In the back of your Bibles, all right. Then we'll find where we're at there and get started here this morning. Get that to switch around. All right. And so we're doing a Thou Art Worthy session or series. And so Revelation 4 in verse 11 says, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For Thou has created all things and for that pleasure they are and were created. And so this is message number four. It's been a month of messages. And we'll be continuing this theme at different times throughout the year, picking it up and setting it down, picking it up and setting it down, just keeping it in our hearts and minds. And so we looked at worthy of obedience and the obedience of salvation and the sanctification. That was the first Sunday. We looked at worthy of worship. Daniel was our example in his devotion to God. And so that was our consideration. And then last week, worthy of us. We have to present our bodies in a way that is pleasing to God, and that God desires that. This morning, we're looking at worthy of our investment, okay, investing ourselves in His Word. And so, Haggai is going to share a segment. It's part of the history of the Jewish people and there's a specific context of things that were happening right then. So, I want to give us the historical context to kind of bring us up to speed with where we're at in our story. So, God had used a burden on King David's heart to build a temple. He got burdened about it, wanted a house for God. And so as he prayed about that, prepared for that, God said, no, it's not going to be you. It's going to be your son, Solomon, that is going to build that. And so David would challenge his son, Solomon, with the great work of God building God's house. And David the King said unto all the congregation, Solomon, my son, whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work man before the Lord God. So as he's doing this, it's a house of God. It's not just a palace. He's going to build other palaces, but this was specific to the temple and that place of corporate worship of God and that place where God would meet with his people. Now, Israel got a disobedience to God. And because of that, Judah, as they're that southern kingdom, and they had Jerusalem, They've come under the wrath of God, and God says, look, you're gonna be taken over by Babylon. If you don't repent and get right, you know, these things are gonna happen, and Jeremiah's the prophet that's preaching, telling the people, you might as well surrender, because this is of God, and this judgment's gonna come upon this place. Eventually it does come, and it comes very badly upon the place, because rather than voluntarily going out and surrendering, they allowed the battle to take place, and it destroyed the city. And so Jeremiah 52 verse 12 and 13, Now in the fifth month of the tenth day of the month, which was the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar Adam, captain of the guard, would serve the king of Babylon into Jerusalem and burn the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem and all the houses of the great men. built up by Solomon, destroyed at that time by nephews of Adam and the others that came with him. Seventy years passed with the Babylonian captivity. Daniel's a part of that. We understand Daniel reads in the book of Jeremiah about the 70 years. He begins to pray and ask for God to raise up some that would go back. God does that. And as he does that, he raises up Zerubbabel as the leader of that group, that first group that goes back to Jerusalem. And so from IsraelMyGlory.org, it says, Zerubbabel was a descendant of King David and an ancestor of Jesus Christ, earthly ancestor through Mary. His name probably means Seat of Babylon, but his Persian name was Shesh-Bazar, suggesting he may have been in the service of the king. Yet, Zerubbabel left all the comforts of Babylon behind to take on this challenge. At Jerusalem, the first order of business was to rebuild the altar of the Lord and reestablish the sacrifices. Also, the temple was to be rebuilt with donations of material and money. The primary lesson for the new arrivals was to put the Lord first in all things. Well, you're gonna see that together with the selfish interests of some from within the remnant, caused the work on the temple to stop for 16 years. And so, I mean, they came back anticipating rebuilding God's work and for God's glory. And so there was some stop put to that, and then it just sits there for 16 years, nothing is happening. with God's work, and so God was not pleased with the cessation of his work, and so he raised up two prophets, and we've got them listed together in our Bible. So we've got Haggai and Zechariah. And so they're contemporaries dealing with the same issues at the same time, challenging God's people to get involved in the work. And so, Haggai chapter 1 verse 1, in the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel, the son of Sheolto, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest, saying, okay? And so he's got a message, and once again, to Zerubbabel and the group there of exile we're going to echo his main thought to ourselves this morning and that is this, God is worthy of your investment in and upon his word. Alright, God is worthy of your investment in and upon his word and again as we step back and look at that statement we could ask ourselves are you interested at all in affording the work of God? Is that something that's in your Are you investing at all, whether energy, effort, finance, or things like that, are you investing at all in God's Word? And so let's pray as the Spirit of God, speak to our hearts this morning as we come to the Word of God. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to look at the Word of God. And Father, we ask that the word of God would take deep root in our hearts this morning, that this would be a very fertile time, that this would be a very profitable time of plowing in our hearts and planting seeds of truth. And Father, that it would bring forth a great harvest. There's nothing more important today in our area than what you desire to do here at Southside Free Baptist Church, what you desire to do at other evangelical churches across the land here in Scotland. There's a lot of other things happening, but the vital work is what's here. And so I ask that the Spirit of God would give me grace to articulate Haggai's message, which is the message of the Lord. And Father, that we hear it in our hearts this morning. May it resonate with us, may it motivate us, may it encourage us, and we commit ourselves to your good care, for your blessing upon this, your word is in Christ, and we pray, amen. All right, so God is worthy of your investment in and upon his work. And so several points this morning, the first one is tell time, tell time. As we come to the text, tell time. And by tell time, I mean this, it's time to do God's work. It's time to do God's work. This people say, the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai, the prophet sent." You have BWM family camp that we're probably gonna go to again this year. It's an annual thing for us, drive to Germany. Crazy trip to get there, to be there, and be blessed by the word of God in fellowship with other ministers of the gospel around Europe. But as we're there, on Thursday night we have a skit night. One of the skits that is popular and that takes place every year is the little kids getting up in the front, and they all sit in chairs, and they got their legs crossed kind of one way. And one at the very end says, is it time? And he turns to the next one, is it time, is it time, is it time, is it time, is it time, is it time? It goes down to the end, and there's maybe 10, 11 kids there, and sometimes some big kids, too, as they let somebody do that last year. Normally it's like these wee little kids and they're cute as can be and so it's kind of fun watching them ask that question all the way down. Like a telephone gets the end and the person at the end maybe sighs or something and then says, it's not time, it's not time, it's not time. It goes back to the beginning. And it keeps running that way several times and finally it gets to the end, is it time, is it time, is it time? And he says, it's time. And when he says it's time, the foot goes down, the other foot comes up and they cross their legs the other way. You know, and it's time to do something that's funny because it's kids and it's funny because it's unimportant. You know, like they're waiting to do that. So hangy eye has an is it time question, but it's not something trivial. It's not something that you laugh at and think, oh, that's no big deal. You know, it's a time, it's a time, it's a time. I thought we were waiting for something important. And here in our text, it's something vital. It's something very important. So Haggai has a, is it time question for them regarding God's house, the temple. Verse four, it says, is it time for you, O ye to dwell in your sealed houses and this house lie waste? All right, is it time? They're saying it's not time, it's not time, it's not time. And Haggad looks at them and says, is it time for you to sit in your nice house while God's house is going to waste? One of the things that we've enjoyed doing for the last 14 years in Scotland is touring castles and seeing the castles. We go into one of our favorites, Tantalum. And I mean, you think, how could somebody live here with the, you got the cliffs and the North Sea and I mean, the fierce wind that's constantly coming in The cavernous hallways and things like that, and yet it's not what it was, is it? As you look at it, it wasn't like that back when it was inhabited. It was sealed. in the hearth and things like that, it was warm and very nice, okay. And so, as it speaks about their houses, their houses are not just so that they could get shelter. They're the exiles. They've gotten back. Their houses are really nice. They've sealed them with wood on the inside and made them really like timber cladding and maybe some tapestries or things. They're focused on making their houses super nice. Jeremiah speaks about this in Jeremiah 20, 14. Someone said, and large chambers and cutted them out windows. And it is sealed with cedar and painted with vermilion. And so just like they talk about the temple, when they built the temple and putting the cedar floor down and maybe some walls and things like that. It's that fresh smell, that cedar wood, however they stained it back then, it's nice, it's beautiful. They've worked hard and they've got really kind of luxurious houses. But then you look across at the temple and the temple is in, a disrepair. And so the question, isn't it time to do something about God's house for God's glory? Matthew Henry, what was the sin of the Jews at this time? He's a commentator speaking about this. As soon as they came up out of captivity, they set up an altar for sacrifice and within a year after laid the foundations of the temple. That was great. They then seemed very forward in it, and it was likely enough that the work would be done suddenly, but being served with a prohibition sometime after from the Persian court and charged not to go on with it, they not only yielded to the force when they were actually under it, which might be excused, but afterwards, when the violence of the opposition had abated, they continued very indifferent to it, had no spirit or courage to set about it again, but seemed glad that they had a pretense to let it stand still. Though those who are employed for God may be driven off from their work by a storm, yet they must return to it as soon as the storm is over. These Jews did not do so, but continued loitering until they were afresh, reminded of their duty, and that which they suggested one to another was, the time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built." Okay, so they expected to do God's work at some point. They knew, oh yeah, it's God's work, it needs to be done, but it was like, that's future, that's future, and they're focused upon themselves. and what they're doing. Now, Southside Free Baptist Church has a building, right? Praise God. We thank God again and again for the great building that he's given to us. But our building is not the temple. God's people are the temple, right? In the New Testament, we're the ones that the Spirit of God dwells inside of us. He's the one that lives inside of us. But everything that we do on this property, a Southside Free Baptist Church property, everything that we do here that impacts the people is God's work. And so this is, in that sense, God's house, and this is God's work. So whether it's cleaning and repairing the property or maintaining it, as we're gonna be doing for the next however many years, as the Lord carries, supporting God's work financially. At home and abroad, today is our faith promise commitment Sunday. Why is that important? Because that's God's work. As we support our three missionaries and pray about taking out a fourth, that's important. Using our spiritual guests in our local assembly, that is the work of the Lord. Attending the services, greeting our guests, encouraging one another, all of that is God's work, God's house, and God's things. I suspect that everybody that has ever attended a church would answer correctly the question, you know, should you be involved in God's work, the local church? I think everybody would say yes. I think they would know that that's important. And yet there's this idea that I will get to that in the future. I will do that in the future. Someday down the line, I understand that's important, but right now, maybe would say to me, pastor, I've just got this, this, this, this. going on, I just can't right now." And that's really kind of where they were at in the story. God's word was there, God's work needed to go forward, but they were like, it's not time. It's not time. And the prophet of God comes and says, wait a second, is it time for you to be so focused on your house, so focused on your things, and so focused on that, that you don't have time for God and God's work? And so the first thing this morning, As we think about this, it's tell time. Look at it and say, you know, it is time. It is time to do God's work and praise God for that. And so tell time. It's time to do God's work. Secondly, walk wisely. Walk wisely. Think about your walk. It says twice in our text, the phrase, in verse five and verse seven. It says, now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Now, Nehemiah's speaking about their ways, and what's he speaking about? He's speaking about their walk. He's talking about what are you doing with your life, okay? This is every day, day 24, seven, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, consider your ways, how you're using your time. Does it speak well of God's people when they are at home and God's house is neglected? That's the context of the story. Did that speak well? Did people in the community, as they looked at the house of God and walking by the temple The temple's in disrepair, and they see the people of God, and their houses are really nice, and their gardens are really nice, and they're spending all their time on all these things, and they're looking at the house of God. Did that speak? I don't know whether they rode their horses to church or what they had, if they had a hitching rail or what was out front, but they come by on the Lord's day. And the hitching rail is empty on that Sabbath because God's people are not gathering there to worship because the house of God is in disrepair. Sadly, maybe many heathen people had no expectation to see it otherwise. It's just the way it was. It had been that way for 16 years. Exiles had been back, had been there, they'd seen it. Maybe some even laughed about it, said they're never gonna get to doing anything with that property for God or for God's glory. Sadly. I wonder what the unbelievers in our area expect to see at Southside Free Baptist Church. I don't want to be negative this morning, but the thing is, do they expect to see a neglected work? I praise God that property speaks of the sufficiency of God to accomplish much with little. The fact that we can purchase this property. The fact that we could begin to modify this property, clean this property up, it's a testimony right now. But is there a sense that they don't really expect us to do that much with this property? You know, an empty car park, praise God, it's not always empty. I didn't expect it to actually be empty this morning. but an empty car park. As they see that and they look at that, and again, is that a good testimony to God? Or do they have an expectation of failure? And sadly, there's some in this community that would say, for sure, and I've seen it online, they suspect that this church is not gonna stay in this place very long. Now, I believe otherwise. I 100% this church is anchored by God, praise God. But there still has to be a recognition that we look at that and we walk wise and we think about our walk and think, you know, what am I doing about this? What can I do about it? How can I better do something about it? Our family has made it to page 375, I think, in John Patton's biography. Now, I encourage you, if you haven't read it, read it. If you've read it, we'll borrow it to whoever wants it, right? And so we're getting through it. But he gives an account of Lord's Day, and he speaks about it. At sunrise, they have breakfast, and then they have two services. They come to the first service very early in the morning. They ring the bell, and people very quickly assemble, and they're in the seats, I think it said, before the second bell rings. They're listening to the word of God. They get done, they have a 20 minute break. They come back in for the second session. They have that. Afterwards, John Patton and others go through the island, a small island that they're on, and one group goes one way, the other group goes another way. They talk in every village. They have services in every village. They find out about those that are ill in every village. On the way back, they're weary, but they meet, and they have a prayer meeting and a song service, and then the kids wanna stick around after nine o'clock, and they wanna keep singing and listen to missionaries, and the missionaries have an English service after that, and hear them sing and pray, to God in English because they like to be around where the praying is. As he read about that, he spoke about how he went back to civilization. So he leaves the heathen people on that island that had come to Christ and he comes back to civilization and he looks at it and it's with a heartache that he sees the Lord stay profane, the carelessness of worship. Again, as we look at this text, you listen to the prophet saying, consider your ways. Consider your ways. You look at your house, your house is really nice. It's all about you. God's house is neglected. There's very little effort being given to it. So we're talking about God is worthy of our investment in his work. We gotta step back from that and say, well, I'm gonna tell time, it's time. I wanna walk wisely. So I'm gonna consider my ways. Count costs. You can't get ahead by neglecting God's work. Count costs. Verse six, it says, you have so much and bring in little. You eat, but you have not enough. You drink, but you're not filled with drink. You clothe you, but there's none more. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord. All right, so you look at the people that had been exiled, they come back, what are they seeking? They're seeking creature comfort, all right? They're seeking to satisfy themselves. In the verses there, verse six and seven, it says, they're trying to satisfy their flesh by eating and drinking, but they're not getting enough to eat. The drink isn't really satisfying them. They have not clothes, nice clothes, but they weren't comfortable. They weren't warm. It speaks about them. You know, you're clothing with all this nice clothes, but there's none that's warm. They earned a lot of money and put it into their bags, but the bag was full of holes. And so again, walk wisely and then count costs, look at it and say, is this really going that well? You know, you're neglecting God's work and you're focused on your things and you're living your life for yourself. Is it going well? Is it prospering? type brain he actually has some patents and some things and he's an engineer and he didn't go to school for engineering it's just a really gifted that way but he's always been able to kind of earns some money kind of like Benson. Benson's kind of got the Midas touch in her family a little bit like that. My brother had that so my brother this started when he was young he would say to me I'll give you two big nickels worth five cents each for your two little dimes worth ten cents each I look at those big nickels and my little dimes, I thought, oh man, that's a good deal. I get two big nickels for my two little dimes. You know, I praise God I got to an age finally where I can count costs. I go, wait a second, I'm losing half every time I trade, you know, with my brother. You know, it's a thing where somebody thinks, hey, this is a great deal. I've got this big house that I'm earning and I'm working and I'm living for that. But some reason it's not satisfying. It's empty. On the other hand, God's house is neglected. And so living for those things and think, I don't have time for God because this is so important, but what is so important for them is not meeting their need because they've forgotten who the source of their blessing is from. And if they step back from that and count costs and look at it and say, you know, I'm living my life for this stuff. I'm too busy to serve God. Is this stuff really satisfying biblically? The answer would be not at all. It can't possibly be. It wasn't in this case. It can't be in this day and age. You know, I look at an atheist and you ask an atheist the question, where does your money come from? What does he say? Himself. Now, this is a trick question. If you ask a Christian, where does your money come from? What would they say? It's a trick question because the right answer would be my money comes from God, my blessing comes from God, but it's a false answer for somebody to say it comes from God and to live as if it comes from themselves. Hopefully a Christian understands his resources are from God, but a question I would ask to anybody is should we expect things to go well financially when we trust money instead of God? Should we expect that that's gonna be great if we're not honoring God? Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6, 31, he said, wherefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles see. So somebody that is living their life for things and it's all about, I gotta go to work, I gotta make a buck to be able to provide for this and this and this and this, we're living our life and we're living like that just like the Gentiles. Just like somebody that is unsaved. For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth what ye have in need of all these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. and all these things shall be added unto you. All right, so seeking first the kingdom of God, I just wanna be practical this morning and say, what does seeking first the kingdom of God look like on paper? Because it's not that I know that God should be first. is that I practically put God first in my life. So that I get up every day and say, God, you've got first place. I'm spending time with God in prayer. I'm spending time with God in the Word. I'm giving God first place in finance. I'm tithing offerings. I'm saying to God, God, I'm committed to the work that you're doing. Southside Free Baptist Church, no, it's not a temple, but this is the church, this is the people of God. Jesus Christ is the head of the church. We're studying that in Sunday school, talking about ecclesia in the church as instituted by God, Jesus Christ himself being the head of it. We ought to look at that and say, that body is the most important thing. Not because of Pastor Ben, not because of the Shore family, not because of, We gotta look at that and say, man, that is the most important thing. So practically speaking, seeking first the kingdom of God would have a lot to do with what am I doing for the work of God at Southside Free Baptist Church? And so if I'm God's child, I'm neglecting his work, should I expect things to be satisfying? Or should I expect that my financial position's gonna be strong if I'm withholding from God and I'm seeking first my things instead of seeking first God's things? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me. Even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into storehouses, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, and there shall not be room enough to receive it. So somebody that says, It's my money, it's my things, I don't give back to God, I don't recognize God as the giver of all this, I don't recognize the tithe, it's the Lord's, I'm gonna hoard that to myself, is God gonna bless that? No. But if I take from that and say, God, you've got first place in my finances, you've got first place in my life, and by the way, where a man's treasure is, there will his what? Heart be also. And so somebody that lives their life for money, they've got two masters who are living their life for money instead of living their life for God. They're not seeking first the kingdom of God. That's where this passage comes into play, this idea of counting costs, because the thing is, you can't live your life for things like that and neglect God and have it go well. Or I would question, are you a child of God? Whom the Lord loveth, he what? Chastened. God didn't let them you know get away with that and say oh that's fine you're neglecting my work not caring about my work my house is empty your house is full that's fine God did it. God sent his preacher to preach in mercy but God also pointed out hey the reason it's not going well is because my house is neglected and so it's good for us to step back from that and count costs and look at that and say right okay so if I'm not putting God first that's not going to be Glorify God. Glorify God. And that has to do with pleasing Him and magnifying His name. It says in verse eight, going up to the mountain and bring wood. by, saith the Lord." So I mean, the Lord says there's probably good work, all right? Get in there and do something. It's not gonna be easy, it's gonna be tough, do it. You know, one of the tremendous blessings in our day is power tools. That's been a great blessing as we've been working back here. Josh Rowley, when he came, he blessed us by providing some power tools that he left here for us to use. And that's great. When my cousin Aaron came, Terry Locke showed up with a stack of tools boxes this high and it was like Christmas for my cousin He's got my cousin has all those tools in the States, but couldn't bring him with him So he's opening boxes and all this great, you know looking through what he had to be able to do those work power tools are I mean make it easy But those of us that worked here without power tools stripping the walls of this room and the wallpaper that was here that counter that was in the back and hand sawing off the front of the counter and just realized that takes work. That takes effort. I mean, it's one thing to plug something in and go, zzz, zzz, zzz. It's another thing to, you know, or zzz. It's another thing to, you know, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And both take work, but understand, these people, they had to go up into the mountains with axes, saws, cut down trees, cut those trees into manageable sections, maybe hook up a mule or some animal to pull that down. I mean, it wasn't gonna be easy what they're doing. It's gonna take effort to do what they do. Hegea's audience could not just be interested in God's work from their easy chair. All right? They couldn't just sit back and say, well, hey, I'm really interested now. Now that you spoke about it, yeah, God's work's being neglected. I care a lot about that, and here I sit. They couldn't do it. They had to get up, go up the mountain, cut down the wood, and get it done. But notice this. Why did the prophet say this is important? Notice what it says in our text. It's very important. This is the thou art worthy section. Because it would please him, and he would be glorified. Isn't that what it says? It would please him. I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified. Okay. Get up out of the easy chair. Get up there because it's going to please me. And this is going to glorify my name. You know, very sadly today, football pitches are full right now. We saw it last Sunday. We're driving. back from church, and I mean, there was a football pitch, and there were people coming out of their cars parked all over the place, and you know, you see them all out there. I just wanna ask this, did that please God on the Lord's day? No. Did that glorify Him? No. Shopping centers are crowded right here, you know, where it's straightened, and no doubt, if you went over to the car park right now, it's full over there. Does that please God? Does that glorify Him? Utilities are worshiped for hours today. Beds are slept in for hours today. Does that please God? Does that glorify Him? New shopping centers are built. It's kind of cool to see Him. New stadiums are built. They're occupied today. Did that new stadium, did that new mall, did that bring glory to God? Did that please Him? That's the church, it's God's work prospering, and so participating in this pleases God. Building this pleases God. Very sadly, it's often the opposite of that in our day. The BBC had an article this past week, it's called Church as an Estate Agent, speaking about the Church of Scotland, and then it's a sign of the times. Just speaking about the fact that so many properties are being sold off by the Church of Scotland, why? Because these churches are dying, and they're dead, and they're moving away from truth, and they're moving away from a population of believers that are gathered together to honor God. Is he not worthy this morning of people being interested in that and saying, you know what? I'm gonna do something about that. I'm gonna work at them. And so it could be, some would have to change priorities so they could glorify God and say, you know what, time to get up, time to do something for God. And I'll tell you this, I want the spirit of God on my shoulders saying, run harder, run harder, do more for God. And as pastor, I wanna get involved in God's work. We gotta ask God, God stir us up because this is what pleases you. This is what glorifies you. And so tell time, it's time to do God's work. Walk wisely, think about your walk. Count costs, you can't get ahead by neglecting God's work. And glorify God, please Him, by working. And then be blessed. Okay, be blessed. So the blessing is found. in putting God first. We do that, and I praise God as we think about our faith promise commitments. I encourage our church to get involved in that monthly giving. That's great, because God's gonna bless that. If somebody gets involved in tithes and offerings, God's gonna bless that. If somebody gets involved in God's work, God's gonna bless that. But look at verse nine. It says, he looked for much, and lo, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why saith the Lord of hosts? because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a trout upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of thy hands." Okay, so the people who returned to the land thought that the land would be the source of blessing. And they started trying to do so much for the land, but it was coming back empty. Why? Because they didn't have the blessing of God upon them. Again, as we looked at accounting costs, it's like, is this really working out that well? But as we focus there on the negative, I wanna turn it around and focus on the positive and think what they lost, what they could have had, the blessing they could have had if they had obeyed God. It says here that as they earned their money, God blew upon it like chaff, it blew away. Well, if they had honored God, wouldn't God have blessed their finance? That that would have been richly rewarded? If they had pleased God, he would have increased them. The drought they had, they would have rain instead, and so instead of the drought, they would have rain, and because of the rain, prosperous crops. Crops that wouldn't fail. Crop set, they could put it into their barn. Would they not have been satisfied with that if they had the blessing of God? The answer is yes. I mean, they would have been absolutely satisfied, but they didn't have the blessing of God. So again, we're speaking about being blessed, having God's blessing. Instead, they had God's curse. You know, Kaylee and John, All right, it's coming up and we're excited about it. Dr. Bray is going to be doing the wedding and praying about the details of that. My wife's thinking about that. I'm thinking about the church building. We're having these kind of weird conversations about the things that are coming up and thinking through things. But one of the things Dr. Bray is going to do with John and Kaylee that's so appropriate is they're going to have marriage counseling. And that's great for a Christian young couple to sit down and focus on what the word of God teaches and to receive good counsel from the word of God. I would say this, the greatest consideration for marriage is this, always put God first. That phrase right there, always put God first. Why? Because if you always put God first, you're gonna have God's blessing. And so if you put God first in finance, he's gonna bless your finances. If you put God first in relationships, he's gonna bless your relationship. We talked about a good marriage has three people in it, God and a husband and wife. A husband that's yielded to God, a wife that's submitted to her husband, the biblical order that God has designed, a husband that loves his wife, as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. And so again, you put God first in the relationship, he'll bless your relationship. You put God first in your time, he's gonna bless your time. Sometimes we just need to step back and say, I need to spend more time with God because I don't have as much time this week, all right? And honor God with the firstfruits of our time. Do you like to do things the hard way? Would a wife consider washing clothes without a machine in our day? I just like the old days, so get out that wash basin down at our, wherever that goes. Would men like to take their wife shopping without a vehicle? Maybe a tandem bicycle or something like that, you know? Hey, wanna go shopping? Here we go. We don't like to do things the hard way. We wanna do things the easy way. And so as we're thinking about life and we're thinking about these people that were there in the land, were they doing things the easy way or were they doing things the hard way? They're doing things the hard way. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 10.10, if the iron be blunt, and ye do not wet the edge, then must ye put to it more strength, but wisdom is profitable to direct. And so the thing is, if we'll step back from that and say, right, it's really tough here, why? Because I don't have the blessing of God, but I'm gonna honor God, I'm gonna put God first, then we're gonna have the blessing of God, it's gonna go well. As they were talking about being blessed, the blessing is found in putting God first. Tell time, it's time to do God's work. Walk wisely, think about your walk. Count costs, you can't get ahead by neglecting God's word. Glorify God, please him. And then hear him, hear him. This message originated from God, not Haggai. Look at verse 12. It says, then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord." The statement about obedience, what does it follow? It says, the people obeyed the voice of the Lord your God. So Haggai's there, he's preaching, they hear what Haggai's saying, but they recognize his message as being a message from God. You know, the Apostle Paul, as he gave the word of God, he gave it with the authority of God. 1 Corinthians 14, 37, he said, if any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandment of the Lord. Yes, pastor, pray for me, one of my greatest desires as I preach the word of God is that I would share with our church, this is what God says in his word. And we'd back that up with the truth of the scripture and we'd go through the scripture and say, thus saith the Lord, and use the correct application of truth. Why? Because the only thing that can get us right with God is obeying God. The only thing that can get us into that place of God's blessing is listening to God. Jeremiah 23, 22 says, but if they had stood in my counsel and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. And so as Haggias there, Haggias there is a prophet from God saying, look, God's house is neglected. Your houses are, you've got all your sealed houses and everything like that, but it's not going that well because God's not blessing it. but if rather you get busy on God's house, get up to the mountain, get the wood, bring it down, you could have the blessing of God, won't you listen to God? And praise God they did. And so the question often as we listen to the word of God, I pray that it's not, am I gonna listen to what pastor's saying? I pray that the question in the heart of God's people is, do I hear the voice of God? And if I hear the voice of God, Am I going to obey God in whatever God says? And so verse 13, then spake Haggai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Joseph, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And so Haggai said to him, look, get excited about it, get involved in it. And listen, I want to tell you this from God too. God's with you. In the Lord's message, he said, the Lord is with you. Now, praise God this morning. I can say, you know, God's with us. Give us help from trouble, forbade us to help other men. Through God, we shall be valiant. God says to us, Lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the world. And as we do God's work, we can do it with confidence because God is gonna prosper it. God is gonna bless it because God is gonna be with those that do God's work. But look at that text again. They hear from God and the Bible says their spirit stirred them up. God, I pray today, there's something in our hearts that just says, God, I'm stirred up. I just want to get in there. I just want to do something for God. I want to accomplish something for your glory. Do you yearn to do something for him? Are you listening out to the voice of God? And so tell time, walk wisely, count cost, glorify God, be blessed, cure him, and finally this morning, work wonders, work wonders. Okay, so as Haggai gives that message, the people begin to respond to that and say, I hear the voice of God speaking in my heart. I want to get involved in that. I'm going to go up and I'm going to begin to cut it down. Guess what? God's house was going to be able to go up for God and for God's glory. And so it says in verse 14, they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts. their God in the 420th day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king. Okay, so Haggai didn't just hold a rally. What Haggai had was really a revival. God's people heard God and they got serious about God's work and doing God's work. You know, the most important thing that we could just consider this morning is just say, man, I'm just gonna do something for God. I'm just gonna get involved in God's work and just continue to move forward for God, because it doesn't matter this morning what we say, what matters is what we do. I read this past week about 3,500 churches in the UK have closed since 2013, while more than 900 places of worship are on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register. And Scotland, more than 180 are officially at risk, and the Church of Scotland is considering closing up to 40% of its churches. And when you say that, understand this, and so few of those actually preach the gospel. But they're closing. And that ought to silver us, as God's people, ought to look at that and say, man, I want to do something about that. I wanna get involved in Southside Free Baptist Church. You know, praise God, every time we tell people we bought a pub, they say, it usually goes the other way. A church becomes a pub. We've taken a pub by the grace of God as a church. We gotta look at that and say, man, I just wanna get involved, get this going for God and for God's glory. Charlotte Street Chapel, one of the oldest Baptist churches in Scotland, nearly closed in the early part of the 20th century. There was a deacon, Andrew, in that church that was burning to keep it alive, and it was so struggling, they thought it was gonna have to close, but there was a pastor down in Kelso, I think it was, Joseph Kemp, and he got ahold of that pastor and said, pastor, would you consider leaving that work, that strong work, and coming to here? It's a struggling work. I believe if you'd come, God's gonna do something tremendous. He said to his family as he came around the corner, Andrew did and saw the church up ahead. Look at all the people waiting to get in. There weren't any people there. It was just the eye of faith. But that church went from 30 people to 600 people because God got to work. But as that took place, there were people getting up at 6 a.m. or before 6 a.m. to meet for a 6 a.m. prayer meeting. There are people that were putting in a lot of hours into God's work to see it accomplished. And so as we think about today, God's work is not gonna happen by us getting fired up. It's gonna happen by us getting fired up and saying, I wanna do this for God and for God's glory. You know, is God worthy of that? Isn't it sad today that churches are closing in? Isn't it sad today that churches are empty? There ought to be something in our hearts saying, amen, that's sad, I wanna do something about that. So God is worthy of your investment in and upon his work, and so can I tell time. Am I putting it off, and in the future I'm gonna do more for God, or can I look at it now and say, now's the time? Are we walking wisely? Considering our ways, is the church one of our main priorities, that God's work, and doing God's work? Have you counted the cost? It's not gonna go well for somebody that looks at their life and says, I really haven't been living it for myself, instead of living it for God. Somebody like that oughta look at it and say, putting God first? Are you glorifying God? You know, today, and I praise God, we're here in the house of God. This pleases God, and this glorifies God. And so our life ought to be about that. Are we being blessed? God's not gonna bless those who do not put Him first. Are we hearing Him, listening to God's message, and then working wonders, getting involved and saying, you know what? Father, I pray that the Spirit of God help us look at the Word of God this morning and say, you know what? I think we understand that God's work is neglected. Father, I praise you for each one that's here. But Father, it was just a handful of people this morning. And Father, we can look at others and say, if you're here, God's work can go forward, or we can look at ourselves and say, you know what, Haggai didn't say who, he just said, you know, this is what God says. Well, Father, he began a work of stirring up his rubble, stirring up others, and they got interested in it, and they got it done. And Father, I just, I pray for that, for our church. Help us not to be weary in well-doing. For our due season will reap if we faint not. May the word of God Take deep root in our hearts this morning. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen. Amen. All right. Let's stand please. We'll sing hymn of invitation just as I am without a plea.