Build The House | Kingdom Priorities - Pastor Scott Silcox

We call out the habit of delay, walk through Haggai’s charge to “consider your ways,” and show how Acts 6 gives a model where structure sustains the Spirit. The aim is simple: move from paneled comfort to kingdom building, together, today.

• Presence, formation, and kingdom as our framework
• Haggai’s sixteen-year pause and God’s rebuke
• Misalignment, exhaustion, and “bags with holes”
• Go up, bring wood, and build as obedience
• Motivation over program: witness to the nations
• Acts 6: deacons, distribution, and multiplication
• Structure that sustains Spirit-led ministry
• Led by the Spirit in ordinary places
• Latter glory greater than the former
• Three questions for realignment and response

Chapters

• 0:00 Build the House: Series Context
• 2:00 Presence, Formation, Kingdom Framework
• 4:20 House on Stone vs. Sand
• 7:14 Enter Haggai: Sixteen Years of Pause
• 10:10 “Consider Your Ways”: God’s Rebuke
• 13:20 Paneled Houses and Hollow Harvests
• 17:05 Realignment: Go Up, Bring Wood, Build
• 21:00 Motivation Over Programs: Why Kingdom
• 25:20 Acts 6: Structure That Sustains Spirit
• 29:10 Deacons, Tables, and Multiplication
• 33:00 Rhythm, Roles, and Revival
• 36:20 Latter Glory and Fresh Courage
• 40:10 Led by the Spirit in Daily Life
• 44:20 Three Heart Questions and Response
• 48:00 Declarations and Next Steps

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:03

Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week. For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily. Now join us for a message from Pastor Scott Silcox.

SPEAKER_00: 0:20

So for all of you that don't know this, we're in a series called Build the House. A series called Build the House. Have you enjoyed it so far? Good. Good. Good three of you enjoyed it. I am so excited for those three in it with us. It's going to be a series that takes us for some time, for a few weeks, and uh I just encourage you, if you aren't doing this right now, make sure that you jot down some notes, get your Bibles out, get your notebooks out. We provided the notes for you, and so you can always go to the app uh and and just pull those notes down and track with us. Something you're gonna notice this week is two extra slides that I put on uh for this week, and those were two slides from last week of which I had the wrong passage on there, which many of you knew and let me know about. And so I I only want to make sure that you have the corrected ones if you're tracking with us. So we've got Matthew 7 on there versus Luke, uh, so that you can have the corrected version of that if you ever go back and look at it. So those two are there, but the rest of the slides today are gonna be the new material that we're going through. And if you don't know this, and I'll just kind of catch everybody up to what we've been doing, but essentially, um we've had the first three weeks where we concentrated on what we believe are the the avenues in which God is using our church in both presence, formation, and then the third installment of that would be today is kingdom. Now, most of you know what that is, or at least familiar because we've been talking about this for uh over a year. What does presence mean? What does formation mean? And we've identified that all along the way, and so I encourage you, if you don't know anything about that, you can ask anyone here, anybody that's serving. I'm sure that they can jump in and fill you in on what that looks like. We have that uh uh material out there that you can watch all the sermons on. Uh and it's important because you need the context for what it is that we're talking about. Now, when we talk about this idea of build the house, you've noticed probably in the last few weeks that I've been concentrating specifically on the house that you are and you building your home. Thank you. It's bad when your dad's the only one responding. Come on, Tony, help me now. Now come on. I know you've been paying attention, but we've been talking about building the house, this house, right? And it's important, but there's there's both both things happening here. There is God pulling out of us this dwelling place where he is working on us, but how many know that he has a plan, that he plans to use the church in this end time and in this storyline? That there this the church is not an obsolete, out-of-date, frustrated. Come on, this is not the the the church that you think we're talking about is is tired, broke, frustrated, boring. Come on. That is not what we're talking about. We're the church is still part of God's plan A. He's using the church to manifest himself on the earth. Who is the church? We are. Right? He is He is working through us to create His image in us, and we are going to express that image, right? Not just through attending church and being faithful at church, but through our everyday lives, correct? But how many know it's the church he's using in the last hour to bring a witness to what he's doing on the earth? Amen? And so I want to hit a couple of things that I think are interesting, some kind of takeaways. One of the things, if you can just follow these services, the last four weeks, amen, God is still preserving your identity in him. The church isn't a new thing detached from the past, it's the fulfillment of God's eternal plan. So if you didn't read that message or didn't attend, go back and check it out. Here's another takeaway from the next week: sacrifice comes before fire. Build an altar. We talked about each of us. One of the things that we've neglected over time is the altar experience, have we not? It's and we have to understand that if there's going to be a sacrifice of praise, there has to be an altar to put that on. Oh, come on, somebody. Right? This is this is work that we're continuing to do right now. So build the altar. It's important. Why do we know that? Because take it back from Ezra, they get released to build the temple. Before they build the temple, they build the altar. Because you can't have the temple without the altar. We're constantly wanting to get the cart ahead of the horse, are we not? Right? And the Lord is reminding us hold on, before you can just have the temple experience, you have to get a lifestyle of altar. That has to be present in your life. The third one, fourth one rather, third one, is can you read the writing on the wall of your life? Right? We've taken this from when when when who? When Daniel is interpreting the dream, the writing, the handwriting on the wall, the question is, is there's handwriting on your life? What decisions you've made, what you've prioritized, have all written a story. The question is, do you know what it is? That story is freedom if you understand it. That story is deliverance if you understand it. That's what Daniel uh uh gives. And then last but not least, sandbox theology is not gonna work. Sandbox theology is not gonna work, right? These are the principles, these are the things we've been learning that leads us into our conversation today, which is all about uh, well, let me say this one phrase here. This is something I thought was very interesting for last week that I want to launch off from here, and that is the call of formation is to refuse to live as vessels misplaced or misused, but to be rooted, established, and set on the rock. We talked about last week, like we're either on sand or stone, which is it? Which is it? You're building your house. Every single one of us are building our homes, our lives, on one or two uh uh uh uh uh positions, both that that of stone, which is stable, rooted, solid, solidified in Christ, or it's on shaky ground, which is the same material, which is the thing we talked about. It's the exact same material, it's just fragmented. Which means many of us as believers can find ourselves building our entire faith on fragmented uh uh social media posts. Truth through somebody else's eyes. Revelation that you didn't get on your own, but you piggybacked on somebody else's revelation. Come on, somebody. Right? That's what we're talking about. Where are we building our house? And so today I'm taking you in a total different direction. We're taking you in a total different direction. We're not even gonna, we're not, we're we're in the same era as we talked about last week. There's so many people involved. Well, we're going to Haggai today. Yeah, that's what I thought. If you have your Bibles, go to Matthew, hit reverse. Three chapters before Matthew, you'll find Haggai. Right? You'll find him there, right? I know it'll be hard to find, but that's the best way I can tell you. Go to Matthew, hit reverse. Come back three, and you're gonna find it there. It's a small book, but it's all within the same era, the same time. Also, I want to just before I jump into this, I want to remind you today that we have the new installment of the prayer guide. Now, we've been giving this out, I talked about it Vision Sunday, that we'll be giving a prayer guide each month. And so we're gonna make sure that you get a fresh one. And so right now, you can just at any time during the service tap uh the technology there on the back, those little tags, and then you can actually pull that new prayer guide in for the month. And it's something that we've put together for your family. It's we encourage you to go through it as a family. Uh, there's things for everybody involved in that process, so I encourage you to do that. And I want to say thank you to Pastor Jenny, who's been putting a lot of extra effort and work into that. Thank you so much for providing that for our families. All right, so we're going to Haggai. Now, now this is great. Haggai one, we're gonna go all the way through it. There's only two chapters in this thing, but I uh they're important ones because he highlights some things that are happening. Now we know this. Ezra's already pinned down that they've been freed to go back to Jerusalem to build a temple, right? We know they've done that. They've built an altar, they've gotten there, and this is where we pick up. 16 years later. Now let that sit for just a second. They've been freed, they've been given resources, they found the homeland, they went back to rebuild, they laid a foundation, and then they stopped all building. Why? Because they're getting heat, they're catching heat, they're catching political pressure. There are letters being written to kings and talking about how unfair this is, right? And because of that, they take giant steps back, and Haggai is the guy who's going to talk about it. In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month of the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to Haggai and the prophet, to Zerubbabel the son of Sheltil, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jezedek. And the high priest saying, Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying, This people says, now get this, this people says, the time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. I just want to stop right here. It's interesting. They've been 16 years standing under this one thought. It's not time to build yet. It's not time to build. Now, I just want to pause here for just a second because I think it just matters. And I'm going to kind of teach through the text instead of reading you all of it at once. I'm going to kind of do one section and we'll go to the next. And this is the way I'm going to do it today. I just felt like this was the way to do it. But but in this case, I just want to pause here and think about something. God has given the word, He's given the resources. What is wrong with the execution part? And I want to just, I just want to put before you oftentimes when I anybody else beside me have have prayed for God to show up in my life and to confirm things and to give things and to help me with things and provide ways, and I'm still not doing what he said to do with it. Am I the only one who's prayed that that prayer and he's been faithful to follow through? And then and then periodically, and this happens, oh, he'll get me. He'll get me in a service, or he'll get me at the men's ministry. This has happened just recently. I was down there with the men for our retreat, and the Lord just put his finger on one thing he told me a long time ago that I wasn't doing. And I was like, Why? Why do you want to touch that? Why do you want to call that out? We're having a good day. Am I not serving you? Isn't this interesting? How we justify back to the Lord of what we're doing now, even though it's not what he told us to do. So we try to use our present to turn around and reflect on what we're our disobedience. And here's what we're finding out in Ezra and the people of Israel. That ain't gonna cut it with the Lord. And this is the hard part because we we we know God to be so gracious and merciful. Can anybody say today, you he has been patient with me? Come on, I know some of the stories in here. I'm not looking at nobody right now, I'm just standing overheads. But you know, you know, I know, we all know. Other people know. God's been gracious, he's been merciful. The problem though is we confuse God's mercy for for for for for like a passiveness. Because he's merciful, he won't look over my disobedience. I got good news, Chad. I'm telling you, it's gonna get better. All right? Lean in, dude, it's gonna get better. But it is, it's it's something we have to face, isn't it? Something we have to own. We have to recognize that God, God is calling us and has ordained you, has, has, has set something specific aside for you. How many have ever had had the Lord just tell you something specific you're supposed to do and and you've been neglecting it in any way? Anybody else ever done that? Great, three, four, five, there's a hundred of us in here. That's great. That's great. We needed two, that's it, right? But we got a hundred. But but for all of the other angelic ones in here, just bear with us as we work through our trauma today. There have been times where the Lord has called us to do something, but we haven't been obedient to it. And this is what happens for 16 years. This entire group of people have justified it's not time yet. It's not time yet. It's not time yet. Here's here's what what worries me in the church right now is that we're we're constantly got our head in the sand and not understanding the times and the seasons we live in. And instead, what we want is it's not time yet. It's not time yet. It's not time yet. I find I I'm I am I am getting increasingly uh weary of the the delay, delay, delay, delay, delay on everything. Does anybody else feel that way? My team knows I feel this way because it's like, I mean, we just had this a couple of days ago. I think we'll just hold a couple weeks. It's like, yeah, I think we won't. I think we won't hold any more weeks. And it's not because I'm irresponsible, but it's because when you understand the hour you're in, it's a time to actually move forward, move out on behalf of the kingdom. You can't be waiting on a better opportunity. There is no better opportunity than the one that is before you today. You're not guaranteed tomorrow. So the fact that you can live in it's not today means they have no understanding of how fragile life is, how quick it can go. And can I tell you, when I stand before the Lord, I want to stand knowing that I poured my life out here. I didn't reserve something hoping like there'll be another day where it's better. No, today's that day. Today's the day of salvation. Today's the day where you let the Lord use you. Today's the day where you witness to your neighbor. Today's the day. We can no longer walk around with this, like, well, maybe tomorrow I'll feel better. Or maybe, maybe next week I'll be in a better circumstance and then I'll get. Oh, I don't have enough money to witness to somebody. What are you talking about? None of us got enough money. Open your mouth and share the gospel. Like we just keep thinking, well, that that's gonna help me. That's gonna platform me. That's gonna get no, no, no, no. Obedience to move out and how the Spirit leads you, that's what he's looking for. And what I always do is give him a list of excuses of why I'm disqualified. No, see, don't you know I'm not? Don't you know I don't? Don't you know? And he's like, Yeah, right, right, right. This is all he hears. The people have decided it's not time to build. Now, why is this important? What are you building first? The house you build for yourself will never satisfy the hunger that can be met by building his house. There's an insatiable desire for us to be so self-focused, self-absorbed that we spend all of our time building us, then we no longer look out and say, How are we building the kingdom? How is the kingdom advancing? Oh, I don't know. You know, I just know that I have to be strong. It's like, yeah, in your weakness, he, he's strong. Right? There's this idea that if I'm stronger, then he's better. How many know God's better with and without us? He's just good. And the invitation is despite who you think you are, I'm inviting you into the process with me. Somebody ought to get excited about that. You're not disqualified this morning. I I what breaks your heart is to hear people walk in or feel feel you can feel it for me. I'm a feeler. I can feel when people walk in so beat down they don't feel like they qualify to be in the presence of the Lord. And that just breaks my heart because his arms are wide open for you. And his invitation is the same as it is for your neighbor sitting right next to you right now. Your invitation isn't any different than this one. I don't care all that you've gone through. I don't care what you're overcoming. I'm telling you, he's got the same destiny for you as everybody else in this room. That faithful yes to it is a is a yes to being discipled into it. Does that make sense? All right, so so let's go to the next set of passages, three through six. Then the word of the Lord came to Haggai, the prophet saying, Is it time for yourselves to dwell in paneled houses? Oh, come on, the word of the Lord is is listen, I love it when God uses a prophet and uses people in a in a in a ridiculously boss way. The Lord says, You're saying, is it is it's not time to build the house. Here's the father's response to the prophet. Is it time for you to have a house? I love that. Does anyone else love that God's like this? Maybe you don't, maybe you don't. Y'all just he's too reverent in your book. Uh so you can't even, but his he has like real conversation. He's like, he's like, oh, oh, it's it's it's okay for you to go home to a fancy house, but my house can be in ruins. I got it, I got it. This is what he's saying. So the prophet uses it and says, it's time for yourselves to dwell in a paneled house and this temple to lie in ruins. Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Consider your ways. You're gonna hear this twice today. This entire book is is repetitive language. You're gonna hear phrases over and over again, but this one is one that really stands out to me. Consider your ways. The invitation this morning, the invitation to the people of Israel who are sitting on their hands, who are focused on themselves, is a reminder to consider your ways. Consider what you've been doing pressed against what I've told you to do. Consider where your life is being spent versus where I'm asking you to put your effort. This is the question this morning. Consider your ways. You have sown much. Now get this. Does this sound familiar to anybody? Listen to this. You have sown much and bring in little. You eat, but you do not have enough. You drink, but you are not filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages earns wages to put into a bag with holes. Woo! God is not pulling any punches here, but can I tell you something? When I read that kind of statement, I don't have to be, I don't have to be in Israel to understand this. That sounds familiar today. Anyone ever feel like the effort that you put in seems to come up just a little short every time? Does it ever feel like every single time it's time to pay bills, you feel like you're just a little bit behind? No? You ever felt like all the effort I'm doing everything, but I keep having this problem crop up again and again. I don't know about you. I feel that way when I have groceries in the house. We'll go buy groceries. Come on, parents, you know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you guys up there. All of you ones with hollow legs up there. You buy groceries, you think, man, look how it provided for our family. And I'm just walking around feeling like, thank you, Lord. You're the provider, you're amazing. Look at our cabinets are full, and I come back in two hours later, and I can't find none of the things we bought. Can anybody relate? There's somebody in here that knows what I'm talking about. If you have kids, you know what I'm talking about. Because while you were busy celebrating the Lord and thinking about all those good things you were gonna snack on for a week, your kids just like that thing just disappeared. How does an entire box of something disappear in an hour? Anybody really know what I'm talking about? That's what I'm that's that's what I'm saying. The visual's the same way. We've we've provided, and yet everything that's been provided for seems like it's not enough. It's not holding enough. It's not holding enough. That that's where where he's he's declaring. Listen, not only have you neglected me for 16 years, but everything you put your hands to is coming up a little short. And here's the here's the scary part that we can be in is that we can live in that place and call it comfort. We can live in that place and say that's good enough, and we can live in that place and make and just say, like, yeah, we're we're really blessed. Oh my gosh. Look at that. You may have to take over after that. I I don't I don't know. Bullets, we'll keep trying. I'll try it now. Hey. Look at God, look at him. You said you didn't believe in miracles. Look at what he did before you blueprint review. Here's what's happening. You're getting a view. He's asking you, hey, listen, go back and look at the plan. Go back and look at the plan. He says this, consider your ways. Misalignment leads to exhaustion. When your labor stops glorifying God, even harvest feels hollow. When we are misaligned to what God is actually trying to accomplish, and us holding up all the things we built with our hands that are beautiful, and we're saying, look at all the beautiful things. But when it's misaligned from our heart, our motive is off, our our effort is off, it will exhaust everything you got. Now I'm talking to somebody in this room who has been spending the last year exhausted. Let the Holy Spirit begin to speak to you. Where is that place that He told you or spoke to you that you're making excuses for? Is your comfort more important? Or is Him's Him having you and Him having a relationship for Him to speak and you to do? Which one's more important to you? And I'm and I promise you, you don't have to look very far in your life where you start to see things start to break down. And it's likely linked back to a place where God is calling you to do something. Like, can I give you an example? I can tell you're looking at me kind of wild. Like, I don't know if he knows what he's talking about. What I'm saying is there um if you've ever been in a place where God has actually asked you to distance yourself for a season from a community of people because it's not beneficial to you, because when you're around them, they're takers, not givers. Does anybody know the taker mentality? One of the things I I loathe the most. Cannot stand to be around people who just want to take all the time. Right? But but what's sad is you'll normalize that. You'll normalize that. You'll say, that's just regular, that's just life, that's just my friends. No, these people have been drawn off of you, and they're not bringing new life to you. Hey, I'm so tired of dealing with the same thing over and over and over again. I'm tired of this, I'm tired. Well, well, let's look at the community you're around. Let's look at how you positioned yourself. God has delivered you. We have the deliverance side, he's provided that for us, amen, through Christ Jesus. But your responsibility is to take the faithful steps forward. Christ says, I'll meet you where your need is, but I'm meeting you to empower you to make faithful steps in obedience to the direction of complete wholeness. And in this case, the children of Israel have the word of the Lord. They've been given the resources. Right? From Babylon, they took all the money. We're taking the gold, we're taking the silver, right? And we're going here and we're gonna build the house of God. And instead, they built their own homes with the same resources they took to build the house with God's house. Come on, somebody. You can see why he might want to respond right here. God wants his house built, amen. It's important. Check this out. Second, uh, third, third piece. Uh maybe I did kill it. Nope. It's staying. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. That was the second, right? Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I might take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, but indeed it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. You went to work, you brought it home, and I brought a gust of wind to blow all of your stuff away. Listen to the Lord. Like, meaning, meaning, meaning, it's it's both the physical act, but it's the it's the it's it's it's the implied idea is that your effort, and all of a sudden you have nothing to show for it.

unknown: 26:58

Right?

SPEAKER_00: 26:58

That's what he's saying. And he says, Why did I do that? Why? He says, the Lord of hosts, because my house is in ruins. Simple. My house is in ruins, while every one of you run to your own house. Therefore, the heavens above you withhold the dew. Listen to this, very important. Therefore, the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. Now listen to this. For I called for a drought on the land, in the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth. Now check this: on men, on livestock, and on the labor of your hands. Sixteen years they've been acting and building beautiful homes and have been so busy building their existence, they didn't realize that everything they've been doing has had, has been cursed in a way. Do you follow this? Even down to pregnancy. Men. This goes all the way down, not just to your your oil and your wine, which just in here, if you hit the wine, we're out. Nervous laughter sputters through the congregation. Come on, man. He he's taxing all of it. The oil, the wine, all of it. Why why is this? Why am I even mentioning this? Because the fear is that we can live in a place God has called us to partner with his kingdom effort. Today, today I I told Britt, I said, one of the things I like we're going this direction is I didn't come to tell you about all the outreaches we do today. Though kingdom is all about getting outside the four walls and being his expression. But I'm not here to stand up and tell you all the great things we get to do in our community. I'm trying to get our motives right. Why do we do world missions? Why are we in other parts of the globe? Why are we investing dollars into advancing his kingdom? Because we can't afford to have great, beautiful, paneled lives while the rest of the world who's begging for deliverance and freedom and salvation, and we're just sitting here saying, you know, what we need is another big fat plate of good spiritual food so that we don't ever have to leave here and we'll be safe here and we'll create houses that feel good, but they're not changing anything. So why why am I coming at this angle? It's not not to be mean or to poke fun or to say we're we're against God, but I'm here to say we can fall into this same trap. And if you don't look Look around and see a world that we're in right now. I'm it's heartbreaking to look at the state of the church sometimes. It's because, like we talked about last week, there's a consumerism. Feed me, tell me, help me. Why? Well, I'd be better if you would do better for me. If the church was better, then I would be better. What? What where's your responsibility in this? Where do you stand before the Lord? Here's I got great news for somebody in here. Listen, when we get to heaven, I'm I'm gonna stand for what I did on the earth. But here's what I'm not gonna do. I'm actually not gonna stand on behalf of you. I'm not gonna be there in proxy of you. I'm not gonna be like, hey, listen, don't talk to them. They're my people. I shepherd them well, Lord. He knows good and well how I've shepherded, but that's what I'm being judged on. He's judging you on how you responded. We're gonna stand before him, and that that just like pretending like that's never gonna happen, and we're all just gonna float up, and this is gonna be amazing, and we don't ever it's so joyous, it's amazing. God is so good. Can I tell you something? We have to get serious about the hour we're in. And then understanding that God has called us to kingdom work, but He's it's it's what is your motivation? And and here's the cool part is that this moves beyond just building the programs of the rock. That's not what I'm talking about. That's part of it. That's part of building this house, a place for people to come in and to be ministered to. That's what this is. We'll talk about that here in just a second. But I'm I'm I'm making a point here is that they've lived for 16 years unaware that all of their efforts come up short. And yet he describes their homes as paneled homes, which is the same word used when Solomon decorated the temple. Now, now he it's exorbitant, it's extravagant, is what he's saying. You've built extravagant homes. What about my house? What about the kingdom of God? We built extravagant homes, and still it was lacking. Now, I just that concept to me is so wild, and it's taken me even now. I'm still wrestling through this idea. How is it that I can live in one reality, but God sees it totally different? It feels like one thing, but it's not. So, what does it mean? Here's a work order: go up, bring wood, and build. This is the this is what he's asked him to do, right? These are all the things that are falling apart, but this is the instruction manual. This is actually what I'm asking you to do. Rise from complacency. The go up. That's what he says. I want you to go up, gather wood, and then come build the temple. He says, I want you to rise from complacency. Second thing I want you to do, obedience supplies the materials. So I just want to stop and think through this for just a second. The materials needed to build the house can only be done if the people will be obedient to the instruction. I think I preach this more than anything else I preach, but the idea that that there is there is a responsibility of the believer to obedience. Young people, you have to hear what I'm saying on this. Like, God is always speaking, always guiding, and He's He's looking for partnership. Partnership is one where He can speak, and we and you will do. It's two parts to that. He's always speaking, but we're not always doing. And his invitation is that there's got to be some work here. And so he said, This is what I'm calling the people to do: to get up out of complacency, and I want you to get an obedience, get up to the hill, grab some wood, and then come down and let's build the temple. These three things matter. And the third one is his presence is a testimony to the nations. Why does God want to build his house so much? Some of you are sitting here like, man, he is so egotistical. Like, what does it matter? He has the heavens and the earth. Like, why does he need that little temple for them? Because the temple was not just for them to meet with God, it's where he had agreed until Christ would come, right? This would be the place of meeting, the tent of meeting. We were gonna, he's gonna gather with you here, but it was to be a testimony to the nations. Now, why does that matter? And if you don't know the story well enough, you don't know that the reason they're being exiled anyway from the very beginning is because they were all in love with the God of gold and silver. That might not seem much to you, but it matters because what is he trying to tell them? He's saying, I am, and we'll read this in a second. Haggai 2 talks about this, I am the gold. He declares himself, I am the God of gold, silver. He declares himself. He puts himself back into the Lordship place. And in order for the nations to understand that God is God, he's looking at how they're building his house. Okay, let me say it more. I I think I'm I'm so far into the Old Testament you can't see it. I'm trying to tell you the hope of this world is Jesus. Jesus is using the church to be the expression of that. And when we take steps back because we're embarrassed of the church, or because it doesn't look like you thought it should look, or it doesn't govern the way you think it should govern, or they're not taking your opinions every turn of the corner. And we continue to make excuses for it, what we should be doing is prop up and celebrate who God is through the gathering of the believer. Which is why when we tell people you're not really part of the church if you're not coming together in a gathering like this. And people are like, You can't say that, don't you know? You have an online community? Yes, we invite you to gather with us. Because this is what he ordained, this is what he called us to do. He didn't call us to go solo, he didn't call us to live in our homes. He called us to come together as a testimony of his faithfulness, of his goodness. This is what when people look in on this, they get jealous for him. Oh boy. So we we're choosing the the secret hidden places of the internet. That's where we we're really I'm uh I'm I'm ministering to millions there. It's like, oh God, no. I mean, really. I can't. I can't because it's way too much. Construction notes. This is what he's doing. He's reordering the priorities. God was not cursing their work, he was calling them back to purpose. What he's inviting us back to, it's not not, I'm not cursing. What I'm trying to do is say, I'm telling you what's at work, but I'm inviting you to something more. First and foremost, there's an original idea, there's a purpose for your existence. There's a purpose for the church. And the church ought to spend more time getting back to that. I just have to be so careful right now. I just, because the times we live in, like people are just waiting. They're just like I can see it, see so many traps just laid. Like if he steps in this one, I got him now. You know, like here's what I'm saying. We got to stop walking into the room trying to trap the pastors and the Bible. Stop stop trying to trap the teachers. Stop trying to trap the come on, man. Like, like we're all, we're we're in the word. We're asking him to show us where to go as a church. This is what he's giving us. Hey, he's waving his hand saying, don't get comfortable right here. Don't, don't, don't, don't bend, don't break in this moment. I want you to stay focused. There's purpose. And he says this, they worked harder for diminishing returns because their labor was misaligned with the wheel. Diminishing returns, what does that mean? I'm putting extra effort and the buyout isn't enough. It's not working. I'm putting more resources into something that's yielding less every single year. Diminishing returns. How many of us are constantly feeling that pressure where we're giving, giving, giving, but we don't seem like we're getting more and more and more every year? It feels like every year I get less, less, less. There might be something to this that you need to pay attention to. When our priorities are off, productivity becomes fruit fruitity. We strive for more, more comfort, more control, more success, but we're exhausted, unfulfilled, and spiritually dry. When my number one motivator is those, those, in parentheses there, those are uh uh um tell me what they are. Quote, yeah, whatever. More con more comfort, more control, more success. You aren't trying to read minds, I'm trying, you know. When our focus is in those, how how I feel, my comfort, when that becomes the primary driver, um, this this looks different for everybody, but it can look like like I'm coming to church, but they better not ask me anything hard to do. Or um, hey, I'm gonna be a part of the church, but I'm not gonna be a part of the church through small groups because I don't like groups of people. It's like, well, okay. Well, that's gonna be tough for us to do community with you when you're like, hey, I just don't like people, so I'm not gonna serve anywhere. It's like, yeah, is is that what God wants from us? Is that the pursuit? No. His invitation is to say, partner with me in this. If we don't, we find ourselves unfulfilled, spiritually dry. God isn't withholding blessing out of anger, but inviting us to what? Realign our building projects with his presence. It's call to realign. God, what am I building in my life? And I want to realign that to what's your heart. Does that make sense? That's the invitation. Now, how does that look in the New Testament? I'm glad you asked. Acts 6. Acts 6. You can go there and check this out. I think this is a great passage of scripture to kind of give us a parallel. From the Old Testament, the prophets that are declaring this is the destiny of Israel, then we fast forward, we know that Christ has come, he's the fulfillment of everything that they've prophesied, and now the church is birthed and born, right? So let's see how the beginning of the church dealt with problems when it came into the church. And this is what happened to them. It says this, now in those days when the number of the disciples were multiplying, there arose a what? A complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. And then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables, underline, serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word. Now I'm going to stop right here because some people have read this in times past, and I'll just say this to anyone who is a leader, both at your business, let me even just take it even more closely, in your home. Let me just talk about your home, talk about the leader of your home, talk about who is responsible to lead in the home. What happens is, is if you're not careful, you'll take scripture like this and take it out of context, and you'll excuse yourself from work because you're the leader. Oh, I don't do that. Oh, I don't lift that. Oh, that's your job. That's not my job. And and believe it or not, that's actually a culture that's been birthed in our church in churches for years. That has to be uprooted. That's a lifestyle that has to be uprooted. That's the man of God syndrome. That's what that's the man of God syndrome, right? Where like today, you notice that I floated in here and they carried me in and sat me on my chair. I don't know if you notice that or not. There's something we demand around here. My foot shall not dash the earth. You know, like there's there's there's a temptation to overglorify man. And this is this is a this is dangerous. It there is to be honor. Don't confuse honor. Honor, honor is respect. Honor is is totally different than than saying, well, we have to protect him because he's our voice. This is the problem that happened to Israel in the wilderness, right? Man of God syndrome started there when they made Moses go up and answer. God invited everybody to the mountain and they rejected that. They just would rather him do it, so if there's any casualty, it's only on one. And so we create we can create culturally this idea that that guy is the only guy. Can I tell you? That's not the way it works. And that's hard because I I grew up in, we grew up, I'm I did. We grew up in a culture that that we were around people where that was the thing. Man, whatever that person said, that's just the way it was, right? That's it, Pastor Ryan. He's the final word. Where we got into a situation where people were bringing major decisions, and so instead of leading your home, you you were leading, you were leading through somebody else. And and and the reason why it breaks down is because then we we see now fast forward, the home is not intact anymore. Because the home is not intact anymore, because it first started with having a pastor lead me, but now it's just any guy that will lead me. Now it becomes somebody on the internet, faceless person who tells me this is a better way to do life, and I'm all in. It turns into turns into sports people, it turns into other people I give the authority to lead through me to my and that that how many know the authority is Christ and it's the word? That's all I'm saying. So I'm not trying to not trying to mess up anybody, but I'm just trying to trying to get us aligned. There's a responsibility to us. We have to lead. So he says this. It's interesting. He says, look, they understand something in this moment. The apostles understand that there is a a deep need for there to be spiritual formation in the church, and there is a job that requires them to spend their time doing it, but there's also a need to raise up leadership in the church because the needs are great. And what's happening is you don't maybe sense it here, but this is what's happening. The church is is new, it's been birthed with a vision, it's got power of the Holy Spirit, you guys tracking, and then all of a sudden it starts to get shaky. What happens is, is if if this complaint and if this need is not addressed, it will get off rhythm. And what is, is that essentially that if they don't address this, then all of a sudden the nature of who God is and serving people well will get missed so that they can just stay in their prayer closet. And God is not requiring just one side of this, He's not asking everybody to duck their head in the ground and just pray all day. He's saying, I want to transform you to transform the world. And both jobs are equally important and they're needed. And this is where we get deacons. This is where deacons come into play. It is interesting they chose seven, too. If you guys like numbers, you guys can look that up. That ought to be interesting to you. Go back and look at it. Also, it should be mentioned that Stephen's in that list. So a guy that's been anointed to serve tables also sacrifices his life from preaching the gospel. So for you to think that it's a it's a distance, I'm serving tables, doesn't mean I carry the weight of the word. That's not true. And in fact, if you approach serving, not carrying the weight of the word, then you're serving from a different motive. Ministry together like this is understanding that everything that happens in this room and in this church and in the body of Christ is intentional. There isn't a greater I and a lower you. Does that make sense? It is a collective work, and when we walk into that responsibility, we are advancing the kingdom of God, not my kingdom, not your kingdom, but his. And that there is a maximum glory. So when you hear me say, we get to give, Pastor Lisa, didn't she instill that in us early? We get to do this. And many of us are like, yes. And just didn't live it out. Like, oh, that's good. That's good. I'm not gonna live by it, but that's good. But when you understand what she's saying, that we get to, it's a partnership with the Lord and it's a collective effort. It requires all of us to carry weight. You've heard me say it like this is whenever you have you're moving, I've had to move the last couple of weeks with some folks. We've been moving lots of stuff. And how many know that when you have to get around the piano, the big thing, and they're like, hey, can everybody come around and help us carry the piano? How many know that there are certain people that get around the piano? But but you know that when when someone needs to move, they're the first to get out. Like, hey, we need someone to scare, can you move out? And when they leave, you realize the weight didn't change? Huh? You know what I'm talking about? Have you ever been carrying something with somebody, and then that person has to get out of the way for whatever reason, you realize like you weren't needed. You were just looking like you're carrying the weight. This is an invitation for everybody to put their hands on the piano and carry, distribute the weight of the kingdom advancement. When you're waiting for somebody at the church to do what God's already called you to do. He gave you your voice, and you can't wait for someone to come along and take it and do the work. You've been called to the work. When you were called to this church, the reason we ask you to go through next steps and to go through the spiritual assessment stuff to find out where has God wired you because we know we need to put you into work, into play here, because there are people who need what you have. And if you just sit here and you're like, I don't even know where I belong. Like, I mean, I mean, that works for like a couple weeks. But like when someone comes up to me, it's like, yeah, I'm just coming through next steps. I've been here for 16 years. It's like I just hear boo, just white noise, and my ears ring, and I'm like, 16 years. And I'm saying, I mean, it's an invitation. Let's do work together, right? Let's advance the kingdom together. This is what they're trying to accomplish here. And I like this verse 7 at the end, it says, When they did all of these things, when they found the guys, laid hands on them, this was the byproduct. Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to what? In the faith. What am I saying? Is that by them making a really good leadership decision, recognizing that both of these things work together, by laying on of hands, what do we get? Increase. Multiplication. What has the Lord called us to do? Come on, Adam and Eve. Be fruitful and multiply. Thank you, Paul. I heard you out there. I don't even know where you're at, but I can hear you. Deep voice, where are you? There you are. I see you hidden with glasses. You shouldn't have worn the glasses. I got you. I could hear it. Be fruitful and multiply. If that is the call in the garden, it is the call today. What Jesus provided for us is to bring us back into plan A. Things started to get derailed. He brought us into plan A. If that's plan A, then I gotta go back to what? He's saying, be fruitful and multiply, expand, do, advance the kingdom. And the invitation is for us all to do it together. Amen? Nope. Church out of rhythm. What is this? What is this? Needs were real, but prioritize, but prioritize priorities were shifting. The apostles recognized that serving tables wasn't wrong, but misplaced focus could derail the mission. What does that mean? If the apostles had just said, oh yeah, drop the teaching, let's all just serve people, then we have a deficit somewhere in the in the in the a chink in the chain is broken. Does that make sense? Rhythm keeps revival sustainable, structure sustains spirit. Here's some construction notes for us here. In both stories, God provides structure for sustainability. And Haggai, the prophetic correction leads to renewed obedience. How many know we need the prophetic correction? It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. There's not a person in here that doesn't need this at times in their life. Can I get a good amen right here? Come on, I just need it. Sometimes I come. You know where I get it sometimes? Oh, I get it all the time here. She's sitting right up here on the front row. It's so good though. Like, yeah, there's times where it's just like, no, you're right. That's a great. She reframed two or three things this weekend. Didn't even know just that's a better way of thinking through it. That's great. I needed that. You did that at my house too, Jess. You did that just recently. You said one thing, and I'm like, God, I handle. I was trying to be nice and feed her dinner. And here she's telling me something that I needed to hear. And she didn't even know it. It's just like, it's okay, let the spirit bring that correction because it's it's not to hurt us, it's to form us into his image. That's my ultimate pursuit, amen. In Acts 6, it's leadership multiplication restores focus. Deacons are appointed so apostles can stay devoted to the word in prayer. And here's some of the results right here. Haggai 1.14, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel and what? All of the remnant. And that prophetic word is that He He doesn't just stir up the people with a word, He stirs the leadership first. Talking to all you sitting up here close right now, and all you sitting out here, deacons and elders, listen to me. He's not stirring the people so that we can lead, he's stirring the leaders so that we can lead people. It's not the other way around. Stop waiting for them to get stirred for something to do. Get on fire for God on how to lead in this season. And can I tell you, people will flood in and they'll be a part of it. Acts 6, the word of God continue to increase. You know that, multiply greatly. I want to get to this because I think it's important. Here we go. This is interesting. Haggai 2. Are you are you with me? I'm closing. I'm closing. Does that help? I just that's what I'll do. I'll close. Who? Uh Jonah. Jonah, would you come? Uh Jonah, Jonah, would you come? Come, come on and make them make me feel guilty and then feel good. Come on. Haggai two. This is important, right? It's important because if you don't read this passage of it, you don't get to the hopeful part. Some of us are like, where's the hope, Pastor Scott? Where's the hope? Here's the hope. Here's the hope. Lean in right here. Here's the hope. It says, the latter glory of the house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace. Now, why is he realigning them? I'm realigning your 16 years of complacency, not because, and this is interesting because if you go to uh two, I think it is maybe 10 or to 13, maybe somewhere in there. Sorry, I don't have it right now, but there is an interesting fact is that God asks, who is here that's seen the former glory? Who saw the temple before and is and is discouraged about what you see today? I want to stop right here. Because there's a temptation for even us in this moment is to say, well, this isn't what I thought it was gonna be. I didn't think our season was gonna look like this. I didn't think the rock was ever gonna be like this. I had a conversation with someone the other day. It's like, yeah, I came to your church a long time ago, and that was good. It was good, but I just don't think I can be a part of it now, but it was good, and you're just like, oh, that hurts, right? My favorite is when someone talks to you and they don't even know that you're the pastor. I had that happen a couple days ago. Where do you go to church? I go to the rock. They're like, The rock? Oh, that's a pretty good place. I've heard some good things about that place. Really? Tell me. Tell me all the good stuff. Well, you know, I've had a I've heard a lot of people leaving too, you know. And I was like, oh, really? Jeez. Okay. And then you have to tell them, who did you say you were? I'm the pastor of the rock. That conversation just that person just turned into powder. Just blew away. There's there's a temptation, and I I'm using it about us specifically because it's like family talk, but let's like zoom out and look at like what we think the church isn't today. I'm so sick and tired of turning on the news and people telling me what the church is. I'm so sick and tired of somebody telling me where it failed and what it didn't do and what it produced here. And I'm here to tell you today, I'm gonna be a testimony of the faithfulness of God, the advancement of his kingdom. I'm here to testify that the church is alive and well, and that the church is the very best answer for what's happening in the earth right now. I'm telling you, we have the answers, but we're gonna have to get up and stop being complacent with the houses we've built and get out in the streets and tell somebody about it. There's a conviction, there's a calling, there's something God's called you to do, and you don't have to wait for a platform. You have one when you walk out this door, when you sit down at a restaurant today, when you pump gas. We were talking about this on the way to my wife and I on the way to church today. We're just talking about that that the thing that compels you is to be led by the spirit. And this is critical right now. You have to hear what I'm saying. You some people say, led by the spirit, that sounds kind of creepy. That's weird. You know, when they say spirit, they mean tongues. No, I'm talking about a yieldedness to the spirit of God. I'm talking about waking up in the morning and knowing I have ten things on my list today, but maybe just involve him. Like, have you ever just stopped to think that maybe, like, hey, listen, I have to get my oil changed. How about I pray about which one to get it changed at? Maybe, God, you want to use me today. I'm making myself available. Now you know the list of things I have to accomplish, but I'm gonna submit that to your lordship today. God, I'm gonna get that done today because that's my job to do, but I'm also gonna utilize it and say, who am I praying for here today? Which one of these dudes is getting you today? Huh? Which one? The guy greasing my doors? Oh, he's getting it. He's getting it. Huh? Is it the guy in the pit we never see? Some of y'all don't even know what I mean by that. When you change it. There's a guy changing. Be emphasized, but I'm saying are you asking the Lord to use you when you grocery shop? You ask him to use you when you're in car line? Are you asking him to use you when you're at school, young person? Are you just going about the day? Letting it pass. The invitation is bring him along. That's what he's saying. I want to be a part of that. If we'll be led by the Spirit, we can see the kingdom advanced in more ways than just hoping we have an event. Most of us are waiting to do our best evangelism once we have an event, stickers, t-shirts. Man, if only we had a sticker. We really were that close to having revival. We were so close to doing ministry, but there was no fresh merch. Come on, somebody, let's just be honest. Can we just be honest? We we've we've we've made evangelism and ministry and advancing the gospel some kind of event-based deal. And this is the invitation to say, no, the work is plenty, it's for everybody, and he's inviting us to it. Right? Here's the cool part. He's also calling us up, he's inviting us to something. Here's what I want you to ask yourself today. Am I building my life for his kingdom? Have I confused busyness for fruitfulness? And do I need to go up to the mountain again? What I mean by that, go up to the mountain, and I want to be real clear about this. It's not an invitation to go sit at his feet. In this passage, in the context I'm preaching from today, the invitation to the mountain is to get the resources to build the kingdom of God. These three questions I want us to go through today. Would you stand to your feet? We'll close. So the record is 1146. Winning. Getting better. Ask yourself. Can we just do this? Can we just can we just can we just get in this posture? Can we just lift our hands and can we just contemplate this? I'll I'll say the question since you don't have to read the screen. I just want you to close your eyes. And we should genuinely do work with the Lord here, right? This isn't about who you're standing next to. This isn't about anybody else. This is just a heart question from God to his children. Genuine, heartfelt question. Am I building my life or his kingdom? Holy Spirit, if there's anything in me that has prioritized me above you, I'm asking you to forgive me. God, if I if I have put anything in my life that that overrides what you've asked me to do, or if there's any uh obedience that that I'm missing, something you've asked me to do and I've been I've been neglectful with, I'm asking you to give me the grace to see it for what it is and not live in the condemnation, but in the invitation for promise and more. Whatever regret I might have looking back, I don't want that to be a hindrance for building the kingdom of God. Because what you've promised is you've already forgiven those things and you're reinstating me to a promised future. That's what it is. When you pray that, God, am I building my life or you or yours? Which one am I building? Help me to find the balance in that. How I'm to grow my family strength, but but where is the motivation? Where is where's my heart in it? Second question have I confused busyness for fruitfulness? Have I been busy, busy, busy, go, go, go? Have I serve, serve, serve, serve, serve? And yet, when I look back, all the work, all the effort, all the giving, all the doing, all the saying, all the thing, all the things, it feels like you just keep coming up short. Now, Holy Spirit, we're asking you to fill the gap. Just fill the gap. Where I've where I've been busy, busy, God, I ask you to shape and reshape my heart for faithful following. Just to follow you. Holy Spirit, I just want to be sensitive to you this week. This very week. When I walk out of here, let it start today. Holy Spirit, who do you want me to speak to? I want to faithfully follow you. How do you want me to lead my family today? What's different about today than it was yesterday? Help me to see what it is and give me the grace to step out into it. Amen. The last one. Do I need to go up to the mountain again? Is there an invitation to somebody here today that says, you've you've been complacent long enough? You've sat and you've viewed, you've taken it in, you've been a consumer of the word, you've been the consumer of the church, you've been in it and around it, but the invitation is to be a part of it, to lead with. That the work is plenty, the work is much, and it will require all of us. It's an invitation to build again. So I just come against every lie of the enemy that has disqualified you from being a builder. Every single lie that it that you've told yourself or you've believed that someone has said over you, I come against that in the name of Jesus. Every single one, every shred, every seed, everything seated in your heart. And some of you are recalling things, and I'm asking you, let the Holy Spirit put his finger on a lie that was told over you, that disqualified you, that somehow you believed, and now you no longer have the confidence to think you can even build with him. But his invitation is fresh and anew today. And he says, I trust you, you're worthy, you're capable, you're good enough. And even if you weren't, I am. I am. The invitation is to build with him. God doesn't need us to build him a house. The invitation is to build with you. Why? Because building with you is the point. Because that's where he gets your heart. That's where he gets the relationship. That's where he gets maximum glory. That's where he shines through your life as a testimony to the earth, and that's the invitation. And we come against anything that would rob you of that privilege. Anything. Every lie that your mother spoke over you, every lie that your father said that you weren't gonna be, every lie you've told yourself because the things you put effort in didn't always work out. Those times where you started something and you never could seem to finish it, all that sense of failure that's noosed around your neck, we take that off. And we put on the light of Christ and the fresh invitation that you're loved, cared for, seen, and invited to partner with him. For every calling, gifting, anointing represented in this room. We place a demand that this is the season where that will rise to the surface again. Every hidden place, everything that you buried from youth camps gone by, every promise that God has given you that you've neglected, or maybe you've buried, thinking it will never come true, or you shelved. We're asking you, Lord, in this season, would you bring it into full view? Into full view so that you, Lord, can get maximum glory from our life and the life of this church, and that your kingdom will be advanced in Jesus' name. Everyone said, Amen, amen, amen, amen. Yeah. This is the last slide, and I just want to just say these as declarations. Let's not be the generation that perfects paneled houses and neglects the presence. Come on, somebody. Let's not be the generation that perfects paneled houses but neglects presence. We don't want to be that. Let's not become an Acts 6 church without Acts 1 power. It's both. The need is great. What are you saying, Pastor Scott? We're not going to be driven by need alone. God knows the need. How many know it's the need and the presence? Those two that come together through the body of Christ where we can answer those questions. That makes sense? Last but not least, let's put God's house, his mission, his people, his presence first again. Amen?

SPEAKER_01: 1:07:48

We hope and pray. This message was encouraging and impactful. Join us live on our website or Facebook on Sundays at 9 and 11 a.m. You can stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at The Rock Family. Have a Jesus filled week.