Good to be in the house of the Lord with you all again today. If you have your Bibles, I'd like to look at the book of Haggai this afternoon. If you're unfamiliar with where Haggai is, find Matthew and go back two books. The book of Haggai. We're going to look at the whole first chapter here. It's a little bit more reading than we typically do, but I ask that you bear with me. Haggai 1, beginning in verse 1. 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, and to Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say that it is not 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? In this house lie waste. Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. Ye have sown 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 into bags with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. You looked for much, and lo, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why, saith the Lord of hosts? Because mine house, that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called 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 that labor of the hands. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Joshedek, 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, and the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josedek, 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 fourth and twentieth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king." So, I think whenever we're looking at one of these Old Testament books, A convicting message that Haggai is bringing before the people here, and I believe it can apply to us today. I'll be completely honest, I didn't start off preparing for today, planning to be in Haggai, but this passage, I really felt that the Holy Spirit placed it on my mind and I couldn't get it off of my mind. The story for this event here, or kind of give us the back story of what's going on, is in the book of Ezra, chapters 1 and 6. Now we're not going to go there and read all six chapters, but I'm going to give us a summary of what's going on here. So the people here have a decree from Cyrus. That's the first act in Ezra. given the children of Israel leave, and a remnant of about 50,000 people leave Babylon and return to Jerusalem." And it also says that these people, all them whose spirit God had raised up to go and build the house. So these people were sent out. The Spirit had quickened them to complete a purpose. They were on a mission. to go and to rebuild the temple of God. And so they have all the permits, they're given wealth, they're given all the things that they would need, even the gold that was in the temple that Nebuchadnezzar had stolen and brought to Babylon. And so they return to Jerusalem and they begin to build, just as the Spirit had stirred in them to do. but then opposition comes. And at first, it's somewhat a friendly opposition. It's, well, let us help you build this temple because we want to sacrifice to your God too. And the people are committed. They say, no, no, you have no part in this. And so the pagans, as pagans often do, they begin a blackmail smear campaign to Cyrus. Now, the children of Israel, they have the permission of the king. They have the permits. They have all that they need. But it says that they are hindered by these people. I looked at it like getting bogged down in paperwork. Do you really have the claim form for that cedar that you're... Let's send to the king and check. Well, you do have the claim form, but let's check and see if you have the... What about for the stone? Did you get the correct form filled out for that? And they're hindered by these men that are going before the king and constantly trying to get them in trouble and just slow the process. Well, then Cyrus dies. Now, the kings of Persia that we have in a row here is we have Cyrus, we have Campisius, his son, We have Semiridus. Now, we'll get to Semiridus in a minute, but he was an imposter pretending to be the son of Cyrus. And then Darius. And so right now you can see that the people are working under political turmoil. This is in the span of 15 years, they go through these three rulers. Cyrus dies and then you have Campisius, Semiridus, and Darius. And so it is in complete turmoil. And these people are still, the enemies there are still petitioning before the king to get them to hinder them. And when Camp Pisces comes around, he is the perfect man to try and hinder the work because he is written of in history as an unstable man. He was known for his temper. He wanted all the power and wanted to consolidate all power to himself. So he was known for starting wars and he's most famous for his conquest against Egypt. He had a bone to pick with Egypt. And so the people, the enemies of Judah write a letter and say, they might not pay you taxes. You can look in the history books and see that they're a rebellious people. And that once they were a powerful people, they might not pay taxes. Oh, and Camp Isis doesn't like the sound of that. And so he orders the building to cease of the temple. And the enemies, they show up with force with this decree, and they cause the stop of the temple. Now, after this event, Camp Isis is killed in battle. unbeknownst to the kingdom. He had killed his brother Smeridus, or however you say that. I get worse and worse as I keep on saying it. My pronunciation is getting worse. But he had killed his brother, and no one knew about it. And so a magician or an imposter claims to be his brother and takes over. He rules for seven months. And then Darius, who was one of Campisius' assistance. He knew that he had killed his brother. He goes back and removes him and takes over as king for himself. So we have all of this happening in the span of 15 years. Just turmoil in the kingdom. And the people are still there in Jerusalem. And the temple is still not built. And it's 15 years. And that's where we are in Haggai. and the second year of Darius. So Darius has been king for two years now. And so the Lord starts off by giving His judgment to the people. He says, these people say it is not time. And that is what they had convinced themselves is it was not time to build the temple of the Lord. It wasn't time to serve the Lord. And there's several commentaries you can look at on this, but for the most part, they believe that they had kind of spiritualized it and taken God's sovereignty and had twisted it and said, well, you know, God must not want us to do this right now. And so we're just, we're going to focus on us for a little bit. And that's God's accusation against the people. He says, is it time for you to dwell in your sealed houses? Now these were not leaky huts. He's not talking about a seal in that way, but the translation of that word is a paneled or wainscoted. It was elaborate. Now this isn't stated here, but when the people first get back to Jerusalem, they order the cedar for the temple. In Ezra chapter 3, we read about them ordering the wood and the stones for their foundation. And everywhere that this word sealed is used, it is used to describe cedar paneling. Most of the commentators I've read on this agree that it's a cedar adornment on a house. And so I believe that they had taken that cedar that they ordered for the temple and it's not sitting out for 15 years, and we don't want it to go to waste, so we'll just put it in our house." And they had adorned their houses. Now, was the problem that they had adorned their houses? No. The problem was not that they had made their houses fancy. The problem is that they were sent there for a purpose, to serve God and to build His house. And when the trouble hit, when the hardships came, They quit and said, we're going to focus on us now. It's too hard to serve God right now. We'll do that later. But now it's time for us to get ahead. Let's focus on us for a little bit. And they could have appealed. There were multiple rulers. In fact, the histories I read, Samaritus was so, because he wasn't supposed to be there, he was trying to win people over. He told people, you didn't even have to pay your taxes for a couple years. He's trying to win the hearts of the people and as many people that are illegitimate trying to take a throne will do. They're trying to win favor, to gain behind them. but they could have petitioned him. They could have petitioned Cyrus, but they had quit, or Darius. They had quit and were focusing instead on themselves. They were building up their own houses. They're saying, why don't we get ahead right now? We'll serve the Lord later. It's not time for that, but let's focus on us right now. Let us get the upper hand. And God says, consider your ways. Think about what you're doing here. Consider your ways. And He says that you have sown much. Friends, they were sowing much, trying to bring to themselves... You don't sow much expecting to bring in little. You're trying to bring in a lot. They were trying to gather to themselves as much food as they could possibly bring in. They were trying to get ahead. And God says, you bring in little. Much to their dismay, after the sowing and the growing and all of the... I've never been much of a gardener, but there's a lot of work involved in keeping this stuff alive. And they go to bring in the fruit, the corn or wheat or whatever it was, and it was little. It wasn't as much as what they had sown. And their labor was in vain. They wouldn't be satisfied with what they brought in, what their return on investment was. And God says, you drink and you are not filled with drink. It's the same, the vine was not producing enough grapes. They were drinking, but they didn't have enough to be intoxicated. It was just not enough. They were not satisfied. We're not satisfied. Ye clothe you, but there is none warm. He that earneth wages is put into a bag with holes." Have you ever felt like that? That when you're earning money, it just feels like the second you bring it home, honey, I've got the paycheck. And then you look and your bank account's the same as before you got the paycheck, and you say, what happened? Turns out we needed diapers. But that's the way the people here are. They're working so hard to get ahead. They're sowing much. They're gathering in the fields. They're drinking. They're eating. And they're not satisfied. And God says, consider your ways. Think. God is not blessing their idolatry because they have put God on the back burner and they have placed instead in His place their own desires and ambitions. what they wanted. And these are not, is there anything wrong with food? No. Is there anything wrong with clothing? No. Is there anything wrong with building your house? Of course not. But the problem was is they were seeking their own good and pleasure above God and they had put Him in the background and forgotten about Him. And they say it is not time they had made a justification to make themselves feel better, to justify forgetting God altogether. And they continued on seeking to further themselves while the temple of God lie waste. The goal that God had quickened their spirit to do, they had forgotten about it. And they were instead focused on, what do I want? Let's adorn my house. Let's gather much grain to myself." And so they weren't satisfied because God would not bless their idolatry. And that is what it is. When we put God on the back burner like that, we're seeking our own pleasure. We're essentially telling God to get off the throne so we can put ourselves up there. The clay pot that we've formed, that we think this will satisfy us better than you will. And it's not true. Because as God says here, you're doing all of this and it's coming to little. Consider your ways. He says, go up to the mountain in verse eight, go up to the mountain, bring wood, build the house, and I will take pleasure in it and will be glorified. God is saying, turn, repent, do what you're supposed to be doing. You're supposed to be building the house. And you looked for much and low, it came to little. And friends, that's the truth about what they were doing here, is they're looking for much. They're seeking much to get ahead. They wanted to restore themselves to wealth and prosperity. And lo, it came to little. And what ye did bring in, I blew upon it. scattered it. I think of this like a dandelion. You ever blown on a dandelion? Just a little kid can do it. You blow on it, and what was once a pretty-ish flower is now a nub. It's nothing. Friends, God says, what little you did bring in, I've blown upon it, and it is scattered like dust. Why? Why would you do this, God? You sent us here. Why would you do this? Because my house lie in waste. And you run every man to your own house." And that's what they were doing. They were seeking to progress and move themselves forward. And God's house was bare. And friends, this applies to us The temple, think about what the temple signified. The temple was the dwelling place of God. And that was under the old covenant. What is the dwelling place of God now? It's us. 1 Corinthians 3.16 says, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? And the question I kept on thinking about in my own life, and it is a convicting question, is how often do we neglect the temple of God that is our own soul? How often do we run every man to his own house and the temple of God lay waste? We often justify it. We think it's not time to serve the Lord. We say that. I've heard similar to that. We don't say it in exactly that language. But well, when I get out of school, I'm just too busy right now. You know, but when I get out of school, when I've set myself up to for a productive career, then then I'll serve the Lord. When I get this job and when I earn enough to get a little bit in my savings, because that school really set me back, when I get ahead a little bit, then I'll serve the Lord. Well, when I meet the right girl, when I get that done, then I'll serve the Lord. When I get these kids out of the house, then I will serve the Lord. When I can actually sleep for eight hours without a kid screaming at my door, then I'll serve the Lord. When this season of stress is behind me, when I retire, friends, we come up with a million reasons to say it is not time. And friends, the message of God is the same to us as it is to the people. It is time. It is time to serve the Lord. Because we're not promised tomorrow. And so often that's what our problem is, is we're taking confidence in something that we shouldn't have any confidence in. Turn with me to the Gospel of Luke 12. We're going to read verses 16-21. Luke 12, verse 16. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do. I will pull down my barns, and I will build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and all my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, Thou hast much good laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.' But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." Friends, What we so often do is we think that we're promised. We've got the number in our mind of how many days we'll live. Think, when I'm 82 years old in three days, then it's time. Friends, we're not promised tomorrow. Like this man, he says, well, I'll tear down these barns and build up new ones, and then I'll rest for a long time. And what does God say? He says, tonight, your life ends tonight. And what will come of those things that you have gathered up that will go to nothing? Who will they go to? There's not any U-Hauls behind hearses. It doesn't happen. Matthew 6.33 says, But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. So friends, what are we seeking? Are we seeking the kingdom of God first? Are we seeking our kingdom first? And that's the crux of the issue, is what are we seeking above all else? What is our priority? What is our priority? Brother Ben talked about similar issues this morning about, are we spending time in the Word? Is the time in God's Word a priority, or do we say, I'll get to it tomorrow? Friends, I'll admit, I'm so often guilty of, me and Margaret will be watching a show, and I'll say, well, one more episode, knowing full well that if I stay up much later, I'm not waking up early enough in the morning, and I'm gonna put myself in a bind. How often is the Word of God just not a priority? If I've got time to get to it, if it's convenient, and we treat it as a good luck charm more than the Holy Word of God, the revealed Word of God. Is our time in church worship, is that a priority? Or do we say, well, when it's convenient, when it makes sense, when it fits into my schedule, when I don't have something else going on, when I'm not so tired, is it a priority? Do we seek it? Is our time in prayer a priority? Or is it simply a break glass in case of emergency type of thing? Like last night when the tornadoes are coming for us, I'm sure there was a lot of prayers lifted up, but during the week when things are going well, how often do we pray? And I'm saying that for me. It's convicting for me. Do I pray as much when things are going well as when I'm in dire straits? Friends, we ought to be offering thanksgiving and worship to God. We've been given an avenue to the Father. We've been given an advocate who is on our behalf. He says, come boldly to the throne of grace. How often is that a, well, I'll do that when I really need it, but right now I've got things under control. Is our love and service to others, is that a priority? Are we seeking out ways to love and serve others, or do we say, I have my own problems to deal with right now? I've got my own problems. I don't really have enough room on my plate to deal with your problems and my problems, so I choose my problems. Good luck. Be warmed and filled. Friends, that's wrong. It ought to be a priority. We were given a mission just like the people back there were given a mission. We are to serve God because He has loved us. That great love we're with, He loved us. We love others. We love our brothers and sisters. We serve. and we worship Him because how could we not? He's given so much for us. He's given us Jesus Christ as our justification. So that ought to be a convicting thought to us. Back in Haggai, we see that the people respond. Beginning in verse 12, the people respond, "'Then Zerubbabel the son of Ziltil and Joshua son of Joshadech, the high priest, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the word of Haggai the prophet.'" They obeyed and they reverenced God. They turned and began to work. They began to labor. And friends, the most beautiful part of this passage, the part that really stood out to me, is in verse 13. What is God's message back to the people at their turning? They repent and they're turned back to God, and He says, I am with you. I am with you. If you read the story of Ezra, they begin the work of the temple again, and the same adversaries come again, write to Darius and say, these people are doing it again. They're doing it again. And Darius writes back and says, no, they were given permission by Cyrus. They have the grants that they need. You are not to hinder it. And if you do hinder it, I'll tear down your house and hang you above it. And not only that, you're to pay them tribute so that their work goes easier. Give them all the things that they need. Friends, God is with them in a powerful and mighty way. And I believe the same message is given in the New Covenant in James 4.8. Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto you. Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto you. And this is not that God is ever leaves His people because He's omnipresent, but His drawing near is the showering of grace and mercy and showering us in His love. He shows us His love toward us in His Word. And how do we draw nigh to God? How do we do that? Well, we draw nigh to Him by reading His Word, by praying, coming boldly to the throne of grace, by coming and hearing the Word preached and being lifted up fellow believers. We don't draw an eye on an island. We draw an eye through the working of the Spirit, but through brothers and sisters. We need each other. It's a great help. And so, my prayer for us this afternoon is that we would If we've gone astray like these people, if we've forgotten our calling, that we would heed the message of Haggai and we would say, it is time. Friends, we're faced with a time right now with camp being destroyed, Brother Lewis in his eye. There's a bunch of things that aren't going according to plan this year. And we are faced with two options, just as these people are. We can remain faithful and we can say, it is time to serve the Lord now. Or we can say, well, better luck next year. I'm going to focus on me the rest of this year. Friends, it is time to serve the Lord. It is time. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You that You have revealed Yourself in Your Word, that You have given us the promise that if we draw nigh unto You, You will draw nigh unto us, Father. Father, I thank You for Your forgiveness in Jesus Christ by which we are justified, and I pray that You would help us, strengthen us by Your Spirit. You would stir up the Spirit within us so that we would be faithful in the vocation with which we are called in this time, in this season, that we will be faithful in our service. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.