Bible Text: Haggai 1:1-13 | Preacher: Pastor Steve | Series: Abiding in the Lord, Transformed
The Messages of Haggai
There are times when what seems to be practical is not always the best for us!
A life devoted to one’s own needs will not bring fulfillment or personal satisfaction
If we devote ourselves to the Lord’s work then there will be time, energy to care for our families and homes and things
Our mission is to get our priorities right.  When our priorities are correct all the other things of life will fall into place.
Haggai 1:1-2 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 Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, 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.
Haggai is speaking a straight forward simple message to Israel’s leadership & people:
Your priorities are messed up, and it is time to get back to the work of God.
THE BIG CHALLENGE:
How God’s people devote so much time to their own personal lives and homes while NEGLECTING the work and house of the Lord?
Haggai is talking to a community that has adopted the policy of ME FIRST! Taking care of my family, home and stuff before anything else.
A policy of ME FIRST is doomed for failure!  There are times when a practical policy is not the best policy!
FIRST THINGS FIRST!
Priorities and Boundaries
Haggai 1:3-6 Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your 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 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.
Haggai is a book about fitting God into our lives and refocusing our lives so that God is FIRST
The truth is EVERYONE has enough time and money to give and serve God
Jesus calls us to DENY ourselves and FOLLOW Him
Haggai 1:7-11 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. You looked 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 the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.
A life devoted to one’s own needs does NOT bring real fulfillment or personal satisfaction
If we devote ourselves to the Lord’s work then there will be time and energy to care for our homes and lives
Whether you want to accept these facts or not, accept Him as Lord or not, doesn’t change the fact that
HE IS THE LORD AND HE WILL ALWAYS
BE THE LORD!!
We think we have control over our lives, destiny?
The truth is we do not have control! We never have had control and never will have control!
Haggai 1:12-13 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with 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.
God is not honored or respected by our good intentions. We have heard the saying that the pathway to hell is paved with good intentions! 
Hear the Lord: Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple!
God wants OUR repentance…that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified
I am always with you. I will never leave you (Hebrews 13:5)
This is what God wants: US!
Let Jesus out of the trunk of the car and even better, give Jesus the car keys.