August 31, 2025
Teacher: Mike Laughrun
Big Truth:
God calls His people to consider their ways.
Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.
Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.
Haggai 1:5, 7
Jeremiah 29:10
For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place
Isaiah 45:1, 4-5, 13
(1) Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus… (4) For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. (5) I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me… (13) I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways level; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward,” says the LORD of hosts.
Ezra 1:1-2
(1) In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: (2) “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Haggai 1:1
(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
Haggai 1:2
“Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.”
Current Priorities
Haggai 1:3-5
(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? (5) Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.
Current Outcomes
Haggai 1:6-8
(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. (7) “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. (8) Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD.
Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Why had the work of the Lord stopped?
Endless Excuses
Haggai 1:2
“Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.”
What excuse are you telling yourself instead of pursuing faithful obedience to the LORD of Hosts?
External enemies
Ezra 4:1, 4-5
Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the LORD… the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build (5) and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
What obstacle/enemy is hindering you from pursuing faithful obedience to the LORD of Hosts?
Everyday Distractions
Haggai 1:4-5
(4) “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? (5) Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.
Haggai 1:9
(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.
What earthly distraction is hindering you from pursuing faithful obedience to the LORD of Hosts?
How did the leaders and people respond?
Haggai 1:7-8
(7) “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. (8) Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD.
Haggai 1:12-15
(12) Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD. (13) Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD’s message, “I am with you, declares the LORD.” (14) And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, (15) on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
Big Idea:
Prioritize God’s Word alongside God’s people.
Haggai 1:12
(12) Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.
Haggai 1:13
(13) Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD’s message, “I am with you, declares the LORD.”
Big Idea:
Pursue building up the body of Christ.
Haggai 1:14
And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,
Why does the rebuilding of the Temple matter to us today?
Jesus is the greater temple.
Matthew 12:3, 5-6
(3) He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: … (5) Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? (6) I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
Every Jesus follower is a temple.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
(19) Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, (20) for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
The church is a temple.
1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 12:27
(27) Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
The hard work of building the temple is not finished.
Ephesians 2:19-22
(19) So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, (20) having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, (21) in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, (22) in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
What is the work the Lord God of Hosts has assigned to us?
Ephesians 4:11-12
(11) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, (12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
Does our kingdom work now have an impact?
Haggai 2:1-3
(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?
Haggai 2:4-5
(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.
Haggai 2:7-8
(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.
Big Idea:
Faithfully work now looking toward the promise of our coming King.
Haggai 2:9
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.'”
Matthew 12:6
(6) I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.
Zechariah 9:9-10
(9) Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. … and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
1 John 3:2
(2) Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
Revelation 21:1, 3, 22
(1) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more… (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… (22) And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
Talk About It
- What does the temple in the Old Testament represent?
- According to Ephesians 4, what work is every Jesus follower to continually be about?
- What excuses do we commonly make regarding kingdom work?
- What everyday distractions keep us from investing in God’s people, God’s purposes, and God’s kingdom work?
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