Priorities

Tonight I want to speak with you about this topic PRIORITIES. Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Haggai chapter 1. I don’t know when the last time was that you read the book of Haggai or if you have even read it at all, but it is the 3rd from the last book of the OT.

Haggai chapter 1

Let’s pray Lord Jesus please teach us your truth, and mold our hearts as you see fit in Your precious and holy name we pray Amen.

The Holy Spirit is omnipresent because He is 100 percent God, but His presence everywhere does not mean He will work as powerfully everywhere. The onipresence of the holy Spirit is certain, being fully God He is always present. However the effects of His presence can never be presupposed. That means they can be graciously given or judicially withdrawn.”

The simple question is this:

ARE YOU IN HOT PURSUIT OF THE EFFECTS AND THE INLFUENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN YOUR LIFE?

Or are you passive about it, simply because you know He indwells you.

Hear the word of the Lord

Haggai 1:1 HCSB

In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

So God has all of His bases covered, first He speaks to His prophet then through His prophet He speaks to the government leadership, and He speaks to the religious leadership and through them He speaks to His people.

Haggai 1:2 HCSB

“The Lord of Hosts says this: These people say: The time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.”

Haggai 1:3–14 HCSB

The word of the Lord came through Haggai the prophet: “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” Now, the Lord of Hosts says this: “Think carefully about your ways: You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough to be satisfied. You drink but never have enough to become drunk. You put on clothes but never have enough to get warm. The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it.” The Lord of Hosts says this: “Think carefully about your ways. Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house. Then I will be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord. “You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined it. Why?” This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. “Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house. So on your account, the skies have withheld the dew and the land its crops. I have summoned a drought on the fields and the hills, on the grain, new wine, olive oil, and whatever the ground yields, on man and beast, and on all that your hands produce.” Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the entire remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. So the people feared the Lord. Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, delivered the Lord’s message to the people, “I am with you” —this is the Lord’s declaration. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, the spirit of the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. They began work on the house of Yahweh of Hosts, their God,

Haggai 1:3-

Haggai 1:15 HCSB

on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

So just to make sure we have the backstory, it was 520 B.C. it was in 586 that the Baylonians had flooded into Jerusalem and leveled it and continued to deport or carry off many of the citizens of Jerusalem into exile. In 539 B.C. cyrus King of Persia overtook the Babylonians and 1 year later he issued an edict which allowed many of the Jews to make their way back to their homeland and begin rebuilding their houses and rebuild their city and rebuild the city.

Thats exactly what they did and they came into the homeland and for 9 months they took up their tools and went to work on the Temple the house of the Lord and they got the foundation laid and then they quit.

They threw down their tools and they went home. In 520 B.C. god speaks to the prophet Haggai to the government leaders and to the religious leaders and to the people. He beckons them back to this task, of rebuilding that which He had established.

As not just the icon, but also the venue through which they would engage and experience his presence in their midst. Now we need to make sure before we jump in, that we understand why it would be important for us to come to a place like this this morning.

So heres what I wanna do i wanna answer three questions:

Why is this relevant to our lives?

Whats the problem here?

What’s the solution?

Why is this Relevant?

Why would people living on this side of the cross come to a text like Haggai and ask the question what does God have to say to us?

Well let’s make sure we understand our position on this side of the cross and its relationship with what is going on here.

#1 The temple is Christs presence

God did not establish that physical building as the end game, He established it as a representation of something that was coming. Which you and I are the beneficiaries of. That is the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives.

Jesus makes this very clear

John 2:2 HCSB

Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding as well.

Jesus was walking by the temple with some of His critics and they say what sign will yuo give us to prove that you are who you say you are, Jesus answered and said tear down this temple and in three days I will rebuild it. They laughed and said it took our forfathers 40 years to build this building how can you rebuild it in three days?

But John tells us