Holiness:
Defined:
Aspects of:
Why I Must Make Holiness a Priority:
- Holiness isn't CONTAGIOUS . (Hg 2:10-13)
- Holiness is a HEART issue. (Hg 2:14)
- Holiness is God's AGENDA. (Hg 2:15-17)
- Holiness sees God at WORK. (Hg 2:18-19)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:03
Okay, open up your Bibles to the book of Haggai.
00:09-00:13
We have a fan of Haggai today in the service.
00:14-00:16
Hopefully many by this point.
00:16-00:23
This is actually the third of four sermons that are actually in the book of Haggai.
00:25-01:24
To give you a little background on what's happening, recall at this point in the nation of Israel after the division of the nation after the conquest by the Assyrians and the Babylonians the Lord through the Persians was allowing the Israelites to go back into their own land. Do you remember under the civil leader of Zerubbabel and under the high priest Joshua the Lord sent 50,000 Israelites back to Jerusalem. Remember the Persian king said well the people that we conquer are probably going to be happier to serve us if they're in their own neighborhoods and that was ordained by God getting his people back in the land that he promised to Abraham. Well you recall 536 BC they started to rebuild the temple and just a couple of years into the project they stopped and they didn't pick it back up again.
01:25-01:30
For 14 years, the temple just sat there, started.
01:32-01:33
And what were they doing?
01:34-01:37
Well, we saw they were working on their own houses.
01:37-01:38
They were kind of doing their own thing.
01:38-01:43
And the Lord sent this prophet to say, hey, you need to stop and think about what you're doing.
01:44-01:48
You've no longer allowed me to be the priority of your life.
01:49-01:51
Now I'm at the bottom of your list.
01:51-01:52
You're concerned about building your house.
01:52-01:58
God says, "What about my house?" And that's what the book of Haggai is about, is priorities.
01:59-02:01
And that's what we're looking at this month.
02:01-02:03
How are you doing in your life with your priorities?
02:05-02:11
The things in your life that should be the most important, are they actually the most important things in your life?
02:13-02:15
Or do you find yourself trying to squeeze those things in?
02:18-02:20
First message, we said the priority is worship.
02:21-02:23
God first in every area of my life.
02:24-02:26
And last week we talked about relationship.
02:29-02:33
That our work for the Lord has to come out of our walk with the Lord.
02:34-02:38
And we saw that the Lord promised the Israelites, I will be with you, I will be with you.
02:38-02:40
That's the basis of what we do.
02:40-02:42
It's a partnership with God.
02:44-02:45
It's God-empowered work.
02:48-02:52
Today we're going to talk about the priority of holiness.
02:54-02:56
I want you to jot some notes down on your outline.
02:56-02:58
I just have a section on there that says holiness.
02:59-03:09
Because when we say holiness, I'm sure there are people sitting in this room right now that are nodding their heads, but inside they're going, "I have no idea what that even means." I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands.
03:14-03:20
you have some concept, rightly or wrongly, of what holiness is.
03:22-03:33
So, first of all, holiness is not, holiness is not, break this down, it's not outward things, okay?
03:33-03:38
Some people think holiness is, you have to dress this certain way.
03:38-03:41
Now certainly we promote modesty, okay?
03:43-04:03
But some people take that to mean, here's what holiness is, if you're a woman, you have to have your hair in a bun, you have to have a floor-length denim skirt, okay, brand new Skechers, and unless you're wearing that, those of you who are laughing know exactly what I'm talking about.
04:03-04:06
And if that's your fashion style, hey, praise the Lord for that.
04:07-04:12
What I'm saying is some people think that unless that's what you're wearing, you're not holy.
04:12-04:14
And I've shared that story with you before.
04:14-04:16
I had a lady confront me on that before I was married.
04:17-04:19
Would you let your wife wear pants, she told me.
04:20-04:24
And I'm like, as opposed to...
04:26-04:33
What she meant was, you wouldn't dare let your wife wear anything other than a floor-length denim skirt, right?
04:33-04:37
And I'm just like, you know, this was before I was married.
04:37-04:41
I'm like, lady, I'm years away from even entertaining this thought.
04:42-04:42
Okay?
04:44-04:46
And for some people, that's what holiness is.
04:46-04:47
It's this outward thing.
04:49-04:49
Okay?
04:49-04:55
And for some people, holiness is about keeping the rules.
04:55-04:56
I have this down in my notes.
04:56-04:57
Holiness is not legalism.
04:59-04:59
Okay?
04:59-05:00
Some people think this.
05:00-05:01
there's a list of rules.
05:01-05:04
And as long as I keep the rules, that's what makes me holy.
05:05-05:06
OK, I don't dance.
05:06-05:07
I don't play cards.
05:07-05:10
I don't ever go to the movie theater. I I don't this.
05:10-05:11
I don't that.
05:11-05:18
And as long as I don't do these things, that's what makes me a holy person.
05:19-05:20
And that's not what holiness is.
05:22-05:25
You're like, well, Pastor Jeff, that sounds like what a lot of people think holiness is.
05:25-05:35
So if you're saying that's not what holiness is, we get a little bit of a problem because You know, holiness shows up over 600 times in the Bible.
05:35-05:36
You know that?
05:37-05:41
The concept of holiness shows up over 600 times.
05:42-05:44
So like, what has to be about something, right?
05:45-05:46
I mean, it has to be about something.
05:47-05:48
What is it?
05:51-06:26
There's a lot of ways we can define this, but for our purposes today, oh, this, very hard to put together one sermon subject when volumes of books have been written about this. Volumes. Creatures much smarter than me writing volumes, wrestling through what this concept means. But for today I'd like to boil it down to this definition. Holiness means morally blameless.
06:27-06:59
We're going with that definition today morally blameless meaning this there is only one who is holy holy also means separated there's only one who is holy and that is who as God you remember Isaiah chapter 6 when Isaiah saw the Lord seated on his throne you remember the angels flying around what were they crying out you remember Holy, holy, holy.
07:00-07:03
It's the very thing that characterizes who God is.
07:04-07:11
You get to the end of your Bibles in the book of Revelation, you know, holy, holy, it's this concept of holiness.
07:15-07:20
God is holy, God is the only one who is inherently holy.
07:21-07:23
You're like, well, can you unpack that definition for me a little bit?
07:23-07:24
Yes, I can.
07:24-07:25
And here's what I mean.
07:27-07:37
God always knows what is right, and he always does what is right.
07:40-07:48
God always knows what is right, and God always does what is right, because that's who he is.
07:51-07:53
God is the source of holiness.
07:53-07:55
God is the source of all truth.
07:55-08:07
So everything that God says and everything that God does is perfectly holy because everything he says and he does is consistent with his perfect character.
08:10-08:18
In our homeschool class that I'm working with with the kids, we've been studying the Greek gods and the Roman gods and they were like people.
08:19-08:25
They were backstabbers and they were liars and they were adulterers and God is not like that.
08:26-08:32
God is holy, he always does what is perfect every time.
08:34-08:37
He knows what is right and he always does what is right.
08:40-08:43
Not only is God holy, but he commands us to be holy.
08:44-08:44
Did you know that?
08:45-09:12
1 Peter 1.16, Peter quoting from Leviticus 11.44 says, this is from God. God says you shall be holy for I am holy. That's one of those verses in the Bible that just makes me tremble. That the Lord says Old Testament and New Testament you are to be holy because I am holy.
09:15-09:21
I'll jot this down on your outline when we talk about holiness understand this This is kind of Theology 101 here.
09:21-09:23
There are two aspects of holiness.
09:24-09:26
There are two aspects of holiness.
09:26-09:29
The first one, write down the word positional.
09:30-09:31
There's positional holiness.
09:33-09:34
What does that mean?
09:37-09:49
Positional holiness means for the person who receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, God pronounces you holy.
09:55-09:55
What does that mean?
09:56-10:03
2 Corinthians 5.21 says that he took him, God took Jesus, who knew no sin to become sin for us.
10:03-10:07
When Jesus was on the cross, he was the personification of sin.
10:08-10:12
And when God was punishing Jesus, he was punishing sin.
10:12-10:13
He was punishing my sin.
10:13-10:14
He was punishing your sin.
10:15-10:27
There is that verse says, OK, so he took him who knew no sin to become sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God to understand church.
10:28-10:29
When you receive Jesus Christ.
10:31-10:34
He puts his righteousness on you.
10:36-10:39
So when God sees you, he sees you as being.
10:41-10:44
This blows my mind more than anything else in the Bible.
10:44-10:45
This blows my mind.
10:45-10:51
When you receive Jesus, God sees you as righteous as he himself is.
10:54-10:58
God sees you as righteous as Jesus is.
10:58-10:59
How righteous is Jesus?
11:01-11:01
Scale of one to 10.
11:02-11:03
Ben Murphy.
11:04-11:05
Infinity, right?
11:06-11:09
Jesus is perfectly righteous in all ways.
11:09-11:13
And God puts his righteousness on us.
11:15-11:15
Okay.
11:15-11:31
It would be like if you went down to pay your rent and you didn't have the money, like, you know, my rent is, you know, $800 and I don't have $800 and I go down to your bank and I put $800 into your bank account.
11:33-11:33
Okay.
11:33-11:34
Now you have it.
11:34-11:35
You didn't earn it.
11:36-11:42
But somebody gave it on your behalf, so now you're in possession of it.
11:42-11:46
So think in terms of a spiritual bank account, you are bankrupt.
11:46-11:48
When it comes to holiness, how much do you have?
11:49-11:50
You're in the red.
11:51-11:52
Is that right?
11:52-11:56
Because of the car batteries, I can never remember what's positive and negative.
11:58-12:01
'Cause in car batteries, negative is red, but we talk about finances.
12:01-12:02
No, no.
12:03-12:05
That's why that's sparking.
12:05-12:09
Thank you. Negative is black in the car battery.
12:10-12:13
But when you're in the black financially, that's good.
12:13-12:13
Right, Ken?
12:14-12:16
I messed that up eight days a week.
12:20-12:27
Anyways. Spiritually, Christ puts his righteousness on your account.
12:28-12:35
So understand this when you stand before God someday, if you've received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, he says you are perfectly whole.
12:35-12:37
Perfect positional righteousness.
12:38-12:41
What we're going to be talking about today is practical righteousness.
12:42-12:43
Right down the word practical.
12:44-12:45
What does that mean?
12:47-12:49
Here's a definition for practical righteousness.
12:50-12:57
It's making choices of obedience to live out my identity in Christ.
12:57-12:58
I'm going to repeat that.
12:58-13:05
It's making choices of obedience to live out my identity in Christ.
13:08-13:09
Holiness is two things.
13:09-13:12
God says you're holy in Jesus and he commands you to be holy.
13:12-13:18
That's why, in other words, the New Testament says we are made holy and we are called to be holy.
13:18-13:19
You're like, well, wait, wait, wait.
13:19-13:20
Isn't that two different things?
13:21-13:22
Either we are or we aren't.
13:24-13:25
It's not two different things.
13:25-13:27
You are made holy and God calls you to be holy.
13:27-13:35
God calls you, church, to make choices of obedience to live out your identity in Jesus Christ.
13:35-13:46
That's why the Hebrew writer, Hebrews 10.10, he says, "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Sanctified means made holy.
13:46-13:58
He says, "Because of what Jesus did, we are perfectly holy once for all forever." But then two chapters later, he says, "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resist it to the point of shedding your blood.
13:59-14:05
So in just a couple of chapters, he's talking about this ongoing struggle that we still have, wrestling against sin.
14:09-14:18
So there's positional holiness, and then there's practical holiness, what God has done for us in Christ, and then we make choices of obedience to live out our identity in Christ.
14:19-14:20
Everybody with me?
14:21-14:23
Are you still thinking about the car battery?
14:25-14:28
We're going to move on, but Ken will explain that to you after service.
14:28-14:29
So Haggai, right?
14:30-14:31
Here's the problem.
14:32-14:36
I'm going to give you the heads up on what the problem is, because then when we get into the text you're going to see it.
14:36-14:50
The problem was, Haggai was like, "Okay, it's time to rebuild the temple, and you've neglected it." And they were going about it, but many of them were still living in sin.
14:53-15:01
They were going about the work of rebuilding the temple, but they were still holding on to some areas of sin in their lives.
15:02-15:04
And that's what prompted this third message from Haggai.
15:06-15:07
Compare it to this.
15:11-15:18
Imagine that we were going to plant Harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh West, okay?
15:18-15:23
So we have this pastor that's going to go and be the church planning pastor.
15:23-15:30
And he goes to that area and he starts raising a core group of people that are going to Plant Harvest Bible Chapel, Pittsburgh West.
15:31-15:38
And James McDonald calls that pastor and he says, "How's the church plant going?" And the pastor says, "Well, you know what?
15:38-15:40
"My core group, they're a gnarly bunch, man.
15:43-15:55
"This person that we have in charge of assimilation, "yeah, he's kind of cheating on his wife." And by the way, the lady that's in charge of our children's ministry is a raging alcoholic.
15:56-15:59
And the guy in charge of the finances, he's a thief.
15:59-16:01
He had to serve some time in jail for embezzlement.
16:02-16:07
And the guy in charge of our facilities, he has a terribly foul mouth.
16:07-16:12
And he's always making really inappropriate jokes while they're doing set up.
16:14-16:16
But hey, the good news is the church is getting planted.
16:18-16:20
Now what do you think James MacDonald's reaction to that's going to be?
16:21-16:36
Like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait, who's doing what now?" And they're like, "But James, we planted the church, man, isn't that what you wanted?" "You wanted the church planted, right? And we planted the church." Like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second.
16:38-16:49
More important than getting the church planted is your obedience out your identity in Christ.
16:52-16:57
You see, the ends do not justify the means.
16:58-17:00
The ends don't justify the means.
17:00-17:02
And that's what was happening in Haggai's day.
17:03-17:07
"Oh, the work's getting done, the work's getting done." Like, you're living in sin.
17:07-17:15
"Well, doesn't matter, the work's getting done." Well, holiness has to be a priority.
17:16-17:20
So I jot these down, why I must make holiness a priority.
17:21-17:22
You're going to see this all right in the text.
17:25-17:31
Write this down, number one, church, holiness isn't contagious.
17:33-17:35
Holiness isn't contagious.
17:38-17:40
Look at verses 10 through 13.
17:40-17:46
On the 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet.
17:47-17:49
Thus says the Lord of hosts.
17:51-17:53
Ask the priests about the law.
17:54-17:58
If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment.
17:59-18:06
And touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?
18:08-18:11
So the Lord's like, OK, pop quiz on how the law works.
18:12-18:13
OK, so you have this.
18:14-18:16
You know, holy meat in the fold of clothes.
18:16-18:26
And if you take that fold of your clothes where the meat is and you touch other things with it, those other things you touch become holy.
18:28-18:29
Without looking, does anybody know the answer to that?
18:31-18:32
I had to look.
18:34-18:35
Well, do you want honesty?
18:37-18:39
The priest answered and said, no.
18:40-18:42
They're like, that's not how it works.
18:43-18:48
You can't take something that's holy and touch something else to make it become holy.
18:48-18:50
That's not how it works.
18:50-18:51
All right, very good.
18:51-19:08
Then Haggai said, "If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?" Remember, that was one of the things under Old Testament law, touching dead things made you unclean.
19:09-19:17
So if you touch a dead body and become unclean and then touch one of these things, do they become unclean?
19:17-19:17
Yes or no?
19:20-19:21
Well, let's see.
19:22-19:23
I didn't know this one either.
19:24-19:26
I didn't remember much from Bible college.
19:27-19:29
I was too busy trying to jump my car.
19:31-19:35
The priest answered and said, "It does become unclean." Okay, so you were right.
19:35-19:37
I saw some of you shaking your head.
19:37-19:38
Mike Gates right away.
19:38-19:40
was like, "Yeah, I know the answer to that one.
19:40-19:45
"You're right, it does become unclean." Like, what is the point of that story?
19:46-19:50
Well, in the Old Testament, holiness was taught through adherence to the law.
19:51-19:54
The problem for Israel was externals became the focus.
19:54-20:02
So they were constantly thinking, what is holy or clean, or rather, what is unholy or unclean?
20:05-20:06
Like, well, what's going on here?
20:06-20:30
Well, the problem was, The reason the Lord introduced this concept was these Israelites who were rebuilding the temple thought was long as I am in contact with the temple That is making me clean You're living in sin So it doesn't matter because I'm working at the temple that means I'm clean, but you're living a very unclean lifestyle. It doesn't matter I'm rebuilding the temple that makes me clean. Do you see the problem?
20:31-20:53
You see the problem. It's like this Using a physical illustration Let's pretend that my brothers and sister here Have a very Contagious disease what Sally you're the medical expert here. What's a what's a very contagious disease?
20:56-21:24
Leprosy you guys have leprosy How about like something? I don't want to catch Chicken pox, okay so I'm with these three people that have chicken pox and I've never had chicken pox Okay, what are the chances that as I'm hanging out with them like oh, I just love this guy so much I just Bob can I just hang out with you?
21:25-21:26
You're just such a good friend to me.
21:26-21:29
What are the chances that I'm going to catch chicken pox?
21:30-21:32
Pretty good chance.
21:32-21:33
Pretty good chance.
21:35-21:38
Okay, I'm like, you know, you're like Pastor Jeff, you're gonna get sick.
21:39-21:42
Like, you know what, no I'm not, because here's what else I'm gonna do.
21:42-21:47
My good friends, the Fredricks here, they are the epitome of health.
21:48-21:49
They just are.
21:49-21:51
You can't possibly get any healthier.
21:51-21:58
They, you know, dietician, you know, exercise, and what was on your plate?
21:58-21:59
Nevermind.
21:59-22:03
(audience laughing) These guys are the epitome of health.
22:04-22:10
And I'm like, well, if I just hang around them, I'll catch healthy, right?
22:11-22:11
Isn't that how it works?
22:12-22:13
Right, Sally, isn't that how it works?
22:14-22:19
Like, I'm just gonna like move in with them for a few weeks, and I'm going to catch healthy.
22:22-22:29
Now, obviously, even for my limited medical knowledge, I know that's not how it works.
22:30-22:31
Don't catch health.
22:31-22:33
But you do catch what?
22:34-22:36
You do catch disease, don't you?
22:36-22:41
And that was the point of this illustration that the Lord was using here.
22:41-22:43
He was saying, look, you don't catch holiness.
22:43-22:44
You don't do that.
22:47-22:48
But you can catch unholiness.
22:50-22:53
If you're living in sin, the holiness of the temple is just not going to rub off on you.
22:54-22:55
Holiness isn't contagious.
22:55-22:58
on holiness, however, is very contagious.
23:00-23:04
Leaving the television on the Christian channel doesn't guarantee that you're going to be holy.
23:05-23:11
If you leave your television on pornography, it guarantees that you are going to eventually be corrupted by it.
23:13-23:16
Coming to church doesn't guarantee that you're going to catch holiness.
23:17-23:19
You don't catch holiness by coming to church.
23:19-23:26
However, spending your nights at the quote -unquote gentlemen's club, guarantees pollution.
23:29-23:54
Do you think when you open yourself up to sinful things that it's not going to affect you? Do you think you can look at the images on the computer or watch these things on the television or be around people that are constantly immersed in immoral jokes and thoughts and activities? You think you can be subjected to those things and they not affect you?
23:57-24:05
And the church's answer is, "Well, it doesn't matter because I go to church on Sunday." That's where I think the message that the Lord gave through Haggai is so relevant today.
24:06-24:10
You're not going to catch holiness at church, but you're going to catch corruption.
24:14-24:16
That's why in a church there's always a danger.
24:16-24:21
Hear me, there's a danger in keeping close friendships with unsaved people.
24:21-24:22
we are to be salt and light.
24:22-24:26
I'm not saying, you know, unfriend all of your unsafe friends.
24:26-24:27
I'm not saying that.
24:27-24:32
But interestingly, first Corinthians 1533 says, Do not be deceived.
24:32-24:35
Bad company ruins good morals.
24:37-24:42
That's something you have to be on your guard against because the Bible gives a very specific warning against that.
24:45-24:49
How many times do you hear people say, Well, they're not going to affect me, I'm going to affect them.
24:51-24:55
The Bible warns otherwise, especially young people.
24:56-24:57
The Bible warns otherwise.
25:00-25:05
The holiness has to be a priority because it doesn't come as natural default mode.
25:07-25:09
You aren't going to miraculously catch it at church.
25:10-25:11
Holiness is not contagious.
25:12-25:16
Secondly, why I must make holiness a priority, holiness is a heart issue.
25:16-25:18
It's a heart issue.
25:18-25:20
Look at verse 14.
25:22-25:30
"And Haggai answered and said," I remember the Lord, through the prophet, gave this illustration.
25:32-25:45
"Haggai answered and said, 'So it is with this people, and with this nation before me,' declares the Lord, 'and so with every work of their hands, and what they offer there is unclean.'" clean.
25:48-25:51
The Lord was saying that their work was unclean because of sin.
25:52-25:54
God's not about, "Well, just get it done.
25:54-25:55
Just get it done.
25:55-25:59
Just get the project done." God is about the heart.
26:01-26:06
God is about your heart more than he is about you getting a project done.
26:10-26:24
Many years ago, a church where I had served ran into an issue where there was this couple who was having some marriage problems, and the man came to the elders and he said, "I want to save my marriage.
26:24-26:47
I want to save my marriage." And we prayed with the man and counseling, and shortly after that, or rather I would say in the midst of that, one of the youth from our church found the man on a date with his mistress. Busted. The girl's father went to this man and said, "Hey, we've got to talk.
26:48-27:25
You're wanting to save your marriage, but my daughter saw you out on a date with this other woman and we've got to talk." And the man was furious. And he was, "Forget this, I'm out of here like gone well this guy was part of the music ministry and we had people in the music ministry that were outraged why because this guy was running around on his wife no they were outraged that somebody confronted him on his sin to the point that he left the church and he was our tenor.
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That is an absolutely true story.
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They were outraged because he was the tenor.
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See, the mindset there was it's about getting a job done, it's about getting a job done where the Lord says it's about the heart, about the heart.
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I care more about you loving your wife than I care about what part you sing.
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I care more about you taking care of your family than your musical ability.
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Insert whatever job the Lord has called you to, he cares more.
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About your personal walk with him, he cares more about your heart, he cares more about you pursuing holiness.
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than the job or the talent that you bring to the table.
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Christians. When we said.
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We do not say it because we are slaves to sin.
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We sit as people who have freedom of choice.
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Did you know that we are no longer slaves to sin?
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But we said, as those who have freedom and choice and when we said.
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We feel miserable.
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Like anybody testify to that, I can.
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When I sin, I feel miserable.
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Do you know why that is?
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You know why you feel so miserable when you sin?
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The reason you feel so miserable is because sin is inconsistent with your new character in Jesus Christ.
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That's why you feel miserable.
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Remember we said, "Because God knows what is right and he always does what is right, that is holy." No.
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God is pronounced as holy.
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That is our character in Christ.
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So when we sin, we are living contrary to this new nature we have and this new identity that we have in Jesus.
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That's why we feel so messed up when we sin.
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Like, "That's not who I am.
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That's not who I am." That's why the world, that's why they can sin and not feel bad, unless it's a legal thing or they get caught or whatever.
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That's why a Christian can sin and even though nobody else knows about it, they feel terrible because that's not who I am in Christ.
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Holiness is a hard issue in church.
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I have to insert this.
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When it comes to your practical holiness, it's a matter of the will.
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And you have a personal responsibility to partner with God in this endeavor.
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You have responsibility.
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Like, "Well, I'm not sure that that's true." Well, the New Testament over and over tells us about saying no to sin.
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Whose job is that?
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Whose job is it to say no to sin?
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Am I on the hook for that or is God on the hook for that?
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God's power, I'm on the hook being responsible for saying no to sin. The New Testament says that we should mortify sin in our bodies. Who's that command for?
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That command's for me. There are choices that I need to make to put sin to death. All of the New Testament writers talked about it.
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For further study, Paul talked about it in 1 Thessalonians 4 verses 3-7 you have choices to make.
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1 Peter 1, 14-16, Peter says you have choices that you have to make in pursuing holiness.
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1 John 3, 3 John says it, we purify ourselves because he is pure.
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You have a personal responsibility in this.
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So I would ask you with that in mind, what sin have you been holding on to?
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What sin have you been holding on to?
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What little secret something have you been harboring in some corner of your heart that maybe nobody knows about?
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It's time to get real with God about that.
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This little thing in your life that you think nobody knows about, God knows.
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This little thing in your life that you're like, well, it's wrong, but it's not a big deal.
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All sin is a big deal.
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God hates sin.
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Do you know the Bible says that?
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God hates sin.
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He hates sin.
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The Bible doesn't say God hates the big ones and is mildly peeved at the little ones.
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The Bible does not say that.
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The Bible says God hates sin.
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So if God is that fired up about sin, we should be too.
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It was my sin that crucified my Savior.
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How can I not hate my own sin?
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Time to get real.
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It's time to get real with God about your sin.
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Why?
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Because number three, holiness is God's agenda.
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Holiness is God's agenda.
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Look at verses 15 through 17.
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This is going to sound very familiar, and it should.
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Now then consider from this day onward, Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, how did you fare?
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When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten.
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When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty.
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How is this happening?
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How do we keep getting the short end of the stick here?
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Verse 17 tells you how it happened.
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I struck you.
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the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail yet you did not turn to me declares the Lord just like in the first message of this series Haggai's first message in chapter one the Lord is saying do you remember how miserable you were in your disobedience you remember how miserable you were when you put yourself first that's why we said in the first message God will not let you be satisfied without Him.
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He won't do it.
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He will not let you be satisfied without Him.
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Like, "Oh, you don't think your relationship with me is important?
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You're not going to find satisfaction anywhere else." And I'll personally see to that.
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In the same way, the Lord is reminding that He's not going to let us be satisfied when we're living in sin.
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He just won't.
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He just won't.
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You think that you can live in flagrant, unrepentant sin and God's just going to let that go?
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That's what the Lord was pointing out here.
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Life's not easy when you're sinning.
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Did you ever notice that?
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Anybody testify to that?
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Did anybody think through a season in their life?
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Anybody?
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A season in my life when I was involved in sin and life was incredibly difficult.
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Can anybody testify to that?
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How does that happen?
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The Lord makes that happen.
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He's not going to let you sit satisfied in your sin.
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He's not going to do it.
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Romans 8.29 tells us that God's goal for every believer is to be conformed into the image of his Son.
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As we said, God's goal is more than just getting the temple rebuilt or getting a church planted or doing your job in the church.
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His goal is so much more than that.
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God's goal is after you growing like Jesus Christ.
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Living in sin is contrary to God's purpose for our salvation.
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If God saved you to conform you into the image of his Son, then he's not going to let you live in sin.
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We know what God's agenda is, conforming to the image of his Son, but do you know why he is after that?
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You know why God wants you to conform into the image of his Son?
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There are really two reasons, there are many, but I'm going to give you two.
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First of all, he wants you to reflect his glory.
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He wants you to reflect his glory.
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should know what God is like when they see Him in you.
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You see, as the Holy Spirit is working through you with love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and all of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, when people see that, they should say that's what God's like.
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That's why God's conforming into the image of His Son.
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You're representing Him.
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And He wants an accurate representation.
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But another reason that God is after that, this is more personal, but sin causes pain.
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And God does not want you destroying yourself.
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He doesn't want you destroying yourself.
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What does He do?
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Well, we saw in verse 17, He says, "I struck you." The Lord disciplines His children.
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The Lord disciplines His children.
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Now as a perfect father, when the Lord disciplines, the end game is what?
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It's correction.
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And parents, sometimes haven't we, I've been guilty of this, haven't we disciplined wrongly?
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We've disciplined our children because we're angry, because we're upset, and that's not proper discipline.
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Discipline has in mind correction.
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If this is wrong, I'm going to bring some hardship so that you learn to correct this wrong behavior.
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Because we're children of God, the Bible tells us in Hebrews 12, God disciplines us as His children.
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Have you ever been in Walmart and saw the kid acting up that you wanted to discipline?
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Somebody else's kid?
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Have you ever seen that?
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Have you ever been there?
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do that, here's some free legal advice, don't discipline other people's kids.
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That is not your job.
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Your job is to discipline your own kids, right?
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That's a job you should take very seriously, but nobody takes that job more seriously than God. Did you know that? God says, "Jay Nauer is my son, and I love him, and I'm going to doing something that's hurting Himself, misrepresenting me, I'm going to correct Him.
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That's how God disciplines.
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You wouldn't let your child get away with flagrant, persistent, unrepentant sin, would you?
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Those of you that have kids.
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If your child is being blatantly and flagrantly rebellious, how long are you going to let that happen?
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How long?
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"Oh, it's just a phase." We'll revisit this in a few years, and maybe he'll grow out of it.
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Parents, is that what you do?
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When it's flagrant, unrepentant, persistent rebellion, what do you do?
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Parents, it's time to lay the hammer down now, right?
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We cannot let this continue.
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It's not good for them, it's not good for the family.
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And you're an imperfect parent.
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So how much more does the perfect parent, God the Father, discipline his children?
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For someone here this morning that is living in sin, here's a word from the Lord, from Haggai.
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Things are not going to get easier until you deal with it.
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Things are not going to get easier until you deal with it.
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Receive the discipline of the Lord.
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And finally, holiness sees God at work.
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Holiness sees God at work.
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from this day onward, from the 24th day of the ninth month, since the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, consider, is the seed yet in the barn?
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Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, the olive tree have yielded nothing.
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But, from this day on, I will bless you.
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Sin has a way of defiling what we are doing.
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We even see that in the New Testament.
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Did you know that?
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2 Timothy 2.21, jot that reference down.
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2 Timothy 2.21 says, "Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work." Even in the New Testament, there's a link between holiness and usefulness. The Holy Spirit empowers and makes our service effective.
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Notice the end of this passage. The Lord says, "But from this day on I will bless you." Remember how frustrated you were? Well, as you move on with clean hands, the Lord tells the Israelites, "God says I'm going to bless you. I'm going to bless your work." but I don't bless a cause.
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So what do we do?
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Well, I see it three times in this passage here again.
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Verse 15, the Lord says, "Consider." Verse 18, the Lord says, "Consider the first word and the last word in verse 18, guess what it is?
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Consider." Just stop right now and consider.
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How much has holiness been in front of you?
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How much have you been presuming on grace?
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That we continue to sin that grace may abound?
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How much have you been presuming?
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How much have you been using this title of, "I have freedom in Christ, so it doesn't matter if I sin or not." That's not biblical thinking at all.
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I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in our freedom that we can ignore the fact that holiness is a priority.
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Father, the Lord three times in his passage said, "Stop, think about what you're doing.
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"Consider, consider, consider, stop and think.
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"Look at yourself.
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"Has holiness been a priority?
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"When was the last time that you've gone to the Lord "and earnestly prayed over a sin issue in your own heart?
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Has that been a priority?
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God, I see that, you know, I'm still gossiping.
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God, I'm so envious and I'm so bitter.
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When was the last time you've gone to the Lord?
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When was the last time that you've gone to his word, looking for answers, like, God, I know that I'm really struggling in this area, I know your word has the answers, and you've been reading and you've been memorizing and you've been meditating.
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'Cause you wanna wrestle this in, you know it's wrong.
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Consider, when was the last time you've done that?
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What about in your small group?
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You know, the Bible tells us that we are to confess our sins one to another and pray for one another.
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That's not because I can forgive you of your sins or you forgive me of mine.
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But sin would want to keep itself hidden.
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Where God would say, "You need to confess your sins one to another.
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Pray with one another.
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real with one another.
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Consider when was the last time you sat down with a brother, a lady, when was the last time you sat down with a sister and a lord and said, "Here's what's really going on in my heart.
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Here's what I really need prayer for." Consider.
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The good news is God has given us the resources for holiness.
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He's pronounced us holy in Christ.
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He's given us this new identity, and He's given us His Holy Spirit to empower.
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God's not calling you to do something that He hasn't given you the tools, because we find that He Himself is our strength.
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The church, I would encourage you to use the resources that God has given, and like the Israelites in Haggai's day, you will see God at work in your life never before.
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That's right.
Parents! Encourage your children to take some notes on the sermon and discuss these questions this week. Make the concepts age appropriate for your children:
Read Haggai 2:10-19
Why do parents discipline their children? Why does God discipline us? How does God discipline us?
In Haggai 2:13-13, God warns that you can’t catch holiness but you can catch unholiness (explain that it is like a disease: you can catch a disease, but you can’t “catch” health). How can being around the wrong people affect us? (1 Corinthians 15:33)