Small Stuff

 

Song of Solomon 2:15 (KJV)

15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

 

While on vacation in February, I was enjoying walking barefoot on the sand at the beach and stepped in a patch of stickers.

• Splinter in my foot – so small I cannot see it –
• Affecting how I walk

 

Fever blister on my lip that affects how I smile, eat.

• It itches, but I can’t touch it.
• SO I have to let it itch.
• Driving me nuts.
• Affecting how I smile

 

Upwards of 800 muscles in my body –

• All working fine except this one in my back that has a knot in it.
• Can’t turn my head.

 

Chipped crown, has a sharp place on it,

• Catches my tongue.
• Affects how I eat and speak.

 

As I have gotten older, the tiny lenses in my eyes have lost their ability to change so now I cannot focus on things that are up close.

• Presbyopia.
• Without glasses I cannot see to read, work on a computer or pull the tiny splinters out of my feet.

 

Inside my ears are thousands and thousands of tiny nerves called ‘hair cells’ that line the inside of the snail-shaped structure, called the cochlea. Each hair cell is responsible for picking up a different sound that it hears, sort of like the keys on a piano, but on a much more detailed scale.

All of the hair cells work in concert to code the incoming sound and send it on to the brain, where sound is heard and understood.

However, in my ears, these tiny microscopic nerves have been damaged to some extent, so now I have a hearing loss that effects my ability to hear certain sounds like people’s voices or birds singing or the wind in the trees or crickets chirping.

You would not even know what these tiny little nerves were if you could even see them, but because mine are damaged, I cannot understand what most people are saying unless I have my hearing aids in and you are facing me when we speak.

I didn’t realize I was reading people’s lips until one day when a man I was speaking to asked me if there was something wrong with his mouth and why was I staring at it.

My hearing loss is permanent and irreparable unless God heals me, and according to my doctor, is probably going to cause me to become totally deaf some day.

• Loss of communication.
• Feeling stupid.
• People laugh at me when I don’t hear the whole conversation.

Small stuff.

Some of it so small, you can’t even see it, but it affects the way I feel, walk, see, hear, even how others perceive me and how I perceive myself.

• Small Stuff that on first glance looks like it should mean nothing at all.
• Little things that you would never know I had a problem with.
• Some of them almost so miniscule that you can’t even see it especially if you have the same problem with the lenses in your eyes as I do.

 

 

 

Solomon said it’s the “Little Foxes who spoil the vine.”

 

• It’s not so bad that the little foxes eat a few grapes every now and then, but then they start digging around the vines.
• There they expose the root system of the vine and it destroys it.

 

 

Most of us don’t think about the “Small Stuff” in our walk with God.

• The little things that most people can’t even see.
• The small stuff that we convince ourselves does not matter to God.

 

• Compared to all that is bad in the world, my small stuff couldn’t really matter all that much to God could it?

 

 

Proverb Of A Lost Nail

 

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost

For want of a shoe, the horse was lost

For want of a horse, the rider was lost

For want of a rider, the battle was lost

For want of a battle, the Kingdom was lost

All on account of a lost nail.

 

 

I wonder sometimes if we consider the small stuff in our lives that effects how we walk with God?

• That little splinter in our spiritual big toe that throws everything off balance.
• You wouldn’t know it was there until you start trying to walk straight, and then “ouch” there it is again.

 

How about those tiny little nerves in our spiritual ears?

• Have they become damaged to the point that we can’t hear the wee small voice of God when He speaks to us?

 

What about that little canker sore on our lip?

• Do you know what our lip represents?
• It’s our witness.
• It’s our faces that people who don’t know Jesus sees.

 

You say, it’s just small stuff!

• It’s just a little sin.
• Surely God’s not concerned about my little bad habit!
• Can I ask you? What does that little habit say to those who look to you to find Jesus?

 

• What does it say about your faith in God?
• What does it say about your relationship with Jesus?

 

This world is not looking for something that is half hearted…

 

• It’s looking for something that is Life Changing!

 

It’s true, that none of us are perfect, but neither should any of us be satisfied with where we are at spiritually at this moment.

 

 

Someone asked me if their little bad habit would send them to Hell.

 

“I can’t say for sure that it would, but my question is what does it say to the person who is looking to you to find Jesus?”

 

This church is absolutely a Judgment Free Church!

• Meaning we don’t go judging one another and trying to find each other’s faults.
• We are all here to support, love and encourage each other in our walk with God.

 

However, while we don’t judge, find fault or demean one another…

• We are trying to live our lives in such a way as to please our Lord also!

 

• And can I say this; we are infinitely concerned that not only the big stuff but also the Small Stuff would not hinder someone else from seeing the work and grace of God in their lives.

 

 

The book of Amos talks of a man who escaped the clutch of the lion

• And then as he ran away he also escaped the claws of the bear.

 

• He made it to the safety of his house and leaned his hand against the wall and there was a LITTLE scorpion inside his house on the wall!

 

• He escaped the horrible dismembering death, but it was that little thing, in the safety of his house that destroyed him.

 

 

Small stuff

 

But what about the small stuff in our lives?

• What about the little things that we don’t think really matter
• What about the Small stuff that could cause us to stumble in our walk with God.

 

• What of the Small stuff that destroys our witness to others.  And causes our hearts to not feel the touch and presence of God in our lives?

 

Small Stuff

 

What we don’t realize is that the universe is made of small stuff.

 

• Scientist for years have been studying how big the universe is, but they have recently started studying how small it really all is.

 

• Some years ago they found the Atom, which at the time they thought was the smallest element in the universe.

 

• Tiny atoms that make up everything that can be seen and touched.

 

• Then recently they found even smaller things than the atom, which are the neutron and proton (inside the atom) and the electron (circling the atom) there is also the photon (small packet of light in a wave), the quark (associated with mass), the gluon, the lepton, and the tachyon (hypothetical particle) just to name a few.

 

Small Stuff

 

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”

Mother Teresa

 

How much do we pray each day?

 

• Every day!?
• Can you commit to praying just 5 minutes per day?
• That’s about the time it takes to sit at 5 stoplights.
• How about just giving Him the first 5 minutes of your day.

 

How much do we read our Bible?

• Can you take just 5 minutes and read your Bible?
• Every day

 

How many people do you invite to church each day?

• Consistently – Everyday?

 

• Can you commit to inviting at least 1 person per day to church?
• Just one?

 

 

• You say, “That’s not very much Jim”

 

• I know it’s just small stuff really.

 

But if we become faithful in just this small stuff, the Lord will give us something greater.

 

• Your 5 minutes of prayer will turn into 20 minutes of prayer.

 

• Your 5 minutes of Bible reading will turn into 20 minutes of Bible reading.

 

• Your one person will become 5 people.

 

Do you know that if you would do just this small stuff, then you would have prayed over 30.5 hours this year?

 

• You will spend over 30 hours reading your bible. Which will take you at least half of the way through the Bible.

 

• And you will invite at least 365 people to church of which if only 1.5 out of 10 come, that will mean that you have a guest with you every single Sunday service.

 

It’s all just small stuff folks, but it all adds up to things much bigger.

 

• I believe God is talking to us.
• I believe He is looking for some people who can hear his voice

 

I wonder if there is some small stuff you would be willing to set aside here this morning?