Philippians 1:1–6 · Mission’s Great Beginning · Part 1

2. God Uses Little Things

Watch this message on BFFBible — Part 1: He Who Began a Good Work

2. God Uses Little Things

God prizes the use of little things. Think of a seed. Don’t you usually plant a seed? You only need a little hole. They can take time before they look like healthy plants. I think of some of my garden plants, like cucumbers or squash. They grow a little, but they don’t bear fruit. They grow slowly, and one wonders if they’ll do anything more. Then they start growing, but no flowers appear. We gain a little hope here and there, but not all hope bears genuine fruit. Only by God’s grace will the seed of His Word bring eternal life to those who believe.

High in the Hills

I have had the privilege of visiting many church beginnings. Never despise a small work if God is in it. These churches often started as a Bible study. Sometimes they don’t even think of starting a church, but God does. I remember being away at a conference in India. We had been gone several days, exhausted from training others, when we made a small detour to visit a small mountain village. I felt horrible, with a headache and exhausted, but they had a vision to share the Gospel on the way home, though still far away, high in the mountains in Andhra Pradesh. I wouldn’t have gone, but I was in their car. I didn’t dare hinder them in a glorious vision of reaching each little town. There were no believers in that village, but as the sun settled in the far west, they gathered the people together. The villagers didn’t know the main state language, Telugu, so they had me share the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ with a coworker, who translated it into Telugu, and then one of the villagers, who knew Telugu, shared it in his own language. It grew dark quickly. I couldn’t see people’s faces any longer, but the message went on. But God could see people’s hearts and their need for the Gospel, showing how much greater God is than any idol. Idols and the world imprison people, but Jesus Christ sets them free.

Good works start small. I don’t know which seeds were planted that evening, but my point is that these small works—mostly unknown—are happening everywhere all the time! I receive messages from pastors and evangelists requesting prayer for their crusades, including a bishop in Malawi and a pastor trying to reach everyone on a mountain in remote Kenya near the Tanzanian border. We must preach the word, in and out of season.

The Fengshan (Wujya) Church Plant

God often begins His works in unique, often difficult times. I remember hoping to start a church in Fengshan, Taiwan. The hoped-for church plant was going just as we prayed and hoped. We worked with a local congregation in Kaohsiung. They organized a troupe of Christian mountain singers to come for several days to sing and witness in the main park of this new community of 5500 households. But all our dreams seemed to disappear in a flash. We wanted to leverage this outreach by starting a church during the evangelistic meetings, but we couldn’t gain a foothold in that community.

We looked for a place to live and hold the church, but all the first or second floors of the five-story buildings were occupied. We looked everywhere. We walked all around, asking everyone, hoping to find a place.

The big hope of starting a church became a great disappointment. We had heard that the church would no longer plan to start a church, having heard that we couldn’t find a place. The crusade was only a few weeks away.

We desperately prayed for a place. On that same super hot and muggy day, I finally said to my wife, Linda, “Well, we’d better go back to where we were staying,” a good distance away by taxi. She said, pointing: "What about that area down there?” I said, "What about it?” It was a distant corner of the area. Had we been there? Wow, I was already super hot, but she said we should check it out. So we walked and walked in the heat and finally reached that spot, then asked a small shop owner if she knew of anything nearby we could rent. Would you believe it? One or two lanes down, she had just heard that a lady had moved out and was going to rent. She called the lady for us. We got to see it. It was all so amazing, though not necessarily easy to take. The much-desired place had ceilings and walls all covered with red from ancestor-worship incense. But despite the idolatry, she was open to our small family renting it. Not long after, we managed to hang a sign with Gospel Garden on it. The church again agreed to work with us in starting the church when the mountain singer troupe came. And so we started a church in that same living room with red walls and ceiling. The Gospel Garden began to grow. HE WHO BEGAN! Please remember, we were confused foreigners, unsure what God was doing, but when we stepped back, we saw God begin His good work that continues to this day. The pastor of the mother church cleverly arranged for some of his young people to join us and other missionaries to work together wonderfully every weekend.

Every great work, even churches, have their beginning. No doubt some are works that man begins; these will come to nothing in the end. But those that He begins, even with low budgets, not enough workers, and overtired coworkers, become good works like the church at Philippi.

Note how remarkable that God works with His people in completing His redemptive work. The group can’t exist without committed individuals working behind the scenes. To have a mission conference, you need faithful coworkers working behind the scenes. And the children? Faithful coworkers again work behind the scenes. Those Christ-serving hearts are alive and enable His greater work to be done.

I know how Paul felt toward the Philippians. He cared deeply for them because he found few people who cared for him. This has been true of you, too. Paul says, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, “Always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,  in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.”

God Uses Little Things in all of our lives

• God often begins with what seems so small: one person, one church, half a budget, one ministry, one faithful step.
• God’s work flows from His love and fulfills His great plan of redemption.
• God involves His people in His mission in many ways.
• God uses ordinary people to accomplish His great purposes.
• Never despise small beginnings—God uses them to bring Him praise.
• God uses confusion, closed doors, and persecution to teach us to rely on Him.
• God begins His work and brings it to completion! (Phil. 1:6)

A Challenge and Summary

Don’t despair over small beginnings. It needs to be watered by prayer and hard work, and yet we might not see fruit for many years, perhaps another generation, until the fruit of the work becomes visible.

As a young Christian, you may wonder whether you can ever persevere through certain trials. If God calls and prods, follow. He will give you all you need, but probably not ahead of time.

If you are trying to understand your place in life, be attentive. You are God’s seed. Trust Him. He does not always reveal what He wants early on, but be faithful in whatever ministry might pop up.

Perhaps God is calling some of you to participate in new works. In God’s world, there is no such thing as secular work. Shine as God’s light wherever you are.

If He calls you to any kind of service, whether part- or full-time, trust Him with the desire He planted deep in your life, whether as a little boy or more recently after you came to know Him as an adult.

God prizes small works, for it is in them that His glory can best be made known. But they are also a safeguard for us. As we retell our stories, we remember God’s grace. If it weren’t for God, nothing good would have resulted.

Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB), copyright © The Lockman Foundation.