It’s Time to Consider Our Priorities
It's Time

Transcript

All right, good morning, church. It is good to see all of you here this morning. Happy New Year. I'm just getting back from my study break that I try to take every year.

I'm thankful. I'm thankful for a church that is generous towards me to allow me to get time to study. If you don't sharpen the saw, the saw gets dull. You can work with a dull saw and you don't get as much work done as you do with a sharp one.

Thanks for letting me go off and be with the Lord and sharpen myself. But I will warn you, if it's your first or second Sunday, our members already know that when I first come back from study break, I'm just a little out of control. I am just a little too full,

so, put your seat belts on. I have a lot to say today and I'm thankful. I'm thankful to you.

Thank you, church, for letting me go and be with God, to think about what we're going to do this year and to ask God for vision, fresh vision, fresh fire. He is always faithful. I'm also thankful for our teaching team. I'm glad that, when I'm away, we have a team that we've trained and work together with so that we don't miss a beat. I'm thankful for it.

We had Mike Laramee and we had Adam Purvis in my absence. I've watched some of their sermons. I need to watch the rest of them, but I know they did a great job as they always do. So we're thankful to them as well. Thank you, church.

Now, we're beginning a new series today, in case you didn't notice. Okay, we're getting started with “It's Time” because it is time to get busy for God. “To be strong, do the work and be fearless,” it says in the book of Haggai. That's our study right now. We're going to be going verse by verse through the book of Haggai over the next eight weeks.

We're starting today and this is our theme passage from Haggai 1:2; 2:4-5 (ESV) “These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord… Yet now be strong… Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord… My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.”

That's our theme for this passage. We're going to be going through the book of Haggai for the next few weeks. In 586 BC, the armies of Babylon destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, God's house, which was the symbol of his presence in Israel.

In 538 BC, King Cyrus of Persia overthrew the Babylonians. He invited the Jewish exiles, who had been there about 70 years, to return to their land. He was actually permitting them not only to return, but to rebuild and so, he had a favorable view towards them.

They traveled back and they began the work on their city, on the wall and on the temple. Once they had laid a foundation, it sat unfinished for 18 years. After a period of time, there was confusion about their priorities.
They just didn't work on it anymore. So, it was at that time that a voice was heard in Israel from a prophet named Haggai, who came and spoke on behalf of the Lord.

He asked them to consider their priorities. “I want you to consider your priorities,” he essentially asked them. They were saying thata it wasn't time to build God's house, but God disagreed. In fact, he told them that it's the perfect time. It's actually the perfect time for you to be strong, do the work, and be fearless and build my house.

Although Haggai's a little book (it's only two chapters) you might think, Well, Gary, couldn't we knock that out today? No, we're going to take eight Sundays and you'll see why. We're going to dig down, we're going to drill down and really get all the good out of it. It's a little book, but it offers a big challenge and big promises. So, we're going to be taking our time through this little book that has big results.

Now, here's what it calls us to - it calls us to consider our ways, to consider our priorities. Now, I know what you might be thinking - Here we are at the beginning of the year, and you've already been thinking about 2025 and what does this year hold for us? You might be thinking, Man, you just don't know

all of the pressures, all of the demands and all of the expectations and tasks that push against me and against my schedule. Here you are, Pastor, asking me to reconsider my priorities. You would not believe the voices that tell me to do this, be there and finish that.

Respond to this email and return this text. I'm overwhelmed. I know that it feels that way. Often, it’s coming from family, it's coming from friends, it's coming from where you work, it's coming from the church, it's coming from your kid’s crazy sports schedule and all the things they're involved in. You are thinking, my goodness, I don't have enough time. The truth is, we all have the same amount of time.

The struggle we have might not be “busyness.” It might be priorities, it might be what we value, that we're not making time for that. We find ourselves rushing through life, attending to the necessary, addressing the immediate, trying to keep up with the urgent, but forgetting the important. This is because often our priorities need consideration. We're putting the wrong things first. But, the book of Haggai tells us to put God first, to put what really matters first.

Our values, our priorities are reflected in how we use our resources - our time, our talent and our treasure and how you use those. You can tell a lot about what a person really cares about, what they really put first. That's what the Jewish exiles were struggling with. They'd gotten their priorities out of order and they began to tell themselves, it's not time. The timing isn't right.

Someday when I get my life all together, then I will do this for God. The truth is that type of thinking, in case you didn't know it, you're never going to get your whole life together until you do put God first. But that's what they were dealing with. They were saying, maybe later, God. The timing isn't right today. But God said, ‘No, it's time.’

That's what we're talking about over the next few weeks.This is an eight-week sermon series, but it's also the launch of a three-year generosity initiative that we're calling, “It’s Time.” It's a time to fund our vision and to stretch ourselves in new and challenging ways in order to fund three different goals. One is to strengthen our community engagement. The second is to enhance and elevate our ministry capacity.

Then finally, we want to fearlessly lay the foundation for our future growth. Through “It’s Time,” God is calling us to partner with Him by investing ourselves and our resources in greater levels of commitment in order to saturate Rocky Mount, Wilson and all of eastern North Carolina east of 95. We even renamed our church, Eastgate, because we want to be a gateway for the gospel east of 95, that we want to reach our Judea, this region, because we think it's time to call God's people, to seek His house and His kingdom first. I hope you got one of these, I hope you got a journey guide, an “It's Time” journey guide.

Did you get one? If you didn't, would you lift your hand and our ushers will rush one to you.

I hope you'll get a journey guide and I hope the first thing that you'll do is take a pen and write your name in the front. I've got my name in front of mine. I want you to use this over the next few weeks. I want you to bring it to church with you with your Bible and use this to take notes in, to study, pray and evaluate your priorities, to consider your ways. We've given you this tool; our church put this together. We've got a great team that puts together graphics and content.

Now, I want you to notice a photo. We've got a family photo right at the beginning here. Did you see that? It is because the church is not the steeple. The church is the people.

You are the church; we are the church. In Matthew 16:16–18 (NIV) 16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church…” So, Christ never asked us to build the church. He asked us to be the church.

If we'll be the church, Christ will build the church. When we talk about building God's house, we're talking about you; we're talking about this family photo that was taken at our Thanksgiving praise service earlier this year, earlier in 2024. I want you to take some time. You'll see the tabs.

We've got the vision about the generosity initiative. We've got a place for additional sermon notes. We'll continue to have a place in your bulletin, but this might be a home where you could really put your personal insights to how the sermon spoke to you. We have a six-week devotional that begins tomorrow morning.

There's five devotions per week for six weeks. We have Monday through Friday listed for you. Saturday and Sunday is your “catch up” time because we know we're living in the real world. If you get behind, you can catch up on Saturday and Sunday. There's a six-week devotional, there's a prayer section, a frequently asked questions section about “It’s Time” and a commitment guide.

Here's our goal during this series. It's not to raise money, but it's to raise your spiritual level of commitment, especially as it regards generosity, for you to grow in the spiritual gift of generosity. I'm convinced that if we agree to take the journey together, which is my challenge to you, that whatever God calls us to together, will be the number that God wants us to have. As your pastor, my major concern for you is that you stay on the journey so that we can grow together. 100% engagement.

Let me tell you what this looks like to stay on the journey. What does it look like for you to commit to this spiritual journey? Number one: Attend every Sunday over the next eight Sundays, counting today. You got started right? Here you are on Sunday.

I had people in the lobby telling me that they're so committed. Many of our family members, our church family are committed and I appreciate and love you so much for that. One of them said, ‘Hey, I'm having surgery in three weeks and I'll probably miss a Sunday.

I said, “Thanks for letting me know. But you can watch it online and you can still take your journey guide.” He was just letting me know that he was going to miss a Sunday.

That meant so much to me. Commit to do the six-week devotional that I just started, that I just talked to you about a minute ago. Start in the morning, January 13th. Commit to attend a community group. If you're new here,

a community group is what we call our home groups or our small groups that meet in homes during the week. If you'd like to be in one, check the box on your Connection Card and we will contact you and let you know how to get involved. Commit to praying our “It's Time” prayer. What's that? “Lord,

what do You want to do in and through me?” That's what I want you to pray this whole time, “Lord, what do You want to do in me about this gift, this character trait of being generous?” and then, “What do You want to do through me out of that?” Then finally, I want you to commit to respond to God's leading on February 16th. That's our commitment Sunday.

I want you to have a thoughtful process. I had several young people, teenagers, stop to give me money today in the lobby after the first service. I told them, “You didn't completely hear me. I'm not taking up an offering yet.

We will take up commitments in a few weeks.” They, already, were stirred in their hearts to give. I said, “First of all, don't give me money; put it in an offering envelope and turn it in, because I'm trying to retain

my integrity. It goes to God.” She learned something today, that we put an offering envelope actually in your bulletin. She said, “Oh, I didn't know that.”

Then, another little girl told me, she said, “I'm going to give $50 from my Christmas money.” God sees that. He sees your heart. He sees what you're thinking.

I didn't see that coming. You know, it's always true that children are more sensitive to God than we are as adults. Young people are more sensitive to God. I'm asking you, today, to

go on the journey. Just go on the journey. Today’s first sermon is, “Consider Your Priorities.” It's time to think through how you're organizing your time, talent, and treasure.

Is it the way God wants you to do it? That's all we're talking about today. So if you brought an offering today, please turn it in, that'd be great. That's your normal giving. But, what I'm talking about is our “It's Time” generosity initiative.

We're on a journey together. Okay, enough said about that. Now, what does this mean? Let me break it down. First of all, it's time to be strong in our community engagement.

Now, what I mean by community engagement, is making sure every man, woman and child in eastern North Carolina has repeated opportunities to see, hear, and respond to the gospel. That requires resources. That requires people's resources. That requires media, social media, traditional media, and all of that requires resources. So, that's our first goal of this initiative - to give above and beyond our normal giving in order to extend our community engagement.

Here's what we know: Our area is growing economically and in population. Nearly every Sunday, I meet someone, some young family that says, ‘We're trying to find a house here in Wilson. We thought we'd go ahead and start checking out some churches. We actually work in Raleigh, but we can't afford a house in Raleigh.”

That's something we're hearing more and more; that's a big thing right now that's happening. The other thing is, people are moving here because there are approximately 5,000 new jobs that are being opened. I've been reading this in the paper this year, in this season of new job opportunities. So, people are coming here.

Here's what we know: if people that are new to a place, they don't know anybody, they don't have family here and they are the most apt to say “yes” to the gospel. They feel vulnerable; they feel lonely. Somebody is being called and I think we're being called, church, to say “It's Time” for us to reach out

to those new people and to make room. So that's the first part of our initiative; to be strong and to strengthen our community engagement. The second is to expand our workforce to do the work of producing disciples of Jesus Christ who do kingdom work. We have these different categories. We have the category of people that will do it full time and it'll be their living.

That's the category that I'm in. Then, we have the people that are making a living over here, but feel called to kingdom work within the church or in the city. So, we need to grow in both of those categories and that requires resources. We believe that we need two more pastors just to maintain who we are now.

We're already behind in growing to take care of our people. Right now, we need a pastor in Wilson, an additional pastor. We need an additional pastor in Rocky Mount. The challenge is that our giving right now supports who we are now, but it doesn't support who we're feeling called to grow to be. Do you know what that means?

God's people, they stretch, they sacrifice, they evaluate their priorities, and they say that there's a season now that we're being called to expand our workforce. We're going to do the work. Now. Here's the third one:

To be fearless in laying a foundation for future growth. Now, what do I mean by that in Wilson? Here's what I mean: In 2019, we had an earlier generosity initiative that we said we were making room for more. If you were here, then you know that you miraculously brought in from the Lord's provision what was needed for us to remodel next door and do The Gathering Place.

We had already remodeled the new children's wing. We redid the bathrooms, the lobby and the new children's nursery area, all within this building that used to be the Regal Cinema, that we bought in 2010. Little by little, we said that we're making room for more. So now, we have two services every Sunday;

we have a service at 9:15 am and 11am in two venues. If we hadn't done it, we'd already be turning people away, or we would have had to add a third or a fourth service. Okay, so we do have some empty seats in here, but if we hadn't done that, we'd be packed.

Here's what happens, if people pull into the parking lot, they come in here and they can't find a seat, they won't come often. They'll come a couple times and

then decide, We probably should find a church where they let you sit down. But we've already done that; we don't need to expand the building right now, but we do need to start saving some money for phase three from our master plan, which is a future worship center.

We don't need a new worship center right now, but we will as we grow. Wise people begin to think, If our family's this size, we need to plan for a future home. So, the third thing for Wilson then, is to set aside funds to start laying the foundation for that future worship center. That's not quite yet. We need to fill this place up first.

Okay, that's Wilson. In Rocky Mount, we rent a storefront and the appearance there has declined somewhat. It has become a little bit harmful to our growth. Whenever they brought the UHauls in and started parking them all in front of the parking lot, it hurt our visibility.

So, we've been praying about that. God, what do you want us to do there? A miraculous opportunity has come to us.

There's a church in Rocky Mount that's buying another building and they're moving out. They're moving out in the next few weeks. The building is only five years old and it was built to be a church. It wasn't built to be a movie theater.

We've been over here trying to remodel this ever since we've been here. This building in Rocky Mount was built to be a church, and it's just perfect for who we are right now. It would probably cost us 4 or 5 million dollars to acquire and build this property if we had to do it ourselves, but they're willing to sell it to us and they've agreed to sell it to us for $1.2 million. We can have a property that is valued five times that amount.

That's a miracle, isn't it? So, that's the three: Be strong at community engagement, do the work of growing our workforce, and be fearless about taking advantage of laying a foundation for future growth. Here's our goal, our financial goal that we're praying to God to do through God's people over the next three years is that we would commit to raise an additional $1.5 million above our normal giving.

This will help us accomplish these three goals. The reason we're going on this journey has nothing to do with that money.. If you'll go on this journey together, all of us together, over the next eight weeks, whatever we commit to, that'll be God's number.

If you commit to go on the spiritual journey together, this journey of generosity, growing in your generosity, then whatever God calls you to, I'll be happy. I'll be happy, because this is God's church. It is not my church; it is not your church. He's the pastor; He's the head shepherd.

I'm an under shepherd. Jesus is over this church. What we learned during our last time through this was we went above the amount through His people. So, that's our goal.

One of the really great benefits of all of this is that we're going to grow in our discipleship. Well, that was a long introduction. I did promise you I was going through the book of Haggai. We're going to pick up at Haggai, chapter one, verses one through six, and we're going to talk about how Haggai was challenging this church, this people, God's people, to get busy with their priorities. In this book of Haggai, He challenged the Jews who had just returned from Babylon to consider their priorities and their giving towards His house.

I believe today we can look and say, ‘How are we setting our priorities according to the kingdom of heaven, according to God's house? As we look at it, I think we'll see three reasons why we should consider our priorities towards God's work and God's kingdom. Let's look. Haggai 1:1-6 (ESV) 1 “In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet

to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” 3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?

5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm.

And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.” This is God's word. Amen. We're looking for three reasons why we should consider giving God and His kingdom priority. Here's the first:

1. Because God calls us to seek His Kingdom first.

God calls us to seek His kingdom first. We're going to drill down on the first couple of verses. This part is about whether or not it's time to put God's house first, to put God first. Ironically, Haggai offers us the clearest timing for the writing of any book in the Old Testament.

He comes right out of the gate and tells us that it was the second year of Darius. It was the sixth month of the year, and it was the first day of that month. That's some of the most accurate dating of any book in the Bible. We can really nail it down very clearly because we have extra biblical material that tells us what year that Darius the Great, king of Persia came into power and so, we know this was written in 520 B.C.

We know that 500 years before Christ, Haggai was written. We know it was written on the first day of the sixth month according to the Hebrew calendar, which was the Hebrew month of Elul, which would coincide with August, September. In our calendar, they follow a lunar calendar that begins with Passover, and we follow a Gregorian calendar. So, you have to work that out between the Hebrew calendar and the modern calendar.

So, he said on the first day of Elul, which is about August or September. Who is this Darius the King? He's Darius the Great. He reigned from 522 to 486 BC. He continued the benevolent policies of King Cyrus and he continued to be favorable towards the Jews, in fact, encouraging them to rebuild their temple. Who is Haggai the prophet? Well, we don't know anything about his parentage.

He doesn't tell us anything about his lineage. We can suppose that he was probably born during Babylonian captivity, during the exile of the Jews, probably born in Babylon. So he appears on the pages of Haggai without reference to his past. The only thing we know about Haggai is, he tells us he's a prophet from God and that the word he gives, he gives by his hand, that the Lord speaks to him through the hand of Haggai, which is a wonderful way of describing that. He's a mediator of the message.

He's not the owner of the message. He's just telling the people what God told him to tell the people. Which, by the way, is the definition of what a preacher's supposed to do. I'm not supposed to tell you what I think; I'm supposed to tell you what God's word says.

I'm supposed to do my best and I pray that you'll pray for me for that, because that's always my desire. That's why I go away to study. That's why I spend time doing that is so I can tell you what I heard God say to me. And so when I'm preaching, I almost visualize myself as sitting in the front seat hearing what I'm saying because I'm a recipient as well as you.

But he says that the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai. You might say, ‘Well, that points to the fact that he wrote it down for God.’ Or you might say, ‘No, it's just speaking to the reality that he didn't come up with these words. He's just handing them off.’

You know, I often tell you that the gospel is good news and all I am is a newspaper boy. I just roll it up, put a rubber band on it and throw it up on your front porch. Now, if you don't open it and read it, that's on you. But I'm throwing it as hard as I can.

That's what Haggai's doing. By the hand of Haggai, he throws it up there. Now, who are the two guys that God tells him to write it to? He says to write it to, in verse one, “Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.” I want you to address it to the two authorities in Israel, to the civil authorities and the spiritual authorities, and then to the people, because you have to get the authorities in alignment with this so that they're under God. He addresses Zerubbabel. Now, what does the name, “Zerubbabel,” mean?

Well, it's kind of easy to guess. It's got “babel” in it, so his name literally means “sown in Babylon.” That baby was born in Babylon. That's what it means.

Zerubbabel. Now, Zerubbabel is from the house of David. If the Babylonians had not overthrown Judah, he would have been on the throne of David. He'd be the king. He's not the king because of that,

but there is a favor that he's experiencing and Israel's experiencing. Under King Darius, he's allowed to be governor. So, he's governor. He's not king.

He should be on the throne of David, but he's not. Zerubbabel was born in Babylon. He's in the lineage of David, but he's not going to be the Messiah. We’re going to have to wait 500 years for him to show up; that's Jesus.

Now, who is Joshua? Joshua is born to the tribe of Aaron. He's supposed to be a high priest, but he doesn't even have a church. He didn't have a temple.

This is really when the synagogue system began. It began in Babylon and then continued so that during Jesus’ day, there are these synagogues all over the place. They finally do have a temple rebuilt by the time of Jesus, but they had to have some meeting place. So, there's a preacher without a church, without a building. I know what that feels like.

Been there, done that. Here's what they're saying - God hears what they're saying. He hears how they're working out their priorities. He knows how we're doing that, too. He says to tell the people,

in verse 2, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”
They're saying, ‘Lord, I feel like it's still my time, not Your time. I need some more me time.’

That's what they're saying and He hears them. He tells them, ‘I've heard what you're saying and how you're setting your priorities. You're putting yourself first. I hear what you're doing.

I know what you're doing. I hear you.’ Notice, He doesn't call His House, the temple. He calls it “this” house. It's like He puts them beside each other. He later says, ‘You've been saying it's time to build your paneled houses, but it's not time to build My house.

It's like you've been putting your house ahead of My house. He's not saying he doesn't want you to have a house; He's just saying you're supposed to put His kingdom first.

This is what Jesus is teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, Matthew 6:33 (ESV) “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” If you put Him first, everything you need will be given to you. It'll be added to you. It doesn't make sense.

It's upside down thinking if you consider worldly thinking, but it's true in the kingdom. It's true for kingdom citizens who have followed King Jesus. If you put Him first, He'll take care of you. While I was on my study break, one of the things I did was evaluate my priorities and the church's priorities and just think about everything we're doing.

I often start with myself and my own family; I often use Luke 2:52 as a guideline. Luke 2:52 says that Jesus grew in stature with God. He grew in stature and He grew with God. He grew in favor with God and men. He grew mentally, physically,spiritually and socially: four categories.

I'll look at those categories and say, ‘Okay, mentally, how can I grow? What books do I need to read? Is there something physical? I got to write this down again this year; I need to lose weight. I need to do this. Maybe I need to have this looked at by the doctor.’

Things I don't like to do, I'll write them down and say, ‘Okay, Lord, I'm listening.’ I probably need to do that. I remember one year, I was challenged socially. I felt the Lord challenged me on getting to know the children in my family that were by marriage, my daughters in law, for instance. They know me, Lord, but He wanted me to get to know them better. This was several years ago.

So, during my break I wrote a priority down: I wrote down a plan. Just knowing your priorities, you've got to come up with a plan or you won't do them. So I wrote down, ‘I'm going to call Nicole,’ which is my son Jonathan's wife. I'm going to make a date with her to go out to lunch. So, before I even left my study break, I'd already sent her an email, ‘Hey, let's meet at such and such restaurant for lunch.’

This started a lot of phone calls; she immediately called my daughter, Erin, who's sitting down here right now. Then, she called my other daughter in law, Caroline. Then she called my wife and she asked, ‘What's this about? What does he want?’ They all call me “the dad,” so she asked, ‘What does the dad want?’

None of them knew. Of course my daughter says, ‘Well, he didn't call me first. What's that about?’ That's what she said. I caused all kinds of problems trying to follow the Lord.

That'll happen to you, too. Anyway, Nicole was worried sick; when we got to the restaurant, her hands were shaking, literally. I said, ‘Honey, this is what I wanted you to know. God really put this in my heart that I'm supposed to treat you not like a daughter in law, but like my daughter. I want you to know that anything I can do for you I will. I'm your dad. I know you've got a real dad, but I'm your dad too.’

See, this is what can happen. You get along with God and you start rethinking your priorities. You start doing what's important to the kingdom rather than just what's urgent when you're trying to keep the fire at bay.

So it's time to be strong in putting God first. It's time to seek his family first, his kingdom first. That's what these guides are for; stay in them, work through them. Over the next week, be drilling down on where you are at, how you are prioritizing your time, talent and treasure. Think about it. Am I generous?

Am I serving? Where am I in God's kingdom right now? What's He calling me to? Okay, that was our first reason. Here's our second:

I gotta go faster.

2. Because God works through those who put His Kingdom first.

Here's the second reason: Because God works through those who put His kingdom first. We're at verses three and four now; The Lord had pointed out that although they didn't think it was time to build His house, they did apparently think it was time to build their own houses. He points out that they have a particular kind of house

and he goes on to describe that. But first, let's just notice what he says in verse five, because this is key. He says, “Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.” That's really where we got the title of this message - to consider, to reflect, to think deeply about how you've been ordering up your life.

I want you to consider your ways. I want you to think about it, because here's what you've been telling yourself, It's not time for the Lord, but it is time for me.

That's how you've been thinking. You've been thinking that would bring you happiness, that putting yourself first would make you happy. What's happening is it's not satisfying you, it's not making you happy that you're wanting this time for yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses. Verse 4 says, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”

Okay, what's wrong with having a paneled house? Well, there are really no trees that you can get lumber from in the area of Jerusalem. I've been there. Several of you have been there on tours with me. There's a lot of rocks, but not a lot of wood.

In fact, all the way back to David and Solomon, they had to deal with the king of Tyre to bring the cedars of Lebanon down at great expense in order to build the temple and to build David's palaces, to panel them. Only wealthy people had paneled houses because wood was so expensive. Apparently, what was going on was that they'd been there 18 years now. They weren't just living in tents, they built their stone houses because there's stones prevalent now.

They're paneling, they're putting in Jacuzzis. People, I mean, they've got dishwashers. They're putting in all the luxury now. It's still not quite time for God.

Later, God, I'll get to you later. Do you see? I'm so busy. I'm just so busy right now. So, God's at the end of their priority list.

If I have anything left over, it's Yours. I just hadn't anything left over yet, God. He's making them aware of it. He's letting them know.

He points it out.

I remember this verse from some years ago. I've known it for most of my life as a reader of the Bible, but it really meant something to us in the early days of the church. It is Matthew, chapter nine,

Jesus is speaking. Matthew 9:37-38 (ESV) Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” I can remember when I was having a quiet time, I was reading and it hit me differently. Have I done this?

First of all, do I believe it? Do I believe the harvest is plentiful, that there are lost people outside that need to hear the gospel? Do I really believe that? Or do I think, You know, they’re

resistant. What do I believe, because He says the harvest is plentiful? It's also in John; he says it another way. In John, he says that the fields are ripe unto harvest, that they're white.

“Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to send workers.” So I said, Robin, we need to start praying. And I was just like, man, if you visited our church for the first time. Now, don't get terrified if you're visiting for the first time today, but back in the day, back in the 90s, when we were still portable, renting space from Forest Hills Middle School and setting up and tearing down, if you showed up, I would be at your house that afternoon if I could. I would ask you, “Hey what’s up? Did you like it? Do you want to jump aboard? We only had one service.

We knew everybody in church. We knew you as a first timer. We could spot you as soon as you took a seat.

We were desperate for help. Every Sunday, I was taking my whole family to church early, unloading the van that we had named “Bertha.” We'd unload Bertha and we'd set up sound equipment and nursery equipment. I would carry a change of clothes because I would sweat so much. I would change in the bathroom there at Forest Hills Middle School and put on another set of clothes. I was also the worship pastor. I would put my guitar on.

I would think, Lord, is this true? We started praying, “Lord, we're working as hard as we can, but we haven't been working as smart as we can, because You gave us another word. You said to pray for more workers.” Then, you people start showing up.

Y'all start showing up. Oh, thank the Lord. Thank the Lord.

He works through those who put His kingdom first. Now, not everyone did. Some people continued to sit, and they needed to grow. They needed to “percolate” a little bit. Maybe that's you today.

But, others decided, It's time for me to get generous with my time, talent and treasure. It's time for me to plug in and answer the prayer that Jesus taught the church to. Pray the fields are white unto harvest. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to bring workers into the fields. He's calling us to work.

He wants more workers. We need to do the work. Be strong and do the work. Here's number three:

3. Because God satisfies those who put His Kingdom first.

God satisfies those who put His kingdom first. We're at verses five and six now. We've worked through the earlier verses. 5 “Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.”

Take a look at how you've been doing. You've been trying to make yourself happy by acquiring things, by meeting your needs. How's it turned out? Are you fulfilled? Are you satisfied?

Are you happy? He says, ‘You've sown much, but harvested little.’ You've been investing in your 401k and it looks more like a 101k.

You eat, but you never have enough. You don't get satisfied.

You drink, but you never have your fill.

You clothe yourselves, but no one's warm. You're not satisfied. Houses, clothing, food, drink. All your needs are being met and there's still something missing and when you earn wages, you put them in a bag with holes in it.

Can I get a witness on that one? They had inflation, apparently, back then, too.

He says to consider this and consider the possibility. That system of priorities is not working. It is not making you happy, it's not making you satisfied. It's not leading to that which is truly life. Truly life.

They take an annual survey. It's a psychological sociological group, it's not a Christian group. They take this annual survey of the nations, the peoples of the world, and they ask them this series of questions about their level of contentment and happiness. Did you know that America comes out way down at the bottom every year? Those nations that are in the third world, like Uganda

(those of us who have been to Uganda know this) these African nations and other places where they don't have much,they're happy. Have you ever noticed how the more you have, the more worried you are about what you have? You fall in one of two ditches: you either fall into the “greedy ditch” where you're never satisfied,

so you keep trying to get more. Or, you fall into the “worry ditch,” afraid you're going to lose what you have. I'm afraid to be generous because I grew up with a depression kind of thinking or I had an experience growing up that had lack and so I'm afraid or over here, I've never said. And so instead of living generously and so Americans, we have the most. We're the most wealthy country in the world, but we're also the least happy. Sounds just like these people that Haggai's talking to.

It says in
1 Timothy 6:17-19 (ESV) 17 “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” You're not, you're not, you're not experiencing true life. You're not enjoying what God's given to you.

The most joyful people that I've ever known are the most generous. Have you ever noticed that? I remember on my mother's side, I had an uncle named Uncle Gene. Uncle Gene was a builder, a contractor. He built houses and did commercial work too. He built churches. Every time he would do a job for a church, he would always do it for less. He might say, ‘Well, we'll do it for what it's costing us plus this percentage, but we don't want to make a lot of money.’

It seemed like no matter how much money he gave away, he would always get wealthier, but he didn't care. You've heard this before, “He'd give you the shirt off of

his back.” That's just the kind of person he was. He was always happy; he was always kidding around. It was so much fun to be around him. .

My father died when I was eight years old. My mom had a nervous breakdown. She was unable to take care of us for the first year. We moved in with my Uncle Geneand Aunt Jeri; we lived with them in Wayne, Michigan, for most of my third grade. Uncle Gene didn't ask questions, he just took us in.

When I was grown, married and starting to have children, I remember I would come in to see my Uncle Gene and he would always hug me. ‘How are you doing, Gary?’ Uncle Gene had these big old hands. He had hands like baseball mitts from doing all that construction work. You could take the ring off of his finger and wear it as a bracelet.

I mean, this man had big old calloused hands. He would shake my hand and his hand would engulf my hand. There would, invariably, be something in his hand.

I would look and it'd be a hundred dollar bill. I would tell my uncle Gene, “I have a job now. I'm married. I have kids.”

He would say, “I know, but you take that little Robin out and get her a steak or whatever she likes. Y'all are doing so well. I'm so proud of you.” You couldn't shake his hand without getting money.

Do you know anybody like that? Misers are miserable, but givers are glad. Do you know a generous person like that? I want to be like that because Jesus was like that. I want to be like that,

don't you? That's what this journey is about. We want to grow in our generosity. I want to be like Jesus. We're called to be like that.

My uncle Gene, you could see Jesus in him. He's with the Lord now. I don't know if you're watching Uncle Gene, but you meant a lot to me. I want to be more like that. Now, if you're going to shake my hand in the lobby, I left my wallet in the office, so I'm sorry. I'll shake your hand,

but there won't be any money in it. Maybe next Sunday.

You won't believe how many people shook my hand in the lobby after the first service and looked. So, I thought I'd go ahead and tell you that I left my wallet in the office. Okay, it's time to be fearless in our generosity, knowing that God truly satisfies. Misers are miserable but givers are glad. Speaking of giving, the greatest giver and the source of the greatest joy is Jesus.

He gave His life on the cross, paying our sin debt that we couldn't pay and rose again on the third day, overcoming sin, death and the grave. He lives today, calling us to Himself to be kingdom citizens and Him as king. Have you given your life? Have you bowed the knee of your heart to Him, putting His kingdom first?

He calls us to this, to seek Him first, to work for Him, to put Him first, to be satisfied in Him and to know that which is truly life. Let's pray. Lord, thank You, first of all, for Jesus, that He's the greatest giver, the most generous of all and we want to grow in following Him. I pray for that person that's here this morning that's never given his life to Jesus.

If that's you, would you do it right now? Would you consider your ways and consider Jesus? Would you say, ‘I admit that I'm a sinner, that I'm not fulfilled. I'm not happy. I need help. I need a Savior.’

That's how it starts, just admitting that you're a sinner, that you need help, that you need rescue. Just say, ‘Lord, save me. I believe in Jesus. I believe He died on the cross for my sins, that He was raised from the grave and that He lives today. Come and live in me.’

I invite You to be my Lord and Savior. If you prayed that prayer of faith, believing, He'll save you and make you a child of God. Others are here and you're a believer, but you got your priorities out of whack and you know it. You knew it the whole time

you were hearing from the Word today. But God, He already forgives you in Jesus and He wants to energize change in you. It begins with repentance. Would you just repent and say, ‘God forgive me afresh? I repent.

I want to turn from that and I want to make it my priority to seek first Your kingdom.’ I pray it now in Jesus' name, Amen.