So our teaching scripture this morning is from the book of
Haggai, chapter one. It says in the second year of
King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the
Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of
Sheeltiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak
the high priest. And this is what the Lord
Almighty says. These people say the time has
not yet come for the Lord's house to be built.
Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai.
Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled
houses, while this house remains a ruin?
Now this is what the Lord Almighty says.
Give careful thought to your ways.
You have planted much but harvested little.
You eat, but never have enough. You drink but never have your
fill. You put on clothes but are not
warm. You earn wages only to put them
in a purse with holes in it. This is what the Lord Almighty
says. Give careful thought to your
ways. Go up into the mountain and
bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take
pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord.
You expected but much, but see, it turned out to be little.
What you brought home I blew away.
Why, declares the Lord Almighty, because of my house, which
remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.
Therefore, because of you, the heavens have withheld their due,
and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the
fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil,
and whatever the ground produces, on people in livestock
and on the labor of your hands. Then Zerubbel son of Sheel, TL
Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole
remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and
the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their
God had sent him, and the people feared the Lord.
This is the word of the Lord. So as some of you gathered and
also Thomas said, I'm Carl, I'm one of the, the pastors here,
honored to be a part of the teaching team.
Super, super fun group right now.
I hope you guys are enjoying the different ways people are
bringing their, their past in perspective on this unified book
of the 12, which is what we're preaching on today.
We're in the, the minor profits is what we call them.
As we've been discussing throughout, they're not minor
because they're unimportant or because they're under 18, but
because they're short. And the compilers gathered these
these short writings together from a long period of history.
These are not like like sequels in a book, right?
Like this happened and then this happened and, and the profits
did not show up on a like super fixed schedule either.
Like, oh, it's about a decade. So it's profit time.
These were were prophetic writings and sayings and then
and prophets of the Lord sent from a big hundreds of years of
time that were brought together into this book, the book of the
12, which we we decompiled and put their names on it in the
Bible that we use today. And and yeah, some of them are
so short. 2 weeks ago when we did Obadiah, I made him read the
whole thing, but it's only it's like 2 minutes long.
I was tempted because the book we're doing today is also very
short, but it's a it's, it's like 6 minutes read out loud.
And I'm like, yeah, nobody's got time for that.
So we just read a chunk of it. Oh, so the book we're doing
today, Hag I or Haggy Eye? I was raised haggy eye friends,
and I'm going to have to say Haggy Eye.
If it weirds you out, just forgive me.
I, I hope you can, you can go with it.
So, so, yeah, so this book of the 12 was brought together by
the compilers, as with much other prophetic literature that
is in the Scripture, it is like a toolbox for us where we can
select the stories that are appropriate to the moments that
we're in a as you're in the process of study or as we
together are, are are learning together, we look for what what
works for the world today. What's the truth about God and
about humanity and a where's the invitation to turn to God's way
that's appropriate to today. So that's what these these are
these are tools that we can use story tools.
But if we if we take them overly flatly, if we read these stories
super flat, they're not very useful tools.
And in fact, Haggai is a great example of like uselessness if
you don't read it right with some thought.
So, yeah. So let's we, we, we did like the
beginning of the story. Let's throw that scripture back
up there. And in the beginning we, we say
this is what the Lord says this is, we start at verse 2.
Verse one is just like, hey, it's Haggai.
So the time people say it's, it's a little twisty.
And in fact, there's a fair bit of sass in my reading of this.
But like, so this is what the Lord God says.
These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the
God's house. Go ahead And the, the word Lord
came. And so this is God speaking to
the people. Is it time for you yourselves to
be living in panelled houses? Like is it panelled house time
or God's house time? Just I'm just unclear.
Could you, could you clarify this for me?
While this house remains are ruined, gone, be careful, give
careful thought to your ways. This is a repeated refrain
throughout this this text. You keep planning stuff, but you
don't get enough. When you harvest, you eat and
eat and you're not full. You drink and you're you're not
full. You put on clothes and you're
not warm. And I love this.
Y'all warned wages. You put them in a purse with
holes in it. This is like some bars here.
It's a diss track. So Scott says.
So why don't you go up to the mountains, get some timber and
build my house so I may take pleasure in it and be honored
You expected much? Well yeah.
And it and it goes on in this vein, sort of just a reiteration
like, hey, things aren't working out for you as you're doing what
you're doing. So yeah, for time.
We'll move on. So.
So God, the the summary of this section is you're living in your
houses when you haven't built my house and things have not been
good for you. And then what happens in the
text actually go to go to the next one, one more.
Then Zerubbabel, son of Chauthiel, etcetera, obeyed the
voice of the Lord. So if we read this super flatly,
the story is God said, do this thing and then they did all
right, everybody have a great day.
What do you, you can't take anything from that if you read
it too flatly. So and then it goes on.
Chapter 2 is a reiteration. God says in chapter 2, hey, keep
building the house, I'll be with you.
And he says that he mentions just in passing that you were
defiled people and everything you do is defiled, but you will
be blessed. So that's good in chapter 2, a
quick side note here, you can take this down in the in the
chapter 2 section. The reason that we have to
return and re encourage them after they already said yes,
like you'd think they obeyed and that's the end of the text.
But we returned to it because they stopped and why did they
stop? Well, the people in the land
were trying to stop them from doing this work from from
building the temple. And in fact, it culminates it
makes reference to it in Hagia basically that the the people
were opposing them and discouraging them.
In Ezra, which is history, there's a series of an account
of administrative letters like with real, like I'd like to
speak to your manager energy that's coming from this.
And and there's like they wrote a letter to him and they lied
about him, like saying like these guys are trying to raise
up an army against you. And then the king is like, stop
that. And then later on, So I was
like, what are you doing? And they're like, we have
permission and then they get permission.
So if you're interested in the administrative bureaucratic back
and forth, which is actually, I just love that it's in the
Bible. It's super fascinating.
Early accounts of what my brother calls Karen energy.
If you'll excuse, definitely check that out.
But, but, but I'm not going to get into that any more than that
for now. So then we we finish up with at
the end of Haggai 2, the word of the Lord came to Haggai a second
time on the 24th day of the month.
Tell Suruba Bell, Governor of Judah, that I'm going to shake
the heavens and the earth. I will overturn royal Thrones
and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms.
I will overthrow the Chariots and their drivers.
The horses and the riders will fall each by the sword of his
brother on that day, declares the Lord Almighty.
I will take you my servant Zerubbabel son of Shaltiall,
declares the Lord. And I will make you like my
signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord Almighty.
OK this is much more like the prophetic style text that we're
used to. The first part of the story is
like they said to obey and then they did and we're done.
And this has got like this the storm and Rong the, the big
noises that we would expect from, from from prophetic
literature. And we have a fourth telling of
future things that are going to happen here, Although it is,
it's, it's vague. And as we've been discussing and
discussed a couple weeks ago, what's being prophesied here,
the shaking of the heavens and the earth is the ending of
Babylonian oppression and things like that.
So and, and then later on the fall of the second temple as
well. So probably the future telling
portion has already happened. So.
So let's then take this story apart and look at what what's
useful about it? What, what can we see in here
that are truths that we can work with?
What, what does our tool really look like?
I want to in the course of studying for this, I came up
upon a commentary that made reference to a translation I had
never heard of before. And I like this translation so
much that I have to read to you. But you have to bear with me
because this translation is the Darby translation.
Any Darby fans? No, no Darby fans.
It's from 1890 and what it was at the time.
Darby was a prolific translator, very involved in a lot of Bible
translation projects, and he wanted to write something that
would be accessible to read for lay people.
So it's kind of like the message of 1890 in certain ways.
We're just really trying to get concepts across.
So in the Darby translation we have this Thus speaketh Jehovah
of hosts saying this. People say the time has not
come, the time that Jehovah's house should be built.
Go on. And the word of Jehovah came by
Hagia the prophet saying, is it time that ye should dwell in
your wainscoted houses while this house lieth waste?
And this is the part that I really liked and I had to put up
there because panelled houses is what we have in the NIV and in
fact most of the translations, but it doesn't give us all of
the understanding. Now who knows what wainscoding
is? There's some some wainscoding
people, some non wainscoding people.
Did the picture work? Did it upload?
OK, we had a picture, but it is too holy for you to see.
So you'll have to use your imagination.
So wainscoting, this is fancy wood paneling, right, that you
would put on a house. And the concept here is like,
hey, you guys came here. The purpose for you coming was
to return to the worship of the Lord in the place the Lord gave.
And yet not only you, like you didn't build like a tent and
then you're like you're like doing fancy panelling work on
your houses. The word for panel that's used
in the text is the same word as like they panelled the roof of
the temple itself, right. This glorious place.
So it's it's wood covering, literally, but wainscoting, I
think really gets it. Hey you you guys are doing like
beadboard work and like fancy inlays while our house this
house layeth waste and I also like the the way it scans
wainscoded houses while this house lies waste wainscoding.
So the the the purpose here of the text in this first chapter
at least is simple. You are storing up, you're
putting your value in your personal security instead of and
and even your own wealth, decorating houses instead of
doing the things of the Lord. You're turning to your own
comforts. And is it working out right?
We return to this passage. You plant much but harvest
little. You eat but never have enough.
You drink but are not full. You put on clothes and are not
warm. And then the particularly lovely
you put your wages in a purse with holes in it.
So it's not working out. You're trying to satisfy
yourself with the crops and the things you're trying to make
yourself comfortable. You're trying to make yourself
feel wealthy and it's not working out for you.
And then all the time you're ignoring and leaving aside that
which would which would satisfy that which would would be useful
and good for you in in the worship of the Lord.
We can take that tool idea, right, that that we should be
turning to the Lord's Lord for security and for identity as
opposed to ourselves. We can look to the parables of
Jesus. These are another toolbox that
we can look to where we have stories that are not about their
face meaning, they're about the deeper meanings, right?
So we have the parable of the rich fool from Luke 1216 to 21,
and he told them this parable, the ground of a certain man
yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, what
shall I do? I have no place to store my
crops. So the implication here, we'll
get to this later in the text isn't like, oh shucks.
Like I, I don't have a barn. I have barn.
In fact, I have barns. But I am so abundant.
I am so wealthy. I literally don't know what to
do with it. Like I just don't.
Where do I put all my money? You guys such a problem.
So he says, I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones like
no problem, I'm rich enough. I'll just tear down all of my
existing barns, build bigger ones and, and there I will store
my surplus grain. And I say to myself, you have
plenty of grain laid up for many years.
Take life easy, drink and be merry like I did it.
I grew everything. I stored it up.
I win. I'll, I'll, I'll tell myself
this story about how, how wealthy I am now.
The the text goes in a different direction in a moment.
No, in a moment. But but we can imagine anyone
who's lived some life. Have you ever been at a place
where you're like, I made it? I've like, I'm satisfied I've
accomplished the things. How long did that feeling last
exactly? Was it a whole day?
How long was it before either it went away or the feeling
suddenly it wasn't enough anymore for me?
Like my ambition in life was to to to have a family, to to be
married, to have children. And on top of that, I, I was
able to be a part of an arts organization in Columbus.
And so suddenly I realized when I was like 30 that I had
achieved all of my life goals and I was not satisfied.
It was a frightening time. So his story he's telling
himself isn't going to work out. And particularly because.
Because. Yeah, but God said to him, you
fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you.
Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself.
So in this story, hey, buddy, they call him the rich fool.
You don't even get to keep that stuff.
You could die at any time. So you thought you were secure
in your wealth. That didn't work out.
Text goes on to say this is how it will be for whoever stores up
things for themself but is not rich toward God.
And I think, yeah, it's, it's fascinating.
The word rich there is the root of the word plutocrat, Pluto.
And because I thought it was interesting, what does it mean
to be rich toward God? But it means to be like more
than generous, ample, full, in the same way that your, your
grain, you know, I don't even know what to do with it.
Like your attention, your love, your resources towards God
should be rich. That's what the text suggests.
So we have here in Jesus the same kind of a story.
Where do we store up our treasures?
Where do we get our security right that temporal things won't
do? We, we learned this from Haggai
and we learn it from Jesus here. So we have a tool that
emphasizes the meaning of the, the, the other tool that says,
hey, we're probably getting this right.
If we read Haggai to say that your security, your identity
comes from God and not from your belongings, that you're not
going to be satisfied or safe in what you do temporarily, then
we're probably reading it right because we're, we have Jesus
saying the same thing here in an even plainer way.
So you might notice that we could be done with the sermon
now, but we're not sorry. I mean, to throw you a curveball
for some of you in the room, this good news, hey, store up
your treasures in heaven. This is good for you.
This is working. You're apprehending it, you're
getting it. This is the truth and the bread
and the life that you need. You're great.
God bless you. You couldn't take it easy for
the next couple of minutes for some of you, I hope maybe it's
just me, in which case, enjoy. But for me, when I hear store up
your treasures in heaven, I've heard that since I was this many
and it doesn't hit like it used to.
When I was writing this sermon, I was like, oh, oh, it means
store up your treasures in heaven.
Cool. I heard that before and it just
doesn't. It didn't do anything for me.
And I knew that something was wrong.
You know, earlier when we were praying for the service, Jared
prayed that my heart would be broken as God's was broken.
And it wasn't broken here. It was hard.
And I think that that's because the way in which some of this
text has been used in our lives or interpret or understand by
many of us who grew up in church, it inoculated US against
the true fire and meaning of this stuff.
OK. So, yeah, the the version I know
is is from Matthew, right? Matthew 619 through 21.
Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth or moth and
vermin destroy where thieves break in as steel.
But store up for yourself treasures in heaven where moth
and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in as
steel. For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be. Also store up your treasures in
heaven. We need to understand, as with
all of these stories, what we're talking about.
What is what are your treasures? What is heaven?
How does this supposed to actually work?
Like I was saying for me growing up, what this mostly meant
storing up your treasures in heaven meant don't be bad,
right? That was like a storing up your
treasure in heaven. Has anybody ever heard the
phrase we don't smoke, drink or chew or go with those who do?
This was common a long time ago. It was old when I was young,
which is longer and longer ago. The idea was like the Christians
were a people of like avoiding earthly pleasures.
That was our whole deal. Like, and it there was kind of a
sense in the don't we, you know, we store up our churches in
heaven is like, I mean, clearly it looks like smoking and
drinking is pretty awesome, but we don't do that.
But that's OK because every time you don't get to do something
awesome, you get a jewel in your crown in heaven, and it's going
to be great. And that was the way, whether it
was explicit or not, I learned this kind of thing.
Maybe this is true for you, too. A sense of like, just be good.
Just do the good stuff. And like, yeah, you get to, you
can't. You're not going to have any
fun, obviously. But like, you get to have fun
later. And it builds a sense of
resentment, a resentment of people who are they can just do
whatever they want. And with this resentment, a
growing sense that you might even anchor in the scripture of,
you know, one day they're going to get theirs.
All these heathens out here with the smoking.
I'm real down on smoking today. My apologies.
They're one day they're going to get their punishment and I'm
going to get all my treasures when all this, you know, when
all this corrupt world burns away, I'm going to get mines and
they're going to get theirs. That's how it kind of SAT.
And it creates this divide between you and the world.
It creates this thing where you're secretly resentful of
what they have, but you're just waiting for them to get their
asses. I did it kicked two weeks ago.
I almost worked today. I did.
And there was a sense of just holding on, holding on for dear
life, like white knuckling it, of not doing anything bad,
right? And the only thing active that
we were supposed to do was maybe tell people, hey, you 2 could
not have any fun. Just wait.
Wait around with me for everything to burn down.
And then you'll you know it's totally worth it.
I swear this is just wainscoting again, right?
Instead of putting our our, our, our sense of security, our sense
of belonging, our sense of feeling good, our search for
serotonin into external things, we just moved it into an
internal little house that we decorate just so we don't do
anything bad. We do good stuff.
We are perfect. You know, I have inspirational
quotes on my wall. Nothing against quotes, but we
have turned again to controlling for ourselves, our security, our
belonging, our happiness. We've seized that again.
And we just built and paneled a different house, even more
unfriendly maybe, than the one that is the heathistic one.
It's still not what it means to store up our treasures in
heaven. OK, So what does it mean?
What does it look like if it's not a future thing where I get
mines? What?
What is this heaven? Well, y'all, this is a Vineyard
church. And in the Vineyard church, we
believe in a thing called the Kingdom of God and we camp out
as this is a really close to this like Jesus is the center
and it's just like off to the right a little bit.
It's the Kingdom of God is vital to our theology.
What do I mean by the Kingdom of God?
Many of you have heard this before.
If you haven't good you're you're lucky.
Kingdom of God is every place and way in which the will of
God, the good loving will of God is manifest.
And so if we're looking at the Kingdom that way, that's heaven,
the Kingdom of God, right? We know that things have already
happened, that our God's will be made manifest, right?
And we know that things will happen, that the Kingdom will be
made complete and that things are happening now and now and
now always that the Kingdom has come and is coming and is coming
now. This is Kingdom of God yields
you. This is heaven.
And so this is where we are called to store our treasures
up. This is where we need to put
everything in on if we want to be moving in God's way, a way
that will be filling us increasingly with a sense of
belonging, security, and even some happiness sometimes.
So what what does that look like?
What's this Kingdom of God thing that I'm talking about?
We've, we, we talked about it in very broad terms.
We saw it called the already and the not yet still pretty
abstract. Let's get a little further with
it. OK.
In Haggai, I read you before the section where Haggai is talking
about the time is coming will come where I will shake the
heavens and the earth, right? It says once again, I will shake
the heavens and the earth. And in the book of Hebrews, in
the New Testament, the author of Hebrews interprets that portion
for us. So let's look to that Hebrews.
This is from Hebrews 12/26 to 28.
At that time his voice shook the earth.
But now he has promised once more I will shake not only the
earth, but also the heavens. This is Hebrews.
The words once more indicate the removing of that which can be
shaken, that has created things, so that what which cannot be
shaken, that which cannot be shaken, will remain.
Therefore, since we're receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken,
let us be thankful and let us worship God acceptably with
reverence and awe. The unshakeable Kingdom.
Sign me up. If anything I have learned over
life, it is that so much is shakeable.
Even things that seem so solid can be shaken, and we're warned
they will be shaken. And so I'm very interested in
the unshakeable things, especially in this promise that
it was shaken and will not be shaken again, that that the
Kingdom of God is unshakable. In Matthew 22, Jesus has asked
teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?
Jesus replies, love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and all your mind, and this is the first and
greatest commandment and the second is like it.
Love your neighbor as yourself. What I would to tell you today
is that I think that this, these commandments are about the
unshakeable Kingdom. Part of it is clear.
If there's anything that's unshakeable, it's God.
We believe that God is always there, unshakeable, always
loving. It is ongoing, but I have some
questions about the second part. How does that work?
What's unshakeable about people? Right?
People change, people pass away. There's a great essay called The
Weight of Glory by CS Lewis. You should read it almost
immediately. But after church, it's
incredible. And he talks about this topic in
part. He talks about people, about the
glory that's within. And and he says this, there are
no ordinary people in your life. Hear me now listen, friends, in
your life, you have never talked to a mortal person ever.
Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations, those things that
seem so grand, those are mortal. They have come and they will go
and are going. Compared to humans, to people,
their life is like the life of a gnat.
But in your day-to-day, as you interact with people, it is
immortals whom you joke with, work with, marry, snub and
exploit. The people in our life are
immortals. So if you're been thinking
you're the main character and they're the end non player
characters, you missed out. A Mystery of God is that
everyone is the main character because of God's deep love in
all of us and everyone lives forever.
Now Lewis has thoughts about what that looks like that we
won't go into now, but there are no ordinary people.
Think about what that means for you in your day-to-day, and
think about how much that elevates someone to the
unshakeable. While aspects of people change,
we start real small and we get bigger.
We live and die, we look different, that there is
something immortal and unshakeable.
And so there must be something about how we interact with each
other that can speak to the unshakeability of a person.
And I and I return to the great commandment.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your
neighbor as yourself. The interactions that we have
with God are immortal and unshakeable.
The relationship you build with God.
Likewise, every time you express God's goodness to another
person, it is an immortal, unshakable act.
It is a true treasure in the Kingdom of God.
It counts and matters forever. Every tiny thing, every gesture
of kindness, no matter how ephemeral it may be.
A sandwich, a smile, a cup of coffee, only a moment, and yet
an instrument of God's love expressed through you with the
unique truth of who you are in that love, to the fullness of
yourself in that moment. Messy love, momentary love, and
yet eternal. So we have to turn ourselves.
This is the encouragement of the book.
Turn ourselves away from our wainscoting.
If you're a person that that is living wainscoting lifestyle in
in terms of like, I will be secure in what I have.
I got no problem with you having things.
I think the Lord gives us things to use and share.
I think that's great. But if you find yourself like
now I'm safe. I have enough money now I have a
nice enough car, like I have the right political opinions.
I have, I don't know, a four O 1K that's not going to do it.
Likewise, if we find ourselves, I think all the right thoughts.
I am holy enough. I go to church on Sundays.
I believe the right doctor. I thought about it.
I've really got it nailed down to that's perfect.
All wainscoting our relationships, the way in which
we connect and express our love to God and to each other.
This is the treasure, and one flows from the other.
What does Jesus say in Matthew? The righteous will answer him.
Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and
give you something to drink? When did we see you as stranger
and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?
The King will reply Truly, I tell you truly, this is the
truth. Whatever you did for one of the
least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me.
It's all one command really loving God.
We extend into loving others. It's loving God also we returns
and circles back. It's all just the expression of
God's love in US. Return to God, return to others,
return to God and a beautiful dance.
So today I would encourage you, let's go ahead and stand and get
the band up here. This is not a time for shame or
or a a self condemnation. So when I ask you what I'm going
to ask you, I'm asking the Lord speaking in you for this, OK?
Don't look for trouble. That's just another way to
wainscot yourself by being even more perfect.
But is there something in your life, whether it be spiritual or
temporal, that you've been turning to for a sense of
identity, a sense of security, a sense of belonging and happiness
that is not flowing out of God's good love in your life?
Is there a place where you can say, I'm going to turn away from
my wainscoting and turn to the Lord's way?
And is there a place in your life or you're being called,
whether it be to a deeper relationship with God or to
deeper love to your brothers and sisters in the neighborhood, Let
that echo with you. If there's something that you
have a question about that this is striking you in a way that is
upsetting or inviting, I would invite you to come forward for
prayer for that. And then if there's places in
your life where you are missing out on some of these promises of
goodness, you're not feeling safe and secure even in the
Lord, you're sick, you've got problems in your mind, in your
heart. I would invite you to come and
ask for prayer because part of turning to the Lord for security
is turning to the Lord and asking.
And again, we have people here who will, who will pray with
you. This is a tremendous invitation.
And it's, it's, it's the basics and it's also the hardest thing
you'll ever do. We're in a journey together.