Sermon Text

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

I have had a lot of hobbies or interests in my life. When I was younger I really liked radio control airplanes. I couldn't read enough or learn enough about them. I had magazines containing plans to build them. I liked football cards. I would read the backs of the cards over and over again. I would carefully put them into order by numbers and teams. All through my life my interests have shifted or changed, but the attention and effort that I put into those things that I enjoy continues. I think the same can be said for most of us. We have no problem putting time and attention into those things that are important to us. That is really the truth that Jesus teaches in the gospel lesson when he says, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be." Through the prophet Haggai, we have an application of that principal in the lives of the people of Judah who returned from exile. The words of the prophet teach us to treasure the Lord.

Permit me to share with you a little history. The people of Judah were living in prosperous times. Harvests were good and their position along the trade routes paid off. But on the inside there were grave spiritual problems. There was a lot of religious hypocrisy and the worship of God had become nothing more than a 'going through the motions." God sent them prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah to shake them out of their spiritual slumber, but the people did not listen. God warned them that if they did not repent, there would be dire consequences. When they refused to repent God sent the armies of Babylon who defeated Judah and emptied the city of Jerusalem, carrying the people away to Babylon. They destroyed the temple and the city of Jerusalem.

God in his mercy determined that the length of the exile would be 70 years. After the 70 years were up he used the king of the Persian empire to return a remnant of Judah to their homeland. Do you realize how important this remnant and their return to Jerusalem is? God promised a Savior from the line of king David. He said that the Savior would be born in the Judean town of Bethlehem. He would come from God's chosen people of Israel. This remnant was critical to God's plan of salvation, your salvation. In the text today, Haggai is speaking to this remnant who have been back rebuilding Jerusalem for the past 18 years.

God has a complaint against them. "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'These people say, 'The time has not yet come for the LORD's house to be built.'" Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?" God's complaint is this: "You have been here for 18 years and the only part of the temple that is finished is the foundation. Yet you have rebuilt your own homes and they are so fancy that they are even paneled on the inside."

Remember that the temple was absolutely critical to Judah's worship of God, or we might say the temple was absolutely critical for their understanding of the Messiah to come. It was at the temple and only the temple that sacrifices could be made for the people's sins. There in a way that stimulated the senses the terrible consequences for sin were shown as an innocent victim lost its life for another. These sacrifices pictured the sacrifice that Jesus would make for the sins of the world. The people when they were in exile longed for the temple and its worship. Psalm 137 is a song lamenting the fact that they were in captivity away from the temple. It says, "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion…May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy."

Why had 18 years gone by and the temple was still a pile of rubble? It was because their treasure was in their own homes and lives and not in the Lord. They were spending their time and their money on what was important to them, themselves. The people came up with all kinds of clever arguments as to why it was not time yet for the temple to be rebuilt, but the fact remained that they were too busy focusing on themselves that they neglected the Lord. They had lost their determination and desire to work for the Lord.

God has not commanded us to build a temple like he commanded Judah, but their situation must cause us to pause and give careful thought to our ways too. The fact that they weren't building the temple was only a symptom of a greater problem in their hearts. They did not treasure the Lord, therefore their hearts were not "in it". Here is where we must examine our hearts too. Where is our treasure? Where is my treasure? Like Israel our actions show what is in our hearts. Too easily we skimp with our time and treasures on God's kingdom. What I mean is that with our time, energy, and treasures we give very little to him. God's Words here cut right to the heart don't they? "Give careful thought to your ways." Like Israel I can try to come up with excuses. Lord, I have four kids, the time I have is limited and I am exhausted from taking care of the family you gave me. Lord, I work a lot of hours and don't have a lot of time for myself. Lord, I put in a lot of time in the past, it is time for someone else to step in and do the work. Like Judah, we have no where to hide and no excuse.

When Judah treasured themselves it backfired. They thought they would spend more time focusing on their own lives and get their own fortunes in order and then they would have enough time, energy and resources to work on the temple. Yet, their pocketbook is where God hit them the hardest. God frustrated their efforts, as he clearly says, "You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it…Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands." Since it was their own prosperity that they treasured instead of the Lord, the Lord made all of their labor unprosperous to teach them a lesson and help them refocus on him.

The point here is not that if we focus on the Lord we will be prosperous. The point is that sometimes God gets our attention in different ways. Here we know that because of Judah's actions, the Lord sent a drought. We know that because the Bible tells us that is what happened. We don't have a Word from God to tell us that this thing or that thing that happened to us was because of our failure to treasure the Lord. We do know that the Lord uses such things to get our attention. We also know that a life lived treasuring the Lord is much better than one lived despising him, even if it doesn't come with worldly prosperity or if it isn't free from trouble.

Finally God's Word through the prophet Haggai had an effect on the people. "Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD." The Word of God through Haggai worked a miracle. It changed their hearts. It shifted their treasure from themselves to the Lord. To fear the Lord is to recognize him as God and believe in him.

Really that is what God wanted. His main concern wasn't the temple, but their hearts. For God's temple is in the heart of believers, not in a building of stone and wood. As Jesus said, "My kingdom is in your hearts." God knew that if in their hearts they treasured him, the temple would get built.

Dear friends the Word of our Lord called us to give careful thought to our ways and our hearts. I think we have all seen that our hearts are not where we would like them to be therefore there is nothing for us to do than listen to his message through the prophet Haggai and fear the Lord. Through that message the Lord is changing our hearts and making him our treasure.

Listen to God's promise. "Then Haggai, the LORD's messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: 'I am with you,' declares the LORD." The temple was the symbol of God's presence among his people, but it lay in ruins. God wanted Judah to know that through it all he has always been with them. He declares that in those simple words, "I am with you." He makes the same promise to us too. Even when our hearts turn away from him, he never leaves us. Isn't it comforting during difficult times when a person tells us that they will be with us through it all. They might even say, "It is me and you." God makes the same promise to us. To prove it he even sent his very own Son, Immanuel, for us. Remember what Immanuel means? It means, "God with us." In Jesus God kept his promise that he is with us and more than that he took away our sins which separate us from him.

Changed hearts are hearts of action. When God changed the hearts of Judah they got to work right away on building the temple. "So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God."

God has changed your heart to treasure him and I know that your heart is in him too. You too can be people of action for God's kingdom. When they built the temple they needed people skilled at working with stone, metal and wood. They needed engineers and strong men. They needed people to get supplies and people to fund the project. They needed lots of gifts. In the same way God has blessed each and every one of you with gifts to work in his kingdom. He has given you hearts that desire to help, and he has given you gifts to use. How will you help in building his kingdom? Will you help by visiting the sick and homebound? Will you help by providing upkeep and maintenance on this house that we have dedicated to God? Will you volunteer in the school? Will you make evangelism calls? Will you teach Sunday School? Will you call other members whose hearts seem to be treasuring something other than God? God has changed you hearts to treasure him, now put your heart into his kingdom. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Amen.