Despising Small Things

10 "Who despises the day of small things? Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. (4:10)

These are the words form the book of Zechariah, undoubtedly one of your favorite books in the Bible. You didn’t know it existed? No, I’m not playing one of my jokes on you. Zechariah is one of the minor prophets and is the next to the last book in the Old Testament.

This is one of my favorite Bible verses. It’s written about the new Temple being built after the people returned from exile. Many people throughout the land were disappointed. The temple wasn’t going to be as grand and glorious and Soloman’s Temple. They had started on the temple and faced opposition. They got discouraged and wanted to give up.

And then the word came from the prophet. “Don’t despise the day of small things.” “Don’t give up and think that just because you have little strength or little ability you should give up.” “Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.”

Getting out the plumb line would mean that work had resumed. It would mean that rebuilding the Temple was going forward.

With a small church, maybe I’m especially fond of verses like this. It’s easy to look at churches with attendance in the thousands and budgets in the millions and think, “What can we do? We’re just a little church.” But God has different ideas than we do. He looks not at our inabilities but at His abilities. He has given us many great and precious promises. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” “Not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord Almighty.”

Moses’ rod was used to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. David conquered Goliath with a small sling shot. Jesus fed 5000 with just a few loaves and fishes. Samson slew 1000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.

What can we do? We’ve started new Sunday School classes to reach people we’ve been missing. We’re starting a new women’s group to make new opportunites for women who can’t attend Saturday mornings. Our coffee fellowship has had anywhere from 3 people attend upto 19 one day. We’re supporting outreach through Crosslines food ministry. We’ve added a Sunday night service. There are new people getting involved, making friends, growing in the faith, discovering the Lord.

Will we ever have 1000 or 10,000 in worship? Who knows! But I do know that our God is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than all that we can think or imagine! There’s a world out there that God loves and we have the opportunity to partner with Him. Praise the Lord.

Pastor John