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Welcome to our look through Mark chapter 8 in Daily Drive Time Devotions. We're
looking at verses 9 to 21 today. This is our second look, second day.

We began to look at the feeding of the 4,000 yesterday. And today we're going to
see what happens next. In just a few moments we're going to talk about the
disciples and the confusion that they faced.

And I think you're going to be able to relate to this challenge that they had to
grow in faith. But before the disciples, listen to what happened with the
teachers, the Pharisees of that day after this great miracle that he worked. In
verses 9, the last half of verse 9 through verse 12, "And having sent them away,
he got into the boat with the disciples and went into the region of Dalmuntheia.

The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for
a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, 'Why does this generation ask for
a miraculous sign?

I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it. '" Now here's what's amazing
to me about what happens here. Jesus has been healing people all day long,
practically every day.

He's just fed 4,000 with a few loaves and fish. And here are these Pharisees
asking him for a sign? Are they blind?

How could they have missed it? You know, I've found that when people come to
Jesus with their honest doubt, he shows himself to them in more ways than they
could possibly have imagined. As Elizabeth Barrett Browning said, "Earth's
crammed with heaven and every common bush afire with God.

" And those who come to God with honest doubt see that. But I've also found
this. I found that what someone is calling a doubt is really a selfish
attachment to their own agenda.

There's really no sign that's good enough. And that's what these Pharisees were
facing in that day. That's what happened with the Pharisees.

Now listen to what happened with the disciples. "And then," in verse 13, "then
he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side. The
disciples had forgotten to bring bread except for one loaf they had with them in
the boat.

'Be careful,' Jesus warned them. 'Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and
that of Herod. ' They discussed this with one another and said, 'Is it because
we have no bread?

' Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them, 'Why are you talking about having
no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?

Do you have eyes but fail to see and ears but fail to hear and don't you
remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many
basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? ' 'Twelve,' they replied, 'and when I
broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did
you pick up?

' They answered, 'Seven. ' He said to them, 'Do you still not understand? '" Now
before talking about our understanding as disciples here, let's first talk about
why the twelve and then the seven.

This is part of the more than enough that we talked about yesterday. Twelve
baskets left over and then seven baskets left over. It was a sign of the fact
that God had done more than enough in this miracle.

But the numbers are important. There are a lot of theories about this. It's
pretty obvious that the twelve baskets that were left over when Jesus fed the
five thousand represent the twelve tribes of Israel.

It's interesting that that miracle happened in Israel. This miracle happens in
Gentile territory. And here in Gentile territory, seven baskets are left over.

Some suggest that has to do with the seven Canaanite tribes, the seven Gentile
tribes are outside of the people of Israel. Whatever it has to do with, I'll
tell you this, twelve is a number of completion for the Jews and seven is a
number of completion for the Gentiles. And this is saying God's supply is not
only more than enough, it is complete.

God's resources are complete. They are all that we could ever need. I don't
always see that in my life and maybe you don't either.

I always want something more in some other way, but I have a faith, I have a
confidence that when we get to heaven and we look back over our lives, we're
going to see the twelve and the seven. We're going to see the not only more than
enough, but the complete supply of the resources of God. But while we're in this
world, we struggle with that.

I do, you do, these disciples did. They have another wrong perspective here. And
Jesus talks about it.

Their perspective is that they're setting their minds on the material and not on
the spiritual. The wrong perspective. Yesterday Jesus had to correct was they
were setting their minds on their resources and not on God's.

Here it's they're setting their minds on the material and not the spiritual.
Jesus says watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. That's a
warning concerning the spread of evil influence.

Just like leaven goes into a bread and it spreads throughout the bread and makes
all the dough rise. Jesus is saying watch out for the leaven. That which
permeates the whole, a little leaven, leavens the whole lump of dough.

Watch out for that. Watch out for this false teaching. It goes completely over
the disciples' heads.

Jesus is talking about watch out for the evil influence of the Pharisees, the
leaven. And they say did we forget to bribe bread? Did we not get enough bread?

Is Jesus chastising us? Jesus overhears this. It's a small boat.

And He says what are you talking about? Their concern is focused entirely on the
material. And because their concern was focused only on the material, that's all
they could hear Jesus saying.

Their spiritual radio signal was jammed. A physical worry. Did we forget to buy
bread?

Did we do something wrong? A physical worry overshadowed a spiritual truth. Now
I can relate to that.

I guess you can too. There's all kinds of times when physical worries
overshadow, jam a spiritual truth. What jams the signal?

Three major things. Guilt, fear, and worry. I can totally miss God's truth in my
life.

I can totally miss what God is saying. God is saying it can go right over my
head spiritually because of guilt and fear and worry. God is saying I want to
forgive you and all I can see is my guilt.

And I try to get myself forgiven by the good things that I do. I miss it because
guilt is jamming the signal of hearing the truth. Or God is saying I want to use
you, I want to work in your life, I want to do something in your life.

And I totally miss it because I'm afraid. I'm afraid of my past, I'm afraid of
the future. And my fear keeps me from missing the truth that God wants to use
me.

Or maybe worry. That's what the disciples were facing here. They were worried
they hadn't done something right.

They were anxious that they'd only gotten one loaf of bread and they needed
more. Is Jesus telling us we did something wrong? And because of that they
missed the truth that he was trying to say.

Here's the key point here. Worry. Worry in my life and in your life.

Anxiety over the little things is one of the things that causes me most often to
miss the truth that God is trying to get into my life. And here's how it works.
Worry may help you to remember the bread, but it'll cause you to miss the truth.

And that's why we keep worrying. We think well if I worry about it, maybe next
time I'll remember to bring 12 loaves of bread into the boat when Jesus wants me
to. And maybe I will.

And we think well my worry has done something good for my life. I remembered the
12 loaves of bread. That's great if all of life was just material, but it is
not.

Worry will help you to remember the bread maybe, but it will certainly cause you
to miss the truth. Because you're focused on the material and you miss the
spiritual. That's the problem with worry.

Anxiety focuses me on the merely material and it causes me to miss the deeply
spiritual things that God wants to do in my life. It causes me to miss the power
of what he wants to do in my life. If you've been telling yourself well worry is
not really that bad a thing.

Worry works okay in my life. It helps me to remember to do things on my to-do
list. I want to remind you that your life is more than a to-do list.

Your life is to be lived for the glory of God. Your life is to be lived out in a
way that allows his truth to get a hold of your heart in a way that changes
everything. And worry will keep that from happening every time.

So let's talk to him. Let's talk to Jesus Christ. And as we talk to him today
just say Jesus here are my worries because I have them you have them.

Just say Jesus I give them to you. Instead of me holding on to my anxieties
trying to handle them on my own I give them to you. I let them go to you.

I trust you. God I realize that these anxieties that I have some of them may
happen most of them will never happen. But the truth of the matter is my life is
to be lived not just trying to keep anxieties from happening in my life.

You've given me a life to live for your honor for your glory and that's the life
that I want to live. So God I pray that I would be anxious for nothing but that
in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving I would make my
request known to you. And I do that right now.

I tell you here's my request in this area of my anxiety. I ask you to meet this
need. I ask you to work in this way.

I ask you to give me peace. Here is my request. I give it to you Jesus in your
name.

Amen. Tomorrow we're going to be talking together about well it's one of the
most dramatic moments between Jesus and his disciples and the entire three years
of ministry together. We'll see you tomorrow.