Well, good morning. I'd like you to go to Matthew chapter 14, if we might. Matthew chapter 14. And verses 13 through 21, you know the passage of scripture, you know the account. But my fear is many times we become so familiar with the word of God that we have a tendency to read over it and then just go on our way. And I think it's the same way with songs. I think we need to stop and understand the background of the songwriters and what they were writing and what they were experiencing when they wrote those songs. Because God has used great hymns of the faith to draw people into himself. Here in Matthew chapter 14, look with me if you would at verse 13. I wanna just ask a question this morning as we're thinking about reaching the lost around us or among us. And here's the simple question, do we see as God sees? Do we see as God, not as God, us being a God, but do we see the lost as God sees the lost? Matthew 14, when Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart. And when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, the time is now past. Send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves vituals. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart, give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither 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 loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat and were filled, and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about 5,000 men, 5,000 men beside women and children. Father, bless our time together this morning in your word. I pray that you may speak to our hearts. I pray that we may see Jesus today. High and lifted up. Father, I pray that you might just focus us today on that which you would have us hear and see and learn. Help us not to leave it in church when we get up and leave. But Father, help us to take what we see, take what we learn, and to assimilate it into our lives. Open our eyes, Lord, that we may see. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Our eyes are very important to us, aren't they? I'm sure that everybody here, when you got in your car, you started it up, put it in drive this morning, and as you put it in drive and took your foot off the brake, you closed your eyes and pushed the gas pedal. Right? Now, everybody else does that, right? We don't do that. But no, of course not. But I think it's important that we know where we are, seeing where we are. You've heard this saying, and I believe it's true, that sometimes we cannot see the trees for the forest. You ever heard that? I believe it's true. Forests are large. They're huge. But they're made up of a lot of different kinds of trees, aren't they? I think of a baseball stadium that's full to capacity, 35,000 people or more. And you don't have to look very far before they start blurring out into just a group or a blob of people, a mass of people. A stadium is full of people, but every person in that stadium is an individual. I think of Matthew 14 here. Here's the Lord was getting ready to feed and he's teaching the disciples lessons as he's doing this, but he's getting ready to feed 5,000 men plus women and children. So a stadium full of people, if you will. What did the disciples see? I don't think at first the disciples saw the people. I think at first the disciples saw the multitude. Because he says, Lord, send them away. Let them go. It's dinner. It's getting late. Give them time to get to town, to get dinner so they can take care of themselves. And they were looking at the crowd, I believe, of the people. But we have to understand that crowd is made up of different kinds of people. You have religious, you have non-religious, you have strong, you have weak, you have educated, you have uneducated, and on and on we could go, right? All kinds of people there. And I think about that and I think, you know, I am so thankful that Christ looks down from heaven today, just as he sat in front of the multitude, and can look past the forest and see me, a tree, or look past the multitude and see me, an individual person. He knows me. He knows me by name. He knows where I am. He knows my faults. He knows my abilities. He knows all about me. He knows the hairs upon our head or the lack thereof. But he knows us, doesn't he? And he looks past that crowd and he sees me. And you know, I think about when I think about the multitude here, I think of our Lord seeing beyond the multitude and each of the people. I mean, listen, folks, that's why he came. He came for us. Now, here's the thing that I want us to look at this morning, if we might. He came to see the need. In Matthew 9 and other places in Scripture, we find the Lord was very active. He wasn't passive in His ministry. He was always on the go. He healed a palsied man in Matthew 9. Here's a guy that was not able to walk or maybe even handle things. And so his four friends get him and they say, listen, we're going to get you to Jesus. There was a crowd at the house and they wanted to get him to Jesus because they knew if they could get him to Jesus, the Lord could take care of him. And you know, what did that take? It took faith. It took faith on the part of the four guys to get him to Jesus, but it also took faith on the part of the posse man to allow his friends to get him to Jesus. For that posse man to believe that, yeah, if they can get me to Jesus, Jesus can help me. Well, they couldn't get him to them just on foot, so they go up to the housetop of where the Lord was, tear up the tiles, start to let him down through, right? I mean, the place was packed, standing room only on the outside. I don't know about you, but if I saw a cot with about 120-pound man, if that much, coming down in front of me, I think I'd make room. And they did. We know the rest of the story, don't we? And the Lord heals this man. But he looks at the religious crowd here, and he says, so that you may know that I am the Son of God. He looks at this palsied man, and he says, take up thy bed and walk, didn't he? I'm healing you. They brought him to Christ. But I want you to notice what the Lord said in verse two of chapter nine. The Bible says, and Jesus seeing their faith, said to the palsy. Whose faith? The faith of the four? I believe it was the faith of the five. Four guys carrying the cot and the palsied man. He heals him. Does the same thing to two blind men that come and cry after him and follow him. Don't want to let Jesus get out of earshot from them. I mean, they follow the Lord right into the house where he's at. And the Lord tells these guys, you really believe that I can do this? And they said, yes, Lord, we believe that you can do this. Then the Lord looks at these men and he says to them, according to your faith, be it unto you. What was the end result? They were healed. According to our faith, be it unto us. Do we even have the faith to talk to somebody about Christ? Knowing that the responsibility for salvation is not mine, it's God's who gives the increase. We water, we cultivate, we plant. God gives the increase. They are all around us. And we don't have to go very far to see the need of the people. And they need Christ. What about us? What about that person that led us to the Lord? If we had not, if they had not come to us, where would you be today? I don't know where I'd be, but I probably would not be here. But thank God that they did, that they saw the need to be rescued. The Lord saw the need of a man in chapter 9 of Matthew, in verse 9, by the name of Matthew, who was a tax collector, one of our favorite people, one of our best friends. Right? We all like the tax collector. The disciples didn't like the tax collector. Yet Matthew was on the job, the Bible says, knew of Christ, knew of what he had been doing, and the time came that as the Lord walked by him, he simply looked at Matthew, the time was ripe, and he said, follow me. And that was all that it took at that point, just to nudge Matthew over the edge to follow Christ. Wow. Why? Because the Lord saw the need. He disciples each of those men that he calls. He teaches them about faith. And then he says, I want you to go and do like I did. Let this mind, Philippians tells us, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. In other words, let us be thinking the same things that Christ is thinking. And so the Lord not only saw in that respect, but we see that the Lord He talks about seeing those in Matthew chapter 14, if you go back there, he sees with compulsion. The Bible says in 14.14 that Jesus went forth, saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion. It's literally motivated to action. When was the last time that we were moved to action? Football game? Oh, you better believe it. It's on TV, and I'm gonna watch it. I'm not gonna miss it. Or we're gonna go to it, or whatever the case may be. We are motivated, I think, many times for all the wrong reasons. But when it comes to spreading the gospel of Christ, even to those who are just among us and around us, where's the motivation? Can we guarantee that somebody's going to lead them to Christ? No. If God's called us to do it, which, by the way, He has. He has commanded us to go and do likewise. He commands us to see the needs of the people among us, to get the gospel to them. So the simple question simply, folks, is are we going to do it? And he was motivated to move. And I go back to Matthew 9 of the examples that I just gave to us this morning. And there's many more there. There was a dumb man there. There was a woman with an issue of blood there. We know the right person to get them to, don't we? We know how to get them there. But, brother Brent, I can't talk that well. Well, I can't either right now. And this is probably the 13th, 14th time I've preached like this. Hopefully it's not a permanent thing, but anyway. What are we gonna do about it? We need to see Jesus in ways that we've never seen him before. And when you go out witnessing to others and telling them about Christ, you will. You will. But you just don't understand my background. Don't need to. You just don't understand I can't talk. Yeah, I remember a guy by the name of Moses. who had that same excuse. And he said, God, I can't talk, you know. And God said, that's okay. We'll send Aaron along with you and he can be your spokesman. The only thing is, is I never see Aaron speaking to Pharaoh. It's always God's direction to Moses to go and tell Pharaoh. He was human, wasn't he? Moses, that is. He said, I can't talk. God changed him. God used him. You realize Moses was a murderer? He killed an Egyptian. Yet we see a man who wrote the first five books of the Bible, the Old Testament. But he was a guy who said, I can't do it. I come on up and I look at A man by the name of David. A man after God's own heart. After the things that David did, God still called him a man after God's own heart. And David was an adulterer. David was a murderer. But you don't under- No, I don't have to understand. I look at these examples in scripture and understand that it's God who does the calling. And David penned the most beautiful psalms and songs that we have in scripture. Well, let's move to the New Testament. There's a man by the name of Saul, right? Saul of Tarsus. He was a killer of Christians, a persecutor of Christians. Acts chapter 8 tells us that he goes and he has the authority to haul men out, to literally forcibly drag them out in fetters and chains if need be, the believers that is, which he did. And the Bible says that he was consenting unto the death of Stephen. He held Stephen's coat while the others stoned him. So he was a part of Stephen's murder. That's one that we know of. Yet here's a man who comes to Christ, and we have the Pauline epistles in the New Testament written for us. Don't tell me that God can't use you. Because God can and desires to use every single one of us in His harvest field. It's not ours. It's His harvest field. But He has chosen to use you and me. You say, but I don't have any education. I think the highest degree, other than Dr. Luke maybe, the highest degree that these guys had was their fishing license. The disciples. They didn't have a Bible degree. At the beginning, but when Christ finished with them, they did, let me tell you. But when we get with Jesus, we will as well. Listen, there is nothing hindering us right now to keep us from going and telling those that are among us. And there are a lot of them that need Christ. And Jesus, I think, sees with compulsion. Look at the text here. In verse 19, he commands the multitude to sit down on the grass. He takes the loaves and the fishes and he looks up to heaven. He blessed and break them, gave them the loaves to the disciples and the disciples to the multitude. So he gets up and he tells the disciples, have them sit down. They sat down. But here's what really is interesting to me. As we think about this feeding of the 5,000. Here you have rabbi, you have the Lord standing there, the teacher among the disciples and he's teaching them. Listen, Jesus never performed a miracle just to perform a miracle. There was always teaching that went along with the miracle when he performed one. specifically for the disciples, yea, even other believers and other disciples that were in the crowd. By the way, do you think that the 12 disciples at the feeding of the 5,000 were the only disciples there? No, no, no. I think that there were others, many others in the crowd that knew Christ. They would also have been disciples and learning of Christ. But here's what he says. First of all, In verse 16, he said, they, the disciples said, let's send them home, send them on their way. No, no. Jesus said, they need not depart. In other words, he's saying, do not send them away. How many of us are like the disciples at this point? I don't have time to speak to them about Christ. I don't have time to hand them a tract. I'll get them another time. Just send them away. Jesus said, no, don't make them depart. Look what he says to them. You give them to eat. Give ye them to eat. Don't you think that Christ knew what they had in food supplies that were there? Sure he did. And yet he looks at them and he says, I sometimes think the Lord said it with half a grin on his face. Because he knew what he was going to do. He said, I want you to give him to eat. And look what he does in verse 17. He commands him to sit down. He takes the meal, blesses it, and gives them to the disciples. But the disciples said to him in verse 17, catch this, he said, we have here but five loaves and two fishes. I'm not sure that lad was just a young lad that was there to hear Christ. I'm under the impression of what I see in scripture that he may have been one of the disciples' kids. I'm not sure. Because he says, Lord, this is what we have. We have this amount of food. By the way, that lunch that that boy had would have been too much for that boy. as meager as it was, five loaves and two fishes. Had it been for the disciples in Christ, it would have been meager, it would have been small, but it would have been a little bit for each one. But that's all we've got. That's fine. He blessed it and break it. And then he distributed, look what it says. And he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to the multitude. At the end, what happened? When I talk about the multitude, here's a picture that I get of the disciples as they're now carrying the food. And the blessing, the miracle that's transpiring here right before their eyes, as Jesus blessed the food, it began to multiply. and they're giving it to the crowd. But now, as the disciples in the beginning saw the multitude and wanted to send them home, now Jesus is requiring them to walk through that crowd and see every single individual as they do. And what they saw was a whole spectrum of different kinds of people that we talked about in the beginning. By the way, this congregation is filled with different types of people. We're a crowd this morning, we're an assembly this morning, but we're made up of unique individuals, every one of us, right? And they began, I believe, to see what Christ was talking about and able to see past the forest and see these individual people. And every single one of that 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, whatever amount it was, every one of them needed Christ. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. They were giving him bread, right? Only the bread of life was standing before them. You see, the love of Christ is what motivated him to action. And our love for Christ, folks, is what should motivate us to action. Because Jesus commands us in the end to see. Jesus commands us, I believe, to give them to eat. We have the food. We have the gospel. We just need to be motivated to action. and give them to God. See, the Lord saw the need to understand. He understood the people. He felt the needs. He loved the needy. But He commands us to go and do likewise. Pretty simple. Yeah, I think there's things there I see in many of these scriptures that are very familiar to us. Somebody once said familiarity breeds contempt, which is true. If I become too familiar with something, I'm not going to want anything to do with it, you know. But there's the question. The Lord was instructing the disciples and teaching them through this. And wanting them to see not just the people, but he wanted them to see the harvest field. People are in need of Christ. Do we have the faith to take them to Christ? Of the four that bore the paused man, plus the paused man himself, the two blind men. Let me end with this example, if I might. When we think of Peter, we think of Peter doing one of two things, denying the Lord or sinking when he was walking on the water, right? I think we're all too hard on Peter sometimes because we're just like Peter. And as I think of Peter when he was walking on the water, he's far ahead of me because number one, I wouldn't even have gotten out of the boat. I can't swim. Almost drowned when I was 10 years old, and that pretty much took all the talk. I should have learned how to swim, but I didn't. But Peter, they see the Lord coming. They're scared to death. The winds and the waves are whipping around them. All this going on in the darkness of the night, and they hear the voice of Christ, and the Lord says, peace be still, it's me. Calm down, guys, it's me. And so Peter hears all this, and he says, Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you. You know what the Lord said? I think the Lord said, Peter, come on out, the water's fine. Because you can't be anywhere with Jesus where the water's not fine. It's gonna always be fine with Christ. What does he do? He doesn't hesitate, does he? He crawls out of that boat, gets down on the water, starts walking to the Lord on the water. Okay? Watching the Lord. And then he becomes distracted, like we never do. He becomes distracted, and when he becomes distracted and starts to look to either side, then what happens? He sinks, right? He's headed to the right person for the right purpose, and he's just about there, and he sinks. Right? How many of you think that? Did he sink? No. People say to me, he did not sink. The Bible says, but when he began to sink. Where was Peter when he began to sink? He was an arm's length from Christ. And all the Lord had to do was reach out and take him by the hand and lift him up. You say, wow, that took a lot of faith. Yeah, it did. How much faith did it take? I have no idea. But I can tell you this, it was enough faith to get him to Jesus. Do we have that kind of faith to get to Jesus? To get to people to Christ? I can't save them, but I know who can. And I know what will happen when they receive Christ as their Savior. This Iranian had joy on his face when he came to Christ. And his desire is to learn more of the Bible. He's coming to church, an English church, that he can barely speak English, and sitting in the meetings, and listening to the pastor, and asking questions. Get out your translators! That's what... I thank God for the technology. Folks, we have an opportunity. And God expects us to seize the opportunity. But, Brother Brent, you don't understand. I don't need to understand. God already does. God can still use you. God desires to use us. Peter went on. Peter denied Christ three times, didn't he? But I find later on, after that denial, that Christ also recommissioned Peter. Three times he denied Christ, and Christ asks him three times, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Three times he asked him that. And here's a guy who denied the Lord, and yet we have two epistles, two letters that bear his name. Don't tell me God can't use you. He can. You say, well, he is. That's great. That's fantastic. Be an encouragement to others and get together with others where you can develop a group or whatever you're doing. Keep doing, but let's go farther because there are many more that are in the field right outside the doors of this church in East Flat Rock, Hendersonville, North Carolina, and so on, that we can be an influence for Christ. And I'm a firm believer that we are either drawing somebody to the Lord or we're pushing them away from the Lord. There is no in between. What are we doing? We're in the harvest, folks. We don't have to go out there to be in the harvest. We're in his harvest now. And we need to seek. He came to seek and save those that are lost. Here and far away. They're here. People gripe and complain about those that are here in the States coming across the border, you know, both borders, whatever borders, you know, the illegal way and so on and so forth. Yeah, and I'm totally against that. But here's my question. We can sit and we can get bitter and we can gripe about it and we can complain about it and we can harbor sin in our heart because they're coming over illegally or we can get with the program with Christ and say, wait a minute, they're here. What are we going to do about it? They need Christ. What are we going to do about it? We have the answer for those among us who need Christ. Father, bless our time this morning. Thank you so much for all that you've done. Thank you for choosing us. Thank you for ordaining us to go out and to allow us to be a part of your harvest, a part of your ministry. I pray that you would enlarge the coast of Grace Baptist Church. Thank you for their tremendous mission's vision. But Father, I pray that as your people, we may stand up, step out and stand firm for Christ. In Jesus' name.