Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20040307.htm

SAMPLING GOD'S "FEAR NOTS"
Part X: God's Solution For The Fear Of Financial Failure
(Haggai 1:1-2:19)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Financial anxiety -- it can afflict us at the personal level as well as hurt us at the group level:

(1) We found in recent years that we can be tempted to feel anxious over finances in our Church life:

(a) Last year, we met in several congregational meetings to talk about our Church's finances. Our giving had not matched our Church budget since our numbers were down as some had reacted to the ministry of the truth by leaving us. You will recall people at the time were privately expressing concern about our future as a Church.

(b) That is why several Church members then privately asked me what I would do if the Church failed to pay my salary! I replied I was trusting God's prophetic word given for today's pastors in Revelation 3:20. As I taught a few years back in the lesson, "Christ's Scripture Prophecy On Contemporary Evangelicalism," I believe Revelation 3:20 directs us by way of word usage to other Scripture passages; these reveal a pastor in today's Evangelical church who has not been adequately paid due to people leaving the Church over reactions to his ministry and teaching is not to fret or complain, but wait upon God for deliverance. God warns him against moving on his own to another job for financial security! So, trusting in God's promise in Revelation 3:20, and aware God had not led me elsewhere, I told these church members God would meet my needs if I obeyed His leading to keep on pastoring the flock of God at Nepaug Bible Church.

(2) Besides our Church life, financial anxiety can afflict us on the personal level! Believers have many times shared with me their difficulties in finding jobs or gaining adequate income, and in the battle of faith regarding God's help with their livelihood needs. The stock market dropped in the last few years with the largest downturn since World War II, and it has helped fuel the problem.



So, though we KNOW we are not supposed to "worry" about anything (Philippians 4:6), and that God will meet all our material needs according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19), WHY do we at times feel ANXIOUS over FINANCIAL matters? Is there something GOD is trying to TELL us? IF so, WHAT?!



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "Though Philippians 4:6 tells us to be anxious for nothing' and though Philippians 4:19 promises God will meet our financial needs, whether I view my own needs or the financial needs of the Church, I admit I worry! Why is this so, and what is the solution?!"
  1. When the Hebrew exiles returned to Canaan from the Babylonian Captivity, they struggled with ANXIETY over FINANCES:
    1. The returned exiles worried over their personal finances, Haggai 1:6:
      1. The prophet, Haggai ministered to the Hebrew exiles who returned to Canaan from the Babylonian Captivity (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., p. 1306, "Introduction to the Book of Haggai").
      2. He revealed they had financial problems and resulting anxieties:
        1. The people of God experienced inadequate income, Hag. 1:6a,b.
        2. They also faced inflationary problems with the money they had: Haggai said it was like dropping coins into a bag with holes, 6c.
    2. The returned exiles also struggled with anxiety regarding the financial needs of the temple where they worshipped God, Haggai 2:1-3, 5b:
      1. The post-exilic temple was "smaller and less magnificent" than the temple made by Solomon, Ibid., Ryrie, footnote to Ezra 3:12.
      2. Thus, when the temple foundation was laid 15 years before under Ezra's leadership and when the temple was finally finished under Haggai's ministry, those who had seen Solomon's temple grieved at the less grand temple they beheld, Ibid., Haggai 2:1-3; Ezra 3:12.
      3. We conclude from God's call for these people to "fear not" while viewing the less-grand temple that they saw their modest temple as an omen of possible organizational failure to come, Haggai 2:5b!
  2. In REALITY, the FEAR God's people felt came from WRONG PRIORITIES they had with their FINANCES:
    1. The materialism of pagan Babylon had rubbed off on the Hebrew exiles when they were back in Babylon, causing God's people to misuse their finances for selfish indulgence and secular fulfillment:
      1. In Haggai's era, the prophet, Zechariah spoke of materialism in the returned exiles by a vision of evil symbolized in a container used in commercial trade, Zech. 5:5-11; Bible. Know. Com., O.T., p. 1557.
      2. In Zechariah's vision, the container is symbolically returned to Babylon to show the returned Hebrew exiles had adopted a materialistic value system while in Babylon, a value system they should have rejected, or returned to Babylon, Zech. 5:9-11; Ibid.
      3. Their materialism was displayed in various vices: the returned exiles stole from each other by bad business deals (Zech. 5:3), they lavished money on luxurious homes (Hag. 1:4) and enslaved fellow Hebrews who owed them money to pay off their debts (Neh. 5:5).
      4. However, God wanted their wealth to be used to finish building His temple, not to indulge in life's material pleasures, Hag. 1:2-4.
      5. So, their money problems were God's discipline for such blatant materialism, Haggai 1:5-6, 9-11.
    2. Their materialistic OUTLOOK had ALSO led to unnecessary anxiety about the temple's FUTURE (as follows):
      1. Since how rich the temple looked was the (materialistic) cause for how spiritually secure they felt , some who had seen Solomon's temple wept in seeing the new one, Ezra 3:12; Haggai 2:3.
      2. Accordingly, God worked to encourage His people to "fear not" when they beheld this lesser temple, Haggai 2:5c; the materially lesser temple did NOT prove God's program for them would fail!
  3. Accordingly, GOD revealed the need for His people to ALIGN their PRIORITIES regarding MATERIAL THINGS with His WILL so GOD that might BLESS them by providing ALL the material GOODS they NEEDED to DO His WILL:
    1. Regarding their personal finances, God called His people to use their money to finish the temple construction and He would relieve them of their personal financial troubles, Haggai 1:7-8; 2:15-19.
    2. Regarding the future of their temple worship, God called His people to trust His coming provision; God would bless the temple area with greater glory than even Solomon's former temple (fulfilled in Christ's coming and establishing the Millennial temple), Haggai 2:5, 6-9:
Application: If suffering from anxiety over finances, (1) trust in Christ as Savior to come under God's "much more care", John 1:11-13; Romans 8:31-32. (2) Then, if anxious about finances as a believer, (a) repent from materialistically viewing money as the key to fulfillment, and (b) USE what we currently have to HEED God's WILL; (c) as it was in Haggai's day, so we will see God QUICKLY address our financial needs and relieve our fear, be it at the personal level or at the group level as a Church body!

Lesson: When God's people thought their HAPPINESS relied on what their MONEY could BUY, they were materialistic, so God disciplined them with financial LOSS that led to great ANXIETY. GOD thus called His people to use their MONEY to DO His WILL so He would RELEASE them from such financial problems and relieve them of financial anxiety!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 During the last week of February, a believer innocently called to tell me a joke in which Christians communicate with each other using Bible phrases. One of the phrases was from Revelation 3:20.

Well, because of what that verse means to me, I just couldn't laugh at the joke! You recall from this sermon's introduction that I believe Revelation 3:20 is prophecy that is being fulfilled today: God there calls for Evangelical era pastors who see their various churches' offerings shrink as some negatively respond to their ministry of God's truth and even leave the church. Revelation 3:20 then urges pastors not to react by taking some other job or by pressuring God's flock for pay, but gently and faithfully to keep feeding them God's Word. God then promises to enter such pastors' lives in rewarding ways and give them great truths to teach, and God will then meet all their livelihood needs.

Since I have entrusted my financial security to heeding that interpretation of that verse for the recent years our Church has known financial challenges, you can understand why I could not laugh at this Christian's innocent effort to liven up my day by sharing a joke that used a phrase from Revelation 3:20! I later explained this to the party!

Then, on February 29th, last Sunday, our Church offering was over $12,000! That was the largest Sunday offering in my 22 years at Nepaug Church! As He has so faithfully done the last few years that I have lived in faith on my understanding of that verse, God had again fulfilled His Revelation 3:20 promises: He had wonderfully entered my life, equipping and moving parties to give that great offering in support of my testimony given just days before on God's role to fulfill that very verse in such a wonderful way in my life!

Finally, in accord with my words last Sunday regarding this current sermon series on "Sampling God's Fear Nots'", I taught the content of this message 14 years ago as part of an Adult Sunday School lesson series on "Sampling God's Fear Nots'"! I am now repeating that lesson content to you in the same order found in those original lessons! God has then gone out of His way THIS week to fulfill Revelation 3:20 both for my sake as WELL as for YOURS!

GOD wants US ALL to handle any FINANCIAL FEARS we have by putting HIS WILL FIRST with our FINANCES; HE will THEN BLESS us FINANCIALLY, and CALM our ANXIETIES!