Finding Strength to Build

Prayer:
May we hear with an understanding heart so that we can apply Your Word to our lives in obedience. Arouse every faint heart and sleepy spirit. We know Satan seeks to steal Your Word from our hearts to render us fruitless, so we pray You to bind that wicked One so that your Word may have free course and be glorified, that we all might find the strength to build our lives, our homes, and our church for your glory.
Why build when things look hopeless? Why build when you are depleted of strength? Why build when it looks like you do not have the resources to finish? Where will you find strength to build?
I will tell you why we must build: God says through Haggai, “mine house …is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house” (1:9). My house is waste, in ashes, and in ruins! God’s house is waste! Does that do anything to your soul? God’s house is waste! What if your house went on fire and was waste? Would you just let it sit there? Where will you find strength to build?
Last week, we looked at the phrase, “consider your ways.” I said that it means to set your heart, or your soul, on your way. Haggai told them to consider their ways and build the house to the Lord. The LORD stirred up the spirit of the leaders and the people and they did work in the house of the LORD.
Your body, your home, and this church are God’s house. We need to build these things for His glory. Where will you find strength to build?
Circumstances will always arise to hinder our doing the work of God.
Today I continue this theme with the emphasis upon being STRONG. If we are going to continue doing and being what we ought, we need this inner strength.
Three times in Haggai 2:4 the prophet says to “Be strong.” This word means to act with courage. This word for strong is also translated “harden.” We need to be strong IN THE LORD, that is, hardened to face hardship so that we do not quit or faint.
Whenever you begin to work for God, the danger of discouragement becomes a reality. It takes great strength to live out the Christian life. I do not speak of mere physical strength, but I do speak of inner strength.
It takes great inner strength to live out the Word of God.
It takes great inner strength to love your neighbor.
It takes great inner strength to overcome temptation.
It takes great inner strength to not let your feelings and flesh dominate your actions and attitudes.
It takes great inner strength to worship God faithfully knowing that His glory shall cover the earth.
It doesn’t take any strength to quit, to get discouraged, and to spend my time complaining and comparing.
To find strength to build, we need to live:
Give God PRAISE, Haggai 2:1-3
Let’s read Haggai 2:1. You say, big deal. The seventh month in the one and twentieth day of the month. Just another day, you say. NO. This was a big day in the life of Israel. Let me explain why.
There were three great feasts under the Law of Moses where worshipers journeyed to the temple in Jerusalem: Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Each of these feasts has a New Testament counterpart that is fulfilled by the Gospel. The Passover has its counterpart in the death of Christ. The Christian fulfills the true meaning of the Passover Feast by trusting the blood of Christ to cleanse us of sin. The Day of Pentecost has its New Testament fulfillment in the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. The Christian fulfills the full meaning of Pentecost by walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Feast of Tabernacles fulfillment will take place in the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ, but we can also say that “in the whole life of the Gospel.” Understanding the Feast of Tabernacles is essential to understand the command to Be Strong in Haggai 2, and I will show you why as we proceed.
Living out the purpose of this feast and being strong are connected, and I can even go so far as to say that the secret to finding the strength to build is living out the Feast of Tabernacles in our life. The word of God comes to the nation on the last day of the Feast and the command is to be strong and courageous, based on what God is like. If the people would flesh out in their lives the meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles, they could find the strength to build.
This feast was a time of Rejoicing and PRAISE. Worshipers expressed gratefulness toward God by rejoicing in all He is and has done.
Lev.23:40; And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.
Deut. 16:13a,14, 15c: Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days…and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that is within thy gates. Thou shalt surely rejoice.
During the feast of Tabernacles, Psalms of praise (Psalm 113-118) were read, called the Hallel. We get our word Hallelujah from this word that means PRAISE THE LORD.
This Feast was a time to praise God for His provision and protection in their lives.
How can you find the strength to build your life for His glory, your home for His glory, and this church for His glory? As you live a life of praise and rejoicing. We do not merely have a feast once a year to rejoice, but we live a life of rejoicing.
Phil. 4:4: Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.
This feast taught the people to rejoice in the LORD, not in their circumstances. The people in Haggai’s day complained that things were not like the “good old days.” They did not see the point in continuing because the present temple did not have the glory that Solomon’s temple had. They were humiliated and frustrated when they compared what the dedication of Solomon’s Temple was like. By the way, Solomon’s Temple was dedicated during the Feast of Tabernacles (2 Chronicles 5:3, 14, 2 Chronicles 7:1,8-11). Where was the Shekinah glory cloud of God that prevented the priests from even standing in the temple? Where was the fire that fell from heaven? Where was the gold and silver and the splendour that Solomon’s temple had? Where were the Ark of the Covenant and the tables of stone written with the finger of God? Their temple was as if it did not even exist. They fell into the trap of comparing with how it used to be, and they felt like failures.
The comparing game is a losing game to play. You will never win if you play that game! If you compare your abilities with others, you will become jealous. If you compare your appearance, you will become inferior. If you compare your possessions, you will become envious. If you compare your troubles, you will give in to self-pity. If you compare achievements, you will become anxious.
Refuse to compare, rather give praise to God for who He is and for what he has given. If you live a life of praise, you will have strength to build.
Rather than complain about what we do not have, we must praise God for what He has provided for us. This feast recognized God’s PROVISION. The Feast of Tabernacles marked the end of the agricultural season and demonstrated gratefulness to God for His provision.
Be strong, because God will provide for you! All the gold and silver is God’s. If He wanted the people after exile to have all the gold that Solomon’s temple had, He could have provided. God is not impressed with temples of gold and silver. The Feast of Tabernacles also reminds us that God Himself dwelt in a tent when His people wandered through the wilderness and even during the days of the judges. He desires to have a people who will praise Him for who He is and for what He has done.
How did Solomon build the temple that often bears his name? It was because David his father prepared materials and David his father challenged him to “Be strong and do it” (1 Chron.28:10) and “Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the LORD God, even my God, will be with thee…” (1 Chron.28:20). David prepared with all of his might during prosperous days to amass great amounts of stones, silver, and gold for his son to build the temple.
Should they give up because they did not have all of the gold and silver of Solomon? Should we give up because we do not have a building of brick that we can call our own? No, we must praise God for who He is and for what He has done. Did the building of Solomon’s temple guarantee that the people would walk more perfectly with God? Was God always set apart and glorified in that Temple Solomon built? No and no. Beautiful buildings do not guarantee that God gets the praise that He deserves.
We also need to praise God for His PROTECTION. The people had come out of captivity. They had been forced to quit their work, but God protected them. The Feast of Tabernacles reminds us that God protects his people even in their wilderness journey when they lived in makeshift houses. This feast reminded Israel of their wandering in the wilderness for they made booths. It showed gratefulness for God’s PROTECTION of Israel during their wilderness wandering.
The Feast of Tabernacles reminded the people that God can protect us even when we live in make shift tents!
Lev.23:40; And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.
Not only must we give God praise to find the strength to build, but we must: Live In God’s PRESENCE
This Feast of Tabernacles showed faith in the abiding PRESENCE of God. The people lived in a temporary tent for a week realizing that God lived once in a tent among His people. They lived that week recognizing the presence of God among them. Without the presence of God, life is emptiness. God instituted the tabernacle in the Old Testament to show His people that He was a God who desired to be present among His people.
Exodus 25:8, And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
True strength comes as we recognize His presence. We must have a constant consciousness of God’s presence in order to draw on the power of His Spirit. God has a deep desire to fellowship with us. He has made us that we might enjoy Him.
Haggai 2:4: Be strong, be strong, be strong, says our Triune God three times, for I am with you: according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.
To overcome discouragement, we need to live in His presence. Discouragement is an epidemic among the people of God.
We see even in the Old Testament that the third person of the Tri-Une Godhead is ETERNAL DEITY. The Holy Spirit is a Person co-equal, co-powerful, and co-eternal with the Father and Son. We see that the Holy Spirit’s relationship toward believers during the dispensation of Law was different. The Old Testament saint had the Holy Spirit ABIDING WITH or UPON them. He dwelled among the people as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. We have the Holy Spirit’s presence DWELLING IN US. This does not mean God changes, but His methods of dealing with men in different dispensations does change.
John 14:17, “He dwelleth WITH you and shall be IN you” spells out the different way the Holy Spirit related with God’s people from the Mosaic economy and the present dispensation of the church.
Be strong IN THE LORD, and in the power of His might. Our strength is in HIM, for in Him, when we are weak, yet we are strong.
Zechariah 8:33, Thus saith the LORD: I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth: and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain.
May God anoint us anew with His Spirit today, and may He send us forth to preach the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven! Let us claim our unction from the Holy One, beloved, for the anointing which we have received of him abideth IN you, so we may go forth as more than conquerors through Him that loved us.