“Called to Obey”

A farmer had two sons. He gave them each a plot of land and the same bag of seeds. He told them, “Plant these seeds, water them daily, and you will have a great harvest.”

The first son obeyed his father’s instructions. He planted seeds, tended the soil, and watered the plants every day. In time, his field was full of golden wheat.

The second son ignored his father’s words. He left his seeds in the bag, thinking he could plant them later. When harvest time came, he had nothing but an empty field.

The father said, “My blessing was in the seed, but only the one who obeyed received it.”

Now, we’ve been focused for the last few months on preparing as a church family to enhance the campus of First Baptist Devine. Last week I laid out for you some of the vision for the enhancements - our church has needs to address, our church is growing, Devine is growing, Texas is growing, and the Lord has provided us a foundation to build upon and multiply from. Next Sunday at 4 pm, we’ll be presenting a proposal for a plan to enhance and expand our use of this campus so that we can prepare to reach the potential the Lord has for this church, but I know there are more than a few concerns for us to work through. And I want to offer a reflective question for us to consider this morning. I don’t offer it to dismiss any of those concerns in any way, but to help us really consider our alignment with God’s will and purposes for First Baptist. Here’s the question

What if God is ready to pour out His blessings, but He’s waiting to see if we’re willing to build—not just with bricks and mortar, but with faith and obedience?

When we were last together, we studied Haggai 1:1-11 wherein we discovered that Israel had been permitted by God to return to their homelands after decades in exile in Babylon. And when the people got there, they discovered so much was in disarray that they got to rebuilding what they could, prioritizing their homes. But in all their rebuilding, they had never undertaken the effort to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. They never rebuilt the place where the glory of the One, true God was to dwell with his people. Instead, they made their homes very comfortable and all the while, they never realized how prioritizing themselves over the Lord affected their way of life. Nothing that they did was truly fruitful because God wasn’t blessing their efforts. And, our faithful God who continues to relentlessly pursue people, raises a prophet to speak his word to the people in and around Jerusalem and that word was to rebuild the temple. More than that, that word was to pledge allegiance to God in both word and in action, because the so-called people of God, if they were to consider their ways, would have found how they weren’t truly loyal to God at all.

And as we follow along now, we’ll see three shifts take place. In response to the word of God that was preached by Haggai, the first shift that we discover is that

God’s Children Obey God’s Word

I want to start to address this heading by offering to you some more context to this brief prophetic book of the Bible. This context is going to do a 50,000 foot overview of much of the Old Testament, but this will help us better understand the moving parts of life for Jewish people during this time and it might also help us understand some things about the life of Jesus, too. So, what’s happening here in Haggai is that the Jews are in the process of rebuilding the the southern part of modern-day Israel that was known as Judah. And the gem of Judah was the capital of Jerusalem. They are in the process of rebuilding Judah because decades before, the Lord permitted all of Israel to be overtaken by conquering armies. Now, you’ll benefit greatly if you have a study Bible with some maps in it that picture for you the condition of Israel after a famous king of Israel named Solomon died. Israel had once been a formidable kingdom under Solomon’s father, David. Yes, this is the same David who slew the giant Goliath. David’s son, Solomon, was his successor and the kingdom grew in greater wealth, but after the death of Solomon, the kingdom tore at its seems. There’s a power struggle that eventually sees what was once united and strong, divided into two separate kingdoms. One kingdom was to the north and in your Bible, references to that kingdom will use names like the northern kingdom of Israel or Samaria. To the south was the southern kingdom and that was known as Judah.

Now, if we’re good students of the Bible, we’ll know that the LORD God is the true King of Israel. But as time went along, the people started wanting to look like the kingdoms around them who had human kings. In fact, God predicted that before the Jews ever entered what is Israel. This comes from

Deuteronomy 17:14 ESV

“When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’

Deuteronomy 17:15 ESV

you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose.

And I’d encourage you to make the effort to read through the end of Deuteronomy 17 on your own this afternoon because you’ll discover warnings about what a true king of God’s people is to look like and from it, you’ll see God pointing to Jesus.

Now, one more reading assignment and that is Deuteronomy 28. The entire chapter. It starts with God calling his people to obey his word and then describing the consequences of what disobedience looks like. And between the time before the Jews entered Israel the first time and now here in their return, I’m really summing things up to say that they disobeyed God. And that disobedience resulted in the northern kingdom falling to Assyria and then some years later, the southern kingdom falling to Babylon. And in that defeat, people were deported out of Israel, just as God promised would happen in

Deuteronomy 28:64 ESV

And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

And now, God has moved to call for the once deported people to return to the region and leading the people are two men, Zerubbabel and Joshua. Make no mistake, though they’re leading, Israel no longer has its sovereignty as a nation. Zerubbabel is the political leader that the king of Babylon has put in place over what is basically a state still under the Babylonian control. Joshua is the state-sponsored spiritual leader. They’re both Jews, but at the same time, they’re subjects of the king of Babylon. If you’ve seen in the news that President Trump has suggested that Canada, which is a sovereign nation like ours is, should become the 51st state of the United States, more or less, that’s what’s happened to Israel in the Bible. Israel has come under the rule of a foreign king. And by the way, when we come to the New Testament, Israel still isn’t its own nation…they’ve just come under the control of the Romans.

So God calls a prophet named Haggai to speak his word to the leaders and the people that the temple needs to be rebuilt. In one sense, what God is saying is that no matter who is your earthly ruler, don’t neglect the fact that I rule and reign over all and that I must be worshipped and that I will be glorified. God’s saying, don’t misplace your priorities. I’m still number one. And we remind ourselves of Haggai 1:12, which 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 the Lord their God had sent him.”

Disobedience to God’s word had been what characterized God’s people and here we see a crucial turning point. God had spoken and the people obeyed. And something we have to recognize is that to obey God is more than just agreement. Obeying the Lord includes agreement but it also requires action such that, when the word of God is proclaimed, there shouldn’t just be head nods but there should be hearts filled and ready to do whatever it is God has said. God desires our obedience because it glorifies the Lord and brings him joy.

There was a little boy who decided to clean his room without being asked, motivated by his love for his mom. When she came in and saw the clean room, she was so pleased she took him out for ice cream. The boy realized that his small act of obedience brought joy to his mom and a sweet reward to him. Likewise, our obedience to God brings him joy and often sweet blessings into our lives!

Let me tell you of two sweet blessings. The first is the sweet blessing of being saved from your sin by God. Jesus Christ taught a lesson about salvation by inviting his listeners to consider a woman who lost a single coin. She had nine other coins, so it wasn’t like she didn’t have anything, but she still went all over her house to find that coin because they all mattered to her. And when she found the coin, she called up her entire block and called for a party because she found the lost coin. And the point of that lesson is that apart from saving faith in Jesus Christ, we’re that coin that’s lost. God has lots of other people that he’s saved already, but he’s still seeking to save one more. To save you this morning. And at the end of that lesson on a lost coin, Jesus said that when anyone repents of their sin…when anyone doesn’t just agree with what has been said about Jesus in the Bible, but that when they stop going their way and start following Jesus, that all of heaven throws a celebration party. Every time someone turns to Christ, there’s a celebration in heaven because they obeyed what Jesus said, like

Mark 1:15 ESV

… “Repent and believe in the gospel.”

A second sweet blessing is what this church family will know if we hear from God that he’s calling us prepare to minister through this campus for generations to come. We should each be encouraged to know that as we hear from the Lord through his word in guiding us, that in whatever direction he points us, there’s joy in our obedience.

In fact, let me begin to tell you about the greatest joy there is

God’s Promised Presence

Haggai 1:13 “Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.””

How comforting are those four words that God spoke? “I am with you.”

Here’s a little more Bible overview concerning the presence of God. God has always intended to be with his people. In the beginning of the Bible, we are introduced to God speaking all things into existence and in making the earth and giving it life, God walked in the garden of Eden. Before sin entered into the world, God’s presence was known to Adam and Eve. When the Israelites were wandering in the desert after God had freed them from Egypt, it was the tabernacle - a portable sanctuary - where the Israelites could meet God. When the Israelites entered into the Promised Land, God commanded them to build a permanent sanctuary known as the temple and it was there in the temple that heaven and earth were united and the glory of the Lord dwelled. When God spoke his word through another prophet named Isaiah that had to do with God’s Savior coming, God said that Isaiah 7:14 “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” The name Immanuel means literally, “God is with us.” And of course, we know that God was certainly with us in the life of Jesus Christ when God in the Person of Jesus added to his divinity, humanity. And even though Jesus has been raised from the dead and has ascended to heaven, God’s presence is with every follower of Jesus. God’s presence comes about at the very moment of faith in Jesus where God gives the new Christian the gift of the Holy Spirit, who lives within the follower. And, we shouldn’t ever lose sight of the fact that Jesus Christ will return to earth once more and in his return, God will dwell on earth and rule here for all eternity.

So, with all those evidences of God’s desire to be present with his people, let’s rid ourselves of any thought that God’s too busy to concern himself with the details of our lives. He’s not simply “up there” in space, beyond what the eye can see, with his feet up, taking a nap. Our God is intimately involved in our lives, he’s pointing us to a better way every time and he’s commanding us to follow his ways and know the joy of his presence.

Jesus spoke about this to the guys who were walking with him. When speaking to the disciples, Jesus said in John 14:21 “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”” Jesus will love anyone who keeps his commands and Jesus will make his presence known to anyone who does. Our obedience to the Lord is a prerequisite for experiencing the fullness of God’s presence. When we love Jesus and obey his word, we not only abide in Jesus but we also abide in the Holy Spirit, and that changes us and allows us to reflect God’s love in the world.

And for the record, this is a word from God that doesn’t promise an easy, cushy life that never sees challenges. Rather, it’s a word from God that assures us that he’s never going to leave us or turn his back on us, especially when things get tough. In obeying the call to rebuild the temple, things got tough for everybody involved. In Jerusalem, there were non-Jews in the land and other Babylonian officials who made the whole rebuilding effort difficult. And if this church family senses that God is leading us into this building program, we must move forward in obedience trusting that God is going to be with us through thick and thin.

And one more point on this matter of obedience and God’s presence…the point of obeying God in building the temple or our building program here isn’t just to agree that something must be done and then have no follow-through. For some who are already serving on our steering committee or our fundraising teams, you’re putting to use the time and talents God has given you and you’ll need to continue to do that. For each of us, if God is calling us to do work around here, our obedience involves making a commitment to financially support that work above and beyond what you’re already contributing to the ministry of First Baptist.

At the end of the month, every one will have the opportunity to make financial faith commitments towards this project. What that looks like is what you believe God is asking you to contribute above and beyond what you regularly give, whether it’s a one-time gift or a regular gift that you’ll give over the next three years. So for as much as we’re praying about what God wants done here, we’re also individually seeking to discern our part that God’s calling us to contribute towards that. I know things get really serious when the preacher starts talking about money, and the fact of the matter is that all of this is serious. But we can confidently know that in whatever God is telling us, if we obey him and do what he expects of us, he will be there with us, through thick and thin.

When I spoke about the role of the elder or pastor from Titus a few weeks ago, I mentioned that the pastor leads a congregation from the Bible. And the pastor proclaims the truth of God’s word without any ability to affect the outcome in the lives of those who heard God’s word. For as much as I can preach messages with titles like “Called to Build” and today, “Called to Obey,” I cannot make us do anything here with our buildings any more than I can make us obey what God is telling us. What we must depend upon is for

God to Stir His People

Let’s remind ourselves of the last verses in our text… Haggai 1:14–15 “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.”

Now, let’s consider this for a moment. Haggai came to Jerusalem and began to preach God’s word as God’s prophet that called out everyone in Judah for their misplaced priorities. For the people then, they’d prioritized things that seemed good and important. Their own houses were nicely finished out with top tier countertops and cabinets in the kitchen. Their vehicles were decked out with the best grill guards and beefiest tires. Their travel plans were lined out to exotic places. But no matter what they did, nothing seemed good enough. They couldn’t really ever get ahead. Maybe it’s like that old Capital One credit card commercial with the guy who’s working to keep up appearances with the huge house and nicest cars who says, “And I do I afford all of this? I’m in debt up to my eyeballs!” So God speaks through his prophet, Haggai 1:5 “Consider your ways.” In other words, think about how fruitless your life is when God isn’t the center of life.

How do you think people took it when Haggai first preached that? Maybe some may have said, “What are you talking about? I’m a God-fearing Jew! What do you mean the Lord isn’t center of everything?” Or another may have said, “I’ve given so much already in working to rebuild our homeland!” I bet people heard Haggai preach that and it stepped on some toes. There’s no indication in our passage that Haggai preached, “Consider your ways,” and all the Jews suddenly cried out in repentance and said, “Yes, Lord!” In fact, if you compare Haggai 1:1 and Haggai 1:15, it was twenty three days between preaching God’s word and God’s people obeying the Lord. I don’t know about you, but the most shocking thing about that is that it only took twenty-three days for God’s people to obey the Lord, but notice what was happening in that time: God was stirring up everyone. Another way to say that is that was God awakening everyone to their sin of not keeping the Lord first and the Lord was awakening them from their complacency to begin to rebuild the temple.

I know that God is at work in this congregation doing the very same thing. Over the past few weeks, I, along with some other leaders have been meeting with groups of adults to field questions that are out there about the Pressing Onward building campaign. Each group has had their own set of concerns and maybe their own opinions about the overall plan of how we go about tackling projects around First Baptist, but although there’s differences of thought right now, all that means is that we’re somewhere between day one where the call to action is made and day twenty-three when God’s people act. And I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen and heard from everyone so far.

And because God is stirring us now, just like he stirred his people then, what God’s waking us up to will see this church with a renewed commitment and unity in the task of our building program. It’s only the Holy Spirit who can invigorate each of us to obey God and to align with God’s purposes for First Baptist and I see the Spirit at work in each of you and I’m excited for the transformation that will take place here when we have all prioritized God’s word and we see the blessings that come from that.

So, please continue to pray. Please, continue to seek the Lord, to understand the best that you can what he wants done here. You may come to those prayer times with all sorts of emotions and opinions about this subject, aside from whatever else you’re bringing before the Lord in your life. All those emotions and opinions will need to be laid before the Lord. And it may be the case that in this season of the life of our church, that God will lead us to surrender from clinging to what we think is the best way as he shows to us what is his way.

And let me simply say, that in whatever the case may be, be it this church’s building program or some other matter in your life, the call for you and I, if we’re followers of Jesus is always to trust and obey, because

God’s blessings flow from those who trust and obey His word

Let me leave you with one thing to ponder. This Pressing Onward campaign is not for First Baptist Devine. Anything we do is ultimately for the Lord and his kingdom. And his kingdom is greater than First Baptist. And our hearts have got to be in a place where we know that anything we do for the Lord and his kingdom is for him and not so we can get his blessings in return. And yet, we can also see in our passage that God blesses obedience. So, just something to chew on as a church, that if you haven’t figured out yet, influences quite a bit of what goes on around this area. What if taking care of our campus and setting the goal to reach the potential of what God has granted to us to steward here on our property unlocks the blessings of God for southeast Medina County? What if our obedience here encourages our brothers and sisters in other congregations to greater obedience to share their faith or to step out in faith in whatever God calls them to do because we stepped out in faith here?

Could that reverse the trend of a shrinking Christian presence among administrators and teachers in our local schools? Could that see more Christians serving in our local public offices? Might there be a spiritual renewal where every church around here is packed out on Sundays and people are getting baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in some Christian church in Devine every week?

I don’t ultimately know every thing that God wants to do for Devine, but I do know that in creating plants, when one seed is planted, he nurtures it, he grows it, and it yields many more seeds.

From one seed of faithfulness, the Lord blesses. God’s blessings flow from those who trust and obey his word.

Continue to seek the Lord, my brothers and sisters. Take him at his word and in whatever it is that he’s said, let’s do it.