DONE 210815 Haggai: Re-Prioritizing Christ

|INTRODUCTION

As I begin to set the stage for today’s message I would ask that you please open your Bibles to the book of Luke. 123 Luke 10 verse 38. Luke 10 records a fascinating encounter between Jesus and two women who were sisters. Their names are Mary and Martha. IMAGE

Luke 10:38–42 | 38 Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word.

40 But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? (ONE ONE THOUSAND - SHAKE HEAD) Then tell her to help me.”

41 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; 42 but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Today, we gather here in corporate worship of our Lord... We have chosen the good part! We have prioritized worship, we have come to rejoice together with other believers, our friends and our family to soak in the reality that we have been redeemed from sin. We want the good part, we want Jesus!

For an hour or so we have placed on the back burner all the chores, and cares and have chosen to honor God for His goodness toward us. We want what’s best and it won’t be removed from us. VERSE SLIDE When we seek the Lord with all our heart He will let Himself be found by us.

We read those words last week, from the Prophet Jeremiah. If you’ll remember, last week we covered a pretty large chunk of Judah’s history. We learned of the events leading up to the exile. How Jeremiah and Habakkuk, both warned, repeatedly of the judgement to come on Judah. The words spoken in Jeremiah 29 were sent to the people that had been deported from Judah. They would be away from their homes for 70 years… a lifetime. But when they turned back to the Lord He would let them find Him. |SCHEDULE SLIDE

Today we are picking up where we left off in Ezra last week. If you will remember we left off at around 538BC, 70 years after Nebuchadnezzar had deported the first of three waves of people from Judah. In 539BC the Babylonian empire had fallen to a new power, the Persians - led by Cyrus the Great. In Isaiah 45, the Lord calls Cyrus the Great, His anointed, His messiah, and says that He will make Cyrus unstoppable on the world stage… VERSE SLIDE ONE ONE THOUSAND

why? ONE ONE THOUSAND

All for the sake of His people, the people of Judah, the remnant. ONE ONE THOUSAND God has preserved His faithful ones through their captivity and now is going to return them to their home. He has put into power Cyrus the Great and He has given Cyrus an altogether different strategy than the Babylonians and the Assyrian rulers that preceded him. Now, instead of deporting all these conquered people groups and pacifying them by dispersing them throughout the kingdom, Cyrus the Great is going to choose a new strategy. He is going to let these peoples worship whoever they want, wherever they want… Well, that obviously included the people of Judah and in Ezra 1 we read: |VERSE SLIDE

Ezra 1:2–3 | 2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. |VERSE SLIDE 3 ‘Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem.|IMAGE

Cyrus has conquered the Babylonians in 539BC and has begun to return all these displaced people groups back home. One year after crushing the Babylonians, Cyrus the Great announces an edict, published on cylinders like the “Cyrus Cylinder,” that everyone is to go home. 50,000 of the displaced people of Judah are going home, led by the grandson of the last king of Judah, whose name is Zerubbabel to come home with one goal in mind - to rebuild the temple.

They know the reason why they were exiled, they have heard of their homeland, they have seen prophecy fulfilled literally before their eyes and they are not going to be another repeat of the same story seen over and over again in the Old Testament. Faithless Israel, unrepentant and doomed to judgment. SHAKE HEAD That’s not going to happen now. They want to go home and do things right and the very first thing they do when they arrive is to gather into Jerusalem and rebuild the altar |VERSE SLIDE

Ezra 3:3 | 3 So they set up the altar on its foundation,

That is a great start. Rebuild the altar and begin to offer burnt offerings. That is so good but the rest of verse 3 tells us that not everyone is happy that the Judean’s have returned home… The rest of verse 3 says that

|VERSE SLIDE for they were terrified because of the peoples of the lands; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening.

The next chapter, Ezra 4, tells us that the enemies of the remnant have counseled together and first tried to stop the work by infiltrating the people and asking them if they could “help build the temple too,” but Zerubbabel didn’t fall for it. He knows who they are and what they're up to. |VERSE SLIDE You see the people of Samaria had been planted there by an Assyrian king 100 years ago and were pagan syncretists. They worshipped God and idols…

When Zerubbabel rejected the offer for help from these enemies, |SCHEDULE SLIDE the enemies attacked at a different front, they sent letters and counselors against them to Cyrus and Cyrus’s son Cambyses and even Darius.... Eventually, the work stopped. The constant barrage of the enemies of Judah wore them down.

Ezra 4:24 Then work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

They stopped working on the temple for many years. ONE ONE THOUSAND

People got distracted with building their own homes - I mean they needed a place to live too, right? They became preoccupied with planting their own fields - which is understandable they needed food too, right? They started thinking to themselves… well, maybe we had it wrong, maybe it isn’t time for the Temple to be rebuilt. The thing they had started to build, this new Temple was puny, nowhere as majestic as Solomon’s. Maybe, the Lord doesn’t want the temple built after all… |BLANK SLIDE

WINCE, SHRUG I mean, they do have an altar, they do have the priesthood and as long as they stopped with the construction project they were more or less left alone by the enemies of Judah… LONG PAUSE ONE ONE THOUSAND ONE. SHAKE HEAD

Why had they been restored to the land? LONG PAUSE ONE ONE THOUSAND ONE

They had been restored to the promised land to re-establish the worship of YHWH and now under the threat of their enemies they had settled for second best… They had become distracted with life and they were unsatisfied, unfulfilled, wanting…

Why?

Because they had failed to prioritize the Lord in their life.

It is at this time the Lord begins to set them straight. The next verse in Ezra, Ezra 5:1 tells us that the Lord brought up two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah to confront the people of Judah about how they had set aside what He had brought them back to do. He wants them, the Lord wants them, to re prioritizing what He had called them to do.

That is our setting, that is the tone and the mood. Now, before we get into the what the Prophet Haggai spoke to the remnant, let’s ask the Divine author to guide us at this time.

PRAYER

Lord God, You alone are worthy of praise and honor. No one is better than You. No one is more compassionate and loving than You are. You stand above all in Your faithfulness to an unfaithful people. You are gracious and You keep Your promises. You fulfill Your prophesies.

You are worthy of all our honor, regard and worship. You deserve all the glory and every part of our attention. We want to give it to You this day. We want to worship You well. Today, now, we want the good part. We want time with You.

Please open our minds and fill our hearts. Satisfy us with Your good word. Help us to listen as Your Holy Spirit speaks through the Scriptures. Please focus our minds on what is important so we can worship You well. It is in Jesus’ name, and in the power of Your Holy Spirit, we ask these things, amen.

|SCHEDULE SLIDE

Please open your Bibles to Haggai chapter one. LONG PAUSE ONE ONE THOUSAND ONE.

The prophet Haggai has taken over the scene in Judea with a simple message from the all powerful Lord of Hosts, “Consider your ways...” “Consider your ways...”

“Consider your ways...” is also the main point of the message today, Haggai wants the people of Judah to “Consider their ways...” and I want that for us as well. I want us to evaluate ourselves and our desires by considering our priorities.

The point of the message is not to make us feel bad or ashamed or guilty, but to help us understand what we have been prioritizing and consider whether or not we have gotten askew.

I want us to evaluate and judge the people of Judah and then consider whether or not their worship reflects a stance similar to our current situation SHRUG or whether we are different and what we can do to prioritize the Lord better in our life.

Ironically we are actually approaching the anniversary of the very first message that is recorded from Haggai. 2 and a half millennia 2,541 years ago he preached to the Judeans on the 29th of August 520BC and this is what the Lord had to say.... No more excuses SLIDE

I. Summer 520 BC - No More Excuses! (Haggai 1:1-15)

I.a. The Lord’s challenge (Haggai 1:1-11)

Haggai | 1 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, 2 “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.” ’ ”

...The time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt...

Years had passed since construction stopped on the Temple. The exiles had been excited to return home and turn over a new leaf, do the worship of YHWH right... but when they got home, they were quickly turned off. They got distracted. Verse 3.

Deuteronomy 28 - King Josiah - Haggai 1:6, 10-11

3 Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?”

Haggai 1:10 - Zech 8:12 Not a recall back to an earlier writing but a use of Zechariah in later writing

Whoa… Ok… what? Paneled houses? These people that had been so excited to come home and rebuild the Temple had gotten distracted and begun to build themselves very nice homes.

Is this the time for that? That is an excellent question. Is now the time to focus on building yourself a luxury home when the whole reason you came home was to build a home for the Lord… Where is the priority in worship? Where did that excitement go?

They had abandoned the Lord’s command to rebuild the Temple and pursued earthly comfort. “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate? a waste, dried up, a shell, a nothing” Verse 5

Josh 1:6–9

5 Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, READ SLOW “Consider your ways! 6 “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.”

This state of “lack,” is designed, it is intended to make these people think, consider, ponder... 1 2 3 Think of what? Think of the Law....

Do you recall when we read about good king Josiah. How, 120 years ago he had read the recovered copy of the book of Deuteronomy and he tore his robes because he knew they were doomed.

What he had read in Deuteronomy spooked him so much and it jolted him to such extreme levels of reinvigorated dedication to the Lord. In Deuteronomy 28 there are 53 verses of curses for failing to prioritize the Lord. 53 verses of curses and these people of Judah, now… they are feeling just the beginning of them… They have sown much but harvested little, they eat but are unsatisfied, they cannot get drunk, they clothing doesn’t keep them warm and their money is dissolving before their eyes…

Jeremiah 22:24-30

Consider.... Consider your priorities, REASONING consider what you have agreed to do, consider what you have committed to doing. Think about it. They had committed to leaving the only home they had known in Babylon to follow the king’s edict to rebuild the temple and they had reneged, they had gotten spooked and dropped their tools.

In Verse 7 the Lord repeats the command ‘to think’ but now, through Haggai, He is going to provide explicit instructions.

7 Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways! 8 “Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord. 9 “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 - A WASTE, A DRIED UP SHELL, A NOTHING, while each of you runs to his own house.

Failure to prioritize, had led to a state of starvation which is just the beginning of the pain that the Lord will use to re-orient His people. They had gotten distracted from their original purpose...

What is it about the mundane and the ordinary, the routine tasks of life that sucks away our desire to obey the Lord. 1 2 3 It is so easy to get distracted isn’t it? It is so easy to get pulled in a million different directions if we have no goal, if we have no target, if we have no objective we are lost!

BEMOANING We are so easily distracted and without an intentional focus on the Lord and the mission that He has given us we will quickly fritter away the precious time that we have been given. |VERSE SLIDE Matthew 6:33 tells us

Matthew 6:33 | 33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

What things? Food, shelter, clothing, the necessities. Just what these Judean’s were focused on but couldn’t get… The Lord knows we need these things, but even more than these things, our greater need is to focus on Him.

You see, Creation’s overarching goal and purpose is to focus on its Creator. So, how is that going? For us... Is focusing on the Lord what defines our life… 1 2 3 or is it something else? A test… We need a test. A test to determine what our focus is and what our status is now.

How fulfilled are you? 1 2 3 Are you unfulfilled with your life? 1 2 3 Are you unsatisfied 1 2 3 Are you hungry for more? Consider your ways...

When was the last time you gave all your focus to the Lord? How long ago was it that you talked with Him and read what His word says? Has it been days since you showed Him the dignity and honor that is His due? How long has it been since you lifted your voice in praise to Him for all the things that He has done for you? Has it been a while?

You were made with purpose, you were made with intentionality to live in relationship with God, to commune with Him and those that He has made, you were made to worship Him… If you are unsatisfied with this life, consider… 1 2 3

Well in verse 10, the Lord, is going to remind them that He has brought about this state of lack in order to wake them up. Verse 10

10 “Therefore, because of you the sky has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 “I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of your hands.”

All of the pain available in Deuteronomy 28’s 53 verses of curses are available to use to get these people to wake up… It is time to wake up, it is time to consider their ways… 1 2 3 And they do SMILE They do it immediately

Amazingly, the remnant of the royal line of David, Zerubbabel, as well as the High Priest and all the people they all recognize the truth laid out here and they heed the prophetic word. In verse 12 we read about the peoples response | SLIDE

I.b. The people’s response (Haggai 1:12-15)

12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people showed reverence for the Lord. 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke by the commission of the Lord to the people saying, “ ‘I am with you,’ declares the Lord.” 1 2 3

14 So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.

The timing here is really quick. It takes the people just over three weeks to realize the legitimacy of the prophecy and the wisdom in it and they turn from their own priorities back to what they had been brought out of Babylon to do.

Three weeks… 1 2 3 Three weeks… 1 2 3 They considered and they changed.

In ministry and in my own personal life I have seen this take place. It seems like the biggest periods of change I’ve seen in people’s lives is when there is a message, a clear one, and then a short period of consideration and evaluation - usually intermingled with periods of doubt and negotiating with the Lord before we finally get our mind right and then… action!

We make up our mind and it cannot be changed. We have decided that obedience will define us and then there is no more doubt. Our faith is invigorated to action because we know that what the Lord has said, He will do. What He has called us to do, He will provide for. He wants all of our focus, all of our obedience and adoration… He has called us to center on Him… because He is worthy.

SMILE HMMMPH The response from the Lord when His people turn from self centeredness back to Him is one of encouragement because the work is hard… Verse 1 of Chapter 2 | SLIDE

II. Fall 520 BC To the Work! (Haggai 2:1-9)

1 On the twenty-first of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying, 2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people saying, 3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison? 1 2 3

On October 17th Haggai is dispatched to encourage the people and its leadership, because they are discouraged. There are a few old timers that can still describe Solomon’s golden temple and this smaller newer temple is like nothing compared to it.

They are discouraged. They turned from being self-centered and back to the Lord and yet the project is not glorious like they think it should be. Their effort is yielding a small result and they are deflated and dispirited. Also, remember the enemies of Judah are still scheming against them. They are demoralized.

Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt the clear calling of the Lord and responded and turned from what you wanted toward what He is guiding to and it starts off exciting and new and then it gets hard. It gets tough. It’s not easy and what it produces is small, puny, like nothing in comparison to what others have done. Have you ever felt that way? Discouraged… I have a special message for you.

Faithfulness is not measured by how great you are or how wonderful the results are that you produce. The Lord does not call everyone to prestige and honor. Not everyone builds a mega church or sees a hundred conversions in their lifetime. What does matter?

What matters is faithfulness… | VERSE SLIDE It is required of us, as stewards of the life and time and gifts we have received to be πιστός faithful or trustworthy. SMILE It is not required of us to build a grand temple so we can get the glory or to see a thousand souls won for Christ. Our mission is our commission. It is to faithfully go, faithfully teach the world what Christ has commanded, it is to faithfully make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit. | SLIDE That is what is required. So Haggai has a message of encouragement, YHWH is with them. Verse 4

4 ‘But now take courage, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord, ‘take courage also, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all you people of the land take courage,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ declares the Lord of hosts. 5 ‘As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear!’

How bullet proof would you feel if you knew that the Lord was with you in the mission that He has given you. How unstoppable would you be? You would boldly proclaim the gospel to your family and coworkers and the post man and to whomever. | VERSE SLIDE

But folks, that is just what Jesus said and it is what the Lord tells these people. “I am with you. I am with you until the end of the age. Believer, I want us to gain some perspective. I want us to consider something, there is an urgency to our work.

As a thought experiment, consider this. What if you knew, knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord was coming back in one hour. 60 minutes… 3,600 seconds… What if you knew that you had an hour left before He returned and raptured you and every other believer before the Great Tribulation began. What would you do?

I suppose some of you would re prioritize your life in a hurry. SHAKE HEAD

This is not like you are dying and have to leave some large estate and make sure you have an executor and a will etcetera. No, none of that matters… I imagine we would go and do our commission wouldn’t we.

It think its very likely we would truly repent of any sins that we are hanging on to in our lives and then we would very rapidly evaluate everyone that we were sure was unsaved and we would burn up every drop of juice in your phone’s battery calling and leaving messages. We would be in a hurry, a near panic to let them know, now is the day of salvation because the Lord is coming.

Today is the day of salvation. A day of grace a day of work when we are enabled by our Creator God to do His will empowered by His Spirit.

I ask you and I ask myself, do I believe this? If I do, then I will be busy... not like Martha was.... busy doing busy work and focusing on the horizontal… I would be like Mary focused on Christ and doing His work.

Consider your ways.

As I close I want to us to re-prioritize Christ. Turn with me if you would to the New Testament to Colossians 1 READ SLOW 123

Hebrews 12:26

Verse 21 Enhancement of Exodus 19:18

Colossians 1:13–18 | 13 For He (GOD) rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

Believer, Christian, Christ follower and worshipper, seek Him first. He will let you be found by Him. Seek His Kingdom and everything else will follow. Give Him the priority and the pre-eminence that is His due.

Let’s pray,