The First Step to Wholeness
Big Idea: The Life You Are Looking For Is In The Work You’ve Been Avoiding.
Week 2 Main Scripture:
Haggai 1:2-4
Sermon Highlights
God’s People Were Not Valuing Him and His Word
Often in the Bible, like in Deuteronomy 7:6, God speaks of Israel intimately as his holy, chosen, and treasured people. God desires a relationship with his people. But sin and idolatry stand between God and his children. That’s why he sent his son Jesus Christ.
Not only did Christ die for our sins, to remove the barriers between us and God so we could have a restored relationship with him, but he also rose from the dead so God could take the dead things in our lives and make them alive again.
So, when God refers to Israel as “these people” instead of “my people” in Haggai 1:2, he’s acknowledging the distance between him and Israel as a result of how they’ve devalued God and his Word.
For 70 years, Babylon held Israel captive in exile. Only a remnant of Israel chose to return to Jerusalem when King Cyrus allowed them to. Still, 18 years after the return to Jerusalem, the Lord’s Temple had not yet been rebuilt.
Two Possible Reasons Israel Did Not Yet Rebuild The Temple
- It Was Prophesied.
The prophet Isaiah spoke of only a remnant returning (Isaiah 10:22). Sometimes, we maximize the wins while minimizing the losses in our lives. We chase after the blessings and avoid the painful challenges. But the losses, pain, and hardship are where we awaken to our need for God.
- Habituation
Habituation is a fundamental learning process that involves a decrease in response to repeated stimuli. In other words, you become accustomed to the treatment you receive over and over again.
In some ways, God can use habituation to help us through hard things, like abuse. However, the downside of habituation is that we sometimes get used to captivity or dysfunction, and it becomes our accepted norm or identity, even though a better life is being offered to us.
The Israelites who chose to stay in Babylon after they were allowed to return to Jerusalem had become accustomed to a life of captivity and exile.
Change is Hard. Settling is Easy. Going through change requires the process of unlearning the bad habits or mindsets and relearning better ones.
Losing Sight of God While Fixating on Circumstances
In Ezra 3:10-11, we see that the rebuilding of the Temple – within the first couple of years after returning from exile – began with pageantry, praise, thanksgiving, and excitement about the future. But as time went on, the people of Israel shifted their focus away from God to the “bigness” of their circumstances.
Loss of Spiritual Momentum
Spiritual momentum is built and maintained by walking in the Holy Spirit, reading and applying scripture to your life, and praying unceasingly throughout the day with a heart oriented toward God.
One of the most significant ways to lose spiritual momentum is to decrease your church attendance. The Christian life is meant to be lived in fellowship and community with other Christians so we can run into heaven together instead of limping in alone.
Trusting in God with the Thing You’re Avoiding
Whatever gets repeatedly swept under the rug piles up for you to trip over later. What you avoid now becomes worse later.
Trusting that God is enough for us and will provide for us is hard.
Not trusting that God is enough for us and will provide for us is a lot harder.
Our Actions Always Reveal Our Hearts.
In Haggai 1:3-4, we see how Israel had begun prioritizing themselves, building their own luxurious houses while allowing God’s house to lie in ruin.
As Christians, we are meant to prioritize God’s kingdom before our personal comfort. When our priorities fall out of alignment, we become slaves to ourselves.
“If everyone gave the way you gave to the church, would the church still be around in six months?” – Pastor Mike
According to 2 Corinthians 8:12, our love for God is shown in our willingness to give back to him out of what we have, not based on what we don’t have.
Money is never about money. It’s always about trust.
Lies We Believe About Money
“I’ll be happy if I have more money.”
“But godliness with contentment is great gain.” – 1 Timothy 6:6
“I need to hoard money for security.”
“Do not store for yourselves treasures on earth…But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” – Matthew 6:19-20
“I’ll start giving once I make more money.”
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.” – Luke 16:10
“It’s my money; I earned it.”
“But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.” – Deuteronomy 8:18
“Money defines my worth or success.”
“Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” – Luke 12:15
“If I had more money, I’d be more generous.”
“Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” – 2 Corinthians 9:7
“I can’t afford to give.”
“One person gives freely, yet gains even more, another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.” – Proverbs 11:24
Looking to learn more about the book of Haggai? Go deeper here.
