Have you ever in your life, screened calls? I see this so many times in movies and on TV, particularly in Western shows, where the phone would ring and they would the machine pick it up and then decide whether to answer or not depending on who it was. For those of us who don’t have machines, have you ever on purpose had somebody else answer the phone, and if it’s for you, tell them that you were or weren’t home, again depending on who it was?
It’s even easier these days, what with the majority of personal calls being done on mobile phones that can display the name of the caller on the screen, so you know whether to answer or not. With my earlier phones, when I didn’t want to answer the call, there was no way to ignore the caller without letting phone ring right through to the end, letting everyone around you find out that you were ignoring a call. These days phones are a bit more sophisticated, having features like ‘Mute’ and ‘Ignore’. I know mine does this. When I don’t want to answer a call, and I don’t want the caller to know, I can simply hit ‘Mute’ and the phone stops making a sound on my end. This is especially handy for when I’m in a meeting. Or for when I really don’t want to answer the call.
Last week in the book of Haggai, we learned that God is calling upon the people of that nation back then to build His Church. He gave them clear instructions, with no cause for misinterpretation. “Build my house,” God said. “Go to that mountain, and get this timber, and build my house that I may be honored.” Those are all very straightforward steps indeed, it doesn’t get any clearer than that.
In this next part of our series we will discuss their response to this charge that God set upon them.
- Then… the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent Him (v 12)
- God can speak to us directly, but He can also speak to us via other people
- We should obey our leaders and submit to their authority, for they have been put above us by God’s grace. Hebrews 13:17
- [NB] God spoke through the prophet Haggai then but what about the present? How does God speak to us now?
- [NB] How should we respond when we hear the voice and call of God?
- [VC] What do you believe God is speaking to us about in the famous Great Commission passage, Matthew 28:18-20?
- “I am with you,” declares the Lord. (v 13)
- The Lord stirred up … the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. God will not give us a burden that will be too heavy for us to carry.
- God will provide for us the time, talent, resources, and skills that we need in order to be of service to Him.
- [NB] What areas in our lives do we doubt that God is with us?
- [VC] Do we serve God out of convenience, because we have the resources to do so, or because we love Him?
- They came and began to work on the house of the Lord. (v 14)
- The level of importance of the house of God to us will be reflected on the time, talent, and resources that we invest in it.
- Obedience to God is the natural, spiritual outgrowth of our faith.
- Obeying our heavenly Father results in blessings so numerous and varied that we could never list them all.
- [NB] Do you think that the house of God is important? Why?
- [NB] How do we respond to God’s call to build His house?
- [VC] Is outward conformity enough in our obedience to God?
- [VC] What is the difference between obedience and sacrifice? 1 Samuel 15:22
- [VC] Apart from obedience, how else can we respond to God’s call to build His house? Genesis 22:12b