Blessed on the Foundation

Ethan Sayler

Lennox Ebenezer Presbyterian Church

Haggai: Restoring the Home • Sermon • Submitted 2 months ago • Presented 2 months ago

Haggai 2:10–19

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Haggai 2:10-19

Before and After Pictures

Looking back, what changed?

A young man starts showering regularly, combing his hair, dressing a little nicer. What’s changed? A girl.

The body stops working like it used to, metabolism comes to a crashing halt. What’s changed? You’ve hit 50.

Someone’s missing from the family photos, an empty seat at the table. What’s changed? Separation or death - loss.

These are pivotal moments that mark tremendous change.

That’s what Haggai is doing; calling attention to Foundation Day; a day that changes everything.

24th day of the 9th month.

The significance of the date:

All of the messages in Haggai occur in the same year.

This comes 3 months to the day after work began.

Its rainy season, they’ve planted for the year, nothing is growing, the work is slow. Will they come up short?

What’s changed? The work is started, walls are going up, yes. But more importantly, they have turned their attention to God, and made Him the center of their lives. Haggai calls us to mark the day, and see the change.

Consider This Day: What took place before now?

A life before the foundation.

No temple meant they did not make a priority of, or greatly desire, the presence of God in their lives.

They were seeking creation’s blessing without loving the creator, and in their offerings were seeking redemption’s blessings without loving the redeemer. They longed for the gifts, but didn’t seek the giver.

Haggai begins with question for the priests.

Meat from the sacrifice, carried in the hem of the robe, can it make other things clean? No. If a person is unclean from touching a dead body, does he pass his uncleanliness on to others? Yes.

Holiness is not communicable, but sin is.

Growing up with Christian parents will not make you a Christian. Contact with the righteous isn’t enough to cancel your sin and make you righteous.

The lesson from the law: everything you do is unclean!

They worked, but put their work first. They worshiped, but not in the way He said. Their personal needs were their priority in work, they came to worship disregarding the means God had given - how could they expect to be clean.

If you touch something with a clean hand, you will not leave a clean mark, but if you touch something with a dirty hand you will leave a dirty hand print - and they were unclean. The offerings they brought in worship, the work they did in the field, everything was marked by sin.

A defiled people in the Lord's sight spreads contagion to its work and religion. If a people are not right with God, their society will be warped and ineffective, and their religion will reflect their character, not change it.

Unless they sought the Lord and turned to Him, their life would be built on a crumbling foundation.

God brought blight, mildew and hail; they did not turn.

Deut 28:22 these are consequences of breaking the covenant.

They went to the heap, the silo, for 20 measures, there’s only 10. They went to the wine vat, it was low.

A shortage of food and wine - signs that God had removed His blessing.

They did not turn to God. 18 years, They went through the motions, with no devotion to God.

What is their foundation of your life?

Work, finances, politics, family… These were the things they had built their lives upon, keeping God at a distance, and they kept coming up empty.

A life upon the foundation.

Hearing the word of God, they repented, and returned to the Lord, demonstrated in a renewed devotion His house.

They put his work first, before their own, trusting in Him, and looking for His presence and promised blessing.

From this day on I will bless you!

You have put the Lord first. Now, is the seed in the barn? No. You’ve just planted in faith, just as you are building in faith. And you will be blessed!

Before they could see what might come, God promises blessing and abundance.

Their blessing was the mercy of God

The temple wasn’t finished, nor had they found a way to remove their stains.

God had mercy upon them. They humbled themselves, sought the Lord, put Him first, and found His grace.

When devotion was absent, nothing went right; but when devotion was renewed, when they returned to the Lord’s work, they showed that His presence in their life was essential, and God shows His grace and mercy.

Building Your Life on the True Foundation

Repent and Believe

Clear the rubble, level the ground, remove what would interfere and eat away at the solid foundation.

What have you built your life upon, what worldly foundations have shaken and broken and left you wanting?

Has your life been built on the world’s standard of success, on the lies of this age, on seeking the Lord your way, and neglecting his word.

Repent, turn from your sin, recognizing the corrupting and polluting nature of your sin, and your desperate need for the healing and cleansing only Christ provides.

Trust in the perfect work of Christ

Our Foundation Day is not when we begin building, but it was the day of the death and resurrection of Christ. Because of what Jesus has already done, contamination from sin has been dealt with once and for all. Jesus' sacrifice has fully purified those who look to Him for salvation.

He took our curse, the penalty of sins…

He became the defiled, he was made to be sin…

He was cut off from the favor of the Father, experienced the full measure of wrath for sin…

So that you would become the righteousness of God.

He is the foundation, the cornerstone, the rock upon whom we can stand, who will never let us down.

Since that day, all who come to God upon the foundation of Christ, repenting of their sin and seeking to build their life upon Him - have found unmerited mercy and grace to sustain and bless them.

Stay Devoted to Christ

Keep Christ at the center, the cornerstone, that which holds you together. Do not stray from Christ, but hearing his word, build your life upon him

Applying the ordinary means of grace:

Living according to His word, seeking His grace and mercy in prayer, and being nurtured in worship.

The Blessing of the Foundation of Christ

Haggai’s blessing: A bumper crop. Blessing of the fields was seen as a sign of God’s presence and provision

What are the innumerable blessings found in Christ?

Justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification, perseverance, His presence to guide and to guard.

A New Creation in Christ.

Washed clean from sin, given a new heart for God.

Blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Clothed in Righteousness rather than filthy rags.

No longer hell-bound, but raised with Christ.

The Wise and Foolish Builder

The blessing was not the house, both had one. This is what the prosperity gospel would teach, God wants you rich.

The blessing was not avoiding the storms, both experienced the flood. This is what the New Apostolic Reformation would teach; God won’t let His own be sick.

The blessing was standing firm in the midst, knowing that He will keep us to the end when our lives are rooted in Him.

We will face loss, rejection and sorrow, but we will not be frustrated or full of despair.