It's the Little Things - Pastor Kipp Penrod

Thank you for listening to this message from

Lifehouse Church. Good morning, good morning.

Turn to somebody. Can you hear me now? Turn to

somebody right now. Tell them Happy New Year.

Come on, Lifehouse. It is 2007. Yes, yes, yes.

Can we give the Lord a hand? In 2007, He got

you here. You made it. Amen? Come on. It's good.

And it's amazing. I thank the Lord for every

year. I told somebody this morning, every year

that comes by, it's like a new chapter, right?

The page flips. You get a fresh start. You get

a brand new chance at a new year. And you should

look at it that way. You should jump in, just

looking to see what God's going to do in your

life and in those around you. So happy new year

to everybody. Amen? Amen. Amen. Well, I want

to, maybe because it's the new year. Maybe it's

because I'm starting out in this new chapter,

but I began, I do a couple of things when we

hit the new year. I'm always looking forward,

but I also kind of look back sometimes. I kind

of look back at the beginning and some of those

benchmarks in life and, you know, where God's,

somehow God's got you to where you are currently

and hasn't taken you home yet. And then you also

look forward. And I was looking back a little

bit and I was thinking about LifeHouse. And in

2007, I was on staff at a church just up the

road here in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. And I was

the children and youth pastor. That was many

years ago, right? I was the children and youth

pastor there. I was over all the student ministries.

And I was looking back, and I was thinking about

some of the little things that took place in

our life. And I began this journey about three

years in. We stayed there just about four years.

But about three years in, I remember this little

thing happening in my life. I heard about this

thing called church planting. And while God was

stirring in my heart at the same time, I started

hearing about church planting. And I didn't really

know what it was. You know, church planting is

going into a new community, starting a new work

there, a new church there. But this thing started

stirring in me. And how many don't want to hear

about something you can't unhear it, right? You

really can't. You cannot hear it. And this thing

began to stick. I mean, you can pretend you don't

know anything about it, or you can pretend it's

not there, but it stuck in my spirit. And it

wasn't long after that, so I started learning

a little more about church planting, and I felt

like my family and I were supposed to go to Carlisle

and plant a church. Couldn't explain it. Just

God speaking something in my spirit. I told Dixie

on a particular day when I got brave enough to

say it because there's no income that comes in

when you plant a church. And I said, honey, I

think we're supposed to start a church. And she

said, no. I said, get her, Jesus. And a week

later he did. She came back and said, we need

to do this. This is what God's called us to do.

And, you know, and it was a lot of little things

that took place along the way. And trust me.

I can tell you at the beginning, we had nothing.

It was just this little thing that was birthed

in our hearts, me and my wife and my family.

And we didn't have a bank account. We did not

have a building. We didn't have pews or chairs

or anything of this sort. We just had a couple

people who were interested in what we were ready

to do. And we all came together in our house,

a rented house in Carlisle, because we had moved

to Carlisle. And we started talking about the

dream of starting a church. And it was just a

little thing. It was so little that my kids kind

of thought some of it was kind of lame. And honestly,

they weren't wrong at times, right? Pushing the

furniture back in the living room and getting

together and having church. And we made them

get out of their PJs and dress up for church

in the living room. That's the lame part, by

the way. All right. But really, they were all

on board. And I remember the kids coming. My

children were all involved in the praise team

on the tech side. And I remember coming together

with just two couples. One of the couples are

here today. Paul and Mary, would you stand up

in the back back there? Come on. We don't get

to recognize it. Come on. They were there at

the beginning. Thank you. They followed me probably

when they shouldn't have. You know, we just had

this dream talking about what God would do and,

you know, how we wanted to begin this church.

that would be focused on God and reaching people

for Christ, building families, and building authentic

Christian community. And it was really, we talked

about loving God and loving people every day,

and we just kept talking to things. And it was

all these little things, and it was small at

the time. It was big in our hearts, but it was

small everywhere else, right? Nobody really wasn't

listening. I remember my brother -in -law, he

came by and gave me a sound system. It was this

little thing he had stuffed in the closet, you

know, and it was just a little thing to him.

But it was a big thing to us, right? It was the

little things. It was the little things. And

I remember launching into the first gathering

at the Cardinal Sports Emporium. How many of

you have ever been there and played an arcade

game? Did you ever see the little party room

on the left when you're walking in the door?

That's where church began, man. It was a little

thing, all right? Just a couple of us meeting

in there. We didn't have chairs, real chairs.

We had the resin chairs, you know, the kind you

stack up. That was the kind of chairs we sat

on. Lawn chairs. And it was a little tiny congregation.

It looked a little more like a, it was kind of

a small group. And I was going to say a small

group on steroids, but not even on steroids.

Right? And in the midst of it, all these little

things that God did. The little conversations.

And I remember a conversation, a little conversation

took place in particular with Harold and Marion

Spellman. And if you don't know that name, they

actually are the pioneers of faith who started

Penile Ministries, which is a drug, it's actually

a drug and alcohol rehabilitation. It's a long

-term drug and rehabilitation on the western

side of the state called Penile. And I remember

talking with them, and they spoke into Dixie

and I's lives, and they said this to us. They

spoke this. They said, do not despise the small

beginnings. They were quoting scripture. It's

from Zechariah 4 .10. For who has despised the

day of small things? Small things. The little

things. It's just the little things. But here's

the thing. If the Lord is in the little thing,

if the Lord is in the small thing, It can change

everything. It really can. So if you got your

Bible this morning, I want you to turn to John

John 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. We're going to John chapter 6. We've

John 6 · chapter mention

been working through the book of John. And I

want to talk a little bit about something that

if you put the little thing in God's hands, if

you put it in the hands of a big God, it could

change everything. And while you're turning to

read, I'm going to pray. Lord, we thank you for

this day. God, I thank you for each person in

the house. I thank you for each person that's

joining us online. I thank you, Lord, that we

have the opportunity to come into your word.

God, pray. We pray right now, God, just hide

this word in our hearts. God, as David said,

not to sin against you, but also, God, to build

us up. God, to show us the way, to light our

path. God, I ask that you would just touch as

we look at your word, speak into our ears, that

we might bring glory and honor unto you. And

we just give you praise. And everybody say it

together. Amen. Amen. John chapter 6, verse 1

John 6:1

says this. It says, after these things. Now I'm

going to preach for a minute. Okay. I know you're

like, come on, pastor. No, I'm going to. All

right. After these things, let me tell you what

happens before these things, because you don't

know what's happening. If we're saying after

these things, what happened previous to this?

Well, in John chapter five, Jesus had just healed

a man. He had walked into the area of Jerusalem

near the sheep gate at that time in ancient Jerusalem.

He went to the pool of Bethesda where there were

many, many people laying around that were sick

and afflicted. And they were there because the

pool would stir at times. An angel would stir

it. And the first person in the pool would get

healed. And Jesus walks up to a man who is there,

and he's been there, he's been sick for 38 years,

says, do you want to be healed? The man says

yes, and he starts going into a long explanation

how he can't get to the pool. Jesus heals this

individual right there. And while this is taking

place, the Jews in that area, some of them and

some of the scribes and the Pharisees are watching

this all go down. And they're watching Jesus

heal this man. And they don't believe that he's

a Messiah. They don't believe that he's a prophet.

As a matter of fact, the word of God says that

they seek to kill Jesus. They really do. Because

A, Jesus broke their Sabbath law because Jesus

told this man to pick up his mat and walk. And

this man broke their Sabbath law. And two, because

he mentioned that he was the son of God and they

didn't believe it. They didn't believe that he

was Messiah. They didn't believe, they did not

want to hear him talking about being equal with

God. And they were after him to kill him. This

is what took place in John chapter five. So when

you go to chapter six, it says, after these things,

this is after all this. People want to kill him

in Jerusalem. Jesus leaves, right? And it says,

Jesus. went over to the Sea of Galilee, which

is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude

followed him because they saw his signs, which

he had performed on those who were diseased.

And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there

he sat with his disciples. I want you to picture

this. Jesus leaves Jerusalem. He crosses over

the Sea of Galilee, which is a very small sea.

It's probably like a large lake compared to what

we would think is an ocean or sea. It's a large

area, and people are following Jesus. Now, this

is before texting. This is before social media.

This is before electricity, okay? They've heard,

and they're following Jesus, and they go up onto

a mountainside. Can you picture it in your head?

Many, many people follow him. And now the Passover,

a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted

up his eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming

toward him up on the mountain, he said to Philip,

Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?

But this he said to test him, Philip, for he

himself knew what he was about to do. Philip

answered him, Two hundred denarii worth of bread

is not sufficient for them that every one of

them should have a little. That's 200 days wages.

If you want to know what that means, 200 days.

Philip, Jesus turns and says he sees this big

multitude coming up the hillside towards him,

and he turns to one of his disciples. He's got

12 disciples there. He turns to Philip and he

says, you need to feed them. Right? This is 5

,000 men plus their families coming towards them.

And he responds that way. One of his disciples,

Andrew Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there's

a lad, a boy here, who has five barley loaves

and two small fish, but what are they among so

many? Tell somebody it's the little things. Turn

to somebody right now. Say it's the little things.

It's the little things. You got to get this in

your spirit. It's the little things. Then Jesus

said, make the people sit down. Now there was

much grass in that place. So the men sat down

in the number of about 5 ,000. Jesus took the

loaves and when he had given thanks, he distributed

them to the disciples and disciples to those

sitting down. And likewise of the fish as many

as they needed. It multiplied, supernaturally

multiplied. And they began to feed 5 ,000 plus

their families. Now, I want to stop right here

and interrupt this because this account of Jesus

doing this miracle, it happens in all the gospels.

It happens in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

All the writers of the gospels, they write about

this account. And some of them give a little

bit of different detail, like anybody that's

writing, of this account. And I want to go to

Matthew because there's something important you

need to see. In Matthew 14, 19, it has the same

account. It says, he commanded the multitudes

to sit down on the grass. And he took the five

loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven,

he blessed. and broke and gave the loaves to

the disciples and the disciples gave to the multitudes.

Gives a little more detail what took place. Now

let's jump back into John. So when they were

filled, he said to his disciples, gather up the

fragments that remain so that nothing is lost.

Therefore, they gathered them up and filled the

12 baskets with fragments of the five barley

loaves, which were left over by those who had

eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the

sign that Jesus did, said, this is truly the

prophet who has come into the world. Therefore,

when Jesus perceived that they were about to

come and take him by force to make him king,

he departed again to a mountain by himself alone.

Jesus leaves Jerusalem after creating a stir,

healing a man. After stirring up the scribes

and the Pharisees, they're out to get him. He

crosses over the Sea of Galilee and a multitude

of people follow him onto this hillside, this

grassy hillside. where Jesus is getting ready

to teach and he's getting ready to preach. And

while they're coming, he says to Philip, you

need to feed them. How many of you need to be

fed on a regular basis? Raise your hand right

now. Come on, I'm with you, right? You got to

get your three squares. You skip a meal, you

get cranky. Things are all messed up. My granddaughter

Mia is here with us from Georgia, and she's just

a little tiny thing. She's sweet. She's got the

sweetest little voice. We call her our little

giraffe because you know what she does? She eats

all the time. She loves food. She's a foodie.

How many of you get unholy and hangry when you

don't eat? You skip a meal. Thank you. Confession's

good for the soul. You're in church, right? Thousands,

possibly, of hangry people heading up on this

grassy hillside. And Jesus totally uses this

moment to teach his disciples something. He turns

to Philip and he says, where shall we buy bread

that these may eat? Philip's freaking out a little

bit. What? You talking to me, Jesus? 200 denarii

won't buy enough bread to even start to give

somebody just a little bit. Jesus, do you understand

the gravity of what you're asking here? We don't

have the money, and even if we did have the money,

we don't got the place to buy the bread. What

are you saying, Jesus? What do you mean? How

is this my problem all of a sudden? Are you crazy,

Jesus? I'm just reading his mind. It doesn't

say that in the Bible, right? This is impossible.

This is not possible. And this is exactly what

Jesus was doing here. He was putting his disciple,

Philip, and actually the rest, in the middle

of an impossible situation. He assigns them an

impossible task. He puts this huge, overwhelming,

right, incredibly impossible problem squarely

on their plate. And the Word of God says he's

testing them. He's testing these guys. Jesus

knows that this is not the last time they're

going to face an impossible situation. As a matter

of fact, he knows that he's going to leave at

some point after he's crucified, raises from

the dead. He's going to ascend into heaven, and

the disciples are going to be on their own, and

they're going to hit impossible situations. They're

going to come into places where the impossible

is going to be right in front of them, and he's

trying to teach them something. And Andrew, being

Andrew, he just comes up with the best. How many

know when you hit the impossible, you just come

up with the best solution you can? Right? You

come up with the best thing you can get, and

that's what Andrew does here. He comes up, he

says, Andrew Simon's Peter brother said to him,

there's a lad, there's a boy here who has five

barley loaves and two fish, right? But what are

they among so many? This is the best answer they

got. Thousands of people heading towards them.

We've got five loaves of bread, and we've got

two fish. Now, I don't know if they were going

to steal it from that little kid. Do you ever

wonder what's happened in the background with

all this? You know, it doesn't say. Are they

going to buy them? Are they going to give them

10 bucks for the meal, you know, and try to buy

this kid? I don't know how they got the loaves

and the fish, but it's the little things. Turn

to somebody again. Tell them it's the little

things. You need to hear this. The best they

can come up with is five barley loaves and two

fish that some kid brought to the gathering,

right? And Jesus essentially says, this will

do. This is going to do. Because in Matthew 14,

19, he said, then he commanded the multitudes

to sit down on the grassy areas. And he took

the five loaves and the two fish. And looking

up to heaven, he blessed it and he broke it.

And he gave the loaves to his disciples. And

the disciples gave it to the multitudes. He takes

the little bit of food that they placed, just

the little thing that they placed in his hands.

He looks up to heaven, up to the Father. He blesses

it and he breaks it. And it multiplies. It feeds

everybody that's there. As a matter of fact,

it goes beyond just feeding them. At the end

of it, Jesus sends the disciples back and says,

I want you to go back and gather it up. And they

end up with 12 extra baskets of bread. It is

the little thing that is given into God's hand,

his big hand, that makes the difference. Let

me say it again. It is the little thing in your

hands that you place into God's hand that makes

all the difference. The big overwhelming problem

that is in front of you, right? The very ineffective

and little solution that you have in your hand,

you need to place in his hands. The impossible

situation that's in front of you and you feel

so inadequately equipped to recognize. the situation.

Place it in his hands. It's just a little thing

that you got, right? The situation or the circumstance

that seems that there's no way out. Take what

is, you're on the verge of crashing and burning,

and you know it's imminent. Take the little thing

that you have. Right? The insignificant thing.

The thing that isn't going to make any kind of

difference whatsoever with the problem that's

in front of you, and you place it in his hands.

The 5 ,000, right? The little thing like five

loaves and two fish feeding 5 ,000 people. Hand

it to Jesus. Give it to him. Give him your inadequate

solution. Give him all your personal inadequacies,

because you might be part of the solution. Give

him the five loaves and two fish that are in

your hands, but give it to him. Hand him your

very little solution, inadequate solution. Hand

it over to a God who knows nothing of failure.

I don't know if you know it or not, but God has

never failed, ever. Hand it over to him. Hand

it to the one who can speak things into existence,

speaks it into existence. Give it to him. Give

it to him. Hand over your little, tiny solution.

Because it's the little things. And let me remind

you of something this morning, why you're handing

it off. Because you've got to understand handing

something off to somebody. This is football season,

right? We're in the thick of football season,

NFL football season right now. And when a quarterback

is going to hand off to a running back, they

hike the ball, right? And the quarterback turns

around. He's not throwing on his play. This is

a running play. He turns around, and there's

a back coming up. He hands them the ball. And

the running back takes the ball, and he runs

down the field, and he tries to score, right?

He tries to get to the end zone. But do you know

what the quarterback does not do? The quarterback

does not run beside the running back, just in

case the running back changes his mind, right?

Here, take it back. I don't want it. That's not

what happens in football. He hands it off, and

he watches as the running back heads down the

field. If you're going to hand something off

to God, if you're going to hand the little tiny

solution that's really not doing anything in

your big old problem, right, the big old impossible

that you've got going on in your life, hand it

off and let it go. You've got to give it to God.

It's like the track where they run the relay,

and there's four runners, and they've got the

baton. The next runner comes up. He runs the

first leg of it, and he comes up, and he hands

it to the next runner. He doesn't run beside

the runner. He runs for a few seconds so the

runner has a grip. They grab the baton, and then

they go, and the first runner stops. You're going

to hand it off. You're going to give somebody

something. You've got to let go of it. So many

times we get to God. I know this because this

is easy preaching, but it is hard doing. It is

hard living. There's times you're going to have

this tiny solution, and it's going to be something

that you came up with, and you're going to rely

on your wisdom, your experience, all the things

that you know, and you're not going to want to

let go. It's not going to fix what's in front

of you. It's woefully inadequate, and you've

got to let it go. You've got to give it to Jesus.

You've got to hand it off and walk away from

it. Right? Let Jesus run with it. What if the

boy would have never gave up the loaves and the

fish? What if they had never taken those couple

loaves, the little insignificant thing they had,

and never put it in Jesus' hand? I think the

lesson would have been over. Jesus might have

just got to preaching and teaching and healing.

It's the little thing. Say it. It's the little

thing that I place in God's hand that's going

to make the difference. Don't hang on to your

pride, your controlling nature. I'm talking about

myself this morning, right, that wants to hang

on and fix it all. I work my way out of it. There's

this weird pride that rides up within us. I can

work hard enough. I can do it. I've got enough

experience. I've got the answer. Maybe I'll just

outlast the whole problem. You ever try to do

that, right, and it just keeps getting bigger?

You cannot. You cannot feed the 5 ,000 plus with

five loaves and two fish. You can't do it. I

don't care how awesome you think you are, how

hard you work. It will never happen. It won't

happen. Have you ever noticed that God can do

in seconds what would take us a lifetime to never

actually do? He can do it in seconds. He can

do it. Give him your little thing. Give him your

little thing. Give him your impossible situation.

Give him the little thing that is in your hand.

Now, something else that Jesus was showing these

disciples. Once we hand over our inadequate solution

to the impossible problem, let God bless it and

break it. That's why I took you over to Matthew.

Our inadequate solution to the impossible, right?

Let God bless it and let God break it if he needs

to. God's solution to the impossible problem

will look a lot different than your... answer

to the solution. And his solution is a couple

things. One, it's always blessed. Two, it's always

the right thing. It's always the righteous thing,

right? It is the solution to the big problem

all along the way. And when we hand a problem

off to God and we give him our inadequate solution,

I've got to be willing to let him bless whatever

that is that I place in his hands. I also have

to be ready to let him break it. He may break

my solution into pieces. You won't get to the

blessing. You will not get to the multiplication

unless you're willing to hand it to God, let

him bless it, and if he needs to, let him break

it in two. You'll never see the impossible, right?

We've got to let them break our solution. We've

got to let them break our pride. We've got to

let them break our ideas, our philosophies, our

misguided philosophies. We've got to let them

break our past sometimes. We've got to let them

break our present at times. We've got to let

them break all these things in our life. And

we've got to get to them, and we've got to say,

God, this is my sorry solution. Please take it,

bless it, and if you need to, break it into pieces

so we can get your solution. The disciples would

face this. They would hit the impossible situations

in the future. Every time one of them would hit

the impossible, they would never forget this

day. They were standing on the hillside. They

would never forget the day when they handed five

loaves and two fish to Jesus, and they watched

him take the sorry solution to the problem in

his hands. And he would bless it, and he would

break it, and he would look to heaven with it.

And all of a sudden, it was everything that they

needed and even. Worship team, if you'd come.

It's the little things. It's the little things.

What's the solution to the impossible problem

that's in front of you? First off, look to heaven.

First thing Jesus did, right? Step two, right?

Hand the pathetic, your pathetic solution. Anybody

ever have a pathetic solution other than me?

Anybody have a pathetic solution this week? This

morning? All right. Hand you a pathetic solution

to the impossible. Hand it to Jesus. And let

him bless it. And if he needs to, break it. So

he can fix the impossible. Psalm 34, 18 says

this. The Lord is near those who have a broken

heart and say such as have a contrite. Contrite

is more like crushed spirit. Can I repeat? God

knows nothing of impossible. It's all we know.

There's so many things that are impossible for

us. He knows nothing of impossible. Jesus' disciples

begin to break off what he's blessed and what

he's broken. And then Jesus begins to teach them

one more thing. And it's interesting that he

told them this because I think about these things.

I picture this on the hillside. Now, 5 ,000 plus,

you know, their families come and eat bread and

fish. And then Jesus, you know, when they're

all done eating, he sends the disciples back

out, all 12 of them, and he says, I want you

to go back out and gather up all the extra bread.

Now I'm thinking, you know, and first you'd be

thinking, why would you do that? Because first

of all, how many of you want to eat a used pizza

crust from somebody you don't know? I'm not gathering

this up to eat, okay? None of us are like, oh,

yummy, all right, used pizza crust. That's awesome.

I think Jesus was doing one more thing to teach

the disciples. Because isn't it super interesting

that Jesus sends them out, and they're out there

gathering up bread, and they got baskets, and

they walk back, and all 12 disciples are standing

there with a basket full of fragments that are

left. Isn't that interesting? It just happened

to be 12. He's got 12 apprentices, 12 disciples,

and there's 12 baskets that each one of them

are holding. I think Jesus was just burning it

in their spirit. I think he wanted them to know,

the next time you hit the impossible, not only

do I have the solution, but I've got the solution

plus abundance beyond all that. They're all standing

there holding a basket of all the extra that

was gathered up after they brought five loaves

and two fish. And they're never going to forget

that when you place it in his hand, when you

bring your pathetic solution to the impossible

problem and you place it in his hand, not only

does he have enough to fix it, not only does

he have enough to do the impossible, but you

might be standing there with a basket full of

extra as well. If you'd stand this morning. Let

me tell you something I've learned over the years.

Education will help you get smart. Wisdom will

actually help you not make the same mistake as

somebody else. So let me give you a little wisdom

here. Here's something that God will do. God

will let you wear yourself out on the impossible

problem. If you're not willing to bring your

pathetic solution to him and place it in his

hand, all you got is five loaves and two fish.

If you won't bring that and put it in his hands,

he will let you wear yourself out. If you think

you can work your way out of it, you think you

can outlast it, if you think you got all the

wisdom that you can just keep getting educated

enough to work through it, he'll let you wear

yourself out. He'll do it. He won't jump in the

center of that. He's waiting for you to hand

it over. And can I tell you your future if you

continue to do that and you don't hand it to

him? First of all, you will wear yourself out.

You will get tired, exhausted, mentally, physically,

emotionally, all the way around. You will begin

to get bitter and you will even get mad at God

while he's waiting for you just to hand it over.

That'll be your future. Hand it over to him.

If you got something impossible in front of you,

hand it over to him. Whatever you got, it may

not be much, hand it to him. Hand it off. Amen.

Thank you for tuning in to this message from

Lifehouse Church. We pray that you were impacted

powerfully by this message. If you have been

personally affected by our ministry and you would

like to partner with us as we love God, love

people every day, visit our website at www .lifehousecog

.com.