Sweat the Small Stuff

Well, thank you very much to the children's choir. It's always such a joyful thing to be able to observe and to witness. You know, I wish we could find a way to bottle up that exuberance.

You know, it's so funny to see, you know, the second song starts and they're so excited. They can't hardly handle it. They just want to dance and, you know, move and it's just wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Somewhere along the line, we learn it's prim and proper to do, and we lose some of that exuberance, right? We lose some of that joy.

Okay. We could find a way to bottle it. It's amazing. Thank you guys very much.

Well, brethren, some years back, I was given a copy of a book entitled Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, and it's all small stuff. How many of you have heard of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff? Okay. So, pretty much everybody. It was a very popular book. Honestly, I think it was a bestseller. It was written by a guy named Richard Carlson. Now, what I got was the student version. So, I got Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, and it's all small stuff dot, dot, dot for students. Okay. So, I mean, it was all about, you know, not, you know, going nuts over finals and all kinds of other things, which, you know, some of the college kids in the room go, you know, right, nice try. Not going crazy over finals. Welcome to it. But I can't even remember, honestly, whether the copy that I got was as a result of high school graduation or college. I can't remember. I can't honestly remember when it was that it happened. The irony of the book was that it was diminutive. It was small. It was like the size of a three by five card, which, you know, don't sweat the small stuff. I think it's purposeful that the book was as small as it was, kind of ironically, to indicate that, you know, even the book, it turns out, was small stuff. But inside of its pages, there was a degree of wisdom related to relationships, related to school, to career, and to life in general. Some of the things that I recall from that book were, it spoke of not treating your life as a constant emergency. Just constantly going, going, going, going, going, going, going, going, crash, you know, like, tends to be the MO of society around us today.

You know, allowing yourself to be completely stressed out all the time by the minutia, by the phone calls, and the emails, and by the other aspects of things that come up. But instead, the idea here was to focus on the bigger and the more important things in life, really live in that big picture, as opposed to constantly being bogged down by the minutia. The idea of the book, really, was that the author desired you to live life without necessarily trying to please everyone else.

It talked also of relationships of being forgiving and giving other people a break. We know sometimes people say stupid stuff. Sometimes people say things that are offensive and they're hurtful. And the point was, give them a break, especially when they don't deserve it. You know, give them a break. Forgive them of what it is that they said. Let those nuisances and those annoyances go, because as the book suggested, well, that's just small stuff. In the whole scheme of it, it's really not that important. It talked about not allowing other people's actions to get in the way of your joy or your happiness or peace and calm. And it really advocated empathy by putting yourself in other people's shoes to understand why they might be acting the way that they're acting instead of being frustrated by their behavior. It also discussed the importance of not putting off self-care, not putting off the things like vacations or breaks, because there's just too much going on. I simply can't. It advocated taking the break, living life, really focusing on the small stuff and ensuring that all of it gets taken care of. Okay? It says that's a way to burn out. That's a way to a situation where you have a very hard time coming out of. So within the pages, the author really advocated all these things that we tend to focus on as being the most important things out there, really in the whole scheme of life itself. It simply aren't that important. I think those of you that have been in a career, especially a very fast-paced career, can attest to that. The emails come in a million miles a minute, the phone call is always ringing off the hook, and you're trying to figure out how you're going to keep up with everything.

It's good advice. He tells the individual that reading the book that all this stuff really is not that important. It's minutia. Don't get bogged down in it, because when you reach a point where you are already stressed out, additional stressors, even the smallest of stressors, have an impact like throwing a cinder block to a person who is drowning.

His point was, you've got to put those things away. You absolutely have to put those things away. Let me give you this whole analogy. It's fascinating, it's good, it's interesting, but it really has its best focus in work-life balance, in career, in prioritization.

But when it starts to come to the point of life in general, you start to reach a point where it doesn't quite fit perfectly. It starts to break down. Let me give you an example of what I mean. We've been in a process of a remodel. I know I've talked about this a little bit already. It feels like we've been in a process of this remodel for the better part of a decade. And the reason is because we've been at this process of remodel for the better part of a decade.

Shannon and I did Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University about eight years ago.

At that point in time, we started the process of paying off all of our debts and trying to get debt free. So we really were not super interested in going back into debt in order to do the remodel that we had. So we tried to cash flow it, did everything we could to save the cash up and be in a place where we could pay cash for what we were working for. By August of this year, we reached a point where we could put the foundation up, get the skin on, get the roof on, get it dried into where we could chip away at it a little bit here and there.

But in looking at the addition as it went up, it was interesting. I've not been a part of a house that's being built at any point in time. And some of you are contractors. You're around this stuff all the time. You're like, yeah, okay, Ben, whatever. It's just stuff. I'm watching it go up like, oh, this is amazing. Look, that's a foundation. That's not just about that's our foundation. That's amazing. I'm so excited about the whole thing. Well, what was interesting is you're looking at this. These things are like big things, right? The foundation is a big thing.

The walls are big things. The roof is a big thing, right? And you tend to look at all those things and focus on those things because those are what, you know, provide the strength to hold up the structure. But what I'm getting at about the importance of small stuff is that same exact structure would be a pile of lumber and concrete without the fasteners. Without those little nails that are holding that thing together or those screws that are holding that thing together, it's a pile of lumber and concrete. So are small things important? Yeah, they are. Absolutely, they are. But it depends on what the definition is of the small things that we're talking about. When we sent our plans off to the city, they got sent back to us like nine times because I'm not very dachil-oriented, we finally got it figured out. You know, they kept sending these things back, like, well, we need to know about this. I was shocked that I had to have an information for the city on the way we were going to nail the sheeting on. I had to give them a sheeting nail pattern at the city because they needed to know that that sheeting, which was going to hold that building together and provide strength of shear and other things, was going to be nailed properly.

The fasteners are that important that it requires its own engineering thing with the city.

Of course, it also required an additional permitting fee, but that's besides the point. There's another way of probably making a little more money off the process. But no, realistically, not done properly, if those nails were not done properly, the strength of the envelope of the house is reduced. And ultimately, it could result in structural failure. So are the small things important? Yeah, they are. I'd like to suggest to you today that we should sweat the small stuff, but I want to encourage us with a specific understanding of what that small stuff is.

Because I'm not talking about emails, I'm not talking about phone calls, I'm not talking about work-life balance kind of stuff in that regard. I'm talking about what we can consider small stuff going forward. Again, instead of focusing on it in a business sense and nuisances and annoyances, I want to look at the things that we do, the little things that we do for ourselves and for others that make life better. So the title of the sermon today is, Sweat the Small Stuff. And with the time that we have remaining, I'd like to examine this idea. We're going to look at three specific points. Three points that I'd like to take a look at today are, point number one, big things are made up of dozens of small things. Big things are made up of dozens of small things.

Point number two, small stuff can be dangerous. It may seem insignificant, but it can be dangerous.

Small stuff can be dangerous. Point number two, and then point number three, you might have heard this phrase before. It's the little things in life. It's the little things in life, and we'll explore that concept a little bit as well. These little things that we're talking about today are things that are simple. They are things that are cheap. They are things that don't necessarily take a Herculean effort, but they make all the difference in the world in the lives of others.

They make all the difference in the world in the lives of others, and all they require from us is a little bit of attention, a little bit of diligence, and a willing heart. So let's dive in. Let's take a look at our first point. Big things are made of little things. Some of you already know this. I coached track and field at Waldo Middle School for five years. It was an absolutely enjoyable thing. In fact, when people ask me the things that I miss about education, that's really one of the things that I miss a lot, is coaching. Track and field was something that was enjoyable to me. I was a thrower in high school, and so when the opportunity came available to become a part of the coaching staff, I jumped on it. I was very excited about that possibility. My classroom was on the back end of the school, for those that know Waldo at all, but it was on the back end of the school, and it overlooked the throwing pits. So as I was quote-unquote grading papers during the springtime, I'm watching people throw instead, which meant I brought a lot of stuff home to grade at home. My friend was the throwing coach at the time, and I would go out and hang out with them now and again, and watch the mechanics of the throw, and see things that needed to be adjusted, and out of respect for him, would not say anything in front of the kids, but we'd talk to him later about, you know, hey, can I help you with this? Is there anything that you can... and he said, I just want the kids to come out and have fun. He said, okay, that's fair. That's fair.

I have a little bit of a slightly different philosophy. I also want the kids to have fun, but I also recognize that fun is exponentially increased when you win. And so, you know, yes, you're out to have fun, but you're also out to compete. You're out to work hard. You're out to do well. And so, when you watch somebody throw, when you watch somebody especially in discus, you see the Olympic level, right? You go see guys get out there and throw at this Olympic level. The little itty-bitty minutia are so fast you don't see them. You see the big picture. You see the whole thing. You see what appears to be a smooth throw. What you don't see is you don't see the dozens of little mechanical things that make that smooth throw effective. You don't see the little turn of the ankle at the beginning of rotation. You don't see the knee bend inward as you go into transition. That helps increase your speed. You don't see the little hop that takes you across the ring and the little drawing in of your knee that then increases your rotational inertia even more. You'll see those things. You just see the whole throw. There are dozens and dozens of things that occur inside of a spin like that that, if they're not done properly, affect the outcome.

I mean, as you're coming in, your foot lands just right. You're in the proper stance. Your ankle turns out on your right side. Your elbow comes back. Your release comes forward. There are dozens of little things to keep track of. If you go out there and you try to do each of those little things all at once, you look kind of like a robot. Turn the ankle out. Spin the leg around. Land. Pull elbow down. It all has to just flow together, which means each of those parts has to be practiced over and over and over and over again until it's complete muscle memory. Big things are made of little things. As we went through track and field season at Waldo the first year that I decided to jump in, he let me know he was going to be done and asked if I wanted to come in. So I jumped in, and my approach with it was to break it down into its component parts, to take a look at the little things, practice them well, and then the big things would follow. Now, if you're a kid, though, that has been used to coming to track practice and just picking up a discus and going outside and throwing for an hour, sitting there and practicing a heel turn is the most boring thing in the world. You're going, this is stupid, give me the discus and let me go throw.

And so the first year especially was tough. My system was very different than that of the previous coach. Lots of kids wanted just to go out and throw, but I tried to explain to them, if you practice something incorrectly a thousand times, when you go out to do it, it's going to be wrong.

If you practice it right, then it comes together and it's right. And so for some of them, they didn't want to hear it. They just wanted to go throw and I said, go for it, take a discus and go throw. I'll work with the kids that want to practice and want to learn. Well, as time went on, when those kids I was working with started to catch up to them in distance and overtake them, now suddenly they wanted to listen because the kids were throwing harder than they were. The first year we had one kid finish third in districts, we had another finish fifth. The following year, with our returning throwers and two seasons now of fundamentals under our belt, we took first place in the girls' discus and first in the boys' discus at the district meet that year. And then every year following that, up to even last year, our boys have taken first place in districts.

Mechanics are important. Small things matter. Let's go over to the book of Luke real quick. Book of Luke. Luke is one of the synoptic gospels, which means that despite him not being an eyewitness to the events that occurred, his gospel was pieced together through interview, through talking with those who were there. But despite not being an eyewitness to the event, his gospel describes the events from a very similar perspective and point of view as Matthew and Mark. In fact, incredibly well put together perspective when you compare the accounts across.

So this is one of those synoptic gospels. Luke 16, we'll go ahead and pick up the account in verse 1. Luke 16 and verse 1. Stesee also said to his disciples, there was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him, and he said to him, What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be a steward. Then the steward said within himself, What should I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me, so at that point he's losing his job, he's got a few options. He can go labor to make his money, he can go beg to make his money, or he can starve to death.

That's really kind of his options. So as he's running this in his head, and he's thinking here as the master's talking to him, he says, I can't dig. I can't dig, and it's possible that physically he may not have been able to. It may have been something where he was advanced enough in age that that was just something that was not a possibility, or it just could have been that it was beneath him and he wasn't going to dig. I don't know. He says, I'm ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do. So he comes up with this plan, he comes up with this idea. He says, I've resolved what to do. When I'm put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he's got this plan hatching in his head. He's thinking to himself, What I'm going to do is work out a way that I can become someone who is liked by my master's debtors, someone who they owe me a little bit of a debt that I'm in their service and therefore when I am put out of my master's house, because he said he's putting me out of the stewardship, I'll have a place to go. So verse 5, we see kind of this very shrewd plan here, as the word is termed here in the New King James. He says, So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and he said to the first, How much do you owe my master? He said, A hundred measures of oil. And so he said to him, Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty. Just pay half of it. Just pay half of it, write fifty. And then he said to another, How much do you owe? And he said, A hundred measures a week. He said to him, Take your bill and write eighty. So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I'm going to read through the end of this before we go back and start to tear this apart. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fall or when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. He who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? The most particular parable is a little bit of a challenge as you look at it, because at first glance, it kind of seems to say something that is really not saying. And so you take a look at this and you think, well, that's kind of a weird way to say that. That's kind of a strange way to describe it. What we saw was a steward get caught being wasteful. He's called to the carpet. He starts to worry about, what am I going to do? How am I going to do this? So he hatches this plan.

He says, I know, I'll just settle my master's debts for less than what they owe. And in doing that, he defrauds his master, but in the process he turns the master's debtors into men who owed him a debt.

So that when he is put out, they might remember that kindness and they might take him in.

Verse 8, we see the master commended the unjust steward because he dealt shrewdly. That word, shrewdly, is with wisdom or prudence. It's translated shrewdly. It's with wisdom or prudence.

In this case, worldly wisdom. This is not spiritual wisdom here that we're talking about.

Worldly wisdom. And then he makes this statement how the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And he tells them, go and make for yourselves friends by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.

Then we reach the point, the reason why we came to this particular passage, he who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. He who is unjust in least is unjust also in much. And so at first glance, you take a look at this parable, and it appears the moral of the story is that we should become seedy money grubbers who cheat their masters out of their riches and make friends with other seedy money grubbers. But is that what it's saying? Is that what it's saying? Most of Christ's parables were for the benefit of Christ's disciples.

His disciples were gathered there around him as he was speaking. But they also often had the added benefit of providing a critique of the methods by which the scribes and the Pharisees operated. In the case of this particular parable, if you examine the context, the Pharisees, whom Luke specifically takes the time to record further down in the passage as being, quote-unquote, lovers of money. That is not a detail that is in there for no reason at all. He is connecting them to this parable. He is connecting them to whom Christ was speaking. He said they were present, they were listening, because immediately following this particular parable, they go on the attack.

They come back at him about what he said about financial and finances. They miss the point altogether. The Pharisees were teachers of the law. Pharisees at that time were teachers of the law. We still have Pharisees with us today. We do. We still have Pharisees today, Orthodox Jews. They are basically Pharisees today. They are living a life similar to how a Pharisee would have lived during Christ's time. They are essentially a modern-day Pharisee. Now, his point to the Pharisees that were gathered was that they were God's chosen people. They were entrusted with the oracles of God. They were entrusted with things that they were to keep and things that they were to steward and things that they were to pass on. They were God's chosen people. And in many ways, Christ's parable was an invitation for the Pharisees to give an account of their stewardship, for them to really think about, how have we done with this? Of course, he's speaking veiled, right, as he often did in parables. So it's not the understanding is not immediate to those who are gathered, right? We have the benefit of hindsight and God's truth to be able to understand these things. We appreciate it. But if you think about how the Pharisees operated and if you think about how they were with regards to their stewardship, Matthew 23 lays it out. We won't turn there. If you'd like to jot it down in your notes, you can check it out. In Matthew 23, there are seven woes that are given to the scribes and the Pharisees, one after another, after another, after another. And he goes through and explains the shrewdness with which they dealt with believers, with what they dealt with others, how they treated widows, how they treated their oaths, how they treated righteousness. And his conclusion ultimately was that they've done a pretty lousy job taking care of what they've been given by God. So is he telling the disciples to go out and make friends of those of unrighteous mammon? No, he's not, because that conflicts with numerous other teachings of Christ. Okay. He's talking here to the Pharisees. He's letting them know that he who is faithful in little is faithful in much. He who is unjust in little is unjust in much. He said, if they can't be faithful in something as basic as money, or as basic as the way that they treat widows, or as basic as the way that they treat believers or their oaths or righteousness, then how could they be trusted with true riches? How could they be trusted with true riches? Now, in that rebuke to the Pharisees, there's a message that is sent to us, too.

It is the little things in life which test us. And what I mean by that is this. The big things in life only come along so often, right? They only come along so often. You guys grab the door.

They only come along so often. So the big things in life, they're periodic. And typically, when you have a big thing that comes up in life, you can throw an exceptional amount of effort into something and make it happen. You can throw an exceptional amount of effort in it to ensure that it gets taken care of. But if our life was only solely made up of big things, that effort that we're putting in each time would bury us. Because we're putting in this exceptional effort to make that happen. It's the day-to-day little things that test us. Will we be faithful in those little things? In the last sermon that I gave here locally, we talked about what's needed to make this coming year, school year, quote-unquote, our best year yet. All the things that were provided were small things. These were not anything that is overtly, super overly effort-ridden.

These are all very basic things. Attending services in the Holy Days. Doing your personal Bible study and prayer. Serving others. Changing up our routines and trying something new. Fellowshipping with one another. Looking out for what others might need and then stepping up to try to fill those needs. None of those things are Herculean efforts.

They do require some attention. They do require, you know, a little bit of energy in that we, you know, try as best we can to meet the needs of others. They're not difficult things in and of themselves, but when they're consistently applied, they can make an incredible difference in someone's life. Your own and, frankly, others. So the question is, will we be faithful in these sorts of day-to-day things? Or do we neglect the day-to-day things?

You know, as I think Mr. Kester has mentioned at times, you know, in his sermon, saying things to the effect of, well, you know, I'll get to that when my kids are older. Bible study. I'll get to that when my kids are older. Because you guys know how it is when you have children, and they're running around in the morning, and you're trying to pay attention, and you're trying, oh, I'll get to that later. What if later never comes? What if later never happens?

Will we be faithful in these sorts of day-to-day things? Will we build the resilience that comes from doing it again and again and again and again and again and again and strengthening ourselves in that regard? Bruce Lee once said, he didn't fear the man who practiced ten thousand kicks once.

He feared the man who practiced one kick ten thousand times. Because there is a degree of precision and strength and effectiveness that comes from that level of consistency in someone's life. Just like in our spiritual life, consistency breeds stronger relationships with God and with others. Okay? Our Bible study daily builds increased knowledge of God in his ways. These things all synergistically work together with one another.

It's like this in our spiritual life. It's like this in our physical life. It's like this in our relationships. Big things are made up of little things, and faithfulness and little is faithfulness in much. But you know the inverse to that is true also as it brought out in the parable. Inconsistent follow-through or unfaithfulness in those small things can result in a big thing that is much less effective than it could have been. Again, big things are made of small things. Let's take a look at our second point. Small things can be dangerous. Small things can be dangerous. This is really more of a point 1b. It's kind of distinct from the first point, but it kind of goes together with it as well. It connects strongly, but it has a little bit extra to it. Small things can be dangerous. And the reason small things can be dangerous is because they're small and they appear insignificant.

When you look at them, they appear insignificant, and when you think about it, what's the big deal? It's small. It's not that big of a deal if I missed it once or twice or three or four times. It's not that big of a deal. I haven't prayed in a week. Okay, that's not that big of a deal. It's okay. I'll get to it tomorrow.

Or I haven't done my Bible study in a couple of weeks. It's okay. I'll get to it tomorrow.

These small things build resilience. They build strength. They build relationships. They build knowledge. Again, we look at them and we think, well, they don't really have that much effect, really. After all, they're just small, insignificant things. One day is not going to hurt anything. I don't know about you guys. There are times where one day becomes two.

Two days becomes three. Three becomes five. Five becomes eight.

And then now what? Now it's harder to jump back in. Now it's harder to get back on. Your mileage may vary. I mean, you may not have experienced that before. I certainly have. Where there have been times where one day turned into three, turned into five, turned into eight, and on and on it goes.

Medieval knights wore massive suits of plate armor. Some of you guys have seen these things, these massive suits that these guys wear. They weighed almost 60 pounds. Almost 60 pounds. Those were the good ones. The not-so-good ones weighed even more than that because they were of thicker metal because the guy didn't know how to work it very well. And so the cheaper sets were even heavier. But the really nice sets, about 60 pounds, and it covered their most vulnerable parts. Right? Got the big breastplate that covers your chest and all your squishy innards in here.

You've got your greaves and things on that cover your legs and all your femoral arteries. Had to think for a second. And then you've got your bracers that go down your arms. You've got your boots, and you've got your helm, and you've got all your stuff. Right? We see kind of outlined in Scripture.

What was interesting is, though, there were certain places on that armor that weren't protected. You have to see, which means you've got an eye slit right here.

You've got a spot right here. You've got to connect that armor somehow. I mean, you can't encase you in a total solid piece of steel. That's not real effective, right? You've got to be able to move. It's got to articulate. And so—whoops. I moved my—hang on. Got overly excited.

There we go. Moved my little stand-up thing. But there were places where that armor didn't perfectly overlap, and those places were weak spots. Those places were places where, if somebody snuck an arrow in there, you've got a bad day. Now, one of the biggest dangers to infantry were the volley of arrows that were shot into the sky as the charge began. Okay? And these weren't aimed at you. These were just guys one, two, three—I mean, as many as they can put in the air at a given time, they would rain down on the distance of where those guys were coming through.

And the idea being that you drop as many possible to thin out that rank of that first vanguard charge, and ultimately, theoretically, there's less guys trying to kill you when they get to you. Right? Basic warfare. Kill the other guy before they kill you. With the advent of plate armor, by and large, those volleys of arrows became incredibly insignificant.

Literally, that guy could stand out there and just go, go for it! Pink! Pink! Pink! Pink! The ricocheting off the armor. I just saw a video recently—a couple of guys that were into traditional weaponry and traditional armor and things—practicing whether or not you could put a steel point arrow with an English longbow through a piece of breastplate. And, spoiler alert, it turns out you can't. Even with a bow that is upwards to 100-plus pounds of strength, you cannot punch that thing through. They tried case-hardened, they tried regular, they tried a whole bunch of these different things—dead, dead shots, you know, dead straight-on shots. And because of the shape of the metal and the thickness of the metal, it ricocheted it every single time. But there were a few guys as they began to develop armor as time went on that learned some things the hard way that developing a net collar, also known as a gorgette, was extremely important. And a gorgette is something that comes off the breastplate and kind of scoops up and outward, and your head kind of fits in behind it. Well, what ended up happening was some of these guys would take a direct shot with an arrow, and that arrow would ricochet straight up. And there were a whole bunch of guys that learned the hard way that arrows, even though they're small and they're relatively insignificant when you're wearing plate armor, can still take you out. And it wasn't always that. It's sometimes the little spot in the armor. Sometimes it's the little area that you're not paying attention to. Sometimes it's the eye slit. Sometimes it's places that are not perfectly covered, and it's a random happenstance arrow that comes out of the sky that you didn't expect. Little things, small things, can be dangerous. Now, at some point we reached a point where now we have gorgettes. We have these protections, and the arrow had hit and it'd skip up and off of the gorgette. Gorgette probably, it's probably a French word. I don't know, I don't speak break-in-see French. But it would bounce off, and it would ricochet off of it. And at that point, the knight is practically invincible.

Except often the horse was not. And so the new strategy was, all right, go ahead, ride in at breakneck speed. We'll just do this and do this, and kill your horses right out from underneath you. And then now you're on the ground and you're trying to get up with 60-some pounds of metal on you, and our guys are on you before you can do that. So the tactics changed as the invincibility occurred. Turns out arrows were still small and insignificant, but dangerous. And we talked about spiritually, kind of in this analogy, even the smallest of temptations, when acted upon regularly, or even not even semi-regularly, can very quickly become uncontrollable addictions that are blown out to the point where it is exceptionally difficult to be able to break those and to be able to get them under control. Negligence in various aspects of our life can cause short and long-term issues. Negligence in our marriage, in our parenting, can lead to issues in the short term as well as in the long term. And at first, again, it might not seem like much.

It may seem small and insignificant, but small, insignificant things can be dangerous. And a whole lot of small things can build to some very big things that are very difficult to then turn around and overcome. Again, similar to compounding errors in construction, if you've ever tried to build a deck. I think we've used this analogy before. If you're off an eighth of an inch down here, and you continue that error, 20 feet down the road, you're off by two and a half inches.

If you strap that out to 100 feet, you're off by over a foot. Just because of an eighth of an inch on the end of each of those boards on the way down, it just... I mean, if your intent is to build a deck that does that, then okay. Right? I mean, that's great. You have a nice swoop shape to your deck. I never intend to do that. That's just how it turns out when I'm done. So thankfully, I have people helping me with this one that know a whole lot more than me, which is very, very thankful. But little things can make a huge difference if we're not attentive.

Many of you have probably seen cruise ships or been on a cruise ship before or been in and around the Columbia when the cargo ships are running in and out, the ones that are bringing stuff from China. Those boats are massive. I'm always blown away by them when we're out fishing on the Columbia and one of those things kind of comes out of the fog. You hear the horn and then you look around like, where's this thing at? Because it's coming out of the fog all of a sudden. You go, oh, we should move. You know, we're a little too close to the shipping lane here. The reel the rods in, zip out of the way real quick. But they're like a floating city. But despite the size of that ship, it is moved by comparison by something that is incredibly small on the back of that ship.

It is very small compared to the overall size of the ship, and yet it can move that huge ship and change the angle of that prow and where that boat is going. Let's go over to James 3. James 3. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1. I want to look at another spiritual principle here that is encased in an important lesson. Another spiritual principle that's encased in an important lesson. That's James 3, and we'll pick it up in verse 1. Earlier we saw that to be faithful and little is to be faithful in much. To be unjust in little is to be unjust in much. Now we want to take a look at another principle here. James 3 in verse 1 says, My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things, if anyone does not stumble in word. He is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.

Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body with that bit. Do horses like having a bit in their mouth? Not particularly. No. We had a chance to go up and see Mr. and Mrs. Moody up in the Spokane area a couple weeks back, and Darla raises horses. Paul's wife Darla raises horses. She raises Isolantics. And so she, of course, went to visit, and she wants to get the kids out on the horses. So the kids got to come out and practice brushing the horse and putting the bridle on and putting the bit in. So there were three horses and two kids that were doing the work, so I decided I'd jump in. I know nothing about horses, by the way, and thought I would just kind of do what the kids are doing. It's fine. Brush, brush, brush. Okay, let's put this thing over. And try to put the bit in the mouth, and the horse give them, I don't want that thing in my mouth. Spit it right back out immediately. They don't particularly like it, because it's not necessarily comfortable. It's not painful, but it's not comfortable. You might imagine having something pulling on you and going this way and that way. It's just not something that's comfortable.

But it talks about how we put bits in their mouths, and we can make them obey us. Make this huge animal move just by a slight tug on the reins going this way. It says, look also, it ships. Although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires. And so now he's kind of built his point, and now he gets into the main area. Even so, in other words, just like this, the tongue is the little member, and it boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is still set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird of reptile, a creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. Verse 8, But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Verse 9, With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude or in the likeness of God.

Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, verse 10, these things ought not to be so. Verse 11, Does the spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. James tells those that are reading his epistle, small things that we might consider to be insignificant in the whole scope of the human body, it's our little tongue, can have a great effect. You know, we consider our tongue in the words that we say. Those who've been on the receiving ends of words that are not maybe so fitly spoken can attest to you. It can burn down a forest.

It can defile the entire body. And sometimes, depending on the experience that you had, can change the direction of a life by the words that are spoken.

When people don't think before they speak, when they say things that are offensive or they say things that are hurtful, often they don't even necessarily realize what they're saying. Some are malicious. Some are absolutely malicious about it. Others sometimes don't realize what they're saying.

Ritaling the tongue, being able to bring that tongue into submission and learning, frankly, when to keep our mouths shut is an important skill and one that all of us struggle with. I will admit I've had my own fair share of foot-and-mouth moments over the years, as I'm sure you have as well. It's a skill that we work at towards our entire lifetime. It's something that is not immediate.

We're not all real good at, but the spiritual principle that's present in this example is important. Something small can be dangerous. Something small can change the direction of a life.

It can defile the body. Something we consider to be very insignificant can be problematic to our relationships, and it doesn't always have to be our words. It can be our negligence of other people's needs. They have a need. We neglect to fill it. It can be inconsistency and lack of follow-through on our commitments. It can be us not doing what we said we were going to do. It can ultimately be our focus on other things at the expense of a relationship. It can be what we say or what we do. It can be spiritual drift from our own negligence or false teachings or anger or bitterness or whatever it might be. We can end up in a different place. Regardless of what it is, the net effect is negative. The net effect is negative. Again, faithful and little, faithful and much, unjust and little, unjust and much. Small things can be dangerous. The principle holds. The final point today, we have a phrase in our modern vernacular that says, it's the little things in life. Typically taken when you're enjoying one of the finer little things in life. Oh, it's the little things in life. Warm water. Oh, it's the little things in life. Hot tea. Oh, it's the little things in life. For me, it's my morning cup of coffee. It's the little things in life. That statement comes from a larger quote by a guy named Robert Bralt.

His entire quote says, enjoy the little things. For one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. I think too often we don't tend to consider those little things for what they really are. Because, again, we see them as small. We see them as insignificant. We don't see them as being as important as they are. Thinking about those of you that are parents, that hug on the way out the door on the way to school. It doesn't seem like much. It's important. Opportunities to just spend time together, regardless of what you're doing. It doesn't matter what you're doing, you're together. Opportunities to spend time together. That I love you that you said before you left for work. It might have meant everything that day to that individual who heard it.

Maybe you took care of a mess that was in the house so they didn't have to.

You know, an acts of service sort of situation with regards to the love language.

Maybe even if it's not in a relationship, maybe if it's just a friendship or somebody who's close to you. Maybe it was a note that you sent that encouraged them. Maybe it was something that you said to them as they were going through a trial or that prayer that you offered up to God that morning on their behalf. Maybe it was just a kind word or a smile. It doesn't always have to be much.

Those little things are important. And I think sometimes we have this viewpoint, at least, that we have to do something huge in order to help somebody. It has to be this grand procession. I mean, not because we're tooting our own horn, but we can't just thought with something small. Anybody can do something small. We got to go totally huge on this thing.

We got to go big. Go big or go home, right? As the adage says. I think sometimes we get locked into this pattern where it has to be something massive. It has to be something huge. When in reality, something small is just as effective. I think at times, too, in the church, we get this feeling that in order to really make a difference, we have to be in some sort of a position or some sort of office.

And that couldn't be further from the truth. It could not be further from the truth. I don't intend any disrespect against these offices. Please don't misunderstand what I'm getting at. They are clearly offices that are ordained by God. They are clearly offices in which it's a calling and it's a calling to service. It's a calling to serving other people.

But at the end of the day, those offices exist so that the work can be completed, so that the brethren can be cared for spiritually and physically, so the gospel can be preached. That is the reason for the existence of those offices. It's not a feather in the hat.

It's a position of service. And so caring for the flock spiritually and physically and preaching that gospel to the world, that's the end or the means, so to speak, to an end that we're after here. Let's go to Acts 6 real quick. I want to take a look at this just real fast. We've been here before, but we've got a little time we can actually turn there. I was just going to reference it. But in Acts 6, we see the institution of this particular office.

We see the institution of the office of Deacon. We know, too, that where Deaconess is. We know that that was from Scripture. That's something that we can see. Acts 6, we'll just read briefly here the first couple of passages. Acts 6 says, Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.

So they weren't getting the daily food that they needed in that distribution. The twelve stomps and the multitude of the disciples. Instead, it's not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Okay, it's kind of a harsh way sounding of saying that.

It's more than just serving tables. But in this case, they're trying to make the point that we're trying to do this spiritual nourishment over here and it's taking all of our effort and all of our focus. We need the help on the physical side. And so we need somebody who can take care of these little things, so to speak, that are coming up. It says, Therefore, brethren, speak out from among you, seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

Verse 4, But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And so the whole multitude, they chose Stephen, chose Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, and on goes the line. We'll go through all the names and everything there. But when you take a look at the purpose for this office and why it was ordained and why it was set, it was for ensuring that the little things got taken care of. The things that were honestly very big things, you know, ensuring that the widows were taken care of. And those are huge things, but they were needed to be dealt with, they needed to be taken care of.

You know, we're all capable of doing these sorts of things, ordained or not. Caring for other people, we can do that without an ordination. We can do that without an office. We're all capable of these things. Really, the critical importance of these little things, the physical support that people need, the assistance, the encouragement, the kindness, the love, the joy, the peace and the comfort that people can provide to one another, keeps the brethren moving along the narrow path, keeps them on the road, so to speak, helps them to realize that there's somebody there who cares for them and loves them and supports them, especially when things get difficult, especially when things get difficult. It helps them to know that they're not alone, that they have people who love them, people who are rooting for their success, even when they're struggling.

In the book of James, let's go ahead and turn back there real quick. Kind of piggybacks a little bit off of what was mentioned there in James 3 that we read earlier. But the book of James, James 1, then we'll pick it up in verse 26. And again, not a new passage in this case. James 1 verse 26.

James 1 and verse 26 says, If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. It makes the point that it is incredibly important for us to mind what we say, to mind what comes out of our mouths from a standpoint of the things that we say with regards to the blessings and the cursings that come from our mouths. Verse 27 goes on and says, Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. James illustrates the importance of the little things. You know, we might see this to be a little thing, going and popping in and checking on somebody, just popping by, having a cup of coffee and saying hi. We may think that that's a little thing. That may have made that person's month because they hadn't had a visitor in so long. We cannot underestimate the importance of these little things. We can't. We have to ensure that these things are being taken care of, and that we're all doing what we can to chip in to make sure that these things are being taken care of. And we know in God's eyes something like that is huge. Going and visiting like that, it's huge.

He loves the orphans. He loves the widows very, very much. He says, This is pure religion, James says. This is love manifested. This is love manifested. So I want to take a second, and I want to say thank you to all of you who are doing the little things. Thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart, those who are connecting with the widows, who are getting out there and visiting, who are getting out there and providing an ear to listen to, making meals and delivering them to those who are in need, you know, going out and checking in on people. Thank you so much for encouraging one another and for strengthening one another, for praying for one another, and really for giving maybe that person the hug that they needed on the way out the door as they get ready to face the chaos of the rest of the next week.

Thank you too for your patience and your love for your ongoing prayers and your encouragement. It means the world to me and helps me continue to be able to keep going as well. You know, it is these little things, it is these little things in life that don't seem like much at first, that absolutely mean the world to people. These are the things that build community.

These are the things that strengthen the faith of our brethren. These are the things that help each of all of us realize that we're not on our own in this. So I would encourage you to keep your eyes and your ears open. Look for a place that you can interface. Look for a place where you can provide one of these things to someone else. Again, it might make all the difference in the world to that particular individual. It may strengthen their faith. It may strengthen even the bond of fellowship. You might find you got a new friend that you didn't have before. You know, it's amazing how those relationships can build, especially with individuals maybe we don't spend a whole lot of time with. But we, as a congregation, we as a church, we as an ecclesia, as those who are called out by God, we grow stronger through these little things. These little things matter.

They matter a lot. Let's go over to Hebrews 6 for our final scripture today. Hebrews 6. And we'll begin in verse 9. Hebrews 6 and verse 9, we're coming off a discussion here of the elementary principles of Christ. The writer of Hebrews is really getting into the concept here of the importance of progressing. And it's an incredibly encouraging passage. It really is an incredibly encouraging passage that is written to those who receive this particular epistle.

He goes on in verse 9 of Hebrews 6, and he said, But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner, and he's talking to the Hebrews there and what he was discussing at the end of 5 and at the early part of 6. Verse 10, For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints, you have served the saints, and you do serve or do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. Verse 12, that you do not become sluggish, you don't let off the gas, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. He takes the time to commend them for their work and for their labor of love toward those who are called by his name, towards his name, toward the saints, and to their service of others. He says, God remembers these things, he sees these things, he knows. He'll remember those little things that they did to encourage the saints, to serve them and to show their love. His desire is that they'll continue and they'll maintain that diligence right up to the end, right up to the end. Not getting sluggish, but imitating those with faith and patience, inherit the promise. In other words, what the writer of Hebrews is saying here is, sweat the small stuff. Sweat the small stuff. It's important, it matters, and it doesn't, again, have to be something that takes incredible energy, and this giant production could be as simple as a smile, could be as simple as a hello, it could be just incredibly simple to show individuals that they're loved, to show them they're cared for, that they're like family. But he says those small things are important enough to do and to perform with diligence, consistently. Not getting sluggish, but again imitating those who inherit the promise. Brethren, we need to look for these opportunities to provide this encouragement. The small stuff is important because it's made up or it makes up the big stuff. Big stuff is made of small stuff.

Small stuff that's neglected can prove to be incredibly dangerous, and frankly, it is the small stuff that people remember. It is the small stuff that people remember, because those things are incredibly meaningful to those who are on the receiving end.

Once again, thank you for your love for the brethren. Thank you so much for your ongoing service to one another. May it provide glory to our great God and help to strengthen the bond of our fellowship.