in the hallway out there and we realized, he
said, well, they can't really do anything if
we're back here. It made me question, I wonder
just how long y 'all would just keep fellowshipping
if we just never came back. But we love that
time of you guys getting to see each other. As
we know, as you come in, you're finding your
seat. A lot of us... my family included, are
getting here late, and so you're trying to rush
and get to your spot. So we love that time of
getting to spend time together. We're going to
continue in our series of little books, big truths.
We're going to be in the book of Haggai today,
which you'll notice so far all the books we've
done have been only one chapter. This one is,
what, two chapters? Yeah, if you need a little
bit of help finding it, it's right towards the
end of the Old Testament, okay? So you'll find
it there. But we're going to read, and Alex is
going to preach through Haggai chapter 1 today.
We also want to say it's really cool to see the
Alabaster House visiting back with us, so thank
you guys for being here, and we're really excited
to have you. So, if you read with me, Haggai
chapter 1, we'll get through these Hebrew names
together. Let's read. 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. 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. 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. Therefore the heavens
above you have withheld the dew, and the earth
has withheld its produce. 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 all their labors.
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. Then Haggai,
the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people
with the Lord's message. I am with you, declares
the Lord. 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, on the twenty -fourth day of the month,
in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius
the king. Let's pray together. God, we thank
you for another opportunity to hear and learn
from your word today. God, we pray that you would
prepare our hearts to hear the message that you
have placed on your servant Alex. God, we pray
that you would fill him with boldness, fill him
with your spirit as he brings this truth to us.
And God, we pray that you would convict us. God,
that just like the people of Israel were neglecting
the house of the Lord, God, I pray that if we
have been neglecting what you have called us
clearly to do for you in our lives, that you
would convict us of that today. God, that you
would redirect our hearts and our minds and our
actions to be about your business, to bring about
your glory. And so, God, help us to focus on
that today. Help us to hear from you. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen. All right, I'm excited to
get started with the book of Haggai. When you
think about the story of the Bible, in the beginning,
God's people dwelled in God's place, and they
enjoyed God's presence. And that was the ideal.
That was the plan that God wanted for the people
to have. He wanted people to be in his place,
enjoying his presence as his people. And so that
was the Garden of Eden. And it kind of served
as this first type of temple where heaven met
earth and God and man had a place where they
could interact together. And as you know, mankind
messed that up. And Adam and Eve, they sinned
against God. And so they are kicked out of the
garden. God's people were no longer dwelling
in God's place or enjoying God's presence. And
so then it's really interesting that the story
of the Bible becomes a story of how do we get
back to this ideal? How do we get back to God's
people dwelling in God's place and enjoying God's
presence? And there were little snippets throughout
history, right? I mean, at first you had the
tabernacle in the wilderness where the people
of Israel were together and God would come down
and he would meet with Moses in the tabernacle.
So you had God's people and God's presence, but
they weren't in God's place yet. And then under
Joshua, they go into the promised land, they
conquer the land and the people inhabit the land.
And you remember that the people of Israel, they
did not want God as their king. And so they rejected
God as their king. They said, give us a king
like all the other nations. We want to be like
the people of the world. And so God relented,
and he gave them a king. And for a time, it did
seem like, once again, you had God's people in
God's place enjoying God's presence. And we know
the story of the Old Testament, though, right?
That didn't last long, did it? They even built
the temple, and it was an even clearer picture
of here we have the presence of God. This is
like Eden all over again. Everything is great.
But they continued to sin. And God was incredibly
merciful and gracious and kind and patient. And
he kept warning the people. He kept saying, if
you do not return to me, if you do not give up
these foreign gods, if you do not stop your sinful
ways, you're going to go into exile. And that's
exactly what happened. The people continued to
rebel against God, and so God banished them from
the promised land, and they went into captivity
in Babylon for about 70 years. And so God's people
were no longer in God's place, and they certainly
weren't enjoying God's presence. And so they
stayed in Babylon for 70 years. And then you
have Persia, who became the new big bad of the
land. And they overtook Babylon, and so the people
were now under Persian rule, and there was a
king, King Cyrus. And God moved in the heart
of King Cyrus to issue this decree that said
that the people of Israel could literally go
back to their homeland, reestablish themselves
as a nation, rebuild their temple and their walls,
and they are free to go. You would think that
if you were in captivity, Under a different king
and a different government and a different nation,
you would think that if God had moved in this
way to bring about your freedom and deliverance,
that when the king said you could go, you would
think you'd run, right? Everybody's going back.
The amazing thing is when he issued that decree,
only about 50 ,000 people went back. And that
might seem like a lot to you. But if you remember,
when the people of Israel first entered the Promised
Land under Joshua the Conqueror, they had about
2 million people enter the Promised Land. And
now, when they re -enter the Promised Land under
a different Joshua, Joshua the High Priest, only
about 50 ,000 go back. Because it turns out,
when Babylon is all you know, it's really not
someplace you want to leave. Well, as they were
in captivity, the people had started families.
They had built houses. They had started businesses.
Babylon was their home. It was their life. And
God's people didn't really care about being in
God's place or enjoying God's presence anymore.
But this 50 ,000 people who did care about this,
they go back to the land. They're excited to
get there. And what's amazing is as soon as they
get to the land of Israel, they immediately rebuild
the altar. They immediately lay down the foundation
of the temple, and everything seems to be going
great until it doesn't. And the surrounding nations
started rising up with opposition towards the
people as they were rebuilding the foundation
of the temple and the altar. And so they experienced
all this opposition from the world, and then
they start worrying about themselves. And so
they stopped working on the temple altogether.
And you might be saying, well, how long did they
stop? Maybe a couple days? No, it wasn't days.
It wasn't weeks, it wasn't even months. They
stopped working on the temple for 16 years. God
delivered them. Think about how ungrateful this
is, that God literally moved in the heart of
a foreign king to release his prisoners to ensure
that you could go back to your homeland, the
promised land, and enjoy his presence again,
and you completely neglect what he's telling
you to do for 16 years. And it's not because
of anything dramatic or drastic. It's exactly
what happens to us. They just got busy. They're
back in the land. They say, hey, we've got to
have houses too. And so they started focusing
on building their own houses. They started saying,
hey, we've got to get the crops growing, so we've
got to plant some farms. And then they said,
well, you know, we've got to make some money,
so we've got to start businesses. And life just
continued to happen. And what once seemed like
an urgent need, rebuild the temple, became something
that was no longer on their priority list. And
that's exactly where the book of Haggai begins.
God raises up this elderly prophet named Haggai.
And his message, it is amazing because he only
preaches for about four months. And yet within
that four month time span, you see one of the
greatest revivals in all of biblical history
where the people of Israel, they are going to
receive God's word. They're going to repent of
their sins and they're going to resume the work
of the temple. And it's all because God is going
to move in their hearts through the words. of
Haggai the prophet. And you might be asking yourself,
Pastor, this seems like it's a construction passage.
This seems like a building passage. Are we starting
some building project and that's why we're here?
Let me put you at ease. We're not starting a
building project of any sort anytime soon because
this passage isn't ultimately about construction
and it isn't ultimately about building. This
passage is ultimately about priorities. The people
of Israel no longer viewed God as a priority
in their lives. They began to put God behind
all their other things that they wanted in their
lives. And they decided that their affection
for God was going to be crowded out by the demands
of this life. And I want you to understand, we
struggle with the same thing. If you think you're
any different than them, you're not. We have
the same thing happen to us because we have careers,
we have hobbies, we have finances, we have children's
schedules. Y 'all know how busy that is? We have
home projects, husbands. You know how busy that
is. We have entertainment. And so we get all
these good gifts from God. And even the good
gifts that we receive from God, we can, if we're
not careful, turn them into idols and value them
more than the one who gives the gift. And this
is where Haggai's message is going to confront
us. He's going to tell us this in chapter one.
He's going to say that God's people put God first.
That's the whole point of chapter one. God's
people put God first. There's some of you here
this morning, you want to say, listen, I'm a
Christian and I know that I'm a Christian. And
I hear people say that all the time. And that's
great. If you have that confidence, you have
that assurance, that's what I want for you. And
God wants you to have that assurance as well.
But I also want you to understand that you can't
go around claiming to be one of God's people
if you're not actually putting God first in your
life. That's not just a problem of, oh, well,
I put him first sometimes. No, this is the consistent
character and pattern of the Christian life.
If you don't see this in your life, if you are
not consistently putting God first, then you
should be asking yourself and questioning whether
or not you're actually part of God's people.
And so the question I want us to consider this
morning is, what keeps us from putting God first
in our lives? If we know that it's what we're
called to do, we know that it's something that
we must do, then what is it that actually keeps
us from putting God first in our lives? And I
want you to notice what God says here in verse
1. In the second year of Darius the king, so
Cyrus has now passed on. There's a new king in
Persia. It's Darius. 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, the governor of Judah.
and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest.
Thus says the Lord of hosts, these people say
the time has not yet come to rebuild the house
of the Lord. Now I want you to focus on that
for just a second, because notice that the people
of Israel, they did not reject God here. They're
not saying, hey, we don't actually believe in
God anymore. Cyrus is great, he sent us back,
but we just don't actually believe in God. They're
not saying that. I want you to notice they're
also not saying that the temple is not important.
They're not even saying we're never going to
rebuild the temple again. Their problem is not
outright rebellion. Their problem is perpetual
postponement. They say it matters and we're going
to get to it eventually. They were saying we're
going to get around to it. There's a better time.
Now is not the time. That's exactly what the
Lord says to them. He says, these people say
it is not time to rebuild the house of the Lord.
And they had been saying that for 16 years. They
kept telling God for 16 years, we'll get to it
later. We'll get to it eventually. I know that
we need to do this and I'm going to do this when
the time is right. And I hear so many people
sound just like this today. Just like the people
of Israel, I have people who will say to me,
Pastor, I'll get serious about my walk with Christ
when work slows down. As if you cannot be serious
about Christ if you have a job. And I know that's
not the case because some of the strongest Christians
I know work full -time jobs. I want you to understand,
it's possible to be committed to Christ and work
a full -time job. But people use that excuse
all the time. They'll say, hey, listen, when
work slows down, I'll get serious about my walk
with Christ. Or I hear people say, I'll spend
more time in God's Word. When the kids get older,
because right now it's kids schedules. And listen,
I do get that. I understand that. And I have
people say it's hard to kind of carve out that
time to spend time in prayer and God's word.
Yes, but if you don't make it a priority now,
I promise you, you're not going to make it a
priority then. If it's not your kids later, it's
going to be something else later. There's always
going to be some other excuse. You hear people
say, I'll start serving in the church once life
becomes less busy. Or they'll say, I know that
I have this sin in my life, and there's something
that the Lord's been convicting me of, and God
has made it clear to me through His Word, through
the counsel of godly people, that this is something
that I need to address in my life. And people
will say, I'm going to get to it eventually.
I'm going to turn it over to God eventually.
I want to enjoy it just a little bit more, and
then I'm going to turn it over to God one day.
We rarely tell God no. We usually tell God later.
And I want you to just understand this morning,
a really important point. Delayed obedience is
disobedience. Delayed obedience, it is disobedience.
Now, we want to make a bunch of excuses, and
we say, well, it's not actually disobedience
because I am going to get to it. No, no. Delayed
obedience, it is disobedience. And I can prove
it because we would never make this distinction
anywhere else in our lives. Right? Like on Saturdays,
especially yesterday, I told my boys, you both
have to clean your room today. That is your one
job. Clean your room. That's all I'm asking you
for 24 hours. Just please get your rooms clean.
All right. Now, let's imagine that I go to them
at the end of the day, particularly Ezra. And
I look. And Ezra has not cleaned his room. In
fact, what if it looks like he intentionally
got out everything he owned just to prove his
point and assert dominance in the household?
Hypothetically. Now, if I came to him, and the
reason I'm using Ezra is because he would be
the one to say this. If I was like, Ezra, you
had one job today. It was to clean your room.
You disobeyed me. Why did you disobey? Imagine
if he were to say to me, I didn't actually disobey,
Daddy. I'm going to get it done. Eventually.
The day is not over. I haven't not done it. I
just haven't done it yet. Am I going to be like,
you know what? That's really sound reasoning
for a four -year -old. I think that makes a lot
of sense. You're totally in the clear. No, every
parent in here knows would be like, absolutely
not. You had one job. You didn't do it. It doesn't
matter if you keep kicking it down the road.
This is what you were called to do. And that's
exactly what's happening here in the book of
Haggai with the people of Israel. They're trying
to tell God, hey, we haven't disobeyed. We just
haven't obeyed yet. And God is saying, that's
the exact same thing. Delayed obedience, it is
disobedience. And the reason this matters for
us is because I know for a fact that there are
some people here this morning where you know
that God has been calling you to do something
in your life and you have not done it yet. And
you keep telling God later. There's some people
here this morning, you know that your next step
of obedience, it is baptism. And you've been
knowing this for a while and you've been telling
God, I know that I need to do it. I know that
it's something that should be done. I'm going
to do it eventually. For other people, it's church
membership. And we preach this here all the time,
not because we have any desire to grow George's
Creek, but we have a desire to be biblical. If
you're not a member of a local church, you need
to be. You need to commit yourself to a local
body. And you know this, you know the Bible says
it, and you keep telling yourself, I know it's
important. I know it needs to be done. I'm going
to get to it. And think about how this applies
in every area of our life. Some of you here this
morning, you know that there's someone in your
life that you need to forgive. You know that
there's someone that you need to have a very
serious conversation with and you need to reconcile
with. And you've been hurt. And there's some
bitterness in your heart. And you're having a
hard time moving past that resentment. And God
has made it clear to you. Now is the time to
reconcile. Now is the time to forgive. Now is
the time to have that hard conversation. And
you're not telling God no. You're just telling
God sometime later. And it's been maybe weeks
or months or years. And I want you to know what
you're doing is you're just trying to convince
yourself that your delayed obedience is somehow
different than disobedience. And I want to tell
you this morning, if God has convicted your heart,
and if God is calling you to do something, and
if God has given you opportunity after opportunity
to do that thing, now is the time to act. The
people of Israel kept saying, now is not the
time, Lord. And the Lord responds and says, brother,
it's been time for 16 years. Many of us this
morning need to stop making excuses, lay it at
God's feet and say, Lord, whatever that next
step is, whatever you're calling me to do, I
want to be obedient. But the problem is the people
of Israel, they kept putting themselves before
God. I want you to notice in verse 3, look what
it says. Then the word of the Lord came by the
hand of Haggai the prophet. Is it 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. Now,
I do want to make it clear. If you've got paneling
in your house, God's not condemning you, okay?
That was a style. That's really not what this
is about at all. God's not mad about them living
in houses. If you had a paneled house back then,
it meant that you'd actually put a lot of time
and effort, had some money to put towards that.
This isn't a resource problem. This is a priority
problem. God is saying, hey, look at your house.
It's pretty nice, right? It looks good. My house
is over here lying in ruins while you were taking
care of yourselves. It wasn't enough for you
to just put up a roof and some walls. Now you're
going on to paneling and all sorts of other things.
You have dedicated too much time to this while
neglecting what I've called you to do. And so
notice what he says. He says, consider your ways.
And that might be the most important phrase in
the entire book of Haggai. He's going to say
it multiple times in this chapter. He's going
to say it multiple times in the next chapter.
Here's what it means in Hebrew. Literally, it
means to set your heart on your ways. It's a
meaning that means stop to think, to evaluate.
When he's calling people to set their hearts
on their ways, he is saying, I want you to look
deeply inside yourself. I want you to look at
your heart and ask yourself, what is it that
is sitting on the throne of your heart? What
is it that has a grip on your heart that is making
you give all your time and your effort to all
these other things besides me? He is wanting
them to stop and actually consider, does God
matter most to you? And if not, what is it that
does? I think it's actually pretty humbling when
you stop and take the time to consider. I mean,
think about the fact that... That screen time
report on your phone, y 'all get those too, right?
If you have a smartphone, you get this screen
time report. You can choose to ignore it, or
if you look at it, it's pretty humbling. Because
it might tell you on a Sunday, hey, this past
week you averaged six hours on your phone per
day. I'm not saying that's what mine is, I'm
just saying let's say for you, maybe that's what
yours is. Six hours, and you're like, okay, that
might not be bad, grand scheme of things. But
let's consider the fact that you're maybe only
awake for 17 hours a day. That means more than
a third of your time is being spent on your phone.
And then if you break down that report, it'll
tell you where you're actually spending your
time on your phone. It's not going to be your
Bible app for most of you, right? Like if it
was, hey, I spent six hours on my Bible app,
that's great. It's going to be social media for
most of us. And you ask yourself, do these things
deserve six hours of my time and attention per
day? If you want an even more humbling example.
I want you to think about the fact that you have
168 hours in a given week. So if you're wondering
how many hours are there in a week, there are
168. How many of those hours do you think you're
giving to God? You know, well, pastor, that's
not fair because we've got to sleep. All right,
I'll give that to you. Let's say you get an average
of eight hours of sleep a night. And some of
you, you're like, that would be great. I know,
me too. But let's just say that you do. If you
get eight hours of sleep per night, you're left
with 112 hours that you're awake. And I hear
another complaint. Someone's saying, but pastor,
I work a full -time job. I'm going to give you
that as well. Let's subtract 40 hours. So here's
the number I want you to write down. 72. There
are 72 hours in the week where you are awake,
not sleeping, and not at work. There are 72 hours
that you have available to you. And here's my
question. How many of those hours do you think
you're giving to God? Well, let's break that
down as well. Why not? Let's just go for it.
Most Christians only go to church once per week
on Sunday morning. And most do not come to Sunday
school. So you get one hour if I don't preach
long. One hour. And let's say you do go to Sunday
school, I'm going to give you two hours. So there's
two hours right there. All right? And then let's
say that, I know it's not all about gathering
with the church, so let's say that you're spending
an average of one hour a day in prayer, Bible
study, gospel conversations, evangelism, or kingdom
activity. I think an hour is pretty generous.
I'm feeling very generous today, so I'm going
to give you one hour every day where I think
you're doing all of that stuff, God -related
things, for one hour. And then if you come on
Wednesdays, I'm going to give you another hour
there. So that puts you at about 9 or 10 hours
per week that you're giving to God out of that
72. I hope you can see that that is hardly more
than 10 % of your time that is being given to
God every single week. You have 72 hours and
10 are going to God. Now, here's my question
to you. If you found out that I had this much
time available, And out of all my given time
that I had at my disposal, if you found out that
I only spent 10 % of my time with my wife and
kids, would you think that I was a good husband
or father? Anybody? No? Would you say that my
wife and kids were a priority in my life if I
was only giving them 10 % of my available time?
No, you'd be like, you're an absentee father.
You're not taking care of your wife or acting
like she's a priority at all. You need to step
it up and do better. So then my question is,
why do we excuse ourselves or let ourselves off
the hook when it comes to God? If we're only
giving God 10 % of our time, do you not think
that that is a pretty big issue? If we're only
giving God 10 % of our time, would you think
that God is a priority in our lives at all? No,
absolutely not. Here's what I found going off
script here for a second. Everybody that I've
ever met says that they want to go to heaven.
I want to challenge you and I want to say, I
don't actually think that's true. I think the
majority of people don't want to go to hell.
But just because you don't want to go to hell,
that does not mean that you want to go to heaven.
I hate to tell you this. Some of you don't want
to hear this, but heaven is going to be like
a giant church service. And I know a lot of you
have problems with Christians. Guess who's only
going to be in heaven? Did you guess exclusively
Christians? Because that's the answer. A lot
of you don't like to spend your time with God
now. We are only going to be spending all of
our time with God in heaven. You're going to
be with God constantly, with Christians constantly,
praising the Lord for his goodness and majesty
forever and ever. That is heaven. And that's
why I tell people all the time, the majority
of people don't actually want heaven, they just
don't want to go to hell. You say that God is
a priority in your life, but I think your calendars,
your checkbooks, your routines and your habits
will reveal who your gods actually are. And I'm
not saying that you've now got to go home and
you've got to block off a huge chunk of your
day and you say, all right, I've got to do six
hours straight of Bible study and prayer. That's
not what I'm saying. I'm saying that the true
Christian is going to incorporate God into every
aspect of his life. When you go to work, you're
not just punching a clock and just going through
the motions of your job. You understand that
God has placed you there for a reason, that your
work is a ministry, even if it is a secular job,
and you're going to work for the glory of God
every single day of your life. The Bible says
whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,
do everything for the glory of God. So I guarantee
you, I promise you, you can punch a clock and
glorify God at the same time. You start looking
at your conversations that you're having. You
take every conversation and you bring God into
the conversation. Use every conversation as an
opportunity to talk about God's goodness, His
mercy, salvation in Christ, the wonders of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. It means that you pray
throughout the day. You don't just have to do
six hours straight. One of the best things you
can do is when you're driving, turn down the
radio from time to time and use that as an opportunity
to pray. With your eyes open, that's allowed.
Your eyes don't have to be closed. But use that
opportunity to pray. I do this so often when
I'm driving. I just look around at creation.
And you see the wonder and the creativity of
God in creation. You can use that time to thank
God for all that he has given you. Thank God
for the blessings that he's given you. I mean,
the old hymn says, name your blessings, count
them one by one. Thank God for what he has done.
That is what we should be doing on a daily basis.
So I don't want you to hear me say, you've got
to go home and just put seven hours on the clock
of straight Bible reading and prayer. The Christian
life is Christ -centered. It means that Jesus
is part of everything that we do, say, and think,
and that is how we can put him first in our lives.
The problem is if you don't do this, no matter
how hard you try to find fulfillment and happiness,
you're going to feel tired and empty. I mean,
that's what he says in verse 6. Look what he
says. You've 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. 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. Therefore, the heavens above you have
withheld the dew and the earth has withheld its
produce. And I've called for a drought on the
land and on the hills and on the grain and the
new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings
forth on man and beast and all their labors.
What is God saying? He's saying, you worked really
hard. and you enjoyed things a lot less. You
earned a lot more, and you felt a lot emptier.
No matter how hard they worked, no matter what
they did, they always felt tired and empty. Like
they're accumulating stuff to put in a bag with
holes in it. And it's revealing what their priorities
actually are. God's command here, I want you
to notice, His first command is not, now I want
you to go and start rebuilding the house. Remember,
His first command is, consider your ways. But
before He's going to change their actions, He's
going to confront their hearts. Because I want
you to notice, the people of Israel had started
to believe a lie that many people in our world
believe today too. And it was this lie that something
else out there is going to make you feel a way
that only God can make you feel. It was this
lie that there's something else out there. I
don't even know what it is, but there's got to
be something out there that's going to make me
fulfilled, that's going to make me happy, that's
going to make me feel complete and whole. There
is something out there, and I'm going to keep
searching for it. And Haggai is saying, from
the Lord, no matter what you do, if you're looking
for something other than God to satisfy you,
you're never going to be satisfied. Here's his
point here. We will never put God first as long
as we believe that something else can satisfy
us more than him. We will never put God first
as long as we believe that something else can
satisfy us more than him. And that's exactly
what Israel believed here. They said, if we can
just get our houses finished, then we're going
to feel great. If we can just get the farms producing.
If we can just become financially stable, if
we can just have peace, then we'll be satisfied.
And every time they thought they were getting
ahead, it slipped through their fingers. And
I want you to understand, we believe the same
lies today. People believe the same lies about
success. There are people today who will say,
if you just achieve enough, then you're going
to finally feel significant. And you're going
to finally feel like you have value because you're
basing your value based on what you do and what
you achieve rather than on who God says you are.
People make the same mistake with money, do they
not? How many people say, if I just had infinite
money, life would be as good as it could possibly
be? And then you go and talk to people who do
have money and they're like, actually, money
cannot make you feel happy. Money can buy you
a lot of things to give you temporary happiness.
But no matter how rich you are, you're never
going to feel deeply satisfied as long as money
is your God. People think the same thing about
comfort. And they're like, hey, if my life could
just slow down for a little bit, if the trials
could ease up, then life would be great and everything
would be dandy. And people believe the same thing
about relationships. If I just find the right
person, then I'm going to feel complete. They're
thinking about approval. If everyone likes me,
then I'm finally going to feel accepted. And
I want you to understand something this morning.
Every single idol in the world is going to make
you a promise that only God can fulfill. It is
going to make you a promise that it has no ability
to fulfill on its own. It is going to leave you
feeling empty and hollow and tired. I remember
last year, Anna and I were working on a puzzle.
And it was a pretty hard puzzle. I know we're
nerds. We like to listen to audio books and do
puzzles. That's date night, all right? So you
can judge us later for that. But we're doing
a puzzle. And we finally got this puzzle finished.
And then the worst thing that can happen when
you're doing a puzzle happened to us. And I'm
still upset about it. We looked and we saw that
it was missing one piece. And not in a convenient
location either. I mean, this was like a thousand
piece puzzle of like an impressionist painting.
It was not easy, okay? Finish it and it's missing
a piece. And even though we put every other piece
together in its right place, and even though
you could pretty much tell what it was supposed
to be, and you got this picture, all you could
focus on was that missing piece. Yes? And no
matter what you did, it never felt whole. It
never felt complete. It always just felt missing
and lacking. And I want you to understand that's
exactly what life apart from God is like. So
many people today, they try to fill that empty
space with success or money or pleasure or relationships
or entertainment. And we keep forcing pieces
into a place that they were never designed to
fit in the first place. And I want to just tell
you from firsthand experience this morning. As
someone who has tried to fill that missing piece
with everything under the sun for years, I did
it for years thinking this next thing is surely
going to make me happy. This next thing is surely
going to make me feel complete. I tried it all
under the sun. I feel like Solomon when he was
writing Ecclesiastes and he's like, listen, if
it's out there and you can try it, I've tried
it. And at the end of the day, you know what
he said? All is vanity. It's worthless. It's
fleeting. It's momentary. Now, I want to tell
you this morning, you will never truly be satisfied
or feel complete until you put God at the center
of your life. He is the missing piece in your
life, and he is the one who can bring you lasting
and true satisfaction. And you can choose not
to believe me. You can choose to make the same
mistakes I did and think that something else
out there is going to make you feel complete
and whole. But I'm telling you right now, until
you put God on the throne of your heart, you're
never going to feel complete. You're never going
to feel whole. And there's always going to be
an empty space there. But when you do put God
back where he belongs, on the throne of your
heart, I want you to also understand everything
else begins to come together. And all the pieces
begin to fit. That's what happened in Haggai.
Look at verse 12. It says, 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 their
Lord God had sent him. And the people feared
the Lord. Then Haggai the messenger of the Lord
spoke to the people with the Lord's message.
Listen to the message. I am with you. What do
we have? God's people in God's place, enjoying
God's presence. I am with you, declares the Lord.
And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel,
the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah.
in the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak,
the high priest, in the spirit of all the remnant
of the people. And they came and worked on the
house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the
24th day of the month, in the sixth month, in
the second year of Darius the king. Now just
notice these three very quick things. When you
repent of your sins and you return to the Lord,
there is immediate obedience. When the people
were convicted by the word of the Lord, they
repented of their sins and they immediately obeyed.
They didn't wait around for another 16 years
or 16 days. They immediately did what God was
calling them to do. And then notice this, they
also feared the Lord. When they finally heard
the word of the Lord and they received the word
of the Lord, they stopped fearing what the surrounding
nations were going to do. They stopped worrying
about their finances. They stopped worrying about
their personal comfort or their personal conveniences.
And they finally began to care more about God
and His way than their own way. And then I want
you to really pay attention to this. When they
received the word of the Lord, they repented
their sins, and they returned to God. God promises
that He is with them. Now I want you to think
about why this matters. because they had been
astray for 16 years. Now, there's some of you
in here this morning, you've probably been astray
from the Lord, and maybe you're there this morning
where you're like, this is my first attempt back
at church. I've been wandering for a while. It's
been a rocky road, and I'm just kind of getting
back. You would think if they're going to return
to God, you expect God to say something like,
hey, you've been messing up for 16 years. You're
going to be in a little trial period. We're going
to see how you do for a little bit. And then
if you can prove yourself, then you're going
to be back in my good graces. And do not so many
people think that exact same way in their own
lives. They say, I know I need to return to God.
I know I need to get serious about my walk with
Christ, but I'm just so worried because of how
far astray I have gone and what my life has looked
like. And you're so concerned that when you come
back to God, he's going to say, I need you to
prove yourself. I need you to do something. I
need you to show me that you're serious. And
you think that God's going to put you through
the wringer. And I want you to notice this. When
God's people return to him, God says, I'm with
you. You don't have to do a thing to earn his
approval. You don't have to do a thing to get
back in his good graces. God is gracious and
loving and kind and merciful. And he meets his
people where they're at. And I love serving a
God like that. Do you not? Because I don't know
about you. Maybe you've been perfect for your
whole life. I have not. Okay. I've got a rough
past. And the moment in my life that I'm more
thankful of than anything else is on the day
that I was going to take my own life after I
had been wandering astray from God for 18 years.
That when I finally called out to God, He answered
me. And He heard me. And He said, I am with you.
And He didn't say, I need you to prove yourself.
I need you to do this or that. God said, I see
you in your brokenness and I am here to rebuild
you. Isn't that an amazing church? That's exactly
what God does for us. That is the grace of God
that we have in Christ. God is not saying, I
want you to come back to me so that I can just
try to make you a better person. I want you to
come back to me so that you don't have to go
to hell and you can just do all these things
that I tell you to do and you're not really going
to want to do them, but you're just going to
do them anyways. That's not the gospel. The gospel
says you come to God and he makes you a new creation.
He gives you a new heart that actually desires
to do his will and desires to obey him so that
it is the joy of your life to do exactly what
God has called you to do. It is not a begrudging
obedience. It is a thankful everyday occurrence
where you say, Lord, I am so thankful that you
saved me and that you allow me to get to be part
of your plan. I had gone astray. As we sang earlier,
I'm prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Prone to
leave the God I love. And as we said in the book
of Jude, if it were not for God holding on to
us, we all would have departed a long time ago.
And one of the greatest truths of the Christian
life is that you cannot possibly lose your salvation.
Because your salvation is not dependent upon
you. It is dependent on Jesus who died for you,
who was nailed to the cross with your sins, who
rose again in power to declare his victory over
death, sin, and Satan himself. And the good news
of the gospel is that we get to walk in what
Christ has done. If you could lose your salvation,
you would have already. The reason you still
have it is because God refuses to let go of his
people. And Haggai is showing us here that the
heart of a disciple is a heart that puts God
first because that is where he deserves to be
in your life. If you're here this morning and
you have been wandering for a while and you've
been saying, I know I need to get right with
God. I know I need to come back and I'm just
planning on doing it sometime later. Today is
the day of salvation. Paul says, I put no obstacle
in front of you. Be reconciled to God today.
Or if maybe you're here this morning and you
know that God's been calling you to do something
for a while, whether that's join a church, get
baptized, repent of your sins and come to faith
in Christ, start serving, get involved, and you
keep telling God, I'm going to do it later. God
says, today is the day. Now is the time. Put
God first in your life. Put him on the throne
of your heart and watch how he brings your life
to wholeness and completeness in Christ. Amen?
Let's pray.