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Sermon

Following is an excerpt of "The Lifestyles of the Selfish and Negligent (1 of 2)" by Keith Krell added on 10/23/2009.
This content is part of a series.
The Lifestyles of the Selfish and Negligent (1 of 2)
Series: Haggai
Keith Krell
Haggai 1:1-15

It was a sweltering 99-degree September day in San Antonio, when a 10-month-old baby girl was accidentally locked inside a parked car by her aunt. Frantically, the mother and aunt ran around the auto in near hysteria, while a neighbor attempted to unlock the car with a clothes hanger. Soon the infant was turning purple and foaming at the mouth. It became a matter of life or death when Fred Arriola, a wrecker driver, arrived on the scene. He grabbed a hammer and smashed the back window of the car to set her free. Was he heralded a hero? "The lady was mad at me because I broke the window," Arriola reported. "I just thought, what's more important, the baby or the window?"

We live in a mixed up world with warped priorities. Our society has become consumed with things that don't really matter. Many people have fallen into a rut of living from day-to-day, hoping just to survive, and then start the cycle over again tomorrow. Unfortunately, our world is not alone. Followers of Jesus Christ are also guilty of losing sight of the eternal and comfortably settling for the temporal. Because we're pulled in so many different directions, it's tempting to tell God to take a number and wait His turn. We have a house to maintain, a job that takes too much time, and endless obligations to family and friends. Spending time with God and serving Him seems like just another chore on the to-do list. But God isn't a chore that saps our time and energy. He's the source...He makes our time worthwhile...He gives us strength. He doesn't hurt us—He helps us. God's kingdom must come before our prosperity.

Today, we begin a two-part sermon series on a forgotten book of the Bible. In fact, this particular book is so forgotten that you may have trouble finding it. Haggai is the 37th book of the 39 in the Old Testament. The quickest way to turn there is to go straight to Matthew and then turn back two books and there you'll find it. Outside of Obadiah, Haggai is the shortest book in the Old Testament, so be careful not to flip past it.

Now in order to understand the book of Haggai, we need to get a grasp of several important points of biblical history. First of all, when Solomon was king of Israel (970-930 B.C.) he built a magnificent temple in Jerusalem. It was constructed of such expensive material that people came from throughout the ancient world to gaze upon it. The Jews rightly regarded it as the greatest national treasure. They revered the temple because it was the place where God dwelled with man. As such it represented the heart and soul of the Old Testament religion.

In the centuries after Solomon, the people repeatedly turned away from God in favor of idolatry. As a result, God used the Babylonians to judge His people and to purify them from their sin. That brings us to a very key date: 586 B.C. That was when the Babylonian army, under King Nebuchad ...

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