Haggai 1:5-8

From the Thursday men’s study:

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 are 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 it and be glorified,” says the Lord.   Haggai 1:5-8

God says: “Consider your ways!”

We talked about our church and her various programs.  Because they have worked in the past, are they yet viable?  Do they need tweaked?  Is an hour-and-a-quarter still the right length for a worship service.  Are we truly about His glory and in His will?

The purpose of Haggai’s writing was that the reconstruction of the temple was stalled and this was God’s charge to get building!  For some years we have talked about putting on an addition of a Fellowship Hall with a kitchen above and an education unit below (set up for a Christian day school) with little traction.  Maybe it is that we need to “consider your ways!”

What does God tell His people to do, vv. 7-8?  Go!  Bring!  Build!  

(For you who have been here some years, you recognize this as our theme for the year 2008.  Using verse 7 to know that “He be” – then verse 8 teaching “GBB” thus “He Be GBB’s”)

The literal and specific charge is to go gather building materials and get to work on the temple and get it finished for God’s pleasure and glory.  May it be that our building is always pleasing to God and what we do brings Him glory!

A personal challenge is that we are to GO into the highways and byways – into the world – to show and tell Jesus!  JESUS!  Not God or church!  JESUS!   “…for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,” Acts 4:12.  We have to Go seeking the lost and pointing them to Jesus who alone is “the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Him,” John 14:6.

Then BRING them.  Bring them to the cross.  Bring them to the call of Jesus to “repent, and believe in the gospel,” Mark 1:15.  Bring them to the cross to ponder their sin and His sacrifice.  Press them to join the one crucified with Jesus in saying, “we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom,” Luke 23:41-42.  That they be saved!

And then BUILD.  Build them up.  Disciple, mentor, teach and grow them.  Good church is in view: one that boldly proclaims the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27), presses each to use their spiritual gift and joyfully and regularly gather to thank and glorify God.

God’s will:  GO, BRING, BUILD!

Why?  That God be pleased and God be glorified!

When God is pleased, God blesses.  God empowers.  God protects.  God is known.  God is near.  God is seen moving and making.  And the world will see the boldness of Peter and John (Alice, Mary, Kent), and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

And God be glorified!  God will receive the honor and worship He is due for His glorious being, His holiness, His perfection, His amazing existence and His greatness.  To God be the GLORY!