Jesus
and His disciples crossed the Sea of Tiberius after healing the man at the Pool
of Bethesda. There, Christ had proved His authority as God—the authority of the Son, and the multitudes
followed Him. The sad thing is, they had not followed Him to learn more about
Him or to gain that spiritual bread but because they’d seen His miracles! They
saw how He could heal the diseased and give the blind their sight.
Jesus
said, “Well, here they come. I guess we should feed them.”
“But,
Jesus,” Philip stuttered, “Even if we did have enough money to feed them all,
there’s not enough bread around to be bought to feed them all!”
We’re
going to look at a few wee-little people who said, “We care.”
THE
WEE-LITTLE LAD
“Philip
answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that
every one of them may take a little. One of his
disciples, Andrew, Simon 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?” (John 6:7-9)
This
little boy, this young teen, this lad had brought his food with him. Now, do
you really think that out of that whole multitude that
there was absolutely no other person that thought to bring food? What about Mommas—snacks
for their toddlers? Don’t you think there were families within an hour or two’s
walk or less from home? Why did no else offer to supply for even one family?
For one adult? For one child? I always had twice, sometimes three times more than what I needed! They could
have offered their food to Jesus, but they didn’t. Why? They didn’t care! When
it comes your turn to be called upon,
will people see you as one who just doesn’t care? Or can you say, like this
little boy, “I care!”
This one lad’s lunch fed
5,000! Wouldn’t you love to be known as someone whose little gift fed so many? We have so many hurting people
around us today! Be one of those that say, “We care!”
THE WEE-LITTLE MAIDEN
LET’S READ:
“Now Naaman,
captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given
deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had
brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her
mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.
(2 Kings 5:1-3)
This
little girl shared her knowledge. She knew there was a man who could heal her
master. She shared. She cared.
Now,
think about this. This little life had been changed because of this man. His
army had come into her city and devastated it. His army had destroyed her home. His army had most likely
killed her father and older brothers. She had been ripped from her mother’s protective
arms, where they were clinging one to another, and taken captive. She was no
longer free.
This
little maid, this little girl, could no longer play at will, tease her brothers,
take rides on their backs, or chase butterflies. She couldn’t learn to “cook”
with her mother, kneading the dough or washing the leaks. In fact, she may
never see her mother again. She would never jump on her father’s back as he
knelt to tend the field or startle him as he came around the corner ever again.
She may have even seen her father and brothers die. She would never again see
her family. At
the time she was stolen from her family and from her homeland, it was devastating
to her. It must have seemed inexplicable.
Why would her God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, allow her to be taken
her from her family, her home, and everything she knew? It must have seemed
like no help, no relief, would ever come,
yet he cared about the man that made it happen, the man she may have thought
was to blame.
She
cared through it all! (I tell you what,
her mother must have taught her right! I hope I can be even half the mother she
was! A mother like this little maid’s.)
I don’t know how long after all of the devastation
that she reached out to her mistress, but she was still a little maid at the
time of this story, and she was old enough to know of and remember about Elisha
when she was ripped from her mother’s grasp!
Do
you care? Do you care enough to tell others? Do you care enough to share your
knowledge? What knowledge do we have?
· 1.
Everyone’s a sinner.—Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God;”
We all know about the Ten Commandments. Many
of us probably have them memorized or at least know
them well enough to name a few. Hmmm… Thou
shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart. Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt
not kill. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. That only names a few,
and, no, I don’t think they’re in order. 😊
Let’s look at a few:
Everyone
has told a lie. Even a little white lie will take you to Hell!—Revelation 21:8,
“But the fearful, and
unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall
have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the
second death.”
How
many people do you have to kill to be a murderer? One. How many lies do you have to tell to be a liar? Think about it…
That
verse talks about murderers. Did you know that if you’ve hated someone, you’ve
murdered them in your heart.—I John 3:15, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer
hath eternal life abiding in him.” Is murdering a sin? Yes! Have you ever hated someone in your
heart? Even for a second? Are you a
murderer?
Idolatry
is coveting what someone else has.—Colossians 3:5, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the
earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:” “Covetous,”
according to the “Oxford Dictionary,” is “having or showing a great desire to
possess something belonging to someone else.” The Bible says again in Ephesians
5:5, that “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean
person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” Are you an
idolator?
So
according to this list, you’re a lying, idol worshiping, murderer at heart! Is
that enough to get you labeled a sinner?
· 2. There’s a price for sin.—Romans 6:23a, “For the wages of sin is death;”
That’s eternal death. The rest of the verse continues with a BUT and tells us
that God’s gift is eternal life. Remember Revelation 21:8? “But the fearful, and unbelieving,
and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and
idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with
fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
The good news is, we don’t HAVE to go to Hell! But how? Why?
·
Jesus came to this earth, was implanted in
a virgin’s womb, and was born on Christmas day. He did nothing wrong, living a
sinless life, healed the sick, raised the dead, and gave the blind their sight.
Yet, one day, He was taken by soldiers, buffeted, had a crown of thorns beaten
into His brow, was stricken repeatedly with a rod and then with a whip of nine tails,
having broken glass, rock, and chunks of sharp bone woven into its chords. Then
he was led through the streets, barely looking like a man, to the place of his
death, nailed to a cross. It was dropped into a deep enough hole to hold it upright—probably
at least four feet deep, pounding into the ground when it hit the bottom. It yanked his open flesh
against that rough wood and those large, sharp splinters that jutted out from
the surface. His bones were violently jarred out of joint. The weight of his body, pulled down at such force, ripped at his
hands and his feet. Blood rained down his face, poured down his body, slowly
emptying the ground. The soldiers gambled for His clothing beneath Him. He felt
an unbearable weight upon His shoulders that only the Son of God could bear as
God placed the sin of the whole world upon Him. God the Father turned His back
on Jesus, as He cannot look upon sin. A thick
darkness fell. Jesus cried out, “My God, My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” already knowing the answer—God had
too. Finally, He died.
Three days later, something glorious
happened! He arose from the dead! He went to Heaven, came before His Father,
placed His blood, the final payment for sin, on the mercy seat, and returned to
Earth to heal and teach once more. Forty days later, He returned to Heaven to
sit on His throne at His Father’s right hand.
· 3. What are you going to do about it?—Romans 10:9-10,
“That if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.”
Do you believe you’re a sinner? Do you believe that your sin will send you to Hell? Do
you believe Jesus paid that price? All
you have to do is confess that! Tell Jesus what you feel, what you believe. You talk to Him just like to talk to
anyone else.
“Well, He’s not in the room,” you might say. That’s fine. Talk to Him like you’re
on speakerphone with a new friend. Besides, He is in the room. He says, “Am I a God at hand, saith the
LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself
in secret places that I shall not see him? saith
the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah
23:23-24)
THE
WEE-LITTLE ME
You
might be thinking, “I can’t help, I have a bum leg,” or “I can’t do much, I
have so much to do,” or “I can’t do Soul Patrol, I work on Saturdays,” or “What
can I do, I’m pretty much housebound,” or
“I don’t have a car,” or “I’m stuck on this walker,” or… Whatever your case may
be, God has SOMETHING you can do!
You
can witness where you are, telling others of Christ. You might say, “I can’t do
that. I’m scared.” You can hand out tracts where you go, which is, in fact,
telling others of Jesus! You can be a witness, doing those things which are
right before your neighbors. You can keep your testimony. God wants you to do
all of these—telling of Jesus, being a witness, and keeping your testimony.
When
I was in college, I didn’t have a car. I could only go within walking distance
of the college. Sure, I went out on Saturday mornings a few short hours with my
route to visit my bus kids and knock new doors, but that just wasn’t enough for
me. I wanted more, so I took out the phone book, sat at the phone—the real,
wall-bound kind, dialed numbers, and witnessed to people at the other end of
the line. And, guess what! Yes, I had people hang up on me. I had people
thinking I was a telemarketer and tell me, “I’m not interested,” right away. I
even had someone threaten to call the police once because they were on a
no-call list and I was disturbing their privacy and violating the law by
contacting them! But… I also had those precious few who trusted Christ as their
Savior.
You
can pray! I know you hear this all the time, but there are so many that don’t
pray today. Maybe they “forget,” getting
into the rush of the day and just… forget.
(Just setting apart a time and making
a point to pray, by the way, will get it done. I do my devotions at 5AM every morning and 6AM on Sundays).
Some people don’t know how to pray—in Jesus’
name, in His will. Instead, they pray for what they want. They forget to pray
for others’ or just skip it in their rush, praying only for their own selfish
desires. You know, it’s not bad to pray for those things you want. It is not
good, though, to pray for things you know God doesn’t want you to have, like
the neighbor’s car. 😊
You know it’s not God’s will for you to have the newest pistol if you’ve been
convicted, incarcerated, and served for murder. He’ll let you know, if not
through His Word or through the law, then through His Spirit. His Spirit
communes with ours and shares things with us as His children.
Also,
there are those who don’t know Who to pray too. These would be the unsaved or
the saved, praying to their own god’s.
Sometime, these could be Buddha or some other idol, but at other times it’s things like the god of convenience. “Oh, God,
let me get to my appointment on time (which
would be fine)” as they speed through a 45mph zone (which makes it NOT fine). “Oh, Dear Jesus, let me get this college
paper in on time (which, again, would be
fine)” as they copy and paste, plagiarizing, from the internet.
There
are many other things you can do, but I want to give you one more idea: you can
send out cards. There was a lady in our church in Michigan that sent out birthday
cards, anniversary cards, and get-well cards to every member every year. Her
name was Miss Nancy. It was such an encouragement. Wait! Isn’t that something
we’re supposed to do—edify, encourage, the brethren?! She put a tract inside every
card, too, that corresponded with the card:
birthday tracts with birthdays, etc. just in case… Just an idea. 😊
Another
card you might think of is sympathy cards. In the church we went to in Christina,
I used to find people in the obituary section, locate
their families in the white pages online, and send them a sympathy card with a
tract in it. We had a few people call and thank us, and we had a few people
shew up at the church. What a blessing!
If
these Wee-little people in our lesson can do something for God. If even
children can do something for Christ. If even the rocks can call out praises to
God. If even creation can witness of Him. YOU CAN DO SOMETHING FOR HIM!
Remember
Philippians 4:13? “I can do
all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Get on your knees. Seek His face. Ask Him what that something is that you can do, and JUST DO IT!
Let’s
list some other ideas of things we can do as ministries to others. What are
some other ideas to reach souls? What are some other
ways to edify others? What are some things you
can do? Let’s share our ideas so we can
help others! COMMENT BELOW!
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