I believe all of us have a call for greatness which comes from God, and I am also aware very few people will ever attain that greatness. It becomes an issue of keeping the momentum going. God has called ordinary people like you and I to such an extraordinary vision to life. There is however not a one of us who has not come to that place in our lives when the vision is overwhelming, the task ahead seems so impossible and the desire to withdraw rather than push forward has not come to tempt us. How do we keep the “mo” going? How can we press through to the greatness God has called us and not shrink away. Lets talk about it tonight. Take the message and relate it to your life, and if you are in one of those low “mo” moments, use it to get yourself back on the right track.
I want to look at an Old Testament example of lost momentum, using it as a stepping stone to lift us to a higher level. It comes through the life of Nehemiah, found in chapter 4. You know the story. Nehemiah is working as a servant in exile from his Jewish roots. He is overcome by the reports he has heard of the condition of Jerusalem so he asks his boss, King Artaxerxes if he can go to Jerusalem and get the city back intact. The Jewish race is an example of lost momentum throughout their history. At times they are doing great, and other times they are in the pits of life. Victory and defeat were both common experiences for them. Nehemiah, securing permission to go discovers the lost momentum of the Jews in Jerusalem.
In verses 10 and 11 we glean lessons for motivation. In Judah it was said, “The strength of the burden bearers is failing, Yet there is much rubbish; And we ourselves are unable to rebuild the wall”
And our enemies said, “They will not know or see until we come along them, kill them, and put a stop to the work.”
There are four things which will cause us to lose the momentum of life we can see from these two verses.
1. You lose your “mo” when you lose your strength. It was said in Judah their strength was failing.
2. You lose your “mo” when you lose your vision. There was much rubbish because they had lost the focus on where they were headed, the vision for rebuilding the wall.
3. You lose your “mo” when you lose your confidence. They came to the place where they no longer believed they could rebuild the wall.
4. You lose your “mo” when you have lost your security. They were now listening to what their enemy was saying, not to what God had been telling them.
If I were to spend time talking to each of you concerning your life, more than likely I would discover the plans you had when you were younger have been altered considerably as you have grown older, or should I say, more mature. In our teen years we had this burning desire to become world changers, and as we grew older it seemed all we were changing was diapers. The plans and purposes gave way to the here and now, bills that needed to be paid, jobs which we needed to do to pay those bills, and the vision which once sat at the front burner now has been moved to the back, and we don’t feel the heat, the passion as much as we once did. We have excused it, promising to return just as soon as we can, but the just as soon as we can has just not materialized to provide us with the fire and passion we once had. I have had people come into the office and tell me of their life plans and the how one day they are going to get back, when the kids have grown, when they have more money, when things are just not as hectic, when…
What is the when for you? As I said, I believe everyone has a call to greatness in their lives given to them from God, and I am also aware very few people will ever attain it. They promise to, when…
What can keep you on track. Ron Reagan, speaking of his father said, “I think if left to his own device, he might have ended up hosting Unsolved Mysteries on TV.” The conversation was directed toward the driving force in former Reagan’s life, his wife Nancy.
Who are what is driving you and how does one get back on the right track when they have pushed their momentum to the back?
I have been facing up to the fact we here at the church have been slowed by momentum busters just as Nehemiah dealt with in Jerusalem. It has been the history of the church, not just here, but universally, to be slowed from progress. The progress we have experienced in the last two years has been great. We have transitioned the church into the 21st Century, revamped the constitution and bi-laws and began to become a church without walls. Unfortunately the progress has also become our enemy not just our friend. It is easy to say we are doing okay, or we are doing great and think momentum continues just because we have developed a false sense of progress. Mo needs to be build everyday, 24/7. You can never rest on the past, you need to be moving forward in the present. The people who boarded the Titanic had a false sense of security for their trip. They thought everything was going well on the voyage, even when they hit the ice-berg because they thought the ship could not be sunk. A little think like a piece of ice could not sink the unsinkable. It is not the big things in life which will slow and stop your momentum, it is the little things, the things you should have been watching out for but thought it was no big deal, you could cruise through the waters without any problem.
So what are we going to do. Let me use the church at Ballard as an example to learn from and you can apply these steps into your own life to keep your personal momentum going.
1. Know where you are at. Jesus was at Zacchaeus house when he said, Today salvation has come to this house. (Luke 19:9). We spend too much time dealing with issues either from the past, or looking to potential issues in the future, forgetting we live in the here and now. Jesus said to Zacchaeus, it is today this is happening to you. You need to know where you are at today. I have had people come for financial advice and when I ask them what their bills are, they offer a ball park figure without knowing exactly where they are at. So, lets look at where the church is right now. Our music ministry is doing well, though we still have a ways to go with additional musicians. Our children’s ministry is just starting out and our youth ministry is non-existent. Our facility is aging and needs more than just a face-lift and there is a need for additional staff for the growing ministry needs but the finances are enough to meet our present expenses. We are debt free which gives us added benefits which many churches do not have. We have added multi-media to our services and there is a sense for growth from you the congregation, although we are not seeing as many visitors as we would like. We have in place a life development series to help believers grow and we are targeting the unsaved. We have vision, we have people who embrace the vision, but we have been slowed by the lack of progress, in things not coming together as rapidly as we would like to see or we need to see to keep the momentum going. With time I could go deeper but for expediency this paints a broad stroke of there we are. We have come a long ways from the 24 the first Sunday I preached here, and we have a long ways to go in reaching this area for Jesus Christ. It is important to know where you are at. When you know, then…
2. Go to God for His direction.
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
God says if my people will seek after me for direction. Many times that is a big “if”. This passage says before we can deal with restoration we have to first deal with today, with where we are at, a turning from the sinful lifestyle to the godly lifestyle. The moment of getting on our knees and humbling ourselves before God, acknowledging not only our need for His direction, our dependency for that direction as well.
How often are you praying for the ministries of this church? How often do you ask God to bless the pastors and their families? To meet the financial needs of the church so we can expand out ministries. To have God sent laborers to work for the kingdom through our ministries here? The Bible also says you have not because you have asked not.
If we want to see God bring greatness through out lives, if we want to see God bring greatness through this church, then we are going to have to go and ask in prayer, seeking His answers and moving forward in His anointed power to accomplish His divine purpose through our lives.
3. Make the hard choices in life. Too often we seek the easy way out instead of making hard choices in life. We have people who come and look at the ministries of the church, looking to have their needs met instead of being used to meet the needs of others. We have had people say they are looking for a larger church with more program opportunities so they take the easy way and go to those churches instead of making a hard choice and deciding to roll up their sleeves to make this the church God designed, destined for greatness. I understand the need for a vibrant children’s ministry, so why not get involved to come alongside and help build this one into that greatness.
When Laura and I came here, we sacrificed financially because we have a vision for the city which exceeds or personal needs. We have come to realize life is not about us and what we personally want, it is about God and His Kingdom and His plans and purposes. Along the way we have been blessed beyond our wildest dreams. In order to have been blessed, we have had to make the hard choices along the way.
What are the hard choices you have to make. I recently read an illustration of desperation. Two Americans were visiting a South American country when they both ran afoul of the law and faced death by a firing squad. Before their execution the squad commander asked if they had a final request. The first said, "Right before I die, I want you to play that Macarena song so I can do that dance one last time." The Commander said, "We can do that." He then turned to the next man and said, "Do you have a final request?" The man said, "Yes. Shoot me first."
Too many of us want the easy way out…I would have wanted to stay and watch the dance.
4. Know you have a destiny. I know God has great plans for this church, or we would not be here today, we have a vision statement and purpose statement to guide us and greater days are just ahead of us. I live by that each and every day. Because I now God has something he wants to accomplish through me, that He has something He wants to accomplish through this church, it is a joy to spring out of bed each and every morning to explore and discovery what He is planning to do today. I am not here by accident, and neither are you. God has placed us together for such a time as this and together we are going to see multitudes won for Jesus Christ and we are going to begin a fresh new era of populating heaven through the ministry efforts here. I am committed to the vision of this church. As a result I am going to keep growing in my personal life knowing as I grow the church will grow and as the church grows our destiny will come into greater being and the greatness God has called us for such a time as this will become not a dream but a reality.
I believe all of us have a call to greatness from God, and I also know very few people will ever obtain it, and I know some of those few people who will are sitting here tonight.
When Norman D. Vaughan was a 22-year-old Harvard student in 1927, he spotted a newspaper story about Adm. Richard Byrd’s planned expedition to the South Pole. Vaughan decided to quit Harvard to go with him. He had no invitation and had never even met Byrd. All he had was a passion ... and a dream. Not long before his 89th birthday, Vaughan returned to the icebound continent and became the first person in history to scale the 10,302-foot Antarctic mountain Byrd had discovered and named for him 65 years before. “You don’t hear much about people with a dream today,” he says. “It’s almost as if they’re afraid to discover what they’re individually capable of. But all of us have more inside us than we believe possible. To bring it out, we have to dream big and dare to fail.”
Will you dedicate yourself to the dream of this church with me tonight as I pray.
