First Things First
First Things First!
There was a barber in a small local town who had been the only barber in town for years. Everyone went to this barber to get their hair cut. Then, one day a big hair salon franchise came to town and opened up shop. They advertised, “All Haircuts for $3.00”
Slowly, the barber’s business began to dwindle. He just couldn’t compete with the new salon in town. In a last ditch effort to save his business, he hired a business consultant. The consultant spent a day pouring over the barber’s books asking many questions. At the end of the day the barber asked the consultant, “So what do you think? Should I close up shop?” The consultant said, “Not yet. I’ll be back tomorrow.” The next day the consultant showed up with a huge banner that he hung in front of the barber shop that said, “We Fix $3.00 Haircuts!”
I used to think that when someone told me they were a consultant that meant they were between jobs. That may be a funny story but it shows that there are times when we need a consultant’s advice, someone on the outside, who can give us insider’s advice. We miss evaluate misjudge or flat out can’t see what someone else with a different perspective can. Consultants give advice and we are left to adhere to it or not.
Well, God did the same thing for his people. He garnered consultants who advised his people on how to return to their former glory. The Bible calls these consultants prophets. Unlike the story of our barber, God’s people didn’t always listen to the advice of the prophets. God’s plan for His people upon freeing them from slavery in Egypt was to lead them to the Promised Land. He gave them a great consultant in Moses yet they wandered through the desert for years mostly because of their failure to heed the advice of God’s appointed consultant.
Today our focus is on the first postexilic prophet Haggai. Haggai like the other prophets of God communicated to God’s people what God wanted them to hear. The prophets were people who spoke God’s message, sometimes of future occurrences but not always, a message that many Israelites didn’t want to hear. It was their disobedience of God’s word that set the biblical and historical event of the Babylonian captivity into place. When Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquers Judah in 586BC the exiles would spend 70 years in captivity. They returned after Cyrus conquered Babylon but what was once over 2 million people at the exodus, these exiles numbered only 50 thousand upon their return to Judah.
That’s where we want to pick up today in the second chapter of Haggai. Turn there in your Bibles. While you’re turning there I want you to keep this thought in mind as we read.
“If we’re going to go forward let’s make sure we do first things first”
Read. Pray. Haggai 2:1-9 NIV
Upon the captives return to Jerusalem they quickly got down to the business of erecting the once destroyed Temple of Solomon. Within five years of returning they laid the foundation for the temple but quickly their enthusiasm faded. The first chapter ends with Haggai’s first message to the returned Jews some 16 years after they got back home to Judah after they had all but forgotten what they set out to do.
Then a“storm” hit in the form of enemies and then disease to the cattle and livestock and men. They wanted to at least make this desolate land habitable again but quickly the gold and silver they brought with them for the building project was now being used to restore the land to self-sufficiency and erect their homes; the resources were now all gone. They ran into pragmatism in essence saying; “when we are better off we will resume the building project.” Or, “when there is no longer any threat from the enemy we’ll resume as before.” Maybe this story will help you see how practical thinking can get you in trouble. (Karl Marx)
Years ago in Germany, there was a young Jewish boy who admired his father greatly. His family’s life centered on acts of kindness and devotion taught by their religion. The father was methodical in attending worship and Bible Study, and he demanded the same from his children.
While the boy was a teenager, the family was forced to move to another town in Germany. There was no synagogue in the new town, and the leaders of the community all belonged to the Lutheran church. Suddenly this Jewish father announced to the family that they were going to join the Lutheran church. When the stunned family asked why, the father explained that changing religions was necessary to help his business.
The young boy was shocked and confused. His deep disappointment soon turned to anger and a kind of intense bitterness that plagued him throughout his life. That disappointed son, disillusioned by his father’s lack of integrity, eventually left Germany and went to England to study. He sat in the British Museum, thinking of ideas eventually writing a book. In his work, he came up with an entirely new world-view that would change the social and political systems of the world.
Drawing from past experiences with his father, he described religion as an “opiate for the masses” that could be explained in terms of economic and personal gain.
Today, millions of people still live under the system invented by this embittered man, and millions more suffered under previous regimes that incorporated its values. His name, of course, was Karl Marx, and his idea was communism. And it all began with his father’s misuse of the name of God for the sake of profit, practical thinking; pragmatism leads to communism.
God’s chosen people viewed their current condition in practical terms desiring to lessen any negative impact on their economic and personal gain. They forgot about the negative impact it would have on their life as God’s people.
DREAM-Decisions
God gives us a dream but we must make decisions that follow.
God has given us all dreams and they show up in our ideas, goals and ambitions that use the stream of our passion as motivation. Coupled with talent, character and the discipline to direct it, they result in great accomplishments. But it first begins as a God-given dream in our minds. What are your dreams? What are your aspirations? What would you like to accomplish? You may not know exactly or life may have washed some of your hopes and dreams away but we serve a God who is a dream-maker and He sees it through! The Bible tells us in Ephesians 3:20 that, “God is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of...”
The Jews had a dream to finish what they started, sound familiar, but somewhere along the way they got off track. Somewhere along the way they made decisions that began to chip away at the dreams fruition. They had enemies who wanted to end their hopes by sowing doubt, pessimism and lies into what God had already sanctioned.
A dream is worthless unless you make a decision to do something about it. But as you go, what you do must be in line with what God is doing in and through you for his glory. The Jews erected a foundation and it was as if they had forgotten their foundation was in the God of Israel. When the foundation of your dream is God then the decisions you make will reflect that foundation as you follow through with belief and not doubt no matter the circumstances that arise. Remember you not only received the tools to make the dream come true but you also received the dream from God himself. The Jews lost sight of God because all they could see was what they didn’t have at the expense of what they had already gained. We’re gonna see in a minute what they already possessed.
If you’re going to go forward with your dreams remember first things first!
Difficulty-Delays
God’s strength is needed in the difficulties that come with dreams
It takes time before dreams become reality. In that time God teaches us to trust. Only a month had passed after the Jews had restarted the Temple rebuilding when pessimism crept into the camp. Ironically the difficulty came from within from the older Jews who had seen what David and Solomon had done with the resources of a wealthy kingdom. The rhetorical questions in verse 3 were directed at this group of veterans if you will. Let me rephrase the questions a bit so that the spiritual truth for us today can be gleaned. Did you see the former glory? What do you see now? If you saw me then why do you not see me now?
Often times in our zeal to see our dreams come true we look for God’s glory, his presence, his blessing, his hand of favor in the extra-ordinaries that surround us. Our God given dreams can get sidetracked easily because our eyes are drawn to acknowledge God’s blessings in what appeals to our natural eye. Our optics are lured by opulence. A beautiful woman that must be heaven sent. Success in the workplace that shows God’s favor. A new contract, a new level of accomplishment or a new career. I don’t know about you but I don’t hear God’s people calling out for strength when those things are given. Yes, those things can be the hand of God but don’t forget that God first wants to build in you a strong faith that can withstand delays and difficulties. But what he does tell us in the text is to be strong governor be strong high priest be strong my remnant of people and work! God is not in the Temple walls. He’s not in the things, don’t look there, he’s in you and he wants to build in you His strength. Where God can best strengthen you is when your situation is backed into a corner and it looks as though things have gone from difficult to impossible and you’ve reached the end of your rope; hopelessness. Congratulations! You are on the edge of a miracle. Paul said that, “...now we believe (d) we had this sense of impending disaster so that we might learn to trust...” (2 Corinthians 1:9) God’s answer for difficulties we will face today verse 4 reads, “...be strong...and work...” God is reminding us to be what he has purposed us to be whether or not you can see yourself as having adequate resources or the strength necessary for the task. Why? Because the builder himself the Lord almighty is “with you”! (read v.4b)
When we decide that we are going to hear from the great counselor and act on the dreams he has given us continue to work with the strength he’s provided we can trust that he is with us knowing he has given us his promise. Verse 5 reads, “This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt...”
He’s telling his people to hold on I made you a promise when you were a slave under the oppression of Pharaoh and I brought you out of Egypt. You may not see the return to glory in your current circumstance so I sent a consultant to remind you, “My Spirit remains among you...” “do not fear!” I will come to shake the heavens and the earth meaning God will separate what can be shaken, created things, so that what cannot be shaken remains. He shook the earth with Noah’s flood. He shook the heavens and the earth with the death of Christ. He’ll shake the heavens and the earth again with the 2nd coming of Christ and He will be the ‘Desire of all the Nations’. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
When a storm hits only the strongest trees remain attached. When an earthquake rumbles only the strongest buildings remain standing. When the Lord shakes the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land whose strength do you want to have in you? If his Spirit remains in you then you have no reason to fear by his word you can bank on it. “Greater is He that is in you than he (Satan) that is in the world”. (1 John 4:4)
God loves to provide a supernatural answer miraculously turning our lives
right side up. God loves to turn crucifixions into resurrections so that you
can see his greatness. Unless you’ve acknowledged your own sinful nature
revealed by His Spirit we remain in our desperate
situation; separation from God. Well God has sent his Son so that we would
not be separated from Him in eternity & not be separate from him right here on earth.
Please bow your heads. If you have not yet made a decision to commit to Jesus Christ might you have the boldness
here today to see your rejection of God’s free gift of salvation in the atoning death of his son. Jesus suffered, died and rose so that you might have life and have it to the full. If you believe that you are a sinner saved by
God’s remedy; his son’s work on the cross. That by no work of your own
simply by trusting in Him through faith in what he did for you right where
you are seated all heads bowed only I will see you lift up your hand so that I
can acknowledge your decision to follow Christ! There is a building project
that must resume in our lives my prayer is that as you return to your work
that you would continue to go forward in your walk by keeping first, God First!
Those who believe on Jesus today have peace with God (Rom. 5:1) because of His atoning death and victorious resurrection (Col. 1:20; John 20:19–21). They may also enjoy the “peace of God” as they yield to Christ and trust wholly in Him (Phil. 4:6–9).[1]
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[1]Wiersbe, W. W. (1997). Be heroic. "Personal and group study guide included"--P. 4 of cover. An Old Testament study (75). Colorado Springs, Colo.: ChariotVictor Pub.