Father, we give you thanks and praise that we can be in your presence.
We give you thanks and praise that you desire to lavish your love upon us.
We give you thanks and praise that we are not alone, but Jesus is with us, that the Holy Spirit is present.
And we ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would work a deep work in our hearts
so that we might receive in a very well from you this morning in a worthy manner and respond to you.
And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
You know, we live in an odd time.
It seems to me, and maybe I'm just exaggerating a little bit,
but it seems to me as if in many areas of life there's no mercy,
that life has become harder,
that it's not even a matter of three strikes and you're out.
But you take one, you say the wrong thing on social media,
you have the wrong, you get a tweet and you forward it and it's not the right one,
or that if somebody finds something that you put on Instagram or Facebook
two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago,
and they find out about it,
you're just in lots and lots of trouble.
And it seems as if, I mean, there's lots of freedom in our culture,
and it's not like people walk around in fear all the time,
but it really does seem, at least in what we can sort of gather from the media,
that it is, it becomes, we're in a time with less and less mercy,
less and less mercy, and a real type of judgmentalism.
I was about a year or so ago talking about this to somebody that I know quite well,
and I guess I was a bit complaining about it because I know them very well
and I was comfortable with them,
and they just looked at me and said,
George, you Christians invented it.
Like, you just don't like it because now it's coming back to bite you.
But you guys invented it,
and now you're reaping what you sow,
and, you know, you were in charge and you did it,
showed no mercy.
Now other people are in charge and they show no mercy,
and that's just, like, in a sense, suck it up and deal with it.
Now, at the time, I didn't really know what to say to them,
and I want to really encourage you to know that I didn't know what to say to them
because, you know, being a public Christian,
letting people know that you're a Christian,
sometimes there'll be pushback about that,
and if you wait to be a public Christian
until you know everything to say in response to every question,
you'll never be a public Christian.
In fact, maybe what you should do is just say,
maybe we should all get T-shirts about public Christian,
and the image should be of,
I could be my face, could be yours,
with the foot in the mouth,
and that's just sort of a comforting thing to know
that it's not the end of the world
if you don't know what to say in response to something.
Because often what it means is,
you know what you could say later on, actually.
Because now, I guess, if I could go back in time,
I would just quote an authority that they would recognize,
the who.
And in their famous song,
meet the new boss,
same as the old boss,
won't be fooled again.
Anyway, that's probably not what I would say to them.
But, you know, I think they're wrong, by the way.
The other thing I should have said is that it's really,
it's not that Christians invented it,
but that it's a human problem,
and that if you get beyond our ethnocentrism
and look at other cultures,
there's lots of times in history
and lots of places in the world
where there's very little mercy that's shown.
But I'm not going to deny that it might very well be the case
that there are many Christians today
in North America and Canada and Ottawa,
maybe even in this congregation,
or many Christians in the past
that have, in fact, shown very little mercy,
been very judgmental,
and very persecution-oriented.
But the question is, you know,
I guess for me,
it's never a matter of
what Christians do
is what the Bible says,
what Christ says.
So is it, in fact,
the case that Christians
just need to get more in touch
with things that are going on in our culture
to try to fix this
if it is, in fact,
a bit of a Christian problem?
Or is it really a matter
that you need to get back
to what Jesus says
and to be corrected by the Bible?
We're looking at a very, very old text today,
and it actually talks about this issue
of mercy and our narratives,
et cetera, and all,
and it gives great wisdom.
So it'd be a great help to me
if you would turn in your Bibles
to Haggai chapter 2.
Haggai chapter 2,
and we're going to be looking
at verses 10 to 19.
Haggai chapter 2, verses 10 to 19.
And here's how it begins.
It goes like this.
On the 24th day of the ninth month
in the second year of Darius,
the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet.
Now just sort of pause there.
Some of you are here,
you're just jumping into this book.
This is just a bit of a context about it.
About 70 or so years prior to this,
the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem,
took away the leadership of the country,
the king of the country,
took them into exile,
most of them into Babylon.
And at the time of their destruction
of the country,
there were prophets like Jeremiah
who prophesied and said
that God was going to do
a remarkable and miraculous thing,
and that some approximately 70
or two generations almost,
70 years later,
God's going to bring some of the Jewish people
back to Jerusalem
and the temple will be rebuilt.
And then what happened
is the Babylonians are in power
for quite a few decades,
but then the Persians
defeat the Babylonian empire
and Babylonians
and take over their empire.
And that's where Darius comes in.
Darius is the emperor,
the Persian emperor.
And, you know,
you can't,
to try to get a bit of a sense
of the shock of the book of Haggai,
just understand that we now call Persia
as Iran.
And what happened
is that as soon as,
very shortly after,
Persia took over the empire,
God did a remarkable work
in the heart
of this Persian emperor
because he gave permission
for the Jewish people,
some of the Jewish people,
to go back
and to rebuild Jerusalem.
He wanted it.
It would be as if
the Ayatollah of Iran today
said that he wanted
to rebuild Jerusalem.
And just as that would be
a complete shock,
it would be front page news.
Ayatollah of Iran says
the temple must be rebuilt
or he wants the Jewish people
to thrive.
It was just as big of a shock
and just as big of a miracle
really back then.
So about 16 years prior to this,
some of the Jewish people
have returned to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is in rubbles.
If you want to get a picture for this,
if you're a very visual person,
picture Aleppo.
Picture parts of Syria
with all the rubbles
and that's what Jerusalem looks like.
And so some of the Jewish people
have returned
and they start to restore the temple
but there's local pushback,
very serious,
hardcore local pushback
and they chicken out
and they stop all the work.
And so what they've done
for the intervening time period
is they've worked
on their own prosperity
and their own peace
but they've also maintained
the religious celebrations
and festivals
and stuff like that
but they've turned inward
and they've stopped
all of the work
on the temple.
And then about four months
prior to this,
in September of 520 BC,
we know the dates
because of the linking
to Darius
and all of that type of stuff.
Haggai gives this prophetic word
that shocks them
and we'll talk about this
a bit more in a moment
because it is relevant
to this bit
and they start to restore
the temple
and then about two months
after that
or approximately two months
before this,
there's another set
of prophetic words
and now there's this third
set of prophetic words.
So that's what's going on here,
just a bit of a context.
Jerusalem is in rubbles.
There are some Jewish people back.
They're under Persian authority
and they've started
to restore the temple
four months in
and this is now a word
that comes from God
to the Jewish people
but it's going to come through
first asking a couple
of questions of the priests.
Here's how it goes.
Look at verse 11.
Thus says the Lord of hosts,
ask the priest about the law.
If someone carries holy meat
in the fold of his garment
and touches with his fold,
bread or stew
or wine or oil
or any kind of food,
does it become holy?
The priest answered
and said no.
Then Haggai said,
if someone who is unclean
by contact with a dead body
touches any of these,
does it become unclean?
The priest answered and said,
yes,
it does become unclean.
Then Haggai answered and said,
so is it with this people
and with this nation
before me,
declares the Lord,
and so with every work
of their hands.
And what they offer there
is unclean.
So just sort of pause here
for a second.
If you are like most Canadians,
as soon as you start getting
to clean and unclean,
your eyes glaze over
and you lose the plot
because it doesn't really
make much sense
and it just seems like
a weird, bizarre type of thing.
And it's here where
it touches in this whole area
of our cultural narratives
because we start to see what,
so some things are clean
and some things are unclean.
Like, George,
this just seems exactly
like religion.
It's so lame
and so random.
Like, really?
Just because you touch
a dead body,
you've become unclean?
Like, that just sounds weird.
And so we interpret
this whole story
from this perspective
of God being,
like there's been
no mercy shown
and it can just be
as simple as
you like the wrong
Hollywood star
a day after a revelation
or something like that
and it's just,
you're being picked on by God
and this whole language
of clean and unclean
sounds like
very, very exclusive
and insiders
and outsiders
and just everything
about religion
which is bad
and we hear this
because we have
our cultural narrative.
We read the text
and that's how we interpret it
but that's not
what's going on at all.
You see,
what we don't think of
is that the Bible
has a very, very
different narrative
and this story
is part of a very,
very, very,
very different narrative
and the narrative
is this.
The narrative of the Bible
is that there is a God
that does exist,
the triune God
and this God,
well,
he made human beings,
he made creation
not because he was lonely,
not because he was bored,
not because he wanted food,
not because he wanted slaves,
not because he wanted somebody to love
and had a type of needy love,
like we hate being around
needy love people
unless they're our brand new baby
or something like that
where you want them to be needy,
but you know,
for an adult to be needy love
and it's just sort of repelling
and it's not as if God
did anything like that
but we all know
that part of the nature of love
is that love is expansive,
love is creative,
love gives,
love forgives,
love loves to see more love,
that it's just something
about the nature of love
and the God who is love
made human beings
in his own image
so that he could lavish
his love upon them.
The living God
created all things,
created human beings
so that he could lavish
his love upon them
but human beings
turned from God
and wanted to be
like God themselves.
They turned their back
on God's love
and as a result of
turning their back
on God's love,
well, shame comes
into the world
and messing up
comes into the world
and sickness
comes into the world
and death
comes into the world
and oppression
comes into the world
and racism
and hatred
and authoritarianism
and no mercy
comes into the world
and human beings
are sort of trapped in this
and so the big story
of the Bible,
if you want to read
from Genesis chapter 3
right up into the gospel
and right up to the end
of the story,
the big narrative
of the Bible
is the narrative
of the different ways
that God tries
to get the attention
of people
in their mess,
in their shame,
in their confusion,
in their successes,
in their failures,
in their shame,
in their despondency,
in their despair,
that this God
who is love
relentlessly pursues
human beings
to get their attention
so that they would turn
and allow God
to do what only God
could do
to have them
become his people,
his children,
his precious treasure
so he can lavish
his love upon them.
That's the big story
of the Bible.
a relentless pursuit
by God
to love you.
And yes,
he knows
that you're not perfect.
He knows what
your bank balance is
for those of us
who have bad bank balances.
He knows your good
bank balances too
for those of you
who have those.
But he knows
he knows you
and he wants
to lavish
his love upon you.
Well,
how does that fit in
with this weird language
of clean and unclean?
And if you got lost
in the whole story
and you don't have
your Bibles open
to look at it,
basically what the Bible
is saying is this,
is you go and perform
a sacrifice
and as part of the sacrifice
there's an animal
and as part of the sacrifice
of the animal,
sometimes there's some
of that stuff
of the sacrifice
of the grain
or the animal
or whatever
that the priest
is able to keep
to eat.
And so the priest
has done this sacrifice
that God has set for
and as he's walking away
with his sacrifice,
he comes up,
imagine we go back in time
and he touches Jono
and the question is,
does the sacrifice
is holy,
it's clean,
and if now the priest
touches Jono,
does Jono become holy?
And then if I go up
and I touch Andrew,
does Andrew become holy?
Does Daniel and Alexander
become holy?
And the priest says,
no, the Bible says
they don't become holy,
they're just,
they're completely unchanged
by you touching them.
And he says,
okay, well,
let's do another example.
What happens, George,
if there's a dead body
and you touch the dead body
and according to the Bible
what happens is
if I touch the dead body
I become unclean.
So what happens then
if I go and touch Jono
and Andrew
and Daniel and Alexander?
Well, according to the Bible
they all become unclean.
And then he says,
listen,
because of what's been going on
with you people,
your whole land is unclean.
So what's going on
with this whole thing?
So here's part of the thing
that you need to understand.
Remember,
what's the big story?
The big story
is that God knows your mess,
he knows your sin,
he knows your shame.
There's this relentless seeking of you
to love you,
to pour out his love upon you.
That's the big story of the Bible.
So how does this fit?
Well,
the first thing that wants to fit
is that no human being
can make themselves holy.
That only the holy one
can make you holy.
And you see,
that's why it's connected
to the sacrifice.
That the sacrifice
is what in a sense
is making this particular thing
holy or clean.
But you can't then just go say,
oh wow,
I have a little magic wand
that makes things holy and clean
and I can run around
and touch things.
No, no,
that's not how it works.
That's taking you far away
from the fact
that God has to provide the means.
You see,
you can't sanctify yourself.
You can't make yourself holy.
You can't make yourself
be in the realm of God
to have God as your God
for him to lavish his love upon you.
You can't do that by yourself.
You need God
to make you his own.
You need God
to make you holy.
You need God
to make you clean.
You need God to do that.
And actually,
if you understand this
for a second,
that rather than this
being exclusive,
this is the most inclusive news
in the world.
No ideology,
no religion,
no spirituality,
no nation
is so inclusive.
And that's one of the reasons
why there is no body
more multicultural,
multi-ethnic
than is this profound mission
of God
that is called the gospel
and the Christian church
that looks at people
of all income levels,
all IQ levels,
all handicap-enabled levels,
all colors,
all nations,
and says,
did you know there's a God
who loves you
who wants to lavish his love upon you
and he wants to have you be his?
And you know what?
He knows all about your thing
and he knows that you can't make yourself
in his kingdom of love.
Love has to open the door for love.
Holiness has to open the door
to holiness
and to bring you in.
And so in a sense,
all of this language
of the clean and the unclean
was trying to communicate
these two things
that you can't make yourself holy.
You need to have God make you holy
and you need to receive that humbly
and that this,
rather than being exclusive,
is the most wonderful,
inclusive news in the world
because he doesn't look at your power,
your prestige,
or anything like that.
In fact,
the only,
it's like,
what's the one criteria
you need to be admitted
to be in the hospital?
Well,
that you're sick.
That's the only criteria.
The only criteria
to come to receive grace from God
is that you need grace.
That's everybody.
It's actually very,
very,
and so the sacrifices
of the clean and unclean
is to communicate.
You know what's the other thing
to communicate
is to,
once again,
and you can go back
into the food laws,
if we did a sermon series
in Leviticus,
we could talk about that,
is that all of these
different languages
of clean and unclean,
holy and unholy,
is trying to communicate,
to get into the imagination,
to get into,
in a sense,
into the bones
and the imagination
and the narratives
and the story
of the people,
what it's like
to be under God's reign,
to be under God's rule,
to be his precious
possession and treasure.
And a dead body
is dead.
To touch the dead body,
in a sense,
means you are being
reminded of the fact
that you are
in the realm of death.
But to be under
God's authority,
God is the God
of living.
He's the God of life.
He's the God of life
who gives life.
He is the God of life
who desires to give you
a life that is his,
that will go on
into all time.
And so by these things
of the different foods
and these different things,
it's trying to structure
and form the imagination
of the people
at the level
of their reflexes,
their imagination,
their bones,
their reflexes
about what it's like
to be close to God.
That the closer you get
to the true and living God,
that when he opens
the way for you
to get close to him,
the closer you get to him,
the closer you're
getting to life.
Because he is not
the God of the dead,
he is the God of life,
the living.
To become close to him
is to get close
to life.
So you say,
okay, well George,
that's very interesting,
but what's this weird stuff
about then everything they do?
You're saying that
all their work,
that all their worship,
that it's unclean?
Like what's going on here
with this?
That doesn't make any sense
from what you said,
but it actually makes,
here's some of you
who were here last week.
By the way,
people remember 10%
of what they hear,
so I sort of think
I could preach
the same sermon 10 times
before everybody's heard it once.
And so some things
could be repeated
more than once,
that's fine.
But so just here
to try to understand
what's going on.
So remember,
what has happened
is they've come back to
God does this remarkable miracle.
He gets the Ayatollah
of Iran to say,
I want to see Jewish people
in Jerusalem with a temple.
Like, whoa,
that should knock your socks off
in terms of a remarkable thing.
Just knock your socks off,
blow your hair back.
Like,
that's just crazy.
But they go
and they start to rebuild
the temple
and a couple of people say,
I don't know,
you know,
it looks ugly,
you look ugly,
I don't like you,
I hate your guts,
and they just turn away.
And so they turn away
and they just say,
I'm just going to make
my own house really nice.
Boom,
we're going to keep the worship
and all of that type of stuff.
And so,
you know,
so what's going on here?
So now they're coming in,
they're finally starting to build
and he's trying to make a point
that's going to make up in here.
But here's the point.
Imagine for a moment
that I decided
it's really time for me
to get into a deeper relationship
with my wife,
Louise.
You know,
better than we have right now.
And so I consult
some counselors,
I call up,
you know,
some other people
and I say,
what's the type of conversations
I should have?
You know,
what should I be open about?
What should I be vulnerable with?
Like,
how would a really good conversation
like that go?
And I get it all
and I learn it
and I think,
okay,
I'm going to ace this,
okay?
So we get in the car
to go to the restaurant
and have this conversation
and before we get into the car
I take my wedding band off
and I leave it at home.
How many of you think
Louise would notice
in the car
that I didn't have
my wedding band on?
Every single one of you
would know
that Louise will notice.
How do you think
my conversation with Louise
will go in the restaurant?
I've consulted
the best psychologists
and marriage therapists
in the world.
I have all the things
that I need to say
to have the conversation
go well.
Do you think
my conversation
will go well?
No.
In fact,
you know what?
If 10 minutes
into the meal
Louise was to send
a message
to the whole congregation
and just say,
George is having
a conversation
with me at a restaurant
and he took
his wedding band off.
Like,
what do you think
is going on?
And you'd all go,
girl,
let him have it.
Like,
he's,
what's going wrong
with George?
He's nuts.
Okay?
Like,
there's something bad
going on here,
right?
Because I took
my wedding band off.
So here's the thing
connected to the text
to make us understand this.
Remember,
what does God say?
The whole big narrative
of the story
is that I want
to be with you.
I want to have you
as my precious treasure.
I want to give
my life to you
and have your life
come under mine.
I want to lavish
love and life upon you.
That's the desire
of my heart.
That's my,
that's what I want to do.
And so you gather together
and the temple's
not being rebuilt.
And God doesn't need
a temple.
Like,
the temple is like nothing.
Just like,
you know,
in a sense,
Louise doesn't need the,
I don't know,
like the three dollars
of gold in my ring
or anything like that.
Like,
she doesn't need it.
But the ring symbolizes
our marriage.
The ring symbolizes
that I'm married to Louise,
that I first,
I'm trying to
and successfully
forsaking all others
to just be with her,
that I want to be with her,
that we're husband and wife.
And to take it off
in public
is to say something
very,
very different.
And if you go back
and you read Genesis chapter 1
and Genesis chapter 2,
especially chapter 2,
you see that basically
what's going on
is that the Garden of Eden
is in a sense
the temple.
It's the dwelling place
of God.
And that the point
of the Garden of Eden
is that it would eventually
take up the whole earth.
And who knows,
if we hadn't fallen,
maybe it would take up
the moon and Mars
and Saturn
and some other planets.
And because God
doesn't need
a particular place,
but the temple
represents God's presence
in their midst
as their God
that it matters to them.
In a sense,
the temple is the ring.
So just as
they can do
all the sacrifices
they want
and they could be
the most assiduous
Jewish people
in the history
of the planet
with getting everything
according to every word
in Leviticus
and Exodus
and Deuteronomy,
but they don't have
the temple.
And just as I could
have a conversation,
I could have
psychologists in my little,
I have an earpiece
telling me what to say.
Wouldn't matter.
Then they realize,
what's going on?
He took off his ring.
George,
put your bleepity,
bleep, bleep, bleep,
ring back on
right now.
And then we'll
coach you through
apologies
and repentance.
And all of that stuff.
That's what's going on here.
That's why it's
them functionally showing
that they don't want
God in their midst.
And so what's happened
to the Jewish people,
and that's what's going
to be very relevant
right now
in the next little bit,
is that four months earlier
their heart was pierced.
And this is part of,
you see,
the grace that God
doesn't say,
well, okay,
I'm waiting for
a really nice big house
and after I get
the big house
that I'm going
to love you.
No, no, no.
As soon as he senses
because he's God,
the turning of their
heart towards him
and their own
little efforts
that picking up
that first piece
of rubble
and trying to put it
in the right spot
to rebuild,
then there's the turn
in his relationship
with him.
You see,
because all of the
sacrifices,
all of them
show God's grace.
And as we now know
as Christians,
all of them point
to the great sacrifice
that Jesus
is going to perform
for us on the cross,
that he is in fact
the Lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the world.
They all show his grace.
And God doesn't wait
for them to have measured up
because why?
He knows we can't.
And he just wants
to lavish his love.
And he takes that
first turning of our heart
to begin to have a change
to be with him
in a different way.
So mindful of that,
let's listen to what
it said here,
verses 15 and following.
Now then consider
from this day onward.
Now, yeah,
I'll finish reading it.
Now then consider,
verse 15,
consider from this day onward.
Before stone was placed
upon stone
in the temple of the Lord,
how did you fare?
When one came to a heap
of 20 measures,
there were but 10.
When one came to the wine vat
to draw 50 measures,
there were but 20.
I struck you
and all the products
of your toil
with blight
and with mildew
and with hail,
yet you did not turn
to me,
declares the Lord.
Consider from this day onward,
from the 24th day
of the ninth month,
since the day
that the foundation
of the Lord's temple
was laid,
or a better way to say it
is from the day
that the restoration began,
consider,
is the seed yet
in the barn?
Indeed,
the vine,
the fig tree,
the pomegranate,
and the olive tree
have yielded nothing,
but from this day on
I will bless you.
Now,
a couple of things here
to sort of,
you know,
to wrap this up.
So,
the first thing is this,
that,
like,
I could well imagine
if I was to say
to a barista,
like,
for a lot of people,
I mean,
part of this thing
is just all weird.
The idea that somehow
or another
that God
actually actively
stopped the crop
from being good
and the wine
from being good,
and somehow or another
if he stops this,
he thinks it's going to have
people turn to him.
And,
like,
you could well imagine
people say,
George,
you know,
if I found out
that somebody
was stealing my tips,
I'm a barista,
or just taking the tips
and throwing them
out the window
so nothing happened,
like,
George,
why do you think
that would make,
I'd be mad at that person.
Shouldn't they be mad
at him?
At God?
Rather than actually
turn to him?
Well,
you see,
that's,
once again,
it's the case of
we're bringing
our narrative
to the story,
not the biblical narrative.
And,
in our narrative,
it would look
as if,
if I just sort of
went in
and started taking
money from somebody
or other
and making you
not get a promotion
or something like that,
that you'd be right
to get mad at me,
but that's not the narrative
that's going on here.
The narrative
that's going on here
is that God wants
to be almost as if
he's their husband.
He wants to be as if
he's their dad.
He wants to be
in a covenant
relationship
that's real
where he can lavish
his love upon them.
So,
here's a different story.
If you heard tonight,
you go home,
and you heard tonight
that your best friend,
that she found out
that her husband
was being unfaithful
to her,
and when he came home,
he discovered
that she had locked him
out of the house
and changed the locks.
would you think
she had done
the right thing
or the wrong thing?
You'd say,
you go, girl.
Don't let that guy
take advantage of you.
You need to affect
where he can sleep tonight.
You need to diminish him
so he understands
this is serious
so he can return to you.
That's exactly
what God did.
He wants to lavish
his love upon them.
He does something
to get their attention.
You see,
the narrative
of the story
is of God
desiring to lavish
his love upon you.
And the other thing
about this
is that
two things
just in closing.
The first thing
is this.
Sanctity
or holiness
or being God
is its own reward
but it always brings
other goods
in its train.
Sanctity
is its own reward
or holiness
or being God
is its own reward
but it always brings
other goods
in its train.
And the other one
is this
that the triune God
defines blessing
not you
or Canada
or Hollywood
or Bay Street
or Wall Street.
See,
that's why people
who take this
as a health
and wealth gospel
type of direction
that somehow
or another
God's going to
give them new cars
he's going to
give them this
he's going to
give them that
that they're not
reading the text
right
because God
defines blessing
and holiness
always has
its own rewards.
I'll give you
just two
illustrations
to try to
try to get you
to bring this
home to you
by what I mean
with them.
When I was
in my rural parish
in Eganville
I was there
from 88 to 95
and one of the
things that the
church did in
Eganville
is they
would tire
themselves out
about three times
a year
they would do
these huge
fundraising things
to try to
make money
from the community
to keep the
church open.
It's a very
common thing
if you talk
to some old
Anglicans
who were Anglicans
back in the late
80s
the early 90s
they'd say
yeah yeah yeah
I mean this
church we had
a strawberry
social
we had
another thing
in November
I think we had
a third thing
we had at least
three things
a year.
So one of the
things that I did
to the congregation
is I was part of
that first you have
to convert them
and let them know
the gospel
and then in light
of the gospel
say do you really
think it's wise
to go and seek
the non-Christians
in the community
to give money
to the church
to keep the church
open?
Like shouldn't it
really be that
the church wants
to bless the
community?
Like shouldn't it
be like we have
it backwards?
And so I finally
and I can also
tell you another
thing and I
you know they all
sort of knew this
as well
so a lot of times
what would happen
is they do all
this work to make
chicken suppers
or something
or other like that
and all that would
happen is at the
end of the day
everybody's exhausted
you actually make
very little money
and then like people
don't come to church
like for the next
month because
they've done their
bit and offerings
go down for the
next month
and you know
sometimes people
would actually say
to me you know
George if we'd
actually just gone
and worked for a
local worker for a
day for minimum
wage and then gave
the money to the
church it would have
been less tiring
and we would have
had more money
so anyway finally
after like I've
been there seven
years or almost
seven years and I
finally convinced
them that we would
do something
different we
weren't going to
do this fundraiser
thing in February
we would do
something completely
different we would
do something in
keeping with being
gods and wanting
to lavish his love
upon people and so
we made an
arrangement that we
had a we
connected with the
international student
christian fellowship
here in Ottawa at
Ottawa U and we
said if you guys can
get up to Eganville
for a day we will
give you a free
lunch a free supper
we will give you an
opportunity to see
what rural Canadian
life is like we'll
organize ice fishing
we'll organize cross
country skiing we'll
organize snow
mobiling we'll take
you out to some of
the local farms to
visit some of the
local people we'll
give you free lunch
free supper and
we're also going to
have even song and
share the gospel and
I don't know what
it was like 50
some odd people all
came up people from
China and Africa all
over they came up to
Eganville and we gave
them and you know
anything about country
people you never just
offer one meat when you
can offer three like you
never just offer one
type of salad when you
can offer four right so
they just stuff them like
for lunch one of my big
memories of this it's so
cool but the the Asian
students and the Chinese
students in particular they
loved being at the farm
spending their time having
their pictures taken with
the cows I don't know
why but that was a big
thing and and the by the
end you know we gave
them supper we had an
even song we shared the
gospel by the time they
were going home they they
loved us they they just
had such the greatest time
in the world everybody was
so thankful and the
congregation had not
raised a single penny they'd
spent money in a sense to
be honest they were poor at
the end of the day than
they were at the beginning
but you know what the
whole congregation was so
pumped for the next month
or two attendance in my
church was way up and the
offerings were way up and by
the end of the two months we
had way more money than if we
had done a stupid chicken
barbecue or some other type of
thing you see holiness is its
own reward but it brings other
goods in its train and this
also fits with the other
thing is that God defines the
blessing not Canada not Wall
Street not Hollywood now
obviously one of the reasons
that Haggai was recognized as a
prophet is there must have
been see one of the things
about this prophecy is it
comes the late rains in early
late October early November
that makes a hard soil around
Jerusalem soft so they could
plant and then there's some
other rains and so in
December everything's planted
but nothing's been harvested
and so obviously there was
enough of an increase in food
that people could see that the
prophecy by Haggai was true
it's one of the reasons that
they must have said we need to
keep this book and read this
book and study this book and
pray for this book we need to
understand that when we draw
close to God that's its own
reward but he will also bless us
in other ways and there must
have been enough there but you
know it's more than just having
enough food we live in a time
when there's a crisis of
meaning part of the reason
there's so much anxiety in
Canada is that there's no
meaning there's no meaning
people feel alone and they feel
isolated and they feel guilty
and they feel insufficient and
they have anxiety and all these
issues but you hear this story
and God wants to lavish his love
upon you and and he wants you to
be his and when you're his he
wants to lavish his love upon
you and he wants you to be part
of his great mission that the
world will know that he exists
that he loves you that he wants
to lavish his love he wants a
lavish life upon you he will give
you love and life that begins
today that goes on through into
all eternity and so there must have
been enough for them to have more
that's completely fine but you see
like think about that story of that
congregation in Eganville let me
tell you this being generous is way
more whole and freeing than hoarding
money forgiving is way more whole and
freeing than being judgmental and
attacking you know what embracing
people who are of different cultures
are you and befriending them or
different colors of you or different
religions of you and befriending
them is way more freeing than the
person who's afraid of them
and being able to turn the other
cheek when somebody hurts you is way
more freeing than being able to be a
really good person at punching them
back and the person who gives rather
than hoards will have a far softer
pillow at night the person who
forgives rather than seek revenge
will have a far softer pillow at
night
see it's not just about the stuff
although obviously there was this
stuff is that when God blesses you
God blesses you the whole one simple
way to understand blessing is that God
wants you to thrive but not by the
standards of Canada by the God who's
created all things who wants to
lavish his love upon you and life
upon you
and so that's this message here of
this book that we are to put God
first that we are in a sense to once
again just understand the importance
of being gripped by the gospel and
how when we start to realize that it
makes far more sense to put him first
in his mission to transform human
lives and human communities through the
gospel so that more and more people
will understand that God just wants to
lavish his love and life upon you and
to be part of that is to be meaning
to understand that you're making
something you're not just teaching
Sunday school you're not just
greeting somebody at the door you're
not just helping a new Canadian learn
how to speak English better when you're
in for the name of Jesus you're not
just doing these meaningless things
you are doing something that's part of
this profound mission of God this
narrative and story of God that
transforms human lives that will
transform them beyond death and into
all eternity and that is what God is
asking you to do and so why would you
take such a great ambition and pursue
ephemeral things
I'm not saying that to you if I say that
to you I have three fingers pointing
back at me and one up to Jesus Jesus
help me let me see me let's just pray
that the Lord will help us to be so
gripped with this story of Jesus and
of God's grace and his lavishing his
love upon us that it it changes how we
do our church which changes how we live
our lives that time and time and time
again we come to him and say Lord this
week I've messed up or I've done good
I so need to hear this story again to
help me get where true north is and
what life is all about that I can once
again I recommit to you I recommit to
you not in a way that I'm now saved
because Jesus never lets us go it's all
grace he's opened the door not us he's
opened the way not us let's stand
close in prayer
father we give you thanks and praise
that
you want to lavish your love and your
life upon us and that you want to not
only do that here on this side of the
grave but that you want to do that
begin that work in our lives and grow
that work in our lives that will go on
and survive death and go on into all
eternity into the new heaven and the
new earth so father we give you thanks
and praise that that is who you are
that is what you want to do that is
what you want us to understand and so we
ask father we give you thanks and
praise that this on the Sabbath the
Lord's day that we can gather and hear
your word and be reminded about what is
true and what is real and what is
meaningful and what is significant and
and and father that that we can double
down and commit to this and if we
haven't entered into this story that
if we have not realized that that's
why God's trying to get our attention
so that we would give our life to
Jesus said that but if there's anyone
here in that or listening on that that
they would say father I want to stop
running I want to be Jesus's I want
him to be my Savior and my Lord and I
want you to never let me go and I want
you to bless me and with your love in
your life and I want to be blessed by
you so that I might be a blessing
father I want that to be the new and
final story of my life and father we
ask for them we ask for us that once
again we will recommit father draw us
close to yourself through your son in
the power of the Holy Spirit make us
open to receiving your blessing so
that we might be a blessing to others
for our great good the good of our city
the good of our nation the good of the
world and for your great glory and we
ask these things in the name of Jesus
your son and our Savior amen