(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now, as we start the book of Haggai, let me just first of all explain to you a little bit about the book, where this falls in the chronology of the Bible, what's going on at the time that this preaching is being done. Haggai the prophet, of course, is preaching unto the children of Israel, the remnant of the children of Judah that have come back from the Babylonian captivity. Now if you would turn to the book of Ezra, chapter number 5, Ezra 5. At the beginning of Haggai 1, as you're turning to Ezra 5, the Bible tells us when the book of Haggai was written. Not all of the minor prophets do that for us, but it's spelled out right at the beginning in Haggai 1-1 where the Bible reads, in the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtium, and so on and so forth. So it tells exactly when the book is written. First year of Darius in the sixth month. Now another thing you should know about the minor prophets, okay, because this little book is in the group of books known as the minor prophets. The major prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Those five books are called the major prophets, and they are roughly in chronological order with one another, okay? Then the 12 books that follow are the minor prophets, starting with Hosea, Joel, Amos, all the way to Malachi, and those are also in chronological order roughly, okay? So some of the books, even though they don't spell out exactly when they were written, you can get a feel for when they took place by their sequence, because they are roughly in chronological order, although there's a little bit of overlap. So if you look at Ezra, chapter number 5, it says in verse 1, then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Ito, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jehoshua the son of Josadak, and began to build the house of God, which is at Jerusalem, and with them were the prophets of God, helping them. So what we see here is that Haggai and Zechariah, which the next book after Haggai is Zechariah, again, because it's roughly in chronological order, these two men were preaching and prophesying during the time that the events in the book of Ezra were taking place. Now I want to show you a little background of the book of Ezra so that you can understand what kind of atmosphere there was when Haggai was preaching. If you back up a little bit in chapter number 5, it says this in verse 23, I'm sorry, chapter 4 verse 23, now when the copy of King Artaxerxes' letter was read before Reham and Shimshai the scribe and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews, and made them to cease by force and power, then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem, so it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia. And when did Haggai prophesy? The second year of Darius king of Persia. So let me just explain to you the story of what happened. Basically the children of Israel, Cyrus the Great had made the proclamation for the house of God to be built, and the children of Israel were building the house of God, well there were a lot of enemies that did not want them to do that. And so when there was a new king that was ruling that area, Artaxerxes, all the enemies of the Jews went and complained to that king and said, look, you can't let these people build the house of God, you cannot let these people rebuild Jerusalem, this has always been a rebellious city, these are rebellious people, these are bad people, don't let them build that temple. And so Artaxerxes harkens unto them and says, you know what, there have been great kings that ruled out of that city, this has been a city that has been rebellious and powerful. And so he causes the work to cease by force. Basically he makes it against the law for them to build the house of God. He makes them cease by force, I mean military comes in and stops the work of the house of God. And the Bible says that the work then ceased, it had stopped until the second year of Darius in the sixth month. Then the Bible tells us that what started it up again was the preaching of Haggai and the preaching of Zechariah. That's what got them to start building again. And then once they start building again, then all their enemies again are angered and enraged, they go to them and tell them that you must stop, this is against the law, and then they say well wait a minute, Cyrus the Great made the rule that we can build this thing and he passed that, and then there's inquiry made and it turns out they're telling the truth and Darius tells them, you know, hey let's build the temple and everything goes forward. And it's a happy ending, they end up getting the temple built and they get it completed. So keep that in mind as we're looking at Haggai chapter 1 verse 1. The Bible reads, in the second year of Darius the king in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jazadek the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses? And look, sealed there is like our word ceiling, it's just saying a house with a ceiling. He says, In your sealed houses and this house lie waste? Now therefore, saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You've sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you have not enough. You drink, but you are not filled with drink. He clothed you, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. And so, God is rebuking them very strongly for not building the house of God, for allowing it to, the work to have ceased. It says in verse 7, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Now you might look at this and say, Wait a minute, this doesn't seem quite fair. They were building the house of God, they were working on it. But then what happened was, they came in by force and said, This is illegal, you can't build this. That's the only reason they stopped, otherwise they would have built it. So you know, why is God rebuking them for just going along with that? But here's what you need to understand. When Haggai preaches this word of the Lord that's saying, Look, you guys are waiting too long, you need to build my house, and they start building his house, the same obstacle is there that was there before, the thing that made him quit. Because the same enemies come with the force of law saying, We're going to cause this work to cease, we're going to put a stop to this, and this time they put up a fuss about it and say, No, you need to make inquiry, you need to look in the chronicles and see that Cyrus made a declaration to build this house, and then of course they go and they look and sure enough what they were doing was not illegal. Because you have to understand that all throughout the Bible, when it talks about the law of the Medes and the Persians, they had laws that didn't change. You know, it's sort of like we have the Constitution, and supposedly, supposedly, you know, you can't make laws that violate that law. Well that's how it was with the Medes and Persians. Once they laid down certain laws, they couldn't come out with other laws later that would contradict that. Just like today, supposedly, if there's a law that contradicts something that the Constitution says, that law is null and void, because you can't change the Constitution unless you go through a major process of doing an amendment, which is something that happens very rarely. And it was the same way with the Medes and the Persians, except they actually seemed to abide by that and actually have some respect for that. And so therefore, you know, if Cyrus made that decree, they can build this house. Nothing can change that. And anything that Artaxerxes or anyone after them says isn't going to stop that. Well here's what I take from this, you know, from studying Ezra and from studying Haggai, you know what I see? Is that sometimes people are looking for an excuse to quit doing the work of God. And as soon as they find any opposition, any obstacle, any hardship, any adversary, oh we can't do it. And then they get rebuked and say, well we can't do it because these people told us not to. Or they said it's illegal. You know, it's like, for example, technically it's illegal to go soul winning in Tempe. Technically, you know, you have to get some permit to go door to door. But has that ever been an issue? And we've knocked so many thousands and thousands of doors in Tempe, it's never been an issue. But you know, if we were looking for an excuse not to go soul winning, that would be a pretty good excuse, right? Yeah, it's illegal, we can't do it. We'd love to do it. But alas, it's not legal. But you see, what I mean about how people who are looking for an excuse are going to find it. And these people, as soon as they were motivated by preaching, as soon as the preacher got up and got them motivated and excited about building God's house, isn't it amazing how they found a way to get it done? They found a way to get it done when they wanted to get it done. And when they were apathetic about it, any obstacle just put a cease to the work. And we need to realize that in our life, there are always going to be obstacles and oppositions. And if we want to find excuses not to go to church, if we want to find an excuse not to go soul winning, if we want to come up with an excuse why we can't read the Bible and pray every day, there's always going to be an excuse that we can find. But if we really want to get those things done, we'll get them all done. If we want to be here three times a week, we'll be here three times a week. If we want to be out soul winning, we'll be out soul winning. Because you know what, we'll find a way to make it a priority and to get the things done that need to get done. And that's what we see here. When they had the right preaching and when they responded to it, they found a way to get it done. Now look at what he's saying as he rebukes them. He says in verse 2, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying, This people say the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Now turn to the book of James, if you would. Because you know, they're not saying that they're not going to build it. They're basically just saying, well, it's just not time yet. I mean, we're going to rebuild it someday, for sure. But you know, the time just hasn't come yet. Well look, if you would, at the book of James. And good night, is my Bible missing a page? And it's the one page that I turn to, give me your Bible, Amanda. It's the one page that I turn to in my sermon. It's like the only page that's missing from this Bible. What are the chances? Good night. But in James chapter 4 verse 13, it says, Go to now ye that say, Today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appearth for a little time, and then vanish of the way. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore, and the therefore means because of what he just said, therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. And so he just finished talking about the fact that people often boast about what they're going to do off in the future, and he says, you don't even know what a day is going to bring forth. Don't tell me the money you're going to make a year from now, and so forth. You don't know what's going to be on the morrow, you should say if the Lord will. And in light of the fact that we don't know what's going to be on the morrow, in light of the fact that our life is a vapor that appearth for a little time, and then vanish of the way, in light of the fact that all such boasting and rejoicing is evil, he says, therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Here's what he's saying, it's a sin when there's something good that needs to be done, and you're saying, yeah, I'm going to do that someday. Oh, I'm going to, don't get me wrong Pastor Anderson, I'm going to do soul winning, someday. I mean, you know, I'm going to get in church one of these days. You know, one of these days, man, I'm going to make so many changes to my life. What God's saying, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. But if you get the context, he's basically saying, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not now, to him it is sin. If you get the context, you get a now there of saying, you know what, he's saying, you'll do it immediately. You're not going to say, oh, I'm going to do it way off in the future at some point. Because you know, it's always easy to just put things off into the future indefinitely and then it just never comes, it just never happens. And you know, if Haggai and Zechariah hadn't have come along, you know, it probably just never would have happened. I mean, you know, they're just waiting. I mean, what are they waiting for? They're waiting for somebody to come and light a fire under them and tell them to get to work. So it says in Haggai 1, they're saying, you know, the time has not come that the Lord's house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying, is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses and this house lie waste. He's saying they're not making his house the priority, their house is the priority. They're being selfish, they're not putting the work of the Lord first and his house first, they're putting themselves first. He says, consider your ways, verse 6, ye have sown much and bring in little, ye eat but ye have not enough, ye drink but ye are not filled with drink, ye clothe you but there is none warm and even earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Now look, what are these people putting first? Material gain, their own material wealth, their own house, their own prosperity. But God is saying, look, think about it, I'm not blessing you and therefore because I'm not blessing you, you're failing, you're not succeeding, you're not prospering. Even though, because humanly speaking it would make sense to say, well if I put all my effort into work and all my effort into making money and gaining wealth and prosperity and make church be on the back burner, I'm going to have more money, I'm going to do better, I'm going to prosper more. But God's saying no because I'm going to curse you and I'm going to make sure that you fail because you're not putting me first and you're not putting my house first, therefore I'm going to cause you to fail. And he even says it's like you're putting money into a bag with holes. You know, have you ever felt that way, where you just feel like, you know, you make a little extra money and you're like, oh man, I made some extra money. And then it's just like unexpected bill that's bigger than the extra, oh man, you know. And look, I'm not saying that it's because God's judging you or God's cursing you, but what I am saying is that God does hold our fate and our destiny in His hand. And if God's pleased with us, He can give us as much as He wants to give us. And if God's upset with us because He feels that we're putting Him last, He can easily cause us to fail everywhere we go. Can you imagine walking out the door each morning and going to work having the curse of God on your life, just knowing that God is up in heaven with a goal of making everything you do that day fail? Can you imagine that? I mean, think about that. I mean, you walk out the door and you just know that everywhere you go, God is just watching and just looking for opportunities to just make you fail. I mean, think about how much damage you could do in one day to yourself and to others and to your finances and to every part of your life. I mean, think about how many things can go wrong in a given day. At work, driving, you know, with your family, I mean, so many things. I mean, that's a reality because God's talking about it here. And look, He spells it out even more in verse number 9. He says, you looked for much, meaning you expected a lot. And lo, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. So God is saying He's taking an active role in destroying their goods. He's taking an active role in making sure that they fail, that their crops fail, that their endeavors fail because they're being selfish and they're not tending unto God's house. And He says, I did blow upon it. Why? Because of mine house that is waste and ye run every man unto his own house. Now let's apply this to the New Testament. Do we have a temple that needs to be built today in the New Testament? No. The Old Testament temple was where they offered gifts and sacrifices. It was a figure for the time then present. That is not something that we do. And in the New Testament, the Bible teaches, He says that the house of God in 1 Timothy 3, He said, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So the Bible tells us that in the New Testament, the church of the living God is the house of God. So when we come into God's house, and He says that we ought to know how to behave ourselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So therefore, when we come together in the congregation here, the assembly, this is God's house. Now I'm not saying that this building is God's house, but this assembly is God's house. This group of people. And look, there's not just one church, there's churches. There are multiple churches. And this is just one of many, many churches across the world of which Christ is the head, and each church is a local assembly, a local congregation, a body of believers that have been baptized and saved and so forth. Now, think about the trend that we see today in 2013. The Bible prophesied that this trend would come in Hebrews 10.5 when it said, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and listen to this, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. God said we will need to exhort people more not to forsake the assembly as we see the day approaching. As we get to the end, He prophesied people would start forsaking the assembly, and we'd have to exhort them more not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, the congregation of believers. Do you know what I see today? I see a trend of everybody running to his own house, like it says there in verse number 9. He says, my house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Basically, people look at the church and they say, oh, you know, the church is dead. Oh man, the church has no life in it. The church is like a building that's broken down and without walls, and you know what they do? They go run to their own house instead of building up God's house. If it's waste, build it. If it's dead, bring it back to life. If there's no soul winning, start going soul winning. Bring in the soul winning. Bring in biblical preaching. Bring in what's right. But instead, we have everybody fleeing to his own house saying, oh, I just can't find a church to go. You know what? There are like 40 independent fundamental Baptist churches in the Phoenix area, okay? There are like 40 that are King James Bible preaching independent Baptist churches. Now I'm not saying they're all great. I'm not saying they're all soul winning. I'm not saying that they all believe right on X, Y, and Z. I happen to think that this is the best one that you're sitting in. That's why I'm here. And if you find a better one, man, I'll follow you over there. I'll be there next service. I'm serious. Yeah, let's do it. But let me tell you right now, this is the soul winning powerhouse of this area. That's why I'm here, okay? That's why you're here. But let me tell you something. There are a bunch, it's not like if this church disappeared tomorrow, just listen to me. If this church disappeared tomorrow, it's not like there would be nowhere to go. Did you get that? There are other churches in this city that are biblical churches that are preaching the King James, that are doing some soul winning. There are other churches out there, and I'm not saying I agree with everything that they say and do, but there are other decent churches in this area. There are other good churches in this area. And you know, if you get mad at Pastor Anderson and get all disgruntled, you'll find somewhere to go. All the angry, faithful word former members find somewhere to go, that's pretty good. Okay? So the bottom line is, you know, if there are that many churches in the Phoenix area, and by the way, Phoenix is not a heavily Baptist area, okay? It's not. It's a traditionally Catholic or Mormon area. It's not an area that's heavily Baptist at all. And yet, I could name for you several churches, many churches that I consider acceptable. And when people say, hey, I live on this side of town and it's too far for me to go, can you recommend something? I have recommendations in all four compass directions, but let me tell you something. If that's the case in Phoenix, I'm sorry. I just find it pretty hard to believe that in the other huge cities across America that there's just no church to go to. And look, you say, Pastor Anderson, you don't know my area. There's no church. Okay? Then move to a good church. Or drive further. You know? Or drive an hour. Drive an hour and a half. You know? Crawl on your knees. Whatever you have to do. I mean, get to church. And if you want to get there, you'll get there. And I've often said to people, you know, if I told you I've got a job opportunity for you, it's the job you've always wanted to work, it pays $100,000 a year, it's got all the benefits and bells and whistles and paid vacations, and you need to show up at this place at this time, you'd be there. You'd find a way to get there. You wouldn't make excuses. But then when church is there, it's too far. You know? Or I'm too tired. Or I'm too busy. Or whatever. Because it's not a priority for you. Because God's house, this whole book of Haggai is teaching us God's house needs to be a priority in our lives. And look, when you're running to your own house while God's house lies waste, you're not helping the problem, you know? And look, if all the righteous people stay out of the churches because the churches are bad, then they're just going to get worse. Think about that. I mean, at least if you have a few good people in these churches, they can at least be a good influence. And you say, well this church is too far gone. Then you're right. Find another church. Drive further. Move your family. Sometimes people in the Bible had to move. You know, you might have to move an hour away or something to find a place to go. But man, I'm going to tell you what. I'm going to be in church, listen to me, I will be in church until I die. Even if I weren't a pastor, and look, I'm 31 years old and I've been in church my whole life and did I always like every church I went to? Did I always think it was the greatest church in the world? No. But I always have gone to church for the last 31 years of my life and I will go to church until I die no matter what happens. No matter what happens with this church or any other church, I will find a church to go to. And look, do we need more churches to start up? Absolutely. Do we need some men to answer the call and go out and start churches in some of these areas where it's few and far between or where it's slim pickings for a good church? Absolutely. Let's bring better choices. Let's bring better churches in these areas. But until then, people need to just get their backside in some church and show up and build something and do something and just at least then they could be like the believers at Sardis, who God looked at them and said, well, you know, this is a totally dead church in Sardis, but he said, Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy. God respected that righteous remnant in a bad church in Sardis in Revelation 3. And so that's what we see in our world today is everybody running to his own house. And this house church movement is a fraud. Now look, I'm not saying you can't have a church meet in a house. All day long, our church started in a house. Our church met in a house for the first year and a half. But it wasn't a house church. Because when they say house church, what they mean is they're going to get together and have a coffee klatch with a few buddies. And nobody's the bishop, nobody's qualified, nobody's the pastor. It's just this freestyle get together and that is not a biblical church. And if they're not aggressive about growing, that's not scriptural to just have two people meeting and there's no aggressive growth, there's no bishop, there's no pastor, there's no plan. You know, when we started this church, we were knocking doors, we had a pastor that was qualified, we were reaching people, we're bringing in visitors every week. I mean, that's a totally different situation. And so beware of this movement that says, hey, we're the church, we can just get together and hang out at my house. Wrong. It's a bona fide church and I'm not saying it has to be a building. I'm saying it can meet outside, it can meet in a house, it can meet in a backyard. But it better be an assembly, it better be a congregation of believers with a bishop leading, with a pastor that's leading. I mean, that's the biblical model and that's what we need. Do we need more churches? Yes. But until then, we just need to shut up and go to church, okay? But anyway, it says in verse number 9 at the end, because of my house that's waste and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the dew over you, or the heaven over you has stayed from dew and the earth has stayed from fruit and I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of their head. Look, God's house is important and when you neglect God's house, this is the life you're going to live. And you can make excuses or you can get it done. I mean, these people had a big obstacle, you say, oh man, I can't find a church within x amount of minutes from my house, or it's hard for me to get to church. You know what? These people had a big obstacle. These people had an army telling them not to build it. But they wanted to do it and they found a way to do it. They found a way to get in church. They found a way, and not only that, it wasn't just getting in church that it was all about. You know what it was about? Working in the house of God. Because if you look at verse 14, it says, and the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jozedek, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and did work. They did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God. In the four and 20th day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius' decay. So look, they didn't just shill up and fill a place and fill a chair, I mean, they did the work. I mean, they were out serving God. They're out knocking doors, they're out preaching, because they're building a house. Now look, he tells them how to build it. He tells them to go up into the woods, where's that verse, let me find it. Is it in chapter 2? I lost my place here. Oh, there we go, yeah, there we go. Verse 8, go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified, say the Lord. Now look, the Old Testament temple was built out of wood, right? It was built out of wood and stone and it was overlaid with gold and silver and precious stones. But the New Testament house of the Lord, it's not built out of wood, is it? Because it's a congregation, it's an assembly. So what's it built out of? People. So we need to go out into the wood, I mean, we're not going to the wood, we're going to the hood. And we're going to go out into the hood and instead of wood, we're going to bring the people. We're going to go out and reach people. Look, in order for God's house to be built, we've got to go out there. The wood isn't going to be delivered to us. They can just sit there, well how can we build it when there's no wood? Go cut down a tree, bring the wood, from the wood. And he's saying to us today that we need to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature and he says, go ye therefore into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. So we need to go out and get people and that's the building materials with which God's going to build the church. That's the work that we need to do, that's part of the work we need to go out and get the people and then once they're here, we basically get that piece installed. The wood comes in and they would take that rough wood and they'd fashion it and make it the way it needed to be, make it into boards, and then install it. And that's our job, is to go out and reach somebody, win them to Christ and then bring them here and we can trim off the rough edges through the hard preaching and get them installed, get them functioning, get them working, get them as a member of the church, a part of the church. You say, well when are we going to do that? Now we need to be doing that immediately, we need to do that right away. If you want God to bless your life. And the Bible talks a lot about this where people are selfish and greedy for themselves and therefore they're cursed of God, they're not blessed of God. God here talks about how they're putting their wages into a bag with holes, they can't ever get ahead financially. And I'm not preaching a prosperity gospel, but I am preaching that if you are selfish and greedy and putting God last, He's not going to bless you and take care of you like He would if you're putting Him first. And the Bible tells in the New Testament, He says, take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed. And that's some of the things that they were struggling with because here He says in verse number 6 that they're eating but they don't have enough. I mean they're eating but they're not satisfied. They're drinking but they're still thirsty. They're clothed but they're not warm, they don't have nice clothes, they don't have durable clothing that's keeping them warm. And the Bible says, take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed, for after all these things which the Gentiles seek, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. He said if you put God's house first, if you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things will be added unto you. What things? Food, drink, and clothing will be added to you if you serve God and put Him first. It will take care of your physical needs as long as you're serving Him first and foremost. Go to Proverbs chapter 3, Proverbs chapter number 3, and we'll see the same concept where you know God can bless or God can curse His people. You know and I'm not saying it's you know we're going to be wealthy and you're going to be rich and everything like that because you know what honestly most people can't handle being rich. It's that simple. Most people if they had an abundance of money and an excess of money, it would destroy their life. The prosperity of fools shall destroy them. That's why you see so many of these TV preacher types or these Christian musicians or whatever. People whose goal is to please man because look there are two kinds of servants of God. There are the ones that are trying to please man and there are the ones that are trying to please God. When you've got these preachers that are on TV, when you've got Christian musicians that are really popular, okay, that means they're trying to please man or else everybody would hate their guts just like they hate all the prophets and they stoned them all and killed them all and whatever. You know if you're a preacher that's being loved by the masses of Christianity, okay, if you're a preacher that's being put on TV and everybody loves you and you're a Christian musician and your CDs are being bought by every Pentecostal and Baptist and Presbyterian and Methodist, everybody just loves your music. It means you're a compromiser. It means that you're not serving the Lord Jesus Christ but you're serving your own belly. Let me tell you something. See the really successful TV preachers, the really successful evangelists, the successful Christian rock artists, the successful Christian pop and contemporary and worship artists and let me tell you something and when I say successful I'm talking about financially successful. I'm talking about they're making millions of dollars and you know what, you'll find an endless list of just drunkards, drug addiction, you're going to find divorce, you're going to find adultery, you're going to find people who don't even go to church because I'm telling you what happened and look, a lot of these people just flat out aren't even saved anyway, they're just false prophets but I'm going to tell you something, some of them are saved because look, this new evangelical movement, it contains people that are saved. I'll tell you that right now. I was a part of it for five years as a teenager because I'll tell you what, there are a lot of people that you'll meet out soulwitting, if you go to soulwitting you'll know this is true. You meet people sometimes that go to these big liberal churches that are saved, don't you? All the time. All the time. I mean is it a rare occurrence? Not at all. You're constantly, now you're constantly running into even more people from these big mega fund centers that aren't saved but you're constantly running into people from these really liberal, big rock and roll type churches that are saved very often, okay? But you know what? And some of the leaders in these churches are saved but they're still in a mode of pleasing man. They're still not willing to preach hard on sin or preach biblical truths, take a stand on the King James Bible, take a stand against worldliness and sin. They want to go a way that pleases man and there are a lot of people that are saved that are involved in that movement but I'll tell you something. Even those that are saved, when they achieve, when they have an attitude first of all that wants to please man and then they make millions of dollars, next thing you know, they're drinking, they're on drugs, they're committing adultery, they're into pornography, why? Because they can't handle the success. They can't handle the money. Because the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. Now here's the thing. If you preach right, it keeps you from even having to find out, if you can handle it. Because if you're preaching right, you're not going to be a millionaire. And so these people have chosen to sell out for money and these big fancy churches that are not preaching on sin, not taking a hard doctrinal stand and just preaching feel-good messages that everybody wants here, they've sold out onto money and you can't serve God and mammon and they've sold out to money and then they become comfortable with the Lexus and the Mercedes and they become comfortable with the $250,000 a year and the Kush lifestyle and basically what happens is they just get worse and worse and worse because the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. And so we need to understand that God keeps us where we're at financially sometimes in order to keep us humble. Because if He gave us too much, we might not be able to handle it. I mean, think about that. You know, we're always like, oh man, I just wish I could make more money, I just wish I could just turn the corner financially. But you know what, if you did, what if it would destroy your life? What if it would make you not need God? Because in Proverbs it says, give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord? Basically he's saying, look, even a saved man like Agar who wrote Proverbs 30, even a righteous, saved man could get to a point if he had too much riches where he says, who is the Lord? Like he just doesn't really need God and he just gets to where he's relying on himself and just doesn't worry about it. So look, I'm not saying that God's going to make you rich, because God is probably not going to make you rich because He loves you and He knows what's good for you and He knows you can't handle it. It's like, you know, none of us could probably handle it. But He is going to bless you if you do right and curse you if you do wrong. Let me show you another example similar to this. It says in verse 5 of Proverbs 3, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. So look, what's he saying there? Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the what? The firstfruits of all thine increase. And he's saying if you honor the Lord with the firstfruits of your increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst forth, burst out with new wine. What's he saying? He's saying, you know what, if you give it to God first, you'll have more left when you're done than if you hoard it all to yourself. You know, and I think that goes for time also. You know, you put God first, He'll give you the time that you need to get everything else done. Okay? You put God first. You give it time to be in church and then you have time to do other stuff. You know, and when you also, the firstfruits is also tied in like with the tithe. And so basically what he's saying is, you know, if you bring the firstfruits, if you bring the tithe unto the Lord, we'll go to Malachi chapter 3. And again, Malachi was preaching around this exact same time of Haggai. He preached the message right around the same time. Look at Malachi chapter 3, it says in verse 8, will a man rob God? That ye have robbed me, but ye say, wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings? Ye are cursed with a curse. Is it because they're not saved? No. He says, you're cursed with a curse, for you've robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. So he talks about blessing them, but look what else he says in verse 11. I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And the implication there is that if you don't honor the Lord with your first fruits, if you don't bring the tithe unto the house of the Lord, your fruit will cast its fruit before the time. The devourer will mess up your field, okay? And so what he's saying here is basically, in a nutshell, is that you can live better on 90% than you can on 100%. If you're living on 100% and you've got God blowing on it, you've got the devourer coming and causing it to fail, if you're putting 100% into a bag with holes, that's not as good as putting 90% and having the blessing of the Lord upon it. Now those who are the every man run to his own house crowd will say, oh, tithing is not scriptural, tithing is not a New Testament doctrine. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and let's see if tithing is not a New Testament doctrine. Because they'll say, oh, you know, you're preaching tithing because you're greedy and you want people's money and blah, blah, blah, money-grabbing preacher, blah, blah. But you know what it comes down to? I'll tell you where this non-tithing movement, because when I was growing up, pretty much every church believed in tithing and preached tithing as a Baptist church. But what's happening is now we're seeing a movement away from tithing and I'll tell you why. If you look at these people who attack tithing, it's because they don't go to church. Now think about this. How do you tithe when you don't go to church? You can't. And therefore, because you can't tithe without going to church, people who refuse to go to church, they've got a problem. How do I tithe? So then here's what the solution to their problem is, tithing's not scriptural. And I'm going to tell you what, that's where this doctrine's coming from, period. This doctrine that says, you know, tithing is not a New Testament doctrine comes from just people looking for a way around it because they're not going to church so they don't know what to do with the 10%. And a lot of times people will mail the tithe, and I always tell people don't mail the tithe, bring the tithe. And they say, well, you know, I'm just going to send it to you because I don't have a church right now. No, just find a church and bring it there and put it in the plate. You'd be better off bringing your tithe to an inferior church in your area and obeying God than mailing it to Faith Forward Baptist Church. You'd be better off to bring it to your local church, that's what you're supposed to do with the tithe. But you see, this crowd that says, you know, hey, let's run every man to our own house and they have their little house church, they say, we don't need tithing. Yeah, you're right. Because it doesn't take any money to sit around on the couch with a few buddies once a week and have a fake house church. Yeah, you're right, that is free. But when you actually have a real church with a real pastor and real group of people meeting, you know, then yeah, you have something to do with the money that comes in. But when you're sitting around with your buddies in a fake church that's just a few friends, yeah, what do you do with the money, what do you even do with it? Because look, if you look at the Bible, what is the scriptural usages of the tithe? Well, in the Old Testament, these were the scriptural usages of the tithe. Okay, the tithe was used, first of all, to basically cause there to be meat in his house, cause there to be food in his house. Now the Levites basically lived off the tithes. The tithe was their inheritance, okay, because they did not have their own fields and they were not a full-time farmer, and so therefore they lived off of the 10% from the other tribes. And if you look at the way God laid it out, you know, you got the 12 tribes of Israel, right? So the Levites is roughly close to a tenth of the group, and basically they would get the tenth part, not everybody's going to obey and bring it, but they'd roughly get the tenth part, and then that's what they live off of. That's their inheritance. So basically, the tithe was used not only to basically pay the Levites and to provide for the Levites, because that was their job, was to serve God in the house of the Lord, day and night, that's what they did, so they had to basically get paid, okay? But not only that, the people who did the tithing, they could eat of the tithe also. Now they couldn't eat of it at their own place, they couldn't eat of it at their own house, but what they would do is they would bring the tithe to the house of the Lord, and then they would eat it with the Levite. While they're there, they would actually partake with the Levite and share in the fruits of it with the Levites, okay? And then they would also use the tithe for the maintenance of the house of the Lord, as far as the building itself. Now if we were to apply this to the New Testament, okay, basically that would be to pay the preacher. It would be also if we have an event, like we have a lot of barbecues and dinners and activities, nothing unscriptural in the world about spending money on food that we all eat together, right? So you know, we all have a big, you know, dinner after the service or something, we've done that many, many times, then very scriptural for us to take the tithe and use that to buy the food. That's why we don't sell food here. Hey, we're going to have a food and fellowship after the service, ten bucks each. No, it's just free because that's a scriptural usage and the people who put in the money are eating for free, you know. In fact, everybody's eating for free, even if they didn't put anything in. We all just eat it together and that's a scriptural model. And then also we use the tithes and offerings on the building itself and there's nothing in the world wrong with having a building. Somebody said, well this is why it's unscriptural to have a church building, because there are people out there who say it's wrong to have a church building. I mean I don't know where they come up with this stuff. But they say it's wrong to have a church building, here's why. Because in order to have a building you have to go millions of dollars into debt. Now that's true maybe if you bought a giant building. But let me ask you this, does anybody know how much debt our church has? Zero dollars. In fact, our church has never had any debt. Our church has always operated in the black and we've only just spent the money that we had and if we didn't have the money we didn't spend it. So this church has no debt. Are you sitting in a nice building? It's like an art gallery. This is a nice building. Because we rent the building. So do you have to go into debt millions of dollars to have a church building? No. And here's my question for these house church people. Where did they get that house? They're probably either renting it or they went into debt to buy it. Well guess what, that's the same thing you do with a church building. Either go into debt to buy it or you rent it. What in the world is the difference? What they deceive the simple is what they do. They deceive the simple, oh yeah, yeah, no building, church is bad. Let's just go to a website and use that for church. Wrong. Go to the congregation of God's people, the assembly, because you know why? You don't go to a website to work. You go to a website to sit and listen and take in and that's great, but you know what? It's not just about taking in. Church is about giving back. It's not just about what you can get out of it. It's about rolling up your sleeves and doing the work. It's about being there not to just get something out of it, but to give something. You know when you show up to church, you're not there just to get encouragement, you should be there to give encouragement. Maybe you're there to encourage somebody else, to find someone else's need and fill it. To get to know people, figure out what they need, figure out what they need help with, try to help them out with it. Try to just smile at people and shake their hand and be their friend and get to know them and show them some love. Also to go out and reach people and win people to Christ. I mean there's so much that you can do to serve, to be a part of the family, to be a part of the team, to be a part of the assembly, the congregation. You don't get that from a radio station. You don't get that from a TV show. You get that from coming to church. But look at 1 Corinthians 9 because they'll say, oh the New Testament doesn't teach this. Well look what 1 Corinthians chapter 9 says. It says in verse 9, for it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care of for oxen? Or saith he it all together for our sakes, for our sakes no doubt this is written that he that ploweth should plow in hope and that he that thresh in hope should be partaker of this hope. If we, talking about him and Barnabas who have preached unto them, he says, if we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. Watch this. Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? Who are those people in the Old Testament? Who were the people who ministered about the things of the temple? They were the what? Not just the priests but the priests and the Levites, right? The whole tribe of Levi. The priests and the Levites. And they which wait at the altar, meaning doing the work of the altar, are partakers of the altar. Even so hath the Lord ordained that this would be completely abolished in the New Testament. Is that what it says? God has ordained that this practice would be completely abolished in the New Testament because that is an Old Testament practice because there is no tribe of Levi. That's what people say, tie things on script so there's no Levi. But what does the Bible actually say? That it's over? That it's done? No. It says even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel, but I have used none of these things. So basically what the Bible's teaching here is that God is ordained in the New Testament for the preacher, for the one who sows the spiritual word and preaches the word, to basically be paid and that could be a full-time job or he can choose not to be paid, as Paul chose not to be paid. For the first four and a half years that I pastored, I was not paid. Does that mean I was a better pastor than the guy who was getting paid? No. Because the Bible here teaches that God has ordained that they that preach the gospel should live of the gospel the same way that the Levites lived of the temple in the Old Testament. It's the same system, it's just instead of the Levitical priesthood, it's the preachers of the New Testament church, the bishops and the deacons, because by the way the deacon is a full-time paid employee if you're operating on a scriptural basis. This idea of having laymen be deacons is not scriptural, unbiblical. The Bible teaches that the deacon is a full-time paid employee. Now look, if the pastor chooses not to be paid, then so be it. That's okay. But if the deacon's not paid, he's not even a deacon. It doesn't even make sense, okay? Because the whole point of the deacon is that he's doing, he's working on it full-time. Because he's, you know, and again, that's a whole other sermon. Anyway, I got a little off on that. Let's go back to Haggai and just wrap it up. But you know, this is an important discussion. Because what we're doing today is when we're talking about the book of Haggai, we're talking about the house of the Lord, we're talking about making it a priority, we're talking about doing the work, we're talking about building it, and we're not talking about running to your own house and just everything's about you. No, it's about the group here. It's about the congregation. It's about the house of the Lord. It's about his work, not about just pleasing ourselves. So that's what Haggai is really about, and that's what the chapter is really teaching. Now look what it says in chapter 1 verse 12. It says, Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedek, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God. And the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord. Then spake Haggai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. Now look, isn't that great when you know that God's with you? I mean, doesn't that just feel good to just know, God is with me? If God be for us, who can be against us? I mean, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Think about Joseph. It says three times of him, the Lord was with Joseph. When he was in the prison, when he's a slave, when he's beaten and thrown in a pit, the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him, and you know everything's going to turn out okay, but you know when the Lord's not with you, you don't know that everything's going to turn out okay. And so we need to stop thinking that we have to just forget church, forget the house of the Lord, forget the work of the Lord, because right now we just need to kind of straighten things out for ourselves right now. I just need a few months, Pastor Anderson, to just get my life in order, then I'll be in church. But I just need a few months to get my finances straight. I just need a few, look, you're putting it in a bag with holes. Seek the Lord now. Get in church now. Serve God now. And look, remember what we talked about in the beginning? Oh, it's not time. No, now's the time to work for God. Now's the time to make him first in your life, and him the priority. And they heard this message, and they feared the Lord, and they obeyed it, and God came back at them with a positive message. It started out real negative. Now he's coming back and saying, you know what, I'm with you. Just a short message. I mean, a big, long message about how I'm going to curse you and curse you and curse you and curse you and do all this, and then they get right with God, and then they just get this short message. I'm with you, saith the Lord. But you know what, that means everything. Just those few words, that's all they needed to hear. And then look what it says in verse 14, and the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah. Now, he's the governor, he's the leader, right? Shouldn't he have already been leading this in the first place? Shouldn't he have already been building the house without Haggai and Zechariah? Now look, did Haggai and Zechariah have fancy titles? Were they governors? Were they the Tershotha? Were they the high priest? Who were they? There's a couple of guys, right? Just prophets, just men called by God to preach the Lord's message. Okay, Zerubbabel, this is the guy that's in the kingly line, okay? Because if you study in the book of Matthew, you'll see that Josias begat Jeconias and his brother, and about the time they were carried away to Babylon, and after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconias begat Salathiel, and Salathiel begat Zerubbabel. Well, Salathiel is just a New Testament spelling of Shealtiel, it's the same name. So this Zerubbabel is the grandson of Jeconias, okay? This man is the leader, he's not the king because they don't have an independent kingdom, but he is the governor. He's the leader. And look, do you see how these other guys got him fired up? So what I'm saying is, maybe there's a church that's a little dead. You know, maybe there's a church where not a lot's happening. But you know what, sometimes a Zechariah and a Haggai can come in and help motivate a pastor, and help encourage a pastor, and that's what we see here. You know, they could have just said, well, Zerubbabel, he's not doing anything, so we're going to go to the Philistines or whatever, you know, we're going to go somewhere else. But they said, no, let's talk to him. Let's fire him up. And it worked, okay? So you know, we need to not forsake God's house today. Don't give up on church. Don't ever, and you say, why are you preaching this? We're all here. Yeah, but I'm preaching to people that won't be here forever. Because there are many people who've come to this church and left the church and just went nowhere and said, oh, we're doing church at home. That's why you have to preach this. Because I'm smart enough to realize that everybody who's here now isn't going to be here a year from now or five years from now or ten years from now. You know, and there's going to be, and maybe your job's going to transfer you, you're going to move somewhere and the temptation's going to be there. Man, faithful word was great, but there's nothing out here. Just relax. No church. I'll just download it. Don't ever do that. Download somebody else's sermon. Come to church. Go to church, okay? And we need to not, man, we need church more than ever. I don't know about you, but coming to church is like a breath of fresh air. It's like an oasis in this desert of a world, just to come to a place where you can just, I mean, even if there was no preaching, even if we just showed up and just hung out and then went home. I mean, just to be here is great. Just to get around, just to sing the songs is great. Don't miss it. Make it a priority. It's important. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you so much for your people and for the church that we have. Thank you so much that we don't have to be in the dilemma of struggling to find a good church. Thank you that we have a great church. But, Lord, just help us always to realize that your house needs to be a priority in our lives. Help us not to get selfish and just start worrying about how fancy we can make our house and how fancy our car can be. Help us to realize that it's about the congregation. It's about going into the woods and bringing in the building materials and building your house, Lord. Help us to be used to accomplish that and in Jesus' name we pray.