Turn with me to Haggai. It's toward the middle and I believe it's gonna be up here on the screen for you. We're gonna read chapter 1 verses 1 through 7. Can we put the put it up on the screen? In the second year of Darius the king on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehoshaddak, the high priest, saying, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'This people says, 'The time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.' Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai, the prophet, saying, 'Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?

Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Consider your ways. You have so much but harvest little. You eat but there is not enough to be satisfied. You drink but there is not enough to become drunk. You put on clothing but no one is warm enough. And he who earns earns wages to put into a purse with holes.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Consider your ways.'" Would you please pray with me? Truly speak, O Lord, for your servants are listening. And we pray, God, that you would help us to hear what you have to say and supply the things that we learn to our lives accordingly.

Help us also, Lord, like the people that we will read about today, to obey the voice of the Lord so that you will receive the glory that you do. We thank you for the freedom to worship together and gather together as a family. We pray for your help to have attentive ears, especially as the context is very different from what we often read about or pray about.

So we thank you for this opportunity to study your Word together. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Earlier this year, our church started a sermon series in the book of Hebrews and many of the sermons have been focusing on the theme of drifting from the faith. And coincidentally, each of our departments at church has also studied, discussed, and reflected on this theme to varying degrees.

We've been strategizing and praying over how to stay anchored and how not to drift. And for all of us, this is actually a very important topic. This is an absolutely important topic because if you've been a Christian for any length of time, you know how our hearts are so prone to wander and how naturally and easily we drift.

It's not difficult to start out with a bang. We may start out in a flurry, but sometimes as you and I get distracted by our day-to-day lives, God starts moving down on our priority list. And I'm sure you can relate, as I can. This is very common. And there's nothing new under the sun.

The people of God have always easily gotten sidetracked. So here in the book of Haggai, we're looking at a very major event, one of the biggest events in Jewish history, and we see how the Jews, the chosen people of God, find themselves entangled, frustrated, discouraged, and sidetracked. So in these first seven verses that I just read of this short verse or a short book, we read, "Consider your ways twice." Two times through this prophet Haggai, God says, "You guys had one job to do.

Have you forgotten your purpose? Have you forgotten me? Consider your ways and get back to work." God shows up and says that. The book of Haggai is a very short book, just 38 verses. If you want to start memorizing books of the Bible, this is a good place to start.

It's relatively painless. But it is a supremely important book, and I believe that there's much that you and I can learn even from a quick study of it. And that's what I would like to do together today. And I want to walk you through the historical background to help us better understand what the Jews are supposed to do and why God comes and says, "Consider your ways." If you're taking notes, I want to outline today's sermon by exploring four questions that we will be thinking through as we examine this short book.

First, what is the historical context or background of this short book? Two, who are the recipients? Three, why was Haggai written? And four, how are the people of God to respond? And we're actually going to see how all of this applies to us living in the 21st century America here in Orange County.

And all of the important points today and the historical facts and stuff are on the church app, okay? So you actually don't need to, like, scramble to write down everything. They're all on there for you, so you can just kind of follow along with your eyes and your ear.

So first, what is the historical context and background of this short book? Verse one, I'll read it again for you. "In the second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadok, the high priest, saying..." So the book of Haggai and Zechariah are very important books of prophecy.

They're contemporaries. They're speaking to the same people. And the historical context of these two books is found in Ezra's chapter 1 through 6. And I'm going to be walking you also through some details in the book of Ezra, okay? So you got to pay close attention. So I'm putting up some dates and some facts that you can kind of track along with.

612 is a very historically significant year. Babylon overthrows Assyria and takes over as the major world power. And this spells great trouble for the people of Judah. So 612 is important. Try and memorize that, okay? And in 606, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, turns his attention to Jerusalem, the capital of Judah.

And then Jerusalem is soon defeated, besieged, and conquered. And under Nebuchadnezzar, the ruthless and very pagan king, the people of Judah are stripped of everything. As the Babylonians start displacing and exiling the people and separating family members from one another, the people of Judah find themselves that they've lost their homes, they've lost their loved ones, their armies are massacred, and the once mighty, powerful nation now has zero military power.

So they no longer had a country or land. And from that point on, the people are called the Jews, meaning those from Judah, because they needed to be identified somehow, since they were no longer a nation. So historically, this is where they start being called the Jews. So if you actually are flipping through your Bibles and you don't ever see the word "Jew" in the first half of the Old Testament, this is why.

"Jews" means those of Judah, now that they don't have a land. Okay? So they had no land, no power, no wealth, and they are now slaves to a pagan nation, and they hated it. And then in 586, the people of Judah suffered the most devastating, most traumatic, most pain-filled event in the nation's history.

And the book of Lamentations describes the pain. The Jews foolishly plot a rebellion, and it fails. And in a rage, Nebuchadnezzar destroys the temple that Solomon had built. Now this temple of God is very important. The temple was the center for the worship of God and the dwelling place of the Most High God.

You have a visual home of God. And they see it destroyed. So this could not have but crushed all hope for the people of God. So it seemed now that God had either rejected his people or was not all that powerful. And then for the next 70 years, most Jews are taken into captivity, and the land formerly known as Jerusalem became a wild land inhabited by beasts, the poor and the diseased, and various nomadic tribes.

And then for the next 50 years or so, there is almost complete biblical silence outside of a few happenings that you read about in the book of Daniel. But at the end of those 50 years, in 538, something absolutely astounding happens, almost a miraculous event. The alliance between a nation called Media and a nation of Persia, the Empire of Persia, join forces and they overthrow Babylon.

And interestingly enough, Cyrus, the Persian king, allows all the exiled captives to return to their homelands. He even commissions and finances, bankrolls, the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem to rebuild both the city and the temple. And then the first wave of exiles, 49,697 of them, commit to returning.

So for the remainder of my sermon, I'm just gonna say 50,000, that's easier to remember. The 50,000 return to a very different Jerusalem from what they have expected. The Jerusalem of 536 was a wasteland. But the people have a holy burden to rebuild the house of God and to rebuild the temple.

So God's people have returned with one job to do, and this one job started in 536. So they begin to work, lay the foundation on this new temple that's going to replace Solomon's broken one. But then the work stops and it's left incomplete and under construction for 20 years until 516.

For 20 years, no further work is done on the temple. It would just lay there partially built. So people would go about their day-to-day lives passing this under construction temple of God that is just there for 20 years. So if you're 18 years old, you're like, "What is that?

How come we're not using that for anything? Oh, that's the house of the Lord." So for 20 years, there is no work that is done. So in the context of the book of Haggai, we find these people have basically just gotten busy with their day-to-day lives and 20 years, an entire generation, there's nothing done.

I've heard people say that the God of the Old Testament appears to be an angry God, a God of wrath, and that the God of the New Testament is a God of grace, patience, and love. And I do understand that just on a cursory reading how you can kind of end up thinking that, but here in Haggai, I see just one of the many examples of the long-suffering patience of the Old Testament God.

We learn from Malachi 3:6, we learn from Hebrews 13:8 that God does not change, that Jesus Christ, who is God, is the same yesterday and today and forever, and that because God does not change, we are not consumed. We serve a very, very patient gentleman of a God. The Old Testament saints also served a very, very patient God.

And because God did not change, the people in the book of Haggai were also not appropriately consumed. So here you have the background of the prophecy of Haggai in this short book. So that's the first question, what is the context? The second question is, who are the recipients? And are they at all similar to us here living in the 21st century Orange County?

Verse 2 says, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'This people says, 'The time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.'" Basically, it's a hard attitude of, "Not right now." Later, when things are more settled, "Not right now, we have mouths to feed.

Not yet, because we have to get married. We have to have children. Not yet, because we have to have just food on the table, clothes on our backs. Not yet." So who are the "this people" that has the "not yet" attitude? First of all, it's very important to mention that they were a well-meaning people.

They were people who were passionate about the renown of God. They were people who started this journey with an understanding that God's glory was of utmost priority. And they were the 50,000 who accepted Cyrus's invitation to go back to Jerusalem. I'm gonna read Ezra 1, 3 to 5 for you.

Cyrus says, "Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. Every survivor, at whatever place he may live, let the men of that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a freewill offering for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem.

And then the heads of fathers' households of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites arose, even everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up and rebuild the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem." So who are the "this people"? They were the 50,000 the Spirit of God had stirred up.

And I Google-searched, actually, how many Jews were living in Babylon at the time of Cyrus's decree, because I wanted to kind of see, in contrast to all of the people who are living in Babylon, what percent this 50,000 encompassed. But I couldn't find an exact answer. But it has been suggested that the majority scoffed at the idea of returning to the wasteland that was Jerusalem.

Remember, for 70 years, Jerusalem had been a dangerous and uncultivated place. For the great majority, Babylon had become home. So there was no desire to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of God. If you and your parents and your grandparents were living in a place for 70 years, you're not going to be so eager to move away.

If you are a third or fourth generation person of a different ethnicity, as many of you in here are, how would you feel if you were called to return to China, Japan, the Philippines, Mexico, or Korea? Nah. Home is America. I don't want to go back. But not "this people." So the recipients of the book of Haggai and Zechariah were those who decided to leave home and go.

They were the ones who took a risk and placed a higher priority on God's glory than their own comforts. But something happened. Something derailed them. Something caused them to drift. And that's the "why" of "Why is Haggai Written?" that we're gonna get to. So what caused the stoppage of the work amongst this well-meaning, missions-minded people?

Good intentions only got them so far. They went to the mission field, basically, and stopped doing their mission. They were people that took a risk to go, and then now they get rebuked. So why was Haggai Written? And what was the stoppage a result of? First, there was opposition from those who had since moved into the area formerly known as Jerusalem.

So when the people were exiled for 70 years, those who remained in the land were the weak, the poor, the elderly, and the small-time criminals. And a lot can change in 70 years. And the folks who have been calling Jerusalem home for 70 years likely were not happy when they saw 50,000 strangers coming and saying, "We need to build a temple of God.

We need to build a city. Get out. This is our home." And they're like, "We've been here for 70 years, bro. This is not your home." So there's opposition. So the Jews kind of forcibly settle, and they are constantly harassed because they have no city walls. And because there are no city walls, they're constantly living in fear.

Opposition, tension, fear. These contributed to the work stoppage and the rebuilding of the house of God. And I can imagine the people thinking, "Hey, God, you're the one who called us to return to your holy city to build your temple. Why are you making it so hard? Why don't you come help us wipe them all out?

Why are you allowing all of this opposition? We did not leave the comforts of Babylon to struggle like this. It's your fault. You're not that powerful after all, are you?" These are the thoughts that might be going on in their heads. And it's not hard to imagine this because people of God have always said similar things like this, especially when they left their lives in Egypt as slaves.

Secondly, the well-meaning people of God faced physical and economic hardship. Their day-to-day lives were hard. So we see that they never had enough to eat, they never had enough to drink, their clothes and their wages were not enough. So they did not expect a life devoted to serving God would be so rough, would be so difficult.

The years shortly after their return to Jerusalem were met with a severe drought in the land. So in an agrarian economy, drought meant no food. So how can they focus on rebuilding the temple when there's no food? They had mouths to feed. If God really wanted this work to be done, wouldn't he not rain down quail?

Would he not allow manna to come forth? We're hungry. Where is God in all of this? Perhaps the people thought it was God's will just to take care of their families for the time being, until time of harvest. Third, there were also generational differences and expectations. Among the 50,000 that returned, there were a number of old men, heads of clans, many of whom had seen Solomon's temple.

These were old men whose dying wish was likely to rebuild the temple of God. And they probably shared stories of the grandeur and the glory of Solomon's temple to the younger men and their families. They probably talked at length of all the freedoms they used to enjoy as children and the renown their once mighty nation had enjoyed.

And it's not hard to imagine that these old men, these patriarchs who are holding on to the hope of seeing Jerusalem again -- sorry, I just lost my -- -- it's not hard to imagine that these patriarchs were the ones who convinced their families to take them back to the homeland that they had left 70 years before.

So in addition to these old men, there were also young men who were excited for these new adventures, who were passionate about glorious causes. So in Ezra chapter 3, we see an almost comical and yet depressing scene. I'll read this for you. "Yet many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' households, the old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, while many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people.

For the people shouted with a loud shout, and this sound was heard from far away. So when the foundation is laid, the old men weep, because this was such a tiny, run-down, ugly temple, nothing like the one that they grew up looking at and marveling at. 'This temple sucks!' the old men are saying.

'We did not come back to do this! You young men need to work harder!'" So there is a shout of just sadness and sorrow, but at the same time, the younger men, what are they doing? They're pumping their fists and shouting and celebrating as if they had done something absolutely grand for the Lord.

"Look what we did! God is using us! We built the temple of God! Woohoo! We are awesome!" That's this tension that these two generations are facing with each other. So it's not hard to imagine that the old men were constantly criticizing the efforts of the young men who were actually doing the building.

So the young men were probably thinking, "We just need these old men to die, so we could build it our way." And it stopped. Lastly, there was also probably some disunity in the leadership. Joshua, the son of Jehoshadoc the high priest, wanted the Jews to submit their religious liberties to the Persian government, since the Persians were very tolerant people and seemed to be pro-Yahweh.

Zerubbabel, the governor and a descendant from the line of David, felt that the only way to truly honor God was to have a complete independence from all pagan nations, including Persia. So basically, one leader wanted separation of church and state. One leader wanted pure theocracy. Again, there's nothing new under the sun.

So could it be that perhaps these differing opinions on how this new nation-state should be run and governed contributed to the stoppage in the work? After all, when your leadership is divided and there's disunity, you really can't move forward as a people for any kind of work. Opposition, the demands of the day-to-day, generational differences, disunity in leadership -- all these things contributed to the temple being left under construction for 20 years.

So God appears and explicitly says to his people, "Consider your ways. Let's reevaluate these priorities. Have you forgotten the very purpose for which you return to Jerusalem?" And I want to read Haggai 1, 8 through 11 for you. "Go up to the mountains, bring wood, and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified," says the Lord.

"You look for much, but behold, it comes to little, and when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?" declares the Lord of hosts. "Because of my house, which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house. Therefore, because of you, the sky has withheld its dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.

I call for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, on all the labor of your hands." Basically, God is saying, "You know why your lives are so frustrated? It is because you have forgotten the purpose for which you have come." And so here's God's charge to get back on track.

And I'm so blessed and encouraged by their response. Verse 12, "Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehoshadoc, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of their Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him.

And the people showed reverence for the Lord. Then Haggai the messenger of the Lord spoke by the commission of the Lord to the people, saying, 'I am with you,' declares the Lord. So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehoshadoc, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people.

And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts their God on the 24th day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king." The people hear the words, they're like, "You are right. We have forgotten our purpose." And they all somehow rally together in a period of three weeks.

They strategize, they obey, and then they finish the work. Work that has been left untouched for 20 years, God unites their hearts and they get to work. And they finish the temple. So it's a long history lesson, but it's very important because there's a lot of similarities between them and us.

Those in Haggai's audience and you and me sitting here this Sunday have two things very much in common. In fact, the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ and the early Christians shared this commonality with us as well. For all of human history, actually, all the people of God have these two things in common.

And though the historical and cultural contexts may differ to varying degrees, there are two things that are exactly the same for them, for us, for the Apostles, for everybody who are called God's children. The first one is our purpose is exactly the same. Our purpose is the same. And secondly, our priority list, our to-do list, I will call it task.

Our tasks are exactly the same. And allow me to show you a passage you are likely already very familiar with. If you look at this side, you have Haggai. If you look at the other side, you have the Great Commission. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some were doubtful.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." There are parallels here. There is worship, there is a commission, and there is a promise that God is with them, and he is with us. I said that the two things all the people of God throughout the history of time have in common are our common purpose and our common task.

So what is your purpose? What in the world are you doing here this Sunday? Well, James 4:14 says that we are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. The purpose of our short and vapor-like lives is to be spent for the kingdom of God.

Let me say this to you again. The purpose of your existence is to be spent, to be exhausted, to be maximized for the kingdom of God. The only reason your life has any value is for the building up of the kingdom of God. Outside of giving glory to God, your life has zero purpose.

Let that truth sink in. Outside of giving glory to God, your life is meaningless and has zero purpose. Our natural ear and our flesh and our natural man may hear this and be offended. Outside of giving glory to God, your life has zero purpose. This is offensive. And if it's so offensive as you hear this that you have already rejected it, I can almost guarantee that the Holy Spirit of God does not abide in you and you are an unbeliever.

For that is the root of atheism, agnosticism. People do not become atheists because they've done careful research. People become atheists because they want to live for themselves and however they want. And the easiest way to do that is to remove from their religious paradigm a God that is all-demanding.

But the Bible from cover to cover, you cannot land on any other conclusion that outside of giving glory to God, your life has zero purpose. Now if you do have the Spirit of God residing in you, there will be a passionate amen that echoes in your heart when you hear your life's purpose.

When you hear that your life is supposed to be spent for the glory of God, in your hearts there's gonna be a reaction that says, "You know what? Amen." You may struggle always to remember it because I struggle all the time to remember this. But there will be a natural, almost reflexive agreement with this because that's what the Holy Spirit of God points to every time you open up your Bible, that your life outside of serving the Lord has zero purpose.

The truth is actually also very liberating. It's exciting. We serve a God in whom there is ultimate satisfaction and joy. We are being spent for the purposes of the Creator of the universe who knows each and every creature by name. You are loved as a believer. So revel in your purpose.

This makes me think of the Toy Story movies. You guys all seen Toy Story? There are few movies that are as theologically rich as Toy Story. Early on in the movie we are introduced to Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger, and he has been pre-programmed with a mission and with delusions of grandeur that he's a savior.

He believes himself to be of utmost importance and vital to defeat of the empire of the Emperor Zurg. So when the other toys in Andy's room try and welcome him, Buzz is friendly but yet condescending. And when the leader of the toys, Sheriff Woody, Andy's favorite and yet super friendly, selfless, loving leader of the toys proceeds to speak the truth in love, Buzz scoffs at him.

So later in desperation and frustration when the two of them are stranded at a gas station before they go to Pizza Planet, Woody loses his mind and he yells at Buzz, "You are a toy! A child's plaything! T-O-Y, toy!" And you see his mouth just explode in righteous rage.

And it's not until later that Buzz Lightyear has an "aha" moment when he sees hundreds and hundreds of boxed up Buzz Lightyear's and he is finally liberated. The truth sinks in and then in Toy Story 2 and 3 and soon to be 4, he is happier than he has ever been when he discovers that his primary purpose is to be loved and played with.

Because he's loved by a good, good owner. Buzz Lightyear was created and purchased solely for the purpose of bringing delight to this loving owner who treats him with so much affection. And this delight in his purpose is good because his owner is good because he is loved by the owner who is good.

So what is your purpose? What is my purpose? The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, to be loved and to love as we learned through Pastor Nate's message last week. What is your purpose? You are created by God and for God to love God and to serve God.

I will say it again. You are created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. This is the backbone of the meta-narrative in the Scriptures. This is the heartbeat of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And if that is our purpose, then how is that played out in our lives?

What is the application of this purpose? What are we to do with all that we just learned? The specifics may vary for each and every one of us who has accepted Christ Jesus as both Savior and Lord, but our primary task, obligation, and duty in this life for you and for me is one in the same.

It's to make the fulfillment of the Great Commission our life's chief obsession. Our purpose is to glorify the Lord. Our primary task is to build this church, to build his kingdom. But if you forget your purpose, you will be faithless and unfaithful to your task. Again, for the natural man, this is extremely offensive.

Worthy of scorn, derision, ridicule, and objection. How dare you tell me what my purpose is, that I'm created to serve someone else? That's the natural man's rejection. But that is the teaching of the Bible, and you can't get it any other way. If you search the Scriptures carefully, you cannot but land on this conclusion.

So it says, "Consider your ways, consider your purpose, and consider the task you have been assigned to in this life. You and I are not unlike the 50,000 well-meaning people of God who returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian captivity. We too get discouraged by opposition. We're derailed in life by our challenges and hardships.

We're distracted with the good and noble responsibility of putting food on the table, making a living, providing our children with homes and with futures. But you need to remember, consider your ways, that your primary purpose is the worship of God, and our collective purpose is in the building up of his church.

And I'm not just talking Berean community church, but rather his global church. So let me ask you guys a question. Is the Great Commission your life's obsession? Is making disciples of all nations and both learning and teaching all that the Lord has commanded you in his Word your life's primary obsession?

Is the work of God your daily obsession? You don't need to be clergy or in the full-time pastorate have this as your daily obsession. You don't need to be on the missions field abroad to have this be your daily obsession. So let me ask you, what is your daily obsession?

Is it your kids? Your job? Your workout regimen? Getting pregnant? Saving for a house? Entertainment? Your food? Your meals? Others' opinions of you? Being loved by people? Because whatever you daily obsess over, you will build your life around. Whatever you daily obsess over, you will build your life around those things.

Scripture says, "Make your obsession his kingdom and his righteousness. Seek first, zay tay tay. Have as utmost priority his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you," says the oft-quoted Bible verse. So is your daily obsession kingdom work? Or are you saving that for later?

The time has not come. Even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt. I have to finish my degree. I have to finish my career. I have to get married first. I have to have kids first. I have to wait till my kids are grown and in college first.

My job right now is to focus on me. God's kingdom is for later when I have more time and my retirement fund comes in. Are you saving all of your passions for later? If you're in the habit of praying regularly, may I ask you, what do you spend most of your time praying for?

That will be the dead giveaway to what your heart's obsessions are. Because I know guys who they pray hardest when there's a girl that they like. "God, grant me success but not as my will but your will be done. But grant me success and help her like me back." I know guys because they come and talk to me.

"Boss Peter, I like this girl. What do you think?" And I don't even ask them, "Did they pray about it?" Because I know they did. Because they pray passionately about that kind of stuff. Can I challenge you to spend more time praying for church and for evangelistic needs than your prospective job, spouse, or health?

Can I challenge you to not pray for the well-being or the safety of your kids? I purposely do not pray for my kids' safety. As a father, I absolutely desire their safety. And I will gladly put myself in harm's way to keep my son and my daughter safe. But I've discovered something about prayer and its effects on my heart.

The more I pray for something, the more that slowly becomes my objective, my aim, or my goal. Perhaps God desires to use Charis to be a martyr in the missions field. What if God wants Maddie to glorify him through a terminal childhood disease? There is something in my flesh, in my paternal instinct that screams, "No way!

God, no!" But if I truly trust in a God who is perfectly good, and in a God whose will is perfect, I have to trust that he loves my children more fiercely than I ever could. And in this fierce love, if he desires their momentary physical death, then as a created being whose sole purpose is to give glory to God, my soul must cry, "Hallelujah!

God be praised." Because Maddie and Charis, they too have been created by God, for God, to love God, and to serve God. My prayer for my son and daughter is that they will seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, that they will be useful in building God's kingdom, that their lives will be spent and exhausted in honoring Christ.

For therein lies their purpose. My task is the great commission and the greatest good, and their task is a great commission and their greatest good. And currently what God is teaching me is that the best thing that I can do for my kids is not to give them what this world tells me to give them, what some of you tell me to give them, but rather to teach them and to show them the love of God.

To teach them and to practice in front of them the fierce love and grace of God. And to teach them about the broken heart of God. And one of the saddest things about leaving my former job at Compassion is I can't take my kids to meet the poor as easily as I could have, as easily as I can.

I can't now take them to just meet the poor, to show them the broken heart of our God. My primary job as a father is to help my children know the broken heart of our God, to know the deep, deep love of my God, and to have Christ be Lord over all of their lives.

This is your job as a parent. What kind of theology are your children forming as they watch your life? Parents, does God exist for them? Is that what you're teaching them with your life? Or are you teaching them that as for me and my household, we will be exhausted for the purposes of God?

And my purpose, and this is what I daily obsess over in my prayers for my children. And this is also my primary job as a pastor. Some of the people that I love the most, if they are straying from the purposes of God, I actually pray that God would wreck and break their comfortable lives.

If they are straying from God's purposes, I am in this room praying for the wrecking ball of God to enter into their lives. Now I don't tell them. That's what I'm praying for for them. But this is sometimes what I pray. And this is what I pray for some of you.

But on a side note, if your life has been hard recently, don't come and TP my car or something. I'm not sure that my prayers are that effective. Our life's purpose is we are created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. Our life's primary purpose, our one job, is to do our part in fulfilling the Great Commission.

So what then is our application? How do I tangibly and practically go into my mountain and bring down wood and then build in my life? Here it is. Fulfill your duty as a missionary. Fulfill your duty as a missionary. You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a missionary, 1 Peter.

Now the first thought that enters your mind should not be, "Is God calling me to drop everything and go overseas for mission work?" No. The first question that enters your mind should be, "In the mission fields that I am already in, am I being faithful to the task? In the mission fields that God has already divinely placed me in, am I being faithful to the task?

Am I not always when converts in my fields?" Because God is the one who makes them grow, but am I faithfully sowing seeds? Am I faithfully watering in the fields that I'm already in? I actually strongly dislike the romanticizing of overseas mission work. In fact, I think the phrase, "Go on missions," that you hear around Throne a lot, especially before summer, I think it's dangerous and it's an unbiblical phrase.

And I hate it. "Go on missions." I understand it, but I really strongly dislike it. So if you ever say that with me, I might just give you a look. Some people think that serving God as a long-term missionary or a full-time pastor is the holiest of calls and living an ordinary day-to-day life is a compromised life.

No. Some think overseas mission work is the best way to fulfill the Great Commission. No. The only verb, the only command in the Great Commission is "ma'athe tu'o," "make disciples." Going is just one of the attendant participles. You can spend all your life in Orange County and be exceptionally useful in the building up of the kingdom of God.

So some of you guys are like, "Yes! Woohoo! God is not calling me." So the point and emphasis of our message today is this. Daily faithfulness, not long-term legacy, is what you need to think about. Pray over it and be open to going overseas, but do not glorify overseas mission work or pastoral ministry.

Glorify the Lord, and if he calls you to glorify him specifically in a cross-cultural context, then go and glorify him there. Until then, be here passionately. I know Jameliot is a hero to many Christians, and I've heard some people say, "Oh, I want to be like Jameliot and be martyred for the Lord." And I have to hold my tongue because I almost want to tell them, "Don't aspire to die like Jameliot in Ecuador.

Aspire to live like he did in America." And I'm like, "I want to wrap him, knock him in the head." Your focus and your aspiration has to be daily faithfulness, not long-term legacy or glory for yourself. So if you are failing today, right now as a missionary in the field you are already in, please do not go abroad.

If you are banking on the summer trip to snap you out of your spiritual stupor and perpetual dryness, do not go abroad. You will do more harm than good. Well, since we are on the topic of overseas mission work, let me add one more thing. This next statement is more my personal preference and opinion than it is biblical truth, okay?

So, it's still going to be recorded, but whatever. If you're planning to go on a summer trip, may I encourage you to work, save money for it, and put your money where your mouth is rather than hit up everyone around you for support. I guarantee you you will get more out of the trip that way.

You will be taken more seriously. There are other ways to ask for prayer and raise awareness. I want to reserve all my giving to long-term people. If you can fund your own trip, do so. If you can't, just be missional in a less expensive field that you're already in.

Again, this is not necessarily an official charge of the church, so don't go tell Pastor Peter and get me fired or some kind of prohibition. It's just a response from an older Christian and a former overseas missionary seeing summer short-term missions and missionaries who are treating mission work like a Christian resume builder or a glorified vacation.

If you're daily faithful in the field to which God has already called you, He will enlarge your field, guys. If you are faithful right now in the field you are already in, He will enlarge your field is the kingdom economics that we find in Scripture. So the call is to daily faithfulness, not shooting for long-term legacy.

The call is to build His spiritual or to build His church one spiritual brick at a time, and that has to be your obsession. And this can't just be the obsession of those on the pulpit. Be faithful in the field you're already in, and He will enlarge your field.

You know, I'm very unimpressed by believers, especially young guys who talk a big game, who like to speak theology, who tell everyone they're praying over going for overseas. I've seen it all, and I'm very unimpressed. What I am impressed by is a believer who steadily and faithfully lives to please the Lord in all situations, whether at work or at home or at church, in his relationships with people, and especially what he does with his free time and with his free money.

That's what I'm impressed by. And when I see a faithful Christian like this, I go after him. I want to disciple him. I want to train him up. I want to just walk alongside him. Someone who needs an overseas mission trip to be missional is a danger both to himself and to the field.

So with that said, I pray for many missionaries to be sent off from this church. And I pray for many martyrs to be from this church. Not that martyrdom is something you aspire to. Martyrdom is never a goal. But it's evidence, and it's fruit of faithful Christian living. Second Timothy 3:13, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

All men will hate you because of me, says the Lord Jesus. When you shine brightly in the darkness, do you think that there is not going to be a hostile response from those in darkness? If my son and daughter are hated because they are shining brightly, though my flesh screams no, my spirit cries out, 'Hallelujah, Amen, let it be.'" And that is how I am supposed to live, and that is how you are supposed to live, because our purpose is one and the same.

What kind of theology are you teaching your kids? What is your role in building up the universal Church of God? And more specifically and contextually, what is your role in building up this local Church of God and building up the community at Berean? There are many roles. So if you actually look at Ezra chapter 2 in the context of the return from Babylonian captivity, you had a governor in Shesh Bazar, you had a Zerubbabel, then you have a high priest in Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, you have the prophets in Haggai and Zechariah, and then in Ezra chapter 2, there's a list and number of all the other people who returned from the land to build the temple.

You have male servants, female servants, caretakers, male singers, female singers, you have people to tend 736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, 6,720 donkeys. I guess donkeys procreate faster. You had gatekeepers. You have...the list goes on and on. I'm sure there were carpenters, masons, stonecutters, architects, and just buff men to do the lifting.

50,000 people returning with the sole purpose of rebuilding the Temple of God and the city of Jerusalem. One purpose, one task, many moving parts. What moving part are you? Are you being faithful to that task? Maybe you and I need to be careful to consider our ways. Daily faithfulness, not long-term legacy.

Consider your ways. And my prayer is that we respond the same way I see the people responding in Haggai 112. They did not beat themselves up or wallow in their guilt. They obeyed the voice of the Lord, and they showed reverence for the Lord. Can we have that up on the slide?

Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the Joshua son of Zeruzalot, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people showed reverence. So they reflected, they worshipped, they obeyed, and they got moving, and they finished the work.

Here's the application. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be what? Someone say it. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. Maybe your frustration is due to the fact that you've forgotten your purpose. Maybe your depression is due to the fact that you've forgotten your purpose.

Kory Ten Boom once said, "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." In verse 13, God says, "I am with you. I am Immanuel." He waited 20 years. He's a patient God. And I want to close for us by reminding us what kind of God it is that we serve, what kind of God we have been created for, what kind of God we are loved by, and what kind of God we are called to serve.

In Psalm 103, one of my favorite psalms, reads this, "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving-kindness is for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

For he himself knows our frame, and he is mindful that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer. But the loving-kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children.

As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. And may that be your cry at your house. May that be our church's main obsession to see his Great Commission fulfilled. Consider your ways. God is good, and he is deserving of all of who we are. How can we not share?

How can we not go? Consider your ways. Let's pray. Lord, help us to respond appropriately and to show you reverence and to give you the honor that you're due. We stray. We are prone to wander. Help us to stay anchored and not to drift. For these things we pray in Jesus' name.