It’s Time to Consider Our Priorities
It's Time January 12, 2025 Haggai 1:1-6 Notes
The pressures, demands, expectations, and tasks that push in from all sides assault our schedules. Do this! Be there! Finish that! Respond to that email! Answer that text! It seems as though everyone wants something from us—family, friends, employers, school, church, children’s sports and activities… Soon there is little left to give, as we run out of energy and time.
We find ourselves rushing through life, attending to the necessary, the immediate, and the urgent. The important is all too often left in the dust. Our real problem is not the volume of demands or lack of scheduling skills, but our priorities—what is truly important to us?
In Haggai chapter 1:1-6, the prophet challenged the Jews who had returned from Babylonian exile to consider whether they were giving God and His house priority. We can consider whether we’re giving God and His Kingdom priority.
Audio
All right, good morning, church. It is good to see all of you here this morning. Happy New Year. I'm just getting back from my study break that I try to take every year.
I'm thankful. I'm thankful for a church that is generous towards me to allow me to get time to study. If you don't sharpen the saw, the saw gets dull. You can work with a dull saw and you don't get as much work done as you do with a sharp one.
Thanks for letting me go off and be with the Lord and sharpen myself. But I will warn you, if it's your first or second Sunday, our members already know that when I first come back from study break, I'm just a little out of control. I am just a little too full,
so, put your seat belts on. I have a lot to say today and I'm thankful. I'm thankful to you.
Thank you, church, for letting me go and be with God, to think about what we're going to do this year and to ask God for vision, fresh vision, fresh fire. He is always faithful. I'm also thankful for our teaching team. I'm glad that, when I'm away, we have a team that we've trained and work together with so that we don't miss a beat. I'm thankful for it.
We had Mike Laramee and we had Adam Purvis in my absence. I've watched some of their sermons. I need to watch the rest of them, but I know they did a great job as they always do. So we're thankful to them as well. Thank you, church.
Now, we're beginning a new series today, in case you didn't notice. Okay, we're getting started with “It's Time” because it is time to get busy for God. “To be strong, do the work and be fearless,” it says in the book of Haggai. That's our study right now. We're going to be going verse by verse through the book of Haggai over the next eight weeks.
We're starting today and this is our theme passage from Haggai 1:2; 2:4-5 (ESV) “These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord… Yet now be strong… Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord… My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.”
That's our theme for this passage. We're going to be going through the book of Haggai for the next few weeks. In 586 BC, the armies of Babylon destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, God's house, which was the symbol of his presence in Israel.
In 538 BC, King Cyrus of Persia overthrew the Babylonians. He invited the Jewish exiles, who had been there about 70 years, to return to their land. He was actually permitting them not only to return, but to rebuild and so, he had a favorable view towards them.
They traveled back and they began the work on their city, on the wall and on the temple. Once they had laid a foundation, it sat unfinished for 18 years. After a period of time, there was confusion about their priorities. They just didn't work on it anymore. So, it was at that time that a voice was heard in Israel from a prophet named Haggai, who came and spoke on behalf of the Lord.
He asked them to consider their priorities. “I want you to consider your priorities,” he essentially asked them. They were saying thata it wasn't time to build God's house, but God disagreed. In fact, he told them that it's the perfect time. It's actually the perfect time for you to be strong, do the work, and be fearless and build my house.
Although Haggai's a little book (it's only two chapters) you might think, Well, Gary, couldn't we knock that out today? No, we're going to take eight Sundays and you'll see why. We're going to dig down, we're going to drill down and really get all the good out of it. It's a little book, but it offers a big challenge and big promises. So, we're going to be taking our time through this little book that has big results.
Now, here's what it calls us to - it calls us to consider our ways, to consider our priorities. Now, I know what you might be thinking - Here we are at the beginning of the year, and you've already been thinking about 2025 and what does this year hold for us? You might be thinking, Man, you just don't know
all of the pressures, all of the demands and all of the expectations and tasks that push against me and against my schedule. Here you are, Pastor, asking me to reconsider my priorities. You would not believe the voices that tell me to do this, be there and finish that.
Respond to this email and return this text. I'm overwhelmed. I know that it feels that way. Often, it’s coming from family, it's coming from friends, it's coming from where you work, it's coming from the church, it's coming from your kid’s crazy sports schedule and all the things they're involved in. You are thinking, my goodness, I don't have enough time. The truth is, we all have the same amount of time.
The struggle we have might not be “busyness.” It might be priorities, it might be what we value, that we're not making time for that. We find ourselves rushing through life, attending to the necessary, addressing the immediate, trying to keep up with the urgent, but forgetting the important. This is because often our priorities need consideration. We're putting the wrong things first. But, the book of Haggai tells us to put God first, to put what really matters first.
Our values, our priorities are reflected in how we use our resources - our time, our talent and our treasure and how you use those. You can tell a lot about what a person really cares about, what they really put first. That's what the Jewish exiles were struggling with. They'd gotten their priorities out of order and they began to tell themselves, it's not time. The timing isn't right.
Someday when I get my life all together, then I will do this for God. The truth is that type of thinking, in case you didn't know it, you're never going to get your whole life together until you do put God first. But that's what they were dealing with. They were saying, maybe later, God. The timing isn't right today. But God said, ‘No, it's time.’
That's what we're talking about over the next few weeks.This is an eight-week sermon series, but it's also the launch of a three-year generosity initiative that we're calling, “It’s Time.” It's a time to fund our vision and to stretch ourselves in new and challenging ways in order to fund three different goals. One is to strengthen our community engagement. The second is to enhance and elevate our ministry capacity.
Then finally, we want to fearlessly lay the foundation for our future growth. Through “It’s Time,” God is calling us to partner with Him by investing ourselves and our resources in greater levels of commitment in order to saturate Rocky Mount, Wilson and all of eastern North Carolina east of 95. We even renamed our church, Eastgate, because we want to be a gateway for the gospel east of 95, that we want to reach our Judea, this region, because we think it's time to call God's people, to seek His house and His kingdom first. I hope you got one of these, I hope you got a journey guide, an “It's Time” journey guide.
Did you get one? If you didn't, would you lift your hand and our ushers will rush one to you.
I hope you'll get a journey guide and I hope the first thing that you'll do is take a pen and write your name in the front. I've got my name in front of mine. I want you to use this over the next few weeks. I want you to bring it to church with you with your Bible and use this to take notes in, to study, pray and evaluate your priorities, to consider your ways. We've given you this tool; our church put this together. We've got a great team that puts together graphics and content.
Now, I want you to notice a photo. We've got a family photo right at the beginning here. Did you see that? It is because the church is not the steeple. The church is the people.
You are the church; we are the church. In Matthew 16:16–18 (NIV) 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church…” So, Christ never asked us to build the church. He asked us to be the church.
If we'll be the church, Christ will build the church. When we talk about building God's house, we're talking about you; we're talking about this family photo that was taken at our Thanksgiving praise service earlier this year, earlier in 2024. I want you to take some time. You'll see the tabs.
We've got the vision about the generosity initiative. We've got a place for additional sermon notes. We'll continue to have a place in your bulletin, but this might be a home where you could really put your personal insights to how the sermon spoke to you. We have a six-week devotional that begins tomorrow morning.
There's five devotions per week for six weeks. We have Monday through Friday listed for you. Saturday and Sunday is your “catch up” time because we know we're living in the real world. If you get behind, you can catch up on Saturday and Sunday. There's a six-week devotional, there's a prayer section, a frequently asked questions section about “It’s Time” and a commitment guide.
Here's our goal during this series. It's not to raise money, but it's to raise your spiritual level of commitment, especially as it regards generosity, for you to grow in the spiritual gift of generosity. I'm convinced that if we agree to take the journey together, which is my challenge to you, that whatever God calls us to together, will be the number that God wants us to have. As your pastor, my major concern for you is that you stay on the journey so that we can grow together. 100% engagement.
Let me tell you what this looks like to stay on the journey. What does it look like for you to commit to this spiritual journey? Number one: Attend every Sunday over the next eight Sundays, counting today. You got started right? Here you are on Sunday.
I had people in the lobby telling me that they're so committed. Many of our family members, our church family are committed and I appreciate and love you so much for that. One of them said, ‘Hey, I'm having surgery in three weeks and I'll probably miss a Sunday.
I said, “Thanks for letting me know. But you can watch it online and you can still take your journey guide.” He was just letting me know that he was going to miss a Sunday.
That meant so much to me. Commit to do the six-week devotional that I just started, that I just talked to you about a minute ago. Start in the morning, January 13th. Commit to attend a community group. If you're new here,
a community group is what we call our home groups or our small groups that meet in homes during the week. If you'd like to be in one, check the box on your Connection Card and we will contact you and let you know how to get involved. Commit to praying our “It's Time” prayer. What's that? “Lord,
what do You want to do in and through me?” That's what I want you to pray this whole time, “Lord, what do You want to do in me about this gift, this character trait of being generous?” and then, “What do You want to do through me out of that?” Then finally, I want you to commit to respond to God's leading on February 16th. That's our commitment Sunday.
I want you to have a thoughtful process. I had several young people, teenagers, stop to give me money today in the lobby after the first service. I told them, “You didn't completely hear me. I'm not taking up an offering yet.
We will take up commitments in a few weeks.” They, already, were stirred in their hearts to give. I said, “First of all, don't give me money; put it in an offering envelope and turn it in, because I'm trying to retain
my integrity. It goes to God.” She learned something today, that we put an offering envelope actually in your bulletin. She said, “Oh, I didn't know that.”
Then, another little girl told me, she said, “I'm going to give $50 from my Christmas money.” God sees that. He sees your heart. He sees what you're thinking.
I didn't see that coming. You know, it's always true that children are more sensitive to God than we are as adults. Young people are more sensitive to God. I'm asking you, today, to
go on the journey. Just go on the journey. Today’s first sermon is, “Consider Your Priorities.” It's time to think through how you're organizing your time, talent, and treasure.
Is it the way God wants you to do it? That's all we're talking about today. So if you brought an offering today, please turn it in, that'd be great. That's your normal giving. But, what I'm talking about is our “It's Time” generosity initiative.
We're on a journey together. Okay, enough said about that. Now, what does this mean? Let me break it down. First of all, it's time to be strong in our community engagement.
Now, what I mean by community engagement, is making sure every man, woman and child in eastern North Carolina has repeated opportunities to see, hear, and respond to the gospel. That requires resources. That requires people's resources. That requires media, social media, traditional media, and all of that requires resources. So, that's our first goal of this initiative - to give above and beyond our normal giving in order to extend our community engagement.
Here's what we know: Our area is growing economically and in population. Nearly every Sunday, I meet someone, some young family that says, ‘We're trying to find a house here in Wilson. We thought we'd go ahead and start checking out some churches. We actually work in Raleigh, but we can't afford a house in Raleigh.”
That's something we're hearing more and more; that's a big thing right now that's happening. The other thing is, people are moving here because there are approximately 5,000 new jobs that are being opened. I've been reading this in the paper this year, in this season of new job opportunities. So, people are coming here.
Here's what we know: if people that are new to a place, they don't know anybody, they don't have family here and they are the most apt to say “yes” to the gospel. They feel vulnerable; they feel lonely. Somebody is being called and I think we're being called, church, to say “It's Time” for us to reach out
to those new people and to make room. So that's the first part of our initiative; to be strong and to strengthen our community engagement. The second is to expand our workforce to do the work of producing disciples of Jesus Christ who do kingdom work. We have these different categories. We have the category of people that will do it full time and it'll be their living.
That's the category that I'm in. Then, we have the people that are making a living over here, but feel called to kingdom work within the church or in the city. So, we need to grow in both of those categories and that requires resources. We believe that we need two more pastors just to maintain who we are now.
We're already behind in growing to take care of our people. Right now, we need a pastor in Wilson, an additional pastor. We need an additional pastor in Rocky Mount. The challenge is that our giving right now supports who we are now, but it doesn't support who we're feeling called to grow to be. Do you know what that means?
God's people, they stretch, they sacrifice, they evaluate their priorities, and they say that there's a season now that we're being called to expand our workforce. We're going to do the work. Now. Here's the third one:
To be fearless in laying a foundation for future growth. Now, what do I mean by that in Wilson? Here's what I mean: In 2019, we had an earlier generosity initiative that we said we were making room for more. If you were here, then you know that you miraculously brought in from the Lord's provision what was needed for us to remodel next door and do The Gathering Place.
We had already remodeled the new children's wing. We redid the bathrooms, the lobby and the new children's nursery area, all within this building that used to be the Regal Cinema, that we bought in 2010. Little by little, we said that we're making room for more. So now, we have two services every Sunday;
we have a service at 9:15 am and 11am in two venues. If we hadn't done it, we'd already be turning people away, or we would have had to add a third or a fourth service. Okay, so we do have some empty seats in here, but if we hadn't done that, we'd be packed.
Here's what happens, if people pull into the parking lot, they come in here and they can't find a seat, they won't come often. They'll come a couple times and
then decide, We probably should find a church where they let you sit down. But we've already done that; we don't need to expand the building right now, but we do need to start saving some money for phase three from our master plan, which is a future worship center.
We don't need a new worship center right now, but we will as we grow. Wise people begin to think, If our family's this size, we need to plan for a future home. So, the third thing for Wilson then, is to set aside funds to start laying the foundation for that future worship center. That's not quite yet. We need to fill this place up first.
Okay, that's Wilson. In Rocky Mount, we rent a storefront and the appearance there has declined somewhat. It has become a little bit harmful to our growth. Whenever they brought the UHauls in and started parking them all in front of the parking lot, it hurt our visibility.
So, we've been praying about that. God, what do you want us to do there? A miraculous opportunity has come to us.
There's a church in Rocky Mount that's buying another building and they're moving out. They're moving out in the next few weeks. The building is only five years old and it was built to be a church. It wasn't built to be a movie theater.
We've been over here trying to remodel this ever since we've been here. This building in Rocky Mount was built to be a church, and it's just perfect for who we are right now. It would probably cost us 4 or 5 million dollars to acquire and build this property if we had to do it ourselves, but they're willing to sell it to us and they've agreed to sell it to us for $1.2 million. We can have a property that is valued five times that amount.
That's a miracle, isn't it? So, that's the three: Be strong at community engagement, do the work of growing our workforce, and be fearless about taking advantage of laying a foundation for future growth. Here's our goal, our financial goal that we're praying to God to do through God's people over the next three years is that we would commit to raise an additional $1.5 million above our normal giving.
This will help us accomplish these three goals. The reason we're going on this journey has nothing to do with that money.. If you'll go on this journey together, all of us together, over the next eight weeks, whatever we commit to, that'll be God's number.
If you commit to go on the spiritual journey together, this journey of generosity, growing in your generosity, then whatever God calls you to, I'll be happy. I'll be happy, because this is God's church. It is not my church; it is not your church. He's the pastor; He's the head shepherd.
I'm an under shepherd. Jesus is over this church. What we learned during our last time through this was we went above the amount through His people. So, that's our goal.
One of the really great benefits of all of this is that we're going to grow in our discipleship. Well, that was a long introduction. I did promise you I was going through the book of Haggai. We're going to pick up at Haggai, chapter one, verses one through six, and we're going to talk about how Haggai was challenging this church, this people, God's people, to get busy with their priorities. In this book of Haggai, He challenged the Jews who had just returned from Babylon to consider their priorities and their giving towards His house.
I believe today we can look and say, ‘How are we setting our priorities according to the kingdom of heaven, according to God's house? As we look at it, I think we'll see three reasons why we should consider our priorities towards God's work and God's kingdom. Let's look. Haggai 1:1-6 (ESV) 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.” This is God's word. Amen. We're looking for three reasons why we should consider giving God and His kingdom priority. Here's the first:
1. Because God calls us to seek His Kingdom first.
God calls us to seek His kingdom first. We're going to drill down on the first couple of verses. This part is about whether or not it's time to put God's house first, to put God first. Ironically, Haggai offers us the clearest timing for the writing of any book in the Old Testament.
He comes right out of the gate and tells us that it was the second year of Darius. It was the sixth month of the year, and it was the first day of that month. That's some of the most accurate dating of any book in the Bible. We can really nail it down very clearly because we have extra biblical material that tells us what year that Darius the Great, king of Persia came into power and so, we know this was written in 520 B.C.
We know that 500 years before Christ, Haggai was written. We know it was written on the first day of the sixth month according to the Hebrew calendar, which was the Hebrew month of Elul, which would coincide with August, September. In our calendar, they follow a lunar calendar that begins with Passover, and we follow a Gregorian calendar. So, you have to work that out between the Hebrew calendar and the modern calendar.
So, he said on the first day of Elul, which is about August or September. Who is this Darius the King? He's Darius the Great. He reigned from 522 to 486 BC. He continued the benevolent policies of King Cyrus and he continued to be favorable towards the Jews, in fact, encouraging them to rebuild their temple. Who is Haggai the prophet? Well, we don't know anything about his parentage.
He doesn't tell us anything about his lineage. We can suppose that he was probably born during Babylonian captivity, during the exile of the Jews, probably born in Babylon. So he appears on the pages of Haggai without reference to his past. The only thing we know about Haggai is, he tells us he's a prophet from God and that the word he gives, he gives by his hand, that the Lord speaks to him through the hand of Haggai, which is a wonderful way of describing that. He's a mediator of the message.
He's not the owner of the message. He's just telling the people what God told him to tell the people. Which, by the way, is the definition of what a preacher's supposed to do. I'm not supposed to tell you what I think; I'm supposed to tell you what God's word says.
I'm supposed to do my best and I pray that you'll pray for me for that, because that's always my desire. That's why I go away to study. That's why I spend time doing that is so I can tell you what I heard God say to me. And so when I'm preaching, I almost visualize myself as sitting in the front seat hearing what I'm saying because I'm a recipient as well as you.
But he says that the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai. You might say, ‘Well, that points to the fact that he wrote it down for God.’ Or you might say, ‘No, it's just speaking to the reality that he didn't come up with these words. He's just handing them off.’
You know, I often tell you that the gospel is good news and all I am is a newspaper boy. I just roll it up, put a rubber band on it and throw it up on your front porch. Now, if you don't open it and read it, that's on you. But I'm throwing it as hard as I can.
That's what Haggai's doing. By the hand of Haggai, he throws it up there. Now, who are the two guys that God tells him to write it to? He says to write it to, in verse one, “Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.” I want you to address it to the two authorities in Israel, to the civil authorities and the spiritual authorities, and then to the people, because you have to get the authorities in alignment with this so that they're under God. He addresses Zerubbabel. Now, what does the name, “Zerubbabel,” mean?
Well, it's kind of easy to guess. It's got “babel” in it, so his name literally means “sown in Babylon.” That baby was born in Babylon. That's what it means.
Zerubbabel. Now, Zerubbabel is from the house of David. If the Babylonians had not overthrown Judah, he would have been on the throne of David. He'd be the king. He's not the king because of that,
but there is a favor that he's experiencing and Israel's experiencing. Under King Darius, he's allowed to be governor. So, he's governor. He's not king.
He should be on the throne of David, but he's not. Zerubbabel was born in Babylon. He's in the lineage of David, but he's not going to be the Messiah. We’re going to have to wait 500 years for him to show up; that's Jesus.
Now, who is Joshua? Joshua is born to the tribe of Aaron. He's supposed to be a high priest, but he doesn't even have a church. He didn't have a temple.
This is really when the synagogue system began. It began in Babylon and then continued so that during Jesus’ day, there are these synagogues all over the place. They finally do have a temple rebuilt by the time of Jesus, but they had to have some meeting place. So, there's a preacher without a church, without a building. I know what that feels like.
Been there, done that. Here's what they're saying - God hears what they're saying. He hears how they're working out their priorities. He knows how we're doing that, too. He says to tell the people,
in verse 2, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” They're saying, ‘Lord, I feel like it's still my time, not Your time. I need some more me time.’
That's what they're saying and He hears them. He tells them, ‘I've heard what you're saying and how you're setting your priorities. You're putting yourself first. I hear what you're doing.
I know what you're doing. I hear you.’ Notice, He doesn't call His House, the temple. He calls it “this” house. It's like He puts them beside each other. He later says, ‘You've been saying it's time to build your paneled houses, but it's not time to build My house.
It's like you've been putting your house ahead of My house. He's not saying he doesn't want you to have a house; He's just saying you're supposed to put His kingdom first.
This is what Jesus is teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, Matthew 6:33 (ESV) “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” If you put Him first, everything you need will be given to you. It'll be added to you. It doesn't make sense.
It's upside down thinking if you consider worldly thinking, but it's true in the kingdom. It's true for kingdom citizens who have followed King Jesus. If you put Him first, He'll take care of you. While I was on my study break, one of the things I did was evaluate my priorities and the church's priorities and just think about everything we're doing.
I often start with myself and my own family; I often use Luke 2:52 as a guideline. Luke 2:52 says that Jesus grew in stature with God. He grew in stature and He grew with God. He grew in favor with God and men. He grew mentally, physically,spiritually and socially: four categories.
I'll look at those categories and say, ‘Okay, mentally, how can I grow? What books do I need to read? Is there something physical? I got to write this down again this year; I need to lose weight. I need to do this. Maybe I need to have this looked at by the doctor.’
Things I don't like to do, I'll write them down and say, ‘Okay, Lord, I'm listening.’ I probably need to do that. I remember one year, I was challenged socially. I felt the Lord challenged me on getting to know the children in my family that were by marriage, my daughters in law, for instance. They know me, Lord, but He wanted me to get to know them better. This was several years ago.
So, during my break I wrote a priority down: I wrote down a plan. Just knowing your priorities, you've got to come up with a plan or you won't do them. So I wrote down, ‘I'm going to call Nicole,’ which is my son Jonathan's wife. I'm going to make a date with her to go out to lunch. So, before I even left my study break, I'd already sent her an email, ‘Hey, let's meet at such and such restaurant for lunch.’
This started a lot of phone calls; she immediately called my daughter, Erin, who's sitting down here right now. Then, she called my other daughter in law, Caroline. Then she called my wife and she asked, ‘What's this about? What does he want?’ They all call me “the dad,” so she asked, ‘What does the dad want?’
None of them knew. Of course my daughter says, ‘Well, he didn't call me first. What's that about?’ That's what she said. I caused all kinds of problems trying to follow the Lord.
That'll happen to you, too. Anyway, Nicole was worried sick; when we got to the restaurant, her hands were shaking, literally. I said, ‘Honey, this is what I wanted you to know. God really put this in my heart that I'm supposed to treat you not like a daughter in law, but like my daughter. I want you to know that anything I can do for you I will. I'm your dad. I know you've got a real dad, but I'm your dad too.’
See, this is what can happen. You get along with God and you start rethinking your priorities. You start doing what's important to the kingdom rather than just what's urgent when you're trying to keep the fire at bay.
So it's time to be strong in putting God first. It's time to seek his family first, his kingdom first. That's what these guides are for; stay in them, work through them. Over the next week, be drilling down on where you are at, how you are prioritizing your time, talent and treasure. Think about it. Am I generous?
Am I serving? Where am I in God's kingdom right now? What's He calling me to? Okay, that was our first reason. Here's our second:
I gotta go faster.
2. Because God works through those who put His Kingdom first.
Here's the second reason: Because God works through those who put His kingdom first. We're at verses three and four now; The Lord had pointed out that although they didn't think it was time to build His house, they did apparently think it was time to build their own houses. He points out that they have a particular kind of house
and he goes on to describe that. But first, let's just notice what he says in verse five, because this is key. He says, “Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.” That's really where we got the title of this message - to consider, to reflect, to think deeply about how you've been ordering up your life.
I want you to consider your ways. I want you to think about it, because here's what you've been telling yourself, It's not time for the Lord, but it is time for me.
That's how you've been thinking. You've been thinking that would bring you happiness, that putting yourself first would make you happy. What's happening is it's not satisfying you, it's not making you happy that you're wanting this time for yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses. Verse 4 says, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”
Okay, what's wrong with having a paneled house? Well, there are really no trees that you can get lumber from in the area of Jerusalem. I've been there. Several of you have been there on tours with me. There's a lot of rocks, but not a lot of wood.
In fact, all the way back to David and Solomon, they had to deal with the king of Tyre to bring the cedars of Lebanon down at great expense in order to build the temple and to build David's palaces, to panel them. Only wealthy people had paneled houses because wood was so expensive. Apparently, what was going on was that they'd been there 18 years now. They weren't just living in tents, they built their stone houses because there's stones prevalent now.
They're paneling, they're putting in Jacuzzis. People, I mean, they've got dishwashers. They're putting in all the luxury now. It's still not quite time for God.
Later, God, I'll get to you later. Do you see? I'm so busy. I'm just so busy right now. So, God's at the end of their priority list.
If I have anything left over, it's Yours. I just hadn't anything left over yet, God. He's making them aware of it. He's letting them know.
He points it out.
I remember this verse from some years ago. I've known it for most of my life as a reader of the Bible, but it really meant something to us in the early days of the church. It is Matthew, chapter nine,
Jesus is speaking. Matthew 9:37-38 (ESV) Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” I can remember when I was having a quiet time, I was reading and it hit me differently. Have I done this?
First of all, do I believe it? Do I believe the harvest is plentiful, that there are lost people outside that need to hear the gospel? Do I really believe that? Or do I think, You know, they’re
resistant. What do I believe, because He says the harvest is plentiful? It's also in John; he says it another way. In John, he says that the fields are ripe unto harvest, that they're white.
“Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to send workers.” So I said, Robin, we need to start praying. And I was just like, man, if you visited our church for the first time. Now, don't get terrified if you're visiting for the first time today, but back in the day, back in the 90s, when we were still portable, renting space from Forest Hills Middle School and setting up and tearing down, if you showed up, I would be at your house that afternoon if I could. I would ask you, “Hey what’s up? Did you like it? Do you want to jump aboard? We only had one service.
We knew everybody in church. We knew you as a first timer. We could spot you as soon as you took a seat.
We were desperate for help. Every Sunday, I was taking my whole family to church early, unloading the van that we had named “Bertha.” We'd unload Bertha and we'd set up sound equipment and nursery equipment. I would carry a change of clothes because I would sweat so much. I would change in the bathroom there at Forest Hills Middle School and put on another set of clothes. I was also the worship pastor. I would put my guitar on.
I would think, Lord, is this true? We started praying, “Lord, we're working as hard as we can, but we haven't been working as smart as we can, because You gave us another word. You said to pray for more workers.” Then, you people start showing up.
Y'all start showing up. Oh, thank the Lord. Thank the Lord.
He works through those who put His kingdom first. Now, not everyone did. Some people continued to sit, and they needed to grow. They needed to “percolate” a little bit. Maybe that's you today.
But, others decided, It's time for me to get generous with my time, talent and treasure. It's time for me to plug in and answer the prayer that Jesus taught the church to. Pray the fields are white unto harvest. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to bring workers into the fields. He's calling us to work.
He wants more workers. We need to do the work. Be strong and do the work. Here's number three:
3. Because God satisfies those who put His Kingdom first.
God satisfies those who put His kingdom first. We're at verses five and six now. We've worked through the earlier verses. 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.”
Take a look at how you've been doing. You've been trying to make yourself happy by acquiring things, by meeting your needs. How's it turned out? Are you fulfilled? Are you satisfied?
Are you happy? He says, ‘You've sown much, but harvested little.’ You've been investing in your 401k and it looks more like a 101k.
You eat, but you never have enough. You don't get satisfied.
You drink, but you never have your fill.
You clothe yourselves, but no one's warm. You're not satisfied. Houses, clothing, food, drink. All your needs are being met and there's still something missing and when you earn wages, you put them in a bag with holes in it.
Can I get a witness on that one? They had inflation, apparently, back then, too.
He says to consider this and consider the possibility. That system of priorities is not working. It is not making you happy, it's not making you satisfied. It's not leading to that which is truly life. Truly life.
They take an annual survey. It's a psychological sociological group, it's not a Christian group. They take this annual survey of the nations, the peoples of the world, and they ask them this series of questions about their level of contentment and happiness. Did you know that America comes out way down at the bottom every year? Those nations that are in the third world, like Uganda
(those of us who have been to Uganda know this) these African nations and other places where they don't have much,they're happy. Have you ever noticed how the more you have, the more worried you are about what you have? You fall in one of two ditches: you either fall into the “greedy ditch” where you're never satisfied,
so you keep trying to get more. Or, you fall into the “worry ditch,” afraid you're going to lose what you have. I'm afraid to be generous because I grew up with a depression kind of thinking or I had an experience growing up that had lack and so I'm afraid or over here, I've never said. And so instead of living generously and so Americans, we have the most. We're the most wealthy country in the world, but we're also the least happy. Sounds just like these people that Haggai's talking to.
It says in 1 Timothy 6:17-19 (ESV) 17 “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” You're not, you're not, you're not experiencing true life. You're not enjoying what God's given to you.
The most joyful people that I've ever known are the most generous. Have you ever noticed that? I remember on my mother's side, I had an uncle named Uncle Gene. Uncle Gene was a builder, a contractor. He built houses and did commercial work too. He built churches. Every time he would do a job for a church, he would always do it for less. He might say, ‘Well, we'll do it for what it's costing us plus this percentage, but we don't want to make a lot of money.’
It seemed like no matter how much money he gave away, he would always get wealthier, but he didn't care. You've heard this before, “He'd give you the shirt off of
his back.” That's just the kind of person he was. He was always happy; he was always kidding around. It was so much fun to be around him. .
My father died when I was eight years old. My mom had a nervous breakdown. She was unable to take care of us for the first year. We moved in with my Uncle Geneand Aunt Jeri; we lived with them in Wayne, Michigan, for most of my third grade. Uncle Gene didn't ask questions, he just took us in.
When I was grown, married and starting to have children, I remember I would come in to see my Uncle Gene and he would always hug me. ‘How are you doing, Gary?’ Uncle Gene had these big old hands. He had hands like baseball mitts from doing all that construction work. You could take the ring off of his finger and wear it as a bracelet.
I mean, this man had big old calloused hands. He would shake my hand and his hand would engulf my hand. There would, invariably, be something in his hand.
I would look and it'd be a hundred dollar bill. I would tell my uncle Gene, “I have a job now. I'm married. I have kids.”
He would say, “I know, but you take that little Robin out and get her a steak or whatever she likes. Y'all are doing so well. I'm so proud of you.” You couldn't shake his hand without getting money.
Do you know anybody like that? Misers are miserable, but givers are glad. Do you know a generous person like that? I want to be like that because Jesus was like that. I want to be like that,
don't you? That's what this journey is about. We want to grow in our generosity. I want to be like Jesus. We're called to be like that.
My uncle Gene, you could see Jesus in him. He's with the Lord now. I don't know if you're watching Uncle Gene, but you meant a lot to me. I want to be more like that. Now, if you're going to shake my hand in the lobby, I left my wallet in the office, so I'm sorry. I'll shake your hand,
but there won't be any money in it. Maybe next Sunday.
You won't believe how many people shook my hand in the lobby after the first service and looked. So, I thought I'd go ahead and tell you that I left my wallet in the office. Okay, it's time to be fearless in our generosity, knowing that God truly satisfies. Misers are miserable but givers are glad. Speaking of giving, the greatest giver and the source of the greatest joy is Jesus.
He gave His life on the cross, paying our sin debt that we couldn't pay and rose again on the third day, overcoming sin, death and the grave. He lives today, calling us to Himself to be kingdom citizens and Him as king. Have you given your life? Have you bowed the knee of your heart to Him, putting His kingdom first?
He calls us to this, to seek Him first, to work for Him, to put Him first, to be satisfied in Him and to know that which is truly life. Let's pray. Lord, thank You, first of all, for Jesus, that He's the greatest giver, the most generous of all and we want to grow in following Him. I pray for that person that's here this morning that's never given his life to Jesus.
If that's you, would you do it right now? Would you consider your ways and consider Jesus? Would you say, ‘I admit that I'm a sinner, that I'm not fulfilled. I'm not happy. I need help. I need a Savior.’
That's how it starts, just admitting that you're a sinner, that you need help, that you need rescue. Just say, ‘Lord, save me. I believe in Jesus. I believe He died on the cross for my sins, that He was raised from the grave and that He lives today. Come and live in me.’
I invite You to be my Lord and Savior. If you prayed that prayer of faith, believing, He'll save you and make you a child of God. Others are here and you're a believer, but you got your priorities out of whack and you know it. You knew it the whole time
you were hearing from the Word today. But God, He already forgives you in Jesus and He wants to energize change in you. It begins with repentance. Would you just repent and say, ‘God forgive me afresh? I repent.
I want to turn from that and I want to make it my priority to seek first Your kingdom.’ I pray it now in Jesus' name, Amen.
Audio
Good morning, church. Thanks for being here this morning. We're so thankful for you. It is time. It's time to be strong and do the work and be fearless together.
I want to begin with one thing, just a little bit of a sort of an announcement style kind of thing. Did anyone in the room do the one year Bible with us this past year? I didn't have. Did you do it, Randy? All right, come up here, buddy.
I got a gift for you. Alright. Hey, we, you know, it's a little thing, but it's a good moment. So does anybody have a camera? No one in the room.
No one in the room has a single camera. That's crazy. They're denying it. Randy. Good job, man.
Y'all give Randy a hand. He read the Bible last year. Oh my goodness. Thanks, buddy. Hey, we're getting back on the Bible bus again this year together.
This is a good opportunity to study God's word. Get yourself a good reading plan. And we're going to be spending time together over the next few weeks in this book. So first of all, did everyone get one of these on the way in? If you didn't, we'll get you one right now.
We're going to be going through this together. This is an opportunity for you to follow along over the next few weeks as we dig into its time together. We're going through the book of Haggai and we're trying this morning to consider our priorities as we dig into the first chapter of Haggai. This is all based around what God said through the Prophet in Haggai 1. It says, these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord yet.
Now be strong work, for I am with you, declares the Lord. My spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. In 586 BC, the armies of Babylon came into Jerusalem and destroyed almost everything, including the temple there in Jerusalem, the very place where God's presence would fall and be with the people. And so they were in exile for somewhere around 70 years.
And in 538 BC, this king named Cyrus of Persia overthrew Babylon and was more of a benevolent ruler and started to send the people back. He gave them permission, the Jewish exiles, to return back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. But we are about to enter into this realm where the people have been there for somewhere around 18 plus years and no work has been done yet on God's house. And due to opposition and confused, really confused priorities, they've been sitting on this project. You can read more about this in Ezra Chapter four.
And now we get this message from the Lord where he spoke through the prophet Haggai saying it's time to be strong and do the work and be fearless. This is a little bitty book. You're going to find it fascinating how very particular I'm going to be going through this two chapter book that's going to take us eight weeks. And so this is amazing that we're going to spend a great deal of time in this little bitty, little bitty book. But the reason for that is it's filled with challenge, it's filled with promise.
I think you'll, you'll be blessed as we study it together. God wants first place. I've heard it said this all my life. God is either Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. That's really true.
If you've decided there are certain aspects of your life that, yeah, I'm not going to give him that, then you're not really giving him your life at all because he's interested in touching and being a part of every little aspect. And what you might be confused about is thinking that that's going to be somehow detrimental to you, that there's this thing that God's going to take and it's going to not work out. But the opposite is true, that when you give God all, you start to really understand your purpose and meaning and all of that in your life, that things begin to shape up. And you might be asking today, like, what about if I'm to give God first, if I'm to be strong and do the work and be fearless, what about all of my life's demands and all the pressures? And some of you have a lot more than others.
Some of you are really experiencing a lot of task after task after task pushing, assaulting your schedule, if you will. There's people in your life saying, do this, do that, be there, finish this. Answer this email. I just texted you, I see your little read receipt, but you haven't responded yet. I'd recommend turning that off.
That'll kill you. Answer, answer, answer. Finish, finish, finish. And everyone wants something, everybody wants something from you. And it's.
I think what I've observed is the older I've got, the more it's true. I have four children. They all need, need, need, need, need. And their schools need, and my job needs, and my church needs. And so all of those, they're not bad things.
But before long, I find myself rushing, rushing, rushing through life. And God is nowhere in there because he's different. Than everybody else that's texting and emailing. His voice, soft. He's that calm wind at the end.
He's not one of the ones that's blowing my phone up, but he's the one I need first. Isn't that interesting? The thing I need most is this quiet thing that I have to seek God. Most of us, we say with our lips that God is number one, but we've relegated him somewhere way in the back of our to do list. He's way back there and it's because his voice isn't as loud as the chaos of this world.
This is what's happened to the people of God. Then it's what happens to the people of God. Now. You may look at the problems of haggai and of the Old testament and think, whoa, that's unique. That's odd.
They're not unique. Make. It's the same stuff. Life gets busy. They're building their homes, they're working on their farms and they're forgotten about God.
They've forgotten about their obedience to what he's called them to our real problem friends. It's not the volume of the demands. This is humanity. This is what it means to be a human in this world. There's so much.
Every day I've observed something. I don't know if it's hit you. Every day you, your body gets hungry again. You notice this a couple times a day, right? Every day it's like, man, I get tired all over every day.
There's things I got to do because I got to work so that I can eat because this thing keeps asking for more food. The demands have been constant throughout our existence. There will always be a need for work and for all these various things. But it's not the volume of our demands. It's.
It's our priorities. What is truly, truly important to us. This is reflective in the way that we spend our resources, our time, our talents, the things we're great at. Our treasure, our money, that's a part of it. But all of these things are incorporated and they're reflected in our priorities.
And so if you spend all of your time doing this, that's a good indication that that's number one for you. Maybe you're thinking, hey, I'm a full time mom. That's where I spend most. That's great. But I'm going to challenge you.
Today is before you start the day with little ones. Start the day with him before you start the day heading off to work. Start the day with the Lord. It Starts with seeking his kingdom first, seeking God first. We're going to be looking at how God is saying to us the same thing he's been saying to his people for thousands of years.
It's time. There's no reason to wait any longer on getting serious about walking with the Lord. I said this last week. I would hate to live my whole life not knowing the One who made me. To live my whole life not activated to do the thing that God has created me for.
And I'm best at that. Somehow I would just mosey through life rather than experience what God has designed for me. The only way I'm going to know that is to seek his kingdom and him first. So we're going to be spending several weeks together on this. Now.
This whole thing is a big deal. It's a big deal for our church. Some of you have been on board with us for a while. We're in our 10th year and some of you have been here those 10 years. Some opportunities have presented themselves that we are getting after its time is a three year generosity initiative to fund our vision for our city, to reach the city, to elevate our ministry capacity and to lay a foundation for future growth.
Those are the three things we're trying to do over the next three years together that we would reach the people in our city, be prepared to reach them and grow into a new facility which I'm about to mention. God is calling us to partner with him. It's time to hear God's call to seek his kingdom. So we've got the journey guide. You can look right away, open it up.
You'll see this cool picture up front. A lot of you were here on that Sunday, Sunday night. That's the Thanksgiving praise service. That's the best picture we have at the moment of our two campuses together. We had another one of us out at picnics.
We do a couple of these kind of photos every year. This is God's church and our church. Some of you may not really be tracking. This is one church at two campuses, Wilson and Rocky Mount. And a church like any other church isn't about buildings or places.
It's about the people. And we are one. And we're looking to do something that God has called us to. Our goal for this whole series is 100% engagement more than anything else that you would be engaged in a spiritual journey with us. If you get one thing right over the next eight weeks, I hope it's that you would seek the Lord every day beyond whatever other asks we make of you that you would make the decision.
I'm going to be walking with him every day, even if it starts with five minutes. What does it look like to make this commitment to be on a spiritual journey with us? I'm asking you a bold ask. This used to not be a very bold ask, but it's become quite bold that you would come to church for eight weeks. No way, Jonathan.
Can't do it, man. This used to be normal. Now did you know the average church attendance, I'll give you a little behind the scenes is 1.4 Sundays a month. That means some of you, only half of you comes one of those weeks. I don't know what happens.
Your legs show up and not your upper body. But it used to be three out of four for years and years. And I'm asking, would you make the commitment, make the effort to be with us the next eight weeks together and do the six weeks devotional? I'll be putting something online every single week. You see here the six week devotional tab.
We're going to go through the word of God together every day. I'm going to post something I'm not promising. It's going to be super long. Just whatever the Lord's teaching me that day and showing me and let's interact together over the next six weeks going through God's word. Would you attend a community group?
If you're in one, make the commitment to show up every week. If you're not in one, talk to me afterwards. We've got room. We've got room for you. Pray the it's time prayer.
Lord, simply this. What do you want to do in and through me? And then in a few weeks respond by making a sacrificial and financial faithful commitment over the next three weeks. So let me break these things down before we dig deep into the book, the earliest chapter of Haggai 1. It's time first of all to be strong.
What do we mean when we say community engagement? You could pop up that next image. God has called us. We've been saying for 10 years, some of you may have forgotten this and we need to get back on Track. For 10 years we've been saying, God, help us reach the city of Rocky Mountain, help us to reach Nash county, help us to be a part of a collaboration of churches that.
That every man, woman and child would be unable to miss the gospel in our city. What would that look like? That they would be given countless opportunities to hear the gospel. Well, that's going to take every church in town. It's going to take this church, being super faithful to the thing he's called us to.
In order to accomplish this, guess what we have to do? We have to reintroduce ourselves all the time. Constantly reintroduce ourselves. Did you know that Rocky Mount, Nash County, Nashville specifically is growing? That's why they put 1,000 roundabouts on the way out there, just to drive you nuts.
But they think it's going to make the traffic patterns better. I'm not sure about that, but it's growing. Our county, Wilson county, is growing. And we have to constantly reintroduce ourselves. Hey, we're here.
We're about what God's about. I've said this recently. There's nearly 50,000 people in Nash county alone that don't go to church. That is a lot of people. And we pray that they would have an opportunity to hear from God.
So we are going to be spending more time, talent and treasure this year than ever before on community engagement. Next is do the work. We need more people, more leaders. We strengthen our community engagement. What we're praying and what I know will happen is we're going to see more people come because you're going to get serious about talking to others.
We're going to get serious about reaching our city. And they're going to come, and we're not going to be ready for them unless we prepare the barns, unless we get the people ready. And so we're looking to hire one more staff at Rocky Mount and Wilson's campus to begin. And then lastly, and this is the one that some of you, well, probably most of you know at this point. But if you don't know, guess what?
We are calling ourselves to be fearless, or God is calling us to be fearless. In this third step, you can pop up the final image there. The Lord has given us a miraculous opportunity to buy a church. That would cost us. We've already priced it.
What it would cost us to buy the land and build the property would be somewhere around $5 million. I don't know if you could look around and just imagine that. We can't do that. We've looked and we've got this opportunity, along with our Wilson campus, to purchase this property for 1.2 million. We've already got a written contract in their hands, and hopefully any day now we will have it signed together.
You as a church have already said yes to this at the last financial meeting we had in December. And so over the next three years, we're going to raise 1.5 million with both of our campuses. This is something that's unique. Who was with us in the Rise up campaign last time? A lot of you were with us for Rise Up.
Last time at Rocky Mount, we did our own, our own vision, our own fund. We were calling it our future home Fund. Well, we've got our future home ready now. We're going to put that towards that. And together, one church, we're going to raise money together and hopefully calling you to 100% engagement on this journey.
Most important to me, church, I want you to hear me say this because some of you, you're regular and you already know this, but those of you who don't come a lot, you know, I'm not constantly asking you for money. That is not who I am. It's not who we've been. But we've got an opportunity to stretch and see God move. And I'm asking you to be fearless.
This initiative, my priority for you is that you would grow in your faith. The dollars and signs, that doesn't matter to me. I am praying for you and hoping for you that you would grow in your spiritual journey with the Lord. And I pray that this will do that for you. It's time more than anything, for you to get serious about your faith.
Walk with Christ. In the book of Haggai, Chapter one, Where we're going to be today, the first few ver the prophet challenged the Jews that had returned from Babylonian exile to consider whether they were going to give God their first priority. We can consider this too, whether or not we can give God our first seek his kingdom first. And I think the text is going to give us three clear reasons why we should be giving God and his kingdom priority. So let's read the first few verses together.
Haggai, chapter 1, verse 1. It says, 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. Thus says the Lord of hosts, these people, they say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins?
Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have sown much, but 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. God bless the reading of His Word. Amen. I didn't like that last part, though, Jonathan. I don't know if I want to bless that part.
Why consider giving God and his kingdom priority? The first reason is this because God calls us to seek his kingdom first. This is what he's called you to more than anything else in this life, that you would know him like a good father. He wants a relationship with you first and foremost, before anything he ever wants out of you. He wants you to know him and spend time with Him.
He calls you into his kingdom first. Now, this is one of the most accurate datings of any of our biblical texts. I don't know if you notice this in verse one of this. Haggai's very careful to tell us exactly when this is taking place. The second year, the sixth month, the first day.
The second year is the second year of Darius. We know when his reign was 522-486 B.C. so here we are in 520 B.C. in the sixth month. Now, this one's a little tricky because he's talking about the Jewish calendar.
This is the month of Elul, which is August, September for us. So we're talking probably mid August. He says the first day of Elal. So here we are somewhere in August, 520 B.C. super accurate.
And he tells us who the king is. Darius is now Darius of Persia. Now, calling them has now allowed them, I should say allowed them to be there rebuilding. And the word of the Lord comes to Haggai the prophet. We know very little about Haggai.
I did a lot of study this week. We don't know much about his. We assume he's probably born during captivity, born in Babylon. God pulls him out of that existence to speak to his people. And then it says in verse one, and then later it says this twice in the text, that by the hand of Haggai, God accomplishes this.
This is just the nature. And this is a good word for you today. It's a sidebar, if you will. Every time God accomplishes something. Well, I should say most of the time, when God accomplishes something, he does it through the hands of other people.
I don't know why God does things this way, but it's what he's chosen. I can promise you this, Jesus would be a far better preacher right now than me. He would be way more efficient. But for whatever reason, he's Called people like you and I to be the hands and feet of the church. And he has filled us with his spirit to do that ministry.
So Haggai, it says, by his hands, God said, I'm going to use people to do my work. I think it's beautiful in one sense, because we got something to do. We get to be a part of what God's doing, something miraculous and outstanding. Then we have these two characters mentioned in verse one, and I won't mention them much again, Zerubbabel and Joshua. Zerubbabel literally means sown in Babylon.
His parents gave him a terrible name, if you will. We made him in Babylon, that's what his name means. That'd be like naming your kid O'Rocky or something, like, because we made that kid when we were in Rocky Mountain. I don't know. You deal with that however you want to, but this is a terrible name.
And Zerubbabel, he's got this Babylonian name made in Babylon. But he is the heir to David's throne. He's in the line of Jesus. He's in the line of King Josiah, who is in the line of David. He's now the governor of Judah under King Darius.
And then we've got Joshua, the high priest, and the word that comes first here in verse two. And there are really two things that God says to his people. The first is this. The people have said, it's not yet time. The people have made a statement that the house of the Lord sitting in shambles.
But it's not time for us to do that. Jesus gives us God's clear call to put his kingdom first again and again and again. I'll give you one example. Matthew, chapter six, maybe the prime example. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And all these things which he had just been talking about, things you eat and things you do and how you clothe yourselves. All these things will be added to you. Seek first the kingdom of God and then all the other stuff you're anxious and worried about. God's going to take care of that. That's the word of Christ to us.
It would be a terrible tragedy that we would go through this life and know about God, but not know God. That we would go to church week in and week out, or at least sometimes. And that we would read the Word sometimes, but that we would somehow know of God but not know him really. You know, you could read a lot about any famous person right now. Any politician, any athletes.
Pick a famous person. You could probably read a biography on Them, you can watch them on tv. Pick any famous person throughout history. You can know so much about people. Google has made it possible that you can know details about people that never really wanted those details to be known.
You can know a ton about people. Doesn't mean you know them. Does not mean you know them. Not at all. I could read a book about these people.
I could read a book about you, brother Randy, and they'd be a good book, be interesting because you've got a cool past, you've got a faith journey that's outstanding. But until I spend time with you and walk with you and talk with you, I don't know you. I don't know you. And this is what some of us are doing with the Lord. We're reading about Him, Some we're trying to check off the boxes.
He's interested in a relationship. I pray that over the next few weeks, if you do nothing else, that you would spend time getting to know the Lord of hosts, the God of this creation, the One who's made you and loves you more than you could possibly know, the one who sacrificed himself, that you could be free, that you would know Him. It's time to be strong in putting God first. Take that time to be with us over the next six weeks. Reading this devotional, I heard it said at some point, I guess it must be true, that it takes about six weeks to create a habit.
Maybe you and I together over the next six weeks will create some new habits where we spend time every day with the Lord in prayer in His Word and try and just asking, maybe just simply asking this God, I just want to know you. I want to know who you are. Yeah, it's cool. I want to understand your word and things like that, but not at the expense of just knowing your voice and knowing what it means to follow you. Would you speak to me?
I'll pray that with you, my friends. That's what I'm going to be praying. God, I just want to know you, giving God the first part of every day, seeking his kingdom first. Are you serving? Are you serving his kingdom?
His church? Are you serving? It doesn't have to just be here at church. Are you serving him in the workplace? Are you a voice for the Gospel, a voice for truth?
Are you pursuing him as a disciple? Here's the second reason he gives. And this is where things get even more intense. Because God works through those who put his kingdom first. There seems to be a principle in the Bible that is unnerving.
And you've got to take it and deal with it however you choose. It seems that God gifts people and allows people to be a part of his kingdom purposes in this life. And if they say no or shirk those responsibilities, it seems, at least biblically, that he moves on.
This isn't about salvation at all, church. So don't walk out here going, oh, I'm going to lose my salvation if I don't say, it isn't about that. It's about whether or not you're useful or not. And to me that's terrifying that I would go through this life and be useless, fruitless. He's telling the people in this little middle section of Haggai 1 through 6 that, hey, you're saying it's not time for me, but you're taking a lot of time for you.
I'm sorry about how this section's going to hit you, alright, because it smacked me right upside the head and this is really true for me. Do y'all know sometimes life of a pastor can be super weird? There's times during the summer where I'm like, I really need to mow my yard, but the toilets at church need to be cleaned. Like, that's the kind of weird stuff that I deal with, which makes me look at haggai and go, I have a problem here sometimes. Like, I'd rather be home cleaning my own house than doing that.
But for you and I, it's the same. Is true. He's asking us the same question. The King James puts it really bluntly in verse four, it literally says, is it time for you? Is it your time?
When you read this, I don't want you to begin thinking it's my time because that's not the word of the Lord to Haggai and the people. Then it's not the word of the Lord to you. It's God's time and he wants to do it in and through you. It's not your time, it's his time. He's asking you to be strong, do the work and be fearless.
He literally says to the people, is it your time that you're taking all of your effort to build nice houses? This might have not really struck you because at face value it doesn't mean a lot. In verse four he says, you're taking time to dwell in paneled houses and you're thinking, paneled houses? What do they got old school shingles or something? What have we got going on here?
You'd be kind of right about that. This is wood paneling, cedar wood paneling in Jerusalem Just so you know, there's not a lot of cedar. Hard to come by wood. In fact, Solomon's temple, prior to this, that had been built this elaborate place where God rested in his presence. There he had to ship cedar from Lebanon.
The great cedars, they shipped them. And so now the people, I don't know where they're finding this wood and they're putting it on their own houses. They're going at great lengths to get their houses right.
I know this is itchy, right? The ESV Bible, in fact, the study Bible says the paneled houses described probably had walls covered with cedar wood. Such sign of prosperity in the land where wood was scarce. The people were spending freely on their own homes while neglecting, rebuilding the house of God. In the days of Solomon and David, in fact, the only places that had paneling like this were the king's palace and the Lord's temple.
So now the people are living kind of like kings. You getting it now? The accusation that God has for his people, this one's a challenge because I think God is asking us, church, he asked them and he's asking us again. Are you constantly saying, I just need a little more me time. I just need a little more me time.
God, I get it, I get it. The world, the people around me, they're desperate for the gospel. I get it, God, that perhaps you've put me in a place where my voice is important for others to come to faith.
I just need a little more me time. Some of us have been saying this for a long time. I just don't know if I'm quite ready. I don't know if I'm prepared to be whatever it is that God's calling me to be. He tells the people of Israel that have been wasting 20 years of their lives not doing the things God had called them to do.
He said, you've been saying it's not time. You've been needing a lot of me time for 20 years. Guess what, Church, here's the good news. If you've been wasting the last 20 years, it's not over. Guess what else is great?
He didn't take you home, yet you and I are still here. And some of you are like, I don't know how much longer. Well, you're still here for now. It's his time. It's time for God to use you in his purposes.
He's left you for a reason. There's a reason that Christians, when we come to faith, we don't immediately snap to heaven because he has a purpose. For us in this life, and it's important. And he's designated and designed us for specific things. And when we say no, what he'll do is say, all right, I'll pick another.
I'll move on. And I don't want that for me. And I'm praying, you don't want that for you. I wanna do my part. I wanna run my leg.
He says, work through those who put his kingdom first. You say, hey, it's not time for God's house, but you're working real hard on your own. God told his disciples to pray for workers, that the kingdom harvest was plentiful. I'm going to be asking you over the next few weeks, church, if you really believe some of the things that God says in his word. Because we have to admit, I don't know if we're always buying it.
Listen to what he says in Matthew, chapter nine. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Do you believe that the harvest is plentiful in your community? Do you believe that there are a great deal of people who are hungry to hear the gospel?
You believe it and that the laborers are few? Now, I believe that part. I believe that part. But I gotta admit, at times, I'm not sure about the other part. I have to admit to you, church, over the last few years, ever since COVID I think I've been in a bit of a slump.
Some of you might know that. Some of you who know me well know, man, something's not right with him. And I think I've been in a bit of a funk. And the reason is, I think I've gotten away from really truly believing that the harvest was plentiful right here in nash county, that when I hear this number, oh, 50,000 people roughly don't go to church, I'm like, well, yeah, but they're not going to go to my church. Oh, you're thinking, man, that's bad to hear from the pastor.
That's how I've been feeling. They might pick a church. I don't think they're going to pick my goofy church in this little shop and center. And then I started hearing from others and from the Lord, he can use you if you'll believe. He can use you if you'll say yes.
And what part you are to play in that. Quit worrying about it. Quit worrying about that. Just do your part. Just say, all right, I'll pastor this church.
I'll stop Doubting it. I'll just shepherd the people you send me and I'll love it. I don't love it every day, but I'm really working on that.
Which means I, along with you, have to start believing what Christ says when he says things like this. Do you know this other section? He says it is better to give than to receive. I would say most Americans do not really believe that. He says to the church, here's what you should be praying for.
Look, pray earnestly to the Lord that the laborers would go out because the fields are white unto harvest. I'm having conversations all the time, Jonathan, with my co workers and my family members and they are very resistant to the gospel. Okay, God, do you believe him when he says the harvest is plentiful? Keep trying. Would you get tired of trying to reach people in such a way that they would know the Lord God and that they would spend eternity with Him?
Would you get tired of that and say, ah, well, I've given up on so and so. In a few weeks we're going to be writing together and we did this several years ago. These long shot cards and some of you've got long shots in your life that you're thinking if this person ever comes to faith, it'll be a pure miracle. Guess what happened last time when we did. These people came to faith.
Now why is that? Partially because God answers prayer, but also because I think something begins to happen in you and I when we take seriously the word of God and we start praying earnestly for the salvation of our friends and neighbors and co workers. I'm praying this now. Church. I've been doubtful it's time to do the work of putting God first.
He wants more leaders, more workers, more people who would say yes, I'm praying. Kind of a wild thing too. I'm giving you a lot of data today and I'm sorry about that, but did you know that generally the church in America, and I can't speak to the world on this, I just know a lot of data for American churches that year after year, churches are closing at a faster rate than they are opening and it's not even close. Of all denominations, Evangelical High Church, you name all the various denominations of church, somewhere around 15,000 churches closed last year in our country. Most of the churches in eastern North Carolina, just so you know, are under 40 people and they're shrinking and they're failing.
This is the nature of what it is to be in ministry. And there's another problem that's happening. Young people are not Coming into ministry at the same rates they once did. And this sounds bad, but if they do, it's years and years later when they come into your ministry trained to do it all wrong. Because they.
A lot of young people coming into ministry think it's all about the tasks and the projects and the things. And guess what? I've learned the hard way. It's not about any of that. It's about people.
And that's a really hard one for an introvert. That's a really hard lesson to learn for somebody who thinks, I can preach, I can teach. But can you talk to people in a way that's not weird? Can you pray for people? They didn't teach me how to pray for people in seminary.
And they won't, because you should have known that already. Pray for people. So I have this hope, our leadership at both campuses, that we would begin something this year. And we don't totally have it organized, but we're working on it. And that would be some sort of a residency program for young people.
Young people that are towards the end of their high school, maybe early college career, that are just thinking, I don't know what God wants me to do, maybe he wants me to do more in ministry, like full time ministry. All of us are called into ministry. So don't hear me say that every one of you has been called to be a shepherd in the place. But some of us are uniquely called into certain roles and young people are leaving the opportunity in droves. So we want to start something here, sort of a residency internship kind of thing.
For some of these young folks that are saying maybe, and we'll let them do some real ministry, we might let them preach, we might let them teach somewhere in the building. That's what the beauty I think of a small church is, is I won't relegate them to some kind of goofy role. They can do something hard.
The third reason is this, and this one takes an act of faith too, that God satisfies those who put his kingdom first. He calls us, he works through us, and he satisfies us when we put his kingdom first. Now, I can't answer this for you. I can't answer this final question that he asks the people then and now he's asking you. This is the main question of the first six verses.
It's right there in verse five. He says, consider your ways. And then he begins to tell them, you've done a whole lot of work and it's not paying off.
There's a twofold problem here. I think their pursuits have caused two problems. First of all, and this one's obvious, they've been disobedient to the Lord and what he's called them to be there doing. But the second problem is it's been fruitless. It's been fruitless as well.
Notice what he says in verse 6. Let the supply just wash over you for a second. Verse 6. He says, you've sown much, but harvested little. You eat, but you can't get full.
You drink, but you can't get full. You get clothes on, but you just can't get warm. And for some reason your pockets have holes in them.
Your experience at all. This is like the most relevant piece of scripture to me today. Why is it sometimes I look at my bank account and go, what happened? Where did it go?
It seems to me that God is saying something very careful here. He's not accusing them of being lazy as he does in other parts of scripture. He's not accusing them of that at all. He's saying, it's not that you're lazy, it's that you're selfish. It's not that you're lazy, it's that you're all about you.
You've sown much, you've worked hard. Other passages in Scripture. He's like, there's a reason you're not eating. It's because you're a lazy bum. Here.
He's like, no, you're working real hard. But guess what? I can't really bless it because you've been disobedient to me. Some of us are living that life. We're going, God, why?
Why is this going and this going? And he's somewhere way back in the list of things we care about. And if he could knock on the door today and say in his quiet voice the way he does, can we chat? Can we talk? Maybe me and you can deal with some of this stuff that's going wrong in you.
You've sown much, but you've harvested little. The people are working hard in their fields. It's very one to one here. I enjoyed studying verse six. Because he's literally saying, you're eating, but you just can't get your stomach to fill up.
You're drinking. And this actually has to do with drinking something that would make you feel happy.
Use your imagination for whatever that might mean to you. For me, it's not alcohol. For me, I've got an addiction to soda that I'm working on. He's saying, man, you could drink that all day and Never smile. You could drink and not get your fill.
And you're putting clothes on and you're staying cold. Putting God first rather than pursuing ourselves and pursuing whatever the current culture is telling you to pursue. And it's ever changing. The mark is constantly moving, but pursuing God is a timeless mark. Paul tells Timothy in one Timothy as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
I want to end with this question for you. Have you ever met a truly generous person? You ever bumped into somebody like that in your life? Maybe it's you. Praise God for you.
You've met a truly generous I've observed something and some people come to mind when I think about this question. I noticed that these kinds of people are not typically anxious, they're not typically discouraged. Now maybe. I'm sure they have hard times. I have no doubt in my mind that they have problems that they face.
But I've noticed that something about generosity has something connected to it with joy and peace. And you might be saying, well, of course they're generous. They have a lot. That's not the kind of people I'm talking about. I'm thinking about some people that'll give you the shirt off their back and they only got one shirt.
I know people like this in my life, and they aren't anxious, they aren't depressed. They seem to be at peace. It's like they figured out something. They snapped and broke the code on something I hadn't figured out yet. This is going to sound real New Agey for just a minute, but there's two different mindsets I think that we can have in this life, and they're very simple.
It's either one or the other. There's no gray area here. You either have a view of God's creation of this life, of this world with a sense of abundance or. Or a sense of scarcity. It's one or the other.
And the way in which we think about God and the way in which we think about his world really determines the way that we think and behave. And I have to admit something. I have a bent towards scarcity. I just believe all the time that I'm barely going to have enough to get by. I Just believe all the time that God's just barely going to keep his church floating over here in Rocky Mountain.
These are little problems in the way I think. And what's underneath it, I think is although God says, I own the cattle on a thousand hills, I'm like, yeah, but I don't know if you're giving those cattle my way. You know, I have this like kind of broken view. And then I meet people that are so open handed. And I'm not.
I'm scared if I open my hand to too many people, I won't have enough. And it seems like the people that don't do that always have enough. You got anybody in mind? Have you been living this way? I bet you feel free.
We've described it this way for years. This idea of being open handed with God and open handed with others. That God then begins and can use you as a conduit to others of his grace and mercy and generosity. That God, that's what he wants to do with his people. But I do this like more, but I'm like the Dead Sea, which has no outlets and everything in there dies.
And that's me. So much. I have a scarcity kind of mindset. Time to be fearless in the way that we spend our time, our talents and our treasure. That true satisfaction comes in putting God's kingdom first in everything we do, what we're good at, the way we use our calendar, the way we use our checkbook.
It's all for him. He owns it all. And we give it all back. The word miserable, just so you know, it comes from the word miser. Miser is a person who does not give.
And guess what? They are miserable. If you missed the Christmas carol over Christmas, you're not too late. Check it out. Hit it one more time.
We actually have a name for a miser these days. Scrooge. And some of you are this. Maybe we don't see it every Sunday, but you gotta check your heart and go, why is it. Why is it that I'm miserable?
Why is it that I don't trust God, the greatest giver of all? He has never called us to anything as we close right now together, God, Christ Jesus has never called us to anything that he didn't do at an exponentially higher level than us. When he says, hey, believer. Hey Christian. I want you to give me all of your life and I want you to trust me.
And I'm going to use it in a way that's beyond your imagination. All the peace and all the joy and all of the things you long for right there in following me. And I need you to trust me in this. When he calls us to that, it's not him challenging us to do something he didn't first do. That this is the unique, amazing thing about Christianity is that Christ Jesus says, not my will, but yours be done, and takes on a death that we all deserved and he didn't so that we could be free.
That Christ Jesus is the ultimate giver and is now asking you, would you just respond in kind? Would you respond by saying, you've done it all for me, Lord, here I am, Here I am. And watch the majesty of what God will do in your life and you won't have to walk out of here going, boy, I hope the blessings look like this, this and this. Blessings take many kinds. They look very different for different people.
You know, I don't really care that much that God fills my pockets full. I hope that my four kids would devote their lives to Jesus. That would be a greater blessing. I care not for what changes my pockets.
There's a lot of blessings in this life. I want to take as many people with me. That would be a greater blessing. How about you? It's time God calls you.
He works through you and he will satisfy you. Will you pray with me over the next few weeks together? Lord, what do you want to do in and through me? Let's pray now together. Heavenly Father, we are asking as one, as one church God, what would you do?
What would you have us do? What would you be doing in and through us? I don't want to say no to that. Whatever it is you've called me to God and your people right now. I just pray that you would remove doubt.
There's a reason you've told your people then and you tell your people now. Do the work, be strong. And lastly, do not fear.
Because we're terrified. Maybe we're terrified of how we're going to get there. We're terrified of how all the pieces are going to fall in place for us to truly live into your purpose. Maybe we're terrified of what will happen if we get really serious about our faith. How will it change us?
Will we be weird or something? What's going to. Will people reject us? How will this go? We have these fears that reveal something.
We don't totally trust you in everything, God. I'm praying for our people. I'm praying for myself that we would trust you with all of our hearts, that it is your time and not my time. I want to be about your purposes and my life. I want to do the things you've called me to.
God, would you do something miraculous in your church this week? That as these people get serious about walking in faith, that there's folks in this room today, Lord, that are just simply going to say yes to spending time with you every day? Would you do something? I pray boldly, God, would you just show up?
You don't owe us this at all, God, but that when we seek you and we pray and we read your word, God, that you would show up, that we would experience you maybe in a way we never have, that we would get to know you this week in a way that we have. I have not experienced in a long time. Perhaps some of us have not been walking with you. We've not been serious about pursuing your kingdom, not at all. But we're saying yes today, God, I'm praying for your people.
Would you stir us, make us the kind of church that could reach this city if the harvest is truly plentiful? And I just want to believe and trust your word on that, God, if it's true, would you make your people ready to reach them, Change us, motivate us, encourage us, give us the right words to say when we get those opportunities. And I think the opportunities are many and we miss them. God be with your people. Help us now to say yes, Pray all these things in Jesus name, Amen.