Kingdom Focused

Little Is Much When God …

Introduction

We notice large crowds, large buildings, large numbers, large accomplishments, and large platforms. It is easy to begin believing that if something is going to make a significant difference, it must begin with something significant. We can even bring that thinking into our relationship with God and assume that unless we have great abilities, tremendous resources, or extraordinary opportunities, there is not much God can do through us.

Jesus gives us a very different picture of the Kingdom of God. When He wanted His followers to understand how God’s Kingdom works, He pointed them toward one of the smallest and most ordinary things they would have known: a mustard seed. There was nothing impressive about the seed itself. You could hold it between your fingers and easily overlook it, but hidden inside that tiny seed was the potential for something far greater than its appearance suggested.

That is an important lesson for Kingdom living because most of us will spend the majority of our lives doing things that seem relatively small. We have ordinary conversations, make everyday decisions, serve in ways few people notice, pray prayers no one else hears, give what we are able to give, and try to remain faithful in the places God has put us. We may look at those things and wonder whether they are really making a difference, but Jesus reminds us that the Kingdom of God has never been limited by the size of what we place in His hands.

The question is not simply how much we have. The greater question is what God can do with what we are willing to surrender.

Takeaway One

The Kingdom of God Often Begins with Something Small

Mark 4:30–31

30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to describe it?
31 It’s like a mustard seed that, when sown upon the soil, is the smallest of all the seeds on the ground.

Jesus asks, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God?” His answer is surprising because He compares it to a mustard seed. To the people listening to Jesus, the mustard seed was commonly used as a picture of something extremely small. Jesus deliberately begins with something that appears insignificant because He wants His listeners to understand that the beginning does not always reveal what God intends for the ending.

Bible Notes

This picture would have been particularly meaningful when people looked at Jesus’ ministry. God’s Kingdom did not arrive in the way many expected. Jesus did not arrive at the head of an army or establish His Kingdom through political power. He gathered a relatively small group of ordinary disciples and began proclaiming the good news of God’s Kingdom. From a human perspective, it did not look like the beginning of something that would eventually reach throughout the world.

Application

We should never dismiss what God has placed in our hands simply because it seems small. We may think we do not have enough time, talent, money, knowledge, or influence to make a difference, but Kingdom living begins by faithfully offering God what we have. Instead of focusing on what we lack, we should begin asking, “What has God already placed in my hands that I can faithfully use for His Kingdom?”

Takeaway Two

The Kingdom of God Produces More Than We Can See

Mark 4:32

32 And when sown, it comes up and grows taller than all the garden plants, and produces large branches, so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade.”

Jesus moves immediately from the size of the seed to what happens after it is planted. The seed that begins almost unnoticed does not remain a seed. Jesus says that once it is sown, “it comes up and grows taller than all the garden plants.” What appears insignificant at the beginning eventually becomes impossible to overlook.

Bible Notes

There is an important phrase in this parable that we can easily pass over: “when sown.” A seed may contain tremendous potential, but it accomplishes nothing while it remains in someone’s hand. It must be planted. Once it is placed into the soil, a process begins that the person who planted it cannot completely control or even see.

That thought becomes even stronger when we consider the parable immediately before this one in Mark 4:26–29. Jesus describes a man scattering seed and then going about his daily life. While he sleeps and rises, the seed sprouts and grows even though the man does not understand exactly how it is happening. The farmer participates by planting, but God has designed the process that produces the growth.

The same is true in Kingdom living. We do not always get to see what God is doing with the seeds we plant. A word of encouragement may affect someone far more deeply than we realize. An invitation to church may eventually change the direction of an entire family. A Sunday School teacher may invest in a child without ever seeing what God eventually does through that child’s life. A prayer prayed today may be answered in a way we will never personally witness.

Our responsibility is faithfulness. The results belong to God.

Application

We cannot allow the absence of immediate results to convince us that our faithfulness does not matter. Kingdom impact cannot always be measured by what we can see today. We plant, serve, give, encourage, pray, teach, invite, and share Christ because those are the opportunities God has given us. Then we trust Him to produce the growth in His time and according to His purposes.

Takeaway Three

The Kingdom of God Uses Our Faithfulness to Impact Others

Galatians 6:9-10

9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Bible Notes

The growth of the mustard seed was not merely about becoming larger. Its growth eventually benefited something beyond itself. What began as one small seed eventually produced branches and shade where birds could find a place to rest.

That gives us another important picture of Kingdom living. God does not simply work in our lives for our own benefit. As His rule and reign transform us, our lives begin affecting the people around us. The encouragement we offer, the generosity we demonstrate, the Gospel we share, the children we teach, the people we disciple, and the faithfulness we model can become ways God brings encouragement, strength, and hope into someone else’s life.

We may never know how far that influence extends. The person we encourage today may encourage someone else tomorrow. The child we teach may eventually teach another generation. The person we invite to church may come to Christ and eventually lead someone else to Him. Kingdom influence has a way of extending far beyond the person who originally planted the seed.

This is one of the beautiful truths of Jesus’ parable. The seed does not have to understand everything it will eventually become. It simply has to be planted.

Application

Rather than asking whether what we are doing is big enough to matter, we should ask whether we are being faithful with what God has given us. Our responsibility is not to create something impressive; it is to faithfully serve the King wherever He has placed us. We may only see a small act of obedience today, while God sees the people who will someday find encouragement, hope, or even salvation because we were willing to be faithful.

Conclusion

The Kingdom of God often begins with something small. The Kingdom of God produces more than we can immediately see. The Kingdom of God uses our faithfulness to impact people far beyond ourselves. None of those truths depends upon us possessing something impressive. They depend upon our willingness to take what God has given us and faithfully place it into His hands.

There may be something God is asking you to do that seems too small to make a difference. Maybe it is a conversation you need to have, someone you need to encourage, a ministry where you need to serve, an invitation you need to extend, a gift you need to give, or a step of obedience you have been postponing because you cannot imagine how it could make much difference.

Do not underestimate the seed simply because you cannot yet see the branches.

Little really can be much when God is in it.