 Well, we're in Haggai. We're going to close the book. It's only two chapters, and so we're going to be looking at chapter 2 today so we'll begin reading here in Haggai chapter 2 verse 1 and I'll read to verse 3 and as we go through this book seeing that we we don't Journey into the Old Testament that often I do like to give to you some insight into the background and I'll do that here and We'll look for some practical application to this book as we go through it So let's begin at chapter 2 verse 1. I'll read to verse 3 and we'll get into our study Haggai chapter 2 In the seventh month on the 21st of the month the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shaltiel governor of Judah and to Joshua the son of Jehazadah the high priest and To the remnant of the people saying Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory and? How do you see it now? In comparison with it. Is this not in your eyes as Nothing when we began our study. Let me give you some background when we began our study Haggai gave us the date according to the Jewish calendar He said it was the second year of King Darius the first day of the sixth month, which made it September September 1st 520 BC this chapter opens with Haggai given a second date and it's October 21st and As he begins here Notice how he begins. He says the word of the Lord came by Haggai. I want to develop that for just a moment with you The word of the Lord is a phrase used four times here in the book So it reminds us of several things But first it reminds us that the words that are spoken did not originate with Haggai You see the word of the Lord is a phrase that is used 102 times in the in the Bible The word of the Lord comes to various people when you study your scriptures You'll see this the word of the Lord came to Samuel The word of the Lord came to to Nathan the word of the Lord came to God The word of the Lord came to Solomon The word of the Lord came to Jehu son of Hanani The word of the Lord came to Elijah Isaiah Shimea Jeremiah In the book of Jeremiah alone that phrase the word of the Lord is used 21 times The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel in the book of Ezekiel the word of the Lord is a phrase used 50 times You see, the word of the Lord, it came to Jonah and the word of the Lord came to Zechariah. So this phrase is intended to communicate that these are the words of God himself. These are not the words of man. You see, it reveals the revelation. It establishes what is called the inspiration of our scriptures. In 2 Peter 1, 20 and 21, it says it like this, above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation, for prophecy never had its origin in the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. And so when you're reading these words here in the book of Haggai, and he uses that phrase, the word of the Lord came, he uses it four times, it's to remind us that the words that he is speaking did not originate in his own imagination. These are not things that he conceived of, that he felt were important to tell people about. This is a message that God intends the people to hear, a message that God wants them to know is from him. And so he says, the word of the Lord came to him, and then he says in verse 2, speak now to the Zerumbable, the son of Shaltiel, Governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehazadot, the high priest, and he says to the remnant of the people. And so you're to speak to these people, and you're supposed to say, according to verse 3, you're supposed to also speak to who is, say, who is left among you, who saw this temple in its former glory. And how do you see it now in comparison with it? Is this not in your eyes as nothing? So God says, I have a word that I'm bringing to the people, and I'm going to bring that word by first posing three questions, three questions. Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? Second question, how do you see it now? And the third question in comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing? Very often the Lord will introduce a teaching with a question. Here he gives a series of three questions because he's speaking to the hearts of the people. You need to remember that at this point. The people have been working on it for around four weeks. We saw that in chapter one, verse five. The work had been neglected for 16 years, and as we looked at the first chapter I shared with you, it had been neglected because of fear and apathy. And so they are now resuming the work, but as they do so, there are mixed emotions. You see, 16 years earlier, the original reconstruction had begun. When you read the book of Ezra, you'll see that after laying the foundation for the temple, there was a celebration. Ezra chapter three tells us that the priests, Levites, and the people began to praise and were rejoicing. Ezra tells us that the people praised God, they gave thanks to him. They were shouting and praising the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord had been laid. And so as this is all taking place in the midst of all of this, there were many of an older generation and those of the older generation were not as excited as the others. In Ezra three, 12 and 13, it says, many of the priests and Levites and heads of the father's houses, old men who had seen the first temple wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout and the sound was heard far off. The older people were looking at the temple remembering its former glory. And as they did, the hearts began to weep. The first temple had been destroyed 50 years earlier, they were thinking of its destruction. They're looking at it and they're seeing the desolation. And as they're looking at the desolation, their mind has to turn to their own judgment. You see, when the Babylonians had taken Jerusalem, they actually ransacked the temple. In 2 Kings chapter 24 verse 13, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonians, carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house. And he cut in pieces all the articles of gold which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the temple of the Lord as the Lord had said. Hebrews nine verses four and five says they took the golden censor and the ark of the covenant overlaid all sides with gold. There was a golden pot that had the manna, Aaron's rod that butted. The tablets of the covenant above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy. See, they destroyed this place and it was a beautiful place and they destroyed it. They ransacked it and ultimately the Babylonians destroyed the temple itself. In 2 Kings 25 9, Nebuchadnezzar burned the house of the Lord and the king's house. In 2 Kings 25 13 through 17, those verses report that everything else was pillaged and taken off to Babylon. And so as they're there and they're looking at this, they have to be thinking of the judgment that has come upon them and they wept. They wept realizing that such magnificence would never be duplicated. The younger people are simply excited. They're going to have a temple. But they have no frame of reference by which to draw a comparison. They don't understand the loss felt by the elders. So they simply rejoice. Well, something like that is once again occurring. So the question is asked, who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? Well, there were some there that would remember its glory. The temple was destroyed in 586 and this takes place about 66 years later. There are those who are still alive who had seen it. Interestingly enough, the Lord begins to address the thoughts that they have. They couldn't duplicate what they had seen, what they had felt as children. You know, children have a way about them. Some of you can cast your memory back to childhood. Some of us takes a little bit longer than others. And I remember certain things and you think of them in a certain way because they were your first impression in all. I remember when they built Disneyland, for example. You can't imagine what it was like to enter into that quote unquote magic kingdom as a child. I was around five years old when they built Disneyland. And all we had for in comparison prior to that were these little teeny cheesy corner lots where they would put horses that you'd sit on and ride around in a circle and merry go rounds. And it was dirt and they may have some camel that you could get a picture on. I mean, it was cheesy to the max is what we used to say. It's just really cheesy. And now you got, we also had Pacific Ocean Park. Some of you may remember that. I'm looking out there and some of you may. POP and you'd go there and I can still remember the last time I went there because they used to have these cardboard cutouts and you'd walk in and they were broken and they're just like half of it just hanging like that. And you'd be going into the, and it was just messed up. And so when you compare that with Disneyland, you walk into Disneyland and everything was brand new and so shiny. And it was just an amazing experience as a kid. And you'll use that as your frame of reference for the rest of your life. You compare things with things like that, seeing the magic castle and all of those things, those will always be memories that are lodged within you. Well, ramp that up and make it into a spiritual experience where you'd see the glory of the temple, the beauty of it, the magnificence of it. The beautiful white stone that was created from how tall it was there on the mountain all and all of the fanfare of the priests and the incense and the light and now you're looking at at rubble. You're looking at a place that's trashed, a place that has only former glory. Well, the young people, man, let's put ourselves to work. Let's build this again that the old people are saying you'll never build something as glorious as Solomon's temple. You can't do it, there's no way. And so there's a mixture of sorrow and joy. And what it is is they're falling into the temptation of longing for something of a different era. The longing for what we would today refer to perhaps as those good old days. What happened? You know, fast forward that to our day, the 21st century. And you can do the same thing. It's not hard to do. To begin to look back at spiritual experiences that you once had, the joys that you once had, and you have a tendency of saying, it'll never be as good. You can cast your mind back into the Bible and you can read the book of acts as we did recently. And we went through it chapter by chapter and people will read the book of acts and they begin to wonder, they wonder because they saw certain things in it and it seems that those things seem to be absent today. And so they read the book of acts and they say, where's the unity of the church? And the church used to be one. The church would work together. If there's somebody in need, they'd pull their resources. They'd care for them. They didn't go to outside government sources for help. The body of Christ cared for itself. And so you have people who will say, what happened? How did it happen? Where's the unity? How did it break into so many groups and subgroups and angry things here and angry posts there? How did that happen? And some will say, what happened to the power? To power the Holy Spirit? What happened to the day? They'll say, when we would walk into a Bible study, and you could sense the presence of God. And it would be a little in a house where, where we as hippies, I could use myself as an example, as a hippie. We would walk into a house and no, we didn't need air conditioning. No, we didn't need pews or chair. We sat on the floor. We didn't even need shoes. And we would just be seated there, you know, maybe on a beanbag chair or, or even using your buddy as your barca lounger, you know, and we'd, we'd, we'd hold hands and we would pray and we would enjoy and talk about the Bible study that we just had left from. And you can look at that and you can begin to think, what happened? Where's the unity? Where's the power? Some people will read church history. And they read about the days of the reformers. And they began to say, these men had amazing minds. They had spiritual courage. And so we, we long for those days. When is there going to be another great awakening? Like there was in England or the United States. And those who like to read church history and things began to ask questions to where are the Westleys? Where are the Whitfields, the DL Moody's, the Spurgeons? Where are the A.W. Tozers, the Billy Graham's, the Chuck Smith's? Where are the other great preachers? Where are they today? Because we, we do see a lack in so many ways, don't we? I mean, when you have somebody on a television program being asked point black, point blank questions related to is this right? Is this wrong? And you watch them dance around the answer because they don't want to offend people. You ask yourself, where's the spine in these pastors? Where's the fear of God in these pastors? They don't have it. They're so busy popularizing their their churches and their message and selling their material. And and people like me, I can I can look and say to the Lord's question, is this not in your eyes? That's nothing. And I can say indeed, I can see it that way far. Where is it? What happened? You can say the church once had great missionaries traveling the world over planting churches. You had these these giants of the faith. You had Hudson Taylor. You had had men like David Livingston. David Livingston, such an amazing man. He had gone to to speak in England. He was on furlough and he was speaking to a group of college students who were known to like to disrupt the speakers. And David Livingston was the speaker and they brought what they called noise makers and they were going to interrupt him. And when he came walking onto the stage to address this rowdy crowd of college students, he came with a limp with his arm hanging down because his arm had been mauled by a lion. His face was dark leathery from the years that he had been in Africa. He was still suffering with various diseases that he had picked up as he had walked through that continent. And he began to share and everybody was silent. And you read the stories about that, how these kids who who enjoyed disrupting sat in spellbound wonder at this man. This man who followed the Lord so deeply and loved Africa so much that the story is told of how that he was in his tent and he would rise early every day and pray. And the young servant boy who would care for his needs came in and saw Livingston on his knees and didn't want to interrupt this great man as he was at prayer and came back later. He was still on his knees and then came again later and realized that he had died on his knees praying, Livingston died praying. And they took his heart out of his body and buried it in Africa and gave his body back to England. They said, England can have his body, but his heart remains in Africa. You know stories like that. You know stories like that. Men who gave up their families. I read of the young missionary who was the first missionary to Tibet. How he knelt by the grave of his wife and his children. He had lost his entire family as he's in Tibet. And I can't even remember his name. And yet his story touched my heart. And so you can look around and you can say, where are the great men and women of God? That history in the past has revealed to us, where are these people? Where are these missionaries? Where are these great teachers? We can say, I remember the Jesus movement. We'll never have anything like that again. But that's not true. That's not true. Remember in Calvary Chapel ministry, which we are a very deep part of, began with one church. With a pastor named Chuck Smith. We have hundreds of Calvary chapels reaching the world for Jesus Christ. We just had a pastor's conference. We had about 1200 pastors, assistants and wives and all gathered together to talk about what God is doing, to encourage one another in what the Lord wants to do. God is not dead. God is alive. He isn't sleeping. He's still moving and we need to remember that. We need to remember that. So God knows what's going on. He knows what they're thinking. He addresses it and he addresses it and makes it very clear. Is this not in your eyes by comparison? Nothing. You're looking at this, these small beginnings here and you're disregarding it. And yet he's saying, this isn't over. This is not over. He's making it very clear that he's got the work that he wants to do. In Isaiah 43, 18 and 19. It simply says, do not remember the former things nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. I can do this work. Just trust me. In verse four, yet now be strong, Zerubbabel says the Lord. Be strong, Joshua, son of Jehazudak, the high priest. Be strong. All you people of the land says the Lord and work. For I'm with you, says the Lord of hosts. According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remains among you, do not fear. Be strong. Be strong, he says. Be strong. Be strong and get busy. Get busy and work. So what is the solution to discouragement? Instead of sitting around thinking about the good old days, why don't you rise up and get busy? The temple isn't gonna build itself, so get to work. Well, it's not gonna come just by your physical efforts either by the way, because I'm giving you a promise. He says, I am with you. My spirit remains among you. And then he says, do not fear. I'm with you. I'm with you. And you need to live as if you believe that. I'm with you. And you need to act on that knowledge. When you read Zechariah chapter four verses six through nine, it reads, he said to me, this is the word of the Lord that's a rubble, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord Almighty. Who are you, oh great mountain? Before it's a rubble, you shall become plain. And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of grace, grace to it. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying the hands of the rubble have laid the foundation of this temple. His hands shall finish it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. It's a rubble, you see the rubble, and you see the work before you. And because it's rubble and a lot of work, you can get overwhelmed. The rubble, the task is huge. And your abilities are very small. But the good news, you don't have to rely on human ability. You need to rely on me. Because it's not by might. When he says it's not by might, that speaks of wealth or efficiency. It's not an army of organizational expertise. He says it's not by power. It's not by human strength. It's not by human ability. You see, it's by my spirit. In every work we do for the Lord, there will always be a temptation to do it in your own strength. You can rely on your own ability to organize and you can lead with your own strength. You can dream and you can plan programs that are sure to work if you get help. You can do what are called demographic studies. You can attend church growth seminars. You can read every book that's written. You can exhaust yourself doing door to door visitation, pushing crusades, attending extra classes in school, training people to become contagious Christians or soul winning soldiers. You can get your face in front of a camera. You can write a book and you can fight for attention. But eventually, you simply burn out and fade away. The work of the Lord must not be done in human organization or human wisdom. It needs to be done in the power of the Holy Spirit. Galatians was a church, the church of Galatians or Galatia was a church birthed through the power of the Holy Spirit. And yet Paul was concerned and in Galatians three, two and three, he said this, he said this only, I want to learn from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Then he asked them a question, are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? I've said this to you so many times, I'm gonna say it again, because it's part of my core, it's part of who I am. Chuck Smith is asked every time we planned that I was part of any of the planning and I know he did it before I was ever there. He would be asked, what is your concern for our Calvary Ministries pastor? And you would always say the same thing, have we begun in the spirit and are we gonna be made perfect by the flesh? What is my concern? That we'll begin to rely on human ingenuity, human strength, human programs, human wisdom and we'll cease relying on God. Why is it unwise, like Paul, we're looking in First Timothy and we were looking at it just recently, qualifications of an elder, why did you say do not lay hands on a novice lest they be puffed up with pride and fall into the condemnation of the devil? Why don't you lay your hands on a young man because he has a lot of testing to go through in order that his character may be refined so that he gets to the point of realizing that it's not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord so that he'll understand that and rely on him and trust him and pray to him and be concerned about pleasing him because when he begins to hear the voices of people around him saying how wonderful he is, he can actually succumb to the temptation to think he's doing it on his own and in doing so remove himself from the place that God can use the most effectively. One of the worst things you can give to a young person is outward success because outward success does not mean that he has an inward maturity and it's dangerous and so we have to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit and we need to understand that the work of God is always done by his spirit. You shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, unto the uttermost parts of the earth. It isn't your philosophy, it is a power of the gospel that transforms lives and understand that and it's easy for us today to forget that it's the Lord that does the work and it's easy for us today to forget that he's with us wherever it is that we go on, whatever we do in his name. So God's work must be done in the power of the Holy Spirit. So the question is asked, who are you again, oh great mountain? Before is the rubble, you shall become a plane. The rubble surrounding the temple was like a mountain but with God's strength, even the obstacles like that would become level ground and what's gonna make it a plane? The power of God made available by his grace because that clears the mountains out of your life also. They need to remember that God had made a covenant with them and God would honor it. You see some felt that they had been forsaken for past sins, the past sins of the nation but he's with them. In Jeremiah 29 verses 10 through 13 it reads, for thus says the Lord after 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you and cause you to return to this place for I know the thoughts that I think toward you says the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and I will listen to you and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. You will search for me, you will find me but you do it with a complete heart. And so here in Haggai in verse 60 says, for thus says the Lord of hosts once more, it's a little while I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land and I will shake all nations and they shall come to the desire of all nations and I will fill this temple with glory says the Lord of hosts. So as they're looking at the past God directs their attention to the future. The future contains a temple that will make Solomon's pale in comparison. Notice how he says thus says the Lord of hosts once more he said, I will shake heaven and earth. Now he shook heaven and earth when he gave the law through Moses according to Exodus 19 verse 16 but the second shaking will occur at the end of the world. In Hebrews 12, 26 through 29 it says at that time his voice shook the earth but now he has promised once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. The words once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken that has created things so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with a reverence and awe for our God he says is a consuming fire. He says I will shake verse seven I will shake all nations they shall come to the desire of all nations. Now that's actually a prophetic look at the time called the tribulation because this period where God's pouring out his wrath on the earth that's recorded in Revelation chapters six through 19 shows us the various judgments that are gonna be falling upon the earth and so this period called the tribulation causes agitation and it will awaken a longing for a rescue and then at that time when Messiah comes to reign people will come to worship him. They will worship in the temple that will be built during the millennial reign of Messiah. The prophet Ezekiel in chapters 40 through 48 speak of this temple. In Ezekiel chapter 43 verses five through seven it reads the spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court and behold the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Then I heard him speaking to me from the temple while a man stood beside me he said to me son of man this is the place of my throne and the place of the souls of my feet where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel. So during the thousand year reign people will be coming to worship him in the temple. He goes on and he says in verse eight the silver is mine and the gold is mine says the Lord of hosts. In other words everything on earth belongs to the Lord and everything on earth is to be used to bring glory to him. King David prayed concerning the offering that he was receiving to build the temple it's found in 1 Chronicles 29 verses 16 and 17 and listen to the words. Oh Lord our God all this abundance that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name is from your hand and it's all your own. I know also my God that you test the heart and have pleasure and uprightness as for me in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things and now with joy I have senior people who are present here to offer willingly to you. Everything I have comes from him. I know theoretically that's true but it takes a step of faith to practically believe that that's true. I know illustratively that's true and in a certain sense I can understand it in this way when my children were small as I've said before they would give me Christmas gifts. They didn't have jobs, they weren't out doing work, they weren't making money putting it away. What they had was mom who would take them shopping and have them pick out a gift and the mama would buy it and then they would write their merry Christmas or whatever and they would say, daddy what do you want? And I'd say the cheapest thing you can get me because I was paying for it. But that's true isn't it? I mean if you're a parent now or perhaps as a child you didn't have any money. The money that was spent on any presents that you were giving to others came from your father or your mama. It came from somebody else. That's how it worked right? So when I give the Lord something is it really mine in the first place? God would say it's not. The silver is mine, the gold is mine. What I give to him is out of stewardship. He has allowed me to steward the things that are his. So for me I have to realize that I'm not giving him anything that didn't first belong to him. I'm simply returning to him a portion. But not all of it. He actually graciously allows me to use the majority of it for myself. But when I give to the Lord is it because I created the silver? Is there any silver being created right now? Is God creating any more gold? It's all created, it's all done. It all belongs to him. And when I give him silver or gold or whatever it may be, it's all his anyway. And that's what he's simply saying. And so what you give to me already belong to me. As he's going through that, verse nine he says the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts. There's going to be glory. Glory that is amazing and nothing will ever match it. That glory that exists during the time when Messiah rules and reigns. And there's going to be peace because peace will be there because the prince of peace is there and the prince of peace Jesus himself, our Messiah grants peace to them. And so he says I'll give peace in this place. Verse 10 on the 24th day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying, thus says the Lord of hosts. Now, as the priest concerning the law saying, if one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil or any food, will it become holy? The priest answered and said, no. Haggai said, if one who was unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean? The priest answered and said, it shall be unclean. Then Haggai answered and said, so is this people. And so is this nation before me says the Lord and so is every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean. Now this word came two months later in December, December 24th. It speaks of the spiritual defilement of the nation. You see the questions that are asked relate to holiness and the impurity. So the question is, is holiness contagious? If you come into contact with something holy, are you now holy? There are people today who think that. Did you know that? You know that. They think that if they come into contact with something holy, that that makes them holy. That's true to this day. That's true to this day. I've been in Israel, you know, and people will go to the Jordan River that they consider holy. And they will, I've been there. There was a group of people with beer bottles getting holy water from the Jordan to take home. In their beer bottles, I thought, this is amazing. We have baptisms in this particular place, yarding it. And it's a long story made very short. It's a baptismal site that actually came into existence when Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa built this site. And so Pastor Chuck in Calvary Coastal Mesa contributed funds so that a baptismal area where we baptize, we've had many, many baptisms there, it came to be because Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, Pastor Chuck was a friend of Israel. He loved the nation, was honored by the nation for his love for and support of that nation. And so we go and we have our baptisms there. And while we were there, there was a poster and a picture of Pastor Chuck. And so I thought, how cool is this? You know, I might pass right here, but then you go to their souvenir shop and they had little bottles of Jordan River water with Chuck's face on them. Oh, he was not happy. He was not happy about that at all. Well, the question is asked, if you come into contact with something that is determined to have a holiness to it, just by bumping into it or whatever, does that make you holy? So the question is, is holiness contagious? And the answer to that question immediately was no. The priest answered according to verse 12 and said, no, no. Holiness is not something you catch. But the other question is, is defilement transferred in this fashion? Defilement, the answer, yes. In Numbers 19, verse 11, Old Testament, he who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean. Seven days. Leviticus 11, 24, by these you shall become unclean. Whoever touches the carcass of any of them shall be unclean until evening. So there is, yes, ritual defilement. Sin is contagious. Righteousness is not. You can become defiled through coming into contact with something that draws you and makes you unclean. But you can't become holy just by bumping into somebody who loves the Lord. And so as, even though the people were bringing offerings, he's simply saying their offerings aren't acceptable. As long as you're not working on the temple, I'm not gonna receive your offerings. You see, your sin is causing your sacrifice to be contaminated. And in putting your comfort ahead of the Lord, your offerings have no real meaning. So, verse 15. So now carefully consider from this day forward, from before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the Lord since those days. When one came to a heap of 20 fuzz, there were but 10. When one came to the wine fat to draw out 50 baths from the press, there were but 20. I struck you with blight, mildew, and hail in all the labors of your hands. Yet you didn't turn to me, says the Lord. Consider now from this day forward, from the 24th day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day, I will bless you. I want you to think in the days of your disobedience, you have been in lack, but in your day of obedience, I will bless you abundantly. In Malachi in chapter three, verses eight through 11, there's a question that is asked there. Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, in what way have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house, and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you such blessing, that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord, try me in this. Do you think that he's saying, do you think that I will not bless you, if you give to me? Try me in this, and see what will happen. I will bless you. In verse 20, again, the word of the Lord came to Haggai, on the 24th day of the month, saying, speak to the rubble, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake heaven and earth. I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them. The horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother. And that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will take you as a rubble, my servant, the son of Shaltiao, says the Lord, and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, says the Lord of hosts. And so, as we close here, on the same day as the preceding message, God speaks a final word. It's a word of promise as a rubble. It has two applications. One, the Lord says, I'm gonna be with you. You're gonna be like a signet ring. A signet ring is a symbol of a person in power. It was pressed into wax or clay. It was proof of ownership. It was worn on a finger. It was placed on a chain, worn around the neck. So he's saying to him, I want you to know that I am going to keep you close to me, use you, and I will protect you. But it also has a long-range prophetic meaning because it would speak of Zerubbabel who was in the Messianic line of Jesus. Do you see that in Matthew chapter one? He speaks of him and he says, you're my servant. Zerubbabel, my servant, is a Messianic title that you find related to Messiah in Isaiah 41-8, Isaiah 42-1, as well as Isaiah 53-11. So he is my servant. He's speaking concerning the future. And he says in that day, which corresponds to verses six and seven, and this is a picture. Messiah will overthrow the kingdoms of this world and Messiah will rule. In Psalm two, it says it in verses seven through nine. I will declare the decree, the Lord has said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. In Revelation 11, verse 15, it says, the seventh angel sounded. There were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. He shall reign forever and ever. I have chosen you. You are in the line of Messiah. I will bless you. I will keep you, but prophetically, this is a picture of the day when Messiah comes, rules and reigns, and He closes with a future blessing for the people of God. What do we learn? I like to tip my hat to the past, but my pastor taught me to take off my jacket for the future. God has done marvelous things through the history of the church and we're living in very dark times right now. If you haven't noticed that, it's because you've been asleep. All you need to do is open your eyes and look around. But are these days a lot worse than any other day? More than likely not. The pastor's conference, I was given the assignment and honor of opening up the conference as the first teacher. And I gave a short history of the period of time just prior to what was called the Jesus movement. How that time magazine had run an article with the picture with the words is God dead. And then just a few years later, I had a second article that said the Jesus revolution. And I was sharing with the people. I said, you know, we can look at today and we can look at the conditions of today and think it's never been this bad, but that's only because we don't remember our history. Because we came up in tumultuous times. The 60s, I look back now by those who want to emulate certain things in it. I mean, I see people the day dressing like hippies and it kind of, I think it's interesting because what goes around comes around, I guess. And I see young people dressing up, you know, with the long flowery dresses and flowers in their hair. And I tell the guys, I say, boys, you ought to wear pants instead of those dresses, but you're not that cute. But no, but you look out there and you go into some of these stores today and they're selling paisley and they're trying to recapture what they think is the image of what they call, used to call healthy on days, the good old days and all. And we have a way of being very selective in our memory and oh yeah, I remember the love ends and I remember the peace and the peace sign and I remember all the beautiful, the great music and there was a lot of great music and this and that, but we also forget things like riots in Watts and Newark and Detroit and we forget about assassinations like John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy. We forget about the sit-ins in the different colleges. We forget about the Kent State Massacre where children were shot down by National Guardsmen. We forget about the slogan icing of the introduction of hallucinogenics and the Timothy Leary's telling us to turn on, tune in and drop out. We forget about the violence. We forget about all the immorality. We forget about all of that. Why? Because we tune in only to the things that we selectively think were cool about that era and I was sharing with the Jesus, with the guys today and rather on Monday about that and I said, you know what? The 60s were anything, anything but peaceful. That's why. That's why God brought revival. That's why. One of my favorite writers is A.W. Tozer and Tozer was pointing out prior to his death. He died in 1963 and he was writing and he was writing in a prophetic sense and he said that the days that we are living in are dark. They're very spiritually dark, Tozer. But he says in the darkness, God has a tendency of bringing a light. He said, we're ripe for revival. He died in 1963 and in 1965, my pastor took over a small church in Costa Mesa called Calvary Chapel and God used him and some others to bring that gospel to the wasted hippie youth of that era and we came to know Jesus Christ. We led our families to Christ. We planted churches. We became missionaries. We took the gospel and have taken the gospel to the four corners of the world because it was dark but God shone light and I believe that God wants to raise up a generation of young people to do a new and fresh work and young person, I encourage you, serve the Lord and watch what God will do with you. Why, why, why do you think that you need that there's, we'll say it this way. Why should there be a bunch of old pastors we're there to help you but I wanna see the younger generation grow up and take this gospel. I was 23 years old when I started doing my ministry. I was 30 years old when I planted this church. Why can't you do a work like that? Why can't God use you? You can do you, understand that. And we who are older, we have a role in the life of the church. We have a role in the life as mentors, pastors, teachers, instructors, examples. I'm not going anywhere, sorry. I'm not planting myself somewhere. I'm not gonna be playing bingo in some church hall. I'm gonna be taking the gospel out as long as God gives me breath to do that but I encourage you to do the same. Let's get on fire for Jesus and see the glory of the Lord as he shines amongst us.