“This has been no laughing matter — people have lost their homes and livelihoods. I have a pit in my stomach that hasn’t gone away since yesterday at noon. I’m a single mom who has a worry now as to where I’m going to live and how I am going to clean up” (Tammy B. – High River, Alberta resident).
That was a typical reaction to the flooding that occurred in our province last June. Are you familiar with such feelings of insecurity? The Israelites who lived 2,500 years ago were. They had returned from their Babylonian exile to a devastated Jerusalem. There was so much to do to make Jerusalem a livable and secure city again. But Israel was far from the powerful nation it had once been under King David. What could it accomplish on its own? That doubt fostered an every-man-for-himself attitude. People busied themselves in their fields and building their own homes while God’s ruined temple remained neglected. They would get around to repairing that once their own lives were sorted out, the people thought.
We can understand that sentiment can’t we? If St. Albert had been devastated by the June floods, would we have insisted that we rebuild the church while trying to carve out time and money to fix our own homes? That’s what God expected of his Old Testament people and they had made a good start, but then became absorbed with their own problems…and selfishness. Work on the temple stopped for the next 16 years while the people focused on rebuilding their own homes, making them quite luxurious with panelled interiors.
This didn’t make God happy of course so he sent a couple of prophets, one of whom was Haggai, to encourage the rebuilding of his temple. Through Haggai the Lord assured his people that he, the Lord of the angel armies was with them. There was no need for them to feel insecure about their future. God wanted his people to take his work and his word seriously. That’s also God’s encouragement for this small congregation. Let’s find out how these words apply to us.
When God says that his work is to be taken seriously he means that it’s to be a priority. It hadn’t been that for the people of Haggai’s day and they suffered as a result. God said to his people: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You 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…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. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I 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” (Haggai 1:5b-7, 9-11).
It seems logical to conclude that the harder you work, the more blessings you’ll receive. That formula, however, is not a guarantee for success. The verses I just read remind us that unless God blesses the work of our hands, it won’t amount to much, no matter how much time and effort we put in to it. In fact one reason we may always seem short of time and cash is because we have been cheating the Lord and not taking his work seriously. And there is no excuse for that, explains our text, for the Lord of the angel armies has said: “I am with you.” We can put the Lord’s work first and not worry about how we’ll make ends meet because God knows what we need and has promised to provide it.
For the Israelites of our text that meant they could start rebuilding the temple and trust that God would also bless their harvests. For us it means that we can stop saying, “Once I retire, then I’ll serve the Lord with my time,” or “Once I get a full time job, then I’ll start giving a regular offering.” You can start those acts of service and sacrifice today because the Lord of the angel armies is with you.
The timing of this sermon text is perfect because like the Israelites of Haggai’s day we’re about to embark on a building project. While God has blessed us with the necessary financing for our project, we’ll still go over budget if we don’t pitch in to do things like pack up items for storage and help demolish the altar and pulpit. The council will be sure to let you know what needs to be done. When they ask for your help, make time to participate! Rebuilding this church is after all the Lord’s work, so take it seriously.
That’s not to say that helping with our building project is the only way to serve the Lord. You serve him when you care for your family and when you do your work well at your job. Be careful, however, that you don’t use your efforts there as an excuse for why you can’t help here. It’s one thing to say you can’t help with the building project because you have to care for a toddler or make meals for your family, but it’s quite another matter to say that you don’t have time to help because you’re busy adding on to your garage or working non-mandatory overtime. Those were the kind of excuses the people gave at the time of Haggai and God exposed them for what they were: motivated by sinful selfishness. Friends, there are a lot of things God will put up with but second place is not one of them! Take the Lord’s work seriously. Make it a priority.
Are you chafing at what I just said? I know your sinful nature is. Your sinful nature, like mine, doesn’t want anyone telling it what to do. But keep this in mind, friends, these words, while they may be spoken by me, come from the Lord of the angel armies. He wants you to take his word seriously. That’s what the people of Haggai’s day did. Listen again to our text: “Then 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” (Haggai 1:12).
I just love this portion of Scripture. When I’m feeling unsure of my calling here and the way in which I’m carrying it out, I just need to turn to Haggai to be reminded that God chooses to motivate his people through his quiet word delivered by ordinary people. There was no miraculous display of power, no fire from heaven that convinced the Israelites to repent of their mixed up priorities and get on with the Lord’s work. Haggai simply preached the law when he pointed out their sin and then shared the gospel when he assured the people that the Lord of the angel armies was still with them and therefore they could be confident that God would bless their efforts.
So do we take God’s word seriously? You may respect it and listen politely as the Bible is read in church but is that the same as taking God’s word seriously? Taking it seriously means believing that it has the power to motivate and energize and therefore doing what it says, just as people of Haggai’s day did. Listen again: “So 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, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius” (Haggai 1:14, 15).
Just three weeks after Haggai started preaching, the people began rebuilding the temple again! That’s especially amazing when you consider what time of year it was – right at the beginning of the fruit and olive harvest. Wouldn’t it have been easy for the people to say, “When we have all the olives picked, then we’ll start talking about building plans.” Why didn’t they say that? Because the Lord of the angel armies had spoken to them through Haggai and had himself energized and motivated them to service.
So no, I will not apologize for encouraging you to participate in the work of building our church, nor will I apologize for asking whether or not your priorities are in the right place if you refuse, or make excuses. Failure to do so would be to show that I don’t care about the health of your spirituality. That’s right. This is not about a building program; it’s about your eternal future. If your priorities remain misplaced, if you continue to tell God you’re too busy for him, he’ll say the same to you on Judgment Day. He’ll take his love and turn away from you so you will only forever experience his anger.
But that time hasn’t come yet so take seriously God’s word of forgiveness for misplaced priorities. When I say that the Lord of the angel armies is with you what I really mean is that the Lord of the angel armies is for you. He demonstrated that fact when for a while he “resigned” his commission and took on the clothes of a civilian. I am of course speaking about how the Son of God became one of us in the person of Jesus. Although Jesus, the Lord of the angel armies, could have easily escaped the murderous plot of the Jewish leaders, he dramatically and unequivocally declared: “I am with you,” when he gave his life on the cross. He refused to run away to heaven because it would have meant dooming us to hell. Instead he willingly served the sentence of hell for our sins so that we may one day escape to heaven where we will see with our own eyes that indeed, the Lord of the angel armies is for us and therefore with us forever. Because that’s true, friends, take his work and his word seriously. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
Our text is from the Old Testament book of Haggai. What time period was this exactly? What was going on in the lives of the Israelites?
When God says that his work is to be taken seriously he means that it’s to be a ___________________.
Why isn’t it always true that if you work hard, God will bless your efforts?
We sometimes say, “I’ll get serious about my service to the Lord once I have more time or money.” How does such an attitude show a lack of understanding and trust in the truth that the Lord of the angel armies is with us?
Agree or disagree? Doing the Lord’s work means helping out at church.
It only took three weeks of preaching for Haggai to motivate the Israelites to get back to rebuilding the temple! How can you use this section of Scripture as an encouragement to your called workers?
How is respecting God’s Word not necessarily the same as taking it seriously?
When the Lord of the angel armies says, “I am with you,” he really means, “I am for you.” How did Jesus demonstrate the truthfulness of that statement?
