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Intro Story
Intro Story
The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
The disciples and Jesus are surrounded by people in need.
So why does he recommend that they go away?
But there is a time to rest and a time to work
A time to go and a time to stay.
Jesus understands rhythms.
In the midst of helping others, are you going into the secluded place to be with Jesus?
It is much easier to do than to feel.
When we become vulnerable with someone, it will expose us to our feelings. Which can be great. When we are vulnerable we are able to experience true joy and happiness wiht someoneone. We can be known by someone.
But we also are exposed to the pain that we try and hide. We relive or open up wounds.
If we are honest we would rather do external mechanical work than do internal vulnerable work.
We would rather be a tool in Jesus’ hand than a person in his arms.
When we live mechanically, we lose our humanity, forgetting who we are, that we have value and are loved. It is a miserable way to live.
And that is what Jesus is trying to keep from happening to the disciples.
But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.
“Everybody loves a hero, people line up for them, cheer for them, scream their names, and years later tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to catch a glimpse of the one who told them to hold on a little longer.” - Aunt May
When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.
The compassion of Jesus moves him towards those in need.
And when it was already late, His disciples came up to Him and said, “This place is secluded and it is already late;
This seems incredibly practical right. The physical needs of the people dictate that they need food, and the disciples do not have the resources to help them.
The problem is not that they notice that the people are hungry.
The problem is they have missed Jesus.
They have put the problem before the person.
Jesus teaches his disciples to instead always put the person before the problem.
How does this happen to someone? None of us set out to do this?
Success
Success is a dangerous drug.
Success had caused the disciples to lose the person and be focused on doing the next thing.
And it is still true to today.
Mary Bell is a Counselor who write
“ Achievement is the alchol of our time…These days, the best people do not abuse alchol. they abuse their lives… You’re successful, so good things happen. You complete a project and you feel dynamite. That feeling doesnt last forever and you slide back to normal. You think “I’ve got to start a new porject” - which is still normal. But you love the feeling of euphoria so you have to get it again. The problem is you cannot stay on that High…”
send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread, and give it to them to eat?”
Tim Keller , the Late pastor to New York City, with a church full of incredibly successful people writes in his book “counterfeit gods”
“ If your success is more than just success… if it is the measure of your value and worth, then the accomplishment in one area will make you believe you are an experit in all… This distorted view of ourselves is part of the blindness to reality the bible says accomplishes idolatry”
Success easily leads to being unable to see what Jesus can do believe we believe we are ourselves saviors.
And we may find ourselves with the disciples standing their looking at Jesus saying “this is all that we have. what are we supposed to do?”
Jesus never asks us to do something that he has not already equipped you for or is going to finish.
Everyone should know that the place that Jesus has chosen is not an accident. The solitude