Episode Transcript
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This is one of the last books
of the Old Testament, Haggai, chapter
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two, verses one through nine.
The grass withers, as we know,
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the heat flowers fade, but even
in the harshest and most difficult seasons,
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the word of the Lord stands forever. In the seventh month, on the
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twenty one day of the month,
the word of the Lord came by the
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hand of Hagi, the Prophet.
Speak now to Cerebebel, the son of
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Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and
to Joshua, the son of Jeosdak,
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the high priest, and to all
the remnant of the people, and say,
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who is left among you who saw
this house in its former glory?
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How do you see it now?
Is it not as nothing in your eyes?
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Yet now, be strong, or
iserebebel declares the Lord Be Strong,
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Oh Joshua, son of Jehosedek,
the high priest, be strong, all
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you people of the land, declares
the Lord Work, for I am with
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you. Declare is the Lord of
hosts. According to the Covenant that I
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made with you when you came out
of Egypt, my spirit remains in your
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midst. Fear not, for thus
says the Lord of hosts. Yet once
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more. In a little while,
I will shake the heavens and the earth
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and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations so
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that the treasures of the nation shall
come in. And I will fill this
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House with glory, says the Lord
of hosts. The silver is mine,
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the Gold is mine, declares the
Lord of hosts. The latter glory of
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this House shall be greater than the
former, says the Lord of hosts.
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And in this place I will give
peace, declares the Lord of hostsmen,
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you may be seated. Well,
for those of you who might be a
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little bit unfamiliar with this book or
this particular time in history, let's start
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with a little bit of a little
bit of context and set up the story,
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remind us of what's going on.
What's going on is that the word
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of the Lord has come to the
Prophet Hagi and he is encouraging the people
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to begin a work, to do
a work in building the Temple of God
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that had been neglected for some time, about forty years. What had happened
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previously is that, because of God's
people's disobedience, because of their disobedience,
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the temple was destroyed and before the
temple was destroyed. There was a vision
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in which the Prophet saw the spirit
of God lift up out of the temple
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and depart. The spirit was not
with them anymore. The spirit of God
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was going away. His presence,
her his protection, His mercy, his
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covering, His Holiness, all of
these things that their temple represented, his
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dwelling with man. It was going
away. And so the spirit was seen
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to the part. And then eventually
the temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar judgment of
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guns to God's people for their disobedience. But what happens next? Nebuchadnezzar takes
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the treasures that are in the temple. There's lots of gold there, various
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fine things of various religious objects,
and he takes them to Babylon. He
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doesn't just take the stuff, he
takes the people too. You might remember
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stories about Shadrach Meshack and a bit
nego or Daniel and others. He takes
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people. He takes these people into
Babylon and their exiles they all they're not
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in their place anymore. They are
not in this place that God has said
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I will dwell with you and you
will be my people. Instead, they're
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dwelling in a foreign land and within
under a foreign king who does not serve
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the Lord of hosts, who does
not love the Lord God of Israel.
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There's lamentation. There's a old book
called lamentations describing these things. There's sadness
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and crying, there's weeping. But
then the Lord comes and he speaks to
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a new king, King Cyrus,
one from Persia, who has overtaken Babylon
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and Cyrus by the hand of the
Lord, says it's time till the Temple
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of God to be rebuilt, and
so he sends back the people and he
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sends some of their stuff with them
and they get to work. They start
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to build the temple, they start
to build, but then they face opposition
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by people in the land. There
are people who don't want them to keep
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going. They say stop, they
try to impede the work in various ways.
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We greet about this in Ezra and
the alum they and what ends up
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happening is the people of God get
discouraged, despite being brought back to the
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land by the Lord, by the
command of the Lord, enriched by the
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Lord, empowered by the Lord,
they lose heart, they become afraid,
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they lose their strength, they lose
their courage, they lose their willpower and
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they stop building the temple. And, as we saw in the last chapter,
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God comes to his people and he
says, why is it that I
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see your nice neighborhoods with your paneled
houses and your landscaping and the Nice cars
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in the driveway, and yet my
house remains in ruins, my house is
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not finished, my house is not
done, as we thought about last time.
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Of course, it's not that God
needs a house. The God is
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somehow homeless or in need of anything
really. But his desire was to dwell
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with his people, with to be
with his people, and that wasn't happening
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as long as their priorities were all
mixed up, as long as their priorities
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were focused on this present life and
that the things in the stuff of this
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world, and not on him and
not on his worship and not on living
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that covenantal life with him, a
life based on his promises, a life
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based on his work. As long
as those priorities were all mixed up,
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things were not going to go well. And they weren't going well. He
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says to them back in chapter one, through Hagiss, look around you.
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Are you not experiencing drought, economic
problems in various other things? This would
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and should have been expected, because
when we go back to Mount Sinai,
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when we go back to when God
brought his people bill out of Egypt,
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he made a covenant with them and
he told them, if you disobey me,
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you will experience curses in the land, if you obey me, will
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experience blessing. And so he wakes
them up and he says it's time to
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pay attention. And now in chapter
two he continues to encourage them in that
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he says be strong. He says
it three times. He says it in
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Verse Four. Be Strong. He
says it's is a rebebl who's the governor
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of this land? At the time
he says it's a Joshua. Be Strong,
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who is the high priest? And
he says it a third time.
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Be Strong, all you people on
the land, be strong, be strong,
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be strong. They felt weak,
they felt discouraged. They looked,
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as we read in verse three,
those who were left, those who could
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even remember what the old temple looked
like, and they said it says nothing
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the glory when we think about the
temple and its former glory. When we
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look at the what is going on
now? It's all gone. It's all
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gone. But despite the discouragement,
despite the obstacles they were facing, the
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Lord gives them a command. Be
Strong, be strong, be strong.
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It's hard to be strong when you
don't feel strong. It's hard to feel
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strong when you're discouraged and tired and
you can't get out of bed. It's
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hard to be strong when you know
the to do list that's in front of
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you and then all the things that
are going to happen. It's hard to
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be strong when you know the obstacles
that are against you. It's often very
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tempting to just give up, to
say I'm tired of doing the right thing,
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I'm tired of setting my priorities right, I'm tired of struggling, I'm
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tired of trying. You feel weak, you want to give up. It's
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very hard to be strong. Be
Strong, be strong when you are feeling
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weak. God commands them in the
next word, the next sentence, work,
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get to work, get out of
bed, get to work. And
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then he tells them, he gives
to them a reason, he gives them
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something that will stir their spirits and
encourage them. He says, for I
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am with you. Declares the Lord
of hosts. Not this point the word
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phrase Lord of hosts. I may
not have you may not have even knownict
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it when I read it, like
okay, it's a Bible phrase, right,
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that describes God. But by the
end maybe you did notice it because
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it's repeated so many times. Declares
the Lord of hosts. In Verse Four.
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Again we have it in several times, and versus seven and Verse Eight,
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in Verse Nine, over and over
and over again, the Lord of
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hosts. You know what hosts are, right, it's in this context it
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refers to armies. And whenever you
hear the Lord of hosts, what I
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want you to imagine is a hundred
million angels ready to do the Lord's will,
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thousands upon thousands, a thousands of
thousands, as the scriptures describes them,
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millions and millions of angelic beings who
desired nothing except to serve God and
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do his holy will. That's their
job, that's what they love. Passage
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of Scriptures, we have a descriptions
of these beings. They are awesome in
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terms of amazing, mind boggling.
They are difficult, it would seem,
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to describe. They are described sometimes
of scriptures as having a many eyes,
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as having the faces of powerful creatures
like lions and Eagle us they are described
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as creatures which are able to do
very, very great things, and one
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of the main things they do is
praise God. They sound the surround the
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throne of God is singing to his
praise. They are his messengers who go
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forth. They are, scriptures also
say, ministering spirits to us, his
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people. Sometimes on people are given
visions of angels, just the meaning to
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say they see them. So,
for example, the shepherds in the field
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at the time of Jesus's birth,
the angels appeared singing glory to God in
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the highest or their stories of people
about to go into battle and the Lord
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opens their eyes and allows them to
see the mighty armies of God that are
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on their side. An amazing thing. And if you were in a dark
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parking lot at night and you know
big guy comes up to you is looking
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kind of aggressive, be scary,
imagine he's got two people with him,
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three people. Imagine he's got thirty
people with them and he's coming at you.
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Now imagine it's not thirty, but
it's an army right, thousands of
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people coming at you. Now imagine
it's millions of people. Now imagine it's
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millions of angels all ready to do
the bidding of the Lord, God Almighty.
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Except here, in this passage,
the Lord of hosts and his mighty
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armies are not coming at us.
They are working for us, they're protecting
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US, they're keeping us all by
the mighty word of theric and our commander.
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Their creatures like us, different creatures, but still creatures under the authority
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of the Creator of Heaven and heavenly
beings and earth, the Lord of hosts,
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the Lord of hosts, the Lord
of hosts, don't be afraid,
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be strong, fear not, for
I am with you. I am for
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you, declares the Lord of hosts, declares the mighty general, the Great
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King, the commander of armies and
of Heaven and in Earth. It's also
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it is an angel who speaks the
word of the Lord and says to marry.
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Fear Not right, and he says
this in a very similar way.
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I am with you, and indeed
she gives birth to Jesus, the son
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of God, who is Emmanuel,
God, God with us. Over and
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over we see God doing his work
in the world. Are Strong God,
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a powerful God. When he is
on our side, we have no reason,
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zero reason, to be discouraged,
no reason to think that something in
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this world will be able to stand
in his way of working for our good
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and doing all things for a benefit
and for the glory of his name.
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We can work, we can be
strong, even when we're discouraged, because
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God is at work and because God
is God, the Lord, the I
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am of hosts. We see the
strength of the Lord and more encouragement is
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given to these people who come back
in verses seven and following, when he
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says, I want you to picture
the future. I don't want you to
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be discouraged, I don't want you
to be weak, I want you to
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go forward and work and build this
house based on my promise to you to
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be faithful and my promise about the
future glory of this thing that you are
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doing, this work that is going
to be accomplished, this project that they
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are going to engage in, will
have success. What kind of success?
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As they are disappointed and mourning the
loss of the old is, they don't
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see the glory in the temple,
what is the Lord say to them?
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He says, in verse seven,
I will shake all nations so that the
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treasures of the nation shall come in
and I will fill this house with glory.
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Right. So they're discouraged about the
glory of the House. It's just
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a slab or whatever. You know, there's there's just it's not beautiful,
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it's not splendor, it's not a
place that you would want to be.
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It's sad. It's in some ways
a marker of passin and these kinds of
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things. Well, what's going to
happen? God describes like a funnel.
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Or maybe a better example is those
super fun things that you do when you're
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a kid, that those big parachute
things that you all stand around in a
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big circle and you put the balls
on the on the the piece of fabric
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and nylon or something like that,
and there's a hole in the middle and
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everybody shaken, everybody's shaking it.
They lifted up high, and then what
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happens? Like eventually the balls and
things or toys or whatever, they fall
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down into the center. So that's
really fun fun. This is not a
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fun picture. It is a picture
of great power and what we see is
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God shaking the nations, shake,
shake, shake, shaking the heavens,
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the Earth, the sea, the
whole world, everything on the heavenly places,
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the earthly places, the sea,
the dry land. It shakes it
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all and what happens is the treasures
of the nation's just fall down into the
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glory of the temple. They fall
down like like in a funnel. They
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come down into the House of the
Lord. He is going to fill it
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up. As they look at Egypt, as they look at Battylon, as
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they look at Persian, say,
man, those places are amazing. They're
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filled with art and architecture and music
and language and all these things. What
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are we doing here? What's the
point of this? I guess I'll just
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go work on my backyard. He's
saying something is coming that is greater than
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this. He is going to fill
the house of the glory. To underline
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that point, he then says in
versus eight. There says in Verse Eight
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the Silver Is Mine, the Gold
is mine, declares the Lord. This
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is both a promise of the future
and an expression of a present reality.
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The scriptures say the Lord owns everything, everything. There's not a blade of
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grass, there's not a cloud in
the sky, there's not a chair in
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this room, not a person that
he doesn't own. But he doesn't have
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a right to because he's God.
He's different than we are. His ways
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are not our ways, his thoughts
are not our thoughts. He isn't like
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us, who has a beginning and
an end. He's different. He is
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the great I am. He is
the Lord of hosts and everything is his.
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He will fill the house and it
will be more glorious, because he
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can and he will and he promises
that in that place he will give peace.
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The violence and the shaking and the
disruption that will happen in order to
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bring about this glory will not always
stay that way, it won't always be
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a shaking, but it will be
established and it will end in peace.
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Now we see in these last few
verses that there is a the Lord is
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speaking in a metaphorical ways. Right, if all the nations are of all
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the glory and the treasures of the
nations came into the House of God,
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well, that would have to be
very, very big house, the size
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of the earth. Really Right,
we see, and we also know from
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history, that things didn't quite happen
exactly like this. The temple was rebuilt
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and it was glorious, but it
was eventually destroyed again. Even today,
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it's not there, not like this. And yet the Lord has in fact
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kept his promise and will keep it
in such a way that these promises are
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not just promises of hope for them
but for us as well. He says
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that there is this shaking that happens
and this shaking is a shaking of judgment.
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There are a few places in scripture
that are very important that is referring
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to. The first one is the
shaking of Mount Sinai, when God brought
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his people out of the land of
Egypt and brought them and established them as
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a new people. He gave them
the Law on Sinai and if you remember
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what happens there, that mountain shook, it quaked. There were other things
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that happened to there was lightning and
fire and a booming voice. It was
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terrifying. As God gave them the
law, there was this sign of judgment
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that came with it, a threat. Dare in a way, just try
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to disobey me, touch this mountain
and see what happens to you. I'm
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paraphrasing, but the but the idea
was, and God was very clear about
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this, that His Holiness would be
established, that the people and their holiness
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and their closenesses with him would be
established. No more would they be idolaters,
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no more would they go in their
own ways. They would be his
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people and he would be their God, and that whole mountain shook. Well,
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there was another time which there was
a another very important shaking, and
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that was when Jesus Christ died.
When Jesus died there was another shaking as
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the threat and the curse of the
law again was made manifest in the world,
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as judgment came down for sin and
against sin. We read in Matthew
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Twenty seven, verse fifty one that
when Jesus died the veil that was in
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the temple at that time as big
thit. Curtain was torn from top to
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the bottom like a piece of paper. God just tore it. And on
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top of that the earth, we
read, quaked and the rocks split.
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Perhaps some of you saw the video
of the up at the lake. Have
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Asu the rock just falling off,
just splitting, this huge, huge rock
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falling off and falling into the water. It seems impossible, right, how
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could something so strong and so stable
just split? Well, because the Lord
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is strong and more stable and more
powerful than anything in this world. The
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Earth seems so strong. It seems
like it will never move until it does,
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until it does, and we experience
this, of course, sometimes earthquakes
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and sink holes, rocks falling,
landslides, these kinds of things. These
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are reminders to us that this world
is not as stable as we often think
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it is. And that's important,
because what Jesus does that his death,
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when judgment comes down upon him,
not for his disobedience to the law,
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but because of ours. God is
establishing us as a people forever, and
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he establishes, he says, in
Christ a people and a city and a
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temple that is unshakable, that is
unshakable, and this is our hope.
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Our hope is that when God comes
again, when the son of God comes
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again into the world and shakes the
world and pulls it apart and brings all
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things into this terrifying judgment, we
will have no reason to fear, not
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because we're stronger than the earth,
but because we live in God and we
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are established in the strength of God, who is stronger than the earth and
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has already begun to establish us in
something that is forever. Listen to Hebrews
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twelve, and I'll conclude with this. Listen to Hebrews twelve of verse eighteen.
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That makes this contrast between Mount Sinai
and Mount Zion. The kingdom in
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which we now stand is those who
belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, Hebrews
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Chapter Twelve, verse eighteen says,
for you have not come to what may
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be touched a blazing fire and darkness
and gloom and a tempest and the sound
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of a trumpet and a voice whose
words made the hearers beg that no further
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messages bespoken to them, for they
could not endure the order that was given.
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If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stone indeed.
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So terrifying was the sight that Moses
said, I tremble with fear. You
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haven't come to that, but you
have come to Mount Zion and to the
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city of the Living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to listen this innumerable
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angels, the hosts in festal gathering. Right, it's a party. We
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have come to partying angels that are
excited and rejoicing and celebrating. It gets
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better, verse twenty three, and
to the assembly of the firstborn who are
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enrolled in heaven, speaking of those
who have died and gone before us,
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and to God, the judge of
all, into the spirits of the righteous
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made perfect, and to Jesus,
the mediator of a new covenant, and
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to the spankled blood, blood that
speaks a better word than the blood of
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Abel. See to it that you
do not refuse him who is speaking,
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for if at that time they did
not escape, when they refused who warned
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them on earth, much less will
we escape if we reject him who warns
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from Heaven. At that time his
voice shook the earth, but now he
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has promised yet once more I will
shake the Earth, but also the heavens.
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You hear that language from Haggai right
this judgment that was promised to this
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be judgment that would come, that
it was established glory. It's still coming.
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In a way, began at the
Cross and it will be completed when
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Jesus comes again. He has promised, I'm in Verse Twenty Six, yet
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once more I will shake not only
the Earth but also the heavens. This
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phrase yet once more indicates the removal
of things that are shaken, that is,
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the things that have been made.
God is going to remove the things
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that have been made. Why?
Here's the answer. In order that the
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things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let's be grateful for receiving
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a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
and thus let us offer to God acceptable
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worship, with reverence and off for
our God is a consuming fire. So,
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as the author of Hebrews speaks to
these Christians, he says, let's
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remember back for a moment, just
like Hag I says, let's remember back
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for a moment, Mount Sinai.
Let's remember the shaking, let's remember the
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terrifying scene. Let's remember that even
Moses said, I don't want to go,
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even Moses trembled. We, however, have come to something that cannot
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be shaken. In the resurrection,
Jesus put on the imperishable, his mortal
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body that he took on in the
incarnation, becoming like us, put on
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immortality, unshakability. It cannot be
moved. His body, his human body,
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will never die. It remains firm
and strong and stable forever, and
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he promises that all of us will
receive those same bodies, have that same
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life and will be part of a
kingdom, a new heavens and a new
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earth that cannot be shaken any more. It won't be shaken. That is
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eternal and steadfast and strong and safe. Why is it that way? Because
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it won't come under judgment, because
it's perfectly holy forever and ever, because
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all sin has been removed and it
has been established not by the People's righteousness
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but by God's perfect righteousness. When
we stand in his kingdom, when we
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worship with his angels, when we
live by his spirit, through the mediation
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of the son for the love of
the father, it's all his, including
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us. That's why we worship the
way we do. That's why we worship
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who whom we do, with reverence, with awe, with Thanksgiving, with
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joy. Let's pray
