The Fear of God (7) Lost Vision

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’” Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.” (Hg 1:2-5)

We’ve been talking about the fear of God. Last Sunday, we talked about the importance of how we think about and receive God’s grace in our fear of Him.
 
In the first passage of 2 Timothy chapter 3, Paul described some characteristics that people will have in the last days. “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tm 3:1-4)
 
But the people Paul is really describing here are not non-believers but Christians because he added that they “[have] a form of godliness but [deny] its power” (2 Tm 3:5)
 
They look godly and holy outwardly. They might meet all the requirements to look like good Christians. They go to church on a regular basis, read the Bible, pray, and give offerings. But what’s sobering is the fact that they only seem to be godly outwardly.
 
They don’t have the power of godliness. They are very religious in their faith lives, but they lack true love, obedience, and power. That’s because they receive God’s grace in vain by rejecting its transformative power. When you truly believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you are changed from the inside out. The Holy Spirit transforms you so that you are passionate about Christ, your mind overflows with thoughts of God, and your heart is filled with God’s love for others.
 
They only accept the aspects of God’s grace that they like—free forgiveness, justification, and the promise of eternal life. But they don’t repent. They don’t try to be sanctified to become more like Jesus or join in His suffering and shame.
 
In other words, they distort and reduce the meaning of God’s grace, and as a result their faith is nothing but a shell. They become hypocrites whose lives don’t align with what they claim to believe. They have the outward appearance of godliness without its internal, transformative power.
 
God’s grace goes far beyond forgiveness and justification. It compels us to repent, which means it makes us turn away from our sins and old ways of life and turn to God. It sanctifies us so that we reflect God’s goodness more and more in our lives. It empowers us and makes us reach out to others with God’s love.
 
This is the real power of God’s grace that we must know and experience in our lives. Forgiveness without repentance, justification without sanctification, faith without commitment, love without sacrifice, and godliness without power are the things we have to watch out for.
 
We need to know the power of God’s grace as it is. We should never distort or reduce its meaning. We should never use God’s grace as an excuse for our sin. We should experience the transformative power of God’s grace that changes every aspect of our lives.
 
I remember a conversation I had with a student once. He was a faithful believer but ended up leaving the church because he was so disappointed by those so-called ‘Christians.’ He was sick of seeing the corrupt beliefs and hypocrisy of Christians. In his eyes, their faith looked fake, selfish, and hypocritical. And I couldn’t deny what he had said.
 
Even though I know there are still some faithful Christians, they seem to be the minority within the church. These days, the majority of Christians in the world are viewed as ‘fake’ Christians.
 
I think that’s because we’ve distorted, reduced, and misused God’s grace, which has led us to lose our fear of God. The student said that he only saw ‘sinners’ in the church.
 
Even though Christian communities are to follow Jesus’ example and welcome sinners, Christians must set themselves apart from the rest of the world. While it’s true that Christians are sinners themselves, they are also ‘righteous’ at the same time because they have been ‘justified’ and are being ‘sanctified’ by God’s grace. Therefore, their lives should reflect the changes God has brought about in them.
 
But sadly, in many churches today, we only see sinners without any repentance or sanctification. Isn’t that what Paul said about those who have godliness without its power? That’s what I’m really worried about nowadays.
 
I’m not really worried about the declining number of Christians. Christianity started with a very small number of people who didn’t have much social power or wealth, but they eventually changed the world.
 
What I’m really worried about is the decline of Christians’ acknowledgement of God’s grace, as well as their lack of fear and commitment to Him. As Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Lk 18:8)
 
So, it’s time to wake up. It’s time to seek authentic Christianity, not a false, distorted, or culturally adapted version of it. We need to go back to the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We should seriously ask what faith is, what God’s grace is, and what salvation is and try to find the answers from the Scriptures, not from other people’s beliefs or today’s Christian culture.
 
Rather than deluding ourselves with false faith and a reduced version of God’s grace, we are to know exactly where we are spiritually, turn away from every false concept of faith, repent, and seek true faith. I think that’s the starting point for the revival of individuals and the church.
 
Losing Sight of God’s Vision
So, we’ve been talking about three important aspects of God that are related to the fear of God—God’s glory, judgment, and grace. The more I study the fear of the Lord, the more surprised I am to see how it is connected to many key characteristics of God and how essential it is to Christian faith. The fear of the Lord is at the center of our relationship with God, our faith in Him, and our worship of Him.
 
The next subject I want us to think about in relation to the fear of the Lord is God’s vision. There are many ways to describe Christian identity, but Christians can simply be defined as those who “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Mt 6:33).
 
Christians are those who put God’s will first in their lives. They may have their own dreams and things they want to achieve on earth, but they don’t prioritize them over God’s will. They humbly ask God what He wants them to do before they ask God for help with what they want to achieve. The more we seek God’s will in our lives, the more we realize that His vision and our dreams are unified in His will for the world and His plan for each of us.
 
When we go before the Lord with the reverence and awe He deserves, we naturally prioritize Him and seek His will first in our lives. His will and plan become ours and we enjoy oneness with Him.
 
But when we lose the fear of the Lord, we stop caring about God’s will and live without regard to God’s mission for the world. We become indifferent to God’s work on earth and how we should participate in it. We put our own dreams and plans ahead of what God wants us to do. In other words, we lose sight of God’s vision for the world.
 
That’s what happened in the prophet Haggai’s time. Let me briefly explain the context of the book of Haggai.
 
After seventy years of captivity in Babylon, a group of Jews returned to their homeland. God’s judgment was over and it was time for restoration. God had commanded them to rebuild His temple, which signified the return of His presence among the people in the land. It was their top priority.
 
In the second year after their return to Judah, they began to rebuild God’s temple under the supervision of Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah. They started off well. Ezra 3:10-11 says,
 
“When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites  with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord…With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.” (Ezr 3:10-11)
 
That was how they started to rebuild the temple of the Lord. The initial phase of the rebuilding was filled with joy, passion, enthusiasm, dedication, and hard work.
 
But the enemies of Judah didn’t like it. They knew about the power and symbolism of the temple of the Lord. They didn’t want Judah to be strong again. So, they did everything they could to interrupt the work. During the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, they wrote a letter to the king and lodged an accusation against the people of Judah. They wrote,
 
“The king should know that the people who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem and are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city. They are restoring the walls and repairing the foundations. Furthermore, the king should know that if this city is built and its walls are restored, no more taxes, tribute or duty will be paid, and eventually the royal revenues will suffer.” (Ezr 4:12-13)
 
The letter worked. The king read the letter and issued a decree. He said,
 
“Now issue an order to these men to stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order. Be careful not to neglect this matter” (Ezr 4:21-22)
 
Then the king’s officials went to Jerusalem and compelled them by force to stop the work. And the rebuilding of the temple of the Lord was postponed indefinitely.
 
And as time went by, the people of Judah slowly lost their passion and enthusiasm for the temple of the Lord. They knew they needed to do it, but no one really made an effort. And eventually, they replaced God’s vision and purpose for them with their own plans and purposes. Their personal affairs took precedence over the restoration of the temple. They grew indifferent to what God considered important.
 
They might have thought that they had done their best, but they hadn’t. Even though the king’s decree prevented them from working on the temple, that wasn’t the real problem because God was much more powerful than the king. The real problem was that they had lost God’s vision and their passion and enthusiasm for it. As a result, they sought their own interests first while ignoring God’s will.
 
So God sent two prophets named Zechariah and Haggai.
 
In the first passage of the book of Haggai, God told His people,
“These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house… Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?... Give careful thought to your ways.” (Hg 1:2-5)
 
The people of Judah had lost sight of what was important because their focus had slipped from God to themselves. Their passion and desire for God had waned. God also said,
 
“My house remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house” (Hg 1:9)
 
I think this is what’s still happening in our lives. We too live in an era of restoration. The Bible states that God is currently restoring everything, including His people, through Jesus Christ, and when the restoration work is done, He will return as the mighty Judge and King.
 
And as John the Baptist was called to prepare the way for the Lord’s first coming two thousand years ago, I believe we’re also called to prepare the way for His return.
 
God is restoring His heavenly temple in us through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and He is building His kingdom of love, justice and peace on earth through His people. And every Christian is called to participate in God’s mission to build His kingdom on earth by preaching the good news of the kingdom of God and making it a priority in their lives.
 
We’re called to be kingdom makers in every corner of the world. That’s what we must do as Christians. We may sometimes wonder what God’s will for us is. But I believe it’s clear. It is to build His kingdom and prepare the way for Jesus’ coming wherever we are.
 
That’s what we should be enthusiastic about. That’s what we must focus on as Christians. That should be our first priority in every decision. When we’re deciding what to do next, we should ask ourselves, ‘how is this related to the kingdom of God?’
 
Yet, how many Christians do you think are interested in this great work? How many Christians have you seen who are enthusiastic about God’s mission for the world? How about you? How much do you think you focus on God’s calling to build His kingdom in your life?
 
I think the real danger that Christianity faces now is that Christians have lost God’s vision. We’re more interested in building our own ‘paneled houses.’ We’ve given the majority of our time to achieve personal success, not God’s will. And we don’t even feel that that’s a problem. Something’s terribly wrong.
 
Now, God is saying to us, “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while my kingdom remains in ruin? Is it a time for you to be busy with your own works while my kingdom remains in ruin? Give careful thought to your ways.”
 
We should give careful thought to our ways. We should check over and over again to see if what we seek and what we do are in line with God’s will for us. We shouldn’t lose God’s vision for the world. We shouldn’t lose sight of God’s will for us. We shouldn’t lose our focus on Him.
 
So we should try to do more than we think this is enough to hold on to God. Unless we make every effort to seek His kingdom first, we’ll definitely find ourselves drifting away from His will. We may still look like Christians outwardly, but we won’t have the real power and life of true Christians.
 
I believe the key to recovering God’s vision for us and for the world is the fear of the Lord. The more we fear Him, the more we’ll focus on Him and what He’s doing in the world now. And the more we go before Him in reverence and awe, the more we’ll experience our will being unified with God’s.
 
Today, I want us to think more deeply about what God is doing in this world and how He wants us to participate in it. Rather than being busy seeking our own interests, I want us to be more interested in God’s dream so that we can seek His kingdom first in our lives and so that we see and experience His kingdom being built and expanded through our lives. Let’s pray.
 
<Closing prayer>
Heavenly Father, please restore Your vision for the world in us. Please restore our minds and hearts. Please restore our fear of You.
 
We confess that we’ve lived apart from Your will and Your kingdom. We’ve lived without regard for Your mission for the world. We haven’t cared about Your kingdom, yet we’ve been busy taking care of our own lives.
 
We repent of our self-centered way of living. We repent of our apathy. Please restore our holy fear of You so that we can always go before You in reverence and awe and so that whatever we say and do, Your kingdom may be built through us.
 
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.