Make Your Life Count

Summary

You know it's possible to live your life so busy and so invested in what you're doing that you miss the most important things. What's God challenging you right now, He is saying there's something greater in you, that you can construct something that changes lives and impacts people for eternity. Don't stay safe, give it a go, dare to risk failure, say God what would you have me do, I don't know at all and I don't know if this is even going to work the way I want it but I'm going to give it my best shot, I'm going to try to let my life be something of value that builds your house. Surrender it to God and make it holy in His presence for His glory, for His pleasure and let it flow to others.

Transcript

All right, who's ready for the Word? Very good. If you're watching with us online, thank you for joining with us and we're going to get into it. Okay, Haggai, Chapter 1. Haggai is a book in the Old Testament between Zephaniah and Zechariah and right near the end and it's only two chapters and we're going to have a look at it today.

'“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: The people are saying, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord .’” “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai: This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord . ' Haggai 1:2-8 (NLT)

I'm going to read a few verses from it and we're going to talk about it. Haggai 1 verse 2 we're going to start with and this is Haggai was a prophet who comes to the Israelite people. This is about 500 BC. So you're talking, we're talking two and a half thousand years ago. 500 BC, this is historically, we have this in our history books that the Israelites were taken over by another nation and many of them were taken from their homeland and sent to Babylon and the capital there and they were sent there sort of in captivity and they were really treated as slaves and that and they spent about 70 years there and after about 70 years the king there said some of you can go back to Jerusalem and go back to your homeland. And so this is the setting of Haggai came as a prophet and some of the people of the Israelite people had gone from their being in captivity back to their homeland and they were rebuilding their houses. Rebuilding their life and this is what Haggai says to them, this is what the Lord of Heaven's army says, the people are saying, the people of Israel are saying, the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai, why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? This is what the Lord of Heaven's army says, look at what's happening to you, you have planted much but harvest little, you eat but are not satisfied, you drink but are still thirsty, you put on clothes but cannot keep warm, your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes, this is what the Lord of Heaven's army says, look at what's happening to you, now go up into the hills, bring down timber and rebuild my house, then I will take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the Lord.

So Lord as we come around your word today, I pray that you would encourage us, you would challenge us and we would leave God different than how we walked in Lord, because you've spoken into our hearts, we pray it in Jesus' name, everyone said Amen. Look at what's happening to you, another version says consider your lives and I want to talk to you about that topic today, consider your life, consider your life, you know it's possible to live your life so busy and so invested in what you're doing that you miss the most important things. See the people of Israel were doing something that is needed, was good, they'd been in captivity and these people had gone through suffering and struggle and they were now spending time saying now we're going to build up our houses, we've got our homeland back, we're going to build our houses, we're going to create a future for our family, we're going to for the next generation, we're going to rebuild our nation, that's important and they were caught up with it and you'd think that God would say go for it, you go, come on build your house, isn't that what we think God's going to say to us sometimes? God wants to bless you, God wants to help you, He wants you to have the awesome job He wanted and God does want to do those things but it's interesting to me here that He doesn't come to them and say you know what guys you've been through 70 years of hardship and guys this has been really hard for you and now I just want you to spend time looking after yourselves, you just do what works for you, you just build your house and you look after your kids and you look after your family and you get some comfort happening because you've gone through a tough time. Interestingly God doesn't come to them and say that does He? He comes and says you've got your eyes on the wrong things, look at your lives, you're building up things that don't matter and meanwhile the things that do matter and in this case he was talking about the house of God, about honouring God and putting more eternal things first, you've missed that and you've said oh we don't have time, it's not time to focus, isn't that what we do sometimes? It's not time to focus on that, I've got to focus on this other stuff and do you know that your whole life can pass you by focusing on the other things and the whole time you go I'll get to that one day, I'll think about the day, there's people who go through their whole life and when they think about their eternity they go I hope I'll be okay, I'll think about it one day and meanwhile they live their whole life and isn't that the most important thing?

There are deeper things in your house than your career, than your future, than just what you're providing for your children and the Spirit of God comes to them through the prophet and says it's time to think about your lives, consider your life and think about whether you're focused on the right things. I went through a time where an example of this where we really, Narelle and I really had to get ourselves focused on the right thing. One day, this is many many years ago when Ella was just a little toddler, little one one year old, beautiful little kid and we had church and we were focused on running church and building and I think we had some guests with us at the time and so I was all focused on that and afterwards we were taking the guests out for lunch and we took the guests out for lunch and Ella was with us and Narelle there and we're looking after, you know what you do with your toddler, you go yeah they'll be right and you're giving them all and they've got their stuff and it's all wonderful but you know what? We had more important things to worry about than our little one year old Ella. She's with us, she's fine, she's okay, she's always happy and so we go out, we go to this restaurant and we're sitting with this family and we bring Ella in and there's Ella and normally we're like, Ella's really well behaved, she's all good, not today. Ella's there, she's whinging, she's picking stuff up and throwing it, here's a toy Ella and she'd just get this toy and just throw it and we're like, why is this kid in a bad mood? It's like, Ella? And then we're like, Ella what's wrong? And then she starts crying and then we're consoling her, we're picking her up and she'd settle down for a minute, you put her back down crying again, you know when you're a kid, it's like, this is the wrong time to be behaving like this Ella, we've got other things to do. And so in the end we're like, we're trying to console her in the end, I'm like, we just have to focus on our friends and these guests we've got and so we put Ella there and she's sort of crying, we put the dummy in her mouth and that sort of works, she spits it out, throws it and then we put the dummy back in and we're just trying to ignore her, just ignore this kid while we try and focus on our friends, all right? And so we're doing that and we're having a chat with our friends and then I look down and there's Ella and I look at her and Ella has done something that she's never done before and she has found in mum's bag a wet wipe and she's grabbed a hold of that wet wipe and she's shoved it in her mouth and she's sucking on the wet wipe, so we're like, what is wrong with this kid? What is going on today? And I look down and I'm like, where's her drink bottle? Where's her drink bottle? And we're like, oh no, it's like I think we left the drink bottle in the car and so we suddenly realise going, hang on a second, maybe she's thirsty and so we race to the car, we get the drink bottle, we fill it up with water, we give it and suddenly Ella's like, she downs that whole drink bottle and after that she's like happy as Larry, she's loving life, she's like, oh this is nice. The kid was thirsty, she needed water and the whole time we're like, we got more important things to think about than your well-being, stop misbehaving and it was like, we've never forgotten that because we're like, what kind of parents are we? Haven't we all done something silly like that sometimes? It's like, we don't even know what's going on with our kid and they're struggling and I go, you know what, it was a case of we're focused on the wrong thing. Our daughter, one of the most important and the most important person in our lives, struggling, needing us, doesn't know how to ask for water, needed us but we're focused on something else that we thought was important and I want to tell you, we can do that in our lives, you can be focused on so much but God's saying to you, consider your life, are you focused on the right things? Are you focused on the things that He wants you to focus on?

I want to talk to you about that, three areas, three things from this scripture in verse 8. This scripture in verse 8 says, now go up into the hills, bring down timber and rebuild my house, then I will take pleasure and be honoured, says the Lord. So I want to talk to you about what God wants you to build into your life. They'll come a day, you know, we've got a beautiful church building and oftentimes you hear this scripture used about giving to build the house of God and build the church and go, hey, there might come a day when we go, hey, we got to rebuild and do some things but I don't want to talk about that today. I'm talking about what God wants to build into your life, about deeper things, about eternal things. This is the principle, the Israelite people had come back to their nation and they were rebuilding their houses but they weren't rebuilding the spiritual things and the things that were going to count for eternity and that's what we're going to focus on today.

Climb Higher

The first one is this, he says in verse 8, now go up into the hills and bring down timber. The first key if you're going to consider your life about the things that are really important is this, God wants you to climb higher, climb higher. This is the first challenge that the prophet brings to the people of Israel. He says you are focused on building up your own houses and going and planting your own crops and getting the harvest in for yourself but do you realise they're going to decay, the crop is going to wilt away and they're going to go. He goes, what I want you to do is I want you to go up into the hills, go up and climb into the hills, go where everyone else isn't and I want you to go and find something of worth, go and find something important, go and find the timber that's going to be valuable and is going to do something greater than what you're doing right now. I want you to go and climb higher, pioneer something, it takes hard work, it takes looking for things, the wood is raw material.

Sometimes we're just looking for the quick fix but God's saying when you climb higher I need you to go and do the hard work of growing and developing. Come on, some of us know what I'm talking about here, I'm talking about developing yourself spiritually and saying you know what, you can be a surface level Christian your whole life can't you? You can come along to church and you feel like and go that was great worship Alex and team, thank you very much. Thank you Adrian for that word, some of those stories entertain me, that was nice you know but you know what I'm just going to stay there, I've got other things to do, I've got sport to play, I've got my career, I've got my Netflix shows to watch, I've got all this stuff going on in my life and you just stay there and God's saying consider your life, no one else is going to take you to the deeper places, no one else is going to take you to the higher places where you learn keys and principles and you grow and something happens where you develop, God says you've got to do that for yourself, you climb the hill, you go up and you go and get the wood that's going to build your life.

Come on, what are you doing in your life that's saying I'm climbing higher? Because it's easy to stay here isn't it? It takes effort, it takes going outside, I talk about it when I was in school, so many people go this is and you can get caught in this, it's like this is the status quo and this is the standard but if you want to climb higher it's going to take effort, you're going to have to go into your room and study instead of mucking around with your friends or playing games or whatever it is, playing computer games or on Netflix or YouTube or Instagram, whatever it is you're doing, it's like you're going to have to go into a different place, I'm talking about that spiritually and I'm talking about that developing yourself. What are you doing to climb higher in your life, to go deeper in God, to go deeper and actually pursue the things that are going to be of value long term in your life.

I remember going up to go see the Great Wall of China and I thought I had it all sorted, I was like I'm going to go to the Great Wall of China and I looked it all up and I was like right you go up there, there's a little pathway and then there's a chairlift and the chairlift takes you all the way to the top and then you look out and it's beautiful, well we got there and we walked along, we didn't even know where the chairlift was and by the time we sort of wandered through and got there, everything's in Chinese and I'm trying to work out what's what and I find the chairlift and I said right, tickets, got my money out and they're like no, no, I'm like what do you mean, I just need some tickets and they keep pointing at a sign. I couldn't read it because it was in Chinese and eventually after about 15 minutes I worked out, they were going no, we're closed, we're closed, the chairlift was still going but they weren't sending any more people up and so I went oh and I looked up and there was a path that was like going off into the distance and I was like we're going to have to climb and I was with my mum and Narelle and my mum, she went a little bit of the way and this old lady came along in her little buggy and she was really nice actually. She came, she was trying to sell us stuff but she was still nice and she came along with her buggy and she goes, she said to my mum, why don't you get on the buggy with me and I'll take you up and so she took my mum up a fair bit of the way and Narelle and I walked and then the buggy stopped and then my mum saw a seat and she said right, I can see the Great Wall from here, I'm just going to sit here. My mum stopped climbing and that's fair enough, right, because she was like her feet were sore and all that and Narelle and I said we're going to keep climbing and so we got to the next section, we had to keep walking up, and we got to the Great Wall and we got to the one of the sections, sort of the middle section and Narelle got there and she starts taking pictures and Narelle said that's it, I'm done, I'm staying here and I looked and on the left side and the right side there were these steps leading far up. One side was all restored and beautiful and high, the other side was unrestored and I was like I'm going to climb both of these and Narelle's like good luck. She goes I'll be here taking pictures of you and so I started climbing and for the next two and a half hours I climbed these stairs on the Great Wall. I went right as far as high as I could go and do you know what, I'm telling you, where my mum was was good, beautiful nature, she could see the Great Wall and that was nice view. Where Narelle and I went was awesome and we could see the side and I was like this is beautiful but I want to tell you there was nothing like going right up to the top part that I could and I looked out and I saw the forest, I saw the Great Wall going and winding round for hundreds and thousands of kilometres right off into the distance into the mountains and then I walked back down that side and then I went up the other side that was harder to walk up because it was unrestored and I got that and no one else was there and I got to look out and I remember thinking God this is magnificent, God this is amazing, this is history, this is nature. This is and I had this moment of going this is one of the most incredible things I've ever seen, do you know why I got that moment because I was willing to climb higher, the higher you're willing to climb the more God's going to show you, the more you're going to learn. I want to tell you that's true spiritually, you know those who seek me will find me when you search for me with all of your heart.

I want to ask you are you considering your life please don't settle, don't be people that settle for the status quo, don't be people that say this is okay, this is enough, I'm going to go up and I'm going to seek more, I want to learn more, you know I love reading books, I love reading and sometimes it overwhelms me because there's so much to read, so much to learn but you know I've been reading books about different cultures and different understandings and history and I go ah and it's feeding me, it's growing me, I'm seeing things different. I'm understanding different people groups and cultures and history in a different way that God's using to grow me, he's giving me things of substance, don't you want something of substance, I want to get a hole, go up into the hills and go and get some wood, go and cut down some wood that's going to be useful for your life that God wants to use in you, that's the first thing, climb higher, climb higher, it's a spiritual climb that's going to change your life.

Construct of Worth

The second thing he says and this goes on he says now go up into the hills and bring down timber and rebuild my house, construct something of worth, are you going to climb higher and get some things of worth and then he says now you've got those things, now I want you to construct something that means something, that's something that's going to last longer than your little house, something that's going to make a bigger difference than your family, your life, your career and I'm not just talking about building the house of God. I'm talking about because the house of God is not a building and it's not a service, it's not an organisation, it's us, it's the people of God going into the world. Being the church, being the house of God, being the ones that make a difference for eternity, so it's not just what are you doing in church life, are you coming to church, are you serving in church, it's about who are you being in your place of work, who are you being in your school, who are you being in your community? When you're speaking about are you building something, constructing something of worth and some of us feel well I don't think that, I don't think I've got it in me. Of course you do, you can make a difference right where you are. I want you to think about that, what's God challenging you right now, saying come on you can, there's something greater in you, you can construct something that lasts beyond and I'm talking about changing people's lives, I'm not talking about a building, I'm not talking about building up a business, if God uses your business to impact lives, awesome, all right, but if it doesn't impact lives positively, what's the point of that, it'll just crumble in the end and be forgotten, I'm talking about constructing something that says God's in this and God's using me to impact lives and make a difference in this world, construct something of worth.

That's why I love what we started with Connect Together, it's a year old now and I'll watch their people coming to that service and we got to hear some testimonies on Thursday and you know what, what was beautiful about that was just raw testimonies, people sharing about saying I was depressed, I was lonely and I came to this church to Thursday morning and I found love and I found acceptance and now they're sharing on the stage about the love of God and how they've been impacted by it, I went, we just constructed something of worth, you know, most of you won't come to that because you work or whatever, that's all right, but you know what, Thursday morning we constructed something. Not because we ran a service, because we're in a building, but because people's lives are impacted, this church is not valuable because of the building, because of the lights, because of the entity, all that stuff, it's not, that's not its value, it's you. It's people that are being impacted and saying God's changing us, we are constructing something of worth, what are you doing in your life to construct something that means build my house, says the Lord, build my house.

You know what's interesting about this is if you go into chapter two of Haggai, they're building their own houses and they're doing, and then they started and the challenge came and the people said we better get together and we're going to start building the temple of God. That was, it was practical, it was real, they started rebuilding the temple that had been destroyed, it was gone, they said we're going to rebuild this temple of God to honour God and glorify Him and they started doing it and then they got disillusioned, do you know why? Because they started building it and they were like oh this isn't going to be any good, no this isn't as good as the old one, ever heard that before? It's like oh we tried this before and it got smashed down, it's just going to happen again, they started complaining, started getting upset, going oh it doesn't look, look at it, we tried. I've heard that sometimes, I feel like that sometimes, oh we tried to plant a church and pathetic, hardly anyone came. Sometimes I've preached and I've gone oh you tried to preach a great message Adrian, it wasn't as good as your last one, then sometimes someone tells you that, my daughter, no she doesn't, she's very encouraging my daughter, but you do and you feel you can. When you give it a go, when you climb higher, when you try and construct something of worth, isn't that what you're faced with? I'm trying and then I feel like oh maybe it's not going to make a difference or maybe I failed or maybe it's like maybe it's like you're just a try hard and that's how these people felt. They're like this looks pathetic compared to what we heard about the old one and we can feel some of us have given it a go and sometimes you're going you know what you've gone, I've given it a go, I'm going to step back now and God's challenge comes and says come on there's more, there's more, there's more and we go oh but it's not going to be as good. We stay disillusioned and we stay comfortable, we stay safe and I want to challenge us going please don't stay safe, give it a go, come on dare to risk failure, dare to risk, come on say God what would you have me do and I'm going to be naive again and I'm going to say God I don't know at all and I don't know if this is even going to work the way I want it but I'm going to give it my best shot, I'm going to try to let my life be something of value that builds your house. I just spat up into the air there, I saw it, it was like a projectile and it landed right on Shiona, no I hope it didn't, no it didn't get that far, it is disgusting.

'The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. And in this place I will bring peace. I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!” ' Haggai 2:9 (NLT)

Haggai 2 verse 9 because the people were going hey are we going to actually be able to make a difference or not and this is the word of the Lord that comes to them in Haggai 2 verse 9, the future glory of this temple will be greater than its past glory says the Lord of heaven's armies and in this place I will bring peace, I the Lord of heaven's armies have spoken and I want to say something to you today. If you say maybe it's not worth it, I won't make a difference, I've tried and it's not worth it again, I'm just going to stay safe and comfortable. God wants to speak to you and say if you will give your life to saying God I want my life to count, the future glory of what you build will be greater than the previous and I will be in that place where you give your heart and soul to and I will bring peace says the Lord. Peace to your family, peace to those around you. Some of us have faced hardship like the Israelites had, some of us have reasons to stay comfortable but God's challenging if he would challenge the Israelites to step up he's challenging you, don't make your past an excuse, please don't, come on we've all got reasons, I've got rejection reasons, I've got things I could say, so do you, don't let your past be your excuse, step up and say God I'm going to let my life be build something God, I've got the timber, I've climbed higher and now I'm going to construct something with my life that changes lives and impacts people for eternity.

What are you going to construct? What are you going to build? I remember a few years ago I'd been pastor for over 20 years now and COVID happened and everything shut down didn't it and I tell you some pastors I know they really enjoyed it, they were like awesome, can relax, don't have to run services, don't have to visit anyone, awesome! That was a very few number of pastors, most of the pastors I know including myself were very, very frustrated and then get a bit depressed because suddenly you know what, I went what am I doing with my life? Am I constructing anything of worth? Everything I've done suddenly there's no people, who's going to be left when we come back, I can't do anything and I started complaining a little bit going oh it doesn't matter, no one cares. My family heard me a little bit at home, I think I've wasted my life, I remember saying that a couple of times. I could have done other things, now look no one even cares and it's like why am I even doing it? They don't care if I'm a pastor or not, I'm wondering have I constructed anything of worth and it got to me and you know how the devil can get into your ear and your own thoughts and he can speak these lies because you are in these tough seasons and I remember it really got to me and I remember going down and praying about this and it wasn't working and I was just like this isn't fair God, this isn't fair and then one day I've talked about this a little bit in another context but one day I was walking on the beach and I was just telling God I feel like I've wasted who I am and what I could have done and it hasn't made a difference and I felt like just this little inkling from God going and he said but you're still here talking to me aren't you? You're still here and I was like well yeah I am and he's like you know why? Because he goes the fire's still there. He goes because you didn't do it for you, you didn't do it for the results that you saw, you did it because you wanted to impact lives and you wanted to give your life and I felt the Holy Spirit grab a hold of me in my heart, this little desire that I had when I was a kid to say God I just want to give my life to pouring into people and changing people's lives and seeing people saved and seeing people come to know you and know your word and that little fire in me started to come aflame again and I was like it's still there God and I remember on that beach I started praying and I started crying and I said God I will give my life again, it hasn't been a waste, I will give my life again, this is before we could even open up, God I'll give my life again to build your church, to build your people, whoever's left God I'm going to give my heart and soul into building your people and you know what I came back out of COVID with a fresh fire. I said people would left, people would hang, it was a smaller number but I said I'm going to give everything because this is worth it, building into people, constructing something of worth where people's lives are changed is worth it brothers and sisters and you might have failures, you might have questioned whether it is but I want to tell you when you give your life to build into others, to change others lives, not just in church, some of us are in social work, I've talked to so many people, I go you're building something of worth, you're impacting people, some of us are building businesses and we're giving into the kingdom of God, some of us are giving our talents and abilities where we're loving others in our community, are you constructing something of worth? It's worth it, it's worth it brothers and sisters.

Consecrate Your Life To God

The third thing is this, go up into the hills, climb higher, bring down timber, rebuild my house, construct something of worth, then I will take pleasure in it and be honoured says the Lord, then I will take pleasure in it and be honoured, consecrate your life to God, consider your life brothers and sisters, climb higher, construct something of worth and consecrate your life to God. The word consecrate means to surrender and say God this is holy to you, this is surrendered and made holy in your presence for your glory, for your pleasure, consider your life friends, is your life being lived like that? Because you've got a choice, you can live like the Israelites and you can do well, don't we all know people doing well? You've got a nice house, getting a car, job, career, you can do all of those things and you can do well in this life and you can miss the whole point, the most important things you can miss but if you would consider your life and say God whatever stage, some of us are young, some of us are older, it's not too late, wherever you're at, some of these Israelites coming back after 70 years, some of them were older and they were like oh God we've missed it but it's not too late, climb higher now, say God I'm going to construct something of worth right now and it's going to be greater than whatever I've done previously if I give my heart and soul to it and then Lord I'm going to consecrate it all to you, I'm going to consecrate it all to you, bring it all to God and let it flow to others, consecrate.

I heard this story, wonderful story in another church a practical one, they received an inheritance and a massive inheritance from family and they went, they were in Australia, they went to their pastor and they said we've received a inheritance of millions and millions of dollars and they said we want to give over a million dollars into the house of God, we want to consecrate the blessing that God's given us and say go and make a difference with it and I go that's an example, it's an example of saying God I consecrate my life to you. I'm not just talking about money though, that's not the most important because God doesn't care about your money. He wants to use our finance and that because that's part of our lives, what we do with our finance matters, how we treat it matters but God's far more interested in you and how you're living. He cares about your life, see there was another story in Acts where some people gave money, they gave an offering and then they said hey look what we've just done, we sold a block of land, we sold a property and we're giving it to the church and they actually got found out that they'd done it because they wanted the glory and they wanted to make themselves look good and they got struck down because God says I don't want your money, I want your heart, I want your consecration. So I'm not talking about money, I'm talking about your life, will you consecrate your life, will you say God here's my life, I'm going to climb higher, I'm going to construct something of worth but it's not going to be for my glory, it's not going to be so I have a legacy that I'm going to look at me and what I've done, I want my name labelled on that building or that whatever it is. I want my family to remember me, God I consecrate it to you, that you may have, I love this, that you will take pleasure in it and be honoured says the Lord.

That's what I love when I talk to Alex and Fua, you heard from them, you know what I love about them, you know why, I'll tell you one of the reasons I've asked Fua to become lead pastor here, it's an important one, he never asked for it or sought it, he never said what's the next step for me Adrian, when are you going to give me more responsibility, hey I've been serving here for a while mate, I'm 40 now, I think I've got a few things, I know what to do, come on let me make a name for myself, give me a role, give me more position, he'd never said any of those things, in fact he said the opposite, whenever I've said you know what, I'm going to give you more responsibility, he goes okay, all right, whatever you need, whatever you need, hey Fua I'm thinking about you becoming lead pastor here, well if that's what you want to do, I think we'll wait a bit mate, give the church a bit of time to get used to you and then he goes no worries at all, I'm just going to do the work anyway, then you'll see him preaching crying about heart for people, you know why, because they've consecrated themselves to God. I look at Alex, she's a pastor's kid and she's gone through hurt, she's watched a church where she grew up in, go through really difficult times and not be good in her family. She's watched that happen, she watched the pain, she watched the hurt, she didn't throw in the towel and say I'm just going to look after me and my kids now, you know what she did, she came here and she started serving and they're here early in the morning bringing their daughters, Ayla and Aria coming early in the morning sometimes, late in the afternoons to serve God, why, because they're consecrated, consecrated.

I don't do it for position, I don't do it so my name looks great, I consecrate what I do, I want to construct something of great worth but I want to consecrate to God, I want to surrender to God and say God, this is yours, is that where you are, it's time for us to say God, take my life, I will climb higher, I want you to use me for your glory, God, I believe you can do it and if we've failed in the past, if it's been hard, God, I'm going to go again and I consecrate it to you. Do you know the beautiful thing about that, if you read on in Haggai chapter 2, the prophet comes and he says, he gives him this example and he talks about if something's wrecked or broken or defiled when you hold it and you give it to someone else, what happens? Well, that person gets defiled as well and then that person, if what you hold is defiled and broken then everyone else that you pass it to gets affected by that and it gets passed down but in the same way, if what you have is holy, if what you have is pure, if what you have is consecrated by God, when you go and you reach out to someone and you hand them something and then they handed something, then what they have is holy, what they have and they're changed and they're impacted and I want to tell you, when you consecrate your life to God, you become a holy person, you become someone that has been cleansed and purified and now what you're giving, when you give your life, you're giving God, you're giving Christ, you're giving the Holy Spirit of God through your life and they become changed. Isn't that what we believe? When you do it out of love, the love flows from the heart of God through you. When you're consecrated, the other things that you touch and impact become consecrated. That's what I want. Consecrate your life to God and say, here I am God, I came broken, I came hurt. These Israelites came broken, hurt, they'd been destroyed, their lives had been wrecked, they'd been mistreated, abused and hurt and then they got given, hey, here's a bit of time, go back to your country, your city and rebuild it and they focused on that and then God said, it's time to focus on the greater things. You might feel broken, you might feel like it's overwhelming. Come on parents, I know, it can feel overwhelming in this life but God's saying to you, will you consider your life, climb higher, construct something of worth and consecrate it to me and you watch what I do. I'm going to bless your children, I'm going to bless your children's children, I'm going to bless your friends in your school, your uni, your workplace. What your hand touches is consecrated and you're going to see the impact and in the end, you know what we're going to do? We're going to do what we love to do, Lord, all to your glory. Your house, your church, my life, it's yours Lord. That's what I'm looking forward to doing. One day, I remind myself of this all the time, Lord, everything I do here, if it's for me, it'll burn up and be to nothing. Well, Lord, if it's done with a pure motive, one day, God, I just want to surrender it all to you and say, Lord, it was all for you. It was an honour of my life to serve you. It was the honour of my life to please you. If we please God, does it matter who we displease? And if we displease God, does it matter who you please? Consider your life. I want my life to please him. I want my life to honour him. I want my life to magnify him. I want people to know him through me. You live your life for that and you have lived a worthy life. You have lived a beautiful life. You've lived a wonderful, amazing life.

We're going to pray. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter where you're from. Young, old, in between, new Christian, not yet a Christian, Christian for 40 years. Consider your life. We're going to take a moment in this place to say, Lord, I'm going to give my life afresh. What's he challenging you with? What does he want to do through you? So let's bow our heads and close our eyes in this place. We're going to pray. I want you to just take a moment right now. The Holy Spirit just wants to speak to some people. I want you to ask him and say, Lord, what are you calling me to do? What are you challenging me? What do you want me to focus on, Lord? What do I need to do? Maybe some of you need to surrender afresh to him. Maybe you need to say, Lord, I will build again. Maybe some of you just need to be encouraged that what you're doing is making a difference.

So I pray for your people. God, we're doing some wonderful things. God, your people are wonderful people. They want to serve you. We want to serve you. But Lord, God, we consider our lives again today. We say, Lord, we want to glorify you. Help us. Help us, Lord, be people that are surrendered, focused on making a difference for your kingdom, for your glory, that our lives may be a testimony to the goodness of God, to magnify and lift up the name of Jesus above every name, that in our families, Lord. Some of you have got kids that are far from God, but he says, as you pray and you say, Lord, I'm going to keep serving you, your life is going to impact them, and God's doing a work on them that's going to sanctify them, that's going to bring them back to him in Jesus' name. Some of you parents, as you follow an example in your household, you're raising up mighty men and women of God. Do you know that? You haven't seen it yet. You believe, but you haven't seen what God sees yet. He says, keep building, keep speaking into their life, because mighty men and women of God are raised up from this house to do some mighty things for the glory of God. It takes time. It takes time, but Lord, we will not give in. We will not lay back. We will not just look after ourselves, God. We will look to you. And maybe you're in this place, and I'm going to ask maybe some people that need to give their lives to Jesus today. Maybe you've been living far from God, never given your life to him, or you've been away from God. We're going to say a prayer to give your life to Jesus today. Say, Lord, I want to consecrate my life. I want to surrender my life to you as Lord and Saviour, and I'm going to follow you the rest of my life. So with every head bowed and eye closed, if that's you and you want to say this prayer with me, no one looking around except me, I just want to know who I'm praying for. Can you just lift your hand up for the Lord, and I'll see it. Yep, yep, yep. Hands going up all over, because God's moving, because God loves you, and you know he's got a plan, because you know why? Because the Holy Spirit of God is speaking to you, and he's saying, I've got something for you, and I don't want you to waste your life. I don't want you to waste your life with the stuff that doesn't matter. I've got a greater plan for you, and you might come from brokenness, and you might come from hurt, and you might have said, oh, what's the point of all this stuff? But the Lord says, I've got a plan for you, but it starts with surrendering your life to him. God bless you. You can put your hands down. We're going to say this prayer, and I want us to all repeat it together, and if you lifted your hand, you say it with us. Let's pray. Dear Lord Jesus, I want to give my life to you today. I believe you're the Son of God, and you died on the cross for my sin. Forgive me, Jesus. Be my Lord and my Saviour. I consecrate my life to you. Use me, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer, at a Get Connected desk, we've got a Bible for you. We want to help you. We want to pray with you. Come and get a Bible. It's free. We want to give that to you, and God's going to do a mighty work through your lives.

Come on, why don't we stand? We're going to consecrate ourselves to the Lord as we finish today. We're going to sing this song. I praise the name.

Let my life be to glorify God in this place.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, I pray for your people as we leave today, that we would be a consecrated people, that we would be a people, Lord, that have considered our lives and say, God, use us to make a difference wherever we go in our households, our workplaces, our communities, for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Everyone said, amen.

God bless you, church. We love you. Go have some morning tea and coffee. God bless.