Okay, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for today. We thank you for the opportunity to gather here with believers this morning in a safe place, in a comfortable temperature place, out of the elements, and we can study your word together. We can worship you together in praying and singing and giving. As we turn now to the portion of the service as we look at your word, we pray that you would guide our study, guide me to communicate well the things that you've shown me this week from this passage in a way that would be glorifying Christ and would stir our hearts up to love you more and worship you well we pray you would guard us from distractions and worries and cares the week that can easily press on our minds and distract us we pray our hearts would be a good soil ready for the truths of the word here to be planted and bear good for our lives i pray you guard me from error and just use this word to accomplish your purposes in our congregation we pray all this in jesus name amen So you can start turning me to Haggai if you would. And as we're going there, you'll recall we've been exploring Haggai, I guess it's kind of through this fall, I think I started in Haggai in September. We have this sermon and one more sermon in Haggai, I believe. Remember we've been using that illustration or that example of it, it's like a tool in a toolbox. And we say, okay, you have this tool, and you're like, why is this tool in our toolbox? What do we need this tool for? What's its purpose? And so we've been looking at Haggai like that. Why do we have this tool in our Bible, that God's given us this? What's the purpose of Haggai? And why was God sending it to those people? And also, why has he preserved it for us to have it today? And so that's what we're gonna continue to look at today, and hope that we'll continue to gain an appreciation of Haggai. We'll start with a review of where we've been so far. Remember that overall, the theme of Haggai is about being the people of God. If you're taking notes in your bulletin, that's your first blank today. Being the people of God. And in Haggai, we've seen that, what does it look like to be the people of God? As we've looked over the whole story of Haggai, we've also summarized Haggai with this sentence. God calls his people to join in the great work that only he can accomplish. God causes people to join in the great work that only He can accomplish. And so far in Hacking Guy, we've looked at two prophecies. Remember, there's four prophecies total. We've looked at the first two so far, and that's kind of developed the first half of that summary statement. God causes people to join in that great work. That's kind of what we've seen so far. And the last two prophecies will kind of flesh out that part that it's only God can accomplish it. And so in the first prophecy, remember, we saw that he said, don't focus on the gifts. Pursue God himself. Remember, the people were caught up with their own priorities. They were building their houses, their lands, trying to get comfortable. And they're saying, now's not a very good time to actually build the temple. And God says, no, you have your priorities wrong. He calls them to build the temple and delight in God instead of just in their own material possessions. So don't focus on the gifts. Pursue God himself. And then we saw how the Lord stirred up their hearts, as He called them, He stirred up their hearts and they obeyed and began to build the temple. That was all in chapter 1 of Haggai, which Derek read for us this morning. And then we got the second prophecy, and we summarize that one as saying, stick to the work that God gives you, because His plan is perfect. And we saw how they started to build the temple, and they're seeing, like, this doesn't look like it's going to be quite as impressive a structure as what we had even back in the days of Solomon. There may be a little discourage that seemed insignificant. And God says, no, you need to stay and be diligent about my work, because when we saw there that God's going to be the one who finishes that work. God will bring the work to a glorious end. And he promised again, like he did in the first prophecy, I'll be with you. I'm with you. Keep building. And then, so from those two prophecies, we're thinking about, so in Haggai, that's about being the people of God. In that first prophecy, we saw that God's people are to be focused on God. In the second prophecy, we saw that God's people are to be diligent about God's work. Now in the third prophecy today, what we're going to see about the people of God is that they're hopeful. They're hopeful in God's blessing. And so, That brings us to where we're ready to jump in and read the passage. So the third prophecy of Haggai is chapter 2, verse 10 through 19. Chapter 2, verse 10 through 19. I'll read it to you now. On the 24th of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, ask now the priests for a ruling. If a man carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and touches bread with this fold, or cooked food, wine, oil, or any other food, will it become holy?" And the priest answered, no. Then Haggai said, if one who is unclean from a corpse touches any of these, will the latter become unclean? And the priest answered, it will become unclean. Then Haggai said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so is every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. But now, do consider, from this day onward, before one stone was placed on another in the temple of the Lord, from that time, when one came to a grain heap of twenty measures, there would be only ten. And when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there would be only twenty. I smote you in every work of your hands with blasting wind, mildew, and hail, yet you did not come back to me, declares the Lord. Do consider, from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day when the temple of the Lord was founded, consider, is the seed still in the barn? Even including the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree, it has not borne fruit. Yet from this day on, I will bless you. So that's our passage for today, that's the third prophecy from Haggai, and I'll just kind of run through a summary of why I've seen that passage, and then we'll walk through the text together. So in that summary, we see that God first shows His people that they're unworthy, but then He makes them a gracious promise that He will bless them. He says, although I was against you previously, now I'm going to bless you. And God makes that promise to them because He says, now the foundation of the temple has been laid. We're going to see that this passage gives us a foreshadowing looking forward to the gospel. Christ and it will show that Christ is the perfect cornerstone has been laid has now secured the blessing for God's people So that's where we're going with this passage today The theme if you want to write your Bolton, although we deserve judgment God's gracious promise allows us to expect his blessing Although we deserve judgment God's gracious promise allows us to expect his blessing. I So following the normal pattern with you that we normally do, we'll look at the text and then we're going to consider how we see the gospel in Haggai, foreshadowed in Haggai. And then we're going to look at some application at the end of the sermon. So first of all, we'll walk through the text and we've already read through it. So we're going to see, I think the text kind of breaks down into two sections pretty comfortably. The first is going to be an unworthy people. That's going to be verses 10 through 14. And then we're going to see a gracious promise. That's 15 through 19. So first of all, we jump in at verse 10 for that section on unworthy people, and verse 10 is going to give us the context. It says, on the 24th of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet, saying, So this tells us where we're at in time. Haggai does a real nice job just telling us exactly the day he gets the prophecy. And in this one, according to my study Bible, that would have been December 18th, 520 BC. So actually I thought it was interesting as we're preaching through this. I'm preaching through it in the fall. This is about the timeframe from like the first, I started in September. The first prophecy came about August 19th. So this is about the timeframe of the people who have been receiving their updates about that schedule. So as God's given them prophecies. So we can note from this date, this is about three months after they began building the temple. So they're getting a little ways into the project. And you notice this date in the prophecy says this is the day the temple was founded. And so that's the significant thing about this date. And we can see also from the context and we can easily brush over, but this is the word of the Lord that came to Haggai. And so it's easy, like we expect to see that we might brush over, but it should be significant. Here's something that God Almighty has spoken through Haggai to his people. He wanted them to know it and he also wanted us to know evidently because he's preserved it throughout time that we would have it. And so we're wanting to understand that better as we go through it today. It's not something that Haggai thought, oh, I think we need to write an encouraging note to the people or that Zerubbabel, the government's like, I think the people are getting a little bit discouraged. We should write them something. This is, God says, no, this is what they need to know on the 24th day of the ninth month. As we go to verse 11, we'll see that first it's, you know, ask an expert. We have a question for an expert. And it says, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Ask now the priest for a ruling. That's verse 11. So Haggai goes to the priest. He has a question for him. It's not a riddle. I mean, sometimes, you know, those questions are like, I'll make you think. But this is, it's not a riddle. He has a question for him. The priests are the right ones to ask about a question about holiness, because the priests work in the temple, and their understanding of holiness and cleanness is a matter of life and death. You don't want to get that wrong when you're working in the temple. And so the priest would be a great one to ask about this. And this question has two questions to it, and each one is going to be an illustration. Together, God's going to use that to illustrate a point He's going to make for the people. So our question one is in verse 12. He says, if a man carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches bread with this fold, or cooked food, wine, oil, or any other food, will it become holy? And the priest answered, no. So this first question is about holiness. And he says, can you make one thing holy by touching it with something else that's holy? And is that a way you could transfer holiness? And the priest answered, no, that's not the way you're supposed to do it. The priest probably thought back to passages like maybe Leviticus 6, where there's instructions about the meat from the sacrifice, meat from sin offering. And the priest was to eat that meat. But there's a lot of rules like, careful what you touch with that. If you cook it in an earthen pot, you break the pot afterwards. If it's a bronze pot, you have to watch that real carefully. And it's not to be contaminating, it's not contaminating, but not to be transferring that holiness to other things with holy meat. And so the priest could look at that and say, no, technically there it says that if you touch it, it'll make it holy, but it's more like you're not supposed to be transferring that to other things. So the priest says no. And so you can't transfer holiness that way. And then he gives him another question, verse 13. Then Haggai said, If one who is unclean from a corpse touches any of these, will the latter, like that food, will it become unclean? And the priest answered, it will become unclean. So the second question is about transferring uncleanness. The first was about holiness. The second is about transferring uncleanness. And so I think we pause here and work a little bit terminology. I went back and checked through on the Concordance the study aid that I have commentary commentary on Leviticus and the idea of cleanness uncleanness common and holy there's For the Israelites who are living under the covenant of Sinai everything in the category so something's holy or it's common That's like to the kind of parent or something is clean unclean. That's like another pair and so in the normal state most things would been clean and the common that's kind of that that's the the The status where it should be and then but if there's sin disease death something like that that could make something unclean And so it drops down then there would be sacrifice or cleanliness Rituals that would bring them back to that clean or common state. They're supposed to be mostly in that. Well, there's also God He's holy now. If something is going to be brought close to God you'd move from that common through sacrifice and cleansing to holy but then again, there's sin corruption of something it brings it back down to common and so Our questions here, one is, could you move from the common to the holy? It doesn't move that way on accident. You always work your way towards the common if you touch something. On the other hand, if you're talking about common to unclean, well, that would move. If you touch something that's unclean, it touches something else, it moves downhill. So he's showing the progression is downhill. It doesn't default toward holiness. And so that's what he's laying out in these questions. If we look back at Numbers chapter 19, we see that if someone touched a dead corpse, they're supposed to be unclean for seven days, and everything they touched would also be unclean. So, now the interpretation comes in verse 14. Haggai said, so is this people, and so is this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so is every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. This is bad news for the Israelites. God says, based on these illustrations, it's a picture of you guys, you're unclean. Just like the holy meat can't be used to make other items holy, neither are you made holy just because you're building my temple, which would be something holy. On the other hand, just like unclean things corrupt everything it touches, you guys are the ones that are unclean. Your work is tainted. All the sacrifice, all the work you're doing, it's unclean to me. So Israelites understand from this that God's saying that you guys aren't fit to be in close relationship to me. You're not worthy of my blessing. It's significant because God in this passage is getting ready to bless them. He's going to tell them, I will bless you. But he starts off the prophecy by telling them, this is where you guys are at. Don't think that you, oh, we built a temple so we earned God's favor and now you have his favor. No, you don't understand that you guys are unworthy people. And so he's making that clear to them. He's not doing this just to crush them and just make them depressed. He's telling them the bad news first because it sets the stage for the good news that he's about to tell them in this second section. So we saw an unworthy people. Now we're going to see a gracious promise that God makes in verse 15-19. A gracious promise. As we work through this section, we're going to see a contrast develop. God's going to give them like a before and after. First of all, God tells them things are about to change dramatically, and so he's going to remind them how our thing is so far. In verse 15 through 17, we have a reminder. It says, but now do consider from this day onward before one stone was placed on another in the temple of the Lord. From that time, when one came to a grain heap of 20 majors, there would be only 10. And when one came to the wine vat to draw 50 majors, there would be only 20. I smote you and every work of your hands with blasting wind, mildew, and hail. You did not come back to me, declares the Lord. God calls him to mark it down. Remember how things have been. Before the stones were stacked, before the foundation was laid, how were things going? You'd go to your grain bin, your grain heap, and oh, there's only half as much grain there as we thought. You go to your wine vat to get some wine. There should be 50 measures. Oh, there's only 20 there. Your provisions were all lacking. Everything was going poorly. In fact, God was working against you. He says in verse 17, I smote you. They were under a curse because they weren't obeying God and everything they were working on was failing. And the people, in spite of that discipline from the Lord, they were refusing to turn back to God. And that's how things had been before the foundation of the temple had been laid. So if I was coming to a landscape in the backyard, I might tell you, like, you better take some before and after pictures because things are going to change a lot. And so you take those pictures because you know something's going to change. It's going to look a lot different. And so God telling him, like, you better take your before pictures, get a good mental image. How are things going now? Because it's going to change a lot here in just a minute. And so you want to be able to see that difference because things are about to change. Verse 18, we're going to get the hinge. That's the next blank, the hinge. And actually don't have that much, but verse 18 is the hinge. And what's going to make the difference? And it says in verse 18, do consider from this day onward from the 24th day of the ninth month, from the day when the temple of the Lord was founded, consider. So what's going to make the difference now that the foundation of the temple has been laid? That's the fact that all this hinges on before the foundation temple was laid. You guys had trouble every way or turn. And now the temple foundation has been laid, and you should watch because things are going to be changing. He's going to make a promise now in verse 19. He says, is the seed still in the barn, even including the vine, the fig tree, the palm and granite, and the olive tree? It is not born fruit. Yet from this day on, I will bless you. It's great news. The temple foundation's been laid. Now God is going to bless them. You might be thinking that. Well, then they look around, and the barns are still empty, and the trees aren't bearing any fruit yet. God says, no, but mark the day, because from here on, you will see that blessing. It's a promise. They haven't seen it yet, but they know now it's sure, because God has promised to them. And so, back up one line. God's made, it's a gracious promise because they're not worthy of it. Remember, we established they're unclean, they're not worthy of God's blessing. When I first was studying the passage, I felt like there was kind of abrupt change between unworthy people and a gracious promise. You're reading along, they're not worthy, and they're like, and I'm going to bless you. Like, well, that doesn't make sense exactly because, you know, they don't, they haven't, they don't deserve that. It's like, why are you just changed so dramatically? Well, That foundation is laid, and that's going to be significant as we get through here. We should feel that. They don't deserve it. But God chooses to bless them, and He doesn't make a condition on them. Like, I'll bless you if, and something. He just says, I'm going to bless you. And it's really secure. And we might think about, well, it's because the people repented, they turned to the Lord, and that's why He's choosing to bless them. And there's probably a part of that that's true, because I don't think if they hadn't repented, He would continue to discipline and smite them until they finally turned back to the Lord. So there's something about that that's true, but it's not just because of their repentance that God blesses them. Because their repentance actually happens back in chapter one, which is three months earlier, when the Lord stirs up their hearts and they begin like, okay, we need to start building the temple of the Lord, start doing the Lord's work. It's not just repentance, but I think the more significant thing he ties it to here is that the foundation has been laid. And we're going to see how that points us to Christ really well as we get into the passage farther. So, he doesn't say, You know, we might think it was odd that he says, well, the foundation's been laid. You can't do that much with a foundation. Maybe you should have waited until the whole building was finished. That's when you have something useful. It's not, but it's the foundation. That's because he's building a picture here that's going to set the stage really well for Christ. And so there's more going on here than just me getting a temple built. I remember from a previous prophecy in chapter two, the second prophecy, you guys said, I'm going to bring this work to a glorious end. And he has something. Figuring in my name, just the temple that they're building there in Haggai, which I've already said is not going to be that significant compared even to Solomon's temple. There's something more going on here. This is setting the stage for Christ to come. So now we'll move to the next section of the sermon. I want to show you how we see the gospel in Haggai, and the parts of the gospel actually are all woven in here into our story today. It's sort of like a summary of the gospel, just so we have a good kind of elements we're going to be looking for as we go through it. Some of you might be familiar with the story by the book by Greg Gilbert. It's a little booklet called What is the Gospel? I think we may have looked at it as a church at one point. It has a helpful summary of the gospel, though, which is four words. God, man, Christ, response. And so a lot of times I'm thinking about the gospel or wanting to present the gospel to someone, I can keep my mind organized along those points. God, man, Christ's response. When we get those things communicated well, then we have a good nutshell of what the gospel is about. And so we see those elements right here in our passage today. First of all, we see God, and it tells us several things about the character of God. We see in verse 14 that Verse 14 talks about the uncleanness of the people. Well, it implies that God is holy. It implies that there's a higher standard than what Israel can achieve on their own strength. So we see God's holiness showed in this passage. We also see God's justice. Verse 17, we see that God is able and He's willing to punish people as they rebel against Him. He says, I smote you, or I struck you, but you did not come back to me. The reason we need the gospel, partially the reason we need the gospel is because God isn't just God. He can't just sweep sin under the rug and ignore it. He's going to punish it. And so we need something that delivers from that judgment because we're wicked and we deserve this punishment. We also see God's character as gracious in verse 19. God is able and He's willing to bless them. He says, I will bless you. He promises to bless His people, not because they earned it, but He promises to bless them because the foundation has been laid. When the appropriate conditions are met, God says, I will bless you now. So that's some things about the characteristics of God that we've seen in the passage. We also see a lot about the character of man. We can see in verse 14 again, man is sinful. He's unholy, unclean. He's not worthy of God's blessing. That's an important point of the gospel. Man is not worthy of this. We also see man is rebellious in verse 17. He's not coming to God. In fact, he's running in the other direction. God says in verse 17, you did not come back to me. The man on his own is not seeking return to God. He's running away from God. We could assume that unless the Lord had sent prophets to call the Israelites to repent, they would have just kept running in the wrong direction. Man left himself naturally as just an enemy of God. We see God, we see man, we also now see Christ in the passage. Not clearly, but we see foreshadowing points towards Christ in the passage. Christ would be the one that would be, first of all, perfect. Remember in verse 14, the people are unclean, they can't bring a worthy sacrifice to God, but Christ is perfect. We can see from 2 Corinthians 5.21, it says that he knew no sin, and Paul writes, He made him who knew no sin, that's Jesus, to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So Christ was perfect. Unlike the Israelites who were continually falling to sin, Christ would be that perfect one that would come. We also see Christ had the power to cleanse. The Israelites had this, you know, they were unclean. What they offered was unclean. Someone needs to cleanse them. Christ is the one who would have the power to cleanse them. I thought it was interesting after reading our passage in Haggai, when we look at this passage in Luke chapter 7, where Jesus touches the coffin of a dead person. It says, Soon afterwards, he went to a city called Nain. Jesus went to a city called Nain. And his disciples were going along with him, accompanied by a large crowd. Now as he approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother. She was widowed, and a sizable crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he felt compassion for her and said to her, Do not weep. And he came up and touched the coffin, and the bearers came to a halt. And he said, Young man, I say to you, arise. The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, A great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited his people. This report concerning him went out all over Judea and all the surrounding district." So when Jesus touched the coffin, they would expect, oh, he's going to be unclean. But what happened instead, the dead man was raised back to life. Jesus recognized, or the Jews recognized, there's a power here that could remove uncleanness. And they conclude, God has visited his people. They were right. A similar example from Jesus' life that shows he has the power to remove uncleanness is when he touches a leper. In Luke chapter 5, verse 12 through 14, it says, while Jesus was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and implored him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. And he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I am willing to be cleansed. Immediately the leper she left him, and he ordered him to tell no one. But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." So leprosy, of course, is a classic example of uncleanness we see in Levitical laws. And here Jesus reached out and touched the leper. Once again, the crowd would expect that, oh, Jesus is going to become unclean. That's not what happens. Instead, the leper is healed. It demonstrates that Jesus has the power to remove uncleanness. The sign is really clear, and he even says, this is pretty obvious, he says, go show yourself to the priests as a testimony to their might. The priest should be able to look and see. Remember, the priests are excellent. They're the experts on holiness laws. A man comes like, oh, someone touched me. I became clean. I was like, oh, that should be a big highlight. Here's someone with the power to remove uncleanness that that we need. And that's what Haggai is looking forward to when someone would bring someone had the power to remove the uncleanness. Ultimately, we see Christ came not just to remove our physical uncleanness, though, but our spiritual uncleanness. If we go back to 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, it says, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So we see that Christ came as the Clean One, who took on sin and uncleanness upon Himself when He died on the cross. And by His finished work, He provided cleanness and holiness for His people. Something better than what the Old Covenant could offer, the Old Covenant given at Sinai. So we see here, so far, we've looked at Christ's character in this section. We see Christ, he'll be the one that's perfect, he'll be the one that can remove, has the power to remove uncleanness, or has the power to cleanse. And we also are gonna see Christ as the cornerstone. And if we look at verse 18, God said, I'm blessed with you because the foundation has been laid, the foundation of the temple. Well, Psalm 118, verse 22, looks back, that's this room before that time, but he's looking to the Messiah would be the cornerstone. David writes, The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. And in Acts 4, Peter and John take that verse from David and they apply it directly to Christ. And they say, He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief cornerstone, and there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. See, Christ is the cornerstone. Paul takes that same idea in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19 and 22, and he says that, as you write about the church specifically, he says that Christ is the cornerstone of the church, the foundation. And verse 19 of Ephesians 2 says, So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." So we see that it says the church is being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. That really pulls well from Haggai talking about the foundations laid, and I bless you, Christ is the cornerstone, the foundation that's been laid. We also see that in Haggai, God says, I will bless you. Well, we see the character of Christ. He's the one who secures the blessing for God's people. He secures the blessing. We could look at Ephesians 1, verse 3. Paul writes, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So in Haggai, the blessing comes, is promised when the foundation is laid. Well, therefore, Christ is that foundation, that cornerstone is laid. He's the one that secures the promise for God's people. that blessing for God's people. So, again, working through the parts of the gospel, we see God, we see man, we've considered Christ. Now, the last part of the gospel is the response. How should man respond to it? And we don't see that real strongly in the passage, but we do see some hints towards repentance and belief. The repentance we could see if we looked at verse 17. God's telling people, yeah, you did not come back to me. There's something they need to return, they need to return back to the Lord. That suggests there's a needed repentance. We can see that hinted at in this passage today. And again, the other side of the response to repent and believe, we can see a hint to that belief just in that fact that God gave him that promise. It says, you don't see it yet, but I will bless you. They need to trust God, they need to believe what he said is true and take him at his word. And so we see those elements mixed in here as well. Although we don't see the gospel fully explained in Haggai, it's definitely not entirely clear there what's going on. I just think it's remarkable. God knew what he was playing when he wrote Haggai, how he was, where he was going with all this. This is preparing, setting the stage for the gospel for when Christ will come. Christ's life, his death, his resurrection. It's not an afterthought. This was God's plan all along. So we see the groundwork being laid for the gospel even as we look at Haggai. Okay, so we looked at unworthy people and God's gracious promise. We've seen how we have the elements of the gospel kind of foreshadowed here in Haggai. Now I want to finish by looking at some points of application. Our first application point is going to be humility. Humility. Don't trust your own merit. Just like the Israelites and our pastors today, we're also not worthy of God's blessings. In Romans 3, 9-11 we can read, What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. As it is written, There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. We don't want to slip into that era of thinking that somehow we're earning God's blessing by our good works. Even when the Israelites were building the temple of God, He tells them that what they're offering there is unclean. We're not in right standing with God because we read our Bible every day or because we pray often, because we serve at our church or practice hospitality. Those are good things to be doing, but that's not how we get God to love us or earn God's favor. God promises to bless us. The passage calls us to humility. It says, there is none righteous, not even one. So like the first recipients of Haggai, we're also not worthy of God's favor. So our first application is humility and not trusting our own works. The second application would be repentance. Turn to God. Repentance. You know, for some here that possibly this is your first time, you need to turn to God for the first time to become a believer. If you can see that you can't earn God's favor, as the passage makes it clear today, and you can't live up to God's perfect standard, then you're in a great spot then to give up on all your attempts to earn God's favor and turn to Christ as the only one for salvation. Christ, the foundation, has been laid. The blessings are secure, but only for those who are in Christ, only for those who repent. Haggai shows, is foreshadowing the gospel. That's what God's plan of salvation all along. That's the only way for salvation, is through the gospel. And so, if your conscience is pricked today, don't wait longer. Turn to Christ. And the blessing is there, but only after repentance. Now for believers also, that call to repentance applies to us as well, because we can sometimes get distracted. We need to guard our hearts and make sure we're not being distracted away from our pursuits to follow after God and obey God. Are we still seeking His face daily? Are we obeying Him? He's still our first top priority. If we start to stray away, He's going to get our attention. I think someone already referred to Hebrews 12, maybe Brian read earlier, talking about the discipline that we have when we stray from the Lord. Hebrews 12, verses 5 through 6. And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are approved by him. For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives. So if we're experiencing hardship in our life, it could be the discipline of the Lord calling us to repentance. It's not necessarily, there's times that he brings hardship for other reasons, but it's good to check. Am I running after the Lord wholeheartedly through this hardship, or is there something that I need to repent from? So that's your second application, repentance. My last application is hope. We need to take God at his word, hope. I think this is probably the strongest application for believers today from this passage. If you think about this prophecy that Haggai gave in here, that would be something that would give the people hope in Haggai's day. That God's going to bless us, that's great news. Think of how that must affect their attitudes as they're planting their crops next year. Now, finally, things are going to be different. God's going to bless us. If they really believe what God said, then they'd be very hopeful. How would you feel if God promised to bless your farm or business? That's not what this passage is promising, so don't get on that track. But we have something even better that God has promised us. We have the blessings that are in Christ. Remember Ephesians 1, verse 3, which we read earlier. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So, who carries it really well? How well the stock market is doing? We have blessings, all the blessings we can need in Christ. We're guaranteed every spiritual blessing in Christ. And it wasn't just Paul that wrote like this, we also see this in Peter, and God inspired Peter to write in 2 Peter 1, verse 3, that Jesus' divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Everything pertaining to life and godliness. That's a pretty broad promise, and that's a good promise. It would be difficult for us to be hopeless people if we always believed these promises that God had made for us. we still are going to have some struggles. And just like people in Haggai, we haven't necessarily seen all those blessings yet. So there might be times where it seems like things aren't going well, just like the people like, OK, God promised to bless us, but the barns are empty, the trees haven't borne any fruit yet. But we can reassure ourselves because Christ the cornerstone has been laid, and that's why our blessing is secure on that. And therefore, as God's people, we can be sure that God is going to bless us. So now, in closing again, we've seen in this third prophecy of Haggai, it shows that God's people are hopeful people. God's given them good promises. Although we deserve judgment, God's gracious promise allows us to expect His blessing. We've seen how the gospel is foreshadowed and anticipated in our passage today. Like the people of Haggai's day, we have a good reason to hope. I'm going to close with Romans 15 verse 4, which I think reflects that in our passage well today. It says, "...for whatever was written in earlier times was written in prior instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope." Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the hope that you give us in Christ, and we thank you that the promises aren't based on our performance, that we don't have to go week by week wondering if we've done enough to stay in your good favor or trying to earn our way back into your favor and your blessing. Those are not based on our merits, but upon what Christ has done, and we thank you that you've set it up that way. It really can bring us a lot of peace, a lot of joy, a lot of security as we're Thinking all those things we pray it would be a hopeful people the people around us this week would see that There's something different that person that has a steady hope that's not wavering with the changes of going around us in the world We pray that you would be doing that work on our lives today. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. I Want to open it now for any of the men that have other comments or things? Especially if there's anything this passage that would call us to worship the Lord Well that maybe I missed or didn't have time to go out. We sure welcome that now. I I think there's more there. We'll stop with that for now. Thanks.