Be Blessed

Father, we give you thanks and praise that we can be in your presence.

We give you thanks and praise that you desire to lavish your love upon us.

We give you thanks and praise that we are not alone, but Jesus is with us, that the Holy Spirit is present.

And we ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would work a deep work in our hearts

so that we might receive in a very well from you this morning in a worthy manner and respond to you.

And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

You know, we live in an odd time.

It seems to me, and maybe I'm just exaggerating a little bit,

but it seems to me as if in many areas of life there's no mercy,

that life has become harder,

that it's not even a matter of three strikes and you're out.

But you take one, you say the wrong thing on social media,

you have the wrong, you get a tweet and you forward it and it's not the right one,

or that if somebody finds something that you put on Instagram or Facebook

two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago,

and they find out about it,

you're just in lots and lots of trouble.

And it seems as if, I mean, there's lots of freedom in our culture,

and it's not like people walk around in fear all the time,

but it really does seem, at least in what we can sort of gather from the media,

that it is, it becomes, we're in a time with less and less mercy,

less and less mercy, and a real type of judgmentalism.

I was about a year or so ago talking about this to somebody that I know quite well,

and I guess I was a bit complaining about it because I know them very well

and I was comfortable with them,

and they just looked at me and said,

George, you Christians invented it.

Like, you just don't like it because now it's coming back to bite you.

But you guys invented it,

and now you're reaping what you sow,

and, you know, you were in charge and you did it,

showed no mercy.

Now other people are in charge and they show no mercy,

and that's just, like, in a sense, suck it up and deal with it.

Now, at the time, I didn't really know what to say to them,

and I want to really encourage you to know that I didn't know what to say to them

because, you know, being a public Christian,

letting people know that you're a Christian,

sometimes there'll be pushback about that,

and if you wait to be a public Christian

until you know everything to say in response to every question,

you'll never be a public Christian.

In fact, maybe what you should do is just say,

maybe we should all get T-shirts about public Christian,

and the image should be of,

I could be my face, could be yours,

with the foot in the mouth,

and that's just sort of a comforting thing to know

that it's not the end of the world

if you don't know what to say in response to something.

Because often what it means is,

you know what you could say later on, actually.

Because now, I guess, if I could go back in time,

I would just quote an authority that they would recognize,

the who.

And in their famous song,

meet the new boss,

same as the old boss,

won't be fooled again.

Anyway, that's probably not what I would say to them.

But, you know, I think they're wrong, by the way.

The other thing I should have said is that it's really,

it's not that Christians invented it,

but that it's a human problem,

and that if you get beyond our ethnocentrism

and look at other cultures,

there's lots of times in history

and lots of places in the world

where there's very little mercy that's shown.

But I'm not going to deny that it might very well be the case

that there are many Christians today

in North America and Canada and Ottawa,

maybe even in this congregation,

or many Christians in the past

that have, in fact, shown very little mercy,

been very judgmental,

and very persecution-oriented.

But the question is, you know,

I guess for me,

it's never a matter of

what Christians do

is what the Bible says,

what Christ says.

So is it, in fact,

the case that Christians

just need to get more in touch

with things that are going on in our culture

to try to fix this

if it is, in fact,

a bit of a Christian problem?

Or is it really a matter

that you need to get back

to what Jesus says

and to be corrected by the Bible?

We're looking at a very, very old text today,

and it actually talks about this issue

of mercy and our narratives,

et cetera, and all,

and it gives great wisdom.

So it'd be a great help to me

if you would turn in your Bibles

to Haggai chapter 2.

Haggai 2 · chapter mention

Haggai chapter 2,

Haggai 2 · chapter mention

and we're going to be looking

at verses 10 to 19.

Haggai chapter 2, verses 10 to 19.

Haggai 2:10–19

And here's how it begins.

It goes like this.

On the 24th day of the ninth month

in the second year of Darius,

the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet.

Now just sort of pause there.

Some of you are here,

you're just jumping into this book.

This is just a bit of a context about it.

About 70 or so years prior to this,

the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem,

took away the leadership of the country,

the king of the country,

took them into exile,

most of them into Babylon.

And at the time of their destruction

of the country,

there were prophets like Jeremiah

who prophesied and said

that God was going to do

a remarkable and miraculous thing,

and that some approximately 70

or two generations almost,

70 years later,

God's going to bring some of the Jewish people

back to Jerusalem

and the temple will be rebuilt.

And then what happened

is the Babylonians are in power

for quite a few decades,

but then the Persians

defeat the Babylonian empire

and Babylonians

and take over their empire.

And that's where Darius comes in.

Darius is the emperor,

the Persian emperor.

And, you know,

you can't,

to try to get a bit of a sense

of the shock of the book of Haggai,

just understand that we now call Persia

as Iran.

And what happened

is that as soon as,

very shortly after,

Persia took over the empire,

God did a remarkable work

in the heart

of this Persian emperor

because he gave permission

for the Jewish people,

some of the Jewish people,

to go back

and to rebuild Jerusalem.

He wanted it.

It would be as if

the Ayatollah of Iran today

said that he wanted

to rebuild Jerusalem.

And just as that would be

a complete shock,

it would be front page news.

Ayatollah of Iran says

the temple must be rebuilt

or he wants the Jewish people

to thrive.

It was just as big of a shock

and just as big of a miracle

really back then.

So about 16 years prior to this,

some of the Jewish people

have returned to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is in rubbles.

If you want to get a picture for this,

if you're a very visual person,

picture Aleppo.

Picture parts of Syria

with all the rubbles

and that's what Jerusalem looks like.

And so some of the Jewish people

have returned

and they start to restore the temple

but there's local pushback,

very serious,

hardcore local pushback

and they chicken out

and they stop all the work.

And so what they've done

for the intervening time period

is they've worked

on their own prosperity

and their own peace

but they've also maintained

the religious celebrations

and festivals

and stuff like that

but they've turned inward

and they've stopped

all of the work

on the temple.

And then about four months

prior to this,

in September of 520 BC,

we know the dates

because of the linking

to Darius

and all of that type of stuff.

Haggai gives this prophetic word

that shocks them

and we'll talk about this

a bit more in a moment

because it is relevant

to this bit

and they start to restore

the temple

and then about two months

after that

or approximately two months

before this,

there's another set

of prophetic words

and now there's this third

set of prophetic words.

So that's what's going on here,

just a bit of a context.

Jerusalem is in rubbles.

There are some Jewish people back.

They're under Persian authority

and they've started

to restore the temple

four months in

and this is now a word

that comes from God

to the Jewish people

but it's going to come through

first asking a couple

of questions of the priests.

Here's how it goes.

Look at verse 11.

Thus says the Lord of hosts,

ask the priest 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.

Then Haggai said,

if someone who is unclean

by contact with a dead body

touches any of these,

does it become unclean?

The priest answered and said,

yes,

it does become unclean.

Then Haggai answered and said,

so is it with this people

and with this nation

before me,

declares the Lord,

and so with every work

of their hands.

And what they offer there

is unclean.

So just sort of pause here

for a second.

If you are like most Canadians,

as soon as you start getting

to clean and unclean,

your eyes glaze over

and you lose the plot

because it doesn't really

make much sense

and it just seems like

a weird, bizarre type of thing.

And it's here where

it touches in this whole area

of our cultural narratives

because we start to see what,

so some things are clean

and some things are unclean.

Like, George,

this just seems exactly

like religion.

It's so lame

and so random.

Like, really?

Just because you touch

a dead body,

you've become unclean?

Like, that just sounds weird.

And so we interpret

this whole story

from this perspective

of God being,

like there's been

no mercy shown

and it can just be

as simple as

you like the wrong

Hollywood star

a day after a revelation

or something like that

and it's just,

you're being picked on by God

and this whole language

of clean and unclean

sounds like

very, very exclusive

and insiders

and outsiders

and just everything

about religion

which is bad

and we hear this

because we have

our cultural narrative.

We read the text

and that's how we interpret it

but that's not

what's going on at all.

You see,

what we don't think of

is that the Bible

has a very, very

different narrative

and this story

is part of a very,

very, very,

very different narrative

and the narrative

is this.

The narrative of the Bible

is that there is a God

that does exist,

the triune God

and this God,

well,

he made human beings,

he made creation

not because he was lonely,

not because he was bored,

not because he wanted food,

not because he wanted slaves,

not because he wanted somebody to love

and had a type of needy love,

like we hate being around

needy love people

unless they're our brand new baby

or something like that

where you want them to be needy,

but you know,

for an adult to be needy love

and it's just sort of repelling

and it's not as if God

did anything like that

but we all know

that part of the nature of love

is that love is expansive,

love is creative,

love gives,

love forgives,

love loves to see more love,

that it's just something

about the nature of love

and the God who is love

made human beings

in his own image

so that he could lavish

his love upon them.

The living God

created all things,

created human beings

so that he could lavish

his love upon them

but human beings

turned from God

and wanted to be

like God themselves.

They turned their back

on God's love

and as a result of

turning their back

on God's love,

well, shame comes

into the world

and messing up

comes into the world

and sickness

comes into the world

and death

comes into the world

and oppression

comes into the world

and racism

and hatred

and authoritarianism

and no mercy

comes into the world

and human beings

are sort of trapped in this

and so the big story

of the Bible,

if you want to read

from Genesis chapter 3

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

right up into the gospel

and right up to the end

of the story,

the big narrative

of the Bible

is the narrative

of the different ways

that God tries

to get the attention

of people

in their mess,

in their shame,

in their confusion,

in their successes,

in their failures,

in their shame,

in their despondency,

in their despair,

that this God

who is love

relentlessly pursues

human beings

to get their attention

so that they would turn

and allow God

to do what only God

could do

to have them

become his people,

his children,

his precious treasure

so he can lavish

his love upon them.

That's the big story

of the Bible.

a relentless pursuit

by God

to love you.

And yes,

he knows

that you're not perfect.

He knows what

your bank balance is

for those of us

who have bad bank balances.

He knows your good

bank balances too

for those of you

who have those.

But he knows

he knows you

and he wants

to lavish

his love upon you.

Well,

how does that fit in

with this weird language

of clean and unclean?

And if you got lost

in the whole story

and you don't have

your Bibles open

to look at it,

basically what the Bible

is saying is this,

is you go and perform

a sacrifice

and as part of the sacrifice

there's an animal

and as part of the sacrifice

of the animal,

sometimes there's some

of that stuff

of the sacrifice

of the grain

or the animal

or whatever

that the priest

is able to keep

to eat.

And so the priest

has done this sacrifice

that God has set for

and as he's walking away

with his sacrifice,

he comes up,

imagine we go back in time

and he touches Jono

and the question is,

does the sacrifice

is holy,

it's clean,

and if now the priest

touches Jono,

does Jono become holy?

And then if I go up

and I touch Andrew,

does Andrew become holy?

Does Daniel and Alexander

become holy?

And the priest says,

no, the Bible says

they don't become holy,

they're just,

they're completely unchanged

by you touching them.

And he says,

okay, well,

let's do another example.

What happens, George,

if there's a dead body

and you touch the dead body

and according to the Bible

what happens is

if I touch the dead body

I become unclean.

So what happens then

if I go and touch Jono

and Andrew

and Daniel and Alexander?

Well, according to the Bible

they all become unclean.

And then he says,

listen,

because of what's been going on

with you people,

your whole land is unclean.

So what's going on

with this whole thing?

So here's part of the thing

that you need to understand.

Remember,

what's the big story?

The big story

is that God knows your mess,

he knows your sin,

he knows your shame.

There's this relentless seeking of you

to love you,

to pour out his love upon you.

That's the big story of the Bible.

So how does this fit?

Well,

the first thing that wants to fit

is that no human being

can make themselves holy.

That only the holy one

can make you holy.

And you see,

that's why it's connected

to the sacrifice.

That the sacrifice

is what in a sense

is making this particular thing

holy or clean.

But you can't then just go say,

oh wow,

I have a little magic wand

that makes things holy and clean

and I can run around

and touch things.

No, no,

that's not how it works.

That's taking you far away

from the fact

that God has to provide the means.

You see,

you can't sanctify yourself.

You can't make yourself holy.

You can't make yourself

be in the realm of God

to have God as your God

for him to lavish his love upon you.

You can't do that by yourself.

You need God

to make you his own.

You need God

to make you holy.

You need God

to make you clean.

You need God to do that.

And actually,

if you understand this

for a second,

that rather than this

being exclusive,

this is the most inclusive news

in the world.

No ideology,

no religion,

no spirituality,

no nation

is so inclusive.

And that's one of the reasons

why there is no body

more multicultural,

multi-ethnic

than is this profound mission

of God

that is called the gospel

and the Christian church

that looks at people

of all income levels,

all IQ levels,

all handicap-enabled levels,

all colors,

all nations,

and says,

did you know there's a God

who loves you

who wants to lavish his love upon you

and he wants to have you be his?

And you know what?

He knows all about your thing

and he knows that you can't make yourself

in his kingdom of love.

Love has to open the door for love.

Holiness has to open the door

to holiness

and to bring you in.

And so in a sense,

all of this language

of the clean and the unclean

was trying to communicate

these two things

that you can't make yourself holy.

You need to have God make you holy

and you need to receive that humbly

and that this,

rather than being exclusive,

is the most wonderful,

inclusive news in the world

because he doesn't look at your power,

your prestige,

or anything like that.

In fact,

the only,

it's like,

what's the one criteria

you need to be admitted

to be in the hospital?

Well,

that you're sick.

That's the only criteria.

The only criteria

to come to receive grace from God

is that you need grace.

That's everybody.

It's actually very,

very,

and so the sacrifices

of the clean and unclean

is to communicate.

You know what's the other thing

to communicate

is to,

once again,

and you can go back

into the food laws,

if we did a sermon series

in Leviticus,

we could talk about that,

is that all of these

different languages

of clean and unclean,

holy and unholy,

is trying to communicate,

to get into the imagination,

to get into,

in a sense,

into the bones

and the imagination

and the narratives

and the story

of the people,

what it's like

to be under God's reign,

to be under God's rule,

to be his precious

possession and treasure.

And a dead body

is dead.

To touch the dead body,

in a sense,

means you are being

reminded of the fact

that you are

in the realm of death.

But to be under

God's authority,

God is the God

of living.

He's the God of life.

He's the God of life

who gives life.

He is the God of life

who desires to give you

a life that is his,

that will go on

into all time.

And so by these things

of the different foods

and these different things,

it's trying to structure

and form the imagination

of the people

at the level

of their reflexes,

their imagination,

their bones,

their reflexes

about what it's like

to be close to God.

That the closer you get

to the true and living God,

that when he opens

the way for you

to get close to him,

the closer you get to him,

the closer you're

getting to life.

Because he is not

the God of the dead,

he is the God of life,

the living.

To become close to him

is to get close

to life.

So you say,

okay, well George,

that's very interesting,

but what's this weird stuff

about then everything they do?

You're saying that

all their work,

that all their worship,

that it's unclean?

Like what's going on here

with this?

That doesn't make any sense

from what you said,

but it actually makes,

here's some of you

who were here last week.

By the way,

people remember 10%

of what they hear,

so I sort of think

I could preach

the same sermon 10 times

before everybody's heard it once.

And so some things

could be repeated

more than once,

that's fine.

But so just here

to try to understand

what's going on.

So remember,

what has happened

is they've come back to

God does this remarkable miracle.

He gets the Ayatollah

of Iran to say,

I want to see Jewish people

in Jerusalem with a temple.

Like, whoa,

that should knock your socks off

in terms of a remarkable thing.

Just knock your socks off,

blow your hair back.

Like,

that's just crazy.

But they go

and they start to rebuild

the temple

and a couple of people say,

I don't know,

you know,

it looks ugly,

you look ugly,

I don't like you,

I hate your guts,

and they just turn away.

And so they turn away

and they just say,

I'm just going to make

my own house really nice.

Boom,

we're going to keep the worship

and all of that type of stuff.

And so,

you know,

so what's going on here?

So now they're coming in,

they're finally starting to build

and he's trying to make a point

that's going to make up in here.

But here's the point.

Imagine for a moment

that I decided

it's really time for me

to get into a deeper relationship

with my wife,

Louise.

You know,

better than we have right now.

And so I consult

some counselors,

I call up,

you know,

some other people

and I say,

what's the type of conversations

I should have?

You know,

what should I be open about?

What should I be vulnerable with?

Like,

how would a really good conversation

like that go?

And I get it all

and I learn it

and I think,

okay,

I'm going to ace this,

okay?

So we get in the car

to go to the restaurant

and have this conversation

and before we get into the car

I take my wedding band off

and I leave it at home.

How many of you think

Louise would notice

in the car

that I didn't have

my wedding band on?

Every single one of you

would know

that Louise will notice.

How do you think

my conversation with Louise

will go in the restaurant?

I've consulted

the best psychologists

and marriage therapists

in the world.

I have all the things

that I need to say

to have the conversation

go well.

Do you think

my conversation

will go well?

No.

In fact,

you know what?

If 10 minutes

into the meal

Louise was to send

a message

to the whole congregation

and just say,

George is having

a conversation

with me at a restaurant

and he took

his wedding band off.

Like,

what do you think

is going on?

And you'd all go,

girl,

let him have it.

Like,

he's,

what's going wrong

with George?

He's nuts.

Okay?

Like,

there's something bad

going on here,

right?

Because I took

my wedding band off.

So here's the thing

connected to the text

to make us understand this.

Remember,

what does God say?

The whole big narrative

of the story

is that I want

to be with you.

I want to have you

as my precious treasure.

I want to give

my life to you

and have your life

come under mine.

I want to lavish

love and life upon you.

That's the desire

of my heart.

That's my,

that's what I want to do.

And so you gather together

and the temple's

not being rebuilt.

And God doesn't need

a temple.

Like,

the temple is like nothing.

Just like,

you know,

in a sense,

Louise doesn't need the,

I don't know,

like the three dollars

of gold in my ring

or anything like that.

Like,

she doesn't need it.

But the ring symbolizes

our marriage.

The ring symbolizes

that I'm married to Louise,

that I first,

I'm trying to

and successfully

forsaking all others

to just be with her,

that I want to be with her,

that we're husband and wife.

And to take it off

in public

is to say something

very,

very different.

And if you go back

and you read Genesis chapter 1

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

and Genesis chapter 2,

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

especially chapter 2,

you see that basically

what's going on

is that the Garden of Eden

is in a sense

the temple.

It's the dwelling place

of God.

And that the point

of the Garden of Eden

is that it would eventually

take up the whole earth.

And who knows,

if we hadn't fallen,

maybe it would take up

the moon and Mars

and Saturn

and some other planets.

And because God

doesn't need

a particular place,

but the temple

represents God's presence

in their midst

as their God

that it matters to them.

In a sense,

the temple is the ring.

So just as

they can do

all the sacrifices

they want

and they could be

the most assiduous

Jewish people

in the history

of the planet

with getting everything

according to every word

in Leviticus

and Exodus

and Deuteronomy,

but they don't have

the temple.

And just as I could

have a conversation,

I could have

psychologists in my little,

I have an earpiece

telling me what to say.

Wouldn't matter.

Then they realize,

what's going on?

He took off his ring.

George,

put your bleepity,

bleep, bleep, bleep,

ring back on

right now.

And then we'll

coach you through

apologies

and repentance.

And all of that stuff.

That's what's going on here.

That's why it's

them functionally showing

that they don't want

God in their midst.

And so what's happened

to the Jewish people,

and that's what's going

to be very relevant

right now

in the next little bit,

is that four months earlier

their heart was pierced.

And this is part of,

you see,

the grace that God

doesn't say,

well, okay,

I'm waiting for

a really nice big house

and after I get

the big house

that I'm going

to love you.

No, no, no.

As soon as he senses

because he's God,

the turning of their

heart towards him

and their own

little efforts

that picking up

that first piece

of rubble

and trying to put it

in the right spot

to rebuild,

then there's the turn

in his relationship

with him.

You see,

because all of the

sacrifices,

all of them

show God's grace.

And as we now know

as Christians,

all of them point

to the great sacrifice

that Jesus

is going to perform

for us on the cross,

that he is in fact

the Lamb of God

who takes away

the sin of the world.

They all show his grace.

And God doesn't wait

for them to have measured up

because why?

He knows we can't.

And he just wants

to lavish his love.

And he takes that

first turning of our heart

to begin to have a change

to be with him

in a different way.

So mindful of that,

let's listen to what

it said here,

verses 15 and following.

Now then consider

from this day onward.

Now, yeah,

I'll finish reading it.

Now then consider,

verse 15,

consider from this day onward.

Before stone was placed

upon stone

in the temple of the Lord,

how did you fare?

When one came to a heap

of 20 measures,

there were but 10.

When one came to the wine vat

to draw 50 measures,

there were but 20.

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,

from the 24th day

of the ninth month,

since the day

that the foundation

of the Lord's temple

was laid,

or a better way to say it

is from the day

that the restoration began,

consider,

is the seed yet

in the barn?

Indeed,

the vine,

the fig tree,

the pomegranate,

and the olive tree

have yielded nothing,

but from this day on

I will bless you.

Now,

a couple of things here

to sort of,

you know,

to wrap this up.

So,

the first thing is this,

that,

like,

I could well imagine

if I was to say

to a barista,

like,

for a lot of people,

I mean,

part of this thing

is just all weird.

The idea that somehow

or another

that God

actually actively

stopped the crop

from being good

and the wine

from being good,

and somehow or another

if he stops this,

he thinks it's going to have

people turn to him.

And,

like,

you could well imagine

people say,

George,

you know,

if I found out

that somebody

was stealing my tips,

I'm a barista,

or just taking the tips

and throwing them

out the window

so nothing happened,

like,

George,

why do you think

that would make,

I'd be mad at that person.

Shouldn't they be mad

at him?

At God?

Rather than actually

turn to him?

Well,

you see,

that's,

once again,

it's the case of

we're bringing

our narrative

to the story,

not the biblical narrative.

And,

in our narrative,

it would look

as if,

if I just sort of

went in

and started taking

money from somebody

or other

and making you

not get a promotion

or something like that,

that you'd be right

to get mad at me,

but that's not the narrative

that's going on here.

The narrative

that's going on here

is that God wants

to be almost as if

he's their husband.

He wants to be as if

he's their dad.

He wants to be

in a covenant

relationship

that's real

where he can lavish

his love upon them.

So,

here's a different story.

If you heard tonight,

you go home,

and you heard tonight

that your best friend,

that she found out

that her husband

was being unfaithful

to her,

and when he came home,

he discovered

that she had locked him

out of the house

and changed the locks.

would you think

she had done

the right thing

or the wrong thing?

You'd say,

you go, girl.

Don't let that guy

take advantage of you.

You need to affect

where he can sleep tonight.

You need to diminish him

so he understands

this is serious

so he can return to you.

That's exactly

what God did.

He wants to lavish

his love upon them.

He does something

to get their attention.

You see,

the narrative

of the story

is of God

desiring to lavish

his love upon you.

And the other thing

about this

is that

two things

just in closing.

The first thing

is this.

Sanctity

or holiness

or being God

is its own reward

but it always brings

other goods

in its train.

Sanctity

is its own reward

or holiness

or being God

is its own reward

but it always brings

other goods

in its train.

And the other one

is this

that the triune God

defines blessing

not you

or Canada

or Hollywood

or Bay Street

or Wall Street.

See,

that's why people

who take this

as a health

and wealth gospel

type of direction

that somehow

or another

God's going to

give them new cars

he's going to

give them this

he's going to

give them that

that they're not

reading the text

right

because God

defines blessing

and holiness

always has

its own rewards.

I'll give you

just two

illustrations

to try to

try to get you

to bring this

home to you

by what I mean

with them.

When I was

in my rural parish

in Eganville

I was there

from 88 to 95

and one of the

things that the

church did in

Eganville

is they

would tire

themselves out

about three times

a year

they would do

these huge

fundraising things

to try to

make money

from the community

to keep the

church open.

It's a very

common thing

if you talk

to some old

Anglicans

who were Anglicans

back in the late

80s

the early 90s

they'd say

yeah yeah yeah

I mean this

church we had

a strawberry

social

we had

another thing

in November

I think we had

a third thing

we had at least

three things

a year.

So one of the

things that I did

to the congregation

is I was part of

that first you have

to convert them

and let them know

the gospel

and then in light

of the gospel

say do you really

think it's wise

to go and seek

the non-Christians

in the community

to give money

to the church

to keep the church

open?

Like shouldn't it

really be that

the church wants

to bless the

community?

Like shouldn't it

be like we have

it backwards?

And so I finally

and I can also

tell you another

thing and I

you know they all

sort of knew this

as well

so a lot of times

what would happen

is they do all

this work to make

chicken suppers

or something

or other like that

and all that would

happen is at the

end of the day

everybody's exhausted

you actually make

very little money

and then like people

don't come to church

like for the next

month because

they've done their

bit and offerings

go down for the

next month

and you know

sometimes people

would actually say

to me you know

George if we'd

actually just gone

and worked for a

local worker for a

day for minimum

wage and then gave

the money to the

church it would have

been less tiring

and we would have

had more money

so anyway finally

after like I've

been there seven

years or almost

seven years and I

finally convinced

them that we would

do something

different we

weren't going to

do this fundraiser

thing in February

we would do

something completely

different we would

do something in

keeping with being

gods and wanting

to lavish his love

upon people and so

we made an

arrangement that we

had a we

connected with the

international student

christian fellowship

here in Ottawa at

Ottawa U and we

said if you guys can

get up to Eganville

for a day we will

give you a free

lunch a free supper

we will give you an

opportunity to see

what rural Canadian

life is like we'll

organize ice fishing

we'll organize cross

country skiing we'll

organize snow

mobiling we'll take

you out to some of

the local farms to

visit some of the

local people we'll

give you free lunch

free supper and

we're also going to

have even song and

share the gospel and

I don't know what

it was like 50

some odd people all

came up people from

China and Africa all

over they came up to

Eganville and we gave

them and you know

anything about country

people you never just

offer one meat when you

can offer three like you

never just offer one

type of salad when you

can offer four right so

they just stuff them like

for lunch one of my big

memories of this it's so

cool but the the Asian

students and the Chinese

students in particular they

loved being at the farm

spending their time having

their pictures taken with

the cows I don't know

why but that was a big

thing and and the by the

end you know we gave

them supper we had an

even song we shared the

gospel by the time they

were going home they they

loved us they they just

had such the greatest time

in the world everybody was

so thankful and the

congregation had not

raised a single penny they'd

spent money in a sense to

be honest they were poor at

the end of the day than

they were at the beginning

but you know what the

whole congregation was so

pumped for the next month

or two attendance in my

church was way up and the

offerings were way up and by

the end of the two months we

had way more money than if we

had done a stupid chicken

barbecue or some other type of

thing you see holiness is its

own reward but it brings other

goods in its train and this

also fits with the other

thing is that God defines the

blessing not Canada not Wall

Street not Hollywood now

obviously one of the reasons

that Haggai was recognized as a

prophet is there must have

been see one of the things

about this prophecy is it

comes the late rains in early

late October early November

that makes a hard soil around

Jerusalem soft so they could

plant and then there's some

other rains and so in

December everything's planted

but nothing's been harvested

and so obviously there was

enough of an increase in food

that people could see that the

prophecy by Haggai was true

it's one of the reasons that

they must have said we need to

keep this book and read this

book and study this book and

pray for this book we need to

understand that when we draw

close to God that's its own

reward but he will also bless us

in other ways and there must

have been enough there but you

know it's more than just having

enough food we live in a time

when there's a crisis of

meaning part of the reason

there's so much anxiety in

Canada is that there's no

meaning there's no meaning

people feel alone and they feel

isolated and they feel guilty

and they feel insufficient and

they have anxiety and all these

issues but you hear this story

and God wants to lavish his love

upon you and and he wants you to

be his and when you're his he

wants to lavish his love upon

you and he wants you to be part

of his great mission that the

world will know that he exists

that he loves you that he wants

to lavish his love he wants a

lavish life upon you he will give

you love and life that begins

today that goes on through into

all eternity and so there must have

been enough for them to have more

that's completely fine but you see

like think about that story of that

congregation in Eganville let me

tell you this being generous is way

more whole and freeing than hoarding

money forgiving is way more whole and

freeing than being judgmental and

attacking you know what embracing

people who are of different cultures

are you and befriending them or

different colors of you or different

religions of you and befriending

them is way more freeing than the

person who's afraid of them

and being able to turn the other

cheek when somebody hurts you is way

more freeing than being able to be a

really good person at punching them

back and the person who gives rather

than hoards will have a far softer

pillow at night the person who

forgives rather than seek revenge

will have a far softer pillow at

night

see it's not just about the stuff

although obviously there was this

stuff is that when God blesses you

God blesses you the whole one simple

way to understand blessing is that God

wants you to thrive but not by the

standards of Canada by the God who's

created all things who wants to

lavish his love upon you and life

upon you

and so that's this message here of

this book that we are to put God

first that we are in a sense to once

again just understand the importance

of being gripped by the gospel and

how when we start to realize that it

makes far more sense to put him first

in his mission to transform human

lives and human communities through the

gospel so that more and more people

will understand that God just wants to

lavish his love and life upon you and

to be part of that is to be meaning

to understand that you're making

something you're not just teaching

Sunday school you're not just

greeting somebody at the door you're

not just helping a new Canadian learn

how to speak English better when you're

in for the name of Jesus you're not

just doing these meaningless things

you are doing something that's part of

this profound mission of God this

narrative and story of God that

transforms human lives that will

transform them beyond death and into

all eternity and that is what God is

asking you to do and so why would you

take such a great ambition and pursue

ephemeral things

I'm not saying that to you if I say that

to you I have three fingers pointing

back at me and one up to Jesus Jesus

help me let me see me let's just pray

that the Lord will help us to be so

gripped with this story of Jesus and

of God's grace and his lavishing his

love upon us that it it changes how we

do our church which changes how we live

our lives that time and time and time

again we come to him and say Lord this

week I've messed up or I've done good

I so need to hear this story again to

help me get where true north is and

what life is all about that I can once

again I recommit to you I recommit to

you not in a way that I'm now saved

because Jesus never lets us go it's all

grace he's opened the door not us he's

opened the way not us let's stand

close in prayer

father we give you thanks and praise

that

you want to lavish your love and your

life upon us and that you want to not

only do that here on this side of the

grave but that you want to do that

begin that work in our lives and grow

that work in our lives that will go on

and survive death and go on into all

eternity into the new heaven and the

new earth so father we give you thanks

and praise that that is who you are

that is what you want to do that is

what you want us to understand and so we

ask father we give you thanks and

praise that this on the Sabbath the

Lord's day that we can gather and hear

your word and be reminded about what is

true and what is real and what is

meaningful and what is significant and

and and father that that we can double

down and commit to this and if we

haven't entered into this story that

if we have not realized that that's

why God's trying to get our attention

so that we would give our life to

Jesus said that but if there's anyone

here in that or listening on that that

they would say father I want to stop

running I want to be Jesus's I want

him to be my Savior and my Lord and I

want you to never let me go and I want

you to bless me and with your love in

your life and I want to be blessed by

you so that I might be a blessing

father I want that to be the new and

final story of my life and father we

ask for them we ask for us that once

again we will recommit father draw us

close to yourself through your son in

the power of the Holy Spirit make us

open to receiving your blessing so

that we might be a blessing to others

for our great good the good of our city

the good of our nation the good of the

world and for your great glory and we

ask these things in the name of Jesus

your son and our Savior amen