Address—G. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
General Meetings, Des Moines, May 1973, addressed by Gordon Hayhoe.
Shall we stay together #187?
#187.
Oh Jesus, gracious Savior upon the Father's throne, whose wondrous love and favor has made our cause, thine own thy people to the ever for grace and help repair for thou they know will never refuse their griefs to share.
187.
Jesus Christ shall.
Save.
Her.
We ask the Lord's blessing and prayer.
To turn with me to 2nd Kings Chapter 4.
Second Kings chapter 4.
And verse 38.
And Elijah came again to Gilgal, and there was a dearth in the land, and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him. And he sat unto his servant, set on the great pot, and seized pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered there are wild gourds, his lap full.
And came and shred them into the pot of cottage, for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat.
And it came to pass as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, That all thou man of God, there is death in the pot, and they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal, and he cast it into the pot. And he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat, and there was no harm in the pot. And there came a man from Bill Chalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, 20 laws of barley, and fulliers of corn in the husk thereof.
And he said, Give unto the people that they may eat. And his surrender said, What shall I set this before 100 men? He said, again, Give the people that they may eat. For thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof. So he did set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord.
Now, will you also turn with me to Matthew chapter 14?
Matthew, Chapter 14.
And the 15th verse.
And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time has now passed. Send the molecule away, that they may go into the villages, and by themselves vittles. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart, give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, We have here but 5 loaves, and two fishes. And he said, Bring them, Hit her to me.
And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves and the two fishes.
And looking up to heaven, he blessed and break, and gave the laws to his disciples.
And the disciples to the multitude, and they did all eat and were filled.
And they took off of the fragments that remained 12 baskets full, and they that had eaten were about 5000 men beside women and children.
On the 24th verse. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves, for the wind was contrary.
00:10:06
And in the 4th watch of the night Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, there were trouble, saying, It is a spirit. And they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I.
Be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
And he said, Come. When Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink. He cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand.
And caught him, and said unto him, For thou little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were coming to the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth, Thou art the Son of God.
Tell her, young people, my thought in reading these verses this afternoon is that perhaps they bring before us in some little way how the Lord is sufficient for every circumstance. We find all different circumstances brought before us, and we find poison in the pot.
In the beginning of the 4th chapter of Second Kings we have a little boy who had died. In the end we find shortage of food and it was multiplied. And the other story we find of a young man who had just a very little and it was sufficient to feed 5000 when given to the Lord. And then we find storms and the Lord was able to steal the storms. And so as I look over the group of young people here.
I know that you're in very circumstances of life. Each one has a different home background, each one a different assembly, each one different personal characteristics. But the Lord is sufficient for you. He's the one who made this world, and He made you. When he put Adam in it, it tells us that he looked upon the whole scene and said it was very good. We know how sin came in and spoiled it.
Didn't spoil the heart of God. Sin spoiled man. Sin spoiled this world, but it didn't spoil the heart of God. It only brought out in fuller and greater relief what was in the heart of God. His sufficiency for the need of man and sufficiency for our need.
And I think it's very lovely as we read the Bible, that God not only gives us instruction, he could just write down precepts for us, precepts to which we should hearken, precepts which would direct our pathway. But there's more than this. There are living examples. There are people, men of light, passions as ourselves, young people, sons of the prophets, all brought before us in these varied set of pictures that God has given us.
Saw that we might see that others have passed away before us, and above all, the Lord Jesus Himself, the Captain of our salvation, went through every form and kind of suffering, sin apart, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest.
That he might be able to suffer us, to help us in our trials and in our problems.
And so I just like to speak a little of these different things that are brought before us in what we have read. First of all, before beginning at the verse where we began, I'd like to mention about this child that had died. Here was a family and they only had one child.
And the Lord had seen fit to take away this one child. It was a family where there was faith. Because the dear mother could say all is well, all is well. Oh, how wonderful when sorrows hit our lives, when troubles come to know that all is well.
So know that God has allowed it, but I think it's very lovely to see the activity of this servant of God, Elijah, and the way in which God used to raise this boy who had died back to life again. Perhaps we could think of it as an illustration of how we could help a child, perhaps someone very much younger than ourselves. And here we find this man of God not occupied with his own importance.
00:15:00
Again, Hazie was Gehazi was occupied with his own importance, but not Elijah. Elijah had a heart for this woman. He said that she was in trouble and the Lord hadn't shown him what it was that was the trouble. And then we find Elisha, how he went and prayed, and how it tells us that he stretched himself upon the child. And perhaps I could just pass on this little word to some who are older now. This is a day when.
We hear a lot about the generation gap, we hear a lot about the differences between old and young. But I think it's very lovely to see. See Elisha here coming and stretching himself upon the child. Oh, if there was any such thing as bridging the gap, here it was.
This great servant of God coming down, putting his mouth on the mouth of the child, putting his hands in the hands of the child and putting his feet on the feet of the child. Why does it say it's he stretched himself well, as another has put it, And I think it's very true. And it's easy for us to talk to people who are our contemporaries of our own age, but an older person needs to stretch himself a little bit to bring himself down.
To the possession of young people today, to see that just the spot in which they're in, in this world. And sometimes it takes a great deal to be able to bring ourselves, to put our hands upon their hands and know just what they're touching, just what they're seeing, just what they're feeling in this day. Well, God honors this activity on the part of Elijah, and it tells us it didn't all come at once, you know?
He did it once and nothing seemed to happen. It says here when he first did it, the flash of the child waxed warm. I think this is lovely. A warm between a young person and an old person. Wasn't this nice? There's a there's a tendency perhaps not to be that warmth between young and old, but.
Here, as Elijah stretched himself upon the one who was young, it says the flesh of the child waxed warm. The life didn't just come, though. But then he went away, and he did it again the second time. And then life came. Yes, life, and the manifestation of that life.
Perhaps not in the way that Elijah might have expected it. He manifested his life and perhaps might have seen the strange way it says the child sneezed 7 times. And as another has put it, I think very nicely, if we're really watching for signs of life, we'll see them. They may not just be in the way we expect. We were older often want to see a sign of life as though it included in men maturity, but not necessarily.
The child sneezed 7 times, but the man of God recognized that this was life and he was given back to his mother. And know how lovely this is. So here we find the Lord was sufficient for this situation and death had come in sorrow had come into this home. The great breach between young and old, how could it be bridged? The Lord was sufficient. And dear young people, I say the Lord is sufficient today.
He wants to bless our children. He wants to bless our young people. He wants them to.
First of all, no. The most important thing Have you received divine life?
Do you know the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior? That's the very beginning of everything.
Apart from math, there's nothing. You may be the nicest character in this whole room this afternoon.
But if you haven't Christ your dad in trespasses and sins, it's new life you need, and there's only one who can communicate that new life, and that is the Lord. He is the one who can give that new life. And Jesus said to Nicodemus, he must be born again so that there's one here who's not saved. May God give you to realize your true condition, that you might be brought to the Lord.
To put your trust in Him as your savior. Well, where we began then we find.
38th verse Elisha came again to Gilgal. It was a little mention made this morning about Gilgal. That was the place, as our brother remarked in the meeting, as soon as they had crossed the Jordan to enter the land and take possession of it. The 1St place that they came to after they had taken Jericho was Gilgal. Gilgal, and they're in Gilgal. What happens?
00:20:02
That they had to, they had to lift the sword upon themselves. Yes, they had to lift the sword upon themselves. And so it represents to us self judgment, self judgment. And we need to practice this in our lives.
And we just read a verse this morning in our own personal reading, and that is it says, so then death worketh in us, but life in you. Now that is, if we want to be a help to anyone else, death has to work himself. If we're going to be watching all the time, what people say or think about us will never be very much use in the things of God. We have to be content to be nothing, to have a sentence of death in ourselves, as Paul said.
And we might not trust in ourselves that we might know what it is to have death working himself. Then life works in the others because they're not attracted to us personally, but to the Lord. And that's the important thing. Dear young people, what I desire for you is that you would be attracted to the Lord Jesus, that He would be the sufficient one for you. And if you were going to be some use to other young people, there needs to be that Gilgal in your life.
There needs to be that putting of a knife upon self, as we had in our chapter this morning.
Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in his present world.
And then when I was reading on here, it says there was a dearth in the land. And surely that's the day we're living in today. Early in the chapter, we have death. Now we have a dearth in the land. And if we were to look more carefully into Israel's history, we would find it was a time when the 10 tribes had separated from the two. It was a time when there had been a breakdown in the testimony of God's people.
They were no longer presented to the world as one nation, but they were separated. And even the Spirit of God has to speak about Judah and Israel. There was a king in Judah. There was a king in Israel. Failure had come in. But I say again, the Lord was still the same.
He was still sufficient for every circumstance, and he was sufficient for the day of Israel's division. He was sufficient for a time when there was a dearth in the land. And if there's a dearth in your soul, if there's a dearth in your assembly, if there's a dearth in other things, perhaps even your health, or some things, perhaps in friends, there can be a dearth about many things in our lives.
And there was a dearth in the Lamb. And perhaps I hear some young people say, oh, I want this, if only this would happen, if only this would work out. Well, it was the dearest in the land, and there was a dearth at this time. So what did the sons of the prophets do?
Did they just sit at home and nurse all their sorrows and troubles? Oh, I think there's a very beautiful picture here. And frankly, this is the reason I think it came before me. I thought of the sons of the prophets sitting before Elisha, and I thought of all the young people who have come here today, sitting in the Lord's presence. And here they had come. They had come with no doubt, very.
Feelings they have. They were, shall I say, a motley group because.
We learn a little in other places about the sons of the prophets, and some of them weren't very faithful in the things of God. In the second chapter. Some were dwelling in Jericho, some know very intelligent, had no desire to follow Elijah. But here we find a very happy occasion.
They came and they sat before the Lord in the presence of this man of God.
And dear young people, were glad you're here today. You may have come with varied feelings in your heart.
Perhaps some of you have been going on with the world human living in Jericho. Perhaps some of you have not been diligent in your life. But we're still glad you're here. We're still glad you've come to sit here with a great pot, as it were, where we can be fed, where we can get something for our souls.
Because the Lord delights to feed us. And so here was the great pot, and Elijah had it already. What did he have the great pot for? Well, he was just so glad that a large group came together, and so he was prepared for them. And so here we find perhaps a little picture of just what is happening at these three days of meetings set on the great pot. And seize pottage for the sons of the prophets.
00:25:19
Because I remark again that I believe the sons of the prophets represent to us the children of believing parents, those who have come to the meetings, because they have perhaps been brought here by their parents. They've been brought up under this kind of influence, and so they come.
And so here they were, and they were now going to get this ready. And it says one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof a wild gourds, his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not. Yes, here was a very active person who went out, and he gathered his lap full of wild gourds. No, wild gourds are very pretty.
I suppose some of you may have them in your home and varnish them and paint them and they really look very attractive. They look nicer than some of the things that we eat. But they're poisoned. They're poisoned. There's many attractive things in this world, dear young people, that are poisonous.
But this person, whoever he was, he didn't know it. He didn't perceive it. And perhaps you're playing with things that look very attractive, but all how dangerous they are. Oh, how dangerous they are. And as we know and hear of young people who play with things that look so attractive and so nice, and then first thing you know, you hear they've got away. They wrecked their lives.
They spoil their testimony. And why? Well, they were playing with the wild gourds. They looked so nice and so attractive. All dear young people, I played with you. You need to have discernment. The book of Proverbs. Proverbs gives us warnings about this world in which we live.
And the dangers that constantly beset us, dangers that don't seem like dangerous things that are so nice and so attractive, but we don't realize the poison that they bring. We don't realize how they can spoil our life and testimony. And I just say here to you, make the word of God your guide. Remember that morning in Proverbs?
Speaking of the path of those who turn away, it says avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away. Oh, how many warnings there are of this path of danger and where it leads. It's such a slippery path. It seems so pleasant, but it's not the ways of pleasantness, the path of following Christ, as it tells us.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness.
And all her paths are peace to go on with the Lord. It may mean self denial, It may mean Gilgal putting the knife upon himself. But the end of the Lord is blessing. The end of the Lord for you, dear young person, is blessing. And I beseech you to go on with the Lord. But this is a very strange thing, the way it's brought in here. What happens? Well, this great pot was set on to feed the people.
And this person, I suppose one of the sons of the prophets, went out and brought these wild gourds and put them right into the pot. And I just like to give a little warning to you. Just because you're here with other Christians and over the Word of God doesn't mean that you're out of danger. There's a verse in Proverbs that says I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
That's the phone words, isn't it? I'm going to repeat it. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. Now this person didn't bring the wild cords and put them into some pot for people who were not before the Lord and who were among the sons of the prophets. No, he mixed it in with the good food. And maybe you come here for Christian fellowship. Maybe you come here to sit under the sound of God's Word.
And you know that you can get a blessing, but you need to be on guard.
00:30:04
Even on such occasions as this, you need to be watchful because you need to have the Lord before you, and you need to make Him, and not any other young person, the example for your Christian life. You can get help from others, but remember there's only one perfect example. Godly men have often turned aside and have let others astray too. We're only safe as we cleave to the Lord.
With purpose of hearts. So they started to eat, and here there was poison in the pot.
This great plot that was intended to feed them. Now they find out there's poison in the pot. What can they do? Is it possible to put their hand in and take it out? No. It's all mixed up. It's all mixed up. And so it is. We're living in serious days.
We're living in days when the world creeps in, saw insidiously, and we can't remove her. We can't remove it. How? That is, we can't remove it collectively. We can judge ourselves individually, but we find these things creep in and we find that even here on this very wonderful occasion when the good food was prepared for the sons of the prophets, how there was that There were these wild gourds. And So what are you going to do?
Stay away from such occasions as this because there might be some worldly person, some person who might try to stumble you who's here. Oh, no, I think there's a very, very lovely answer here. What did the man of God do when he heard this? When they shouted out and said, oh, there's, there's death in the pot and they could not eat their own. But he said, then bring meal.
And dear young people, I believe this is a word for us. It's a word for you and for me. And that is how we can come to these meetings. And we may find all kinds of influences here. We may find young people who help us and young people who hinder us. We may find food for our souls, or we can find distraction for our souls. But what was the answer here? And all distracting influences couldn't be taken out. They were all mixed up.
But the man of God said bring meal, and when he put the meal into the pot, then there was no harm in the pot. And isn't it lovely that you and I can be here on such occasions as this instead of getting under the state of things? Instead of getting so distressed and discouraged that we say it's no use, and that we can enjoy the Lord in our own souls on such an occasion as this?
We can get a rich real blessing by being here and I'm sure.
That there are young people who have come to these three days meetings who are going to go home and say.
I got a rich blessing for my soul, and the poison wasn't taken out of the pot, but still they got a rich blessing. Why? Because Neil was brought to them. Because they fed upon Christ and saw her. Lovely to see the Lord was sufficient. And we hang our heads in shame and confess the days in which we lay out. But I say again, the Lord has not changed. He is sufficient for 1973.
He is sufficient for the circumstances that exist in our meetings, in our assemblies, in our general meetings. He is sufficient and you can get the blessing that your soul desires. I remember hearing about two people who had gone out to Africa. One was a hunter and the other was a missionary, and they were talking together. The Hunter's study had come out to hunt for wild animals.
And he said to the missionary, have you seen any? No, he said, I, I haven't seen any since I came here.
Well, he said, that's strange. Well, the missionary turned to the Christian, to the hunter, and he said, well, have you met any Christians yet? Now he said, I, I haven't, I didn't know there were, I thought there were heathen out here. Well, he said, I guess we get, we get what we're looking for. You were looking for wild animals and you found them. And he said we were looking for souls for Christ and we found them. And so it is, dear young people, if you come here to get a blessing, you're going to get a blessing.
00:35:00
There's mail, there's food for your soul. And the circumstances don't all have to change. Everything doesn't have to get straightened around before you can get any food. There was food here even though the wild gourds had been put into the pot. And so they ate and they got a blessing. And I trust that you're going to get a blessing from these meetings. One thing I'm absolutely sure of, and that is if.
Your return from others to Christ.
If your eyes are fastened upon Him, no matter who you may see or meet that stumbles you or says or does something unkind or hurtful, you'll find if you turn to the Lord, he's the same and He is able to give you a blessing from being here. He wants to bless you. He wants you to go home with food in your soul and strength for the Christian journey. Now we find again at the end of this chapter.
And there came a man from bail, Shalisha, and brought the man of God.
Bread of the first fruits, 20 laws of barley, and full years of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people that they may eat. Isn't this lovely? After this disturbing situation that took place in the beginning where these wild gourds had been put into the pot, now we find this man of God comes with food. And so there is progress and there is growth.
And we're told who this man God was. The Spirit of God hasn't seen fit to record his name because in reality, it doesn't matter who the person is, whom God uses. The important thing is that we got the blessing. You know, we're too much occupied with man.
So see she from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for we're in his heat of the accounted up. Sometimes you want to know who did this or who helped you? Well, it doesn't matter. The main thing is you got helped. And so God didn't tell us here who the person was, but He brought a good generous supply. Then I say it was very generous because it was a time of famine. And for this man to bring 20 laws of barley.
And full ears of corn in the husk around it shows that here was a man who valued that which God did give to his people even in times of famine. And more than this, he was willing to share it. He was willing to share it. And he brought this down for the people to eat and so on. The servitors thought, he said, what should I set this before 100 men? He couldn't see that this amount was sufficient for 100 men.
He couldn't see how there would be food that would satisfy them, but Elisha said, He said, Give unto the people that they may eat, and thus, saith the Lord, they shall eat, and shall leave thereof.
So we see that even although there was a shortage of food and that still.
The Lord said give to the people, and perhaps I could speak a little word of encouragement in this.
Perhaps when you go to the little assembly where you are back at home, you feel that there isn't much food and perhaps someone says, what should I set this before the people? Or there's not, There's nothing here really to feed us. It's not worth making the effort to go to the meeting for the little bit that you get.
Well tells us here that they received enough and something was over. And so it is, you know, if we go with the Lord before us, He's able to bless us. He's able to satisfy the longing souls. He's able to fill the hungry soul with goodness.
This man too, came from Bail Shalisha. Now this shows us that it was a place that was associated with heathendom because Baal was a heathen God. But it doesn't matter where you live outwardly, it's where your soul is. It's where your soul is. Maybe you'll live in some place where there's a lot of bad influence. Maybe you work in some place where there's a lot of bad influence, but you can still be gathering food for your soul.
Our dear old brother Dunlop was with the Lord many years. He said that when he was a young man he had to learn. He was, he was saved when he was in the army. And he said when he was saved he had to learn to be able to be in the in the barracks with all those ungodly men. And he said I could be like a covered vessel. He said I could get off in some corner.
00:40:14
Even a lie within such an ungodly place and I could get a blessing for my soul. And so it is, dear young people, you may have to work in an ungodly place. Perhaps some of you, dear young people, come from home where there isn't even Christian influence. But still, even if you dwell in bail Shalisha, even if you dwell on the place where everything seems to be contrary, there's still food for your soul. May the Lord grant that you will know.
It is to use the good food that God gives. And I tell you, if you feed upon it, there'll be something over. There will be something to give. You will have something to pass on to others. Because God never makes us selfish when he feeds our souls. It's always this way. There's more, there's something to share. And so it was that after they had all eaten, there was still something to share with others.
Now let us turn to this portion in Matthew 14.
And the 15th verse.
And when it was evening, his disciples came to him saying, This is a desert place, and the time has now passed. Send the multitude away that they may go into the villages and by themselves. Vittle Well, it was evening. They had had a busy and hard day, and now we're a great multitude of people there. And they didn't see how they could feed these people. They said they'll have to go and hunt for themselves.
They'll have to go into the villages roundabout and buy riddles for themselves.
And so it might be with us too, but because of the weakness of things, because we feel that we're kept so busy in everyday life, today we come home from work so tired, we have to press through the traffic. And by the time we get home, I think we are very likely to take the same attitude that these disciples took. They said it's evening, the day is gone.
What can I do now? I just got to take it easy for myself. And so this was the feeling. They said let other people hunt for themselves. Did you ever feel that way? But you know, it's often said that the Lord calls busy people. The Lord calls busy people. Yes, He called Moses when he was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law. He called Elisha when Elisha was plowing in the field.
12 yoke of oxen, seemingly to suggest that he was no small farmer. He was a person that was doing things in a big way. Levi was sitting at the receipt of custom. Peter was fishing. No, God calls busy people. And dear young people, just because you're busy shouldn't be a reason for you to feel that you can't do something when you're busy. The Lord calls you because he can give you strength.
To do just that little extra at all. What a blessing it is to do just that little extra. I'm sure some of you have tried it. And when you were just tired out and when you just felt it was absolutely useless and unappreciated, you did that little extra. And now you're thanking God you did it. The Lord blessed it. The Lord was pleased to use your efforts when you didn't feel like doing it at all.
But what about the heart of the Lord? The disciples were discouraged, they were tired out. Isn't this lovely? But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart again. I say what I have mentioned before, the Lords heart was unchanged. There is no circumstance that ever changes his heart. That doesn't matter what it is, Death might come in, there might be, there might be poison in the pot, there might be insufficient food, there might be tired disciples, whatever the situation.
The Lord's always the same. All dear young people, service, encourage your heart.
Because if you're saved, you're a savior is my savior and my savior is yours and he's always the same. He's sufficient for every situation that can come in your life or mine. They need not depart, give ye them to eat. The Lord could have said they need not be part. I'll give them to eat. Why does he add this little expression? Give ye them to eat. Well, he wanted to test them.
00:45:22
He wanted to test them as to their willingness, he wanted them to prove his all sufficiency. And so when he said give ye them to eat, as they looked over their resources, they looked down and it wasn't 20 laws.
And handfuls of.
Firstfruits of corn.
Like we have in kings and perhaps 100 men, but here were about 5000 men beside women and children, and they look at their resources, 5 barley loaves and two small fishes. And we're told in in John's gospel that it was a boy, a little lad who had come there with that small lunch. He had come to follow the Lord Jesus that day.
And perhaps his mother said, well, you're going to be away for the day following the Lord Jesus, here's the lunch for you. And now he had this lunch, perhaps figuring that when he was tired out and the day was done, he'd sit down and eat the lunch. But isn't this lovely?
He was apparently, according to what we read in John, willing to turn over this little lunch to the disciples so that they might use it for the Lord. You have some little thing that you hold very dear, some little thing you say. I just couldn't part with that. That's everything to me. Are you willing to put that in the hands of the Lord? Are you willing to take that little thing that you think is nothing? A Lord may seem important to you and put it into the hands of the Lord.
Or do you throw up your hands and say I'm no use, What could I do? Perhaps you've said that. What can I do? I'm just one person.
One person.
And 5000 men beside women and children presumably, perhaps 10,000 people and one person. What good was he? Well, it wasn't a question of what good he was, but what could the Savior do with what he had? What could the Lord Jesus do with what one boy had? Is there a lad here that has five barley loaves and two small fishes? Is there a boy here? And you know the Lord is your Savior.
You have him for your own heart, you have sufficient for yourself, but are you desirous to be some use for the Lord? Is there a young person here who says, well, I'd like my life to be useful for the Lord? What did the Lord Jesus say? Bring them, hit her to me. Bring them, hit her to me. When you take what you have and put it in the hands of the Lord when you take whatever it may be.
Perhaps it's a little bit of ability, perhaps it's a little bit of money, perhaps it's a little bit of time.
I don't know what it may be, but I ask you, are you willing to take it and put it into the hands of the Lord and without any thought of being recognized? Because again, I say, as I mentioned before, the Spirit of God doesn't mention the name of this lad. I believe it's on the record in heaven, but it doesn't mention his name. And you say, oh, I can, I can come to be something in this world, but I'm just unnoticed. Nobody realizes.
That I want to do anything and if I did I don't think I'd get any. Thanks for it. God always has the record strength. God hasn't written down properly up in heaven and you'll never do anything for the Lord Jesus. That he won't write your name in his book of remembrance. Even a thought upon his name will be written there. Oh dear young person, will you take your 5 barley loaves? 5 in scripture figures weakness.
And these two small fishes, and will you just give them to the Lord? He said, bring them to me. He didn't say what he was going to do with them. He just said bring them to me. And they brought them to the Lord. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass. I've always enjoyed this little expression. He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass. You know, it's lovely to see this. The Lord made the people comfortable.
The Lord made the people comfortable. You know, I think that sometimes we forget this. We don't set people at ease. We don't set people at ease. And we need to know how, with the wisdom that comes from above, to send people at ease. Because when they're at ease, then they can receive what the Lord has for them.
00:50:20
But if we're not careful in our approach, we get them on edge right away. And the scripture says he that winneth soul is wise. And I think this is so lovely about the Lord giving the people to sit down. And then it tells us in another place they sat down in ranks, so everything was done in an orderly way. And then it tells us that He took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and break, and gave the laws to his disciples.
And the disciples to the multitude, oh, I think this is so beautiful because the Lord could have fed these people without using the disciples at all, because the disciples had so little faith. And they said, what are they among so many? What can we do? And when we think that we can't do anything, why we might think, well, the Lord just says that person's no use.
But I think this is so touching, it speaks to my own heart. After they had displayed this lack of faith, the Lord turned around and puts the loaves and fishes into their hands and said, Now you feed them and perhaps you say, Oh, I have no use.
And my faith is so small, but not only does the Lord take the five loaves and two fishes that they had, but he used the disciples to carry out his purpose. And here, young person, you're useful to the Lord. You're useful. Don't say to yourself, I'm no use. You are useful to Him. And if you're just willing, how the Lord can use you. And sometimes we think we have to have a big show and do a great deal to be useful.
I was speaking at the funeral of a young man and a Keith Turner in Scranton, 19 years of age, and was called suddenly with a heart attack and just buried about a week ago. And his parents couldn't understand why a useful young man, a bright testimony for the Lord has called away suddenly like that. Well, dear young people, we don't always understand God's ways. But I'll tell you what I did say to the parents.
I said, I suppose that if we had been living in the days of John the Baptist, we would have said what a tragedy, a young man, one whom God said was the greatest among those born of women. And he was suddenly put to death at just over 30 years of age. And the extent of his service, as far as we know from Scripture, was just a little over six months, a little over six months.
At 30 years of age, he began to announce.
The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel. And at about 30 1/2 years he was cut off in death. A short term of service wasn't it? But his work was done. His work was done. He had been sent to fulfill a certain purpose. And dear young person, it's not how much you do. He that doeth the will of God abideth forever. To do what the Lord wants you to do is the important thing.
That's what really counts. That's what is going to be valued in eternity. Not how much we did, but that it was according to His will. And so the disciples passed them out and it says they did all eat and were filled, and there were baskets that remained.
Business grand plenty. The Lord was sufficient for the lack of faith of the disciples. The Lord was sufficient for tired out disciples. He was sufficient for this situation. Now there comes one other and the end of this chapter. And here we find when this was all over, then the Lord sent them away to go on to the other side and the ship, while He sent the multitude away and went into the mountain to pray.
And now?
Strange as it might seem, when they got out in the ship there was a big storm.
Didn't the Lord know they were tired out? And then after being tired out, he'd given them the job of feeding 10,000 people or thereabouts. And then after all this, didn't He know how tired they were and He allowed a great big storm to come up on the sea when they were going over to the other side? Yes, the Lord loves some things that we don't understand. Have you ever felt like that? You said I was tired out, but I stopped to do something for the Lord and then everything went wrong after that. I can't understand this.
00:55:30
Well, there's lots of lessons for us to learn, but if we learn this one lesson that the Lord is sufficient for every situation, we've learned a wonderful lesson. We've learned a wonderful lesson. And Peter had to learn this. They had to learn this. And when they saw the Lord walking on the water, and when you see that the Lord has his hand in your trouble, maybe you're afraid too. Maybe you're afraid.
And they cry out for fear and wanted the Lord say it is, I be not afraid. Yes, His hand was in the trouble. His hand was invading the multitude. His hand was in raising the dead. But his hand is in your troubles too. His hand is in the situations that you just can't understand.
And so we find that his hand was in this. And so he said, it is I be of good cheer. It is I be not afraid. Well, it's cheered the heart of Peter. And Peter thought, and now I've learned.
Now I can do anything. Isn't that like ourselves? Every time we think we've learned the lesson?
We find out we haven't. We find out we haven't. We can never say, as we're remarked this morning, that we've graduated from God's school. We just never do. We're learning, but we God doesn't give any diplomas because we never come to the time when we win diplomas. No, we just keep learning because we have so much of stuff that we just seem we can never come to the end of it. And so Peter thought, if it's the Lord, then I can meet any situation. I can walk on the water waves or anything.
And so how it is often we rely on some experience and we think, well I can meet the difficulties now. No, we can't with our eye off the Lord. As dear Mr. Darby said, sometimes when we get in difficulty we rely on experience. But he said it's not experience we needed the Lord we need, it's the Lord we need. Peter had many of experiences, but what he needed here was the Lord.
And that's what we need. We need him at all times. And so Peter got out in this joyful confidence and I believe in real affection for the Lord Jesus. And he started to walk on the water, but then it was so boisterous and the winds were howling and the waves were high, and he got his eye off the Lord and he began to sink.
That is now just like us, we begin to sink. It just seems that when.
We tried and we really sought to give the Lord his place. And then when things go wrong, it's the hardest of all. It's the hardest of all. And that's when we're liable to begin to sink. And he had to cry out, Lord save me, Lord save me. So he found that he needed the Lord at this time. And there isn't any time in your life.
Or mine, when we don't need him. Because, as another has remarked, we can't walk on smooth water any more than rough water without the Lord. Could you walk on smooth water? Well, I'm sure you couldn't. You can't walk on smooth water or rough water without the Lord. And we just can't go through the problems and difficulties and situations of life, dear young people, in our own strength. We just can. But even at this point.
This point of failure in the Lord, in Peter's life, the Lord was sufficient for this.
And he reached out his hand, and he lifted up Peter. And so in the end of the story, we see the wind ceased and the people in the ship are at the feet of Jesus as a worshipper. And dear young people, I hope this will be the result of this little meeting this afternoon, that you'll find that the Lord is sufficient, no matter what it may be in your life. Perhaps these varied sets of circumstances that we have considered today.
In which we have seen the Lord able to meet these situations. Perhaps this has touched your heart. Perhaps you're in one of them. Perhaps you're in more of them, or perhaps you're beginning to sink. And I beseech you just to cry out to the Lord. He'll save you and He'll show you that He hasn't changed your failure, hasn't changed his heart. Circumstances haven't changed his power. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday.
01:00:27
And today and forever will you take your place at His feet as a worshiper.
Will you realize that he's just what you need and what you always need? Well, He wants to be everything to you. He's he's everything to his Father's heart, and he wants to be everything to you, dear young person. And may the Lord grant that in your youth you'll find some of these blessed things. And in that way you can live a useful life. You can present what you have to the Lord and be useful to him. Because as I look into your young faces.
I know if the Lord leaves us here, we older ones may pass on responsibilities. We fall upon you and I'm sure that if Christ is filling your heart, you'll be a blessing to the Church of God. May God grant that you'll prove the all sufficiency of this wonderful Savior who is fulfilled heaven and the heaven of heavens and can fill our little hearts overflowing.
Shall we sing 174.
All patient, spotless one our hearts and meekness train to bear thy yoke and learn of thee, that we may rest. Obtain 174.