REACHING OUR GOALS

So how do we reach our goals?
Last year I said that we need to
1. Pray
2. Tell people About Jesus
3. Invite people to Church
4. Work for the Kingdom
This year;
1. We must choose, what we want for ourselves, and our church in 2009!
Do we want to remain as we are for the coming year, or do we want to improve? We must choose who we will serve. Now you may be sitting there saying, “Well I got saved, ain’t that good enough?” and I say to you, “NO it isn’t!” That is just step one, if that is the best that you can do then you are still slobbering milk and wearing diapers. You know Zoe is still drinking milk and wearing diapers and that’s ok because she is only 4 months old, Eisley is 14 months, she is eating real food in small bites and she is still wearing diapers which is ok because she will be out of those soon. But Mia at 3 years old, if she were still in diapers and drinking from a baby bottle it wouldn’t be so cute or ok. But you know one thing I know for sure; all three of my granddaughters have been learning since they were born, they are active and learning. What’s our excuse? Are we spiritually growing and learning? Maybe we aren’t because we think that we are good enough just the way we are, maybe we don’t think we have to; maybe we are too lazy or too stubborn. I want to take a look at Joshua 24:15.
“And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (ESV)
Before you can choose what you want for yourself and for our church, we must know who we serve. What god do we serve? Do we serve the god of our own making, the god of this world, the god of possessions, or the God of all gods, the King of kings? We must choose who we will serve. When we can truly answer who we serve, then we can begin to move forward, but not until then.
2. Get Excited!
Romans 12:11-12
“Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (NIV)
Did you know that God wants us to be excited about Him? Remember in the book of Nehemiah, after the wall was finished and the Temple was cleansed, the people brought gifts, Ezra read the Word of God, the people confessed their sins and the people celebrated. They had choirs, and singers and they had gladness and thanksgiving and singing and cymbals and harps and the people were excited and made a new commitment to God and dedicated themselves to Him.
Remember the Prodigal son? His Jewish father ran to him when he saw him coming down the road, he was excited that his son was home. We need to get excited, we need to show EXCITEMENT!!!
3. Use our support system.
Our support system is our family and our church. Our support system is not those unbelieving people we work with who want to run down God and His church, our support system isn’t the ones who want to drag us down to their level. Our support system are the ones who want to build us up. We need each other!
1 Corinthians 12:24-27
“But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (ESV)
We are all a part of the body of Christ; we all need help once in a while. Now if you find yourself always being the one taking and never the one giving, you need to find out why.
4. Be Flexible!
“Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.”
Philippians 3:12-16
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.” (ESV)
We need to learn to listen to other peoples ideas, if we have been upset with someone, we need to forget it and continue on.
5. Take small steps.
To make your goals more achievable, come up with small goals you know you can meet each day to keep yourself on track and feeling positive. Not everyone takes as big of steps as you do, sometimes we need to allow others to take smaller steps, and sometimes we need to encourage them, mentor them.
Titus 2:3-5
“Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” (ESV)
We need to be teaching others, teaching them the way of God.
6. Work as a Team in building the Church!
We need to be working as a team in building up the church.
Psalms 122:1
“I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD." (NIV)
Now I want to look at Nehemiah again.
Nehemiah 2:17-18
“Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision." 18 And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, "Let us rise up and build." So they strengthened their hands for the good work.” (ESV)
The people had to rise up and build, the people had to decide to do it. It is time for us to rise up and build the church back. It is time that we decide what we want for our church in 2009, what do you want?