Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church

Guest (Male): You are now listening to an inspirational message from Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church where Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr. is the pastor. Please join the service in progress.

I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you for being so good to me. I want to say it. I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you for being so good to me.

I really thank you, Jesus. I really thank you, Jesus. I really love you, Jesus. I really love you, Jesus. I really need you, Jesus. I really need you, Jesus. And I'm going to praise you, Jesus. Yes, I'm going to praise you, Jesus. I really thank you, Jesus. I really thank you, Jesus. Say yeah.

Jesus, Jesus. At the mention of your name, every knee shall bow and tongue proclaim. Jesus, Jesus. You are savior, you are Lord, and you are God. Yes you are, yes you are. There is a name I love to hear, I love to sing its worth. It sounds like music in my ear, the sweetest name on earth.

Jesus, Jesus. At the mention of your name, every knee shall bow and tongue proclaim. Jesus, Jesus. You are savior, you are Lord, and you are God. Yes you are, yes you are. You're the only living God. You're the only living God. You're the only living God. You're the only living God.

You're the only righteous God. You're the only righteous God. You're the only righteous God. You're the only righteous God. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you. We praise you. We praise you. We praise you. We praise you.

We adore you. We adore you. We adore you. We adore you. Magnify you. Magnify you. Magnify you. Magnify you. Magnify you. Magnify you. Magnify you. Magnify you. You're the only living God. You're the only living God. You're the only living God. You're the only living God.

Jesus, Jesus. At the mention of your name, every knee shall bow and tongue proclaim. Jesus, Jesus. You are savior, you are Lord, and you are God. Yes you are, yes you are, yes you are, yes you are, yes you are, yes you are.

Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.: There's but one living God. There are many gods, false gods, little gods, but there's only one living God. And that's the God of heaven and earth, the God who made you and me, the God who keeps us every day. And that's the one we've come to worship.

I just love the privilege and am thankful for the opportunity to hear from the living God. Father, we thank you for blessing us with another week's journey, for watching over us, for bringing us through the Thanksgiving time. Thank you for the gatherings with family.

Thank you, Lord, for the friendships that were encouraged, all of the challenges that we faced, even the good things, the bad things, the up things, the down things. We thank you for all of it. We could not appreciate the good if we did not have some bad. We could not appreciate the sunshine if there was never any rain.

So we thank you today for giving us a variety of opportunities to experience life and to see your constant hand in all of it. Now Father, as we come to this word, our hearts are encouraged and we pray that you would speak it so clearly now. Speak it so deep that none of us escape, even those who listen, that they might be encouraged and helped by what you will give today.

Father, we thank you in advance for what you're going to say and the truth you're going to bring. Bless us, keep us, use us. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen, amen, amen.

I want to take you this morning to a familiar passage of Scripture in the aftermath of this great season of Thanksgiving. I'm still there in my mind and want to encourage you. Somebody here needs to be encouraged. John's Gospel chapter six. I know you know the place. John's Gospel chapter six. I want to look at verses 5 through 14 in your hearing.

There the word of God says, "When Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this he said to prove him, for he knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little."

"One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two fishes, but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, in number about five thousand."

"And Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that were set down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. And when they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost."

"Therefore they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of truth that prophet that should come into the world." This is the word of God for the people of God.

Guest (Male): Thanks be to God.

Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.: I want to preach from the subject this morning, Salvaging Leftovers. Salvaging leftovers. I know every one of us here can identify with this subject because in the big meal that was just had, most of you had more than enough. And something had to happen with the leftovers.

And I doubt very seriously whether they were thrown away. I believe that somebody gathered the fragments. All the way from my little boy days after Thanksgiving, nine, ten children, twelve, how many ever was in there, all had enough to eat and I don't know how that turkey got so big.

But even after Thanksgiving, the turkey found itself reappearing sometimes as a hash, sometimes as a stew, sometimes on sandwiches, but it did not go to waste because my mother knew how to salvage the leftovers. Somebody knows what I'm talking about.

When we go out to eat, and sometimes some people go out to eat and you go to this nice fancy restaurant and you order this big meal and it be more than you can eat. I don't think people send it back. I think they ask for a to-go box. And many people say this is going to be lunch tomorrow or this is going to be lunch next week because we know how to salvage leftovers.

Do you know one of the most popular stores that now exists in our community is called the thrift store? Because in the thrift store, you can find some good stuff because people who have had good stuff don't always throw their stuff away. They'd rather give it so that it can be recycled and put back into use. Are there any thrift store queens? Don't raise your hand.

But the point is, we know the value of salvaging leftovers because there's still some good that remains in what's left. And that's the encouragement that I want to give today. This miracle here, this story here, is a very familiar story to all of us.

If you don't know this story, the feeding of the five thousand plus, it means you probably didn't attend Sunday school. But somewhere along from childhood to now, you've heard this story over and over again how Jesus took a little boy's lunch and fed the multitude.

It's a great story. It has historical value. The historical value here is that the miracle is undeniable because it wasn't a restorative miracle like giving people eyes or putting people's legs back on or giving people limbs or ears. This was a participatory miracle that was participated in by too many people for it to be denied that it occurred.

Five thousand men, not counting the women and the children, which means that this miracle was done to more than twenty-five thousand people. And no one in the biblical record or no one since that time has denied that this occurred.

Now there are some modern-day skeptics that come along and say what happened was that Jesus told everybody to take out their lunch and everybody took out their lunch and they had a big sharing out on the field. That's not what happened. Jesus did a miracle of mass multiplication. And it was designed to teach the disciples to appreciate God's provision.