Flight ZHA01 - Part C

They have reversed their priorities. Jesus said seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you. Our problem is we seek all of these other things and hope that the kingdom of God will be added to us. God says forget about those things. Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and I'll make sure you're taken care of.

What happens when we get our priorities out of whack? Today on Connect with Skip Heitziger. Skip concludes his teaching from Zephaniah and Haggai and challenges you to keep the right focus in life. Now here's a resource that will help you understand and articulate the path to real lasting freedom in Jesus. Freedom.

It's a powerful word with several layers of meaning. Benjamin Franklin said the birth of America meant liberty if we can keep it. But the freedom Jesus gives from sin is permanent if we receive it. There's a level of freedom that is better than political freedom, better than social freedom, better than any kind of freedom and that's a spiritual liberation. A freedom from sin. One day Jesus stood up in Nazareth and clearly declared liberty for those in bondage. Are you enjoying the full rights of your freedom?

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So request your Freedom Package today when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Now let's join Skip and Haggai as we begin today's lesson. They cleared out the courts. They put the brass altar of sacrifice out in the outer court but it was really a trash heap. They started sacrificing. In 536 BC they laid the foundation of the temple and then they stopped.

The work ceased. They got hassled by neighbors, those in Judah, those in Samaria. You can read about it in Ezra and Nehemiah. Plus Cyrus the king who gave the edict for the Jews to return has died. His successor doesn't know who these Jews are.

He's not on Twitter or Facebook. He didn't know what's gone on before. So he hassles the Jews who are in Jerusalem. So what happens in Judah?

The people building the temple stop. They turn to their own lives, their own pursuits, and they just sort of got complacent. They just sort of got used to worshiping in ruins. They were concerned about their own house, their own beautiful places, but they could care less about the temple. But now things change.

Now the year is 520 BC and the building starts up again. Why? Because of four people. Four people. Zerubbabel, Joshua, not the Joshua after Moses, different Joshua. Zerubbabel, Joshua, Haggai, and Zechariah who we'll read next time we're together.

Next time we're together. These four men become important. Why? Zerubbabel is the civic leader. He's the governor of the area. He's like the mayor of Jerusalem, civic leader. Joshua is the high priest. He's the religious leader.

Haggai and Zechariah are the two prophets that inspire them, especially now Haggai. Okay, I'll jog your memory. Most of you are going to remember this.

In 1989, there was a movie put out about an Iowa farmer who was given this serious message to build a baseball field in his corn fields and it was called Field of Dreams. And remember the message that he got? If you build it, they will come. The theme of this book could be if you build it, he will come. If you build that temple, God will come in power and strength and glory once again. He will show his glory in that place. He will show up. So in chapter one and chapter two and chapter three, the prophet deals with different struggles that they're having. In chapter one, he's dealing with their struggle of being self-centered, their selfishness.

You'll see it. Verse one. In the second year of King Darius or Darius, depending on what part of the country you're from, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying, This people says, The time has not come. The time that the Lord's house should be built. Now it was 16 years since the foundation was laid, and they have become complacent, they've lost their enthusiasm. Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses and this temple to lie in ruins?

So Haggai gets right to the point. He says, You're building yourself nice pads. You're upgrading your kitchen.

You're buying the big flat screen TV to watch the camel races on Monday nights. But nothing's happening in the temple anymore. So they have all sorts of excuses. Well, it's just not the we don't feel led that it's the right time to build. You know, Billy Sunday, the evangelist who used to be a baseball player became an evangelist said, An excuse is just the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. But it's amazing the excuses that people have when it comes to building a temple or coming to church or worshiping God. Oh, the weather's too bad. I don't want to go out in this weather.

It's interesting. The weather doesn't keep them from shopping or going to a movie. Or they would say, Well, I don't like the traffic and I don't like the crowds, but on Black Friday, they have no problem. Or, well, the preacher goes to the church or the preacher goes too long.

But if the game goes into overtime, you're stoked, man. Well, I don't like to drive so far across town. It's too far away.

I'm looking at a man in the second row. Sorry, Richard, to put you on the spot. But you drive how many miles?

65 miles one way out by Grants and back on Wednesdays and on Sundays. So I live in Rio Rancho. Now, therefore, verse five, Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Now, this is a phrase that is endemic to this book.

It comes up four times in this book. Consider your ways. Consider your ways. That means set your heart on your ways. Think about what you're saying and readjust your priorities. That's the idea of consider your ways.

So they gradually, now mark this, they gradually lost interest in the temple. I find that to be our chief problem. My observation is the biggest problem in the Christian life is never a blowout. The biggest problem in the Christian life is a slow leak. Just very, very, very slowly.

Not a blowout, just a slow leak. So some of you came to Christ. You were all excited.

You were all jazzed. I can't wait to come to church. I can't wait to worship. Can't wait to read the Bible. I'm going to buy another Bible.

That was then. Could it be like the Church of Ephesus? You start leaving your first love. You kind of lose your enthusiasm. You lose your spark. The flame on the altar dies down a little bit.

Look at verse 6. You have so much and you bring in little. You eat but you do not have enough. You drink but you're not filled with drink.

You clothe yourself but no one is warm. And he who earns wages, see if any of you can relate to this, earns wages to put into a bag with holes. Now they have reversed their priorities. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you. Our problem is we seek all of these other things and hope that the kingdom of God will be added to us. God says, forget about those things.

Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and I'll make sure you're taken care of. So what the prophet is saying, it's sort of like saying, you know, you take on an extra job. You work weekends. You work nights. You work on your lunch break and you're broke. It's sort of like you're walking up the down escalator.

You can't get ahead. It's an interesting, you know, in Proverbs 23, let me read it to you. He says, will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away like an eagle toward heaven. I've always been amazed and sort of interested that the back of the one dollar bill has an eagle.

It's an American eagle. It's not there to fulfill this prophecy but I look at it and I always get a kick out of it and go, yep, bye. Because it's going to go pretty soon, right?

It seems to grow wings and fly away. Verse seven, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways, go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the temple that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the Lord. The solution, obedience on what God has said. If you build it, I will come. I'll be glorified. I'll show up.

Verse 12, then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, 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 sent him and the people feared the presence of the Lord. Let me just tell you, this is what a preacher lives for. When people hear the word of God, the message prepared, the long hours of study and prayer and people say, I'm taking that to heart. I'm going to apply that to my life. I'm going to set it into motion, into action.

I'm going to move and respond. There's no greater joy. John said it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. So the word of the Lord came to this prophet. The prophet spoke it and we are told that the people heeded the message. The message fell on good soil. They recognized the preaching of the prophet for what it was.

What was it? The word of God. Here's the New Testament correlation to this. First Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13. Paul writes, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. When any man or woman of God, any teacher of a small group or of a large group, a pastor of a church, whenever they see people respond, put it into action, drink it in and are changed by it. Hallelujah.

It's what they live for. Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, verse 13, spoke the Lord's message to the people saying, I am with you, says the Lord. Now that's a P.S. That's a powerful postscript to this prophet's message. Hey, God wants you to know he's with you.

If you have that, you've got it all. If the Lord is with you, you've got to made him shade. So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of Hosts. That is the temple.

The Lord of Hosts, their God. So God energized the people and the leaders to do the work of building. God energized them. They did the work.

That's the cooperation. Ever read that text in Philippians where Paul says, work out your own salvation and fear and trembling, followed by, for it is God who works in you, both will and do of his good pleasure. So you read that and you go, well, who's doing the work?

Answer, both. Work out your own salvation, for it's God who works in you. God gives you the God gives you the energy.

You do the work. Here's what it's like. In Phoenix Airport, they have these escalator walkways from concourse to concourse. You know, some airports have the trams, the trains, spaceships.

I don't know. They have different ways to get from one place to the other. But Phoenix has this movable walkway. Now, when I get on it, if I have to get to another A or B concourse, I walk fast. I do it anyway, but I walk fast on that thing. When I walk fast on that moving walkway and I look at people walking next to me, it's like, I go right by them, right?

I love that baby. Now, it's a cooperation between my walking and it's working. It's working in me, right? But I'm actually doing the work, but it is propelling me, allowing me to go faster and further than I could on my own. So God energized them, but they did the work.

They did the work. So God has called you to do work, but God will give you what it takes to do the work. So don't shy away from whatever God calls you to do. Don't go, I don't know if I can do it. If God says do it, do it. Do it.

Just step into it. If you joined the United States Air Force and got trained to fly an F-18, you know what an F-18 costs? $70.5 million per airplane. After you're trained to fly an F-18, do you think our United States Air Force would say, well, now that you've learned to fly, if you save up enough money to buy one, then you can fly in the Air Force?

Because that would never happen. You couldn't even afford the fuel for a single flight. No, the government says we've trained you, we'll equip you with the plane and the fuel, we just want you to fly it. They'll give you what it requires. If you join the police force, they'll give you your car, they'll give you a badge, they'll give you a weapon. They will equip you with what it takes. So do the work, but God will do the equipping.

Now, let's move on. In chapter 2, he's dealing with another issue, and that is a common issue, and that is nostalgia. I find this to be a problem with God's people. They're trying to go forward, but they're always looking backward. You know, they want God to do a new thing, but I remember what he used to be like. Hardest people to work with. Chapter 2, verse 1, in the seventh month, on the 21st day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, speak to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua.

Boy, they say these names all the time a lot. To Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people saying, who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? That there would be a few older people who could raise their hand who were there 70 years prior and remember the glory of the temple of Solomon. And how do you see it now, question mark, in comparison with it? Is this not in your eyes as nothing?

Do you remember Ezra chapter 3? There was a great rejoicing when the temple was constructed, but also on the same day, the sound of rejoicing was mixed with the sound of wailing and weeping and crying, because there were some of the older folks who remembered how Solomon's temple was so much better than this pile of rubbish, stones, and so they're remembering back to the former glory and the sound of the wailing and the sound of the rejoicing. You couldn't tell which was which. It was a cacophony of confusion. God is bringing that up.

Is this not in your eyes as nothing? There was a group saying the old is better, the old temple, the old chairs, the old songs, the old stage, the old, the old. Yet now, he tells this leader, verse 4, yet now be strong, Zerubbabel says the Lord. Be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and be strong all you people of the land, says the Lord, and work. For I am with you, says the Lord of hosts. Verse 5, my spirit remains among you. If you want to be miserable, try to go forward while looking backward.

Speaking of looking forward, I have to move very quickly forward because I'm over time. I had more things to say about this, but I won't. Verse 10, on the 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius or Darius, depending on what part of the country you're from, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts. Now asks the priest concerning the law, saying, If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy? Then the priest answered and said, No. Ceremonial sanctity can't be transmitted by contact. If you get something holy and touch something unholy, the unholy doesn't become holy. The holy becomes unholy. It's contaminated, not sanctified. And Haggai said, If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will he be unclean? The priest said, It will be unclean. And Haggai answered and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, says the Lord. And so is every work of their hands which they have offered, there is unclean.

So there was unconfessed sin in their camp. I'm going to move down to the very end. Verse 20. Thank you for indulging me on three minutes overtime. I won't be more than 20 more minutes.

No, I'm just kidding. I'm going to wind this time. Finally, they're struggling with their unbelief, and he addresses that. And again, the word of the Lord came to Haggai on the 24th day of the month, saying, Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake heaven and earth, is quoted in Hebrews 12. I will overthrow the throne of the kingdoms, plural. I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them. The horses and their riders shall come down, everyone by the sword of his brother.

This is a message specifically to the spiritual leader, Zerubbabel. He's wondering what's going to happen to the future of the nation of Judah. They were already taken captive by the Babylonians.

The Babylonians were taken by the Medes and the Persians. There's a lot of superpowers. Who knows what the future holds? God is encouraging him. Look at verse 23.

In that day, last verse we're going to cover. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will take you, Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, says the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, says the Lord of hosts. Signet ring is a ring with a stone. On the stone is carved the emblem of the one who is in charge. The signet ring becomes the signature of the one who has the ring.

He puts it in clay and that signet ring is a symbol of authority. In saying I'm going to make you the signet ring, Zerubbabel, I believe he is speaking of Jesus Christ. It's a messianic prophecy. The line of David included Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel shows up in the lineage in Matthew chapter 1, Luke chapter 3, from the line of King David, as one of the ancestors of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's saying like Zerubbabel in Jerusalem now, one day the greater son of David, son of Zerubbabel, the Messiah, will have authority over all the nations of the earth, all the kingdoms of the world. Let me just close with Daniel chapter 2.

Don't turn to it. The vision Nebuchadnezzar saw of the image and then he saw a stone coming out of heaven, not cut with human hands, hitting the bottom of that statue. And the iron and the clay and the silver and the gold and the bronze was obliterated and that stone grew into a mountain that filled the whole earth. Daniel said, Nebuchadnezzar, what you saw is the Lord God filling the earth with another kingdom greater than all earthly kingdoms and that will be in the future. All other kingdoms will be pushed aside and the kingdom of God's Messiah will reign forever and ever. And that ends that vision.

That ends the book of prophecy. As we pray, let me just say to you, see I'm kind of cheating now. If you're feeling discouraged, you've started a work for God.

You pulled out of your heart, you pulled back, you put it on hold, you stuffed it down, you stopped it. Maybe the Lord is saying, work. Get to work. Resurrect the vision. Resurrect what I've called you to do. Do it. Step into it.

I'm with you. My spirit is with you. And fulfill what God has called you to do. That's Skip Hyten with a message from the series, The Bible from 30,000 Feet.

Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now, here's Skip and Lenya to tell you about a trip they're planning to Israel. I'm guessing that many of you have thought about, talked about, maybe even dreamed about visiting Israel.

Well, let's make that happen. Lenya and I are taking a tour group to Israel next summer in 2024. And I can't wait. We'll start in Tel Aviv, head north to Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. We'll spend several days in Jerusalem and see the Garden of Gethsemane, the Upper Room, and so much more. And we'll wrap it all up with a swim in the Dead Sea. Now, I've been to Israel many times, like over 40. In fact, I can honestly say, though, that visiting the places where the scriptures unfolded, where Jesus lived out his earthly ministry, it never gets old.

No, it doesn't. The incredible sightseeing will be punctuated by times of worship and teachings that you'll never forget. And Jeremy Camp and Adie Camp will be with us to lead worship. Make plans to join us next summer in Israel. See the itinerary and book this Israel tour with Skip Heitig and Jeremy Camp today at InspirationCruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. That's InspirationCruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. Join us tomorrow as Skip begins a message about the symbolic prophecies of Zechariah and what he had to say about the coming Messiah. Connect with Skip Heitig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.