Isn\u2019t purpose one of the most basic questions we ask ourselves? \u201cWho am I? Why am I here? What\u2019s my purpose?\u201d Some look around them and find purpose from the external sources. This is the traditional approach: My family and my community give me my identity and purpose. The post-modern approach is more common today: I look within to find my identity and purpose. But both of these approaches, the outward and the inward, fall short. They both lead to false identities and meaningless lives without real purpose and fulfillment.<\/p>\n
In the book of Haggai 1:7-11, God challenged His people to consider their ways to bring them into alignment with God\u2019s ultimate purpose for their lives. We can consider our ways to bring them into alignment with God\u2019s ultimate purpose for our lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13001,"template":"","meta":{"audio":"https:\/\/wccsermonaudio.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/01192025.mp3","video-id":"1048420788","notes":"https:\/\/www.eastgate.church\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/2-Its-Time-to-Consider-Our-Purpose-Haggai-1.7-11-011925.pdf","scripture_reference":"Haggai 1:7-11","transcript_status":"published","transcript_text":"
Good morning, church. Good morning! It's great to see all of you here today. We're continuing our series called, \u201cIt's time.\u201d We're going verse by verse through the book of Haggai over these eight weeks.<\/p>\n
We started last week, so we're in part two today. I would remind you of the theme, which we find in Haggai chapter one and a portion in chapter two. It reads like this. Haggai 1:2; 2:4-5 (ESV) \u201cThese people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord\u2026 Yet now be strong\u2026 Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord\u2026<\/p>\n
My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.\u201d So, we have signs all over the building. \u201cIt's time.\u201d It's time to do what?<\/p>\n
\u201cBe strong, do the work and be fearless.\u201d So, that's what we're talking about during this series. I hope you stopped by the \u201cIt's time\u201d table in the lobby as you were coming in today. If you didn't pick up one of our journey guides last week, I hope you picked up one today. If you forgot and still haven't gotten one, pick one up before you leave today.<\/p>\n
Drop by the \u201cIt's Time\u201d table; you'll notice we have a lot of \u201cswag\u201d there. We have a lot of freebies that we're giving away to help us go on this journey together in unity. When you pick up a journey guide, pick up a bookmark too. We've got a bookmark for you that you can use in your Bible. Notice, in the\u201dIt's Time\u201d journey guide, that it talks about our vision during this season of what we're believing God in.<\/p>\n
There is a place to take your sermon notes and a daily devotion for the next six weeks. We started last week, but you can start tomorrow. It's five devotions per week. Saturday and Sunday gives you a \u201ccatch up\u201d opportunity in case you missed a day or if you just want to reflect back on what you learned during the week, prayer and so forth. There's a lot going on in this guide,<\/p>\n
so I hope you'll go on the journey with us by using our journey guide. Pick up a T-shirt; we have every size, I think, except for small. We ran out of small, but we've reordered those. We encourage you to wear one of our \u201cIt's Time\u201d T-shirts during this season. We're the \u201cT-shirt church.\u201d<\/p>\n
We have T-shirts for everything. We got those for you to help you experience the journey together. Well, enough about that. Let's dig into the sermon today. Last week, we talked about how Haggai was talking to the people of God who had returned from exile in Babylon after seventy years of exile and that Jerusalem had been destroyed and king Cyrus the Great of Persia had allowed them, when he overthrew the Babylonians, to go back home.<\/p>\n
Not only that, but he encouraged them to go ahead and rebuild their temple. But, because of opposition and some changes in the political landscape, eighteen years had now gone by since their return and they had not rebuilt the temple. They had rebuilt their own homes. They had rebuilt those things. In fact, they'd gone so far, according to what we read in Haggai, that they had started paneling their houses and making their houses more luxurious.<\/p>\n
So they've gone past the need to really greed, in a way, but yet, they haven't touched God's house. Here's what we looked at last week: Haggai tells the people of God that they needed to consider their ways, they needed to consider their priorities because they were putting their house ahead of God's house. That was last week. That brings us to this Sunday, as we continue in our series, verses 7 through 11 of chapter 1.<\/p>\n
We see Haggai speaking for the Lord again. God says, \u2018Consider your ways\u2019 again to them. Except now, I think He wants to bring to their mind their purpose; consider their purpose.That's what we'll be \u201cunpacking\u201d today. Isn't that one of the most basic life questions?<\/p>\n
Maybe you remember being a teenager and people begin to ask you things like, \u2018What do you want to be when you grow up?\u2019 You may respond with, \u2018Well, I want to be a superhero\u2019 or \u2018I want to be a nurse or a doctor.\u2019 You listed whatever you were thinking at the time. But really, there is kind of an anxiety that starts to hit you, especially if you're planning on going to college when you graduate or going to some sort of kind of work. You might start asking these two very important questions:<\/p>\n
\u2018Who am I and why am I here?\u2019 It's about identity and purpose. \u2018Who am I and why am I here?\u2019<\/p>\n
It's not just when you're a teenager. This can happen when you're in your 40s or 50s. They call it a \u201cmidlife crisis;\u201d you think, my whole life was wrapped up in my kids, but now my kids have all moved out.<\/p>\n
I'm an empty nester. Who am I and why am I here? That's when men buy corvettes; I don't know what women do, but men panic. I didn't plan on what I was going to say there, so I'm not going to just say something.<\/p>\n
It could be risky for me to do that. We start the question again, \u2018Who am I and why am I here?\u2019 Traditionally, people would answer those two questions by looking at their environment. Looking externally would inform who they were:<\/p>\n
their brothers,sisters, grandparents, the village they lived in and their peers at school. They would figure out, \u2018Who am I, what is my identity, and what's my purpose?\u2019 from external influence. That's the traditional approach in the modern era, the postmodern era, if you would. We find that the millennials, especially Gen Z and the Alpha generation, which is the children of the millennials, are looking more internally, which is kind of new.<\/p>\n
Instead of looking at external ways of identifying \u2018who am I and why am I here?,\u2019 they look inside and they don't really care what gender their body is or what people say around them. They say, \u2018I feel like this,\u2019 and they decide the real answer to \u2018who am I and why am I here?\u2019 is just by looking inside. Both approaches are problematic.<\/p>\n
We have to admit that the external approach and the internal approach both fall short and often lead to disastrous results for people. People end up living not the abundant life, but a life that's just missing something that lacks fulfillment. They often lead to false identities and meaningless lives without purpose and fulfillment. What about you? How have you determined what your true identity is?<\/p>\n
How have you answered the question of your identity and your purpose, what the French call the, \u201craison d\u2019\u00eatre,\u201d the reason for being, the reason for existence. I think there's a better approach, and that's what Haggai is telling us as he speaks for the Lord rather than the external, rather than the internal, the upward approach, to look and say, \u2018Who do you say I am, God? What's my purpose here?\u2019 That's what this section of the text today will address.<\/p>\n
What's our purpose? In Rick Warren's best seller, \u201cThe Purpose Driven Life,\u201dthe first line in the first chapter reads, \u201cIt\u2019s not about you.\u201d<\/p>\n
That's the first sentence in his book, \u201cIt's not about you.\u201d That's really where we get off base in terms of our purpose in life, our identity. We make it about ourselves. You could say this, you could say that the root of sin or the attitude of sin is really this: I want my way rather than God's way. I want what I want, rather than what He wants for me.<\/p>\n
That's really the root of rebellion, of selfishness and then all other sin seems to flow out of that attitude. I want what I want. So, what I would ask you today is, \u201cHave you learned from the Lord what your identity is, who He says you are, and what your purpose is?\u201d As we look at Haggai, chapter 1, verses 7 through 11, God challenged His people to consider their ways and to bring their ways into alignment with His ultimate purpose for their lives.<\/p>\n
I believe that today God is inviting you and I to consider our ways and to bring them into alignment with His ways, with His ultimate purpose for our lives. As we look at the text, we'll see three steps towards bringing our lives into alignment with His purpose. Let's look at it. Haggai 1:7-11 (ESV) 7 \u201cThus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.<\/p>\n
8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD. 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.<\/p>\n
11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.\u201d This is God's word. Amen. We're looking for three steps on how we can bring our ways into alignment with God's purpose. Here's the first:<\/p>\n
By living for God's pleasure. I want you to look at verse eight. If you have your notes there, circle where he says, \u201cI may take pleasure in it.\u201d See that word, \u201cpleasure,\u201d right there. God, right there<\/p>\n
through His prophet, Haggai, is revealing to the people of God the reason He made them, the reason He made us. He made us because it pleased Him to do so. It pleased Him to create us and He desires that we live lives that would please Him. This is the Lord speaking.<\/p>\n
What pleases God? It\u2019s a life that puts Him first and puts His kingdom first, so that we live as kingdom citizens. God desires that we please him. Now, who is this speaking in verse 7,<\/p>\n
\u201dThus says the Lord of hosts\u2026\u201d Haggai is writing this, but he is clearly saying, \u2018I'm not Speaking for myself, I'm speaking what the Lord told me to tell you. In your translations, you probably noticed that it's all caps \u201cLORD,\u201d which in the English translations is showing that the Hebrew name for God underneath this is \u201cYahweh,\u201d which is the name that God revealed to Moses when he was at the burning bush. In Exodus chapter three, Moses asked, \u2018We've been calling you the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What is Your name?<\/p>\n
We don't even know Your name.\u2019 God says to Moses, \u201cI am, that I am,\u201d which in Hebrew is \u201cYahweh, the self existent one without beginning and end, eternally present.\u201d Not I was, not I will be, but \u201cI am.\u201d That's My name and that's what's underneath that capital LORD.<\/p>\n
That's showing us some trends. Some of us have the Anglicized version of Yahweh, which is the Hebrew way of saying it. They call it Jehovah. It's the same word, it means the same thing. I am the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, which could be translated as Yahweh of armies, Yahweh of all of the heavenly host, Yahweh of all things like that.<\/p>\n
That's Who's talking, the one Who made us. He said, \u2018I made you because it pleased me to make you. I made you for my pleasure and I desire that you live a life that pleases Me.\u2019 Now, sometimes I look at my kids and my grandkids when they're all at my house, they're eating all of my food and they're running through my house and it's chaotic. I will turn to my wife and I will say, honey, \u201cWhy did we make these kids?\u201d<\/p>\n
Have you ever felt like that? Then we remind ourselves that we did it because we wanted them. How about that? We did it because it pleased us to have them. We wanted these children; they were desirable to us.<\/p>\n
We wanted them. Now all we've ever done since they were born is spend money on them and take care of them. They've never really done anything for us.<\/p>\n
They've been completely dependent on us. Why did we make these kids? I think we have a little bit of an insight here about God. He made us because it pleased Him to do so, as those that could be objects of His love. We wanted children because it's an expression of my wife and I.<\/p>\n
It was an expression of our love and of our oneness. Having made them, they become like little \u201cmirrors\u201d of us for good and for ill. But then, we immediately love them, and it teaches us something about God, if you will. Are you with me? Do you understand what I'm saying?<\/p>\n
He says, \u2018I want you to consider your ways, and I want you to live in a way that I could take pleasure in the way you live, because that's why I made you. I made you that you would bring pleasure to Me, that I might make you objects of My love and blessing and that you would receive that from Me and live in such a way that that's your desire. So, here's how you could please Me.\u2019 He doesn't just leave us out in the cold. Okay, but how do we please you, God?<\/p>\n
He says, 8 \u201cGo up to the hills and bring wood and build the house,\u201d There's three imperatives there. He says, \u201cgo up,\u201d \u201c bring\u201d and \u201cbuild.\u201d \u201cGo, bring, build.\u201d That's what he says. Whose house is this?<\/p>\n
It is His house. You've been busy building your house. Put my house first. If you put My house first, I'll take care of your house. If you'll put Me first, I'll take care of you.<\/p>\n
But, you've been putting yourself first. So, here's how you could please Me. Here's how you could bring your life into alignment with Mine: seek My pleasure rather than your own. Stop trying to please yourself and start trying to please Me and I'll take care of you.<\/p>\n
Really, I think that's the struggle. That's why marriages break up. It is selfishness. People want what they want; this one wants this and this one wants that, and they never take care of each other. That's why businesses break up and that's why friendships break up.<\/p>\n
That's why we're \u201csideways\u201d with God. We need to repent because really, the attitude of sin says, \u2018I want my way. I want to please myself\u2019\u2019 and God says, \u2018Yes, but I made you for Me that you might please Me.<\/p>\n
I made you for My pleasure and for you to be objects of My love and blessing and you've pushed Me away.\u2019 This is what He's saying to them. The way that's looking for them is, \u2018I brought you out of exile, I rescued you and gave you your land back. Eighteen years have gone by and you haven't even looked at My house.<\/p>\n
You're not putting Me first. You've forgotten your purpose. Because one of the purposes for you, your identity, is that I made you for My pleasure.\u2019 You should be living for that reason. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 5:9 (NKJV)<\/p>\n
he says, \u201cTherefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.\u201d Paul says that it's my aim, it's my goal in life to please God. What pleases God? Psalm 147:11 (NKJV) \u201cThe LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy.\u201d Now, that verse falls a little funny on the modern ear.<\/p>\n
We don't like the word, \u201cfear.\u201d What does that mean? I'm supposed to be afraid of God? No, it doesn't mean to be afraid. It means to fear Him, to honor Him.<\/p>\n
These are synonyms of the word in Hebrew: to honor, to revere, to hold up above yourself, to fear. But I think fear is the right word here. Let me tell you why I think it is. It's because of my memory of when I would be disciplined as a child.<\/p>\n
Now, my mother was the professional spanker in the family. She had no hesitation. She would get what she called a \u201ckeen switch,\u201d a little maple branch that she maybe sometimes left a little leaf on the end just to really terrify you. It sounded like Zorro's sword. .<\/p>\n
That's what she used as her method of discipline. She would switch me through the house; I was a hard headed little booger. She had an approach, a method. She would switch until you cried and then switch you a couple more times to tell you to shut up.<\/p>\n
\u201cStop crying now, you've cried enough. Stop crying now. That\u2019s enough crying.\u201d That's how I was brought up. But my dad didn't spank you.<\/p>\n
He talked to me. I much preferred my mother's approach. My dad would take me into the bedroom and sit me on the bed and pull up a chair, knee to knee. He would say, \u201cSon, look at me, look me in the eyes.\u201d I didn\u2019t want to look at him. \u201cLook me in the eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
He would talk to me. \u201cWhy'd you do that? Why did you hit your brother? Why'd you talk back to your mother like that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Whatever it was, he'd want to get to the root of the problem. I don't want to talk about this. I knew bad stuff was coming. Let's get it over with. No, he'd talk about it<\/p>\n
and then he'd say this fearful thing to me that I was so fearful to hear: \u201cSon, I'm really disappointed in you today. I have higher expectations of you. You're my firstborn son. I can't believe that you talked to your mom that way.<\/p>\n
Don't ever do that again. I am really disappointed in you.\u201d I would cry like a baby. My mom could switch me all over the house and I wouldn\u2019t cry.<\/p>\n
I was a hard headed little booger. But, if my dad said he was disappointed in me, I was boohooing before it got out of his mouth because I feared his displeasure. I think that's the heart of Psalm 147, \u201cThe LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy.\u201d<\/p>\n
I fear God's displeasure. I want Him to say, \u201cWell done, good and faithful servant,\u201d don't you? Are you a people pleaser or<\/p>\n
are you a self pleaser? Do you desire the applause of the one God? I just want You to be proud of me. I want You to please me. \u201cConsider your ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you live for God's pleasure?<\/p>\n
Then, church,who is the church? Is the church the steeple? No, the church is the people. We're the church, we're the house, the temple.<\/p>\n
In those days, it was the temple that they were building. But today, because of Christ, we're the church. How are we going to obey? Go, bring, build.<\/p>\n
I think Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 28 verse 19 and 20. Maybe this will be familiar to you. Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV) 19 \u201cGo therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.\u201d God, I want You to build my house.<\/p>\n
What's my house? It's people coming to God, so, it's disciples. The purpose of the church together is to make disciples of Jesus Christ who have a heart for God, heart for each other and heart for our world. We have it all over the walls out there in the lobby.<\/p>\n
How do we do it? We go out and we bring them in, then we build them up. We go, we baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and we begin to bring them up.<\/p>\n
So, I see something here. Do you see it there in verse seven that \u201cgo, bring, build?\u201d That's what it was for the temple. But now it's \u201cgo, baptize, teach,\u201d but it's very similar, church.<\/p>\n
How are we doing on that?<\/p>\n
That's what He's called us to and we are the church. So church, it's time to get out of our comfort zones and surrender our time, our talent and our treasure to Him and to get busy on His house. Then, He'll take care of our house. That's the first step to bringing our lives into alignment with God's purpose, by living to please Him. Does your life please Him?<\/p>\n
Does our church please Him?<\/p>\n
By working for God's glory, by living to please Him and then by working for His glory. Look at verse eight again. \u201cGo, bring<\/p>\n
and build.\u201d Why, Lord? Why? There's two purpose clauses.<\/p>\n
The first one is that I may take pleasure. We already talked about that. Verse 8, \u201c\u2026that I may be glorified, says the LORD.\u201d.<\/p>\n
He wants us to live in such a way that He gets the credit. Now, if you live according to your own strength, you might get a little credit, depending on how talented you are. But for Him to get the credit means you're living beyond yourself. You've surrendered your life in such a way that the only way anybody can understand it is saying that God<\/p>\n
has blessed you, so He gets the credit. Isn't that why He made us? Isn't that His purpose, that He would take pleasure in us and that<\/p>\n
we would bring Him glory? That when people see the evidence of God in our lives, they would give glory to God rather than man? That's what He says. The reason I want you to build My house and to put Me first is that I may be glorified. The word glory in Hebrew is \u201ck\u0101\u1e07a\u1e0f.\u201d<\/p>\n
It means heavy. It means glorious, weighty. If you'll remember in the Bible, whenever someone named their child \u201cIchabod,\u201d it would mean that the glory has departed.<\/p>\n
No glory. \u201cK\u0101\u1e07a\u1e0f\u201d is glory. I try to think of what glory is. It's like the sun shining the glory of the Son.<\/p>\n
It's like the beauty of something. The glory of a woman is her beauty, not just her outward appearance, but the character. Glory is hard to define. In the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the very first question it asks is, \u201cWhat is the chief end of man?\u201d The answer is, \u201cMan's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
That's why we were made. Back in Genesis, chapter one, it says, \u201cLet us make man in our image, male and female He made them.\u201d So, we were made to be the \u201cimago dei,\u201d in the image of God. Like the moon, which has no source of its own, it only reflects the light of the sun onto the dark earth.<\/p>\n
So, it provides light at night, but only because it reflects the light of the sun. In the same way, we are to reflect the glory of the Son, Jesus Christ, to a dark world. We are to be the \u201cimago dei\u201d and to glorify Him.<\/p>\n
But, you haven't been glorifying Him; in fact, what you've been doing we see in verse 9, \u201cYou looked for much, and behold, it came to little\u2026\u201d You looked for much, you looked for your own glory. \u201c...and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away.\u201d It's funny that when you lift up yourself, you become an opponent of God.<\/p>\n
When you lift up yourself, He humbles you. But, when you humble yourself to the Lord, He lifts you up. This is not just true before the Lord, it's true in relationships. You know that person who has to get the credit, the \u201cglory hog.\u201d Look at me, look at me, look what I did.<\/p>\n
Often, that's revealing of a self esteem problem. Maybe, somewhere when they were growing up, they didn't get credit from their mom or dad. Instead of getting their needs met by somebody saying, \u2018Hey, you did a great job,\u2019\u2019 they've been patting themselves on the back so much that they just keep on being in need. They wanted much and it came to little.<\/p>\n
It backfires when you glorify yourself. \u201cAnd when you brought it home, I blew it away.\u201d What little bit you did finally get, God says, \u201cI blew it away.\u201d Why would He do that? Well, He anticipates that question. He says,<\/p>\n
as verse 9 continues, \u201cWhy? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.\u201d You've been putting your house ahead of My house. You've been busy for yourself, instead of being busy for My kingdom, which I've called you to, I made you because it gave Me great pleasure to make you.<\/p>\n
I made you that you would reflect My glory, that you would be the image of God on planet earth and that you could be the object of My love and My blessing. Instead, you've rejected that; you are going to seek your own stuff, your own house, your own glory.<\/p>\n
He's so gentle with it though. He says, \u201cConsider your ways,\u201d in verse 7. The reason I'm making it a little harder on you right here is to get you to wake up so you'll come to your senses. God's reasoning with us. He's so patient with us.<\/p>\n
The Lord of hosts stoops down and reasons with us. That's what He's doing. Why did God make us? Isaiah declares this,
\nIsaiah 43:7 (NLT) \u201cBring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dIt was I who created them.\u201d I made you for Myself so that it would please Me. I made you for My glory. That's your identity. That's your true identity. That's your purpose.<\/p>\n
Paul talks about it in Colossians chapter three. He says, Colossians 3:23-24 (ESV) 23 \u201cWhatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.\u201d So, whether you work at the bank or work in a factory, you are self employed, you teach school, whatever it is you do, your employer is Jesus Christ. Whoever you're working for, that check is actually coming from heaven through them to you.<\/p>\n
So, when you work for them, sign your work with the name of Jesus, as if He did it so He gets the glory. Work for Him and trust Him. That's what Paul says. You exist, so work with all your heart for the Lord, not for men.<\/p>\n
Have you ever heard this quote, \"It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit?\u201d
\nHave you ever heard that the greatest team players, the greatest leaders, are the ones who give credit to God and credit to the team rather than being \u201cglory hogs\u201d and taking it themselves. You know that person. If you don't, it might be you that has to have the glory. We're in the NFL playoffs right now, the football playoffs, and there's always that player.<\/p>\n
Maybe, some of you are thinking of a player like that in the NFL. He goes in the first part of the draft and has great expectations. He was a great college player. He arrives at the team and he's already \u201cblinged out.\u201d<\/p>\n
He's already \u201cfamous on Facebook\u201d and everything. He's making a lot of side money because he's got a lot of potential. Sure enough, he scores, but he always takes the credit. He becomes a problem in the locker room because he's not a team player.<\/p>\n
He always takes the glory, he's always throwing his helmet and stuff if things don't go right and he blames it on them. Before you know it, he's only there for a couple of seasons and even though the coach and the owner like him and he's got so much potential and he's so talented, but he's like poison to the team. So, they trade him.<\/p>\n
Then another coach thinks, Maybe we can straighten him out and they take him. Before you know it, he's played for six teams. Now, he's still got game, but nobody wants him. That's a story that repeats itself over and over again, not just in the NFL, but in life. It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't take the credit. If you'll let somebody else take the credit.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsider your ways.\u201d Do you live and work for God's glory or are you a \u201cglory hog?\u201d Do you want the credit? Do you want the applause? What would it look like for you to start living and working, giving all the glory to Jesus so that we make Jesus famous? Church,<\/p>\n
may I say this to you - I don't want to be famous. I don't want Eastgate to be famous. I want Jesus to be famous. I know it's important for you to invite people to church.<\/p>\n
I want you to invite people to church. But, I want you to have as your first thought, I'm inviting them to Jesus. The church, well, that's us. We're going to work together bringing them to Jesus and we're a team.<\/p>\n
But, let's invite them to Jesus first. Let's be busy about going out, bringing in and building up, using Haggai's way of talking about how to build the church, how to build the temple. Go out, bring in, build up. We want to make Jesus famous. That's one of the reasons that our church and myself personally have formed a group in Wilson called, \u201cChrist Together For Wilson.\u201d It's a group of pastors and churches that have agreed we want to collaborate for Jesus in our city so that revival breaks out.<\/p>\n
Not to make Eastgate church famous. I could name so many other churches that we're collaborating with, but to make Him famous in our city. I told you that we're the T-shirt church. I've caused a whole bunch of other churches in our town to be T-shirt churches too. We made these T-shirts this past year that just say, \u201cCT4W.\u201d You can go to CT4W.org. That's our website that we built for this group, \u201cChrist Together for Wilson.\u201d<\/p>\n
We all wore those shirts when we were cleaning up schools, doing landscaping and all this because we didn't put Eastgate shirts on. We didn't put Farmington Heights Church, Peace Church and Raleigh Road shirts on. All of the churches that work together, Redemption Church, Wave church\u2026 we didn\u2019t put our shirts on. We put CT4W, Christ Together for Wilson, t-shirts on. Why? Because we want to make Jesus famous.<\/p>\n
That's what we're praying for, is that God would cause revival to happen in this city because we want Jesus to get the glory. That's number two. That's the second step. Does your life bring Him glory? Here's number three:<\/p>\n
By relying on God's provision. We are at verses 10 and 11. Now, in fact, the way I got at this was God had removed His provision. He had brought drought. So, the timeless principle I was looking for to help inform our repentance and our action to trust God was to think, Well, why did He withdraw his provision?<\/p>\n
It was because they were no longer relying on Him. That's where I get this step: By relying on God's provision. They weren't putting Him first.<\/p>\n
They were saying, \u2018We'll do it ourselves\u2019 and so he says, 10 \u201cTherefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And I have called for a drought...\u201d He names all of the areas, which pretty much covers everything. The word, drought, is the same Hebrew word as the word, \u201cruins,\u201d that you see back there in verse nine when He says, \u201cMy house lies in ruins.\u201d He says, \u2018You've caused a drought in my house.\u2019<\/p>\n
You've caused my house to lie in ruins and now your house is being ruined for it. It's because you're not living according to the reason, the purpose that I made you. You're living for your own purpose. You're trying to make yourself famous.<\/p>\n
You're trying to make your house famous rather than honoring Me and lifting Me up. You're not living out your life's purpose. If you'll live according to your purpose, then you'll learn to rely on My provision. You'll trust that all things come from the Lord. Look what Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount<\/p>\n
in Matthew, chapter six. Matthew 6:33 (NLT) \u201cSeek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.\u201d if you'll put His house first, His kingdom first, He'll take care of your house. He'll take care of you. It's upside down thinking for the world, but it's right side up thinking in the kingdom of heaven.<\/p>\n
Look what Paul says about this kingdom principle of sowing and reaping. He writes to the church at Corinth in his second letter. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (NLT) 6 \u201cRemember this\u2014a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.<\/p>\n
7 You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don\u2019t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. \u201cFor God loves a person who gives cheerfully.\u201d 8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.\u201d
\nI like the Greek word under the word, \u201ccheerfully;\u201d it's \u201chilasmos.\u201d<\/p>\n
It's the root from which we get the English word, \u201chilarious.\u201d God loves it when you give until it cracks you up; when you give hilariously and God will generously provide all you need, then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. For years, I've referred to this as \u201cthe art of flow.\u201d The art of generosity is to let God flow to you and through you to others.<\/p>\n
It looks like this. You've seen me do this church so many times, right? One hand open to God, no longer shaking your fist at God, but relying on God for all that you need, so now His grace, His blessing begins to flow to you.<\/p>\n
Because you're depending on Him. You're putting Him first. But then, there could be another problem in the flow. You could dam it up downstream. It could be here<\/p>\n
that you're not relying on God. Open that up now; start relying on God, but now it could be here because,instead of being a river, you become a reservoir.<\/p>\n
If you dam that up, you close this hand, He can't flow to you anymore because you're a reservoir now. He can't trust you to be a giver, because God is a giver. \u201cFor God so loved the world that He\u2026\u201d \u201cFor God so loved the world that He\u2026\u201d Right?<\/p>\n
He wants you to be a giver because you're His child, so that you live a life of the open hand. One hand open to God and one hand open to others, so that your generosity flows to you and through you. It proves that you're a child of God, that you're living that way, which is alien to the world and so you're trusting Him for provision.<\/p>\n
You've considered your ways and so you give sacrificially. You give hilariously, but not under pressure. Not because the preacher pressured you. I'm not pressuring you.<\/p>\n
I'm discipling and teaching. And then I'm asking the Holy Spirit to help you consider your ways. We're going on a journey together, talking about how to live the life of generosity. The truth is, we're really informed by two possible mindsets.<\/p>\n
I'm visualizing a highway called \u201cgenerosity;\u201d a highway called \u201clove,\u201d because love is generous. This ditch of fear of not having enough, which is the scarcity mindset of thinking, there's not enough, I won't have enough. If I give, I won't have enough. That's usually informed by something that happened to you in your experience in the past where you grew up without much or you had a season where you were bankrupt.<\/p>\n
Instead of trusting God, you're stuck with that mentality that keeps you from being faithful. Then, the other ditch is really the American materialism mentality, which the Bible calls \u201cgreed.\u201d You never have enough, no matter how, because you're trying to please yourself and thinking, more, more, more. God's word says that you look for much, and behold, it came to little, it never satisfied.<\/p>\n
Do you know why? It\u2019s because you were built for something better. You were made to live on the highway of generosity, staying out of those two ditches. That's what God's really calling us to, church. Be a generous church, a generous people.<\/p>\n
It's going to mean that we're ready to follow God's purpose for our lives and bring people in, that are far from God - to go out, bring in and build up. It may look like you are talking about Jesus more at the workplace or in your neighborhood. It may look like volunteering to serve the Lord more in His church or in some other nonprofit in the city. It may look like you are giving more generously than you've ever given in your whole life and really trusting Him with your finances. It may be that you've made a decision to make a gift that actually scares you a little bit because you're still trying to pull yourself out of the fear ditch.<\/p>\n
On this journey, I want you to keep tithing and bringing your offerings as is your pattern. Church, you're a generous church already, but I want to challenge you to be more generous than you've ever been before by going on this journey together. Then on February 16th, we're going to ask you to make a commitment that's above and beyond your normal giving, where you're asking God, \u2018Take me somewhere I've never been, that I have to rely on Your provision in order to accomplish the number that you've put in my heart to give towards reaching more people, bringing them in and building them up. I want to be part of a church that does that and I'm willing to trust You for it.\u2019 Now, at the first service, I had a young lady come up to me and she said, \u201cI've been listening to you, Pastor, I've been reading the journal and I've been praying, \u2018Lord, what do You want to do in me and through me?\u2019<\/p>\n
I was asking Him to tell me and my husband, \u2018What's the number we're going to commit to God on February 16th?\u2019 This is because I've been telling people to not turn in money right now. Just be praying about what God wants to do to stretch you. She said, \u2018I was praying that on Friday night. Saturday morning, I got a call from my boss.<\/p>\n
He doesn't call on Saturday, which kind of scared me. He called me on Saturday and said, \u2018Hey, I just wanted you to know when you get your paycheck starting this month, there's going to be an extra stipend in your paycheck for this reason.\u2019 He explained it to her, and she hung up the phone and she asked, \u2018Was that You, God?\u2019 She believes that it was.<\/p>\n
She got tears in her eyes, and so did I a little bit, because she put herself out there and said, \u2018God, would You tell me?' He went ahead and made her boss call her the next morning. I believe that. You can do that kind of stuff, God. Do you mean that we can go on a journey together and You'll blow me away with Your provision if I will just open this other hand up? That was this morning.<\/p>\n
I believe over the next few weeks I'm just going to keep hearing stories like that because I believe that you're a generous church and you trust in a generous God. Then, we're going to sow generously so that we might reap generously. I want you to take your time. It might feel like a wrestling match trying to get out of those two ditches. You know, if your car gets a wheel over one of those ditches, man, it's hard to get it out of the ditch.<\/p>\n
It might feel like a wrestling match. Go ahead and wrestle spiritually about this and ask God what He wants you to do. Go on the journey. Don't count yourself out. I think God's inviting us to test His provision in this.<\/p>\n
You might think, You're not supposed to test God. Well, there's one place where He does invite you to test Him. It's Malachi, chapter three. He says, in Malachi 3:10 (ESV) \u201cBring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,\u201d says the Lord Almighty, \u201cand see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It's the one place I can think of where God says, \u2018Go ahead, try Me in this. Give Me a try; trust Me. Bring it into the storehouse. Be generous with My house and I'll be generous with your house.\u2019 That's why we're doing this spiritual journey together.<\/p>\n
Will you keep coming on Sunday? Will you keep engaging in this journey? Will you do the daily devotions Monday through Friday every week for the next few weeks? I encourage you to get in a community group and ask your questions in that group and talk them out. Pray the prayer, \u201cLord, what do You want to do in me and through me?\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, on our commitment Sunday, February 16th, be ready, by faith, to make a sacrificial, hilarious three-year commitment to give above and beyond your normal giving and watch what God does. We'll have a celebration and we're praying that God will trust us with $1.5 million in order to really get serious about reaching our region for Jesus. But, whatever the number ends up being the commitment, we can pray for a number, but whatever God does, we're going to celebrate.<\/p>\n
If He does more than that, we're going to celebrate. If it's a little less than that, we're going to celebrate because we will have gone on the journey together. There's no pressure, not any pressure here. God's the one that's under pressure and I don't think He ever feels pressure. We're saying, \u2018God, You said this, so we're going to try what You said.\u2019<\/p>\n
That's what we're doing. We're created as His image bearers. We were made for a purpose. We have an identity. He made us for His pleasure and He created us for His glory.<\/p>\n
Will you decide today to bring your life into alignment, so that you please God, you give Him glory and you trust His provision? Let's pray. Lord, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for this little book of Haggai that has big, big challenges for us. Lord, I pray for that person that's here today that's never given their life to You.<\/p>\n
They would admit, Lord, I've been living for myself. Is that you? The Bible calls that an attitude of sin, selfishness, doing things your way rather than God's way. Is that you? Would you repent right now and say, \u2018Lord, I repent of my sin and I turn to You.<\/p>\n
I believe that You died on the cross for me, Jesus, that You were raised from the grave. I believe that. Would You come into my life, forgive me of my sin and make me a child of God? I want to follow You as my Lord and Savior.\u2019 If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, He'll save you. Others are here<\/p>\n
and you're a follower of Jesus, but you struggle with this spiritual discipline of generosity. You struggle with it. You struggle with trusting God for provision and you struggle with generosity. Today, would you make a decision and say, \u2018God, I want to go on this journey.<\/p>\n
I want You to teach me how to move, to be a giver and to be generous. I want to be known as a giver.\u2019 We pray it now in Jesus' name, Amen.<\/p>\n","footnotes":""},"tags":[2035],"series":[2965],"scripture-book":[1304],"scripture-chapter":[1334],"speaker":[2007],"class_list":["post-13000","message","type-message","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-generosity","series-its-time","scripture-book-haggai","scripture-chapter-1334","speaker-gary-combs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/13000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/message"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/13000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13030,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/13000\/revisions\/13030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13000"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=13000"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-book?post=13000"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-chapter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-chapter?post=13000"},{"taxonomy":"speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker?post=13000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}