 So, I'm going to go Zechariah on you. Zechariah 4, don't try and turn to it, you might never find it. Not that anybody turns these days, we tap, don't we? We tap. Tapping is easier than turning when it comes to Zechariah. Zechariah, I'm going to read to you from chapter 4, verse 10, new international version, where God said to Zechariah, do not despise the day of small things or small beginnings, for when the capstone is put in place, there will be great rejoicing. The context here is that Israel, God's people, the Jews, have been in captivity in Babylon, modern-day Iraq, for 70 years, almost three generations. Zechariah was one of the first returning exiles, and he was a priest, he was a leader. And God gave him a commission that God knew would be difficult. The title of this message is, do not despise small beginnings. Do not despise the days of small beginnings. Because that's what God knew Zechariah was about to do. Imagine to be in Zechariah's shoes for a moment, to sympathize with him, so that we're not too harsh on him as a leader needing this to be said to him. Because he's returning from exile to a Jerusalem that had been destroyed and demolished and burnt by invading Iraqi Syrian armies, and so Jerusalem was a mess. So returning to their homeland, it required a complete rebuilding of the infrastructure of the country, literally, physically, materially. Imagine being commissioned by God to rebuild the temple, to rebuild Jerusalem when you are a returning, broke exile. You have no money, you have no team, there's no architects, they're all in captivity too. There's no tradesmen, they're all in captivity too. There's no trade agreements, there's no import relationship, that's all stopped because 70 years on, all of those building, getting things done relationships are gone. So to be in his shoes for a moment, this was a big ask, to be asked to head up. The restoration of the temple, to rebuild the temple was his commissioning. God said to him after God taught him to go ahead and begin that process. And by the way, Zachariah, tap on the shoulder. Do not despise this time, these days, of small beginnings. Now if God told him and God's telling us humans to not despise small beginnings, it must be because God knows something about beginnings that we don't. What God knows about beginnings that we don't is that beginnings are despicable. They are notoriously difficult. And would have been for all the reasons I mentioned about Zachariah, his beginnings were very complex, very difficult as are many of yours today. And I want to talk about this because I want to say to any of you that any kind of beginning at all in your life, some of you are beginning a new business. You're stepping out, risking being an entrepreneur, you don't want to work for anyone else, you want to work for you. That's a big step away from the security and stability of a job and a salary. You've decided to go on your own even against advice from your friends and family. You've stepped out, it's rough, it's a new beginning. It's fragile, it's scary. Some of you are in the beginning of a new relationship and it's fragile and a bit wobbly. You're in the beginnings of a relationship. It could be a friendship or a partnership in a business. It could be a courtship that may lead to engagement to marriage. It's a difficult time. Beginnings of any kind are fragile and difficult. Maybe in the beginnings of a new season of your life, which isn't a relationship, you've just come out of a divorce or come out of a separation and so for you, you're in a new beginning. When you didn't thought you'd have to have one anymore of that kind. You've come out of one relationship and now you're not in a relationship. So that is as well, it's own kind of beginning of a new season of you being on your own more. How will you do that? Some of you are out of the beginning of recovery from something. You're recovering from a life controlling habit. You're recovering from an addiction. You're recovering from something in your life that has been damaging and harmful and you now decided I'm going to set a path to get away from this and it's the early stages of your recovery from something and it's difficult and fragile and unstable. That's why God said to him and I think that's why God continues to say to us as humans you need to be careful that you do not despise the beginnings that you are in of any kind because if you despise beginnings, you lose the value of what is hidden in a beginning. Some of you are new parents like I saw up here this morning. So you're in a beginning of being a parent and that's scary and that's difficult and that's sleepless nights and that's stuff you never had to deal with before. Whatever the kind of beginning it is, it strikes me that God is obsessed with beginning small. Consider how we all started life. Microscopic. I just don't know whether Jesus is rubbing it in and making a point when he chooses to use a mustard seed to make the point that are bigger seeds than mustard seeds. Some seeds, I've studied seeds, some seeds are as big as a football. Literally. What if he had mentioned a seed that when we Googled it 2,000 years later it came up like a football and we thought well at least the seed is big enough to look like a beginning. A mustard seed doesn't look like the beginning of anything that has any potential at all. And so Jesus deliberately uses the metaphor, the analogy of this tiny if you've never handled a mustard seed, I mean that is a mustard seed on the graphic I showed you but you need to get between your thumb and forefinger and realize how tiny and pathetic and pitiful and unable to be called a beginning of anything. A mustard seed is. And Jesus said if you've got faith the size, the beginning size of a mustard seed then you can move big things in your life clearly pointing out that faith is about quality not quantity which we've made it about. So he's fascinated, God is committed to, God is pledged to continue to speak to us and lead us through new beginnings and he's warning us and I'm warning you today and whatever beginning you're in because some of you came here today and you are ready to quit not long since you began but you're a year, you're two, you're three years in and it's so bad, it's so tough that you're thinking about quitting you've come today and the rest of Hillsong and the rest of the network that are going to hear this I want to say to all of you you are on the verge of quitting and God sent me perhaps to say to you whoa whoa whoa, hang on a minute, hang on don't think just because beginnings are tough it must mean that God's not with you or God's not in it and what you can't do I'm good time, I'm watching my clock I haven't got time for clapping though I do like it but I haven't got time so yeah, if you want to clap and I'll let you go I'll just stop you depending on my clock which you can't see, thank you we'll allow a bit of clapping time later on for the big finish I hope now what you mustn't do in your beginning is you mustn't compare your chapter one to someone's chapter 20 so that's not helping you at all some of you that is messing you up because some of you are hanging out with people whose beginning was years ago and now they're established and they're flowing in the momentum, you're at the beginning you shouldn't be hanging out with them because they're doing your heading and they're making it easy and effortless when you're with them you feel so discouraged and the opposite was supposed to happen because when you compare where you are with where someone else is that you want to be you kind of think I'll never make it I'm just going to quit now, I'll never ever have that and this is the gift this is the gift of small beginnings the gift of small beginnings how big are you out? small beginnings are brilliant because in small beginnings you find out more than you ever will in the middle or the end you're going to find out in small beginnings who your mates are who your friends are people who stick with you in a beginning are keepers anybody wants to be with you in the middle or the end when now we want to hang out with you now you have money and resources and network and influence relationship and momentum now you have cued us now we want to hang out with you and be your friends but people that want to be your friends when none of that is going for you people that want to stick with you when you've got nothing to offer them in fact it's a disadvantage for them to stick with you it costs them it's not that you forget your wallet you haven't got one you just don't have any money anymore to go to dinner or treat anybody or go to the movies all of that you've given up because and you are so kind of penny pinching because that's the stage of life you're at one of my son-in-laws decided two years ago to quit his job as a printer and start his own business and he's very creative and so on and so on but a lot of creative people have no brains they're creative and so the thing because they're creative and have ideas they think a good idea equals a good business and it doesn't always sometimes a good idea is a bad business so my son-in-law and because he's earned me preach for years empowering people go for it I'm not going to not say that to my own family the difference is if I say to my own family go for it, go for it, I believe in you the difference in my own family is I might finish up paying their mortgage you know what I'm saying so now it's closer to home now saying go for it, quitting his job may put my daughter and my grandchildren in hardship and my dad and husband to go for it but because I am not a fair weather friend and this is not my Sunday persona because this is what I believe in life I said to my son-in-law go for it how can I help you I gave him a gift he said let's call it a business loan I said no let's call it what it is I know I'll never see that money again so let's not pretend you just have it, just keep it so I gave him a business loan to help to show I was really serious about believing in him more recently another business loan you know 2-3 years in but the point is I empowered him I encouraged him and I know he struggled and I know my family have struggled because and some of you are struggling not because of your new beginning but because someone you're attached to took you into a beginning wasn't your idea, you're the family you're the friend, you're the spouse you're struggling even though it wasn't your idea you're struggling because they decided a new beginning and now that's all they're obsessed with, now that's all they're dealing with, now that's all they want to talk about and you think you know what I can't be around you anymore you were a fun person when you weren't in this stage of life that's why people that stick with you and put up with all your drama put it with all your negativity all your fear, all your anxiety all your frustration, all your anger people that put up with that because they know it's a beginning season and that's what it's doing to you people that stick with you through that I tell you, these people are keepers so one of the gifts of new beginnings is you find out who your friends are and in life that's really important because friendship is overrated the way some people talk about it re-friends are people that are there when it costs them to be there and they should have left a long time ago like the rest of them did and you others don't so small beginnings are despisable but wherever you despise can't bless you wherever you despise, whoever you despise becomes of no value to you we nullify the value of something in life that we go through if we despise it away from us despising anything making something despicable in your eyes gives you this separation from it and you stand off it because you've taken that stance towards it or towards someone and so God's saying to him and saying to us through him do not make the mistake of losing the preciousness of losing the miracle that's hidden inside beginnings by despising away because of the discomfort of the beginnings because of the loneliness of a beginning the isolation of a beginning the three steps forward to back of a beginning the loneliness, the sleepless nights the prescription medication all of that that beginnings have an effect on you physically beginnings affect your biology they don't just affect your finances they affect you as a person and now you're becoming affected in so many ways by the pressure and the fear and the agony of a new beginning but consider the preciousness the hiddenness, the brilliance the miracle, the genius the secrets that nobody stays long enough in the beginning to find out statistically I'm told that startups like my son-in-law startups in business, entrepreneurial startups 90% or 95% of them don't make it beyond 5 years why? because beginnings are so brutal that's why people think it's going to be easier than it is and you can't forecast what might come your way that changes the ball game, changes the rules and now you're set back when you thought it was all sometimes when it begins like my son-in-law sometimes you think you're a way to go, it's great then a bill comes in the mail that you didn't anticipate because these are not the bills people get that work for someone else now your dream to do that yourself is different because now you're not just you know that's why you should be careful when people say look, your cakes your cakes are the most delicious things I've ever tasted you should open a cake shop, no you should not because within a year you will hate the sight of cakes and you will be so fed up with staff health and safety rules regulations, water shortage you'll be so fed up with paying rent, paying a mortgage, dealing with contractors, dealing with businesses dealing with delivery systems you'll be so worn out because that's not that was not what you wanted to do you just wanted to bake cakes you love baking cakes I love baking cakes I love baking cake baking person but I hate my life don't even talk to me about cakes I hate my own cakes because you made the mistake of thinking your friends say go for it, go for it, oh hang on a minute there's a lot more to the eye than starting a business and so some things you're involved in in this room today and all across the network that we'll hear this later some of the work we speak into this morning the campuses, listen some of the beginnings you are involved in honestly we desperately, and I don't mean the church I mean humanity we need you to stay with it some of the things you're in the beginning of they're going to become amazing in the difference they're going to make to people's lives not just your life, to other people's lives and if you are part of the 95% that don't make it, we'll never know what we could have had through you so I need to come and be your beginnings coach today I need to come and say hey don't quit would you just go another day would you give another week this week when you had a plan this week somebody got a plan this week to shut it down would you just rethink it would today make you rethink shutting it down would you go another week and let's pray something happens this week that gives you a little nudge to say okay keep going I'm going to pray that for you this week I'm going to pray that this week something happens that you know is completely supernatural that's God's way of saying I got you back small beginnings are tough look at Moses' beginnings whoa look at Joseph's beginnings whoa look at Jesus' beginnings whoa you know one of the blessings of small beginnings is to learn to be less choosy than you are when you've got stuff some of you are way too choosy because you can be but when you're in a small beginning and people and resources are in short supply you're just glad to have help from anywhere at one time you were choosy who you'd get help from because you could afford to be picky now you're so desperate you're glad of anybody looking you in the eye and helping you and that's the gift of small beginnings small beginnings make you a better human you stop being stuck up and snobby thinking well I wouldn't talk to those people now you'll talk to anybody I don't want to pick up a phone to them now you'll pick up a phone to anybody because you feel lonely and looking for help and someone to believe in you and throw a crumb of belief and a crumb of investment and a crumb of helpfulness in your direction because small beginnings are humbling and some of us need to be humbled because it's hard to be humble when you step into much you know when the Bible teaches in the parable of the talents that God God rewarded them the master in the parable of the talents he said he rewarded them because those that were faithful with little he said shall be given more than much those that are faithful in little will be faithful in much why? because it's not hard to be faithful with much that's easy so God's not looking for faithful with much it's are you faithful in little because if you're faithful in little the chances are more will come to you but if you're not faithful with little and despise being asked to do that if you despise being happy to be faithful with little the chances are much will never come for you because if you are ungrateful and unkind and negative and depressed and confrontational and aggressive in little guess what? you won't change when you get much you know money doesn't change mean people people that get money that were mean when they had none are just more mean with more money money doesn't change your personality it doesn't change your character so beginnings are massive beginnings are essential in beginnings and God wants us to know that so that we don't despise ourselves away from something that has come to completely change you as a person to make you a better human so I gotta hold you I gotta hold you for a few moments in this beginning that you are terrified about and thinking God can't be in maybe I should quit I've always been fascinated by what Jesus said in the book of Revelation when he said of himself I am the Alpha and the Omega he said I am the beginning and I am the end seems a strange thing for someone to say who doesn't have beginnings and endings think about it omniscience omnipotence omnipresence is immune from process so God doesn't have beginnings and endings we do that's why in the beginning in Genesis God created beginnings and endings he created morning and night and days and weeks and months not for God's benefit he doesn't need that God's immune from time he's outside of time so God created parameters and borders and time scales so that we with seasons and so on could navigate our lives so for Jesus to say I am the Alpha the beginning and I am the Omega the end strikes me some things going on here that is not easily seen on the surface of what he said I want to come to realize about what he meant was that Jesus God in your life is both the Alpha and the Omega at the same time in other words, God in your life is not the Alpha today the beginning then years later it's the book end of an Omega in your life and in between God just waits to see what happens that is going to be the Omega of because God doesn't wait for anything nothing ever occurred to God God is not stuck somewhere waiting for information he doesn't have God is not at the beginning hoping it turns out well for you what many of you don't realize and will help you here with your beginning when God writes the book of your life and Psalm 139 says all the days of your life written into God's book before one came to be when God writes the book of your life if the book of your life has a thousand pages God never starts with page one he starts with page one thousand so God writes your life from the end backwards so when God enters your present when God enters your life today as it were, he never enters your life from the past God only ever enters your life from the future which is why walking with God can be so irritating because God enters your life from completion so what you're crying about now and wanting ministry and prayer for and deliverance for and miracle for now what you're crying about now and believe your life's over God knows a week from now you'll be laughing about it I know a week from now the very thing you're begging him for intervention are you blind Lord are you deaf me help me help me help me God knows a week from now you'll be laughing telling you made some funny story because it's Sunday and you're in here you're depressed you're terrified you're thinking of quitting what you don't know is Wednesday you got a phone call now the phone call Wednesday is a game changer now God isn't waiting for Wednesday God's been in Wednesday so God knows Wednesday all changes but here's the annoying thing about God it doesn't tell you huh how unkind is that God is very naughty sometimes God is very naughty I've told him it's not making a difference but I told him would help Lord if you would give us a heads up that Wednesday's coming God doesn't tell you about Wednesday you don't know how you're going to be in your small beginning and if to be better in your beginning you need to know about Wednesday you're not going to make it you've got to flourish not knowing about Wednesday you've got to do well on Sunday not just do well on Wednesday when it turns around you've got to do well before it turns around that's what makes you a better person a bigger person a better human so I know we'd like it to come sooner but God enters your life from completion that's why God talks to you about things that haven't happened yet and you're like well hang on a minute God that's not where I'm living that's not where I am so he is the omega of your life God is standing at the end of your life when you're still back here in your beginning so there's no middle for God he just he just shrinks them down both together what I mean about that is this if God is the end of your life at the same time that he is in your beginning if God is in all your endings and there's many endings there's many omegas in life and many alphas okay not just talking about the day you're born the day you die there's many alphas and omegas throughout your life some of them are very small gaps between them some of them are longer time gaps so if God if God knows you omega and is in your alpha so if God is fully aware of how this all pans out in your beginning then what I want to say to you is all of your omegas all of your endings are implicitly embedded in your alphas with me all of your outcomes are already built into your beginnings in other words so in your beginning God is getting you ready for an outcome you don't know about so God is working in and through you for an omega moment that's coming that he knows is coming you don't so in your alpha God is getting you ready through the things you despise for an outcome that you would love to know about but if you did you would rush and despise and try and step away from the classroom called despising that you have to stay in for a while before you graduate some of you are trying to jump the class and fast track it you have to be patient and be patient and be grumpy and nothing is going to move for you nobody cares about your complaining because that's what beginnings are like nobody cares you're on your own you've got to gut it out if you can survive this if you get through this then I know there's an omega I know the outcome now give an example I've got a couple of minutes I need a drink G&T the drink of champions so let's go for David as an example so David's small beginning was very despisable he's hated by his parents he's hated by his brothers he's despised so much he's shoved out of the way when the coronation is taking place don't even invite David he's a no-hopper he's a teenager one of the ideas about David by the way is that the reason he was despised too is because he was illegitimate and he speaks about it in the Psalms so the suggestion is that David was born outside of wedlock because his dad had a relationship with some other woman and he was born to this other woman and he was hated, he was the runt of the litter hated by his family and some say not only that it stood out because David was a ginger seriously because the authorized bible says that when Goliath saw David he saw that he was ruddy meaning red so maybe David was a ginger all your persecuted gingers high five you have superpowers David was one of your people so now we all want to be ginger because he the man so consider David rejected, outcast hated, despised goes to the battle taking cheese sandwiches for his brothers that's all he's doing, just an errand goes to the battle front while his there Goliath steps up he hears Goliath shouting threats shows an interest in solving the problem his brothers say who do you think you are usual brother sibling thing, shutting him down who do you think you are, you're not military you're not a soldier, you've got no courage you're not in the army, you're a kid get out of here, you're embarrassing us is what they said to him David it says ignore them don't talk to someone else which is what you should do when people do that just turn and talk to someone else who is not blind about you because they're so familiar with you familiarity is a massive blind spot they see nothing in you because they've known you too long like I said earlier so David turns to someone else, these soldiers anyway, David's openness about Goliath gets him in front of Saul the king, so Saul says well if you're determined to do this it'd be okay, you know I was just caring for sheep and a bear and a lion came and I took him on by myself now, you know, Saul could have said well show me the footage can you verify that no, but David's saying I think that the same God that helped me with that helped me with this guy is how he put it together in his head because the way God guides your life by the way, is by deja vu for you to know whether it's God or not look for whether or not what's happening strikes a chord with something that happened previous in your life God's guidance often owes more to deja vu than anything you've thought about if something seems to be strangely familiar to some of the season of your life which makes you just feel strangely ready and open to this, it's probably going to be God that's what David thought bear, lion, Goliath different challenge, but kind of same God same thing I'm feeling inside that I felt about them that I feel about him I said ok, here's the deal, here's my armor put my armor on, go in my armor give you a chance, now you gotta know, Saul giving David his armor was not because Saul wanted him to succeed Saul was a nasty person Saul had a filthy heart and no king no king wants a teenager to upstage them none of the navy seals in Saul's army would face Goliath including Saul so you don't want a kid, especially a ginger you don't want a kid going out and taking down Goliath it's embarrassing so don't ever think that Saul's trying to help him what Saul's trying to do is this Saul, watch this carefully Saul wants him to fail but wants to be seen to have been helping him while he failed if you fail in my armor at least people will say, well look how Saul tried to help him no, no, no maybe we die, he opted die but I want to be seen to have believed in him by a token armor I gave him that's what's going on so David said, no thanks I'll just go and stick with listen now I'll go and stick with what I learned in my alphas in my small beginnings in that wilderness in my small beginnings in that wilderness I learned something now I learned in the small beginnings get the band back up here, gives people hope we finished hang on a few more minutes y'all okay so years in that wilderness what you gotta do all day few sheep, hardly very hardly much concentration needed not a high maintenance job what did he do for years he wrote songs and did this all day sling and stone, all day years he tells it in scripture that once people came to join David's army that was so good left or right with a sling and a stone they could hit a human hair the accuracy with a sling and a stone was like a sniper rifle in these people's hands so years years in this hated, despised isolated life in the wilderness on his own years, what do you do never knowing that this is what you'll need when this happens years later with this guy called Goliath I've heard preachers say don't play too loud, I'm not done yet I'm out here in a minute I've heard preachers say the Holy Spirit left on the stone and guided it to Goliath's forehead no, the Holy Spirit didn't need to do that Holy Spirit didn't need to help David David was a crack forensic shot he didn't do the Holy Spirit to get on the stone David knew you're going down that's why I said to him you're going down and Goliath despised him and shouted at him not knowing David had no intention at all of hand to hand combat he knew he wouldn't win so David introduces a new form of warfare Goliath never saw coming because the boys got no weapons so Goliath's thinking the boys aren't even armed he's ridiculous so he said you come to me with a stick, this is ridiculous him not knowing that this stick this sling and stone in this alpha beginning in that alpha was the omega God had planned for him at the same time as God said start here, don't despise it, don't hate it just keep doing that all day every day, all day now when he gets to Goliath David's like this is what that was about he hated, I'm not loved, I'm ginger all these years I was despised I wonder what that was about because I can do it with either hand now I get to this guy putting his armor on me that's going to kill me, get that armor off me everybody said it doesn't make sense, it's crazy it's suicide, don't do it, he'll take you out he's a warrior, he's nine foot tall that's okay, watch this one thing, the army was about what in the world is that kid doing boom all that happened in front of Goliath God knew was happening in his alpha and if he despised his small beginnings when he got here he's about to practice and I've got to tell you I've got to finish, I've got to tell you preparation which you get time to do in beginnings you don't get to prepare so much in the middle you're too busy preparation in beginnings when nobody's calling you anyone's form book no friends, no opportunity, you're on your own small beginnings, it's lonely in that time of on your own in your own company learn to figure out why am I here what am I growing in, what am I developing in what I'm becoming good at because somewhere that's going to come into its own a few months or years from now and you will be so glad that you didn't despise yourself away from this, whatever this is for you whatever this is a metaphor for for you this seemingly pointless wasteful time that you're spending you're becoming brilliant at something that you don't know God is already in the omega of that and you're going to get to a place somewhere in your future where what you thought was a waste of time and you could have despised away from you you're going to get to a place where you think ah that's what that was and you're going to say excuse me I'm ready excuse me I can do that excuse me I think I'm ready to and you're going to step up and people are going to say what, who are you then they're going to hear you, see you the kid on South Africa's got talent we just spend years in the bedroom and then gets on stage like then they realize all of those lonely years now we realize that this omega moment on stage this omega moment on history stage with David, all of that was in the alpha because he is the alpha on the omega in your life at the same time, all your endings are in your beginnings all your omegas are in your alphas and God knows that so don't despise the day of small beginnings because God is getting you ready in your alpha for your omega let's stand here then, come on