In The Place to be Blessed
In The Place to be Blessed
A middle-aged man was distraught over his wife’s stubborn refusal to admit she had a hearing problem. One day he asked his family doctor for advice how to convince his wife that she has this problem. The doctor promptly told him that when he got home he was to confirm the problem by opening the front door and from there asking his wife what’s for dinner. Then the doctor said, if she doesn’t answer, move closer to the kitchen. Repeat the question again, and if she still doesn’t answer, move right up to her ear and whisper in it, “What’s for dinner, honey?” In this way, the doctor assured him, she’ll have to admit she has the problem.
So the man raced home with joy in his heart and opened the front door. “What’s for dinner, honey?” he asked. When there was no reply he moved closer to the kitchen and asked again. “What’s for dinner, honey?” No reply. When he looked into the kitchen, sure enough, there she was. So he tiptoed over to her and whispered in her ear, “What’s for dinner, honey?”
Immediately she turned and looked straight at him: “For the 4th time, I said we’re having Spaghetti!”
The last time we met we were in the book of Haggai. We said that in order for us to move forward we had to put first things first. When the exiled Jews were allowed to go home after 70 years in captivity their first order of business was to begin work on rebuilding the Temple. Just like the Jews the Church has always been the backbone of our society. Our nation was founded on institutions, like government, education etc., that have revolved around Christian principles. So goes the church so goes our nation’s moral and ethical standard, first things first.
Well the remnant of Jews who arrived from Babylon in 586 B.C. began to lose their thirst for firsts and halted the construction of their Temple which is precisely what happened to their commitment to the God of Israel, it had halted. They were more concerned with furnishing their houses and having their harvests flourish so that could be economically independent again. But there was some unfinished business that needed tending to if they were going to move themselves, and the title of our sermon today is, in the place to be blessed.
God in his great mercy raises up a prophet by the name of Haggai whose consultancy job it was to come in and survey the problem and advise the leaders, the priests and the people what to do. Haggai didn’t just whisper in the ears of his people he delivered a message from the Lord that clearly identified some glaring reasons why things weren’t working out the way they were supposed to be.
“Houston we have a problem” was the message of one of the astronauts on Apollo 13 whose lives were literally contingent upon them surveying the damaged spacecraft if they were to return home safely. Their mission was to walk on the moon but a small explosion changed everything into a mission of life or death. If your mission as God’s own people is to walk worthy of his blessings then the second chapter of Haggai gives us some clues on seeing the problem getting in a position for a blessing and finally living in his promise, not outside of it!
READ. PRAY.
So what Harry what does a guy carrying pieces of meat in his jacket have to do with us playing our first game of the year? Why would meat and a dead corpse have anything to do with us now? Well I’m glad you asked because it has everything to do with you. In a game like professional football where you spend hours looking at film to improve, pointing out strengths and weaknesses. Hours of behind the scenes evaluations, the amount of statistics, tendency’s and coaching points that will be scoured over all in an effort to eliminate problems, get the best team on the field so you’ll have the best chance to win. It still isn’t enough. There will be breakdowns, missed assignments, poor plays called, bad executions made, fumbles lost, missed tackles, dropped balls, technique errors committed, injuries incurred and hearts broken and that’s after you’ve lifted, run, ate all green dots since April if you haven’t had to Rehab an injury from the previous season. You will still come up short doing all that stuff. We have gotten so used to dealing with problems we expect them and prepare for problems. We are problem solvers. If you can relate this paragraph in Haggai has everything to do with you. The exiled Jews are no different from you they too went through a rebuilding stage. They too have labored not just for month’s but years looking for a return on their effort only to be turned away. They too were big into problem solving but it’s the peculiarities of our shared problem that leaves us both a little short.
You see God’s people want God’s promised blessings He wants to bless you today but in order to receive it You’ll first have to know that;
God Blesses us When we Acknowledge;
We Have a Problem; Holiness is not contagious evil is (v.10-14)
(the best team strength is its acknowledgment of its weaknesses) Weaknesses can be a source of complaints that overshadow our strengths.
God’s people assumed that just showing up in the vicinity of holiness would make them holy they had been coming to the Temple as though they were “temple ready”. This remnant of God’s people assumed that God would accept them defiled and all as long as they showed up in his holy house.
A REAL EDUCATION
There was a certain private school faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror, leaving dozens of little lip prints.
Every night, the maintenance man would remove them and the next day, the girls would put them back. Finally the principal decided that something had to be done.
She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night. To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.
He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.
God is holding up the mirror of his word today so that we can see ourselves through his eyes. He’s saying don’t you see the dirt in your life? Don’t you see what I see in you that needs attention? Haggai speaking for the Lord says to the people that their sacrifices were contaminated because they were given with selfish hearts and desires and so everything they touched was defiled and unacceptable to the Lord. Jesus had the same rebuke. “Woe to you...for you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful. (Matthew 23:27)
What seems clean isn’t always so. The church may seem like a holy place but when we come in with, as the prophet Isaiah says, “as a man of unclean lips” we bring our unrepented sin into God’s holy place making it unholy. That’s what was happening in Haggai’s day what about us? When we come to a place where we are asking for a blessing from the Lord are our hearts right by his standards? If not we present ourselves as unblessable.
Everything that we do when done with a wrong desire will be contaminated in its presentation to God. God standard is holiness we are the maintenance man but when we dip our lives into the Living waters of Jesus Christ he becomes the cleaning agent enabling us to present ourselves undefiled.
No matter what you do to clean yourself up to look presentable hanging out in places meant for holiness won’t clean you up. The Church, the pastor, Bibles all over the house, crosses on your neck, tattoos on your arm won’t make you presentable to God. Spending time passing out soup at the homeless centers won’t make you holy. Playing worship music won’t cover you in holiness, those things may influence you to some degree but there is no work from the hands of fallen man that isn’t defiled. (Read v.14)
How Do I Get Holy?
This was Haggai’s cry to his people and his call to us now; “You need to get that mess cleaned up before you come into the Temple.” We think that the church is to make us clean but it’s the work that we do before we enter the sanctuary of the Lord that enables us to bless the Lord so that He can fulfill his promises through us. God is holy, meaning that He is separated from all moral defilement and is hostile toward it. “Be holy because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16) Holiness is the requirement of God’s people whose mission is to answer the call of God on your life.
We Have a Cleaning Agent Paul tells us in Romans 8:1, “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Knowing you have a problem is the first step to receiving God’s Blessing. The only acceptable maneuver is to stop doing what we do that God calls sin, repent, pray to the cleaning agent in Jesus Christ, confess, getting cleaned up so that we can enter in to His holy place acceptable ready for service. we have but one course of action after acknowledging the dirt of our sin; present ourselves in prayer to the one who loved the sinner.
Psalm 24:3 asks, “Who can climb this mountain of the Lord?” “Who can stand on this Holy place?” Those who have been shown their uncleanliness so that Christ might cloak them in his righteousness.
God blesses us when we are in position to be blessed;
Humbled (v.15-19)
None of us can make a play out of position if we are out of position not only will we not make a play but we risk injury and could possibly injure someone else.
I wonder what Haggai’s hearers thought as he told them in verse 17 that everything they did went wrong. They had no clue they were just going through the paces doing religion. In other words they were walking around on a mine field of God as He thwarted everything they did. When they harvested and expected 20 bushels there was only ten.
When they went to get oil from the olive tree God gave them less than half of what they expected to yield; all in an effort to turn them around. What is God thwarting in your life because you are just going through the motions of worshipping Him? A man in position for a Blessing from God got here, (on knees) one of two ways. By God’s discipline or his thirst for spiritual discipline, either way our position of power is on our knees in humility. It is humility that makes men acceptable before God.
God will thwart the things in your life you hold dear to get you to turn to him. (v.17b) Haggai’s people were rewarded with all their service, sacrifice and effort with rust, mildew and hail. What crop of yours does God have to beat down with hail to get you to turn to Him in humility? God is holy and he will not change his standard because you believe that the holiness he requires is unfair and unreachable. It is if you continue to do religion without Christ.
Boy’s Ruler
There was once a little boy who excitedly told his mom that he had just measured himself and he was six feet tall. Mom was a little skeptical, so she asked him to measure himself again while she watched. She discovered the problem when the boy took out not a 12-inch, but a 6-inch ruler.
He had calculated well: he was six-ruler-heights tall – he just had the wrong ruler, the wrong standard. We fall into the same problem ourselves. We often judge ourselves by a very different standard than God who not only is a God of love but a just God.
Growing up in a single parent home my mother had work to do in raising a son who at 13 could have easily been mistaken for a man. I wasn’t and so often times my Mom would have to tell me what would not be acceptable behavior as a son in her house. First she would tell me about myself (you the devil) and then describe the acceptable standard of behavior necessary from that point forward. “Harry Swayne you’re not gonna talk to me and sass me any kind of way, you’re going to do your housework and your schoolwork the way that you are capable of because you are going to be the husband of some woman’s house one day...”
Haggai does the same thing my momma does, still today, in v.18 we read. Son all that you have done has amounted to nothing but since you have decided to turn in your heart and build your life through my Son who will preach in this Temple be crucified, die, buried and rise again that he might reign in your heart; “I will bless you”!
A woman was at a garage sale she had spotted a handsome antique copper kettle for only $2.50. It was badly tarnished, so she asked the woman running the sale if the discoloration would come out.
She cheerfully offered to try some copper cleaner on it and disappeared with it into the house. Reappearing with the gleaming kettle, she handed it to the buyer for inspection. It was indeed a more attractive item, plus it also had a new tag attached. It read: "Like new-$10."
Interesting. When the copper kettle 1st went on sale, it’s owner practically gave it away.
But something changed its worth. What made the kettle more valuable? A simple cleansing.
When the owner took the trouble to clean away the grime/ removed the discoloration and stains it was worth 4 times as much
Almost everything IS more valuable once it has been washed & cleaned up - and so it is with us.
We are of incredible value to God, what an incredible distinction of all his creations we are his most prized. Matthew 7 tells us, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! When we seek Him asking that he wash us up this pursuit of him puts our lives in a position to receive His blessings
THE WORD OF GOD DOES THE WORK OF GOD!
He uses His word to whisper in your ear, “You have a problem and I have a Son.”
I’ve seen the T-Shirts some of you’ve been wearing that mention unfinished. well as far as the Word is concerned it is finished, Jesus’ last words on the cross before his death as He bore our sins, It Is Finished. It isn’t necessary for Him to go back on a cross to pay for your sins it was a once and for all act of love. When you believe, you will act like his death was not only necessary for your life but also indicative of the desperate state of humanity! You need to see your dire need of a savior or you will have an incorrect view of your positioning and miss out on God’s promise of blessings. My prayer is that through God’s word you will see yourself as he sees you and the hope of his promises for the rest of your life from this day forward. Acknowledge your uncleanliness, receive the cleaning agent in Christ and live in God’s promises! I have a position for you the Lord says, the hope of my promises for the rest of your life from this day forward. Amen.