Misplaced Priority

Introduction

Would you please turn in your Bibles to Haggai 1:1-15? It is the third last book of the OT.

Today, I aim to keep this message relatively short, depending on how you define short.

But I want to tie together the message from the combined service that Pastor Samson gave last Sunday, and the mission report we heard from James.

So, I begin by asking you a simple question: What is your chief purpose here on earth?

How you answer that question would shape how you live the rest of your life.

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, a born-again Christian, your chief purpose here on earth is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, as indicated from Scripture.

I titled my message, “Misplaced Priority”.

What is your first priority in your life right now?” Let me repeat: “What is your first priority in your life right now?”

And do you make your chief purpose our first priority? Is glorifying God and enjoying Him your primary priority?

Or is there something or someone else in life that takes more precedence than our God.

The Main Point of this message is this: The Priority of God’s Glory Must Be Our First Priority.

I will explain why all Christians, and also non-believers, must never have a misplaced priority in their lives.

Misplaced priority is a mistake. In our passage, we will learn from the mistake of the Israelites, God’s people.

CONTEXT

God’s people lived in the Promised Land called Israel. They were living a life of prosperity under the rule of King David and King Solomon.

After their death, the lifestyle of Israel became more and more morally corrupted. Israel became rebellious and disobeyed God. Israel was divided into two nations: the Kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah.

Long story short, God judged both nations by sending outside nations to attack them.

The kingdom of Judah was the last one to be conquered. Some of God’s people were exiled to this nation called Babylon, who attacked them.

After 70 years of living in exile in Babylon, God’s people were allowed to go back to Judah.

And God’s people are called to rebuild their nation.

In verses 1 - 2, we see that God raised Haggai to be a prophet.

Verse 1 provides us a historical context of when this book took place. It took place approximately 16 years after returning to Judah.

Haggai was called by to be a prophet. The role of a prophet was to be a messenger of God, warn God’s people of their sins, and to call them to repent of their sins.

There was an issue in the nation of Judah, and the issue is found in verse 2.

God’s people are making an excuse that it’s not time yet to rebuild the house of the LORD.

The house of the LORD was the temple, which would be the place where God’s presence resides.

Why would they say that? What is the reason? Did not God call them to rebuild the temple?

The reason is found in Ezra chapter 4 and chapter 5, but let me summarize it.

When God’s people returned to Judah after exile, they had come with the specific intention of rebuilding the ruined temple of their God.

The people had quickly laid the foundation of the temple, but then enthusiasm faded because they faced opposition from the government.

Their efforts shifted to preparing houses to live in, and to clearing fields so crops might grow. For over a decade, the work on the temple had been abandoned.

And even the funds they had brought with them for the building program were spent on a futile effort to make the little community self-sufficient.

In essence, the people of Judah had forgotten that it is the call of the believer to put God first.

And now, after 16 years later, God calls the prophet Haggai to address the problem and confronts the excuse that they’re making.

In verses 3 - 11, we see God challenges their excuse.

God’s people think it is not a good time to start rebuilding the temple. Essentially, what they are saying is that they don’t have time to think about God’s house, God’s temple.

Then, what are they focusing their time on right now while God’s temple is left in ruin?

In verse 4 and verse 9, God’s people are focusing more on living in their paneled houses.

They were focusing more on living a comfortable lifestyle.

They were focusing more on their self-indulgence or self-pleasure.

Their priority is focused on improving their personal lifestyle rather than focusing on what God is calling them to do.

Remember the questions I asked earlier, “what is your chief purpose on earth?” and “what is your priority right now”?

God’s people ceased from working on the temple that God is calling them to do.

What about you? Have you ceased from being a servant of God? Have you ceased from glorifying God? Have you stopped serving the local church? Have you ceased from fellowship with God’s people?

Great men in the Bible have also made excuses. Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah, Jonah, the disciples of Jesus. Christians also make excuses for not serving God.

How many times have you heard these excuses?

“I know I should give my offerings, but I can’t do it this year. I have too many family obligations.”

“Well, of course every Christian is to be a witness where he lives and works. But witnessing to my coworkers is a delicate business. I don’t think it’s time to tell them about Jesus Christ.”

“I’m flattered that you think my talents might help in that particular area of the church’s work, but I don’t have time to serve just now. Perhaps later when the pressures of my job and my family are loosened up or when I retire.”

When we have misplaced priority, we think our personal comfort is more important. We think our family, our spouse, our job, our education, and our money are more important than God. And I can continue to list things out, but I hope you understand the point.

Don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying those things are not important. God wants us to be responsible for those things, but those things must never divide our loyalty to God.

God must always be first before all those things.

My brothers in Christ have taught me to straighten out my priority. My #1 priority must always God. My 2nd priority is my wife, and I want to make sure that she’s loved and cared for by me. When I have children, they’ll be my 3rd priority. I want to love them and be involved in their lives. My 4th priority is my job.

We often reverse these priorities: job first, family second, and perhaps God last. God gets the leftover of our time and energy.

We live in an extremely busy society.

You either allow society to force you to misplace your priority or you deliberately choose to misplace your priority and make yourself busy.

If God is not our first priority, then we have committed a great sin against God Himself. God said in the Ten commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me.”

Whenever we think other things are more important than God, we have committed idolatry.

That’s what happened to God’s people in this passage. They were indifferent to God and His house. They had misplaced priority.

How does God respond to their misplaced priority?

In verse 5, he tells them “Consider your ways.” God is saying to them, “Give careful thoughts to your ways” or “think about what you’re doing.” Look at your life, people. What are you doing with your life? He does not only say this once, but he says it again in verse 7.

As a result of not prioritizing God first in their lives, something else transpired in their personal lives.

In verse 6, God is telling them to take a good look at their lives. Listen very carefully.

God’s people had put other things before God, and God, who will have no other gods before him, sent leanness or shortage. He says it again in verses 9 - 11.

In other words, here’s God’s message to His people. God and His house must be the priority in all of God’s people, or else God will withhold His blessing from them.

Instead of blessing them, God curses them.

God, in His sovereignty, makes them feel dissatisfied in their focus on success and accumulating more food, water, clothing, and money. Is this not the picture in our own lives?

The pursuit of more cars, more houses, more furniture, more food, more television, more games, more vacations, more money...yet people are wretchedly unsatisfied.

In comparison to other countries, it looks like people living in North America have everything.

But I tell you the truth, they are miserably dissatisfied in their hearts. And some of those people are so-called Christians.

The point of God’s curse is not viewed as rejection, but as a discipline to lead the people back to a relationship with God.

God’s curse warns His people that they need to deal with an urgent or dangerous problem.

They need to repent of their sins, repent of their misplaced priority and obey God’s call in building the temple.

God commands His people to sacrifice their time, go get wood and build the house. Why?

In verse, 8, “that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified.”

God deserves to be glorified and worshipped because He is worthy of all praise. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

We are God’s creation, and we are called to glorify God.

God takes pleasure in the obedience of His people.

The building of the temple will result in His pleasure and glory.

In verses 12 - 15, we see God’s people responding to God’s call.

One of the discouragements of preaching is that a pastor will do his best in studying God’s Word, preach the Bible passionately, and then the congregation would yawn at the message, sleep in the middle of the sermon, did not understand the message, or got distracted. Moses preached and led God’s people, but they rebelled. Jeremiah preached repentance to God’s people, but they hated him and thought he’s a false prophet. People would respond negatively towards God’s messengers and the pastor.

However, the message does reach to the hearts of men and women. And sometimes, there is a spiritual renewal in God’s people. And this happened in Haggai’s message. We rejoice by the fact that we see a positive response from the people of Judah.

We see that God’s people responded by obeying the God’s Word and God’s messenger, God’s people responded in the fear of the Lord. In the original language, this literally means to be terrified or to tremble before God. As a result of responding in obedience and in fear, God responds with a promise, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” I will never leave you nor forsake you. Because God was with His people, God stirred their spirit. I think in this context, it is speaking about waking up their desire, their mind, or their emotion. As a result of God stirring their spirit, God’s people got to work on the house of the LORD.

Gospel Message

What about you? What is your priority in life right now? If God is not the first priority in your life right now, you will never find satisfaction in this life, whether if you’re a Christian or not.

If you’re not a Christian today, you need to think about what you’re doing. You may feel satisfied currently with your life, but this satisfaction is temporary. Those things in your life do not give you life. Why? Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” The things that you have will become useless, and they will rust. As time goes by, all those things will eventually disappear. However, Jesus gives you something that will never die or rust. He says “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Will you respond by believing in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and repent of your sins? Will He be the chief purpose of your life? Will He be the first priority of your life?

If you’re a Christian, but you’re not participating in serving God by serving and helping your brothers and sisters in Christ, then you need to think about what you’re doing. God did not save you so that you can just sit in the pew on Sunday and then leave. God did not save you so that you can leave all the work to your pastors and your spiritual leaders. Look at verse 14 again. It was not only the spiritual leaders, such as Zerubbabel and Joshua who rebuilt the temple. All of God’s people were involved. God saved you so that you can share His love with others by serving others. God saved you so that you can live a life of holiness. Brothers and sisters, I love you, and I don’t want you to be miserably dissatisfied with your life. Jesus gives us this warning, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” Like the Israelite, will you respond in obedience to God’s call for your life? Will you walk in the fear of the Lord? Will you repent of your sins and idolatry and turn to Christ? Will the priority of God’s glory be your priority? Will you recommit yourself, starting today, right now, to begin serving God’s people? If you are, then I encourage you to speak to the pastors, and they’ll direct you from here on.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Haggai taught us that the priority of God’s glory must always be our first priority.

Do you have misplaced priority? If so, then I invite you to take this moment right now and reflect your life. God promises this: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let’s have a moment of silence to confess our sins.

Our Heavenly Father. You love us immensely. Jesus, you went to the cross willingly to suffer and die for our sins. Because of your death and resurrection, we want to respond to your message for us today. Holy Spirit, I ask that you would work in our hearts and transform us. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.