I'd like you please to turn with me today again to the book of Haggai in the Tanach, in the Old Testament. And we are going today to continue to talk about this challenge that Haggai gave the people of Judah and Benjamin who returned from Babel, from Babylon, after the 70 years' captivity in which they have been under the authority of first of all the Babylonian and later on the Medo-Persian. And then they have returned back to the land of Israel, to the city of Jerusalem, and had begun the building of the foundation of the temple. I found it extremely interesting to study this book because it's really teaching us and speaking to us about ourselves and how it really applies to us today, who have perhaps find ourselves just like the Jewish people of old, beginning something and then because of discouragement stopping to continue and then needed a challenge from the Lord and a help.

And help from our blessed Lord Yeshua the Messiah. So I'm going to read today. We have stopped in verse 6 in our last time, but let me just read from verse 7 to verse 15 of the first chapter. "Thus says the Lord of the Lord says, "The Lord of the Lord of the Lord of the Lord of the Lord of the Lord, "Heath of mine house that is waste, and He ran every man into his own house. "Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. "I called for a drought upon the land, "and upon the mountains, "and upon the corn, "and upon the new wine, "and upon the oil, "and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, "and upon men, "and upon cattle, "and upon all the labor of the hands.

"Then Zerubevel, "the son of Sha'altiel, "and Yehoshua, "the son of Yotzedek, "the high priest, "with all the remnant of the people, "obeyed the voice of the Lord their God. "And the words of Haggai, "the prophets, "as the Lord their God had sent him, "and the people did fear before the Lord. "Then speck Haggai, "the Lord's messengers, "in the Lord's message unto the people, "and he said, "I am with you, "says the Lord. "And the Lord stood up the spirit of Zerubevel, "the son of Sha'altiel, "the governor of Judah, "and the spirit of Yehoshua, "the son of Yotzedek, "the high priest, "and the spirit of all the remnant of the people, "and they came and did the work "in the house of the Lord of hosts their God.

"And the four-and-twentieth day "of the six months "in the second year "of Darius the king." And I'll stop here with the first chapter. Again and again, as I'm reading and reread and rehear the prophet Haggai, I really can see it, beloved brothers and sisters, that this book is appropriate for us for today. Not only I see it, but as I'm hearing others who preach about this and tell and share this message with their congregations and fellowship in which they are participating, almost every preacher who shared the word concerning these writings, the prophet of Haggai message to the people of Israel, every one of them would tell us that this is a message of encouragement and a message of correction that the people of God need to hear today in this present day in which we live in.

Look at what God desires from His people. God has brought His people Israel back to the land. He has blessed them and restored them back to His promised land. And what He wants from His people is a respond that comes from the hearts of the people of God. It's just like you and I as parents, you and I as people with perhaps authority in one area or another. When we have given and have helped and have been a blessing to the others, perhaps to our children, perhaps to our families and our friends, it is such an important thing to respond from the heart to the ones that have been benefiting for us so much.

It is a wrong attitude to have a lack of response to those who provide for us. It is a wrong attitude to neglect to say thank you and to respond to the ones who are provided for us. It is wrong from children. It is wrong from employees. It is wrong from people that have been under authority. It is wrong to just take and take and take and not respond to the one who gives us. And that's what happened here in the time of Haggai. 15 years have passed by and the people of Judah have remained careless to the house of the Lord. Careless to what God has done for them.

And you see what He said to them as we have already covered in verses 3 and 4. The people said it is not time to build the house of the Lord. Actually, it is in verse 2. The time has not come that the house of the Lord shall be built. And so 15 years passed by and they are so engaged with themselves that they didn't have time for the house of the Lord. And so God raised men. And a man such as Haggai in those verses that we have before us actually in verses 7 all the way to verse 15. God give an answer to Judah and Judah is giving a response to God.

And look how precious it is. You see, He told them in verse 5 already, "Consider your ways." Look at your life. Look at your heart. "You know your heart," He says to Judah. "You and I know our hearts." And God is saying to us today in the same way, "Where is your heart in this present day?" "Your affection is towards Me," the Lord Jesus will tell us today. And so He told them in verse 6, "Look, you are sowing and you are not reaping. You are eating, but you are not satisfied. You are drinking, but you are not filled with drink. You are being clothed yourself, but you are not warm.

You are earning wages, but you are putting it into a pocket that are full of holes." What does He mean here? He doesn't mean only when He is looking at this in His physical way to say that how much they work and they don't seem to have enough money in their bank. And how much they are eating and they are not satisfied. But the thought, beloved brothers and sisters, is simply this. It's not only the physical gain that we have here in this world, but it is the spiritual gain that God desires to have from His people. And we can see it, how it's appropriate for us in our lives.

Often times you see Christians, you see believers who are unhappy in their lives. The more they have, still they are not satisfied. The more they are active, still they are not content. Why? It's simply this. It's because God has left us here in this world not only to meet our physical needs, but also to have spiritual relationship with the Lord. The Lord Jesus left us here in this world to be filled with His person. To be used by Him. To be those that are living for Him here in this world. And being active, not only active for ourselves, but active for Him here in this world.

Whether it is preaching the Gospel. Whether it is meeting the needs of the poor. Whether it is encouraging brothers and sisters. But still active and being spent for Him here in this world. I think immediately it just comes to my mind of a verse that is found in 1 Corinthians 15. The Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians in the end of this chapter. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 58. He says, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." Always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." Anything that we do for our blessed Lord Yeshua the Messiah in this world, even if we don't have physical gain out of that.

It is a gain for the glory of the Lord. For the blessing of others here in this world. And so, after we finish verse 5 and 6. He shows them that pointing to the results of such an attitude of carelessness towards Him. In verses 7 to verse 15. He is giving Judah an answer. And then Judah responds to God's answer to Him. And so, look at this. He is telling them, "Do something about this." In verses 7 and 8. He is telling them, "Listen, you need to do something about this. You cannot just take care of yourself. You cannot only be occupied with yourself. And you are building your own house and not the house of the Lord.

You need to do something about this." And here he is telling them in verses 7 and 8. "Do something about it." Look at this. First of all, in verse 7. Again, he is telling them, "Consider your ways." Notice that there is the Lord of hosts. Verse 7. "Consider your ways." This is expression. I mentioned this. It is earlier. It is mentioned actually five times in the book of Haggai. In those two chapters.

And "Consider your ways." Simply, in the Hebrew it is, "Simu levavchem al darkechem." "Put your heart." "Check your heart about your ways." "And your action." "Where your heart will be." "There your action will go." "Look at how your heart state is." "Check it out." "See where you are before the Lord." "You don't need to tell anybody." "You don't need to ask somebody to evaluate yourselves." "You and I before the Lord." "When we are in the presence of the Lord." "Whether we get up in the morning and we pray and we start the day in prayer." "Or whether we go at night and we go to sleep and we are going to prayer." "Or maybe during

the day in the time when we are alone with the Lord." "We have to ask the Lord and say, Lord, search me." "See where my heart is." "Look at my condition, Lord." "Where am I going wrong?" "Help me to decide to take a step that will be pleasing to thee, Lord." "That's what he's saying." "Consider your way." "Check your heart." "See where you are at." "And then he's telling them what to do." "In verse 8." "Go up to the mountain." "Bring wood and build the house." "And I will take pleasure in it." "And I will be glorified, saith the Lord." "You see what he's telling us?" "He's telling all of us, check your heart." "Do

something about this." "And to the people in Judah, he's telling them, "Look, now you act upon it." "You go to the mountain." "And you cut the wood, bring the wood." "And you start to build the house of the Lord." "You see, they stopped to build the house, the people of Judah." "After 15 years, they were occupied with their own houses." "And they did not build the house of the Lord." "So he told them, you go to the mountain." "Cut the trees, bring the wood, and start to build the house of the Lord." "And you see, this is what they needed to do." "Because they have neglected now to build the house of the Lord." "So,

he's saying to them, there will be two results if you are going to do that." "Number one, I will be having pleasure in this." "Number two, I will be glorified." "Two things that will be the results of the people of Judah building the house of the Lord." "God is going to find pleasure, number one." "Number two, he will be glorified." "And you know, brothers and sisters, in the life of the believer, we are expected from the Lord to give him pleasure." "You know, why do you think he saved us?" "Why do you think he brought us into this world?" "So we will be rebellious?" "So we will not give him pleasure?" "Why did he leave

us here in this world?" "He could have taken us to heaven immediately the day that he has saved us." "But you know, he decided to leave us here." "And when he left us here, he wants to have pleasure in his people." "Every parent wants to have a pleasure with his sons and daughters." "Every grandparent wants to find delight with his children." "This is natural." "So why shouldn't God get pleasure from his own people?" "Who build the house of God?" "He wants to find pleasure in this." "And every step that we do for the Lord in a right way, it gives pleasure to God the Father." "God the Father wants to find pleasure in his children,

in the children of God today, in this present day." "You know, the Lord Jesus said in the Gospel, we are studying the Gospel of John." "He said, my food, my meat and my drink is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work." "He gave pleasure to the Father in every step he took." "Every action he did, he gave pleasure to God the Father." "And we as the children of God also, he want to find pleasure in us." "How does he find it?" "He finds it when we are in tune with him." "When we obey him." "When we subject ourselves to him." "When we allow him to form the Messiah,

to form Christ in the life of the believer." "It gives him pleasure." "And that's what he says to the Hebrews of all, to the Jewish people of all." "He says, look, you build the house of the Lord and I will take pleasure." "When I am going to see that my house is being built, and the people of God gathering into my house, and the worship rises up to me." "I will get pleasure out of it." "It gives him delight." "Again, I want to emphasize the person of Yeshua the Messiah." "Remember in the baptism, when Yeshua was baptized in the Jordan River." "And the Father's voice came from heaven and said," "This is my beloved Son

in whom I found all my delight." "Yeshua gave him pleasure." "And God desired to have pleasure from us in our life as we walk here in this world." "Build the house and I will take pleasure in it." "But not only I will take pleasure." "The second result of the people of Israel, the people of Judah going to build the house." "The obedience of the people of Judah will not only give him pleasure, but also," "It says, "I will be glorified," says the Lord." "God desired to be glorified in His people." "You see, everything that is left here in this world," "and we as well that are left here in this world," "we are left here

to give glory to God." "That's why God has left us here in this scene." "I will be glorified in this world by you building my house." "It was the Apostle Paul who said to the Corinthians," "in 1 Corinthians chapter 6," "he said to them," "For ye are bought with a price." "Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which belong to God." "It's the same thing, you see." "We also have been bought with a price." "Judah, Benjamin have been restored back to the land." "God have brought them back to the land." "And so he's telling them," "Listen, I expect from you to glorify Me." "That in your action that you will glorify the

Lord Jesus the Messiah." "Judah, glorify God." "The believers in this present day are responsible to glorify the Lord." "And again, I wanted to say that everything we have as an example in the person of the Lord Jesus the Messiah." "He glorified the Father." "You remember what he said in John chapter 17?" "Father, I have glorified thy name on this earth." "I have finished the work which you had given Me to do." "Now, Father, glorify Me with the glory which I had with you before the foundation of the world." "That word glory in the Hebrew is kavod." "Giving honor." "Giving kavod to God the Father." "And that's what the Lord Jesus, that's what Yeshua have done

when He was walking here on the face of this earth." "So, God now is telling to the people of Judah," "Listen, you gotta do something about this." "You are going to have an action, an act of obedience and a response to God." "Giving number one, pleasure to God." "Number two, glorifying God when you are building the house of the Lord." "Well, that's what we read in verses 7 and 8." "Go to the mountain, bring the wood, build the house, and I will take pleasure in it." "And I will be glorified, saith the Lord." This is verses 7 and 8.

And so now, it is so nice to see that in the next verses, look what He's telling them. The next verses, He reminds them of what happened when disobedience comes in the life of the people of Judah. "And you know what? We feel the same." "Don't you feel the same when we disobey the Lord and we turn away from the Lord?" "There is a barrier that comes in between." "There is a distance." "And you feel it in your own life." "And you feel that there is no nearness to the Lord." "Not because He loves us less." "Not because He cares for us less." "But because disobedience brings distance." "Sin brings separation." "Sin brings a distance between God and His people." "That is exactly what He's telling them." And so look, in verses 9 and 10 and 11, He shows them what have happened when they did not obey the Lord.

"Three things have happened." Number one is in verse 9.

"Ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little." "When ye brought it home, I did blow upon it." "Why?" "Why?" "God is saying." "He says," "Because of mine house that is waste." "And ye run every man unto his own house." "The first result that He tells them that is happening because of disobedience," "is that they looked for much." "They thought they were going to get gain, but they found out that it came for little." "Nearly nothing." "When they brought it home, and they found out that God blew upon it because God was not satisfied with it." "And eventually, it came to nothing." "And what happened, beloved brothers and sisters, with these Jewish Hebrews of

old, the people of Judah who returned from Babylon, "is that they have neglected to build the house of God." "And what happened, they sought for much for themselves, but they found out that they had very little." "And when they brought it to the home, God blew upon it, and they really had nothing at the end." "That's what exactly happened to these Jewish people of old, who did not obey the word of the Lord." "Disobedient brings back little." "When the crop is coming in, and it's nearly nothing, and God is not satisfied, and they were not satisfied with it." "That's what happened with disobedience." "And you know, everyone went to his own house." "You notice that?"

"That's verse 9 at the end." "Mine house was waste." "And every one of them went to their own house." "It shows us that they have been so engaged with themselves." "God's house was at waste." "God's house was not built." "In the end, they didn't gain neither here nor there." "The house of God was not built." "What they have brought to their own home end up to be little, which God had ultimately did not accept it, and He blew upon that." "And everyone went to his own house." "It reminds me of a verse in the New Testament, in the Gospel of John." "When the Lord Jesus the Messiah was in the temple." "And He was discussing

with the leaders of Israel and talking with them and teaching them." "And you know what it says?" "At the end of chapter 7 of the Gospel of John." "It says this." "And I read that, actually." "It says," "And every man went to his own house." "John 7:53." "But Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives." "And He was communicating." "In verse 2 we find that early in the morning He came again to the temple and all the people came unto Him." "Everyone went to his own house." "The Lord Jesus the Messiah went to the Mount of Olives." "And on the Mount of Olives He communicated with His Father." "On this mountain, Har HaZetim, Mount of Olives."

"We find oftentimes Yeshua resorting there for prayer, for the time of teaching and communion with the Father." "But everyone went to his own house." "But He alone, with His devotion to the Father, have gone to Har Zetim, to the Mount of Olives." "And there He communed with the Father." "Here the writer Haggai is writing to and speaking to the Hebrews, to the people of Israel." "He says," "Listen, you all ran to your own house." "The house of the Lord is not being built." "And you think that you are looking for much and you're going to bring a lot for yourself." "At the end you find that there is very little and I blow on it

and I'm not satisfied with it." "And even you yourself are not satisfied with what you have." "Don't you feel like this sometimes as a believer?" "You feel that you don't have time much for the Lord." "You don't spend time with the people of God." "You don't spend energy to spend into building the house of the Lord." "And you think that you're going to be satisfied." "And when you come to your own house and you are alone before the Lord." "You find so empty and unfulfilled." "So empty spiritually and unsatisfied." "It is only when we have been spending ourself and our time and our energy and our resources for the things of the Lord." "We find

that there is contentment." "There is a blessing that comes back towards yourself when you spend your time in building the house of the Lord." "In spending your energies for the people of God and for building the house of the Lord." "That is exactly the lessons that we learn here in verse 9." "When we are living in a life of disobedience, what's going to happen?" "There is very little that we receive for ourselves at the end." "We find ourselves unsatisfied, empty, and our conscience and our soul is dissatisfied." "But that's not only that." "In the next verse, in verse 10, he tells them the second thing that happened." "Not only that you have little crop, and

little crop that's coming from the produce of the land." "And you are going to your own houses and not building the house of the Lord." "The second thing he finds, he's telling them that God shut the heaven from the rain and the dew that would come upon the land of Israel, the land of Judah." "And look, it says in verse 10." "Because of this, therefore, the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit." "It's like God has shut the heavens, and when he shut the heavens, the rain did not come.

The dew did not come. And when the rain did not come, the ground is dry. And there is no fruit. And therefore, there is no produce. And there is no produce. And there is no produce.

There is no food." "Now look at this." "God, because of disobedience of Judah, has stayed the heavens." "No rain came down, and no dew came down." "He's saying to them in verse 10." "God stayed the heavens, and the earth stayed from her fruit." "No rain, no dew, no fruit." "What does that tell us?" "It tells us again, and I'm making an application." "It's happening there to Judah, physically." "It happened and can happen to us spiritually." "When God does not pour upon us His showers of blessings." "And I'm not talking about physical mercies now, I'm talking about spiritual blessings." "When God does not pour upon us spiritual blessings, there is no fruit for Him in the

life of the believer." "That's the application that we can take out of this passage." "We know that when it's come to Israel under the law, obedience to the law, promise results in the life of Israel." "Physical and spiritual results." "But for the church, it is completely different." "In the church, we are not promised to have earthly riches." "You might be like the Apostle Paul, a very rich man spiritually, and yet very poor in a physical way." "The church have not the promises that Israel have here on this earth." "Believers might be very rich spiritually, and yet very poor financially." "And the application for us here, beloved brothers and sisters in verse 10 is that, because

there is no obedience to the Lord, God stayed the heavens from the showers of spiritual blessings upon His people." "And when there is a holding of the spiritual blessings, there is no spiritual fruit for God from our lives here in this world." "And that's the second result of disobedience." "This obedience to the word of God, not only that will bring very little in a physical sense, but it will also allow us to be empty spiritually, when we cannot bring fruit for the Lord in our lives as believers." "He holden the heavens from bringing down the dew, and the earth had been holden from bringing up its fruit." "The fruit of the Spirit that we should

have in our lives, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, and so on." "The fruit that we have in Galatians chapter 5 can only come when we are in obedience to the word of God." "And here we find that that did not happen because of disobedience of the people of Judah who were already back in the land of Israel." "Look at the third result that we have here in verse 11." "Not only that at verse 9 there was little crop in the land." "Verse 10, the heavens have been holden." "In verse 11 there was a drought, famine in the land." Verse 11, "And I called for a drought upon the land," God is saying.

"And upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bring forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labors of your hands." "There was a famine, there was drought." "There was nothing to grow and to bring fruit up, nothing to satisfy the needs of the people of Judah because of their disobedience." "We read earlier, if you remember, in the book of Deuteronomy." "And God said to Israel in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 28, what we have just read in this chapter, the results of disobedience." "And one of the results were also drought." "The land will not bring fruit."

"I'm going to read a little bit of Deuteronomy chapter 28." "But it shall come to pass," verse 15, "that if you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, thy God, and he will not observe to do his commandments and his statutes, which I commended thee this day, that all the curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee." "Cursed you shall be in the city." "Cursed you shall be in the field." "Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store." "Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land." "That's what we read in verse 18." "Interesting, you see." "This is exactly what he said through the prophet Haggai to the

people of Judah in verse 11." "There will be drought upon your land." "But not only upon your land." "Also upon men there will be drought." "And upon cattle and upon all the labors of thy hands." "That's what happened when the people of Judah did not obey the word of God." "Do you feel sometime like this, brothers and sisters, that there is emptiness in your lives or in our lives, I should say?" "Why is it coming in?

Why is it?" "Why is it that we feel at times very dissatisfied in our spiritual life?" "There's no fruit." "There's no results." "When we try to share the gospel, there is no response." "When we try to do something for the Lord, there is nothing seems to come as a fruit out of it." "Why is it?" "Well, he tells us here, he tells the people of Judah, there is a reason." "When the people of God disobey the Lord, what do you think the Lord would do?" "Do you think he's going to bless us when we are not happy with him and live a life that is contrary to him?" "Do you think he's going to bless

his people?" "No." "You know what he does in a time like that?" "He disciplines his children." "He gives us the spanking that we do need." "Why?" "So we can turn around and be restored to him." "And then when we restore to him, he can use us for his glory and for his honor." "The emptiness that sometimes exists in our lives because of disobedience." "God desires that we will deal with it and we will respond to that." "And then he can bless us." "And he can lead us on." "The verse in 1 John chapter 1 verse 9." "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all

unrighteousness." "He is able to restore his own people." "Let's bear in mind for a moment that we will not forget that." "When God disciplined his children, the children never stop to be his children." "They don't lose their salvation." "They don't lose their relationship." "The union with him is never being lost." "But when disobedience comes, the communion is being lost." "The enjoyment of what belongs to us is being set aside." "And the only way to restore it is when we are acting in obedience." "When we repent and confess and be restored to the Lord." "Then he can use us." "Like Jonah of old." "Who when he disobeyed and went away from the Lord to Nineveh." "Instead

of going to Nineveh to preach, he had gone to another place." "And God had to deal with him to discipline Jonah." "Until Jonah in the fish's belly says, 'Salvation is of the Lord.'" "And then the Lord took Jonah again." "And he used him and he sent him again to Nineveh." "And people have heard the voice of the Lord and the word of the Lord." "And God can use us as well." "When we are disobeying, repent, and we are going back and doing the will of God." "God will use us for his glory and for his honor." "And so here, watch that in this book." "Remember, we are talking about the people of Judah." "They have

come back to the land, 50,000 of them." "They have began to build the temple, they build the foundation." "They were discouraged because of the enemy who came and stopped their labor." "And then 15 years later, they have neglected to build the house of the Lord." "They were thinking about themselves and they needed to be revived." "Hear Haggai coming, and now he is speaking to them in order that he will revive them to do the work of the Lord." "And so now, what's happening in the next verses, and this is the last verses of chapter 1 of this book." "In these last verses, look how nice, how things are shaping now in a way that it

is pleasing to the Lord." "And look, first of all, in verse 12, we see now the obedience to the word of the Lord." "But before I'm going to read this verse, I wanted to mention something, that I think it is very important for every believer." "And I trust all of us are here believers in the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah." "There are four things that we all need to bear in mind if we belong to the Lord." "If we belong to the Lord, we have to realize that the Lord paid a price." "He paid a price that He could not pay any more than what He paid." "The price was the blood of His dear Son,

Yeshua the Messiah." "But if you and I belong to the Lord, and I trust we all are here belong to the Lord." "There are four things that we need and we cannot do without." "And we can see those four things in those last verses of Haggai chapter 1." "We need the word of God in our lives." "You cannot do, and I cannot do, and the people of God cannot do without the word of God." "You cannot tell me that you are a child of God, that you are a Christian, you are Meshechi, you belong to the Lord Jesus, and you don't read the Bible." "And you don't listen to the word of the Lord." "It

is impossible to claim to be a child of God and not to listen or read and meditate upon the word of God." "That's what you and I need." "Number two, we don't only need the word of the Lord in our lives." "Number two, we need the worship of the Lord." "We need the fear of the Lord in our lives." "It is not possible to grow spiritually without to have the fear of God and the worship of God in our lives." "Not the word of God, not without the word of God, and not without the worship and the praise of God in our lives." "It is part and parcel of being a child of God." "Number

three, which is also essential in the life of the believer." "Is we cannot do without the influence of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer." "If the Spirit of God do not influence us in our lives, we are losing out as believers." "It is the Spirit of God that convicted us to accept the Lord." "It is the Spirit of God that inspired the word of God." "It is the Spirit of God who speaks to us as we hear the word of God." "We cannot do without the word of God." "We cannot do without the worship of God." "We cannot do without the Spirit of God." "And let me tell you the fourth

thing that is also important in the life of the believer." "We cannot do without the people of God." "You cannot tell me you are a child of God." "You belong to the Lord and I stay in my own home in my four walls." "I don't need to go to church meetings." "I don't need to go to Bible study." "I don't need to be with the people of God." "I can do it on my own." "I heard this many times people telling me." "I belong to the Lord." "I don't need the people of God." "I don't need to be in a church meeting." "My church is at home." "Well listen, the word church is called out

once." "And called out once is a composition of everyone that was called out from this dark world in to be part of the family of God." "We need each other." "There is one body and the body is a composition of all believers." "Here we find out the results, those fourfold results that are coming out of those who obey the word of God." "You will see the word of God." "You will see the fear of God." "You will see the Spirit of God." "And you can see the people of God." "Working together." "And bringing something for the honor and glory of God." "First of all, you notice in verse 12." "Here is obedience to the word

of God." "Look at this." "It says this." "Then Zehubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Yehoshua, the son of Yotzedek, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the word or the voice of the Lord their God." "And the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God has sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord." "In verse 12 you see what happened." "When the message came from the Lord through Haggai to the people of Judah, you see the reaction here." "They heard the word of God." "They heard the message of God." "And they did something about this." "You see the Bible that we have in our hands." "It's the

word of God." "The Hebrew scriptures." "The Brita Hadashah," "The New Covenant." "The New Testament." "It is the word of God that ought to produce a reaction when we read it." "You know, you don't want to react to it." "You just close it and you leave it aside and you don't read it." "You will not need to hear about this." "You don't tell somebody, don't speak to me about the word of God." "It will not expect a response from you." "But when you hear the word of God and when you open the scriptures and you read it." "It demands response from the believers, from the children of God." "And you see what we see here, when

Zehubbabel and Yehoshua, these are the two leaders of Judah who brought them to the land from Babylon." "When they heard the word, they responded to the word of God." "And you know what?

This is exactly what often times we don't like to hear when we don't want to obey the Lord." "Because we feel convicted when the scripture is being read to us and the Lord is being speaking to us." "God used his word to speak to his people." "In fact, we read in Romans 10, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God." "And it speaks to us because it's a living word." "It's not only pages, black ink on a white sheet of paper, but it is the living word of God." "It speaks to our conscience." "It convicts us." "It challenges us." "The only way not to hear it is we can close our ears and put our pillow on top of our heads and we will not hear the word." "But listen, every time we read the word of God, or we hear the word of God, it convicts us." "It tells you, listen, are you walking with the Lord?

Are you obeying my word?" "And you know, the best way not to listen to it is to kind of have a sealed conscience." "When we just simply close ourselves to the word of God." "And we just kind of turn our eyes or turn our ears or turn our face the other way and we just say," "No, I don't want to listen." "And when we don't obey and listen to the word of God," "You end up heading in a direction that is displeasing to the Lord." "And it is a downward course." "Always a downward course." "And look what Zerub Havel did." "The people for 15 years have been relaxed." "Building their own houses." "Taking care of

themselves." "Saying, God, no time to build a house." "Later on." "Later on." "And then the Lord used that man by the name of Haggai to speak his word to the people of Judah." "And when he spoke to them." "Look how beautiful." "When there was a reaction." "Here we see a man that for a while, him and Joshua and the rest of the nation for a time, they were relaxing." "The building of God's house was not so important at that time." "Then God used the men of Haggai to revive them to begin to build the house of the Lord." "And so you notice, beloved." "The word of the Lord is so important." "That's why when we

gather together to the meetings." "When we are gathering here together, we are not gathering here together for any other reason." "But to hear the word of God." "And to be occupied with the Lord." "That's the reason." "And so you see, the word of God had been spoken here." "Zhub Havel, Yehoshua, and the remnant obeyed the word of the Lord." "It says here, the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet." "That's the first thing that they did." "They obeyed the word." "And this is essential when they have done so." "Now you can see that they now began to be revived now." "And they began to act upon what God had

challenged them through the prophet Haggai." "Then you can see, not only that." "You remember what I said." "We need the word of God." "But we also need the fear and the worship of God." "Look what we read here in the same verse." "Here in verse 12." "As the Lord their God had sent him." "This is Haggai." "And the people did fear before the Lord." "You know, the Hebrew word for fear here." "It's not lefached, which means to be scared." "But it's the Hebrew word lirot." "Yira'u." "Yira'u" means to have a reverence for God.

"A reverence which produces honor to God." "A reverence which produces worship to God." "When we have the fear of the Lord, there is a reverence that we have towards God." "We respect Him." "We honor Him." "We acknowledge Him." "You know, there is such a pleasure in worshiping the Lord." "In worshiping Yeshua for all what He has done for us." "It's a response of the people." "They heard the word and they responded in worship towards the Lord." "In honor, in fear, a godly reverence to the Lord." "That's what they have done." "And you know what?" "This is exactly what the Lord did like to have from each and every believer in Him." "It's not right to

only take from Him and not to give Him back." "If I will ask any place in the world, anybody who want to go to heaven, and they are all going to lift up their hand." "Everybody want to go to heaven." "Who want to have an eternal bliss?" "Everybody going to raise their hand, I want to have an eternal bliss." "Well, how are you going to get it?" "Well, the Lord Jesus, the Messiah will pay for that." "And I don't care, I want Him to pay for that." "I don't care as long as I am going to be in heaven." "But what about responding to Him and saying thank you for what you have done for

us?" "It is a shame, it is sad when there is no response to the God who loved us and gave Himself for us." "It is sad to see an unthankful individual who only want to take it but not to give back a response to God." "It is a shame in a human realm, never mind it is a shame in a spiritual sense towards the God who loved us so much." "And here we see the people, not only that they heard the word, now they have the fear of the Lord." "It says very clearly, the people did fear, reverence before the Lord." "They worshipped Him, they acknowledged Him, they responded to Him for what He had

done for them." "It was the psalmist who said many years ago, the psalmist of Israel, who said this very nicely in Psalm 116 and verse 12." "What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?" "God what can I give you back for what you have done for me?" "How can I respond to you God for what you have done for me?" "And the psalmist said, I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord." "He responded to God for what you have done for Him, for the benefits that He had given unto Him." "And here we see these people now responding." "They heard a word

which they needed to heal." "And now they respond in worship to the Lord." "Brothers and sisters, you and I need the very same things in our lives." "When we are callous and when we are cold and our hearts are far from the things of the Lord." "When we have gone astray and when we are cooled down with our affection towards Yeshua the Messiah." "We also need to be revived through God's Word as we respond to Him in worship and honor and fear." "And that's what we also need in our own lives today." "And so that's what these Hebrews, these Jewish people have done when they have heard the word of the Lord." "And now quickly

to the last verses of chapter 1." "Look, in verses 13 and 14 and 15, look what God is telling these Jewish people who have been now revived." "Who have been now responding to Him." "Look what He is telling them." "Now in verse 13 He is telling them," "I will be with you." "Notice that." "Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message said," "Speak unto the people and he said," "I am with you," says the Lord." "Look at the promise." "He is telling them," "Jewish people, my people Israel," "My people Judah and Benjamin." "You have been for a while." "If you will, sleeping, unawakened with your desire towards me, towards my house." "And I see

now that you are responding, you're obeying me." "You desire to worship me." "And He says," "Listen, I promise you that I am with you." "I know you are going to face some trials." "I know you're going to have a difficult time in rebuilding the temple." "And perhaps opposition from those Samaritans who were around," "to build the temple of the Lord." "And He said to them," "I am with you." "And you know, beloved brothers and sisters, for us as well today," "The Lord promised to be with us." "The Lord said," "I'll never leave you nor forsake you." "Matthew chapter 28," "I will be with you up to the end of the age." "I will not forsake

you." "I'm going to be with you." "The Father and the Son," "A promise to be with the people of God." "Those redeemed company that have accepted the Lord Yeshua the Messiah." "The Lord Jesus Himself said in the Gospel of John," "In chapter 14, He said these words." "Look what He said to the disciples in the upper room." "He said to them in John chapter 14, these words." "And I'm reading them in verse 18." "He says this," "I will not leave you comfortless." "I will come to you." "He said to the disciples," "I will not leave you alone without someone to comfort you and to encourage you and to sustain you and to support you." "The

Lord delight to be with His people." "He doesn't want His people to do things on their own." "If you and I are going to build for the Lord, and if we are going to serve the Lord Yeshua the Messiah," "You can be assured and I can be assured that He is going to be with us if we do it in accordance with His will." "He is going to be with us." "And that's what He is saying here to those Jewish people of old in the time of Haggai in the land of Judah." "I am with you, sayeth the Lord." "They needed to hear that." "Because they were perhaps beginning to be revived, but they are

anticipating trials and tribulations." "For among those Samaritans around who did not want them to build the house of the Lord." "And so the Lord promised them that He is going to be with them." "Then notice, in the next verse, you remember we said that we need the fourfold things that every believer need." "God's worship, God's Spirit to guide them, and God's people to fellowship with and to work with." "Well, here we find now that the Spirit of God awakening the spirits of the people." "In the next verse, in verse 14, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zubabel, the son of Sha'altiel, the governor of Judah." "He stirred him up, not only the spirit of

Zubabel, but also the spirit of Joshua, the son of Yotzedek, the high priest." "And the spirit of all the remnant of the people." "No, the three times it used the word the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit." "Now, of course, He is talking about the human spirit." "But in every time in Scripture when God is stirring up His people, it is the Holy Spirit of God that's convicting." "The Holy Spirit of God that's guiding." "It is the Holy Spirit of God who uses the Scriptures to speak to the people of God." "And so you can see now that He not only promised that He is going to be with them and that He is with them,

that He is now telling them that He is stirring them up." "He is enlightening them, He is encouraging them by the Spirit of God." "And so here we see something as well that is very precious." "He stirred up the Spirit of Zubabel, He stirred up the Spirit of Joshua, and He stirred up the Spirit of the remnant of Judah which were in the land of Israel at that time." "And you and I need the same stirring up of the Spirit of God." "When we are downcast and away from the Lord and discouraged, something, someone needs to stir us up." "And how we get stirred up, it is the Holy Spirit of God who perhaps uses

our brothers and our sisters through the Word to stir us, to stir our hearts, to revive us so we can continue to serve our Blessed Lord Yeshua the Messiah." "And so finally, in the last verse here, in verse 14b and verse 15, we find out that it is not only that the Word of God came, it is not only that the Worship of God came, it is not only that the Spirit of God came to stir them up, but here we find that the people of God are working together." "And here is the last statement that I mention here in verse 14b and verse 15, it says there, "And they came and did the work

in the house of the Lord their God, the Lord of hosts their God, in the four-and-twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king." "You notice that?

They, that expression they, it's a community of the rest of the people of Judah." "It was a collective ministry. It was not something that they did, each one did on their own, but it was a collective aspect." "It was all of them.

They came and did the work." "It's a community service, community work, the people of God working together to the benefit of each other and to the glory of the Lord." "And they have come, they have began, and they continue to build now, they did the work of the Lord of hosts their God." "And you notice, when did they hear that message and they began the work?" "It says in verse 15, it was in the four-and-twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king." "Notice the twentieth fourth day of the sixth month." "If you go back to verse 1, you notice that when Haggai gave them that first message." "It was

in the first day of the sixth month." "Twenty-three days passed by." "520 BC." "And we see now that the message of Haggai, that he spoke unto them, took twenty-three days." "For them to be hearing that message, thinking about that message, and responding to this message, twenty-three days later." "And after twenty-three days that they had heard the word of God, they responded." "And when they responded, they continued to do the work of the building of the house of the Lord." "I know it took twenty-three days, so it takes some time to awaken a person from his or her sleep, or her weakness, or being dead in the sense of dry or sleeping." "But God does use

his word, and God does awaken a person." "And God indeed succeeded with the Spirit of God to awaken the people of Judah to build the house of the Lord." "For us, how does it apply today for us, you and I also?" "When we hear the word of God, it might not take immediately, to some it might be immediately, but to others it might take a little bit of time to think things through, to confess certain issues that need to be confessed." "To speak back to the Lord and acknowledge the need of His help." "And then to rise up and to continue to build the house of the Lord." "We don't need to build buildings such

as this with bricks and mortars and cement." "But the house of the Lord for us is a spiritual company of people who are saved through the work of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah." "For those to encourage the people of God, to build the people of God, to participate in the work of the Lord, to be used by the Lord for the benefit of the people of God." "God will be satisfied, and God will be glorified, and God's people will be blessed." "Can you say amen to that?"