Sowing And Reaping

Three things mark out a decadent society - sex, greed and idolatry (or wrong conceptions of God). Now Christians who are seeking to be faithful to the bible tend to be good today on sex and idolatry - about permissive morality and multi-faithism (a modern form of idolatry). But are they as faithful to the bible's teaching about greed?

John Wesley knew that greed and the love of money was a permanent problem for Christian people. He knew that on average [not always, but on average] as the bible teaches, God blesses financially those who are faithful to him. That is the truth behind Max Weber's famous study The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Listen to Wesley preaching in Dublin in 1789:

"Wherever true Christianity spreads, it must cause diligence and frugality, which, in the natural course of things, must beget riches!"

However, he went on like this: "And riches naturally beget pride, love of the world, and every temper that is destructive of Christianity. Now, if there be no way to prevent this, Christianity is inconsistent with itself and, of consequence, cannot stand, cannot continue long among any people, since, wherever it generally prevails, it saps its own foundation."

Now there is a way, as we shall see. But all Christians have to be aware of the great temptation to greed and materialism that worried Wesley. Jesus warned that:

it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19.24).

All this is why at this time of year we have a series of sermons on Christian Giving and Stewardship. And the two go together. For if you believe all you have comes from God, you will not only be concerned with what you give away, but also with the right use of what you keep back after you have given.

But, you say, "I am a student: I don't have much money at all. In fact I am depending on loans and hand outs from my parents." Fine - that is the best time to start thinking about money as a Christian. You will then be right ready when you start earning; and even now you will be responsible with what God gives you. If you start off from day one when you start earning giving realistically for God's work - say 10 percent (which a lot of Christians use as a guideline to start with), it is much easier than later when you may be over committed.

Now, in this short series on giving and money, we are to look tonight at Haggai - the Old Testament prophet. Let me first put you in the picture before we turn to the text. God's people, the Jews, had been disobedient. They had defied him, not least in those matters of sex, greed and idolatry. They then experienced God's judgment. They were overrun by the Babylonians, their temple was destroyed and in 586 BC they were taken away into exile in Babylon. 50 years later, however, in 536 BC after the Babylonians had been defeated by the Persians, the Jews were allowed back to rebuild their ruined temple. But the work soon stopped because of local opposition. And that is where Haggai begins. So much by way of introduction.

We will now look at Haggai chapter 1. And first, I want to talk about THE PROBLEM, secondly, about GOD'S WORD and, thirdly, about THE RESULT.


First, THE PROBLEM

Look at verses 1-2:

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 Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'These people say, "The time has not yet come for the Lord's house to be built."

They had started, but because of the opposition, they had given up building the Temple. And they were now saying, "we are not going to start building yet". They did not say, "never" but "not yet". And that is so relevant for us at this time of the Giving Review. People today can be like those of Haggai's day. They say: "I'll start giving when life seems a bit easier, or I get a salary rise, or I have finished paying for this or that." They don't say "never" - they simply say, "not yet". In many areas of life that is how the devil tempts us. He says, "don't commit yourself to Christ yet, or to his work yet."

Haggai knew that the problem with the Jewish people was not a lack of money or energy but a simple matter of priorities. Look at verses 3-4:

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?

There they were going to B&Q and IKEA (or their equivalents) to make their flats and houses elegant. But they were totally ignoring God's house. You say, "But how does that relate to us? God doesn't have a physical house any more." No! But he still dwells with his people. And there are corporate needs of God's people in every age. In places where there is inclement weather - like the North East of England - you still need buildings for God's work - not temples, but physical structures.

And there was an irony in all this. The Jews who spent money on themselves rather than on what God wanted, didn't, however, end up with more money in their pockets. Look at verse 6:

you have planted much, but have 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.

There was an economic crisis. They worked hard for themselves instead of for God, but to little effect. They ended up poorly fed, poorly clothed and cold. And there was inflation - they had, in those graphic words: "a purse with holes in it." And look at verses 9-11:

You expected 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. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 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 men and cattle, and on the labour of your hands.

You've seen those pictures of people in Afghanistan - or pictures of people in the North East at the time of the Jarrow March. Well, that was now what people were like in Jerusalem and the area around. So that was the problem.


Secondly, GOD'S WORD through Haggai. And it is threefold - think, act and be motivated.

First, verse 5:

Give careful thought to your ways.

This is one of the great messages of Haggai. He repeats it three more times: verse 7: "Give careful thought to your ways;" verse 15 of chapter 2: "Now give careful thought to this;" and verse 18 of chapter 2: "Give careful thought."

Obedience to God in terms of material resources needs careful thought. And the careful thought that needs to be given, Haggai is saying, is about the fact that financial problems and economic problems may be due to the judgment of God. You say, "Is this a health and wealth Gospel? Give to God and you will automatically prosper - or at least be protected." No! Every disaster and every difficulty you face in life is not necessarily due to your sin or disobedience to God. Job in the Old Testament proved that the good can suffer. Sometimes God in his love allows us, for our well-being, to go through hard times, even financial hard times as some of you may be experiencing at this moment.

I was reading yesterday of a school teacher. One day she had in front of her - and this is a true story - a big amount on her pay slip for two months salary. She wrote that she settled down to calculate a tithe (or a tenth) to give for God's work. "But somehow," she said, "it didn't seem enough." She tells how, as she was going to be away for a month at hardly any cost, the thought came to her of giving a whole month's salary. In the end, with a struggle, she did that; and gave the money to five causes. Three months later her father came round to where she lived with the news that she had inherited some money - yes, it was exactly the amount she had given away. However, it wasn't all plain sailing after that in the business of her Christian stewardship. For when she was married and with two small children, there was a period when her husband was out of work and they were really hard up. But that is all so true to life. There is no automatic or necessary financial return on faithful stewardship.

But Haggai's message was that when you do suffer financially you have to give careful thought. It may not be due to sin, but it may be. And too many people fail to see God's hand in economic crises today. You hear about a recession in the world every day on the Radio, on TV or you read about it in the Newspapers. You hear nothing or read nothing of God's judgment. But poor financial outcomes can be due to sin at one degree removed.

For example, the blocking by some Newcastle City Councillors of a Christian City Academy for the West End of Newcastle, will have, if it continues, long-term negative economic effects. The school would undoubtedly out perform academically, let alone morally and spiritually, the secular schools which have such poor results, as the experience of Emmanuel College has proved. That is why the City Chamber of Commerce also wants such a City Academy. They know that the pupils from the school would help the local economy. Another example is sexual immorality. This has negative economic consequences as it results in marriage and family breakdown which have huge long-term costs. Social science has proved that. So Haggai first, tells these people to "give careful thought" to their economic circumstances.

Secondly, he says in the first half of verse 8:

Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house.

That is, act - start to obey. Repentance, biblical repentance, is not just thinking new thoughts. It is positively turning round, and going God's way and obeying him. And the amazing thing is that you can do it. God gives you the spiritual strength to obey. Look at verse 14:

So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God.

Thirdly, Haggai offers a motive for obedience - verse 8 again - the second half:

[Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house],so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured," says the LORD.

This is the motive of pleasing and seeing that God is honoured. But how do you actually want to "please and honour" God? Answer: when you understand the love and goodness of God, that God does care for you and provide for you; that he does want the best for you; that he is protecting you and will protect you; and, supremely, when you can see (in a way Haggai couldn't) that he sent Jesus Christ to die for your sins in your place. There are two verses in 2 Corinthians (verses 14-15 of chapter 2) that say this:

Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

Perhaps there is someone here tonight and you are not yet a believer, but you are impressed by this way of thinking about money and material possessions. Can I say, you will never really understand Christian Giving and Stewardship until you know Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord. His love for you is the great motivator; and his Spirit is the great enabler. So, first, don't "give careful thought" to money matters. First, think about Christ; turn to him; accept his forgiveness; receive his Spirit and then think about giving.

One of the greatest missionaries at the end of the 19th century was C.T.Studd. An English Test Cricketer and a larger than life character in other ways, he worked in both China and Africa. A former member of this congregation, now dead, was his last personal assistant. And Studd was a wealthy man who gave up a great fortune for Christ. He saw the issues when he was young - when he was a student at Cambridge. He wrote these words from Cambridge in 1883 (almost 100 years after Wesley preached that sermon):

"I had known about Jesus dying for me, but I had never understood that if he had died for me, then I didn't belong to myself. Redemption means buying back, so that if I belong to him, either I had to be a thief and keep what wasn't mine, or else I had to give up everything to God. When I came to see that Jesus Christ had died for me, it didn't seem hard to give up all for him ... "

And his own motto was: "If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him."


Well, what thirdly, was THE RESULT of Haggai's prophecy and preaching?

It was this: as the people obeyed and put God's concerns first and not their own, their fortunes changed (verse 19 of chapter 2 tells us). But most importantly there was a new sense of the reality of God. Look at verses 12 and 13:

Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, 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. 13 Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: "I am with you," declares the LORD.

Zerubbabel (the Tony Blair of the time) and Joshua (the Archbishop of Canterbury of the time) were big enough to take Haggai's message, as were the people who had come back from Babylon. They realised that these were not just the words of a man but the words of the living God himself. And as they obeyed, they had that great word of encouragement from God himself: "I am with you." That message, too, was so important that is was also repeated. It was repeated in chapter 2 verse 4:

But now be strong, O Zerubbabel,' declares the LORD. 'Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,' declares the LORD, 'and work. For I am with you,' declares the LORD Almighty.

These people were now being tempted to think that it was hardly worth while - all the effort they were putting in. For this new temple seemed so inferior to the previous temple. As you give to God's work, sometimes you may be tempted to think, "What is the use? The world seems to be getting further and further away from God. Friends and relatives I pray for are not being converted." And you get discouraged. But the promise of God to the people at the time of Haggai was this - and it still is this (verse 5 of chapter 2):

my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.

And verse 7 (of chapter 2):

"I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD Almighty.

God is in control of the nations of the world and their people as well as of the Church. And things will get better. That promise was fulfilled at Christ's first coming and will be finally fulfilled at his second coming. So be encouraged.


I must conclude. I do so with this thought for your encouragement. Sometimes you hear people say, "If only I could live in the times of the Acts of the Apostles. You read of 3000 being converted on the day of Pentecost and many others being converted in those first decades of the church's life."

But be careful. If you look at present global statistics, I was told last week, that there are 32,000 new Christians every day! That is like a Pentecost every 2½ hours. So had those early Christians known that, they might have said: "If only I could live in the year 2002, with so many new Christians compared with now. What is happening now is nothing like what is going to happen then!"

God is, indeed, with you today. His Spirit is working. Don't be like those Jews in Haggai's time who had wrong priorities. But trust and obey Jesus who said in the Sermon on the Mount:

seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things [essential material provisions] will be given to you as well (Mat 6.33).