Episode 307: Expecting Glory

Great to see you. Welcome to Harbor West. My name is Justin. I'm one of the pastors here of our

church, and we are going to continue worshiping God by opening the Bible, opening his word,

and we're going to study it together and seek to believe it together and live it out together.

And so if you have a Bible, you can grab it now and turn to the book of Haggai. Haggai is one of

the last books, last small little books of the Old Testament, like three from the end. And so

if you're using one of those Bibles under the chairs in front of you, Haggai is on page 839.

And I hope you're ready for Christmas. Anybody here not have the tree up yet? Anybody here just

the tree's not up yet, like you're that far behind? You can admit it. This is a safe place. All right.

Everybody's got it done? All right. Nice. We put our tree up on Veterans Day this year,

which was a new one for us. We normally wait till like December, but we're like Veterans Day. Let's

that day. I was like, let's go. Let's get the tree up. And it was super exciting. So we feel like

we've been like half ready because we did nothing else. And so yesterday we did the rest of the

house. Like we got the stuff out of storage, put all the other decorations up. And I'm like, man,

these are going to be up for 12 days. Like, what are we doing? But if so, it's felt like we're half

ready this whole time. And as we get into the book of Haggai, that's kind of what God's people

had done. Israel used to be one of the most glorious nations on earth. Under King Solomon,

They had a booming economy and the most impressive building in the world, God's temple.

But it was destroyed when Israel was conquered.

But now they've come back to their land.

And the very first thing they want to do is rebuild the temple.

Because you see, when God created us, we were able to live with him, to be in his presence.

But when humanity rebelled, when we sinned, one of the horrible consequences

is that we can't be in God's presence anymore.

God is holy, so holy in fact, so set apart from sinfulness

that he can't be near it without it being destroyed.

But God still desired to live with his sinful people

and we still deep down desire to be near him.

So God made a way.

At first it was this elaborate tent called the tabernacle

with all of its curtains and dividers

that allowed God's presence to be with his people without them being destroyed.

And then when they came into their land, they built God a big temple

in a way that he told them to do it where he could be in it without his people being destroyed.

And so it was the most important part of the nation of Israel, the temple.

And so in Haggai, God's people are rebuilding it so that God's glory can live among them again.

And so they had worked on it for two years, but then they stopped.

They gave up.

And now it's been 16 years since any work has been done on the temple.

Why'd they stop?

Well, we find out from later in the book of Haggai that they could tell just from the foundations of the temple, the new temple,

they could tell that it wasn't going to be as impressive or glorious as the first one.

And that just bummed them out.

It discouraged them.

It disappointed them.

And this was probably a people who cared much more about how the temple looked,

its appearance on the outside,

than the God who was going to fill it with his glory on the inside.

But still, they were like, man, we don't even want to do this anymore

if it's going to be this much different than the first one.

and so they've been busy instead instead of pursuing building god's temple instead of

pursuing his glory they've been busy pursuing their own and so here's a question for us this

morning whose glory have you been pursuing like if you were to look back over the last week or

or the last month or or like right now we're all looking back over the last year you probably got

your Spotify year-end rap thing, where you can look back over the music that you listened to

the most this year. There's all these articles coming out of the best movies of the year,

the most important things that happened in the news this year, all that stuff.

What if somebody were to look back on the last year of your life, would it look like a life

lived for God's glory or a life lived for your own glory? Whose glory have you been living for?

Well, God has a message in Haggai for a people who've been pursuing their own glory instead of pursuing his.

And so look at Haggai chapter one, verse one.

In the second year of King Darius on the first day of the sixth month,

the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah,

and to Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest.

The Lord of armies says this.

These people say, the time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.

So that's God's word to his people starting out here.

He's saying, these, my people are saying this, the time has not come for the house of God

to be rebuilt.

What God was telling them was this, man, during the last 16 years of their ignoring God, they've

had an excuse, an excuse for why they're not working on God's temple.

And here's their excuse.

they've said, well, it's not the right time.

It's not the right time for us to be doing that.

You ever use that one?

You ever use that excuse?

Man, that one's got some legs.

That one works.

That one can go far to get us out of some stuff we want to do.

Like, man, that's a good idea.

I like it.

I support it.

It's good.

But it's not the right time in my life right now.

I'm too busy.

I'm too stressed.

I got too much going on.

It's not the right time.

That's an excuse that is pretty effective.

Nobody pushes too hard back on that one.

And this is exactly what God's people were doing.

They're saying, man, it's not the right time to go all in with God right now.

Maybe we say that.

Maybe we say, man, it's not the right time for me to figure out how to start reading my Bible.

I'll do that when life calms down.

It isn't the right time to really fight this nagging, persistent sin in my life.

I'll do it when there's less going on at work and I'm less stressed.

It isn't the right time to give of my time, my energy, my money to God.

I'll do that when I have comfortable excess.

When we use the excuse that it isn't the right time for us to obey God,

it's really just an excuse for us to pursue other things we love more than God.

Usually, it's our own comfort and pleasure that we're pursuing.

And that's exactly what they did.

Look at verse 3.

The word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai.

Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins?

You see, they were living in comfortable paneled homes when God himself was basically homeless.

They were comfortable living in God's world and enjoying God's gifts without any concern for God himself.

They don't care that God's glory isn't living among them.

They've got to be thinking, man, why do we need God?

I mean, we've got our paneled houses.

We're back in our land.

We're finally comfortable.

Why do we need to take years and years out of our lives to build God's temple?

Why do we need God's glory?

Why do we need God?

When the first Harbor Church was planted about 24 years ago,

four families, eight people planted it in Hawaii Kai.

And as they started to reach out to their community and invite people to church,

one thing they kept hearing over and over from the people of that community

was, man, I've got my mansion here in Hawaii Kai. I've got my three cars. Look at my Corvette.

Have you seen the two boats out on the road? Why do I need God? I'm doing just fine without God.

Why do I need God? You see, usually pursuing our own comfort, our own pleasure is exactly what we do

when we stop pursuing God's glory. I think this is how many people feel around Christmas time.

They say, well, let's talk about Jesus.

Why can't we just celebrate good feelings and glad tidings?

Why do I need Jesus in my life?

I'm doing just fine.

But God wants them to think more deeply about what they're pursuing.

Look at verse five.

Now the Lord of armies says this, think carefully about your ways.

You've planted much, but harvested little.

You eat, but never enough to be satisfied.

You drink, but never have enough to be happy.

You put on clothes, but never have enough to get warm.

The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it.

God's saying, man, think about it.

Your work never produces enough to satisfy you.

Even if you had the most epic meal possible, you're going to get hungry again.

Your possessions wear out and you got to keep getting more and more.

You'll never have enough money in the bank account.

Isn't that a true statement there?

the wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it. Like, where'd it go? I have no idea

where it even went. America's first billionaire, John Rockefeller, was asked once in an interview,

how much more money do you need in order to finally feel content? And you know what he answered?

Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. America's first billionaire said, I haven't gotten

enough yet. You see, here's what we learn from God's word. And here's what we learn from our

experience, if we go far enough pursuing other things than God, none of the things we pursue

in this world will ever truly satisfy us. We tend to believe that if we make enough, earn enough,

accomplish enough, get enough, that we'll be satisfied. But God in his love for us tells us

the truth. So long as we're focused on ourselves, our own glory, we will actually never be satisfied.

It'll be like chasing the wind.

And so at the end of the day, we've all got to make a choice.

At the end of the day, each and every one of us has got to make a choice.

And we are making this choice.

Whether you're conscious of it and aware of it or not, we are all making a choice.

Are we going to glorify God or glorify ourselves?

That's a choice we all have to make.

It's a choice we are all making.

Are we going to live a life that's busy building our own houses, our own glory,

that will inevitably leave us feeling empty?

Or are we going to live lives that are busy pursuing God's glory,

a life that God promises will bring actual joy and satisfaction?

You see, God knows what's best for us.

I love this, that the Bible reveals this about God to us.

God knows what's best for us because he created us,

And he actually wants what's best for us.

God wants you to be happy.

He created you and me to be united to him, to be in relationship with him and experience his glory.

And when we do that, it actually results in our joy and satisfaction.

And that's what God wants.

But he knows that the only way we'll experience it is to stop pursuing our own glory and begin pursuing his.

I heard it said this way recently that the only way that we're going to actually experience true joy in life,

the only way that we win at life is to fold.

To fold our own cards, to lay down the hand that we're playing,

to stop trusting in our own energy and strength and strategy and wisdom,

to give up trying to get glory for ourselves.

It's only when we fold that we truly win.

and so what would that look like well what does it look like to turn from seeking our own glory

to now seeking God's glory with our lives well to glorify someone or something just means to use

your life to make much of that person or thing to glorify someone or something means to use your

life to make much of that person or thing. And so to glorify God would be to feel and think and act

in ways that make much of him, that exalt him and his greatness. To glorify ourselves is to feel and

think and act in ways that lift up ourselves and make much of ourselves. In Haggai 1, God shows us

what it looks like to seek our own glory instead of his glory. It looks like God taking a backseat

in our lives. Maybe not totally being removed from our lives, but taking a backseat. He may get some

of us, but it'll be the scraps of our time, our energy, our money, and our love. That's what God's

people were doing. They'd come back to the land they were promised. They'd started building the

temple. God was kind of a part of their lives, but he had taken a back seat. And for the last 16 years,

they'd been pursuing their own passions, their own comfort, their own pleasure. And God was getting

their scraps, the scraps of their time, their energy, their money, their effort. God was getting

the scraps of their life. God gets the scraps of our lives when we say we'll seek him once everything

at work and around the house is done.

We'll engage with him in prayer

for a few minutes a day or a week

while we give our hobbies hours and hours and hours.

We'll give financially with what we have left over

after making sure we have everything we need and want

and that's covered.

We'll live in our paneled houses

and maybe God will get our scraps.

And what Haggai is saying is that's clear evidence

that you're about your own glory and not God's.

That's evidence of a heart that's far from God.

Because you can always tell what you love most

by what you're willing to sacrifice most for, right?

Talk is cheap, but when we actually sacrifice our time,

our energy, our money, our comfort,

what we actually sacrifice those things for

is a clear statement of what we love

and how much we love it.

That's why Jesus says this in John 15.

Look at it on the screen.

He says, no one has greater love than this

to lay down his life for his friends.

Look at that sacrifice.

Total, complete sacrifice.

And what Jesus is saying is this.

You wanna know what you love?

What are you willing to lay your life down for?

What are you laying down your life down,

laying your life down for?

We see the extent of Jesus's love for us

in that he gave us everything.

He literally sacrificed all of himself for us on the cross.

Jesus did not give us his scraps.

He gave us everything.

And now we get to respond to Jesus' love for us

by presenting our lives as living sacrifices for him, Romans 12.

Or as Ephesians 5 puts it, look up here,

therefore be imitators of God.

As Jesus laid down his life and sacrificed himself for us,

man, let's imitate that.

As dearly loved children walk in love as Christ loved us

and gave himself for us,

a sacrificial and fragrant offering for God.

See, God doesn't call us to sacrifice for him

and then he loves us.

It says be imitators of God as dearly loved kids.

You're already loved to death.

Now, go live a life of sacrifice.

knowing that your love to death,

knowing that Jesus gave all of himself to you and me.

Now go make much of him with your life.

That's what this verse is saying.

You and I have to decide.

There's a glory war going on.

Are we going to glorify ourselves

by making much of ourselves

with our time, our energy, our money?

Or are we going to glorify God?

Who are we going to make much of with our lives?

Church, what would it look like for us to go all in with our lives and be living sacrifices for Jesus?

Well, it would for sure look like shifting course from pursuing our own glory and instead living in ways that pursue Jesus's glory.

And what would that mean? That means that it would look like a death.

A death would have to happen.

A death to ourselves.

Paul in Romans 6 says that our old self was crucified with Jesus. Our old self was actually

put to death. Our old way of living and only knowing how to pursue our own glory in this life

that way died. My absolute favorite thing that we do in the life of our church is our baptisms.

We go down to Nimitz Beach and for people who've put their faith in Jesus and who he's transformed

their lives and give them new life. We go down to Nimes Beach and we baptize them down there.

I love looking at our wall in the lobby of all the baptisms and the stories that God has done

in those people's lives. These four people were baptized two weeks ago. And so we got to go down

and hear what God had done in their life. And we got to go down to the water. And what I love about

it is when we kind of prep them for what's going to happen, we say, what happens down there at the

water is that you're actually baptized into Jesus's death. You're identifying with the death of Jesus.

You're saying, my old self has died. And so we're going to put you in the earth. All right. We're

going to put you under the water and we want you to feel it. So we're going to hold you under there

until you feel some death. All right. And so sometimes we'll, you know, wait, sometimes we'll

get some taps on the arm. Like, dude, you know, no, that's never happened. But I would love for

that to happen. I would like, you want to get baptized and you want to feel the death? Let me

No, let's do it.

I would love, because that's what's happening there.

You got to feel that death, man.

I've died to my old self.

I've died to my old way of living for my own glory in this world.

And we can do that joyfully, voluntarily, because we've been raised to new life.

When we bring them up out of the water, we say, buried in the likeness of Jesus' death.

And we put them in the earth, they die.

And then when they come up out of the water, we say, raised to newness of life, to walk and follow him.

not glorifying ourselves and glorifying jesus is going to look like death but it's also going to

look like new life because we now have a new king a new purpose a new glory to pursue

and that's going to trickle into all areas of life what is it going to look like what does the kind

of life look like that glorifies God instead of glorifying ourselves? Well, Haggai gives us three

glimpses of that kind of life, three ways that kind of life looks. And so I want us to see those

and do a little self-evaluation, man. Are we living for God's glory or living for our own?

So look at chapter two, verse four. Even so, be strong, Zerubbabel. This is the Lord's declaration.

Be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, high priest.

Be strong, all you people of the land.

This is the Lord's declaration.

Work, for I am with you.

The declaration of the Lord.

God's looking at his people who've been idle, inactive for the last 16 years.

And he's saying, man, be strong, be strong, be strong.

Get up, work.

Man, get to work for me.

get that temple rebuilt. Here's what I think God's saying here in these verses. We live for God's

glory through empowered work for him. We live for God's glory through empowered work that's for God.

God's calling them out of their lives of mere comfort, out of their paneled houses. And he's

saying, get to work on the temple, get to work building the place for his glory, get to work

building something that will outlive them, that will point other generations to God,

get to work building a legacy for God, get to work for God.

We glorify God, we live for his glory by getting to work, making much of him. It's not something we

drift into. It's not something we accidentally stumble upon. We make the decision to get up

and get to work for God. Through using our time, our energy, our resources to serve him and point

others to him. Now, I don't know if you're like me, you know, if somebody came to me and I've

lounged, if I've been lounging for 16 years, if I've been lounging for 16 seconds on the couch

and somebody came up to me and said, man, it's time to get up and get to work. I respond to that

with a, oh, what?

No, no, I don't, not the right time.

You hear now why they were making the excuse

it's not the right time to rebuild God's temple.

Like, I mean, that's all of us.

We're like, what, get to work?

I don't, that doesn't sound, no.

But look what he says next.

Look, look, look, be strong, be strong, be strong.

Work, look at the next words, for I am with you.

See, here's the beautiful thing.

When you get busy serving God with your life,

you experience God empowering you

to do the work for him.

He says, work for I'm with you.

I'm with you.

God's people were starting over from nothing.

They were poor.

They lacked resources to build this temple

and God's telling them to work.

They'd be like, work, how, how?

We don't have the energy.

We don't have the resources.

We don't have anything.

And God's saying, work, I'm with you.

I experienced this almost every year

when I go to recruit people to go to Vietnam with us

on our Vietnam trip.

We support a church planting network in Vietnam.

and we go every summer to support them.

And they have all kinds of things for us to do.

VBSs, teaching university students.

Sometimes we'll have to do seminars on marriage or parenting or who knows what.

Sometimes we have one hour to prepare a seminar on the five love languages,

which we've actually never read or studied before.

That was me a couple of years ago.

And so every once in a while, somebody will sign up for this trip and be like,

I think God's calling me to go and do this work and be a part of this.

But I feel totally unprepared, unequipped.

I don't know how I could contribute anything positive to this team.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm right there with you.

And we've seen year after year after year how we go unprepared, unequipped, feeling inadequate.

And God is with us and empowers us and allows us to do things we could never dream of for him.

Because when you get to work, when you get busy serving God and working for him,

God, the God of all the resources in the universe is there with you,

ready to empower you and encourage you and strengthen you to do exactly what he's called you to do.

Our ability to glorify God doesn't depend on us and our resources.

Our ability to glorify God hinges on the reality that he himself is with us,

making it possible for us to give him glory.

And so whatever work God is calling you to do for his glory,

He will be with you and give you everything you need for that work.

We live for God's glory through empowered work for him.

Verse six, he gives us another glimpse of a life that's glorifying God.

For the Lord of armies says this,

once more in a little while, I'm going to shake the heavens and the earth,

the sea and the dry land.

I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all the nations will come

and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of armies.

The silver and gold belong to me.

This is the declaration of the Lord of armies.

Here's what God's saying.

He's saying the temple that you're going to rebuild,

it is going to be filled with silver and gold,

treasure from all the nations,

but not because you go out and get it.

You see what he said?

He said, I myself am going to do it.

God himself is going to shake all creation,

the nations and fill his own house and these things with his glory,

because it all belongs to him.

And here's what I think he's teaching us, guys.

We can live for God's glory by trusting his control.

By trusting that he's in control of all things.

Most specifically, by trusting that he's in control of our lives.

We live for God's glory by trusting that he's in control of our lives.

The Bible talks all over about how God is in control of everything.

We see it all over.

There's a word for it that's used in the Bible sometimes called God's sovereignty.

That's describing his power and control over all things.

There's lots of verses and places we could look,

but just look at one, Psalm 135.

Look at what it says.

For I know that the Lord is great.

Our God is greater than all gods.

That's all things that we elevate to be gods.

The Lord does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth,

in the seas and in the depths.

Look at that.

God does whatever he pleases in the whole universe.

Why?

Because he's in control of all of it.

As one old pastor said,

he said if there is a single stray molecule in the whole universe that is outside of God's control

then we can't trust a single promise that God has for us but if every molecule in all creation

is under his control then we can trust him with everything

the Bible teaches that God is completely in control of all creation and of our lives

one of the ways we glorify him with our lives is to trust his control over our lives

God's people were coming back from exile and they wanted to be in control of their own lives right

they wanted to live how they wanted life had been tough in exile they'd lost years and years of

living the way they wanted to but now they're back and they didn't want to spend years and years more

working on the temple they wanted to get to work building their own lives building their own way

of life they weren't trusting that God was in control of exactly what he called them to do

in this time. They weren't trusting that God was in control, that they were the people who were

going to sacrifice and build the temple so that future generations could be pointed to God and

blessed by it. They just wanted the blessing. Every year, my wife and I watch at Christmas time,

we watch Lord of the Rings because, you know, Christmas, goblins, it all works. And so we watch

it. This year's the first time we're watching the extended edition. And we hit play on that

first one and saw three hours and like 38 minutes and we're like, what? What are we doing? But we're

watching it and I've always kind of beat myself up about that a little bit. Like, is this too dorky?

Like, have I crossed some sort of line into like pure dorkiness by watching this every single

Christmas? But now I have a group of friends in my life that they get together every year on Bilbo

Baggins' birthday and dress as hobbits and celebrate. And I'm like, you know what? I'm fine.

I'm fine with my level of dorkiness.

I found a good pocket right here.

But if that's you and you're stoked about that, let me know.

I'll get you in touch with those guys.

They'd love to see you there at Bilbo's birthday.

But one of my favorite things in those movies that we watch,

one of my favorite scenes is when Frodo comes up to Gandalf and he says this.

He says, I wish it need not have happened in my time.

And here's what he's saying.

He's coming up to Gandalf and he's saying, I wish this wouldn't have happened to me.

I wish the ring wouldn't have come to me.

I wish I wouldn't have had to carry this burden.

I wish I wouldn't have had to go on this journey and walk into the darkest spot in the world

and have my life totally turned upside down and likely die a lonely death.

I wish this wouldn't have happened to me.

You ever feel that in life?

Man, I wish life hadn't turned down like this.

I wish this wouldn't have happened to me.

I wish this wasn't part of my story.

That's what Frodo was telling Gandalf.

Here's what Gandalf says.

He says, so do I.

And so do all who live to see such times.

but that is not for them to decide.

All we have to decide is what to do

with the time that is given us.

You see, Gandalf the Great trusted

in the sovereignty of Yahweh God.

He did.

He trusted in God's sovereignty.

He trusted that God is in control

of what happens in our lives

even when those things aren't

what we would have chosen or wanted.

It's not for us to decide what God gives us.

We're not in control of every molecule

in the universe.

He is.

It's not for us to decide what happens in our lives.

It's for us to decide if we're going to trust him,

if we're going to trust his control,

if we're going to live for his glory.

And maybe for you, it's been a tough year

or a tough couple years.

Maybe you're here this morning and you're like,

yeah, life is not where I would have wanted it to be.

This is not what I would have chosen.

I'm on a path that is just not the path

that I would prefer to be on.

I wish all this need not have come to me.

Maybe the first step for you today

to start living and glorifying God with your life

is just to start praying and saying,

God, I trust you in this.

God, I trust you.

You know what I love about the Psalms?

The Psalms is written by,

a lot of the Psalms that I'm talking about

are written by one guy.

A couple others wrote Psalms like this,

but they're kind of like Psalms of lament.

It's a guy lamenting about what's happened with his life.

usually David, and he's lamenting. He's saying, God, how long, how long are you going to hide

yourself from me? How long are you going to give me this tough life? How long are my enemies going

to prosper over me? And what I love about that is the Psalms are God-inspired words back to God.

God inspired those words in somebody who's disappointed and discouraged, and he's saying,

hey, pray these things, sing these things back to God. And here's what that means. That means that

God can handle our heavy emotions. God can handle us coming to him and saying, God, I don't like this.

God I'm discouraged I'm disappointed God how long am I going to go through this God how long is this

going to be but what I also love about all those psalms is this man read through them we're going

to go through them next summer but what I also love about all those psalms is there's always a

turning point after some lament after some pouring out of some heart and discouragement to God there's

always a point where David and the other psalmist say but God I trust you and maybe that's your

first step today is to say, God, I've got a lot to lament with you. I've got a lot to be honest

with you about, about how my life is going and how things have turned out, but still I trust you.

And that right there, church, is a life that glorifies God. To trust his control of all things,

especially when there's things that we don't love that come into our lives.

Haggai gives us a third way to live for God's glory in verse nine.

The final glory of this house will be greater than the first, says the Lord of armies.

I will provide peace in this place.

This is the declaration of the Lord of armies.

Last thing, we live for God's glory by living in his peace.

Last week, Pastor John talked all about this, so I'm not going to dig too deep.

But the kind of peace that God's talking about here isn't just the absence of conflict.

That's the kind of peace that we tend to enjoy as long as there's no conflict.

Even if there is conflict, but people aren't bringing it up and it's not active.

Like, okay, we're at peace.

We can go.

we can get by. But this is a holistic peace, a peace with God, a fellowship with each other,

an inner peace, a rest for ourselves, a thriving in life. And God says that that's the kind of

peace, the shalom peace that he's going to provide, a peace that we're all searching for.

Your future is one of total peace. And man, you can start to live in that future now. That's the

whole point of our until the day discipleship journey over the next two years. Many of you

have signed up to be a part of that and to grow. And what Philippians 1.6 says is this, that God has

started a good work in us and he's going to bring it to completion until the day of Jesus. The good

work that God has started in each of us is bringing his peace to bear in our lives, his holistic

peace. And we experience more and more of that peace as we grow as receivers, learners, givers,

workers, influencers, worshipers. As we grow in those ways that God wants us to grow, we experience

more and more of his peace. So those of you who committed to that or in those groups, we started

steps this week to grow. Baby steps, we're going to start slow, but we're going to grow and we're

going to experience more and more of God's peace in our lives as we grow closer to him. Because

that's what God came to do. He said, I will provide peace in this place. And so we can live for God's

glory, knowing that we can experience his peace. But here's the reality, church. Here's where we

need to land this. Peace only comes. This peace that we're talking about, this peace only comes

through Jesus. It only comes through Jesus. We think there's lots of things that we need to get

peace in life, especially this time of year around Christmas, right? We're like, man, I know exactly

what I need. I need time off of work. I need a vacation. I need some good food. I need some new

toys to play with, right? That's what I need around this time of year to feel peace and feel like the

year ended well. Well, the people in Haggai's time, they thought they needed the temple to be glorious.

It wasn't going to be.

That's why they gave up, right?

But they thought, man, we need the temple to be glorious.

That's what we need.

But the temple was just there all along to point them to what they really needed.

They didn't need a glorious temple.

They needed a glorious savior.

See, Jesus came to provide them with everything that they needed.

Jesus came to provide them with the peace that they desperately longed for,

the glory of God that they were searching for.

Look at John 1, what John says about Jesus.

In the beginning was the word, Jesus, and the word was with God and the word was God,

but the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And we observed his glory, the glory as the one and only son of the father, full of grace and truth.

You see, Jesus came to fulfill, to do what the temple was a picture of all along.

The tabernacle, the temple, that was just a picture for God's people to know that God wanted to live among them.

It was a place of sacrifice to know there has to be payment for sin in order for God to be reunited with his people.

And Jesus came.

He literally tabernacled among us, the language of John.

He lived among us to show us that God is with us.

To display his control, his sovereignty over every molecule of the universe, including sin, death, and Satan.

To give us peace with God and a glorious future.

Jesus came to show us God's glory and invite us to experience it.

To invite us to pursue God's glory and make much of him with our lives.

That's why 2 Corinthians 5 says this,

Jesus died for all.

Jesus died for you so that those who live,

those who trust him and bow their knee to him,

those of us who follow him should no longer live for ourselves.

Jesus died so that you and I no longer have to live

merely for our own glory

and feel unsatisfied in everything.

Jesus died so that we no longer have to live for ourselves,

but so that we can live for the one who died for us

and was raised for us.

We get to live for Jesus who died for us.

We get to live for Jesus who was raised for us.

We get to live for his glory.

And so church, let's be a people who are discontent to live in our paneled lives and give God our scraps.

Let's be a people sold out for living for God's glory above all else.

Let's be a people who make much of Jesus with our lives.

Let's pray together.