Small Things Like These Transcript

We're going into the Old Testament. An Old Testament prophet, Micah, was a prophet to the Israelite people, to the Jewish people before they were taken into captivity. And, and he was warning them about, hey, these are some of the ways that if you live this way, then God's gonna look after you. If you choose to go down certain paths that aren't godly, then there's gonna 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. But before all that happened, there's a passage here in Micah chapter six, in verse six to eight, that's quite a famous piece of scripture. And we're going to come around it at the start of this year and let it speak to us today. So verse six, it says, what can we bring to the Lord?

Should we bring him burnt offerings? Should we bow before God most High with offerings of yielding calves? Should we offer him thousands of rams and 10,000 rivers of olive oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins? No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you to do what is right, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

It's an interesting scripture, isn't it? Verse 8 is quite a famous passage. And you'll see if you like having things in your bathroom or plaques and posters. Oftentimes that scripture is a famous one that's put up that people have in their houses. It's sort of summary summarizes some things that we see as important.

Everyone agrees with them. It's interesting the verses beforehand, the way the prophet talks about what the Israelite people in their natural state, what they would think God wants, what they think is important. And if you have a look at it, they go, God, what do you want? What do you want? Should we bring you thousands of rams?

Should we pour out 10,000 rivers of olive oil? I mean, 1 liter of olive oil is plenty extra virgin quality. That's what my mum grew up with. Italian mum always cook with extra virgin olive oil. They're like 10,000 rivers.

God of oil. And then they come and they take it to the next level. Some crazy. Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins? Human beings always have a, have a bent usually towards sort of big extreme and brash things, don't they?

We want the biggest and the best. We, 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 1 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, you know, it's the biggest racing in the world. We're drawn to that as people, aren't we?

We look at what we're drawn to. We want to watch the best stuff. Who's the most popular, the best singing, we want the best music, we want the best preaching. So I apologize, right now at the start, right, we want the best of everything. That's human intent.

And yet God comes here and they go, oh, do you want us to Pour out everything we have for you, including our own children. And God's answer to them is no. No. Oh, people, the Lord has told you what is good and this is what he requires of you. To do what is right.

To love, mercy and to walk humbly before our God. Walk humbly with your God. It's interesting, isn't it? Because that's a bit boring. I know.

Are we allowed to say that in church? We've got to be very form. I mean, it is. Sometimes we take the simple things, the small things, and we just take them for granted and we go, oh yeah, been there, done that. No one's going to disagree with me on this scripture and say, oh, that's, that's too, you know, that's amazing.

Everyone's going to go, yes, amen, brother. That's good stuff. Yes, Pastor. But if we're honest, it's not that exciting. I'm going to base My Life in 25 on Micah 6, verse 8.

Do what is right. Love mercy and walk humbly with God. It's a bit boring, but yet I think this is the very heart of God, 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. And I've titled today's sermon 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. Because God cares not about the big things. He cares about the small things.

We see that in Christ, don't we? He could have come to the Roman emperor. He could have declared himself as a deity and Lord of all. And yet he comes as an infant in a little outpost in Bethlehem, in a subjugated people, a dominated people unknown by the rest of the world. Because God cares about the small things.

And so if it's okay, we're gonna talk about small things like these. I wanna go through these things and give you a couple of points. And I want, as I'm Doing that for you to think about, how do these things apply in my life? I'm not asking you today to just give a cent and say, yes, I'm a good Christian. I should say yes to that.

These are important things. I want you to think deeper than that and go, God, if these are important things to you, how are they impacting me? How am I living these truths out in my life? And how can I, in 2025, live these things out in my life? So the first thing I want to say, and we've said it, is the small things are significant to God.

The small things are significant. It says this in. If we go in Luke 16, skipping ahead for the guys there. Luke 16, verse 10 says this. If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones.

If you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest, with greater responsibilities.

Hmm. 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.

Mishpat is the Hebrew word and it has a number of things in there. But it's this idea of justice, God's justice. We simplify it down to this simple, do what is right. It's not talking about this kind of legalism. It's not talking about God says, bang, bang.

It's talking about a heart that understands the way the world should be. This is the way the world should be. That people are valued and everyone's valued equally. 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 aside. 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 give 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?

It hasn't been perfect over the centuries and the millennia, but you'll see through the church a thread of God's justice, of God's heart, of this idea of mishpat to do right. If you look at some of the history of the church that you'll see that people, because it wasn't an organization, the organization went Australia many times, but people who were the church who said, this is God's justice. I'm going to fight against things like slavery. I'm going to fight against people being pushed down. When they see people who are poor and in need and can't help themselves because no one else is helping.

What did the church do? What did people in the church do? They said, we're going to go and feed them, we're going to go and love them. That's God's justice. That's mishpat.

It's saying, do what is right. Who do you see that needs help? Who do you see in your workplace, in your life? God has called you to be an agent of change. He's called you to be someone.

And you say, I can't make a difference, but I'm not the boss, but I don't have the influence. And God says, I don't care about the big things. I care about the small things. Will you do what is right? Will you in your family, will you stand up for righteousness?

Will you say, when you see someone going through a time and you can do something about it, will you step in? The world wants you to think, hey, you can't make that much of a difference. Just follow others. But God says, the small things are the things I care about. The difference you can make in your life to do right.

Mishpat justice. God's view. 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? Mishpah 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, mercy.

We call it grace in New Testament language and Christian language. Old Testament uses this word, hesed, in most of our translations. You'll see it's often translated loving kindness. Oh, we thank you, God, for your loving kindness, for your hesed. It's this idea of not just having mercy on someone, it's this idea of compassion, a heartfelt compassion, 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 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 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. Isn't that 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, 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.

And if you determine in your heart, even subconsciously, if they don't show me love, well, I won't show. They'll pay for this. I'll silent treatment. I'm just gonna be hard. I mean, we do it, get annoyed.

The ones closest to us. You show me love or I won't show. What if you chose to show loving kindness, kids? What if you chose to show loving kindness to your parents? This is the small things that God cares about have said.

I remember when Ella was in primary school, she goes, dad, are you gonna tell a story about me today? And I told her, no, not that particular story, but I'm going to tell this one. This is many years ago in primary school and there was some kid that, she sort of had a, you know, they, they liked each other, right? It was like primary school. So don't be embarrassed, Ella, It's.

I'M just throwing out your life. She knows, she knows we've told this story before, but she said, I asked her, I said, what about this boy? Do you like, what is he a four or something? What do you like about him? There were two things she said, and I think these are often true ladies about things.

I'm sure there's many other qualities that we are trying to show that we fail in time and time again. But these two things she said, she said, number one, he's funny. Said he's funny, dad. She has fun around him. And the second thing she said as a year four student, she said, he's kind to me.

And I thought, isn't that interesting that a kid understands what gets to her heart? Kindness. To reach out and to be encouraging, to show kindness, to show thoughtfulness. You know, Ella's helped me understand that more. I opened the door for Ella as we walked into the house and she looked and she said, thank you, dad.

But it was almost like a thank you. I'm glad you're finally learning to be gone. And then the next time we walked in the house, she opened the door for me and I stood there and said, no, you go. And she goes, no, you go. And she made me walk in first.

So it's like equality, kindness. Kindness is a beautiful thing. Loving kindness, love, mercy. Hesed. 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 gonna have. She's just retired. I said, she's, I'm gonna 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, you'll like this. I said, mom, she's a good cook. I said, mum, we need some people on the catering team to help cook. Some people who 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, you can go. She goes, oh, yeah, I'd love that. I was like, oh.

I said, mum, you can go out on the community group on a Thursday night and 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. 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. Yeah, 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 mom 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, in our church. Do you know how it happened? She just started inviting people around 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 impacted.

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 25? 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 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. And you watch what God does through your life. The third thing he says, do what is right. Love mercy and walk humbly with your God.

It's a simple word, yalak. Yalak is a Hebrew word, 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, means to walk.

But it's interesting, isn't It. Because it says, walk humbly with your God. Doesn't say run. 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.

See, some of us are trying to run because we've got so many goals in mind. I'm a driven person. I've got 20 plans, and as soon as I've completed some of them, I've got another 20 waiting. And my wife's like, what are you doing now? What are you doing here?

I'm like, I've got this plan. I've got this. I'm gonna start reading. And I started reading novels, and then now I've got a list of all the books I want to read and how quickly I want to read them, because I've got a plan. I've got to run.

And God's like, adrian, walk humbly with your God. You know, God does. He's given us personality. Some of us are. We run and we're going to get things done.

And God's made you that way, and that's good. But don't lose sight of the fact that the whole point that God wants the small things is he wants you to walk with him, to walk humbly with your God. To walk humbly. This idea of humility 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. And he's working on me. And I'm walking with him.

Like that doesn't say, to walk to somewhere. We'll have dreams, we'll have ideas. But God's saying, I want you to walk with. This is another great truth that my family is showing me. My wonderful wife is showing me how to walk with someone.

My wife understands this. Who's got people in their life that are always walking to somewhere. They're always Ahead. They're always going ahead. That's me.

All right. If we're walking somewhere, wherever we're going, it's like, right, I've got to get to the pier. Let's go. Let's go. Quicker we get there, the quicker I can walk to the next place.

And then you get to the next place, and you're like, right, have we done what we need to do here? Let's walk to the next one. Let's go. And it's like, sometimes I challenge myself. How quickly can I walk to it?

Let's go. Let's do it. And then my beautiful wife sometimes comes on a walk with me, and I forget that we're to walk with each other. And so while we're away on holidays, I'm walking two places all the time, and I've got my GPS out. I'm walking too.

And Narelle, I look behind, and she's. I'm, like, getting frustrated. Why is she so far back? And then Narelle gave me a physics lesson. She said, let's stand here, honey.

Oh, you've already stood there. My wife is five foot one, and her legs are shorter than mine. And so she's constantly explaining this to me, guys. She's like, for every step you take, I have to take, like, one and a half. I have to walk a lot quicker than you, Adrian, to get where we're going.

And when she told me that, I was like, you've just done an incredible job over our lives keeping up. She's like, well, I've had to, because you won't stop. And so as we're getting older, my wife is trying to teach me, let's walk with each other. Isn't that better? Isn't that nicer?

Because I've discovered when I get to the place, I have to wait anyway. And I could have been walking with her the whole time. Because God cares about relationship. He cares about relationship. You know what walking with someone is?

It's relational, isn't it? It's. I care about the. We're not worried too, as much about the destination as getting there together. This is what God's talking about.

Some of you have got these destinations in mind, and God's saying, I want to walk with you. Some of you have gone, I've got to be driven. I've got to do this. I've got my own plan. Some of us, we're walking in a direction that God is not walking down.

So I want to challenge us today. I want to encourage us. Are you walking with God. Because God's not going to walk down certain paths. You know that, don't you?

He's not going to walk down paths of selfishness. He's not going to walk down paths of sinful behavior. He's not going to walk down paths of where we stay in a state of hopelessness and continually rejecting the love that he's shown us. God is always going to walk down a beautiful if you walk with God along the path he goes on, you lead me, God says in that famous psalm, you lead me beside still waters. That's why we sing the song Lead Me on.

Jesus, he wants to walk with us, but he's the one guiding where we're walking. And you know what he asks you to do? Walk with him. 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. That's what I want. I want relationship with you. I want to ask you in 2025, will you walk with God?

Will you put time aside in the busyness of your life and looking after the kids and running them to every sport under the sun and picking them up from work whenever they call you? It's my experience at the moment, driving down last night to pick my daughter up five minutes after she'd messaged me to pick her up 20 minutes early. And five minutes later I get a call, where are you, dad? I'm like, ella, we live 10 minutes away from where you work. What?

She's like, well, I didn't know. I thought you might be here now, in the midst of all that, all the demands on your life, God just comes to you and says, walk with me. Walk with me. How you walk with God? Open his word, say, walk with me.

Can I speak to you? Go and have some time and speak to the Lord. Put some worship on. Walk with me in the day when you're at work, when you're getting ready for work, when you're on your way to work, when you're coming home from work, walk with him. Do you know you can speak to the Lord anytime and he's there walking with you.

And do you know what I love about God? Some of us have gone off the path and we're walking down a path and you know he's not there. Because he's not going to follow that path. But every time he invites you to run back, run back to the path. And you know what he does?

It's like he does with a kid, like he did with the prodigal son. Ah, you're back. And he embraces and says, come on, let's walk again. Let's walk together. Do you know Adam and Eve, they were walking with God in the Garden of Eden.

And when sin came and shame came and pride came, they are the ones that hid. And it says that God walked again in the garden and he was looking for them. Do you know God's looking for you to walk with him? Small things like these, how caught up are you in the big things? How caught up are you in your own priorities and your own thing?

Will you humble yourself and say, lord, let your priorities become my priorities? And the thing I love about the Lord is every time his priorities are so simple and so life giving and so comforting that they will change your life and those around you.

That's the second thing I want to say about this, is that small things are the very soul of God. They're not just three. God is not a legalistic God. He doesn't just. He's not a lawyer.

You understand that Some of us are treating God like a lawyer. And he goes, he's written his law and his Word and he's looking and he's like, right, how have you messed it up today? Moa got annoyed with her kids because they weren't ready in time for church. Did that happen today? No.

Good. I could see it happening sometimes because you like to be on time for things, not trying. Mo's doing it. Mo's actually been. I mean, you're awesome, but sometimes we can treat God like that, can't we?

He's a lawyer looking for the ways we've made mistakes. He's not doing that. He's saying, I want to invite you into a way of living and a way of thinking that brings life to you. Jesus said, I've come to give you life and life more abundantly. And these are the three.

If we will let these things be the foundation of our lives, we will enter into the life of God, the life of Christ. 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. On the carol celebration, we packed this church out, packed this place out. Our morning services were all full.

We had more people in our weekend service than 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. Hearing someone tell their story about how Jesus has changed their lives. I was broken, I was hurt.

But I felt the love and the mercy and the loving kindness of God and the Holy Spirit and someone showed me grace. And then I realized Jesus loves me and something changed in my life. You know what grabs my heart, the soul of God, is hearing people who are getting water baptized share their heartfelt testimony. Isn't that what grabs our heart? I know, because people say that our water baptism service is our favorite service of the year.

You know why? Because we're tapping into the soul, the heartbeat of God. This is what he cares about. I want to take you to this passage. In Matthew 25, Matthew 25, Jesus tells a story about what God truly cares about.

Some of you, many of you would have heard this before. In verse 34, Matthew 25:34, it says, Then the king will say to those on his right, come on, come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you invited me into your home.

I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me. Then these righteous ones will reply, lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality?

Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will say, I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me.

Read through and think about scripture. Small things like these are the heart and soul of God. I want to ask you, will you allow God to use you this year to go and do something small in someone else's life, in your family's life? And when no one notices what you've done, will you keep on doing it? Will we let go of the big goals, the big dreams, to do the small things first?

Because I believe God wants to do big things. But I've learnt this in my Life.

If the big things are my sole goal, I've lost the heart of God I must have as my foundation. It's the small things, the significant, the seemingly small. Do right, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

2025. They're the things I want to do. They're the things I want to focus on. And yes, God will do the other great things. We'll plant a church.

You'll step into something God's. I'm going to stir your faith in the next few weeks through the Word. We're going to believe for greater things. But first and foremost, let's get the foundation right. Don't give me the victory God.

If it's selfish intent, if my goal is solely that, Lord, let me have these things as my heart and soul. Are you living them out?

I was reading a book the other day. It was a small book. It was a small book, and I thought, I'll get through this quick. And I was reading through it, and it was about a. An Irish person back in the early 1900s.

And just reminds me, though, my daughter keeps talking about, oh, you guys were born in the 1900s. Like, ever thought about that? Some of us born, like, in 1970, 1980s, 1990s. You're born in the. You're born in the last century, guys.

You're old, according to our teenagers of today. So I was reading this book, and it's about this Irish man, and he just. He sold coal to people. He delivered coal to people's homes. And that's the business he ran.

And he'd been doing it for years and years. And so you read this book, and I mean, the book, to be honest, was a bit like, that's nice. And he'd go and meet so and so, and they'd have a chat and then he'd go home and he'd have a meal with his family. And his kids were there. And he'd hear about his kids and how they'd gone in school.

I'm going, what? When's? Something going to happen? As I'm reading through this book, and he has this one encounter in this book where he goes to deliver coal somewhere, and he accidentally stumbles on a young person who's been trapped and has been basically locked in somewhere. And he lets them out, takes them back to where they're from, and the people there act like everything's okay, but he knew something was wrong.

He's like this person, this young person's, something's not right here. But no one said anything. And he's told by the people there to walk away. And so he does walk away. He walks away and he starts thinking about his life.

He's got his family to look after. He's got his kids. People have said, as he's asked some questions about this encounter he's had with this young person and the people they're living with, stay away from that. They'll do damage to you and your family if you intervene. So he decided not to intervene and just leave it.

Just get on with your life, look after yourself and your family. But right towards the end of the book, something comes over him. It's Christmas time. He's about to go have Christmas with his family.

But then he decides to turn around and go back to where this young person is and say, I'm going to do something. I'm going to show some loving kindness. I'm going to do something about it. And this is what is written right towards the end of this book, this book where nothing has happened except this. But this captured me.

This is what it says here. He says he found himself asking, was there any point in being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian and face yourself in the mirror?

And so this little small book grabbed me because those words he found himself asking, was there any point in being alive without helping one another? And I want to ask you that question because I reflected on that and I went, is there? What's the point? Jesus said it. What's the point in gaining the whole world and yet losing your soul?

I think one of the things Jesus was saying, what's the point in getting everything you want for you and yet losing your heart and soul for those around you, for the loving kindness to help others, to impact, to make a difference positively in someone else's life? What's the point? Gain it all. If you look after yourself your whole life, one day you'll die and you'll be nothing won't matter. No one will care about your life anymore.

The things that you accumulate will be nothing. Is there any point in being alive without helping one another?

Small things like these change the world. What if each of us decided to start doing more of those small things? What if we didn't grow weary in doing good? We kept on serving, we kept on helping and we kept on encouraging and we kept on loving.

Imagine all those small things adding up, adding up, adding up, adding up, adding up, adding up.

That's the church.

Small things like these will change the world. If you will do them, if I will do them. If you in Casey and Hastings and Mornington and Peninsula and coming up in Grantville, if you will do these things, we will change the world. We will be Christ who fed you, who looked out for you, who held you and lifted you up in your time of need. When you did it for the least of these, you did it for.

For me.

So before we dream big, we're going to start small.

We're going to say, Lord, the start of 25. I want the small things like these to captivate my heart. I want the things that I've already done, Lord. I want to see them in a new light. The time I was kind, the time I stood up for someone in need.

The time. And I'm gonna keep doing that. The time I encouraged my spouse, my children, and I didn't get a reply back. I'm gonna keep doing that, Lord, and he's walking with you as you do it. He's giving you strength.

Can we do that? Today I'm gonna ask us to bow our heads and close our eyes.

I want to start this year right. I could have started this year. I had a kind of big faith message.

They're great.

But there's something, my brothers and sisters, about seeing the small things as the most impacting, the kindnesses of this life.

Walking humbly with your God.

So we're going to ask the Lord, I'm going to invite you. Maybe you've been caught up in the big things and the distracting things. Maybe you've been off the path. Right now is your opportunity. Say, Lord, the small things like these, Lord, I recalibrate myself.

Let them be the significant things in my life. Let them be my foundation. Let them be my soul and my heart.

Maybe God's calling me this year to forgive someone that doesn't deserve your forgiveness. Small things like these will change the world.

Maybe God's calling you to forgive your spouse for things being unkind, being thoughtless, not being there for you when you needed them the most. Small things like these, maybe he's calling you to put aside your plans and say, how can I give up some of my time to help someone else?

Some of you. He's just asking to remember that the things you're doing are not really small. They're significant and they're things that he loves and he's proud of you and he honours you and he's proud of his kids who are making a Difference. And it's not going unnoticed. It's changing the world.

So, Lord, as we come around the start of this year, Lord, we ask God that small things like these would become the most important things in our lives, that we would choose to do right, that we would love mercy and that we would love walk humbly with you.

Help us, Holy Spirit. Help us. Be those people, your people.

Guide us, forgive us, lift us, empower us in Jesus name, Jesus name.

Oh, Jesus, Keep leading me Lead me on Lead me on Lead me on Please lead me on it's not me I'm leaning on Lead me on oh, Jesus, keep lean. Come on, why don't you sing that?

Lead me on it's not praying. Lead me on it's not me I'm leaning on Lead me on oh, Jesus, keep leaning me le me on that's my prayer this morning, Lord, please leave me on it's not me I'm leaning on Leave me on oh, Jesus, give leave.

It's our prayer, Lord. Ah, that beautiful psalm. Lord, will you walk us? Lead us beside still waters? I pray, God, that your people would walk with you, God, this year.

Whatever it leads, whatever comes our way, we'd walk with you. Maybe you're in this place and you haven't been walking with God. Maybe you're watching and you haven't been walking with God. But today, the first Sunday of 2025, you get to make the decision to walk with your Lord and Savior, to come alongside him. He forgives everything you've ever done.

When you ask him, he forgives you. He embraces you. He gives you a new life, his life. And he takes you by the hand and he says, walk with me. And if you want to do that today, we're going to all across our churches, we're gonna say this prayer together.

And I'm gonna invite you to say it with me. You say, lord, I'm giving my life to you for the first time. Or maybe you're rededicating your life to God because you've gone off a different path that you know you shouldn't be on. And today you're coming back to him. What a beautiful thing to do, the start of the year.

Hey. So let's bow our heads, close our eyes again if we haven't already. And I want us to repeat these words. You say them to the Lord. Dear Lord Jesus, I'm coming back to you.

I believe you're the Son of God and you died on the cross for my sin. And you rose again from the dead. So forgive me Jesus be my Lord and my Saviour. I'm going to walk with you. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen. Amen. Come on. Why don't we give the Lord and all those people a hand?

If you said that prayer at the end of the service at our get connected tables in the areas in our churches, we've got a Bible we'd love to give you. It's a free Bible. If you don't have one and say we want to help you with your walk with God, you can go and get one of those today at the end of the service. God's good. Hey.

God's good and he's going to do good things in your life. He's going to do good things through you because he cares about these small things. Amen. So thank you for listening. We love you.

Thank you to all our churches. I hand you back to your lead pastors now. God bless you. God bless you rest of our church. Go enjoy some morning tea.

Thank you.