WHEN THE LORD STIRS HIS PEOPLE
Haggai 1:11-15
You have all heard the idiom "stirring up a hornet's nest". This means to do something that causes a lot of trouble, controversy, or difficulty. It wasn’t a hornet’s nest, but on Friday I stirred up a yellow jacket’s nest and I am still paying the price! In twenty years of ministry there have been times when I have stirred up some people in the church; without reservation I can say that I would much rather deal with yellow jackets. Their attacks may sting and itch for a few days, but “church people” can scar you for life!
In those rare instances where I have been attacked by professing Christians, the frustrating reality was that it was God and His Word that actually stirred His people, but instead of responding accordingly, they came after the messenger.
In 520 B.C Haggai was a messenger that God used to “stir up the spirits” of His people. Thankfully, they did not attack the messenger, they received the message and as a result there was a great revival among “the remnant of God’s people”.
It is my prayer that God would “stir the spirits” of His people at Antioch Baptist Church. Our selected text shows us how God will do this and what will happen when He does. I invite you to join me in Haggai 1:12-15 as we consider the thought “When The LORD Stirs His People”.
In the previous eleven verses we have God’s confrontation of His people. He first sent His message through the prophet “Haggai” to the civic and religious leaders, “Zerubbabel” and “Joshua”. They in turn relayed the God’s message to “the remnant of the people”. The “remnant” describes those left after a time of judgment to become the focus of God’s ongoing purposes for His people.
Upon hearing the description of their situation, God’s proclamation that He had caused their calamity, and the demand to “consider their ways”, the “remnant of the people… feared the Lord”. The people gave YAHWEH the reverence and respect He deserved as the one and only LORD and their Heavenly Father.
The ”fear” that was experienced by God’s people prompted them to turn away from their own desires and return to the Lord. They transitioned from selfishness and disobedience to a place of sacrifice and obedience. They literally “repented”; that is, they had a change of mind that resulted in a change of actions.
Their new perspective and priorities came with a great promise. Notice verse 13, “Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.”
Once again the LORD speaks to His people through Haggai. God assured them that even though they had failed mightily and for an extended period of time, and even though they had experienced severe consequences due to their rebellion; they had been forgiven, their relationship with the LORD had been restored, and He would be with them as they worked for Him. Though it would be another four years before the LORD’s glory would once again fill His Temple, God was dwelling among His people and He would protect them, provide for them, and enable them to carry out the task they had been assigned.
Just as God has stirred the hearts of His people to repentance, He stirred their spirits for the intense labor that was ahead of them. Some sixteen years earlier the Lord had “stirred the spirit” of Cyrus (Ezra 1:1) to allow the Temple to be rebuilt. Shortly thereafter, He “stirred the spirit” (Ezra 1:5) of the exiles to return to Jersualem and begin work on the House of the Lord. Now, once again the Lord “stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel …and the spirit of Joshua …and the spirit of all the remnant of the people”. In response to this “stirring” the people “came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts”. Don’t miss the fact that the LORD is called “their God”. The obedience of the remnant reflects their restored relationship with God.
This work began “on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king”. Haggai’s first oracle was delivered to the people on August 29; now twenty-three days later on September 21st, 520 BC the people began to work.
God stirred up the spirits of His people and their passions and priorities changed. They turned from their selfishness, apathy, and inactivity and focused their time, energy, and efforts on rebuilding the Temple of the LORD.
After turning to Christ, William Booth was called to minister to the poor in Nottingham, England. After some time he founded The Salvation Army. By 1930 there were branches in 55 countries. It is estimated that more than 2,000,000 people have professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through the work of the Salvation Army.
William Booth died August 20, 1912, and his funeral was attended by tens of thousands of people. After the funeral, everyone had left except a lone Methodist preacher. He was so moved with what GOD had done through William Booth that he bowed on his knees at the altar and prayed from the depths of his soul, "LORD, do it again, LORD, do it again."
The Psalmist prayed a similar prayer in Psalm 85:6 “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” It should be our desire that the LORD would stir our hearts and revive us again.
Many of us grew up in a time where it was common to have an annual or bi-annual “revival”. This was usually a weeklong series of meetings that involved a time of prayer, praise, and preaching. I am sure that many of you were saved as a result of such gatherings. I spent a great portion of my childhood attending these meetings and witnessed some amazing moves of God. However, I also witnessed a great deal of hype, manipulation, and emotionalism.
Kevin DeYoung says, “true revival is not generic spirituality, mere emotionalism, or utopian idealism. True revival is marked by a rediscovery of the word of God, a restored sense of the fear of God, a return to God through confession and repentance, a renewed spiritual commitment as God’s people, and, finally, a reformation of true piety.” (Source: https://clearlyreformed.org/what-is-true-revival/)
The final verses of Haggai chapter one provide us with several evidences that will be present when God’s people experience genuine revival. When God does the work that only He can do in the hearts and lives of His people they will hear Him, fear Him, obey Him, and trust Him. Let’s look to the text and see that:
WHEN THE LORD STIRS THE HEARTS OF HIS PEOPLE THEY WILL HEAR HIM
v12 Then Zerubbabel… Joshua… and 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.
The Lord’s message had been sent, heard, and received. Part of God’s method of stirring the hearts of His people was to send them a message through His prophet.
There is no shortage of access to God’s Word today. Most of us own a stack of Bibles, many have numerous translations on their phone. Online we have access to more free theological resources than any physical library could hold. Most of you attend church at least once a week where you study the Bible in Small Groups and hear Biblical sermons. In fact, a great number of you listen to various other preachers on T.V, radio, and the internet. For us the issue is not hearing the Word of God, it is heeding the Word of God.
God called on His people to “consider their ways”, He has called on us to do the same. In fact, in the previous sermon in this series we examined God’s demand for us to “consider our ways”. By your own testimony, many of you did just that. Now, a week has gone by; did you stop at considering your ways or did you take the proper steps to change your ways? If there has been no change then you are like those whom Paul Simon referred to as “people hearing without listening”.
Those who would consider their ways without changing their ways have a very serious problem; I am referring to the fact that they do not possess a genuine fear of the Lord. Notice that:
WHEN THE LORD STIRS THE HEARTS OF HIS PEOPLE THEY WILL FEAR HIM
In Haggai’s first oracle the LORD demanded that His people “consider their ways”. He confronted the fact that His Temple was in ruins while they built luxurious homes for themselves. He then described the reality that their harvests were meager, they ate but were not satisfied, they drank but their thirst was never quenched, they earned wages but it was as if they put their earnings into a bag with holes. The Lord said, “You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away.” He went on to say that He “called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”
When God stirs our hearts to the point that we genuinely fear Him we will turn from our own selfish desires and turn towards those things that would honor, glorify, and please Him. The Book of Haggai shows us that God loves His children enough to rebuke and chasten them.
Like the godly remnant back then, the process of the Lord stirring our hearts may involve discipline. The intended result is for us to give Him the reverence and respect that He deserves, when this happens our fear will produce obedience. This leads us to the fact that:
WHEN THE LORD STIRS THE HEARTS OF HIS PEOPLE THEY WILL OBEY HIM
Solomon summed up the entire Book of Ecclesiastes with this phrase, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 13:13). Though they had failed mightily and for an extended period of time, the “remnant” seems to have come to this same conclusion. They were shaken out of their slumber and reached a place where they feared the Lord and responded by obeying Him. No longer would they focus on their luxurious homes and personal desires, they grabbed their tools, gathered the materials, and began to build the Temple.
Through this study, God has called on us to “consider our ways”, the desired result is for us to change our ways. However, God does not want us to build Him a Temple. Under the Old Covenant the Temple was the place where the Lord “takes pleasure in” sacrifices and where his “glory” dwelt among his people (v8).
We are under the New Covenant and the place of sacrifice and God’s glory is now found in Jesus Christ. His sacrifice at Calvary is the only sacrifice for sin that the Father takes pleasure in. Furthermore, Jesus is the ultimate dwelling place of God’s glory. (John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.)
As God’s children there is a work for us to do, however, it has nothing to do with building a Temple or even constructing a church (building). Jesus has chosen to use us to be involved in the building of a spiritual house. How do we do this? We do it by spreading the Gospel and seeking to advance the Kingdom by pointing people to Him. The Lord places those who belong to Him as “living stones” into a new Temple that is built upon Jesus as the chief cornerstone.
Peter said, “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious. you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame” (2 Peter 2:4-6).
Tragically, many Christians are far too similar to God’s people before they were confronted by Haggai. They have misplaced priorities and selfish motives. They are focused on the temporal & material instead of the spiritual & eternal. Instead of storing up everlasting treasures in Heaven, they are “laying up treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19). Instead of actively serving Jesus, they are serving themselves.
Our blessed Savior would have us to avoid storing up “treasures here on earth” and instead He would have us to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”. He has even given us the promise that if we will keep our priorities in order that He will take care of the necessities of life such.
In Matthew 6 He spoke to the fact that the Gentiles sought after earthly things and asked questions like ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ We can trust that “all these things” will be added unto us if we will “seek first the Kingdom of God”.
Once again we are confronted with the importance of considering our ways. Are we seeking first the Kingdom of God? Are the things that we spend our time, money, energy, and efforts on things that will matter in eternity? Are we storing up treasures on earth or in Heaven?
Charles Thomas Studd, who served as a British missionary to China, penned a poem entitles “Only One Life”, the closing stanza of that poem says:
Only one life, yes only one,
Now let me say, ”Thy will be done”;
And when at last I’ll hear the call,
I know I’ll say “twas worth it all”;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
When the Lord stirs our hearts we will obey Him, not just in an effort to appease Him so that He will lift the heavy hand of discipline, not just in a misguided effort to receive His blessings, and not only because we possess a healthy fear of Him. When the Lord stirs our hearts we will obey Him because we love Him and desire to glorify Him!
In verse 8 the Lord commanded His people to “Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.” If we will seek first the Kingdom and do our part to advance the Kingdom by living for the Lord and spreading the Gospel He will “take pleasure in it” and “be glorified”. If we truly love the Lord that will be our greatest desire.
The wonderful news is that it is possible for us to be involved in the advancement of God’s Kingdom and we can be successful concerning the task that we have been assigned. In closing, I would like to consider the reality that:
WHEN THE LORD STIRS THE HEARTS OF HIS PEOPLE THEY WILL TRUST HIM
v13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.”
“The remnant of the people” were able to “Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house” with great assurance because the Lord promised that He would be with them. They did this even when their current circumstances had not changed (they were still enduring the effects of the drought that God had sent because of their inactivity and disobedience.)
When we consider our ways and change our ways, it is very possible that we will still deal with the lasting consequences of our past decisions. However, with our new focus, renewed purpose, and the promise of God’s presence we will be much better equipped to endure the troubles and struggles of life. Furthermore, we have a clear calling from the Lord, He desires and demands that we “build a spiritual house”. We can do this with great hope and assurance. Always remember, when the all-powerful God is on your side, nothing is impossible!
As I examine this passage I cannot help but think about the misplaced priorities of God’s people in Haggai’s day. It is clear that for a period of time they were focused on personal pleasures and earthly possessions. Every single one of us has been guilty of doing the same thing. I am a husband, father of five, and soon to be grandfather of two. I am the sole provider for my family and I often think about what would happen to them if the Lord were to call me home sooner rather than later. I have no doubt that the Lord will provide, but I also believe that I have a responsibility to provide for the needs of my family. In 2 Corinthians 12:14, the Apostle Paul states that "children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.”
Thus far, I have not been able to store up many earthly treasures for my family but I hope that in some way I have provided a spiritual inheritance for them. Tragically, there are times when we as Christians foolishly spend our time focusing on things that will not matter in eternity.
If we truly belong to the Lord He will not allow us to continue in rebellion; Our Heavenly Father will call on us to “consider our ways” and He will “stir our hearts”; when He does it is imperative that we hear Him, fear Him, obey Him, and trust Him.
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