Kingdom Priority

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Good morning. My name is Lindsay Ng and I am a youth at Christchurch.

Today's reading is a reading from the prophet Haggai.

It came by the hand of Haggai the prophet.

Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses

while this house lies in ruins?

Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts,

consider your ways.

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.

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 look 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 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 dew

and the earth has withheld its produce.

And I have called for a drought on the land

and the hills on the grain,

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

on man and beast and in all their labors.

The grass withers and the flowers fade,

but the word of our God stands forever.

Good morning.

My name is Andrew and I'm one of the pastors here

and I'm looking forward to sharing God's word with you this morning.

Will you join me in prayer?

Father, we want to hear from you today.

And I just pray as your mouthpiece

that you would make much of my little,

that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart

would be pleasing to you and be good for your people.

You are our Lord, our rock, and our redeemer.

We want to hear from you.

We want to hear from you.

We want to hear from you.

Fill our hearts with love toward you

and awe at who you are

and a desire to follow you

even when it's hard.

Give us your spirit to do that, we pray.

We pray all these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

So like Jonathan had mentioned,

like Eric had mentioned,

today is the first Sunday of Advent.

We're beginning the Christian liturgical year.

And Advent, it means coming, right?

So this is a season where we anticipate

and we prepare for the coming of the Messiah King.

Just as the people of God in ancient Israel

waited for the coming Messiah,

so the people of God today,

we await the return,

the second coming of the Messiah.

This is a season of longing and hope.

And can I just say that it's so important,

it's so important to hold these two things together,

longing and hope.

Longing and hope.

Because longing without hope is just despair.

And hope without longing,

it's really devalued.

Hope without longing is devalued.

Now as we enter into Advent today

with the words of the prophet Haggai

to these returning citizens in Israel,

that's what's going on here,

they're returning from exile,

I think we get a picture in this story

of what happens when we long,

yet without hope.

And I think we're going to see that

when we long without hope,

we'll always end up attaching ourselves

to lesser hopes

that will eventually let us down.

And the constant letdowns

only lead us into a downward spiral

that increases our longing

and our disappointment

and our despair even more.

And not only that,

but the downward spiral

will also just only turn our attention inward,

make us inward focus on ourselves

in an individualistic, defensive,

and self-preserving posture.

That's what it does

when we long without hope.

That's what it does.

It's no good for anyone.

It's no good for ourselves.

Longing without hope

preoccupies us with our own houses

and our own fields

and our own lands

and our own security.

But the good news of Advent,

the good news of the gospel

is that there is hope.

There is a king.

He has come and he's coming again.

And he's building for us

an imperishable house,

an imperishable kingdom

because he wants to dwell with us forever.

The good news of Advent

is that when we sing,

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

which means,

O come, O come,

God with us,

he answers us and says,

I am.

The God and king of the universe,

when we say,

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

he says,

I am coming.

I am coming to be with you.

And in fact,

I'm building a house.

I'm building a house

to be with you forever.

And that's the point

of our text this morning

as we enter into the Advent season

through the prophet Haggai.

God was saying to his

groaning people,

Israel, back then,

and he's saying to us

groaning new covenant people,

today,

I hear your groaning.

I know your longings,

but your greatest need

isn't your own house.

Your greatest need

is my house.

And you're invited.

What you need most,

what is of the utmost importance

is not your own house,

but my house.

Or as Haggai calls it

in verse two,

the house of the Lord.

The house of the Lord.

Now, before we dive

into the context

of Haggai chapter two,

I want us to understand

the significance

of the house of the Lord.

We need a wide-angle view

from Scripture

of what the house

of the Lord is.

And to put it simply,

it's so much more

than a building, right?

To put it simply,

the house of the Lord

is another way

of talking about

the temple in Jerusalem.

And man,

there's so much I'd like to say

about the temple,

but let me just say this.

The key point of the temple,

the house of the Lord,

is the presence of God.

The presence of God.

The meeting place

between heaven and earth,

between God and humanity.

And this has always been

God's heart

from the very beginning.

From the very beginning

of creation.

In the book of Genesis,

we see that God

has always sought

to build a house,

a dwelling place,

to be with His people.

Like while every other

ancient Near Eastern religion

placed images of their gods

in their temples,

God, He created Adam and Eve

in His own image.

And He placed them

in the garden.

And He made them priests

in that garden.

He gave them the same job

that He gave the priests

of Israel.

He said, guard it,

cultivate it,

protect it,

nurture it.

That's exactly what He said

to the priests

of the tabernacle

and the temple as well.

And most importantly,

there in the garden,

God walked with us.

God walked with His people.

He met with them.

He walked with them

and they enjoyed

each other's presence.

And this is how it begins

and this is also how it ends.

At the end of the Bible,

in Revelation chapter 21,

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

Revelation chapter 21,

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

it talks about the city

and the temple

and the final dwelling place

of God and His people.

And it says this,

I saw the holy city,

the new Jerusalem,

coming down out of heaven

from God.

And I heard a loud voice

from the throne saying,

look,

God's dwelling place

is now among the people

and He will dwell with them.

They will be His people

and God Himself

will be with them

and be their God.

He will wipe away

every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death

or mourning

or crying or pain

for the old order of things

has passed away.

And then He says,

I did not see a temple

in the city

because the Lord God Almighty

and the Lamb

are its temple.

So see,

this has always been

God's intention.

Even in spite of Adam and Eve's

sinful rebellion,

their failure as priests

to guard that garden

and their open rebellion

against God

in His original dwelling place,

God chose mercy.

God chose grace

time and time again

and He never abandoned

His plan

to dwell with His people,

to be with His people.

That is the heart of God,

to be present with us,

God with us.

And He made covenants

to ensure that this would happen,

covenants with sinful people,

sinful Abraham,

sinful Israel,

dwelling among them

in their mobile tabernacle,

right?

After delivering them

from Egypt

even while they complained

and whined

and groaned

and grumbled,

He still dwelt with them

in that moving tabernacle.

And then,

dwelling with them

for an even longer time,

He dwelt with them

in Jerusalem,

in Solomon's temple,

even while the nation

of Israel

continued

with their injustice

and their infidelity.

I'm glad it's done.

God's a God

who wants to dwell with us.

He wanted to dwell

with the people

with Adam and Eve

in the garden.

He wanted to dwell

with His rescued Israelites

out of Egypt

in the tabernacle.

He wanted to dwell

with His sinful,

unjust,

wayward,

idolatrous people

in Solomon's temple.

And even though

He would eventually

send the Babylonians

and come

and they would destroy Jerusalem,

they would destroy

the temple,

and He would allow

that first temple

to be destroyed,

even then,

He never gave up

on His covenant

with them.

He never gave up

on His promise

that He would be with them.

And He brings them back,

right?

He brings them back

after 70 years

from Babylonian exile

just as He promised.

And then you have

a small remnant

of about 50,000 Israelites

who've chosen to return

and rebuild

and resettle

in their homeland.

And they begin to farm.

And they begin to rebuild

the walls of Jerusalem again.

And most importantly,

they begin working

on the second temple.

And they laid down

its foundation

as one of the first things

they did

after they got back

from exile,

all because God's plan

has always been

to dwell with His people.

And this brings us

to where we are here today

in the book of Haggai,

to our text today,

these words from the prophet.

Here at the time

of Haggai's prophetic words,

about 16 years, okay?

16 years have gone by

since those original 50,000

have returned from Babylon

to Jerusalem.

But after these 16 years,

it's still just the foundation.

No one has built

on top of it yet.

And so this is the context

that the prophet Haggai

is speaking into.

This is what he wants to,

this is the reason

why he's giving God's word

to them, okay?

There's nothing done yet.

And he says in verse 2

to the leaders of Israel,

to the priest Joshua,

to the governors of Rebubal,

he says this,

Thus says the Lord of hosts,

These people say

the time has not yet come

to rebuild the house

of the Lord.

Is it a time for you,

yourselves,

to dwell in your paneled houses

while this house

lies in ruins?

Saying,

you built your houses,

how come you haven't built mine?

And, you know,

I think we might read this

and there might be

a tendency to

treat these Israelites harshly.

Why don't you just obey God?

Why don't you put

first things first?

But let's be sympathetic,

all right?

Let's be sympathetic

and kind of think

of some reasons

why they might have

left the temple

in ruins.

For starters,

they were returning

from exile.

Did they have tons of money?

Probably not.

Did they have tons

of resources?

Probably not.

Were they expert,

you know,

civil engineers

and architects?

Probably not.

And we also have to

imagine how daunting

a task this would have been

for them to return

to a nation still

bearing the scars

of that complete destruction

of their beloved city.

Huge piles of rubble

to get out of the way

before you can even

start building, right?

Probably not a lot

of building materials,

easily accessible.

And then the land itself

and their ancestral homes

in disarray

and disrepair.

The land had probably

lain fallow

for a very long time.

There were people

who were left in Israel too,

people usually

from the lower classes,

and now these people

had moved into

a lot of these lands

so there were legal disputes

about who belonged to

or what land belonged to whom,

not knowing if,

you know,

this land is mine

or this land is yours.

How are we going to

settle this?

The king of Persia,

is he going to

settle this for us?

And if you read back

in the biblical accounts

of Ezra and Nehemiah,

you'd also know

that there was

foreign opposition

to the rebuilding

of the city

and to the rebuilding

of the temple.

And all the builders

actually at one point

had to hold both

a shovel and a sword

at the same time

because they were

always under threat

as they were trying

to work on

the city of God.

Verse 8,

God tells them,

go up that hill

and get that wood,

bring it down.

Who wants to go up a hill

and carry wood down,

right?

It's a lot of work.

It's going out of my way.

And then there's also

the demotivation factor,

right?

Imagine how hard

it would have been

to believe that God

actually still wanted

to dwell with them at all

after 70 years of exile.

Imagine how hard

it would have been

to believe that the

second temple,

whose foundation,

it really paled

in comparison

to the first,

was going to actually

be significant

in the plan of God.

This temple that still

was under foreign occupation,

it was much smaller,

much less spectacular

than the previous one.

How could this second temple

that we've just scrounged up,

how can this have

any significance

like the prophets

had foretold?

In Ezra chapter 3,

Ezra 3 · chapter mention

there's this really vivid

and awkward

and uninspiring description

of the temple's foundation.

It says this,

And all the people

gave a great shout

of praise to the Lord

because the foundation

of the house

of the Lord was laid.

But many of the older priests

and Levites

and family heads

who had seen

the former temple

wept aloud

when they saw

the foundation

of this temple

being laid.

While many others

shouted for joy,

no one could distinguish

the sound

of the shouts of joy

from the sound

of weeping.

Not exactly

an inspiring time

to build the temple, right?

And then lastly,

you just have the scarcity

and the drought

and the famine

that they're dealing with

in the land.

I think it's in verse 8,

which they don't even realize,

but it was God himself

who was preventing them

from prospering

because they let his house

stay in ruins.

Verse 9, it says,

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 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 dew

and the earth

has withheld its produce.

And I have called

for a drought

on the land

and the hills,

on the grain,

the new wine,

the oil,

on what the ground

brings forth,

on man and beast

and on all their labors.

They were occupied

with their own houses

instead of God's

and unwittingly

they were digging

even deeper holes

for themselves.

So I ask you again,

can you imagine

being very motivated

to build this second temple?

Can you imagine

going through a drought

and famine

and such scarcity

and having the faith

to stop working

on your own household

and start working

on God's?

Can you imagine

why they might have said,

it's just not the time

right now in verse 2.

It's just not the time

to build

the house

of the Lord.

And maybe that's how

a lot of us feel

with regard to

how much we are

wanting to invest

in the house

of the Lord.

It's just not

the right time for me.

It's not the right season.

But I think the question

for us this morning

from God's word

is when is the right time?

When is the right time?

I was really convicted

the other week.

I'll tell you two stories.

There was a time

in seminary,

I remember,

and I was trying

super hard

to get good grades.

I really wanted

to get into a Ph.D. program,

but my school

in Philadelphia,

Westminster Seminary,

has a reputation

for being quite

academically rigorous.

Like, I think

if you got a 95%,

it was an A-.

It was crazy.

I was trying so hard

to get a good GPA,

get my Ph.D.

so I could serve God

and fulfill all the plans

that I had

to serve Him.

And, you know,

I worked hard.

I worked my tail off

and I remember

there was one point

in the semester,

oh, probably several points,

but there was one time

I remember,

not only did Westminster

encourage us

to study hard,

but also encourage us

to develop spiritually

and they had chapel regularly,

they had times of meeting

with our prayer groups

and I remember

one time

I was hanging out

with my friend

in one of these public areas

and he said,

yo, are you going to

go to prayer group now?

And I said,

no, man,

I don't got time to pray.

I don't got time to pray.

And of course,

the vice,

or the associate dean

was there

in the same room

overhearing my conversation

and she said,

hey, man,

you don't have time

not to pray.

And she got me.

She got me.

I didn't value

the presence of God

and I didn't

see my time

as worthy of giving

to just be with him

in prayer.

Another story

I wanted to tell you

is I was taking a walk

in Alameda

the other week

with Peter Claussen,

one of our deacons,

and I was just sharing

with him

some of the things

I'm working on

in my life.

Right now,

me and our family,

we're really trying

to work on

observing the Sabbath

in a more faithful

and structured

and intentional way.

And I said,

here's my plan,

but I'm going to

start ramping up

after this milestone

in our life.

And Peter looked at me

and he's like,

oh, you're my pastor,

but can I give you

some advice?

And he said,

don't wait, man.

Waiting for that right time

to do what's right

is not the way

of the people of God.

It's not the way

of the people of God.

God's word to us today

is that it's always

the right time.

It's always the right time

to build the Lord's house

above and beyond

our own houses.

It's always the right time

to build God's house

above and beyond

our own houses.

And you might be asking,

okay, what does that even mean?

What does it even mean

to build the house

of the Lord?

Does it mean like,

you know,

yesterday when everyone came

and they put up

these nice decorations,

thank you everyone

for doing that?

Well, yeah, sort of,

but it's also a lot

more than that as well.

And I'm not saying

we all need to,

you know,

become contractors

and go build churches,

but Paul says

in 1 Corinthians 6

that the people of God,

the body of Christ,

we are the temple of God

and the Holy Spirit

dwells within us.

So when I ask,

in what ways

are we building

the house of the Lord?

I'm asking,

in what ways

are we building up

the body of Christ

with our time

and with our talent

and with our treasure?

And I'm not just saying

a simple volunteer more,

give money more,

you know,

here at Christ Church

we like to say

it's awesome

if you could worship

plus two, right?

Come to worship,

maybe get involved

in a community group

and maybe serve

on some kind of team here,

but it's so much more

than that.

What I really want

to challenge us today

is to consider

our priorities.

I want to challenge

our very priorities,

like what if the church,

what if the body

of Christ

came before our jobs?

And I'm not saying

quit all your jobs

and join me and Jonathan

to be pastors,

but like what if

we thought about

and weighed

the impacts

of our actions

on the church?

Like when we decide

to move away,

move homes,

take a more demanding job

or take that promotion

with maybe better pay

but hours less conducive

to leading people

into deeper relationships

with Christ

and His church

through community

and for the city?

And I say this

with hesitation

because the last thing

I want is for us

to be some kind of cult

and the church is big

and we are so glad

that so many people

have come through

these doors

and left

and are now serving

at other churches

in other contexts.

But what I'm trying

to press upon us,

what I'm trying

to press upon

is where does the church,

both local

and global,

the temple of God,

where's the people

of God,

the dwelling place

of the Holy Spirit

land on each

of our priority lists?

And I know this

is a big ask

because I know

I'm not asking

most of you

to stop dealing drugs,

stop murdering people,

stop robbing banks, right?

Usually when we neglect

to do the most important thing

it's not because

we're doing something

evil, bad,

or wrong,

but it's almost always

because we're so busy

doing good things, right?

And necessary things.

But God is calling us

to put first things first

here in Haggai chapter 1.

Haggai 1 · chapter mention

To trust Him

with the good

and necessary things

that we often

wrongly put before

the ultimate things.

We've got to trust Him.

He's the one

who closed the heavens

and withheld the grain

and the oil

and the dew

from these people of Israel

because they did not

put first things first.

Will He not also

provide all those things

richly for us

when we follow Him?

And I hope I've got

some of us thinking now,

okay, well how can I be

building up the house

of the Lord,

the temple of God, right?

The church.

Hmm.

Let me think about it.

Let me pray about it.

See what doors God

opens up.

And I'm thankful

if you're even taking

a step like that

in your minds right now.

But let me also say,

are there not some

trivial things

that we can be giving up

right now?

We often say,

oh, it's not time

for me to serve God

in this or that way.

I need to wait on God

and hear from Him

so I know exactly

how I'm going

to serve Him.

Did we put that much thought

into our decision

to watch Netflix

last night?

And again,

I have to be careful.

God is not anti-Netflix

or fun

or recreation

or rest.

But His Word

is always challenging us

to constantly examine

our priorities

and not to grow

in complacency

in our paneled houses.

And can I just

start wrapping up

by saying this?

This is not just

a matter of obey.

Give more.

Obey harder.

Try harder.

Like we like to say here,

I don't want

your generosity.

I don't want

the generosity

of your time,

talent,

and treasures

from you.

I want generosity

for you.

I want you to know

the liberating

way of being

so influenced

by the gospel

of grace,

the abundant grace

of God.

God doesn't want

more, more, more

from us.

Like He's got this

checklist of all

that we have

and He's grading us

on how much

we're going to give.

He just wants us.

He just wants us.

People who want

to build the house

of the Lord,

people who want

to invest

in the temple,

they don't do so

primarily out of duty

but out of conviction.

The house of the Lord,

the temple of God,

the new covenant

people of God

is where the very

presence of God

resides.

Like what if we came

to church believing

that?

That this is where

the very presence

of God dwells.

The point of the temple

is not to have

an institution

to give to

or serve

or support.

Like I said

in the beginning,

the point of the temple

has always been

the presence of God

with His people.

You can ask,

does it do anything

to us to hear that?

That God,

the most high creator

of the universe,

desired not just

to be God

but to be God

with us.

God with us.

Emmanuel.

Something that

my three-year-old daughter

has been saying

a lot to me lately,

one of the nice things,

there are tons of other

not very nice things,

but one of the things

that melts my heart

every single time

is she says,

Daddy,

can you be with me?

Daddy,

can you get me more milk?

Well,

she says that every morning.

Daddy,

can you get me more goldfish?

She doesn't say that anymore.

But she says quite frequently,

Daddy,

can you be with me?

She doesn't want me

to do something

with her

or for her.

She just wants me to be.

She wants all of me

just with her.

She wants my presence

and it just melts my heart

every single time

because I feel loved,

I feel adored,

I feel honored.

What if we said that to God?

And can we hear him

saying that to us?

Can I be with you?

That's what I want,

he says.

That's what the temple

is about.

That's his heart.

God with us.

He wants to be with us.

John chapter 1,

John 1 · chapter mention

in the beginning

was the Word

and the Word

was with God

and the Word

was God.

Verse 14,

and the Word

became flesh

and dwelt among us,

literally tabernacled

amongst us.

Do we realize

what great lengths

he's gone to

to be with us

in Christ?

God has emptied himself,

taking on humanity

to be with us

and not just to be God

with us

but to be God

crucified

by and for us.

God with us,

crucified

in Jesus Christ,

God with us.

He's the one

who went up that hill.

He went up that hill

and carried that wood

because he wanted

to be with us.

Tear this temple down,

he said in John chapter 2,

John 2 · chapter mention

and I will raise it up

in three days.

And he did.

And he wants to raise us up too.

He wants us to know

union with him,

presence of God

with him.

Christ Church,

the temple has come

in Christ.

And the church

is his body

whom he purchased

with his blood

and united himself with

and filled

with his spirit.

that's what this is.

In the book of Haggai

and in the person of Christ,

God is inviting us

today.

He's saying,

I want to be with you.

I want to be with you.

I want to dwell with you.

I am building a house

for us

to dwell together

forever in.

Will you join me?

Will you join me?

Will you pray with me?

Lord,

if it

does not affect us,

God,

that you,

the God of the universe,

the I am,

desire to be

God with us.

That your son says,

surely I am

with you

always,

even to the end

of the age.

If that does not

affect us,

Lord,

would you

wreck our stony hearts?

Show us

that our deepest,

our only need

is the presence

of God.

That's what we need.

Help us to prioritize

the presence of God,

the house of God

over our own

households,

no matter what the cost.

And help us to know

what great lengths

you went to,

what costs you paid

to build your house

amongst us,

to be with us,

to be our God.

Lord,

we pray these things

in the name of Jesus.

Amen.