Wise Hope

Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would fall with fresh power upon us at this time.

We are here to be in your presence, to receive from you in a worthy manner.

Help us, Father, to be here, knowing that we are in your presence,

that we are in the presence of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And, Father, we ask that you speak to us through your word,

that your word would come deeply into our hearts,

and that we would respond in a way that is for our true good,

for the good of this city, the good of creation, and for your great glory.

So, Father, do that wonderful work of your Holy Spirit, we pray.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Please be seated.

One of the things I tell people,

sometimes if people are asking me for a little bit of advice about how to handle a Bible study or a small group,

or for sometimes when I'm talking to people about sermons and how to do them,

is to, I mean, there's lots of different questions that we can ask,

but one of the questions to ask is, or just to realize,

that everything in the Bible is always speaking about something in our human condition.

It's speaking about some loves that we have, some fears that we have,

some hopes or yearnings that we have.

It's speaking about problems that we face.

It's speaking about the human condition, speaking about human problems, the human experience.

So part of the thing you can do is ask yourself, like, just for a second,

well, what human, and it can be more than one,

so what human thing is actually being addressed in this text?

We're preaching through the book of Haggai.

We're going to be doing a series in the summer called Knowing God,

where we'll look at a range of different texts about who God is.

But we're going through the book of Haggai.

And the text that we're looking at today actually speaks, not actually,

as if it's, well, what a surprise.

This week it does something different than the other weeks.

I have a bad habit of saying actually when I shouldn't.

This text talks about a very common human problem.

Maybe some of you are dealing with it now or have dealt with it in the past,

but if you haven't dealt with it yet, you're going to deal with it.

And the human problem is that you think about the situation you're in,

and the past was way better.

Either the present sucks, and the future either is just going to continue to suck

at the current level or it's going to even suck worse.

So you're in this situation.

The past was great.

The present sucks.

The future sucks.

So how do you deal with that?

Like how do you have hope when it just seems to be,

and not only that, it's not only that you know that the past seemed to be way better.

The present sucks.

The future sucks.

But the people around you would say the same thing.

Yeah, yeah, George, the past was way better.

Your current situation sucks.

And I don't see much hope.

All I see, as far as I can see, is just it sucks.

And how do you deal with that?

How do you live?

Or how do you actually try to do some things and actually accomplish something

if that's the situation that you're in?

And that's the situation that, in fact, one of the things that's so interesting about this story

is that's the situation, and God speaks into it.

And I think if we look at it, if you start to think,

okay, well, that's what's going on in this weird-sounding story

with these names that we can't pronounce,

you start to realize that the Bible says something very profound and powerful and wise

about the human condition and about hope, because we need hope to live.

So if you turn in your Bibles to Acts, I'm not Acts,

Haggai chapter 2, let's look at the text together.

Haggai 2 · chapter mention

Haggai chapter 2, verses 1 to 9.

Haggai 2:1–9

And just the context, some of you, I know, are visual, very visual people.

And so if you're trying to imagine this text,

imagine photographs of Aleppo in Syria.

Imagine an area which has been completely and utterly devastated by war,

where, you know, there's the odd wall standing up, but there's rubble everywhere.

And that's the context of what's happening here.

And the context further is that this is taking place 66 years

after Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians.

And so Babylon had destroyed the nation.

Jeremiah had prophesied that that was going to happen.

And it came true. But Jeremiah also prophesied that God was going to do another miracle,

that God was actually going to help some of the people would maintain their Jewish identity

and their worship and their reading of the Torah,

and that some would actually return to this place,

and that Jerusalem would end up eventually being rebuilt.

And that was partly what...

And so here we are, 66 years later,

we have a situation where people have come back to the city of Jerusalem,

and it's all in rubble.

They began to rebuild the temple,

but they got very severe pushback by the locals,

and so they gave up.

And it was in this context that Haggai begins to speak to them.

And first of all, he confronts them and says,

you need to put first things first.

If you want to have God bless you, you need to put first things first.

You need to have...you need to rebuild the temple.

And his word convicts them, the Holy Spirit convicts them,

and they start to rebuild the temple.

Just sort of before we go any further on that,

there's...you know, you've heard me say this a lot,

but it's well worth being...

I mean, one of the things we do about on Sunday mornings

is we come to be reminded of the truth that we need to be reminded of.

And what's at work in all of this

is that the people have forgotten God.

They've forgotten the Lord.

And because they'd forgotten him and rebelled against him,

they came under his judgment.

But the Lord had never forgotten them.

And the Lord had never forgotten his promises to them.

And here's the Christian context for us.

And this is very, very important to remember.

The Christian life is not about how strong your grip is in Jesus' hand.

The fact of the matter is, there will be times you really think,

yeah, I'm really holding on to Jesus really tight.

But there's going to be times when you've let go completely

or your hand is very weak.

But what matters isn't how strong your grip is in the hand of Jesus,

but his grip.

That's what matters.

That's your hope.

My hope is not that I have a really strong grip on Jesus.

My hope is that he has a very strong grip.

He has my hand and he will never let it go.

That's my hope.

And so it's in this context.

There's ruins.

They're just starting to rebuild.

It's been seven weeks since the last prophecy.

They've just begun to try to build and clear up the things

and to start to build the temple.

And it's in that situation that this text comes.

And here's how it goes.

In the seventh month, on the 21st day of the month,

the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai, the prophet.

Now, just sort of pause here.

This little seemingly meaningless little piece of information

is actually quite significant for a variety of reasons.

So first of all, it's telling us that there's been seven weeks.

In that seven weeks, there's been some Jewish festivals,

which they've kept.

They would have brought in some more of the harvest.

And they've also begun to rebuild the temple,

clear away some of the rubble,

and maybe try to figure out what stones they might be able to use

and looking for bits and pieces of wood they can use

and maybe even begin to think about how they could go out

to get the beams that they're going to have to get lumbered

and brought in close.

But they're just finishing the Feast of Tabernacles.

That's one of the things that this date tells us.

And this is actually not a sad thing for them,

but it's a reminder that God delivered their forebears,

their ancestors, out of slavery in Egypt

and to bring them into the Promised Land.

But when he brought them to the edge of the Promised Land,

they refused to go in.

They rebelled against him.

And so they spent 40 years in the wilderness

before eventually going into the Promised Land.

And in those 40 years in the wilderness,

they lived in tents and God provided for them.

And the Feast of the Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths

is that when they remember that.

But here's the thing.

Those of them that would have known their Tanakh,

they would have known their Torah,

they would have known that it was on this exact day

in the year 960 B.C.

that Solomon's temple was completed.

Now, one of the things to my shame is

my wife has lost both her mother and her father,

and I don't remember the dates of their death

or the dates of their birth.

But we all know that remembering the date of a lost one,

even many, many years later,

can cause some sadness, some sorrow.

I'm sure to my shame, not to my credit,

there's been some time my wife might be sad

and I might not remember that the reason she's sad

is that it was on that day,

whatever number of years ago,

that her mom died or her father died

or their birthday or something.

But anniversaries matter.

And so here we have a group of people amidst the rubble

trying to rebuild the temple.

And the day, some of them would remember,

this is the day 500 and some odd years earlier,

that the great temple of Solomon

was completed and dedicated.

And they just think of that

and they think of all that's been lost.

And they would definitely be looking

at what is in front of them

and thinking,

this doesn't look too good.

In fact, actually, God is going to walk towards that.

Look what happens in verse 2

and verse 3.

Speak now to Zerubbabel,

the son of Sheolatiel,

governor of Judah,

and to Joshua,

the son of Jehoshadak,

the high priest,

and to all the remnant of the people,

and say,

who is left among you

who saw this house in its former glory?

How do you see it now?

Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

Now this is one of the remarkable things about the Bible,

one of the powerful things about the Bible,

and one of the powerful things

that the Bible has to say about hope.

For the Bible,

hope isn't the same as optimism.

Optimism is,

things are going to get better.

I can make things better.

We can make things better.

I'm strong,

and you do that,

and we can do it.

We can all jump up and down

and do some chanting

and get psyched

and get pumped,

and we can deal with it,

and we can do things far better.

But the Bible never sugarcoats things,

and it's very interesting.

You see,

the beginning of hope

is the acknowledgement

of how bad the situation actually is.

Don't think about how bad things are.

The Bible doesn't say,

okay,

don't think about how bad things are.

Don't think about the past.

Repress those memories

of how the temple looked.

Because the temple

had been destroyed 66 years ago,

there would have been some people there in the crowd

who were 71 or 72 or older.

They would have remembered

what Solomon's temple looked like,

and even those who weren't there,

they would have heard stories

about how beautiful.

They would have heard the Tanakh read,

and they would have heard the stories

about how this temple was so beautiful

and the proportions

and the skilled workmanship

and the gold plating everywhere,

and it would have just looked

so majestic and glorious.

And they're thinking about all that past.

They have all that memory,

and they're looking at how the present,

the past was great,

the present sucks.

And as they're looking at these things,

what's going through their mind

is this is like nothing.

Like, this is like crap.

And God speaks right into it.

He doesn't say,

don't think in those terms.

He says, don't you think

that this is like nothing?

You see,

and this is another important thing

for us to remember as Christians.

It's one of the things

that the gospel makes

a very big difference for you and me.

It's not only in the gospel,

what really matters

is that Jesus,

when I put my hand in Jesus

to ask him to be my Savior and my Lord,

my hand will get weak often,

but his hand will never get weak.

He will never let me go.

He will never, ever, ever, ever,

ever let me go.

And one of the other things

which is so remarkable

is it's not that he's going to

never let me go

because everything within me

is just hunky-dory wonderful.

But he knows the confusion,

the problems,

the doubts,

the sin

that I have in my own life,

the sins of commission

and the sins of omission.

And still he loves me.

He knew all of that

when he died for me.

Still he loves me.

You see,

the fact of the matter is

is that part of the reason

that many of us

have problems praying

is that we sort of think

there's a certain type of way

we're supposed to be

and a certain type of wording

that we're supposed to say

before we can talk.

But the fact of the matter is

is that we say,

okay, I guess I better pray.

And the inside of our head,

if people could look

at the inside of our head,

the inside of our head

would look as if

there were 50 bees in there

all buzzing around

like this constantly.

And the fact of the matter is

is each one of those bees

is a thought.

And that's what's going on

inside of our head.

Or that we're just feeling

completely and utterly low

or completely depressed

or completely angry.

And what we do

is we try to repress that

or pretend it's not there

so that we can say the prayers

that we're supposed to pray.

But the fact of the matter is

is that Jesus isn't going

to let go of my hand

if I let slip

that my head is like 50 bees

buzzing like crazy.

He's not going to say,

oh gosh,

I'm going to let go

of George's hand.

No.

He already knows it.

In fact, prayer is the meeting

place of the reality

of who I am

with the reality

of who God is

and the reality

of his word

that I can say,

Lord, I can hardly put

one thought together

because that's what's

going on in my mind.

And in a sense,

I don't know what these people

are trying to pray,

but the fact of the matter

is is that God knows

that they think this sucks.

And when they look around

the rubble,

they think the future sucks.

Yes.

Gosh, the past was great.

And that just makes you

feeling more despondent,

more depressed,

more despairing.

And God just names it.

Listen to verse 3 again.

What does he say?

Not, oh, don't think

about those things

or oh, don't think about,

oh, he says,

who is left among you

who saw this house

in its former glory?

How do you see it now?

Is it not as nothing

in your eyes?

So what does God say

into this situation

after he's been realistic

with them about

what they're actually thinking,

what they're actually feeling?

Well, he walks towards

the problem

and then he says,

we'll look at verse 4 and 5

and then verse 6 and 9.

He says some very remarkable

things to them,

which,

and then actually

in verses 6 to 9,

we show up in the text,

believe it or not.

Yeah, actually,

we show up in the text

in between verse 6 and 9.

But first,

listen to what it says

in verse 4 and 5.

Okay, so it says,

nothing in your eyes?

Verse 4,

yet now be strong,

O Zerubbabel,

declares the Lord.

Be strong,

O Joshua,

son of Jehozadak,

the high priest.

Be strong,

all you people of the land,

declares the Lord.

Work,

not just work or else,

but work,

for I am with you,

declares the Lord of hosts.

According to the covenant,

he's with them,

how?

He's with them

according to the covenant

that I made with you

when you came out of Egypt.

My spirit,

my Holy Spirit,

remains in your midst.

Fear not.

That's the first word

that he says

when they think

the past is great,

the present sucks,

the future looks like more suck.

And he,

first of all,

for some of them,

there's this great resonance,

an echo,

of the book of Joshua.

If you go back

and read Joshua 1,

in fact,

I was sharing

at the earlier service,

when my kids were younger,

we used to have these cassettes

that we'd play all the time

when we were driving.

And they were GT

and the Halo Express.

I don't know

if they're still available,

but we loved them.

My kids liked them

at the time,

and they were able

to learn Bible memorizing verses.

As soon as I see this,

I'm thinking,

have I not commanded

you be strong and courageous?

Have I not commanded

you be strong and courageous?

Do not.

Anyway,

I won't sing anymore for you.

I'll drive you all away.

But the fact of the matter

is if you read Joshua 1,

there's this constant refrain

as they're about to enter

into the promised land.

They've ended the time

in the tent.

They're about to enter

in the promised land,

and God says to Joshua,

be strong,

be strong,

be strong.

And so here they are.

They're embarked

in the midst of the rubble.

They're still under

the Persian Empire,

and they're about to,

they've just begun the work

of rebuilding the temple.

And why does the temple matter?

The temple,

well,

we'll get to that more

in a moment.

And God's word to them

is be strong,

be strong,

be strong.

And for some of them,

they'd go,

that just is like

what God said to Joshua

and the people of Israel

as they're about to build.

But there's something else

which is here.

It's not just that

they're to work,

but they're to work

knowing that God is with them.

And God isn't with them

just sort of as some type

of a presence

or some type of judgmental presence

or just some mere,

like, power.

No,

he's present

as the God

who is in covenant

with them.

He has never,

they have forgotten

his promises.

They have not wanted

him to be with them,

but he wants

to be with them

and that's what matters.

And he's with them

as the Lord.

Now,

this,

we can't really get,

I came up,

hopefully this analogy

will help you a little bit.

All the gender neutral stuff

and I don't know

how many different pronouns

there are.

In some ways,

it made me realize

that in the Jewish people,

there were a generic word

for God.

God.

And then there was,

you know,

other names for specific gods.

And then there was the Lord.

And the significance is

they don't use the word Elohim,

which is generic God.

They use the word Lord.

And the difference between Elohim

or generic God

and Lord

is the difference between

my children referring to me

as the sperm donor

or dad.

It's the difference between

my wife referring to me

as the sperm donor.

Or husband.

The difference is huge.

I'm not just

yet another sperm donor.

I am the kid's dad.

And they get to call me dad.

They don't get to call me sperm donor.

They get to call me dad.

And these are relationship words.

These are not only relationship words,

but they're covenant words.

And so all the way through this text,

if you were,

like an interesting activity for you

would be to write out

or type out

all of Haggai

or print it out

and then go and take a marker

and highlight

every time the word Lord

or Lord of hosts

appears in the text.

And it's just saturated with this.

All of this speaking

is he's using the words

to remind them

that he is not just

the generic God.

He is their God.

That he has created

a covenant for them.

He has never given up

on the covenant.

They have given up on it,

but he has never given up

on the covenant

with them

and he will continue

to fulfill it.

And that is the God

who has led them out

of slavery and bondage

that he did it

by his own power

and he led them out.

He kept them

in the wilderness.

He brought them

into the promised land

and it's the same Lord

who is in covenant

with them,

who's speaking with them

and he says,

what he's saying to them

is that I don't care

about the building

so much

is that the building

is just a sign

that you want me

to be with you.

It would be as if,

you know,

it's the same type

of thing.

If Louise and I

were going to go out

to go to a patio

and as we're going out

I'd said,

I think I'm going to

take my wedding ring off

and leave it home.

She'd go,

what?

I could take your,

well actually

she might not say anything.

The whole evening

we're in the patio

she might not say anything

and then I would get it.

And you know what?

All of you folks

would say,

you go girl.

You lay into him.

He deserves it.

Why?

Well because this little

piece of metal

isn't just a piece of metal.

It's a sign

that I'm married to Louise.

And if she knew

that I was going out

taking the ring off

she'd know that

that was something wrong.

She'd say,

George,

the ring is a sign

that we're married.

The ring is a sign

that I matter to you.

The ring is a sign

that you have forsaken

all others.

And so that's what's going on

with the temple.

God says,

the temple is a sign

that you want me

to be with you.

I don't need a temple

but it's a sign

that you want me

to be with you.

That's why last week

you have to put me first.

And putting me first is,

you know,

like you could just

well imagine,

George,

I'm not going to have,

Louise could say to me,

I'm not going to have

the conversation with you

until you put the ring

back on your finger.

And we're going to have

a conversation.

Put the ring on,

let's talk.

And God is saying,

you've got to put me first.

Build the temple.

And be strong.

Why?

Because I am with you.

Now some of us might say,

well, George,

that's all interesting.

It's all this Jewish stuff

that's all the way back.

And some of you

might be wondering,

you know,

why did they actually believe

that this came from God?

Like,

why did the Jewish people

put it in the Bible?

Well,

it's actually the next verses

that both are why

they would have put it

in the Bible,

understood that this was something

that really did come from God,

and it's also the next verses

that give this whole other

area of hope.

Like,

their hope in the midst

of the fact that the past

seemed to be great,

the present sucks,

and the future sucks.

Part of the thing is,

God just says to them,

listen,

I'm with you.

I am your Lord.

I am the God of covenant.

You've got to just go ahead

and work on those things.

But then,

the promise continues

in a very different way

that helps to shape

our understanding of hope.

We show up.

Listen to what it says.

Verses 6, 7, 8, and 9.

For thus says the Lord of hosts,

yet once more in a little while,

and I will shake the heavens

and the earth

and the sea and the dry land,

and I will shake all nations

so that the treasures

of all nations shall come in,

and I will fill this house

with glory,

says the Lord of hosts.

The silver is mine

and the gold is mine,

declares the Lord of hosts.

The latter glory of this house

shall be greater than the former,

says the Lord of hosts.

And in this place,

I will give peace,

declares the Lord of hosts.

Now,

just sort of not going that in order,

one of the things

which is really interesting there

is when he says,

the gold is mine

and the silver is mine,

because you see,

one of the reasons

they're so depressed

about the present

is,

I mean,

the original temple

had all the gold,

everything,

everything was covered in gold.

It would have looked

just so spectacular.

And they're looking at this,

and they're going to be

taking things of rubble.

The Babylonians

stripped the temple

of everything,

all the,

anything of value

in the entire land

was taken to Babylon.

The Ark of the Covenant

was lost,

taken to Babylon.

Everything's been taken away.

They're just dealing

with rubble

and some stones.

But God says,

listen,

I don't care about gold.

I own all the gold.

You think I'm worried

about gold in the temple?

I own all the gold.

You think I'm worried

about silver?

I own all the silver.

I don't need any silver or gold.

Like,

it's not about silver or gold.

Right?

He said,

build my house.

But then there's

all this language

of shaking

and I didn't know this

before I started

to work on the sermon,

but it's a Hebrew idiom.

It's a way of expressing

what happens

when God shows up.

That God shakes.

It's a theophany.

That's the geeky

theological word.

It's theophany language.

It's the language

of God showing up.

And if you go back

and you read Exodus,

when God shows up

to make the covenant in Exodus,

there's a lightning

and there's earthquakes

and all of that type of stuff.

And even in the New Testament,

when God shows up

in different ways,

like when Jesus appears

to Saul of Tarsus

on his way

to kill Christians

or throw them in jail,

Jesus just shows up

and the first thing

that happens

is everybody

gets knocked off

their horses.

Everybody just gets

knocked on the ground.

In one of the,

I think it's in John's gospel,

when they come,

Judas comes to capture

Jesus

and they say,

are you Jesus?

And he says,

I am.

And it just,

the Holy Spirit,

God shows up,

the Holy Spirit just,

they all fall down.

They get shaken.

They can't stand up.

And it's this powerful image

of that when the true God comes

and things get shaken up.

And so he says,

I'm going to come

and I'm going to be amongst,

I'm going to shake up the earth

and the heavens

and everything.

I'm going to shake up the nations

so that the nations will come in

and they're going to fill

this house with glory.

And there's going to be,

in a sense,

the treasures are going

to be brought in

and all of these types of things.

And this is one of the reasons

then why it is

that they would have known

that this was a prophecy

that was actually from God

that they had to keep

and remember.

Why is it?

Well,

because they knew

that within a year or two

of this prophecy,

why were they able

to finish the temple?

Because the emperor of Persia

paid for it.

I mean,

just think of it

in today's terms,

the Ayatollah of Iran

says to the Jewish people,

I want you to build my temple.

And I'm giving you

a blank check.

And they would have gone,

what?

We don't have the resources

to build the temple

and the emperor of Persia

just sent a directive

to all of his bureaucrats

in the region

that I want the tax money

from this region

to build the temple

for Yahweh?

That's what happened.

And fast forward,

Herod's great temple

that Jesus appeared at.

Herod wasn't Jewish.

An Edomite

built

one of the marvels

of the ancient world.

The temple

to the God of Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob

was built for

by Edomites.

And his friends

were all pagans.

Pagans

paid for the temple

to make it glorious.

And here's where

we show up

in the story.

You see,

the Jewish people,

in a sense,

the Jewish people,

they look at this

and they just see

that part about

the shaking of the earth

and they think

that they didn't,

it wasn't until

Jesus came

and authenticated himself

and vindicated himself

as the Messiah

that we realize

that God

is fulfilling

these prophecies

in a series of stages

that the full shaking

of the heaven,

I mean,

there was a shaking

that did happen

with Jesus

when the temple,

the curtain in the temple

is torn in two

from the top to the bottom

so that the access

to God

is now shown

to be open

because of Jesus

having died upon the cross.

But we see there,

you know,

at the Easter sermon,

I talked about

how in the Big Bang

you have

all of the universe,

all it emerges

out of this Big Bang

in a moment

and everything

can be traced back

to this propulsion.

Things are moving

apart from each other

and in the same way

that's what God does

on a Friday afternoon

and an early Sunday morning

in Jerusalem

where there is a man

that is rejected

by the people

and he dies

a shameful death

upon the cross

and on the third day

the tomb is empty,

he appears alive

and from this one little

tiny insignificant moment

there becomes an explosion

that nobody believed

on an Easter Sunday

all of a sudden

Mary knows.

And then some people

going to Emmaus

and then Peter knows

and then John knows

and then the eleven disciples,

ten of the disciples know

and then Jesus' mother

and brothers know

and then five hundred know

and then with Pentecost

it continues to grow

and from that one little moment

on Good Friday

and on Easter Sunday

from that one insignificant event

that was so insignificant

that no historian

at the time

would have thought

that it mattered

there has been

this propulsive growth

of the Christian faith

so that it is the only

universal faith

of every culture

and it continues to grow

all from that one moment

of propulsion.

See the fact of the matter is

what does it say here

in verse nine?

And in this place

I will give peace

declares the Lord.

In this place

the one greater

than the temple

shows up at the temple.

Jesus, the true meeting place

between the human being

and God.

The true temple

arrives at the temple

and the true sacrifice

that the temple

is all about

is about to take place.

That all of the sacrifices

specified in the laws

are just a foreshadowing

of the one true Lamb of God

who would die

for the sin of the world

not only in the earth

but in the heavenlies

and that would be

the one sacrifice

that makes all the sacrifices

that had happened before

have any value or worth

and that from now on

that we no longer need

because the one complete

perfect Lamb of God

sacrificed himself

so that human beings

could have peace with God.

And so this text continues.

The even greater temple,

the glory of God himself

showing up

is all fulfilled

in this text

which prophesies

that it's all fulfilled.

And even the nations

coming to Israel

is all fulfilled.

If you have not yet

had a chance to go to Israel,

someday go to Jerusalem.

And it is so wonderful.

You go to Jerusalem

and you see the pilgrims

from Uganda,

from Nigeria,

from South Africa,

from Korea,

from China,

from Argentina,

from Canada,

from the whole world

coming there

from all people groups.

And we know that

at some point in time

Jesus will return

and all things

will be shaken

and there will be

a new heaven

and a new earth

and God will dwell with us.

And it's all there

in this particular text.

Just sort of bringing

this whole thing

to some type of closing.

See, here's the way

it works psychologically

for us

and one of the reasons

we need to come to church

and gather around the word

is to be reminded of it.

What's my fallback position?

I can't do it,

so I won't.

What does the Bible say?

George, I want you

to know that you can't.

But he will and can

so that I can say I will.

You see, this is,

and you know,

some of you know

I've just been so

enraptured with the story

the last year or more

of Jesus turning the water

into wine

and it's more and more

just made me realize

that a big part

of the whole Christian life

is in that very first miracle

that Jesus ever did.

That, you know,

Jesus asks for my obedience

and he does the great work

of grace.

If I just trust him

that he loves me

and he's asked me

to be obedient with him

with my money

or with my sexuality

or with my time,

that he does the great work

if I'm obedient.

Because in that miracle,

it's such a wonderful miracle,

Jesus asks the men

to put water into a stone jar

and take it to the feast.

And that's all they do.

He turns the water into wine.

And that's so much

of what the Christian life

is like.

George, just trust my word.

Obey me in this.

I'm going to turn

the water into wine.

You don't have,

that's not even your job.

You can't even do it, George.

Like, stop thinking

you can do it.

Don't be stupid.

Just obey.

It's my job

to turn the water into wine.

And that's the thing here

that he gives the people hope.

He says, listen,

just start building the temple.

And they start to build the temple.

And a year or two later,

they get the news.

They're probably just doing it.

Who knows?

They don't tell you about it.

They're just doing it.

Read Ezra and all a little bit about it.

And then they get the news

that the emperor of Persia

is going to give them

all the money they need.

And little did they know

that they're just fulfilling

what God has said

and that by them fulfilling

what God has said,

the people would continue.

And one day there would be a person,

in a sense,

from their loin

in the line of Jeroboam,

who would come

and be the temple

who is greater than the temple,

the true temple

and that true peace would be made.

And all of these great

and glorious things

will culminate

with Jesus coming a second time.

And all they do

is their tiny little bit

of obedience.

And God makes

this most remarkable wine

down the road

that they could never

possibly imagine.

And God invites us

to do the same thing.

Many of us are old enough

to remember

when churches

were way more full

and there were way more churches

and youth groups

were way more big

and it's really easy to say

what's the point

of trying to build things?

The past was great,

the present sucks

and I don't know

all of the trends

and say the future

is just going to suck.

And Jesus says,

build my church,

preach the gospel,

sing my praises,

invest in youth groups,

invest in ministry,

invest in missionaries,

proclaim Jesus.

You be obedient,

I'll make the wine.

Just one final thing

to close it.

I was talking to somebody

this week

who's gone through

a long season

of great sickness.

And this is one of the things

which is so wonderful

about biblical hope

and the reason

we need to be reminded

about it.

See, the Christian hope

doesn't say,

hope in me

and all your lesser hopes

I'm going to annihilate.

No, the Bible doesn't say

you shouldn't plant tomatoes

and plants

and hope that you'll get tomatoes.

It doesn't say

I shouldn't go to school

and hope I get a good job.

It doesn't say

I should maybe hope

I can get married

and all that.

No, it doesn't.

But what the Bible does

is it both grounds your hope

and reorders your hope

when he is first.

But the fact of the matter is

there will come a point in time

when humanly speaking

there is no hope.

There will come a point in time

when the cancer diagnosis

is final.

There will come a point in time

when you will be

in a very, very long season

of sickness

and when it's over

there still might be

some disability

that might be the rest

of your days.

Some of you might be

already facing that diagnosis

at the beginning of dementia

the cancer of which

is now inoperable.

But not only does the Bible

ground the small hopes

but the important hopes

that make up our daily life

but the Bible portrays

for the people of Jesus

who put their faith

and trust in Jesus

that there is an ultimate

final hope

that death is not final.

And I was able to pray

with this person

and say,

Father, thank you so much.

Father, we ask for healing.

We ask for wisdom

for the doctors.

We ask for comfort

and healing of memories

and the ability to handle

the situation

which is for you.

But Father, most of all

we ask that you fill us

both with hope.

Father, it is so good to know

that the day will come

when you,

I was referring to the other person,

when we will have

resurrected bodies.

And we will be in the new heaven

and the new earth.

And that is our final hope.

You see, because at the end of the day

the final hope

for all of us as Christians

is that even when we do come

to the valley of the shadow of death

and we have to walk

and enter into the valley

of the shadow of death

and we will not emerge

on this side of death

but that we will actually walk

into the valley of the shadow of death,

that we do it in the hands of Jesus,

that he is our victor,

he is our great sacrifice.

And when we emerge

from the valley of the shadow of death

on the far side

in the presence

of our heavenly Father,

he will look at us

with the world's biggest smile

and say,

I am so glad you are with me.

Welcome.

I love you so much.

I have a kingdom prepared for you.

I have a new body prepared for you.

And every day that you have been mine,

I have seen you face to face,

but now today you see me face to face

for the first time.

And your seeing me face to face

will be the end of your story

for the end of your days.

And that is the final word

for even the most least

and most broken Christian.

that is our ultimate hope.

It can never be taken away.

I invite you to stand in closing.

Just stand.

Let's pray.

Father, we give you thanks and praise

that you have made us

as human beings

to be able to hope in the future

and that hope is in fact important for us

as being fruitful

and being fruitful in the earth.

We thank you, Father.

We thank you that even when we sinned

and rebelled

and things got all broken

and twisted within us,

that that didn't get taken away from us

and we thank you, Father,

that you are the God of hope,

that our faith in Christ

is to shape our hope

and ground our hope,

our main big hope

that goes into all eternity

and those lesser hopes

that we are important

in day-to-day affairs

and week-to-week

and month-to-month.

And Father, we ask that you make us

deeply aware of Jesus

and what he did for us on the cross.

We thank you that he will never let us go

when we put our hand in his,

that he will never let us go.

And we give you thanks and praise

that in him,

you have prepared for us

an eternity beyond our worth,

beyond what we deserve,

purely as a gift,

that we are your child

and we will know you face-to-face.

And so, Father,

we ask that you help us

to be more hopeful

as we face each day,

as we rebuild this church

and help the rebuilding

of other churches,

as we spread the gospel

and share the gospel

and lift Jesus high.

Father, fill us with hope.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus,

your Son and our Savior.

Amen.