Suffering- Sorrow- Affliction; Do we need to even define those words?

The words just somehow speak for themselves.  They are words filled with sadness and hurt.  A friend recently described to me her sorrows as the inability to breathe. Although there was air all around her, she felt like she was suffocating.  Another described it as being in a glass, watching everyone live their life as normal, but not knowing if they could survive tomorrow because theirs had forever changed. 

I am reminded of the verse in Ecclesiastes 3:11

“11 and I know God has made everything beautiful for its time. God has also placed in our minds a sense of eternity; we look back on the past and ponder over the future, yet we cannot understand the doings of God……
No matter how much we try to understand the ways of God, there are some things we will never understand. However, he promises one day that he will wipe every tear from our eye.  The Desert song by Hillsong is such a great song it talks of praise for God even when we are in the desert
"All of my life
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship"

May we always remember that God is still on the throne so we will always have a reason to sing!

When Chad and I first got married he was a serious rule, OCD kind of guy (still is I have just reformed him a bit).  When I would sit down on the couch and rest from doing something outside, I would go to put my shoes back on, and they would be gone.  This became very irritating after a while.  The real problem came when he began redoing things I had already completed.  So this is the conversation we had early on, “If you are going to come behind me and redo things, then I am not going to waste my time doing them in the first place.” So we made a deal right then, that there were some things he would completely do because he wanted them done a certain way, which was fine with me.  However, he could not complain or gripe about doing those things because he had freely taken on that entire responsibility. You see the hardest thing we have had to learn, and still learn, is that we are not the same.  God did not create us to function in the same way.  Although I am not a list maker, or a control nut, I function just fine.  When his list gets off and all messed up, I can improvise and everything still works out.  It may not be how we planned it exactly, but sometimes it is even better.  He on the other has made me a little neater, and maybe a tad OCD about some things.

I tell you this just to reemphasize that God gave us all gifts and talents.  If we spend all our time trying to make everyone else function just like we do, we will be highly disappointed.   Not only will be disappointed, but it can be exacerbating for those around us. The scripture in 1 Corinthians 12 says, “4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he will. 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves[d] or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.”

Did you listen to the first two lines?  There are varieties of gifts and service, but the same Spirit, and the same Lord.  Basically people may do things differently, but ultimately it is to bring glory to the one true God. He also informs us that the body has many members.  This is another reminder of why we should embrace different people’s talents and gifts.  Our body cannot operate 100% the way God created it, if we are missing a member.  The same is true in the body of Christ.  The church needs people functioning at all different levels to make the church work.  For example, administration may be someone’s greatest ability, but they do not have a creative bone in their body.  Someone may be awesome at managing money, but is a terrible communicator.  The list could go on and on but you get the point.

 I think as a minister, my biggest mistake would be to micromanage my team.  You see I have tons of people in my ministry and they are all different.  I give them the umbrella, and an outline to work under; then they put their personal touch on their lessons.  It is amazing to go into different rooms, and here the same story, but told in unique ways.  I am so blessed to have teachers that make it fun for the kids by using their gifts.  If I as a leader tried to make them all teach the exact same thing, the exact same way, it would leave no creative ability.  For me to do this would be a sin, because I would be stifling their spiritual gifts, that God himself gave them.

I think this verse is just a good reminder that no matter where we are; in our home, work, school, church, extracurricular activities, and on and on, we will always be dealing with different people.  If we learn to focus on the things people are good at, it will make our life a whole lot easier.  We need to come to the conclusion that life is not like math; there are usually several different ways to come to the same end result.  If we embrace all the talents and gifts that God has put in our life, and in those around us; he will truly do amazing things!!

Haggai Chapter 1:1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” 3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? Declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busy himself with his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”

The people had been putting off the rebuilding of the temple.  Shortly after returning from their seventy-year exile they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem under the leadership of Nehemiah. They also laid the foundation for the Jewish temple under the leadership of the Jewish priest Ezra. But that was sixteen years earlier. They started out strong, but something happened and they lost their focus. They kept putting off rebuilding another day, another week, another month, and then before long it had been years.  There was obvious financial struggle and political instability during these years, but God knew that was not the problem.  So God simply ask them a question through Haggai.  “You can live in paneled houses, while my house is in ruin?”  There is nothing like a straightforward question to put things into perspective.  Basically in the terms of today he is saying you can afford a new car, a new house, a boat, a camper, random lessons for the kids, ball, vacation, and the list goes on and on, but you don’t have enough to tithe?  Some of you may stop reading right here, but I would encourage you to see how it ends.  So this causes them to take a look at priorities, and where they were spiritually.  Then he goes on to say, “Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.”  They would plant crops expecting much, but would get little.  They had clothes, but would never be truly warm.  They would earn money, but something would always takes it, leaving them poor.  He is saying you are focused on all the wrong things and because you continue in that way of thought; you are never satisfied. You will never have enough because I have withdrawn my blessing.”  God had caused a drought in the land, the hills, the grain, the wine, the oil, and the beast because they were so busy worrying about them selves they had forgotten about Him.  8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be honored, says the Lord.  The Hebrew phrase "be honored" in v. 8 can be translated "reveal my glory." In other words, God’s glory was being obscured by his people’s misplaced priorities.

So Haggai instructs them to rebuild.
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” 14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Please don’t miss this part.  Because the people were willing to be obedient the Lord stirred up their spirit, and said, ”I am with you.” He energized them, and gave them a renewed strength.  He gave them confidence they could accomplish the challenge. Ministry can be taxing mentally and physically, but God is willing to stir us up, to energize us, if we are willing.  You can do ministry until you are blue in the face, but if it is not in God’s will and timing, it will be exhausting and you will find no joy in it.  Some people see ministry as a chore.  The problem with this is that a chore is viewed as a non-pleasurable event.  Listen we don’t have to serve God at all, but we have the privilege. There is a huge difference when you are serving under obligation, and when you are serving from your heart.  If you feel obligated you are going to show up so you can say you were there, and do as little as possible.  When you are “stirred up” you are glad to be there, and are putting 100% into it because you know you are glorifying God.  Which way are you currently serving; out of guilt, or out of gratitude? 

What an awesome Savior we have that he is willing to meet us where we are.  Because they were willing to take a step toward him and refocus, he again made his presence and blessings known.  He wants us to dream bigger dreams, and expect bigger things.  He wants us to take him out of the tiny parameters we have placed him in, and give him full reign.  The Bible says, “We have not because we ask not.”  So why are we not asking?  I think we are not asking because we have come to expect nothing.  When we return our focus back to God, and give him the things that are rightfully his; there are no limits to what he can accomplish through us.  Allow God to begin to stir in you a new heart, with a new vision.

Malachi 2:13 ….. You cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 14 But you say, “Why does he not?” …………Chapter 3:8  Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Malachi has been a tough book to hear from so far.  In the first few verses in today’s passage, the people are coming before the Lord with tears and weeping, wondering why God is not answering them.  The reason was their lives were filled with un-repented sin.  They had violated their marriage vowels, and had not separated themselves from idols as God commanded. They did not want to change their way of living; they just wanted to change their immediate circumstances.  Ever found yourself in that kind of situation.   Let’s say you want to lose 30 pounds, but you refuse to limit the amount of sweets you eat.  What will the outcome be? You will not reach your goal because you refused to give up the culprit. The same can occur in a spiritual sense.  We want to see God’s blessings poured out in our life, yet we don’t want to obedient in order to receive them.  We want our cake and eat it too, so to speak.  Everything we do that is worthwhile will require sacrifice.  Satan is always in our ear saying: What do you get from tithing? What do you get from teaching Sunday School? What do you get from being in the choir? What do you get from always trying to do the right thing? What do you get for sacrificing your time? What you get is God.  Sometimes we belittle this statement because we have limited who God is or can be in our lives, but in reality we are getting EVERYTHING!  He is the alpha and omega; he is our Abba father, great physician, redeemer, our rock and fortress, Savior, our everlasting life!

He is telling the people if they will stop robbing him and bring their full tithe, full talents, and full devotion, he will bless them.  He says if you do these things see “if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”  Do you hear what that verse is saying?  You be faithful and trust me, and I will pour myself out so much you will have no needs.  About 10 years ago Chad became ill.  We were in the hospital for a while, and had some serious bills because we did not have good insurance at the time.  We got a bill in the mail for $482.63.  I remembered thinking we cannot afford to pay this bill.  I was doing the Beth Moore Bible study Believing God, and I began to pray.  That afternoon when I went to the mailbox I had an unmarked envelope.  As I opened it up there was 483.00.  There was no name attached, or markings of any kind.  He met me where I was because I had a need, and I was relying on him to meet it.  I am sad to say I have not always lived my life in that way.  Sometimes I have allowed Satan to discourage me so much that I am not expecting deliverance, or for God to meet a need, so therefore I have limited God in my life, by my own choosing.  However in other times like the one above he more than graciously opened the windows of heaven for me.

I want to leave you with one last story.  This summer was a crazy summer.  I literally was out of the office for a month with camps, etc.  During this time God spoke to me about starting AWANA.  I tried to put it off because I knew it would be so much to undertake and my summer was crazy already, plus I had other things to try to get into place as well.  I finally agreed in my spirit this was the right thing to do, and then announced we would be bringing AWANA back. I can remember sitting at my desk one day, getting off an hour-long conference call with an AWANA ministry consultant, thinking I have lost my mind.  I said, “Lord this is just not possible in this amount of time, not to mention the fact that I have never done AWANA and have no clue what I am doing. I don’t even have a budget. I have so much going on I just can’t do it.”  He quickly reminded me that I was not the only one capable of serving the Lord in a church of 500 people.  So I repented and ask for him to take this project on because although I was not capable, he certainly was.  In a matter of a week I enlisted a commander and a main secretary, both, which did not even have kids in the program.  From that point in about four weeks we recruited four directors, four assistant directors, four secretaries, and almost fifty volunteers.  If you have never worked in children’s ministry, you cannot even begin to comprehend what a miracle that was.  Then there was the problem of a budget.  I didn’t know the Lord was going to lead me in that direction so therefore; I had not budgeted for AWANA.  I needed a portable AWANA game mat which was going to cost me $2,000, and material that was going to cost at least that much to get started.  So then I began praying about finances.  I called a church to check and see how their game mat had worked for them, and the man said it’s in our attic.  I proceeded to ask if he would consider letting us buy it.  Needless to say it is in our activity room floor right now, and is the exact size we needed.  He is letting us use it for a month to try it out, and said they would take a donation to their children’s fund.  Another church was not doing AWANA and said I could come pick up all the material they were not using.  I packed my van full of curriculum, T-shirts, etc. for only a nominal donation. This literally saved us thousands of dollars. Then there was a question of how we would get everyone fed because we would start at 5:45 on Wednesday, leaving people in a bind for feeding their family.  Chick-fil-A was so nice to help me set up a plan where families could have their food waiting on them when they arrived at church.  Our first night was last night, and it was great!  I tell you this story for no other reason than to once again praise God that he can do anything.  I stood in need of knowledge, and God placed people around me who were very experienced in the AWANA format.  I stood in need of volunteers, and God filled all my positions.  I stood in need of money, and God delivered the materials.  It only took the act of obedience for him to open up the windows of heaven and pour out blessing after blessing until all the needs were met.

I encourage you today --Do not rob God, but instead experience the blessings he longs to pour out on you!