Sanctuary Covenant Church, Minneapolis, MN
Building God's House
Father, we thank you so much for the privilege of gathering in this place as your people. We're grateful today, God, for the opportunity to worship you in spirit and in truth. And as the songwriter says, and as we echo out today, indeed you are worthy of it all. All praise, all glory, all honor is do your name. Father, from the rising of the sun, and to the going down of the same, indeed you are worthy of all praise. Father, even if we had 10,000 tongues, we could not praise you enough for God. We come together today knowing that it is not only right for us to worship, it is good for us to worship. And so Father, I pray for every brother and sister in this room, every person watching online that you would meet us in this moment. God help us to experience your goodness and your grace. Father in the name of Jesus, I pray today for every brother and sister who knows today that they need your salvation. I pray Jesus that you would meet them in this moment. God that you would show them what they need to see so that they might cry out even now, Lord, I yield, I yield, I can't hold out any longer. Father, we pray for life transformation. We pray for the reconciliation of broken relationships. We pray for physical healing in our body. We pray for breakthrough, miracle signs and wonders, all that you have done and are doing in our lives so that we might be assured of your goodness God. We say yes and amen to it. Father, thank You for everything that has already taken place in this moment. We thank You now for this privilege of preaching. Father, would You take this one message, divide it a few hundred different ways so that every person in this room would know that You're speaking to them, that every person watching online would know that You are speaking to them, that all of us would be assured that the God of all creation knows us, sees us, and speaks to us through His Word. Father, we love You. We're so grateful to know You first love to us. Be with us now in Jesus' name. All God's people say together, amen, amen, amen, good morning, sanctuary, family. Can we put our hands together and thank God again for our worship team, for our band, our production team, the folks who help us to make our services happen. We're so grateful for all of our volunteers, those who are serving today in various areas of our church. We're so grateful for the ways that they help us to make Sundays happen here at Sanctuary. If I have not had the opportunity to greet You, my name is Ed Drand, a lead pastor here at the Sanctuary, and it's an honor to be able to share in today's worship experience. We are going to jump right into the Word, and so I want to invite you to join me in the book of Haggai, Haggai chapter two, beginning with verse number 10. Haggai chapter two, beginning with verse number 10, we're going to read down through verse number 19, Haggai chapter two, verse 10 through 19. If you have your Bibles and if you are able, would you please stand as we read God's Word? It's also going to appear on the screen, but we want to encourage you whenever you come into service, bring your Bible, bring something to write with so that throughout the week you can continue to chew on and eat on God's Word as well. Haggai chapter two, verses 10 through 19, here's what the Word of God says. On the 24th day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the Word of the Lord came to the Prophet Haggai. This is what the Lord Almighty says. Relax the priest, what the law says, if someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of their garment and that fold touches some bread or some stew, some wine, olive oil, or other food, does it become consecrated? I love the sound effects. The priest answered, no. Then Haggai said, if a person defiled by contact with the dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled? Then Haggai said, so it is, the priest replied, yes, it becomes defiled. Then Haggai said, so it is with this people and this nation in my sight declares the Lord. Whatever they do, whatever they offer there is defiled. Now give careful thought to this from this day on, consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the Lord's temple. When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord. From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to this day to the day when the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid. Give careful thought. Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, on the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit. From this day on, I will bless you. The grass withers, the flower fades, with the word of our God, shall stand forever. Amen. Sensuore family, Greek mythology, has given us many different words, stories and expressions that we use in everyday modern English. The word mentor is drawn from Homer's epic poem, "The Iliad." It's the name of Odysseus' close friend and trusted friend. The word has come to mean in the English language, an inspiring leader, a trusted advisor or a teacher who passes on their skills to others. The expression "the Achilles heel" is another example. When you ask someone, "What is your Achilles heel?" You're asking them, "What is your weak spot?" It's drawn from the story of Achilles, that hero of the Trojan Wars, whose mother dipped him as a baby into the river sticks so that he might be immortal. But in doing so, she missed one of his heels, and his Achilles heel became a place for him of vulnerability and weakness throughout his life. One of the most commonly used examples that we use today throughout our language is what we call the Midas Touch. We hear it in songs, we see it in movies, we toss it around in casual conversation even if we don't always know where it comes from. That idea of King Midas and the Midas Touch is drawn from Greek mythology, and King Midas did a favor for the Greek god Dionysus, who in return granted King Midas one wish. King Midas was already rich and powerful, but he wanted more of both, and so he asked that he would be given the gift to touch anything and turn it into gold. Dionysus granted that wish for a wild, everything that King Midas touch indeed turned to gold. It was amazing until it was not. When he tried to eat, his food turned to gold became inedible. When he tried to drink, the liquid turned to gold became undrinkable. The ultimate heartbreak came for King Midas when he accidentally touched his beloved daughter turning her into a lifeless golden statue. King Midas' blessing had undoubtedly become for him a curse. Still even today, if you pay attention, you hear people describe someone as having the Midas touch, and they mean it as a compliment. She has the Midas touch. Everything she touches right now turns to gold. He can't lose. He's in the zone. He can't miss. Sanctuary family in our text today, we don't see the Midas touch. We actually see the antithesis of the Midas touch. In our text and in this series, we actually see God's people sitting with a record of failure. Their names and their identification say that they are victors. They are the people of God. But their experiences say otherwise because their beloved temple, the high and holy place, the gathering place of God, the place where that symbolizes the power and presence of God, it has been destroyed and the renovation is not quite on schedule. When they looked at their lives, their lives all around them was a sign that something was not quite the way that it was supposed to be. You're quiet this morning, but some of you can relate well to what they must have been feeling. All of us are in some way intrigued by the idea of the Midas touch, of everything that we touch turning to gold, of having unlimited success. But if we could be honest in church today sanctuary, we all have been in seasons where it seemed more accurate to say that everything we touched seemed to turn to wood. Some of you know the feeling of not having success no matter how hard you were. Some of you know the feeling of not winning no matter how much you pray. Some of you know the feeling of being on the losing end of a transaction no matter how much sacrifice you make. And that is what the Israelis, the Israelites are experiencing today. They find themselves no longer as exiles, but exiles who've been able to return home. They've been in captivity first to the Babylonians and secondly to the Persians. And around the year of 536 BC, a leader by the name of Cyrus allows the Egyptians the Israelites to return to Jerusalem so that they might rebuild their homeland and start to rebuild the temple. But when they return home, they're joined by some who have been born in captivity and for the first time they come face to face with the devastation and the disrepair of their beloved homeland. Among those who return to Jerusalem from captivity are a man by the name of Haggai and another by the name of Zechariah and they are sent there specifically to assist people in rebuilding the temple of God. The issue is that when they get home, they realize that the temple is not the only thing that has been destroyed. Everything that they have known and everything that they have loved have been destroyed and so the people return for captivity and for the first 18 years of their return home, they don't go about the work of rebuilding the temple. They begin trying to put their lives back together again. With their own hands and in their own strength, they spend the first 18 years of their return to Jerusalem building their houses. That's until God sends a word. God sends a word through a prophet named Haggai and Haggai delivers four messages over the course of four months and that is what we have seen in our studying here in the book of Haggai. And week one of this series, Pastor Rose delivered Haggai's first message and his message to the people was, "It's time to rebuild the temple." Haggai said to the people, "You've had some time and now it's time to rebuild the temple of God." God had been patient with the people but the word of God came down and their response, the people of God's response was that the time is not right to build the temple. They say to God, "God, the time is not right now to build your temple," to which God patiently responds, "Is there time for you to build your house, your nice house while the Lord's house is in ruins?" They respond in conversation to the Lord, "Lord, the extra work would be too hard to take on right now." Your response to them through Haggai, you're already working hard but you do so to no avail because you've chosen not to obey the Lord. God says to his people through Haggai, "The only way to reverse what's going on in your life is to renew your obedience to the Lord." Friends, I want us to see in God's word that Haggai never says there's something wrong with God's people working hard to have nice things. Haggai never says that there's something wrong with God's people having hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Haggai does make it clear though that noun is always the right time to put God first. Haggai calls the people of God to prioritize the Lord's work above their own. And Haggai 1, 14, and 15 says that the Lord stirred up the spirit of the people that came together and they began to work on the house of the Lord. Haggai's second message, Pastor Seth, blessed us with this last week, was that the glory of the rebuilt temple will surpass the previous temple. The people, and I wish I had a chance to talk to Haggai, Haggai tells the people God says do this and the people actually do it. We can stay there all year, just right there. The people listen to Haggai, they adjust their priorities and they get to work on building the temple. They begin the work, but when they look at the work, the work does not compare to what they had before it was destroyed. Haggai helps them to see it's okay to name when things aren't quite right, but he encourages them at the same time to say keep working. Do not fear, I am with you, and he says to them keep working because the glory that is coming will exceed what you have previously known and it will far exceed what you see right now. And so we come this morning to the third message that Haggai offers to God's people. And this one for me could actually come in a very different book because it seems out of place at points with what Haggai has been teaching God's people about. Haggai uses a lesson on holiness to further encourage the people to keep working to build God's house. Haggai's message to them today and I want to give you the answer right up front, here's the big idea of everything I want to share with you today. Haggai says to the people, "Disobedience produces defilement, but obedience leads to overflow and blessing." Disobedience produces defilement, but obedience leads to overflow and blessing. I know we have some young folks in the room so defilement can be an older word, a churchy word, he says that disobedience leads to pollution. It makes things dirty. He tells the people to go and ask the priests a series of questions about whether or not it is you're able to transfer holiness or defilement. He says that the priest confirms for the people that holiness comes from God and God alone. Therefore, holiness cannot simply be transferred from one person or one thing to another with the touch. But the priest does say that if something is defiled, anything else touches becomes defiled as well. Again, I told you this seems kind of random when we're talking about a construction project. But Haggai, if we stick with him, helps us to see three things, I want to show you those and then we can go and get our hot dogs from the football team. The first thing Haggai helps us to see today is that God's people have been set apart for a sacred purpose. God's people have been set apart for a sacred purpose. If you grew up in the church of God and Christ, if you grew up in the holiness church, you would say this when God's people have been consecrated. They have been set apart for a sacred purpose or a sacred word. Haggai helps us to see that God is himself holy. God is set apart. God is completely separate from limitation, from weakness, from impurity, or from sin. And God's people, because we have been saved and set apart by God, we too have been set apart by God for a sacred purpose. We have been set apart for a purpose of worshiping God and representing the kingdom of God in the world. Friends, we have not been saved and placed on a shelf. We have not been saved and set in a pew. We have not been saved and then put on a countdown clock until we get to heaven. We have been set apart by God on purpose for a purpose. We've been set apart to worship God. We have been called to represent the kingdom of God in the world. God's people have been set apart for a sacred purpose. We've been called to dedicate our lives and live our lives in God's service and admission to the world. Friends, we're called to live our lives in a way that reflects God's values. And we're called to be courageously distinct from the culture all around us. We've not been called sanctuary to fit in with the world. We've not been called to fit in with the world. In fact, the Bible says that we ourselves are aliens and strangers. We are soul-journers in a foreign land, and therefore we should live our lives in ways that honor God and in ways that will confuse the world around us. That's hard if you're a people-pleaser. That's hard if you want to fit in. That's a hard if you get all of your energy from what people think about you. But God has called us to live as citizens of God's kingdom over and above even this nation we live in. I grew up in a small Baptist church. And every first Sunday, regardless of what they had or didn't have, the mothers of the church would dress themselves in their best whites. They would get their biggest white hats and their wonderful white outfits. They would get those wonderful white stockings and they would get those big white shoes. The church fathers would dress in all black, but they themselves would also wear white gloves. When they served communion, it was something that you would never expect to find in a church that was precise and beautiful. They were teaching us something and I want to be careful to say, I don't want to move us back to the old landmark church traditions in whole. I love being able to preach in Jordan's. I had to say that just in case my wife is watching. But the church mothers and fathers dressed in their finest because they were giving a message, first they were giving a message that they were a dignified people. They were fighting against messages of racism that came to them in the culture that said they weren't worth anything and so they put on the very best they had to show they were worth something. But they were at the very same time teaching a theological lesson as well. They were saying, I'm set apart. You couldn't touch grandma when she had on her white. And so I'm not calling us sanctuary to go back to wearing all white on first Sundays. But I am calling us up and challenging us to remember that as the people of God we have been set apart, we've been consecrated for the sacred work of worshiping God and representing the kingdom of God in the world. God's people have been set apart for a sacred purpose. That guy helps us to see that. But he also helps us to see that through disobedience, God's people often defile themselves and their work. That when God's people put their affairs ahead of God's purposes, he doesn't simply say it's problematic. He says it is sinful disobedience. That guy says to them that disobedience has made their hands dirty and therefore everything that they put their hands on bears that same stain. That guy says to them, I know you're working hard. You're certainly doing stuff, but he encourages them to ask themselves why are their efforts not bearing the fruit, it should be bearing. How they are contemplating that answer, that guy uses an imagery to illustrate to the people that while they're working hard, their efforts are yielding less than they should because their hands are dirty. That guy tells them that disobedience has defiled them and it is messing up their work. And their disobedience in this case was that they prioritize their self-interest, their own endeavors above and beyond building God's house. That guy says to them and says to us today, because of disobedience, you and your work are defiled. Listen, I hear you. You're asking pastor, how did they already respond it to the earlier message? Pastor, how did they set aside their selfish pursuits to pursue making the temple a priority? Pastor, weren't they at the very moment the had-guys spoke to them this time, involved in the project, doing what the prophet had called them to be? Pastor, it's not fair shouldn't they have been called holy rather than a pure pastor? You mean that their work counts for nothing? If you've asked any of those questions in those quiet moments you've sat there in the seats, I hear you. How God hears you, God hears you. But the response to your question in the text seems to be this, how can an impure person complete a holy task? Well not their contagious condition of impurity make anything they touch impure as well. A week ago, I would argue that few heard and five of us in this room had ever heard of a company called CrowdStrike. Now that's safe to say that every person in this room has been impacted by them in the last 48 to 72 hours, whether you know it or not. This cybersecurity company called CrowdStrike was at the center of a global IT outage that impacted billions around the world. Airlines halted flight travel, banks were deeply impacted, 911 systems were shut down, entire computer systems crashed, maybe your corporation, maybe it worked out in your favor, maybe you had a day off, entire corporations woke up on Friday with the blue screen of death and many of them were forced to pause their operations. One thing went wrong, many of us didn't even know CrowdStrike was in our stuff. But we felt it and CrowdStrike's failures rendered what we normally do in operable. It's God gave us an object lesson this week that serves to remind us that even when we don't see it, something going wrong on the inside can impact everything happening on the outside. That guy reminds us that disobedience leads to defilement, but obedience leads to overflow. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ because it helps me to make this final point very well. That is the high guy teaches us that God calls his people to see the error of their ways and return to their place of blessing. That's my third and final point today that we can go. God calls his people to see the error of their ways and return to their place of blessing. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is a holistic message. In every gospel presentation that is well done, there should be a lifting up of God's standard. Here's what God calls us to. In every holistic presentation of the gospel, there should be an honest calling out of the places we fall short of God's standard. But in every presentation of the gospel, there must also be a remembrance of God's sufficient grace even when we fall short. We see it all right here in the book of had God. God's people have been chosen and set apart for God's work. God's people disobey God and they defile themselves and their work. But the story doesn't end there. God calls God's people back to him offering them a way of redemption and inviting them back into the place of blessing. God says to the people, He says to them, look around you, see for yourselves the predicament you're in. You've worked hard, but despite your constant strivings, your barns are empty of seed and food. He says, look around you. You've put in the hours. You've been team, no sleep. You've grinded day in and day out, but your crops and the vines they produce, no harvest at the time of harvest. But in the midst of pointing out the reality of their sin, had God says to them that God says, turn back to me, and from this day on I will bless you. Had God points to the good news that today is a new day for God's people. Had God gives us the good news that when we refuse to repent, when we were self-centered, when we turned our back on the Lord, God frustrates everything so that His people will turn back to Him. Had God tells us that when their spirits are stirred and they set their heart to obey God's command, when they turn to rebuild the temple, this ushered in for them a new day. Had God told them from that day forward, God would bless them and cause their crops to be bountiful in everything they did with flourish. Had God says to them, and to us sanctuary, that many of the blessings you are actively seeking are available to you, but you access them not by your own might, not through your own strength, but you access them through obedience to God. Disobedience produces defilement, pollution, dirty hands, but obedience leads to overflow, blessing, favor, salvation. Listen, this is the good news of Jesus. This is the good news of the gospel. I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore, very deeply staying within, sinking to rise no more, but the master of the sea heard my despairing cry from the waters he lifted me, now safe, and my hagai tells us that our disobedience has brought about defilement, but our obedience will lead to our blessing. I want to finish today, I share this in our preservice, or in finish. I want to finish today by giving a preaching faux pas. There are schools you go to to learn how to preach. And they tell you, one of the worst things you can do in preaching one text is to interject a different text to make sense of the first text. I thank God today, I'm not in school anymore, because I believe that's flawed. And my preaching professor is over there, and so he's already giving me the amen. When I read this part of hagai's message to God's people, I can't help but jump forward to the words of Jesus. Hagai never says don't have desires. Hagai never says don't work hard or want things. Hagai calls God's people to put God's priorities first. Hagai has a spirit of jahim on him. Put that woman, y'all get it on the way home, y'all get it on the way home. So as Hagai is telling God's people put God's priorities first, my mind kept jumping to Matthew 6. The words of Jesus found there in Matthew 6. And no matter how much I tried to be disciplined in my preaching to stay with Hagai, my words kept jumping, my mind kept jumping forward to the words of Jesus, where he says do not worry. And I want to end our time today just by reading the words of Jesus and Matthew 6 over you. Where Jesus tells you that there's nothing wrong with having desires. There's nothing wrong with wanting more for yourself and for others and for future generations of your family. And Jesus calls us to seek first the kingdom of God. Here's God's word for us today, therefore I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, about your body, what you will wear is not life more than food and the body more than clothes. Friends look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or stow away in barns and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor, they do not spend, yet I tell you that not even Solomon and all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith? Jesus says these words to us sanctuary, so do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for the pagans, the unbelievers. They runner after all these things and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. I wish I had some King James folks in here. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry, therefore do not worry, therefore do not worry. Do not worry, therefore do not worry, therefore do not worry, do not worry, do not worry. I know you are trying to build it on your own, but Jesus says don't worry. I know you are trying to break some generational curses, but Jesus says don't worry. I know you didn't have many examples and you are trying to chart the path on your own, but Jesus says don't worry. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things, all those things you prayed for, all those things you desired, all those things you've wanted will be added down to you as well. Worry causes us to be disobedient, but the word of God reminds us today that disobedience brings defilement, but obedience leads to blessing and overflow. Father in the name of Jesus, I pray today for these your people that they would be reminded today of your love and your peace and your grace. God I pray today that in this room you might help your people to not worry, but to trust in you. And as our trust in you grows Lord, as you show up in our lives and we see more and more of who you are and what you've done on our behalf, God I pray for these your people to build your house. God just build the church, but to build the kingdom of God, to be your witnesses in the world, to care for the least the lost, the lonely. God I pray today for these your people that they would with confidence walk in the world in a way that would cause others to follow after you, to desire you, to want to know who you are, God I pray today, the sanctuary would be a place that disciples will, that sends people will, that helps people to see who they are in Christ Jesus. Father we love you and we're so grateful to know you first loved us. Be with us now in Jesus' name. All God's people say together, amen, amen, amen, can we put our hands together? It's actually very friendly, can we stand where we are? It is my full conviction that God has called us as a church to be set apart, to see ourselves the way that He sees us, to grow in faith, to build community, and then to go into the world to live in such a way that others might come to know who Jesus is. And there's some technical language that we use in academic spaces around that mission or living and other things, but I just call it salt and light. God is calling you to be salt and light, to build His house, to build the Kingdom of God, to walk in the world in a way that others will want to know why is she the way that she is, why is he the way that he is, when everybody else is falling apart, when everybody else is fighting elephant and donkey, what is it about you that you're different? And when God opens those doors, my prayer today is that you would have the courage and the conviction to share what God has done in your life. To just tell the stories, here's how God has showed up for me. Here are the things that I've seen God do in my life. I think we've made it too complicated at times. So my prayer for you, sanctuary, is that you would know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you are known and loved by God, that you have been called and set apart for God's special purpose and that you would say yes to the God who's already said yes to you, that you would say yes to the God who's already said yes to you. So before we leave today, I want to offer a few invitations to all of us here together. First, if you're here today and you've never given your life to Jesus, you've never said yes to God as Lord and Savior. If you've heard the gospel, you've heard of the difference that Jesus makes in the lives of others, but you yourself have never said yes to Jesus as Lord and Savior. There's an invitation today for you to come. Our prayer team would love to have a conversation with you, to pray with you, for you to make that next step, and I believe it is the most important step you'll ever make in your life. If that's you today, we will invite you to come. Maybe you're here today and you've already said yes to Jesus, but you've not been living as a disciple of Jesus. Maybe you've been putting your priorities above the priorities of God. Today is an opportunity to come and recommit your life to Jesus. I want to invite you to come as well. Perhaps you're here today and you just need prayer. There's something going on in your life and you're like, "If I could just make it to church today, if I could just make it up to the altar, to have somebody pray for me, it would make all the difference this week." It started raining this morning and I was like, "Oh Lord, a tenderness is going to be down by 40 percent." But you pressed your way. You did it. Don't stay at that seat. If there's a prayer, you want to be prayed over. If there's a concern, you want to be prayed over. If there's a decision that needs to be made, we want to pray with you today. So when we offer the benediction, don't turn and leave. Come forward to receive prayer. We would love to be able to pray with you today. Essentially, as you go into this weekend to the world, go knowing that you are called by God. He has saved you, yes, he has saved you, but he's also called you and equipped you to live as a disciple in the world. You are the witnesses. So say yes to that this week. Whatever it looks like in the places God has given you influence and presence, live as a witness of the kingdom of God this week. Father, thank you for who you are. Thank you for this privilege of being together. Thank you for these, my brothers and sisters in this room and online, God, I pray today that you would give us courage to take that next step with you. Whatever that looks like for each of us individually and whatever that looks like for us as a collective community, help us to say yes to your will and to your way. Father, as we go into the world this week, may we go with the confidence of knowing that we've been called by you, we've been set apart by you, and that our obedience leads to blessings. For us and for others, God, I pray today that any brother or sister who is struggling with fear over what it means to live faithfully in the world, I pray that you would pour courage into them today. God, I pray that our church would increasingly be a place where we can disciple people well and send them into the world to live as your witnesses. Father, we love you. We're so grateful to know that you first loved us. Be with us now. In Jesus' name we pray, now unto him who is able to keep us from falling and to present us his faultless before his glorious presence with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be all glory, all power, all honor unto you, both now and forevermore, with the people of God join me by saying amen, amen, amen, God bless you, sanctuary. Have a great week. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING]