Throughout the month of October, our church celebrates our 125-year heritage. And as we celebrate all that God has done for us, we know that God is continuing to do a great work even now. This past week a young man emailed me the following message:
“Scott,
I just felt the need to let you know what a blessing attending this church has been on our lives. It is still uncertain on if we will be relocated with my job. Regardless, if our time at Van Buren First Baptist is coming to an end, the few short months we have been attending have been nothing short of life changing for us as a family. We have always been “in church” but did not realize how dead we were spiritually. Personally, God has used the men in the Adult 2 class as examples to inspire me to actively seek out more of a relationship with the Lord. It has been great to be a part of a group of men who have such a passion for the God. I know that [my wife] feels the same way about the women she has bonded with.
God has used [this church] to bless me greatly and to wake me u [sic] to the fact that I was just going through the motions for many years. While I am sad to think about moving and having to leave this church family, I know that God is in control and has a plan for us, and that the course we are on now has been radically changed by God's grace and the fact that we started attending Van Buren First Baptist. Thank you again for opening your doors to us.”
Outside of the Old Testament book of Obadiah, Haggai is the smallest book in the Old Testament. At just two chapters, the book is a mere thirty-eight verses long. Little is know about the author of the book. Haggai himself is only mentioned in one place, the book of Ezra. My guess is many of you have never heard a sermon from this small book and may have never known of its existence.
In the second year of Darius (pronounced Da’ ri’ us) the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel (pronounced She’ l’ tee’ l), governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” 3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 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. 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And I have 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.”
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with 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. And the people feared the Lord. 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” 14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king” (Haggai 1: 1-15)
Today’s Big Idea: Spend Yourself for the Glory of God
1. A People in the Right Place
If you were travel to the British Museum of London and visit Room 55, you would find the Cyrus Cylinder. The cylinder dates from the 6th century BC and has been on display at the museum since 1880. Measuring 9 inches by 4 inches, the cylinder is filled with Akkadian cuneiform writing (the earliest known writing system) on all sides. It tells of the Persian’s army’s invasion of Babylon. It also tells the great deeds of Cyrus. And none other than the Shah of Iran called it “the world’s first charter of human rights.” The reason the Shah spoke of the cylinder as a human rights charter, was because the cylinder describes the actions the Persian ruler Cyrus. Specifically, it shows Cyrus’ actions of displaying respect for the religious traditions of other people. It is evidence of how he allowed deported people to go back home.
The Bible also describes Cyrus’ actions in the book of Ezra: “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.” (Ezra 1:1-4)
The Jewish people had been conquered and their homes were destroyed. They had lived for decades in the foreign lands of their enemies. And their Temple was destroyed. The Temple that Solomon had spent seven years building (1 Kings 6-7; 2 Chronicles 3-4) was eradicated. They were the right people. After 66 years in another land, a little more 42,000 (plus an additional 7,000 servants) left the foreign lands to come back home to Judah. The returning people had heard of the glory of Solomon’s Temple. Those in their 70s or 80s could tell of the lavish gold of the former Temple (Haggai 2:3). They could speak of the most sacred place where the Ark of the Covenant sat, called the Holy of Holies. They would have spoken for years of how crushed they were to hear of the Temple’s destruction. Yet, the vast majority of them stayed in Babylon.
They had set up a comfortable life there in more than six decades of living there. It was only this small group, this remnant, who showed devotion to God to come back home. They were in the Right Place.
Because of their love for God, they choose to leave the comforts they had preferred for the rigors of rebuilding their home land. They were zealous for the house of God and they had left many of their friends, family members, and comfortable lives behind. When the call came from Cyrus, they left Babylon and got back to Jerusalem as soon as possible.
They were doing the Right Work. Although many things needed their attention, they rolled up their sleeves to rebuild the Temple. They needed to make a living. They needed to establish schools, shops, and trade. But their first building they desired to rebuild was the Temple. The Old Testament book of Ezra tells us they collected more than 18 million in gold alone for the rebuilding of the Temple (Ezra 2:69). This money was given to pay masons and carpenters. It was given to buy and transport cedar logs from Lebanon. They clearly wanted to serve God and put His work above their own interests.
2. The Treadmill of Perpetual Discontent
Four times in the book of Haggai, the prophet says, “Consider Your Ways…” (Haggai 1:5, 7; 2:15, 18). It is a statement that calls for careful reflection by God’s people. The people had ceased work on the Temple that had started eighteen years earlier. What they had begun, they soon began to make excuses for their failure to complete the project. Look carefully at verse three: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” (Haggai 1:3)
The people’s excuse – the timing wasn’t right. Watch carefully the words of their excuse. They betrayed themselves for their excuse shows they knew they had an obligation to restore the temple. Yet, as God points out in verse four: “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” (Haggai 1:4)
God asks them to consider their ways. Consider carefully how you have had time and resources for your homes, but God’s house lies in ruins. This was biting. God was accusing the people of having plenty of time for themselves while they please for a lack of time for God. They had plenty of money to spend on their own comfort and pleasures while they claimed to have enough resources for God’s service.
Is the timing right to do God’s work? The economic timing couldn’t be worse. Credit card defaults and late payments are up. The dollar is weak against foreign markets. Red ink is high as banks fall. We are told that Pakistan faces economic collapse. We know of mortgage fraud and job loss. Surely, we are in tough economic times.
Kathi was a Jewish homemaker living a normal middle class life. When her son was killed in an accident, her husband took to drinking and withdrew from her. He divorced her and she was left alone at age 43 with no job skills, no job history, and no alimony (her state had a no fault divorce law). Her husband recovered from his alcoholism, remarried and was soon making $65,000 a year. She began working as a waitress for $900 a month. She could not pay the rent on her on bedroom apartment and still eat. She began living in welfare hotels, and not is in a rehabilitation center for indigent women.
Nearly 42 percent of American children grow up in low-income families. Yet, a record attendance gathered on September 25 of this year when #1 Alabama played #10 Arkansas up on the hill. Nearly 77,000 people filled Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium on that Saturday.
Today, we have gathered for worship in millions of dollars’ worth of vehicles. Dressed in fine clothes, we sit in our cushioned chairs. The average square footage of our homes in the South has risen 50% percent since the early 1970s. According to the Self Storage Association, a trade group charged with monitoring contemporary storage habits, the country now possesses about 1.9 billion square feet of personal storage space outside of the home. According to a recent survey, the owners of 1 out of every 11 homes also own a self-storage space. This represents an increase of 75 percent since 1995. Yesterday’s luxury is today’s necessity.
Today’s Big Idea: Spend Yourself for the Glory of God
If we are not careful, we will redefine Christianity as a religion who follows a nice, middle-class, American Jesus. A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that doesn’t infringe on our comforts. A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream. You and I need to wake up and realize that there are infinitely more important things in your life than football and a 401(k). There are real battles to be fought. Perhaps it’s not a timing thing for us as much as a procrastination thing with us. Our procrastination is bigger than selfishness. When the people of Haggai’s day failed to prioritize the work of God the refuse God’s grace. The Temple was the outward form of the real presence of the Lord among His people. To refuse to build the house was at best saying that it did not matter whether the Lord was present with them. At worst it was presuming on divine grace, that the Lord would live with His people even though they willfully refused to obey Him. When we fail to roll up our sleeves and seriously engage in God’s work, we have inverted our priorities.
Watch the result of their inverted priorities: “Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.” (Haggai 1:5-6)
They had put other things before God, and God, who will have no other gods before him, sent hard times on them. Like people who take on extra jobs and who work through lunch but do not get ahead.
They were on a treadmill. On an escalator running two steps behind while spending all their energy to move ahead. They earned wages only to place them in purses that have wholes in them. They eat but the food was satisfying their hunger. Here we are as Middle-class Americans in 2010 with more cars, More vacations… More flat screen TVs… More games… And we are still unsatisfied. We could sing Mick Jaggar’s song.
Why was any of this happening? “You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.” (Haggai 1:9-10)
We should learn again that God intervenes into our ordinary, everyday lives. He did so with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. He killed them for lying. And God did so with the selfish members in the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 11. He killed them for feeding themselves first.
God is at work in our economy. To doubt this is to act as a functional deist. We think economy and we think government. Our economic solutions are not found in Washington under either administration. The ideology of the Left believes big governments and social reform will solve social ills, while the Right believes big business and economic growth will do it. The Left expects a citizen to be held legally accountable for the use of his wealth, but totally autonomous in other areas, such as sexual morality. The Right expects a citizen to be held legally accountability in areas of personal morality, but totally autonomous in the use of wealth. The American “idol” – the individual has his rights – stands behind both ideologies. God calls on us to alleviate the suffering of the poor and the downtrodden. There are 1.2 billion people living in unrelieved poverty today and every day 30,000 children still die of starvation.
3. A Willing Response
“Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with 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. And the people feared the Lord. 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” 14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.” (Haggai 1:12-15)
Haggai first spoke on August 30, 520 BC and the work began on September 21, 520 BC. A remarkable change took place in just 23 days. The people resumed the work on the twenty-fourth day of the month. When you compare this to the first verse of the chapter, we are told that Haggai began to preach on the first day of the month.
Today’s Big Idea: Spend Yourself for the Glory of God
It’s the glory of God is because of verse 8. Haggai's remedy for frustration goes like this: “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.” (Haggai 1:8) Both then and now the real problem is not the neglect of a building but indifference to the glory of God. The temple of the Old Testament existed for the glory of God. And the Church today exists for the glory of God.
