Putting First Things First Series

Several years ago, Christian author, researcher and pastor Ed Stetzer wrote an article titled “Too Many So-Called Christians Merely Giving Lip Service to Jesus”. In that article Stetzer observed that roughly 3 out of 4 Americans identify as Christians and that those self-identified Christians fall into three groups that each represent about a quarter of the population. While I’m not really sure that each of the three groups are equal in numbers based on other research and other anecdotal information, this is a helpful way of understanding why many who call themselves Christians give only lip service to Jesus. Here are the three groups that Stetzer identified:

1) Cultural Christians. These are the people who believe they are Christians because the culture tells them they are. They may have religious roots in their family or come from a specific Christian tradition, but they are Christians in name only and don’t practice a vibrant faith.

2) Congregational Christians. Although these Christians are similar to the first group, they have at least some connection to congregational life. They may even have a church they consider to be a church home that they attend occasionally. But they don’t really have a real, vibrant faith either.

3) Convictional Christians. This final group is made up of those who actually live according to what they profess. They have a personal relationship with Jesus that has led to life change. My personal feeling is that this group consists of well less than 25% of the population in the U.S. – probably something more like 10% or even less.

It’s no surprise at all that those in the first two groups would merely give lip service to Jesus. We would expect that to be the case for them. But as the passage that we’re going to study this morning shows, it is really easy for even the most committed Christian to fall into that trap as well. So regardless of which of the three groups that you fall into, today’s message is relevant to your life.

This morning we’re continuing our series title “Little Books with a Big Message” and the next two weeks, we’ll be studying the book of Haggai. It is the third book from the end of the Old Testament, right before Zechariah and Malachi.

The book of Haggai is the second shortest in the Old Testament. We’ll be looking at the one book that is shorter – Obadiah – in two weeks. Haggai’s message was given to people that I think are much like most of us – those who acknowledge that God must be the first priority in our lives, but who often struggle to make that more than just lip service.

Before we read the first chapter of that book, let me give you a brief background that will help us to out the text in its proper context. We can find much of that historical context in the early chapters of Ezra.

After roughly 70 years in Exile in Babylon, a group of around 42,000 Jews, accompanied by another 7,000 servants, returned to Judah in 536 BC under the leadership of Zerubbabel. They quickly rebuilt the altar and began to offer sacrifices once again. Two years after returning, they laid the foundation to rebuild the temple. Their Samaritan neighbors offered to help with the rebuilding, but the Jews refused their offer. The Samaritans retaliated by threatening the workers and lobbying against the Jews before the Persian government and that work came to a halt.

For the next 14 years, the people got caught up in the routine of life and got used to life without a temple. So God sends two prophets to proclaim His message to the remnant that had returned to Judah – first Haggai and then two months later, Zechariah.

The book of Haggai consists of four messages that are precisely dated over nearly four months in the latter half of the year 520 BC. Today, in chapter 1, we’ll see the first of those messages.

[Read Haggai 1:1-15]

This is one of those passages where I think the main idea is actually pretty easy to discern, and here is how I’m going to summarize that message for us this morning:

Putting first things first requires

life service, not just lip service

As I pointed out earlier, it is easy to assume that the Christians who fail to put first things first are those who are only the cultural or the congregational Christians. But if we consider the group that God is speaking to through Haggai here, we find that they are among the most committed of God’s people at that time. Unlike their fellow Jews who chose to remain in Babylon, where things were familiar and comfortable, this group of roughly 50,000 people made the dangerous journey back to Jerusalem and began to rebuild. Almost all of them had been born in Babylon and lived their entire lives there, but their commitment to God’s purpose for His people motivated them to return to the land God had given them as a people and reestablish themselves in a land that had been devastated by war.