At the beginning of verse 18, the Bible reads in verse 18,
then said he unto what is the kingdom of God like?
And whereunto shall I resemble it?
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took
and cast into his garden.
And it grew and waxed a great tree, and the fowls of the air
lodged in the branches of it.
And again he said, whereunto shall I
liken the kingdom of God?
It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid
in three measures of meal till the hole was leavened.
Now flip back over to Matthew chapter number 13,
just a few pages to the left in your Bible.
Matthew, Mark, Luke.
Matthew chapter number 13, verse number 31.
And we find pretty much the same two parables again
with a little different wording.
It says in Matthew 13, verse 31,
another parable putting forth unto them, saying,
the kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed,
which a man took and sowed in his field,
which indeed is the least of all seeds.
But when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs,
and it cometh a tree, so that the birds of the air
come and lodge in the branches thereof.
Another parable spake unto them, the kingdom of heaven
is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid
in three measures of meal till the hole was leavened.
So this parable, God talks about the mustard seed
and just how tiny it is, how small it is,
and how amazing it is that you can just put such a tiny little
seed into the ground.
And such a massive tree would grow up
with all kinds of animals living in the branches thereof.
Really, a strong and noble tree that
comes from such a tiny little seed.
And he also talks about leaven.
Of course, leaven multiplies.
I remember my mom had a recipe for this bread that just never
ended.
And ladies would pass this around.
And who knows what I'm talking about.
But everybody has heard of it.
A lot of people.
And it just keeps, you add ingredients,
but the leaven just keeps multiplying.
Commonly, what do they call it nowadays?
Is it yeast?
Yeast, right?
They call it yeast, the stuff that multiplies.
I don't know anything.
Well, this is the stuff that my wife deals with.
But anyway, when you're making bread in order
to make the bread rise, there's yeast or leaven.
And it multiplies because it's actually alive.
Isn't it a bacteria, something like that?
And so that's why God is likening the kingdom of God
onto something that starts out very small and multiplies,
or starts out a tiny little seed and then
grows into a great big tree.
Jesus Christ said in Matthew 1720,
and Jesus said in that because of your unbelief,
for verily I say unto you, if you have faith
as a grain of mustard seed.
So again, he's talking about a very small seed.
He said, you shall say unto this mountain,
remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove,
and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
And what I want to preach about tonight is this subject.
Little is much when God is in it.
You know, God can take something that's very small,
and very little, and very meek,
and turn it into something great.
He can just take a tiny little bit of faith,
and use it to move mountains.
He can take a tiny little seed,
and turn it into a great giant tree
that the fowls, the logs, and the branches thereof.
Look at Zechariah chapter number four.
One of the last books in the Old Testament there,
Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi.
Just go back a few pages from Matthew,
you'll find Zechariah at the end there.
Look at Zechariah chapter number four.
Zechariah chapter number four, verse six.
The Bible reads,
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying,
This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying,
Not by might, nor by power,
but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
Who art thou, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel, thou shalt become a plain,
and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof,
with shoutings, crying grace, grace unto it.
Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation
of this house, his hands shall also finish it,
and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts
hath sent me unto you.
For who hath despised the day of small things?
For they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet
in the hand of Zerubbabel.
With those seven, they are the eyes of the Lord,
which run to and fro through the whole earth.
Now tell me something.
Can anybody here really tell me who Zerubbabel was?
Most people probably could tell me very little
about who Zerubbabel was.
In fact, the Bible doesn't really talk a whole lot
about Zerubbabel.
We don't really hear a lot of the details of his life
or who he was, what he was like.
Now I know who he was.
I mean, probably, and I'm not gonna embarrass people,
but we're not saying, who is Zerubbabel?
Most people could probably not tell us at all.
And even those who knew the Bible very well
couldn't tell us much,
because there just really isn't that much there
about Zerubbabel.
But yet God is saying how mountains would be laid waste
before this man.
He said, who art thou, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.
Now not someone that we would think of as a great man
or just an awesome character of the Bible.
I mean, people aren't necessarily naming their child
in 2011 Zerubbabel, because they're so inspired
by this Bible character that is such a mighty man of God.
But you see, he did do great things for God,
and mountains were laid waste before.
And you see, he laid the foundation of the house of God
when the temple was rebuilt, and he also finished it.
Why?
Because it wasn't by his might.
It wasn't by his power.
It was by God's spirit.
Zerubbabel was not a really significant guy
that we'd look at and say,
oh, he's like David in the Bible, or oh, Moses or Abraham,
just kind of a no-name guy.
But yet he did great things for God
because he had the faith to move mountains
and to see God's house built.
And look what the Bible says in verse nine.
It says, the hands of Zerubbabel
have laid the foundation of this house.
His hands shall also finish it,
and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts
has sent me unto you.
For who hath despised the day of small things?
What does it mean to despise the day of small things?
You know, we look at small things sometimes,
and we despise them,
or meaning that we just kind of blow them off.
That's what he means there by despise.
For example, maybe you see a penny on the ground,
and it's just not worth even bending over
to pick up for it, right?
Because you just despise that small amount of money.
It just doesn't mean anything to you.
You look at small things,
and you look at maybe a small person or a small church
or a small family or whatever,
and sometimes we have a tendency to blow things off
because they're small.
But see, God can use small things,
and God can take little things and multiply them
and use them in a great and powerful way.
He took this man, Zerubbabel,
and he lifted him up and exalted him and crowned him,
and he became a great man that did great things for God.
He laid the foundation of the house.
He finished it.
You know, who hath despised the day of small things?
You know, you don't take notice
of maybe a little mustard seed,
or it means nothing to you,
but yet God can turn it into a great tree.
He can take small things and use them for a great purpose.
I was thinking about this passage
because I was thinking about our church,
and I was thinking about it today
as the six-year anniversary of the founding of our church.
We started back in December 25th, 2005.
I moved into my house on Thursday.
I went soul-winning Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
in addition to getting the water turned on,
buying a mattress, which we didn't even have,
getting the electricity turned on,
going to DMV and getting my slavery ID card,
I mean my driver's license and everything,
and going through all the process of just moving in,
and we were rushing around.
We went to IKEA and bought a bunch of chairs
right over here on, you know,
what, off the I-10, and we just hastily,
I mean, it was a very humble beginning.
We started in the house.
We had 20 chairs set up.
We had songbooks on the chairs.
We had a little basket for an offering plate.
You know, we started out really small,
and we were there to lay the foundation of the house.
You know, Jesus Christ said, thou art Peter.
He said, I say unto thee, that thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And you know, he looked to Zerubbabel and said,
thou art Zerubbabel.
You're nobody, but you know what?
You're gonna lay the foundation of my house
and build my house and finish my house,
and let me tell you something.
It's not gonna be by your might.
It's not gonna be by your power.
Nobody's even gonna care who you were.
It's not even gonna matter who you were,
and in 2011, 99% of Christians will know nothing about you,
but you are the man that I'm going to use
to build this house.
You will lay the foundation of it, and you will finish it,
and God is able to build his house,
and this church is God's house.
Amen.
Now, this church is not the only church.
There's not only one church.
We're not Roman Catholics out there saying,
well, there's only one church, there's only one.
Well, then why does it say over and over in the Bible?
Churches, churches, churches, scores of times
the Bible uses the word plural, churches,
because there isn't just one.
There were seven churches in Asia
that Jesus Christ thought were worthy of him speaking unto
and addressing in Revelation 2 and 3.
There are all kinds of churches,
and when the Bible says that Jesus Christ,
the head of the church,
he's not talking about one particular church,
because he said that Christ, the head of the church,
as the husband is the head of the wife.
There's not only one husband and one wife, folks.
Every husband is the head of his wife,
and Christ is the head of every church,
and every biblical, that is a biblical church.
Any church that has some other head
is not a biblical church.
Any church that is biblical
has Jesus Christ alone for its head,
and this church is included in that.
Jesus Christ, the head of this church,
and when he said, I'll build my church,
he wasn't talking about any specific church.
He was talking about building churches.
He was talking about being the head of churches, plural,
and that's what we see most often in the Bible,
talking about churches, local churches in different places,
and so God is able to build his house.
You know, when we started the church back in 2005,
we were not following all the books
that'll tell you how to do it,
how to start the church, how to build the mega church,
the college courses that are out there
that'll teach you how to start a church,
how to build a church.
Frankly, I just wasn't following it, okay?
And I'm not trying to say that I'm a great person,
because that's exactly what I'm preaching tonight
is that I'm not a great person,
because you see, I'm just an ordinary person
who just had the faith of a grain of mustard seed
to start a church and to do it biblically,
not based on what I was being taught,
which was not biblical,
and things that I've heard about starting churches,
which was not biblical,
about just going around and handing out millions of flyers.
Wait on the soul-winning.
Just hand out a bunch of flyers
and have three coffee get-together meet-up groups
before the service.
It takes six weeks and so forth,
and on and on and on,
and start with just one service Sunday morning,
and then gradually phase in other services.
These are the wisdom of the day
that I've heard over and over again
and that were told on to me before I started the church,
during and after I started the church.
Now, when we started this church,
we didn't follow man's wisdom, okay?
Not a great person, not a great plan,
really very little of a plan.
I mean, we just figured, hey, get together,
sing, preach, go soul-laying,
and do it again three times a week.
That was the plan.
I mean, it wasn't anything complicated.
It was pretty simple.
And we got together, we had the chairs, we had songbooks.
Very humble beginning.
Did we start out in a fancy building?
No, we started out in the house.
Did we have talented musicians?
No, we sung a cappella for a long time.
Did we have nice padded pews?
No, we had fold-up plastic chairs from IKEA
that were $9.99 each, okay?
And by the way, this message is brought to you
and brought by IKEA.
And you know, what did we have?
Nothing.
A well-known pastor that has all the letters and numbers
behind his name to prove who he is, no.
Just a random guy just preaching the Bible,
just starting the church and the house.
And we started out, and I'll tell you something right now.
When our church was really small in the early days,
there were a lot of people who despised our church.
And I'll say it, not in the way that the Bible
usually uses the word despise.
Sometimes the word despise means to hate something.
But sometimes the word despise also just means
to just have disdain for or a lack of respect for,
or just to blow something off and just to brush it aside
like it doesn't matter.
Let me tell you something.
Many people would look at our church,
and probably a lot of people would have looked at that
and seen just a little church, a couple people in the house
and said, you know what, this church is a joke.
It's true.
I mean, people would have looked at it and said, okay,
you got Pastor Anderson, half the church is his family.
And he only has three kids, okay?
Yeah, it's Pastor Anderson, his wife and three kids,
you know, when we started the church.
And the first Sunday morning, we had four visitors,
four adult men visiting.
And in the evening, we had two adults visiting.
And that's it.
That was our first Sunday.
Wednesday night rolled around, we had nobody there
except my family, which is just the five of us.
And then the next Sunday, we grew from nine people
on the first Sunday morning, we grew to eight
on the second Sunday morning, okay?
And then that was when Amanda came for the first time.
And then, you know, Sunday night rolled around
and Amanda was back and I think she was the only one
that was back that night, so it was the six of us.
And then Wednesday rolled around, Amanda was back.
The next Sunday, we were back in the saddle again with nine
on that third Sunday morning.
You know, the fourth Sunday, we had 22.
It was a really good Sunday morning.
You know, we'd been working hard and so forth,
but then we were down again, up again.
And you know, that early year, it was pretty small.
And it was just, we were excited to break 20.
We were jumping up and down in that first year
to break 20.
And when we had in the high teens,
we felt like that was a really good day.
You know, we started out small.
We started out humble.
No one was impressed.
You know, my home church that sent me out
to start the church and my relatives and people that I know
and friends and acquaintances,
they weren't going around bragging and impressed
with, oh man, what a great work for God,
Brother Anderson's doing over in Phoenix.
And here's the glowing reports of all the throngs
of people saved and baptized and it's so packed
that they don't even know what they're gonna do
for a building and they need that.
Nobody was looking at it and jumping up and down excited.
Why?
They looked at it and they just said, it's small.
There's not much there.
I mean, it's just, what is it?
I mean, it's a tiny church.
I mean, wow, so what?
And you know, a lot of people would look at that
and I bet they'd probably look at maybe the fact
that in the early days, you know, when they saw
it was just our family and Amanda and maybe one
or two other people just in those real early days.
And they'd probably look at that and say like,
you're wasting your time.
Why do you preach?
Why do you preach to eight people?
You know, why are you preaching to a congregation
of 11 people?
And I remember my sister Ronnie came and visited
and she brought her family and it was like my family,
this was in the real early days, it was just my family
and a couple people, Amanda, one or two other people
and then my sister's family were there
and I remember preaching and my sister said to me,
she said, you know what?
She said, I really like about your church.
She said, even though there's only a few people there,
you know, you're preaching like you're preaching
to thousands, you know, I can tell that you're taking
it really seriously and that you're really up there,
you know, doing the job and taking it seriously
and you know what?
I was taking it seriously and I was preaching
as if I were preaching to thousands because you know what?
It was important to me, the people that were there
and by the way, the most important people
that are always in the service are my wife and children
in the first place.
So why would it be a waste of my time
to get up and preach to them?
But you know what?
Little did people know who could have looked at the church
with this thing that hey, here would Amanda be,
one of those couple of people, here she'd be,
six years later, still here and how many people?
We, you know, we'll find out the number when we get
to heaven of how many people she's gotten saved
out knocking doors on soul-witting.
She's been a great soul winner and taught other people
how to go soul-witting.
Okay, that was one of our church members.
So besides just my own personal family, okay,
which is the greatest thing I was accomplishing
was preaching and teaching them.
You know, little did they know that oh, you know,
what do you have, a couple of women going to your church
and an elderly man?
You know what, those are human beings.
Those are real people and God can use them in a great way.
I've seen God use elderly people in a great way for God,
in a huge way.
Young, well young people are out wasting their time
and wasting their life.
I've seen elderly people win souls
and do a greater work for God.
You know, God uses ladies in a great way
and a man is an example.
Many other examples of that, of ladies who've come
to our church have been used in a mighty way.
Look, God has used our church greatly and mightily.
Nobody can look at it now and say oh, it's nothing.
It's small, it's weak.
No, we've knocked one fifth of the doors in our whole county
which is almost, our county has four million people in it
and we've knocked a fifth of the doors.
We've had thousands of people saved.
We've spent hundreds and thousands of hours out soul winning.
We've had thousands and thousands of visitors
to our church over the years.
You know, maybe our church isn't that big
but that's because we have a revolving door at the front.
But you know what, it's a lot bigger than it was back then.
It's getting big, it's a lot bigger this year
than it was last year and it gets bigger every year
and we've had literally thousands of visitors to our church
if we haven't had all the visitors and all the people.
Why?
Because God is able to take something little and humble
and actually use it in a great way.
He can take a little church meeting in a house
and then meeting in a strip mall
and use it to accomplish great things
and the sad thing is there are churches in this city
that have a gigantic building that are not knocking
the doors that little old faithful word is knocking.
The little old mustard seed Baptist church.
And you know what, I remember people telling me
in the early days and looking at it and saying,
you know what, and if you would turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter one while I'm on this point, 1 Corinthians one.
I remember people saying to me in the early days,
you know what, you can't preach.
Your preaching is weak, your preaching is lame.
You need training, you can't preach.
And you know, honestly, I'm not the greatest preacher
in the world, I'm not the silver tongue orator up here.
I'm not the most eloquent preacher that there is
and I remember someone who was very near and dear to me
and no, it was not my wife, it was someone else,
someone outside of my family.
Someone very near and dear to me just said,
just you know what, frankly, your preaching stinks.
Oh man, you know, your preaching is just very weak
and you know, that really hurt my feelings
and you know why it hurt my feelings?
Because I knew that it was a little bit true, okay?
Because honestly, when somebody insults you,
you know, if somebody walked up to me and said,
hey, you're fat, you know, that's not really
gonna insult me, okay?
But you know, if you walk up to a fat person
and say, hey, you're fat, you know,
you're gonna insult them, okay?
Now, you know, if you come up to me and insult me
about something that's just off the wall
and meaningless to me, hey, I'm not gonna be insulted by it.
But you know, that hurt because I knew
that I wasn't a great preacher.
You know, I knew that I wasn't just some very powerful
eloquent preacher, you know, that just had this presence
behind the pulpit and this powerful voice
that just boom, that resonated.
But you know what, look what the Bible says
in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 25.
It says, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men
and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called.
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world
that confound the wise.
And God hath chosen the weak things of the world
to confound the things which are mighty
and base things of the world and things which are despised.
There's that word again.
Things which are despised hath God chosen.
Yea, and things which are not to bring to naught
things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence.
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, he that gloried,
let him glory in the Lord.
God uses the weak things of this world,
the despised things of this world,
the little things of the world, not the many strong,
not many wise, not many noble,
he uses them that he might receive all the glory.
Because I've seen many talented people
and many good-looking people and many noble people
and many eloquent people, but God's not using them.
Because why?
They're not available unto him.
Because they're not humble or because they are just,
you know, choked out with the cares of this world.
Sometimes the most talented people are doing something else
with their life than serving God.
Because there's a lot of other things to do with your life,
especially when you have talent and skill and opportunity.
And so it ends up that God usually, most of them,
he says, you know, there are some that could be noble
or wise, but you know what?
Most of the time, it's not.
Most of the time, he uses a vessel that's a weaker vessel,
that's a despised vessel that he might receive the glory
for whatever takes place.
He doesn't always use the most talented
or the best-looking or the best speaker.
And so let the sermon encourage you
that maybe you don't have a ton of talent
or maybe you just don't have everything that it takes
or all the skill or all the knowledge that you need.
You know, God is able, like Paul said,
I thank Christ Jesus, my Lord, who hath enabled me,
for that he counteth me faithful,
putting me into the ministry.
He can put you in the ministry, he can also enable you
to do what he wants you to do and what he asks you to do.
He can take a Zerubbabel, he can take a Joshua,
the son of Jazadek in the same book of Zechariah there,
two men that were leaders, and he can stand at their side
and strengthen them and build them up
and give them encouragement through the preaching
of a man like Zechariah and Haggai who preached to them.
He can strengthen the weak, he can lift up the humble
and use them to do something for God.
You see, our church had very humble, small beginnings,
but yet nowadays our church is doing great things for God,
and nowadays our church is accomplishing a lot.
People would have looked at that mustard seed back in 2005
and been surprised to see
what we've accomplished now in 2011.
Why?
Because it's God that does it.
And you know, only God could build
faithful word Baptist church.
It couldn't be built by man.
That's why I didn't try to use man's methods,
because they won't work.
It's like putting new wine into old bottles.
You know, you can't take the old religion
and the old word of God and try to use a newfangled method
and take the method of the new evangelicals
or the method of the Charismatics
and try to somehow tailor-fit it to this.
No, see, this type of church has to be built by God.
It's not built based on man's logic
and man's rationale for what works.
It's just based on the Bible.
It's just based on preaching God's word.
I mean, the sermons I preach are just biblical sermons.
And you know, it's not that I'm anything special
or anyone special.
And people have asked me, you know, how did you do it?
Because others have failed to start a church
or to get it off the ground.
And you know, the bottom line is this.
I didn't do it.
Amen.
I don't know what I'm doing.
And people ask me advice.
I'm always just like, man, you know,
people ask me advice on pastoring and starting a church.
And you know, I'm just like, come on.
You know, you should probably ask somebody else.
You know what I mean?
I don't know.
And you know, my best friend, Roger Jimenez,
he pastors over in Sacramento.
He started the church back in September of 2010.
So he's been at it about, you know, 16 months or so.
And you know, sometimes he'll ask me stuff
and I'm just like, man, just keep doing what you're doing.
I mean, his church is growing twice as fast as ours did
and his church is thriving
and he's doing such a great job and everything's going so well.
I'm like, don't ask me, you know, just do it.
Don't switch to the way I do things, you know.
Keep doing it the way you're doing it.
Why don't you tell me how to do it?
Because look, there's nothing special about it.
It's that God has taken somebody that just, you know,
wanted to do it and just wanted to be biblical
and he can do the same thing anywhere
to any person in any place.
I mean, if I were to fall over dead right now, okay,
I'm not saying that there would be somebody to replace me
because I don't know if there would.
That's the sad thing.
Would there be someone to replace me?
You know what?
But it would not be that hard for somebody to replace me.
I'll put it that way.
It would not be that hard for somebody to step in to this
because you know, these aren't that big of shoes
to fill, my friend.
It's not really that hard, okay?
I'm not some great, talented Superman.
You know, I'm not a perfect person.
I have many weaknesses in my life.
I am not some kind of a Superman
or some special chosen anointed one.
There was not a star over the hospital when I was born.
I'm nobody.
And honestly, I hope that there are some young men
listening to my voice that would say, you know what?
Here am I, Lord, send me.
You know what I mean?
Because honestly, if I fell over dead,
it would not be that hard to replace me.
I'm not kidding.
I mean, it really wouldn't be that tough.
But the sad thing is, who would do it?
I don't know, who's qualified to do it?
Who's able to do it?
And the harvest truly is plenty,
is that the laborers are few.
You see, on one hand, I'm pretty easy to replace.
But on the other hand, where's my replacement?
And where is the one that's gonna do like I've done
in other cities across America
where the doors need to be knocked,
that need a Bible-preaching church to go to,
that need a leather-lung preacher that will rip on sin
and that will teach doctrine and that will inspire
soul-winning and that will knock the doors
and preach to God.
Hey, we need these type of churches all over America.
Thank God for Brother Jimenez.
You know, and Brother Jimenez has stepped out
and stepped into that gap and stood in the hedge
and said, here am I, Lord, send me.
Why, because he's the most talented person in the world?
Why, because he's the coolest guy
that I've ever met in my life?
Why, because he's the smartest person in the whole world?
Why, because he's just the greatest human being?
No, look, it's because he is willing to serve God
and he has the faith to do it God's way and not man's way.
And you know, he is a great guy and he is a talented guy.
He's more talented than I am.
But I'll tell you something, though, that's not
why he's doing a good job.
He's doing a good job because of the fact
that he is doing it biblically, because he has the faith
to do it God's way and not to lean upon the flesh,
but to lean upon God.
That's why.
And look, it wouldn't be that hard for others
to fill those same shoes of him or me or anyone else,
but the laborers are just so few.
It's not that hard, but who will do it?
You see, God can take the little things of this world,
and little can be much when God is in it.
God can take the mustard seed and cause
it to grow into a great tree.
Go to Matthew chapter 18, Matthew chapter number 18.
And you know what, my advice to Brother Jimenez
and my advice to others that I've
spoken to that have asked me about starting a church
and that I've explained to them a little bit how
we started a church, here's what I always say to people.
Whenever they ask me about starting a church
or giving advice to people, I say, you know what,
you just start out humble.
Just start small, start humble,
and you can only go up from there.
You know, and I just tell them, look,
you're not trying to impress anybody.
Nobody's going to be impressed.
You're never going to impress anybody.
I mean, if that's what you're trying to accomplish,
you know what, you're going to fail,
because nobody's going to be impressed.
People are impressed by a big steeple
and a picture of Adam reaching out to God
with no clothes on.
That's what they're impressed with.
I'm serious, you want to know the most visited
church building that people are impressed with?
It's St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
You can look at a bunch of porno on the walls
and a bunch of false doctrine and a bunch of lies
and the pope will be there and a bunch of call himself
father, which is blasphemy against God,
because the holy father's up in heaven
when Jesus said his right hand.
And that's what people are impressed by.
People are impressed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
That's the music that they're impressed by.
People are impressed by Joel Osteen
and the Houston Astrodome having church.
People are impressed by Billy Balaam
and his crusade to come to town.
That's what impresses the world.
And you know what, it's not about,
and I always just give advice, just be humble.
Be willing to be despised.
Just go into it saying, you know what,
I'm nobody, I'm gonna be despised,
I'm not a big shot, I'm never gonna be a big shot,
I'm never gonna be Mr. Cool Preacher Man,
I'm never gonna be the guy that's lifted up and exalted,
but you know what, God's gonna use me in a great way
and I'm gonna get thousands of people saved.
That's it, it's that simple.
And the only way to fail is to quit.
That's what I always tell people.
You can't fail if you don't quit, you just keep going.
Keep going, eventually you'll succeed.
Eventually you'll reap if you faint not.
Eventually you'll come back rejoicing,
bringing your sheaves with you.
The only way to fail is to quit, be humble,
start small, start in the house,
start with a folding chair,
and you can only go up from there,
and you know, you say, oh, people won't come to that.
They won't come to this kind of church, period.
It doesn't matter what kind of seat there is to sit in.
It doesn't matter what kind of building they're sitting in.
It's the preaching that they don't like.
But you know what?
God can build the church.
He can send a band of men whose hearts God has touched
like he did for King Saul.
God can cause us to be filled with his spirit
as we go out and knock doors and win souls.
God can cause the people to come in.
God can cause our church to win souls
and to do great things for him.
And you know what?
That's what it's all about.
It's not about being big and puffed up and mighty.
And God is able to use a humble person
and a small beginning to build a great tree
and a great tree of life that wins souls.
Look at Matthew chapter 18, the Bible says in verse one.
At the same time, it came to disciples unto Jesus saying,
who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
And Jesus called a little child unto him
and set him in the midst of them,
and said, verily I say unto you,
except you be converted and become as little children,
you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
So that's number one.
He's saying, well, first of all,
you're talking about being the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven?
Except you be converted and become as little children,
he's saying, you're not even gonna be there, first of all.
But then he goes a step further and says,
whosoever therefore shall humble himself
as this little child,
the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
So we see first of all that in order to even get to heaven,
you have to have the humility of a child.
You have to have that childlike faith
where you're completely,
like a child just completely relies on other people
to take care of it.
Completely relies on mom and dad to pay the bills.
I mean, my children do not contribute to paying the bills.
And sometimes they talk about how they have their own money
and this is my money.
But all of their money, guess where it came from?
Mom and dad, you know what I mean?
So it's not like they're bringing in
all these outside streams of revenue.
And you know, that they can kind of
break through the table as it were.
Yeah, they have their money,
but guess what, most of it came from mom and dad.
But even if they do get a little something
from grandpa or grandma or aunt or uncle,
or maybe do a little job for somebody
and get a little money on the side,
you know what, it's gonna be so negligible
compared to the house payment.
You know, when you put all the money that they get in a year
and you put it next to the house payment,
it's not even gonna pay for one month.
Right?
They are completely, totally relying on what we do
in order to feed, in order to clothe,
in order to put a roof over their head.
They don't walk around thinking,
well, I'd be fine without my parents.
I don't need them.
I could do this on my own.
Or even, well, it's a team effort.
You know, mom does a lot, but you know what?
I, you know, where'd she be without me?
You know.
I make this happen.
I make things happen, right?
No.
And that's an illustration of what salvation's like.
You gotta have all your faith in what Jesus did,
just like a child completely relies on their parents.
You know, you're completely relying on him for salvation.
And any good works that you do,
yeah, you'll get your little allowance for that, okay?
And just like we, when our parents,
or when our children work, hey,
we'll give them a little bit of allowance for that,
or give them a little, give them a buck,
or give them five bucks or something like that.
But they're not putting the food on the table
with that money.
They just, you know, they're just buying toys and candy
and games and ice cream or whatever.
Okay, what we spend is on the real things that matter.
Jesus Christ, he paid it all.
Jesus paid it all for salvation.
Anything we do is just icing on the cake.
That's just basically just a bonus that we'll get paid for.
We'll get our allowance from him when we get to heaven
as his children and so forth.
But not only that,
whosoever shall humble himself as this little child,
the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
So who is the greatest?
Who is the greatest Christian?
The one that's the most humble, okay?
That's gonna make you great.
Solomon started out as a great king, why?
Because he looked up to heaven to God and he said,
God, I'm just a little child.
And he was not literally a little child at that time.
But you know what, his humility was there
where he looked up to God and said,
you know what, God, I'm a little child.
And God said, ask me whatever you want
and I'll give it to you.
And he said, you know what, I'm just a little child.
I don't know how to go out.
I don't know how to come in.
Give me understanding, give me wisdom.
Teach me what I need to know.
I lack knowledge.
I lack understanding.
I'm like a little child.
David said the same thing in the Psalms.
He said, my soul is even as a weaned child.
And that act of humility caused Solomon
to be blessed more than any other king.
Of course, in his old age, he went bad, I realize that.
But in the beginning stages of his kingdom,
he was blessed more richly and more greatly
than all the kings that were before him.
He had more riches, more wisdom, more power
than any of the kings of Israel because of humility,
because the Bible says, humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted,
but whosoever exalted himself shall be abased.
And it takes humility.
It takes humility to start a church
and to be a so-called failure in the world's eyes
for a long time.
And I remember just people just shaking their head at me
in the early days, just, you know, you still in the house?
And people don't think, I would think
that if somebody started a church,
they'd want to encourage you, build them up.
But no, most people are like, so you're still in the house,
huh?
So, huh, yeah, so, oh, wow, you're running 20.
Oh, wow, big, big deal.
Oh, whoa, 30 people.
And OK, it was small.
I'm not saying that's small, but you know what, though?
It was a great church back then, just like it is right now.
Just like it's a great church now, it was great back then.
It's been great the whole way through,
because it's been great people.
Because I'd rather have 30 great people
or 60 or 70 great people or 80 great people
than to sit there and just have a bunch of people,
just a bunch of bodies, just a bunch of crowded in,
you know, with a couple of great people.
You know, I'd rather, I mean, look,
who would you rather have in your church?
Just 100 random church members or 200 random church members?
Or would you rather have, if the 11 apostles
could somehow come back to life,
wouldn't you rather just have those 11 only?
And you'd sacrifice a whole bunch of other people
that were just kind of like showing up
and going through the motions.
You'd be like, you know, if we were picking teams,
you know, you'd be like, you know, I want John on my team,
you know, I want James, OK, you're on my side.
Hey, you'd rather have a church,
if your church had 30 people in it,
but 11 of them were the 11 apostles.
Yeah, you'd go great places with that.
Amen.
See, it's about being humble.
It's about starting small and understanding
that little is much when God is in it.
It's about not despising children either.
Because, you see, a lot of times,
people, you know, blow off children.
Why?
Because they're small.
Because they're young.
And people just kind of cast them aside.
And I bet they were pretty shocked when Jesus,
and even did it as an object lesson.
Because sometimes when you just talk,
it doesn't have the same effect
as when you show an object.
And so Jesus, they asked him, you know,
who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
Oh, it was this mighty warrior, you know.
They don't know what he's going to say.
But he brings out a little child
and just sets him in the midst and says,
see this little child?
You want to be great?
Be like him.
Huh, what?
Be humble.
He doesn't think that he's just able to do it all on his own.
He's totally reliant on someone else.
He doesn't think that he's the most talented,
greatest person, and that's why it's going to get done.
Well, but you know what?
It's going to get done through, not by might,
nor by power, but by spirit, sayeth the Lord.
And God can say, and by the way,
that's why I love having children in our church.
And we don't just like, oh, you know,
put them in another building somewhere.
Take that brat to the nursery.
You know, put them in the Sunday school class
and let's find somebody who's, you know,
who barely knows the Bible to teach them.
Because it's just, hey, it's just three year olds, right?
Anybody can point at the final graph.
No.
We shall not have disdain for children.
Amen.
Because that little mustard seed,
those little mustard seeds lined up
in the back row of my family,
or the little mustard seed that's sitting next to you,
or the mustard seed that's in the womb back there,
or the mustard seed of your family,
will one day grow into a great tree of life
that will win many souls.
Yes, sir. Amen.
Do great things for God.
See, the children of our church,
think about, they're growing up
and they're hearing biblical preaching from day one.
They're being taught soul and every time,
they're gonna grow up and do great things.
It's the little things, the humble things.
That's ought to be the mentality that you have.
You know what?
I'm not anybody special.
I'm not the coolest guy in the world.
I don't have all the power and all the talent,
but God can use me in a great way.
I also thought of, I'm gonna close on this point.
I thought of the multiplying of the five loaves
and two fishes to feed the 5,000 in John chapter six.
Go to John six, if you will.
I just wanna show you a couple verses from there.
Go to John chapter six.
Jesus brings up the fact that there's this huge multitude
of people there and they need to be fed.
It's 5,000 men not counting women and children.
Great multitude.
So Jesus asked Philip, he said,
so what are we gonna do to feed all these people?
And it says in verse seven,
Philip answered him 200 penny worth of bread
is not sufficient for them,
that every one of them may take a little.
One of his disciples, Andrew Simon Peter's brother,
saith unto him, there is a lad here
which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes,
but what are they among so many?
You know, and it's almost like Jesus took that
as a challenge.
Five loaves and two fishes, what are they among so many?
It's like a drop of water on a hot stove.
It's gonna make no impact.
I mean, if you have 5,000 men,
not counting women and children,
and you have five loaves and two fishes,
that is as if you had nothing.
It's nothing.
I mean, that'd be like, well, we need,
you know, they talk about 200 penny worth of bread.
You know, it's a huge amount of money
because a penny in those days was like a day's wages
for a 12 hour day of labor, okay?
Think about just, you know, it's like,
well, we need $200,000.
Oh, okay, well, here's 10 bucks.
That's not, this'll help, right?
That's not even gonna help.
I mean, it's not even, it means nothing.
It's not even close, it's not even scratching the surface.
And you know, it's easy to look at the task
that's before us today and say, how can we accomplish it?
You know, we live in a really big city.
We live in one of the biggest cities in America.
And I mean, yeah, there are a lot of big cities in America,
but Phoenix is a pretty big city.
Four million people in this area.
And we can look at that and say, you know what?
Four million people.
What's this guy who's meeting in his house
with 10 other people?
You know, you've got 20 people in the house.
What is that gonna do for a city of four million?
Four, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero,
let me, I don't wanna lose count.
Four, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero.
Four million people, okay?
That's a four with six zeros behind it.
And what is this guy gonna do?
I mean, even if he talked to one person every day, okay?
You know, in three years, he's talked to like 1,000 people.
So basically, it's gonna take him about 12,000 years.
Am I doing the math right now?
Let me stop and think about this.
One guy, he talks to one person a day,
he gives the gospel, and there's 365 days a year.
After three years, he's talked to like 1,000 people.
Okay, so it's gonna take him like 12,000 years, right?
Approximately 12,000, am I right?
400 years.
What's that?
400 years.
It's gonna take so long, it's gonna take,
I like my, no.
1200.
Huh?
1200 years.
No, it's 12,000 years.
A million.
A million years?
Oh, man, this is like marvelous.
It's like evolution, we're gonna have to evolve into this.
No, because if every three years we're talking,
I'm talking to 1,000 people, right?
And I'd have to multiply 1,000 times 4,000.
That's 12,000.
So that'd be 12,000.
So for 12,000 years, now I'm not gonna live to be.
12,012, yeah.
12,012, okay.
So I'm not gonna live to be 12,000.
Look, this is getting way too complicated.
I'm not gonna live to be 12,000 years old, folks.
So it's just a drop off.
Well, you're like, well, you're gonna have to talk
to a lot more than one person each day.
You're gonna have to give the gospel to a lot more people.
But you know what?
Okay, so maybe I can bring that down to like a couple thousand.
You know, if I'm really doing a lot of soul winning,
I can give the gospel to several people a day,
then I only have to be alive for a few thousand years.
And then the problem with that is that everybody's dying
and new people are being born
and you know, we're never gonna get it done.
It sounds ridiculous, but you know what?
We will get it done.
Amen.
Why?
Because we're multiplying.
Because we're like 11.
We're like a bacteria.
We're like unchecked bacteria growth, you know what I'm saying?
We are multiplying and we will get many people safe
and we will knock every door in the Phoenix area.
We will preach the gospel to every creature.
It's possible it can be done.
One person can have a huge impact.
And we're not one person.
We're a bunch of one persons here.
We're a group here and we're multiplying.
We're gonna get bigger and our church is gonna grow.
We're gonna do more.
And don't ever stop and think,
oh, you know, what's the use?
We're nobody, we're not accomplishing anything.
We can make a big difference.
We can make a huge difference in this area
and even across the world through the people that we reach.
Amen.
And through the people that we influence.
And it's not by our might or power.
It's not because we're so big and mighty.
It's because we're so small.
And especially as Samuel told Saul,
it's because we're little in our own sight.
And we realize, hey, we're weak.
We're clay.
We're nothing.
We're nobody.
But God is great and God can do it.
And God can use us to do it.
You know, I've never been a super talented person.
I'm always the type of guy that's like a jack of all trades,
master of none.
And my wife's always laughing at me
because I get off on this kick and that kick.
And I have a lot of hobbies.
Like I have a lot of things that I do.
And I know how to do a lot of stuff.
But there's not really any one good thing
that I'm just really good at one thing.
It's like I'm, well, I know a little of this,
a little of that, a little of this, a little of that.
I don't have some super talent.
You know, some people are just really good
at like playing the piano or just really good
at public speaking or just really good
with athletics and sports.
You know, I mean, I'm decent in sports.
Not that good, just decent, average, okay.
On piano, I can play piano decently,
but I'm not talented at piano.
Okay, and so it's not that I have some special ability
up here today, okay.
And I'm not even saying that I'm a special person
or that I have some great faith or anything like that.
It's really none of that.
I'll just attribute it to one thing.
It's just that I just did it.
You know, I just said, here am I, send me, I just did it.
And that's all, and that's all it comes down to.
And if you're willing to just step forward and do it,
God can use you in a great way too.
That's all there is to it, it's that simple.
It's not that you have to be somebody special.
It's not that you have to be big and mighty.
You just have to be there.
And God can take the foolish things.
God can take the stammering lips, he said,
and an unknown tongue to preach unto people
and to make a great impact and to make a great change.
And so just decide today that you know what,
that Faithful Word Baptist Church is your church.
Just decide today, hey, this is my church
and whatever it is, you know, whatever's good about it
or bad about it, whatever, as far as you know,
how big it is or how small it is in your mind
or whatever you think about it, why don't you just decide,
you know what, in 2012, I'm gonna be a part of this church
and we're gonna do something big for God in 2012, amen.
I'm gonna be a part of it
and our church is gonna do something big.
And I personally, and I want you to also decide,
you know what, I'm personally going to be used greatly
for God in whatever capacity.
I'm gonna be a soul winner.
I'm gonna get people saved.
Whatever, maybe I'm not good looking,
maybe I've screwed up things in my life
and I've screwed up a lot of things over the years.
We all have.
Maybe you've made a lot of mistakes
and you've done foolish things
and maybe you don't have a lot of talent,
maybe you're not a good speaker,
maybe you're not the coolest dude
that everybody, you know, thinks is so great.
Maybe people don't look at you
and think you have a lot of potential.
Why don't you just decide, you know what,
I'm doing something great for God.
And you know what, my weaknesses and my limitations
and my failures are just gonna cause God
to get even more glory
when I do accomplish something great for God.
He'll get even more glory
because people will look at it and say,
well, it certainly wasn't his charming personality.
It certainly wasn't his talent
because he doesn't have it.
It certainly wasn't his good looks
because he's not exactly proficient in that area either.
Yeah, that's right.
And so, just decide, you know what,
it doesn't matter how I failed in the past.
It doesn't matter what I am or what I'm not.
You know what, I'm gonna be that mustard seed
that God allows to grow into a great tree.
And in 2012, I'm gonna read my Bible.
Maybe I've failed in the past.
This year I'm gonna read it.
I'm gonna get up and try it again
and I'm gonna go soul winning
and I'm gonna serve God.
I'm gonna get the sin out of my life.
I'm gonna clean up my life.
I'm gonna clean up my mind
and I'm gonna move forward now
and I'm gonna do something great for God.
Not mediocre, but I'm gonna be like Paul
who said I press toward the mark
for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
and I'm gonna do something big
and I'm gonna see many people saved,
not few, but many people saved
and I'm gonna be used greatly for God
and I'm gonna be a servant of God
and I'm not gonna let anything or anyone stop me
and you know what, God can do something great
with your life, no matter who you are.
The less talent you have, the more he'll do.
He took seven loaves and four,
well, was it, am I getting that right?
He took seven loaves and he fed the 4,000 with seven loaves.
He fed 5,000 with five loaves.
When he had less food to start with,
he multiplied it to more people
and so you say, well, I'm not talented.
He'll do even more.
He'll take special delight
in allowing you to be a great soul winner
and allowing you to be a great servant for God.
He'll take special joy because he loves
to use the fullest things of this world
and the weak and despised things of this world
to confound the wise and so don't be discouraged by that.
Let's borrow this and have a word of prayer.
Father, help us to realize that it's through your spirit
and through your power that anything great is accomplished.
It's not through us.
We are all little children in your sight.
I'm like a little weed child as far as spiritually speaking
compared to what I should be or what I could be
and so Father, I just pray that you would please just use me
in the upcoming year, however you see fit
and allow me to do great works for you
through your spirit and through your power,
not through my talents or abilities
and Father, help every single person here
to decide that they're gonna get in the battle
and that they're gonna be used
and that whatever they are, they're gonna give it to you
and help our church to move forward
and Father, it's been a wonderful six years
and much has been accomplished
and if this were the end, it would still be a great story
but Father, help us in the seventh year
to achieve more than we've ever done
and to do more than we ever even thought we could do
and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.