Haggai - Part 3

Stuart, I know that you've been involved over many years in ministry in North America, local church ministry, a church leadership situation where you've seen a church grow very significantly, and I wondered whether you would be able to share with us some of your reflections on that. What are important factors in seeing a church grow and leading a growing church like this as you've done over so many years? Perhaps if you would share something about that. Thank you. Well, thank you. One of the things that has been very exciting for Jill and me in these last few months is that we have finally stepped down from our responsibility as the senior pastor of Elmbrook Church and have been immediately commissioned as ministers-at-large. Somebody said to me, what exactly does a minister-at-large do? And I said, that is the wrong question. The right question is, what does a minister-at-large not do? And the answer is, he does not do any longer anything he does not want to do. And so we are having a wonderful time. At the same time that I had my seventieth birthday, I completed thirty years at the church, and it was also the end of the millennium, even though we celebrated that one year prematurely, and it was obvious to me that that was the time to make a change. Because at my age, three things can happen to a pastor. They can either carry you out, or they can kick you out, or you can walk out. And being totally committed to self-preservation, I decided to walk out. And they immediately appointed my senior associate as the new senior pastor, and we've had a very, very smooth transition indeed. We have had a most wonderful thirty years pastoring the church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And the first thing I told the church when I went there as their pastor was, you are either the most courageous or the most stupid people on the North American continent. I have no experience of pastoring a church. I have no training whatsoever in pastoring a church. All I can tell you is I know an excellent book on the subject, and I promise you I will read it, mark it, learn it, inwardly digest it, and teach it. And the only thing I ask of you is that you will join with me in doing it. And as far as I know, that is the key to a healthy church, knowing an excellent book on the subject, reading it, marking it, learning it, inwardly digesting it, teaching it, and doing it. And that's all we've done. So now you can throw away your other twenty books on how to grow a church. Thank you, Stuart. A very important reminder of the basis of all that we do as the people of God rooted in Scripture. Arthur Pont, who is one of the members of our Keswick Convention Council, a very valued member who is involved in many other aspects of Christian work in this country, is going to lead us in prayer. I want to offer two prayers with you, one of praise and one of petition. Almighty God, hear us, we humbly pray, as we seek to worship you, for whom you are. You're the only infinite and supreme God of all creation. You're a God of justice and judgment. You're awesome in majesty and breathtaking in beauty. You are God supreme without equal or flaw. You are measureless and infinite and ultimate and incomparable. You're stupendous and awesome. You're throned in splendor and radiant in majesty. You dwell in dazzling light and are beautiful beyond description. Your power is unlimited. Your command is absolute. Your holiness searing your nature perfect. We pray to you and come to you in great humility, yet you're also a God of infinite compassion and tenderness. Hearing a child's cry and an old man's whisper, your mercy is unlimited and undeserved, embracing your enemies as well as your friends and flows from the dawn of time to the end of history. You are the only God whose love is eternal beyond the boundaries of time and space, and yet you allow us to call you our Father. You are our God. You have told us to have no other gods before you. You are our God. Oh, praise your holy and majestic name, Jehovah God, Lord of all, amen, and yet again, amen. Heavenly Father, fill Stuart Briscoe with your Holy Spirit. Speak to us, we pray, by your word. Move our hearts by your word. Mold our wills by your word. Change our lives by your word. For Jesus' sake, we pray, amen. Let's stand together as we sing a song of confidence and trust in the promises of God This song may be new to some of us, and so the band will sing verse one, then we'll all join in. My hope rests firm on Jesus Christ. Let's stand. My hope rests firm on Jesus Christ. He is my only thing. The world, the world should point and scorn. His ransom needs be free. His ransom needs be free. My hope sustains me as I strive and stray toward the Lord. The dead I stumble into sin. His death pays for it all. His death pays for it all. My hope provides me with a spur to help me run this race. I know my tears will turn to joy. I see my hope is truly with my Lord. To know that I am called to serve Him gladly all my days. His praise before His throne. Please be seated. And Alison Ridgebridger is going to read our scripture reading from Haggai chapter two, and then Stuart will bring the exposition. We're reading Haggai chapter two, verses one to nine. On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai. Speak to Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua, son of Jehoshadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? But now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehoshadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. And work. For I am with you, declares the Lord Almighty. This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my spirit remains among you. Do not fear. This is what the Lord Almighty says. In a little while, I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations. And the desire of all nations will come. And I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord Almighty. The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house, says the Lord Almighty. And in this place, I will grant peace, declares the Lord Almighty. Amen. Good morning and greetings to everybody sitting in the tent here at Keswick once again. The sun is shining. One thing I learned coming to the Keswick Convention is you must comment on the weather. I'm mentioning that the sun is shining, of course, because we're also greeting our radio listeners through Radio Premier, and we wish you a good morning and hope that you're having a good day down there as well. Particularly those of you who've been listening to Telling the Truth, that is our daily broadcast. You've just been listening to Jill Briscoe. Now you've got the other half of the outfit. We're going to turn now to the book of Haggai chapter 2. This particular rather brief prophecy contains four messages that the Lord brought through Haggai to the people of Israel, returned from exile, commissioned with the task of rebuilding the temple and reinstituting the formal worship of Jehovah. We looked at the first message yesterday morning, which we called a message of challenge. It came from the prophet Haggai because the hand of the Lord was on him, the Lord had sent him, and he spoke everything that the Lord had commanded him to say. One of the most encouraging things you can possibly read is that when the people listened to the word of the Lord, the Lord stirred up their spirits, he assured them that he was with them, and they set to work and did what he told them to do. Now, when you come to the end of chapter 1, you think, well, that must be the end of the story. Haggai's job was to get them fired up and get them back to work rebuilding the temple. They'd made a great start, but for 18 years they had left the work to lie fallow. Now he's got them working again, he can go home and do whatever it is that he was doing before he became a prophet. But to think of it in those terms would be to seriously misunderstand the prophecy of Haggai. For less than a month later, Haggai comes with another message. That is, less than a month after they had started the rebuilding project. To be precise, he came with a message on October the 17th, 520 B.C. at 9.35 in the morning. No, that was a little added extra just to see if anybody was paying attention. When we look at this message, we are in for a surprise. For after they had set to work with great enthusiasm, incredibly, they ran out of gas. And less than a month later, it seems that all the enthusiasm, all the drive, all the motivation is dissipating, and now they need not a word of challenge. What they need now is a word of encouragement, a message of encouragement. And that is the title of our second Bible reading here today. And so, that is the task of Haggai. Sometimes the task of the prophet is to bring a word of challenge. Sometimes the task is to bring a word of encouragement. Let me identify for you three things by way of outline. First of all, we will look into this passage and read something about the debilitating dynamic of discouragement. The debilitating dynamic of discouragement. Secondly, we will talk about the empowering effect of encouragement. The empowering effect of encouragement. And thirdly, we'll talk about the positive power of promise. You don't have to suffer from alliteration, but if you do, it helps on occasion. First of all, then, the debilitating dynamic of discouragement. Isn't it interesting that the Lord instructs Haggai to say to the people, who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? Now, this is a bit of a downer, isn't it? It's a rather discouraging approach, and the Lord is telling Haggai to point this out to the people. Simple fact of the matter is this, that the Lord wants them to recognize that the work of the Lord is not all hype, and the work of the Lord is not all glory, and the work of the Lord is not all fun, and the work of the Lord is not all excitement. That in actual fact, if you're going to be involved in the work of the Lord, you are going to hit some rough water at times. You are going to run into times of discouragement. But the point of God showing this to them and reminding them of this is simply that if you're going to engage in the work of the Lord, you've got to know how to handle discouragement. If you can't handle discouragement, you will not succeed in the work of the Lord. Now, why would it be that these people were discouraged? Well, if you refer to the book of Ezra, and for the sake of time I won't turn you there, you can check on this later as you have it in your outline if you so desire, you will find that they had repetitive problems with the authorities. It seemed that they were always running into bureaucratic roadblocks. There were people who were just making it plain difficult for them to get the work done. And that can be debilitating. That can become very discouraging. I remember when we extended the call to go as pastor to Elmbrook Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the United States, we did what we obviously had to do and that was apply for a visa. In those days there was a fast track for visas for those in the ministry. And so we were assured, you'll have your visa in two weeks. Well, after two months we called the American Embassy and said, do you have our visa for us please? And they said, well, we've got a slight problem here. You notice that I'm completely bilingual now. And I said, what is the nature of the problem? They said, well, we've discovered that you've applied for a visa as a minister but you are not a minister so you can't have one. And I said, why do you think I'm not a minister? They said, because you haven't pastored a church. I said, do you think Billy Graham is a minister? They said, yeah, he sure is. I said, which church does he pastor? They said, well, the guess you got is there. And so they said, okay, and I explained to you that you can be an evangelist who's a minister or a pastor who's a minister. Oh, gee, yeah, well, we'll send it to you right away. And so we waited another month and no visa so I called back again. I said, what happened to our visa? And they said, well, we've discovered that you're not really a minister you've written books so you're an author. I said, well, that is true, but when preachers write sermons sometimes they stick 12 of them together and put a hard cover on them and they become a book. I didn't tell them I'd never written a sermon in my life. And they said, oh, gee, yeah, we yeah, right, okay. And, well, we'll have it for you right away. And another month went by and I called them on the phone again. I said, what happened to our visa? Well, we've discovered you've been behind the Iron Curtain and we're wondering if you're a communist sympathizer. And I said, well, if you've seen what happens in communist land, you'd be sympathetic too. And it went on and on and on like this, just bureaucratic roadblocks. Now, ours were nothing compared to the problems that they were experiencing here. But that's one reason why the people began to run out of gas. The debilitating dynamic of discouragement. The second thing that led to their discouragement was remembrances of former glories. How does this temple, the foundation of which have now been completed, how does it look to you now? And I pointed out to you yesterday that some of the old-timers who must have been very, very young if they had any vivid or clear recollections of the former temple, their attitude was this is a very, very poor excuse for a temple. The glory has departed. I love the story of the American tourist who was traveling around the south of Wales. He'd read all about the Welsh revivals and so he wanted to see some of the scenes of the great revival. And he found an old man who actually remembered them. And this old gentleman took him around some of the chapels and he showed them where the choirs used to sing where the men would come from the coal mines with the coal dust still on their faces and they would go and they would sing the great hymns of the faith and then the old man looked at these great chapels there that were completely empty and he said oh but the glory has departed. The glory has departed. And digging back into his memories of the Old Testament he wanted to say you could write Ichabod right across the front of this church. But unfortunately his memory was not as good as it might have been. And he said the glory has departed you could write Knickerbocker right across Well I'm not quite sure what you do with Knickerbocker across the front of your church. I suppose you could sing As Pants the Heart but that's a that just occurred to me on the spur of the moment there. So here's the difficulty. Repetitive problems with the authorities. Remembrances of former glories. The good old days are no longer with us. Thirdly there was the recognition that expectations might not be met. This was desperately debilitating for them. I want you to notice that on the date in which Haggai speaks to them, the 21st day of the seventh month if you check in Leviticus chapter 23 sometime you'll discover that that was the last day the great day of the feast of tabernacles. And on the last day of the feast of tabernacles, the great day of the feast of tabernacles they would actually read from Ezekiel chapter 47. And if you check on Ezekiel chapter 47 sometime you'll discover it gives a magnificent, stupendous picture of the temple. And if you were there on the particular day, presumably they celebrated the day of tabernacles because we know that they did when they started to rebuild the temple again. If you had been there and they read Ezekiel 47 and you got this glorious picture of what Ezekiel was predicting about the temple and then you looked at the thing that they'd been able to do, you'd say to yourself, you know, we're getting all hyped up here. Ezekiel is getting us all excited about the simple fact of the matter is this is totally realistic, unrealistic. It just isn't going to happen. Ezekiel needs to get real. It's alright these enthusiastic people coming and getting us all excited about these things, but we just get all pumped up and then when we go back to reality we just get all discouraged all over again. Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever run into bureaucratic problems? Have you ever found yourself in difficulties remembering the former glories and saying whatever happened around here? Have you ever got yourself into a situation where you've gone to a great conference, perhaps Keswick, or you've made the pilgrimage to Willow Creek in America and you've got all thrilled and excited about your church becoming a mega church like their church and then you've come back to your little flock and you say whatever happened around here? There's a debilitating dynamic of discouragement that is part of the reality of the work of the Lord. The fourth dimension I would suggest to you of their discouragement was the realization that problems would not be solved overnight. You will remember that in chapter 1 one of the things that they were experiencing was that they were sowing, they were planting much, but harvesting very little. This was a direct fulfillment of the part of the curse that God had said would be the lot of covenant people, you remember in Deuteronomy 28 that if they lived in disobedience the harvest would dry up they would have all kinds of problems with the fertility and the productivity of the land. Now if God is going to turn things around for them, they are smart enough to know this, that a harvest doesn't suddenly flourish overnight. It was not going to be a case of waving a magic wand and all their troubles would go. That there were no easy solutions that they would not be solved overnight. And probably they had got into the kind of attitude that we tend to get into now. And that is that we don't want to wait for anything we demand instant gratification. And if it doesn't come we become discouraged. And fifthly they were going to have to deal with the reality that if anything was going to be done about fulfilling the task that had been given to them, it was only going to happen through blood, sweat, and tears. That was how it would be accomplished. Put all that together and you've got the dynamics of discouragement. Now what do you do when you become discouraged? Well, sometimes the tendency when you become discouraged is to become negative. Sometimes the tendency is to degenerate from being negative into being skeptical. Sometimes your skepticism can harden into cynicism. Sometimes when you become discouraged you will find that you fit into the category of those of whom it is said, Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they will not be disappointed. Sometimes when you become discouraged you simply go through the motions because you've always gone through the motions and somebody has to go through the motions without any sense of enthusiasm, without any sense of expectation, without any sense that you are part and parcel of something greater and grander and more glorious than yourself. I submit to you that the necessity for a message of encouragement from Haggai on this day, the 17th of August, 520 BC, 935 in the morning, was simply that they were becoming deeply discouraged. All right, with that in mind then let's look at the contrast here. The empowering effect of encouragement. Notice that after the Lord himself has raised this question who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory in order that they might confront their discouragement, the Lord himself now against the backdrop of a realistic appraisal of their discouragement, now speaks the words of encouragement through Haggai and what words of encouragement they are. Let me read to you now from verse 4. But now be strong O'serubbable declares the Lord Be strong O Joshua son of Jehoshadak the high priest Be strong O you people of the land Now obviously this is repeated three times repeated presumably for emphasis. Sometimes we don't hear the thing the first time. Sometimes we don't get it the second time. Sometimes the Lord says listen to me again and three times the powerful message comes Be strong You'll notice that it is an all inclusive message It applies to the prince It applies to the priest It applies to the people. Everybody is to hear this word Be strong Now if you look in your Bible, if you're reading a new international version as I am it says but now be strong O'serubbable declares the Lord. Let me be technical for just one minute It won't be longer than one minute, I promise you But the way the NIV has translated the Hebrew here, the expression is translated as a verb There's a very good case to be made that it was not actually a verb but it was a noun and then it would be translated as follows Be strong O'serubbable in inverted commas and then afterwards it would say Oracle of God The whole point of that is that when God speaks an oracle it is an authoritative statement It brooks no argument It is not a suggestion It is not a mild mannered insinuating thought It is the Lord Almighty who makes an authoritative statement and this authoritative statement is to be heard and to be obeyed Be strong Oracle of God What do you do with an oracle of God? Some time ago I was doing a seminar in a little church in North Carolina talking to people about how to study the Bible for themselves and I was explaining to them that perhaps one way of studying the Bible is to identify different themes and perhaps have a system of different colored pencils and if you come across a command underline it in blue come across a promise underline it in red etc. etc. and some time later I went back to that church and during the course of my preaching this time, not a seminar preaching I said with a great rhetorical flourish as we preachers do What do you do with the commands of God? and a little lady who attended my seminar put up her hand and she said underline them in blue Well I was so excited about that but that was not what I had in mind Let me ask you a question my friends this morning. What do you do with the oracles of God? You obey them You say but I don't feel very strong but I'm not a very strong person but you see my problem is now suddenly when you see be strong is an oracle of God the fact that you're not very strong is a fundamental irrelevance the fact that you don't feel very strong has absolutely nothing to do with the issue the fact that you don't particularly want to be strong is absolutely totally another subject the one subject that matters is this God is saying brooking no argument I'm telling you be strong He doesn't tell us to do it without giving us the power to do it you know that you know that God himself is the dynamic of all his own demands you know that God is not an Egyptian taskmaster who tells us to make bricks but refuses to give us straw God is the one who says be strong that's an order don't argue no excuses, no exemptions get on with it you see there are different ways of encouraging people and that's one of them be strong here's a second word of encouragement be strong and work well that's a novel idea be strong and work what does that mean? what it means is this it doesn't matter if you're a prince and it doesn't matter if you're a priest and it doesn't matter if you're a prophet and it doesn't matter if you're one of the people this is addressed to all of you you say he doesn't address it to the prophet you're right but in Ezra we're told that the prophet Haggai and Zechariah joined in the work in other words there is something for everybody to do do something you know what happens in the church as far as the work of the Lord is concerned we say oh the work of the Lord is not functioning very well here oh it's very discouraging here nothing very much is happening here something ought to be done now when we have decided something ought to be done what do we do? we form a committee and after we have formed a committee we discuss it at great length and decide that now is not the time to do anything so we refer it to a oh you've heard it I don't need to proceed with this talk you know where it's going we refer it to a sub-committee etc. etc. and then eventually we get a report back from the sub-committee that has taken so long that the committee can't remember what it was they referred to the sub-committee but something has been done and listen very carefully in the church of Jesus Christ one thing we have to recognize is this when all is said and done far more is said than done now what do we encourage people to do? we encourage people to be strong because God says so and do something it's amazing even if you can't do much if you can't do much and you do something doing something is a whole lot better than doing nothing and as you begin to do something and you see something that needs doing and in the strength of the Lord you go about doing it you will begin to discover that you become encouraged yourself and you become an encouragement to other people there are different ways of encouraging people this is the second way thirdly you'll notice that God then goes on to say for I am with you declares the Lord Almighty now you'll notice that it is a verb here declares that the same thing obtains the same thing applies this can be a noun as well another delightful authoritative oracle of God what a great oracle of God this one is put it in inverted commas put it in quotes make a plaque out of it out of Lakeland green slate hammer it on your wall I am with you oracle of God this is a very fascinating statement actually because you see up until this time they'd got the general sort of idea that God was with them and manifested his presence in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire at night in the tabernacle and then his glory had filled the temple but now the tabernacle is gone and the temple is in ruins and the glory has departed you remember? Echabod you remember what has happened? now they need to hear this word listen, even though the tabernacle has molded into dust and even though the temple has been razed and even though the glory of the visible tangible presence of evidence of God's presence is no longer with us I am with you oracle years ago I got a very odd postcard it was an invitation to the Polish Millennium now I have many weird friends they're all in the ministry people in the ministry have a weird sense of humour I knew that this was some weird humorous prank on the part of somebody although I did think they'd gone to an awful lot of trouble to do this thing, so I ignored this invitation to the Polish Millennium two weeks later I got a telephone call you have not answered our invitation I said which invitation was that to come to the Polish Millennium I said the Polish Millennium what is the Polish Millennium they said the celebration of Christianity being in Poland for a thousand years this was in the mid 1960's the depth of the Cold War I said well what is this they said it is a celebration we want you to come and speak at our celebration I said well I don't understand they said the Catholics wanted the Pope to come but the Communists have said no and the Protestants want Billy Graham to come and the Catholics have said no and while they're arguing about Billy Graham and the Pope nobody has heard of you and we thought we could so I went the depth of the Cold War the time they were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Great Communist Revolution I remember arriving in Warsaw they said things can be difficult here so don't bring any details of addresses or names or telephone numbers we'll meet you at the airport and of course they didn't arrived in the dead of night the airport closes up no planes going out anywhere I'm standing there I don't know anything I don't know anybody don't know what to do I'm thinking of my wife and my family and my home and I'm thinking why in the world am I here and they're ushering me out of the airport because they're locking it up for the night nowhere to go snowing bitterly cold I was not a happy camper stood there for about half an hour wondering what to do and then eventually I heard a voice behind me say this girl I turned around and there was a man in a long leather coat with a collar turned up and a wide brimmed hat with the brim turned down I remember four years ago he used to show up every morning at quarter to eleven and so I found myself saying I didn't do it I promise you I won't do it again just let me out of here here take me I'll come quietly and he said you Stuart Briscoe I said yes and he didn't arrest me it was worse he hugged me and he kissed me on the left cheek and he kissed me on the right cheek and horror of horrors he kissed me right on the front and I thought Lord I'm coming home he said come quickly I'm sorry I was late come quickly so we got on the street car in old Warsaw we hung on the straps and as we hung on the straps he said to me speak loudly of Jesus I said what I don't know any Polish he said you know German I said yes he said speak loudly of Jesus in German and English so I did quietness descended on the street car as we bounced along on the old cobbled streets of Warsaw people began to listen straining to hear as I spoke loudly of Jesus and I found myself enjoying it and then I thought to myself what a dramatic change in me few minutes ago I was depressed I was discouraged I was downhearted just wanted to go home now I'm all excited about being here what's the difference and then I looked at my friend in the long leather coat and the broad-whimmed hat and I thought the difference is he is with me and then I was ashamed then I was ashamed because you see I had forgotten lo I am with you always even to the end of the age and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me and the reminder of his presence fills you with encouragement there are different ways of encouraging people that's another one see how we do it oracle of God be strong do something I am with you but then read on he goes on and says even further verse 5 this is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt this is what I covenanted with you now why would God bring up the covenant at this point well the reason he would bring up the covenant with these people the people of God at this time that was the foundational statement that was the bedrock of their experience with him let me read to you from Exodus chapter 19 God speaking about the covenant you yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagle's wings brought you to myself now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession although the whole earth is mine you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation oh there's so much here in the covenant we'll need to revisit this again to understand some more of what Haggai is saying to the people but let me just remind you of what God is saying to these discouraged people he is saying to them do you remember what I did to Egypt oh yes and do you remember how I carried you across the sea and I brought you into the wilderness and I bore you like an eagle carries its young on its wings do you remember oh yes and do you remember how I brought you to myself at Sinai and I revealed myself to you as the God of the covenant oh yes and do you remember that when I established my covenant with you I told you that you were my treasured possession oh yes and do you remember that I said that you would become a kingdom of priests oh yes and do you remember that at that particular time I said that you would be a holy nation oh yes well what's the matter with you didn't I make a covenant with you you know what I did to Egypt read your history be fully acquainted with what I have done down through the centuries you know what I promised you didn't I promise that you would be a treasured possession my crown jewels yes didn't I promise you that you would become a kingdom of priests not a kingdom of soldiers who would rule by force not a kingdom of politicians who would rule by compromise but a kingdom of priests a kingdom who would rule and reign on the basis of worship and service that you would come together as a unique people who would worship the Lord your God and flowing out of that worship would be a lifestyle of sacrificial service and out of your worship and sacrificial service the kingdom would spread to the uttermost parts of the earth isn't that what I told you oh yes and didn't I tell you you would be a holy nation a nation uniquely set apart from me among all the other nations so that people would look at me in a fragmenting culture and see something that cohered and see something that is unique and see something that glorifies me isn't that what I said I would do to you oh yes what's the matter with you what's the matter with you retrace your history reacquaint yourself with my promises get yourself in step with my purposes and remember that you are part and parcel of something great something grand something glorious you are a holy nation you are a kingdom of priests you are my treasured possession oh by the way you don't know what Peter did with this don't you you know that he lifted that right out of exodus and he plunked it right down in one of his epistles and you know who he was talking about don't you the church sisters and brothers do you need a word of encouragement let me give it to you it's this I am with you says the Lord be strong oracle of God do something remember your history look at the covenant recognize that you're part of something great and grand and glorious that transcends anything you can imagine and look at the little piece that you're involved in and see that it is an integral part of something that stretches from eternity to eternity and look at the little thing that you're involved in and recognize that it is part and parcel of something that will be established as a kingdom of priests a holy nation uniquely set apart for the glory of God and be encouraged different ways of encouraging people aren't there that's another one I've got another one too read on for I am with you declares the Lord Almighty this is what I covenanted you when you came out of Egypt and my spirit remains among you my spirit remains among you I like that word remains I wonder what he was intending to convey here I think this is only my surmise I think perhaps he was saying to them think back do you remember God is saying to his beleaguered people do you remember when I created the world and that when I created the world the spirit of God was brooding on the face of the deep he was operative in creation that mighty dynamic work of God do you remember that? we learnt about that in Sabbath school well that's great that spirit remains among you now do you remember Joseph do you remember Joseph carried off down into Egypt got himself into all kinds of a mess but the Lord was with him and as time went on he rose to the pinnacle of power in Egypt and saved the Middle East do you remember that oh yes do you remember how he got that position well yes because Pharaoh looked at him one day and said we need a key man here can we find such a man as this is a man in whom the spirit of God is remember the spirit of God resting on Joseph oh yes my spirit remains with you remember Moses remember Moses getting totally overloaded with that mega church he was trying to pastor yes do you know how you pastor a mega church delegation that's right do you remember what Moses had to do well he had to gather a team of elders around him and what did God do well God took the spirit that rested on Moses and put it on those elders and what happened they got the thing organized and that same spirit remains among you we of course can look back and we can go down through our history and remember the day of Pentecost the spirit remains among us and we can look at the days of Calvin and we can look at the days of Luther we can look at the days of Wilberforce we can look at the days of Moody we can look at the days of Billy Graham and we can see wherever God has accomplished anything of lasting eternal significance his spirit has been at work and we say to each other his spirit remains among us amen that's another way you encourage people another way you encourage people and he wraps it all up by saying to the men don't fear don't fear what don't fear that I have deserted you don't fear that your enemies will triumph don't fear that the project will fail don't fear that my purposes will be thwarted for I am your God do you get a feel for the empowering effect of encouragement well we come now to our third point and we also come to the time to finish the young man who has taken over as senior pastor for me at Albrook Church said to me years ago Stuart I don't know how many years preaching you got left in you but I do know this you never need to prepare another sermon I said why? he said you can always preach the third point you never got to well this is your homework the positive power of promise I'm just going to read it to you one story and then I'm through verse 6 see if you can pick up an emphasis here this is what the Lord Almighty says and a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth the sea and the dry land I will shake all the nations and the desires of all the nations will come and I will fill this house with glory says the Lord Almighty the silver is mine and the gold is mine declares the Lord Almighty the glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house says the Lord Almighty and in this place I will did anybody notice a slight emphasis there? I was preaching in a church in England long long time ago it was a very big church and a very small congregation they were all huddled on the back row as far out of earshot as they could get I was yelling and shouting as loud as I could to try and make myself heard and they were sitting there in a somnolent posture I wondered if anybody could hear anything I was saying so I made a deliberate mistake with emphasis I said this on one occasion Jesus said behold I stunned at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and open the door I might come in and they maintained their somnolent posture with the exception of one little boy who shut up in his seat shouted at the top of his voice he didn't this woke his mother she grabbed hold of him pulled him down on her seat I said leave him alone missus he's the only one listening I said what did you say son? I said he didn't who didn't? Jesus didn't Jesus didn't what? He didn't say what you said he said what did I say he said you said Jesus said I might come in what did he say? I will come in what's the difference between I will and I might well if I if I might I might not if I might I might not but if I will I will and that's the word of encouragement I will so be encouraged and do something and be strong for I am with you my spirit remains among you and don't forget the covenant Lord take your word to our hearts make it make sense and be glorified in our response of faith and obedience in Jesus name Amen that's it