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Ceres SDA Church

Anil Kanda

Temple Run

The Bible says where the Spirit of God is there's liberty Father in heaven, we just thank you that Ultimately in you we have freedom Freedom from the our sinful nature and freedom from this world and Satan's deception because of your Holy Spirit.

And God, right now we just plead with you that you would send the Holy Spirit to us to be our teacher and our guide in your Word.

Father, we just thank you for every person that is here today to hear a very special message from your heart to theirs.

Did you guys have a good 4th of July celebration?

You know, I raced down to Southern California to visit my family.

My niece really wanted me to come down there, so I took a quick trip.

It was about 5 and a half hours, 6 hours.

And I was there, I got there Thursday morning.

And it was really interesting because I have, where I live, we have Some white people over here and they go all out for the the 4th of July celebration And then we have some Hispanics over here and they go all out for the 4th of July celebration and then we have the Indians right here and we go all out for Fourth of July celebration yes Indian people celebrate Fourth of July too you know we were freed from Britain too And so here we are and my brother-in-law he decides that this year he's going to buy a bunch of illegal fireworks to compete with the other neighbors.

And you know and so unfortunately They brought all the alcohol as well.

And it was such an interesting experience, 4th of July, because I have relatives that are Sikh.

And my family, when they would light the fireworks, it was oftentimes a moment of celebration.

And so this part, I thought, was very unusual.

1 of my relatives, he has this turban, he's an older gentleman.

He goes up there, and he lights the fireworks, and everybody's kind of watching off, the other neighbors are watching.

He lights the fireworks and he's in a dancing position and he's waiting.

And all of a sudden the fireworks goes off and he dances his way back into the garage.

And, you know, I grew up within 2 different cultures, so, you know, to me this seems normal.

But I really like fourth of July celebration because I get to celebrate my country the country I was born in its history Freedom is such an important thing.

Amen and God has blessed us with opportunities and right now many of those freedoms are in question But if there ever is a time to follow God's Word it is now Amen, As I said before 2nd Corinthians says where the Spirit of God is there is liberty in other words Outside of God 1 does not find true liberty But in Jesus you find true liberty in fact The law of God and this is for the theologians is so designed in such a way that it gives the highest Sense of freedom to a person it teaches them that we are not bound by this world In a world that Is going fast in a world that is stress?

Stressful in a world that is heading this way.

The Sabbath is a radical commitment That you are faithful to God and that you can make a intentional decision To follow Jesus in the midst of everything Ladies and gentlemen, we have so much to be thankful for.

Well the name of this sermon is called Temple Run and I have been encouraged by several kids to call this Temple Run 2.

I'm not quite sure but that's what's been the suggestion.

But the name of the sermon is called temple run and what we're going to be doing is we're going To be taking a good look in the book of Haggai.

So everybody take your Bible Let's go to the book of Haggai Haggai chapter 1 now If you don't know where Haggai is if you open up your black Bibles, you'll find them in page 9 16 9 16 Haggai chapter 1 Haggai chapter 1 page 9 16 in your seminar Bibles We're gonna be going there today And we're going to be studying out the first chapter of the book of Haggai.

By the way, you guys know camp meeting starts next week.

Do whatever it takes, ladies and gentlemen, to go there.

You know, this last weekend I was invited to go speak in the Washington camp meeting and God tremendously blessed and I realized something that that camp meeting that is Really truly special hours ordained by God You know in the Old Testament and into the New Testament many of the Israelites were invited several times out of the year to go to the feast days and as they would go to these feast days Located in Jerusalem, they would gain such a powerful blessing it Rejuvenated their spiritual lives when they went back.

You see God had designed it in such a way and we had the camp meetings of today So if you've never been to camp me I really highly Suggest you do what it takes to go out there at least for a day and be blessed and there's information in the lobby All right.

We all in Haggai chapter 1 All right a little bit of the context Little bit of the context God had opened up the doors for the children of Israel to rebuild Israel at that time they were conquered by Babylon Babylon utterly decimated the Temple and Jerusalem and Judea and many of the people were scattered.

However through providences God allowed the children of Israel to return and begin the rebuilding process.

Cyrus the Great King In fact when I was in the British Museum in England we I took a good look at 1 of the cylinders And he actually has a decree where he's sending nations or people back to their nations to rebuild their temples Which coincides exactly with what the Bible says about Cyrus?

And so the children Israel began this process of heading back to rebuilding the temples, the temple.

And so what they did first is they built the walls.

And through a series of experiences God Led the people to succeed in this however during that time The children raised will begin to hear all sorts of reports all sorts of suggestions and all sorts of unusual Things coming from the enemy trying to tell them that they should slow down in this work that they should utterly stop the expansion of their kingdom.

And it was during this time that God raises up a man by the name of Haggai, he was a prophet and Powerful messages begin to come from Haggai to the people of God to revive them to continue the work that God has called Them to do we're taking a good look at Haggai chapter 1 Haggai chapter 1 let's see what the Bible says in The second year of King Darius in the sixth month on the first day of the month the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet of Zerubbel the son of Sheetal Governor of Judea to Joshua the son of Jehozaddek the high priest now watch it Saying thus says the Lord of hosts saying this people says the time has what?

Not come the time that the Lord's house should be built Apparently God Gave a message to Haggai and he says look the people are starting to murmur They're starting to talk and they're saying all sorts of rumors and they're spreading this and it is spreading like cancer To the rest of Israel and God hones in on exactly what they were saying.

You know what they were saying It's not the right time.

It's not the right time Circumstances are happening.

This is not the right time for us to spend time Resources money influence to rebuild the temple of God.

It's not the Right time they were looking at all the various situations that were happening all around them They just got released from Babylon or meet the Medieval Persian Empire to go back and rebuild And so when the focus came to rebuild the center of Israel The temple of God some of them begin to murmur and say to another each other This isn't the right time.

I'm starting to realize about words more and more Words are so powerful That they are like seeds that are planted that may not have at first in effect But when those seeds are planted due to time and Circumstance they will produce some kind of harvest whether that harvest is good or rather that harvest is evil and so seeds of rebellion begin to just be inserted in the minds of their people and Doubt begin To spread and they say wait a minute.

We can't be doing this This is not our focus to rebuild the temple you see the temple was supposed to be the center of all of Israel It was the place of worship and that when they were focused on this place of worship Much of the world would come to Israel and they would say tell us about your God You read the story of Solomon the Queen of Sheba came other pagan Kings came and they wanted to know about the temple they wanted to know about this God that they had built this Magnificent temple for and now The work of God is being called into question Resources are scattered people are scattered They're not united and the time comes where they're saying, you know what this isn't the right time For us to be doing this Ladies and gentlemen, I want to tell you something and this is from my heart.

There will never be a time When God's work is convenient Never There will never be a time when everything just works out in such a way where you just think well, this is just convenient God's work is never convenient and We should understand this So we should never think to ourselves Well Circumstances are so we are not called to do this because of what's happening around us And so this is what all the people were murmuring during that time and it began to spread like cancer and everybody said you know What?

I got to take care of and they begin to stop the work on the temple Well, let's see what happens next verse 3 then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the Prophet saying is it time?

For you yourselves to dwell in paneled houses and this temple to lie in what you know what he does He hones in on what exactly is the problem?

You see the problem isn't whether it was just inconvenient.

The problem was They actually had another focus Their focus was no longer to dwell in tents.

They actually wanted to start building homes for themselves Their temporal interest actually took a priority over eternal interest and It was this time where God says the reason why you're murmuring is because you're not actually focused on the house of God You're not actually focused on worshiping the Lord You're more focused about your business and About the temporal things in your life and this is why the temple lies in ruins Ladies and gentlemen, we need to understand something because I know this is speaking to some people right now that the things of this world are always going to seem like they have a priority over the things of God and There's going to be experiences that we're going to come across Where it seems like those things are going to have more precedent in our life than what God wants us to do Many times we call for Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 and we say seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and what?

All these things shall be added to you know what we like to do We like to switch that verse around and we say well when things are finally added to me Then I'll seek second the kingdom of God and his righteousness Ladies and gentlemen search your heart on this even your pastor is not immune from these things Amen There's been times in my life where I just think to myself well, you know, I am the senior pastor now Maybe it's time for me to start putting some roots down and when in fact when I first got here Let me just tell you a story when I first Got here.

Well, I'm gonna be here for a while and So what I'm gonna do I'm gonna start looking for a house Anybody who's ever been house hunting knows it consumes you You know I'm talking about we're just like oh my goodness.

This is the perfect house I'm gonna put a bid down and some investor comes with cash and pays it all off and you don't have the house anymore and You're just disappointed and you're thinking God doesn't love me anymore.

I know what that's like I know what it's like to place worldly priorities over the things of God and Where the worship of God becomes second it becomes neglected because everything that's happening around you ladies and gentlemen the Israelites were making a very huge mistake because what they did is that They took their eyes off the prize and began to focus on everything else around them.

And you know what happened a drought came The Bible actually tells us in Haggai that God actually withheld the blessings Because their priorities were off and There was an adjustment that was needed God had opened the doors for such a providential opportunity and now everything was lining up for this Momentous time to rebuild the temple to restore Jerusalem Restore the temple worship and all of a sudden the Israelites got distracted at The very key moments ladies and gentlemen We are at key moments right now And the devil is doing whatever he can to distract us to take our eyes off.

What's important and put it on temporal things But if there ever is a time for us to be paying attention and to say, you know what, what does the Lord require of me?

And just like Haggai gave this very pointed message getting right down to the roots of the problem, The children raised here were utterly convicted.

Verse 5, Now therefore thus says the Lord, Consider your ways.

You drink, but you are not filled with drink you clothe yourself But no 1 is warm and he who earns wages earns wages to put them in a bag with what?

Holes Now watch verse 7 Thus is the Lord of hosts consider your ways You're like God heckum.

I'm doing all the right things with all my finances.

I'm seeming I'm just doing all the way I'm putting my money Akai to a savings account paying off my bills.

But why is it that I'm still feeling like I'm not blessed Why does it seem like all these bad things keep happening to me and when it rains it pours Amen, and so why do these financial disasters keep happening?

Why is it that my temporal life is not being blessed and God begins to point that finger and says this is the reason why Here's the pulse of the problem Let's continue Verse 8 go up to the mountains and bring wood and build a temple that I may take pleasure in it and what Be glorified you look for much, but indeed it came to little and when you brought it home I blew it away.

Why says the Lord of hosts now watch this because of my house that is in what?

Ruins while every 1 of you runs to his own what?

House God says I'm not blessing you anymore It's not helping the situation And so God actually removes the blessings.

He allows a drought to come in and the children is gonna say wait a minute How come we're not being blessed in our temporal life?

And God says you're neglecting your priority You see Ladies and gentlemen when God freed you from Egypt, and if you're not free from Egypt, you're not free when he called you out of Babylon He did not call you simply to become comfortable in the church He called you so he could use you to rebuild a temple of praise This is why God frees us from this world to help other people be free But oftentimes we can get into the experience or the rut where it seems like we're just planted among thorns and it begins to leach out our very spirituality And I have been an evangelist long enough to know notice this When it seems like God is doing a powerful things and all of a sudden the worldly temptation comes in the situations come in and The people begin to lose focus on what's important and they begin to take their eyes off God and step by step They're boy move.

They're moving towards the path of destruction.

Ladies and gentlemen, God is calling us to refocus, to get our priorities straight.

He's calling us to just renew our commitments to God.

Because ladies and gentlemen, if there ever is a time God has called us to focus on what's important, it's now.

Oh, I know this message is cutting somebody right now to the heart.

And that person doesn't want to say amen.

You know, oftentimes I'll read a message in God's Word, and I'll read it, and I know the Lord is speaking to me.

And I do what many people do I'll turn to the book of Psalms I'll say I'll find something else to read that's encouraging and then you look at songs and you're reading something that convicts you there you know what you do you close your Bible and you say well what I'll do is I'll probably just listen to a Christian song.

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Temple Run

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