When Your Efforts Feel Fruitless
Big Idea: You Cannot Change What You Cannot Define.
Week 3 Main Scripture:
Haggai 1:5-11
Sermon Highlights
How We Tend to Interact with The World
We often find ourselves falling into one of two categories:
- Thinkers: These individuals primarily interact with the world through thinking more than doing. They can get caught up in theologies, philosophies, and plans but struggle to translate their thoughts into action. They may know what God desires but hesitate to step out in faith.
- Doers: These individuals are more likely to rush into action than consider the implications of their choices. They can spend most of their time moving from one task to another, and they may struggle to slow down enough to hear from the Lord.
As disciples, we’re called not just to believe the right things and think the right thoughts but also to do the right things to make a difference in the world around us.
Two Things That Every Person Needs to Address to Be a Better Disciple:
- Am I Thinking the Right Things?
Proverbs 20:5 reminds us that “Insight draws out purpose.” We can discover and understand our motives and expectations when we think deeply about our actions.
In Haggai 1:5, “Give careful thought to your ways,” isn’t a call to fear or hesitation; instead, God invites his people to consider how they’re acting in the presence of God and other people.
- Am I Doing the Right Things?
We don’t always have access to the deep waters of our souls. Psalm 139:23-24 urges us to ask God to search our hearts, revealing the hidden fears, anxieties, and anger that must be addressed.
The “offensive way” that the Psalmist refers to is anything that violates the character and nature of God in our hearts. God does not see you as offensive. He sees something offensive in you that needs to be removed so you can fully experience a relationship with him.
Big Idea: You Cannot Change What You Cannot Define.
If we’re unaware of the deeper motives that drive our actions, we can’t expect to change our actions effectively. When we’re able to name our fears, anxieties, desires, and anger, then we’re better equipped to surrender them to God for his help to change. If we’re not willing or able to admit what lies in the deep waters of our souls, it will stay there and sabotage our lives.
Discipleship means surrendering the broken, messy, and hard parts of ourselves so that God can make us more like Jesus.
After surrendering our brokenness to God, the next step is to confess it to a loving, trusted brother or sister in Christ. When our brokenness no longer remains hidden, its power begins to diminish. But we often avoid this step of confession because it requires work and is vulnerable.
Who Know You Like You Do?
1 Corinthians 2:11-12 shows how you have the capacity to know yourself in a way that’s different from anybody else’s. In the same way, no one knows God like the Holy Spirit. We come to the Father through the Holy Spirit because the death and resurrection of Christ opened access to the Father.
Because the Holy Spirit is with us, in order to hear him, we have to stop polluting our minds with thoughts and overloading ourselves with activity. Instead, we must slow down, listen, and ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and guidance.
When Things Seem to Get Better But Aren’t Better
Sometimes, things seem better than they were before, but we’re unable to name the problem or solution. If you cannot define the problem, it’s likely that it didn’t go away; you just had momentary relief that resulted from something good while the deeper issue remained.
Often, when you begin to dig deeper into your problems, on the path to a solution, they get worse before they can get better. It may not be that new issues are being created, but rather, the already deeply hidden problems are now at the surface. But now that you can see them, you can work on them.
Why Does God Disconnect Productivity from Activity?
In Haggai 1:6, we see that God began to frustrate the Israelites’ experience with him by disconnecting productivity from their activity as a result of not building the temple. Planting led to little harvesting. Eating and drinking didn’t satisfy them. Clothing did not warm them. Their wages vanished after they earned them.
There are at least two possible explanations for why God would choose to disconnect productivity, results, or benefits from our activities:
- We have become rebellious, and he wants to get our attention.
Without consistency and intentionality, we quickly lose focus and priority in our spiritual lives. God can use seasons of fruitlessness to awaken us to how far we’ve strayed from the path of relationship with him and the purposes he calls us to.
- He is preparing you for something big and wants you to depend on him for your outcomes.
As productivity and reputation increase, so does the temptation of pride and self-reliance. God can use low-productivity/high-activity seasons to build the strength and character necessary to handle the more productive opportunities in a way that honors and glorifies him instead of ourselves.
Looking to learn more about the book of Haggai? Go deeper here.