There's only so much time in the day and something that I'm learning is that every time you say yes to something you're usually saying no to something else. And while all these things we’re saying yes to are good we sometimes end up crowding out the very things that ought to be a priority in our lives.
And one of those priorities that tends to get crowded out is God because he’s not down here on earth physically screaming in your face . . . I need your time, I need your resources, I need you to serve me . . . and what happens is that we fill up all of our time and we exhaust all of our resources and at the end of the day we don’t have anything left to give to God.
This is what’s happening as we looking at the book of Haggai and its basic message is this . . . put first things first; make God a priority over everything.
As we jump in, let’s put it into context.
The nation of Israel was losing its identity as the people of God.
They had settled in Canaan after a very dramatic rescue from slavery in Egypt and for over five hundred years they’d been making their home in the new land while grappling with this covenant relationship that God had established with them that they would be his people and he would be their God.
Well, they weren’t doing a very good job
• Wickedness and oppression were everywhere
• Crime was up and violence in the streets became commonplace.
• The justice system was a joke.
• Hunger and poverty were a huge issues but nobody was doing anything about it.
• Nobody is taking care of the widows and the orphans.
And so God comes with this message that He’s not very happy. In fact, he’s pretty ticked off and he is about to drop the hammer . . . and it’s not going to be pretty.
But in the midst of all of his judgment and devastation, a promise emerges . . . the promise of restoration and redemption. And he tells them, “Yeah, there’s punishment for what you’ve done and it’s really going to hurt but I intend to set things right. I’m going to restore you and redeem you.”
Soon after this, Israel is wiped out, Jerusalem was ransacked and the temple was destroyed and the remnant of people that remained were carried off in exile to live as slaves but they held closely to these promises that someday God would set things right.
Well, after 70 years in captivity, God made good on his promise and they returned to their homeland but they faced the daunting task of rebuilding.
The first returnees made attempts to clear the debris and lay the foundation for a second temple but soon that got put on a back burner as Jerusalem came to life again. Homes were built, stores opened, commerce established, fields planted, crops harvested, and life began to resemble normalcy.
And over time, they got used to life without church. They enjoyed their weekends, just staying home, hanging out with friends by the pool, taking weekend vacations, or doing odd jobs around the house.
Meanwhile, the foundations of the church became overgrown with weeds.
And so Haggai shows up with a message from God and says, “It’s time to finish rebuilding the church.”
And immediately the people start making excuses . . .
“You know what, that’s a great cause and maybe someday we’ll chip in a few bucks to help out but right now it’s time for us to take care of our own families. Plus, we’ve got a few things around the house we need to fix up first. So we’ll just pray about it now and wait upon the Lord until we hear a clear calling.”
And Haggai is like, “Seriously? God just made good on his promise to deliver and restore you and here you are back in your land and it’s interesting that you seem to have heard a pretty clear calling to rebuild your own houses and get your life back in order but you say it’s not time to build God’s house?”
It’s a double standard and people do this all the time. They do things that they want to do but when they are called upon to do something for God and his church . . . they get all spiritual and say things like, “I’m just gonna wait upon the Lord until I hear a strong voice from heaven calling out my name telling me exactly what I’m supposed to do but in the meantime, I’m gonna pursue my own life.”
But when you think about it, it’s a crazy to think this way. Just think about the gap between God, the creator, and his created beings.
For example, I have this little man in my pocket. What, you don’t?
Let's say in my mind I decide I'm gonna make a little man. OK, so he didn't exist a second ago but I made him so between he and I, there’s a big gap . . . creator and created. Right?
So does it really make sense for the created to say to the creator, “Well you know, let me do my thing and if there’s anything left over maybe I'll give some to you; here is a couple bucks, or 15 minutes of my time.
It only makes sense to say, “No, you're more important than I am and your desires should come before mine because I wouldn’t even be here if you hadn’t created me.”
This is what Haggai is saying to the people. God created you and when you messed up, he corrected you and then he restored you . . . so doesn’t it make sense to make God your first priority?
And then he says take a close look at your lives, your spending all your time and energy building beautiful homes, planting crops, and padding your bank accounts but let me tell you what’s going to happen.
• When it comes time to harvest and reap what you’ve sowed . . . guess what, there won’t be anything to harvest . . . and you want to know why? Because I’m going to tell the sky not to rain and your crops are going to dry up.
• And if there is anything that grows, I’m going to tell the winds to blow it all away.
• And you thought you had all this money saved, didn’t you . . . well guess what, when you try to use your debit card it’s going to get rejected because of insufficient funds.
• Saving your money is going to be like putting your money in a purse with holes in it.
And when you cry out to me and say . . . “Where’s God? Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” I’m going to remind you that this is what happens when you put your priorities over mine and that’s not how it works for people who say that they follow me.
See, people do this all the time too. They say I know how to find happiness and fulfillment . . .
• I’ll pursue this salary and once I get this salary then I'll be happy. But then you get there and is it ever enough, is it?
• Or once I get this position at work everything is going to be great but then you get that position and it’s not everything you thought it was going to be.
• Or you pursue a relationship with a person and invest all your time and energy into that person but it just doesn’t work out . . . again.
We go down all these roads chasing fulfillment and happiness but you never find it . . . and have you ever wondered why?
It’s because you put yourself before God and that's not what it means to be a follower.
It’s like this . . .
Suppose you're driving your car and you're in control just driving along life’s road and one day you come to church and you hear about Jesus and all that he did to restore you back into relationship with God and you go “You know what, that’s what I want. I want Jesus in my life.”
So you pop open the trunk and go, “Jesus climb in.”
And every once in a while when I run into a problem I’ll pop open the trunk and you'll come out and fix it. You know, maybe I'll get a flat tire and you're already back there with the jack so you can just get out and you can fix it.”
I know that sounds horrible but that’s what some people think it means to be in relationship with God. They say that they want him as Lord of their life but what they really want is slave to come out and fix things.
Or some people are like, “You know what, you can hang with me in the passenger seat and I’ll drive along life’s highway and we can have some good conversations along the way and we can work through the problems of my life. It’ll be great.”
But God doesn’t really want to be in your trunk or your passenger seat . . . he wants you to hand him the keys and say, where do you want to go?
And when we give him control, he’ll take you on a journey that you would never have gone on yourself and there will be parts of the journey where you’re thinking, this is crazy, why are we going this way but what you’ll realize is that God’s path is way better than yours.
This is what Haggai is telling the people. God’s plans are way better than yours . . . so what you need to do is put your own desires aside for second and climb up that mountain and chop down some trees and start building God’s house and then you’ll see the blessings again.
And it says that they ran up the hill and cut down the trees and did exactly what God asked of them.
And when God see’s this he says, “I am with you.”
And I don’t know about you but that’s all I want is to know that God, the creator, is with me. Because I could have a great house, a big bank account, security about what’s going to happen next in my life but I don’t have God with me . . . what kind of security is that?
God looks down at those people, chopping down those trees in order to build God’s house and he says, “You know what, now I am with you”
Have you ever heard that phrase before in scripture?
Jesus says in Matthew 28, “Go and make disciples of all the nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you and I will be with you always.”
God calls us to be a part of his work . . . and in doing so, he is with us.
Back then the work was to rebuild the temple . . . to go up their mountain and start chopping down trees
Today, he says, “Go all over the place and tell people about me . . . be a part of the work that I’m doing in Tampa and around the world. Don’t just chip in a few bucks or 15 minutes of your time but ask God, “How can you use me? How can I serve you? How can I get involved in your work? How can I get more plugged into your church?
And then do it.
And when you do . . . God makes this promise to you . . . I will be with you!