This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome back to the
New Mercies Podcast again today on... February
the 17th, this is Tuesday. My reading today takes
me to the book of Haggai, chapter 1. I know what
some of you are thinking, oh yeah, I read Haggai
the other day. Most of us are always in the book
of Haggai at some point, but it is an Old Testament
minor prophet towards the end of the Old Testament,
and it is a book with incredible depth, a book
with incredible challenges to it. Just a couple
of chapters, not very long, but I want to look
today in Haggai 1. I've read it and looked at
it over and over again, and something stood out
to me that is in the very first part of the chapter.
I encourage you, read the whole chapter today.
great, wonderful place to start, a little bit
heavy and a little bit convicting. But I want
to share just a little bit about Haggai as we
jump in here. This is a prophet who is a part
of the remnant that has come back to Jerusalem.
So here's what's happened. If you go back to
history, you will see that the Israelites, or
God's people, Israel and Judah, that when the
nation used to be one under King David, King
Solomon, and then after Solomon, the nation split
into two parts, a southern kingdom and a northern
kingdom, Judah and Israel. They went about their
ways. Northern kingdom didn't do so well. ever,
never had a godly king in their throne. The southern
kingdom had some godly kings in it, but eventually
they were taken over. Both kingdoms were taken
over and put in exile. You may have heard a lot
of the history of that. If you've been around
any of the podcasting that I've done, we've gone
through the entire Old Testament before. We've
gone through every book and looked at how the
northern kingdom and southern kingdom, how they
were attacked and how they're... put in exile,
and then you read about Daniel, and Daniel was
in exile in Babylon, and he said, oh, we're about
to go back home. That's about to happen. There
was a prophecy. I read it in Jeremiah. This is
great. We're going to go back home. Well, now
they've gone back home. There's been groups that
have gone back home. Haggai is one of those that
they're back from exile, and they're free to
build now in Jerusalem. Now, there's a couple
of remnants that go back, okay? So there's a
lot that happens in that time frame that, one,
they go back and they start to rebuild the temple
and start to rebuild their houses and start to
rebuild the walls. And maybe you've heard of
some of those things with Nehemiah. He was the
wall builder, right? You've maybe heard of some
of that that's gone on in the Old Testament.
But today, as we look at Haggai 1, that's kind
of the backdrop. The people have shown back up,
and their call is to rebuild the temple. Well,
they don't rebuild the temple first. They start
a little bit of the temple, but then they build
their own houses first. And they build them with
kind of some luxury to them. And so Haggai is
not about money. It's not about money or resources.
It's about priority. I want to read just a couple
of verses out of Haggai 1 today so that we can
see what's happening. Verse 1 gives the year,
the month, the day. So just know that. It says,
governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of
Jehozadak, the high priest. Thus says the Lord
of hosts, these people say that the time has
not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.
I'm going to stop right there. So this is the
word that God gave Haggai to tell the people.
So this is God saying to the people, he says,
they say it's not time yet to rebuild the house
of the Lord. I don't know. This is a very, very
slippery slope that the people of God have found
themselves in. They have said, oh, the time's
not come yet. They didn't say, we're never going
to build the house of the Lord. They said, we'll
build the house of the Lord later. As I look
at that, there's a part of me that thinks, okay.
Maybe they want to get it right, and so they
want to settle in first, and then after everybody
gets their affairs in order, then they will all
come together and build a household. It almost
sounds noble, but spiritual procrastination is
never a good thing. This is God calling them
out. And by the way, God says in the second year
of the king, in the sixth month, on the first
day of that month, God gives it a pinpoint accurate
day. This is when I'm going to say this. because
delayed obedience, you heard it said before,
delayed obedience is disobedience. They have
disobeyed me, and I am pinpointing the day that
I am setting this straight. This is the day.
It may sound reasonable to you to say, we'll
do it later, we'll do it later, we'll do it later.
God says, I want you to do it now, and we say,
well, let's get our house. done. Let's get our
houses done. Let's get our stuff settled. I want
to read the next two verses, verses three and
four. Listen to what it says. This gets very,
very personal from God. He says this, 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 lays
in ruins? Not good. God comes to Haggai the first
time and he says, hey, everybody says that it's
not time to rebuild the house of the Lord yet.
And then it says, the word of the Lord came to
Haggai again. Is it time for you to live in the
big, fancy, nice houses and let my house lay
in ruins? Not the word I'm looking for, right?
That's immediate conviction. He says, look at
what all you have, and then what's supposed to
reflect my glory, you've given nothing to. You've
not prioritized it at all. That is a scary thought.
their comfort with his neglect. Now, I could
stop right there, turn this microphone off, turn
this camera off, and say, go look at your comforts
and go look at what you've neglected that should
belong to the Lord. And we should all go crying
and be broken and realize that he's better than
everything that we've ever done. And we're wrong
is what we should do. We could do that today.
I'm not going to because I got a couple things
left I need to say that are really standing out
to me. I hope you know this isn't just me preaching
at you. It hit me first, right? This is what
the way the word works. It hits me first, then
I share it with you. The issue is not wealth.
That's not the issue. The issue is what got finished
first. The issue is what got priority. It says,
is it time for you to live in your paneled houses?
Paneled houses in this time, very, very expensive,
very affluent. I'm not saying you can't have
money or you can't have nice things. That's not
what he's saying. He's saying, why did you take
care of your own self before you allowed my glory
to be on display? Why did you put these other
things first? What you prioritize, let me tell
you this, what you prioritize is what you worship.
That's what you worship. Whatever you prioritize
in your life is what you are worshiping. What
is it you prioritize today? Do you prioritize
the bigger, fancier, nicer things? Or do you
prioritize getting the gospel to the world? Do
you prioritize feeding the hungry? Do you prioritize
those needy people around you? And you say, well,
I can't be about that all the time. That's not
what I'm going to be about. I got to make sure
I'm taken care of first. That's what they said
in Haggai's day too. I got to make sure my stuff's
taken care of before I give anything to the Lord.
I'm pretty sure God says, I want your first fruits.
I'm pretty sure God says, I want you to get back
to your first love. I'm pretty sure God says,
I'm first. Everything you can do. Listen, God
can do more with your 10 % than you can do with
110%, right? We just don't seem to give him the
first fruits. Haggai is a very specific, I mean,
dated moment of conviction. He says, you took
care of yourself first. I never asked for your
leftovers. I want your first love. I don't want
your leftovers. I'll read just a couple more
verses here and then I'll be done. And so we
can all go and weep and pray together. It says
this in verse number five. Now, therefore, thus
says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. By
the way, he says consider your ways a lot in
Haggai. I will say this is a refrain he repeats.
If I could encourage us in one thing, consider
your ways. Just consider what you're doing. That's
what he's saying. Consider what you prioritize.
Take a moment and look at your bank account.
Get on your banking app, open your checkbook
if you're over 100 years old or whatever it is
that you're looking at, whatever you've balanced.
Look at your calendar and just consider what
you are prioritizing in your life. If it is prioritizing
yourself over the Lord, well, I'll just keep
reading. Consider your ways. 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 in
a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts,
consider your ways. He keeps going. I could keep
reading, but I'm going to stop reading the scripture
right there because that's enough for me to dwell
on today. It's enough for me to think about today.
He says, consider your ways. I'm going to confront
this with absolute clarity. He says, you are
constantly eating and you're never full. You're
constantly drinking and you're never satisfied.
You're constantly working and your money goes
into bags with holes in it and it's just pouring
right out. You harvest, you plant, but you don't
get enough. He says, I need you to look at your
life. I need you to consider your ways. Look
at your life. I want every one of us today to
look at our life and say, is my life, no wonder
I'm chasing everything. I'm stressed out all
the time. Why am I stressed out all the time?
Oh, because I've prioritized myself over the
Lord. God says, look at the birds of the field.
I'll take care of them. They don't do anything.
They're not stressing. Look at the flowers of
the field. I've dressed them in more splendor
than Solomon. I can take care of you. And we're
like, yeah, but if I give you anything, I'm not
going to have it. If I don't build my own house,
how am I going to get there? I said before in
an episode last week or some point that God's
building my house in heaven. I don't have to
get there and take my blueprints and say, God,
here's what I want you to build. Here's what
I want to build. I'll be sure and build this
out and build this out. He's taking care of all
of it. And he wants to take care of everything
now. And he says, consider your ways. You are
doing all of this work and realize that you keep,
you're unsatisfied. You're stressed out. You
can't sleep at night. You're worried about everything.
You don't have enough money for the week. The
money runs out before the month. You're overspent.
You're exhausted. You're tired. He says, it's
because you've gotten your priorities wrong.
Line up your priorities right, and everything
will fall into place. That's what will happen.
You've got all this effort, and you are so frustrated.
You have no satisfaction, none at all. You're
working overtime and you still can't make it.
You're still barely keeping your head afloat.
That's not working. You've got misaligned priorities
and they are going to produce diminishing returns.
You are not going to get, you can be busy and
still be barren. You can be busy and be hungry.
You can be busy and unsatisfied. He says, listen,
you've got full schedules. but empty souls. I
cannot help but think this is the message we
need today for every day. What are our priorities?
How are we living our life? Are we living in
the paneled houses, taking care of number one
first, ourselves? Or are we saying, God, we want
to align with your priorities. We want to give
to your work. We want to support what you are
doing, the kingdom of God. That's what we want
to support first and foremost. If that's how
we're living our lives, we're not going to be
stressed out. We're not putting our money in
bags with holes in it. We're not putting our
hope in food that doesn't return, enough sown
crop that doesn't yield. That's not what we're
doing. We're saying, I trust God with every bit
of this. Today, here's what I want us to do.
In this short little time we have together, I
want you to consider your ways. Look at your
bank account or your checkbook or your social
media or your calendar or your whatever your
planner thing, whatever it is that shows what
your life is about. I want you to look at it
and consider who is it prioritizing.