Pastor Ralph Douglas West - The Ancient Warning About Endless Consumption - Haggai 1:6

0:00 This is the day the Lord has made. We rejoice and we are glad in it. Wow. Come on, let's celebrate the goodness of the Lord this morning and thank Him for being a great and awesome God. One more time, let's appreciate our guests on our campus to let them know we're glad that he pulled away from his Sunday morning schedule. where he works, to be here on Sunday morning, to be here in worship with us. Haggai A little book with a big message. Chapter 1.

1:04 Verse 6. This is the word of God. You may be seated. Have you ever worked and it appears you can never get ahead? Have you worked and you wish that you could find great fulfillment in the work that you do? Or has life appeared to be like a treadmill? You run, but you're not going anywhere.

2:02 Now there are a series of questions in that vein that you could ask yourself and you have an idea of where things are going. And if you have questions like that, it might cause you to want to pause to read Haggai. the most some of us know about Haggai is we remember when we had to remember the Bible books in vacation Bible school and we could hardly wait until we got way down in the book where you could say Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi but we don't know much about the prophet But he has a big message in this little book about putting things that are important on delay. We call it procrastination.

3:09 but he speaks to us this morning about something that you may have been called to do, but you're putting it on delay. Maybe one of the ways to help us understand the writing of Haggai is to situate his life and his message and his ministry in a particular context. 586, 587 BC is one of the three great deportations of Jerusalem or Israel into exile King Nebuchadnezzar had pulverized had demolished Jerusalem destroyed the temple and carted off God's choices young people on a four-month journey east across the desert to the Mesopotamian Valley.

4:19 In that deportation, they would be in exile for 70 years. And then one day, like a boat of lightning breaking across a cloudless sky. There arose a king by the name of Cyrus who was a pure pagan and did the most dramatic thing in biblical history. He put on an exodus. He made an edict to 50,000 Israelites who were in captivity and said to them, go home. a man that had no relationship with Jehovah or Yahweh the covenant keeping God he just rises and from his lips and he writes in his pen and he signs it an edict go home that would have been rejoicing enough but he sends them home with everything that they need to build life over again.

5:32 And for four months, in the second exodus, they would fulfill the prophetic words of the prophet Isaiah who said that God would turn his desert and make it blossom like a rose. That would be streams in the desert. It's where you find that great line and God would do a new thing, which interpretively meant that he would put on a new exodus like he did the old exodus and they made their way back home with what they needed to get life jump-started after 70 years and when they were on their way back and in the distance looking at the landscape something had been removed namely the temple when you come across the scripture in the Old Testament and you read this temple let me tell you why it's so important it's because this is God's house and this is where God dwelled you recall that there was tabernacle that was the makeshift temple that was the portable temple there was the ark of the covenant all of these speak of the presence of God just for those of you that try to read the description say what are these name changes and then you get to the temple the one that Solomon built in all of its glory but Nebuchadnezzar had pulverized it destroyed it It was gone.

7:13 And so far the mindset of Israel, God was gone because his house was gone. Now they knew like you and I know that God was bigger than a space called a temple. They understood the ubiquity of God, but the very presence of religious life had been removed. And now they are on their way home. but they are coming back not just out of emancipation and freedom but in their hands is everything that they need to get life going again and the one place that a good Jew would start these tribes of Israel God's chosen people would be a place where God dwells 67 years they haven't had that place and when they got there and they saw where the foundation of the temple had been broken down to the ebony stone what used to be a place where God worship was overrunning with weeds and rubbish and refuse and they looked at it and they wept when they remembered Zion in addition to all of that they got ready and they started building for God in 535 B.C.

8:39 And they got it started. And then something happened. An old man lamented and says, this building that we're trying to reconstruct doesn't compare to the one that I remembered worshiping in. It's nothing like the old temple. And they stopped building. and there was some people that came along that tried to lend their hand to help build it but they stopped and so they stopped building God's house and changed their focus on their own house Look with me for just a moment at the realities behind the recognition of procrastination. Now, I think you already know at the rate I'm going that I'm just going to stop in 17 minutes because time won't permit me to unload with integrity.

9:45 So let me give you the broad strokes of what's happening. so take the word of God and look at it with me so that you can begin to go down the list to see what is happening in this whole issue of them putting God's work on hold it begins with the reality a recognition of that reality of procrastination it has its source as well as its substance in verse 2. Something takes place here, and that is, this is what the Lord says. These people say, and listen what they say, the time has not come to rebuild the Lord's house. So the source of procrastination, according to God speaking to Haggai Haggai, to speak to the nation, begins with a recognition that it's the Lord who speaks first.

10:48 You say why that's important is because in the history of their return, the credit goes in verse 1 to Cyrus and Darius, the kings of Persia. And if you're not careful, you'll misplace your praise. I thought I'd just use it that way. It says a whole lot more than that, but that sounds like a catcher way for you to get along with it. And so it is not Cyrus or Darius, but it is God who is controlling, according to Proverbs, the heart of the king. And he turns it as he wills in his hands. and so there are times where God has turned what appeared to be that which is against you has turned it toward you for you But then beyond the very source, you see something about the nature of the substance of what's taking place.

11:59 And he says these words. These people say. Now remember, this is God speaking to Haggai. and time didn't give me enough to permit me to show you the different places where you read this is what the Lord says I mean you just go through it 13 times as a reference to the Lord the Lord the God of hosts the Lord the Lord's sabbat throughout the reading and it's only two chapters 13 references so you know where the emphasis rests on the Lord and this is what his own creation says and notice what they didn't say they didn't say we're not going to build neither did they say we don't have the resources to build they didn't say anything like that they said we're going to build we're just not going to do it yet that's the reality of procrastination and that's the message to some of you now is that God has given you a work and you didn't say you're not going to do it you just said not yet because you have some things that are a little more important to do than God and so he says they says that they're going to build but the issue here is verse 2 not yet the time has not come to build the Lord's house now it's apparent that we're not trying to build the Lord a house that would be the physical factual historical reference but how does this speak to us spiritually then when you read it you say well I'm not trying to build a another sanctuary then you say what is the interpretation

14:11 of that practically for us and that is God has still worked in terms of building the church building the lives of people building broken communities restoring that which has been shattered and we're gonna do it Lord we just ain't gonna do it yet and the reality is we don't do it because we have some things Lord that are more important than building your church so we'll get to it now when you read this you recognize something else that takes place in this and that is, now they did do some building, but it wasn't the Lord's house. The word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai. When they said that not yet, when the Lord said that, Haggai did what any good preacher would do, and that is he didn't try to invent a sermon. He didn't try to proof text, that is take a scripture and twist it to make it fit the situation. He went back and said, Lord, I need to hear you speak. That is, I don't want to go unless you send me. I don't want to speak unless you put your word in my mouth. And so he says, so tell me what I'm to say to these people.

15:40 And listen what it says. Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai, verse three. it is a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses while this house remains a ruin now this is not an anti wood paneling of your house we're looking to a higher, holier significance now because we're in a beautiful room called cathedral, a sanctuary, a place where people can come and worship. So it's evident we're not trying to do that. So then the spiritual for us this morning is building God's family, building God's church, the real church, not brick and mortar, but building the lives of people, fitting them stone by stone or putting stone to the living stones.

16:48 And look what they did. They built, but they didn't build God's house. They paneled their own house. You say, what's the big deal? I used to say that too. What's the big deal? I mean, you need some paneling in the house. Well, the first thing that was wrong is remember when they were in exile and they were liberated to return, they didn't come home empty handed. They came back with the wood that they would need to rebuild the temple. And rather than rebuilding the temple, they took the wood to build their house. I wish you would go on and have church with me this morning. But then again, I can understand why you wouldn't shout about that because there have been many times where God has put resources in our hands for his house and we have used it for our house.

17:47 So that's one emphasis of what happens there. And so in this whole issue of the reality, they put God on hold because they had some things that were better to do than to do what God had called them to do. I just got to stop right there on that whole issue. but Victor Hugo you know knew something about procrastination said that the writer Hugo was such a procrastinator on his writing projects that he would say to his valet to hide all of his clothes until he had finished doing his assignment before he could dress or go. The Mastanese, the Greek orator was such procrastinator that he would shave half of his head to work on his orations so that he wouldn't go outside to look like a buffoon.

18:52 There comes a time where you don't put God on hold. Dwight L. Moody learned that. He had been away from the broad shoulder Midwestern city of Chicago for several months now and that large crowd of people that would come to hear Moody preach had dwindled away. And when he returned after a long hiatus and came back to the city, he rebuilt that crowd to a larger crowd by preaching through the characters of the Bible, beginning with Abraham to Jesus Christ. and on October the 8th, 1871 he said in a sermon what will you do with Jesus who is called Christ and he preached and then he said but come next week and I'm going to talk about Calvary and the resurrection and I will answer what we ought to do with Jesus Christ and for those of you who are historians you already got an idea of what happened that's the week and the date of the great Chicago fire 22 years later Here we go.

19:58 on the anniversary date of the Chicago Fire Moody stood up and wept because no one in the audience that night had been in the audience 22 years earlier he knew like you got it right that there comes a moment when God opens an avenue for you you walk through it you don't wait because it may never open again preach pastor west i don't know who i'm talking to but I can guarantee you somebody here has been paneling houses with God's resources I'm not talking about just money now I'm talking about with your life gifts what God has given to you to do for him and you know what it is some parent has not encouraged a child that has come to you and said dad but this is what I feel God calling and you've said to them you can't make no money doing that? Well, everything is not summarized by how much nickel and dime you can make. That is, there are some things that are greater than that, which leads to a second idea of the futility involved in this story. And that is, listen what Haggai said to the people. He said, verse 6 I see what you've done you planted much you've harvested little you eat you never get enough you drink you never fill you got on clothes but you can't get warm you got a job you earn wages only to put it with a purse with a hole in it that's the futility of life and there are people right now In your head, you're saying, I work and work and work and I don't know where my resources go and I work and I work.

22:13 Futility of life. Time won't permit. So let me just give you one example of it. Jay Rurick is a medical doctor. In an interview or an article in Science Digest, he talked about work and money. He does all his work with high network people. He said, and this is what he's learned about people with money, that they live on multiple levels. One is money for them is power. secondly money for them is security third for them money gives them the ability to buy love and finally love like money is a game it gives them competitive sports but they learn that the more they have the more isolated and anxious their life has become because when they are around people not only do people want what they have but they always say they got it so they don't need encouragement but they have what I need so I go after it to get it and so they live into a kind of catch-22 that they need encouragement they need somebody to correct them but nobody would do it because of their status and their position and I don't care who you are you don't have to be Rhodes Scholar all you've had to do is keep up with the headline news and you know that power prestige position and money can be a way of human destruction if you're not careful with it preach pastor West futility of life that is there are people and you've not been designed this way to eat and can't get filled, drink and can't slake your thirst to work and make wages and it looks like the more you have the less you got one of the ways that you can sew up the hole in your pocket according to Haggai

24:22 is that you can reinvest again in God's work and in God's word Let me close now what Haggai tells us in verse 8. He says now, here's the remedy. This is how you get it done. Go up to the mountains.

24:53 Bring down timber and build my house. so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. Go up to the mountain, fell the timber, bring it down, and do God's work. We're not trying again to build a building, but we are trying to build human lives. And so today, you go up to the mountain, you go get the timber, you bring it down and you start working so that you can build God's house how do I do that there's a children's church over there go up on the mountain of the children's church go get some of that timber cut it down and help them babies become what you are today there's a youth building over there they don't have to be your children you're in God's family climb up the mountain cut down the timber and do the work i don't hear you yelling loud now but we get loud when we see our children and i just had to bury another one of my young men in my church 15 years old gunned down in the street this is the third one this ain't just my problem this is our problem and god has given you too much for you to say Not yet.

26:24 I like to march I'm always March I'm gonna put my voice in it But it take more than Marching It takes some work we got work to do And God has called us to work I know your children are doing well I know That your children have Graduated and gone on and you Say man have never given me one day of trouble but I don't have that luxury. I pastor all of God's people that call themselves a member here and I got the love, the up and the down, the in and the out, the PhD, the GD and no D. I got to do all of them. God has called us not to procrastinate, not to put his work on hold but to go. Now I got to sit down but when you read this there's a line that comes out of Haggai chapter 2 where it says and God will be with you. I'll talk more about that in the next and God will be with you. Isn't that good news that God will be with us? That God will never leave us? God will never forsake us? Isn't that good news that we have the with usness of Christ? That we have a Christ who is Emmanuel that in the hard clutches of life He reminds us I am with you And you don't have to go up on the mountain by yourself Because I've already gone up on the mountain I've already been nailed to a tree And they put a hammer in my hand And they put a nail in my hand And the worst thing you can do to a carpenter Is to give him a hammer and a nail He didn't go to build a house But he came to build broken lives God has built your life God has built my life God has called us to go build Some other lives That's the big message From this little book Amen Amen

28:30 Amen Our Father, thank you for Haggai. And we ask you now that you would help us get off of procrastination and do what you have called us to do in the strong and perfect name of Jesus Christ, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Give God praise. The door to church is open while the choir sing. The Holy Spirit has already done his work. You know what time it is. For those of you that are watching, those of you that are here, the door is open. It's your time to get up from that seat. Come forward. I say I will not put on hold anything else that God has called me to do. Some of you are here. You are in the church and in Christ. Just like those people in Haggai, you're saying, just not now.

29:37 You know, it takes a lot of courage to be a creature, to tell the creator not now. I mean, that's human arrogance and hubris to tell the one that woke us up this morning. Not now. I don't know who you are. Don't quench the spirit. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Surrender to him and let the day be your day that you start brand new with Jesus Christ. Come on, the door to church is open. We're waiting on you.