Compassion: The Catalyst for Multiplication

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi, welcome to the Line Life Church podcast. We're in the world following Jesus Christ and living in his presence. Following his family and living on his mission so that the hearts are awake with his arms by. And if we can help you in any way, reach out to usfindlife.com. For now, here's a short sermon from Last Week in my life. Again, thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Fantastic. Go ahead and take a seat. Go in and take a seat. Is anybody ready to uh open up the word of God today? Anybody with me today? You're ready to dig into the scriptures. All right. That's what I'd like to hear. That is what I like to hear. You know, and before we do that, uh just a little bit more. You've you've probably been noticing over the last several weeks, we've been opening up pockets of time for some of our ministry team, some of our leaders to come and share words over individuals. You're wondering why they wouldn't they just share that to them after the service or during other parts. The reason why we do that publicly is for a couple reasons. First of all, when we get to experience together those who are hearing from the Lord, what does it do inside of us? It stirs up what? Faith, hunger that we too can hear from the Lord. You guys can hear from the Lord. The Holy Spirit has been given to you to hear from him, both for yourself and for those around you. But there's a second purpose. When Dennis gets up here and speaks directly about John Fitch and we pray over him, we now communally have a responsibility to listen to everything that was said to John and then to come around him and to encourage him and fan the flame that was just imparted to him. Do you guys see that? So there's something special that will happens. You can do that one-on-one across the room, but it's time to time we're gonna do that. We highlight people that God is just wanting to bless and affirm together because it lets faith rise in our heart. And then you see that person differently, don't you? When word is given to somebody in the room, you see that person, not just the way that you know them, but now the way that God knows them. And that's what we're learning to do together, right? We're learning to see each other according to the spirit. And uh so that being said, we are going to jump into the word today. It's been just a bit since we've had been able to uh to to be uh doing traditional sermons at this last month in July. It was just a wild month, uh starting with our huge 4th of July party. Uh, then we had the big Vine Life camping trip, and then we've had we had Christine Westhoff that was in here. We had Andrew Ehrenzeller here last week. It was a fantastic, fantastic month. I am excited to jump back in. Um uh we're gonna be opening up to the book of Mark today. So if you have your Bibles slash device, uh feel free to swipe over to your Bible app and pull up the book of Mark. We're gonna uh start in chapter six. And um I just want to invite you, if you're newer to the Vine Life community too, we are going through a shared reading plan together through the New Testament. We're reading similar chapters together. You can get that reading plan at the back desk, the connect center, in the very back. And uh and we're in the book of Mark right now, and so this is gonna be really good. Just a couple um uh a couple notes about the Gospel of Mark. First of all, it's the shortest of the Gospels. Somebody, somebody here is really excited about that. Um, it's the shortest of the Gospels. Um, it was written in the mid-60s, not the 1960s, the actual 60s. It was written in the 60s. And uh at this point in time, Nero was the emperor of the Roman Empire. He was a bit of a madman. He had gone insane. Um, so much uh so much so that he was actually persecuting, it led to a massive persecution of the early church. Um things were being blamed on the Christians, and they were actually burning. He would actually order for the Christians to be captured and to be burned like candles in the night all across the city. It's a level of persecution that we know nothing of. We complain about leaders from time to time, but this is a level of persecution we know nothing of. So it was written during a time of great pressure, great uncertainty, great resistance to the work of God, what was moving out. Um and what's really interesting about the Gospel of Mark, it was probably the most neglected out of all of the Gospels as it relates to commentaries. In fact, there was no real commentary on the Gospel of Mark until about the 6th century. It was just kind of seen as this other supplementary book, but now it's it's it's regarded for the beauty and the richness of what it provides to the whole biblical narrative. One of the things that you'll find immediately if you're reading through the Gospel of Mark is this Greek word youth, which means immediately. And you'll notice this throughout the Gospel of Mark, it's used 41 times. Mark loves this word immediately. And just all throughout this this particular biography of Jesus, he he wants to provide action, he wants to drive the plot forward, so he uses this word immediately, sometimes unnecessarily. Um it's actually almost comical. If he handed this to a high school English teacher, she would mark this thing up. Choose some other words, choose some other adverbs here. Like immediately, Jesus went to the synagogue and immediately he withdrew to a place of rest. Like, okay, well, he didn't really have to say immediately, but we get it, we get it. And and so, but but Mark is driven by this action-oriented uh movement of the gospel. That's what's capturing him, and we see him. He's he's using active language. He's trying to, what he's trying to do for the reader is capture the fact that Jesus came. He came for a specific purpose with a specific intention, with a specific mission, and he came to release that, to that the Spirit of God was upon him, right? And so the first half of this gospel has to do with Jesus' identity as the mighty Messiah, the Son of God. And then the second half has to do with Jesus as a suffering servant. He came in power as the Son of God, but he came to serve, he came to seek and save the lost by laying down his life. Amen. So that's kind of a little context. We're gonna jump into a pretty well-known passage here. We're gonna read this together. Matthew 6, starting in verse 30. I'm sorry. I said I'm sorry, I mean we're in Mark, not Matthew. Wait, which gospel are we in? Oh, this is awkward. Um Mark 6, okay? The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. So let me just stop there real quick. Jesus had sent the apostles out to do the work. So when he went and called his disciples to him, uh the scriptures tell us that he called them uh to himself first. He called he called the twelve that they might be with him, step one, and that they may go do the work of the kingdom, that they may go out and cast out demons and heal the sick and do the work of the kingdom. It's the same with us, by the way. Jesus first calls us to himself to be with him, then he sends us out to do the work. And so they had been out doing the work, and and it says the apostles returned to Jesus and told them all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest awhile. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And when they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves, now many saw this, many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. And when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. But he answered them, You give them something to eat. And they said to him, Shall we go and buy two hundred denari worth of bread and give it to them something to eat? And he said to them, How many loaves do you have? Go and see. And when they had found out, they said, Five and two fish. Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups by hundreds and by fifties. And taking the five loaves and two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing, and broke the loaves, and gave them to his to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the fish among them all. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces of the fish, and those who ate the loaves were five thousand. Let's pray together. Jesus, we we receive, we receive the revelation of your word this morning. I thank you, God, as we open up our lives, as we submit ourselves to your voice today. We thank you, Father. We thank you, Jesus, for the way that you expand our vision, the way that you expand our expectations, the way that you expand our faith. The way that you do this in this passage and what I believe that you want to do this morning. It's in Jesus' name. We pray. Amen. Um So this passage, um, I'm guessing, likely you were very familiar with, it's actually one of the passages that are in it's in all four Gospels. Not all of the Gospels carry all the same stories. This one's in all four. That's how important it is to these writers because there's something specific that God is doing, that Jesus is teaching. And that's exactly what is happening here. See, Jesus is training his disciples, he's training them in this particular passage. It's not just a passage about the multiplication of food that we love the multiplication of food. I love the multiplication of any food. It's not just about that. I love the multiplying, I love a God, the God that multiplies. How many of you know that God loves to multiply? He's not just a God of addition, he's a God of multiplication. And that's what I love about the kingdom of God. But in this passage, this this the movement and the nuances of this passage, if we're if we're not careful, we're gonna miss some of the rich layers of what's actually happening because what Jesus is doing with his guys is he is teaching them a new way to see and a new way to think. And he's calling them up to a different level. I love that Dennis was sharing about the eagle. I was praying every Wednesday at noon. You guys can come and join. We have prayer a few times a week in this room, Mondays at noon, Wednesdays at noon, and then uh the first and third Thursday nights. I was praying this week and I was just looking out the windows, praying over the city, praying over the valley, um, as we do because we have amazing windows. And I was looking up, but then my eye caught the attention above. There's this eagle that was flying, you know, 20, 30 yards up in the air, and just catching the wind. And I just really felt the Lord said, You're looking up this way. I'm trying to get your attention up here, though. There's a wind, there's there's something that I'm doing up here, and I'm and I want to train you. Like you're looking this way at things and figuring things out. But what I'm doing in this season, it is a new dimension. He's teaching He's training us to come to a new altitude and a new dimension in the spirit, which means that he has to teach us how to see things differently. This is exactly what's happening in this passage. He's with his guys, and they just got back from a ministry trip. They try to get some peace and quiet. Yes and amen to that. Introverts rejoice. He pulls away from the crowds, but that lasts about 15 minutes until they, you know, they they they find him. They find they find him, they follow them. The crowds follow them. And uh and then it really, that's what kick starts the story. And the thing is, what happens is we oftentimes read this story through a particular lens. We read it just paying attention to the last detail. We read it rejoicing that 5,000 men or 15,000 people among families were fed throughout this. And we see this story. We often kind of see the moral, you know, the point of the story is that God multiplies what we bring to him. And yes, that's true. But if we're not careful, it's the type of story we can read through this hyper-individualism, uh, this Western lens that said, this story is about how God just wants to multiply things for me. That God wants to take what I have and just multiply them. And that's not untrue. God does richly provide for you and all your needs according to his glorious riches. That's in the book as well. And God loves what we get to take away from this, but I love the beginning of the story because it sets up the context of what Jesus is trying to teach his guys. So, verse 34, after the crowds found him, it says he went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them because they were like a sheep without a shepherd. And and what we have to understand, first of all, to even approach this story, and what I believe this is a key for us in this season, is that the spark of this miracle, the spark of the multiplication, wasn't just need, it was compassion. As the crowds followed him, there was something that moved in the heart of Jesus. He saw a great crowd of people. And he didn't just see their need, he was moved to compassion because he saw them. They were like a sheep, they were like sheep without a shepherd. There was something that he noticed about the crowd. They were yearning, they were longing, they were wandering, maybe. They needed a leader, they needed something more than what they had. And it says in this particular moment, something within Jesus sparked, and it was this the gift of compassion. All miracles, the miracles of Jesus, you have to know that the miracles of Jesus begin with compassion. It's not just the ex the exercising of power, it starts with the heart of compassion. And so he began to teach them, he began to reveal to them the things of the kingdom. So he starts to teach these crowds. But before we move on, I just want to ask this question. When's the last time you were deeply moved with compassion? Like towards a great crowd, towards your neighborhood, towards your city. We're singing songs about God awakening things in the city. When's the last time you were moved? So you were gripped with compassion? This is a critical question for us right now. See, this word compassion is this really interesting word. It means to be moved as uh uh to be moved in the bowels. I kid you not, that's what it means. Not to be confused with the bowel movement, but to be moved in the bowels, to be moved. There's something, there's there's something about compassion and what Jesus was moved with. And there's other stories, how Jesus would look about on Jerusalem and be moved with compassion, even to tears. And this is this idea that something inside of his bowels, his gut, was gripped. And there was a movement that happened inside of him that caused him to overflow. And for Jesus, it overflowed in teaching. But it was more than that. It was an overflow of there's there's something that needs to be provided for this people. So what kick starts this miracle, what kick starts this miracle isn't just the fish and the loaves and the need. It was Jesus being moved with a heart of compassion. It's those who were who are willing to be moved in their bowel, to be moved in your God. And I just want to ask again, when was the last time you drove into your neighborhood and you saw the people on the street and something moved inside of you? God's heart for these people. When's the last time you drove down through the streets of your city when you walked down on Pearl Street or wherever that you live, whatever you call your city or your neighborhood, and something inside of you moved? Or maybe it's maybe it's a it's a nation, or maybe it's a it's a people group, maybe it's the the youth of this nation. And and I feel like this summer this continues to well up for me when I think about what our youth are experiencing at this moment in time. And the desperation and the confusion, I'm just like, I've I've just been noticing this tightening of the gut, this movement over of God, you're doing something here. But this is a question that we have to start with because some of us, uh some of us have been so busy or maybe so distracted that you don't even remember the last time your heart was moved. Were you actually able to see the people that are in your life? But this miracle starts with the gift of compassion. And then it goes from there. Because I believe this vine life, I believe this is important for us. God is looking for those with guts who can be moved in their gut. God is looking for those with guts who can be moved deeply on behalf of a people. When was the last time you were moved deeply, friends? And if the answer is I don't remember, then this is a good sign that there is breakthrough on the way that the Holy Spirit wants to minister something to us, even today. God is looking for those who with be with guts who are able to be moved on behalf of a people. And this is what I love about even some of the current stories coming out of this house over the last few weeks, and we're still waiting on reports on some of these, but as you guys know, we talked about this a lot the last few weeks. Our our beloved Shannon Clark, she was um youth leader, she was gripped with this idea of some we need to do something. God's heart for the students of our nation, somebody needs to do something. It starts with a seed of fire, a seed of compassion that I have to do, there's something happening and something must be done. And so she started dreaming about this conference, the standard, and that just happened a couple weeks ago. And it came initially as compassion, but it turned into this sizable, God-sized dream that no person could accomplish on her own. And walking with her through this, there's several several times that all of us are walking with her, like, oh my gosh, is this actually gonna happen? This is insane! How big this vision is, how big the need is, how much money you're gonna need. It started with a seed, but then it moves from there. I love that that our friend Heather Van Powell had the same thing last week. If you guys don't know, that uh there was an event called Pray the Perimeter, and the entire border of Colorado was surrounded in prayer. Cars drove all the way around the border of Colorado. And it started with a dream, a uh a nudging, a prompting within the heart of a housewife. This is how she tells her story. She's like, I'm just a housewife, like I'm just, I'm not, I don't have influence, I don't platform, but something inside her was moved to say something needs to happen in our state. We need our state to be surrounded with intercessors in prayer to break down, to dismantle the dark lies of the enemy, and to make make room for the breaking in of the light of the kingdom of God. And it started as a seed of compassion, something must be done. And then it grew from there into this vision that no one person can actually handle. And this is where this story goes. Have you ever been entrusted with a mission that was bigger than you? You remember that that feels like? Have you had an assignment that feels bigger than you? And if the answer is no, then God wants to give you one of those too. Because that's where life is best lived. Some of you actually in this season, one of the tricky things is you we've been so busy taking care of ourselves that we haven't really had an imagination for anything happening outside of the four walls of our particular home or business or world. And that's what a season like this COVID-19 season has done. Everyone has retreated and constricted. Some of it's been necessary for safety. But what happens as a culture is when we all just kind of go home when we move into a preservation mindset, it begins to shut down our. Eyes begin to shut down our vision for what God is doing in the world. Right? But the thing is that we have to understand about following Jesus is that while there are seasons we need to focus on home, or maybe focus on your marriage, or focus on your relationship with your kids, or focus on your businesses, those are all good things. You need to know your season. It won't always be your season. See, when you follow Jesus, the trajectory in the kingdom of God, Jesus is always maturing us into greater capacity to love the world with his compassion. He's always maturing us. And so maybe you've been a season of restriction. I guarantee you, I promise you, that God's intention for you is for you to not be given to just taking care of home base, but to be filled with the power and the strength of God and the vision of God to be moved with compassion towards a people that you may be aware of now or you have met yet to be aware of, but God wants to expand and deepen the well of compassion in your heart so he can do the miracles he wants to do on this earth. Come on, that was worth it right there, guys. I better hear something across the room. This is his heart for you. This is his heart for me. It's easy to start to cloister, it's easy to start to pull back, it's easy to start to shrink back. What do I need? What's going to take care of home? But I'm just telling you guys, where God is leading us, where God is leading us in this church, where I think what God is doing in the season, He's looking for those with guts who are willing to get a to catch a vision with compassion that might even feel way bigger and way scarier than you ever thought. When Jesus calls this disciple to follow him, their vision was small. It was just to take care of their home front. They were fishermen, they were tax collectors, they were working on the family business. And what did Jesus say to them? Come and follow me, and I will make you what? Fishers of men. Listen, you're fishing, you're doing this with your life, but what I want to do, I want you to catch a new vision. I want you to take what you've been given, but use it to actually catch men for my kingdom. And this is what God is looking for. God is wanting to grow our desire for evangelism, for blessing, for meeting the needs of our reborhoods, our cities, our region, and our state. And it seems like God's giving us more opportunities for those tent pegs to widen. For some reason, even at Vine Life, we've been drawn into more statewide initiatives. Why is that? Because I think God is expanding our vision for more than just ourselves to what he's doing in this region of the United States. And he gives us authority, he gives us his authority to go do that. So Jesus is moved to compassion. And in verse 35, it says this, and when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. So Jesus is teaching the crowds out of compassion. His disciples decided to get on the bandwagon with compassion and say, Hey, it's time we feed these guys. But they have the compassion of God, but not the ownership of God. They have the compassion of you. They're concerned about the hunger, they're concerned about the crowds. But for some reason, they did not consider it as part of their assignment or their mission to do anything about it. This isn't our problem. This need is way bigger than anything we can do. It's going to take over 200 denarii to feed this crowd, which is roughly $8,000. They're like, we don't have $8,000 to feed this crowd. And I love what Jesus says to them in this moment. He doesn't affirm anything they just said. He just says, You give them something to eat. You give them something to eat. They were moved to compassion, but they weren't yet owners and taking responsibility. I mean, what a commentary on the culture we live in with the amount of causes, the amount of fundraisers, the amount of things going on, the amount of need in the world. How often is it that we retweet, we reshare, we repost, we talk about things that are happening in the world, but how many people take ownership over those things? And this is what Jesus is saying. Like, listen, it's not enough to just see the problem. But what God is doing, He's training His disciples to take responsibility for the problems, to actually see ourselves as owners within the things that we see. So He puts it back on them. You give them something to eat, which creates another internal problem for them because they're thinking, how on earth is that going to happen? And that's something I'm sure that you've felt too. How is this going to happen? I don't have enough. I can't give enough. There isn't enough. I'm not enough. I don't have enough money. I don't have enough time. I don't have what it takes to do this. But for to go where Jesus is going, to do what he's doing, this is what requires us to see things through his lens and through his eyes. Many of us, we have language in our vernacular, in our everyday vocabulary of being maxed out and stressed out and to the mat to just to capacity. I don't have enough capacity for this, but friends, we're in a time where all of our calendars, all of our schedules, all of our abilities, all of our finances, we have to surrender everything we have back to the Lordship of Jesus Christ for Him to reorder what we have, for Him to tell us what He wants us to do with our stuff. We're in a time where we're allowing the constraints of the world, the constraints of the things that are crowding, you know, with the requests on our time, the things that are coming at us. We're just going with it versus saying, I have one Lord and one master. He gets to decide, he gets to tell me what I have capacity for. He gets to tell me what I have the ability to participate in financially. He has the ability to tell me how to order my life to be about my father's work. You got, hey, church, we need to surrender our lives back to the one who knows how to order our lives. He is the Lord, He is our master, He is our King, He's our Savior. Our lives are not our own. And so we get to come to Him and say, God, I am not going to live as a victim in this world, always wishing I had more, always wishing I was more, always wishing my bank account looked a little different, always wishing I had more free time in my schedule. We are in a season, guys, where God is saying, Who are the ones who would be willing to fill with compassion, to let their gut be moved, and to say, no matter what, I'm willing to see through the eyes of God and not let the external circumstances or limitations affect the way that I am approaching what God is wanting to do in my city and in my world. So Jesus says, go and see what you have. Well, God, I don't have a ton. I have 200 bucks in my bank account. Right? I only have one car right now. To share it with my family or with my wife. Or I feel tied up. I feel constrained by this part of my life. Jesus says, go and see. Go and see what do you have. He doesn't argue with them. Yeah, you don't have to 200 dinar. You actually really don't have that. Jesus is like, I know, I know, you don't you don't have 200 dinar. I get it. But what do you have? Go and see what you have. Go and see what you have. Jesus never belittles us for the lack in our lives. He will never belittle you for what you don't have. Do you understand that? He never looks at you and wants you to be embarrassed by what you don't have. God, I only have a day a week for this. I only have these pockets of time. God, I only have this much to give. Or I only have these skill sets. I don't even know what that means. Jesus says, go and see what you have. And so they go and see. They have a few loaves, a few fish. Then he says, all right, let's start there. And so then Jesus begins to walk through the rest of this passage. He tells them to go sit down in groups of 50. I love this passage because it says, He tells them to go sit down on the green grass. Does that remind you of any other passages in the Bible?

unknown 30:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. They were like a sheep without a shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside. So waters. He restores. And so he says, Listen, what I'm doing here is not about your strength, what you can come up with. What I'm doing here will come from a place of rest, it'll come from a place of str of trust. I'm going to do something great here. So he causes him to sit down and then he walks through this movement. And he does this different times. He'll do this again in Mark chapter 8 when he freeds the 4,000. It's almost identical, just a few different things. And he does this over and over because he's training them to see. And here's the movement he does. He takes what they have, he blesses it. He breaks it. Then he gives it. Okay? So let's just look at that for a moment. He blesses, he takes what they have. So they they get their loaves and fishes. And some of you just need to take inventory of what you have in your life, your job. Some of you, you just have to look, just write down what you have. You've been told everything you don't have. So in our culture, our marketing culture, all the marketing messages are to remind you of what you don't have. You don't have that truck, right? You don't have that house. You don't have that vacation home. You don't have that thing. Um, you really don't have any of those things that you really want. So the market, we've been trained in our culture. The conditioning has to remind us of what we don't have. Jesus, the conditioning is to be mindful of what we do have. So he says, Take, go and see, take what you have, and this is a good place for us to start. What do you have? And he takes it, he blesses it. He doesn't diminish it. He doesn't say, Really? That's it? You could only come up with two loaves or five loaves? Oops, we lost the light. You only came up with five loaves and two fish. Are you serious? Well, I guess we'll do something with that. I guess so. Gosh, why couldn't you be more than that? Have you ever felt those thoughts? That's not what Jesus does here. He says, take what you have and he blesses it before the Father. He surrenders it. He opens his hands and says, He says, He says, Father, and he he prays a prayer of thanksgiving. This is so important, guys, that we retrain ourselves. We have to eliminate words in our vocabulary. Years ago, my wife and I my wife and I eliminated the phrase, I can't afford. Eliminate it. We don't say it anymore. Never say it. I can't afford. Now, that doesn't mean that we're neglecting reality. Doesn't mean that we're not paying attention to what we have or what we don't have. But words like that, I can't afford, means I am a victim to I can only do what my bank account tells me that I can do. It's like, no, there's times where we say, we're not going to spend our money there, or we're not going to invest in that in this point in time. But we've removed words that took us out of this place of empowerment, victim mentality. And we no longer say that. And it's changed the way that we see situations. We never see things through through the lens of what we can't, what we cannot do because it doesn't look possible. We see things through the lens of how is God going to take care of this situation? How is God going to resource and provide? We actually have to pay attention to the way we talk about what we have. Some of you, you just overuse the phrase, I have no capacity. You way overdo it. Some of us do that, right? It doesn't mean your schedule is not full, but you're not a victim to your schedule. Do you know that? You are not a victim to your schedule. Your schedule isn't, time is not meant to be a taskmaster to tell you what to do. You are a powerful son and daughter of God who gets to order your time according to God's purposes.

unknown 34:40

Come on.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Guys, are you with me here? You are powerful in the Lord. You are powerful in the Lord. You get to eliminate and say, God, here's the time, here's what I do have. And I want you, I'm going to offer it to you to bless. So God takes what we have, He blesses it, He breaks it. What we offer is broken. It exposes it. He takes the bread. He breaks it into. And part of this is prophetically, He's showing them what's going to happen with His body. That yes, his body was broken. It was for the serving of the whole world. It was for the salvation of many. But what happens in the moment of breaking, there's no going back after a bread is broken, right? You can't just put it back together. Once something is broken, once something is used or given, there's no going back. It's the same thing with the breaking of the alabaster jar at Jesus' feet. There's something about when we take what we have and we actually break it open before God and we give it to Him as a form of worship and say, God, have all of it. There's something about it that releases, I believe, the power of God. It's these skin-in-the-game moments. It's when you write that big check, when you invite all your neighbors over for a massive barbecue, when you give away your car keys, when you book the flight to Africa, when you finally uh show up to do something and actually take the risk. And that's what I love. Sacrifice. The word sacrifice actually means to make holy. So what happens is when we bring something to God, we let him break open our lives. It's actually we're actually allowing God to make holy what we give to him. God, would you take the components of my life? I'm gonna break it open to you, I'm gonna give it to you. Would you make it holy before you? And then he gives it. He gives it, he gives it away. And it was on the giving away that the gospel's all I'll show this in different ways, but it was in the giving away, there's a multiplication. He multiplies according to our needs, and to the needs of many. See, Jesus is not, he refuses to give into the poverty spirit. All God needs is a heart with compassion, willing to take inventory of what we have. And he says, I am going to cause my provision to meet your compassion for the blessing of many. And we see that the multiplication happens, the masses were fed. Shortly after this story, uh, it says this, and this won't be on the screen, but I'll just read this passage. It says immediately, there's the word, he made his disciples get into the boat. See what I'm saying? He could have just said, he made his disciples to get into the boat. But he says immediately. Anyways, I think that's funny. Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat, go boat get into the boat and go before him to the other side to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. And after he had taken leave of them, he went up upon the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land, and he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass them by, but when he saw them walking on the other but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost. I love that. He meant to pass them by. I don't know where he was going, where he was passing by to. He's just like, I'm just gonna. Oh hey, you're there, okay. He meant to pass them by. But when he saw them walking on the sea, when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid. And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased, and they were utterly astounded. For they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. I want you to get this. This is it's just a it's an interesting, it's an interesting continuation of this story. We're not we're not doing the bread thing anymore. Like the masses have been fed, they're on a boat, there's a storm, uh, Jesus is walking on the water, they're freaking out, uh, they think he's a ghost. They they cry out in fear. They cry out in fear. It says they were utterly astounded. And there's there's Jesus tells them, take heart and his eye, do not be afraid. And he got into the boat and the wind ceased. The last verse, though, that says they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about what? The loaves. So somehow their fear in the boat had something to do with loaves, which it just seems like a weird connection. We're not talking about loaves anymore. We're talking about the water, he says, but their hearts did not understand something about the loaves. You see, there's something about the loaves. He says that they did not understand about the loaves because what? Because their hearts were what? We're hardened. The only way in the kingdom of God we actually understand, we can come into a dimension where we understand what God is doing, this multiplying factor, is tender hearts before the Lord. He's saying, Listen, you will only understand the loaves if your hearts are not hard, but your hearts are tender towards me. That's the only way that you're going to understand what I'm doing. And the loaves have to do with being protected from fear. The loaves have to do with being shielded from uncertainty and from being shielded with by these things that feel bigger than us. And Jesus is saying, Listen, I want you, I want you to understand the loaves. The loaves have to do with a tender heart, not a hard heart. He says almost the same thing in Mark 8. He says, Are you are not your hearts hard? Because they didn't understand about, they were still talking about bread. And he's saying, Did you not see what I was doing? And here's what I want us to get this morning. I believe that where we're going is going to require a few things. First of all, I just want to speak this to you, I want to declare this over you as a Vine Life family, that God wants to give us the gift of compassion again. Number one, he wants to give us the gift of compassion again. I believe this week, what I'm going to pray for you here in a second, I'm praying that when you walk into your neighborhood and when you see your neighbors, that it's like you're seeing them for the first time. I want you to be able to see your neighbors through the eyes of Jesus, that something moves into you to see how deeply God loves them. When you're driving down your city streets, that they're not just people, they're not just other characters, side characters in your story. They're people that Jesus was, his body was broken, his blood was poured out for these people. I'm praying that this week, that even over the coming months, that God is going to grip your heart with a people group, maybe on the other side of the world, maybe just down the street. God is going to grip your heart in a new way, and it's going to be filled, you're going to be filled with the compassion of Jesus. And he's going to call you beyond your means to think in a higher dimension of how he is wanting to bless this group of people with his plans and his purposes, and he's going to call you, some of you, he's going to call you into things that seem way bigger than you could do on your own. And you are going to be in over your head. If you don't want to be in over your head, this is not going to be a good chance, this is not going to be a good season to be a part of divine life. If you do not want, if you want to live safe, if you just want to do that, if you want to cloister, listen, you can do that. I'm just saying, there is no joy, there's no meaning, there's no peace when we live in self-preservation. The peace only comes when we allow the heart of God to enlarge our hearts, to be able to dream with Him with the limitation of what we have for Him to be able to multiply them so we can see the glory of God flood this earth like we've never seen before. There's new dreams coming into this house, guys. There are new dreams coming to you. I'm not talking about the person next to you. I'm talking about you. There are new dreams coming to you. If you will receive them, if you will allow your gut to be moved, there are new dreams coming to you. They may not seem even big at first, they might just come as a seed, but the kingdom of God always comes as a seed. The kingdom of God always comes as a seed. Jesus said the kingdom of God comes like a mustard seed. It comes as a pearl. It comes as yeast, leaven, and dough. It's barely perceptible most of the time. But if we will steward the littleness of the kingdom of God with the compassion in the heart of God, God wants an explosion of multiplication that will result in evangelism. It will result in sons and daughters coming home to the Father. I believe this, guys. I believe this is what God wants for us. God is teaching us a new way to see. Amen? Let's do this. Stand together with me across the room. If that's a prayer that you have today, we're gonna pray for a couple things. We're gonna pray into this first, then we're gonna pray as we're about to head back into school. Um teachers and students. If you are willing to receive the gift of compassion that will move you into God-sized dreams, if you were courageous enough to pray this prayer, you don't have I'm not I'm you don't have to do this, but if you want this, maybe you don't even want this, but you kind of you want to want it. Right? I want you to put your hands on your gut, on your gut here. This is this the seed bed, the garden bed of the risks, of the dreams of God. God is looking for those with guts. God, I I pray across this room here today, I pray that in the guts, in the belly of every single man and woman and student and child here in this place, I thank you, Lord Jesus, for us to be able to receive the dreams, the seeds of the dreams of the kingdom of God. We pray for deep compassion. We pray for even tears of intercession. God, that when you highlight certain people to us, you highlight our neighborhoods to us, you highlight the missions, the causes, the assignments that you are giving to us, God. I thank you that we wouldn't diminish them, that we wouldn't write them off, that we wouldn't be hardened in our heart, but that we would be tender-hearted, able to receive the tender-hearted mercies of God for the people that you are calling us to, Lord Jesus. I pray that even across this room, maybe even for the first time in months or years, you would give us the gift of tears, God. Give us the gift of tears to cry out for those that you are longing to be with you. And I thank you, Lord God, that as we leave this place for new dreams and visions of God that just feels so much bigger than we are and kind of freak it smooth out. I thank you, Lord God, for that they're home in this house. God, let this be a place and let us be a people where your dreams are at home with us. We're not going to ignore them. We're not going to walk away from them, but we will yield to them. I thank you, Lord Jesus, to give us eyes to see the ways that you are wanting to bring provision, miraculous provision, towards the God-sized dreams funded by compassion, Lord Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

Just begin to thank the Lord for anything he's doing inside of you right now. We receive. We receive. Let's see this as well before we head out. School's starting this week. Do we have any uh we have any teachers? Anybody working in the school system? Teachers or home educators. Put your hands up. Somebody? No? None in the room? Oh, Theresa's in the back. Okay, she's out in the hallway. Anyone else in the room? I've not seen anything. I we have some teachers that aren't here today. Okay, we want to bless, we want to bless our teachers. Uh, Theresa's in the in the in the lobby. Um, we got Emily Lee, who is, I'm not sure she's here today. Um, we have several others who I know are probably watching online as well. Um, let's let's just hold these together. Let's bless these guys. Just if you know any other teachers in your life, we're going back into the school system, the school year. We want to bless, bless them is set apart, sent by God to be a light in our schools. All right. So, God, we bless our teachers, Theresa in the back, others who are in this community who aren't here today, Emily, uh, Karn Rayner, uh, Dale Peterson, others who are just in the system, we thank you, Father. We thank you, Jesus, uh, to anoint them with the spirit of wisdom and revelation, Lord God, that as they step foot into the school, that the environment does not just happen to them, but the power of God within them overflows into every hallway, into every classroom, that every student can begin to understand and feel the depth of your peace and your joy in our schools all across the region. Lord God, we love our teachers, we love our administrative assistants, we love those, our coaches and those who are in the school system and we bless them in the name of Jesus to go out on a sign in the strength and the power of the kingdom of God. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right, come on, let's thank our teachers. Hey, Bernie.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

All right, friends.

SPEAKER_01 49:23

Take the hand of the person next to you or move down the aisle. Unless you just don't want to touch them, that's fine. So sorry, I totally put you on the spot. Um yeah, Jesus, as we leave this place, we thank you that we're going, God, not empty-handed, but we're going in the power of God. And we thank you, Father, um, that as we go, we're abiding in your presence. We're growing in your family, we're living on your mission so that the whole world can encounter and be transformed by your awe inspiring love. I bless my vine life family to go in strength and might and vision. In Jesus' name, we pray together. Amen. All right, guys, have an awesome, awesome week.