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LATEST MESSAGE

The Little Things

David Sorn

Jul 13, 2025

Surely God cares about the big things in our lives, but what about the little things?

2 Kings 6:1-7

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPT

  1. INTRODUCTION
    1. (Series Slide)
    2. Good morning. My name is David is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church.
      1. If you think about it, a lot of things can wrong in a normal day.
        1. You could wake up late because your phone didn’t charge overnight
        2. You hit every red light on the way to work
        3. Your kid needs to wear a blue shirt for Spirit week or something like that, and there are no clean blue shirts and you have to leave in 5 minutes
      2. We all have stuff like that every day.
        1. And every once in a while they all happen on the same day!
    3. But how does God enter into the little things of life?
      1. Plenty of messages have been preached on the big things, the life-or-death things, but what about the little things?
        1. We’re going to get a passage on that today as we continue in our Summer Series on the Life of Elisha
          1. 2 Kings 6:1-7 – NIV
          2. Page 253
    4. Elisha was a prophet in Israel and Judah about 850 years before Christ came to earth.
      1. And this summer, we’ve gotten a chance to witness some pretty amazing things he’s done for God
        1. But today, we’re going to see God move in a little thing
    5. (2 Kings 6:1-7) – NIV
    6. The company of the prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. 2 Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to meet.”
      And he said, “Go.”
      3 Then one of them said, “Won’t you please come with your servants?”
      “I will,” Elisha replied. 4 And he went with them.
      They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. 5 As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. “Oh no, my lord!” he cried out. “It was borrowed!”
      6 The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. 7 “Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.
      1. (The Little Things)
      2. So Elisha, much like his predecessor Elijah, had a “company of prophets” under his tutelage.
        1. We saw back in chapter 4, that this is at least 100 people.
          1. And it appears that this is school of the prophets is growing!
          2. This is verse 1: “The place where we meet with you is too small for us”
        2. And this is a subtle, but powerful point, because in the days during 2 Kings, most of Israel (and parts of Judah) were bowing down to idols.
          1. So much so that Elijah (Elisha’s mentor) once told God that he felt like he was the only true believer left.
            1. And yet God is growing a remnant
              1. And I believe He’s doing that today, in many places…even here!
    7. And so they are responding to the movement God is bringing in their midst.
      1. Look at Verse 2: Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to meet.”
        1. Notice that each of them is picking up a pole (or an oar, we might say)
          1. Because they are all going to be a part of the movement God is bringing.
            1. They aren’t expecting God to just miraculously build their movement without them.
              1. No one’s sitting back saying, “God, you make the building (snap of a finger)”
                1. Everyone is picking up a pole, an oar
      2. And that’s the culture that this church has been built on.
        1. Not consumerism.
          1. And I know SOOO many of you are new here, but let me just say:
            1. If you’re already a Christian, and you’re looking for a church where you can come in and just relax, never do anything, and just get some inspirational nuggets for you…
              1. Let me save you the heartache…you’re in the wrong place.
          2. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’re not going to like it here
            1. We’re going to challenge you to not just listen, but to actually DO, what this says.
      3. And so if you’ve been here 4 months, 6 months, 12 months…it’s time to pick up an oar.
        1. Sign up to serve today and be a part of this powerful remnant that God is growing here in Blaine.
          1. Don’t just watch the movement, be a part of the movement.
  2. LITTLE THINGS STILL HURT
    1. So the company of prophets (along with Elisha) all head down near the Jordan River to start building this new ministry center
      1. But as they’re cutting down trees for it, one of them accidentally drops an iron ax head into the water.
        1. And it sinks right to the bottom.
      2. And this is not a cheap item.
        1. This would be like you asking your friend if you could borrow their macbook to finish a project (for school or work) while you were at the lake, and then when you get up from sitting on the dock, you accidentally drop it, in the lake.
          1. That’s how this prophet feels right now.
    2. And as I said the other week, I love the Old Testament stories because they show us real people, in real situations, and how God interacts with them.
      1. And this is an interesting one because there is no big battlefield in this story, no rising from the dead, or healing from leprosy.
        1. This is a little thing.
        2. It’s a very real, everyday problem.
          1. And yet it still hurts.
    3. God & The Little Things
    4. 1. Little things still hurt
      1. The prophet is crushed.
        1. At the end of verse 5, once the ax head falls in, it says:
        2. “Oh no, my lord!” he cried out. “It was borrowed!”
          1. He needs help.
          2. Who knows what the person he borrowed it from will say?
            1. Maybe they’re wealthy and kind, and they’ll say, “Life happens”
            2. Or maybe, they’re not, and he’ll have to go into indentured servitude to pay it off.
              1. He needs God’s help.
      2. And we need God’s help whether our problems are big or small.
        1. And besides, pain is relative.
          1. You never want to minimize someone else’s pain because you can’t know for sure what they’re going through.
        2. This is something I learned early on when I was a Youth Pastor.
          1. I remember talking with a student, maybe 16 years old, in my office one day, and they were almost inconsolable about their girlfriend breaking up with them.
            1. And as adults, in our heads, we want to say, “You’ll get over it. You were dating for 9 weeks. It’s not that serious. It’s just dating. You’re just 16.”
          2. But pain is pain. And emotion is emotion.
            1. And to that 16 year old, it was really hard.
              1. They’re not 40. They’re 16.
              2. It’s the first time they’ve ever experienced anything like that.
                1. So what you want to do is notice what they’re feeling, and not dismiss it as a little thing, but enter into it, in a caring way.
  3. GOD CARES ABOUT YOUR LITTLE THINGS
    1. And that’s what God is doing through Elisha here.
      1. And that’s our second point
    2. God & The Little Things
    3. 1. Little things still hurt
    4. 2. God cares about your little things
      1. This prophet is distraught about his borrowed ax head sinking to the bottom of the river, so he cries out to Elisha.
        1. And how does Elisha respond?
          1. Does he say, “Don’t bother me with those little things! I’m Elisha! I got armies to save and dead bodies to raise…don’t bother me with the little things!”
        2. No, he just (verse 6) says, “Where did it fall?”
          1. It’s tender. It’s kind.
            1. Like our God.
              1. Recovering the ax head was nothing to God, but it was everything to that man, and God could see that.
      2. Here’s a different way to think of it.
        1. Anyone in the room have a young kid that loves stuffed animals?
          1. How many of you loved stuffed animals as a kid?
            1. When I was really little (I’m not afraid to say it), I loved stuffed animals.
              1. Any care bear fans in the house?
                1. (Wish Bear Photo)
              2. Here I am (on the left) getting my favorite stuffed animal (wish bear) at 3 years old.
                1. Also, shout out to my sister for getting that legit fisher price tape recorder.
                  1. That things was amazing!
        2. But imagine that a 3-year-old loses their absolute favorite stuffed animal, and they can’t find it anywhere
          1. When they cry about it, what does a kind father do?
            1. Would he say, “Well, that oughta teach you something about what happens when you don’t keep it in the same place!”
            2. Would he say, “Stop whining about it. I got it last year on Prime Days for $9, it’s not even valuable! It’s a little thing!”
    5. God & The Little Things
    6. 1. Little things still hurt
    7. 2. God cares about your little things
      1. No, a Good Father, a Kind Father, gets on his knees and starts looking for it with the child, because if it matters to the child, it matters to the Father.
        1. And the same is true of your Father in Heaven.
          1. He comes down to our level, in the midst of our hurts and trials (even the little ones)
            1. Because, if it matters to you, it’s matters to Him.
              1. Remember, even if it’s little, you’re his child.
        2. You’re not some nobody asking a mean, authoritarian king in heaven for help.
          1. I still hear people say (all the time): “I don’t want to bother God with this one because certainly God’s got bigger fish to fry”
            1. Listen, the Bible says God is omnipresent.
              1. He’s everywhere, at once.
            2. He’s omnipotent
              1. That means He is all-powerful!
            3. So, He can handle peace in the middle east and helping you talk to your boss today.
      2. Remember Biblically, He sees you as His child.
        1. And so if your ax head falls into the river this week, or you lose your phone, or you get discouraged about a comment someone made to you on social media…
          1. …listen, bring it to God.
            1. He cares. You’re his child.
        2. I’ve been working on this in my own prayer time lately even.
          1. Just by trying to call God Father more.
            1. As a way to remind my heart of this Biblical Truth
    8. Jesus teaches this point about the Goodness of your Father in little things in Luke 11
    9. (Luke 11:11-13) – NIV
    10. 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
      1. And so I want to ask you right now: What is the little thing in your life that you’re not bringing to God because you’ve labeled it as too small?
        1. Bring it to your heavenly Father…even this morning.
      2. (1 Peter 5:7) – NIV
      3. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
        1. And He cares about all of your life and all of you.
          1. The big things AND the little things.
        2. (The Little Things)
        3. And honestly, I think it’s harder to bring the little things to God.
          1. Next week, we’re gonna study a passage about an invading army.
            1. And listen, if an army invaded and surrounded Blaine next week, I guarantee you that you would pray about that BIG thing. .
              1. Even the agnostics and atheists would be on their knees asking God for help.
      4. But what about the little things?
  4. Do we go to God when our car starts making funny noises & we’re worried about how we’re going to pay for it, or a new health problem pops up, or when you’re just frustrated from changing so many diapers?
    1. Listen, this is why stories like THIS ONE are in the Bible: If God cares about the ax head, he cares about all of those little things in your life too
  5. GOD CAN MAKE SUNKEN THINGS FLOAT
    1. And then we also see this point in our text:
    2. God & The Little Things
    3. 1. Little things still hurt
    4. 2. God cares about your little things
    5. 3. God can make sunken things float
      1. Some of you are in a situation right now that feels sunken—
        1. Maybe it’s a job you lost, a friendship that ended this summer, maybe it’s a relationship you got cut out of with an adult child or grandchild.
      2. And you’re standing on the bank of the river, saying, “It’s gone. I’ll never get it back.”
        1. But God is coming along side of you and saying, “Show Me where it fell.”
      3. God doesn’t avoid the place of your loss—He enters into it.
        1. And sometimes, in His wisdom, He’s going to say, “My dear child, this is something you have to let go in your life. It’s gone.
          1. “And I will teach you in the difficulty of that, and be with you through the pain of that”
        2. But other times, “God can, He absolutely can, make things float back up again” (we just read it!)
          1. And as my favorite verse in James says, “You do not have if you do not ask”
            1. So we better ask! We pray the impossible.
          2. Because you never know what God will do.
    6. When I think about this imagery, I think of a story I read some time ago.
      1. There was a woman in Canada, named Mary Grams, who lost her diamond wedding ring while gardening on her family farm.
        1. She searched everywhere—dug through the dirt, retraced her steps, cried many tears—but it was gone.
      2. But thirteen years later, her daughter-in-law was out in that same garden, pulling carrots… and one of the carrots came up with a diamond ring wrapped around it.
        1. I’m not making this up, I brought the receipts
          1. Show Carrot Ring Photo
      3. Mary thought her ring was long gone.
        1. But the whole time, it was just buried. Unseen. Hidden in the dirt
      4. Some of you in this room feel like you’ve lost something too…
        1. And maybe you even feel like you’ve lost something more abstract, like direction, or joy, or peace…
          1. It feels buried.
        2. But we serve a God who’s always working.
          1. Even when we don’t see it, He’s working.
        3. And He’s a God that can bring even things that were buried deep…back to the surface again.
          1. Put your trust back in Him this week.
  6. GOSPEL
    1. (The Little Things)
    2. Or even for the first time
      1. You know there’s a very interesting part of this story.
        1. And it what Elisha did to bring the Iron ax head back to the surface.
    3. What did the text say?
      1. Verse 6 says that Elisha reaches out, and cuts a stick and throws the wood into the river.
        1. And God uses the wood, for some reason to miraculously draw the iron ax up to the wood on the surface.
          1. But why wood?
            1. Why not just call the ax head forth? You know, just say a few words, and shazam?
      2. It’s probably because the symbolism of Jesus and the cross is all over the Old Testament.
        1. Even here.
          1. Because just as the iron ax head defied the laws of nature and rose back up to the surface, so will believers in Christ one day defy the laws of nature and rise up to new life after death.
      3. And what allows us to do that??
        1. It’s the cross…it’s the wood.
          1. It makes sunken ax heads rise
          2. And it makes dead bodies rise as well.
            1. This is the Gospel.
      4. But the Bible says that we, because of our sin, are “dead in our sins”
        1. That means we’re sunk
        2. That means we’re unable (without Jesus) to live in true peace, true freedom, and true love.
          1. It’s like we’re living like we’re underwater.
            1. Some days it’s hard to move, other days it can feel hard to breathe.
              1. But I’m telling you, life isn’t meant to be lived that way.
    4. And not only do so many live underwater in the effects of sin, truthfully, we also deserve justice for our sins.
      1. But Jesus Christ, the son of God, came to earth and died on that wooden cross.
        1. And what He was doing was dying for your sins.
          1. He was taking the punishment in your place.
      2. And if you believe that Jesus Christ really came to save you (to die for you), and you invite Him in to be your Savior and you invite Him to lead your life.
        1. And you turn away from your sins, and you let Him take control of your life…
          1. If you do that, God will do the miraculous.
        2. Because your faith in that wooden cross, will lift you out of the bottom of the sea (where it feels like you can’t move and you can’t breathe)…
          1. And He’ll raise you up to new life, and forgive you of your sins.
      3. By the way, do you know what title the Old Testament often gives to the coming Messiah: The Branch.
        1. Jesus is the Branch
          1. And that Branch was cast into the river…so you could rise.
        2. And you can experience that new life right here and now, AND receive eternal life in heaven, and not in hell, when you believe that Jesus will paid for your sins.
    5. In fact, I want to give some of you the opportunity to turn your life over to God today.
  7. Let’s just have everyone bow their head and close their eyes.
    1. If you’ve never done this before, and you want to believe and Jesus and turn your life over to Him
      1. I urge you to respond.
        1. If that’s you, as a way to mark this day, and tell Him that you believe, I want you to stand up where you are right now.
      2. Everyone has their eyes closed, so don’t think about that.
        1. If you need to tell Jesus that you believe, and you need His forgiveness…
        2. If you’re ready to surrender to Him…
          1. Stand up right now.
  8. For those of you standing, we want to pray with you.
    1. Repeat this out loud after me…whether you’re a brand-new believer or have been one for quite some time.
  9. Repeat after me
  10. Dear God
    1. I confess to you, that I have sinned against you.
    2. But God I believe, that you sent your Son Jesus, to take my place
      1. And God I thank you, for forgiving my sins.
    3. And now I commit, to following you, with my life.
  11. As everyone still has their eyes closed, for those of you standing up, you just made the most important decision of your life, and I believe that requires some more information…
    1. And we want to get you some more resources and next steps so you know what to do next (this is so important)…
  12. …so I want the ___ of you, to walk over to that door TOGETHER on your left where my friends are waving.
    1. You won’t walk there alone.
      1. There are many others standing with you, and our follow-up team is going to walk out at the same time with you
  13. And then, for just a couple of minutes, I am going to give you some extremely important resources & next steps to get you started on the most important journey of your life (and then you can come back in the service).
    1. You can start walking.
  14. Okay, as they walk, let me pray.
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