Rebuilding & Glory - Locking Arms in the promise of God!

JON SAMPEY - ANNOUNCEMENTS and PRAYER

OPENING PRAYER

GREET AND INTRO

Good morning everyone!! Good morning on everyone worshiping this morning through live stream.

If I have not had a chance to meet you either in person or through live stream;  My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship. 

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Grab you phones, go to Facebook do a check-in at Stonewater Fellowship - Leave a FB review and lets send some bricks to build some schools.

#buildingschools.

LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES

either electronic version or the actual book kind - either electronic version or the actual book kind - Open it to Haggai Chapter 2 vs 1-9 as we Continue walking together through this amazing prophetic word of a normal man whom God used to encourage The Political leaders of His day, the Spiritual leaders of His day and the People of God

My prayer over this series is that we wold come to understand that God will lead us to build things in our life and sometimes rebuild things in our life that gets torn up by the enemy. This series teaches us to Listen to His Spirit, Prioritize His kingdom, lock arms with others, Stand on His promises, and Know that He honors and blesses to His glory if we act.

My prayer over this message is that we would come to truly know what it is to lock arms with one another and fully and completely trust the promises of God.

TRUTH

Haggai 2:1–9 NASB95

On the twenty-first of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying, “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people saying, ‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison? ‘But now take courage, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord, ‘take courage also, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all you people of the land take courage,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ declares the Lord of hosts. ‘As for the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding in your midst; do not fear!’ “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. ‘I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, 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 will be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ declares the Lord of hosts.”

ENGAGEMENT -

Inadequate - Ever been in a situation where you felt inadequate?

Ever Gotten a Job and discovered you have out played your coverage so to speak. That your skill set for the Job you have just recieved is not quite high enough to do well that you are hired to do.

and not just your skill set for the job but you realize that your overall knowledge f the subject is not adequate. your understanding of how it all works is short of what is required to do a good job.

You look your self in the mirror and ask - How did I actually get this Job and will y learning curve be fast enough to keep it?

Maybe you have never had that feeling in your occupation - Maybe you are one of the many people that has never had a sense of inadequacy after getting a new Job or a big promotion at work.

But how bout this - How about when you got married? How many of us went through that season after the honeymoon is over where we had to learn what we didn't know. Which was to live well full time with another human being who had their own level of Brokenness?

You get married - Life takes over - You realize how fortunate you are to have this other person as you're husband or your wife, You realize that you have way out yoked yourself, and you thought you really knew this person and how to navigate the waters of life together. And you realize that the biggest learning curve you have is you in relationship to them.

Kids can do the exact same thing — How many of you have said before you had kids “We’re not ready to have kids” and after you started having them especially the first one “ you realized how not ready you really were?

I think all of us when we sense the feeling of inadequacy we either do one of two things - We either Strive really hard to eliminate the lack of knowledge and skill sets to remove the felling of inadequacy or we quit thinking to our selves that we don't have enough and will never have enough so why try?

Weather it is work? a job? a task a marriage or a family there are many many times in our life where we have a feeling of inadequacy in this life? and I think for many of us we really hate the feeling of being or perceiving that we are inadequate.

TENSION

The Problem is that many of us when we approach our relationship with God we carry before Him this feeling and perception of inadequacy - That we don't know enough, We don't know how to enough, our skill sets of what ever are not adequate enough. and Because it is GOD we are talking about. It is the things of God and the Eternal things that we are dealing with. Our inadequacies can seem so big, the learning curve is so long, the effort to develop the skill sets would be enormously huge that I would have anything left for the rest of life, that it becomes so easy to just Give up and sit on the side lines while other people do things for God. Big things and some times what seems like small things -

Church - I want you to hear this from the very heart of God - If you are His child, saved by grace through faith in the finished and completed work of Jesus - He has saved you and you are His handiwork, created NEW in Christ Jesus, To do GOOD WORKs - The Works of God - The Mission of God - that God Himself prepared for us all to do together before any of this happened, So that All of us together should walk in those good works that He prepared for us and saved us to walk in.

and GOD is and Has and will continue to prepare us to walk in them for the rest of our lives. IF we understand that HE Has and He will make us Adaquate for every good work, when we step out in faith into the work that HE has for us.

BACKGROUND

as we look at this 3rd of 5 prophecies or messages form God spoken to the prophet of God by the Spirit of God, delivered to the political and spiritual leaders as well as directly to the people of God it is good to have some understand of the back drop of this particular message that God is sending to His people.

The people of God have been back in the land that was promised by God to the for fathers of God people - The Land that was promised by God through the Covenant of God.

The were out of the land by force for nearly 70 years and they have been back now for about 18 years when God begins to Speak.

In the 18 years that they were back in the land - they priories got mixed up and they began prioritizing their own life and rebuilding their own kingdoms becasue the building of the Temple of God was difficult and came with opposition.

God speaks to His people through his prophet and they listen and obey and here a couple of months after the first two messages form God we find that the rebuilding of the temple, The Work of God that God commissioned his people to do, has begun and the people are working.

UNPACKING

Verse 1 gives is the time frame of when God Speaks to these people. The 21st day of the 7th month is the 51 days Since the First Prophecy.

First Prophecy happens on the First Day of the Sixth Month - God says listen and rePrioritize -

24 days later - the Second message God says I am with you in your labors of Rebuilding my Kingdom and He stirs up the Spirit of the People. God Motivates His people with His presence and His promise of Abiding with them as they are doing what God has commissioned them to DO.

27 Days later on the 21st day of the 7th month the third message came -

Whats Important about his time line? When we are doing what God has commissioned us to do - He will be with Us and He will speak to us - But it may be a while between messages and we need to be patient.

VS2 - God Tells Haggai to Speak to everyone - Speak to the Political leaders - Speak to the Spiritual Leaders - Speak to the People.

Here is what is SO important about his passage of Text - This message is for everyone - Because Everyone has locked arms in unity with God, in Unity with Leaders, Prophet, Political and Spiritual - And Locked arms with each other to do the work that God has commissioned them to do .

This is why this is so Important - Through out the entire Bible - an enormously large part of the instructions of God are to a people - Not to a Person -

I love how Jeff Vanderbilt put it: and the more you read the bible the more this statement is absurdly true!

The Bible was not written for individual application - Is was written for Communal application - and even the few times it is written to a person it is how that person should lead the people.

It is always meant for communal obedience - How the People should obey in unity together, in community together, locking arms together to walk in the works and ways of God together.

We, in our western framework of the individual, we have made the bible a tool for personal piety and personal application not communal obedience.

God, as he has called Israel then and has called us in the church today an be a people not an individual in isolation.

God calls his people to obey His word together and obey it on mission, on His mission that he designed in advance, the mission of the building of the things of God. In this case the Temple and in the Church's case the Church.

VS 3: God Speaks Haggai repeats - “Who is left among you who say this temple in its former glory? and how do you see it now? Does it not seem like nothing in comparison?

God knew the though of those who were old among the people of israel. Remember 88 years ago the Temple was destroyed - So it is possible that some people who were 60-90 years old not only Saw the old temple but were certainly told stories of its splendor -

Here is what we have to remember about the temple before it was destroyed - We have to remember who it was built by - It was built by Solomon - The richest and the wisest man that has ever lived. Solomon had collected the wealth of the world in His treasure in Silver and Gold and Bronze and all precious metals and Stones.

Special workman to build the temple - Thousands of workman Skilled in their trade to build the temple. Specialists in their craft of wood work and metal work and laying of Stones and Quarry men

The people had none of that - Those that knew of the former house either by sight or by hearing - were discouraged that it and the work they were doing was inadequate - Not just a little inadequate but woefully inadequate compared to the Temple of the Past -

And GOD knew of their Feelings - you see the Questions that God was Asking in vs3 are all rhetorical questions - God already knew the answer to the question -

This is so important to Grasp - God knows our shortcomings - God knows how we feel about them - God knows they are there -

Here is the beauty of God - In the midst of knowing all this about us all - He calls us together and He put us to work as a community as a family.

and you might Say: Pastor that sure does mean its messy sometimes! To which I will say - Oh yes it is - But this messy plan of call people together in community on mission for Him is Plan A and there is no Plan B -

How do I know that? There is no plan B in the Bible and this plan A got the Gospel across two thousand years and Brought it from Jerusalem 50 days after Jesus was resurrected when the Sprit Filled 120 and 3000 came to faith that day all the way to New Braunfels Texas in 2022 - That’s How I know the Church is God’s plan A for the proclamation of the Gospel and the Salvation of souls.

VS 4 God for the second time through the words of His Prophet - Reassure the People that As they work on His things as they put His kingdom as the priority in their lives He says “Be Strong” “ Take Courage” - Don’t be Shy - Don’t be Unsure - Don’t step back - Step in - Be Bold - Be sure of Me and the Work i have called you to - Don’t lean away lean in -

WORK the text says - remember this is written to a people - This means WORK TOGETHER! but WORK!

God then says for the second time - When you do this. When you WORK When you lean in - When you Take courage , When you take boldness, When you are Sure of what I have called you to. WORK for “I am with you”

Want to experience the very presence of God?- Lock arms with each other and step into the things of God and He will be with us.

VS 6 God makes mention of a promise that He made to his people when they came out of Egypt - When God rescued them from the Bondage of Slavery -When He Released them and Set those that were once captive Free - Whose who were once slaves - He made a free people.

Here is what that Promise was - If you collectively lock ares and obey - You will be my people a people of my own possession - and I will dwell among you - His presence will go with us and Give us Rest - I am going to make a covenant with you and perform miracles among you and do things among you that Have never been done -

Then There was jesus To fulfill every one of those promises. God Says in VS 5 as for that Covenant I am living up to that as My Spirit is abiding in your midst - My Spirit My Holy Spirit The Person of the Holy Spirit is Remaining in your midst. It is Remaining among you!

Then The Lords in Vs 6-7-8 tells the people what He is going to do How their scene of inadequacies will be dealt with in a real and tangible way - God says “I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry lands _ I will shake the Nations and they will come with the wealth of all the nations and I will fill this house with all my Glory -

God Says - It does not matter whats it looks like - It does not matter what you think the supply is - It does not matter if you think things are adequate for me. Stop comparing to the past - The Past is history -

I will bring to my work that I have commissioned you for the resources necessary to do what I have planed for it to do.

Then In VS 8 and 9 God says something that is So important to grasp and hold onto.

God Says The Silver is money and the Gold is Mine - What God has Just declared is that All of the wealth on the world belong to Him - All of it - Not part of it - not some of it - Not most of it - All of the Wealth of the World is His - It matters not of we measure that wealth in Silver or Gold or Dollar bills or British Pounds and European Euros or Electronic Bit Coin God says that it is all His -

What is amazing about that Statement is what God will do and Can do to provide resources for His people when they Lock Arms together and prioritize the Things of God -

Then in Verse 9 God makes this promise to His people - Whats important about this statement is not only what God does say but also what God does not say in this statement -

God does not say “This work must match the standard that you place on it - This work must not meet your expectations -

You see many time when we are feeling inadequate we are comparing ourselves to others -

God says - it is not about the standard of comparison that you make - It is about your faithfulness to do what I commissioned you to do.

Here is what God then Says - You have re prioritized the things of me in your lives - You have locked arms and worked - You have come together and are doing what I have commissioned you to do.

Here is what I promise that you cannot see from where you are - You see God always knows the out come of what he calls us to do - We may see the outcome or we may not see the outcome -

But here is what God promises His children - After the work is done and after the task is complete and after your part on the mission is over - The Glory the splendor the Glory of the house you are building Now will be greater than the Glory and the Splendor of the former house -

I want you to grasp the fullness of what God has just said - This hour does not have the Gold inlay - This hours does not have the tons and tons of cedar from Lebanon - The house does not have the craftsmen of Solomon building the ornate columns and other ornaments that were part of the first house - It has none of those practical things - But here is what it does have - It has gods people, Responding to God word, Spoken by God spirit, delivered through God prophet to God political leaders, Gods Spiritual Leaders and to God people and they are obeying God as a community and God says - The Glory of this house that you are building with what seems like nothing in comparison - This house will exceed the Glory of the former House - The Former house that was built with the collected resources of two kings - David and Solomon - This house that we are commissioned to rebuild as a community from what appears to be nothing - This house will be more glorious than the former house -

Then God promises one of the things that off sets all sources of inadequacies - PEACE - God will provide peace.

APPLICATION AND INSPIRATION -

This morning as we hear the declarations of God. As we Hear the the commissions of God, As we hear the promises of God it would be some what foolish if we did not consider how to apply this to our own lives and move that into application of us as a community.

The Temple that the church is commissioned to lock arms and work to build is not a temple of Brink and Stone. It is not a temple o Gold inlay or Bronze furnishings - or ornate columns - it is a spiritual one - All that changed when Jesus showed up -

The Jewish People Longs to see the Gory of God will the temple made of Stone and Gold and Silver and when Jesus arrived in the temple as a child - Simeon said and i Paraphrase “I have seen the Glory of the Lord and the salvation of my God and I can now die in peace.”

The Temple of God - The place where God dwells is in the hearts of Every one who has been saved by grace - Every one that the Church has taken the Gospel to, who has repented and surrender to the Lord Chip of Jesus -

You Commission is to build the Church - Our Commission is to make disciples - Our Commission is to be the building blocks that the Spiritual temple is built upon the foundation that is Christ Jesus.

And God has Given the Body Gifting and formed us into a community and given that community leaders to equip the saints for ministry - And He has set all of us together for the purpose of Building the Spiritual temple and seeing His glory as he changes our lives and the live of the people we touch. For the Lord says The Silver is Mine and the Gold is mine and the Glory of this house will be greater than the glory of the former house and in this place in and your hearts and in our time I will provide Peace -

Listen to the Spirit - Prioritize His Kingdom - Lock arms with Others in community - Rely on the Promises of God and take the good news of the Gospel to the world and Be the Church!

ONE WORSHIP GATHERING -