Sermon Tone Analysis

If you were here last week, we are in the book of Haggai, chapter 1.

The people of God who were in exile in Babylon have returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.

They were off to a good start, and laid the foundation, but pressures from unbelievers led to the project being put on hold.

Then on August 29th of 520 BC a message comes from God through the prophet Haggai to the people.

God says, Give careful thought to this.

Why is your house in great shape while the house of God remains a ruin?

The book of Haggai has this repeating phrase- Give careful thought.

I challenged all of us to Give Careful Thought to our priorities in 2020.

Where are we placing our emphasis.

Maybe you took a handout and filled in your past priorities from 2019 and where you would like your priorities to be in 2020.

Today we will continue with the Book of Haggai, chapter 1.

Prayer

slide

The Question?

God uses His powerful name-Lord Almighty-when he give the message to the people, in the form of a rhetorical question, which is significant in itself.

Should you busy at home or should you be worrying about God’s house?

There is something a little easier about a rhetorical question, as opposed to a direct accusation.

God asks the people a rhetorical question.

We do that with children sometimes don’t we?

At first as kids are learning the rules, it is a simple do this and don’t do that, right?

Don’t stand on the couch, right?

But eventually there is not a rule pertaining to every thing you should or should not do.

You have to learn the spirit of the rule.

The rule don’t stand on the couch for instance, also applies to the chair, and the table as well.

Although the parent did not explicitly say don’t stand on the table, the expectation is that this behavior is not ok.

When the parent enters the room and the child is standing on the table, we may ask, “Should you be standing on the table?”

It causes the child to stop and think through the scenario, and use their God-given conscience and power of reasoning to understand what should and shouldn’t be done

Now, the people may not have been violating a specific command, by building their houses.

In fact they can be quite moral by the world’s standards.

There is no indication that they are doing anything outright violating God’s law.

However, a characteristic of being one of God’s chosen people, or a mark of being a child of God, is that you want what God wants.

You should desire the same things He desires and takes pleasure in.

You and God are walking together, with one purpose.

This rhetorical question, should you be building your house instead of mine, is God being gentle and calling the people back to Him.

He is asking them to reflect to allow the Holy Spirit to work on their hearts.

It should be obvious-if you know the the Lord then when God’s house in ruins-I should work on God’s house.

It is not rocket science.

It does not require a bunch of justification.

Try and step back and see through the fog.

The rumor was started that the Messiah needed to come before the temple should be rebuilt, well that is interesting, but not true.

They just sort of made of that up.

God is saying come on, take a step back isn’t this obvious?

Give careful thought- your spending time on your houses while the House of God is a wreck.

Then God presents some evidence to help them consider.

God is understanding here, he understands that they may not get it, right?

Obviously they haven’t gotten it up to this point, so he gives some evidence fro them to further consider.

slide

General Dissatisfaction

God knows these people well.

He knows they have a general dissatisfaction in their life.

So God points this out to them.

Remember, these people lived in nice paneled houses, kind of like Americans, yet no matter what they are not satisfied.

They have planted much they had money for seed, plenty of seed, but they are barely getting by at harvest time.

Their food doesn’t satisfy them, the water is not quenching.

It is like everyone we encounter everyday.

All people talk about is the next vacation or the next toy they will by, or the what they would do if they won the lottery.

It is interesting studies have shown that most people who win large sums of money quickly blow it, and return to where they were, still unsatisfied.

It is like these giant vending machines we see these days.

They have water and Pepsi and diet Pepsi, and three buttons dedicated for Mountain Dew, and diet dew, and powerade and gatorade.

The drinks are endless, yet were are still not satisfied.

slide

How much Money does it take to man happy?

Just one more dollar.

You have clothes, but they are doing it for you either, and it seems like you keep working yet out the door it goes.

It really sounds like God is speaking to Americans in 2020, doesn’t it?

I’m sure you heard this before right, John D Rockefellar once said, How much money does it take to make a man happy?-Just one moer dollar.

Today, evangelists have coined the term the God shaped hole.

We all have a need we are trying to fill in our life, and we are all struggling to try and satisfy it.

For some it may be money, and they relentlessly pursue wealth yet they find themselves still not satisfied.

For others it can be food, or alcohol.

There are people that can feel lonely in a room full of people.

For others sports, or sex, you name it people try to fill that void.

It is the American dream.

Even churches look for the next big thing to bring satisfaction to the crowds.

If you try and find your satisfaction in things, you will never be satisfied.

We are all wired that way.

It started back in the garden.

Remember in Genesis 1 and 2, Adam and Eve were in this wonderful garden that God created.

God saw that it was good, even very good.

There was an intimacy with God, and food, things were good.

But this intimacy was lost, and we were cast out, the human race was then separated from God.

We are without good, in a broken and cursed world.

Sin caused that.

Sin in us choosing OUR pleasures above and beyond God’s pleasures and the things of God.

SO we attempt to fill what is missing in this cursed with everything but God.

Not only is there a general dissatisfaction, but failure to walk with God-like in the garden, and like these people in Haggai day, means that people are subject to the curse.

The Curse

In addition to the general dissatisfaction these people feel from trying to find meaning in their lives, their is a curse that God has given them to call them back.

Because they have not obeyed God, the heavens have withheld the dew, the crops are poor, there is a drought and the economy is failing.

When you try and find and find satisfaction in the things of the world, and the economy fails, or when your satisfaction is in the crops, and the weather turns, and the things you have trusted in go away, you learn that you can’t find satisfaction in them.

People may say God is mean, he cursed the weather and the crops God doesn’t do that, He is loving right?

Yes God is loving and that is precisely why he does that.

If your child was spending too much time on the IPAD what do you do?

You take it away right?

Not because you are mean but because you LOVE them.

That is what God is doing.

If your placed your satisfaction in your career, what do you when you are laid off.

If you find your pleasure in your retirement funds, what do you do when the the market is down?

Or your health?

Or your relationships?