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Jun 30, 2013

God Wins!!! (part 4)

Passage: Haggai 2:20-23

Preacher: Tim Badal

Series:Consider Your Ways

Detail:

God Wins!!!

Let’s turn to the Book of Haggai.  We’ve been in a series entitled “Consider Your Ways” and have been asking the question, “Am I about God’s business or am I about my own?”  We’ve used the illustration of two doors and we’ll talk about those a couple of different times today.  As we make decisions and pursue different moments in our lives, are we going through the door of our ways or the door of God’s ways?  Are we choosing to follow Him and His ways?  Over these past studies, the prophet Haggai has taught us much through a book with which many of us were unfamiliar.  The Book of Haggai has taught us about our priorities, perspectives and purity as a people who want to follow and trust Christ with everything.

Today we’re going to look at a message of promise.  As we’ve seen, these messages have different purposes.  In week one, we started out with a message of exhortation.  It was a biting indictment to the people because their priorities were all out of whack.  Then in the second message, God came back with His prophet Haggai and encouraged the people.  We went from exhortation in message one to encouragement in message two.  Then the third message Haggai shared was exhortation again.  In some ways, he was kind of knocking the people against the wall and calling them to be a people of purity.  So the pattern in Haggai is one of exhortation, encouragement, exhortation and then encouragement again.

This is a message that I hope will encourage you greatly.  In this final message, the people of God are somewhat discouraged and God shares a message with one particular person—a man named Zerubbabel.  For any of you ladies who are pregnant right now and expecting a boy, Zerubbabel is a great name.  We don’t have it in the directory yet so we’re looking forward to one of you having our first Zerubbabel.

Now, we don’t know much about Zerubbabel, but we do know a couple of things from the genealogies.  We know he was a man of royal descent.  Many of you might think, “Well, that’s the life.  Zerubbabel’s got it all.”  But we’re going to learn that Zerubbabel’s grandfather was cursed by God because of his disobedience and faithlessness.  In this passage, Zerubbabel is the governor of Israel during a seemingly insignificant time.  He’s not the king of Israel because there’s no kingdom—just a group of 50,000 people who need a leader.  Zerubbabel is the leader of those 50,000 people who came out of the Babylonian captivity with the task of rebuilding the temple and beginning to rebuild the nation of Israel.

That’s where we find ourselves today as Haggai gives his fourth message.  We’re going to close our series in Haggai this week and then next week we’ll start a new series called “Rhythm: Trying to Find God’s Rhythm in Our Lives” Which we’ll do the rest of the summer.  Let’s give reverence to God’s Word as we read Haggai 2:20-23.  Here’s what the Word of the Lord says:

The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, ”Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders.  And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.”

Let’s pray.

Father God, we ask for Your blessing on the reading, hearing and teaching of Your Word.  Allow us to stand on Your good and true promises.  Remind us that You do win and You are the great Victor.  Let us live our lives in light of that victory so that our faithfulness may glorify and honor You.  I pray that You will be given the praise that is due Your name and that we may honor You in that way.  I pray You would speak through me in a powerful way.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.

This week’s study guide and devotional has a story about a mistake that takes place in a local Oregon newspaper advertisement for the First Christian Church cantata.  In the middle of the front page with bold letters, it read “Our God Resigns.”  It was supposed to say “Our God Reigns.”  Resigns, reigns—it’s amazing what one letter can do to a word.

How many of you were wondering this past week if our God has resigned?  It is easy for us to fall prey to such a perspective when we see events like those that have transpired in this past week.  It is easy to wonder if evil has finally won and sin has carried the day.  Because of the evil we see around us, we wonder if God has washed His hands of this planet and this race.  It sure does seem like the Christians’ best days are behind us and sin truly is winning the battle.  It seems odd that our nation is celebrating sin and debauchery with great flamboyance and excitement while despising holiness on every corner.

I’d be lying to you if I didn’t tell you that my heart absolutely sank this week at the decision of our Supreme Court to legalize gay marriage.  I was thinking, “God, it sure does look like the enemy is advancing.  God, I just don’t know.  You said Your church was going to prevail against the gates of hell (Matthew 16:18).  You said we were going to win, but it sure doesn’t seem like You’re winning at all.  It sure seems like sin is going to have its way.”

Then I open the Bible and I’m told a different story.  It may seem like the world and its sin have seized the day, but I want you to know something brothers and sisters.  I have a word of encouragement for anybody who is downtrodden, for anybody who is wavering because of what our country and our fellow citizens are doing in their pursuit of sin and for anybody who is wondering if God has a message for us.  In fact, God does.  While everybody is waving his or her own flag, God has His flag to wave.  His flag symbolizes one thing.  The church needs to hear this message loud and clear today: the Lord’s flag says, “I win.”

As a Cubs fan, I wave a flag when the Cubs win.  I don’t want this to be a point of contention—I know we have fun with our rival teams—but I’m going to wave a flag today.  This flag is not for my baseball team because neither of the Chicago baseball teams have anything to wave a flag about right now.  This “W” flag is the flag God wants to remind us about today.  He’s saying, “I win.”  I’m going to hang this flag up here because I’m a servant of the almighty God.  God wins and He’s waving this flag today.  People can wave their flags and announce their victories but God says, “You just wait because on a cross 2,000 years ago on a hill called Calvary, victory was secured.”

Christ’s victory gives us a truth in which we need to find encouragement.  This truth comes straight out of our passage.  Earlier this week, I told Amanda, “I’m discouraged.  It’s a sad day.”  Then I read our passage and saw that God has a message for us today that came 500 years before Christ and 2,500 years before us today.  This message was given to a single person—a political leader—on the same day that God shared a message of exhortation with the priests.  On that evening in December of 520 B.C., God sent word to the priests to get their lives in order and to get the peoples’ purity right.  These are good reminders for us as Christians.  God also said on that evening, “Zerubbabel, I’ve got a word for you.”  Just as He had a message for Zerubbabel, He has a message for us today.  The message is, “I win.”

Here is what we need to understand.  It’s a simple truth and outline that makes one sentence.  It will revolutionize the way we live in light of all that the media tells us.  In a time of great pressure and discouragement God reminds us that:

God reigns supreme…

Therefore we must submit to Him…

In all spheres of life.

1.  God Reigns Supreme…

Let’s break this sentence down.  In light of Christ’s victory, we recognize once again that God reigns supreme.  While the days of Israel in Haggai were at a low point—and while the days of spirituality and holiness in America seem to be at a low point—God has a word of encouragement for His people.  What we need to hear is what the people of Haggai needed to hear.  They were people who found themselves defenseless, lacking the power and might of what they had years before.  Their recent history was one of bondage and captivity.  Yet God announces to Zerubbabel in this passage, “I am still on My throne.  I am in control.”

I have no doubt in my mind that the people in Haggai’s day looked at their circumstances, looked at the world around them and thought the glory days for God’s people were over.  I know there are some of you who are feeling that way today.  In spite of all the events and headlines that have filled our papers and newscasts this past week, let me remind you of this simple truth: God has not left His throne.  Just as He did yesterday and the millions of yesterdays before it, God still reigns supreme today.  Just as with every day, God ushered this new day in being worshipped by the angels and all of creation as the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  While “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God,’” creation and the entire universe declares in one voice, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth” (Psalm 14:1 & 8:1).

Before God is through with Haggai, He wants to share one last message of incredible truth with His people.  He is, has been, continues to be and always will be ruling from His throne in Heaven.  How do we know this to be true?  Let’s look at the text.

His supremacy is seen in His prerogative…

We see that God reigns supreme in His prerogative.  That means He can do whatever He wants.  His prerogative is seen in the text through the word “I.”  Six times God says, “I am going to do this or that,” or “I am going to address this nation, army or person.”  He doesn’t say, “I need to get permission to do this.”  He doesn’t say, “If so-and-so says it’s okay, then I’m going to do this,” or “If circumstances lend themselves correctly, then I’ll do that.”  He says, “I will do ___(fill in the blank).”  That’s a prerogative.

One of the great things about being an adult is that you get some prerogatives.  Kids, you have no prerogatives.  I hated that as a kid.  I wanted to go do something but I couldn’t do it.  I had to go talk to Mom and Dad and the answer was usually no.  But as an adult, I get to do what I want.  But here’s the thing.  As much as we have prerogatives, we still have constraints.  I may say I will go to Fiji, but my bank account says, “No, you won’t.”  My job says, “No, you can’t.”  I want to do this or that but circumstances have to lend themselves to it.  We may have some human prerogatives, but God has celestial and divine prerogatives to do whatever He wants and it happens.  He doesn’t have to check with His calendar, supervisor, boss, wife or the school schedule.  He can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants and however He wants.  He will do it and He will do it according to His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).  Those are the prerogatives of God.

In verse 21 He says, “I am about to shake the heavens and the earth.”  That’s no small thing.  He goes on in verses 22-23 to say, “I’m going to overthrow the thrones of kingdoms.  I’m going to overthrow armies.  I’m going to take you, Zerubbabel, and I’m going to use you.  I’m going to make you a signet ring because I have chosen you.”

Brothers and sisters, during a week when your hearts are discouraged, let this statement soak into your hearts.  As I’ve said, we serve a God Who does whatever He wants, whenever He wants, however He wants to do it.  He’s accountable to no one and He does as He pleases in all ways and in all things.  So when we read the headlines and think the world is coming apart at the seams and think it’s out of control, remember that nothing in this world—not a single molecule—can go maverick on God.  No tree can say, “Well, I’m going to lean this way,” without God saying, “Okay.”  No animal can say, “Well, I want to do this,” without God’s express written consent.  That involves human beings as well.

Steve Cole —another pastor—says the following, “God is not some hysterical carriage driver trying to grab the  reins of an out-of-control team of horses that’s running to destruction.”  He’s not saying, “Whoa, things are out of control.  I have to grab them.  I have to rein them in.”  This week, God did not say, “Oh no!  Supreme Court, what did you just do?  You blew it!  Wow, I didn’t see that coming.  That messes everything up for us.”  God says, “I win and there’s a day coming when we’ll get this whole thing right.”  God is in control.

You might say, “Okay Tim, I believe that but let’s reinforce this.  We’re a Bible church so let’s go to the Bible and make sure the Bible supports what you’re saying.”  Isaiah 14:24 says, “The Lord of hosts has sworn: ‘As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.’”  Isaiah 46:8-11 says the following:

Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,” calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.  I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.

His supremacy is seen in His power

God reigns supreme.  He is not just talk—notice His power.  The things He says He reigns over are pretty big.  He’s going to rule over nations.  He’s going to destroy kingdoms.  He’s going to overthrow kings on their thrones.  On that great and glorious day, He is going to rise up and be the One Who will rule for all eternity.

Now some may say, “These are open threats.”  It is easy to say how powerful you are but when the going gets tough or you find yourself in difficult circumstances, it turns out that you’re just a scaredy-cat.  The classic movie and story The Wizard of Oz is a reminder of that.  Everybody is in awe of the great Oz but at the end of the story we find out the great Oz isn’t very great.  He’s just a little man behind the curtain.  Brothers and sisters, let us never think God is just a little man behind the curtain.  He is the great God, the only true all-powerful and almighty God Who reigns supreme on His throne.  God says, “I’m powerful.  If you wonder whether or not I’m telling the truth, then just look at my résumé.” 

When I was a little boy, I used to collect baseball cards.  One side of the baseball card had the picture of the player.  You could see him up close and personal—there he was.  On the back of the card were all of his achievements and statistics.  It listed his batting average, on base percentage, home runs, RBIs and all of his accolades.  It said, “This is what I’ve done as a player.”  Brothers and sisters, the Old Testament is God’s baseball card to us.

Do you want to know how powerful God is?  Then read the stories of the Old Testament.  God showed His power; He didn’t just talk about power.  Paul tells us, “For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (1 Corinthians 4:20).

God showed Abraham power when He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. 

Joseph saw God’s power when his brothers conspired against him.  Even though he was God’s chosen man for the hour, Joseph’s brothers didn’t see that to be the case.  Joseph’s brothers saw that the power and plans of God cannot be thwarted when they bowed down to their brother in Egypt, just as Joseph had been told.  

God showed power to a stuttering prophet named Moses by pulling him out of the hillbilly country of Midian to go and proclaim—with a stutter—“Let My people go.”  Because of God’s power, Moses was able to do this without an army or anybody else except his brother.  As a result of ten plagues falling on the land, the great Pharaoh of Egypt—with all his armies and power—let the people go. 

What about Joshua?  He was a young leader who followed up in the footsteps of the great man Moses.  The first thing Joshua saw after taking the reins from his predecessor Moses was the parting of the Jordan River—during flooding season.  Joshua also saw God’s power repeatedly at every one of the battles in the land of Canaan.  God had victory after victory after victory. 

David stood before the giant Goliath and—with no armor but only a sling and five smooth stones—killed the great giant.  David saw the power of God at work in him. 

King Hezekiah went to bed full of fear and trepidation because a couple hundred thousand Assyrians surrounded Jerusalem.  Hezekiah learned the power of God that night when one angel killed 185,000 Assyrians.

God doesn’t just speak about His power; He lives it.  One of the reasons we are so discouraged today is because we have put so much focus and attention on the world.  We have been thinking that our best days are over, but God is announcing to us today that He is just warming up.  The best days are yet to come.  As a people, we need to be praying for that to happen.  We need to pray, “God, showcase that power once again.”  Our prayers should be like those of Jeremiah who said, “Ah, Lord God!  It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm!  Nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17).  God is a god of great power.

His supremacy is seen in His predetermination

God’s power is also seen in what I call His predetermination.  Many of us take solace in the fact that God has control over the world.  That is good and right because nothing happens in this world without God giving a level of approval in the sense of allowing it to be done.  It can happen and God will see it all through in the end.  But sometimes we bring that to the lowest level and say, “Yes, God is in control.  He is sovereign over the world.  But what about me?  I have free will.”

Brothers and sisters, I want you to understand something very biblical this morning.  You cannot speak of God’s sovereignty over human history yet not believe God is sovereign over humans.  Let me say that a different way.  If you don’t believe God is sovereign over you, the decisions you make and the pursuit of Him in your life, then you will never be able to say God is sovereign over human history.  God is sovereign over the most powerful people in the world and He is sovereign over me.  I can’t do a single thing without God saying, “Let it be done.”

In this passage, we need to recognize that God is saying, “I need a man.  I’m going to use a man of My own choosing and his name is Zerubbabel.”  Now, nowhere in the text does it tell us that Zerubbabel had done anything of merit to be chosen.  God doesn’t say, “Well Zerubbabel, you were this kind of man.  You did these wonderful things.” In fact, John Calvin was right in his commentary when he pointed out that nowhere in the text does God ascribe any merit or excellencies to Zerubbabel other than that Zerubbabel was chosen simply because God saw fit to do so.

Now you might say, “Tim, the Bible speaks of responsibility.”  Yes, we are responsible for our actions before God and before others.  But brothers and sisters, never let us negate God’s sovereignty over the affairs of life and our salvation just because we have a level of responsibility.  Zerubbabel was chosen by God for a task and he cooperated with that because God willed him to do so.  There is no other way to understand this text; you cannot draw any other conclusion.

Here’s the truth we need to understand—go back to our illustration of the two doors.  Some of us have this idea that we can thwart the will and ways of God.  We think, “I’ll go my own way.”  Let me remind you of the story of Jonah.  God said, “Jonah, I want you to go east to Nineveh.”  Instead, Jonah went down to Joppa where he got on a ship headed toward Tarshish—to the west.  God said, “No.  You went through your door to follow your way.  I’ll take care of it.”  God sent a storm.  The men on the ship were trying to figure out the storm and were saying, “Wait a minute, what’s going on here?”  Jonah said, “The storm is about me.  I was supposed to go through God’s door but I went through mine.  God is just repositioning me to His door.  Throw me overboard.”  What happened?  God had the S.S. Whale waiting for Jonah who was then dropped off right on the shore to make his trek to Nineveh.

One commentary puts it this way, “Behind every one of our temporal choices, whether righteous or evil that man makes, is the sovereign eternal choice of God.” 

When I was a teenager, there was a time of rebellion in my life when I told my parents, “I’ll show you.”  I was going to make their lives miserable.  I was going to make them change some things.  Some of you teenagers may be thinking that for yourselves right now.  Here’s the problem.  You might be able to do that to Mom and Dad, but you can’t do that with God.  You can choose your sinful ways but God says, “Don’t worry about it.  I’ll just do a little course correction and bring you back where I want you.”  So every time you choose the door of your way, you may be thinking you’re in charge but God says, “My door is a whole lot bigger than your door.”

The doctrine of God’s sovereignty should challenge our hearts.  It should remove all pride and it does not need to be a doctrine of confusion.  But Scripture reminds us repeatedly that God choosing us is encouraging and comforting, causing pride to be cut out of our hearts.  We are reminded that salvation comes through no human effort at all.  This is so we can announce, “For by grace [we] have been saved through faith.  And this is not [our] own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that [none of us] may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

This is what God wants to teach His people: “I win—even over human beings.”  Here’s where I take solace.  God wins over Tim and He wins over the nine Supreme Court Justices.  With all due respect President Obama, God wins.  Just as God reigns supreme in Tim Badal’s life, God reigns supreme over the kings and kingdoms of the world.  Who cares what the newscasts say?  God wins.  We can live in that victory today.

His supremacy is seen in His plans

Finally, it involves one plan.  In the text we see that Zerubbabel is a type of Christ.  Some of you who are new to Christianity are thinking, “What in the world are you talking about?  What is that—a type of Christ?”  The best way to illustrate this is to say that Zerubbabel was a sneak preview to Who Jesus would be.  We see these types—these sneak previews of Who the Messiah would be—throughout the Old Testament.  Zerubbabel is one of them.  God is saying, “This is who My Jesus will be like.”

Richard Wolfe says this in his commentary, “Just as Zerubbabel led Israel out of Babylonian captivity, so will Christ deliver us from the captivity of our sin.”  Just as Zerubbabel was building the temple of God, so it is Christ Who intercedes and is building the spiritual temple in each one of us today.  Just as Zerubbabel would be the signet ring by which Christ would enter into this world, it is through Christ—God’s final and most exalted Signet Ring—that you and I are brought into the family of God.  Zerubbabel is a type of Christ.  He is a foreshadowing or sneak preview of what Christ would be like.

Here’s why we know this to be true:  None of the things God tells Zerubbabel come to fruition in his day.  No armies are overturned.  No nations are knocked low.  There is no mention of those things.  In fact, it is a pretty quiet time.  After Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi’s days are times of silence.

We see some of the things from our passage manifested in the Person of Jesus Christ spiritually, but we will see this fulfilled on one great and glorious day when Christ returns.  Turn in your Bibles for a moment to the very end—to Revelation 19.  The words God had for Zerubbabel are made manifest in Revelation 19:11-21.  Listen to what it says:

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse!  The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.  His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.  He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.  And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.  From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.  He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.  On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.”  And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.  And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image.  These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.  And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

What beautiful words on a beautiful day!  God says once again, “I win.  Checkmate.”  There’s a day coming soon and very soon—it’s not here yet—when the armies of this world will say, “Bring it on,” with their fists pointed toward God.  God will say, “Gladly,” and He will win.

God wins.  He reigns supreme.  We know that to be true based on His prerogative, power, predetermination and plans.  No matter what man conspires against God, no matter what the sinful world tells us, let us never forget to tell our children and ourselves that God has already won.  It doesn’t matter what our culture says is good and right because in the end God will be the only One standing.  He will be the only One Who will be worshipped and adored for all eternity.

2.  …Therefore We Must Submit to Him…

Brothers and sisters, God reigns supreme therefore our response must be to submit to Him.  Because of the flag of victory God is waving at us today, we have three responses.

We must recognize God’s timing, not ours

Submitting to God is submitting to His timing.  Haggai 2:6 tells us, “For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.”  God says, “…in a little while…”  Just a little while?  It has been 2,500 years!  He also says, “I’m about to…” meaning that the timing is ripe to take place.  Second Peter 3 has a reminder for us that amidst all kinds of scoffing, God’s timing is not ours.  Second Peter 3:3-12 says:

Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.  They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming?  For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”  For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished [the flood].  But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God…

God is coming.  His victory proves it.  But it will come on a day of His choosing.  So what is our job regarding His timing?  Our job is to be out announcing the victory to everyone.  God has won!  God reigns supreme and because He reigns supreme, we must submit.  Submission is salvation where we bow the knee and say, “God, You alone deserve all glory and praise.  To You I give my life.” 

We must rely on God alone

If we’re going to accomplish the task of submission, we need to rely on God alone.  Zerubbabel couldn’t do the task on his own; we can’t do the task on our own.  I’m greatly encouraged that in Zechariah 4:6, God gives another word of encouragement to his governor—the man whom He chose to serve.  Zechariah says, “Then he said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

So how do we claim the victory Village Bible Church?  We don’t do it by more programs, by raising all kinds of money in our own strength or by trying to do anything on our own.  We get on our knees and say, “God, because You’ve claimed the victory and because You’re the victorious One, we can be victorious as well.  So lead and guide us by Your Spirit and empower us to accomplish the Great Commission task You’ve given us.”  Rely on Him and Him alone.

We must respond through obedience

To rely on Him alone, we must respond in obedience.  I’m going to trust that you now believe God reigns supreme.  So if He reigns supreme, if His timing is always right, if He alone is our refuge, strength and ever-present help in times of trouble, then we only have one choice—serve God and Him alone.

Zerubbabel was the head honcho in Jerusalem during those days but notice the title God gives him in Haggai 2:23, “O Zerubbabel my servant...”  The only job we have in this world that matters is being the servants of God.  Are we serving Him?  Are we honoring Him with all we do?  When God calls us to something, are we doing it?  Here’s the problem.  We’re busy doing things; we’re just not busy doing what God wants us to do.

A couple of weeks ago, I was out in the garage and asked my three boys to come help me.  I love having boys because they can help you with tasks.  I said, “Guys, we have to clean the garage.  I’ll be back in a minute but I want you to do this, you to do that and you (the third one) to do this other thing.”

When I came back, none of it was done.  I started getting angry and the oldest one said, “But Dad, we’ve been busy!  We’ve been doing stuff!”

I said, “What have you been doing?”  He showed me that the middle son was out sweeping the driveway and the youngest son was pulling weeds.  I said, “That’s great, but that’s not what I asked you to do.”

Obedience is not measured by us doing stuff.  Obedience is measured by how much we obey.  Some of you right now are doing a lot of stuff, but you’re not doing what God has asked of you.  You’re busy doing things but you’re not obeying God because you’re doing what you want to do.  Yes, they may be good or noble things, but they are the things you want to do.  Obedience is doing what God wants you to do because He is the One in control.

3.  …In All Spheres of Life

Because He reigns supreme, we should be listening to Him.  We should be humbly serving Him in all spheres of life.  God is demanding obedience from us.  He was demanding obedience from the people in Haggai’s day and He is demanding it from us today.  Here’s the problem: Like the people in Haggai’s day, we are just giving a whole lot of lip service to God, “Oh God, You are number one!”  But it doesn’t show in how we use our time, where our money goes or how we’re raising our family.  We put God as number one on our list and say He is victorious, but it doesn’t show in our lives.  God says, “Enough is enough.  I am the One Who has won the victory.  I am the One Who is glorious.  I am the only One Who matters.”  It is time for us here at Village Bible Church—as it was for the people in Haggai’s day—to rethink our priorities, to review our purity and to examine our perspective in light of the promises of God.  If God wins, then what in the world are we doing with our sad lives today?  This truth needs to change who we are.

Because God reigns supreme, He wants all of us, not part of us.  He wants to make us like His Son.  He’s calling us to a relationship—a relationship that brings the blessings of Heaven in spite of your failures and faults.

Let me close with this thought.  Do you remember Zerubbabel?  I told you we don’t know much about him, but we do know he’s from a royal line.  His grandfather was a king who lost his throne.  We need to go back and look at an important passage in the Old Testament where we see God’s plans come forth.  Zerubbabel’s grandfather was faithless.  He lived his way instead of God’s way and God said, “Alright, I’m done with you.”  Look at the verbiage God uses with Zerubbabel’s grandfather in Jeremiah 22:24-28:

As I live, declares the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

Who overtook Israel?  Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.

I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die.  But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return."

Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for?

Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land that they do not know?

Who were Coniah’s children?  The second generation is Zerubbabel.  God said to Coniah, “I’m done with you, Grandfather.  You’re not my signet ring anymore.”  But because of God’s grace and mercy, He chose Zerubbabel and said, “You’re my prized possession.”  Why?  Did Zerubbabel do anything?  No.

Here’s the great thing:  Zerubbabel is a type of us as well—we who are cursed because of our faithlessness.  Jesus—because of His faithfulness—allows us to be part of the family of God.

How do we see that?  Turn in your Bibles to one more passage—Matthew 1.  You are probably thinking, “But Tim, Matthew 1 is the genealogy of Jesus.”  You bet it is.  That’s the last time we hear of Zerubbabel.  In Matthew 1:12-13, the history and line of Jesus is laid forth.  It says, “And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah [remember Coniah?] was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor.”  So Coniah was the grandfather of Zerubbabel who was the father of many.  If we follow the genealogy down we see that it eventually gets to verse 16, “And Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ [the Messiah].”

Zerubbabel was faithful and God said, “Your faithfulness and My sovereign choice of your life will be forever blessed by being part of the lineage of Jesus Christ.”  Some of you right now are living cursed lives of despair and discouragement.  You’re wondering what is happening.  If we are faithful, if our priorities are right and true, if our perspectives are focused on God and not ourselves, if we are pursuing God’s purity in our lives, then He says, “You have no idea the place you will hold in human history as I unfold My plan.”  There’s going to be a day that will be a whole lot better than the Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup victory celebration in Grant Park.  There will come a day when God will align all His people for the great victory parade and the victory celebration.  When we are faithful to the calling, He will allow us to participate in the greatest victory celebration to ever take place.

There’s something great about being part of history.  While I love American history, I don’t have a lot of American lineage as my father’s whole side is from the Middle East.  Yet there is a moment of pizzazz in my family’s history that I was reminded of when cleaning out my grandmother’s house after she passed away a couple of years ago.  My great-grandfather on my mom’s side was the personal chauffeur of the Illinois governor almost a hundred years ago, Governor Frank Lowden (1917-1921).  In cleaning out my grandmother’s house, I found a black and white photo in the basement of my great-grandfather standing next to Governor Lowden and they were meeting President Theodore Roosevelt.  In that picture, my great-grandfather was speaking and shaking hands with Theodore Roosevelt.  I had no idea what the date of that picture would have been.

This last week, I was in Galena, Illinois and visited a museum.  I saw one of the exhibits there about famous people who have visited Galena.  One of them was former president Theodore Roosevelt.  I have that picture of my great-grandfather on my phone so I showed it to the museum curator and he said, “I know when this happened.  There are less than 200 pictures of Theodore Roosevelt in circulation and you have one that we didn’t know about.  I can tell you the date of that event because there is only one time Governor Lowden met Theodore Roosevelt and that was April 27, 1900.  You have a picture to prove it.”

Let me tell you something.  When we are faithful to God, God takes a picture of that and He will announce it to the generations that are to come, saying, “I am victorious and here are men and women who stood in victory with Me.  Let Me tell you about them.”  We learned about one of them today—Zerubbabel.  Because of what he’s done, we are better for knowing him.

Let’s pray. 

Father God, thank You for sharing about Your servant Zerubbabel—Your signet ring—Your prized possession.  Thank You for declaring that You win to a man who was discouraged and brokenhearted by what he saw in the world of his day.  We need that encouragement today.  We see the armies, thrones and rulers of this world conspiring against You.  From a human perspective, it’s easy to wonder, “Do they have a chance of winning?”  Yet we hear in our passage today that You win.  You claim the victory.  You don’t do so just in word, but in action that is seen throughout human history.  In this moment of American history, we lament.  We wonder what the future will hold.  The future holds what You tell us—You’ve won the victory!  We can rest in that today.  No matter what sinful men try to do, You will bring it all under Your throne on that great and glorious day.

Lord, don’t let us leave this place with our heads down or walking out with loser limps; let us leave as champions because of Christ.  Let us go to our workplaces tomorrow with our heads held high because God has won the victory.  Let us announce that victorious call to all who will receive Him—to them He will give the power to become the children of God (John 1:12).  Let us announce Your victory in our schools, in our neighborhoods, at VBS and in our pulpits.  Let us announce it with every ounce of strength we have—God wins therefore we must submit in all spheres of life.  It is then that we are blessed.  It is there that we find abundance, contentment and peace.  Thank You Lord for Your encouragement to Your servants today.  Now let us live in light of Your victory as we leave this place so we may bring the glory, honor and praise You deserve.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.