Keion Henderson - Strength Through Subtraction

This is what the Lord told me to preach today: He said, «Tell the people I’m about to give them strength through subtraction.» Everybody say, «Strength through subtraction.» You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. We have seen, without a doubt, a record in the Bible of God doing big things through little people. I can give you example after example of how God did a lot with a little. In fact, I think it is safe to say that God is a God of the remnant; He’s the God of the portion that’s left over. I wonder how many people in this room feel like perhaps the black sheep in your family, or perhaps you’re the most misunderstood person in your tribe. Perhaps you’re late to the party. I bet you that you have some cousins and relatives who have done great in life, and they think that because they’ve already done well, they’re better than you. All right, but they don’t know that God always has a final act. The rejected stone- hear me-automatically, with the anointing of God and favor, becomes the chief cornerstone. In some cases, you don’t want to be noticed too soon. The reason why you don’t want to be noticed too soon is that you want people not to know who you are until you figure out who you are. There is nothing worse than being presented before you are ready. There 's nothing worse than being present before you’re prepared for what comes with the presentation. So God will leave you in the field, David, tending sheep, fighting lions and bears, until you have harnessed your rock-throwing skills so much that it only takes one stone to defeat the giant you’re now facing. God does a lot with a little. Does anybody feel, just-I know you don’t want to be honest-but has anybody ever felt inadequate? I’m talking about in your house, in your car, in your clothes, with your title and all that, and you still felt like, despite everything you ever asked God to do, He did it? Yet you still never felt like you thought you would feel once He gave you what you asked for. So we walk around pretending to be confident, but the truth is that inside we feel inadequate. We feel small; we feel like God doesn’t see us. But God always does a lot. Y’all got time today? He always does a lot with a little. Just think about the teenager He used to kill the giant. The giant had full armor; all David had was a stone. You would think that David couldn’t knock out a man who was 9 feet tall and clothed in armor from the top of his head to the shins and the soles of his feet. But when God does something with you, He’ll allow your stone to find the one uncovered portion. And I don’t know if you know this, but giants do fall. The bigger they are-you remember the instance where there was a little lad who had a little lunch: two pieces of fish and five barley loaves? There were 5,000 people who were hungry, not including the women and the children. So if there were 5,000 hungry souls- 5,000 men-if every man had a wife, that’s 10,000. If every couple had at least a child, that’s 15,000; two children, 20,000. So we can rest assured, through deductive reasoning, we can probably calculate there were somewhere between 15,000 and 35,000 to 40,000 people who were hungry and who were fed with a little lunch from a little lad: two fish, five loaves of bread. Because God does a lot with a little! Today, I almost preached on the widow 's two mites. Her offering was so small that when the preacher asked her to stand, out of embarrassment, she didn’t. Her offering was so small that if she had put it in an envelope, the counting team would have made fun of her in the back and said, «Why did she use an envelope for these two pennies?» But God says, «That 's the offering that I want, because it is not the size of the gift; it’s the size of the sacrifice.» This means that if you drop a million dollars and it was not a sacrifice to you, God is going to be pleased with the person who dropped a dollar, because God would rather have all you have than for you to give Him what you can spare. Right? Because God specializes in using little things. Everybody 's trying to be big, not realizing that God isn’t looking for big. A little leaven leavens the whole loaf. If God were looking for big, He would have entered the world big; He came as a fetus, grew in His mother’s womb, and was born just like you and I. At the age of 33, He died and went back to be with His Father because God likes to do amazing things with small things. You remember the widow who just had a little oil left, and the debt collectors came to her house to collect? She said, " I don’t have much.» They said, «Okay, well then we’re going to put your sons into slavery.» But it just so happens that the little she had was enough. Because I speak to you right now: what you don’t understand is all you have is all you need. Who is this word for so far? I know I may be boring some of y’all; I’m just trying to get some of y’all to understand the case — that you don’t have to have a lot to get God’s attention. You 're not more special because you got a whole lot of followers on Instagram, and someone else…