Discovering Jesus in Haggai

This episode of Aliens on Earth examines the prophetic book of Haggai, which addressed the post-exilic Jews in 520 BC who had halted the rebuilding of the temple for sixteen years to prioritize their own comfortable, "paneled houses". The prophet's urgent call to "consider your ways" asserted that their spiritual emptiness and material dissatisfaction ("bag with holes") were a result of putting themselves before God. The episode discovers Jesus throughout the short book: He is the ultimate Temple who taught to "seek first the Kingdom of God"; He is the "Desire of all nations" whose presence would fill the inferior second temple with greater glory; He is the descendant who reversed the generational curse on the Davidic line, becoming the eternal "signet ring"; and finally, His holiness is uniquely contagious, reversing the old covenant rule that uncleanness spreads while holiness does not. Ultimately, the episode encourages listeners to stop comparing their spiritual lives to others and to start laying a "single brick" of obedience, as God promises a blessing from the very day they start building their relationship with Him

Transcript

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On the eve of his crucifixion, Jesus prays to his father. I have given them your word, and the world hated them because they are not of the world. Just as I am not of the world, I do not ask that you take them from the world, but you keep them from the evil one. Hey everyone, welcome back to Aliens on Earth. This is season two, episode 34 in our series Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament. To our community tuning in from across the globe, we have had listeners tune in from all over the United States, Spain, the UK, Ireland, Poland, Morocco, Tunisia, Qatar, and many more places. We've had over 32 countries. So we are grateful for each and every one of you who are tuning in. If you're in any of those places, we just want to say thank you for being a part of the Aliens on Earth family. Whether you're driving to work, you're folding laundry, or sitting in a quiet room just sipping on coffee and having your me time. Take a deep breath for a second because I want you to know that you are among fellow aliens who know that this beautiful world, although it's beautiful, it is not our final home. It's not our final destination. Those of you joining us for the very first time, I just want to say go back and listen to some of the previous episodes that have been released. As we're nearing the end of season two, I really want to encourage you to go back to the beginning and take a listen from our very first episode in Genesis. You can also find these episodes wherever you get your podcasts. So last week, we stood in the courtroom with Zephaniah. We heard about the day of the Lord, a day of darkness and gloom, but also a day of just breathtaking light. We discovered Jesus as the king who doesn't just judge the world, but actually sings over his people. And we left Zephaniah from chapter 3, verse 17. It kind of left ringing in our ears. So now we're gonna move away and see the singing has faded and the hammers need to start swinging. Today we move from the courtroom into the construction site where we're diving into the book of Hagai. This is year 520 BC, about 50,000 Jews have returned from a 70-year exile in Babylon. And just for a second, imagine that. And all in a foreign land. So now they're back in Jerusalem with Cyrus's blessing and Persian funding to rebuild the temple. So hope was sky high, right? They laid the foundation and the old men remembered Solomon's temple. They wept over it because you know they could see that this new one that they had, it doesn't even really compare. But then opposition came. They had all these political pressures from the Samaritans, bureaucratic red tape from Persia, and these subtle pulls of everyday life. And as you probably could imagine, the work stopped. So for 16 years, the Temple Foundation just sat there, collecting dust and weeds, and people were kind of done with that project. And they started instead to build these paneled houses for themselves. That's where Hagai shows up in all this. His name actually means festival of the Lord. He was probably an older man, possibly old enough to have seen the original temple before it was destroyed in 586 BC. His message is gonna impact all of us. I want you to grab your coffee, get your notebook, and let's jump right in. Hey guys, real quick, before we jump in, if you've been blessed by this podcast or find it impactful, I'd like you to hit the follow button. Be a partaker of spreading God's truth by sharing this with your friends, coworkers, family, or even strangers. Let's spread the truth of Christ together. Now, back to this episode. So Hagai opens with this gut punch. God speaks through the prophet and says, These people say that the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord's house. And you see that in Haggai 1, verse 2. And God kind of fires back with this devastating question. He says, Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? Let that sit for a second, let that land. So the people weren't living in shacks, they had these paneled houses. And for context, that's like luxury detail. In the ancient world, wood paneling was really expensive. These weren't just survival homes, these were comfort homes. While they invested in these granite countertops, cedar paneling and these houses, the house of God sat in a pile of rubble. And then comes one of the most haunting phrases in the entire Old Testament. God said it twice for emphasis. He says, consider your ways. The Hebrew phrase literally says, set your heart upon your roads. God is saying, stop and look at the path that you're walking on. Examine the direction of your feet. Because honestly, something isn't adding up. And then he describes the the symptoms. He says, You have shown, you have sown much and you 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 it to put them into a bag with holes. Listen to that. A bag with holes. Guys, have you ever felt that you're working harder than ever, but the money disappears? You're you're eating, but you're still hungry. And not in your stomach, but really just like in your soul. You're you're accumulating, but you're never satisfied. And that's not just an economic problem. That's a spiritual diagnosis. So God is saying the emptiness that you feel isn't because you don't have enough stuff. It's because you've put yourself at the center instead of me. And the great commentator Matthew Henry wrote this. He says that the people didn't outright refuse to build the temple. They simply said, Not yet. And Henry observed that this is exactly how we handle our spiritual lives. We don't just say, Oh, we'll never repent, we'll never prioritize God, or we'll never serve the kingdom. We say, Not yet. And so the great business that we're set into in the world to do really remains undone. Here's where we put on our alien lenses and see when Jesus walked the earth, he he confronted this exact same pattern in Matthew chapter 6, verse 33. He said, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Hagai won, but in the New Testament, that's New Testament language. This says, Jesus is saying, Your priorities are upside down. You're chasing provision while neglecting the provider. But Jesus didn't just preach this, he lived it. Think about it. The Son of God was born in a borrowed manger. He ministered with no place to lay his head, according to Matthew 8.20. He rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey. He was buried in a borrowed tomb. Jesus Christ, the creator of the universe, he never built a paneled house for himself. Instead, he became the temple. So in John 2.19, he said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up. And John tells us he was speaking about the temple of his body. John chapter 2, verse 21. So here's the alien-like reality: the temple that Haggai told the people to rebuild was always pointing forward to a greater temple, the body of Christ. Now, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6 9, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? So, as aliens on earth, we're walking temples. The question Haggai asks ancient Israel is the same question the Holy Spirit is asking us. Are you building up God's house, your inner life, your devotion to your community of faith? Or are you busy paneling out your own life while God's dwelling place inside of you sits neglected? So think about that. What does that mean for us? And I want to I want you to take your honest inventory, like just be be real for a second. Not of your bank account or your time. Pull up your screen time on your phone this week. How many hours did you scroll? How many hours did you spend in the Word? How many hours did you binge a show versus sitting in prayer? And I'm not shaming you. I'm asking you to do what God asked Israel. Consider your ways. And here's here's a little bit more of a practical exercise for this. Think about the last time that you felt that bag with holes kind of feeling, that gnawing sense of running hard and getting nowhere. And maybe it's a job that pays really well, but leaves you empty. Maybe it's the relationship you keep pouring into, but it just never fills you up. Maybe it's it's the hustle, the side gig, the overtime, the next purchase. And at the end of the month, you look around and wonder, where did it all go? That feeling isn't random. It's God trying to get your attention. So, see, the Israelites they didn't have a source, a resource problem. They had a priority problem. God wasn't saying you shouldn't have nice things. He was saying you shouldn't have nice things while my house is in ruins. And your life, God's house, isn't a building. It's your relationship with him. It's the daily conversation with your creator that you keep skipping because you're too busy. It's the ministry calling that you've shelved because the timing doesn't feel right. It's the marriage you're you're decorating on the outside, but not investing in spiritually. It's the parenting that you're providing everything except a model of what it looks like to walk with God. God doesn't want your leftovers and he's clear about that. He doesn't want the scraps of energy at 11 p.m. when you're barely awake and and you're half asleep. He wants first place. And honestly, not because he's needy, but because when he's first, everything else falls into proper order. That's the promise of Matthew chapter 6, verse 33. When you seek the kingdom first, all these things actually start working. The bag stops leaking. Not because your circumstances necessarily changed overnight, but because your soul is anchored in something that does not depreciate. So here's your challenge this week. I want you to just pick one thing that you've been giving to yourself that belongs to God and just give it back. Maybe that means waking up 20 minutes earlier to pray before the world gets really loud around you. Maybe that means turning off the podcast on your commute and just talking to God. And yeah, I mean, it won't hurt my feelings if you pause the podcast and just spend time in prayer or whatever you're listening to. And maybe it means finally signing up to serve at your church instead of spectating. Whatever it is, take one break and lay it on the foundation because God doesn't wait until the building is finished to bless you. He blesses you from the moment you start building. So now we arrive at what might be one of the more explosive messianic prophecies in the minor prophets. Hagai chapter 2. The people have obeyed, they've started building. So now there's there's movement. But now this sort of discouragement sets in. The old men who remembered Solomon's temple, they just start weeping, they start crying, and not tears of joy. This new house is literally nothing compared to the old one. The gold is no longer there, the opulence, the Ark of the Covenant is gone. That Shekinah glory that once filled Solomon's temple is gone. Jewish rabbis, they later lamented. And the five things present in the first temple were missing from the second temple. That sacred fire, that Shekinah glory, that ark and cherubim, the Urim and the Thummim, Thummim, which was those those things they used to determine whether it was God's will or not, and the spirit of prophecy. So God speaks through Hagai again and he tells him, Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? And this is Haggai 2, verse 3. And God doesn't deny it, He doesn't gaslight them. He says, Yeah, you know what? You're right. It does look like nothing. But he says three of the most powerful words a discouraged person can hear. He says, Yet now be strong, be strong, be strong, and and work for I am with you, declares the Lord. Three times he says, be strong. Once to Zerubbabel, the governor, once to Joshua the high priest, and once to all the people. And the fuel for their strength. It wasn't a pep talk. It wasn't just positive thinking, but it was a promise. God's promise saying, I am with you. And that's the engine. My spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. And then God drops this just big bomb. He says, For thus saith the Lord of hosts, yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens, and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come. And I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. Whoa. Okay, let's unpack this. There's a rich theological debate about this word. Some modern translations they say it's treasures or precious things of the nations, because that that verb follows plural in Hebrew. And the King James, the Geneva Bible of 1587, Bishop's Bible of 1568, they all translate it personally. The desire of all nations shall come. The great vulgate rendered it the desired person of all nations. So scholars like Walter Kaiser have pointed out that that Hebrew, when that verb is governed by two nouns, it sometimes agrees with the second noun, even when it belongs to the first. So Dr. Robert Alden noted this in the Expositor's Bible, and in his commentary says that grammatical irregularities are common in the Old Testament Hebrew. The word temda or chemda is used of persons elsewhere. Saul called the desire of Israel in 1 Samuel 9, verse 20. Daniel was called the greatly beloved, using that same root. And here's why this matters: God says that after he shakes the nation, the desire will come, and this house will be filled with glory. Verse 9 says, the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, greater than Solomon's temple. But how Solomon's temple had the gold, it had the ark, it had the Shekinah glory of God. This new temple had none of that. So how could its glory possibly be greater? And honestly, guys, the truth is because Jesus walked into it. Solomon's temple never received a visit from the incarnate Son of God. But this second temple, the one Zerubbabel built, later expanded by Herod, this is the temple where Mary and Joseph brought baby Jesus for dedication. Luke chapter 2, verse 22 through 32. This is the temple where that 12-year-old Jesus sat among the teachers and said, Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? This is the temple that Jesus cleansed with that holy fury, driving out the money changers. This is the temple where Jesus taught daily, where he declared himself the living water, where he forgave the woman caught in adultery. The glory of the second temple, it wasn't in its architecture, it was in the person who entered it, the desire of all nations, the one every human heart was made to long for. Whether they knew it or not, walked those courts. Charles Wesley understood this when he wrote in Hark Herald Angels Sing, Come, desire of nations, come fix in us thy humble home. That's that's Hagai 2 verse 7. Just put in musical form. The writer of Hebrews picks up Hagai's shaking language directly. Hebrews 12, 26 through 28 says that God has promised, yet once more I will not, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. And the writer explains, this shaking means the removal of everything that can be shaken, so that what cannot be shaken may remain. And then he says, Therefore, let us be grateful, for we have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken. The unshakable kingdom is the kingdom of Christ. Every empire, every ideology, every system that opposes God will crumble. Persia crumbled, Greece crumbled, Rome crumbled, but the kingdom that Jesus inaugurated, it cannot be shaken. And what does this mean for us though? Let's get a little personal for a second. Have you ever looked at someone else's ministry, someone else's marriage, someone else's spiritual life, and felt like your own version is that inferior temple? Maybe you grew up in a home that was on fire for God, your parents were prayer warriors, your family was in church, and every Sunday, and you look at your own spiritual life, and it feels like a pile of rubble compared to what you once knew. Or maybe you're a new believer and you just look at the people around you who seem to kind of have it all together. They know the Bible from front to back, they pray like angels and they have a deep well of faith. And you feel like your little fountain is pathetic, or your little foundation is just pathetic. God says the same thing to you that He said to those builders in 520 BC. Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong and work, for I am with you. So stop comparing your chapter one to someone else's chapter 20. The glory of your life is not measured by how it looks on the outside, it's measured by who walks inside of it. And if Christ is in you, the glory of your small, messy, imperfect temple is greater than the most polished life that doesn't have him at all. And just notice what God says next. He says, I will shake the heavens and the earth. The shaking isn't punishment, it's preparation. God shakes things to reveal what's real. Think about that. Or think about a season where your life got shaken: a job loss, loss, a health scare, a breakup, a financial crisis. In the moment, it felt like destruction. But look back. Can't you see what God was doing? He was removing the things that you were leaning on that weren't him. He was stripping away the props. So you'd lean on the only thing that can't be moved. So maybe you're in a shaking season right now. Your career is uncertain. Your health seems shaky. Your relationships kind of feel unstable, or your finances are upside down. And it feels like the ground underneath you is moving. Let me tell you something though. The ground is supposed to move. That's not a sign that God has abandoned you. That's a sign that God is removing what can be shaken so that what can't be shaken, your identity in Christ, your eternal citizenship, your unshakable kingdom membership, that becomes the only thing that you can stand on. And every person on this planet is longing for something. This hustle culture is longing for significance. The dating apps are longing for intimacy. The political movements are longing for justice. The self-help industry is longing for wholeness. Every single one of these longings is a signpost just pointing to Jesus. He's the desire of all nations, even when the nations don't even know his name. And he's the desire of your heart. Even when you've been looking for him in all the wrong places. So that Promotion, it won't satisfy you. That relationship, it won't complete you. The next purchase, it won't fill that void. The only desire of all nations that can do that, he is Christ. And he's not far. He's in your midst. As we come to a close in Hagai, there's one of these real stunning reversals in scripture. If if you're not sitting down, I want you to kind of take a seat for this one. So Hagai's fourth and final sermon is directed specifically to Zerubbabel. And you need to know who this man is. Zerubbabel is the governor of Judah. His name literally means born in Babylon. He was a child of the exile. But more importantly, Zerubbabel is a descendant of King David. And through that, like royal line, he is the grandson of King Jehoiakim, also called Jeconiah or Kaniah, one of Judah's last kings before the exile. Here's where it gets a little bit heavy. Jehoiakim was a wicked king. He reigned literally for only three months before Nebuchadnezzar dragged him off to Babylon. And in Jeremiah 22, 24, God pronounced a devastating curse on him. Listen to the language. So he says, As I live, declares the Lord, though Kaniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off. A signet ring in the ancient world was a mark of royal authority. So a king would press that signet ring into some wax seal for documents and treaties and decrees. It was his identity stamp. And God says to Jehoiakim, even if you were my signet ring, I would rip you off my hand. Jeremiah 22 30 goes even further. Write this man down as childless, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David. That Davidic line through Jehoiakim appeared to be cursed, done, finished. That promise that was made to David in 2 Samuel 7, that his throne would be established forever. So it seemed to have hit a dead end. So when we fast forward now to Hagai chapter 2, verse 23, God speaks to Zerubbabel, Hoiakim's grandson, and he says this. Do you hear that echo? God ripped the signet ring off of Jehoiakim, and now he places it back with Zerubbabel. That exact imagery, that exact same language, that curse being reversed. Jewish rabbis, they noted this reversal. It attributed to Jehoiakim's repentance during his years in Babylon in prison. They wrote, Repentance is great, for it nullifies a person's sentence. God took the ring off. Now God puts it back on. But Zerubbabel himself never sat on a throne. He was a governor under Persian authority, not a king. So what is God really promising? Just think about this. Matthew chapter 1, verse 12. In the genealogy of Jesus Christ, you will find this name, Zerubbabel, Jesus' descendants from Zerubbabel through the line of Jehokain, the signet ring promise. So it wasn't ultimately about Zerubbabel, it was about Zerubbabel's greater descendant. Michael P. V. Barrett writes in one of his works: Zerubbabel could never himself sit on the throne because of Jehoiakim's curse. But God's making him a signet was the guarantee that David's greater son would rule. Kingship was transferred to another line of David, ensuring the promise was realized in Jesus. So Zerubbabel is called three things in this first passage that are loaded with messianic weight. The first one is my servant, and this is a title applied to David through the Old Testament and used by Isaiah to describe the coming Messiah in the servant songs. And the second is signet ring, the mark of divine authority and identity. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the exact imprint of God's nature. He is the ultimate signet ring, the one who bears the very identity of the Father. And the third thing is, I have chosen you. And that echoes Isaiah 42:1. Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. Think about the magnitude of this. In Jeremiah, God curses the line. In Hagai, God restores it. In Matthew, God fulfills it. The ring that was ripped off is placed back on, and it will never come off again. Jesus Christ, born in the line of Zerubbabel, born in the line of David, born in the line of the curse, absorbs the curse at the cross, and he emerges as the eternal king whose throne can never be shaken. What does this mean for us, guys? And I need you to hear this because some of us, some of us are living under curses that have already been broken. Maybe you come from a family line that's marked by addiction. Family member drank themselves to death, or your father couldn't put the bottle down, and there's a voice in your head that says, This is just who we are. This is in my blood. I'm doomed to repeat this. The voice of Jeremiah 22 without Hagai chapter 2. That's the curse without the reversal. Or maybe it's not addiction. Maybe it's a pattern of just broken marriages in your family. Maybe it's financial ruin that seems to chase every generation. Maybe it's a cycle of abuse or the danger of emotional coldness, of fear. And you look at this pattern and you think, this is my inheritance. This is the ring that's been ripped off. But listen to what God does with Zerubbabel. He doesn't pretend that the curse didn't happen. He doesn't erase Jehoiakin from the genealogy. The man is right there in Matthew chapter 1. God doesn't hide the dysfunction. Instead, he redeems the line, he takes the cursed family tree and grows the savior of the world from it. Your worst chapter is not your last chapter. Your family's worst generation is not the final generation. If God can bring the Messiah out of a cursed royal line, he can bring something beautiful out of your broken story. Notice that repetition of declares the Lord in verse 23. God says it once, declares the Lord. And then again he says, declares the Lord. Then a third declaration from the Lord of hosts. Three times as if God is pounding the table. This is not a suggestion. This is not just a maybe. This is the creator of the universe staking his own name on the promise that the curse would be reversed. And in Galatians 3:13, he tells us exactly how. So I want to speak this over you right now. You are not your father's mistakes. You are not your mother's pain. You are not what was done to you. You are not the pattern. If you are in Christ, you are a new creation. The old has passed away and the new has come. The signet ring is back on and you bear the identity of the king. And no devil in hell can rip that off. So what does that look like practically? It means that when the old voices whisper, you're gonna end up just like them, or you have no permission. No, you have authority to say it out loud. Not in my house, not in my generation. The curse is broken. I am a signet ring of the most high God. It means stop making decisions out of the fear that you're destined to fail and start making decisions out of the confidence that God has chosen you. It means you parent differently than you were parented. It means that you love differently than you were loved. You break the cycle, but not by trying harder, but by being in Christ because he is the curse reverser. And the last thing I want to touch on before we close, I want to touch on Hagai's third sermon because it carries weight. It's insight that Jesus himself would later address. In Haggai chapter 2 from verse 10 to 14, God tells Hagai to ask the priests a question about the ceremonial law. If someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of their garment and the garment touches bread, stew, or oil, does the food become holy? The priest's answer, no. Holiness doesn't transfer by casual contact. Then Haggai asks, if someone who is ceremonially unclean by touching a dead body touches any of these things, does it become unclean? And the priest's answer, yes. So here's the devastating point contamination is contagious, but consecration is not. You can catch a disease by touching someone who's sick, but you can't catch health by touching someone who's healthy. Cleanness spreads easily, but holiness does not. God then applies this to the people. So is it with this people and this nation before me, declares the Lord. And with every work of their hands, and in other words, you can't just slap a holy label on an unholy life. Proximity to the temple does not make you clean. Going through religious motions doesn't purify your heart. Your offerings are contaminated because your priorities are contaminated. But here's the alien twist that changes everything. Under the old covenant, holiness couldn't transfer by touch. But when Jesus shows up, he broke that rule. In Mark chapter 5, a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years, ceremonially unclean for over a decade, touched the hem of his garment. And under the law, her uncleanliness would have contaminated him. But instead, his holiness healed her. When Jesus touched the lepers, he didn't become a leper. He didn't become unclean. They became clean. When he touched the dead girl's hand in Mark chapter 5, verse 41, he didn't become defiled. She came back to life. Jesus is the only one whose holiness is more contagious than our sin. Under Hagai's principle, uncleanness always wins. Under Christ, holiness wins every time. And that's the gospel. Your sin touched him at the cross. And instead of contaminating him permanently, his righteousness flowed back to you. 2 Corinthians 5 21 says, For our sake, God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus didn't just reverse the flow of contamination, he reversed the flow of the entire cosmos. So what does that mean for us? This section hits different depending on where you are in your walk. So let me speak to both groups. So firstly, the person who thinks they can coast just on proximity. Maybe you grew up a Christian or you grew up in a Christian home. Maybe you sit in church every day. Maybe your spouse is deeply devoted and you figure their faith covers you somehow. You're carrying consecrated meat in the fold of your garment and you think that everything that it touches holy, but hey guy says no. Just because you live in a godly household doesn't mean you have a godly heart. Just because you're adjacent to the things of God doesn't mean the things of God are in you. You can attend every service, sing every song, put money in the offering plate, and still have a life that's spiritually contaminated. Because you've never personally surrendered to Christ. Your mom's faith can't save you. Your pastor's anointing can't cleanse you. You need your own encounter with the living God. The second group, the second person, is you think you're too dirty to come close. You're the opposite. You know you're unclean. You know you've done things to too many places. You've made so many choices that make you feel disqualified. Maybe you're carrying the shame of the past that haunts you. Maybe you relapsed again last week or yesterday or even right now. Maybe you're living in a situation that you know isn't right. And every time you think about coming back to God, you hear a voice that says, Don't you dare. You'll contaminate everything you touch. That's the old covenant speaking. Under the old system, yeah, our uncleanness would spread to everything, but Jesus flipped that equation. When you reach out and touch the hem of his garments, even with shaking and shame-stained hands, his purity flows into you. His cleanness is stronger than your dirtiness. His holiness is more contagious than your sin. The woman with the issue of blood didn't have a theology degree. She didn't clean herself up first. She didn't wait until she had it all together. She pushed through the crowd in her mess, touched the edge of his robe, and the power went through him. Jesus didn't recoil. He didn't say, How dare you touch me in your condition? He turned around and said, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. He called her daughter. She went from outcast to family, just in one touch. So I want to encourage you, wherever you are today, whether you're coasting on borrowed holiness or you're cowering in shame, come to Jesus. Don't wait until you're clean. Don't wait until you feel ready. Don't wait until you've got your life in order. Just touch the hem. He'll do the rest. Here's what Haggai leaves us with. In Sermon 1, he challenges us to consider our ways. Stop building our own kingdom while God's house sits in ruins. The bag has holes because our priorities have holes. In his second sermon, it says, be strong and work because the desire of all nations is coming. And he will fill the house of glory greater than anything you can imagine. Even your inferior, imperfect, it doesn't look like much kind of temple can hold the glory of God if Christ is in it. And in his third sermon, he tells us proximity to holy things don't make you holy. But Jesus can. And in his fourth sermon, God reverses the curse, that signet ring back on. And through the line of Zerubbabel, a king has come whose throne will never be shaken. And no generational curse is stronger than his finished work on the cross. And here's what I love about Hagai. Unlike most prophets, the people actually listened. And Ezra chapter 5, verse 1 through 2 tells us that after Hagai and Zechariah prophesied, the people rose up and built. And from that very day, they started building again. God says in Hagai 2.19, From this day on, I will bless you. Not from the day the temple was finished, but from the day they started. God blesses obedience in motion, not just completed projects. He blesses the first step and not just the finish line. So I want you to identify your one brick this week. Not a five-year spiritual plan, not a dramatic overhaul of your entire life. Just one brick. Maybe your one brick is opening your Bible tomorrow morning before you touch your phone. Maybe your one brick is apologizing to someone you've wronged. Maybe it's showing up to a small group at your church for the first time. Or maybe that one brick is having that conversation with God that you've been avoiding. That honest one where you say, Lord, I don't even know how to come back to you, but I'm just laying this one brick down. Or maybe it's forgiving someone, not because they deserve it, but because holding that grudge is like a chain around your ankle and Christ has already broken. Maybe your one brick is praying with your spouse for the first time. Maybe it's just turning off something that's been feeding your soul garbage and replacing it with something that feeds your spirit. But whatever it is, hear the promise. From this day on, I will bless you. Not from the day you get it all together, but from this day, the day that you start, the day that you decide, the day that you lay one brick on the foundation and say, God, this is for you. You're not too old, you're not too young, you're not too far gone, you're not too messed up, it's not too late. Hagai was likely in his 70s when God called him to prophesy. Zerubbabel was born in exile, literally named after his family's lowest point. The temple they were building was inferior to the one that came before it. And God looked at all of that and said, I am gonna fill this place with glory. And honestly, he could do the same with you. So next week we'll move into the book of Zechariah. It's the longest and probably more complicated of the minor prophets. So if Haggai was the foreman in the construction site, Zechariah is the architect. And with that blueprint, we're gonna encounter visions of horses, lampstands, flying scrolls, and the high priests standing in and filthy garments being reclothed by God. And in the middle of all of it, we're gonna still discover Jesus as the branch, the one who's simultaneously king and priest, who builds the true temple of God. So for this week, just remember God is not looking for a finished temple, He's looking for a willing builder. So pick up your stone. The desire of all nations is with you. And until next week, this is Aliens on Earth, and I'm your host, Nate Gazao. Peace.