Getting Ready
Introduction
: 100th Anniversary ‘Sunday Before’ message!
This coming week is a week of preparing for our 100th next week.
It is exciting, challenging, nerve wrecking and 7 days away (not yet but here)!
Proverbs 24:27 ‘Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house’. (NIV)
We have been doing and will do a lot to our facilities in the last weeks and months (video, audio, floor polishing, tree planting, room organizing, etc.) before our big day next week.
The agricultural metaphor of proverbs 24:27 can obviously be applied to our ‘spiritual house’.
Who we are….
What is important to us…
How we are going to accomplish what we believe God is preparing and propelling us toward….!
Transition: I want to spend a few minutes with you speaking about preparations.
I.
Preparation requires Inventory
• What shape is our field in?
• What is needed for maximum productivity?
• Why or what is causing it to be non-productive?
o Bad soil?
o Bugs?
o Nutrients?
o Not enough sun?
II.
Preparation Necessitates Planning
Application: One we’ve taken inventory, we must construct a plan.
• Does the ground need to be re-toiled?
• Does it need more/constant watering?
• Is it sowing or harvest time?
• Maintenance?
III.
Preparation Envisions
Results
Application: An established plan should envision specific results.
• Growth
• Productivity
• Expansion
• Fruitfulness
• Sustainability
IV.
Preparation Pursues Activity
Application: Inventory, Planning and Vision require a pursuit / tenacity for completion.
• Tenacity
• Patience
• Care / Oversight
Conclusion
: Before we move back indoors (house) next week, we are and have been trying to take care of things outside too!
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