Keion Henderson - When it Ends Better than it Started

Yes, Matthew 14:14, if you got it say «I got it.» If you’re still looking, say «Hold up.» Matthew shows that this is the first book of the New Testament. Matthew 14: 14: the Bible says, «And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them and healed their sick.» In the evening, his disciples came to him saying, «This is a desert place, and the time is now passed; send the multitude away.» In other words, they were getting on their nerves; they wanted them gone. Have you ever wondered if someone would just go away? «Send them away,» that they may go to the villages and buy their own food. You' ll have a lot of people at your house today; you will be saying, " Lord, just send them away!» Amen? But they are here today. Amen! But Jesus said to them, «They need not depart; feed them.» They said to Him, «What? We have nothing but two fish and five loaves of bread.» Jesus said, «Bring them to me.» He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, took the five loaves and two fish. Looking up to heaven, he blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples. You can’t miss that: he never gave the bread to the people. We’ve been saying all this time that Jesus fed the 5,000. Yeah, okay, he blessed it and broke it, but he did not feed them! Oh God, help me in this place! He gave it to the disciples, and the disciples distributed it to the multitudes. They all ate, and they were all full. They took all the fragments that remained and put them in twelve baskets, and the baskets were full, and those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides the women and children. I want to talk about when it ends better than it started. I want you to touch everybody on your way down to say, «This year may have started off rough for you, but God sent me to tell you it’s about to end better.» Oh, help me in this house! It’s going to end better than it started. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Throughout Christendom, men engage in theological dissertations and discussions among those who call themselves the household of faith-Christians, churchgoers. There is a compilation of conversations that reveal just a few stories in the Bible. Whether you’re new to the church or you have been in church your whole life, whether you speak in tongues or English, there are certain stories that everybody knows. Everybody knows about Daniel and the lions' den; you don’t have to be saved to know that one. Everybody knows about the Hebrew boys and the fiery furnace, and everybody knows about Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There are certain stories, like the woman with the issue of blood; we know about that one. There are certain scriptures that everybody can quote: «The Lord is my shepherd.» Look at you; you’re already finishing it! «No weapon formed against me shall prosper.» I was young; there are certain scriptures that roll off the tongues of those who have sat in the pews for many years. Throughout history, if you were raised in church, your mama made you go to church. As soon as you could grow up, you stopped going, and now you’re back. It’s a cycle that all of us have been through. Likewise, this story about the 5,000, not including the women and children, happens to be one of those stories that has a wide spectrum of acceptance throughout the church world. We’ve all heard about the 5,000, not counting the women and children. The problem is that we have gotten to a junction and have entered the traffic jam of believing this miracle is all about the food when, in actuality, the food is merely the worm. It is the bait that helps us understand that after Jesus performs this miracle by feeding them with physical loaves, he then goes to the next chapter and preaches about being the bread of life. The physical bread was only to solve their hunger so that they could hear about the spiritual bread. There was a sermon he preached in the next chapter in Capernaum as he began to talk about being the bread of life and that no one goes to the Father except by him. See, that’s one thing God is good at-he solves your immediate problem so that he can address your eternal situation. He’ll show up and heal the issue with the blood, but it was never only about the blood. It was about the blood of Jesus; you understand? He 'll show up and heal your blinded eyes, but it was never just about your sight; it was about your vision. So, what he does is come and solve one problem so you can recognize there 's a bigger problem. He solves the bread problem so he can resolve the crisis. He solves the hunger because when you are hungry, you cannot hear. Oh God, help me in this place! When you have a need, when you have an appetite, when you desire something, when your feelings are thriving or yearning for something, then all your other faculties begin to shut down. So God says, «I’m not going to throw my pearls to swine,» and I don’t want anybody to miss the Son. I don’t want them to miss the sermon because they heard their stomachs.