(276) “Who Is Greater?”

0:00 It's not by might. And it's not by power. But it's by my spirit. So it's not the greatness of your army. It's not the greatness of your politics. It's not the greatness of your economy. It's the greatness of your God. God promises in Joel 2 .28 to pour His Spirit out on all humanity. Welcome to Global Outpouring, where we contend for that promise outpouring, we equip for that outpouring, so that we may engage in that very outpouring. I'm Philip Buss. And I'm Sharon Buss.

0:44 Welcome to the podcast today. I think you're going to really enjoy this one. This is a wonderful subject that we have today. Jesus dealt with it, and it's all through the scripture. Who is greater? Here's a hint. Go low. We're so glad that you've joined us today. Before we get started, we want to encourage you, if you haven't already done so, to go to our website, globaloutpouring .net. and make sure that you are connected to us by email. You can subscribe on the teal subscribe button that will take you to where you can subscribe to our email lists. And there's several ones to choose from. And we just know that if you're enjoying this kind of content that we have, that you might want to be a little more closely connected.

1:37 And another way to connect with us is to send us some feedback. There's a feedback form on that website, globaloutpouring .net. And you can also send us an email at feedback. at globaloutpouring .org. We love to hear from you. It's very encouraging to us. And if you feel led to help us out with a donation, we'd be very grateful for that. There's so much good content available on our website. And if you're hungry for God and you're hungry for the things of God and you want to get equipped and you want to contend in prayer, we've got so many prayer opportunities. And you can download our app. We have a new app. app. The Global Outpouring app is now available in both the Apple App Store and in the Google Play Store. You can download it and it's just so simple to avail yourself of the content that we have and there's a prayer wall where you can post prayer requests and you can get involved in groups and it's just a beautiful way to build community. So today we're going to talk about this dispute that the disciples had. And the Lord has just downloaded an amazing multi -level look at what it means to be greater.

2:54 How do you know who's greater? What are the qualifications for being greater? Well, it might surprise you. It's not about the most smart. It's not about the most qualified. I mean, the qualifications are not what you might think. So let's just go through this dispute that the disciples were having. And it started in Mark 9, verses 33 to 37. The Passion Translation puts it well. Then they came to Capernaum, and as soon as Jesus was inside the house, he asked his disciples, What were you arguing about on the way here? Uh -oh. He was listening. No one said a word because they had been arguing about which one of them was the greatest. Jesus sat down, called the twelve disciples to come around him and said to them, If anyone wants to be first, he must be content to be last and become a servant to all. Then he had a child come and stand among them. He wrapped the child in his arms and said to them, Whosoever welcomes a little child in my name welcomes me, and whosoever welcomes me welcomes not only me, but the one who sent me.

4:03 So then the dispute continues in the next chapter. You think that would have took the wind out of their sails? You would think so, but apparently they didn't get the message. Mark 10, 35 to 45. And it's interesting that the Passion Translation gives James his proper Hebrew name. Yaakov. Yeah, Jacob. Jacob and John, sons of Zebedee, approached Jesus and said, Teacher, will you do a favor for us? What is it you're wanting me to do? I mean, Jesus already knew. Of course. We want to sit next to you when you come into your glory, they said. One at your right hand and the other on your left. Jesus said to them, You don't have a clue what you're asking for. Are you prepared to drink from the cup of suffering that I am about to drink? And are you able to endure the baptism into death that I am about to experience?

5:01 They replied, Yes, we are able. Jesus said to them, You will certainly drink from the cup of my sufferings and be immersed into my death, but to have you sit in the position of highest honor is not mine to decide. It is reserved for those whom grace has prepared them to have it. Now, the other ten disciples overheard this. Oh, boy. And they became angry and began to criticize Jacob and John. I can imagine Peter jumping in, too, you know. Jesus gathered them all together and said to them, Those recognized as rulers of the people and those who are in top leadership positions rule oppressively over their subjects. But this is not the example you are to follow.

5:44 You are to lead by a different model. If you want to be the greatest one, then live as one called to serve others. The path of promotion and prominence comes by having the heart of a bond slave who serves everyone. For even the Son of Man did not come expecting to be served by everyone, but to serve everyone and to give his life as the ransom price in exchange for the salvation of many. Amen. Argument ended. Yeah. For sure. And I think they were probably still scratching their heads. And in another gospel, it talks about Zebedee's wife, James and John's or Jacob. It would really be Yaakov and Yohanan. That would be their real Hebrew names. It was their mother that would approach Jesus. Ambitious mom. Yeah, good Jewish mom.

6:33 Good Jewish mama. This is my boys. She's holding out her baby. This is my son, the doctor. She has plans. And I just think it's really interesting that Jesus brings it home to them that he came to serve. And if you remember, I think there's been more than one. podcast, more than one episode that we have done with Dean Braxton. And after we had this message from Dean Braxton about serving in heaven, that serving is the number one thing, that when you meet one another in heaven, you don't say, hi, how are you? You say, how can I serve you? And I don't know if you can hear that, but we just had a clap of thunder. God was just saying, yep, yep, that's it. You got it. Service is the number one thing. That is the qualifier for prominence. It's the qualifier for who is the greatest. It's the opposite of the business world. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the business world you have to sell yourself. I mean, well, you kind of do both ways, however you might think of that. But, you know, the people who are looking for people to put in high positions are looking for people who know how to tell that they can do it. And here's all my qualifications. And I've done this and I've done that. And I'm educated in this and I'm educated in that. And they overlook the guy that probably has all of those same qualifications.

8:08 But doesn't boast. And I'm going to interject something here. Sure. This is kind of funny. This is a book that someone gave me. And it's a comic strip that I never enjoyed. Not that I enjoy comic strips. But it's called Dogbert's Management Handbook. And it's Dilbert. You know, it's an office. And, you know, who knows, maybe the British thing, the office. was an offshoot of something like that. That wasn't British. No, that's not, but the original Office was British. And then they did a remake in the U .S. Oh, really? I didn't know that. Yeah, that's what I found out. So anyway, in this book, and it's very well detailed in all kinds of things, and it does the total opposite of what you're really supposed to do according to the kingdom of God. Right.

8:56 I mean, this is how you get ahead. This is how you treat your employees. This is the world way of... I'm not recommending you go buy out there, but The Dilbert Principle is another book. It's the same author that wrote the title of this one is Dogbert's Management Handbook. Yeah, it's by Scott Adams. If you want to look at something that this is not the way the kingdom of God operates. Right. And I just had to throw that in because this is the way the world thinks. Right. I've got to get ahead. And even though everybody talks to themselves, they're very nice. You know, and then this and that. But they secretly, if you're in a higher position, somebody wants your job.

9:37 Yeah. It reminds me of how your dad kept getting bumped. Yeah. The way his job was set up that you could put in for somebody else's job and bump somebody. Seniority. Yeah. They could bid for your job and get it. Then you had to knock somebody else off. It's terrible. Very poor management. Terrible. It's really sad. So anyway, Jesus was trying to get his disciples to understand the idea of service because that's the heavenly principle. And he came to serve and not to be served, but he came to give his life as a ransom. He came to be our redeemer. Then he was going to pay the price for us. That's service. Yes. Greater love has no man than this, that he lays down his life for his friends. Yeah. So fast forward to the Last Supper. By this time, Jesus has really kind of given Peter a lot of clues that he really is going to be the one that is going to be spokesman for the move after he leaves. Jesus probably didn't outwardly say that. No. But it wasn't until the day of Pentecost when it actually happened.

10:50 Right. But he had given Peter some clues. You know, Jesus said, who do men say that I am? And Peter had the answer. Yeah. Thou art the Christ, the Son of God. And Jesus said, on this, I'm going to build my church. And so, you know, there were clues along the way that Peter was going to be designated as the guy that was going to stand up and preach on that day when the Holy Spirit was poured out. Peter the Rock. Peter the Rock. But if you remember, that's a long time ago now, but episode 139. It was called Whatever Your Blunder, It's Forgivable, There's Hope. And we went through all of Peter's blunders that he did right there at the last. All the known blunders. The known blunders, the ones that are written in the book where he, you know, he just keeps doing everything wrong. He's making the wrong choices. So there's hope for all of us when we've made a wrong choice. God says, do it this way and we do it that way. And so Jesus gives Peter an opportunity. at the Last Supper by where he posted him. You know, he probably came in and said, you sit here, you sit here, you sit here, you sit here, you sit here. And the last of all was Peter. Peter, you sit over there. And that over there place, I won't go into the details like I did on that podcast on episode 139. If you want to hear more, go back to that one. But the place that Peter was put was the place of the servant. And if you didn't have servants to wash your feet when you came

12:22 in for the dinner, then the guy in that last seat is supposed to wash everybody's feet. And Peter didn't do it. You know, he was thinking, I'm not going to do that. That's beneath me. No, no, no, no. Especially when you've been getting these keys along the way. Right, right, right. So it's like Jesus never exactly said I was going to be the greatest. But didn't they remember what he just said? The servant is the greatest of all. Now, apparently that wasn't in their minds. They hadn't developed the mindset. And that's what we want to get into here is the mindset of you go low if you want to be great. If you want to be first, you've got to be last. First, you got to be last. That's the first thing. You got to be last. The last shall be first. Yes, the last shall be first and the first shall be last. So Jesus was putting Peter, who had been first along the way, he puts him in the last place. And Peter was put out. Probably not happy.

13:24 And that's why he put up such a fuss when Jesus came to wash his feet, because he knew he was supposed to be the one to wash everybody's feet, and he didn't do it. You know, that's why he put up a fuss and said, no, no, you can't wash my feet. And Jesus said, yeah, I got to wash your feet. Or you have no part of me. You have no part of me. Oh, well, then wash my head and my hands too. No, no, Peter, just your feet. That's all we need to do. So Peter, in the end, after he made all those blunders and, you know, cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant and he denies Jesus and he's not there at the cross like John is. And he's mortified with his own behavior. But in the end, he is the one that comes under the anointing to step up on the day of Pentecost and preach this sermon that results in 3 ,000 believers. So, you know, you have this thing that Jesus was trying to teach, but he was also expressing who he really is. So in Matthew 12, 39 to 42, It says, But he answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn

14:55 it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the south will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And indeed, a greater than Solomon is here. So Jesus was actually showing that he is greater than Jonah and Solomon, you know, greater than a king and greater than a prophet. Hmm. Hmm. Yeah. Interesting. So you have this statement that Jesus makes that, okay. you've got these people in your history, but I'm actually greater than they are. So he makes the statement that he is. So let's move on. What does Exodus 18, 11 say? Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods, for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, he was above them. Uh -huh.

15:53 So this is Exodus 18. So this is referring back to all the gods of Egypt. That the people of Egypt were placing their expectations on. And in the Middle East in those days, in biblical times in particular, it was understood that there were certain gods over each region. And that's why our father refers to himself and his people refer to him as the God of Israel. The only one. There's only one God of Israel. All the others have multiple gods to get their job done. And, for instance, as travelers would go from one place to another, like the merchants, as these merchants would be going on the trade routes, as they would pass from one region to another, they might actually invoke the gods of that area.

16:46 And they would recognize that the God of Israel was different than everybody else. And his name is... Yehovah. So it's clear from Exodus 18, 11, that he is greater than all the gods. It just says Lord in most of our translations, but his name is Yehovah. And then you have the scripture in Isaiah 14, 12 to 15, talking, some of the translations use the word Lucifer, but the Passion uses a different translation. So would you read Isaiah 14, 12 through 15 from the Passion Translation, please? Look how you have fallen from your heavenly place, O shining one, son of the dawn. You have been cut down to the ground, you who conquered nations. You said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven and exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will rule on the mountain of the congregation, on the highest place of the sacred mountain.

17:48 I will rise past the tops of the clouds and rival the Most High God. Yet down to the underworld you go, into the depths of the pit. Amen. That's where he belongs, and he's on his way there already. From the moment God said, let there be light, he was on his way there. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. But I think it's fascinating and very eye -opening. When you look at who is operating on the Temple Mount now, There is some other entity that is being worshipped besides Yehovah. That was his temple place. And, you know, the sides of the north indicates that this is the location that's north of the city of David. That's very clear from every time that is used in the scripture, the expression, the sides of the north. It was the Temple Mount. Yeah. The temple was built there in Solomon's day, and it was taken down in the Babylonian conquering, and then it was rebuilt. And we'll talk about that in a minute.

18:55 But to see that there's somebody else being worshipped there. And the people who are worshipping there, I call them the Psalm 2 people. You need to read Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage? Imagine a vain thing. Right. And they're all against the Lord's anointed, right? It's a very anti -Christ religion. So they're the ones that are worshiping there. And when they do a terrorist action, they make a statement in Arabic that declares that their deity that they worship is greater. That thing that they say means their deity is greater. So they're trying to make a point that their guy is higher, he's greater. He's the one who said, I will exalt myself above the most high. Exalt myself. And there he is. That's who's operating there on the Temple Mount right now and exercising all kinds of activity from Indonesia all the way to West Africa. There's an amazing swath of land that is under that oppression. It's an oppression. Yeah. And they need deliverance.

20:15 And listen, we are not against Muslims. We're not against Muslims. We love Muslims. But we hate the chains of bondage that keep them. Of the one they serve. Yeah, the one that they're serving is the wrong one. I could go into more details, but I won't take time now. That's probably a subject for another podcast. In fact, we probably covered it in another episode, and we'll put that in the show notes too. So this other character thinks that he's greater, and he's trying to make all of his followers say that he's greater, but he's not. But he's occupying a place that belongs to our Father. Our God, Yehovah, our Father, is not like the gods of the other nations because they all want to occupy the high places.

21:13 And we know that our God is the highest. He is the greatest. His word says he is, and we know that he is because he keeps showing himself to be greater and stronger than all these other entities. But he chooses a place that's lower. than the high places. If you haven't been to Jerusalem, we encourage you to go, but you will see that the Temple Mount is lower than the mountains that are around Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives is higher. What they call the Mount of Evil Counsel is higher. There's another one called the Central Mount, and it's kind of part of modern Jerusalem now, but I don't think it was at the time. Whether it's actually higher than the Temple Mount, I don't know for sure. But the point is that the place where he chose to put his name is lower.

22:07 And when the pilgrims would come from the north, they would come up the other side of the Mount of Olives and they'd get to the top and they'd look down. on this beautiful view of the beautiful temple of God, and they're looking down on it. So it's another picture of how our Father and Jesus, who is his expressed image, came as an example of go low. If you want to be greatest, you got to go low. Even our God goes low. And the same thing is true at Shiloh. The platform where the tabernacle was all those years, 360 some years, it is lower than the mountains round about it. In fact, that's how they determined what I'm calling proof positive. That's how the archaeologists decided that this is truly Shiloh, because the traditions that are written about it is that when the people would come there to sacrifice. that they would do their sacrifice and then they would take their portion of meat and they would eat it within view of the tabernacle.

23:23 They had to eat the sacrifice within view of the tabernacle. That's really interesting. So they've got these mountains around about it and the archaeologists discovered that there was all kinds of pottery shards all over everywhere where you could see that platform. where the tabernacle would have stood. Yeah. That was their archaeological findings. A lot of times where battles took place, they could tell by the bones that remained of what they were eating. Right. Because if it wasn't a kosher animal, it wasn't an Israeli camp. Exactly. Exactly. And so any bones that were there would have been kosher animals. Yeah. Right? So the point is that our Father goes low. He wants to be seen from above.

24:13 How amazing is that? How amazing is that? And Dean Braxton was mentioning to us about what it's like in heaven, that it's not how we would think. It was something about how you can see him from every viewpoint in heaven. Whether you're above him or beneath him or beside him, you can see him from every place because he's the center of it all. But he's actually also the servant of all. It's amazing. It's amazing. But, you know, the evil spirits, they want the high places. Think about Mount Olympus. Most of us have been trained in Greek mythology. Well, Mount Olympus is way up there above us, and that's the abode of the gods. And today, you go into India and Nepal and Tibet, and the Himalayas are considered the abode of the gods. That's where the gods hang out. And I had a revelation here recently.

25:17 You may have heard me say this on another episode, but I had this experience where I felt like the Lord was showing me that his presence was like oxygen, that it's all around you and you can't sense it with your five senses, but you can't live without it. And that's what his presence is like. So I asked Ivan Tuttle, is that true? Have I got that? And he said, well, oxygen is the presence of God. I said, really? And then I asked Dean about it. He said, well, I guess you could say that oxygen is the presence of God, but I think it would be more accurate to say that oxygen is the love of God. So if oxygen is the presence or the love of God, and because God is love, so his presence would be love. Yes.

26:05 When you go up into the high places, oxygen is decreased. So his presence would be decreased. That's really interesting. So they're more comfortable there. Not so bothered by the presence of God. Interesting thought. Yeah, it's amazing. So, you know, Israel is also, because the God of Israel is the greatest, what does that say about Israel? Let's look at Deuteronomy 7, 17 through 21. Do you want to read that, Philip? If you should say in your heart, these nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them? Yes. You shall not be terrified of them, for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you. So even though the nations round about them are greater, especially greater in their eyes. Yeah. You remember what it was like when they sent the 12 spies.

27:36 And they came back and said, oh, it's a wonderful land, but we can't go there because they have giants. We're like grasshoppers to them. Yeah, we are too small. They are great. And we are small. We can't do this. And, you know, that didn't go well for them. No. Didn't go well at all for them. They had to march around in the wilderness another 40 years. They lost their opportunity to go into the promised land. From one bad decision. Yep, yep. Because they were looking at the greatness of the enemies with their natural eyes instead of remembering the greatness of their God. And he's the God of Israel, so that makes Israel a great nation because they have a great God, not because they're so superior, and they are. Obviously, we've just seen that recently about their superiority and what they cleaned up in Iran recently. But even Prime Minister Netanyahu said he commended all of the military that were involved and all of the spies that were involved. And the coordination was incredible between them all. But he said that it was God that helped them and gave them the victory. So the God of Israel is still the God of Israel, and thank God for a prime minister that's willing to say so. But if you look at Deuteronomy 11, 22 and 23, what does that say? For if you carefully

29:10 keep all these commandments which I command you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to hold fast to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater. And mightier nations than yourselves. Precisely. So it doesn't matter if we are smaller. It doesn't matter if we are weaker. It doesn't matter what it looks like. The idea is go low, take that lower place, and magnify God rather than your enemy. That's for sure. And David did that. So I don't know that everybody on the planet knows the story of David and Goliath, but a whole lot of people do. And remember that he was the youngest among his brothers. When Samuel went to anoint a king out of Jesse's house, he looked at all these good -looking boys, and he looked at the eldest, and he said, surely this is God's anointed, and God said, nope. Nope, not him. And he went down the line, and God said no to all of them. And so Samuel said to Jesse, well, are these all your sons? Because God had told him, you'll find the one I want to anoint among Jesse's sons.

30:27 Well, there's the youngest. The runt. Yeah, the runt of the litter. That means the smallest of the puppies or whatever litter of little animals that has just been born. The runt is the little one. And it's possible, it's not real clear, but it's possible that David might have had a different mother. than the rest of his brothers. And so he really was a reject. He really wasn't like everybody else. And, you know, he was a redhead, I think. At least it says that he was ruddy. And I'm pretty sure that that means he was a redhead. And so he didn't look the same as his brothers. He didn't sound the same. But he had been hanging out there among the sheep and worshiping God. Worshiping. Worshiping. The shepherd, you know, he's out there among the sheep and he recognizes that he's just like a little lamb himself. And he's leaning on the shepherd and trusting the shepherd to take care of him and to do for him what he was doing for his sheep. He had a relationship with God. So now he's anointed. Yeah. I remember that time we were at our house that we used to rent up in the Galilee. Oh, yeah. And all of a sudden, here's this. There's these flocks of sheep. Going through the streets. Going through the streets.

31:50 And the guy blows his little whistle, you know, and they just follow him. They know the shepherd. They trust the shepherd. Yep. I mean, they could all outnumber him and beat him up, you know. If that were their nature. If that was their nature. But the sheep don't have a nature like that. No. They're dependent. Again, it's another picture of go low. Yeah. You're a sheep. You're not a lion. You're not a wolf. You're a sheep. Yeah. I remember the story of the house we were at up in Vancouver, and the sheep crossed this little bridge to go to their area. Before he came back, he had painted it red. And the sheep came, and they look at that bridge. It was the same bridge, but it was different. It was painted red. So instead of crossing the bridge, they went through the water to get to the other side instead of crossing the bridge. Yeah. Because it was not familiar. They're not so bright. Not so bright. Just not so bright. Yeah. So David had this relationship with God and he was a worshiper.

32:55 Yeah. And he trusted his shepherd like the sheep were trusting him. And then he had this experience with dealing with a lion and a bear. So, you know, he knew that God's going to take care of him in the same way he's taking care of his sheep. So he has this experience of dealing with the lion and the bear, and now he's got the anointing. Samuel has anointed him. So as he went to visit his brothers on the battlefield and discovers that there's no battle going on because there's this challenge from Goliath, one of the giants, you know. David had everything in him from all those things I just described. He had everything in him to be fearless because he could already deal with a lion and a bear. That's pretty strong stuff. Yeah, and this is probably, I would think this would be more like a mountain lion. We think of a lion like an African lion. Of course, it's part of Africa. Yeah, I'm thinking it's probably an African lion. Yeah, it very well could. It's just the terrain was, there were forests and woods back then. Right. So it'd be a regular lion that has the big mane. It's true. Good question.

34:11 Yeah. So he wasn't only fearless because of his experiences, but he was also incensed at this giant who was taunting the armies of his God, the armies of the God of Israel. Who are you? Who do you think you are? Yeah. And he was probably not even such a big guy compared to others. Now, we know that Saul was head and shoulders above everybody else. So we know that David was smaller than him because he couldn't wear his armor and he hadn't tried it anyway. So, you know, he's a smaller guy. So you're looking at the small guy. You're looking at the youngest guy. He was just a youth in the eyes of Goliath. And Goliath is cursing him by his gods. Oh, well, that just incensed David, because David knows how great his God is. He knows the stories of what happened in Egypt. He knows the stories of what happened when Joshua and the children of Israel were taking over the land and possessing it. He knows these things, and he knows how great God is, and that the gods of the Philistines are nothing. Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. So here's the small guy. going after the big guy. He's not even concerned that he's the small guy. He is fully aware of

35:42 how great his God is. And that's what gave him the victory. He didn't see a greater foe. He saw a target he couldn't miss. Hallelujah. Yeah. So here's another picture of something small becoming great. And that is in Mark 4, 30 to 32. Then he said, To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed, which when it is sown on the ground is smaller than all the seeds of the earth. But when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs and shoots out large branches so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade. Yeah. So we have seen this plant. It's not the mustard seed like you see in all the little necklaces that have a mustard seed like you get when you buy a package of mustard seed in the grocery store. No, these are tiny. Tiny, tiny, tiny.

36:44 And I think we'll put a picture of that on the graphic for this episode. Because I've got a picture that we took in Israel of this tiny, tiny... tiny bunch of little seeds that come from a pod that comes from something that well the one that we saw was quite small in comparison but it was taller than you yeah and i've seen pictures of this enormous bushy like plant i'm not sure i would call it a tree but i would call it at least An enormous bush. Yeah. Enormous. Like, you see a picture of somebody standing in front of it, and maybe we'll find a link to one of those pictures and put that in the show notes. A man standing underneath it, and the thing is three or four times higher than him.

37:32 Wow. Enormous. But it starts small. So you go low, and you see yourself as the smallest. Maybe you already see yourself as the smallest. And you think, how can God use me? Well, if you see yourself as the smallest, you are way ahead of everybody else who thinks they're great. So I'm thinking about the episode that we did a few weeks ago with James Watini. You know, he started out as this youngster that the only thing that his mother called him was boy. And all his life he's been called James or Jim. And when he turns 80, he discovers that that's not even his name, that his name is different. But in the meantime, God has done something with this young man that was a child that was rejected. He was just rejected, rejected, rejected, went through the foster care system. Oh, it was terrible. And he found Jesus.

38:33 And Jesus turned him into this amazing, compassionate man who sees himself low. He knows how to go low because his God is so big. His relationship with his father is so big. Awesome. Awesome. So the whole point of this is go low. And don't despise the day of small things. You may see yourself as small. It's good if you see yourself as small. And if you see yourself as big, it's time to go low. Because pride will only take you where you do not want to go. Humility will take you where you want to go. You go low. I mean, that's how you keep your head from being shot off in a battle. You go low, right? You crawl along the ground and you keep your head down so you don't get shot. If you stand up, boom, you're a casualty. This is where God wants us to learn to go low and see ourselves as servants of all. So in Zechariah 4 .10, it says, who has despised the day of small things? And this is right in that area of the scripture where it says, it's not by might and it's not by power, but it's by my spirit. So it's not the greatness of your army. It's not the greatness of your politics. It's not the greatness of your economy.

40:01 It's the greatness of your God. So you can start small. The context of this is when they were rebuilding the temple after they came back from Babylon. And they're looking at this small thing. The temple was much smaller that they built. And then Herod embellished it and made it the second temple that we see as being wonderful and beautiful and great like Solomon's. But this day of small things. Would you read that, the New Living Translation? Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand. Yeah. So Zerubbabel was the governor at the time, and he was given the charge to rebuild the temple. And he started it and got stopped for 16 years. So there's that day of small things.

40:55 All we've got here is a foundation. We didn't get very far. And get mocked. Yeah. And there's this discouragement. Yeah. Terrible discouragement. Maybe you have been given words of greatness of what you're going to be in God. And you haven't seen it happen yet. You've had visions. You've had dreams of what God's going to do with your life. And it hasn't happened yet. But I'm telling you, we are on the verge of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Like it's never been seen on the planet before. Every other outpouring we've ever seen is an outpouring that is a picture of what's coming. Bigger, greater, greater than anything ever before because our God is so great.

41:44 Yes, amen. And so we are standing in this place waiting for what's coming. And in the meantime, we're learning, we're equipping with the mindset of going low, of taking that place of humility, of taking that place of servanthood, of taking that place of keeping our eyes on the greatness of our God. The task seems daunting. You know, you look at the condition of the world and all the things that are going on, the condition of whatever nation you're in, and it's like, I can't see how this could be. And yet our God is so great. Yes. And he's just challenging us to look at his greatness. see ourselves in the shadow of his greatness and how he just really wants to co -operate with us and use us in the days to come. But he wants us to understand the importance of going low, the importance of being humble.

42:51 So Father, we just thank you for this word reminding us of the importance of your greatness, your glory, your power. Your awesome miracles that you've done over and over and the things that you're about to do are even greater. Who's greater? You are. And because we are your people, even though we are small, you can use us to do great things. Like you promised us, Jesus, that those who believe in you would do your works and greater works. We thank you for empowering us to do this as we keep our eyes on you. In Jesus' name, amen.

43:57 Check out our website at globaloutpouring .org to find out more information, read our blogs, connect with us, and donate. You can also browse our web store for life -changing anointed books. Until next time, this is Sharon Buss. And I'm Philip Buss. God bless you with His overwhelming, loving presence.