The One Thing That Makes Everything Better
Big Idea: The Closer You Walk To God, The More He Reveals His Presence to You.
Week 4 Main Scripture:
Haggai 1:12-15
Sermon Highlights
The Intersection of Obedience and Freedom
Freedom Without Obedience – Self-Indulgence
When life revolves around our personal freedoms, we approach the world as consumers, viewing the world and people around us as commodities to use for our personal pleasure.
Obedience Without Freedom – Slavery
The Fear of the Lord
It’s easier to deal with the known dysfunctional circumstances we experience than to step out of that familiar dysfunction and walk by faith into freedom. Trusting the Lord requires leaving what you know and going where you do not know.
The remnant that returned to Jerusalem chose to obey the voice of their God because they feared the Lord.
We fall into disobedience when we lack the fear of the Lord. When we don’t fear the Lord, we live like he’s not God.
Prosperity is a dangerous place for Christians because it becomes very easy for us to forget God and look to ourselves when we have all of our needs met. That’s why, sometimes, God chooses to pull prosperity away from us to return our attention to him.
“I Am With You,” Declares the Lord. (Haggai 1:13)
God is with you in the mountains and valleys. In the valleys, he will strengthen you.
You don’t have to live in the mountaintop moments of God’s favor, waiting for the next thing to go wrong in life. You can give him thanks in the presence of his favor and acknowledge that God brought you to that season of blessing.
In the valleys, you can be reminded that God is not like an absentee father. He is your holy, heavenly father who loves you and is still with you in your lowest of lows and when you don’t feel his presence.
The Church is the Hope of the World.
It’s just as important for us to go where God is as it is for us to bring the Gospel to those who are hurting, lost, and far from the Church.
The church is meant to be the Body of Christ, a spiritual family. Jesus didn’t come to build a civic-social organization or club. He came to bring hope to the world.
We Walk in Obedience, Not Perfection.
Obedience opens the door to God. (James 4:8) When we show up, God shows up.
We demonstrate our love for God by keeping his commands and being the kind of people he’s called us to be (John 14:21).
God doesn’t move away from us in our disobedience. In disobedience, we lose our ability to see God’s presence in our lives. Our sin is like a curtain that blinds us to God. When we walk in sin, all we can see is ourselves.
If you want to feel, know, and experience the presence of the Lord, begin to walk in his ways. Seek him (Jeremiah 29:13).
God’s Presence is the One Thing That Makes Everything Better.
How Do We Walk in Obedience?
How do we make the changes necessary to see more of God in our lives? How do we go from living worldly lives to Godly lives?
Abide in the True Vine, Jesus (John 15:2). You can attach your life to many other vines, but they won’t actually save and heal you like Jesus can.
We must remain in the True Vine of Jesus Christ because no branch detached from a vine can grow or bear fruit. Apart from the vine, a branch can’t do anything (John 15:3-4).
What Happens When Something Goes Wrong?
God gives us the ability to freely choose to love him, but He also allows people to walk away from him. As God cultivates the vine, he cuts off the spiritually unproductive—those who willingly choose to walk away from God and bear no spiritual fruit.
We were created to bear fruit in how we freely choose to love God and love our neighbors in such a way that we add value to their world by introducing them to Jesus Christ.
What is the Fruit?
The Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) is the evidence of the Holy Spirit within you. By reflecting on the list of spiritual fruits, we can measure our spiritual lives, which can give us discernment for what needs to change for us to be more spiritually fruitful.
What Happens When a Branch is Severed from the Vine?
In the spiritual pruning process, God removes the unhealthy and dead parts of us so that we can become more fruitful as we live out our identities as New Creations in Christ. God cuts away things from our old lives that limit our growth in our new life.
Additionally, the spiritual resources drained by what’s dead or dying inside can now be redirected to the more fruitful parts of our growth and relationship with God.
God’s pruning process can hurt sometimes. But the pain is necessary for healing from the things that, left unattended, could lead to the decay of your heart and even worse pain.
Looking to learn more about the book of Haggai? Go deeper here.
