Please be seated. Well, again, we're thankful to have Mr. Nathan Shaver come and bring God's word to us. It's been done. There we go. Well, greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's open up the word of God to Haggai chapter one, Haggai chapter one. As you're turning there in your copy of God's Word, I want to remind you, just to get our bearings where we're at in the Scriptures here, that the Lord is speaking to his people through the prophet Haggai, which we don't know a lot of background information on this prophet. We don't know where he's from or who his father is, but we know that he is speaking to the people of Judah, the returned exiles from Babylon, that the Lord is bringing his gracious word to his people, to remind them of who they are before him and how they ought to walk in faith and in reliance and in confidence before the Lord with the task that he has given them. So Haggai is a prophet who is speaking the word of the Lord to return exiles out of Babylon. About 50,000 people came out of exile back to the land to rebuild the temple. Now when we hear about the 12, we often think about the 12 disciples or the 12 the 12 tribes of Israel, but you often read reminded of the 12 minor prophets as well. Who they are and who they were speaking to is very important because some of them were speaking to pre-exile people. Some of them, like Jonah, spoke to the Gentile nations. And this is all pre-exile, before the exile. Now we know that Daniel and Jeremiah spoke to the God's people while in exile. But these last three minor prophets, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. They are speaking the word of the Lord to a people brought back out of exile into the land for a particular task and for a particular purpose. These are a faithful people. The scriptures will often refer to them as a remnant. God's faithful people brought out of exile, reestablished in the land to do his will, to do his work in the land. So this isn't a message. The prophet is not speaking to a fallen world or to a fallen and rebellious people who are outside of God's covenant. Haggai is speaking to a people. who are faltering in their faith. They're not fallen. There are people who are faltering. This is who the Word of the Lord is going to come to. And so as we read in Haggai chapter 1, I want you to keep that before your mind as you hear the Word of the Lord. So children, remember that Haggai is speaking to people who have come out of exile, who are faithful, love the Lord, love His covenant, but are faltering in their faith. And this is Haggai chapter 1. And before we read the word of God, I want to remind you that it is the word of the Lord that is being read. And there's a special trembling that comes with reminding you about that for some particular reason this morning with this passage. Because God's word when it's read comes with his power to awaken you and awaken me to the reality that is the Lord God in our midst speaking to us. So let's be very attentive. This is God's word. Haggai chapter one. In the second year of Darius, the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the prophet, to Zerubbabel, the son of Shietel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Thus says the Lord of hosts, these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the prophet, Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves. but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them in a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why, declares the Lord of hosts, because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land, and the hills on the grain, the new wine, the oil, and on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors. Then Zerubbabel, the son of Sheatiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, 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 feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message. I am with you, declares the Lord. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shietel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, and the sixth month, and the second year of Darius the king." This is the word of the Lord. Let's give him thanks for his word this morning. Our great and glorious God, we turn our hearts to give you thanks that you, in your kindness and in your mercy and your grace, would first of all even speak to us. But yet you are so kind to speak clearly to us, to remind us of who you are and how you have spoken your word to your people, that you would realign our hearts with ultimate reality that we might walk according to your will. Lord, we pray that you would stir in our hearts, stir our spirits to fear you and obey you with our whole heart, that we might walk in your way and fulfill the commission that you've given to us as we rely wholly on your provision, your care, your providence, and your power to accomplish the task of seeing your church built. Lord Jesus, you said you would build your church, and you also called us to seek that end and that goal. May we be faithful to the call that you've given to us in our day, in our generation, as we reflect on what you have done in the past through your people, hearing your word, how you struck fear in their hearts that they might obey you and fulfill the work that you've given to them. We pray that you would do this in our day, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Eighth grade year, U.S. history, Bubba North. That's what our teacher's name was. That's what he told us to call him. Not Mr. North, it's Bubba North. Now, when you were a 7th grader, you had to call him Mr. North, but when you got to become an 8th grader, his name changed to Bubba. He was a large man. Not just in his size, but he was a magnanimous man, and he was our history teacher. And when I mean magnanimous, I mean he was full of life, full of courage. And every morning, he'd open up this massive three-ring binder. And remember, this is like 1994. There was no PowerPoint. We didn't have like Google and pull up this day in history kind of stuff. No, he had a massive three-ring binder that he would plop down on his desk and open it up. It just looked like a huge King James Version family Bible. You've seen those before, like passed down from generation to generation. This three ring binder was massive like that. It plopped down. He'd open it up and he'd begin each class with, this day in history. And so we'd be off and rolling in US history. Bubba North, this day in history. What I loved about him is that he was a man who knew his history in such a way that he knew where he came from. He knew where he stood in history, but he was also a magnanimous man of faith who knew where he was going. And he would always start out these classes with these little tidbits of this day in history. And he would give us some illustration of what happened on this day of history. And so the book of Haggai, the prophet Haggai, begins with this day in history sort of Prophecy. Look at it. Verse 1. In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, on this day in history, something happened. It happened in such a way that you need to mark it down on your calendars. You need to put it in your notebook. You need to put it in your commonplace book. You need to circle it, mark it, and remember this. Because on this day in history, something happened. And if you forget it, you might forget who you are. You might forget where you stand. You might forget where you're going. So Haggai tells us, on this day in history, the second year of Darius the King, the sixth month, on the first day of the month, what happened? What happened that was so important on this day of history? What grace? What kindness? What glory? The word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet. God opened his mouth in grace and uttered his word to his people that they might hear his voice through his servant. And so that's why I trembled a little bit earlier when I reminded you what we're hearing. When we open up the Word of God and when the Word is preached, it's not just merely a man standing in a pulpit speaking to you some witty things and some things that he's learned either in his education or his training or his own character and skill and charisma. No, it's the Word of God that's being opened for us. And it's on this day in history that we sit and God is speaking to us. What grace! What have we done to merit this kindness that on today, on this day in history, that God would speak to you, his people? What is it that they had done to merit such favor that on the second year of Darius the king and the sixth month, on the first day of the month, God would speak to his people? What is it in us? Nothing. It's all of God and His grace. That He would come to His people through His prophet and He would speak His word to them. And the first thing I want you to see that the Lord speaks to His word is that He is so kind. He comes to them and reminds them of His word. He reminds them of who He is and what He's done and He reminds them of His word and He does this gracious thing. He exposes their excuse making. He opens His mouth through His prophet to say in verse two, To the church and to the leaders in the church, Zerubbabel and Joshua, Haggai says, Thus says the Lord of hosts, These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. That's the word of the people. But God comes and says, that's something you've been using to make an excuse for not building the house of the Lord. You've been charged, you've been commissioned to do this work, and your word says it's not yet time. But God's word is going to expose their excuse making. But we need to be reminded, what was the charge, what was the commission that they were given? We need to go back to the book of Ezra to be reminded of what the Lord had charged his people to do. The remnant, the faithful, the 50,000 brought out of Babylon back to Jerusalem were commissioned and charged with not just rebuilding Jerusalem, but rebuilding the temple. To establish the temple that the Lord's presence might abide in the midst of his people, that they might worship the Lord and they come back from the land. And they come back with great resources. They come back with great political support. They come back with King Cyrus's, all the wealth and all the power that he has, he's backing them to go back and to rebuild the temple. And they come back with great zeal and with great fervor. And in the first month that they're back in the land, they rebuild the altar and make sacrifice to the Lord. A burnt offering to the Lord and celebrate a feast. That's the first month. Such great zeal. So they got the altar built. That's great. And sometime within the second month, they establish the foundations of the temple. And as they're beginning to do that, they're laying the timbers, they're establishing the foundation, opposition arises. Those who would be the Samaritans come to them and say, hey, we're back in the land here too. Let us have some, let us help you. And the people of Judah say, no, the Lord has sent us back to this land to build this temple, and we will do it for our Lord and for His glory and for His name. And they're like, well, if you don't want our help, then fine. They go away, they write a letter in opposition to the work that's being done. And the opposition strikes fear into the heart of the people of God, and they stop the work. The first face of opposition, the first people that come against them, stops them in their track. Fear in their heart freezes them. We've talked about that before when I visited. They freeze, they stop, they will not carry on the work, and it's for 14 years they're in the land. And do not do any more work on the temple. Altar's built, foundations are laid, but the temple building ceases. But in the second year of Darius the king and the sixth month on the first day of the month, 14 years later, the word of the Lord comes and says, you say it's not time. I have another message for you. But notice what the Lord confronts them with in their excuse making. Verse 3 shows us, it says, then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, and he says, you say it's not time for you to rebuild my temple, but the Lord said in verse 4, it is a time for you yourselves to dwell in your, mark this in your Bibles, your paneled houses. your paneled houses. You have not just built shelters for yourselves. You've not just built homes for yourselves. You've actually gone the extra, put in the extra effort and paneled your houses with the same wood I've instructed you to go and rebuild the temple with. You have really tricked out your houses. They're beautiful homes. This is beyond just a mere shelter, a mere home, a place to get some good rest, get some good food, and be strengthened to go and labor in the fields. No, you're building really nice homes for yourselves. Paneled houses that require you to go to Lebanon to get cedar to really make it look nice. Not time to build my house, but it's time for you, yourselves, to dwell in your paneled houses. while this house lies in ruins. It's not time for my glory, but it's time for your self-preservation, I see. What grace, what kindness that God would come with his word to confront us and our excuse-making and leave nothing hidden. That's grace. That's kindness. I'm not saying it's comfortable, but what grace that he would come and he would say, I see your excuse making, but I also see what you've been doing with your time. Self-preservation, making much of yourselves, being the envy of the neighborhood, being the envy of the Samaritans, being the envy of your neighbors and how glorious your homes are, but yet my house lies in ruins. And why did the Lord bring them back to the land? to establish the temple. They had spent the 14 years making their lives more comfortable, making their own homes more glamorous, preserving themselves rather than sacrificially serving the Lord. It's not like they were lacking resources. Cyrus gave them everything they need and commissioned all the lands around them to provide them what they didn't have if they ran low on something. So it wasn't a resource issue, it was a fear issue. The moment they faced opposition, they froze, they stopped. And what do we do when we freeze and we're in fear? Self-preservation. What can I do to make my life more comfortable? I'm facing fear, I'm facing opposition in my faith from the outside. I have this internal feeling, make myself as comfortable as I can. Because obeying the Lord can sometimes, let's be honest, seem more risky and seem more dangerous. But that is what the Lord had called them there to do, to establish the temple. But yet they had spent their resources and their time making themselves more comfortable. Isn't it kind that the Lord reminds us of what we're supposed to be doing? That he comes to us, he confronts our excuse making, he says, let me remind you, you're not supposed to be building up your houses. You're not supposed to be tricking out your homes. You were sent here to rebuild the temple. But then the Lord not only reminds them, but He realigns their heart in a gracious way to ultimate reality. And He does this by calling them to consider. And this is a repeated phrase throughout the book of Haggai. It happens five different times. Here in this next verse, in verse 5, it says, consider your ways. And in verse 7, the prophet is going to say, consider your ways. And in chapter two, verse 15, he's going to tell them to consider. And in verse 18, he's going to tell them to consider two more times. Consider your ways. Look at the outcome of your life. How is it going with you in the land? You were sent here to rebuild the temple. Take measure. Measure up your life. See how it's going with you in the land. The Lord not only reminds them, but He realigns their heart with ultimate reality by showing them the outcome of their life. Showing them the outcome of their ways. Look at this with me in verse 6. It says, Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. You have sown much. You've gone out and you've prodigiously scattered seed in your fields. You've not held anything back when it comes to sowing the seed. You've sown much. You might think of sowing extravagantly. You've sown much, but what's the result? You've harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Now that is the Bible's one verse commentary on what it means to be in the season of inflation. Right there. If you wonder what the effects of inflation are, there it is. He who earns wages does so to put them in a bag with holes. I work, and I work, and I work, and I save, and I save, and I go back to the bank account and there's nothing there. You're laboring, there's no fruit. You're drinking, but you're not filled. You're clothed, but you're not warm. You try to save, but you go back and there's nothing there. Consider your ways. You are working to preserve yourselves, but yet, The outcome of your work is need, lack, want. You are seeking to fulfill your own will and your own wishes, but yet the result, the fruit of this is lack and need. And who is it saying that to them? It's the Lord God. In Leviticus chapter 26, verse 23, he says, if you stand contrary to me, I will stand contrary to you. If you will not fulfill my word and my will, then I will stand against your will. I will oppose you, the Lord says in Leviticus 26, verse 23 and 24. And then he repeats it again in Leviticus 26, 27 and 28. I think the Lord wants us to hear this. Consider your ways. What is the outcome of your labor? Lack? Need? What was the commission? What was the work you were sent to the land to do, the Lord's asking them? To build the temple. We had everything we need. We had all the resources that we want. We were provided for. We put that off and now we do our thing and we lack. We have nothing. We're thirsty, we're hungry, we're cold, and we have nothing to show for it. And so the Lord in His grace says, consider your ways. Consider your ways. This is the Lord that said to them, if they would be faithful to His Word, if they would keep His covenant, if they would keep His commands in Deuteronomy 28, that He would bless them, He would provide for them in the land. But if they stand contrary to Him, in Leviticus again, the Lord said He would stand in contradiction to them. Verse 7, the Lord again repeats this, saying, the Lord says to the people, thus says the Lord of hosts, again, consider your ways. He really wants you to sit down, Take out the pencil, get out the sheet of paper, and run the numbers. Just practically look at your life. This is one of my favorite ways to build a prayer list in my neighborhood and wherever I am. And just to simply go around, I love to do it with my students in school, too, is simply ask this one question. What's not working well? What's not going well in your life right now? And that builds a list of things that I can petition the Lord for them for. That's what the Lord's doing here. Consider your ways. What's working? That will build a praise report quicker than anything, when they tell you what's working in their life. But then you ask them what's not working? Just request after request, you can build a petition list right there. The Lord is coming to His people and saying, consider your ways. What is the outcome of your life? What's not working? But then, in His grace, He realigns them to himself. Ultimate reality says, now consider your ways. If it's not going with you and you're in the land, what's wrong? Your heart is out of alignment with my will. You lack in the land? Something's wrong with your motivations. Something's wrong with your desires. Something's wrong with your aims and your goals for your life. What's wrong is they're seeking their own rather than the glory of God. And so God comes to them and says, consider your ways, verse eight, go up to the hills and bring down the wood and build the house. That I might take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. Your way always leads to lack. But when you align your heart with me, you will be provided for. The Lord will delight in the land. The Lord will delight in his people. The Lord will delight in the temple, and he will glorify his name in their midst, if they will obey his word. And again, he repeats this idea of you sowed, but you did not reap. Verse nine, he says, you looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, it blew away. And the Lord says this penetrating question. He goes right to their hearts. Why? Why do you think you lack in the land? Why do you think that it's not going well with you? And he does something he doesn't always do with his people. He actually answers the question. Why, declares the Lord, because of my house that lies in ruin while each of you busies himself with his own house. That's why. Your will over my will will lead to lack. But when you seek first my kingdom, when you obey my covenant, when you seek to obey my instructions, He will care for you. You will lack nothing. You will be provided for. The Lord God, Yahweh, made those promises to His covenant people, but your King Church, your gracious Lord, has also said this to you. Don't be anxious. What are you gazing at? What are you looking at? What is the light in your life? Are you looking to the Lord and therefore your life is full of light? Or are you seeking your own, following after money and after mammon, chasing other gods to satisfy your heart's desires? What are you looking at? Are you seeking your kingdom or seeking the kingdom? Because when we seek first the Kingdom of God, all these things that they're lacking in Haggai, all the things that we worry about, seek first the Kingdom of God and these things, not just these things, all of these things will be given to you. What do you lack? What do you need? Do you lack? Do you have need? Have you sat down and taken stock of your life recently? And I work so hard, but I never really gain anything. I invest, and it just flitters away. I toil, sweat, and labor. But yet, I don't have enough. Maybe it's because we're looking to our sweat, toil, and labor. Maybe it's because we're looking to our investments. Maybe it's because we're looking to our work ethic or our skills and our talents and our gifts rather than looking to the one who gave us all those things anyway. Consider your ways. What is first? What is highest priority in your heart and in your home? You can do this on an individual level. You can do this, like, with your roommates in your apartment. How's it going with us? Are we okay? Are we rightly aligned with reality? Is our apartment a place of seeking the kingdom of God or is it a place of just showing ourselves off? What about our home? Is this a place of showing hospitality and setting the table for the stranger to come and to fellowship at our table and to hear the good news of what God has done for you in Christ so that they too might partake in the Lord Jesus Christ? How's it going in your home? How's it going in your cubicle? It's really gray in there, Nathan. But what about the person sitting next to you? Like, are you seeking to know them and to speak the good news of what God has done? Are you seeking to build the kingdom? Are you seeking to establish what God has sent you to that place to establish? Or are you just lacking and flittering away? Again, this isn't a thing like you're falling and you're in gross sin. It's just you faltered in your faith. What about your neighbors? Oh, if you only knew, they have all these flags in their yards. We are so opposed. It is not time for us to reach them. It's not time for us to go and to tell them about what the Lord has done for us in Christ. They oppose us. It is not time. And especially this month. No, no, it's not time. The Lord comes to us and he says, I sent you there for that. It wasn't about who opposes you or who doesn't oppose you. I've sat here to do this thing, to bear witness to my glory. How is it with our churches? Are we faithful to what the Lord has commissioned us to do? Are we faithful to go and to do what he's called us to do in our time, in our place, in our generation, on this day in history? Or have we forgotten about the grace of God in Christ Jesus and how He has empowered us with His Holy Spirit to fulfill His mission? Are we rightly aligned with the Lord? Or are we seeking our own comfort and our own way? Do you lack? Now this isn't a health and wealth gospel sermon. This is just a simple, like, if you have lack, just realign your heart with reality that you have a God who will provide for you? Are you rightly aligned with Him? That's the question I'm asking. Are you seeking your own? Stressing and anxious over your own needs? Or are you looking to the Lord God who provides those? Are you anxious? Are you despairing? Are you depressed? Where is your gaze? I speak this tenderly to you because God, when he comes to us through the prophet, especially to Haggai, he doesn't seem to be railing against them, but more fatherly asking them questions to kindly, compassionately take stock of their hearts and to realign their vision to him. How's it going with you? What are you looking at? Your abilities or the God who says, seek my kingdom and I'll care for you? One of the most amazing things about this text is that when the Lord speaks to his people, he awakens them by showing them that he is the God who provides. He is the God who satisfies their needs. Their houses are lacking because God has said, my house lies in ruins. You are under a famine because you are standing in contradiction to my will. You lack because you are seeking your own, not my glory. He tells him straight up, that's what's wrong. Realign your heart with my will. And I will provide for you. And here's the amazing part. This happens very rarely in the Old Testament, but this is one of the most glorious things that you can see in the scripture. The prophet comes and he speaks to Zerubbabel, the governor. But you've seen that name, Zerubbabel, before. Matthew chapter 1. He's the man who ought to be king. He's like Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings. He has some power. He might have a sword, but he doesn't have a crown and he doesn't have a scepter. Zerubbabel should be king, but he's just a governor. But the Lord sends his word to Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel hears it. He also sends his word to Joshua the priest, and he hears it. But notice who else hears the word of the Lord. Verse 12 says, all of the remnant of the people, they heard it. They are paying attention. Eyes awake, ears open, hearts exposed. God speaks, they receive it. They see their ways, they hear God's promises, and their hearts are opened. What a miracle. The prophet comes and speaks to his people in Judah, and it says that all the remnant of the people, Zerubbabel and Joshua, all of them, what did they do? They obeyed the voice of the Lord. God worked a miracle in their midst. He reminded them. He exposed their excuse-making. He realigns their heart with reality, saying that, I'm the God who provides. If you consider your ways and your lacking, maybe realign your heart with me. And they hear it. They receive it. And they obeyed the voice of the Lord their God that came through the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And then it says in verse 12 at the end, and the people feared the Lord. Their hearts were changed. Their hearts were changed. They had a new alignment with the Lord. They were no longer thinking of God as just some kind of like support system, but the entire system. They saw God not as a plug-in 2.0 for their life to make it better, but the whole life source. They marked it down that God was the God who provides. That God is the one who will care for them. They feared the Lord. They realigned their hearts with their Father. And the fear of the Lord in the Old Testament is a phileal fear. It's the fear of a son before a father, not servile fear, the fear of a slave. So God changes their hearts and says they feared the Lord, like a son fears a father, and they obeyed it. They obeyed the word of the Lord. They got to work. They did what they were sent into the land to do. It says in verse 13 that Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord's message, as if there could be any more grace. But this is our God. He is full of grace so much that He gives us grace upon grace upon grace upon grace, present continuous in the Greek. It just keeps going. There is no lack of grace in God. That He would speak to us His word? Grace. But then he makes this gracious declaration to them. Verse 13 says, then Haggai the messenger of the Lord spoke to the people with the Lord's message, not Haggai's message, with the Lord's message. And what did the Lord say? I am with you. He gives them his word, but then he promises and gives them his presence. What grace. What kindness. That the Lord would do this for his people. I am with you. You're rightly aligned with me. You're seeking to fulfill my word and to do my will in your generation. I'm with you. Everything that you need, given. And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, it says. The Lord changed their hearts and gave them the strength and the energy they need to fulfill the mission. Zerubbabel's heart is stirred. Joshua's heart is stirred. He is the high priest. And it's easy for us to look at that and go, yeah, but they're the particularly special guys. They're the governor, the would-be king, and the high priest. But again, it's not just them that hear the word of the Lord and obey. It's all the remnant of the people. It's not just Zerubbabel and Joshua's heart that is stirred. It's also the remnant of the people. The Lord changed everyone's heart to obey him and fear him. The Lord strengthened everyone's heart to do the work because they all changed before the Lord, looking to him, fearing him, then they obeyed. They came and they worked on the house of the Lord, their God. In the 24th day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. On that day of history, everything changed. Have we been given a commission? Have we been given a call? Brothers and sisters, I speak to you who are the church this morning. Are we faltering or are we faithful? Are we rightly aligned with the kingdom, seeking the kingdom? And I remember hearing, when I first came, began to come and visit RP's churches, I heard a tape. Remember those tapes? I heard a tape of Dr. Blackwood preaching. And then I heard another tape. And then I got to the MP3 thing, and I heard a lot more. And I can't tell you how many times, in different sermons, I heard that man say, Seek kingdom! Pray kingdom! Think kingdom. What's he saying? Align your heart with God. Put Him first, and all the things that you lack will be provided for you. Seek the kingdom. Pray the kingdom. Think kingdom. Do you lack? What are you looking to? Do you need? What are you listening for? Is your heart aligned with Christ? then seek the kingdom, and all these things will be added to you. But don't forget what the Lord Jesus said to those, his disciples when he came to them after his resurrection. And in Matthew 28, this, we often don't hear this part as often, but it says, and the Lord Jesus came to those who he called, he came up onto the mountain, those who were with him, some worshiped, but some doubted. Post-resurrection. Heaven's new earth inaugurated, and some of the disciples are still doubting, and the Lord graciously comes to them and says to them, the commission, all authority, not some, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. and teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded them. And surely, I will be with you always and to the very end of the age. Did you hear it? Are you looking at it? Is your heart open? May the Lord bring that fear of the Lord to our hearts. that we might obey him and that our spirit, because living on this side of the resurrection, it's his spirit given to you to accomplish the task, to build the kingdom in your generation according to his will for his glory and your time and place. Is your spirit stirred within you to obey? then delight and take joy that God, by His grace, is speaking to you today. Maybe you're sitting there and saying, not feeling it. I don't really get it. Ask for it. Anyone who comes to Jesus, He will not turn away. Is your life not working? Is it not going well with you? There's a covenant-keeping God who has made promises to you this morning, and He's made a promise through His Son that all who would come to Him, He would save them. He would be their God, He would be their King, and He'd be with you. Maybe you're not feeling it. We're praying that God would show you it, would show you the glories of King Jesus, and the joy of laboring in His kingdom. So we ask that the Lord on this day in history would do something in our midst to send us out to labor for his glory and that he would be taking great delight in his people. May he do it. Our great and gracious God, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you have kindly spoken through your son, Jesus Christ, to us, making promises to your people that if we would look to you, you would provide for us. If we would seek first your kingdom, you would satisfy our hearts, not only with your powerful providence, but you would give us your glorious spirit and your presence would be with us even now. Lord, for those of us here today, that are considering our ways, that are considering the outcome of our life. Lord, turn our hearts to you, turn our gaze to you, and remind us that you are a God who sent us into the land, to sent us into this place to bear witness to your Son, and we would be faithful to do it on this day, because you have spoken to your people to reawaken our hearts to your glory. So Lord Jesus, we ask that you would do this for your glory and your name's sake today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.