Transcript

Morning, church. Good morning. It's great to see all of you here today. We're continuing our series called it's time. We're going verse by verse through the book of Haggai over these eight weeks.

We started last week, so we're in part two today. And I would remind you of the theme which we find in Haggai chapter one and a portion in chapter two. It reads like this. These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. Yet now be strong, work, for I am with you, declares the Lord.

My spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. And so we've got it all over the building. It's time. It's time to do what?

Be strong, do the work and be fearless. And so that's what we're talking about during this series. And I hope you stopped by the it's time table in the lobby as you were coming in today. If you didn't pick up one of our journey guides last week, I hope you picked up one today. If you forgot and still haven't gotten one, pick one up before you leave today.

Drop by the it's time table and you'll notice we got a lot of swag there. We got a lot of freebies that we're giving away to help us go on this journey together in unity. And so when you pick up a journey guide, pick up a bookmark. We've got a bookmark for you that goes in there that you can use in your bible. And notice on the it's Time journey guide that it talks about our vision during this season of what we're believing God for.

A place to take your sermon notes. A daily devotion for the next six weeks. We started last week, but you can start tomorrow. It's five devotions per week and Saturday and Sunday gives you catch up opportunity in case you missed a day or if you just want to reflect back on what you learned during the week and prayer and so forth. There's a lot going on in this guide.

So I hope you'll go on the journey with us by using our journey guide and pick up a T shirt. We have every size, I think, except for small. We ran out of small, but we've reordered and we encourage you to wear one of our it's time shirts. This, this during this season. And we're the T shirt church.

I mean we, we have T shirts for everything. So we, we, we got those for you to help you experience the journey together. Well enough on that. Let's dig into the Sermon today. Last week we talked about how Haggai was talking to the people of God who had returned from exile in Babylon after 70 years of exile and that Jerusalem had been destroyed and king Cyrus the great of Persia had allowed them, when he overthrew the Babylonians, he had allowed them to go back home.

And not only that, but he encouraged them to go ahead and rebuild their temple. But because of opposition and some changes in the political landscape, 18 years had now gone by since their return. And they had not rebuilt the temple, they had rebuilt their own homes. They had rebuilt those things. In fact, they'd gone so far, according to what we read in Haggai, that they had started paneling their houses and making their houses more luxurious.

So they've gone past need to really greed in a way, but yet they haven't touched God's house. And so here's what we looked at last week. Haggai tells the people of God they needed to consider their ways, they needed to consider their priorities because they were putting their house ahead of God's house. So that was last week. That brings us to this Sunday, where I believe this Sunday, as we continue in our series, verses 7 through 11 of chapter 1, we.

We see Haggai speaking for the lord again. God says, consider your ways again to them. Except now I think he wants to bring to their mind their purpose, consider your purpose. And so that's what we'll be unpacking today. Isn't that one of the most basic life questions?

Maybe you remember being a teenager and people begin to ask you things like, what do you want to be when you grow up? And you be like, well, I want to be a superhero or I want to be a nurse or a doctor. You listed whatever you were thinking at the time. But really there is kind of an anxiety that starts to hit you, especially if you're planning on going into college when you graduate or going to some sort of kind of work. And you might start asking these two very important questions.

Who am I? And why am I here? It's about identity and purpose. Who am I And why am. Why am I here?

And it's not just when you're a teenager. This can happen. This can happen when you're in your 40s or 50s. They call it a midlife crisis. And you go, my whole life was wrapped up in my kids, but now my kids have all moved out.

I'm an empty nester. And you go, who am I and why am I here? That's when men buy corvettes and. And I Don't know what women do, but, but, but they, they have a panic. I didn't plan on what I was going to say there, so I'm not going to just say something.

It could be risky for me to do that. And so we, we, we start the question again. Who am I and why am I here? And traditionally, people would answer those two questions by looking at their environment. Looking extern would inform who they were.

Their brothers and sisters, their grandparents, the village they lived in, their peers at school. They would figure out, who am I, my identity, and what's my purpose? From external influence. That's the traditional approach in the modern era, the postmodern era, if you would. We find that the millennials, but especially Gen Z and the Alpha generation, which, that's the children of the millen, are looking more internally, which is kind of new.

And so instead of looking at external ways of identifying who am I and why am I here, they look inside and they, they don't really care what, what gender their body is or what people say around them. They go, no, I feel like this. And they, they decide the real answer to who am I and why am I here? Is just by looking inside like that. Both approaches are problematic.

We have to admit that the external approach and the internal approach both fall short and often lead to disastrous results for people. And people end up living not the abundant life, but a life that's just missing something that lacks fulfillment. They often lead to false identities and meaningless lives without purpose and fulfillment. What about you? How have you determined what your true identity is?

How have you answered the question of your identity and your purpose, what the French called the raison d'etre, the reason for being, the reason for existence. I think there's a better approach, and that's what Haggai is telling us as he speaks for the Lord rather than the external, rather than the internal, the upward approach, to look and say, who do you say I am? God? What's my purpose here? And that's what this section of the text today will address.

What's our purpose? And Rick Warren's best seller, the Purpose Driven Life, chapter one, first three, four words, he says this. What? You know, what's my purpose? He goes, it's not about you.

That's the first sentence in his book, it's not about you. And that's really where we get off base in terms of our purpose in life, our identity. We make it about ourselves. You could say this, you could say that the root of sin or the attitude of sin is really this I want my way rather than God's way. I want what I want rather than what he wants for me.

And that's really the root of rebellion, of selfishness, of. And then all other sin seems to flow out of that attitude. I want what I want. And so what I would ask you today, have you learned from the Lord what your identity is, who he says you are, and what your purpose is? As we look at Haggai, chapter 1, verses 7 through 11, God challenged His people to consider their ways and to bring their ways into alignment with his ultimate purpose for their lives.

And I believe today God is inviting you and I to consider our ways and to bring them into alignment with his ways, with his ultimate purpose for our lives. As we look at the text, we'll see three steps towards bringing our lives into alignment with his purpose. Let's look at it. Chapter one, starting at verse seven. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways.

Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I might take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord, you look 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, on what the ground brings forth on man and beast and on all their labors. This is God's word. Amen. We're looking for three steps on how we can bring our ways into alignment with God's purpose. Here's the first.

By living for God's pleasure. By living for God's pleasure. I want you to look at verse eight, and if you have your notes there, circle where he says, I may take pleasure in it. See that word pleasure right there. God right there.

Through his prophet, Haggai is revealing to the people of God the reason he made them, the reason he made us. He made us because it pleased him to do so. It pleased him to create us. And he desires that we live lives that would please him. This is the Lord speaking.

What pleases God? A life that puts him first and puts his kingdom first, so that we live as kingdom citizens. God desires that we please him. Now, who is this speaking? Verse 7.

Thus says the Lord of hosts. Haggai is writing this, but he is clear saying, I'm not Speaking for myself, I'm speaking what the Lord told me to tell you. And notice in your translations, you probably notice that it's all caps L O R D, which in the English translations is showing that the Hebrew name for God underneath this is Yahweh, which is the name that God revealed to Moses when he was at the burning bush. In Exodus chapter three, Moses said, we've been calling you the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What is your name?

We don't even know your name. And he says, I am, that I am, which in Hebrew is Yahweh, the self existent, one without beginning and end, eternally present. Not I was, not I will be, but I am. That's my name. And that's what's underneath that capital L O R D.

That's showing us some trend. Some of us have the Anglicized version of Yahweh, which is the Hebrew way of saying it. And they call it Jehovah or Jehovah. It's the same word, it means the same thing. I am the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, which could be translated Yahweh of armies, Yahweh of all the heavenly host, Yahweh of all things like that.

So that's who's talking, the one who made us. And he said, I made you because it pleased me to make you. I made you for my pleasure and I desire that you live a life that pleases me. Now sometimes I look at my kids and my grandkids when they're all at my house and they're eating all of my food and they're running through my house and it's chaotic. And I will turn to my wife and I will say, honey, why did we make these kids?

You ever feel like that? And then we remind ourselves we did it because we wanted them. How about that? We did it because it pleased us to have. We wanted these children and these grant they were desirable to us.

We wanted them. Now all we've ever did since they were born is spend money on them, take care of them. They've never done really anything for us.

They've been completely dependent on us. Why did we make these kids? I think we have a little bit of an insight here about God. He made us because it pleased him to do so, as those that could be objects of his love. And we, we wanted children because it's an expression of my wife and I.

It was an expression of our love and of our oneness. And then having made them, they become like little mirrors of us for good and for ill. But then we immediately love them, and it teaches us something about God, if you will. Are you with me? You understand what I'm saying?

And he. He says, I want you to consider your ways, and I want you to live in a way that I could take pleasure in the way you live, because that's why I made you. I made you that you would bring pleasure to me, that I might make you objects of my love and blessing and that you would receive that from me and live in such a way that that's your desire. And so he says, okay, so here's how you could please me so he doesn't just leave us out in the cold. Okay, but how do we please you, God?

And he says, go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house. There's three imperatives there. He says, go up, bring, build, go, bring, build. That's what he says. Whose house?

His house. You've been busy building your house. Put my house first. If you put my house first, I'll take care of your house. If you'll put me first, I'll take care of you.

But you've been putting yourself first. So here's how you could please me. Here's how you could bring your life into alignment with mine, is seek my pleasure rather than your own. Stop trying to please yourself and start trying to please me. And I'll take care of you.

And really, I think that's the struggle. That's why marriages break up. Selfishness. People want what they want, and this one wants this and this one wants that, and they never take care of each other. And that's why businesses break up, and that's why friendships break up.

And that's why we're sideways with God. And. And we need to repent because really, the attitude of sin says, I want my way. I want to please myself. And God says, yeah, but I made you for me that you might please me.

I made you for my pleasure and for you to be objects of my love and blessing. And you've pushed me away. This is what he's saying to them. And the way that's looking for them is, I brought you out of exile, I rescued you, gave you your land back. And 18 years have gone by and you hadn't even looked to my house.

You're not putting me first. You've forgotten your purpose. Because one of the purposes for you, your identity, is, I made you for my pleasure. You should be living for that reason. Paul says this in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5.

He says, Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to him. God says, or Paul says, it's my aim, it's my goal in life to please God what pleases God? Psalm 147, verse 11. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his mercy. Now that verse falls a little funny on the modern ear.

We don't like the word fear. What does that mean? I'm supposed to be afraid of God? No, it doesn't mean to be afraid. It means to fear him, to honor him.

These are synonyms of the word in Hebrew. To honor, to revere, to hold up above yourself, to fear. But I think fear is the right, it's the right word here. Let me tell you why I think it is. It's because of my memory of how when I would be disciplined as a child.

Now my mother was the professional spanker in the family. She had no hesitation. She would get what she called a keen switch, little maple branch that she maybe sometimes left a little leaf on the end just to. Just to really terrify you. And, and if she did like this, it sounded like Zorro's sword sounded like that.

And that's what she used as her method of discipline. She would switch me up through the house and I was a hard headed little bugger. And so she had an. She had an approach, a method. She would switch it till you cried and then switch you a couple more times to tell you to shut up.

Those could, stop crying now, you've cried enough. Stop crying now. It's enough crying. That's how I was brought up. But my dad didn't spank you.

He talked to you. I much preferred my mother's approach. My dad would take you into the bedroom and sit you on the bed and pull up a chair to just like knee to knee and say, son, look at me, look me in the eyes. I don't want to look at him. Look me in the eyes.

He would talk to me. Why'd you do that? Why did you hit your brother? Why did you. Why'd you talk back to your mother?

Whatever it was, he'd want to get to the root of the problem. I don't want to talk about this. I know bad stuff's coming. Just let's get it over with. No, he'd talk about it, talk about it.

And then he'd say this fearful thing to me that I was so fearful to hear. Son, I'm really disappointed in you today. I have higher expectations of you. You're my firstborn son. Can't believe you talked to your mom that way.

Don't ever do that again. Really disappointed in you. I would cry like a baby. My mom could switch me all over the house. I would not cry.

I was a hard headed little booger. But if my dad said he was disappointed in me, I was boohooing before it got out of his mouth. Because I feared his displeasure. And I think that's the heart of Psalm 147. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him and those who hope in his mercy.

I fear God's displeasure. I want him to say well done good and faithful servant. Don't you? Or are you a people pleaser?

Are you a self pleaser? Or do you desire the applause of the one God? I just want you to be proud of me. I want you to please me. Consider your ways.

Do you live for God's pleasure?

And then church. And who is the church? Is the church the steeple? No, the church is the. So we're the church, we're the house, the temple.

Today in those days it was the temple they were building. But today because of Christ, we're the church. Church are. How are we going to obey? Go, bring, build.

I think Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 28 verse 19 and 20. Maybe this will be familiar to you. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. God, I want you to build my house.

What's my house? It's people coming to God. So it's disciples. What's the purpose of the church together is to make disciples of Jesus Christ who have a heart for God, heart for each other and heart for our world. We got it all over the walls out there in the lobby.

And how do we do it? We go out and we go out and then we bring them in. Then we build them up. We go, we baptize them in the name of the Father and the Holy and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we begin to bring them up.

And so I see something here. Do you see it there in verse seven that go, bring, build. That's what it was for the temple. But now it's go, baptize, teach. But it's very similar Church.

How are we doing on that?

That's what he's called us to and we are the church. So church, it's time to get out of our comfort zone and to surrender our time, our talent and our treasure to him and to get busy on his house. And then he'll take care of our house. That's the first step to bringing our lives into alignment with God's purpose. By living to please him, does your life please him?

And does our church please Him?

Number two. Here's the second step. By working for God's glory, by living to please him, and then by working for his glory. Look at verse eight again. Go, bring.

Build. Why, Lord? Why? And there's two purpose clauses that. That signals the purpose clause.

The first one. I may take pleasure. We already talked about that. And that I may be glorified, says the Lord. Oh.

Oh. He wants us to live in such a way that he gets the credit. Now, if you live according to your own strength, you might get a little credit, depending on how talented you are. But for him to get the credit means you're living beyond yourself. You've surrendered your life in such a way that the only way anybody can understand it is saying God's.

He's blessed you, so he gets the credit. And that's. Isn't that why he made us? Isn't that his purpose? That he would take pleasure in us and that.

That we would bring him glory? That when people see the evidence of our lives, they would give glory to God rather than man? That's what he says. The reason I want you to build my house and to put me first is that I may be glorified. The word glory in Hebrew is kabod.

It means heavy. It means glorious, weighty. If you'll remember, in the Bible, whenever someone named their child Ichabod. Ichabod. It means the glory has departed.

No glory. Kabod. It's glory. I try to think of what glory is. It's like the sun shining the glory of the sun.

It's like the beauty of something. The glory of a woman is her beauty, not just her outward appearance, but the character. Glory is hard to define. In the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the very first question it asks is, what is the chief end of man? And the answer is, man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

That's why we were made. Back in Genesis, chapter one, let us make man in our image, male and female. He made them. So we were made to be the imago DEI in the image of God. And like the moon, which has no source of life, of light as its own, it only reflects the light of the sun onto the dark earth.

And so it provides light at night, but only because it reflects the light of the sun. And in the same way we are to reflect the glory of the Son Jesus Christ to a dark world, we are to be the imago DEI glorifying him.

But you haven't been in fact what you've been doing. Verse 9. You looked for much, you looked for your own glory. And behold, it came to little. It's funny when you, when you lift up yourself, you become an opponent of God.

When you lift up yourself, he as he humbles you. But when you, when you humble yourself to the Lord, he lifts you up. And this is not just true before the Lord, it's true in relationships. You know, that person who has to get the credit, the glory hog, you know, like me, me, look at me, look what I did. Like that all the time.

And often that's revealing of a self esteem problem. And so they, maybe somewhere when they were growing up, they didn't get credit from their mom or dad or whatever, but they, they're just be me, me all the time. And instead of getting their needs met of somebody going, hey, you did a great job. They've been patting themselves on the back so much, they never, they just keep on being in need. They wanted much and it came to little.

It backfires when you glorify yourself. And when you brought it home, what little bit you did finally get, God says I blew it away. Why would he do that? Well, he anticipates that question. He says, why?

Let me tell you why, declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins while each of you busies himself with his own house. You've been putting your house ahead of my house. You've been busy for yourself. Instead of being busy for my kingdom, which I've called you to, I made you because it gave me great pleasure to make you.

And I made you that you would reflect my glory, that you would be the image of God on planet earth, and that you could be the object of my love and my blessing. Instead you've rejected that and found that I'm going to seek my own stuff, my own house, my own glory.

He's so gentle with it though. He says, consider your ways. The reason I'm making it a little harder on you right here is to get you to wake up so you'll come to your senses. God's reasoning with us. He's so patient with us.

The Lord of hosts stoops down and reasons with us. That's what he's doing. Why did God make us? Isaiah declares this. Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory.

It was I who created them, made you for myself that it would please me. I made you for my glory. That's your identity. That's your true identity. That's your purpose.

Paul talks about it in Colossians chapter three. He says, whatever you do, work at it heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. So whether you work at the bank or work in a factory, or are self employed, you teach school, whatever it is you do, your employer is Jesus Christ. Whoever you're working for that checks actually coming from heaven through them to you.

And so when you work for them, sign your work with the name of Jesus as if he did it so he gets the glory. Like that. Work for him and trust him. That's what Paul says. You exist, so work with all your heart for the Lord, not for men.

You're not working for the Plaza, man. Have you ever heard this quote, it's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit. Ever heard that the greatest team players, the greatest leaders, are the ones who give credit to God and credit to the team rather than being glory hogs and taking it themselves. You know that person, if you don't, it might be you that, that has to have the glory. We're in the NFL playoffs right now, football playoffs, and there's always that player.

And maybe some of you are thinking of a player like that in the NFL who, who? He goes. He goes in the first part of the draft and great expectations. He was a great college player. And he arrives at the team and he's already blinged out, man.

He's already famous on Facebook and everything. He's making a lot of side money because he's got a lot of potential. And sure enough, he scores. But he always takes the credit. And he becomes a problem in the locker room because he's not a team player.

He always takes the glory and he's always throwing his helmet and stuff if things don't go right and he blames it on them. And before you know it, he's only there for a couple of seasons. And even though the coach and the owner and all like, he's got so much potential and he's so talented, but man, he is. He's like poison to the team. So they, they trade him.

Then another coach thinks, maybe we can Straighten him out and they take him. And before you know it, he's played for six teams and now he's still got game, but nobody wants him. That's a story that repeats itself over and over again, not just in the NFL, but in life. It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't take the credit. If you'll let somebody else take the credit.

Consider your ways. Do you live and work for God's glory or are you a glory hog? You want the credit? You want the applause? What would it look like for you to start living and working, giving all the glory to Jesus so that we make Jesus famous and church?

May I say this to you? I don't want to be famous. I don't want Eastgate to be famous. I want Jesus to be famous. And I know it's important for you to invite people to church.

I want you to invite people to church. But I want you to have as your first thought, I'm inviting them to Jesus. The church, well, that's us. We're going to work together bringing them to Jesus. And we're a team.

But let's invite them to Jesus first. Let's be busy about going out, bringing in and building up, using Haggai's way of talking about how to build the church, how to build the temple, go out, bring in, build up, like that. And so we want to make Jesus famous. That's one of the reasons that our church and myself personally have formed a group in Wilson called Christ Together Wilson. And so it's a group of pastors and churches that have agreed we want to collaborate for Jesus in our city so that revival breaks out.

And not to make Eastgate church famous or I could name so many other churches that we're collaborating with, but to make him famous in our city. So even you know, I told you, we're the T shirt church. I've caused a whole bunch of other churches in our town to be T shirt churches too. Because we made these T shirts this past year that just say CT4W CT4W. And you can go to CT4W.org and that's our website that we built for this group, Christ Together for Wilson.

And we all wore those shirts when we were cleaning up schools and doing landscaping and all this because we didn't put Eastgate shirts on. We didn't put Farmington Heights Church or Peace Church or Raleigh Road or all the churches that work together, Redemption Church. We didn't put Wave church. We put CT4W like that, Christ Together for Wilson Why? Because we want to make Jesus famous.

That's what we're praying for, is that God would just cause revival to happen in this city because we want Jesus to get the glory. That's number two. That's the second step. Does your life bring him glory? Here's number three.

By relying on God's provision. By relying on God's provision, verses 10 and 11. Now, in fact, the way I got at this was God had removed his provision. He brought drought. And so the timeless principle I was looking for to help inform our repentance and our action to trust God was to think, well, why did he withdraw his provision?

Because they were no longer relying on him. And so that's where I get this step. By relying on God's provision. They weren't. They weren't putting him first.

They were saying, we'll do it ourselves. And so he says, therefore the heavens have withheld, the earth has withheld, and I have called for a drought. And he names all the areas which pretty much covers everything. And the word drought is the same Hebrew word as the word ruins that you see back there in verse nine when he says, my house lies in ruins. He says, you've caused a drought in my house.

So I caused a drought in your house. You've caused my house to lie in ruins, and now your house is being ruined for it. And it's because you're not living according to the reason, the purpose that I made you for. You're living for your own purpose. You're trying to make yourself famous.

You're trying to make your house famous rather than honoring me and making me and lifting me up. You're not living out your life's purpose. And if you will, if you'll live according to your purpose, then you'll learn to rely on my provision. You'll trust that all things come from the Lord. Look what Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew, chapter six. Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need if you'll put his house first, his kingdom first. He'll take care of your house. He'll take care of you. It's upside down thinking for the world, but it's right side up thinking in the kingdom of heaven.

Look what Paul says about this kingdom principle of sowing and reaping. He writes to the church at Corinth in his second letter. Remember this, A farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. That makes sense. But the one who plants generously will get A generous crop.

You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves a person who gives cheerfully. I like the Greek word under the word cheerfully. It's hilosmos.

It's the root from which we get the English word hilarious. God loves it when you give until it cracks you up when you give hilariously. And God will generously provide all you need, then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. For years, I've referred to this as the art of flow. The art of generosity is to let God flow to you and through you to others.

And so it looks like this. You've seen me do this church so many times, right? One hand open to God. No longer shaking your fist at God, but relying on God for all that you need. And so now his grace, his blessing begins to flow to you.

Because you're depending on Him. You're putting him first. But then there could be another problem in the flow. You could dam it up downstream. It could be here.

You're not relying on God. Open that up now. Start relying on God. But now it could be here. Because instead of being a river, you become a reservoir.

If you dam that up, you close this hand, he can't flow to you anymore because you're a reservoir now. He can't trust you to be a giver, because God is a giver. For God so loved the world that He. For God so loved the world that He. Right?

And so he wants you to be a giver because you're his child. And so you live a life of the open hand. One hand open to God, one hand open to others, so that your generosity flows to you and through you. And it proves that you're a child of God, that you're living that way, which is alien to the world. And so you're trusting him for provision.

And you've considered your ways. And so you give sacrificially. You give hilariously, but not under pressure. Not because the preacher pressured you. And I'm not pressuring you.

I'm discipling and teaching. And then I'm asking the Holy Spirit to help you consider your ways. And we're going on a journey together, talking about how to live the life of generosity. And the truth is that we're really informed by about two possible mindsets. And.

And I'm kind of visualizing now a highway called generosity, a highway called love. Because love is generous. And then this ditch is fear of not having enough which is the scarcity mindset and thinking, there's not enough, I won't have enough. If I give, I won't have enough. And that's usually informed by something that happened to you in your experience in the past where you grew up without much or you had a season where you were bankrupt or whatever.

And instead of trusting God, you're, you're stuck with that, with that mentality that keeps you from being faithful. Then the other ditch is really the American materialism mentality, which is the. The Bible calls it greed. You never have enough, no matter how, because you're trying to please yourself and thinking more, more, more. And then God's word says you look for much, and behold, it came to little, it never satisfied.

You know why? Because you were built for something better. You were made to live on the highway of generosity, staying out of those two ditches. That's what God's really calling us to church. Be a generous church, a generous people.

And it's going to mean that we're ready to follow God's purpose for our lives and to bring people that are far from God to go out, bring in and build up. It may look like you talking about Jesus more at the workplace or in your neighborhood. It may look like volunteering to serve the Lord more in his church or in some other nonprofit in the city. It may look like you giving more generously than you've ever given in your whole life life and really trusting him with your finances. It may be that you've made a decision to make a gift that actually scares you a little bit because you're still trying to pull yourself out of the fear ditch.

And so on this journey, I want you to keep tithing and bringing your offerings as is your pattern church. You're a generous church already, but I want to challenge you to be more generous than you've ever been before by going on this journey together. Then on February 16th, we're going to ask you to make a commitment that's above and beyond your normal giving, where you're asking God, take me somewhere I've never been, that I have to rely on your provision in order to accomplish the number that you've put in my heart to give towards reaching more people, bringing them in and building them up. I want to be part of a church that does that and I'm willing to trust you for it. Now, at first service, I had a young lady come up to me and she said, I've been listening to you, Pastor, and I've been reading the journal and I've been praying, lord, what do you want to do in me and through me?

And I was asking him to tell me and my husband, what's the number we're going to commit to God on February 16th? Because I've been telling people, don't turn in money right now. Just be praying about what God wants to do to stretch you. And she said, I was praying that on Friday night. And she said, Saturday morning I got a call from my boss.

He doesn't call on Saturday. Kind of scared me. Called me on Saturday and said, hey, I just wanted you to know when you get your paycheck starting this month, there's going to be an extra stipend in your paycheck for this reason. He explained it to her, and she hung up the phone and she went, was that you, God? And she believes it was.

And she got tears in her eyes, and so did I a little bit, because she put herself out there and said, God, would you tell me? And he went ahead and made her boss call her the next morning. I believe that. And she's like, oh, so you can do that kind of stuff, God, you mean we can go on a journey together and you'll blow me away with your provision if I will just open this other hand up. That was this morning.

I believe over the next few weeks I'm just going to keep hearing stories like that because I believe that you're a generous church and you trust in a generous God. And then we're going to sow generously that we might reap generously. I want you to take your time. It might feel like a wrestling match trying to get out of those two ditches. You know, if your car gets a wheel over one of them ditches, man, it's hard to get it out of the ditch.

But it might feel like a wrestling match. But please, go ahead and wrestle spiritually about this and ask God what he wants you to do. Go on the journey. Don't count yourself out. And I think God's inviting us to test his provision in this.

You might think you're not supposed to test God. Well, there's one place where he does invite you to test him. It's Malachi, chapter three. He says, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

It's the one place I can think of where God says, go ahead, try me in this. Give me a try, trust me. Bring it into the storehouse. Be generous with my house and I'll be generous with your house. That's why we're doing this spiritual journey together.

Will you keep coming on Sunday? Will you keep engaging in this journey? Will you do the daily devotions Monday through Friday every week for the next few weeks? I encourage you to get in a community group and ask your questions in that group and talk them out. Pray the prayer, lord, what do you want to do in me and through me?

And then on commitment. Sunday, February 16th. Be ready by faith to make a sacrificial, hilarious three year commitment to give above and beyond your normal giving and watch what God does. We'll have a celebration and we're praying that God will Trust us with $1.5 million in order to really get serious about reaching our region for Jesus. But whatever the number ends up being the commitment, we can pray for a number, but whatever God does, we're going to celebrate.

If he does more than that, we're going to celebrate. If it's a little less than that, we're going to celebrate because we will have gone on the journey together. There's no pressure, not any pressure here. God's the one that's under pressure and I don't think he ever feels pressure. We're saying, God, you said this, so we're going to try what you said.

That's what we're doing. We're created as his image bearers. We were made for a purpose. We have an identity. He made us for his pleasure and he created us for his glory.

Will you decide today to bring your life into alignment so that you please God, you give him glory and you trust his provision? Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for this little book of Haggai that has big, big challenges for us. Lord, I pray for that person that's here today that's never given their life to you.

They're still today they would admit, lord, I've been living for myself. Is that you? The Bible calls that an attitude of sin, selfishness, doing things your way rather than God's way. Is that you. Would you repent right now and say, lord, I repent of my sin and I turn to you.

I believe that you died on the cross for me, Jesus, that you were raised from the grave. I believe that. Would you come into my life, forgive me of my sin, make me a child of God? I want to follow you as my Lord and Savior. If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing he'll save you, others are here.

And you're a follower of Jesus. But you struggle with this spiritual discipline of generosity. You struggle with it. You struggle with trusting God for provision, and you struggle with generosity, right today. Would you make a decision today, say, God, I want to go on this journey.

I want you to teach me how to move, to be a giver, to be generous. I want to be known as a giver. We pray it now in Jesus name, Amen.