Priority Check
Priority Check
Haggai 1:1-15
Introduction
· Ivan McGuire died not a few years ago at the age of 35. His death at a young age was not due to an automobile accident or from terminal illness. He was not murdered, nor did he commit suicide. The skydiver forgot to put on his parachute before he jumped out of an airplane. McGuire, who aspired to be the best skydiving photographer in the country, evidently was so exited over filming some other skydivers that he just failed to put on his parachute. Since he was a veteran of over 800 jumps, he may not have been as careful as a novice would have been to check and recheck all of his equipment.
· Today is about beginning . . . Baptsim of our Lord . . . Beginning of his ministry. And we are beginning a new year; we're only 11 days in. So it seems to me that this is the proper time for a priority check.
· We want to be sure we putting first things first.
· Haggai 1:1-15
· That's what Haggai 1:1-15 is all about. So, as we walk through this passage today, let’s consider that:
1. God Cares About What We Put First
· The Lord isn’t oblivious to the daily lives of his people. He does notice where we’re spending our time, our money, etc. And believe me, he really does desire that we devote ourselves fully to him and his kingdom work.
· Background— As predicted by the prophets, citizens of Judah were deported to Babylon. There were three different groups exiled to Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzer II, the first being in 605 BC. And in 586 BC, the glory of city Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, and the third groups of Israelites were deported.. However, another strong ruler was busy amassing his own empire--Cyrus II. Cyrus had become king of Media and Persia in 549, and in 539 BC, fought a critical battle against the Babylonians on the Tigris river. He emerged victorious under the leadership of his general Ugbaru. In the following year (538) he made his famous edict allowing all peoples to return to their native lands.
· Cyrus Cylinder The Cyrus Cylinder (clay) was discovered in 1879 and rapidly became one of the most famous cuneiform texts. An edict allowing exiled peoples to return to their homeland. Housed in the British Museum.
· The biblical account of this edict is found in:
· Ezr 1:1-4 (NIV) In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing: “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you—may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’”
· The people began to rebuild God’s house in Jerusalem under the leadership of Zerubbabel, the governor and Joshua (Jeshua) the high priest:
· Ezr 3:8-9 (NIV) In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work, appointing Levites twenty years of age and older to supervise the building of the house of the LORD. Jeshua and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers—all Levites—joined together in supervising those working on the house of God.
· But then the building ceased. Why?
o Samaritans. The Samaritans had been left in the northern part of Israel and had intermarried with Gentiles who were placed in the area by the Assyrians. These folks wanted to help build the temple but the Jews would have no part in such a joint effort. So the Samaritans worked to stymie the efforts of temple rebuilding. A little sabotage.
o Political instability (They were living in the midst of a dog-eat-dog political landscape.)
o Timing. The time's not right, so the people said. Just an excuse.
· The true reason the building hadn’t resumed—priorities fouled up.
· Haggai: Scarcely anything is known of his personal history. He may have been one of the captives taken to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. He began his ministry about sixteen years after the Return (Easton's). But God had a word for his people, and he spoke it through Haggai, specifically to a couple of key people: Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah and Joshua, the high priest.
· Here's God's word through Haggai in a nutshell (v4): “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”
· Luxurious paneling which may have adorned the houses of the leaders and the more well-to-do people. [Paneled houses—lumber had to be imported.] NBC-This phrase implies prosperity and comfort, and that the building of their homes was complete.
· I suppose there are many reasons why we don’t put the Lord first. But the bottom line—it takes an act of our will to do so! There will always be obstacles.
· What putting him first means—not top of list—QT AM. Had my time in a devotional book. I prayed--I'm done. It's not putting God on the first line of a "to do" list and simply checking him off when we've done whatever--prayed, Bible study.
· Rather, putting him first means allowing him to permeate all your life . . . All you say. All you do. All you think. He is there.
· Doing your tax return.
2. We Lose When We Don’t Put God First
· The challenge—Give thought to (consider) your ways. HSCB: Think carefully
· 5-11
· You expected much,
o but see, it turned out to be little.
· What you brought home,
o I blew away.
· Why? declares the LORD Almighty.
o Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. You didn't put me first in your lives. I was not your priority. You were! But he's not through . . .
· Therefore, because of you
o the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.
o I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”
· To sum it up: He wanted his house built, but there hearts weren't in it. Rather they built their own fancy pads. So it cost them. Reminds me of a line from the Star Trek movie First Contact: Resistance is futile. We might change it a bit: Disobedience is futile. We think that we can have it our way--put ourselves first and all will be well. Nope, never as well as it will be when we give ourselves fully to the Lord-to his work-to his cause. True satisfaction remains elusive.
· I Can't Get No Satisfaction (Stones)
I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction
'cause i try and i try and i try and i try
I can't get no, i can't get no
When i'm drivin' in my car
And that man comes on the radio
He's tellin' me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what i say
I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction
'cause i try and i try and i try and i try
I can't get no, i can't get no
When i'm watchin' my tv
And that man comes on to tell me
How white my shirts can be
But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarrettes as me
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what i say
I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no girl reaction
'cause i try and i try and i try and i try
I can't get no, i can't get no
When i'm ridin' round the world
And i'm doin' this and i'm signing that
And i'm tryin' to make some girl
Who tells me baby better come back later next week
'cause you see i'm on losing streak
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what i say
I can't get no, i can't get no
I can't get no satisfaction
No satisfaction, no satisfaction, no satisfaction
Us? You bet! If we don’t put the Lord first we’re bound to lose. But wait a minute Danny, the Lord’s not really tops in my life and I do just fine. My crops don’t fail, my cupboard isn't bear.
· Granted your life might be OK. But your life will never be as rich without him as with him.
· God doesn't allow our lives to become a mess or less than the best because he wants us to be miserable. It's more that he does so to show us the way back to him. The way to true fulfillment.
3. He Responds in Presence and Power When We Do Put Him First
This story has a happy ending. Look at how the people responded.
Read v12—the people obeyed—they feared. The didn’t blow the Lord off. See that?
Now look at the wonderful response of the Lord.
“I am with you.” He stirred their spirits. He moved within them.
That statement--that assurance is really all we need: I am with you. When we stop and reflect upon who it is that is with us, then we come to appreciate what it means. Creator and Sustainer of all that is.
Conclusion
A passionate angler at an eastern Slovenian lake caught a fish so big that he drowned trying to reel it in the state-run news agency reported Tuesday. Determined to land the sheatfish, a type of catfish, the 47-year-old fisherman walked into the lake after hooking it and refused to let go when it pulled him under, the STA news agency quoted a friend of Franc Filipic as saying. The friend who was not identified said Filipic's last words before he drowned were: "Now I've got him!" Police and divers found his body after a two-day search. The fish was not found. (The Shreveport Times, 8/26/98)
Hymn #418 We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder