In this sermon, K.P. Johannon encourages listeners to have a compassionate and caring heart like Jesus. He emphasizes that God can use us the most when we realize that we are nothing and have nothing. Johannon highlights the story of the feeding of the 5,000 as an example of how God can make something out of nothing. He also mentions his own upbringing and how the Lord cares for and loves us beyond measure. Johannon urges listeners to care for others and points to the Journey with Jesus series on the website, which offers booklets on topics such as failure, discouragement, and brokenness.

Be Encouraged by Jesus, today on The Road to Reality. Gospel for Asia now presents The Road to Reality with K.P. Yohannan. Thanks for joining us. You know, many people shy away from crowds, but Jesus saw them through loving eyes and was quick to show his disciples how to be compassionate and caring. We'll be looking at a familiar story today where we see the heart of God and some valuable principles that can help us as we set out to serve God. We realize that we're nothing and have nothing. That's the point where the Lord can use us the most. God can make something out of nothing, though, and we see that brilliantly through the feeding of the 5,000. Here's K.P. with today's broadcast. Obviously, this is the famous story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. One thing we must not forget, any part of the scripture, the Lord gave this to us that we may live by it. Man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Intellectually, you may be able to hear and process and comprehend what the Bible says, yet unless you receive it on your heart and then process it for the sake of obedience, we will not experience the life of God and the blessings that he wants to give us. Blessings not in terms of material things or promotion, rather understanding the ways of God. And that's the reason we should not go to the scripture for the sake of just understanding the background and history and Greek and philosophy and all this stuff, but rather, Lord, speak to me and I will follow you. And this is what our attitude should be. There are several observations that I like to look at in this particular passage. The first thing is, in the very beginning of the chapter, after this, after these things, obviously, if we go to the Gospel of Mark or Matthew and Luke, you will find the chronological order of things. So many miracles have taken place. The man who was laying sick for 38 years now gets up and walks, and the demon-possessed man gets healed, and so many miracles transpire, and the disciples are witnessing all these things. They see the work of God. They see and understand what God is doing. As a matter of fact, believe it or not, did they understand it? I do not know. The Almighty in flesh, God in flesh, walking with them, talking to them, asking them questions. They're watching him. Amazing, amazing privilege. But here, the first thing we should notice, Jesus just walks up and just sits down with his disciples. The Lord going away to the mountainside, to a lonely place somewhere, that is not an exception. When the writer of John's Gospel says, I mean, if I were to write down everything Jesus did, it will take so many books and parchment, the world cannot contain it. If that be the case, selectively to point out a few things like this, magnifies the importance of what he's saying, the writers of the Gospels. Regards to Christ's life, 28 times it's mentioned in the Gospels, prayer. Think about God praying. To whom? He lived on earth as a perfect man. We worship the Lord Jesus Christ as God, but we follow him as a man, demonstrating for us the kind of life God intended man to live here on earth. Once again, we see before a major miracle must transpire, he's walking away, just sitting and thinking, praying. So this tells me, waiting before the Father, spending time with God for inner life preparation and being strengthened is important if we must experience God's hand in our life and through our life. Jesus in Matthew's Gospel chapter 7 talks about these two people building their houses. One built his house on sand, right? Remember that? And one built his house on the rock. Then what happens? Rain comes down and there's a flood, there's a storm, reminds me of my childhood. Now hardly we have any major flood in this community, but when I was growing up, that's all we had. The rivers overflows and the little canoes and the excitement was wonderful. And many little houses get washed away every year during that season of flood. The man who built his house on the sand and the one who built his house on the rock, they both faced the same crisis, the same storm, the same problem. Jesus didn't say, you know what, there's a little possibility you will have a storm coming toward you or some opposition. No, the storm will come, the flood will be there, the onslaught will be there, the counterattack will come. Every one of us, you must know this sometime, somewhere before you know it. Those deep, dark days when you do not know what to do and you cry out sometime all alone, I didn't know this was going to happen. You never expected that car wreck. You never dreamed the doctor will say, I'm very sorry to tell you this x-ray is not telling very good news. The blood test, I didn't think this would be so, but it's too late, you have cancer, stage two. You never dreamed your child would grow up and become a delinquent and on drugs. You never dreamed about it. Life for the best on earth, the Bible says is full of sorrows and troubles and anguish. Of course, for young people, you know, you are fairly healthy and no major problems. People think, you know, you are invincible, no problem, I can handle it. But please believe me, that is not the way it is. Sometimes the worst suffering you want to face, it is not physical. It isn't lack of resources or money or buildings or stuff like this, it is internal. It says in Peter, Jesus suffered for us, leaving this example that we may follow in his footsteps. It is not talking about the cross and the blood and the nail. No, it is talking about a lifelong anguish. On the inside, he faced the misunderstanding, the rejection, the loneliness, people calling him, you are demon possessed. God in flesh suffered every day of his life. And those of us that follow him, sometimes my brothers and sisters, it is not the beating and the abuse. No, it is more painful and more serious. You only know that. But how do you face these times? We need the intervention of God in times like this. We need God to step in and change the circumstances. You do not want to build the foundation when the storm hits. It must be done before. Obviously, the man who built his house on the sand, he was able to spend much of his money for the exterior, the superstructure, the visible part. People said, wow, look at this guy. He got the best mansion in the whole world. But look at this other little guy. You know, don't look so fancy, but time proved who did the right thing. Jesus went about doing good, doing the Father's will, healing the sick, casting out demons, giving hope, not in his strength, but in the strength of his Father as he waited before him and was empowered by the Father. Therefore, in the Gospel of John, a dozen times Jesus says, I do nothing of my own. The words I speak, it's not mine. It's his. I do nothing for myself. I only do what my Father asked me to do. Moses was called out. What a tragedy. People living in slavery in Egypt. And God now says, I have seen the affliction of my people. I heard their cry and I know their sorrows. Moses, come, I will send you. You are the one to rescue my people. But 40 years more they must suffer. 40 more years simply because Moses must be made ready alone in private so that his inside is changed for God to do the impossible. One man to stand up against the mighty nation of Egypt and Pharaoh and defeat the Pharaoh and the nation and set the people free. We are living in a time we are impatient. Are we not? Waiting, seeking God's face, praying for an hour or two, fasting for one or two or three or 10 or 20 days. We can't even imagine. We know the answers. We understand the theology and we think that's enough. We can go and do it. And we do it in our strength and we fail miserably. Well, apart from Christ, we can do nothing. But we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. We'll have more encouragement along these same lines in just a bit as The Road to Reality with K.P. O'Hanlon continues. Have you been by winasia.org lately? We're constantly updating and adding new things to it to help you stay current with the latest here at Gospel for Asia. You can find a good number of helpful resources like K.P.'s Journey with Jesus series. There are three volumes, each containing four awesome booklets. Learn how to depend upon the Lord, gain a life of balance, learn principles in maintaining a godly organization, or how to stay encouraged. You can purchase any of the booklets for only three dollars or save money by getting a series of four booklets for ten dollars. Simply go to winasia.org for the Journey with Jesus series. If you're in Canada, stop by gospelforasia.ca. Well, as promised, once again, let's get back to K.P. now. Listen to this quotation from A.W. Chaucer. In one of his books he writes, I quote, there are certain things that you will never learn when others are with you. There is no question but that part of our failure today is religious activity that is not preceded by an aloneness and inactivity. I mean the art of getting alone with God and waiting in silence and in quietness until we are changed and charged. And then when we act, our activity really amounts to something because we have been prepared for it. We can go to God with an activity that is inactive. Let me repeat the statement. We can go to God with an activity that is inactive. We go to God with a heart that isn't acting in the flesh or in the natural trying to do something but going to God and waiting. It just means that within our inner spirit is seeing and hearing and mounting up on wings while the outer physical person is inactive and even the mind is to some degree suspended. There is an inactivity which paradoxically is the highest possible activity. There can be a suspension of the activity of the body as when our Lord told his disciples to tidy until they were filled with the Holy Ghost and they did. They waited on God. My brothers and sisters, when there is frustration, discouragement, complaining and murmuring, deep disappointment, restlessness, no matter where you are, what you're doing, if that is your lifestyle, if that is your will, I can assure you, you have not understood the ways of God. Please think about it. 4,000 years, the Son of God, the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, some 4,000 years he must wait in heaven while the world lies in abject poverty and horrendous sin and disaster and he waited until the Father says, Son, this is time. You must go. And then he comes to earth. Now he must wait for 30 years working as a carpenter and the Father says, now it is time. Waiting for God's time to be prepared was the activity of the Son of God. But for us, we see the glamour, the glory, the light, the clapping of hands and the thunder and the attention and all the stuff we can do so visible. We can't wait. We have to be active to do things. But God waits and says, come and listen to me. Just one activity with God in it amounts more for eternity than a million things we can do in our flesh, in our strength. Why the Son of God must take time apart to be alone? Well, this is not just a New Testament principle. If you look in the Old Testament, Ezekiel chapter 44 verse 15, we read there God says to the Son of Sadduck, he says, they shall come before me and stand before me and minister unto me. You read and study that passage. It's amazing. God's invitation to meet the need of the world out there, first of all, is to come and get to know the Lord. I need to get through this whole passage, therefore I will move on. In the book of Philippians chapter 3, Paul, a man who had everything going for him, said, I made a choice to walk away from the riches, the fame, the glory, and all the stuff that I thought was so important. I walked away from all that I may know Him, that I may know Him. No wonder why he was such a hard working man with tremendous amount of zeal and commitment. He was not lazy. Please understand me, there is no place for laziness and half-heartedness in the Bible. Jesus himself said, I must work the work of him who sent me while it is day, night is coming, no man can work, John 9.4. So I'm not promoting just being passive and go and sit somewhere and meditate and close your eyes to the suffering and reality of the society. No, but I'm telling you, if you and I want to be effective and see God intervene in our private life and through us, we better follow in the footsteps of the Son of God. The second thing I want us to notice in this passage, God is concerned about our earthly life, things like food and drink. Think about it. Jesus, God now coming to this earth to die for the sinners, to give them forgiveness, give them redemption. And I mean, he was preaching the message of the kingdom. We know that. But here he sees these thousands of people. Reminds me of some of the radio rallies I go to. Amazing, just to watch the crowd. The disciples see this and they are not terribly concerned about it and they didn't ask the question. Seeing these people, they're tired, they're weary. Jesus asked this question to Philip, how on earth are we going to feed these people? They are hungry. Well, you know, I get encouragement from this. That is, the Lord I serve, he cares about me. Every hair on your head is numbered. Some of you girls wonder how on earth God can do that. You got a lot of hair. Some of our older senior citizens don't have a whole lot. But every hair on your head is numbered and is noted. When you comb your hair in the morning and one falls out, a report is made. Father, one fell away. About some of you, the angel says, what can I do, Father? About a hundred thousand fell away. He's so intimately concerned about, can you believe that? You know, it struck me so deep, long ago, many years ago, when I was reading that verse in the book of Psalms, and the Lord is thinking about me, present continuous tense, present tense. That's the text there. And I thought about this whole world. I mean, I thought about the universe, the galaxies. Can you imagine billions of light years away, there are galaxies. It will be maybe another 10 billion light years before the star's light will ever hit us. Watch the creation and God who created the whole thing. Then the earth, this planet, I mean billions of people. And then take India, the second largest nation in the world. And take Kerala, where I was born, the tiniest little place. Then you travel 14 kilometers west, you'll find the tiny little village. And there by the riverside, there I was born in this home with six other brothers and youngest in my family. And the Lord is thinking about me all the time. Amazing. It really is amazing when you stop to think of it. The Lord cares for us and loves us beyond measure. That's encouraging, isn't it? And now He calls us to care for others. You're listening to The Road to Reality. And as we've been encouraged by Jesus today, I'm reminded of K.P. O'Hannon's Journey with Jesus series. On our website, you can look through three volumes, each containing four booklets. Here are just a few of the booklets that caught my eye. When We Have Failed, What Next? There's another one for Seasons of Discouragement called Stay Encouraged, and another one called The Beauty of Christ Through Brokenness. Now, the booklets can be purchased individually for $3, or you can save a little money by getting a four-part set for just $10. Look through the Journey with Jesus series online at winasia.org. Here in Canada, log on to gospelforasia.ca. The Road to Reality is brought to you by Gospel for Asia, where our aim is to share the good news with those who've never heard it before.