If you haven't already done so, would you please turn your Bibles to Haggai Chapter 2, where in which we will be studying from verses 1 through 9. That's Haggai Chapter 3, verses 1 through 9. And just also a reminder that we have those journals that are available for you if you'd like to journal. They're available at the table. Please help yourself to either one of the two different covers that we have, but they're all the same ESV version. Would you please rise now for the reading and hearing of God's holy, inerrant word. This is the word of God. In the seventh month, on the 21st day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the prophet. Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Yeshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Yeshua, son of Jehoshadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts. According to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt, my spirit remains in your midst, fear not. For thus says the Lord of Hosts, yet once more in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of Hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts. This is the word of God. Amen. Please be seated and join me in prayer as we look to the Holy Spirit to illumine our minds. Holy Spirit. We ask you now to open our minds and hearts to be attentive to the preaching of the Word of God. Help us to understand and apply to our lives as you speak to us through it. Help us to see our sin and give us the resolve to turn to you to change us from within so that we may more and more reflect our Savior. And we ask this in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. So in our passage today, Haggai delivers his second oracle from God. It had been a couple of weeks since the second oracle was delivered. The people would have had an opportunity to scope out the project, and in so doing, they would have been awed with the amount of work that they had in front of them. In fact, I think it was overwhelming. Have you ever experienced something like that in your life? When you're called upon to tackle a major project that simply is so large in scope, maybe something that you've never done before. I think most people think of their careers, their work lives in situations like this, but we really don't have to go that far. Maybe an experience from our houses, or a repair project on a vehicle. You get excited about the project at first, and then you finally get to it. And you begin to plan it out and realize that, well, you need to do something entirely separate before you can actually get to the project, you know, the original project. Then you realize you don't have the tools. And now you have to go get the materials, transport them to the house, organize them, stage them, and so forth. I don't know about you, but sometimes that can be very overwhelming, especially when I realize that I don't even know how to do certain parts of the project myself. Then the pressure mounts when you have guests coming over, you know, like the stay-over types. Then you think at least, you know, or at least I do, I don't know if I have enough time to get all this done. But we're talking about a home project here, right? When you're home, to do it in. You have a home to do it in. These people in Haggai's time don't have a roof, nor do they have walls. That is their project. What do you feel when you're overwhelmed like that? And not up to the task ahead of you, or so you think. Well, sometimes you just might feel sad. Sometimes you just want to sit and cry because you're so overwhelmed. And then sometimes you just want to give up. I think that's where God's people are in our passage today. What is it that we need? What is it that they need most in these situations? Now, I think I know what you're thinking. What you need is an app so you can call the professionals to come in and do all the plumbing work and all the electrical work and sheetrock work and all that kind of stuff, right? But they didn't have that app. What we need first, I think, is encouragement. The people need to hear an encouraging word from God. The need for this is especially intensified when a comparison is made by Haggai in Chapter 2 and Verse 3. And we'll get to this more detail in just a little bit. But when you compare what Solomon's temple looked like to what they had then, it can be downright depressing, don't you think? Now, as we zoom out a little bit, we can get an even better picture of what the people are feeling at this time. We're told in this verse, verse 1, that this is happening on the seventh month on the 21st day, which means this oracle is being delivered at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. or booths. The Feast of Tabernacles memorialized Israel coming out of Egypt. We saw that in Leviticus 23.43. It states that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Now we read that the feast was supposed to commence on the seventh month and the 14th day, and it was supposed to last for seven days. Now you do the math, which means that this would have been at the end, that is the last day of this feast. The Feast of Booths required the people to come out of their homes and live in makeshift temporary booths made of palm leaves and shrubs and where there was no flooring whatsoever. Now it's suggested by commentators that this discomfort they experienced would remind them that God's goodness and provision in providing them a land, home, to live in, and also to live in freedom and comfort. So they are to be reminded by their feast day, in a very timely way, may I add, that they were living in comfort. And that the Lord's temple didn't even have walls. This would have been a very vivid reminder of God's faithfulness and goodness to them while they were neglecting him for the last 16 years, if you recall. God asked them to consider their ways while they were looking at fancy upgrades to their own homes. If we were to see ourselves as the temple of God, individually and corporately, What is it that you would need to do? Let's just take ourselves first. What is it that I need to do that I could put my finger on and say, I am neglecting God's temple in the following ways, and I need to address it by fill in the blank? Not only would the feast have reminded them of God's goodness to them, but living in them reminds one of how unstable the structure was and how vulnerable they were to the elements, wild animals, and even theft. Living in the comfort of their own homes provided them with safety, stability, and protection. God was faithful. It was time for them to reflect and out of thankfulness and love serve the Lord. Verse 1 asks three rhetorical questions. There may have been, I'm sorry, verse two. There may have been some who could answer the first question. Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? Now, the temple was destroyed in 586 B.C., and Haggai's second oracle was delivered in 520 B.C. That's a difference of about 66 years. For anyone to have seen and had memory of Solomon's temple, they would have been somewhat like close to 70 years of age. The second question asked for those who would have been able to answer the first one, How does this temple and its construction plans fare against that of Solomon's opulent temple? In reality, these relatively poor exiles could not have matched the craftsmanship and expensive materials that lavished the old temple with beauty like a wealthy and secure king like Solomon could have. And the third question, God asks the question that was in the minds of the people. Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison? This temple is nothing in comparison to the old, whether they saw it in person or heard about it. How can we possibly match the old temple? How can we possibly go on building it? Are there times when you think that the work or offering that you make to the Lord is inconsequential in comparison to what others have done or are doing? When you say that to yourself, what does that do to your motivation? It can be extremely unmotivating, can't it? And if you dwell upon it, it can be downright depressing. But we shouldn't be comparing ourselves with what we can do or give to other people. We must do and give from what and where the Lord has us. He's much more concerned about what's in your heart. Look, when you think back to the servants who were given different sums of wealth to invest, do you remember what was said to them? Well, let's focus on what wasn't said to them. Did you have a look at the return the other guys had? And I gotta tell ya, I like the one that got a better return more than the other one. Yeah, he rewarded them and expressed his gratitude, didn't he? He was unhappy with the last servant, why? Because he did nothing with what he was given. That's like living in Haggai's time and receiving, you know, the email. And then he was followed up with a text message. And then even after that, that we're going to start, you know, building the temple, you need to show up. And even after that, deciding that you're just going to stay home and work on a painting project that would just make your house look just smashing. Christianity, my brothers and sisters, is not a spectator sport. It's not a sport that says, my teammate couldn't do that for me. They do a better job at it than I would. Let her do it. It's an attitude of, what can I do for the Lord who has done so much for me? Maybe, maybe, maybe it would be a good idea if we lived in booths for a couple of days ourselves and be reminded of God's provisions and goodness to us. Now Haggai personally identified with the remnant, sharing in their sadness and admitting the current state of affairs as they are. But he is about to move forward. Before we do, let's take a moment to reflect upon the attitude and condition of the church today. Now, I've been around Christians in really three major parts of this country who lament the conditions of the church today in comparison to what it was 40 or 50 years ago. My answer to that is we must accept the state in whatever tattered condition you may think it is in and move forward. But I've also seen similar lament about our nation and the downward direction it seems to be going in. My answer to that is that we need to stop falling into the trap of thinking that the United States of America is the church. If tomorrow, hypothetically speaking, the United States stopped existing as a sovereign nation, the church would go on and it would thrive. Remember that the Lord said, I will always be with you. Not, I will always be with the United States. Yes, let's be good citizens, contributing well to our nation, but let's not idolize our nation. Now let's move to verse four. God has brought to the surface the problem of discouragement. Now provides the antidote to any discouragement. He says, take courage. I am with you. The essential problem was that of attitude. They thought that they did not measure up. They could not do the job. They could not do as well a job. Sometimes when we set out to do the Lord's work, we think that we won't succeed, nor do we measure up. God is less concerned with your outcome. He is more concerned with the process and the attitude by which you take into what it is that you endeavor to do for the Lord. The Lord's response was just as important back then as it is today to this discouragement. The way we think about our situation, frankly, is about us and what we can do and what I can do. And the Lord reminds us of what's really important and what the focus should be. It is, I, the Lord, will. When we take the focus of ourselves off of ourselves and make ourselves available, we remember that it is the Lord who will accomplish His will. And He is gracious to use us as instruments to bring glory to His name. The people say, we, the Lord says, I. The people say, we, the Lord says, my spirit. So who should we be listening to when we are overwhelmed? Who should we listen to when we are feeling despondent? Should we listen to ourselves or to the voice of the Lord and his promises? Who do you listen to? Who are you listening to today? Whenever we are discouraged, we must remember that despondency says, I can't, so I won't. But the obedience of faith says, I can't, but he can, so I will. The Lord says, I am with you. In this statement alone, I am with you, we are to see that he is simply offering us his presence. And that is all that is needed. To know that the living God is with us is what is needed to do all that is required by him, because he will supply everything that is needed to do the job. Here's a passage that we all probably have heard, but we need to remember. Isaiah 4110 reminds us of this wonderful thing. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Praise the Lord. That's where we need to go to. That's where we need to listen to God, not ourselves. Verse five. As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, my spirit is abiding in your midst, do not fear, the passage says. Haggai seems, in this case, not to allude to any specific verse, but rather to the string of historical events that hammers home the point that God is with them. God's spirit was with them as a cloud, guiding and protecting them in the wilderness. His spirit entered into the temple when it was built. He delivered his people time and time again. They are to be reminded, although they have been punished for their covenant unfaithfulness, God still keeps his end of the covenant. He will be faithful unto the remnant of Israel. Is God faithful unto the remnant of Israel today? Well, who is the remnant of Israel today? It's every elect Jew and Gentile saved by the blood of Christ, the church, the worldwide church of Christ. Knowing that God is with us should take away the feeling of being scared, scared of the future, Scared of not being able to do things. The reason we can move forward in life without fear is because we are facing the future while we are in the presence of the Lord and enjoying him in godly fear. That's the confidence that we have in life. That's the confidence that we should have in life. There's nothing to fear, because God is with us. Praise the Lord. In verse 6, verse 6 is the only verse, interestingly enough, that is quoted in the New Testament. For thus says the Lord of hosts, once more in a little while I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. The writer of Hebrews, although some would say it would be Apostle Paul, refers to this in Hebrews 12.26. And the Lord begins here with once more. Previous time the Lord shook was at Sinai when God came and gave the law to Moses. However, they are to look for another shaking in the future. It will commence and consummate during the church age. The future kingdom that is to come in its fullness will be an unshakable one that will survive eternally. And he says, and I will shake all the nations and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill the house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. And the verbiage that's used here of shaking shouldn't be taken as a literal shaking. We're not talking about, you know, like earthquakes or mountains shaking and so forth. In fact, Dr. Motier in his commentary on Haggai, he points out that this type of imagery is used to convey the Lord is coming in the fullness of his divinity to do a cosmic and worldwide thing. The Lord continues to use this imagery of shaking of all the nations and considers what will come from them as wealth or treasure, and so must we. This wealth from the nations of the earth will be what God uses to adorn the temple. The wealth will be what he uses, the treasure, to adorn the temple. However, the appointments and the adornments that the Lord will choose will surpass the beauty and the value of the priceless decorations of Solomon's Temple, as beautiful and as invaluable they all were. See, the theme of treasure has a rich symbolic history in scripture. God's people, if you remember, left Egypt with what? With the treasure of the Egyptians, which later was used to and for the worship of Yahweh and ultimately to build the temple. The remnant that came back in Haggai's generation returned with what? Treasure from the great international city of former Babylon. The people gave them treasure. The king gave them treasure. And for what purpose? To build the temple. But the physical treasure is representative of those that are and will be saved when the Messiah comes and shakes the heavens and the earth. For his treasure, his bride, the church, Do you not remember what Jesus said? That he would defeat and bind the strong man, meaning Satan, and plunder from his treasure fallen humanity. God, full stop. God considers you no less than his treasure. You are valuable to him. You are priceless to him. And you are what he uses to adorn the temple. You are what he uses to make the temple, the true temple, the church. A New Testament foreshadowing of this, if you recall, is in the Magi. who represented the Gentiles in Matthew Chapter 2, Verses 1 through 11, bringing treasure and bowing down before the one who would shake the nations. This was a foreshadowing. The promise of God in Haggai's generation are buttressed by the promises of God for the future. They had a hope for the future. That should be how we live. although that's a great motivation. The reality is the thing that sustains us should not be just a hope for a future, excuse me, a hope for the future, that God will accomplish his plans, but rather to know that we are his today. You are that emerald. You. are that gold, you are that silver. That's how God sees you. You're precious to him, you're valuable to him. He uses you to build the church. It says the latter, verse nine, it says the latter glory of this house will be greater than the former. says the Lord of hosts, and in this place I shall give peace, declares the Lord of hosts. Now the latter in this verse is the temple that will be adorned by the shaking of the nations, the bringing in of the Gentiles. This is the same one that Malachi talks about in chapter three of his book. The glory mentioned here can only be making reference to the Messiah when he comes. When he shakes the heavens and the earth one last time, his glory as the temple of God will be much grander than any previous physical temple ever built or ever will be built. Jesus himself is the glory that exceeds that of Solomon's temple. Matthew 12, 6, Jesus speaking of himself says, I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. Verse 9 progresses from what this temple is, a place of God's glory, to what it does, to bring about peace. Currently, this temple, which is the church itself, and her bridegroom, is being continually built up, cleansed and adorned by new generations of treasure from the nations, bringing about peace. Peace with God. Through the crosswork of Christ, by faith, we have peace with God. Peace among the people of God. Where else can you have peoples who have been enemies with one another become brothers and sisters under one father? Personal peace that comes from a vibrant relationship with God himself. But when the Lord comes to consummate the kingdom of God, everything will come to its fullness. This temple will be what's left, the church. A people who are not given to tension, hatred, strife, and warfare. They will be a people that love their neighbor perfectly all the time, which brings about sustained