0:00 Zephaniah We'll turn now to the book of Zephaniah 0:25 In chapter 1, Zephaniah prophesied soon after Nahum Before the Babylonians became the great world power And just before Jeremiah's time 0:47 It's possible that Jeremiah was there towards the end of Zephaniah's time of prophecy He was the prophet just before Jeremiah And he also speaks about the destruction of Assyria 1:09 And the rise of Babylon But his main theme is the severity of God And the goodness of God There is a verse in Romans 11 which says Behold the goodness and the severity of God 1:31 And we can see that verse demonstrated in the whole book of Zephaniah First of all he demonstrates the severity of God His strictness against sin And then he demonstrates the goodness of God to that remnant As you've been listening to these minor prophets 1:53 You've probably seen that there are certain themes That recur in all these prophets Pride Exploiting poor people Love of money Love of money among the leaders Love of money among the leaders And not being deceived by external manifestations of revival 2:21 Chastening by God God using heathen people to chasten his people The need for faith to wait in patience The answer does not come immediately But God will definitely judge the anger of God against sin The certainty of judgment 2:41 And the remnant All these prophets speak about a remnant All these prophets speak about in a time of decline In the midst of God's people there will be a few All these things are prophetic These things are written for us it says in 1 Corinthians 10 2:59 The entire Old Testament is written for us in our time When there is a decline in Christianity Just like there was a decline in Israel And all the tribes declined I told you how the northern kingdom was Israel And the southern kingdom was Judah 3:16 A picture of denominational Christians Which is the larger group, 10 tribes And separated groups Which is a smaller group, 2 tribes But both declined And the separated groups did not learn from the failures of the denominations 3:30 And made the same mistakes themselves But ultimately from this From the northern tribe and the southern tribe God brings out a remnant And that is what God is doing today He has got a remnant There is decline and declension everywhere 3:49 In all of Christianity From one extreme to the other From the most ritualistic to the most free groups But in the midst of it all There is a remnant A few people Who have a heart for God And you will not find them in any one denomination 4:07 They are here and there Who have a love for God Who are seeking Him Who are honoring Him Who are filled with the Holy Spirit And who are not involved in all the controversies Who are very careful with their tongues Very faithful with money 4:21 And God is gathering them together That is the theme of these prophets Restoration And all that Was for what? Ultimately This remnant was To prepare the way for the coming of the Lord And when the Lord came There was this remnant 4:39 Of Simeon In the temple Anna Who was fasting and praying John the Baptist The shepherds And a few wise men too From the east So we see It was all For this remnant Was to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord And today also 4:55 There is a remnant in Christendom Here and there Preparing the way for the coming of the Lord So Zephaniah first speaks about The time of judgment He speaks about the day of the Lord More than any other prophet There was a revival 5:13 In Josiah's time King Josiah's time Just about Four years Before Nebuchadnezzar came And took them all captives But Zephaniah was not fooled by that revival A lot of Christian preachers Are easily fooled When they hear about revival 5:30 Zephaniah was not fooled Jeremiah was not fooled They could see through it But very few people Even in that time Could see through the hollowness And superficiality Of what other people called revival All the other masses 5:46 Thought oh this is revival And today also you find So many movements among Christendom In Christendom And lot of people are fooled Revival, revival Oh people are doing this And they are doing that And they are now singing and praising the Lord 6:02 In those dead churches And we think it's all revival It's not a revival It's not a revival to holiness It's not a revival to humility It's not a revival to freedom From the love of money It's not a revival to overcoming anger 6:15 Overcoming the lust of the eyes It's not a revival to poverty of spirit It's not a revival to forgiving others If it's not a revival for all these things Written in the Sermon on the Mount What type of revival is it? Superficial 6:28 And prophets like Jeremiah and Zephaniah Can see through it in a moment They don't need time And I want to tell you Don't be deceived by a lot of things Which are called revival today They are not You ask God to open your eyes 6:43 Read Jeremiah, Zephaniah and see They lived in a time When people spoke about revival And they spoke the truth And they were Said you're negative people You're always criticizing negative They were not negative They were speaking the truth 6:55 And the result is Four years later Nebuchadnezzar came And took everybody captive Then they realized Jeremiah was right Zephaniah was right Those were the only fellows Who could see through The hollowness and emptiness Of what everybody else 7:09 Who thought was revival And I believe One of these days Christendom will realize That the few people Who stood out And exposed all this hollowness They will discover That they were right The people they criticized As heretics 7:23 Were the prophets of the Lord Same thing then The same thing today The same thing today We find that And we see the need For that today All these results Will not last Now we turn to Zephaniah And chapter 1 Judgment In the day of the Lord 7:41 Is basically his theme And then finally How salvation comes Also in the day of the Lord Judgment on the earth Judgment on Judah Judgment on the nations Judgment on the nations That surround Judah That's how in chapter 1 7:55 Gaza, Moab, Ammon, Ethiopia Assyria on Jerusalem And the whole earth All these There's judgment on all of them You'll see in chapter 2 verse 4 And all that All that Now He says in verse 2 of chapter 1 I'll sweep everything 8:15 Away from your land In verse 4 to 6 We read how the Canaanites Had dragged Israel Down to their level It says here in chapter 1 Verse 7 8:36 Stand in silence For the day of the Lord Is near Now There is a double fulfillment Of all these things In the Old Testament As I said One was The Babylonians coming And Nebuchadnezzar Or Assyria 8:56 Today It is the Antichrist coming The forces against the church In those days It was the forces against Israel And then There was the remnant And there was the coming of the Lord Today also This is the double fulfillment 9:09 There is the remnant And the second coming of the Lord That day of the Lord Which was spoken of there Was the day of God's judgment In their time With the Babylonians coming For us today The day of the Lord Is the second coming 9:21 Of Christ Now the Lord says here Not only The Other Nations But I will crush Judah And Jerusalem With my fist This is Zephaniah 1:4 To destroy every last trace Of their Baal worship 9:41 Because they go up to the roofs They bow down to the sun, moon and stars They claim they follow the Lord But they worship Molech too I told you These verses describe how The Canaanites succeeded In dragging Israel Down to their level 9:58 Israel went in To manifest the true God But those people succeeded In dragging them down to their level How does this apply to us today? How does this apply to us today? It's like if you stand on a table And you have fellowship with the person 10:13 Who is standing on the ground Even if you are quite a strong person Tell me Is it easier for you to pull him up Or for that person to pull you down? You know that If you get married to an unbeliever It will be like that 10:29 Whether you are man or woman You are up here And that person is down there Ultimately both of you will be down there So that's what happened to the Canaanites The Lord said Don't have any contact with them Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers 10:44 But they didn't listen The result was The Canaanites dragged them down to their level And the Israelites started worshipping Baal And the sun and the moon and the stars Did the Canaanites start worshipping Jehovah? No! None of the Canaanites were interested in worshipping Jehovah 10:58 They dragged Israel down to their level And we see the same thing in a lot of Christian churches today That say we are trying to Indianize our worship And when they try to Indianize their worship 11:18 It becomes Hinduizing actually It's amazing how it goes In certain denominations of Christianity it's happening You know I actually saw a Christian book published in India With the picture of Jesus in the cover And a seven hooded snake over his head 11:40 And I saw it myself It was written this is the seven fold Holy Spirit Of the book of Revelation This is what I mean by Indianizing It's happening I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes And the picture of the priest who wrote it is there at the back of the book 12:02 This is the age of deception in which we are living They are succeeding in dragging us down We are not lifting them up We are not lifting them up Stand true to the word of God You think there is a significance to these coconuts that are given at wedding times 12:23 I am talking about Christian marriages A lot of Hindu customs that creep in Where did this dowry system come from? Is it in the Bible? Is it something that Jesus encouraged? Heathen customs The heathen have it Christians have it 12:42 Show me one denomination in Christianity that doesn't have dowry I would like to see that in India You see how they have dragged us down We say we are standing for the Lord Which Lord are you standing for? They have dragged you down in every area 12:56 You just take the name of Jesus that's all And if you stand against these things you will be unpopular You will say no no no we have to These things are part of society Society God stands against this type of society Which exploits poor helpless girls 13:13 It's completely wrong And these prophets stood against that And they hated them For exposing that Because the sins of the leaders were exposed That's what I mean here And verse 8 On that day of judgment says the Lord Zephaniah 1 13:30 I will punish the leaders And the princes And those who participate in pagan worship ceremonies But one thing true about all these people They fill their homes with loot They love money But they follow pagan customs 13:51 And the Lord says I will punish their leaders Always it's the leaders Who God hits out against And I hope you have noticed that And I hope you have noticed that In all the prophets When they spoke They spoke against the leaders 14:09 And today If God sends a prophet anywhere He will be speaking against the pastors And the priests and the bishops And that won't make him popular Because nobody likes to speak against the leaders That's why you say Every single prophet was persecuted 14:21 You remember what Stephen said In Acts chapter 7 He said Which of the prophets Did you all not persecute? Tell me the name of one prophet He said Which you did not persecute Every single one of them You persecuted You persecuted 14:36 You know why? Because they hit out of the leaders When Jesus came Did he hit out of the gamblers And the drunkards And the women caught in adultery And the dacoits And the cheating tax collectors And the thieves No! He never said a word against them 14:54 He said I came to save those people He hit out against the leadership People who held their bibles And stood in the churches And loved money And lived for themselves Never spoke against sin Never led people to godliness 15:07 And they killed him Is this the Jesus you are following? Or a mild Jesus Who doesn't disturb any of the leaders Hobnobs with the leaders And goes for feasts with them It is another Jesus That people are following today These prophets spoke against the leaders 15:29 He said you fellas You are just making money Filling your houses with loot And you are following all these pagan customs And therefore the judgment will come The judgment comes upon God's people Because the leaders have failed 15:43 Verse 12 God says I will search with lanterns In Jerusalem's darkest corners To find and punish Those who are contented in their sins Indifferent to the Lord Thinking he will do nothing In the church today 16:04 There are people living in luxury Indifferent to the commands of the Lord Leaders Who made money through serving God And indifferent to the seriousness of God's commands They just want to retain their position As chairman, director, chief pastor of some situation 16:26 Or bishop or something like that But they are not concerned About what God is saying And the Lord says I am going to search out Every little sin that is lying in the church And I am going to expose it all You know whenever a church or a nation declines spiritually 16:47 They move towards a life of luxury Ease, comfort and indifference Prayerlessness And this is what happens Many of you young people Today you start With poverty 17:07 Sacrifice Prayer Study of the word Wait for another 30 years And see what happens If you are not faithful If you don't fight against your flesh If you don't stand against the corrupt Christianity You see around you And it's corrupt leaders 17:25 I tell you You will become like them Prayerless Not knowing God's word Just a professional preacher Getting up and Dishing out your sermons Every Sunday morning Accumulating more and more money Building houses Living in luxury 17:41 And with no anointing upon you Even though you started In great sincerity This has happened In the time of Zephaniah And it's happened today Learn a lesson From that And we see further In chapter 2 18:01 The Lord says Through Zephaniah Beg the Lord to save you Verse 3 All of you who are humble Seek for more humility What a word Those of you who are humble Seek for more humility And perhaps 18:23 The Lord will protect you In the day of his anger and destruction He will God gives grace to the humble Zephaniah understood that Here is the pride of Babylon And here is the humility of the remnant in Jerusalem I told you 18:40 I told you right from the time of Cain and Abel There has been these two streams Babylon and Jerusalem We see it running through here Through the prophets There is Babylon Today a religious Babylon And there is Jerusalem 18:52 The church of God And the remnant And the characteristic of that remnant Is not miracles and great signs And arrogant speaking Or high positions And titles And all that It is humility And they never get tired Of seeking for more and more humility 19:13 Walk humbly And do what is right Seek for righteousness And seek for humility And the Lord will protect you See there is a great need Especially in the remnant To be humble And I will tell you why What is the danger Those who belong to this remnant face 19:34 Oh we are not like Those dead people in the denominations In the other churches That is exactly how the devil wants you to think Because he knows that The moment you start thinking like that God will become your enemy too 19:49 And you will also become a part of them You see how quick it is That the remnant becomes part of Babylon In no time And I have seen that happen again And again and again In the last 25 years People who came out Understood God's ways 20:02 And then became proud Oh ho We are special And they became part of Babylon too Zephaniah said that Pursue humility Keep your face in the dust Keep your face in the dust Keep your face in the dust That is my exhortation Everyone is a part of the remnant 20:20 Don't look up And compare yourself with other people That's none of your business Compare yourself with Jesus Full stop Period That's all Nobody else So that's a warning That's a warning And the Philistines Cities Verse 4 20:38 Will be rooted out And left in desolation How terrible it will be for them In that day But a few survivors There again the remnant Chapter 2 verse 7 Chapter 2 verse 8 We read about God's people who are part of this remnant 20:55 Being taunted And made fun of You see if you stand up for the Lord In the last days Like Daniel and his three friends And like this remnant spoken of In all these prophets You can be pretty sure That all the other Christians 21:07 Are going to make fun of you And if you can't stand being made fun of You will just finally give up And join them They'll say Oh brother What a fantastic ministry We expected you to have But you've gone and joined this God forsaken little group 21:25 And you're wasting your life A lot of people told me that 25 years ago And thankful that I didn't listen to them I said Lord I don't care Whether I'm with two people Or three people I want to be where you are I want to move with you 21:43 I want to obey your word And I don't care for the opinions Of backslidden Christianity Or their leaders If you're going to be like that You'll face a lot of opposition But you'll finish your course With joy You'll be a triumphant warrior 21:59 Forty years from now If the Lord tarries And you will not give up Keep your eyes on the Lord Others will taunt you The Lord says Don't worry I'll deal with them In my own time In chapter 2 It speaks about the destruction of Assyria 22:16 Verse 13 Which is going to be destroyed Assyria was declining After Nahum had prophesied But it hadn't yet been destroyed fully And then And then Finally Chapter 3 It speaks about the condition of the so called Jerusalem of that time 22:33 A picture of the Lord of Christendom today Again the leaders Notice the emphasis On leaders, leaders, leaders all the time Chapter 3 verse 3 Its leaders are like roaring lions Hunting for their victims They are out for everything they can get 22:56 It You know Jesus told his disciples Freely you have received Freely give He told his disciples It is more blessed to give than to receive And the apostle Paul said in Acts 20 Acts 20 I have demonstrated to you Ephesians for 3 years 23:11 The truth of this word That it is more blessed to give than to receive But do you think today's Christian leaders and pastors Are demonstrating the truth of that verse That it is more blessed to give than to receive No They are all eager to get 23:31 Like it says in this verse Their leaders are out for everything they can get from anybody Their judges and other type of rulers Are like ravenous wolves Trying to get something from the sheep Go here, get something from the sheep here 23:51 Go to another church, get something from the sheep there Go there to another church, get something from the sheep there This is how it is in Christendom, this is how it was then Ravenous wolves, eager to get And trying to speak about a Jesus who said 24:07 It is more blessed to give than to receive If you cannot demonstrate by your life like Paul That it is more blessed to give than to receive How can you represent a Christ Who lived on earth to show That it is more blessed to give than to receive 24:23 How can you demonstrate a Christ Who showed the love of God who so loved the world That he gave his son You see this is a very important thing And again another group of There are four groups of leaders mentioned here in verse 3 and 4 24:41 Leaders, judges, prophets, priests They are all telling lies Seeking their own gain Verse 4 What do the leaders seek? Their own profit It's all money, money, money, money, money, money When people ask me Why do you speak so much against money, money, money, money, money? 25:00 I say it's here in the Bible That's why we speak against it It's not receiving The Lord has ordained those who preach the gospel can receive money It's coveting, loving, longing for it Trying to grab it wherever you go That's different 25:18 Totally different The Lord himself had ordained that the Levites should receive money from the others But he didn't ordained this type of looking for it, looking for it everywhere And trying to get, get, get, get, get That is completely an abuse of the Lord's teaching 25:32 And that's what's happening today It's priests defile the temple by disobeying God's laws But the Lord does no wrong And he watches everything And he takes notice So he says I wiped out many nations before And the Lord is going to do the same thing now 25:53 He says Be patient The time is coming soon When he will judge Verse 8 And when I Pull out a remnant from all this See what happens to this Remnant On that day Verse 9 This is a description of the remnant now To the end of the chapter 26:11 I will purify the lips of my people See the emphasis again On lips Speech If you have heard me minister You have heard me often speak About speech And about money Because the prophet spoke about that often in the Old Testament 26:30 The way you speak Be careful if you want to be the mouthpiece of God The way you handle money Be careful if you want to be the mouthpiece of God Just take care of these two areas in your life And I believe you can protect yourself from a lot of harm 26:46 I will purify the lips of my people And they will worship the Lord together They will stand together As it goes on to say in one translation Shoulder to shoulder They will be united And they serve the Lord And 27:06 I will remove Verse 11 Verse 11 All the proud Arrogant people Notice the emphasis again On proud people Always the prophet speak against proud people Proud people Proud people Proud people You should preach in such a way 27:25 That people ask you Why are you always preaching against proud Pride Pride Pride Pride That's what the prophet spoke about I will remove the proud arrogant people And there will be no more pride on my holy mountain And those who are remnant will be 27:45 A lowly Humble people And they will have faith In the Lord They will trust in the Lord And they will not wrong each other anymore Like they did in the past They will not have these leaders Who are wronging each other Verse 13 28:00 They will not tell lies to each other They will not deceive each other And they will live in peace And in safety And they will have no fear A beautiful description Of what a church should be like Verse 9 onwards It's a beautiful description 28:18 Meditate on that when you have time I wish I could spend a whole session on it And in that church This remnant That's really learned to love one another Very few There's a shout of praise In the midst of this church Verse 14 28:34 They are singing They are shouting aloud They are glad They rejoice Because the Lord has removed his hand of judgment And the Lord himself is living Among them And their troubles are over And in that day The announcement in Jerusalem will be 28:52 Cheer up Zion Don't be afraid The Lord has arrived to live among you He is a mighty savior He will rejoice over you with great gladness God does not rejoice over all his people Don't think so Don't think so Do you think God can find any joy over people who are living in sin 29:09 Can a father find joy in a child who is full of sickness Who has got sores and eczema and asthma and leprosy and tuberculosis Can a father find joy in that? Neither can God find people who live in sin and don't want to be healed 29:23 But God finds joy in this remnant With great gladness He shouts over them He sings a happy song This is one place in scripture where it says God looks at his people and sings a song There are many places where we sing a song to God 29:38 Here is God singing a song When he sees such people What a challenge that we should be people like that And the Lord says I'll gather you who mourn You see this remnant are people who weep before God I'll deal severely with those who have oppressed you 29:56 And I'll save the weak and the helpless ones This remnant is a group of weak and helpless ones And I will give them glory On that day I'll give you a good name A name of distinction And the people who criticized you They will praise you 30:13 When I stand and restore your fortunes in that day Don't be worried about what people say about you today So that's how the book of Zephaniah ends And now we move to the book of Haggai Haggai is a small little book with two chapters 30:31 And Haggai was one of those prophets along with Zechariah Who was younger to him Who was sent by God to encourage the believers Who had gone back to build the temple And we read here that for 16 years After they came back 30:54 No temple was built They just lived like that Here in There are a number of messages here In the book of Haggai Actually four messages First In the first chapter And three messages in the second chapter 31:14 And the first one is a call To rebuild the temple And what you see here Is first of all the selfishness of God's people The Lord says This people are saying Verse 2 The time has not yet come To rebuild the Lord's house You see if you go back to the book of Ezra 31:36 What the king forbade Was you should not build that city He never said anything about not building the temple Ezra 4:21 But these people took that as an excuse And so he said no it's not yet time Because circumstances are not right 31:51 Everything is against us And he says you fellas Verse 3 You have plenty of time To build your own luxurious houses And my house lies in ruins Just like Solomon Who spent 13 years building his palace But at least he spent 7 years building the temple 32:08 But here these people They just built their grand houses And were not concerned about the Lord's house Do you find people like that today? Who are concerned about building up their own family And not the Lord's family Concerned about building their own house 32:24 Not the Lord's house Concerned if some of their own property Is encroached upon by a neighbour But not concerned when the Lord's property Is encroached upon by Satan This is exactly the condition of A lot of God's people today 32:39 They are concerned about their property Oh my children are sick What about God's children? My house What about God's house? When Jesus said Seek first the kingdom of God And his righteousness And the other things will be added to you 32:56 It is the exact opposite of this What he is saying is Put God's house first I'll take care of your house Put God's name first Don't worry about your name Take care of God's children I'll take care of your children It's true 33:13 And you must be a living demonstration To an unbelieving world That if you honour God He will honour you That if you take care of God's children He'll take care of your children That if you take care of God's house He'll take care of your house 33:26 Is your life a testimony to that? That's a very good question To ask ourselves And here we see in verse 5 and 6 The Lord says Consider how things are going for you Is there spiritual fruitfulness in your life? You have planted much 33:43 But you have harvested little That means you go to so many thousands of meetings You read so many books You listen to so many tapes But what is the spiritual condition of your home? Is there godliness in your home? Is there peace between you and your wife? 33:59 Have you overcome even a simple thing like shouting at your wife? What's the use of going to thousands of meetings? You sow much But you harvest so little You've got such a lot of food to eat So many tapes, so many books, so many meetings 34:14 But you're still not healthy What a sad thing Something is wrong You have planted much But harvested little Your thirst is not satisfied Your clothing to wear But you don't feel warm You earn such a lot of money 34:35 But there are holes in your pocket Verse 6 And it all goes away You ask God to fill you with the spirit But you leak And so it all goes out What's use pouring water Into a vessel that's got holes in it? I believe many many believers 34:54 Are coming to God With a vessel full of holes Saying Lord fill me with the Holy Spirit And God says fix the holes first That's exactly the reason It's not that God doesn't want you to fill you with the Holy Spirit There are things in your life that are going to be patched up 35:10 Set right There are holes in your pocket What's use putting a whole lot of coins into your pocket? Lord fill my pocket with coins And God says no There are too many holes there I can't waste all those coins Many people who are asking God to fill them with the Holy Spirit 35:25 That's it There are things in their life they have not set right They have not gone and apologized to somebody They have not returned some money they have taken wrong for you There are big big holes And they are saying Lord fill me, fill me, fill me 35:36 You can have all night prayer meetings to fill you Nothing will happen Spend the night fixing those holes And you'll get the answer very quickly There are holes in your pocket the Lord says Consider how things are going for you 35:48 It's a very good question In fact it's one of those questions Haggai's theme is Consider how things are going for you And be strong And do the Lord's work First of all consider That's his message here And I want you to notice here in verse 7 and 8 36:05 He is not talking about laying the foundation He is talking about building the house Rebuild my house he says The foundation was already laid Jesus spoke about a man who laid the foundation Luke 14 And did not complete the building 36:22 You know that parable And everybody laughed at him Have you ever considered where that parable comes It comes in Luke 14 in the middle of A section on how to be a disciple Jesus was giving three conditions of discipleship in Luke 14 36:42 And in the middle of that He said I'll give you a parable When you preach evangelism without discipleship It's like laying a foundation And not building the house Is the foundation necessary? Is evangelism necessary? Absolutely necessary 37:01 But if you build the foundation and don't build the house It's like Just a It's useless in a sense That's the comparison Jesus made between evangelism and discipleship You read that in Hebrews chapter 6 verse 1-3 also Let us not lay again 37:21 The foundation of repentance, faith, baptism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, resurrection, eternal judgment That's our foundation Good Let's now press on to perfection That's the house Let's make people disciples Who are following Jesus and pressing on to perfection 37:41 What is Haggai talking about? He's not talking about the foundation He's talking about perfection He's talking about building the house Completing the house Building the church Building the body of Christ You know the difference between a congregation and the body of Christ 38:00 If you put all the 50,000 bricks or stones that this building had, let's say, piled up here Okay, all 50,000 stones are there That's evangelism They were cut from the quarry And brought here They're born again now But that's not a house 38:19 You have to now take those people who are cut from the quarry They were unbelievers there Cut, born again, brought here Now you've got to build them together That's the difficult part To build them and make it into a house 38:32 So that it is the body of Christ and the church Not just a one-man show Watching over all these bricks You know, I believe a lot of churches are like this One man, like a watchman, stands there Make sure that nobody steals my stones 38:49 And they say, brother, you're trying to steal my sheep You're trying to steal my pile of stones Why is it we don't have to watch all the stones in this building at night Come and steal one of these Why is that? You must build a church like this 39:05 Where you don't have to be worried about somebody stealing your stone They are there They are built They are cemented There's a stone on top of them, a stone underneath them A stone on the left and a stone on the right You can't take it out 39:17 It's these people who don't build Who are always complaining Somebody snatch somebody from my church I have never We have had a church in Bangalore for 25 years I have never said that anybody stole anybody from our church 39:28 A building Build a church Haggai says, build a house Don't just be satisfied with the foundation And verse 9 to 11 You see a strong rebuke here The Lord gives And I believe there's a great need in our churches for a word of rebuke 39:46 That's what's often lacking There's a lot of teaching But not enough rebuke and correction When God brings failure into our life When he brings sickness into our life We need to sit and listen Consider Why is this happening? 40:01 Consider your ways Why is God blowing away my harvest? Verse 9 When I thought I'd have a rich harvest Why is this house lying in ruins? Why is the heavens Verse 10 Withheld its dew And the earth withheld its crops Why is there a drought? 40:17 Verse 11 Why is there a dryness in my ministry? Barrenness Why is there a drought? Verse 11 So that people are starving Why is it Because you are concerned about your own house Your own family Your own money Your own bank account 40:37 You are not concerned about the Lord's work And then Zerubbabel When he heard this prophecy And Joshua The high priest They obeyed the message They responded to the message of this prophet And they said Okay, we're gonna do this 40:55 We're gonna build a house now We're not just gonna be satisfied with evangelism We're gonna make disciples We're gonna build a house We're not just gonna be satisfied With a pile of stones That were cut from the quarry We're gonna build them together 41:08 We're gonna have a body ministry Not just a one man show Like a watchman watching over 50,000 stones We're gonna build them together And make a house We're gonna build a body Functioning together Not a pile of body parts 41:23 Like in an anatomy laboratory You have a hand and a leg And a stomach and an eye And all that lying over there But they can't function together A lot of churches are like that To build them together Joshua and Zerubbabel said 41:36 We're gonna build Wonderful And verse 13 Then Haggai the Lord's messenger Gave the people the Lord's message That's a good expression Not just Haggai gave the Lord's message The Lord's messenger The Lord's messenger 41:56 Gave the Lord's message Now anybody can give the Lord's message You listen to it on a tape and repeat it But you have to first become the Lord's messenger And to become the Lord's messenger You have to allow God to do a work in your life first 42:15 Like he did in Hosea's life And Haggai doesn't tell us How God drilled him And crushed him In his younger days And broke him And took him through deep trials He doesn't tell us all that A lot of servants of God will never tell us 42:31 But I'm absolutely sure Hosea told us a little bit Paul has told us a little bit But I'm absolutely sure Every single prophet Every single servant of God Whom God has used in the history of this world Has had a private history of God's dealings with him 42:52 Breaking him, crushing him, humbling him Making him lose things which the world appreciates His money, his reputation And through all that He becomes the Lord's messenger And there's a difference when the Lord's messenger gives a message 43:13 And another person Who hears that on a tape or reads it in a book Goes somewhere and preaches the same message There's an anointing here and there's no anointing there Why? The message is absolutely the same A man can give the same message that he heard an anointed man preach 43:32 But the anointing is not there because this man is not the Lord's messenger See the anointing is not on a message The anointing is on a person The Holy Spirit does not come on books and tapes No, no, no, no, no I know there are people who lay hands on books and tapes 43:48 And say Lord anoint it But whatever they pray that doesn't happen God anoints people He doesn't anoint buildings He anoints people The Lord's messenger must give the Lord's message Please remember this very important principle 44:04 And it says in verse 14 and 15 The Spirit stirred these people through the word to action And then you know there's been an anointing People have been stirred And I want to tell you those of you who preach the word Don't ever be satisfied in your life 44:22 Till your preaching stirs people To do something about it Not just shake your hand outside of the door and say brother that was a good message I'm not interested in that Does it stir them to action? Does it stir them to get rid of their sin? 44:37 Does it stir them to go and make restitution? Does it stir them to make disciples out of the converts they made in their local church? That's what happened It stirred them to action And within 23 days The first was in the second year of King Darius 44:53 It says here in the 29th of August and here in the 21st of September verse 15 Things began to work which did not happen for 16 years You see the result of one prophet The difference he can make Things are silent Nothing is happening for 16 years 45:10 All these professional preachers are getting up and saying something And one prophet comes along and shakes everybody up And things begin to happen Be a man like that Become the Lord's messenger We come to chapter 2 And it says here 45:25 Verse 3 Is there anyone Who can remember this house As it was before? In comparison with that old house Solomon's temple How does it look now? It seems almost like nothing, right? But the Lord says take courage 45:46 Take courage Zerubabel Take courage Joshua Take courage all you people Take courage and work 4 times For I am with you My spirit remains among you And just as I promised In the time you were saved First 46:06 When you came out of Egypt Don't be afraid For this is what the Lord Almighty says I am going to shake heaven and earth And I will bring the treasures of these nations to this temple And here is the promise Verse 9 The glory of this latter house 46:24 Is going to be far greater Than the glory of the former That's like saying Anything you saw under the old covenant Is nothing Compared to this new covenant church Solomon's temple had gold and bronze And so much of money was there 46:43 And silver and so many things But the new covenant church doesn't have gold and silver and bronze It's got something of eternal value And the glory Jesus says The Lord says Of this latter house This new covenant church Is going to be far superior 46:59 To anything they ever had in the old covenant Anything that you read in the entire Old Testament Is far surpassed In what happened after the day of Pentecost Are you hard up for money? The Lord says Money is no problem Verse 8 47:17 The silver is mine The gold is mine Do we need money for God's word? We certainly do Jesus needed money to live He not only had to take care of his expenses He had to take care of 12 disciples God is not unrealistic God is not unrealistic 47:37 It says a lot of rich women Supported Jesus And Jesus received their gifts But he didn't go begging or asking anybody He trusted God to provide his needs And he got and he received Because he knew this verse God says The silver is mine 47:55 The gold is mine Everything that you need for your life Take care of your family I can provide you If you trust me Everything that you need for your work You need money for your work I realize that You need money to travel from one place to another 48:12 You need money to buy food You need money to rent a house You need money for clothes You need money to educate your children You need money for your activities in the ministry The Lord says I know it God is not unrealistic 48:26 But trust him for it Don't become a beggar Trust God Because he says the silver is mine The gold is mine There we have People seeking to build a church And being concerned about money And the Lord says That's no problem 48:43 In verse 10 to 12 There's an interesting parable here It says here in verses 10 to 12 Ask the priest this question This is another message that came here It's a third message It was about completing the temple The second was chapter 2 verse 1 to 9 49:02 The glory of the temple And the third message Is about holiness and sin You notice always Whenever the prophet spoke about building the house The very next thing they speak is about holiness You cannot build the house If you are not going to emphasize holiness 49:20 Okay? And ask the priest this question Supposing one of you Verse 12 Is carrying a holy sacrifice In his robes And he happens to brush against Some bread Or some stew Or some wine Or oil 49:40 Or any other kind of food Will that food also become holy? And the priest said no See They had certain things which were holy in the Old Testament And perhaps we don't understand this The Jews understood it immediately Then Haggai said 49:56 Let me ask you another question Supposing something has become unclean By touching a dead body Or something like that And that touches one of these other Bits of holy bread Will that holy bread become unholy? Yes So what is the message there? 50:13 Let me use another illustration Which you will understand even better You know if you go to an operating theatre In a hospital The doctors scrub their hands for many minutes At least they are supposed to In a good hospital 50:27 They sterilize all the equipment They keep it in what's called an autoclave Boil it with steam All the equipment The knives The pincers And scissors And the cloth And everything is sterilized Now if you take that sterile thing 50:48 Which is completely free from germs And rub it on my shirt Which is full of germs Will all the germs go from my shirt? Yes or no? No So that means Purity Cannot be communicated like that Now the other way around Supposing I take my dirty shirt full of germs 51:10 And rub it on that sterile equipment in the surgery theatre Will that become dirty? Yes? That's the message here Sin can be communicated much more quickly than holiness You understood the message? It's easy for somebody to make you a sinner 51:32 It's difficult to make a person holy It takes a lot of effort to make all that equipment in a hospital sterile But how long does it take to pollute it? Just a moment Sin is communicated very easily Please remember that 51:53 God says That whatever you offer He says here in verse 14 Is defiled Everything that this Person is offering is defiled Because Even though that thing is a holy thing The hands that are offering it are Filthy Supposing 52:14 The equipment in a Operating theatre is all being sterile And the surgeon comes in with dirty hands What happens? All that equipment as soon as he touches it It becomes dirty That's what the Lord is saying You fellows are offering your offering to God 52:29 But There is sin in your life That's what the Lord is saying to the church today This prayer that you prayed on Sunday morning Boy That was such a fantastic prayer Everybody said Amen and Hallelujah to it But there is sin in your life 52:43 If you came to the meeting after fighting with your wife What's the use of praying that fantastic prayer? All the people said Amen and Hallelujah But none of the angels in heaven said Amen or Hallelujah Because they saw how you behaved at home before you came to the meeting 52:56 That's what I mean Very down to earth and practical If sin can be easily communicated In other words the Lord is saying With your unholy life you communicated sin to that prayer And the prayer that came up before God Only listened to the beautiful words 53:13 But they did not know the heart from which it came They thought it was a holy prayer But God who was watching everything Said the heart has communicated sin to those words There is iniquity in the holy things That's what we considered when we studied Exodus 53:28 There is iniquity in the holy things Finally the last message Is for Zerubbabel Just one word in verse 19 before that The Lord says Don't be discouraged From this day I will bless you And the last word is to Zerubbabel The last message 53:45 Tell Zerubbabel I will shake heaven and earth And I will overthrow the royal thrones I will destroy the power of Satan That's the meaning And I will honor you Zerubbabel Because you responded to the word of God I will treat you like a ring on my finger 54:02 A ring on a finger is always a picture of the anointing of the Holy Spirit When the prodigal son came back The father put a ring on his finger A picture of anointed with the Holy Spirit I will anoint you Because I have specially chosen you 54:17 I just want to say one thing in closing Haggai was a real prophet He exalted Zerubbabel And withdrew himself He said Zerubbabel You are going to be the leader You are going to be the leader of these people in building the church 54:38 The ring is going to be on your hand My ministry was just to encourage these people And disappear You know a true prophet Never got honor The kings like David got honor Zerubbabel got honor But the prophets They fulfilled a ministry 54:58 And they disappeared Their honor will come When Christ comes again Be a prophet of God Be a servant of God Who proclaims his words Seeking no honor from Christendom No honor from anyone on this earth Encourage other people 55:15 Push them forward Let them be the leaders Let them be the elders Let them take the ministry Let them be the chairman Let them be the directors And you pull back Say I am just a humble Servant of the Lord I have no title 55:30 I have nothing I am here to proclaim God's word And disappear Let other people have the honor This is the mark of a true servant of God Let's pray
