A Time to Build reworked

A Time to Build; nv 6/12/05 p.m.

OS: 1 Doug Lansky has been a travel writer and photographer for many years. In the course of his travels he has collected photos of odd signs from around the world. Some samples: 2, please follow one-way arrows. 3, not a through street – evacuation route. 4, Toilet, stay in your car. 5, follow traffic instructions.

I.       6 Confused yet? Over the past couple of years I’ve felt as though we are in a state of confusion.

A.     Normal – Growth curve. Time of chaos. Break point

II.    Elmer Towns (A specialist in the sociology of religion), and others describe the life cycle of typical churches.)

A.     7 Movement Stage – Strong sense of being a movement of God with purpose and direction / A high commitment level exists / Morale is high and a sense of identity is being formed.

B.     8 Machinery Stage – Machinery is created and put into motion to keep the movement running. There is a strong sense of purpose among most members. Morale is higher, and identity is building to its highest level.

C.     9 Monument Stage – This is the stage of institutionalism in which the erection of a monument is begun. The member’s understanding of the group’s purpose is lowered. Volunteers are harder to find. Morale levels off, and the sense of identity suffers from uncertainties.

D.     10 Mausoleum Stage – This is the period of disintegration during which the purpose of the original movement is lost. Members and leaders alike are wondering who they are as people.

E.      11 Relocating will not guarantee a return to the movement stage, but merely provides a once in a life time opportunity to do so.

III. In every institution whether it is a congregation or a corporation there comes a time to begin again. It is the time when a movement threatens to become a monument, and the movement needs to be rekindled within the hearts of all involved.

A.     I am convinced that we are at a breakpoint. That means we have some struggle to go through, but that struggle means new life opposed to slow death for this church. That struggle means stepping out on faith, dealing with the sensation that we are in over our head, overcoming fear, and accepting the elements of positive biblical change.

B.     Many years ago the people of Israel came to a break point in the re-building of the Temple in Jerusalem. They chose to forgo the struggle, and were dormant for sixteen years. The Prophet Haggai, along with Zechariah, was sent by God to spur these Israelites on, and demand they begin again to re-build the dwelling of God. It is an event in the Nation of Israel that becomes an expression of wonderful yet difficult lessons.

                       1.       2 Kings 25 – 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, exiled the people and destroyed the walls of Jerusalem and burned the Temple.

                       2.       As Prophesied through Jeremiah, the people were sent back to Jerusalem after 70 years of time.

                       3.       The book of Ezra, along with the prophetic writings of Haggai and Zechariah, record this return of the exile and the rebuilding of the Temple.

                       4.       12 Ezra 4:23-24

                       5.       They ran up on an obstacle and the work stopped.

C.     Sidetracked for 16 years.

                       1.       To get side tracked means that you forget about what you were doing and you start doing something else.

                       2.       Movement to a Monument.

                       3.       Ever get sidetracked ‘spiritually’? If you haven’t changed your mind about scripture, nor developed totally different ideas and practices concerning prayer – you’re probably sidetracked spiritually.

                       4.       What about Churches? If a church hasn’t changed methodology, or made significant changes in ministry – that church is probably sidetracked. Most churches are. No church has to be.

TS] What causes it? How do you overcome it?

I.       13 Avoid Procrastination

A.     14 Haggai 1 2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.’”

             1.     Breakpoint – struggle to continue. It’s easier to just not.

B.     15 Procrastination for an organization, business, or church for that matter is deadly.

             1.     Hard work is often the easy work you do not do at the proper time. 

             2.     The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.

C.     The timing has never been better for Northview than it is right now!

             1.     With a twenty mile radius of this church there are thousands of people. Houses are going up left and right. Statistically there are several thousand people out there who would go to church if they thought it would make a difference in their life.

             2.     It is time for this church to take a step beyond where we are. That means sacrifice, change, some struggle, but it’s time.

             3.     We stand on a fine line between being a movement or becoming a monument/mausoleum. To become a monument for a church is to inflict on itself a slow and agonizing death.

             4.     Everything continues in a state of rest unless it is compelled to change by forces impressed upon it. Issac Newton, First Law of Motion.

TS] Sidetracked for 16 years. What could cause it? What do you do?

II.   16 Don’t be Afraid

A.     17 Ezra 4 4 Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.  5 They hired counselors to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

             1.     18 Haggai 2 4 But now be strong, O Zerubbabel,’ declares the LORD. ‘Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.  5 ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’

B.     19 There are many fears that will halt the work of the church today.

             1.     Fear of society, and how we will appear to others. Fear of losing the church as we know it. – Things change when you build. Ezra 3:10-13

C.     There is a great remedy for our fear – the presence of God.

             1.     Yes, every time a member is added to this church it changes.

             2.     Imagine what it was like in Jerusalem as the church grew rapidly into the thousands of members.

             3.     We are changing constantly one-way or the other. We are either dying or growing.

TS] Sixteen years – number three is painful. (sidetracked?)

III.           20 Don’t focus on Self 

A.     21 Haggai 1 3 Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai:  4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

             1.     The text goes on to point out that all their labor has been producing little.

B.     I think we could all make the application here.

             1.     We are blessed with the best of things. Notice “things”

             2.     Things are worthless.

C.     How do we treat God in comparison with how we treat ourselves?

             1.     Do we refuse to accept second best, yet give God the same?

             2.     How does what we provide for ourselves compare with what we provide for our spiritual growth and service to God?

TS] 16 years sidetracked – finally…

IV.            22 Think Big Thoughts

A.     23 Zechariah 4 9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. 10 “Who despises the day of small things? Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.

             1.     God is not a God of small things.

             2.     Why? – God’s temple is no small thing!

B.     What do you think about the future of Northview?

             1.     Stay the same? Impossible.

             2.     1000 members? To small?

             3.     Eph 3:20 God is able to do even more than we can imagine.

C.     We have a great big God!

             1.     Jesus said nothing is impossible with God.

TS] Let’s not allow ourselves to get sidetracked.

             1.          If you don’t think it’s time, when is it going to be? To start living for God individually, or to take the step of faith as a church building His dwelling.

             2.          Fear? If God is for us who can be against us?

             3.          Selfish interest? Don’t come to the end of life and have nothing to show but yourself.

             4.          Thinking to small? God is able to make all grace abound!

What brought them out? Answer = God (Haggai 1 13 Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: “I am with you,” declares the LORD.  14 So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God,  15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius.) 24