Difference between revisions of "Haggai 2:1-9 Consider your Future"
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=Introduction:= | =Introduction:= | ||
==Image: Reflecting on yesteryear is so common== | ==Image: Reflecting on yesteryear is so common== | ||
| − | The other day Emily and I were talking about our days in school and I caught myself saying something like, "back when we were in school they would have never let us..." Once | + | The other day Emily and I were talking about our days in school and I caught myself saying something like, "back when we were in school they would have never let us..." Once I realized what I had said I thought, oh no, I can't believe I did that. But it is a temptation we face as we grow, a temptation to focus on what used to be and not realize that our focus should be on Christ. |
==Need: We need to keep our focus on God.== | ==Need: We need to keep our focus on God.== | ||
Revision as of 16:44, 15 May 2023
Theological Proposition/Focus: It is God who brings glory, nothing else.
Homiletical Proposition/Application: We must realize that we ultimately serve God and if we keep God at the center then we won’t be disappointed.
Introduction:
Image: Reflecting on yesteryear is so common
The other day Emily and I were talking about our days in school and I caught myself saying something like, "back when we were in school they would have never let us..." Once I realized what I had said I thought, oh no, I can't believe I did that. But it is a temptation we face as we grow, a temptation to focus on what used to be and not realize that our focus should be on Christ.
Need: We need to keep our focus on God.
Preview: We can get caught up in a focus on the wonder of how things used to be and lose strength in the midst of frustration and disappointment but unreality, the problem is our focus. We need to remember that it is God that brings glory to anything.
Text:Haggai 2:1-9
Setting the Stage:
Body
Everyone is susceptible to a little yesteryear-itis (2:1-3).
Large projects inevitably hit snags and snags can bring frustration and disappointment (1).
Large projects effect people at all levels (2).
Memory is always a caricature (3).
Image: Our construction project
Here we are 10 months into construction. We have hit snags and these snags have caused some construction. We have had victories. We could focus on the wins, we could focus on the losses. But in both cases our focus is not on God! We need to focus on the God who has given wins and the God who has brought us through losses. Remember, it is not about the building, it is about the God who is giving us the building.
MTR: Take a second and ask yourself where have you allowed your focus on tester-year to take your eyes off of God?
Frustration and disappointment should be confronted with strength and faith (2:4-5).
People at all levels must confront frustration and disappointment with strength (4a).
Real strength and faith motivate action (4b).
Ultimately, our strength comes from God and our faith is in His faithfulness (5).
Image: Grit is important but it is nothing new
Ecclesiastes 1:9 states "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
I first came across the term grit while looking at graduation rates at the university.
It seems the term became popular around 2016 with the publication of a book on the concept of "grit"
One psychologist Angela Duckworth defines grit as "perseverance and passion for long-term goals"
A lot of academia is about taking a concept and developing a term to describe it. In fact, grit is nothing new. Here in Haggai God calls on the leaders and people to have grit. He says,
be strong. i.e. persevere
I am with you -> have faith -> look at the long-term goals.
MTR: Determine to confront frustration and disappointment with strength and faith.
The truth is that our unchanging God is the only real source of glory (2:6-9)
Don't settle for anything less than God's glory (6-7).
Recognize that it is God who brings glory not a physical object (8).
Ultimately, the ultimate display of God's glory is in his grace and mercy (9).
Image: Trying to recreate something special without special people.
Galactic Battlegrounds
In college Emily and I were married and Friday nights we would have my brothers and a bunch of friends over to the house for large LAN Star Wars Galactica BattleGrounds parties. If you know what that is, welcome to the nerd club, if not just understand it is very nerdy. We would play long into the night until we had such large armies that the computers would start to crash. Later in life, I have gotten out the game and tried to play it by myself and guess what, it is not nearly as much fun. What I have come to realize is that the game itself was not actually where all the fun was located. The fun came from the act of being with friends. The same holds true for God. We need to be careful, God's glory is not this building! No, God brings glory to his building. The real source of glory is God. Let's keep that front and center.
