"The Challenge of Priorities"

Surprised to see an empty seat at the Super Bowl stadium, a diehard fan remarked about it to a woman sitting nearby. "It was my husband's," the woman explained, "But he died." "I'm very sorry," said the man. "Yet I'm really surprised that another relative, or friend, didn't jump at the chance to take the seat reserved for him." "Beats me," she said. "They all insisted on going to the funeral."

A group of friends went deer hunting and paired off in twos for the day. That night one of the hunters returned alone, staggering under an eight-point buck.

"Where's Harry?" he was asked.

"Harry had a stroke of some kind. He's a couple of miles back up the trail."

"You left Harry laying there, and carried the deer back?"

"Well," said the hunter, "I figured no one was going to steal Harry."

Elsa no longer remembers what the argument was about, but it began before breakfast one morning and continued as Steve started off to work.

"How can you just go off like that?" cried Elsa. "We haven't settled a thing!"

Then Steve did what few men as ambitious and driven as Steve is could do: he turned around and went to the phone and canceled all his appointments for that day, "saying to me, in effect, that our relationship meant more than business meetings, saying that I'd married a man who would sacrifice work for love."

Will you sacrifice loyality for love… when you find out that your husband canceling those appointments got Him fired? Now you gotta move out of the house and move into an apartment. Priorities?

Its humorous. Its funny because it soo true. But what about when out of order priorities are not funny?

Clovis Chappel wrote that when the Roman city of Pompeii was being excavated, the body of a woman was found mummified by the volcanic ashes of Mount Vesuvius. Her position told a tragic story. Her feet pointed toward the city gate, but her outstretched arms and fingers were straining for something that lay behind her. The treasure for which she was grasping was a bag of pearls. Chappel said, "Though death was hard at her heels, and life was beckoning to her beyond the city gates, she could not shake off their spell...But it was not the eruption of Vesuvius that made her love pearls more than life. It only froze her in this attitude of greed."

When priorities are out of whack, bad things can happen. When a good sense of our priorities is lost, then consequences begat consequences. When our priorities are scattered, then in-come the stealing killing and destroying. We become oh so vulnerable. Haste makes waste. Impatience is not a virtue. Leading and weeding to a dead end upon ends.

Proverbs 14:12 NLT

There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.

This is the beauty of the Minor Prophets. They are Major when it come to giving us a vivid picture of what God is really like. Unfortunately

Haggai 1:1–4 NLT

On August 29 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord gave a message through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: The people are saying, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.’ ” Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai: “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins?

The grass withers the flower fades but the Word of our God stands forever.

Excuses Excuses

The Question

The Answer

The first thing we will look at today is the very intention of the heart of the people released from Captivity and given salvation in Covenant in what they were saying in what they were excusing. The second thing we will look at is the question asked by the Lord that challenges priorities. Finally, we will see the powerful answer given by the Lord when He sent Jesus to seek and save the lost.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to find ourselves with misplaced priorities, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the scriptures that show us when we look full in His wonderful face the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

I. Excuses Excuses

- What’s the excuse this time?

A. Man in this prophetic oracle… He gets right to the point. God knows and God hears the people. He even knows what is in our hearts…what we feel and what we think. And He is not happy with the people right now and it is shown right away.

B. Ha’am is used instead of le’am This or these people instead of my people. This is already showing them that there is something wrong. Remember how your mom when telling your dad what you did… do you want to know what your son did? God does not claim them as His own. God calling them “My people” was always used to bring the people confidence and reassurance in the midst of trouble, but in this case He uses the cold and detached pronoun… This or these. These people.

C. Now here is the depiction of deception … the people did not say that they were not gonna build the temple of God, they are saying that it is not a good time to do it now. Things need to get better on our side before we start to work for the things of the Lord. How can the able bodied individuals who are building our houses right now do this and build the temple. One commentator even suggested that it was an expensive undertaking for them to do it. They just did not have the money to give to the work of God.

D. It is not a good time to build your house God… I gotta take care of my stuff. I don’t have the time right now and I don’t have the resources. I don’t have the time nor the resources to do what you called us to do right now. I’m not saying I wont, I just cant do it now. But when we were set free. When salvation came. When the people were released by Cyrus… what were they supposed to do? Get their affairs and life in order? No… they were supposed to rebuild the Temple.

Ezra 1:2–3 NLT

“This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a Temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Any of you who are his people may go to Jerusalem in Judah to rebuild this Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, who lives in Jerusalem. And may your God be with you!

E. But we have neither the time nor the resources to do this at this time? How many of us are making this excuse today? Christian … did God save us, give us new life, give us the Holy Spirit, give us wisdom, a new heart, so that we can get our worldly affairs in order and get it all together before we begin taking up our cross and work to build the kingdom of God?

F. We were not saved by Christ so that we would be free and empowered to do whatever we want to do. No we were freed and empowered so that we could do what we are supposed to do. We were bought with a price and called to be a royal priesthood a holy nation. We are to proclaim the gospel of Jesus and shout it from the rooftops. We are called to be like Christ. We are called to live lives worthy of the Lord. We are called to give where there is need. We are called to Jude 3 contend for the faith. We are called to consider others as better than ourselves. We are called to deny ourselves and take up our cross. Give generously. Share with others. And we are supposed to do it all right now now now.

G. There is so much that needs to be done today. All over the world the truth of the gospel is being hid under shade. Christians in our day and age are too afraid of getting canceled by the culture only to be condemned by Christ. Christians in our culture are scared. Christians in our culture are apathetic. Christians in our culture are lazy. Christians in our culture are distracted. And heres the biggy… Christians have become super self centered. We continue to say… I don’t have time and I don’t have resources … I will work on God stuff after I get my life together… moving and successful. Please do not let I gotta take care of business and I gotta pay bills stop us from doing what we are supposed to do for Christ and His kingdom. Judgement will come if its not here for us already. Seek ye first the kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added.

H. When we need blessings. When we need money. When we need healing. When we need rest. When we need strength. THE TIME IS ALWAYS NOW. Even things we supposed to get later… we want now. We want like the prodigal son our inheritance now. We want the blessing of heaven now. Can I get all the treasure I stored up in heaven send down to me now. So when it come to building our house… its funny how it needs to be done now… the Lord can wait, but my stuff is now.

II. The Question

- The Lord is challenging our priorities today.

A. Dr.s Taylor and Clendenon write, “His point is that it is repulsive to suggest, as some of them have done, that it is not yet time to rebuild the temple while at the same time suggesting that it is time to undertake building projects that contribute to their personal security and comfort.”

B. It is a clear picture… what is more important… our interests or God’s interests? And the disrespect continues… Sapan - “roofed and paneled” understood probably as luxurious. You say it is not time to work on the Lord’s house, but you not only have time to finish you house, but you got time to add all the comforts and luxuries to your home. And not only this… where did you guys get the money and resources to do all of this? I thought it was economic hardship time. No money to finish My house, but somehow you guys got money for good stuff for you. How can this be?

C. Do we not realize that we are subjecting God to scorn and shame when our priorities get messed up like this? After all the wonders and the miraculous of delivering the people of God out of captivity and back into the promise and covenant of the living God… after all that the Lord has done, you would think that the people would be quick to bring honor and gratitude and conscientiousness to the house of God. And when we don’t onlookers ridicule… look at what the people of God think of their God. Give all they got for themselves and don’t even attempt to fix the only house that matters.

John Calvin writes, “On the contrary, all regard what is advantageous only to themselves; and while they are occupied with their own concerns, the worship of God is cast aside; there is no care, no zeal, no concern for it; nay, what is worse, many make gain of the gospel, as though it were a lucrative business. No wonder then, if the people have so basely disregarded their deliverance, and have almost obliterated the memory of it. No less shameful is the example witnessed at this day among us.”

D. Have we come to the place where we have put the Lord and His worship on the side to focus on what we need to focus on? Ourselves? I cannot tell you how many Christians today, tell me that they do not go to church anymore because they are too busy. They just don’t have time for it. I remember a day when our lives revolved around church. We got apartments and homes close to the church, we schedule work and hobbies around church service and prayer times. It was never taking a look to see if we could fit church into our schedule. Church was the schedule and everything else was fit in if there was room.

E. One pastor said that the reason why they did not have church on Christmas Sunday was because they did not want to add another event to their members already busy schedule. God is asking for a couple hours 1 day a week and when it happens to be on the day we celebrate His birthday… We shut His house down? That is a huge problem with the church today… it has become indifferent and narcissistic. We say God is number one but are we the ones sitting on the throne? We say God is the number 1, but is Christ still our co-pilot?

F.

III. The Answer

- Salvation is Here

A. And