We could all use a lesson on working together in harmony with others and getting Kingdom work done. You’d be hard-pressed to find a species on God’s green earth that does that better than bees. A honey bee colony typically consists of three kinds of adult bees: workers, drones, and a queen. Several thousand worker bees cooperate in building their nest and food collection. God’s work should be done like a bee hive of working bees. Speaking of bees…

A true story is told of an unemployed cleaning woman who noticed a few bees buzzing around the attic of her home. There were only a few, so she kept delaying to take action. Over the summer the bees continued to fly in and out of her attic vent while this woman procrastinated the attic was becoming a growing city of bees. The whole attic became a huge bee-hive, and eventually the ceiling of the second-floor bedroom finally caved in under the weight of hundreds of pounds of honey and thousands of angry bees.

The woman escaped serious injury however she was unable to repair the damage of her procrastination. What does it mean to procrastinate – to put off, delay, postpone, adjourn, dally, drag your feet, defer. There is no positive definition of this word. We often put things off until tomorrow what we ought to do today. The people of Israel were not any different than we are at times. We find many excuses for procrastinating in getting the Lord’s work.
This morning we’re going to be looking at the next section in the book of Haggai. After Haggai delivered the message from the Lord to Israelites, we will see how they responded.

I. God’s Gives Instructions vv.8

1. God called his people to get to work. Sometimes the ministry that God desires requires work, work that is supported by prayer… not work that is neglected because of we got better things to do. Your first calling is too serve the Lord, no excuses; you can pray if you can’t perform the task. The very first commandment says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Yet, some worship pleasure; others, self, money, possessions or business. Folks, all these things are as imperfect as humans themselves, and those who trust in them will be left in the vacuum and darkness and fire when met in the final judgment.

God is also telling the Jewish remnant to do this work with the right kind of heart; a heart that wants to please and glorify God. When we do God’s will He is glorified…There is not a better time to do His will then now and not wait for someone else to do it.

2. I’ve used this before…The concept is implied by this short proverbial story… Once upon a time there were four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. But Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it. But Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about it, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, and Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody and Nobody did the job that Anybody could have done in the first place.
3. So many Christians put God’s work on the back burner and if we get to it then we deserve a pat me on the back. When David Livingstone wanted to bring the message of Christ to Africa it was unheard of. The missionary society in Scotland told him, “Young man, when God sees fit to evangelize Africa He will do it without your help.” It was not part of their agenda or objectives however the nearest thing to God’s heart is lost souls so this is not the case at all – He wants all our participation in Kingdom work. — 1 Peter 4:7-10
As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Abraham Lincoln once said “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” If God has called you to accomplish a specific task and you refuse or procrastinate there will be consequences. We notice with the remnant of Jews in Judah…

II. The Consequences for Procrastination. 9-11

1. God said to the Jews you looked for my blessing upon your harvest you hoped for a big return but I did not bless it but blew upon it. The Hebrew word (naw-fath) means to lose or to snuff out; like blowing out a candle. Why? “My house lay in ruins because you have placed yourself above me.” The people of Israel learned this the hard way. Procrastination is bigger and more damaging than selfishness.

2. When the people of Haggai’s day failed to prioritize the work of God they in essence refuse God’s grace. The Temple was the outward appearance of the presence of the Lord among His people. To refuse to build the house was saying that it didn’t matter whether the Lord was present with them. At worst it was presuming on divine grace, that the Lord would live with His people even though they willfully refused to obey Him. When we fail to seriously engage in God’s work, we have gotten our priorities wrong… When you procrastinate concerning our responsibilities for the Lord there will be a steep price to pay.

3. The nation Israel was sent into captivity by God because they continued to procrastinate in keeping God’s mandate to let the land rest on the Sabbatical year. – Leviticus 25:1-4
Solomon once said in Ecc. 3:1 – To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: The right time is God’s time, not our timing. When he speaks to us we need to response. A wise person will resolve to stop putting things off. Often we will response by saying I’ll get to it tomorrow…
Prov 27: 1 “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”

Procrastination is the enemy of the Church… It was Dawson Trotman, first president of The Navigators, who said, “The greatest time wasted is the time getting started.”
Gloria Pitzer has written this clever little poem: Procrastination is my sin – It brings me naught but sorrow. – I know that I should stop it, in fact, I will…tomorrow.

Application: Procrastination robs you of opportunities for spiritual growth. When we are disobedient, we cannot have God’s hand of blessing on our lives. All of us have different areas that we procrastinate in (each area is different for all of us. Many times Christian people will face extreme difficulty and place the blame in the wrong place. Trouble comes and they say “boy, the devil sure is after me”, or “God sure is testing my faith” … or “the Lord must be trying to teach me patience”. What they fail to realize is that sometimes the troubles that we face are the effects of the chastising hand of our Heavenly Father!

4. Note verse #9- 11 that if God punished Israel, He will do the same to us! Haggai first spoke on August 30, 520 BC and the work began on September 21, 520 BC. A remarkable change took place in just 23 days. They procrastinated for 16 year but now they responded.

Why? These verses give two reasons why the people chose to obey. First, they recognized that Haggai’s message wasn’t just his message, it was from God. Do you! It was the voice of the Lord. Unless God speaks to us personally, then we will never obey. The people resumed the work on the twenty-fourth day of the month. When you compare this to the first verse of the chapter, we are told that Haggai began to preach on the first day of the month. Second, the fear of the Lord gripped the Israelites and they obeyed the Word of the Lord. They were made aware of their disobedience by God withholding His blessings and declared in verses 10 & 11. If God tell you He not in it look out…

III. Results of Obedience vv. 12-15

1. Verses 12 to 15 describe the results of obedience to God. What happens when we obey? First we experience God’s presence. After the Israelites respond to God’s Word, then the Lord gives another message through the prophet Haggai. He says, “I am with you.” Think of what an encouragement that must have been for the exiles. For 70 years they were suffering in captivity in Babylon. They knew that this was the punishment of the Lord because of the disobedience of their fathers.

2. Take note that in verse # 12 God has the writer list Zerubbabel and Joshua (the High Priest) before the rest of the people? God is letting us know the importance of leadership. The truth is, what is important to the leadership will become important to others.

If God has placed you in a place of leadership, understand that others are watching and waiting to see what you do. The reason why the world is in the mess it is a lack of true leadership. There are some here who can either influence people to serve or to procrastinate. God’s people heard the voice of the Lord and they obeyed because they feared the Lord. This word “fear” means to have a respect and reverence for God. They obeyed because of their respect and reverence for God; not man. We need to the same attitude.

3. Look at verse 14 and 15; not only did the Israelites enjoy God’s presence they also experienced God’s power. It says that the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the Israelites. The word stirred up means to arouse or awaken, to be excited or triumphant. The picture here is that as the Israelites obeyed then the Lord moved in their spirits to give the people the desire, the excitement, the motivation to obey.

Conclusion:
There are a lot of Christians who are doing nothing because they believe somebody else will do it or the time just isn’t right. Let me ask you are you sold out for the Lord? —gospel