WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.099 Now we're going to read as we begin from Mark chapter 1 verse 40 to 45 and we'll see how this connects to Haggai in a few minutes. 00:00:12.099 --> 00:00:21.179 A man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged him on his knees, if you are willing you can make me clean. 00:00:22.519 --> 00:00:29.859 Jesus was indignant, he was filled with compassion. He reached out his hand and touched the man. 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:33.060 I am willing, he said, be clean. 00:00:33.740 --> 00:00:37.700 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. 00:00:38.019 --> 00:00:41.200 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning. 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:54.420 See that you don't tell this to anyone but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:59.620 Instead he went out and began to talk freely spreading the news. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:07.920 As a result Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. 00:01:08.060 --> 00:01:12.719 Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:18.679 And then in Haggai chapter 2 verses 10 to 19. 00:01:18.680 --> 00:01:28.020 On the 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai. 00:01:28.500 --> 00:01:30.180 This is what the Lord Almighty says. 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:33.360 Ask the priests what the law says. 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:43.359 If someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of their garment and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, olive oil or other food, does it become consecrated? 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:45.180 The priest answered no. 00:01:46.060 --> 00:01:52.039 Then Haggai said if a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled? 00:01:52.040 --> 00:01:56.180 Yes, the priest replied, it becomes defiled. 00:01:56.760 --> 00:02:02.940 Then Haggai said so it is with this people and this nation in my sight, declares the Lord. 00:02:03.320 --> 00:02:06.560 Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled. 00:02:07.700 --> 00:02:10.620 Now give careful thought to this from this day on. 00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:15.520 Consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the Lord's temple. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:19.640 When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. 00:02:20.100 --> 00:02:24.219 When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. 00:02:24.820 --> 00:02:30.820 I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord. 00:02:31.380 --> 00:02:39.760 From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid. 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:41.219 Give careful thought. 00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:43.840 Is there yet any seed left in the barn? 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:50.900 Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit. 00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:55.280 From this day on, I will bless you. 00:02:56.719 --> 00:03:06.480 So today, Haggai chapter 2, verses 10 to 19, thinking about the reality that God provides for an unclean people. 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:15.039 I wonder if you've ever had the experience of really wanting something, really needing something, but recognising, I just can't get it. 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:16.699 I just can't get there. 00:03:17.239 --> 00:03:21.879 It made me think of a trip that we took years and years ago to Holland. 00:03:21.879 --> 00:03:32.039 And to get to this region that we were heading for, we were relying on childhood experience, childhood memories of a ferry crossing. 00:03:32.519 --> 00:03:40.280 Well, after hours of driving to get to said ferry port we discovered, it had stopped sailing years and years before. 00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:44.580 And so we had to drive hours to get to the bridge that had now been built. 00:03:45.860 --> 00:03:46.840 Got to the town. 00:03:47.319 --> 00:03:49.500 You can't get there from here. 00:03:49.659 --> 00:03:52.180 Now, that's frustrating, but it's no big deal. 00:03:52.259 --> 00:03:55.120 You can drive a few more hours, get to where you want to go. 00:03:55.599 --> 00:03:59.080 Haggai chapter 2 is a much more serious thing for them and for us. 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:06.760 Their great need, their great want was to enjoy God's presence. 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:17.360 And one of the things that Haggai has sent to teach them is that their efforts have been getting them nowhere apart from frustration. 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:26.100 And that brings us, in a sense, to the Emmanuel theme that we were also thinking about in our Advent series, Matthew 1.23. 00:04:26.300 --> 00:04:29.100 Jesus comes to be Emmanuel, God with us. 00:04:29.500 --> 00:04:31.920 We are no different from the people in Haggai's day. 00:04:32.060 --> 00:04:40.879 Whoever we are, whatever our circumstances, people that I know, people I don't know, I can confidently say your great need and mine, 00:04:41.280 --> 00:04:45.800 is that we would know God and that we would enjoy his presence in our lives. 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:54.800 And what we need to understand, same as Haggai's day, is that our efforts, our best efforts without Jesus, they will get us nowhere. 00:04:55.079 --> 00:04:59.920 Sin is that barrier that separates and we cannot cross that barrier. 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:01.040 We cannot remove it. 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:04.360 So our need is that God would come. 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:08.800 Is that God would come by his grace to be present with us. 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:17.379 Now, this week, just thinking about where we are in the world, it might be helpful for us to illustrate from the pandemic. 00:05:18.520 --> 00:05:29.900 So I imagine at the start of lockdown, you probably had in your inbox or you chased up videos or studies on the spread of the virus. 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:31.460 Do you remember those videos? 00:05:31.459 --> 00:05:39.859 Because they would perhaps use infrared or other technology to show that within minutes, as they sort of replicated what happens, due to touch, 00:05:40.859 --> 00:05:49.560 a room could very quickly become, as it were, unclean or defiled as the virus spread by contact. 00:05:49.560 --> 00:06:03.740 And the impact, of course, as that's become reality, not just simulation, is that we find ourselves still isolated, restricted and missing presence. 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:06.100 We miss being together, don't we? 00:06:06.100 --> 00:06:15.340 Our current efforts, sort of, as societies, has managed to curb the spread of the virus. 00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:20.680 But in a sense, we cannot get to where we want to be from here. 00:06:21.200 --> 00:06:22.520 We need outside help. 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:26.879 We need something more than masks and social distance if we want to enjoy presence again. 00:06:26.960 --> 00:06:29.660 And that's where the vaccine has come as such great news, hasn't it? 00:06:29.660 --> 00:06:41.560 And, of course, the hope and the goal of the vaccine, or at least one intended outcome, one great hope for our hearts, is that we would enjoy presence again. 00:06:42.080 --> 00:06:44.680 We get to be with one another. 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:47.080 We get to be with those that we love. 00:06:47.080 --> 00:06:51.280 And so I hope that this can help us, in a sense, understand Haggai 2. 00:06:51.279 --> 00:07:04.419 That we can see our great problem separated from God and his presence and to see God's gracious response to deal with our great need. 00:07:05.599 --> 00:07:14.179 So the first thing to think about, from verses 10 to verse 14, is that sin is a spreading virus. 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:18.639 So there's a case study that Haggai brings. 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:24.779 He speaks to the priests, those experts in the law, and he gives them two scenarios. 00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:30.259 The first scenario imagines people carrying some holy meat. 00:07:30.339 --> 00:07:34.079 That would be meat that would have been offered at the temple. 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:41.680 Sacrifice and perhaps a fellowship offering where some of that meat was then to be eaten by the worshipper. 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:42.699 So they're carrying it. 00:07:43.699 --> 00:07:45.659 No sort of handy-dandy carrier bag. 00:07:45.740 --> 00:07:48.099 So they would use their clothes to do that. 00:07:48.100 --> 00:07:55.820 Now, if that holy meat touches another object, Haggai asks, does holiness transfer to the other object? 00:07:56.020 --> 00:07:56.540 And the answer? 00:07:57.860 --> 00:07:59.040 The priest answered, no. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.200 Scenario two imagines an unclean person. 00:08:04.780 --> 00:08:06.800 Somebody who's become defiled by touching a dead body. 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:13.680 If they touch that other object, the lentils, the stew, whatever it might be, does uncleanness transfer? 00:08:15.240 --> 00:08:19.639 And the priest say in verse 13, yes, the priest's reply, it becomes defiled. 00:08:21.020 --> 00:08:23.500 So uncleanness transfer. 00:08:23.500 --> 00:08:31.019 So the point, verse 14, Haggai said, so it is with this people and this nation in my sight, declares the Lord. 00:08:31.339 --> 00:08:36.820 Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled. 00:08:37.779 --> 00:08:42.279 God's people, Haggai says through this illustration, are unclean. 00:08:42.279 --> 00:08:49.379 And therefore, their actions and their worship and their sacrifices are likewise unclean. 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:52.399 Their uncleanness has transferred. 00:08:52.399 --> 00:09:10.019 And of course, we begin to understand as we read Haggai where their uncleanness is reflected in their selfishness in prioritising themselves and their own houses and their own comfort over the temple and what the temple represents. 00:09:10.019 --> 00:09:14.159 So here is Haggai using this case study to give a warning about sin. 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:18.519 And what it teaches us is that sin is not some small thing. 00:09:19.379 --> 00:09:22.259 It's not some superficial external thing. 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:24.139 Rather, it is something that is deep. 00:09:24.679 --> 00:09:26.139 It is something that is powerful. 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:29.240 It is something that infects everything. 00:09:30.199 --> 00:09:32.519 You see, the problem wasn't with their sacrifices. 00:09:33.220 --> 00:09:38.019 God isn't saying to them, look, you're bringing me animals that are sort of unclean. 00:09:38.019 --> 00:09:43.319 No, the problem lies with them, with their hearts. 00:09:43.779 --> 00:09:47.419 Remember that great truth from the life of David. 00:09:47.699 --> 00:09:53.059 You know, people look at the outward obedience, but God, God looks at the heart. 00:09:53.939 --> 00:10:05.019 And the people that are being encouraged to recognise that even their efforts at rebuilding a temple, simply building a temple by itself, that's not going to deal with their sin either. 00:10:05.019 --> 00:10:14.039 Because for them to have a status of holy, to have a status where they can enjoy God's presence, is not dependent on their works. 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:17.199 It's not dependent on their religious efforts. 00:10:18.679 --> 00:10:21.759 And, you know, that's something that we always need to hear. 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:33.379 Perhaps that's still one of the great misunderstandings of the Christian faith, that it's about sort of turning over a new leaf or our efforts at being really religious. 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:39.840 And Haggai says, no, the problem of sin is far too deep for us to deal with in any way. 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:45.860 Haggai is showing that we need a deep cure for the spreading virus of sin. 00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:50.019 Perhaps we can think about it this way. 00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:55.340 Imagine you're driving in a car and the dashboard lights, they start lighting up like a Christmas tree. 00:10:55.419 --> 00:10:56.779 All kinds of warning signs come up. 00:10:56.860 --> 00:10:58.820 Now, what do we do at that point? 00:10:59.220 --> 00:11:05.879 It's not the time, is it, to turn into the car wash so that we can deal with some of the mud and the spatter. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:07.360 Hey, look, our car's doing well. 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:12.440 I know it's time to pop the bonnet and to deal with the engine. 00:11:13.860 --> 00:11:21.120 But sometimes our instinct, our temptation is to try moral reform that deals with the externals. 00:11:22.180 --> 00:11:23.440 But we need to go deeper. 00:11:24.560 --> 00:11:27.180 We need to deal with the sin beneath the sin. 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:35.600 Paul Tripp, biblical counsellor, says we must learn to deal with the roots of our sin, not simply the fruits, not simply what shows. 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:49.480 But what is it that leads us to speak and act in certain ways and to recognise that the heart of the problem is the problem of the human heart and our sin nature. 00:11:50.320 --> 00:12:04.100 Because recognise this too, that the Bible is saying the logic isn't I sin, so therefore I am a sinner, but rather I am a sinner and therefore I sin. 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:19.200 And Jesus talks about this in his ministry in Mark chapter 7, where the people are horrified that Jesus doesn't and his disciples don't wash their hands in this way for ritual purity. 00:12:19.379 --> 00:12:30.320 And Jesus says it's out of the heart that comes evil, out of the overflow of the heart is where we recognise the heart of the problem. 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:34.740 So here is Haggai and he's alerting us to the danger of the virus of sin. 00:12:35.220 --> 00:12:45.840 This virus that effectively quarantines us, isolates us from enjoying God and his presence and his blessing and his love and his peace and his joy. 00:12:45.980 --> 00:12:49.860 We simply, by ourselves, without Jesus, we cannot go near. 00:12:50.460 --> 00:12:57.120 And if we do go near to God, without Jesus, we will be consumed and condemned. 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:01.659 And we cannot cure the problem of sin by ourselves. 00:13:02.039 --> 00:13:08.060 We need God from the outside to forgive us, to make us holy, to make us clean. 00:13:09.159 --> 00:13:13.879 And without that, we will never enjoy eternal life. 00:13:15.100 --> 00:13:19.779 A quality of life knowing friendship with God now, enjoying the presence of God forever. 00:13:19.960 --> 00:13:22.759 Rather, we will be eternally separated and judged. 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:28.899 We will never enjoy the presence of God without God dealing with our sin. 00:13:29.980 --> 00:13:33.200 One of the big themes, of course, in Haggai is the theme of the temple. 00:13:33.519 --> 00:13:36.399 And God's house, the temple, is holy. 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:40.919 Therefore, you need the status of holy if you are to enter in. 00:13:40.919 --> 00:13:51.159 And again, without trusting in Jesus, you and I cannot pass that test. 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:57.679 Because we are, because of the spreading virus of sin, unclean, defiled and unholy. 00:13:57.679 --> 00:14:04.299 But that's not the end of Haggai's message. 00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:06.500 Verses 15 to 19. 00:14:08.019 --> 00:14:11.539 He wants us to see God's grace that makes us clean. 00:14:12.079 --> 00:14:15.799 From verse 15 onwards, there's an invitation to reflect. 00:14:16.519 --> 00:14:21.099 Verse 15 now, give careful thought to this from this day on. 00:14:21.159 --> 00:14:22.479 Consider how things were. 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:29.120 And before, verses 16 and 17, we see that their lives were marked by frustration and futility. 00:14:30.220 --> 00:14:34.120 They were expecting good harvest and instead they got very little. 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:35.700 Why is that? 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:38.779 We're told, God was at work. 00:14:38.779 --> 00:14:44.600 I struck all the work of your hands with blight mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me. 00:14:45.980 --> 00:14:48.480 They were not repenting in their heart. 00:14:49.159 --> 00:14:50.620 They were unclean. 00:14:50.620 --> 00:14:54.139 They weren't enjoying God's covenant blessing. 00:14:54.279 --> 00:14:57.320 Rather, they were under God's covenant curse. 00:14:57.399 --> 00:15:01.779 And one of the ways that that was shown is in their poverty of their harvests. 00:15:01.980 --> 00:15:04.620 And they are unable to change that circumstances. 00:15:05.419 --> 00:15:06.539 But here's the good news. 00:15:06.639 --> 00:15:07.899 God will make them holy. 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:10.320 God himself will come near. 00:15:10.379 --> 00:15:11.419 Now, how do we see that? 00:15:11.419 --> 00:15:16.000 We see it in three times, this call to reflection. 00:15:18.259 --> 00:15:20.639 Or the mention of from this day on. 00:15:20.740 --> 00:15:22.219 So verse 15, we just read it. 00:15:22.279 --> 00:15:22.860 Verse 18. 00:15:23.319 --> 00:15:29.120 From this day on, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid. 00:15:29.559 --> 00:15:30.559 And then verse 19. 00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:33.500 From this day on, I will bless you. 00:15:33.500 --> 00:15:37.220 And the point that Haggai is making is that there is a turning point. 00:15:37.620 --> 00:15:42.220 There is a transformation in the dealings of God with his people. 00:15:42.340 --> 00:15:47.379 And that transformation happens because they're rebuilding the temple. 00:15:48.259 --> 00:15:51.740 And the temple represents God's presence. 00:15:51.740 --> 00:15:54.940 So here is the people now saying, we want God in our lives. 00:15:55.019 --> 00:15:56.539 We want God to be present. 00:15:56.659 --> 00:15:58.379 We want the nation to appreciate that. 00:15:58.460 --> 00:16:01.980 We want the nations to know that we are the people of God. 00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:06.519 They understand that their great need is for God to be with them. 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:12.320 And now that the foundation is laid, there's going to be this change. 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:15.960 And blessing will come from this day on. 00:16:16.379 --> 00:16:18.560 God says, I will bless you. 00:16:18.620 --> 00:16:19.820 Now, recognise this. 00:16:19.820 --> 00:16:23.680 It's not because they have a temple in and of itself. 00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:30.300 God will bless because God in his grace will be present in that temple. 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:32.560 Their hope doesn't lie in the building. 00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:36.320 It lies in what the building represents. 00:16:36.620 --> 00:16:37.680 The presence of God. 00:16:37.740 --> 00:16:40.340 What does the temple and temple worship represent? 00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:43.400 Well, here is God's provision. 00:16:43.620 --> 00:16:48.840 Here is God's way for them to be washed clean from their impurity and their sin. 00:16:48.840 --> 00:16:56.680 Here is where sacrifice can be made to make atonement, to cover their sin and their guilt. 00:16:57.100 --> 00:17:03.379 Here is where they can draw near and enter into the presence of the holy God. 00:17:03.379 --> 00:17:15.940 Here in the temple is the way back to God as he, God, draws near to them, allowing them to approach, allowing them to know his love and his mercy. 00:17:15.940 --> 00:17:24.420 God, by grace, changes the status of his people so they might draw near. 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:33.580 To go back to our pandemic illustration, God alone in that sense has the vaccine to deal with the virus of sin. 00:17:33.579 --> 00:17:42.519 God alone is able to end our isolation and quarantine so that we might live enjoying the presence of God. 00:17:43.059 --> 00:17:50.460 And God is pleased to supply that so that we can enjoy Emmanuel, God, with us. 00:17:50.460 --> 00:18:02.420 So your hope and mine today is that we can draw near to God through Jesus, the living temple. 00:18:03.660 --> 00:18:10.980 And that when we come to Jesus, we discover his holiness is transferable. 00:18:10.980 --> 00:18:18.519 And it covers our uncleanness and our sin. 00:18:19.059 --> 00:18:26.519 And with that change of status, we can enter in and enjoy life with our God. 00:18:26.519 --> 00:18:33.559 That's the beauty of that passage that we read in Mark chapter 1. 00:18:33.879 --> 00:18:45.700 We meet there a leper who is unclean, who is untouchable, who's having to live outside of the city or the community where he was. 00:18:45.940 --> 00:18:49.700 But he comes to Jesus in his need, in his uncleanness. 00:18:50.759 --> 00:18:52.799 Jesus, if you're willing, you can make me clean. 00:18:52.799 --> 00:19:01.500 And the wonderful thing about Jesus is he reached out his hand and touched the man. 00:19:01.740 --> 00:19:03.759 I'm willing, he said, be clean. 00:19:03.899 --> 00:19:06.700 And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:14.200 He's sent off to the temple to demonstrate that he is now clean. 00:19:14.419 --> 00:19:16.960 But notice the result of that touch. 00:19:17.299 --> 00:19:17.879 Scandal. 00:19:17.880 --> 00:19:22.860 No, you ran from a leper because leprosy was contagious. 00:19:23.160 --> 00:19:25.480 Uncleanness was contagious. 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:28.260 But not when Jesus is around. 00:19:28.800 --> 00:19:37.460 It's not that uncleanness transfers to Jesus, but holiness and cleanness of Jesus transfers to the man. 00:19:38.040 --> 00:19:41.660 The touch of Jesus makes him clean. 00:19:41.660 --> 00:19:49.800 And in this early introduction to Jesus in Mark chapter 1, we're being prepared, in a sense, for his work on the cross. 00:19:51.460 --> 00:19:54.920 Here is Jesus, the Holy One. 00:19:55.460 --> 00:19:57.580 The perfectly obedient one. 00:19:58.120 --> 00:20:01.080 The Son of God, revealing the glory of God to us. 00:20:01.640 --> 00:20:05.900 But what does Jesus, in his love and grace, do for us on the cross? 00:20:05.900 --> 00:20:11.720 He takes our uncleanness. 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:14.500 He takes our defilement. 00:20:14.600 --> 00:20:15.759 He takes our sin. 00:20:15.840 --> 00:20:18.320 It transfers to him. 00:20:19.280 --> 00:20:24.100 And he suffers and dies as if he is the very worst of sinners. 00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:26.259 As if he is unclean. 00:20:27.259 --> 00:20:30.040 He dies under the curse. 00:20:30.820 --> 00:20:32.500 So that we might be blessed. 00:20:32.500 --> 00:20:42.319 His blood, his sacrifice, covers our sin and makes us clean. 00:20:43.259 --> 00:20:54.279 So that we can be declared to be righteous and holy and have that change of status so that we might come near in the name of Jesus. 00:20:54.279 --> 00:21:00.319 So your great need today, my great need today, is the presence of God. 00:21:01.240 --> 00:21:08.920 And the gospel is this wonderful news that Jesus and Jesus alone, by grace alone and not by our efforts, 00:21:09.500 --> 00:21:19.200 through our faith alone, simply by trusting and believing in the willingness of Jesus to take my sin and to give salvation and eternal life, 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:21.779 Jesus ends our isolation. 00:21:22.539 --> 00:21:23.860 Jesus brings us near. 00:21:24.580 --> 00:21:27.480 Jesus brings us home to God. 00:21:28.840 --> 00:21:29.900 And that's the gospel. 00:21:30.080 --> 00:21:31.400 That's our hope. 00:21:32.600 --> 00:21:36.660 And that's the state in which we are to live. 00:21:38.100 --> 00:21:48.500 There's a Christian devotional classic written by Brother Lawrence called Practicing the Presence of God. 00:21:48.500 --> 00:21:58.200 Call to mind the reality that we live with God with us always. 00:21:58.880 --> 00:22:04.000 By the Spirit, Jesus comes to live with his people. 00:22:05.460 --> 00:22:11.319 And this is what you and I need to live with that conscious awareness of the presence of God. 00:22:11.519 --> 00:22:13.420 This is what the people around us need. 00:22:13.420 --> 00:22:25.400 Can you imagine what family life would be like if Christian husbands and wives and brothers and sisters and mums and dads were living, 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:34.019 knowing that they were close to Jesus, that Jesus was with them, that they would be growing to be more like Christ. 00:22:34.140 --> 00:22:35.000 Imagine the peace. 00:22:36.100 --> 00:22:37.019 Imagine the patience. 00:22:38.060 --> 00:22:41.440 Imagine the forgiveness and the mercy and the compassion. 00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:45.640 We need to practice the presence of God in our families. 00:22:46.559 --> 00:22:48.440 Imagine the difference in your workplace. 00:22:49.400 --> 00:22:54.900 If you go to work or if you sit at home on your computer practicing the presence of God, 00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:59.880 if you know God is with me today in this meeting, in this situation, 00:22:59.960 --> 00:23:03.160 what a gift you would be to your boss, to your colleagues, to your customers. 00:23:03.160 --> 00:23:10.980 As you live with that peace, live out that identity of being a child of God, 00:23:11.640 --> 00:23:14.160 everyday life spent in worship. 00:23:15.380 --> 00:23:18.220 And what a gift it would be to our church. 00:23:18.220 --> 00:23:28.720 If as brothers and sisters in Christ, we were living consciously, knowing that God is near to us, that God is with us, 00:23:28.779 --> 00:23:33.500 that Jesus has come, the true temple, the meeting place of God, 00:23:33.539 --> 00:23:37.900 and he now dwells in our hearts so that we are a living temple in which God lives by his spirit. 00:23:37.900 --> 00:23:43.960 We would be seeing Jesus Christ in one another, in the love that we would share, 00:23:44.060 --> 00:23:48.920 in the truth that we would bring, in the comfort and the hope that we would give to one another. 00:23:49.060 --> 00:23:51.220 It would be a refreshing place. 00:23:51.220 --> 00:24:01.400 So knowing that Jesus has come to provide for our greatest need, 00:24:02.339 --> 00:24:06.519 come to him today and come every day 00:24:06.519 --> 00:24:13.480 because we've got this wonderful privilege of enjoying the presence of God.