Inland Empire: Riverside
Finding Hope - Audio
(upbeat music) Okay, well it's great to be together here. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And this year is kind of a weird year, right? With Thanksgiving being so late, we're already in December, as Danny mentioned. And so it's kind of like you have Thanksgiving and then you have to switch into Christmas mode, right? So I don't know if you're having a hard time doing that, but hopefully today's gonna help with that. As we're entering into four weeks before Christmas, some people call it Advent, where we're looking forward to Christ coming. And so you gotta kind of prepare yourself. You ever been on Christmas Eve and you're like, it's Christmas tomorrow. And I feel like I am the Grinch right now. You ever done that? Right, you're not prepared. You're just doing all the different things you have to do and all the parties and then you get to Christmas and you're like, man, I just wasted this time when I'm supposed to be honoring Christ. And I've been so caught up in all these other things that I just like missed Jesus until the last second. So hopefully this year you can prepare, actually the word Advent is a time of preparation for the birth of Christ and anticipations. You're looking forward to it. It's not just like, oh, I know the story, but just the idea that your savior would come down here from heaven, humble himself and live among us. That he came to bring hope to earth at a dark time, right? Where no one could find hope and yet he came in that moment. And also it's an anticipation for his second coming. So we're looking back to Christ and what he does for us now. So we're looking in the present and then we're looking ahead to the time when he comes back. And so there's preparation in that, right? We wanna be ready when Jesus comes back. And so we're gonna talk about that. And today out of the four weeks of Advent, today the focus is hope. It's like hope, love, joy and peace. I don't know what order they're in, I can't remember. But today's hope. And so Jesus came to bring all those things to our world. And we're gonna have, we're gonna be looking at half of Haggai today. And then in two weeks, the second half, next week is a kind of a staff thing of all the ministers here. So Darren Yester is gonna be preaching next week. So he's gonna, he's excited about that. And then in three weeks, we're at Martha's Village for our Christmas service. So you just kind of get an idea. Like it's all just happening. The toy drive is in two weeks. The adoptive family is in one week. And so, you know, we're all, we gotta get ready. And the definition of hope is the, an anticipation of a better future. And so even now, to think about yourself and how hopeful am I. You know, when I look to the future, how hopeful am I? Do I see it better? Do I see God, do I see God's work there? And sometimes you get to the end of the year and you're like, wait, the year can't end because I didn't do all the things I was trying to do. I didn't, you know, lose weight and get in shape and make money and get a better job and go back to school or whatever else you were trying to do this year. Sometimes you feel like, man, it's gotta hold off. And even then is where you have to find hope because you have to see God in the future, even if you didn't get your stuff together. Even if you're not where you wanna be. Even if you're not like Danny and Bianca, all just happy celebrating their 15th and they're like, oh God, and the church is so great. You may be thinking, man, I don't like the church right now or man, I don't like what's going on. That's especially when you have to find hope. And there's two words for hope in the Hebrew one, one just means to wait for something. Right, I lost your weight, I don't like that already, right? Wait for something, how do you feel about that? We hate it, right, we don't wanna wait. And yet God has built us with this idea of waiting for Him. And so many times in the Psalms it talks about waiting for God. I don't know that anybody gets their blessings on their own time schedule, right? Have you ever heard anybody tell you that? Man, God just blessed me so much before I was even waiting for it, before I was even ready. No, I've always, you hear more people going, man, why is God taking so long? What's going on here? And I'm trying to do the right thing and God's not blessing me. The second idea or word that's used for hope involves attention while you're waiting that is released once you receive whatever it is, right? So you could think about something you're waiting for and you're getting impatient and you're like, why is it taking so long? And this tension just building and building and building. And finally, when it happens, there's kind of a release. And you think about, you know, waiting for Jesus to come or preparing to meet Him, right? As you start getting older, it might get more and more tense because you're like, man, this is getting more and more real. Like it could happen next year. It could happen in a couple of years. And so that tension is building until finally we get to meet Jesus face to face. And we prayerfully or at peace in that moment. But thinking about Christ coming back, like we're not really too worried about that, right? When Jesus first left, his disciples thought he was going to come back like while they were still alive. So they would literally wake up and wonder like, is Jesus coming back today? Is Jesus coming back this year? I mean, maybe it's next year, but there's no way they could have imagined it would have taken 2,000 years. And so now at this point, it's just like, oh, whatever. Like it's probably going to be another 2,000 years. Like you ever meet some, there's some people like, oh, Jesus could come back today. I'm like, really? Do you really believe that? Like, I don't, like it's been 2,000 years, you know? A thousand years is like a day. So it could be, who knows how long? But that's how God wants us to live. That we're preparing, that we're getting ready, that there is the tension that we're always ready. Even Jesus, we read that as we were reading through Mark, the last week of his ministry is like, be ready, don't be like those people that are sleeping when it happens, or going out and getting drunk and all this, be ready 'cause it's gonna come when you're not ready. And so hopefully we have that expectation and our hope is not in our circumstances, right? Our hope is in a person in Jesus, right? It doesn't matter what your circumstances are that you can still hope in that, even the scripture that VJ read, Psalm 57, he's faithful, he's loving, he's there for you, he's fulfilling his end of the bargain. And so no matter what it is, when you read the Bible, they're called to hope in him when it looks terrible and there's no hope of how they're gonna get out of a situation and it's just like, okay, well, then bam, at the last second, God comes through. In so many situations, so hopefully today, you'll take your mind off of your circumstances and onto your father and say, you know what, whatever's going on, he is faithful. And there's probably something that you're thinking about even now that you're not feeling very hopeful in, right? Is there something that you're thinking of? I know there was for me, as I was even putting this together, I was like, oh yeah, I'm hopeful for so many things, but this thing, there's no way that's gonna happen. And yet that's where God wants us to find hope and find that inspiration, amen? As we're getting prepared, I just kinda did a quick search. This is not all encompassing, but if you wanna take a picture of that, to just get prepared for Christmas and for Jesus and all the scriptures and just to be able to get our heart there, there's a family devotional there, joy to the world that has one every week. There's a 25 day fit one there. And even the last one, the advent reading plan, it's like two or three verses a day. So if you're like, I don't know how much I really wanna prepare, that's like, I'm not recommending that. I don't even know why I put that on there. But if you're one of those people, it takes you a minute to get motivated. Usually you read a couple verses and then you read a little bit more, hopefully. And then Jason's gonna be thinking about it too, so we might get more. But just wanna prepare us so that you won't be like me, like I was sharing about before Christmas Eve, and like, oh, I'm not ready. I haven't even thought about setting my heart and my mind with Christ here for Christmas. And as we're, I got this this morning from our brothers and sisters in Beirut. If you're visiting with us, that's our mission field that we support every year. And so even as we're thinking about next year, we'd be thinking about and thank you for all the money that you put aside. And if you haven't really gotten into that before, just think like, hey, let me put aside a little bit each week so that we can help them out. And on the right there was one of the daughters of the couples there who just got baptized in Berlin. And so they were celebrating that and Mofid was actually able to go to that. And then the pictures there of like Beirut burning. And that's all he sent. This is exactly what he just sends me. So I just get these and I try to share them with you guys. So you're in the, he just said, burning Beirut, pray for us, you know? And just think like, we're having, we feel like it's hard to find hope here. Imagine that when they have no trust in the government, they don't think anybody's gonna take care of them. It's just like them and God, because everything is so broken, the banks are broken. And so it's just amazing. I just texted them back. I'm just like, man, I'm inspired by your faithfulness and just you guys are heroes. And just calling us higher to be hopeful in our circumstances are so much different. But our God is the same, amen? And then he said, he doesn't usually mention specific churches there, but he said to pray for the church in Aleppo of Syria. It's a small church there and the situation is dangerous. I'm sure that's very much of an understatement. He doesn't usually send these unless it's like life and death type of situation. So be praying for them. And I think it's just one or two families there. So it's a really small group. And, you know, so be praying for your brothers and sisters there, amen? Let's say a prayer and then I'll start. I'll read a little bit in Hega. Father, we're just grateful to be with you, God. I pray for our brothers and sisters in the Middle East, in Lebanon and Beirut and in Israel and Syria and Yemen, all the places that are just, there's so much tension, unrest. And God help them to find hope, help us to find hope with you for our world and our situation. And I just want to put this time before you that your spirit will move us, that you'll put our distractions on hold that we can have these moments with you in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, finding hope. I'm gonna start in Hega chapter one. In the second year of King Darius, so basically what happened is this is about 70 years after Israel got put into captivity and the Babylonians were removed and many of you are familiar with the story of the statue with all the different nations that were gonna come. And so Babylon is removed and now Darius, the King of Persia is giving them permission to go back and rebuild the parts of Jerusalem here. And they went in three different shifts. The rubable went first, 60 years later, Ezra and the Amaya went and the rubable went to rebuild the temple. Ezra went a little bit later to teach. He was a teacher and teach the Torah and kind of established this Jewish community and then Nehemiah, many of you know that he went to finish building the wall. And so this kind of just picks it up here as they're on their way back and him getting back there. Says in the second year of King Darius on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to his rubable son of Shilthil, governor of Judah and to Joshua son of Jehosadak, the high priest. This is what the Lord Almighty says. These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord's house. Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai is it time for you to be living in your paneled houses while this house remains a ruin. Now this is what the Lord Almighty says. Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but are not warm. You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it. It doesn't sound very encouraging as he goes back there and he's like, man, you guys are, you got your priorities all off. You know imagine you're going back, you're feeling like, man, God is with us. We got permission, we're going back to rebuild something and you get back there and it's just, it's a mess. And people aren't paying attention to the Lord's house. And then you get a word from the prophet. You're like, oh, maybe it'll be a good word. And this is what he starts saying. And in verse five, where did I get down? I think, did I read through verse five? Okay, all right, here we go, verse seven. This is what the Lord Almighty says. Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. You expected much, but see it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away, why? Declares the Lord Almighty. Because of my house, which remains a ruin. While each of you is busy with your own house, therefore because of you, the heavens have withheld their due and the earth, its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil, and everything else, the ground produces, on people and livestock and on the labor of your hands. And so he's going through, and you can remember the story of the Bible, right before they went into captivity, there was droughts and there was prophets and they were telling them that they're messing up and their temples, they're not worshiping God right. And so then they go away and they come back and it's still the same. And he continues with the same message and really God wanting to be honored and God wanting to be put first. And I know many of you, this may not fit you right now. Because a lot of you, you're trying to put God first, right? You're trying to get close to him. You're trying to honor him and put him first. And he's just reminding them, I told you this from the very beginning, in Deuteronomy. If you follow me, I'm going to bless you, I'm going to take care of you, I'll be with you. If you don't follow me, I'm going to take away that, I'm going to take away the rain, I'm going to make it, you know, give you all these troubles so that you'll come back to me. And so this is kind of the situation that they're in there. That's why I call it finding hope, right? Because it's not like they're looking around and going, oh man, everything is so great. It would be one of those situations where it's like good news sharing. And there's nothing, right? It's kind of uncomfortable, you know. Let's see what God is doing here. Okay, okay, well, God's not doing a whole lot here. You know, the terms are rubable, the guy's name, it means planted in Babylon, right? And so while all the 90% of the people went to Babylon, this is what was remaining. And so imagine if you're coming back, everyone was trying to find hope, right? They were trying to find inspiration. And then continuing on in verse 12. It says, "Then Zerubable, son of Shilthil, Joshua, son of Jehosadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord, their God, and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord, their God, had sent him, and the people feared the Lord." Right, so they hear this message, your priorities are mixed up, you're not putting God first, you guys, you're gonna have trouble if you continue in this path, and they respond with a heart that respects and honors God, right, that's our hope, right? 'Cause we're all gonna mess up. Our hope is, hey, when someone tells us we're messing up that we're not gonna just keep doing it, that we're gonna be like, oh my gosh, I'm sorry, God, I've been messing up, let me get myself back on track, and that's exactly what their heart was when they heard this. And so that's great news. And I hope that all of us never lose that fear of God or respect of God, or just kind of check ourselves, right? You may feel like, oh, my priorities are great, maybe they are, maybe they're not. You know, if I've been a Christian for a little while, there's always a way that we're not honoring God like we should, you know? And so to really, that shows the heart of respecting and fearing God, of like, okay, God, let me give careful thought to my, let me not say yes so fast, let me give careful thought to my ways and my life and how, you know, I'm living and not in a way to be guilty all the time. But just then, hey, I'm trying to prepare my heart for Jesus coming back. I wanna be ready. You know, I'm trying to prepare my heart for celebrating Christmas. I wanna celebrate in a way where, man, I'm free. I'm giving my whole self back to God, amen? And then verse 13, says, "Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people. I am with you, declares the Lord, amen." So the Lord stirred up the spirit of the rubable son of Shilteo, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, son of Jehozadek, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God, on the 24th day of the sixth month. And I love this passage. It reminds me of a scripture in Zechariah. And many of you probably heard this song, but it says, "Not by might, nor by power, but by your spirit God." You probably heard that song. I was listening to it today. It's called "Your Spirit." And it's just amazing because it reminds us, it's not about all of our plans and programs and our human effort and all the things we're scheming and trying to do. It's really about God. You know, for God's spirit to move us, for God's spirit to move you. And I love this passage because it said the whole, it wasn't just the leaders that were moved, the whole community was moved. And the spirit was working. And you know, I'm excited for the midweek that we even have coming up this Wednesday where we're gonna be talking about how is God's spirit leading us? And how is he prompting us and what all of you, as many as you can to be there, to really be a part of it and not just be like, "Well, the spirit's gonna move over there. I'll just kind of show up and, you know, add, I'll just follow along." No, that's not what they were doing. They were all a part of it. And you may not even have an idea that you think is that great, but maybe you do. Or maybe you'll hear something and you go, "Oh my gosh, that reminds me of how God's working in my life." Or, man, God works in those kind of situations and it's amazing to see God stirring up our spirit. Isn't that what we want? I don't want to just work hard just for the sake of working hard. I want to be stirred by the spirit of God so that when we're working, we're working with him and he's multiplying everything that we're doing. Amen, isn't that what we want to be a part of? Amen. Okay, so chapter two here. I just have five more verses 'cause it gets a little better in the second chapter, so I kind of went a little into the second chapter, okay? Says, "In the second year of King Darius "on the 24th day of the seventh month, "the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai. "Speaked as a rubable, son of Shilthio, governor of Judah, "to Joshua, son of Jehosidek, "and a rubable is in the line of David." So he's kind of all of God's promises are coming down through David through this guy's rubable. Says, "Ask them, who of you is left "who saw this house in its former glory? "How does it look to you now? "Does it not seem to you like nothing?" And honestly, as I was reading this chapter, this verse kind of stopped me in my tracks. 'Cause here they are, they're rebuilding the house of God, and they're putting it back together, and they're getting done, and they're like, "Okay, you see that? "How does it look?" Not as good as before. He goes beyond that, he says, "How does it look? "Does it seem like nothing?" Imagine you're one of those workers. You're getting stirred up by the spirit of God. You're working hard, and then the guy at the spirit comes back and says, "You know what? "You know what this looks like? "This looks like nothing." Not very good. What do you think they felt at that point? Discouraged, we messed up, right? You probably think they felt some of that? Yep, we messed up. See, God sent us away before, and now guess what? He's punishing us again, even the stuff we're doing, it's not even as good as it used to be. Right, is that hitting anybody home? It's amazing, they were there looking at all that was happening and trying to figure out, man, what is God doing? Before, when they built the temple, they built it out of gold, and they formed it, and it was shining, and when they were done, it says the spirit of God came down into it, and it was like smoking. So you didn't even have to have faith. You just look around and say, "The back of the church is smoking." It's like, "Man, God is with us!" After they got back from captivity, no more smoke, no more clouds down there, no more pillar of fire. What happened? We want that, I mean, I want the fire version, right? I want the smoke version, not just the bronze plain version, with nothing great happening. And yet, God was, imagine from God's perspective, he's like, "You know what? What I'm doing in the future is going to be so much better than that whole gold and smoke and fire thing. This is just a transition, because we're going to the temple that's going to be Jesus himself is the temple. Right, when Jesus was walking through the temple, I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is incredibly..." He's like, "Oh, all these things are going to be knocked down and who cares? I'm going to be raised from the dead." This temple means nothing compared to what God is doing in the future. The spirit is going to live, we're all going to become the temple. And yet, that was not for another 400 years. So they're struggling thinking, like, "Man, this is nothing." And God's like, "Yeah, you're right, this is nothing 'cause what I'm doing is so much better than this. I'm going to make all nations come to you. All these things are going to happen. The kingdom of God is going to come. And yet in their little vision, all they saw was, "You know, this isn't that good." That's us sometimes. All we see is just these last, whatever, however many years we've been alive. And we're just like, "Well, compared to that, this isn't that great." And God's like, "What are you talking about? You're going to be in heaven with me forever and you're worried about this. Even if there was five people huddle up in the living room, you're going to be in heaven with God. It's going to be amazing." God is already even using you to do amazing things. And yet they were there thinking, "What do we do wrong? Maybe it's our fault." God's like, "No, you're trying, at least you're trying." Even some of the people that were sent back to the temple, they messed up and they started yelling at people for not worshiping God and they didn't do it all right. And maybe they were that same way, like God, I tried, but I hope that was enough. Maybe that's at the end of our lives. You know, God, this wasn't exactly what I expected, but man, I tried and I finished. That's pretty good. I'll take it. If I get to be with Jesus, amen? So now in verse four, he says, "But now be strong, Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. "Be strong, Joshua, son of Jehoshadak, the high priest. "Be strong all the people in the land and work. "For I am with you, declares the Lord almighty. "This is what I coveted with you when he came out of Egypt, "and my spirit remains among you. "Do not fear." Amen. Be strong and work. Don't worry about what the temple looks like, about what it used to look like, about what it's gonna look like in 50 years. Just be close to God and work. He's got us in so many situations to love people and help people and pray for others and be there for one another. He says he's with us. My spirit is among you. That's all the encouragement we need. God's spirit is with us. Do not fear. We can get afraid of all kinds of stuff. And that leads to discouragement and that leads to self-focus and shame and guilt and questioning everything. And he said, "Just be strong and work." I will, I am with you. I hope that whatever situation you're in, that you can be strong and find hope. You can find God, you can find Jesus, 'cause when you find him, you know who to put your hope in. And even if you have no idea how it's gonna work out, if you have a mustard seed of faith, it will work out with Jesus, amen? How many times do you have to see it? How many times do I have to experience it? Over and over and over again. I pray that as we, you know, this whole time was getting their hopes up and then they're being discouraged and then God lifting them up again. And that's so much the rollercoaster ride that we're on, right? We get all fired up and we're just like, oh my gosh, God is amazing. And then like the next day we're like, oh my gosh, what am I doing with my life? I'm wasting myself and why am I giving my money and why am I even making effort? Nobody, I don't have any friends and you know, whatever we think, right? Ever had that thought? I don't have any friends? Yeah, I had that thought this week. Don't all start calling me now and I'm just kidding. (audience laughing) But it's just like, when you start getting into yourself and you start thinking about who's calling me and who's not calling and who's not calling me back and how come this person didn't text me back and just be strong and do the work? Don't let God figure all that out. When you look around, you might not see your life as very glorious. You might think, man, that person's life is so much better than mine. God's like, don't worry about all that. You're living out my plan right now. You got the spirit of God in you. You got a lot of power there. Don't be discouraged. You have no idea what we're gonna look back on. That could happen this year. Whatever it is that you thought never could happen could happen this year. So many things that God is in charge of that we don't even pay attention to. So I pray that we can take this to heart, that we can get our priorities straight. Not just outwardly, but we can get our hearts straight, that we can prepare ourselves for him 'cause it's not easy. It's not easy to get our hearts ready, right? It's a lot easier to do the right things than to have the right heart. Because there's so many things that are happening around us and people jockeying for power and position and all kinds of, that's just the world. That's just everything around us. Let's not let that be in the church too. Let's trust God, amen. As we take our communion, I'm gonna read in Hebrews 13. And I talked about this covenant 'cause we were seeing them messing up in their covenant with God. And he's reminding them about God's covenant. He says, "Now may the God of peace," in Hebrews 13, 20. Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant, brought back from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, may he equip you with everything good for doing his will. And may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ in whom be the glory forever and ever. That as Christians, we find hope in the most unexpected place when Jesus was laid in the tomb and raised from the dead. That's where we go each week. When we take communion, we go to the cross and we go to the grave and we go to the resurrection. And we're reminded that our God in him, there's always hope even there where no one believed. God did it anyways. He may be sitting here thinking, man, I don't believe. Well, he's gonna do it anyways. And he's gonna bring us along. He's faithful even when we're not. So let's pray and we'll take our communion together. Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you that your word affects us, God, as it did people back then. We don't have prophets talking to us maybe in that way where they say the Lord's speaking, but we have your word and we have your spirit, God. And just even reading this today, God, I feel like you spoke through. You spoke to me and I pray that you spoke to all of us. Help us to not find our hope and our circumstances or whatever is right in front of us, but find our hope in Jesus who died for us, who loves us, and who was raised again. Thank you for his body and his blood. Pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Inland Empire Church of Christ