I think there's probably a lot of truth in that song. I don't think it'll be very long till Jesus shall appear. It looks like things are moving on at an alarming rate. You know, things could happen. We're in such a situation now, things could just change drastically in just a few hours. Thank you for the opportunity to speak from the Word of God. It's always a blessing to share what God has to say to us in the Bible. I believe preachers ought to be Bible preachers. I've seen preachers spend a lot of time saying a lot of things that had nothing to do with the Bible. But I like to use the word. John chapter 6. The Gospel of John, Chapter 6. This is a great chapter. It's a long chapter. I don't know how many messages a pastor could put together from this chapter in the Bible. A lot of them. I want to speak to you for a little while tonight, and I have a reason for doing this. But I want to speak to you for a little while tonight on the subject, there is a lad here. There is a lad here. Now, one reason I want to do this is because This church is mostly lads and maids. In other words, it's mostly young people. Now there's something in the word for all of us, and I understand that. But by the Lord's help, I'd like to encourage young folks to hang in there and not just hang in there, move forward. You know, there is no stopping place. If we decide we have arrived and stopped, we're not going to stay there. We're going to go back. And so the way to prevent that is just keep going forward. Remember Paul said, I press toward the bar. That's what we need to be doing. I'm going to start reading at verse 1 and read down through verse maybe 14. Verse 9 is my text. After these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed Him, because they saw the miracles which He did on them that were diseased. You know why that multitude followed Jesus? They did it for And you know that's a lot of what's called Christianity today is doing. They're looking for something to satisfy the flesh. The carnal man. We need more than that, folks. We need something to help the spiritual man. This old carnal man is not going to last. Jesus went up into the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. What happened at the Passover? The Lord says, When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. You know, one day, Jesus saw the blood, and He passed over me. Saved my soul. Isn't that a blessing? When Jesus then lifted up His eyes, He saw a great company coming to Him, and He saith unto Philip, When shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this is said to prove Him. You know, we have to go through some tests along the way. If we didn't go through some tests, we never would amount to anything, spiritually speaking. We have to be tried. We have to be tested. This he said to prove him, for he himself KNEW what he would do. He ALWAYS knows what he s going to do. He s never one time been caught by surprise. Not one time. He knows it all from the beginning to end. Philip answered him, Two hundred penny worth bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may take a little. That 200 penny worth, I got my wife to look it up in her Bible. Her Bible gives some figures on some of these things. It's not clear to us. Her Bible says it's 200 penny worth. If I remember right, it's about $36 in our way of figuring. So you got 5,000 men, you can't hardly feed them with, even in those days, I guess, with that little bit of money. I thought that was interesting. 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? Jesus said, Make the men sit down, And there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down and numbered about 5,000. That's a pretty good crowd, folks, 5,000. That's not counting the women and the children. So there's a pretty good crowd. And Jesus took the loaves, and he had given thanks. He looked up to heaven and thanked His heavenly Father. Now remember, Jesus was walking on this earth as a man. He lived on this earth in human flesh as a man. Now He was God also. But He had a Father in Heaven He prayed to while He was on this earth. He prayed as a man to get what He needed from His Heavenly Father to live that perfect life that He lived while He was on earth, folks. You suppose He done that so He could be an example for us? I think He probably did. Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to his disciples, and the disciples to them that were sent down, and likewise of the fishers as much as they would. And when they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing should be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets, of the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above unto them that had eaten." That's plenty of reading right there. But again, there is a lad here. Now this lad to me is a very interesting figure in this miracle that Jesus performed. He was the only one that had the means available to satisfy the need of the multitude. And really he didn't have it. But he was acquainted with the one that could take it and use it. And so we see this lad evidently had enough food for I guess one meal. That's all he had. And he was willing to give his last meal to Christ that Christ may take it and use it to feed the multitude. What a blessing that young man was that day. Young folks, there's a lad here. Are you following me? Do you understand that he could be an example of what Jesus would want the young people to be today. It remains to be seen what can be done by this church through the ministry Think about it. You know God could just lift you up, and He could make you do some great things for this church, for this community, for Louisiana, reaching out, regions beyond. Oh, let's not think little folks. Let's think big, because we serve a big God. And that big God is able to reach down where we are and do big things with us. There's a lad here. Would you like to be that lad? Would you like to be in on the blessing? The Lord and I just want you to be that lad for this day. I'm not talking about you being in the same situation he was in. We can't be in his situation. That was a one-time situation. But folks, there are situations today where the young lads... In fact, there are some places the young people could get in that us old people cannot even get in. You know that? There's a lad here. He has five barley loaves, two small fishes. He handed over to Christ. He had a lot of confidence in the Lord, folks. Now, the Bible doesn't say much about him. I don't guess it says anything about him anywhere else. so far as I know. But evidently he had a lot of confidence in what Jesus could do with that little bit of bread and those two fishes. And so he surrendered it over to Christ. Christ took it. He blessed it. Thanked God for it. And it started breaking. It started breaking. And he kept breaking until there was more than enough to feed that great big crowd of people. And when they got done, when they ate everything they wanted to eat, I could imagine, folks, that they were so full they were absolutely miserable. And they ate till they could not eat anymore. and they could not eat all of it. Twelve baskets left over. And so I would assume, they didn t tell us what they did with those twelve baskets, but I would assume that it was His if He wanted it. And so because He surrendered His bread and His fishes to the Lord, the Lord gave Him back more than he had given to the Lord. You can't out give the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't give him as much as he can give you. Oh, isn't that a blessing folks? What a blessing. Twelve baskets full. Here he gave Jesus a handful and he gets back twelve baskets full. You think about that. We have a giving God. I could speak for hours on the way that the Lord has taken care of me and my wife through the years. I could speak hours about it and probably not get done. I'm not going to do it because I don't think I should. But it's amazing. It's amazing to see how the Lord can take care of His people. Just let me give you one experience, and I'm not going to talk about me tonight. But when we came to Louisiana, we came to Pioneer up in the West Carroll Parish to pastor a little country church, Clear Lake, small country church. Well, we had a pretty good crowd when we got there. Nearly a house full, but a small building. All farmers. I had one contractor, but most of them were farmers, country people, didn't have a whole lot of these material goods. And I wanted to be a full-time pastor farmer. I wanted to spend my time taking care of the church. I don't remember now exactly how they went about giving their offerings. But anyway, when I got there and we got moved, to start with I was getting – now this was in 1973. I was getting – they were giving me from $60, $50, $60, $70 a week. I've got a wife and four kids. That's not much money, not for 1973. But I decided as long as I can, I'm going to pastor. And they saw pretty soon that I was for real. And they started increasing, increasing, increasing. Now, they never did give me a big offering, but they gave me enough to live on. And finally, the inflation got so high that I went to work part-time. But you can't out-give God. And He can do it through His people. In fact, most of the time, He chooses to do it through His people. And so there is a lad here. Now we want to go back to the Old Testament and find another lad. Genesis chapter 37. Genesis chapter 37. We're going to find another lad. Verses 1-3 Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. There is a lad here, Joseph, being 17 years old. That s not very old, is it? Was feeding the flock with his brethren. And the lad was with the sons of Billah and with the sons of Silpah. His father's wives and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. That's enough. There is a lad here. And this lad, Joseph, reported to his father what those evil brothers of his were doing. Now he didn't do that to be a tattletale, folks. He did it because he had some spiritual convictions that he felt his daddy needed to know about concerning those other boys. And so he went and told his daddy. There is a lead here with some convictions that were real. Young people, you need to have some convictions. You need to have some convictions that are real. You need to have some convictions that harmonizes with a Bible. Am I loud enough for everybody to hear me? Okay. I'm getting old and tired. I can't get it out there like I used to. But convictions, I like to see. I can't tell you how much you young people mean to me as another church member. What a blessing you are to me. It's a thrill to me and my wife just to come in and sit down and see these young people and these children coming in. What a blessing it is, folks. And I want you all to know we love you very much. But we want you to have some convictions that are genuine. Because we're fixing to face some things like we've never faced before. And you need to determine right now, I'm going to serve God come what may. You don't wait until it's on you. You wait until it's on you, you most likely won't make it. You need to have your mind made up. You need to have the conviction beforehand, I'm going to serve God. Well, Joseph. Joseph's brethren were very jealous of him, and they wanted to get even with him. And so they found an empty pit and put him in that pit. Some of them wanted to leave him there and let him die or kill him, but they spared his life. And many a knight came along going down into Egypt with their wares to sell, and they sold Joseph, evidently 17 years old, sold him to those folks. And they took him down to Egypt and sold him for a slave to a man by the name of Potiphar. And when Potiphar saw that he was real, He put him over his house, and he was faithful. Potter's wife tried to seduce him, and he stood the test, folks. He stood the test. Oh, how many people are failing today? But he stood the test. And she accused him of doing wrong. And so Potiphar put him in jail. Well, he behaved himself in jail. Have you ever noticed in reading these articles how it says, but God was with him? But God was with him over and over. God was with him. And so everything went well for him in jail. He got a special position in taking care of things in jail. The king, Pharaoh, had a chief butler and a chief baker. And for some reason, they got under Pharaoh's skin. I don't know what they did, but he got angry, and he put them in jail. Put them in jail with Joseph. Oh, I'll tell you what, if you'd have been jailed, it'd be good to be with a man like that, wouldn't it? Anyway, he put him in jail with Joseph. And they dreamed dreams. And Joseph was able to interpret those dreams for them. Chief Butler was going to be restored in three days. The banker was going to be put to death. And it happened that way. Joseph told that Butler, he said, when you get back to Pharaoh, tell him about me. In other words, he wanted to get out of jail, too. Tell him about me. That butler forgot him for two years. Pharaoh dreamed a dream. His wise men couldn't interpret the dream for him. It came to the butler's mind, there's a man in jail that interpreted our dreams for us. They brought him out of jail. He had interpreted Pharaoh's dream for him at 30 years of age because of him being able, because of him, through God, being able to interpret that dream at 30 years of age. Pharaoh put him in second command. He would be like our Vice President would be today. Put him in second command in the land of Egypt. There's a lad here. There's a lad here. A lad that was willing to be used for the glory of God. God used. God used him, folks. Let me say to you, you don't have to be old and worn out before you start serving Jesus. In fact, you don't need to wait until you're old and worn out to serve Jesus. It pays to serve Jesus. It pays every day. It pays every step of the way. There's a lad here. Wouldn't you like to be that lad? Why not let God use you as that lad for today? There's another lad in the book of 1 Samuel. Book of 1 Samuel. I don't know what I'm going to do with this. I don't want to read all this. This is a long passage. 1 Samuel chapter 17, having to do with David. Just let me give you some of it. Saul was king of Israel at this time. And the Philistines were coming to war against the Israelites. And there was a Philistine giant by the name of Goliath. And he was challenging all of the soldiers of Israel to come and fight with him. And David came on the scene to check on his brothers, and he heard Goliath challenging the Israelites to battle. And he went and told Saul. He said, I'll go. I'll take care of this fellow. I'll fight him. Saul said, in effect, he's a great big man, and you are a youth. There's a youth here! There's a young lad here! You're just a youth. He said, I was out taking care of my father's flock, and there came a lion, there came a bear, And he said, they got the sheep, and I got them. That's pretty well what he said. And he evidently killed that lion and that bear with his bare hands. There's a lad here, a lad that's willing to be used by God, and God took him and used him for his honor and glory. Goliath challenged him, and he said to him, in effect, You re challenging the armies of the living God. So sad to me. The sad thing about this is that army of the living God was afraid of that man. The army that had the promise of God, if you go forward, I ll go before you and fight your battle for you. And he would have done it. But they didn t trust him to do it. David said, in effect, You re dealing with the armies of the living God. I take that personally. Saul armed him with his armor. He put it off. He said, I've not tested this. Took it off. Found him five smooth stones. Could you imagine a young lad taking five smooth stones and a slingshot to go against a giant? That's what he did. And folks, when he turned that, I don't know exactly what a slingshot in those days looked like. They didn't look like the kind of slingshot I had when I was a boy. But when he turned that stone loose, it hit the mark. Hit it right up here and sank in. You suppose he was that good a shot? You suppose he had that good a aim? Folks, don't underestimate what God can do with his people. And so, hit the mark. There's no doubt in my mind, God took that stone and put it exactly where he wanted it to be. And so David won the battle. And he was well known after that. But the thing is, there is a lad here. A lad that's willing to be used of the Lord. Okay, going a little further in the Old Testament, there is a young maid here. Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. He was a great man, but he had a problem. And the Syrians had gone out by companies and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid. There is a young maid here. Ladies, how do you like that? Young ladies, how do you like that? There is a young lady here. There's a young maid here. It says little here, but maid here means a young person. And she waited on Naaman's wife, and she said unto her mistress, Would God, my Lord, now she s talking about a nailman here. Would God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria, he s referring to Elisha here, the prophet Elisha, for he would recover him of his leprosy. Okay, now I'm not going to read the rest of this because it's a lot of reading, folks. But what happened as a result of this? Now there's a little maid here. This little maid made it known to her mistress that there was a prophet in Israel that could do some things. And this was made known to Naaman. And Naaman went to Israel. And the prophet Elisha did not even go out and talk to him. He sent a message by somebody else. You remember what that message was? He said, you go wash seven times in the River Jordan, and you'll come out clean. Oh, he got mad. Naaman got mad. He said, Are not the rivers in Syria better than that old muddy Jordan down here? And he walked away mad. One of his men went to him. He said, If that prophet had told you to do some great thing, you would have done it. In effect, he said, Why not give it a try? He went and dipped seven times in the River Jordan and came out clean. There's a young maid here. You see what that young maid did? She was responsible in a sense for the healing of this man's leprosy. How do you like that lady? Don't ever get the opinion that you cannot be of use of the Lord. Don't ever have that attitude. You can do great things for the Lord if He chooses to use you greatly. One more. One more young lad. In the book of II Chronicles chapter 34, 2 Chronicles chapter 34, starting at verse 1. Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign. There's a lad here, eight years old when he began to reign. And he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left. Now notice these next two verses. Verse 3 for in the eighth year of his reign, sixteen years old, there s a lad here, sixteen years old, in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after God After the God of David, his father. Folks, you don't have to wait until you get old and wore out to start seeking after God. God can speak to you while you've still got some life left in you. Sixteen years old, there's a lad Then it says, In the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the groves, and carved images and molten images. When he was twenty years old, he cleansed the land of idolatry. 20 years old, there's a lad here, a lad that was willing to be used of God, a lad that loved the Lord enough to hate idolatry and to do something about it. Now I'm not going to read all of it, but this man had so much conviction about cleansing the land. Now he was king of the southern kingdom of Judah, but he even went into the north Israel, the northern kingdom, and cleansed some of its idolatry before it was over with. Twenty years old. That's not all. Verse 8. Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, twenty-six years old. There's a lad here. Twenty-six. Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house Let me start over on that. Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Maasai, the governor of the city, and Joah, the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. So when he was twenty-six years old, He sent a command out to restore the temple back to where it should be. So sad that that temple had been neglected. So he restored it back to what it was supposed to be. Now what do we see in these five, well, four young lads and one young maid? What do we see? Number one, the lad in the Gospel of John, we see an example of giving. Number two, in Joseph, we see an example of godliness. Number three, in David, we see an example of faith. Number four, we see in the young maid an example of service. Number five, in Josiah, we see an example of spiritual growth. That's a pretty good pile, isn't it? I've given you this to be an encouragement to you to just hang in there and go forward. Hang in there and go forward. Now, I don't know what the situation is with everybody, but if there's somebody here that's meeting the Lord as his Savior, it'd be a good time to get that taken care of, folks. And if you get it taken care of, you could get in on this blessing with these young folks. You could get in on the blessing. I think God's got something in store for this young church made up with all these young folks. Believe He's got something in store for us. Get in on the bliss. May God bless you. Brother Jamie.