How important is church to you? Haggai call everyone to help rebuild Israel’s temple. It was the “LORD Almighty” speaking.

Step 1. Think carefully about your condition. v5  “Give careful thought to your ways. v6 You have planted much but harvested little. … You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” The harvest for returned exiles was not enough for them– they were still hungry, cold, and short of cash. Ironically, I recently discovered my favourite trousers had a hole in the pocket!

It’s up to each of us to consider our own condition, and then take the next step.

Step 2. Help rebuild the church. v8 “Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured,” says the LORD.

Literal trees for Israel, God is not saying to us, “Go to the Blue Mountains and chop down trees!” However, trees can represent people– Ezekiel 17:24. All the trees of the forest will know that I the LORD bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. In the New Testament, “temple” becomes “church”. Our priority is people, and bringing them into the house of the Lord.

Step 3. Consider how you are blessed through attending your church. v9-11 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away.” Full blessing would come when living a balanced life that included helping rebuild a local church. Everything starts with prayer and seeking God. Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom ofGod and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33). Haggai is a “good outcome” story, as we will see, in the next message.