But all churches being built are not for the glory of God!
Illus: There was a church in Columbia, South Carolina, that was growing faster than any church in the area at one time. In fact, they advertised throughout the city that they were the “Fasting Growing Church” in the city. They were growing so fast, they moved out on a busy interstate and bought some very expensive acreage and built a big beautiful church building on this site.
But this church was being built on the wrong kind of foundation. They would do anything to draw a crowd. For example:
• One Sunday they might have a bunch of clowns
• The next week they would have men parachuting from an airplane to land in the church parking lot
• The next week they would advertise that they were going to have a hundred foot long banana split for the boys and girls to eat
• The next week they would give away a pony
• The next week they would give away a color television set
• The next week they would have someone demonstrating karate
But after they ran out of tricks and began to repeat what they had already done, the crowd began to thin down. In fact, that large congregation dwindled down to a handful before they had to close the doors. They sold the large church building to a trucking company.
The preacher saw the end coming, so he left town and went to another church and made the same mess there.
It is sad that many of the churches being built today are not being built on the right kind of foundation.
WHAT DOES THE LORD SAY ABOUT BUILDING HIS CHURCH? Look at Matt. 16:18, "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
The Lord said He would build His church and the church He builds will PREVAIL.
WHAT KIND OF CHURCH PREVAILS OVER SATAN? The kind that the Lord builds. Such as:
• A church that is always TEACHING about Christ
• A church that is always PREACHING about Christ
• A church that is always SINGING about Christ
• A church that is always GIVING to Christ
• A church that is always WITNESSING about Christ
• A church that is always WORKING for Christ
A church like that is built on the right foundation and will prevail and Satan can’t stop it!
WHY DOES HE SAY HE WILL BUILD HIS CHURCH? It is because we DO NOT KNOW how to build His Church! We might know how to build a building, but God’s church is not a building. This is why the Lord said, “I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH.”
Some folks think they know how, but they do not know the first thing about building His church.
Illus: They remind me some of some rednecks that did not know the first thing about building. These two rednecks drove their pickup truck into a lumberyard. One of the men walked into the office and said, 'We need some four-by-twos.” The clerk said, “You mean two-by-fours, don't you?”
The man said, “I'll go check,” and went back to the truck. He returned in a minute and said, “Yeah, I meant two-by-fours.”
“Alright. How many do you need?” He went and asked Bubba and came back and said, “Around 60”.
“How long do you need them?” He said, “Let me go ask Bubba.” He returned and said, “Bubba said we need them a long time. We're gonna build a house.”
Illus: When it comes to building, I am also reminded of a women who hired a contractor to repaint the interior of her house. The women walked the man through the second floor of her home and told him what colors she wanted for each room.
• As they walked through the first room, the woman said, "I think I would like this room in a cream color." The contractor wrote on his clipboard, walked to the window, opened it and yelled out the window, "Green side up!" He then closed the window and continued following the woman to the next room.
• The woman looked confused, but proceeded with her tour. “In this room, I was thinking of an off-blue." Again, the contractor wrote this down, went to the window, opened it and yelled out, "Green side up!" This baffled the woman, but she was hesitant to say anything.
• In the next room, the woman said she would like it painted in a light rose color. And once more, the contractor opened the window and yelled, “Green side up!"
Struck with curiosity, the woman mustered up the nerve to ask, "Why do you keep yelling 'Green side up' out my window every time I tell you the color I would like the room painted?"
The contractor replied, "Because I have a crew of rednecks laying sod across the street and I have to keep reminding them, GREEN SIDE UP."
Listen, when it comes to building a church, we do not know the first thing about it and that is why the Lord said, “I will build my church!”
But the Bible does say we are laborers together with the Lord in the kingdom work. Look at 1 Cor. 3:9, it says, “FOR WE ARE LABOURERS TOGETHER WITH GOD.”
In the Old Testament we see a good example of how God wants to build His church. For example -
• In 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar invaded and overthrew Jerusalem. The city and the temple of God were destroyed. God’s people were taken into Babylon as captives and there they remained for seventy years.
• Later Cyrus of the Persians defeated Babylon, and brought the Babylonian Empire to an end.
• He allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild the temple at Jerusalem.
• Among the returning exiles were (probably) the prophets Haggai and Zechariah.
About 18 years went by between the return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the temple. This delay is what brings forth the message of Haggai.
Let’s look at some of the things that Haggai talks about.
First let’s look at .....
I. THE PEOPLE’S AFFECTION
God sent Haggai to tell them to rebuild the temple, but he ran into some difficulties.
WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM? The problem was that the people loved THEIR HOUSES more than they loved GOD’S HOUSE.
Look at Haggai 1:1 4, “In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built. Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?”
Haggai is preaching a blistering sermon. He is reminding them that they live in their luxurious homes while the House of God lies in waste.
The problem was that they were eaten up with SELFISHNESS! Selfishness leads us to do whatever it takes to LOOK OUT FOR OURSELVES!
There are many miserable people on the face of the earth and the reason is because people today are the same as they were in the days of Haggai, and all they can think about is themselves.
Illus: I received a little printed form the other day with a rather intriguing title: “How to Be Perfectly Miserable.” It lists a few things you can do that will make you miserable and keep you that way.
1. Think about yourself constantly
2. Talk about yourself constantly
3. Use the personal pronoun "I" as often as possible in your conversation
4. Demand that everything be done your way
This is a recipe for sadness!!!
The people in Haggai’s day had their priorities all mixed up. Haggai cut them no slack about how they were only concerned about their houses and not the house of God. Their priority consisted only of ME FIRST!!!
Illus: They remind me of the boss man and two secretaries that were going to lunch. As they were walking through a park on their way to lunch, they found an antique oil lamp.
They rubbed it and a Genie came out in a puff of smoke. The Genie said, "I usually only grant three wishes, so I'll give each of you just one."
• "Me first! Me first!" said one secretary. "I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world." Poof! She's gone.
• The other secretary said, "Me next! Me next!” “I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the nicest beach.” Poof! She's gone.
• "You're next," the Genie says to the boss man. The boss man says, "I want those two back right now!"
We have looked at THE PEOPLE’S AFFECTION, but let’s also look at-
II. THE PEOPLE’S ANSWER
Look at verse 2, “Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, THE TIME IS NOT COME, THE TIME THAT THE LORD'S HOUSE SHOULD BE BUILT.”
Notice, they did not say they would take care of the needs of God’s house, they just simply said, “The time is not come, that the LORD’S house should be built.”
Have you noticed:
• Many folks are going to start attending church faithfully when the time is right.
• Many folks are going to start tithing when the time is right.
• Many folks are going to start witnessing when the time is right.
The problem is, THE TIME IS NEVER RIGHT!
They are always talking about doing something but they never get around to doing it.
Illus: They remind me of the man that each Sunday would walk out after church and say to the pastor, “I aim to do what you are preaching about!”
• He would preach on tithing and he would say that
• He would preach on praying and he would say that
• He would preach on witnessing and he would say that
But one day he said this to the pastor and the pastor said to him, “For heaven sake man, you keep aiming week after week, cock the gun and shoot!”
The timing in people’s lives is ridiculous. They are always:
• Aiming to do something
• Planning to do something
• Hoping to do something
But they never seem to get around to doing it.
Illus: When it comes to timing, it makes me think of a certain air base. At this particular air base, the Air Force is on one side of the field and the civilian aircraft use the other side of the field. The control tower is in the middle.
One day the tower received a call from an aircraft asking, "What time is it?" The tower responded, "Who is calling?"
The aircraft replied, "What difference does it make?"
The tower replied "It makes a lot of difference.”
• If it is an American Airlines flight, it is 3 o'clock
• If it is an Air Force plane, it is 1500 hours
• If it is a Navy aircraft, it is 6 bells
• If it is an Army aircraft, the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 3
• If it is a Marine Corps aircraft, it's Thursday afternoon.
Everyone seems to treat time differently. When it comes to spiritual things, for some folks it never seems to be the time for them to act.
These Jews had time and money to build their own houses, but did not have the time or money to build God’s house.
But look at the Lord’s answer to them in verses 3 4. “Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?”
The word “ceiled” means a “roof or covering.” They had “a roof over their heads” and they weren’t worried about a roof for God’s building. Again, this is a picture of the selfishness of these people. We live in a “Me First” society.
Illus: An Irishman, a Mexican and a Redneck were doing construction work on scaffolding on the 20th floor of a building. They were eating lunch. They felt like they were not be treating fairly.
• The Irishman opened his lunch and said; "Corned beef and cabbage. If I get Corned beef and cabbage for lunch one more time I'm going to be the FIRST TO JUMP OFF THIS BUILDING!”
• The Mexican opened his lunch box and exclaimed; "If I get Burritos again I will be the FIRST TO JUMP OFF THIS BUILDING.”
• The Redneck opened his lunch and said; "Bologna again. If I eat one more bologna sandwich I will be the FIRST TO JUMP OFF THIS BUILDING.
The next day they opened their lunches at the same time, and all three of them jumped off the new building to show their disgust for how they felt they had been treated.
-- At The Funeral--
• The Irishman's wife is weeping. She says; "If I'd known how really tired he was of corned beef and cabbage I never would have given it to him again."
• The Mexican's wife also weeps and says; "I could have given him tacos or enchiladas. I didn't realize he hated burritos so much."
• Everyone turned and stared at the Redneck's wife. She said, "Hey, don't look at me, he made his own lunch!”
Many people today have the attitude of “ME FIRST!”
It is obvious that the people Haggai was addressing had their affection on the things of this earth. Many folks are wondering why things are not working out in their life, and it is because the Lord is not first in their life.
Illus: A Navy man had to attend a wedding. He asked an officer for a pass and was told he had to be back by 7 p.m. Sunday.
"You don't understand, sir," my friend said. "I'm in the wedding."
"No, YOU don't understand," the officer replied. "You're in the Navy."
Conclusion:
I want to ask you something, where is your affection?
• Some have time FOR THE THINGS OF THE WORLD, but no time for God.
• Some have money FOR THE THINGS OF THE WORLD, but no money for God.
Look at what Jesus said we ought to be preoccupied with:
• Matt. 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
• Col. 3:1 2, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
Look what the Lords says through Haggi to these people.
Haggai 1:5-6, “Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.”
Because they have looked out for themselves, God said they have pockets with holes in them.
Look at Haggai 1:7-8, we read, “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.”
In other words, God was telling them to PUT HIM FIRST IN THEIR LIVES AND HE WOULD BLESS THEM!
The Lord said I will build my church. The Lord’s church:
• Must be a place of preaching
• Must be a place of praying
• Must be a place of praising
• Must be a place of practicing
Illus: Dr. B. H. Carroll, founder of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, prayed the following prayer shortly after he was converted.
Write thy name on my head
that I may think for thee;
Write thy name on my lips
that I may speak for thee;
Write thy name on my feet
that I may walk with and for thee;
Write thy name on my ears
that I may listen for thee;
Write thy name on my heart
that I may love thee;
Write thy name on my shoulders
that I may bear loads for thee;
Write thy name on my eyes
that I may see for thee;
Write thy name all over me
that I may be wholly thine -- always and everywhere.
(Robert G. Lee, Sermonic Library, pp. 150-51)
When it comes to the things of God, what is YOUR ANSWER? Are you putting the Lord first in your life or the things of the world?
The church that the Lord builds is a church where the people put God first in their life and this is the kind of church that PREVAILS!
CONSIDER YOUR WAYS!
• Are you playing games with God
• Do you have time for the things you want to do but do not have time to do the things God wants you to do
• Do you have money for the things you want but no money for the things of God
We have looked at:
I. THE PEOPLE’S AFFECTION
II. THE PEOPLE’S ANSWER
