12/20/2022 DAB Transcript

Haggai 1:1-2:23, Revelation 11:1-19, Psalms 139:1-24, Proverbs 30:15-16

Today is the 20th day of December welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire this little oasis in all of the festivities, this little calm serene place for our souls to rest, a safe place, a quiet place to allow the Scriptures to just wash over us and into us together in community. It is fantastic to be in that place with you today as we take the next step forward. And our next step forward….we’ve kind of got a trend going now…is to read another complete book in the Old Testament. This book is called Haggai.

Introduction to the book of Haggai:

Like a lot of the other minor prophets, we don’t know a lot about who Haggai was. We know that he was among those that were able to come back from the Babylonian exile after the destruction of Jerusalem and probably he was one of the first wave of exiles to be able to come back to the ancestral homeland. We know that he had access to the people that were in leadership because the opening verse of the book of Haggai tells us that the message was delivered to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah. And that name Zerubbabel should sound familiar, because we got to know Zerubbabel when we read through the book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah. And Haggai’s message was also delivered to Joshua the high priest. And what Haggai’s doing with this message or maybe better said, what God is doing through Haggai through this message is to motivate, to get the people off there behind and off themselves, as it related to the reconstruction of the temple. And, so, Babylon, we went through all of the Babylonian conquest during our journey through the Scriptures this year. So, when Babylon conquered Jerusalem and…and took the people into exile this was about 586 BC. And then Babylon was conquered by the Persian Empire in 539 BC. And, so, the new king, the Persian king Cyrus allowed the exiles to begin to return to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel’s leadership around 538 BC. And then comes Haggai 18 years later in 520 BC. And we have good authority from the book of Haggai. Haggai actually dates some things more precisely than anything else in the Bible - August 29th through December 18th 520 BC. 18 years later Haggai comes with this message, because during the 18 years the temple was still incomplete. All the kinds of things that we read about in Ezra and Nehemiah were going on. There was political opposition. There was intimidation and the people had begun to rebuild their lives in their homes. And the temple was supposed to be the centerpiece, like the place where God would come and dwell among the people and would be among His people and the exiles are rebuilding their lives without the centerpiece which is not going to lead them in a good direction and God is displeased with that. And, so, Haggai reports that this is why they’ve been working so hard and getting so little, because they’re focused upon themselves and not God. And, so, construction began again on the temple - September 21st 520 BC. And then on October 17th of that year, God spoke again, that the people should get to work because God had some specific plans, that being to consolidate the prosperity of other nations and bring that prosperity flooding into the temple, bringing prosperity to the people. Instead, the people had been ignoring the temple and focusing on themselves and netting significantly less for their toil, which is a profoundly valuable lesson for our own lives. What are we focused on? What are we self-absorbed about? How are we ignoring what actually matters? And, so, with that, let’s begin and in its entirety read the two chapters in the book of Haggai.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for yet another day and another step forward. We thank You that these steps may be indicated by years or months or days or weeks but the step forward every day, this is a never-ending thing. We have found ourselves in a relationship with Your word now. It’s a part of our everyday lives. It speaks to us in different ways all of the time and we are grateful for that. We are thankful for what we’ve learned from Haggai today, that if You aren’t in the center, then our toil will be far less fruitful, and we will be far more selfish. And we can find ourselves exhausting ourselves to try to get ahead, when had You been in the center things would’ve flown in our direction. Forgive us. We are guilty, every one of us. Forgive us for losing sight of what we already know. We know this to be true in our lives. And, so, we are grateful yet again for the Scriptures to come washing into our lives, reminding us of what is true and surprising ourselves and how easily we forget what is true and go our own way. And, so, we thank You that the Scriptures are a part of the rhythm that continue to call us back every single day. We love You, Lord. You are the center of our lives. There is nothing more valuable or more important than You in our lives. And, so, lead us on the pathways that we should go, that we can walk together with You, not so that we can get somewhere that’s prosperous, but so that we can go there with You so that being with You is the center of our lives. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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This is Christmas week. I cannot believe it. We are here and just kinda navigating through these days, final preparations, all of that. All of the different emotions whipped together that go through the Christmas week. Let’s enjoy this together. Let’s celebrate deeply. Let’s also remember our brothers and sisters, who have to navigate through this season, and it can be a difficult season because of loss. There’s been some loss near to us this year that is…it is just so hard to move through some of that while you’re trying to rejoice at the same time. And, so, we acknowledge that, that that is true in any community. But we are rejoicing as this season of Advent, this season of preparation for the arrival of the Savior, this season where we long and understand that they were longing for a Messiah to come and that we are longing for His return, that all might be made new, may we continue that for through this weekend, rejoice as we celebrate the arrival of the Savior into the world. Something truly worth celebrating from the depths of our soul and the bottoms of our hearts.

I’ve mentioned on a number of occasions there are a number of musical projects that you can a place into your playlists as you move through the Christmas season that are a part of the Global Campfire community here. Family Christmas, the Christmas Time album from Max and looking up Jill’s songs. She’s got a number of Christmas songs out as well. And, so, just check those out and incorporate those into your Christmas listening playlists.

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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DABbers this is Duncan the Piano Man in Fredericksburg TX. I heard the prayer, the unanimous gentleman who…I heard the request by the way of the man who had to commit his…his son to the state for care…autistic son. Let me pray right now. Abba Father, I bring this broken-hearted man to You. I don’t know what it’s like. I can’t imagine but You know what it’s like. Father, I just ask you to watch over him and his family, watch over his son, grant that he’ll get the proper care even though he’s in the…the state will have to do it for now. Just take care of him Lord and in a good way. Shield him with Your protection. And we pray dear God that You’d walk through this with this gentleman and his son. And I thank you Jesus that You will walk through with him. Thank You Lord. Amen. Prayer request for me. It’s been three years since my Sharon passed away, October 2019 and these are the holidays. And so far, I’m fine. I will be with family in South Carolina, my flesh and blood kin between Christmas and new year and I’ll be spending Christmas Day with friends. But I’m asking, let’s pray for each other, those of us who have lost loved ones, especially more recently. God bless you. Blessed the rest of Advent. Blessed Christmas and a better year ahead.

December 15th. Thank you DAB family. Thank you, Brian. Thank you for bringing me into this world. I love listening every day to everyone. I love listening and growing my relationship with the Lord. I was in an accident on 11/29 and I can’t tell you how many blessings and miracles and lives have been touched. I believe the Lord is using me to get wonderful things done in the people that surround me. I’ve lost my left eye and now have mononucle…mono…monocular vision. It’s unbelievable that I enter my 60s with one eye. I have my life. God spared my life. I’m saying prayers for everyone I listen to on DAB. There are folks going through so much more and I’m grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this family. Merry Merry Christmas to everyone. I love you. I love Brian. Thank you so much for this journey that you’ve got us all on, that Lord has us all on. Thank you to a special friend in Illinois that started me on the DAB family four years ago. I’m just grateful and looking forward to 2023. It’s going to be a wonderful year. I can’t think of any particulars right…

Hello this is Laurie from Iowa, and I am calling in from my first time. I’m a first-time reader this year and I’ve made it so far. So, I’m gonna make it through the year and it’s been a blessing. Thank you to my friend who suggested this app for me. I’m calling in for the gentleman who left the message who has an autistic adult child that he had to place into a facility. I know he is heartbroken. I know how hard this is. I have a child that has down syndrome and I kept her at home until she was thirty and had to put her into a condo with two other ladies. So, it was a little bit easier maybe, but I don’t really think so. It was still heartbreaking. She did not wanna go. She wanted to be with me. But I was getting to the point that I knew I needed to get her set up somewhere. I remember crying all the time and her crying all the time and how very sad and hard it was. She is doing much better, and I know it was a good move, but I do know how heartbreaking that is. So, I will definitely be praying for you and for your son that he gets the care that he needs, that the caregivers are patient and kind to him. And I hope things go well. Just keep contact as much as you can, and I know you will as there are things that sometimes they miss that us as parents will know. So, I am thinking of you, and you are in my prayers. Thank you.

Hi, this is my first time calling. I pray for all of you, and I just pray that you will pray for my family. My name is God is with Me. My son is a high schooler. He’s in the 12th grade and he’s been having a lot of problems mentally that we were not aware of. He recently shared with me over this past summer that he’d been abused by a family member that we never see and that we haven’t seen in years, and we’ve recently seen him, and son had a breakdown and said it was ten years ago. And ever since he’s told me my son has not loved himself. He got in a car accident recently and the car was totaled. He recently went to work and left work and wanted to end his life on a bridge and the work and the police found him and now he’s in mental health. I am so afraid, and I need prayer. Please pray for my family and pray for him to recover from this being traumatized by things we didn’t know happened to him. And people are denying it. I kept trying to do…help him for myself and try to do it on my own but it just was escalating and he said he just can’t take the memory and it bothers him. And Christmas is a time where whatever had happened to him happened and he’s having a hard time and I’m just depressed about it. Please pray for us and pray for my son. Jesus, Thank you.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible team. Good morning Daily Audio Bible friends. Goodness. I need coffee I think. Good morning. This is a Girl After God’s heart. I am calling for Susan from Canada. Oh, my sister, my friend, praise God for Keith’s remission. Seriously? This is so cool. You know what? I have been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for over a decade and I always pray when we have serious illnesses. I pray with all of you every time, but whenever we have serious illnesses and people need healing, I’m always praying that the Lord will be glorified and miracles what happened so everybody will have…will see His glory clearly and can praise Him. And here we are. What a miracle and what a brood of beautiful thing. I am praising God today for you and I am jumping up and down with joy for Keith and for you, his momma. So, I’m sure this has just been a very difficult road. And I’m so grateful for this time of season celebration for you. Merry Christmas. Merry, Merry Christmas. Have a good one. Bye.