Don’t Put Your Investments In Bags With Holes

God often uses a single voice to stir the hearts of his people. These prophetic voices often come at crucial points.

• The Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s inspiring oratory is believed to have helped save Britain in WWII.

• On November 2, 1863, several months after the battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3), David Wills invited President Lincoln to make a "few appropriate remarks" at the consecration of a cemetery for the Union war dead. In early July, Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin had charged Wills, a successful local citizen and judge, with cleaning up the horrible aftermath of the battle. President Lincoln was not the key speaker. Yet, his speech turned the tide and allowed the battle for freedom and equality to prevail.

President Lincoln began his speech by saying, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

• A speech writer for George Bush, Sr., says Lincoln wrote the speech himself. Today, presidents and politicians will have as many as 150 people shaping their speech, in order to consider opinion polls.

God used Haggai at a very crucial time. His prophetic messages were preached during a four-month period in 520 B.C.

• 538 B.C. Cyrus, king of Persia allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem

• Zerubbabel led 50,000 Jews to Jerusalem and they began work on the Temple

• Work was halted because of opposition from the Samaritans and neighboring countries who feared the political and religious implications of the rebuilt temple

• Zechariah and Haggai began preaching in the Second year of Darius, who was in the religions of his empire

Other than Obadiah, Haggai is the shortest book of the OT. Yet, the sermons of Haggai led to the restoration of the Temple. There are three themes in his messages:

1. Encouragement,

2. Warning and

3. Hope.

May I suggest the secret to understanding the response of the people and their willingness to resume work on the Temple is not so much in the messenger as it is in the understanding that God spoke, and the people responded to Him? Haggai encouraged the people to “give careful thought” to their situation. He did not descend from a holy mountain with his face aglow and a written tablet in his hand. He did not rage like Jeremiah. He did not build eloquent poems like Isaiah. Haggai’s messages were simple and logical.

1. WHAT WOULD KEEP US FROM HEARING THE “WORD OF THE LORD” AND FAIL TO FINISH THE TASK GOD HAS ASSIGNED TO US?

We too often fail to hear the voice of God because we are overly charmed by the flood of consonants and vowels that we string together in our attempt to amaze people with our verbosity. In our text the words of the people and the “word of the Lord” are brought into tension. We are great at rhetoric. Yet, our greatest weakness may be that we have lost the ability to discern the “word of the Lord.”

Haggai 1:2This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, `The time has not yet come for the LORD's house to be built.' "

It is a sad day when the collective voice of the people exceeds the authority of God to direct his affairs.

Example: Myths and spin abound on Supreme Court contraceptive decision - See more at: http://www.tidewaterreview.com/news/politics/la-pn-supreme-court-contraceptive-myths-20140702,0,1620089.story#sthash.b67hPokU.dpuf

Half-truths and spin from both political parties have quickly come to dominate the debate over the Supreme Court decision on religious exemptions to the rule on insurance plans covering contraceptives. Both sides want to use the decision to motivate key blocs of voters in close elections this fall — religious conservatives for the Republicans, unmarried women for the Democrats. In that battle, accuracy about legal issues takes a backseat. - See more at: http://www.tidewaterreview.com/news/politics/la-pn-supreme-court-contraceptive-myths-20140702,0,1620089.story#sthash.b67hPokU.dpuf

Most of us are familiar with “Quality Control.” I did construction work on two major government housing projects at Fort Polk. I worked with a number of people who had no formal training and little experience in construction who were assigned to quality control. They loved to flaunt their authority, while wearing their crowns that were nothing more than glorified white safety hats. Sadly, they failed to insure the quality that the military expected. Buildings that were totally out of square; buildings that would roll and waffle at the mere shaking of posts on the porch.

God wants his church to learn something from the messages of Haggai. He would have us understand that there are too many “Quality Control Christians” and not enough Christians who will faithfully hear and respond to the Word of the Lord. Consequently, we have many churches in America, and in the world, who started strong but are now struggling.