Build the House

[0:00] Well, if we could, this evening, with the Lord's help and the Lord's guidance, if we could turn back to that portion of Scripture that we read, the book of the prophet Haggai, the book of the prophet Haggai in chapter 1.

[0:20] Haggai chapter 1, and if we take as our text the words of verses 7 and 8.

[0:34] Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.

[0:46] But particularly the words, build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified. Build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified.

[1:09] I want to begin this evening by asking a question. And the question is, what message does a preacher of God's word bring before God's people in a day when God is not central?

[1:26] What message does a preacher of God's word bring before God's people in a day when God is not central? And I want to answer that question by saying that the words of the prophet Haggai, which applied in his day, they are the same words which apply to us here in Barvis.

[1:48] Because Haggai was a preacher of God's word who brought before God's people a clear message in a day when God was not central. And the message which Haggai brought before God's people was, consider your ways.

[2:04] Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified. And I want to say, as a word of introduction this evening, that the reason I am your minister is not least because I love this community and I have a heart for the people in this community and I want to see people saved and I want to see the Lord's people built up.

[2:34] But above all that, it is because of these words that God has appointed me here at this time to be your minister. It will be two years ago tomorrow since I was ordained and inducted in this charge.

[2:52] It will be two years ago tomorrow since I promised to you before God, as our blue book puts it, I accept and close with a call to be the pastor of this congregation and promise through grace to perform all the duties of a faithful minister of the gospel among you.

[3:13] Two years isn't a long time and I have a lot more to learn and a lot more to do in order to be a faithful minister of the gospel.

[3:25] But the reason I am here is because of these words. And I want to share this with you this evening because I believe that these words of the prophet Haggai, which applied in his day, are the same words which apply to us here in Barbers.

[3:40] Because if you remember when I was a student here, I came here on placement in the summer and then I was here again for three weeks in January. And during those three weeks, we looked together at the book of the prophet Haggai.

[3:56] And when I preached the same text which I'm preaching this evening, when I preached it three years ago, after the service, our session clerk, he highlighted to me from the history of Barbers Free Church, from that little Pronegan booklet which was made when Calumene was here.

[4:14] And it reads there that in the history of Barbers Free Church, when the church was experiencing difficulties, there was difficulties between the United Free Church and the Free Church.

[4:24] And the United Free Church had taken over this building. And so a short-term solution was to use a makeshift building across the road called the Zinc Church, made of corrugated iron.

[4:38] And the foundation, it's still there to this day. But in 1933, when everything was settled and the church was refurbished and it was officially opened, the opening address was taken from Haggai 1, verses 7 and 8.

[4:53] Thus says the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways, go up to the hills and bring wood and build a house, that I may take pleasure in it, and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.

[5:05] And at that time I thought, well, that's an interesting story. That's interesting history. But that night, the Lord pressed upon my heart that if I was ever to end up being in Barbers, it would be through that text and that text alone.

[5:22] And so that was that. I left it. I said to the Lord, if you're going to call me, it's through that verse. And so I went back to the Free Church College for my final semester, wondering in the back of my mind where I'm going to end up.

[5:37] And anyway, on the first Tuesday after coming back to college, after classes, we always had worship. And we started on the Tuesday afternoon reading through the book of Exodus.

[5:50] And so on Tuesday afternoon, we read through Exodus 1. On Wednesday afternoon, we read through Exodus 2. On Thursday afternoon, we read through Exodus 3. And then on Friday afternoon, one of the professors stood up and he announced that we're going to read Haggai chapter 1.

[6:06] And in the professor's reading of this passage, he stressed these words. And he stressed their relevance for us as a church today. That as preachers of God's word, we are to encourage the people of God in a day when God is not central, to build the house, that the Lord may take pleasure in it, and that his name may be glorified.

[6:31] And so from that moment in college, I knew that if Barber's Free Church signed the call, I would come. And so here we are. Two years on.

[6:45] And now as a preacher of God's word, I want us to remind ourselves as God's people of this glorious message in a day when God's word, nor God, is central.

[6:57] Because we're being urged to consider our ways. And we're being urged to build the house that the Lord may take pleasure in it, and that his name may be glorified.

[7:09] And God willing, both this evening and next Lord's Day, I'd like us to look together at the words of this minor prophet again. And I'd like us to look at this minor prophet Haggai.

[7:19] We don't know much about Haggai, but what we do know is that he was a faithful preacher who was called to encourage the people of God to consider their ways and to put God first.

[7:34] He called them to consider their ways and put God first. And so in this chapter, we see the Lord use Haggai to challenge the people about their complacency.

[7:46] We see the Lord use Haggai to command the construction of the temple. And we see the Lord use Haggai to convey comfort to the Lord's people.

[7:57] And they're the three headings that I'd like us to use this evening. Challenging complacency, commanding construction, and conveying comfort. Challenging complacency, commanding construction, and conveying comfort.

[8:13] So if we look firstly at challenging complacency, look at verse one. In the second year of Darius the king in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Sheltiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest.

[8:34] Thus says the Lord of hosts, these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. And so the history which surrounds this short book of only 38 verses.

[8:49] And the events which take place in this book, they're only over a short period of time of only four months. But the background to what's going on during the short ministry of the prophet Haggai is one which was not expected.

[9:05] Because we find the Israelites having returned from exile in Babylon and they're rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. But they're not rebuilding the temple.

[9:17] But just to, as I was, recap briefly on the history of the children of Israel in order to understand where we are when we come to this book. As you know, the Israelites, they were God's chosen people.

[9:30] They were the nation upon whom God had set his love and ordained that they were to be a light to the Gentiles and that through them all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

[9:42] But the condition of experiencing blessing was dependent upon the obedience of the Israelites. And the condition was that they were to love the Lord and worship only him.

[9:56] But the history of the Israelites, when you read through the history, it was a history of failure. Because they repeatedly turned away from the Lord and they turned to worshipping idols.

[10:07] And even though the Lord was patient with them and the Lord graciously warned them time and time again throughout many periods of history and through many prophets of the Lord, the people of Israel didn't listen.

[10:21] And the Lord promised that judgment would come if they didn't change their ways and turn back to the Lord. But still, they didn't listen. And so, in 586 BC, a key date to remember, the nation of Israel then, 586 BC, the nation of Israel was invaded by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar.

[10:46] And the Israelites, they were taken off into exile in Babylon. And in Babylon, they were made to live under a foreign king and live in a foreign land and they were made to worship foreign gods.

[11:00] But in the process of time, God, in his mercy, allowed a Persian king by the name of Cyrus to overthrow the powers of Babylon.

[11:11] And long before this event, the Lord had said that through, he said through the prophet Isaiah that there would be one called Cyrus whom the Lord would raise up to build up Jerusalem and set the exiles free.

[11:25] And so, 40 years later, 48 years later, 538 BC, Cyrus, king of Persia, he issued a decree authorizing the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

[11:41] And as you would expect, on returning to their own land, having been exiled in Babylon, on returning, there would be this hope of new life. There would be this joy of new beginnings and this desire to rebuild.

[11:56] And there's no doubt that those who returned, they did so full of enthusiasm and excitement where they were looking to all the Lord's promises of a glorious future for his people finally being fulfilled.

[12:08] And everything looked so promising for them. But it wasn't long until they ran into problems. Because on returning to Jerusalem, the first task of the Israelites was to rebuild the temple.

[12:22] The temple was to be their primary object because that was their place of worship. It had been due to their neglect of the temple that the Israelites had gone into exile.

[12:35] But now they were to rebuild their lives and rebuild the temple and renew their worship and rededicate themselves to the Lord. And so the work to rebuild the temple began.

[12:47] And the Israelites, they appointed new priests and they put in new structures and there was all this enthusiasm as many people gathered at the temple room to sing to the Lord.

[13:00] And it was a great time to be an Israelite because there was a great sense of the Lord's blessing and the Lord's hand in all the events up until this point. It was a new beginning and it all looked so promising as the people of Israel began to lay the foundations of the temple.

[13:17] But when we come to the book of the prophet Haggai, we're told, as we just read in verses 1 and 2, In the second year of Darius the king, that's the son of Cyrus, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Sheltiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.

[13:41] Thus says the Lord, These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. And in his commentary, John L. Mackay, Professor John L. Mackay, he states that because of modern chronology, the date in the opening verse of Haggai can be correlated with some certainty to the 29th of August, 520 BC, which I've worked out, I did my maths, it's 2,536 years ago next Monday.

[14:21] But it was also 15 years after the Israelites had returned from exile. 15 years they had been in Jerusalem and done nothing.

[14:34] And so when we return 15 years later, as we're seeing now through the prophet Haggai, we see how they're getting on with the building project. And we see that nothing's happened.

[14:46] Because the work has stopped, the temple is still in ruins, and well, we have to ask, well, why? Why has the work stopped? Why is the temple still in ruins? And when Haggai arrives on the scene, he's asking the same questions.

[15:00] Because Haggai's asking, well, what's the problem? What's holding the work back? Why is the temple not rebuilt by now? You have been back in Jerusalem for 15 years, but why is the temple still in ruins?

[15:15] What's holding you back? And this is the answer that Haggai received. The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. The time has not yet come.

[15:26] But the truth was, the time had come. The reason the Israelites had returned to Jerusalem 15 years earlier, the reason they came back in the first place was because the time had come to rebuild the temple.

[15:42] This was the reason they wanted to return from exile. They wanted to rebuild their temple. They wanted to rededicate themselves to the Lord.

[15:52] And when they returned, they had every intention of rebuilding the temple because they returned with so much zeal and so much enthusiasm and so much excitement.

[16:04] And they believed that they had learned all their lessons from the past when they had neglected the temple and turned away from the Lord. And when they returned, they wanted to start afresh.

[16:15] They wanted a new beginning. They wanted to follow the Lord wholeheartedly. They wanted to rebuild the temple and dedicate themselves to the Lord that they were not going to make the same mistakes again.

[16:28] But what we see here is that sadly, what started out with good intentions very quickly fell away. And again, we have to ask, well, why? Why did everything stop?

[16:39] Why is the temple still in ruins? And the Lord reveals to Haggai that the problem was because of what we're told in verse 3. Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet.

[16:52] Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your panelled houses while this house lies in ruins? And what the Lord says to Haggai is that instead of first rebuilding the temple and dedicating their lives to the worship of the Lord, the people stopped building and started building their own houses.

[17:15] But there was nothing wrong with the children of Israel building their own houses. It was the fact that they were trying to make their houses so big and so grand and so luxurious and so comfortable that their houses would be as glorious as Solomon's temple, Solomon's palace.

[17:36] because the only other time in the Bible when the word panels where it says in your panelled houses the only other time that that's used in the Bible to describe this finely decorated place was the palace of King Solomon.

[17:54] And so the reason the work of the temple stopped is because their priorities had changed. They were no longer focused upon the Lord's house because their own houses and their own comforts and because the children of Israel had become comfortable in their finely decorated and grand homes their enthusiasm it had petered away their zeal had disappeared and their heart had grown cold.

[18:24] They had become complacent. They were content with what they had and saw no need of commitment to the things of the Lord and his house.

[18:37] In other words my friend they had lost sight of their priorities. They had lost sight of the importance of putting the Lord's things first before everything else.

[18:48] They had lost sight of making the Lord central to their lives. And as a result the temple was left lying in ruins. And so the Lord sends his servant to challenge their complacency.

[19:05] And you know my friend in a day and generation when we are so comfortable not only in our homes but also spiritually it's easy to become so complacent because being a Christian persecution in Scotland today to some extent is relatively easy.

[19:27] There's no threat of persecution surrounding us like it is in other places throughout the world. There's no fear that someone will put us in prison or execute us for confessing the name of Christ.

[19:39] that probably will come and it may come sooner than we think but the reason it will come is because what is currently persecuting the church in Scotland today is complacency.

[19:57] We are apathetic to the things of the Lord and holiness and devotion to the Lord. We've lost sight of the fact that the priority of the church is the Lord and not entertaining the world and many people say that the church well it's just detached from the world.

[20:17] That's not true. Sometimes I think that the church is too attached to the world and when things become too like the world and we live for the things of the world it's then that the priorities change.

[20:34] it's then that the Lord's things are neglected and put to one side and marginalized and things that were thought highly of in the past well they're not there anymore and some people just conclude that it's a day of small things and well what can we do?

[20:51] Others say that we need another revival and that will sort out all our problems but the Lord's answer to the problem of complacency it wasn't wait for change or wait for a revival it was build.

[21:08] Build. That's the answer. Build the house that I may take pleasure in it that I may be glorified. The Lord commanded that the construction of the temple be resumed immediately.

[21:26] And this is what I'd like us to see secondly. We've seen that the Lord's prophet is challenging complacency but secondly we see the Lord's prophet commanding construction.

[21:38] Commanding construction. We'll read our text again. Thus says the Lord of hosts consider your ways go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house that I may take pleasure in it that I may be glorified says the Lord.

[21:54] The construction of the temple it had started so well begun with so much zeal and enthusiasm and good intentions but now it was abandoned. It had been left to ruins.

[22:07] And as we've seen the reason the temple was in ruins was because of the complacency of the Israelites. But that complacency led to discontentment because the Israelites thought that if they build for themselves nicer houses and more comfortable homes then things would get better.

[22:26] but they didn't. And their discontentment eventually led to unhappiness. And their unhappiness was because they had been through a series of poor harvests in the land of Israel which resulted in the Israelites having little or no food to eat.

[22:46] And that's what we're told in verses 5 and 6. It says now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts consider your ways you have sown much and harvested little you eat but you never have enough you drink but you never have your fill you clothe yourselves but no one is warm and he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

[23:09] And the result of such poverty on the land it was blamed on everything else but their relationship and their commitment to the Lord.

[23:21] Just like it is today. our poverty is blamed upon our economy upon global warming upon wars and rumours of war but what the nation of Israel couldn't see then and what we can't see now as a nation is that our problem is that we need to be rededicated to the Lord.

[23:42] Our priority needs to be the Lord and the fact that the Israelites had so little and that they had experienced consecutively poor harvests it should have been an indicator that their priorities were all wrong because the Lord had promised to his people that obedience and commitment it guarantees blessing both temporally and spiritually but disobedience and complacency that would result in the Lord withholding his blessing both temporally and spiritually and yet the Israelites they had become so complacent and so comfortable in their beautiful homes that they had forgotten they had forgotten that in order to receive blessing both temporally and spiritually the Lord must be of primary importance the Lord's things must come first before everything else blessing comes because of obedience and commitment and the Lord says to his people that until you change until you consider your ways until you build the house that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified you will not receive the blessing and that's what the Lord affirms to the

[25:01] Israelites if you look at verse 9 this is what he says you looked for much and behold it came to little and when you brought it home I blew it away why declares the Lord of hosts because of my house that lies in ruins while each of you busies himself with his own house therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew and the earth has withheld its produce I have called for a drought on all the land and the hills on the grain the new wine the oil on what the ground brings forth on man and beast and all their labors and the Lord is saying until you change until you consider your ways until you build the house that I may take pleasure in it that I may be glorified you will not receive the blessing and with this the Lord through his prophet was commanding construction he was commanding the Israelites to get back to building the temple because they had wasted so much of their time upon themselves the Lord said my house lies in ruins while each of you busies himself with his own house my friend the problem which the

[26:13] Israelites had is that they didn't have time and is that not the same problem which we have today is it not the same excuse which we have today I'm so busy I don't have time but the truth is we will make time for the things that are of priority to us but if we don't have time to read our Bible or time to stop and pray or time to go to church or time to get to the prayer meeting then it shows that these things are not our priority because we will make time for the things that are of priority to us because well the truth is we will make time to watch our favourite soaps or catch up with all the posts on Facebook or get the football results or make sure that all the animals are safe and well will make time for all these things because they are our priorities and although they are not in any way evil or wrong but when they take priority over

[27:17] God and all his things that's when they become idols and idolatry is forbidden and so the command to construct it's a call to prioritise our lives towards the things of God because time is one of our greatest enemies and it's an enemy because we waste so much of it and we utilise so little of it and you know it's Satan's greatest lie that there is plenty of time that's what he says when it comes to prayer and Bible reading you'll have time later leave it just now that's what he tells the Christian in their efforts of evangelism plenty of time for that you'll have another opportunity there's no urgency just now but you know Satan not only tells the Christian that they have plenty of time he also feeds the unconverted the same lie you have plenty of time to become a

[28:26] Christian you can leave it till later leave it till you're older leave it till you're retired until you have more time in your life and what often happens is that free time it's eaten up with all the other things to the point that you're so busy with everything else that you don't have time but the solemn reality about time is that if you don't have time for Jesus in this life then he has prepared an eternal hell for you where there is no time because there is no time in hell no time which means that it will never end and you of all people you should know that after me being your minister for two years that there is one place I don't want you to end up and that is hell but the real question is does your soul bother you enough to do something about it don't make any more excuses don't don't tell me you don't have time you just come you commit yourself to following this

[29:44] Jesus you make him the priority in your life and you make him the priority in your death because that's the call to become a Christian it's the call to put God first it is to do as Jesus says seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all other things shall be added unto you seek first the kingdom of God and it was John Stott when he was commenting on that text from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount the word seek first the kingdom of God John Stott said to seek first is to desire as of first importance the spread and reign of Jesus Christ and he says such a desire will start with ourselves until every single department of our life our home our marriage our family our personal morality our personal life and business ethics our bank balance our tax returns our lifestyle our citizenship it will affect every department until everything is joyfully and freely submissive to

[31:07] Christ and he says it will continue it will continue in our immediate environment with the desire to share the gospel with our relatives our colleagues our neighbours and our friends and it will also reach this global concern for the missionary witness of the church and what John Stott was highlighting was that if we make God and building his kingdom the priority in our lives then it will affect everything and everyone around us it will have this ripple effect in which people can't but take notice of the change and transformation in our lives because of the power of the gospel and you know we may be good at talking about what we should be doing and how we should be doing it we may have the mind that God deserves all the glory and the honour and the praise and that salvation of sinners is our top priority we want to see this church filled we want to see people sitting on these pews and listening to the gospel we want to see many more people in this community converted to Jesus

[32:25] Christ and we can talk about the fact that that's our priority but what we read here is that the Israelites had the same priorities they did the same thing they talked about rebuilding the temple but never got round to doing it they planned to restore the temple to its former glory but that's as far as they went they had the same mindset but they did nothing about it and it was all good and well talking about it and talking about the temple but they still left it lying in ruins my friend we can talk a lot we can say a lot but that doesn't mean we're doing a lot and was it not James who said in his letter you have faith then show me your works because faith without works is dead and as long as

[33:28] Israel's faith remained idle their works were dead and it's the same with us too if we don't seek first the kingdom of God in our life and for this community then it will go to ruin it will go to ruin and this is the frightening warning of scripture that our priority no matter how busy our life is we need to make the kingdom of God our priority we need to find time to work in the kingdom of God we need to be committed to building the kingdom of God because the Lord is commanding construction build the house that I may take pleasure in it that I may be glorified this is the call to go to go into the week ahead and compel them to come in that the master's house may be filled I love those words in Luke 14 compel them to come in lovingly invite them to come in to come in that the master's house may be filled but before the people were to resume constructing the temple before they were to go and pick up all the tools the Lord conveys his comfort to them and that's what I'd like us to look at thirdly we've seen the Lord's prophet challenging complacency we've seen the Lord's prophet commanding construction but lastly we see the Lord's prophet conveying comfort conveying comfort look at verse 12 with me then

[35:11] Zerubbabel the son of Sheltiel and Joshua the son of Jehoshadak the high priest with all the remnant of the people they obeyed the voice of the Lord their God in the words of Haggai the prophet as the Lord their God had sent him and the people feared the Lord then Haggai the messenger of the Lord spoke to the people with the Lord's message I am with you declares the Lord when Haggai the Lord's prophet challenged their complacency and commanded the construction of the temple the people responded positively we read that they obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet but what conveyed to the Israelites the greatest comfort in building the house of the Lord is that the Lord promised them I am with you I am with you and my friend the promise of the Lord's presence when working to build his church it's a glorious promise and it's a promise which has been given again and again and again to his people throughout the history of his church it was the same promise that was given to

[36:28] Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob the Lord said I am with you and will keep you wherever you go it was the promise given to Moses when he thought that he was too inadequate and too inarticulate to go and speak to Pharaoh the Lord said to Moses I will be with you and your mouth and I will teach you what to do and it was the same promise that was given to Joshua the successor of Moses the Lord said to Joshua as I was with Moses so I will be with you and this is the promise that was given to Gideon he was called by the Lord to fight the Midianites and the Lord said to Gideon I will be with you and you shall strike the Midianites as one man and even the Israelites when they were going to be assured of the Lord's presence they were assured of his presence just before they went into exile because through the prophet Isaiah the Lord said fear not I am with you be not dismayed for I am your God

[37:32] I will strengthen you and I will help you I will uphold you by my righteous right hand but this promise of the Lord and this act of the Lord and conveying comfort to his church it's not just confined to the Old Testament because was it not the same promise and word of comfort which was given to the disciples of Jesus as Jesus ascended into heaven where Jesus said to them go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I am with you always even unto the end of the world my friend the promise still stands and the Lord is still conveying his word of comfort to us I am with you I am with you how do you think

[38:33] I stand up here every week it's not my strength it's this promise I am with you and so when we say that we can't speak up for Jesus he says to us I am with you when we think that we're inadequate like Moses he says I am with you when we're in inexperienced like Joshua I am with you insignificant like Gideon I am with you weak like all the Israelites I am with you uneducated like all the disciples I am with you the Lord says I am with you I am with you I am with you and as we shall see more next week the Lord is with us not in the glory cloud of the temple but in our heart Christ in you the hope of glory we are the temple of the Holy

[39:34] Spirit and when the Lord dwells in our heart he is with us wherever we go and whatever we are doing and his promise is that he is not only with us but he will never ever leave us and never ever forsake us and it is a wonderful promise to those who have God as the priority of their life and those who are committed to building his church of course it is the Lord who is building his church a church which not even the gates of hell will prevail against but we are the means which God has chosen to build his house we are the instruments we are the tools which the Lord is using to build his church and I find maybe there's someone in your heart and in your mind who you would love to encourage not only in the faith but maybe you want to encourage them to come to church maybe there's someone who hasn't been to church for a while and you've noticed and you'd like to invite them to come maybe there's someone you would like to invite to to Christianity

[40:48] Explored maybe there's some parent that you'd like to encourage to come to the parent and toddler maybe there's someone in your family in your street maybe someone in your workplace in your group of friends wherever it may be and you want to ask them to come to church with you well all I can say to you and all I can encourage you to do is to spend this week praying for an opportunity to do it because the Lord has promised I will be with you I will be with you they might say no they might say another time they might say they're busy but our responsibility is to ask and the Lord says I will be with you I will be with you and so I just want to conclude by asking the question what message does a preacher of

[41:56] God's word bring before God's people in a day when God is not central he challenges complacency and he tells them consider your ways he commands construction by telling them build the house that I may take pleasure in it that my name may be glorified and he conveys comfort by promising I will be with you I will be with you God willing we'll consider more from this challenging prophet next Lord's day may the Lord bless these thoughts to us let us pray oh father in heaven we bless thee that thou art the one who is willing to use us we are those who are weak but we bless thee that in our weakness we are made strong we are those oh lord who are so inexperienced but we thank thee that thou art a

[43:02] God who has the experience of eternity and the God who speaks into this scene of time we bless thee oh lord that thou art the one who upholds us the God who loves his church so much that he sent his son who gave himself for it and help us lord to see our community as a community that is dying without Christ a community that needs to hear about Jesus help us lord to work together to do one another good to build up the house that thou wouldest truly take pleasure in it that thy name and thyself would be glorified that we would fulfil the chief end for which we were created or to glorify God and to enjoy him forever bless us lord we pray bless us in the week that lies ahead give us a boldness for thee to stand on the side of christ to nail our colours to the mast to be found as those who love the lord and follow him and take up our cross daily looking unto jesus the author and still he remains the finisher of our faith bless us then we pray and do us good for jesus sake amen we shall conclude by singing in psalm 127 psalm 127 page 420 we'll sing the whole psalm except the lord to build the house the builders lose their pain except the lord the city keep the watchmen watch in vain tis vain for you to rise betimes or late from rest to keep to feed on sorrow's bread so gives he his beloved sleep the whole psalm to god's praise to build the house the builders lose their pain except that the lord the city keep the watchmen watching him has been for you to rise betide for it from rest 없어 tone the who are asc Skogs towards the king

[46:11] God's heritage The womb's fruit Is reward The sons of youth As a rose For strong men's Hands prepared Oh, how happy is The man that hath His quiver fed With those The unashamed In the gate Shall speak Unto Their foes

[47:11] The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ The love of God the Father And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit Be with you all Now and forevermore Amen Amen