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Title: The Twelve
Scripture: Luke 9:1-6
Speaker: Bill Shirlaw
Date: 29 January 2012
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| Title: | A call to build |
| Reference: | Haggai 1:1-15 |
| Notes: | Haggai, 4 month period in 520 B.C. King Darius was on the throne. In Haggai we are dealing with the right people. People whose devotion and zeal for God were evident. They were people who were in the right place. They were in Jerusalem at the call of God. They wanted to be about the right work. They had to work for all the things that we worked for, clothes, food. They needed to establish schools, but they also wanted to rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:2ff) They were working for the right reasons. You could image them building the temple with pride. So these were good people doing the right thing, living in the right place, trying to do the right work for the right reasons. But as the years had gone by, they had got caught up in their own agendas to let the work to which they came originally to do, just slip away. In some ways there is only one message that is in the book, and it’s “Give careful thought to your ways.” (v.5, 7) People had become a bit distracted. And they had begun to make excuses. “The time has not yet come for the Lord’s house to be built” (v.2). Is that what we sometimes say in reply to Jesus? “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in panelled houses while this house remains a ruin.” (v.4) God was accusing the people of having plenty time for themselves while pleading a lack of time for God. The people were prospering, how could it be that they were unable to get on with the work God had given them to do? People had lost their sense of priorities. They had lost their sense of way. They were putting other things in front of God. And even when they did that, they never had enough. “You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to be put in a purse with no holes in it.” These people never had enough. Doesn’t that remind you of the consumerism of today? People have more and more of everything but people were so unsatisfied. And because of their misplaced priorities they were facing lean times. “Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I make take pleasure and be honoured.” For us, it’s getting on with serving God to the best of our ability. One of the hardest things to face in Ministry is that, sometimes, we stand here and preach and wonder if we actually change people’s lives. Are people listening? From time to time there is something quite different; when the word of God strikes home, and a life is genuinely changed. This happened under Haggai’s preaching “So the Lord stirred up the spirit” “the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began work on the house of the Lord Almighty their God, on the 24th day of the 6th month in the second year of King Darius (v.14-15). Haggai began preaching on 1st day of the month. We can work out the days from other books in the Bible. So Haggai spoke on the 30th August 520B.C. The work began on the 21st September. Maybe the Lord can begin to stir up your spirit today. |
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