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This is your daily reminder. God has not run

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out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome

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to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome back. Haggai

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2 is once again our reading. It's the last time

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we will read Haggai 2 together in this series

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of our podcasting and our time together. I want

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to encourage you today. You've been in Haggai

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for the last couple of weeks. We've read chapter

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1. We've read chapter 2. You've heard sermons

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on chapter 1 and chapter 2 if you've been a part

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of our church family and hearing it from the

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pulpit. One of the things I want to encourage

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you with today is something that is bigger than

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maybe even our understanding. I'm going to share

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some things today that I hope is encouraging

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but also challenging. So I'm going to read just

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a little bit of Haggai today, chapter 2. I encourage

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you to read the whole thing one more time. I

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know you say, well, I've read it three or four

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or five times already. Can you not just let it

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go? I want to encourage you today in specifically

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a couple of verses, from verses 14 to 19. Now,

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I've shared last week. that there's a moment

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where he talks about, can one clean thing make

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an unclean thing clean, right? Can a holy thing

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make an unholy thing holy? We talked about some

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of that. I share the analogy of two glasses of

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water, right? One is muddy and dirty, one is

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clean. Just because I pour clean water into the

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muddy one doesn't make the muddy one clean. But

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if I pour a dirty one into the clean one, the

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clean one is now dirty, right? I'll give you

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one other illustration today just because I like

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illustrations. So imagine if you are sick and

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I am healthy. If I come up and hug you, it doesn't

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make you healthy, right? But what happens? It

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could make me sick, right? It's just because

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something is good doesn't mean you can be around

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something that's bad. So here's what I want to

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say. in our understanding of the scripture today.

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As Haggai is delivering this message, from verses

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10 to 19 specifically, there's another declaration

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that God gives through Haggai. First off, I want

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to say, when the word of the Lord showed up,

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it's a huge deal. You always should pay attention

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to it. We have this word with us. We have this

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scripture that is sitting in all of our houses.

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It's available to us on every device that we

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have, and yet we just don't pick it up. We just

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don't look at it. This is a big deal. Every scripture

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is God -breathed. Whenever he opened his mouth

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and he spoke through a prophet, it's a big deal.

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We should always pay attention to it. So it says

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he did this on this day. He named the day. Again,

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I told you I love how he gives some dates. There's

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some that correspond with Solomon's temple. There's

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some that correspond with Leviticus and the feasts

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that happen. All that is kind of wound tightly

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through here. I shared a little bit of it yesterday

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from the pulpit. Ultimately, what I want you

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to see today is when Haggai starts talking about

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this clean, unclean, holy, unholy, all those

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pieces, he says this from verses 14 to 19. Listen

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to what the Bible says. Then Haggai answered

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and said, So is it with this people, and with

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the nation before me, declares the Lord, and

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so with every work of their hands. And what they

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offer there is unclean. Now then, consider from

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this day onward. Before stone was placed upon

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stone in the temple of the Lord, how did you

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fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures,

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but there were ten. When one came to the wine

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vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty.

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I struck you and all the products of your toil

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with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet

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you did not turn to me, declares the Lord. Consider

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from this day onward, from the twenty -fourth

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day of the ninth month, since the day the foundation

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of the Lord's temple was laid, consider. Is the

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seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig

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tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have

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yielded nothing. But from this day on, I will

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bless you. I am very challenged, encouraged,

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and convicted all at the same time by that text.

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Here's why. He's just given an explanation, Haggai

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shared, about the clean unclean, right? And the

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people, no doubt, were saying, what does this

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mean to us? Why does this matter to us? We understand

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that whenever a garment that is holy or set apart

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for a priest carrying something unclean, and

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if it touches something else unclean, it's going

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to make it unclean. We get that. What does that

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mean to us? And here's what I think God is trying

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to make sure the people understand. Haggai says,

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that's what you're doing. Being unholy, you and

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your sins are not going to allow something holy

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to happen. He says, I want you to build this

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temple, and I want you to build it in a way that

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is holy. We sometimes will look and see. I will

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share this, and I probably shouldn't, but I'm

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going to anyway. A lot of times in churches,

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we separate things a lot. For instance. we will

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say, well, if it's something about the maintenance

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of a building, that's not a spiritual thing.

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So we're going to put that over to somebody else

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that is an expert in that level, but it's not

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spiritual. or we'll say if it's about this, it

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is spiritual, so we need the people that are

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really spiritual on this. We need the prayer

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team to focus in on this, like this evangelistic

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crusade or this thing that we want to do, this

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missionary that we want to send out. That's a

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spiritual thing, so we're going to put the prayer

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and the emphasis and the fasting and all that,

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we're going to put into that stuff because it's

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spiritual and it's holy. But whenever it comes

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to... painting a wall or upgrading something

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or changing this or changing that or whatever.

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Those aren't holy things. Those can be done by

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absolutely anybody. Here's what the Bible is

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saying. You realize this? Before stone was laid

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upon stone. It all matters. Every bit of this

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is spiritual. Now, I will say this. Last week,

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we shared about how the Son of God was going

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to walk through this temple, right? This is the

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second temple. of the Jewish people. Now, Herod's

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temple is the one in the New Testament that we

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read of. It was this temple in another fashion,

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and so it was the second temple. Most Jewish

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people believe that. So here's what I know. The

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Son of God is going to walk through this temple.

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He's going to walk through this area, this place,

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and the labors of these people are going to be

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seen. Now, if you know that, my guess is you

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should probably put some extra spiritual emphasis

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into this. Here's what the Scripture teaches

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from cover to cover. Seek first the kingdom of

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God and His righteousness. righteousness. That's

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what it said. Now, I know I'm quoting Matthew

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chapter 6, but here's what the Bible is teaching.

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Everything is spiritual. Everything. Now, you

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may say, well, but me paying my taxes isn't a

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spiritual thing. Me having to work on my car

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is not a spiritual thing. Or me having to do...

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Everything needs to be focused. You need to have

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your heart in the right place whenever you do

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anything. Anything. I try my best. If there's

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something that needs to happen at the church

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or if there's something that needs to happen

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in somebody's life that seems a secular thing,

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I pray about it. I do. Why? Because it matters.

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Imagine this. You've got a job where you go and

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you just do the same thing over and over again.

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You work in a factory. You work at a machine

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shop. You sell something. You name whatever it

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is. Now imagine this. What if the presence of

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God was with you while you did it? That changes

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everything. It now becomes important. It now

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becomes valuable. And you may say, well, the

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presence of God really doesn't need to be in

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this. Well, then you don't know what the presence

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of God is. He tells his people, listen, is there

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seed in the barns? Is there produce in the barns?

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And you may say, well, but what does that even

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mean? It means this was right after he's dating

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it, right? This is right after a harvest time.

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The barn should be full. Why are they not? Because

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they've tried to separate God's work and their

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obedience and their heart, right? So here's what

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God's saying. I don't want you just to work on

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my house. I want you to be in right relationship

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with me while you work on this house. I want

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you to be holy while you work on this house.

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I want you to every morning when you wake up,

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I want you to have your life aligned with mine

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before you go and do these things. Is that how

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we live our life today? I want to encourage you

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in this. Haggai 2 is a beautiful chapter of Scripture.

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It's a challenging chapter of Scripture. As we've

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looked this text, if you read Haggai 2 again,

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he tells us to kind of look back a little bit

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at the Feast of Tabernacles and the time and

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look back and see what's happened. Now he's telling

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us to look within. He's saying, why are you doing

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what you're doing? And are you doing it in a

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way that honors me or not? Or are you just doing

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it because it's the task? Look within. Look within

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your heart and in your mind and the way your

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motives are, the way your heart is aligned. Look

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within. Now, as we keep reading in Haggai 2,

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which we've done already this past last week

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and did a little bit yesterday in our sermon

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time together. But there's also a looking forward,

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right? There's also a great blessing that comes.

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And even this moment, he says, from this day

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onward. I'm going to bless you. Why? Because

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you're going to do it the right way. It's not

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just about getting the right thing done. It's

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about doing it the right way. The method matters.

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And our method needs to be honoring to the Lord.