Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. A great multitude followed him because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. Let me just stop right there in verse 2 if you'll notice this and we've mentioned this before. And a great multitude followed him.

Why? Because he was the Son of God. Listen, notice this. Because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. There's always going to be some that follow where the action is. There's always going to be some that follow because they hear these unique things being done. That they're really not there because they love the Lord.

They're there because of the things they might get to see. What's important this morning is that you are a follower of Christ, not a follower of what Christ can do. Does that make sense? Look at verse 3. 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 saith unto Philip, Whence 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 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here which hath 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. And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that were set down. And likewise of the fishes, as much as they would, when they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. This is verse fourteen, if you will. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth, that prophet that should come into the world. Dinner on the ground. This is obviously a very well known story.

And this is the only miracle that is recorded in all four gospels. And the best way I could describe this is, I've heard my dad do this many times. Brother Bob Scott's here this morning.

He would certainly understand this. Let's just picture, if you would, many of you are familiar with downtown Kernersville. Right in the very heart, right at the main intersection in downtown Kernersville. And imagine if there was four people standing on each corner. One person on one corner, one person on the other corner, and such and such. And there was a wreck that happened right there in the middle of that intersection, which I'm sure has happened over the years. And let's just say that maybe there was a lawsuit that was brought, and all of a sudden now all four of these individuals who were witnesses to that particular accident, they were interviewed maybe by a lawyer or something. Now look, four individuals would see the exact same thing, but they would all have four different accounts.

They would all be a little bit different. That's the case with this story. This is the only miracle that all four gospels deal with. And yet, as you look at all four of them, in case you are keeping notes and want to write this down, Matthew 14, verses 13 to 21 is where it's in Matthew. Mark chapter 6, verses 30 to 44. Luke chapter 9, we're going to turn there in just a second. And then John chapter 6, where we are. And this same story is dealt with, but there's details in each one that aren't in the others.

It's an amazing thing. Now I want you to look at Luke chapter 9. Now hold your place, we're going to deal with John chapter 6. But very quickly I want to show you something in Luke chapter 9.

I just want you to see one verse, and then we're going to pray. Look at Luke chapter 9. Look at your place there in John chapter 6. Look at Luke chapter 9. Look at verse 11. This is obviously the story of the feeding of the 5,000 also, but we're given here a detail that we're not given anywhere else.

Look at, if you would, at verse 11. And the people, when they knew it, followed Him. And He received them, speaking of Jesus, they're following Jesus. Remember, He just came down off the mountain. And they knew it, and they began to follow Him, and they began to throng Him. And here's 5,000 men, plus women, children, whatever the case might be. And now they're following Him.

Notice this. And He received them and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing. Now hold your place there. Continue to hold your place in John chapter 6. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd bless this morning.

I need your help. In your name we pray. Amen. Now, if you're keeping notes, these will be on the screen. I want you to notice, I want to focus on this young boy in this story this morning.

But number one, I want you to notice this. The message that the little boy heard. The message that the little boy heard. Look at this verse in Luke chapter 9, verse 11. Often we say Jesus spoke to the people, and they were hungry, and they didn't have food.

And then this little boy comes up with a lunch. And we talk about the miracle. But what we rarely talk about is what Jesus preached about that day. What He said before the miracle ever took place. Before any of this had happened.

What was it that He said? Luke chapter 9, verse 11, it tells us. And He received them, which means He let them follow them. That's the part where He sat them down in the grass.

Notice this. And spake unto them of the kingdom of God. Before this little boy, look at me. Before this little boy ever gave his lunch to Jesus. Before he ever did it, why would he want to give his lunch to Jesus? Why would he be willing to give his lunch to Jesus?

Let me tell you why. Because the message that little boy heard before the miracle ever took place was Jesus teaching and preaching about the kingdom of God. And when that little boy heard what Jesus had to say, it so moved him.

He never heard anything like that. And dear friend, listen to me. All that we do at church, all the activities, all the ministries, everything we do, all the decorations, we're trying to make our foyer look as nice and bright as we can. The day's going to come, we're going to have to deal with the auditorium, try to make it brighter and make it easier.

Many of you say it's hard to see at night. But everything we do, all the decorations, all the drywall, all the paint, everything we do, listen, we're trying to make whatever God gives us as nice and first class as we can do it. But it is all about the kingdom of God.

It's all about that. It's all about God's kingdom. Dear friend, life, you better worry about the kingdom of God, not your bank account. You better worry about the kingdom of God, everything you do. Listen, number one, you've got to make sure that you're part of the kingdom of God. Number two, you've got to make sure that you're trying to get others into the kingdom of God because everything you do, look at me, folks, everything you do that supports or enhances or builds the kingdom of God will never be in vain. You will be rewarded for everything you do that has to do with the kingdom of God. But everything we do and give our time to, to anything other than the kingdom of God means nothing in eternity.

Did you know that? Dear friend, listen, I hope that each of you could live in a mansion here on earth. I wish every one of you could. But that's not going to matter in eternity, what kind of house you lived in here. I wish every one of you could drive a nice car, an expensive car, whatever the case might be. But that's not going to matter in eternity. It's not wrong to have those things. It's great to have those things if God's provided.

Look at me. What I'm saying is this. All these things are things we might can enjoy, but oftentimes that becomes what matters to us. And what matters to us ought to be the kingdom of God because that's what's important to Him. You see, dear friend, before the miracle ever took place, before a young man ever was willing to give his lunch, before any of this ever happened, what took place that day is those people heard the gospel of the kingdom of God. And dear friend, everything we do here, we want to try to give the gospel.

The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The message the little boy heard, go back to John chapter six, I want you to notice secondly, the man that the little boy followed. The man that the little boy followed. This story involves Andrew. Now you hear us talk about Andrew a lot if you've been in church very long, and people always say this, every time you see Andrew, he's always bringing somebody to Jesus. And that's true. And let me explain that. We see three instances in the New Testament where we find Andrew. And let me tell you all these things I think is very interesting here. First, we see Andrew involved in personal evangelism. You say, how's that? The first thing Andrew did when he found Christ and gave his heart to Christ.

Listen to me this morning. First thing he did was he went to witness to his brother Simon. And he told Simon about Jesus. And Simon was obviously a little bit skeptical. And so Andrew said this, hey, we'll just come and see for yourself.

Come and see. Andrew involved in personal evangelism. The next time we see him in the New Testament, the Bible says that Andrew was bringing certain Greeks to Christ.

Andrew wasn't Greek. That means this, he was involved in foreign missions. Not only was he involved in personal evangelism one on one, now we see him involved in reaching out to communities and those of communities outside of where he was. So we see him involved in personal evangelism. Then we see him involved in foreign missions. And then now we see him bringing this young lad to Christ. Now we see him in children's ministry.

Can I give you a little bit of a hint? Do you know what every one of us who are saved ought to be involved in? We ought to be involved in personal evangelism.

We ought to be involved in foreign missions. And we ought to be involved in children's ministry. You say, preacher, what do you mean? Personal evangelism one on one, go out and compel them to come in? Go and teach, go and preach? We're all supposed to be involved in personal evangelism. You say, what do you mean we're all supposed to be involved in foreign missions? Listen to me, dear friend, why do you think we have a missions program here at church? Why do you think we're trying to do faith promised missions giving? Why do you think we challenged you all last year for you to start giving above the tithe, not part of your tithe, not delegating this part of the tithe goes to missions, this part?

No, tithe goes to the church, the storehouse, above your tithe, a commitment to faith promised missions so that you can be involved in foreign missions. Because every Christian ought to. Then you say, well, what do you mean every Christian ought to be involved in children's ministry?

You know what the Bible says the older should teach the younger. It's amazing Andrew was doing everything that God told him to do. The man that this little boy followed. Andrew, the Bible says in John chapter six said, there is a lad here. And he brings him to Christ.

I would ask each of us this question. When's the last person we brought to Christ? Have we been involved in personal evangelism?

Have we gotten involved in foreign missions? Have we been involved in children's ministry? I want you to notice thirdly this morning, the miracle that the little boy saw. The miracle the little boy saw.

Hey, this is all, you just got to look at this whole thing through the eyes of this young man. I love this passage. You talk about, I recently preached on Psalm one and I gave you like four or five outlines before I actually gave you the outline that I preached because I said, I said, boy, how easy this thing is to outline. I would have never done that if I had known two weeks later, David Gibbs was going to preach on Psalm one. How embarrassing is that? Thank God I did that before and not after because if it had been after, I wouldn't have preached it.

Did he do great last week? September the eighth, by the way, that's not next Sunday, but the one after his son, Dr. David Gibbs, the third is going to be preaching just just Sunday morning that Sunday. But I thought you all would enjoy getting to hear me.

I just heard his dad and he's a great, phenomenal preacher, too. I know you enjoy that on that Sunday morning. But this passage is one that you can outline and outline and outline. You know, one of my favorites, the most simple that this story talks about the lad, the loaves and the Lord.

How simple could it be? But I want you to notice this, the miracle that this little boy saw. Now, we all know how what takes place, but look, if you would, at verse 10. Look at verse 10 of Chapter six. 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. And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Now, before I go any further, this is a clear picture of discipleship in God's word. Notice the principle Jesus gave to the disciples, then the disciples distributed to the people. You know what discipleship is? Christ doing for you and then you taking it and doing for others. The work that Christ just dispersed into your life. Now you take individuals and it grows, it expands.

In other words, this. Let's say Jeremy Young here. And Jeremy, let's say that I give the seed of the gospel to Jeremy. Jeremy gets saved. Now Jeremy, his job is to take that seed that I planted in his life and the seed that I planted in his life was because somebody planted that seed in my life. Okay, so I'm supposed to plant that seed in Jeremy. Now Jeremy from there ought to be planting that seed in numerous lives. You see, the whole principle of one little lunch feeding thousands of people shows the principle of God's word. Just one instance of giving the gospel could end up spreading to reaching thousands for Christ.

Have you ever seen that in that story? It's all a picture of what you and I are supposed to do. You say, well, preacher, I can't do a lot. If you'll just reach out to those around you and you plant that seed, you have no idea how that seed might grow and grow and grow. If I plant the seed to Jeremy and Jeremy plants the seed to five others and then each of those five others plants the seed to five more, before long you'll have thousands that are saved. This is all a picture of discipleship.

It's very interesting. But I want you to notice obviously we read the miracle that the little boy saw. Andrew brings and says, hey, this lad has a lunch and the boy gave his entire lunch to Jesus after hearing his whole message on the kingdom of God. When he gave it to Jesus, the Bible says we know in the other passages, the other gospels that deal with this story, but we know that Jesus took it and he broke it and he blessed it. And then he gave to his disciples and they put that in the baskets and somehow through obviously the miracle that Jesus did, those baskets, that little lunch fed 5,000 men plus women, children, whatever the case may be.

We always hear different reports how many there could have been there that day, I don't know. And this little boy saw all that transpire after he gave Jesus his lunch. Now, when talking about the miracle that the little boy saw, I just wrote down a couple of things and I want you to look at this. First thing is this, he saw Jesus take something small and make it big. I can't tell you how many times in my life I've watched Jesus take something small and make it big. That little boy must have been mesmerized.

You know what you and I ought to be mesmerized to? Some of us sitting in this building, we had nothing to offer God. And what he has done with it, he gets all the glory for. I saw this, he saw Jesus take something ordinary and make it extraordinary. It's just a common little lunch, wasn't anything special about it, wasn't even big, wasn't anything grand.

It was just ordinary. But he took that ordinary lunch and made it extraordinary. He took that little thing, look at me, he took what could not have possibly fed thousands of people and made it feed thousands of people. And you and I say, well preacher, I don't have much talent, I don't have much ability. Look at me, dear friend, as ordinary as you and I might think, that's exactly the kind of person God loves to use. Because if you come to Christ thinking you are bringing him something extraordinary, he can't use that. But if you come acknowledging I am nothing at the most ordinary, he can take that and make it extraordinary. I noticed thirdly that that little boy saw Jesus take something limited and he made it limitless.

Something that was limited, something that there's just no way that that was going to do more than what you saw. And yet this little boy saw that. He saw all this in the miracle. Now I want you to notice this, and I like this, Andrew and Simon.

I want you to notice these. Look if you would at verse 7. Look at John chapter 6, look at verse 7.

Philip answered him, 200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them. Okay, look at verse 9. There is a lad here, Andrew said, which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes. And that would have been okay if he had stopped there, but notice what he said.

What are they among so many? Notice this. This is good.

I like this at least. Philip looked at the demand. There's just too much demand. Andrew looked at the supply. There just wasn't enough supply. Philip said, hey, there's just too many people to feed. Andrew said, hey, there's just not enough to feed them. So Philip looked at the demand.

Andrew looked at the supply, but that little boy looked at the Lord. Dear friend, you've got to get your eyes off the demand and off the supply. You've got to get your eyes off everything that you think there's just no way you could do or God could possibly do. And you need to get your eyes off yourself to say, you know, there's just no way I could possibly do it. There's just no way we could accomplish that.

You need to get your mind off the demand and off the supply and get your eyes on the Lord. Like this little boy did. The miracle that this little boy saw. I want you to notice fourthly the master that the little boy trusted.

The master that the little boy trusted. You know, it's amazing to me to think, look at verse 11, if you would. And Jesus took the loaves and when he'd given thanks, he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that were set down.

And likewise of the fishes, as much as they would. Obviously here, Jesus is handling, touching this little boy's entire lunch. I find it interesting that this little boy did not just give part of his lunch. Now, we've always heard preachers make a lot of this.

But look at me, folks, let me ask you this. If that little boy had just given one of those fishes and one piece of that bread. You know, there's five pieces of bread, two small fish. If that little boy had just given one piece of bread and one fish, do you think Jesus could have fed everybody on that that day? Let me ask them, could Jesus have fed them all without that lunch? Didn't even Satan say, hey, why don't you command these stones to be made bread? Yeah, he could.

So let's think about it. Did he really even need that boy to feed those people? So why did he use them? Do you think Jesus really needs you to do great things? Hey, do you think Jesus really needs me to do great things? Well, why does he use this?

Look at me, folks, because it's a privilege. If Daniel Hotchery messed up tomorrow and I had to step down from being your pastor. Guess what? Kerwin Baptist Church would go on. God can further this church without Daniel Hotchery. God can bring another man in, probably more gifted, more talented, more whatever.

You would not have problems finding a better man, a more gifted man. Let me tell you something, Kerwin Baptist Church could go on without Daniel Hotchery. God doesn't need Daniel Hotchery and have to have Daniel Hotchery for Kerwin Baptist Church to grow. God doesn't need me. He uses me because it's a privilege for me.

Dear friend, you and I have got to get out of our mind. Oh, God just has to have us. No, he doesn't.

Guess what? You have to have him. And it's a privilege for us to be used to do anything. That's a privilege. He could use anybody, but if he uses you, you ought to thank God for it.

We ought to get out of this thing. Well, I just don't have a very big Sunday school class. Let me tell you something.

There's about a thousand people God could probably use to teach that Sunday school class, but if he's given you the opportunity and the privilege to do it, you ought to thank him for it and give everything you have to it. The master that the little boy trusted. He gave his whole lunch.

You know what, folks? Not because Jesus needed his whole lunch, but because this boy trusted him. He gave it all.

He said, you know what? I think if I give everything to him somehow, some way, I'm going to get plenty to eat because of whatever he preached on the kingdom of God. However Jesus preached it, that little boy, I believe, so believed it and was so moved by it and so trusted the preacher that he had just heard that he gave everything he had his entire lunch that here you take it. It's more important to me that you have my lunch than for me to have my lunch. I find it interesting to think that the son of God could have gone hungry that day without this little boy bringing his lunch.

You say, what do you mean? Don't you find it interesting that the creator of the universe, the very son of God, did not even have a crust of bread to his name? He had no food, period. His disciples had no food, period. Here's the very savior, the son of God.

Look at me. He could command 10,000s of angels to come at any time. He could have lived in luxury. He could have had the nicest and the biggest of everything. And yet Jesus loves us so much that he came down and literally had nothing.

We complain because our house is too small. Boy, this boy saw something in Jesus. Dr. John Phillips in one of his commentaries on this story said this. This little boy stands in the annals of eternity alongside that widow who cast into the treasury all her living.

Great will be their reward in heaven. You say, why did he trust him so much? Listen to me.

We're almost done this morning. Because this little boy saw that God uses what is available. He's the only one that brought his lunch.

That's exactly who Jesus used. Dear friend, you think for some reason I think sometimes you and I were so bashful or anxious or hesitant to jump out and do something for God because we think in terms of this story, we think that other people have better lunches than us so God probably doesn't want my lunch. Or we think other people have bigger lunches than mine. Or we think that my lunch isn't possibly going to be good enough for him.

Let me tell you something, folks. God does not use ability. He uses availability. I'm here to tell you this morning, you bring it, he'll use it.

Let's not sit back and say, well, somebody else could do it better or somebody else could do this and I just don't think God, you know, other people are talented, other people are this. Remember, God doesn't need us. We need him. It's a privilege to serve him. And you ought to give him everything you have and be anxious, God.

I don't have much, but if you'll use me somewhere, use me because it's an opportunity and I'll take it. Dear friend, what a privilege to serve God. That little boy saw that God uses what is available. And the second he saw that God sees everyone as significant. Verse nine, Andrew says this, there is a lad here.

Now, I don't know if that's just was written or if that's exactly how it happened. In other words, this I don't know if Andrew said, Hey, Jesus, here's a little boy named Johnny. Here's a little boy named Andy.

Obviously, they didn't probably have Andy back then, but you know what I'm saying. Here's a little boy named Shabakababam or something. I don't know. I don't know what names they might have had back then. I don't know. I know that in Chronicles there's a whole bunch of names that I'm not going to name my kids.

I'll tell you that much. We don't know what this little boy's name was. But all I know is this, that Andrew just saw him as a lad.

Probably insignificant, just a lad here. But God saw him as significant. Well, that little lad is the most famous little lad you'll ever find in the Bible. Hundreds of years later, we're still talking about him. He wasn't just a lad.

He was somebody God used. Let me tell you something. We have Wednesday nights, bus ministry, and Juanas, and all these different things. A lot of times we'll walk over there and say, Hey, that's just another little boy.

You don't know that. You might have junior church downstairs, kids running around out in the foyer and different things. Well, these kids running around, you don't know what they might do for God one day. That little boy saw that Jesus sees everybody as significant.

Even if his disciples didn't, Jesus does. You and I are his disciples. We better start seeing kids as special. Why do you think we're doing all the things? Why do you think we're trying to get folks gathering and helping upwards and everything? There's a whole bunch of kids in this community that are special to God.

They ought to be special to us. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. This is live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.