Haggai 1:2-14-Consider Your Ways
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Have you ever noticed in the newspaper, usually on one of the front pages, they occasionally have corrections. These are posted to correct mistakes they may have made in one of the articles in an earlier edition of the newspaper. Well to start with this morning I want to post, or at least give you a correction from last weeks message. Next Slide
Jehovah Nissi----Then Lord Our Banner
Jehovah Sabaoth---The Lord of Hosts
In last weeks message I said that “Jehovah Nissi” was Hebrew for “The Lord of Hosts”, which is the Name of God given multiple times in the book of Haggai. “Jehovah Nissi” actually stands for “The Lord our Banner”, “Jehovah Sabaoth” is “The Lord of Hosts”.
With that out of the way, let’s dive in to this mornings message.
My plan for this morning was for us to take a short break from our study in Ezra to go over the Book of Esther. Esther fits, historically between chapters 6 and 7 of Ezra and we finished Ezra 6 last Sunday. In fact I had already begun my preparations for this weeks message, then on Wednesday morning, I went out for a bike ride. One of the things I do while I am riding is I spend time in prayer. Most of my rides take me past Liberty Chapel, and for the past couple weeks one of the things I have been praying for as I ride past the church, is that God would direct me as I serve here as pastor. That He would give me His Vision for the direction of this His church, that the messages I bring on Sunday mornings would not be my words but His Words and that if at any point in time He wants me change what I have planned because He has different plans, that I would be willing.
Well shortly after I prayed that prayer this past Wednesday, I began to get the sense that God was leading me in a different direction for this morning. My mind started going over and over a specific passage as I was riding. The crazy thing was, we went over the passage briefly this past week, but I was getting the sense from God that He wanted more, that this was a key passage for us as a church and where we are right now, but not just a key for us as a church, but also for me as the pastor. Before we move forward, I want us to watch a video together.
Matthew West Video “The Motions” 3:49
The chorus of that song really hit me, and quite honestly, it is something I have been struggling with, let’s look at the chorus together and see if any of you are struggling here as well: Next Slide
I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
What if I had given everything,
Instead of going through the motions?
Do you ever get the feeling that you are just kind of going through the motions when it comes to your relationship to the Lord? You want to live for God, you think of Him often, probably even pray to Him daily, but there is no sense of an all consuming passion inside of you. If the truth be told, you really do fear that you will get to the end of your life thinking “What if I had given everything?”.
I believe that accurately describes the life of those that had returned to Jerusalem for the expressed purpose of rebuilding the Temple of God. These were not bad people, in fact they were good people. They had given up much to follow God. They had sacrificed a great deal to make the 900 mile journey to Jerusalem. Their life in Babylon may not have been perfect, but it was comfortable. They had homes, they had jobs, in some instances they had probably left families, and the journey itself was a very difficult one wrought with many dangers. Additionally, many had been born while in captivity and life in Babylon was the only life they even knew, yet they packed up everything they could carry and made the journey, not really knowing what to expect. Any homes their families may have had 70 years earlier, had either been destroyed of likely had other people living in them now. These were good people, but something happened during the past 15 years and they decided to put their “all consuming passion” for God on hold to pursue their own dreams.
Does that sound familiar to you?
Let’s take a closer look at what was taking place in Haggai 1.
To begin with, the returning exiles were: Next Slides
Putting On Hold the Purposes of God.
Haggai 1:2
We see this in Haggai 1:2 Next Slide
2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”
You may recall last week we talked about how their decision to stop working on the Temple was done so against the Purposes of God. God had issued a decree through King Cyrus that they were to rebuild the Temple, and at no point in time had He rescinded or changed that decree. Part of the proof of that is also seen here in verse 2. Haggai indicated that he did not agree with the actions, or should I say, lack of actions, of the people when he writes “These people”. Had Haggai been in agreement with them, he would have written “We have said the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD” Instead he directs his message to them squarely. He is letting them know that they had chosen to Put on Hold the Purposes of God.
Do you recall why they had stopped?
The reason they initially quit is seen in Ezra 4:4-5, Next Slide
Ezra 4:4-5
4 Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build
5 and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Next Slides
The initial reason was discouragement and fear of the people of the land.
That can and often easily happens to us as well. Often times when someone comes to Christ, they have an incredible fire for the Lord and thoughts of Him consume their minds much of the time. They try to bring Him into every conversation and can’t wait to tell their friends and loved ones about Him. The same things happen when someone recommits their life to the Lord. Unfortunately, and many times at the first sign of discouragement, they stop in their tracks.
Oh they still care for the Lord, they still go to church, maybe even serve in some capacity, but outside of their time at church, there is no difference between them and anybody else.
So, for the returning exiles, the reason they initially stopped was discouragement and fear, but according to Haggai 1:4 and 1:9b, over the course of time, the reason they continued to Put on Hold the Purpose of God had changed. Look at Haggai 1:4 & 9b, What was their reason at the time Haggai was speaking to them? Next Slide
Haggai 1:4 & 1:9b
4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
Next Slides
Their reasoning had shifted from discouragement and fear to their own selfish desires.
That also happens to us as we continue to Put on Hold the Purpose of God.
We see something similar taking place in one of the seven churches John mentions in Revelation 2 & 3.
Revelation 3:14-22
14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The Words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with Me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
So, what do we see taking place in the church in Laodicea? To start with, they had lost their fire for the Lord. Then, they became enamored with their own personal possessions. This is very similar to what took place with the returning exiles and it is also what can easily happen to us. For the Laodicean’s, God said that He now wanted to spit them out of His mouth. The truth is, our translations are pretty tame, what this literally means if God will puke them out of His mouth. Basically this passage is making it clear that: Next Slides
The life of a lukewarm Christian makes God sick.
Anytime we put the purposes of God on hold for any reason, especially our own selfish desires, we bring God to the point of opening the heavenly bottle of Pepto-Bismol.
Next Slide
So, what else happens when we put the purposes of God on hold?
Next Slides
We Put Off the Blessings of God.
We see this laid out for us in verses 6, 9a, 10 & 11.
Haggai 1:6, 9a, 10 & 11 Next Slides
6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.
8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.
9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.
10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.
11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”
So what are we seeing in these verses?
Over the past few months we have talked several times about living for the white part of the rope. How our living for Christ while we are living in the red part of the rope is laying up for us treasure that will last forever when we leave this life for our eternal home in heaven.
Well according to this passage, for the Nation of Judah, their putting of their own needs ahead of a life of service to God, was also robbing them of God’s blessing in this life as well. We see that in phrases like: Next Slide
You have sown much, and harvested little
You eat, but you never have enough
You drink, but you never have your fill
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm
He who earns wages--put(s) them into a bag with holes
You looked for much, and behold, it came to little.
And when you brought it home, I blew it away.
Do you know what I see when I look at these verses, when I read over these phrases? I see that true contentment in life does not come to me when I am consumed with.......well when I am consumed with me, with my own desires, my own wants. In fact it seems to me that the more I get, the more I want. It’s like I am never satisfied by personal possessions.
Am I the only one here this morning that struggles in that area?
Based on the commercials I see on the TV, we all struggle in this area.
When I was riding and praying on Wednesday, what God was telling me is that I will never be satisfied in life, in the ministry, really in any area, if I am not fully devoted to Him, if there isn’t a fire burning inside of me for Him. In fact, if I don’t have His fire burning inside of me, I may as well join the Laodicean church because I am nothing more than a lukewarm believer, and Yes, even a Pastor can be lukewarm.
As I have been thinking through that thought this week, it has been really motivating me to do whatever it takes to keep the fire of the Lord burning inside of me in such a way that it becomes contagious to others.
A few questions have been running through my mind this week, questions I have been asking myself over and over again. I want to challenge you to begin this morning and prayerfully continue this week to ask the same questions of yourself: Next Slides
Have I just been going through the motions in my walk with Christ?
Next Slides
Have I been putting the purposes of God on hold for my own selfish desires?
Next Slides
Has God been withholding His blessings from my life or the life of my family because I have been living the life of a lukewarm believer?
As we close this morning, I just want to be honest with you. As I was riding and praying this week, and as I was thinking through the names and faces that make up Liberty Chapel, I was having a hard time coming up with a list of people who, in the words of Matthew West from his song “The Motions” have an All Consuming Passion for the Lord.
This is something I believe we all, myself included, need to work on. What I would like you to do is to take your sermon notes home with you this week. Prayerfully review these questions every day. If the answer to these questions is “Yes”, the next thing you need to do is to go back over the Spiritual Disciplines,
The Spiritual Disciplines are absolutely essential if God’s fire is going to burn inside of us.
As you are going over the Spiritual Disciplines, highlight the ones that you have neglected, and make a commitment do whatever it takes to change.
Time in God’s Word.
Prayer.
Worship.
Evangelism.
Service.
Stewardship of time and money.
Fasting.
Close in prayer.