Light on the Hill

James Kaddis: We are going to get into a story of what many believe to be one of the most profound miracles that God had ever done. Actually, so much so that when people view the details of this story, they believe that it is almost at fairy tale level. How in the world could this actually happen?

But then you realize something pretty staggeringly important, and that's this. The answer for how it could happen is super easy because we know that if God can speak the world into existence, he can turn a few fish and seven loaves into enough food to feed 4,000 people.

Guest (Female): Welcome once again to Light on the Hill online at lightonthehillradio.com. We see a mighty miracle of Jesus on full display today. He fed the multitudes with just a few loaves and fish. While it would be easy to gloss right over that thinking it's just something Jesus did a few thousand years ago, Pastor James Kaddis believes this miracle happens every day. Turn with us to Mark chapter 8.

James Kaddis: We are going to jump into Mark chapter 8. I want to say this because I think it's an important thing to say and probably a good idea to start off with. I think that when we look at days like today where we call these days the National Day of Prayer and everybody starts to think of prayer and they think of their obligation to go before the Lord and to ask the Lord and make requests of the Lord on behalf of our nation to repent of the insanity that we've allowed ourselves to be given to, to get our faces on the floor, seeking the Lord and getting our hearts right, postured in a way that glorifies him.

I think one of the problems that we end up beginning to have is we take out of context what prayer is supposed to do and what the power of prayer really means. I think that what happens is we seek to communicate with the Lord and we do not properly contextualize what that communication actually does. I think that what ends up happening is we end up devaluing what prayer is because the bigger issue is we devalue what God is capable of.

I think that's perhaps the more significant point to bring up. In essence, the reason why so many people oftentimes find themselves in a place of being very hesitant to pray or to have communication with the Lord is because they forget what he's actually capable of. In reality, in their own minds, they do not believe they can get the most out of the communication that they have with God because of their very distorted view of who God is.

For those people that spend a lot of time wanting to avoid doing this very thing, it speaks volumes of where their mindset is at overall. I think that there's a really easy way to demonstrate this. When I say this, that doesn't mean that I'm sitting here dropping a hammer on your head and saying you're such a bad person because you don't see the value in communicating with God and I'm certainly not insinuating or implying that's the case.

But what I am speaking about is I am speaking about the actual statistic that speaks very loudly concerning this issue. I'll give you a great example. If I were to have made a flyer like we always have over the years and said we are going to have the National Day of Prayer celebration here at the church and we're going to spend some time praying, I hate to say this, but the attendance in this sanctuary would be a quarter of what it is right now.

The only way I would be able to get anybody to attend this service as a prayer service is if we started by meeting at City Hall, praying under the flagpole, maybe marching or walking back to the church, and then promising it with an ice cream social or something like that. That sounds kind of crazy for me to say that, but if you don't sensationalize it in a way, then in essence, what it will be is it will be what it normally is. That is only a small group of people who will come together to pray because they do not place priority upon what prayer means and who God is.

That's a very harsh statement to make because there are many people who will say it's a little bit deeper than that. But let me take it a step further for people that really might not understand this. Subconsciously, it's clear. It's not hard to discern at all. Consciously, it can be very difficult because there are certain things that we do every single day that we do not admit we are doing, but we do no matter how anybody cuts it.

I'll give you one great example of this. This will probably demonstrate this the most effectively. If you're in children's ministry, you might not fall into this category simply because of the heart that God has given you in ministering to children, which is why maybe you pay a little bit more attention to children. But if you find yourself in the midst of a family outing, let's just say maybe you're at a barbecue or you're at some special event where lots of old friends have gotten together and then for whatever reason, a child comes up to you, maybe they're two years old, three years old, and they start tapping you on the side and they want to get your attention.

The most common response that ends up being received is non-response. The child will walk up to the adult. "Hello, hello, hello." And normally they have to do something extreme in order to get the attention of the adult, which explains why there are some children that have extremely crazy behavior sort of out of the blue because they're oftentimes very neglected by their parents. That's not always the reason. Most of the reason why children act extreme and crazy is because they have sinful natures, but that's a whole other issue.

But my point behind it is if it's a child tapping up to your side and saying, "Hey, I want to talk to you," most of the time we are going to blow them off. Then when it's convenient and we've got the time that we perceive to have to sit down and talk to them, then we'll give them the leftovers or the crumbs of whatever it is that we've had. That's typically the attitude that we have when it comes to children. A child wants to talk to you, they tap on you and you go, "Come on, shoo fly, leave me alone." That's kind of the way it works. That sounds like a harsh statement to make.

But then what happens if you're in the same room and somebody that you perceive to be important walks into the room? How does the environment change? How does everything change? What happens? How do the attitudes of the people change around you? How does it actually work? I went to an outing a while ago, this was quite some time ago, and it was a place that I didn't really expect to be met with anything like this.

I showed up and a bunch of security guards approached me. They all came to me, all of them mostly police officers, and they all said, "You know, Pastor James, here's the thing. We all know you and we love you and we kind of had an idea that you were coming over here, so just understand there's going to be someone walking with you whether or not you want to all day. You're going to have somebody here with you. There's going to be that guy over there, that's one of our team. That guy over there, that's one of our team. That guy over there, that's one of our team. They're all assigned to you and they're all going to be accompanying you and they're all going to be walking around."

I asked, I said, "Man, this is a little extreme, don't you think?" And they said, "It's not." One of the guys says, "It's not." And then he went on to explain to himself and he said, "There's a lot of people that really look up to you and there's a lot of those people that watch you and listen to you that are here in this place, and the moment they see you walk near them, they're all going to rush you. So they all mean well, but we are going to make sure that that doesn't happen. We're going to make sure that you actually have a nice peaceful time here and if something comes up, we'll intervene so that you don't have to be the bad guy and it'll all work out."

Sure enough, there were lots of people who came and they were very sweet people and very nice and I enjoyed the night that I had with my family. It was just a really wonderful time and these guys were really incredible and so on and so forth. But it was interesting because it struck me. It was just really unique. I'm walking around in the midst of all these people and I'm thinking, especially some of the people that are doing the ministry thing, these are people that nobody knows. Nobody knows their faces, nobody knows their names, they're not of any what you would call well-known status.

But I'm thinking, "Why am I so different from any of these people? All of these people are valuable and in some cases, I feel like they're a little bit more valuable than me because they're bringing things to the table I can never bring to the table." And then you realize something very quickly. It all relates to perception. Because if many of those people took the kind of energy that they were taking to try to access me and talk to me and redirect that effort to talk to all these diamonds that are all around me, they probably would get a whole lot more talking to the people around me than they would talking to me.

But the reason why they won't do that is because what they perceive concerning the people around them is so much less. My point behind this is we look at God as somebody who is much less because we don't believe that God is who he is and we oftentimes don't believe that he can do what we know he can do. We don't think that he is approachable in the way that if we go to him with the request, he can tangibly do something about the moment that we're in.

I always find it so hilarious how some people will go out of their way to come to me to talk to me about a circumstance that I literally have no control over. "I'm broke. If I don't pay my mortgage off by the end of the week, I'm going to lose everything." I can't physically solve that problem. I can't go and give you all that money and solve the problem. Yet you're talking to me and you have no problem talking to me and you feel the need to pour yourself out to me and speak to me about it.

Yet you won't spend more than 30 seconds talking to the one person in this world that could solve the problem with the blink of an eye. It's funny how that works. If we had that perception and we understood what it truly meant, it would change our attitude about how we communicate to God. It would change our attitude about what we have accessible and what we don't. It would change our attitude about the relationship that God has given us. It would cause us to think about something altogether differently than the way we look at it today.

The reason why I bring all of this up is we are going to get into a story of what many believe to be one of the most profound miracles that God had ever done. Actually, so much so, by the way, I want to make this statement, so much so that when people view the details of this story, they believe that it is almost at fairy tale level. How in the world could this actually happen?

But then you realize something pretty staggeringly important, and that's this. The answer for how it could happen is super easy because we know that if God can speak the world into existence, he can turn a few fish and seven loaves into enough food to feed 4,000 people. That's a bogus sort of a question to ask in the sense that the answer is so incredibly obvious.

But the question that isn't so obvious, or the answer that isn't so obvious to a question that might not be so obvious as well, is one that centers around the fact that begs to ask, are these types of miracles available to me today? And if the answer is yes, which it is because God does them every day, why is it that we don't understand the power that we have available to us by virtue of accessing the God who can do all these things?

It's a question that we should be asking because it's one that's really important. Now, what you're going to find out here, because I'm a guy that is really big on understanding and discerning patterns and recognizing human behavior and how it associatively values itself with Christ's miraculous intervention, you will find the answer to understanding how it is that God was able to do something so incredibly miraculous at what appeared to be the snap of a finger and why it did not seem as such a big deal to the people farther removed from Christ than even the disciples.

It's an interesting picture to think through. The problem is we don't typically get to understand these things because we don't know the culture, we don't recognize the background, and we cannot put ourselves in the same set of circumstances that they sat in back then versus the circumstances that we find today. You see, if you're hungry right now, no matter where you are, you have accessibility to things that you've never been able to access before.

We go on road trips today and we go to a place that we know we're going to stay, whether it be a hotel or an Airbnb. And if you know you're not going to have time to go shopping when you're in the area, you can simply get on your phone or your computer and you can ask somebody you don't know and have never spoken to to buy exactly what you want and deliver it to the place you want it to be delivered to before you even get there.

There's no such thing as showing up at a hotel anymore and having to stake out where everything is because you could have everything brought to you in the snap of a finger with less effort and in many cases, with less cost. The reason why I say less cost is because most people don't calculate the most expensive portion of these purchases, and that's their time.

My point is this. My point is in a time and in a day where so much is accessible to us, we have a very difficult time picturing what it would have been like for these people to be in the position that they were in to do the things that they were doing. I'm going to explain this in just a second because it's going to make a lot of sense.

As quick as this story is going to go, I hope the message will punch just as hard as the story is quick. Because the message that comes out of this is so valuable that if it is heard correctly, it will check your very soul. It will open your eyes to recognize that something is happening here that you and I are not seeing, that something is going on that you and I are not putting into practice, and that becomes so consequential to us at literally every level that it forces us to think completely differently than how we're thinking right now in the current moment. I think that that's a really important picture to hold fast to and to contemplate.

It says in verse one, in those days the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him and saith unto them. Now, this is interesting. There's two facts that we know right off the bat that oftentimes people don't think about. Number one, the multitude was great, meaning there were thousands and thousands and thousands of people that were around Jesus. By the way, something to note here and of course, very much appropriate if you're thinking about this from sort of a business perspective and it's one that's actually worth thinking through and worth talking about.

When large crowds of people gather, there are lots of ways that people incentivize on large crowd gatherings. You know what I mean when I say that? You go to a large crowd gathering, you have vendors that are selling food items as early as the parking lot that you're parking in. You go inside, you see lots of food stands, you see people walking around dispersing food wherever you're moving. There are so many different places and so many different spots where you see lots of opportunities for vendors to take advantage of because when people come, they come for the show. They don't want to bombard themselves with all of the things that they would have to take with them to enjoy things. And when they're being entertained, they want to eat.

So the funny thing is when they go to a show, when they go somewhere in the day in which we live, they always plan on spending extra money to buy food that they know is going to be available to them. No such thing existed back then. There were no food vendors standing on the side of a street where impromptu crowds would gather. There was nothing like that. If you had made a decision to go and be a part of what was actually happening in the current moment, you had to either take care of the provision that you anticipated needing in going on and being a part of this or you simply chose to gamble with your life, literally your life, because you knew you weren't able to readily obtain any kind of food that you needed.

But you're hungry in one other area and that's that for your soul. So you're mind, you're willing to ignore what you normally do to take care of your physical body in order to experience what's being experienced right now. These people followed Jesus not for just a few hours. These people followed Jesus for days as we're about to find out.

At one point when you're following Jesus and there are crowds of thousands of people, no porta-potties, no places to go hide away and get some privacy when you need to relieve yourself, no water fountains, no places, no wells where you could go get water to drink, no food vendors, no anything. You're following Jesus for days on end. You're having to make a calculated decision that you are about to deny yourself significantly of the type of things critical for your sustenance.

That's how desperate for the true living God they are. That's how bad they want to hear from Jesus. That's how important it is to hear from Jesus. Look at what Jesus says: "I have compassion on the multitude because they have now been with me three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way, for divers of them came from far." That's a pretty heavy statement.

Jesus says, "I'm concerned about these people. They've been following me for as long as three days and many of them have come from a long way away. If I send them away to go home, my goodness, some of them could faint. They have no food. There is no way." He says, "I want to feed them. I want to take care of them."

Couple of things to point out immediately, critically, every single one of you needs to pay attention to, including myself, because it's really important. These are people that desired the greater thing so bad that they were willing to risk their own existence. They were willing to even risk dying of starvation because that was a real thing in order to follow Jesus the whole way where he went.

They saw their relationship with God and the message of the kingdom as being more valuable than the very food that they eat. I would venture to say that we would be way more likely to pray and jump on the prayer opportunities if we had the same attitude about the God who loves us and gave himself for us.

In a day where we have more food available to us than ever before, in a time where we can access God's word in virtually every way imaginable, where all of it is so readily available at our fingertips, we seek it out the least and we indulge more. Isn't that funny how that works? We seek out the things of God less and we indulge in the things of the flesh more. In a time where these people had none of each, they chose to deny their bodies of the sustenance that they desperately need in place of finding what they need for their very souls.

Guest (Female): Thank you for joining us today for Light on the Hill. What you just heard is one part of a study in Mark's Gospel from Pastor James Kaddis. You can hear it again at lightonthehillradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. We're so grateful for your support. Each donation that's sent in is an investment in what God is doing over the radio and internet. Lives are being impacted daily for the glory of God as a result. If you'd like to stand with us through providing either a one-time donation or ongoing monthly support, please visit lightonthehillradio.com. While you're there, you can also send us an email. It would be great to hear from you and have you share the station you listen to as well. Just visit lightonthehillradio.com and then click on contact.

Guest (Male): Pastor James, during the summer months, our listeners may be taking some time off for vacation. That can be a good time to pull out a book to read. Can you offer some recommendations of books that have been impactful to your life?

James Kaddis: Perhaps the most impactful book and I'm not joking is the book that I wrote on the book of Revelation. It impacted me while I was writing it. I think it's impacted a lot of people and I would absolutely highly recommend that you read that book. I'm not saying that to be funny. I'm saying it because I really mean it. It was written with the desire to give people a deeper awareness of what the book of Revelation says. You will learn so much of the Old Testament by reading it, and the Bible says that you'll be blessed by God if you study the book. This is a tool that will aid you in doing it and it's the one that I'm recommending.

Guest (Female): Not long ago, Pastor James released his new book on the first half of Revelation. It's entitled *The Last Book*. He points out that Revelation isn't a book of fear but rather a book of hope. Pastor James will help you understand the world we live in and current events through a biblical lens, preparing your heart for what lies ahead. You can find Pastor James's book, *The Last Book*, at Amazon or at jameskaddis.com. Now let's return to Mark chapter 8 for these final reflections from Pastor James.

James Kaddis: Jesus said they have been following me for three days, they've got nothing to eat, I'm going to feed them. I love the way that works. You see, God says when you put me in priority, when you look at me, when you seek after me first, I take care of all the other needs. I seem to remember Jesus saying something like this, speaking to probably the very same crowd when he just basically said seek ye first the kingdom of God, right? I think that there's a lot to be said here. There's so much to be said. We'll see you next week when we go further into Mark's Gospel with Pastor James here on Light on the Hill, a presentation of Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.