Putting It Together Again When It's All Fallen Apart: Saddleback Small Group Series

How do you stay motivated over the long haul? Appreciation is one of the most powerful tools for staying motivated and inspired to rebuild. 

CATCHING UP/LOOKING AHEAD 
  1. Did you see any answers to prayer this last week? 
  2. Who is one of the most thankful people you know? 
KEY VERSE 
How we thank God for you! Because of you we have great joy as we enter God’s presence. 
1 Thessalonians 3:9 NLT 

DISCOVERY QUESTIONS 
  1. What person are you thankful for? 
  2. How have others’ expressions of appreciation to you made 
  3. an impact on your life? 
  4. What do you think would help you be more appreciative 
  5. and get better at expressing appreciation to others? 
  6. What did this chapter say to you about how you express 
  7. appreciation to God? 
LIVING ON PURPOSE 

God’s five purposes for each of us are evangelism, discipleship, fellow- ship, ministry, and worship. In this section, we’ll look at how we can take practical steps to fulfill one of those purposes based on the truths we’ve looked at in this study. 

MINISTRY
Write a note of thanks and encouragement to someone each day this week. 

PRAYING TOGETHER 
Pray prayers of thanksgiving to God together as you end your group discussion. 

Creators & Guests

Host
Tom Holladay
Tom Holladay is a teaching pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. Tom’s passion in ministry is to help people discover a love for the Bible and an understanding of God’s truth that changes the way they live. In addition to his pastoral leadership and weekend teaching ministries at Saddleback, he assists Rick Warren in teaching Purpose-Driven Church conferences to Christian leaders all over the world. Books he has written include The Relationship Principles of Jesus, Love Powered Parenting with his wife Chaundel and (with Kay Warren) Foundations: Core Truths to Build Your Life On. He and Chaundel have three children and five granddaughters.
Producer
Saddleback Church
💙 Find your purpose and place at #SaddlebackChurch! 🏠 One family, many locations.

What is Putting It Together Again When It's All Fallen Apart: Saddleback Small Group Series?

Life crises can throw you into a tailspin, a lost job, a failed relationship, a struggling business, a financial mess. Where do you start? How do you pull it together? How do you begin again? Tom Holladay experienced a catastrophe first-hand when a sudden flood in California destroyed his home, his church, and the homes of many church members. Tom and his congregation had to rebuild, and they used the principles in the book of Nehemiah to get back on their feet. Now a teaching pastor at Saddleback Church, Tom will help you discover seven principles for putting it together again that will give you the direction you need to get rolling on that fresh start. Holladay will walk you through seeing every problem as an opportunity, facing the obstacles head on and taking your first step, knowing how to expect and reject opposition, build on your success, and dedicating yourself to the One who rebuilds our souls. The task of starting again can seem impossible. And sometimes you just need to rebuild your confidence and regain a sense of purpose. If you're trying to find the emotional energy, but you just don't have it in you, let Tom Holladay encourage you. He understands how difficult and rewarding the business of rebuilding is.

Download the study guide with each episode. And of course, check out the book "Putting It Together Again When It's All Fallen Apart" by Tom Holladay on Amazon or your favorite bookstore.

Welcome back for week three of our look through some video studies that go along with the book, putting it together again when it's all falling apart. You've probably caught on that we're in a, uh, construction yard. You probably hear the noise in the back round. Actually, we wanted to shoot this out here because it's a reminder of the fact there's a lot of work to rebuilding. And you're in week three of this. That means you're willing to do the work. You didn't just come one week or two weeks. You're really into this now. You're into week three. And then reading this week about how do you really get started in rebuilding, how do you stay motivated, and rebuilding is one of the keys we were looking at this week as we talked about appreciation motivating us in the rebuilding. And so the question I want to ask you this week as we start is how do you stay motivated over the long haul? How does this happen in our lives? As you've been reading this week in the book about the power of appreciating others, of thanking God, even as you're rebuilding, you've been thinking about motivation. How do you stay motivated when you put those things together, thanking God, appreciating others, you have great power for motivation in your life. There's other things that God wants to do in our hearts and lives that keep us motivated. In this study, I'd like to take a look together at what happens when you lose your sense of motivation. You got started, you were motivated, and all of a sudden it goes away. You just don't feel motivated anymore. How do you get it back? How do you strengthen it in your life? And I like to look to a short book in the Old Testament we don't look at a lot, a book by the name of Hagai. This book is about what to do when you lose your motivation. And I'd like to just walk through, uh, like the first 15 verses of the first chapter and sort of do a Bible study together on what these verses have to say to us about how to stay motivated. In verse two of chapter one of Hagi, we read about the fact that they lost their motivation in the rebuilding that God wanted them to do in their time. Hagi Two says this is what the Lord of Heaven's army says. The people are saying the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. So this is obviously about rebuilding the temple. And the people were saying, we got to do it someday. We're just not motivated to do it now. The time has not yet come. You see, we don't usually say, I've lost my motivation. When we lose our motivation, what we usually say is, right here, the time just isn't right. The time just hasn't come yet. And so because of that, our motivation goes away, and we never get back to what God wants to do. Now, in verse three, God immediately tells them the problem is that they're putting themselves ahead of God. It's not that it's not the right time. It's a problem with their own heart. So Isaiah hangouts one versus three to four says, then the Lord sent this message to the prophet Hagai. Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? So he writes and says, you say it's not time, but you had time to build your own houses, so how come you haven't had time to build my house? They weren't motivated for doing what God wanted them to do. They weren't motivated for putting God first. And the result, Hagi says, of putting themselves first, and we've all experienced this result, was that nothing was working. When you put yourself first, you find that nothing is working in your life. Everything you're trying, it just seems to slip through your fingers like sand. He writes to me about this in verses five to seven. Listen to what he says. This is what the Lord of Heaven's army says. Look at what's happening to you. You've planted much, but harvested little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink, but you're still thirsty. You put on clothes, but you can't keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes. This is what the Lord of Heaven's Army says, look at what's happening to you. So in this, he's giving them this very simple advice you need to put God first. He says you have success in your life, but it's not working. Nothing is keeping together, staying together in your life. If you feel that that's happening to you, it's often a reminder to look and say, who am I putting first in my life? Is it me first or is it God first? So, hey, guy gives them this very simple advice begin to put God first. You stay motivated listen, you stay motivated in the rebuilding by putting God first. Don't put the rebuilding first. That's a mistake a lot of us make. No, you put God first. So, Hagai, chapter one, verse eight, he says this now go up into the hills, bring down timber and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. So here's a question for you. What would God take pleasure in in your life? What do you think you could do that God would be pleased by? What decision could you make? What action could you take that you think God would be pleased by me doing that? It could be financial. God would be pleased if I invested what he's put into my hands in this way. It could be relational. God would be pleased if I treated this relationship in this way. As I say that, what does God bring to your heart? What would bring joy to God? There's an amazing difference in motivation that happens when we put God first. Now, there are several verses here, but I want to read to you what happened because it's important in the book of Hagai to understand what happened when they did exactly what God said to do. When they obeyed and began to put God first, all of a sudden everything changed. So Hagai, 112 to 15 says this then Zerubbabel, who led in this rebuilding project, then Zerubbable, son of shield and Jesuit son of Jehovah's, the high priest and the whole remnant of God's. People began to obey the message from the Lord their God. When they heard the words of the prophet Haggai, whom the Lord their God had sent, the people feared the Lord. And then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, gave the people this message from the Lord. I am with you, says the Lord. So the Lord sparked the enthusiasm of Zerubbabel, the son of shieldeil and the governor of Judah, and the enthusiasm of Joshua, son of Jehezodak, the high priest, and the enthusiasm of the whole remnant of God's, um, people. And they began rebuilding the house of their God, the Lord of Heaven's armies on September 21 of the second year of King Darius's reign. So even though the date that they started to do this that they got motivated again to rebuild, they put God first by obeying him. And all of a sudden the motivation came back. There are two powerful things that happen when you put God first that changes the sense of motivation that we have in our lives. First, you have a renewed sense that God is with you. Hang out, says to him, God is with you. When you know that God is with you, you're empowered to do things that you thought you never could do. Because it's not you doing it, it's God who is with you, working with you. If you feel like God is a million miles away from you, of course you're not motivated. Who'd feel motivated when you feel far from God? And guess what? We all feel far from God sometimes. But when you put God first in your life and begin to discover again that God is with you, then the motivation begins to return. And then he says to them again and again that their enthusiasm came back. In fact, the words here are he sparked the enthusiasm. Who wouldn't want that for our enthusiasm to be sparked? We think, I could do it if I just had the enthusiasm. You know the word enthusiasm means in theos, in God. So when you know that God is with you, then the enthusiasm gets sparked and God gives you strength that you never had before. It's amazing the ways that we try to spark our enthusiasm apart from God. When the word means in God, uh, the only way that your enthusiasm is going to come back is by thinking, god, what's the one thing you want me to do, and you start there. What's the one thing that would be pleasing to you in my life? And you start there. When you start with obedience, when you put God first, god will often return your motivation much more quickly than you thought it could be. Now, there's one final verse I want to share with you from hey, guys. From the next chapter, chapter two, verse 19. It talks about God's promise and how it works in our lives, because I want to remind you that it doesn't always happen as quickly as you want. Even though God is working, as certainly as we know we can trust Him. So Hagai 219 says, I'm giving you a promise. Now, while the seed is still in the barn, you've not yet harvested. Your grain and your grape, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees have not yet produced their crops. But from this day onward, I will bless you. That's my prayer for you is that you will know that even though the seeds are still in the barn, you haven't seen anything starting to happen yet in that relationship or in your finances or in your business or whatever needs to be rebuilt in your life. You haven't seen it start yet. Even though the seed is still in the barn, you will know that God is working. That seed is going to get planted, that seeds going to grow. God's going to bring a harvest, a crop, and abundance. I pray that you'll know that God will, from this day on word bless you. When you know that you're going to stay motivated because you're hanging on to Him. You're not hanging on to the circumstance. You're hanging on to him. I want to remind you as you talk in your group the next few minutes about the power of appreciation. You're talking about one of the things that keeps you motivated. Obeying God. Trusting in God, that keeps you motivated. Appreciating others, recognizing the fact that God has put other people into your life, that keeps you motivated. Appreciating. God thanking him gratitude. That keeps you motivated. So as you obey God, listen to Him. God will keep you motivated for the long haul. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you that the motivation is not somehow in us, but it's in you. Who you are, what you've done, how you want to work in our lives. So we ask ourselves that question once more. What is the thing that would please you? What is the thing that I need to do to obey you? Because God, that thing you've put into my heart, you've put it there because you love me, because you want to do something great in my life. So help me to listen. Help me to share it with others. Help me to look to you for strength. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.