A Revival Of God's Work

Intro.

Illus. RV Power Switch

Scary thought to spend our entire life working, but not working on something that mattered to God.

History of Haggai - The people had returned, there was a lot of early zeal to rebuild the temple, but then life set in, there was some opposition and the work stopped. For 16 years, the temple of God, set unfinished in Jerusalem.

The work of God had been neglected in the lives of His people

Illus. My conversation with Jen - I was working, just not on the things that mattered to her.

Scary thought to spend our entire life working, but not working on something that mattered to God.

The parallels here for the local church (our church) are everywhere.

The temple was the place where God was worshipped.

In the new testament, through Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit of God temple worship was replaced with the church - the “ecklessia” -the gathering of believers - but his Work has never changed: to see people brought back into relationship and worship of God

Our mission: to help more people find and follow Jesus

God has called his people to His work

Have you been neglecting the work God has called you to?

We Need A Revival Of God’s work

What Keeps You From God’s Work?

Haggai is speaks in order to address the problem that the work of God had been neglected

He calls the people of God to “consider” their ways

That word does not mean “to think about” - it literally means to arrange or put in place.

He is saying that God’s work had been neglected because His work, was not sitting in the right place in their lives.

Their priorities were out of wack - We prioritize ourselves over service, material over mission, our kingdom over God’s kingdom

And there was consequence for it, life was not working the way they thought - Read

What we discover is that God’s plan for our lives is a work that is bigger than ourselves - “It’s not about me”

Love God, Love our neighbor

What Keeps you from God’s work? - The work of God isn’t in the right place and priority in our lives.

What Empowers You For God’s Work?

One of the most common reactions when we consider our place in the work of God is this: Fear that we aren’t capable of serving God

Haggai delivers a second message to the people of God in chapter 2:1-9 and addresses their insecurity and discouragement.

They had fallen into the comparison trap, and the overwhelming size of the task as well as the feelings of inadequacies that they would never be able to compare to work of those before them had them paralyzed

Haggai offer’s them important truth: Be Strong because God is with you.

Everything they need to do the work that God had called them to they would find in the strength and power of God.

This is the same idea that Paul would write to the church, that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

God is Strong, God Is With You - Fear Not.

What Motivates You For God’s Work?

Haggai’s final message is so incredibly powerful and offers us a motivation to embrace the work of God wholeheartedly.

God was going to move powerfully because of the work of his people

Read

God was going to use the work of his people to “stamp his authority” on the world around them

Read

I want to see the power, authority and work of God stamped into our homes, our community, our schools, etc.

Conclusion

Church the work of God had been neglected

Our priorities are out of wack

For some of us, this is a call to serve in our church, for some this is a call to generosity, for some this should be a call to evangelism

Are we going to sit and soak or stand and serve

Don’t be afraid God is