A Bigger Picture

Introduction

Series Recap

Week 1 - Our Actions, Reactions and Consequences

Week 2 - The Word of the Lord, the Promise (I am with you) of the Lord and the Fire of the Lord

Week 3 - The Clarity of the Past, the Uncertainty of the Present and the Anticipation of the future

This Week - The Bigger Picture

Haggai 2:10-23 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai: 11 “This is what the Lord of Armies says: Ask the priests for a ruling. 12 If a man is carrying consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and it touches bread, stew, wine, oil, or any other food, does it become holy?” The priests answered, “No.” 13 Then Haggai asked, “If someone defiled by contact with a corpse touches any of these, does it become defiled?” The priests answered, “It becomes defiled.” 14 Then Haggai replied, “So is this people, and so is this nation before me—this is the Lord’s declaration. And so is every work of their hands; even what they offer there is defiled. 15 “Now from this day on, think carefully: Before one stone was placed on another in the Lord’s temple, 16 what state were you in? When someone came to a grain heap of twenty measures, it only amounted to ten; when one came to the winepress to dip fifty measures from the vat, it only amounted to twenty. 17 I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you didn’t turn to me—this is the Lord’s declaration. 18 From this day on, think carefully; from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid; think carefully. 19 Is there still seed left in the granary? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet produced. But from this day on I will bless you.” 20 The word of the Lord came to Haggai a second time on the twenty-fourth day of the month: 21 “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah: I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. 22 I will overturn royal thrones and destroy the power of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overturn chariots and their riders. Horses and their riders will fall, each by his brother’s sword. 23 On that day”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies—“I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you.” This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.

How the series breaks up… week 1-2 first vision and response, week 3 - second vision, this week we have two visions.

There seems to be little something more doesn’t there…

talking to somebody when you just know that the questions are leading to something bigger… you may not know what is coming, but you know you are not at the end of this conversation

The subtitle for the series is turning to obedience… turning being another word for repentance

week 1, we talked about how repentance is not complete until we are obedient as well

the visions that we will talk about today are from December 18, 520BC.

planting season… God had ruined the last harvest due to sin

now they are a few months into woking on the temple and God begins talking about sin and the last harvest.

PRAY!

A Bigger Picture of Your Sin

Three months have passed since they have begun working on the temple

the time between harvest (that God ruined) and planting…

three months is a long time…

there is plenty of time to forget, why they were doing this in the first place

there is plenty of time to invent things as well

Haggai 2:12-14 If a man is carrying consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and it touches bread, stew, wine, oil, or any other food, does it become holy?” The priests answered, “No.” 13 Then Haggai asked, “If someone defiled by contact with a corpse touches any of these, does it become defiled?” The priests answered, “It becomes defiled.” 14 Then Haggai replied, “So is this people, and so is this nation before me—this is the Lord’s declaration. And so is every work of their hands; even what they offer there is defiled.

a couple of questions are asked…

can something Holy make other things Holy… of course no

can something unclean make other things unclean… of course

this is not just OT law… this is nature that we understand this

poison into a bottle of drinking water is poisonous, clean water into a bottle of poison is still poisonous

Covid 19 - an infected person can infect a non-infected person, but a healthy person does not make an infected person healthy

why would God ask such questions… he knows the answers

week 1, the sin that God exposed was that they had begun adding decorations and things of comfort to their own houses while not building a house for God

they repented and started working on the temple

God is now exposing that it was not just that simple… it was a heart issue

that well, they missed that one little thing, but they were still doing the sacrifices and things

no, the sacrifices are dirty too because an unclean person, a defiled person is offering them

OT law said that it had to be a priest and that they would have to do certain rituals to be clean…

but at some point, it was not just the people but the government leaders, the religious leaders and everyone who came back from exile

they were comfortable in their religion and started giving and working out of habit, not sacrifice

I believe that God has been trying to tell us to get a better understanding of our sin

that is why we went through the beatitudes… knowing that it is our sin that put Christ on the cross, we mourn

week one of this series of how we can get so comfortable in our religion that we simply give God the leftovers of our lives

we must understand what repentance is…

not just a one time thing

not just a general admittance

but a specific daily thing

I had to repent in the middle of Applebees this week… I got a look from Heather that told me my attitude wasn’t right… she was right.

we do not dare think that just because we are doing some religious things, or even working for God that we are immune to sin, or do not need to repent

Repentance is not something that we grow out of or work out of

they had to understand that it wasn’t just the lack of the temple that needed to be repented of

the way that they worshipped while they were in sin

the way that they put themselves before God

we are no different…

how many times have all of us come in here and sang songs about how we are here to worship… yet our hearts are far from here

we are thinking of what work we need to accomplish next

that yeah we may not be perfect but at least we are in church… better than Joe sinner across the street

how many times have we used prayer requests as gossip, judged others walking in here from our assigned seats

We must learn how God hates sin… and how much hurt he feels when we sin

we must know that this temple will not make it disappear, singing songs will not make it disappear

that in fact, our refusal to repent, makes the songs we sing, the worship we bring dirty and unclean…

A Bigger Picture of Our Blessing

I am fearful that the American Dream has infected the church

you know the dream… the house, the cars the kids…

that if you work hard enough, you can have whatever it is you desire

Haggai 2:15-19 “Now from this day on, think carefully: Before one stone was placed on another in the Lord’s temple, 16 what state were you in? When someone came to a grain heap of twenty measures, it only amounted to ten; when one came to the winepress to dip fifty measures from the vat, it only amounted to twenty. 17 I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you didn’t turn to me—this is the Lord’s declaration. 18 From this day on, think carefully; from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid; think carefully. 19 Is there still seed left in the granary? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet produced. But from this day on I will bless you.”

I cannot help but be reminded that this is in between harvest and planting, or at the very least they had just planted…

how easy it would be to fall back into the trap of look what I am earning

I am planting… I am building the temple like I am supposed to…

look at me… super christian

maybe I am reading to much into this… but at the very least, it would be easy to believe that, if I build the temple, God will bless our harvest.

If we are honest… don’t we expect the same

we expect that if we are doing everything right… worship, serve, witness, even preach that everything should be very blessed for us

we do live this out… how many people have asked me to pray for them not just because they needed prayer, but because they think that my prayers might be answered more because of my position

I am not immune to this thinking...

during a difficult season for our family I can remember yelling to my wife that, “I quit! Look what this is doing to us! It is not worth it… “

then I repented when I heard God ask, “I am not worth it...”

Are you here for the blessings… do you follow Jesus because you think that life will be easier

I told my mother that I have recently become a TV preacher because our sermons are on GBTA.

she told me that I must be doing it wrong because I do not have a beg enough house

but isn’t that how we look at following God, that we will get all the worldly blessings that we can think of…

God tells them at the end of this passage, to mark this day, that beginning that day he will bless them.

many commentators believe that it was at this point in reminding them of their past that they not only were obedient in action, but in heart also

that with the change of heart came the blessings of God

A Bigger Picture of the Kingdom

Haggai 2:20-23 The word of the Lord came to Haggai a second time on the twenty-fourth day of the month: 21 “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah: I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. 22 I will overturn royal thrones and destroy the power of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overturn chariots and their riders. Horses and their riders will fall, each by his brother’s sword. 23 On that day”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies—“I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you.” This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.

The second message…

don’t worry, not my second message

here you have the governmental leadership, the religious leadership and the people all repentantly serving the Lord… and another promise comes in to the leadership

I am going to make you my signet ring

what is a signet ring… a ring that would seal any document that would be issued by the king

a proclamation of the king would not be official without that seal

there are a couple of opinions about this particular message…

some see it as an end of times message, others see it is as another message that the messiah is coming

I am not sure that it matters which it is

Mathew 1:12-16 After the exile to Babylon Jeconiah fathered Shealtiel, Shealtiel fathered Zerubbabel, 13 Zerubbabel fathered Abiud, Abiud fathered Eliakim, Eliakim fathered Azor, 14 Azor fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Achim, Achim fathered Eliud, 15 Eliud fathered Eleazar, Eleazar fathered Matthan, Matthan fathered Jacob, 16 and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah.

The promise was not that Zerubbabel was going to be a great ruler… or even that Israel was going to defeat many nations

if you notice, God is going to cause the nations to destroy themselves

it is a great reminder that you are not needed...

this church will rise and fall at the desire of the Lord

good that comes from us is not because of us, but in spite of us

the Lord will do what he needs

but now that the people have come out of exile, and their heart was right, he would re-establish the line of David

the line that the messiah was supposed to come through

the promise of the one that would come and make all things right, that would rule and reign for all of eternity

and he did… Jesus came… lived a perfect life and died a sinners death

so that all who would be repentant would spend eternity with him

That is the coming signet ring… Matthew 28:18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Do you know him… have you submitted to his authority, or are you still trying to earn your way to heaven

so you still believe that you can be good enough, that your good can outweigh your bad

that you have done enough for God that you would be spared

The day is coming when Jesus will return… he is not delayed as some think of being delayed, but desires that all would come to repentance