I'm only half here. If you hadn't noticed, Rhonda's not here. So I'm only half here today. Because we are one. I appreciate all of you being here. So we are in the book of John, chapter 6. And we started the lesson last week on a lad with no name. And I hope everybody's got the material. So the points we covered last week are number one, the boy's character. And under that is letter A, the right preparation, the right place, the right people, and the right patience. And I'm going to go back over a couple of those real quick just Some things that I would kind of rush through and also I actually I went back and looked at it I said why didn't I say this so not gonna spend much time, but one thing that I wanted to point out under the right preparation That was point a a Lot of times we are looking for something big to do and You know the way you get to do something big is to do a bunch of little things and Little things add up to being big things. And if you're not faithful doing the little things, the Lord's not really going to put you in a position to do the big things. But you know what? Really, in the Lord's service, there's no such thing as little or big. So I'm not trying to contradict myself, but that's kind of the way we measure things, okay? We measure things in little and increments and different things like that. But the point is the Lord wants us to be faithful. So the question is this. In what ways do you want God to use your life? A lot of times we say, well, I want to do this this coming year. And pastor reminds us there's no day like today to get started on doing something. So don't think too far ahead. Try to think, because really, we're only guaranteed today. And we're not even guaranteed we're going to make it through today. Seriously, OK? I don't think any of us are planning to die today, but we don't know what's going to happen today. None of us know that. Our life is a vapor. It appears for a little time and then vanishes away. So don't plan to, we should plan ahead, but we're not guaranteed that, okay? So the best thing to do is do what needs to be done and do it today. whether it's witnessing, whether it's taking care of your family, whether it's serving the Lord here at this church, whatever it is, don't put it off till tomorrow. So that's under point A, the right preparation. So we should be prepared for what the Lord wants us to do. The right place, of course we talked about that last week, talking about being in our place here at church, but you know, it's, The little lab was where he was supposed to be. He was with Jesus. That's where he chose to do that day, was to be with Jesus. He could have done a lot of different things. But a lot of times we think of this, being in the right place, is not, it contrasts that to being in the wrong place. You know, there's places we should never go, okay? But you know what? That's not all this is talking about. The right place is where the Lord wants you. You may be in a good place. but it may not be the right place. So let that kind of sink in and digest, because a lot of times we think, well, I'm not doing something wrong. That's not all we're talking about here. The good sometimes robs us of doing the best, the things that the Lord wants us to do. We can do a lot of good stuff, but if it's not where God wants us to be, it's not the best. and the right patience. I mentioned last week that it's so easy to get ahead of the Lord, to be impatient. But sometimes, I just thought about myself, sometimes the Lord tells me to do something and I don't do it right then. So the right patience is not just waiting on the Lord, it's also doing what he wants you to do when he wants you to do it. And the first thing that came to my mind when I was thinking about this, and this is just a sad commentary, I hope you don't do this, but I can be someplace and the Lord impresses on me, I need to go talk to that person. Sometimes I do, but sadly, more often I don't. For whatever reason, I don't have time I think, You know, maybe I don't feel like I'm prepared to talk to that person or whatever the excuse is. They're all excuses. If the Lord impressed that on you, it wasn't the devil that told you to do that. He doesn't want you to hear the gospel. So you can rest assured it was the Lord that impressed that on you. And so doing the right thing in the right time is not just not getting ahead, but it's doing it right then as well sometimes when the Lord wants you to do it. All right, now, so today we're going to continue And point number two is, he's got it on the screen, the boy's charity. Now many times we look at the word charity and we're thinking about like 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the love chapter or the charity chapter, but this is not what this word charity means, okay? This word charity is not talking about love, this is talking about being charitable or giving, which is, you know, it's kind of related to love, because love is giving, but this is talking specifically about giving. with your life. So this little boy had something and he gave it. Point A is he gave it willingly. We don't know if Andrew had to ask him for his lunch or if the boy offered it on his own. We don't have record of any of that, but we do know that he gave it. At the very least we know that they didn't have to drag it out of him. They didn't have to take it from him. So he gave it, he gave it willingly, and he didn't have an attitude of like, what am I going to get in return for this? Too often, whenever the Lord asks us to do something, we're thinking about what we're going to get. And you know what? He is going to give us. You cannot out give God. He's going to bless us way beyond what we can even give him. What if the little boy had refused to give his lunch? We wouldn't have a record of it here. It would have turned out, the story would have turned out totally different. Or if he had insisted on maybe getting something in return for it. This little boy gave his lunch willingly. I would like to illustrate that by a story of a missionary. Most of you have probably heard of the name Jim Elliott. Anybody not heard of Jim Elliot? Okay. I remember as a child being told this story. I was born in 1958, and in 1956, Jim Elliot gave his life. He was born in 1927. He was a, I'm just going to read this because I don't want to overlook any of it. He was a passionate evangelist, a devoted husband and father, and a martyred Christian missionary. So his life and legacy are an exemplary testament to the world of the absolute worthiness of Christ and the costly call of the Christian to follow Jesus. He did that because of his Savior. His Savior was worth giving his life. And he didn't know he was going to die, he just was going to give his life to service. The defining pursuit of his life was to intimately know God to tell others of him and to obey his every call. Put all this in perspective, he was 29 years old when he died. Most of us, especially us guys, our brains aren't fully developed at that age. Some of us, my wife will say, yours probably still isn't fully developed. But this guy at 29 was already on the mission field. Wow, that's how devoted, that's how well he knew the Lord, and that's how committed he was to the Lord. He was inspired in an early age by examples of Christian missionaries. To name a few, David Brainerd, you may have heard of him, William Carey, most of us have heard of him, Amy Carmichael, and there's others, but those three were mentioned. He was resolved to commit his life to evangelism and to international mission work, and that caused him to go to Wheaton College to study linguistics. That's language. It was there he would meet Elizabeth Howard, which we all know as Elizabeth Elliot. You've probably heard, many of you probably heard her on the radio. She passed away about maybe 10 years ago, but it seems like she's still alive because you hear her on the radio so much still. Partners in ministry, they were partners in ministry following the call of the Lord. They traveled to the Ecuadorian jungle. On January 8th, 1956, while attempting to make contact with the people of the Waodani tribe, Jim and four other missionaries were speared to death by those they came to minister to. Now, seven years earlier, Jim Elliot wrote these famous words. He wrote them in a journal, October 28th, 1949. And most of you have heard this quote, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Most of us don't even get close to doing that. We're so interested in what we can hold on to. I mean, this is an indictment. I mean, this lesson's for me probably more than anybody. We're so caught up in the temporal, the stuff that really doesn't matter. Jim Elliott had the right perspective. At 22 years old, he wrote that. Wow. Can we say that at our age? So I thought, I was going to reword this question, but I was going to say, are you withholding anything from God? But the question is not that, because we all are. What are you withholding from God? What are you trying to negotiate with him? Are you willing to give only if you receive something in return? Remember, our savior, he gave it all. That was for us, for me, for you. And we should remember the verse that says the love of Christ constrains us. That's a great love, the greatest love in the world. And this little boy had this kind of love, this kind of charity, this kind of giving, this kind of willingness to give. He was willing. Another illustration is when Paul commended the churches of Macedonia. They were themselves in deep poverty. And we had somebody illustrate that a few weeks ago on this platform when he had the chair set up, if you remember that. But they, the church at Macedonia, had a willing heart to be used by God to meet the needs of others. And that's found in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 if you want to look at it. I think you probably have all that. I'm not looking at what you have. The goodness and blessing of God awaits the Christian who has a willing heart. Contrast that to this. Stinginess and stubbornness have a bitter end. Isaiah 1, 19 through 20 says, If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword. For the word of the Lord hath, for the mouth of the Lord, excuse me, hath spoken it. I put my glasses on last week. Somebody said I look like Brother Eddie. Are we twins? I can see better actually. I think my vision is getting worse by the week now. So we see the little boy giving willingly, and letter B, he gave wholly. Completely. W-H-O-L-L-Y. So this boy could have given three loaves and one fish. That would have been generous, and the lawyer could have probably done just as well with what he had, but I mean, this is the God that created the universe. He could have taken one loaf and half a fish and still done the same thing, okay? But the point is, the little boy gave it all. So the question for us is, does God have all of you or just a part? And so often we focus on what we're giving, but God, however, focuses on what we're keeping. Think about that. We kind of do this. Oh, I gave that. I did this. I did that. But what else could you have done? What does God expect you to do? It's like being in the right place. It's not the right place if it's not the place God wants you to be. It's not giving what God wants you to give if you don't give what he wants you to give. You just give what you want to give. That's not the same thing. A good illustration of this, Solomon was the wisest man that ever lived. He prayed for that wisdom. And in 1 Kings 3, there's a story, a real true story of two women that had babies. Evidently, they were living in the same house, and they had given birth to a son just a few days apart. During the night, one of these babies died. You know this story. When one of the women woke up to feed her son, he was dead. And she took the one that was alive and put it with her. Well, the mother who had exchanged the children pleaded ignorance, and an argument ensued. So the matter was brought before King Solomon, and he declared, divide the living child in half. And that way, both of them can have half a child. Well, half a child is not a child, and the mother that that was her baby said, give the baby, my baby, to the other woman. She would rather give that baby away than to keep half a child. Well, that would be great if it was like a piece of pie. You can divide it and separate, you know, have half a piece a piece, but the mother This was a human being. This was not a piece of pie. This was not something that was inanimate. This was a real baby. And a divided baby is no baby. The same thing is true in our life. When we divide our life, Lord, you can have this part, but I'm gonna keep this part. When we do that, that's not giving him our life. That's giving him what we want to give him, part of our life. It's either all or nothing. That's a hard concept. James 1.8, and this is not the exact context of this, but there is a principle here. It says, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. And what that was talking about really is trusting and not trusting, okay? Having faith and not having faith. But there's still a principle here. If we don't give everything to the Lord, then we are not giving Him our life. We're just giving Him part of our life. Deuteronomy 6, 5 says, And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Now, Brother Johnny is the Greek scholar. He's not in here, but what does all mean, Brother Eddie? All means all, and that's all all means. You can try to split that up all you want to. But the Lord wants all of you, all of me. And letter C, he gave wisely. John chapter 6 verse 12 says, when they were all filled. This was a great decision. He gave all and all were filled. And that included the little boy. He didn't lose anything. He gained everything. In fact, we don't know again. We can use our imagination. When he left that day, the disciples may have given him a little extra. We don't know, but I kind of like to think that they did. When he came to the event that day, he may have been wondering, was his lunch going to be big enough to last him all day? Was it big enough? It fed 5,000 men, women, and children. We don't know how many that was, but it was way over 5,000, I'm sure. And if at least one little boy was there, there probably were other little boys there, and little girls, and moms as well. You know, God can always do more with what we give Him than what we can do with it ourselves. When we invest, we think, you know, I'm going to get this return. That's kind of determined by how the economy is going. God is not controlled by that. That principle that Jim Elliott had, he lived by. When we invest in eternity, you know, scripture talks about laying up treasure for yourself. Well, you're supposed to lay up treasure in heaven, the Bible says, where moth and rust does not corrupt and thieves don't break through and steal. And then it goes on and says, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Your heart follows your treasure. If your treasure is on earth, then that's where your heart's going to be. The Bible says, seek those things which are above, not things that are on the earth. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. And if our affection is on what's above or what's eternal, then that's where our heart will be. And wherever our heart is, it's going to control what we're doing. So Luke chapter 6 verse 38 says, give, and this is kind of one of our key verses for this lesson, give and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye meet with all, it shall be measured to you again. It says, good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over. That's an abundance. Way more than we could even ask or think. So all of us, just imagine this, all of us have a lunch, just like that little boy. It may not be five loaves and three fishes, or two fishes. But we all have something that we can give. We can either give it or we can keep it. And if we keep it, we can do something maybe that'll provide some purpose and be of limited value, or we can give it to the Lord, who's the one that gave it to us to begin with, and we can watch him multiply it and bless it, not only for our benefit, the little boy was blessed, but for the benefit of others, the benefit of the multitudes around us who need a miracle in their lives. And this is kind of where the rubber meets the road. We think that we can't do so much. That's the problem. We can't. But who can? The Lord can. So whenever the Lord impresses you or me to do something, the reason we don't do it is because we're depending on ourself. We're not depending on the one that can perform that miracle. Now, this is just a simple story. You know, it is the only one I mentioned last week. It's the only one that's mentioned in all four Gospels. It's the only miracle that's mentioned in all four Gospels except, of course, well, it's already mentioned in the Gospels, but the crucifixion, or the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most powerful miracle in all the Bible, okay? But this is the only one that's mentioned in all four Gospels. But even though it's the only one mentioned in all four Gospels, it seems like a very small thing because it's just a lunch, and it's just feeding people, you know? It's not raising somebody from the dead or healing, you know, giving somebody sight. Think about this. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. I'm going to try to quote it. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. All. There's that word again. Is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Why? That the man of God or woman of God may be perfect. That word perfect means complete. Throughly furnished unto all good works. That's why we have God's word. so that we can be complete and we can be equipped to do what God wants us to do. So this story is not just any story. This is a story to help us to trust the Lord even more. To realize that it's just a little, we have a little lunch, but God can take that little lunch and do something big with it. And that's who we are. We're just a speck. And on the timeline of eternity, we don't even show up. But God commended His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So we are something, we just don't, we don't look like anything, but we are something to Him, and He wants to use us. So experience has likely shown us that all of us I'll try to read this again. Experience has likely shown all of us that we don't naturally give the little we have, our little lunches, our little money, our little talents, which would allow us to reap the blessings of seeing God do something miraculous with them. So if we want to reap those blessings, let us take the lessons from this little boy. And I'm just going to kind of summarize all this. We need to prepare ourselves to be used by the Lord. And that primarily involves investing our time in seeking him through his word and in prayer. We need to be in the right place, faithful in our homes and in the services of our church to the Lord. We need to seek fellowship with people who are already close to the Lord. We need to patiently trust his plan and his timing. And then when we've prepared ourselves in these ways, we will be prepared to give at the right time. Our hearts will be prepared to give as this boy did, willingly, wholly, and wisely. You know, I said this earlier a little bit, kind of alluded to it. We're kind of interested in doing the big things. You know why we are interested in doing the big things? Because we have pride. It draws attention to ourselves. And that's what would most likely happen. That doesn't have to happen, but a lot of times we say, I wish I could. And we're thinking about something, you know, whatever, big. But what does the Lord want us to do? He wants us to be faithful where we are. Do the job that he's asked you to do. It may be big, it may not be as big. But if we're willing to give to the Lord, then a miracle can happen. And the Lord can receive the glory for that. If we do something big and we do it and it draws attention to ourselves, then who gets the glory? We do. We can never share the glory that God deserves. There are countless needs in our lives, in our churches, and the world that only God can meet. And who does he use to meet those needs? Us. We are his hands. We are his feet. We are his mouth. We're the ones that that can meet those needs, but he uses us to do it. We have to do it in that order. He uses us. He used a young boy to meet the needs of thousands of people and he can use us to meet the needs right where we are. So just a couple of questions at the end here. Are you withholding something in your life from the Lord? Are you willing to trust that he could do more with it than you could do with it? And right now, would you ask God to take your little and do something big with it? We hear the song here at our church from time to time, little is much. What's the rest of that phrase? When God is in it. He gives us a choice. We can take what we have and we can use it for ourselves or we can use it for him. I hope you will, and I know most of you are, but I hope we will get a new glimpse of this and try to do even more of what the Lord wants us to do. Let's pray. A simple lesson, Lord, a simple little lunch and a little boy that you used. Many times we try to do things ourselves in our own strength. Lord, help us to look to you and to commit afresh and anew today our lives to be used by you. And I know, Lord, and you understand it's a process. It's difficult. We're in flesh. Many times we yield to that. Help us, Lord, to let your spirit control us. Help us to yield completely to you. And it would be way beyond our wildest imagination what you can do, just like that little lunch that fed thousands. There are so many around us, Lord, that need that miracle in their lives. Help us, Lord, to be instruments that can be used by you. Continue to bless through the day. We praise you and thank you for each one that's gathered here. And we just look forward to what you're going to bless us with through your word in the next hour. In Jesus' name, we pray.