When A Little Becomes A Lot

open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of John at chapter number 6 the gospel was recorded by John chapter 6 commencing in verse number 1 through verse 14 after these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee which is the sea of Tiberias and a great multitude followed him because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased and Jesus went up into a mountain and there he sat with his disciples and the Passover a feast of the Jews was nigh when Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto Him he said unto Philip when shall we buy bread that these may eat and this he said to prove him for he himself knew what he would do Philip answered him two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may take a little one of his disciples Andrew simon Peters brother said unto him there is a lad here which have five barley loaves and two small fishes but what are they among so many and jesus said make the men sit down now there was much grass in the place so the men sat down in number about five thousand Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks he distributed to the disciples and disciples to them that were sit down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would and when they were filled he said on his disciples gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost therefore they gather them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above unto them that had eaten press 14 reeds been those men when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did said this is of a truth that profit that should come into the world thank you you may have your seats the grass withers and the flower fades with word of our God shall stand forever I want to talk simply this morning from this thought when a little becomes a lot when a little becomes a lot these verses in John chapter 6 verses 1 through 14 picture a scene that is absolutely impossible in the eyes of man but to God it is merely an opportunity to display his awesome power God takes every opportunity to showcase his ability to overcome any situation without exception be out in the desert place the hour is late there's nowhere to buy any food and the crowds are following Jesus because they know he is a miracle worker they have seen him healed people of that disease they watched him move among the multitudes and they know that he is one of great power who teaches with great authority so they follow him in hordes in crowds numbering over 20,000 Matthew's Gospel says that the hour is for spent the evening shadows are upon them and in Mark's Gospel one of the disciples said to Jesus send them away that they might go into the town and vibe by victuals or buy food for themselves jesus said we need not send them away what do you have in John's Gospel he asks Philip from whence can we feed this multitude Philip says eight months wages would not be enough to feed all of these people but verse six says Jesus it says that to prove him to test him because he already knows what he's going to do every situation is an occasion for God to do the miraculous we we are we are in this 21st century we don't believe much in miracles anymore we believe that that was for time long ago and for day gone by but God is still taking situations that seem impossible and getting glory out of them because there's nothing too hard for God walk with me around the texts the situation's the situation seems overwhelming now God who already has the answer before the question is asked but he wants to prove and demonstrate his awesome ability the out in the desert place there's nowhere to buy any bread the people are hungry and the disciples are empty they have nothing they are running on empty the people have heard preaching and teaching all day long and there's nothing much left now for Jesus to do but to feed them but they don't have anything they are faint they are worn out because of the day and Jesus makes ready to do a miracle but there's nothing apparently available so Jesus wants the disciples to do to pay in the crowd to to look out among them and see where they can feed this multitude the situation is overwhelming but God always has the answer before the question is asked you remember that Abraham was up on Mount Moriah and Isaac said I see the wood and I see the fire and I see the altar but where is the sacrifice Abraham says God will provide himself a lamb for the sacrifice and just when they needed it just when they got to the pinnacle of Mount Moriah the RAM that they were looking for was right there and he called God Jehovah Jireh the God who will provide Elijah told them that that would be neither dude norine until he gave the word and for three years there was no Dew nor rain but every day God fed him with a raven but one day the brook dried up and God told him to go to this little widows house and he goes to this widows house and she's about to bake a cake she and her son are gonna eat it and die and he says bake one for the man of God and her meal barrel would not run out and our cruse of oil continually poured because God already has the answer before you ask the question somebody in here today may be facing some impossible situation tomorrow maybe d-day for you the end of this week if you don't have it you may lose everything you have if you can't work it out is not going to get worked out you've been stressing over it since February and you've been looking for an answer and praying and no answer comes it's not time for the answer yet God is getting you ready for the answer because if you get the answer before you get ready you might take credit that belongs to God so God has to get the situation nation to an impossibility before he can step in and do the miraculous the situation is overwhelming them there's no food there's no possible means of them getting anything that they need but what they need who they need is right among them the situation is overwhelming and the supplies are insufficient because Andrew who is always bringing somebody to Jesus it was Andrew who brought his brother Simon Peter it's Andrew who brings his little boy with his lunch with two fish and five barley loaves but but Andrew says what is that among so many the supply is insufficient now listen it is not the size of the gift that matters but the size of the heart of the giver because that boy could have refused to give his lunch up and you found him and Andrew brought him to Jesus but he could have absolutely refused to give up his lunch but Jesus said what do you have and who finds this boy with two fish five barley loaves two little sardines two little barley biscuits that's all he had barley is the food of poor people well-to-do people a tweet but this boy had barley loaves to fish five little ball eight biscuits that's all he had that that's all he had that that may be all he had left because being a boy going to church not really interested in preaching his mother may have packed him a lunch of ten fish and twelve loaves but by the time Jesus got it it was two fish and five loaves he gave Jesus what was left over and Jesus will take what you have that's left over and if you give it to him Andrew said what is that among so many it's nothing in our head I wish I had two or three witnesses here your situation is nothing in your hand your problem is impossible in your hand your child is a mess in your head your home is in trouble in your hand your finance is a top in your hand your heartbreak is all you get back in your hands coz it's in the wrong hand those of us who have had insufficiencies in our lives those who have who have had situations where there was not enough we are awakened to the fact that God can take what's not enough and make it stretch with me you don't think you have enough strength to go any further God will step right in and give you the strength you need I wish I had a witness here somebody who has taken care of an aging parent or taking care of a sick child or has some responsibilities that you have to shoulder that you are not expecting to have to shoulder some days look like you couldn't put one foot in front of the other you were so tired you would almost go to sleep at the traffic light look like things we're not going to ever turn around and you didn't know where you were going to get the strength to do what it is you needed to do but just when you needed it the most God showed up and gave you strength in your time of need you can help me testify that a little will become a lot when you put it in God's hand somebody here who struggled to raise children by yourself some days were hard and harsh but God heard your prayers because the effectual fervent prayers of the righteous availeth much listen think about where you were some 20-30 years ago 3540 years ago when you didn't have sufficient supply and today on this Sunday morning when you got up this morning you have to decide what bed to sleep in you have to decide what you were going to wear you had a choice of what you were going to eat this morning because God has given you more than you know what to do with now if you praise God when supplies were insufficient if you cried out to the Lord when you didn't have enough now that God has given you more than you know what to do with this is not the time to sit down and act like you had it all along I got enough of church people who trying to act like they all that and they've been doing it like that all these years some of us can really testify that we had to struggle to get to where we are right now and it was the struggle I wish I had a witness in it was the stress it was that the trying times it was the difficult days it was the empty barrels that brought you to your faith right now you would not have the strong faith you have right now if you hadn't seen God make up for you insufficiency yeah I'm no longer moved by the devil trying to fool me into believing that God won't come through he's done it so many times in the past and if I had in the language of my elders if I had 10,000 tongue I still wouldn't be able to give him enough praise it would be different if I hadn't seen God work you you would have a reason to cry and complain if you hadn't seen God do some the rock ulis thing but some of us got our own personal story of how God made up for the insufficiencies in our lives how when our supplies were insufficient God sent somebody to make up for what we didn't have I was a head of witness there God would put folk in your life sometimes just for a season to bless you so his name can get the glory too many of us here I said too many of us here have a story from our past of how God has brought us on and I'm not talking about the distant past I'm not talking 42 years ago past I'm talking about just last month just last week we cried out to the Lord and he heard I cry he came to our rescue he saw about us in our time of need because the scripture says he's a very present help in the time of trouble I wish I had a witness here Isaiah says has now not known has thou not her that the everlasting God the Father the creator of the ends of the earth there's no searching of his understanding I need two or three Bible readers he he gave his power to the faint and the venn that have no might he increases their strength the youths shall faint and grow weary the young men shall utterly fall but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength God will sure and when he shows up he shows up to meet you in your time of need let me tell some from some weak Christian in here today stop crying about what you don't have and praise God for what you have left and what you have left is enough for him to work with and look at what the text says Andrew found that little boy with his lunch to fish five barley loaves and a crew says what is that among so many yeah jesus said let's get some some organization in order for this to work we got to we got to get something straight in order for me to work this miracle we've got to get some structure we got to get some order we got to get some organization make the men sit down this this is not going to work until we get some structure it's not going to be what I wanted to be until we get organized and the only way we can get this thing to work is we've got to put everything in its proper order make the men sit down that's that's not in the text accidentally Jesus said if I'm gonna feed the multitude if I'm gonna make this church stuff work we've got to get some organization make the men sit down because when the men real men sit down bend women follow real men and if the men and the women are together the children go sit down don't get ahead of me now if we don't get this chat stuff straight we've got to make real men sit down get the truth know your place understand your role designate some authority find out who you are you can't do that until you sit down oh it got quiet right there a real woman was a real man real men follow instruction real men listen to Jesus talk back to me if you can honey if he does not go to church you can't evangelistically date him I wish I had time to stay right there if he does not love the Lord you can't marry him talking about nobody understand him but me if he can't cry he's going to make you cry if he can't sit down in church he said on that at the ball game he can sit on that the club he can sit on at the crack house listen everywhere you go there some structure and some order and when you come to church you want to do what you want I know I know I'm saying it now everywhere you go you are told what to do and then when you come to church you want to tell us what to do sit down sit down in a Sunday School class sit down in the men's ministry sit down and hear the Word of God because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God make the men sit down listen men who are secure have no problem following another man who secure it's only it's only insecure men who can't sit down talk back to me if you can it's only in secure men who don't like men telling them what to do it's not the disciple saying ha Jesus said make the men sit down and I suspect that when they sat down their wives sat down and then their children sat down and then when there was some structure and some order the situation that was overwhelming and the supplies that were insufficient became a surplus that was over abundant is right here in the text they brought Andrews little lunch to Jesus now the Bible says that when the men sat on the grass in number about 5,000 Jesus took the loaves as long as it was in the little boy hand and Andrews hands it was a lunch but in Jesus pan it became loaves what he does Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks he distributed to the disciples the disciples to them that was set down Jesus could have given it to them himself but he put it in the disciples hand to give them some responsibility I wish I had one or two more witnesses if you are going to get anywhere spiritually you got to take some responsibility for your own miracle I wish I had my 7:30 crime that man who was blind and Jesus spit on his eyes and told him to go wash in the pool of siloam he never would have seen anything if you didn't go to the pool got a woman with that issue of blood she never would have gotten healed if she hadn't had the faith to grab his clothes that wedding feast in Cana of Galilee water never would have turned into wine if they didn't go get the water pots I wish I had somebody to help me here they brought that little lunch to Jesus he gave it to the disciples and the disciples gave it to the people as the church Jesus gives us what the world needs and it's our responsibility to distribute it to them they will never get it unless we go bring it now some of y'all right here in this little section here I'm talking to you think this see this big church on this corner they can open the door and walk in that's not the Great Commission the Great Commission says you open the door from the inside and go outside and get them and bring them in and once they come in don't get upset because they're in your seat don't get all bent out of shape because they move your Bible and your prayers cuz you're saving a seat for somebody and you want to fight with somebody over a seat why don't you get mad over somebody serving y'all they won't get with me but they then go get no better so you might as well come on it is our job to take it out of here and bring it to them and then the miracle happened I'm through now but the miracle happens y'all got me sweating and y'all ain't even listening to me I'm going to sit down I'm just a sick of you as you are me I'm going to my seat in just a minute here's the miracle you want to know when the shout here's the time Michelle to fish five loaves they put it in Jesus hand and he starts to put it in the disciples hands and the disciples do what Jesus told him to do and distributes it now all it was was two fish and five loaves but once Jesus gets a hold of it he puts it in the disciples hand and they start passing out what was just two fish and five low five thousand men not counting the women and the children but the more they pass it out the more they have to pass on I wish I had somebody to help me because in God's hands he knows how to multiply by dividing and if you just have a little bit put it in the Lord's hand and he will take that little and make it a lot listen you will never have a problem greater than God's ability to solve it you will never have a problem greater than God's ability to solve it he sends out the disciples with the loaves and the fishes and they feed 5000 men not counting women and children and when everybody had eaten and was satisfied jesus said pick up the fragments I want you to get this every doubtful disciple because everybody Jesus spoke to about the miracle had some doubts that it could be performed Philip said we just got a little money here but if we had eight months worth of wages it couldn't feed all these people andrew says we got a boy here with his lunch but what is that among so many every disciple in the band doubted the miracle could be performed jesus said let me show you doubting disciples what I'm going to do for you after these people are fool the crowd has eaten until everybody has enough and if some of us was in there crowd we took some plates home we put some in the trout we stuff some down our pocket we hurried up and then act like we didn't get served yeah yeah you can come on sale in is your cousin's and mind your people and mine go home with a plate yeah yeah we do that and I'm sure in that crowd my auntie and your uncle and some of our cousins were there with plates to go home so when everybody was full jesus said don't worry about them taking place don't worry about you putting it in their purse let me show you what I'm going to do for you just do what I tell you just follow my instructions and you see how I'm going to bless you you gonna help me close this won't you and the word says when everybody had put it in their trunks and put it in their purse and taking some plates home jesus said gather up the fragments that there be nothing lost and when they gathered up the fragments there were twelve baskets one for each doubting disciple when you do what God says you don't have to worry about getting your basket just follow God and God will take care of your situation because a problem will not arise in your life that God can solve somebody oughta help me close here then when you follow him the faltering get sanctified when you follow him the famish you get satisfied when you follow him the faithless get stupefied because God is in the habit of doing miraculous things I need somebody here who's had some insufficiencies in your life and God has already brought you through the lean years I wish I had one or two more believers God has already opened doors that you could not see God has already made ways because you asked him in your prayers and here you are this morning in worship having been through some things with God and having your own testimony of how God can take a little and make it a lot God can take your insufficiency and open doors that were closed in your face God can take you to losing a job but you never missed a meal your marriage may be finished but God is not finished with you your situation may seem desperate but God can turn it around I wish I had a witness here who can help me testify that God has turned it around God has opened a door and God has made a way for me and listen I'm living now where I don't need God to do a whole lot for me because I've seen the Lightning flashing and I've heard the funder role I felt sins breakers dashing crying the of my soul but I heard the voice of Jesus bidding me steal the fight home he promised a city promise he promised never to leave me never to leave me alone so God just got to do a little bit for me like keep my heart beating all night keep my lungs expanding all night and then wake me up in the morning closing in my right mind and if God would just do that for me I'm gonna make my way into the House of Prayer and I don't care who's looking at me I don't care who I'm sitting next to I got so much to thank God for I've got so much to be grateful for he's been a healer for me he's been a provider for me he's been a way maker for me is there anybody here who've been through some stuff and God brought you out and you still got your right mind you don't put your hat on your feet and you don't put your shoes on your head you still got a few marbles rolling around and if you've got good sense this morning you ought to tell God thank you for what you've already done thank you for the storms you already brought me through thank you for the testimony that can't know about it do me like Jesus I've had some good days I've had some down D I've had some trouble in my life but here I am testifying this morning can all body do me like Jesus I wish I had a witness here the Lord has opened doors for me the Lord has been good to me the Lord has made a way for me if the Lord opened doors for you help me praise His name if the Lord put food on your table clothes on your back gave your jaw down in your soul help me magnify the name you can help me call him won't you Jesus early in the morning Jesus in the midnight hour that's power in the name of Jesus there's a healing in the name of Jesus Jesus what a sweet name Jesus what a wonderful name why don't you grab somebody if you know that name and tell them Jesus opened doors for me Jesus met me and my insufficiency Jesus provided for my needs won't he do it I said what are you do it shake somebody's hand tell them God will take care of you beneath his wings of love abide God will ah boys or well he will yes he will yes he will yes he will yes he will I'm a witness I'm a living witness that God still works miracles God still opens doors God still answers proud so let me ask you before I quit have you any rivers that seem uncomfortable have you any mountains that you can't tunnel through I've got some good news for you God specialized God specializes in things that seem impossible why don't you grab somebody else tell them God specialized God special Island God specialized God special Island God specialized God God God God ah God specialized and things that seem impossible and he will do oh yes I've seen him doing he will do what no other but you got to put it in his hand listen I want to urge everybody in here today who's got a problem right now put it in his hand just-just-just determine just make up your mind that you're going to quit worrying about it you're going to quit stressing over it you're gonna stop pulling your hair out because where has that gotten you nowhere so I want to exhort you right now put it in his hand that boy put it in his hand and financial struggle put it in his hand that's sickness put it in his hand that insufficiency put it in his hands and I'm here to testify that if you put it in his hands a little becomes a lot you

Channel: lillygrovembc

Views: 132,377

Rating: 4.7257619 out of 5

Keywords: Reverend Terry Anderson Pastor Lilly Grove Missionary Baptist Church Houston Texas

Id: Q73VvHEYYgQ

Length: 44min 34sec (2674 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 02 2014