Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. Good morning, good morning.
Turn to somebody. Can you hear me now? Turn to
somebody right now. Tell them Happy New Year.
Come on, Lifehouse. It is 2007. Yes, yes, yes.
Can we give the Lord a hand? In 2007, He got
you here. You made it. Amen? Come on. It's good.
And it's amazing. I thank the Lord for every
year. I told somebody this morning, every year
that comes by, it's like a new chapter, right?
The page flips. You get a fresh start. You get
a brand new chance at a new year. And you should
look at it that way. You should jump in, just
looking to see what God's going to do in your
life and in those around you. So happy new year
to everybody. Amen? Amen. Amen. Well, I want
to, maybe because it's the new year. Maybe it's
because I'm starting out in this new chapter,
but I began, I do a couple of things when we
hit the new year. I'm always looking forward,
but I also kind of look back sometimes. I kind
of look back at the beginning and some of those
benchmarks in life and, you know, where God's,
somehow God's got you to where you are currently
and hasn't taken you home yet. And then you also
look forward. And I was looking back a little
bit and I was thinking about LifeHouse. And in
2007, I was on staff at a church just up the
road here in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. And I was
the children and youth pastor. That was many
years ago, right? I was the children and youth
pastor there. I was over all the student ministries.
And I was looking back, and I was thinking about
some of the little things that took place in
our life. And I began this journey about three
years in. We stayed there just about four years.
But about three years in, I remember this little
thing happening in my life. I heard about this
thing called church planting. And while God was
stirring in my heart at the same time, I started
hearing about church planting. And I didn't really
know what it was. You know, church planting is
going into a new community, starting a new work
there, a new church there. But this thing started
stirring in me. And how many don't want to hear
about something you can't unhear it, right? You
really can't. You cannot hear it. And this thing
began to stick. I mean, you can pretend you don't
know anything about it, or you can pretend it's
not there, but it stuck in my spirit. And it
wasn't long after that, so I started learning
a little more about church planting, and I felt
like my family and I were supposed to go to Carlisle
and plant a church. Couldn't explain it. Just
God speaking something in my spirit. I told Dixie
on a particular day when I got brave enough to
say it because there's no income that comes in
when you plant a church. And I said, honey, I
think we're supposed to start a church. And she
said, no. I said, get her, Jesus. And a week
later he did. She came back and said, we need
to do this. This is what God's called us to do.
And, you know, and it was a lot of little things
that took place along the way. And trust me.
I can tell you at the beginning, we had nothing.
It was just this little thing that was birthed
in our hearts, me and my wife and my family.
And we didn't have a bank account. We did not
have a building. We didn't have pews or chairs
or anything of this sort. We just had a couple
people who were interested in what we were ready
to do. And we all came together in our house,
a rented house in Carlisle, because we had moved
to Carlisle. And we started talking about the
dream of starting a church. And it was just a
little thing. It was so little that my kids kind
of thought some of it was kind of lame. And honestly,
they weren't wrong at times, right? Pushing the
furniture back in the living room and getting
together and having church. And we made them
get out of their PJs and dress up for church
in the living room. That's the lame part, by
the way. All right. But really, they were all
on board. And I remember the kids coming. My
children were all involved in the praise team
on the tech side. And I remember coming together
with just two couples. One of the couples are
here today. Paul and Mary, would you stand up
in the back back there? Come on. We don't get
to recognize it. Come on. They were there at
the beginning. Thank you. They followed me probably
when they shouldn't have. You know, we just had
this dream talking about what God would do and,
you know, how we wanted to begin this church.
that would be focused on God and reaching people
for Christ, building families, and building authentic
Christian community. And it was really, we talked
about loving God and loving people every day,
and we just kept talking to things. And it was
all these little things, and it was small at
the time. It was big in our hearts, but it was
small everywhere else, right? Nobody really wasn't
listening. I remember my brother -in -law, he
came by and gave me a sound system. It was this
little thing he had stuffed in the closet, you
know, and it was just a little thing to him.
But it was a big thing to us, right? It was the
little things. It was the little things. And
I remember launching into the first gathering
at the Cardinal Sports Emporium. How many of
you have ever been there and played an arcade
game? Did you ever see the little party room
on the left when you're walking in the door?
That's where church began, man. It was a little
thing, all right? Just a couple of us meeting
in there. We didn't have chairs, real chairs.
We had the resin chairs, you know, the kind you
stack up. That was the kind of chairs we sat
on. Lawn chairs. And it was a little tiny congregation.
It looked a little more like a, it was kind of
a small group. And I was going to say a small
group on steroids, but not even on steroids.
Right? And in the midst of it, all these little
things that God did. The little conversations.
And I remember a conversation, a little conversation
took place in particular with Harold and Marion
Spellman. And if you don't know that name, they
actually are the pioneers of faith who started
Penile Ministries, which is a drug, it's actually
a drug and alcohol rehabilitation. It's a long
-term drug and rehabilitation on the western
side of the state called Penile. And I remember
talking with them, and they spoke into Dixie
and I's lives, and they said this to us. They
spoke this. They said, do not despise the small
beginnings. They were quoting scripture. It's
from Zechariah 4 .10. For who has despised the
day of small things? Small things. The little
things. It's just the little things. But here's
the thing. If the Lord is in the little thing,
if the Lord is in the small thing, It can change
everything. It really can. So if you got your
Bible this morning, I want you to turn to John
chapter 6. We're going to John chapter 6. We've
been working through the book of John. And I
want to talk a little bit about something that
if you put the little thing in God's hands, if
you put it in the hands of a big God, it could
change everything. And while you're turning to
read, I'm going to pray. Lord, we thank you for
this day. God, I thank you for each person in
the house. I thank you for each person that's
joining us online. I thank you, Lord, that we
have the opportunity to come into your word.
God, pray. We pray right now, God, just hide
this word in our hearts. God, as David said,
not to sin against you, but also, God, to build
us up. God, to show us the way, to light our
path. God, I ask that you would just touch as
we look at your word, speak into our ears, that
we might bring glory and honor unto you. And
we just give you praise. And everybody say it
together. Amen. Amen. John chapter 6, verse 1
says this. It says, after these things. Now I'm
going to preach for a minute. Okay. I know you're
like, come on, pastor. No, I'm going to. All
right. After these things, let me tell you what
happens before these things, because you don't
know what's happening. If we're saying after
these things, what happened previous to this?
Well, in John chapter five, Jesus had just healed
a man. He had walked into the area of Jerusalem
near the sheep gate at that time in ancient Jerusalem.
He went to the pool of Bethesda where there were
many, many people laying around that were sick
and afflicted. And they were there because the
pool would stir at times. An angel would stir
it. And the first person in the pool would get
healed. And Jesus walks up to a man who is there,
and he's been there, he's been sick for 38 years,
says, do you want to be healed? The man says
yes, and he starts going into a long explanation
how he can't get to the pool. Jesus heals this
individual right there. And while this is taking
place, the Jews in that area, some of them and
some of the scribes and the Pharisees are watching
this all go down. And they're watching Jesus
heal this man. And they don't believe that he's
a Messiah. They don't believe that he's a prophet.
As a matter of fact, the word of God says that
they seek to kill Jesus. They really do. Because
A, Jesus broke their Sabbath law because Jesus
told this man to pick up his mat and walk. And
this man broke their Sabbath law. And two, because
he mentioned that he was the son of God and they
didn't believe it. They didn't believe that he
was Messiah. They didn't believe, they did not
want to hear him talking about being equal with
God. And they were after him to kill him. This
is what took place in John chapter five. So when
you go to chapter six, it says, after these things,
this is after all this. People want to kill him
in Jerusalem. Jesus leaves, right? And it says,
Jesus. went over to the Sea of Galilee, which
is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude
followed him because they saw his signs, which
he had performed on those who were diseased.
And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there
he sat with his disciples. I want you to picture
this. Jesus leaves Jerusalem. He crosses over
the Sea of Galilee, which is a very small sea.
It's probably like a large lake compared to what
we would think is an ocean or sea. It's a large
area, and people are following Jesus. Now, this
is before texting. This is before social media.
This is before electricity, okay? They've heard,
and they're following Jesus, and they go up onto
a mountainside. Can you picture it in your head?
Many, many people follow him. And now the Passover,
a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted
up his eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming
toward him up on the mountain, he said to Philip,
Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?
But this he said to test him, Philip, for he
himself knew what he was about to do. Philip
answered him, Two hundred denarii worth of bread
is not sufficient for them that every one of
them should have a little. That's 200 days wages.
If you want to know what that means, 200 days.
Philip, Jesus turns and says he sees this big
multitude coming up the hillside towards him,
and he turns to one of his disciples. He's got
12 disciples there. He turns to Philip and he
says, you need to feed them. Right? This is 5
,000 men plus their families coming towards them.
And he responds that way. One of his disciples,
Andrew Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there's
a lad, a boy here, who has five barley loaves
and two small fish, but what are they among so
many? Tell somebody it's the little things. Turn
to somebody right now. Say it's the little things.
It's the little things. You got to get this in
your spirit. It's the little things. Then Jesus
said, make the people sit down. Now there was
much grass in that place. So the men sat down
in the number of about 5 ,000. Jesus took the
loaves and when he had given thanks, he distributed
them to the disciples and disciples to those
sitting down. And likewise of the fish as many
as they needed. It multiplied, supernaturally
multiplied. And they began to feed 5 ,000 plus
their families. Now, I want to stop right here
and interrupt this because this account of Jesus
doing this miracle, it happens in all the gospels.
It happens in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
All the writers of the gospels, they write about
this account. And some of them give a little
bit of different detail, like anybody that's
writing, of this account. And I want to go to
Matthew because there's something important you
need to see. In Matthew 14, 19, it has the same
account. It says, he commanded the multitudes
to sit down on the grass. And he took the five
loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven,
he blessed. and broke and gave the loaves to
the disciples and the disciples gave to the multitudes.
Gives a little more detail what took place. Now
let's jump back into John. So when they were
filled, he said to his disciples, gather up the
fragments that remain so that nothing is lost.
Therefore, they gathered them up and filled the
12 baskets with fragments of the five barley
loaves, which were left over by those who had
eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the
sign that Jesus did, said, this is truly the
prophet who has come into the world. Therefore,
when Jesus perceived that they were about to
come and take him by force to make him king,
he departed again to a mountain by himself alone.
Jesus leaves Jerusalem after creating a stir,
healing a man. After stirring up the scribes
and the Pharisees, they're out to get him. He
crosses over the Sea of Galilee and a multitude
of people follow him onto this hillside, this
grassy hillside. where Jesus is getting ready
to teach and he's getting ready to preach. And
while they're coming, he says to Philip, you
need to feed them. How many of you need to be
fed on a regular basis? Raise your hand right
now. Come on, I'm with you, right? You got to
get your three squares. You skip a meal, you
get cranky. Things are all messed up. My granddaughter
Mia is here with us from Georgia, and she's just
a little tiny thing. She's sweet. She's got the
sweetest little voice. We call her our little
giraffe because you know what she does? She eats
all the time. She loves food. She's a foodie.
How many of you get unholy and hangry when you
don't eat? You skip a meal. Thank you. Confession's
good for the soul. You're in church, right? Thousands,
possibly, of hangry people heading up on this
grassy hillside. And Jesus totally uses this
moment to teach his disciples something. He turns
to Philip and he says, where shall we buy bread
that these may eat? Philip's freaking out a little
bit. What? You talking to me, Jesus? 200 denarii
won't buy enough bread to even start to give
somebody just a little bit. Jesus, do you understand
the gravity of what you're asking here? We don't
have the money, and even if we did have the money,
we don't got the place to buy the bread. What
are you saying, Jesus? What do you mean? How
is this my problem all of a sudden? Are you crazy,
Jesus? I'm just reading his mind. It doesn't
say that in the Bible, right? This is impossible.
This is not possible. And this is exactly what
Jesus was doing here. He was putting his disciple,
Philip, and actually the rest, in the middle
of an impossible situation. He assigns them an
impossible task. He puts this huge, overwhelming,
right, incredibly impossible problem squarely
on their plate. And the Word of God says he's
testing them. He's testing these guys. Jesus
knows that this is not the last time they're
going to face an impossible situation. As a matter
of fact, he knows that he's going to leave at
some point after he's crucified, raises from
the dead. He's going to ascend into heaven, and
the disciples are going to be on their own, and
they're going to hit impossible situations. They're
going to come into places where the impossible
is going to be right in front of them, and he's
trying to teach them something. And Andrew, being
Andrew, he just comes up with the best. How many
know when you hit the impossible, you just come
up with the best solution you can? Right? You
come up with the best thing you can get, and
that's what Andrew does here. He comes up, he
says, Andrew Simon's Peter brother said to him,
there's a lad, there's a boy here who has five
barley loaves and two fish, right? But what are
they among so many? This is the best answer they
got. Thousands of people heading towards them.
We've got five loaves of bread, and we've got
two fish. Now, I don't know if they were going
to steal it from that little kid. Do you ever
wonder what's happened in the background with
all this? You know, it doesn't say. Are they
going to buy them? Are they going to give them
10 bucks for the meal, you know, and try to buy
this kid? I don't know how they got the loaves
and the fish, but it's the little things. Turn
to somebody again. Tell them it's the little
things. You need to hear this. The best they
can come up with is five barley loaves and two
fish that some kid brought to the gathering,
right? And Jesus essentially says, this will
do. This is going to do. Because in Matthew 14,
19, he said, then he commanded the multitudes
to sit down on the grassy areas. And he took
the five loaves and the two fish. And looking
up to heaven, he blessed it and he broke it.
And he gave the loaves to his disciples. And
the disciples gave it to the multitudes. He takes
the little bit of food that they placed, just
the little thing that they placed in his hands.
He looks up to heaven, up to the Father. He blesses
it and he breaks it. And it multiplies. It feeds
everybody that's there. As a matter of fact,
it goes beyond just feeding them. At the end
of it, Jesus sends the disciples back and says,
I want you to go back and gather it up. And they
end up with 12 extra baskets of bread. It is
the little thing that is given into God's hand,
his big hand, that makes the difference. Let
me say it again. It is the little thing in your
hands that you place into God's hand that makes
all the difference. The big overwhelming problem
that is in front of you, right? The very ineffective
and little solution that you have in your hand,
you need to place in his hands. The impossible
situation that's in front of you and you feel
so inadequately equipped to recognize. the situation.
Place it in his hands. It's just a little thing
that you got, right? The situation or the circumstance
that seems that there's no way out. Take what
is, you're on the verge of crashing and burning,
and you know it's imminent. Take the little thing
that you have. Right? The insignificant thing.
The thing that isn't going to make any kind of
difference whatsoever with the problem that's
in front of you, and you place it in his hands.
The 5 ,000, right? The little thing like five
loaves and two fish feeding 5 ,000 people. Hand
it to Jesus. Give it to him. Give him your inadequate
solution. Give him all your personal inadequacies,
because you might be part of the solution. Give
him the five loaves and two fish that are in
your hands, but give it to him. Hand him your
very little solution, inadequate solution. Hand
it over to a God who knows nothing of failure.
I don't know if you know it or not, but God has
never failed, ever. Hand it over to him. Hand
it to the one who can speak things into existence,
speaks it into existence. Give it to him. Give
it to him. Hand over your little, tiny solution.
Because it's the little things. And let me remind
you of something this morning, why you're handing
it off. Because you've got to understand handing
something off to somebody. This is football season,
right? We're in the thick of football season,
NFL football season right now. And when a quarterback
is going to hand off to a running back, they
hike the ball, right? And the quarterback turns
around. He's not throwing on his play. This is
a running play. He turns around, and there's
a back coming up. He hands them the ball. And
the running back takes the ball, and he runs
down the field, and he tries to score, right?
He tries to get to the end zone. But do you know
what the quarterback does not do? The quarterback
does not run beside the running back, just in
case the running back changes his mind, right?
Here, take it back. I don't want it. That's not
what happens in football. He hands it off, and
he watches as the running back heads down the
field. If you're going to hand something off
to God, if you're going to hand the little tiny
solution that's really not doing anything in
your big old problem, right, the big old impossible
that you've got going on in your life, hand it
off and let it go. You've got to give it to God.
It's like the track where they run the relay,
and there's four runners, and they've got the
baton. The next runner comes up. He runs the
first leg of it, and he comes up, and he hands
it to the next runner. He doesn't run beside
the runner. He runs for a few seconds so the
runner has a grip. They grab the baton, and then
they go, and the first runner stops. You're going
to hand it off. You're going to give somebody
something. You've got to let go of it. So many
times we get to God. I know this because this
is easy preaching, but it is hard doing. It is
hard living. There's times you're going to have
this tiny solution, and it's going to be something
that you came up with, and you're going to rely
on your wisdom, your experience, all the things
that you know, and you're not going to want to
let go. It's not going to fix what's in front
of you. It's woefully inadequate, and you've
got to let it go. You've got to give it to Jesus.
You've got to hand it off and walk away from
it. Right? Let Jesus run with it. What if the
boy would have never gave up the loaves and the
fish? What if they had never taken those couple
loaves, the little insignificant thing they had,
and never put it in Jesus' hand? I think the
lesson would have been over. Jesus might have
just got to preaching and teaching and healing.
It's the little thing. Say it. It's the little
thing that I place in God's hand that's going
to make the difference. Don't hang on to your
pride, your controlling nature. I'm talking about
myself this morning, right, that wants to hang
on and fix it all. I work my way out of it. There's
this weird pride that rides up within us. I can
work hard enough. I can do it. I've got enough
experience. I've got the answer. Maybe I'll just
outlast the whole problem. You ever try to do
that, right, and it just keeps getting bigger?
You cannot. You cannot feed the 5 ,000 plus with
five loaves and two fish. You can't do it. I
don't care how awesome you think you are, how
hard you work. It will never happen. It won't
happen. Have you ever noticed that God can do
in seconds what would take us a lifetime to never
actually do? He can do it in seconds. He can
do it. Give him your little thing. Give him your
little thing. Give him your impossible situation.
Give him the little thing that is in your hand.
Now, something else that Jesus was showing these
disciples. Once we hand over our inadequate solution
to the impossible problem, let God bless it and
break it. That's why I took you over to Matthew.
Our inadequate solution to the impossible, right?
Let God bless it and let God break it if he needs
to. God's solution to the impossible problem
will look a lot different than your... answer
to the solution. And his solution is a couple
things. One, it's always blessed. Two, it's always
the right thing. It's always the righteous thing,
right? It is the solution to the big problem
all along the way. And when we hand a problem
off to God and we give him our inadequate solution,
I've got to be willing to let him bless whatever
that is that I place in his hands. I also have
to be ready to let him break it. He may break
my solution into pieces. You won't get to the
blessing. You will not get to the multiplication
unless you're willing to hand it to God, let
him bless it, and if he needs to, let him break
it in two. You'll never see the impossible, right?
We've got to let them break our solution. We've
got to let them break our pride. We've got to
let them break our ideas, our philosophies, our
misguided philosophies. We've got to let them
break our past sometimes. We've got to let them
break our present at times. We've got to let
them break all these things in our life. And
we've got to get to them, and we've got to say,
God, this is my sorry solution. Please take it,
bless it, and if you need to, break it into pieces
so we can get your solution. The disciples would
face this. They would hit the impossible situations
in the future. Every time one of them would hit
the impossible, they would never forget this
day. They were standing on the hillside. They
would never forget the day when they handed five
loaves and two fish to Jesus, and they watched
him take the sorry solution to the problem in
his hands. And he would bless it, and he would
break it, and he would look to heaven with it.
And all of a sudden, it was everything that they
needed and even. Worship team, if you'd come.
It's the little things. It's the little things.
What's the solution to the impossible problem
that's in front of you? First off, look to heaven.
First thing Jesus did, right? Step two, right?
Hand the pathetic, your pathetic solution. Anybody
ever have a pathetic solution other than me?
Anybody have a pathetic solution this week? This
morning? All right. Hand you a pathetic solution
to the impossible. Hand it to Jesus. And let
him bless it. And if he needs to, break it. So
he can fix the impossible. Psalm 34, 18 says
this. The Lord is near those who have a broken
heart and say such as have a contrite. Contrite
is more like crushed spirit. Can I repeat? God
knows nothing of impossible. It's all we know.
There's so many things that are impossible for
us. He knows nothing of impossible. Jesus' disciples
begin to break off what he's blessed and what
he's broken. And then Jesus begins to teach them
one more thing. And it's interesting that he
told them this because I think about these things.
I picture this on the hillside. Now, 5 ,000 plus,
you know, their families come and eat bread and
fish. And then Jesus, you know, when they're
all done eating, he sends the disciples back
out, all 12 of them, and he says, I want you
to go back out and gather up all the extra bread.
Now I'm thinking, you know, and first you'd be
thinking, why would you do that? Because first
of all, how many of you want to eat a used pizza
crust from somebody you don't know? I'm not gathering
this up to eat, okay? None of us are like, oh,
yummy, all right, used pizza crust. That's awesome.
I think Jesus was doing one more thing to teach
the disciples. Because isn't it super interesting
that Jesus sends them out, and they're out there
gathering up bread, and they got baskets, and
they walk back, and all 12 disciples are standing
there with a basket full of fragments that are
left. Isn't that interesting? It just happened
to be 12. He's got 12 apprentices, 12 disciples,
and there's 12 baskets that each one of them
are holding. I think Jesus was just burning it
in their spirit. I think he wanted them to know,
the next time you hit the impossible, not only
do I have the solution, but I've got the solution
plus abundance beyond all that. They're all standing
there holding a basket of all the extra that
was gathered up after they brought five loaves
and two fish. And they're never going to forget
that when you place it in his hand, when you
bring your pathetic solution to the impossible
problem and you place it in his hand, not only
does he have enough to fix it, not only does
he have enough to do the impossible, but you
might be standing there with a basket full of
extra as well. If you'd stand this morning. Let
me tell you something I've learned over the years.
Education will help you get smart. Wisdom will
actually help you not make the same mistake as
somebody else. So let me give you a little wisdom
here. Here's something that God will do. God
will let you wear yourself out on the impossible
problem. If you're not willing to bring your
pathetic solution to him and place it in his
hand, all you got is five loaves and two fish.
If you won't bring that and put it in his hands,
he will let you wear yourself out. If you think
you can work your way out of it, you think you
can outlast it, if you think you got all the
wisdom that you can just keep getting educated
enough to work through it, he'll let you wear
yourself out. He'll do it. He won't jump in the
center of that. He's waiting for you to hand
it over. And can I tell you your future if you
continue to do that and you don't hand it to
him? First of all, you will wear yourself out.
You will get tired, exhausted, mentally, physically,
emotionally, all the way around. You will begin
to get bitter and you will even get mad at God
while he's waiting for you just to hand it over.
That'll be your future. Hand it over to him.
If you got something impossible in front of you,
hand it over to him. Whatever you got, it may
not be much, hand it to him. Hand it off. Amen.
Thank you for tuning in to this message from
Lifehouse Church. We pray that you were impacted
powerfully by this message. If you have been
personally affected by our ministry and you would
like to partner with us as we love God, love
people every day, visit our website at www .lifehousecog
.com.