2/1/09 Leader's Guide

Small Group Leader's Guide
Feb. 1st, 2009

Series: Our House

Getting Started

1) We are challenging each member to make a commitment to read God’s word every day. How are you doing in your Bible reading plan?

Getting a Bigger Picture of Haggai- For this week’s questions, we’re going to look at the book of Haggai in the context of several other books of the Bible. The book of Zechariah is a companion book of sorts to the book of Haggai. Haggai gives us a narration of the building project, Zechariah gives us a behind the scene’s look at the spiritual dynamics that were going on.

In the book of Haggai, we are introduced to two leaders – Joshua the high priest and Zerubabbel the governor. Both of these men are also mentioned in Zechariah. Today we’re going to look at what the book of Zechariah shows us about them.

Joshua the High Priest - Read Zechariah chapter 3 – This shows a spiritual battle involving Joshua the high priest.

1) What stands out to you most from chapter 3

2) Verse 1 shows Satan accusing Joshua, how does Revelation 12:10

3) Joshua was engaged in an important work, rebuilding God’s house. Do you think that Satan attacks us on a personal level to distract us from accomplishing a God’s will? What could that look like in real life?

4) In verses 3-5 clean clothes are put on Joshua, what does this wardrobe change represent?

Zerubabbel – One of the most famous verses of the Bible – “Not by might, not by power, but My Spirit” is found in the book of Zechariah. It is actually part of God’s message to Zerubabbel. Read Zechariah 4:6-10

1) Why would verse 6 be an encouragement as Zerubabbel is trying to rebuild God’s house?

2) Haggai 2:5 makes a reference to God’s Spirit, so does Zechariah 3:6. When attempting a God-given project, what is the relationship between working hard, and relying on God’s Spirit.

3) Read verse 9. In Haggai 2, we see that the foundation is being laid. Verse 9 lets us know that rebuilding the temple will not only be started, it will also be what?


4) Verse 10 is another oft-quoted verse in the Bible, about the “day of small things” or as some translations say, the “day of small beginnings”. At this point in the building project, not a lot of progress was being made. How could verse 10 encourage Zerubabbel?

The Ezra Connection - Haggai the prophet is mentioned by name in one other book of the Bible – the book of Ezra.

1) Read Ezra 5:1. What two prophets are mentioned in this verse?

2) Read Ezra 6:14 – In the book of Haggai the temple is just started. What is the status of the temple in this passage?

3) Ezra mentions the “preaching” of Haggai and Zechariah.


Prayer

1) Prayer for you – When you break into groups, take time to have members pray that you would keep God first in your life

2) Prayer for our church – Next Sunday we’re asking members to consider making a commitment to the church, Please pray that God would use that commitment to provide for our church and reveal His will for how to move forward.

Leader's Guide 1/25/09

Small Group Leader's Guide
Jan. 18, 2009

Series: Our House
Message: Avoiding Discouragement During a Spiritual Remodel
Haggai 2:1-9

1) Verse 3 includes three rhetorical questions that God asks the people. What the questions, and why do you think God asks these questions?

2) Read verse 4 – there is an exhortation to be strong. This exhortation is accompanied by a promise of God’s presence. How do spiritual strength and God’s presence go together? Read Joshua 1:9, it includes several elements found in Haggai 2:4-5 – a command to be strong, a promise of God’s presence and a warning to not fear.

3) Verse 5 ends with a simple sentence – “Do not fear” How does faith in God help you personally as you face fear. What about who God is, or what He has said helps you stand strong in the face of fear. Can you share an example of when that happened?

4) Verse 5 refers to a covenant that God made. What is the covenant that He is referring to?

Leader’s Note: God was not only faithful to bring them out of Egypt, He was faithful to bring them back out of captivity a second time from Babylon. This captivity was fresh enough on their minds. The general listening to Haggai had first-hand memories of Babylon. This reminds them of God’s power and faithfulness. An implication for this project is that God is powerful enough to finish what He starts.

As a supplementary verse, here is a prophecy from Jeremiah before the Babylonian captivity, that deliverance from this second captivity would be more on the forefront of their thinking than deliverance from Egypt.

Jeremiah 16:14 "However, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "when men will no longer say, `As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' 15 but they will say, `As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers.


5) In verses 6-7 God talks about shaking the heavens and the earth and filling his house with glory. Is this passage talking about the soon to be completed temple in Haggai, or does it also point to some larger spiritual truths?

6) The book of Haggai is quoted in only one other book of the Bible – in Hebrews 12:26. What portion of Haggai is quoted, and what seems to be the point of the Hebrews passage?

7) In verse 8 God talks about silver and gold. What is the purpose of letting people know that the silver and gold belong to the Lord?

Leader's Note: The silver is mine and the gold is mine’. We serve a powerful God who is able to provide any resources needed to accomplish His purposes. This is helpful when engaging in an expensive building project. This reminds us that, financially, God is in control. God actually does move on the hearts of foreign kings to provide for this building project.

First Cyrus, King of Persia

Ezra 1:3 “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, issues a decree to “provide him (the remnant returning to Jerusalem) with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.'"

Later, Artaxerxes, King of Persia, provided resources for the building the temple:

Ezra 7:19 Deliver to the God of Jerusalem all the articles entrusted to you for worship in the temple of your God. 20 And anything else needed for the temple of your God that you may have occasion to supply, you may provide from the royal treasury. 21 Now I, King Artaxerxes, order all the treasurers of Trans-Euphrates to provide with diligence whatever Ezra the priest, a teacher of the Law of the God of heaven, may ask of you-- 22 up to a hundred talents of silver, a hundred cors of wheat, a hundred baths of wine, a hundred baths of olive oil, and salt without limit. 23 Whatever the God of heaven has prescribed, let it be done with diligence for the temple of the God of heaven. Why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and of his sons?


8) Put yourself in the place of these people. If you were working hard to build God’s house, what in this message from God (Haggai2:1-9), would you find most encouraging?

9) In verse 9 he lets them know that glory of the new temple would be greater than the former. Can you think of a time in your life, when it seemed like the best was in your past, but then God surprised you by doing something even better.

New Small Group off to a Good Start

The new Sunday evening group is led by Curt and Terry Pflaumer (seen above) and hosted by the Nichols is going great. Here is a report from last night's small group.

"the group was great last night. We had 10 people, had lots of good sharing and learning and then had a great meal with Homemade lasagna, chicken tortilla soup and a really good chicken, corn and jalapeno dish. It was awesome"

Sounds good to me!

for more information, check out our small group page here.

Haggai Resource

Hey Small Group Leaders,

It's a little known fact, but I actually helped write a commentary on Haggai. I've posted the verse by verse commentary online. If you would like some materials on the book of Haggai, you can check them out here http://www.newlifecommunitychurch.net/Site/Haggai.html

Leader's Guide Week of 1/18/09

Small Group Leader's Guide
Jan. 18, 2009

Series: Our House
Message: Following the Blueprint for Blessings
Haggai 1:1-15

Getting Started:
Follow up from last week - In last week’s small group action steps, members had an opportunity to share one way they were going to put God first, and also ask a fellow group member to pray for them.

• Follow up for the person making the decision to change –what progress have you made?

• Follow up to the person praying – Did you pray?

Bible Reading Check Up - We’re challenging all our members to read at least a chapter a day from God’s word.

• How is your Bible reading going?

Digging Deeper:
Blessing and Cursings - Read Haggai 1:10-11. God shows the people that the problems they are facing are a result of their disobedience. This is not a new concept in the Old Testament people. When God first delivered his people out of Egypt (Prior to entering the promised land), He laid out two paths they could follow - blessing for obedience and cursings for disobedience. You can find these in Deuteronomy 28.

1) Read Deuteronomy 28:38-42. Do you see these happening in the book of Haggai?

2) Deuteronomy 28:45-47 tells us why these consequences will come. Read those verses. Based on these verses, what does God want us to do, what does He wants us to avoid?

Preventing Locusts? Deuteronomy 28:38 points out one specific consequence of disobedience is locusts devouring your crops. The book of Malachi (Like Haggai) is about putting God first. Read Malachi 3:8-12. In this passage, God tells the people that if they’ll tithe, he will do two things. 1) Bless them (vs 10) and 2) Prevent certain problems (like pest devouring their crops) (vs 11).

• In what way do you think these principles still apply today? Do you think God blesses those who give? If so how?

• Do you think He prevents certain problems from happening?

• What’s one principle that you can put into practice from this passage in Malachi?

General Sin or specific Sin? Haggai 1:12 points out that God was not blessing the “labor of your hands”. Read Genesis 3:17-19, in Genesis we see that when sin enters the world, it affects the labor of our hands. Genesis uses words like “pain” “sweat” “toil” to describe what our efforts will be like. So on the one hand, life is going to be hard, but Haggai seems to point an additional level of difficulty that God brought on the people.

• How can we tell when the problems we face are a result of living in a sinful world, or a specific consequence of a specific sin in our lives?

Obeying the Voice of the Lord - Verse 12 says that the people obeyed the voice of the Lord.

• How did the listeners know that the Lord had sent Haggai?

• In the Old Testament, how would you determine whether someone was a true or false prophet?

• In your life, how do you know if what someone says is from God or not?

Fearing the Lord - Verse 12 says that the people obeyed because they feared the Lord.

• What does it mean to fear the Lord?

• Share a time when you made a change in your life out of fear for the Lord.

• Sometimes change is scary, people avoid it out of fear. How can fear of the Lord help us overcome fear of change?

Stirring Your Spirit - In verse 13, it says that the Lord "stirred up" the spirit of both the leaders and the people.

• Share a time when God stirred your spirit to do something?

• Let’s say you feel internally moved to do something, how can you tell if it’s from God, or just human emotion? Is it important to distinguish between the two?

Putting It Into Practice:
• From today’s group meeting, what stands out to you the most?

• In verse 12, God’s people obeyed the “voice of the Lord”. Is there something God is speaking to you about? What steps can you take this week to obey?

• Do you need a reminder that God is with you? Pray for that in your small groups today.

Leader's Guide Week of 1/11/09

Small Group Leaders Guide
Jan. 11, 2009


Series: Our House
Message: Building on the Right Foundation
Haggai 1:1-9

Getting Started:
1) On Sunday we showed the God’s pie video - What’s your favorite pie?

2) The book of Haggai is about putting God first. One of the ways we’re challenging members to put God first is by reading God’s word each day.

• What is your Bible reading plan for 2009?
• How is it going so far?

Digging Deeper:
Quick Background of Haggai – Haggai is one of 17 prophetic books in the Old Testament. It’s the only two-chapter book in the Bible and the second shortest book in the Old Testament (Obadiah wins there). It’s one of the few prophetic books where God speaks to his people after they come back from exile in Babylon. (Malachi and Zechariah are the two other post-exilic prophets ). Nehemiah is another book written after the exile.

1) Read Verse 1 - it says that the “word of the Lord” came through the prophet Haggai – God speaks to us through is word. What did God speak to you about through the passage we looked at on Sunday?

2) Read verse 1 – The book of Haggai revolves around four prophecies. This first prophecy is initially directed toward the leaders (Joshua and Zerubabbel) but then expanded to all the people. Why do you think God starts with the leaders?

3) Read verse 9 - A common theme in the post-exilic books is a call for people to put God first. Why do God’s people get so busy with their lives that they neglect the things of God? How much is just busyness, how much is wrong priorities, how much is spiritual warfare? What about in your case, what would God point to as the source of your struggles in keeping Him number one?

4) Read verse 4 – Does God not want us to live in “paneled houses”? What is the point, or emphasis of verse 4?

5) In verses 6-9 we see that these people’s financial struggles were the result of God’s judgment for their lack of obedience.

• How can a person tell if their financial problems (or any other problem) are a result of something wrong their doing? How about if it’s just “life” happening?

• What advice or questions would you ask a person to help them sort through this question?

• Can you think of a time God pulled the rug out from under your life to reorder your priorities?

Putting it Into Practice

Making it Personal - In verse 4 God calls the people on their ability to find time for their houses but not for his. Can you point to a way in which you are finding time, money, and energy for your priorities, but not for God’s? What changes would God have you make?

Thinking about it as a church - In the case of Haggai, it’s not just that people were neglecting God on a personal basis (e.g. not spending time in prayer) they were neglecting God’s house.

• How can the busyness of God’s people negatively affect the church?
• What can be said or done to help avoid this?
• What’s one action you can take to make sure you’re part of the solution and not part of the problem?

Going on record – Share with the group one practical way you need to put God first. For each group member that does this:
1) Have one person in the group make a commitment to pray for them at least once during the week
2) Have the group follow up with the members next week to see how they are following through on making the changes


Check out this link for more Haggai resources http://newlifecommunitychurch.net/Site/Haggai.html