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Sep 19, 2021

The Strength to Keep Building

The Strength to Keep Building

Passage: Haggai 2:1-9

Speaker: Andrew Kerhoulas

Series: Rebuild - Haggai

Keywords: holy spirit, peace, glory, rebuild, covenant, remnant, fear not, be strong

In the book of Haggai, rebuilding the temple after decades in exile was a sign that God’s people desired to recenter their lives around God. In Haggai 2, God speaks again through his prophet Haggai as they rebuild, this time encouraging God’s people with the strength they need to stay on task. In our difficult season, God has called us to a new rebuilding effort that echoes this ancient one in many ways. We’ll continue to explore what it is we’re rebuilding and the strength God supplies for his workers today.

Readings & Scriptures:

PREPARATION: Psalm 73:25-26

LEADER: Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

ALL: My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

CENTRAL TEXT: Haggai 2:1-9

1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet: 2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, 3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? 4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, 5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. 6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’”

CONFESSION OF SIN
Leader: Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.

All: Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.

Leader: Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness to do your will, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. Amen.

RECEIVING OF GRACE - Galatians 2:20

All: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

BENEDICTION: Based on Hebrews 13:20-21
LEADER: Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

All: Let us go forth to serve the world and build up his church as those who love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Leader: The peace and strength of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

All: And also with you.

Related SCRIPTURES:

Genesis 12:1-3
Exodus 29:45
Ezra 1-6
Psalm 27:1; 73
Ezekiel 47:1, 12
Zechariah 4:6,7; 8:9
Matt 26:61; 27:40
John 2:18-22; 16:33; 17:3
Romans 12:2
Hebrews 12:26-29
Revelation 21:22-26

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Biblical scholars note that for the prophet’s society, rebuilding the temple was a visible sign of the people’s determination to put God first. What about us today? How can we signify our desire to put God first in our late modern moment?
  2. Where do you need strength to carry on God’s rebuilding project? Take some time to pray to identify areas of discouragement, share it with others if possible, and then take hold of the strength God provides in the gospel.
  3. What has God provided for us in the gospel to help us stay on task with him? Take a moment to consider all that he has supplied you with, and let that move your heart to adoration.
  4. What role or skill might God have gifted you for our rebuilding project, to build up the church? Does that excite you? Why or why not?

QUOTES:

  • Wherever there is prophecy, there is deafness.... John Webster
  • ‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo. ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’ J.R.R. Tolkien – The Fellowship of The Ring
  • Work hard, then, on the disappointment or anticlimax which is certainly coming to the patient during his first few weeks as a churchman. The Enemy allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavour. It occurs when the boy who has been enchanted in the nursery by Stories from the Odyssey buckles down to really learning Greek. It occurs when lovers have got married and begin the real task of learning to live together. In every department of life it marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing. The Enemy takes this risk because He has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into what He calls His ‘free’ lovers and servants—’sons’ is the word He uses, with His inveterate love of degrading the whole spiritual world by unnatural liaisons with the two-legged animals. Desiring their freedom, He therefore refuses to carry them, by their mere affections and habits, to any of the goals which He sets before them: He leaves them to ‘do it on their own’. And there lies our opportunity. But also, remember there lies our danger. If once they get through this initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much harder to tempt....” - C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters
  • A lot of moral formation happens by being enmeshed in beautiful communities. Human beings are decent at learning, but fantastic at imitation. - David Brooks

BOOKS / DOCS

SERMONS / TALKS: 

  • Two sermons on Haggai 2 by Sinclair Ferguson: 1-5, 6-10