"Its Time To Build!" Haggai Pt 1 Series

“It’s Time to Build”

Haggai pt 1

Opening Thought - From Sermoncentral.com:

Let me share a story with you about some church people… It’s about 4 people in the church whose names were Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody…

The church had some financial responsibilities and Everybody was asked to help… Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it… Anybody could have done it… But you know who did it? Nobody… It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done…

Then the church grounds needed some work, and Somebody was asked to help… But Somebody got mad, because Anybody could have done it, and after all, it was really Everybody’s job… In the end the work was given to Nobody, and Nobody did a fine job…

On & on it went… Whenever work was to be done, Nobody could always be counted on… Nobody visited the sick, Nobody gave his time, Nobody shared his faith… In short, Nobody was a very faithful member…

Finally the day came when Somebody left the church and took Anybody & Everybody with him… Guess who was left. Nobody! Isn’t that a sad story?

Today I have two video clips which send a mixed message to us to reflect the current church culture in America. The first clip challenges us about our priorities in life – It asks the questions: “Do we still trust God today?” “Do we have Him in His proper place in our life?” and the next video tells us, “We still trust in God in America!’” But do we really? Is God in 1st place on our priority list today in the American church?

Opening Video Illustrations: In God We Trust? Blue Fish TV and Diamond Rio’s song In God We Still Trust.

Thesis: The church faces the same issue that Haggai did in his time the believers have convinced themselves that it’s not the right time to work on the House of the Lord. The believers in Haggai’s day put off work on God’s House to focus on their own homes. Today many believers have their priorities in life mixed up just like in Haggai’s day and it will cost them the blessings of God in their life just like it did the Israelites in Haggai’s day.

Scripture Text: Haggai Chapter 1

1In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

2This is what the LORD Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the LORD’S house to be built.’”

3Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4“Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

5Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

7This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD. 9“You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. 10Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”

12Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.

13Then Haggai, the LORD’S messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: “I am with you,” declares the LORD. 14So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, 15on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius.