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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 occupy |
| Reference: | Haggai 2:1-10 |
| Notes: | This follows on from last week as they begin to build the temple in Jerusalem. They had returned from Babylon some 15 years earlier and had started to rebuild. Ezra gives a bit of an insight to what was going on. He says that there was some sort of celebration. The priests put on the vestments. They were praising God for allowing the foundations to be laid again. “But, many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of the temple being laid.” (Ezra 3:12) Because what they saw, they saw wasn’t going to be like the old. It was going to be different. But, with all that going on, they would feel that what they were doing wasn’t worthwhile. They have to pick up their tools again and begin to build with the words of the older priests and Levites ringing in their ears. Sometimes we compare the Church of our day with that of previous ages. The Church of Acts. The Reformation. The Evangelical Revival....the Birth of Congregationalism. So God tells Haggai to tell them “Who is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?” God wanted to begin with realism. Nothing wrong with that!! We need to be realistic about where we are at, or where we were at and where we have moved to. So if we are on the way up, that needs to be acknowledged. Because we will never be like it was in the past, because we are building something new. We are building something different. And God wants those who are building the new to understand that he is with them. Sometimes we can feel what we are doing is being talked down and we can begin to doubt ourselves. When people stand on the verge of something new, God or one of his messengers has to tell someone to be strong. Moses “Be strong and courageous” (Deut. 31:6). Joshua “Only be strong and courageous” (Josh 1:18). Solomon “Be strong and courageous and do the work” (1 Chron. 28:20). Paul saying “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” (Eph. 6:10). All this points to the promise of God’s presence. They people of Haggia’s day were building a temple that they could see wasn’t going to be glorious at least when compared with the temple built by Solomon. They were looking backwards, and from that perspective things looked bleak. But they couldn’t see that the present was leading to a future that would make even the temple of Solomon look dingy. “In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake the nations and I will fill this house with glory.” (v.6-7). Martin Luther; George Whitefield; James Haldane. These are all people who shaped where we are today. Not always popular with people who looked back, or with people who wanted things to stay as they are. But they were used by God as part of his plans “to shake the heavens and the earth.” Maybe we need to give ourselves a shake. Haggia’s call is to occupy. Not a land, not a building, but to occupy a positive state of mind. That builds for the future. That believes what is possible. |
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