Turn with me tonight, please, to the prophecy of Haggai. That's going to take us a wee while to find. If you go to Matthew's Gospel and work your way back three books, then you'll find the little prophecy of Haggai. It's lovely to be back with you. It's not long since I was last with you. And it's lovely to renew fellowship with so many of you. As Billy says, in Schenkel we're having a mission which starts next Saturday week, the 15th, with a praise night. And that's the 15th, and then It really starts on the Sunday night the 16th through to Friday the 21st and that's with John Weir and those meetings are at half past seven each night. I've got a few of these. I've already told people they're not to come on a Tuesday night or any other night that there's things on in Abbots Cross because I want to keep the friendship up here. But there's a few of those flyers which I'll leave down at the back but do pray for us as we go around the doors. Good conversations this morning with many people and there was a wee girl saved in the church just two weeks ago and she's going on well with the Lord and we're thankful for that. So that's fruit before the mission but we're praying that the Lord will do something really amazing throughout the course of the mission and do pray for John as well. Not to sound like Dennis Lyle, but I'm running a tour next year to Israel. And hopefully that will be taking place, God willing, in October next year. And if you're interested in that, well then speak to me after the meeting. Haggai chapter 1, please, tonight. And we're going to try and look at this prophecy. And we're not going to get it finished in two weeks, but we'll see how far we get. But let's look at chapter 1 and verse 1 tonight. In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, unto Joshua, the son of Josedach, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses? And this house lieth in waste. Now thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. Ye have so much, and bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. go up to the mountain and bring wood and build a house. And I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little. And when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why saith the Lord of Hosts? Because of mine house it is in waste, and ye run every man on to his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stead from dew, and the earth is stead from her fruit. Now call for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of his hands. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedach the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God. And the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord. Then spake Haggai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jezidek, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts their God. In the four and twentieth day, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the keen. We know God will add his blessing to the reading of his word. D.L. Moody is one of the most famous names in evangelical circles. However, that may not have been the case had it not came to a crisis point in his life. He was involved in much Christian work, he was involved in YMCA work, he was involved with young people, he was preaching the gospel, doing so many things. But he felt that he wasn't having a great impact in any of those areas. And so one day, under the conviction of God, he devoted himself exclusively to the task of being a fisher for men. He exclusively went after the work of evangelism and that left him a lasting impact not only in the city of Chicago, not only in the United States of America, not only throughout the world, but even generations beyond still know the name and the impact that DL Moody really had. He once said, though, my greatest fear is not of failure. It's of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter. That was a lesson that the people of God needed to learn in Haggai's time. They were succeeding at all the things that didn't really matter. They had their focus on the temporal things rather than the eternal. And as far as they were concerned, the house of God was lying in ruins and the truth was that they didn't really care. And the prophet here in Haggai chapter 1, he comes on the scene at a very important time in the history of the nation of Israel. He calls the people of God to stop. to take stock, to really consider their ways and to get back to the things of God. He was really hearkening to what the Lord Jesus would say in Matthew 6, to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all of the other things would be added onto them. Haggai was calling the people of God back to commitment, not only to the house of God, but to the true things of God. Now some of this will be Sunday school stuff to so many of you, but whenever we come to the Old Testament prophets, they divide neatly into two little sections. We have the major prophets. Those are the prophets like Isaiah and Daniel and Jeremiah. And then we've got the other section, which we call the minor prophets, the likes of Jonah and Micah. Haggai is one of the minor prophets. But then we put the major and the minor prophets together and then we divide them up into a group of three again. They're what we call the pre-exilic prophets. That was before the children of Israel were taken down into Babylonian captivity. You remember the Lord? He really pleaded with the people of God to come back to him, to stop backsliding and to come back into fellowship with him. Those are the prophets like the weeping prophet Jeremiah. The prophet of Isaiah is a pre-exilic prophet. And then there's another section which we call the exilic prophets. Those were the prophecies that were given to Israel whenever they were in Babylonian captivity for that 70 year period. That's Daniel, that's Ezekiel and there's others that we could think of. So you've got the pre-exilic prophets, you've got the exilic prophets and then you have the post-exilic prophets. That's the third section and whenever They were the people that spoke to God's people whenever they were back in the land of Judah after spending that 70 years down in Babylon. And Haggai is such a prophet. He's a minor prophet just because it's a short little book, but he's also a post-exilic prophet because he's speaking to the people of God after they've returned from Babylon. That's all by way of background, but I want you to see tonight the period the Prophet preached. You see we're not left in any ambiguity of when the Prophet's preaching. You see in verse 1, in the second year of Darius the King, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month. Haggai is very specific here about when his ministry actually began. And he's very specific about the times whenever he gets the messages from the Lord. Verse 1 we could translate to our modern calendar as the 29th of August, 520 BC. But Haggai had four messages that he delivered in just these two chapters, and he dated every single one of them. In fact, if you cast your eye down to verse 1 of chapter 2, you'll see in the seventh month, in the 1 and 20th day of the month. Haggai again dates it in the modern calendar would be the 17th of October, 520 BC. And then he comes with two other messages and they're preached on the same day. It's the 18th of December, 520 BC and you'll see that down in verse 10 of chapter 2 in the 4 and 20th day of the 9th month. So we're in 520 BC. Haggai preaches four messages in such a very short space of time. They're directed to Zerubbabel who was the governor of Judah. He was the civic leader. They were directed at Joshua the high priest. He was the religious leader and to the wider people of Judah. To get an understanding of the history of Israel we need to go back to the book of Ezra. Come back with me to the book of Ezra. 1st and 2nd Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra, and we can't go into this in much detail tonight, but let me give you the summary. Judah had been defeated as God had prophesied and told them that they would be. The Lord had warned them time after time after time to come back to Him. But like us even in our human nature, they were stiff-necked, they were rebellious. The people of God were taken down into Babylon in three stages. Nebuchadnezzar's army had come in. They had ravaged and destroyed the holy city of Jerusalem. They had knocked down Solomon's beautiful and opulent temple. And they took a lot of this spoil back to the land of Babylon. See, there were consequences to the people of God's sin. The temple was so sacred to them. And yet they chose to sin, but they couldn't choose the consequences to their sin. And God's people had turned their back on God. They had rebelled. God had tried everything that was possible. And then he had to bring them down to Babylon. The tragedy was this. that some people that went down to Babylon, they never returned back to Judah. They died in pagan Babylon. Another generation were born in pagan Babylon. They never returned to Judah. But some people had gotten so used to living in Babylon, that they never ever returned. You see, sin, dear friends, tonight always has consequences. We can choose the sin, but we cannot choose the consequences. And God brought the people of God down to Babylon and He did it to chastise them out of a heart of love. That's always the purpose of God's discipline. It's not to beat us, it's not to bruise us, but it's always to bring us back to Him. But remember in all of this, that although Nebuchadnezzar came in, that although the army came in, the Babylonian army, and brought the people down, God was sovereignly in control. God's hand was in all of this. Because God raises up kingdoms, he brings them down again, and it was all part of God's sovereign plan. But while the people of God were in captivity, God raised up another empire. The Medo-Persian Empire came on the scene and Sarisari, the king of Persia, he conquered the Babylonians, brought in this new empire and he was in charge then of these refugees who had come from Judah. Now that's a lot of information and don't worry if you didn't get it all because Ezra gives you really the bulk of this. Verse 1 of chapter 1 of Ezra. Now in the first year of Saris, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Saras, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Saras, king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah, Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him. And let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is in Jerusalem. Now this is 538 BC. King Cyrus comes on the stage. He's the Persian king. God has spoken to him. He has issued a decree that the people of Judah can return from being under captivity. He will release them. He'll release them from Babylon, give them permission to travel up to Judah and even up into the holy city of Jerusalem. And not only is he going to give them the freedom, but he's also going to give them some materials to help build the temple. And the people of God, whenever they got to Jerusalem, they started to build the foundations. They started at the altar, that's a great place to start. Start at the altar. And then they started to build the foundations. And they were really building this for the glory of God. And they'd started to work for God and they were so excited. Yet it's one thing to start a work for God, it's quite another thing to keep going. in the work of God, and it's another thing to finish well in the work of God. See, whenever you start to work for God, and you know this from experience, the devil's never going to be happy. Whenever you start working for God and you're receiving the blessing of God, you're going to get the blasting of Satan. You raise hell's fury. And that's exactly what happened to this remnant of God's people whenever they started to work. And Satan has many ways to disrupt the work of God. You can read about that in Ezra chapter 3 and 4. But one of the ways was this. He schemed against the people of God by using adversaries from the outside. You see, the Samaritans came and they wanted to help the people of Judah to build the temple. And the response of the people of God was absolutely not in a way. You Samaritans have nothing to do with us. We're going to build the temple of God on our own. And the Samaritans, well, they were furious. And so they frustrated the work of God. They hired counsellors against God's people. They wrote letters of opposition, really coming up with all sorts of different things. And they were really, if you want to call it, we would call it a petition to the government. And that petition worked. And there was a decree that was given out that the work should be stopped. So there was opposition from without. And you can sort of expect that in the work of God. You can expect opposition from the people outside the doors. And it came there in the form of the Samaritans. It came in the form of political pressure. But there were not only external forces. But there was discouragement that arose from within. You see, there was younger people in this remnant that had travelled back into Judah. They had never seen the first temple of God. And they seen that the foundations were being laid, that there was actually a work for God that was starting. It was finally getting going again after 70 years. And they were really praising the Lord. They were just rejoicing in what the Lord was doing. And that was one group of people. But there was another group of people who had seen the previous temple. You know what they were doing? They weren't rejoicing, they were weeping. And they were mourning. And they were coming and they were discouraging the work of God. And we'll think about that a little later on or next week. But the long and short of it was this. The work of building the temple started in 536 BC. It ceased again that same year. And whenever you come to the book of Haggai, 16 years have elapsed. It's 520 BC, King Cyrus has died. Darius is now on the throne. 16 years have elapsed and there's been no work done, there's been no progress that's been made in the house of God. And you can imagine the scene on a building site whenever things don't happen for 16 years. the weeds start to grow up, the nettles have grown up, different things have grown up onto the foundation and that building site was simply just left to rot. You can imagine the people, they're just getting on with their everyday life. They're settling back into the ways of Judah, but yet the general mood, its neglect, its desolation, its despondency, it's materialistic. You see, the people of God, had really lost their zeal for the things of God. Some of them had died in the intervening period. They'd never completed the task that God had given them to do. And I wonder tonight, dear friends, Isn't it so easy to get to that point? So easy to get to the point whenever lethargy creeps in, whenever we're just content for the status quo, just happy to go to the meetings and to walk in and to walk out and go through the motions and never really do anything for God. We can get so static. We can get static even for years. That's where God's people were in the days of Haggai. That's the period the prophet preached, but I want you to see something about this prophet. Notice again in verse 1, in the second year, back to the book of Haggai, sorry. Haggai chapter 1 and verse 1, In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month and the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet. Now this is the first time that Haggai the prophet is mentioned in the Old Testament. He just pops onto the scene really. There's no background about him. We're not told about where he comes from. We're not told about his family background or the tribe that he comes from. But yet he comes onto the scene in very sudden fashion. We do know tonight that his name means my feast. Perhaps he was born at one of the feasts or the festivals of Israel but it's likely that by the time that Haggai comes onto the scene most of the scholars seem to agree that he's an older man. I think he's probably at least 80, which is very young, isn't it? But it's highly likely that he had seen Solomon's temple. He knew all about the good old days. And God takes this older man and he ministers through him for a very short period of time. Haggai's ministry lasted just four months. Here he is, he's probably in his 80s. He has come from relative obscurity and you can imagine this man that he's just going through the run of the mill every day of his life but in the run of the mill days God was still shaping him. God was still molding him into the man that he would use him even in his later years. While many people would have been battering down the hatches and they'd be taking it easy and maybe even signing into the local retirement home, Haggai's best days were ahead of him. I mean, was that not the same as Moses? You remember that Moses, he spent his first 40 years in Pharaoh's palace living a life of luxury. And then the next 40 years Moses was carried out to the backside of the desert learning really that he was a nobody. Then in his 80th year, he came to the forefront, and he discovered what God could really do with a nobody that was surrendered to God. And his ministry really began at 80. And you think of Caleb, a mighty man of God he was, and he started at 85. Remember he said, give me this mountain. Never think that your best days are behind you, dear friend. because God could have something wonderful for you even in the later years of life. But God was raising up this prophet in his later years to work for him and his ministry overlaps with the prophet Zechariah. He was a younger man and he was to prophesy in tandem with Haggai but do you see God was using an older man God was using a younger man to accomplish the work of God in rebuilding the Temple. Know what that tells me tonight? That God uses different men or women, God uses different gifts in different places, at different periods of time, for different purposes, but he weaves it all together as part of that beautiful tapestry of his will. Is it a good thing that we're not all the same tonight? be a boring place if we were all the same. We're all unique and God has given each one of us a unique gift to serve him and he wants us to be ourselves. He doesn't want another X, Y or Z. He wants to use you, he wants to use me, indwelt by the Spirit of God and he wants to use people that are willing to be used for the Master's use. That's true in every church. We're not all alike. We have been given different spiritual gifts. We all don't look alike. Some of you are saying, well, that's a good job. We're different ages, different personalities. Yet the beauty of the church is we'd all work together for the extension of the kingdom of God. That's what God was doing with Haggai. This unheard of man, his whole life was leading up to this moment whenever he would come on to the forefront And thank God tonight that God's still raising up men. God's still raising up women and young people to carry on the gospel torch because He is still building His church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And God's results always follow when God's work is done in God's time, in God's way, through God's people. Now that was something about the prophet. You see the period the prophet preached, 520 BC. Zerubbabel is the civic leader, Joshua is the spiritual leader, and you see the prophet Haggai in verse 1 again, and you see the place of this prophecy, it's in Judah, back in the land after a period of captivity. But notice very quickly, not only the period and also the prophet, but I want you to see the prognosis. You see, there was a major problem here in the lives of the people of God, and God was going to come when He was going to call it out. I think we could call Haggai tonight the prophet of priorities. Because here he comes out and he calls the people out on their problem and the problem was apathy, it was lethargy. Look at verse 2. See how Haggai starts to speak to these people. He didn't have any flowery introduction. He didn't start with any fancy words, he comes onto the scene and he says, this people, and look what they say, the time is not come. And they believe that from a theological standpoint. We don't have time to go into this tonight, but Jeremiah prophesied. that there was a period, a 70 year period whenever there would be desolations in the city of Jerusalem. I heard your pastors going through the book of Daniel and I'll let him deal with Daniel's 70th week and all that because my head just isn't as good as his. But, they believed this from a prophetical point of view. They believed that the time was not right and they were concentrating on this prophecy of Jeremiah and instead of prophecy driving them forward to do something, Prophecy had actually become a narcotic that was slowing them down. But they didn't believe it was right prophetically. But they also didn't believe that the time was right practically. The economy wasn't right. Inflation was eating away at what these people were earning. The fields weren't producing what they really needed them to produce. But the bottom line was that the people of God were full of excuses. If anybody would have had raised a question during that period of time, whenever the work was stopped, they would have said, do you not think we ought to do something for God? Do you not think we ought to get back to building the temple? The excuse was always, the time is not right. There's always some excuse to offer. Some excuse as to why the time is not right. But Billy Sunday, that famous American evangelist, you know what he said about an excuse? He says an excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. The people of God, they were full of excuses. And the work of God had ceased. The time was not right. And I don't know about you, and don't tell my folks back in Shankill I said this, but any time you come to people and you say, oh what about doing this, do this or do... The time's not right. The time is not right. Listen, there is no right time. If the time wasn't right for these people prophetically, it wasn't right for them practically, But yet it was God's time and God had commanded them to do it and Haggai gives the prognosis. Time's getting away from me. You see the period, you see the prophet, you see the prognosis but I want you to see the preaching. Verse 3, then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying, you see in the book of Haggai you read that little phrase, came the word of the Lord Or thus saith the Lord, and similar wee phrases like that, twenty times in just thirty-eight verses. More than once in every two verses. Haggai is pointing back to the fact that he is God's spokesman, that this is the Word of God that's coming to him, and he's not coming to present his own ideas. He's not coming to present what he thinks they should do. He's bringing the message of God. It reminds us once again about the authority of the Word of God. And the Word of God comes through many different human instruments. Of course, we believe tonight that the Word of God, the Bible, is the complete revelation of God. But God uses men to expound the Word of God. Yet the Apostle Paul, remember he said that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Donald Gray Barnhouse was right whenever he said the shortest road to understanding the Bible is the acceptance of the fact that God is speaking in every line. And here's Haggai. He's preaching the word of God. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying, verse 4, Here was the rebuke. They had plenty of time to build their own houses. No problem whenever it came to their own house. But whenever it came to the house of God it could suffer, it could wait, it could just go to the pot while the people of God became materially richer. See, whenever they came back to Judah from Babylon, they'd thrown together these fairly rough houses just to shield themselves from the elements. And their focus and their priority at that time, 16 years ago, wasn't on their own house, but it was building the temple. They even got back to reintroducing sacrifices upon the altar. Their focus was on the things of God. But then the setbacks came. Then the work of God ceased and they turned their attention and their resources to their own houses. See many of these people had grown up in Babylon. Some of them were born in Babylon. They'd got used to the refinements of that culture. They've been living in the lap of luxury and comfort down in Babylon. And now they've come back to the place of God, back into Judah, and suddenly their living standards are reduced. Their relatively primitive lifestyle, and the first excuse that they get from diverting all of their resources from the temple of God to their own houses, they do it. That word in verse 4 for sealed houses, It's an old English word that could be translated as panelled houses. These were beautiful, ornate structures. These weren't just ordinary pieces of wood that were nailed together. These were ornate structures. They probably had beautiful detailing. It was the best of the best. I'm speculating here, but could it be that some of that wood was taken from Saris's provision for the temple. After all, Saris had instructed that all the surrounding provinces, they provide some of the materials and the tools to get the house of God going because the house of God deserved the best of the best. Whether that is speculation or whether that's what's happening, the bottom line of the whole thing was that these people were robbing God. They were robbing God of their time, robbing God of their resources. They were disobeying the command of God to get back to work. You see their priorities were all wrong. Their sense of values had changed so much that they were perverted and Haggai turns the argument against them and he says They said the time has not come, and Haigai, you can imagine him sarcastically sort of saying, but it's time for you, ye, to dwell in your luxurious, your ornate houses, while the house of God is lying in waste. Their priorities were all wrong. But Haigai was also rebuking their indifference. He says, this house lieth in waste. Now don't forget, for 70 years in captivity, they weren't allowed a temple. They weren't allowed to worship Jehovah whenever they were down in Babylon. And whenever they came back out of Babylon, wouldn't you think that they would have had a real hunger for the things of God? Yet they were indifferent of the need of it. You know why? Because they had gotten used to being without it for so long. They'd gotten used to a lack of worship in their lives. They'd gotten used to not coming to the temple. And they didn't even miss it. I don't need to apply that tonight because COVID did a lot of that, didn't it? People never didn't come back to church. People find it easy to tune in. And I know that there's people with genuine excuses, but there's a lot of people and you go and wrap the door. I used to go to church. In fact, I used to go to your church and you want to shake them and you want to drag them out by the neck and get them in. But anyway, the house was lying in waste. The people of God, their priorities were all wrong. That's the context, but I want you to see in verse 5 tonight that Haggai calls for real consideration here. He says, Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. Right the way through this little prophecy. That's what Haggai calls for. He calls on the people of God to consider. Whenever God says something once, it's important. Whenever God repeats something, it's of the utmost importance. But God through Haggai tells the people to consider five times in this little prophecy. And it's to the superlative degree. He's getting the people's attention and telling them to come and to consider something. Whenever we consider a matter tonight we think carefully about it. We contemplate it. We weigh up perhaps the positives and the negatives. And in some sort of sense that's what Haggai is calling for. But in the original, that consider has a very different meaning. It literally can be translated as heart. That's what the Hebrew word is translated as, it's heart. You see, this was a deep look of introspection, not a surface level gaze. This was a penetrating look right into the heart of every one of God's people to see where their true heart's affections lay. to examine where their priorities were, to see what had first place in their life. It was a call to consideration and the Prophet here, he touches a nerve because he knew that the people had become materialistic. He knew that their hearts had become cold towards the work of God. He knows where their priorities lie. He's starting to touch on a nerve because they've put their blood, their sweat and their tears into their own house. It was really all for nothing. Because God had put a barrier to blessing within their lives. Because Haggai describes these conditions here in verse 6. He says, You have so much, and bring in little. You eat, but you have not enough. You drink, but you are not filled with drink. You clothe you, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it in a bag with holes. See these were wayward people. They needed to be reminded that you can't sin and win. That you can't neglect God and the things of God and expect the blessing of God. You can't rob God and expect everything else to be okay. In fact, the man, the woman, the young person with that attitude, they're always the ones that lose out, it's not God. And God stripped everything away from them. He stripped back the materialism. He stripped back the possessions from these people. All those things that they put their efforts into instead of the house of God and God hit their harvest. Notice that in verse 6. You have sown much and bring in little. They were sowing plenty of seeds. They had tilled the land but they could never get a good harvest because it's God that provides the increase. It's God that provides the sun. It's God that provides the rain. All the things that the farmer needs are the things that God provide. And God hit them agriculturally. Materially, God hit them because they could eat but they never had enough to fill them. They could drink but they were never satisfied. God hit them agriculturally. God hit them materially but God also hit them economically. Inflation was spiralling out of control. Well, our Chancellor wasn't in charge of that. Inflation was spiralling out of control. They were working for their wages, but it was as if they were putting their wages in a bag with a hole at the bottom. Their take-home pay didn't even take them home. They'd put all those things ahead of God. For 16 years they had put those things ahead of God. And the way of God getting their attention was to take those things, those idols, out of their lives. God did it. And we confirm that down in the chapter in verse 9. He looked for much and lo it came to little and when he brought it home I did blow upon it. Why saith the Lord of Hosts? because of mine house that is in waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is dead from dew, and the earth is dead from her fruit. And I call for it's right upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labours of his hands. You see, the reason of it all was God. God was holding back the rain, And if you've been to Israel, and if you haven't been, you want to go next year, I know. But they need to have a lot of rain for their crops. And God called for a drought upon the land. It was as if God was saying, listen, you start building, I'm going to start blessing. If you want my blessing, you get your priorities right. Start building the house of God again and you'll know my blessing. Make the main thing the main thing. And the rest will follow suit. God had been so long suffering with these people, even after they exiled down in Babylon. And wouldn't you have thought they would have learned their lesson to put God first in their lives. That they would realize that He was all that they need, that God would supply their every need. But God was no longer in first place. They had no desire for the house of God. They'd gotten comfortable and God withdrew his hand of blessing because his people were disobedient. You know, God's ways today are the same as all of those years ago. We can toil, we can work, we can do many things. We can have a full church program and full church calendars, but if we're not obedient to the word of God, if we don't put Christ in first place and if he does not have the preeminence, then we will never have the blessing of God. And that goes not only for church life, but it goes in our personal lives as well. That's why we need to tear that idol from his throne and worship only him. We're to know the blessing of God corporately as individuals tonight. Well, then we need to put Christ first and everything else will fall into place. But tonight, friends, put first things first and put Christ in his place. Let's pray. Father, tonight we do thank you for the Word of God and we thank you for this little prophecy of Haggai and we thank you for this man that came on the scene at the age of 80 plus and you had a ministry for him to do and he worked hand in hand with a younger man to really further the work of God And Father, tonight we thank you that at every age and at every circumstance of life, you can use us. And Father, we pray tonight that we would be willing to fulfill the call of God upon each of our lives. Not all of us are called a pastor, not all of us are called to be deacons or to be musicians, but Lord, you've given us a spiritual gift, each one of us. And help us just to be faithful to yourself in these days. Help us to get our priorities right. Help us to put first things first. Help us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all the other things shall be added on to us. So Lord, bless your word, write it upon our hearts. Bless us now as we come to prayer, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.