Words of Jesus Podcast - Human-Natural Effort

Episode Date: June 30, 2023

Christianity Is Not A HobbyChristians are required to participate in our change (repentance). Salvation is a process which necessitates instruction from Jesus. Who else is able to minister to the individual needs of thousands? Religion offers education in the Scriptures or church traditions or history. While there is encouragement and benefit to be derived from reading the testimonies, Jesus is alive and speaking with compassion. Make room in our lives to hear from Him. Keep the Ten Commandments. Never violate your conscience. Take time every day to hear. Put your life on hold (at least 20 minutes a day) to pursue a righteousness. ***Ch. 42: Jesus Feeds Four ThousandMatthew 15:32-38; Mark 8:1-9JESUS CALLED his disciples to him and said:            “I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.”            Many in the multitude of more than four thousand had come far. His disciples replied:            “Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?”            Jesus asked:            “How many loaves have ye?”            The disciples answered:            “Seven, and a few little fishes.”            Then Jesus commanded the multitude to sit on the ground. He took the loaves and the fishes, gave thanks, and broke them. He handed them to his disciples, who passed them to all who were there.            When all had eaten and were filled, the remaining fragments were gathered together and filled seven baskets.             Then Jesus sent the multitude away.

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris and we're going to be speaking from chapter 42 of our book and this is about where Jesus fed the 4,000. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I have compassion on the multitude because they continue with me now three days Jesus said, The disciples replied, He took the loaves and fishes, gave thanks, and broke them. He handed them to his disciples, who passed them to all that were there. When all had eaten and were filled,

the remaining fragments were gathered together and filled seven baskets. Then Jesus sent the multitude away. I think it's interesting here that we see again jesus concerned about our physical need he is not ignorant of these needs as a matter of fact it's one of the things that i believe that changed in his understanding of mankind when this this eternal i'm assuming eternal we don't have any scriptures to say so but i believe that this eternal being as the the son of man who sat with the father in heaven in glory before the foundation of the world. I believe that this, as he took on the form of flesh, I think he started to understand some things

about some of the compulsions that we live under in our world, and one of them is hunger. I know it would be a general statement and probably arguable in many aspects but I have a real hard time believing that most Americans have ever felt hunger in their life. Most of us eat and I think that the obvious and

apparent girth of the average American our biggest health problem is that we are overweight. I think it's very apparent in that we eat because of our appetite and not because of our hunger. You know, in spiritual terms, just to take an aside here i think that it's one of the um gluttonous forms that has taken place and taken root taken hold of many of christians today uh there are people who are just fascinated um with the spiritual um advancement that comes i mean when you when you first become a christian and especially those who have not been in the church all their life and they don't they don't really know anything they're excited about their new life just like somebody just taking up bowling uh or taking up

golf you know they go down to the pro shop and they start looking at the equipment or they they start hanging around people who do play golf or do bowl or whatever else they do and uh and christianity uh drops into one of those categories of hobbies that many people have it's one of my complaints many times um i will look over an old email list that we use here at Think Create Inc. Ministries. And by the way, we have policies here that are probably not predominant in many Christian ministries. And that is that if we take people off of the email list all the time. You know, when was the last time we heard from this person or when was the last time these people attended a feast when was the last time i heard got an email from them or i got a letter from them i don't even you know i hardly even remember this

person it's a very sad thing to see but um there are hundreds you know i I'd venture to say thousands, of people who have been removed from our email list simply because they don't participate in what we do. Now why would I do that? What does it cost, 15 cents more to email 10,000 other people? Even if that much, I don't know. It's not a matter of money it is a matter of um of uh conscience on my part that um i just i'm not i'm not you know casting pearls before swine

i'm not doing it um these things are things that we pursue and we constantly pursue them for the rest of our life nobody graduates from this it's it's something that you just do forever something that i do forever something you should do forever is we're constantly uh looking to grow and become better people and the people that god expects us and and created us to be and uh from time to time we purge our email list i i sometimes jokingly say that i have something that no other preacher on earth has and what is that well it's an email list of people who actually want to hear from me and um and if it becomes apparent uh that and if you are one that uh has registered at thinkredinc.com

and all of a sudden you realize that you're not getting our email anymore, you're not hearing what's going on here, you're not getting our newsletters, you're not hearing from us anymore, it's because you've been booted. And although everything that we do in this ministry is free we're not really asking anybody for anything from them but i would like to have your attention if i could have that so there is um i just noticed that you know as you go through these lists and you see all these

people that are just gone where in the the world are they? Many of them have gone back to their old lives. Many of them have gone back to sin. Some of them have gone back to their churches or their respective congregations or whatever. And we just don't hear from them anymore. And I fully understand that. We don't preach an easy message here. There's no easy believism here. There's no greasy grace. There's no sloppy agape. Everything here requires somebody to put forth some kind of an effort. And I understand that's a little uncomfortable. But you look at that long list and you think, where are these people? And I've had staff look at me and say,

where are these people? i've had staff look at me and say you know where are these people how why are they gone and and i looked at her and said well look truth is christianity to most people it's just a hobby it's just a hobby it just occupies a slot in their life that would be better portrayed, better defined as a hobby than somebody who has dedicated their life toward it. It's just a fact. It happens. And there are many called, and there are even fewer chosen. Why is that? Because many are called, they answer the call, they turn it into a hobby, they turn it into a learning experience and they they may or they may not appreciate or like what they're doing and you know there's there's just no way to tell but most of this comes from this american appetite as i say i don't know if an American's ever experienced hunger.

I don't know if you ever have. Most of us eat because of appetite, or because it's time to, or because it's social, or because whatever reason. But many of us have never sat down to a meal because we were indeed hungry. Our bodies have told us that it's time for food. You can train your body to do that. But, you know, a belly growl is not hunger. And if you've never experienced hunger,

it's a very, very unpleasant thing. And it requires immediate attention. Appetite, not so. Doesn't really require immediate attention. But many of us eat for that cause, those purposes, but not because of hunger. I think it's interesting, and I've explained to you before, the Mount of Temptation. Jesus' hunger returned after 40 days of fasting, which was an indication of starvation on his part in this particular case.

And this is why the temptation of making stones in the bread was probably the gravest and the hardest and the strongest temptation that could ever be in the case of hunger now a man who understands hunger and jesus did uh was concerned that these people who have come are now into the third day of not eating and uh and he says you know that's a long trek home and if they faint in the way i I've not done them any good. And so his concern was that we need to feed these people. The Bible talks about that blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. I do not believe that the Bible uses words indiscriminately. I think that it means exactly what it says, in that they have a hunger.

This is a need. This is a need for nourishment, not a desire. There's just a big difference here that's very difficult to explain to someone who's never really been hungry um and it's the the trouble with the christians today who spend a lot of time yeah they're youtubing and they're they're facebooking and they're you know they're on the internet and they're watching videos of people that have all these wild ideas and and and it just it just gets crazy uh i don't know how people that have all these wild ideas, and it just gets crazy.

I don't know how people sort it all out in their mind, but they seem to, but they mostly are doing what they're doing because they have a desire, not because they recognize a hunger. You can, it is easy to find and new people who know more about nutrition than I do will will verify this that does the size or the you know the girth of a person has absolutely nothing to do with their state of nutrition now when a person is exceptionally large uh it may be that they're eating well

and eating good food it also may be that they are starving it also may be that they are absolutely malnourished in that condition uh which is i understand the case more so than than the latter and so we have christians today that are fat with knowledge and books and teaching and dvds and all these things that seem to occupy and satisfy, for a moment, their candy bar desire for a good steak dinner. And they don't understand the difference. You can ruin a good steak dinner with a Snickers bar, you know, 20 minutes beforehand,

and I'm really afraid that this is the case. There are several things that we can do about this. One of them is that we can be fed as our God decides that feeding is necessary, which is the premium way to live. You can find many cases where people are searching for a particular concept or a particular doctrine or a particular idea in the Bible and they're flipping through. They have not been instructed of the Lord in this area. They are not ready for the information.

They have no place to put the wisdom if it was given to them. They have no place to put the wisdom if it was given to them They have no place to put the knowledge if it was given to them And but they have a desire to know There is a huge difference between our a desire to be well versed in the scriptures to not be so biblically Illiterate I understand that Uh, it's it's a sad thing to find christians who are biblically illiterate but i'm going to tell you sometimes it's a very refreshing thing because the these are people who they're making no pretense they're not swallowing things simply because they're

handed to them but as a matter of need they receive from the Lord what they need. I think that a lot of this comes from, it's that depression syndrome. We are, you know, our society is way far removed from the depression nowadays, but it necessarily was not remote to your parents and especially to your grandparents and there were times of starvation and and need and depravity in those situations places to live clothes to wear food to eat these kind of things that scars that scarred them so much so that as their life progressed they carried some of that that fear with them and it actually caused hoarding it caused greediness it caused overeating it caused over stockpiling um it uh it's it's the fuel uh when it comes to uh insurance you know i i had a i had a house fire recently now i'm a big believer in insurance

i think you ought to be insured well you know before that it yeah you know take it or leave it but it is need and necessity and tragedy and these kind of things that actually form our lives as they progress. Now, the need for spiritual nourishment should actually be meted out by the teacher, not a teacher, not any teacher teacher not just a bible teacher not just a guy that you've decided is is a good man you might be a good man but uh we are to be taught of the lord jesus says learn of me now many people take that scripture that says, learn of me, and they apply that this way, as if it says, learn about me.

Well, more, more about Jesus, right? That's what we want. We want to learn more and more and more. But the truth is, when he says, learn of me, he's not saying learn about me he's saying learn from me i am your teacher one is your teacher i don't know how i can get this across in any better clearer sharper or more concise way than the lord jesus himself when he, I am your teacher. One is your teacher. One is your rabbi. One is your revered one. Or as we say in English, one is your reverend. That's right. Be ye not called reverend, he said. He said, because one is is your reverend one is your rabbi that's me

and all of you are brethren well if he is the teacher he's the one that stands outside the door and rings the bell to call class to order and i know do you think you're just missing out do you do you have some kind of a guilt feeling about not reading your bible every day or not pursuing this this way of christianity look you can pursue a good solid christianity by going into the kitchen and baking a pie and carrying it over to your neighbor. I mean, there is more good in that than memorizing 100 verses today. Do you understand that Christianity is an enhancement of life?

It's an enhancement of life. Life is not just an addendum to Christianity. Christianity is not just an addendum, an addition, an annex to your life. Christianity is an enhancement of life. It makes life work. It makes us work from the inside so that we're not just outformed. We are informed we our education comes from within that is that is the plan of god it was the plan of god from the garden of eden that is that was what that was what he intended from the very beginning i think that when we talk about these kinds of appetites, I think two things are very important to know. One of them is Jesus is fully aware of these things.

He says, I have compassion on the multitude. Now, it's easy to look at him and see him, you know, reach down to a lame man and say, would you like to walk? And he had compassion on him. He had compassion on the deaf man he had compassion on this man that man this woman that woman this child that child it's easy to understand that but here he says i have compassion on the multitude there's something to that there's a multitude of people out here that have left their their physical lives their temporal lives

and put their whole lives on hold to come out here and learn of me i have compassion on those people and i i want to make sure that their needs are met now i just have a hard time believing that uh his compassion uh and concern for these people was simply because, you know, he's just a loving, compassionate, nurturing woman. No, I believe that this is a very fatherly supplying of a need toward his people, toward his family. i i think that first of all our problem is that we don't necessarily understand this in its fullness do you know that he will supply our needs you know paul was trying to get across to us that i'm sure the father is going to supply all my needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.

That's how He's going to do it, by Christ. This is understood. These kind of things should be settled within us, that our physical needs, if we pursue righteousness with the hunger and the thirst, that all these other things will be added unto us what he talks about the word being sown and the seed fell among the the the thorns he says these thorns that grew up and choked the word what were they the cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches the lust the desires for other things and our desires can be

i think that you know generally and you know in a blanket fashion i think you'd be closer to right if you just took the attitude that if it's a desire it's not good for me now that does not mean that needs are not good for you as a matter of fact needs tend to bring a person closer to the one who supplies those needs matter of fact i know they do and if you have needs and you're meeting them who becomes your god it's your own self well it wasn't a job that says you know if i've kissed my hand or god says now let me tell you something when i bring you into the land you're going to find wells that you didn't dig you're going to drink water out of well you didn't dig you're going to eat fruit from trees you didn't plant you're going to eat vegetables out of a

garden that you didn't go out there and hoe and weed nor plant and seed and water and and he says you know what's going to happen to you? You're going to say, my hand hath gotten me all this. Oh, really? Is that what we're going to do? Yeah, more than likely. Why is that? Because we don't understand the Father supplies our need.

And here we have Jesus saying, it's not that I'm compassionate on one guy or one girl or one man, one woman, or one nation of people. I have compassion on the multitude. Anybody that's in this fold, I'm going to see to it that they're going to be fed. This is a wonderful promise now the other thing that i don't think people understand is that um you know outside of a of a miracle like elijah being fed by ravens uh manna falling from the from the heavens and

these kind of things there were needs met in supernatural ways, but in many cases you should understand that if it is the Lord's intention to feed the widow that lives down the road, you know, five or six stores down from you, it's going to be a human hand that physically creates food, brings it in, cooks it or prepares it or whatever. It's going to be human feet that that take it and

put it into a into a little bag or whatever it's going to be human legs that walk it down six houses down it's going to be human knuckles that knock on the door and it's going to be somebody who hands a plate of food or meets the need of food is just a a small example but it's going to be a human being that does that because there's some things that god just cannot do i don't know if he cannot or will not i don't know what it is but you know his attitude is feed them if you're if your neighbor is hungry feed them if your enemy is hungry feed him feed him If your enemy is hungry, feed him. Feed him. And it's going to take a human being to make these things happen. Here's the key to this whole thing.

Whether you're talking about spiritual understanding, knowledge, wisdom of the Lord, whether you're talking about physical food or the ability or the desire to get up off your duff, get up off of your sofa and see to the needs of the desire to get up off your duff, get up off of your sofa, and see to the needs of the people around you, the people that are in your sphere. I'm not telling you to feed people in India or feed people, you know, in Calcutta or, you know, and I appreciate the ministries like feed the children and such as that,

but you ought to be ashamed of yourself if there's a child three doors down that needs something to eat and you're feeding somebody in another country or in another state it's it's it's almost ridiculous but it happens all the time we need to understand that it's going to take somebody to get up and go do jesus has a question for you friend If you're talking about the spiritual needs, there are people out there that are babes in Christ. They've just gotten started. They're about that far from quitting. They're about that far from turning around

and going back the other way. They're about that far from saying, this doesn't work. Well, these people need spiritual nourishment. They need somebody to come in and pat them on the back, perhaps kiss them on the cheek, I don't know.ishment they need somebody to come in and pat them on the back perhaps kiss them on the cheek I don't know whatever they need it's going to be up to you to make sure those things happen Jesus has a question for you my friend these people need spiritual nourishment or these people

are hungry and they need to have physical nourishment physical nourishment needs in the case of physical nourishments, he asked him, how many loaves have you? Friend, when it comes to you ministering to other people in a spiritual manner, you're going to take inventory about how much you actually know, about how much you're sure of, about your relationship to God. And that's exactly what you should do because Jesus's question to you is, when it relationship to God. And that's exactly what you should do because Jesus's question to you is, when it comes to these spiritual needs that people have that you need to minister to, how many loaves do you have? This can be embarrassing. Look, I know they got

problems. I know they're discouraged, but so am I. Well, why are you in that condition? How long have you been a Christian? 30, 40, 50 years? And you're still depressed? And you still don't trust God? And you still don't know that He's going to feed you? You still don't know that He's going to avenge you of your adversary? You still don't know vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord? You still don't know all these easy things that you should know?

What in the world is going on? How many loaves do you have? Answer to the question in many cases is none. Look, our time is gone now. And we'll talk about these things as time goes by. All right, until then, we'll see you next time. Until then, think ready. We'll see you next time. Until then, think ready. We'll see you.

Bye-bye. You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Email don at thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you