to an isolated place to pray.
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Later Simon and the others went out to find him, and when they
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found him they said everyone is looking for you.
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But Jesus replied, we must go to the other towns as well, and I
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will preach to them too. That is why I came.
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So he travelled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in
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the synagogues and casting out demons.
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After a full day of ministry that that even stretched into
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the evening. Healing and deliverance, all
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these things going on, Jesus chooses to get up early and he
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goes off to be alone with the Father.
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How many people here are morning people?
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I can't raise my hand because it's not me, right?
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But Jesus gets up early before Daybreak.
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He goes to to spend that time alone with God.
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This was how he sustained his ministry and it's how he learned
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what it was that God wanted him to do day by day by day.
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And notice that when the disciples finally find him,
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right? When they say everyone is
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looking for you, which is a great thing for a person trying
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to build a following, right? But instead of using this
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opportunity to build his platform to, to further himself,
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he just says, OK, that's great, we're moving on, right?
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Because that's what he heard from the Father in the quiet
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place. The point is that Jesus's
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response to the overwhelm of life here in Mark 6th, his
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desire to to get away for some quiet rest.
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It's not an isolated event and and it's not an on the fly
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innovation for the sake of the 12 who have just come back from
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this mission trip. And they're so excited, but
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they're also so tired. Where Jesus lived out of these
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spiritual practices, He had a rhythm to his life, right?
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Things like practicing Sabbath and prayer solitude, right?
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Jesus knew that in order to know what the Father wanted him doing
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and where he was supposed to do them, even Jesus had to
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cultivate an intimacy with the Father.
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Remember, Jesus was God, but he was also human, right?
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And and if he wasn't holding on to his equality with God like
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something to be grasped, like Philippians 2 says things, these
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weren't just things that he knew because he was God, right?
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He had to listen to God and he, he needed the strength to do the
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ministry and he knew it didn't just come from himself.
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He had to be filled and empowered.
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And that's where Jesus's rhythm of life, his spiritual
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practices, they they come into play.
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This was how Jesus sustained his life of self giving love.
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But as we read in the story, despite, despite Jesus's best
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intentions to model these spiritual practices and and to
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invite the 12 into his rhythm of life, the crowds noticed where
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he's headed. They see him gay in the boat,
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they know where that boat, which direction it's headed, and they
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follow along. They end up on another side of
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the lake when Jesus lands there. And Jesus heart, when he sees
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them, he's filled with compassion, right?
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He recognizes how hungry the people are for true leadership
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and true shepherding. And so Jesus chooses to teach
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the crowds rather than teaching the lesson he had planned for
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the 12. And eventually, late in the day,
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the disciples began to get hungry.
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I mean, they began to notice that the people were getting
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hungry and and they weren't close to any towns or villages
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where they could send the people to get food.
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So they tell Jesus to send the crowds away to find some food
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for themselves. And Jesus realizes there's a
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different kind of training opportunity here before them,
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right? So Jesus turns to the 12.
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He's heard their their request and he says you feed them, you
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give them something to eat. I think Jesus believed that the
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disciples should be able to handle this by now, right?
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Remember, they just came back from their mission trip where
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they had reached out and touched people and seen them healed, and
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they had cast out demons from people.
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They'd proclaimed the good news that the Kingdom of God had come
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near to them. But apparently the 12 hadn't
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quite gotten it yet. They hadn't quite learned the
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lesson yet because their response is that it would take
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months worth of pay. 200 days wages is what it says. 6 1/2
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months of daily salary to buy enough food for everyone, if
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there was even somewhere around for them to buy that much food.
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So instead instead, Jesus decides to to walk them through
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it step by step, right? He asks them, how much food do
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you have? I can imagine the 12 kind of
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looking at each other, whispering to one another, did
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you bring any food? Was it my turn to plan the menu?
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Did you go grocery shopping? And Jesus just rolling his eyes
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as he says, go and see what you can find, see what's out there.
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And eventually they come back right with the five small loaves
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and two fish. John tells us it was it was just
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a little boy's brown bag lunch. Jesus takes that little bit that
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was offered. He gives thanks to the Father
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and he proceeds to make it more than enough for all the people.
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The amazing thing to me is he still does it in the hands of
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those 12 disciples, right? The ones that Jesus told to to
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to give the crowd something to eat are still the ones who gave
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the crowd something to eat, even though they didn't have any idea
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how that was even possible. Jesus broke the bread and he
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broke the fish and he gave it to them, but the fish and the
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loaves, they, they, they multiplied in the disciples
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hands as they're handing it out. And then after dinner, they say,
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let's, let's send the crowds home.
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And Jesus is now too tired to even teach the disciples about
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solitude and prayer. And so he sends them back across
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the lake in the boat. But Jesus, Jesus still makes
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time to get alone with the Father.
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He didn't allow the interruption of the crowds to become a
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disruption to his relationship with the Father.
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He didn't allow that interruption of the crowds to
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become a disruption to his relationship with the Father and
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friends. If we are going to follow Jesus,
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and if we're going to do the greater things that Jesus told
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us his followers would do, we have to learn to believe Jesus's
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words. And we have to learn to follow
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His example. We have to develop a sustaining
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intimacy with God that is a first priority in our lives.
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Anybody feeling overwhelmed these days?
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You don't have to actually raise your hands, but are you feeling
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overwhelmed? There are days this year when
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I've felt overwhelmed. Reality is, it's not really a
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question of whether we're going to feel overwhelmed.
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The question is, what are we going to do when we feel
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overwhelmed? Are you making time to be with
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the Father? Are you making that a priority?
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Are you spending time each day reading and meditating on
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scripture? Are you getting up early, even
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if you have to before your day begins to pray?
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Are you making time to be alone with God?
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These were non negotiables for Jesus.
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They were non negotiables for Jesus, especially when things
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are overwhelming. Maybe if if Jesus needed to make
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these practices and rhythms a priority, we might need to as
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well. Maybe, maybe Martin Luther, the
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great Reformer is quoted as saying, I have so much to do
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that I shall spend the first 3 hours in prayer.
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Or John Wesley, similarly, he said, I have so much to do that
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I must spend several hours in prayer before I'm able to do it.
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We would love to have the impact of a Wesley or a Luther.
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Few of us are willing, though, to get up at 4:00 AM to pray
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like they did. But let me also say, this isn't
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a silver bullet, right? Solitude, prayer, scripture,
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quiet, rest, all these disciplines that we can build
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into our lives. They don't take away the things
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that overwhelm us. They don't take away the the
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needy children or the naggy parents or the unexpected
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situations, but they shift our perspective about them.
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God wants to shape the way that we see these things.
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He wants to to strengthen us to face them.
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He wants to remind us of who we are and whose we are, but they
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don't necessarily take away those circumstances.
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If we continued reading the next passage in Mark chapter 6, we'd
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see that that this story is is exactly how the disciples end up
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on the lake in the midst of the wind and the waves.
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Remember the story when Jesus walks on the water?
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It's always blown my mind that Mark tells us that Jesus
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intended to go past them. He intended to walk right on by
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while they struggled with the wind and the waves.
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Apparently they hadn't learned the lesson from the storm in
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Mark chapter 4 yet either. But when they see Jesus and
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they're terrified and he sees their terror, he chose to
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respond to their need as well. Fresh off his time alone with
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the Father, Jesus gets in the boat and immediately the wind
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and the waves stop. The 12 were amazed because they
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still didn't understand. And I think sometimes we see
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someone going through something incredibly difficult, an illness
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or a loss or fill in the blank, you know, the difficult things
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that come at us in life. We see someone going through
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that and we're amazed at the way they're able to walk through it,
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how they handle it with joy and peace and hope.
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But we're amazed because we still haven't understood,
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because we still haven't learned the lesson that it's intimacy
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with God that's meant to be the source of our power and our
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strength, our love and our compassion, our joy and our
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peace, and even our very lives. And so this morning we have an
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opportunity as we move into our celebration of Holy Communion,
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we have an opportunity to meet with God.
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Maybe this morning you need to confess to him the other things
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that you've looked to to help you cope with the stress of
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life. Maybe this morning you need to
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to confess to God the the distance that you've allowed
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into your relationship with him and and you need to ask him to
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draw you close. Maybe this morning you've never
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experienced the kind of intimacy with God that we're talking
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about. You need to tell God that you
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want it. You want that kind of dependent
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relationship with Him, and you're deciding to seek Him in
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the place of quiet rest. But as we come to communion,
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Jesus wants to commune with us. Will you push in to meet with
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him? We tell him that you need him
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because if you do, he won't pass us by.