I. EXORDIUM:
Why not?
II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:
Believers
III. OBJECTIVES:
To show that we profit only if everything about GOD and for GOD we see profitable.
IV. TEXT:
Haggai 1:9 (Amplified Bible)
You looked for much [harvest], and behold, it came to little; and even when you brought that home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because of My house, which lies waste while you yourselves run each man to his own house [eager to build and adorn it].
V. THESIS:
We profit only if everything about GOD and for GOD we see profitable. Our example is the LORD JESUS CHRIST if you want to earn more profit.
VI. TITLE:
Not enough profit?
VII. EXPLICATION:
A. Author: Haggai, the prophet of the temple, colleague of Zechariah
B. Date written: 520 B.C.
C. Purpose: to motivate GOD's people to reorder their priorities, complete the temple and restore proper worship.
D. To whom written: The Remnant, especially those who had returned from Exile in Babylon
E. Main theme: Sharp rebukes for the neglect to rebuild the temple
F. Keywords: Build the Temple
Haggai 1:7-8 (Amplified Bible)
Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways (your previous and present conduct) and how you have fared.
Go up to the hill country and bring lumber and rebuild [My] house, and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified, says the Lord [by accepting it as done for My glory and by displaying My glory in it].
G. Key verses:
Haggai 2:4-9 (Amplified Bible)
Yet now be strong, alert, and courageous, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; be strong, alert, and courageous, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, alert, and courageous, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and work! For I am with you, says the Lord of hosts.
According to the promise that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit stands and abides in the midst of you; fear not.
For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake and make tremble the [starry] heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land;
And I will shake all nations and the desire and the precious things of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts.
The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine, says the Lord of hosts.
The latter glory of this house [with its successor, to which Jesus came] shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place will I give peace and prosperity, says the Lord of hosts.
VIII. MAIN BODY:
A. Expected much, turned out to be little
"You looked for much [harvest], and behold, it came to little;"
Haggai 1:6 (Amplified Bible)
You have sown much, but you have reaped little; you eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you do not have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages has earned them to put them in a bag with holes in it.
Isaiah 17:10-11 (Amplified Bible)
Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation [O Judah] and have not been mindful of the Rock of your strength, your Stronghold—therefore, you have planted pleasant nursery grounds and plantings [to Adonis, pots of quickly withered flowers used to set by their doors or in the courts of temples], and have set [the grounds] with vine slips of a strange [God],
And in the day of your planting you hedge it in, and in the morning you make your seed to blossom, yet [promising as it is] the harvest shall be a heap of ruins and flee away in the day of expected possession and of desperate sorrow and sickening, incurable pain.
Malachi 3:8-11 (Amplified Bible)
Will a man rob or defraud God? Yet you rob and defraud Me. But you say, In what way do we rob or defraud You? [You have withheld your] tithes and offerings.
You are cursed with the curse, for you are robbing Me, even this whole nation.
Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
And I will rebuke the devourer [insects and plagues] for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine drop its fruit before the time in the field, says the Lord of hosts.
Is there a time like this with you? That you know that you have sown much in your offering and seed, you worked hard, but it ended up little result?
You may ask what little result?
Haggai 1:6 (Amplified Bible)
You have sown much, but you have reaped little; you eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you do not have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages has earned them to put them in a bag with holes in it.
Sown much - > reaped little
Ate much - > not enough
Drank much -> not filled
Cloth yourselves - > not warm
Earned wages -> placed in a bag with holes
It's a matter of priorities, we prioritize spiritual things because we know the physical we see originated from the things we don't see.
Romans 1:20 (Amplified Bible)
For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification],
Psalms 19:1-4 (Amplified Bible)
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. THE HEAVENS declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows and proclaims His handiwork.
Day after day pours forth speech, and night after night shows forth knowledge.
There is no speech nor spoken word [from the stars]; their voice is not heard.
Yet their voice [in evidence] goes out through all the earth, their sayings to the end of the world. Of the heavens has God made a tent for the sun,
Colossians 1:16 (Amplified Bible)
For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him.
B. Brought home but blown away
"and even when you brought that home, I blew it away."
2 Samuel 22:16 (Amplified Bible)
The channels of the sea were visible, the foundations of the world were uncovered at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.
2 Kings 19:7 (Amplified Bible)
Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own country.
Isaiah 40:7 (Amplified Bible)
The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely [all] the people are like grass.
Malachi 2:2 (Amplified Bible)
If you will not hear and if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to My name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yes, I have already turned them to curses because you do not lay it to heart.
The LORD GOD is talking about consequences, and in His Great Love, He tells us things that will not happened yet as if they happened already to give us warnings of what will happened in our time if we don't listen to His warnings. This reminded me of your take home pay, but it will not suffice to buy the needed things at home.
C. GOD's house was neglected
"Because of My house, which lies waste"
Revelation 2:4 (Amplified Bible)
But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love].
Wrong priorities, your love became what you enjoy physically for yourself and neglected what you enjoyed before spiritually for yourself.
Psalms 37:4 (Amplified Bible)
Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.
Our delight must be always the LORD, don't accept second best.
Matthew 10:37-38 (Amplified Bible)
He who loves [and takes more pleasure in] father or mother more than [in] Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves [and takes more pleasure in] son or daughter more than [in] Me is not worthy of Me;
And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conforming wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also] is not worthy of Me.
Your treasure is the one you spend your time with.
Matthew 6:21 (Amplified Bible)
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The tithes and offering we bring helps us reset our focus every Sunday that GOD is our Treasure and things of GOD, not the money or the things we own, for example: our houses and lot(s). If GOD is our Treasure, then He is our focus. Don't neglect GOD's House, don't neglect your tithes and offerings, it's a constant reminder or mnemonics for us that GOD is our Provider not the money we hold in our hand, even that belongs to GOD.
Hebrews 12:2 (Amplified Bible)
Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Psalms 110:1 (Amplified Bible)
A Psalm of David. THE LORD (God) says to my Lord (the Messiah), Sit at My right hand, until I make Your adversaries Your footstool.
D. Busy with fine house
"while you yourselves run each man to his own house [eager to build and adorn it]."
Mark 4:7 (Amplified Bible)
Other seed [of the same kind] fell among thorn plants, and the thistles grew and pressed together and utterly choked and suffocated it, and it yielded no grain.
Mark 4:18-19 (Amplified Bible)
And the ones sown among the thorns are others who hear the Word;
Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless.
Cares and anxieties, distractions of these age such as: gadgets, celphones, pleasure and delight, false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, etc, draw us away from GOD. Instead of putting more time on building our relationship with GOD, the FATHER and the LORD JESUS CHRIST, we spend much time on these things.
1 John 2:15-16 (Amplified Bible)
Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one’s own resources or in the stability of earthly things]—these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself].
IX. CONCLUSION:
Let the LORD be our example in earning much profit.
1 Corinthians 10:33 (American Standard Version)
even as I also please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved.
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