Smallest to Greatest

Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church, and it's my joy to bring God's Word to you today.

A special welcome if you're new or visiting with us. We're glad that you're here, and we're glad that you're here not because we're trying to fill seats, but because we're following Jesus together as one community.

And as we follow Jesus together, we become convinced that there's no one so good, they don't need God's grace, and no one so bad that they can't have it, which is why we come back week after week to hear what God has to say to us in His Word.

We're continuing our series in the Gospel of Mark. You'll remember that the Gospels tell the story of Jesus and His life and His death and His resurrection,

and we're continuing in chapter 4, where Jesus has been teaching us about the kingdom of God.

He's been using this agricultural image, the image of the seed that is sown. Last week, we saw the power of the seed, the resilience of the seed.

This week, we're going to look at the seed from a different angle. We're going to see its initial smallness.

And so we'll look at the growth of the seed, the ultimate size of the seed.

Last week, we were encouraged by the reminder that the kingdom is working, even when we don't see it.

This week, we're encouraged that the kingdom is powerful, even when it doesn't meet up to worldly standards,

even when it would appear to be small and insignificant.

And in fact, my guess is if you're a Christian, you feel that at times.

If Jesus is the king, why isn't the church more effective, better funded, more powerful?

If the kingdom is so powerful, why are we still here 2,000 years later?

Why don't we see more of a victory over evil?

Why is there such a big difference, a big gap between what we've been promised is to come

and what we see right now in this world?

There may be times where we're discouraged or confused by the smallness of God's kingdom.

It's with that challenge that we come to God's word.

And so I invite you to turn with me.

You can turn in your Bible.

You can turn in your worship guide to the sermon passage.

You can turn on your phone.

No matter where you turn, remember that this is God's word.

And God tells us that his word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path,

which means that God has not left us to stumble alone in the dark,

but instead he's given us his word to show us the way to go.

And so that's why we read now Mark chapter 4, starting at verse 13.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

And he said,

With many such parables, he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear.

He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples,

he explained everything.

I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.

Father in heaven, we thank you that your word is powerful and effective.

It's your word that brings something out of nothing.

And it's your word that brings dead things to life.

And we confess this morning that without the help of your spirit,

the power of your word, we are dead on arrival.

So we simply ask for those things this morning,

that you would give us your spirit to use your word in a powerful way,

that we would be challenged by it, encouraged by it,

and that we would see Jesus.

We ask that you do these simple things

as we look at what you have to say to us here in the gospel of Mark.

We ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

It's common knowledge, I think, or at least I hope,

that we now know that redwood trees are the tallest of all trees in the world,

and you'll find many of them on the coast of California.

You may also know that National Geographic ran a documentary series

for about 25 years called National Geographic Explorer.

And in 2009, they ran one episode called Climbing Redwood Giants,

which tracks a variety of people who interact with these redwoods in California.

One of them is a man named Michael Nichols,

who was a photographer for National Geographic,

and he was frustrated by the fact that none of the photos of these redwood trees did them justice.

People would come to the redwood forest,

and they would be overwhelmed with this sense of awe and transcendence.

But when they looked at a picture, they would just think,

ah, that's a nice tall tree.

And so he wanted to fill that gap between the in-person experience

and the viewing of a picture.

The problem is that these trees are typically over 300 feet tall.

And he wanted to take a picture that showed the tree all the way from the top down to the bottom.

Turns out this is more challenging than you might expect.

He spent 21 days camped out in the forest trying to get one picture.

They would set up every morning with his crew before dawn,

and he'd have someone at the top of the tree

who would give them the go signal as soon as he saw the sun.

They had a camera that they had to back up 50 feet away from the tree

because the crown of the tree at the very top was 100 feet wide.

And this robotic camera essentially had many different lenses on it,

and it would drop from the top all the way to the bottom.

And so they would try day after day after day

trying to get the right picture with the right sunlight at the right time.

He said this,

his goal is to capture the grandeur of a giant redwood tree in one image.

Day 14, they finally got the picture they wanted,

except it wasn't just one picture.

They took 84 different pictures and pieced them all together.

These 84 pictures that were pieced together into one image

formed a five-page foldout

in the National Geographic issue that came out in October of 2009.

At the beginning of this documentary,

the narrator tells us,

even giants start small

with modest cones packed with seeds no bigger than tomatoes.

And so this giant redwood tree,

the tallest of all trees in the world,

over 300 feet tall,

some of the tallest ones much larger than that,

starts with a seed no larger than a tomato.

He is comparing for us the beginning and the end.

And that's the same thing Jesus does for us in this passage.

He wants us to feel the difference,

the contrast between the beginning and the end of the kingdom of God.

We see here, verse 30,

there's something difficult about understanding the kingdom.

It doesn't meet our expectations.

It's counterintuitive,

which is why he asks this question,

with what can we compare the kingdom of God

or what parable shall we use for it?

In other words,

it's hard to find the right example

because this is such a strange, unusual thing.

The kingdom operates in such a way

that's different from our expectations and our experience.

So what in the world are we going to have

that would actually help us

begin to wrap our minds around it?

And he tells us,

well, it has to be something,

verse 31,

that starts out as the smallest.

Verse 32 ends up as the largest.

Whatever our parable is,

it has to be something that starts out as the smallest,

ends up as the largest.

Before we dive deep into that, by the way,

our points this morning are very simple.

One, the smallest.

Two, the largest.

I want to make sure we review and understand

what it is that we're talking about

when we use the phrase,

the kingdom of God.

I talked last week about this temptation

to use what's called God talk,

which is when we throw all these phrases around

that sound spiritual

and we have no idea what we're talking about.

Kingdom of God can fall into this category.

People throw it around and use it.

If you ask them to define it,

would they actually be able to tell you

what in the world they're talking about?

There's all sorts of books and articles

written trying to define this,

and I'm going to give you this very simple definition

that I gave you last week.

When we talk about the kingdom of God,

we are simply talking about the place

where Jesus is king.

When we are talking about the kingdom of God,

we're talking about the place where Jesus is king.

This is the place where Jesus is loved

and worshiped and obeyed.

We see the kingdom only in part right now

because not everyone loves, obeys,

or worships the king.

We will one day see the kingdom in full

because one day everyone will worship

and recognize Jesus as king.

In fact, this is what Paul tells us

in Philippians chapter two.

He says,

at the name of Jesus,

every knee should bow in heaven and on earth

and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of God the Father.

We will see the kingdom in full

when every tongue confesses Jesus as Lord.

We don't see that yet.

And so now what we see,

and this is the quote I gave you last week

from Martin Lloyd-Jones,

is the kingdom shows up in the hearts

and lives of his people.

Jesus' kingdom shows up in the hearts

and lives of his people.

In fact, if you look on page five of your worship guide,

you'll see I gave you that same quote all over again.

It's the best quote that I've ever found

on the kingdom of God.

And he uses that phrase,

the very last sentence,

he is certainly ruling in that way,

in the hearts and lives of all his people.

And so we prayed this morning in the Lord's prayer

that God's kingdom would come on earth

as it is in heaven.

And what we are praying when we pray that

is that you and other people would worship and love

and obey Jesus as king more and more.

We don't have to give in to God talk.

We can clarify our terms.

That is what we mean when we talk about the kingdom of God,

the place where Jesus is king.

And so jumping right back in,

remember our two points are very simple,

the smallest and the biggest.

First of all, this kingdom,

this place where Jesus is king is the smallest.

Verse 31,

it is like a grain of mustard seed,

which when sown on the ground

is the smallest of all the seeds on earth.

The kingdom of God is small in many different ways.

I'll give you guys some ideas,

but it's small from a worldly perspective.

The things that this world expects

and demands of a kingdom,

the kingdom of God does not meet up to those expectations.

It does not rise to the height

that one would think it would.

And it doesn't do this in a variety of ways.

First of all, the logic of the cross is the smallest.

The cross is weak and foolish from a worldly perspective.

In fact, Paul, the apostle,

says this explicitly in 1 Corinthians 1.

He says,

the cross is foolishness to the world.

And here is the sense in which it's foolish.

It is foolish, as is often said,

because it is an instrument of torture

that's used as an instrument of salvation.

It is foolish because it's an instrument of torture

used as an instrument of salvation.

It is scandalous.

The cross does not make sense to the world.

It does not make sense that strength would come through weakness.

The image of the cross that we have now

has been domesticated over time.

Initially, it was extremely shocking.

In fact, there's this book called Dominion,

How the Christian Revolution Remade the World

by a man named Tom Holland,

and he notes that artists were not willing

to use the cross as an image until AD 400.

It took 400 years for people

to even be willing to use the image.

That's how scandalous it was.

In fact, he says this,

divinity was for the very greatest of the great,

for victors and heroes and kings.

Its measure was the power to torture one's enemies,

not to suffer it oneself.

That a man who had himself been crucified

might be hailed as a god

could not help but be seen by people

everywhere across the Roman world

as scandalous, obscene, and grotesque.

That such a god of all gods might have had a son

and that this son, suffering the fate of a slave,

might have been tortured to death on a cross

were claims as stupefying as they were

to most Jews' repellent.

No more shocking a reversal

of their most avoutly held assumptions

could possibly have been imagined.

Not merely blasphemy,

it was madness.

The cross is the smallest.

It is small and weak from a worldly perspective.

It makes no sense whatsoever

to use an instrument of torture

as an instrument of salvation.

It's not just the logic of the cross, though,

that it's the smallest.

It's also the people of the cross

who are the smallest.

And by the people of the cross,

I mean you and me.

Paul does not pay us any compliments

in 1 Corinthians 1

because he doesn't just say

that the cross is foolish.

He says, you are foolish.

He says this, verse 26,

for consider your calling, brothers.

Not many of you were wise

according to worldly standards.

Not many were powerful.

Not many were of noble birth.

But God chose what is foolish in the world

to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world

to shame the strong.

God chose what is low and despised in the world,

even things that are not,

to bring to nothing things that are.

So when Jesus came to set up his kingdom,

he decided to pick a brain trust

of the smartest possible people he could find

with the greatest gifts that he had seen in advance.

And he picked them for that reason,

leaving out people who didn't meet up to his standards.

No.

The complete opposite.

Jesus comes in his kingdom

and he picks those who are not wise,

those who are not powerful,

those who are not noble birth,

those who are foolish,

those who are weak,

those who are not strong,

those who are low and despised.

The kingdom is the smallest.

The foolishness,

the smallness of the kingdom is this then.

There are many from Harvard that will reject it

and high school dropouts who will embrace it.

There are many who are rich who will reject it

and those who are poor who will embrace it.

There are those who are virtuous

who will reject it.

Those who are obnoxious

who will enter the kingdom of God.

Now having educated

of the kingdom doesn't shock us

as much as it does the Roman world.

Our values are different.

What's shocking for us

is that obnoxious people would get into the kingdom

and virtuous people would not.

Jesus chooses the smallest.

It's foolish and small

and weak in the sense

that Jesus presents to his followers

a way of suffering

rather than luxury.

The gospel does not fit into the expectations

and standards of this world.

It's not just the logic of the cross.

It's not just the people of the cross

who are small and foolish though.

It's also the king of the cross.

Jesus did not come as a beautiful person.

He came as small compared to the kings of this world.

Jesus shows up in a stable

rather than a palace.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey

rather than a war horse.

Jesus has a crown of thorns

rather than a crown of gold.

Isaiah tells us, in fact,

that there was nothing attractive about Jesus

that would draw people to him.

Isaiah 53 too.

He had no form or majesty

that we should look at him

and no beauty that we should desire him.

If Christianity was a blind taste test,

remember you see these from time to time, right?

People will have Pepsi and Coke

but they won't tell you which is which

and you're supposed to taste it

and recognize what's correct and good.

Maybe you have a new product

compared to a name brand product

and without knowing what it is you're tasting,

you're able to pick up on certain things.

If there was a blind taste test of Christianity,

the normal flavor outside of God's spirit

would be this.

Obscure, weak, insignificant,

powerless, foolish, shameful.

That's what the cross tastes like to this world.

That's what Paul is telling us

in 1 Corinthians 1.

Others, on the other hand,

taste it and say this,

it tastes like the power of God.

God uses the small and foolish things

of this world.

Jesus teaches this parable

because it is something that's relevant

and real for these people

and for us as well.

It's hitting at something perhaps you feel.

Perhaps you feel at times

that the kingdom is in fact small

and little and insignificant.

It is corporations and governments

that have money and power.

If God is the king,

if his kingdom is the greatest,

why is it that Apple and Facebook and Amazon

have such great levels of influence and power?

If God's kingdom is the greatest

and he's the king,

why is it that Elon Musk

and Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates

are the ones with all the money?

Why isn't it the church?

Because the kingdom is small

and weak and foolish.

We saw the parable of the soils

a while back.

Chapter 4, verses 1 through 20.

Why is it that the world is so alluring?

Why is it that these thorns

are able to come in

and crush the seed of the kingdom?

Well, it's because the kingdom

is weak and insignificant

by the numbers.

It is not what is most alluring

and beautiful.

Jesus needs to teach this

to his disciples and to us

because the kingdom

is not what they expected.

Jesus' followers wanted

a rapid onset kingdom.

They wanted an immediate kingdom.

They wanted a powerful earthly kingdom.

And Jesus here instead

resets their expectations.

It is not going to be what you want.

It is going to be

the smallest kingdom.

The question, though,

that's still unanswered is,

why?

Why is it that the kingdom

comes in such smallness?

Why didn't Jesus come

with a royal train?

Why didn't he come

with a real crown?

Why didn't he ride in Jerusalem

on a war horse?

Well, Paul answers

that question for us as well

near the end of 1 Corinthians 1.

He says,

God chose what is low

and despised in the world,

even things that are not,

to bring to nothing

things that are,

verse 29,

here's the answer,

so that no human being

might boast in the presence of God.

God chose a small

and foolish kingdom

to highlight his grace

so that no one

could congratulate themselves

for being a part of it,

so that no one

could pat themselves

on the back

that they were smart enough,

powerful, and rich enough

to be part of the kingdom of God.

The kingdom starts

and looks small

to show God's glory.

It's meant to highlight

God's grace.

It's meant to show God's glory.

In fact,

we know this intuitively, right?

There is something

beautiful and marvelous

about small things

turning into great things.

The smallness of the seed

is part of what makes

the redwood

so majestic and impressive.

You think to yourself,

that large tree

came from that small seed?

It would make sense, right,

if it came from a big seed.

And yet,

that's not how it works, right?

That's why the narrator

of the documentary

mentions it.

He says,

even giants start small

with modest cones

packed with seeds

no bigger than tomatoes.

The redwood tree,

in other words,

is not large

because it started large.

It's large

because of the power

of the seed.

The kingdom of God

is not large

because it started large.

It is large

because of the power

of the gospel.

The smallness of the kingdom

shows us

the power

of God.

The gospel

is beautiful

and powerful,

just not

the way we expect it.

And so that's why

Paul also tells us

in 1 Corinthians 1,

the word of the cross

is folly

to those who are perishing,

but to us

who are being saved,

it is the power

of God.

It's smallness,

the fact that it's

insignificant and weak

is a feature,

not a bug.

Thankfully,

it's not just

the smallness

of the kingdom

that we see here,

though.

That was verse 31.

We also have

verse 32,

the greatest kingdom.

Yet when it is sown,

it grows up

and becomes larger

than all

the garden plants.

Yes,

it's a small

and foolish kingdom

and it will not

be like that

forever.

That's how it starts.

It's not how it ends.

We have the small

seed of the redwood tree

and then we have

the tallest tree

in the entire world,

well over 300 feet tall.

same thing is here

is true in the Bible.

We have what we see

of the kingdom

in the gospel of Mark

and we fast forward

in the Bible

to the very last book,

the book of Revelation

and we see the comeuppance

of the kingdom.

We see the final victory

of the kingdom.

There's this progression

between what is true

in Jesus' first coming

when Jesus came

as a baby

into this world

and what's true

in Jesus' second coming.

The coming

that we look forward to

when Jesus returns

to this world

as the victorious king

taking his kingdom.

And so we can compare

not just the smallest seed

to the greatest tree,

we can also compare

the smallness of the kingdom

in the gospel of Mark

to the greatest kingdom

that we see

in the book of Revelation.

We can have

a side-by-side picture.

Yes, Jesus has a crown

of thorns

in his earthly ministry.

In the book of Revelation,

he comes not just

with one crown

but with multiple crowns.

Revelation chapter 19,

Revelation 19:12

verse 12.

His eyes are like

a flame of fire

and on his head

are many diadems.

Diadem being a fancy word

for crown.

And he has a name written

that no one knows

but himself.

Yes, in his earthly ministry,

Jesus comes in

on a donkey

and in the book of Revelation

when he returns

in his second coming,

we see Jesus riding in

on a war horse.

Revelation 19, 11.

Then I saw heaven open

to behold a white horse.

The one sitting on it

is called Faithful and True

and in righteousness

he judges and makes wars.

Yes, it's true

that Jesus in his earthly ministry

comes and appears

in a stable

and when we find him

after his second coming

in the book of Revelation,

he is not sitting

in a stable

but he is on a throne.

Revelation chapter 22,

Revelation 22:3

verse 3.

The throne of God

and of the Lamb

will be in it.

Yes, the kingdom is small now.

It will not be small forever.

Yes, we struggle

with these doubts

in this world

just like these other disciples

wondering if Jesus

is truly the king

that he says that he is

coming to bring the kingdom

that's been promised.

Why does it seem

so underwhelming

and powerless?

And Jesus comes

with this parable

and encouragement

to his people

to remind them,

yes, it may seem small

and insignificant

and weak and foolish

and shameful now

but we are looking forward

to the day

when it will be great

and powerful and majestic.

Not just great

but the greatest

of all the nations

and kingdoms.

It starts

as the smallest of seeds.

It will be

the greatest of trees.

Jesus then

is giving us

his followers

the critical assurance

that we need

as we follow him

as our king

into his kingdom

in this world

which is this

that ultimate victory

is guaranteed

and it is coming.

God's power

is going to show up

in an even greater

and more majestic way

than we can imagine now.

It's the reminder

that we saw together

week after week

in the book of Daniel

that no matter

how bad things get

God is still in control.

No matter how bad things get

no matter how small

and weak

and insignificant things are

we can know

and trust

that God's kingdom

is still coming

and it will come

in full.

Jesus here

is giving us

a vision

of future orientation

that we look forward

to the great tree.

Brothers and sisters

as we live

as Christians

in this world

at times

feeling like

we're stumbling along

we also look forward

to the greatest tree.

We look forward

to God's kingdom

knowing that it will come

in its fullness

and it will be a place

of God's holiness

and justice

and goodness

and mercy

and love.

It will be

the great tree

to which

all the nations

come.

It will be

the kingdom

above

every other

kingdom.

In fact

that's also

what we see

in the book

of Revelation

which includes

in chapter 22

a tree.

Then the angel

showed me

the river

of the water

of life

bright as crystal

flowing from

the throne of God

and of the Lamb

through the middle

of the street

of the city.

Also

on either side

of the river

the tree

of life

with its 12

kinds of fruit

yielding its fruit

each month.

The leaves

of the tree

were for the healing

of the nations.

I'm going to read

that last sentence

again.

The leaves

of the tree

were for the healing

of the nations.

That's the same

imagery we saw

in our Old Testament

reading from Ezekiel

and the imagery

we see here

verse 32.

Yet when it is sown

it grows up

and becomes larger

than all the garden

plants

and puts out

large branches

so that the birds

of the air

can make nests

in its shade.

Remember we read

from Ezekiel.

I encourage you

by the way

if you look

in your worship guide

on pages 3 and 4

it's something

you can do

if you show up

early to our

worship service

and take a minute

to look at our

Old Testament passage

and how it relates

to our New Testament

passage.

I'm not going to go

into it all now

but you'll see

there's an explanation

there on pages 3 and 4

how it is

that Ezekiel 17

connects here

to our passage

and the main point

is this.

In Ezekiel 17

we see all these

different kinds of birds

finding shelter

in a tree.

Those birds represent

the nations of the earth.

In Mark chapter 4

Mark 4 · chapter mention

we see all these

different birds

coming to take shelter

in a tree.

Those birds represent

the nations of the earth.

In other words

the kingdom's greatness

is expressed

in the fact

that all different people

from every type

and nation

and tongue

will come to be a part

of God's kingdom

and worship him.

This is the image

that we're given

throughout the Old Testament

that Jesus brings

into reality

in the New Testament

which is that

the kingdom of God

is not just for Jews

it is for anyone

and everyone

in this world

who comes

and recognizes

Jesus as the true

and great king.

All the nations

of the earth

will come

and be a part of this.

And so we begin

to see again

the logic

of why the kingdom

must be small

and become great

not just to highlight

God's greatness

and his glory

although yes

that is true

but also because

it is the smallness

that leads

to the greatness.

In other words

the only way

that Jesus can bring

all the nations

to find shelter

in his tree

is if he dies

for their sins.

It is by coming

as a suffering savior

that he's able

to enable

and empower

people from every tribe

and nation and tongue

to come and worship him

because those

who are finding shelter

under the tree

are those who have come

to Jesus Christ

as their Lord and Savior

recognizing that he

is the one

and true king

who they worship

and love

and serve

and obey.

And it's Jesus' death

that makes that possible.

It's the smallness

of the kingdom

that enables

the greatness.

It's because Jesus

came to die

that he's able

to provide shelter

for all the birds.

It's because of his death

that he's able

to come

and bring people

from all over the world

to be a part

of his kingdom.

The ultimate greatness

of the kingdom

is for you.

The ultimate greatness

of the kingdom

is that Jesus

is able to bring you

to be a part of it.

The flip side,

however,

of the tree

is this.

Yes,

Jesus will rule

over the nations.

He'll provide shelter

for the nations.

And those who choose

not to find shelter

in him

will perish.

There are birds

who choose

to find shelter

under this tree

and those who do not.

And so,

brothers and sisters,

the choice

for us

is clear.

There are only two ways

to live in this world.

We can live

finding shelter

under the tree

of the kingdom of God

or we can

perish apart from it.

Those are the only

two choices

God gives us

in this world.

We have to embrace

the smallness

of the kingdom

to experience

its greatness.

We have to follow

the path

that Jesus gives us

in Mark 1,

Mark 1:15

verse 15,

that we repent

and believe

the gospel.

We recognize

that it is not

a path of victory

first but of suffering

just like our Lord

and Savior Jesus Christ.

And that

is how

he provides

for the nations

to find shelter.

In the show

Climbing the Redwood Giants,

they don't just cover

that photographer.

They also follow

this forest ecologist

named Steve Sillett.

And Steve wants

to be the first person

to explore

the canopy

of redwood trees.

Turns out

people had not

gone up

into the top

of these trees

because the lowest

branches were

200 feet

off the ground.

And so he wants

to do what's called

canopy work.

No one had touched

it until 1996.

What he comes

and finds

when he climbs

200 feet up

is something

incredibly surprising.

there are limbs

on this tree

that are themselves

the size of trees.

And on top

of those limbs

there are

three feet

of soil.

There is a

whole world

living

200 feet

off the ground.

He finds

huckleberry bushes

with fruit

that he can eat

and there are

salamanders

that live

200 feet

off the ground

in these trees.

In fact,

they tell us

some salamanders

may live

and die

in a single tree

without ever

touching the ground.

There's a

whole other

world

living in the

canopy

of these trees

200 feet

off the ground.

In other words,

this tree,

just like

the kingdom,

provides life

to surprising

candidates.

This tree,

just like

the kingdom,

provides shelter

and protection

for all

sorts

of creatures.

Our greatest

illustration

of all

of moving

from

the small

to the great

is the cross.

We've seen

before that

the crucifixion

is the smallest

thing,

the most

shameful thing,

and it

leads to

Jesus'

glorification,

the greatest

thing,

the most

glorious

thing.

Again,

from Philippians

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2.

At the name

of Jesus,

every knee

should bow

in heaven

and on earth

and under

the earth,

and every

tongue confess

that Jesus

Christ is

Lord to

the glory

of God

the Father.

Our passage

tells us

some simple

things.

the kingdom

of God

has a

beginning

and it's

small and

foolish and

unexpected.

The kingdom

of God

has an

end

and it's

the greatest

and the

most powerful.

And unlike

other great

and powerful

kingdoms,

it is loving

and benevolent.

It provides

shelter for

anyone

who will come

and find it.

the

photographer

I mentioned

at the

beginning,

Nichols,

said this

as he's

searching

this most

impressive

photograph

that will

finally help

people to

understand the

greatness of

the redwood

tree.

At the end

of the day,

all I'm

after is the

glory of

this tree.

And the

forest ecologist

Steve Sillett

says this,

if you're

lucky enough

to get up

into the

crowns of

one of

these trees,

it puts

your own

insignificant

existence

in perspective.

It makes

you realize

there's something

much greater

than yourself,

so much

vaster

than you.

Brothers and

sisters,

there is

something so

much greater

and so much

vaster than

us.

It is

the kingdom

of God.

God

may look

small now,

but it

will prevail

and be

the greatest

one day.

It is like

a grain of

mustard seed,

which when

sown on the

ground is

the smallest

of all the

seeds on

earth.

Yet when

it is sown,

it grows up

and becomes

larger than

all the

garden plants

and puts

out large

branches,

so that the

birds of the

air can make

nests in

its shade.

Let's pray.

Our

Father in

heaven,

we thank

you for

this

encouragement

from your

word,

this reminder

of your

kingdom that

is to come.

We ask

that you

would be at

work in

our hearts,

that we

would embrace

and love

the foolishness,

the weakness

of the gospel,

that it would

be our power,

and you'd give

us the hope

that comes

from looking

forward to

your kingdom

when it comes

in fullness.

We ask all

these things

in the mighty

name of our

Lord and Savior,

Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.