Hunger(Matthew 15:29-39)

𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫(𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐰 𝟏𝟓:𝟐𝟗-𝟑𝟗)

Contact: amazedandperplexed@gmail.com
Music by: Heavensense
https://soundcloud.com/hvnsen 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, my name is Connor, and I'm Jason, and you are listening to the Amazed and Perplexed Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Well, I want to welcome you in. This morning we are going to be focusing on Matthew 15. And uh, if you're new uh to the program, uh we are walking behind Jesus, looking over his shoulder, trying to notice the people around him, the context that's there, uh, to give dignity to all the players, if you will, in every story, as well as asking ourselves, and this is the focal point of our of our time together, what amazes and perplexes us, just serving as a model for you, the listener, uh, to consider scripture just another lens uh to become more and more comfortable and finding the new of the living and active scripture that God offers us. So in Matthew, uh, we are coming back. We've been in John for a few chapters because there are just some very specific John things that the other Gospels don't feature. Uh, a little bit odd to nail down timeline, but we're going back in the Matthew account, Matthew 15, beginning in verse 29, uh, and he's just healed this woman's daughter. Uh, and we covered that I don't know how many episodes ago. And so he's leaving there and he's going to the Sea of Galilee, but kind of setting us up. Uh, Connor, anything that would be good for us to be thinking as we walk into this situation.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Yeah, I think this is uh it's funny, Jason and I spent a good 15 minutes trying to figure out where we're gonna go with this. And and then now just actually, I was just staring at the passage and I was like, oh yeah, I think maybe this is where God should should have us today. Uh as I speak, I think it's November 5th. Um in the United States, there's a government shutdown that's affecting SNAP um benefits. And so I think in the county we're in right now, one in five children um are uh beneficiaries of of the Snap program, food assistance. Um and so it man, it just feels very uh very real, real to me. Um we live in such a blessed time where in a blessed place where like food scarcity, um, when we speak of food scarcity, usually it's in the context of like healthy food, not just like calories, you know. Um and to know that for most of human history, uh the struggle to find and get enough calories to get to the next day was basically all that consumed uh consumed people. And so we're gonna hear a story about she's feeding 4,000. Um, and I'm gonna try to keep my my perspective on um, you know, I've had I've had fasts in my life. Um I have there have been times in my life where I didn't have as much money to eat as much as I maybe not as much as I would or eat the things that I would want to eat. Um, but also just try to get in the mindset of like of I I know people that at certain times in their life food has been truly scarce and they weren't sure where they were going to eat. Uh they went, you know, for dinner, they went to bed, you know, that sort of that sort of deal. Um and so I just want to keep keep that perspective open. Um, that when you're hungry, your brain operates in a different way than when you're satiated. When you don't have the proper nutrients to uh do all the tasks you need to do, your mind becomes very singularly focused. Um and yeah, I I think it I think it's just really important because I'm not in danger of starving. I don't think Jason's in danger of starving either. Um, but yet there could be people around us that now begin to have more of these fears than they might usually, uh, but then also recognize that this would have been a much bigger fear just continually throughout human history, especially the people that we're gonna read about today.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

I really, yeah, I really appreciate that perspective. We run a food pantry, our our church runs a food pantry every Tuesday, and uh they were it wasn't quite twice as many as they usually serve yesterday. This is a Wednesday, um, but uh it was a noticeable increase. Uh and so I think that's really good framing. I'm gonna jump right into verse 29 there of Matthew 15. It says, Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee, then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and laid them at his feet, and he healed them. The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they praised the God of Israel. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I have compassion for these people. They have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way. His disciple dance his disciples answered, Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd? How many loaves do you have? Jesus asked. Seven, they replied, and a few small fish. He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given the thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turned to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadin. What do you think about that pronunciation? Magadin? Magadin, I assume. There it is. Just like Jesus said it. So what about this fascinating encounter uh jumps out at you?

SPEAKER_00 5:40

What amazes you, Connor? I think I'm gonna cheat. I think I'm gonna go with perplexing because it's just what's on my mind. So I'm so fascinated by uh the comparison between this and the previous uh feeding of many, many thousands of people. And that does need to be said. I remember growing up, I didn't realize there were two mass feedings. Well, I think I think I think in like Bible class, when you're a kid, it's like I wouldn't try to like, you know, differentiate the two. It wouldn't be super important to me. You just be like, you just gotta know there's some fishies, there's some loaves, and you know, somehow, somehow. Everyone ate well. Everyone ate well. But I I'm I'm really interested. I went back and and pulled up um pulled up Matthew 14, where the interplay is where it says, This is a remote place and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food. That's the disciples speaking to Jesus. And then it says Jesus replied, They do, they did uh they do not need to go away. You give them something to eat. Um, and it's this almost combative, like, you know, weird like back and forth that the disciples have with Jesus. And then this one, this is all started off um with Jesus calling to his disciples to come to him, and they're like, Hey, I've got compassion for them. And so I'm just really I'm really perplexed. Um I'm really I'm really perplexed at at why why the difference for Jesus. Um is it because like they've already been through this? Like, you know, why was Jesus acting that way the first time around? I'm just really like there seems to be a material difference in how the emotions of Jesus, how how how emotional Jesus is about this situation, how he fed these people and how he's feeding the people before.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Yeah, that that's the perfect nexus of my perplexion is not just Jesus' response. I just feel like everybody, it's weird. It's just weird. You know, it's like this just happened. I uh we don't know how many days were between, but it's not a long period of time. You wouldn't forget. Yeah, it's it's just it's baffling the whole thing. I would think the apostle would be like, hey, we know what's next. Uh, and we've found even more fish than we had last time, or more bread than we had last time, you know? And it's like, I don't understand any of this. Like, like it's so weird, you know, when people say, Well, I don't know if we can trust the canonization process. This would be one of the things I'd be like, well, that might explain this because it just seems like, how did you forget? Now, the next chapter in Matthew, he will literally say, Hey, remember when I fed 5,000? They're like, uh-huh. Remember when I fed 4,000? Uh-huh. If that passage wasn't in there, I'd be like, is this a redundancy?

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Like to describe two, or like, did like two people reporting the story back and somebody's like, it was 4,000, it was 5,000. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Yeah. And so, so his own words say these are two different occurrences, but it just relates that idea. If if I'm like, oh Jesus, I don't know how you'll solve this in my life today. And uh, well, now that I'm saying it, I'm like, I know exactly how this happens because I'm like, I have a bill to pay and I don't know how I'm gonna pay it, and then the money comes through, and then two days later I have a bill to pay. Even I will think, well, God will probably come through because he came through last time. But is there that part of them that is so human that it's almost escaped them? Like this feels somehow qualitatively different enough to not think, hey, here's bread. Like, I I just don't understand how this conversation isn't. Hey, Jesus, I'm noticing we have bread and fish just like last time.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Well, it's interesting. I I I've often wondered, like, is it the feeling of like so it says Jesus says, They have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat? And it's like in the disciples' mind, there are they are they actively hungry too all the time? Because like, you know, they're they're just people back then and you were just hungry. That's just what you were if you were not extremely wealthy. And in their minds, they're like, Well, if this isn't all the time, if this isn't any the time, any time that Jesus wants to, sort of thing, he would do it more. Because like, I'm hungry, and I'm maybe I'm watching Jesus, and I know that Jesus is probably gonna be hungry because maybe he, you know, and so it's like that like logical trying to think it out of like, well, if I could magically make food appear, I would never allow myself to be hungry. I would always be satiated. And maybe they're seeing the fact that it's like, well, G's eating the same thing we're eating, and so maybe there there has to be this weird like r justification or trying to explain it all away, because like in the mind of somebody who is is not God or not trying to follow after God, that it makes zero sense on why you wouldn't ever choose to not be fully satiated, say fully satiated.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Yeah, I that is a really good observation, and I think the the another thing that magnifies this can you imagine you and I are together and we're out at a remote place, and it's not till the third day that we would say, Hey, we should probably get something to eat. I mean, that would be now we can make some assumptions they brought some food, maybe the first couple days they were eating off of whatever each individual person family brought with them. I guess that's possible. But if I'm with a large crowd and I'm with them more than three hours, if I don't have a plan for feeding them, yeah, I mean it's just such a different worldview in that regard.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

It is funny because I think back to when I was a youth pastor and like how what a big deal was if like I didn't order the correct number of pizzas, like oh no, if we ran out of pizza, like can you can you imagine like all the the horror of uh of running out of pizza for all the kids that you know had zero chance of missing, didn't miss for certain didn't miss their breakfast, for sure didn't miss their dinner. There'd also be snacks there, but like they might not have enough pizza. Like it's so funny, but that was a big deal. It was like it was how it was a it was in it happened once or twice and it was embarrassing. And I was like, I can make sure that never happens again. I will always always become a few.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Yeah, you're scarred. Yeah, yeah, forever. The first year I was at Memorial Drive Church of Christ, we ho that church hosted and has for for the whole time that workshop was running this uh Wednesday night. They called it the feeding of the 5,000. And for the record, never more than about 800 people there. But um, and they would just wind this line through, and it was always chicken. I mean, it's just stereotyped chicken. I don't know why, but this year, my first year, I assume it's my fault somehow. But they underordered or more people showed up, and we were getting to the end, and there was still a hundred something people, you know, that were winding down this hallway, and we were running out of this chicken. And so uh Terry sent me to buy pizzas, and I felt so guilty. Like I was apologizing to people. Keep in mind, all this was free food for them. But as they're walking, I'm like, I'm so sorry, we're out of chicken. I'm so sorry. Like we're still feeding them pizza, but I'm like, I'm just so sorry. I know this isn't the experience you expected. And and that just I can't, this whole thing is mind-blowing to me, you know, that that people would be so consumed. Like, I think if I went to uh my my stepmom recently had a fall and they thought it was gonna be bad and ended up being like amazingly good relative to what the severity that it was supposed to, in our minds gonna happen. And so I'm like, but if somebody's doing that instantaneously, how long would that hold my attention? You know, oh, he just cast out that demon. Oh, that guy was blind and he could see. Oh, and I mean, and like definitive, no like production, you know. Um, Jesus is not like, hey, everybody, watch this. He just heals the person and moves on to the next guy. And so that's not exactly true. There are times he draws attention, I guess. But anyway, my point is they are so consumed with both his message and his behavior that they're getting to day three. Like, like I would seriously, there's no world that I'm not with my family, and we've run out of food, and I'm like, guys, we better start heading back on day one. Yeah, you know what I mean? And so they're I guess is what amazes me, they're so consumed with this experience, it's not even if they notice it, it's not defining them. And I think it has something to do with the fact they they dealt with hunger in a very different way than I do.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Because I do have the magic of always having food. I'm just having to choose what food will eventually kill me and what food will keep me alive. But but my choices are totally different than theirs.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, man, that actually that is also what amazes me. I don't know if I'd I'd really been able to think about it until you articulate it in that way. But uh the fact that Jesus is keeping their attention and keeping them around and it isn't this panicked, you know, whatever. In 31, it says the people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the cripple made well, and the lame walking and the blind seeing, and they praised the God of Israel. And so it's like obviously the end of that is um the end of like right before Jesus will start feeding them, there's something about what's happening around Jesus and what Jesus is doing, where the people like the magnitude of what they're not just exper all people experiencing the healing, but what they're also witnessing is is so grand and so magnificent that the the feeling of hunger um and the worries about where the next meal is are I want to say paltry, but they're they're not as important as what they're witnessing. Um and so man, I I think so often about my own discomfort, and I will chase away my discomfort at whatever cost almost. Discomfort is is is feel it's not the case, but it feels as it's the great sin of uh of our day and age, or the fear, you know, it's the thing to be avoided at all costs. Um, but yet their picture of of what God is doing through Jesus, what Jesus is doing here now, is so good that like their literal hunger, like not just like me like hungry because I didn't get my three square meals a day, but like actual hunger because they don't have enough calories for their bodies to operate in the way that they're supposed to. Um they're so transfixed on what Jesus is doing that that doesn't matter. And man, that is just that is really beautiful to me.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Yeah, I so so this is um I I think I was raised a critic of big crowds showing up and revival and things like that, which sounds so weird. But Churches of Christ, in my experience in the US, now that's just my experience, but slow and steady, you know, there was uh we might have a campaign, um, go door knocking, this kind of thing. But I mean, if two people joined the church, it'd be like, man, that was a big success, you know. And then we'd hear, oh man, this guy preached in India and 5,000 people were baptized. Well, then you find out from the people that lived in India, it's like, yeah, 5,000 people were baptized this weekend, and then another preacher came and 10,000 people prayed Jesus into their heart the next week. 5,000 of those people are the same way, you know what I mean? So it's a little bit cynical. I think a Pentecost, you know, this kind of thing, and and just in general, I think when I preach, there's this subconscious or teaching anyway. I'm like, how much can you tolerate? Matter of fact, we talk, there's a quote from a book called Canoeing the Mountains that Tim Rush has shared with us, you know, that good leadership is disappointing people at a rate they can absorb. And I think with the way the church is structured now, that's a really legitimate um concept. And we try to, okay, we don't want to shock our people and you know what I mean, be be too, we want to keep pushing, keep growing, but we don't want to be too offensive too quickly, you know, this kind of thing. When I hear of some of like these college revivals that have happened, you know, in recent months, and man, they started and then they went all night or three days and this kind of thing. I'm like, because I believe in God and because I'm I try to be a trusting person of other people of faith, I'm like, I'm gonna say that's legit. I I don't know if I even want to be there. And I'm just owning that. And it's like, why would you not want to be there? I just like I haven't had that experience where I'm like, oh, day after day after day is so amazing. Like I like I have a few hours experience and it's really intense and really beautiful, maybe, maybe a weekend, but if there's a lot of structure, you know, like I'm at a retreat or something, and that was really good. But the idea of going to someplace, expecting to be there a few hours, and then being there a few days, that is just not my lived experience. And it's one of those things that by faith, I believe that's legit. I believe it's good. I certainly believe this happened with Jesus, but I'm talking about more today. But then if somebody was like, Man, we need to have a revival, Jace, we need to have something to that you would be part of that people would come and stay for days. I'm like, man, when I've been in charge of stuff for days, it's challenging to keep them for days when we've already set the expectation they've been for days. I can't imagine just voluntarily missing meals and and doing this. And I'm like, man, is that my faith so tiny, so, so, so tiny. And Tim talks about scaffolding, like we put scaffolding around stuff we can't allow God to breathe, you know. And I don't I don't even know, it's just more of a confession than anything. You know, that this is an example of one of those times that I don't think he said, Hey, we're going out for three days in the wilderness and we're gonna do this camping experiential spiritual thing. Um that'd be $800, please. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and I and I'm just like, man, that's I don't know. I don't know. It just is something that that I again, it's not that I'm saying I don't believe it happens for other people, it's never happened for me. And it's just hard to put myself in that space.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Yeah, you know, I think I I share a lot of your skepti your natural skepticism, um, but I do think there is power in still choosing to both trust in God and trust in in the church that that those things are legitimate. Um and I think not uh I think having skepticism is I think okay and being shrewd is is okay. Um, but still choosing to trust and not feel the need to tear down, I think is is really um I think it's a healthy place to be. I don't think it's the apex of where we need to be. Because I also man, I've known people that that chase this sort of high, you know, where it's like you're if if you're not having revival, you're not actually doing this whole thing. Yeah. And so again, like we talk about all the time, there's a pendulum swing back and forth. But I do think for for personalities like you and me who um have a natural skepticism towards these things, I think it's a good challenge to to be um to be more open, uh to be more open to those possibilities and those opportunities. Because I think we've taken a good step, and I'm I'm on the same page, same page as you of of hearing about different things and having some maybe initial skepticism, but just laying it at the feet of Jesus, you know what I'm gonna trust, I'm gonna trust God, I'm gonna trust um trust my brothers and sisters that it it it's good and it's legitimate. Um but I also think man, if you were like, hey Jay, if you you invited me out to do something, to have some sort of spiritual experience on on the weekend, and you're like, it'd be a few hours, but it could be great, fantastic. But you're like, but it might turn into a two to three-day thing. I'd be like, well, I can't do that. I'm out on that. Yeah. But but if you were to like guarantee, like also you're gonna feel the presence of God and the spirit's gonna come and people are gonna get healed, and there's gonna be the blind are gonna see and this miraculous teaching and healing. I'd be like, okay, well that that you know that that sounds more reasonable, but am I putting myself in the place to experience those things, right? Because like I want the guarantee, like I want to be able to go sign up on a website and be like, okay, I will grow in this way, I will experience this sort of teaching and this sort of programming. Um, and I think this is can be a microcosm of following Jesus, where it's like, I think most of the time following Jesus is not one big revival moment. I think it's mostly slow things interspersed with some big, big mountaintop moments. Um but because of my natural aversion to the mountaintop, to the revival type feeling as being the sole way of doing it, I I think I oftentimes probably miss out. I think I'll get to the end of my life, and there'll been times where like if I just dove headfirst into something or been willing for something to be bigger um than it was in a moment, that God would be like, Yeah, Connor, that would have turned into a three day revival. If you'd if you had if you had been open to hearing and listening, you would have seen it. And now there are other and then there's other sides, you know. I'm not saying It's all bad that like I need to go, all I need to do is chase after revival or chase after that um experience. But I think it's something similar to what we've talked about with miracles in general. Um, like I I need to be more open to both praying to God to do miraculous works in me and through me, and I also need to be willing to pray to God, like, hey, God, make me interruptible enough that I I could experience something like this. Because I'm not interruptible enough to experience something like this.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

That's right. And and you know, I don't know why I didn't use the word skeptic, but that's what it is. And I recognize I was trained to be a skeptic. I was trained that if you're not experiencing yourself, it probably doesn't exist, and then it's only amplified by the dynamic of I'm doing a work trying to reach people, and I'm reaching five people a year. I don't know, one person a year, whatever, one person every 20 years. Uh, and then a church comes to town and they've oh, they reached 5,000 people in half an hour, you know, and I'm like, well, they must have been watering it down, or it must be entertainment, or it must be, you know, which like, or it's like, you know, for me, it's like, oh, well, are those people really gonna their lives gonna be really changed?

SPEAKER_00 23:03

Are they just gonna go back to doing the same thing before? Yeah, let's see where that is a month from now. And and again, maybe that's valid, maybe it's not, but also it's like people got fed, you know? And it's like for me, what I need to look in the mirror oftentimes is when I have that skepticism. It's okay to be like, man, I really, I really hope, I really hope there there's some long-term impact in that. And that's like true revival does come with long-term impact. But it's also like, man, I shouldn't minimize starving people when they get fed, you know? Yes. I've lost that whole thread in my thinking, so thank you. No, but still, but like still, like if a revival is people desperate and hungry for the word of God and and hungry for the you know, thirsty for the living water, and they get fed, and maybe it's just for a night or a couple nights, and then like maybe there's some you know backtracking or there isn't the long-term uh change that I would personally hope to see as evidence for the movement of God. Like, yeah, but maybe people tasted for a night, and maybe people drank for a night. And it's like, when did why is that not good enough for me? Like, why is it not good enough for me? Uh the answer is like the answer is lack of faith and belief for me. Um, it's not about them.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Yeah, and one thing that's just been proven over and over again, you may have a lot of ideals, but what you believe is what you tell yourself over and over and over again, much of it subconscious. And and that's it. I've told myself over and over and over again that it doesn't work like that, whatever it is. The other thing that jumps into my mind then in relation to this, and I think this is just really remarkable, Jesus, when he points back, and we'll get to this in a few episodes, but when he points back to this event, he is not how do I say this? If we had an event, you and I were like, we're gonna lead an event, and 5,000, you know, men and women, 10,000 people show up, you know, and then the next day all those people disperse and we may or may not ever see them again. I think the church at large would say that's a failure. Absolutely, you know, and then if a few weeks later or days later, if we feed 4,000 people, maybe some are the same, maybe the tall different group, uh, plus women and children, you know, so 8,000 or whatever, and then the next day it's just down to the 12, we'd feel like a failure.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Man, Jason, I feel this, I feel this in my personal life. I don't because I don't have a professional ministry that somebody pays me to build, like what my personal ministry is can feel so like it feels uh sometimes like a flag floating in the wind, where it's like my what my personal ministry is one week is is is almost solely being the most gracious father and husband that I possibly can be. And then other weeks God puts somebody in front of me that has a faith crisis, and for whatever reason I happen to be in the right time and position, and it's like then I'm with that person for a week or two working through things, and then suddenly that person moves on. And it's like I'm not there's no numbers for me to keep track of. There's no um I'm I'm not buying into like a church system so much that like for me, success is well, there are more people on a Sunday, or there are more people on a Wednesday night, or there are more people at a small group. And so for me, even though I know those things are not a measure of the way that God's views them, because my like my ministry is so um it is is is like a walk, you know, in the wilderness, people in and out, and some constants of of family and some very close friends, um, man, it can feel I can often invalidate what God does in my life because it's I don't have that solid thing that I'm not there's not a foundation that I can exactly point to that I'm oh I'm building that up, I'm building that up. Um and so this is something I struggle with. Oh, maybe daily might be strong, but it's it's a feeling that I I will often invalidate things that God does in my life because um I don't have the tangible numbers that I used to get used to get.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

Well, and as a person that is employed, one of my biggest fears is I am standing in the way of God. Like there's something I'm doing non-intentionally because I'm afraid, because I don't think big enough, uh, because of my skepticism, whatever it is, that I'm holding something back. And if I could just get out of the way, then God would really work. And I think that does happen sometimes, you know. Uh a long term, I've been in the same church for 20 something years, and it's like, I'll bet you if I got out of the way and they brought somebody else in, other things would happen. And and it's not about me feeling insecure about my salvation or even my personal ministry. I really love what I do, but the fact of the matter is I I'm a human and I hold stuff back, and so I think that is really interesting. The other thing that pops, there's two things that pop in my head. Number one, there is no record of David on his way to the battlefield saying, I'm gonna kill me a giant. There's no record of Joshua, you know, thinking beforehand, you know what we should do? We should walk around these walls. They didn't know the mess mission of God and weren't confident of it often until it was happening. And so I'm really grateful that they were living a lot like we were living. You wake up, you do your best. You know, when when Peter and John heal the guy at the temple, they weren't going there to heal the guy at the temple, they were just going to pray, they were just doing their routine, you know. And I think that's important because we we hinge on, at least my history, hinge on do you see how many 30,000 people were bachelor, and then 5,000, and then we think that they're always joining these big mega churches. Most of the first couple hundred years of Christianity, the church was whoever is in their house, you know, and maybe their neighborhood, they weren't meeting with hundreds of people. And and so the organization of our churches over the last whatever thousand years or how many hundreds of years, it I'm not saying it's evil, but it does mislead us that healthy churches are the big churches. Uh, and it and it's just really, yeah. Yeah. I I could go on and on about that, but I'm I'm mostly saying that say this affects me that I I preach to a group of people that maybe you know 300 people or whatever, and I'm like, so what if that drops to 50? Or what if it jumps to a thousand? And I'm like, I don't want it to be a thousand, honestly. But but but for me, it's like I want to have a heart that's like you gave me 50, fabulous. You gave me two, fabulous, you gave me a thousand, fabulous, and I'm just recognizing I am the problem sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 29:16

I man, I just want to wrap up. It's one of my favorite episodes, and right now, if I can speak quickly enough, it might come in under 30 seconds, 30 minutes, which would be miraculous. But I gotta speak quickly. I just want to say, man, this is what the kingdom of God looks like. It looks like people being fed, it looks like the blind seeing and the sick being healed and the captives being set free. And so if you find yourself in a position, you know, especially right now with uh all the all the needs, all the physical needs to be met, um, feeding somebody, even if it's just for one night, even if it's pizza when they thought they were gonna get chicken, um, you know, that's that's still what the kingdom of God looks like. And so, you know, go forth and do likewise. Grace, peace, and love, you know.