Priority Test: Is God first in my life?
- Do I make EXCUSES not to serve God? (Hg 1:2)
- Do I have TIME for me but not God? (Hg 1:4)
- Do I feel UNSATISTFIED in my walk with God? (Hg 1:6)
- What would God want me to DO? (Hg 1:8)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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In church, it is so easy to lose sight of what's important.
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It's so easy to lose sight of doing what's important.
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And there's actually a book in your Bible that's all about priorities.
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And that's the book of Haggai.
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I want you to turn there.
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You're like, "Well, where is that?" Well, if you go to Matthew in the New Testament, and go back three books in the Old Testament.
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Okay, so from the New Testament, you have Matthew, And then you have Malachi, Zechariah, and then Haggai.
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I want you to turn there.
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And while you're turning there, I want to sort of set the context for you.
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Are you there?
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Haggai chapter 1.
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Look at verse 1 with me.
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It says, "In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehoshaddak the high priest." And this verse sets the context. Okay, so if you go to our website, the latest sort of gives you the historical context.
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I'm going to give you the short view.
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The short version of the story.
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A little Old Testament history.
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You remember after King Solomon's reign, Israel actually divided into two nations.
01:38-01:44
Ten tribes - northern Israel - kept the name Israel, and there were two tribes in the south that took the name Judah.
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Well, because of persistent sin, God said that He was going to judge the nation by sending another nation to conquer Israel.
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Well, the northern kingdom went first.
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In about 720 B.C., the Lord used the Assyrians to conquer northern Israel.
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Unfortunately, Judah wasn't looking north and taking notes.
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Judah was persisting in her sin.
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And the Lord sent the Babylonians in 586 B.C. to conquer them.
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you know that's not the end of the story, because the Lord promised that He was going to restore Israel in her own land. And in 536 BC, the Jews began to return to the land.
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How did that happen? Well, there became a new world power and that was Persia. And Cyrus, the king of Persia decided, "You know what, these people are all conquered people, but I think they'd probably be happier about serving if they can at least be in their own land." So he permitted the Israelites to return to their own neighborhood.
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And 536 B.C., the Jews returned, led by Zerubbabel.
03:10-03:12
He was, I think, like civil leader.
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And Joshua, the high priest, you could say the religious leader, 50,000 Jews returned to their conquered neighborhood, Jerusalem, and they began rebuilding.
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Well, they got to work rebuilding the temple right away.
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So 536 B.C., they're like, "Okay, we're back in. God's restoring us.
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Let's get to work on the temple." They ran at it for two years.
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Didn't finish the job.
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They just stopped.
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Why did they stop?
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The people became self-absorbed and neglected the things of the Lord.
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So in 520 B.C., this is 14 years of the temple sitting there incomplete.
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Fourteen years.
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Like the foundation started to be rebuilt and it just sat there fourteen years.
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And the Lord sends the prophet Haggai to bring this message.
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This month the message is really about one thing.
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About your priorities.
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We'll kick this off this morning.
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We're going to take the priority tests.
04:43-04:51
Asking this very simply, "Is God first in my life?" Is God first in my life?
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And in church, we give what we call the Sunday school answer.
04:54-05:00
If we went around and polled you, there's a sense in which we want to believe that God is first in my life.
05:00-05:05
But we're not asking what you want to believe about yourself.
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asking what is reality about yourself.
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Is God first in my life?
05:11-05:12
Here's the test.
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Number one, here's the first question.
05:14-05:16
Do I make excuses to not serve God?
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That's number one.
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Look at verses 2-5 in the text.
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Verse 1 says the context.
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And then right into the message, verse 2 says, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.
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Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet.
05:44-05:51
Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins?
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Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways." Consider your ways.
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This is the issue in this book.
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The temple was started, but the work stopped.
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Four times in this passage we're going to look at today, four times in this passage the Lord says, "My house, my house.
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What about my house?
06:16-06:17
What about my house?
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What are you doing with my house?" Four times He keeps bringing that up.
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And you're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait.
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Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop." Question.
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Why does God need a house?
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You're like, "Isn't heaven God's house?" "I thought heaven was His home, and I thought God was everywhere." So what was the big deal?
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What was really the big deal with the Israelites rebuilding this temple?
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It's because the temple represented God's manifest presence among His people.
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That's why.
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Understand, God has always had a special place where His presence exists on the earth.
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In the Old Testament it was the tabernacle, which was the portable version of the temple.
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It was a building.
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And in the New Testament, John 1.14 says the word became flesh and literally it says tabernacled among us.
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God's unique presence on the earth in the days of Jesus was in the person of Jesus Christ.
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And you're like, "Well, where's God's house now?" 1 Corinthians 3.16 says, "Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit." Every one of you who have been born again, you are God's temple.
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So understand in Old Testament times, in Haggai's day, That temple represented God's presence among His people.
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It was about God's glory.
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So understand, this wasn't about God needing something, right?
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How many people here think that if God needed a house, He could build a house on His own?
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How many people think that?
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Okay, so like He built the universe.
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How long did that take Him?
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Six days?
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All He did was speak it into existence?
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It's not hard for Him.
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Okay?
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So it's not like the Lord's in heaven, like I don't have the skill set necessary to construct a house.
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That's not the issue.
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What is the issue?
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The issue is the people were not putting God first in their lives.
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That's the issue.
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God could open His mouth and construct for Himself a billion temples.
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But the issue is people.
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You settled back into your land And you were all gung-ho for me at the start, and then after two years, you just went about your business.
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You don't care about my presence among you.
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You don't care about this symbol, this place where my glory dwells.
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This is a big deal.
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And understand, the people weren't against building the temple, okay?
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It wasn't like there was this group of Jews sitting outside with picket signs saying, "We will not rebuild." They weren't against it.
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It just wasn't a priority.
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Look at verse 2.
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Here it is.
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They had an excuse.
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This is what the Lord says.
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These people say, "The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord." That was their excuse.
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We started the foundation of the temple, well when should we get back to it?
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It's not time yet.
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It's just not time yet.
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It's not time.
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And church, if there's a message for the church today, I think we see it right here.
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Think about it.
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You come to Christ.
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Do you remember?
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Those of you who were born again, do you remember when you came to Christ?
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Do you remember how awesome that was?
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Do you remember that?
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I came to Christ in 1995.
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I remember when I came to Christ, I'm like grabbing random people.
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Can I tell you about Jesus?
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I'm so excited and all things were new and born again and new creature in Christ.
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Like I see that because that's what God did in me.
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You remember how excited you were?
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And it is so easy.
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It is so easy to drop off.
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True or false.
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It's so easy to drop off.
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The Old Testament Israelites, it was two years.
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A lot of Christians don't make it two years before the excitement about the Lord drops off.
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And just like in Haggai's day, excuses abound because excuses are easy.
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Excuses are easy.
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1 Corinthians 3.9 says you are God's building.
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Church.
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You are the temple.
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And obviously we're a church that meets in a school.
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Right now the priority isn't on a building for us.
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And even if it were, the building isn't the place where God dwells, because you are God's building.
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The question is, how much of a priority is doing the work of the Lord in the church?
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to you. How much of a priority is that?
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Because excuses are easy.
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"Oh, Pastor Jeff, I'd be more involved in the church, but I got these kids, and my kids just kind of keep me busy, and because of my kids, for some people it's work." "Oh, you know what, Pastor Jeff, I'd really like to be involved in helping out at the church, but my work schedule is kind of crazy, and I just put in a lot of hours and it's just not the time.
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Some people with sports, I know what you're saying Pastor Jeff, and church is important, but we're in this sports league, and my kids are involved in these sports, and we just really can't commit.
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This just isn't the time.
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It's just not the time.
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Some people are, like the Israelites here, just generic about it.
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It's just not the time.
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I'd like you to get involved.
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Why don't you come and be involved in making disciples of Harvest Bible Chapel?
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It's just not a good time for me, Pastor Jeff. It's just not a good time.
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And this is exactly what the Lord rebuked the Jews for.
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Why aren't you rebuilding the temple? It's just not the time.
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It's just not the time.
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At the end of the day, really, it doesn't matter what the excuse is.
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The question is, are you making excuses?
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You know what I find so fascinating about this church?
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The people that I feel would have the most excuses to not be involved are the people that are most heavily involved in this church.
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I look at people and I'm like, "That guy's got 10,000 excuses why he shouldn't be so involved in the church, but here he is serving the Lord with joy." What do we do? Well, the first step is you just have to admit your responsibility.
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Admit your responsibility.
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Do I make excuses to not serve God?
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Maybe that's something that you just need to fess up to.
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To say, "You know what? You're right. You're right." This church does have need. You've been talking about it.
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And I see it in the bulletin.
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And I see the need.
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Do you know what?
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At this point, I've just allowed myself to make excuses to not get involved.
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The first question in the priority test, "Is God first?" Well, like the Jews circa 520 B .C., am I just making excuses not to serve?
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Secondly, do I have time for me, but not for God?
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Do I have time for me, but not for God?
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Look at verses 4 and 5 again.
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Okay, so remember the excuse, like, "It's not the time, it's not the time." Look at the Lord's response.
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"Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
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Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts," here it is, "Consider your ways." "Pastor Jeff, I'd really like to serve in the church, but I don't have the time." It is amazing what we have time for.
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It is amazing.
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When I say to myself, "Well, I didn't have time to do this today," and then I look back to see the things that I did have time for.
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We have time for television.
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We have time for movies.
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We have time for video games.
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we have time for social media, we have time for Farmville crush, or whatever that thing is, we have time for surfing the web, we have time for playoff hockey, we have time for pirate games, we have time for shopping, we have time for fishing, we have time for hunting, we have time for etc., etc., etc., etc.
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But here's the truth.
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Time is like money in a couple ways.
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One way is this, if you're not deliberate on how you spend it.
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It's going to be gone, and you're going to wonder where it went.
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Is that true about money?
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That's true for me. If I have cash in my pocket without a plan, it vanishes. And I'm like, "Where did that go?" That's why I don't keep a lot of cash in my pocket.
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But time's the same way. If you're not deliberate about how you spend your time, at the end of the day, you're going to be like, "I didn't really get anything done today, but I didn't really set out to do anything.
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What did I do all day?
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Here's another way.
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Here's another way that time is like money.
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People have money for what they want to have money for.
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True or false?
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People have money for what they want to have money for.
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At our old church, we used to serve community meals as a way of feeding the community.
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"Please, don't receive this harshly.
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Just take it for what it is." But I think in your mind you think, "Here's these poor, hungry, starving people.
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These poor, starving people can't afford to even buy ramen noodles, and we're going to feed them." And then they show up standing in line on their iPhones, complaining about what's being served.
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And you're going to have that in any kind of compassion ministry.
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I don't mean this to sound harsh, but just to simply say this.
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When I see that happening, my conclusion is people have money for what they want to have money for.
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I don't have the money to feed my kids, but I got the latest video game system.
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I got the latest smartphone. I got the latest...
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I get 5,000 channels on my television, but my kids don't have clothes.
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How does that happen? Because people have money for what they want to have money for.
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That's also true with time.
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That is also true with time.
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Pastor Jeff, I don't have any time to serve in the church. I don't have any time.
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If that's really what you believe, I'd encourage you to do a little exercise.
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I've done this before.
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Keep a little checkbook of your time and just write down what you do.
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From this time to this time, here's what I did.
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Then from this time to this time, here's what I did.
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Keep a checkbook of your time and then bring it to me and I'll show you maybe where we can readjust some spending.
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If you do that little exercise, you don't have to show me, you don't have to tell me what you're doing, do that little exercise.
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You're going to be shocked at how much time is wasted.
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Times like money.
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You're not deliberate about where you spend it, it's going to be gone, you're going to wonder where it went.
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Look down at verse nine, we're going to get to this here in a second, but just.
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You know, the Lord says, first of all, in verse four, is it a time for you yourself to go on your paneled houses?
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Then down in verse nine again, the Lord says, because my house lies in ruins while of you busies himself with his own house. There is nothing wrong with working on your house. Don't leave church this morning saying, "Pastor Jeff says it's a sin to work on your house." That is not the point.
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However, husbands, if that works for you, if your wife's getting in your case about a project? No, that doesn't work. It doesn't work, Bob. I see, I'm looking down, I see Bob, the gears are turning. No. It's not a sin. That's not the point. God wasn't like, it's a sin to work in your house. The point is priorities. Because we have a built-in desire to be selfish, and if we give no thought to it, we're going to naturally default to living for self. I'd like to I want to remind you the important things in life happen deliberately.
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They happen deliberately, right?
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I don't wake up in the morning and say, "Gosh, I sure hope I love my wife today." Or, "I sure hope that I spend time with my kids today." You don't wake up and say, "I hope that I exercise today." Like I'm just going to go about my business, and if I accidentally am wearing exercise clothes and stumble into a gym, I hope that that happens today.
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I hope that I eat healthy today.
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I hope that I take a bath today.
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All of those things, if they're going to happen, you have to be deliberate about making them happen.
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And the same is true about serving Jesus Christ.
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If you don't actively step up, if you don't actively get involved, it's not going to happen by accident.
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You're not going to walk into Marshall Middle School and say, "Gosh, I sure hope I serve Jesus today." Either you're going to or you're not.
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Priority test. How are we doing?
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Do I make excuses to not serve God?
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Do I have time for me, but not for God?
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Thirdly, you have to ask yourself this, do I feel unsatisfied?
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Do I feel unsatisfied in my walk with God?
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Look at verses 6 and 7.
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At the end of verse 5, the Lord says, "Consider your ways." You know this concept of considering?
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It comes up five times.
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This is the second shortest book in the Old Testament.
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Five times in this book.
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Consider. Consider. Consider.
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Stop and think about what you're doing.
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God says at the end of v. 5, "Consider your ways." And then He says, "You have sown much and harvested little.
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You eat, but you never have enough.
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You drink, but you never have your fill.
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You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm.
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And he who earns wages does so and put them into a bag with holes.
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Thus says the Lord of hosts, "Consider your ways." Stop and think about what you're doing.
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So if you're sitting here this morning and you're looking at your life and you say, "You know what, lately?
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Lately, I have been spinning my wheels.
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I can't seem to get it together lately.
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I'm just going through this season in my life right now where I just can't get ahead.
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I just cannot get ahead.
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I went through a season right now that I feel very far from God.
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He didn't move.
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He didn't move.
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If you're sitting here this morning and you feel like you're far from God, He didn't move!
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If you've received Jesus Christ, He indwells you.
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So if you feel far from God, who is the one who moved?
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And just like the prophet told the people in his day, we can look and say, "You know what?
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Life just seems a lot harder when God isn't first in your life.
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Life seems a lot harder when God isn't first in your life.
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Do you know why that is?
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Because it is.
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That's why in verse 9, the Lord says, "You looked for much and behold, it came to little, and when you brought it home, I blew it away." All that dissatisfaction came from God because - write this down - God will not let you feel satisfied without Him.
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God will not let you feel satisfied without Him.
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If you think you're going to go through your life, and you're going to do your thing, and everything's going to be great, and God's not first in your life, He is not going to let you feel satisfied without Him.
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So if you're here today and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're not going to feel satisfied until you take that step.
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Until you receive the eternal life from Him.
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You're not going to feel satisfied.
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And Christian, If you've sort of stepped away from God being the priority of your life, He is not going to let you feel satisfied without Him.
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If God has moved from your top priority to an add-on, He's going to let you feel restless.
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He's going to let you feel unsatisfied.
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And folks, that is grace.
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Because He wants you to get back to the place where He is everything to you.
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Things seem hard without me? They are.
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Church, life seems hard because God hasn't been the priority?
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Because it is.
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Is the best of your walk in the rearview mirror?
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Man, I had a great walk with Christ.
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I look back four years ago, five years ago, I was really on fire for the Lord, And I'm just not there today.
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I'm just not there.
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The question is how long are you willing to do it the hard way?
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The question is what is keeping you from crying out to God right now to restore a hunger for Him?
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And it doesn't matter where you're at.
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That is a prayer that we can all pray.
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To say, "God, I just haven't hungered for You in the way that I need to.
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God, I'm looking at this chapter in my life right now, and You're not the priority.
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God, would You restore a hunger for You in my heart?
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That's a prayer we can all pray.
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We're going to get to this in Mark.
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I believe it's in Mark 9.
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I believe it's the greatest prayer in the whole Bible.
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When the man said to Jesus, "I believe, help my unbelief." I think we're all there on some level.
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Can you pray this prayer?
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God, I'm not feeling it.
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I believe it, but God, I'm having a hard time right now.
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Restore in me a hunger for You.
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And here is the glorious news.
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God is not reluctant.
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God is not reluctant.
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If the Lord has not been your priority for 20 years, and you cry out to Him today and say, God, restore that in me.
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God is not sitting in heaven going, "Pah, 20 years.
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Boy, she's got nerve.
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She's got nerve coming back to me after 20 years." That is not the Lord.
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Jesus illustrated that in the parable of the prodigal son.
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Here's a kid that went away and blew all of his dad's money.
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And when he went back to throw himself at his father's mercy, what did his dad do?
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He ran back, jumped on his son, hugging him, and totally restored him.
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There was no punishment period.
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There's no "I'm going to make you sweat this out until you learn your lesson, punk." Jesus told that story for a lot of reasons, but one of the main reasons is to illustrate the eagerness of the Lord to restore.
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You're like, "Man, I want to get my life back on track." You know there's someone who wants you back on track more than you do, and that's God Himself?
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He's just waiting for you.
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He's just waiting for you to humble yourself.
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Say, "God, you've got to be number one again." The Lord says, "That's what I was thinking.
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Let's get on this now." God is not reluctant.
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Number four, this is where the rubber meets the road.
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What would God want me to do?
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What would God want me to do?
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Well, as I told you, the book of Haggai, it's obvious.
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It is so obvious because God says it five times.
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Twice in this passage that we're looking at, we'll see it three more times.
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It's really the central message of Haggai.
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The Lord says, "Consider your ways." That's what the Lord wants you to do.
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Consider your ways.
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Stop. Just stop for a second.
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Think about what you're doing.
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Think about where you are.
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You say, "Well, I'm informed now. Thank you." I see the problem.
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Thank you for bringing that to my attention.
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I will think further on the matter.
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You can't stop at the considering part.
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What are you going to do about it?
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Look at verse 8.
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"Go up to the hills and bring wood and build a house that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified," says the Lord.
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I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.
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Come on, even I get this.
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Okay, so you see what's happening here?
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The Lord's like, "My house needs repair!" That guy preaches the message and Israel's like, "Right, yeah, the temple needs built.
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Right, right, right.
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The temple needs built.
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Yeah, you know what, that's right.
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So what should we do about that?" I was like, "Go get the wood! What do you do about it?
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Go get the wood!
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Just sit there thinking about it, get moving!" I love the practicality of that.
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The Bible says when you hear the word without doing the word, you're deceiving yourself, so you have to respond.
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Going on in the text, again, verse 9, "You looked for much, and behold, it came to little.
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And when you brought it home, I blew it away." "Why?" declares the Lord of hosts, "Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.
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Therefore, the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.
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And I have called for a drought on the land, in the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast and on all their labors." Why did you do that, God?
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because God will not let you feel satisfied without Him.
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Like, "Man, God has not been first in my life.
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Where do I even begin? Where do I even begin?
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How can I get my priorities on track?" If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, at Harvest Bible Chapel, we emphasize that a disciple of Christ really is about three things.
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The three W words, do you know them?
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A disciple of Jesus Christ, what does he do?
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Worships Jesus Christ.
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Secondly, a disciple, what does she do?
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A disciple walks with Jesus Christ.
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And what's the third thing a disciple of Jesus Christ does?
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Works for.
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Like, "Pastor Jeff, my priorities are out of whack.
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How can I take the first step?
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You know, what's my equivalent of running up the hill and getting some wood?
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Here it is.
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First of all, jot these down.
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You want to get on track?
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Number one, make worship a priority.
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Make worship a priority.
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Every Sunday.
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And I would also encourage you to come early and to come ready.
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Come early and come ready.
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It's hard to get into worship when we come in during the third song and worship has already started and now we're getting in and we're trying to get situated and trying to get the kids situated and all there's a song going on.
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I'd encourage you to come early.
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Not just come early, but to come ready.
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Come ready.
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We're going to lift our voices up.
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We're going to lift our voices up to sing to the Lord.
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We're going to lift our praises up to Him.
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going to come prepared to get in the Word. I was talking to a brother-in-law this morning, he was like, "Yeah, I knew we were starting this series, so I like read through the book of Haggai a few times through the week." That is coming ready.
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It's about priorities. Secondly, I'd encourage you to make attending a small group a priority. We have several small groups that meet.
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I'd encourage you to make attending a small group a priority. One of the key The key ways that God is going to work in your life is through other believers.
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That's the way He designed the church.
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We are members of the body.
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We are members one with another.
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And one of the key ways the Lord wants to work in your life is by speaking to you through other believers.
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That's how He chose to work, even in this passage we're reading, right?
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Does God have the ability to rip open the heavens and shout from the heavens?
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Of course He does.
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He spoke His message through this prophet.
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There is great power on display when God's Spirit-filled people are ministering one to another.
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That happens in small groups.
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You've heard me say this.
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Sunday morning can't be the sum total of your spiritual devotion.
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Sunday mornings are hard.
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We're trying to turn a school into a church.
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And we're trying to cover a lot of bases to have the service.
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We can't really connect and fellowship that we need to as a church.
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That's why we need to be involved in a small group.
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We're in each other's homes and we're sharing life together and we're enjoying each other's families and we're praying with one another and we're sharing meals together.
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That's what happens in a small group.
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We're getting into God's Word together.
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The Lord will work in your life, through other believers, but you have to make that a priority.
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Gosh, I sure hope I make it to small group this week.
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Maybe you need to rearrange your schedule so you block off small group night to make that a priority.
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And finally, what was the third thing a disciple does?
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Disciple works for Christ.
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I'd encourage you to make getting involved in Sunday morning work a priority.
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As I mentioned, you look at your bulletin every week.
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You know, worship Christ, walk with Christ, work for Christ.
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Why do we print these up?
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There's just too many trees in the world, and this is our effort to remedy that.
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No. The reason we put worship, walk, and work is we're saying we believe this is biblically what a disciple does.
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And you're like, "Well, I'm a follower of Christ." Good. Here's some things we want you to get involved in.
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And considering work, we always have different ways that you can get involved.
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There's always stuff to do.
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Shouldering Weekly Kingdom responsibility.
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You're like, "You know what, I'm not even sure "where to start with that." My email is on the bottom left corner on the inside.
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All you have to do is email me and say, "Hey, I haven't gotten plugged in yet.
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"I wanna get plugged in.
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"Help me get plugged in.
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"We will be glad to help you with that." But we can't make the decision for you because who controls your priorities?
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You do.
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But I will say this, the greatest joy you will have on earth is doing what matters in heaven.
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And God has called and equipped every believer to serve Him by working in the church.
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Like, yeah, did Jesus have anything to say about priorities?
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Yeah.
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Jesus really summed up this whole sermon with one sentence.
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In Matthew 6.33, Jesus said, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." of your ways. What are you going to do? The only thing that you can control are your priorities.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Haggai 1:1-11
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.