Zerubbabel laid the foundation, and for 10 years, nothing happened. He started, but eventually, the vision God gave him ceased. Then, an angel visited the prophet with small talk to encourage him. Do not despise the day of small beginnings because God notices the little things! When God starts something, He will finish it! Don’t give up on the vision and dream God has given you. 

Sermon Notes

Zerubbabel laid the foundation, and for 10 years, nothing happened. He started, but eventually, the vision God gave him ceased. Then, an angel visited the prophet with small talk to encourage him. Do not despise the day of small beginnings because God notices the little things! When God starts something, He will finish it! Don’t give up on the vision and dream God has given you.

Key Scriptures:

Zechariah 4:1-10; Micah 5:2; Genesis 39:21-23; Luke 19:15-20; Exodus 33:11; Jeremiah 29:5-7

Key Points:

1. Don’t let location frustration discourage you. Sometimes, you can know where you’re going but don’t understand where you are. Don’t let the small beginning you have to keep you back from moving forward.
2. Hold the line. Start with what you have. It’s not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of God. Don’t let the enemy get you to give up on what God has promised. Hold the line!
3. If God’s grace can’t do it, forget it. Everything God does starts small, but it never stays that way. It’s always too soon to quit when God is in it. God notices people who hold the line.
4. Don’t devalue where you are or what you have. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, accused of rape, and imprisoned for 17 years. But he did the best he could with what he had. And because he didn’t despise his day of small beginnings, he went from the prison to the palace in 24 hours.
5. Be faithful with little. Until you do good with where you are, you’ll never get to where God wants to take you. If you’re not faithful with little things, you can’t be trusted with big things. God sees when you keep your house clean, wash your car, and cut the grass. Jesus translates faithfulness with a little kingdom reigning.
6. God notices the little things you do.

a. David was anointed as king because of how he treated a pregnant sheep. All his other brothers were bigger and better, but God chose David because of how he treated a pregnant sheep in the field. God notices the little things!

b. Joshua was chosen because he tarried in the Tabernacle. God notices you in church on Sunday mornings. He notices your love for His house when you serve in the church.

c. Peter was chosen because he gave his boat to Jesus to preach. It seemed like such a small thing to let a rabbi use his boat to preach, but God notices the little things you do for Him.

7. God notices your attitude. Sometimes, God has you in the hallway to give you an attitude check. It’s not easy to stay in the lobby when Jesus is doing big business on the other side of the door. Whenever you feel like you’re in the lobby, keep a good attitude until God says it’s your turn! Little things can distract you.

8. God can’t trust you with your own vision until He can trust you with someone else’s vision. Joseph helped the baker, the butler, and Pharaoh with their dreams before God helped him with his. God will trust you with your own vision if you help others with their vision.

9. Sometimes God reduces you before he uses you mightily. There aren’t enough wonderful places to just give you one. Sometimes God has to drop you in a boneyard like he did to Ezekiel. When you get weary, endurance has to be turned into adventure. If you’re in a terrible place, start building, planting, sowing, reaping, and turn that place around! God chooses nobodies and puts them into no places to make them somebodies in some places.  

Final Thoughts:

What you’re going through is not death pain; it’s birth pain! Right where you are, God can bless, use, and raise you from insignificance to great impact for His glory. He is the God of small beginnings! When God is in it, little is much. If you respond in faith to the small things and mix it with faith, He will multiply it in so something that’s exceedingly and abundantly beyond what you can ask of think.