Open your Bible this morning to the book of Zechariah. For those of you who are fortunate enough to find it before the end of the service, you can read along with me. And for those of you who still haven't got a clue, there's an index in the front of your Bible that usually will give you the page number where the first chapter can be found. And from there, you should be able to find your way to the fourth chapter. If not, just close your Bible and listen. Zechariah chapter number 4. And what we're reading this morning, I don't expect many of us would grasp in just the short amount of time we'll spend here. So before I read it, let me just simply state, you probably won't have a clue of what we're reading. And that's fine, because it is simply a prophecy or a prophetic vision that has been given to Zechariah and God is going to explain it. And to move us along, simply put, it is God's way of explaining to Zechariah that one by the name of Zerubbabel, that's why we probably wouldn't understand it, we can't even get the names, Zechariah and Zerubbabel. But Zerubbabel has been chosen by God to build again the temple of the Lord. The city of Jerusalem and the cities of Judea have lain waste for many years. There has been no Jewish lifestyle in them for a long time. And God now has begun to call His people back to the land and to reestablish their presence there. And this temple is to be built under the leadership of one named Zerubbabel. For all considerations, for whatever reason, Zerubbabel would probably not be the individual you would choose. Nor would he have been the individual that even Zechariah perhaps would have chosen. And so God in this prophetic vision reveals to Zechariah that his choice is his choice. Whether there would be those who would say it was a mistake or a waste of time or whatever it might be, it didn't matter. Because God makes it known here that this is the one who I am going to use. Now having that in mind, let's read. And the angel that talked with me came again and waked me as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold, a candlestick, all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof, and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my Lord?" See, Zechariah didn't even understand it. So don't worry about it. The angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my Lord. 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 to 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 see the pulpit in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven. They are the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole earth." And in this prophecy, he vindicates his choice of Zerubbabel. And I don't know what his flaws would have been or could have been. But it is apparent from God's understanding that He needed to offer this vindication that Zerubbabel was His choice. It stands to reason that there was opposition. There were those that thought that He was not a worthy choice. Perhaps He lacked in skills they thought would be necessary. Perhaps he was not of the character that they thought he should have been. I do not know, nor do you. We would simply speculate. But suffice it to say that God devotes this chapter through His prophet to say simply, I have chosen whom I have chosen. His hand laid the foundation and He is going to finish it. In other words, He has my stamp of approval upon Him. Whether you like Him or no, whether He would have been your choice or no, whether you feel there are others that are more competent or qualified does not matter. is the one I'm going to use." And then he adds this little postscript, as it were, and he says simply this, "...who hath despised the day of small things." And in so doing, I think God expresses to us His desire to accomplish those things by means of His own might and power and glory. The world today has reinvented the idea of God. A God that is somehow impotent and nervous and in a frenzy. He is much perplexed by what we have done to the world. He is just on pins and needles about what's going to happen as a result of mankind's frenzy upon the planet. A God who simply doesn't understand how to fix it or to straighten it out. A God who really just wants everybody to love each other and doesn't matter much beyond that. That is not the God that is introduced to us in the Scripture. May I say, the harshest thing I see in the world around me today is the idea that the God of the Bible is not good enough for modern mankind. That somehow if we are to stand and use the Scripture as our foundation or our source of belief, we will be castigated by the media and by our peers somehow as being unkind and unloving. As if to say the God of the Bible is old hat. That's an old-fashioned God. That's a God we do not worship, nor do we serve. We serve and worship a newfangled God who's more in touch with society, who's green, if you will. A God who's more concerned that we care for each other and that we love for each other than anybody else. And may I say to you, that's fine. You have every right to believe in that God, but do not identify that as a Christian teaching. Because you had to throw the Bible out to come up with that. That's not the God in this book. I think it's fine that the heathen have heathenistic views. I think it's fine that non-Christians have non-Christian views. The irritation to me is that they accuse me of being unkind when I quote the book I profess God gave me. I often wonder where they get their theology from. Where did God give them that theology? Or did they just simply pick it out of the air and then make it theology and then make fun of me because I choose to follow a book? I've learned over the course of many years that I do a whole lot better following the map than I do following my own mind. How many ever got lost because you thought you knew how to get where you're going? Amen. Alright. I'd rather follow the map. that come up with some random idea out here that this is what we think Christianity should be about in this century, and this is what we think Christians should hold on to in this century. Listen, go take that stuff, wrap it up, put it in your pipe and smoke it. Maybe you'll get some happy feelings, but it is not a tenet of the Christian faith. I'm a Bible believer. I like what God said when He said, Yea, let God be true. And I probably quote that verse more than any other, but I just like it. Yea, let God be true, and every man a liar." And here, somebody has put the pressure on Zechariah. I don't know, maybe they called him aside and said, Zechariah, you know, Zerubbabel, of all people, who in the world, who in their right mind, who thought of that? And Zechariah said, God, surely God's got better sense than that. And so God offers this vindication. And simply put, he says, sit down, shut up, and watch what I can do. But may I express to you, that's been the perspective of God all the way through. God's not looking for my help this morning. God doesn't need me today. When the sun came up this morning, God was not waiting patiently at my bedside saying, how do you feel? Oh, I really need you today. I have to have... No, no, no. Listen, God does not need me. If I had failed to wake up this morning, God's plan would have gone on just like it always had. Sometimes we have, perhaps without thinking about it, brought God down to a level of meaninglessness in order to elevate ourselves to the level we would really like to occupy. They have done that at the expense of Zerubbabel. And God says, listen, I chose him. He laid the foundation. He'll finish it. Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit. You watch and see. Not what Zerubbabel can do. You watch and see what I can do. But the thought that arrests my attention this morning is the idea of who hath despised the day of small things. You know what God wants today? He wants some little things. You know the things we struggle with? The things I struggle with in my life are not big things. They're little things. I can't tell you the last time I was tempted to load a gun and kill 40 people. I can't tell you. I can't tell you the last time I was tempted to put dynamite in a vest and run into a place of worship going, and pull the trigger. I just can't. I think you have to be mentally insane to do that. That's not a religious persuasion. That's coot. I'm not tempted to do things like that. I've never been tempted to eat poison. I've never been tempted to work on the electrical systems of cars while they're running. At least not since the time I did that when I was 14 and kind of felt that a car can really put out some juice when it wants to. God doesn't need big things. You know, we're in a world, in a society, and in chaos that has people looking around for the big answers. We're looking for one person who can solve the woes. We're looking for one congressional decision, one presidential decree. We're looking for somebody, some corporate executive who can say this, and we're looking for the big answer. We're looking for the big man, the big woman who can solve it all. And in reality, God's not interested. I believe that there are a lot of people that intentionally God has nothing to do with or for because they're too big. Now, you have to forgive me because my theology is Southern-inspired. I don't apologize for that. Just the way that it is, my mentor was from Pascagoula, Mississippi. And he told me when I started in my ministry, Looking across the table, he said, God's looking for a man who's not too big to be little. And he's not too little to be big. You say it doesn't mean anything to me, didn't mean much to me either, but I wrote it down in my Bible. And over the course now, 30 years in the ministry, I found God's not interested in big people. He's interested in little people if they're willing to let God use them. Who hath despised the day of small things? You know, if you trace back situations that are critical and disastrous very often, you'll find it was not some major catastrophe, but some small thing. I watched years ago, as many of you probably did, when the Challenger exploded. I guess now that makes me old. But at the time, I felt rather young, and I still feel the same today. But I remember watching when the Challenger exploded. I was watching. I didn't watch the launches at all that I can recall, but I watched that launch. And I remember watching that thing as it flew into pieces and I thought, that's not right. And it became one of the great disasters of the space program. After research that went on for years and years, it was determined that the cause of that massive explosion and the deaths of, I believe, nine, seven or nine astronauts, was an O-ring that had a cost of a little less than a dollar that brought that multimillion-dollar spacecraft down in a thousand pieces. It was not some gigantic missile as what was supposed. I remember people talking, somebody shot that down. It had to be a missile. You could, you know, we all speculate. some major hull breach. Something had gone massively wrong and then in reality it was just a little rubber O-ring that was made to keep gases inside where they were and it had failed. And it had brought about that devastating result. We look at things like that and think about things like that and realize that it is a small thing. Think about how many people this year will die as a result of Something they never see. They may shake a hand. They may be involved in a conversation and somewhere in the course of that, they may pick up a glass and drink or they may turn on the faucets but they will come in contact with some little microorganism we know of as a germ. And without ever so much as a formal introduction, that germ will become the predator that will eventually destroy its host. You can go to the hospital if you want to watch the work of germs. It is an amazing thing that we've never seen them and yet they can take life so quickly and so totally and in such a devastating manner. I suppose when we get in a position like that and we're lying in a hospital bed and perhaps at the end of a life, if we're not careful, we would have a respect for small things we did not have before. And I think we serve a God that has a great respect for small things. I think God this morning is looking for somebody that's just not too big for their britches. That's what they used to say back when they gave you spankings. Because usually after they told you you were too big for your britches, they told you they were going to light them on fire. And they didn't use a lighter. They used a board or a switch or a belt, and I've had mine lit on fire several times. I'll be honest with you, I learned sometimes it's not healthy to be too big for your britches. Now today, that's the way they wear them. They want them to hang down around their ankles, long suspenders. Somehow, I guess that's a sign that we've progressed. But I thought we were progressing when I found out I could go to the store and actually buy clothes that fit me. I thought that was progress. I thought you just got the hand-me-downs from your cousins and whoever, and if they were too big, you just cinched up the belt a little bit, and eventually you grew into them. I didn't know you'd just go get whatever you wanted off the shelf. That was a great moment in my life. But I think God's looking for people, and very often, I think when He comes looking for us, He finds we're just too big for our britches. There were folks, you know, the folks that were criticized as irrevable were probably too big for their britches. They would say, well, who in the world would choose the rubble? You know, that guy should go back for remedial education. He didn't graduate from high school. Whatever it might be, they looked down upon him as one incompetent, as one unable. And by very nature of that act, they were saying, he's down there and I am up here. They were elevating themselves, and that probably explains why none of them had been chosen. I can imagine they probably, as they criticized God's choice, looked at it and they thought, I could do a better job than that. I'm smarter than he is. I'm better than... But that's the very reason God overlooked them. You see, the reason God knocked on the door of Zerubbabel was not because it said on the door plaque, Outstanding intellectual, master of all trades, never failed in his life. He didn't say that. I think he had Zerubbabel spelled wrong. I think it was probably spelled with one B instead of two. And God said, he didn't even spell his name right. And said, this is the guy I can use. I said, what are you talking about? God's looking for some small things. Who hath despised the day of small things? In 1249, that's not the time, that's the year. Someone might be able to remember that. That's a little beyond my time. Back when Italy was still subdivided into various kingdoms rather than the state or the country of Italy, two of those little kingdoms began a war. Can I tell you what the war began over? There was in the little province of Bologna, An army of a few men that protected the people in the stables and all that kind of stuff. And one of the soldiers deserted. He felt he'd had enough. He didn't want to be in the army anymore. And so he thought about stealing a horse, but he knew if he stole a horse they'd pursue him and kill him. And so he simply grabbed one of the horse buckets and filled it with water so he would have some water for his journey as he sped for his life. And out of the city he went. up and down hill and vale He traversed until He came to the little kingdom of Modena. When He came to the kingdom of Modena, He found there people who were willing to give Him a place and allow Him to be part of their culture and accepted Him with open arms. But it was not too long until the army came to the gates of Modena And they knocked on the door and they said, listen, you can keep him, but we want our bucket back. And the people at Modena looked at the bucket to see what there was of redeeming qualities in it and found that there were none. It was just an old wooden bucket with a rusty handle on it that had horse slobber all over it. But they said, it ain't going to happen. and war broke out that lasted for 22 years. There were books written about the atrocities committed during that war, the battles fought, and the people who died over a horse bucket. They say today, if you go to that area of Italy, and go to Girolandia Tower, you will find in the basement a display It is a glass case in which sits a horse bucket. They still have control of it in Modena. They kept the bucket. That's foolishness from our perspective. But it was very real. A war. Deaths. Over what? Over a bucket. Who hath despised the day of small things? I will guarantee you in the crowd of this size this morning, there are more than one of you. You've never attempted to do anything for God, never thought about doing anything to serve the Lord. And your excuse has been, I'm just too small. No one would ever care about me. Now, I know there are those of you who are here who also have never served the Lord because you're just too good. You're just too smart. You're too intellectual. You're too high up on the food chain there. And you realize that you're better than... And I got good news for you to do today. This message is not to you. It has nothing to do with you. Not even God Himself can help you. He will not use you. And so, I'm not addressing you this morning, I'm addressing those other few who have used the other end of that spectrum as their excuse and said, well, you know, I'm too young, I'm too old, I'm not smart enough, I don't know how, I'm, all of those things we surmise as excuses. But in reality, it's just saying, well, you know, I'm not qualified. Very often, it is simply a way to pass the burden on to someone else. But I want you to understand this morning, God's statement, who hath despised the day of small things, is applicable to you. God says that in the context of the criticism of Zerubbabel as if to say, how dare you say that I can't use who I want to use? How dare you say that he's not competent? How dare you criticize this individual because he's not what you are. I'll have you know, I have chosen this guy and he laid the foundation and he's going to finish the work because I, the Lord, have chosen." And in so doing, he put to silence certainly those who thought they were too big. But I think he also served notice to those who used this excuse, I'm just not big enough. Can I give you this morning some of those small things that can mean so very much? I had a guy told me one time, he said, preacher, when I win the lottery, I'm going to pay off the church. I said, that's really good, but you know, we only need 10 bucks right now. See, I'm going to be in there, you know, I can't help you with that 10 bucks, but you just wait till I win the lottery, you know. As soon as I win the lottery, preacher, you know, it's going to happen. And we did have one. I mentioned that several weeks ago. We had a family that won the lottery years ago. And we haven't seen them since. But I'm sure as soon as we see them again, they're probably going to... You know, it's one thing to promise God something you haven't got. And it's another thing to give God something you've promised. Two completely different matters. But there are a lot of people sitting here this morning, and I'm sure I'll perhaps not a good illustration. You'd say, Lord, when I win the lottery, I'm going to help somebody. I'm going to do something. When I get through with my education, when I get smart enough, when I get successful enough, when I get to a, Lord, then look out, here I come. And God's not interested in any of that stuff. The devil will accept any excuse you and I have not to serve God now, even helping us plan tomorrow. I think the devil has helped a lot of Christians plan what they're going to do for the Lord tomorrow, or next week, or next year. I think he's encouraged them to read their Bible tomorrow. I think he's encouraged them to be a witness tomorrow. I think he's encouraged them to become faithful to the Lord and come to church next week. I think he wants you to turn over a new leaf tomorrow. just so He can use you in whatever capacity He wants today. The day of small things. Did you ever consider how small a thing it is to have a desire in your heart? Just a desire in your heart. Did you ever ache for something? I'm not talking about something that's fleshly or filthy or wrong or immoral. I'm just talking about something that you needed or desired and you just ached for it. You didn't just say, gee, I want that. I want one of those and one of those. That's usually the way we pick things. One among the many choices I have. But did you ever just find your whole world coming to a stop and dwelling on one thing and saying, I wish that was part of my life? Very often it's not a thing. It's usually not a house or a car or a bank account. Usually it's a characteristic we see in someone else. Did you ever find yourself looking in the mirror saying, I wish I was more like, I wish I had the ability that they have. I wish I could, whatever it was, fill in the blank. But did you ever find yourself just aching to have some characteristic that you were void of? wishing somehow that you could go back to the factory and they could retrofit you with that characteristic that you seem to be missing. I know if you're a teenager this morning, you felt that way because every teenager feels that way. You see, when we're 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, we really don't care about anything other than having fun and friends. And when you get to be my age, you realize there ain't nothing you can do, man. But somehow at that magical age when hope springs from the depths of the well, you say, oh, if I could only... and you begin to look at all those character flaws, you know, my nose is too big, my ears are too long, my hair is the wrong color, it parts on the wrong side, or it doesn't part at all, or I'm too tall, or I'm too skinny, I'm too... whatever it is, we've got a thousand things that we look at, and we go through adolescence very often wishing we could be somebody else. And so I'm not just talking about the trivialities of adolescence. But did you ever just look in the mirror and say, I'd give anything in the world if I could be that kind of person? Did you ever get sick of yourself? Did you ever understand the meaning of just a desirous heart? You know what God looks for when He looks for people He can use? He looks for a desirous heart. The song simply says, would you live for Jesus and be always pure and good? Would you walk with Him within the narrow road? And the answer is simply this, let Him have His way. But you know why a lot of people never come to that place in life? Because they've just never had that ache down inside. They long for the highlights of this world. They long for the fanfare and the finances. They long for all the faraway places. They have a desire to go, to see. They want the success. They want the gusto of life. And if they are fortunate enough to succeed in acquiring any of it at all, it usually ends up the same way. You know what I wish they'd do? I wish they'd put together a reality show about Hollywood. I mean, I think that would be really informative. I mean, I think it would just be wonderful to see the price that these starlets and stars pay and the anguish they go through to achieve what little measure of success they achieve. So that their peers who have paid that price to achieve their little realm of success can applaud when they hand them a little trophy. And I want to thank the industry. And I want to thank the people who made this possible. And I want to thank the doctors who operated and cut off and reattached and filled up and stretched and pulled and changed colors and replanted. And I want to thank the people who made me what I am today, although I don't know who I am. And we look at that in drool. And in reality, we have no idea the price they've paid. The hours of anguish. The fear of the day when they won't be good enough. They won't be young enough. They won't be pretty enough. There'll be a has-been and a bygone word the day when they can't pay the payments on the $3 million mansion anymore and they have to move out of Hollywood. The day when the IRS comes and finds out that their manager has been scoundred with all the money but they still owe the taxes on it. The day they get too old and when people stand and applaud, it is now applause not out of respect but out of sympathy. Who would want to be like that? Would you ever have an ache to do something that would matter in life? Something that God would be pleased with? I mean, I reckon years ago, I was going to live somewhere forever. I'm not ever going to... cease to live. I'm going to live forever. I found out I could live in one of two places and I chose real quick where I wanted to live. I made the choice for heaven. You say, well, that was cowardly. Call it what you want. I got a mansion. But as soon as I recognized the fact that I was going to live in heaven one day with all those other people in heaven, you know what I decided? I decided I'd like to do something with my life that mattered for God. And it began with just a desire. I didn't come to God with credentials, and here's my paperwork, and here's my past employment, and here's what I've done, and here's what I've succeeded at, and if you'll just let me, I can do wonderful things for you. I didn't come to God with anything. I just said, wouldn't it be wonderful if God could use somebody like me? Wouldn't it be great if God could just take my menial, meaningless little life and add some of Himself to it? Who hath despised the day of Just a desirous heart. Can I ask you this morning, would you live for Jesus? If you were going to breathe your breath next Friday, how much of your life this week would you like to spend getting the God of heaven's attention? Who has despised the day of small things? Secondly, not just the desirous heart, but a willing spirit. Boy, you know, that seems like almost the same thing, but there are chasms between those two. Because for everybody that has a desirous spirit, there are very few that ever develop a willing spirit. You say, I don't understand the difference. Here's the difference. A desirous heart puts on the parachute and climbs into the airplane. And the plane takes off and soars to 5,000 feet and then the green light comes on. It is now a willing spirit that will determine what's going to happen. You understand, I think there's a lot of people this morning that may say, you know what, I'd love to serve the Lord. But at the same time, there are not very many who are willing to do what's necessary to serve the Lord. "...who hath despised the day of small things, a desirous heart, a willing spirit." It says, Here am I, Lord. Send me. Isaiah said that in the year that Uzziah the king died, he went by the church house on his way back from the funeral. And when he looked inside the church house, he got a vision of God he'd never had before in his life. He said, his train filled the temple. He was high and lofty and lifted up. And Isaiah immediately saw his own knees. Who am I? Woe am I! I'm undone! I'm a wretch! I'm worthless! And God said, you know, I'm looking for some people like that. I've got somebody I want to send. Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? And Isaiah said, here am I. I'll go. Boy, there's a big step between having a desire and having a willing spirit. You see, the willing spirit is when the desire gets up and stands on its own two feet and begins to move in that direction and says, I'm willing. Boy, well, listen, I don't think God's looking for somebody this morning with an IQ of 188. I don't think God's interested in how much iron you can pump. I don't think God really is concerned with how popular you are. I don't think God gives a rip about what you can or can't do. You may be as inarticulate. You may be unable to read. I don't know, but I know this doesn't matter to God. God's looking for somebody with a desirous heart that says, wouldn't it be great if I could do something that God would want me to do? And he's looking for somebody with a willing spirit who says, Lord, you show me and I'm going. I'm after it. I'm going to do it. A desirous heart, a willing spirit. May I say, who has despised a day of the small thing of an abased self? For everybody that has a desire to serve the Lord and then those who are saying, you know what, I'm willing to do it. If God will show me, then the next problem comes in. And that is when he shows us we have to take self Get self in line because self never likes doing what God wants us to do I've told the story many times so I won't tell you the story at all But coming to Toledo was the last thing I ever had in mind in my life I never want you to ask me for the top 5287 things I want to do in my life coming to Toledo would not have been on the list. I Did not want to come At some point A desirous heart said, God, I'd like to do something that matters to heaven. I'm not even wanting to try to impress people in this world, but I'd like to do something in payment, repayment, an attempted repayment for the grace given to me. Lord, I'm willing. If you show me, I'm willing to do what you want me to do. Boy, then he said, Toledo. I said, where? You've got to be kidding me. You understand as God brings us along that pathway at some point, you have to look in the mirror and say, shut your mouth. Doesn't matter what you think. Doesn't matter, you know, we become like those who say, well, I thought that it would be this way. I thought God would say that. I thought when I surrendered to preach that God would take me immediately and give me a church of 12,000 people. And I thought immediately when God laid on my heart I wanted to do this, that certainly somebody with my talent would be. And at some point you have to look and say to self, shut your mouth. You don't matter. I'll tell you who the people that make the best workers are. They're the people that don't care what the job is. I mean, I got a lot of folks sitting here this morning. I'm not going to pick on anybody in particular. But every once in a while, you have somebody come and say, you know, Preacher, listen, if you ever need somebody to run this, I can do it. I don't need anybody to run anything. I avoid people running things like the plague. In my experience, most of the time when people run it, they run it into the ground. I have a hard enough time running things myself just to trust somebody else to run it. You say, well, what are you looking for? I'm just looking for somebody who's willing to do anything. Willing to do anything. I've had people say, preaching, you know, can I straighten the hymn books after the service? Yeah, you can do that. I've seen people out there without even being asked. Without even being asked, they just bend over and pick up paper laying on the floor in the foyer. Can you imagine such a thing? You know who I find make the best workers for God? People that just do anything they could do for God. When they see something that needs to be done, they're just after it. And they're not always looking around to see who notices, you know. They don't pick up the little piece of paper and go... You know what God's looking for? He's looking for somebody with a desirous heart. Who says, oh God, it would be a wonderful thing if in the course of my life I could do one thing that would matter to heaven. And God, I'm willing. If You'd show me, I'm willing to follow. And Lord, it doesn't matter what it is. Don't consider my wishes. Not my will. Thine be done. Who's despised the day of a small thing? Let me give you another one. How about this? How about the small thing that's considered when we look at a childlike faith? I spent several hours yesterday communication with some other folks. And I have a little bit of a peculiar ideology. I believe, to be honest with you, that there is intellectualism in our day and then there is faith. And I hear very often the intellectuals making fun of people who live by faith. And I feel sorry for them. I really do. Because the truth of the matter is they are both valid ways of determining truth. Other than the fact that intellectualism never leaves you with any truth whatsoever. It's just the pursuit of truth. Someone said to me, can you prove there's a God? No. No, I can't. Well, that's why I'm not a Christian. Can you prove evolution to me? You want to stand up, help yourself. I've read the books. That's why it's called a theory. Now you tell me which is valid. Well, you just believe by faith. What does it take to believe in evolution then? Give me the facts. Give me any fact you want and within 10 minutes I'll find a dozen scientists who disagree with your assumption of those evidences. They don't even agree among themselves. Listen, I'm not saying you can't do it. Help yourself. I've learned enough intellectualism in the course of my life to shoot holes in any theory you've got from an intellectual level. You want to talk about the dynamic of time? You want to talk about EMC equals? You want to talk about all this? Einstein didn't even believe half of the stuff that they reportedly said he believed. Relativity in motion, the speed of light is constant. Einstein didn't believe that. Read his writings. Well, that's how we believe. We're not like you poor people who just accept by faith. Shut up. You read a book. You read a book or you listen to a guy in a classroom tell you something and you say, oh, that's just wonderful truth. Don't criticize people who sit in a church and listen to a preacher open a book and preach out of that book and go, that's what I believe. I don't see too much difference, to be honest, other than the fact that you're miserable and they're happy. The idea of childlike faith. I talked to the college and career kids this morning. Listen to me. Paul said to Timothy, listen, Timothy, from a child, you've known the things you need to know. That ability to trust, that ability to believe God is what you need to get through. Just believe what God said. You say, well, you're a free country, believe what you want to believe. But you know, growing older has a lot of, it helps you a lot with that faith thing. You know, there's some things I know today that I accepted by faith 20 years ago. And I'm glad I accepted them by faith 20 years ago, because I've enjoyed them for 20 years. Some of you would have waited, you know, until the textbook came out and said, well, it's OK now. We've proved it. Yeah, OK, we can get that. Unlike those people of faith. I believe God is looking for somebody that's willing just to trust Him. Just to trust him. I remember the first time I ever preached. I remember it because it is etched into my memory. I'll never forget it. I remember distinctly having the thought, who in the world ever thought of this? I remember thinking, now the Lord will let me go do what I wanted to do because he's now seen what a mess I can make of things. Human disaster. Now, God, let me go do what I want to do. At some point, you just have to say, God, listen, I wouldn't have made that decision. And to be quite frank, I know you're God and I'm not. But that doesn't sound like a very sane decision to me. But you're God and I'm not. I'll just trust you. I'll just trust you. You know what God's looking for? He's looking for somebody that when everything turns against you, And all the winds of doubt and despair blow. Somebody that'll just look yonder and say, Lord, it doesn't make any sense, but I'll trust you. I'll trust you. You know, as a child, I don't remember one time ever asking my father whether we had enough money to pay for our bills. I never once asked him. I never once asked him if we had enough money to buy groceries. I would ask him if he'd buy me a candy bar or he'd stop at the store and get me this or he'd get me that. I would ask him to buy this for me. But I just always assumed there was a limitless supply of money somewhere that belonged to the Sowell family. It was not until I was way on up in years and had a job and began to work for a living that I realized that we didn't have an endless supply of money. But you know why I didn't ask my dad? I just trusted him. That's what dads do. Dads pay the bills and dads pay for food at McDonald's. And that's all I knew. But just as a child, I remember taking our own kids years ago and we'd always we're going to stop for dinner and they always had their favorite spot, which was McDonald's with the playland. And I remember telling our kids one day on the way home from church, I said, kids, listen, mom and dad don't have any money today. And my son, intellectual giant that he is from the back seat said, yeah, but you have checks. He couldn't spell check. He had no idea what a check was. He just knew that dad had checks and dad was good. If he wanted to stop, dad could take us into any restaurant in this town and my dad could buy us food anywhere we wanted to eat. He just had, you know, he just trusted me blindly. Boy, you know what God could do with you if you just learn to trust Him blindly and say, God, listen, whatever you want to do. Who hath despised the day of small things? Who despised the day of just an encouraging word? Just an encouraging word. You say, what's that got to do with me? You say, I need an encouraging word. No, no, you need to learn to give an encouraging word. I've preached for years. You ought to be an encouragement to other people because they need encouragement. You need to be a help to other people because they need help. You need to say good things to other people because they need to hear them. But in the course of my ministry, I've developed another reality, and that is that whether they need to hear it or not, you need to learn to say it because it's good for you to say those things. One of the things God chastises the human race for in Romans chapter 1 was their inability to say thank you and to show appreciation to the God that gave them everything. Somewhere along the way, you ought to just find somebody this morning at random and say, I don't know who you are, but I appreciate you because you're in church on Sunday morning. I don't know where you work, but I appreciate you. We ought to just show some appreciation. It's good for us to just speak an encouraging word. Somebody asked me, he said, how do you get friends? I'll tell you how you get friends. You show yourself friendly. Well, what does that mean? That means pass out $20 bills, knucklehead. Anybody like that needs friends? See me after the service. You want to show yourself friendly? You can't do it without making a sacrifice. And I'm not talking about finances. Open your mouth. Be nice. Say something. Who hath despised the day? Do you understand how many people have achieved things simply because somebody said, I think you could do it? We could take the next five hours and we won't, but we could talk about how many people came to the end of themselves in whatever pursuit it was. They were ready to quit, they were ready to throw in the towel, and if you read their biography, it's running almost the same. They would say this, I came to the end of my road, and I was ready to quit, and I couldn't go on anymore. This was just a disaster. And then they always, you know how the story goes, they always go to somebody that showed up, call them on the phone, send them a letter, and gave them that boost of encouragement, and they went on and achieved the heights. Same story world over. You say, wow, I wish somebody would do that for me. Well, I can't guarantee that. How about this? How about you call and do it for somebody else? You say, well, wait a minute. I thought we wanted to do something for God. Maybe God's not going to make you the top guy on the totem pole. But maybe God will let you encourage the guy who will become the top guy on the totem pole. Dr. Heil's testimony is a tremendous testimony of a little boy with a drunk father who beat his mom. She took her kids to church one day out of despair. She didn't even have shoes to put on her son's feet, so she took him barefooted in overhauls. He talked about how embarrassed he felt when she took him into the church and all the other little boys and girls had on the little suits and ties and little shiny shoes. He was there in overhauls with bare feet. And he talked about how when they put him in a Sunday school class and his mom left him and he felt so alone that the Sunday school teacher looked back there and saw his obvious discomfort and She called little Jackie boy and brought him down to the front of that class and picked him up and set him as just a little boy on her lap. And he said, she was the first person in my whole life that ever told me that Jesus loved me. He said, when I left that class this morning, he said, I'd forgotten about having bare feet and overalls on. He said, because I knew that Jesus loved me and he thought I was special and he thought I was some, you know who she was. I don't either. I have no idea who she was. But I know at one point in his ministry, he pastored close to 100,000 people. Just a little encouragement. Who hath despised the day of small things? You that are weary, hang on, I'm almost done. A desirous heart's a small thing. A willing spirit's a small thing. An abased self, that's a small thing. A childlike faith, that's a small thing. An encouraging word. Hasn't cost you a dime yet, has it? But that's what gets heaven's attention. Let me give you my last two, and they're kindred. So, who has despised the day of, you ready for this? Your best effort. Just your best effort. I'm tired of people trying to prophesy the results before they're in and then saying, well, they're not going to be good, so why try? It's called circular fail, you're guaranteed. Well, you need to try this. Yeah, but if I tried it, you know, I wouldn't get that far. I'd get to here. And since I'd only get to here, I just won't even try. And so you never go anywhere, but you feel justified in doing it. You become a sloth, but you become, you know, a recognized sloth because you've got some logic to it. What is there in your life that you can honestly say, I did my best? I did my best. What is there in your life? You can say, if anybody that wanted to testify could testify this morning. Anybody who was there. Anybody that saw. Anybody that watched. Anybody that was associated with it. I'll guarantee you, there's nobody that would deny. Even though I failed or I succeeded, it doesn't matter. I did my best and they all know it. I wonder how many things there are like that in your life. Or if I wonder, perhaps like me, you'd probably hang your head and say, well, I tried, but... I wish I'd tried a little harder, meaning I didn't do my best. We sing the song that says, I wonder, have I done my best for Jesus? And the story of that is an unusual story of an Olympic training swimmer who lived in Chicago. And in the course of his training for the Olympics, there was a ship that caught fire. as it was making its way into the port there in Chicago back in the late 1800s, early 1900s, somewhere in that vicinity. And as they began to watch that ship burn, it was obvious that it was not going to find any place of safety, no land, no place to get its passengers off. The people began to jump off the boat and into the cold, frigid winter waters. And he immediately leaped into the water, swam out as far as he could, got hold of someone who was on the verge of perishing and swam back to the shore. But instead of getting out of the water, he turned and swam back out again. And then again. And then again. Until literally those who were life savers by profession, who would not go in the frigid waters, pulled him out. and lay him on the shores of the same water that he had pulled as many as he could. And the story said that when they tried to wrap him, hoping just to keep him alive because by all practical points he'd killed himself, he kept saying under the duress of his situation, I tried to do my best. Did I do my best? I'm trying. Did I do my best? As a result of that, he was handicapped for the rest of his life. He was never in the Olympics. Never able to swim ever again. Ruined his body. But someone saw that story and set out and penned the words that we sing as a hymn. I wonder, have I done my best for Jesus? Listen, do you see them out there struggling today on their way to hell? Can you see it in their eyes? They have no hope. The smile that they laugh is just ridicule at you, but it covers the veil of tears because there's no hope there. They're on the verge of dropping off into an eternal abyss that burns day and night forever. Do you see them? Have you done your best? Who hath despised the day of the best effort? And then let me close with this, because I said it's kindred to it. You say, Preacher, I honestly, I tried my best. I've worked my best in my heart. And Preacher, it just didn't work. OK, let me give you my last point. Let me give you that small little thing. How about this? Who's despised the day of a second effort? A second effort. You say, well, I tried once and it didn't work, so that's it for me. Can I tell you how many times people fail on the first try? At virtually any endeavor there is. Can I tell you how many guys were trying to become a millionaire and went bankrupt before they ever became a millionaire? Can I tell you how many people tried to learn a trade or a craft or an art and they failed so miserably that No one ever thought they'd make it and then they tried again. There's the story of an Italian mother who, you'd have to be Italian I suppose to understand this, they like opera. I don't know why. And she wanted her son to be trained and to become an opera singer. And she sent him off to take music lessons and the note came back home that said, This child is tone deaf. The one thing he will never be is an opera singer. And she got that message and she read it and she said that we're just going to try harder. And so she sent her little son, Enrico Caruso, back to take more lessons. And next to Pavarotti, he's probably the greatest name in all of opera. He became the greatest opera tenor there ever was because his mama said, we'll just try again. Maybe we need to get another teacher. I remember when Thomas Alva Edison went off to elementary school, his mother got a teacher very much like that who said, the note said, this child is unteachable. You know, most of us today are further along in life because we had a mama or a daddy that just refused to accept defeat. And when we failed, they picked us up and dusted us off and put us back on the bike and said, try again. When we couldn't hit the hoop, they put the ball back in our hand and said, shoot it again. When we didn't seem to be able to get the algebra, they set us down and opened the book and they said, study it again. You say, I didn't like it. You may not have liked it, but you probably appreciate the fact now that they did what they did. Well, let me go one step further. When's the last time you did that to yourself? When's the last time the devil knocked you down and you just got up and you dusted yourself off? You said to all the spectators, I failed. I messed up. Loser. And then you said, I'm going to try again. Oh, a little thing. A little thing. But wouldn't you hate to get to heaven and find out you were just that close to God saying, that's the guy I can use right there? He has some distinct, Zerubbabel characteristics. reminds me of Zerubbabel there. You know what? I believe, oh, he can't do a thing. That's wonderful. He's inept. He's incompetent. But he loves me and he's trusting me. Hey, Gabriel, Michael, come here. Watch what I can do. God picks up the nothings of the world and has people drooling and scratching their head when it's all over with saying, I can't believe that. And God says, watch what I can do. Would you bow your heads this morning? Your life may have failure written all over it. You say, that's terrible. No, that may be really good. That may be really good. You say, why? Because that's who God's looking for. That's who God's looking for. He's looking for that guy who's not too big to be little. But He's not too little to be big. We'll say, God, I'm just small and meaningless and nothing. But God, if You can use me, I have a desire to serve You. I have a willingness, Lord. I trust You to do the right thing with my life. God, I want to be an encouragement to other people, and I can do that right here. Who is there that can take those small things and incorporate them into their life? The end result, may I say to you, is not seeing what you can accomplish, but seeing what a great, great God can accomplish. Who hath despised the day of small things. 496 is the hymn. Would you stand this morning? Folks are here at the altar. In just these next few minutes, I want to invite you You say, what would it be saying if I walked down that aisle, preacher? I don't know. You tell me. What would it be saying? You say, well, I'm not going to have anybody think that about me. Well, then you don't need to come because God's not going to do anything with you. I can tell you that right now. But you know, if you're not ashamed to look like nothing, God's able to use nothing to do great things. If you're not ashamed to say incompetent, if you're not ashamed to say unworthy, if you're not ashamed to say the least of the choices, God says, let me show you what I can do with such as that. If you're here this morning, you never put your faith and trust in Christ. You need to get saved. You missed it all. You need to get saved. You're going to die and go to hell someday. Religious, moral, upright, good fella, good gal. You're going to burn in hell. Do you get that? That's not my opinion. That's not the Baptist church's teaching. That's what this book says. The world says, try to be a nicer person. What good is that going to do in hell? There's only one thing you can do this morning. If you've never trusted Christ, that's trust Him now before you leave this building. Get saved. You say, well, who has despised the day of a small thing? How about this next few moments you've got to do something for God? A moment of choice for you. You're going to despise that? You're going to use it. Let's sing the song 496 all to Jesus I surrender you ever come to that place where he said God you take it You do what you can do with it. I can't do anything with it. It's worthless Stand ready to be amazed Because God can do beyond what you can imagine If you just let him while we sing would you come? I surrender all to Him I freely give I will ever love and trust Him In His presence daily live I surrender all I surrender all. All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. All to Jesus I surrender, Lord, I give myself to Thee. Fill me with Thy love and power, Let Thy blessing fall on me. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. We're going to be dismissed, and I appreciate your attentiveness this morning. Hope God spoke to your heart. I want to do something this morning back there. There is a couple here who have been unable to be here on Sunday night for the last several weeks, who just, I think about three weeks ago, celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary. The Auschwackers are back there, all the way at the back. So if everybody turns around, you can see them, okay? And they are a blessing to us. And we would have sung to them, but they evidently didn't want to hear us. And so, John, how about, real quick, sweeter, as the years go by, for them. You sing that to them for their anniversary, would you? Sweeter as the years go by. Sweeter as the years go by. Richer, fuller, deeper. Jesus' love is sweeter. Sweeter as the years go by. Amen. All right. Father, thank you for the day. Lord, thank you for your book. Thank you for using nothing. Lord, because where would we be if you'd had to have any qualifications at all? We wouldn't have made it. Thank you for what you've done for us, not what we've done for you, what you've done for us. And Lord, I pray today that somebody was brought closer to the Lord, maybe to that place where you will indeed use them to accomplish what needs to be done. Bless us now. Gather us back tonight. May we enjoy the services this evening. Take us safely to our homes. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You are dismissed. God bless you.