Check Your Heart

Do you have any unfinished projects sitting at home? Things that you have started but haven’t quite gotten around to working on or finishing yet? I do. I have a fiction novels that I have started writing in the summer of 2019, but haven’t touched in 2 years. I’ve even started another novel recently, but haven’t written anything in the last two weeks. But beyond those, I have this project on the go:

Show picture of Hannah’s wall

This is a wall in the house I rent in my daughter Hannah’s room. When we moved in, this hole did not exist, but somehow, through the miracle that is children, there it is. I am not sure how it happened or exactly when it happened. But I do know that I first noticed it a year ago. A week or so after I first saw it, I went out and bought a patch kit for it. I brought it home, opened it up, and quickly realized that the hole is a lot bigger than the patch I bought for it. I said to myself, well, I’ll have to go get a bigger patch. And almost a year later, I did just that. And I still haven’t fixed it yet. In fact, I’m not even sure where I put the patches I bought for it.

Every time I go up to Hannah’s room to get her up for school or to put her to bed, I see that hole and I think, “I really need to get to that soon.” AND IT’S BEEN A YEAR. The reality is that although I do want to get it done, it’s been a low priority in my mind.

And that’s the thing about priorities. We all have the same amount of time, but we all have different priorities. And although life gets busy, we always have the time for the thing we prioritize the highest. I’ve had a few conversations over the years where people will tell me, “I’d like to come to church, or to volunteer here, or to do that, but I just don’t have the time.” My response is always the same, “You do have the time, but those things you want to do are less important to you than the things you are currently doing.”

And when people start to get that, you can see a lightbulb turn on in their minds. They really want to build their marriage, but in their hearts, work is more important. They really want to give their kids a good spiritual foundation, but in their hearts, sports is more important. They really want to grow closer to God, but in their hearts, their comfort is more important.

Our lives are the results of the choices we make and the priorities we set. Where you are at in your relationships with others and with God is the result of your choices for good or for bad.

We are starting a new teaching series today called “Renew the Vision.” We are going to take three weeks to look through the book of Haggai, a short book from a minor prophet in the Old Testament. And the book of Haggai starts with misaligned priorities and unfinished project. So let’s read Haggai, chapter 1

Haggai 1:1–15 NLT

On August 29 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord gave a message through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: The people are saying, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.’ ” Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai: “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. You hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when you brought your harvest home, I blew it away. Why? Because my house lies in ruins, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, while all of you are busy building your own fine houses. It’s because of you that the heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops. I have called for a drought on your fields and hills—a drought to wither the grain and grapes and olive trees and all your other crops, a drought to starve you and your livestock and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.” Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of God’s people began to obey the message from the Lord their God. When they heard the words of the prophet Haggai, whom the Lord their God had sent, the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, gave the people this message from the Lord: “I am with you, says the Lord!” So the Lord sparked the enthusiasm of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the enthusiasm of Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the enthusiasm of the whole remnant of God’s people. They began to work on the house of their God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, on September 21 of the second year of King Darius’s reign.

May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word.

Pray.

Of all the things that the nation of Israel endured and did, the exodus from Egypt is the most important and it has defined the people for thousands of years. But second to that was the Babylonian Exile. In 586 BC, Babylon, which was in modern-day Iraq, led by King Nebuchadnezzer, obliterated Israel. Nebuchadnezzer had previously conquered Israel and pretty much had left them alone as long as Israel paid them tribute. But then the kings of Israel and Judah rebelled and so Nebuchadnezzer had had enough. With a much larger army than Israel had, Babylon made an example of Israel and after burning the temple, the royal palace, all the important buildings, they dismantled the stone walls that protected the city of Jerusalem. They also forced a third and final deportation of Jewish people, expelling most of them from Israel and transplanting them to Babylon.

Then, in about 539 BC, about 50 years later, King Cyrus of Persia conquers Babylon and then, in 538, God stirs his heart and he issues a royal decree, allowing the Israelites to return to Israel to rebuild the temple. And that is where the book of Ezra in the Old Testament starts. But wait. What does this have to do with Haggai? I’ll tell you in just a minute. So, according to Ezra, a group of Israelites travelled to Israel to rebuild the temple. They laid the foundation of the temple but then major opposition began to occur from some locals who were enemies to the Israelites. Well, Cyrus dies and Xerxes takes over and the persecution is brought to him. He dies and Artaxerxes takes over and Israel’s enemies write him a letter, saying how rebellious and terrible the Israelites are and he orders the construction to stop.

Ezra 4:24 says,“So the work on the Temple of God in Jerusalem had stopped, and it remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia.” The second year of Darius reign is about 18 years or so after Artaxerxes forces them to stop building the temple. For 18 years, the foundation has been there, left unfinished and the Israelites moved on.

I mention all this because this is the setting of the book of Haggai. Haggai’s letter takes place within the book of Ezra, described in Ezra 5:1 which says, “At that time the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem. They prophesied in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.”

So what happened in those 18 years or so? The people built themselves a life. They forgot about God and built luxurious homes for themselves and set about to make themselves comfortable. And there is nothing wrong with buying or building a nice home. That’s not what God was challenging them on. The point of this story is that they were wrong for neglecting God while they did it. This is a story about wrong priorities. They prioritized themselves over God. If they had built the temple and built the their houses, God would have been honoured. But they didn’t. They worshipped themselves, and not God.

And so what does God do? First he tries to re-align them with negative circumstances. Look at what it says in verse 6:

Haggai 1:6 NLT

You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!

I have to admit, I have never resonated with any line in the Bible like that last line, “Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!” But what is God saying? He is saying that he is the one responsible for their scarcity. And from our 21st century perspective, that seems a bit harsh, doesn’t it? But it was all part of the covenant the nation had entered into.

Deuteronomy 11:13–17 NLT

“If you carefully obey the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and soul, then he will send the rains in their proper seasons—the early and late rains—so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil. He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock, and you yourselves will have all you want to eat. “But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the Lord and serve and worship other gods. If you do, the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests. Then you will quickly die in that good land the Lord is giving you.

The covenant they were under stated that IF they obeyed God and followed his ways, God would bless the land and IF they disobeyed and turn away from God, he would cause scarcity. And for 18 years or so, those in Israel had broken the first commandment: ““You must not have any other god but me.” -Exodus 20:3. What god did they serve and worship? Themselves. And so God used the scarcity of the land to remind them of their covenant promise and to draw them back to himself.

The first thing he used to draw his people back to him was the scarcity in the land. The second thing was the prophets themselves. God sends Haggai and Zechariah to speak to them, to draw them back into that covenant relationship with God. And it works! They listen.

Haggai 1:12 NLT

Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of God’s people began to obey the message from the Lord their God. When they heard the words of the prophet Haggai, whom the Lord their God had sent, the people feared the Lord.

Often, God uses other people to speak his truth into our lives, to help us realign our lives back to him. But what really strikes me in chapter 1 of Haggai, is that their change in heart results in a change of action. They resume the construction of God’s temple. For too many of us, when someone speaks into us, we nod our head in agreement and we feel the rightness of what they said in our hearts, but we don’t translate it into action. We just keep doing the same thing over and over and it leads us to the same problems over and over.

This story in Haggai 1 is a great reminder that God wants us to worship and prioritize him, not ourselves and that when we are mis-aligned with God, he draws us back to himself. He did this for all humanity by sending Jesus to die on the cross, reconciling us to him when we put our faith in Jesus, God-incarnate who died and who rose from the grave three days later. And he does this for us as individuals by giving us the Holy Spirit to live in us, who, among other things, convicts us of our sin so we can turn back to God.

So, what would I like for us to do with this teaching today? I would like us to ask ourselves three questions that this passage brings up:

1. Are you prioritizing yourself over God?

Matthew 16:24–27 NLT

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds.

2. What is God using to re-align you back to Him?

Circumstances: Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

People: Ephesians 4:15-16 “Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”

Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.”

3. What will obedience to God look like for you?

James 2:14 “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?”

Conclusion

One of my wife’s favourite Bible verses is Ecclesiastes 5:1

Ecclesiastes 5:1 NIV

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

As followers of Jesus, our worship isn’t limited to an hour on Sunday mornings. We worship God in how we work, in how we do school, in how relate to others, in how we serve and in how we live. In all areas and at all times, we worship God. And the book of Haggai reminds us to check our hearts and to re-align ourselves to God by making him the primary focus of our lives.

Let’s pray.