david

1 Samuel 17:48–50 (NLT) — 48 As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. 49 Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground. 50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone, for he had no sword.

Everything Starts small. There’s always the story behind the story.

We don’t always like starting small

We wanna go all in, have the best, all the way, see the end result as soon as possible. But we have to start small.

You know starting a church… is an interesting thing. Because you are believing for something you cannot control… to an extent. You are stepping out in complete hope and faith that it’s all going to work out.

Went to all these conferences and church plant trainings. And what was funny was every one of them, had these like formulas. DO THIS and BLANK WILL HAPPEN.

And for everyone one of those stories, were stories of churches that did those things and they failed. So obviously the formula isn’t the important thing. it’s needed and wise to look at all the ways that you can grow a church by doing certain things foster the growth but obviously if this is truly a God thing God is going to do what God is going to do.

But i remember one particular church network basically giving this formula and saying that the goal is that on day 1 you needed at least 500 people. And the reason was that after a month you’ll then be back down to 100. And then you keep going from there.

And I remember that bothering me so much. Like i get it. But we are just okay with 400 people falling through the cracks. Going to church to church. Maybe stopping all together all in the name of launching big. This seems weird.

And I remember meeting someone who had been on staff at one of the largest most influential churches that if I said the name everyone in the room would probably know it, and he said “don’t be afraid to start small”. He said “you’re gonna work harder, but the end result is better than you could ever imagine”.

And I think most of us are scared to start small. Are we not? Like I want all or nothing. I want the best the most or nothing. Why do it halfway you know. If im gonna get ice cream give me the quadruple scoop. We getting steak? Give me that 16oz Rib eye. Get that 5oz sirloin out of here.

SOMETIMES YOU START SMALL.

And it’s not just true in your day to day life it’s true in your relationship with God. You see want THE BIG VICTORIES. And I believe God wants to do big things in your life and through your life. When you follow Jesus your best days are ALWAYS ahead of you. God is always wanting to do more, always wanting to use you more, always wanting to show you more. But often we get the weapons we need for the big victories in the small stuff.

The training ground. That’s where we learn how to fight the bigger battles.

DAVID STARTED SMALL. HE DID. SAUL HAD BEEN RUNNING FROM GOD...

1 Samuel 16:12–13 (NLT) — 12 So Jesse sent for him. He was dark and handsome, with beautiful eyes. And the Lord said, “This is the one; anoint him.” 13 So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive oil he had brought and anointed David with the oil. And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David from that day on. Then Samuel returned to Ramah.

POINTS

Don’t be too big to start small

Have you ever met someone that’s too good to start small? Like their first house has to be a 3,000sgf 5 bedroom with a pool and they’re 22? Or they’re 16 and the first car has to be a BMW?

Come on i need some parents in the room to say amen.

Starting small is not a bad thing. In fact sometimes it’s the best thing.

Small beginnings mean I get to learn and train in a low risk environment so that when it comes time for the big battle i’ve done this before. i’ve already been training for this for years. This ain’t nothin new.

It was 15 years before he actually became the King of Israel. And several years before he fights Goliath. You know what he did in the meantime?.... Served the current King king Saul.

1 Samuel 16:19–21 (NLT) — 19 So Saul sent messengers to Jesse to say, “Send me your son David, the shepherd.” 20 Jesse responded by sending David to Saul, along with a young goat, a donkey loaded with bread, and a wineskin full of wine. 21 So David went to Saul and began serving him…

Anointed as King already. Chosen to be King. But didn’t demand the throne. Just served the current King. Learned during that time

GUITAR STORY -- If there’s some new hobby im gonna get interested in im deep diving. Im going all in. And I remember when I was young wanting to learn to play guitar. And this was my mindset. What’s the best electric guitar I want that one. And I remembered that my gradfather had always wanted to play guitar but never learned so I told him I wanted to learn to play guitar and he said that was awesome let’s get you one and we went to hastings and get this $45 guitar.

And not everything you want to the max is a bad thing. Some of you want to have lots of scripture memorized or be at a place where you are reading God’s word for at least 30 min a day. Or maybe you want a prayer life like your grandma had. Or maybe you want to go into ministry. See your kids build their relationship with Jesus. Pray together in your marriage.

So many people though are so discouraged about where they’re at that they never start. Cause I want all the way. But i’m so far back how am i gonna get there?

And you probably know people that are where you want to be. You just want your kids to love Jesus like their kids do. It’s an amazing thing to want. But what you didn’t see were all the times those parents were praying day and night over their kids. Keeping them involved in church. And all these small decisions lead to these big victories.

You see the person who’s prayer life is just insane and they lean into God so much through prayer. But what you didn’t see was the years and years of faithfulness to talking to God that lead them to these big moments.

You see the worship team and you think I want to be there. I want to lead like that. But what you don’t see are the years and years of faithfully stewarding a gift and passion for music they were given and working on it day in and day out to get to where they are.

Don’t be afraid to just Start small right where you are… Start reading 5 min a day. Praying for 1 min and increase it from there.

Don’t waste your opportunities

When you start small it means you are deciding to make the most of what you can do and trust God to build the rest. And that means God will start sending opportunities your way. To grow you. To teach you. To strengthen you.

God opportunities are everywhere. When you decide to be open to what God does in the day in and day out you start seeing how often God sends opportunities your way

But often what happens is we don’t want the small opportunity… we want the main goal.

Like we want to preach to thousands. We right revival. But we wont even share Jesus with someone at starbucks… Don’t even get me started on this. I call it missionary sindrome. Don’t judge me. But i would go on these missions trips in highschool and everyone would be on mission. Ready to go. Sharing Jesus. Praying for people it was amazing! But then we would get home… and people wouldn’t even pray for their friends. Or invite them to church.

WHY? Because for someone reason the scale and the magnitude of something like a missions trip, or being on the stage makes us think that’s more valuable. But God so often wants to train us and teach us in what we call small. Cause what we call small God calls significant.

But people so often want to skip everything. CHURCH HOPE FELLOWSHIP WORSHIP STORY

Why would God trust you with what you call big if you wont even be faithful in the small things?

1 Samuel 17:32–37 (NLT) — 32 “Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!” 33 “Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. “There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.” 34 But David persisted. “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, 35 I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. 36 I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! 37 The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the Lord be with you!”

See David could have decided “i’ve been anointed King. It’s my time. Im not staying here and watching these sheep. That’s for someone else. But look what God taught him during that time. Look what God did in his life. Because when it came time for Goliath David knew. I’ve been here before. I’ve been fighting lions and tigers and bears Oh My.

So when you’re kids are running from the Lord and you’re worried and scared and the pain you feel is real you go back to when you brought them home as newborns and you’ve been praying over them every night since so you can be confident in praying over them now.

It’s when life is falling apart all around you but you’ve been reading God’s word daily for years. And it started small but now you know God’s character. you know what He can do. So it doesn’t make it easier it makes you confident. You didn’t waste your opportunities. You’ve been training for this moment.

It’s the small opportunities that lead us to have confidence when the big battle comes.

JAY ST JOHN BUILDING THE TEAM

Trust what God is doing

Can I be honest with you? Trusting God over a long period of time when you are not seeing the results you wanted to see is one of the hardest things you will EVER do.

Because that’s faith. That’s real faith. Working towards what you know God’s called you to while not seeing progress.

We have this view of God like he’s a genie. We ask. He delivers like amazon prime. Do you know how many times I will buy something from Amazon that’s not exactly what I needed but it’s the one that can here today between 4 and 7 pm?

Because I want it now. But often the best things come to those that are okay with the wait. Who are okay with the training ground.

Now you have to actually be working. Yeah this isn’t an excuse to sit and wait. You do the best you can do with what God has given you… right now. So that later, when the big moment comes, you’re ready.

Your Bible time today is preparing you for something big in the future. Your prayer time today is preparing you for something in the future. You having your kids in NPC kids is preparing them for something in the future. It seems small but you are sowing seeds for something God want’s to do later.

Zechariah 4:10 (NLT) — 10 Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin

I talked earlier about starting New Purpose. And there were church planting networks that I got approved through. I went through numerous interviews and all this stuff that’s designed to weed out people that just are not ready. And basically they would as a vote of confidence in you give you large amounts of money to start the church.

And I remember so clearly getting the ick. From some of these networks and it just didn’t feel right to go through them. But at the same time being like… THAT’S A LOT OF MONEY. I would have an income.

So New Purpose Church was started with just a handful of people. Literally maybe 5 people. 3 of which are still in the room today. And $5,000 in the bank account. And 5 churches each committed to giving $200-$500 a month for the first 2 years.

And I remember thinking… How is this gonna work. I knew some people who launched with half a million dollars and 500 people and thinking we’ve got none of that. And for 2 years I didn’t take a paycheck from the church. We’ve been in 3 locations over the past 2 1/2 years. And yall what God is doing in and through this church now is more than I could have ever prayed for.

But the small beginnings created a scrappiness in our church. I had a call recently with a pastor friend who was just calling to tell me he believes in New Purpose and loves me and wanted to see how I was doing. And specifically through the year I’ve been through and our church has been through how are we doing.

And I told him story after story of how grateful I am for this church. Because our small, some would have said insignificant beginnings. Created this scrappiness in our church that when we faced one of the craziest times any church could go through our people stood up and said God use us.