Haggai chapter one. The title
of the message is what should I seek? Now Haggai's name means
festival of the Lord. He must have some good news for
sinners. His name means festival of the
Lord. Now Haggai was a prophet who was born while in captivity
in Babylon and he prophesied his ministry, his recorded ministry. This lasts for four months. He
prophesied right after the time Israel was set free from their
70 years of captivity in Babylon. And he was sent to correct God's
people and at the same time to comfort God's people. His message
is meant to stir up the hearts of God's people, to inspire them
to devotion to their God, to inspire them to worship and to
serve their God. Now you remember the story we've,
uh, we've covered it in our study in Isaiah and through these minor
prophets, the Lord moved Cyrus. He moved him to conquer the world
and to send the Jews back from their captivity in Babylon. And
he sent them back with the, both with the commandment from him
and the instruction for them to rebuild Jerusalem, to go back
and to rebuild the temple and to restore the right worship
of the Lord. And the people initially came back with a lot of zeal,
very happy, but the work was sporadic. They began the work
and then they met opposition and different reasons, they stopped
working. Now they laid the foundation
of the new temple, but then for 15 years, the work stopped. There was no work for 15 years.
And that's what the Lord sent Haggai to deal with, this delay
in the rebuilding of the temple. And throughout his prophecy,
four different times, Haggai tells us, now you consider something,
you consider this. And what I want us to look at
this morning is he tells us, consider your ways, consider
the ways of your heart. Verse one of chapter one, in
the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in
the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai
the prophet, undesirable the son of Shealtiel, governor of
Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest,
saying, thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, this people
say, the time's not come, the time that the Lord's house should
be built. Now the people stopped working
on the temple, mostly because of opposition from the heathen
around them. They just didn't go on with the
work, because if they're going to continue the work of rebuilding
the temple with this opposition of the heathen, they're going
to be put in an uncomfortable position. If they're going to
take a stand for the truth, they're going to have to get out of their
comfort zone. They're going to have to deal with this matter
of the opposition of the heathen. And they just didn't want to
do it. So they began to lay the foundation and then they left
the rest of it in ruins. And every day for 15 years, they
walked by those ruins and were unaffected by it. And they blamed
their laziness. They blamed their indifference
to the worship of the Lord on God's providence. They said,
well, it's just not time that the Lord would have us rebuild
it. You know, it's just not the Lord's will right now. Now that
sounds like a nice doctrinal position, doesn't it? Oh, you
know, we're, we're Calvinists and we believe in God's will.
It's not God's will we rebuild the temple. Well, that kind of
sounds good except for this. That was wrong. God had told
them, you go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. I'll
be with you. I'll supply everything that you
need. And they blamed their indifference. They blamed their laziness on
God. And the real problem, and Haggai makes it obvious to us
here, they had the time and the money to spend on building, but
they wanted to spend all that, their time and their money on
building their house, not the house of the Lord, not a house
of worship. Look at verse three. Then came the word of the Lord
by Haggai the prophet saying, is it time for you? Oh, you need
to dwell in your sealed houses and this house lie waste now
sealed house. That means a house with Wayne
Scott in it. It was not just a, you know,
their house was finished. They polished it up. They gave
their houses a lot of curb appeal. They put a lot into it while
the house of the Lord lay waste. They spent all their time and
their money on making themselves nice houses, but they didn't
lift a finger to restore the house of the worship of the Lord.
Now it's obvious to us sitting back here reading this, that's
so ungrateful. The Lord had just delivered them
from 70 years of captivity. 70 years, they were just miserable
in this captivity. They wouldn't sing the songs
of praise. They were just so miserable. And Haggai says, now,
is this right? Is this the right attitude for
us to have? He said, tell you what, you decide. He says in
verse five, consider your ways. Now, therefore, thus saith the
Lord of hosts, consider your ways. And he's confident if you
consider your ways, you're going to have to conclude this is the
wrong attitude. To waste all this that we have,
this time and money on us while we let the house of worship lie
in ruins. Now we have to ask ourselves
here this morning, how much of this attitude is in us, is in
our flesh? We've been given great salvation
in Christ. Are we willing to serve him?
Out of love and thanks, are we willing to serve him? Are we
willing to serve him first? We've been given a glorious gospel. The gospel of Christ is glorious,
good news. God's given that to us. Are we
willing to preach it? Are we willing to get out of
our comfort zone and take a stand for the truth? Are we willing
to support the preaching of Christ like it's the most important
thing in this life? Or do we seek our own comfort
first? Do we take care of ourselves first and then whatever's left
over we give to God? That's what they're doing, isn't
it? And you know, the new temple that they were building was much
smaller than the temple that Solomon built. And there were
people still alive who remembered Solomon's temple. And they thought,
this is a small temple. This is a small building. It
just doesn't seem like it's worth much effort. Well, do we do that? Do we look at God's great works
of the past and think, this is a small one. It's just not worth
the effort. You know, I'd give a lot of time
and a lot of money to support a work as big as Spurgeon's was
and Metropolitan Tabernacle, you know, all those people, thousands
of people. Well, that'd take, I'd be willing
to take a lot of work and I'd be willing to do a lot of work
to support that. But now this small work, it doesn't even match.
Well, God says, consider your ways. Are we willing to serve
God in our day? Are we willing to serve our generation?
That's the question. Are we serving our great God?
God's just as great today as he was in Spurgeon's day. Are
we willing to serve our great God or are we just willing to
serve, you know, based in proportion to how much blessing we think
God's given us? And if that's our attitude, we
can expect God not to bless us. Look here at verse six. He said,
you've sown much and bring in little. You eat, but you don't
have enough. You drink, but you're not filled
with drink. You clothe you, but there's none warm. He that earneth
wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith
the Lord of hosts, now you consider your ways. Go up to the mountain
and bring wood and build the house. And I will take pleasure
in it. And I will be glorified, saith
the Lord. You looked for much and lo, it
came to little. When you brought it home, whatever
you could gather and bring it home, I did blow upon it. Why,
saith the Lord of hosts, because mine house that is waste, and
ye run every man into his own house. Therefore, the heaven
over you stayed from dew, and the earth has stayed from her
fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains,
and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and
upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon
cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands." And the Lord says,
you're putting all this work into your flesh. You're putting
all this work and time and energy into yourself, but you're not
getting anywhere, are you? You're doing all this work, trying
to heap all this upon yourselves, but you don't have any show for
it. You just keep doing all this activity that's supposed to bring
joy and pleasure to the flesh, but it's not working. And look,
you still don't have any joy or peace, do you? You keep planning
all these things to store these things up for yourself, but all
these events just keep seeming to come out of nowhere working
against you. Wonder why? Wonder why this is happening?
Well, God said, I'm doing it. I'm doing it because my house
lies waste. You're keeping all this on yourself
first. You're thinking of self first
and not serving the Lord first. And we can expect the same thing
when we think of self first, not God first. Now, let me make
this clear. We do not serve the Lord so that
he'll bless us, because that would be trusting and works well.
That's not why we serve the Lord. A child of God desires to live
as an obedient child, because we love the Savior. Not because
we're trying to get something from him, but because we love
him, because he's already blessed us so much, we desire to serve
him out of a thankful heart. But this is also true. We cannot
expect the Lord's blessings if we live outside of his will and
outside of his way. Haggai says, consider your ways.
They're things that you were to consider and to do first. That's what he's saying here.
Well, you know, scripture is full of teachings, things like
that. There are several things scripture
teaches us to seek first. Put these things ahead of self
and ahead of flesh. First look in Luke chapter 12.
Luke chapter 12. Verse 13. And one of the company said unto
him, master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance
with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a
divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed,
and beware of covetousness. For a man's life consisteth not
in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake
a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich
man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself,
saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits. And he said, this will I do.
I'll pull down my bars and build greater. And there will I bestow
all my fruits and my goods. And rather than thinking, you
know, I don't have room to bestow all my fruits, I think I'll give
them away. You know, give them to help people. No, he said,
I'm gonna store them all up, save them for myself. In verse
19, I'll say to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up
for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry. But God said unto him, thou fool,
This night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall
those things be which thou has provided? So is he that layeth
up treasures for himself and is not rich toward God. And he
said unto his disciples, therefore, I say unto you, take no thought. And you know that means no anxious
thought. Don't put too much thought and worry for your life, what
you should eat, neither for the body, what you should put on.
The life is more than meat and the body is more than raiment.
Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither
have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much more
are ye better than the fowls? And which of you, with taking
thought, can add to his stature one cubit? That is, with taking
thought, which of you can add one day into your life? If ye
then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought
for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they
grow. They toil not, they spin not. And yet I say unto you that
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
If thee, God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field and
tomorrow's cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe
you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what you shall
eat or what you shall drink, neither be ye of a doubtful mind.
For all these things do the nations of the world seek after, And
your father knoweth that ye have need of these things, but rather
seek ye the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added
unto you. Now it's very easy for us to
get caught up taking care of this flesh. We like it. I want to get mine, whether it's
an inheritance or it's another pot of money somewhere, I want
to get mine. I want to get my share of everything
that's out there so I can get everything I can get. Well, if
we get a bunch of it, what's going to happen to it? We're
just going to die and leave it to somebody else. That's what's
going to happen to it. We get so caught up providing for this
flesh. And when we clothe our flesh
in the very best that we can do, we find out God's flowers
are prettier than us. When we do the best that we can
do to store up and save for ourselves, we found out God provides for
the birds better than we provide for ourselves. We think about
this flesh, and you know, you ought to think about it. God
gave you a body, you ought to take care of it. But when we
do everything we can do to preserve this flesh, we can't even add
one day to it. And if we could, it'd just be
full sorrow. So consider your ways. What should
we seek first? Well, Matthew's account says
it even more plainly than Luke's. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God. Seek ye first his righteousness
and the rest of this will be added unto you. Well, how do
I do that? How do I first seek the kingdom
of God? How do I first seek his righteousness?
It's simply by seeking Christ. It's seeking to be found in Christ. That's how I'm in the kingdom
of God, by being in Christ. That's how I'm made righteous,
by being in Christ. So first, before you seek anything
else, seek Christ. Seek to be found in Him without
any hope of anything you've ever done. Seek the righteousness
of Christ to be imputed to you, to make you righteous before
God. And seek Christ's righteousness to be imparted to you, imparted
to you in the new birth, If you're going to enter the kingdom of
God, what did our Lord tell Nicodemus? You've got to be born again.
Then seek that life. Seek that life that God gives
in the new birth. Seek Christ first before you
seek anything else with all of your time and with all of your
energy, because Christ is most important. Without Christ, we
cannot have life. Then seeking first. So I now
look over at 1 Corinthians 15. First, we're to seek Christ and
his righteousness. Second, we're to seek first the
gospel. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 3. For I deliver unto you first
of all, most important of all, that which I also received, how
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
And he was buried and then he rose again the third day, according
to the scriptures. Now Paul says, first of all,
we're to preach the gospel. First of all means this is the
most important thing we can do to preach the gospel. We're to
preach the gospel that declares salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel that's declared in
picture throughout all the Old Testament scriptures. We're to
preach the gospel that declares Christ as pictured in all those
Old Testament sacrifices. That's how Christ died for his
people according to the scriptures. He died as a sacrifice for the
sin of his people. He died as the sin bearer of
his people. That's how he took the sin of
his people away. He bore it away through his sacrifice. He died as the substitute for
His people. That's what all those lambs were
pictures of every year when they observed the Passover. That Passover
lamb's a substitute. Christ died as a substitute for
His people. He died the death that we deserve
for our sin so that we live in Him. And the sacrifice of Christ
was better than all those animal sacrifices. Because His sacrifice
put sin away. His sacrifice pleased and satisfied
His Father. We know it did because Christ
rose again on the third day, didn't he? Because the sin charged
to him was gone. And that happened according to
the Old Testament scriptures. We saw it just a few weeks ago
in the story of Jonah. Jonah spent three days and three
nights in the belly of that fish. And when he finally, it finally
dawned on him salvations of the Lord, that fish vomited him out
on dry ground. He came forth after three days.
And our Lord told the Pharisees, that's a picture of Christ being
raised again for the justification of his people. Now that's the
gospel. Now make the preaching of the
gospel your primary goal. Make the preaching of the gospel
the primary goal of the church that you support and that you
attend. And make hearing the preaching of the gospel your
first desire. Get rid of everything that would
keep you from hearing the gospel. I'm telling you, get rid of it.
If there's something that keeps you from seeking the gospel,
get rid of it. Make your first desire to be
in the public worship service. Because in the public worship
service, we hear what Haggai said, brethren gather around,
thus saith the Lord. That's where you're gonna hear,
thus saith the Lord, in the public worship service. Make your first
goal, your first appointment of the week to be in the public
worship service, because where did the Savior promise that he'd
meet with his people? In the public worship service.
All right, look at Ephesians chapter six. Above all, first of all, seek
faith, faith in Christ. Ephesians six, verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God,
that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, because this
is true, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be
able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to
stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,
and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And above
all, above all, first of all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith
you should be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Above all, seek faith in Christ. Seek to trust Christ. as all
of your salvation. Seek Him to do it all for you.
Seek to rest in Christ as your righteousness. That you rest
from all of your works because He is your righteousness. He
obeyed the law for you. Seek to rest in Him. Seek Christ
to make you without sin. This is our great need to be
made without sin. That's what justified is, is
made without sin. What does scripture say how we're
justified? Not by words, by faith. We're justified by faith, without
the deeds of the law. Then seek faith. Seek Christ
to be your life. How do the justified ones live?
By faith. Then seek faith in Christ first. Look at Colossians chapter three. Seek love. Seek love, Colossians
three, verse 12. Put on, therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, long suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all
these things, Put on charity, put on love, which is the bond
of perfectness. Above all, make love your goal. Seek first the love of Christ
for sinners. Seek his love and seek the love
of Christ in us. Well, how do we seek the love
of Christ in us? is by seeking to show love to
others. Just look for a way to show love
and kindness to others. That's how we seek the love of
Christ in us. Love is an important characteristic
of a believer. It's an important part of the
life of a believer. Our Lord commanded us. He said,
this is my commandment. You love one another. That's
his commandment to us. And he also said this, by this
shall all men know you're my disciples, that you're good Calvinists,
that you got your doctrinal ducks straight in a row. No, that you
have love one to another. Seek love, seek to love one another,
seek ways, something you can do to make this a loving place
where people love the Lord and love each other. And I tell you
how we show our obedience to the Lord. I love, that's how
we show it. And we show we love the Lord,
show that love by showing acts of kindness and love to one another.
So seek love. Now, second Corinthians chapter
eight, verse one, seek to give second
Corinthians eight verse one. Moreover, brethren, We do you
to wit, we want you to know the grace of God bestowed on the
churches of Macedonia. How that in great trial of affliction,
the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded under
the riches of their liberality. For to their power, their ability,
I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, beyond their ability,
they were willing of themselves. Fraying us with much entreaty,
I can just see them taking up this offering and pulsing You
brethren, you're in poverty. You keep this for yourselves.
And they prayed it with much entreaty that we would receive
the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering
to the saints. And this they did, not as we
had hoped, not as we would have expected, but first, but first
gave their own selves to the Lord. And then they gave unto
us by the will of God. Now give to the Lord first. Before you do anything else with
yourself, with your money, with your possessions, you give to
the Lord first. Before you do anything with your
money, you give to the Lord first. Because in the Old Testament,
we preach the gospel according to the scriptures. Who did the
first fruits belong to? They belong to the Lord. Well,
I got the first fruits. What if I don't get any more?
I'll starve. You give the first fruits to the Lord, didn't you?
That was the commandment of the law. And somebody says, well,
do I have to pay my bills? Do I have to save for retirement
first? No, you don't. Now, you pay your
bills. Whatever bills you got, you pay
them. And save for retirement. Be wise with what the Lord's
given you. But you give first. You won't
suffer for it. The churches of Macedonia, Paul
says, for to their power, their ability, verse three, I bear
record. They gave beyond their power.
They gave beyond their power and the Lord still enabled them
to pay their bills, didn't he? We won't turn over and read it,
but you know the story of Elijah when he came to the widow woman
there and he asked her to fetch him some water. She fetched him
some water and he said, fetch me a little cake. And she said,
I just got just a little meal, a little oil, enough left, that's
all I've got left is to make two cakes, one for me, one for
my son. I'm gathering two sticks, I'm
gonna make that, and then we're gonna starve to death, we're
gonna die. And he said, well, that's fine, but you bring me
a cake first. Bend for yourself. That's a bold statement, isn't
it? Isn't that a bold statement? And you know what? She brought
him a cake first. And you know what, when she did
that, you know what she did? She gave up her own self. She gave
her own, that was giving herself. This is, this is what I'm going
to have to sustain my life. I'm giving it to God's prophet
first. She gave of her own self. God blessed her, didn't he? Huh?
He blessed her. Now again, please understand
me. I'm not telling you to give so
the Lord will make you rich. I'm not telling you to give so
the Lord will give you more because that's making a war cut of giving.
But let's give out of a thankful heart for what God's already
given. Everything God the Lord gave
you. And first of all, he's already given you the unspeakable gift,
the gift of his son. How can you not give? So we give
because we love the Lord. Look here at verse eight. Paul
said, I speak not by commandment, but by the occasion of the forwardness
of others and to prove the sincerity of your love. We give out of
love. And it doesn't show much love
to take for ourselves and give what's left over, does it? No,
you give first out of love. And we give following the example
of our Savior. Verse nine. For you know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes he became poor. that you through his poverty
might be rich. We give following the example
of our Savior. And we give because how the Lord's
already blessed us. And we give from a new heart,
verse 12. For if there be first a willing
mind, it's accepted according to that a man hath and not according
that he hath not. So you seek to give first. Now look at 1 Timothy chapter
five. 1 Timothy 5 verse 4. But if any widow have children
or nephews, let them learn first to show piety, kindness at home
and to requite their parents for that is good and acceptable
before God. I'll tell you what he's saying
here. You learn piety, kindness at home first. Don't be a religious
hypocrite. That's what this is saying. Don't
be one thing at home and something else out in public. No, you seek
first to be a child of God in heart, not just acting like one
in public. Everybody can learn the language. Everybody can learn the catchphrases.
Everybody can act, you know, a little bit better out in public,
you know, temporarily. I tell you, you seek first to
make that real in the heart first. You show love and kindness and
care for your family at home when nobody else is watching.
And then you show that same love for your brother and I in public.
I'll tell you one thing about children. If you've got children
at home, you learn piety at home first. Children will sniff out
a religious hypocrite faster than anybody, and you'll turn
them away from the gospel. If you're just a mean, selfish,
stingy person at home, and you're this sweet, kind, giving fellow
out in public, they're gonna sniff that out faster than anything.
You'll turn them away from the gospel. So seek first to show
piety at home, and have that be real in the heart. Now one
more scripture, Mark chapter nine. Seek true humility. Mark chapter nine, verse 33. And he came to Capernaum, and
being in the house, he asked them, what was it you disputed
among yourselves? By the way, he noticed they were
fussing and arguing amongst themselves, by the way, but they held their
peace. They were ashamed to tell him.
They considered their ways and, oh, this isn't good. So they
held their peace. For by the way, they had disputed among
themselves who should be the greatest. Seek first true humility. How foolish is it of us to argue
who's going to be the greatest in the presence of the Lord? I tell you, seek first true humility. You'll be a whole lot easier
to get along with and this place will be more pleasant if everybody
seeks true humility. And it's not difficult. Just
seek to be the last one to get recognition or praise for something
and seek to make sure others get recognition and praise they
deserve. Don't seek to be the big boss man. Seek to be the
lowest servant. I'll tell you an illustration,
a story I heard this week about a University of Kentucky basketball
player. He went out of his way to do
something very kind for someone. They were hurt and they were
suffering depression. He just went out of his way to
be very kind to this person. And this person's mother wrote
a letter to Coach Calipari. She just assumed he made him
do it, you know. But he didn't know anything about
it. He got this letter and he gathered the team together. He
read this letter to him and he asked this kid, he said, how
come you didn't tell us about this? You know, he said, I don't
know if that was something you're supposed to talk about. He's
21 years old, a kid. Would to God, that'd be our attitude. Shouldn't the attitude of a believer
be at least that of an unregenerate 21 year old to seek to be helpful? and then be quiet about it. Now
that was God's message to Haggai, to Israel. He said, you consider
your ways. You seek the Lord first. And
God gave them ears to hear. They considered their way. They
repented and buddy, they got to work building God's temple
and he blessed them for it. He showed them his glory. Now
you seek these things first and the Lord will be with you and
you'll see his glory. I can't say this strongly enough.
Don't do these things. Don't seek these things so that
God will bless you because that's worse. Seek these things because
they're right. Seek these things because they're
God's way. I don't know if the Lord will
bless us materially or physically. I don't know if he will or not,
but I promise you this will have no spiritual growth, no spiritual
blessing outside of God's way. No matter what happens, whether
the Lord gives me blessings or not, I'd just a whole lot rather
be an obedient child than a disobedient one, wouldn't you? And I don't
want to do it to get praise or rewards from my father. I want
to do it because I love him. Now, shouldn't that be our way?
Then consider your ways. Seek him first. All right, I
hope the Lord bless you.