Sermon

The Value of Small Beginnings | Rev. Jerry Mason

First Apostolic Church

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  1. Welcome to the first episode Church podcast.

  2. Our church mission is to love as God loves showing compassion

  3. Every Soul, thus, winning those souls and equipping them to be

  4. sent out to plant and to harvest.

  5. Thank you for joining us today. And we hope that you are blessed

  6. by today's podcast. Bless your Holy Name today.

  7. Hey man, look at your neighbor this morning telling me feels

  8. good to be in church. Man, you may be seated.

  9. Give honor to my Bishop this morning.

  10. Love and appreciate him. Appreciate and love our pastor

  11. and his wife and family this morning.

  12. What a privilege it is to be in church today.

  13. And I look across this congregation this morning and

  14. I'm purposefully stalling, just a little bit as these gentlemen,

  15. get ready. But I look across the

  16. congregation this morning and I can't help, but feel a cross

  17. mixed emotion of both frustration and gratitude.

  18. And my gratitude Bishop is that I have a desire to come to the

  19. house of the Lord. That's not what I'm talking

  20. about this morning. I'm just, I'm just sharing that

  21. I'm thankful to be here today. When you miss?

  22. regardless of the reason, if it's something that you want to

  23. be at you miss it, You man. So I appreciate that this

  24. morning. We're going to do something

  25. date. We have both guitar setup.

  26. Okay. Oh, there it is.

  27. All right. We're going to do something this

  28. morning. I'm going to teach.

  29. We're going to get into the word of the Lord.

  30. But we're doing something with purpose today, so I'll explain a

  31. little bit as we go along and then more afterwards, Landon you

  32. ready? Ready, buddy.

  33. All right, we're going to have a couple of guitar solo.

  34. Presentations this morning for your listening enjoyment.

  35. All right. I'm ready when you are.

  36. Whatever. Feels good.

  37. Got some volume. Alright, let's give him a good

  38. hand. Was it that good?

  39. Hey man, can anybody else out in the congregation?

  40. Do that. I can't do that.

  41. All right, it was good. Now we're going to have another

  42. one. We're going to go back and forth

  43. here just a little bit. Alright, everybody.

  44. Okay, you're going to stay with me.

  45. All right. I don't care what you like.

  46. Whatever feels good. Alright, let's give him a good

  47. hand this morning. All right, we're going to switch

  48. back where the land is going to take another.

  49. Go at it. this is not necessarily a guitar off, or

  50. however, they say that like the drum off or whatever, but we are

  51. doing some compare and contrast this morning with the very

  52. specific reason, Whenever you're ready.

  53. All right, very good. Let's give him a good hand.

  54. Alright, one more time. Whatever.

  55. I don't care, whatever makes you happy.

  56. Alright, let's give them both a good hand this morning and if

  57. you'll stand with me this morning, we're actually going to

  58. read the word of the Lord. Don't anybody get nervous?

  59. I'm going to be teaching this morning on the subject of the

  60. value of Small Beginnings. We're going to compare and

  61. contrast. What just happened in just a

  62. moment. The value of Small Beginnings,

  63. The Book of Mark, chapter 4, and verse number 30, the Bible reads

    Mark 4 chapter mention

  64. and he said we're into shall we liken the kingdom of God or with

  65. what comparison shall We compare it it is like a grain of mustard

  66. seed which when it is sown in the earth is less than all the

  67. seeds that be in the Earth. But when it is sown it, groweth

  68. up and become a greater than all herbs and shoot us out.

  69. Great branches. So that the fowls of the air May

  70. Lodge Under The Shadow Of it, the value.

  71. Of Small Beginnings. Bishop would you ask the Lord to

  72. help us this morning? Anoint the lips of clay to speak

  73. today. Amen.

  74. Lord bless you. You may be seated this morning.

  75. Brother, Alex for the Landon, thank you for your help this

  76. morning. I appreciate that what they have

  77. demonstrated for you this morning very briefly is the

  78. value of Small Beginnings. They did.

  79. So through a demonstration of varying levels of guitar

  80. experience for the Landon represented, the beginner level

  81. of guitar playing. Actually I wrote that he

  82. represented the beginner level but he probably represents a

  83. little bit above beginner level because as a novice or beginner

  84. guitar player, who never intends to be on anything but that I

  85. can't do that. So he might be a little bit

  86. better than beginner but he definitely represented a

  87. starting point and Alex represented.

  88. The more experienced level this morning.

  89. Somewhere around eight years ago if I've got my timing.

  90. Correct Alex brother, Alex was also at the beginner level. 8

  91. years, 10 years 12 years. Some of your somewhere around

  92. there in his level of guitar playing.

  93. Now, the only reason why his plane Advanced to the level that

  94. it is today. Does anybody want to wager a

  95. guess? Practice.

  96. Yes, I can't disagree with that, but if I could take it one step

  97. further this morning. The reason why he is Advanced to

  98. the level he is today is because he never quit plate.

  99. Sounds simple must not be as simple as it sounds today.

  100. There are a lot of people and I'm going to use music as a very

  101. brief example. This morning, there are a lot of

  102. people who want to play an instrument, but don't want to

  103. put the time that it takes into learning how to do.

  104. So I can recall as as a little boy in my my father's Church.

  105. There was a particular woman in the church who who said I say

  106. this carefully said she had a desire Bishop to play the piano

  107. she and and odds are. She's not going to hear this

  108. podcast. I won't call her by name but I

  109. will speak somewhat freely. She really expressed.

  110. It was such an Earnest Ian and what appeared to be such desire

  111. that oh Lord. I want to play the piano if

  112. you'll just help me so much. So and I'm not making fun this

  113. morning. I know that God can choose to do

  114. whatever he wants to however he wants to but Literally went over

  115. to the piano one evening during a service and ask them to pray

  116. for her hands that God would give her the ability to play.

  117. Now, I'm not saying God can't do that.

  118. But what I also know is behind the story, The Fred Jim

  119. practice. She putting time into Mastery

  120. her skill. She didn't try learning chords,

  121. she didn't do anything, she wanted God to just drop out of

  122. the sky without effort this ability to be able to play and

  123. then boom. Whoo, I'm a piano player.

  124. There are no shortcuts. Unless God performs a miracle,

  125. God will not usually do for you what you can do for yourself.

  126. But I will tell you this morning that when you do what you can

  127. do, he'll take over from there. I can recall my my own personal

  128. prayer. As a teenager, I wanted nothing

  129. more. There was three particular

  130. gentleman who played the Hammond B3 organ and I like playing the

  131. keyboard. I like playing the piano.

  132. I don't like any playing anything as much as I do the B3

  133. and as a teenager I wanted so bad to play like these three

  134. gentlemen but I didn't have near the skill set but I was only 13

  135. years old at the time. I can remember Bishop praying

  136. and saying God, if you will help me play like them.

  137. I will use that for you. Now I'll tell you what I did do

  138. at that point in a whole lot of spare time.

  139. I would play their music. I would have my keyboard in my

  140. bedroom set on the organ setting and me and these three

  141. gentlemen, we go to town I didn't sound like them, but as

  142. long as I was playing with them, I thought I did.

  143. But what that did do is it taught me the discipline of

  144. practice, it taught me, the discipline of rehearsing, and

  145. committing myself to the effort. And I'm not to wear, I'm not to

  146. the skill level, that these three gentlemen are still yet

  147. today, but I can tell you that, as I put effort in God, met me

  148. there. And and, and, and I can't even

  149. begin to explain the full process.

  150. It wouldn't make sense to some of you, but I know beyond the

  151. shadow of a doubt that God answered my prayer to a certain

  152. degree because the effort was placed, there are many things in

  153. life that we see. And we experience that start out

  154. small but grow Small seeds, grow into Big Trees.

  155. It's a matter of fact, one of the smallest seeds in the world,

  156. grows into the great Sequoia tree, which can grow up to 300

  157. feet in height babies, grow into adults, small puppies, some

  158. breeds grow into big dogs, iron ore from the ground is made into

  159. steel, which is made to use to in the building of bridges and

  160. skyscrapers. Scrapers and Automobiles trains

  161. and airplanes just to name a few small things become big.

  162. It takes a process of time. There are some learning

  163. opportunities that caused this to start out small.

  164. Learning a new language. You don't start out in a new

  165. language, fluent. It just don't happen.

  166. I've actually put a set of headphones on played in my

  167. target language and went to sleep.

  168. Hoping that when I woke up, I'd speak better.

  169. It doesn't work. It didn't help at all.

  170. I woke up and tried a few things.

  171. I was like, well, I didn't help. But it takes time, it takes a

  172. process, learning them. You a new musical instrument?

  173. We discovered that this morning already, it takes step by step.

  174. Now, I don't know what it's like to to take guitar lessons.

  175. I don't even know what it's like to take piano lessons

  176. necessarily be better if I did, I do know what it's like to take

  177. drum lessons, and I remember Pastor, or whenever I was a

  178. little boy, taking drum lessons. They started me out slow.

  179. They started me out on just a couple things.

  180. You know, I wanted to do all the licks and the fancy symbols and

  181. boom, bop bop bop bop Papa Brad Malone.

  182. They didn't start me out on that.

  183. They started me out on something, that they knew I

  184. could handle. Now I could have chosen to give

  185. up then because I wasn't interested in what they were

  186. teaching me. But what they were teaching me

  187. was necessary for me to be able to do at a later date.

  188. What it was? I wanted to do because it is a

  189. process. Somebody say, Amen, learning to

  190. sing. It's not always natural.

  191. I can remember trying to learn how to sing my brother and I

  192. were in our in his bedroom. And he was playing his guitar.

  193. This was on a Saturday night, he's having Church to next

  194. morning. Of course, he was playing his

  195. guitar and I was singing, man, we just have more worship and I

  196. thought things were going pretty good.

  197. So Mom came to the door. And she said, why are you

  198. singing every song? And every note in the exact same

  199. note? I didn't know, I was So I needed

  200. to be taught what was the right way to try to sing learning a

  201. new job. Has anyone here this morning

  202. ever started a new job and immediately you had it mastered.

  203. I know there's some people that think they do.

  204. No. So, it takes effort.

  205. You start out at a certain place and then you grow from there,

  206. whether it, there are just a couple of jobs in particular,

  207. that I can think of that would really require somewhat of a

  208. learning curve. One is a mechanic II appreciate

  209. mechanics, especially whenever something goes wrong with my

  210. car. Doctors.

  211. Doctors. Don't start out cutting you

  212. open. They start out with four years

  213. of preliminary school and then four years of medical school and

  214. then several years of residency and Specialties and learning and

  215. learning and learning. It's a lifelong journey of

  216. learning lawyers. I've never needed one.

  217. But if there's ever a day that I do, I want one who has been

  218. skilled in doing what needs to be done.

  219. Factory work. Can't Overlook that they're hard

  220. jobs. They require skill.

  221. They require effort a pilot. God bless the pilots.

  222. They keep us safe. That's a skill.

  223. I can remember still, I learning how to type.

  224. I don't even think they teach typing classes anymore, but I

  225. can remember learning learning home row.

  226. And the first exercises, jay, jay, jay, jay, jay, jay, jay,

  227. jay jay. Now that bores me to tears.

  228. Now, but at that time, I was pretty excited.

  229. Well, this is pretty cool. And then, whenever we got to

  230. where we could actually type a few three-letter words without

  231. looking you know, the the boy, that's more than three letters.

  232. The boy jumps, you know, the cow jumps over the brown fox and all

  233. that kind of stuff. Start small and then it grows

  234. from there. Stephen Covey said, start with

  235. the end in mind using this as a frame of reference this morning,

  236. it would be healthy for us. And would it help keep us from

  237. quitting when the matters of Life?

  238. Get in the way. Ladies and gentlemen, this

  239. morning life is hard. I'm here to tell you today that

  240. life is not even fair. People can be mean, life can get

  241. sloppy, sometimes I'm happy. He sometimes I'm embarrassed.

  242. But I can't quit. Now, I've come too far to stop.

  243. Now, I'm a trip. I may make mistakes.

  244. Let me tell you something. The person that never makes

  245. mistakes. This morning, never tried

  246. anything. So don't get, don't get deterred

  247. today by people who say, they've never messed up.

  248. Anybody ever tells you? They've never messed up.

  249. They've never tried You can't you can't Market someone who's

  250. trying even though they may mess up, if I don't get it right

  251. today, I'm going to try again tomorrow.

  252. Why? Because I've got the end in

  253. mind. I know where I'm headed.

  254. I know what my purpose is this morning.

  255. I can declare that. I know what my why is, why am I

  256. here? Why am I here?

  257. Why am I doing this? Why do I worship God?

  258. Why do I come to church? I know what my wife is because

  259. I'm In Love With Jesus. It's not just because I want to

  260. go to heaven. I'm not here this morning trying

  261. to avoid some type of absentee penalty.

  262. I'm here today because I'm In Love With My Savior.

  263. How many is here this morning? Because you love the Lord, we're

  264. not here today because because we're afraid to get in trouble.

  265. I'm here because I love him. We must understand this morning

  266. at the master of anything was once a beginner But there are

  267. some of us that if we try one thing and it don't work out the

  268. first time, what do we want to do?

  269. We won't quit. No one starts out and then

  270. something new and is immediately the master of it.

  271. Maybe someone here this morning, that Small Beginnings for you

  272. means a moment of outward worship that you normally don't

  273. do. Maybe Small Beginnings for you

  274. as a small amount of daily prayer, maybe it's Financial

  275. giving that you're not accustomed to.

  276. Maybe Small Beginnings for you is surrendering to

  277. transformational, living changing your lifestyle.

  278. Maybe Small Beginnings for you is changing The Company.

  279. You Keep modifying, your language attending church

  280. Faithfully, Small Beginnings for each of us, may differ.

  281. But I'm here to tell somebody this morning that just because

  282. you try and it doesn't work out, doesn't mean you need to Stop

  283. because the only way you're ever going to get to where you need

  284. to go, is to keep pulling yourself up every time you fall.

  285. It's to keep trying every time you fail.

  286. That's the only way we can make that happen.

  287. We're often interrupted in our Small Beginnings by troubles and

  288. by adversities that if we're not careful, cause emotions to get

  289. in the driver's seat and those emotions will cause doubt and

  290. fear and concern and somehow take over what it is that we're

  291. about to do. This leads us to the questioning

  292. moments of our effort, maybe it wasn't worth it after all. well,

  293. I tried Once, and it didn't work.

  294. So, I'm done. You must watch some

  295. relationships, don't work. Is because somebody in the

  296. relationship. Only tried once And said to

  297. themselves. I don't care enough about that

  298. person to try again. Amen.

  299. So perhaps it wasn't worth it, so I'll just quit.

  300. Didn't work out the first time. How many times?

  301. How many examples? How many occasions can you quote

  302. that, you know, that it was perfect the first time?

  303. Not many. It's so rare.

  304. I can't think of any off the top of my head.

  305. So is it worth quitting? No, it's not worth quit.

  306. Don't quit. Just because there's

  307. difficulties. Don't quit just because you

  308. didn't get it right? The first time, God values,

  309. Small Beginnings because Small Beginnings become giant endings.

  310. I love hearing stories of people who start out in their walk with

  311. God and you watch the transformation.

  312. You see the steps that they're taking to get from where they

  313. were yesterday, to where God wants them to be today and then

  314. all of a sudden they transition to where they're teaching Sunday

  315. School classes. Amen.

  316. If we rewind the clock. Eleven years.

  317. Is that right? Ten years.

  318. Somewhere in there. James Malone was not a guy that

  319. was going to step foot behind this pulpit.

  320. Right. the first time he came to church, he didn't come up here.

  321. first time he came to church, I don't know if he felt anything

  322. other than fear. What changed him kept coming.

  323. He kept exposing himself to the presence of God.

  324. And what was once a small thing has become a bigger thing.

  325. And his consistency in that small thing, led to an even

  326. bigger thing. And then another bigger thing,

  327. and it's building blocks, ladies and gentlemen, of life, If you

  328. look over your shoulder, you should not be standing on the

  329. same Foundation. You were years ago, you should

  330. be building blocks ahead of where you were.

  331. I should not be in this race. The same place, the same

  332. position I started in. If you are in the same position

  333. in line of this race that you were, when you started and you

  334. haven't moved. God value Small Beginnings, even

  335. if it's just one step at a time. He's not looking for Supermen

  336. and superwomen to LEAP tall buildings in a single bound.

  337. He's looking for people that will consistently love him.

  338. And know that in our Humanity, when I mess up.

  339. I'm not going to walk away from him.

  340. Anyone. I'm going to venture out on a

  341. limb here, just a minute and I hope it's a big limb and sturdy.

  342. Oh, would you look up here? Three guys.

  343. All different, all individualistic.

  344. And all subject to mistake. All three of us.

  345. I'm not calling them to error. I'm just saying we're human.

  346. For all you gentlemen in the room this morning, we put our

  347. pants on the same way you do. One leg at a time.

  348. We don't hold our pants up running jump in them.

  349. If any of the three of us, did it be Bishop?

  350. But I don't think he does. One of my get a time, we're no

  351. different. In our Humanity than you are.

  352. Subject to error subject to mistake, you may not know about

  353. it. Listen to me.

  354. There are some of you this morning that that you you put

  355. certain people. I know I'm probably not one of

  356. them, but you put certain people up on a pedestal You say, well,

  357. I don't have it all figured out the way Bishop does.

  358. And I mess up a whole lot more than he does.

  359. You don't know that. And even if that's true, that's

  360. why he's Bishop. We've got to be careful.

  361. What we use is our measuring stick.

  362. Our measuring stick needs to be God.

  363. That should not take away from our respect, but our measuring

  364. stick should be God. and if you're making an effort, Even if

  365. you're not where you need to be, if you're making an effort and

  366. it's one step forward one. Step forward, three steps

  367. backwards don't stop. Keep making another step

  368. forward. God's Gonna bless you because

  369. God values. Small Beginnings.

  370. God, blesses people who will not quit just because it's not easy.

  371. He said, well I'm not I'm not ready to worship the way that

  372. you guys worship. That's fine.

  373. Start somewhere. well, I can't pray in our, I don't know if

  374. anybody's asked you to Jesus asked his disciples to And look

  375. what happened? Fell asleep.

  376. I'll be honest with you. Nah, I miss power are the other

  377. night completely forgot about it till Friday.

  378. How's that for Humanity? But there's been a power hour or

  379. two. I've left feeling like the

  380. Apostle, Peter I've got one. Amen.

  381. What's that mean? I've fallen asleep on him

  382. before. Lord, where was I?

  383. Hey man. Hallelujah, thank you.

  384. Jesus. Now.

  385. To those who that's never happened to.

  386. They could easily judge that. I can't believe somebody fall

  387. asleep. Praying.

  388. It's fine. but for those of you, that's never tried, What point

  389. I'm trying to make for you this morning is when you try and it

  390. don't go so well. Try again.

  391. Try again. Zechariah 4.

  392. And verse number 10, the Bible says For who hath despised the

  393. day of small things. Several other translations.

  394. That's word. Small Beginnings.

  395. For they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet or Plumb line in

  396. the hand of the ruble, with those seven, they are the eyes

  397. of the Lord, which run to, and fro through the whole Earth.

  398. Israelites returned to Jerusalem from Exile in Babylon and there

  399. were very discouraged at the smallness of the foundations of

  400. the temple and understood the task before them was very great.

  401. God, sent his Prophet Zechariah to them, to encourage them with

  402. the promise of his word. Ladies and gentlemen, if we're

  403. not careful this morning, our fear of small Beginnings will

  404. keep us from stepping out in faith.

  405. Some people are paralyzed by trying anything out of fear that

  406. it's not going to go well. So, rather than make a decision

  407. to try, they make a decision to do nothing.

  408. But I want you to know this morning, God will bless your

  409. effort even if it's messy. There are reasons, we typically

  410. despise Small Beginnings. Small Beginnings.

  411. Don't appear to be successful. After all, if it was successful,

  412. would it be bigger? That's not necessarily true but

  413. that's what we think. The second reason we typically,

  414. despise Small Beginnings is Small.

  415. Beginnings are hard. They require a lot of work.

  416. And to be brutally honest, this morning.

  417. We are living in a lazy society and that laziness pardon me this

  418. morning. But that laziness has crept into

  419. the church. We don't worship the way we used

  420. to and I'm not necessarily saying we at First Apostolic

  421. church. That's not a berating statement.

  422. I'm saying we as a people, there's a few exceptions out

  423. there, but generally speaking, we don't worship the way we used

  424. to, as a church Society. But we can't excuse our Behavior

  425. just because someone else does. If every Apostolic Church

  426. refuses to worship that doesn't make us right to follow.

  427. There's value in worship. Small Beginnings in your

  428. worship, God will bless I remember the first time the

  429. first time that I really started vocalizing.

  430. My worship as a young man. As a young boy, I can remember

  431. the first time during during my dad's preaching, Bishop that I

  432. said, a man out loud and it took, it took a lot of lot of

  433. working up, you know, a lot of mental things.

  434. I was waiting for the right moment, you know, and I'd worked

  435. it up and right moment, presented itself.

  436. And I said, amen. I was the only one that said,

  437. amen. You don't want to happen.

  438. Now. God bless our elders.

  439. I'm not, this is not meant to be a disparaging comment toward

  440. them because it wasn't in this church.

  441. But in that particular Church, what happened?

  442. is Elders, turned around and looked at me and went and you'd

  443. have to know my personality to appreciate this and some of you

  444. do some of you don't, but that just made me want to say many

  445. more like what you looking at Let me tell you what that would

  446. do for some of you. It make you crawl back in the

  447. hole and say well I don't think I'm gonna same anymore.

  448. We need to be careful what our behavior is toward our fellow

  449. brother and sister and worship. Because we might be a stumbling

  450. block to them to cause them to not worship the way that they

  451. want to. Some people need a firm

  452. affirmation. Some people need more support.

  453. I didn't let it stop me. but some people would I can remember

  454. the first time I paid ties. This week, he's teaching on

  455. financial stewardship. So let me just throw this Story

  456. in real quick. This isn't going to happen to

  457. everyone and it didn't happen to me every time but it did boost

  458. my faith. The first time I paid ties, I

  459. was making $30 a month for my aunt to we'd eat her Lon so I

  460. had three dollars tithe to give I was proud.

  461. May I don't remember how old I was, maybe 11 years old.

  462. I was proud. I had a tithe envelope.

  463. With my name on it, I had been taught by my parents to tithe

  464. what it meant to tithe. So I had an opportunity to do it

  465. and I'll tell you what, I was flat proud.

  466. I mean, chest out. Bouncing the step proud.

  467. I was like, yeah, I paid my ties today.

  468. Before that Sunday was over. I gave three dollars still to

  469. this day. I don't know how it happened.

  470. Before the evening service that afternoon I had over 80 dollars

  471. cash money in my wallet. I don't know how it happened.

  472. Now, every time I've given God, he hasn't blessed me in return

  473. financially. There's times He blesses, me and

  474. health. God spoke to me specifically on

  475. our missionary night. My health been improving ever

  476. since. God bless the small things.

  477. He'll bless the things that you can't rationalize.

  478. He'll bless the things that your education can't qualify.

  479. Because his ways are not my ways.

  480. I'm feeling the Holy Ghost. Now, his thoughts are higher

  481. than my thoughts. I don't need to validate

  482. everything I'm thinking in the spirit because it may not make

  483. sense to me. It may not make sense to you,

  484. but if God sanction it, God will bless it and there's value in

  485. it. Valuing.

  486. We're often another reason why we despise Small Beginnings.

  487. We're often surrounded. But-, adversarial people.

  488. Who just seems like they just lived discourages.

  489. Pull us down to their level. And their level is the world of

  490. don't try anything. They sure don't want you to try.

  491. Hello. I guarantee you there are people

  492. in your life that don't want you to try harder because that'll

  493. make them look bad. Who do you want to please this

  494. morning? Then we're God, he values.

  495. The small things? Not only should we try, but we

  496. should praise him while we're at it.

  497. Psalms 10 5 and verse number one says, oh, give thanks to the

  498. Lord call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the

  499. People Sing unto him. Sing Psalms unto him.

  500. Talk you of all, his wondrous Works glory in His holy name,

  501. let the heart of them Rejoice that seek the Lord seek the Lord

  502. and his strength, seek his face ever more.

  503. Remember, His Marvelous works that he hath done his And the

  504. judgments of his mouth a few verses following this were told

  505. that he has remembered his Covenant, the Covenant that he

  506. made with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and Jacob, including his

  507. confirmation that he would give Israel the land of Canaan.

  508. Then in Psalms 105 verse number 12, the Bible says, when they

  509. were, but a few men in number that Small Beginnings.

  510. Then a few verses later 105 verse 24 says and he increased

  511. his people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies.

  512. That's God blessing, small things that's God.

  513. Valuing the beginnings that are small.

  514. Because he increased the people greatly and made them stronger

  515. than their enemies. The final verse of this chapter

  516. and beginning at verse number 43, these verses say and he

  517. brought forth his people with joy and his chosen with gladness

  518. and he gave them the lands of the Heathen.

  519. And he and they inherited the labor of the people that they

  520. might observe his statutes and keep his laws.

  521. Praise ye the Lord God. Honours and values, Small

  522. Beginnings, looking back at Zechariah.

  523. Now, a few verses earlier than the verse we read earlier in,

  524. Zechariah 4 & 6. Then he answered and spake unto

  525. me saying, this is the word of the Lord.

  526. And to zerubbabel saying, not by might nor by power, but by my

  527. spirit saith, the Lord of hosts. We often quote, that verse here,

  528. it is right on alignment with God saying who hath despised the

  529. day of small. Beginnings.

  530. God don't want us to forsake. Small Beginnings, our Victory

  531. comes from Small Beginnings, our strength comes from Small

  532. Beginnings, our future with God, comes from Small Beginnings,

  533. start today, ladies and gentlemen, because they'll be no

  534. tomorrow without something small in our life today to start.

  535. Oh, could you lift your hands and just Magnify Him this

  536. morning? I need small things in my life.

  537. I need Small Beginnings in my life.

  538. Value. Small.

  539. Beginnings. You can't go anywhere without a

  540. beginning. You can't take a trip without a

  541. start. Can't come to church without

  542. getting ready. There's a beginning.

  543. Small Beginnings. When I take a big trip whenever

  544. I take a globe-trotting trip, my beginning is rather small

  545. because I've got to pace myself, it's 26 our day.

  546. So I start out with just this is how I do it.

  547. I start out with my first leg of my journey.

  548. I don't start out clock in the entire trip saying.

  549. Alright it's minute 10 of 26 hours.

  550. I say I've got I've got it between now my Leg of this

  551. journey is to get to Evansville. And then, once I get to

  552. Evansville, my next set of my journey is to get to Atlanta.

  553. This is a trip that's coming up for me.

  554. So I've already rehearsed it in my mind when I get to Atlanta.

  555. The next thing I do, I've got to get to JFK in New York City and

  556. that's the third leg. And then the next leg is to get

  557. to Israel. And so I dissect it down to all

  558. these small sections And it makes the trip more valuable for

  559. me. Let me, let me break that down

  560. just a little bit further. We took our young people, I

  561. don't remember what year it was. Maybe it's 2010 to Florida.

  562. I vowed, I'd never do that a single day in my life again.

  563. The trip was good. All right.

  564. I have no complaint about students.

  565. No complaint about what happened once we got there.

  566. But if it's over, I'm so used to Flying.

  567. If it's over five hours. I don't want to drive I never

  568. did what you did. I never did what?

  569. Brother, Uncle Fred did. I'm not a driver.

  570. I don't I don't do what Josh Johnson does, so if it's Lord, I

  571. hate driving for hours. I hate it.

  572. I don't do what you do on a weekly basis.

  573. I hate it with a passion. But I drove that one.

  574. And it was undeniably miserable. Miserable is not even an

  575. adjective that I can use that strong enough to express my

  576. bitter hatred for that trip. Why?

  577. because, I didn't set up Milestones.

  578. I didn't, I didn't set up a small beginning.

  579. We left it to 2:30 in the morning on a Sunday and my clock

  580. started, right? Then to say are we there yet?

  581. And I was miserable. I will tell you this morning,

  582. God values, Small Beginnings. Don't judge your here.

  583. Against someone else. Don't judge your today against

  584. someone else's today. You don't know the road.

  585. They've walked. and for every person it looks easy, it's not

  586. Amen. For every person you look at you

  587. think, well, they just make it look so easy, don't ask for

  588. their Road. Because that's a mistake staying

  589. with me this morning. Just value in Small Beginnings.

  590. I appreciate our guys who helped us demonstrate this morning,

  591. They knew what they were in for. They knew what we were comparing

  592. and contrasting. if you want to get, To the place that you've

  593. got, your eyes set on. Quitting will never get you

  594. there. Landon.

  595. I don't, I don't know what your desires are, and I'm not asking

  596. you publicly but I'm just making a statement this morning if you

  597. want to play the guitar. if you want to play like him, if people

  598. stare at you stare back, you never get anywhere stopping

  599. short of where God wants you to be.

  600. You know, we come to church, I'm landing the plane right now.

  601. I promise we come to church. I watch people.

  602. From up here, see? All kinds of things.

  603. I've seen people. I've seen people leave in the

  604. middle of worship. I don't know why.

  605. I don't even try to think about why I seen people leave in the

  606. middle of worship. Him alone has seen people leave

  607. when worship is over. I can deduce from that they

  608. don't want. What's next?

  609. I don't know if I'm right or not.

  610. I've seen people leave before the preaching, before the word.

  611. See people leave in the middle of the word.

  612. Seen people leave at the end of the word.

  613. You leave, anytime short of the last a man you're cheating

  614. yourself. because you're going to lose an opportunity for God

  615. to seal his word in your heart so that you can leave here and

  616. know that a small beginning is favorable, Faster.

  617. There are messages that I've heard preached that never really

  618. meant anything to me until God's anointing fell in an altar call.

  619. What is felt as Holy Ghost? Sweep through here.

  620. Because there's something it's almost like an altar call as the

  621. sedative for an operation. And God can come in at the end

  622. of the word and just kind of cut like a knife and cut and sew and

  623. do whatever it is he needs to do because it's going to seal his

  624. word in your heart. Let me tell you, ladies and

  625. gentlemen, don't forsake the presence of God.

  626. Whether it's a Sunday morning or Sunday night or Wednesday night

  627. or a Revival service, it's just as important. it's just as

  628. important and no matter how small it seems, God will

  629. favorite God will favorite would you lift your hands as Pastor

  630. comes this morning lift your hands to the Lord today say God.

  631. I need the value of Small Beginnings in my life.

  632. Thank you for listening. If you would like more

  633. information about our services and activities, you can find us

  634. on Facebook Instagram and Twitter with the username fac

  635. MC. Again that's fac MC, thank you

  636. and have a blessed day.