Lake Martin Presbyterian Church June 5, 2026 Podcast

Join Rev. William Skinner for this week’s message from Mark 8:1-21, "Much Ado About Bread". Explore Scripture, hear thoughtful teaching, and let us encourage you in your walk with Christ. For more information and resources, visit lakemartinpca.com.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church Podcast. We're glad you're listening. Lake Martin Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, located near Lake Martin, Alabama. Each week we share the preaching ministry of our church and pray it encourages you in your walk with Christ. Here's this week's message.

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If you would take your copy of God's Word once again and turn with me to the Gospel of Mark. If you are a visitor and a guest with us this morning, we've been so far in Mark's Gospel following Mark's account of the person and work of Jesus, specifically so far in his Galilean ministry. And Mark's gospel is asking one fundamental question. If you want to summarize the Gospel of Mark, you can summarize it this way: it's asking the question, who is Jesus? Who is Jesus? And by the end of this chapter, we will have a definitive answer to that question, who is Jesus? So far, various groups have come out of the woodworks to propose answers to that question. Is he a magical healing man? Is he a lunatic? Is he a religious teacher? Is he demon-possessed, as the scribes from Jerusalem were proclaiming? Or was he out of his mind? Was he insane as his relatives from Nazareth claimed? Who is this Jesus? Last week in the text, Jesus and his disciples went to Tyre and Sidon, to the Gentile country. And part of the purpose of this trip was so that they could have a brief rest and retreat from their fast-paced ministry. And then Jesus began to extend his ministry into the Gentile country, to reach the Gentiles, performing miracles, signs, and wonders, confirming that he truly is the Messiah, the Christ of God. And the citizens of Sidon were left praising Jesus at the end of chapter 7, saying, He has done all things well. In the text before us this morning, Jesus and his disciples are still where we left them. They're still in the Gentile country. And Jesus had been with a crowd, teaching them for three straight days. Now, after three days of teaching them, and what the text describes as a desolate place in the wilderness, Jesus had compassion on the crowds. Specifically, he had compassion on their hunger. You can imagine if we had a preaching revival that lasted for three straight days, you might get hungry by the end of that time period. And so Jesus is going to miraculously feed this crowd, multiplying seven loaves and a few small fish to feed the entire crowd and have baskets of food left over. And in response to this, the Pharisees come and they question Jesus, testing him, again, demanding a sign from heaven that he prove his identity. And then after leaving the Pharisees, Jesus' disciples are too preoccupied with physical bread to understand the lessons that Jesus was trying to teach them. Needless to say, this text before us this morning is jam-packed with details, with twists, with turns. We hop from the crowds to the Pharisees to the disciples. And we could spend a month of sermons on this text alone. But this morning, I simply want you to notice that Jesus does what he always does. Jesus is doing what he's always doing, he's loving people and fulfilling their needs. And then the self-righteous Pharisees are doing what we've always seen them do. They're pulling others down to make themselves feel better. And then Jesus' disciples, as we've seen time and time again, miss it all because of the hardness of their hearts. And then in the midst of all these miracles and lessons that Jesus is performing and teaching, there's one central question. One central question that God's Word is asking you this morning. Are your hearts hardened? Are your hearts hardened? Like the Pharisees? Are you too preoccupied with self-righteousness that you miss Jesus? Like Herod? Are you protecting your pet sins and secret lust? Are you protective of your favorite sins? Is your heart so hard that you miss Jesus? Or like the disciples, are you too preoccupied with physical bread, with practical matters that you miss the person and work of Jesus? Are your hearts hardened? That's the question before us this morning. And I hope by the end of this morning's sermon the answer for all of us is no, that we want Jesus. We need Jesus. Give us Jesus. If you're a note taker this morning, the outline I have is as follows. In verses 1 through 10, Jesus feeds the sheep again. Jesus feeds the sheep again. In verses 11 through 13, the Pharisees test Jesus again. The Pharisees test Jesus again. And in verses 14 through 21, the disciples miss Jesus again. It's a very uncreative outline. The point here is that there's nothing new in this text. Everything we're going to see this morning has happened before in the Gospel of Mark. And that's kind of the point. All this has happened before. Are your hearts prepared to receive it? Is your heart soft enough to see it? So before we read the text, let's pray and ask God's blessing. Abba Father, Holy God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is able to make us wise unto salvation. But as we're going to see in this text, and as we've been seeing, we can come into contact with the Lord Jesus and have hard hearts and miss Him. We are sinners. So we ask for the help of your Holy Spirit to unstop our deaf ears, to open our blind eyes, to soften our hard hearts, that we might see and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray specifically this morning, if there are any here who have not taken Jesus by faith, we pray that you would pour out your Spirit, that they might see the Lord Jesus and rest upon him by faith this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Mark's Gospel, chapter 8, beginning in verse 1, this is God's holy and errant and inspired word. Give careful attention to the reading of God's word. In those days when again a great crowd had gathered, they had nothing to eat. He called his disciples to him and said to them, I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now 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 far away. And his disciples answered him, How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place? And he asked them, How many loaves do you have? They said, Seven. And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them, and gave them to his disciples, to set before the people, and they set them before the crowd, and they had a few small fish, and he, having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full, and there were about four thousand people, and he sent them away. And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples, and went to the district of Dalmanutha. The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation. And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side. Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat, and he cautioned them, saying, Watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and the leaven of Herod. And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see? Having ears do you not hear? Do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? They said to him, twelve. And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, seven. And he said to them, Do you not yet understand? This is God's word. First, look with me at verses one through ten. Jesus feeds the sheep again. After Jesus had done some miraculous healings in Sidon and the Decapolis, he had a large crowd following him. And in verse 2, Jesus notes that this crowd had been following him and listening to him for three days with nothing to eat. And right from the start, I just want to briefly note what this mixed Jewish and Gentile crowd was hungry for. They had been with Jesus for three days, just listening to him preach and teach. They were spiritually hungry. They were forgoing food, physical food, because they wanted the word of God. They wanted to hear Jesus. They weren't worried about their bellies. Jesus was the one who took the initiative to say, hold on, you people have to eat. We have to feed this crowd before they faint on the way home. And I just want to make a small point here before we move on that the world is full of spiritually hungry people. People who need Jesus. People who may not know who he is or what he did. But we can say that they're spiritually hungry because God made them to glorify and enjoy him forever. It's the first question and answer of the shorter catechism. What's the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify and enjoy him forever. That's why we were made. And their souls are empty and starving because they're not doing that. And these people here, these Jews and Gentiles that were crowding around Jesus, were fasting for three days just to hear the word of God, to be spiritually fed, to hear Jesus preach. And the reason I point this out, because this is not the main point, the reason I'm making a point of this is to reassure all of us in our mission and our message. That mankind was put on this earth to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And that what we preach and teach, what we do here, is all about the word of life, the word of God that can show men what they were made for. So don't ever feel embarrassed about what we do here in the church. Don't apologize for what we do here. This is what starving souls are craving. These are the chosen means that God's given us to remake a broken world. This is meaty. This is weighty. It's the word of God. When people see Jesus, when they hear the whole counsel of God and truth, when they hear the word being read and preached and prayed and the sacraments displayed, they're being fed, and that's what we're here to do. We're here to worship God and make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the tools that he's given us are his word. Jesus recognized that though starving souls were being filled, their bellies were empty. Their bellies were empty. So he told his disciples his intention to feed this crowd. He wanted to feed this large crowd before they departed. And Jesus had done this in Mark chapter 6. He fed a huge crowd consisting of 5,000 people, 5,000 men, unknown numbers of women and children. But in response to hearing Jesus' intentions, the disciples asked, How can someone feed all these people? We're out here in a desolate place, there are no markets, there are no restaurants, there's nothing nearby, there's no towns. It's as if they'd already forgotten this miracle that had not even taken place a month ago. They're just a couple weeks away from Jesus feeding 5,000 people, and already they're saying, How could you do this? How can someone do this? They had physically witnessed Jesus feeding a larger crowd with five loaves and two fishes, and yet still they asked, How could this be done? But Jesus does essentially the same thing he did in chapter 6. He took the bread that they had and he blessed it, and he distributed it, feeding the entire crowd with seven baskets full left over. The same miracle he's already done, done once again. Jesus performed this miracle in front of an additional 4,000 people, proving himself to be the good shepherd who feeds the sheep. Now, what can you learn about Jesus in the second feeding of the multitude? What can we learn about Jesus here? Three things that I want you to note. First, the compassion of Christ, the compassion of Christ. That Jesus cares about the little things. He cares about the physical things. He cared about the empty bellies of the crowd, who are about to traverse the long way home with no calories. Those things matter to Jesus. He cares about you and all the little things that you don't think are worth considering. The things that you're too embarrassed to pray about, Jesus cares about all of them, and he's interceding for you at the right hand of God the Father. The small things matter to Jesus. By way of application, first off, you can pray for the small things in your life. You can pray for the small things in your life. As long as it's in accord with the will of God, as long as it's not in contradiction to his word, you can pray for it. Jesus cares about it. And then secondly, second application, if Jesus cared for the bellies of Gentiles on the hills of Sidon, how ought we to have compassion on our neighbors? How ought we to have compassion on those in need around us? Those who live around the lake? How easy is it to tangibly show the compassion that we've received in Christ? To show the love of Christ to our neighbors who are in need, to fill their empty bellies, to clothe cold shoulders. Because we follow our Lord Jesus Christ, we too must care about the little things. They must matter to us. We have to have the compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ for our community. That's the first thing. I want you to notice the compassion of Christ. Secondly, in this feeding of a multitude, I want you to see Jesus feeding people. Now that sounds silly. Of course he's feeding people. That's what the whole miracle is about. But remember, Mark's main question in the whole book is who is this Jesus? What is his identity? Who is the person? What is the work of Jesus Christ? And feeding people is an answer to that question. Feeding people is an answer to that question. In Isaiah 55, the suffering servant, the prophesied suffering servant, the true Israel, the Messiah, says to God's people, Come to me, you who are hungry, come, buy and eat. Without money, without price, buy what is good and be filled. That's what the Messiah does. He goes to God's people and he says, Come to me, buy and eat. Without money, without price, be filled on what is good. The Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of God's people, is the one who feeds God's people. And here, as Jesus has miraculously fed the second multitude, he's proving himself to be the prophesied Messiah. When he opens deaf ears, when he loosens mute tongues, when he opens blind eyes, when he feeds hungry people, he's fulfilling the Old Testament scriptures. When you see Jesus feeding a multitude, what can you learn from that? You can learn he's the one. He's the one that God's been telling us about all this time. Here is the Messiah. Here is the Christ of God. So what can you learn about Jesus first? He's compassionate. You see the compassion of Christ. Second, when you see Jesus feeding people, you know he is the Messiah. And thirdly, here in this passage, you see the mission of Christ. In this instance, he was feeding and preaching to a crowd not only of Jews, but a crowd of Jews and Gentiles. In this passage, you begin to see that Jesus is not just for the Jews. Jesus came for the nations. That through the seed of Abraham, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. He's expanding the covenant promises to all peoples, even to you and to me. You may have Jewish ancestry, I don't know, but most of us probably came from Europe or various places around the world. Gentiles. And through Jesus, all the covenant promises of God are available to us. In this second feeding of the multitude, you can be assured that Jesus is the Messiah. He's the one of whom the whole Old Testament spoke. He's the eternal Son of God who came to take away the sin of the world. And you can be assured that He's compassionate. That He cares not only for your soul, but for your belly and for all the small things that you think about. And you can be assured that He came for all nations, not just for the Jews, but for the Jews and the Greek for all people. In short, there's nothing new here. Jesus does what he always does, he's feeding the crowds again. This is who Jesus is. And none of this is new. We've seen all of this before. So Jesus feeds the crowds again. Let's look now at the Pharisees testing Jesus again. Look with me at verses 11 through 13. In light of the second miracle, in the light of the second feeding of a multitude, the Pharisees come out again to test Jesus. Now I hope that one thing's clear by now for all of you who've been with us through the Gospel of Mark, that the Pharisees weren't coming to Jesus in good faith. They weren't coming in good faith to have a nice theological debate. They weren't coming to be instructed. They weren't coming to have their questions answered. They were coming with full intentions of discrediting Jesus. They were coming to put him down, to protect their prestigious position as the religious leaders of God's people. They were the most righteous. They were the most knowledgeable. They were the true teachers of the flock of God. And so the Pharisees are coming with wicked hearts, intent on discrediting Jesus, on turning away anyone who would listen to Jesus. And so what they did was they approached Jesus asking for a sign. They were asking Jesus, who'd been performing the signs of healings, of exorcisms, of miraculous feedings, of calming storms, of opening deaf ears, mute tongues, blind eyes. This man who had done so many signs that thousands of people were flocking to him out in desolate places, they came to him and said, Could you give us a sign from heaven that you really are who you say you are? Could you give us a sign from heaven to prove your identity? It seems absurd for the Pharisees, in light of everything that Jesus had just done, to come and to ask him for a sign from heaven. It seems ridiculous. He'd just given them an incredible sign from heaven. He'd fed 4,000 people with seven loaves of bread. In response, Jesus sighs deeply and says, Why does this generation seek a sign? Why does this generation, the one right in front of him, seek a sign? Essentially saying, This generation who's witnessed more signs and wonders from God than any other generation before or since. This generation who had the privilege to live among God incarnate himself. And yet they come and ask me for a sign from heaven. How absurd it was in this moment to ask Jesus for a sign. Who just miraculously fed 4,000 people. What you see in this passage is very important. It's not facts. It's not about the facts. It's not facts which can produce faith or unbelief in a person. Hearing all the facts cannot make you a Christian. And hearing other facts cannot make you not a Christian. It's not about the facts. The facts are there. The truth is there independent of faith or unbelief. The truth is plain for all to see. The central factor in determining faith or unbelief is the heart of men. It's the heart of men. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 1, verse 18, that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Did you catch that? The wrath of God is revealed, it's a sign from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. What do unrighteous and ungodly men do? They suppress the truth. They suppress the truth. This is the 4th of July. Many of you were probably on the water this weekend. Maybe some of you had pool noodles or a volleyball in the water. And like all children do, you try to put it under the water. And you try to keep it under the water. You might be sitting on the pool noodle and you'll try to push this end down under the water, and when you do, this end pops up, and then you do the same thing, and you try to force the floating device, whatever it may be, under the water. And try with all your might. You cannot keep an object that floats under the water. It keeps popping up to the surface. It's just what it does. And that's what the Pharisees are experiencing here. And that's what all unrighteous men experience. Try as they may to suppress the truth and unrighteousness, it keeps popping up. It's an active suppression. It's not passive. There are no neutral people out there who just don't know enough to be a Christian. There are people who haven't heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. But all men are actively suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. Sinners hate God. You are suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. That's what the Pharisees are doing. The Pharisees and all sinners are men who are suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. They're throwing their whole weight, their whole being, their whole mind, their whole energy into resisting God, into suppressing the truth, rebelling against the truth. The Pharisees wanted a sign from heaven. Well, here it is for them. Their own wicked heart is a sign to them from heaven. All the consequences of sin are a sign to them from heaven, of the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth. That's what Paul says: the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. All sickness, suffering, death, all evil in the world is a sign to them from heaven of their own wicked hearts. The Pharisees didn't need another sign. They didn't need more facts. They needed repentance. They needed soft hearts. They were bitter. They were prideful. They were self-righteous. They were too busy suppressing the truth to realize who Jesus was. They were too busy to study the scriptures that they claimed to be experts on to realize that Jesus was the center, the focus of all of them. Could it be that you are like the Pharisees? That you think you need more facts to believe who Jesus is? You just need more facts to believe the scriptures. You need to learn history a little bit better if you can truly trust in the Bible. If you can truly believe that Jesus died and was resurrected from the grave. Do you think that you need more facts? Do you think that you need a sign from heaven? God has given you all that you need. He's here. Christ is here in God's word. And it's manifestly plain. It's simple. It's all here, and the truth shines out like a diamond. You are a sinner in need of a savior. God sent his son in the likeness of human flesh, who took on flesh, who bore the full wrath of God for your sin, for all of his elect people. And in turn, he offers you that righteousness. You don't need more facts, you don't need more signs. You need to repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you're convicted by that word and you think that might be right, it might be that I have all the facts I need. The problem is my own wicked heart. If you are convinced that maybe you really are a sinner and you earnestly want to repent and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, then I would encourage you to go and seek an elder of Christ's church. Come and talk to me after the service. Talk to your local pastor and pray that God would soften your heart, that you would be set free, that you might stop suppressing the truth and embrace Jesus Christ. The Pharisees came testing Jesus again, asking him for a sign. But to those who suppress the truth and unrighteousness, no sign will be given. You must repent and believe. Look with me at verses 14 through 21. As the disciples and Jesus get into the boat and set up to the other side, Jesus was preparing to deliver a lesson to his disciples, a valuable teaching moment in light of the Pharisees' recent test. But just before he gets to that, Mark gives you a detail that precipitates everything which follows. He puts this asterisk in there, this detail, by the way, the disciples forgot to pack food for the journey. They forgot bread. They only had one single loaf of bread for 13 men during their travels. And that's the detail that Mark includes for us. Now let's look at Jesus' lesson for his disciples in verse 15. So Jesus, having just dealt with these accusations, these tests from the Pharisees, he wants to warn his disciples of two dangerous errors. Two errors. The errors of the Pharisees and the error of Herod. And he calls these two errors leaven. Leaven. Now, if you don't know what leaven is, if you missed out on the sourdough movement, leaven is a fermenting agent. When added to dough, it rapidly will feed on unfermented dough, on sugars and carbohydrates, and I'm probably talking above my pay grade. Until the whole thing is a gaseous reaction filled with bubbles, which in the case of bread, I would argue makes the bread exponentially better. My wife Nylan, if you've had her sourdough bread, it's delicious, it's wonderful. I don't really know what she does, but she does it and it comes out and it's great. It's really delicious. But in Jesus' lesson here, leaven is actually used negatively. It's not a good thing, it's a bad thing. Meaning that in these two errors, the errors of the Pharisee and the error of Herod can spread in the church like leaven in a lump of dough. They can spread like gangrene, consuming everything available, rotting and decaying the whole body of the church, ruining the lives of the people who imbibe these errors. So as good of a thing as leaven is in this particular lesson, it's a bad thing. So what are these two leavens? What are these two errors that Jesus is teaching us? The error of the Pharisees is self-righteous pride. Self-righteous pride. We've already talked about this a little bit. This is the person who thinks they know better than everyone else. That they should be in charge, that they are the most righteous. The error of the Pharisees doesn't actually desire the good of anyone else. They don't actually want their fellow church members to grow in holiness, to do better, to be better. They enjoy their position. They just like pointing out the flaws in other people. They want everything to reflect themselves. They want to shine. It's all about them. They want the glory. It's this self-righteous pride which causes these Pharisees to live in this unrepentant state, suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. The second error is the error of Herod. And the error of Herod is a little bit different. If you're visiting with us this morning, if you're new here, we covered the error of Herod in a previous sermon on Mark chapter 6. Mark chapter 6, verses 14 through 29. If you're interested, you can go listen to it on our church's podcast. I'm not going to redo all of that here in this sermon, but just to summarize, Herod knew in his heart that there was something attractive about the truth. He had John the Baptist in his own private prison, and he would go listen to John the Baptist preach. And we were actually told that he enjoyed listening to John the Baptist preach. He was interested in it. He wanted to believe it. He wanted deep down to embrace the gospel of John the Baptist and be free. But he couldn't because he had to protect his pet's sins. His lust. He was too lustful to repent. He was too attached to his favorite sins to give them up, to kill them. His lusts were too strong. He decided to keep his pet sins and live in the prison of his own conscience. Rather than killing his sin and living free before God. This is the person who wants to be a Christian, who claims to be a Christian, who tries to be a Christian, but can never cut loose of their sins, who can never repent of their sins. This is the leaven of Herod. So Jesus is warning his disciples of these two errors. He's trying to use this as a teaching moment to point out two dangers that can overtake them. The dangers of the Pharisees and the danger of Herod. But as soon as he said leaven, the disciples had one thing on their mind, which was bread. And I guess that happened to me because as soon as I said leaven, I talked about bread. They had one thing on their mind: bread. Oh no, we forgot the bread. And so here we have a third error: the error of the disciples. These disciples who still didn't fully trust Jesus. Who didn't trust Jesus enough to stop thinking about bread and listen to what he was teaching them. To what Jesus thought was such a valuable thing to say, hey, you need to beware of these two errors. But no, they heard bread, and all they can think about is bread. They've witnessed all of these healings, they've witnessed all the exorcisms, they've witnessed Jesus calming two storms on the Sea of Galilee. He's now fed two multitudes. And they're still concerned that they forgot to pack enough bread. So concerned that they entirely miss what Jesus is trying to teach them. They were so worldly minded, so consumed with the practical matters of ministry that they missed their Messiah, who is teaching them something far more important. They were acting like Martha, running around busying themselves when they should have been more like Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus. And Jesus patiently gets to their hearts, asking, Do you not yet understand? Do you not see? Are your hearts hardened? This isn't about bread. It was never about bread. Don't you remember how I fed 5,000 and how many baskets you took up, and then how I fed 4,000 and how many baskets you took up? Don't you get it? I'm with you. I'm here. You don't have to worry about it. Listen to me. This is a lesson that we need to learn as we gather together in worship as we seek to disciple the nations here at Lake Martin. As we study God's word together, you must never lose sight of this. In everything we do, we do it in dependence upon God, trusting Him. We are fed by His Word, we are led by His Spirit, we are renewed by His grace. All we have to do is be faithful to His Word, to proclaim His Word, to sow the seeds, and we sit back and watch God give the growth. We have to trust Him. We can't let our focus drift from that foundation. We must keep our eyes on Christ. We must trust Him completely. And so easy as we see in this text to get fixated on the wrong things and miss Jesus. The disciples had just seen Jesus multiply seven loaves to feed 4,000 men and immediately miss Jesus because they were so occupied with bread. And you and I are no better. We can be just as easily distracted. We must learn from these three errors that our hearts can be hardened and we can miss the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me tie all these things together. In this passage, you've seen Jesus, compassionate, the loving Messiah, the Christ, feeding hungry bellies and starving souls. And then you've seen the Pharisees stuck in their blind unbelief, suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, too prideful to repent and believe in Jesus. And you've seen the disciples too preoccupied with physical bread that they missed what Jesus was trying to teach them yet again. And so the question that we started with, I'm going to ask you again: are your hearts hardened? Are you too self-righteous to admit that you're a sinner in need of grace? Are you too committed to your pet sin, to your secret lust, to repent and believe? Are you too consumed with practical concerns that you continually miss Jesus? I hope the answer this morning is emphatically no. That you can say with a clean conscience that you need Jesus more than any bread this world has to offer. Even the best sourdough bread is not as good as the bread of life. That's the bread you need. And if your answer this morning is that your heart is hard, that it is difficult for you to deny your flesh, it's difficult for you to lay down your pride. And I want you to do this. I want you to pray. And I want you to ask God to help you, to give you sight, to soften your heart, by his spirit to set you free from your sin, and to help you to embrace Jesus Christ as he's freely offered in the gospel. Let's pray for that now. Abba Father, Holy God, we thank you for what we see of Christ in this passage. We're reminded that He is compassionate. He cares even about the small things like the bread we eat. And that we're shown once again that He truly is the Messiah, the Savior of the world, and that He came for all the nations. And yet we're reminded in this text how easy it is to harden our hearts and miss the Lord Jesus Christ. So we pray specifically this morning that anything that would so easily entangle us, anything that would be a stumbling block, to us coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, for anyone here who doesn't know him, we pray that you would remove all obstacles. We pray that you'd soften our hearts. We pray that you would open our blind eyes, that we might behold our Savior and receive and rest upon him by faith alone as he's freely offered in the gospel. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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Thank you for listening to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church Podcast. If this message encouraged you, please consider sharing it with someone else. To learn more about our church, including worship times and upcoming events, visit LakemartinPCA.com. We'd love to have you join us.