Living A Life That Makes A Difference In 2009

Living a Life that Makes a Difference in 2009

Haggai 1:8b, 9 (Message)

“…rebuild the Temple. Do it just for me. Honor me. You’ve had great ambitions for yourselves, but nothing has come of it.”

Good morning and Merry Christmas! And I will through in a Happy New Year as well! This morning I want to talk about this new year coming up. 2009! You know, I grew up in the 80’s and anything that has the numbers 2000 in it just sounds futuristic to me. 2010 Space Odyssey, Wonder Blender 2000, Super Soaker 2000, Windows 2000, ect. I was thinking about this and got to thinking about the history of our church and what things must have been like in 1796 when our church was founded. What were the people like? What were their goals for this church? What were their lives like? How dedicated were they to Christ and His commandments, “Love God with your all and love your neighbor as yourself?” Did they face the same struggles that we face as individuals? How did they go about making a difference in the church 200 years ago? Where did they think the church would be nearly 200 years later? Would they be pleased with the progress we have made for the Kingdom of Christ on the Eve of 2009?

I guess the main thought is that they made a difference by building this church. The question is, “How can we make a difference in the in 2009?”

Lets take a look at our text this morning. Turn with me to Haggai. It is a really short little book towards the end of the New Testament. It is right before Zachariah and Malachi. Let me give you some background on Haggai before we get into the text. You see the Israelites have been in captivity. Their homeland and everything in it has been destroyed including their temple that King Solomon built. The king of Persia, King Darius, has allowed some of the Israelites to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple but after living there for over 20 years they got discouraged with it and never really even got started. They got preoccupied with their own lives and neglected God and His House. Enter Haggai! Haggai was a prophet of God that God sent to these people to give them a message. Get off your duffs and finish my House! That is where our text begins.

Haggai 1:1-15 (KJV)

1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, 2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built. 3 Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? 5 Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. 6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. 7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. 9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. 10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. 11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.

12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD. 13 Then spake Haggai the LORD’S messenger in the LORD’S message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the LORD. 14 And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, 15 In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.