In this sermon, Pastor Babij examines the account of Jesus miraculously feeding 4,000 men. Pastor Babij explains that the occasion was one in which the disciples, Jesus own followers, demonstrated spiritual dullness and blindness. Unlike Jesus, the disciples were not moved with compassion over the needs of others and did not remember that God provides for His people with abundance.
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okay this morning you could take your Bibles and turn to the Gospel of Mark chapter 8 halfway through the Gospel of Mark and we’re looking at chapter 8 and this morning I’ll be looking at the first nine verses in this section that is again some somewhat of a sandwich section where there’s a fun part a back part in the middle part and so we’ll look at the first nine verses of chapter eight if you have your Bibles of follow along with me as I read this morning the first nine verses it says in those days when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat Jesus called his disciples and said to him I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with me now for three days and have nothing to eat if I send them away hungry to their homes they will faint on the way and some of them have come from a great distance and his disciples answered him where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people and he was asking them how many loaves do you have and they said seven and he directed the people to sit down on the ground and take the seven loaves and he gave thanks and broke them and started giving them to his disciples to serve to them and they serve them to the people verse seven then also had a few small fish and after he had blessed them he ordered these to be served as well and they ate and were satisfied and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of broken pieces about 4,000 were there and they sent them away let’s pray lord I do thank you this morning for the word of God and what’s contained before our eyes I pray Lord that every single day that we you give us to live on this earth at we would draw closer to you and that we would grow to understand your word more clearly every single day especially Lord when it comes to who we are and who you are I pray Lord that we would not miss those two things because they are so vitally important to the Christian life and we do know Lord that the Holy Spirit of God is working in us and on us to produce in us Christ’s likeness so this morning Lord helps to understand the things our kin that are contained here so we can learn them well and then we can examine ourselves and even put some things in the practice or put some things off that we need to and I pray Lord that your hand of grace and mercy may be upon us today and I pray in Christ’s name Amen now before I look at this text i do want to give you just where i came from where I’m going we’re actually going to be looking at what the Bible begins to show us at least begins to lay out for us or what what spiritual blindness really is and that at times we really just don’t see what God wants us to see but from last time there are several things that the Lord was teaching the disciples and at least four things came up the first was that Jesus a mercy filled mission is really for all nations not just for the Jews but for both Jews and Gentiles and then secondly that Jesus mercy filled mission was related to prophecy that the prophets had told in Isaiah long before certain events took place that these things would take place namely that the leadership of Israel would not see what the Lord was saying and not hear what he was saying they would actually miss what he was saying and that is something that takes place all the time and we saw that the promise of the passage in Isaiah was that the Messiah when he comes he will give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf and he would loosen the tongue of those who are mute and that’s found right in Isaiah chapter 35 we saw that last time and then we saw that Jesus mercy filled ministry is also demonstrates demonstrated by compassion that the Lord is super compassionate especially when He healed the man who was had a speech impediment and he was deaf Jesus did not speak to him actually he used sign language to talk with him and the Bible tells us in mark chapter 7 that he pushed his fingers in his ears and then he touched him and then he sighed before him looked to heaven just indicating to the man that this thing I’m going to do to you comes from God himself and then of course he opened the man’s ears and the man was able to hear clearly and so again that was a picture I not only have rebuked to the leadership of Israel but also the rebuke to his own disciples that they weren’t getting it either and then of course Jesus mercy film is ministry LED leads to praise that people once they do see what the Lord’s doing they can’t hold back they can’t keep it to themselves it has to come out of them and if you look at verse number 37 of chapter 7 it says and they were utterly astonished and of course I brought out last time that word utterly astonished really comes from a word that we would think of as hyper they were hyper astonished and of course that means that all their boundaries that they would put on themselves was let loose and the people were in a state of mind concerning that miracle in which they could not restrain themselves they had to praise God they had to just burst out and give God the glory for what was taking place and of course in verse number 37 it says this and they were utterly astonished saying he has done all things well he makes even the Deaf to hear and the dumb to speak so see Jesus brings healing to people’s bodies when he is present on the earth and he brings salvation to their souls and in the beginning of course remember sin had spoiled everything but when Jesus displays his work of creating things anew then because Jesus is present all things become new and so that is what is a picture of what’s going to be when Jesus is actually here raining on the earth that all these things are going to be around us all over the place and because Jesus is there so we must always say that our Lord does things well he never does anything poorly and we know that when God created he did things well and we know that when the Lord Jesus finally went to the cross he did that well he completed it he finished everything that was needed for our salvation and then of course whatever God does in dealing with men he does all things well and that’s where we ended last time this time we look in it there’s Jesus is moving to a new place he is now visiting a region in deca polish which which was really on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee he’s now in Gentile territory he’s not really in territory where there was a lot of Jews who were there and so he is going to something else is going to take place and this is a very familiar passage of Scripture the feeding of the four thousand but what do we learn from this we’re going to see what we learn from this so this time during uh remember last time Jesus was in this area they asked him to leave because he cast out the demons and he ruined their industry of selling swine and so they asked him leave this time they’re not asking him to leave they’re actually because of the healing of the deaf man and the man with the speech impediment it aroused interest in the people in that region and so they wanted to find out what’s going on with this person named Jesus we want to know more about what he’s up to and so in this next section of Scripture we will will learn that spiritual blindness exists amongst gods people see at times we just don’t see what God wants us to see if you remember when you were in school some subjects you enjoyed and usually you enjoy them because you picked up on them quickly right you got it quickly some people get math quickly some people get basic math quickly some people get advanced math not so quickly or ever right some people are good with their hands they can they can do autumn Academy they can take an engine apart and put it back together some people never can do that so see there are some things that really come to us easily and we grasp them however other subjects require a lot more instruction and assistance before we got it right now if that’s applied in the spiritual realm then we have to say something else and it’s this when it comes to spiritual things we don’t get it I don’t care how much education you have you don’t get it spiritually it must be the Word of God that adjusts are thinking about everything it’s the mind has to be transformed before we understand what God is actually doing see the healing and the miracles we have encountered in the Gospel of Mark are a really messianic acts their acts of mercy to serve as a tool for exposing the hearts of the disciples we will see that Jesus disciples are internally deaf and blind that they lack true understanding when it comes to seeing their own dull mindedness their own hard heart and really the serious problem of their misconception of Jesus they don’t they Bend with Jesus quite a while now they’ve seen miracles they seeing demons cast out they seemed they heard Jesus preach and they still are misunderstanding who they are and who Jesus is in fact if I just skip ahead a little bit which I’ll not cover this morning if you look at verse chapter 8 verse 23 and 24 we will see here the half-healed blind man who perceives people as trees moving about it says in verse 23 and taking the blind man by the hand he brought him out of the village and after spitting on his eyes and laying his hands upon him he asked him do you see anything and he looked up and says I see men for I am seeing them like trees walking about now here’s a man completely blind a right and he doesn’t he’s actually half he gets half his sight back and so he sees people not so clearly his perception of them is not clear and so in other words the disciples had a dull perception of themselves and a dull perception of Jesus they’re not seeing Jesus clearly in fact in verse 25 of chapter 8 it says this then again he laid his hands upon him his eyes and he looked intently and was restored and began to see everything clearly so in other words the Lord wants to grow his disciples out of spiritual blindness he wants to grow us out of spiritual blindness all right remember these he’s talking about his disciples here these are the ones who are his followers these are the ones who know him as Lord and Savior who repented of their sins and believed in Jesus Christ and yet they’re not fully understanding who he is so this next section of Scripture should help us to grow out of our dull perception of ourselves and our dull perception of Jesus in order for the Word of God to help us to see Jesus Christ for who he really is and that’s going to become vitally important for every one of us so see this defeating of the four thousand here in the Gospel of Mark chapter eight show how absolutely and unimaginably blind men are to the activity of God in other words all men are blind to the activity of God we don’t see what God’s doing we don’t see who God is we don’t when we begin to understand we don’t see completely we have gaps in our understanding and so that’s why the Word of God is given to us so if we have a faulty perception of Jesus then that faulty perception is going to need a lot more instruction it’s going to need a lot more assistance before we can move from spiritual blindness to a dull perception to a clear understanding of who we are and who Jesus is and that’s where the Gospel of Mark is taking us it’s helping us to understand who he is so we are not number one in doubt and we do really see ourselves as sinners in need of a savior and as Jesus being the Savior and being God and so when we understand that then things do change now we of course we have an advantage because we are have the were hopeful word of God and nonetheless the disciples were slow learners right so are we are you a slow learner well when it comes to spiritual thing you are and I am a slow learner and so that means we’re in the same boat so gradually we move out of a dull perception on spiritual matters and I think we have to also resist the temptation to believe in some microwave spirituality or that there’s some how some shortcut to spiritual growth there is not there is no shortcut to spiritual growth God is going to take as much time on you and I to make us in to Christ and into the image of Christ into being godly that he needs in this life to set us apart so we can serve Him and serve him with insight and serve him with understanding so there’s no quick fixes there’s no easy paths to spiritual maturity there’s none don’t look for them and don’t plan on them because there’s not right that’s why we we are to study to show ourselves approved unto God a workman that needed not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth studying the Word of God so we can understand who God is is work and the Spirit of God will help us to do that so this morning what I wanted to do is I want you to take notice to there’s two marks at least today I’m going to look at that show Jesus disciples still need a lot of lot more instruction and assistance in order for them to keep moving hang out of spiritual blindness to a clearer understanding and you may be surprised at what we you see here but we all need to see these things and here’s the first one the first mark would be in verse 1 through 5 and it’s this that spiritual blindness is apparent when God’s people are not moved with compassion for others all right so there’s going to be a comparison here between Jesus compassion and the disciples compassion now look at verse number one and as you look there we will see just setting the background that Jesus calls his disciples together and brings to their attention that the crowd has been with him for three days and they ran out of food right so Jesus compassion is proactive which moves him towards solving and the unsourced hunger of this famished crowd but look at verse number one it says in those days again when there was a great multitude and they had nothing to eat he called his disciples and said to them look at verse two I feel compassion for the multitude because they have remained with me now for three days and have nothing to eat and if I send them away hungry to their homes they will faint on the way and some of them have come from a distance now this word compassion always has feelings connected to it feelings that are kindled when we see the desperate need in another person and the experiences within when that person experiences with them themselves when they see that need a sense of sorrow and a sense of pity for that group or that person once they see that then you can see that and do nothing you have compassion you can see it and you do nothing but what kicks in right after that is mercy mercy when it kicks in it puts into practice a plan to do something to relieve the need or to remove the suffering now before you can remove the need you have to see it right and so here’s the point the point is that the disciples don’t see it they don’t see the need in the crowd now another thing is interesting about this word compassion it is a word that really has a route to mean entrails or the inner organs like the heart the lungs deliver in the kidney so the term compassion metaphorically means being moved deeply within to the point where you have a gut-wrenching emotional reaction to what you see that’s what it does and of course when you have that then it should lead to a person having mercy which now does something about it so in other words Jesus compassion for their hopelessness or their condition prompted him to not only teach them first he was teaching them for three days but also to feed them he feeds their soul then he feeds their some stomach so as as in other words as the more we grow more like Christ we will see ministry to people’s temporal needs not as competing with but as complementing the meeting of people’s spiritual needs they go together Jesus often puts them together they’re not separate from each other alright you have to sometimes of course you always have to teach the Word of God but sometimes you have to feed people sometimes you have to meet their basic needs so you can keep them in a frame of mind that they’ll continue to grow so increased growth in Christian maturity is revealed by a heartfelt compassion towards people that’s what Jesus is demonstrating to his disciples but how did the disciples take it look at verse four and five the disciples didn’t get it they really had a deficient compassion for the disciples are from that for the people there their compassion was deficient and if you notice in verse 4 it says and his disciples answered him where will anyone be able to find enough to satisfy these men with bread here in this decibel desolate place see they bring up the problem that’s what they do so the crowd lost track of time while they SAT under the teaching and the presence of Jesus in fact Jesus found a reception among the Gentiles that he didn’t find among the Jews in fact these people there’s no complaint with these people they they are were so enthralled with the teaching of Jesus they ferg they ran out of food and forgot about it so they were really taken in by what Jesus was teaching them of course we know from chapters before most likely the content is going to be faith and repentance the kingdom of God all those things that have already been covered in the scripture so this crowd has really lost track of time after three days the supplies run out and Jesus concerned was let’s feed them before we cut them loose to travel back to their homes because some live very far away and if we release them without eating they’re going to faint along the way and that wouldn’t be right in the sense of we wouldn’t be showing them compassion we wouldn’t be showing them how to beat a need we wouldn’t be showing them that so the disciples should have been proactive and taking action before Jesus brought it up but they don’t seem to be concerned about the crowd they don’t seem to be worried about anything that’s going on as far as their physical problems in fact the disciples bring up the impossibility of finding so much bread in such a desolate place who can feed such a great crowd with so little in such a desolate place of course the answer is really obvious Jesus can write but they don’t see that and so remember this is not a new group of disciples this is a disciples that have been with them in fact they witnessed this the feeding of the 5,000 remember not too long ago so the quantity of bread that needed to be obtained to feed the crowd is beyond human ability jesus knew that so what is he saying verse 5 he asks he was asking them how many lows do you have and they said seven now what’s interesting here is that disciples did have food and the rest of the crowd didn’t but they’re not saying anything alright so the disciples give up to Jesus what’s left from their own food supply these seven flat breads are given and this time they didn’t obtain the food from the crowd at all so the disciples are slow on the uptake they grope for answers in the dark and they’re expecting nothing miraculous from Jesus which is amazing again Jesus patiently has his disciples go through their inventory of provisions and they don’t realize the disciples do not realize that their scanty supplies the scanty supplies they have when given to Jesus is able to feed the entire world and not just the four thousand so in other words that their spiritual eyes were blind they were not seeing the way they ought to see and you know in a very real way our spiritual eyes also are not yet perfect so we must keep going to the great ophthalmologist the eye doctor Jesus Christ and ask him to enable us to see the needs and the wants that we can meet both spiritually and physically see we need in the sense spiritual LASIK surgery to see as God wants us to see and as Donald Whitney brought up in his book on the disciplines spiritual disciplines of the church he said whether the need is hunger lack of drinking water illiteracy sickness homelessness or anything else that causes misery Christianity is a religion of concern for others of course growing Christians remember that the foremost need of anyone anywhere anytime is salvation is to be made right with God is repentance towards God the Father and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ so we can feed somebody and fill their stomach and they can die and be separated from God from eternity what good is that right so in a sense both things go together and we have to discern how that all works out and so this first one is that these disciples did not see the need of the crowd so they did not have the compassion they oughta had and so therefore they didn’t take care of the need or even ask Jesus to take care of the need Jesus of course did take care of the need so that is the first thing the second mark that really shows Jesus disciples need a lot more instruction and assistance to keep them moving out of spiritual blindness to see more clearly is that spiritual blindness is apparent when God’s people do not remember that god provides for us people with abundant blessing now we see that in verse number eight and nine but I just want to back up for a minute because remembering what what our Lord has done in the past should help us to trust him in the present in other words this is the second miracle of the feeding of the great crowd the last time it was 5000 up to we I mentioned 15,000 people with women and children in mark chapter 6 where that’s mentioned it is viewed that bread from God can be used as bread of God for the Jews in this miracle in mark chapter 8 it is bread from God to the Gentiles so again what the disciples see in this miracle well if we look at it closely we would see they don’t see much it’s surprising that they don’t but they don’t and so the feeding of the 5,000 15 to 20,000 people got fed with five loaves and two fish it was a one-day thing in the wilderness it was done in the springtime in northern Galilee twelve baskets full were leftovers Jesus made one prayer and it was mostly Jews this one the feeding of the four thousand were 4,000 people seven loaves and a few small fish three days in the wilderness it was probably summertime or the end of summer time in southeast of Galilee seven baskets were left over to prayers were offered and it was mostly Gentiles so what Jesus wants them to see about this miracle is actually several things the first thing is very simple that Jesus supplies he provides Jesus provides look at verse number 8 excuse me in verse number 6 it says in market chapter 8 and he directed the multitude to sit down on the ground and taking the seven loaves he gave thanks and broke them and started giving them to his disciples to serve to them and they served them to the multitude they also had a few small fish and after he blessed them he ordered these to be served as well so in other words that this time they did not sit on the green grass like they SAT last time this time they just sit on the ground that means mostly it’s no longer spring time but it’s moved into a different part of a season most likely latter summer could be the summer time where the ground is now bearing so they just sit on the ground and the disciples really do remember that you can’t say they forgot the last time Jesus when they gave everything over to Jesus Jesus really took care of everything and so the disciples are used here as servants waiters who pass out blessed food to the crowd at this miracle meal so what does Jesus do he gives thanks to the Father for the bread and the fish in other words he acknowledges where the provision of bread and fish come from and then he acknowledges the father’s presence in the midst of the people that he is praying to someone he’s praying to the Father so the presence of God is mentioned by the Lord Jesus Christ reminding the disciples that whatever takes place here is because the hand of god or the presence of god is amongst us in other words jesus being God is there he’s a manual in their presence so the presence of God in a very real sense is all around us and so we need to use our eyes to look where we ought to look in our own life to see where God is working in our life because some lot of times we’re looking for the lightning bolt we’re looking for the great event but we’re not looking into small details of which of what God is doing in our life an interesting verb in verse number six is the verb and he started giving actually he started giving to them to the disciples and they served what Jesus was giving them it’s actually a really strange verb it’s called by the linguist and interative imperfect which means Jesus kept giving to the disciples the disciples it describes the multiplication of food that was coming from the hand of Jesus to the disciples to the people and it just didn’t stop this of course was nonetheless a miracle that was taken place and yet these disciples have not grown to the place to see things as God sees them and again Donald Whitney in his book on spiritual disciplines says that we need we need to develop God’s eyes we need to develop a sensitivity to see evidence of what we know to be true namely that God is with us that God is working on us he’s working in our life he is not aloof he is not far away he’s near us for blessing to those who know Christ as their Lord and Savior look for God in other words everywhere in your life in everything that happens you must look how and ask the question what is God teaching what me what is God doing in my life see the Lord is in the ordinary places of life so as we develop God’s eyes we will be more like Jesus who always recognized his father’s presence he was always recognizing his father’s presence he fed the multitude but it was his father’s bread He healed the sick but the father did the works other men remarked that the Ravens were fed but he said your heavenly Father feeds them other notice that the lilies were fair to upon but he discerned that God so clothed the grass of the field in other words in these things in the birds and in looking at the lilies we see the hand of God we see the work of God we see the presence of God we see the creativity of God we see the power of God see the heavenly father was in every place and in everything to Jesus so we ought to refuse to see anything without seeing God in it as believers and that’s what the disciples were not seeing so in a very real sense they were spiritually blind they did not see what God was doing and of course they missed out on that but God of course was being patient with them and he’s drawing them he’s teaching them they needed to know a lot more in verse number 8 jesus also is teaching them that he satisfies and look what it says they ate and were satisfied in fact everyone was the word satisfied is the word stuffed just like next week or the couple of weeks were going to be at our thanksgiving meals and what are we going to end up doing getting stuff right oh I’m not going to eat so much today I’m gonna watch myself and they end up not watching yourself and your but you enjoy right they ate and they were stuffed in other words that Jesus when he supplies something he completely satisfies there’s nothing that was wanting and they were satisfied for what reason and full to be strengthened to take their journey home and then there’s another thing in verse number 8 it says and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces and about four thousand were there and he sent them away see the reason the the next thing I would I would like to stress is that analogy to satisfied but Jesus supplies abundantly and that really comes out in verse number 8 and 9 and the reefs why bring that up because this characteristic characteristic of Jesus supply Jesus abundant supply is found in the words for basket because in mark chapter 6 verse 43 in mark chapter eight two different words are used for basket right so in mark chapter six verse 43 where they fed the 5,000 it was a basket where pretty much the disciples would carry their lunch it was a smaller type of basket with a small opening to it in mark chapter 8 verse 8 we see here that it’s a it’s a large basket it was a basket in fact large enough to fit a man in fact in Acts chapter 9 verse 25 it’s the same word where it says but his disciples took him by night this is Paul and let him down through an opening in the wall lowering him in a large basket it’s the same word see the point being that when the food was gathered up in the seven baskets in the second miracle of the feeding of the large multitude that the disciples actually gathered up more leftovers than the first miracle of 12 baskets that the large baskets in our present text is said to hold up to 50 loaves of bread so then Jesus after feeding the large crowd of 4,000 he allowed his disciples to take up more food than the first miracle miracle of the of the 5,000 all right showing the disciples his abundant supply that when Jesus gives he’s giving out of his abundance which really never runs out but they don’t say they don’t see who Jesus is in his power that he is wise that he is righteous that he is unchanging they don’t see G in his power that he is in control of everything they don’t see Jesus in his plan that he knows exactly what he is doing he knows exactly what he is doing and he’s going to plan in the way that believers receive maximum good and he’s going to he’s plans in a way where he receives maximum glory so see you know what in other words you can hope in God because he has been faithful before when Jesus says I never leave you i never will leave you or forsake you that’s based on what he’s done in the past what he’s done in the old testament what he’s done in your own salvation what he’s done in your own life what he continues to do in your family and in the church and in the world see Jesus is someone who is faithful because he’s always been faithful but if you don’t see it then in its very real sense you still are dull and you still are someone who needs to a lot of instruction and a lot of help and that we’ve all been there in that situation but the Lord doesn’t want us to stay there he wants us to move on so see in other words the repetition of this miracle is to show his disciples that Jesus deeply cares and he is always able to provide bread and supply earthly needs and spiritual needs in other words Jesus does supply to us abundantly the manner in the wilderness lasted for 40 years until and only stopped when they entered the land flowing with milk and honey it would have continued on if it was 80 years 120 years a thousand years it wouldn’t matter the supply of God never ever runs out so in other words the disciples we have to get this if we’re going to live with the hope and a confidence in Christ every day of our lives and not live in the frame of worrying about everything and usually when we do worry about things we don’t see what God’s doing we don’t trust with God is doing we think for the most part that because we have our jobs and because we pay our bills and we have food on the table it’s our doing if we think that way well spiritual blindness still exists in your hearts and minds and you’re not seeing clearly we must not forget that all we have is a gift from the caring hand of our Lord Jesus Christ all of it and that is something that all of us need to learn so if this is the way we respond to Jesus after years and years of supplying our needs again and again we are actually guilty of expecting far too little from Jesus and I think that we are guilty of that we expect far too little from God right and the reason why is because we can handle it we can handle our part and though you handle your part well that in very real sense is really short changing ourselves as what the Lord really wants to do in our life and wants to supply in our life and wants to the place he wants to grow as in our life but it should be a reminder of the promise that God will provide for his people and give them and really an overabundance of blessing he will give them maximum good but do we really live as if we believe this in America do we really live as as if this is true or do we still have slow hearts to understand and hard hearts still steeped in spiritual blindness now before you answer that in your own heart and mind let me remind you that Jesus disciples were actually accused of that very malady and if you look down to verse 17 it says this and Jesus aware of this said to them why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread do you not yet see or understand do you have a hardened heart he’s talking to his disciples here he’s not speaking to religious leaders here he is speaking to his own disciples that have been following him around for many months and have heard him preach and teach and do many miracles see the disciples are anxious about lack of bread but Jesus is concerned about their lack of faith Jesus is speaking about spiritual matters and their minds are stuck on the mundane and temporal matters the disciples are not chastised by Jesus here for not believing but for not seeing and understanding in other words you should be at this point by this time and you’re not you’re not working at it you’re not seeing what you ought to see so you know that means it means that spiritual blindness cannot be overcome it cannot be overcome by our own doing a failure to come to faith about who Jesus is cannot be resolved by us it can only be overcome by the Holy Spirit’s gradual sanctifying process and the repeated teaching of Jesus who can alone enable his disciples to see clearly and that’s what he’s doing he is growing us out of our dullness to see clearly and if you’re really a believer in Christ Jesus that will take place some will get it sooner than others but the Spirit of God will bring us there and some of the things that we can do to keep moving away from sproul spiritual blindness are really quite simple they’re common things in the Christian life but see if you don’t do them it also shows that maybe you are not seeing clearly at all here’s one of them go often through a place where God has revealed himself more clearly where’s that the Bible right all right we know that we’ve been around long enough to know that see the more we know it and read it the more of it will take us into the presence of God the more of it will give us understanding but we have to conclude that we have a lot to learn when it comes to the Bible but if we’re not giving ourselves to the reading of it to the study of it to the listing of it in preaching how will we grow alright second thing would be acknowledges present with you by talking with them and that simple prayer ignore him and he will seem distant talk with him and you will almost always feel closer to the Lord so as we pray we trust in the loving and the Living God to respond to us in ways fitting the ways things ought to be the ways that line up with his will not just our own finite notions of what is or what should be and then next thing would be just to seek him in the manifestations of his present given only really and when we meet together in congregational worship that going to worship with the people of God is going to the Lord’s temple where his presence abides many scriptures backed that up that there’s something that God is doing when we gather together when we were praying together when we’re listening to preaching together when we’re fellowshipping together and then also continually reaffirm the truth of his omnipresence that he is ever with us that he never leaves us he never will forsake his children ever ever he’ll never do that God is at work controlling and guiding our life for his good purposes and our eternal good and to grow us to take us from one point to another so we grow so in other words God is at work to instruct and assist you and me so that we keep moving away from spiritual blindness to a clearer understanding of who we are and who we are in christ jesus who Jesus is and then also ultimately to serve with compassionate and discerning eyes to look and see what’s going on around us by looking through the eyes of God and as we look into scripture we will continue to look and see things more as God wants us to see them not as we once saw them and that of course is a very significant mark a spiritual growth when you realize yourself that you are not the person you used to be that God has through trials and tribulations through circumstances through the study of the word of God through the fellowship of believers through prayer has changed you and now you see completely different and you not only see the present different you see the past different how the hand of God was even there with you in the past but you also see the future different you’re heading somewhere you’re going somewhere you’re going to end up somewhere and someday we’re going to end up in the very presence of God with new resurrected bodies to live with him and serve him for eternity and that is going to be something that we all hope for hold by faith but someday it will be a reality and that’s where the Lord is taking us he wants us to see clearly that’s what he wants us to do the ciples will and so we were so so will we it was like the old hymn writer says I was blind but what now I see let’s pray Lord again this morning but as we gaze upon the Word of God and we see the things contained there and we see how your despite how you responded how your disciples responded and Lord we we must confess ourselves that we are just as slow learners as they are and Lord we have more opportunity to know the truth than they did but lord I prayed everyone was this morning we would leave here with a new desire to want to not be satisfied where we are spiritually to want to know more of your words and not want to have no more of you to understand ourselves more and our world and who you are so we can serve and have eyes to see with compassion that we will be able to discern spiritually the things that you are doing in our life and that when we see those things that we would on a regular basis be able to lift up our eyes to you and give you praise and pray to you and give you honor for all that you have done and lord I pray that you not allow us to miss you in the small details of life enable us Lord and help us for your sake to move us out of spiritual blindness to that of which were we really do see clearly and we understand and have insight to the things that you’re doing and who you are and i pray lord I pray Lord that you would accomplish this by your spirit as you said you would and I asked this in Christ’s name Amen