Summary 

God often exposes our limitations in the circumstances of our lives, leaving us feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities and inadequate resources. The disciples faced this same struggle when Jesus asked them to feed 5,000 people with only five loaves and two fish. Their insufficiency wasn't a character flaw but a human reality that positioned them to witness God's miraculous provision. When we acknowledge our limitations and offer our our insufficiency to Jesus, He multiplies them beyond imagination. Our insufficiency combined with God's all-sufficiency is always more than enough, leading us to complete satisfaction and rest in His provision.

Transcript

Lord God, we're so grateful for your word that you give us God, that is said to be like the true bread, that we're to feast upon manna from heaven. God, I pray that in feasting upon your word, we would find our satisfaction in you. We'd find you to be sufficient and able, the great compassionate shepherd that cares for the sheep.
Bless us now, Lord. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
All right, so yesterday evening we returned from a trip and it was a lovely time to get away as a family. We were really grateful to get time to play together and to have time together, as you know. And I hesitate to say this because it really feels like rubbing it in. It's been freezing. It's been utterly freezing around here.
So I brought this sweater on my. On this trip that I love.
And when we arrived, we arrived back in the Delta airport yesterday, and I went to get this sweater out of my bag because I was about to venture out into the cold, which, praise the Lord, was not too cold. I thought it was going to be shockingly cold, but it was actually not too bad. But anyway, I ventured into my bag to retrieve this sweater and it was gone. And I knew I had it at the airport that we left from, and I knew that I had looked for it and I have no clue what happened to it.
I was sort of baffled, but more than baffled, I was feeling really foolish.
I felt just inadequate to just keep track of, like, an article of clothing. Like, what am I doing? I can't even keep track of a sweater that I really like. Seems like such a simple task, and I felt pretty insufficient for a simple task.
So the two hour ride home, this was kind of swimming through my mind, all these thoughts of inadequacy. We get home, we unload some bags, I drive out to a friend's house to get our dog, Teddy. I come here to church and work a little while, and all the while these are just the thoughts going through my head. All these thoughts of insufficiency and inability. My inability to control sort of simple things, let alone, like bigger things.
And, you know, like, mind just swims with all of this. And I truly think that part of what was going on was that the enemy was just sort of rubbing it in a little bit. Because it didn't just, you know, it wasn't just the sweater. It ventured into, like, my ability as a husband and as a father and as a friend and As a pastor and, you know, all this. And then I went to bed, and unfortunately, it just continued.
I laid there for at least two hours, awake, sort of stirring, and the reality of the insufficiency just kept swirling. I spoke to Our Father in Heaven a lot about it, but it seemed like in between my prayers, it just kept attacking this. Kept feeling like I don't even know what. Like, what am I doing?
What am I doing?
It really sort of felt like a battle with the devil in a way, because, of course, I wasn't just talking. I wasn't just thinking about this negligence with regards to an article of clothing. I was thinking about the work of the church, the good things that God calls us to do, and our just insufficiency to do it well for the good of the world and all that we are called to do in the world, healing of the world, blessing of the world, our call to call others, to repentance, to faith in Jesus.
All this is just going on in my mind. I was thinking also of my friend who's a pastor over in Pittsburgh who I went to seminary with. He has a parishioner who was taken by ICE two months ago. He had dropped off his wife at her work and was on the way to his own work, and his wife didn't know what happened to him. So a few days later, they searched and they found that he was in the database.
And he's a legal immigrant. He's been detained for two months. There's a few lawyers in their church. They really don't know why this has happened, why. Why it's taken so long to have them released.
And all this stuff is just swirling in my mind. All this stuff of, like, what we feel so insufficient to do in the world, even to do the good of the world.
I know I was having that word fly through my mind. So much insufficiency, because I had been working on the sermon, too. That happens sometimes to me. Like, I just. The theme of the service just going on inside of me.
I'm like, living it.
Our insufficiency is a real thing. And sometimes that seems mundane, right? Like, I don't even know what happened to this thing that I was just wanting to wear. How do I lose stuff like that? But sometimes it hurts a lot more deeply because we actually don't know what to do in our marriages where we feel distant from our spouses, and we don't know how.
How to. How to retrieve that intimacy and that closeness, and we don't know how to discipline our children, feel so unable are we saying the right things. We're offering something into the world and we're hoping that it's shaping them in a way that they love the Lord with all their heart and mind and soul and strength. Then we go, I don't know what we are doing.
Maybe more positively, we're really trying to train them in the ways of the Lord, the admonition of the Lord as we promise in their baptisms, the holy things of God. Right? We're giving them the holy things of God. And we wonder what is going on so insufficient for the tasks set before us. Think what Jesus send.
Sent, sent out the 12, two by two, Doing his. In a way they were.
And they were Jesus doing. Then last week, we. Well, you all sat in with Jed in this awful story of John the Baptist, who had done that very work and had such great success in it, calling people to repentance. And his head there on a platter because of an angry wife.
Where is it going? And now we come to this story of Jesus disciples needing rest. They've been doing the good work and they need rest. And this other story that is connected so closely here in the Gospel of Mark, of Jesus feeding this great crowd. And I want you to first see how this passage talks about our insufficiency.
Okay? I think it talks about it in a couple ways. The first way I think that it talks about is insufficiency with regards to time. This, I think, will feel a little fuzzier than the next one, but I think this will make sense. So look with me down at verses 30 and 31.
Okay?
Mark 6, 30 and 31.
The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all they had done and taught. And he said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. Now, again, part of what you see here is they're doing good stuff. And we know actually from other passages that they had some real success in this good work that they were doing.
But at the end of verse 31, it says they had no leisure even to eat. And given. At the beginning of that verse, verse 31 says, he said to them. And then he said to them, come away by yourselves. It seems as though the they at the end is probably a reference specifically to.
To the disciples. They had no leisure even to eat.
Which just spoke to me.
There's an insufficiency with regards to their time.
We don't know how to make time do the things that we Want that we need even just simply to live like eating.
They don't know how to manage all the people that are coming to them. Right? There are a lot of people coming to them. How do we manage these people in such a way that we can still live? We have to eat of all these people so they can't maybe, maybe they won't survive.
And think about the things that race through your mind when you think of insufficiency.
My guess is a lot of them are related to time, time management or just a lack of it. How do we have a time. How do we have the time to acquire the knowledge that we need to get the new job? Because the current job we have is sucking the life out of us. How do we have the time to keep up with our aging parents and still parent our young children?
How do we have the time seek justice in the world? How do we have time to build friendships that we need to live well in the world? How do we have the time to be a part of a church community which done well means being served and being fed and also serving?
How do we have the time to do the God, the work that God is calling us to do and still rest? Right? Still rest, which is something we are commanded to do.
Just yesterday, my son James asked me this great question. Dad, if I'm not supposed to work on Sundays, should I not do my homework on Sunday? Remember that conversation, buddy? Yeah. And I said, well, yeah, because for you, your homework is your work.
And that's a really good thing to strive to do, to have that done before this day that God gives us to worship and to rest, to abide in his finished work on our behalf.
But what stood out to me is that even at his age, he knows that it's an issue. How do you do that? Right? How do you, how do you manage your time in such a way that you have leisure to eat or time to rest?
It's not just an issue for James, not even close, is it? No, is the answer right? No. No. Okay.
It's an issue for Jesus own disciples too, that had done so much good, they had no leisure even to eat. And why? Well, in this passage, because they were doing good things. It said many were coming and going. And that word, many actually can be translated multitude, multitudes were coming and going.
Lots of folk were coming to them and they were busy and they were busy doing good things. And busyness can often actually show, reveal our insufficiency.
But I think actually even a little bit more clearly, insufficiency is highlighted in this passage when it talks about their resources, the resources that they have. So here's what happens, right? They get on this boat because Jesus says, let's go to a desolate place because you need to rest. They get in the boat and they're making their way to this other part of the Sea of Galilee. And all these people, it actually says they come from all the different towns and they run and they get their head of.
They get their head of Jesus and his disciples.
How annoying.
They must have thought. And actually, I think we know that they thought because verse 35 says this, right? This is the first thing that they say. You know, Jesus has all these people coming and he's teaching them, and they say, this is a desolate place and the hour is late, right? Jesus, you said you bring us to a desolate place, that we can rest.
It's late. We need to rest. This is the desolate place. Send them away.
Make them go into surrounding countrysides and villages and buy themselves something to eat. And then the next thing they say, actually, after Jesus responds to them, we'll get to that. Shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat? Actually, one commentator, CB Cranfield, one of the great commentators on Mark, says this would actually have been a really disrespectful response to the rabbi. They're just fed up, exhausted.
One denari would have been a day's wages. So this would have been close to maybe a year's worth of work. You want to spend all this. We don't even have all this hanging around.
Think of this again. How often is our insufficiency related to our resources? It's not just that we don't have time. We don't have the money or the mind or the strength to do the things that we feel we are called to do. How am I supposed to serve on a ministry team here that you keep talking about?
Peter, you might be thinking, when I don't have the ability to play music or the knowledge to help manage resources for the benevolence team or blah, blah, blah, you know, I mean, it's true. We don't. What are our resources?
How am I supposed to work for the healing of the world when my own body needs healing? How am I supposed to call people to repentance when I am so inarticulate I don't even sometimes know how to repent myself, let alone call other people to it?
How am I supposed to give to the. To the work of the church when my bank account carries such a low balance so often, Our insufficiency is so often connected to our resources and Jesus. It seems to me almost as though Jesus is pressing them on this. He's almost highlighting it for them. So verse 38.
And he said to them, how many loaves do you have?
Hasn't he just been with them in the boat? He says, go and see. These are his close buddies. He's been spending time with them. He knows their resources, he knows their state.
And when they had found out, they said five. We got five loaves, Jesus, we have two fish. This is a great crowd. Now interestingly, in John's gospel we know. Well from John's gospel we know that these aren't their loaves and their fish.
John's gospel tells us it was a boys loaves and fish.
Which is to say that it seems like they don't have anything at all. They don't have any time, they don't have any resources for this.
Now as an aside, I think it's wild that all this great crowd left their towns from the area and they ran to follow Jesus and they listened to him. They were eager, they were attentive to him. But you know what, none of them brought any food. All these people, they're like, let's go find Jesus, listen and forget to bring our dinner.
Which is actually something very lovely. It's wonderful. They're so eager for Jesus. But what I want you to hear in all this is that the disciples really are not. They are actually they are not sufficient to what Jesus calls them to do.
They aren't, they don't have it.
And it seems, as it seems to even say to us that Jesus wanted them to get to that place. I mean, he invited them into the process. So they have to say, jesus, all we have is the five loaves and two fish. And there's 5,000 folk right here.
Think of his response to their request for him to send the crowd away into the town so that they can buy something for themselves. Jesus says, you give them something to eat. Oh Jesus, we are tired. We thought you were bringing us to a desolate place so that we could rest.
And he knew they couldn't give him something to eat. They were not able.
And the fact is that much of what we are called to in this life we are not able to do.
We aren't. We can't control our time. Well, I know some of you are thinking, I'm not too bad at it. And certainly some of you are better than others. You read the books, you.
You make the plans, you keep your schedules. You listen to the Happiness Lab, the Huberman Lab, Mel Robbins, all the rest, and you follow it. You budget, you listen. You learn from Dave Ramsey, right?
Maybe you listen to Optimum Finance Daily. I just googled, what are the top finance podcasts. That's one of them. You consider, well, your resources, right?
But you come to the end of yourself.
I know this. I know you do. We come to the end of ourselves. And part of what I'm telling you is that you need to do that.
You actually need to do that. We need to come to the end of ourselves.
Our own sufficiency. And why is this?
Because in this passage and in your life, when you come to the end of your sufficiency, what you find is the sufficiency of Jesus. And it is so often only until you come to that.
I really do hate that I lost my sweater yesterday. I mean, it's a little sort of embarrassing, and it really did. It still kind of just fills me with all this sense of, like, what am I doing? I can't just, like, hold on to something like that.
And I sort of hate that. It brings up for me all kinds of feelings of failures. I so desire that, this church, that each one of you would grow in your love for Jesus, intimacy with him. And I know that there's ways that I fail you as a pastor.
And. And I'm really tired because I didn't sleep well. I saw, like, every hour of the night just toss and turning. Once I finally fell asleep. There's something wonderful in actually having to say, God, please help God.
I don't have God. I can't.
God, it costs this much. We only have five loaves and two fish.
God, I need.
Because what happens in this passage is that Jesus actually is sufficient for the very place of their need is.
I'm going to highlight two ways. The first is kind of simple. Remember, he said in verse 31, he said to them, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. Look down at verse 39, he said. Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.
Why didn't Mark just say he commanded them to sit down? They're about to eat? Sit down and eat. Because the image of green grass in scripture is a place that God leads us to. Through the valleys of the shadow of death, into his green pastures.
He's leading them there. He doesn't do so until they come to the end of themselves. Though another way is the connections that are made in this passage with eating, you know, we learn from the get go, is that he calls them to come to this desolate place. For many were coming and going and they had no leisure even to eat. And then when they get to the other side, part of the problem they find is not just their own desire to be sustained, but the need for this whole crowd to be sustained.
You know, they say, jesus, send them away so they can buy themselves something to eat. Verse 36. Their response, so Jesus response to them was, hey, you go buy them something to eat. Their response again was, jesus, it's going to cost us too much to buy all that stuff. The bread specifically is what he said for them to eat.
But of course, what happens in the story?
Here's something amazing.
The only miracle that you can find in all four gospels other than the Resurrection itself is this story.
This story. It's the only one what happens.
Jesus takes what is sort of a paltry offering for such a large crowd, but he takes it. He takes what they have found and what they offered to him. Five loaves, two fish. Jesus takes what little the disciples can sort of muster up and scrounge around and get. He takes it and he multiplies it beyond what anyone could have imagined.
Anyone could have imagined. I mean, this is the only miracle that's in all the Gospels other than the Resurrection. Because Jesus takes our little insufficient in a lot of ways, offerings. And he says, your insufficiency with my all sufficiency is going to be more than enough.
Five loaves, two fishes for 5,000 men. And by the way, Matthew highlights that there were also women and children there. I don't know, 12,000 people. John tells us that they ate as much as they wanted. They just got to eat as much as you wanted.
And here and elsewhere in the other passages we read that they had 12 baskets left over, which is this number of fullness, one of the numbers of fullness in the Bible. Which is to say so often the place where Jesus does his most miraculous work in our lives is at the very place and in the very time when we come to the end of ourselves, we have to rely on him.
When our insufficiency shines, his sufficiency shines all the brighter.
And think with me, I think Mark actually points to the ultimate place where Jesus does this. And I think he does this really clearly. And I think that might be the reason why the two miracles that we find in all the Gospels are this and the resurrection. When Jesus body was broken and his Blood was shed. And yet in him doing that, we have life through his resurrection.
So look with me down to verse 41. Verse 41 says this. 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 the disciples to set before the people.
Jesus takes, he blesses, he breaks, he gives. They're the very words that we have at the institution of the Lord's Supper. They're the words that are constantly used. When Jesus takes the bread which is his body, the cup which is his blood. He takes, he blesses, he breaks, he gives.
Same thing he does in the upper room when he is about to go to his death for us. When his blood is being shed for us. When his body is being broken for us. Which is to say, I think that this passage is not just calling us to think about our insufficiency of time and resources and ability. And on all the things that we feel so deeply.
But I think this passage has to call us to the insufficiency for us to deal with our sin. Our ultimate need that we try to fix things around us. We try to keep everything in order. We try to put on a good face, try to schedule well all the rest.
But Jesus alone is sufficient. The wrongs of the world to rights to put our wrongs to right to put our sin to death. Our insufficiency to deal with our sins is met with his sufficiency of his taken, blessed, broken, given body.
Jesus leads his disciples in their state of weariness and in their need for rest. Into a deeper rest, into a deeper sense of God can do it. He's able. I come to my end of myself. He is able to think of how the whole eating story ends.
Verse 42. Please look at that with me.
And they all ate and were satisfied. I love that that word isn't full. You can be full and not satisfied. Satisfied has this connotation of rest, complete, okay, cared for, satisfied.
Jesus led his disciples in their place of weariness. To a place of their total insufficiency. That he might teach them that he alone can care for them. Brothers and sisters, I pray in a way, and this is a strange prayer. That each one of you would come to that place.
God, I cannot do. You must do. God, I do not have. I must rely on you. God, I cannot deal with my sin.
Take it upon yourself. God, I cannot live. Let me live in you.
And I believe that just as this crowd long ago. Just as these weary disciples long ago ate and were satisfied that it's in that place. And it is only in that place where you will find rest. Amen.
Lord God, we're thankful for the beauty of this passage, for Jesus, compassion, the compassionate shepherd, looking upon the sheep that are wandering and need to be fed and are unable.
God, would you extend your compassion towards us?
And God, I pray that we would know our deep need of you and that we would run to you empty handed. Lord, because nothing in our hands we bring simply to the cross we cling. And God, we would find in you the rest and the satisfaction for which all of our souls are deeply, deeply longing. Please do this, Lord, draw us to the end of ourself that in you we might be filled. Amen.

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