Today, I want to sound the trumpet on the Need for Endurance and Perseverance. There are many things we are called to endure. Today’s message is designed to offer you fuel for the race to endure. I think of the early church martyr Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp was eighty-six years old when he was burned at the stake. He could have saved his life had he chosen to curse Christ. But he said, “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has done me no wrong; how then can I blaspheme my king who saved me.”
Turn in your Bibles to Haggai Two. As your turning to the book of Haggai, let me tell you a little about him. Haggai is only mentioned one other time in your Bibles, in Ezra 5 and 6. His book is the second shortest book in the Old Testament. And his name means “festival” or “pilgrim to a festival.” The word is very much like the Arabic word hajj (“to go on a pilgrimage”). So Haggai means one who has been on a pilgrimage.
“In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, 3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? 4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, 5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. 6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’” (Haggai 2:1-9)
Haggai’s message is simple. He calls on the people of God to rebuild the house of God. “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). Everything in the book is designed to get the people busy building God’s House. Yet, don’t be confused by drywall and concrete footers. More is happening in this book than building a house. The House of God communicates the people’s zeal for the Glory of God.
Today’s Big Idea: Disobedience Brings Discouragement; Obedience Brings Empowerment
1. When You Overwhelmed
The words of the Bible show the people overwhelmed. They are overwhelmed and stressed by the task God has called them to. Discouragement and depression are dripping from these pages. The past seemed incomparably better than the present. While the present seemed insignificant because it couldn’t compare to the past. The Prophet Haggai stands up to blow a trumpet for the saints to endure.
There are at least two good ways to handle multiple stresses in your life. One is to reduce the number of stresses. But sometimes that's not possible. And sometimes it’s not desirable — for example in wartime or in some crisis, we simply have to learn to live with more than usual stress. The second way we handle stress is to see a good design in the multiple stresses of our lives. If the pressured pieces of our lives seem chaotic and meaningless, we cave in or just run away. If we begin to see that all the pieces are fitting together into some good design, and that each piece has meaning as part of some significant, larger purpose, then the pressures become endurable. And for many, not just endurable but challenging and energy-producing.
When we last saw the Jewish people were hard at work rebuilding the destroyed temple. The Jewish people had been conquered and their homes were destroyed. After 66 years in another land, 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 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. Once they arrived back home, they had initially been concentrating on their own self-interests and had abandoned the construction of the Temple. God had sent the prophets Haggai and Zachariah to stir the people to work again. And they had begun the process of rebuilding the Temple just three weeks earlier (Haggai 1:14b-15). And in just three weeks of work, they already they were discouraged. Their zeal had diminished. Already they were ready to throw in towel.
There is always a certain sense of excitement when you begin a new ministry or project. But the glow easily rubs off in the grind. There were probably piles of rubble that needed to be removed. Perhaps some of the workers had envisioned putting the finishing touches on some gold work or other craftsmanship, but they hadn’t thought about hauling rubble. Their initial enthusiasm was already wearing thin. So God sends His spokesmen, Haggai, again.
Haggai’s first spoke on September 21, 520 BC. He had spoke sharply and with urgency. Only, upon his return, Haggai speaks gently. Lest than a month had gone by since the Jewish people had begun to build. Haggai’s speaks a second time on October 17, 520 BC. The rebuilding project had initially begun fifteen years before. But it had stopped and it had remained on hold for years. Even then, the rebuilding had been tempered with sadness over what was lost: “But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy…” (Ezra 3:12).
It would be four more years before the Temple was completed. And rebuilding the Temple caused the people to reflect on their lives and their God. And they were overwhelmed. Today is no different. Discouragement by COMPARISONS The old-timers were saying, “You should have seen Solomon’s Temple. Now that was a temple! This new one is hardly worth calling a temple compared to the old one!” Sometimes people will say, “That church on the other side of town really has their act together!” We compare the present with the past and become dissatisfied. Those who are older, reflect on their earlier experiences with God in light of the present.
2. A Magnetic Hope
Remember, there are at least two good ways to handle multiple stresses in your life. One is to reduce the number of stresses. The second way we handle stress is to see a good design in the multiple stresses of our lives. If we begin to see that all the pieces are fitting together into some good design, and that each piece has meaning as part of some significant, larger purpose, then the pressures become endurable. And for many, not just endurable but challenging and energy-producing. I want to sound the trumpet on the Need for Endurance and Perseverance.
As the work becomes bogged down, Haggai places the focus not upon the people but upon God. Haggai’s trumpet sounds forth with a message of God. The workers move to the background of the picture while God Almighty comes into sharp focus. God’s presence and His work on behalf of His people become the focus. Renewed vigor is apparent as the project is for God and God is the resource to get the job done.
God gives two reasons why we should be strong and work:
2.1 God is Present
The first way Haggai lifts His Trumpet for Endurance is to tell them God is Here. God is present: “Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not” (Haggai 2:4-5)
In the middle of despair, God’s children must remember that God’s presence is with them. Three times God tells the people to “be strong.” Discouragement in doing the things of God is natural. Discouragement is a weed that grows in the sidewalk without any fertilizer.
When God tells us He is present, He means much more than He is merely present to observe. God is no bystander. He is not watching from a far off field with a pair of binoculars. Instead, when God says He is present, He is present with a dynamic power to carry out His promises. You must have faith. When others assess the situation as horribly bad, faith sees God’s presence. Faith affirms God’s view. Faith doesn’t see a hopeless future; faith sees the promises of God. The backdrop of this message may not find your building but enduring the loss of a stillborn baby. Or the loss of a loved one. I want to throw my arms around you and tell you to, “Throw yourself on God.” He is no bystander to your present trouble. He is present to strengthen you to endure. God’s presence guarantees His promises.
2.2 He will Make the New Temple Beautiful
The second way Haggai lifts His Trumpet for Endurance is to tell them Future of His Work: “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts” (Haggai 2:9)
Haggai is pointing to distant events. We view success as instant as opposed to the eternal. We live with the presumption in our day of tearing down the old to replace it with bigger and better. Take recently built Dallas Cowboys football stadium as an example. The video screen in the middle of the stadium has more than 30 million lights and is 72 feet tall and 160 feet wide. Weighing in at over two million (2,000,000) pounds, it took Mitsubishi Electric more than eighteen months to build it.
How could their Temple surpass Solomon’s Temple? In Solomon’s Temple, all the inside surface were overlaid with gold. It contained the Ark of the Covenant. When it was built God had filled the Temple with the Shekinah glory of God during its dedication. None of the workers on this temple lived to see its glory exceed that of Solomon’s Temple. God says: “For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land” (Haggai 2:6). That didn’t happen until Messiah came into this temple over 500 years later, and even then many missed it! While there may have been a partial fulfillment of that prophecy within a few years of Haggai’s day (in the overthrow of powerful kingdoms), the ultimate fulfillment is still future in our day! God will shake all the nations at the Second Coming of Christ, and they will bring the wealth of the nations to His temple in the Millennium.
Do you see the name Zerubbabel scattered throughout the pages of Haggai? When you turn over to the beginning of the New Testament in the book of Matthew, you see Zerubbabel’s name there. God includes Zerubbabel in Jesus’ family (Matthew 1:12-13). God pulls it off!
Turn with me to Luke 2 to see how God fulfilled His promise.
“And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.’ Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,?according to your word;?for my eyes have seen your salvation?that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,?a light for revelation to the Gentiles,?and for glory to your people Israel.’ And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, ‘Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed’” (Luke 2:22-35)
We might say to someone, “You Can Do It!” God says, “You Will only Do It Because I am at Work!” God doesn’t come along and say, “Buck Up!” He doesn’t say “You can do it!”
Today’s Big Idea: Disobedience Brings Discouragement; Obedience Brings Empowerment
God is calling you to endure in your present life. Don’t jump ship.
3. Smart Money
Any jaunt through the local bookstore will display numerous books and magazine on how to invest your money. From the class 1949 classic, The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham to Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People… The money related sections of bookstores are some of the largest sections in the store these days.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.’ Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 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 1:2-6).
“Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord. Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider: Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.” (Haggai 2:15-19)
The message is simple: Look to your life before you began to place God’s work first… And then… Look at your life after you began to place God’s Word first. God is not afraid of this kind of test. If an objective observer looked at your bank statements from the last three months, what would he say your priorities are? What was the last time you increased your percentage of giving to the church?
Have you strategized for this? What commitments keep you from giving more to your church? To missions? To the poor in River Valley?
