Share Life
When it comes to inviting people to church, it’s easy to talk ourselves out of it. We want people to come to church, but we worry about it.
What will they say? Will they enjoy it or are they not ready? When is the right time? I haven’t seen them in a while, how can I ask them this week?
Now is the time to be inviting, sharing digital resources and having deeper conversations, but it’s not always easy.
Discussion
How are you feeling about your progress?
Is anything holding you back?
Are you doing what you hoped to do in Share Life 2020?
Pray
For each other and about our progress in mission, and for today’s study in Haggai 2.
To Start
Ants are small and unimpressive but can carry up to 50 times their body weight!
Can you think of other things that are small or unimpressive or unimportant but actually awesome?
Read
Haggai 2:1-9
1 on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: 2 “Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, 3 ‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? 4 But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. 5 ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’
6 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7 I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. 8 ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. 9 ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What has stuck with you from the passage or the sermon on Sunday?
Discuss
Why do you think Haggai tells everyone to “be strong”; and why separately rather than addressing the whole?
Look for each occurrence of the word glory—what does the passage tell you about this “glory”? What is this glory?
Sermon Extra
How do you deal with those moments of frustration or disappointment with church?
How does the future hope of glory that stands before us shape the way we think about church now?
To Close
In Haggai’s day, the state of the temple was unimpressive but the promise of God was that in the future it would be transformed. Its future glory was to be greater than the glory of Solomon’s temple.
This promise is true today for us as we look at the state of the church locally and internationally. It may look small and unimpressive but there is a future heavenly gathering that will be majestic and glorious (Revelation 7).
So let us wait patiently and continue to serve Christ for he is with us and will never forsake us (Matthew 28:19-20).
Pray
That we might keep our eyes fixed on what God has promises and not on earthly things—even the earthly church.
That we might each play a part in building up the church now while we wait for the return of Jesus.
That we might deal with frustration and disappointment in a godly way while seeking to build others up.