Haggai was one of the post-exile prophets. The people to whom he ministered were haggard, weary, frustrated, but most of all they lacked conviction and direction. After returning to their home, every individual (carefully chosen noun) one had one thing in mind and that was to provide for their personal needs without regard to anyone else. Haggai brought their attention to the fact that while their houses were in order, sadly the house of God was in disarray.

The verse chosen in Haggai this morning has so many applications, it's hard to know which one to address. I think the purse with holes in the strongest message. So many people pay attention to their personal needs, they fail to see what God wants them to see. Could it be that God places the holes in the purse in order to draw their attention to the futility of serving oneself ahead of those God places in our path?

The people of Haggai's day were asked to turn their attention, time and money toward God's work, namely the house of God. To do so meant their had to revise their thinking and surrender to doing things God's way. Does Haggai's message have application to us today? I think so.

These days, you can't drive down an inner city street without seeing older church buildings in disarray. These congregations now host a few older adults who were either abandoned by the younger congregation or are unable to deal with a changing demographic around their church. While much talk is made about mixed ethnic congregations worshiping together, few do it.

Most church leaders believe the older inner city church buildings should be shared by different worship groups in order to keep the lights on. The Sunday morning crowd continues, while groups of different languages use the facility at other times during the week, all contributing to the upkeep of the building and grounds. This problem is sad enough but when combined with the fact the churches are usually pastored by an older retired minister who sees himself as trying to keep the lights on in a diminishing ministry.

Now take a drive down any major street in suburbia. You'll no doubt find numerous new churches of every imaginable denomination within a few hundred feet of each other like a vast ecclesiastical buffet. But think about the fact that most every new church is an extension of an older church ministry that grew from another one. Churches birthing churches, not into areas of crime and extreme need, but into the areas of new homes and subdivisions leaving older Saints to fend for themselves. Can anyone else smell what God must be smelling?

What an enigma. Young adults with growing families should be serving the older element of the inner city church, but instead are starting the whole process all over again in an area where people are more affluent. Who knows but in twenty or thirty years, their children will leave them to move even further out of the city. I imagine you've never before considered that building a fancy new church structure in an affluent part of town is like a purse with a hole in it.

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( Ha. 1:1-3:19 Rv. 9:1-21 Ps. 137:1-9 Pr. 30:10 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society

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