Take A Good Look At Your Life

TAKE A GOOD LOOK AT YOUR LIFE (1 of 2) Jerry Vines Haggai 1-2 6/24/01 I had originally thought I would bring just one message from Haggai and yet as I have read and studied and prayed over it, it has become so applicable to you and to me where we are that I want to take a couple of weeks at least. I'm going to look at the first chapter in this message and then the second chapter in the next message. Think with me about the theme—Take a Good Look at Your Life. At the conclusion of your Old Testament there are 12 books which are given the category of Minor Prophets. They fall in two main groups. There is first of all the first nine and these who prophesied before God's children were carried away into captivity. The last three were the prophets who prophesied to God's people after they were carried away into captivity. Haggai, Zechariah are what we call the post-captivity prophets. They came at a very important time in the history of God's people. Haggai was one of those prophets, but we do not know a great deal about him. We don't know where he came from; we don't know anything about his family background. We don't know anything about his personal life. We don't know when or how he was called to preach. All we know is—he was one of the prophets during the post-captivity days that God used in a special way. He is mentioned in the book of Ezra and we are told specifically that God used this man Haggai to speak a message of arousment and a message of encouragement to God's people at that particular time. Evidently Haggai was an old man when the Lord gave him these words of prophecy. As a boy he had evidently been carried away into captivity with the Jewish people. I can almost imagine the sight that he saw as he left the smoky ruins of the city of Jerusalem and he saw the temple of God as it was being destroyed with fire. There he went away to Babylonian captivity and stayed there for a period of about 70 years. All through those years there was ringing in the mind and hearts of God's people that God was going to return them—that God would one day deliver them back to the city of Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of the Lord there. The hope must have filled the heart of this man Haggai. The day arrived that they were to return and yet when you study the history of it you will discover that only a small group of the Jews were willing to go back and rebuild the city and rebuild the temple. For the most part the Jewish people had grown comfortable in their captivity. They were not interested in going back and taking up the formidable task of rebuilding the city and rebuilding the temple. There was just a small remnant that was willing to go back. This is so much like the world today. So much like the professing church today. Unfortunately there are many today who have grown comfortable in this old world and they are not really interested in doing the work of the Lord. They are not really interested in letting their life count in these last days for the things of the Lord. But there is always a remnant and this man Haggai was a part of that remnant. They return amidst great excitement and enthusiasm. They come back in the year 536 BC and begin to undertake the task of rebuilding the city of Jerusalem and specifically of laying the foundation for the temple. You know the history—the background—of what happened. There was great opposition to what they did and the forces on the outside discouraged their work. On the inside there were problems also. So for a period of time their enthusiasm begins to wane. For about 15 years, the foundation of the temple fills with debris and there is rubbish and weeds everywhere. During that period of time this remnant of people begin to get interested in their own personal interests. They begin to turn their attention away from the house of the Lord to their own houses. They get involved into rebuilding their own houses and doing the things that will satisfy and meet their own personal needs. All during this period of time, God's work lies unfinished and incomplete. You have to keep in mind that these were not bad people. They were good people—the remnant. This was that faithful few who were willing to return in obedience to what God had said. They were good people, but their priorities had somehow become rearranged. They were the right people. They were in the right place, at the right time, to do the right work. But their priorities were all out of kilter. I was thinking about this as I was praying and preparing. It's not enough to just study what was going on back there, God's word is relevant and applicable to our day. The truths that God gives us in the Bible, though the history of them may have occurred thousands of years ago, they are truths which are unchanging and eternal in nature. That's why we are preaching and studying these Old Testament books. God takes the message from the Old Testament time and applies it to our time. I think in the book of Haggai there's a message that God wants His remnant in First Baptist Church of Jacksonville to hear. I consider you God's remnant in the congregation. I consider you God's people who are faithful, God's faithful few. You are the kindling wood that's willing to be used for the Lord—the Master's minority, if you please. How wonderful and how important you are. God has brought you to this time for this moment of history. You are the right people in the right place at the right time for the right purpose. But it is very easy for God's good people, God's remnant, to get their priorities out of place. It may be that the people in Haggai's day misunderstood Bible prophecy. Jeremiah had preached and had told them that there was going to be 70 years of desolation. We read about it in Jeremiah 25. Somehow they latched onto the desolation part of the passage, but they didn't latch onto the reconstruction part of the passage. They may have had a wrong reaction to prophecy. We are a prophecy-loving church here. We love the book of the Revelation. We love the book of Daniel. You are really going to love the book of Zechariah. It's a book of prophecy also. But if you are not careful you will misunderstand the purpose and the point of Bible prophecy. We believe the Bible teaches that in the last days it will be days of apostasy. The professing church, for the most part, will depart from the faith and there will be widespread apathy among the people of the Lord. As best I can tell, reading in Scripture, there is no clear prophecy in Scripture that before Jesus comes there is going to be a great outpouring of revival. But that does not mean that we are not to pray for it. We should pray that God sends revival. It may be indeed that there will be revival. But prophecy is never intended to be a narcotic to put us to sleep; prophecy is intended to be a tonic to keep us working for the Lord Jesus Christ. Revival is a special work of God which comes down as God chooses to send it down. Evangelism is the continual work of the church and regardless of whether or not revival comes, God's people are to give priority to evangelism—winning people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has a man named Haggai. His name means "my festival." God has this man to challenge the people to rise up again and to build and to stir them from their lethargy and to challenge them concerning their misplaced priorities. So he has a message for them in this particular book. God used four men, at this time, to stir them up to return to do God's work. He used a civic leader. That's who Zerubbabel is—the governor of Judah in verse 1. He used a religious leader. That's who Joshua was—the high priest. Then God used two godly prophets. He used Haggai and Zechariah. Ezra 5:1 and chapter 6:14 tell us that God used these two preachers to arouse the people and to encourage them to rebuild the walls and to finish the job. As you are going to see these are two very different kinds of men. It reminds me of how very different God's preachers are today. Haggai was the more practical of the two. Zechariah was the visionary. Haggai was the man who was interested in building. He was practical. Zechariah was the dreamer who looked forward to the future and the predictions God had for the future. God uses both of those kinds of prophets. But it is Haggai God uses to tell the people, "Your priorities are out of order. Let's get back to the business at hand." So you find in these two little chapters of Haggai some messages. It is rather unusual in that these messages are all given a date. We are told when Haggai preached these particular messages. In chapter 1:1 we are told that the first message was preached and in our terminology today, September 1, 520 BC. There are 4 of these messages in Haggai and each one has a date attached to it. In chapter 1 there is message number 1 and it is a message concerning— I. SELFISHNESS. God speaks a message to them and God speaks a message to you and to me concerning selfishness. Keep in mind that it's been 15 years. God's work has lain unfinished. For 15 years they have turned their attention to their own interests and to their own desires and to their own personal priorities and pleasures. He discusses the matter of priority. He says in verse 2 that the Lord said that the people were saying this. you see, the Lord knows what you are saying in your heart. We hear what you are saying with our ears, but the Lord hears what you are saying in your heart. The people were saying this in verse 2, "the time is not come." In other words, the people procrastinated. They are saying it's just not a good time to God's work. There are always people who say it's not a good time to do anything for God. I have been a pastor for 40 years now and God has blessed me be involved in a lot of building projects. In every one of those projects I can recall hearing people say, "This is not a good time to do this. The economy is bad. It's not a good time to build." In all of my hears of being a pastor, when you talk about evangelism and winning people to faith in Christ, there are some who will say, "It's just not time to do that. It's hard to win people to Christ. We are living in last days. You just can't win people to the Lord. it's summer time and you can't have a special emphasis on getting people saved in a summer time. It's not a good time to do evangelism." I think about the day of Pentecost. It wasn't a good time to have Pentecost either, was it. You had small minority of people who were under severe attack from the religious people of their day. They were living in a culture that was dying. It was like a rotten piece of fruit on the vine. At Pentecost people could have said, "It's not a good time to get anybody saved." But when the Spirit of God came down, 3,000 souls got saved. It's always a good time to win people to faith in Christ. It's always a good time to do the work of the Lord. They said, "The time is not come." God has always done his work by suing people who were willing to put their own time and effort into the work of the Lord. all great evangelistic efforts have been done by people who make that a priority. Mighty missionary movements have been done by people who make a priority of their missionary effort. Great local churches are not built by people who give bits and pieces of their time and effort, but by people who are willing to make God's work a priority in their life. They say the time is not come—the time that the Lord's house should be built. Is there somebody here tonight who has his or her priorities out of order? Have you just laid aside the things of the Lord? There was a time when you were serving the Lord. There was a time when you gave Him priority in your life, but now it's not a good time. People use all kinds of excuses not to do God's work. "The weather is too bad to go to church." but it's not too bad to go to the mall and stroll around for a while. "The services are too long." But they can watch a movie for two hours or go to a ballgame for three hours and that's not too long. It's just an excuse people use not to serve the Lord. An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed full with a lie. He says in verse 4, "Is it time for you to dwell in your sealed houses and this house lie waste?" He is saying-–it's just a matter of priority. They didn't have time to do God's work and build God's house but they had time to build their own houses. They were putting themselves first. I wonder if there are some of God's people and there was a day when you put God's work first and God's house first. Now, you've begun to put the things of your own desires and pleasures and your own interests first. He says, "This house lies waste." God's house was in a state of disrepair. You can always tell what people think about God by looking at the buildings they used to worship God. you go into a church and the windows are cracked and broken and the carpet is all tattered and torn and the building is dilapidated and just about to run down—that tells you how the people feel about God. By the way, I want to just publicly thank all of those who serve the Lord in this daily capacity of keeping God's building looking good. It's not easy to keep these buildings looking good. I want to thank them for it. God bless them. It is a priority to us as a church. we want these buildings to look good. when these young couples bring their boys and girls and babies, we want them to walk into a preschool that is absolutely sparkling and clean. We want them to know that we believe God's house ought to be the cleanest and prettiest place in all of the city. Here it is. they have their priorities out of whack. Now, it becomes a matter of disparity. He shows what happens in a life—the disparity that begins to exist in a life when you begin to put yourself above the Lord and put your own personal interests above the things of the Lord. he says down in verse 5, "Consider your ways." That means to give careful thought to your ways. He is saying—take a good hard look at your life. Examine your priorities and see if that's not what is causing the disparities in your life. He basically says in verse 16 that you are working harder and harder and having less and less satisfaction. In verse 6 he says, "You have sown much and brought in little, you eat but you don't have enough." He is saying you are working harder and harder to make money but yet your money doesn't seem to go very far. He is saying you are filling your plate with food and yet you are not satisfied. He says you drink and you drink and it never satisfies your thirst—you just put on clothes on top of clothes on top of clothes and yet you are still cold. He says you earn wages and you put your wages in a bag and the bag is full of holes. You don't know where it's gone. That's what happens when people get their priorities out of order. Some of God's people tonight have your priorities out of order. You've neglected the things of the Lord and you've decided you will give your attention and time to some other things. You aren't satisfied—you're not happy. You are not as fulfilled as you thought you would be. We hear today about felt-needs. Some people have given themselves to their felt-needs. They feel like what they need is a bigger house or a nicer car or fancier clothes or more gadgets. They begin to give themselves to those kinds of things. They begin to work through the lunch hour and then they begin to work on the weekends. They begin to take work home and take on a second job. They are trying to meet those felt-needs in their lives. Far deeper and more important and more vital to you are not those felt-needs, there are those real needs that are down in your heart. There are some of God's people here who haven yourself to your felt-needs, but the truth of the matter is—your family is not any better off. It's worse off than it was when you started. The truth of the matter is—in your personal life you don't have joy and peace and happiness in your life anymore. You are more miserable than you've ever been before. your life has become like a bag of holes and you look up and you don't have anything to show for it. Some of you, in the early years of your Christian life, you made it a priority and your church was first. I'm not speaking to the folks who need to hear this, but there are some folks who never missed a service. Yet, they got interested in their own personal activities and they made priorities personal instead of spiritual. They don't have time to come on Sunday nights anymore. Other things to do, other pleasures to seek. They don't care about coming on Wednesday nights. They have neglected the Word of God and feeding their spiritual lives. It reminds me of Psalm 106:15 where the Bible says, "The Lord gave them their request, but sent leanness to their souls." God has prospered some people and now they have neglected their souls and God's work. I like the emphasis we had today on people volunteering to serve the Lord. we need a lot of people to serve the Lord in our fellowship. God bless all you wonderful people who do. I run into many of you along the way who take your turn in the nursery. Do you realize that taking your turn in the nursery might result in some couple coming to know Jesus as Savior in one of our services? When we get to glory the fact that you were willing to spend an hour or two with a crying baby may mean that somebody will be in heaven because you were willing to serve the Lord like that. God bless you wonderful people who are willing to serve. But let me encourage all of you—make God's work a priority in your life. Verse 9 says, "You have looked for much and it came to little." You brought it home and God says, I blew it and it was gone. God has a way of getting your attention and showing you your priorities are out of balance. Here comes the challenge in verse 8. God is saying this through the prophet Haggai to them and He is saying it to you and to me—"Go up to the mountain, bring wood, build a house, and I will take pleasure in it and I'll be glorified saith the Lord." He is saying that it is time to get God's business done. You are the people. you are in the right place. you are at the right time. You have the right work. God has brought us to this hour in the city of Jacksonville. People are moving into this city by the thousands and they need Jesus. I want to challenge you ==away with selfishness! Get your priorities in order. It's time to build for the Lord. We come in verse 12 to the matter of humility. "Then Zerubbabel (the civic leader) and Joshua (spiritual leader) with all the remnant of the people. That's God's special people. "They obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet." When God gives His Word, God looks for one response— that is obedience. That's what God wants out of you and me. It may not sound spectacular. It may not be sensational, but all God asks of you and me is that we obey His Word. When God gives a command, God wants us to obey Him. "the people did fear before the Lord." They responded with humility to the message of the Lord. In verse 13 the Lord spake giving them the promise of the Lord. He said, "I am with you saith the Lord." What a wonderful promise. I was listening to the song the choir sang tonight. It's a brand arrangement of a song by Mosie Lister whose wife went home to be with the Lord week before last. A young pastor friend of mine conducted the funeral service for her. He wrote that song, "Where no one stands alone." There's a tremendous message in that song. The prayer of the message is that the Lord will take our hand and we won't stand alone. I have good news for you. God promises, "I'm with you." You've taken a job in the Lord's work here and you feel afraid and you say, "Oh, I can't do it alone." You don't have to do it alone. The Lord said, "I'm with you." God has given you some little boys and little girls to teach in Sunday School. You are not alone. God says, "I'm with you." You are going out to knock on doors and tell somebody about Christ. The Lord says, "You are not alone, I am with you." "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." The Lord stirred up their spirits in verse 14. He stirs up the spirit of Zerubbabel, Joshua and all the remnant of the people. I pray that God is stirring up your spirit tonight. I'm praying that God is doing a deep work in your life and it will awaken you to take a good look at your life. To consider your ways. To see where your priorities are. To respond to the challenge of the Lord. Verse 14 says, "They came and did the work in the house of the Lord of hosts." They responded to the challenge with humility and they lay aside their selfishness and they go back again to doing the work of the Lord. I want to speak to some of you who have served the Lord for many, many years. Sometimes the devil will tell you you've done your part; you've been serving all these years. Let somebody else do his or hers. I have news for you. You can't let anybody else do your part for you. You have to do your own part. Nobody else can do it for you. I was in Louisville, KY, Thursday night speaking at Southern Seminary. Dr. Al Mohler, President of Southern Seminary, is the general of the Billy Graham Crusade concluding tonight in Louisville. On Thursday night we went over there and had the opportunity to go in and pray with Billy Graham before the service. I said to them, "Think about it. Here is the man who has preached the gospel to more people in the world than any other man in the history of the world." What a great work God has given Billy Graham to do, and he's always been faithful. That Thursday night his message was just as clear and just as consistent with the gospel as it was the first time I heard him as a 16 year old boy. I used to hear Billy Graham preach when I was a 16- year-old boy. He was young and fiery in those days. I'd listen to him preach and I'd say, Oh, I wish I could preach like that. I found out real soon that I couldn't preach like Billy Graham. I'll tell you what else I found. I found out that God didn't intend for me to preach like Billy Graham. God didn't call buy one Billy Graham. God didn't call but one Jerry Vines. God didn't call buy one of you. I can't preach like Billy Graham because I can't do the work God has given Billy Graham to do, but I can preach like Jerry Vines can preach. I can do what God wants this preacher to do. You can do what God wants you to do. I don't know where it is, I don't know what it is. it really doesn't matter. All that really matters is that you let the Lord stir your spirit and you come and do the work of the Lord. I want to give you a verse of Scripture. Turn to Matthew 6. I want to give you a promise and I pray that it will not only be a promise, but it will be a probe to your heart. As we think about priorities and doing the work of the Lord and putting God's work first, verse 33 says, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." I have found that when people put God first, instead of a bag full of holes, I have found that God in His mysterious, miraculous way has a way of making things go a little bit further. Has a way of helping us meet our obligations. He has a way of seeing to it that we even have a few extras along in life. but it is all a matter of priority. Seek FIRST God's business. HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. When you get your priorities right, all these things will be added unto you. Go back to Haggai for my closing thought. The 14th verse says, "And they came and did work in the house of the Lord of host, their God." He tells us in verse 15 when they did it. "In the four and 20th day of the 6th month (September 24)." That is 23 days after the message the Bible says they came and did work in the house of the Lord. they took the time to go up into the woods as he had said and gather the materials. They get the debris out of the foundation of the temple. They organize themselves for the work. Then, on September 24 they drove a peg down. That was the day they got the selfishness out of their lives and that was the day they began to do the work of the Lord. This is June 24, 2001. Could this be? Would you make it the day when you committed yourself to get your priorities straight and committed yourself to do the work of the Lord.