Having the Right Priority

Written by Ed Allen
Saturday, 15 January 2000 19:00

Leading A Productive Life

Haggai 1:1-15

What does investing in a church have to with your daily life? What difference does it make? According to the Bible, it makes all the difference in the world. In a powerful and shockingly relevant message from 2500 years ago, the prophet Haggai tells us that if we are not committed to the work of the church our lives will be unproductive.

Do you ever feel like you just can't get it all together and make it move forward? Like you're spinning your wheels? Like you can't get anything done?

STORY OF AN ANT WHO CAN'T MAKE ANY PROGRESS

We all want to get more accomplished. We want our lives to count. We want to do great things. In short, we want to live productive lives. But sometimes I feel like the ant. Like I can't get it all together and make it go forward ? and I'll bet you do too.

It may surprise you to know that the Bible teaches that your personal productivity is related to your commitment to the church. That's what Haggai's first sermon is all about. For the next three weeks we will be unpacking the 2500- year-old, timeless message of the prophet Haggai. In three powerful sermons, Haggai forcefully answers the question "What is the Key to Leading Productive Lives?" His message is relevant to our lives and to our church. In particular, as we face the New Year how can we, Gateway Community Church, make our efforts count? How can we be more productive? How do we, as a church, grow up toward God, in toward God's people and out toward others more consistently? How do we build a church in the variable soil of Northern Virginia? And as individuals, how can we insure that our lives will count? How do we avoid spinning our wheels? How do we get it together and move it forward?

I believe God wants to do several things in this series of lessons.

1. First of all, if you are not invested in a church, then I believe God wants you to get connected. He wants you to roll up your sleeves and get busy. He wants you to start sharing who you are and what you have with others.
2. Secondly, some of you have invested heavily in God's church. You have sweat and prayed for Gateway. You have loved Gateway's people and that love has led you to occasional sacrifices on their behalf. God wants you to feel His pleasure. He wants to bless you.
3. And overall, God wants all of us to examine our list of priorities. Whether we are conscious of it or not, all of us live out of a set of priorities. God wants us to examine those priorities, because living out of the wrong set of priorities produces futility. As Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

Productivity comes from living out of the right internal priorities. Criminals are often very focused, very skilled and sometimes highly organized people. But they do not accomplish anything for good, because they live out of the wrong set of priorities.

Every good paper has a central theme. Every good book has a central plot and a central character. And every life has an organizing priority ? an overarching motivation around which all other actions and motivations hang. For some lives that priority is the search for real love. For others, the central motivation is safety and security. For others, the priority is some kind of cause. For some it is money, or success. And for a few the organizing priority is having a relationship with someone.

According to the Bible, God must be the organizing priority for our lives or we will produce nothing of eternal consequence. And if God is the organizing priority in our lives, then we will love the things that God loves. We will work for the things that God values. We will support the things that promote God.

The central message of Haggai's first sermon is this: because you have not built God's house, your lives have been unproductive. Let's look into that message and see how it applies to our lives.

Haggai 1:1-15

(1) In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

(2) This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, `The time has not yet come for the LORD's house to be built.'"

(3) Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: (4) "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"

(5) Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. (6) You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

(7) This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. (8) Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD. (9) "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. (10) Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. (11) I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands." (12) Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD. (13) Then Haggai, the LORD's messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: "I am with you," declares the LORD. (14) So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God, (15) on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius.

Exegetical info

1. Timeline Survey

• 959 King Solomon built the temple.
• Israel was one of the preeminent powers of the Ancient Near East perhaps second only to Egypt.
• At Solomon's death the kingdom divided in civil war. Never the same again. Never again regain her status as an emerging world power.
• 722 the Northern kingdom (Israel) fell to Babylon.
• 586 the Southern kingdom (Judah) fell to Babylon. THE EXILE
• 539 Babylon fell to Persia and King Cyrus.
• Cyrus released captive populations. This both quieted potential unrest, established his sovereignty over Babylon and made for loyal subjects.
• 538 Jews return to Jerusalem under the leadership of Sheshbazzar. They were commissioned by Cyrus to rebuild the temple.
• Almost immediate the temple reconstruction was halted.
• Cyrus' rule passed seamlessly to his son Cambyses in 530. But when Cambyses died in 522, an internal struggle for the crown broke out that threatened to divide the great Persian Empire. Darius emerged the victor.
• Darius spent 2 years quieting unrest, and securing his position.
• 520 Haggai delivers his prophecy. Rebuild the temple

2. What does the temple represent?

For the ancient Jews, the temple was the focal point of God's presence. It was also the focal point of their worship of God. All of their high days of worship happened in the temple. The temple was also a symbol of their unity. Whenever they abandoned temple worship, it invariably resulted in following other Gods and in division within the kingdom.

As we look at how this passage applies to us, it is instructive to know that Jesus associated his own physical body with the temple on one occasion. On another occasion he claimed to be greater than the temple.

More enlightening still, three other times the church is called the temple of God directly and a fourth time by analogy. And one time we as individual believers are called God's temple.

Knowing all of this, we are forced to look at Haggai's message scarely in the face. We cannot ignore it. Through Haggai, God still has a message for us. That message comes in three parts.

The Message

1. There are always compelling reasons not to serve God's church.

A. Haggai's audience had many reasons not to build the temple.

1. There is only so much energy available. The same able-bodied men were in demand for everything. How could they make a living on the farm and build the temple?
2. Did the building program justify the expense? Sure the temple was important, but maybe some time in the future. We're trying to eek out a living here. Can't we just individualize our religion? At least for right now?
3. Some even expected a miraculous provision of a temple. The prophet Ezekial had been shown a vision of a new temple 50 years earlier. But he made no mention of its actual construction. Some believed that God would make it materialize in the new messianic age. "We should not build," they reasoned. "We should wait on God's miraculous revelation."
4. Some believed there was simply too much opposition. The temple project was most unpopular with the immediate neighbors.

B. We, too, have our reasons, not too dissimilar from their's.

1. We're too busy to invest in church. Sunday is my only day to get stuff done. And that Gateway church talks about being involved in a Home Fellowship. That's another night out of my week.
2. After all, isn't religion a private affair. It's really between me and God.
3. You're asking for too much. We're just not ready. Won't God simply do it anyway.
4. I'm not into organized religion.

C. Haggai knew the hesitations. He simply disagreed.

• "These people say, 'the time has not yet come for the Lord's house to be built.' ? This is what the Lord Almighty says, 'Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure and be honored."

D. There are always compelling reasons for you as an individual not to serve God's church.

• There are always compelling reasons for God's church not to move forward. This is the year for Gateway to move! I pray that God will show us where and that all of us will follow.

E. Productivity principle: We must distinguish between explanations and excuses; between obstacles and opportunities.

2. If you devote yourself to the necessities of life but neglect your ministry in the body of Christ, you will live in frustration.

A. Haggai's message in verses 5-6 "Examine your life: Your investments have not yielded the expected return. You are not satisfied with your life. Your needs are not being met. You cannot save anything so there is no margin in your life ? financially, physically or emotionally. Why? Because you have not built God's house."

B. If you know Jesus' long sermon in Matthew's biography of Jesus then you may have been reminded of it already. Jesus said:

(25)"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? (26) Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (27) And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?

(28) And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, (29) yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. (30) But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you-- you of little faith? (31) Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' (32) For it is the ungodly who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. (33) But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

C. If you spend your time and energy and money seeking comfort and security from the world and do not spend yourself for God's glory, then every pleasure will leave a sour aftertaste.

In his book, Ordering Your Private World, Gordon MacDonald includes this letter from a friend of a friend of his: "Several years ago I was at a point of great frustration in my life. Although I had a wonderful wife and three beautiful sons, my career was going badly. I had few friends, my oldest son began getting into trouble ? he started failing at school ? I was suffering from depression, and there was great tension and unhappiness in my family."

Sound familiar? Some of you have felt that way. You know people who have felt that way.

Gordon MacDonald's acquaintance was presented a way out. It was the way many of us choose.

"At that time I had an opportunity to travel overseas where I stayed to work in a foreign company. This new opportunity was such an excellent one, financially and career-wise, that I made it number one in my life, forsaking all other values. I did many wrong things to advance my position and succeed. I justified them as being of good consequence to my family which resulted in my lying to myself and my family and behaving wrongly in many ways."

This man goes on to say that his career began to take off, and his family left with it. They went back to the United States. And the more successful he was, the more empty he felt.

This man needed to make God the organizing priority in His life. God was a side dish. Something you call on when you're in crisis. Something you think about at funerals. But God is not satisfied with that position and we will not be satisfied as long as we keep him in that position. God wants a love relationship with us. He wants to be the priority around which our lives are built. Somebody here may need to make that decision. God is a prayer away. He wants to hear from you. Let Him know.

Once that priority is built, then our lives will be reorganized around it. This is the spiritual background for Haggai's message to his people and to us. Invest in God's church!

D. Priority principle: Never confuse activity with accomplishment.

True for our lives. Also true for the church. Investment in church not just investment in activity

3. God is pleased when we invest ourselves in His church.

A. "Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the Lord.

B. Building God's church is not easy.

1. For the ancient Jews, stone was readily available around Jerusalem, but each stone had to be shaped to fit a certain place and then carefully secured to that place.
2. As for wood, myrtle, olive and palm were available locally, but harder woods were needed for supports. These had to be imported. This was costly and time consuming.
3. Back when Solomon had built his temple, he drafted laborers. They had no choice but to work.
4. Haggai is relying on volunteer labor.

C. Why go through the trouble Haggai? Because God is pleased. Because our Father and our creator is honored by our efforts. And there is no freedom and no joy like the joy that comes from pleasing God.

D. Do you want to know that you're in God's will, doing what He wants you to do? Then make God your organizing priority. Love the things that God loves. Work for the things that God values. Support the things that promote God.

E. Priority principle: Acting on the right priority is intrinsically rewarding.