Sermon Central
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Getting Out Of A Rut
Contributed by Anthony Zibolski on Jul 10, 2018 (message contributor)
Summary: Everyone has advice, but not many offer wisdom when it comes to getting out of a rut. What does the Lord say about it?
Getting out of a rut
Prayer-
Introduction-
I want to talk about being in a rut and how to get out of a rut.
You know the standing joke about being in a rut is to stop digging.
But how do you do that? Universal question!
Everybody has advice… for someone else.
When I look at society, there are not a lot of people I would want to give me advice about getting out of a rut.
A rut is a hole- (man-made grave) spiritual, emotional, and yes sometimes physical.
A hole that you have gotten into and you do not know how to get out.
Most keep digging deeper and they make it worse and blame everyone around them but themselves.
People are yelling stop and you don’t listen.
In a rut…spiritual numbness… or stuck are common phrases for your situation.
I like stuck best myself because the times I have been there I was hoping that someone or something would pull me out of where I was and set me free because I felt stuck in my mindset, stuck in my situation, or stuck in my circumstance.
Illustration-
For me, I think of superglue.
You ever try to glue something with superglue?
When I am trying to put my life back on track…I am taking things and trying to piece them back together and if you are not careful, you get your fingers and other things stuck because you do not think those things through.
It is hard to get yourself unstuck! Use it if you like it.
If you we were talking and you told me your muscle went numb, I would think you lost feeling in it. It is numb!
You might reply back that your muscle is like pins and needles stabbing you and you are trying to get the pain to stop and get normal feeling back. How does that treat you?
Those of us who are a little older might add jumping up in the middle of the night with a Charlie horse and having to lay a certain way so you don’t trigger something crazy going on… but that is a different story. Sorry… bad memories!
Being Spiritual stuck or spiritually numb has a few faces.
It can be that you are not spiritually where you were with the Lord awhile ago and have digressed.
It can be that you are no longer hearing from the Lord or you are not listening to the Lord.
The opposite of spiritually stuck would be spiritually alive.
Alive…You are very sensitive to what the lord is saying and doing around you.
Which are you this morning?
Spiritually lacking something in your life or spiritually alive and seeing God do amazing things?
I don’t need a show of hands but either you said to yourself that things between you and the Lord are good or you just had to admit to yourself that spiritually you are not where you know you need to be.
Today we live in a society that will eat away every bit of joy you could possible muster up if you let them.
A million ways someone makes you sad, deals you a bad hand, talks bad of you for no reason, steals joy because of drama in their life, they bring you down.
Bummer takes on new meaning every day.
“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” Everybody says Amen.
Most of us would say… Jesus you cannot do that fast enough for me.
A lot of times, even though we are far from God, we hope that He would do that for you.
That God would crush the enemies of our lives under our foot and give us His peace.
This should have everyone of us saying Amen.
It should have us to our feet giving a God like that our praise and being encouraged to worship and serve Him with all our hearts.
If that does not get you to your feet- then you must decide if it is you not listening or God not hearing and responding.
A RUT WILL KEEP YOU FROM BEING SENSITIVE OF THE THINGS OF GOD
Times of spiritual dryness comes to everyone at times in our lives. (Repeat)
What we do with it will determine if we get out and how long it takes to get out.
God’s Word has something to say to us about spiritual numbness and being in a spiritual rut.
It is found in our text this morning and is usually associated with evangelizing others by sowing seed.
I want you to see this –
If it works for the Sower of seeds for others, the principal will work for the sowing of seeds for yourself. (Repeat)