Embracing the Power of Small Acts in Faith

"Micah chapter 6, we're going into the Old Testament, an Old Testament prophet. Micah was a prophet to the Israelite people, the Jewish people before they were taken into captivity and he was warning them about hey these are some of the ways that if you live this way then God's going to look after you. If you choose to go down certain paths that aren't godly then there's going to be consequences because the natural consequence of sin is pain and death and these things and he was warning them about these things and some people listened, some people didn't and in the end they did go into captivity." [00:01:24]

"Human beings always have a bent usually towards sort of big, extreme and brash things. Don't they? We want the biggest and the best. Oh God, what do you want from us? I want everything. Oh God. And so always demanding, always full on. I mean, if you look at my life, I like top level things. I don't care about cars at all. People have seen that in my old car. Don't care. I don't know how they work. I don't know how to change the oil. I don't understand cars. And I don't follow it. I don't follow Bathurst or any of these things. But one thing I do follow, and I'm an avid fan, is Formula One. Who's a Formula One fan here? Justin, a few of us. I've got my Formula One Ferrari shoes on today that I found cheap online because I love a good deal. And so I got them. But I love Formula. I don't care anything about cars. But what draws me to Formula One, I watched it as a kid growing up, but I love the fact it's the biggest and best. It's the loudest, the fastest. They go 300 plus k's an hour." [00:04:50]

"That it's interesting to me that if you look at God, He doesn't want the biggest and best and the most full on. Your dreams, your desires. We're going to talk about that in the next few weeks. We're believing for big things as a church. We celebrate those things. But do you know what? God's heart is not about the big and the best and your huge dream. He cares about the smaller things, the seemingly smaller things in life. And I've titled today's sermon, Small Things. Small things like these. Small things like these. Because I believe with all my heart that if we can allow these seemingly small things to get deep in within us, then your year coming up can be the best year you've ever had. It can be the most profoundly satisfying year you've ever had. It can be the most impacting year you've ever had." [00:06:34]

"God cares about the small things. He cares about the small things in your life. And so here are the three things that he raises, that he says, these are the things that are important to me. I don't want all your big offerings. I don't want all your expertise, all of your gifts that you say, here I am, look at me. He says, I want you to do what is right, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Let's look at these for a moment. First one, to do right, it's the Hebrew word is mishpat." [00:09:13]

"When it talks about doing what is right, it's talking about can you see the world the way God sees the world? Can you see people the way God sees people? This is what God wants of you, to do what is right. I want you to have mishpat in your heart, to have justice, God's justice, that when it's not just about yourself and going, you know, don't lie, don't do this, live a righteous life. That's in it because there's justice. It's like do what is right, but it's talking about do what is right for others. Do what is right. Look at others and say, how do I bring justice, God's justice to them? Those who can't help themselves, those who don't even understand God's justice, those who are downtrodden. Do you know what I love about the church?" [00:10:20]

"your life to do right mishpat just as God's view how does what would Jesus do this is the way to see it what would Jesus do if he was living your life how would he treat others if he was living your life mishpat to do right and then it comes he says to do what is right and this one flows from it to love mercy to love mercy it's this word hesed hesed is this this idea we get in the old testament uh mercy we call it grace in in new testament language in christian language old testament uses this word hesed in the and most of our translations you'll see it's uh often translated loving kindness oh we thank you God for your loving kindness for your hesed it's this idea of of not just having mercy on someone it's this idea of compassion a heartfelt compassion it's you know a simple way to put this word it's the idea of being kind be kind love mercy love being kind to others that's not something that we naturally do I'll be kind to you if if you're kind to me that's how we view the world isn't it and this is the beauty of christianity this is what God cares about he he comes and says ah hang on a second if we live by that rule an eye for an eye then in the end we're going to have wars we're going to have retaliation we're going to have breakdown of relationships there's only one true way to live if we're going to live the way God lives and that is to show loving kindness to show hesed to others before they show it to us we do this often with our children they get your loving kindness before they've shown it to you some of you guys are pregnant about to have babies your baby is not going to be thanking you for years to come and that's true I can't remember the first time Ella said thank you to mum and dad she has done it it took her years but you have poured out and will pour out your loving kindness your mercy upon them God says that's the natural way to from parents to children but God says will you show hesed to each other spouses at the start of this year if you're waiting for your partner to show you loving kindness you might be waiting a while" [00:12:47]

"Kindness is a beautiful thing. Loving kindness. Love, mercy, chesed. My mum's moving over into Melbourne. It's happening. And she's coming over in the next few months. And I was talking to mum. She goes, oh, I'm going to have, she's just retired. I said, she said, I'm going to have to find things to do. And so I said, don't you worry, mum. I've got some things for you to do. And so I told Phil." [00:17:28]

"are you like this I said mum she's a good cook I said mum we need some people on the catering team to kick to help cook some people you know how I said we need some lasagnas mum and I said you can cook that and I threw that out you know what my mum said she goes oh Adrian come on I'm I'm 70 something years old now I need a break I'm gonna just take my time you know what she said when I said mum we can go she goes oh yeah I'd love that I was like oh I said I said mum you can go out on the community um uh group on a Thursday night and and and they we give out meals to people in our community she didn't go oh Thursday night I think I'd just like to rest at my new place no she said I'd love to do that you know what I realized about my mum as I was talking about this I went what a beautiful example she's been in my life of someone who's shown loving kindness not just to me she's done that to me my whole life and to her family but to everyone around her you know my mum's got stories I've told some of them before she's met people at the bus stop on her way to work and the Holy Spirit's put on her heart to go and talk to them about their life and they've opened up their life and then those people she's invited to church and then they've come to church but it wasn't just that she then invited them around her house and some of those people are still friends of hers today and she talks to them and listens to them my mum started a women's group in her house that no pastor started no one came to her and said can you start this group please Anna because there's some people in need in the community and in our church do you know how it happened she just started inviting people around and and giving them hospitality and cooking meals for them and sharing her life and them sharing her and out of that people's lives were changed people's lives are impact I go that my friends is loving mercy that my friends is hesed that is the compassion the kindness of God poured out who can you show kindness to in 25th if we get caught up in our own lives it's a very lonely life do you find that the more I think about my need and what I'm not getting or the state of my emotions or where I'm at oftentimes the sadder I get and the more lonely I get but when I decide to say God I'm going to reach out to others I'm going to show kindness to others there's something that comes up in my life that's alive in my heart and I become a different person and I want to encourage you this year the small things are the most powerful show kindness to people in your life start with your family your workplace in your church" [00:17:54]

"to walk. And I'm going to give you a very profound meaning of what yalak means. It's very powerful. It means to walk. It means to walk. But it's interesting, isn't it? Because it says walk humbly with your God. It doesn't say run. It doesn't say run with God. Catch up to God. Isn't this, this is supposed to give you peace, my friends. Because it's a beautiful idea of what your life's supposed to be. Walk humbly with your God. It's about a relationship." [00:20:55]

"To understand yourself and who you are. And not try to be anyone else. That's humility. Oftentimes pride and all this, we're trying to be someone we're not. We're trying to live up to expectations. To walk humbly just means walk as you are. The person you are. Accepting your qualities that are there that God's given you and accepting your weaknesses. You can't be anything else than what you are right now. And God says, walk like that with God. To walk with humility. To say, I'm not all that, but I'm not terrible and evil either. I'm loved by God. God accepts me. I'll accept me." [00:22:31]

"He's not putting a challenge on you saying you need to achieve all these things or else. He says, walk with me, son. Walk with me, daughter. And we'll get there together. Isn't that beautiful? Out of all the things that I want to achieve in life that God's called you to achieve, God comes back to His people and He says, walk with me. Walk with me. That's what I want. I want relationship with you. I want to ask you in 2025, will you walk with God?" [00:26:43]

"Small things are the soul of God. It's one thing to be concerned about all the goals we've got. But if our goals, you know, we, we on the carol celebration, we packed this church out, packed this place out and our morning services were all full. We had more people in our weekend service than we probably ever had in our church. And we celebrate that. That's good. People's lives impacted and coming to church. We want that. And we talk about that and that's good. But they're not the things that grab my heart. Because you know what? That's one event. That's over. That's done. You know what grabs my heart? It's what grabs the heart of God." [00:29:45]