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[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. All right, take your Bibles and view it and open them to Matthew chapter 14.

[0:10] We're going to talk about a most wonderful work that the Lord Jesus did and how He allowed men to take part in that work. And so I want you to see today that you can do something greater than yourself.

[0:23] You can be part of something that's greater than yourself. I was just in China, and so let me show you right quickly a few of these pictures. The guys that put together, well, I gave them the pictures and fixed everything up.

[0:37] So let me just show you right quick. This is Dalian China Charter Service. No, there you go. Now, this is Cannon sharing the Word of God in Dalian.

[0:50] So Cannon was over there, and he got a chance to preach. This is, the other one was the church. They signed the charter just like we did here. Actually, their charter reads exactly like the one we signed here eight and a half years ago as we started this church.

[1:03] We were in Harbin. That's where Jake Talby was before he was kicked out. And while we were there, we met with all three churches, and about 60 or 70 people were there in the service in the basement there.

[1:16] That was truly an underground church because it was in the basement. Then I met with the leaders of the different churches from Dalian and from Harbin. This is the team of guys.

[1:27] Boy, y'all are flashing through them way too quick. I cannot keep up. If I was a missionary trying to make support, I would just shoot myself. Okay. The king and his kingdom. I got that one.

[1:38] Amen. One more time. Would you just flip through those? Just let them run. And I want to show them just a couple of things there. You cannot imagine how big the cities are in China. You can't imagine how large the cities are.

[1:50] They are cities as large as states over here. And so that's the whole team of guys that went over, Betty and I, with all the teams from India, from Thailand, and from Harbin and China.

[2:04] And so it was an exciting time. I want to talk to you today. There's Eric Elrod, our used-to-be song leader over in India. He's there. He's supposed to be watching us today, and God is already blessing greatly in that work that Jim and his family have.

[2:18] And they'll be starting a church between now and Christmas. Jake and John will also be starting a church in Taiwan. And so these are exciting times. Phillip and his family are in the process right now finishing up language school where they can start.

[2:32] So you'll be in prayer much for that work if you would. Take your Bible now and go with me to Matthew chapter 14. Here's the story. Finally, Jesus leaves and takes a break.

[2:43] When he goes to take the break, everybody finds out where he's going, and they all follow him. And so he comes out. Evidently, maybe they were in a tent, or maybe they were in a cave, or maybe they were behind some trees.

[2:54] And they step out. And all these people, thousands of them, probably 20,000 people are out there. And he steps out, and he sees them. And he has moved with compassion. And something fantastic is going to happen.

[3:07] He's going to take five loaves and two fishes, five little pieces of bread and two little fish, and he is going to feed all these people, maybe 20,000 people. We know it's 5,000 men, not counting women and kids.

[3:19] If they were like Cannon's family, and every family had 12, it was a whole lot more than 20,000. Amen. If they had a couple of kids in each family, it might have been 20,000. Who knows, but it's at least 5,000 men.

[3:29] And they're all going to get fed, and there will be 12 basketfuls left over. And you studied that while you was in Bible school, while you was in Sunday school. You heard that story over and over. But I want to show you that story, and I want you to see it as where we're living today and what we're going on today.

[3:45] It ought to be on your heart that we've got to get the gospel message of Jesus Christ around the world. And so if you've got your Bible open, let me get you to underline a couple of things in that passage. Look, if you would, in verse 13.

[3:56] They were in a desert place. That means a place without houses, a place without McDonald's, a place without restaurants, a place where they were alone. They'd gone outside the city into a place where there wasn't anything going on.

[4:09] In verse 14, Jesus came out. He went forth, and he saw all these people. So underline saw. He saw the people, and he was moved with compassion.

[4:20] Underline that. When he saw people, it hurt him. He hurt for them. He cared. He is the great God of heaven. Long-suffering, kind, and merciful.

[4:31] And he cares. And he wanted something to happen. And in verse 16, the guys have come to him and they said, Jesus, it's getting late. We kind of need to put people on the road so I can go home and get them something to eat.

[4:43] There's a whole lot of folks. There are not that many restaurants. We better get rid of them. And Jesus said, no. You give them something to eat. And so they get around looking at each other and they're like, what in the world is he asking us to do?

[4:56] He's asking us to do the craziest thing in the world. We're supposed to, 12 of us are supposed to feed 5,000 men, not counting the wives and the children. That's just ridiculous.

[5:08] It's way out of line. There's no way we can do that. And that's how we feel when we think about world evangelism. You're a church. You're Vision Baptist Church. And you have a great responsibility because you know the grace of God.

[5:21] And we talk about world evangelism all the time. We talk about getting the gospel message to the world. And I want you to see the correlation between this story. So if you have a piece of paper, why don't you write this down? Number one, number one, there was a great need.

[5:34] There was a great need. Jesus saw. He felt. And he did something. He looked out and he saw him and he felt and he did something. The people were hurting.

[5:45] They were suffering. The people were hungry. And the work was too great. The numbers were too big. There was no way they could get it done. Probably as many as 20,000 people.

[5:56] Now when you think about world evangelism, you've got to think how in the world can little old Vision Baptist Church with a couple of hundred people really impact the world? How can we do that?

[6:07] There was a great need. And I'm sure the apostles had to think, Lord, do you realize how many people are here? Do you realize what's going on here? Do you realize how big the need is? When you stand in the window, you're on like the 25th floor or the 30th floor of a building in China.

[6:24] And you look out across the city and you see literally dozens to hundreds of other buildings just like the one you're in and even taller. And then you realize they got city after city like that.

[6:36] And then you think about India and all the thousands of people that need to hear the gospel. And you think about all the world and everybody who needs the gospel. Indonesia, South America, Africa, and all the places around the world.

[6:47] Europe. And you see that. And you've got to understand there is a great need. Now what's the need? Here's the need. Are you ready for this? The need is there is a heaven. We're not playing a game.

[6:58] There really is a heaven. And our church gets together this morning because we know that God really exists. If you know that, say amen. How many of you believe that there is a God in heaven?

[7:08] Say amen. How many of you believe that every man lives forever? Nobody ever quits living. If you know that, say amen. You don't die. When you die, you're not dead. If it was over like you died and it was it that just came to the end, that'd be one thing.

[7:23] But everybody lives either in heaven or in hell. Either with God or in punishment. So when we go to a funeral, we're not going to the end. We're going to the moving on place.

[7:35] We're going down to the airport to watch the airplane take off. We're going to the train station to see people leave. Because when people die, they just move out of this body into another place.

[7:47] If you understand that, say amen. Now there's only one way to get right with God, and that's through Jesus Christ. There are not many good religions. There are no good religions. Actually, there's only one way to be saved.

[7:58] Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. So nobody can go to heaven. It's only Jesus. That's it. So here we are, a small church with a Bible and the Holy Spirit and the command to take the gospel to the world.

[8:12] And it's a great need, much like the apostles must have thought. And we can't have the attitude that they seem to be having when they just wanted to watch out for themselves. Hey, Jesus, getting a little late.

[8:23] Maybe we could go ahead and put the people on the road. If they all start walking now, they can get to town and get themselves something to eat. Maybe they could figure out what they'll do. But as a Christian, our job's never to tell people, you go figure out what to do.

[8:36] Our job's to tell people what God already did on the cross of Calvary. Amen? So all of a sudden, we have this great job, a great need that needs to be done. Second thing I want you to write down is it was an impossible task.

[8:48] It was an impossible task. They were in a desert place. That means there were no resources. It was very late, so there was no time. They only had five loaves and two fishes and only 12 apostles to be the servers.

[9:03] There was just no way. I don't know what it'll be like at your house when it comes to Thanksgiving, but most of us, you know, Thanksgiving meal is consumed in what? 20 minutes? 15 minutes?

[9:14] 20 minutes? 30 minutes? I mean, if you're a really slow eater like my mother-in-law, it might take you 45 minutes. But, I mean, most of us, I mean, we can sit down and we can devour that turkey. You sit down at the table, that turkey's looking good, and all the stuff is smelling good, and somebody says amen, and boop, and it's all gone.

[9:30] Amen? It's just done. But my wife, because Tuesday night we're having church here, and she's going to be cooking a turkey. And so she's already told me Tuesday's taken all day long.

[9:42] She'll be fixing a meal, and we will finish it in about 20 minutes. Can you imagine? In Peru, we used to have these big meetings. We'd have a couple thousand come in. We'd feed them. We'd house them.

[9:53] And we had hundreds of people working to take care of them. Can you imagine? Jesus looks at the apostles, and he says, Hey, guys, getting late. About 5 o'clock in the afternoon, time for these guys to get supper, so let's just get it on.

[10:04] I can just see Peter look at him and say, Lord, I don't know if you understand this. It takes a long time to cook supper. My wife ain't even here. We got a problem. This is not going to work. I can just imagine if I walked into Betty and said, Honey, there's about 20,000 people out there, and I need you to whoop up something right quick.

[10:20] Maybe Deanna Mize could do that. She's the only person we know that could whoop up that much food that quick. Amen? And so there was an impossible task. And when you think about world evangelism, you think about all the people around the world and how we're going to get the gospel to them.

[10:34] It's impossible. We don't have time. We don't have enough resources. We don't have enough workers. It was an unbelievable command. The third thing, it was an unbelievable command.

[10:45] They were to feed so many with so little. It had to be a nightmare just trying to organize so many people and no sound system. You know, at this great large auditorium where I am preaching now, I'm using a PA system.

[11:02] And if you've ever been anywhere, you know, if you've ever preached anywhere without a PA system, I realize you probably haven't preached that much, but if you've ever preached without one, it can flat wear your voice out. I was preaching in Alabama.

[11:13] There's probably 300 people there just a few weeks ago. I was preaching a missions conference there, and I made some comment about the Alabama football team. You don't do that in Alabama.

[11:24] And when I did, the guy in the sound booth just looked at me and laughed and turned me off. And I was preaching, and nobody was listening. And he just looked at me and said, and he flipped it back on, and I said, I learned my lesson.

[11:36] Amen? I yell all I want. Well, you know, here they are. They got 15, they got 5,000 men. I don't know how many people they got on top of that. No PA system. They're going to organize them into groups of 50, and they're going to take five little pieces of bread and two fish, and they're going to feed everybody.

[11:52] It was impossible. They had to do something they were unable to do. They had to step out of themselves. And I call on Vision Baptist Church to learn that lesson. We've already been learning that lesson.

[12:03] We've already been practicing that lesson, but I want you to realize what's going on. Now listen to this. How in the world, how in the world can Jim Roberts step into India, a country of 1,300,000,000 people, and really think God could use him?

[12:16] How can Mark Tolson be in Dalian, China, in a city of, I think it's a small city. I don't think there's but about 8 or 10 million there. I'm not sure. Pretty small city. 8 or 10 million people, and he's going to make a big difference there.

[12:27] And he's got this little handful of people, maybe 15, 20 people, get together on Sunday. Or Jake and John, they've just landed in Taiwan, small island, 23 million people, and they're going to try to make a difference.

[12:39] And people are doing that in South America. How in the world can you do it? But here's what the lesson is. God loves to put us where we can't so he can. God loves to show us what he can do when we can't.

[12:51] Can you imagine this? That Jesus takes those five loaves and two fishes. They come around, they say, Jesus, we've been looking around. We can't find anything to feed these people with.

[13:02] All we've got is five loaves and two fishes. One kid brought his meal. It's one kid's happy meal. That's all it is. And Jesus said, well, bring it to me. Let me show you what I can do with it. And they bring him that. Now, I don't know if you've got this.

[13:13] There are 12 apostles. They're going to divide that. Two fish cut in 12 pieces. They didn't bring these in on a trailer truck. Look, these aren't semi-delivered sandwiches. These are little sandwiches a kid had in his lunch.

[13:25] These are sardine sandwiches or something. And he pulls out those sandwiches and he blesses it. Then he breaks them and he gives all 12 guys some of the sandwich. That had to be a miracle.

[13:36] Can you imagine the crumbs you must be giving? They gave him the meal. And then he says, take off and start feeding them. And every one of those apostles had to be thinking to themselves, this ain't going to work.

[13:47] Look, how in the world? I don't care how much he gave you. 12 people got, let's say it's five old Big Mac sandwiches cut into 12 pieces. Five Big Mac sandwiches cut into 12 pieces.

[14:00] Well, if you cut five Big Macs in half, you get 10. Well, these are some pretty small pieces. Then he says, here, let's just say 5,000. Let's just 5,000. Y'all go divide that among 5,000 people.

[14:12] Or y'all go divide that among 20,000 people. Well, it was an impossible task. Then he looks at our little church and he says, I know y'all don't have many people. I know you don't have much money. I know you don't have much you can do.

[14:22] But I can show you how to do some things you're never going to believe. And you're going to be part of something bigger than you've ever imagined in your life. I want you to imagine as Peter stepped forward to that piece of meat, I can only hear him in his mind thinking, Lord, in heaven, I don't know what's going to happen, but I'll do what you said.

[14:39] Here, buddy, take a piece of fish. Take a piece of bread. He handed it to him. He looked down and it was still there. And he said, go ahead and have some more. Just take all you want. How much you want? Keep eating. And then he went all the way down the line. He kept giving up. And by the time they finished, everybody had it all they want.

[14:54] And five little loaves and two fish had turned into 12 baskets left over. I know what you're thinking. Well, what in the world has that got to do with anything? I'll tell you what it has to do with it. It's that God can do with nothing what we would never, ever dream he could do.

[15:08] I want you to imagine when he gets home that night, Peter walks in. He's married. We know he's married because he has a mother-in-law. And who wants to have a mother-in-law if they don't get the wife? Say amen.

[15:19] So he's got a mother-in-law, so he's got a wife. And he comes walking in the house. Can you imagine when he comes home and he comes in the house, he's got mustard and ketchup and mayonnaise and fish smell and bread dust all over him.

[15:30] And he walks in the house and his wife says, baby, how'd it go today? And he says, you are not going to believe the story I'm about to tell. Just have a seat. I'm going to tell you the wildest story you've ever heard. We were there, honey.

[15:41] You know how it is. When Jesus gets to doing stuff, everybody comes. And there were 5,000 men, not counting women and children. Baby, we couldn't even count them. We know there's 5,000 men. And they had all their wives and children with them.

[15:52] And good night. There were people everywhere. And we told Jesus, Jesus, it's time to send them home. And Jesus said, no, I want you to give them something to eat. And she said, well, honey, surely if he told you to do that, he must have done something.

[16:05] He said, all he did was tell us to bring him five loaves and two fishes and he'd take care of it from there. And we took it. She said, well, what happened? Honey, I took my little piece of fish. And I took two fish. We divided in 12.

[16:16] And five pieces of bread. We divided in 12. And I took it. And I went to the first person who gave it out. And when I finished giving it out, I had more left over than I did when I started. That's a story he'll tell the rest of his life.

[16:28] Can you imagine him sitting in his recliner? Now he's 75 years old and his grandkids are gathered around him. And they said, granddaddy, tell us a story. And he said, I got a story to tell you. You're not going to believe. And he told them that story.

[16:39] And here's what God allows you to do. He allows you to see how great he is. Because if you'd have gone to China, if you'd have sat in that room and you'd have heard those three young men that are studying with Mark.

[16:49] If you'd have gone to Harbin and heard those other men, if you'd have seen that, you'd have been so thrilled. It would have blown your mind to realize that God walked into that country through his little old guys who would have never been able to do that.

[17:03] They learned the language, shared the gospel, and people's lives got saved and people got changed. If you realize that you're giving, you're giving. You gave just a little bit of money. Let's just be honest.

[17:14] In the great scheme of things, most of us haven't given very much. But God's taken a little bit that we've given and God has multiplied it and allowed us to send missionaries all around the world and already give a million dollars to get the gospel to the world.

[17:28] So I want to give you some Bible truths. I want you to understand that you can be part of something greater than you. I have had the privilege of seeing God do stuff and sitting back and thinking to myself, how in the world did God do that?

[17:42] I can remember, you've got to understand, I grew up in a country. My graduating class was the largest class McEwen High School had ever seen.

[17:54] Fifty of us graduated that year. Almost nobody in my hometown ever left that town. They're all still there. I mean, they never left town. And this country boy grew up and went off and became a missionary to Peru.

[18:06] And I remember when I got off the airplane thinking, Lord, I am scared to death. How in the world could I be used of you? I told the guy in Mexico to help me learn a little language. I said, what if I go and nobody wants to listen?

[18:18] He said, won't you just go and trust the Lord? First person, I want to hear you. Talk to the next person. Next person, I want to hear you. Talk to the next person. And the next thing you know, over the next few years, churches would be started and buildings would be built.

[18:29] And God would do great stuff and God would show his power. So here's some Bible verses I want you to remember. The first thing is you must trust God. Write down Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6 if you would.

[18:41] That's a verse every Christian ought to have memorized. It ought to be a part of your heart. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6. The Bible says, but without faith it's impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

[18:57] Now listen to what I want to tell you. We're serving God. This is not Vision Baptist Church. This is not what you can do and what I can do. This is God's church with God's power and God doing something.

[19:09] If you've got your Bible open, you need to put a circle around the words, he is. Look at the verse. It says, without faith it's impossible to please him. For he that comes to God must believe that he is.

[19:20] Do you believe God is? If you do, say amen. Do you believe that there's this all-powerful God who created the earth, who's the judge of the universe, who's the savior of man?

[19:30] Do you believe that God really exists if you do, say amen. Not only do you believe that he is. Look at the verse in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6. Not only do you believe that he is, but he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

[19:43] Underline rewarder. God in heaven said, I will do big stuff for you. You come ask me. You come looking for me. And I will do big stuff with you.

[19:54] You see, God's looking for people who are willing to trust him. Our God likes people to believe him. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. If you're a tither, if you're a faith promise giver, you realize what you're doing.

[20:07] Every time you put that money in that plate, you're saying, God, I'm doing this because I love you. I'm doing this because I trust you. And God, I'm expecting you to do a work with this little bit of money I can give. Can you imagine a boy who gives up his little lunch, five loaves and two fishes, and he goes home.

[20:21] Can you imagine what he tells his mama? He gets home and his mama said, well, son, did you get enough lunch? She said, mama, you ain't going to believe it. They took my little lunch and fed the whole crowd. Everybody got something to eat.

[20:32] That's 20-something thousand people eating. Yeah, it was great. Because look at this. Without faith, if you don't believe God, you can't please him. God wants you to believe him.

[20:44] God wants vision to believe him. This isn't about getting rich. This isn't about prosperity. It's about doing his will. And so when you look at the big need of gospel preaching around the world, and you see about people needing to go to heaven, and you see about people needing to get saved, you can trust God.

[21:00] Without faith, it's impossible to please him. For they that come to him must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. We have to have faith, even if it's weak, a faith that we will act on what he says do.

[21:14] I can only imagine, as those apostles started out towards that crowd, that their faith was probably pretty weak. Just put yourself in their mind, would you please? They don't yet understand everything that's going on.

[21:26] They know Jesus is a great teacher. They know he's saying all these things, but they don't fully grasp it. They don't even catch it until after he's risen from the dead. They don't catch it. They're slow. They're like, they must have been Baptists or something.

[21:38] And they couldn't catch it. And so he's telling them all this great stuff, and they don't get it. They don't get it. I can imagine they step forward thinking, okay, he said for me to give out this food.

[21:50] Here they are sitting out there. There's, let's just say there's 12,000 people. I've got to give food to 12,000 people, to 1,000 people. I'm one of the 12. I've got to give food to 12.

[22:01] He gave me this little, okay, I'm going to take this little piece of food, and I'm going to try to give it to 12,000 people. I don't know what he must have thought. I don't know if he was right real quick that got out of his calculator and said, I've got four ounces of fish, and I'm going to figure out how many ounces he's first.

[22:14] I don't know what he was doing, but I believe in his mind he was probably thinking, I don't know how this is going to work. That's how you feel when you're going to do something for God. Some of you could be used to witness to somebody, but you're like, I don't know. I'm not as smart as a preacher, and I could share the gospel, but I don't know if God had used me.

[22:29] Why don't you just step out and try? Why don't you just step out and share the gospel and see what God will do? You say, I would talk to my family members. We're all getting together for Thanksgiving, and I want them to know Jesus, and I want them to go to heaven when they die, but I'm not the right person to tell them, oh, yeah, you are, because without faith it's impossible to please.

[22:45] Believe God. Believe God and let him do something. Step out with your feeble efforts and let God do something. I know that this is not a typical Baptist-type message, but did you know that your faith or lack of it affects what God does in your life?

[22:59] Some of us live on the downside. Some of us live all beaten up, and some of us never enjoy all God has for us because we never trust him. Look at what the Bible says in Matthew 9 and verse 29.

[23:11] Matthew 9 and verse 29. We've already been there. The Bible says, Then touched ye their eyes and said, According to your faith, or as you believe that it happened to you.

[23:22] They believed, and God said, According to your faith. In Matthew chapter 13 and verse 58, just a few verses before where we are today, he said that he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

[23:34] I've been around so many Christians over all the years who never really expect God to do big stuff. We don't know that God can give us a building. We don't know that God can help us if we tithe.

[23:45] We don't know that God can help us if we witness to people. We just kind of got this thought, Well, I don't know. And we're fatalists, and we're beat up, and we're whipped. And the God of heaven is saying, I didn't do a lot of stuff there because they didn't trust me.

[23:58] God uses people who trust Him. God uses people who trust Him. He uses foolish things. He uses little things because He just wants to be believed.

[24:10] For without faith, it's impossible to please Him. For he that comes in must believe that He is. And He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

[24:21] I don't ever want that to be the story of vision. I hope it never becomes our story. I hope it's never that we're all sitting here saying, Well, God's not going to do anything big with us because that's not our story.

[24:32] Our story is we serve a big God, and we can expect big things. We will never sing the song, Hold the Fort, for I am coming. As a missionary, I go around preaching these churches, little bitty churches.

[24:45] They're all dying, and nobody's getting saved, and nothing's ever happening there. And somebody in the church, they love the song, Hold the Fort, for I am coming. It's like the Indians are attacking, and the Calvary's not here yet, and we're all holding up in the fort saying, Hang on, maybe we can make it to the end.

[24:58] That's not how it works. We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us and died for us. Amen? I believe with all my heart God can take care of you. You can get off a plane in the Father's country in the hardest language and see God do it.

[25:11] I believe that you can trust God with your money and become a giver like you never have. I believe you can share your faith with somebody and see God save people. I believe in your stuttering, stammering tongue, you can teach a Sunday school class and see lives changed if you would just believe God and let Him use you.

[25:28] Matthew chapter 17 and verse 20, Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief, For I verily say unto you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove hence the yonder place that it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you.

[25:42] Something's bad wrong when you and I live defeated, beaten lives because we don't realize God wants to use us. So how do you do something greater than yourself?

[25:55] Don't you want to live a life so when it's all said and done, they're going to say, I don't know how that guy did it. I don't know how that guy did it.

[26:06] I've never been to a family, to a high school reunion from my school. I don't think they've had but one from when I graduated, and I graduated in 1972, and so I haven't been to one yet, but I told some of the guys, I said I'd like to come, and when my kids were small, I wanted to go so desperately because I was the ugly, skinny little kid.

[26:23] Now I'm just a fat, ugly old guy, but I wanted to go and just say, look at this beautiful wife I got. Look at these beautiful kids I got. God took this nobody and did something. I wanted people to realize, boy, God can do something with anybody.

[26:35] And I just want you to realize this. God could let you be part of something bigger than you. You already are. You're a born-again believer. That's bigger than you. Amen? You're a part of a church. That's bigger than you.

[26:47] Amen? You're one of the givers in our church. You have learned to trust God with your money. You're one of the witnesses in our church. You've learned to trust that God uses your feeble little attempt.

[26:57] You give out a gospel track. You invite somebody to church. You say, that's nothing. God always uses nothing. I can only imagine how five loaves and two fishes stack up against 5,000 men, not counting women and children.

[27:10] So here's how you can do something bigger than yourself. Quit making excuses. Quit making excuses. Understand and desire what he wants. Understand and desire what he wants.

[27:22] He wants to see you do what... He wants you to see what he can do. I love this verse. Look at chapter 14, verse 16. Give them to eat. I love that verse.

[27:35] Because it was impossible. Because when they looked at him and said, You want us to give them something to eat? We don't have anything to give it to them. But God was in heaven.

[27:46] God or Jesus said they're going, I know, but I'm fixing to show you just how big I am. And when the story's over, the hero of the story is not the kid who brought the lunch. It's not the men who gave out the food.

[27:56] It's not the 12 basketfuls. It's God was able to do something so big no one could ever understand it. So quit making excuses. God wants to show you how big he is. There are people in this room that learned to give when they had nothing.

[28:09] And they're able to give much more now because God took that and blessed it and has used it. So quit making excuses and let God show you what he can do. Know this. God wants to meet their needs. Give them something to eat.

[28:23] God wants to meet their needs. God wants you to feel what he feels. He looked on them and he had compassion. He didn't look at the Chinese people and say, I don't care about them.

[28:33] He didn't look at the Indian people and say, I don't care about them. He didn't look at the African nations. He didn't look at our neighbors and say, I don't care about them. He looked at people and said, I hurt for them. I feel for them. I want to make a difference.

[28:44] In Matthew 15, 32, Jesus called his disciples unto him and said, I have compassion. I have compassion. Many ought to learn that in Matthew 15, 32. On the motto, because they continue to be now three days, they have nothing to eat.

[28:57] I will not send them away. I will not send them away fasting. Let's say faint in the way. Our God sees and feels the need.

[29:08] I should see and feel the need. Wish you could walk down the street with me and watch those Chinese people that have never heard the gospel, but their gospel is so close to them now.

[29:21] And guys are sharing the gospel and soon their story will be the story of Ryan. Soon their story will be the story of the other young men that I met there. Soon their story will be the story of Stephen or Levi. Soon their story will be one of those guys that heard the gospel and Jesus changed their life.

[29:36] the sweetest people you'd ever meet because Jesus made a difference. Don't make them leave. In Matthew 15, 32, he said, I have compassion.

[29:50] I will not send them away. That's another story, very similar to the story we're in right now. He said, I won't send them away. I won't send them away. When you think about this, all the people all over the world, the people in Korea, the people in Thailand, the people in Spain, the people in England, the people in the United States of America, the people that live next door to us, our God says, I will not send them away.

[30:13] I want them to hear the gospel message. I want their life to be changed. Don't run away and forget your responsibility. As a Christian, you are blessed.

[30:24] You have the Bible in your hands. You have the gospel message. You know how to go to heaven when you die. You have what everybody in this world needs. Don't run away. Don't think only about yourself.

[30:36] Don't think only about yourself. That's the story. Most people think about themselves. It's like, where am I going to live and how much food am I going to get? Send them home so we can eat. If there's only five loaves and two fishes, we can divide it up amongst 12 more than we can.

[30:48] 20,000. Send them away. He said, no, no, no. I can't send them away. Give him what you have. In the story, when they say to him, Matthew chapter 14 and verse 18, they said, we got five loaves and two fishes.

[31:03] He said, bring it to me. And I just want you to know that your children, your money, your time, your abilities, all that you have is not much. It's not much.

[31:18] I don't think very many people would have ever thought I would make a preacher. I don't think very many people would ever thought I could have gone anywhere. I don't think very many people have been that impressed with Mark Tolson or Philip Basham or Eric Elrod.

[31:29] I don't think very many people have been impressed with Jake Taubin. Just to be blunt and honest with you, none of us are very impressive until he gets a hold of us. But you take them to Jesus and Jesus gets involved and he does things beyond our wildest imagination.

[31:43] Bring them to me. Last two things. Step up by faith and obey him. Step up by faith and obey him. In Matthew chapter 14 and verse 19, he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass and he took the five loaves and the two fishes.

[31:59] He looked up to heaven and he blessed and he break and he gave the loaves to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude. It takes big faith to trust God. It takes big faith to trust God.

[32:11] He hands them these five loaves and two fishes. He's prayed over them and he's broken them and he's divided them into twelve, but there's no way this is going to work. There's no way this is going to work. There's no way this is going to work.

[32:24] How in the world could this change that many lives? How in the world could this little bit feed all those people that won't work? But if you just step out on what God says and God steps in and does something greater than you could ever do and he uses you beyond your wildest imagination.

[32:39] I met the guy. Mark Tolson arrives in Dolly and he doesn't know. Where do you go when there's eight million people?

[32:50] Who do you witness to? Well, Mark didn't know what to do and he was all alone. He was brand new and so he went to the university and he took a Bible in his hands. He gets the law to preach and be a foreigner proselyte.

[33:01] So he spent all day long just walking around the university with a Bible in his hand. He just walked around all day long walking around with a Bible in his hand. Just walked up and down through there all the students looking at him walking around with a Bible. He just kept walking around with a Bible.

[33:13] Finally one of these guys walked up to him and said, hey, what's that you got in your hand? He said, it's a Bible. He said, I've been looking for somebody that had a Bible. I want to not have served Jesus. That guy's still going to church there. He stepped out with nothing.

[33:24] How foolish is that? How foolish is that? Come on, Mark. What's your plan? Well, I just plan on walking around with a Bible and see if God will do something. And God did. And you come with your little old 10% of nothing.

[33:36] I mean, you come in here with a $1,000 offer and you're like, man, I got $1,000 I'm going to put in the offer plate, David. That's nothing to do anything big with. And God looks at him and said, it ain't nothing until I get a hold of it, but you watch what I can do with it.

[33:47] God can take what little we have, whether it's two little widow's mites or it's five loaves and two fishes or a million dollars and God can do something big with it. There's a friend of yours that needs to hear the gospel and you're scared to death.

[34:01] You're like, I don't know if I know enough. I don't know if I can explain enough. I don't know if I can answer all the questions. I'm afraid to witness. Don't worry about it. Step out. Just take a step and say, I'm going to do the best I can and tell you the greatest story I know.

[34:13] I'm not real good at this, but let me tell you something. And when you do, you're going to be shocked when God steps in and does something big with it. Can you imagine David going to fight the life? That's about foolish as you can get.

[34:25] He looks up this young man, this young man with a swing shot against a guy armored down and ready for war. And the Bible said David looked up at him and said, you got a big sword and I got a big God.

[34:38] Let's see how this works today. And then the Bible says that David took off running straight at him. That's the dumbest thing in the world. Dance about back and forth. Find a rock to hide behind.

[34:50] Do something. David said, nope, hey, I'm out here. I'm just going to let it all hang out and see what happens. He took off running slinging that sling and the rock caught the guy and knocked him down and he killed him and took his head off of him. You can be used.

[35:03] God has big plans and God wants to use you and you'll see results that you can't even believe you'll see because God wants to use you. As a little boy, I'd go to the hills of Tennessee.

[35:17] My grandparents were there and children were to be seen and not heard. My grandmother and my granddaddy and my parents would have these discussions and it'd be dark and no air conditioning and lightning bugs flying around and bugs beating up against the screens on the windows and you'd sit in the room and it was hot and we weren't allowed to leave the room and they'd be talking and I'd hear, as a 12, 13 year old boy, I'd hear my granddaddy talking about how he'd seen God do big stuff in those country churches.

[35:46] I'd hear him tell about how old D. Kelly stood and preached in those churches and people got saved and I heard about how my dad went to church and he was a drunk and he was standing next to my mother who was pregnant with me in a little old country church and my dad said this preacher's finger was so long it was right in his face telling him he was a sinner and on his way to hell and daddy said it felt like he was talking straight to me but that night God saved me and changed my life completely and I never knew my dad as the old drunk that he had been and all the wicked stuff he'd done.

[36:12] I never knew that guy because God changed him. I heard those stories and I thought someday I'd like to be a part of something so big that I could tell the stories about how great my God is and I can sit now on the porch and I can say come here let me tell you some stories let me tell you about preaching in a mountain village in Peru let me tell you about preaching in a big stadium in Iquitos in the hot jungles let me tell you about preaching in Dalian China or Beijing China and let me teach you or tell you about preaching in Harbin let me tell you about going to Taiwan let me tell you God does big stuff with us little nobodies and you get to be a part of that so here's what I want you to know you are part of something bigger than you you're part of the church you're part of the Lord Jesus some of us have seen God take our money and bless it we've given away a good percentage of it and yet God always made it make it through the job and get the job done we've seen God meet our financial needs this church is a miracle we started without enough money we have had enough money we've given away over a million dollars and God keeps blessing it's because our God is a great God and He blesses people that trust Him so here's what I'd like to ask you don't you want to be part of something bigger than you don't you want to see

[37:33] God do a work in you like no one's ever seen or done in the world I want God to use me I want my life to count okay here's Peter it's 30 years later he's sitting with his wife old man rocking chair kids on the floor and he will tell stories till the day he goes home to see Jesus about you're not going to believe this kids let me tell you about when I walked with Jesus I got all kind of stories one day I got out of a boat and took off walking on water I know you don't believe that kids but it's the truth hey kids let me give you I just believe God stepped out there I kind of messed up but man I walked on water for a while ain't nobody else ever done that but me hey guys you want to hear a wild one one day there was all these people and he told us to feed him feed him with five loaves and two feet hey I've watched him heal everybody around him I've watched him save lives and change people I've watched him do something great when I get to the place that I'm not able to do anymore

[38:33]  I hope I can sit on the porch and tell stories and not have to stretch a thing and tell the stories of my great God and the things he let me be part of don't you get involved be a giver be a prayer be a goer be a doer be an obeyer and if you're not saved and you're not sure you go to heaven when you die he loves you and he paid the sin price and you can be saved and then you can go to heaven when you die you can know for sure you're saved today your sins washed away your life completely new and what Jesus did on the cross at Calvary Father deal with hearts save people magnify yourself and I will give you all honor and all praise and all glory for all that you do this message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia for more information log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times location contact information and more audio and video recordings next