Navigating Not Enough

Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.

I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast.

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God is good. God is good.

God is so good, so faithful.

Well today, this message that.

I have to share with you is one that everybody in the room needs. So sometimes I'll say this message is for somebody. I don't know who this is for, but today I know it's for all y'all. So look at somebody and say you too, not the band.

It's going to be good.

I'm going to read from Matthew, chapter fifteen, verse twenty nine through thirty eight, a familiar story with a twist, and not for the sake of being clever, but for the sake of something that I believe God wants to speak to you today in a fresh way, Matthew, chapter fifteen, verse twenty nine. And while you're turning there in your Bible, I let us know online where you're joining us from. We'd love to know your name and where you're joining us from as well, right there in the comments, Matthew,

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 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

Lord, you said that.

You would do that, that you would lead us and guide us and remind us of the things that matter, and teach us the things that we need to know. Do that just now, for these people, for everybody who will hear this message, is navigating something that.

Is not enough. But you are more than enough.

So bring us to that place in space and presence of mind to see you as you are. We give you praise in Jesus' name. Man, you may be seated. I made a list in my phone. I read it to you. Time, money, sleep, energy, friends, confidence, opportunity, authority, freedom, flexibility, discipline, experience, joy, peace, wisdom. And I stopped there with fifteen because Matthew, fifteen, I thought would be cool to do fifteen fifteen things that I just said that someone in this room feels like

Not in here any way.

The ground is level at the foot of the cross. We're all here because we need Jesus, and Jesus is complete. Jesus Christ is complete, fully, god fully man. At the sound of that truth echoes back another truth that in him I am complete, He is enough.

I am enough.

And yet there's no shortage of needs in this room. And everyone will have to pass through in different moments of your life, different facets of this same.

Neighborhood called not enough.

And we have to talk about how to navigate that, because I have found that not only is the not enough thing a battle that never goes away, but it is a battle that never fully gets in balance. And what I mean by that is when I read that list of things, there have been seasons in my life where I worked my way into enough of one of them, only to find another one screaming, Hey, now that you got enough money, you don't have any time.

Yeah.

I thought about this in the area of discipline. I tried to be a disciplined person in my life. I need that to stay on track. And yet I noticed the times in my life where my discipline is really keyed in. Sometimes I get so rigid that I lose my empathy. And I'm doing really good with my disciplines, but I'm mad at everybody else that they aren't as disciplined as me. Now I'm judging, So it's good. You know. I've got

I told you two weeks.

Ago that I have no sense of direction, and I still don't. There's been no supernatural miracle since then. And the idea of this passage here, I looked at one verse and I want to show it to you again that the disciples said again a pretty familiar scripture that I'm sharing with you today. But what they said to Jesus when he said I want to feed all these people I can get with because in verse thirty three, they answered, where could we get enough bread in this

A lot of times when I.

Preached too long is because I was scared I'd get up here and have nothing to say. So then I went and messed around study too long and kept you three hours.

But my heart's in the right place.

I don't want you to show up hungry and collapse when you leave because I was watching the game instead.

So I really really really relate to.

This thing of where could we get enough, the fear of running out, and then what makes it even.

Worse put the scripture back up?

Where could we get enough bread in this remote place?

Did you notice that?

So now, not only do I not have enough, that's my first fear in life, but I don't know where I am, and I need to know where I am. And if I don't know where I am, I need to be with somebody who knows where they are. And that's where you're like, But the disciples had Jesus, so it really didn't matter, because if you've got Jesus, you've always got enough. And isn't it interesting how confidently you say that about them?

Back then?

But if we followed you back into your neighborhood of not enough. And you know, when you get a little older, you don't even really know if you can depend on your body in the same way that you could. And I know I'm not old or anything like that, still vital, but yo, I pulled a muscle when I woke I thought I pulled a muscle when I woke up this morning, and I was like, oh no. For about five minutes, I was like, who's going to preach? And the worst

You know two extremes that we get into.

I think when we look at what we don't have and what we need, there is an extreme that we go into, which is denial. You know, no, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good until you completely crash. And then the other one is despair, where you are so aware of what you don't have that you don't realize what you do have. And so, yes, the disciples have Jesus, and yes he has all knowledge, and yes he is omniscient. And he was, and is and will be all of

Quite like this.

Everybody say remote place, now say limited resource. So I don't have enough, and I don't know where I am, and I don't know enough to get where I need to go to get what I need. And I don't know where I am and I don't have what I need. And those are my two biggest nightmares in life. So

A map map.

I went in the gas station yesterday and I was gonna buy one to bring out here and unfold it and like an icebreaker for the crowd and say, y'all, remember these, everybody who pulls a muscle when you yawn, y'all remember these. And I was gonna they didn't even have a map at the gas station. What is the world come to? I can't get a map at the gas station.

Elijah asked me before he went to college.

He said, how did you used to do it? How did you get anywhere? I said, son, it was traumatic. Your mom is great at directions, but she was better than me. When we first moved to Charlotte, there was the biggest city I'd.

Ever lived in.

And I would go have appointments with people all through the highways and the byways and the mean streets of Weddington, Waxaw, Mint Hill, And I kid you not, there was not a single.

Meeting that I took that I would not end up on the phone with Holly.

And she would be at the house and I'd be on the road and she would be guiding me. The Holly spirit would be guiding me, and I don't know. We just celebrated twenty one years of marriage. I don't know if we would have made it. Don't clap too quick. I don't know if we'd have made it at five, if we would have kept having to go that way, because you know, the thing about us communicating in this way is she had never lived here either, so it all sounds good while she's telling me what to do from

Stay with him.

If you feel crippled in an area of your life, if you feel lame in an area of your life, if you feel blind in an area of your life, if you feel like you're mute in an area of your life, I got some good guidance for you. Stay with Jesus. Good things happen when you stay with him. Good things happen when you stay with him. And I don't think it's a coincidence that they stayed three days. Read something in the Bible about three days. I'll just

I fully attest to that. I fully believe in that.

My life is a trophy of the grace of God, that everywhere He has led me, he has provided for me.

Where God guides, he provides.

But the thing that that leaves out if you just put it on a bumper sticker, that where God guides, he provides, is that a lot of times we are guessing about where he's guiding us. I know you don't want to admit it, especially the men, because you don't want to admit you're lost. You rather drive in circles seven years.

I'm not like that. I would call Holly. I would call her in a heartbeat. I didn't.

I had a girl who could read a map, and I was determined to tap into her full resources. There's no male ego on me. I don't want to be lost. I'm too scared for that. And you know, if you get lost enough in your life, you will humble yourself to the point where you say, well, I don't normally like to ask for help. I don't like to admit I've never done this before. I don't like to say I was wrong. I don't like to ask somebody that I need them to show me in this area of

Got good news for you. The Bible says that Jesus has compassion. If God gave you a new car, would you praise him for it?

Paid off nice one, fast one, sexy one?

Yeah, would you praise them for a new car?

If God paid off your house, would you praise them for it? If God said, I'm giving you my compassion, There'd be nothing greater you could praise him for than the compassion of a Christ who is fully god Fully God enough to meet all of your needs, Fully God.

Enough to stop a storm, fully.

God enough to heal somebody who couldn't walk, and they go dancing out, Fully God enough that the one who couldn't speak left shouting, Fully God enough to do all of that, and fully man enough that, after all is said and done, pull his disciples to the side and say I have compassion for what they lack. I don't know if there's anybody in here who's in religious rehab. You grew up with a God who was waiting to crush you underneath the weight of what you were not yet.

But we meet at Jesus in Matthew fifteen.

Come on, get glad about it. Who has compassion for what you lack? So the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. That does not mean I will never lack, but it means that in every area where I lack, the Lord is faithful and loyal to me, that he will never leave me in my lack and turn a deaf ear to me when I call him. Let's praise God. Not for a car, not for a house. That's fine, I got a car, I got a house.

But he has compassion.

That he looks on my weakness with compassion, that he looks on my lack with compassion. I don't know. I just noticed that this week. I noticed that Jesus said, I have compassion for these people Verse thirty two. And the disciples answered the request that Jesus made about feeding them with logic and calculation. You know, like men often do, like men kind often does. Where can we get enough bread? There's no door dash on my phone. We don't have

You get to select the destination.

But when you follow Christ, he will get you where you need to go. He'll get you there, turn by turn, step by step. He'll do better than reroute you. He will pick your big behind up and carry your dead weight, if that's what it takes. But one thing about this savior. Imagine a GPS that you didn't get to tell it where you want to end up. That's Jesus. Peter's got

Jesus does. God does neg that brings you.

Great comfort, or if you're control freak, it really starts to mess with you, especially when you end up in a remote place. And Jesus starts healing people and he shows no signs of stopping, and he wants the people to be fed, and he pulls the disciples to the side and says, I have compassion for these people. And the disciples answered verse thirty three, where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd? Now I need to slow this down and we can

The disciples see crowds. Jesus sees people.

How many times I've been getting ready to preach, and it's like, I've done everything that you're supposed to do that they taught me how to do. In that overpriced education that they gave me out there in Lousville, Kentucky. And I got a scripture, and I got four commentaries that I read, and I got a research brief that I hired somebody who's better at Greek than me to do, because hey, i have some deficiencies myself, and I've got some stories that might be funny, and I've got some

And it might surprise you what Jesus has that they don't. He doesn't have.

Any bread either. They have seven loaves, he has zero. So they actually have more of the physical product, if I could put it that way, than he does. But he says something. He says Verse thirty two. I have compassion, And sometimes when we think we're lacking provision, what we're really lacking is priorities.

Follow me.

Sometimes I don't see the situation.

Correctly, so I call it not enough but if I.

Would see it like Jesus sees it, it would instantly become more than enough for what He has called me to do. When I lose my perspective on God's priorities, I will always be running low on provision because it will never be enough.

And this is why I would really encourage you to.

Put a limit on how much you compare yourself to other people. Some of the not enough that you feel is not because of an actual amount that you have or don't have. It is because of the act of comparing that you involve yourself in that would say, because they have this, and because I have that, and because they do that and because I do this. Do you see how you have replaced the compassion of Christ with

It is.

I met a lady last weekend. She came up to me in tears. She said, I listen to your sermons. I love God, but I need a job, and we prayed on the spot. I didn't tell her, well, I'll go home and pray about whether God wants you to have a job. You need a job, you have a God. I pray that God would give you the greatest job. I pray that he would open a door for you right now before you get home today. I don't know if he will, but I prayed for that.

She said.

I love how She said that, I love God, but I need a job. You do need God and a job for all of y'all. All I need is God thinks and a job.

And a job. How many can testify at.

The light company, the power company. They don't really respect that holy ghost currency, do they? And she said, I love God, but I need a job.

Sometimes. It's a fact when I said sleep. If you have a child under the age.

Of seventy three seventy four, it's going to be some sleepless nights, right. But what you don't want to do is let one need feed another need feed another need, until you let a situation that is not enough turn into an identity that you are not enough, and eventually start to believe that God is not enough and you die in a desert or a wilderness of want. You don't have enough money, But if you don't trust God with that and move forward in that, then you definitely

I've been afflicted, y'all. I don't have any friends.

Well, if you let that become, if you let it define you, and you begin to navigate according to what you don't have, Jesus said something interesting.

He said, I have compassion.

And when you tap into that, when you tap into the compassion that Christ has for you and the compassion that He has for others, bread is no problem to God. And I was just thinking how different this passage would have been. You know, they fed four thousand people. Verse thirty eight says, and they started with seven loaves. And I think it's amazing that Jesus saw people and they

How many of you were wondering that when I read it, you're like four thousand?

I thought it was five?

What happened to the other thousand? You're not gonna believe this when I tell you.

This is the second time Jesus did this, So now you're really judging the disciples, because in Matthew fourteen there were five thousand people and five loaves of bread, and Jesus fed all of them, and there were twelve baskets left over.

A chapter later. I'm not talking about.

That happened in Matthew three. That happened in Matthew fourteen. What chapter is this?

Okay?

How many of y'all are good enough at math to say that's not that long, that's not that long, And how many of you are good enough at math to put this all together?

They fed five thousand with five loaves.

Now it's only four thousand and they've got seven loaves. This should be easy, this should be simple. It's just simple math. Holly came to me this week. She's like, you need to see this everyone. While she'll bring me like a trend or something like just something that's going on in pop culture, just to make sure I'm a weird I can be kind of clueless. Sometimes she's like,

And then she started showing me these was it.

TikTok or Instagram something called girl math?

You've heard of this?

I have to because Holly showed me girl Math. She was like, watch this clip. And it was a lady saying okay, if this buy one, get one free, and I don't buy it, I basically lost money girl math.

It was like a hashtag.

If I spent thirty eight dollars online at Sephora, and but it's free shipping. If you go to forty dollars and I buy twenty dollars a mascara, so I qualified for free shipping. I basically saved money and got the mascara for free, girl Math. And I'm watching this like, why woman are you showing me this? This is triggering to me all kinds of stuff. Then had he goes, if I put the money on my Starbucks card six months ago and spend it is basically free because I already put the money.

On the car.

Girl math, and I'm like, well, let me teach you some dad math until you are paying rent in my house and buying food. Okay, anyway, And I don't really know anything about girl math, and I'll probably get you know, criticized or something. I'll get called a sexister, a misogynist, or some toxic masculinity something.

Over this.

But I've come to talk about girl math. I do know something, though, about God math, and that's the class I came to teach. Do you know anything about God math? This is not a trend? This is the truth. Can we talk about God math for a minute. Godmth is when you have seven loaves to start with and seven big basketfuls when you're done feeding a crowd. That's I

And called and chosen and anointed and oiled and raised by God by faith in God, one little rock couldn't have been that big.

What about two inches around? Yeah, two inches around nine foot giant watch two inches versus nine feet. That's what happens when you get God math in your situation. Or maybe we need to call on Joshua, who's standing in front of a twelve foot thick wall called the Wall of Jericho and all these. God is a trumpet to deal with a wall. Now, anytime you've got a trumpet versus a twelve foot thick wall, you've got a problem, unless you've got a God who is greater than the problem.

I love it.

There's this one story in the Old Testament. The prophet name Elisha can I preach for a minute. The prophet named Elisha sends a servant out to check in the morning. The servant comes back and says, we're in trouble. There's more of them than there are of us. Elisha said, he's not seeing this right. God is saying over somebody, you are not seeing this right. You're on the wrong app. You keep pulling up your map, you keep pulling up your calculator, you keep doing your math.

But I got news for you.

Where God guides, he provides. Watch this. If it's God's map, it's God's math. So when you find yourself in a remote area and you don't know what to do, or how to do it, or what to do it with. If I just came for three people, I wanted you to know, Oh, then if you're wary, puts you. If you're wary, puts you, if you're weary, puts you. Then you have what you need. If it's God's math, it's God's mad. So the prophet said, open his eyes that he may see that there are more with us than

Thing to show in the class. It's just one thing.

If you want to write it down, you can write it down. We don't need a whole semester. We don't need a whole course. I don't even need but five more minutes. Show them what God's math looks like. That's God's math. That's God's math. That's God's math. It's not a hashtag. It's a prophecy. It says that whatever I'm going through is not greater than the God who knew I would be in this remote place with this limited resource. Yeah, but I only got six more months with my kids.

Come out of man's math, come out a.

Little boy's math. Come out a girl's math.

Women's math.

I don't need man's math any longer because God knew what I would need for this season. And I have never been in a situation that God called me to and felt like I was enough. That situation never enough is not a feeling. Enough is a place of faith that God is greater God, Math, God, Math, You're glad you came to the class today. Kiss your number two pencils. Make sure it's fully sharpened. I know life has you in a place right now where you never knew you'd be.

The Disciples could relate.

The interesting thing about this passage is they were no longer on the shores of Copernaum, where they had done all of their ministry. They were now in a gentile region, having to feed people that were strangers to the Covenant that they belonged to. And Jesus said, I have compassion for these people. And that lets me know is that God saw my situation coming before I did, and He put in me what I need before I felt the need arise. So if I say this to a crowd,

It has almost become your name. It has almost become your name. For some of you, it is the shame of the mistakes that you have made that is keeping you stuck in this season. And by man's math, we all fall short of the glory of God. But God's math says that his grace is greater.

Shout greater, Shout greater, Shout greater.

That's the one word I want in your spirit about your God for whatever you're facing today.

And as simple as it sounds, if the disciples had realized that God's plan was greater, they would have never asked the question.

Where are we going to get enough? You don't have to ask about bread when you're standing next to it. So let's get serious about this. Now you're navigating and not enough in your life. And part of the problem with that is that you tried before and it wasn't enough. Tried to hold the marriage together but it wasn't enough. Tried to bring the kid back but it wasn't enough. Tried to start the business but it wasn't enough. Tried to bridge it through twenty twenty twenty twenty one in

But I love the compassion of Christ that we're celebrating in Matthew fifteen, For.

The Bible says that he will leave the ninety nine to find the one.

From men's perspective, that doesn't make much sense to leave the greater for the lesser. One thing I love about God is that the one who starts out with the.

Least can end up with the most. After all, it's just simple math. It's simple math.

When the disciples had five loaves, they fed five thousand, and they had twelve baskets left over. When they had seven loaves, they fed four thousand, and they only had seven basketfuls left over. Stay with me. This is important. This is the point I wanted to preach to. This is what I wanted you to leave with, about God's math and about them not enough that you're navigating in your life right now, about the weakness that God's strength has made perfect in, about the mistakes that you cannot

The miracle that started with the least ended with the most. I'll prophesy over your situation.

I prophesy over everybody who didn't get a good education. I prophesy over everybody who didn't get a good start in life and was not shown what real love looked like. I prophesy over everybody who didn't have a guide to show you how to navigate this transitional period of your life. That in the hands of Jesus, what starts as the least ends as the most. That's God's math. And if you feel weak today, that's a good starting place because from the starting place of your weakness comes a strength

God. Ask God.

Whatever you lack ask He's able, ask him.

Ask him God.

I need somebody in my wife right now to help me through this.

Ask him.

But as you are asking Him for what you think you need, make sure that you thank Him for what you already have. I want to sing an old song that I don't remember all the words to it.

It was like wonderful grace of our madgeless grace, do good line right here.

Yonder to Calvary's Mount Outport, there were.

The blood of the them was spilled.

Now this is the God there where the blood of the lamb was spilt, where one drop of his blood is greater than any sin you would ever commit. That's God Math, Man Math. You can keep the girl Math, you can keep the man Math. I want the God math where one drop of his atoning blood, one mention.

Of his name.

Look, there is flowing a crimson tide wider than snow.

May you be today watch this grace Grace.

God, grace that will part and cleanse. Rev. Chris, Grace, God's.

Grace, grace that is grea than a pussy.

Sing God like you got it. Pray, go, stab and pans big.

God.

Please say.

God has a grace for your situation today. Stand to your feet, lift your hands to Heaven and receiving.

Grace, Grace, God, Grace.

Dad will pardon and clese.

With claiming now is yours God.

Grace, Heads bout, eyes closed.

I want to invite somebody to receive the grace of Jesus Christ in your life today. This message was for you, a sinner in need of a savior. This message was for you, an orphan in need of a father. This message was for you, a backslider in need of a homecoming.

This message is for you.

He leaves the ninety nine and I don't know why he did it, but he found the one. He sees people, not crowds, and that grace is calling your name right now, and you know it.

I'm going to lead you in a prayer right now.

To receive the grace of God for those of you who are today ready to put your faith in Jesus Christ and receive his grace to cover your sin. I'm going to pray a line and then you pray it. It's not a magical prayer. It's an opportunity for you to do what the Bible says. To confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.

You will be saved right now. Today is the day of salvation.

Harden not your hearts.

Today is the day of salvation.

If you pray this from your heart, put your faith in Jesus Christ, you will be saved. Repeat after me, Heavenly Father, I am a sinner in need of a savior, and I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of.

God and the Savior of the world. And today I make Jesus the.

Lord of my life.

I believe he.

Died that I would be forgiven and rose again to give me life. I receive this new life. This is my new beginning.

On the counter.

Three shoot your hand up if you prayed that one two three, raise your hand right now, right now.

God bless me. Blesse your hand right now. God bless me right now. God seize people. God seize people. God Seize people.

Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did, make sure to share it and subscribe so we can get you all of these new messages as soon as they're available. I also want to take a moment and thank all of you who are a part of Elevation. Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or just share these messages, it's because of you that we're able to reach people all around the world. And if you want more information on how to be a part

God bless you.