002 A Crystallization of Discontent or A Holy Discontentment? (Part 1)
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1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest:
2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”
3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet,
4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.
6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.
8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.
9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.
10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.
11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”
1. God delivered a message to His people.
1. God delivered a message to His people.
1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest:
(1) A. The messenger and the message.
(1) A. The messenger and the message.
a. Haggai understood the authority of his message.
a. Haggai understood the authority of his message.
“The word of the Lord came”
This was not a message of self help, but one of divine origin.
The phrase “Thus says the Lord”, “The word of the Lord came”, or similar phrases appear 21 times in the 38 verses of Haggai.
Haggai is straight to the point - no long introduction.
He doesn’t give them an illustration to get their attention.
He knows he has God’s Word and that is enough.
Haggai is literally saying: “Here is what God said, now go do it.
The problem is, we often don’t.
We mull it over and find excuses.
We strategize and hypothesize and we find ways around it.
We americanize it and tell our selves that God couldn’t possibly expect that of me.
And we don’t just go do what God told us to do.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
a. Haggai understood the authority of his message.
a. Haggai understood the authority of his message.
“The Word of the Lord came...”
“By the hand of Haggai”
This is such a beautiful phrase.
This should bring us wonder and excitement!
When we put this phrase together it should cause immediate action in our lives.
God was sending a message to His people and He chose to use a human vessel.
Haggai was simply the conduit.
The one that the message flowed through.
God chose him, and all he had to do was be the mouthpiece for the message given to him.
We are no different!
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
a. Haggai understood the authority of his message.
a. Haggai understood the authority of his message.
We are to speak as the oracles or mouthpiece of God.
We are ambassadors for Christ - pleading with them as though Christ were pleading with them.
So Haggai understood the authority of His message.
b. Haggai understood the importance and the implications of his message.
b. Haggai understood the importance and the implications of his message.
Haggai was chosen by God to deliver a message.
What if Haggai had not delivered the message?
What would have happened to the temple?
What if Haggai decided the message was too direct and offensive?
What if he decided there was no way the people could do it so he simplified it?
What would have happened to the Jews?
What would have happened to the temple?
Haggai understood the importance of clear concise delivery and the eternal implications if he failed to deliver it.
We have been chosen to deliver a message for Christ.
It is an invaluable message with sever eternal implications.
What are we doing about it?
c. Haggai understood his role in the message.
c. Haggai understood his role in the message.
He was simply the one who carried the message.
It was not his job to make Jews obey.
He did not have to answer to God for the way it was recieved.
His responsibility was to deliver the message.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
c. Haggai understood his role in the message.
c. Haggai understood his role in the message.
Our role is to deliver the message. That is all Christ asks of us!
d. Haggai understood his stewardship of the message.
d. Haggai understood his stewardship of the message.
It was not HIS message.
It was an important message that God stewarded to Haggai.
It was not his to do as he wished.
It was not his to keep to himself.
It was not his to ignore.
He couldn’t tell God… well I don’t even know any Jews.
It wasn’t his to give when he got around to or when life’s circumstances became more convenient.
God entrusted him with a message and he had an immediate responsibility to deliver it!
15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
d. Haggai understood his stewardship of the message.
d. Haggai understood his stewardship of the message.
There is a message given and we clearly see the implications of not delivering the message.
(1) B. The recipients of the message.
(1) B. The recipients of the message.
The prophetic message was not given directly to all of Judah.
It was given to two people - however, it is clearly implied that the message is for everyone.
a. Zerubbabel the Governor of Judah.
a. Zerubbabel the Governor of Judah.
Zerubbabel represents political power.
He was given this position by Persia.
b. Joshua the High Priest.
b. Joshua the High Priest.
c. God sent the message to the leaders because He expected them to lead.
c. God sent the message to the leaders because He expected them to lead.
They themselves were apathetic thus allowing the people to become apathetic.
God called out the leaders and the leaders responded.
We will see that people making excuses.
The leaders make no more excuses.
They respond to the message given by Haggai.
They owned it.
They woke up and they woke the people up.
We need to understand this morning that you and I face the same call out by God.
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
c. God sent the message to the leaders because He expected them to lead.
c. God sent the message to the leaders because He expected them to lead.
If we believe that the Bible is the Word of The Lord then we have some things to think about ourselves...
We too have thus says the Lord or the Word of the Lord things to think about.
We have been called out by God...
Pastors , deacons, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, workers, bosses, older Christians, younger Christians, the saints.
The message was to the leaders and they were to lead the crowd.
We are leaders too! We need to lead our crowd no matter how big or small the crowd it.
A theme I kept hearing from Pastor at the conference was about the apathy of their people.
Yet they also said they spend all their time doing church things and with family.
7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
c. God sent the message to the leaders because He expected them to lead.
c. God sent the message to the leaders because He expected them to lead.
Obey your leaders, follow our way of life.
Remember that we are delivering to you God’s Word.
Not just pastors or deacons, but your disciplers as well.
Let us do it with joy and not groaning.
What does that mean...
Imagine if Zerubbabel and Joshua got upset with Haggai.
What if they told him he didn’t understand their situation.
That he didn’t understand their past.
What if they started telling Haggai how busy they were.
This helps us understand a passage we talked about last week.
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
c. God sent the message to the leaders because He expected them to lead.
c. God sent the message to the leaders because He expected them to lead.
As we dig into this study in Haggai, make a commitment with me that we won’t argue with God or make excuses.
I am making a commitment that I am going to listen to what God has to say to me during this study.
What about you? Are you willing to make a commitment that you will be quick to hear God and slow to speak back to Him with excuses?
Together can we respond like Joshua and Zerubbabel and eventually the Jews.
When God tells us to do something...
We don’t get a choice.
We don’t get to do it our way.
We don’t get to redefine it and make it easier to accomplish.
We don’t get let someone else do it and take credit for it.
Will we wake up, listen, then go do?