#4 Part in 5 part series on UNDERSTANDING
This is Part #4 UNDERSTAND SMALL THINGS GROW.
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
We are pondering and studying understanding.
This study will address the fact that small things can grow and dominate, then destroy.
TEXT:
James 1:15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
2 Samuel 11:1 And it came to pass after the year was expired, at the TIME when KINGS GO FORTH to BATTLE, that David sent Joab...
1. Don’t ignore small things..
Know small things can take root, and grow.
There is a parable I want to share.
There was a little girl and her dad that lived in Africa.
One day while on a journey, the little girl had her dad stop by the road.
They saw a momma lion that had been killed and a baby lion trying to nurse
from the corpse of the momma lion.
The little girl loved the newborn baby lion.
She begged her dad, Please let me keep the baby lion.
She promised to feed it and take good care of the baby. She loved the lion.
The dad said, NO! You can’t keep the baby lion, we will take it to the refuge and leave it there!
The man’s daughter cried and cried, but please daddy, she wanted the baby lion all for herself.
The little girl refused to eat until the daddy let her keep the baby lion.
Finally, the dad gave in to his beautiful, little daughter.
They hid the baby lion in car and took it home and feed it.
The daughter was so happy, she just loved her daddy for letting her have the baby lion as her own personal pet.
The baby lion slept in the bedroom with the little girl.
She would wake up at night and feed the little lion.
The girl rushed home from school to love and care for the baby lion.
Soon the lion started growing, and the girl grew also.
They were inseparable friends.
They played and did all kinds of tricks to impress others.
The girl would pet the lion until it purred.
The girl fed the lion, gave it baths, and carefully loved and cared for the lion.
The dad started accepting the lion as part of the family.
In time, they would really play rough together.
This play developed rough and rougher.
One day the dad was gone on a business trip,
and the teenage girl was playing with
the 650 pound lion in the back yard.
The lion knocked the teenage girl down to the ground,
it accidentally scratched her.
When the lion smelled her blood, he attacked her and killed her.
The dad called home and there was no answer.
So, he quickly returned home.
His precious daughter was not in the house.
He ran into the back yard, there was blood everywhere.
The lion was covered with blood and laying next to what remained of his beautiful daughter’s body.
You can blame the lion if you want, but the wild nature in the heart of the lion came to the surface in the action that destroyed the girls life.
It all returns to the call to bring the lion into the man’s home as a pet.
See, the man had made a poor choice years before.
It was just a little innocent choice at the time.
Few people can see their choices today, may have consequences far down the road. Why should I be faithful to the church?
Why should I practice giving?
Why?
We must learn to see small choices can have large consequences.
2 Samuel 11:1 And it came to pass after the year was expired, at the TIME when KINGS GO FORTH to BATTLE, that David sent Joab...
How much can a little decision to stay at home and play around COST?
When David did not go to battle when he should have,
a process was released, and a choice was made.
David sent Joab, and that choice started a process that ended with sin,
adultery, and murder, and an illegitimate baby.
All this would have never happened if David had been with his men and doing the Will of God.
God teach us to understand that little things may grow and develop into bigger things.
Sin will take you farther than you planned on going.
Sin will keep you longer than you plan on staying.
Sin will cost you more than you planned on paying!
2 THERE IS NO SMALL, HARMLESS SIN!
SMALL SIN DESTROYS NATIONS?
I am not telling you a story to take lightly, not counting the cost is a very real symptom of a sick society.
Here is a real story sent to me by pastor Tom Nelson:
For eight years Sally had been the Romero family pet.
When they got her, she was only one foot long.
But Sally grew until eventually she reached eleven-and-a-half feet and weighed eighty pounds.
Then on July 20, 1993, Sally, a Burmese python, turned on 15-year-old Derek, strangling the teenager until he died of suffocation.
Associated Press Online (7/22/93) quoted the police as saying that the snake was "quite aggressive, hissing, and reacting" when they arrived to investigate.
Sins that seem little and harmless will grow.
Sickly oaks from sickly acorns grow.
James 1:15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
We must realize and change, for the importance of small things can never be underestimated..
Father teach us to understand, little sins will destroy nations, families, churches, and individuals.
3. WE WANT TO IGNORE THE WARNING SIGNS, MY MIND IS MADE UP!
You have a gas gauge in the car, it is useless if you don’t ever look at it.
I can make it a little farther? We like to push the limits?
The gas is cheaper down the road, if I can just make it to that station?
The preacher warns the young couple?
They laugh at the stupid old man’s old fashion teachings?
Laws are good. We need rules. We need signs that point to dangerous areas and identify them.
We need watchmen brave enough to proclaim.. DANGER LIES AHEAD!
Where there is no law, there is no sin, because people cannot know that their actions are sin unless a law forbids those actions.
TODAY WE ATTACK THE MESSENGER, BECAUSE HE PREACHES AN UNPOPULAR MESSAGE!
We ignore the warning signs because it feels good and we have our minds made up! God’s law should make people realize that they are sinners doomed to die, yet it offers no help.
We can listen and adapt our course of action to please God and be in bounds. Sin is real, and it is dangerous.
Suppose the bridge is being repaired?
The newspaper and TV station warned the bridge would be closed.
Suppose all traffic is to be stopped.
There are signs for several miles: BRIDGE CLOSED AHEAD.
The signs get closer and more frequent.
Finally, there is a huge blinking sign, BRIDGE CLOSED.
The traveler is speeding toward a river with no bridge. The driver has not paid attention, and he is speeding above the limit.
All of a sudden the driver realizes, he locks his brakes.
The car leaves skid marks for several hundred feet.
The car crashes over the cliff and into the river.
All in the car die.
Is the accident the fault of the bridge builder?
Maybe the car should have had better brakes?
Maybe we should blame poor air bags?
Maybe we can blame everybody, but a driver did not heed the written warnings, -- going so fast, not heeding the little signs.
God’s law is like the warning in the media, God’s messages are like the signs.
We must hear the warnings and be prepared.
We must hear God’s little warnings, and avoid the BIG RESULTS of sin.
God teach us to understand the VALUE OF SIGNS, and learn to read the signs before damage is done.
3. PERSONAL DESIRES, FEELINGS, BLINDNESS TO FACTS DISTORT REALITY.
We live in a "IF IT FEELS GOOD DO IT SOCIETY."
We are so unfaithful to the church and God’s word that many think -- "I AM AOK!"
Sin deceives people by misusing the law.
We think rules are bad and too restrictive. Why can’t I---?
The Bible and God’s law is holy, it expresses God’s nature and God’s will for His people.
In the Garden of Eden, our enemy slick talked and deceived Eve by taking her focus from all she could do, and Eve focused on the one LITTLE thing, on the one restriction that God had made. Sin is disobedience and rebellion, but we refuse to see that little sin destroys good people.
When we are tempted to rebel, we need to look at the law from a wider perspective—in the light of God’s grace and mercy.
Don’t accept the distortion that you can escape the consequences of little things. God help us to understand, earthly vision may distort God’s plan.
4. NOT DEALING WITH THE LITTLE, THEN THE BITTERNESS BACKFIRES!
Hebrews 12:12-15, did you read it?
There is a little warning hidden in Hebrews.
It identifies a little root, the root of bitterness.
This root will not stay little.
It will spring up, and the affects will reach to many.
Why because we dare to count the cost.
We must allow the Holy Spirit to help us grow a deep understanding of little things.
A little pornography?
A little flirting?
Skipping church?
Not reading your Bible?
Anger rooting beneath the ground is often not visible until there grows forth a plant towering above the dirt?
If we deal with the little roots we can avoid many terrible storms.
God give us wisdom and understanding about little things!
His servant,
Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
Help me? Enlarge my hands? Pass to others?
