Build Your House On Promises

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Trust in the promises of the Lord of Hosts fo rthe building of your temple.

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We have a good new year message tonight! Anyone do resolutions? Let me hear some of your resolutions...
The message tonight comes from Haggai and it’s a good message for progress. But this is church right, so we’re talking about spiritual progress! But that’s good, because I believe that gives you progress everywhere else too!
So Haggai was a prophet who God told to tell the Israelites to rebuild the Temple. Anyone remember what the Temple was?...
Many years before Haggai, the Israelites had been conquered as punishment for their unfaithfulness to God, and the Temple was destroyed. God moved in the king of the nation they were captives in and that king sent them back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple, but there were some jerks around who started messing with them and they didn’t do it! So here we are a few years later and God is once again telling the Israelites to rebuild the Temple!
As we talk about this tonight, you need to understand that the Temple was the dwelling place for God’s presence. Why is there no Temple today? Where is God’s Spirit? Inside every Christian! So think of your self as a temple of the Lord! You house God’s presence in you! Here’s what you need to know:
Trust in the promises of the Lord of Hosts for the building of your temple.
Read and pray.

Building the temple is met with discouragement.

It is hard and met with resistance in the world and attacks from the enemy.
It’s a bad feeling to be excited about something and then run into a lot of resistance. For instance, I think snakes are awesome. I’d love to get a pet python! You ever seen a snake eat a mouse?! But Kristen is 500% against this idea. BOOO!!!
The Israelites were trying to do what the were supposed to, but the enemy was attacking them with doubt.
This always happens.
Here’s what happened a few years ago when they first started trying to rebuild the Temple.
Ezra 4:1–6 HCSB
When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple for Yahweh, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the leaders of the families and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we also worship your God and have been sacrificing to Him since the time King Esar-haddon of Assyria brought us here.” But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other leaders of Israel’s families answered them, “You may have no part with us in building a house for our God, since we alone must build it for Yahweh, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.” Then the people who were already in the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build. They also bribed officials to act against them to frustrate their plans throughout the reign of King Cyrus of Persia and until the reign of King Darius of Persia. At the beginning of the reign of Ahasuerus, the people who were already in the land wrote an accusation against the residents of Judah and Jerusalem.
This happened when Paul and Barnabas were preaching the Gospel.
Acts 13:8–10 HCSB
But Elymas the sorcerer (this is the meaning of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Then Saul—also called Paul—filled with the Holy Spirit, stared straight at the sorcerer and said, “You son of the Devil, full of all deceit and all fraud, enemy of all righteousness! Won’t you ever stop perverting the straight paths of the Lord?
This is something we struggle with right? Opposition. Our own doubt...
We have to learn to deal with it. Let’s see what the Israelites did.

The Lord reminds them and encourages them with the Covenant.

When you’re discouraged, be reminded of God’s promises.
Do you ever go back and look at nice messages your girl friend or boy friend has sent you? Or nice Insta posts? pull phone out and look
There are books you can buy that are just lists of promises God has made to us.
He reminds his people that He is with them.
He starts and ends with that.
He assures them that their covenant is still in place, guaranteeing his presence if they are faithful.
His Spirit is not only their encouragement to work, but it’s also their reason for working; to increase his presence.
This is why we work on our temples!
When we get into these times of discouragement and feeling attacked, we have to run to God’s promises!
Acts 2:38–39 HCSB
“Repent,” Peter said to them, “and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
Side note here, God never promises to not give us more than we can handle...
We take his promises and we go forward with them, with faith that God will provide.

The Lord sovereignly provided for the Temple what was his anyway.

Trust God to provide what you need to build your Temple.
God provided for the Israelites as they left Egypt… And He provides for this Temple through the Roman empire.
He assures them that He will bring what they need to complete the Temple.
They’re worried about having the nice things to build the Temple because they are basically freed slaves.
God assures them that He will sovereignly bring what they need from other nations.
When God gives us a task, He’ll provide what we need for his will to be done. Just check for his Spirit!
He provides us what we need to build our temples. To grow closer to Him and be more like Jesus.
Notice the emphasis on God’s glory in these verses. That’s the most important part of the Temple.
The most important thing for us as temples is that we show God’s glory. We put it on display.
You may think God is pretty arrogant for this, but don’t you like to show good things off? God is gracious and generous in this!
For the Israelites, God’s glory was shown in the Temple. We can personally show God’s glory.
Look at verse 9. The latter glory and peace are pointing to forward.
I can’t read this and not see it pointing to Jesus. When Jesus was in the Temple, it’s glory far outweighed the previous Temple.
When Christ died, the curtain was torn and God’s presence was no longer confined.
God’s Spirit and glory were mobilized in Christians.
The Temple was not a place of peace. It was a place of effort.
Christ brought peace for those who pursued God by faith.

So to be a temple of God’s Spirit, let his glory shine through you and rest in his peace.

When difficulty and discouragement comes, remember his promises.
; no one can take you from the Father’s hand.
; He won’t leave you as an orphan.
; nothing will separate you from his love.
; Christ offers abundant life
; He will give you rest
; you can be content in Him no matter what your situation
; confess with you mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and you will have everlasting life.
All the other promises hinge on that one. If you have never claimed that promise, do it tonight!
If you have but are in the midst of discouragement in your walk with God, cry out to Him to let you feel his presence and remind you of his promises!
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