Hearing God’s Voice from His Word
James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
Take a moment and turn your attention to God. Tell God that you desire to trust and obey Him. Ask God to speak to you from His word.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 144:5-8 Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down!
Touch the mountains so that they smoke!
6 Flash forth the lightning and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them!
7 Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the many waters,from the hand of foreigners, 8 whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
Read the Entire Psalm
God is involved. Look at the first line of David’s prayer. Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down! David is asking God to intervene to involve himself in the affairs of the earth. God is involved. He is no spectator watching events unfold. He is sovereign over all the universe and he works providentially in human history. Thank him for taking interest in humanity. Praise him for being personally involved in all of life.
SCRIPTURE READING:
Haggai 2:10-19 – New Living Translation
Blessings Promised for Obedience
10 On December 18 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord sent this message to the prophet Haggai: 11 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says. Ask the priests this question about the law: 12 ‘If one of you is carrying some meat from a holy sacrifice in his robes and his robe happens to brush against some bread or stew, wine or olive oil, or any other kind of food, will it also become holy?’”
The priests replied, “No.”
13 Then Haggai asked, “If someone becomes ceremonially unclean by touching a dead person and then touches any of these foods, will the food be defiled?”
And the priests answered, “Yes.”
14 Then Haggai responded, “That is how it is with this people and this nation, says the Lord. Everything they do and everything they offer is defiled by their sin. 15 Look at what was happening to you before you began to lay the foundation of the Lord’s Temple. 16 When you hoped for a twenty-bushel crop, you harvested only ten. When you expected to draw fifty gallons from the winepress, you found only twenty. 17 I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce. Even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord.
18 “Think about this eighteenth day of December, the day when the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid. Think carefully. 19 I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn. You have not yet harvested your grain, and your grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees have not yet produced their crops. But from this day onward I will bless you.”
Having God’s Ear through Prayer
- Express thanksgiving to God.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin to you.
- Confess your sin to Him and receive forgiveness.
(1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sin He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins.”) - Bring your personal requests to God.
(Psalm 62:8 “Pour out your heart before God”) - Pray for someone in your small group.
- Join with others from River and pray for those who do not know God. Ask God to help you see the lost people around you and have compassion for them. Ask God for opportunities to build trust. Ask God to give you opportunities to have gospel conversations.
Living as God’s People by applying the Bible
Scripture Reflection from the Sermon
The whole system of the Mosaic Covenant is fulfilled and transformed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The Mosaic Covenant and its system of cleanness, uncleanness, and sacrifice was temporary and incomplete, a shadow cast by the more substantial, permanent, and complete covenant of Christ Jesus (Col. 2:16).
The Mosaic Covenant – the Law, and priests, and animal sacrifices – could not fully and finally solve the problem of sin (Heb. 10:4). Our inability to keep the good and righteous Law of God led to a perpetual experience of the curse (Gal. 3:10). And there was no amount of scrubbing that we could do to wash away our uncleanness.
So, God came to wash it away for us. Christ Jesus perfectly obeyed and fulfilled the Mosaic Law (Matt. 5:17-20). His life proved that He was perfectly clean, perfectly righteous, and perfectly free from the curse. But Jesus didn’t come to show us up; He came to save us. At His sacrificial death on cross, a Great Exchange happened: Jesus took our sin, our uncleanness, and our curse upon Himself. Then, through His resurrection, He overcame all of it and He now offers His perfect cleanness, His perfect righteousness, and His freedom from the curse as a free gift of grace to those who will receive it by faith. The result: by repentance and faith, we can stand before God fully and finally clean and righteous. Not simply with a cleanness of hands, but with a cleanness of heart (Acts 15:9). Not by our own merit, but by the merit of Christ on our behalf. Jesus is the New and Better Sin Offering by which, if you touch it, you can be made holy.
Praise God.