have you ever wondered why it seems on the surface that other people are consistently being blessed but the favor that you desire for God to pour out on your life it just doesn't seem to be happening and the more you keep trying to make things work the worse things are actually getting for you today I want to share with you a very very powerful message that I want to encourage you to watch all the way through that may indicate that you may actually be blocking your own blessings from God that is coming up today on
the beat hey my friend welcome back to the beat my name is Alan Parr thank you so much for tuning in if this is your first time here it's a pleasure if you want a free ebook click the link in the description box below if you enjoy this video consider subscribing hit that little Bell notification so you won't miss a beat okay so I don't know about you but I've been in that place where it seems like the more and more I try to make things work in my life it just doesn't seem like things
are working and it feels like the blessings from God are just just kind of held up or being blocked or I just can't seem to break through and it seems like I'm just stuck and stagnant in my life my friend if you've ever experienced that I want to encourage you to join me today in the book of Haggai yes the book of Haggai it's a very very short book it's only about two chapters it's a book that many Christians do not read but it is a powerful book and God has a powerful message that he
wants to communicate to us let's jump in beginning in verse 1 it says on August 29th of the second year of King Darius's reign the Lord gave a message through the Prophet Haggai to zerubabbel son of shealtiel the governor of Judah and to Joshua son of jehoiada the high priest now understanding the background to the book of Haggai is the most important key to understanding this book so essentially what happened was that God allowed his chosen people the Israelites to take up residence in the promised land and they were there for hundreds and hundreds of
years but during that time they were guilty of sinning against God whether that may be through idolatry or sexual immorality or oppressing of the poor or just simply not carrying out justice in various different ways in their society but because God was gracious he did not just simply punish them right away instead he sent prophets to them to warn them to make changes to their behavior well they ignored prophets such as Jeremiah and Isaiah and Hosea and Amos and Micah and Obadiah and all these different people and so they assumed that they had more time
and that God wasn't serious and they could get away with more and more and so eventually God punished them by allowing a foreign nation called Babylon to come in and carry them captive and take them back to a place called Babylonia now they were there for only 70 years and so after 70 years God graciously allows his chosen people to return to their homeland and rebuild it now with that background here is the message that Haggai has to this group of people this remnant of people that came back to restore and rebuild their home land
let's pick it back up in verse 2 it says here this is what the Lord of heavens armies says the people are saying the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord so you must understand a little bit of background here during this time a solomon's temple that he had built hundreds of years before had been destroyed by the Babylonians and so for the 70 years while they were away in captivity God's temple had remained in ruins and of course God's temple was the place where God's people were to worship and
so now whenever they return to their homeland God is saying hey I want you to rebuild my temple so that you worshiping me will be the premier and preeminent priority in your life well the problem is that since they had returned to the homeland it had been 16 years that had passed and they had simply built the foundation for the temple but they had not yet built God's temple and God had something specific to say about it let's keep reading it says here then the Lord sent this message through the Prophet of Haggai why are
you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins now this is when the message and the prophecy of Haggai starts to hit home for us and it starts to be very convicting essentially God is saying this something is wrong with this picture something is wrong with this equation you are living in Nice luxurious paneled homes you have media rooms you have game rooms you have all sorts of clothes you have all sorts of toys for your kids you have two and three cars you have all these different things you have furniture expensive artwork
and all these different things that you have made a priority to get in your life and in your house but somehow or another the most important thing which is to rebuild my house and my temple and to make my worship the most most preeminent thing in your life somehow or another this isn't a priority for you this isn't something that seems to be on the top of your list you're too busy building your own empires and your own houses while my house continues to lay in ruins let's keep moving on it says here this is
what the Lord of heavens armies says look at what's happening to you you have planted much but harvest little you eat but are not satisfied you drink but are still thirsty you put on clothes but cannot keep warm now watch this it says here your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes have you ever felt that way have you ever felt like you're working harder and harder harder than you've ever worked in your life to make things work in your career to make things work and your relationships to try
to find a husband to try to find a spouse to try to have kids to try to do all these different things you're putting in all this effort and it seems like the harder you work the worse things are actually getting in your life and the less things are working out for you he says you're trying to save money and you can't seem to save money he says you're trying to find satisfaction in things in food and in clothes and in relationships and all these different worldly things and he says no matter how hard you
try to be satisfied with these things these things consistently let you down leaving you in disappointment but God has not done notice Haggai says here this is what the Lord of heavens armies says look at what's happening to you so notice what he says he says hey just stop for a second stop all of your labor and just pay attention to what's happening around you because this is not normal notice he says here now go up into the hills bring down timber and rebuild my house then I will take pleasure in it and be honored
says the Lord he says hey stop focusing all of your energy and your attention on your careers stop focusing on everything else but me building your relationships once again trying to get a relationship trying to have financial security in the future he says stop doing all this go up to the hills take down some timber and make my house a priority put me first rather than me second in your life isn't it interesting that we can find so much free time to do all of these other things these priorities these goals these dreams that we
have set for our lives but somehow or another when God wants time with us when God wants us to serve at our local church when God wants us to pray when God wants us to share our faith somehow or another it's not yet the time to do that because we're building our own houses and empires and not building the house of God if that's not convicting enough it continues it says here you hoped for rich harvests but they were poor and when you brought your harvest home I blew it away why because my house lies
in ruins says the Lord of heavens armies while all of you are busy building your own fine houses do you see the message that God is trying to get to you and I as we start 2020 he is basically saying I want priority in your life I want to be first I want to be preeminent in your life I want to be the most important person that you seek to have a relationship I want you serving me to be the highest priority in your life and because I'm God I have the right to expect that
from you and I will not settle for anything else and God says you know what I will stop at nothing to try to get your attention even if it means I have to blow your riches away and allow certain things to happen in your life so that you will put me first now this is probably the most convicting part of the passage it continues and says this it's because of you that the heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops I have called for a drought on your fields and Hills a drought to
wither the grain and grapes and olive trees and all of your other crops a drought to starve you and your livestock and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get my friend these are the messages that the prosperity theology teachers won't teach you they're gonna tell you that God has a blessing in store for you and all you have to do is just give and praise God in all these different things but God is saying you know what if you don't put me first there may be some blessings that I want to pour
out on your life that are being held up listen now I understand from a from a theological perspective that this is a specific message to a specific group of people for a specific time and we cannot always take everything that happen in the Bible and just transfer it directly over to us and say well because this happened then then it's naturally going to happen to us but I think what we see in this passage is that it communicates to us the heart of God the the character of God and God's desire in terms of priority
and preeminence in our lives on our friend I'll end this video with this could it be could it possibly be that in 2019 or maybe for your whole life that you have honestly if you really get honest with God you've never been all-in you've never really put God first in your life there's always been something someone a career a relationship or your family or whatever that's just slightly been more important to you than your relationship with God I want to challenge you this year in 2020 to just go hard for God put him first and
I want to believe that if you put God to the test and you put him first my friend I can't say that God's gonna bless you in certain ways that's not for me to say but I trust that God is gonna have some amazing things in store for you because the Bible says seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these other things will be added to you if you found this video helpful in any way feel free to share it with a friend also if you haven't done so already
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