Seeking First the Kingdom of Me

Just grab our bibles.

It's grab our Bibles and turn to the Book of Hagi.

Yeah, I know, Hagui shouldn't be too big a surprise.

This has been the summer of the short books. So

we've seen Obadiah, we've seen Nahem, we've seen a backk

we've seen Phi Lehman Hagi two chapters. If you don't

have a Bible with you, just raise your hand. We're

passing those out. Just hold it up and keep it

up and we'll find you and get you a Bible

or a bulletin or anything that you might need. It's

a good time for me to remind you to please

fill out a connection card.

You got the whole worship service to do that.

Just scan the QR code there or open up Church

Center app and let us know that you're here by name.

It's just really important pastoral tool for us. You can

leave a prayer request.

We've got a whole team of men and women who

are praying with you and for.

You every week. Over those prayer requests.

They may even email you a note of encouragement as well.

Here's another thing.

It's good to be back some of any So many

of you are like you were gone. Good to have

you back. Last week.

The Church Planting Network of which we're apart the Great

Commission Collective, we've got eight churches in Texas and we

all traded preachers for a Sunday. Seamus Drake came here,

which probably feels just like.

Home for us.

So it didn't miss me. I got to go to

Hill City Church in Magnolia, Texas and preach for them.

They send their greetings.

Back to you.

Just a warm brotherly and sisterly greeting to you from

Hill City Church.

Last thing, and then we'll jump.

If you are in middle school or high school, or

you parent a middle schooler or high schooler, or you

have a sibling who's a middle schooler or high schooler,

you're invited to this Student Ministry kickoff this September thirteenth.

September thirteenth, from three to five. Right in here would

be it's a big deal, Like this is going to

be like, Hey, what's the vision for student Ministry this year?

Who are the leaders, what are the priorities, what's on

the calendar? Sign the waivers? Yeah, all the stuff, right,

don't miss it. If you're in middle school or high

school or have one of those in your family. Okay,

he Guy ha Guy chapter one. Two chapters in Hag II.

This Sunday will be the first. I'm gonna read our

text to us, and as I do, I'd like you

to be listening for this. Be listening for what the

people in our text get from their priorities? What are

the people in our text get from their priorities? Let's

read Hagi chapter one. Why don't you stand with me

for the reading of God's word. You're gonna see all

kinds of strange names and circumstances here, but uh, we'll

get through that. Hagi won in the year in the

second year, sorry 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 Hagai the Prophet

to Tserubabyl, the son of Schieltil, governor of Judah, and

to Joshua, the son of Jehoseah Tack, the high Priest.

Thus says the Lord of Hosts. These people say, the

time has not yet come to rebuild the house of

the Lord. Then the word of the Lord came by

the hand of Hagai the Prophet.

Is it time for you.

Yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house

and ruins. Now consider therefore certain sorry. Now, therefore, thus

says the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways. You've sown

much harvested. Little you eat, but you never have enough.

You drink, but you never have your filth. Clothe yourselves,

but no one is warm, And he who earns wages

does so to put them into a bag with holes.

Thus says the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways. Go

up to the hills and bring wood and build the house,

that I may take pleasure in it, and that I

may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much,

and behold it came to little, And when you brought

it home, I blew it away. Why, declares the Lord

of Hosts, because my house that lies in ruins, Because

of my house that lies in ruins. While each of

you busies himself with his own house. Therefore, the heavens

above you have withheld. The earth has withheld its produce.

And I've called for a drought on the lamp and

on the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the

oil on the ground, on what the ground brings forth,

on man and beast, and all their labors. Then Zerubable,

the son of sheel Tel, Joshua, the son of Jehoseddac,

high Priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed

the voice of the Lord their God and the words

of Hagi the Prophet, as the Lord their God had

sent him, and the people feared the Lord, and Hagi,

the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with

the Lord's message.

I am with you, declares the Lord.

And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Jozerubable, the

son of shel Tel, the Governor of Judah, the spirit

of Joshua, the son of Jeohosedac the High Priest, and

the spirit of all the remnant of the people, and

they came and worked on the house of the Lord

of Hosts, their God. Twenty fourth day of the month

and the sixth month and the second year of Darius

the King. This is the word of the Lord. I

want to talk with you this morning about what I've

called seeking first the Kingdom of me. It's just a

sort of Biblish way of saying, priorities matter. Priorities matter.

All throughout the scriptures, God calls his people to worship

by and be devoted by offering first fruits, to consecrate

their livestock, by devoting the first born, to consider the

commandment of first importance, that we would love the Lord

your God with all your heart and all your soul,

and all your mind and all your strength first. But

the people in our text you noticed, right, the people

had put themselves, their lives, their comforts, their income.

Before the Lord.

In devotion and in worship. Not in what they said.

I mean, they could have just sang the song. We

just sang Jesus over everything, well, it would know his name.

But they might say, like God is first, He's.

But in action, in action.

And this is the image that Hagai gives us, and

he doesn't hold back. He's like, your houses are nice,

and his house.

In ruins.

And haw guys messages, Hey, don't look now, people, but

your priorities are showing. Consider your ways, he says. That's

what he wants them to do, To consider their hearts

and to consider their actions and the results of their

hearts and actions.

Consider your ways, consider your priorities.

And how we understand our priorities, how we examine them

is actually not.

Really complicated, Jesus.

Tells us in Matthew, Hey, where your treasure is, that's

where your heart will be.

Also consider.

Well, why would we want to do that? Why would

we want to consider? Why would we want to examine? Well,

this is where I think Hagi and you could show

this also from lots of other places in scripture, where

I think we come face to face with what is

actually a pretty bold claim. I'm gonna make it right

now and my own words here, it is Putting God second.

Never results in what you really want.

Putting God's second never results in what you really want,

and putting God first you get what you really want.

Putting God first you get what you really want. And

I know that some of you might hear that and

think like, okay, well hold on second, how is that.

Different than the prosperity theology? Good question.

I think as we go through Hagi chapter one, you'll

see in some ways that difference. And when we get

to Hagi chapter two, we actually see an amazing, fascinating

parable that God uses to explain how that is true,

and prosperity theology actually doesn't have that figure out.

So see you next week.

If you're here this morning and not a Christian, my

hope is that as we see spend time in this

text and considering who God is and what he does

and what he gives, that you would actually get a

vision for what you really want, for what you really want,

and that he has it. So back to that bold claim.

Here it is if you didn't scribble it down fast enough.

I know it's a little clumsy, but here it is.

Putting God second never gets you what you really want.

Putting God first you get what you really want.

And there are three parts as we go through this

that we're going to look at that get us. There

three parts. So here's part one. Here's part one.

Part one.

I just call this a word about ourselves as a priority,

a word about ourselves as the priority.

Part one.

That guy gives us a great example here about how

seeking our own comfort, seeking our own gain first doesn't

result in what we really want. And here's how he

does it. He starts in verse one giving us the setting.

We're talking about the king of Persia. Who is Darius. Now, okay,

verse one. You see that Darius is king of Persia.

You might know that it was actually King Cyrus, a

couple of kings prior to him, who God stirred up

to send the exiles of the Jewish exiles back to

their homeland. So King Cyrus is stirred up by God.

He says, I want you to go back to your homeland,

and I want you to rebuild the temple. Here's the building,

permit go. And so God has rescue the people from

this exile, placed them in the land, given them the

permission and the funding by the Persian king to start

rebuilding the temple. But then there's some confusion, there's some

government overreach, there's some attax, and that goes on pause.

And when Darius becomes king, they clear up the controversy

and Darius says, we're re permitting the temple.

Get to work. Awesome.

Oh and here's some more money. And then in verse

two you see this cast of characters. You have Zerubabyl,

who is the leader of the governments, you have Joshua

who is the leader of worship, and you've got Hagi

who is the leader through the word of God. And

the question that immediately comes to mind if you understand

anything about the people's history, is like, what is going

to happen when the word comes? Are they going to

respond to the word? Are they going to obey the word.

What will happen? How will everybody respond? And what will

the results be?

Here comes that guy opens up his mouth. He says

in verse.

Two, these people are saying it's not time to rebuild

the temple.

They out here saying let's just keep waiting. Now.

They had reasons, They had reasons. There was all that

confusion about is this permitted? Is this not permitted? They're busy.

I mean they've just come back from exile. They got

crops to plant, they got jobs to do, they got

houses to panel. They're busy. They got reasons. But he

says in verses three and four, your houses. I'm glad

you have houses, but you have upgraded them to such

an extent. Then, when we look at the shape the

unfinished temple is in, your priorities are showing. He says

in verse five, consider your ways. I think by that

he means it very broadly. Consider where your heart is

at in this. Consider how your actions have shown what

your priorities are, and consider the results of those priorities.

How have things worked out for you? How is that

busyness working out for you? Because verse six, you've planted

a lot, you.

Haven't harvested it a lot.

You're working, you're busy, you're busy, you're trying to earn

a living, and you're saving up and you're trying to invest.

But as you gather what you gather, you put it

in a bag with holes. It's a great image. It's

like they're experiencing shrink flation. You know, I know, you

know what I mean. I go to the store now,

buy a bag of chips. There's way more air in

it than there ever was before. That's not me just

being cranky and old.

It's changed.

They're working hard and they're not getting ahead. And someone

made the observation I can't remember who, But what we

see from the Jewish people is upon return from exile,

they never again. It's like they learned their lesson. In

some ways, they never again struggle with pagan idol worship,

but their idolatry has just shifted over to their material comforts.

And the logic of Hagai is this, how can you

not live for a god who has brought you out

of exile just like he promised? How can you not prioritize,

put him first, put him at the center. Love with

all your heart and soul, and mind and strength, this

God who has rescued you in this way, just like

he promised. And for us the logic of First Corinthians

five maps right on top of it. As Paul says,

we are those who might live no longer for ourselves,

but for him who for our sake died and was raised.

It's the same logic.

How can you not love with all your heart and

all your soul, and all your mind and all your strength,

and put first this Lord, who for your sake died

and was raised. How can we.

Put him second?

You say, well, is this just kind of some sort

of like Old Testament a case that has happened, or

is there a biblical principle to concern ourselves with here?

And I mean, let's just look at a few different

passages like Proverbs twenty three to five saying cast but

a glance at riches, and they will sprout wings and

fly away, or Matthew six twenty three and twenty four,

do not worry saying what shall we eat, or what

shall we drink?

Or what shall we wear?

For the pagans they run after those things, They seek them,

they grasp after them.

Your father knows that you need.

Them, seek first the Kingdom of Heaven. The picture of

these priorities here and the results kind of remind me

of the people who go into the the money wind machine.

I don't know what you actually call that thing, but

you know what I'm talking. It's like a it's like

a glass closet full of money and you go inside

there and then they turn it on and money is

just flying around those people, right, and they're just like, whoa.

Look at all this, and they just start going after it.

And every time they grab onto a dollar bill and

then try to grab another one, the first one flies

out of their hands, right.

It's it's hilarious. And they come out of there.

It's just like I've been surrounded by money for sixty

seconds and I have seventeen dollars. Jesus tells us is

that you cannot serve God and mammon man in, which

is a word that we don't really use very much anymore.

But the idea is this, that there.

Is a real spiritual power that money has over the

heart of every man and woman, and it desires you

to bow down and to serve it.

It wants to be first.

And it is a competitor.

In every heart.

To the living God. Consider your ways. Putting God's second

never results in what you really want. That's part one,

ourselves as the priority.

And so here's part.

Two, just the other side of the coin, as we

consider a word about God as the priority, God as

the priority. Here in this next paragraph, God makes two points.

Here's the first point. He says, you should seek me first,

He says in verses seven and eight, Again, consider your ways,

and then build my house. Go build it that I

may take pleasure and be glorified. Consider your ways, consider

your heart, consider your actions, consider the result of them,

and put aside. Make secondary your comfort and gain. Make

primary my pleasure and my glory. Please me, glorify me.

How God gets pleasure and glory from this house?

He doesn't explain.

There's so much coming, There's so much coming about the

true Temple, there's so much coming about the glory of

the Sun.

There's so much.

Coming, and yet he doesn't explain any of that. It

kind of reminds me of Peter's interaction with Christ when

Peter wants explanations about John. Hey, you know, I know,

Jesus you're calling me to follow you in this and

all that, But what about what about John? What's gonna

happen with him? I know that you've called me to

some suffering? What about what about John? And I'm just

trying to understand. And Jesus like, if I want him

to live forever? What is that to you?

You follow me?

I'm not explaining everything to you. You follow me, And

I think in some ways the thing is that when

God is the priority, he is the priority, whether you

fully understand him or not. If he's only the priority

when you fully understand, then he's not the priority. The

fullness of your understanding.

Is the priority.

And he says, please me, glorify me, seek first the

Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added

to you. That's how Jesus puts it. But how Jesus,

I don't understand. How do I if I'm going in

that direction? How is it that these things are coming

my way? And seekrest that came to God? You're not

going to fully understand. So the first point God makes

is that they should seek him first. But the second

point that he makes is this that this futility that

they're experiencing is from his hand, and it's because they've

put their things before God's things. This futility is from

his hands because they've put their things.

Before God's things.

He says in verse nine, you've looked for a lot,

you've found a little, and I blew away what you

did have because you are busying yourselves with your thing.

You're so busy.

The earth is withheld, heavens have withheld I verse eleven,

I have called for a draft of all these things.

I have brought futility and scarcity into your lives. And

it sounds very much like Deuteronomy twenty seven, where God says, hey,

I want you to follow me. I want you to

obey my instruction, and if you if you don't, you

will see scarce. I will bring scarcity in this way

and in this way and in this way because of

your covenant unfaithfulness. And you look at that and you say, well,

why why are they being treated as if they are

walking in covenant unfaithfulness. They're not breaking the letter of

the law. They're not they're not cheating their neighbors, they're

not living in sexual immorality. There's no commandment that says

thou shalt not upgrade your house first.

God is treating them.

If they're walking in covenant unfaithfulness, because this is covenant

unfaithfulness on a deeper principle, the very first commandment, Thou

shalt love the Law your God with all your heart

and all your soul, and all your mind and all

your strength. That's what covenant faithfulness looks like. And God

has materially intervened into the life of this community, and

he has brought futility. He has materially intervened in the

lives of these people, and he has brought his hand

of discipline into what's happening with them. You say, wow,

that's kind of a weird Old Testament thing. I'm sure

that doesn't it doesn't occur in the New Testament. Christian

community of faith. Consider the Jerusalem Church. It's Antonius and Sephirah.

Everybody is celebrating the grace of God through Jesus Christ,

and they are devoting themselves to our Lord and generously

giving of their income. And Barnabas is selling off property

and giving it.

To the apostles to make use of.

And Antonius and Sephirah they decide that they want to

embezzle a little glory because it looks like that was

such a big encouragement to the church. They're gonna sell

a piece of property too, and they're just gonna, you know,

lie about how that all went down. And the Holy

Spirit slings them Anonius and Saphirah. New Testament Church, God

materially intervenes by his spirit because of their twisted money things.

The Corinthians.

Paul rebukes the Corinthians in the First Corinthians. It's ten

or eleven in the passage where Paul is talking about

the Lord's Supper, he says, you have gathered, and you

have treated each other selfishly. You have not prioritized the Lord.

You've prioritized your own selfishness and your own stomach, your

own conveniences. And this is why some of you have

experienced illness and even death, taken the cup of the

Lord in an unworthy manner, in your selfishness. The hand

of the Lord materially intervened in the New Testament community.

And then as we look at these kinds of acts

of discipline. We talked about it this week, as we

examine this text, and we agreed together those who are

discussing it, we want to be so pastorally careful because

I know that as we consider these things, there are

those who will hear and consider any hardship they face

as disciplined from the Lord, maybe wrongly to say, well

this I must be walking in sin. I must I

must not have God as my priority because this is happening.

Then this that's we don't have warrant for that. Consider

your ways, but consider.

It. Paul writes in Romans chapter five, rejoice also in

your sufferings, because God is using them to do something

in you. James, chapter one, consider it all joy when

you encounter trials of various kinds.

God uses.

Suffering, not necessarily because we are walking.

Sinfully.

But then there's this other ditch over here. When I

say that, they'll just say, well, I guess we just

don't have to worry about this. If there's any struggle

in my material situation, it couldn't be because God's trying

to move me off of.

My priorities and change them to something else. Couldn't be.

And the problem is, here's the preacher's problem. You gonna

hear the preacher's problem and share my problems with you.

I know that those who need to hear consider your

ways and consider whether or not God is trying to

get your attention to restructure your priorities. They're the ones

who have the hardest time hearing it.

And when I.

Declare it out loud based on high Guy Chapter one,

the ones who are the most hyper scrupulous to think, oh,

maybe maybe I'm not walking right, they're the ones who

are the most ready to hear it.

It's a catch twenty two.

And so all I can do is count on the

Holy Spirit as I just declare this word, consider your ways.

Just let the word do its work by the power

of the Holy Spirit and the conscience consciences of His people.

Consider your ways. Well, it's Erubrabyle Joshua. All the people

they have received this word. Here's part three. How will

they respond and what will the results be?

Part three? The response and the results.

What we see actually is is kind of an example

of my earlier bold claim that if you seek him first,

you get what you really want. Because here's the response.

Check it out Verse twelve. Zerubabyle Joshua Hagi. All the

people they receive the word of the Lord, And what

does it say they do? They all.

Obey?

They all obey. They obey the word not just as

an interesting suggestion or a maybe a wisdom judgment call.

They receive the word of the Lord as the word

of the Lord, and they obey in the fear of

the Lord. Their heart is aligned, and they prioritize God

over themselves, over their own busyness, over their own comforts.

It's a very refreshing change in Jerusalem's history.

That's the response. What are the results? Well, what do

you kind of expect the results to be?

You know the results of what their priorities have been

is that they've been putting money into a bag with

holes metaphorically, and so you kind of expect as to

walk in obedience in the fear of the Lord, then

they're gonna have a bag without holes, right, And there's

some symmetry to that. It's kind of what I expect

that God will intervene and materially bless these people. Spoiler alert.

That does happen.

It happens in chapter two, and it happens in chapter

two with the most fascinating explanation that God gives it

by virtue of a parable I see you next week.

But here's what happens.

First verse thirteen, the messenger of the Lord spoke to

the people with the Lord's message, I am with you

declares the Lord, and God stirs up the spirits of

all of them, stirs up the spirit of the leaders,

stirs up the spirits of the people, and they work.

That's what I really want. God with me, God with you, the.

Spirits of the people stirred together. That's what I really want.

I also want a bag without holes.

Chapter two. But what I want more God with us.

And you know that has always been my experience every

time that God has called me or us to a

special prioritization of sacrifice of money or time, or energy

or usually all of those. And it seems like as

He's calling us to these things that were walking backwards

away from the things that we really want of But

I want to use my money for that, and I

want to spend my time on that. I want to

give my energy to that. And by the time He's

done calling me to something that he wants me to prioritize,

I find myself I'm right where I really want to be,

in rigorous communion with Him.

I know that that was the case when.

We were first called a planted church in Austin, and

I know many of you were a part of God

calling in to a special act of sacrifice and prioritization

as we planted this church. Many of you are still here.

When we did that, what twelve years ago, the people's

hearts were stirred, their spirits were stirred, and we walked

in rigorous communion with him. That's what I really want.

That's what you really want. I would rather be a

doorkeeper in the house of my God.

You say, well, God with us, I mean He is

with us. This must be so still like.

Ay, this is an Old Testament presence. Now, well, here's

what James says to the community. The believers draw near

to God, and He will draw near to you. In

other words, if God blesses this people with his presence

and his energizing spirit to work, how much more so

we who have received the spirit. How much more so

so we who have been shown the lengths to which

God goes to be with us in the cross. How

much more so we who have seen the gentleness of

His character and his readiness to forgive. And the call

here is not to recreate instances from the past, or

recreate the occasion that Hagi has here. The call is

to take the instruction of Hagi as what it is.

The word of God, to.

Consider our ways, where our hearts and priorities are, how

our actions demonstrate it, and how that's working out. Putting

God's second will never result in what you really want.

You seek Him first, you get what you really want.

We're gonna have an opportunity to consider our own ways

as we prepare for the Lord's Supper.

It's a perfect time.

For us to go to Him and personal reflection and prayer.

So I'm gonna ask the ushers to come forward with

the