with you guys this morning. What's our first song? Okay, that's a different part of this service. I'm thankful for the opportunity to practice preaching. Hopefully it's not just practice, but hopefully it's a blessing to you guys as well. We better start with a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you for today. We thank you that as believers, we can gather here and you provide a place where we can worship you. And we don't have to have a specific place, but we can worship you in any place you'd bring us together. And we thank you for this place you provided. And we pray as we turn now to look at your word and specifically the book of Haggai, that you would be preparing our hearts to see the messages that you have delivered to people there and that you deliver to us today as well. We pray you would Guard my words as I'm teaching, that they would be accurate, reflecting your will well. From what we see in your word, we pray that you would guard from any error, and that we pray that you would help me to communicate clearly, and pray that the people here be blessed, and ultimately be your word that is encouragement to them. So we pray you'd have the glory from things that are said and done today. We pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. See everybody here, because I haven't had a chance to see you all here when I was when I was leading music. Okay, so as many of you know, in my childhood, I grew up northwest of Salina on a family farm out there. I was originally born in Wichita, but my folks moved up to the farm when I was about nine years old. And that's a farm that had been in several generations in the family on my mom's side of the family. So by the time my brothers and I got there, there were a lot of older projects, older tools and things around the edges of the farm shop, you know how it kind of accumulates over time. And so as a young kid, we oftentimes enjoyed opening up those older toolboxes and see what we'd find in there. There were a lot of old tools. And we'd, oh, what's this for? And we'd be making our guesses. I think you could use this for this. Or no, I'm pretty sure it's for this. And we'd be just having a fun time exploring and figuring out what to do with those tools. And then, of course, Grandpa would come down to the shop at some point, and he could set the record straight. Oh, no, that's for this. And so on and so forth. So as I was thinking about the book of Haggai, I think it's kind of like that for us. The books in the Bible are like tools in God's toolbox. And he has each one for a purpose and a way that that helps to do a certain, tell a certain part of the story of redemption. And, you know, not every tool is going to be the same way. Some of them are going to be like a hammer, maybe crush a hard heart and prepare us to hear well. Others are more like a magnifying glass to zoom in on details of some part of the story and show us more about the glories of God. Although all the books do show us the glory of God as well. And so for Haggai, it's been a book that, like some of those older tools in the toolbox, I might look at and say, I'm actually not sure what we would do with this. And that's how it's been historically for me. I would come to a book like Haggai and like, I don't know, that probably has a purpose, but I don't know what it's used for anymore. So, it's interesting, but why is it an important tool to have in the toolbox? Why is it an important tool to have in God's toolbox, in that collection of tools? If we were to lose Haggai out of our Bibles, Would we miss it? Why would we want to make sure we have Haggai? Is it maybe an outdated tool for a job that we no longer do? You know, we don't really need that tool because we don't do that job anymore. Well, that's not the case. We know from 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, all scripture has a profitable purpose for believers today. And so just like, and that would include Haggai. So there's a good purpose. We want to understand what that is. And so over the next four or five sermons that I do, We want to explore through Haggai and see what is it that God intended for that book to communicate both to the believers in those days and to the believers now. So that's what we're going to take a look at. And I'm going to check my bulletin to make sure if there's blanks you're filling out. You should have the first one by now. Every book in the Bible is like a tool in God's toolbox. So that was the first set of blanks. In today's sermon, I'm kind of setting out a course that we're going to follow here. We're going to look at a brief Introduction to the book and we'll look at the context things like that that we need to do as we begin a book and we'll talk About the main themes we're gonna see in Haggai and then we're gonna begin walking right into chapter one. It's only two chapters long So we'll go ahead and get started into the text today as well As we look at the text, we're going to consider what it meant for the first years And then we're gonna consider how it points us to Christ how Christ fulfilled the principles we're seeing there and ultimately we'll want to consider application What does this book mean for our lives today as well? It's not a tool that just applied for the people in Haggai's day but also for our days. So, to give the context, as you may have already started to gather, we read a couple of chapters from Ezra earlier today. That's because the book of Haggai falls right into the chapters of Ezra. The chapters we read so far were leading up to the time about when Haggai would have been prophesying. Actually, I believe, yeah, in the beginning of chapter 5. So, we finished chapter 4. Chapter 5 then starts in Haggai and starts to prophesy. Haggai makes it easy to date the book, because right at the beginning of the book, we're going to see in a few minutes, verse 1, he tells us when did he preach it. He tells us it was the second year of King Darius. But our study Bibles would tell us that was about August 19th, 520 BC. Because Haggai gives us very clear dates of when it was written. It's interesting that the timing of when we started this series, because that's about this time of year. Maybe a week, maybe two weeks ago is about when Haggai would have been preaching to those people. Or not preaching, but prophesying to those people. The book is made up of two chapters. There's four prophecies in those two chapters. And so over the course of about four months, he gives these series of prophecies. They overlap a little bit with Zephaniah, but Haggai's the first one that starts prophesying. If we were to look at Zephaniah, we could see how those overlapped. So if you remember the history of Israel, we had the people come into the Promised Land under Joshua after they've left Egypt. And then the kingdom really begins to flourish under King David and then his son Solomon. They build the temple of the Lord. And then over the next several series of kings, Solomon's son Rehoboam, the kingdom is divided. We have a series of ungodly kings, both in northern Israel and in southern, we call it Judah, southern Judah, but it all was Israel. And both kingdoms are declining until eventually northern Israel is carried away by the Syrians They go into captivity and the Syrians bring some foreign people back into land Those are the ones we were reading about in Ezra 4 earlier that they were in the land when the exiles came back So northern Israel goes in exile and then a few years later Southern Judah they also get carried away into exile by the Babylonians. They're there for seven years as Jeremiah prophesied and also as Isaiah prophesied There's a king named Cyrus, who is king of the Persians. The Persians conquered the Babylonians, and then King Cyrus tells the Jews, you can go back to your homeland. And interestingly, in the beginning of Ezra 1, we see he even told them, go back and rebuild that temple. And it seems maybe there was a practice that he wanted them to be, you know, you conquer a land, you send the people back to their homes and have them build a temple, and you can pray for the blessing on the kingdom. So Cyrus sends them back to rebuild the temple. And we can read that in the first several chapters of Ezra, how they they get back and they get started building like they were told to. But as we saw in Ezra four, the other people that were in the land, there's some disputes and they don't want to see the people building the temple. So they write some letters back to the king of Persia. And there's this exchange back and forth. And we end up it wasn't Cyrus at this point, but now maybe the king or two later in the Persian Empire. He sends a letter back and says, you guys need to stop building. I don't think we better build the temple right now. And so the work ceases. And that goes for about 16 years, maybe 18 years. And that's where we get to when Haggai starts, in the second year of King Darius. So in that second year of King Darius, the Lord sends a series of messages, both by Haggai and also the prophet Zechariah, and he instructs his people to be building the temple. It's an encouraging book to read as we go through Haggai, because unlike maybe some of the things we've been looking at Isaiah on Wednesday nights Wow, wow, we just finished, but there we would see, you know, Isaiah would give him a message and the people didn't obey and they didn't obey, they didn't obey. Well, Haggai is encouraging because he gives a message and right at the end of chapter one, they wholeheartedly obey. The Lord stirs up their hearts, they obey him. So it's an encouraging book. Really, Haggai, it's all on a positive note. It looks like things are kind of on an upward climb. But as we know from the book of Malachi, which Dan Slyer is preaching through, Malachi happens maybe 80 years or so after the book of Haggai. And so by the time we get to Malachi, there's, again, spiritual decline. Things aren't going well in Israel. So we know that whatever reforms and improvements we see in the book of Haggai, it's not going to be permanent. We're still looking for something better that needs to happen. Haggai is not going to be the final note of everything working out properly. And so, yeah, that's all just context here. So, yeah, it already says two chapters. There's four prophecies in Haggai. And that's what we're going to be looking at. My summary for the book of Haggai is that God calls his people to join in the great work that only he can accomplish. God calls his people to join in the great work that only he can accomplish. So we're going to see in the context for the first years of the book of Haggai, that meant they need to go out and start building the temple that God calls them to build. But we also can see that's going to apply to us in a broader sense today, that we're called to build the church of God and build up the body of believers in Christ. And so we're going to see that summary kind of applies both ways for us. The theme that we're going to consider as we go through the book of Haggai is Haggai tells us a lot about being the people of God, being the people of God. And so, as a tool in God's toolbox, Haggai functions to help us see what's it like to be the people of God, how should they be living, and we're going to see that as we go through. So, you don't need to write all these down right now, but just to kind of give you a preview of the next several weeks as we look at the prophecies in Haggai, we're going to see today that God's people are going to be focused on God, and then we're going to see in the next prophecy that God's people are going to be diligent in God's work. Then we'll see that they're hopeful of God's blessing. And lastly, they're confident in God's promises. So that's kind of where we're going with all this. Haggai is definitely a tool we would not want to lose out of our toolbox. And so let's get started. And we'll go ahead and turn to Haggai if you haven't already turned there. If you're looking and you think maybe you already lost that tool out of your toolbox, Haggai is a small book tucked right in between the two books that start with a Z. So if you get to Zephaniah or Zechariah, then you're almost there. It's right between them. late in the Old Testament, the book of Haggai. I'm going to read through the text for us, chapter 1. In the second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, the son of Sheltiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, this people says, the time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt. Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying, is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paled houses while this house lies desolate? Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have so much, but harvest little. You eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied. You drink, but there is not enough to become drunk, or some translations say not enough to have your fill. You put on clothing, but no one is warm enough. And he who earns, earns wages to put them into a purse with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the mountains, bring wood, and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified, says the Lord. You look for much, but behold, it comes to little. When you bring it home, I blow it away. Why, declares the Lord of hosts, because of my house, which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house. Therefore, because of you, the sky has withheld its dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of your hands. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shelteel, and Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest, with all the remnants 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 showed reverence for the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke by the commission of the Lord to the people, saying, I am with you, declares the Lord. So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord, host of their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. Okay, so that's our first prophecy. So we already said the overall theme for Haggai is it's about being the people of God. I have a theme also for this first prophecy, and the theme for that is don't focus on the gifts, pursue God himself. Don't focus on the gifts, pursue God himself. We're going to see the people of God, as they get back into their homeland, they're getting caught up in all the perks about being back home. We've got our houses, we've got our lands, everything is good. But they're forgetting about the God who brought them back to their land, the God who they're desiring to be worshipped, the God they should be worshipping. God's people aren't about the stuff they have, but they're about that God dwells in their midst. And so we can think back to, like, Like at Mount Sinai, and remember the golden calf that God says, I'm going to send you guys onto the land, but I'm not going to go with you. That's like Exodus 34-ish. Moses prays, Lord, if you don't go with us, then, you know, what's any different about us than any other people? Like, we have to have you go with us. And the Lord agrees to go with them. We're kind of the same thing here. The people are in the land. They're happy to be here, but they don't seem to be caring. Like, we need to build the temple. We really desire God's presence here. We want to worship at this temple. And so that's kind of the problem that we see as Haggai's beginning. So let's take a look now at the first verse. We're just going to walk through this verse by verse as we're in the text, first section of the sermon here. And in verse one, we read, it's going to give us the setting for this prophecy. In the first year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah. and to Joshua the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest, saying..." So in this first verse we have four things. The setting has four parts. We see the timing, the sender, the messenger, and the audience. So briefly we'll consider those. The timing we've already talked about is August 19, 520 BC. He gives us that by telling us day of the month in the second year of King Darius. We also see the sender. Who is the one that has initiated this message? It's the Lord. The Lord's sending a message. And we're not surprised to read that. That's a common phrase in the Bible. But we should stop and think about it. This is the Lord sending a message for his people. He cares about what's going on in Jerusalem. He cares about how they're doing. He cares about what they're doing. And so we can easily gloss over that. But that's a significant thing. The Lord is speaking to his people through Haggai. This is an opportunity that the people can respond well, but it's also an opportunity that if they disobey, it can go poorly for them. So when the Lord gives them a command, it's an opportunity, but also... It's opportunity, it's best to just obey. So we have the time, we have the sender. Now, we also have the messenger who tells us who's delivering the message on behalf of the Lord. It's Haggai. We don't really know anything about Haggai, but somehow at least the people there, Zerubbabel and Joshua, they recognize that the message that Haggai brings is from the Lord. So there's something of authority there. and they respond well to it. In Haggai, verse 13 of chapter 1, it refers to Haggai as the messenger of the Lord. So, again, we don't really know anything about him, but it's not so much about the man bringing the message as it is about God who is sending the message. The words that Haggai speaks to the people are the words of God for the people. Now also in this verse when we get the audience, and there's two men who specifically this prophecy is addressed to. One is Zerugbul, says he's the son of Shelteel, he's the governor. And so remember the people are under Persian rule, they've been allowed to go back to their land, but they're still being ruled by the Persians. And Zerugbul is the governor that has been appointed to keep law and order there in the land. We know from looking at genealogies like Matthew one and Luke, two or three, that Zerubbabel is a descendant of David, and he is in the line of Christ. And so that will be more significant as we get farther into the book. Also, it's addressed to Joshua. Joshua was the son of Jehozadak. Joshua was the high priest at the time. Jehozadak was the high priest who had gone with people into exile, and now they're coming back, and Joshua, his son, is the high priest. So we've seen the timing, the sender, the messenger, and the audience there in verse 1. Now in the remaining part of chapter 1, which is most of chapter 1, I'm going to show you guys five principles about what it means to be the people of God. For today we're going to look at the first two, and then probably next week we'll consider the remaining three. So there's a lot here in chapter 1, and I'm still looking forward to sharing it with you guys. So our first principle, chapter 1, we're going to see God's people should always be doing God's work. God's people should always be doing God's work, and the emphasis there would be on always. So that's the issue that comes up right away as we begin God's message. In verse 2, the Lord says, Thus says the Lord of hosts. This people says, The time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt. So, a brief note as we start in here, there's kind of sections marked out in the beginning of this chapter, and they're all broken out by the phrase, thus says the Lord. So it'll be like, thus says the Lord, and he says something. You're going to see it happen. Thus says the Lord, or thus says the Lord of hosts, says over and over again at the beginning. That helps to help us see a pattern as we go through. This first section, we see that people are procrastinating. They're saying, they're not saying that we're never going to build a temple, but they're saying the time has not yet come. Or they're not saying it wouldn't be a good idea to build a temple, they're not disagreeing with any of that, they're just, not right now at least. But remember, when they... As we just talked about, King Cyrus is sending them back. They're supposed to be building the temple. And then they got that letter from the later king. He says, stop building the temple. So they stopped construction. Everything's been on hold now for about 16 years. It's really not a convenient time for people to start building the temple. It's going to take a lot of effort. And it might get in trouble with the Persians. The last letter they had, at least, was they should not be building a temple. So they, I guess, in a more convenient form, were like, oh, we'll just build our houses. We'll work on our farms. We'll do some other things. And so they're procrastinating from what Lord told them they should do and what the people of God really should be desiring to do would be to build a temple and worship God there. I was thinking about an example of procrastination. You might think like an oil change on a car. So my Prius, I get like a 500 miles heads up like, your oil's life is starting to run low, you need to change the oil in your car. And I think to myself, time has not yet come to change oil in my Prius and like I think I can go a little farther and so you know every time I drive it's like clink clink like don't forget to change oil like oh time has not yet come I can go a little farther and then eventually it's like you're 500 miles over you need to change the oil in your Prius and still like well I don't have time today maybe I'll not have time tonight and I'm always procrastinating and you know eventually I get around to doing it but The procrastination not wanting to change the oil might be similar to the procrastination not wanting to stop and build the temple. I'm procrastinating not because I'm so excited to change the oil in my car. I'm procrastinating because I don't really want to change it. But I know I've got to get that over with at some point. The people might have been saying, yeah, we probably do need to rebuild the temple. It's not really something we want to mess with right now. That's going to be a pretty big project. It took them four years, I think, if we go back and look at Ezra. It's like a four-year project they're getting started on when they did that. They don't feel like going through the trouble. You're going to get dusty, sweaty, sore. You're not going to have as much time to work on your house and to work on your farm because you're going to be busy building that temple. And so they're not in a hurry to do that. And besides, they might get in trouble with the Persians. So the people just assured themselves, oh, the time has not yet come to build the temple. And so they're procrastinating. We can gather from the tone of the passage that the procrastination is not pleasing to God. And we can especially see that in, I mentioned there's a pattern in chapter 1. And so I won't show it to you today, we'll look at it more clearly next week. But the verse 2 pairs with verse 10 and 11 in the passage. And so those verses go together. So I'm going to look at verse 10 and 11, that's where we can see especially that God is displeased by the procrastination of the people. Chapter 1 verse 10 therefore because of you the sky this be God speaking Therefore because of you the sky has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce I called for a drought on the land on the mountains on the grain on the new wine on the oil What the ground produces on men on cattle and on all the labor of your hands so we see the people are procrastinating and the result is they're getting punished and Instead of blessing them back in this promised land, God's cursing them because they're not doing the work. They're delaying to do the work that he called them to do. Here they are in the land, but they're being cursed. We have a drought, so crops are going to be failing. Livestock will be struggling. God is turning up the pressure so that they'll stop procrastinating and start doing what they're supposed to be doing. So that was our first principle that God's people should always be doing God's work. Now, the second principle we're going to look at today is that God's people should give God's work top priority. It's similar to the first, but a little bit of a distinction here. God doesn't just want people to always be, you know, putting a little bit of nominal effort towards his work, but he wants to be their top priority in what they're doing. And so we can see that as we look at verses three and four. Verse three and four says, Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai, the prophet, saying, Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paled houses while this house lies desolate? So verse three starts again with this notification. The Lord is speaking, so we know we're moving to this next step as we work through the pattern of the passage. And God's saying, Is this the right time for you guys to be living in your nice houses while the temple is laying in ruins? This question they ask them reveals their priorities. So, they're eager to build their own houses, and their consent to leave the temple unfinished. So, God's showing that they have the wrong priorities in what they're pursuing. This question that God asked them about living in pale houses while the temple is in ruins takes our mind right back to what David said in 2 Samuel 7, verse 2. David speaks to Nathan the prophet and says, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains. So King David was really concerned. At the time, they didn't have a temple at all. They had the tabernacle, this tent. And so David is concerned, look, I have a palace, I'm living, I'm king, but God's house is just a tent. And so he doesn't feel right about doing that. He wants to build God a house. And then through Nathan's directing, ultimately it's David's son, Solomon, who builds a temple for God. And now God has a house there. And so that pattern has kind of come up again now. Here on Haggai, the people have nice homes, but God's house lies in ruins. And it seems like, unlike David, the people aren't concerned about that. They're just okay living in their houses. So God confronts their priorities and he's asking them, is it time for you to dwell in your panel's houses while this house lies desolate? Now, the pattern that we're going to see next week pairs verse four with the second half of verse nine in chapter one. So also, let's go over and look at chapter or verse one. Chapter one, verse nine, part B, it says very similar. Lord, ask my question again. He says, why declares the Lord of hosts because of my house, which lies desolate while each of you runs to his own house. So just like verse four, God's asking the question and it shows their priorities. They have the wrong priorities. So it's kind of like the, you know, thinking of someone who has wrong priorities. Remember the rich farmer in Luke 12? His crops are doing real well. He starts to trust himself. He's like, I got this under control. I think I'm going to build some bigger barns and take it easy. And we see his priorities are focused on his personal wealth and not on God. And in Luke 12, 20, the kind of the conclusion of that story. But God said to him, you fool, this very night, your soul is required of you. And now, who will own what you have prepared? So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." So we see his wrong priorities led to ruin. They'll be the same for the people in the days of Haggai. So in these few verses of Haggai, we've seen these two principles for today. God's people should always be doing the work of God, and secondly, God's people should give God's work top priority. Now these are Pretty easy principles to accept, and we would agree with that, but it's pretty vague. What does that really look like? And so, how are we going to put that into practice? So, I want you to come now with me to the New Testament, and we'll see how Jesus modeled both of these things, and lived them out perfectly for us. So, if you're following along in the notes, we finished up the introduction section, now we're moving down to the text section. No, we finished up the text section, now we're moving down to the Consider Christ section. I'm not following along in my notes, I've done. Okay. Okay. So. If we think about it, we can all agree that Christ is to be the king of God's people, and he's the better high priest. We see that. Well then, we won't be surprised if when we get in Haggai and the message is addressed to the governor, who's like the king of the people, and to the high priest at the time, that that message likely translates over very well towards Christ. It's going to fulfill that. And that's exactly what we're going to see. So first of all, we can consider Jesus was always doing God's work. Jesus was always doing God's work. Think with me about the story of Jesus and talking to a Samaritan woman at the well. And in John 4, verse 6, that story is in John 4. Jesus and his disciples are, they're on a journey, and they're traveling through, and they come to a well. The disciples go into town to buy some food. Jesus stays at the well. It says Jesus is weird. He's tired. But that doesn't stop him from doing God's work. And when the woman in the well comes out, he strikes up a conversation with her. And it's not just small talk, they get talking more seriously. And the woman ends up recognizing that Jesus is the Messiah that they've been waiting for. The disciples come back, and they have some food now, but Jesus isn't hungry. And they're a little confused, and they think, did someone bring in some food? And then Jesus makes this statement in John chapter 4, verse 32 through 38. He said to them, that's the disciples, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples were saying to one another, no one brought him anything to eat, did he? Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months, and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages, and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor. So that line, that my food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. Jesus was always about doing God's work. Even when he is tired, like with the woman in the well, he still is up to doing God's work. So he's always doing God's work. Jesus sees that, unlike the people of Haggai's day, who are procrastinating, saying, now's not a very good time to start building a temple. Jesus says, no, this is the right time to do God's work. The fields are white for harvest. We need to be doing God's work right now. Jesus is all about accomplishing the work the Father has given Him to do. We could also see another example of this. If we jump one chapter forward in John, John chapter 5, Jesus comes and heals the man at the pool of Bethesda, the paralytic, and He tells him, pick up a pallet and walk, and the man does, and then it will happen on a Sabbath. So now the Jews are unhappy with Jesus, and they come and they say, you shouldn't be doing work on the Sabbath, and Jesus tells them in verse 19 of John 5, Therefore, Jesus answered and was saying to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, these things the Son does in like manner." So you see, Jesus wasn't going out and doing his own projects. He was doing the work of the Father. He's always doing the work that God gave him to be doing. So we have this king, this high priest, Jesus, and Jesus is always doing the work of God. That was our first consideration. Jesus is always doing the work of God. Now, we can also observe the second principle we saw in Haggai about Jesus. We see that Jesus gave God's work top priority. Think with me about the story in Mark chapter 6. Now, in this story, Jesus is going to feed the 5,000. And the story starts out there in chapter 6 with the apostles. They had been sent out on their missionary journeys to spread the news to the villages. They come back after this busy season of ministry, and they're tired. And it says the place is so busy, people are coming and going, they don't even have time to eat. And Jesus tells the disciples, come with me to a quiet place, we'll rest for a bit. They all get in a boat, and they pick off to rest. They need to have a break from all this going on. As they're getting across the lake, people see him going, and there's a big crowd waiting to greet him when they get there. And they could say, you know what? I think we need some rest. That's a priority right now. You guys need to go away and try to come back in three days. We just need quiet time. But they don't do that. Jesus gives God's work top priority. And he stops and he teaches people there. And it leads to that miracle we see of defeating the 5,000. So I got out of my note for just a second. So we see that Jesus laid aside his personal interests to engage in the work that God had given him, that opportunity presented to people who were there, and so they take it and they teach, and God is glorified in that. We can see another example of where Jesus makes God's work his top priority if we go to the Garden of Gethsemane. In Mark 14, they just had the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. Judas Iscariot has gone now to fetch the mob. They're going to betray Jesus. But, Jesus and the rest of his disciples, they walk out of this Garden of Gethsemane that evening. It says in verse 32 of Mark 16, Mark of Mark 14 verse 32. They came to a place named Gethsemane and he said to his disciples, sit here until I have prayed. He took with him Peter and James and John. They began to be very distressed and troubled. He said to them, my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death, remain here and keep watch. He went a little beyond them, fell to the ground, and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass him by. And he was saying, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. So here we're seeing that Jesus is prioritizing God's work. With disregard to his own comfort, he wants God's work to be done. And so he's giving top priority. He knew the sufferings that were ahead, but he has submitted to the will of God. So we can clearly see he was committed to carry out God's work as his top priority. Okay, so we've seen both those principles that Christ was always doing God's work and that Christ gave God's work top priority. But now it's important that we see, we've seen these principles in Christ, but how these apply to us now in 2022, Manhattan, Kansas. And so we're going to move now towards application. We've seen We've seen the Haggai's message to the people, how they should respond. We've seen how Christ responded. How do we live this out? So, as you're probably starting to guess, as we get to application, first point, believers today should always be doing God's work. So do you ever catch yourself thinking, the time has not yet come to serve the Lord in whatever way it was. We're always thinking of things like, well, that would be great someday, but it's not the time for me to help out that way. I think you'll be okay. I don't need help with that, or whatever it is. Or maybe like, oh, I'd like to help with that opportunity, but it's not gonna be very convenient to my schedule. Kind of like the oil change. I'm not really looking forward to doing that. I don't have time to, make time for that opportunity. The pad guy was to bring God's message to our church. What would he say? Would he find us actively engaged doing the work that God has given us? Or are we distracted with procrastinating from the good work that might need to be done? Our next sermon we're going to explore some more about what is the work of God for our church as what the scripture lays out. But we're going to see ultimately Christ gives his church a mission that they're to be building up the assembly of believers, building up the church of God. So the people of Haggai's day are building up the temple, Christ's people are building up the church. And we'll explore that. in more detail next week, so that's kind of a heads up where we're going with that. But building up the church takes effort. It's not going to happen on default, just as you randomly have opportunities. You need to put effort towards it intentionally. It's not always easy to be investing in the lives of the people that are sitting beside you, or behind you, or in front of you. But these are the people we're supposed to be investing in. And this is the work that God has given us to do, just like God gave the people on Haggai's day the work to be rebuilding the temple. We can see that Scripture supports this idea that believers should always be doing God's work. Look with me at Hebrews chapter 3, where they're instructed to build up one another. And in verse 12 and 13 of Hebrews 3, it says, Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We can't encourage one another yesterday that this day is gone, and we don't know if we're gonna have opportunity encourage one another tomorrow We don't know what tomorrow holds, but we can encourage one another today and they'll help to prevent each other from getting hardened by deceitfulness of sin. So that's an encouragement, to be encouraging one another day after day. Also, we can see another example that we should always be doing God's work in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul concludes this chapter where he's been talking to people about their hope in the resurrection, and he gives them these instructions in verse 58. He charges them, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast and movable always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord." He wants those believers in Corinth to be always abounding in the work of the Lord. So, so should we. Everything we do needs to be in pursuing the work that God's given us. Paul notes for the Corinthians that our toil is not in vain in the Lord. We can think of the toil they were doing in Haggai and people were building their houses and doing their land, but the toil is going to vain and God's cursing their work. We want to be diligent that the work we're doing is work that God be pleased to bless and see it prosper. So that's our first application. We should always be doing God's work. And our last application, we must give God's work top priority. We must give God's work top priority. And you already know this, this is like a Sunday school answer. You know that we should be giving God's work top priority. But how often in our life, my life, your life, do we find ourselves, we might not be giving God top priority. His work might not be getting top priority. In Haggai, they are busy renting their homes. working on their farms, you might find me busy working on my business, whatever it is, there's things that, even today, would threaten to take away our priorities and not focus on God. Now, we should clarify, it is important to provide for our families. We can make that argument from passages like 1 Timothy 5. It says, if anyone does not provide for his own, especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. We're not saying that we shouldn't be taking care of your houses, taking care of your farms, doing those things, but what's our top priority should be about doing the work of God. Often our pursuits lead to distractions and that we get off track or we start to focus more on those little side projects we have going on instead of the work that God has given us to be doing. I catch myself doing that all the time. Where someone's like, how are you doing? Oh, work's been busy recently. What am I thinking about? What's on the top of my mind? It's not always the work of God. So I need to be working on that. We can all be working on that. What kind of things are filling my time? When someone asks me how my week is going, what am I saying? Is there something I've purchased recently? Oh, this is going to make me happy. What are our priorities? Can we trace our priorities and the things we're focusing on back to somehow that this is doing the work of God? This is important to me because I see that this is somehow going to be building up the church or building for God's purpose. If I can't trace that purpose back to somehow obeying what God has said, then probably it's questionable whether that's really motivated by a desire to be pleasing God or maybe I have some other idol in my heart that I'm running after. And so I challenge you guys to be thinking about what are our priorities? Jesus gave God's work top priority and he expects the same with his followers. We can see in Matthew chapter 6 a helpful passage on this. Jesus is not worrying about, he tells his disciples not to be worrying about the things the world is always fretting about. In verse 31 through 34, chapter 6 in Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples what their top priority should be. He says, Do not worry then, saying, What will we eat? Or what will we drink? Or what will we wear for clothing? For the Gentiles eagerly seek these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. And he says here, But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So our top priority as believers is to be seeking after God's kingdom, seeking after His righteousness. God knows the things that we need. He often supplies us with good things to enjoy, like houses or lands. But that's not our main focus. We're to be focused on doing God's work. And if we keep that priority in place, everything else tends to fall into place as well. So, as we finish our applications, I also want to give us a reminder that if we run out there and try to do God's work on our own strength, it's not going to go very well. We're going to burn out pretty quickly. And we're going to see this more in Chapter 2. The work that God has for His people to do is a big work. I said that in the summary. God calls His people to join in the great work that He wants them to do. And so, it's not something we're going to accomplish on our own strength. We need to depend on God's strength to do that, and we'll explore that more. We see that in the end of chapter 1 where the God stirs up the people to obey. It's not that they just did it on their brute strength. They relied on God. We can see it same for us in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 11. Peter instructs the people. He says that we should be relying on God's strength. Verse 11 he says, Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God. Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So we are supposed to be exerting effort, but it's going to be God's strength that accomplishes the work He calls us to. And that way, when we do accomplish that work, it won't be like, oh, look at how strong I was. I got that finished. But if we're leaning on God's strength to accomplish it, it's like, wow, I'm so glad I was a part of that. But God gets the glory for what He's accomplished. And so it helps to prevent pride. So in conclusion, we're starting to see Haggai and why this tool is in our toolbox. It's here for a reason, and it's a small book, but we need it, and God has given it to us for a reason. Haggai is all about being the people of God. In this book, we're going to see how God calls his people to join the great work that only he can accomplish. In this first prophecy, we've started to see that God's people should not focus on the gifts, but they should be pursuing God himself. We've started to see that Like the people in Haggai and like Christ, we also need to always be doing God's work and be giving God's work top priority. It's not always going to be easy. It's not always going to be convenient. But if God calls us to do it, he'll provide the strength that's needed for it. And so we can start into it and the work that God's provided. I'm going to finish with Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, which puts it well. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the book of Haggai. We thank you for preserving it down through many years, that we would have it today, and we would have the opportunity to study it and understand it better. We pray you would help us to rightly discern what are the works you've given us to be doing now. We pray you would provide the strength to be doing those works, and you would provide great fruit from the work that you do through us. We pray you would be glorified in all things, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. OK, so questions, corrections, other thoughts? We welcome those now. Yeah? Justin, I just want to thank you. I've been well edified by you. OK, good. Good. So just a second. Obviously, you give the top priority, and procrastinate, so that's wonderful. I worked all yesterday on it. Well. I really appreciate how you brought it around to relying on his strength, and I think like next week We'll see you know how's it working out for you? I know you're doing all this planting and sewing, but you're not really getting anything out of it, so I really appreciate you I think there's a risk that you could go through and like oh he says do this okay we're gonna try to do it but you're gonna burn out pretty quickly if you don't have God's strength that's like making it happen and he's gonna tell him like I'm with you like there's a lot of encouraging things he gives him along the way but it's not just not just them doing their stuff yeah yeah okay