Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] 2020.
[00:00:03] Just saying that makes some of us sick at our stomachs, an uneasy feeling.
[00:00:14] A time when really good things in our life were taken away from us for a new normal.
[00:00:24] We think about words like pandemic or phrases like social distancing.
[00:00:31] They trigger something in us.
[00:00:34] They remind us of just a really horrible year in all of our lives.
[00:00:41] And many of us during that time, as we experience the loss of things, some of the things that we didn't know, that we loved so much when they were taken from us. For a time we said, never again, Never again.
[00:00:59] Mask lockdowns, never again.
[00:01:04] And most of us specifically said that when it came to church, never again will I take for granted what it means to be a part of a church family that gathers, that has fellowship, that serves together. Never again will I take for granted what it means to be a part of a church, to enjoy fellowship and service together.
[00:01:35] VBS mission trips.
[00:01:38] Well, six years later, do you still feel the same?
[00:01:44] Never again will I take this for granted.
[00:01:49] The old normal is back in many of our lives.
[00:01:53] Do you still feel that aching to be with the people of God, to serve alongside together the things that you enjoy doing for Christ that you missed out on?
[00:02:06] Do you still have the same excitement that you said when those things were reintroduced? I remember here, the Sunday morning, first Sunday morning, we had the greeting time.
[00:02:17] And folks like Nellie Ruiz, who hate the greeting time, she was nearly speaking in tongues.
[00:02:25] Maybe that was just her Spanish, but she was so excited and she tells that story.
[00:02:33] Do you still long for those things?
[00:02:37] Well, the people of God, as they arrived back in Jerusalem, were saying never again.
[00:02:45] They had spent nearly 70 years in captivity in Babylon, away from their land.
[00:02:52] And as they walked back into Jerusalem, there's no temple.
[00:02:57] The things that they loved so much were gone. The place was destroyed.
[00:03:04] You see, they had been punished for their sins.
[00:03:07] The prophets over and over warned them, if you continue in idolatry, God is going to judge you. He's going to take you from your land and he is going to destroy your land.
[00:03:21] And that's exactly what happened.
[00:03:24] In 722 B.C. the Northern Kingdom of Israel was wiped out by the Assyrians.
[00:03:32] And then in 606 BC Nebuchadnezzar, he attacked Jerusalem and began to siege the city.
[00:03:41] And then in 586 B.C.
[00:03:44] jerusalem was destroyed and the temple was razed to the ground.
[00:03:50] It was destroyed.
[00:03:52] Now imagine what that would be like for us.
[00:03:56] Imagine the White House being razed to the ground and millions of people being deported to Russia, China, Iran.
[00:04:06] Imagine what that would be like to see your homeland destroyed and all that represents you.
[00:04:15] But for the people of God, it was more than political. It was who they were. It was their identity, their city and their temple was wiped out. And they did not live in their land. They were foreigners in another land, Babylon.
[00:04:29] But then in 539 BC, Cyrus and the Persians overtook Babylon and he allowed the Jews to return to their land.
[00:04:43] And once they got back home, they began to rebuild the temple. But it became kind of hard for them. They didn't have all the resources that they once had.
[00:04:54] They only had probably around 50,000 people. And we, we think about the, after the Exodus, Israel was. They were in the millions, and then before the captivity, hundreds of thousands. And so we don't have enough people now to build the temple.
[00:05:11] Let's wait.
[00:05:12] And then neighboring nations began to threaten, and so they stopped building the temple.
[00:05:23] And that's when God raised up Haggai, probably in his 70s, a prophet who in this book will preach four sermons.
[00:05:34] And his sermons are meant to confront their apathy, their apathy toward the things that they once said, never again, never again will we take these things for granted.
[00:05:48] And yet they were refusing to take part in the things that they loved, specifically the worship of the temple.
[00:05:58] Haggai first rebukes them with the truth of sinful procrastination.
[00:06:03] Notice verse 1. In the second year of Darius the king, this would have been around 16 to 18 years after their return. But what's significant about this is that the book and the oracles are dated according to a pagan king, the Persian king, not the king of Israel. And so they still exist as a small Persian province.
[00:06:29] They are ruled by pagans who are allowing them to worship and build the temple.
[00:06:36] But it would be like saying in the year of Hitler, in the year of Saddam Hussein, that's what this would have brought about in their mind, those sort of feelings.
[00:06:49] Notice in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, this is a very specific day in their calendar. It would have been August 29, 520 BC. And why is he being specific? Because this was a day that the Lord had determined for the people to bring about offerings.
[00:07:07] And so there's a point here. You're still under Persian rule, and on a day in which you are supposed to be worshiping in the temple, you can't, because there is no temple.
[00:07:20] There may have been an altar. At this time, we know the foundation was laid. And this is probably the place from which Haggai would preach to the People on a day in which they would bring these offerings, but there's no temple. He would stand and confront their sacrifice sin which we see next. The word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai. This means he speaks as an authoritative word to the people by his hand. His name means festival.
[00:07:50] And yet there's nothing festive about what he's about to say.
[00:07:55] The point here is this is someone who has been away from the land, on a pilgrimage, captivity, and now he's back and there should be a party, but there's not.
[00:08:08] And God sends this word through him to show the people the way to joy.
[00:08:14] Notice. To Zerubbabel, the son of shealtiel, this just means born in Babylon, but he's the governor of Judah, but he's still his overseers are the Persians. This is not a king. This is someone who is doing what the pagans are telling him to do.
[00:08:34] Into Joshua, the son of Jehoshaphat, the high priest. And so we have a prophet, we have a political leader, and then we have the religious leaders. And God, through the prophet, is going to speak to these leaders who are meant to lead the people. And notice what he says. Verse 2. Thus says the Lord of hosts. Now this just means the ruler of heaven's army. And it points to the fact that he's in charge of everything and he's invincible. So. So this word that you are about to hear through this prophet, it comes from the most powerful general, the most powerful ruler in the world, God himself. So you must listen. And what does he say, these people? And that's shocking.
[00:09:21] He doesn't say my people in some sense he's saying, I don't know who these people are.
[00:09:29] After I rescued them, after I fulfilled my promise.
[00:09:34] Who are these people?
[00:09:36] Because my people would be building a temple, my people would be worshiping me.
[00:09:44] And yet they are saying the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.
[00:09:51] The people who said never again are saying not yet.
[00:09:57] Sinful procrastination.
[00:09:59] And we do it all the time about all kinds of things.
[00:10:03] Not yet, it's not time.
[00:10:06] And we phrase it that way because we want to say, I really want to do that.
[00:10:11] I just don't have time.
[00:10:14] Imagine saying that to God.
[00:10:17] I really want to do what you called us to do. We just don't have time.
[00:10:22] And they use inconvenience as a spiritual reason not to follow God's leading.
[00:10:31] Inconvenience is spiritualized here.
[00:10:36] God has closed the door for us.
[00:10:39] We just don't have Time.
[00:10:41] We don't have enough people.
[00:10:43] We got to get busy building our economy.
[00:10:47] I mean, after all, God would not want a shabby temple.
[00:10:51] We got to get out and make our own money to be able to build a glorious temple. Remember Solomon's temple? He doesn't want some pathetic temple.
[00:11:03] It's just not time yet.
[00:11:06] We got to acquire more goods and resources for ourselves to build a temple. Not now. It's sinful procrastination that makes them feel better about their sin. How do we know they're in sin? Notice verse 3. The word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai. This, this idea of hand of Haggai. Haggai is just pointing to his authority over and over again. In some sense, he is the right hand of God who is speaking to the people of God. It's an authoritative word from God.
[00:11:39] But notice, is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while the house of God or the Lord lies in ruins? You say it's not time, but you have plenty of time for yourself.
[00:11:55] The phrase paneled houses a lot of commentators would talk about. These are luxurious houses. I don't think that's what it means.
[00:12:07] I think he means houses and panels were simply another way of talking about roofs.
[00:12:14] And that kind of gets to the point.
[00:12:16] You have houses with at least roofs on them.
[00:12:21] God's house is still a foundation in rubble and stones.
[00:12:26] The least you could do would be to put a roof on God's house.
[00:12:31] You have roofs. Why doesn't God have a roof?
[00:12:36] His house is still raised to the ground.
[00:12:40] And this is a very cutting, biting, prophetic word to the people because it gets to the heart of their procrastination.
[00:12:50] It's not time for the Lord because according to you, it's time for you and it's been time for you.
[00:12:59] In light of God who rescued them and delivered them from captivity and it's fulfilling his promises, they only seem to have time for themselves and not the Lord.
[00:13:12] And it requires honesty for us when we talk about our time, when we say it's not time, what are we really saying?
[00:13:24] And when we say it's not time for the things of the Lord, what are we saying?
[00:13:31] We're saying it's time for me.
[00:13:33] Most often, for instance, you have time.
[00:13:39] I have plenty of time.
[00:13:42] Think about your calendar for the next three months, those of you who are into that. And you plan ahead.
[00:13:50] And you're looking at school starting and you're looking at students back, and you're looking at even as Tim was talking about earlier, BFG starting, and all of these things are cranking up. The sports, academics, all the things are getting going. And we have already written in so much on our calendar.
[00:14:11] You have time.
[00:14:13] You have time for a lot of stuff, a lot of things.
[00:14:18] And it's not about adding one more thing to your calendar.
[00:14:23] It's about reordering your calendar.
[00:14:26] Who is your calendar designed for?
[00:14:29] Who is your time given over to first and foremost? That's all he's asking the people to do, is make me first build my house first, and then I will bless you with more than you've ever hoped or dreamed. Just put me first, they said, no, we don't have time to put you first.
[00:14:51] It's not time to do that.
[00:14:55] We say this often on a daily basis just by our actions.
[00:15:00] It's not time to read the scripture, pray, but it is time to mindlessly scroll and binge watch.
[00:15:10] It's not time for you, Lord. We say that in what we do.
[00:15:15] A popular pastor has once said, the great use of social media in our day will be to prove that our lack of prayer is not for lack of time.
[00:15:30] You have time, you just fill it up with other things.
[00:15:36] We also have resources when we're called to give.
[00:15:41] And some of us just say, I can't give to that.
[00:15:45] Think about the things you give to.
[00:15:48] We actually have designed in our culture, which was mind blowing to me, to find out apps that we subscribe to that help us figure out apps that we forgot we subscribed to that are still taking money from us.
[00:16:08] I value my money too much to not know what I'm subscribed to, but I know people subscribe to those things.
[00:16:15] So you must have resources, you must have what you need and more.
[00:16:25] We think about Starbucks, it's very expensive coffee. Go to parties.
[00:16:32] We think about our gym memberships.
[00:16:36] We think about all the things that we give to. And yet when we're called to give to something for the Lord, we just go, I, I can't give to that.
[00:16:45] Well, what we are saying is I give to too many other things for myself to have this amount to give to the Lord.
[00:16:53] And we just have to be honest with that. We have time, we just have to reorder our time. We have resources, we just have to allocate them.
[00:17:03] Where God is first and foremost, that's what he's calling the people to and and notice. The truth is, because the Lord's not first, you have less notice. Verse 5.
[00:17:15] Now, therefore, says the Lord of hosts, consider Your ways. Now, this phrase is really important in this chapter. It means to put your heart on the road, which means to put your heart out there, to consider where you're going.
[00:17:31] Where are you really going? Look into your heart, your mind, your soul, your will. What is it given over to? What direction are you, all of you, headed in your whole being?
[00:17:46] Where are you headed? It's an urgent question.
[00:17:49] Consider it. Consider your way. Stop and think when you say it's not time. Stop and think about what you just said, and then consider this. Verse 6.
[00:18:01] You have sown much and harvested little.
[00:18:05] You're planting, but not much is coming from your work. You eat, but you never have enough.
[00:18:11] You drink, but you never have your fill.
[00:18:14] You seem to have resources, what you need, but there's still something lacking.
[00:18:20] You clothe yourself, but no one is warm.
[00:18:24] You're working really, really hard for these things, to provide for yourself, to take care of yourself. But there's this uneasy feeling that it's just not you look around and your resources continue to be depleted.
[00:18:39] And he who earns his wages does so to put them in a bag with holes.
[00:18:43] It seems as though the more you take in, the more you lose.
[00:18:48] It seems as though in serving yourself, you have less for yourself.
[00:18:54] This is the way the economy of God works.
[00:18:59] We put him first, we serve him.
[00:19:02] We trust him to provide for us. Whatever we need, he's going to take care of us. We just sang the song. My Father has it. Oh, do you believe that?
[00:19:15] Well, then you can give to him first and trust him first and serve him first, because he's going to take care of everything you need beyond that. And he had told the people of Israel in a covenant in Deuteronomy and Leviticus, if you worship the Lord your God first, you will always have more than you ever need.
[00:19:37] The land will be flowing in abundance. I'm going to take care of you because I'm going to show the world that my people have more than enough in me when they trust me to provide.
[00:19:50] But you are trusting yourselves to provide.
[00:19:54] That's why you have very little.
[00:19:57] You see, so often we can become content with the difficulty of our life serving ourself that we don't even realize how we're making life so difficult for ourselves.
[00:20:10] We can be so delusional in our sin, and this is all about me, and I'm serving myself all the time. And then we wake up one day and go, why is life so hard?
[00:20:20] Oh, I put myself first.
[00:20:23] Oh, I'm committed to myself and not the Lord, we can be so content with the difficulty of life and just plotting by our own power that we don't realize why. Why is there no abundance?
[00:20:40] Why is there no joy?
[00:20:42] Why is there no happiness in what I'm doing?
[00:20:46] Oh, it's because it's all about you.
[00:20:50] Self is serving self, and self can never give self enough.
[00:20:56] You are an endless drain that will continue to suck resources. And it will never be enough if it's about you.
[00:21:05] But if it's about the glory of God, you trust him to provide.
[00:21:10] And so often we wake up and we go, why is life so hard? It's because I push God out and I'm serving myself.
[00:21:19] We're like that little kid who we're trying to help get dressed for church.
[00:21:24] And they grab the shirt and say, no, let me do it.
[00:21:30] No, no, you don't know how to put your shirt on. And we're about to be late for church. Give me that shirt. No, let me do it.
[00:21:38] And they frantically put it on, and it's backwards, and their arm is in the hole where the head is supposed to be. And you're like, did you see how difficult you made that? Because you didn't just, let me do it.
[00:21:51] No, let me pour the milk. And then there's milk all over the table. We're the same way with God.
[00:21:58] Let me do it.
[00:22:00] And we wake up and we say, why is ministry so hard?
[00:22:04] Oh, because you're saying to God, let me do it my way.
[00:22:08] Why is parenting so hard?
[00:22:10] Oh, because you're doing it by your own power.
[00:22:13] Why is it so hard to be married? And, oh, because you're not putting the Lord first. And this is about his glory.
[00:22:20] And that's not the way the world works. That's not the way he designed it. He designed it that he would be first. And when you put him first, you just. In general, things are going to be easier for you, but they have less.
[00:22:34] And here he offers the truth. If they would serve God, they would have much more notice. Verse 7. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house.
[00:22:45] Now, he's not getting into detail about what the temple would be made of necessarily here.
[00:22:51] He's just saying, get to work on my house and notice why this is very important that I may take pleasure in it.
[00:23:00] Now, that phrase refers to the fact that God will come and dwell in it.
[00:23:05] If you would put me first and build this temple, I would be pleased to dwell there.
[00:23:12] I would meet with you there as you sacrifice, and as you worship, as you offer your life, I will meet you there in that temple. The question here is, don't you want to meet God?
[00:23:28] Don't you want to have God?
[00:23:31] And then he says that I may be glorified.
[00:23:34] Now, here in the temple, God's glory would be made known to the nations.
[00:23:39] God wants to say, in the temple, I'm with my people. And he wants to tell the world, look how I bless my people. I want to meet you there and bless you. I'm going to glorify my name in that way.
[00:23:52] But the point here is he's calling them to work. Yes, but in their work, they get God.
[00:24:01] In the building of the temple, they meet with the Lord, the one who says, I want to tell everyone that I provide for my people.
[00:24:11] The temple would be a symbol of God's deliverance and presence with his people. And I want everyone among you to see it. And I want the nations to see it. I want my glory to be known. So if you build this, I will meet you there and you'll have more than you've ever known or hoped or dreamed. But they would have more than they hoped or dreamed in God.
[00:24:39] You see, the temple is where they would know God, and the temple is where they would make him known.
[00:24:46] One of the things we have to really understand, when we're called to serve, when we're called to Bible study, prayer, fellowship, acts of service in the church, we're not being called to less, to have less for myself.
[00:25:06] We're being called, first of all to know God and make him known.
[00:25:11] And if we miss that, going to be fighting against that, and we're going to become bitter toward that.
[00:25:19] You see, the people could say God just wants a temple for himself.
[00:25:23] He wants us to build it.
[00:25:26] And then it's going to be like this museum where we just stand back in awe of it. That's all God wants. No, God is wanting to meet them there.
[00:25:34] That's why he's calling him to work in this way.
[00:25:38] He's not calling us to busyness. He's calling him to himself.
[00:25:43] And it's one of the things as a church that we try to temper.
[00:25:47] When we think about the things that we do and the things that we do around here. You need to know this first and foremost. It is to know God.
[00:25:57] It is to know God in gathering and worship.
[00:26:00] It is to know God through fellowship.
[00:26:03] It is to know God through discipleship, being in his word. In prayer, those things are priority.
[00:26:10] But that does overflow into doing Some things, naturally, if you start with the doing the things, you're going to be miserable.
[00:26:21] But if you start with I need to know God first and foremost, and by the way, that takes some work, that takes some sacrifice, that takes some doing without some things.
[00:26:33] But that's where we start. It is about knowing God. It is about having God.
[00:26:38] And we know how this feels.
[00:26:41] Often when we're called to serve, when we're called to pursue God, for many of us, even the things I'm beginning to talk about right now, and you think about your schedule coming up, and you are anxious, you're like, oh, my goodness, this is a call to do more around here. It's not.
[00:27:00] It is a call to first know God.
[00:27:03] And here's what goes on.
[00:27:05] Even in my own heart, I don't want to do that.
[00:27:10] I would rather do this for me on this day.
[00:27:15] That's going to be miserable.
[00:27:18] That's going to be terrible.
[00:27:21] And we talk ourselves up into all the things we'll miss out on, and then we do it and we're like, that was awesome.
[00:27:29] That was amazing.
[00:27:31] I got to serve and sacrifice and not think about myself for a little while and think about God and his glory and other people. And now I'm really happy.
[00:27:40] What we have to do in the beginning is break through that angst and anxiety.
[00:27:45] You know this. If you host a BFG in your home, Ashland Church, you are sent.
[00:27:51] And the women in the room who are getting their house ready for BFG in the afternoon, they feel it.
[00:27:59] I got a lot to do. I got to get home.
[00:28:01] I got to clean. I got to cook. I got.
[00:28:05] And there, there it is.
[00:28:07] And there are days you go, let's just don't do it.
[00:28:11] You feeling okay? I think you had some sniffles in the service.
[00:28:15] Might be Covid. Don't bring anybody over.
[00:28:19] And then you do it.
[00:28:22] And your home and your life is filled with people you love.
[00:28:26] And you go, yeah, I'm exhausted. But that was good.
[00:28:29] I needed that.
[00:28:31] So often there's on the schedule, the mission trip coming up, and I don't want to be a part of that. Think about all the things I could do this summer.
[00:28:39] And then you go, and you love it.
[00:28:42] What's going on there is God is pushing through.
[00:28:45] It's not time for him.
[00:28:48] You're going to be left with less. And he says, no, no, no. When you serve me, you get so much more. When you serve me, you get so much more.
[00:28:57] When you refuse to, you have less.
[00:29:00] But the warning here is, if you Refuse to serve the Lord, you'll be left with Nothing. Notice verse 9.
[00:29:06] You looked for much and behold, it came to little. When you came back to the land you thought flowing with milk and honey and all the good old days. No.
[00:29:17] And when it. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Now this could actually refer to harvest that was meant to be given to the Lord, and yet God is destroying it because he doesn't want it.
[00:29:32] And the blue away here is actually. Blast.
[00:29:37] You thought you were going to give me a little piddly offering every now and then. I don't want it.
[00:29:44] Why? Declares the Lord of hosts. Because my house lies in ruin while each of you busies himself with his own house. If you just look at the lay of the land, you can tell who's first. And it's not me, it's you. You are busy serving yourself. And so here's what he's going to do. The heavens above you withheld the dew and the earth has withheld its produce. You're not living in abundance.
[00:30:08] And I have called for a drought on the land and on the hills and on the grain and the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth on man and beast and on all the laborers. He's going to judge the land. You don't have everything you wish you had at this moment. Well, you're going to be left with nothing. And this isn't. God wants to be clear. This isn't just misfortune. God is against them because they put themselves first.
[00:30:35] You felt judgment before you've been led away in captivity.
[00:30:40] And you said never again. Well, here we are.
[00:30:45] But this time it's not BAAL you're worshiping this time, it's self. And you're going to feel judgment again.
[00:30:53] And this is one reason we see here that we never enjoy things that we cling to for ourself. You don't enjoy that when you begin to live life and you say, my money is mine, my time is mine, my resources are. You don't enjoy any of it.
[00:31:11] Why? Because you're always trying to protect it.
[00:31:15] When you live as though this is mine and that's how you start. This is for my glory.
[00:31:21] You're always worried about something taking it away.
[00:31:25] The economy is going to take it away.
[00:31:27] Someone may ask me to do something and I'm not going to have this for myself.
[00:31:32] I may be called into jury duty in September. And if anybody knows how to get me out of that, please do, because it's not time.
[00:31:44] Why does that make us anxious. Why does that make me anxious? Because my time is mine.
[00:31:51] When you live that way, you don't enjoy your time.
[00:31:53] You're always worried about it. You're always trying to protect it. But if you start with, this is God's, and if he wants to give me more time, he'll give me more time. If he wants to give me more money, he'll give me more money.
[00:32:05] But when we live the other way, we end up with nothing.
[00:32:10] We live our whole life and we say, this is my time. This is my time. This is my career, this is my time. And with the grandkids in retirement, this is my time. This is my time. This is my time. And we get to the end. And I've told you this before, I've never met with someone on their deathbed and they said, I wish I had more time for myself.
[00:32:30] They never said that.
[00:32:32] They said, man, I wish I'd have put God first in all things.
[00:32:35] And I wish I'd have used my life for him more.
[00:32:39] Because when we live in fear of trying to protect something that's not ours in the first place, God's going to take it away from us eventually.
[00:32:49] Now we start with his glory and notice. We obey immediately.
[00:32:53] Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtael and the son of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the remnant of all the people. Notice what they did. Verse 12 obeyed. It's that simple. Of all the warnings in the past from the prophets, there was rebellion, there was sin. Here they obey immediately.
[00:33:11] And they obey the voice of the Lord in the words of Haggai. And you've got to notice something with the prophets. God's word and the prophet's word are the same. They come with the same authority. God is the one who sent him.
[00:33:25] And the people feared the Lord.
[00:33:27] How do you. How do you obey the Lord? How do you work out wisdom for the Lord? We talked about this in Proverbs. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord God. You're God, I'm not. You, what you say, trembling before the Lord, You're God. I'm not. I'm going to do what you said.
[00:33:45] And that's what the people do here. They fear the Lord. And then verse 13, Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message. I am with you. So here is the promise. This is it. If you would just do what I say, I will be with you. And in your obedience, you will have me. And I will be enough so that you can obey me. I will be your sufficiency in your obedience. I am with you.
[00:34:15] You're worried about obeying the Lord, not having enough. Just obey him. Because you get him in all you have to sacrifice.
[00:34:24] He's enough to replenish.
[00:34:27] I am the Lord.
[00:34:29] I am with you. Verse 14. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of sheal, the governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehoshaphat, the high priest. Now they're all leaders, but notice what happens. And the spirit of all the remnant of the people, the leaders hear the word of God and they began to lead in this project.
[00:34:50] And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God. Their obedience was immediate. And on the 24th day of the month and of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the King.
[00:35:03] So 24 days later, they get to work. They plan, they strategize, and they get to work. But their obedience is immediate.
[00:35:13] And that's something we have to learn.
[00:35:16] We like to negotiate with God.
[00:35:19] We like to say God. That's just your opinion.
[00:35:22] Think about how difficult that's going to be for me.
[00:35:25] And the truth is, if you're not willing to obey now, it's not going to be easier to obey later. It never is.
[00:35:34] When you're not marked by immediate obedience, when you hear something from the word of God, when you say, this is what I'm supposed to do and you don't do, just gets more and more difficult to ever do it. But we convince ourselves. Sinful procrastination.
[00:35:50] I really want to do it and I'll do it one day.
[00:35:53] No, it never happens.
[00:35:55] Immediate obedience.
[00:35:58] And I want to say this, this works out in all kinds of different ways. Across the room, some of you heard haggai and you said, oh, building campaign, here we go.
[00:36:09] We haven't had a building destroyed that we need to rebuild yet.
[00:36:15] That's not what this is about.
[00:36:18] Oh, we're getting back into the swing of things around here. They're going to be acting like we need to. We need to do everything around here and serve. That's not what's going on here.
[00:36:28] Everyone here is called to do something for the Lord in your own different context, your own different ways. What this is a call to today is just for you to think about how you order your time.
[00:36:43] How do you order your time?
[00:36:45] No one's asking you to add one more thing to your schedule. Give to one more thing.
[00:36:50] It's simply to think about what you do already.
[00:36:54] How is my time ordered? Is it for myself or is it for the Lord?
[00:37:00] And for some of us here today, it's time for us to think about our whole life.
[00:37:05] Because you come in here today and you're saying, just not time for me to follow Jesus.
[00:37:13] And you wouldn't say it this way. You would say, I got some more things I want to do.
[00:37:18] I mean, following Jesus would really cramp my style.
[00:37:23] There's some things I enjoy to do that I know he's going to say no to.
[00:37:28] There's some places I like to go.
[00:37:32] There's some things I like to do that I know Jesus is no. And you say it's not time. Because I need to experience those things.
[00:37:40] Well, I'm going to tell you this. Living longer for yourself is not going to make it easier to one day just up and live for God.
[00:37:50] There will be never be a time.
[00:37:53] But I know this. However it works out in our lives and we have to sit down and we have to think about our schedules and our money. Everybody different here. I know this. God is not calling us to let to less when he calls us to serve Him.
[00:38:05] He's just not. I've never experienced that in my life.
[00:38:09] I've never experienced less in serving God more. I've never have.
[00:38:16] Now there's. You got to be smart and strategize with that.
[00:38:20] You got to remember why you're doing it. For his glory, to know more of him, pursue Him. When I've done things that way, I've never regretted it. I've done things my way and regretted it.
[00:38:34] But he's not giving us less. He's giving us more of himself. How do I know this?
[00:38:39] Well, God's not calling us to rebuild the temple because he's already tore it down and he's rebuilt it in three days.
[00:38:47] The temple is Jesus.
[00:38:49] The Word became flesh and was crucified for us. He was cut off from the blessings of God that we find in our passage today.
[00:38:56] And he endured the wrath of God as a sufficient payment for our sin.
[00:39:00] And so don't hear this as God's asking me to work for him to earn something. No, Jesus already paid it all.
[00:39:06] And so when you're called to serve, guess what you get to do? Enjoy God.
[00:39:11] Because you're not working for a distant tyrant who's calling you to do something that you're just going to hate. No, he's calling you to first look to Jesus, his life, death and resurrection. And when you believe the Gospel he meets you, he indwells you in. And as you serve him, guess what you get to do? You get to experience.
[00:39:31] He's enough of anything I've let go of of anything that's inconvenienced me. Jesus has been enough.
[00:39:38] Knowing him, even as Paul would say in his life and death and sufferings, I get to know Jesus as I serve him.
[00:39:49] And the more we learn by serving God in Christ, we find out he is enough.
[00:39:58] And while before we may have said it's not time, now we say never again, let's pray.
