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.
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.
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