Am I A Distracted Disciple ?

Introduction

Good morning. If you will turn in your Old Testament with me to the book of Haggai. Book of Haggai. As you’re turning there, just consider all the different ways that Israel failed God. They were idolatrous. They were greedy. They were inconsiderate, rude, and downright extorting to the poor. They were all kinds of unfaithful. You name it, they did it. You name a sin, Israel practiced it. You name a God, they worshipped it. You name a command of God, I’ll show you where they came up short. And yet, God continued to be their God. It was a blessing for the children of Israel, the Jews, to be called children of God. He had made a special covenant with them. He said, You shall be my people. Now, in Leviticus chapter 19, he had said, You shall be holy as I am holy, as they were his special chosen, holy possession.

Of course, we think about the new covenant, and we know that we can be called children of God. That God wants us to look at him as our heavenly Father. That he cares what we do, he cares how we serve him. I’m afraid sometimes we’re like the Jews in the book of Haggai. Whereas as you go through the Old Testament, you see that they were unfaithful, and God would send judges, and the people would be faithful until the judge died. They said, We want a king, and God said, I’ll give them one, even though they have rejected me from being king over them. And there was Saul. There was David, who in many ways was a good king, albeit with his flaws, and Solomon, who was an okay king, albeit with his flaws.

Then you had the divided kingdom, where you have Israel with basically not a single good king, and Judah with several good kings. Then there’s the captivity time, and then when they come back from captivity, when the people should know God is their God. He is the only God. He saved them as he had prophesied. He returned them to their homeland, as he had always promised he would. Now, the people understanding who God is and what he has done for them, they will serve God. Not exactly. In the book of Haggai, beginning in verse 2, thus says the Lord of hosts, these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet.

Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses? While this house lies in ruins? Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have sown much, but harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house that I may take pleasure in it, and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little, and when you brought it home, I blew it away.

Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth on man and beast and on all their labors. God said time and again to the people through the prophet Haggai, consider your ways. I had to ask the question as we study this, and we’re going to dive a little bit deeper into looking at some of the verses and the applications, of course. I have to ask the question of myself, am I a distracted disciple?

Because the truth about the Jews were that they were still God’s people. They were children of God. God had adopted them, you might say, as part of his old covenant. He had made them his people. And yet, as part of that covenant, God had said, If you do not obey me, what will I do? Some of the things would be, withhold the produce of the land, take you out of the land. And you see, the people had already been taken away into captivity. They had reached basically level zero. They were taken out, and for decades they were away from where they should be, worshiping God in Jerusalem. And when they finally returned, God says, I want you to rebuild my house. The first thing we do is serve God.

Build the temple. And they didn’t do it. The answer is easy. If the question was, why did they not? It’s because they were distracted. The temple was not completed, even though they had plenty of time and resources. If you study Isaiah 44 and 45 or Ezra chapter 1, like in our Bible class this morning, you’ll see that King Cyrus, when he released the people to go back to Jerusalem, he gave them all the materials they would need. And we see in Haggai chapter 1, they had all the time they would need. Look at verse 2. God says, These people say, the time is not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. So then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet and said, Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses?

While this house lies in ruins. The Israelites said, It’s not yet time. But God sent a reply saying very clearly, It’s past time. You have been distracted. Well, what were they distracted by? Verse 4 and 5. Very interesting reference to us. They were dwelling in their paneled houses. And again in verse 5, God said, Consider your ways. Remember, this is a people who moved back out of captivity. They were finally coming back to their homeland. And when it says they were dwelling in their paneled houses, that doesn’t just mean that weird look from about a few decades ago that was in a lot of Americans’ houses. This was a sign of comfort. They were feeling at home, comfortable. They were distracted. Because you see, here’s the house of God lying in ruins.

And what are they dwelling in? Comfortable, paneled houses. They not only had the resources, they had time. They had luxury. They were blessed. There was no, well, maybe we just need to get to where we can live first. If we just take care of myself, if I can get what I need to survive, then God, I can serve you. They not only had what they needed, they had an excess of what they needed. And you see, this was a distraction to them. You see, God tried to warn them. In verse 6, he points out what had happened. He said, You have sown much, and yet what? Harvested little. You eat, but you don’t have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. God says, I have been trying to tell you, wake up.

Consider your ways. Stop being distracted. Recognize that there is work to be done. If you are going to be my people, you need to work as if you were my people. It’s time to move. It’s time to work. And yet they did not. In fact, in verse 8, he tells them what they should do. Go up and build the house. Why? What would be the motivating factor that God may be glorified and take pleasure in it? Do you see the difference in verse 4 and in verse 8? In verse 4, what were they doing? Not building the house of the Lord because their focus was where? Dwelling in their paneled houses. They were distracted. Verse 8, God says, no. Why do you live? No. Why do you build the temple?

Because I need to be glorified. That I, your God, your creator, your maker, deserves to take pleasure in your service. And that’s a huge mindset change. That’s why it’s not surprising in verse 5 and in verse 7, God says, you need to stop and consider your ways. Of course, in verse 10, he tried to warn them again. What does verse 10 say? The heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. The Israelites have seen this lesson before. But the distraction was strong. The desire to be caught up with things that aren’t the work of the Lord got to them. And I could argue perhaps that they have the same distractions we do, or we could be honest and say, I think we live in a time of more distractions today.

1. What Am I Distracted By?

There seems to be a lot more that we can do, and some questions I want to honestly consider this morning are just three. First of all, what am I distracted by? We’re not like the people of Haggai’s day. We’re not trying to rebuild the temple of the Lord, although God deserves our complete wholehearted service. I’m curious, what does distract us from doing what we know we should? What stands in our way? We know that Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4, Jesus says through the Apostle Paul that we need to set our minds on things above, not on things on the earth. We know our mind needs to be at the right hand of God where Christ is, not on things of the earth. Look with me in Matthew chapter 14.

I think a curious case. Matthew chapter 14 highlights one of the many failures of Peter that we have in the New Testament. And yet, in Peter’s failure, I also want to see his faith. You see, he is actually strong in a moment of weakness, but we’ll see the strength followed by the weakness. I think we can be a lot like Peter. We know what we should do. We try to do good, we set out to please the Lord, but then we get distracted. Matthew 14, beginning in verse 22, immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.

But when evening came he was there alone. But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. In the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. And they said, It is a ghost. And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Take heart, it is I do not be afraid. And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. Jesus said, Come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid.

And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? I think it’s interesting when you track Peter’s fear here. Because we think of this as Peter’s folly, another one of Peter’s greatest mistakes. But if you note in verse 29, when Jesus says, Come, what did Peter do? He got out of the boat, and he successfully did what? Walked on the water. He did two things the disciples did not do. He got out of the boat. He had the faith to do that. And he walked on the water successfully. He had the faith. Jesus had the power to enable that. But that’s not how we remember the story because unfortunately that’s not how it ends.

In verse 30, the critical expression. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid. You see, when he was afraid, immediately verse 30 says, He began to sink. And he cried out, Lord, save me. When we think about passages like Matthew chapter 14, we think about the people of Haggai, we have to be honest that there’s all kinds of things that can distract us. In Haggai chapter 1, it was what? Their comfort, their luxury, dwelling in paneled houses. In Matthew chapter 14, what distracted Peter from coming to his Lord? Fear distracted him. In both cases, it’s a failure to understand Colossians chapter 3. Set our minds where? On things above, not on things on the earth. We often live our lives as if it’s all about one day at a time, and there’s a lot of good expressions that fit.

Take days day by day. Don’t worry about tomorrow, Matthew 6.34. Tomorrow is sufficient for itself. I understand those principles. But we have to stop living as if this world is all that we have. We have to look beyond. We have to see God. What was the difference in the people of Haggai from Haggai 1 in verse 4 and what God demanded in verse 8? Don’t focus on your paneled houses, focus on what? Glorifying God. Doing what will allow God to take pleasure in your service. Do you see how that’s a different mindset than we often have? When we think about this life, a lot of times our distractions are because they’re welcome things. They’re not bad on their own, but they’re things that we just happen to be drawn to.

It’s not wrong necessarily to have a paneled house. It’s wrong when you dwell in paneled houses and let the house of the Lord lie in ruins. It’s not a problem to get out of the boat and walk on water. It’s a problem when we stop having faith in Jesus and we look around, we see the wind, and we become afraid. That’s why Jesus tells Peter as he’s picking him up as he cried out, Lord save me, Jesus says, Oh, you of little faith. When we think about what am I distracted by, we can name any number of things, but can I hold up one as a prop this morning? Yeah, that got everyone’s attention.

Cell phone. Internet, computers, television screens, screens of any kind. Equal opportunity screen inhibitor here. Okay, as we think about what screens have done, we go from one screen to the next. It does a lot of good things. We need to work to get things accomplished. We’re using screens right now to accomplish communication. I am a millennial. I am for cell phones and computers. No one likes millennials that much. Got it. We cannot live our lives as if we are only behind a screen. I am begging everyone here, starting with myself, we have to look up. Not just at our families, although it starts there. Not just with our spouses, although it starts there. We have to look for other people’s needs. And when we view our life as ours, we’re distracted by the good things that America and technology offers us.

We are distracted by our own paneled houses. We struggle to have communication in families, in marriages, in friendships. Why? Because we’re focused on news or work or sport scores. You name it. It’s all possible. And there’s strength to that. There’s good advances in technology that can help us spread the gospel message. So when we look at our phones and our computer screens, instead of being with people and influencing them, we have allowed them to distract us. You see, in Haggai, the Lord did not say paneled houses are sinful. He said, Why do you dwell in paneled houses while what? The house of the Lord lies in ruins. They were distracted by comfort. They were distracted by things of this life. We cannot do that. What am I distracted by?

2. Who Am I Distracted By?

It might be that I’m distracted by what the phone can show me. Movies, TV shows, sports scores. You name it. It’s all there. It’s all possible. It can be distracting. We have to start with the understanding that it can be a distraction. And rather than saying, how can this benefit me? We have to sit back and say, what am I distracted by? It might be these screens. How can I use them to do what? To glorify God that he may take pleasure in our life and our sacrifice. That’s the game changer. The second question would be who am I distracted by? If you look at an Old Testament example with me in 1 Samuel chapter 18, you’ll see Saul with his many flaws. Saul’s biggest problem at this point in the scriptures was that he was jealous of David.

He allowed jealousy to ruin and run his life. In 1 Samuel 18, look with me at verse 6. As David has slayed the Philistine giant, as he has slayed Goliath, as we would say. In 1 Samuel 18 and verse 6, as they were coming home when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. And the women sang to one another as they celebrated. Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands. And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands. What more can he have but the kingdom?

And Saul eyed David from that day on. The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand, and Saul hurled the spear before he thought, I will pin David to the wall. But David evaded him twice. Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him, but had departed from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of the thousand, and he went out and came in before his people. And David had success in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him.

Saul is being lauded, as he’s being praised for his thousands of conquering, of victory. What is he upset with? What is he here? Does he hear praise? Does he hear thanks? No, he says in verse 8 that Saul was very angry. This saying displeased him. He says, They’re giving David credit for 10,000. They’re only giving me credit for thousands. I think we see that Saul looks like a little man here, if you understand what I mean when I say that. But if we’re really honest, can we see that we act like that sometimes? You see, Saul wasn’t insulted here. It doesn’t seem like the cry of the Israelites was, hey, let’s really stick it to Saul here. No. They were lauding him. They were praising him.

They said, ascribe to Saul his thousands, but that wasn’t good enough because he was worried about who? David. He wasn’t worried about God. He wasn’t even worried about himself. He was worried about how other people viewed David. Can we be honest and say phones may be distracting? But one of the worst parts on the phone that happens also in real life is that we get distracted by what we think other people have, think, or do. That is killer. It takes away our service from God because we stop being focused on what God wants and we start focusing on what we have, what someone else has, or what we would like to have of somebody else’s. We cannot get distracted by other people. We are to work together.

What is the right attitude of Saul here? To be thankful that David’s on his side. What is the right attitude of Saul when he says in verse 15, when he sees David’s success, to say, his success is my success, because we are followers of God. We work together to do God’s work. We don’t act like that. I think we act a little bit more like Saul. We look around and we see what others have and we say, I don’t have that. I want that, but I don’t have that. Why do they have this? Why do they have that? I don’t, I don’t get, I don’t have, I don’t understand. We’re distracted by, again, not just other people, but other things in this life. And the problem is not the things, the problem is not the people.

The problem is this all happens while the spiritual work of God lies in ruins. See, there’s nothing wrong with the technology. There’s nothing wrong with people having things. The problem is our hearts. In Ephesians chapter 4, if you look with me there in Ephesians chapter 4, maybe it’s not jealousy, but Ephesians chapter 4, I think shows us an example of something we all might struggle with, Ephesians 4 and verse 31. Paul says, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Rather be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Paul says, consider your ways. Don’t let bitterness get you. Don’t let wrath, malice, anger, clamor, slander, don’t let it be named among you.

How are we to be, verse 32? Kind, loving, forgiving. Why? Because God in Christ has forgiven us. Why should the Israelites should have been rebuilding the house of the Lord? They should have been trying to glorify God and give him pleasure. Why? He had done everything for them. He made them his special people. He called them into and out of captivity when they disobeyed him. He heard all their pleas of repentance over and over, no matter how wicked they were. When they turned, God was there. But when somebody wrongs me, I don’t know if I can forgive them. I might say I forgive them, but I do what verse 31 explicitly says not to. I let bitterness in. And bitterness takes over us just like it did Saul.

Did you see that passage in 1 Samuel 18 when it said the Spirit came into Saul and he raved about while David was playing his liar? Isn’t that exactly what bitterness does? It gets into us and it consumes us. We can think of nothing about anything positive. Nothing but revenge, anger, frustration, jealousy. Bitterness is not only a sin, it distracts us from doing God’s work. We have to see those both as critical problems. What am I distracted by? It could be anything. But I have to look out and look for who I can help. Who might I be distracted by? Maybe somebody I am jealous of or that I’m frustrated with. But Paul says, be kind to one another. Love one another. Forgive as God and Christ forgave you.

3. Is Any of It Worth It?

Consider finally. Is any of it worth it? You know in James chapter 4, how is life described? Life is but a vapor. It’s here today and gone tomorrow. But in Mark chapter 9, the best lesson on perspective, the best lesson the Israelites would have happily given, anyone who’s passed away would understand what the stakes, what the real odds are. In Mark 9 and verse 42, note what Jesus says, and he pulls no punches here. Whoever causes one of the little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to endure life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, the unquenchable fire.

If your foot causes you to sin, verse 45, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. Verse 47, and if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched, for everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another. Do we see three themes in all of these fairly distinct passages? How are we to live with others?

Peacefully. Sacrificing whatever it takes. Why? That God can be glorified. What should we do with things that distract us? Jesus says, cut it off. It’s not worth it. It will consume you. It will overtake you. Have you ever thought about that? I know this picture is a ridiculous one for us to think through literally. But in verse 43, Jesus says, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell. Do you realize what he’s saying? He’s saying potentially, in a figurative way, if you leave your hand on, and it’s a temptation for you, your whole body may go to hell. Distractions matter. You see, Jesus says, if you take care of the distraction, even in the most drastic of ways, it is better.

Because why? A single distraction can pull us away from the work of God. We saw it with the Israelites. We saw Peter when he doubted and he heard the wind, he saw the wind and he was afraid. We don’t want to be like Peter who is said to be of little faith. Isn’t it worth it? Of course it’s not. We know that, but when we look at what Jesus says in Mark 9 43, I ask, when you think in your mind, what are you distracted by? Could you live without it? Do you think you would be willing to go without the movies? Without the phone screen? Do you think you could live without it? Would it be too hard, too challenging, too tall of a task?

What about the who am I distracted by? Would I be able to cut off that part of me that gives in to bitterness, that gives in to jealousy? Will I be willing to be happy for others? To be kind, loving and forgiving. Isn’t it worth it to change everything? Then to allow that to pull me away from my God. Is any of it worth it? Of course it’s not worth it. That’s why God says, multiple times and in multiple ways, consider your ways. When I ask myself, am I a distracted disciple? I have to be honest and say there’s a lot of ways that I may very well be distracted. I can get distracted by things, I can get distracted by people, and I can get distracted by being unwilling to sacrifice those things and those people that I know aren’t there and matter forever.

Conclusion

And that’s why when we know the words of 1 John chapter 2, that we are not to be pulled away by sin, that we’re not to love the things in the world. Why? Because this world is passing away along with its desires. But God will not. God is there for you. He wants you to worship him. And just like with the Israelites and with Saul and with Peter, over and again, God doesn’t just say, follow me, as Brother Rufus said in the Lord’s Supper Talk. We love God because He first loved us. The Israelites should have known God because He spared them, He received them back out of captivity. He anointed Saul as king. Peter walked on water by faith. We can do anything with the help of our God, but we have to truly trust him.

We have to truly submit to him and not only not be distracted, but cut off anything that pulls us away. Are you willing to take that practice today? What needs to be cut from your life? What needs to be changed? As we consider what God has said, what the first thing that needs to be changed is our heart. It has to be one that says, What does God want to be glorified in? How can I give God pleasure with my life? I have to be able to believe that Jesus is the Christ, repent of my sins, turn from a life of selfishness and distraction, turn towards the fact and confess the idea that Jesus is Christ and Lord, not only in existence, but of my life and my time, and be baptized, having my sins forgiven, becoming a Christian this very day.

Or maybe you’re here and you’re a Christian. You’ve had your sins forgiven. You know that Christ is Lord. But you’ve been distracted. We’ve all been there. We’ll pray with you. We’ll pray for you. We’re not going to be jealous. We’re going to be at peace with one another, forgiving one another. We are going to walk arm in arm, hand in hand to be with our God. Don’t be distracted. Come now. If we can help you in any way, come now as we stand and sing the invitation song.