Remember those powerful worship songs from the early 2000s that touched your soul in ways words couldn't? Artists like Michael W. Smith, Chris Tomlin, and Newsboys created anthems that helped us connect deeply with God. In this episode, we revisit those impactful moments and discuss how contemporary songs like Brandon Lake's "Gratitude" performed by Cody continue to resonate amidst the chaos and division of today's world. We explore how worship and unity remind us of the importance of placing God's kingdom at the center of our lives.
Reflecting on an old friend's decision to walk away from their faith, we delve into the modern cultural trend of self-reliance and its consequences. Drawing parallels to the book of Haggai, we examine the Israelites' initial enthusiasm to rebuild Solomon's temple and their subsequent abandonment of the project due to opposition. Through Haggai's message, we uncover a timeless challenge to reconsider our priorities and return to placing God at the heart of our lives—a call that is just as relevant now as it was then.
We wrap up by encouraging you to reflect on your own life and priorities. Are we truly putting God first in our daily routines and aspirations? By sharing personal anecdotes and biblical references, we highlight the internal struggle between worldly ambitions and spiritual commitments. This episode invites you to embrace the transformative power of accepting Jesus, the significance of baptism as an all-in commitment, and the eternal impact of living a life devoted to building God's kingdom. Join us for an inspiring conversation that challenges us all to reconsider our priorities and truly live for God.
Remember those powerful worship songs from the early 2000s that touched your soul in ways words couldn't? Artists like Michael W. Smith, Chris Tomlin, and Newsboys created anthems that helped us connect deeply with God. In this episode, we revisit those impactful moments and discuss how contemporary songs like Brandon Lake's "Gratitude" performed by Cody continue to resonate amidst the chaos and division of today's world. We explore how worship and unity remind us of the importance of placing God's kingdom at the center of our lives.
Reflecting on an old friend's decision to walk away from their faith, we delve into the modern cultural trend of self-reliance and its consequences. Drawing parallels to the book of Haggai, we examine the Israelites' initial enthusiasm to rebuild Solomon's temple and their subsequent abandonment of the project due to opposition. Through Haggai's message, we uncover a timeless challenge to reconsider our priorities and return to placing God at the heart of our lives—a call that is just as relevant now as it was then.
We wrap up by encouraging you to reflect on your own life and priorities. Are we truly putting God first in our daily routines and aspirations? By sharing personal anecdotes and biblical references, we highlight the internal struggle between worldly ambitions and spiritual commitments. This episode invites you to embrace the transformative power of accepting Jesus, the significance of baptism as an all-in commitment, and the eternal impact of living a life devoted to building God's kingdom. Join us for an inspiring conversation that challenges us all to reconsider our priorities and truly live for God.
Speaker 1:
I think I'm going to sit down. I am, by the way, I love that song, gratitude, that Cody did. It's a song by Brandon Lake. That is just absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1:
There's just something about worship, there's something about songs in particular that, like it's always been at least for me, it's always been like one of the best ways for me to communicate with God. I remember when I was younger, when I first became a Christian, and I remember the music that I was listening to before Jesus, which wasn't all bad but it wasn't great. But I remember that when I started and when I first found my own faith, that something that I was really attracted to was the worship songs. And we're talking like early 2000s. So, like Michael W W Smith, chris Tomlin, like those were the guys right, like Newsboys had some stuff. Um, uh, there was a band called Seventh Day Slumber that actually existed back then. That still exists and I love them. But I just remember really gravitating towards music and and music was important for me because it helped to express oftentimes, this deep feelings that I had towards God that I couldn't quite verbalize, and so I remember so many times in my life, through some of the weirdest, darkest moments of my life. There's just this idea of just kind of you know, you just sit down and you just turn on some music and you just worship. And I told Cody and I even said to him this is now I didn't realize this morning that I actually needed that song Gratitude a little bit, because, if I'm honest, you know, as we come here this morning, I think my heart's a little heavier than it normally is.
Speaker 1:
I don't want to go too much into what happened yesterday, but yesterday in this country was chaos and I think the chaotic part of it is, for whatever reason. We have lost the ability to see each other as human beings and we can talk about this all day long and I don't want to hang out there because that's really not where I feel like I need to be. But we can sit here and talk about division all the time and how we don't agree with this and that, but the reality is, at the very end of the day, at the core of who we are. Every single person on the face of the earth was created by God. We are designed by a perfect creator who wants nothing more to have a relationship with us and who calls us into a relationship with him that supersedes everything that we are Our own beliefs, our own values. There's this call to follow after God that puts God at the center of our lives, and so we're, we as Christians, and and even those who are not Christians. But but I believe that they're called to the same thing, even if they don't realize it is. They're called to worship something that is bigger than them, something that is perfect, something that is holy, and I think we live in a world that, and I think even in the church, I think we see it that, if we're honest with ourselves, god is often maybe second best, like we know that he's supposed to be priority, right. We know that he's supposed to be priority right. We know that he's supposed to be the one that we follow. We know that his kingdom is more important than ours, but for some reason we don't always act like that. We don't live in such a way that we put the kingdom of God first, because we live in a world where we are content trying to satisfy our own needs, world where we are content trying to satisfy our own needs.
Speaker 1:
I was reading a comment yesterday from an old friend of mine who walked away in their faith and they were talking a little bit about the reason they walked away, and one of the things that kind of caught me off guard is they walked away because they believed that they were able to follow their own path just fine, that they were able to make good decisions and at their core, they didn't need a God, who they don't now believe exists, to tell them how to live and, if I'm honest, I think that's part of culture how to live, and, if I'm honest, I think that's part of culture. We believe that we don't need anything but ourselves. Except when you look at the world around us, when humanity is left to its own. We're not always really good at it, but the interesting thing is this is not a new phenomenon. It's not like we're the only time in the history of the world where a culture who's supposed to be following after God has decided that putting God at the center and making God a priority is necessary, because oftentimes, if you read throughout the scriptures, especially the Old Testament, israel kind of flip-flopped back and forth they worshiped God on this day and the next day they worshiped whatever gods were around them.
Speaker 1:
So today we're going to be in the book of Haggai, and it's a very small book, haggai is considered a minor prophet, considered a minor prophet and I think I know I've said this before, but a minor prophet just means that his book, like his letter, was really short. So that's how we determine whether or not someone's a minor prophet or a major prophet. So Haggai in the book of Haggai and I'll read chapter one here in a second, but just to give you an idea, what's happening in the book of Haggai actually can be read in the book of Ezra. So if you go back a couple books in the Old Testament to the book of Ezra, the events that are taking place in Ezra are the events that Haggai has shown up for. So essentially what's happened is the nation of Israel was in exile.
Speaker 1:
They were sent back to their homeland by Darius he was a Persian king at the time and they were given everything they needed to rebuild the temple. Now, keep in mind, this is the temple that Solomon would have built, so it would have been like the pride and joy of the Jews. It would have been their house of worship, but had been destroyed because they had been invaded. The Babylonians destroyed it, and so Darius sends them back to their homeland with the task of rebuilding the temple. And so in the book of Ezra they start to do this. They go back. Darius gives them everything they need, all the supplies, all the helps, and they lay the foundation. So they lay the foundation of the temple and then they run into some opposition and the opposition starts to kind of threaten them and makes it difficult for them. And so God's people have laid the foundation of the temple and they have decided, because of the opposition that's happening to them, that they're done. They just stop. They stop working on it altogether. So by the time we get to Haggai together, so by the time we get to Haggai, it's been 18 years. 18 years since they've worked on the foundation. So they laid the foundation and then there's an 18-year time span where they do nothing but work on their own houses. They start to build up their houses, their jobs, they plant crops, they do everything to basically just focus on their we're going to call it their kingdom, and they do all of this for 18 years and they leave the house of God where it is. They've done nothing, they add nothing to it. So this is where we start.
Speaker 1:
In the book of Haggai, chapter 1, it says In the second year of King Darius. On the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai. To Zerubbabel, son of Shetelia, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, son of Jetelia, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, son of Josedach, the high priest. This is what the Lord Almighty says. These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord's house. Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai Is it time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses while this house remains a ruin?
Speaker 1:
Now, this is what the Lord Almighty says Give careful thought to your ways.
Speaker 1:
You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but are not warm. You earn wages only to put them in the purse with holes in it. This is what the Lord Almighty says. Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why, declares the Lord Almighty, because of my house, which remains a ruin While each of you is busy with your own house. Therefore, because of you, the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock and all the labor of your hands.
Speaker 1:
Then Zerubbabel, son of Shittiel, joshua, son of Josedach, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord, their God, and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord, their God, had sent him and the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people I am with you, declares the Lord. So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, son of Shittiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, son of Josedach, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God, on the 24th day of the sixth month.
Speaker 1:
So there's this moment where God comes to the people of Israel and says Listen, why have you allowed my house to remain in ruins? You have this temple that I've asked you to build. This is where I will rest in your presence, this is the place where you will come and you will worship me, and for some reason, you have decided that it's just not worth your time to build my temple. Instead, you're focused on your house, your houses, your crops, everything but what they failed to realize, and God even acknowledges this. He says listen. He says consider your ways, consider everything you're trying to do, all the crops, all the money, everything you're trying to accomplish, and you can't figure out why nothing you're doing is successful. And the reason is because I have withheld from you, because you have decided to prioritize your life, your purpose, your desires, over mine, and this is not how it's supposed to be.
Speaker 1:
Now, listen, from the standpoint of someone who is not a Christian, I understand. This sounds odd, because there's this idea that I think sometimes God is like this overbearing kind of figure, and I can see in the context of how someone can read that. But to someone who understands and believes who God is, we believe and understand that he is the one who created everything, so that everything that we have belongs to him. Anyways, it's not mine, the very breath that I breathe in my lungs, the very moment that I wake up that my life is his and the one thing that he asks of me is to commit my life to his ways. And so when he's talking to the nation of Israel, he says to them consider your ways, consider the way that you're living compared to what I've asked you to do, and you wonder why things are falling apart as a whole.
Speaker 1:
I think that that's the biggest problem in the world today. I think we have decided that our purpose, our kingdom, our desires will take precedence over everything the God of all creation has asked us to do. We don't prioritize them in our lives, we don't prioritize them in the church, we don't prioritize them in the country. We live as if there is no God. And then we look around and we're asking ourselves why is the world falling apart? And the answer to that question, I think, is simple, and that's because we've decided that God's kingdom is not nearly as important as our own. I struggle with that, if I'm being honest. I struggle with that, if I'm being honest. I struggle with that Because I live in the same world that you do.
Speaker 1:
I remember I had a conversation with Everett recently. If you guys don't know, there's like a car show going on downtown, and so one of the fun parts of this week is just seeing all the cars driving around town, all the really fancy ones. I saw a bright yellow 78 IROC Camaro with black racing stripes and I stopped and all I could think is man, I want that so bad. And I stopped and all I could think is man, I want that so bad. Like if someone told me, hey, you can have this car if you cut off your foot, I don't even think I'd ask a question, I'd just be like I don't even care, just cut it off. Because my entire life I've just been fascinated with muscle cars but I've never been able to have the kind of money that has allowed me to purchase a muscle car. But every day Everett talks about how he wants a Tesla Cybertruck and I'm like good goal, buddy, like give it up.
Speaker 1:
But growing up, all I wanted is I wanted a job. I wanted a career where I could have more money than I could ever imagine, because I just wanted to buy muscle cars. Like I wanted to have options. I didn't want to have one, I wanted to have options. And then God called me into ministry and I was like I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon and listen. It's funny.
Speaker 1:
But part of that is because I remember growing up that we're always taught to, especially as a guy, go out and make a ton of money, become rich, like that's the goal right Retire when you're 30. I've heard people say that and I'm like 38, and I'm like I don't think I can retire when I'm 60, so let alone 30. But we have this idea that the things that we feel, the things that we want, they often are so harped on that we will sacrifice whatever it takes to accomplish those things for things and items and materials that when we die, will have no inherent value. Every muscle car that I've seen this week will someday end up in a junkyard rusting somewhere. It's inevitable. Every house that I've seen, I mean, think about it. You drive through downtown anywhere, you see these houses. There are ones, these huge, glorious houses that are about to fall in, because everything in this world is temporary.
Speaker 1:
God's not. God isn't just this one-time thing that serves a purpose in my life and then, when I die, there's nothing, there's no value. God is not only helping me to understand the importance of serving Him now, but at the end of my life he has a place that's prepared for me that is going to be glorious. Everything you and I do can potentially have an eternal impact on the people in our lives. The people that Haggai was talking to had lost sight of eternity. They were building up their houses, their kingdom, their things, and God had to remind them and once again, I love what he says. He says it twice, just in chapter 1. Consider your ways, consider what you're living for, consider what you're investing in. Consider what you're investing in. Consider what I have called you to. I have called you to something greater than yourself, and you have decided that I am not worth your time. And then he says in the latter part of chapter one but don't worry, because I'm with you, and I'm with you and I'm gonna stir up your spirit and I'm gonna bring you back and I'm gonna help you understand the significance of my kingdom versus your kingdom, my eternal kingdom versus your temporary one that will fade away. And so the question right on everyone's mind is what does that have to do with us? The short answer is everything, everything we are trying to accomplish as a church. Listen, it's not about building a building on the property for the sake of building the building on the property. It's not about us being able to say, hey, look at this wonderful structure that we now have. It's glorious.
Speaker 1:
When I was in Africa, I worshipped in a one-room brick building with no air conditioning, one giant door and a couple windows, and it was the greatest worship that I think I've ever experienced in my life, because their focus was so much on God that it didn't matter how hot it was. I didn't say this last week, stacy, but I was thinking about it. Your dog cracks me up, because when we were in Africa four times, a dog ran into service and like everyone's just like petting it and then like it takes off, and then like another one came in and you're standing there and you're like, well, I guess this is a thing, like this is what happens, right. And so we're like, we're standing there, we're worshiping, and then, like this chicken starts like making a bunch of noise over here and I'm like, where's the sound system? Like, in my uncomfortableness, I'm realizing that there's a mentality in that culture of the greatest thing they have, that Sunday morning has nothing to do with the location of where they are, but it's all about the people they're with and the God that they're worshiping. They have an eternal mindset that is life-changing.
Speaker 1:
The world's chaotic. The world's chaotic. The world's going to come to an end someday. People who don't know Jesus. Their eternity is at stake. There are so many people in this city that have no idea who Jesus is. They have no idea how much he loves them. They have no idea how much he sacrificed for them. And he came. That's why he came. He came to give up his life so you and I would not have to lose ours.
Speaker 1:
So, when God is talking to the Israelites and through Haggai, he's reminding them of two things One, that I am the God that you're called to serve, and I need you to prioritize me. But I need you to do this because what you don't understand is that through your lineage, through your line, will come a king who will sit on the throne for all eternity. There's coming a day when my son will step into your world to give his life so that you can be part of my eternal kingdom. So while you sit here and build your houses and you focus on yourself, you're missing the opportunity I've given you to show the culture and the world around you that what they really need is me, not more things, because my kingdom is eternal, because I am the only way that, through my son, through the acceptance of his sacrifice, that's the only way you will ever get to me.
Speaker 1:
And you and I, church, have the incredible responsibility of making God a priority, so much so that the world around us can't help but ask the question why do we need him? And when they ask that question, we can answer them faithfully and say because he loves you and your eternity is at stake and it's only through Christ that you will find peace. It is only through Christ that you will find peace. It is only in Christ that you will find something that is worth everything you're trying so hard to find. Your money will fade, your cars will rust, but Jesus is forever. Everything we do is not about us anyways. It's about pointing people to the cross. It's about pointing people to the cross. It's about pointing people to the need to know God and to make God the priority of their life, because nothing else matters. Everything else will fade away.
Speaker 1:
So let me challenge you this morning to consider your ways. Consider how you're living, consider how you're spending your time, your money, your energy, your conversations. Consider your ways. Are you really living in such a way that God is the number one priority in your life? And if not, what needs the change? Maybe there's someone here this morning that hasn't made Jesus, or they haven't even met him. They've never even heard of him.
Speaker 1:
But let me just tell you this morning that there's an incredible gift that has been offered to us through the death of God's Son, who can save us, and all he's doing is he's inviting you in to be part of the family, and it's as simple as making that decision and saying listen, I want you to be part of my life and I want you to come in and change me and then doing what Scripture says and confessing and repenting and being baptized into Him, and I love it.
Speaker 1:
I love when someone gets baptized, because it's that all-in commitment that I'm in.
Speaker 1:
I'm giving of my life, I'm sacrificing, because I believe that what God has for me is better than what I have for myself. And maybe that's you this morning. Maybe that's a decision that you need to make, maybe you need to have a conversation about what that looks like, but let me tell you from my experience, and everyone around me will tell you, that giving your life to God is the greatest thing you can ever do, because not only is there the eternal impact of spending the rest of your life in this world and the next with him, but there's just such an incredible blessing knowing that there's someone bigger than me, who loves me and who will guide me and give me direction and offer me what I need to live not only the best life here, but to be the kind of person that goes out and tells other people about who he is. So consider your ways this morning. Are you living for God or are you living for God? Are you living for yourself? Are we building his kingdom or are we building our own? Alright, let's pray.
