OPEN: An old farmer was about to die and he called his 2 sons to his bedside. He said, "Boys, my farm and the fields are yours. You each have equal shares. I leave you a little ready money, but the bulk of my wealth is hidden somewhere in the ground of the farm. I’m not sure anymore quite where it is, but it’s not more than 18 inches from the surface.
In time, of course, the old man died, the sons inherited the farm. Not long afterwards they set to work digging up every inch of ground. But they failed to find any treasure. But since they’d gone to all the trouble of turning the soil, they thought they might as well sow a crop - which they did, reaping a good harvest.
The following autumn as soon as they had an opportunity, they dug for the treasure again, but with no better results. As their fields were turned over more thoroughly than any others in the neighborhood, they reaped better harvests than anyone else.
Year after year, their search continued… and year after year they gained a good crop.
It was only when they had grown older that they realized what their father had done.
APPLY: You reap what you sow - says God.
The Bible talks a lot about that kind of concept because that’s what a farmer does
· The farmer sows seed in a way exercises faith – a faith that that which he has sown will yield a crop.
· But the farmer will only get a crop if he works the ground and plants the seed.
· It’s the farmer’s faithfulness to this concept that gains him success as a farmer.
You Reap What You Sow. That’s what faith is all about.
Now, that’s all well and good in theory. But as I often say “I never studied theory.”
Life is often about cold hard facts… and faith can be a hard thing to hang onto when life gets tough.
Our text this morning comes from the book written by a prophet named Haggai.
And Haggai is talking to a very discouraged nation.
Seventy years before, the Jewish nation had been dragged into exile because of their sin and disobedience. God had caused a mighty nation to come down and carry Judah into captivity, destroying Jerusalem and their beloved Temple.
Now, 70 years later (in accordance with the prophecy of Daniel) they’ve returned home. But their homecoming is a bittersweet experience. They return to a city that still lies in ruins and temple that’s barely stone upon stone. Now it’s their job is to rebuild and restore what has been destroyed.
So they set to work. And they rebuilt the city walls. And they began to rebuild the temple.
But there was a small problem. They weren’t wealthy enough to build a temple equaled old one, and they know it.
The original temple was built at the height of Solomon’s glory. It had taken 183,000 laborers 7 years to build this temple. It was built using the resources King David had set aside for its construction… but it was also financed by taxes imposed by King Solomon during his reign. Solomon also taxed the people of Israel so heavily that this burden served as one of the causes of the split of Israel into two nations after he died.
If I’ve done my math right, it seems that Solomon’s temple was constructed using over 663 thousand lbs of silver and somewhere around 567 thousand lbs of gold. That’s not to mention all the other precious stones, and expensive wood, and other materials used in its construction.
Now I don’t care who you are… that’s a lot of money to be wrapped up in a single building.
The Jews who returned from exile weren’t nearly wealthy enough to invest that kind of money and resources into the rebuilding effort. And so the Temple they have managed to build is fairly inferior compared the one of Solomon’s day. It was functional… but it was no where near as extravagant as the 1st temple
Ezra tells us that when some of the Jews stood before what they’d built, they were discouraged:
“…many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid…” Ezra 3:12a
They were frustrated and they were despondent…
(pause…)
But what I find interesting - is how God responded to their despair
Addressing Zerubbabel (one of the royal descendents of King David - now governor of Judea)
“’But now be strong, O Zerubbabel,’ declares the LORD.
‘Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work.
For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.” Haggai 2:4
Did you notice that – God repeats Himself again and again: BE STRONG
Be strong Zerubbabel
Be strong Joshua
Be strong all you people of the land
Be strong… and work
Why? Why should they remain strong?
Because: they had taken a good hard look at the temple they’d built and it so frustrated them that they’ve literally put down their tools and stopped working . They asked themselves: “why bother?”
And at the heart of their frustration was fear.
They were afraid that God didn’t love them anymore and wasn’t going to be with them anymore.
And so God says “my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.” Haggai 2:5
They’re afraid because they didn’t have enough money.
And so God tells them, don’t worry about the money: ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine’ Haggai 2:8
And they were afraid because they don’t think God will bless them as He has in past.
And so God lets them in on a secret:
“I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty… “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,” says the LORD Almighty. “And in this place I will grant peace,” declares the LORD Almighty. Haggai 2:7 & 9
Essentially God is telling His people:
Don’t be deceived by appearances.
Don’t let the reality you’re looking at right now affect your obedience to Me.
You see, the Israelites were frightened because they looked around
… and they saw things that were real
… they saw truths that made them uncomfortable
… and they began to falter in their faith.
The Israelites of Haggai’s day were in danger of becoming like Peter, when he walked out in the water out to Jesus.
Do you remember what happened to him?
It was a dark and stormy night, the disciples were out on their boat, and here comes Jesus walking toward them… on the water. Peter recognizes Him and says “If it’s you, let me come and walk out to you.” And Jesus says “Come on ahead.”
And Peter steps out of the boat and starts walking on the waves – just like Jesus.
But then reality sets in. He begins to think to himself “I shouldn’t be able to do this! This isn’t reasonable!”
Peter allows what he sees to overwhelm what he believes and “… he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” Mt. 14:30
(pause…)
Psychologist Dr. Karl Menninger once observed, "Attitudes are more important than facts.”
The Bible supplies us with a host of people who rose above their circumstances because of their attitudes. It was an attitude of faith. The faith they possessed in God’s power was so strong that they moved on to victory.
Ø Moses led Israel out of Egypt with a stick (Ex. 14).
Ø David killed a giant with a sling and a rock (I Sam. 17).
Ø Gideon and 300 men attacked and put to flight 135,000 Midianite soldiers with trumpets and torches (Judges 7:8).
Those things shouldn’t have happened!
They weren’t normal!
They defied “reality”! They defied the facts. But they did them anyway.
Why? Because facts are not always important; but attitudes are – especially the attitude of faith in our God.
Paul was of the opinion that he could do all things through Christ who gave him strength (Phil. 4:13). . Riley L. Walker in Pulpit Helps 10/93
Essentially, that’s what God is telling the Israelites of Haggai’s day:
· Don’t give up.
· Don’t let “reality” damage your faith
· Don’t let what you see in this world cause you to take your eyes off of what God can do.
2 Corinthians 4:18 says “… we fix our eyes NOT on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is SEEN is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Or as 2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us “We live by faith, not by sight.”
Like the farmer… if we’re going to reap the crop of God’s blessings then we must plant the seed of faith.
Now, I’ve said all that, to say this: We’ve kind of had a slow year.
This past year – our average worship attendance has been down. Not a lot, maybe. But unless we’re growing, there’s something wrong. This is too good a congregation to just muddle along.
And the number of people making decisions for Christ has been less. For the years of 2002-2005 we had an average of 16 baptisms a year… this year we only had 7. Now, don’t misunderstand me. Anytime someone makes a decision for Christ, that’s great. The angels rejoice in heaven! But, we didn’t reach as many people for Christ as we have in the past, and I’m not comfortable with that.
Financially, our offerings have been down… and some of our expenses have gone up.
In a few weeks, we’ll be having our annual meeting and you’ll see the figures in black and white. We’re hurting. If things continue as they are, we may have to cut back in some very painful ways. It frustrates me. And it frustrates those in positions of leadership.
So… what do we do about that?
I mean those are frustrating realities. Those are truths we cannot ignore. Those are giants that stand at our door and knock.
Well, first we need to hear the words of Haggai
Be strong, Jeff. Be strong Brad. Be strong Greg.
Be strong Elders of this congregation.
Be strong all ye people who worship here at the Church of Christ
Be strong… and work
Our present situation is frustrating
It’s the same kind of frustration the Israelites felt as they looked at the temple they’d built.
It’s now we need to hear the words of God in Haggai
We need to hear as God says “my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.” Haggai 2:5
We need to hear as God says ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine’ Haggai 2:8
And we need to hear as God declares:
“I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty… Haggai 2:7
We MUST Remember who we are
We are NOT a social organization. We’re not like the Lion’s Club or the Optimists Club.
We ARE a body of believers who belong to Jesus Christ.
And thus we must not allow what we see to overwhelm what we believe.
We must not allow our present reality to cause us to take our eyes off of what God can do.
We must be strong in our faith because we are called to…
“…fix our eyes NOT on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is TEMPORARY, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18
And… as God’s children “we live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7
We must be strong…
…but we MUST work
Like the farmer who plants in faith
We must work the field
We must sow, so that we can reap the harvest
That means a couple of things:
1st - we must take our financial responsibilities seriously
Every farmer has to buy seed.
If he doesn’t buy seed, he can’t plant it.
He can’t plant what he doesn’t have.
And if he doesn’t plant enough seed, he won’t have the abundant harvest.
If we BELIEVE in the ministry of this church, then we need to financially support it.
2nd – we must work the ground/
We need to continually work at inviting people to worship with us.
If we don’t actively invite people to join us… we won’t grow.
Jerry Anderson (one of the members of our congregation) has noted that if each of us focused on bringing just one family to church we could double our attendance in one year.
Does that make sense to you?
AND believe it or not, there are people out there just waiting to be invited.
ILLUS: About 3 weeks ago, my wife and I were at Subway and we had coupons for different size sandwiches. In front of us there was young man wearing hunting clothes (he’d just come in from deer hunting) and he was ordering 2 foot long sandwiches. Diana and I rarely buy sandwiches that size, but we had a coupon for buy one, get one free and Diana asked if he’d like to have it. He gratefully accepted it, and I struck a little conversation up with him. I pulled a calling card out of my wallet (it has our worship times on it) and handed it to him inviting to come worship with us.
Lo and behold, he and his wife came to church the next day. They had become discouraged at the church they were attending and had talked about finding a new place to worship. They liked the worship and all, but what really impressed them was the fact that we had been collecting food and Christmas presents for the financially challenged in the area. Their old church didn’t do anything like that, and they’ve decided to make our church their home.
ILLUS: Just this past week, my daughter Naomi spent some time with a new friend over on Broadway. I spent a long time just passing the time of day with this other girl’s father, and the next time Naomi went over to their home to visit, I stopped by the church building and got one of our brochures (it lists our youth activities, Bible Studies, worship times and so on) and handed it to him when I dropped off my daughter. And you know… he wasn’t in the least bit offended. He seemed flattered that I’d invited him. He and his family just might show up one of these Sundays.
The only way to reap a harvest, is to plant seeds.
But, of course you’d expect that of me… I’m the preacher… I get paid to this.
But, you’re the church. God expects you to do it too.
ILLUS: One man once observed that sheep do one thing extremely well. Do you know what that is? They make other sheep. You folks need to make more sheep. And I’m here to help you.
(I called the servers to the front and handed them offering plates filled with calling cards and brochures. We handed out about 400 calling cards that day).
I want you take these and put a couple or three in your wallet or purse. And then when you meet someone you’d like to invite to church… hand them one. It could be your neighbor, your fellow worker, a relative, or a stranger you at Wal-Mart. And I’ll make as many of these as you need. But we need to plant seeds so that we can reap the harvest.
Lastly – we need to pray.
Don’t forget, we are workers in God’s field.. We’re not inviting people to come to a social gathering… we are inviting them to come with us into God’s presence. We can’t truly work for God’s kingdom until we pray.
PRAY
CLOSE: Bill Bright told about talking to a man about sharing his faith. The man replied
“I don’t wear my religion on my sleeve. My religion is personal and I don’t want to talk about it”
The man who made this statement was one of America’s leading statesmen. He was a professing Christian with whom I was visiting just off the campus of Harvard University, where he was a guest speaker.
Bright had just asked him to become involved with a thousand key Christian leaders in a great worldwide effort to help fulfill the Great Commission.
Bright said “His statement startled me. So I asked him, ‘You are a Christian aren’t you?’
He said ‘Yes, but I’m not a religious fanatic.’
So Bright prodded the man ‘Did it ever occur to you that it cost Jesus Christ His life so you could call yourself a Christian? It cost the disciples their lives too, and millions of Christian throughout the centuries have suffered or died as martyrs in order to get the message of God’s love and forgiveness to you. Now do you really believe that your faith in Christ is personal and private and that shouldn’t talk about it?’
As quick as a flash he replied, ‘No sir, I’m wrong. Tell me what I can do about it.’”
(In Pulpit Helps Oct. 05 p. 8)
