Building the Right House
Vision Casting • Sermon • Submitted
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INTRODUCTION
Have them open to Haggai 1
Review last week
We talked about our need as the church to know Jesus and to Make Him Known
1. I shared with you our intention to do this through planting churches
A. A Hispanic congregation right here in Live Oak
B. A Church among the Basque in the Boise Area
2. I also shared with you our need to grow our church by making disciples
A. We will do this by loving on young people (youth, young adults, young families)
3. In both of these things, our strategy is simple:
We will give generously
We will go regularly
We will pray without ceasing
We will change whatever we need to except the message
These things are a call from the Lord for our church to wake up. God has shown me that He wants to do great and marvelous things with in and through our church, but we have to be willing to step.
It is in view of these things that we turn out attention to Haggai chapter 1. I feel like we can relate to their situation
Israel had been in Exile, we have been in a pandemic
Life had resumed in most areas of life, things were getting better, but there was a still some suffering, fear, and complacency in the people
God’s house had been torn down and was in disarray.
Please stand with me in honor of the reading of God’s Word
In the second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘This people says, “The time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.” ’ ”
Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying,
“Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?”
Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways!
“You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.”
Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways!
“Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord.
“You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?” declares the Lord of hosts, “Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.
PRAY
God is calling on our church. God wants us to love others around us in the Name of Jesus.
God wants us to do things that we have never done
I told you last week that at Friendship, we are going to love people and you are going to pay for it
And I also told you that you were going to get tired of me talking about money, and that I’m going to talk about it anyway
Jesus talks about money more than He talked about anything else
Roughly 15% of His preaching was about money
11 of His 39 parables are about money, that’s almost 30%
There are more than 2300 verses in Scripture on money.
(If I preached on one of verse a week, it would take us more than 45 years to finish them all)
The reason for this is simple:
for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Notice, this doesn’t say where your heart is, your treasure will be! It says your heart will follow where you put your treasure.
For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
This is our first point this morning. If you’ve got your listening guide, the first thing to remember is this:
My heart will follow my money
My heart will follow my money
Where is your heart this morning friends? Where are you putting your treasure?
Last week I shared with you that only about 25 of our church family are giving on a regular basis. This has got to change because God Has placed big things before us.
if 100 people in our church were giving at the poverty line, that our budget would grow by 96,500 dollars.
If those that are already giving kept giving what they are, and 75 more people started tithing at the poverty line, our budge would grow by almost 200,000 dollars.
Where are you putting your treasure, friends?
As our Finance committee meets for this year, I’m asking them to build a budget not on what we’ve spent before, but on what it’s going to take for the plans God is leading us to.
And as you think about how God is challenging you in your giving, as you consider where you are putting your treasure, there are three things you and I can take from this passage.
As we look at this text from Haggai, the people had a problem: they were building up the wrong house.
God brought the people back to their homeland
God led the to rebuild the wall
God gave them a governor, Joshua, who was of the house of David
But look at verses 1-4:
In the second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘This people says, “The time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.” ’ ”
Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying,
“Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?”
And so the first thing that you and I can hear from the heart of God is this:
What I have is not mine
What I have is not mine
God told the people that they were building the wrong house. It wasn’t that they weren’t allowed to have nice homes, but they were focused on their own kingdoms and not the Lord’s Kingdom.
God owns everything that You have:it’s all a good gift
owning something and being a steward are different things
The time has come for us to give to the Lord what already belongs to Him.
The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains,
The world, and those who dwell in it.
Everything you have, even your own life belongs to God and was made for His purposes
Look at verse 5 with me:
Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways!
“You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.”
The second thing that you and I can hear from the heart of God in this passage is this,
I will never be satisfied outside of sacrifice
I will never be satisfied outside of sacrifice
Your peace with God only comes through His sacrifice, why are you surprised that He would call you to give?
Jesus Paid it All-All to Him I owe. You owe Him everything, so give like it!
Verse 6 tells us that nothing that you seek in this life will bring you satisfaction.
The more you long to hold onto to satisfy yourself, the less you will have and the less satisfied you will be (If you want to stop worrying about money, give it away)
This is not the prosperity Gospel, it is the Gospel of peace
The only peace that comes in this life is through Christ and His Kingdom work
You don’t have to be rich to be generous, you have to be generous to be generous
You will never miss a dollar of what you give away…and you’ll never regret it either!
Look at verses 7-9
Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways!
“Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord.
“You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?” declares the Lord of hosts, “Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.
Going up the mountain to get wood sounds like work to me…it sounds like sacrifice
Verse 8 tells us that sacrifice brings glory to God. When you can’t afford to give, and you give anyway, that glorifies God!
The reason that sacrificial giving is so glorifying is that it takes faith! And this is our final takeaway this morning. The last thing we hear from the heart of God in this passage today is this:
Your generosity is a measure of your faith
Your generosity is a measure of your faith
To give away what you needed is proof of genuine faith!
generosity comes from faith. In giving...
you believe God will provide for you anyway
you acknowledge it’s His
you believe He can do more and better with it that you could
REMEMBER THE WIDOW’S MITE-(If time tell story)
Her gift had to be all or nothing! (Two mites was the minimum gift under Rabbinic law)
Choosing not to give is proof a lack of faith
It brings into question your salvation: Jesus told the rich young ruler to give all he had! And he wept bitterly
If you won’t give Him your treasure, is your heart really His?
It proves you are selfish-refusing to give of what you freely received
It proves that you do not trust in God’s provision
INVITATION: This morning, I’m inviting you to join us in giving back to the Lord! Only give back to Him at the level of your thanksgiving!
He Has given you so much. Freely you have received, freely give
Pray