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

🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. We are so glad to have you here this morning, of course, for the first service at our new location here at Verity Baptist Church and I think maybe if you can help me with the mic up here I think it might be a little low and it also sounds echoey of course. We're gonna have a lot of things to kind of dial in over the next several weeks but we are so glad that you are here for the first service at the new home of Verity Baptist Church and of course there's still a lot of work that needs to be done but we are rejoicing in what the Lord has allowed us to do up to this point. To God be the glory, great things He has done and we'd like to of course begin the service with a word of prayer and let's go ahead and bow our heads and pray together. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. We thank you for allowing us to gather together today. We thank you for this great church and we thank you for this beautiful facility. Lord, we do pray that you would use this location for your honor, your glory. Help us to reach many people to have transformed lives as a result of the ministry done here at Verity Baptist Church. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Turn to song 56. We pray that we'll also praise, when we all praise the Lord. What a day, and we'll just remember Him. When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory. While we wonder, we'll never take the hill, the waters, and the sky. What a drowsy day's our own, what a sure home we'll stay. When we all get high, we'll pray, and we'll just remember Him. When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory. Let us send Him through and pray through just fine. Singing every day, we'll just remember Him. Singing every day, we'll just remember Him. When we all get high, we'll sing, and we'll just remember Him. Singing every day, we'll sing, and we'll just remember Him. We'll shout the victory, and we'll sing it out on the last. Onward to the prize we will raise. Sure His beauty will be born. Soon after He brings me along, we shall dream of Jesus' name. When we all get high, we'll pray, and we'll just remember Him. When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory. Let's sing it out. Amen. All right, well let's go ahead and take our bulletins. We'll look at some announcements real quickly. If you do not have a bulletin, just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you. If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up and we will get one for you. The verse of course this week, Psalm 118 23, this is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. That's a perfect verse to describe the miracle of Verity Baptist Church. If you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service times Sunday morning service 10 30 a.m. Of course we're glad you're with us this morning for the opening service here of our new facility, and of course we're going to ask that you just kind of just be patient with us. We've done everything we can to get ready and prepare for today, but there's still a lot that needs to be done and I'll tell you it feels like the devil is just fighting us on every step of the way. We had guys here up to like 1 a.m. last night. I mean literally putting in new water heaters, computers just breaking and all sorts of issues and all sorts of problems. With that said, let me say this. We unfortunately don't have the video being seen through the mother baby rooms. The mother baby rooms are not working right now. The screen's on there. However, we do have the two mother baby rooms in the back and they've got the windows so you can see through there and of course we've got speakers also in the foyer so you can sit there as well if you'd like. If you look at our service times, we have our Sunday evening service at 6 p.m. We do invite you to be with us tonight for the evening service Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. If you look at our soul winning times, our main soul winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. and then we have additional soul winning times on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays are postponed for now but we do have a time set aside for soul winning today at 2 p.m. if you'd like to be a part of that. If you notice there, of course, if you are a first time guest, I think we have several guests here this morning and praise the Lord for that. If you're a first time guest, we're so glad that you are with us and we have a gift we'd like to give you as you walk out of the church building this morning in our main foyer. You're going to see a little table set up and on that table you'll see these little gift bags. Please grab one on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest this morning. There are several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have. The one I like to highlight is this documentary that our church made. It's called Being Baptist. It's very well made, very interesting. We think you'll like it and we want to give this to you as a gift so please make sure you don't leave here this morning without grabbing one of these gift bags on your way out. And if you are a guest, we'd ask that you please take a moment to fill out the communication card which is inserted in your bulletin. If you need a pen, you can just raise your hand and one of our ushers will bring you by a Verity Baptist Church pen and you're welcome to keep the pen of course as a gift from us to you as well. And we're not going to do anything odd with your info. We would just like to have a record of your attendance and we would actually surely like to send you a little gift but we need your information to do that so please take a moment to fill the card out. When we're done with the announcements, we're going to sing a song. When we're done singing, we're going to receive the offering and as the offering plate goes by, you can drop this card in the offering plate or you can hand it to me after the service. I'll be standing in the foyer greeting people on the way out. I'd love for you to come by and say hello. We of course are a family integrated church. Children and infants are always welcome in the service. We do not separate children from their parents for any reason. We do have mother baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience. All of the rooms normally have screens set up so you can watch the service and listen to it. They all have comfortable seating. Right now the screens aren't working in the mother baby rooms. Just so you're aware, all the mother baby rooms are on this side of the building and then we have staff offices on this side of the building. So we'll get those going as quickly as possible. The two rooms in the back however have windows that you can see through and the speakers are working there. Of course we've got the foyer and the speakers are working there so you're welcome to sit in any of those areas as well. And if you have children that are a distraction or if you need some privacy, we do encourage you to use the mother baby rooms in those areas. And of course we always encourage in this auditorium, we're going to encourage those with small children and babies to sit towards the back. So if you don't have any small children or babies, we'd love for you to sit towards the front and then the families with small children can sit towards the back. If you need to be baptized, please let us know. We'd love to baptize you. And I think we might have the nicest baptistry in the whole world. And it's just a beautiful baptistry. We actually have a baptism today, a very special baptism for me. And if you need to be baptized, please let us know. We'd love to baptize you. And just let us know on your communication card that you'd like information about baptism. On the back you can check off that you'd like information about baptism and we'll follow up with you in regards to that. If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, of course there is a thank you there for my wife and I for all of the work that's been done over the last several months. I'm just going to take a moment if it's okay and just read this. We want to welcome you of course to the soft opening. And this is just for our friends and family as we begin this new building. This is not the grand opening service. This is just for our church family and our friends to open. We're going to have a big grand opening service on Easter Sunday, March 31st. So just stay in tune for that. This we're calling our soft opening, although we already this morning have 292 people in church. So praise the Lord for that. That's an amazing number there. And I think that might already be a record attendance for us on a Sunday morning. BBC, let me just read this thank you if you would not mind. BBC family, thank you very much. Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time to help us on the work days, cleaning days, and moving days. We appreciate your time, support, and tireless effort to help us prepare our new building. Your hard work and willingness to lend a helping hand have been nothing short of remarkable and we could not have made it here without you. We are excited for this new chapter in our church's history and pray that the Lord uses our new church property for his glory. We appreciate every one of you and pray that the Lord blesses you for your labor of love. We love you all dearly. Thank you very much. God bless you sincerely Pastor Roger and Joanne Jimenez. So again just thank you very much all of you. There's other announcements here we want you to be aware of. Of course vision offering is this coming Sunday. This next Sunday, March 3rd is our big vision offering. You should have one of these inserts in your bulletin regarding the vision offering. We just want you to be aware of that. We're of course raising money for the HVAC system for this building. We've got the Next Generation Youth Rally, the Red Hot Preaching Conference. We're continuing to support our missionaries in the Philippines. Dave Kabuntala in Cebu and of course Pastor Stuckey. We support him full-time in Manila, Pampanga, Bicol. They've got a church in Poland as well. So just be aware that next week you will have an opportunity to bring a one-time gift to the vision offering. You'll also have the opportunity to make a commitment to the vision offering and you can commit to give over the next several months, April, May and June. You can give at the vision offering and make a commitment, all of that, whatever you'd like. But next week will be the vision offering. You can give here in person. You can give online and we're asking the Lord. Last year I challenged our church families to raise a hundred thousand dollars in one vision offering and we blew that out of the water. This year I'm asking the Lord to help us do it again and the big need right now is going to be air conditioning. We've got 292 people in this building right now and but it's not going to be this cool a few months from now and we're going to have to put some air conditioning or do something. So be praying about the vision offering and then we want you to be aware there's a special guest preacher that's going to be with us on Wednesday, March 6th. We want you to be aware of that. Pastor Steven Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist Church is going to be preaching for us here on Wednesday, March 6th. It's not this Wednesday but I think the Wednesday after that. So just to be excited about that, get excited about that, make plans to be here of course for Pastor Anderson when he is guest speaking for us and then we want you to also be aware of the Next Generation Youth Rally on April 9th and 10th. If you've got teenagers 13 to 19 years old then we need to get them registered for the youth rally. I feel like something went wrong and I'm looking up there and they're all gone. Some people got raptured and they're not there anymore but if somebody could help me with that that would be great. Maybe find someone that could help me with that. Thank you Brother Sha. And all right so this is why the grand opening service is not today so that we can get all these things dialed on. Okay so the Next Generation Youth Rally, we just want you to be aware if you've not yet signed up we need you to register your teenagers because we need to get them on teams, we need to get the shirts ordered for them, we need to have their size. So you can do that on your communication card or you can do it online on our website so make sure you do that. Homeschool group they've got PE calls this Thursday, February 29th at 10 a.m. So don't forget about that. Choir practice today at 5 p.m. They're going to be practicing for Easter. There's other things there for you to look at. Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off or place them on silent during the service so they're not a distraction to anybody. If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of February. Today is brother Mike Deas with Squali's birthday, February 25th. Also Isabel Johnson has a birthday today, February 25th. And then later this week we have Elijah Usher's birthday, February 27th. Miss Julissa Zuniga has a birthday, February 28th. Brother Mike and Miss Blanca Biel have an anniversary on February 28th. And Valente and Miss Nicole Perez have an anniversary on February 28th. You can look at the back of the bulletin there, you'll see our praise report, money matters. I do want you to see special just attention there and some instructions that we've got several upstairs areas and those are off limits, all right. We do not want anybody in the upstairs areas at all, especially children, especially children. So we do not want your children going upstairs that way, upstairs this way. It's a family integrated church so please watch your kids and don't let them go to those upstairs areas. If you could help us with that we would really appreciate it. I think that's it for all of the announcements. When we first came, when we first closed on this property here, I brought the church family over on our Sunday night to take a look at it and we sang a song that evening that we don't sing very much, but we sang a song together called Nothing is Impossible and I've chosen that as a chorus of the week this week. I'd like for us to sing it together. You should have the insert there in your bulletin. If you remember it from that night, I'd ask or if you know the song, I'd ask that you sing it out. If you don't know it, let's sing it together. It's a short one so we're going to sing it through twice, all right. On the first there, Nothing is impossible when you put your trust in God. Nothing is impossible when you're trusting in his word. Are you a choice of God to lead? Are you a change of heart for me? Nothing is impossible when you put your trust in God. Nothing is impossible when you're trusting in his word. Are you a choice of God to lead? Are you a change of heart for me? Nothing is impossible when you're trusting in his word. Nothing is impossible when you're trusting in his word. One more time as we prepare to receive the offering this morning. Sing it out on the first there. Nothing is impossible when you put your trust in God. Nothing is impossible when you're trusting in his word. Are you a choice of God to lead? Are you a change of heart for me? Nothing is impossible when you're trusting in his word. Nothing is impossible when you're trusting in his word. Nothing is impossible when you're trusting in his word. Amen, good singing. We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time. And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you and we thank you for allowing us to gather together today. Lord, we thank you for this great facility. Lord, we do pray that you'd help us over the next several weeks to get everything dialed in and get everything going and ready. And for Easter, of course, and Lord, we ask that you'd meet with us this morning. We pray that you'd bless the offering, the gift and the giver. And we do pray that you would bless the vision offering next week, that you'd help us to raise the money that we need to raise and do the things we need to do. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Turn your Bibles to Haggai chapter one. Haggai chapter one. If you do not have a Bible, please raise your hand and Anasher will bring you one. Haggai chapter one. We will read the entire chapter as is our custom. Haggai chapter one. Just keep your hands up and Anasher will bring you a Bible. Haggai chapter one. Bible reads, 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 under Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadek, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This 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 Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore, thus sayeth the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in 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 into bags with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye look for much, and, lo, it came to little. And when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts, Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. 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. Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadec the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord. Then spake Haggai the Lord's messenger and the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am 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 Jehozadec, 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 the hosts their God, in the four and 20th day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for this day. Thank you for allowing us to come together. Please bless pastor in the message. Please let it bring glory and honor to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray, amen. Amen. All right, well we're there in Haggai chapter number one. I'd like you to keep your place there if you wouldn't mind, and go with me to the book of 1 Kings, 1 Kings chapter number eight. Please keep your place there in the book of Haggai. We're gonna come back to it to put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there if you would not mind, and go to 1 Kings chapter number eight. If you can find the one and two books, they're all clustered together, 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 1 Kings chapter number eight. And of course this morning is the first service here in our new building, and like I said, please just bear with us as we try to get all these things figured out and situated. It's a beautiful building, but it creates quite an echo, and of course with new sound systems and all that, then we are gonna have to just figure out how to play with these things. Today we are dedicating, of course, this building unto the Lord, and the Bible actually talks a lot about dedicating buildings and helping people dedicating sanctifying buildings unto the Lord. And this morning I wanna preach a sermon entitled The Dedication, and I'll be honest with you, it's not gonna be a normal sermon like maybe what you're used to, so I'll just kinda give you a heads up as to what I'd like to do this morning. First of all, I would like to give a dedication for the building. I would also like to take some time to give some appreciation for the building. Of course, I'm never gonna stand up and open the word of God without giving some sort of application for this building. And then I would like to end with a benediction for the building. And if you're there in 1 Kings chapter number eight, keep your place there in Haggai 1, 1 Kings chapter eight. 1 Kings chapter eight is, of course, the chapter in which Solomon dedicates the temple to the Lord. Solomon was used of God to build the temple. If you remember, David had in his heart to build a temple to build a house unto the Lord, and David began to prepare for that work, but Solomon was the one that actually carried it through and built the temple, and in 1 Kings chapter eight, I'm hearing all sorts of feedback, if you could help me with that. I don't know what they can hear and what I can hear, but if somebody could help me with that, that'd be great. 1 Kings chapter eight, of course, we have Solomon is dedicating this temple unto the Lord. I want you to notice there in 1 Kings chapter eight in verse one, the Bible says this, then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel unto King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. Skip down to verse number four, notice what it says. And they brought up the ark of the Lord and the tabernacle of the congregation and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle, even those that the priests and the Levites bring up. And of course, we've been learning about the tabernacle and the ark in our Hebrew studies. So they're bringing this ark, they're bringing it into the temple, look at verse six, and the priest brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord, unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims. Look at verse number 10, and it came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priest could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. I want you to notice that here, when Solomon dedicates this temple unto the Lord, the Bible tells us that the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, and the glory of God, of course, came. We saw this also when Moses dedicated the tabernacle, we see it here with Solomon dedicating the temple, and this is the way of God showing that he approves of this location. He approves of this building. The glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Skip down to verse number 63. This is a long chapter, 1 Kings chapter eight. There's a lot of verses to it, and I'm not gonna cover all the verses this morning, but skip down to verse number 63 and notice what the Bible says. And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the Lord, 220,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. Notice the last part of verse number 63. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord. And we see in the Bible that oftentimes when buildings are being commissioned for the use of God, that there is a dedication process. There is a dedication oration and a prayer, a benediction that is given to dedicate that location. And I would love for us to be able to do that this morning to take a few minutes to dedicate this building unto the Lord. And I'd like to just highlight for you from this passage, just several things that Solomon highlighted when he dedicated this building. And of course, when Solomon dedicated the building, he said a special prayer, but before that he spoke words unto the people of God regarding the use of that house. And I'd like to just highlight that for you this morning and show it to you quickly if you're taking notes and maybe you'd like to jot these things down. But I'd like you to notice in verse number 25, 1 Kings 8, verse 25, we see that the house, the temple, the original temple is dedicated to being a place that prepares the next generation. I want you to notice how the things that Solomon dedicated the temple to in many ways are parallel to the things that we are going to be dedicating and that we are dedicating this building to. And one thing that Solomon brings up is the fact that he wants to dedicate the temple to be a place that prepares the next generation. Look at verse 25 there. Therefore now, Lord God of Israel, keep with thy servants David, my father, that thou promised him saying, there shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel so that thy children take heed to their way. Notice those words, so that thy children take heed to their way that they walk before me as thou has walked before me. So notice that Solomon says, one thing that we want to happen in this temple is that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me. And I would say this morning that one reason that we want to use this facility and use this building and use this property, one thing that we want to dedicate this location to is that thy children take heed to their way and that they walk before God. We see that the house was dedicated here to be a place that prepares the next generation. Not only that, but we see that the house is also dedicated to be a place of prayer. Look at verse 29, 1 Kings 8, 29, that thine eyes may be opened toward this house. This is Solomon speaking, night and day, even toward the place of which thou has said, my name shall be there. Notice the last part of verse 29, that thou mayest hearken unto the prayers which thy servants shall make toward this place. Solomon has said, this is going to be a place where prayer is going to take place and prayer is going to be directed. And he says, we dedicate this temple to be a place of prayer. And I want to say this, that we want to dedicate this church house to be a place of prayer as well. Jesus said, you don't have to turn here, but Jesus said in Mark 11, 17, he said, my house shall be called of all nations, the house of prayer. And if there's any place, and obviously we can pray anywhere and we don't have to go to a special location or a special place in order to pray. But here the Bible says that if there's any location, any place that should be a place of prayer, it ought to be the house of God. And we see that Solomon's dedicated the temple to be a place of prayer. And I want to dedicate this building to be a place of prayer. This is why on Wednesday nights at our church, we take time to go through a prayer list and we pray through the request of our church family. Why? Because Jesus said, my house shall be called of all nations, the house of prayer. So we want to dedicate this place to be a house of prayer. But I want you to notice thirdly, if you go to verse number 33, 1 Kings 833, not only do we see that He dedicated it to be a place that prepares the next generation and a place of prayer, but I want you to notice that Solomon also dedicated the temple to be a place where people can get right with God. Notice there 1 Kings 833, when thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, notice what he says, because they have sinned against thee and shall turn again to thee and confess thy name and pray and make supplication unto thee in this house, then hear thou in heaven and forgive the sin of thy people Israel and bring them again unto the land which thou gave us unto their fathers. Here Solomon says, I want this to be a place where when the people have sinned against thee, he says, and that when they turn again to thee and confess thy name, he says in verse 34, forgive the sin of thy people. What's he saying? He's saying, I want this temple to be a place where people can get right with God. And in the same way, I want to say this morning that I want this building, I want this location, I want this church place to be a place where people can come and get right with God. Where people can come and confess their sin and get close to God and learn to walk with God. So we see that it's a place to prepare the next generation. We want this place to be a place to prepare the next generation. We're literally hosting a conference called the Next Generation Youth Rally, why? Because we want to prepare the next generation. We want this to be a place of prayer. We want this to be a place where people get right with God. Not only that, notice verse 41. Solomon says that he wants to dedicate the temple to be a place that brings unbelievers to the Lord. Notice what he says here in 1 Kings 8 41. He says, moreover, concerning a stranger, a stranger is a foreigner, someone outside. Of course, we know that this is in the Old Testament and God's people are the children of Israel and he's referring to people that are outside of the community of believers, the children of Israel. He says, concerning a stranger, a foreigner that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country. He says, for thy name's sake, for they shall hear of thy great name and of thy strong hand and of thy stretched out arm, when he shall come and pray toward this house, hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for, that all the people of the earth may know thy name to fear thee, as do thy people Israel, and that they may know that this house, which I have built in, is called by thy name. Solomon said, I want one thing to happen in this temple, and I'm dedicating this temple to be a place where the stranger, the foreigner, the individual that is not of thy people, that they might come and call for thee. And in the same way, we want this building to be a place where people can come and get saved, where people that are not in the community of believers, they're not saved, they're not believers, they're not in the household of Israel, we want them to be able to come here and learn how to call upon the name of the Lord that they might be saved. Solomon said, I'm dedicating this building to be a place where people can come to the Lord. And I want to say this morning that we want to dedicate this building to be a place where people can come to Christ. People can come to the Lord. So we see that he dedicated it for the next generation, dedicated it to be a place of prayer, dedicated it to be a place where people can get right with God, dedicated it to be a place where unbelievers can come to the Lord. And I want you to notice, not only that, in verse 44, we see the fifth thing that he dedicates the building for, and he dedicates it to be a place that fights the Lord's battles. Notice verse 44, he says, if thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and they shall pray unto the Lord toward this city, which thou has chosen and toward the house that I have built for thy name, then hear thou in heaven, their prayer and their supplication. I love this little phrase. In fact, if you don't mind marking things in your Bible, I'd ask you to underline this phrase. He says, and maintain their cause. He says, I want this to be a place, I want this to be a building where when your people go out to battle, and of course he's referring to battling for the Lord, he says, I want you to maintain their cause. I want you to support them and help them in that battle. And I would say this, that this beautiful building, it's a grand building, it's a beautiful building, it's a beautiful location we have here, but let us never forget that we are a spiritual army engaged in a spiritual warfare. And I also want to dedicate this building to be a place where the Lord's battles can be fought, where we can fight on behalf of truth and right and the word of God, where we can take a stand for the things of God. And look, don't let the chandeliers fool you and don't let the beautiful beams fool you. We're gonna preach all the controversial parts of the Bible as the accepted parts of the Bible. We're gonna preach the whole counsel of God. And if it brings the enemy and spiritual warfare against us, then we'll fight the Lord's battles. We're dedicating this building to be a place that will not only see people saved, praise God, not only help people get right with God, praise the Lord, not only bring up the next generation to serve God, but we want this to be a place that fights the Lord's battles as well. That if thy people go out to battle, that God, we're asking God that He would maintain our cause and that He would help us. Why don't you notice a sixth thing. If you look at verse 57, the sixth thing that he dedicates this house to, the house is dedicated to being not only a place for the next generation, not only a place of prayer, not only a place where people get right with God, not only a place where unbelievers come to Christ, not only a place to fight the Lord's battles, but I want you to notice sixthly this morning that it is a place to help people walk with God. Look at verse 57. The Lord our God, I love these words, He says, be with us. The Lord our God be with us. And as He was with our fathers, let Him not leave us nor forsake us. He says that He may incline, I love the way this is worded here in verse 58, the way that Solomon says it under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. He says that He, God, may incline our hearts unto Him. Let us always remember that the goal is God. The goal is for God to bring us unto Himself, to draw us close to Himself. And here Solomon says, I want to dedicate this building and I want to dedicate this temple that it might be a place that God would incline our hearts unto Him. To walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers. And I would say to you this morning that I pray that this building would also be a place that would be used of God to incline our hearts unto Him. To draw us close to Him. That this would be a place that is dedicated to being a place that helps people walk with God and helps people learn how to walk with God. And I'd like you to notice seventhly this morning, just the seventh thing here in this dedication. We see that Solomon dedicates the temple to being a place that prepares the next generation and to being a place of prayer. A place where people can get right with God and a place that brings unbelievers to Christ. A place that fights the Lord's battles and a place that helps people walk with God. I want you to notice lastly here in this list of dedication that he dedicates it to be a place that makes God known in all the earth. Notice 1 Kings 8.59. And let these my words wherewith I made supplication before the Lord be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause of His servants and the cause of the people Israel at all times as the matter shall require. I want you to notice verse number 60 here. He says that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is none else. For years and years and years, our church has had as the theme that all the earth may know. And don't worry, it's the themes coming back. This isn't done yet where you still have things to do here with this main wall. But we want this to be a building where it could be said that from this place, all the earth is known. And I'm thankful for our church and Verity Baptist Church. I can honestly say that our church has had an impact globally that the love of this church and the gospel of this church and the work of this church has been known throughout this country and even throughout the world. We want to continue to be a place that makes God known that all the people of the earth may know, that all the earth may know that there is a God in heaven. So we want to dedicate this building. And I think that the dedication of Solomon fits well to the next generation, a place of prayer, a place where we can get right with God and people can get right with God, where we can bring unbelievers to Christ, where we can fight the Lord's battle and help people walk with God and that this would be a place that all the earth may know. So like I said this morning as I began, I gave you several things that we'd like to do today. And the first thing I'd like to do is give a dedication. And I hope that helps you understand and have some clarity. Why would we purchase this building? Why would we spend the last several months remodeling and working at this building and trying to get these facilities ready? And obviously they're still not 100% ready and we're gonna keep working at it and keep trying to get it dialed in and where it needs to be, why? Because of these things, because we want people to come here and get saved. We want people to come here and learn to walk with God. We want people to come here and get right with God. We want people to come here and raise their children for God. We want people to come here and to have prayers answered. We want people to come here and to help us fight the Lord's battles that all the earth may know. That's what we dedicate this building to. But I'd like to this morning as well not only give a dedication, but I'd also like to give appreciation for this building. The Bible says in Romans chapter 13 in verse number seven, you don't have to turn there I'll just read this for you. Romans chapter 13 in verse seven the Bible says this, render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear. And then the Bible has this little phrase it says honor to whom honor. Honor to whom honor. The Bible teaches that we ought to render therefore to all their dues. And one thing that we should render to people is honor to whom honor is due. And I'd like to take just a little bit of time this morning if you'd allow me to. Not only to give a dedication for this building, but to give some appreciation for this building. Now I'm gonna do something we don't normally do here at a church and I'm gonna ask you to do some things for me and interact in some ways and if you'd like to you can if you don't want to that's okay too. But I want to just take a moment and appreciate all of the men who came to a work day. And I'm just gonna ask if you are a man that came to a work day, any work day, I'd like to ask you to stand just for a minute if you would not mind. If you came to a work day it doesn't matter what work day, doesn't matter how long you were there, even if you were there just for two minutes, even if you were just there to drop off your wife. I'd like you to stand for the if you're a man that went to any work day. Since October of 2023 our church has been working tirelessly to get this building done and it's not been done through hired hands although we've hired people here and there to do certain things but it's been primarily these men that are standing right now. And I want to take a moment and just acknowledge all of these men for everything that they've done and I'd just like for us to give them a round of applause. Thank you men, you may be seated. However, it wasn't just the men. We also had ladies that helped and I'm going to ask the ladies and I know the ladies can be a little more shy but I'm going to ask the ladies if you're a lady that helped in any way, if you came to any of the cleaning days, if you prepared a meal, if there's anything that you did to help with this building, I'd like to ask the ladies if you would not mind standing for a minute. We want to just take a moment to acknowledge you and appreciate you as well. Here's the real workforce right here. If you help move, and let's give these ladies a round of applause. God bless you ladies, you may be seated. And of course these ladies, they helped multiple cleaning days, they provided meals for the men while they were working, they did all sorts of things and we appreciate that. And of course, there's always an issue when you start appreciating people that you're going to miss somebody. And I want to say this, we want to appreciate everybody. Everybody who's done anything to help our church. We want to acknowledge you and we also are hoping that you, of course, understand that. And we understand that you didn't do it for us, you did it for the Lord. Anything we do here, we do for the Lord. And even if you don't get the credit or acknowledgement that you think maybe you deserve, just know that the Lord is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love. I wanted to begin by acknowledging everybody because everybody, no matter how much you did, all the men and the ladies, it's an amazing work that was done here at our church. However, with that said, there are some individuals that I think deserve just some special recognition. Because to be very honest with you, not everybody worked in an equal capacity. And I don't mean that to say anything negative towards anyone, all I want to do is, in a positive way, acknowledge some individuals that really went above and beyond and helped us with some things. I'm gonna ask some guys, and I did not tell them this in advance, and maybe I should have, but I don't want to. And then, of course, asking people to do things on the spot might be difficult for them. But I'm gonna ask several guys, if they would not mind, coming up to stand here in front of the pulpit because we have a little gift we'd like to give them, a little card we'd like to give them, and I'd like to just give them a little bit of acknowledgement. I've got several guys that I think deserve some special recognition. I'm gonna start this morning with Brother Joel Usher. Brother Joel Usher would not mind coming up here. Come on up. I'm gonna have Brother Oliver can help you get directed there. But let me, obviously, these men, everything that they did, everything they've done was for the Lord. They did not do it to get any recognition. They did not know I was gonna do this this morning, and I'm sorry for doing that to you. But I just wanna say, regarding Brother Joel, obviously he put a lot of work and effort into this location. But I can honestly say, without his leadership and direction, we could not have done this. And just from the first moment when we first got the building, I took a group of the contractors into my office and began to talk to them about these things. And Brother Joel was just the first one to say, we can do it. And he began to plan and prepare things. And honestly, we couldn't be here if it wasn't for just the direction of Brother Joel, the leadership of Brother Joel. We have a small gift here that we'd like to give Brother Joel. And honestly, it's really a token of our appreciation. It's not anything worth writing home about. But we could not pay these men back for the amount of time they spent and work that they spent, the skills they gave us. But we do want to just acknowledge them and appreciate them. So Brother Joel, thank you. Thank you very much. Don't clap just yet, all right? You're gonna get tired clapping. Brother Joel, please stay there because we're gonna want to get a picture. So please stay there for a second. But I got a few other guys I'd like to call up. Secondly, I'd like to ask Brother Adam Gessler. Brother Adam Gessler, where's Brother Adam at? Brother Adam, come on up. And Brother Adam is another man Brother Adam is another man that just helped us a lot as well. And obviously, we didn't keep track of these things and I don't know that this is the case. But if I had to guess, it's really between two guys. If I had to guess, I would say that Brother Adam probably gave us the most man hours of anybody. I mean, he was here every day, just dependable. Honestly, the most dependable. As the staff and I talked about these men, one word that kept coming up of Brother Adam was just dependable. Every time that something needed to be done and we didn't know how to do it and we couldn't YouTube it or whatever, we just couldn't figure it out. It was always, Brother Adam will help us. Brother Adam will help us. And for that, we are thankful. So we have a small gift here for Brother Adam as well. And we'd like to, of course, honor him. There's a third guy I'd like to bring up here, if you would not mind. And that is Brother Vladi Vakulcik. Brother Vladi took care of the baptistry area. And I mean, honestly, I think we probably have the nicest baptistry of any church that I've ever known, that I know of, unless he built a baptistry somewhere else. That, I mean, the baptistry, he also just honored me. I didn't, you know, let me just go ahead and say this up front. I didn't ask for this, but Brother Vladi just took it upon himself to put a nice bathroom in my office. And it's so nice. It kind of makes me feel like a false prophet, but he wanted to honor me in that way and I appreciate him. And just, Brother Vladi was here many nights, just working away. And even last night, they're, you know, finishing up this baptistry, they go to test it and we find that the water heater isn't working. And Brother Vladi, Brother Joel were here last night. They found a Home Depot that's open till 10 p.m. and they literally went out at 9.30, came back with a water heater and installed it last night. So we could have, I mean, this is the kind of work that these men have done. It's just an amazing amount of work. And again, I hope you understand my heart. I'm not trying to belittle any of the work that anybody else did, but the amount of work that was done by these men is just an amazing amount and I want to appreciate them. So Brother Vladi, we have a small gift here for you and I want to say it to you. Thank you, Brother Adam. I want to say thank you, Brother Joel. I got one more guy, if you don't mind, just one more guy. And that is Brother Scott Sweetin. I'm gonna ask Brother Scott Sweetin to come up here. Please do not mind coming up here. Brother Scott Sweetin is a unique guy in this. He just got back from the Philippines. You didn't get the memo, you're supposed to wear a burgundy coat. No. Brother Scott Sweetin's a little different than these guys. These guys are all contractors. They're in the construction trade. Brother Scott is an engineer. And, but I just want to, it's hard for me to know, but I would say as far as people that worked every day and gave us hours, it's honestly between Brother Adam and Brother Scott. In fact, I'll just have to check their check-ins, their hours that they accumulated, maybe if they kept track of that. But Brother Scott was here every day. I mean, he's not a contractor, like I said, he's an engineer, but he's a handy guy. And he was here every day. And he helped us with so many things. And here's the amazing thing about Brother Scott. He did it all while working nights. I mean, literally, he would go into work at, what time did you go into work, Brother Scott? 8 p.m., work all night long. And every day, Monday, Tuesday, not Wednesday, because he had church on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, he'd work all night long, and then he'd be here at 9 a.m., and he'd give us three to four hours every day. I mean, just an amazing, amazing amount of sacrifice. I mean, good night. He literally got off the plane from the Philippines and came here yesterday and was here till 11 p.m., straining up these chairs because they were all crooked. So Brother Adam is just an amazing amount of hours. And again, I hope you understand my heart. I appreciate all the men, everyone who came, everyone who showed up. We had a lot of guys that came, but these guys just went above and beyond. They were here for so many hours. They did so many things. There's no way that we could ever repay them. Literally, if they charged us, we could not pay them. And I know they didn't do it for that. They did it for the Lord, but we do want to appreciate them. So we have Brother Scott, a small gift here for you, and we wanna just acknowledge you, and I wanna say thank you to Brother Scott, Brother Vladi, Brother Adam, Brother Joel, for your work. Let's give them all a round of applause. Can we get a picture? Is that okay if we get a picture? All right, you men may be seated, and we appreciate you. And these men really carried this project forward. And again, not to minimize anybody else, they did carry the project forward. There's other men that I want to acknowledge as well, just because really there was kind of tears to this thing. These guys did it. They got it done, and we honestly, I don't think we could have done it without them. But there was other men that, of course, were crucial in their help as well. Like I said, this morning's gonna be a little bit different of a sermon, but if you would not mind, I just feel like it's right to give honor to whom honor is due. So I wanna acknowledge, first of all, let me start, I've got several groups I wanna acknowledge. Let me start with another group here. I'm not gonna ask these guys to come up here because they're everywhere and they're doing things, but one group that I want to acknowledge is the staff. Brother Oliver and Brother David and Brother Shaw just put in an insane amount of hours. I mean, all the hours that these guys were here, those guys were here as well. Obviously, they're on staff and they work, but we don't pay them enough for the amount of hours. Like I said, Brother Oliver, Brother Shaw were here till one in the morning last night, just getting things ready and getting things situated. They have put in many, many, many hours. They can't do much, but they were here. No, and I'm kidding. They've actually learned a lot in this process. They've become quite the skilled laborers themselves, but honestly, and Brother Dave is very good with handy stuff. Brother Oliver's good with handy stuff. Brother Shaw was actually pretty amazing at some of the things we did here that I can't talk about on livestream, but they did, they put in a lot of work. They were an extreme support, just anytime, because we have so many random guys coming and going all hours of the night, because many of these guys were just coming in at night. I mean, from like six in the morning to 11 p.m., we had guys saying, I'm coming to the building. Is there somebody there? And these guys, every time, without complaint, yeah, we'll be there. We're opening the door for you. We got it. They were running. You know, if you know anything about construction, you've got guys working, and you've got guys going back and forth to Home Depot and all sorts of different places, and the staff guys, they just, they took care of it. They worked long, they worked hard, and they did a wonderful job. So let's give the staff guys a round of applause. And then I've got another group, if you don't mind. I'm not going to ask them to come up here, but I am going to ask them to stand, and again, these are not guys, these guys just went above, just went above, and they really helped us, and I guess, I don't know how to call, what to call them other than maybe honorable mentions, but I do want to mention them. One is Brother Ron Edwards. Brother Ron, would you mind standing? I'm going to ask these guys to stand, if they don't mind. I'm not sure, maybe he's not here. Oh, here he is, Brother Ron, okay. Brother Ron, please stand, all right? And Brother Ron just, I mean, just put in a lot of work and helped us with a lot of different things. And here's the interesting thing about Brother Ron, he's literally helped us since the first building project in the first building. He's been with us since the house, meeting in the living room, and Brother Ron has been a great help, even here last night, just helping, and he's been showing up to work days, and of course, he has his own projects and things he's doing, but given us a lot of time. Another individual I want to acknowledge is Brother Ray Anderson. Brother Ray Anderson, okay, I know he's here, I saw him standing. You want to stand up? He doesn't want to stand up, and I want to ask him to stand up. Brother Ray, and... brother Ray's another one. Please keep standing if you can, if you're able to. Brother Ray, of course he's been with us since the house as well. Electrical, there's so many electrical things in this building that we couldn't have done without Brother Ray and his help, so I just want to ask him to stand. I've got several names here, so let me go through all these names and then we'll clap for all of them, if you don't mind. Another individual I want to acknowledge is Brother Warren Lauterman. Brother Warren, is Brother Warren here? Let's have him stand. Brother Warren, thank you. Brother, yeah, you want to clap, let's clap. Brother Warren. You know, I want to say Brother Ray and Ms. Denise, they've been with us obviously since the house and we appreciate them. Brother Warren and his wife, they're relatively newer to our church, but he just jumped in, he's an electrician, and again, just when it came to the electrical, just specific, real specific things that we needed help with that we could not have done, he was always just willing to jump in and help us, and we appreciate him, of course. Another individual I want to acknowledge is Brother Mauricio, Brother Mauricio Hernandez. Is he here? He might not be here, where's he at? He doesn't want to get up. Brother Mauricio, this guy is just a worker. I don't know how else to describe him. He's just a workhorse, and when things just needed to get done, and we didn't have to feed him, he just worked, and we appreciate Brother Mauricio. I can't even explain all the things that he helped us with that he did. Another individual I want to acknowledge is Brother Aidan Roldan, Brother Aidan. Brother Aidan, if you don't mind, I don't know where they're at. We got the guys ushering as well, so I'm not sure if they're all in here, but Brother Aidan's in here. I'd like for him to stand, or if he's back there, maybe you guys can bring him in, but Brother Aidan, just again, all around everything, just here, there, whenever we needed. A lot of times, I kept going, we had situations where I kept going to the guys and saying, we need somebody to take care of this, and it was just, I think Brother Aidan could help us with that. There he is, Brother Aidan, and it was always, always, his name kept coming up. I think Brother Aidan could help us with that. Well, let's call him, and we'd call him, and I mean, always, he would just come and give us time, and it was amazing. I don't think this person here, I think they're in the Philippines, but Brother Jacob Shaboyan, I think he's in the Philippines still, so he's not here, but Brother Jacob's another guy, just, I don't know, gave us a lot of hours, just more than, I mean, everybody put in time, but more than you would expect someone, just here every day. Brother Jacob's not necessarily a skilled laborer, but he's not in that type of trade, but he was just willing to help with anything and everything, and he was a huge help. Brother Nate, where's Brother Nate? I know he's in here somewhere. Brother Nate's back there, all right. He's already standing, because he's a safety guy. But Brother Nate, again, just electrical engineer, super specific skills we needed help with. These lights, you should be shocked how complicated this whole system is, and Brother Nate just stepped in and helped us with these things, and we appreciate that. One more guy, Brother George, Brother George McQueen. Where's Brother George at? Is he, Brother George, and Brother George, again, worker, showed up to work days, but big thing he helped us with, we've got this gas pipe over here that needed to be moved, and he just, he brought tools that nobody even knew existed, and he saved this building from being blown up, is pretty much, that's why he's standing, and he just, I was trying to blow it up, but he helped us with that, and I just wanna give him honorable mention, so let's give him, let's give them all a round of applause. All right, you guys can be seated. I'm actually not done yet, I've got a few more, if you don't mind, I've got a few more. You go to Haggai chapter one, go to Haggai chapter one, let me just give a few more. One other person I want to acknowledge, I'm not gonna ask her to stand, because she will kill me, but it's my wife, my beautiful wife, your pastor's wife, Ms. Joanne Jimenez. And I could not, I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't, I could not have done, I can't do anything without her, and I couldn't have done this without her. And just leading the ladies, the cleaning crew, organizing all the meals, and you'd be shocked how many of these rooms she painted herself. I mean, she was laboring and working, and helping, so I want to acknowledge my wife. I want to acknowledge also the teen boys. I'm not gonna name them all, I'm not gonna have them stand, but we have a group of teen boys that were just helpful during the whole projects, showing up and being, you know, obviously they're teens, but they were willing, they had good attitudes. Every time I spoke to the staff, you know, how the teen's doing, you always say they have good spirits, they're helping, they're being helpful, we appreciate them. And so I want to acknowledge the teen boys. And then I've got another group, if that's okay. And I just want to, these are individuals that just took care of some very special things, and I think we should acknowledge them, and I want to acknowledge them. The first is Brother Jose Cruz. I'm gonna ask Brother Jose if he wouldn't mind standing. And Brother Jose has taken care of the landscaping around here, and let me just say a couple things about Brother Jose. He's not the only one, there's been other men that have helped him, but I just want to say this. Brother Jose owns a landscaping business on several occasions, several occasions since October. He has brought his employees, while he's paying them, and taking care of this landscaping, including this weekend, and obviously hasn't charged us a cent, has just covered those costs, and I just want to acknowledge him for that, and appreciate him for helping with that. And I appreciate him for helping with that. And I appreciate him for helping with that. And I appreciate him for helping with that. Brother Jose, you may be seated. Just a couple of honorable mentions as well. I want to mention my dad, Felix Jimenez. He's not here, he's actually in Venezuela, but he built this pulpit, and he did an amazing job, and I told him, here's what I want, and he did it, and he did a great job. I do want to just real quickly acknowledge Brother Jay Miller. Also, Brother Joe Loqueto was helping Brother Jay, but putting the cameras through this building, and working on that, and we appreciate that help, and that's something that we could not have done, and he's, I don't know that he, he doesn't feel like he can do it either, but he's doing it, and he's learning how to do it, and he's growing his skills, and we appreciate him for it. I also want to acknowledge Brother David Puris. Brother David Puris put a beautiful sign out there yesterday, and he took care of that. He took it upon himself to get that going, and to even cover the cost for that. And I want to acknowledge Brother David Puris. I just feel like there's certain individuals that I would feel wrong to not at least mention. And again, that's not to take away anything from anyone. We had lots of guys that showed up to many work days, and you did a lot, but there's some individuals just went above and beyond to some things. So let's give everybody a round of applause. And I appreciate you allowing me to just take a little bit of time to do that. So I wanted this morning to give, and I told you at the beginning, this is a different sermon. This is a different type of sermon. I wanted to begin with a dedication. We talked about what we're dedicating this building to. I wanted to give appreciation, and we've done that as well. But I also want to give an application. And I'd like you to be there in Haggai chapter one, because I think this is a fitting application for us today, because here's the honest truth. This is a beautiful building, and an insane amount of work got done. But we are not done, as you can tell. You can tell by that foyer that we are not done. You can tell by these hallways that we are not done. You can tell by the fellowship hall behind me that we are not done. There is lots that needs to be done, even before Easter and before the Next Generation Youth Rally, before Mother's Day, before the Red Hot Preaching Conference. There's lots that needs to be done in this building. And in Haggai chapter one in verse one, and I want to make this application, because next week we're taking a special offering for our vision offering. In Haggai chapter one in verse one, the Bible says this, in the second year of Darius king, in the sixth month and 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 and to Joshua, the son of Jostedek, 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. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses and this house lie in waste. I want you to notice here that Haggai is actually coming in, and just to give you context, we talked about it last week, but when Haggai is living, is during the time of the rebuilding of the second temple. This is not Solomon's temple that we saw in first Kings that is being built, but this is Ezra's temple that's being rebuilt. The first temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and the temple is being built. Of course, we saw that there's many men that took part in that and played a role in that. When Haggai shows up, when he comes into it, because you remember, we have Ezra, who's building the temple, Nehemiah, who's building the wall, and we have other men that are playing a part, but two men that come up are Haggai the prophet and Joshua, the high priest, and they actually come in about halfway into the building, and I won't take the time to develop all of it and to go through all of it, but what happens is they begin to build the temple, they get about halfway done, and then they have to stop. They have to stop because of the enemies and they're being stopped, but then Haggai is used of God to get the work going again, and this is what he is saying to the people. When the book of Haggai begins here in chapter one and verse one, the Bible says that the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, unto Zerubbabel, and the Bible says there in verse two, the people say, last part of verse two, the time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. He said the people are saying, it's not the right time to finish this house, but the response from God in verse four is this, is it time for you? And I want you to notice a question being asked here, is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses and this house lie waste? The question being asked is this, should we dwell in sealed houses while the house of God lie waste? What he's saying is this, should you and I dwell in houses that are completely textured and painted and manicured and air conditioned and ready while the house of God lies in disarray? While the house of God is not, while there's parts of this building that need to be textured, insulation that needs to be put in, a carpet that needs to be put in, and painting that needs to be done, air conditioned that needs to be done. What Haggai is saying, he says, is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses and this house lie waste? He's saying, should we dwell in houses that are finished, that are sealed, that are ready while the house of God is lying undone? And I want to make the application to Verity Baptist Church that we should be careful about going home to our finished houses while the house of the Lord is not completely done. The most important thing, if there's a building that is important, the most important building in this city is a building you're sitting in. More than the Capitol, more than any other building you can think of, is the house of God, where the people of God meet, where the Word of God is preached, where lives are transformed. So I ask you, is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses and this house lie waste? We should ask ourselves the question, should we just be done? Should we say, well, great, we got moved in, we're completely finished now, and now we don't have to give or serve or volunteer or do anything else. And I would ask you the question that Haggai asked. He says, is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses and this house lie waste? I want you to notice the second application here. It begins there in verse number five, Haggai chapter one, verse five. The Bible says, now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Then he says this, ye have sown much and bring in 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 them into a bag with holes. It's interesting to me because Haggai begins to explain to them and he begins by asking the spiritual question. And I would assume that Haggai maybe feels like he got the same response from them that maybe I would get from Americans living today. When we ask the question, should we go home to finished houses? Should we go home to sealed houses? Should we go home to beautiful manicured remodeled houses while the house of God lies waste? And I would hope that a spiritual person, that the answer would be no, of course not. We should give attention to the house of God. We should give honor to the house of God. We should want the house of God to be a place that is ready for people to come and meet with God. But then Haggai asked a second question and he says this. He says, I know that you have problems. This is not me speaking to you. This is Haggai speaking to the people of his time. Look at verse six. You have so much and bring in little. He says, I know that you're sowing a lot. You're doing a lot of work and business. You're trying to get a lot done and accomplished, but yet so very little comes back. He says, you eat, but you have not enough. You drink, but you're not filled with drink. He clothed you, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put them into a bag with holes. He said, isn't it interesting that it just doesn't seem like you ever have enough. It seems like when you have money, you're putting it into a bag and it just disappears almost like there's holes in the bag. You clothed you, but you're not warm. You earn wages, but the money disappears. You sow a lot, but you bring in little. He says, you drink, but you're never filled. He says, it seems like you never have enough. Look at verse seven. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the mountains and bring wood, and build the houses, and I will take pleasure in it. And I will be glorified, saith the Lord. You look for much, and lo, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I, this is God speaking through Haggai, I did blow upon it. And then I want you to notice the question. He says, why? Why, saith the Lord of hosts. Here's why, because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Here's the question that I have for you. What if the blessing of God upon your house depended on how you bless God's house? You say, pastor, you don't understand, you're taking this special vision offering and the economy is not good, it's Bidenomics, right? I mean, things are not going well, and we have, I understand what you're saying. We've sown much, and we bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. You drink, but you're not filled. You clothe you, but you're not warm. You earn wages, but it's like to put them in a bag with holes. I understand how you may be feeling, but what if, what if the reason for it is because God says, mine house that is waste, and ye run every man to his own house? What if the blessing of God upon your house was dependent on how you bless God's house? Notice verse 10, therefore the heaven is over you. The heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And here's what I'm saying to you, and look, I'm not trying to tell you what to do. You're gonna stand before God, and you're gonna have to make decisions for yourself. All I'm saying is this, if I lived in an economy that wasn't very good, if I lived in an economy where maybe my business was struggling, or my career was struggling, or my income was struggling, if things weren't going well, you know what I would do? I would do everything in my power to bless the house of God. It's too late now, and I didn't really wanna say it while we were doing it, the work days are done. I'm just telling you this, if I had a business that was struggling, I would have been at every possible work day I could be. You say, why? Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. And here's what I'm telling you, and I hope you understand my heart, and I hope you take it the right way. But please understand this, that it does not please God when you and I focus on ourselves, and focus on our house, and make sure our house is nice, and make sure our property is good, and make sure the things we own and things we have are all in order and we're comfortable while we try to pursue that and leave the house of God waste. You answer the question however you want. I'm just asking the question, what if the blessing of God upon your house was dependent on how you worked and sacrificed and gave and worked to bless his house? You look for much, and lo, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why, saith the Lord of hosts, because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house? Should we dwell in sealed houses while the house of God lie waste? And what if the blessing of God upon your house was dependent upon how you and I blessed His house? Next week, we're going to take the vision offering. We've been talking about it for weeks and weeks and weeks. We're here. We're at the last service before the vision offering. We're at the opening service of this building. I've been preaching for 50 minutes. If you give me just five, 10 minutes, we'll be done soon. Let me just try to encourage you to focus on the house of God. Focus on the things that need to be done here. Focus on blessing God's house, because it may be, and you do what you need to do, but it may be, it may be that God's blessing on your house is connected to how you bless His house. I mean, wouldn't that make sense? Doesn't the Bible say that we should treat people the way we'd like to be treated? And don't you think God follows the same rule? I believe that when God looks down at individuals and say, I want to sacrifice, and I want to give, and I want to promote the house and the work of God, then God says, then I will work to promote you. So what if the blessing of God upon your house was dependent on how you blessed His house? We've been talking about giving over the last several weeks. I don't want to spend too much time on this, but I just want to remind you, you don't have to turn to any of this. I'm just going to read these verses to you from 2 Corinthians. But we've learned over the last several weeks that when it comes to giving, we want to give collectively. 2 Corinthians 8, 13 says this, for I mean not that other men be eased and ye burdened, but by an equality that now at this time, your abundance may be a supply for their want, and their abundance also may be a supply for your want that there may be equality. When it comes to giving next week at the vision offering, what we're looking is for our church to give equally, not equal giving, but equal sacrifice. I mean not that other men be eased and ye be burdened. We're not looking for everyone to give the same amount because not everybody can give the same amount. But what we're looking for is that everyone would collectively stretch themselves and sacrifice equally, not equal giving, but equal sacrifice. We're wanting to have giving be collective. And then of course we want giving to be willingly, collectively, and we want it to be done willingly. 2 Corinthians 9, 7 says this, every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. I've said it over and over and I'll continue to say it. If you don't want to give, we don't want your money. We want happy money. But if you're a Christian that says, I want to bless the house of God, I want to give collectively, I want to stretch and sacrifice, I want to be a cheerful giver, and I hope you will pray this next week about what you can do for the vision offering. And then lastly, we've learned that we want to give collectively, we want to give willingly, and we want to give generously. 2 Corinthians 8, 2 says this, how that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality, for to their power I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves. The Bible says they gave to their power and beyond their power. What does that mean? It means they stretch themselves. They sacrifice. They gave sacrificially and generously. So I hope next week, as we gather for the vision offering, that we will come together as a church and give collectively, give willingly, give generously. I've got one last thing I need to deal with, if you would not mind, and then we'll finish up. Go to Psalms, if you would, Psalm 127. Psalm 127. And it is this, and I realize that this morning's sermon is very different and just a different type of sermon, and tonight we'll be back into a normal type of sermon structure like what you're used to. But of course today being our dedication service, we want to take a few minutes to talk about these things. Not only that, next week is our vision offering. So I want to encourage you to give willingly, collectively, equally, not equal giving, equal sacrifice, willingly, for God love of the cheerful giver, sacrificially, to your power beyond your power. Every year for the vision offering, I come to our church family, and I don't recommend that you do this. I don't think you should do this. In fact, the Bible says that if you do these types of things, you'll lose your rewards. I believe that God knows my heart, and I do this for a different reason. But every year since we started taking the vision offering, my wife and I have announced what we will give to the vision offering. And the only reason we do that is not to get any sort of accolades or credit, because actually by doing so, I think we lose our credit in heaven. But the only reason we do it, and I believe that God knows my heart, is because we want you to know that we're in this with you. We're not asking you to do something we're not doing ourselves. We're not asking you to participate in a way that we're not participating. And my wife and I, from our personal finances, from our personal accounts, have decided over the last several years for the vision offering, the last two years specifically, we've given $2,500 to the vision offering every year. This year, we're giving $3,000 to the vision offering. I say that to say this, because the problem with giving you a number, first of all, let me say this, that is a stretch for us. That is a sacrifice. That is not, you come to my house, you know, I have the opposite. For many of you, it's like, this house is not as nice as my house. This house is much nicer than my house, I can tell you right now. We could definitely put $3,000 into our house. They could use it. But we believe in what this church is doing. And we believe in what's being done here. Now here's the thing about giving you a number, and I understand it, and I just hope you have the heart to receive it. For some of you, you hear $3,000 and you think like, ah, that's insane, they must be rich or something. For some of you, you hear $3,000 and you're like, that's it? Because everybody has different abilities and different capacities, and all I'm telling you is this, for us, $3,000 is a big sacrifice. For us, $3,000 is stretching ourselves. Say, why are you doing it then? Because we believe in what this church is doing. And I also tend to believe that maybe, just maybe, God's blessing on my house is dependent on how I bless his house. So I wanna encourage you. I don't wanna encourage you to give $3,000 because to be very honest with you, some of you could not give $3,000 and for some of you, giving $3,000 would be a joke. What I wanna encourage you is to pray and ask God to lead you and guide you in how you can give and how you can participate and how you can stretch yourself to your ability and beyond your ability, to your power and beyond your power, that we could come together next week and willingly and collectively honor the house of God. I'd like to end this morning by reading this verse, Psalm 127, verse number one. I don't think we should ever forget these words. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. We're not building a building just to impress people. We're building a building so that we can reach the next generation so that unbelievers can come here and get saved, so that they can learn to walk with God, so that people can get right with God, so that we can fight the Lord's battles, so that all the earth may know that there's a God in heaven. And except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I'd like to take a few moments, if you would not mind, and end like we normally do with prayer, but I'd like to pray a special prayer, a dedicatory prayer, a benediction on this location and this building and this property. I'm gonna ask that you would bow your heads and pray with me. Heavenly Father, Lord, we take some time this morning to come to you in prayer. And we really do want this house to be a house of prayer. We want it to be a place, Lord, that is dedicated to you, to the use of your ministry. Lord, I come to you today asking, in the same way that Solomon would ask for the temple, that you would help us to sanctify this location to be used of you today. Lord, I want to dedicate this building to be a place that prepares the next generation. I think of these young people being raised in this church. And for many of them, this will be the only home they know of the Verity Baptist Church. Some of them are gonna get married here, walk down this aisle as they commit their lives to their spouse. Lord, I pray for this next generation. Many of them will have children that are born here and raise their families here. Lord, like Solomon, we want this place to be a place that'll teach the children, that'll teach the next generation to serve you and walk with you. Lord, we pray that this place would be a place of prayer, and that prayers will be served to you, given to you, sweet-smelling Savior, and that we would know that you hear our prayers and answer our prayers. Lord, I pray that you would dedicate this building to be a place where people can get right with you. There are so many people living in the bondage of sin, wasting their lives away and wasting away their divine potential. Lord, I pray that this would be a place that they would become. That they would get right with you. That they would dedicate their lives to you. Lord, I pray that this would be a place that would send an army of soul-winners out. That we might bring unbelievers to Christ. That we might see people come and be saved and call upon the name of the Lord. Lord, I pray that this would be a place that would fight your battles, that many battles would be won for you as we engage in spiritual warfare. Lord, that you would use us to be a great army to go out in this community, not only to win souls, but to stand up for truth, to stand against the wiles of the devil, to put on the whole armor of God, to withstand having done all to stand. Lord, I pray that you would help this place, like Solomon prayed, to be a place that would fight your battles. Then, Lord, I pray that this would be a place that teaches people to walk with God. Lord, I pray that the Sunday morning and the Sunday night and evening services would be services where sermons would be preached that would teach people to walk with you, to honor you with their lives, to pray, to be in the word of God, to have devotion to you, to live separated lives and to be soul owners. Lord, I pray that you would bless this place and be with this place. Lord, I pray that you would help us as our theme has been all these years, that this would be a place that makes you known, that makes God known, that all the earth may know there is a God in heaven. Lord, we dedicate this building to you today. We thank you for all the work that's been done. We thank you for all the individuals that have been giving us so many hours and so much sacrifice. Lord, we pray for the next week's vision offering. Help us to come together as a church family collectively and sacrificially. Help us, Lord, to give generously. Help us to always keep in mind that it may be that your blessing on our house is dependent on how we bless your house. And Lord, I pray you'd help us to remember this thought from Psalm 127. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that building. Lord, we do love you. We thank you for this great new phase in our church. I pray you'd use it and be with us in the matchless name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. God bless you. Thank you for being here this morning. We're gonna have a song as we prepare for baptism. We're gonna get our first use out of the new baptism up there. So we'll go ahead and sing a song and we'll prepare for baptism this morning. Turn to song number 24. Song number 24. One, two, four, and can it be? Let's sing it out. On to the first. One, two, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four, three, four. Amen. All right. Well, this morning, we have Ruth, my daughter, coming for baptism, Ruth Anne Jimenez, and I'm excited that she can be the first baptism here in this new building. Ruth, have you accepted Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior? Ruth, by your profession of faith, I baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, buried in the likeness of His death, raised to walk in unison. And all God's people said, Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you very much for being here today for the first service of Verity Baptist Church here on our new property. We ended up having exactly 300 people in church this morning. So praise God for that. That's an amazing number. God bless you. I'm going to ask Brother Matt if he would not mind dismissing us with a word of prayer. I do want to encourage you to be back tonight, 6 p.m. for the evening service. And of course, on Wednesday for the Wednesday night Bible study, if there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. Thank you again for all the work, all the help, all the sacrifice. My wife and I love you all very much. We're praying for you. And Brother Matt, would you mind dismissing us with a word of prayer? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the service this morning. It's a very special service, Lord. I pray that you would bless everyone who came today. Bless the rest of this day, Lord. Be with the soul winners that go out and bring us back to church safely this evening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.