(crickets chirping)

- All right, we are so glad to be in God's house today.

I've spent said multiple times.

And we are very appreciative that we are in a country

where we're able to come in and to worship

and to honor God.

We're thankful for that.

I know I am and I pray that you are also. You know, I'm

reminded often of how others are not able to do that. How people across the world are

not able to walk into a sanctuary on Sunday morning and gather together worshiping and

praising God's name without fear that someone's going to burst through the doors and arrest them,

or worse, even kill them.

And so I'm thankful every Sunday when we gather together and we worship in a place like

this that God has allowed us to be in this country.

And we pray for those that struggle, that have hard times in where they are.

And so this morning, one of the things that I want to talk to you

about is honoring God. I sent the passage to Brother Don this week and immediately he was like,

"Ooh, Haggai, yay!" Because we don't hear a lot from Haggai. Haggai was an incredible prophet. Haggai

was an incredible prophet because there were so many things going on during his time.

And he was prophesying things that were not always popular.

And so he was an incredible prophet.

And although the book of Haggai is only two chapters, it's a very important book as we read

through it.

And we went through this on a Wednesday night.

And now again this morning God has put it on my heart to share with you something from the book of Haggai

Now I'm gonna go ahead and start in verse and chapter 1 verse 5 and 6

Chapter 1 verse 5 and 6 and then we will continue from there. So

Chapter 1 5 and 6 and it says this

Now then the Lord of

armies says this

Consider your ways. You have so much, only to harvest

little. You eat but there is not enough to be satisfied. You drink but there is

not enough to become drunk. You put on clothing but there is not enough for anyone

to get worn. And the one who earns earns wages to put into a money bag full of holes. Consider

your ways. This passage above this passage in this chapter, we

are reminded that the Israelites had been in captivity. They

had been released and they had been sent back and the first thing

they find is a destroyed temple. And so they began by clearing the foundation and building

a new foundation and getting this ready to build the temple of God, to build his house

and they did all the groundwork and they got it already and then the work stopped. The work stopped. For 18 years the work had stopped.

They came in with this excitement and this joy about what they were doing and they began

and they ran into hardship. They ran into hard times. The crops weren't producing as

they needed to. There wasn't enough for things and so they did all these things and any

time that they would think about the temple they would say,

"Well, it's just not the right time yet. It's just not the right time. We need to do that,

but it's just not the right time yet." And so they kept putting it off and putting it off and

putting it off for a great team years they had put it off. And this passage says, "Consider your

ways. Consider your ways." And so when we think about that,onsider your ways." Consider your ways.

And so when we think about that,

consider your ways as this is coming,

remember as prophets, they gave the word to the people

that God gave to them.

And so when it says, "Consider your ways,"

this is a Hebrew figure of speech.

It's a Hebrew figure of speech that literally means

put your heart on the roads.

What it's saying is, " is consider where you want to go. Consider what your outcome is going to be. Why

are you doing what you're doing? Do you have a desire to reach a certain point?

These things that you're doing, what are you doing them for? Why are you doing

them? Consider your ways. Think about all the things that you're doing,

and why are you doing them?

What's happening as you're working through these things,

as you're doing the things that you're doing,

what is going on?

Consider your ways.

Think about the direction.

Do you really want to continue in that way?

Do you really want to continue in that way?

Because this is a difficult way for them to go.

We see that there are a lot of things going on. He says, "You have so much and bring in little.

You have so much and bring in little."

Consider your ways, the direction you're going is this what you want?

Is this the direction that you want to go?

Is this how you want your life to continue?

Is this what you should be doing?

Is these the things that you need to know?

You have so much and you bring in little.

They suffered setback.

After setback, after setback, it just did not seem that they were being blessed.

They did all of this work yet they didn't bring much in. It just did not seem that they were being blessed.

They did all of this work yet they didn't bring much in.

But they were feverishly working to try to make the ends meet.

They were feverishly working to try to do all these things.

Yet the whole time that they were working and all that they were doing, they were neglecting

the temple of God.

They were neglecting serving God.

They were neglecting worshiping God. They were busy. They were neglecting serving God. They were neglecting worshiping God. They

were busy. They were doing all these things but yet they weren't bringing in

enough. They weren't bringing in enough. You have so much and bring in little.

He says you drink or not filled. You drink but you're not filled. The New

America Standard says you drink but you don't get drunk.

Basically what they're saying is,

you drink trying to wash away all these things that are

happening, but there's not even enough for that.

There's not even enough for that to happen.

You don't even, you're not even able to do that

because the things that you're doing and you're working so

hard towards, you're going in the wrong direction.

things that you're doing and you're working so hard towards you're going in the wrong direction. What you're doing is not putting God first. You're neglecting the temple. The foundation

was built. Hallelujah. They did that right away. They knew that was what they needed to do

to worship God. Yet instead of continuing, they kept putting it off. They kept putting it off. The work was hard.

They had enemies that were trying to attack. They had all kinds of things that were going on,

and they just kept putting it off, but they kept trying to take care of themselves.

They kept trying to get ahead for themselves. They kept trying to do all of these things

for themselves. Yet all the things they kept doing were futile, they were not making a difference.

They weren't changing.

As I read through this passage, and I began to think about this,

that consider your ways.

You have sown much, but reap little.

You drink wine, but it's not enough.

You put wages into a bag and it says if you're putting them into a bag with holes

because it all falls out.

You can't make enough money.

And I thought about today, just about any person that you talk to, you can ask them,

"Well, how are you doing?" And oftentimes the response is, "I'm just so busy.

I'm just so busy."

I talk to people that are retired, right?

You retire, you don't have a job, you can get up and go to anymore, you don't have all

that going on there, retired, been retired for years.

You say, "How you doing?

I am so busy.

I'm so busy.

I have so much that I have to get done.

I've had people that said,

I really need to go back to work

'cause I wasn't nearly as busy then as I am now.

I've got so much to do.

And I've got to do this and I've got to do this

and I've got to buy this and I've got to go here.

I've got to go there and I've got to do all those things.

I'm so busy.

That's basically how I'm out to these days.

I'm so busy. What are you so busy doing?

What are you so busy doing? Are the things that we're doing, are we busy about God's

work? Are we filling that day with everything but God? In that day, the people who had been cast into exile were able to come back.

God blessed them and let them come back.

They began rightly by building the foundation, but then they let all these other things

get in the way.

And the temple stood unfinished.

The temple stood unfinished.

They were busy.

They were doing so many things trying to get ahead yet, nothing that they did seemed to

catch any traction.

So they worked harder the next day and the next day and the next day.

They continually worked all the time.

They were so busy.

They were so busy that they didn't pay attention.

The temple sat unfinished.

God was not being glorified.

In our walk today, we are so busy with everything going on in our lives.

With all the stuff we're trying to do, we're so busy that God's not being glorified.

God's not being glorified.

He's not being placed first in our life.

Just like I taught to the children, if God's not first in our life then he's out of place.

When he's out of place then his children become displaced.

We're in the wrong place. The wrong thing going on.

We're not doing what's going on.

what we need to do.

The Israelites were supposed to be building the temple yet,

they turned away from that because of all these other things.

Because of all these things that they were trying to do,

yet even though they worked hard,

even though they sowed a lot, they weren't bringing in enough,

even though all the things they did,

it was as if nothing prospered.

It was if nothing prospered.

So, verses 7-11.

The Lord of armies says this, again, consider your ways.

Consider your ways.

Go up to the mountains, bring wood, and rebuild the temple that I may be pleased with it and be honored since

the Lord.

You start an ambitious project but behold it comes to little.

When you bring it home I blow it away.

Why?

You clear it's the Lord of the armies. It is because of my house which remains desolate while each of you run to your own home.

Therefore, because of you, the sky has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce. And I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the

grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on mankind, on

cattle, and on all the products of the labor of your hands. Here's the thing. All

that they were doing, everything it was going on, all the stuff that was happening in their life, it didn't seem too prosper. Nothing was making a

difference. Nothing was making a difference and all the work they did, nothing

seemed to get better and so as it didn't get better, they looked around and they

were like, you know we do all this and it gets blown away. We try to plant crops and

we don't get enough rain. We're trying to raise our animals but we don't have enough food for them.

We're not even having children like we need to be having. We're trying

for children. We're doing all of this and we don't even have children that we're raising up.

What is going on? The enemy must be after us.

The enemy must be after us. It must be

that the enemy is seeking revenge on us.

That the devil is causing all this calamity to happen in our lives and we just got to work

harder because we're going to get past that. All of this evil that schemes to be coming

our way, we're going to get past that. We're going're gonna make it. We're gonna do all that we can.

We're gonna work as hard as we can,

because we're not gonna let the devil have his do.

We're not going to allow all of these things

to be something that causes us to fail,

because we know better.

We may know better.

Here's the thing. All of this attitude is not right.

They're blaming it on things that are not the reason that it happens. God said to

them, "Go up to the mountains." Go up to the mountains. Why? He was up in the mountains

that's where the wood that needs needed to build the temple

is located.

It's where they're going to find what they need.

Go up to the mountains.

He just got there telling them they need to do that.

Go up to the mountains.

All of this stuff has been going on.

So you go to the mountains.

Go to the mountains that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified.

Go to the mountains and get the wood for the temple.

Build the temple so that I may be glorified.

Oh, no.

All these things are happening.

God says, your priorities are wrong.

You've built houses that you can live in.

You're doing all these things for yourself while my temple remains in ruins over here.

You haven't built the temple. You haven't put me first. You live in a house where I don't even have a place to live.

Go up to the mountains and get the wood. Come back down and build the temple that I may take pleasure and that I can be glorified. God said, "Put

me first. Put me first."

They were so busy. They weren't paying attention that God was not being put first. They had

so much going on in their life that they did not take time to recognize. They were stealing

that time from God.

They weren't giving it to him in the first place.

They were using it for self.

And they couldn't understand why they were using it for self that everything was going

wrong.

They weren't giving God any time.

They didn't understand why did they

all this but they didn't read very much. Why is it that they couldn't get enough

wine? Why is it that they couldn't get enough money? Why is it that no matter what

happened it just didn't ever seem to be enough? There was no, not enough rain.

There wasn't even any dew coming from the ground. All these things that were

happening instead of attributing to what they were doing, they attributed it to

Satan. They attribute it to something else. That's what we do. We as God's people in the 21st

century, in the 21st century, when things go wrong, "Holy Lord, stop these attacks from

Satan." Sometimes they are. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they are attacks from Satan, sometimes they're not. But we don't consider that

they might not be because of course God loves us, He's going to provide us with everything

no matter what, He's going to make certain that we're blessed. Of course we should be the

ones to receive all that because we are His children. If we're His children, why are we not glorifying Him? If we're His children, why are we

not putting Him first? If we're His children, why are we not lifting Him up and

praising His name, that He might receive that worship and be satisfied. You looked

for much, but indeed it came to a little.

You did all this work trying to do it, but it wasn't much there.

You worked, you tried, but you didn't find very much.

For I called for a drought on the land.

Wait a minute.

All that's been going on that we thought was

Satan that we thought was attributed to natural causes that we thought was

attributive because we weren't working hard enough. God called for a drought on

the land. God who we're his children. He loves us. He called for a drought on the land. Yes, clearly. He said, He did. He said,

He's a jealous God. He demands that we worship Him. He demands that we put Him first.

He demands that our lives revolve around Him and that He's not just one item within our life. He demands all of that and when his people are putting

everything first but him, he called for a drought on the land.

When I read this immediately I was struck. God, I look around church on Sunday morning, not just ours, but across the nation.

I see those that are even on television.

I hear other pastors talking.

I see that across the nation on Sunday mornings, our churches remain unfilled.

I see that there are events that happen where people are called to worship and events are

not very well attended when people are called to go out and try to reach other people,

but we don't have enough show up.

I see all of these things happening around our world today and suddenly I thought, God,

your people who are called by your name are too busy for you.

Your people who are called by your name are doing everything but worshiping you.

Your people who are called by your name, children of God, are doing everything selfishly instead

of putting you first.

That's why our nation is in such a mess.

That's why we don't see churches filled. That's why we don't see churches filled.

That's why we don't see the baptism of water stirred

on a weekly basis.

That's why we don't see people coming to know Jesus

all the time because your people who are called

by your name are not putting you first.

The people of Israel in this instance did not put God first.

He said, "I called for a groud on the land."

I did it. I'm the one that has stopped you from having the crops that you think you should get.

I'm the one who has stopped you from all of these things. I'm the one that called for a drought on the land. It is time for us that we start putting self first.

In this passage that we see, he said,

"You live in panel houses."

My mind lays in ruins.

I called for a drought on the land.

When he called for a drought on the land,

he called for a drought on the new grain, called for a drought on the new grain, on the

line, on the oil, on all of those things.

Why those things?

Because those were the three most important crops that they needed.

Those were the three most important crops that they needed.

Those were the things that they needed to survive.

They needed the grain to

break bread, they needed the wine to drink. They needed the oil, everything they needed,

those were three basic things that they used in their Hebrew life. And those three things

God had called a drought to prevent every bit of it. He called a drought on the livestock,

they weren't producing, even on the man he said, they weren't producing wine because they

were not putting God first."

I called for a drought on the land.

If we look around our world today, how can we not see that the reason that God's people

are not growing and flourishing the reason we don't see revivals happening, the reason

we don't see churches packed on Sunday morning's because God's people who are called by His name are too busy putting self first.

We're too busy putting self.

Oh, we justify it.

We're trying to do all these things.

We're going out.

We're doing all this stuff.

You know, churches have programs and people are showing up for them and they're doing all

these things.

But are you really putting God first or are you showing up doing all these things. But are you really putting God first?

Are you showing up doing all those things so other people see you and go, "Yeah, they're

good Christians." They're showing up. We know they're good Christians. So are they really?

Are they really? Are they really putting God first? Across the land, across the nation, across

the world. Are we putting God first? The answer is absolutely not.

It is time we stop putting self first.

It's time we stop putting self first.

Across this nation, across specifically this nation,

God has become an afterthought. Yeah, I got this and this and

this and this to do and you know if I have time I'm going to try to make it a church on

Sunday. I got these other things to do and maybe I'll have some time this evening to read

my Bible. You know I can't remember the last time I really sat down and prayed.

Not, you know, the blessing or a quick little prayer for this or that, but when I truly sat

down and poured out from my heart prayer and had that conversation with God, I'd like

to do that sometime.

I've got to work some time out.

Maybe I can schedule it two weeks from tomorrow. Maybe I can put it in there.

Maybe I can do that.

Friend of mine recently talked about Sunday morning,

he was gonna run out and do a little fishing before church.

And so he went out to do a little fishing and he was out

trying to do all this and he got into this area.

And I don't even remember where he was fishing, but he got into this area and he looked up and he was out trying to do all this and he got into this area. And I don't even remember where he was fishing, but he got into this area

and he looked up and he saw something that terrified him, he saw a gator.

He didn't just see the gator, he saw the gator come in the water towards him immediately.

He said, "I saw that thing coming, I threw down the fishing pole, I turned on the motor

to back up as fast as I could back up.

I had that thing backing up as hard as I could.

And he said, I was trying to get out of there.

And he said, then I thought I had my phone in my hand.

I thought, I'm going to try to get pictures of this thing.

So he said, I'm just snapping pictures.

Trying to get out of the way.

He said, suddenly that gator came up out of the water and came down right at the edge of the boat and splashed everywhere.

He said, he almost messed his his bridges, scared him so bad.

He finally got away from there and he got out of the way and everything was okay and he

finally was able to get back to the shore and do whatever but all this was happening and

by the way he was already past time for church to start because he was fishing.

He got hung up in that. When he got three with all of that, he finally loaded the boat up and he

talked to his wife and he said, "Her what happened?" and she said, "It's because

you decided to go fishing instead of going to church." I said, "She might be right."

He said, "I'm going to church next week." Not doing that.

Sometimes it takes God getting our attention.

God had to get the attention of the Israelites by stopping the rain.

He said, "I'm the one that called the drought."

What?

Our own God is the one withholding the rain from us. Our own God is the one that's causing all of this.

Why is our God doing this?

He told them already, you put yourself first.

You built houses for you before you even built one for me.

You took care of you before you did anything for me.

You're not worshiping me.

You're not putting me first.

You're not putting me the place I belong. And so I've got to get your attention.

So we call for a drive. Today, I think God calls to get our attention.

And there are so many things that are happening across our world today.

We see things happening. There's terrible things going on.

on in our world today and we say, "God, we don't understand why is all this

happening?" Because we put God somewhere in the mix of all of our things. We

didn't put Him first. We're still not putting Him first. We don't put God first

in our life. If we don't put God first in our life, how can we expect that He will

put things in our life that are positive.

How can we expect that when we don't even put Him first?

It's like, oh, He's God.

He's going to take care of us.

We're not worried about Him.

Do you know that the person who is the most ignored in a relationship

is the person that you seek to have the closest relationship with?

Oftentimes, you ignore the people that love you the most

because you think, oh, they're still going to love me no matter

what.

Does it hurt them?

Yes.

Because you're not showing them the attention you need.

Does it hurt God?

Yes.

Because He already told you, I'm a jealous God.

Put me first. You're not doing it. Across the world, it's not

happening. God is not being placed first and if God's not being placed first,

then how can we expect all these things that we want to see? How can we expect to

see the world come to know Jesus if we don't even talk about Jesus? How can we

expect people to come to the

altar and pour out their heart and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior when we don't live

that in front of them? When we say, "Put God first, but we're not doing it." Put God first,

but we're not doing it. Listen, it's time we stop putting self-first. What we need to do is seek first the kingdom of God.

That's what it tells us in Matthew 6.33.

It says, "Seek first the kingdom of God,

and all these things shall be added unto you."

Oh, wait a minute.

If I seek first the kingdom of God,

the things I need are going to be given to me. The

things the blessings that God has for me, He's going to pour out if I seek Him first.

If I seek Him first, if I put Him in that place in my life, then He's going to

follow through with all of those things. I've been so busy trying to get Him all for

myself that I didn't recognize that I wasn't putting God first. Listen, it's time.

It's time in this world that we start putting everything first but God.

It's amazing that sometimes something can happen to disrupt the broadcast of a football game.

And we are super upset because we can't see that football game.

Yet you let something happen to disrupt what we can't have church service and we're like,

oh cool, I don't have church today.

Priorities are all in the wrong place.

Seek first, the kingdom of God.

Seek that first, put him first, put him as the priority, the number one.

What does that look like? Well, number one, the first thing you need to be doing is

praising God when you open your eyes in the morning.

You need to be putting time with God above other things.

You need to be taking that first fruits of your income and you need to be giving that to God.

He gave it to you in the first place.

Give it back to Him, the first fruits.

Give it back to Him.

You need to be giving Him your time. You need to be giving him your

talents and your money. You need to give all that to God. Put him first. Oh, well I can't actually go out

and watch this ballgame or I can't actually go do this or do that because I have my time with God scheduled. That's first.

But after that, maybe I can go and do that.

I have to worship God first and foremost.

I don't have time to be planning next week's activities

and doing everything for the day.

I don't have that time right now because I've got to spend time

with God first.

You know what's amazing?

If we put God first and we start spending time with Him first,

suddenly we have more time to do things.

It's crazy.

The more you try to do it and keep God not first,

the harder and the busier you are,

but when you put God first,

everything gets in the right order.

Everything gets in the right order.

And so instead of working so hard to try to do

it yourself, maybe we should follow the instructions that God gave us called

the Bible. We should put Him first. We should do things in a way that's pleasing to

Him that He might receive that worship and be glad. That He might

You might be glorified and everything that happens and then he will pour out upon us

the things that we need.

He will give us the things that he knows we need, but sometimes he gets our attention because

we're not doing it right.

So he has to do something.

He calls a drought.

He allows things to happen, storms to come into our life, finances to get disrupted, health

to be messed up.

There's so many things that God allows to come into our life.

Am I saying that God is a vindictive God and He's doing that?

No, I'm not telling you that He's purposefully doing it,

but He allows things into your life when you're not following Him

to get your attention, to get your attention.

Sometimes that's what we've got to have.

Sometimes we've got to have that.

Sometimes my wife is trying to talk to me that monster in the living room is on and

I'm hearing her but I'm talking to you.

Oh, I didn't hear you because you weren't listening."

Sometimes God says, "Hey, I'm talking to you because you didn't hear it because you weren't listening.

You're loud, everything else to take up all the noise and all the space and everything in your life and you weren't listening.

Maybe he's got a plan for you.

Maybe he's saying, you know what?

Your nephew, your son, your daughter, your cousin, your aunt, your uncle, your parents.

Somebody needs to know about Jesus and you need to be the one to go tell them.

But you have not listened.

Maybe they're saying you need to go across the street, you need to talk to your neighbor.

Maybe you need to talk to that nice, clark at Walmart the next time you check out that

you always talk about everything else, why not invite them to church, why not talk to

them about God.

Maybe you need to be listening and do all of those things.

You see, if we want to honor God, or we're really honoring Him by just throwing Him somewhere in our calendar? That's not honor.

That's just one of the places. Honor means putting them first. We need to seek first, the

kingdom of God. If we want to truly honor Him, it's like He called his people in that day. He called them to honor him by building the temple,

build my home before you build your home.

Come and do these things that I have called upon you.

I've already called a drought on all these things

because you haven't been doing it,

and I need you to get your attention.

Maybe he's already called some things in your life

to get your attention, but you didn't realize

that's what it was because of course God wouldn't do that, right?

Maybe you should consider your ways. Consider your ways. What's going on right now?

What am I doing? Where am I trying to get? What is my goal? How am I going to...what

am I looking at? If your goal is not to draw closer to God every day, then you're on the

wrong road. You need to change. You need to be able to draw closer to God every day, then you're on the wrong road.

You need to change.

You need to put

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