Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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The Lord is at the Center

Haggai 1:1-15

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Opening Prayer

All right, let’s pray before we get into the Word. Father, thank you that you are the center of our life. [audio unclear]

Historical Background

All right, let’s turn. We’re starting a new book this week. We are starting in the Old Testament in the book of Haggai. If you want to turn to Haggai, I’ll give you about five to ten minutes to find that book.

There’s a great, great example in the Bible about listening to the youth of your peers, basically because Rehoboam. All the advisors for Solomon are like, hey, here’s how to lay things out for the people. Solomon like set up the kingdom perfectly and if you do this thing everyone will follow after you and be faithful. And then he’s like okay I’m hey buddies that are my age that are real young and stupid.

We all think we should do.“ And then they give him the exact opposite advice. And what does he follow? The foolish young advice. So what happens is he’s like, he announces like, oh, here’s my new plan for the nation of Israel.

And what happens? Well, 10 of the tribes are basically like, forget you. And so that is where the nation of Israel splits. And 10 tribes go and form what’s called the Northern Kingdom.

And they appoint their own king over them. Only two tribes stay behind, Judah and Benjamin. That’s called the nation of Judah. Benjamin kind of falls under it, it’s a little bit smaller of a tribe, but that’s why if you hear the Northern Kingdom, sometimes if you’re reading in your Bible, it’ll just say Israel.

Well, it’s assuming that you know the history up to that point, and so depending on where you’re at in the Bible, Israel might mean the entire nation, or at that particular point, it might just be referring to the Northern Kingdom. When you read Judah, it’s almost always certainly gonna be referring to the Southern Kingdom if you’re reading it after the split occurs. So it splits, right? Then you got kings after kings, you got Northern kings and Southern, and sometimes they fight against each other, sometimes they get together and go fight against another nation, but for the most part they’re kinda enmity.

And then you get to God ascend in prophet after prophet after profit, after profit, after profit. And he’s telling the people, hey, you’re not being faithful, you’re not following after me, bad things are gonna happen. So what happens? Well, God uses Assyria, which is the capital Nineveh, Jonah, all that.

Well, he uses Assyria to come and discipline the and northern kingdom, which is called what? Israel, thank you. So he uses Assyria to discipline Israel, while the discipline is pretty severe. Devastated and destroyed.

So the Northern Kingdom essentially ceases to exist. There’s no Northern Kingdom, right? They kind of get assimilated, so to speak. If there’s any deportation, which really isn’t talked too much about, but if there is any, anyone that gets deported kind of gets assimilated into the Assyrian culture.

Well, the Southern Kingdom still lasts for about, oh, another 140, roughly, years. So in 586, prophet after prophet after profit has come and has warned them, hey, if you don’t repent, you’re going to get exiled. So we have different prophets that are prophesying about that. We get in Micah, it says, Reth and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman like a a woman in labor.

For now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country. You shall go to. Babylon. There you shall be rescued.

There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. But prophet after prophet prophesies, hey, you’re going to be taken away. And that’s what happens. What the Asra returns, it’s a much smaller he returns about 58 years later.

So he he leads the second wave and then Nehemiah he Well, he’s actually reform, let’s get, let’s get God’s law back where it needs to be. And then the third one is rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. So Haggai occurs during this first wave.

Introducing Haggai

Now he’s a minor prophet, right? That doesn’t mean he was under the age of 18. It doesn’t mean he’s doing underground excavation work, you know. No, when we talk about a minor prophet, we mean minor prophet just because his book is shorter.

So there’s a couple major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and then you get the minor prophets just simply because their books are shorter. So it doesn’t take anything away from them. That’s just the classification that we use today when we talk about them. One with that name in the entire Bible.

So some names get repeated. Haggai, he’s one of a guy, okay? It’s just him, no other He’s actually, the book is quoted in Hebrews 12, and it is possible, based on some of the wording that we’ll see in Haggai, It’s possible that Haggai might not have not been born in exile, but it’s possible he was born and saw the temple in all its glory before it was destroyed when the Babylonians attacked. It’s possible, but we don’t really know exactly how old he is, but some people surm at the main one today.

He gives such clear, I guess, historicity. He goes into the dates so precisely that we can actually figure out what day it was that he gave his prophecy. Not a lot of prophecies we can’t, right? But for Haggai, he actually tells you the day and the month that we can trace it back and figure out, oh, this is the exact date that he gave the prophecy for each one of the four.

In fact, it was 2,546 years ago yesterday that he gave his first prophecy, August 29th, probably give or take a day. So, could have been today. 2,546 years ago. All of these four messages, now sometimes the prophets, granted if they wrote longer books, maybe their prophecies stretched out for longer periods, But Haggai’s all come within a relatively short period of time, less than essentially a year. So his first message is what we’re going to focus on today.

Now, think about this. The people have returned. The largest wave is this first wave, and they initially follow the command that Cyrus gives, rebuild the temple. They start to rebuild the temple, and then they stop.

And 18 years go by, no work done on the temple. It’s still kind of in shambles. They started to work for a little bit, but they didn’t really do much. And day after day, you’d be going to work, you’d be going wherever.

And I mean, the temple was like the center of Israelite life. Like you’d see that temple in shambles. Day after day, heading to your land, heading out to, out to do work. And the Israelites are fine with it.

So here’s my first, and we’ll see this clearly laid out, because if you look, go back to a Haggai, let’s get into it and let’s read this up, this first message that’s contained in the first chapter. Haggai, chapter one, in the second year of Darius the king in the sixth month, on On the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the prophet, to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel R. Governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Thus says the Lord of hosts.

These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai. Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? Therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways.

You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm.

And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of Host, consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified says the Lord. You looked for much and behold it came to little and when you brought it home I blew it away.

Why? Declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew and the earth has withheld its produce And I’ve called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, and on what the ground brings forth on man and beast and on all their labors.

Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the. Voice of the Lord their God and the word of Haggai the prophet as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai the messenger of the Lord spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, I am with you, declares the Lord.

And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Sheol-Til, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people, and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the 24th day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Wake Up from Your Slumber

So what’s happening is they’ve come back, they start building and rebuilding the temple, and then they stop, and what does the Lord say? Well, he says a few things. One, and here’s my first point, he says, wake up from your slumber, which is also my message to you today. Wake up from your slumber.

Look what he says in verse two. This is the Lord of hosts. These people, well, whose people are they? They’re supposed to be his, but that’s the question.

Are they his? Because a lot of times, even when he’s talking to people, his people, and he’s disciplining them, he says, my people. But here he says, these people. Well, who’s are these?

Well, that’s what we’re about to find out. Are they really his people? Because guess what? God’s people do God’s work.

God’s people listen to God and then follow out whatever He tells them to do. So the message is about to come to them. Now, maybe for some reason they thought they could disregard, which is a little bit foolish, the decree of Darius. Now, he’s far enough away, maybe, I don’t know.

But 18 years have gone by. And clearly the Lord was speaking through Darius. Sorry, Cyrus was speaking through Cyrus. And what happens?

Well, they start the work and then it falls off. So now God sends them directly a prophet. It’s enough for a pagan king, God sends them a prophet to wake them up from their slumber. So whose people are they?

Well yes, they are God’s people, but God’s people walk in God’s ways and they listen to the voice of God delivered in this case through Haggai. Well the, temples and shambles, why is that a big deal? Because because it’s the center of life for the Israelites. I mean, hundreds and hundreds of years.

Well, why is it the center of life? Because worship was at the center of Israelite life. I mean, think of all the things that occurred with the temple. It shaped their civilization.

Everything they did revolved around temple life. Sacrifices, I mean, how often were they doing sacrifices? Every single day, sacrifices, offerings, how are they doing offerings every single day? How far are they doing the tithes, right?

When the harvest comes in at the appropriate times, how often are they doing worship every single day, like the priests are there performing their priestly duties day after day after day? So why is the Lord so concerned about this temple? Well, listen, it’s not so much the temple, it’s what the temple represents. It’s what it signifies.

What does the temple signify? It signifies that God’s presence is here amongst his people, that he dwells among his people. So the actions showed, that’s why the Israelite houses, they’re doing just fine. In verse 4, is it time for you yourself to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins?

Why is it a problem for the temple to be in shambles? Well, because the Israelites were more concerned about their things and about their house. So the actions were showing who was really at the center and it wasn’t the Lord. It was themselves.

So their actions revealed what was really going on, right? So wake up from the slumber, the Israelites are gracious enough, God, God’s gracious enough, they wake up and they do something about it. But then in doing that they needed to do the next step and that’s this, put the Lord at the center.

Put the Lord at the Center

So the temple had been pushed to the side. It really wasn’t much of a, it was just like an afterthought in people’s minds. 18 years, you got kids growing up from little R.A. Babies all the way to teenagers. 18 years, they’re seeing that. And what’s the message that’s being given to them?

That’s not a big deal. Well, what does that mean? Well, the Lord’s not a big deal. If we thought anything about the Lord, we’d take care of His house.

Well, what’s the message for us today, well we need to put the Lord at the center. Whatever is at the center will control how the rest of your life is lived. So if the Lord’s at the center, listen, that’s going to impact the decisions you you make. So, you know, when my kids were a little bit younger, I was always was like, hey, we’re going to be a Jesus family..

We’re going to be a Jesus family. And I explained to them that that meant like the decisions we make are going to be based on Jesus being at the center and everything, anything else that needs to work into the picture of Jesus being at the center. If something that we’re wanting to do or pursue, if it doesn’t work into that picture of Jesus being at the center, then we’re not going to do it. Why?

Because we’re going to be a Jesus family. So if the Lord is at the center, it’s going to impact the decisions on how you live your daily life and how you structure it. Clearly the temple was not important to the Israelites. It wasn’t important.

So they structured their life? Accordingly. And where was their focus? Oh, let’s build up my own little house.

And what’s the discipline that the Lord gives them? I mean, He tells them there. You have so much, verse six, in harvested little. You eat, but you never have your fill.

You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with a hole. And then in verse 11, I mean, He gives, He tells them what’s going on. 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.

Listen, the, Lord loves his people enough to discipline them. The Lord disciplines his children. Any parent, any parent who loves their kid will discipline their child. Well, that’s what the Lord is doing.

What is he wanting them to realize? I need to be at the center. That’s what he’s wanting them to realize. That’s what he’s wanting them to do.

If sports is at the center for your family, that’s gonna impact the decisions you make. If leisure’s at the center, that’s gonna impact the decisions you make. All right, make Jesus the center. Put him first, that’s gonna impact the decisions you make.

So listen, I get it. It’s easy at times for us to ignore spiritual realities. It’s easy for us to ignore spiritual responsibilities. And listen, it’s just kind of like family devotions if you just take that as one example.

I mean, you can let that slide for one day, it’s not gonna be a really big deal, and then you can let it slide for a second day and maybe a third day, but what happens is, is once you start to slide, you just continue down that slide. And pretty soon, weeks have gone by and months have gone by and years have gone by. But you have to put it, again, in a bigger context, listen, parents, you got 18 years with your kids. Growing up, raising them in your house for you to speak truth.

And honestly, you may be in one sense have a little bit less time than that because by the time they hit 14, 15, 16, like they’ve formed. They’ve formed. So a you might think, oh, one day is not that big a deal. And that’s true to some extent.

But the problem is those days add up to weeks and those weeks add up to months and in those a month, so all of a sudden, you. On that, okay? If you want to strut around calling yourself the head of the household, then act like it. All right, I know you shouldn’t be strutting, but don’t just take the title and not do the duty.

All right, so each one of us is supposed to put the Lord at the center. Listen, your house when we were, yeah, our a It was, it had had a termite infestation No? Well, what do we find out? Well, it takes time for them to do their damage.

But surely, slowly, day by day, they do the damage. Even in a week, termites, not the, I mean, you should deal with it, trust me, okay? But they haven’t done their damage quite yet. But in a month, they’re probably gonna start to get rolling.

But in a year, there’s gonna be some serious damage. And what happens is, all that, all that rock’s going on behind the scenes, right? Like, like they don’t ever, sometimes do, A lot of, He’s against you being distracted He wants you to put firstB things if there’s like a building campaign going on, right? Not necessarily saying I disagree, but really the focus was not about for us today, the focus isn’t really about building a building, that’s really not the focus that Haggai’s getting after, he’s getting getting after, hey, like that symbolizes something.

It represents something for you to let the temple be in ruin for over a decade. That’s awful and shameful. So the Israel is you do every action you do every action, you do at every action you do is a theological making. If you’re short with others, I mean you’re making a theological about how you I think people should to act.

And back burner God. You can’t just like have him and but just you know he’s on that he’s on the back burner. He’s there, he’s Simran on the stove. No, he very much wants to be at the forefront occupying your attention.

Matthew 6 is that’s really the idea here. Seek first, what, the kingdom of God and his righteous and all these things will be added at CS Lewis.

Leave the World Behind

Worship matters. There was a priest he’s even mentioned here, Joshua, so they had some form of it going on to some extent. We don’t know to what extent, but probably sacrifices, tithes, offerings had probably to some extent started again. But the point is the symbol of God’s abiding presence in Israelite life lay in shambles and that was a problem.

So we have to leave the world. We have to make worship something that is important to us. God cares about worship. He cares about who we worship, right?

He cares about who we worship. Who gets the worship? The Lord and the Lord alone. But he also cares about how we worship.

I know you start your Bible reading plan if you’re trying to just go straight through, maybe not always the best reading plan, but it’s one way to do it. But people get tailed off in Leviticus usually. But when you think about it, again, a broader picture, which this book is gonna help you with, when you think about broader picture, like. The Lord is laying out really how, one, we’re supposed to walk with him, and two, how we’re supposed to worship him.

And worship kind of goes along with walking with him. He’s concerned about. Worship. Why?

Because worship shapes us. Think about it. There’s all sorts of different worship types and services out there. I’m going to tell you 100% for sure those people.

And Those things matter why because worship God has an order for Psalms are kind of like. The worship book of the Israelites you’re not going to really care about anyone else or doing anything else. That’s a bad attitude to have, do you agree? Yeah.

So you got to be careful with saying something like that because it comes across as very selfish. Like we’re not made for just us and Jesus. We’re partly made for that. But we’re also made for us, Jesus and others.

Firstly, with the body of Christ. And then secondly and ministering to our neighbors who don’t know Christ. So yes, you can have you and Jesus, but that’s not where you should have your focus primarily because it should be outward focused. A lot of times if you look at your prayers, you just have to be careful.

They can reveal a lot about your heart. And if your prayers are all about, or we’re kind of back to that narcissism, that selfishness. Now we should be praying a lot more for others. So, you know, we have this attitude at times where we don’t give a rip about others, we don’t care and give a rip about our family, we don’t give a rip about other believers, that’s horrible.

No, God calls us to be in fellowship first and foremost with Him, but then also with our brothers and sisters. We just got done an entire book of Philippians focused on fellowship. So we want to have God at the center and that leads us to leaving the world behind. Listen, our worship matters.

Some people say that, and I would agree, that worship is warfare. We won’t look at it today, maybe we’ll look at it next week, but there’s a clear example of that going on in the Old Testament with Jehoshaphat. But God wants us to leave the world behind. He wants us to turn and choose Him.

About what the Israelites are going back to you. Desolation and destruction. Hostile forces that didn’t want them to honor God and what happened? They let the world impact them.

The very thing that caused their exile. What caused their exile? Well, their disobedience, their idolatry. The very thing that caused their exile?

Filed them back to the Promised Land. I mean how could the world impact them after the exile and they come back to the Promised Land. I mean there’s hardly anyone living there. Well because the truth is they brought the world back with them.

It’s almost like the reverse. You know when Moses brings the Israelites out of Egypt, yeah they bring Egypt with them. They’re supposed to leave Egypt behind. But they bring Egypt and all the idolatry with them.

Well now God’s bringing them, it’s like a second exodus of sorts, but God’s bringing them back and they’re repeating the same mistake. They’re bringing Babylon with them. No, what are they supposed to do? Leave the world behind.

Make first things first.

Worship and Culture

When you look at the reformers like Martin Luther, I mean these men were culture warriors and they were wrestling. They realized what was at stake. They were wrestling for the soul of Christendom, but their battles were not just theological or liturgical. As one pastor said, they were cultural and political and social as well.

You can’t really divide them. So Martin Luther saw very clearly that his marriage to Kate was an act of spiritual warfare. That’s what he called it. So when this former monk marries this former nun, Luther put it this way, he said that he gave a roundhouse kick to the devil in the snout.

I mean when you do what God commands and walk in his ordinances, I mean that’s what you’re doing. You’re giving a kick to the devil and the snout. You’re in the devil know like, hey I’m serious, I’m walking with the Lord, I’ve left the world behind. And you agree with the created order, you follow the creation mandate, you follow the dominion mandate the way that God originally set up the world.

Guess what? Satan hates that. He despises it. Something is…

Why do you think that marriage has been so under attack? Because if Satan can get that to fall and can screw it up and be like, ah man can marry a man and a woman can marry a woman. Yeah, he can disrupt the family. He can destroy the family.

And that’s what we’re seeing, the destruction of the family. So you do something as simple as that. Yeah, it’s an active warfare. You’re telling Satan, I am going along with what God has as good.

I am going along with how God has set up his world to be. The creation Mandate be fruitful and multiply the Dominion mandate right have Dominion over the face of the earth Calvin’s original title for his institutes It’s you know the real short one today is just institutes of the Christian religion But Calvin writes that you want to know what the original title is it’s kind of a mouthful now if you look At books that were written over 200, 300 years ago. I mean, they do have some mouthful titles. And you can almost like, it’s almost like an abstract.

You can find out what the whole book’s about, right? And that little title. And today we try to be cute and funny with our titles, right? And oh, what might that be about?

But here was his original title. The Institute of the Christian religion containing almost the whole sum of piety and whatever it is necessary to know in the Doctrine of Salvation, a work very well worth reading by all persons zealous for piety and lately published. A preface to the most Christian King of France in which this book is presented to him as a confession of faith author John Calvin of Noyan Basel. I like the part he’s like a work very well worth reading.

All right, you can pat yourself on the back a little bit there buddy. But did you catch something else in the title? Who it was addressed to, the King of France. That was part of the original title, was the King of France, why?

Because while it was indeed a definitely a systematic theology, Calvin realized it was also a political theology with sweeping cultural ramifications. And he, along with the other reformers, passed that on as a heritage to the next generation and they took it up and put it into practice. Most people today think they have a great idea of how Christianity and politics goes hand in hand, and I’d say 99% and I’m not overstating it, don’t have a clue. As the reformers wrote tons of books on this subject.

And most of what people think today is the exact opposite of what Luther and Zwingli and Calvin thought about Christianity and political theology is just the truth. Different sermon for a different day. So it’s addressed to the king of France because he realized what? Oh, you just can’t set the culture aside like theology impacts sociology and impacts political ideology and so on and so on and so on.

If you just think about this idea of education and worldview, again, kind of why we’re going through this book in part, But you realize that in America, Muslims are more likely to pull their children out of public school and put them in religious schools when compared to evangelical Christians. Why? Because they understand there’s a culture war, and they play to win it. So when we leave the world behind, That doesn’t mean we forsake culture, it means we’re looking to transform culture.

We’re back to the salt and light from last week. One pastor put it like this, Muslims have a plan to make America a Muslim nation. Marxists have a plan to make America a Marxist nation. Secular progressives have a plan to make America a secular progressive nation.

Christians seem to have a plan to make sure one of the above options is successful. And if you said Christians have a plan to make America a Christian nation, half of the Christians would oppose you for saying that, and probably more. Christians seem, and he goes on, I’m quoting him, Christians seem to always have a plan to keep Christianity from further influencing our nation by discipling people into political apathy, we don’t get political, or political ambiguity. Jesus isn’t a Republican or Democrat, neither right nor left.

No, that’s primary application of gospel to the culture. So we have to wake up to what time it is. We have to realize there’s a battle for the soul, for your own soul, and the soul of your family, and the soul of this nation. We’re back to seek first the kingdom put first things first.

First Things First

Another theologian said, and you think about it, talking about the Israelites, they lived in perpetual, perpetual frustration and discontentment, talking about them right here in Haggai. Nothing satisfied. And he says we can’t pass over this lesson easily. It’s for us too.

If you devote yourself to sowing and eating and drinking and clothing yourselves in earning wages, but you neglect the things of the Lord? I mean, you’re gonna end up in constant frustration. You’re gonna end up dissatisfied. Psalm 37 says, delight yourself in the Lord, and what happens?

He gives you the desires of your heart. Delight yourself in the Lord. That’s not like okay I do this and then I get all the selfish things I unsur That’s putting first things first. That’s waking up from our slumber and it’s putting the slumber.

Listen, some of you, even if you could go and live on an island with you and your family just by yourself, I mean, that would create a host of other problems. But if you could just isolate yourself, you can’t escape the temptations of the world because if we’re honest, we realize that some of the world still resides here. And so we’re going through a sanctification process where God is working on us a whole lot to root out the remnants of what we could call sin. That’s what it is.

And listen, it resides in there pretty deeply. And the Lord has to do some pretty serious surgery work. So let him leave the world behind. Leave the sin behind.

Whatever Hebrews talks about it, whatever entangles you, set it aside. And sometimes it’s real small, simple stuff, guys, but I’m just telling you, sometimes the small, simple stuff that you know is just causing you an issue or dragging you down, that’s what you gotta do. I admire, I’m not saying people need to do this, but I admire it when occasionally I’ll see someone on Facebook and be like, I’m deactivating my account after today, so if you need to get in touch with me, shoot me a text or something, or something, and sometimes they’re like, because it’s just swallowing up my time. So they realize, hey, is social media in and of itself a bad deal, bad deal?

No. But for them, it’s become a hook. It’s become an issue. So a friend recently was like, yeah, this is interrupting with my family life.

So he’s like, I’m deleting my account. Hey man, great. So whatever it is that might be, It might be what something seems innocent and not a big deal. It might be something that other people can participate in and have no issues with it, but you can’t.

No temptation is easier except what is common to man. And God in his mercy and grace has seen fit different people struggle with different things. So one, like be honest with yourself with what your struggles are and your shortcomings are. I feel like that’s part of becoming an adult.

To truly acknowledge, you know what, I actually don’t do so good over here. Not just like, I don’t do any good and that’s an excuse and let’s just move on. No, like, I don’t do good and I need to give it some attention and honey, would you help me be accountable in this area? Something like that.

That’s making an attempt to leave the world behind. And other people, and sometimes it’s like cutting stuff out of your life, you need to cut it out. It might be something that seems like it’s neutral. Well, it’s not neutral for you.

You’re leaving the world behind. Just like the Israelites coming back. There’s certain things that was good for them bring back, there are certain things they shouldn’t have brought back. They had a whole lot of time, 70 years, some of them were born there.

That’s what they were raised in. But what does God do? God’s always gracious to bring His people back. And so you got an opportunity today to examine, do some heart examining, and ask, hey, what do I need to leave behind?

What’s in here that the Lord needs to do some surgery on? That I need to repent of and I need to forsake. This is your chance to do it today. In your heart of hearts to repent of it, to forsake it, to get rid of it.

It might be something big or maybe it’s something small but it’s holding you back and it’s not allowing you to put Christ fully at the center of your life. So then take those steps. Humble yourself. God gives grace to the humble.

He gives grace to the humble. He opposes the proud, scary stuff, but he gives grace to the entanglements, the sins, right? We are in the world, as Jesus talks about, but not of the world. Right, so whatever position, place, right?

We’re leaving those remnants behind that are pulling us down, and then we’re seeking to be influencers, walking in the light before him for his glory. Looking to make a difference in whatever sphere the Lord has given to us, right? These people, the Israelites at this time, the 42,000, like that, they had a sphere. They had a task, what were they to do?

Rebuild the temple. Well, God gives us tasks today too. Sometimes general, great commission, but then that works its way out in specifics. And then we do that and he speaks to us and we walk in it.

And what happens? Well, he’s fine. So I encourage you, wake up from your slumber and put the Lord at the center. Whatever today you need to leave behind, leave it behind.

It will bring the Lord much glory as you continue to be conformed to the image of his son.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray. Lord, I do pray that as you’ve spoken to people today about different things, maybe it’s just downright flat out sin, stuff they’re doing, they know they need to stop. May they be convicted in their heart of hearts and repent of it and stop. Maybe for some others it’s something that is just considered neutral, but they know it’s not beneficial, as not helpful as not allowing them to put first things first first. So then may they get rid of that and forsake it not just for forsaking it sake but for your sake because they want to have you at the center and Lord continue to wake each one of us up in whatever areas. Maybe we’re falling short open up our eyes. Be gracious to show us our sin so that we can forsake it and continue to put you at the center leaving the world behind all for your glory. Amen.