Jentezen Franklin - God's Tiny Details
Look with me today in the book of John 19, John 19:25. "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, His mother and His mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, 'Woman, behold your son.' Then He said to the disciple, 'Behold your mother.' And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home". I love this text, I love this story. And recently, I saw it in a different light, and I wanna talk to you for a few moments today on the subject of "God's Tiny Details in Our Life".
Sometimes we really are good at praising Him for the big things that He does. I've had God do big things in my life. I've had days that were huge breakthroughs and answers to prayer, things that just blew my mind, the big things. Especially the day that He saved me. I mean, I got born again in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, that was a night, was actually in the evening, that I will never forget. It was amazing. But I also thank God, and I think we ought to be mindful of the tiny things, the details. Someone said the devil's in the details, but really he's not. He's not in the details, he sees you as a number.
When the Antichrist comes on the scene, he's gon' give you a number, that's all he car, you're just a number to him. But God is in the details of our life. I've seen Him do big things, but sometimes it's the little things, the detailed things, the catered just for me things, that blow my mind. When I think of calvary, it was God reaching for us, and it was such a big thing. This man Jesus Christ, the expressed image of God. This man, Jesus Christ, who was 100% human, except He never committed a sin. He could have, He had the body to commit a sin, but He stayed fully submitted to the Father, and He was sinless. He was capable of sin, but He didn't do it. And He continually moved in submission to the Father.
And the writer, Paul said that, "In Him dwelleth all of the fullness of God bodily". I love that verse that in Jesus, all of the fullness that God is was somehow compounded and put in that flesh man, one human being named Jesus. All of the God head bodily was manifest in Him and through Him. They took Him to the cross, the brutality of human hatred compiled with the brutality of demonic hatred. I believe there were hordes of demons that were swirling around Mount Calvary. I believe they were whispering into people's ears, into the soldiers, and into the bystanders. Whispering, "Slap Him, hit Him".
They ripped His beard, they beat His back. I could almost see in my mind demons whispering, "Hit Him harder, spit on Him, slap Him, drive the nails in His hands, stab Him with the spear, drive it deeper and harder, hurt Him"! And then we come to the chapter 19:25, "And there standing by the cross was His mother". And I don't know what she was thinking, let's put ourselves in her shoes for just a moment. You're just gonna have to stay with me, I'm going somewhere, we're gonna get there, but let me tell you what's on my heart. I saw it like this this week. I saw Mary standing there looking up at the cross. Her son, I wonder where her mind went.
I wonder if her mind went to the first day that He was born and how that on the eighth day, she and His stepfather, Joseph, took Him to the temple to be circumcised as the law demanded. And there was an old prophet in the temple, the Bible said, that had been given a word from God, that, "You will not see death until your eyes behold the Messiah of Israel". And think of it, when Joseph and Mary walked across the threshold of that temple and walked into that building, you have to understand, the glory of God had left the temple. When they stole, the Philistines stole the Ark of the Covenant and it was never returned, and for over 600 years, there was no glory seen in the temple, but when they brought that little baby across the threshold, the glory came back to the temple.
And I don't know where he was, I don't know what he was doing, but somewhere in this story, Simeon turns, he feels the glory of the presence of God is in this place. What is going on? It's tingling with his presence, and he walks over, and he sees this young couple standing there, and the baby's wrapped up, and he takes the cloth, and looks at the face of the baby, and suddenly, he knows that he knows that he knows, "My eyes have seen the Messiah". And he says, "Now, I can die in peace, the Messiah has come to Israel". And then he starts to leave, but he points his finger, and he says, "And a sword," to Mary, the mother of Jesus, "And a sword shall pierce your soul".
I wonder as she was standing there at the cross, at that moment, could it have been that one of the soldiers stabbed Him in the side and pierced Him, and the blood and the water poured forth and I wonder if in that moment, she thought, "Is that what He was talking about 33 years ago? That a sword would pierce my soul? It feels like it". But when He was on that cross, this is the part that I'm trying to get to, as He's running out of air, as He is becoming weaker and weaker from the loss of blood, and His body is sagging on that cross, and He knows this is close to the end, He pushes Himself up, and He looks down, and He sees His mother. And in that moment, He says, "Mother, behold your son". And He says to John, "Son, behold your mother. I'm committing her..."
Now, I want you to think about, what I'm trying to say is this, we think the biggest thing is He's dying for billions and billions and billions of souls, and it's true. How important was this moment? He's dying, He's bleeding, He's shedding His blood so that we could have eternal life, so that we could live forever, so that we could have healing, so that we can have miracles, so that we could be blessed. But then He goes to the tiny details. "Before I leave this world, I'm stopping and putting everything on pause, demons are watching, angels are watching, all of Heaven is watching," and He puts everything, billions of souls lie at stake, and He freezes everything, and He says, "I'm gonna get into the details of this precious woman, my mother. I want her taken care of when I leave. Take care of my mother".
He's not just the God of the big stuff... And what did that mean to her? Because on another occasion, when He started His ministry, He was doing mighty miracles, and the place was filled, and they came to Him and said, "Jesus, Jesus, you gotta shut this down because your mother and your half-brothers are here to see you". And Jesus said, "Who is my mother? And who are my brothers except you who hear the word and do it"? But this was almost like Jesus saying, "I can't leave here without getting into the details of this one person, I love her so much that I'll interrupt everything I'm doing so that she will know I care about the details of the rest of your life, I want you taken care of".
That's the kind of God that we have, that's the kind of God that we serve. He came as a man to let us know how much He loves us, and I tell you that's a big thing. The huge, amazing love of God. How many of you are thankful that He saved you? Can we just take a moment? Think about that. But can we go a little bit further and say yeah, He did a big, amazing thing at Calvary, but it didn't stop at Calvary if we were all to tell the truth. Psalms 68:19 said this same God, "Blessed be the Lord God that daily loadeth us down with benefits". He daily, every day He looks down, every day He looks at us, every day He takes care of us. Every day. Daily He loads us down. He's into the details.
Nobody's in the details like God. He knows, according to Psalms 138, He knows your down sitting and your uprising. He knows the number of hairs that are on your head, He knows your address, He knows your family, He knows your children, He knows your grandchildren, He knows every detail of your family. You say, "I know that, I didn't come to church just to hear that". But you don't understand it like you need to understand it. I had a dream on a Saturday night in my bed, many, many, many years ago. It was the most unusual dream I've ever had in my life. It was in technicolor, just like I see you, I mean, as clear as I see you right now. I was aware that I was dreaming, but also knew that I was there, and I was walking into a funeral home, and I walked up to a miniature casket, the lid was open.
And I looked down and I saw my three-year-old daughter's face, Caressa. She was dead, and she was in that coffin. And I felt like, I don't even know how to describe what I felt. I reached over and I woke Cherise up and I told her what had happened, and we began to cry, and we began to pray, and the presence of God filled that bedroom. And I grabbed a pad and a piece of paper, and I had my sermon prepared, and the Lord gave me these words, just as clear as I can hear my own voice right now, "Cancel the Devil's assignment over your kids".
Cancel the Devil's... And I preached the sermon that morning. There was a... The thing that stood out to me is I remember there was a groaning, there was a, it's almost like that verse where it says Rachel weeping for her children. There was a deep intercession. Hundreds and hundreds of people lingered. They were all the way up the aisles, and families praying, families holding one another, pleading the blood of Jesus, canceling the Devil's assignments. We were scheduled to go and leave on Monday to drive down to Disney World with our kids. And Cherise was so... just intent, "We've gotta go, we've gotta go. I want us to leave today". I said, "I've got a service".
Back then we had Sunday night. "I've got a service, I can't just leave". She said, "Oh". And I said, "I can't just leave my church". "Oh, oh it's your church? I thought it was God's church". I hate that stuff. I'll tell you, we get in the car, and we drive a day early, watch the details, and we get to Sea World and a storm comes, make a long story short, lightening flash hits a building, sets it on fire, we're standing up there and it feels like a tornado's coming, and 5,000 people run for shelter up under a thing that covered people from the elements. And we're grabbing our stuff, and she grabbed one of the children, and Caressa starts going up the steps, she got away from us, and boy, we're all just panicking and moving, but we're watching her, and we're gonna get her when we get up there where there's a little more space.
And as we're going up the steps, we get up there and finally, I mean, it really breaks out, and there's lightening everywhere, and booms, and the kids are hysterical, and we look and see Caressa, and she's going berserk, and Cherise gets down, she says, "Come here baby, come here baby, come here". And she runs right past her, and there was a young 26-year-old girl standing that she had never met, we didn't know these people, and she ran right to the girl, into her arms, and the girl picked her up and held her, and Caressa grabbed her by the neck, my three year old, and just began to hold her so tight.
And Cherise said, "Come on baby, come on". She would not do it, and she was real clingy to Cherise. She would not do it, she would not do it. We're standing there, the storm's going on, this girl's standing there, and she is not crying a tear, she is weeping, holding our baby and our baby is holding her, and as the storm starts calming down, we walk over and Cherise said to me, "Get our baby, something weird is going on". And I walked over and I said, "Is everything okay"?
And the mother starts weeping. There's a man, an older man and his wife, and I found out later that was the mother and father of the young 26-year-old. And she said, "You just don't understand, you just don't understand. She lost her three-year-old child of congestive heart failure in the middle of the night. We've been trying to get her out of the house for three months and she has gone nowhere. This is the first place we have been in three months and your daughter, how old is she"? "She's three". "Well, she won't let her go". And the girl's standing there weeping. And suddenly we all come together, and then instantly, the Lord said, "Tell her about the dream. Tell this family about the dream".
So, people were kinda moving and things were calming down, but we got to ourself and we start talking, and I said, "I've gotta tell you something". I said, "I'm a preacher," and I said, "This past Saturday night, I had a dream and I saw my three-year-old in a coffin in the dream, and I told my church about it". And I said, "God let me feel your grief. And He wanted you to know," and I said, "We're not supposed to be here, we were supposed to be driving here today. We did not intend to come to Sea World, but there's", don't you see what I'm saying? God, in His love, says, "I'll rearrange things". And she received the Lord, and she got right with God, and she left with hope, and we left with victory. What I'm trying to tell you is God is a God of details and He'll reach anyone that you'll pray and believe for.
If you know that I'm preaching the truth this morning, raise your hands. Raise your hands over your family, raise your hands over your children, raise your hands over any and everything in your life. If you're in this room, if you're in the prison, if you're in a hospital room, if you're in one of our campuses, you would say, "Pastor, I need to get right with God. I'm so far from Him. I need Him to get into the details, I need more than a surface touch. I need Him to go deep and heal the broken pieces. I want Him to be Lord in my life, pray for me". I won't embarrass you. I'm gonna pray for you right where you're standing. But if that's you, right where you are at every campus, if you'd say, "Pastor, I need Jesus to be Lord in my life. I wanna surrender to Him".
If that's you, raise your hand high right where you're standing. All over this room, all over this room. Amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing. Can every one of you that raised your hand, will you get out of your seat and come join me on this stage as fast as you can get up here? I don't normally do that, but I feel like you need to do it because you're walking out of where you came, and you're going into a brand-new life. Just come stand up here if God... nobody's gon' make you, but hurry. Sing it while they come. Is it overwhelming? Isn't it never-ending?
Hey, why don't you reach over and grab your family? Put your arm around them. Say, "God, we give you all the details, we give you all the details of all the situations. We don't know how to do it, we don't know how to arrange it, we don't know how to fix it. We give you the details". You're the God of details. You can do it in a minute, you can do it in a...I don't care how long it's been going on, He can heal it now.
Pray this prayer out loud. Everyone say:
Jesus. You're my savior. Save me. Cleanse me. Forgive me. Fill me and use me to be a light to many in darkness. It starts today. I surrender all. I give it all over to you. And all the details that this prayer represents. 'Cause some of them, I'm in deep. But you're the God of details. And if you could come out of a grave, you can get me out of anything. And I receive your help. And your deliverance. In Jesus' name.