 In Matthew chapter 15 verses 32 through 39, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, I have compassion on the multitude because they have now continued with me three days and have nothing to eat, and I do not want to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way. Then His disciples said to Him, where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude? Jesus said to them, how many loaves do you have? They said seven in a few little fish and He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground and He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples and the disciples gave to the multitude. So they all ate and were filled and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. Now those who ate were 4,000 men besides women and children and He sent away the multitude, got into the boat and came to the region of Magdala. Now I'm going to give you an introduction, we'll move into it, but I have a lot of practical applications as a matter of fact at the conclusion I'm going to give you several practical applications to this particular Bible study, but let's remember its context in order that we might understand what's taking place. We know that as we've been studying through Matthew that Jesus is now in a region called Decapolis. The Decapolis was on the eastern side of the Jordan River, it was a place where there were ten cities, mostly Gentile and very pagan and so Jesus is there in the Decapolis and He is ministering and as He's ministering multitudes continue coming to Him. So as we begin let's ask the question, how come so many people felt so comfortable coming to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why would crowds gather to Jesus Christ so regularly? As I mentioned to you as we've gone through the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew has two words He uses quite often. One is the singular multitude and the second is the plural multitudes and He speaks concerning multitudes coming to Christ quite often and they did so from the very early portion of Jesus' ministry. So the question again is asked why would crowds gather to Him so regularly? Why were people so attracted to Him? Let me begin by saying that there are reasons why that would be so. The first reason is He's approachable. Jesus Christ was approachable. People knew that they could come to Him, they knew that it was safe to approach Him. As you read your Bible you'll see that a variety of people who were outcast in the society of Israel actually would come to Him. People who were lepers for example. The woman with the issue of blood would come to Him. A syrophoenician woman, these were all outcasts and yet every one of them would come and ask that He might heal them, that He might lay His hands on them, that He might do a work for them. I think of a paralyzed man who was brought to Jesus by his four friends. So we know that Jesus was approachable and people came to Him without fear and without intimidation. It seems to me that sometimes religious figures like to have others intimidated by them, honoring them, respecting them, even fearing them. But Jesus wasn't that way at all. Jesus was approachable. You could approach Him and speak to Him. He would minister to you. You could talk to Him and you would know that He was giving you His full attention and the people would come to Him because He was approachable. He invites us to come to Him. He says, come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. That's an invitation. In John 7 verse 37 it says on the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried out saying, if anyone thirsts, let Him come to me and drink. And so why would people come to Christ? Why did multitude show up? Well, first, because He's approachable. Secondly, He was capable. I would never go to somebody for help who could not help me. Why would I go to somebody for help who had no capacity to be of any help to me in my need? And yet the Bible tells us that He is very capable. In Psalm 146 verse 5 it says, happy is He who has the God of Jacob for His help, whose hope is in the Lord, His God. We have the God of Jacob for our help, and He was able. He was able to meet any need. He was able to heal any disease. It says in Matthew 4 verse 23 that Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of diseases among the people. He was not only approachable, He was capable. He also is gracious. He is loving and gracious. He wouldn't reject them when they came. Later in Matthew 18 we're going to see at verses 15 and 16 that they brought infants to Him that He might touch them, but when the disciples saw it they rebuked them. Jesus called them to Him and said, let the little children come to me, do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. In Psalm 145 verse 9, the Lord is good to all. He has compassion on all He has made. He is approachable, He is capable, and He is compassionately able. He is an enormous, He is a person who can minister to the people in their needs, in their time of needs, and an enormous crowd, a multitude, has gathered, and there He is, and there He remains with them. When we look at this passage before us, verse 38 tells us that there were 4,000 men, not including women and children. Verse 32 says that they had been with them for 3 days and their food supply had been exhausted. And so Jesus seen them and He has this compassion, as He says, I have compassion on the multitude. As He sees them, He doesn't want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way. Mark 8.3 says, if I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way because none of them, because some of them have come a long distance. So what is the God that we serve like? In a time when people say you serve God, but what is your God like? Our God is compassionate. Our God is motivated by compassion towards those in need. Isaiah 40 verse 11, He will feed His flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom and gently lead those who are with young. Matthew had already told us in chapter 9, 36, when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep, having no shepherd. And so the God that you worship, the God of the Bible, is a God of love. He's a God of compassion. What Jesus is doing is He's awakening in His disciples a genuine faith in God, as well as imparting to them a heart for people. When asked, what is the great command, the answer is, love God with all of your heart, soul strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Love God and love others on these two commands, hang the law and the prophets. If they're going to reveal accurately the ways of God, they need to have faith and they need to have compassion. So that means as a disciple of Jesus Christ, those are two virtues, two attributes that every believer should have. Remember that Paul in Romans chapter 8 verse 29 said it's God's intent to conform Christians into the image of Jesus Christ. Remember that Jesus selected 12 ordinary men who were to be with Him constantly and He was mentoring them. And so these men who were at the Lord constantly heard His words, they witnessed His works, they studied His doctrine, they worked alongside of Him, they ate meals with Him, talked to Him, they would laugh with Him and cry with Him, they asked questions of Him, they were constantly simply with Him. So that tells me that His ministry was both taught and caught by His men because He spent that much time with them. So you see, we are to learn what to be, what to do, and what to say as His ambassadors. And they were especially to learn why they were to be to do and to say the things that they were learning. Now God is very personal. We need to remember that. He is very personal and Jesus revealed Himself to His men in a very personal and powerful way. We saw in Matthew 13 for example verse 11 how He said to them, it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. I'm revealing to you what others are not learning. In John 15 verse 15 He will say, no longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing. I've called you friends for all things that I heard from my Father. I have made known to you. I've shared with you in the past, perhaps some of you might remember this concerning a a church that was in Strasbourg, France that was severely damaged by bombs during the World War II. And there was a beloved statue there in the church. It was a statue of Christ and it had survived even though a ceiling beam had fallen across the arms and broken the arms off. A local sculptor had offered to restore the statue without charge, but the people decided to leave it as it was because they said without hands this is a reminder of what God wants to do through us. It reminds us that God does His work through His people and His people very often would be called His earthly hands. He appointed some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the work of ministry. And so the Lord is enabling us to serve Him, to be His ministers and all. And so they need to learn that. He intends His disciples, His followers, to be like Him. Jesus says in Matthew 10.25, it's enough for the disciple that he be as the master and servant as his Lord. And so this kind of loving compassion is to be an earmark of a follower of Jesus Christ. Paul learned that he discipled his ministers to have compassion and concern for the lost. Look at some of the men that he discipled. You could look at the man named Titus, who was a pastor over a church in Crete. And Paul, when he was speaking concerning Titus, who would be what is called a son in the faith. When he spoke concerning him, he said in 2 Corinthians 8.16, I thank God who put into the heart of Titus the same concern I have for you. And so a minister is to have concern for the welfare of those that they serve. And Paul said, God has put in Titus' heart the same kind of love that I have for you. When he spoke concerning Timothy, who was also a son in the faith, he said in the book of Philippians chapter 2, verses 19 through 22, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. I have no one else like him who takes a genuine interest in your welfare for everyone looks out for his own interest, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself because as a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the gospel. He said, I have no one else like him who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. He says, but Timothy has a genuine interest. So a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ has a heart of compassion for those who are hurting. You see, Jesus intended to produce a community of people who loved him and who also loved others. And it's the love for God and love for people that is to be an earmark of the body of Christ. Now I don't know if I can say this properly. I said it for a service and I'm not sure whether it came out the way I intend it. So I'll try it a second time. I was speaking to a pastor the other day, a friend of mine, and he said, you know, his desire is to have what we call, he said, a Jesus. He says, I want to have a Jesus people community and I'm teaching my church that a Jesus people community. And I said, well, be ready for your church to shrink. We have to paint people. Be ready for your church to shrink. And he said, what do you mean? I said, listen, I said, you need to know the society that you're ministering to. The society that you're ministering to doesn't want to be a community. The society that you're ministering to wants to be entertained, wants to receive something without having to give something. I said, they don't want community so much. What they want is something else. They want personality. They want entertainment. They want the show. I said, that's what you're dealing with. When you begin to teach biblical Christianity to this age, be aware of the fact that there are many people who will leave your fellowship to go somewhere they don't have to serve. They don't have to give. They don't have to do anything they just have to take because that's what's taking place today. It's very unhealthy, but that's what the church is like today. People will keep unto themselves teachers having itching ears. They will be voluntarily turned aside from truth and turned into fables. What you're going to end up with, instead of a church that you think is going to be powerful and reaching, it's going to become a community of people, but it not necessarily is going to be appealing to others because the others who are coming are going to say, I'm not getting what I could get somewhere else because they're consumers, not the church. Be aware of that. The Lord Jesus Christ came to produce a community of believers, not people who say Sunday I go here, Wednesday I go there, other days I go here, other days I go there. No, a community of believers who actually love one another, know one another, grow together, serve and support and do those things that churches are supposed to do. And that's what Jesus Christ wants in the church. But when you teach that message today, what happens is people say, I don't want to do that. I don't want to have to do that. That sounds legalistic to me where it's a freedom and all of that. And we find some reason to reject what the fact is. And the fact is is we're supposed to be serving the Lord together and we're supposed to have love for God and for one another. Somebody said this and I like it. He said, a man may be a good doctor without loving his patients, a good lawyer without loving his clients, a good geologist without loving science. But he cannot be a good Christian without love. And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ would have. And he's issuing to his men a ministry challenge. He's saying this, listen men, there's a need. How are you going to meet that need? Now, we've already seen that before. He had done a similar miracle. He had, he had fit even a larger multitude. Had they learned anything from what they had previously seen and previously done? Here's something for you to remember. Repetition is often the key to learning. My mom kept saying something to me that took me at least a year. It was no less than a year. It took me at least a year to learn. She said the same thing over and over again to me. It took me a year to learn it. And you know what she was saying? She was saying, David, I was a baby. She'd say, David, I know what she was talking about. It took me a year. She repeated it every day and I finally said, oh, and she says, David, she's speaking to me. Some things take time to learn. She had other names she called me, but I'll just stay with David. Repetition is how we learn. Things that are said over and over and over again. That's how we learn. And when you read your Bible, you might find this interesting. I could multiply this, I choose not to, but there are numerous, numerous passages and lessons Christ gives that are actually found in various places that he actually said more than once. I'll give you a couple of examples to make the point. Again, repetition is how we learn. For example, Jesus said, all things are possible, right? But he said it in different places at different times. For example, in Mark 9, 23, to the father of a son who was demon possessed, he said, all things are possible to him who believes. But later on in Mark 10, 27, in response to the rich young ruler and his encounter with him, and then the disciples asking a question of him, he said, with God, all things are possible. All things are possible. So he said the same thing more than once. He said, a prophet is without honor more than once. In John 4, verse 44, a prophet has no honor in his own country, but it's repeated in Luke 4, 24 when he said no prophet is accepted in his own country, different places, different times, same words. When you look at the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 5, 6 and 7, you'll see that the essence of that was repeated in what is called the Sermon on the Plain that is recorded in Luke chapter 6. Jesus repeated the fact that he was going to die, be buried, and resurrected from the beginning of his ministry in John chapter 2 and then over and over again as the day came or was approaching for him to die, bury, and be resurrected. He said it in Matthew 16, 21, Matthew 17, verse 9, Matthew 17, verse 23, Matthew 20, verse 19. He repeated himself over and over again because many teachings are repeated throughout his ministry. And so we saw that he had already fed the multitude 5,000, but we see that once again he's going to be feeding a multitude this time 4,000. So the men need to learn something through these miracles. And so as it says in verse 32, I have compassion on the multitude because they have now continued with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way. Verse 33, his disciples said to him, where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude? Same kind of question they had asked before. You see, this kind of miracle had occurred before, but they had yet to learn what Jesus wanted them to know. They needed to learn to see the need, and they needed to learn how to meet it. And so they asked this question of him, where can we get enough bread in the wilderness? The wilderness is dry. The wilderness is barren. It's like a desert without sand. Where are we going to find food for them? Now the other miracle feeding that Jesus performed had not settled in their understanding. They didn't understand the power of Christ, though they were witnesses of it daily. They had yet to understand who he truly is. They were still motivated, even blinded by unbelief. You see, they saw the multitude, but they did not see the man. They'd seen him. He's still the storm. He walked on water. He cast out demons. He heals. He fed the 5,000, but they still can only see what is before them, and they have yet to learn what it means to walk by faith. In 2 Corinthians 5, 7, Paul made it clear we live by faith and not by sight. So they state the obvious. We don't have resources. We're inadequate. There's no way that we can meet this need. And so what does Jesus do? Well, verse 34, how many loaves do you have? They said seven and a few little fish. Take inventory. They do so, and they come up short. Seven bread cakes and a few small fish is all that we have available to us. And so he commands verse 35. He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground, giving us insight into his organization. And then, verse 36, he took the seven loaves, and the fish gave thanks, broke them, gave them to the disciples, his disciples, and the disciples gave to the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. Now, those who ate were 4,000 men besides women and children. Let me give you some practical applications to this. I want to give you several. What do you learn from this miracle? What do you learn? We'll begin with the most obvious. The world is always going to be dry and barren, a place where nothing supplied by that world will ever satisfy us, as promising as the world seems to be. When we pursue it for our eternal needs, it will always be empty. You see that with people in Scripture who at one time professed the faith in God, who walked away. A great example is a man by the name of Demas. When you see Demas, he's mentioned in the New Testament three times. Twice he's spoken of as a traveling companion of Paul. But the final time that you see him is found in Paul's last letter, 2 Timothy. And Demas is mentioned in chapter 4, verse 10 in this way. Paul says, Demas has deserted me because he loves the things of this life and has gone to Thessalonica. The last thing you ever hear of a man by the name of Demas is he loves this world. He loves this present age, and he's deserted. That's why in 2 Corinthians 4, 18, Paul would say, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. So one, you can go after the world that you want. It will never satisfy you. You can look at some of the people that are representing what wealth can produce. Some of the most miserable people that you'll ever see are the ones who have everything that the world seems to offer. You know, the multimillionaires who never have enough. The millionaire has said, is asked how much is enough in his response. It's a little more. The eyes of man are never satisfied. The water of the world only produces more thirst. You can have as much as you think you want, but like Jesus said to the woman at the well, anyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. You can have the education and the success, and you can have all of those things, and they in and of themselves, it's not like they're bad. I'm not here saying you shouldn't work hard. I'm not saying you shouldn't have goals. I'm not saying that you shouldn't have retirement. I'm not saying any of that. So please, I hope it doesn't come off that way. What I'm saying is, if I pursue those things as ends in themselves, I'll always be empty because they cannot meet the deepest needs that I have because I cannot buy things like peace. I cannot buy something like love. I cannot buy joy. I can't do that. It's not something that I can go and buy. It's something that is freely given to me by a relationship with God. And so the number one thing you need to remember is the world is a wilderness, and there's nothing there to supply a need. You also need to remember that Jesus has the ability of meeting our needs. That's why he looks up and gives thanks because he's revealing the source of blessings, and the source of blessings is from God. In James 1.17, James said, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights who doesn't change like shifting shadows. A third thing that we see is that he is filled with compassion for those who are in need. What good is it to have all power but to not use it to be of help to those who are in need? Psalm 111 verse 4 says, he has made this, his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. Another thing I get from this passage is he's ready to meet my need, even before I realize that he is willing to do so. Isaiah 65 verse 24, beautiful verse, it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer. While they are still speaking, I will hear. God's aware even before I'm aware, and he's already prepared to meet that need. Now a fifth thing that isn't so obvious is found in verse 35 where it simply says he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground to receive the blessing required simple obedience. If they chose not to do what he was saying, they would not have been blessed. And that sometimes we forget. Verse 35 reveals an act of obedience. He commands them to be seated, they were. You see there are times when we are simply not in the place where we should be because of disobedience and thus we don't receive the blessing God wants to bring. Notice he also intends his disciples to care for other people. He didn't bless them so that they could keep the blessings to themselves. It's been said the church is the one institution that has been established for loving concern of others. That's what the church is supposed to do. So the disciples distribute the food to the multitude and you can only give that which you have first received. Now in revealing our lack of resources and helping us to see his abundance on our behalf, we're able to trust in him. Jesus said in John 15 verse five, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit. Why? Because without me you can do nothing. And then you see in verse 37 they all ate and were filled. That word filled is you can use the word that we don't use anymore and I'll use it anyway just because we never use it. The word glutted. When's the last time you're talking to somebody and say, man I was glutted. We don't use that word. The word glutted means fully satisfied, filled to the top. And you say, I don't think I've ever been, yes you have thanksgiving. When you're there at the table and you've eaten and you're saying, oh and you're unbuttoning your pants a little bit. You're hoping nobody notices that that's why you wear the shirts out, right? And you're just eating, oh so good, so good. You want some more? No, I don't think we've got some pie. Well, you know a little pie, a little pie. I didn't ever hurt anybody, right? A little pie. You want some more? No, I'm full. You're trying to push yourself away from the table and then you can't, your arms aren't that long, you know, your guts, you know. And you are satisfied. And we have had that opportunity, haven't we, to eat to our full, to eat to abundance. And that's what it's saying. It's saying that God's blessings are not simply satisfying. They are super satisfying. And they need to understand that. They ate and they were completely satisfied by what God provided for them. So God is able to satisfy our deepest longings. He meets our real needs, each and every one of them. In Isaiah 55 verse two, the question is asked, why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good. Let your soul delight itself in abundance. The Lord is able to satisfy. Listen, material blessings are great. I thank God for material blessings. I know you do too. I know you do too. I thank God for having a bed that I can sleep in for a pillow that I can rest my head on. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that I can drive a car. I'm thankful that I have a home. I'm thankful for the meals that I eat. I'm very thankful for the clothing that I wear. I'm grateful for all of that. I certainly wouldn't want you to ever think that I'm one of these ancient hippies who come up and say, bad material, you know, watch out for the materialism. Listen, we should be aware of materialism. It destroys us, but we also should be aware of the fact that God does bless us. And I thank God for the blessings that it brings into our life. But I have also realized that no matter what you have, it can't satisfy what you really need. It really can't. It's nice and it's pleasurable, but it's just a thing. It's a thing to be used and discarded later. The things that really matter are relational things. You know, the things that really matter are things that are pertaining to our community relationship or to our personal friendships. You know, it's having a dear friend that you can speak to and have coffee with and share your heart with. It's being like myself, being a man who's married that has a wife that I can share a life with and enjoy memories with. Those are relational things. Those things matter. And though it's nice to be able to go out for a cup of coffee or it's nice to have a meal. And I appreciate that very much. What really matters more is simply being with that person. So those things matter. And when it comes to the spiritual, the thing that matters the most is having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, having sins forgiven, sins forgiven. Because you can wake up in the morning and you can remember what you've done in the past. You can wake up. The enemy has a way of reminding you. It's almost like, I'm not saying he is, it's almost like he's standing at the foot of the bed just waiting for you to wake up. Then you kind of open your eyes and say, hey center boy, what were you just dreaming about? That was a sin. You know, that was a sin. Or what did you do last week? You know, what did you, doesn't the enemy have a tendency to try and remind you and your flesh conspires with the enemy? Your flesh conspires with the enemy. You'll never be any different. You'll never be any better. You were an alcoholic. Then you're going to be an alcohol later on. You say you went forward. You gave your heart to Christ. You know that's baloney. You've done that a thousand times. When is it going to really work? You're not any different at all. You still have the cravings. You still want that. You still want to see that. You see the commercial. You see the woman you want to be with her. You're not married to her, but you lust for her. You are a pig. You will always be a pig. And that's what the, he does that. He does that. There's no doubt about it. And your flesh conspires. And then you say, that's true. I've always been, I might as well go back to the slop that I've been in. That's a lie from the devil. It's a lie. If any man be in Christ, it's a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. I have a, and that is, that is not just some preacher just preaching. Listen, before I'm a preacher, I'm a person. And I know what my flesh conspires with the enemy to do. I know for the longest time, it doesn't have any more. Thank you, Jesus. But for the longest time, the first thoughts I'd have in the morning when I woke up were sins that I committed. And I would wake up saying, God forgive me. God forgive me. And I had to remember, I am forgiven. The blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses you from all sin. I am forgiven. I am forgiven. I don't have to be motivated by guilt. I am motivated by gratitude for what God has done. And God provides for you. So yes, thank you, Lord, for a car. Thank you for shoes that I can wear. Thank you for a shirt on my back. Thank you for relationships. Thank you for all of that because it comes from you. You are the father of light and you give good gifts to your children. Bless you, Lord. I thank you. But that is not what makes me who I am. What makes me who I am is my relationship with you. I am a sinner washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, born again on my way to heaven, not by works of righteousness, which I have done, but according to your mercy, you washed me. And I thank you for that. You see, that's how Christianity is. That's what it is. And so we need to understand that. And so we need to remember that our bread is from heaven and Jesus is the heavenly bread. Finally, a couple of things and I'll close with. They took up seven large baskets full of the fragments. God's blessings are not only adequate, but they are generous. And the goal of ministry, and this is what I'm going to close with with this in one last thought, and I'm setting you up because I really got more to say. No, here's something for you very practical, but very, very basic, but very, very important. Remember this, very basic. The goal of ministry, what these men need to know, and what we need to remember, the goal of ministry is for people to worship God and not his disciples. Keep that in mind. And I'll tell you what I'm saying. In an age where there are no heroes, very few Christians have a tendency of looking to a hero figure that they can trust, whether it be an evangelist, whether it be a pastor, whether it be some figure that is well known in the Christian world, and we have a tendency of following after them. And very subtly, very subtly, we put more trust in them than they ought to have. It is not that your spiritual leaders should not be respected. Spiritual leaders ought to be respected for handling the Word of God, and Paul said, and they ought to receive double honor for that because they handled the Word of God, and they care for your souls. They ought to be respected and honored. And as a pastor, I appreciate respect. Respect is the way you say to me that you love me, and I thank you for that. I really do. But again, the reason I am open in this pulpit is to remind you that I am just a man who fails too. I need a savior, and his name is Jesus. He never fails. I can and have 35 years of pastoring this church. I have disappointed more than my share. I'm sure of that. Not my desire, but the fact. That's a bottom line reality. Did I want to hurt somebody? No. Did I want to cause them to cry? No. Did I? Yeah. I want to be the perfect husband. Am I? Yeah. No, am I? It's a woman God gave me. No. Do I? Of course. I want to be the best dad. Am I? No. No. Do I want to be? Yes. Do I fail? Yes. I want to be the best grandpa. Will I hurt my grandbaby someday, disappoint them? I'm sure I will. Why? Because you want to hurt them? No, because I'm a sinner and sinners fail. That's why sinners need a savior. Jesus never fails. And that's why my eyes are on him. That's why. Keep your eyes on the Lord. It's not the disciples that should be respected to that degree. It's God who brings the blessings. He never fails. Keep that in mind. And finally, he sent away the multitude, got into the boat, came to the region of Magdala. He dismisses the crowd, and it goes to the western shoreline. That would be, yeah, western shoreline of the Sea of Galilee into a place called Magdala, where Mary Madeleine came from, because he doesn't need the crowd attempting to crown him king. They'd already done that before. Doesn't need that a second time. He has much ministry to perform, and he moves on.