June 21, 1998

God in the Details

Scripture: Zechariah 3:1 - 4:10

The verse that I would like to fasten on today is the last verse in the passage -- Zechariah 4:10 "Who despises the day of small things?"

For me Friday was a day of small things.
You know the sort of day. I headed out the door expecting to accomplish great things -- then my computer crashed, and I got several unexpected phone calls, A colleague from the College needed my help -- that took several phone calls and emails, then we had unexpected guests for lunch. After lunch I had to make an unexpected trip to the bank. Finally at 3:30 I got back to the office -- I had time to write a few letters then head home -- where another set of guests was waiting.

What had I accomplished? My day was filled with small, seemingly unimportant things -- interruptions to my grand plans -- and I was miserable. I did not write a stellar sermon, I did not eloquently share the gospel with anyone, I did not rescue anyone from a life of drug addiction or save anyone's marriage. I didn't even reconcile the petty cash. I didn't do any of the wonderful things that pastors are supposed to do. All I had done was small things .

And I despised my day of small things. I came away feeling discouraged and defeated.


Background -

That is how Zerubbabel must have felt when the Prophet Zechariah began preaching. Zerubbabel was the leader of the Jews who had returned from exile in Babylon. And he had had many days of small things -- many days of not much progress.

The year is 520 B.C. -- 18 years since the first exiles returned from captivity in Babylon and began rebuilding the foundations of the temple. And one would think that having been away in captivity so long, and having been miraculously delivered from exile by God, that they would have set aside their own interests to join together with zeal in rebuilding the temple. But (like many of us) although they would have liked to do more, they simply could not muster the resources -- "It's not yet time" they said. So for ten years the work languished.

Then in 520 B.C. the Prophet Haggai had begun preaching -- rebuking the people for neglecting the temple:

"Is it time for you yourselves to be living in panelled houses while this house remains a ruin?"

Warning them that God was punishing them for their neglect:

You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the Lord Almighty. Because of my house which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.

And the people responded. They left aside their own houses and set to work, rebuilding the temple. The started out with great energy. They finished the foundation and began work on the walls. But then something happened. Their energy waned. They became discouraged. Perhaps they were overcome by the hostile responses of their enemies. They were certainly overwhelmed simply by the magnitude of the task.

And you can hardly blame them. It was enormous task and they were so few. They could see so little progress and were left discouraged and defeated.

Enter Zechariah, with his pointed question: "Who despises the day of small things?"

You see the returned exiles were discouraged because they could only see such small results for their labor. They looked around them and saw little progress. And God was saying to them -- listen, I'm at work here, and when I intend to do something great, I use small things.

And if we look through scripture we find that this is not an isolated message. God's pattern has not changed.

God delights to use small things to accomplish his work. He loves to use insignificant, weak and humble things for his purposes.

We see this pattern -- God's delight in using small things -- throughout scripture and throughout history.

I'd like to illustrate how and why God delights in using small things by asking you to consider three NOT so small things.

1. The first NOT so small thing is a sledgehammer

Why a sledgehammer. Well, a sledghammer is a big, powerful tool, right. Let's imagine that I wanted to break this pulpit into pieces. Now let me suggest two options.

Option 1: I hit the pulpit with a sledgehammer. Quick and easy.
Option 2: I neatly split the pulpit in two with a single blow of my bare hand, thus surprising and impressing you with my prowess in the martial arts.

Which would speak more highly of my skill and strength? The illustration is crude, but the point is simple: My strength and skill would be much more evident if I did not need the sledgehammer.

If you want a more elegant illustration: Who will deserve greater admiration? The missionary surgeon who can successfully perform complex surgeries in a makeshift hospital with inadequate instruments-- or the surgeon who does the same surgery in perfect conditions with every technological tool at their fingertips. Clearly the one who can do the job with less than adequate tools more clearly demonstrates their skill.

In the same way . . .

God's strength is magnified in the smallness and weakness of his instruments.
God does not need weighty, powerful tools -- he shows his strength through small, weak people.

We see this illustrated over and over again in the Bible:
-- Moses, a shepherd with a speech impediment becomes God's spokesman
-- The people of Israel, a nation of stubborn ex-slaves are God's chosen people
-- Gideon defeats a massive army with a tiny band.
-- David, an unarmed shepherd boy with an attitude kills a heavily armed giant with one small stone.
-- Then God himself visits humanity not as a great king, but as a poor Jewish carpenter's son.
-- Jesus Disciples, A band of uneducated Galilean peasants become the founders of the church.

We have this confirmed in 1 Cor. 1: 26-29
Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things -- and the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

God delights in using the small and the weak in order to demonstrate his glory and strength more clearly.
-- That means we must never dismiss anyone as unusable by God because they appear weak. And that means that you should never think yourself too small to be used by God

So remember the sledgehammer as a reminder that God does not need big, powerful tools. Our smallness and our weakness is an opportunity for God to show his strength. And that brings us to my second NOT so small thing . . .

2. Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan is a superstar. The best basketball player who has ever lived. Millions of kids imagine dream of being able to play basketball like Michael Jordan -- including my son.

Stephen asked me the other day, in all seriousness, "Dad do you think I'll be better than Michael Jordan when I grow up?" And in the end, the answer was -- you know, it doesn't really matter. What matters is not whether you become a star athlete, but whether you grow up to know God.

You see I don't think God is much impressed with Michael Jordan's basketball prowess. For all his amazing skill, I would venture to say that God does not care much about what he can do on the court.

God is not liable to be impressed by stardom. He is much more interested in simple faithfulness in small things. But this is terribly hard for us to accept. Like Stephen we tend to fantasize about being spiritual Michael Jordans -- soaring to amazing spiritual heights. Taking on the world. Doing great things for God.

But God is most glorified by our faithfulness in small things .

The days of small things are the training and testing times. If we despise the days of small things, we will be unfit for great things. The winner of a marathon receives the prize only after suffering through years of unglamourous and painful training.

What this means in practice is that we must faithfully plug away in obedience to God to even when we see no apparent results.

It means praying when our prayers seem "unfruitful"
It means serving when our service seems insignificant.
It means loving when we don't feel like loving.

You know what the greatest test of faithfulness is? The greatest test of faithfulness is not opposition. We can get excited about opposition -- our adrenaline gets high. No -- The greatest test of faithfulness is drudgery. Those long days when we see no clear results of our labor. .

So Michael Jordan is a reminder for you. Every time you see him on TVor a magazine cover remind yourself that God does not call you to stardom -- He calls you to simple faithfulness in the small things.

3. My third and last NOT so small thing is an iceberg.
[Don't worry this is NOT a Titanic illustration]

Now icebergs tend to be rather large, but as you know their important characteristic is that most of their size is hidden.

The work of God is like an iceberg. The bulk of what he is doing is invisible to us. We would like to see dramatic, visible results. We get discouraged when we don't see returns. But the fact is that we have NO idea what God may be doing among us. The most important works of God are completely invisible to us.

That means that we cannot judge what God is accomplishing by what we can see.

God is glorified when we are faithful even though the results of our work are invisible .

Now this has fairly direct applications in the church. It is easy to become discouraged by work at church when we don't see dramatic, visible results -- we don't see people flocking into the church, we don't see exciting evidence of God's power in our services. Or you may be witnessing to someone and getting no response.

Remember, you can only see the tip of the iceberg. God's work is far greater than you can imagine.

Conclusions / Application

What difference does any of this make for real life? Well, think about the frustrating "day of small things" that I began with. Why was I frustrated? Because I wanted to accomplish big things. I wanted to be a spiritual Michael Jordan, when God wanted me to be faithful in small things. If I had been applying this scripture instead of worrying about writing a sermon on it I would have had a much happier day because I would have been looking for God's work in small ways.


There are also some applications here for our church. These are days of "small things" for Stony Brook.
Our condition is not all that different from that of the people of Judah. Like the exiles who first returned and began work on the temple we started building this church with great zeal and excitement.

But now we are in the days of "small things" -- when the newness and excitement has worn thin, when we have seen enough of our own sin to wonder whether God can ever do the "Great Things" that we hoped and dreamed of for this church.

It's exactly at times like these that we most need to be reminded not to despise the days of small things. Don't become discouraged. God delights to use small things to accomplish his work.

Rejoice in our weakness -- it means God can use us.
Don't long for spiritual stardom -- be faithful in the small things.
Don't insist on seeing the whole iceberg -- Exercise faithfulness even when the results are invisible.