We're going to study over the next several weeks Jesus. Now really, every week we study Jesus
because you can find Jesus on the page of every chapter of the Bible. But in particular, we're
going to look at Jesus through the eyes of John as he wrote the gospel of John. We're going to
walk with the disciples as they walked with Jesus so that we can learn how to be better disciples
ourselves. I think you're going to find this to be a fascinating study as we work together to try to
get to know Jesus better.
In preparation for that, what I want you to do is I want you to think for a moment and just ponder
your own heart. I want to ask you a question that I want you to think about this morning. What
are your two top stressors in your life? The two top things that are challenges for you, that bother
you, that put pressure on your life. Some of you already know what they are. They just come
quickly because you know they're stressors in your life. But for others they are…I don't know.
Maybe you got to think about it for minute. Maybe there's a financial pressure you're dealing
with. Maybe there's a relationship challenge that you're experiencing. Maybe it's something at
work. Maybe there's a specific need that you have, a habit that you have that you're working on.
Maybe there's a person who's suffering that you're caring for or that you're concerned about. Or
maybe in your own body you've got some stuff going on. Pause for a moment. Just think about
two stressors in your life.
Because I believe that as we walk with Jesus, we're going to see that He's the one who provides
for us and cares for us. In very practical ways He helps us. Now I want to test you. I want to ask
this question. How are you allowing your faith in Jesus to affect those stressors that are in your
life? Now, when I use the word ‘test,’ we can use it three ways in scripture. One is, is it pass or
fail test? Are you a Christian or not a Christian? Are you going to heaven or not going to
heaven? That's one way that we use the word test. But there's also this idea to remind or reveal. I
think that's how I'm asking the question now. Just to remind us that Jesus is the answer for the
stress points in our lives. That we come to Jesus and He's the one who helps us address all the
challenges that we experience. And then of course there's the other use of the word ‘test,’ which
is to strengthen or refine us. That's another way that the word ‘test’ is used in the Bible.
But I think today as we look at the gospel of John and over the next several weeks, we're going
to be reminded of some certain things in our lives. We need to be able to allow them to affect us
in very personal ways, even the stress experiences that we're experiencing right now.
We're going to look at the gospel of John. Now the gospel of John is very different from the
other gospels. And the gospel of John has different characters, different stories. In the gospel of
John, we don't have the battle with the demons. We don't have any prophecies about the end
times in the book of John. Most of the stories in the book of John take place in Judea, whereas in
the other gospels they take place in Galilee for the most part. John has different kinds of stories
that are going on. Do you know that in the gospel of John there are no parables as there are in the
other gospels? There are these conversations, these very intimate conversations He has with a
number of people. From those conversations, we get little sermonettes. We get little ideas and
lessons that we can take and apply to our lives.
John's gospel was written about fifty years after the other gospels were written. John's an older
guy now. He's an old man. He's thinking back and he's saying, “Okay, I'm going to write about
this. This Jesus. I'm going to write about Him. And I have a reason I'm going to write that's
different maybe from the others.” In fact, John tells us what that reason is, actually, in his book. I
want to go to John 20, where these two verses describe why he wrote this book. I want you to
stand with me if you would, as I read these verses. Because they really describe the purpose of
John's gospel.
So in honor of God's word, we stand.
It says here – Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not
written in this book (many others that are not written in this book); but these are written so that
you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life
in his name. By believing you might have life in His name.
You may be seated.
When we say life here, we're talking certainly about the life that Nicodemus in John 3
experienced. This is the new life being born again that Jesus talks about in John 3. But in John
11, he's talking about abundant life, a life we can enjoy now that's rich and full, that helps us
even in the midst of our stress and the challenge is to experience the vitality of Jesus. When we
come to Jesus, we experience something much more. We enjoy Him in ways that that we never
did before.
You know, we have these tests in our lives that remind us of things. But you know sometimes the
challenges in our lives, they go away when we pray. We call them miracles. And we pray that
God would take something away. I'm always amazed when an alcoholic says, “I've lost the desire
to drink now. God has taken that away.” And I go, “Wow. That is a miracle.” When I hear about
someone who got healed and I go, “Wow, God took away that disease from them. Man, that's
amazing.” That's one thing that God does with our challenges. He does miracles.
There's another thing He does sometimes is that they go away slowly. God calls that process
sanctification. Where He grows us to develop the inner strength, the inner character in the midst
of the challenge we have. It doesn't go away quickly. It goes away slowly. And God does a
miracle in that way. But He's doing something deeper inside of our hearts to build the integrity
we need in life. And so the alcoholic might say, “I'm just working so hard to battle with that
desire to drink.” He's wrestling. It's the sanctification that we need where God grows us in the
midst of the challenges that we face.
And then there are those kinds of challenges that we experience that don't go away for whatever
reason. Sometimes Christians suffer. And those things don't go away. Yet God in the midst of all
of that does something deep within our hearts so that we can get to know Him more so that other
people can look and say, “Look at that person suffering and look at how joyful they are. Look at
that person struggling and look at the peace they have.” That sometimes for whatever reason, the
brokenness of our world that we live with challenges, and we allow God to provide for us in the
midst of that.
There's one story that's repeated in all four gospels. Just one. One miracle that's in all four
gospels. We're going to look at that today. It's as if the Bible is saying in this quadrophonic
sound, listen to this miracle. Don't forget this one. All of the writers want us to be able to look at
this particular miracle, because this is really important. And that's what we're going to see as we
open the Bible in John 6.
So as the stage curtain rises, we're going to be in the middle of the story of John. Now you might
ask, why are we starting in John 6? Why are we doing chapters 6-12? I wish I could tell you
there was a profound, theological, biblical reason for that. But there isn't. The reality is the Pastor
Evans taught chapters 1-5, and then he taught the Upper Room Discourse (chapters 13-18), and
left chapters 6-12 untaught at that point. So Don said why don’t you fill that in and teach that. I
said okay. So that's the profound reason that we're teaching from John 6-12. But the reality is, if
we jump into the middle of the story, we can start walking with Jesus right away and we can see
what Jesus is doing.
John 6 starts this way. After this Jesus went away. Well, we got to pause right there because
what's the this? Well, the nice thing is this same story is taught in all four gospels. So if you look
at the other gospels, you can see that there was a tragedy that took place – John the Baptist was
killed. And Jesus, said, “We got to get away, guys. Let's get away for a little bit here.” So after
this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Let's go across. Let's get away from
the crowds. Let's go across the Sea of Galilee.
Now the Sea of Galilee is the lowest freshwater lake in the world. It's 700 feet below sea level.
Here's a map of the Sea of Galilee. Now if you lived in Israel, you would say, even if you were
Jerusalem, in Jerusalem down south, you would say this: Let's go down to Galilee. And you say,
“Why would you say go down to Galilee, when it's north?” Well, that's because Jerusalem is
about 2500 feet above sea level. It's kind of cool, especially in the summer. It's very nice. It’s
kind of cold in the winter. But if you're going to go down to Galilee, it's going to be hot down in
Galilee. Seven hundred feet below sea level. The lowest place on Earth is the Dead Sea, and the
Sea of Galilee runs down into the Dead Sea. It's the lowest place on Earth. But the Sea of Galilee
has these mountains around it. You can kind of see this.
In our story today, we're going to be up in Bethsaida up toward the top. You see that at the top
there. Here's a picture of the Sea of Galilee today. You can see the mountainous areas all around
the Sea of Galilee. It's really that when the wind comes through those mountain passes, it can
churn up that water. We'll talk about some of the storms that take place on the Sea of Galilee.
But today we're going to talk about a mountain. That He goes up on this mountain. And you can
see a picture of maybe this same mountain that he went up to on Bethsaida there.
It says – They went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And
a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. So
you can imagine in that picture that Jesus got in a boat, and He's crossing over the Sea of Galilee
(or it's often called the Sea of Tiberius after the emperor). He's crossing over to the other side,
and the crowds are seeing Him. That's the one who healed us. That's the one who can heal
people. Let's go around. And so there's a big crowd gathering as they're going across the top of
the Sea of Galilee to get to where Jesus is and where He's going to land. Jesus is going to try to
get away and spend some time alone.
It says in verse 3 – Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now
the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large
crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these
people may eat?” Where are we going to buy the bread that we need in order for this to work?
Now, the other gospels remind us or tell us about this story too. They tell us that there are some
other things going on. There's a dialogue happening between Jesus and His disciples. Actually,
the disciples are feeling a bit anxious here. They've got a stressor in their lives right now. “How
are we going to feed these people?” they say to Jesus. In fact, McDonald's is closed, Burger
King’s too far away, Chick-fil-A hasn't started up yet. And we've got to send these people away
to get some food, they say. Now Jesus takes the stressor and turns it back over to Philip. And He
says, “Philip, where are we going to find the food for these people? What are we going to do
about this problem? Philip, I want you to take this problem on. I want you to deal with this in
your own life here.”
See, I think Jesus does this a lot in our lives. I think He works with the crowds, but He also
works with the individuals. Jesus loves these crowds. He's going to have compassion on them.
But He also works with the individuals. We see this over and over in the Bible. That God works
with the groups, but He also works with the individuals.
Do you remember the story of Jonah? God wants the Ninevites to experience repentance and He
chooses Jonah to send out to these people. But Jonah has a problem. So God says, “Okay,
Ninevites, you're going to have to wait till I get this one guy squared away a little bit.” And so
He works with Jonah to help him get his heart in the right place so he can go do the work. God is
concerned about the individuals, because it's these individuals that often experience some really
important things in their lives. God wants to do these valuable things inside of our own hearts.
What is God going to do in Philip’s heart?
Look at the next verse. It says – He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was to do. I
think this is the test of reminding or revealing. That's what He’s going to do. He’s going to
remind or reveal something about Himself. The point of this particular miracle that's going to
take place is that Jesus is the provision for our stress points. That Jesus has the provision that's
much bigger than we could ever imagine. And it's one of those we're going to take home and
apply to our own lives this week. He said this to test him, for he knew already what he was going
to do. I think it's one of those remind or reveal tests. He's going to show Philip something
different than he'd ever seen before.
Now, each of us when we come to stress, have our own ways of dealing with it. We have our
own ways of viewing it, our own ways of trying to understand it. Philip was concerned about the
money. Maybe you know some people. They get under stress and they say, “Oh boy, this is
going to cost a lot. Oh boy, look at my bank account. I don't know how I'm going to pay for
this.” There's some people who look at the money. That's what Philip represents in this story.
Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of
them to get a little.” We do not have enough money. This is going to cost a lot.
I think sometimes we get distracted and we don't see the provision of God. What are the
distractions that take us away from seeing God's provision or the things He wants to do? In this
case, Philips looking at the money. He's different than Andrew.
Andrew is the next guy on the scene. Notice it says – One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's
brother, he's going to have a different problem. He's going to look at how big the problem is. Do
you know that sometimes the provision of God comes disguised as a problem? That sometimes
the challenges, the stressors in our lives are really an opportunity for us to see the provision of
God in ways we never imagined. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy
here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” In other words,
we're going to talk about the five barley loaves and the boy and the fish in just a moment, but,
Andrew is saying, this problem is too big. Have you ever said that to God? “God, this problem is
so big, I'm going to hold back a little bit. I'm going to try to be anxious about this. Maybe that
will solve the problem. But God wants to show us that even in the midst of our stress points, He
is the provision. It is when we come to Jesus that we are able to receive so much. Jesus is the
answer to the question. I don't care what the question is. Jesus is the answer to the question, and
we want to come to Him. We want to receive that from Him. And we're going to see that in the
story today.
I love stories in the Bible that have to do with children. This is just one of them. There are many
of them. I like the one in Samuel. You remember when Samuel was just a little boy, he was in
the home of Eli or in the temple area where Eli the priest was, and God started to talk to him and
call him. He learned how to follow instructions and God began to speak. I think children learn
how to follow instructions in their home so they can learn how to follow instructions from God.
Instead of saying, “Wait till I get to the next level,” before we follow instruction. No. We follow
instructions right now. And Samuel is learning that in that home or in that temple area with Eli.
He learns to listen to God.
I think about the young girl who came to the door. When Peter escaped from prison, he goes to
the house where everybody is. And the young girl is there, opens a little peephole and says,
“Hey, Peter’s outside the door.” They're all in a prayer meeting. You know what they're doing?
They're praying that Peter would be rescued. And they say to the young girl, “Don't bother us
with that. We're praying for Peter that he'll get rescued.” Ha ha! I think sometimes God reveals
spiritual truths to us through children. Isn't that powerful? I just think that's so great.
And now we have this story of this little boy who's going to be used of God to provide in a
powerful way for all of these crowds. I wonder what this boy was like. What happened to him
when he first started? I wonder if that morning it went something like this. He gets up and he's
getting ready and he sees the people start moving around. He says, “Mom, Mama, I just found
out those guys are going to see Jesus. I want to go see Jesus.”
Mom says, “You didn't have your breakfast yet.”
“Come on, Mom. I want to go.”
“Okay, well, here. Take a piece of bread. In fact, here, you better take a bunch of bread. Take
five loaves and two fish. You're going to need it.” Maybe it was in some kind of a basket like
this. Just a small basket. I don't know what it was. I don't think he had a lunch pail. He must have
some kind of a basket. And it must have been obvious that there was food in it because Andrew’s
going to look at it and say, “Hey, there's some food there. Maybe we can use that.” Just a small
basket this guy took for a little lunch. And he goes off to find Jesus
.
I wonder what Andrew said to him to get his lunch from him. I wonder if he said something like
this. Maybe he said, “Hey, I notice you have some food there. Jesus is looking for food to feed
these people. Would you like to meet Jesus?” And the boy says, “Yeah, I'd like to meet Jesus.”
So he meets Jesus. And that smile of Jesus I'm sure just entrapped this boy. And he just says,
“Okay, I'll give you my lunch, Lord. What are you going to do with that?” Just a little basket.
Just a little bit that he brings to Jesus.
Sometimes we just take the little bit that we have and we give it to Jesus, because God could do a
lot with a little. Sometimes we just need to come and say, “Lord, I don't have a lot. But I'm
bringing a little.” It reminds me of the story in Mark 9 where this dad was so troubled by his
son's problem. His son is just having a hard time in his life, just so difficult. He comes to Jesus
and he says to Jesus, “If you can, you can change this. You can make this well.” Jesus says back
to him something kind of interesting. Jesus says, “If I can?” That's what He says to him. “If I
can?” He says – “If you believe, all things are possible.” Here's what the man says: “I believe.
Help me in my unbelief.” Oh, that's how I feel a lot. Lord, I believe, but my stressors are really
big. They're going to cost a lot of money. Lord, I believe, but help me in my unbelief. That's
what he says in Mark 9.
So here's a boy who's coming now to this meal and he's saying, “Okay, I'm going to provide. I
want to give this food to the Lord.” God's going to do something big with the small that's
available.
Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat
down, about five thousand in number. Now the other gospel writers tell us that Jesus had a
conversation with the disciples and He told them, “You guys sit the people down in fifties and a
hundred.” In other words, what He's saying is sit in groups with paths in between so you can
walk. I'm thinking, these guys have not read the story yet. They don't know what's going to
happen in John 6. Like we know what's going to happen. And so they're saying, “Okay…” So
they go around telling people, “Sit down and leave paths around groups of fifty and a hundred.
Leave paths around so we can walk.” And the people are saying, “Why?” And they say, “I think
we're going to have a snack here,” is what they're saying, “Well, I don't know what's going to
happen. Jesus just said to do that.”
Sometimes we don't know what God's going to do because we haven't read the book yet. We
don't know what the story looks like. We don't know what tomorrow is. But God lives in the
tomorrow. Jesus knows what tomorrow is all about. And so we take the first steps that we need
to take. Okay, I'm going to go visit the doctor. Okay, I'm going to put my résumé out there.
Okay, I'm going to save money. Or whatever it is that we're doing in our challenges, we say, “I'm
going to take the first step. I'm going to give this to the Lord.” Even though I don't know the
whole story, I'm going to go ahead and sit the people down in fifties and hundreds. So that was
what they did.
Five thousand it says. There were five thousand men, which means that probably there were five
thousand women or something like that. And we know there's some kids there because we’ve got
one we're talking about right now. So maybe there's 5000 kids. There's a lot of people that are
there. This is a huge crowd of people that God's going to feed. Jesus is going to feed all of these
people. It's just amazing.
It says – Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those
who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. Now it says He distributed them, but
He distributed them through the disciples. They're the ones who went and took the bread and the
fish and gave it to all of these people. What a privilege. Wouldn’t you like to be one of the
people carrying the fish and the bread and say, “Would you like some fish? Would you like some
bread? Oh, you would like some more! I'll be right back. I can get you some more!” And so he's
bringing in all this fish and bread.
You know what amazes me? Jesus could have said everybody move to the edges because I'm
about to bring manna down from heaven like I did in the Old Testament. That's how He could
have done it. But He doesn't. He says I'm going to use people to pass out the bread and the fish.
I'm going to use people to pass the grace on to other people. Oh, wow. God uses you and me to
pass out the bread and pass out the fish.
When you teach Sunday school, or you sing up here on the stage, or you're ushering or greeting,
or you're ministering, you get to pass out the bread. But sometimes, people will come to you and
say, “Oh, you're such a good usher,” or “you preached a good sermon,” or “you're such a good
Sunday school teacher,” and we say, “Oh, I am pretty good, aren’t I?” We're just passing out the
bread. The miracle is taking place back there. It's Jesus the one who's doing the miracle. All we
get to do is hand out the bread and the fish.
I train biblical parenting coaches to work with parents using a remarkable system that helps
children change in a short period of time. It's just really amazing to watch what happens. I train
these coaches. I just finished a training of coaches and I had one person from Ecuador in there,
one from Australia, one from England, one from Latvia, two from Nigeria, along with a bunch of
people from the United States in this particular training. One was a psychologist and one was a
psychiatrist who heard and saw this program. They want to use it in their practices. Every one of
the people I'm training must work with a parent while they're in the training so they can watch
this unfold. They're not just learning in a classroom, they're actually practicing it with parents.
The first week I say to them all, “Go find out the problems in this family.” That's a lot of fun.
And sometimes people come back and they say, “I'm over my head.” I say to them, “That's how I
feel every time I talk to a family. I'm over my head.” Because people get into all kinds
of…children have all kinds of problems. It can be really difficult to help people in the midst of
that. But remember, you're not the hero in the story. It's the guy who's back there praying, and
then He breaks the bread open and the fish. All you need to do as coaches, you pass on the
biblical principles to these people and you wait and you watch what God's going to do. And God
works. God's grace comes through there.
We are only the vehicles that God uses to pass on grace to others. You in your family are the one
that God uses to pass on grace. If you're a young person, even a child, God uses you to speak
grace into your family. If you're a young person, God uses you to speak grace into that home. If
you're a mother, God uses you to pass on the bread and the fish of God's grace. If you're a
husband, God uses you in that powerful way. We need to view ourselves as these disciples that
God has entrusted to us the grace of God to pass on to other people. That's what's taking place
here. I love this story. That Jesus uses people to pass on His grace.
So also the fish, as much as they wanted. When it says as much as they wanted, I am just drawn
to that verse. Just imagine. You want more? Okay, I'll get you some more. In Ephesians 3:20 it
says this: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according
to the power at work within us. This is Jesus. Jesus loves to provide more than we can ask or
think. Now, when I was a kid I memorized this verse in the King James Version. And it says
there – Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly more than we… I love those words –
exceeding abundantly. That's just really big. And you know, when I think about exceeding
abundantly, I think about He wants to take us into the heavenlies. This is so great. He wants to do
much more and big. But you know, sometimes what He wants to do in the midst of our stress is
take us deeper. Deeper than we've ever been before. He wants to grow us in ways we've never
been able to grow before. He's going to take the stress points of our lives, and He's going to do
miracles, and He's going to show us that He is the provision for our lives, that we need Him in all
that we do.
And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that
nothing may be lost.” So they go out and they gather these fragments. I imagine they didn't use
those small baskets. I imagine they used a basket like this. That's what I'm imagining. They're
going around and they're gathering the leftovers, and they end up with twelve baskets leftover.
So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves
left by those who had eaten.
I wonder how much of that food went in the little basket home with the boy, leftovers that he
took back to his mom to tell the story. In fact, I wonder what happened in that boy's life as he
grew up. What happened? I can hardly wait to get to heaven. I'm going to say, “Where's the boy?
The boy with the five loaves and two fish? I want to know his name, first of all. And what did
God do in his life when he got older?”
We never know what God's going to do in the lives of these children, these children that are in
the worship service now that are down in Sunday school. We never know if they’re the next
missionaries, they’re the next pastors, they're the next leaders, they're the next Christian leaders
of our community. These are the people we're investing in. I wonder what God's going to do? We
don't know. All we do is we pass on the bread and the fish. We ask them to bring the little they
have to Jesus. We help them to grow in their own personal lives. It’s just really big what God
wants to do.
But it says twelve baskets full and there are twelve disciples. So I imagine probably that’s not a
random number. I just imagine the picture. Jesus says, “Okay, guys. Everybody hold their
baskets up, I want you to see you all got your baskets together? This is one of those lessons you
don't ever forget.” So much so that all four gospels want to make sure this story's in there. And I
think they would have taken a picture of the twelve baskets full with the twelve disciples there
with Jesus right there.
But the point is, they got these baskets. What are they going to do with all that food? They can't
eat all that food, all the baskets full of leftovers. The idea is God provides. You don’t have to
worry about the money. I know money is important for us to consider. But we get all tied up. We
have to worry about the 200 denarii it’s going to cause for all this food. We don't have to worry
about how big the problem is. Yes, the problems are huge that we live with. We don't see the
answers, but God is the provider.
The point of this story is, whatever your stress point is, in the hands of Jesus you can experience
His provision. It's such a beautiful story. So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with
fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the
sign… It's called a sign in this passage because in John's gospel we're going to see there are
seven signs, seven miracles John is going to choose. We're going to look at four of them as we
look at chapters 6-12. Four signs. Because as John is writing his book, he's thinking I have a
purpose here. I'm going to organize my book differently than the other gospels. There are seven
signs, seven miracles. We're looking at four of them. This is one of them in John 6.
He also organizes his book by saying there are seven I Ams. We're going to look at five of those
in chapters 6-12. Because John has a purpose, he has a goal. He wants to communicate that Jesus
is the Christ and by believing in Him, we can have a life in His name.
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said this. Because they don't really get it
yet. I think sometimes we don't really get it yet. We just want our stress removed. Lord, would
you just give us a solution to this problem, where sometimes God wants to do something bigger.
That's the problem with the people here. It says – The people saw the sign that was done and
they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” We’ve been looking
forward to this one. This one is going to be the king. This is the king that we need. A king that
can make food. We don't have poverty anymore. We don't have any problem with welfare. This
is definitely going to be our king. Because He can take and manufacture food, we've eradicated
poverty. We're going to bring Him as a king.
That's why it says in the last verse – Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him
by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. Why? Because He
didn't come to be the king in that sense. He didn't come to just solve our stress points. Jesus came
to transform our lives. Jesus came to do something much deeper in our lives. He came to do
something for our souls. He came to do something for the sin problem that we have. It's not just
about getting over our stress. It's about getting into something deeper that God wants for our
hearts.
If you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I want to encourage you to pray
that God will take away your stress points. That's fine. I think it's good. But recognize that
sometimes God uses those to draw us to Himself in a way we never imagined. Because He is the
provision. And the greatest provision that we have is the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Because
that is the atonement for our sin. That is the provision so that we can have a relationship with
God that is exceeding abundantly above everything we could ask or think.
