Haggai | Do This | Living in His Glory! - Venture Church

Haggai | Do This | Living in His Glory!

Austin Rammell

Sunday, August 02, 2026

Haggai | Do This

Encouragement God's Glory Live in His Glory Obedience Prioritize God prophets trust and obey

Introduction: For those just joining us, check out last week’s sermon on Haggai 1:1-15 for more information on the context of what led up to Haggai’s ministry and why it was needed. In short, after a promised 70 years of captivity in Babylon for refusing to repent of their idolatry, God restored the Jewish people to the Promised Land with clear instructions to rebuild the Temple. However, two years after they got started, they quit and instead went about the business of trying to acquire wealth, power, and possessions. They still offered sacrifices and practiced some of the traditions required of them in the Mosaic Law, but they clearly refused to put God and His work first. This went on for 14 years until God raised up Haggai to confront them. The Bible states,

1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. ” 3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? … 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. … 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. (1:1-4, 6, 9)

Sadly, most of the Old Testament prophets preached their guts out, but in general, nobody listened! Most of the Old Testament prophets never got to see the people truly repent and live with God first in their lives. But Haggai did! After Haggai preached his sermon, the people actually repented and got back to work doing what God called them to do—they put God and HIS work FIRST! They stopped fearing man and trying to define life by the success they could build in this world. More importantly, they stopped treating God as if they could go through the motions with Him and somehow fool Him into blessing them while they yet again rebelled against Him. They repented and responded to God the only way anybody can respond to God who truly believes Him to be GOD—complete and total submission!

Now, about a month into their renewed obedience, it appears some of the people started getting discouraged. There’s no sign that they had quit again, but clearly, doubts started arising, and attitudes started wavering. It was HARD and expensive work to rebuild the temple. They not only had to put their skills to work, but they also had to commit a sizable amount of money and a sizable amount of time to the effort. You can’t rebuild a massive temple by showing up to help a few hours a month and tossing a couple bucks into the offering plate every now and then. The people were doing all the work they needed to do to economically provide for their families and the nation, all while committing the time, work, and money needed to aggressively rebuild the temple! It was a LOT!

So, to no surprise, some people clearly started getting discouraged and even doubting if all this work made sense, which is why the book of Haggai has a second chapter. God used Haggai three more times to speak to the people. The first sermon was a very blunt call to repent, but the next three were to help encourage the people’s faith. The first sermon was an in-your-face reality check of what God was going to do to them if they didn’t repent, but while still containing obvious admonishment, the next three do so with a clear view of what will happen if they TRUST and OBEY God; with a clear view of all God is going to do in their efforts and LONG after their efforts!

Now, Haggai’s second sermon has two super relevant applications to our relationship with the Lord, and both are SUPER encouraging! Therefore, so that we can fully absorb both, I decided to split our time in the second sermon in half. We are going to look at the first application of Haggai’s second sermon this week and the second part of it next week. So to begin, let’s quickly read this very short sermon, then we will zoom in on the first big New Testament application.

1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, 3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? 4 Yet 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. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, 5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. 6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’” (2:1-9)

The first super encouraging application to our faith is in verse three, but before we zoom in on it, let’s unpack the first three verses because each verse provides us with a really important reminder.

Proposition: Haggai 2:1-3 provides every follower of Christ with three important reminders.

The first reminder comes out of the context of when Haggai preached this second sermon.

The timing of the second sermon reminds us that it doesn’t take long to start getting discouraged in your faith. (2:1)

1. 1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, (2:1)

1. “Like the superscription of the first message (1:1), this superscription identifies the date, the prophet, and the addressees. The date of this message was 21 Tishri (October 17), 520 b.c. This was nearly a month after the people had resumed the rebuilding of the temple (1:15). In this period the progress in rebuilding was slow, no doubt because of the laborious task of cleaning up 60 years of rubble and the cessation of work during the numerous festivals of the seventh month—the weekly Sabbaths, the Feast of Trumpets on the first day, the Day of Atonement on the 10th, and the Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles) from Tishri 15 to 21, with Tishri 22 also being a rest day (Lev. 23).” ¹

1. “The question presupposes that some were still living who had seen the first temple. The temple had been destroyed some sixty-six years earlier in 586 b.c. Haggai may have been among those who had seen the first temple.”²

Note: Remember that Jeremiah’s 70-year measure began after the first of three attacks by the Babylonians against the kingdom of Judah. Following the first attack, King Nebuchadnezzar stole stuff from the Temple and started placing Jews in captivity (605bc). After the final attack in 586 BC, the temple was totally destroyed.

1. “Fifty-nine years had elapsed from the destruction of the temple in the eleventh year of Zedekiah to the first of Cyrus; so that old men of seventy years had seen the first temple, when themselves eleven years old. In this second of Darius, seventy years had passed, so that those of 78 or 80 years might still well remember it. Ezra’s father, Seraiah, was slain in the eleventh year of Zedekiah; So he must have been born at latest a few months later; yet he lived to the second of Artaxerxes.”³

1. “Before looking at the actual words of Haggai, the very timing itself has its own significant message. The twenty-first day was the last full day of the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. This festival celebrated the exodus from Egypt and this was symbolized by living in booths ‘so that your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt’ (Lev. 23:43). In the context of Haggai this is especially significant. Far from living in booths the people had been enjoying luxury in panelled houses (1:3), and thus the prophet’s message would have been reinforced by the symbolism of the festival. Moreover, the other biblical uses of the word are relevant. In Job 27:18 it is used as a symbol of frailty and vulnerability, and a similar idea is found in Jonah 4:5. But it is also used in Isaiah 4:6 with the idea of protection where it speaks of the Lord as a shelter on the last day. These twin ideas of the weakness of the people and the power of the Lord are at the heart of Haggai’s message of encouragement. One further point about timing is that Solomon’s temple was dedicated in the seventh month. This was certainly continuity, and underlined the fact that what they were doing was rebuilding the old temple not constructing a new one. Yet the memory would probably be more depressing than encouraging and to that we now turn.”⁴

The second reminder is found in the context of the audience,

The audience of the second sermon reminds us that everybody’s faith can get discouraged. (2:2)

1. 2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, (2:2)

1. God told Haggai to make sure the governor, the high priest, and all the people heard this message, meaning at some level everybody was getting discouraged. Everybody struggles! When you read the psalms, you see the discouragement that David struggled with in his faith. Moses, Elijah, and Jeremiah all went through periods of doubt and struggle as well. The Apostle Paul had to LEARN how to experience joy, strength, and victory in every circumstance. If he had to learn how, that means there were times in his relationship with Christ that he realized he didn’t know how. In Philippians and 2 Corinthians, we read about at least two different occasions that he went through that struggle.

1. I’m not telling you that it makes sense to become complacent about a discouraged faith, but rather, when you find yourself discouraged, just know that it’s normal! It happens to everybody! You’re not a bad Christian; you’re just a normal Christian, and there is no such thing as non-normal Christians!

1. I’m not sharing this with you to give you an excuse to be unfaithful or discouraged, but as a reminder to not let Satan make you think you are a failure because you struggle. I’m sharing this with you to remind you that God’s love for us is not based on the measure of our faith in Him, but rather on His unwavering, immutable holiness, which has determined and declared His unconditional love for us before we ever even pondered trusting and loving Him!

1. 1. 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2:13)

1. 1. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

The third reminder comes in the form of a rebuke,

The rebuke in the second sermon reminds us we can forget how glorious God and all we have in Him is! (2:3)

1. Now you would think once you’ve seen a testimony of the glory of God you could never again think that things of this world are any comparison. But we are indeed sheep. Therefore, to no surprise, just a month into the people getting going again with what God told them to do (rebuild the temple), they started getting discouraged, because they started measuring the glory of God and their ability to experience it through the things of this world!

1. 3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? (2:3)

1. 1. “The prophet heard what people were saying about the temple-rebuilding program during the feast. Many had a negative attitude, saying this temple would be greatly inferior to Solomon’s gold-covered temple (1Kg 6:2–35).”⁵

1. 1. “Less than a month after work on the temple resumed, it had become clear that this temple paled in comparison to the majestic Solomonic temple.”⁶

1. 1. “Is not such as it is, as nothing? Beside the richness of the sculptures in the former temple, everything, which admitted of it, was overlaid with gold; Solomon overlaid the whole house with gold, until, he had finished all the house, the whole altar by the oracle, the two cherubim, the floor of the house, the doors of the holy of holies and the ornaments of it, the cherubims thereon and the palm trees he covered with gold fitted upon the carved work; the altar of gold and the table of gold, whereupon the shew-bread was, the ten candlesticks of pure gold, with the flowers and the lamps and the tongs of gold, the bowls, the snuffers and the basons and the spoons and the censers of pure gold, and hinges of pure gold for all the doors of the temple. The porch that was in the front of the house, twenty cubits broad and 120 cubits high, was overlaid within with pure gold; the house glistened with precious stones; and the gold (it is added) was gold of Parvaim, a land distant of course and unknown to us. Six hundred talents of gold (about £4,320,000,) were employed in overlaying the Holy of holies. The upper chambers were also of gold; the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold.”⁷

1. 1. “The Lord surfaced their unfavorable comparison of the temple then under construction with the preexilic temple. … Who of you … saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? These questions are essentially rhetorical, causing the people to face openly the fact that their temple was not going to be as splendid as Solomon’s.” ⁸

1. 1. “… They had now hardly applied their hands to the work, when, through the artifice of Satan, such suggestions as these crept in—“What are ye doing, ye miserable men! Ye wish to build a Temple to your God; but what sort of Temple will it be? Certainly it will not be that which all the Prophets have celebrated. For what do we read in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel? Have not all these testified that the Temple which would be rebuilt after our return from Babylonian exile would be more splendid than the other? But we now build a shed. Surely this is done without authority. We do not then fight under the guidance of God; and it would be better for us to leave off the work; for our service cannot be approved of God, except it be founded on his Word. And we see how far this Temple comes short of what God has promised.” We now hence learn, that it was not without reason that Haggai was sent on the eighth day to recover the people from their indifference. And hence also we may learn how necessary it is for us to be constantly stimulated; for Satan can easily find out a thousand impediments, by which he may turn us aside from the right course, except God often repeats his exhortations to keep us awake. Eight days only had elapsed, and the people would have ceased from their work, had not Haggai been sent to encourage them again.”⁹

1. 1. “There is, however, a clear difference between the peoples’ discouragement here and their attitude at the beginning of chapter 1. There it had been apathy and complacency, which needed to be disturbed by words of challenge and rebuke. Here it was crippling despondency, which needed to be met by words of encouragement, and this is what comes next in the flow of the passage.”¹⁰

1. 1. “But we are thus reminded, that we ought always to beware of the intrigues of Satan, when they appear under the cover of truth. When, therefore, our minds are disposed to piety, Satan is ever to be feared, lest he should stealthily suggest to us what may turn us aside from our duty; for we see that some leave the Church because they require in it the highest perfection. They are indignant at vices which they deem intolerable, when they cannot be corrected: and thus, under the pretext of zeal, they separate themselves and seek to form for themselves a new world, in which there is to be a perfect Church; and they lay hold on those passages in which the Holy Spirit recommends purity to the Church, as when Paul says, that it was purchased by Christ, that it might be without spot or wrinkle. As then these are inflamed with a zeal so rigid that they depart from God himself and violate the unity of the Church; so also there are many proud men who despise the Church of God, because it shines not forth among them in great pomp; and they think that God does not dwell in the midst of us, because we are obscure and of no great importance, and also because they regard our few number with contempt.”¹¹

1. In other words, they were missing the point! It’s not the glory of the building that mattered, but the glory of the God who ministered to them in and through that building! They thought because the building wasn’t going to be as majestic, that somehow God and life in Him weren’t as majestic! It seems some thought that the glory of the physical building would limit the ability to know God and bask in His glory. Some may have even longed for the pride and glory of having a majestic temple that the other religions envied as a greater glory than the glory of living in God’s love and favor forever! And this is what points us to a massively important New Testament application.

New Testament Application: The primary way Satan will attempt to discourage our faith is to convince us that things of this world are more glorious than God and all we have in Him through Christ. The following are three examples of the glory we’ve been given through Christ:

In Christ alone we are guaranteed the right to be adopted as God’s fully favored sons and daughters forever!

1. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13)

1. The Gospel makes it clear that those who have repented and believed in Jesus have in their possession the right to be God’s children forever! It wasn’t by anything we accomplished, but totally by His love and the justification we have through the cross of Christ. We received it through our faith, but it was accomplished by His GRACE alone.

1. Furthermore, if you repented and believed in Jesus, God didn’t bring you into His Kingdom as a guest or an employee, but as one of His fully favored children forever! It’s why Paul wrote,

1. 1. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:4-7)

1. 1. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

1. I’m not quite sure what in this world we could ever compare to the GLORY of getting to be a fully favored son or daughter of God forever, but just in case you think you can come up with something, let’s look at another example of the glory we’ve been given through Christ.

In Christ alone we are guaranteed the right to experience perfect eternal peace, joy, and love with God and all who are in Him forever.

1. 1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. … 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:1-3, 22-23)

1. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

1. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4)

1. Now again, I’m not quite sure what in this world we could ever compare to the GLORY of being guaranteed the perfect experience of peace, joy, and love with God and all who are in Him forever. But let me share one more example of the glory we have been guaranteed in Christ.

In Christ alone we are guaranteed the right to be a part of the most glorious family ever!

1. One of the ways we experience glory from the world is when our achievements give us the right to be a part of something the world praises. For instance, there is a certain glory when a person earns a degree from a prestigious university. It’s pretty cool to say you’re an alumnus of any engineering school, but if you graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), then you are a part of the most renowned engineering alums in the world! If a person says they got an engineering degree from NC State or VT, people say, "Man, that’s really cool,” but if a person says they got an engineering degree from MIT, then immediately it's assumed they are one of the best engineers in the world! My point is that the glory of the institution becomes the glory of those who earn the right to be in it.

1. Now, when it comes to the church, Christ is the only one who could earn the right for us to be in it because it’s the most glorious institution in the universe!! Listen to how John described the vision of the church God gave him,

1. 9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement. 18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. 22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21:9-27)

1. Everything you just read is John’s Holy Spirit-inspired, infallible effort to describe just how glorious the bride of Christ is—the CHURCH! The gates are the way into the city, and that’s exactly what God did with the twelve tribes of Israel. He used them to bring us Jesus and the New Covenant. The foundation of the church is the teaching of the Apostles (Ephesians 2:20)—the Gospel! The church is a grand, majestic perfectly constructed city that needs no sun for light because Christ perfectly abides in His perfectly sanctified and pure Church (Ephesians 5:25-33).

1. The point is, there is no rational way we could ever deduce that there is anything more glorious than Christ’s church, and yet, in Christ, we who have no right to be in it are given the eternal right to be in it forever, not as guests or employees but as fully favored sons and daughters of the King!

Therefore, if we have been given this much glory forever through Christ, it begs the question: how are we responding to Him because of it? Specifically,

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Challenge:

What does the use of your time, talent, and money say about how much you prioritize God and His work to prosper HIS eternal life in your family, community, and the rest of the world in and through your local church?

The bottom line is this. We invest our time, talent, and money in what we feel gives us the greatest experience of glory! When you look at your calendar, the use of your abilities, and where you invest your money, you will see where and how you believe glory is experienced.

The way the world works, you’re going to have to spend more time and investments of your talents at work than you do anywhere else, but how big a priority is Jesus in your work; that is, how big of a deal is it to you to live missionally in the context of those you work with? Is work just a place to earn money, or the mission field God gave you while you earn money?

Do you spend more money and use more of your time and talents to find and experience glory in your hobbies, vacations, and unnecessary earthly possessions than you do in the work of God in and through your local church to reach your family, community, and the people around the world? If you do, there is a STRONG likelihood it’s because that’s actually the glory you love more; that is what you believe offers you more glory than God and His work in and through your local church!

When it comes to the church, we have to know Satan is going to constantly try and convince us that true glory is in the things of this world and thus prioritizing your time, talent, and money into those things makes more sense. Satan wants us to believe that the power, influence, and possession of this world is really what brings the experience of glory into our lives! I mean, why would you want to prioritize anything in and through your local church when what the world has to offer is so much more amazing to you!

But Jesus said,

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

Jesus taught us to put our time, talent, and MONEY where it gets glorified and blessed rather than rusted and rotted; to put it in His Kingdom instead of this world where thieves break in and steal it! Jesus was LITERALLY talking about our money in that statement, but if you know anything about the Gospel, you know that He taught the exact same thing about our time and talents as well! It’s why Jesus told a man who was unwilling to leave his profession, sell all he had, and follow Him that he couldn’t be saved (Matthew 19:16-22). It’s why Jesus told another man wanting to be a part of his dad’s funeral that it was more important to take advantage of the opportunity he had right then to leave with Jesus and go preach the Gospel with Him (Luke 9:59-60). It’s why Jesus told yet another man that he wasn’t fit to be in the Kingdom of God because he wanted to go say bye to some people first rather than leave with Jesus to go labor with Him while he had the guaranteed opportunity to do so (Luke 9:61-62).

In each case, the unwillingness to surrender their time, talent, and treasure to Christ was a testimony of what they truly found glory in and thus had surrendered it to!

Fast forward to our day. Most Christians don’t believe the work of God in and through their local church is glorious enough to commit what the Bible considers the, “you don’t even have to think about it,” starter-level of giving—tithing (giving 10% of all you make to the work of the Lord in and through your local church)! The idea of being abundant, generously free, cheerful givers is absurd because most Christians won’t even get started with the entry-level, pre-Mosaic law, starting point of giving that God created as a universal law in the very beginning!

Most American Christians invest far more of their time, talent, and money in hobbies and non-necessities for living than they do in the cause of Christ.

For instance, the average American Christian spends more money on coffee than they do on the work of Christ in and through their local church, meaning their money says they find more glory in coffee than they do in the work of Christ!

“In 2021 the average family in your church gave $910 a year to their church. By 2024 that number had dropped to $600. That is a 34% collapse in three years. And the part that should keep every pastor up at night is that half of the families who gave anything in 2021 gave absolutely nothing in 2024.”¹²

In 2025, the average American spends $21 a week on coffee while the average churchgoer spends $17 a week on church!¹³

So be honest with yourself about what you believe offers you the greatest glory. Have the courage to look at how you invest your time, talents and money. Obviously, you have to work a full-time job to provide for your family, but that doesn’t mean you can’t live full-time for Jesus! Obviously, there is nothing wrong with hobbies, vacations, and buying things you enjoy having and using that aren’t needs in life. The problem is when all of those things become less important than the family God saved you to be in forever; less important than involving you and your household in building relationships with others in your eternal family, serving others in that family, and laboring with them to bring the life of Christ to your community and around the world! The problem is when our financial investment into the most glorious thing in the universe (The Church) becomes an afterthought rather than an intentional effort! Therefore, sit down with your family and close friends in Christ and have an honest conversation about what your calendar, use of your gifts, and your money say about what you truly believe has the most glory, and then respond to God accordingly! Ask God to give you a vision and understanding of real glory, His glory, and the faith to flee the lies of Satan that want you to trust in and long for the things of this world more than the Creator of this world!

Do THIS!

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Discussion Guide

-What is something that discourages you to the point of quitting?

-What motivates you to start something difficult?

The first part of Haggai’s second sermon (2:1-3) provides every follower of Christ with three important reminders:

The timing of the second sermon reminds us that it doesn’t take long to start getting discouraged in your faith. (2:1)
-How do seasons affect you?-What is a ‘season or timing’ that often prompts you to start over or start new?-What is a commitment you made that you could track back to a changing ‘season’ in your life, and what became of that commitment?
The audience of the second sermon reminds us that everybody’s faith can get discouraged. (2:2)
-How have you overcome a ‘season’ of doubt related to your faith?-Discuss 2 Timothy 2:13: -How does God’s faithfulness affect your faith?

-What’s a promise of God you’ve learned (or been reminded of) recently?
The rebuke in the second sermon reminds us we can forget how glorious God and all we have in Him is! (2:3)-Besides your salvation, what is something God has done for you, in you, or through you that you would never have thought possible?

New Testament Application: The primary way Satan will attempt to discourage our faith is to convince us that things of this world are more glorious than God and all we have in Him through Christ. The following are three examples of the glory we’ve been given through Christ:

In Christ alone we are guaranteed the right to be adopted as God’s fully favored sons and daughters forever! (John 1:12-13, Galatians 4:4-7, Ephesians 1:3-6)-Name a few differences between a creation of God and a child of Go-Someone describe a distinct change in your life since becoming a child of God?
In Christ alone we are guaranteed the right to experience perfect eternal peace, joy, and love with God and all who are in Him forever. (John 17:1-3, 22-23, Ephesians 1:13-14, Revelation 21:3-4)-Read John 17:1-3, 22-23 together-What is the glory He has given to us?
In Christ alone we are guaranteed the right to be a part of the most glorious family ever! (Revelation 21:9-27)-As a group, write 1 sentence that summarizes God’s Glory-Discuss the Challenge in light of you being part of the most glorious family ever

Challenge: What does the use of your time, talent, and money say about how much you prioritize God and His work to prosper HIS eternal life in your family, community, and the rest of the world in and through your local church? (Matthew 6:19-21)

Other Scriptures Referenced: Haggai 1:1-4, 6, 9, 2 Timothy 2:13, 1 John 4:10

*Discuss the Objective of the Month

Download: Notes Bulletin

Haggai | Do This | Living in His Glory!

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