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I can remember when our children were ten or eleven they wanted to ride roller coasters at Kings Island but the sign said they were too small. They needed to grow a little bit more before they could ride it. It really made them mad because they wanted to ride that roller coaster then and there.
It’s no fun being small!
But in Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed, we uncover the truth that “Little is much when God is in it.”
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. (Mark 4:31-32)
The mustard seed was so small that it would take almost twenty thousand seeds to make one ounce. But the mustard shrub could grow ten to twelve feet in just a few weeks. Jesus’ point was that just as a tiny seed can grow into the greatest of all shrubs, so God’s kingdom can begin with a few people who truly believe and grow into greatness.
This parable says, ‘Never be daunted by small beginnings’. Small is great. We think bigness is best. We wait for the spectacular. But all God wants is a beginning, however small. That’s about all some of us have right now. So here’s some encouragement from the mustard seed.
1. Size doesn’t matter to God.
You will never be too small for God and, as a matter of fact, you’re just the right size for God to use you right now. God doesn’t care if you can’t reach the top shelf in the kitchen, tie your shoes just right or that you can’t ride roller coasters. God is more concerned with what you’re becoming, not with what size you are right now.
2. God wants you to grow.
It’s one thing to be small – it’s another to remain small. God always starts small and builds from there. God always wants to make the small larger just like a seed as it grows into a plant.
3. There is nothing beyond God’s ability.
Even though you might be small; God can still do great things through you. When God is with you there isn’t anything you can’t do.
Edward Kimball was concerned about one of his Sunday School students who worked at a shoe store in town. One day Kimball visited him at the store, found the student working in the back stocking shelves, and led him to Christ then and there. Dwight L. Moody eventually left the shoe store to become one of the greatest preachers and evangelists of all time.
Moody preached in a little chapel in Great Britain. That message changed F. B. Meyer, inspiring him to become an evangelist like Moody. Meyer came to America and in a sermon said, “If you are not willing to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be made willing?” That remark led J. Wilbur Chapman to respond to the call of God on his life.
Chapman became a great evangelist and influenced Billy Sunday. who eventually took over Chapman’s ministry becoming one of the most dynamic evangelists of this century.
Inspired by a 1924 Billy Sunday crusade a group Christians invited the evangelist Mordecai Ham to come to Charlotte, NC and hold a series of evangelistic meetings in 1932. A lanky16 year old sat in the huge crowd came and gave his life to Christ. That teenager was Billy Graham. Billy Graham has communicated the gospel to more people than any other person in history.
And it all started with a Sunday School teacher named Kimball. Millions have been affected by his decision to go into a shoe store and share Christ with one person. Millions more will continue to feel his impact.
That’s not all…
Billy Graham came to Cincinnati, Ohio where a young teen, Marty Lewis, trusted Christ as Savior. He went home and eventually led his father, Joe Lewis, to Christ. Joe Lewis was the one who led me to Christ. And the story continues…