Attending To The Little Things

PP0148 DATE 2/05 BHBC

ATTENDING TO THE LITTLE THINGS

1 Kings 11:14-17.

1Ki 11:14 And the LORD stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite: he was of the king’s seed in Edom.

15 For it came to pass, when David was in Edom, and Joab the captain of the host was gone up to bury the slain, after he had smitten every male in Edom;

16 (For six months did Joab remain there with all Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom:)

17 That Hadad fled, he and certain Edomites of his father’s servants with him, to go into Egypt; Hadad being yet a little child. (KJV)

INTRODUCTION: Most people do not pay much attention to failures of small nature. In failing to dot every “I”, or cross ever “T”, we don’t think much about it, but God has much to say about the small things. It is the little unnoticed things that usually destroy man.

We tend to underestimate the smaller things in life.

The atom bomb was a small object yet brought the nation of Japan to surrender in just a few minutes.

A flea is very small but enough of them can kill a 90# dog.

The termite is a very small insect, but it can destroy a 3 story house if ignored.

Solomon warns of the “Little foxes”. (Song 2:15 KJV) "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines:….."

A small hole in the Boulder Dam, unnoticed or unrepaired, would eventually bring the whole dam down.

In this passage of Scripture for tonight we see the principle of “Little Things”. If we ignore the little things they will someday grow up and become “big things”, and then they will present us a great problem.

Let me lay a little foundation before I go further.

Joab was David’s military leader. He was a good one. He was very loyal to David, and he was very efficient. Nothing got by Joab. Joab was a “blood and guts” kind of guy that liked to see the enemies blood shed. He always made sure the enemy was dead and that the blood was gushing out. Someone said Joab is the “John Wayne” of the Bible.

In this story Joab misses one. This is unlike Joab. He has one failure, and that mistake or failure came back to haunt the King of Israel.

Joab and David were in Edom and had slain all the men in Edom. Joab was in the process of burying the dead, and while he was there Hadad, a little child, fled Edom and went to Egypt. The one that Joab let get away is the one that became the adversary of Solomon. Joab’s failure didn’t have any bearing on David or on Joab himself, but it came back to haunt the next generation.

By the time Solomon was well into his reign as king of Israel Hadad is full grown and he is the adversary of Israel. Solomon has to deal with that which Joab let get away.

What’s the lesson for us today?

That’s what I want to talk to you about.

I. WE MUST TAKE CARE OF THE LITTLE THINGS AS THEY COME

A. Little Things Will Become Big Things.

1. Little sins will become big ones.

2. Accepting the little misdemeanors today will cause us to accept full grown sin tomorrow. A few years ago sex outside of marriage was looked upon a terrible sin, now it seems to be the normal in the systems society. For a young woman to enter marriage a virgin is looked on as abnormal by the world. All of that is because of the seed that was planted back in the 1960’s.

3. We laugh at the cute little disobedience of a child and then weep when he/she commits a crime and is arrested.

4. The poisonous venom of a spider, no larger than a pencil eraser, has killed hundreds of men.

B. God Will Allow Us To Experience The Small Things In Life Before He Trusts Us With The Larger Ones.

Do you want to know why you do not see God do the big things in your life? That is because you have not passed the test of handling the “little things” correctly. You won’t see the great things until you learn to take care of the “little things”.

Don’t ignore the little things.

Someone so accurately said, “Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves.” I believe all of us can testify positive to that principle.

Another version of that last phrase is: “Take care of the little things like they were big things, and God will allow you to take care of the big things like they were little things.”