Sermon post...Haggai 2:20-23...God Is In Control! Thank goodness!!!

 

Sometimes, better yet, many times things don't always go as planned.  Many times it isn't what I expected.  Many times I don't get what I want.  Scary when I am talking about last Sunday's sermon!  What do I do as a leader when the sermon doesn't go as planned or didn't come off like I wanted it to?  What do I do when the message I was trying to convey fell flat in my opinion?  What do I need to remember and do as a leader when these things happen?  I think this is the jest of the passage closing out the book of Haggai and also my feelings when driving away from the church on Sunday.

Stephanie said, "That was a little anti-climatic to last Sunday's sermon."  She was being kind and also very truthful.  This is why I look forward to writing about a sermon after I deliver it and also to the next time I will be able to present this material.  My first run at it in front of others rarely satisfies my mind that I have communicated well what God has said.  Sorry Weymouth Community Church for being the first to hear it.

Zerubbabel, the govenor of the Israelites, is last addressed by God through the minor prophet Haggai.  The leader is reminded that God is in control.  God has been in control in the past with a reminder of the burning bush and the deliverance of the Israelites at the Red Sea out of the hand of the Egyptians.  God is in control in the present with Zerubbabel seeing God provide again all the materials needed to complete the temple after a 16 year work stoppage and the decree to come back to the Promise Land from 70 year exile in Babylon.  God is in control of the future as Haggai reminds Zerubbabel of Ezekiel's words about a coming day when God will produce the final judgment.  

Leaders need to be reminded that God is in control.  Because God is in control and we are not, sometimes it doesn't look like or run like we thought it would.  Zerubbabel probably came back with high hopes of seeing a completely temple in no time flat but then opposition arose and he sided with the "they sayers" rather than the words of the LORD of hosts.  After the 16 year work stoppage and a 24 day sermon from Haggai, now comes the discouragement of "the weepers."  They were remembering what Solomon's temple looked like and this one was not going to compare.  Put on top of this is the message to the priests, the spiritual leaders of the day, to remind the people that they are unclean and only God is holy.  Any work apart from Him or thinking it would gain any merit with Him was to be seen as unclean.  Zerubbabel was the governor of the Israelites and not the king of the Israelites because his grandfather Jeconiah, the king of Judah, was a wicked king and was to be seen as childless before God because he did not follow the word of the LORD of hosts.  Jeconiah's actions contributed to the exile of the Israelites from the Promise Land to Babylon.  His heritage, his actions, and his surroundings could have been very discouraging to Zerubbabel, the leaders, on how things were going.

Zerubbabel is now traveling a different route than his grandfather king who died in a land that was not his own.  Zerubbabel was again obeying the words of the LORD of hosts after a 16 year work stoppage.  God declares, He sayeth as it will happen, that during the last days, the days of the Messiah, Zerubbabel will be used by God, He will get or fetch him, as a servant or slave of God, and put or appoint him to be like or a symbol of "the" signet ring to come because God chose him because God is in control.  Therefore, Zerubbabel, was instructed to keep being a faithful servant of the LORD of hosts.

I used the example of the apostles in Acts 1.  Luke tells us in verse 2 that they were chosen by God.  They wanted to know when the kingdom of Israel would be restored in verse 6.  Jesus answers them with a "that's not for you to know" in verse 7.  In verse 8, Jesus shares what He wants them to be, witnesses of His resurrection.  They didn't get what they wanted but Jesus gave them instruction on what He wanted them to be.

Jesus ascends into heaven in verse 9 and in verse 10 we find the apostles getting a kink in their necks looking up.  No doubt they were thinking this in not how they thought this would end.  They get some instructions from the angels in verse 11 and then they do in verse 12 what leaders need to do when it doesn't turn out they way they thought.  They obeyed and went back to Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit that Jesus said was coming.

While they are obediently waiting, Peter is reading the Scriptures and relaying what happened to Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Christ.  In verse 20, he finds in the book of Psalms the prophecy of Judas' death but also that he should be replaced.  What happens in verse 21 and 22 is that they obey again what Jesus said because whoever is to replace Judas needs to be what Jesus said they are to be, a witness of the resurrected Lord.  

2 men are presented that fit the bill of being witnesses but the buy in to who is in control comes in verses 24 and 25.  And they prayed and said, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two You have chosen to take the place of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place."  The leaders were following the procedures that God had given them through the words of Jesus and the Scriptures but the ultimate decision was in the hands of the One who was in control.  They would cast lots and the lots would fall in favor of Matthias but God was acknowledged as in control of it all.

I drove away from the church not feeling so great about my delivery of the sermon.  There are many times as a leader that it doesn't go the way I wanted it to go.  What is my next step?  What do I need to be reminded of when I am standing still just looking up?  I need to be reminded that God is in control and I need to be a faithful servant like Zerubbabel and keep obeying His words.  There are many discouraging things in our world today, many things I never thought I would never deal with as a leader of the church or even the leader in my home but God calls us not to see the finished product but to be faithful to the One who knows and sets the times and seasons by His own authority.  

Adam