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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
Welcome to the Harvester Podcast.
We're glad that you have joined us.
are in season number five in episode 11 and we've been studying the minor profits under
the theme majoring in the minors, the minor prophets that is.
And I'm one of your hosts, Brian Kenyon, and with me are
Forest Antemesaris
Steven.
Ford.
and we're happy to bring you the last three of these minor profits hagi zack a riot in
malachi and we appreciate your listening and again just a reminder if you have any
questions or any comments or any kind of feedback we would love for you to contact us and
let us know but we think about these three profits so we enter in what's called the post
exilic period so uh...
forced i believe is going to lead us in this study of hangout
Yeah, as Brian mentioned, Haggai is the first post-exilic prophet.
He's a contemporary with Zechariah, which we'll be looking at in the next episode.
And he's writing in about 520 BC.
And Haggai 1.1 pretty much tells you that on when this is happening, he says, the second
year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of
the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest.
And so that pins it around 520 BC.
That's 16 years after King Cyrus sent the first Jews back to Jerusalem, kind of with the
permission to rebuild their temple and get back into uh normalcy of life.
uh The Medo-Persian Empire conquering the Babylonians.
And of course, God's prophecy being fulfilled that Cyrus would allow his people to go
back.
The problem, though,
Is that the people have been back for 16 years and they haven't rebuilt the temple.
So a big part of Haggai is God uh commanding through Haggai and encouraging the people,
get to work.
You y'all are living in nice, plan old houses and you're back in the swing of things but
you've forgotten about me, you've forgotten about the temple.
And because they were prioritizing their individual lives over those spiritual things,
there were some consequences and uh
they were going through some difficulties.
Yeah, and it's easy to do sometimes.
You get excited about a new project, you start getting into it, and then you realize it
doesn't go as quickly as you want it to, or you maybe lose some of enthusiasm, and that
appears to be what's going on here.
And we see that a lot in Christians, just in an individual Christian life.
You know, it comes out of that bath tree fired up and ready to go, but then starts
dragging on, and then next thing you know, they're kind of apathetic and not doing what
God wanted them to do, so.
for sure.
think, you know, in the church sometimes it can get that way where we kind of, we might
just prioritize our own individual lives or our own jobs or our own whatever and we're not
giving God a hundred percent or we're not being the people we should be in the church,
whether that's in giving or participation or whatever, where all these quote unquote
secular things kind of take precedent and the spiritual gets put by the wayside.
And the things that generally will draw us away are not necessarily inherently wicked
things.
was just thinking about Matthew chapter six where Jesus is like, look, seek first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And the people are thinking about, Jesus says, take no thought for your life, what you're
gonna wear, what you're gonna eat.
Those aren't bad things to think about.
But when they jump in the way of your spiritual pursuits, then they become.
wrong for us and it seems like with Haggai it wasn't that they were necessarily
exclusively pursuing negative things, know, you need a place to live.
But if that takes precedence over God's instruction then it gets in the way and gets
wrong.
Yeah, for sure.
And think there's this view like, let me get all my ducks in a row and then I'll focus on
the God stuff.
I'm just like, well, that's not really how that works.
And that's what we see.
know, Haggai says, hey, some of reason you're suffering and your crops are suffering and
you got, you know, you're not being blessed the way you should be is because you haven't
prioritized the things to the Lord.
Right.
Seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness, and then all these things will be added to
you.
So they kind of flip the order there.
But we see that right off the bat if you look, you know, beginning in verse number three,
it says, word of the Lord, sorry, verse two, this is the Lord of hosts.
These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.
Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, is it time for you
yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins?
So they buy their lives, their things over the things of God.
Now therefore, this is the Lord of hosts, consider your ways.
You've sown much and harvested little.
You eat, but you never have enough.
You drink, but you never have your fill.
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm.
And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
Thus says the Lord of God, the Lord of hosts, consider your ways." So that's really how
guys call them to kind of be introspective and say, hey, have you ever thought about the
fact that you can't get ahead, that you're not being blessed, that your crops aren't
working, that your wages aren't working, that none of this stuff is working, maybe it's
because you haven't put God first.
Not maybe.
It's because you haven't figured it first.
I like that he even calls basically to testimony their own words.
I kind of envision some of these conversations like a court hearing and their own words
are bearing testimony against them when they're saying, it's not time yet to build the
Lord's house.
That'll come, it's our time right now.
And then you get the question from God, is it time for you?
to dwell in these paneled, sealed houses.
it's just the question, of course, is rhetorical in nature, but you can almost imagine how
this has to fall in their ears.
They're making this excuse, no, no, no, it's not time for us to do your wheel, God.
It's like, oh, but it's time for you to do your own wheel?
And then you've gotta reflect on,
Yeah.
Yeah, and I think too there's a sense in which you know unless God is our daily life We're
gonna do stuff like this right because you know them taking care of their own house That's
their daily life and all that and they've kind of yes, so sometimes we don't purposely say
hey I'm gonna leave God out mmm But since he's not that vital part of our life Yeah for me
to live as Christ as I as game if he's not that vital part of our life Then it just kind
of gradually goes and the other things come up
kind of compartmentalization.
Like I've got God over here and then all my stuff over here.
It's not integrated into my day in, day out.
God's integration should be everything.
Yeah
For sure, that's a good point.
So, you know, God just straight up tells them, beginning of Haggai chapter 1 verse 8, go
to the hills, bring the wood, build my house so I can be glorified.
He says, verse 9, you looked for much and behold came to a little and when you brought it
home it blew away.
Why?
Because the Lord of hosts, because of my house that lies in ruins, well each of you busies
himself with his own house.
Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, the earth has withheld its produce.
And God says, this isn't chance.
He says, I've done this.
Look at verse 11.
I've called for a drought on the land, on the hills, on the grain, on the new wine, on the
oil, on the ground that brings forth on man and beast and all their labors.
So it wasn't a coincidence that they weren't prioritizing the things of God and their
crops weren't going and they weren't being able to be blessed.
God says, I did this on purpose.
This is a wake up call.
This is for y'all to realize what needs to happen and had guys telling them this is what
God is saying.
You guys need to build this temple.
I'm reminded of a sermon I heard years ago that I think about quite often that the errant
child of God and the alien sinner need the same exact gospel message.
And I'm reminded of that here when in both cases there's kind of a lack of knowledge or
acknowledgement of who God is.
When God says, you know, I will call for, verse 11, I called for a drought.
This is
the creator of the universe.
You and I may say, hey, we're gonna call for a strike, but we have to get everybody's
agreement to get on board.
But Goss is, I'm gonna make it it's not gonna rain.
He's the one that makes that happen.
And so it's like they have forgotten.
to put God in his place where he belongs, which is at the apex of everything.
He is the chief of all things, and if he's not that, then we've dangerously re-prioritized
our lives.
For sure.
For sure, that's a good point.
And I think, you see in the next section, this is the good news, know, Zerubbabel, the
governor of Judah at the time, he's blessed and he responds to the word of the Lord and so
did Joshua, the son of Jehoshedek, the high priest, and all the people, it says in verse
12 that they obeyed the voice of the Lord their God in the words of Haggai the prophet.
The people feared the Lord, verse 12, verse 13.
Haggai the messenger of the Lord spoke to the people of the Lord's message.
I am with you declares the Lord and the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son
of Shilteel governor of Judah and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehoshedek the high
priest and the spirit of all the remnant of the people and they came and worked on the
house of the Lord of hosts their God.
So it's like okay God has something that says how do we fix this?
There's the train we're in Auburndale we're in Orange Street.
uh
if nobody heard the train
Yeah, I was like just in my head.
There is a train going by.
Yeah.
But I love the way this all lays out because I think there's a great lesson for us in
this.
If we obey God and we fear Him and if we believe that He is with us, we're gonna be
motivated to do what we need to do, right?
I think a lot of people wait for motivation, then they start.
As I know.
Start and then you'll find yourself being motivated.
God will bless you in that way, you know.
and then again if if if god is our life you know that's the motivation that we need when
we really understand that what color and said before that and not has to be our way of
life is that not just a compa
Exactly.
And I think sometimes people sometimes they feel like they're too far gone.
Right?
We've been here 16 years.
We haven't built the temple.
It's too late.
No, you could start today.
Yeah.
Right?
Like, oh man, I haven't lived for God in 20, 30, 40, 50.
You could start today.
Yeah.
Right.
And you're going to get the same wages that Jesus in that parable.
You're going to you're going to get the same reward.
Just start.
Right.
You know, don't don't him and ha just get going.
It's like with anything though, think that sometimes the thought could be, even if I start
today, I'm not going to have zero to 100 results.
And it's like losing weight.
know, go to the gym today, you may not lose one ounce.
Nobody's ever lost weight going to the gym once.
I always say that, yeah.
No, not at all, there's not anything significant for that matter.
But I'm thinking about what Brian just said, it reminds me of Colossians chapter three
verse four where Paul writes, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear.
And so Jesus and God have to permeate every single aspect of life.
And then coming back to Haggai, you get to see both characteristics of God's nature, I'll
say both, but you see two characteristics of God's nature right here where he's son.
There's judgment, but then he's like, listen,
I want to be loving, want to be merciful, I want to have this relationship again.
So even in God pronouncing judgment, He is still merciful.
So you can't lose track of either one when serving God.
We should never lose track of the fact that He is good, but also that He is just and that
there will be uh divine punishment if we disobey Him.
Yeah, that's a great point.
so the temple gets built and in the next chapter we see that it was discouraging for some
people, right?
So the word comes to Haggai, chapter 2 verse 2, Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of
Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehoshedek the high priest, and to
all the remnant of the people, say, Who is left among you who saw this house in its former
glory?
How do see it now?
Is it as nothing in your eyes?
And other, I don't know if it's Zechariah,
that talks about the day of small things, right, where the people see the new temple and
they weep because the older generation, because they saw the grandeur and everything that
was in that older temple, and now they're like, this thing compared to that other one,
it's almost embarrassing, right?
But I love what God tells them.
God encourages them and tells them, at least in the ESV, twice to be strong, once to work,
tells them that He's with them twice and tells them to fear not.
So he says, yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord.
Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehoshaphat, the high priest.
Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord.
Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts.
According to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt, my spirit
remains in your midst.
Fear not.
So God is telling them, yeah, you're starting on this temple.
You can see it's not going to be as great as the former one.
Don't give up.
Don't be discouraged.
I'm still as present with you now as I was in the older, more glorious temple.
Nothing's changed, right?
I think it's a hint that the temple never really...
The grandeur of the temple doesn't mean that God is there, right?
Because God left the building, the old one, and allowed it to be destroyed, right?
So now, what's really most important?
What's most important is God's Spirit is still in their midst.
They have no reason to fear.
God is with them.
They can work.
They can be strong.
and they should keep going.
ah And God goes on to say that he's going to, verse 6, shake the heavens and the earth,
the sea and the dry land, which is quoted in Hebrews 12.26, contrasted with the kingdom
which does not uh shake that we are inheriting.
But he says, will shake all nations so that the treasures of all nations shall come in.
And I almost imagine that God taking all the nations and like shaking them out like a salt
shaker above the temple.
and just all their wealth is flowing into the temple, right?
And he says, yeah, exactly.
Shake down.
He says, I will fill this house with glory says the Lord of hosts.
The silver is mine.
The gold is mine.
The latter glory of his house shall be greater than the former says the Lord of hosts.
And in this place I will give peace declares the Lord of hosts, which to me, I think this
is looking forward to the new covenant, right?
And the establishment of the church, which of course starts in Jerusalem and the gospel
goes out from Jerusalem to all the earth.
But this idea of the wealth of the nations, of all nations coming to the temple, of peace
being in Jerusalem, really we see that fulfilled in the New Covenant.
Yeah, Messianic Yeah, exactly.
I want to just note real quickly in verse number five how they, um this motif throughout
the Bible where God is asking us to trust Him in these various ways but He demonstrates
some evidence for us.
So faith is never the blind leap in the dark.
And so He's saying, look, don't look at this temple like it's nothing.
Trust that when you do what's right, I'll be there with you.
But then He says, just like in the days when I made this covenant with you and I brought
you out of Egypt, and so I'll be with you.
ah
And so don't fear, the end of verse number five, he says, so my spirit remains among you,
fear not.
It's great the guy's reminding these people, of giving them a hug of comfort through his
words to say, listen, remember, remember what Egypt was like.
Remember I brought you out with a mighty hand.
Remember I made this covenant with you.
Okay, just keep working, keep serving.
I'm gonna still be with you.
You don't have to be afraid.
And he's not asking them to have confidence in something that they have no evidence of.
So they get to remember.
we know God's presence and power in the past, so now we can trust in God's presence and
power for the-
exactly.
I think, yeah, go ahead.
Well, also see, well, this is kind of a nuance of this that in verses four and five, well,
verse four, I guess, namely, where you mentioned three times, he says, be strong, be
strong, be strong to the governor, to the high priest and to the people.
So it's like all the people need to be involved in this, trusting in God, not just the
preachers, not just the elders, you know, but everybody needs to be.
And that's a good lesson we can learn in the church today.
I think you could imagine like in the church today if just the elders are motivated It'd
be like it'd be like walking a dog that doesn't want to go on a walk, right?
You know what I mean?
Like you could drag your puppy down the road, but that's not what you're trying to do,
right?
If just the people are motivated, there's no leadership, right?
So you need like you say you need that everybody deacons elders membership preacher
everybody on the same page trying to work toward the same goal and that idea of work
Like there's work for everybody to do.
And I think sometimes that gets lost sometimes.
It's not just the preacher, it's not just the elders, it's not just the deacons.
There's something for everybody to do, you know?
And I imagine on this temple, somebody's grandma, maybe she's picking up a stone, handing
it to somebody else.
Like she can't do anything, but she can do what she can do, right?
And we all have a part to play.
All right, so starting in verse 10 of chapter two, you get this idea, there's almost like
a little bit of parable where the Lord says in verse 11,
This is the Lord of hosts asked the priests about the law.
If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or
stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?
The priest answered and said no.
The Haggai said if someone who was unclean by contact with the dead body touches any of
these, does it become unclean?
The priest answered and said it does become unclean.
So in the Old Testament, the holiness wasn't contagious, but the uncleanness was, right?
Then Haggai answered and said, verse 14, So it is with this people and this nation before
me declares the Lord.
And so with every work of their hands that what they offer there is unclean.
So because they had uncleanness, which I think really is their indifference and their
apathy, that is contagious, right?
That unholiness, that lack of faithfulness to God is sort of contagious, right?
And he says, before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord,
How did you fare?
When one came to a heap of twenty measures, but there were ten, one came to a wine vat to
draw fifty measures, but there were twenty.
I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail,
yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord.
Consider from this day onward, and from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, since
the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple has laid considered, is the seed yet in
the barn.
Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the oil tree have yielded nothing,
but from this day on,
I bless you." So because of their disobedience, it kind of had this infectious, it was
like a contagion, right?
Their disobedience was like a contagion, making them unholy.
And that made it so that God wasn't blessing them.
But now that they've started the work, and they've actually done it, and they are being
involved, and they've laid the foundation, now God says, I'm going to trust you.
So what are they supposed to do?
Do the work that God commands them to do, and trust that God will bless them for it.
Yes, absolutely.
That's a lesson we need today as well.
I we've all said in preaching that, you know, God will never command us or never expect us
to do something that we're not capable of doing.
But we are the ones that come up with the excuses sometimes, like Moses and others, why we
can't do something.
And then that just leads to this and that leads to that, and then there's complete apathy.
but we've all seen that in our lives even even those who are listening that when we when
we put our hand to the plow for doing something god wants inspect expect us to do he will
bless us and though it may seem and undaunting task god will see us through it and but we
have to have that strength that they're that courage and most of all we have to have that
confidence in god that he will see us through
Yeah, absolutely.
I also see an aspect of the nature of God here.
Sometimes people can think, oh, in the Old Testament there was this mean, angry, grouchy
God and he just, you did all this terrible stuff to people.
And even today people can think that God is waiting in heaven to strike us down the second
we mess up.
But God has an expectation of us doing good and us being blessed.
In verse number 17, he says, I smote you with blessing with mildew and with the hail and
all your labors of your hands.
Yet you turn not to me, says the Lord.
So there was an expectation that if I bring this discipline, you'll do right.
You'll get back where you need to be.
And God wants the best for us, desires the best, hopes the best for us, and which true
love does, according to 1 Corinthians 13.
And so when we look at the attributes and the nature of God, he is not mean, angry,
waiting to just punish everybody, the first sight of.
anything is no he loves us he wants us to do good he wants to be in fellowship with him he
wants us to enjoy the blessings and that's his anticipation all the time
Yeah, that's a point and he's willing to Like really when like when you love somebody And
you they're not doing what is right you try to get them to do what is right, right?
We usually call that discipline, but sometimes it's painful right in the moment But that's
what really love is like if god didn't care.
He wouldn't smite them.
He would just let them hey, yeah be blessed whatever i'm gonna destroy you all again and
three generations or whatever you uh...
but because you love them and cared for them he he tried to get them back in it worked
right because of the leadership is irrevable and joshua and the willingness of the people
to do the work and trust god
You just made a great point that God doesn't just want to punish us just for the sake of
punishing us, but he would be willing to go through the pains of disciplining his children
for their benefit.
so, like if you or I would punish or spank or discipline in whatever way we so determine
our own children.
it can bring us pain, but we go through that emotional pain for their physical and
long-term benefit, and to know that God was willing to do that through the act of sending
Jesus to go through the utmost discomfort, if you will, for us.
And that is like the greatest expression of love and desire for us to do.
We to just think about what our kids, when we discipline them, how it's...
I mean I hate to like punish my kids, you know, or do something, you know, I'm like, oh
man I want them to be able to have fun and all that kind of stuff.
Sometimes just inconvenient.
Oh, I'm lazy like it actually takes work to discipline your kids Yeah, we could sit here
and just pretend like I didn't just see that and go about my business You know what I
mean?
Oh, or you can stand up and do what you got to do.
Yeah
Yeah, and even their punishment may impact you.
You may say, hey, look, you can't go outside.
So now what you gotta do, you gotta make sure that...
I'm inside too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
and uh...
that they spend expression on kind of older than you guys but you know it hurts me more
than her to say and i never understood that i became a parent and then it's like wow
that's right here this way god is going to see ultimate parent ultimate father
Yeah, definitely So we'll close out here some interesting things and Haggai 2 verses 21
through 23 So first in 21 and 22 Speak to Zerubbabel governor of Judah saying I'm about to
shake the heavens and the earth So he said this in chapter 2 verse 6.
He says it again here verse 21.
He says in to overthrow The throne of kingdoms I'm about to destroy the strength of the
kingdoms of the nations overthrow the chariots and their riders and the horses and their
riders shall go down everyone
by the sword of his brother.
So God is saying he's sovereign over all.
What he chooses to do will happen, right?
And no matter how strong a kingdom or a nation looks, God is the one who gets to decide if
it's going to survive and stand and prosper or not.
And this is quoted in Hebrews chapter 12, verse number 26 through 29, where we read, whose
voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying, yet once more I shake not
only the earth, but also heaven.
Now this yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken as of
things that are made that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by
which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming
fire.
There in the New King James.
So the Hebrews author kind of used this verse together with Habakkuk 2, or sorry Haggai 2
verse 6.
to say that all the nations of the earth eventually are going to be shaken, right?
There's only one nation that's not going to be shaken, and that is the Kingdom of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, the Church, right?
So every other kingdom is going to be shaken.
Every other kingdom is going to be removed, except for this one kingdom, which is the
Church of Christ.
And then in verse 23 of Haggai chapter 2, uh on that day, and usually in the prophets, you
know, if you read on that day, that's Messianic.
It says, that day declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, Ozerubbabel, my servant,
the son of Shealtiel declares the Lord and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen
you declares the Lord.
And a signet ring is like the seal of royalty, right?
Like, you know a letter came from a king because it was pressed with his signet ring.
And...
I think you see the fulfillment in this in the genealogy of Jesus.
We're both in Matthew and in Luke, you see that Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, is in ah
Jesus' genealogy.
Right?
So, Matthew 1 verse 12, after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begat Shealtiel, and
Shealtiel begat Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel begat etc., etc., etc.
Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary.
So we see that Zerubbabel is like Jesus's
great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, which is really mind-blowing that
God promised in Haggai, this is my signet ring, right?
Watch him, he's going to be blessed.
And then you see that fulfilled in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, that God kept that
promise to Zerubbabel.
He's in the genealogy of the Messiah.
Part of his line leads to uh Joseph, leads to Mary, leads to the birth of the Savior.
Yep.
faithful.
And then this also, Haggai gives us lessons also for us individually.
Number one, I'm thinking, you know, he used the word consider, at least in the New King
James, consider.
Yeah.
I use that over and over again, verse five, well, chapter one, verse five, verse seven,
chapter two, 15, then also chapter two, 18.
And so we must deliberately, as people of God, examine ourselves to consider our ways.
to make sure they're right.
Frequent spiritual inventory is good.
2 Corinthians 13, 5, know, test yourselves, consider yourself, see if you're still in the
faith.
We can be lulled into a sense of false security sometimes, thinking that we are pleasing
God when we are not.
And we see that with, like for example, the church in Revelation 3, 14 through 17.
you've lost your first love and in a lot of those churches he names all these good things
about him but and B.C.
Carr used to tell us in chapel he'd get up and talk about how you did this good, did that
good, you did this good but nevertheless I have somewhat against AJV for that but anyway
but we need to examine ourselves and then of course self-examination must not be in
accordance to human standards but what is God's will for us
you the law of liberty he that's a here the word and not a doer deceives himself and so we
must exam ourselves to make sure that we haven't fallen into that into that mindset of
giving up and being apathetic even though we're keeping up with their own stuff but not
god stuff
Right.
I think a great point.
I think there's this constant temptation to invest more in our own lives and in like
those, you know, secular physical things and in spiritual things.
And whether it's keeping up with the Joneses or whatever, but I think there's a really
radical, you know, what would it like, what if we bought less house and the money we saved
on that mortgage we gave to a missionary or gave to the congregation or support of the
preaching school student?
What if we went out to eat?
less or whatever it is, Where we could just find places where, hey, I'm really gonna
wanna, my money belongs to the Lord anyway, I wanna do things I can do to find more room
to be able to give to Him and to His purposes and not just money, time too, know?
Talent, whatever it is, really valuing the things of God over, or like, I wanna say over
my own life, like you were talking about it, bringing Him in more, right?
my time and my talents and my treasures, giving more to him.
It's like making your life about God instead of making God about your life.
He's supposed to your life good.
I was also thinking how this could sometimes the consider your ways kind of thought could
also be misunderstood sometimes.
We look at a book like Job for example and we think well sometimes bad things just can
happen so we don't want everybody to think that every time that you do something bad it
means that you're bad.
Because that's where they kind of messed up.
ah But you're not Job, I'm sure.
And so just because, like my tire was running flat this morning, it's not because I was
righteous or unrighteous, it's just kind of maybe a happenstance.
But there's the idea that if I look around in my life and everything is in ruin, maybe it
is happenstance.
But maybe I should just consider my ways.
And if I look at my life and say, listen, I am faithfully serving God, I am doing, then I
can probably make a reasonable determination that hey, this is just,
kind of how life is, but if I look at my life and I realize, you know what, I haven't been
to worship in five years, you know what, I've been using my money on whatever instead of
Godliness, then I could make a reasonable determination that I need to get myself right
with God.
And so we have to, as Brian was eluding, we have to consider mull over, how am I living?
Like really take inventory, that's a good way to put it, use that too.
Count out, what am I doing in my life?
What is my personal life?
What is my financial life?
How am I using my intellect?
Whatever it is that I have, how am I using that for God's glory?
Ultimately, to honor Him and to benefit my own life.
What am I doing with what I have?
Considerations just make you think.
and it's like Joe like it's not like okay if you if you are sinning in some way and God is
Disciplining you it's not like some unknown thing like job could look into his life and
see that he had not Falling short in those areas, right?
Like and that's what we got to be honest with ourselves.
And I think it's easy to keep parts of our lives
kind of reserved for ourselves, untouched by God.
oh And like, hey, God gets my Sunday and my Wednesday, but he can't get my Monday, you
know I mean?
Or whatever it is, and it's like, well, you know, there's definitely consequences for
that.
Yeah, God is not like the browser search.
You can just turn it on private and then God can't No, he sees it all.
And interestingly, we want God to see it all when we're doing right.
know, help me on the road.
The highway's in the byways, Lord, I'm traveling, Lord, watch over me while I'm in the sky
on the train or whatever.
But then as soon as I wanna misbehave, it's like, well, now I hope he's not looking.
If he sees you in the airplane or in the submarine or wherever, he can see you when you're
doing wrong.
Yeah, yeah, definitely that's a point I think another lesson here from chapter one
physical blessings flow from spiritual priorities We're talking about Matthew 6 33 seek
first the kingdom of God and then all these things will be added unto you What's all these
things eating drinking clothing, etc.
I also think about second Corinthians 9, right?
He who so sparingly will reap sparingly he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully and
you know
God even says there that He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply
and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, that
you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving to us through
God.
So this idea of like the more you give, the more you get kind of, and it's not like in the
prosperity gospel kind of way, but it is in the, you are a stewardship of God's resources.
If you use them well, one way the other, God's gonna bless you for that.
Right.
Right.
alright we appreciate your listening to us to this podcast on the minor profits hangar we
look forward to joining you next time and we appreciate your feedback if you have any
please let us know
salvation has been brought oh down
Tell it today to people in sorrow, tell it today and tell it tomorrow.
Preach the word of God that we might win a shining crown.
Salvation is full and free to sinners, brethren, and sinners all over the land and sea.
Go to them, tell it afar in every nation, tell it afar all over creation.
the Lord, bless the Lord, salvation has been brought down.
All alone without a friend, suffered to pay it all.
Yes, He paid it all.
Jesus paid it all.
In His blessed promises, sweet victory can be found.
Praise His Holy Name!
Salvation has been brought down.
Glory, praise the Lord!
Bless the Lord!
Salvation has been brought down.
From heaven go and and shout, tell the world around.
Go preach it and tell it today too.
people uh
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In bright Gloryland, blessed Gloryland, I have trusted in His love and now I am heaven
bound.
Praise His holy name!
Salvation has been brought down, oh Glory, praise the Lord!
God's salvation has been brought down from heaven Go and and and and tell the world of God
Go preach it and tell it today to people in sorrow Tell it today and tell it tomorrow
Preach the word of God that we might win a shining crown Tell it all's the law, salvation
is full and free To sinners, brethren, and the news All over the land and sea Go teach it
and tell it out far in every nation Tell it out
all over creation.
Praise the Lord, Blessed Lord, salvation has been brought down.