A Great Lesson from Haggai

We are in this great series this summer called Summer Breezes where we are looking at seven of the most overlooked books of the Bible because of their length.  They are short books so if we aren't real careful we will just breeze right over them.  This week we looked at the book of Haggai.  It was written in 520 BC as God used Haggai to encourage the people rebuilding the temple that the Babylonians had destroyed in 586 BC.  The last visiosn of encouragement that Haggai received was to Zerubbabel.  He was the little known leader of the people doing the rebuilding.  Apparently he felt like many people feel today who find themselves called to lead.  He felt overwhelmed and God says, "Just serve me faithfully."
The warning to Zeb was, "Don’t feel useless or powerless, God is in control."   2:20-23 That is how Zerubbabel was feeling.  He had limited military might.  Only 42,000 had made the return voyage to Jerusalem.  He was feeling, “I can’t maintain this once we build it.”  God says, “You do what I have asked of you and I’ll take care of the rest.”
That is all any of us can do!  Take care of what we are asked to do and let God handle the rest.  You just serve Him faithfully. 
Several people talked to me after last week's message from Obadiah about forgiveness and holding a grudge.  You can only control you!  You can’t  make someone forgive you or accept your request for forgiveness.  You can only control you!  So you serve Him faithfully and let God take care of the rest!
God tells Zerubbabel that He will make him His signet ring.   That was huge because that was the symbol of being God’s Davidic ruler.  The king from the line of David.  When the people were following Him, God removed that blessing from Jehoiakim.  But the return of His blessing brought hope!
God may be calling you to lead in a very powerful way that everyone will notice, or he may be calling you to lead from behind where no one will notice but Him.  Whatever God is calling you to do, wherever He is calling you to lead ... SERVE HIM FAITHFULLY!