(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. One minute. One minute. One minute. One minute. One minute. One minute. Hey, hey, good morning. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church, Manila. Let's start our first service and let's get our hymns, our Maroon Nihayan hymn book, and let's turn to hymn number 1 and then 2. Number 102, let's sing the song, He Hided My Soul. Him number 102, let's sing the song, He Hided My Soul. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. A wonderful Savior, on the first ready, sing. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. A wonderful Savior to me. He hided my soul in the web of the Lord, Where rivers of pleasure I see. He hided my soul in the web of the Lord, Where shadows of dry mercy land. He hided my life in the web of His love, And offers me air in His hand. And offers me air in His hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. He taken my burden away. He holdeth me up, and I shall not be moved. He giveth me strength as my need. He hided my soul in the web of the Lord, Where shadows of dry mercy land. He hided my life in the web of His love, And offers me air in His hand. And offers me air in His hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. He holdeth me up, and I shall not be moved. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. He hided my life in the web of His love, And offers me air in His hand. And offers me air in His hand. For the last verse, we're going to sing the chorus in a cappella. So the instruments will accompany us for the verses, but for the chorus, we're going to sing it without the instrument. On the last verse, when caught in His brightness altogether, sing. When caught in His brightness, As forth did I write, to Him He beat out of the sky. His purpose of Asia, His wonderful love, Hush out with the millions of night. He hided my soul in the cleft of the rock, That shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hided my life in the depths of His love, And offers me air in His hand. And offers me air in His hand. It's great. Father, we thank you Lord for this morning. We thank you, O God, for this wonderful day that you have given us, Lord, to worship you in spirit and in truth. And I pray, Lord, that you would take care of the members who are still going here. And I pray, Lord, that you would bless the first service, Lord, and we ask, Lord, that you would bless the Congregational singing, the reading of our word, and the preaching of the sermon, Lord. And I pray, Lord, that you would also bless Parasaki and guide him on the words that he will speak to us, Lord, today for the sermon. And I pray that you would be glorified, O God, and I pray that we will learn something from the sermon, O God. Lord, help us to be attentive and remove the distractions from us, O God. And I pray that you would also give us a good weather this afternoon so that we can go out and preach the gospel. I pray, Lord, that you would continue to bless this church. In doing all of these things in Jesus' name, we pray in your name. Amen. All right, next song, let's tune in number 377, tune number 377, 3, 7, 7. all together Rescue our very King, we're for the dying. Sash, let it be, he from sin and her being. Leave him for the hearing, or sleep, not the falling. Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to see. Rescue our very King, we're for the dying. Jesus is pretty cool. Jesus will see. Though they are hiding, he still is waiting. Waking the flesh, leaving God to receive. Leave him with the mercy, leave him with the glory. He will forgive if they only believe. Wherefore the dying, Jesus is pretty cool. Jesus will see. Now we go to the heart, God's light has entered. We will see there in the grace and restore. The silent loving heart, we bend by kindness. Lord God our Lord, in the body great was born. Bless to the very King, we're for the dying. Jesus is pretty cool. Jesus will see. Rest to the very King, through the endless. Pray for the lady, for the Lord will provide. Back to the heart, we may blend, we may blend. Tell God we're one, we're a Savior as one. Rest to the very King, we're for the dying. Jesus is pretty cool. Jesus will see. Alright, good morning everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. And take out your boats in here this morning. And our verse of the week is Philippians 2 verse 15. The Bible reads, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. That's a great verse there. We are a family integrated church, meaning children and infants are welcome during the services. We do have a mother baby room back there for your convenience, as well as a ladies restroom. The men's restroom is up here in front. Remember no eating during the service, maintain a professional atmosphere, and keep the children from running and making noise during the church service. On the next page, in the middle of our bulletin, our service times are listed. First service is at 10 a.m. Second service is at 1130. Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. Official soul winning times listed. 4 p.m. on Wednesdays, meeting here. On Saturdays, in Qasem Memorial Circle, both the morning and afternoon session, lunch provided by church. And of course we do have soul winning this afternoon around 2.15 p.m. Our salvation and baptisms are listed there for the month and year to date for our churches and Bible study fellowships, birthdays and anniversaries. And then on the next page, our Bible memorization challenge. And so we do have prizes back there if you're able to complete the challenge. Upcoming activities, we do have a lot of things going on. I'll just highlight a couple of these things. In two weeks is going to be Children's Day. And so now obviously Children's Day is great. Invite visitors, but don't just go out and invite every single child out there to come because trust me, we could have like 40 kids coming here every single day off the streets, but that's just not the atmosphere we're trying to create here. But Children's Day is exciting. It was a great time last year. The kids had a lot of fun. I think the parents had a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun just watching my kids play, and that's going to be in two weeks. That's going to be exciting. And then coming up in basically four weeks, but on Saturday, is our three year anniversary in Pampanga. And so we had a sign up sheet last week. If there's anybody who wants to be added to that or any changes, let me know. Currently we have 58 people signed up from this church to come for the anniversary. And we're also renting out a venue there, because our current location is like half the size or less than half of this, like a third of the size, so there's no way we could fit that many people. But we're anticipating around 100 people, so that should be exciting. And that's going to be on November 12th. I'll give you more details as we get closer. And then of course the anniversary at this church is going to be a four year anniversary. It's going to be coming up here in, I believe it's six weeks if I'm correct on that, but on November 27th. Current and upcoming series, we are in the book of Ezra. Information on a group chat down there. I did add a note here. You might have noticed recently we added CCTV around, and that's for safety and protection for all of us, just that everything can be verified. It protects all of us, so you're being watched, right? I've seen interesting things recently. I saw people practicing their table tennis, huh, when I'm not around. I saw that recently on the CCTV. And so, but anyways, we do have the CCTV here just to keep watch of everything that's going on. But then on the back there is a place for notes for both of the sermons here today. So I believe that's it for announcements. We'll have Brother Marlon lead us in another song. For our next song, let's turn to hymn number 378. Hymn number 378. A Passion for Souls. We don't sing this song very often, so if you know the song, let's lift up your voice. Give me a passion for souls, dear Lord. Ready? Everybody, lift up your voices on the first. Sing. All I love to be winning With who are lost and constantly singing Though it is hard, we want a beginning A story of pardon to tell us again Lower our windows untold and certain Uncounting the wind Feeling is never my home or turn But trust me, for grace is slain We just, I love, I long to be winning With who are lost and constantly singing Though it is hard, we want a beginning A story of pardon to tell us again Lower our windows untold and certain Uncounting the wind Feeling is never my home or turn But trust me, for grace is slain We just, I love, I long to be winning With who are lost and constantly singing Though it is hard, we want a beginning A story of pardon to tell us again Lower our windows untold and certain A story of pardon to tell us again A story of pardon to tell us again A story of pardon to tell us again A story of pardon to tell us again Amen. For our scripture reading, we are going to read today chapter one, Hegai chapter one. It's the third last book from the Old Testament Hegai chapter one So you can just go to Matthew and then Malachi, Hezekiah and Haggai We are going to read the whole chapter, please say amen when you are there Amen Hegai one In the second year of Diaries, the king In the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord By Hegai the prophet unto Zitubabel, the son of Sheyad, the governor of Judah And to Joshua the son of Joseph, the high priest, saying Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying These people say, The time is not come The time that the Lord's house should be built Then came the word of the Lord by Hegai the prophet, saying Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses And this house lie waste? Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your waste Ye have so much, and bring a little Ye eat, but ye have not enough Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink Ye clothe you, but there is none warm And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into bag with holes Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your waste Walk to the mountains, and bring wood, and build a house And I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified saith the Lord He looked for much, and lo, it became little When he brought it home, I did blown up on it Why, saith the Lord of hosts, Because of mine house there is waste And ye done every man unto his own house Therefore the heaven over you stayed from dew And the earth stayed from her stood And I called for draught upon the land And upon the mountains, and upon the corn And upon the new wine, and upon the oil And upon that which the ground bringeth forth And upon men, and upon cattle And upon all the labor of the hands Then said the Bible, the son of Shealt and Joshua, the son of Josileth The high priest with all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord the God And the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord the God had sent him And the people did fear before the Lord Then spake Haggai the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message unto the people, saying I am with you, saith the Lord And the Lord set up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealt, the governor of Judah And the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josileth, the high priest And the spirit of all the remnant of the people And they came and did the work of the house of the Lord, a force they got And the forum to end his day of the sixth month and the second year of diocese, the king Let us pray Thank your father for your word Thank you for the Bible Thank you all the people that are here Please bless the servant Please bless also the preacher and anoint him with your Holy Spirit And help us also always understand your message We pray in Jesus' name, Amen Alright, we are in Haggai chapter 1 And keep your finger in Haggai 1 We're going to be in the book of Haggai almost the entire sermon But go to Ezra chapter 5 real quickly Ezra 5, you might be wondering why are we going through the book of Ezra and we're covering Haggai today Well Ezra 5 verse 1 is going to help answer that question And I'm probably the worst person in the world at naming sermons The name of the sermon is Ezra 4.5-Haggai Which is exactly, you know, it's between chapters 4 and 5 and it's about Haggai I don't come up with interesting sermon titles, I just, I don't know, I guess I don't know how to do that But anyways, notice what it says in Ezra 5 verse 1 It says, Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Edo Prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them So the Bible says in Ezra 5 verse 1, it mentions Haggai and Zechariah If you remember from last week, there's a lot of persecution against God's people that's talked about in Ezra chapter 4 And so God basically rises up, you know, prophets, Haggai and Zechariah And it motivates people to continue the work And so if you're looking at the time frame of those books, Haggai and Zechariah You're looking right here during the times of the book of Ezra Because often times these minor prophet books, you know, you look at them, you read them You don't really understand what's the context so it's very confusing So to understand Haggai, what you need to realize is it's during the first six chapters of Ezra Right there between chapters 4 and 5 Now go back to Haggai 1 Haggai 1 Haggai 1 verse 1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month Came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel Governor of Judah, unto Joshua the son of Josedek the high priest saying Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying, this people say the time has not come The time that the Lord's house should be built So the Lord of hosts is referring to God Almighty And he says that this people say, this is not God saying this But the Jews, the people that had returned to Jerusalem What they're saying is it's not time to build the Lord's house Now go to Ezra chapter 1 real quickly Ezra 1, why did they develop this attitude? Well there's persecution and they just don't want to do the hard work They build the foundation, it's exciting at the beginning And the excitement wears off and now there's difficulties And now they're saying, well maybe we'll just build the Lord's house at another date Ezra chapter 1 verse 1 The Bible reads Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia That the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia That he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing saying Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kings of the earth And he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah Who is there among you of all of his people, his God be with him And let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah And build the house of the Lord God of Israel He is the God which is in Jerusalem And so we see that Cyrus gets this decree from God And he says you can now return back to Jerusalem They've basically been on time out for 70 years in Babylon And he says you can go back and build now Now remember, not everybody went to Jerusalem Daniel's an example of someone that did not go back to Jerusalem So it was not a requirement for everybody to do this But you do have the option to go back, right? Those that were not able to go back were told to help the work financially But not everybody went back But now what's taking place is these people that go to Jerusalem For the sole purpose of building the Lord's house Once there's persecution Actually it's not really time to build the Lord's house The whole reason why you're there is to build the Lord's house It doesn't make sense to say well we believe the part from Cyrus we can live in Jerusalem But we disagree about the part that we're going to be building the Lord's house That doesn't make sense You can't just take part of God's word and then the part you like and reject the other part The whole reason they're in Jerusalem is to build the Lord's house Go back to Haggai Haggai 1 Haggai 1 Haggai 2 I mean it makes sense they have problems because you first go And you're excited No resistance No problems You end up coming to difficulties And then they're like well actually maybe you know we won't build the Lord's house And isn't that often true with a local church? People start coming to a church like ours and they're excited and everything's going great Then they run into difficulties Then they run into problems Then they run into trials And what takes place? Well they make excuses Well it's not time to build the Lord's house Instead of just admitting you know what I can't take the persecution I came here to Jerusalem and you know what I regret it That's what basically these people are saying They're going to Jerusalem for the sole purpose of building the Lord's house And then they get there and then they don't want to do it once they run into a little bit of persecution Here's what you got to realize as someone who believes on Jesus Christ and tries to serve God Look serving God is hard You're going to run into difficulties You're going to run into trials Look I get it when you first start going to a church that maybe you've been wanting to go to for a long time It's exciting I mean it's great every single week you're seeing your friends and you're hearing the preaching The soul winning, the excitement It's like man this is great But that excitement wears off It's like anything in life Anytime you start a new hobby it's exciting at first But then all of a sudden you kind of plateau and it gets difficult And you've got to make that decision if you're going to stick with it or not Now if you throw in the towel on a hobby it's not a big deal Hobbies come and go you can just pick up a different hobby When it comes to serving God that's not just something you can say Well you know I tried it out but now I would rather do this It doesn't matter what you would rather do What matters is God said to build the house Haggai chapter 1 verse 3 And it says And what Haggai is saying is now wait a minute You came to Jerusalem to build this house And now instead of focusing on the Lord's house You're focusing on your own house Now in this example it is literally talking about building an actual building And they were literally building their own houses in the Lord's house physically But the symbolic understanding is basically building the Lord's house is like Going to church, going soul winning, reading the Bible Bringing people to church Whereas building your own house is like just everything that you want to do And just forsaking serving God and going to church And reading the Bible and things like that And what Haggai says is is it time for you to just basically forsake the Lord's house to do what you want to do Is there ever a time to do that Right Now they had to physically build this building in order to be able to evangelize the world To build God's house But the same application to us is are we focused on God's house And what God wants Or are we focused on what we want Right Verse number 5 Now therefore and Haggai is only two chapters We're going to cover every single verse now Next week in Zechariah there's a lot of verses And there's a lot I really don't understand So we're not going to cover every verse Right We're going to kind of see the context Get an idea It's one of those books you got to really dig into Right Verse 5 Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts Consider your ways Haggai is saying consider what you're doing You're rejecting the Lord's house You're building your own house And he says you have sown much and bring in little Right So imagine you know a farmer who basically spends hours and hours and hours And then all of a sudden he comes back expecting the harvest and there's very little It's like how is that possible I put in so much work and time and energy And he's using the application of these people that are trying to financially make it in life And you know they're putting in all this time and energy And many of them were literally you know basically farming or creating you know food So it's actually an application that would really make sense But they're putting in all this time and energy And yet there's very little return on that investment of time And he says ye eat but ye have not enough Ye drink but ye are not filled with drink Ye clothe you but there is none warm And he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes And so imagine that basically you know you get a lot of money you know And you put it in your pocket and you go home and it's not there Because there's a hole in your pocket I saw this memory from being a kid where you know I saw like a lot of change on the ground And it was like in a line so somebody obviously had a hole in their pocket And I'm picking it up it was like a dollar and a half or something I thought I was rich right Like a dollar and fifty cents this is so much money And it's like oh there's a dime there's a nickel right I was so excited for that money But obviously what happened is somebody put that in their pocket And they had a hole in it and then just it all fell on the ground Well this is what the Bible is saying Imagine that basically you make all this money And then you put it in your pocket or put it in a safe place And then you go back and it's not there right And what he's saying is basically you know the curse of God is upon your life Because you're trying to make it for yourself and rejecting God's house I am not going to bless you You're going to put in all this time and energy expecting this big return And having this attitude once I build my house then I'm going to build the Lord's house And God says well you know what that day is never going to come Because when you have the attitude I will serve God one day Well that day is probably not going to come What is your life it is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away Right I mean you say well today or tomorrow or in five years or in ten years I'll start serving God And you know what it never ends up happening right Now go to Malachi chapter 3 real quickly Malachi 3 And the rest of the sermon we're going to be in Haggai So I think this is probably going to be the last place we turn to Unless you know I decide to turn somewhere else unexpectedly But go to Malachi 3 Now in Haggai 1 Realize it is not completely literally talking only about finances Ok building the Lord's house there was time there was energy there was effort But obviously you know what financially contributing to church would be an application It's not the only application ok But in Malachi 3 it's specifically about money Haggai 1 is not specifically about money but it is a good cross reference This is what it says in Malachi 3 verse 8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me But you say wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings You see God asks you to give ten percent but if you do not give ten percent If you do not give the tithe which means ten percent What the Bible is saying is you're robbing God You're stealing from him You say why is that? Because a hundred percent of that money does not belong to you Ten percent of that money belongs to God God says I'll let you get ninety percent but I expect you to give me the first ten percent Now you know in America taxes are extremely high And so your paycheck you know and obviously salaries are higher in the US But your paycheck seems like a lot But the government takes out a lot immediately Now here's the thing I don't believe in giving a tithe after the government's taken their share I believe giving ten percent off of what you got Right and yeah it's a country that takes twenty five percent of your money But it is what it is And basically you know you tithe on the increase The Bible says this is your ten percent If you don't give ten percent while you're robbing God That's what the Bible says Now I do realize that when it comes to tithing especially when people start businesses and stuff There's a lot of very gray area and complicated situations And I'm not going to go into that for sake of time But you know whether it's been here or in Sacramento People ask you questions it's like I've never even thought about that question right Start a business and it's really hard to figure out how much you're really increasing If there's anything you make you put back into the company But the general idea is that you know what you're supposed to give ten percent of what you get to God And I believe in tithing off of gifts as well Now not everybody believes that and I don't want to go into too big of a rabbit trail But basically ten percent off of your increase The Bible says in verse nine You're cursed with a curse for you have robbed me even this whole nation Bring me all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house And prove me now here with sayeth the Lord of hosts If I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing That there shall not be room enough to receive it So the Bible says here in verse ten that if you bring the tithes Then you know what I am going to bless you right Somebody asked me this question recently an online listener And they're asking about tithing and should they tithe their ten percent to the local church Or to just any church and they don't go to our church They actually tithe relatively regularly to us or give money OFW but I told them actually ten percent to your local church Because it says bring me all the tithes into the storehouse And so the church that you're actually a part of is where you ought to bring your tithe Now if you're not part of a good church then you can kind of pick whatever church you want to give your ten percent to But if you're part of a local church you should give your ten percent to that church Right I don't believe that other people in the Philippines that you know really love our church should send their money to us Now we're happy when they do but their local church is really the one that's administering soul winning And paying for their building and things such as that And so the Bible says bring the tithes into the storehouse Verse eleven And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground Neither shall your vine cast your fruit before the time of the field saith the Lord of hosts And all nations shall call you blessed for you shall be a delightsome land saith the Lord of hosts So what it's saying in this passage is if you bring your ten percent God is going to bless you Now the other application you can make is if you're reading the Bible and serving God and going to church And going soul winning and doing these things God can and will bless your life Now you have to realize that you know what not all blessings are financial blessings And quite honestly a financial blessing is not the biggest blessing in your life I mean there are things that are far more important than basically just having a lot of money Right I know this example is used in the US before I think it was Andrew Carnegie if I'm remembering correctly One of the richest people in the United States but you know he was in a wheelchair most of his life You know he didn't actually physically you know have very good health And here's the thing you can have all the money in the world but there might be other areas of your life that you know aren't blessed And quite honestly there are a lot of things that are probably a lot more valuable than money Right now turn back to Haggai turn to Haggai 1 You say brother Sekio here we go church talking about money Look if you're saying that you obviously have not been at a church very much because I never talk about money Right literally it's probably less than just about any church that there is I don't bring up money and all I mentioned was the tithe which is 10% which is something God commands Anything you give above it's like you know praise the Lord God can bless you it's not required Right that's one example though that you can make from Haggai where basically you're being devoted to the Lord's house As opposed to basically your own personal house and your own personal life But it says in Haggai 1 verse 7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts consider your ways he's like consider what you're doing Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build a house and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified saith the Lord He looked for much and little came to little and when he brought it home I did blow upon it Why saith the Lord of hosts because of mine house that is waste and you run every man onto his own house And he's like once again consider what you're doing he's like I'm kind of giving you this ultimatum He's like go up to the mountain bring wood quit building your own house build the Lord's house Right quit coming here to Jerusalem and saying you're going to be devoted to God and then you're not devoted to God Look obviously in our lives there's a balance of things because I'm not saying hey forsake your job today Walk by faith not by sight just give a hundred percent of your time to God look obviously even in this day There's that balance I don't think God was saying you've got to live homeless until the Lord's house is built I don't believe that's what it's saying but I would say that you know if they've been gone for a long time in the rebuilding houses It's probably gonna take time to really make that house that they have pretty nice and he's saying basically You know what spend most of your time devoted to the Lord's house because the work of God could not get done until that was built Right there's great hindrance to soul winning in the evangelism of the world until that house was actually built And actually even being able to fully serve God with the offerings and sacrifices and things like that They needed the Lord's house to be built He mentioned in verse 9 about how you basically bring stuff home and I blow upon it And I thought about you know the wolf and the three little pigs right you know that fairytale Where it's like you know he huffs and he puffs and he blows that house down right And it's the next time you see that fairytale your kids or whatever just think of you know Haggai chapter 1 Because that's what God's saying he's like you you bring this home you bring home the wood you build your house And I'm gonna knock at that door and just just blow it down right Verse number 10 it says therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew and the earth is stayed from her fruit Now this verse is a large indication that many people were counting on basically producing food for their finances And any culture you need to have rain in order to sustain that culture This is what made you know basically Egypt this big power was simply the Nile River Right having fertile ground and what God's saying is if you don't do what I say I'm gonna curse the ground It's not gonna rain you're not gonna be able to make it in life You're not gonna be producing any food you're gonna be basically getting nothing And what he says is you know what if you spent less time devoted on your personal life And more time to God you would actually be more blessed financially why because God was in that blessing Right it's not just you and your personal work but God's gonna actually bless you Here's the thing though you say brother Stuckey I can live without the blessing of God But here's the thing if you don't have the blessing of God upon your life you have the curse of God upon your life Right you say brother Stuckey I mean I can just live a sinful life and focus on myself I can go without the blessing of God that's okay but the problem is if you're rejecting the blessing you got the cursing Can you live with the cursing right whatsoever man so if that's shall we also reap right can you live with that Because if you don't have the blessing of God on your life you're gonna have the curse of God on your life I mean the Bible says in Deuteronomy obey my commandments this was as a nation and I will bless you Don't obey my commandments I will curse you obey my commandments ye shall be my people Do not obey my commandments you're gonna be replaced right it's one or the other right that's what is being said here Then it says in verse 11 and I called for a drought upon the land and upon the mountains and upon the corn and upon the new wine and upon the oil And upon that which the ground bringeth forth and upon men and upon cattle and upon all the labor of the hands We've talked about recently how natural disasters are an act of God but so are major famines as well That's what you're seeing here it says God can send a major famine as a curse and you know what he can judge whole nations together And so if you live in a wicked country that country might be cursed by God Now I don't know if there's an alternative to living in a wicked country in 2022 but you know a whole nation can be cursed by God because of the sin that they have Right now look at verse number 12 and I completely forgot to mention the points I don't know what I'm thinking today But point number one was a denial of scripture what we saw is they completely denied scripture when they said Well you know what it's not time to build the Lord's house they came to Jerusalem for the whole purpose the sole purpose of building the Lord's house Then they make excuses and say it's actually not time to build the Lord's house and the reason why they're denying scripture is because they desire the surface level Point number two they desire for the things of this life the surface level as opposed to the heavenly right Now point number three we see a doctrination of splendor a doctrination of splendor notice what it says in verse 12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Josedek the high priest with all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God in the words of Haggad the prophet as the Lord their God had sent him And the people did fear before the Lord and so you know what we see here in verse number 12 is that hard preaching works I mean it's a pretty tough message that Haggad says basically you know what quit focusing on your personal life the surface level and start desiring the things of God I mean he's preaching very hard against them and he's saying hey if you don't obey me you're going to be cursed and what's the result then they end up obeying God You say Brother Stocky you know why can't you be more like Joel Osteen right why can't you be more like I don't know Joseph Prince or whatever TV preacher that there is right Because you know what if you just preach you know love love love grace grace grace that doesn't motivate people to make changes Right I mean just think on a basic level you know you have children and your child is doing something that's just a bit makulitz right and you don't like it you're trying to get them to change I mean you know how you get them to change a sharp rebuke or a threat of a spanking and you know what they correct it then they obey mom and dad But you know they don't obey mom and dad if you say oh please don't do that right I mean usually they're probably just going to disobey Right and so you have to actually give a sharp rebuke and here's what the Bible is saying hard preaching actually results in changes in people's lives Right now there's the balance of sermons where you're learning new doctrines but you also need the good old fashioned simple sermon that makes you feel guilty and cause you to make a change Why because all men are sinners and unless we have that sharp rebuke we're not going to make any changes that's why the Bible says cry aloud and spare not Right spare not means don't hold anything back meaning everything in this Bible I am meant to preach Okay every single verse every single line not holding back just saying what the Bible actually teaches The result is in verse 12 there's a change that takes place they start building the Lord's house again verse 13 Then spake how God the Lord's messenger and the Lord's message unto the people saying I am with you saith the Lord So God is with them if they obey right I'm with you saith the Lord and the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel governor of Judah and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedek the high priest And the spirit of all the remnant of the people and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts their God In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king now go to chapter 2 let's look at verse number 1 Chapter 2 verse 1 In the seventh month in the one and twentieth day of the month and let me just pause and think about this book being preached I mean they built the foundation of the Lord's house Now you know governmental projects probably in any country they start building this you know new building or project it's going to be completed in 12 months Now translation it's going to be completed in 12 years right it's just like you know just wait long wait long right wait a very long time is what they actually mean by that And it's just like they build the foundation and imagine you're driving by and you know you see this all over the place where there's going to be like a half finished building and then it doesn't get finished And what happens you laugh at it right you know near my parents 20 minutes away from where my parents live because I hadn't seen this in a long time it had been a long time since I visited that part of the country And you know I remember as a kid we would drive to my grandmother's because we lived in West Virginia but my grandmother lives in Pennsylvania and we would drive by a recreated full sized version of Noah's Ark Now I don't know why a church decided to spend all this money to build Noah's Ark it's like it doesn't rain that much I mean it snows a lot in West Virginia it doesn't really rain that much though so like why are they trying to recreate Noah's Ark But I guess the purpose was people would drive by and see Noah's Ark oh man I should visit that church right but I remember it was like basically half finished and to this day last I checked 30 years later they have not finished it Now it started because this Pentecostal preacher got a message directly from God to build Noah's Ark in Pennsylvania And then all of a sudden after it hadn't gotten done because they didn't have the funding he says I got a new message from God we're not supposed to finish it yet But my point is this you drive by in Pennsylvania if you're ever there and you laugh at it it's like you built half of Noah's Ark number one why are you building an Ark And God said he's not going to flood the world again and destroy it but number two it's just half finished and it's kind of like the Bible says you know who builds a building doesn't count the cost Right why would you build a building and not finish it and here's the thing money has already been spent to build the Lord's house I mean people are sending their money to get this done They're sending their money time and everything has been invested it makes no sense to stop when you haven't finished it I mean you got to make that decision ahead of time hey if I'm going to go to Jerusalem I'm going to build it until it's finished But people said hey I'm going to go to Jerusalem and then all of a sudden they just kind of throw in the towel when there's persecution it's like well you shouldn't have even gone You should have just stayed behind and sent money to those doing the work rather than going and then just basically not finishing it And that's what's taking place here it's something where literally people would laugh at the Jews having a half finished building it's like oh you got to go back to Jerusalem And here's this house for your God and it's not even finished it would cause people to mock the God of the Bible it would not cause people to glorify the God of the Bible Verse number 1 in the seventh month Haggai 2 verse 1 in the seventh month and the one and twentieth day of the month came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai saying Speak now to Zerubbim, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedek the high priest and the resident of the people saying Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory and how do you see it now is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing And what they're saying is you know what the house that we've just built and he's saying who is left among you that saw the house in his first glory Those that have been around for a long time those that when they were children they went into captivity So these are people that are a lot older just having memories of the house of the Lord and what he's saying is you know what it's in comparison of it as nothing It's not as impressive as what was built by Solomon which you know that makes sense because he would have had all the resources the time the energy The best most skilled laborers and things such as that but the reason why he's mentioning this is because there's going to be a transition in the next couple verses to the end times And this is where minor prophets and also major prophets get confusing because it's talking about a literal house and then it completely transitions And so if you're not paying close attention it can easily go over your head I mean it happens to me all the time I'm reading a chapter in the Bible and then all of a sudden I just zone out for like 45 seconds I zone back in and I'm like what is the Bible talking about Right it's like alright I gotta you know stop let me go back and see what the context is This is why I'm preaching through Haggai today because I don't expect you to get all this information in one sermon But probably a lot of us could read the book of Haggai and just be like well there's some interesting verses but what is the point of this book right Well this is the point it's during the reign of Ezra we're basically or in the book of Ezra I should say Where basically they start to build the Lord's house and they don't finish that's why there's the rebuke on focusing on your own house and not on the Lord's house Verse 4 And what God says here and actually you know go to Mark 16 I just thought of a cross reference to verse 4 of Haggai 2 I said I was not going to turn anywhere else but I thought of this verse I wanted to show you And what he said is basically work and I will be with you The implication is if you don't work I will not be with you right He says work and I'm going to be with you it's an interesting reference or cross reference to soul winning You can make a lot of applications but this is a great example Verse 15 of Mark 16 And he said unto them go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature God commands us to preach the gospel to every creature But here's the thing about this we do not believe that when we go out to preach the gospel that we're doing it in our own power Okay you say why do you say that well look at verse 20 And they went forth and preached everywhere and notice this the Lord working with them And what I've said before is the Lord works with us he does not work without us And what I mean by that is you know what if we stop soul winning as a church And everybody around the world stops soul winning and nobody even gave the gospel to their kids Every single person in the world would be unsaved in like you know 70 years or whatever 80 years 90 years whatever right You know everybody would end up being unsaved you say why because the only way to get new people saved is people preaching the gospel Because God does not work without us we're not Calvinists we're basically all of a sudden just boom somebody's saved No we have to actually do the work when we do the work the Lord works with us Well likewise guess what when they were building that building when they decided to stop God didn't finish it himself He expected them to build it and he says you build and I will work with you but what he does not do is work without us Go back to Haggai 2 Haggai 2 I didn't even think about that till just now but this just kind of shows that you know All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine I mean things from the Old Testament you can apply the New Testament And that's a principle found throughout the Bible that you know God will work with us if we do the work he does not work without us He expects us to actually do the work Verse 5 According to the word that I covenanted with you when he came up out of Egypt so my spirit remaineth among you fear ye not Then he says this in verse 6 for thus saith the Lord of hosts and this is the transition to the end times here Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land right I'm going to shake the heavens Shake the earth the sea and the dry land think about a new heaven a new earth and then he says and I will shake all nations And the desire of all nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory saith the Lord of hosts Now of course you can make applications to the house that they're building that's not the main application the Bible's making This is a reference to the millennial reign of Christ and the house that's going to be during that day And here's the thing whatever man can build is not as impressive as what God builds I remember you know a long time ago you know I saw I don't know if this is famous to people here in the Philippines But who's heard of Mount Rushmore it's like a famous thing in the U.S. And it's got like you know four presidents heads that are there that are sculpted into the mountain And for man it's a very impressive thing that man has made And it's a big tourist site and there's hiking there and things like that but I remember seeing Mount Rushmore And I remember looking at the mountains right beside Mount Rushmore and I was like I'm more impressed with the mountains That God made than the sculptures that man made And I don't know if unbelievers don't think of it this way or what I would have thought before I was saved or whatever But literally I said this mountain I mean yeah you see lots of mountains all the time but it's like it's far more impressive Because it's a beautiful area and the sculpture basically is like nothing compared to the mountains that are right there that God made And see what God makes is going to be more impressive than what man makes every single time And it says in verse 8 the silver is mine and the gold is mine sayeth the Lord of hosts The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former sayeth the Lord of hosts And in this place will I give peace sayeth the Lord of hosts And you know it talks about giving peace right Well let me ask you a question Let's say I'm wrong Let's say this is not referencing the millennial reign of Christ and he's saying I'm going to give you peace in this area From what point in human history from the book of Ezra to the present has Jerusalem had peace At what point? Never! I mean if there's a country that is involved in more warfare I mean other than maybe the United States I mean Israel It's like every single day in America growing up it's like Israel might get destroyed This Muslim nation is attacking them this Muslim nation right And I'm not trying to go into conspiracies or whatever But here's what I'm saying God says if you're righteous I will give you peace And yet you look around at countries like Israel that are supposedly God's people they don't have any peace What about the promise God gave you know what I will give you peace if you're right with me What about that part of the Bible for those that like to say the Jews are God's chosen people today And just better than the rest of us No the Bible says that you know what if you're right with me I'll actually give you peace on every side Now initially there is a fight to get the land that God gave them But then after that God said you know what if you're right with me I will give you peace on every side That is a mark of a country that is blessed by God Well this is literally talking about Jerusalem and at what point have they had peace the past couple thousand years Never right You say why because this is referencing to peace during the end times The Bible says during the end times you can basically put down your weapons because they're going to be useless You don't need them right you don't need a gun to protect yourself Right you don't need a knife to protect yourself just a knife you know to cut vegetables that's it Right but you don't need like a sword or something to protect yourself because there's going to be peace You say why because during the millennial reign God is Jesus Christ is going to be ruling and reigning And his laws will be enforced And you know what when God's laws are enforced the result is peace People are in fear of breaking God's commandments And you know people criticize God's laws in 2022 If a country adopted God's laws and followed it it would be a great place to live Right because those of us that are law abiding citizens would be happy we don't have to worry about being robbed We don't have to worry about things happening to us why because there's peace But that's not the situation we have in our present day Right so this is a reference to the peace that's going to be given And what he's doing is bringing them towards the end times Now as I said the book of Zechariah is a very confusing book But the book of Zechariah is very much talking about the end times And that's why it's so confusing but it's basically drawing you to the spiritual or the heavenly So that's where we say the doctrination of splendor because it talks about how splendid or magnificent or amazing the Lord's houses So point number one a denial of scripture point two a desire of surface level Point three is the doctrination of splendor he talks to them about you know the heavenly the magnificence of the Lord's house Point four a doctrination of spirituality Notice what it says in verse 10 In the fourth and twentieth day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying Thus saith the Lord of hosts ask now the priests concerning the law saying If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment and with his skirt do touch bread or pottage or wine or oil or any meat shall it be holy? And the priest answered and said no Then said Haggai if one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these shall it be unclean? And the priest answered and said it shall be unclean So to understand verse 13 you know imagine that you know you're walking down the street and your hands are clean You're perfectly clean you just washed your hands and you know this is your soul winning partner Okay, hopefully your soul winning partner does not do this later today, but let's say they do okay and your hands are washed They're clean and then all of a sudden you walk by you know a dead cat on the side of the road And it's like oh that cat's so cute right and you just kind of pick it up You know whatever you give it a kiss on the lips or whatever. It's just like It's a dead body. It's unclean right you were clean before that But are you clean after you pick up the dead cat? Well of course not. Imagine that same person then comes up to you and says hey you know and they go to shake your hand Right you're probably not going to want to shake hands Why? Because they're dirty because if they are unclean and they touch something that is clean What is clean will become unclean What is unclean stays unclean It does not become clean it stays unclean Or you know another example I've heard given before in sermons I don't have a cup But imagine you have like a cup of water here of you know dirty water And you got clean water here you pour the clean water into the dirty water It's still dirty water You pour the dirty water into the clean water the clean becomes dirty right And so what he's basically talking about is basically cleansing your hands And getting the sin and wickedness out of your life right It says in verse 14 And he's saying I want your whole heart I don't want you to go half in on serving God and then half out on serving God I want you to go all in and if you offer me something that's kind of in between to me it's unclean Right Verse number 15 And he's basically saying you know what You should have a fear of me I mean you were on time out for 70 years Right it's kind of like you give a kid time out for you know 5 minutes or whatever Usually that gives them a bit of fear and it's like they just got back to Jerusalem And then they're already just you know disobeying God He's like you should have a fear of me because you know I could curse you like I did before I mean I rejected you for 70 years I can reject you permanently if I want to Now the significance of the house they're building as I've said many times Is that is how you're going to accurately be able to serve God It's we're going to do the sacrifices the offerings You're going to hear the preaching the like-minded fellowship And then you go out and you preach the gospel You go out and get people saved it's so important to build the Lord's house And the application to us is a spiritual application Well what's interesting is that's really the whole focus of Ezra You can tie it together with soul winning and serving God Well you can actually do the same thing in Haggai 2 Because point number one is a denial of scripture Point two a desire of the surface level as opposed to the heavenly Point three a indoctrination of splendor the magnificence and splendor of God's house Point four a indoctrination of spirituality serving God And point five a drive of soul winning Haggai 2 ends by talking about preaching the gospel Brother Stuckey you're always talking about soul winning Well that's kind of the focal point of the Bible I mean the reason why I mean Jews it's kind of two aspects One they're disobeying God and then they're not doing what God says Which is another way of disobeying God Basically obey my commandments and go out and get people saved That's what he told the Jews Same thing to us in 2022 because notice what it says in verse 18 Verse 18 Consider now from this day and upward From the fourth and twentieth day of the ninth month Even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple is laid Consider it You know think about this Is the seed yet in the barn? You say what is the Bible trying to say? Well you know think of that parable The parable of the sower Right a very famous parable in the Bible That is not a salvation parable like a lot of people seem to think This is where people get very confused And you know people that are unsaved or very confused in the gospel You know what and I'm sure probably a lot of people have heard this They'll say well only the last group is saved Because they're the only ones that bore fruit But wait a minute Actually the last three are saved in that parable The second and third are people that get saved And they never become fruit bearing trees Or they start and then they throw in the towel And look that's usually the case with people You get people saved and they usually don't come to church You get people saved and they usually don't make changes in their life It's the rare person It's the person that are The sower is like the fourth person in the parable And sometimes it's hard for us to understand this Because obviously when you got saved You had some sort of desire to start serving God And you decided to start serving God And sometimes you can get this idea Well this is how everybody is When they get saved No no no no that's not necessarily the case Yes they have the new man that is now indwelling them But when I got saved Yeah you know what I had a desire to see other people saved And I had a fear of hell I didn't want people to go there And the day after I got saved I had my roommate in college I said you got to talk to this guy He will tell you how to get to heaven But you know probably most people that get saved They don't tell their friends Hey listen to this person give you the gospel Right? So just because you have a desire to see people get saved And you have a desire to serve God That doesn't necessarily mean that it's everybody So the parable of the sower Is a fruit that actually bears fruit But you don't have to bear fruit to be saved You have to believe on Christ to be saved Right The last group are those that become soul winners It's a soul winning parable of people we run into When we preach the gospel Now here's the thing about this The sower soweth the seed Right? Now look I'm not a farmer I'm not an expert at this So I might misspeak when I talk about farming or whatever But correct me if I'm wrong You don't just walk outside I haven't done any work Where did all these strawberries come from? Right? Where did all these avocados, blueberries, all this stuff It's amazing I just prayed to God I stepped outside And then there's all of these fruits and vegetables Right? Now you have to actually do the work Here's the thing A lot of people will pray for the unsaved everyday to get saved I just pray that my cousin will get saved I pray that my brother will get saved I pray that my dad will get saved I pray that my brother will get saved It's like how many times do you preach the gospel to them? I never have I'm waiting for them to come to me This is truth I'm being facetious, humorous But this is reality I'm telling you this I went to a church in West Virginia And they had a prayer list I thought this was a cool thing We actually tried to adopt it at our church But it didn't really work There's a lot of people that come from different areas Outside of Metro Manila And a lot of people travel here But at the church that I had Pretty much everyone that went to the church lived near the church And West Virginia is one of those states Where usually you grow up in that state And you stay there your whole life You're lifelong in West Virginia And so people had a lot of relatives That were unsaved Near our church And people had this list of like And it wasn't a big church There were only five people That are unsaved And one of my friends had an idea And he talked to the pastor and said Hey why don't we try to start talking to these people That we pray for every week Because literally these people And I get it It can be intimidating giving the gospel to your relative And sometimes it can be better for someone else To do the job Basically preach the gospel And if they offend them it's just kind of like It is what it is But if someone else can preach the gospel I mean that's great You can bring unsaved people to church And we'll preach the gospel to them Someone will preach to them when they come here But these people have been on the list for years And no one had really actually stopped to preach the gospel to them And so my friend said Well why don't we try to start On our Thursday night soul winning Just going to these locations and trying to get relatives saved I mean over the course of the next couple months People at church are rejoicing My cousin I've been praying for for 20 years And she's got saved And praise the Lord for that But my question would be Why Was the gospel not preached to them 20 years ago? Or 15 years ago? Or 10 years ago? Right? And look I get it You can preach the gospel to your relatives And you can keep preaching and they're still unsaved Still unsaved I get that But I'm just saying literally people on the list That had never heard the gospel But every single week they're being prayed for And it's great to pray for them But is the seed yet in the barn? Have you sowed that seed? Because if you don't sow the seed There's no chance Of it actually producing Right I mean imagine You're just you know You're really dedicated to serving God And you're a lifelong farmer and that's what you do And you say you know what I'm going to try a new strategy Instead of sowing seed I'm just going to pray That God will bless my land You're not going to get anything Now yet you should pray And ask God to bless your life And your job and everything Obviously involve God in your life Ask Him to bless you But is the seed yet in the barn? Because if you don't sow that seed To your unsaved relative and you just pray for them They're not going to get saved And I get it It's difficult to preach to family You know one thing I've done in my life And this is what I suggest to people I had people that were very near and dear to my heart And my family and I was intimidated To preach the gospel to them I was afraid it would cause a big family fight I'd be the bad guy And you know what I did is I planned a day where I was going to preach to them I said this will be the day I preach to them What I did is I messaged a couple Of my closest friends in the world And I said hey you know what Can you pray for me tomorrow I'm going to preach the gospel And they said sure but I said Here's the thing I don't want you to just pray For me to preach the gospel to my relative I want you to ask me tomorrow night How did the conversation go And the reason why I said that is I could come up to the opportunity And then If they're not asking me I can easily just you know Not do it or whatever And literally when I went up to the house You know and I was trying to build up the confidence I was literally in my flesh Like oh I don't want to preach to them But I was like oh man my friends are going to ask me How the conversation went It's like I can't lie about it And so I preached the gospel I wish I could say that had a happy ending Because as far as I know This person never got saved They heard the gospel twice for three hours combined I mean I gave it my effort But At least I can say the seed's not in the barn It's like I threw the seed out there Whether or not they get saved I can't do anything about that if I've taken The opportunity and the time But here's what he's basically Saying to them like hey we need to build this house Because we need to finish what we have Here that way We can throw that seed out as much As possible and try to get as many people Saved as possible Let's finish up the chapter here Is the seed yet in the barn? Yea is yet the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate And the olive tree hath not brought forth From this day will I bless you And again and you know you can think of A cross reference like the cursed fig tree In the New Testament is another reference In an idea of soul winning where it's not producing anything That's another thing you can think of That ties in the fig tree is the seed yet in the barn Verse 20 And again the Lord of the world came unto Haggai On the fourth and twentieth day of the month saying Speak to Zerubbabel governor of Judah saying I will shake the heavens and the earth And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms And I will destroy the strength of the kings of the heathen And I will overthrow the chariots and those that ride in them And the horses and the riders shall come down In that day saith the Lord of hosts Will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, with my servant The son of Shealtiel saith the Lord And will make thee as a signet For I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of hosts So The big takeaway from the book of Haggai The things that we can remember This book was written Because God's people had basically Quit serving God Because of the persecution that was coming Because of the problems and the difficulties And look The same thing is true in 2022 Obviously you know what You're here on a Sunday morning You have a desire to serve God But at the same time sometimes we kind of need that Kick in the pants to actually get the job done Right? It's like that is actually necessary So here's what you need to realize If you've made changes in your life Because of this church And preaching that you've heard Don't get mad at the preaching If certain things offend you Or you don't like the way they're said To change That is the purpose Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today And I ask you to help us to apply this to our lives Help us to understand the book of Ezra, the book of Haggai, Zachariah And all these books that are related to God And help us as a church to just throw the seed out As much as possible and get people saved In Jesus' name we pray, Amen Let's get this hymn book and let's turn to Page number 30 Let's sing the song I Know Who Holds Tomorrow Page number 30 I Don't Know About Tomorrow Lift up your voices all together Ready, sing I don't know about tomorrow I can see you from day to day I don't know about tomorrow It's not time For it's light may turn to grey I don't know about the future For I know all of what Jesus said And to Him the one place I need For He holds the least of it When He leads the world to our own I don't seem to understand What I know who holds tomorrow And I don't know who holds my hand One second everybody, sing Every step is getting brighter Past the golden stairs I climb Every word is getting lighter Every valley's silver line There a sun is always shining There no tear will leave me high At the ending of what we know Where the man may watch us die Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand What I know who holds tomorrow May I know who holds my hand I don't know about tomorrow It may bring me poverty But the one who leads the sparrow Leads the one who stands by me And the path I leave my portion Will lead me home, no better or not I'll express what's lost before me And I'll follow your latest path Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand What I know who holds tomorrow And I don't know who holds my hand I don't seem to understand What I know who holds my hand I don't seem to understand What I know who holds my hand