Sorting Out Our Priorities

But it was a it was a good time. Well, as we, I'm looking in the bulletin now and as Keith already announced this project beautify a new Grey's. We're going to be taking this offering up until December 11th so anytime that you can give would be fine. Again, the goal is $5,000, so please pray about that. And if you want to use an envelope here in the Pew there, in front of you can, if you don't want to put beautifying, you Grace, just put painting that make it simpler. If you just want to let you know, for painting or whatever. So we'll know exactly what is for, but don't forget Vision, 2000, 24 hour prayer challenge. I change that from the 90 day prayer challenge. Call be past 90 days. So let's just pray this prayer, these three prayers each and every day that you do your devotions or have your prayer time. So just make sure Bet you do that. And I already see God working in. And through the church, I can already see it and we're just really basically getting started now. And of course, on Wednesday night, I want to invite you to come. As we have our vision 2024, we're going over each system that I call it. In the church, we've done the simulation system the Outreach system, and we finish up the financial system, this past Wednesday night, so we'll probably start another one in the next Wednesday night or two. And it will continue on with that. Well, today we want to continue in our series. And this is our series here a life. Well, spent, and we've been talkin about sewing, especially we've been talkin about stewardship, especially Financial stewardship, what we've been talking about and we've talked some about sacrifice and how sometimes giving can be a sacrificial today, I want to talk about a topic preach on the topic. that when I look at my own life sometimes, I'm not very good at I'm just really not very good at this at times and that is sorting out our priorities. You know, we all have priorities in life, no one. And we all say, we're going to do some things but sometimes we just don't ever get around to doing it. Especially those things that are difficult and hard. It's easy to procrastinate. Is easy, just kind of deposit something off in the day. What I want us to talk about is the danger of misplaced priorities, especially As we consider our finite finances, the danger of misplaced priorities. Now I'm going to preach today on a book of the Bible that I probably never preached the sermon on here at this church. So I want you to turn to the book of haggai. You say, what, what in the world is haggai when he was a minor Prophet? Although his his, his message was not very minor. It was very major, you say, where is it at in the Bible? Well, it's between Zephaniah and Zachariah if that helps you any. So, just go to the New Testament, Matthew and then, flipped back a couple of books, and you'll find haggai. And that's where that's where we're going to come today. And we're going to look at chapter one and we're going to look at verses 1 through 15. So here's what I want to do, I'm going to read this and after I read it I'm going to give you some background of what's Happening Here so that you can understand. But I think this message today suits any church. That's really getting ready to do something for God. And what I mean by that is, is we have to have our priorities, right? And we have to have our priorities in order. The problem with Israel right here is that they wanted to do, what was right, but they didn't have their priorities in order. And the Lord saw that and he spoke to them through his preacher haggai. So let's begin in chapter one. And we're going to look at verse 1 through verse 15 in the second year of King. Darius in the six month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by a guy. The prophet to zerubbabel the son of Shield till governor of Judah and Joshua, the son of jehozadak, the high priests. So he spoke this message to the high priest and also the Governor and this message came by haggai. Now, it's interesting that he gives us the second year in the six month on the first day being very precise. Last thing I talked about today, we're going to come back to that but there's a reason why he's being very precise here verse to the speaks. The Lord of hosts saying this people says, the time has not come the time that the Lord's House should be built. Then the word of the Lord came by haggai the prophet saying, Is it time for you, your sales to dwell in your panel houses and this Temple to lie in Ruins? Now, therefore thus says the Lord of hosts consider your ways. In other words, let's have a little time of self-examination. And that's probably what we need to do this morning. Consider your ways consider what you're doing. I look what he says in verse six. You have so much and bring in little You eat but do not have enough. You drink, but you're not filled with drink, you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm and he, who irons wages earned wages to put in a bag with holes. Never felt like your bank account, had holes in it. You put money in it, then you look at it next day. It's like it's all gone now. You already spent it especially way inflation is now. I mean you can't buy much anyway you earn wages to put into a bag with holes and I want you to notice here. They so they do a lot of work, but they don't have any Harvest. They eat but they never have enough. They drink. It's not like they don't have anything to drink. They do they fill themselves with drink but they're not filled. They have clothes to wear but no one is warm and they work and make lots of money. But it's like they're putting the money in a bag with holes in it. Here's what he say. That if you put your priorities before God's priorities, you can work and you can make a lot of money, but you'll never be happy. You'll never be satisfied and you'll never be content. You'll you'll drink, but you'll never be filled your eat and you won't have enough even though you're making all this money and you're doing everything that you want to do, and you should be climbing up the ladder but instead you're going down the ladder. Why why would that happen? Because misplaced priorities. Verse 7 says, the Lord of hosts consider your ways. There it is again, go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple that I may take pleasure in it. Be glorified says, Lord. You look for Mike, but indeed it came to little and when you brought it home, I blew it away now. Why did I blow it away? That's what he's. He's answering his own question. Why did I blow it away? Why do you work yourself to death and make lots of money? But you never content and you're never happy and you never satisfied. Why do you have all these clothes to put on? But you never warm. Why do you have all this food? All this water to drink, but you never feel. It doesn't make sense. Why is that what he answers it right here? Because of my house, that is in Ruins and every one of you runs through his own house. Now it's playing all this in a second there for the heavens above you withhold, The View and the Earth would hold this fruit for I call for a drought on the land in the mountains on the Grain and you I know and whatever the ground brings forth of men and livestock and on all the labor of your hands, then the ruble, the son of Shiva TL, and Joshua, the son of your house. And that the high priest with all the remnant of the people obey, the voice of the Lord, their God, and the words of haggai the Prophet as Lord, their God had sent them in the people. Feared, the presence of the Lord than haggai, the Lord's messenger, spoke the Lord's message to the people saying. I am with you, says the Lord. So the Lord watch the has stirred up, the spirit of zerubbabel, the son of Shiva TL, in governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of the House of that, the high priests in the spirit of all the, remnant of the people and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts. Their God. And I watch this. Here is getting specific again on the 24th day of the six month. And the second year

Alright, so let me give you some background 500 years before Christ a group of Jews and Israel, they were wrestling with the problem. A problem that we all Wrestle with today and that is priorities. They were wrestling with priorities. The people of that day had to return to Israel from Babylon. Remember they have been taken into captivity and they were trying to begin new lives for themselves in their Homeland and they were working and they were earning money and they were building schools and they were building homes. They had all this work to do because their land have been plundered and destroyed by Babylon. They had a lot of work to do, but they were working hard, but they wouldn't make any significant progress. So God used haggai and also ask her. If you read his book to address the problems that they were having to help them reorder their priorities. So that they could enjoy the blessings of God, more than 40 to 50 thousand Jews returned to their Homeland, and their assignment was to rebuild the Temple. That the Babylonians had destroy info. 586 BC. So restoring this Temple was very important because it was the place where God dwells among his people. It was kind of, you can say it like this. It was a place where Heaven and Earth overlap. For the Jews. That's how I imported the temple was in the temple, had been destroyed, and plundered, and it had lied in ruins for over seventy years. So, you know, it broke their hearts. So after seven months of returning to their Homeland, They cleaned up the area where the temple was, and they even built a foundation. And also they, they started building the altar where they could offer sacrifices. So just think of it like this, they build a foundation here, like a platform you could stand on and then they had to alter where you could offer sacrifices. So that was imported. So that's how far they got in 7 months. But all of a sudden, The work stopped. Now you say, well, why did the work stop? Well, several reasons. Number one that had to build their own life back. Everybody had to get a job. They had to build their own houses back, so they were doing that and not only that, there were opposition coming from two or three sides. All around them. Saying, if you finished rebuilding this Temple, we're going to tear it down. You can't do this at all. So there was a lot of opposition to what they were doing. And so after 70 years of thinking about what they would do, if they ever got back to Jerusalem in less than a year, they lost the vision and so they just stopped working on the temple. Whether number one job was to rebuild the Temple. God said so it would bring him glory. They started out well but then they lost the vision you ever done. That you ever had a priority. You started out well but then you just lose the vision or you lose interest or it just opposition and you just give up. Misplaced priorities. And so when priority, let me say this, when your priorities are wrong and I specifically want to mention Financial priorities, giving to God, when your priorities are wrong, there's going to be a Lac. Of satisfaction and joy and happiness in your life. It doesn't mean that you won't get the job that you want. And it doesn't mean that you won't make the money that you want. You'll make a lot of money, maybe but it just won't satisfy you want more. It won't be satisfying to you. Why? Because your priorities are out of place when priorities are wrong. There's a lack of human flourishing in culture. You didn't, you can just look at it and see it. When we honor God in his commands, all of a sudden, we're satisfied, we're content with what we have, and we have the joy of the Lord in our hearts. But when we don't honor him and his commands, and we go about doing our own priorities, no matter how much you may succeed in the world, as the world sees it, you're going to be an utter failure and it's because there's no contentment no satisfaction in your life with. This is what happened to them. The Jews main problem was spiritual, they had lost the vision of a baying God in rebuilding the temple. So God sent haggai and Ezra to speak to them about this. And so, here's what I want to, I want to give you five points here that applies to all of us. I believe in our own lives and our own misplaced priority. So let's look at number one. First of all, the Of the people. Why did the the people lost their Vision? They quit. But why did they do that? Look at it in verse 2. Verse two says this, that speaks the Lord of hosts. And this people says, the time has not come the time that the Lord's House should be built. They knew what had to be done. They knew what needed to be done, but somehow they believe that they were more important things than building the Temple like doing what build their own houses. Building their own house was important to them in a course. I'm not saying that that's not important, we need to take care of a family. We need to have a house to live in and things like that, but they wanted to attend to their personal affairs before they attended to what God wanted them to do. Now, I want to tell you something here.

15 years had passed since they had completed the foundation and the altar. so this, this church, if you want us to put it like that, Temple was sitting there with a foundation, no roof, no walls and I altered the offer sacrifices but it stayed that way for 15 years Now, that tells you how patient that the Lord is, so they just hope for a more convenient time to do God's work. If you ever noticed you can you put something off in your life that you need to do. All of a sudden years can pass by and it's never been done that mean that happens. It's just procrastinate. So I'll do it later, especially if it's something hard. Especially if it's mending a relationship with someone that I need to go to and ask them for forgiveness, for what I said or done, how easy it is to put that off and not do it with this is what the people did here. And that's the human tendency is to put off difficult things until later. And I've learned that, and I've learned as I've gotten older that it's better just to take care of things that are wrong as soon as you are aware of it, because if you don't, what that is really is delayed obedience. And delayed obedience is Disobedience because God expects us to do it. Now at that time and there's no greater opportunity to procrastinate to substitute my priorities for God's been in my financial stewardship. It's so easy to say, well I'll give I'll start giving at such-and-such date. Well, I can't give now but when I get to this point in my life, that's when I'll start giving them for some reason, we never reach that point we never reach it so we don't give in. So we can think of all manner of reasons, why not to put God first, in our finances, between our needs and our greed's, sometime God gets left out. Between all of that, there's always something else to do with our money, besides giving it to God. And so, when our Mantra becomes, as soon as you fill in the blank, Often that day never comes. And here's a group of people that got the okay. To first thing I want you to do, when you get there, you got to establish that Temple, Bill back Temple back because that's where we meet. That's where my presence will be with you and they start, they lose their Vision in 15 years passes and nothing is done. Very easy to get disheartened. You see, when we allow time to accumulate between our awareness of what God wants us to do and our response to it. We're asking for trouble. Why? Because Jesus honors obedience. And Satan honors disobedience. Not hear me, clear here, Satan will honor your hard work and your misplaced priorities, and you may be able to make a lot of money and do a lot of things, but you'll never have the joy of the Lord. You'll never be content or satisfied, Satan Honors that he loves that and he'll use that. For you to say, kind of. Like he said to Eve, well have gone. Really said that. Did God really say? You can't eat from that tree? You know, you get you to start thinking about it. Delayed obedience is Disobedience. Obedience is present tense obligation. And when it comes to obedient and financial stewardship, it simply means that we need to begin as soon as we are aware that it's God's will to give God his portion back. That's when we need to start doing it. And that's a tent. We already talked about that the tide is a tent when I'm aware that I should give a tent when I become aware of that. That's when I need to start doing it. No delay. Disobey his no. Misplaced priorities. So the people had good intentions, I'm sure. But they allow themselves to get distracted, their personal priorities, although they were worthy of attention, it had allowed them to make their personal priorities, their number one priority in anytime we set. God, priorities aside like the tithe we are setting aside God's blessing, on our life. That's what we're doing. So that was the excuse of the people. I mean you know it's not time to build the Lord's house yet or 15 years to pass by. When is it time to build it? You know, that's the reason you came back. So that was the excuse of the people. Number 2, Now, we see the exhortation of the Prophet. Look at it in verse for, is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your does your Bible say paneled? Panel houses. And this Temple to lie in Ruins, that word panel, in the Hebrew, it means comfortable. They had built themselves, a comfortable lifestyle, they had built themselves, comfortable homes to dwell in and then the Lord says, but yet my house lies in Ruins. Misplaced priorities, the leaders had been busy, but they've been busy working on their own things and not the things of God. And so, their houses were expensive. They were panel door, they were comfortable. And another part in the Bible says, they brought wood from great distances, all the way from Lebanon to build their houses. You see, this isn't about those people or about you and me having a house, God isn't opposed to us having a house. It's about our Behavior evidence that we are more focused on our own concerns and priorities than on what God wants us to do. We need to understand that if we will do what God wants us to do, he'll take care of all these personal priorities that we can to put first. He'll take care of that in. So just think about this on the Sabbath day. They would leave their fine, paneled houses, and they would go to church. Come rain or shine. They would stand out there in it. If it's no they would be standing in the snow baby standing in the rain. Why? Cuz they only had a platform and alter That's all they had. So they were willing to go into the elements to have church but yet their own homes were paneled and comfortable. That's not the way it ought to be God's house. Ought to be a house that people would want to come to. That's why we're painting our church here, we want it. We want to beautify. We want it to look good for visitors for ourselves. God's house ought to be up cap, if you will, that ought to be first priority for any group of Christians? That's the first priority. But the foundation into alter was all they had. So I had a guy says to him, is it time for you to dwell in these nice homes and the Lord's House lies in Ruins? So that was the Explorer Tatian. We looked at the excuse that door test number 3, He's going to give us the explanation of their poverty. Why were there soap or if they were working and have money to build their homes? Why did it seem like everything was? So poor or everybody was so poor? Look at it verse 5 & 6. Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts examine your ways, consider your do a self-examination right here, you so much, bringing little, you work yourself to death. You have no Harvest. You eat a lot, but you never have enough. You drink all you want, but you're not filled you close yourself. You got plenty of close, but no one is warm. You aren't a lot of wages, but you're putting it in a bag with holes in it. It's what he saying. The people were struggling, the people were sewing, but reaping very little they ate and drank was never feel close, couldn't keep them warned the money. They had disappeared as soon as they earned it in spite of all of their effort, we're investing in their own selves, their own priorities and self-interest, and they were an utter failure. Now, let's look at three ways here. Why they felt kind of like one old farmer said one time. He said the harder I work, the behinder. I get

Cuz he had his priorities wrong, you can work very hard, make a lot of money but if it's not if the priorities or misplace the behind her you will get in. This is what happening. What's happening to them? So let me give you three reasons why. Well, what they were doing was a failure It was a lack of abeyance in anytime we have a lack of obedient. In our life we're going to have a lack of success and contentment that look. He says you so much but bring in little they were trying to advance in their position in life but they were failing in every turn now I don't know, you know around here where we live sometimes in certain places North Raleigh and places like that, it can be very expensive to live around here. Land is very expensive, to build. A house is very expensive and some young family sometime. They want to buy a home and have children that have all these financial obligations. And suddenly they figure out that they can't make it on one salary. And so the mom or the wife goes to work and they have. And then when that happen, I say, well both of us work, even though we have small children mom don't have to stay home and take care of machine. Go to work to that way, we'll have everything that we need but then the thing that they don't think about is when both are working and you have children, you have extra cost, you have daycare. You have all this child care to think about it. You have car in transportation cost. You have all these new clothes that you may have to buy, because you're going to work, and then you have all this added stress and finally, both of them working themselves to death and they're just barely scraping by. Although they live in this big house, they got nice children and all. And they finally realize that they're not any better off than they were before, but they're making a lot more money. But they're no better off than they were before. And so what we have to do and I think this is a warning that sometimes our best efforts to create the life that we won't, don't equal the life that we get in return. And that's what happened to the Jews in Jerusalem. They had an idea of the life that they wanted but they wouldn't get getting it and they wouldn't getting it because they had misplaced priorities. They were doing the wrong thing. So failure was number one. Number two, It was very frustrating. You eating don't have enough, you're drinking your never filled you, clothe yourselves, you never warned that not sound frustrating. When it be frustrating to eat a nice meal and not be full after date. It will not be an awful, you just so you can't get full or you had all these clothes in your own, your in your closet and all. And you can't decide what to wear and don't matter what you wear. It's just not satisfactory to you. But yet, you've got all this stuff, very frustrating. And I think that's the reason their possessions didn't serve any purpose because they always wanted more. And that's the way it is with material things in this world. They can never satisfy unless we receive them with a grateful heart and we order our lives according to God's priorities and then finally futility you earn wages, but it's like you're putting it in a bag with holes. Trying to live on their income is like, pouring water in a bucket that didn't have a bottom to it, just a never-ending task. They could never get ahead. Well, there's nothing wrong with being rich. Nothing wrong with wealth. But wealth doesn't cover all the expenses. When wealth doesn't cover all the expenses, something is wrong. And when God's blessing the peace and contentment is missing that out to tell you that there's something wrong in your life, that mean your life right now. Are you content? Are you do you see yourself as successful or do you see yourself as striving wanting more and more in can't ever get enough? If that's the way you are, you have misplaced That's what that's what it is. Number four. The examination. Of their priorities. Now God through haggai here cause the people to examine their priorities, look at it versus at 9, he says, again, consider your ways. And then he says go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple that already went to the mountain and brought wood to build their own house. He said, you go up there and you bring wood to build the temple that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified. You see their lives were not glorify and God because they have misplaced priorities and because they have misplaced priorities. They were not successful, they were not content and they had no joy. Even though they were make a lot of money and a lot of food and had a lot of clothes. Even the cause of that. And then God revealed to them that he was behind and I want you to get this. God was behind their failure and frustration and futility it was because he was causing that to happen. Now, look at it here in verse 9, you look for much but indeed it came to little and when you brought it home, Does it say inflation? Blew it away? Was it say I blew it away when we have misplaced priorities God is not going to allow us to succeed and have blessings in life if we leave him out will be miserable. Even though we're rich, we will be miserable in. This is what happened to them. He said she look for my indeed, it came to little, I blew it away. God would not allow the people to prosper in the midst of misplaced prior artist that surely this is a lesson for us. God loves us too much. To bless us and to help us prosper. Went for the wrong reasons, he's not going to let us do that. What Glory would there be for God? And people who thought that they were prospering because of their own efforts? He gets no glory out of that. So he's not going to allow that to happen. God will always create create an environment to get our attention when our ways are not pleasing to him. And that includes our ways with money, a lack of satisfaction. And happiness tells us that we have misplaced priorities, And inverse nine. God tells them. What the problem was that look, he says I blew it away and then he says, why why did I blow it away? Why wouldn't I let you be content and happy with the way things were going. He says, because of my house. That is in Ruins while every one of you run through his own house, he just told him why? This is the reason you're not to see. If you're making money, you have a lot, but this is the reason you're not satisfied. Because you have misplaced priorities. You see, the people said they couldn't build the temple because they were too poor and God said, the reason they were so poor is because you hadn't built the temple. You see, they had it backwards when we can't do it, we just don't have enough. We're working hard. We just we don't have enough. We're too poor. And the Lord says no, the reason you're poor is because you won't build the temple. That's the reason that your poor so he had to show them examination of their priorities. Well, this story Thankfully, it has a happy ending. Because the removable and Josh were the high priest called the people and gave them the vision again to rebuild the Temple. And what happened? The people responded to the priorities and they picked up where they left off. That's exactly what happened. And that brings us to point five. The encouragement of God's promise. Look at it, verse 13, then haggai, the Lord's messenger, spoke the Lord's message to the people saying I am with, you says, the Lord hears people that for 15 years had disobey they had wrong priorities, they were living for themselves and not forgot that I actually had turned to a Dollar Dollar Tree, they were worshipping their own things and not worshipping God. And yet the Lord says to them, after fifteen years of this, Venus, if you return, I am with you. That's why he does us friends. He's with, if you if you haven't been financially and prioritize God in your finances, maybe for years and years and years. All you have to do is start prioritizing God. You know what he'll say, I'm with you. I'll bless you. You start when you know what you need to do. And so the best way to know that God is with you is to do what God tells you to do. That's the best way to know and that applies to our finances. We already seen in this study that God promises to provide by his grace resources that we need more than enough, more abundant than we could ever want, or ask for. You see it's not that the people needed to change their behavior. You're saying what they need to do with just start building the Temple. If they could just change their behavior, God will bless or no? It's a spiritual problem. They didn't need to change their behavior. First, they needed to change their heart first, and then when the heart was change, their behavior will change Behavior. Always follows, Heart Change. If you if I did stand up here and say, Here's what y'all need to do, y'all need to do this. You need to do that. What I'm doing is just telling you that every God will bless you if you'll behave. Right. No, that's not your heart needs to change. If you're not, if you're not giving money to the lord, it's not a behavior problem. It's a heart problem. It's what it is. They wouldn't building the Temple. It wouldn't have Behavior problem. It was a heart problem, they had misplaced priorities in. So I want to share with you. Now, I told you I was going to show you this at the end. Why? The Bible here was so specific on the days and look at it in the verse again on the fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius, that's when they resume the work. Now, compare that to the first verse we're told that hag. I began to preach on the first day of the month and then we find that change came about on the 24th. 23 days. Everything changed in 23 days, all Hearts were changed and transformed in 23 days. Now, I wonder if there is a date like that in your life, or maybe today could be that day and I'm not talking about the day of your conversion. Now that could be it. But some people can't remember the exact day. What I'm talking about here is the day in which you finally got your priorities straightened out. That's what I'm talkin about today. And you have determined that from this time on that, you're going to put God first in everything you do, including your finances. Have that date. There's a reason that the Bible so specific when haggai started to preach and then the day that the people turned around, you see that mean something something changed their heart had changed. So I want you to ask your self to questions this morning. There's number one. Is my own comfort more important to me.

Then the work of God. Gas yourself that am I do? I put my conference above anything else, especially the work of God. And then I want you to ask yourself this question.

Am I increasing my efforts to get ahead financially?

But I'm finding greater disappointment and dissatisfaction in my life. Because, you know, a lot of people want to get ahead and they will work two jobs and they'll they'll work hard and they'll work for their family and things like that. And we look at that, we say where they have such a good were thinking that they are. So they got just got to bless them. Not your priorities wrong. We want no matter how many jobs you work. That matter. Do you find that you're trying to get ahead that you're doing the things you should do to get ahead but you are increasingly dissatisfied with your life. If that's the case you have misplaced priorities cuz you're not putting God first. So what do I do? You turn around and you get on with God's business, you obey him and you put him first in every area of your life, amen. All right. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, and praise. You and love you today. Lord, for your word. Lord, I know that this is a difficult subject sometimes because we all have misplaced priorities. We all prioritize things that we shouldn't especially things concerning ourselves ever. How comfortable that we want to be our life that we want to live, or the job that we want the corporate ladder that we try to climb, we all have goals. And we all prioritize things. Lord help us not to prioritize our own self interests, above those of yours and help us to understand when we're not successful or when we work hard and make money, but we still don't have enough. Help us to understand, maybe we have misplaced priorities. Maybe we're putting more emphasis on ourselves than we are. You Lord help us here at new Grace Church or to always put you first in every area of life in this church, especially the finances and what a timely message, this was this is as we want to beautify this church, not because we want to have a fancy church, but because we wanted to be conducive to people coming here and seeing that you are at work in our hearts, not our Behavior, but that we have love for other people, that are hearts of change there for our Behavior will, Lord, thank you for everything that you going out doing. I think you for each one. That's here today. Lord, I pray for our special Christmas offering. Now, Lord, as as we determine in our own Hearts, what we can give, I ask that. You continue to bless us. Continue to use us. Continue to give us your heart for the loss, open up doors and Ministry for us as individuals and a church in or bring others who do not know you enter. I meant so that we may be baptized and teach and do the things that you want us to do in Christ's name, I pray. Amen.