Let’s pray. Our gracious heavenly Father, on this day of our Thanksgiving feast we would be remiss if we did not come to You with our thanksgivings, for life, for freedom, for this church, for this place, for family and friends, for food in abundance, that we live as most people in the history of the world have not lived, trying to keep ourselves away from too much food instead of wondering where the next meal will come from. Surely the lines have fallen for us in pleasant places and we thank You. And as we give thanks, we are also mindful of those who are grieving this morning. We pray for Richard McCulloch on the death of his father, William, and also for Butch Barkman on the death of his sister, Ruby Shaffer. We pray that You would surround them and show Yourself to be a God of compassion and a Father of comfort. We pray for the family, that this might be a means to gather around the Lord Jesus and know His sweet sympathy. We thank You on this day for veterans, those who have served this country near and far. We thank You for those who have served in conflict, in harm’s way, and we give thanks for the freedoms that they have given of their time, their energy, some, over the years of their lives, to protect. We pray for our presbytery, for the meeting this Tuesday as we gather. We pray for East Charlotte this morning and their pastor, Tyler Dirks, that You bless their ministry. We pray for other congregations in our city. We think this morning of Hickory Grove Baptist and their pastor Clint Presley. We pray that You would bless their ministry and you would give them fruitful years and see conversion. We pray for their school. We pray for the people on staff. We thank You that we labor in this city not alone but with many brothers and sisters and with other churches. We pray that You would help us now to focus upon Your Word, that You would speak to us, that You would give me a humble heart, that I would preach Your Word boldly, faithfully, and that You would help us to listen that we may find from Your Word wonderful things. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I wonder if you’ve ever played the game “Bigger and Better.” We have had, over the years, from time to time, people in the neighborhood or from a youth group come by playing this game. I don’t know if you’ve done it here or if I’m giving you a bad idea by introducing it, but the idea is you start with something small and insignificant and you take an evening and you see if you can get people to trade you for something bigger and better, and you see what you can end up with by night’s end, and so we’ve gotten rid of some ugly couches that way, some nonfunctioning TVs. My kids have sort of a dream that they’ll one day be able to set out with a penny and come back with a car. So just know if DeYoungs come knocking on your door, you might want to pull the shades and run away. But the idea is you start with something small, something lesser, and then somebody gives you in exchange something bigger, something better. Who doesn’t like the idea of trading in something small and insignificant for something that’s big and something that’s better?

We’ve been in John’s Gospel for two months now, and one of the things we’ve seen over and over in the first chapter is that Jesus is bigger than you think. If you can encounter Jesus in the Bible and walk away thinking, “well, He’s not quite as impressive as I thought,” then you are not reading your Bibles very carefully. He’s bigger than any of us can imagine. All that we’ve seen in this first chapter alone.

I met a man. Over this weekend I was speaking at a PCA Mission to the World conference in Dallas on Friday and Saturday and got back yesterday afternoon, and I met a man there, just came up and was friendly and was telling me about his testimony. He said that he was a militant atheist.

Let’s pray. Our gracious heavenly Father, on this day of our Thanksgiving feast we would be remiss if we did not come to You with our thanksgivings, for life, for freedom, for this church, for this place, for family and friends, for food in abundance, that we live as most people in the history of […]

Let us pray together. So, our Father, this morning then we thank you that you have given to us all things, that we may have life and life abundant. We bless you, oh God, that you have prepared for us, you’ve gone before and prepared for us a heavenly home which is perfect in all of its ways. For you alone have made it, and you are there. We pray now that as we come before you, you would remind us that you are here. That you would take your seat with us and among us, that we would be made glad by your presence, for we are your people, the sheep of your field. Have your way with us this morning. Go before us, circle us round about, for we commend our time to you now for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Now, would you turn in your copy of the scripture this morning to Mark’s gospel and to chapter 8. Mark, chapter 8. This morning we sit on the precipice of celebrating an important event in the world’s history, not just church history, not just Christian history, but we sit on the precipice of an important event in the world’s history, and of course I’m talking about the Reformation. Now if you’re newer to the Christian faith or perhaps you’re just beginning to explore these things and you wonder what all the hubbub’s about, the Reformation, some 500 years ago now, we’ll celebrate the date that we can pinpoint, the breath of God going forth and changing a people, changing a nation, changing a continent and transforming the world. We can pinpoint that date to October 31, 1517. Five hundred years ago God breathed out his spirit on a land and forever changed the world. God does that, you know.

Before I go any further, let me just remind you that God does that. The Reformation was good. Semper reformata, better. The Reformation and the call for always reforming. At its core, it was about sensing one’s need of God. It was about sensing the glory of God. And let me just tell you, some of you who sit in the back of the sanctuary perhaps may not feel the music like when you sit here, or in the front rows, but this morning is a reformation. I can feel the music, the singing of the choir. That’s what the Reformation’s all about. It’s about feeling, sensing, your need of God. It’s about sensing your own inability. And when we sing these majestic hymns, and we hear all these voices and all the music instrumentation, it is all designed by God to draw us in that we may sense the truth of the words that we sing. God is on the move. As C.S. Lewis would put it, Aslan is on the move. And he is moving among us, breathing out his spirit. And I want you this morning to sense once again your need of God. And I want you to see and to feel that God meets your deepest need in the person of Jesus Christ.

And so I want you to notice something from Mark chapter 8. Not our passage, we’re going to be in verse 22 and following, but Mark 8, look at verse 17. And that little pericope, that section there. Jesus by now has already fed the 5000. He’s already fed the 4000. This feeding of these people, the feeding of the 5000, the disciples seemed always to struggle to understand all of its significance. So by the time we get to Mark chapter 8, they’re still struggling to understand. And so Jesus says to them in verse 17 and following, “Jesus, aware of this,” that is to say they’ve seen Jesus feed the multitudes miraculously doing so with just some fish and some bread, and now they are on their way and they’re grumbling with one another “we don’t have any food to eat, where are we going to get our food,” and this kind of thing, and so verse 17: “Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes,” here’s our key verse, “having eves, do you not yet see? And having ears,

Let us pray together. So, our Father, this morning then we thank you that you have given to us all things, that we may have life and life abundant. We bless you, oh God, that you have prepared for us, you’ve gone before and prepared for us a heavenly home which is perfect in all […]