Pastor Allan Kircher
Shell Point Baptist Church
November 3rd, 2013
Haggai 2:1-9
OVERCOMING THE MOUNTAIN OF DISAPPOINTMENT
Satan/always doing/utmost/stall/work of God.
• He hindered/Jews/building/temple
• Today he endeavors/hinder/people/God/spreading/gospel.
• Only design is to hurt the cause of God.
• To do his infernal work, he has many weapons in his arsenal.
• greed/anger/Malice/false accusation/lust/Evil desires
• the temptation to revenge.
• Of all his weapons/none/sharper/one called discouragement.
• If he can get/saints/God to despair over their efforts
• His battle is already won.
Disappointment is the theme of this passage.
• People/Israel/prophet Haggai/disappointed/discouraged.
• Years earlier/586 BC/Babylonians had invaded Israel.
• Taken/people/Babylon as captives.
• Babylonians destroyed Solomon's Temple/Jerusalem.
After 50 years, some/people/allowed/return/Israel.
• They began/process/rebuilding/Temple.
• Work stopped/opposition/Samaritans.
• 16 years/Temple remained unfinished.
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Then, God raised up/prophet Haggai to call the people back to their task of rebuilding the Temple.
• People responded/voice of God's man/began to build again.
• Only a month/they became discouraged/again wanted/quit.
• were disappointed/Temple/building
• Discouraged in the work they were doing.
Haggai writes to them/challenge them/encourage them/carry on.
• That is a message I think we could all use today.
• Do you ever get discouraged?
• Do you ever find yourself disappointed/your work/Lord?
• We all do!
Times when disappointment looms over us like an impossibly high, impassable mountain.
If we are not careful: Our disappointments can:
• Derail our lives and cause us to lose faith and focus.
• Even cause us to quit/Lord.
The lessons taught here can help us when we are overwhelmed by disappointment and want to quit.
I want to talk to you about Overcoming The Mountain Of Disappointment.
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I. THE CAUSES OF DISAPPOINTMENT
The reasons for their disappointment are many
• Most of them revolve around a bad memory.
• Memory can be a blessing or a curse.
• Jews were guilty/focusing/negative
• Forgetting all about/positive.
• For these Jews memory was a heavy burden that hindered their progress.
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v. 3a The Things We Remember – Haggai asked the question, “Who is left among you that saw this house in her former glory?”
• Haggai prophesied in 520/Temple/destroyed/586 BC.
• 66 years since Solomon's Temple had been destroyed.
• some people among/Jews/seen/first Temple
• One built by Solomon.
• They remembered its glory, it's gold covered walls
• contained $20,000,000.00 worth of gold
• Its splendor, its size, and its breathtaking beauty.
• Recalled/glory days
• Shekinah glory/God filled/temple
• House of God reverberated with his praises.
Same people looked/Temple/building now
• Seemed to be an embarrassment to them.
• seemed so small/so shabby
• Compared/wonderful Temple/destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.
• Scene is described/Ezra 3:9-13.
• These people looked back/remembered the past.
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Remembering the past is not always a bad thing, but they chose to live in the past, that is never good!
All they could consider was how things used to be, had no interest in how things were now.
• I have been/here 10 years…
• Some/you/been around a lot longer/I have
• Have truly seen many changes/church.
• Sometimes, we/so tied/past/we have no interest/future.
• just want things/way they used to be
For these Jews memory became a curse
• they not only remembered the past
• They chose to live there!
• When we choose to hold on to the past
• We refuse to serve God/present/remember/wrong things
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B. v. 4-5 The Things We Forget
In these verses God reminds them He was with them in the past.
• There when they crossed/Red Sea.
• Author/all/great miracles that adorned Israel's past.
• Always been/them
• There during/glory days/Solomon's Temple.
• Always been there.
• Standing by every promise He had ever made to His people.
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Then, God tells them that He is still there!
God said, “I am still here, just like I have always been!”
Think about what the Lord is telling them. He is saying,
• “Abraham is gone/Moses/David/Solomon is gone.
• The first Temple is gone. But, I am still here! Fear not!”
You see, they looked/Temple built/Solomon/they remembered its grandeur and majesty.
They looked/Temple now building/were discouraged/differences.
• What they could not see was God did not see a difference!
• God not concerned/external glory/house.
• This house just as much His as the first.
• Prepared to dwell there/meet/His people there
• Bless there just as much as the first Temple.
God is telling them:
• Forget about the past/who isn’t here
• Forget about/things you don’t have any longer
• Those things are gone and gone forever!
• In spite of that, God is here! He has never left.
• His power is still the same.
• Therefore, keep working!
• Don't look back to the past.
• Don't worry about who isn't here, focus on Who is.
• Don't be intimidated by daunting circumstances
• The Lord has never left us, and He never will, Heb. 13:5.
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Far too often we get caught up in the same trap.
• Look at how things used to be
• Forgetting/God/yesterday is still here/still able to bless.
• Our duty is to forget the past and reach forth into the future
• This work is His work!
• He stands just as ready to bless today as He did years ago.
• He will not leave us, nor will He forsake us.
• He will meet with us, dwell among us/bless us for His glory.
Our primary concern is that we remember what life is really about!
• It is about Him and His glory.
• As long as we keep our eyes fixed in His direction, we will be fine, Heb. 12:1-2.
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C. v. 3b The Comparisons We Make – God asks the people this question: “how does it look to you now?
• Does it not seem to you like nothing?”
• Old people wept/saw/new temple and as they remembered the old one.
• In their eyes, the new Temple was less than nothing.
• It seemed it was not worth their time/energy.
• They hated it and they wanted nothing to do with it.
If we are not careful, we too will get caught up in the comparison game.
• When we do, it can be easy to get disappointed.
We compare:
• Husbands/wives/children.
• Way things are with the way they used to be.
• What we have now with what we used to have.
• Church with how we remember it being.
We remember the past as being better than it was so the present seems worse than it is.
It is foolish to play the comparison game because only God is qualified to make proper comparisons.
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Remember the story of Jesus and Peter from John 21?
• Three times Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love Me?”
• Three times Peter responds in the affirmative.
• Jesus tells Peter to feed His sheep
• He even tells Peter something about how he will die.
• Then Peter looks at John and says, “What about him?”
• The Lord's responds by telling Peter what happens with John is none of his business, John 21:22.
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Reminds us God is not obligated to treat us like He treats others.
• He is not required/bless us/use us/anything else.
• Not obligated to do for us today what He did/past.
• right to do as He pleases with us
• We are foolish to make any comparisons.
• If we do, it will only lead to disappointment!
When we live in the past and downgrade the present, the inevitable result will be disappointment and discouragement.
If we are not careful:
• We might fail/see the greatest days of our lives
• greatest days of our church/our ministry
• Just might be/days/front of us, not/days behind us!
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II. THE CURE FOR DISAPPOINTMENT
When we find ourselves looking at that high mountain of disappointment, how do we get over it?
a. We Must Look Up - The people are called to look up, v. 4.
• Called/turn/eyes away/their pain/problems/disappointments
• Called to look to God. The Lord of hosts.
• No one can stand against Him.
• No one can defeat His purposes.
• No one can hinder Him in the least.
• As God says several times in Isaiah 45, “I am the LORD and there is none else!”
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The same God Who stood/David/Valley/Elah/he faced mighty Goliath/same God Who stands/you in all your battles.
When your God is big, your battles will be small!
• David's God was so big that even Goliath seemed small.
• Jews/Haggai's day God seemed small so their task appeared to be overwhelming.
• In the same way, your view of God radically affects how you approach life.
• Take a good look at the God you worship.
• Is He big enough to handle the challenges you face?
• If He isn't, you need to look up and get a new view of God.
• He is the LORD of Host! He is the LORD Almighty!
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b. We Must Look Ahead – God only sends His people in one direction: forward.
• He never sends them back to the past.
• The Jews in Haggai's day had romanticized the past and completely forgotten the future.
• What was that future?
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1. v. 6-7 God Would Shake All Nations
This passage is quoted in Heb. 12:26-27 and there it is linked to the coming of the Messiah.
• Tells us God shook/earth when He gave His Law
• He will shake it again when the Messiah comes.
One day, this world with its false religions, it dead works and it ever increasing iniquity will be shaken to pieces and it will fall at the feet of the Messiah!
• Right now, the world is in turmoil.
• Way of the world for thousands of years.
• Persians toppled/Babylonians.
• Greeks defeated/Persians. The Romans conquered the Greeks, and so on.
• The nations are in a constant state of agitation.
• The day will come when the Lord will shake this world system to its foundation!
• He will topple every king and earthly power
• He will rule this world/mocks and rejects Him today!
• That is a future worth looking to!
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2. v. 7, 9 The Latter Glory Will Be Greater Than The Former Glory
How could this be possible? How could/puny/pathetic building ever possess a greater glory than the Temple build by Solomon?
God knew what these discouraged workers did not know.
• He knew/500 years later/His Son
• the very glory of Heaven itself
• Would walk the very grounds upon which they worked.
My friends keep your hands on the plow and keep going for the Lord! You never know how the Lord will use you and your efforts.
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D. We Must Get To Work – In verse 4, God tells the people to “be strong” and “to work”.
• We like to sit around and “stew in our juices.”
• When we get discouraged/disappointed
• Tendency/us /want/quit/God “Get up and get to work!
• Don't let anyone side track you, derail you, or stop you.”
• We all find ourselves discouraged/disappointed/time/time
• We should never allow that to distract us from the work God has given us to do.
Conc: Is there a mountain of disappointment looming in front of you?
Do you find yourself looking back more often than you find yourself looking ahead?
Do you ever find yourself making fruitless and foolish comparisons?
Do you ever find yourself asking, “What's the use?”
How will you get past that mountain that threatens to stop you?
What will you do with your disappointments?
Will you allow them to stop you. Or, will you allow God to use them to strengthen, temper and intensify your life?
