GIVE CAREFUL THOUGHT TO HOW YOU LIVED
Haggai 2:10 - 19
INTRODUCTION:
One month ago tomorrow, on July 20,
2007, Tammy Fay Messner died after an eleven-year battle with cancer. Right
up to the end, she was in front of the cameras in full makeup, appearing on
Larry King live just two days before her death.
When the news of Tammy Faye’s death
was reported, it kind of brought it all back, didn’t it? Jim and Tammy Faye
Bakker, Jimmy Swaggert, Ted Haggard: we all remember the high profile media
evangelists who lost their reputation, their influence and their ministries
because of immorality. Behind it all seems to have been an attitude that,
because they were doing the work of the Lord, their sins somehow did not
count.
While these are high profile
examples, there have been many more that are closer to earth and closer to
home. You may have known some preachers who thought that they were above the
rules. You may have known some ministers who thought that because of what
they did for a career, their personal lives should not be criticized.
The Lord’s message to Haggai is
that the sins of His servants count. Our text for this morning comes from the
second chapter of Haggai, verses 10-19. Will you please listen to these ten
verses as a unit and then we will go back through them a little slower to see
what they mean to us.
10
On the twenty-fourth day of the
ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the
Lord came to the prophet
Haggai: 11 “This is what the
Lord Almighty says: ‘Ask the
priests what the law says: 12 If a person carries consecrated
meat in the fold of his garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew,
some wine, oil or other food, does it become consecrated?’”
The priests answered, “No.”
13
Then Haggai said, “If a person
defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it
become defiled?”
“Yes,” the priests replied, “it
becomes defiled.”
14
Then Haggai said, “‘So it is with
this people and this nation in my sight,’ declares the
Lord. ‘Whatever they do and
whatever they offer there is defiled.
15
“‘Now give careful thought to
this from this day on—consider how things were before one stone was laid on
another in the Lord’s temple.
16 When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were
only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were
only twenty. 17 I struck all the work of your hands with
blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not turn to me,’ declares the
Lord. 18 ‘From
this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful
thought to the day when the foundation of the
Lord’s temple was laid. Give
careful thought: 19 Is there yet any seed left in the barn?
Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree
have not borne fruit.
“‘From this day on I will bless
you.’”
Did you catch that phrase in verse
15? “‘Now give careful thought
to this from this day on—consider how things were before one stone was laid on
another in the Lord’s temple.”
With those words, God told His people to give careful thought to how
they HAD lived. If you give careful thought to how you have
lived, you will learn three very important truths.
I.
SIN BRINGS CORRUPTION
(2:10-14)
The first important truth we will learn is that sin brings corruption. Now
that may seem obvious but note what God told the people about the corrupting
nature of sin.
10
On the twenty-fourth day of the
ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the
Lord came to the prophet
Haggai: 11 “This is what the
Lord Almighty says: ‘Ask the
priests what the law says: 12 If a person carries consecrated
meat in the fold of his garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew,
some wine, oil or other food, does it become consecrated?’”
The priests answered, “No.”
13
Then Haggai said, “If a person
defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it
become defiled?”
“Yes,” the priests replied, “it
becomes defiled.”
14
Then Haggai said, “‘So it is with
this people and this nation in my sight,’ declares the
Lord. ‘Whatever they do and
whatever they offer there is defiled.
Did you catch the meaning? That which is holy does not make something that is
defiled to become holy just because it has touched the defiled thing. That
which is defiled can corrupt something that is holy by simply coming into
contact with it; but that which is holy does not make something that is
corrupt into something that is holy just by contact.
If that seems a bit complex, let me state it even more simply: cleanliness
does not spread by itself but germs and corruption do. If a sterile cloth
comes into contact with an infected wound, does the wound become sterile or
does the cloth become contaminated? Clearly, the cloth becomes contaminated
by the infected wound.
God’s point in these illustrations
is that if God’s people are corrupt, they do not become pure by touching
something that is pure: they defile that which they touch.
In Haggai’s day, the issue was the
project to rebuild the temple of the Lord. Sinful people were not going to
become holy people just because they helped to rebuild the temple. On the
contrary, they were going to end up with a defiled temple because the people
who were working on it were, themselves, defiled.
Living in the Holy Land did not
make the Israelites holy any more than going to McDonald’s makes me a
hamburger. And working on the temple did not make them holy any more than
watching a Cardinal game makes me an athlete.
It ought to be obvious but it is
remarkable the ways we can deceive ourselves.
·
We think that going to church makes us holy. It does not.
·
We think that doing good works makes us holy. It does not.
·
We think that saying religious things,
·
Forwarding inspirational e-mails,
·
Listening to Christian music
·
And a whole host of other activities will make us holy. They
will not.
Does that mean that these religious
activities are unimportant and we don’t need to do them? Not at all. But
these are the FRUIT of a holy life, not the ROOT of a holy life. We are to be
right with God first and then the visible fruit will be the natural
consequence of that relationship.
But according to what God told
Haggai, the opposite is true. A Christian, in a right relationship with God,
can be defiled, tainted and corrupted by being exposed to that which is
ungodly. A righteous man will be defiled by going to strip clubs and
pornographic websites. A righteous wife will be corrupted by going to the
singles bars. A godly teen will be corrupted if he or she hangs out with drug
users, alcohol drinkers and law breakers.
So if a sinful person wants to be
made right and it will not happen just by hanging out with good people nor by
being active in good works, is there anything that will make him holy? I love
the way Robert Lowry put it in a song he wrote at the end of the 19th
Century. He wrote, “What can wash away my sin? Nothing.” Then he quickly
added, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Sin brings corruption but the blood
of Jesus brings cleansing.
II.
SIN BRINGS CONSEQUENCES (2:15-17)
Not only does sin bring corruption, it brings consequences. If you don’t
believe it, consider how you lived. That is what God told the Israelites.
15
“‘Now
give careful thought to this from this day on—consider how things were
before one stone was laid on another in the
Lord’s temple. 16
When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When
anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty.
17 I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and
hail, yet you did not turn to me,’ declares the
Lord.
God told the people to remember how
futile their lives had been when they were living in disobedience to His
will. Their resources had dwindled, their labor was in vain and the natural
elements seemed to work against them. God told them that He was not going to
bless their efforts if they were not living for Him.
Some years ago, I was counseling
with a young minister who was heavily involved with pornography. He had made
sexual advances to women to whom he was not married. He had groped a minor
girl in a grocery store. He had even sexually molested his young son. And he
asked me if I thought his sin was at all responsible for the fact that his
church was not growing! Of course it was. God is not going to bless the
ministry of someone who is living in flagrant opposition to His will.
Sin brings consequences. But let
me be very clear about this. Sin brings consequences but not because God is
out to get revenge on people who disobey Him. God is not mad at you no matter
what you have done. Perhaps I should say that again so that I am sure you
heard me: God is not mad at you! God loves you. He’s crazy about you. He
thinks you are to die for!
God punishes the disobedient to bring them to repentance. God’s will for our
lives is for us to be like His son and He will do whatever it takes to turn us
toward Jesus. For most of us, rewarding us when we are disobedient does not
turn us toward Jesus. It is through rebuke, reprimand and reproof that we
experience a course correction to be more like Jesus.
Sin brings consequences because God
loves us and wants us to leave our lives of sin and live like Jesus.
III.
TURNING FROM SIN BRINGS BLESSING (2:18-19)
I
said that if you give careful thought to how you have lived, you will learn
three important truths. One truth is that sin brings corruption. Another
truth is that sin brings consequences. The third truth that we will learn is
that turning from sin brings blessing.
Listen to verses 18 and 19 of our text:
18
‘From this day on, from this
twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when
the foundation of the Lord’s
temple was laid. Give careful thought: 19 Is there yet any seed
left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and
the olive tree have not borne fruit.
“‘From this day on I will bless
you.’”
God told the people to consider themselves blessed “from this day on.” I find
that interesting. They had not yet rebuilt the temple; they had only laid the
foundation. They had not yet harvested a good crop as a result of their
righteous obedience; they had just begun their new and renewed lives. Their
vines and trees had not yet begun to bear fruit; the people had only started
to live for the Lord. But that didn’t matter. God said He would begin to
bless them from this day on.
Isn’t that an arresting and an
encouraging thought? God blesses us based not on the development of our lives
but on the direction of our lives. We all ought to be very thankful of that.
If we had to attain full maturity as measured by the image of Christ before we
could be blessed, none of us would ever be blessed.
These Israelites did not need to wait for the harvest to prove God’s blessing
upon them; they had His word.
And you do not need to wait for proof that God will bless you if, in
repentance and obedience, you turn to Him…you have His word on it.
CONCLUSION:
Sir Leonard Wood is said to have
once visited the King of France and the king was so pleased with him he was
invited for dinner the next day. Sir Leonard went to the palace and the king,
meeting him in one of the halls said, “Why Sir Leonard, I did not expect to
see you. How is it you are here?” “Did not your majesty invite me to dine
with you?” said the astonished guest. “Yes” replied the king “but you did not
answer my invitation.” Wood replied,
“A king’s invitation is never
to be answered, but to be obeyed.”
INVITATION:
# 327 – “Trust and Obey”
Back to Sermons
| 