Getting Unstuck

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=50 BGCOLOR="#333366" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Getting Unstuck</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=165 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="132" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 35 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id401.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dont Miss Out"><U><B><IMG SRC="007151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id403.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="From Meager to Major"><U><B><IMG SRC="008151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="20"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="35" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="20" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="13"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="27"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> Previous/Next Sermon</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="www.stanbaker.org"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Biblical and Theological Studies"><U><B>Biblical and Theological Studies</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Church Ministry"><U><B>Church Ministry</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sermon Notes"><U>Sermon Notes</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Personal"><U><B>Personal</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:stan@stanbaker.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:stan@stanbaker.org"><U>stan@stanbaker.org</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=430 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>"Getting Unstuck," </B><A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=Hag+1:1-15" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U><B>Haggai 1:1-15</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>Berean Bible Church, August 17, 2003am </B></div> <bR> <div>      Life in Christ is a journey, moving toward a destination. You may have gotten stalled, stuck along the pathway of life, no longer moving toward your destination. God wants to change you to be like Christ.  Maybe he has led you in making crucial decisions about how things are going to be; maybe he has led to you set some goals for yourself. He has laid out the basic work of this church, to tell people about Jesus and help them grow and develop as followers of his. But sometimes we get stuck on the journey.</div> <div>      The Temple was a stalled project - for 16 years (<A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=Ezra+4" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U>Ezra 4</U></A>). Opposition came from outside first; then complacency came from within. God withheld his blessing on their work and productivity. Haggai preached and addressed the <I>complacency</I> (<A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=Ezra+5:1" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U>Ezra 5:1</U></A>). The work continued and was finished (<A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=Ezra+5:2" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U>Ezra 5:2</U></A>).</div> <div> <I>     How</I>did they obey? How can we go from a state of complacency to making progress is the projects God has given us to do. Our projects include things like: discovering and using your spiritual gift; giving to God and letting him control your money; dealing with a habit you should break or one you should start; dealing with the poison of bitterness that has leaked into some of your relationships; owning up to the pride and arrogance that you have gotten so used to. As a church congregation, some of us are going through the motions of church and Christianity without being true followers, true worshipers of God. We are not reaching people with the gospel like we could. Many of us are not growing in Christ and developing in our personal character. Here are <B>s</B><I><B>ix lessons</B></I> for going from complacency to obedience.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1. Wake up to the need. </B></div> <div>      See the gap between <I>what is</I> and <I>what should be</I> (vss. 5, 7, "consider your ways" - the <I>way</I> they have been acting and the <I>way</I> it has been working out). He sent a prophet to make them aware of the problem. Face reality!</div> <div>      They should have been clued in, but they were blinded by complacency. "It's just the way we do things around here." They could see the condition of the Temple (vs. 4), and they were lacking "something" because God was dealing with them (vss. 5-11). He was trying to get their attention, but they ignored him.</div> <div>      Stop and think about it (take time!). Hear from <I>God</I>. Notice they "feared" God (vs. 12). They had respect for what he said, and for the power he had. When you hear teaching from the Bible, don't say, "somebody <I>else</I> needs to hear that." Get alone with God and your Bible, and ask him to show you where you are stalled, where you need to make adjustments to continue the journey toward becoming like Christ. Of course, having a relationship with God is first. Trust in Christ for salvation today, if you have not already.</div> <bR> <div> <B>2. Tie the need to the purpose (vs. 8).</B></div> <div>      What is lost if you let the problem remain? The Temple had significance for worship and obedience and outreach. It was ultimately about the glory of God (vs. 8). 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "do everything to the glory of God." That is the bottom line purpose of all of our lives. What does it look like to give God the glory in everything? It is obeying his word, being conformed to his image, doing what he tells you to do, serving people the way he served you.</div> <div> <I>     </I>In the midst of our activity and busyness, the real purpose for our lives can be lost. The Taj Mahal is one of the most beautiful and costly tombs ever built, but there is something fascinating about its beginnings. In 1629, when the favorite wife of Indian ruler Shah Jahan died, he ordered that a magnificent tomb be built as a memorial to her. The shah placed his wife's casket in the middle of a parcel of land, and construction of the temple literally began around it. But several years into the venture, the Shah's grief for his wife gave way to a passion for the project. One day while he was surveying the sight, he reportedly stumbled over a wooden box, and he had some workers throw it out. It was months before he realized that his wife's casket had been destroyed. The original purpose for the memorial became lost in the details of construction. (James Dobson, Coming Home, Timeless Wisdom for Families). Don't let God's purpose for your life get lost in the busyness of your life. Recover God's purpose for your life and schedule your activities based on that.</div> <bR> <div> <B>3. Reorder your priorities (vs. 4).</B></div> <div>      Put God first. One summer in the 1940s, Vladimir Nabokov, a Russian novelist, and his family stayed with James Laughlin at Alta, Utah, where Nabokov took the opportunity to enlarge his collection of butterflies and moths. Nabokov's fiction has never been praised for its compassion; he was single-minded if nothing else. One evening at dusk he returned from his day's excursion saying that during hot pursuit near Bear Gulch he had heard someone groaning most piteously down by the stream. "Did you stop?" Laughlin asked him."No, I had to get the butterfly." The next day the corpse of an aged prospector was discovered in what has been renamed, in Nabokov's honor, Dead Man's Gulch. (Vernon Grounds, Leadership, Summer Quarter, p. 39). Are you too busy chasing butterflies to pay attention to the work God has for you all around you? Are you too busy serving yourself that you cannot afford the time and energy to serve God? The people in Jerusalem were <I>busy</I>, they just were not doing what was important to God. Busyness is not an excuse.</div> <bR> <div> <B>4. Deal with procrastination.</B></div> <div>      The mantra of the procrastinator is "the time has not yet come . . ." (vs. 2). Now is the time! Go from intention to action. Start with small steps. Building on the foundation could have been done a little bit over a period of time. You are not going to accomplish God's purpose for your life in a day. But get started!</div> <bR> <div> <B>5. Get help from others.</B></div> <div>      The "whole remnant" obeyed together (vss. 12-15). You need others, others need you.</div> <bR> <div> <B>6. Utilize God's power. </B></div> <div>      God said, "I am with you" (vs. 13). He is "the Lord of hosts" (Almighty, All-powerful). He "stirred up" their spirits to get to work (vss. 13-14). God never asks you to do something he will not help you to do, and you must believe that he is able!</div> <div>      In the power outage of Thursday, August 14, 2003, life for many people came to a standstill. God's power never goes out, we just disconnect from it. We pull the plug and wonder why it is dark. He power is there. Get connected to him and use his power for his purpose.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> copyright, 2003, Stanley Baker</div> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> </td> </tr></table></body>