Small Is Big | Pr Steven Soon

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Our topic for today is this small is big, small,

it's big, very contradictory statement. But let me start off.

If story the illastraight and this is fictional, Okay, it's

not biblical. I just want to say it's fictional. I

wrote this. Okay, do not quote me and say that passed.

Stephen misquoted the Bible, came out stories, wrote his own

book in the Bible. Okay, I just wait out there.

It's a fictional story. To help us imagine the topic

for today. Now imagine Noah's Ark. You know, the flirt

has receded after forty days, all right? Uh? And then

the Noah's art is parked on dry land, and the

animals started to leave. And when the animals started to leave,

God spoke to the animals and say, hold on, I

want to gether all of you animals. And he said,

all of all of you in the next five thousand years.

At the end of that term of five thousand years,

whichever animal species that conquer the most land, that claim

the most land, I will call this animal the king

of the animal kingdom. So the animals were really excited.

While we get to be king of the animal kingdom.

Who doesn't want that? Right? So the lions went out

and then thought with the other predators to claim the

most land. And then the lions shirley felt like we

are the most powerful, the most vicious, surely we will

be king. The elephants went out, stormed their food on

the ground, shook the grounds, and no other animals there

to come close to them in case of being trampled.

And the elephants thought, surely when we hold our you

know this is many of these lands are our strongholds.

Surely we will be king. The birds and the eagles

go to purch on as many tree tops as possible,

hoping that they also will be king. Kangaroos of course,

went to down Under to Australia. Anybody, any other animal

that there come close, they'll punch it in the face

and kick them. And the kangaroos thought, surely we will

be the king of the animals. And then there were

the fishes and the sea animals that went down and

then suddenly they remember, oh, God said claim as many land,

not water. So they were disqualified. So sadly, the sea

animals were disqualified. Five thousand years later, God rallied the

animals again and again all the animals that I mentioned above. Oh,

the lion says, for sure, we're be king of the

animal kingdom. And the elephants felt the same. The birds

and eagles felt the same, kangaroos felt the same. And

then the sea animals came, and then suddenly they remembered, oh,

we were disqualified. We're not counted. And then God says,

now I shall declare off the king of the animal kingdoms,

of the animal kingdom. And everyone is like, who will

it be? And then God says, the king of the

any animal kingdom is, It will go to the ants.

And then everyone was shocked, even the ends themselves. The

elephants were like, what are ends? Because they can't see

the ends. I never knew the ants existed for the

past five thousand years, but yet the ants were chosen.

Everyone thoughts ask God, how can it be the and

such small, insignificant creatures can be called the king of

the animal kingdoms? And then God says, ants have claimed

the most land. They can be found everywhere, they can

be found in the jungle, they can be found on streets,

they can be found in a poor man's home, they

can be found in palaces of great kingdoms, and everyone everywhere.

Therefore they shall be crowned the kings of the animal kingdom.

Just a little sorry, you guys like it. I wrote this,

you know, I wrote these, not chadgipt A, not chadgipt

I wrote this. Thank you for the encouragement. Thank you,

thank you. You know, in the world today, we are

always celebrating the big, big houses, because big reputation, big concerts,

big sound, big worship teams, big churches. But yet in

the Bible you'll constantly see that God has always used

or favored the small over the big. And we're gonna

look at Scripture first Contents one twenty six to thirty one,

and allow me, if you have your Bible, to flip

it open. I'm gonna read from the nkjav version. And

this is the word of God. For you see your calling, brethren,

that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty,

not many noble, Ah call. But God has chosen the

foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise.

And God has chosen the weak things of the world

to put the shame the things which are mighty, and

the base things of the world, the basic, the most

small things of the world, and the things which are

despised God has chosen, and the things which are not

to bring to nothing, the things that are that no

flesh glory in His presence. But of Him you are

in Christ, Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God,

and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That, as it is written,

he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. So

there is a purpose why God likes to use the weak,

the foolish, the small, the insignificant. It's because when the

foolish are being used, the foolish will say, what am

I that you would use me? Lord? That the weak

may say, who am I with such frail arms and

legs that you want to use me. God wants to

use such people because they all bring him glory. Because

the small things recognize that they can't do it without God.

But the big things, the rich, the wealthy, the strong,

will credit themselves. Surely I have a little bit to

play like at least ride, you know. But yet God

constantly wants to use the small to shame the Mighty

and the foolish to shame the wise. Let's look at

some historical figures in the Bible, and we're gonna explore

how God use small people to bring him glory. We

gotta look at Gideon now Judges six fourteen to sixteen says,

Then the Lord turn to him and say, go in

this mind of yours, and you shall save Israel from

the hand of the media Nights. Have I not sent you?

So he said to him, Oh, my Lord, how can

I save Israel. Indeed, my clan the weakest in Manasse,

and I am the least in my father's house. And

the Lord said to him, surely I will be with you,

and you shall defeat the Median Knights as one man.

So this guy, Gideon was there in a thrashing field,

basically a farmer la doing his job, and God told Gideon, Hey,

I want to choose you to go and defeat the

Median Knights. You will save Israel one man against a

whole army. Of course, Gideon goes like, what, God, you

must be crazy. I'm here in the thrashing field being

a farmer. He asked me to go and defeat the

Median Knights. Contact as well. Gideon came from the perceived

weakest tribe of Israel, not just the weakest tripe, the

weakest clan in the tribe. He feels that I'm from

this significant small clan, and what more, he's the youngest

in the family. And back then you realize, if you

read again Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, these books, you realize God

has always asked the first bond to be dedicated. So

the firstborn in back in those days in Old Testament

is seen as the strongest, and if you're the youngest,

you are the weakest. The first borns are dedicated to

the Lord. They are sent to be in the Lord's army,

you know, to fight for Israel. They're sent into the army.

So there's a lot of focus on the firstborn being

the mightiest. That's why Gidden felt like, I'm the youngest

and the smallest in the family. Why are you asking me?

But yet, you know, thank God, the Gideon obeyed the Lord.

You know what happened. God, you seem to lead an

army of three hundred or the original three hundred, to

defeat the Median Nite army of one hundred and thirty

two thousand, and you know what's crazy. Gideon started with

thirty two thousand soldiers, but you can look at the

pictures before the picture before you know the selection process.

It became smaller and smaller and smaller, and eventually only

three hundred were chosen. The rest. The Lord say send

them back home. Three hundred overcoming one hundred entity two thousand.

You do the math in terms of the ratio. It's ridiculous.

And you see time and time again in Bible, in

the Bible, in the Old Testament, that was always a

story or rather the history for the Israelites, even when

they had the numbers. You will realize God will use

unconventional ways to get them to overcome the army. Blowing

of trumpets Saturday amplified. The enemy will think that, oh,

there are a lot of soldiers, we can't defeat them,

and they run aw. You know, you look at Uh

what's his name? You look at Jonathan and Alma bearer.

You know when he went in Uh. There was such

confusion because within their own enemy camp they started killing

each other. God has always used the small and used

unconventional ways because this will bring him glory. And we

recognize that it is not by our own strength, our

own mind, or by our own wisdom that caused us

to overcome. But today our focus, I want our focus

to look at this, the small overcoming the bag. And

just for you to know Gideon's name direct you know,

in in in in in the Hebrew is actually it

means great warrior. You know. Uh, he felt himself small,

but he was given the name as a great warrior.

All of us here are given the name sons and

daughters off the living God. Let's not forget our inheritance

and our identity. The second person in the Bible, second

historical figure that I want to bring to our attention

is David Famous story first Samuel sixteen sixty seven. I'm

just gonna read this so it worse. When they came

this day is basically Profert Samuel and his servant when

they came, Oh sorry, they came, it's basically children of

Ellip and then Prophet Samuel is there. So it was

when they came that he looked at illiob Iliop, being

the eldest son in the family, and say, surely the

loss anointed is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel,

do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature,

because I have refused him. For the Lord does not

see as man sees, for men looks at our appearance,

but the Lord looks at the heart. Contact what happened here?

King Saul broke the Lord's heart the first king of Israel,

human king, and the Lord say, I have my favorite

after him. He's no longer king in my side, and

I've chosen someone else. So he sent Prophet Samuel to

go to a town and specifically and say I want

to find someone from here. And of course Eliot came

out right. He was the firstborn son of the family.

He was a mighty warrior in the Israelite army tall,

I don't know, handsome or not, probably, and is not

mentioned in the Bible. Firstborn dedicated to the Lord. Of course,

Prophet Samuel will go like, shurely, is this guy that

God was annoying as king? But yeah, the Lord says nope.

Then the second son came nope, and the third and

the fourth so on so forth. I did a point

prophets like that's it right, and then the father were

like yeah, And then Lord said there's one more. And

then the father remember, oh, I got one more son,

one more, youngest, youngest son, tending sheep out in the fields.

And then that was when the Lord said, that is

the one, the smallest, the youngest, the one tending sheep,

not going to battle. And you all know the story

of how David, small young boy, slay the giant Golife

and Goliath. At that time, not a single person in

the Israelite I mean, not even Elio or King saw

himself dead to go against Goliath. But yet David went

and say, I shall not stand to see you shame

the name of the Lord. I shall I shall be

victorious because the Lord is with me. And he went

and he slayed the giant. David, forgotten man by even

his own father, small youngest in the family, but yet

again chosen by God. The last historical figure the I

want us to look at. It's Simon Peter Fishermen, chosen

by Jesus to be one of his first disciples. Simon

Peter was not a learned scholar. He wasn't a Pharisee

or seduci, who are considered the religious leaders of the time,

people who knew the scripture very well. He wasn't a

man of influential status that people would listen to him.

And one more. He was such an emotional man. I

relate to him a lot little a little bit more angreedy.

There has been a little bit more to say first

and then realize what he said. Are you sorry? Jesus?

He was a very brash, emotional man.

Ah.

When Jesus was captured. First thing you do the color

off the ear and got rebuilt by Jesus. No, you

shall not do that to other people. And Jesus healed

the man he had his cut off. Also very easily terrified.

This man that walked on water with Jesus, followed Jesus

for three years, saw everything that Jesus did, considered one

of the closest in Jesus's inner circle. The moment Jesus

was captured, he followed from Afar and people say, aren't

you his disciple? What did they say? No, I'm not

this guy who is easily terrified. He is so emotional,

easily rouled up and angered. Do you know what Jesus

said to him, Matthew sixteen eighteen, And I also say

to you that you are Peter and on this rock

I will build my church, and the gates of Hades

shall not prevail against it. This was, of course, before

the betrayal of Peter. Don't you know, don't you think

Jesus knew that he was going to do that, because

Jesus seemed just said, by the time the rooster, you know,

crows for three times, you're going to betray me. But

before the rooster crows, you're going to betray me three times. Sorry,

Jesus knew. But yet this person, who is not that

educated emotions sometimes emotionally unstable. Jesus said, upon you, I'll

build my church. And you know what happened next chapter two,

after the Holy Spirit came pentecosts Jesus, you know, the

disciples went out spoken tongues talking about the wonders of

God's work, and then Peter preached the gospel, his first gospel,

his first sermon, and three thousand were added to the church.

Upon Peter the church was built. Wow, God can use

a fisherman. And coming to a conclusion so fast, yes, conclusion. Really,

God can use anyone, every single person here. God can

use you, and God wants to use you. Many times

we feel we are self tell we ourselves say to ourselves,

we are not deserving. We don't have much talents. We

don't have much gifts. We can't do a lot of things. God,

I don't have much, but yet God wants to use you.

That's how God Uskidian, David, Simon, Peter, and so many more,

Jesus himself. Do you know that Jesus was not born,

was not birthed in a palace. He came as a small,

vulnerable baby, born in a manger. Parents, here, can you

imagine your children born in a manga? This is where

other animals are. They put there, they eat, their flies

are probably flying everywhere. Jesus was born in a manger,

became as a servant, so all over by the Bible,

you will see how God has always emphasized on the small,

on the insignificant, on the weak. Now I mentioned earlier

that God can use anyone, including you, no matter how

small you think you are. If you think you are small,

I've got good and maybe scary news for you. You

are the perfect vessel for God to use. Perfect vessel.

God can't use a prideful person. God can only use

the humble and the meek. And if you think you

are small, good and scary news for you. I'm gonna

say it again you are the perfect vessel for God

to use. I'm gonna share some times, many suble days.

You probably know. The next picture will show you a

little Bradley an RT. Was it this year or was

it last year? I can't remember. You know, we do

prayer time as usual, and that time, Artie, you went

to Bradley and ask can I pray for you? So

probably pray for Bradley. Bradley probably say can you pray

for me to have more playtime? I don't know, I'm guessing,

and you I want to eat Sue your his favorite fruit.

I eat sue your more. You know, pray that Mommy

that you will let me eat mostew I don't know la.

And then when it ended, Bradley asked Artie, can I

pray for you also? And then there's an Artis shirt.

I have really bad back pain. Can you pray for me?

And then Bradley prayed. I can only imagine that time.

Bradley is probably not even in church for a year

and this is last year. Yeah, probably last year. And

then Bradley, when I imagine Jesus, can you take the

pain away from teacher ARTI the hell that she will

be healed and be okay in Jesus name. Amen, what happened?

Teacher Artie was healed on the spot? Child like faith,

young boy? You know? In scripture, Jesus also talked about

the importance of child like faith. Why would the Holy

Spirit work with Bradley's prayer because he probably believed every

single word he was praying. The question is do we

believe every single word we are praying. You may be small,

maybe young Bradley is young words young, he's young, but

yet God used Bradley to pray a prayer that healed

RT in our testimony, look around you, this is xbu.

Do you know that XBU itself is a testimony of

how God can use small people. We are a young team.

Leaders said, let me, I say, have you got planted

chichs before? Myself included never planted chichs before? But yeah,

God says, all we do we if you're very small,

I feel very small. At the the six God called

me to do that. I felt very small, but yet

I knew that I had to obey God. If God

asked we got to move, We've got to do and

look at where we are now. We have experienced salvations, baptisms,

We've seen our how X kids grew from one kid

to so many. We've seen how God had moved us

from one location to the other because we've grown. We've

seen how people have encountered the Lord. People revived, people

who were jaded for some time coming to plant the

church and revived on fire for the Lord, people rededicating

their lives to God. God wants to use the small

to overcome the big. And with this why I shed

about my trip to the log Indane. It's because the

Word constantly likes to celebrate big churches. Many times, even

small churches. We look to the big churches for answers.

But I wanted to remind us again it is the

small churches that will make the most difference because small

churches means we can be scattered around different parts of

the world. And almost literally i mentioned earlier, if small

to just start closing down, you'll start to see geographically.

If you look at the globe where churches are, there's

going you put like maybe a star where the churches are,

all the smart urges and the big churches. If we

remove all the small churches, all those stars, the world

will be mostly in complete darkness, will be mostly in darkness.

God wants to use the small ches And you know

we are actually a small chich We're not a hundred

people yet you're a small church. But wow, God wants

to use the small to do great and mighty things.

You know recently, Uh yeah, you know. God it's looking

for people if child like faith, people who are willing

to believe all the way and obey all the way,

people that will go when God says I want you

to run, and not and and God is looking for

people who will not respond with you want me to run?

Why run again? But God is looking for people that

will say, Lord, you want me to run? How far? Lord?

I will run? God, you want me to jump? God

is not looking for a response that go ah, jam again,

we just jam onna. But God is looking for people

that will go, God, you want us to jump, how

high Lord, We'll do it. It is true such simple

belief and obedience that God can move the greatest time

and time again. I've not experienced a lot, but from

what all and all that I've experienced, this is a

truth that remains standing. That it is those with simple

faith that goes with in obedience, that goes all the way,

that God will move the greatest. And we know this

worship team we had Sharon, oh no, not getting you

she nervous a bit now Sharon, Josiah Abby you know,

and got Grace on sound small team. But do you

know that the law still moved. Our eyes are constantly

set on the big but the answer has always been

on the small. And I pray that as the church

XBU will not be distracted and look down on the

work that we are doing. And I pray one day

that we will go and be a blessing to other churches,

not just on our own. You just need help, we

go and support. We have done that before and I

believe God has a call for us to do that,

to be a blessing to our community. We're not just

here to have a good time. We are supposed to

make a difference. One last story and our close you know.

I'm now leading the campus Ministry and acts for the

For a few years, twenty seventeen all the way to

twenty twenty two, we ran something called Campus City. Many

of us here actually were in Campus City. It's our

campus service every Friday, you know, really happening, exciting, a

lot of good memories made, but it came to a

point where it got the numbers started to drop. This

was two years ago. Numbers started to drop. There were

no newcomers coming, there were no salvations or rededications. But

the rest of us were there having a good time.

Run finer. But when we evaluated, we realize what difference

are we making in people's lives? So under passer Cannas

direction and leading, we shut down Campus City life. A

lot of people thought we were crazy. Exteen's life, our teens,

it is very happening. It was also shut down. A

lot of people think we were crazy. Thriving youth ministry.

We're God go shut down youth service on god Sema.

We Doulah. At that time Campus City. I don't remember

the numbers for teens, but for Campus City we were

hovering around hundred. We started, we were one hundred. Actually

we grew to one hundred and fifty one hundred sixtycently,

then dwindled to a one hundred even like eighteen ninety.

We're losing people from then we shut it down. We

just trust a lot. The Lot asked us to do

small groups, so we went out planted small groups from

ninety people today do you know, we have grown to

two hundred plus people campus students in next church kre

In the next picture you see the small groups. These

are not even half of the small groups, not even wanted.

Recently we did account we started launching out for small

groups twenty twenty three. Our goal. My goal was ten

small groups. I very happy alone twenty one this year.

Recently two weeks ago with did account, we're hitting forty

small groups. Not a big campus service because we are

going out to reach people. We're sending them out as

rescue boats and say you go to your campus, you

start a small group and get your friends on board,

share the gospel to them. Do you know this year

we have had one of the most amount of campus

students going for missions that we've had in a while.

They called the heart of small and they are here

on Sunday services serving serving today Jamie and Grace campus

students serving on a Sunday John today afterday. Not here

we are on Expresso or XTV. All campus students are

serving last time so hard because they say it's ave

Friday eighty Snday gave me a break. And now you

see our campus students assimilating well with everyone right, there's

no separation. Last said, we scratch our head how to

transition young people to adulthood. We did all sorts of

programs overnighters, LA talks, LA, mentoring sessions, LAH. But the

answer is right before our side do things together. Here.

We are doing things together and there's no problem of

transition at home. Why I share that is because again

I want to repeat the way forward and I'm sharing

this as also a direction for x band al Tama.

We are to grow small to grow big. If you're

looking for lights, great, big sound, big lights, That's not

what this church's gonna do. We're going to grow small

like ends that can go into every nook and cranny

every place. And then we go and make a difference.

We irritate the enemy, just like how ants are in

our house will irritate us. Go into places where elephants

can go, lions can go ends faithfully. Sometimes its significant

you can't even see the ends, but they're there working.

There is a call for ex church and lastly, a

challenge to all of us here I've talked about together

as a corporate church, what we are going towards. What

about you individually in your own lives don't wait for

a big rally before you invite a friend to hear

the gospel. You can share it today. Don't wait for

a big healing. Really that you invite your sick friend

to come and get healed. You can pray for them today.

Don't invite them to church. Many times you invite friends

or church. We all know this are inviting until we

want to vomit blood. But they still don't want to come.

Right then they don't get to hear the gospel. Don't

wait for the bustard to preach lah, you preach the

gospel to them. Why do we want to wait for

the big before God can move? We've seen it again

and I hope this has convinced you with the word

of God that God wants to use you to use

the small. We can all make a difference and we

can start today. Don't need to wait. There's no need

to wait. Where you are your neighbors, how many if

you had started getting to know your neighbors. I tell you,

I stay in my current place the first year and

one a half year is staying there. I don't even

know my neighbors. I go home and say with my soul,

but this year the past few moments, I've decided to

start saying hi to them, start talking to them. You know,

hopefully one day I can make a difference in their lives.

I can share about Jesus. We can start to do something.

We don't need to wait for the big And that's

where I want to encourage us. Also, what do you

have in your hands? Offer it to the Lord and

God will multiply. That's the story of the boy with

five flows and two fish. What he did? He had

his lunch, He brought his lunch, and then Jesus said, oh,

we need to feed the people. Then the boy probably

looked at his five flow two fish. This is my

lunch killer a giffler. Probably don't get to eat redial

he gave and you all know the story. Jesus multiplied

five loads and the two fish, all five thousand and

their families with it. Because they were saying, five thousand

men families were fat, and there were twelve left over baskets.

Would you offer to God the little that you have? God,

I can't do much. I only have this, this, this

small time I can offer God. I can't do much.

I can only shake people's hands. On Sunday, I can't plain.

Remember I can shake hands, give it unto the Lord.

Do it, then watch and see how God moves through

you in the lives of others. I end by saying

small is Big.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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week is going to be a good week. I hit

for you. God bless