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Jun 09, 2013

Getting it Right: Putting First Things First (Part 1)

Passage: Haggai 1:1-15

Preacher: Tim Badal

Series:Consider Your Ways

Detail:

Haggai takes place during a time that was not the best for the people of Israel.  They had been taken away from their homes and all they knew in their homeland had been destroyed.  They were carted off to the nation of Babylon—which is modern-day Iraq—where for two full generations, they endured captivity.  For two generations they were part of the life and times of the Babylonian Empire.  As I talked about last week, they were truly strangers in a strange land.  God said all of this captivity—this slavery—was for one reason: to rebuke the people for their wandering hearts.  They had pursued other gods and other things.  God said, “If you want to live like the pagans then I’ll allow you to live amongst the pagans.”  Because of that, they were part of this great captivity.

Jeremiah was told the captivity would be over in seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11-12) and God—true to His Word—kept to that timeline.  He brought in King Cyrus from Persia—which would be modern-day Iran—to take over the Babylonians.  Moved by the Spirit of God, Cyrus was compelled to allow the Jews to return to their homeland for one purpose and intention: to rebuild their temple.  God spoke to Cyrus and said, “I want My temple rebuilt.”  Even though Cyrus was a pagan king, he heeded the prompting of God and allowed all the Israelites who wanted to return to their homeland to do so.  They were allowed to be part of the restoration process of their nation beginning with the temple.  Of the millions who were carted off to Babylon, 50,000 took Cyrus up on his offer.  We learned there were only 50,000 who had a heart to go back and make the name of God and His dwelling a place of marvel once again.  Cyrus—even though he was a pagan—raised funds to make sure the house of God was rebuilt.

You can see where the 50,000 people come from—their tribes and areas—in Ezra 2.  You can also see the amount of money that was raised for this great building project in that same chapter.  The people headed off to Israel, got to Jerusalem and began the process of rebuilding the temple.  They cleared away the rubble and built the foundation but then the work stopped.  Today we’re going to find out why the work stopped.

Then for 16 years, the house of God laid in ruins.  After 16 long years of letting people do what they wanted to do, God has a word for His people.  This is the first of four messages God is going to share with the people of Israel through the prophet Haggai.  If there is anything I would want you to take away from this message, it is the word “priorities.”  We see the idea of priorities throughout this first chapter and it’s so important for us to understand this today.

Let’s read God’s Word.  Haggai 1:1-15—we’re going to go all the way through the whole chapter.  Let’s see what the Word of God—through the prophet Haggai—has to say to the people of Haggai’s day and to us today.

1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”  3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?  5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.  6 You have sown much, and harvested little.  You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill.  You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm.  And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.  8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.  9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little.  And when you brought it home, I blew it away.  Why? declares the Lord of hosts.  Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.  10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.  11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”

12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him.  And the people feared the Lord.  13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.”  14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people.  And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Let’s pray.

God, I want to please You today; I don’t want to please men.  I want to speak Your Word today, not words that would make us feel better—unless You would want that.  So give me words and clarity of thought as we deal with a subject matter that I think each one of us needs to think about today—considering our ways.  I pray that it would start with me.  You’ve worked on my heart as I’ve studied this passage and You know the struggle I’ve gone through considering my own ways.  Now as I speak these words, I pray my friends and family here would do the same so that You might be brought praise.  I pray that You might be glorified, Your presence would be with us and that we would accomplish the tasks You have for us.  That’s what it means to be the people of God.  I pray that You would grow a remnant from within us to do that today.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.

By the way, I know it’s difficult to find the Book of Haggai.  If you haven’t found it yet, the table of contents is always a great place to start in a book.  Or it’s right between the books of Zephaniah and Zechariah—if that helps any.  Perhaps more helpful would be knowing that it’s the third book from the end of the Old Testament.

We come now to the first of the four messages of the Book of Haggai.  Haggai speaks on the subject matter of priorities.  Priorities were as true 2,500 years ago as they are for us today.  Getting them right is of great importance.  Inherent within each of our days is the multiplicity of things that you and I are called to do.  We all have them—those things that fill every day of the week.  Whether those things are work, appointments, activities or a myriad of other things, we find ourselves coming and going.  One of the most frequent conversations we have with people is when someone asks how we’re doing and we say we’re busy.  We’re busy doing things.  All of the technology and things we have at our disposal today as Americans has not made it easier to live life.  In some ways, I wonder if it’s made it more difficult.  Amidst the millions of details and the bevy of events, we find ourselves asking the foundational question for everything we do, “What things are most important?”

Today we will talk about the subject of priorities.  The word priority is a simple word.  If you don’t understand the definition of priorities, just look at the root of the word—prior.  Priorities are that which come before something else or that which comes prior to other things.  The people in Haggai’s day needed a refresher course on their priorities.  For some 16 years, their priorities were messed up.  I might add that same problem is often the foundation of what ails the church today.  Too often we—the people of God—have our priorities all out of whack.  Let me say something I rarely say on a Sunday morning.  While I hope you listen to all of my messages, if you don’t, this is the one week you should.  God has a word for all of us.  The truths of this message will do every one of us a great deal of good because we are called to heed these words.

Twice in our passage God looks to us and says, “Have you considered your ways?  Have you given careful thought to the things you do?”  Before He talks about considering our ways, He gives a biting accusation and chastisement.  God wants His message for the people of Haggai to cut deep.  God is sharing words to quickly evoke a major change in their lives.  I believe God wants to do that same work today.

So how are we supposed to “get it right” in terms of right priorities?  Notice there are three points today.  Getting it right involves knowing:

    • Our propensity to pursue prosperity

    • The path to proper priorities

    • God promises good when we put Him first
1.  Our Propensity to Pursue Prosperity

If we want to understand how to have right priorities, we must recognize and know that we have a propensity toward prosperity.  That is, we want to live lives that are thriving and healthy.  We have this natural inclination in ourselves to live for self.  How do I know it?  It’s inherent in who I am.  I am more concerned about Tim and the struggles, issues and things that I need to worry about myself so that I rarely find myself thinking about others or—even more importantly—thinking about God.  I believe God desires prosperity for us as Christians, but herein lies the problem—God’s definition of prosperity is very different from our idea of prosperity.  We have surrounded ourselves with a group of teachers who tell us our job as Christians is to be happy, to be full of great times and good things, to take care of ourselves and make sure we have all that we need.  Then we can give a little bit out of the abundance of all that we have.

Here’s the thing—when God talks about prosperity, He doesn’t talk about how you feel.  He talks about things like sacrifice, service, love and a life that literally is giving itself away.  But many of us don’t find ourselves pursuing that kind of prosperity.  While we may want to follow God—just as the people in Haggai’s day did—we find ourselves following the world.  When we come to the choices—the doorways—of what is going to make us prosperous, we usually go to our left, choosing our ways, far more often than we go to the right and choosing God’s ways.  We think, “Well, how do I make sure I’m prosperous?  I’m going to do it my way.  I’m going to take care of my things.  I’m going to get what I want.”  Because of that, we learn that this propensity towards prosperity is deep within who we are.

Let’s look at a couple of things about this propensity towards prosperity.

This propensity affects even good Christians

I’m speaking to a group of good Christians today, but let me remind you that the people in Haggai’s day were pretty good themselves.  They left the land they had known for two generations, went back to ruin and rubble with one intention and purpose in mind—that of rebuilding the house of God.  That sounds like some pretty good folks.  That sounds like people who had their priorities right.  They knew God was important, but what their lives failed to show in those 16 years was just how important He was.

Let me be honest with you—I struggle with this a lot—I want things.  I want to be comfortable.  I spend far too much of my life focused on what I need and the things that I want.  I believe many of you find yourself in the same place.  How can you tell?  Just look at your calendars.  What is on your calendars will dictate what is going on in your lives.  What about the purchases you’ve made?  The problem with prosperity is that it comes to us and instead of putting it toward God and asking Him, “What would You have me do with this money and time?” we spend it all on ourselves.

Notice in what God says Haggai 1:2-5, “’Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.’  Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?  Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.’”  In Haggai 1:2-4, God asks the question, “What are you doing?”  God’s asking that same question of every one of us today.  He’s saying, “What are you doing with what I’ve given you?  I’ve given you another day to breathe and live life.  What are you doing with it?”

God asks the people in Haggai’s day, “Whatever you’ve been doing, it has nothing to do with My ways, plans or purposes because My house has lain in ruins for 16 years.  Where have you been, children of Israel?  What have you been doing?  Where has your time been focused?  Where is your attention?  Is it towards this propensity to pursue prosperity?”  The answer in Haggai’s day was yes.  If you think that it isn’t the same way today, you’re sadly mistaken.  Just like the people of Haggai, we are focused on self.

This propensity is seen in the choices we make

How do we know that?  It is most clearly seen in the choices we make.  Scripture tells us the people of Haggai are building their homes.  Now let’s stop here for a moment.  “Come on God!  Are you kidding me?  You want us to be without homes until we build the temple?”  Well, not exactly.  God is saying, “Put up some structures and have some living space, but focus on the priority of building My home.”  That’s what they do, but here’s the problem—16 years have passed.  I am no carpenter, but I have to believe it doesn’t take 16 years to build a home.  It does for the people of Israel, though.  Is that because there is a shortage of lumber?  No.  It is because they aren’t just building their homes.  It doesn’t take 16 years to put lumber together and get the work done to build a house.  After building the buildings, they start building their lives.  They are building around themselves instead of building on the foundation of God.  While the house of God lays in ruins for 16 years, every decision they make boils down to the sin of idolatry.

John Calvin was right when he said, “Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion).  Amen, John Calvin!  You might say, “Tim, there’s no mention of pagan worship in this passage.  There’s no mention of statues.  Where is the idolatry?”  Idolatry is far more subtle than that.  It is not just about statues.  Remember, the first commandment says that we are to have no other gods before us (Exodus 20:3).  The god of Haggai’s day is not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  It is the god of comfortable living and lives focused on self instead of God.  Every day they go about their lives, continuing on a trajectory of falling farther and farther away from God and farther and farther into idolatry.  Nothing has changed that truth today.  God’s house lies in ruins and the answers the people give are excuses.

The first excuse the people give is it’s not the right time (Haggai 1:2).  I want you to understand they’re not saying they’re against rebuilding the house of God.  No one is saying, “Really God, do we need to build this thing?  I mean, come on.  Do we really need it?  I mean, You’re a bigger God than One Who will dwell in a building, so we don’t need to build it.”  They don’t say that.  Nor do they say they won’t help.  They aren’t saying, “Yeah, you guys go build it but we’re not going to help.”  That’s not their excuse.  They are all in it—in word.  But sadly, words are not where priorities are found.  Priorities are found in action.  Gandhi once said, “Action expresses priorities.”  While I may not agree with all of Gandhi’s thoughts, I agree with that one.

For example, if I asked you right now to write down three of your top priorities, I believe I would see God, family and then either work or church.  Those first three will be pretty close to one another.  But let me stop and ask: are those really your priorities?  Is that really how you spend your week?  Your answers will probably change dramatically if I asked you the following questions: where did you spent most of your time this week?  Where did you invest most of your money?  What things were you most passionate about this week?

God is telling the Israelites that priorities aren’t determined by what we put on a piece of paper.  They are determined by what we do.  Based on what many of us did this past week, we have it all wrong.  How often this week—and in weeks prior—have we had the opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ only to say what the people of Haggai did?  “It’s not the right time, God.”  How many times have we come to church and seen and heard about opportunities to serve only to say, “I would do it but I don’t have the time, energy or gifts to be able to do it”?  Excuses.  Yet God calls these people to task.  Is God not calling us out today as well?  We have such good intentions and yet we see very little of them come to fruition.  Their failure is our failure.  We don’t put God first.

This propensity brings unseen consequences

This leads to unseen consequences.  Here’s the stupidity of God’s people in the past and frankly, here’s our stupidity today.  We think we can say that God is first and that we can write Him on the top of our priority list.

Let me tell you something—I get nervous about some of the songs we sing.  It is dangerous to sing some of these songs.  We sing that God is “more than enough.”  Are you kidding me?  He’s not more than enough—because we leave this place and we have to have more stuff.  We have to add more titles to our names and pursue more things.  Then we come back next Sunday and sing, “God, You’re more than enough.  I don’t need anything else.  You’re my only desire.”  We leave this place desiring new things, better things, bigger things and more comfort, yet we sing these songs.  Sometimes we have no idea what we are singing.  Here’s the stupidity behind it: we sing these words and think God is going to be okay with that.  “Oh, there goes that group again, just singing those empty words.  They don’t mean it but that’s okay.”

Man, I get frustrated with my children when they say empty and shallow words at important times of their lives—important moments when they need to speak from their hearts.  They tell me, “Well, I’m sorry.”  No, they’re not.  It just makes me a whole lot angrier as a father when they don’t mean what they say.  In the same way, we think we can say to God, “Yeah, You’re first in my life,” and then live contrary to that in our everyday lives.  We say He’s the greatest priority but then our actions show that is anything but the case—and we expect God to bless our work.

This was true in Haggai’s day and it is true today.  Do you know what God says?  He says, “You’re not going to get away with it.”  Notice what He says in Haggai 1:6-9:

You have sown much, and harvested little.  You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill.  You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm.  And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.  "Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.  Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.  You looked for much, and behold, it came to little.  And when you brought it home, I blew it away.  Why? declares the Lord of hosts.  Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.” 

Those are some pretty biting words.  God is asking rhetorically, “Is it going to help you or hurt you when you place the emphasis on your own personal goals and comforts?”  Sadly, it is hurting the people in Haggai’s day and they are totally unaware of it.  Notice what’s going on: they’re planting much but harvesting little.  They’re drinking up but are still thirsty.  They are clothing themselves but are still cold.  They get money but they put the money in places with holes in them.  Later on God says, “You expected much but got so little.”  I don’t believe there is a sadder set of verses encapsulating the problem with the evangelical Christian culture today.  Agriculture was the chief occupation for these people.  This passage shows a perpetual pattern of working and never being able to rest because of the people’s inability to be satisfied.

Haggai was a prophet and so was Mick Jagger who sang:

I can't get no satisfaction

I can't get no satisfaction

'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try

I can't get no, I can't get no [satisfaction]

                (“Satisfaction” by Rolling Stones)

How true that is for us today!  There’s an old Dutch expression that says, “The harder I try the farther I fall behind.”  That is true for many of us today.  We live in a world that wants bigger houses, nicer cars, more entertainment, more games and more vacations.  Yet people are more miserable and unsatisfied.  Some of the most miserable and unsatisfied people I know are Christians in this church.  They are good people but they’re that way because they consider other things more important than God.  So what does God do?  Here’s the thing—what God does is an immense measure of grace.  He says, “I’m going to bring leanness to you.” 

Do you think this whole housing bubble issue wasn’t a season of God’s leanness for the people of America?  I mean, think about it.  We bought houses we couldn’t afford and then we turned around and blamed the banks.  No!  We don’t need the things we have and we kill ourselves to get them.  Then what we think is going to happen doesn’t happen.  Haggai says, “You expect a lot and a little returns.”  We say, “Oh, but I thought my house was going to be worth this.  I thought I was going to make a buck.”  Do you know what?  We put the money we make into purses with holes in them.

Brothers and sisters, I believe God is trying to teach us a lesson that is so important for us to hear because Christians—just as much as the pagans—fell apart in this market downturn.  For many of us—not all of us—it was because we pursued things we never should have had.

The Psalmist speaks of this truth in Psalm 106:15, “He gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.”  Put another way, “God gave them their desire, but sent emptiness to their souls.”  What’s the desire?  Remember that in Romans 1 God gave the people over to their desires.  God says, “You’re not going to listen to Me?  Do you know what?  If you want to pursue those things, I’ll let you have them.  But here’s the problem—in those things, you’re going to find emptiness in your souls.”

This propensity leads us to chase after the wind

So this propensity then leads us to chase after the wind.  Solomon says this in Ecclesiastes 1:14 and Solomon understood this because he spent the early years of his life pursuing that which he could find in work, pleasure, power and prestige.  After all of that, he said it was vanity.  It was like chasing after the wind.

This is what happens to the people of God in Haggai’s day and this is what happens—listen, people of Village Bible Church—when we put other things before God.  You become the hamster that’s inside the little wheel running its little legs off and getting nowhere.  God has a word for us today to stop doing that—stop pursuing that way of life.  Our lives are filled with worthless practices, pursuits and endeavors.  It’s pathetic at times.

So what are we to do as followers of God?  We need to first understand and acknowledge that if this is how we’re living, it is worthless—it is chasing after the wind—though it may seem right to us.  There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14:12).

2.  The Path to Proper Priorities

So where do we find this path?  There is a path that leads to proper priorities.  The answer is clear in Haggai’s day.  What do they need to do?  They have a job to get done.  God says, “I want you to go up to the hill, cut down some trees and build Me a house.”  That’s easy.  I wish I could say, “Here’s the job we have as Christians in 2013—to consider not living the way we’ve been living and be part of a building project.”  Well, there’s no building project here today.  For us, we must look to the words of Jesus.

In the Book of Matthew—in His great Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7—Jesus tells us what it means to find the path to proper priorities.  He says that once we evaluate and consider our ways, this path begins by seeking first His Kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33).

This path requires continual effort

This means that if we want to pursue the right priorities, we begin with continual effort.  When Jesus says the word “seek” (zēteō) in Matthew, it is given as a command.  He is not saying, “Hey if you have no other options, maybe you can seek My Kingdom.”  No, He is saying, “The way you are going leads to destruction.  The way to true obedience and true prosperity is to seek through continuous activity.”

It’s a word that embraces several thoughts.  What does it mean to seek first?  It means to look for, investigate until you find or strive until you obtain.  It embodies the idea of strenuous effort and activity.  To seek God’s Kingdom first means that Christians are to prioritize not based on their interests but the interests of their Lord.

Jesus goes on and says, “Not only are you to seek continually, but you are to do it first.”  First (prōtos) means to signify a degree.  The degree is that God is first place.  God is above all.  God is the One we are to serve.  He is the One Who is to have total preeminence.  We are to continually, actively pursue God, the One Who has first place.  There should be no competition over that.

What are we to pursue?  What are we to seek first?  The Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God (basileia) in the text is literally the reign of God in your life.  So here’s the question: is God enthroned in your heart in such a way that your entire existence is governed by His rule?  Or is the Creator of the universe a mere appendage to your life?  Is He a casual-sometimes-weekend point of interest?  Or is He your all in all?  Now, you can say, “Yes brother Tim, He’s my all in all.”  But I’m going to go back to the point that priorities are not found in words but in action.

This path requires constant evaluation

So when are we to seek the Kingdom of God?  Every day.  How are we to pursue this Kingdom?  In every way.  That’s why Paul says that whether we eat or drink—even in the mundane things of life—we are to do so to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).  But in order for that to happen in a world that bombards us with its priorities and pursuits, we have to engage in what Haggai tells us is a constant evaluation.  God says in the text twice that we are to “consider our ways.”  We are to take stock of our decisions.  We need to ask the question, “Is what I’m doing right?”  That’s never easy to do when we put it before God.  Do you know what we default to right away?  We switch to asking the question, “How am I doing in comparison to others?  Look, I’m doing a lot better than so-and-so.”  We find the saddest, sappiest person who calls himself a Christian and we say, “Well, compared to him I’m doing pretty well.”

Here’s the thing: the Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ will have nothing to do with anybody else but you.  It’s not going to be about so-and-so sitting next to you in the pew.  It isn’t about how much you served at Village Bible Church in the days you were here.  It has nothing to do with anybody else.  It has to do with the Person of Jesus Christ.  Here’s the thing—God isn’t impressed with the houses where we live.  He’s not awed by the cars we drive, the nameplates on our office doors, the degrees or diplomas we have.  He’s concerned about how obedient we are to Him and to His reign in our lives.  He’s focused on what we have done for Him and His Kingdom and how we have pursued His priorities, not our own.

So it’s time for each one of us to consider our ways.  Are you choosing God’s ways or your own?  Which door are you going through in your life decisions?  Whose business are you most excited about—yours or His?  Which one do you give more time and attention to—yours or His?  Ask yourself some questions today:  “How am I spending my time?  How am I spending the money—which is really His money—that God has so graciously given me?  What are my life goals?  What do I think about the most?  Is it about God and His Kingdom or is it about my kingdom?  What looks successful to me?  Is it living like my neighbor or is it humbly living as Christ called me to, seeking His Kingdom first?”  Considering your ways means bringing into question how you spend your leisure time.  It means asking about how you engage with people.  Why do we ask these questions? 

Notice the text says they do so because “the people feared the Lord” (Haggai 1:12).  There’s not a whole lot of fear in our eyes today.  We care more about what other people think about us and what we have than what God thinks.  We forget that one day we’re going to stand before God and our eternity is going to be determined by how we lived in this world.  We need to consider our ways as people.

We need to consider our ways as a church as well.  I want to speak today to all of those who call Village Bible Church their home.  If you’re newer to our church—maybe you’ve been here a month or so—these words are not for you.  You’re an observer to some family business today.  We don’t do this very often.  But visitor, I want you to know that I love this church.  It is filled with great people whom I call my family and my friends.  This is not a job.  It is a passion of love to be able to preach to all of you each week.  That’s why it makes some of these words difficult to share.  As a church, I want you to consider two areas that I believe come right out of this text.  While the people of Haggai’s day were pretty good people and so are you, God has a word for us today. 

The first area I want you to “consider your ways” in today is the area of giving.  It’s an appalling thing to me that we are almost $100,000 under budget in our giving.  Now if you’re new to the church, you’re going to learn this is the first in a very long time that I’ve talked about giving so you can’t say I’m talking about this subject over and over again.

Anyway, I’m talking to our people—it’s appalling that we’re almost $100,000 behind budget.  You might say, “Maybe our budget is too high.”  Well, we asked those questions of our stewardship team.  We said, “Hey, can you help us out?  Without giving us specifics about people and amounts, we just want to know how our pattern of giving looks.”  What we learned at the family forum is that of the 260 families who call Village Bible Church their home, 97 of those families—about 37%—have given more than once a month in the first five months of the year.  That means that giving is not a priority in many of our families and in many of our houses.

Now here’s the thing.  If you don’t care about God, His work and His Kingdom, then I’m not talking to you.  But if you say you love God and He is number one—you would actually list God as your number one priority—then let me ask you, “Why isn’t it showing up in your giving back to God?  Why are you missing out on that?”  God has called us to give sacrificially from our hearts in proportion to our living in a systematic way.  So that begs the question why a major part of our giving is token gifts of $10 or $20.  That’s not in proportion with our living.

I don’t remember who taught me this, but as a young man I learned that giving is about percentages.  I’m so glad God didn’t give a percentage when He saw us in our sin.  He gave a Person—His Son.  He didn’t give part of His Son; He gave all of Him.  So Amanda and I have come to learn that if we truly say God is number one in our lives, then the biggest check we write every month needs to be to God.  Please know my heart in regards to this—I don’t say this to boast.  Amanda and I have made this decision and it has taken time to get there.  I don’t want my list of priorities to say that God is number one but then have my checkbook say He’s number six or seven.  He needs to be number one.

It’s not just concerning money—it’s about all of life.  How is it that we as a church can find ourselves so far in the hole?  Let me tell you something—there are things in this building we need to fix.  This house—in many ways—is in ruins.  Our front doors are in need of a lot of work.  We end up telling our men, “Just fix it.  Do whatever you can to fix the job because we can’t buy new ones.”  We need to replace carpeting.  We have ministry endeavors we want to be part of but we can’t because the money isn’t there.

It isn’t that the money isn’t available; it’s that we’re choosing to put other things as priorities over God.  I will tell you—as much as I love this church and as much as I love you—shame on us.  Shame on us because we have the audacity to call ourselves Village Bible Church and then not follow His ways.

The second area in which I want us to “consider our ways” is the area of our service.  One of the things that frustrates me the most as an elder in this church is that we spend more time trying to recruit people to do ministry than we ever spend getting around to doing ministry.  We hear, “I’m too busy.  I’ve got this going on and that going on,” Or   “I would love to but I’m doing this and that,” or “We’re going to be out of town for this and for that.”  Remember, God said, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).  Hear me out—God’s number one program is not the family, our workplace, our vacations or our leisure time.  The number one program God has put together—the reason why Christ died—is His church.  So when we say we don’t have time and energy to serve God in the ministries that are here, we are saying God isn’t number one but He is way down the list.

This shows itself in a couple of ways.  Sometimes we just say no when people ask.  Let me tell you, we could use help in every one of our ministries right now.  Mario has some great things going on in student ministry.  We learned at the family forum that great things are happening in the student ministries.  But what does he say?  “We’ve got the kids but we don’t have leaders.”  .That’s half the fight, isn’t it?  Getting kids to show up to learn about God’s Word is half the fight.  The kids are excited to be here but we don’t have leaders.  Deb Nieter says all the time, “We need people!  The kids love coming to Sunday School, Children’s Worship and VBS, but we don’t have leaders.”  But what do we say?  We say, “Well, I can’t do it.”

Here’s another issue we have.  We say yes to serving in ministry but it’s not a priority.  We expect it to be for others though.  You expect ministry to be a priority for a person like myself.  I’m dealing with some sinus thing today.  Aren’t you glad I didn’t call in at 8:00 and say, “You know, I’m just not feeling up to it right now.  My sinuses are burning right now”?  This is my priority.  It has to be.  You want it to be a priority for me.  But when it comes to ministry, many of us will find any excuse to say we don’t need to do it.  We don’t need to be there.  Because of that, God falls down the list of our priorities.  God is all about His ministry and He wants to see His ministry advance.  When we say no or don’t make it a priority to do ministry, we fail God.  We are blinded by the consequences.

Here’s the amazing thing—think about ministries that are not being done right now.  What missionaries are not being supported?  We got a letter from Ben and Missy Hatton this last week.  Talk about a couple with a heart for ministry.  They’ve taken their family of six to New Guinea, put themselves in the bush with people who have never seen white people before and they’ve dedicated their entire lives to being with those people.  They’re learning the language and customs in order to one day share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.  We found out this week that they don’t have any money to be able to continue on with their process.  Because of fuel costs and other expenses, the building of their home there has cost them a great deal more than expected.  Even if we wanted to give financially for this need, we don’t have any extra money to do so.  And the Hattons are only one of so many ministries where we could be doing more.

Here’s the thing—we want much but we harvest little.  There are unseen consequences.  We will not know what holding back in our service and giving to the Lord is hindering.  My goodness, what God could be doing in this place if we would get our priorities straight!  God wants us to consider our ways.  God wants us to consider whether or not the way we’re living is right.

So I give these two areas to you to consider, but I don’t want to guilt trip you into it.  Please don’t think that.  I don’t want to see giving go up for one week because I talked about it.  I want to see us build a pattern.  A great goal to work on would be to never lack in resources—financial or people—to do God’s ministry.  Jesus said the harvest is ripe but the workers are few (Matthew 9:37).  Let’s get there.  I know we can do it.  I know you’re true to the task.  Maybe we’ve allowed some things to get in the way.  Let’s change that.

3.  God Promises Good When We Put Him First

Finally we see that God promises some great things when we put Him first.  The people get to work.  In Haggai 1:12-14, they get the message.  I pray that we get it today.  They get to work and they start obeying God together.  Notice the four things that happen when they start building the temple.

Our obedience pleases God

God says in verse eight, “…build the house, that I may take pleasure in it…”  God is pleased when He is number one.  John Piper says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”  Do you want to bring glory to God?  Then find your satisfaction in Him.  Let Him truly be your all in all.  It pleases God.

Samuel responded to questions about burnt offerings in the Old Testament by saying, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22).  God wants our obedience because it pleases Him.

Our obedience praises God

God says our obedience will bring Him pleasure and He will be glorified (Haggai 1:8).  If we want the name of God to be elevated and raised higher, then let’s start living our lives for that end in every way possible.  It’s not easy.  It’s a difficult, daily pursuit of saying, “God, You’re number one.”  We need to ask with every purchase we make, “Is this what pleases and praises God?  Or is it about me?”  Is the way we spend our time pleasing God or is it about me?  It praises God when we keep Him as number one.

Romans 12:1 says we are “to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”  Worship is not simply about us standing and singing songs.  It is about us living life and prioritizing Him as number one.

Our obedience allows godly projects to be accomplished

The temple was built.  The task was completed.  How great it would be for us to see our Savior eye-to-eye and be able to say, “Because we kept You first as a church and as people, we were able to accomplish these things by Your Spirit—for Your glory and Your sake.”  Godly projects can be completed when we get together and work hard to serve God.

Our obedience allows us to experience God’s presence

I want you to notice what God says in Haggai 1:2, “…These people…”  He doesn’t speak of them as His people but as these people.  When God is not your number one priority, God looks at you and says, “I don’t know what that guy is doing.  If he’s not doing what I need him to, he’s not with Me right now.”  But notice in verse 13 when the people obey and make Him their priority, the Lord He says, “…I am with you.”

Do you want God with you today?  Do you want His presence to be with you?  Do you want God with you in your financial decisions?  Then give to Him.  Do you want God to bless your time?  Then give back to God.  If you want God to bless you and your family, then keep God as the priority in your family.  We need to put God first.  When we do, God says, “I am going to be with you and bless you in ways you never thought possible.”  This was true in Haggai’s day and it is true for us today.

So here’s the thing.  Priorities are important.  Priorities are the very testimony of what is important to us.  It’s what we tell the world.  The question is what are your priorities saying about you?  Are they saying that God is number one?  As a Christian, they should.  I pray this is the case for each of us as we learn from Haggai 1. 

Let’s pray. 

Father God, I thank You for Your Word.  I’m struck by what You have to say to us today.  I’m sure there are a myriad of responses to this message.  Some will respond by simply saying, “There goes the pastor, yelling and screaming about things.”  I pray that won’t be the case.  I pray they would recognize this isn’t a message I wanted to preach.  But the Word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet and if it seemed fit for You to share it with God’s people then, it can apply to us today because Your Word is living and active now.  If we are Your followers, we should delight in hearing these words.  It should be a delight for me to preach these words. 

Because our priorities are out of whack and we find ourselves more focused on comfort, these uncomfortable words can make us angry.  I pray You would soften our hearts today.  I pray You would soften my heart and work in my life.  My priorities aren’t right—I’ll admit it.  They’re not right because so many times they are about me and the stuff of this world.  Break our hearts of our priorities so that we can turn and follow You in full allegiance.  Help us to fully pursue You as our number one priority.  We need Your Spirit to do this.

We’re told in the text that You stirred the heart of the people.  Lord, we need You to stir the heart of Village Bible Church today.  Stir it in such a way that we would serve in a new way, give in a new way and honor You.  Help us honor You, not only with our lips but with what we do so that You may take pleasure in our work.  Be glorified in the way we accomplish the work You have for us here and to the uttermost parts of the world.  Be with us, we ask—we can’t do it without You.  Give us Your Spirit in a new and profound way today.  As we leave this place, lead us to these priorities.  If we don’t know how to get there, help us ask questions.  I pray the elders of this church would help lead us in the way that is right and pleasing to You.  Now send us off into the world that lives very differently and help us be a light in that world, we pray.  Amen.