9-15-19 Grace-Tucson Sermon

10 For 10: Open Hearts September 15, 2019 Firstfruits Giving Does Not Make Sense Haggai 1:1-11 1) God Makes Much Into Little 2) God Makes Nothing Into Everything It just doesn’t make sense. Aren’t there plenty of times in life when the things don’t go as expected. “He was a good kid from a good family. How did he get hooked on heroin?” “He was a hardworking family man who just celebrated his 20th anniversary. How could he just walk out of their lives like that?” “She took such good care of herself—no family history. But breast cancer? What a mess…”

We don’t expect these things to happen, they don’t make sense.

We wish that life would make sense, that there was some law of nature, a scientific breakthrough, or a Google search that will explain everything. But many of us know there are plenty of times when life refuses to make sense. What sense is there to a hatred like that of Hitler and his concentration camps? The abuse of a child? Sudden sickness after a lifetime of health? These things just don’t make sense.

1) God Make Much Into Little It doesn’t make sense. At least some of the Old Testament Israelites must have been thinking that as they were taken into captivity in Babylon. Their capital city of Jerusalem had been destroyed and with it their homes and lives. Weren’t they supposed to be God’s chosen people? Then why the war and destruction and death and deportation? It didn’t make any sense. 70 years later when the Israelites returned to Jerusalem, they must have been thinking the same thing. The Holy City of Jerusalem looked like a ghost town, walls and gates broken and crumbling, the temple courts that once were filled with people and singing were now a silent ruin of rubble overgrown with weeds. But the Israelites of Haggai’s day decided to roll up their sleeves and put some sense back into life. They rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls.

They installed a new altar on the Temple Mount. They dug a little deeper and laid the foundations for a brand-new temple.

But you know how people are. They soon lost interest in rebuilding the temple and began to pay attention to building projects that made more sense: their own houses. Why should they prioritize precious time and money building God’s house when their own houses needed work? Because this makes sense: a happy wife means a happy life! If we take care of ourselves now, then we’ll be in a better 1

10 For 10: Open Hearts September 15, 2019 position to give to God later. But you know how people are…the “later” rarely comes. After laying the temple’s foundations, almost 15 years went by before any real progress on the temple itself.

That’s where the Prophet Haggai comes in and proclaims a message that, humanly speaking, doesn’t seem to make sense: “‘Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house [the temple] remains a ruin?’

Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways…You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house.’” (Haggai 1:4-5, 9) The Israelites, it turns out, were preaching a sermon about personal priorities with their paneled houses and their procrastination with God’s house.

Self first; God second. In other words, giving to God first didn’t make sense to them.

Do we ever think like the Israelites of old? Charles Schwab tells us that if I pay myself first and invest it carefully, I get more money. But if I give money away, I have less money. That’s the way money works, right? If I prioritize my Lord with firstfruits giving, then doesn’t that mean that every other area of my life will suffer? Or if I give away my time, talents, and treasures, then doesn’t that mean I have less for myself and what I love? And we all know that the American dream is that I have more than what mom and dad had.

It’s true. Humanly speaking, giving to God doesn’t make sense. It’s also true that the default mode of our sinful nature is to keep stuff for ourselves so we can have a sense of security or gaze upon it in selfish satisfaction. This is exactly what the foolish rich man did in our Gospel reading from Luke chapter 12. We call it the good life; God calls it greed. We call it being sensible; God calls it sin.

Did you notice in Haggai’s sermon how the Lord reverses our excuses for not giving? “You plant much, and harvest little... Eat and drink, but aren’t satisfied.... Clothed, but not warm... Money is placed into a purse with holes...

Much, turns out to be little.” (Haggai 1:6, 9) The people had less because they gave little. And God himself was seeing to that one drought and one hole-filled purse at a time. Think about it: the God that once fed 5,000 plus hungry stomachs using only a boy’s picnic lunch is the same God who can ensure that a stockpile of stuff won’t make ends meet.

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10 For 10: Open Hearts September 15, 2019 Does Haggai’s message resonate with us this morning? Let’s try running some of Haggai’s ideas through some modern-day prayers: • Dear Lord, I thank you for the jobs through which you have provided for me and my family. You have caused my income to grow over the years and continue to bless me in ever-increasing ways. And I gladly give to you the same amount that I have been giving since I first began giving offerings years ago.

• Dear Lord, I thank you for allowing me to finally be debt free while Grace carefully counts its pennies to break even on its ministry spending plan for 2019. Amen.

• Dear Lord, I thank you for the 4% growth in our country’s economy. Now if Pastor would just hit the nail on the head with this money sermon that would be great. But I already know in my heart that I’m not going to give a nickel more—no matter what the Bible says about firstfruits giving. Amen.

Those prayers don’t sound quite right when we say them out loud. In a notso-subtle way, we too are preaching a sermon with our paneled houses on the one hand and our procrastination for God’s work on the other hand. Giving to God first doesn’t make sense to us either.

Haggai’s words might make us wonder about things we hear in the news.

For instance, the latest unemployment rate in our country is 3.7%, about the lowest it’s been since the summer of 1969. God has richly blessed America! And then you consider something like how last year’s estimated U.S. video game revenue was $31.5 billion dollars. (https://www.statista.com/statistics/500070/gaming-revenuenorth-america/) Record low unemployment. Expendable income to spend $31.5 billion dollars on video games. Meanwhile, the national average of offerings across our country, including our Wisconsin Lutheran church body, remains flat at 2.5%.

This makes perfect sense—but only if God is not in first place in our hearts.

2) God Makes Nothing Into Everything Now consider this: Do you think that God let the Israelites who generously gave to the temple in Haggai’s day freeze to death back home? Of course not! Why could the Israelites do what makes no sense and give so confidently to the Lord and his work? Because they believed in a God who gave himself completely for us.

Get this: It’s not our giving that doesn’t make sense. It’s God’s giving that doesn’t. That the Holy One of Israel would give himself completely for us sinful ones of America makes no sense whatsoever. That’s why it’s called grace. And 3

10 For 10: Open Hearts September 15, 2019 God’s grace is simply amazing. Jesus didn’t give 10% of himself for you. He was in it 110% for you and your salvation! What dedication to your salvation did it take for Jesus to leave the streets of heavenly gold for the cow manure of Bethlehem’s barn? How much was Jesus willing to give up for us, not even having a house to call a home or a pillow to rest his head upon! How full is Jesus’ sacrifice for your forgiveness as he goes all the way to the cross for you! He didn’t swipe a Visa card for you. He shed his precious blood to redeem you and adopt you into his heavenly family as his own sons and daughters through faith.

The One who willingly made himself nothing for us on the cross is our everything. In Christ, God graciously gives us all things. The one who said: “I thirst” (John 19:28) is the one who washed you clean in baptism. The one who cried out “Why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46) is precisely the one who will never leave you or forsake you. The one who prayed “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11) is the same one who opens his hands and satisfies your desires. Should we trust a God like that? Yes and we should thank God that we can trust him like that.

This big issue before us today is this: Is our relationship with our Savior a priority? Or is it just another hobby? To help you find out, try this: go home and spend a prayerful half hour with your latest bank statement. Look at the numbers and see if you can spot where your priorities in reality are landing. The numbers won’t lie. Then take time to pray about what you find—and what you don’t find.

Let's open our eyes and see the harvest. The blessings are right here before us! There is no question that our community is ripe for aggressive gospel ministry.

The question is not one of resources, but of our resolve. Where is the Lord and his work on our list of personal priorities? Is he a firstfruits priority? Or is he a leftovers hobby? Will we yearn for nice paneled houses? Or do we desire to make a real, eternal difference?

My prayer for us this morning is that Haggai’s message opens your heart in a major way this week. We worship a God who knows how to make much into little because of our greed; and nothing into everything due to his grace. We worship the ultimate Giver. God gave us his first—Jesus, the Firstborn over all creation. God gave us his best—his Son, in whom he is well-pleased. In Christ, God graciously gives us all things. Our God is faithful. Trust in him. Bank on his promises. And then get busy—not by building a new house—but by filling this current one up! Amen.

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