It’s Time to Worship With a Right Heart
It's Time February 16, 2025 Haggai 2:10-17 Notes
God cautions His people to understand that worshiping God, both giving and serving, must come from a heart that is pure and devoted to Him, not just outward religious activity. God cares more about the attitude of our hearts than the amount of our giving. He cares more about our motive than our money. He desires that we worship with a right heart.
In Haggai 2:10-17, God told the prophet Haggai to help the Israelites to understand that what really matters to God is that they worship Him with a right heart.
Audio
The title of today's sermon is, “It's Time to Worship with a Right Heart.” God really cares about your heart. Here's our theme. It comes from Haggai, chapter one and two.
Haggai 1:2; 2:4-5 (ESV) “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.” That's been our theme.
It's time to be strong, do the work and to be fearless. Last week in our sermon we said, ‘Okay, that's our part, but that still doesn't determine the results. Who's in charge of the results?’ We're going to be strong, do the work and be fearless.
God's in charge of the results. That's what we talked about last week. But now this week in Haggai, God starts saying, ‘Before you keep working, before you move any further, I want you to take a time out and examine your hearts. I want you to back up a little bit before you make this commitment and check if your heart is right, because if your heart's not right, your worship won't be right.
God cares more about your attitude than He does the amount. He cares more about your motive than He does your money. He cares more about the attitude of your heart than He does the amount of your gift. So, as you're thinking about your time, your talent, your treasure and how you want to serve God with it and you want to worship God with it, know this: man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.
God wants right hearted worship. That's what we're talking about today in the book of Haggai. That's what we're talking about. Now, what are some wrong hearted ways we might worship? What are some wrong hearted ways?
Let me give you some examples. What are some wrong hearted ways that we could worship in serving or in giving? Here's one: Giving to impress others. That's wrong hearted worship.
Giving to impress others. Giving out of the idea that I'm going to make this donation for public recognition because I want to look good. I want the applause of men. That's wrong hearted worship.
Here's another one:. Serving or worshiping out of guilt. Well, the pastor just finally guilted me into it or such and such just made me feel bad. Everybody else is on board if I don't get on board. Your motive is not joy, it's not generosity, it's guilt.
You're giving out of guilt rather than love and gratitude. Here's another wrong hearted way: you could give with an expectation of return, giving with expectation. I'm giving so I can get; I'm giving to get. Like God is some kind of heavenly slot machine or something. If I put a gift in, maybe something will come out. I'll win a jackpot from God. That's wrong hearted worship; half hearted worship rather than wholehearted worship.
That's lukewarm worship, selective obedience. I serve over here so I don't have to give. Or the opposite, I'm a big giver so now I don't have to do anything. That's selective obedience and that's half hearted worship too. We're called to give all that we are, to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God, which is our spiritual worship acceptable unto God. How are you doing today?
Is your heart right with God? That's what we're talking about today. In Haggai, chapter 2, verses 10 through 17, God told the prophet Haggai to help the Israelites understand that what really matters to God is that they worship Him with a right heart and I believe today we can understand that God cares.
It matters to Him that we worship Him with a right heart. As we look at the text, we'll see three reasons why. Let's look at it. We'll read it and then we'll talk about it. Haggai 2:10-17 (ESV) 10 “On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet,
11 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: 12 ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” The priests answered and said, “No.” 13 Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?”
The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.” 14 Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. 15 Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, 16 how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten.
When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. 17 I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord.” This is God's word. We're looking for three reasons why worshiping with a right heart matters to God. Here's the first reason:
1. Because true worship comes from a clean heart.
True worship comes from a clean heart. Now, these early verses have an Old Testament law kind of question for the priest. It's kind of confusing upon first reading, but I would just have you take note of a couple of things. God asks three questions through the prophet Haggai to the people here.
Three questions. Whenever God starts asking questions, He's trying to get at your heart. Questions are really a tool to try to get at the heart of the issue. So, in this passage, God makes some declarations, but He preempts them with questions in order to get them to engage their heart. Instead of just coming out and saying, boom, boom, boom, He gives you some examples to think about by asking these questions.
You'll notice that the word “unclean” is in this passage four times. He has a concern about hard issues here. He's not concerned so much now about their offering and their work. He's more concerned about the condition of their heart. He wants them to have a clean heart, then their worship will be clean.
He wants them to have a right heart, and then their worship will be right. Well, let's deal with some preliminary issues and then we'll dig in deeper. Verse 10, as I've said before, Haggai is a really good diary keeper. He puts the date when he hears a word from the Lord, he enters a date and he now gives us the date.
The 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of King Darius. Now, king Darius is in his second year as the king over Persia. Jerusalem and Judah are now under Persian rule, so, he's dating it by the Persian calendar in terms of the year, the second year of king Darius. They didn't have the Gregorian calendar that we have today that's based on the life of Jesus, that it's now 2025 AD which is numbered Anno Domini, the year of our Lord.
So that's how we keep an annual calendar. Now, in those days, whoever your king was, that was the year of how long he'd been king. So it's in the second year of king Darius. Then, they used the Hebrew calendar for the month, the 24th day of the ninth month, which in the Hebrew calendar, that's the month of Kislev, which would, in terms of the Gregorian calendar be like November or December, thereabouts.
Okay. This is about two months after the previous diary entry that he had made in chapter two. Those are some preliminary issues, just moving through the text here.He says it was on that day, the 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius, that the word of the Lord came to him.
I love that. ‘I remember the day that that happened,’ he says. The Lord spoke to me and He had me bring some priests in and ask them some legal questions from the Torah, from the law, from the books of Moses. You priests, you're supposed to be experts at this stuff, so I have some questions for you.
So, he begins to ask them these questions. The word for priest, in Hebrew, is kōhēn. If you know somebody whose last name is Cohen, they're probably Jewish. Their last name means priest. They may even follow their family history all the way back to the Levitical priesthood. kōhēn is the priestly word here in Hebrew.
Go to the kōhēn and ask this question. He has a very particular question. Let's see if I've got something I can use. Here we go. In verse 12, ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” If you have a piece of meat that's holy because it's been on the altar and you put it in the fold of your garment and then the fold of your garment later touches this, is this holy?
The priests said, “no.” So, if this holy piece of meat touches your garment, your garment is holy. But if the fold of it touches something else, it doesn't transmit. It doesn't transfer, because holiness must come in order for you to become holy.
We learned this from the Levitical law: you have to come into primary contact with the holy. So that was the nature of the first legal question to the priests who were to be the teachers in Israel. But then, the follow up question was in verse 13, Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” Okay, this is holy because it had something holy in it and it touches up against a dead body, will it become unholy? And they said, “It does become unclean.”
So here's the thing about unholiness or defilement. It's catching. Holiness is not catching. In order to become holy, you have to come into contact with that which is holy. You have to have primary contact.
But unholiness, uncleanness is catching. It's viral. And so, if this touches that, and that touches this, and this touches that, every bit of it's unclean according to Levitical law. Now, why is he asking these questions?
That's his first two questions. Here we are in the book of Haggai, and Haggai's got this really legal thing. But then, God “lands the plane” in verse 14, Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean.” Because you have unclean hearts.
He says to his people. He says, ‘Okay, you've gone back to work on the temple. That's a good thing. But the thing I want you to know is every stone you lay has been touched with unclean hands.
Every work that you've done and every offering you've brought has come out of an unclean heart. Therefore, your worship is unacceptable, because I care more about the attitude of your heart than I do the amount of your labor or the amount of your gift. I care more about that. I care more about the motive than the money.
I care more about your heart.’ Let me give you a couple of verses to help you work this out. The idea of holiness, of how it can be transferred from the primary holy thing to a secondary thing, Exodus 29:21 (ESV) “Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons' garments with him.
He and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and his sons' garments with him.” So, we can see that when they come into contact with that which is holy, now, their robes are holy. You might be thinking, What does that mean, holy? Just think of it like this:
”Set apart for special use” if you're taking notes. What's one of the best definitions when the Bible's using the word, “holy?” Think of it like this,
“Set apart for special use.” Whose special use? God's. So, when He calls us to be holy, he says, ‘I want your heart to be set apart for me. I want your life, I want all that you are to be set apart for the special use of your Father.
Your life has been set apart for Me.’ That's what holiness really means. We think of it as purity, sinless. Well, we can't do that, can we?
But God can cleanse us of sin, but primarily the sense of it is “set apart for special use.” So now, Aaron, your clothes and your son's garments you can’t wear them out in the marketplace. You only wear them in the temple because they've been made holy.
Do you understand the word, “holy,” a little bit? “Set apart for special use.” Then, he says in Exodus 30:29 (ESV) “You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy.” So, he's talking about how something holy can transfer something and transfer that holiness, but there is no secondary holiness.
It must come into the primary touch of the Holy One. This is what he's teaching, but the point of it is in verse 14. 14 Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean.” David rightly understood this; King David.
writes about it in Psalm 51. David wrote Psalm 51 after he'd been confronted by the prophet Nathan with his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Bathsheba's husband, Uriah the Hittite.
If you really studied those chapters about his adultery with Bathsheba, you could find that David broke seven or eight of the Ten Commandments in one chapter.
David wrote Psalm 51 after Nathan confronted him. Because when Nathan confronted him, he said, “I have sinned,” and he wrote this. He recognized something. In Psalm 51:10 (ESV) “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
I know I'm dirty on the inside.
The Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart. He wasn't talking about whether he was sinful or not, because he was sinful. But David was the kind of man that understood he had a heart problem and so he said, ‘God, clean my heart.
Only you can clean my heart. I can't clean it. My heart is filthy. Clean my heart and make me right with You.’ When Jesus encountered the Pharisees, who were known for their outward religiosity and because they had read in the
law that they were to have it on their hands and upon their foreheads, they took it literally. They made these little leather boxes that had little miniature Torahs in them. They would strap them on their hands, on their wrists and they would have the strap around their arm. Then they would tie it on their head. They wanted everybody to know, we are under the law and we're taking it literally. They were very religious about a lot of things
outwardly. Here's what Jesus said to them in Matthew 23:25-27 (ESV) 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.”
Only God can clean the heart. He was trying to wake them up; He hit them hard there. He's trying to wake them up. If you went to a restaurant and the waiter brought out a tray of all of your drinks and passed all the drinks around, they looked really good on the outside. But as you picked yours up and you got ready to take a drink, there was a fly floating in your cup.
Would you go, gulp, gulp, gulp. It's protein. No, you ask the waiter to come back. Oh, I'm so sorry, sir.
It wouldn't matter how clean the outside of the cup was if there was a fly floating in your glass, right? Here's what God is saying to the people of Israel, and perhaps he's saying to us today, ‘Your worship means nothing to me if your heart's dirty. Come to me and pray like David did.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.’ God rebuked the people of Israel. They were rebuilding the temple, but their works and offerings were defiled because of their unclean hearts. Don't assume that church attendance, giving to the church, making a commitment or coming and taking the Lord's supper, any of these outward things can cleanse your heart, because they can't.
All of these things are good things if they come from a clean heart. But if they come from an unclean heart, they are defiled, meaningless and without value. Only God can clean the heart. You must come into contact with the Holy One in order to have a clean heart.
Parents, you can't make your children holy. It's a humbling thing being a parent. You can pray for them, you can teach them, but only Jesus can change their heart, Amen? You can't do it for somebody else.
Only you can come to Jesus and say, “Touch my heart, cleanse my heart and create in me a clean heart.” Here's the second reason. The first reason is because he wants us to have a clean heart. Here's the second:
2. Because true worship comes from a confessing heart.
True worship comes from a confessing heart. We're going to look at verses 15 and 16 now. 15 “Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, 16 how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty.” Now then consider, from this day onward, okay, because of what I'm asking you right now and now what I'm teaching you. I want you, from this day forward, to think differently. I want you to have a considering heart, a quick to confess heart.
15 “Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, 16 how did you fare?” That's his third question. Remember what I told you about God asking questions? When he's asking questions, he's always trying to get at hard issues.
How did you fare? Then, he brings up some things that have happened. We talked about it in chapter one. He brings up some things. When you came to a heap, kind of like a heap of grain or whatever and you tried to bring out 20 measures and you tried to get home with it and there were only 10.
Remember when that happened? When you tried to get some wine out of the vat and you were trying to get 50 measures and you got home with it and there were only 20, do you remember that happened? Did you ever consider why that was happening? That's what He's asking. Have you ever thought about that?
Did you ever consider, were you ever humble enough to ask the Lord, “Lord, what's going on right now?” You might be going, I don't know if that speaks to me or not. Well, let me ask you this, “Do you remember when eggs started being seven or eight dollars for a dozen?”
Do you remember when that happened? Think about that. Do you remember when a dollar started being worth 50 cents? Actually, I think a dollar, since the 1960s, is now worth 25 cents. I think that's what I read.
Did you know they're eliminating the penny? By the way, it takes three and a half cents for the US Mint to produce a penny. So, every penny costs three and a half cents to make. And so they're looking at eliminating the penny.
There is going to be a run on pennies. Right now, people are going to be saving pennies, but you won't be able to spend them. Times are changing. Do you ever ask, “What's going on, Lord? Lord, have we sinned?
Have we sinned as Americans? Have we sinned as a nation? Have we sinned as a church? Have we sinned as a people? Have we sinned as a family? Lord, wait a minute,
have I sinned.” See, that's a confessing heart that's willing to call a sin a sin. That's really what confession means. The word, “confession,” in the Bible means “to say the same word” or “to say the same thing” or “to agree with God.” So, God calls it a sin.
Don't call it a mistake. God calls it a sin. Don't call it a bad habit, call it a sin. What is a sin? It's an offense to God.
It's an offense to His Holiness. I hadn't hurt anybody. You've offended God, and He made you. By the way, you're lying to yourself because you live in a community, you live in a family. When you sin, that sin always breaks out and hurts other people.
It always does. It might start out secret, but it always breaks out and it hurts everybody around you. A confessing heart says, “I agree with you, God. I'm a sinner.
Save me.
Save me from this wretched heart. I confess.” That’s a humble heart. This is why David writes in Psalm 66:18 (NLT) “If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” It's not that God chooses to close his ears to certain prayers. It's that He just can't deal with fake prayers, hypocritical prayers.
When you're talking to Him, God, I want this. I need this. I don't know why all this is going wrong. I don't know why eggs are $7. I can't hardly pay for groceries right now.
The whole time, you're never even talking to Him about your heart and saying, “God, what's going on in me?” A humble heart, a confessing heart, is always quick to find out how they're doing with the Father. I remember when I was growing up. It didn't make sense to me at the time. When I was a little boy, I'd hear the old preacher say, “Beloved, keep short accounts with God.”
”Beloved, keep short accounts with God.” I'd always wonder, what are short accounts with God? What that means is now, you don't have to wait and accumulate a whole week's worth of sin before you talk to God about it. I think you ought to do it like breathing, ‘Lord, did I just sin against You? I need to exhale that.
I need to confess that.’ Breathe in forgiveness and cleansing. I think you need to be quick about it. Besides, God cares more about your heart than He does your sacrifice or your offering. Do you remember Psalm 51?
That's the Psalm that David wrote after he'd been confronted with his sin with Bathsheba. This is another excerpt of that same psalm. He's speaking to God. Psalm 51:16-17 (NLT) 16 “You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
You do not want a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” Whatever offering you bring, whatever service you bring to God, it matters not if your heart's not right with God. If you want to worship rightly, you have to have the right heart.
The right heart is a clean heart, and the right heart is a confessing heart.
True worshipers confess their sins before God, acknowledging their dependence on His mercy and forgiveness and not only that, for His cleansing. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". I'm glad He's forgiven us, but sometimes I need a fresh cleansing.
I need to get the stain out. We can have a confessing heart. That leads us to the third reason that it matters to God that we have a right heart when we worship:
3. Because true worship comes from a changed heart.
A right heart is a clean heart, a confessing heart. It's a changed heart. We've got one more verse to consider. It's verse 17, “I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord.”
I struck you.
That's what he says. “I struck you.” God, You did what? It was Me; I struck you.
I've been disciplining you; that was Me. That's me and yet you did not turn to Me, declares the Lord. I struck you.
I struck your stuff. I struck your house. I struck your car
and you just kept on going.
The Bible teaches us that the Father will discipline those He loves. If the Father doesn't discipline you, what's the opposite of that? Then, you're not one of His. But if you're one of His, a loving father, even an earthly loving father, will discipline his children. If he doesn't discipline,
the Bible says that he doesn't love them. He will discipline you. Have you been struck by the Lord? Have you been disciplined? Remember what Cindy said earlier.
”I don't like it.”
I don't either. I don't like it either. But He's talking to them about it. I want you to hear something about His discipline. God's discipline is an invitation to worship.
It's not punishment because He doesn't punish. There is no wrath. There's no punishment for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1 says,
"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit". So, if He disciplines you, it's an invitation to get right with Him and to worship Him. To be in right relationship again. When He tells you that it's Him, He has been disciplining
you, but you've been hard hearted and you have not turned back to Him. Now that idea of turn often in the Bible refers to “repentance,” to having a change of heart or a change of mind. In fact, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, is called the Septuagint, and the Jews translated it into Greek. Whenever Greek became the common language of even the Hebrew people, many of them had forgotten how to read and speak in Hebrew. Greek became the lingua franca of the day. So, they wrote the Septuagint.
When you read this same verse 17 in the Septuagint, it says, “Yet you did not repent.”
I struck you and you were hard headed. Now, I don't know if that relates to you, but I remember from an early age that I was like the Israelites. I have a younger brother named Barry. My parents were poets.
He's four years younger than me. It would be discipline time; line up. You're all getting it. My mom kept a “switch.”
Does anyone here know what a “switch” is? It makes it sound like Zorro's sword when it whips through the air. It won't kill you, but it stings. My mom kept it on top of the refrigerator. Its home was on top of the refrigerator.
She would start reaching for the top of the refrigerator and say, “Y'all are going to get a spanking now.” My brother, Barry, would start crying as soon as she reached her hand up there. I always thought he was a wimp, but it turned out as I reflected back on it, that he was wise, because she would just give him a little flick and he would cry.
That's all he got. But I would stand there like a bull and she would switch me. I would not cry because I'm the firstborn.
”I struck you, yet you did not turn to me.” I was born with that kind of heart. I'm thankful that God changed my heart. I've turned into a crybaby for God now. I want to keep short accounts.
I finally understood what that meant. God, don't switch me. Just tell me what it is. I'll fix it. Lord,
I feel like You're taking me through 101 again. I thought I already learned this lesson a couple years ago. What do I need to correct?
Have you got a tender heart towards God that's willing to change? Romans 2:29 (NLT)” … a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.” You have a changed heart.
Romans 12:1 speaks of a transformed heart. Romans 12:1 (NLT) 1 “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship
him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” We can have a changed mind. The Greek word for repentance is “metanoia.”
“Meta” means change. “Noia” means mind, so that we no longer are going in the world's way, the sinful way. Or like they say in the military, “about face.” We go the opposite way.
We have a change of heart and a change of mind. Here's what Jesus said to the church at Laodicea and He says to our church this morning. I believe that He says to those whom I love, I reprove in discipline, so be zealous and repent. To those whom I love, I reprove
and discipline. I correct them and discipline them. God's correction is an invitation to real worship. If He disciplines you, it's not for punishment's sake. It’s not condemnation. It's to get you back right with Him. God is disciplining our hearts today.
He's changing them so that we're more generous like Jesus. For some of you today, as I conclude, this is the most important part. The part about commitment, the part about the Lord's Supper, all the different ways you can respond today, those parts are important. But the part for you today is, has your heart been cleansed? Have you confessed your sins?
Has He transformed and changed your heart so that you have a new heart, following Christ? That's the most important thing I'll teach today and for you, that's your response today. Would you respond to Jesus, because unless you come in contact with the Holy One, there's no holiness for you.
Do you remember the story where the leper came to Jesus and he said, “Lord, if you're willing, you could heal me” and the Lord said, “I am willing” and He touched him and made him whole. According to the law, if He touches something unclean and a leper's unclean,
the uncleanness will pass to Him and make Him unclean. But Jesus came in grace. Jesus is the Holy One. He's the source of all holiness. He came as the Son of God.
When He touched the leper, holiness passed to him and made him whole. The leper came into primary contact with the Holy One; He touched him and made him whole. Remember about the woman who had had a bloody show for twelve years? She'd spent all of her wealth on going to doctors and couldn't get healed. She couldn't go to the temple because it was against the Levitical law for her to go to the temple. Because of her blood, she couldn't have a husband, really, because that was against the Levitical law too, because of her constant bleeding.
She never stopped bleeding. So, she decided to do something that she knew better, but she thought, what if He is the Son of God? What if I just touched the hem of His garment?
Would that make me whole? Can you see her getting down on her face and on her knees in the crowd, looking for the precise moment and reaching out and grabbing the hem of His garment, knowing that was against the law? It would make Him unclean for her to do it. But that's not what happened. Jesus said, “Somebody touched me.”
One of the disciples, probably Peter, said, “Lord, You're in a crowd. Everybody's touching you.” Jesus says, “No. I felt essence pass from Me. I felt power
pass from Me.” He turns and He looks right at her. She says, “Lord” and He says, “Daughter, you're healed.” Do you know why?
It is because when the unholy touches Him, His holiness passes to them. Whether you touch the hem of His garment or whether He touches you, if you come into contact with the primary one, the Holy One and you say, ‘Would you clean my heart? I confess my sins to you. Would you change me?
Are you willing to do that?’ He says, “I am willing’ and He will touch you. This is the most important thing you'll hear today, my friend, if you're in a place where you need a touch of Jesus. But if Jesus has already touched your heart, then I would ask you to consider all the things He's calling you to. Can you offer it now with a right heart?
Can you offer right worship with a right heart that's been cleansed, that you've confessed your sin? He's changed you now. You can bring your worship, you can bring your commitments, you can bring all that you are, with joyful worship. May it be so today. Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, we just lift up, first of all, that person who came in today. You need the Lord; you need a touch from Jesus. Is that you? Would you pray with me right where you're at, right in your seat right now? Pray like this.
“Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I confess it. I agree with You. I've fallen short of Your glory. But I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me and that He was raised from the grave and that He lives today.
Today, I ask Him to forgive me of my sins and come into my heart. Change my heart, move into my life, make me a child of God. I believe in You as my Lord and Savior.” If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, Jesus will save you. He is willing to touch your life. Others are here today and you've prayed and you've believed. You're a Christ follower, but you've been struggling.
You've let the account run long. Even this series that we've been through has bothered you. It always bothers you when we talk about giving. Is there a broken place inside of you? Is there a stronghold, something that causes you to be afraid or angry, nervous about generosity?
Lord, right now we just lift that to You. Would You begin to break strongholds? Would You begin to help us, to have the joyful heart of generosity that comes from Jesus? Would You cleanse our hearts, so that the work of our hands and the offerings of our hearts would be acceptable to You? In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Audio
Good morning, church. It's good to see all of you this morning. If the Moores will come up and join me. Got one more interview this morning. It is Commitment Sunday here at Eastgate Rocky Mount.
And we're so thankful that you're here and that you brave the high wind. It's like a crazy day out there, warm but windy. Y'all gotta share, alright. Gotta be friends if it's on. Is it on test?
Yeah. There we go. There we go. So everybody, this is Joseph and Amber Moore. If you haven't met them, I don't know what's happened.
But try to meet them before the day's out if you can. But I've been bringing up people for a few weeks now and I'm just trying to encourage you more than anything, just encourage you that we're all in this together and we're trying to figure out what God wants from us. We're all asking the same thing of the Lord, Very simply, lord, what do you want to do in and through me? That's all. And whatever he says from that, you do that, you know, what I tell you or what anybody else tells you is pale in comparison to what Christ is called called you to.
And so whatever he's calling you to, please do that. But hopefully this, this brief story together will encourage you some. So simply, I just want to ask y'all two questions. And the first is, what is it that you're trying to do over the next three years? Maybe something more to try to make a sacrifice for the Lord in this way.
For those that do know us, many of you do know us. In here we are a single income family. Everybody's story is different. I, I do, I say we're a single income family. I do coach high school soccer.
But anybody who's done any type of coaching understands that I might as well be paying to coach soccer. So what we're trying to do is if anybody, those of you that came to the other location night that we had there and we took little pictures and we wrote down something. What I wrote was intentional leadership. But the main portion of that is intentional. And so I'm very analytical, I'm very detailed.
We're a single income family, so we know where the money's going. We pay our tithe, we pay our bills, and if we have a little bit extra left over, we'll do whatever we can with it. Trying to be intentional about where that money goes. The second song we sang said seek first the kingdom of God. And so being intentional in what are we doing with that money?
Yeah. How are we being stewards of that income? And so that's being intentional about where that money is going. Doing like a zero based budget so that we know where every single penny is going. Yeah.
Can't add much more than that. But just to give some specific examples, we've gotten a little lazy in our budgeting and just thinking about that extra. Where does it intentionally need to go? We're generous people, but thinking about each month we want to have those reserves because we don't know what opportunities will come up to give. And just one example.
If y'all know Samantha, you know she's creative. We were talking just this morning about cutting our own hair. That might sound crazy. That's not for everyone. But these things add up.
I mean, it can cost $100, which is ridiculous, to get your hair cut every month. And my daughter's very creative. She's shown some interest in the hair and the makeup and all that. Hey, what's the worst that can happen? We're gonna.
So if you see us looking silly around here, we can always get it fixed. But just trying to. I mean, those dollars do add up. So just trying to think of examples like that. So if y'all see any of the Moore family looking curious.
Well, speaking of curious, if you see Samantha today, just look at her neck. Did she already do a little work? She's got a neck tattoo. Oh, well, all right. Cool, cool.
If you see them looking curious though, just say, man, you look great today. Just know that the Lord asked them to do some stuff. It's uncomfortable sometimes. Well, just a follow up question, and you may not have much to add to this, but is the Lord calling you to any kinds of sacrifice as far as things you're trying to cut, things you're trying to do less of, anything specific that you're trying to sacrifice? Again, it goes back to being intentional.
We all have our vices. We're all individual people. We're all not called to be the finger. I'm the one. Give me a little bit of grace.
I don't have many. I don't have many different vices. I love soccer cleats and I'm that guy that loves different smelling soaps. I can get lost in the grocery store. And anyway, that's where my money tends to go, is I'll go to the grocery store, to Target or somewhere, and whatever little extra we have, I will get lost in the soap and the deodorant.
I'll smell all the fresh new scents and Then I will pick one. Yeah, the new thing. And then I'll pick one and buy. So just trying to be intentional about. Okay, I'm not going to spend that extra money.
We have what we need. We serve God, Jehovah, Jireh, the Lord who provides. And we know that he is providing. So be intentional about what we're doing with his money. And so in Matthew, it's the parable of the talents.
And so, you know, you've got to one of the servants, the master gives five, to the other, he gives two, and to the one, he gives one. And oftentimes, when we're looking at that parable, we tend to think about which. Which of the servants we are. And I can tend to be a little bit of a hoarder. Not in just general terms, but, you know, I like to have plenty of food and stuff like that stored up.
And so I can lean towards the one who took the master's money, his talents, and buried them. But if I dig down deeper, where the big sacrifice is, where to being intentional about it is where if I'm being intentional about it, if I'm being serious about it, I don't need to think about which servant I am. I need to think about how many times do I think I'm the master? How many times do I think that it's my money we give to church? And then we could just say, hey, I'm over and done.
I've given my tithe. But being intentional about, like Amber said, what else could we do? What else? What other need could we do? So being intentional to have that money to build up his kingdom, because again, this is temporal.
His kingdom in eternity is forever. So let's build up his kingdom. Yeah. Just a few other examples to give y'all an idea, because each family is different. But I think it's great when you bring the whole family in.
We've had discussions with our whole family, and like, Samantha has said she's gonna give up Disney plus small sacrifice. But that's something that we pay each month. And we talked about, hey, it'll be fun to go see. Can we get DVDs at the library now? I don't know.
We'll have to go old school. And she watches Tangled every night, so I'm sure we can just buy Tangled. So anyway, things like that. And then I love clothes, so I'm gonna try to stay away from the clothes aisle. And just being intentional.
Going out to eat is so expensive. We've talked about being really intentional about, you know, if we're gonna have a date night. It's once a month or once a quarter, and then the rest we can cook at home because I'm a pretty good cook. So there we go. Now, date night once a week.
But going out to own a date once a month. So have a date night. Mary couples, have a date night once a week. All right, y'all, give the Moores a hand. Thank you.
Both of you. Take your chairs, if you don't mind. Be careful with that one. It's. Joe took the easy one and left you with a problem.
He didn't know. It's not his fault. Yeah, married couples do go out on a date, but, you know, you can do that for free. There are things you can do that are free. And sometimes I don't know how it works for you, but you can send your kids upstairs and, you know, threaten them with the fires of hell if they bother you, and it kind of works.
I just thought about this. I've got something here. Christy, at the end of service, don't just close. All right. I got something to do with n.
Yes, it's been a crazy morning, y'all. We've been having a good time up in here. It took us forever to get everything done today. And not. Not anybody's fault.
It was. The Lord had some plan technologically, and I don't know what it was, but he'll tell me later, I hope. But here we are on Commitment Sunday. If you showed up, if you weren't here last week, you didn't see this yet, but if you were here last week, we're gonna put these cards out for the next few weeks because we're asking our people to make a commitment towards what God's doing in our church's life. And this isn't meant to be out of compulsion or out of some kind of push, but out of your prayer and your thought process with the Lord.
Hopefully, if you're prepared today to make a commitment, you've thought about it, you've talked to your family about it, you've prayed about it. I don't want you to feel under compulsion, because God's word speaks against that. And so I want you to feel like you're doing what God's called you to do. You can see there from that, and you can pop this image up that there's a gift guide there that kind of gives you an idea of proportional giving. Been talking about this for several weeks.
We're trying to reach a goal as a whole, as a church between Rocky Mount and Wilson's campuses to reach 1.5 mil. And this is above and beyond your normal giving, but it's based on the principle of not equal gifts, but equal sacrifice. All of us come to the table with very different scenarios. And some of you, like Christy was so sweetly saying, have had a hard year, maybe a hard couple years, but however the Lord is calling you, then just be obedient to him. And so not equal gifts, but equal sacrifice.
And if you're not ready to do this today, that is okay, you know, don't. God says, I'm not interested in a reluctant giver, but a cheerful, generous giver. And so I want you to be prayerful about it and committed and make a three year commitment when you're ready. For those of you not ready today, there's more helps for you. If you didn't get the journey guide yet, get one at the very end.
It kind of talks you through a way in which you might make commitment. But in a few weeks, mark this on your calendars. Church, please, those of you who are committed to our church here, and I know this is maybe all insider talk for some of you today, but I'm going to get to the word of God, don't you worry. But mark this on your calendars on Sunday, March 2nd is celebration Sunday. I hope everybody can be there.
We're going to goof off and have a good time. We're going to preach, but we're also going to celebrate whatever God does in our church's life. And so I don't know if you've ever read this before. I'm about to report a number to you that we've taken up already over the last week. There's a story in the Bible about King David and his leaders getting together and bringing their gifts before the people prior to ever asking them for anything.
That there's a habit, if you will, in scripture that the leaders give first and that that sets the tone for for the people of God. And so this is in 1st Chronicles 29, it says, David the king said to all the assembly, I have provided for the house of my God so far as I was able. The gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, the bronze for the things of bronze. Then the leaders of fathers houses made their freewill offerings, as did also the leaders of the tribes, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officers over the king's work they gave for the service of the house of God. Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord.
David the king also rejoiced greatly. That was the habit of the people. They were bringing their offerings in to begin the project of the temple of God, the house of God. And the leaders gave first and the leaders gave the most. That's what the leaders have been doing for the last week or so at our campus, too.
And with a whole heart we pray that they've freely given to the Lord. Y'all want to know what's been pledged so far? I hope so. You can go ahead and pop that up. So far, we have pledged 777k between our two campuses.
So we're past halfway already. I hope that encourages you. Let's rejoice in the Lord for what's already happened. Amen. Hallelujah.
God is already working and he has a plan for every dime. I hope that that giving testimony and that report and all these resources encourages you. And that's really the topic of today, is how to have a wholehearted worship. It says the people wholeheartedly worshiped and gave freely. That's the goal today, too, is that you would make a commitment in your life wholeheartedly.
I'm not just talking about financially. That would be a very small matter to God. The bigger matter to God is what are you up to in here? He wants to know, do you know him and do you serve him with all of your being? The other stuff will follow and it won't be that hard to do.
But if you try to do those things just by obedience and just pushing yourself, without a true heart change, it will be miserable. So today I hope you'll be encouraged to hear we're digging into the book of Haggai. This title it's time to worship with a Right heart. I want to remind you of the theme verse for our series, it's in Haggai, chapter one. It says, 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. Now, last week we learned that when we do our part, which is in Haggai, it's be strong, do the work and be fearless.
That's what he calls them to. That when the people do their part, God does his part, that he determines the end result, that that's all God's business. Now this week God is cautioning his people. And this is the timeless principle. I'm convinced this is a timeless principle that God wants his People to worship him with a pure heart, a whole heart, a true heart of worship, not under some kind of compulsion, not out of some kind of false obedience.
God cares more about the attitude of your heart than he ever cares about what you can do or what you can give. He cares about what's really going on in here. Who do you say that I am? Who do you think that I am? And how will you respond with all of your being?
He cares more about our motives than our money. It's always going to be true. It always has been true. So what are some of the ways, as we dig into this text, what are some of the ways that we might be wrong hearted, if you will, in the way we serve or in the way that we give, in the way that we try to honor God? Well, a few, and there could be more.
This is just some that I came up with. You may be giving to impress others. You may be giving to impress others. When someone donates to something, the church or some other thing for public recognition rather than God's, this is why I'm always a little bit hesitant to give. Like our church could do these kinds of billboards and things like this at sporting events.
And I think maybe we should, you know, maybe there's some, some opportunities for that. But when we give personally and I want my name on the board, it just kind of feels weird to me, you know, and with this kind of thing, with what we're doing together here, I got bad news for you. No, I'm not looking through these pledges so that I can give you a high five. I don't want to know. There is one person that has to know, our financial secretary because somebody's got to input the numbers.
All right, but unless you're going around saying, hey, guess what? I gave, no one's going to know. So you're giving. I pray for one, the applause of one. So giving to impress others could be a problem.
Serving or worshiping out of guilt. Giving out of a sense of guilt or pressure rather than love and gratitude. Oh, I pray that our church would serve and would give of themselves out of love for Christ. Not feeling like, oh, this church is asking a lot and I'm scared. No, we don't want anything from you.
We just want to know that you are moving, your heart is moving towards God. I could ask for nothing else than for people to say, I am learning to walk with Christ better here. I pray that happens. The third might be giving with an expectation of return. There's whole denominations of churches that I think are flawed in this particular area.
That giving with the mindset that God now owes me. You know what he owes you? An eternity of separation from Him. That's what he owes you. But instead what he gave you was his Son, Jesus.
And what he's given you is mercy and grace and eternity in store for you when you say yes to Christ. That's what he's given, but he doesn't owe you anything. In fact, the opposite is true. You owe him everything and you could never do enough. And that's kind of the joy it could be.
The joy of walking in Christ is that it's never going to be enough. But I'm just going to hilariously do for him with all of myself, you know, I'm going to give him my very best and see how he responds to that. I just want to hear at the end of the day. I just hope at the end of the day when I get up there, he says, well done, good and faithful servant. I don't need anything else.
I just hope and pray. I get that a fourth might be a half hearted kind of worship giving with just a little piece of you. Okay, I'll kind of do this worship thing on Sundays. But them other six days, y'all watch out. I'm a hellion them other six days.
Yeah, that's some of us. That's most of the church worldwide struggles in this way. At least nationwide, maybe not worldwide. In parts of the world where it costs something to be a Christian, you don't find a lot of half hearted worshipers. And then the fifth that I thought of was a selective kind of obedience, serving or giving in one area while knowingly disobeying God in another.
I hope he overlooks this because I'm doing so much over here. This is a phrase I don't think I'll ever tire of. And I didn't come up with it. I've heard it my whole life. And that is either Christ is Lord of all or he's not Lord at all.
He wants to be Lord of every single part of your life and he is going to make changes in some places because guess what, you're totally messed up in those spots. And you might be thinking, well, that's my comfort, that's my crutch. I need that thing. No, you need him and he's ready to go ahead and push all the crutches aside so that you can fully trust him. Maybe you're struggling with some of those wrong hearted worships today.
I pray today will kind of Move you in a new direction. As we dig Into Haggai, Chapter 2 Together, I pray the text will show you three reasons that worshiping with a right heart matters to God. So here we are in Haggai, chapter 2, verses 10 through 17. Some of this is going to sound really obscure. We're going to work on it.
Okay, together. On the 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet. Thus says the Lord of Ask the priests about the law. If someone carries holy meat in the fold of their garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy? The priests answered and said, no.
Then Haggai said, well, if someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, those foods we just mentioned, does it become unclean? The priests answered and said, it does become unclean. Then Haggai answered and said, so it is with this people, with this nation before me, declares the Lord. And so with every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean. Now then, consider.
From this day onward, before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the lord, how did you fare? When one came to a heap of 20 measures, there was but 10. When one came to the wine vat and to draw 50 measures, there were but 20. I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the lord.
You may not want to say amen to that last part, but God bless the reading of his word. Amen. Oh, my goodness gracious. What is going on here? Jonathan, of all the texts that you would try to help us understand a right heart with God, you gave us this wild thing.
Well, I didn't give it to you. We were just walking through Haggai together. This is what God wrote, and now we're dealing with it. And I think this first part is so important it might seem obscure and not timeless, but there are great principles that we can pull out of this. Why worshiping God with a right heart so matters to God first, is this because true worship comes from a clean heart?
True worship comes from a clean heart. God cares about the heart of worship more than he does the worship itself. He says a few questions to the people. He says, does it become holy? And then he asks, does it become unclean?
Now, there's a little bit of timing word here. If you've been following along with us in this text here we are now in the ninth month, which is the Jewish month of Kislev. We're somewhere in the November, December time frame now. And about two months have passed since last week when we were speaking together. And now he's asking Haggai the prophet to ask first the priests and then talk to the people.
And he's asking the priests an important legal kind of question, a Mosaic Law kind of question. He says, what happens when you put holy stuff in the fold of your robe and then touch other things with it? Okay, well, here's what happens when you take the holy offering, the holy sacrifice, and put it in the fold. Now the fold becomes holy. Yes, but what happens now when I touch other things with the fold?
Nothing. It doesn't make it unclean, but it doesn't make it holy either. That's the point of this little text. Exodus 20:9 says this. There's a couple of passages I could go to, but Exodus 20:9 says, Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar and of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments.
This is wild. And on his sons and on his Son's garments with him. He and his garments now shall be holy. And his sons and his Son's garments with him. Exodus 30.
It goes on to say, you shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy. Okay, so they've got this process now of, all right, we know how to consecrate these sacrifices before God, and we're consecrating the garments. But now whatever this touches, the garment itself doesn't make anything else holy. What does this mean?
What is the point of all this, Jonathan? This is really weird and bloody and strange. This is kind of a concept that I think is just overall biblical. And it's this, that whatever contacts the holy thing is made holy. But you can't pass it on to a second.
Okay, whoop de do. What does this mean about us and about the Gospel? Mothers and fathers in the room. This one will be perfect for you. You can't pass on salvation to your children.
You can come into contact with Christ Jesus and understand and give your life to him and believe in the Gospel. And guess what? The holy thing has now made you holy. But you can't now deliver that to your kids and they're instantly holy. No, they have to come to the source, too.
They have to come in contact with the Holy One, too. So holiness isn't like a cancer. If you Will that just passes on and on and on? No, you have to come in contact with Jesus yourself. Some of you, I don't know, if you've come in this place today and you think, hey, my parents are really godly, I'm going to be all right.
No, sorry. But you have an opportunity to come in contact with Christ Jesus yourself. And this is the truth of this. So they're making a statement here late. Hey, look, this holiness, you have to come back in front of me.
O people, O priests, O haggai, all the people. This holiness isn't just going to trickle down. That's not how it works. Y'all got to come back into my presence, each and every one of you, so that you can be consecrated before me. Now, the opposite thing is also true.
He says in verses 13 and 14, okay, what happens, though, if someone becomes unclean by touching a dead body? Now, that's something random, but that's just one of the ways in which a person could be made unclean. There's a whole lot of these. If you read the book of Leviticus, there's a lot of things that you could do to make yourself unclean. Guess what happens when you make yourself unclean and then touch one of those same foods?
You immediately make it unclean. This means that when it comes to sinful or unclean things, they do pass on and on and on. You probably observe this, to use the same illustration, parents, you've probably observed that the ways in which you're good, you have to work really hard to get your parents to be good or get your kids to be good in those ways. But the ways in which you're bad, they pick those up right away and they pass those on to their little siblings and to their friends at school. You say a dirty word at home, and then you hear it come out of their mouth and go, sounds weird coming out of your mouth.
I don't like that so much, you know? And some of you have decided, well, I'm going to try to, like, shepherd the kin. Don't say those words. But I'm not going to change. Well, good luck.
They're going to pass that on to all their little friends because that sounded weird. I never hear mom and dad say that word. I'm going to tell everybody. Well, you could police yourself and say, I better stop saying stuff like that, or get ready for your kids to have body mouths. Now, that's just a random scenario, but just know this sin trickles down.
Unlike holiness, holiness, you have to come personally to the holy One. But sin, it goes generation to generation. And some of y'all have been passing on generational sin for a long time. You would sit down with me and say, you know, my mother was just so hard on me and said some of the worst things to me, but I'm saying the same stuff to my daughter. Well, that's a real shame.
You could stop somewhere in there. You know how you do it. You come in contact with the Holy One, you're going to keep passing on sin, you're going to keep passing on uncleanness until you break the activity and come before Christ Jesus. So what he's saying here then is what. What he's after here is now he's accusing the people of being unclean.
How so? Well, he's telling them, hey, consider this. You people, you nation. You're now putting brick on brick. Now you're now doing the work.
You're trying to bring the holy. You know, you're working on something holy, but you haven't actually come in touch with the Holy One yet. You've come in here saying, well, I'm going to be obedient and do the right activity that God has called me to, but without a changed heart, I'm just going to go through the motions. That's what he's now accusing them of. And don't miss this.
Verse 14. He says, this people, this nation. He says, this nation and uses the word goy. I talked about that last week. Goy is normally people outside of the Hebrew faith.
Now to the nation of Israel, he says, goy. He says, you're acting like you're acting like the nations. You're not acting like my people. Because my people know that my power is running through them. They know that when they need to do something I've called them to do, they can come and get access, but they're not coming to me.
So that now verse 14 goes on to say, every work, everything they offer now is unclean. John Gill, when writing on this, he says, externally, holy actions did not and could not sanctify their impure hearts, but left them as unclean as before. You can do church. This is tough, right? Everything about this morning is just a lot to take, right?
I'm so glad you're here to get this right. You can come to church today and try to check off the box. And I want you to know something. You've left as unclean as you arrived. Unless you come into contact today with the gospel and get in touch with the Savior, Jesus and start to really move Yourself towards.
I want to do what? Whatever it is you want in my life. Christ Jesus, today. And I am your man. I am your woman.
If you just come in here trying to check off a box, I've got a hit. At least there's 52 weeks in the year. I know if I don't go at least once a month, they're going to start worrying about me. No, we're not. Maybe we should.
I'm more worried about the fact that's how you're trying to deliberate this whole process, as if Christianity was a bunch of checkboxes. Some of us have made it that every work becomes unclean, though, when it's just externally holy actions. David rightly recognized that only a holy God can create a clean and right heart. Psalm 51, David says, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Some of us just need to pray that today if we left with just this one thing, that we would leave saying, God, you create in me a clean heart.
I want to worship you with a whole heart. I'm giving you half. I've got mixed reasons for the ways that I'm serving you. They're not all pure. Help me renew a right spirit within me.
Jesus warns us constantly about this. There's these people in the New Testament that are excellent public, external worshipers, and they're dead in their hearts. We call those Pharisees. He's not a fan. You ever notice when you read about Jesus in the New Testament, he's awful hard on those Pharisees.
To some people who seem like complete knuckleheads in the Bible, he's so nice. I mean, they're out there doing absurd stuff. And he's like, show them grace. Whoever has caused the first. Whoever has no sin, throw the first stone.
He says to some prostitute like, gosh, man, he should have been hard on them. He's not hard on them. He's hard on the externally religious types that are dead in their hearts. Well, that's scary. That should be intimidating for the church coming in saying, well, I'm just trying to check off some boxes.
He cares not for that stuff. He'd rather you be a just blatant sinner who's come saying, I'm a mess. Help me. He's more interested in that because he's a physician, a doctor coming to help. Matthew, chapter 23.
It says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are Full of greed and self indulgence. You blind, pharisee. First, clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside also may be clean. Now, that's a great illustration. I pictured that as soon as he said it.
Because some of you, I wonder, would you drink if you just looked at the cup and went, that looks pretty clean out there. Wouldn't look inside. I had a friend growing up, like my best friend. His name's Bobby. Bobby, if you're watching this, awesome, tell me about it later.
But I cleaned my dishes, y'all, so this kind of bothered me, honestly. But he would come to my house and look at my. He'd get a cup to drink, look at my cup, rinse the cup out. I'm like, what'd you see in there? It could have been dust in there.
I'm like, I guess. I mean, I just used that cup last night and washed it, but I guess that's possible. You do you boo, but. But now, if you've ever done this before, if you've ever been outside with a cup of coffee or something and gone to take a sip and a bug kind of crawl out of that, you'll look in your cups from then on, I promise you. Like, I'm always like, huh?
Like you have a roach, crawl out of a coffee mug and you'll lose it a little bit. I'm just saying. So I get this. Who of you would go out into some public restaurant or something like that and just grab a cup and not go, okay, you know, let's make sure we're okay. Most of us wouldn't do that.
There's a couple of you wild people in here. The same is true. Jesus said, with your worship, you're doing all this work on the outside, but inside there's bugs and stuff. It's a mess in there. It's dusty, it's unused.
Maybe, you know, if you grab one of the high shelf things from my house, it might be some dust in those. I hadn't used those in a while. Jesus says, you spending all this time looking real good outside, but inside you're full of greed and indulgence. God rebukes people like this throughout the scriptures, in Haggai, to the Pharisees, all throughout the scriptures. And now he's calling out the people in Haggai's day.
Maybe he's calling you today. Don't assume that church attendance, that some service, some giving, something that you're doing externally makes you right with God. Examine your heart. Do I know him? Am I Walking with him, do I have a clean heart?
True worship comes from a clean heart. The second is this True worship comes from a confessing heart. From a confessing heart. This is just true gospel stuff. Oftentimes we come to church kind of looking for encouragement, and I hope that happens today.
But. But I want you to be aware of something. Part of the exchange of faith is to come before God saying, I'm not okay and I need your help. Part of the exchange of faith is I repent before you that I have a confessing kind of heart. So this is where he begins to finish.
In verses 15 and 16, God tells the people, I want you to consider from this day onward, that is, I want you to fix your mind on this. How it was before, he says, before you started putting stone on top of stone. How did it go for you? How did it go for you? He says in verse 16, you went for a heap of 20 measures and only found 10.
Now what in the world is he talking about? Most scholars think the heap that he's referring to is something like a grain, a corn, some type of food. They come into their food storage looking to find 20 measures a lot, and they found half. Something got in there. Something messed it all up.
Something made it moldy and messed up. Some of you look in your fridge sometimes and go, man, I thought I just bought that. Yuck. God says, you went in there looking for double what you actually found. And if that wasn't enough, you went over there to the wine production looking for 50 and found 20 less than half over there.
Consider from this day onward, what was going on there. What was going on? Well, you should be coming with a confessing heart. The people, God says, I did this stuff to you. Some of you are.
You don't like that? God, I don't know. I can't help you with that. God is God and I am not. I can sit here and say, well, he's always going to bless you.
He's never going to do anything like this.
It seems like sometimes he just lets your junk fall apart. All of a sudden you're driving down the road and your car just breaks. All of a sudden you look in the bank account and go, I thought I made more than this. Where did it all go? Was it God?
Well, that's a question. Okay, God, are you doing that? That's one thing. The people didn't ask this question at all. God says, I did it to you.
And you didn't even come talking to me about it. You didn't care. True Worship starts with a confessing heart. You ought to go to him first with everything. That's the principle that's on display here.
Look, it could be God that's taking you through a valley, and he's going to give you the strength to come out the other side and he's going to show you the reason, and it's going to be a blessing to you. But it never will be if you don't come seeking Him. You're just going to go through a valley for nothing. It's just going to be awful and have no purpose. And everybody's doing this.
Don't feel bad, Christian. Everybody's going through hills and valleys. Hills and valleys. Some people get cancer that know nothing of Jesus, know nothing of the church, and they just suffer through it, not knowing why. But for you Christian, all things work for the good of those who love and trust God.
So what's he up to? But if you don't ever come seeking him, then you'll never know. He tells these people, you should have come with confession. David understood that worship was acceptable to God. Psalm 66, he writes, if I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
That's tough. David understood acceptable worship comes from repentance and broken heart. Psalm 51. You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering.
The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart. O God. Now, David put this thing to the test. One of the worst sins in all of Scripture.
King David does a man that the Bible says was a man after God's own heart, but at the same time, a man who made some huge mistakes, a really big one. He should be at war in one season. The Bible literally says, at a time when kings should be at war. David was home. So he was in the wrong place already, looking out over his balcony, and he sees a woman, a beautiful woman, bathing.
Now, I don't know what she's up to. The Bible never really describes her problem, but that seems shady. I'm just saying. But he's in the wrong place at the wrong time and sees this and calls for her and commits adultery. This was a married woman.
And David compounds his sin by then calling. She gets pregnant. So then he calls her husband home from war so that he might go in and be with his wife in that way. And so that there would be. It would be a mystery, you know, okay, Uriah.
It's Uriah's baby, but Uriah Being a good man. This is what makes this story so sad. Uriah is a good man. He comes home and says, I'm not going to go in there and have the wonder of being home with my wife when the rest of my soldiers are out on the battlefield dying. So he slept outside.
So then David has him put to the front of the battle and killed. Doesn't execute him, but gets him in a situation where he would surely die. And he does. What a horrible story about the man after God's own heart. But here's.
Here's where, why the story continues. Here's why stories are like that in the Bible, why the Bible is true and beautiful. Because if it were fake, you would have left something like that out. I'm just saying, if it was trying an agenda, it would have left out the part where this guy after God's own heart committed this horrible adultery. Left that out.
But it doesn't. It keeps it. And then it tells us what happens. The prophet Nathan comes to him and says, you sin before God, tells him exactly what went down. David then confesses his sin before God, before the prophet, and begs God, pleads with God to spare the child that he made in adultery.
And God doesn't spare that kid. This is all really hard stuff. But guess what David does when it's over? He shakes himself off and keeps worshiping God. He confesses his sin.
He pleads with God while the baby still lives. And when God takes and doesn't spare the child, he continues in worship. That's what makes him a man after God's own heart. It's not his perfection. He's anything but.
He's a mess, just like you and I. And that's why he can write something that's true for you believer today. God does not desire your sacrifices. He desires your broken heart, your repentant heart.
And then there's the third reason. Because true worship comes from a changed heart. From a changed heart. This is where God ends this difficult section. He says in verse 17, I struck you with blight, with mildew, with.
With hail. We might get some of that today. It's like crazy out there, right? God says, I struck your. You're wondering why your crops are a mess.
I sent the disaster.
And verse 17 says, yet you did not turn to me. You did not turn.
The word in Hebrew is implied here. It's not in the text. It's interesting. It literally says in the Hebrew, yet you did not to me. It's weird that it leaves off this word turn.
I don't know what entirely the implication is here, but it seems to be implying the Hebrew word teshuvah, which is the word that is often used for repentance. Or it literally means to turn or return. God is saying, hey, I struck you with these things that you would turn. The same is true in the Greek repentant word. It's the word metanoia.
It literally means to change one's mind, that you would make an about face. You're walking away from God, that you would hear his voice and turn and face him and leave that stuff behind. That's the idea of repentance. It's not some kind of crazy, I've got to have this wonderful confession. And no, it's simply to say, and you could do it right here, right now, in your seat, something you're walking towards that's walking away from God, and say, I'm not that guy anymore.
Anymore. That's teshuvah. That's metanoia. That's repentance. He says, I did all this stuff to you.
You didn't even ask me what was going on. You didn't care. Y'all ever been in the house? I think this can happen to parents, kids. It certainly can happen in marriages where somebody is acting cold.
I bet 100% of you have felt this, right? Just think for a second somebody in the house is ticked off and they start acting cold. They start slamming pots. For some reason, you're like, what's going on in there? Start getting a little louder.
It's like, I don't even know what I did. And parents, this can happen to you. Kids, this can happen to you. You're like, I don't even know what's going on right now. And you will stay in that state.
Some of you have this ability. You will stay in the state of cold for days. I just want to inform you, that's not godly. I just want to put that out there to you for a second. That is not Christian behavior.
If you're doing that, if you're on day seven right now and you're looking at your spouse, just. I want you to know something. Your coldness, first of all, isn't working. And I don't know why. Because your spouse is either that uncaring of you or that blind.
But after seven days, no one's that blind. And yet this people, this people for years, we're somewhere around 18 years that God has been blighting and hailing and mildewing. I don't know what's going on. I don't Have a clue. Why is she slamming pots?
I got no idea. What an idiot. Men do this too. Ladies, I don't know if you're aware, sometimes we get cold. I don't know how your man's looks.
I can tell you how mine looks. Complete silence. That's how mine looks. So if you're talking to me and I'm not talking back, I'm pissed at you.
My wife's figured that out, I think. But sometimes I just think she may not care. And sometimes, to be fair, we have a healthy marriage, but sometimes we're hard on each other. But this people 18 years, God is showing coldness to them. Why?
God tells us why. It's not because God is mean. It's not because God wants to do this stuff to his people. The opposite is true. He's just saying, would you.
Could you look at me? Look at me. I want to help you, but I can't help you when you're all about you. Are you going to be about the kingdom of God? You know I made all this stuff, right?
You know I made you. You know the whole purpose in your life is worship. Do you understand this? It's not that you can have fancy houses and have a lot of kids and make sure they're all in the best sports and make sure everybody makes the great grades and that you make enough money. You know that none of that crap matters.
None of that matters. I made you for myself, for eternity. Did you know that? So I'm sending junk and you didn't look at me. It's crazy.
Some of you are like walking through life and going through the cold shoulder of God and he's like, I'm knocking pretty loud. Would you turn to him today? That's a good start. Hey, God, been a long time.
True worship comes from a changed heart. Only the Lord can change the heart. So he gets to the point 18 years later where he's like, I've tried everything with these hard hearted people. I better just straight up speak through a prophet. So let me send Haggai and Zachariah and these wonderful men, Nehemiah and Ezra.
I'm going to have to like overload them with a powerful voice because they are completely deaf.
Would you turn to him? Paul in Romans chapter two says, a change of heart produced by the spirit and a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God and not from people. So that's evidence that something has changed, is that I no longer care about my paneled houses and my stuff and my wealth and my success. God do you like what I'm doing?
Are you pleased with what I'm doing right now, God? Because if you're not, show me what to do. Help me to change. I don't want to be this guy if it doesn't please you. I don't want to do it.
A changed heart produced by the Spirit. True worship comes from a spirit changed and transformed by God. Paul writes also to the romans in chapter 12. So, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable.
This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior and the customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. A living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Jesus tells the church at Laodicea this very thing in Revelation 3, that he disciplines those he loves, so repent.
He says in Revelation 3, those whom I love, I reprove and I discipline. So be zealous and repent.
So good news today, Church. I don't know if you've been waiting on it. Here's the encouragement. If you're in a valley right now, God might very well be in it. I would argue he's in it.
That even if you're the knucklehead that fell in that valley, and God's like, I didn't do that. He's still there and may have something still to teach you, even in your mistake, even in your error. But it may be very well that this dip, this I'm unhealthy, my finances are messed up. I don't know what to do with my kids, My workplace is awful. Whatever that is.
You name it. All right, God. Okay. Hey, hey. Lord, what do you want from me?
Obviously, I don't know if you're trying to shake up my path, but show me where you want me to go. If you haven't done that yet. Today's the day. These people, I struck them with all this stuff, yet they did not turn to me. That doesn't have to be your story.
True worship comes from a changed heart. I want you to hear something I heard this week. It's just a simple phrase, and I'm busted by it. I mean, I really am. I don't remember where I even found this quote because I don't even have it in my notes.
Who said this? Somebody I was studying Said this God's correction is an invitation to real worship. God's correction is an invitation to real worship.
Okay, so when God is helping me, pushing me, trying to guide me with some pain, it's an invitation for real worship. God's discipline, this person went on to say, is an act of love meant to lead us to worship. His discipline is an act of love meant to lead us to worship. Has God been disciplining you concerning your worship? Only you could know this.
Maybe some things have been hard. Has this series itself really upset you? I don't know. Made you anxious? Made you uncomfortable?
Has the whole day been just a little wonky? I don't know what God's up to, but I know this. He's interested in disciplining our hearts and changing them so that we could be generous like Jesus is generous. He's not interested in you going on being the same guy you've always been. He's looking to for life.
Changing you. And his correction leads to true worship. Let me finish with some thoughts. We talked about this idea of coming into contact with something holy. Some of you need to do that today.
Some of you. All of this is just too. It's beyond you. I don't know how to come with a transformed life, a changed heart, a confessing heart. Well, that's because you have not yet come in contact with the Holy One.
Let me give you a couple of stories really quick. Jesus. There's this leper that comes and sees him in Matthew, chapter eight. If you don't know much about that. It's a skin disease that's disgusting and awful.
And people would be separated from the tribes of Israel and couldn't be with them ever again. And if you touched it or came in contact with it, you would likely get it. And so they were completely outcast. And this person with this skin disease comes to Jesus. Matthew 8.
It says, Behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, lord, if you will, you can make me clean. He does the right thing. He keeps his distance. He doesn't touch Jesus. But Jesus does something ridiculous.
He stretched out his hand and touched him. I will so be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Christ made the leper clean and whole. How?
Because he is the Holy One. Those things which touch the Holy One are made holy, not unclean. A woman comes in Matthew, chapter eight. It says, a woman suffering with a discharge of blood for 12 years came up behind him and touched just the fringe of his garment. And instantly she was made.
Well, she tried to do it in secret, because she shouldn't be doing that. It would make him unclean, at least in Mosaic law. And yet, when you touch the Holy One, just the edge of his robe, she's made well.
And there's lots of stories like this. You want to be made well. You want to have a whole heart. Today, Lord Jesus, if you will, you could forgive my sin and cleanse me of all unrighteousness, if you will, God, Lord Jesus, if you will. And I found that to everyone that comes faithfully like that, he says, I will be clean.
Some of you need to make that step today, and then you can begin the process of a confessing and changed heart. For those of you desiring to be made whole by Jesus and worship him truly come with a clean heart, a confessing heart, and a changed heart. We're going to pray together here in just a moment. Now, I want to give you an opportunity. Some of you have come this morning prepared and ready.
You've prayed about it, you've thought about it, and you're ready to make a financial commitment to what we're doing over the next three years as a church. While we're singing these next few songs together, I want you to come up. As you're doing your regular activity of tithing and praying and Lord's Supper, this is your chance to come up and put them in these buckets. There are already many cards in there from our leaders and others who have come and given. And so during our time of worship, please bring those up as part of your commitment.
Let's pray now. Heavenly Father, I ask that you would so, so be in this place today, that you would begin to move that there's some people in this room that have never come to you with a desire for a clean heart. They've never come as the leper did, as the woman did, who was struggling and just simply tried to touch the edge of your robe or said, lord, if you will make me clean. Some of us have come today and never done that with our lives. God, I'm praying for them right now that they would be moved to do so.
If that's you today, my friend, the Bible is very clear on this. The road to freedom is fairly simple but extremely powerful. Romans 10, 9, it says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So your faith journey, your clean heart, begins with saying, jesus, you are Lord. If you're ready to do that today, pray with me.
Simply this Lord Jesus, I believe today for the first time that you died on the cross for my sins, my guilt, my shame, my brokenness, my mess. God, you died on the cross for me and Lord Jesus. I also believe that God raised you from the dead and that you live today. And I'm asking, Lord, would you now create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me? Give me the Holy Spirit today and help me to walk and follow you.
Dear friend, if you prayed that prayer, I'm confident in God's word that you are now saved, set free, a part of the family of God. And we're praying right alongside you, an ongoing prayer that I think every believer needs to be praying constantly. God created me a clean heart. Help my worship to be genuine, not out of compulsion. Help my service to be pleasing to you, not out of some sense of pride or arrogance or some trying to look good or even that I'm afraid of what you might do if I don't do those things.
None of that. God, I pray that you would create in me such a clean heart, renew such a wonderful spirit in me that I would serve you out of love, generosity, out of grace. The things that you give me, I lay them back to your feet. The very way in which you show me who you are. Love and mercy and grace and compassion, I send them back to you.
I lay them again at your feet. Help me to simply be like you, Lord Jesus. That's what the word Christian was supposed to mean. Little Christs, help us to just imitate and look like you into this fallen world. God, give us opportunities to help others to come to you.
For a clean heart, we pray in Jesus name, Amen.