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Jun 02, 2013

Consider Your Ways: An Introduction (Intro)

Passage: Haggai 1:1-2:23

Preacher: Tim Badal

Series:Consider Your Ways

Detail:

I’m going to ask you to turn to the Old Testament Book of Haggai.  If you don’t know where it is, the best way to find it is to go to your table of contents.  It’s a small book at the end of the Old Testament.  In fact, it’s the second shortest book in the entire Old Testament.

For the five weeks—including today—of the month of June, we’re going to be investing our time looking at the Book of Haggai.  We’re going to be looking at the words this Old Testament prophet receives from the Lord.  We’re going to look at these two chapters he’s written under the heading of “Consider Your Ways.”  As you can see in the logo, we have a decision to make.  Are we going to choose God’s business or our own?  That’s what the two doors in the logo represent.  Every decision we make in life involves going through one of those two doorways.  The big decisions that have ramifications spanning a lifetime have to go through one of those two doors.  The mundane decisions—the thousands of decisions we make every week—also go through one of those doors.  God is asking His people—both in the days of Haggai and today—if we are going to choose His ways or ours.

I want you to take a moment and think about some of the decisions you made this last week.  Again, some of them are incredibly small.  Others are really big decisions.  In the quietness of your heart, I want you to take a moment as we embark on this journey to ask the question, “Did I go through the door of my ways or God’s ways this week?”  Don’t focus on anybody else or wonder what others are thinking.  Between you and God, did you go through the door of your ways or did you make the decision of obedience and choose His ways?

This is what the Book of Haggai is all about and this is the journey we’re going to embark upon.  Let’s take a moment to pray again and quietly ask, “Lord, have I been doing it Your way or have I been doing it my own?”

Let’s pray.

Lord, as we come to this passage, I pray that we would do an evaluation today.  I ask You to do a work in our hearts.  Spirit of God, we ask that You would convict us.  Evaluate our hearts.  Are we going Your way or are we going our own?  Evaluate the time that we spend and challenge our hearts with the use of our time.  All of us have the same amount of time.  Are we spending it doing things our way or Yours?  Regarding our talents—those gifts and spiritual qualities You’ve enabled us to have—are we using them for our pursuits and desires or are we pursuing Your will?

Lord, as we look at how we use our treasure—the money You’ve enabled us to have, our homes, our cars, our possessions—challenge us if we’re going our own way.  Challenge us if we’re using what You’ve blessed us with to pursue what we want.  Regarding our testimonies, are we speaking of our own renown or are we speaking of Your greatness and Your glory?  If we are speaking of ourselves, challenge our hearts today. 

Lord, as we open this Book of Haggai—a book many people may be opening for the very first time—I pray that we would know it’s all about Your business.  I pray You would challenge us.  Prepare our hearts to hear what Your Word has to say.  Remind us of the truths of the Israelites, the struggles and difficulties they were enduring and how they were called to be faithful.  We are called to be faithful as well.  We pray Your blessing on the time of Your Word.  I pray that You will speak through me in a powerful way today.  In Christ’s name.  Amen.

Instead of jumping right in, I’m going to take a quick survey and ask, “How many of you have ever done a study of the Book of Haggai?”  That’s what I thought.  Mario can leave—he’s the only one who raised his hand.  Some of you are still trying to figure out where the Book of Haggai is in the Old Testament.  So before we even get into the book, we need to understand a little bit of the times of Haggai.  We need to do an introduction.

This message is going to be a little different.  It’s going to be more about information.  Jesus tells us in the Bible, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).  Sometimes we need to put our thinking caps on, think through and understand the context of the Scripture that we’re studying.  I want us to do that today because if we don’t have this context, we’re not going to understand what the Book of Haggai has to teach us and what it had to teach the Israelites in the time it was written.

Now we are told in the Book of Haggai that the Word of the Lord came to this prophet.  We’re not going to spend any time talking about Haggai.  We’re not even going to get that far today.  Next week we’ll learn about the man who wrote this book.

We know that the Word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai (Haggai 1:1).  There is something I want you to understand right off the bat—God used prophets.  He used prophets to speak to a specific people in a specific moment for a specific purpose.  God selected a man—Haggai—to bring His message.  Throughout Israel’s history, God used prophets to speak at moments in the Israelites’ lives usually to bring them to a place of repentance.  Haggai is no different.  Haggai is not going to bring words of praise and say, “Man, you guys are doing a great job.  You’re awesome.  Just keep up the good work.”  He’s going to say, “Hey, you’re missing the mark.  We have to work on some things.  This is what the Lord articulates.”

Now it was very easy in Haggai’s day—as it was in the days of all the prophets—for people to look at the prophets and say, “This guy is just an old kook.  He’s just saying his own thing.  We don’t need to listen to him.”  Brothers and sisters, the Word of the Lord came to Haggai.  These aren’t Haggai’s words; these are God’s words.  It’s also easy to think that about pastors.  As we articulate the Word of the Lord you might say, “Well, that’s just what Tim has to say about it.”  If I rightly handle the Word of Truth, Scripture reminds us that we’re not hearing my words but the Word of God (2 Timothy 2:15).

So we need to open our hearts.  We need to incline our ears and hearts to the Word of God because God has a word for us today just as He did in the days of Haggai.  We need to understand what that word is.  To do that, we need to have an introduction to Haggai.

To understand Haggai we must explore:

  • The difficult days of a once mighty nation
  • The dedication of a small remnant
  • The distractions that limited full obedience

The Difficult Days of a Once Mighty Nation

As we open the Book of Haggai, we come to a place in Israel’s history where we see the difficult days of a once mighty nation.  Haggai was not during the time of Israel’s history when everything was going well.  Haggai was written in the last half of the year 520 B.C.  That’s 500 years before the coming of Jesus Christ.  You need to understand this isn’t a good time in the days of Israel.  The days of the patriarchs are gone.  The days of Moses and Joshua are gone.  The days of the great accolades of the judges—Deborah, Gideon, Samson and the great battles that were fought—are gone.  The days of the great kingdoms of Saul, David and Solomon are gone.  The kingdom is now divided.  There are wars going on and there are secular and evil empires coming in and destroying the people of God.  These aren’t the best days in Israel’s history.

To understand this historical context a little more, I have a graph for you to follow.  A lot of us struggle to understand human history.  The Old Testament is history—real life and real events that took place.  On our graph, we see that the first arrow is the time of the Patriarchs.  That’s the Book of Genesis where we have Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  At the end of Genesis, we see the elevation and opportunities Joseph was given in Egypt when he helped Pharaoh during the time of great famine.  After a while, the pharaohs of Egypt forgot about Joseph and his place in Egyptian history.

That’s when the Book of Exodus begins—that’s the second arrow on our graph.  This is when the people of God—the Israelites—found themselves in slavery.  Those were the days of Moses.  During this time, the ten plagues took place, the great exodus happened when Pharaoh let the Israelites go and the Ten Commandments were given to Moses.  Then there was the conquest with Joshua when they went into the Promised Land.  These are good days for the nation of Israel.  After 40 years of wandering, God allowed them to take the Promised Land and have a land flowing with milk and honey.

That next arrow on our graph is the time period after Joshua as the singular leader of Israel.  This is the time of the Judges with Ruth, Deborah, Gideon, Samson and Samuel.  The time when God allowed judges to rule was not the best time because Scripture tells us this was when “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6).  At that point, the nation of Israel started clamoring and saying, “Hey, we want to be like all other nations and empires.  We want a king.”  So they pursued a king named Saul.  Three kings led the way: Saul, David and Solomon.

These were some of the glory days of Israel.  Although there were hiccups along the way, this is when Israel hit its height of power and authority.  These were the days when Israel’s neighboring countries cowered in fear at the names of Israel and God Jehovah.  They knew the accolades of the great kingdom that had been established.  Then because of David’s sin in sleeping with Bathsheba, there was a problem within the royal family.  Bathsheba gave birth to a son—Solomon—who asked for wisdom over riches and power.  He received a great kingdom and built a great temple.  But after Solomon’s reign—because of David’s sinful relationship with Bathsheba—the family was brought into disorder and the kingdom was divided.

Notice then there are two arrows on our graph.  This is where the Scriptures become confusing.  When we studied the life of Elijah, we saw that Elijah was serving during the time of two kingdoms.  When you start reading about someone being the king of Israel and someone else being the king of Judah, you start getting confused.  You think, “Isn’t it one and the same person?”  No.  This was a time of civil war.  It was a time where the north was going one way and the south was going the other.  During this time, Elijah and Elisha prophesied.

Under the great nation of Assyria, Israel fell first and was brought into a time of captivity.  Later on, Judah—during the times of Isaiah and Jeremiah—fell into captivity as well.  Jerusalem was destroyed during the days of Daniel and Ezekiel.  For over 70 years, Israel stayed in captivity.

That brings us to the time of Ezra, Nehemiah and Haggai.  So where does Haggai fit into this grand scheme of Old Testament history?  On our graph, we’re now at the beginning of the last arrow with Ezra and Nehemiah.  Haggai was a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah.  He was a prophet who spoke during the beginning of the restoration process.

Now that we have an Old Testament biblical context and understand where we fall into this place of human history, we also need to understand some of the characteristics of this time.

These were days of displacement

I want you to notice this time of Haggai was a time of great displacement for Israel.  In 587 B.C.—about 60 years before Haggai was written—the city of Jerusalem was ransacked by the Babylonians and a king named Nebuchadnezzar.  You’ve no doubt heard that name before.  The Babylonians took the Israelites into what we call the Babylonian Captivity.

Think about what that means for a moment.  Imagine that we are worshipping in our homeland and enjoying life when an invading army comes.  They destroy everything: our churches, our homes, our workplaces, our roads, where we buy food and where we shop.  They destroy everything that is a part of our nation.  Then they don’t just leave us here, but they take us back to their homeland to keep an eye on their enemies.  This is what happened during the Great Exile.  This is what the Israelites were dealing with—the Babylonians destroyed their way of life and took them from their homeland.  It was a time when they were truly “strangers in a strange land”—something we can understand after more than 20 weeks in 1 Peter looking at that theme.  The Israelites had been exiled and taken away with their lives fully displaced.

Now before you think, “Well, what in the world was God thinking?  Where has God gone?” you need to understand this was all part of God’s plan for His people.  Why in the world would God do this—or allow this to be done—to His people?  Turn in your Bibles for a moment to the Book of Jeremiah in the middle of the Old Testament, or you can turn to the table of contents to find it.  We’re going to look at Jeremiah 25.

Here we see that God has set these events in order to teach the people of Israel something.  Notice what it tells us in Jeremiah 25:1, “The word that came to Jeremiah…[in] the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”  Why did all of these bad things happen?  Go down to verses four through ten:

You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets, saying, "Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever.  Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands.  Then I will do you no harm."  Yet you have not listened to me, declares the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.  "Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations.  I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.  Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp.

That means you’re not going to have any fun.  The celebration is over.  There are no more celebrations and there is no more work.  Everything is going to come to a stop.  It’s going to be a desolate place.  Notice Jeremiah goes on and says in verse 11, “This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”

Let’s stop here for a moment.  Think of what these people were enduring.  They found themselves in a far off place where God has brought absolute desolation.  God has done this because they would not listen to His Word.  Oh church, what a reminder to us that we are called to obey!  And when we disobey, consequences can and will come if God deems it necessary.  It’s a time of great displacement.

These were days of desolation

Notice we learn that the days preceding Haggai were days of great desolation.  That means it’s going to be a rebuilding process.

Think about this for a moment.  The Babylonians were known for absolutely destroying everything in their way.  Everything the Israelites were part of would be destroyed by the coming armies.  There would be nothing left with which they could live their lives.  The Israelites were a people coming back to a place totally destroyed.

One scholar put it this way:

Much of what the Israelites would return to would be totally unrecognizable.  Not only had a whole generation passed, but the Babylonians were known only to leave ruin in their wake.  No systems of government, no real roadways or commerce, no opportunities for employment or schooling.  Gone was the glory of a former kingdom.  Gone was a great population.  All that was left was rubble and ruin, and central to this ruin was the destruction of the temple.

So here’s what happened.  The Babylonians came.  They destroyed the kingdom of Israel and took all the Israelites—a couple million strong—back with them.  They took the Israelites and put them in captivity in Babylon.  But God was faithful.  While the Babylonian destroyed everything in Israel, God was doing a work.

If you’re in the Book of Jeremiah, turn to Jeremiah 29 for a moment.  Many of you know this verse by heart but you don’t know the context of it.  The context has to do with the Book of Haggai.  Notice Jeremiah 29:10 says, “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.”  After a couple generations of Israel being in captivity under the power of Babylon, God said, “I’m going to come back and do a work in you.”  He said, “I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.”  Here’s the verse—Jeremiah 29:11—that we all know, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  Verses 12-14 go on to say:

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.  You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

How would God accomplish this?  Seventy years into the captivity, the Babylonians were overtaken by the Persians.  It’s as if you have modern-day Iran attacking modern-day Iraq—and the Iranians (Persians) won. Under Cyrus, the Persians took over Babylon.  In a dream, Cyrus was told by God to release the Israelites to go rebuild the temple of their God.  So Cyrus did.  He said, “Alright, any of the Israelites who want to go back to Israel can go back.”

Here’s the thing—of the two million or so Israelites in captivity, only 50,000 decided to go back.  I mean would you really want to go back and try to rebuild a homeland you hadn’t been part of and that was in complete desolation?  We see that 50,000 went back.  By the way, if you look at Ezra 2, you can see those 50,000 numbered there.  These are real human events in real human history.

These were days of discouragement

With all of those events, we’ve seen displacement and desolation.  This is also a time of great discouragement.  Fifty thousand people made their way back.  Think for a moment about what that would be like.  Your culture is lost.  All that you love and hold dear is gone.  Now you have the opportunity to go back, try to rebuild the house of God and try to put your life back together.

Think of the desolation of our friends in Oklahoma who—after a tornado—are trying to put their lives back together.  This is a picture of what was going on in Haggai’s time.  It was a discouraging time.  God seemed so distant and so absent.  The question is, “How would we react?  How would we respond?”

The Dedication of a Small Remnant

We see that God is at work in His people as He always is and even though these days are difficult, we see that through the dedication of a small remnant of people.  Fifty thousand out of a couple million make the decision to go back and be part of the work of rebuilding.

Here’s the thing—the Book of Haggai doesn’t have nice things to say so how in the world can we say these people were dedicated?  We’re going to learn that God speaks truth even to the faithful.  Did you know that?  The reason why we preach and teach the Word of God to you who are faithful is because we need to hear the Word from Him.  But just because we’re faithful doesn’t mean we can’t learn anything new.  Just because we’re faithful doesn’t mean we can’t be more faithful or that in all ways we’re faithful.  So the Book of Haggai is being written to a group of people who are faithful but have some work to do.

Haggai addresses the right people…

These 50,000 people are part of this remnant.  First, Haggai is going to address what I like to say is the right people.  In other words, they are a dedicated group of people.  They are the remnant.  That word remnant (shĕ'eriyth) is pregnant with connotations of holiness.  The idea of a remnant is that while everybody else is pursuing their own ways, this small group of people is faithful, righteous and doing the right things.

So we see here a faithful group of people who say, “It is not good for us to stay here in Babylon.  We’re going to go back and be a part of doing something different for the glory of our God.”  They are a faithful group of people.

Living in the right place…

Second, Haggai addresses the right people who are in the right place.  Haggai is written to those 50,000 people who find themselves back in Israel; they are in the right place.

Now why in the world would they want to leave Babylon?  After 70 years of captivity, they’ve no doubt rebuilt their lives and assimilated the customs and celebrations of the Babylonian Empire.  They’ve figured out how to live life with the Babylonians.  They have work.  They have everything they need.  Things are going pretty well for them.  Why in the world would they leave?

They are leaving because these faithful, devout people understand that Babylon is not their home.  They understand that if they want to see God’s blessing and experience God’s presence in their lives, they need to go back to Jerusalem.  They realize they need to rebuild His temple and live in the land God gave them that is flowing with milk and honey, no matter how ruined it is now.  They realize it would be better to live in the shacks with God than in the mansions of Babylon.  They are going to go back and honor God because that’s where God says they belong.  If God says they belong in the Promised Land, they are going back there—no matter how bad it is—and rebuilding it for the glory of God.

Wanting to accomplish the right project…

So we have the right people living in the right place.  Notice they’re also focused on the right project.  Cyrus tells them one of the reasons they are given the opportunity to go back is to rebuild the temple.  Ezra 2 talks about them rebuilding the temple for their God.  They have the greatest opportunity.  Are they going back to just live life on their own and to live the good old days?  No, Scripture makes it clear that these individuals are going back to rebuild the temple of God.  What a great project.  In essence, they are going back to build the church.  They are being focused on God’s house and His priorities.

Doing it all in order to please God

We have the right people living in the right place focused in on the right work.  Notice they’re also focused on the praise of God.  Are they doing it so they will receive praise and honor?  No.  Are they doing it for some misguided national ownership?  No.  They are doing it so that God’s house may be filled with His presence and so that God will be honored.  What a great group of people.

Now why in the world would Haggai have such harsh words to such a great group of people?  Because like you and me, the people in Haggai’s day start well but finish terribly.  Ezra 2 is a kind of working commentary on the days of Haggai.  Right when the people depart, they raise all kinds of money for the temple to be built.  Talk about a faithful group of people.  They say, “Not only are we going to go back and try to build it, but we’re going to put our money where our mouth is in order to build this temple to honor God.”  They get back to Israel and start working on the temple in 536 B.C.

Then something happens—we’ll talk about this in the coming weeks—and the work stops.  They remove all the rubble where Solomon’s temple was and build the foundation, but then the work stops.  They start well and finish terribly.  So Haggai comes and says, “You guys, what are you doing?  You’ve stopped the work.  The thing you were called to do—the focus you were supposed to have—it’s stopped.”

The Distractions That Limit Full Obedience

Now the Word of the Lord comes to them.  It is going to talk about the distractions.

Just to tell you a little more about these great people in Haggai, one of the commentators puts it this way:

They were characterized by affection and zeal for God’s business and this is a great thing in His sight.  Not only so, but in the pursuit of that object, they had voluntarily turned away from all the magnificence and grandeur and luxury of Babylon where after a long residence, the people of God had become thoroughly domesticated.

They had it good!  He goes on to say:

They faced trials and difficulties in crossing the intervening territory and the result of their efforts and hardships was to bring them to a desolate land and ruined city.  So their devotion and zeal for the business of God had been fully proved.  There was nothing left to attract them to the land and to that city except the fact that it had been chosen as God’s holy land and the city which He had chosen to put His name on.

These people were the right people in the right place focused on the right project for God’s praise but they delayed in their obedience.

Did you know that delayed obedience is disobedience?  Someone told me this earlier today.  Parents, you can identify with this:  Delayed obedience is disobedience.  So many times we know what we need to do.  The Scriptures say, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17).  So many of us are delayed in our obedience.  We think, “Well, we’re just delaying our obedience.”  No, we’re disobeying.

The people of Haggai’s day are disobeying God.  As dedicated as they are, they are missing it because they have given up on that which is pleasing to God to do what is pleasing to themselves.  Notice there are four sins we see in the people of Haggai that I think are alive and well in us today.

The people of Haggai had misplaced priorities

Haggai 1:2-4 says they stop building the temple of God so they can focus on building their own homes.  We think, “Well they have to have a place to live, right?”  But Scripture makes it clear—as we’ll learn next week—that they weren’t just any ordinary homes.  These homes are described as “paneled houses.”  They are building elaborate homes for themselves and God says, “Is it not time to finish My house?  You say it’s not the time, but who said it is time to build your paneled homes?  Who said it is time to be about your business instead of mine?”

What a word this is for Village Bible Church right now.  Twenty-five hundred years later the word of Haggai is so true for us today because so many of us have our priorities out of whack.  We think we’re doing a great work and a great job but all we have done is prove that mediocrity is the norm.  We think, “Give God an hour and a half of your week and you’re all good.”  God is saying, “Man, your priorities are all messed up.  You’re busy working on your life and taking care of your things.”

Those things are good and right.  It is good and right to make sure you have a home for your family and for you to work to provide for your family.  But God says He is the priority.  We’re going to learn in these weeks to come that God is number one.  If He’s not number one in your life, then you’re living a life of disobedience—a life of misplaced priorities.

The people of Haggai had incorrect perspectives

In Haggai 2 we are going to learn about incorrect perspectives.  You see, the people do build the temple.  After Haggai calls them out, they get to work.  It’s a great work.  They all get together and get the job done.  Then when the job is finished and the temple is built, the men and women who were there and had seen Solomon’s temple before it was ruined start bawling.  They say, “This is nothing compared to what it used to be.  Solomon’s temple was filled with all kinds of grandeur and magnificence.  This is nothing.”

Some of us are faithfully following Jesus Christ and serving God, but as we look at what we’re doing, we start comparing it with what others have done.  We start saying, “Well, what good am I really accomplishing?”  As a pastor, it’s easy for me to look at churches down the street that are much bigger and seem to be having greater impacts.  It’s easy for me to say, “Man, what have I accomplished?  What have I done?”  It’s easy for me to think that my ministry is nothing in comparison to theirs.  Some of us need a correction to our perspective, like the people of Haggai.  God says to them, “This puny little temple you’ve built that you think is so small is going to totally outdo the glory of Solomon’s temple.”

Do you know how it’s going to do that?  Five hundred years later a Nazarene is going to walk into that temple and open the scroll from Isaiah.  He’s going to say, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).  Jesus is going to fill that temple with His glory.  It would take 500 years to see the total fulfillment of the work the people of Haggai have done, but that fulfillment will be seen.  We have incorrect perspectives that we’re going to need to have changed in our lives as we faithfully follow God.

The people of Haggai had unrealistic plans

Not only do we see misplaced priorities and incorrect perspectives, but we’re also going to see unrealistic plans.  You see, some of the people had started to think that because they were faithful and obeying God, that was making them holy.  Some of us right now are falling into those ideas as well.  Our plan is, “Well, I’ll go to church and I’ll serve You God.  I’ll do this, this and this so that on the Day of Judgment You’ll say I can come in because I’ve been such a good guy and done all these great things.”

Haggai is going to say it’s not what you do that makes you holy but it’s Whom you receive—it’s God’s grace.  It is because of His grace and goodness to us that we are holy.  Without God, our righteous deeds are just filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).  So the people are going to learn that the plans they have toward holiness are no good at all if they’re done apart from God.

The people of Haggai had unnecessary panic

Finally, we’re going to see unnecessary panic.  The people are living in a time of great fear.  They build the temple and do what God says but then the questions of “What if?” come along.  They ask, “Well, what happens when we build this temple and the Samaritans come back and knock it down?  What happens if we build it and another enemy comes and destroys what we’ve built?”  They are worried about the work they have done becoming rubble again.  But God says at the end of the Book of Haggai, “You have nothing to fear.  All you need to do is obey and leave your obedience in My hands.”

So the problems the people of Haggai have are misplaced priorities, incorrect perspectives, unrealistic plans and unnecessary panic.  We will see Haggai speak four sermons—one for each of these problems.  In this book, we see a devoted people who have responded to God and are doing a good thing but their obedience is waning.

I want you to understand something.  Holiness is not going to be graded on a curve.  These people thought they were all good in God’s eyes because they stepped out in faith and did some right things well.  Haggai says, “Do you know what?  Holiness is a daily thing.”  I’ve learned this in my own life—right when you think you’ve got it, God says, “You’ve got some other areas to fix.”  In Haggai’s day, he was bringing a message to a faithful people who had some work to do.

Some Initial Takeaways

There’s the history lesson.  You might say, “Tim, wait a minute.  Where are the funny stories?  Where are the great application points?”  Let me give you three very pastoral and loving application points.

We live in difficult days…Stop complaining!!!

As we look at the Book of Haggai, we need to remember that we live in difficult days—so stop complaining.  That’s very pastoral, right?  Quit whining!  I grew up in an immigrant’s house.  When I would cry about the things I didn’t have—especially as a teenager—my father would remind me that he left his family and came to America all by himself at the ripe old age of 16.  Let me tell you something—talk about a trump card.  You couldn’t fight that!  If I said, “Well Dad, I’m struggling with this and that,” he would say, “Well let me tell you son, I left my entire family and came to a new country when I was 16-years-old.”  Eat that up.  You couldn’t do it. 

Let me be really pastoral—we’re a bunch of babies as American Christians.  We say, “Oh woe is us!  Our lives are so difficult.  Our president doesn’t like Christians and is going after us.  Our schools don’t like Christians and are going after us.  My boss doesn’t like Christians.  We have it so rough.  It’s so difficult and hard.”  Blah, blah, blah.

Have a conversation with Carney and Lydia Dunah.  Do you want to hear about hardships?  We don’t even have to go to the Book of Haggai.  Do you want to hear about being taken away from your homes, running for your life and wondering if you’ll ever see your loved ones again?  That’s the kind of life they lived.  We have it so good, brothers and sisters.  But we’re so busy complaining that we’re not even asking the important question.  As difficult as the times are that we live in—and there are some difficulties—are we living for the glory of God?  Are we using the opportunities we have to pursue God’s Great Commission in our lives?  We might say, “But I can’t do this and I can’t do that!”  Yes, but you still have a home, freedom and many opportunities.  Instead of whining and complaining, we need to obey.

It’s easy to compare yourself with others…Let God do the evaluating!!!

As we look at the Book of Haggai, we need to understand it’s easy to compare ourselves with others when talking about spirituality, but we need to let God do the evaluating.  Do you remember what I said last week about running the race?  We’re not in competition to see who is running the fastest.  Stop competing with one another.  Stop looking down the aisle and saying, “Well, I’m holier than they are so I can ease up on my race.”  No, you’re not running against them.  You’re running for the glory of God.  You’re to run  the race that is marked out for you.

There is some work to be done.  When Haggai speaks these words to us in these coming weeks, it’s going to be easy to look down the pew and say, “Well, Junior isn’t doing it.  So-and-so in the other pew isn’t doing it.  I’m doing okay.”  These people in Haggai were doing okay.  It was easy for them to compare themselves with the people still in exile in Babylon and say, “Well, at least we came back.  At least we’re doing this.”  But God says, “I’m the One Who evaluates.”  Don’t compare.

Total commitment is never easy but always costly…Start obeying!!!!

The Book of Haggai tells us it is time to start obeying.  Let me close with this.  Where’s your commitment level concerning God’s business?  Is your attempt at “doing it God’s way” this hour and a half of your time?  It’s a start.  That’s obedience.  God says we need to assemble together (Hebrews 10:25).  But are you obeying with all of your life?  I know I’m not.  I know there are many things I’m doing in my life where I’m going through the door of my ways instead of God’s ways.  Have you let God evaluate that?  Ask yourself the question, “Which door have I gone through this last week?”  Yes, the days are difficult—God knows it.  Yes, I know there are many other people who are doing a lot of things wrong and choosing their ways over God’s ways.  I get it.

Are you ready to make the commitment today and for the weeks to come that you’re going to go God’s way?  For every decision you make, will you ask the question, “God, is there a way I should go that seems right to You?  Or am I going to go the way that seems right to me?”  Haggai is a book that will ask repeatedly, “Have you considered your ways?”  It would be good for us in the days to come to consider ours.  Take some time this week to read the two chapters of Haggai and let’s see what God will unfold in the weeks to come.

Let’s pray. 

Father God, we come before You to learn more about You and how You have enacted Your will onto human history.  I pray this will allow us to set the skeleton of all we’re going to learn so that we can put some flesh onto this book.  We recognize that Your people were living in difficult times but as bad as it was, You still called them to obedience.  So there are no exemptions for us even in these difficult days.  We need to obey.  Even though we may be doing better in terms of dedication and holiness than many other people are, we need to understand that it’s about Your evaluation and not how we’re rating against others.  It’s not about waiting on obedience but about saying yes.

Lord, I know as a father how I feel when my children don’t obey me when I tell them to do something.  How you must hurt when Your children choose to disobey or delay that obedience because they want to do something else!  You’re going to work on our priorities—we know it.  We need to open our ears to what priorities You have for us.  Incline our hearts and our minds to that so we may obey You more fully this week.  Unfold this book for us in a powerful way in the days to come.  Now send us out in the power of Your Spirit so that we may be a little more faithful than we were when we came in today.  Help us bring glory and honor to You.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.