From Meager to Major

<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>From Meager to Major</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="id402.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Getting Unstuck"><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="id404.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Clean Is Not Contagious"><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>"From Meager To Major," </B><A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=Hag+2:1-9" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U><B>Haggai 2:1-9</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>Berean Bible Church, August 24, 2003am</B></div> <bR> <div> <I>     </I>After Fred Astaire's first screen test, a 1933 memo from the MGM testing director said: "Can't act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little." Astaire kept that memo over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home. An expert said of famous football coach Vince Lombardi: "He possesses minimal football knowledge. Lacks motivation." Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, was advised by her family to find work as a servant or seamstress. Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him hopeless as a composer. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper for lacking ideas. He also went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland. Eighteen publishers turned down Richard Bach's 10,000 word story about a soaring seagull before Macmillan finally published it in 1970. By 1975, <I>Jonathan Livingston Seagull</I> had sold more than seven million copies in the U.S. alone" (Chicken Soup for the Soul). The common thought is: "you'll never amount to anything."</div> <div>      Former heavy-weight boxer James (Quick) Tillis was a cowboy from Oklahoma who fought out of Chicago in the early 1980s. He still remembers his first day in the Windy City after his arrival from Tulsa. "I got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under by arms in downtown Chicago and stopped in front of the Sears Tower. I put my suitcases down, and I looked up at the Tower and I said to myself, `I'm going to conquer Chicago.' "When I looked down, the suitcases were gone." How can you conquer Chicago if you can't even keep your suitcases? It is as if the city said back to him, "you'll never amount to anything."</div> <div>      Many of you have made decisions to get involved, to give back to God, to let God have control. You may be saying to yourself, or hearing someone else say, "you'll never amount to anything;" "your service, your gift, your time invested in God's work isn't worth that much;" "you can't make a difference for God or for anyone else;" "you'll never be like so-and-so; you can never make a difference like they can." God can use you, even if you think your potential is meager.</div> <div>      In Haggai, the people of Israel and Judah had returned to their homeland. They started rebuilding the Temple for the worship of God, but the project was stalled for 16 years, first by outside opposition, then by complacency from within their own hearts. They had to re-prioritize and put God first and rebuild the Temple.</div> <bR> <div> <B>I. The Temple project was meager, but God would bring about major blessing.</B></div> <div> A. <A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=Hag+2:1-5" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U>Haggai 2:1-5</U></A> - Negative Comparison - The present reality was meager.</div> <div> 2:1 - October 17, 520BC, 440 years after dedication of Solomon's Temple (26 days after they started).</div> <div> 2:2-3 - Question: Compare and notice the meager state of the current Temple they were building. They had reason to be discouraged, to be fearful, to wonder if it was worth it.</div> <div> 2:4a - Challenge: Be strong and work.</div> <div> 2:4b-5 - Promise: God said, "I am with you, just as I promised." This was true based on what God had already done in their history.</div> <bR> <div> B. <A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=Hag+2:6-9" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U>Haggai 2:6-9</U></A> - God's intended future was major. He would bring about glory and honor in <I>this</I> Temple. They were part of something bigger than themselves, something that would outlast their lifetimes.</div> <bR> <div> <B>II. Small acts of service, when God-directed and God-empowered, can make a major difference in the kingdom of God. </B></div> <div>      God can take a meager but generous gift or talent and turn it into a major blessing for his cause and for you. Keep in mind that meager does not mean "leftovers." Compared to what God can do or compared to what others have, the best we can give is sometimes meager. God accepts is with delight.</div> <div>      Small acts of service include: helping in the church, so that the work of the church can be done (greeting; cleaning; serving food or cleaning up afterward; serving in worship; worshiping; teaching; encouraging; giving, even if you only have a little; helping in VBS or others kid's ministry); loving and serving people in the name of Jesus; building a relationship with someone through which you can share Jesus Christ. </div> <div>      You can make a difference, even if you don't have a lot, or can't do a lot, or can't speak in public, or will never be well-known. You can make a difference.</div> <bR> <div> A. God uses many finite, flawed people for his work (vs. 4). </div> <div>      He was not going to make the Temple magically reappear. He led <I>people</I> to rebuild it. But he would take their efforts far beyond what they could do. Things may not look great at first; serving God may seem hard, but take courage and keep working, keep serving, keep giving, keep growing. Give your best.</div> <bR> <div> B. God has the power and the resources to accomplish his work.</div> <div>      Note the repetition of the phrase "Lord Almighty" - 5 times in vss. 5-9. "Lord Almighty" refers to God's power. He is the God who is able. He is the God of Armies, the God of power and might. In addition, God says he has all the resources in the world (vs. 8). God has the power and resources to work <I>through</I> <I>us</I>. You don't have to have all the power and resources - he has them already.</div> <bR> <div> C. God gives his promise that he will put his power and his resources behind his work when his people get involved (vss. 4b-5).</div> <div>      God is building his church by reaching and building up people. That is the project he is doing in this generation and era. Matthew 28:18-20 says, "Then Jesus came to them and said, `All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely <B>I am with you always, to the very end of the age.</B>'" We are not left to do it on our own!</div> <bR> <div>      Small acts of service, when God-directed and God-empowered, can make a major difference in the kingdom of God. In a Microsoft ad, a guy walks around saying, "we're saving a nickel." He finally says to one man, "we save <I>a nickel</I> on <I>every</I> transaction." The man stops and thinks for a minute and says, "we do 20 million transactions a month." Suddenly saving a nickel means something. </div> <div>      God uses many people, doing many small things. There are not many superstars in the family of God - there is one big team, working together, led by and empowered by God. Don't think that just because you are not a superstar, you are not important. You don't have to be a superstar to be used mightily of God. In fact, God uses humble and weak people. Someone has said, "You can be too big for God to use you, but you can never be too small." And when you give of your best to God, he is honored and he uses what you offer - your time, your talents, your treasure - he uses it for great things in his kingdom, along with the gifts of everybody else.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> copyright, 2003, Stanley Baker</div> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> </td> </tr></table></body>