Haggai 2:1-9
Do You Miss The Mountaintop?
Woodlawn Baptist Church
October 9, 2005
Introduction
(From Pastor Timothy Peck)Over the last several years motivational posters have been very popular. You know what I mean: those posters with a photograph of a landscape or usually of an athlete with an inspirational saying underneath the picture. People hang them in their offices or in workplaces to motivate and encourage others.
Well, a company came out that decided to put out some de-motivational posters. I’d like to share a few of them with you as we start today.
• A poster for mistakes says, “It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.
• One for doubt says, “In the battle between you and the world, bet on the world.”
• A poster for humiliation says, “The harder you try, the dumber you look.”
• I like the one for losing, “If at first you don’t succeed, it could be that losing is just your style.”
• The poster for despair says, “It’s always darkest just before it goes pitch black.”
We really don’t need posters to help us be “de-motivated.” It is easier to be down and out or discouraged than it is to be positive, fresh and excited all the time. You can imagine how Dr. Lenore Campbell felt when he went to see a patient who was coming out of anesthesia. He wrote in a medical journal that as he walked in the room some church bells sounded far off in the distance. The woman stirred and he heard her mutter, “I must be in heaven.” At that moment she looked up and saw him and said, “No, I can’t be. There’s Dr. Campbell.”
The truth is that we get down about many things. Maybe you’re not as healthy as you used to be. You try to do things you used to do, but you don’t have the stamina for it anymore. I know the feeling, and I know that it can be depressing when we finally look in the mirror and realize we’re not as strong as we used to be or as fit as we used to be. You try to make a muscle and there’s more hanging under your arm than is on top of it. Some of you are getting on up there in age, and you’ve told me what it’s like to realize your driving skills are diminishing, or getting up and getting ready for church is a struggle.
It’s not just our physical condition; we get discouraged about any number of things. Sometimes our personal relationships aren’t what they ought to be. We look back and conclude that what we have today or what we enjoy today or where we are today pales in comparison to yesterday. This church isn’t like the one you used to attend; the products you buy aren’t as good as the ones they used to sell. The service at Lowe’s isn’t as good as what you used to get at the local hardware store. “The good old days.”
As much as that kind of discouragement can affect us and get us down, there’s another kind that I want to deal with, and that’s the discouragement and dissatisfaction that comes when our experiences of God are not what they used to be or what they ought to be. Most of us can think back and remember times when we were really close to God, those “mountaintop” experiences when God was so real and your view of life and the world was fresh and exciting.
We remember those times and try to reproduce them. We pray a little harder or a little longer. We read our Bibles more, get up earlier, begin this study or join that group hoping that this experience of God will get you back where you used to be.
In the text we’ll read this morning, Israel faced a similar kind of discouragement. They were in the beginning stages of rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem, but their memories of days gone by got them down. It happens to all of us as we relate to God and the things of God. But is that as good as it gets? Are we to live with disappointment and only the memories of better days? You miss a favorite mentor or pastor. You miss a great church or period of history in your church. You miss that closeness to God: you miss the mountaintop. In this message I want to ask and answer the question, How do we get it back?
Be Honest About The Past
Let’s read Haggai 2:1-3.
“In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? And how do ye see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?
Remember from last week’s message that when the people left Babylon and Persia, they returned to Jerusalem and began rebuilding the temple. They laid the foundation, but then, due to opposition and then apathy they quit the work for some fourteen or fifteen years. After all that time, the prophet Haggai was sent by God to get them back to work, and they responded by doing just that.
Now they’ve been at work about a month, and they realize that what they’re building is nothing like the temple they used to have. Solomon’s temple had been a glorious building: one of the great wonders of the world. It had been built with the imported cedars of Lebanon, had been decked out with precious stones and the whole thing had been overlaid with gold. The altar, the cherubim, the floor, the front porch and the holy of holies were all covered in gold. Even the nails were gold.
It’s no wonder the older people looked at this new building and wanted to quit. Do you see what God says to them in verse 3? “Who is left among you who remembers how glorious the old temple was? Now look at what you are building. Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?” In other words, “Can’t you see that what you’re building pales in comparison to the old one?” That’s a question from God! What’s He doing? He wants them to be honest about the past. Yes, the old temple was better.
Don’t we go through times like this in our lives? We begin some work for God, but somewhere along the way we begin to compare it with some other work. In light of that other thing we get discouraged and down in the dumps, so much so that we don’t want to continue the work.
Sometimes we compare the church of our day with that of previous ages. Sit down and read the book of Acts sometime and compare that first church with ours. They were meeting every day. They were excited about studying the Bible. They were praying all the time and thousands of people were being saved. We’re doing good if a handful of people accept Christ today.
Leading up to our revival meeting, I’ve thought about the periods of Great Awakening in America and Britain when churches were packed out and people were weeping and repenting and lives were being changed. Where is that brokenness today?
We don’t have to think back that far. Maybe you just remember 5, 10 or 20 years ago to a time when your own church was different. I’ve seen the pictures of a full building and choir loft; the choir decked out in robes, nursing home ministries, quartets, 120 in Sunday School, great fellowship, great families and great times. I’ve not only seen the pictures, I’ve heard you talk about those days with great fondness.
Well listen, I believe that God has a Word for us in times when we look back like that. It is the same word He spoke through Haggai to the people of Israel. “You’re right. It’s not the same.” If we’re going to be honest about the past, then we have to be able to admit when it is true that the work we’re doing doesn’t compare with what was done previously or with what is going on elsewhere.
It’s very possible that your relationship to God is not what it used to be or what it needs to be. But being honest about it means that you’re willing to admit it and see that it’s not your preacher’s fault and neither is it your church’s fault. It’s your fault. You can’t blame your preacher, your teacher, your church, your parents, your spouse, your job, bad luck, your personality or any other thing if you’re not as close to God as you used to be. The blame lies with you and the first step to dealing with the discouragement or dissatisfaction you’re experiencing is to be honest about the past and what you’ve lost.
By being honest about the past God wants us to acknowledge our situation as He sees it. He’s not trying to cover it up or dress it up. There’s no need for us to think that we’re looking back through rose-colored lenses. The truth is that things today may not be what they used to be and in fact are never what they ought to be. We are not what we ought to be, we’re not where we need to be and we’re not doing what we need to be doing, and that’s the truth about the past. Whether or not you can be honest with yourself and God about it is up to you.
Turn To God In The Present
In verses 4-5, God continues…
“Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts: according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.”
Here is an issue that I think we have great trouble with, and it has to do with the source of our strength. It has to do with the source of our motivation and inspiration. Have you ever noticed how often we find people in the Scriptures being told to be strong? Listen to these verses and notice what is said:
When Moses delivered his final charge to Israel before they crossed the Jordan River, he said,
“Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
When Joshua began to lead the people, the Lord told him,
“Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous...” A few verses later the Lord says again, “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
Later Joshua would tell the people,
“Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.”
When David charged Solomon before he built the first temple, he said,
“Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee…”
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesian church,
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might…”
I don’t know if you caught all that or not, but in every one of those passages where the people are told to be strong and courageous, there is also the promise of God’s presence. It is the presence of God that makes God’s people strong. It is His presence that enables you to continue on when you get down and discouraged with what is happening in your life.
Perhaps you have fallen away from the Lord. You’re not as close to Him as you used to be or you ought to be. That’s being honest about the past, but listen; we’re not to live in the land of regret. We need to move on and turn to God in our present situation. I think that too many people are living unhappy, dissatisfied lives is because they’re too busy missing days gone by and too busy trying to reproduce those days.
Those Jews got discouraged when they realized they were not going to duplicate the glory of the first temple, and you’ll get discouraged too when you pray and read and study and try to live righteously and do all the “Christian” things we’re supposed to do because rather than finding your sufficiency in God you’re trying to find it by reproducing a day gone by.
How many times have you seen a man ruin his life trying to relive his teenage years? He hits his thirties or forties and realizes that time is slipping by, so he runs out and tries to relive the glory days. When the rest of us see a man do that we call him a fool, but that’s precisely what we turn around and do with our spiritual lives. When we can’t reproduce those days, we begin to assign blame in all the wrong places and we end up even more frustrated.
Does your strength come from your past experiences? Does your inspiration and motivation come from those days gone by? Are you up when attendance is good and down when it is not? Are you up when we’re building and working and down when we’re not? Does your inspiration and motivation come from me or from God? If it does then its no wonder we live such sad and pathetically boring lives. God wants you to experience Him all over again today!
What does He say to the people in Haggai 2:4? “Be strong Zerubbabel…be strong Joshua…be strong people…for, or because why? “Because I am with you…!” God promised His presence way back in Egypt, and that promise has never been broken.
God doesn’t break His promises. His promise to His churches still stands, “And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” His promises to us are still the same!
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor prinicipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
If that doesn’t inspire you to be strong and courageous in the Lord then nothing I say can make it happen either.
Anticipate Glory For The Future
In verses 6-9, Haggai continued by looking to the future,
“For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.”
I love this part. Be honest about the past with yourselves and with God. Acknowledge where you are. If you’ve been distanced from God, be honest about it. If your ministry isn’t as glorious as it used to be or as big a deal as the next ministry, be honest about it, but don’t make that what your identity is all about. Your strength and satisfaction comes from God, and sometimes the only way He can get us back up the mountain is to allow us to walk through the valley from time to time where we can grow and be strengthened.
As you consider these verses, notice that some key elements are provided for us.
I will shake things up
Number one, the Lord is going to shake things up one of these days. The Lord had already begun to do that in Haggai’s day. The Persians were in power, but the Greeks would soon destroy them under the leadership of Alexander the Great. However, the real shaking to which Haggai referred has to do with the Tribulation and more specifically the Great Tribulation, that seven-year period of time when all hell is going to break loose on earth before the return of Christ. There will be wars and diseases and famines and natural disasters and lawlessness around the world.
The return of Christ
The Lord said that after shaking things up the “desired of all nations shall come.” Some would argue that this can’t be Jesus since the nations of earth don’t really desire Him, but I’ll tell you that whether they realize it or not, every human heart longs for the presence of Jesus Christ. The Bible says that “no man seeks after God,” but God created in every man an emptiness that can only be filled by His presence, and it is that presence for which we work and search and long all the days of our lives.
Notice what the Lord said about Christ’s return. He would fill “this house with glory.” That temple they were building may not have had all the trappings of the first, but it would have something Solomon’s temple never did – the presence of the glory of Jesus Christ!
A greater glory
The last two things we see in verses 8-9 have to do with our problem. We look at and put too much stock in all the outward things. Solomon’s temple was overlaid in gold and precious stones and was gloriously decorated. But God said that all the gold belonged to Him. In other words, what we find so valuable, God owns so much of it was no more valuable than spray paint. That’s not what mattered. What mattered was that God’s glory would fill the place and God’s peace would characterize that place.
Listen to me, when we stop and think about the future its going to be nothing but glory! Glory here, glory there, glory glory everywhere! No, my present situation isn’t what I want it to be. It’s not even what God wants it to be, and try as I might, discouragement will always be just around the corner and I’ll naturally want to give up. But when I think about where I’m headed I can rejoice and find hope!
Brother, one of these days my Savior and I are going to walk in the garden alone! One of these days His glory is going to fill the New Jerusalem and the Bible says there’ll be no need of the sun because Jesus Christ will be the light of that city!
Conclusion
You probably don’t remember Vinko Bogatej, but you remember what he did. He was a ski-jumper from Yugoslavia who, while competing in the 1970 World Ski-Flying Championship in West Germany fell off the takeoff ramp and landed on his head. You can imagine the disappointment and shame he must have felt when he finally got his chance and realized that it would amount to nothing. For years after the accident, ABC’s Wide World of Sports used the clip to highlight the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. Bogatej was hospitalized after the spill, but he recovered and went to work in a foundry in Yugoslavia. Doug Wilson, a producer for ABC, interviewed him a few years ago for a special anniversary edition of the show and said this, “When we told him he’s been on the program ever since 1970, he couldn’t believe it. He appears on Television 130 times a year.”
What was a source of shame and discouragement became something that brought him joy and satisfaction. But listen: not because the event changed and not because he was able to redo the jump. It changed because his viewpoint was changed. Someone has said that discouragement is dissatisfaction with the past, distaste for the present, and distrust of the future. It is ingratitude for the blessings of yesterday, indifference to the opportunities of today, and insecurity regarding strength for tomorrow. It is unawareness of the presence of beauty, unconcern for the needs of our fellowman, and unbelief in the promises of old. It is impatience with time, immaturity of thought, and impoliteness to God.
I don’t know what your relationship to God is like right now, but I do know that all of us have times in our lives when we have been so close to God that we wished it would never end, but then it did. However, rather than wishing your present life away with happy thoughts of yesterday or with regrets over what never came to pass, it is time this morning to be honest about where you are right now. It is time that you turned to the Lord for strength in this present struggle, time to find in Him your source of inspiration and motivation: time to look to Him for your present needs: time to have a change of view.
Regardless of how hopeless or bleak today looks, remember that tomorrow is a brighter day – a day filled with the wonders and glory of God. God keeps His promises, and while we await His promised return, let us live in His promise that where I am, there you shall be also. Let us live in the promise of having life, and having it in great abundance.
(Invite the lost to accept Christ)
