⁷ This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. ⁸ Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. ⁹ “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. ¹⁰ Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. ¹¹ I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.” Haggai 1: 7-11

Are you building God’s house or are you busy building your own? The book of Haggai tells us the consequences of neglecting God’s house, and we see this reality unfold in our lives. Verse 6 reads, “You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” That feeling of never being satisfied… That feeling of never quite making it… That feeling of always coming up short… These feelings are the evidence you have been focused on building your own home instead of God’s.

“You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away.” You planned and prepared, and you did everything humanly possible. You expected great things, but it turned out to be a little. Or you lose because of something out of your control. God “blew away” whatever success you experienced in your professional or personal life. Or maybe it’s an existential crisis, the general feeling that your life is not going the way it should, and you feel helpless. Whatever the case, if you feel unsatisfied or so-called “natural causes” have caused doom in your life, look at yourself. Have you spent your entire life building your own home and neglecting God’s home?

“I’m still young. I’ve got time to repent.” Ten years fly by. Your youth and good health are like a mist that appears and then vanishes. Before you know it, you’ve built nothing and lost everything. You had all these plans, but it never quite pans out because God curses you. The heavens have “withheld their dew,” and God calls for a drought. How can you fight against this? Recognize that our time on earth is short. We had all these plans to get rich and be happy, but we’re miserable. Before any more time passes, we need to start building God’s house right now!

What does it mean to build God’s house? If we divide ourselves into three parts – mind, body, and spirit- our spirit is already God’s house. We need to pay attention to our minds and bodies. We need these places to be God’s houses. In other words, we must make the right accommodations so God can live inside our minds and bodies. How can God live in a mind and body that Satan rules? How can God live inside of us when we have evil thoughts and do evil things? Let’s try to do three things to become a place where God can dwell.

One. We need to be free of sin. We must do everything we can not to sin. We must make an effort not to sin with our thoughts, intentions, and motivations. This is hard. Without God’s help, it’s impossible, but we must consciously say to ourselves, “My mind is the house of God. My mind needs to be a place where God can dwell.” So we must control our thoughts and desires.

We must make an effort not to sin with our eyes, ears, hands, and feet. In other words, we must have our bodies clean enough for God to reside. How many times do we look at things we should not be looking at? How many times do we listen to things we should be listening to? How many times do we touch or do things we know are against God? All these things amount to God not living inside of us. It’s not His house, so why should He spend any time there?

Two. Once we make an effort not to sin, the Holy Spirit comes to us, and we are compelled to live righteously. The second part of building God’s house is to obey His commands and live according to His word. While the first step requires shunning away evil and not sinning, the second stage is a call to righteous action. Do what is Godly! Do what is righteous!

Three. Once we stop sinning and act righteously, we reconcile with God. We become one with Him. It’s no longer an active or passive relationship. We move together. The last stage of becoming God’s house is complete reconciliation with God.

When should we start building God’s house? Right now! Do not procrastinate or put it off. Start building God’s house right now. Stop sinning. Act righteously. Become one with God. Turn your mind and body into places where God can reside. When we lay the first stone in the Lord’s temple, see how your life changes! From that moment, God blesses you. “From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid.”

Lay that first brick right now. There’s no time to lose! Become the house of God. Become a place where God can reside. If God lives inside of us, who or what can do us harm? If we are God’s house, He blesses everything we do! So do not waste time and lay that first brick because God says, “From this day on I will bless you.”

Click for Korean sermon https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1985-3-10a https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1985-3-13-long