“Communication through Circumstance”

Horace Gray was a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. During one of his cases, a criminal was about to be released, not because he was innocent, but because of a technicality. As Gray prepared to release the man, he said this to the man:

I know that you are guilty and you know it. And I want you to remember that one day you will stand before a better and wiser judge, and that there you will be dealt with according to justice and not according to law.

One of the things super troubling in modern evangelicalism today… is the continued misunderstanding concerning the judgement of God. Like RC Sproul used to say… we have given the world the idea that God is more like Mr. Rodgers than the Biblical God. But is not the Biblical God like Mr. Rodgers? As always I will ask you today… what Bible are you reading? I have many a conversation with Christians today concerning what God is like all the time. One of the things we suffer from with modern evangelical christians today is a misunderstanding of what God is really like. One of the things we suffer from with modern evangelical preachers today is the misrepresentation of what God is really like.

When we see popular polls that are taken each year where pastors and christians are interviewed… the results always interest me. But of the the things that remain constant… we don’t have a Biblical worldview when it comes to who God is. More specifically, God God will and will not do. Pick a topic… almost any topic, and you will hear many a response. I believe God will totally do that. Or I cannot believe that God could or would do such a thing. And again I say what Bible are you reading?

This is the importance of the minor prophets. The minor prophets are major when it comes to giving us a clear picture of the character of God. It tell us and shows us just what God is capable of doing. What he did and what he will continue to do. We cant pass it off as oh Shane thats OT. No… He is the same yesterday today and forever. He is not like man that He should change. He will do what it takes to get our attention. He will communicate through circumstances. If our priorities are out of whack, God is wanting to get our attention. And just like it was then it is the same today… God will get our attention though frustrations in life. Through difficulty, through suffering, through pain. Get your priorities straight says the Lord.

Haggai 1:5–11 NLT

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. You hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when you brought your harvest home, I blew it away. Why? Because my house lies in ruins, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, while all of you are busy building your own fine houses. It’s because of you that the heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops. I have called for a drought on your fields and hills—a drought to wither the grain and grapes and olive trees and all your other crops, a drought to starve you and your livestock and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.”

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

Judgement

Salvation

The first thing we will look at today is the reality of the hand of God frustrating our lives to help us get our priorities in order. Second, we will see that the priorities of God brought to us life and life more abundant for salvation is here.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to keep finding ways to justify our misplaced priorities, it is the truth of scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit that will cause us to see that to live is Christ and all living and moving and having our being is in Christ and in Christ alone.

I. Judgement

- God is trying to get our attention.

A. When our priorities are not in its proper place, when they are misplaced, when they are out of whack, God gets our attention. So remember the picture we got from last week … putting our lives and lifestyles ahead of the work and things of the Lord. I love the way Matthew Henry describes this...

They neglected the building of God’s house, and put that off, that they might have time and money for their secular affairs. They desired to be excused from such an expensive piece of work under this pretence, that they must provide for their families; their children must have meat and portions too, and, until they have got before-hand in the world, they cannot think of rebuilding the temple.

B. Gotta get it all together in life before I can expend time and resources for the Lord and His kingdom. But the misplaced priorities is bringing the discipline of the Lord.

C. And what we see with the discipline of the Lord that has come down upon the people… is so full of irony. The judgement of God sometimes brings much irony, to help seal the seriousness and remembrance of the sin and atrocity. Take for instance the story of Hadad. According to the account in 1 Kings, Hadad was a survivor of the royal house of Edom after the slaughter at the hands of Joab. He escaped as a child to Egypt, where he was raised by Pharaoh and married the queen's sister.

D. So the irony here… The poverty that they were actually trying to avoid by not building the temple of the Lord is the poverty that they were getting from the Lord. This is really important to get what is being communicated here. You mean God would actually keep us from prospering? Would he do such a thing? Not a common message coming from the evangelical pulpits in America. He is supposed to be helping me succeed why would he keep me from getting all that I have been working for. Are you serious?

E. They planted much. Planted so much. With all that they sowed, all that they invested, all that they worked so hard for… with the resources that should have been used for God, they were hoping for a great harvest. They sowed much so they wanted to reap much… hopefully lots leftover too. But verse 9, you hoped for riches but they were poor and what you brought home I blew it away. v.10 I made sure the heavens would not produce dew to produce crops. v11 I am the one to cause the drought to starve you and your livestock. Its like the judgement pronounced in Isaiah

Isaiah 5:10 NLT

Ten acres of vineyard will not produce even six gallons of wine. Ten baskets of seed will yield only one basket of grain.”

F. All the resources that they were using belonged to God to try to make them a better life and better lifestyle, were not giving them what they had hoped. Lets get us to a place where we are comfortable and then we work for God, but the resources intended for God was being used for lifestyle and God Himself was stopping the comfort. You cant get no satisfaction. You eat but you are not satisfied or more literally… you don’t have enough. (This is super shameful for asian and Texan cultures… you do not run out of food. You must always have enough)

G. You drink but you do not have your fill… you are still thirsty. The grape vines are all ruined, no wine, no water in drought. You thirst and continue to thirst. When it comes to thirst you will have no comfort at all and it was My hand that caused this. You have worked hard to acquire clothing to keep warm, but you will be cold in misery. They will wear out… you will buy quality clothes that are supposed to last forever but they will last only as long as the inexpensive ones. And when its cold you put them on and you will not get warm.

H. And moreover…your wages disappear as if you were putting them in a bag that had holes in them. Like flour going through a seive so their money was disappearing. One commentator writes...

“God was speaking to them through such circumstances as rising prices and inflation.” (Joyce Baldwin)

I. One of my old pastor friends used to say… “It like there is too much month at the end of the money.” You works so hard for everything you get… and when you get all that you worked so hard to get… it just disappears. Rising taxes, our investments crash, our crypto coin loses value, gas prices, but I just got a huge raise. Medical premiums go up, utilities go up, new tires keep climbing in price, it so expensive just to live… no matter how hard I work, no matter what I do, no matter how much we save, we can never never never get ahead. How is this possible?

J. And here is the big punch of the day. V.11 and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.” You work so hard with everything you got. But I ruined everything you worked so hard to get. You were not lazy, you were not slothful, you were not in slumber… no you did work hard, but used all the energy and resources that belong to me, and so I have ruined everything you worked so hard to get. Your priorities are out of whack. God is ruining your life. For real??

K. This is the sobering reality of what our God is like. Remember this is the same God that would bring the Babylonians into Judah and the people would suffer not just defeat but the worst kinds of humiliation. Also the same God that would allow the Israelites to suffer defeat and His ark to be taken and presented to a false God as spoils of war. And he would do all of this so that the people’s priorities would be straightened out. It has been and always will be required for the people of God. We have to have our priorities in line.

Luke 12:34 NLT

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

Matthew 22:37–38 NLT

Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.

Colossians 3:2 NLT

Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

Matthew 6:24 NLT

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

James 4:1–3 NLT

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

II. Salvation

- Life and life more abundant.

A. And so we suffer from a misunderstanding the the words and works of God especially in judgement and we suffer from self-deception when it comes to our priorities. Many of us think God is unfair for withholding blessing because we think our priorities is in order.

B. We have deceived ourselves in thinking that its all in order. We say that God is on the throne of our hearts, but in reality we’re sitting on the throne. We say that we are working for the Lord but we are just doing what we need to do to get blessed. We should look at our frustration in life as a sign that our priorities are misplaced and we are not seeking first the kingdom. Could it be… is it possible… can it be… that when all these things that should be added unto me is not added could it be because I am not seeking first the kingdom?

C. We think it a failure on God’s part to fulfill His promises, but it is that we are deceived in thinking we got it together. We don’t get when we ask because our motives are wrong… then we get our motives right and we ask again and we don’t get, because we think our motives are good but they are not … we gotta get this today family. We deceive ourselves. We do not consider others as better than ourselves, because we don’t believe that others are better. We do strive to gain the whole world because we don’t believe that we ill lose our soul. Because God is not that kind of God. He wont send people to Hell. He is the God of Love.

D. But He is also the God of justice and there is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. You cannot serve God and money. You cannot serve both. You might try … but you are deceiving yourself if you think you can. We obsess over money and things and say we are not ruled by them and say God is first in my life. Its self-deception … its the emperor’s new clothes.

E. Because in reality… if you really are seeking first the kingdom of God … you are not concerned about the “all these things being added.” You know why? When our eyes are on Jesus … all the things in earth will grow strangely dim. We will not be concerned with the things of this world anymore. We will not concern ourselves with civilian affairs, all we will care about is pleasing our commanding officer.

F. This is life and life more abundant. This is the salvation that Jesus brings. This is the gospel. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He became sin who knew know sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

G. The Bible also says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you confess your sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

H. And the fullness of Luke 12:33 comes into focus and we have no problems with it. No problem.

Luke 12:33 NLT

“Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe; no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it.

I. Because why should it matter? Our only purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever… right? If all we have is Christ, then all we have is everything.