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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor December
15, 2002 Even
her hometown was viewed with
disdain. In
the first chapter of John's
gospel, when Philip told
Nathanael they had found the
Messiah and it was Jesus of
Nazareth, Nathanael replied: "Can
anything good come out of
Nazareth?" (verse 46) No
power, no prestige, no resources,
just a little peasant girl but
she became a giant of the
faith. God
chose Bethlehem as the place
where His only begotten Son would
be born. Bethlehem is a
nondescript little village about
two miles outside Jerusalem, not
more than a stop in the road. You
couldn't find mansions of the
rich or palaces of kings in
Bethlehem. In
Micah 5:2 we find these
words: A
little village became world
renowned as the birthplace of the
Savior of the world. Little
is big in the hands of
God. Jesus
was born of peasant parents in a
small, powerless nation in the
Middle East. No worldly
resources, no power, no prestige.
Just Mary's little
child. Listen
to what God spoke through the
prophet Isaiah concerning
Jesus: He
had no beauty or majesty to
attract us to him, nothing in
his appearance that we should
desire him. He
was despised and rejected by
men, a man of sorrows, and
familiar with suffering. Like
one from whom men hide their
faces he was despised, and we
esteemed him not. (Isaiah
53:1-3) Yet
this little peasant boy, Mary's
little child, grew up to become
the King of kings and the Lord of
lords. Little
is big in the hands of
God. After
three years of active ministry,
Jesus left behind a small band of
followers of about 120 men and
women. They were led by a group
of twelve misfits who had proven
themselves slow to learn and
unreliable. They
had no church building, no choir
and no radio or TV show. They
didn't even have a sound system.
But with one voice they
proclaimed the Good News about
Jesus the Son of God and their
voice reverberated across the
known world. Merchants
in Thessalonica complained to the
city officials that: Just
a little group of ordinary people
-- but little is big in the hands
of God. The
issues with God are not size,
ability or resources, but
surrender and submission to God
and His plan and purpose. Mary
said to the angel: Jesus
said: And
also: Those
twelve misfits dropped their
fishing nets, left their business
behind, abandoned their other
aspirations and followed
Jesus. The
birth of Jesus is called "the
incarnation." "Incarnate" means
to give concrete form to an
otherwise abstract quality or to
embody. God who is spirit was
embodied or took on human from in
the person of Jesus
Christ. Hundreds,
maybe thousands, of books have
been written to explain all that
the incarnation means and what it
says to us. Today, the focus is
on one simple truth that the
whole process of incarnation
plainly reveals: When surrendered
to God and submitted to His
purpose, little is big in the
hands of God. A
little, white-frame church on the
north end of town on the other
side of the railroad tracks. Not
many people, not a lot of
material resource, the parking
lot is not even paved. Just a
little Methodist church, a little
group of ordinary
people. But
when surrendered to Jesus as Lord
and submitted to the plan and
purpose of God, little can turn a
city -- even the world -- upside
down. Because little is big in
the hands of God.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
Ministry
of the
Word:
Recent
sermons
Our quarterly e-magazine
Gateway
Today
For the Gateway family
Pastor
Jerry's Weekly
E-Mail
A
GATEWAY SERMON
Little
is big
in the hands of God
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
(Third Sunday in Advent)
God
chose Mary to be the mother of
His only begotten Son. From what
we are told about Mary in the
Scriptures, it's obvious that in
this world Mary was a nobody: a
teen-aged peasant girl from
Nazareth.
Little is big in the hands of
God.
A
small placeBut
you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the
clans of Judah, out of you
will come for me one who will
be ruler over Israel, whose
origins are from of old, from
ancient times.
A
peasant boyHe
grew up before him like a
tender shoot, and like a root
out of dry ground.
A
group of misfits"These
men who have turned the world
upside down have come here
also." (Acts 17:6 ESV)
The
main issue"I
am the Lord's servant. May it
be to me as you have said."
(Luke 1:38)
"The
one who sent me is with me; he
has not left me alone, for I
always do what pleases him."
(John 8:29)
"Father,
if you are willing, take this
cup from me; yet not my will,
but yours be done." (Luke
22:42)
God
with us
In
His hands
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
021215a: Little Is Big In The
Hands of God.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado