 I had planned on the Obadiah series extending to one more sermon, but it didn't go that long. So we're going to look at the book of Haggai tonight. If you go all the way to the end of Malachi, turn left, go to Zechariah, and then Haggai. If you need an outline, there should be one in the bulletin for this sermon. And it covers the outline of the book. We're going to try and do an overview of this small book, two chapters. And let's go ahead and we'll stand to read. I'm going to read through this book. It should take just a few minutes and we'll be able to read through both chapters. Pay close attention to the story. And in the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet to Sirubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozedek, the high priest saying, thus 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, this time for you yourselves to dwell in paneled houses and this temple to lie in ruins. Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have sown 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 earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple that I may take pleasure in and be glorified, says the Lord. You look for much, but indeed it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why, says the Lord of hosts, because of my house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house, therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew and the earth withholds its fruit, for I called for a drought on the land and the mountains on the grain and on the new wine and on the oil and on whatever the ground brings forth on men and livestock and all the labor of your hands. Then is the rubble, the son of Sheltiel and Joshua, the son of Jehoshedak, the king of the high priest, all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God. And the words of Haggai the prophet as the Lord their God had sent him and the people feared the presence of the Lord. Then Haggai the Lord's messenger spoke the Lord's message to the people saying, I am with you, says the Lord. So the Lord stirred up the spirit of the rubble, the son of Sheltiel, the governor of Judah and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehoshedak, the high priest and the spirit of all the remnant of the people and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of host their God on the 24th day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius. Chapter two. In the seventh month, on the 21st of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying, speak now to his rubble, the son of Sheltiel, governor of Judah and to Joshua, the son of Jehoshedak, the high priest and to the remnant of the people saying, who is left among you? Who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is it not in your eyes as nothing? Yet now be strong as a rubble, says the Lord and be strong Joshua, son of Jehoshedak, the high priest be strong all you people of the land, says the Lord and work for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts. According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remains among you. Do not fear. For thus says the Lord of hosts, once more, it is a little while I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and the dry land and I will shake all nations and they shall come to the desire of all nations and I will fill this temple with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts and in this place I will give you peace, says the Lord of hosts. On the 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius the word of the Lord came to Hagia the prophet saying, thus says the Lord of hosts. Now I ask the priest concerning the law saying, if one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil or any food, will it become holy? Then the priest answered and said, no. And Hagia said, if one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean? He answered and said, it shall be unclean. Then Hagia answered and said, so is this people and so is this nation before me, says the Lord and so is every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean. And now therefore carefully consider from this day forward from before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the Lord since those days when one came to a heap of 20 ephaphs there were about 10. When one came to the wine of that to draw out 50 baths from the press there will be 20. I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the labors of your hands yet you did not turn to me says the Lord. Consider now from this day forward from the 24th day of the ninth month from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid. Consider it. Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the big tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not yielded fruit but from this day I will bless you. And again the word of the Lord came to Haggai on the 24th day of the month saying speak to the rubble governor of Judah saying I will shake heaven and earth I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms I will overthrow the chariots those who ride in them the horses and their riders shall come down everyone by the sword of his brother in that day says the Lord of hosts I will take you the rubble of my servant the son of Shealtiel says the Lord and will make you like a signet ring for I have chosen you says the Lord of hosts. Amen. Give me now a seat. The outline of the book of Haggai is in chapter 1 verses 1 to 15 out of four points we divide it into four points first chapter 1 1 to 15 has a rebuke and repentance chapter 2 verses 1 to 9 has a prophecy of Christ chapter 2 verses 10 to 19 has a second rebuke and repentance and then the fourth section of this prophet is chapter 2 verses 20 to 23 a second prophecy of Christ so first rebuke and repentance prophecy of Christ second rebuke and repentance prophecy of Christ so he's going to break you down and then encourage you up okay so the point of this book the summary of this book is what is your greatest desire do you love the Lord your God with all of your heart all of your soul all of your mind what is your greatest desire if you Google what is your greatest desire and you get some opinions here's one from Yahoo greatest desire for my son is for my son to be happy and healthy my greatest fear is if something were to happen to my son another is personally mine is to be a successful individual in a career field where there is high stress and life and death decisions I want those ultimatums limited time to make the right choice because for some reason I feel that I know I would do the right thing I want to travel the world I want to experience all the different cultures in Europe and Asia I don't want a place to call home I want to be on the move constantly I want to fall in love somewhere down the line and have a family but my career seems to be more important right now I want to fulfill my sense of duty and make a difference in this world another is my greatest fear my greatest desire is to gain infamy rule the world to be famous rich and revered I want to be an artist or a musician or a politician or an actor or a director or a writer or a poet I want to achieve great success and be the greatest person who ever lived of course I do see that that's impossible so I'll have to settle for second greatest another says my greatest desire is to be loved so let me ask you what's your greatest desire what's your greatest desire to be loved that could be okay if it's for God to love God and for him to love you but you see for most people to be loved is not towards God not about God Hagi I the prophet comes at a time when he sees the people of God the right people in the right place doing the right thing and he sees but they don't have that desire for God like they should and he brings the word of God to them to convict them rebuke them and appoint them to Christ the Messiah as the greatest desire as the motivation for serving him and living for him so let's look now at chapter one in overview there's a setup verse in verse one it explains to us it's in the time of King Darius in the sixth month of the first day and so because of all the dates in this book we know just when it takes place 520 BC and what's happening in this time is the people of Israel have been in captivity in Babylon for 70 years and God delivers them God brings them back by the Medes and Persians come in and Cyrus the new ruler declares that the Jews can go back to the promised land only about 50,000 of the people return and when they return they begin to set up the foundations for the temple the central point for the worship of God as they begin to start this temple and they begin to start to work on it the Samaritans begin to see what they're doing and they ask that they can be involved in with the building of the temple and the people of Israel say no, you cannot take part in it you're idolaters you cannot take part in we have a separation between in this act of worship when that happened the Samaritans were greatly offended and they decided we're going to destroy this work so they write they do asuaris and they begin to slander you can read this account in Ezra verses 4-6 Ezra and Nehemiah have the historical accounts of this time Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi are the prophetic accounts of this time and in Ezra you can read about this letter that's sent slandering them saying they're going to build a city and they're going to rebel and they're doing this on purpose that's what they tell the Medes and Persians the people then get a command that from the government in the Persians and the Medes and Persians that they have to stop the building of the temple and they have to stop the building of the walls and so for 16 years the foundation is laid but there's no temple and the people become disillusioned the people become apathetic and the people return back to a life about themselves they don't turn like in other times to great idolatry or to sacrifice of babies or any of the horrible sins they did before but they turn to apathy they are no longer passionate about the Lord so Haggai is a prophet raised up by the Lord to tell them that they must be focused on the work of the Lord they must be focused on the Lord and he directs his message towards the people to Joshua the prophet and to the governor that they must all take a stand no matter the cost and build this temple okay now let's see what some of that message is in chapter 1 it says in verse 2 that thus speaks the Lord of hosts this time the Lord has not come the time that the Lord's house should be built so what he's doing is he's quoting the people and the people are saying that not now we can't we can't, now's not the time the economy was bad they had hostile enemies they had a blame on the Lord's sovereignty they said look at all this our situation is too difficult they were too discouraged they were in a time of great discouragement whenever you begin to be disillusioned you have your hope in something and that comes crumbling down and instead of turning to the Lord instead you turn to a faithless position you turn to a discouragement you turn to thinking oh what's the point then you begin to lose focus you begin to lose direction you begin to have your eyes off of the Savior and your eyes on yourself it's very easy to get discouraged in this life when sin comes in your own life have you felt this before? that's a time when it's very easy to get discouraged when you look into your own soul and you see sin what are you supposed to do then? are you supposed to look farther inward for more grit for more effort no you're supposed to look upward to the Savior you're supposed to look at our God so the people were looking inward at this time and so they stopped doing the Lord's work they stopped working in the temple and the prophet stands up and says in verse 4 it is time for you yourselves to dwell is it time for you yourselves to dwell in panels houses in this temple to lie in ruins what he's saying to them is you have great hypocrisy you have great hypocrisy that you would work on your own house you see what happens when you're discouraged and you begin to look inward and see your sin and instead of looking to Christ you turn to next after that after time goes by you look to something else to make you happy maybe it's a TV show maybe it's a new purchase maybe it's new friends you look to something new to satisfy you and make you happy you see what happens that progression you look inward see your sin instead of looking to Christ you get discouraged this is why lost people get drunk this is why people get high in order to get away from the pain of life the discouragement of life Christians would do the same thing but not in a great degree maybe they'll turn to sleep or eating or entertainment and they say I just want to think about something else I just want to get away from the work of the Lord look what the Lord does on purpose in verses 5, 6 He says you sow much but bring in little you eat but you do not have enough you drink but you're not filled with drink you see what's happening the Lord saying go ahead take that take those things that you thought would think would satisfy you and you thought would be pleasing to you successful life lots of money lots of entertainment just what you wanted and it does not satisfy it's like taking a big gulp of seawater go ahead take it fill your cup up drink it full the Lord says and see if it satisfies have you ever done try to do that have you ever filled your day full of entertainment no Christ just all entertainment how does it feel at the end of the day it feels like junk food to your soul you feel weary and tired you don't feel ready for the next day do you this is what happens with a Christian when they try and satisfy themselves with things that were not meant to satisfy so I ask you what is your greatest desire is it Christ himself what is your greatest desire the Lord graciously rebukes the people here the Lord graciously draws their attention away from themselves by hard providence he purposely gives them pain in the things that they thought would satisfy did you think that that relationship would satisfy and then the Lord lets you have a hard break up did you think that that um these things would satisfy then the Lord allows you to take the bitterness of your own choice so he tells them in verses 7 to 8 consider your ways this is one of Haggai's favorite phrases think about what you've done think about what you've done and now he says to them go go to the mountains bring the wood build the temple that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified this disobedience is going to be costly to them it's going to cause them opposition and he says that he reminds them again verse 9 you looked for much but indeed it came to little when you brought it home I blew it away why says the Lord of hosts because of my house that is in ruins you understand when you love the Lord when you love the Lord and he is first and foremost your greatest desire your greatest focus of your life and your priorities are rightly in the right order then when you taste the food it tastes sweet then when you watch the show you laugh the hardest and it's the most satisfying then when your time of rest is the sweetest because it's in a it's appropriate place you know a maraschino cherry on top of a dessert is a good thing but if all you eat is maraschino cherries ah it would be so disgusting I wouldn't want to see another one but one on top of the ice cream that's okay for me you see when you your priorities get all messed up your priorities are all messed up it will not satisfy and the Lord will purposely Christian the Lord will purposely make it an unsatisfying thing in your mouth and will purposely give you a hard providence to drive you back look at how the people respond in verses 12 to 15 what's the fruit but in verse 12 they obeyed the voice of the Lord their God don't you wish there were more verses like that in the bible don't you wish there were more verses like that that describe your life they obeyed the voice of the Lord they feared the presence of the Lord they feared what greater judgment would come do you fear the Lord like this and then he says to them he says I am with you what a blessing I remember one preacher said look at all those four words I am with you he said each one is a precious gem I the God of heaven the Lord of hosts he is with you there could be nothing more encouraging nothing more blessing than God himself with you how does this happen what's the cause of it in verse 14 the Lord stirred up the spirit of the rubble the spirit of joshua the spirit of all the remnant of the people the spirit of all three of those audiences the rubble joshua and the people and what was the fruit they came and worked in the house of the Lord of hosts their God today sadly when you turn to most sermons on Haggai they are going to come and during a building project they are going to come during a building project where the preacher wants to do a fun rally the troops together for some money it's time to build something don't miss the heart of Haggai it's not about building and building it's about where is the centrality of the kingdom of God the new testament tells us that the temple of God is no longer a place but it is a people in 1 Corinthians 3 16 19 the temple of God is the church is the people of God individually and corporately each individual is the temple of God and corporately we are the temple of God so where is your devotion where does your love and your greatest desire for God shown but in how you treat the temple of God today the people of God his church let me ask you where is your greatest desire where do you shout the loudest where do you want to dance what makes you want to sing you know it's supposed to be the Lord but look in your heart look in your heart is that the case if it's not cry out to God for him to correct you to get you to look back to him him to be the satisfaction for your soul him to be the worship of your heart Haggai knows this and in chapter 2 he draws them to a prophecy of Christ he says in verse 3 who is left among you who saw this temple in the former glory and how is it that you see it now in comparison with it is it not in your eyes there is nothing the people begin here the older generation knew the temple of Solomon they knew the temple of Solomon and how beautiful it was and they see this rusty old shack called temple of the rubble they said look at this thing and this is how discouragement comes with they fall into the pit of comparisons the pit of comparisons well things were better in my time things were better back in the day I remember back in the day things were the strawberries were sweeter the sun shined brighter the birds they could sing back then they don't sing now the Lord is dead and what does the prophet say he says be strong in verse 4 3 times be strong be strong Joshua be strong people of the land why those 4 precious words I am with you he's saying don't trust your eyes don't trust your eyes in the way this this rickety old the rubble temple looks don't trust your eyes because there's something greater coming there's something greater coming he says in verse 6 to 9 he says for this thus says the Lord of Hosts once more it is a little while I will shake heaven and earth the sea and the dry land I will shake all nations and they shall come to the desire of all nations and I will fill this temple with glory says the Lord of Hosts what is the Lord speaking about here let's look at some parallel passages and see let's turn to Isaiah 60 Isaiah 60 Isaiah 60 in verse 4 he says lift up your eyes all around and see they all gather together they come to you your sons shall come from afar and your daughters shall be nursed at your side then you shall see and become radiant and your heart shall swell with joy because the abundance of the sea shall return to you the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you what he's describing is you see in time all the nations will be coming here and they're going to bring all their money here for the worship of God look at how he describes it in verse 6 multitude of camels shall cover your land the dromedarians of Median and Ephaph all those of Sheba shall come to you what they're saying is all the tractor trailers they're going to come in full the tractor trailer of the ancient time the camel is going to come in and it's going to be packed full what's it going to be packed full of things for the worship of God people are going to be so much to give to the Lord that you won't be able to have a place to store it all they shall bring gold and incense they shall proclaim the praises of the Lord look in verse 11 therefore your gates shall be open continually day or night that men may bring to you the wealth of the gentiles and their kings in procession for the nation and the kingdom which shall not serve you shall perish and those nations shall be utterly ruined the glory of Lebanon shall come to you the cypress, the pine, the box tree together the beauty, the place of my sanctuary I will make the place of my feet glorious all the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bowing to you and all those who despise you shall fall prostrate the souls of your feet and they shall call you the city of the Lord Zion of the Holy One of Israel he's describing a day when people will bring all the wealth of all the nations to Jerusalem look in Hebrews 12 the only time Haggai is quoted in the New Testament Hebrews 12 he tells you what is this that he's talking about where he shakes the nations what is this when the desire of all nations comes what happens to this when he fills his temple with glory it's a time when all the nations are bringing all the treasures to Israel to Jerusalem Hebrews 12 26 starting in 25 see that you do not refuse him who speaks for if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven whose voice then shook the earth but now he's promised saying so what he's saying is you remember back in Sinai shook there's going to be a time when the world shakes again you know what it is in chapter 26 the future yet to come in chapter 12 verse 26 yet once more I shake not only the earth but also heaven he's quoting Haggai now this yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken as of the things that are made and the things which cannot be shaken may remain therefore since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken let us have grace that we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire you see what he's saying is there's a kingdom coming when God will shake this planet and shake it so much and he'll set up a new kingdom shouldn't we live in light of that kingdom look at Revelation 21 Hebrews prophesies of this day Haggai prophesies of this day Isaiah in chapter 60 prophesies of this day in Revelation 21 it's told as if it's this day Revelation 21 verse 22 speaking of the new Jerusalem speaking of the new heavens and the new earth he says but I saw no temple in it for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple the city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it for the glory of God illuminated it the Lamb is its light and the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor into it and its gates shall not be shut at all by day there shall be no night there you remember what Isaiah said how the gates won't be shut day or night in verse 26 and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it but there shall by no means enter in it anything that defiles or cause an abomination or a lie but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life look back at Haggai Haggai takes the people he rebukes them for their sin and then he draws their attention to Christ look at Haggai once more you understand what he's saying here he's saying you see the provable's temple it's nothing compared to what will happen in this place in when there is the new Jerusalem in verse 6 he says once more I'll shake heaven and earth the sea and dry land and I'll shake all nations God is going to make a new heavens and a new earth and the desire of all nations is a double duty phrase the same in verse 9 with glory double duty phrase to describe the people are going to bring all their wealth there and there's going to be the desire of all nations there Jesus Christ will be there and all of the world will be at worshiping him there will be no waning desire there will be no sin filled heart there will be no more tears and no more sorrow are you discouraged look at the savior do you look around and you see the work of God and you say it's not what it should be well I point you to the day when it will be what it should be do you have the eyes of faith to see it do you have the eyes of faith to see it then live as if that's a reality it should greatly affect you now where you get your eyes off yourself onto Christ and the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former you ain't seen nothing yet kid you ain't seen nothing yet how beautiful it will be to see the glory of our great king so will you live this way will you have this passion now what is your greatest desire what is your greatest desire is it for Christ and his glory it's got to be it's got to be the prophet goes on in chapter 2 and he tells an analogy of the opposite of this he says you know the people he asks some questions about the law and he says okay if you've got this hunk of meat and the meat is for worship and you touch those things with it does it make those things holy and everybody's like no but if I get a dead body and I touch things with it does it make a ceremony unclean what he's saying is you can have sin in one hand and obedience and some good works in the other and it doesn't make the sin okay you know you can have a cold I can have a cold and then come to you brother and you're healthy your health doesn't rub off on me the cold rubs off on you you can take an unsaved child and put them in a Christian school and he doesn't get more moral and holy he corrupts the other kids that's the way sin works and the prophet is saying in chapter 2 to them chapter 19 turn away from these things turn away from trust in these things stop looking to these rituals to be what makes your right standing before God and he warns them I blew away everything you tried to achieve back then and instead and finally in verses 20 to 23 he draws their attention to Christ once more he says I'll shake heaven and earth in 22 I'll overthrow the throne of kingdoms I'll destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms I'll overthrow the chariots and those who write on them what he's doing here in Haggai is taking the language of Sodom and Gomorrah using the same words for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and he says I'm going to do that to all the countries all the nations he uses the same language that the Bible uses to describe the destruction of Pharaoh's army and he says and he applies it to all the world and then he says I'm going to take Zerubbabel Zerubbabel and he's going to be my signet ring what this means is the signet ring is something that the people that a king would use would be his seal on wax it was like a signature and a signet ring was something very valuable something very precious because it is the signature of the king and he would have it on a necklace he would have it on his hand and he wouldn't give it away because it's his symbol of his approval and Zerubbabel you happen to know who his parents were who well ancestry was he but he his grandfather was the king in Judah Zerubbabel in Jeremiah 22 his grandfather was an evil man and in Jeremiah 22 the Lord says none of your descendants none of your blood descendants will be on the throne anymore this is the line from David the line of king is from David and he's cursed but this is where the Messiah is to come and he says to his grandfather that you will be the opposite you won't be my signet ring he says this in Jeremiah 22 verses 24 to 26 and now here he says he says in verse 23 he calls the rubble my servant which is a messy anac phrase do you remember all in Isaiah the suffering servant you remember how he says in Davidic promises of the Davidic covenant he says David my servant this is he is saying Zerubbabel and he is saying you are going to be my signet ring you are going to be this symbol of the Savior to come Zerubbabel this great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandson is Joseph Joseph does not have a blood son who rules on the throne, he has an adopted son, Jesus. And you see the virgin birth and the reason for the virgin birth is because of the curse in Jeremiah 22. And Jesus gets his blood lineage from Mary, and Mary's line goes back to David, but not through Solomon, but through Nathan, Nathan, David's other son. And so here is a prophecy of that we see fulfilled in the virgin birth, where Zerubbabel, and the future is Zerubbabel, and this is just a, he's just a picture of Jesus to come, our great king who will pay for our sins, and will set up his kingdom, and he'll destroy this world. Let him be your greatest desire. Let's pray. Dear Lord, please forgive us for how we so often and so easily take the things that you've made, and we get more excited about them. We think about them more, or talk about them more, we sing and dance about those other things, trinkets that you've made. Lord God, we don't want to think about our own paneled houses or our own pleasures. We want to think about you, and put you first in your work. Please help us Lord, revive our hearts. Lord, we need you to create a fear in us. We need you to move on our spirit, Lord, to convict us of our sin. We want to love you more, and be more passionate for you, more obedient to you. We want to do your work. Help us now, Lord, to hear this, this prophet, your word. Amen.