Consider Your Ways What Are Your Priorities？ — Tim Conway

Haggai’s Call to Rebuild the Lord’s House

Let's focus in on Haggai here. Here's the situation. Foundation was laid, 15 years, nothing had happened. That makes total sense of verse 2. Thus says the Lord of hosts, these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.

You see what's happening? Well, we're being persecuted. And so, first year, it's not time to rebuild. Second year, not time to rebuild. Fifth year, not time to rebuild. Tenth year, not time to rebuild.

Still the 15th year, they're saying it's not time to rebuild. You see, that's what they're saying. Thus says the Lord of hosts, these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.

Look at verse 4. Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? I mean, you see what's happening. Now, folks, I know this. When I come to the New Testament, the New Testament tells me this.

All these things have been recorded for us for our instruction. You can learn how God views things. You can learn about your God and you can learn about yourself from things like this. Priorities. I say, brethren, this is not totally distant from where we find ourselves.

Because, listen, we have likewise been assigned things that God wants us to accomplish in our lives and our day. And you know, we can do the same thing. Well, it's not time yet to do the Lord's work. The Lord calls us to do things, but priorities.

And our lives always prove what is a priority to us, our lives. You can look at your life. Look, if I basically had a camera follow you around for the next two weeks, I can tell you what's priority in your life.

Basically, if you just show me your credit card statements, I know you don't do checkbooks over here, so I won't say checkbook ledger, but I just did. But the fact is, whatever your monetary statements are, you show me what you've spent money on over the last month, I'll tell you what your priorities are in life.

That's just a reality. We can do that. We can look at our bank statements, we can look at what we use time on, priorities. And what I want you to be very careful about is I want you to notice something.

You just can't get away from this reality. And if any of you are quick to say, well, I think that's Old Testament, I'm going to disprove you and show you it's New Testament as well. But notice something.

God’s Word Exposes Misplaced Priorities

Look at Haggai 1 .5. You see, the thing is, and we can't get away from this reality. Even among those of you that are saved, you can't say, I'm saved so it doesn't matter what I do. Don't talk that way.

Because I'll tell you, these are the people of God. And undoubtedly, the way they respond is very positive here. And the way you all respond today, I hope will be very positive. And it'll say volumes about, you know, oftentimes we get into a place, we can be truly God's people, and we get into a place where we're not in a good place.

We're not in the right place. But what does God do? God brings us back. How does He do it? By His Word. That's how He does it. Now, what you can't get away from is this, that the Lord blesses or withholds blessing based on our faithfulness.

There is a scriptural principle there. If you deny it, you're denying what is very plainly taught in Scripture. Now notice this, Haggai 1 .5. Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways.

And that's what I want us to do today. Consider our ways. You have sown much and harvested little. So you see where He's going to. These 42 ,000 people had come back to Jerusalem, come back to Judea. They basically had settled back.

They were undoubtedly trying to find the land that had belonged to their family and their tribe, their possessions. They'd come. They've resettled certain places. And they began to build their homes again, and they began to plant crops again.

And over these 15 years, when Cyrus had sent them back specifically to rebuild the temple, and now they've gone back, and there was no temple rebuilt, but their own houses had been rebuilt, their own farms reestablished, and what was happening?

God says, you sowed a lot of seed out there in those fields, but do you know what? You harvested little. And guess what God's saying? It's got something to do with where your priorities are and the fact that you neglected My work.

And He says this, you eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one's warm. He who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways.

This is the second time He says it. That is key in Haggai. Consider your ways. Go up to the hills. Bring wood. Build the house that I may take pleasure in it. He's talking about His house, His temple.

He's telling them, get your priorities straight. Go up, harvest the timber to rebuild the temple that I may take pleasure in it, and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. In other words, you guys are giving yourselves to things that are not chiefly for My glory.

That's what He's saying. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. When you brought it home, He's talking about their harvest. He's talking about their crops. He's talking about their animals and their livestock.

I blew it away. That's really, that's key. I blew it away. I did this. You see what God's saying? I see where your priorities are, and I blew it away. It didn't happen by chance. Don't say the devil did it.

I did it. I blew away. There were consequences to you having your priorities wrong. And you can see that there. I blew it away. And so, He says, why, declares the Lord of hosts, because of My house that lies in ruins.

Now, even though, listen, even though God is not calling us to rebuild His temple today, not a physical temple, there's undoubtedly He's called us to a work. You can't read the New Testament without seeing that the Lord Jesus Christ calls us to very specific tasks as being His people.

You can't get away from that. Just as those people were called to that task in that day, God's people had their responsibility then, we have our same responsibilities now. You can't get away from that.

So, He says, because of My house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own stuff, his own house, therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, the earth has withheld its produce, and I've called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, and what the ground brings forth, on man and beast and on all their labors.

Now, listen, I know that some preachers could take the huge opportunity right now and twist your arm for money, and they could make this into a big thing, see, this is why God doesn't bless you, you're not giving enough.

That's not the issue, folks. The issue is this, as New Testament saints, we're called to a work, just like they were called to a work, and we need to consider our ways. Are we giving more of our time, more of our attention to our own self, and our house, and our stuff, just like they did back then?

And there's consequences, that's it. These people were specifically sent back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. That was their chief responsibility. Christian, if I were to ask you, what is your chief responsibility?

Well, I would say this, we have responsibilities everywhere where God has given us responsibilities. If you're a husband, you have a responsibility to love your wife, love your children, raise your children.

If you're a wife, you have responsibilities towards your husband, towards your children. If we're church members, we have responsibilities towards one another. We have responsibility towards the brethren that we meet with, towards other Christians.

We have responsibility towards the lost world. We have a responsibility. Brethren, if you just open your ears to what Jesus taught us, we have responsibilities when it comes to worshiping God in spirit and truth, seeking Him in prayer, seeking Him in fasting.

Scripture talks about that. And yes, in giving. Not giving so that the pastor can get a new car, but giving to the poor, giving to the widow, giving to the orphan. I was even talking yesterday about the fact that maybe when Christmas comes, what we ought to do is try to reach into some of the institutions in this city and perhaps have meals.

You know what Jesus taught us? When you have a meal, don't invite your family and friends. He said invite those that are needy that can never repay you back in this world and you'll be paid back in another time.

Brethren, you know how Jesus spoke. You know what He spoke about ought to be our chief objectives. There's no question about it. These people were chosen for a task. They were redeemed for a task. For what?

What have we been chosen and redeemed for? You know what we're told? To be zealous of good works. Good works. And oh, you've heard this enough times, but you know what Jesus said. Jesus went about doing good.

What did He do? He went about touching people in their misery and seeking to relieve it. Now we may not have the ability to raise the dead or to cure leprosy on the spot, but we can touch people's lives just the same way that He did.

And in fact, brethren, you know what He said. The works I do, you will do in greater works. And that is what we've been called to do. We have been called to be the people that are salt and light in this world and you'll never be salt and light in this world unless you're rubbing shoulders with the world.

That doesn't mean that you're worldly, but it means that you have to come in contact with the world, with your message, with the message of Christ, with your life. How's the world going to know that we belong to Christ by the love we have for one another?

Which means that ought to be a really special thing. And folks, we have a temple to build. The fact is that the true temple, the true dwelling place for God is people. It is the church. And we have a responsibility to build it, do we not?

Did Jesus not give us a task to make disciples of all the nations? You cannot get away from that reality that that is our task. We've been told to go to the nations and make disciples. I mean, even among the mothers, you have a responsibility to impart the truth to your children, fathers, to your children.

We have responsibilities in our family. Many of you, you're Christians in a family that nobody else is a Christian. Or just you and a few, a handful perhaps, are Christians in your whole family. But it's a family of darkness.

If there's anybody in that family that's going to communicate truth, it's going to be you. Many of you are in workplaces or in schools or wherever you are. You're in a place where it's darkness. If anybody's going to be the one that's going to share the truth, it's going to be you.

And if you go silent, then there's going to be silence. It's not like every third person in your workplace is a professing Christian. A lot of times, we're the only ones that are there. And they were told to consider their ways.

And this is what I want us to do. We need to consider our ways. This little prophecy is a call to all of us to think. Because what do you have to do if you're going to consider your ways? It means you've got to stop and you've got to think, what are my ways?

What am I doing? Just look at Haggai 1 .5. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Look at Haggai 1 .7. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Look at 2 .15. Now then, consider from this day onward.

And you go to 2 .18. Consider from this day onward. Look at the last word in Haggai 2 .18. Consider. You know what they've begun to do? Say this. These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.

They began to make excuses. God thought it was time. God thought it was past time. It's been 15 years. Nope. Nope. Not time to be about the Lord's business. And see, we can consider your ways. You see, this can be just the same.

Well, you don't know. My house isn't done yet. My garden's not done yet. My garage isn't done yet. Don't you know this is a very inconvenient time for you to be pressing me about doing things that have to do with Christ's kingdom?

We're building our own homes. We're tending our own lives. Don't you know? Don't you know? We just came back from the Persian Empire. Don't you know that our walls were broken down and we didn't really have any place to live?

Don't you know that we had to reestablish the crops and we had to fertilize out there? And we had to dig wells again because you know we need water. And you know, it's important that we seal up all those roof leaks because, you know, the rain comes like it came last night in the middle of the night.

We don't want to get our beds all wet. And you see the situation. God says that people have plenty of time for themselves and they also accompany that plenty of time for themselves with plenty of excuses.

Well, it's not time yet. Plenty of excuses as to why it wasn't time to devote themselves to God's service. They obviously had some money and they obviously had some time and they obviously had some resources because they're building their own houses.

But they had money for those things. But you know what? They claimed it wasn't yet time to use any of that for the Lord. And what is that? That's backward priorities. Folks, God did not save you simply to have bigger houses and nicer cars.

He saved you to basically carry on the very work that Christ did. That's why Christ says, the works I do you will do in greater works. He sent His Spirit upon the church and that Spirit that He sent is a missionary spirit.

What happened? Spirit of God came upon the church. What did the church do? They began to proclaim the works of God to all the people that were gathered there at Pentecost, to all the people of the nations.

And the churches began to go and they began to scatter and they began to go out and the people of God were scattered. And we see what they did. They went everywhere and they were proclaiming the truth and they were proclaiming the gospel.

Listen, our time is short and God did not save you simply so that you can be all relaxed and you can get better jobs and bigger bank accounts and have a nicer retirement. Folks, that's not it. And any more than these people were sent back by Cyrus who was stirred up by God to go back and rebuild the temple.

God has saved you to be zealous of good works, not simply to sit and get fat in your gardens. And we just have to come to grips with this. And listen, God says consider your ways because God is watching.

And listen, what would you do if you were one of these guys? You'd get back yourself in the corner. I've got a family to take care of. Lord, you told me to love my wife as Christ loves the church. It's not a very loving thing if I don't have a paneled house.

And if I don't have that thing in just the right condition, my wife wants a new sink in the bathroom. I just, what do you mean? Yeah, we recognize emissions is a good thing and we need to be about making disciples all the nations.

But, you know, the gas and electric prices, the energy prices just went. It's a very inconvenient time to talk to me about giving more to missions or giving to something like that. There's too many things.

There's too many things. Inverted priorities. And you know what it is? It's when we put ourself in front of the Lord's glory. Because remember, that's really what this was about. You go up to the woods and you begin to harvest some wood up there and come build my house for my glory.

And the house he's called us to build is even greater for his glory. It's the house that's made up of the living stones. That's what happens when we harvest souls. And it's getting, you know what? Jesus said this, By much fruit, my Father is glorified.

He wants our lives to be abundant in fruit. They put self before the Lord. And you know what? When we do that, the Lord takes notice. The Lord takes notice. He always does. And you know what? It's the same for New Testament believers.

Because what did Jesus tell us? His first address in Matthew, which we went through just recently, what did he tell us? Seek first what? What was the context? You see, the context was clothes, food, even more basic than just a house.

See, in Haggai, it's a house. Over in the Sermon on the Mount, it was food and clothing. And what did Christ say? Christ said this, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added.

Isn't it the same truth we're getting in Haggai? Because what he's saying is this, if you don't seek the kingdom first, what's the obvious conclusion? Then He will not add all these things. In fact, He is in the business of seeing to it that you have a bag with holes if your priorities are wrong.

And I'll tell you, that bag with holes oftentimes isn't just financial things. Oftentimes, it's spiritual things. I mean, you can get to a place where spiritually you're empty, spiritually you're cold, spiritually you're joyless, spiritually you lack assurance.

Why? Because you're not about the Lord's business. And so often, He has a way of correcting us. We know this. We know it. If you're His child, He's a good Father, and He's faithful to chasten His children.

Why does He chasten them? You know, folks, the New Testament talks in ways like don't quench the Spirit. We quench the Spirit. What happens when you quench the Spirit? Well, think about what the Spirit does.

The Spirit bears witness with our spirit. The Spirit is the joy giver. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. You say, oh, I lost my peace somewhere along the line. I lost my joy. Why? Well, because you've grieved the Spirit.

How do we grieve the Spirit? Obviously, things like this, misplaced priorities. You give yourself to the wrong thing. You're not seeking first the right thing. You're not seeking first the kingdom of God.

Listen, we were saved not just simply to get better at our hobby or just to collect more toys. That's not ever it. God says, I blew it away. I blew it away. Listen, brethren, this is how Scripture talks.

Obedience, Giving, and Spiritual Fruitfulness

Give, and I wouldn't just apply this to monetary things. Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

I believe that there is truth in that above and beyond financially. Oh, it works financially. If you give financially, be sure. God sees who is faithful with little, and He tends to be in the business of giving you more because if you're faithful with little, you'll be faithful with much.

But there is a spiritual law that if you sow much, you reap much. If you sow little, you reap little. And I think so often we can even draw out spiritual realities. You know, there's a reality in the New Testament, Jude, that says keep yourself in the love of God.

Or there's like a statement that says we know that we've had what we ask for because we keep His commandments. But then James comes around and says you ask and you don't receive because you ask amiss.

Why? To heap it upon your passions or your lusts. Folks, that's what these guys were doing. See, they wanted the stuff that had to do with their own good, their own passions, their own desires. Work on my house.

It's all about my car. It's about my holiday. It's about inverted priorities. It can become your home, your family, your shop, your garden, your garage, your things, your food, yours, yours, yours. And you know what Jesus said when He said seek first the kingdom?

He said the Gentiles are the ones who are seeking all the stuff of the world. More comfort. More retirement. More stored up. More fun. More holidays. More toys. And you know what happens? Those people are wretchedly unsatisfied.

And we expect them out there to be. But you know what? God will see that there is a dearth in the soul of His people when they seek fulfillment in the wrong places. And one of the reasons that some Christians get into a place where there's doubt, there's despair, there's darkness, there's depression is simply because you have become selfish and self-absorbed.

And that's what happened to these people. And God will see to it spiritually that your spiritual bag has a bunch of holes in it. And we know people piling up hopes and dreams and plans into a bag that's supposed to bring joy and happiness and God sees to it that those bags just have holes.

So what's the solution? Well, the solution is obvious here. It's obedience. There's only one thing to say. Obedience. I mean, the song that says trust and obey, there's no other way. There's reality there, folks.

Why does He say consider your ways? Because it's their ways that were the issue. What were their ways? Well, they weren't doing what God wanted them to do. What did God want them to do? God wanted them to rebuild that temple.

That's what God tells each of us. Consider your ways. And I just ask you this. If you think about everything that Christ wants you to do with your life, would you actually say... Now, maybe you don't know.

And if you say, well, right offhand, I'm not really sure. Well, you should be pouring through your New Testaments. You should be pouring through the four Gospels. You should be looking at what Christ did.

Christ calls us to learn of Him. One thing you can't get away from is Christ wants you to do what He did. Christ wants you to follow Him. Christ wants you to be to this world. He's the light of the world and we're also called lights of the world.

And what God is calling us to do is consider our ways. Are any of our priorities misplaced? Because you know what Christ did. He commends people that go to the prisons to visit people. They go to the hospitals and to the sick to visit people.

He commends those who find the hungry in the world, who find the thirsty, who find the naked, who take the homeless. Sometimes we lack spiritual passion. We lack joy. We lack a sense of God's nearness.

Why? Just simply it is possible to begin to grieve the Spirit at just kind of this low level where you wouldn't say, well, your life is void of blessings, but it's just like, why isn't my life just as robust as I want it to be?

Why am I not experiencing a closeness there comes a time to consider your ways. There comes a time to say enough. And that's what they did here. That's clearly what happened. You know, there's always an excuse.

Well, we can't have those people over. We can't have those people stay. They may mess up our house. I can't just use my spiritual gifts in the way that would be most beneficial to the church right now.

Don't you know how busy my life is? Don't you know my kids are in school and I got this thing going over here and I got that over there? This isn't a proper time for me to talk. It's not a proper time to rebuild the temple.

It's not a proper time to speak to people at my work about the Lord Jesus. Don't you know I might get fired? There's too many personal obligations. These people say the time has not yet come. Brethren, I'm not making this stuff up.

This is how God sees you and me just as well as how he sees them. Now notice the last four verses in chapter 1. Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Joshua the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest with the remnant of the people.

So it's all of them. The remnant of the people is this 42 ,000 that came back. They obeyed the voice of the Lord their God. That's it. Obedience. And the words of Haggai the prophet as the Lord their God had sent him.

And the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai the messenger of the Lord spoke to the people with the Lord's message. I am with you declares the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, 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 they worked on the house of the Lord of hosts their God on the 24th day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. What happened? The word struck home. That's what happened.

Repentance and Immediate Obedience

We saw recently, you remember when we were looking at Zephaniah? We kept considering Josiah and how in Josiah's day the prophet of God was just pronouncing doom. Why? Because Josiah repented and he brought reformation but by and large the hearts of the people were not on the same page.

But here it's different. We often think about the revival that took place in the days of Josiah. Let me tell you something. The revival that took place in the days of Zerubbabel was the real deal because it was all the people.

And you see it. And God's speaking to all of them. He's not condemning any of these people. Here in Haggai, it's a wholesale turning. The lives of all the people seem to be genuinely changed. All the people are obeying the voice of God.

All the people are fearing the Lord. They considered their way. And upon considering, they repented. And they gave themselves to the work of the Lord. Notice how God responds. Look at verse 13. "'I am with you,' declares the Lord.".

And the thing is, I want you to be sure that you catch the timeline. Look at the timeline. Look at 1 -1. Verse 1 -1. Second year of Darius. Six months. First day. Look at verse 15. 24th day. Six months.

Second year of Darius. Now, it's inverted in the order that the day, the month, and the year are given. But the fact is, in verse 1, it's the first day. In verse 15, it's the 24th day of the exact same month.

In other words, how many days went by? 24 minus 1. 23 days went by. Just a little over three weeks. Between what? Between when the prophet said, you guys need to consider your ways. And when they went to rebuilding.

That was quick. That was quick. I mean, they did a full turn. They did an about face. The Word of God hit home with these people. These people are convicted. And you can tell what happened. Immediately, they're all talking among themselves.

Get your lives in order. In three weeks, we're going to work. And that's what they did. Brethren, this is no small thing. Because I got to thinking about this. I got to thinking about my own life. You know what, as a Christian, there have been numerous days when I have been struck by the Word of God considering my own ways.

And I looked at the Word of God, considered my ways. Word of God considered my ways. And I said, you know what? My ways are not lining up with what He says in His Word. And you draw a line in the sand.

And you say, that's enough. That's it. The question is this. Do you have dates like this in your life? Because they had it in their life. They heard the Word of God 23 days later. And you can understand that.

I mean, there had to be. You got to get your act together. You got to sign. You got 42 ,000 people. We need some kind of order here. If all of a sudden the people are all going to pull away from their farms and all the working people are going to come out.

You know, they just still do have families at home. Somebody's got to protect them. There's enemies all over the land. You got to get your act together. Brethren, what I ask you is this. Can any of you say, 23rd day of September, 2018.

I determined before the Lord to stop doing that and start doing this. Do you have that kind of day, those kind of seasons in your life? And I mean specific day, even right down to perhaps the hour. Do you have dates like that?

When you heard God's Word, you considered your ways. God's Word preached. You came across it when you're doing your devotions anyways. It struck home. And you said, that's it. No more. No more. I'm not doing that anymore.

I mean, sometimes it's the way you talk to your wife. Or sometimes you do this or you do that, and you say, no more. Or you've let family devotions get away. Your kids are little, and they're growing up, and you're not opening up the Word of God.

You say, that's it. No more. Or you say, the church gathers together on Wednesday nights to pray. And I make it like one or two times out of every one. But that's it. No more. This has to be a priority in my life.

I've got to get my priorities right. Or, you know, you can fill in the blank. The church is going downtown, and they're taking the gospel out on the streets, or they're doing this. And I recognize. And even though that may not be the thing for you to do, it's not like any.

Brethren, the thing is, none of us should make one another guilty for not doing exactly the same thing we do. We've all got different gifts. But the fact is, it might have been bugging you. You might have felt this little tinge on your conscience that you needed to reach out to your uncle, or you needed to take the gospel up and down your street, or you needed to talk to that guy at work, and you've just avoided it.

Not convenient time to do that. Or you say, just enough. Or maybe it's a guy that you just recognize you've gotten sloppy with your eyes. You're looking at women when you ought not to be in a way you ought not to be, and you just get to a place, enough.

Christ said to gouge out the eye, and I'm going to do it. Enough of that. You draw the line in the sand. Whatever it is, you say, you know, I've been loose with my mouth. I've maybe gossiped too much.

I talk about other people too much. I use my voice. I use my tongue to rail on and tear down my husband. Enough. I'm done with that. I'm not doing it. And you don't do it in your own strength, but you look to the Lord and you say, Lord, give me the ability.

And that's it. That's it. I'm talking about days in your life when you just suddenly, suddenly, the truth of God just breaks in upon your heart, upon your mind, upon your soul, and you're determined to get your priorities straight.

And I'm not talking lip service where you just say something, and two weeks later it's not that way. Like the vast majority of the world make New Year's resolutions, and by the, you know, 28th day of January, the thing is all gone.

I'm talking you actually do what these folks did. And these folks went to building on that temple for four years. This wasn't just, you know, some fly-by-night thing where they kind of got their act together for a month or six weeks.

This is the kind of thing where you determine I'm going to get my act together. I'm a Christian. I walk in the power of the cross. I can do this. I'm talking about that, where you're not like these. You were making excuses before, just like these people.

But you say enough. Enough. Folks, people that are going to really be victorious in this life are people that talk like this and act like this and think like this. And all of us should be having these kind of days where there's breakthroughs, where we talk to ourselves.

Oh, I love that about Lloyd-Jones. He always talked, you know, in spiritual depression. He said one of the big things we have to do is talk to ourselves. And that's one of the things you need to do, talk to yourself.

You need to have times when you say, hey, self, you know what? You actually have not been lining up with what Christ said in his word. You know what Christ said? Christ said when you have a meal, don't invite your family and friends.

You ought to invite people that are blind, that are lame, that are crippled, that are this or that. I would ask you this. Have you ever done that? Christ said you ought to sell your possessions and give to the poor.

Have you ever done that? I mean, there comes a place where you draw the line in the sand and you say, I'm going to start doing that. And the truth is that, you know, you start to look at Christ and, you know, his example, his teachings, he calls us to live a certain way.

I mean, you have to say to yourself, how does Jesus tell me to live? You know what, self? If you really lived all out like Jesus told you to live, then you'd probably be doing a lot more of that thing and a whole lot less of that thing.

And you've got to talk to yourself. I mean, there's got to be honesty with yourself. You've got to come to that position where you just say enough, enough. And that's what they did. It's like they heard the word of God and they realized, hey, you know what?

God wants me to do this. And let me tell you, if Jesus is speaking to you out of scripture, telling you that there's a way he wants Christians to live, well, that ought to be just as fresh to you as if Haggai spoke to these people back in that day.

That ought to ring just as loud in your ear. Well, you just say, I'm going to put God and his work first. I'm going to seek first the kingdom of God because I haven't been seeking first the kingdom. I've been seeking my business or I've been seeking that or this or the other thing.