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Great to see you. Welcome to Harbor West. My name is Justin. I'm one of the pastors here of our

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church, and we are going to continue worshiping God by opening the Bible, opening his word,

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and we're going to study it together and seek to believe it together and live it out together.

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And so if you have a Bible, you can grab it now and turn to the book of Haggai. Haggai is one of

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the last books, last small little books of the Old Testament, like three from the end. And so

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if you're using one of those Bibles under the chairs in front of you, Haggai is on page 839.

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And I hope you're ready for Christmas. Anybody here not have the tree up yet? Anybody here just

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the tree's not up yet, like you're that far behind? You can admit it. This is a safe place. All right.

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Everybody's got it done? All right. Nice. We put our tree up on Veterans Day this year,

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which was a new one for us. We normally wait till like December, but we're like Veterans Day. Let's

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that day. I was like, let's go. Let's get the tree up. And it was super exciting. So we feel like

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we've been like half ready because we did nothing else. And so yesterday we did the rest of the

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house. Like we got the stuff out of storage, put all the other decorations up. And I'm like, man,

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these are going to be up for 12 days. Like, what are we doing? But if so, it's felt like we're half

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ready this whole time. And as we get into the book of Haggai, that's kind of what God's people

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had done. Israel used to be one of the most glorious nations on earth. Under King Solomon,

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They had a booming economy and the most impressive building in the world, God's temple.

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But it was destroyed when Israel was conquered.

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But now they've come back to their land.

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And the very first thing they want to do is rebuild the temple.

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Because you see, when God created us, we were able to live with him, to be in his presence.

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But when humanity rebelled, when we sinned, one of the horrible consequences

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is that we can't be in God's presence anymore.

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God is holy, so holy in fact, so set apart from sinfulness

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that he can't be near it without it being destroyed.

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But God still desired to live with his sinful people

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and we still deep down desire to be near him.

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So God made a way.

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At first it was this elaborate tent called the tabernacle

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with all of its curtains and dividers

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that allowed God's presence to be with his people without them being destroyed.

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And then when they came into their land, they built God a big temple

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in a way that he told them to do it where he could be in it without his people being destroyed.

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And so it was the most important part of the nation of Israel, the temple.

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And so in Haggai, God's people are rebuilding it so that God's glory can live among them again.

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And so they had worked on it for two years, but then they stopped.

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They gave up.

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And now it's been 16 years since any work has been done on the temple.

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Why'd they stop?

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Well, we find out from later in the book of Haggai that they could tell just from the foundations of the temple, the new temple,

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they could tell that it wasn't going to be as impressive or glorious as the first one.

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And that just bummed them out.

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It discouraged them.

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It disappointed them.

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And this was probably a people who cared much more about how the temple looked,

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its appearance on the outside,

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than the God who was going to fill it with his glory on the inside.

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But still, they were like, man, we don't even want to do this anymore

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if it's going to be this much different than the first one.

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and so they've been busy instead instead of pursuing building god's temple instead of

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pursuing his glory they've been busy pursuing their own and so here's a question for us this

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morning whose glory have you been pursuing like if you were to look back over the last week or

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or the last month or or like right now we're all looking back over the last year you probably got

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your Spotify year-end rap thing, where you can look back over the music that you listened to

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the most this year. There's all these articles coming out of the best movies of the year,

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the most important things that happened in the news this year, all that stuff.

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What if somebody were to look back on the last year of your life, would it look like a life

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lived for God's glory or a life lived for your own glory? Whose glory have you been living for?

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Well, God has a message in Haggai for a people who've been pursuing their own glory instead of pursuing his.

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And so look at Haggai chapter one, verse one.

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In the second year of King Darius on the first day of the sixth month,

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the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah,

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and to Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest.

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The Lord of armies says this.

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These people say, the time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.

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So that's God's word to his people starting out here.

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He's saying, these, my people are saying this, the time has not come for the house of God

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to be rebuilt.

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What God was telling them was this, man, during the last 16 years of their ignoring God, they've

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had an excuse, an excuse for why they're not working on God's temple.

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And here's their excuse.

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they've said, well, it's not the right time.

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It's not the right time for us to be doing that.

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You ever use that one?

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You ever use that excuse?

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Man, that one's got some legs.

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That one works.

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That one can go far to get us out of some stuff we want to do.

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Like, man, that's a good idea.

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I like it.

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I support it.

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It's good.

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But it's not the right time in my life right now.

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I'm too busy.

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I'm too stressed.

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I got too much going on.

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It's not the right time.

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That's an excuse that is pretty effective.

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Nobody pushes too hard back on that one.

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And this is exactly what God's people were doing.

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They're saying, man, it's not the right time to go all in with God right now.

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Maybe we say that.

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Maybe we say, man, it's not the right time for me to figure out how to start reading my Bible.

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I'll do that when life calms down.

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It isn't the right time to really fight this nagging, persistent sin in my life.

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I'll do it when there's less going on at work and I'm less stressed.

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It isn't the right time to give of my time, my energy, my money to God.

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I'll do that when I have comfortable excess.

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When we use the excuse that it isn't the right time for us to obey God,

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it's really just an excuse for us to pursue other things we love more than God.

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Usually, it's our own comfort and pleasure that we're pursuing.

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And that's exactly what they did.

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Look at verse 3.

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The word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai.

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Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins?

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You see, they were living in comfortable paneled homes when God himself was basically homeless.

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They were comfortable living in God's world and enjoying God's gifts without any concern for God himself.

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They don't care that God's glory isn't living among them.

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They've got to be thinking, man, why do we need God?

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I mean, we've got our paneled houses.

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We're back in our land.

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We're finally comfortable.

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Why do we need to take years and years out of our lives to build God's temple?

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Why do we need God's glory?

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Why do we need God?

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When the first Harbor Church was planted about 24 years ago,

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four families, eight people planted it in Hawaii Kai.

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And as they started to reach out to their community and invite people to church,

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one thing they kept hearing over and over from the people of that community

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was, man, I've got my mansion here in Hawaii Kai. I've got my three cars. Look at my Corvette.

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Have you seen the two boats out on the road? Why do I need God? I'm doing just fine without God.

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Why do I need God? You see, usually pursuing our own comfort, our own pleasure is exactly what we do

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when we stop pursuing God's glory. I think this is how many people feel around Christmas time.

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They say, well, let's talk about Jesus.

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Why can't we just celebrate good feelings and glad tidings?

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Why do I need Jesus in my life?

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I'm doing just fine.

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But God wants them to think more deeply about what they're pursuing.

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Look at verse five.

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Now the Lord of armies says this, think carefully about your ways.

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You've planted much, but harvested little.

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You eat, but never enough to be satisfied.

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You drink, but never have enough to be happy.

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You put on clothes, but never have enough to get warm.

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The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it.

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God's saying, man, think about it.

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Your work never produces enough to satisfy you.

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Even if you had the most epic meal possible, you're going to get hungry again.

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Your possessions wear out and you got to keep getting more and more.

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You'll never have enough money in the bank account.

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Isn't that a true statement there?

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the wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it. Like, where'd it go? I have no idea

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where it even went. America's first billionaire, John Rockefeller, was asked once in an interview,

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how much more money do you need in order to finally feel content? And you know what he answered?

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Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. America's first billionaire said, I haven't gotten

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enough yet. You see, here's what we learn from God's word. And here's what we learn from our

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experience, if we go far enough pursuing other things than God, none of the things we pursue

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in this world will ever truly satisfy us. We tend to believe that if we make enough, earn enough,

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accomplish enough, get enough, that we'll be satisfied. But God in his love for us tells us

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the truth. So long as we're focused on ourselves, our own glory, we will actually never be satisfied.

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It'll be like chasing the wind.

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And so at the end of the day, we've all got to make a choice.

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At the end of the day, each and every one of us has got to make a choice.

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And we are making this choice.

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Whether you're conscious of it and aware of it or not, we are all making a choice.

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Are we going to glorify God or glorify ourselves?

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That's a choice we all have to make.

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It's a choice we are all making.

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Are we going to live a life that's busy building our own houses, our own glory,

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that will inevitably leave us feeling empty?

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Or are we going to live lives that are busy pursuing God's glory,

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a life that God promises will bring actual joy and satisfaction?

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You see, God knows what's best for us.

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I love this, that the Bible reveals this about God to us.

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God knows what's best for us because he created us,

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And he actually wants what's best for us.

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God wants you to be happy.

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He created you and me to be united to him, to be in relationship with him and experience his glory.

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And when we do that, it actually results in our joy and satisfaction.

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And that's what God wants.

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But he knows that the only way we'll experience it is to stop pursuing our own glory and begin pursuing his.

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I heard it said this way recently that the only way that we're going to actually experience true joy in life,

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the only way that we win at life is to fold.

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To fold our own cards, to lay down the hand that we're playing,

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to stop trusting in our own energy and strength and strategy and wisdom,

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to give up trying to get glory for ourselves.

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It's only when we fold that we truly win.

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and so what would that look like well what does it look like to turn from seeking our own glory

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to now seeking God's glory with our lives well to glorify someone or something just means to use

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your life to make much of that person or thing to glorify someone or something means to use your

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life to make much of that person or thing. And so to glorify God would be to feel and think and act

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in ways that make much of him, that exalt him and his greatness. To glorify ourselves is to feel and

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think and act in ways that lift up ourselves and make much of ourselves. In Haggai 1, God shows us

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what it looks like to seek our own glory instead of his glory. It looks like God taking a backseat

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in our lives. Maybe not totally being removed from our lives, but taking a backseat. He may get some

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of us, but it'll be the scraps of our time, our energy, our money, and our love. That's what God's

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people were doing. They'd come back to the land they were promised. They'd started building the

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temple. God was kind of a part of their lives, but he had taken a back seat. And for the last 16 years,

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they'd been pursuing their own passions, their own comfort, their own pleasure. And God was getting

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their scraps, the scraps of their time, their energy, their money, their effort. God was getting

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the scraps of their life. God gets the scraps of our lives when we say we'll seek him once everything

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at work and around the house is done.

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We'll engage with him in prayer

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for a few minutes a day or a week

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while we give our hobbies hours and hours and hours.

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We'll give financially with what we have left over

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after making sure we have everything we need and want

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and that's covered.

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We'll live in our paneled houses

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and maybe God will get our scraps.

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And what Haggai is saying is that's clear evidence

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that you're about your own glory and not God's.

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That's evidence of a heart that's far from God.

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Because you can always tell what you love most

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by what you're willing to sacrifice most for, right?

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Talk is cheap, but when we actually sacrifice our time,

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our energy, our money, our comfort,

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what we actually sacrifice those things for

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is a clear statement of what we love

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and how much we love it.

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That's why Jesus says this in John 15.

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Look at it on the screen.

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He says, no one has greater love than this

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to lay down his life for his friends.

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Look at that sacrifice.

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Total, complete sacrifice.

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And what Jesus is saying is this.

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You wanna know what you love?

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What are you willing to lay your life down for?

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What are you laying down your life down,

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laying your life down for?

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We see the extent of Jesus's love for us

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in that he gave us everything.

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He literally sacrificed all of himself for us on the cross.

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Jesus did not give us his scraps.

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He gave us everything.

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And now we get to respond to Jesus' love for us

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by presenting our lives as living sacrifices for him, Romans 12.

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Or as Ephesians 5 puts it, look up here,

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therefore be imitators of God.

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As Jesus laid down his life and sacrificed himself for us,

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man, let's imitate that.

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As dearly loved children walk in love as Christ loved us

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and gave himself for us,

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a sacrificial and fragrant offering for God.

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See, God doesn't call us to sacrifice for him

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and then he loves us.

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It says be imitators of God as dearly loved kids.

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You're already loved to death.

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Now, go live a life of sacrifice.

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knowing that your love to death,

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knowing that Jesus gave all of himself to you and me.

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Now go make much of him with your life.

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That's what this verse is saying.

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You and I have to decide.

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There's a glory war going on.

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Are we going to glorify ourselves

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by making much of ourselves

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with our time, our energy, our money?

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Or are we going to glorify God?

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Who are we going to make much of with our lives?

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Church, what would it look like for us to go all in with our lives and be living sacrifices for Jesus?

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Well, it would for sure look like shifting course from pursuing our own glory and instead living in ways that pursue Jesus's glory.

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And what would that mean? That means that it would look like a death.

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A death would have to happen.

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A death to ourselves.

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Paul in Romans 6 says that our old self was crucified with Jesus. Our old self was actually

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put to death. Our old way of living and only knowing how to pursue our own glory in this life

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that way died. My absolute favorite thing that we do in the life of our church is our baptisms.

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We go down to Nimitz Beach and for people who've put their faith in Jesus and who he's transformed

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their lives and give them new life. We go down to Nimes Beach and we baptize them down there.

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I love looking at our wall in the lobby of all the baptisms and the stories that God has done

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in those people's lives. These four people were baptized two weeks ago. And so we got to go down

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and hear what God had done in their life. And we got to go down to the water. And what I love about

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it is when we kind of prep them for what's going to happen, we say, what happens down there at the

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water is that you're actually baptized into Jesus's death. You're identifying with the death of Jesus.

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You're saying, my old self has died. And so we're going to put you in the earth. All right. We're

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going to put you under the water and we want you to feel it. So we're going to hold you under there

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until you feel some death. All right. And so sometimes we'll, you know, wait, sometimes we'll

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get some taps on the arm. Like, dude, you know, no, that's never happened. But I would love for

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that to happen. I would like, you want to get baptized and you want to feel the death? Let me

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No, let's do it.

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I would love, because that's what's happening there.

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You got to feel that death, man.

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I've died to my old self.

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I've died to my old way of living for my own glory in this world.

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And we can do that joyfully, voluntarily, because we've been raised to new life.

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When we bring them up out of the water, we say, buried in the likeness of Jesus' death.

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And we put them in the earth, they die.

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And then when they come up out of the water, we say, raised to newness of life, to walk and follow him.

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not glorifying ourselves and glorifying jesus is going to look like death but it's also going to

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look like new life because we now have a new king a new purpose a new glory to pursue

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and that's going to trickle into all areas of life what is it going to look like what does the kind

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of life look like that glorifies God instead of glorifying ourselves? Well, Haggai gives us three

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glimpses of that kind of life, three ways that kind of life looks. And so I want us to see those

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and do a little self-evaluation, man. Are we living for God's glory or living for our own?

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So look at chapter two, verse four. Even so, be strong, Zerubbabel. This is the Lord's declaration.

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Be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, high priest.

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Be strong, all you people of the land.

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This is the Lord's declaration.

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Work, for I am with you.

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The declaration of the Lord.

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God's looking at his people who've been idle, inactive for the last 16 years.

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And he's saying, man, be strong, be strong, be strong.

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Get up, work.

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Man, get to work for me.

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get that temple rebuilt. Here's what I think God's saying here in these verses. We live for God's

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glory through empowered work for him. We live for God's glory through empowered work that's for God.

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God's calling them out of their lives of mere comfort, out of their paneled houses. And he's

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saying, get to work on the temple, get to work building the place for his glory, get to work

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building something that will outlive them, that will point other generations to God,

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get to work building a legacy for God, get to work for God.

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We glorify God, we live for his glory by getting to work, making much of him. It's not something we

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drift into. It's not something we accidentally stumble upon. We make the decision to get up

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and get to work for God. Through using our time, our energy, our resources to serve him and point

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others to him. Now, I don't know if you're like me, you know, if somebody came to me and I've

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lounged, if I've been lounging for 16 years, if I've been lounging for 16 seconds on the couch

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and somebody came up to me and said, man, it's time to get up and get to work. I respond to that

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with a, oh, what?

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No, no, I don't, not the right time.

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You hear now why they were making the excuse

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it's not the right time to rebuild God's temple.

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Like, I mean, that's all of us.

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We're like, what, get to work?

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I don't, that doesn't sound, no.

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But look what he says next.

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Look, look, look, be strong, be strong, be strong.

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Work, look at the next words, for I am with you.

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See, here's the beautiful thing.

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When you get busy serving God with your life,

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you experience God empowering you

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to do the work for him.

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He says, work for I'm with you.

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I'm with you.

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God's people were starting over from nothing.

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They were poor.

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They lacked resources to build this temple

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and God's telling them to work.

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They'd be like, work, how, how?

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We don't have the energy.

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We don't have the resources.

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We don't have anything.

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And God's saying, work, I'm with you.

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I experienced this almost every year

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when I go to recruit people to go to Vietnam with us

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on our Vietnam trip.

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We support a church planting network in Vietnam.

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and we go every summer to support them.

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And they have all kinds of things for us to do.

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VBSs, teaching university students.

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Sometimes we'll have to do seminars on marriage or parenting or who knows what.

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Sometimes we have one hour to prepare a seminar on the five love languages,

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which we've actually never read or studied before.

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That was me a couple of years ago.

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And so every once in a while, somebody will sign up for this trip and be like,

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I think God's calling me to go and do this work and be a part of this.

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But I feel totally unprepared, unequipped.

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I don't know how I could contribute anything positive to this team.

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And I'm like, yeah, I'm right there with you.

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And we've seen year after year after year how we go unprepared, unequipped, feeling inadequate.

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And God is with us and empowers us and allows us to do things we could never dream of for him.

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Because when you get to work, when you get busy serving God and working for him,

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God, the God of all the resources in the universe is there with you,

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ready to empower you and encourage you and strengthen you to do exactly what he's called you to do.

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Our ability to glorify God doesn't depend on us and our resources.

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Our ability to glorify God hinges on the reality that he himself is with us,

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making it possible for us to give him glory.

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And so whatever work God is calling you to do for his glory,

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He will be with you and give you everything you need for that work.

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We live for God's glory through empowered work for him.

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Verse six, he gives us another glimpse of a life that's glorifying God.

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For the Lord of armies says this,

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once more in a little while, I'm going to shake the heavens and the earth,

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the sea and the dry land.

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I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all the nations will come

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and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of armies.

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The silver and gold belong to me.

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This is the declaration of the Lord of armies.

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Here's what God's saying.

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He's saying the temple that you're going to rebuild,

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it is going to be filled with silver and gold,

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treasure from all the nations,

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but not because you go out and get it.

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You see what he said?

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He said, I myself am going to do it.

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God himself is going to shake all creation,

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the nations and fill his own house and these things with his glory,

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because it all belongs to him.

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And here's what I think he's teaching us, guys.

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We can live for God's glory by trusting his control.

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By trusting that he's in control of all things.

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Most specifically, by trusting that he's in control of our lives.

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We live for God's glory by trusting that he's in control of our lives.

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The Bible talks all over about how God is in control of everything.

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We see it all over.

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There's a word for it that's used in the Bible sometimes called God's sovereignty.

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That's describing his power and control over all things.

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There's lots of verses and places we could look,

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but just look at one, Psalm 135.

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Look at what it says.

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For I know that the Lord is great.

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Our God is greater than all gods.

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That's all things that we elevate to be gods.

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The Lord does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth,

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in the seas and in the depths.

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Look at that.

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God does whatever he pleases in the whole universe.

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Why?

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Because he's in control of all of it.

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As one old pastor said,

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he said if there is a single stray molecule in the whole universe that is outside of God's control

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then we can't trust a single promise that God has for us but if every molecule in all creation

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is under his control then we can trust him with everything

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the Bible teaches that God is completely in control of all creation and of our lives

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one of the ways we glorify him with our lives is to trust his control over our lives

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God's people were coming back from exile and they wanted to be in control of their own lives right

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they wanted to live how they wanted life had been tough in exile they'd lost years and years of

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living the way they wanted to but now they're back and they didn't want to spend years and years more

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working on the temple they wanted to get to work building their own lives building their own way

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of life they weren't trusting that God was in control of exactly what he called them to do

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in this time. They weren't trusting that God was in control, that they were the people who were

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going to sacrifice and build the temple so that future generations could be pointed to God and

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blessed by it. They just wanted the blessing. Every year, my wife and I watch at Christmas time,

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we watch Lord of the Rings because, you know, Christmas, goblins, it all works. And so we watch

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it. This year's the first time we're watching the extended edition. And we hit play on that

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first one and saw three hours and like 38 minutes and we're like, what? What are we doing? But we're

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watching it and I've always kind of beat myself up about that a little bit. Like, is this too dorky?

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Like, have I crossed some sort of line into like pure dorkiness by watching this every single

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Christmas? But now I have a group of friends in my life that they get together every year on Bilbo

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Baggins' birthday and dress as hobbits and celebrate. And I'm like, you know what? I'm fine.

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I'm fine with my level of dorkiness.

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I found a good pocket right here.

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But if that's you and you're stoked about that, let me know.

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I'll get you in touch with those guys.

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They'd love to see you there at Bilbo's birthday.

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But one of my favorite things in those movies that we watch,

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one of my favorite scenes is when Frodo comes up to Gandalf and he says this.

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He says, I wish it need not have happened in my time.

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And here's what he's saying.

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He's coming up to Gandalf and he's saying, I wish this wouldn't have happened to me.

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I wish the ring wouldn't have come to me.

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I wish I wouldn't have had to carry this burden.

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I wish I wouldn't have had to go on this journey and walk into the darkest spot in the world

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and have my life totally turned upside down and likely die a lonely death.

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I wish this wouldn't have happened to me.

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You ever feel that in life?

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Man, I wish life hadn't turned down like this.

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I wish this wouldn't have happened to me.

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I wish this wasn't part of my story.

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That's what Frodo was telling Gandalf.

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Here's what Gandalf says.

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He says, so do I.

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And so do all who live to see such times.

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but that is not for them to decide.

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All we have to decide is what to do

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with the time that is given us.

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You see, Gandalf the Great trusted

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in the sovereignty of Yahweh God.

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He did.

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He trusted in God's sovereignty.

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He trusted that God is in control

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of what happens in our lives

453
00:29:01,620 --> 00:29:02,820
even when those things aren't

454
00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:04,860
what we would have chosen or wanted.

455
00:29:05,020 --> 00:29:07,680
It's not for us to decide what God gives us.

456
00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:09,400
We're not in control of every molecule

457
00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:10,600
in the universe.

458
00:29:11,020 --> 00:29:11,720
He is.

459
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:17,740
It's not for us to decide what happens in our lives.

460
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:20,000
It's for us to decide if we're going to trust him,

461
00:29:21,260 --> 00:29:22,620
if we're going to trust his control,

462
00:29:22,820 --> 00:29:24,760
if we're going to live for his glory.

463
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:27,000
And maybe for you, it's been a tough year

464
00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:29,440
or a tough couple years.

465
00:29:31,380 --> 00:29:32,460
Maybe you're here this morning and you're like,

466
00:29:32,500 --> 00:29:34,640
yeah, life is not where I would have wanted it to be.

467
00:29:34,860 --> 00:29:36,420
This is not what I would have chosen.

468
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:38,620
I'm on a path that is just not the path

469
00:29:38,740 --> 00:29:40,560
that I would prefer to be on.

470
00:29:41,380 --> 00:29:43,740
I wish all this need not have come to me.

471
00:29:45,820 --> 00:29:47,560
Maybe the first step for you today

472
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:50,580
to start living and glorifying God with your life

473
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:51,960
is just to start praying and saying,

474
00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:53,440
God, I trust you in this.

475
00:29:55,220 --> 00:29:55,840
God, I trust you.

476
00:29:58,200 --> 00:29:59,180
You know what I love about the Psalms?

477
00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:00,180
The Psalms is written by,

478
00:30:00,580 --> 00:30:02,440
a lot of the Psalms that I'm talking about

479
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:03,400
are written by one guy.

480
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:05,360
A couple others wrote Psalms like this,

481
00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:07,000
but they're kind of like Psalms of lament.

482
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:10,660
It's a guy lamenting about what's happened with his life.

483
00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:14,560
usually David, and he's lamenting. He's saying, God, how long, how long are you going to hide

484
00:30:14,660 --> 00:30:17,820
yourself from me? How long are you going to give me this tough life? How long are my enemies going

485
00:30:17,820 --> 00:30:24,060
to prosper over me? And what I love about that is the Psalms are God-inspired words back to God.

486
00:30:26,260 --> 00:30:30,020
God inspired those words in somebody who's disappointed and discouraged, and he's saying,

487
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:34,580
hey, pray these things, sing these things back to God. And here's what that means. That means that

488
00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:40,580
God can handle our heavy emotions. God can handle us coming to him and saying, God, I don't like this.

489
00:30:42,220 --> 00:30:46,760
God I'm discouraged I'm disappointed God how long am I going to go through this God how long is this

490
00:30:46,790 --> 00:30:51,620
going to be but what I also love about all those psalms is this man read through them we're going

491
00:30:51,620 --> 00:30:57,500
to go through them next summer but what I also love about all those psalms is there's always a

492
00:30:57,620 --> 00:31:03,140
turning point after some lament after some pouring out of some heart and discouragement to God there's

493
00:31:03,180 --> 00:31:08,240
always a point where David and the other psalmist say but God I trust you and maybe that's your

494
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:13,660
first step today is to say, God, I've got a lot to lament with you. I've got a lot to be honest

495
00:31:13,780 --> 00:31:18,820
with you about, about how my life is going and how things have turned out, but still I trust you.

496
00:31:18,910 --> 00:31:27,580
And that right there, church, is a life that glorifies God. To trust his control of all things,

497
00:31:27,920 --> 00:31:30,940
especially when there's things that we don't love that come into our lives.

498
00:31:33,020 --> 00:31:35,480
Haggai gives us a third way to live for God's glory in verse nine.

499
00:31:36,460 --> 00:31:39,820
The final glory of this house will be greater than the first, says the Lord of armies.

500
00:31:39,950 --> 00:31:42,340
I will provide peace in this place.

501
00:31:42,690 --> 00:31:45,060
This is the declaration of the Lord of armies.

502
00:31:45,340 --> 00:31:49,520
Last thing, we live for God's glory by living in his peace.

503
00:31:50,860 --> 00:31:53,820
Last week, Pastor John talked all about this, so I'm not going to dig too deep.

504
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:57,360
But the kind of peace that God's talking about here isn't just the absence of conflict.

505
00:31:57,580 --> 00:32:00,980
That's the kind of peace that we tend to enjoy as long as there's no conflict.

506
00:32:01,270 --> 00:32:04,240
Even if there is conflict, but people aren't bringing it up and it's not active.

507
00:32:04,500 --> 00:32:05,460
Like, okay, we're at peace.

508
00:32:05,750 --> 00:32:06,280
We can go.

509
00:32:06,420 --> 00:32:11,780
we can get by. But this is a holistic peace, a peace with God, a fellowship with each other,

510
00:32:12,070 --> 00:32:17,400
an inner peace, a rest for ourselves, a thriving in life. And God says that that's the kind of

511
00:32:17,450 --> 00:32:22,140
peace, the shalom peace that he's going to provide, a peace that we're all searching for.

512
00:32:24,380 --> 00:32:29,600
Your future is one of total peace. And man, you can start to live in that future now. That's the

513
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:35,400
whole point of our until the day discipleship journey over the next two years. Many of you

514
00:32:35,340 --> 00:32:40,840
have signed up to be a part of that and to grow. And what Philippians 1.6 says is this, that God has

515
00:32:40,980 --> 00:32:44,600
started a good work in us and he's going to bring it to completion until the day of Jesus. The good

516
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:50,400
work that God has started in each of us is bringing his peace to bear in our lives, his holistic

517
00:32:50,900 --> 00:32:56,620
peace. And we experience more and more of that peace as we grow as receivers, learners, givers,

518
00:32:56,860 --> 00:33:01,140
workers, influencers, worshipers. As we grow in those ways that God wants us to grow, we experience

519
00:33:01,420 --> 00:33:05,300
more and more of his peace. So those of you who committed to that or in those groups, we started

520
00:33:05,300 --> 00:33:09,820
steps this week to grow. Baby steps, we're going to start slow, but we're going to grow and we're

521
00:33:09,820 --> 00:33:15,840
going to experience more and more of God's peace in our lives as we grow closer to him. Because

522
00:33:16,020 --> 00:33:23,480
that's what God came to do. He said, I will provide peace in this place. And so we can live for God's

523
00:33:23,700 --> 00:33:28,480
glory, knowing that we can experience his peace. But here's the reality, church. Here's where we

524
00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:33,620
need to land this. Peace only comes. This peace that we're talking about, this peace only comes

525
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:39,860
through Jesus. It only comes through Jesus. We think there's lots of things that we need to get

526
00:33:39,930 --> 00:33:44,660
peace in life, especially this time of year around Christmas, right? We're like, man, I know exactly

527
00:33:45,020 --> 00:33:50,600
what I need. I need time off of work. I need a vacation. I need some good food. I need some new

528
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:56,140
toys to play with, right? That's what I need around this time of year to feel peace and feel like the

529
00:33:56,240 --> 00:34:01,240
year ended well. Well, the people in Haggai's time, they thought they needed the temple to be glorious.

530
00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:03,020
It wasn't going to be.

531
00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:04,680
That's why they gave up, right?

532
00:34:04,940 --> 00:34:07,160
But they thought, man, we need the temple to be glorious.

533
00:34:07,340 --> 00:34:08,240
That's what we need.

534
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:14,060
But the temple was just there all along to point them to what they really needed.

535
00:34:14,820 --> 00:34:15,940
They didn't need a glorious temple.

536
00:34:16,030 --> 00:34:17,200
They needed a glorious savior.

537
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:22,600
See, Jesus came to provide them with everything that they needed.

538
00:34:22,879 --> 00:34:26,639
Jesus came to provide them with the peace that they desperately longed for,

539
00:34:26,679 --> 00:34:28,820
the glory of God that they were searching for.

540
00:34:29,060 --> 00:34:31,139
Look at John 1, what John says about Jesus.

541
00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:34,860
In the beginning was the word, Jesus, and the word was with God and the word was God,

542
00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:38,060
but the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

543
00:34:38,220 --> 00:34:44,340
And we observed his glory, the glory as the one and only son of the father, full of grace and truth.

544
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:53,760
You see, Jesus came to fulfill, to do what the temple was a picture of all along.

545
00:34:54,500 --> 00:35:00,220
The tabernacle, the temple, that was just a picture for God's people to know that God wanted to live among them.

546
00:35:00,540 --> 00:35:06,540
It was a place of sacrifice to know there has to be payment for sin in order for God to be reunited with his people.

547
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:07,880
And Jesus came.

548
00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:11,480
He literally tabernacled among us, the language of John.

549
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:15,860
He lived among us to show us that God is with us.

550
00:35:16,720 --> 00:35:22,740
To display his control, his sovereignty over every molecule of the universe, including sin, death, and Satan.

551
00:35:23,700 --> 00:35:26,620
To give us peace with God and a glorious future.

552
00:35:27,100 --> 00:35:31,780
Jesus came to show us God's glory and invite us to experience it.

553
00:35:32,430 --> 00:35:37,600
To invite us to pursue God's glory and make much of him with our lives.

554
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:41,300
That's why 2 Corinthians 5 says this,

555
00:35:41,730 --> 00:35:42,700
Jesus died for all.

556
00:35:42,900 --> 00:35:45,580
Jesus died for you so that those who live,

557
00:35:45,900 --> 00:35:47,600
those who trust him and bow their knee to him,

558
00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:51,620
those of us who follow him should no longer live for ourselves.

559
00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:56,400
Jesus died so that you and I no longer have to live

560
00:35:56,880 --> 00:35:58,540
merely for our own glory

561
00:35:59,380 --> 00:36:01,980
and feel unsatisfied in everything.

562
00:36:03,500 --> 00:36:06,080
Jesus died so that we no longer have to live for ourselves,

563
00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:09,620
but so that we can live for the one who died for us

564
00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:11,260
and was raised for us.

565
00:36:13,240 --> 00:36:16,060
We get to live for Jesus who died for us.

566
00:36:16,060 --> 00:36:18,200
We get to live for Jesus who was raised for us.

567
00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:21,000
We get to live for his glory.

568
00:36:22,900 --> 00:36:29,020
And so church, let's be a people who are discontent to live in our paneled lives and give God our scraps.

569
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:35,200
Let's be a people sold out for living for God's glory above all else.

570
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:41,440
Let's be a people who make much of Jesus with our lives.

571
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:43,460
Let's pray together.