This sermon on Haggai was preached on August 7, 2022.
When the first exiles returned to Jerusalem, it was in ruins. 70 years earlier, the whole city had been burnt to the ground. The wall that protected it from invaders and wild animals had been torn down. There were no homes for them to return to. No shops lining the busy center of town. And most devastatingly, the temple that Solomon himself had built was nothing more than a pile of stones.
When we come face-to-face with God for the first time, we’re like those returning exiles. God pulls back the curtain on our lives and we see what a mess we’ve made of things…
We see the addictions to money or food or approval from others or a million different other things. And we see how they promise us so much while leaving us empty inside.
We see how our sinful habits and choices have created chaos in our own lives and hurt those around us.
And though we push it out of our minds, our own mortality looms over us. It reminds us that no matter what we heap up for ourselves… no matter how healthy we live… no matter how well others may think of us… death lies in our path.
But when God shows us the ruins of our lives, created by sin and rebellion and separation from him, he also reveals a way to rebuild our lives.
He reveals his Son, Jesus. The one who went to the cross for us. The one who bore our sin and our shame there, defeating death in the process and opening the way for our salvation.
A salvation that’s so much more than heaven when we die – it’s a salvation that begins transforming us right now.
It’s a salvation that sets things right in our lives, freeing us from our addictions to sin and selfishness, brings us into God’s family, and reveals our true purpose – to reflect God’s character and will to a watching, waiting world around us.
So, how do we discover and live into God’s purposes for my life when there’s so much going on around us? When life is throwing so much at us? When there are so many distractions?
That’s what we’ll explore in this sermon on Haggai.
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