How many live your Christian life condemned because
you feel like your life doesn't measure up?
Can I see your hands?
That's a lot of people.
How many should have raised your hand?
Would you raise your hand now?
Yeah, I thought so.
All right, we're gonna, I'm gonna believe God
with you today that that spirit of condemnation
is going to be broken, absolutely shattered, destroyed,
not just for a day or a week,
but for the rest of your Christian life.
I'm trusting that God's going to open something
to you.
I have a message today called, Don't Despise
the Day of Small Endings.
You know, we have a tendency, we've all,
I've always heard it preached, because that's the
way it's written, don't despise the day of
small beginnings, and we don't mind if our
life begins small as long as it ends
big, but what if it goes the other
way?
I want to talk about that.
I want to show you something in the
Scriptures.
Zechariah chapter 4.
Now, Zechariah is two short books back from
Matthew in the New Testament, just a few
pages in your Bible, so if you find
Matthew, just go to the left and you'll
find Zechariah chapter 4.
Now, Father, I thank you for the anointing
of your Holy Spirit.
It's only by the anointing that the yoke
is broken.
You have to give us courage, Lord, and
strength to face these days.
Bring your church out from under condemnation, every
lying voice of the devil, every condemning of
our own hearts, every misunderstanding of what it
means to be part of the body of
Jesus Christ.
I pray God give me the wisdom to
speak this.
Override my own frailty, Lord, and grip my
mind and my heart, and give me the
power to speak it in a way that
men and women can hear it.
Lord, you're going to give us strength for
these days, and I thank you for it
with all my heart, in Jesus' name.
Don't despise the day of small endings, Zechariah
chapter 4, beginning at verse 6.
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 a 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 has
sent me unto you.
For who has despised the day of small
things?
For they shall rejoice and see the plummet
in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven.
They are the eyes of the Lord, which
run to and fro throughout the whole earth.
Now, I know those are a lot of
big words in the King James text, but
essentially speaking, Zerubbabel was a governor.
He was sent to rebuild the temple of
the Lord after a 70-year captivity in
Babylon.
The people had dealt very carelessly, the people
of God, with the things of God.
Because of it, they were taken in and
became captive by the society around them.
There are incredible and obvious comparisons, perhaps, to
the generation that we're living in today.
And then suddenly, after this season of discipline,
a decree, the king of the Medo-Persians,
Darius, he wrote a decree and allowed the
people of God to head back home again.
The historians, biblical historians, tell us that about
50,000 accepted that first invitation, and they
went back to rebuild what had been lost.
Now, it's a type, and I suppose it
can be a type of church ages and
generations.
It's got a historical precedent.
It's also a type of you and I,
born as it is into this world in
the image of God, filled with hopes and
dreams and aspirations when we were children, only
to find out we were without the grace
that needs to cover us to become that
which God had destined our lives to be.
And so, without Christ, we walked into ruin.
And in ruin, we went into captivity.
And suddenly, somewhere, whether you were reading your
Bible, somebody brought you the Word of God,
you realized a decree had been issued by
the hand of Almighty God, allowing you to
come home and rebuild your life.
Rebuild it in the image of God.
There was a form of glory, and the
people were called to build something or rebuild
something that had a former reputation of being
a place where God had awesomely glorified Himself.
And we think about Solomon's temple, for example.
Scripture tells us that when Solomon built the
platform and prayed, the glory of the Lord,
that in the Hebrew, it's the weightiness of
God, came into this temple so powerfully that
the priests could not stand to minister.
There was nothing they could do but shout.
God had come into his temple.
And this was a place where the Lord
had chosen to dwell, and the people there
were given the responsibility of caring for that
temple, just as you and I have been
given the responsibility of caring for the New
Testament temple, which is your life and mine.
No longer God is dwelling in a place
made with human hands.
He now dwells in people.
And they had lost this testimony through carelessness.
And after 70 years, they're journeying home, and
you can just imagine the conversation along the
way.
We're going to rebuild that temple, and the
glory of it is going to be great,
because the promise, of course, in this chapter
of Scripture is that the glory of the
latter temple will be greater than the glory
of the former.
So you can just imagine, as the people
are heading home, and they didn't have these
words from Zechariah yet, but there's got to
be an inner knowledge.
There has to be, because the Holy Spirit
would have borne witness to something in those
that belong to God.
And I'm going to do something that's going
to bring glory to my name in a
profound way.
Just like you and I, when we came
to Christ, and we read the book of
Acts, and we hear of these 120 ordinary
people who went in an upper room, and
suddenly were empowered by the Spirit of God.
And they stepped out of that upper room,
filled with faith, and vision, and hope, and
the beginnings of supernatural ability.
The Scripture says they spoke with the Megalios
of God.
That means that, and I've shared this with
you many times, their mouths were speaking about
something that God was going to do, because
of His inner presence in their lives.
And they were given this initial evidence, which
was the ability to speak to other people
in known languages that they had not learned
about these things that God was about to
do.
And that's what so pricked the hearts of
the 3,000 that turned to Christ that
day.
So they're speaking of things which they've not
yet attained, most likely, but they have already
attained something which cannot come into the hearts
of people, but by the Spirit of God.
In other words, we're not everything we're supposed
to be, but we're not what we were
yesterday.
We have changed, and we're going forward, as
Paul says, by step by step, image to
image, and glory to glory, by the Spirit
of the Lord.
Now, when you read it, and I read
Acts chapter 2, there must have been an
explosion, there has to be an explosion of
faith.
Oh God, I wonder what wonderful thing you're
going to do in my life.
And we're starting from a little point, in
a sense, in our own sight, and we
read in the Scriptures, and we go to
a church somewhere, and somebody tells us that
God has this incredible destiny for us, and
we think like natural people, and the incredible
destiny is always from small to big.
My question today is, what if it goes
from big to small?
What if it goes from an incredible vision,
and what if the vision is actually true,
but it's not happening the way we think
it should happen?
Remember the Scripture says, my ways are not
your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts,
says the Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
my ways are higher than your ways, and
my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
And so they headed out to build this
glorious testimony for Christ, like you and I
did, only to become discouraged in our own
eyes by how little it seems to resemble
the original vision of what we thought our
lives would be.
The original vision.
I remember one time I needed a janitor
in my church, and a fellow called me,
and he said, Pastor, I was in my
devotions this morning, and he said, the Lord
told me that greatness awaits me.
I said, wonderful.
I need a janitor, and you're just the
person I think to fill this spot.
I said, for the Scripture says the greatest
among you will be your servant.
I remember him saying to me, that's not,
he said these exact words, that's not quite
what I had in mind.
It never is what we have in mind.
Our concept and our ways of thinking quite
often don't match the ways of God.
And so they headed out to build this
incredible testimony, and hey guy, the prophet in
chapter 2 and verse 3, let me just
read it to you, it says it this
way.
Who is left among you that saw this
house in her first glory?
And how do you see it now?
Is it not in your eyes in comparison
of it as nothing?
We start to build, we have this vision,
you have it, I have it, of what
greatness is, and what our life is going
to amount to, and then we're five, ten,
fifteen, twenty years down the road in this
journey.
We read the Bible, we see Daniel stopping
the mouths of lions, David taking down the
giant, Jonathan and his armored bearer taking a
half acre of land and sending a ripple
through hell, 120 coming out of the upper
room and changing as it were the whole
known world of their generation.
People given courage and victory, and we read
these things, and we see what the original
temple, that's the original temple folks I'm talking
about, and we see this original temple, and
we've been building as it is for a
long time, and we look at the foundation
of what's been laid of God in our
own lives, and we say could it be
that my life has fallen short of what
I thought it would be?
Have I failed God?
This temple looks nothing like what I thought
it was going to look.
They came home, they came home with all
this expectation, they laid the foundation, and essentially
speaking the people stood back and said this
was the place where the glory of God
fell, but this is such a mess, look
at the rubble, look at the ruin here,
look at we're building with leftover pieces of
former glory, and it looks nothing like the
original temple, and of course they there was
opposition against it, and you know if you
know the history of it, the people just
simply drew back in many cases and stopped
building because they didn't see any hope, and
that happens with Christian people coming into the
house of God, and you have plans, and
visions, and dreams, and ambitions, and you have
a whisper in your heart that perhaps God
himself spoke to you, but you look at
your life after all the work you put
in, and you say this looks nothing like
the book of Acts chapter 2, this looks
nothing like the vision that I feel that
God gave me, I don't know, maybe I've
built the wrong way, maybe I've fallen short,
maybe God is displeased with me, and after
10, 15, 20 years many people lose heart,
there's there's a pivotal moment I believe in
the lives of many Christian people where zeal
stops, and complacency takes over, and despair begins
to occupy the mind, and that zeal as
it is to live a life that will
make a difference dies, just like threatened to
happen here, but it was the voices of
the prophets that God raised again, Haggai and
Zechariah that came to the people just the
way I feel I'm doing today, and say
no the problem is you don't see the
way God sees, your understanding is short, you
don't understand that God hasn't lied to you,
and your life is not a failure, and
you're not building on the wrong foundation, I'm
talking now to the honest seeker of God,
the person who really came home and wanted
to build a life for God's glory, but
yet because it doesn't look like what you
thought it was going to look like, God
told you great things were in store, but
immediately your mind, it was all about crowds,
it was all about a marquee, it was
all about a brochure wasn't it, your name
was gonna be on it, you're gonna do
some great thing for God, but the problem
is you don't see God didn't lie to
you, quite often we don't you see we
don't see the whole picture, I want you
to think about Joseph for a minute, I'm
talking about the the husband of Mary the
stepfather of Jesus, he's given the plan of
God is put into his hands, first in
Matthew 121 it tells us that he was
a just man and a devout man and
an angel of the Lord appeared to him
and said no take Mary as your wife,
she is with child of the Holy Spirit
and this child is going to pay the
penalty as it is for the sins of
the people of God of that time, the
children of Israel and of course Joseph wouldn't
have understood it would be not just Israel
it was the whole world, and so Joseph
is given the charge of protecting this plan
of God, just like you have the plan
of God put into your hands, he had
the plan of God put into his hands,
he had the salvation of the world put
into his hands, do you understand this, he's
given a child, now the last time we
hear of Joseph, Jesus was 12 years of
age, do you remember they took a trip
up to sacrifice in Jerusalem and they lost
Jesus, can you imagine that, they lost him,
you're given the plan of God for the
salvation of the world, you think you would
have, can you imagine Joseph and Mary going
back to that temple, can you imagine the
discussion, I thought you were looking after the
plan of God for the salvation of the
world, well I thought, I mean he's your
son, he's not mine, I mean it's your
responsibility to look after the plan of God,
my wife preached a message one time called
losing Jesus and said they must have felt
like the biggest idiots in the history of
the world, they were given the plan of
God for the salvation of the world and
they lost it, and folks we can feel
that way too sometimes, now Jesus was in
the temple, we know that, he was 12
years old, he was astounding the scholars, he
was about his father's business, you can't lose
the plan of God for your life, don't
buy the lie of the devil, the plan,
you might lose sight of it, but the
plan of God is still going on in
your life, nothing has stopped, now somewhere between
the time Jesus was 12 years of age
and when he was 30 and began his
ministry on the earth, most believe Joseph died
at that time because there's no more mention
of him, and you can just imagine when
Joseph died on his deathbed, what was in
his heart, have I failed God?
I had it out with a plan of
salvation for the world and all I have
to show for my life is one child
is not even my own, I want you
to think this through, I want you to
stop and reason it for a moment, the
things that could have been in Joseph's heart
not speculation, the scripture doesn't record it, but
he has to be an ordinary person like
you and I, say God did I fail
you?
Maybe, I assume that Jesus is probably in
his 20s at the time that Joseph dies
and he's on his deathbed, the plan of
God is now over 20 years old, perhaps,
and Joseph is saying, did I spend too
much time in the carpenter shop with him?
Did I not read the scriptures enough?
Did I not pray enough?
God you put the plan of salvation for
the world into my hands and nothing materialized
on my watch, nothing happened, he's still making
tables and chairs and here I am dying,
are you displeased with me Lord?
The scripture doesn't tell us why Joseph is
removed, but would he have to deal with
the displeasure of God?
Did I fail you?
You know in our time we always want
to see the fulfillment, we want to see
the fullness, and it has to happen before
us or we lose the sense that we've
been successful.
Think of the Apostle Paul for a moment,
he starts preaching to crowds in the temples
and arenas, it was not always the best
of circumstances, but at least there were crowds,
and he's in the temple every time he's
in the temple he draws a crowd, he
draws a crowd in the arena on more
than one occasion, and there are good people
trying to stop him from the journey that
he's on, because he's starting from a place
of seemingly much influence to a place of
insignificance, and even Agabus the prophet tries to
stop him on the shores of one of
his journey, ties his hands, says Paul, Paul
the journey you're on you're going to end
up in prison, look at what you could
do here, look at the numbers of people
you could be speaking to, look at the
magnitude of your ministry, and you're heading off
on this plan, and this plan's just gonna,
what are you gonna do Paul, stand before
some demon-possessed Caesar that thinks he's God,
and end up in jail, and look at
all the people here that need you, and
all the Christians, this you see Paul this
is where success is, and Paul says no,
are you trying to break my heart, are
you trying, I have a heart to follow
God in other words, are you trying to
break it with your reasoning, are you trying
to introduce me into man's reasoning, no Paul
left the crowds, he left the temples, he
left the accolades of men, he left the
arenas, to a prison cell with just a
few friends, and in that prison cell all
he could do was write to some of
the friends he had left behind, and he
didn't despise the day that appeared to be
a small ending, he started big and he
was finishing small, he wrote in Philippians 1
12 from jail, I would that you should
understand brethren, that the things that happened to
me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance
of the gospel, Paul said I wish you
could understand what I understand, I don't need
to know all things, but I do know
him into whose hand I've committed my life
and my future, I do believe that all
things work together for good, to those that
love God and are the called according to
his purpose, Paul could write this down because
he was not driven by having to fulfill
some ambition and see it with his own
eyes, how could Paul have known that the
hand of God was superimposed over his hand
writing much of our New Testament text in
a prison cell, God would have spoken to
Paul and said Paul I have I've got
an incredible destiny for your life and wonderful
things are going to be accomplished, Paul didn't
know what a printing press was, Paul didn't
know that leather-bound Bibles were going to
be produced in every language of the world
and sent all over the world to hundreds
and hundreds of millions of people were going
to be reading his letters, and what seemed
to be a small ending in the natural
was everything but in the spiritual, think of
Jesus himself he was helping and feeding thousands
of people, the crowds were following him, he
had the accolades, when he would meet in
a house there'd be so many people they'd
have to let sick people down through a
roof on a stretcher, and he ends up
alone almost on a cross, Mary is there,
his mother and John is there, and there's
a few associates are far off, the voice
of the tormentor trying to convince him that
his life and mission were both a failure
and a disappointment to God, don't think he
didn't have to endure this, remember they said
he trusted in God, let him deliver him
now if he will have him, for he
said I am the Son of God, some
mission, you can see the devil himself there
saying Jesus I showed you the kingdoms of
the world in an instant, if it was
about ruling and reigning you could have had
it, all you had to do is agree
with me and my reasoning that there's another
way to do this but by strict obedience
to God and by trusting in God, now
you trusted in God and you turned down
the offer to rule the kingdoms of this
world and now you're ending up alone, a
failure, a great beginning seemingly finishing with a
small ending, and you and I of course
know the story, and the point is simply
this, that God sees the whole picture while
we in our own eyes see only a
little part, that's the problem with humanity, go
to Hebrews chapter 11 please with me in
the New Testament, are you starting to get
this, we see only a little part, God
is building a hundred million piece puzzle on
the earth, a huge beautiful picture and every
one of us have a little part in
that, but you ever notice, you ever walk
into somebody's house and they have a thousand
piece puzzle that they put together on the
dining room table and one piece is missing,
it doesn't matter if there are 999 pieces
in that puzzle it's the one that's missing
that draws your attention right away and it
has marred the whole picture and because that
piece of the puzzle is missing you can't
frame that picture, you can't display it because
everybody will just say well where's that piece,
there's a piece missing in the puzzle, do
you understand, there's a thousand people or more
or less in the lower sanctuary here today,
do you realize that you're an important part
of what God is doing in the earth,
you can't be missing in the final picture,
now look at Hebrews chapter 11 verse 8,
by faith Abraham when he was called to
go out into a place which he should
after receive for an inheritance obeyed and went
out not knowing whether he went, by faith
he sojourned in a land of promise as
in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles or
tents with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with
him of the same promise, it's a strange
country for sure to the people of this
world, for he looked for a city which
has foundations as builder and maker as God,
through faith also Sarah herself received strength to
conceive seed and was delivered of a child
when she was past age because she judged
him faithful who had promised, therefore sprang there
even of one and him as good as
dead as many as the stars of the
sky and multitude in the sand which is
by the seashore innumerable, these all died in
faith not having received the promises but having
seen them afar off and were persuaded of
them and embraced them and confessed that they
were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, now
people of this earth have to see to
be successful, the glossies have to be there,
the name has to be on the marquee,
the crowds have to be in attendance, there
has to be something tangible and visible but
these died not having received the promise, can
you imagine that, think of Abraham for a
moment, Lord takes him out of his tent
one day and says look at the stars
in the sky, he says I'm going to
if you can count them these are your
descendants and go to the seashore and count
the grains of sand, there are going to
be so many people born from you into
this world and not only will there be
that many people but the whole world will
be blessed through you and so Abraham takes
his journey from his home and he's traveling
and when he comes to the end of
his journey he's telling people along the way
you know God I'm sure he did you
know God gave me a promise, God's gonna
bless me and my descendants are going to
be as numerous as the stars in the
sky and through my life the whole world
is going to be blessed, how would you
like to travel Brooklyn or the Bronx with
that declaration going down the hallway of your
apartment or in your workplace, well in the
beginning it was probably exciting and as time
went on especially when he got to old
age he's got one child, one child, I
mean can you imagine getting to the end
of your life's journey having started with that
big a promise and you end up with
one child, now he's got Ishmael that doesn't
count because that's a child of human effort
he's got one child by faith called Isaac
but how how would the picture be marred
if that child were not born, when he
was holding Isaac did he have any idea
he was holding the DNA of Jesus Christ
the Son of God who had come from
the loins of this child, did he have
any idea that there was going to be
a church born, you and I actually he
was holding in his arms, did he have
any idea that the small finish was not
as small as he thought it was going
to be, in the natural we'd like to
see a big finish, Abraham I'm sure in
the natural would like to have died with
10,000 at least it would be a
little more of a shot at fulfilling the
promise in the sense that God gave him
but he dies with one child, you know
that helps me to understand why Esau didn't
want this promise, I mean Abraham dwelt in
tents not seeing the promise but embracing it
Isaac dwelt in tents and then of course
the next inheritor was Esau but Esau was
the kind of a man that said I
want the kingdom now, I want influence and
power and wealth and I want to I
want it now I don't I don't want
to I don't want to live in tents
with this far-off promise being persuaded and
embracing and confessing you see Esau was not
a stranger and pilgrim to the ways of
the earth he wanted his inheritance now he
wanted it all now and that's still folks
in the hearts of men to want it
now to want to be successful now to
want to be prosperous now to want everything
accolades now influence and authority now that's what
Esau wanted he didn't want to have it
by promise he wanted it in his hand
and so when it came time to trade
off his birthright for a bowl of stew
it was an easy thing for him because
he traded it off in his heart long
before I remember the man who won me
to Christ he was a Royal Canadian Mounted
Police Officer came to my house for I
think about two or three months every Wednesday
and just kept reaching out to me just
kept reaching out and reaching out in spite
of how obstinate I was and argumentative I
was and how much I scorned and scoffed
he just simply kept coming to my house
and didn't give up his post as it
was and finally after this season he won
me to Christ he got me to read
the Gospel of John and on the way
to work one day I pulled over on
the side of the road and gave my
life to Jesus Christ I'd given him such
a hard time folks he didn't believe it
when I told him I got saved he
looked right right in the eye says I
don't believe you because he thought it was
just another game that I was playing with
him and I remember when I told him
no it's for real I pulled over and
I gave my life to Jesus I remember
his hands start to shake open his briefcase
and took out these Billy Graham things called
now that you received Christ and we immediately
started into discipleship he's dead now but I
remember years later talking to him and he
was lamenting he said you know you're the
only one I ever won to the Lord
and he was sad about it you know
number one you know I made me feel
like a sort of lunch bag letdown in
the kingdom of God and and secondly I
can just see when he appeared before the
the throne of God and saying Lord I'm
just so sorry I wish I could have
done more he was a faithful man he
stayed in the same church from the time
he was saved till the time he died
he served there faithfully and I can see
him but sit standing before the throne of
God saying Lord I had such plans and
dreams and ambitions and I I had so
wished my life could have done more but
you see I only led one guy to
you and the Lord says no no it's
much bigger than that you don't understand something
you see the man you led to me
led a few others and a few others
led a few others it goes like this
folks you lead somebody to Christ and they
lead to and though that person leads to
and those two lead for those four lead
16 those 16 lead 32 and when you
get to the throne of God none of
that would have happened had you not led
that one it's it's the same principle of
ending up alone in the prison or dying
alone on the cross or finishing with one
child we have the impression that our whole
life it has to be about now but
the Lord says no it's not just about
now everybody that you've led to Christ all
these ones that come after all your children
your grandchildren your great grandchildren your great-great
-grandchildren and you and I they're a part
of the reward for every person that comes
to Christ through everyone that we want to
Christ when you get there it's it's one
part of a huge picture those who win
in the kingdom of God they finish the
race not the way they might once have
thought they should but know inside that we
faithfully finished what God gave us to do
there's a day coming of reward does it
there's a judgment seat that not the ungodly
this is not the judgment of the ungodly
but the judgment of those who are believers
in Christ you and I will be there
one day and I don't know how many
are going to be there I'm guessing it's
in the hundreds of millions and time is
no more so it doesn't matter nobody has
to go to bed nobody gets hungry we're
all in the presence of God and names
are going to be called and everything we've
done will be judged on the scale of
truth and be rewarded accordingly the Bible says
some will be saved yet their works will
burn as by fire but they themselves will
be saved Jesus seemed to indicate in the
Gospels at this time many who are last
are going to be first and many who
are first are going to be last he
judges righteously it's it's not by volume it's
not by numbers it's not by sight but
it's by purity motive by trust and obedience
the fact that we did what we were
called to do on this earth folks oh
what a shock that's going to be I've
got a secret that God's spoken into my
heart it's it's a it's it brings me
joy because it makes me know that God
is just he's true he's holy he's right
he does things in righteousness and in truth
if we were in a convention today and
rewards were being given out the rank-and
-file of the church would all be sitting
there and and most would feel like I'm
just a body that's attended here to occupy
a seat and all the guys with the
fancy suits and all the ones with the
big churches are all going to be called
first and they're all going to be given
rewards five cities four cities ten cities now
folks I don't do what I do for
reward if God chooses to do that then
that's fine with me that's alright but I
honestly the thought doesn't appeal to me I
have all my hands full just pastoring this
church I can't even fathom governing ten cities
I guess the Lord will have to give
some supernatural ability if we're ever going to
do stuff like that now folks listen to
me suddenly names start to be called in
heaven and the angels are going to be
rejoiced and the created beings will most likely
be there seraphims the cherubs all of these
things will be there and then suddenly the
moment heaven is waiting for names are going
to be called and all the big players
have clamored and taken the best seats I
have no doubt about that and suddenly the
first name is called Mary Johnson from Times
Square Church stand please and everybody's going who
in the world who's Mary Johnson Times Square
Church who is that and then all of
a sudden Mary stands Mary you worked in
the nursery Mary you were given the care
of a few children and you took it
on with all your heart and you poured
everything you had into these little ones and
through you they knew they were loved and
they knew they were cared about and you
prayed and you didn't let them go and
you believe God and you fought for them
in your spirit and you prepared even though
they were two three and four years old
you sowed something of life in these children
you've been faithful in a few things now
I'll make you rule over many things enter
into the joy of the Lord and all
the angels start shouting all the cherubim start
shouting in heaven and there's a stunned silence
and now the second name and this is
going to go on for a million years
but it doesn't matter because there's no time
there anymore the second name Keyshawn Jones everybody's
looking who in the world is Keyshawn Jones
you were an usher at Times Square Church
you didn't even get to come into the
sanctuary you worked in the annex every Sunday
and Tuesday but you did what you did
faithfully you stretched out your hand you greeted
every visitor you've made every sinner who came
into the house of God feel special as
they are in the sight of God you
turn nobody away you never never made any
person who came into the house of God
feel like they didn't belong there you sowed
good seed in many lives you've been faithful
in a few things behold I'll make you
ruler over many things enter thou into the
joy of the Lord all heaven is silent
again now the guys with the big suits
are getting really nervous if you can sweat
in heaven they're already sweating ties are starting
to come off callers are beginning to lose
jackets are beginning to get unbuttoned people are
starting to get out of the front seats
and try to find a backseat Esmerelda Smith
who in the world is Esmerelda Smith she's
a 91 year old senior that comes out
every week and prays and believes God Esmerelda
came through hell had to endure racism had
to do it endure unspeakable slights and insults
through her life but made a choice when
she came to Christ to forgive and became
a person of tenderness and love and began
to pray for reconciliation in the church and
in all of God's people everywhere she stood
for what was right when everyone else was
standing for what was wrong she was an
encouragement she was a hugger she was a
voice for what is right enter thou into
the joy of thy Lord Zechariah 4 7
he says who art thou great mountain before
Zerubbabel thou shall become a plain and he
shall bring forth the headstone with shouting scrying
grace grace unto it who is that great
mountain that stands and says in my life
and this temple is going to amount to
nothing no the Lord is going to finish
the work that he is destined to do
within me it doesn't have to be great
in my sight but one day I'm going
to stand before the throne of God and
there's only one thing that's going to be
in my mouth grace Oh God grace God
your favor God your goodness God your mercy
God your comfort God your power Oh God
grace grace and so who has despised the
day of small endings whether you have only
one child to nurture a Sunday school teacher
one time had a boy at his class
who was a prankster he was virtually illiterate
and he was always playing jokes and he
was kind of a foolish young man but
the Sunday school teacher got a burden in
his heart for him and went down to
the shoe shop where he worked brought him
outside and sat down to talk to him
and so the seed of life in this
young man this young man turned his heart
to Christ his name was Dwight Moody and
through his life people all over the world
continents were changed churches were changed revival came
through this one young man that a Sunday
school teacher won to Christ maybe you only
have one child to nurture but don't forget
it's not over when you finish it goes
on maybe you're the only one who stands
in school perhaps there's very few that are
standing for what is right and you're a
college student here today you're a high school
student you work in the marketplace and you're
the only one who stands just like Jesus
Christ was the only one seemingly left on
Calvary maybe you only have a few friends
to write to maybe your day and time
of traveling as a missionary is over but
you still have a hand and you still
have a pen you still have the Spirit
of God and I promise you everything you
write to somebody will long outlive you just
like Paul's letters outlived him I had a
grandfather who was least I was told he
was a judge he died when I was
three and he used to grieve me that
this man obviously had a lot of advice
for a lot of people in his courtroom
or whatever he did but he never left
me anything and even though he wasn't a
safe man I would probably still read it
today because it was my grandfather no card
no no no advice for life I was
three years in this world did I not
matter to him why wouldn't he have left
something for me used to really bother me
when I was especially when I was a
young Christian and maybe that's all you can
do but it will outlive you and if
God calls you to do it just do
it and be faithful to it a great
will be your reward you know the beauty
of this entire thing is that I don't
know what it is that you do I
pastor this church supposedly about 8,000 or
so people but when we get to the
throne of God we're on level ground my
friend because I'm judged by faithfulness just like
you are it's not on volume it's not
on content it's not on how much of
a public figure I was it was was
I honest was I a man of integrity
did I really care about you and what
I was given to do and I will
be judged on the same scale that you
will be in what you're given to do
and for me that makes Christ beautiful it
just levels the playing field and that means
there are no big people there are no
small people in the kingdom of God we
we all have a piece in this little
in this great picture that God and my
piece is no bigger than yours and I
have found freedom in this understanding freedom from
all the pressure freedom from everything but just
to love you and to see God become
God in you and to see you fulfill
the calling of God on your life and
even if your part looks small and your
temple insignificant I want to remind you that
it was this temple in Zechariah that they
were rebuilding that Jesus Christ the man walked
into this was the temple and even if
my temple and yours look small and insignificant
you are the temple that Jesus chose to
walk into he's already in you if you're
a believer and he's already walking through you
on the earth and there's great freedom in
just finishing what God gave us to do
just finish it with all your heart finish
it well and keep before you the understanding
that greatness does not mean largeness greatness is
obedience greatness is purity greatness is sowing a
seed in a field and dying and maybe
long after your death suddenly that tree sprouts
I told Pastor William we were talking recently
I said you know with today's technology every
message we preach will outlive us by a
hundred years should the Lord tarry.
Pastor William may be long in heaven he
may be on a cloud somewhere floating through
the galaxy and there'll be suddenly this this
following of William Carroll has erupted all over
America or part of the world he won't
even know about it because we're sowing into
the future we're delivered from having to see
with our natural eye things now that convince
us that we are a success in the
sight of God and there is an incredible
freedom in this folks incredible I don't want
you to be missing what a tragedy that
that big puzzle is finished that big picture
and you're missing you you what you were
given to do you gave up you quit
you thought your life wasn't worthwhile you thought
your temple was so mediocre that God didn't
want you you fell for the lie I
want to give an altar call this morning
for every person who fits in that category
and we're going to just pray together and
we're going to just believe that hell is
going to be destroyed and condemnation is going
to die for every person you just have
a one child to nurture a few friends
to write to or all you need is
the power to stand in your school in
your workplace but the grace to rebuild and
to trust that God is going to be
glorified through your life if this is you
today I want you just to stand as
we all stand together and just make your
way down here we're going to pray together
we're going to worship for a few moments
and then we're going to pray don't be
ashamed to slip out of your seat let's
all stand together in the balcony go to
either exit in the annex and in Roxbury
please if you just stand up between the
screens thank God for deliverance thank God for
getting rid of the voice of the condemner
thank God I don't have to be any
more than God's called me to be glory
to God just make your way down please
and while we worship I want to give
you a word those that have come to
the altar today there in the song of
Solomon which I've always believed is a type
of Christ in his church the the bride
said to the bridegroom I don't look at
me I I feel unlovely feel like I've
not done what I was called to do
and I've been a failure and but the
bridegroom said to this bride he said no
it's not the way you see it said
you've stolen my heart the moment you just
turn to look at me said you didn't
even have a chance to fully face me
when I saw one of your eyes actually
that's what he says one of your eyes
turn my heart the moment you turn towards
me and the bride says I'm my beloved's
and his desire is towards me and then
he says to her come let us go
forth into the field let us lodge in
the villages let us get up early to
the vineyards and what he's saying to her
is there's so much that I want to
do with you you may not fully understand
it all but if you'll just get up
and come with me let us walk together
and just be content to be with me
be content to do what I choose to
do with you and through you and don't
let anything stop you praise God there's such
freedom in knowing that you're a part of
what God is doing that cannot be replaced
you cannot be replaced by anybody else in
this world you're a very unique part of
this beautiful picture that Jesus is painting and
so just get up today it's all I'm
asking it's all the Lord is asking just
get up and begin to walk with him
and shake off the condemnation shake off all
of this stuff that comes from your own
heart and from the devil himself you are
an invaluable part of the body of Christ
in this earth and what God is doing
Lord Jesus Christ I ask you you say
that where your spirit is that you will
open prisons and set free those that have
been captivated God you're bringing an understanding of
some things into your church in this last
hour in which we're living and you're letting
your people go from all captivity and all
bondage all wrong thinking about the kingdom of
God that we may serve you even in
our wilderness wherever it is that we live
we realize Lord that our lives are not
insignificant not one of us are insignificant to
the kingdom of God all we can ask
is Jesus be glorified in us not the
way we see but the way you see
and help us just to be faithful in
what you've given us to do it doesn't
have to be big in our own sight
but Lord you're able to take just a
small seed and you can grow a great
tree from it give us an understanding of
these things and help us to do our
part faithfully and help us to give glory
to you in doing it and deliver us
from the ways of the thinking of this
world graft us into those who by faith
saw it even though they didn't receive it
in their lifetime and embraced it and that
seeing and that embracing caused them to confess
they were strangers to the ways of this
world Oh Jesus we have nothing else to
ask but that you glorify your name through
us as your people glorify your name through
us in New York City and wherever else
we might be from this morning Oh God
Almighty deliver your people out of all condemnation
let the prayer meetings begin to abound in
the house of God Jesus glorify your name
father we thank you Lord thank you God
that if all we do is win one
person it's worthwhile one child Lord whatever you
give us to do we want to do
it with all our might and all our
heart knowing that you're pleased with us Lord
you're pleased with your people father deliver us
from all the corporate thinking of this world
has gotten into the church of Jesus Christ
bring us back to spiritual reality and father
we thank you for this Oh God thank
you Lord I pray that people are here
this morning begin to understand what a day
is coming what a day when the last
will be first what a day Oh God
when you weigh everything by truth and by
integrity and honesty and obedience Oh Jesus thank
you thank you God I pray you give
every single mother here strength to raise their
children give father strength to be godly leaders
of their family Oh God give the young
people strength to stand in the schoolyard my
God my God my God help us not
to see anything is too small or insignificant
in your kingdom for your eye looks and
beholds it all and everything is important to
you Lord every child of God is important
to you every person in this city in
our world is important help us Lord Jesus
to recognize it help us to obey the
voice of the Holy Spirit as we walk
through our day dropping the seeds of eternal
life into the ears and hearts and people
everywhere God deliver us from having to see
with our eyes God help us to just
understand and know in our hearts that you
will bring the increase and we thank you
for it with everything in us in Jesus
mighty and holy name hallelujah hallelujah glory to
God now I want to do something before
we go the young lady you never let
anything turn you away from where God's calling
you he's got something very special for you
when your name is called in heaven you
may not have been known on earth you're
probably in a better position than those who
are known but I want to I want
to just give a practice of what it
sounds like when your name is called not
Billy Graham not somebody your name John Smith
or whatever your name is when your name
this is this is what it's going to
sound like in heaven when your name is
called on the count of three I want
you to do that I want you all
to be the angels and the seraphims today
okay on the count of three one two
three