Sunday, October 7, 2007

sprititual treasure

What a book: Haggai. Two chapters, 38 verses, rich with spiritual implications for life. Who would have thought that Old Testament prophecy could yield such abundant resources for our own lives? I have so thoroughly enjoyed preaching the 5 messages in our "Spiritual Treasures" series at Pantego Bible Church. I have especially appreciated the spiritual response of our congregation who has embraced diving headlong into this study. What a journey!

To summarize the series:

Haggai 1:1-11 ["You Are Here"]
We run to whatever we are most passionate about. The wrong treasure can end in a wasted hunt. But, when my highest treasure is God, my greatest pleasure is gained.

Haggai 1:12-15 ["Mapping New Coordinates"]
God supplies all that we need to follow Him: a God-sent message, a God-sized vision and a God-stirred spirit.

Haggai 2:1-9 ["Hidden in Plain Sight"]
When we don't feel that we're making headway in our spiritual journey, we can be confident of the hidden treasures of God with us in our work and us with God in His work.

Haggai 2:10-19 ["Striking it Rich"]
We can get stalled in our spiritual progress because holiness in one area doesn't cover every other area of our life, but past sin does carry forward in consequences and life contamination. The only answer is grace...amazing grace.

Haggai 2:20-24 ["X Marks the Spot"]
We live in the tension between two worlds by looking forward to the treasure of God's Kingdom come and living faithfully as the treasure of God's Kingdom choice.

2 comments:

Leilanni said...

My husband and I have both thoroughly enjoyed this series! Who knew that such treasure could be found in such a tiny book?

When I look for quick inspiration from the Bible, I most often turn to Psalms, Proverbs, Hebrews, Romans, etc. but this has me thinking I should do some deeper digging more often. In fact, by accident I stumbled one day onto Zephaniah and found a verse that floored me - and still does (3:17 . . ."The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.") The LORD sings over me??? What must that sound like??? I can't wait to hear that song one day . . .Makes me wonder what other treasures have I missed by overlooking those less-read books?

Anyway - thanks for bringing such a great, challenging message!

Anonymous said...

Wow even your comments are used by God. I had just being thinking about God singing over us. And here is my answer. Hey God