Elevation with Steven Furtick - This Is Significant

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

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This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. Well, take a seat. We're so glad you're here today. We're continuing in the series Savage Jesus from the Gospel of Mark. Believe me, when I say that I never thought I'd say, this is the 10th installment of this series. I usually preach short and sweet, but I got in the gospel of Mark and then I couldn't get out. So today we'll be in Mark chapter 6.

I want to introduce my scripture by way of a story. When I wrote my first book, I had the privilege to record the audio book myself. And they sent a very professional recording engineer from the publishing company to record the book. And he would stop me and correct me if I made any mistakes. mistakes. If I got a little too southern, he was a northern Pharisee, and he judged my accent. And he'd say, it's a little twangy, let's get it again, or if I smacked my lips or mispronounced a word, he backed back it up and make me catch it again. It was annoying, but I appreciated his professionalism, and because the publisher was the largest publisher in the world, now,

not the publisher that I wrote for. The publisher that I wrote for was. owned by a publisher who was owned by a publisher that was the biggest publishing company in the world. This guy worked for the big publisher. And because of it, he had worked with a lot of big names. And this was my first book and my first time, and I kept having to take breaks. And my mouth would get dry. And so during one of those breaks, I realized that this guy had worked with a lot of famous people. And I asked him to tell me a story to entertain me during my break. I said, tell me about somebody you worked with that was difficult. And he told me a story about a very well-known political figure.

I don't know if the story is true, but why let the truth get in the way of a good story? That's my motto. So I'm going to tell the story. I'm not going to say the name, but it was a famous political figure who was recording his memoir about his life that was after he had served his term four, eight years, something like that, in office. I can tell you it was, but he said that when they were recording the memoir, it was very long. It was about a seven or eight hundred page book, and it had to be an abridged version. And so when they were recording the audio book, they had to decide which sections to leave

and which sections to skip. And at one particular point in the memoir, there was a section about a scandal that happened in this particular notable figure's life. related to offices of oval nature and things of this sort that happened during his tenure in what some called the highest office in the United States of America. And when he was telling me about it, he said when they got to the part about the scandal, he said that the person who wrote the memoir, the former president, this is falling apart,

said he stopped and he was going to skip it and he stopped the recording and he said I don't think people really people are sick of hearing about this by now I think we can skip this part I mean do you think this is really significant and the audio engineer said that it was a real challenge to look back at somebody who had been the most powerful men in the world at one point and he said I had to look at him and say yes mr. president this is significant and that's my title for my message today look at your neighbor and say in your best bill Clinton voice tell him this is significant this is significant our scripture lesson for today comes from mark chapter six something that mark the evangelist included in his gospel record

that he thought was significant for us to know about the ministry of Jesus Christ. Mark chapter 6, verse 45, records. Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Beth Seda. He did not tell them to pack ponchos. He did not give them a warning about the storm that they would encounter, just a simple instruction. I wonder if God doesn't tell us everything because he knows we could not handle the details. So he dismissed the crowd and sent the disciples to get a head start.

I meet you on the other side. You're almost going to die on the way. He didn't tell him that. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn, he went out to them walking on the lake. He was about to passed by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost, because God often looks like fear from a distance. They cried out because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately, Mark's favorite word, he spoke to them and said, take courage, it is I.

Don't be afraid. Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed. Touched the neighbor. and say this is significant. So if you've ever been around church at all, you've heard this Bible story. If you've ever been anywhere near a church, you've heard about this Bible story. If you ever happened to drive by a church by accident, you heard this. If you ever played on a church softball team, you heard curse words and this Bible story. It's a significant story

because it teaches us that Jesus Christ is Lord of all creation. Theologically, he is sovereign. He is sovereign. It's an epiphany story in that it gives us a revelation of Jesus Christ that is consistent with the revelation of Jesus Christ that was given in the Old Testament in a concealed form when a bush burned and a man named Moses was meeting with God. The disclosure at that point was, I am. Moses said, who are you? God said, I am.

Now it's interesting how God would spend the next several centuries filling in that blank, that they would need to know him to be water in a dry place, that they would need to know him to be a warrior in their battles. They would find all of this out that he is sustainer in their weariness. Really, the rest of your life will be spent filling in that blank. And just about the time you think you've got it figured out who God is, life will so shift beneath your feet that you will realize you didn't know him at all. The decisive, the have been with Jesus now for quite an extensive class. They've seen him touch lepers.

They've seen him heal paralytics. They've even seen him raise dead people in certain situations. And yet there was something that amazed them in this moment, something that they had not seen about him before. It is significant that Jesus told them to go forward and the wind was against them. significant. Significant because a lot of times I assumed in my life that if God sent me to do something, the wind would work with me. That's pretty much the premise of early Christianity, you know. Turn your life over to God and he'll take your burdens away. Turn your life over to the Lord and, you know, what used to keep you up at night won't keep you up at night anymore

because it'll be replaced by other stuff that'll keep you up at night. Fill in the blank, you realize that a lot of times our claims to faith are actually our efforts to manipulate God until we discover in the course of time that just because the wind is against you doesn't mean that God is not for you. Many times the confirmation that God has spoken to you is the fact that the wind is against you. We're discovering this. In our study of the Gospel of Mark, we are learning that resistance is often the greatest place for revelation. Would you please take that elevation pin that cost about 11 or 12 cents? And before you steal it from the church and use it to sign a check this week, write it down,

resistance leads to revelation. Resistance leads to revelation. The wind was against the disciples, not because they disobeyed the words of Jesus, but because they went in the direction of his command. He sent them to Bethsaida. They went to Beth Theda. I got it when it was Jonah because the wind was against Jonah because he wasn't going to Nineveh.

He was going to Tarshish, and God said go to Nineveh. And when you go to Tarsesh, when you should go to Nineveh. Expect the wind to be against you because God didn't send you to Tarshish. He sent you to Nineve. So I expect the wind to go against me when God told me to go to Ninevehah and I went to Tarshish. But when he told me to go to Bessada and I went to Bethsada, I expect the wind to work with me. I expect God to bless me when I come to church. I expect good parking places because I came to church.

I expect those shoes to go on sale because I came to church. I expect a promotion because I came to church. It makes me mad when somebody who didn't come to church, they slept in and they get a race, and I get fired, and I can't understand how God could be with me and the wind could be against me. But often the confirmation of the Word of God is the right. resistance of the enemy to show you you're on the right track. Here's what. I feel I preach here's why. I'm going to help somebody. You want to turn around and go back home because the wind is against you. The wind is against you so that you will know that it is the Lord's presence

with you that makes you successful. If the wind was working with you, you would thank the wind when you got to your destination. If it were easy, you would thank the wrong things. If the wind wasn't against you, you wouldn't need the Lord to come and step into the wind and speak peace to the wind. So the wind has to be against you to prove that the Lord is with you. Calm down, Ferdick. This is just the introduction. And so Jesus, savage Jesus. The Jesus that's in the Bible. Not the Jesus this on Pinterest. Savage Jesus. Real life Jesus. Monday morning Jesus. Yeah, Friday Jesus, Saturday Jesus, not the Jesus that is playing a harp and stroking the wool of the lamb, but the Jesus who sends his disciples into a storm and watches them strained.

I got to go. You don't believe this. You about to be really jealous. I got to go and sit on the mountain where Jesus prayed. And the man who took us there last year, he knew everything about everything. I think he was Jesus. He took us up there. He said, here's where Jesus was praying in March 6.

And then he pointed to the lake that the Bible mentions where the storm was. And from that mountain, you can see the whole lake. And he dropped this on us right before he left us. He said, so the whole time they were straining, Jesus could see them. And he walked off. and I cried. I have a picture of me sitting on that mountain, and there's Kleenex all around me, because Holly just kept handing them to me one after another.

That he saw them in the storm. That he saw them in the storm. And then I was, after I got done crying, because I realized he sees me in my storm, and he knows what I'm going through, and he knows what I deal with, and he knows what people have done to me. And he sees tears that I've cried on my pillow that nobody else knows about and that he sees what's going on in my soul that I can cover up in front of people, but I can't hide from him. After I got done crying about that, I got kind of angry because I thought if he could see them,

why didn't he stop it? All of a sudden it felt kind of cruel to me that he would send them into a storm and see them in the storm and not stop the storm. So, I think it is significant that the Bible says that he saw the disciples, verse 48, straining at the orse, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn, he went out to them, this is 48B, walking on the lake, he was about to pass them by. I thought he would never leave me. I thought he would never forsake me. I thought he promised his presence to me.

And so he's about to pass them by, and they were afraid. One interesting thing about this particular record in Mark's Gospel is that it was recounted by a man named Peter. Have you heard of him? He was a very outspoken disciple of Jesus Christ. He was the one, I don't know if you're like this, he would say what everybody else. else thought. He was filter-free. And so when he was right, he was really right. When he was wrong, he was really wrong. I'll prove it to you. He said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus said, you are Petros, this rock, you are Peter, not Simon, not Shifty.

Upon this rock, I'll build my church, the rock of his revelation of who Jesus was. A few verses later, Jesus said, get behind me Satan, and he was pointing at Peter because Peter said you can't go to the cross. And Peter opposed the very thing that Jesus came to do, all in the same Bible chapter. This is Peter. Peter is the one telling Mark about this story so Mark can write it down. Peter is the one recording the audiobook. Peter is the one giving Mark the gospel account. Mark wasn't a disciple. Mark was an evangelist. piled the story. And Peter told, look, I'm going to show you something. We have four of these.

We have four gospel accounts. The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. When we say the gospel of Mark, it's the gospel according to Mark. When we say the gospel of Luke, the gospel of John, the gospel of Matthew, that's the gospel account that they wrote down. John said that Jesus did so much, if you wrote a whole book, if you tried to write down everything he did, the whole world could not contain it. If you wrote down all the works Jesus did, Wikipedia would break. So they had to decide what was significant enough to put in the gospel account that would prove what they wanted to prove about who Jesus was. So when Mark got ready to write, he said, Jesus walked to the disciples in a storm, and when he got in the boat, the winds died down. When Matthew got ready to write it,

he included something that Mark left out. And I'm going to read you now from Matthew 14. It's the same story, but there's one detail in this story that is omitted in Mark's gospel, which is based on the recollection of Peter, and it's in Matthew's Gospel, but not Mark's. So here's what we'll do. This will be an interactive class. When I get to the part that wasn't in Mark's gospel, stop me. When I get to the part

where you're saying, wait, that wasn't in the other one that you read before. I want you to wave your hands and stop me. This is the only time that you are allowed to tell me to stop preaching. You can tell me to preach anytime you want. Preach faster. But when I get to this part today, I want you to stop me at every location. Let's start in verse 22. Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat

and go on ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed him, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. So far, so good? We're good? Keep going? Keep going? Yeah, similar.

Very similar. Very similar. A few words different. Same stuff. Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake. And when the disciples saw them walking on the lake, they were terrified. It's a ghost, they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them, take courage at his eye don't be afraid. Lord, if it's you, Peter replied, tell me to come.

Okay, okay, okay. What's wrong with you? Lord, if it's you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water. Come, he said. This is amazing. Hey, hey, if I was writing my memoir, I'll put this in. Because watch what happens like. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on water, and came toward Jesus.

Oh, I'm totally putting that in. I'm totally including the part where everybody else was in the boat, crying out in fear, and I was walking on water, transcending the laws of buoyancy. If I ever walk on water and then I die and they're writing a story about my life, you make sure they don't take that part out. If I ever walk on water, and I know I do metaphorically in your heart, but if I ever physically, if they ever write about me, I'm not saying they will, but if they do, leave this in.

Touch somebody say this is significant. So how can Peter, this is a good question, How can Peter walk on water? And when it comes time to tell Mark what to write about this night on the sea, tell Mark, you know, I think people probably just about sick of hearing about this. Do you really think this is significant? Turn to your neighbor and say yes, Mr. President. This is significant.

I wonder if he left it out because of verse 30. I mean, because verse so far, this is amazing. Peter, Peter's like, if it's you tell me to come, she's like, it's me, come. And you know, the wind is blowing so you can't hear that good. So Peter's like, did you hear it? He said, it's me, come. And John's like, no, he said, Peter, you're dumb. Because, I mean, two people can hear the same thing.

It's Yanny, not Laurel, but, by the way. It's Yanny. It's Yanny. It's Yanny. Come to the altar. It's Yanny. You need your ears open. I lost half the church. You hear the same word a different way. The other disciples were operating on what Jesus told them before they left, which is go. Go to Beth Theda. I'll meet you on the other disciples. the other side. Peter is operating out of what he feels in the moment and he says to Jesus,

if it's you, tell me to come. And I've often preached about Peter getting out of the boat, but sometimes the more significant faith is the willingness to stay in the storm, not the impulse to escape it. I'm not saying Peter was wrong. I'm just saying that it takes faith to keep rowing, when you can't see the shore. Sometimes it takes even more faith to stay in the boat than it does to step out of it. And Peter gets to this part of the story. In his recollection, he does not see fit to include the part of the story where he said to Jesus, if it's you, tell me to come.

And I wonder if it's because of what happened in verse 30 that he left this out of his gospel account because the Bible says that he took several steps toward Jesus. And for a moment, he was walking on the water. And for a moment, he was experiencing a miracle. But verse 30 says, when he saw the wind, see, he heard the word, but then he saw the wind. And I relate to this because sometimes I pay more attention to what I see than what God said. And anytime I give more focus to what I see than what God spoke, I start to sink. Peter's doing pretty good as long as he's going off of what he heard because faith comes by hearing. And hearing comes by the Word of God.

And all you need is one word from God. Peter wasn't walking on water. He was walking on a word. And when you have a word from God, your kids can be acting crazy. Your money can be acting funny. You can be in the darkest night of your life, but declare he is Lord. And then he saw the wind. And the Bible says when he saw the wind, he began to sink.

And he cried out. Lord saved me. And I thought, well, that's why Peter left it out. Because I think people don't really need to hear about this. We can leave that out, can't we? You know, you want to leave certain things out of your story, skip over certain parts and certain failures. And there's some stuff, honestly, that you don't need to share with everybody.

There's some stuff that they don't even need to know about. Sometimes your greatest testimony is that you went through the fire, but you don't smell like smoke. And when Peter was telling Mark what to write, I imagine Mark saying, shouldn't I put that part in where you climbed out of the boat. And Mark said, I don't think you want to leave that out. Peter said, no, no, it's been a while now because this gospel has written decades after it happened. And by this point, Peter has discovered something.

Look, verse 51, Mark chapter 6, verse 51. Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. Peter said, it's not significant what happened when I climbed out of the boat. Let's read it again. Then Jesus climbed into the boat. Peter said, don't tell him what happened when I climbed out. Tell him what happened when he climbed in. That's so good.

I want to sit down and then stand up and run a lap around this Ballantyne building all by myself. It's not important what happened when Peter climbed out. It's not important what happened when Peter stepped out. It's not important what happened when they were straining all night. All night long, they strained to get to Jesus. But the wind didn't stop while they were straining. The wind did not die down because Peter came to Jesus. The wind died down because Jesus came to Peter.

And that's the gospel. Not that I came to God Not because I was so good Not because I was so glorious Not because I got my act together No, I'm not praising him Because I got out of the boat I'm praising him because he got in

And the wind died down Now go ahead and worship him for 18 seconds Because he got in Somebody say this is significant Not that I loved God But then he loved me and I'm in a storm right. It's not significant because help is on the way. It's the contrast of straining versus submission. And he was showing them to do what he commanded the wind to do. Submit.

And they were amazed at this. They were amazed. They were amazed that the wind did what he said. In fact, the wind. Did what he didn't even have to tell it to do. Let me preach to LJ for a minute. He gets bored back here because he has to play three times on the weekend. I just want to tell him this real quick because I didn't mention it any other of the worship experiences Last time Jesus calmed a storm, he said peace be still.

So he calmed the storm with his words. This time, if you check the record, he didn't even say anything to the storm. The storm stopped just because he sat down in the boat with the disciples. That lets me know that all I need is his presence. All I need is his presence. I don't need proof that he is with me. When he got in the boat, the storm sat down. When he sat down.

Why? He is above it. He is the Lord. He is the great I am. He is the bread of life. And he sent them against the wind because he needed a situation to reveal his sufficiency. That's what he needed. And so the storm served that purpose, just like the hungry crowd.

Just like the hungry crowd. Because verse 52 tells us why they were amazed. Look at somebody. Say this is significant. Come on, only about 45% of you did what I told you to do. Tell them, this is significant. They were amazed for they had not understood about the loaves. their hearts were hardened.

What does bread have to do with a boat? And this is where we need to mention a significant miracle. This miracle is so significant that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all put it in their memoir. Their audio book.

They put it in even though it wasn't a resurrection or a healing. One day Jesus fed 5,000 men, the women and the children, and he did it with the little boy's lunch. I personally think Peter beat up the little boy and took his lunch. Only reason why? I have kids. I have never seen my kids voluntarily do anything sacrificial.

So in my mind, the little boy did not willingly offer his lunch. But you read the Bible how you want to read the Bible on your own time. Right now I got the microphone. Peter beat up the boy, took his lunch, brought it to Jesus. This is significant. This miracle is so significant because Jesus, when he was feeding the crowd, he was revealing himself as the Christ. And everybody ate and they all got their fill that day.

Pointed out real quick while we have a moment, because I don't know when I'll get to see you again. Some of you don't come to church enough. Just while we're here. The miracle came from somebody who was not even included in the official count. It was 5,000 men, women and children. God's greatest miracles often come from what people consider insignificant sources. That's why you can't let the world ever define your significance, because the world celebrates

all the wrong stuff. All the wrong stuff. We find significance in status. We find significance sometimes. We even call it our significant other. But this is an announcement. You don't need any other to be significant. I'm not against the term.

I'm not against the term. But you don't have to be a Duchess of Sussex to be significant. No. Not to be significant in the eyes of God. If significance was predicated on marital status, Jesus was insignificant. He was never married. Neither was Paul, but the world celebrates all the wrong stuff.

And so we wait for significance to be assigned by something outside of God. But I am not significant because somebody recognized me as significant. I am significant because of someone who died for me, who created me, and who lives in me. This is significant. Real quick, real quick. I'm really proud of elevation worship. They got nominated for a Billboard Award. Christian album, Christian song, O-Come to the Altar.

And I think that's really cool. And I think it's wonderful. And I don't know if we'll win it or not. Somebody said we probably won't win it this year. And it's not a competition, but I'd love to beat Hill's song. Don't put this online. Edit this out. And one day maybe we will.

But I'm not waiting to see if we win the award. Ward. Here's why. I saw, oh, come to the altar when it was born. I remember when we wrote it and imagined our church singing it. And then I saw the church start to sing it. And I saw people baptized while we were singing, oh, come to the altar. I saw people baptized while we were singing. The father's arms are open. Why forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. So I don't need Billboard to tell me. what baptism already did. So if Chris Brown gets an award, that's wonderful. But if Billboard didn't recognize, oh, come to the altar, touch somebody say it's still significant. And if people appreciate me, that's wonderful. But if they never recognize me, I'm still significant. There's a word for somebody. If I got a date, great. If I don't, I'm still significant. If I get the job, wonderful. If I don't, I'm still significant.

If you like me, good, let's hung it out. But it's not. I'm almost done. This is significant. This is significant. Because I saw Chris Brown in a prison during Love Week. He wasn't a member. He was there voluntarily.

For the record, he was singing. And he finished singing, and we were leaving. I preached, he said, and a prisoner came up. came up to me and said, before you go, can you single come to the altar? That's the song that got me through, and I hope he can get a billboard. But I watched him single come to the altar to one prisoner. And that was significant. This is significant.

This season, it's hard to see the significance of the season you're in. You see it better when you're out of it. That's why it's hard to raise kids. I love being a parent. I joke about it a lot. It's actually my favorite thing that I do. I just play around like as hard. It's really for me.

It's just super easy. I always know the wisdom, and I'm always like watching my kids play all these sports. It's kind of hard sometimes because now they've got so much pressure on us as parents. Maybe this is a suburban thing. I don't know. You've got to be at every recital, or your kid's going to end up in therapy as a serial killer. It's pressure. But I try to get out there.

Sometimes there's running around and is this significant? Is this significant? And then I get called up in insignificant things and I miss significant things. Like the disciples almost missed the miracle that day of the feeding of the 5,000, the one that's in all four Gospels. Maybe that's why they all included it because they all almost missed it. Because they wanted to send the crowds away. Can I show you something real quick?

This is Graham. You got it in the back? I didn't use it the other times, but yeah, this is Graham pinning a joker. It was good. It was a little tournament. That was the championship match of the tournament. It was on a Saturday, normally I'd be preaching. That particular Saturday I had somebody else preaching for me. Look who he's looking at now. Guess who he's looking at when he's been in. I mean, he just, just pinned him. The ref just slapped him at. And he looks up like what? And I like it because I like it because what he said to me when he came back up, I said, isn't they cool how I wouldn't preaching today so I could watch you win this tournament? And what if I had missed it?

He said, well, if you had missed it, I probably wouldn't have won it. And I was like, if you never say anything, just never talk again until you go to college. Let's end on that note. The same thing, I... You could take it down, although I'd be happy to put it on Instagram for you. Instagram. Anyway, it's hard to know sometimes. You don't always get to see the gold medal.

They don't hand out a gold medal. In fact, when it says that the disciples did not understand about the loaves, they were amazed because, show the verse again, verse 50, This verse got my attention. Really, this is my whole message because it says they were amazed when he got in the boat and the winds died because they had not understood about the loaves. It just happened. It was the thing that happened right before the storm. It had just happened.

It wasn't years later and they forgot. It had just happened. You know how God provides for you? And then you go into a different test and you forget the lesson. because it's a different test. And God provided for you in a bigger way back there, but now you're struggling with a little thing here, and you trip over an insignificant thing

when God has already done the most significant thing, which is to save your soul. They understood about the loaves on one level physically. They ate. They understood about the loaves on one level. The crowds were fed. But what they didn't understand is that Jesus did not feed the multitude

so they could know what he did. He fed the multitudes so they could know who he was. The lesson of the loaves is not, I am your Burger King, your way right away. The lesson of the loaves is not that you will never be hungry or you will never hurt or you will never wonder or you will never doubt. The lesson of the loaves is, I am the bread of life. I am. It is me. It was me when you were hungry.

It was me when you were lonely. It was me when you were depressed. It was me when you were anxious. It was me on the mountaintop. It was me in the valley. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I will fear no evil.

He is with me in this moment. It's me. It was me then, and it's me now. It was me that got you through that. It's me that will see you through this. And if I am in the boat, the wind must submit to my word. I am with you, and they didn't. They saw the miracle.

They experienced the miracle. They're the ones who handed out the bread to the people. But you can experience a miracle and miss the significance. So God saved you. But what did he save you for? So you could spend the rest of your life carrying the shame he died to take away and nailed to his cross. Is that what He saved you for?

God saved you, but what did he save you for? So you could live the rest of your life just as selfish as you lived the first part of your life, but with a cross around your neck this time, what did he save you for? You can experience the miracle of salvation but miss the significance of it. God didn't just save you from. He saved you for a purpose, a mission, a calling. And the miracle was not just that the people were fed. The miracle was not just that they ate bread.

The miracle is not just what God does for you. The miracle is that you see who he is. This is beautiful. It is so beautiful that it bears repeating. And in Mark chapter 8, this miracle is so significant, it happens again. One way you can tell when something is important is when it is repeated. So the disciples find themselves in a situation that is very similar. There's a big crowd and there's no food.

You know, like last time when you were worried and upset and you didn't think you were going to make it and you made it. And now here you are again and the wind's blowing again and you don't think you're going to make it. But spoiler alert, you will. That's the lesson of the lows. That's the lesson of the... I didn't mean to ruin the movie for you. for you, but at the end of this thing, you're going to be in Beth Seda. Because if he told you, I'll meet you on the other side, you don't die in the lake in the

middle of the night. Come on, church. Has he not shown you? Don't you see it? Don't you hear it? It's the same voice. The same God. And so he feeds the crowd in Mark chapter 8.

And the Bible says, Mark 814, the disciples have forgotten to bring bread. Stand up, it'll make me close quicker. Don't leave. It'll make me angry. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. I don't mean to correct the scripture, but there were actually two loaves in the boat. One of them was the bread they could see. Be careful. Jesus warned them. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. He is warning them against the seemingly insignificant compromises that corrode your faith. Watch out, he said. Your words are significant. Your habits are significant. Your friendships are significant. Watch out for that yeast. And when he said

yeast, they thought about bread. And they discussed this with one another and said, it is because we have no bread. They still didn't get it. They saw him do it. And they still didn't get that he was it. They're still worried about provision. You're still worried about bills. We're still thinking on the level of what we can see. Jesus, aware of their discussion, asked them a question. Why are you talking about having no bread?

Why are you worrying about something that I've already worked out? Why are you doubting something that you've already seen me do so many times before? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see and ears but fail to hear? Do you still hear Laurel when it's really Yanny? And don't you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000,

how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? 12, they reply. When I read that, I thought the significance of the miracle was in the numbers. Five is the number of grace in the Bible. It represents grace. It's symbolic. Twelve disciples, 12 tribes, a number of government. So I thought it was about the numbers. But then verse 20 says, when I broke the seven loaves for the 4,000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? And then I said, well, seven's the number of completion. And 4,000, really, I can't really do anything with that. They answered seven, he said, do you still not understand? And then I read it again, verse 19, verse 19, verse 19.

When I broke, and then I read verse 20, when I broke, and I realized the significance of the miracle is that the bread had to be broken. They wouldn't understand this really until he went to the cross. They ate the bread, but they did not understand the significance until he was crushed for our transgressions and bruised for our. iniquities because the bread couldn't be given until it was broken. When you are in a breaking season of your life and you are being broken of your pride and your stubbornness and your opinions and your straining against the wind, it is easy to begin to believe that it is going to break you, but God will not allow life to break you.

That's his job. And when you're in his hands, like the song said, Prepare that chorus of do it again. We're going to sing it. I'm still in your hands. We're going to sing that. We're going to understand that the lesson of the loaves is not that everybody went home with a full belly. The lesson of the loaves is this.

The end of your story is not that you are broken. The end of the story is the basket falls. This story does not end in brokenness. This story ends with leftovers. I want to let you know today this is significant. God is not done with you. I said God is not done with you. I'm preaching this word for somebody who's been straining against the wind.

Grace is coming to your boat. The bread is in the master's hands and the bread was only broken to be given. Lift your hands in the presence of God, no one moving. This is my confidence that he is. He is faithful. Listen, here's what you do. You take what you learned from the loaves and you remember it in the storm. You take the basket full from the last time that God provided for you.

And the next time the wind begins to rage in your life, you remember that if Jesus is in this boat with me, if I draw near to God, he will draw near to me. and as we worship him as the son of God today, the wind has to die down, anxiety has to shut its mouth in the presence of God because we know who he is and we've seen what he's done. We have faith for what he's going to do.

Does anybody believe he's with you in this season? Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe, you can share it with your friends.

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