Do Not Despise The Day Of Small Beginnings - Ian Robson

i praise the lord and and uh thank him for this opportunity that i can share my thoughts with all of you my brothers and sisters on this 46th anniversary of cfc we praise the lord for all the way he's led us in all these years and we bless and glorify his name i want to share with you a word first from zechariah in chapter four in reading verses six and seven i want to read that to you from the living bible then he said this is god's message to cerebral not by might not by power but by my spirit says the lord almighty you will succeed because of my spirit though you are few and weak therefore no mountain however high can stand before jeremiah that is jesus refers to jesus for it will flatten out before him and jeremy put jesus's name there will finish building this temple that is his church with mighty shouts of thanksgiving for god's mercy declaring that all was done by grace the lord in our version that we have before us he says the top stone would be laid with shorts of grace grace to it and that is what we can testify to zach and myself and all of those were there in the beginning i think there's only maybe just one family one brother with us but all was done by grace alone it was grace upon grace and the building jesus would finish building his church with shouts of grace praise to it that's how it is and that's the grace that must be upon us as a church that's the grace that god gives us and puts upon our lives that we may build his body in these last days together with him and there's a verse then verse 10 i want to draw your attention to it says in one version it says who would dare despise the day of small things for the day of small beginnings in this version it says zechariah 4 10 the people should not think that small beginnings are unimportant they will be happy when they see zero people with tools thinking of jesus building the temple these are the seven eyes of the lord that refers to the spirit of the lord which look look back and forth across the earth so i want to share this as my testimony as a reminder for myself particularly as well as for the church and that we will do well to take heed to i want to share three very important truths that i have learned and continue to learn as i've been in cfc for these 46 years right from the very beginning by the way it's interesting to note there's only one reference and i was looking up 46 years and see what happened 46 years there's only one reference and that's in the new testament in john chapter 2 verses 19 to 22. jesus answered them that is the pharisees and when they were asking him for a sign he says destroy this temple and in three days i will raise it up the jews then said it took 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days but he was speaking of the temple of his body so when he was raised from the dead his disciples remembered that he said this and they believe the scripture and the word which jesus has spoken and so it's very significant that's the only reference there which refers to the body of christ and there he was speaking about his physical body destroy this temple in three days i'll raise it up and that's what has happened god has raised up the church through the resurrection power of the holy spirit he raised jesus from the dead and when he poured upon his disciples the holy spirit on the day of pentecost there was something that was raised up which can never be destroyed and that continues to go on till jesus finishes his work and as we read the top story will be laid with shouts of grace grace to it so i see that we were called separated and anointed right in the beginning 46 years ago to build his body the body of christ on earth the spiritual body of christ that you and i can have a part of and we don't take any credit for the 46 years we know most about 46 years what we need to boast this about is that the body of christ is being made ready and we have a part we'll be given a privilege you know to have a party in it and so we praise the lord for this grace and so in zechariah 4 10 it says do not despise the day of small things or small beginnings like little drops of water make a mighty ocean like a little spark can set a forest on fire so god begins and he needs us he needs you and me in building this body and being ready for completion when he will come to return to take us to himself looking back 46 years ago i must say i got tired of the life my life that was only outward and it was actually justified also to the same thing and i must say it's like what the holy spirit says in eyes i say isaiah 29 and verse 13 that god's complaint against his people was that they had a reverence and a devotion to him that was consisting of tradition learned by routine my inner life had hit rock bottom i had a testimony as [Music] the assistant pastor the church brother zach was a pastor but we knew just where we were in inwardly spiritually so the first thing i learned and i don't and also you've heard it before but for the generation growing up among us you need to hear this because this is so important it was august 17 1975 when uh the church was born in brazil and sustained his home but uh very few of us probably know the beginnings of that that it happened before 1975. in at the end of 1974 when we were faced with problems without the young people who are ministering through the baptist church and with all the powerful messages that were being preached nothing happened nobody took their life seriously on the last night of that camp when brazil and there was another english brother also together with us and myself we held together for prayer and we cried out to the lord we poured our hearts out to the lord for our young people asking lord at least in the last day that god will visit us i i can remember very vividly as we knelt there with our hands up in desperation crying out to the lord and the lord said very clearly to me the problem is not so much with the young people of your church the problem is with you i believe that brother zach felt the same thing so what i learned or began to learn from that to take the blame not only for my own failures but for the failures of others in the beginning adam failed he failed when they disobeyed god but if he had only taken the blame for their failure instead of putting the blame on eve if he had only said it's me lord i'm the one i'm to blame i'm responsible for my wife's disobedience i'm responsible for us doubting your love and listening to the lie of the devil that came through the serpent if he'd already done that i believe things would have would have been different jesus would still need to come to redeem us because sin had entered the human race but if adam took the blame instead of blaming his wife and say it's me lord i believe it would the results were being different because sin had already come in they disobeyed god but then maybe women would not have to bear children in pain maybe adam would not have to slog so much by the sweat of his brother but definitely the results would have been different as it was for us that was the beginning of cfc when we took the blame upon ourselves when we said lord it's it's i it's me in need not so much the young people as the lord said to us this was a small beginning i want you to remember that my brothers and sisters because if this church is to go on and we have to continue to be a testimony for the lord you know in your generation as we have sought to be in our generation we need to make this small beginning take the blame take the blame not only for my own failure but the failure of others take the blame for my family for my for my wife or your husband for our children if they fail lord i'm to blame i've said that to the lord as far as much as recently i'm to blame lord i want to say that all of us who are parents if your children my child goes straight even after marriage i must take the blame and say lord i fail somewhere have mercy it's all we can grab to god for so anyway that went on it was uh a few months after that that one began to work in our hearts and brothers and mine we would meet for prayer sometimes but both of us really sought the lord individually independently and there came a time when the second small beginning happened a few months later as we sought the lord for ourselves and the people we shepherded in the baptist church god began to move in our lives and meanwhile it the lord brought two of his servants one at one time an anglican minister another presbyterian minister were ministered to our need and as a result helped many people to come into the baptism of the holy spirit but for us it happened in one week when had an extra meeting and i believe that was for me because i was really asking the lord i said i'm willing to publicly confess my my need if if need be i'm willing to go forward and in that prayer meeting in the baptist church the last day that this brother was going to be there but that's i remember as i knelt there god spoke this is the second time that god spoke to my heart the first time he told me that the problem was not with the young people but with me this time the lord said to me is your need greater than your desire for ministry here is your need greater than your desire for ministry here and i was reaping i said lord my need is greater than my desire for ministry here or anywhere else i was willing to quit full-time work and go and look for a secure job after having left my job on the railways after work we're working for nine years come out to serve the lord i was willing to do that again i said lord my need is greater and when an invitation was given to come and pray i was really scared all the board members were sitting there brother zach was there i did not know what happened to him the previous sunday he is not shared with me yet but he was baptized in the holy spirit but i went and went up and i acknowledged my need and when the brother asked me what i wanted to pray for i said i want an assurance for the baptism of the holy spirit and he said something to me which was a word of wisdom from the lord and i was convicted or unbelieved because seven years earlier the lord did baptize me in the holy spirit on the roof our brethren assembly where where i was living when i gave up my job on the railways and living in the church living sleeping on a mat you know you know in the office and just with a suitcase of a few clothes having sold everything else that i possessed because i wanted and the lord had done such a work in my life i wanted to share it with others and there one night after my water baptism the lord baptized me in the holy spirit and fire so that happened when i was convicted of one sin that i never saw as the greatest sin that we can ever be guiltier worse than any other sin that's the sin of one belief and i prayed i said lord forgive me for unbelief forgive me that i didn't believe what you did for me seven years ago and because of fear and seeking the approval of men i closed up with unbelief but the moment i confessed and asked the lord's forgiveness for unbelief the floodgates in my heart opened up the river began to flow which stopped up seven years earlier and i was filled with the holy spirit i began to speak in tongues you know not loudly but i began to praise the lord like i did in the beginning and that was i see that the second thing that we need to be willing to make ourselves of no reputation willing to lose our testimony as a spiritual brother as a godly brother or whatever it is i'm willing to lose my reputation i'm willing to [Music] forego my testimony and acknowledge my need and confess it to the lord and that's what the lord did for me the rivers began to flow it has never stopped ever since jesus made himself of no reputation my brothers and sisters let's remember that not just when he left heaven you can trace it all through his earthly life and when he went back to heaven it's a good study to do to see how in the different situations he made himself of no reputation is his confrontation with the devil in the wilderness if you are the son of god the devil taunted him the devil jesus retorted jesus confronted him it is written the word of god he didn't try to manifest himself with the son of god so you can see that all through when they wanted to make him a king because he had fed them he ran away he when it hit himself when he took a basin of water and guarded himself with a tower to wash the disciples he did what he did right from the very beginning he emptied himself he made himself of no reputation and if you and i are going to have a part in what god is doing that is the way we have to follow we have to follow in the footsteps of jesus to make ourselves of no reputation not protect our testimony in cfc we want the others to think highly of us we want to be commended we want to be known as a spiritual brother you want to be known as a spiritual sister so on all this rubbish that is why the church suffers that's why our families suffer i thank the lord for showing me that right from the very beginning to follow in his footsteps to make myself of no reputation anyway all that led all that god did in that meeting and subsequently when brother zach was asked to leave the baptist church and uh they wanted me to continue what i said if it's concerning the word of god you know and what is my conviction what i believe i stand for the word of god and he leaves i leave too so that is the story in a nutshell and that's when august 17 1975 when we left the baptist church and we said we're going to meet for prayer we were not planning to start another church we didn't know what we're going to do there were five or six families who wanted to join us we said no you can go back you don't have to leave they said no they didn't want to go back because they whatever they have learned and experienced would have been torn down so they joined us we said we'll meet and seek the lord so we gathered to pray in brother zach and his home that evening it was a time open heaven the lord really visited us poured out his spirit upon us and they gave us a word to encourage us that's the third thing i wanted to see that one man with god is a majority like we often have i've heard from the site one man with god is the majority doesn't the lord does not lead large numbers if i'm willing to take the blame for my failure the failure of others if i'm willing to make myself a no reputation empty myself and follow the footsteps of jesus that's enough for god he doesn't need large numbers it's quite the opposite of the way the world thinks and works i want you to look at a word in isaiah 51 and verse 3. listen to this listen to me you who pursue righteousness who seek the lord look to the rock from which you were shown and to the quarry from which you were dug stop here to i'm reminded of what baba told his brothers what they testified to never forget from where you came from never forget your humble beginnings and i say that to all of us it's gone well with most of us in many ways financially and with our families and our children mostly never forget where we began look to the rock from which you were doubt the quarry from which you were brought forth and it says in verses 2 and 3 isaiah 51 i'm reading look to abraham your father into sarah who gave birth to you in pain when he was one i called him then i blessed him and multiplied him indeed the lord will comfort he will comfort all her waste places and her wilderness he will make like eden and her desert like the garden of the lord joy and gladness will be found in her thanksgiving and the sound of a melody then it says in verse six listen to me you who know righteousness a people in whose heart not in whose head is my word my law and again in deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 7 and 8 it says here's a word that we can always remember for all the years and all that god has done in our lives and put us in the church deuteronomy 7 verse 7 and 8 the lord did not set his love on you no choose you because you were more in number than any other peoples who you were the fewest of all peoples but because the lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your fathers the lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of pharaoh king of egypt and again psalm 105 be reminded again it says the lord says i'll give you the land of canaan as an inheritance he says when there were only a few men in number very few and strangers in it so this is what we need to remember and all through our lives that is because the lord loved us he doesn't need numbers he can finish his work if one man a few men and women sisters are also offered themselves available so the word the lord gave us that day was a word in revelation 3 7-13 i don't have time to read it but i want you to look at it a few things there and jesus says through this church philadelphia i know your deeds revelation 3 verse 8 behold i put before you an open door which no one can shut that was the prophetic word that came to us 46 years ago i put before you an open door which no one can shut and now listen to this because not you have great power because you have little power because you've kept my word and have not denied my name it was stand for me because you kept the word of my perseverance i also will keep you will keep you from that arab testing that has come upon the whole world i want you to note that my brothers and sisters it's good that we remember this always we don't need great power god doesn't need numbers one man is enough a few men a few families is enough for wholeheartedly give themselves to the lord and god puts before us like he said 46 years ago and that door is still open i put before you an open door which no one can shun take that as a word for ourselves for our family for our children because you have a little power and kept my world you're not denied my name you take a stand for me in your office among your neighbors you're willing to be different you kept the word of my endurance i'm coming quickly he says i'm coming quickly more quickly than you and i really recognize hold tight what you have hold tight what you have let no one take your crown that's the word on my heart i want to share with us as we complete 46 years we are called to build the body of christ not an institution an organization or a building and give us the buildings but all this all these buildings will be torn down remember that not one stone would be left upon another only that which is not a man will stand that which is not created that is which is born of the holy spirit like cfc was born 46 years ago maybe you're the only one in your family in your community in the place where you live where there's no witness or testimony for the lord jesus take the blame take the blame lord i fail i've been a coward offer ourselves to the lord even if it's you're the only one in your family you humble yourself and say lord i take the blame for my failure to be a witness for you and for the failure of others of yourself to the lord my dear brother and sister my dear young person offer yourself to the lord is no no limit to what god will do for you he'll put before you an open door in everything where no one can shut whatever it is when it comes to a job when it comes to marriage when it comes to different other things when it comes to our children i put before you an open door which no one can turn because we have a little power and we should that power can become greater in our lives as we yield ourselves to him as we offer ourselves to him and god can complete his work in us and through us so as we come to another new year as a church perhaps we see a lot of coolness and indifference in the church because numbers have increased like they have in cfc bangalore perhaps we see people around us become worldly not really interested in a godly life they want to listen to good music and songs and and uh preaching that will tickle their gifts perhaps there's those who hold to cfc tradition a tradition that you've learned you learn the language of cfc it's not going to help my brothers and sisters god will have to say to you as he said to the people in eyes i say these people draw near to me with their lips but their hearts are far from me they have a tradition they've learned by routine the hearts are far from me may god help us pour out his spirit upon us give us a fresh baptism of the holy spirit give us a second touch call it whatever you want i know i need not just a second touch i need third touch or fourth thought i need to be touched by the lord so that there's no stillness that there will be a freshness in my life there will be an anointing continually upon me and that we can continue to build the body of christ so let's think of these things there are three important truths that i've learned and continue to learn let's take the blame for our failures and the failures of others whoever it may be our family our children and uh maybe people we minister to in the church young people teens we take the blame lord it's me i'm in need and i'm willing to make myself of no reputation i'm willing to lose my testimony not god my testimony oh what will the brothers think of me what will the elders think about me forget it my brother sister let's learn to live before the lord and let's hold fast what we have let's hold fast to his word not deny his name i'm coming quickly jesus says the last words in revelation the last words in scripture i am coming quickly may our response be today as we enter another year as a church even so come lord jesus even so come lord jesus let's pray let's think a little while of what god has said to us this morning through what we heard earlier and through what i've shared with you what god has spoken to my own heart when we humble ourselves and say lord lord i'm in need i'm a need it's not my wife it's not my husband it's not my children it's me lord it's me standing in need will you meet with me can you give me a second touch open my eyes afresh like that man that i would not see men as trees walking i see them as people you died for lay down your life or change my attitude i will not be critical i would not look down with others with content help me lord jesus i pray i'm willing to forego my testimony and my reputation just to do your will to fulfill your purpose in my generation and i thank you that you will put an open door before me no man can shout thank you for the power of holy spirit that you will give me morning not tomorrow not after this meeting right now follow your spirit upon me baptize me afresh anoint me afresh give me power lord help me to keep your word of endurance and you will keep me from that art of testing that is coming from the whole earth help me to hold fast what i am i can say with all my heart come lord jesus [Music] lord we offer ourselves to you continue your work in us so that you can complete what you've begun in our lives and through us at the top stone of what you're doing will be laid with shouts of grace grace to it glorify your name lord jesus in these last days we continue to be the pure testimony that you began 46 years ago we thank you for each other in jesus name amen amen the lord bless you all my dear brothers and a happy 46th anniversary to all of you all the brothers and sisters the young people and children and all the families of cfc the lord bless you all you

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Length: 34min 50sec (2090 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 25 2021