41. The Christian Spending Scandal
Whose house are you building?

In Your Bible Read This
vz37/zAggei01.htm">Haggai chapters 1 and vz37/zAggei02.htm">2

Here Is Your Memory Verse
I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come,
and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD Almighty. vz37/zAggei02.htm#7">Haggai 2.7

Meditate Word By Word On This Verse
vz38/zZakha04.htm#6">Zechariah 4.6

Spend a Minute to Change the World
Pray For Benin - 5,500,000 West African peoples
55% animists and voodoo, the churches are growing well

The prophetic book of Haggai gives God's clear direction for the building of his Kingdom, even and especially today.

Background To Haggai
In 538 BC Cyrus, the King of Persia allowed God's exiled people to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple. You can read this in Ezra. Zerubbabel and 50,000 people returned, and within two years they completed the foundation. There was great rejoicing but the Samaritans, who had moved in during the exile, felt threatened and politically they stopped the rebuilding until Darius, who liked religions, came to power in 522 BC. After then God's people were to blame for the inactivity, and Haggai and Zechariah began to preach to rouse them, until in 516 BC the job was finished.

Today the command to build the Kingdom of God worldwide is called the Great Commission. The same lessons apply.

A. Is It The Time Of God?

The people kept saying, "the time has not yet come." There are two Bible words for time, chronos and kairos. Chronos is the time on your wristwatch, but kairos, which is the word the Lord uses, means a moment of divine opportunity. The people were saying then, and some are still saying today, "there is nothing going on, let's live for ourselves": vz37/zAggei01.htm#2">Haggai 1.2.

What Is Going On Today?

• Between 1780 till 1900 the gospel spread into much of the world.
• Between 1900 and 1996, half of all people that have ever been saved came to know the Lord, and half of those have been saved since 1950.
• The pentecostal and charismatic renewals have reached every nation on earth.
• Today nearly 2,000,000,000 men and women are following Jesus and over 70,000 people decide to follow Jesus every day, and 59,000 of those become Spirit-filled believers.
• This is explosive growth, the world's biggest social movement, but some people still dare to say that now is not the time, the kairos, to make an effort for God.

What's The Problem?
The Lord put his finger on the real problem. The people were using God's resources to build comfortable houses for themselves whilst his house remained a ruin. In those days it was wood that was in short supply, today it is funds and workers for the gospel: vz37/zAggei01.htm#4">Haggai 1.4 and 9.

Can You Believe This?
It is a well researched fact that the western Christian world spends:

99.9% of all its income on itself.

Only 0.09% on evangelism

And just 0.01% on doing mission to unreached peoples.

The Lord points out that as much as people spend money on themselves, nothing satisfies: vz37/zAggei01.htm#6">Haggai 1.6. He told them four times to consider how poorly they had fared despite taking all the prosperity for themselves. God told them to end this scandal and build his house: vz37/zAggei01.htm#8">1.8-11.

If we are spending less of our money and energy on others than on ourselves...
(One or more of the following answers may be correct:)
1. God will certainly bless us, because he is a loving and merciful God.
True / False.

2. we are breaking the commandment to love our neighbor as much as ourselves.
True / False.

3. God will not be able to bless us, if we are neglecting to love our neighbor as ourselves.
True / False.

4. it is OK, if we have to build our house and furnish it before we can care for others.
True / False.

B. They Heard The Voice Of The Lord.

Hearing always means obeying as well, see nz06/zIakov01.htm#22">James 1.22-25. In Haggai's day the leaders obeyed, and all the people too: vz37/zAggei01.htm#12">1.12. The Bible says in nz05/zDeani05.htm#32">Acts 5.32 that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey him, and so it was here: vz37/zAggei02.htm#5">2.5-7.

5. In Haggai's day, when the people heard the word of the Lord and obeyed...
(Only one of the following answers is correct:)
they felt they had done their duty, and got on with their lives.
nothing special happened, so they forgot about it.
then even other nations got involved, and God filled his house with his glory.

C. God Did His Own Work Too.

God declared, "I am with you," and he did what only God can do because our obedience brings action. He stirred, or roused the spirit of the political Governor into action and excited the High Priest and all the people, and they began to work on God's house: vz37/zAggei01.htm#13">Haggai 1.13-15; vz38/zZakha04.htm#6">Zecharaiah 4.6. God told the Governor, the High Priest and all the people not to fear, but to be strong and work because he was with them: vz37/zAggei02.htm#1">Haggai 2.1-5.

6. God will do what only God can do, but only when you do what you should do: he won't force you.
True / False.

A Prophetic Promise
Then God promised something which has never been more true than today, saying that he would shake the heavens and the earth. When God shakes the heavens and rattles the dominating powers of darkness it is not long before earth feels the effects: vz37/zAggei02.htm#6">2.6. We have had a century of shaking on the earth with once-unassailable governments, nations, banks and even major forces like communism collapsing, and it is still happening all the while.

7. Which empires have collapsed in the last century?
(Only one of the following answers is correct:)
The Babylonian, Assyrian and Egyptian empires.
The Ottoman, Russian, Austrian, German, Dutch, British, French, Japanese and communist empires.
The Greek, Roman and Mongolian empires.

---

D. Look Who Is Coming!

Then the desired of all nations will come. Many take this to mean that Jesus, who is the desire of his people in every nation, will return, and he surely will, but the verb used is actually a plural verb.

The Desired Will Come
This means that the 'desired ones,' that is, the ones that Jesus desires such as the 1.2 billion Chinese, India's peoples, the Arabs, the proud westerners and even the most unreached nomadic tribes will come in God's kairos time.

8. God is starting to shake up all nations because he desires them to come to him.
True / False.

The final difficult message of Haggai is that touching something holy does not make you holy, only sin is that contagious. Equally, knowing all about the Great Commission doesn't make you a Kingdom builder, because the power is not in the knowing but in the going: vz37/zAggei02.htm#10">2.10-18.

9. The concept of contagion teaches us that...
(Only one of the following answers is correct:)
sin and evil are contagious, so avoid them like the plague.
holiness is contagious: if your parents were godly, you will get along fine.
contact with a holy person or thing will sanctify a defiled thing.

E. Is There Any Seed Left In The Barn?

If life has not been satisfying, consider your ways and build God's house today through prayer, going, sending and giving. You may not have born fruit for Jesus up to now, but if you will empty your barn, God's promise is "from this day I will bless you": vz37/zAggei02.htm#15">2.15-19.

10. If your life has been barren and unproductive (see Hag. 2.15-19), you need to...
(Only one of the following answers is correct:)
tear down your barn and build bigger barns.
think carefully about your service to God, then act on it.
go visit a doctor or counsellor to seek comfort for your soul.

Something To Do Before Next Time
In a team, discover your different practical skills and do something to improve
or repair either your church building or that of another, poorer church nearby.

Written Diploma Work
Write a one page essay (six of these windows) to explain
what vz37/zAggei01.htm#6">Haggai 1.6 might mean in practical daily life today.