Coming up, hope and encouragement that it's not over yet.

Coming up, hope and encouragement that it's not over yet.

There are some of you that are in a season that you're racing, that some of you have gotten to a place that's difficult, that's hard, and you just quit. God wants you to know it's not over yet. We in the church are in a race. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon.

There are some of you that are in a season that you're racing, that some of you have gotten to a place that's difficult, that's hard, and you just quit. God wants you to know it's not over yet. We in the church are in a race. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon.

Welcome to Moody Presents with doctor Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute and senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. Glad you've checked in, because we're looking today at what it means to be fully devoted to God. And today we travel all the way toward the end of your Old Testament to the book of Haggai, we're going to discover how he was able to wake people up who had become lukewarm in their faith. You see, they had lost vision along their spiritual journey, rather like us, don't you think? Quick question though, as we begin. Are you a runner? Now I'm not. I'm pretty dedicated to my daily walk, though, but I do know some runners enough to know that there are different types of runners, just like there are different types of races. And the runners that intrigue me most are the endurance people. I mean, these guys, these girls run for miles and miles sometimes in a race that can last 24 hours or more. Amazing and unbelievably difficult, right? Well, I bring all that up because any endurance race involves training. As we all know, you don't just wake up one morning and decide to do it and run out out there. So don't be surprised if in today's message we're talking about spiritual training, our message today is titled It's Not Over Yet. And here's Mark Jobe with some marathon training on Moody presents. Ready, set go!

Welcome to Moody Presents with doctor Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute and senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. Glad you've checked in, because we're looking today at what it means to be fully devoted to God. And today we travel all the way toward the end of your Old Testament to the book of Haggai, we're going to discover how he was able to wake people up who had become lukewarm in their faith. You see, they had lost vision along their spiritual journey, rather like us, don't you think? Quick question though, as we begin. Are you a runner? Now I'm not. I'm pretty dedicated to my daily walk, though, but I do know some runners enough to know that there are different types of runners, just like there are different types of races. And the runners that intrigue me most are the endurance people. I mean, these guys, these girls run for miles and miles sometimes in a race that can last 24 hours or more. Amazing and unbelievably difficult, right? Well, I bring all that up because any endurance race involves training. As we all know, you don't just wake up one morning and decide to do it and run out out there. So don't be surprised if in today's message we're talking about spiritual training, our message today is titled It's Not Over Yet. And here's Mark Jobe with some marathon training on Moody presents. Ready, set go!

A quarry. Was his name. He had been chosen by Tanzania to compete in the Mexico Olympics that were, I believe, in 1968. He considered it a great privilege that he was able to run representing his country. This would be a brutal run. 26 miles. In some high altitude where the oxygen kind of is a little thin. But Ituri was up for the task with pride. He circled around at the beginning of the Olympics carrying his Tanzania flag, hoping that he would do the best as they ran this brutal, brutal course. The gun shot. He took off. With many other athletes running this marathon of 26 miles. He was doing pretty well until mile 12 and mile 12. Some of the runners started jostling a little bit, moving, pushing each other, and a Tory fell. It was a bad fall. He messed up his knee. He skinned his leg. He dislocated his shoulder. Many thought that he was out of the race. But when Atwari got up, he started to limp and run again. But he was running very slow. The doctors on the sideline said, hey, just. Just quit the race. You're injured. You don't have to finish. But to their amazement and surprise, Atwari kept running. He had 14 miles yet to go and he kept running. Half running, half limping. Half walking. All of the other marathon runners completed the race. They marched. They ran into the stadium at the applause of thousands and thousands of people that applauded them. Atari was an hour later. By that time, the stadium had cleared out, only for a couple thousand people. Dusk was falling. It was getting dark already. The crowd had dispersed for the most part, and then suddenly someone said, hey, look at him! And there he was. A Turing entered into the stadium, limping, walking, trying to run. The crowd got up, looked at him, this injured athlete as he made one last round around the stadium and passed right through the finish line. He was the last by far of 57 marathon athletes that finished the race. When the reporter was able to talk to a jury, he put a microphone in his in his face and he said, why didn't you quit? I mean, you were way, way, way late. Why don't you just get. Why don't you just give up? Itwari said my country did not send me 10,000 miles just to start the race. They sent me to finish the race. Every person in this auditorium is in a race. We in the church are in a race. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. We may have sprints within the marathon, but it's a long term race and there are some of you that are in a season that you're racing, that some of you have gotten to a place that's difficult, that's hard, and you just quit. You stop trying. You stop running. You set down on the side. You said it's just too hard. Oh, you're still alive. You're still breathing. But you're not running. You're not racing. There's no vision of the future. There's no vision for the finish line you've just set out. And I believe that God has called me here today because I believe that God has called me to stir some of you up to finish what God has started. Yeah. Because I believe this, that some of you are in a race that even though you may have set out, God wants you to know it's not over yet. Tap the person beside you and say it's not over yet. Tap the person on the other side. Hey, I think some of you are going to speak this prophetically into someone's life. Look at the person beside you in the eye and say it's not over yet. How many of you needed to hear someone tell you that today? How many of you needed to hear someone tell you, hey, it's not over yet. It's not over yet. And as I was praying for this service today. I was drawn to Haggai, this little book in the Old Testament, because the message that the prophet. Was delivering to the people that he was speaking to. Is exactly that message. It's not over yet. And I want to tell you a little bit about this message, and I want to I want us to understand and learn from Haggai three vital principles that we need to learn and grasp and understand if we are going to finish what we started. If you're jotting notes today, I want you to write this down. I believe that we move to the finish line when we decide to stop postponing and determined to complete what we started. Some of us are major procrastinators. Manana. Manana. Later, later. Hey, can you take out the garbage? Yeah, later. Hey, can you take the car for an oil change? I'm getting to it later. Can you do your homework later? Later? It's easy to procrastinate in little things, but it's a major problem when we start procrastinating in our God given destiny. And so I want you to know what was happening with the people of Israel when Haggai came up to them and said, stop procrastinating. So what had happened was that in the year 586 BC. So 586 years before Christ was born, a long time ago, 2500 years ago, the people of Israel had been called by God a set aside nation. They had built Jerusalem. They had built the temple. Solomon had built a magnificent temple in the center of town that had become the place of worship. If you turn on the television and they're talking about the Middle East, there's a wall that remains from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. That's called the Wailing Wall. I've been there. A Jewish people still believe that that's the closest gate to heaven. And they take little prayers and they put it in the wall, and you'll see people going back and forth and praying at that wall, because it's the original from Solomon's wall. Well, because the people of Israel did not follow God and turn to other idols, and turned their back on God and drifted away from God, God decided that he would let Israel be devastated by their enemy. So the Babylonians came and they conquered Jerusalem. They conquered Israel. They ransacked the city. They tore down the walls, they burned the houses, and they took all of the gold from the temple, all of the holy artifacts. And they destroyed the temple brick after brick knocked it down, so it was left in ruins. And they were taken as slaves back to Babylon. You remember the story of Daniel, who was one of the young leaders that was taken as a slave. They were there for 70 years. Jerusalem was in ruins. The people of Israel were devastated. And sometimes what happens when we turn our back on God? Sometimes what happens when we start going our own way is God has to lead us through a season of devastation in order to take us back to a season of restoration. Some of you are here today because you had to have some devastation in your life. That woke you up and it brought you to a place of restoration. And so God woke the people of Israel back and said, I will send you back to rebuild Jerusalem. God wasn't done with their story. And so after 70 years, there was a group of people, 50,000 Jews, that were allowed to return to the devastated city of Jerusalem. The walls were down, the city was in ruin. It was just a devastating, desolate city. But 50,000 came back to say, we will rebuild this city. We have a vision of what Jerusalem can be again. We have a dream that this city can be rebuilt, and this will be a place of peace and a place where God reigns. The temple will be rebuilt. We will worship again like we used to worship. We will. Their children will dance in the streets and laugh and play like they used to. We will follow God. And as we follow God, we will rebuild this city. They had gone back to do so, but something happened. You know, when God gives us a big task, it's not always easy. Amen. When God gives us a big vision, he gets interrupted by opposition. By criticism. By obstacles. By discouragement. And here's what I've discovered. That there's two twins that tend to derail us. Discouragement and distraction. When we become discouraged and distracted. We typically stop doing what God has called us to do, and we start putting our energies into other things because discouragement and distraction work hand in hand to take us away from the destiny that God has called us to. Some of you right now are not finishing what God called you to do because you've been discouraged and distracted. You got discouraged because someone hurt you. You got discouraged because it was too long. You got discouraged because it felt like it wasn't making progress. And when you got discouraged, you started looking around. And when you got discouraged, you started getting distracted. And you figured, if I can't win this, I'll win it something else. And so you've thrown yourself into something else, and the very call that God has on your life, the very destiny that God has had you for you have abandoned it because of discouragement and distraction. I believe that God has called me to wake some of you up today, to get you out of discouragement and distraction, to say, hey, hey, you're sidetracked. God is not done with you yet. Don't bail out of the marathon. It's not over yet. You're still in the race. Get off the bench. Get off the sideline. Get into the game that God has called you to because you are wasting a lot of your precious energy, time, faith, gifting talents when you live in the world of discouragement and distraction.

A quarry. Was his name. He had been chosen by Tanzania to compete in the Mexico Olympics that were, I believe, in 1968. He considered it a great privilege that he was able to run representing his country. This would be a brutal run. 26 miles. In some high altitude where the oxygen kind of is a little thin. But Ituri was up for the task with pride. He circled around at the beginning of the Olympics carrying his Tanzania flag, hoping that he would do the best as they ran this brutal, brutal course. The gun shot. He took off. With many other athletes running this marathon of 26 miles. He was doing pretty well until mile 12 and mile 12. Some of the runners started jostling a little bit, moving, pushing each other, and a Tory fell. It was a bad fall. He messed up his knee. He skinned his leg. He dislocated his shoulder. Many thought that he was out of the race. But when Atwari got up, he started to limp and run again. But he was running very slow. The doctors on the sideline said, hey, just. Just quit the race. You're injured. You don't have to finish. But to their amazement and surprise, Atwari kept running. He had 14 miles yet to go and he kept running. Half running, half limping. Half walking. All of the other marathon runners completed the race. They marched. They ran into the stadium at the applause of thousands and thousands of people that applauded them. Atari was an hour later. By that time, the stadium had cleared out, only for a couple thousand people. Dusk was falling. It was getting dark already. The crowd had dispersed for the most part, and then suddenly someone said, hey, look at him! And there he was. A Turing entered into the stadium, limping, walking, trying to run. The crowd got up, looked at him, this injured athlete as he made one last round around the stadium and passed right through the finish line. He was the last by far of 57 marathon athletes that finished the race. When the reporter was able to talk to a jury, he put a microphone in his in his face and he said, why didn't you quit? I mean, you were way, way, way late. Why don't you just get. Why don't you just give up? Itwari said my country did not send me 10,000 miles just to start the race. They sent me to finish the race. Every person in this auditorium is in a race. We in the church are in a race. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. We may have sprints within the marathon, but it's a long term race and there are some of you that are in a season that you're racing, that some of you have gotten to a place that's difficult, that's hard, and you just quit. You stop trying. You stop running. You set down on the side. You said it's just too hard. Oh, you're still alive. You're still breathing. But you're not running. You're not racing. There's no vision of the future. There's no vision for the finish line you've just set out. And I believe that God has called me here today because I believe that God has called me to stir some of you up to finish what God has started. Yeah. Because I believe this, that some of you are in a race that even though you may have set out, God wants you to know it's not over yet. Tap the person beside you and say it's not over yet. Tap the person on the other side. Hey, I think some of you are going to speak this prophetically into someone's life. Look at the person beside you in the eye and say it's not over yet. How many of you needed to hear someone tell you that today? How many of you needed to hear someone tell you, hey, it's not over yet. It's not over yet. And as I was praying for this service today. I was drawn to Haggai, this little book in the Old Testament, because the message that the prophet. Was delivering to the people that he was speaking to. Is exactly that message. It's not over yet. And I want to tell you a little bit about this message, and I want to I want us to understand and learn from Haggai three vital principles that we need to learn and grasp and understand if we are going to finish what we started. If you're jotting notes today, I want you to write this down. I believe that we move to the finish line when we decide to stop postponing and determined to complete what we started. Some of us are major procrastinators. Manana. Manana. Later, later. Hey, can you take out the garbage? Yeah, later. Hey, can you take the car for an oil change? I'm getting to it later. Can you do your homework later? Later? It's easy to procrastinate in little things, but it's a major problem when we start procrastinating in our God given destiny. And so I want you to know what was happening with the people of Israel when Haggai came up to them and said, stop procrastinating. So what had happened was that in the year 586 BC. So 586 years before Christ was born, a long time ago, 2500 years ago, the people of Israel had been called by God a set aside nation. They had built Jerusalem. They had built the temple. Solomon had built a magnificent temple in the center of town that had become the place of worship. If you turn on the television and they're talking about the Middle East, there's a wall that remains from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. That's called the Wailing Wall. I've been there. A Jewish people still believe that that's the closest gate to heaven. And they take little prayers and they put it in the wall, and you'll see people going back and forth and praying at that wall, because it's the original from Solomon's wall. Well, because the people of Israel did not follow God and turn to other idols, and turned their back on God and drifted away from God, God decided that he would let Israel be devastated by their enemy. So the Babylonians came and they conquered Jerusalem. They conquered Israel. They ransacked the city. They tore down the walls, they burned the houses, and they took all of the gold from the temple, all of the holy artifacts. And they destroyed the temple brick after brick knocked it down, so it was left in ruins. And they were taken as slaves back to Babylon. You remember the story of Daniel, who was one of the young leaders that was taken as a slave. They were there for 70 years. Jerusalem was in ruins. The people of Israel were devastated. And sometimes what happens when we turn our back on God? Sometimes what happens when we start going our own way is God has to lead us through a season of devastation in order to take us back to a season of restoration. Some of you are here today because you had to have some devastation in your life. That woke you up and it brought you to a place of restoration. And so God woke the people of Israel back and said, I will send you back to rebuild Jerusalem. God wasn't done with their story. And so after 70 years, there was a group of people, 50,000 Jews, that were allowed to return to the devastated city of Jerusalem. The walls were down, the city was in ruin. It was just a devastating, desolate city. But 50,000 came back to say, we will rebuild this city. We have a vision of what Jerusalem can be again. We have a dream that this city can be rebuilt, and this will be a place of peace and a place where God reigns. The temple will be rebuilt. We will worship again like we used to worship. We will. Their children will dance in the streets and laugh and play like they used to. We will follow God. And as we follow God, we will rebuild this city. They had gone back to do so, but something happened. You know, when God gives us a big task, it's not always easy. Amen. When God gives us a big vision, he gets interrupted by opposition. By criticism. By obstacles. By discouragement. And here's what I've discovered. That there's two twins that tend to derail us. Discouragement and distraction. When we become discouraged and distracted. We typically stop doing what God has called us to do, and we start putting our energies into other things because discouragement and distraction work hand in hand to take us away from the destiny that God has called us to. Some of you right now are not finishing what God called you to do because you've been discouraged and distracted. You got discouraged because someone hurt you. You got discouraged because it was too long. You got discouraged because it felt like it wasn't making progress. And when you got discouraged, you started looking around. And when you got discouraged, you started getting distracted. And you figured, if I can't win this, I'll win it something else. And so you've thrown yourself into something else, and the very call that God has on your life, the very destiny that God has had you for you have abandoned it because of discouragement and distraction. I believe that God has called me to wake some of you up today, to get you out of discouragement and distraction, to say, hey, hey, you're sidetracked. God is not done with you yet. Don't bail out of the marathon. It's not over yet. You're still in the race. Get off the bench. Get off the sideline. Get into the game that God has called you to because you are wasting a lot of your precious energy, time, faith, gifting talents when you live in the world of discouragement and distraction.

Well, thankfully, there's more to today's message than just discouragement and distraction. You're about to encounter some powerful ways to increase your faith as we look to Haggai in the Old Testament. More from pastor Mark in just a moment. But first, I want to tell you about an important book that will be a huge help to you. I'm serious. It's called Prevailing Prayer, and it's by D.L. Moody, and we want to share this with you as a way of saying thank you for giving any sized gift to Moody Presents. In this brief but power packed book, you're going to wrestle with examples throughout Scripture on the power of prayer, reminders of God's faithfulness to you as you pray to him. Explanations of how to pray powerfully and biblically. D.L. Moody writes, every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure, and he who kneels the most stands the best. Prevailing prayer is yours with a gift of any size to moody presents. Or you can become a member of the Moody Presents Advance Team at $30 per month or more, and will get a copy right off to you. We'll also share with you a special code that gives you 50% off all your orders. At Moody Publishers, you can call or visit our website to get this all going. And here's the number 800 407 022. That's (800) 400-7022 or go to our website Moody presents.org. That's moody presents.org. Now if you missed any of that I'll mention it all again at the end of our program. Right now though, let's get back to the race with it's not over yet. Here's pastor Mark.

Well, thankfully, there's more to today's message than just discouragement and distraction. You're about to encounter some powerful ways to increase your faith as we look to Haggai in the Old Testament. More from pastor Mark in just a moment. But first, I want to tell you about an important book that will be a huge help to you. I'm serious. It's called Prevailing Prayer, and it's by D.L. Moody, and we want to share this with you as a way of saying thank you for giving any sized gift to Moody Presents. In this brief but power packed book, you're going to wrestle with examples throughout Scripture on the power of prayer, reminders of God's faithfulness to you as you pray to him. Explanations of how to pray powerfully and biblically. D.L. Moody writes, every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure, and he who kneels the most stands the best. Prevailing prayer is yours with a gift of any size to moody presents. Or you can become a member of the Moody Presents Advance Team at $30 per month or more, and will get a copy right off to you. We'll also share with you a special code that gives you 50% off all your orders. At Moody Publishers, you can call or visit our website to get this all going. And here's the number 800 407 022. That's (800) 400-7022 or go to our website Moody presents.org. That's moody presents.org. Now if you missed any of that I'll mention it all again at the end of our program. Right now though, let's get back to the race with it's not over yet. Here's pastor Mark.

So. Haggai. Was raised as a prophet. Thank God for the prophets in our life. How about it? Oh, we may not call them prophets, but sometimes God brings friends with a prophetic voice. Yes, yes. A prophecy is a word. It's God's word at his moment and his time given by God. And I believe that there's friends in our life sometimes that come with a prophetic voice. There's people around us that sometimes God, because we're not listening to God himself, we're not reading His Word. We're not calling upon God. Sometimes God will have to raise a friend that speaks prophetically into our life, challenging us. And Haggai came to the people of Israel. They had started to build the temple. They had laid a foundation. They had built the altar. So they were still having services there. But because of the opposition of a group called the Samaritans. They had left, they got discouraged and then they got distracted. You know what they got distracted with? They got distracted with good stuff. But not God stuff. They got distracted because. God had told him, build up the temple. But because they got discouraged, it took a lot of work. There was opposition, they got discouraged, and so they started rebuilding the city. They got discouraged with their stuff. They started building up their houses, building their yards. Finishing the roofs. Paneling the inside. Doing their floors, improving their homes. They kept saying, yeah, we'll get back to the temple. Yeah, yeah, we're going to finish it. Yeah, we're going to get back to it. It's just not the right time yet. It's not the proper season. You know that you can get distracted with good things from the God things. Not. They're not bad. They're not evil. They're good, but they're not the God things. And so 14 years later, they still had not done what God had called them to do rebuild the temple. 14 years later, the temple was still in ruins. 14 years later, the walls hadn't been built. 14 years later, they were still procrastinating. They kind of got used to the way it was. You know, you live so long in a certain way, you start getting used to something that is. Not the best. You live long enough in a certain way and you start getting used to substandard living. You live with something long enough and you start forgetting that it's a problem. You live with abuse long enough and you think that abuse is normal. It's the standard. It's the way life is. It's been that way for a long time. It'll probably never change. And you just accept verbal abuse, physical abuse, and you believe that that's just the way it is if you live with it long enough. You live in a house full of strife and chaos and criticism and doubt and anger. You live that way long enough, and you just start to assume that's the way it'll always be. That's the way it's always been. I expect it, anticipate it, believe it. You live in poverty, indebtedness where you can barely pay your bills and you always have creditors calling you up, and you just believe that that's the way life is. It's always barely. Barely surviving, barely living. It's always one paycheck to another. It's moving apartments while creditors chase after you and follow after you. It's just the lifestyle that you've become used to. You live there. You accept it. You make it your culture. You think it's normal because when you procrastinate on something long enough, long enough, you start getting used to a culture of procrastination, even though it's not what God has called you to. So God sent Haggai to wake them up, and in verse two he says, this is what the Lord Almighty says. These people say, the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord's house. It's not the right time. It's not the right time. Verse three. Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai, and he says to the people, it is a time for you. Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in paneled houses while this house remains in ruin? What Haggai was telling them is God called you to rebuild the temple, but you got discouraged and you got distracted with your own things. And so now that which should have been a priority is no longer a priority in your life, and you have switched priorities, you've forgotten to put first things first. You know, the greatest challenge that we have as Christians, as believers. Is not necessarily that we go after evil things. It's that we switch our priorities and so that God is no longer at the center, number one top priority. He's a part of our life, but not the center of our life. We've added into our life. Like we add the gym, a therapist, an accountant. And our favorite TV program. If we have time for it, we love to come and watch it. But at the center of our life is something else. Jesus said to his disciples, seek ye. Say it all together. Siki. What? First the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And then everything else shall be added to you. But you got to put first things first. Haggai and the people of Israel were living in a city where the temple was torn down. It wasn't finished because they had postponed it. They were working on their own houses, building their own houses, busy with other things, but hadn't finished the House of God number two. So not only do you need to decide to stop postponing, but you need to understand also that we move to finish. When we understand the ripple effects of unfinished business, you need to understand that you're unfinished business, that you're procrastination, that you're putting it off. It has ripple effects into your life that some that you're losing something by not obeying. You're losing something by postponing obedience. You're losing something the longer you wait. And so the prophet says to the people in verse five, now this is what the Lord Almighty says, give careful thought to your ways. The Living Translation says, look, look at what's happening to you. In other words, check out your life. Examine your life. Look at the mess that you've gotten yourself into. Pause for a moment to examine what's happening in your life by postponing obedience.

So. Haggai. Was raised as a prophet. Thank God for the prophets in our life. How about it? Oh, we may not call them prophets, but sometimes God brings friends with a prophetic voice. Yes, yes. A prophecy is a word. It's God's word at his moment and his time given by God. And I believe that there's friends in our life sometimes that come with a prophetic voice. There's people around us that sometimes God, because we're not listening to God himself, we're not reading His Word. We're not calling upon God. Sometimes God will have to raise a friend that speaks prophetically into our life, challenging us. And Haggai came to the people of Israel. They had started to build the temple. They had laid a foundation. They had built the altar. So they were still having services there. But because of the opposition of a group called the Samaritans. They had left, they got discouraged and then they got distracted. You know what they got distracted with? They got distracted with good stuff. But not God stuff. They got distracted because. God had told him, build up the temple. But because they got discouraged, it took a lot of work. There was opposition, they got discouraged, and so they started rebuilding the city. They got discouraged with their stuff. They started building up their houses, building their yards. Finishing the roofs. Paneling the inside. Doing their floors, improving their homes. They kept saying, yeah, we'll get back to the temple. Yeah, yeah, we're going to finish it. Yeah, we're going to get back to it. It's just not the right time yet. It's not the proper season. You know that you can get distracted with good things from the God things. Not. They're not bad. They're not evil. They're good, but they're not the God things. And so 14 years later, they still had not done what God had called them to do rebuild the temple. 14 years later, the temple was still in ruins. 14 years later, the walls hadn't been built. 14 years later, they were still procrastinating. They kind of got used to the way it was. You know, you live so long in a certain way, you start getting used to something that is. Not the best. You live long enough in a certain way and you start getting used to substandard living. You live with something long enough and you start forgetting that it's a problem. You live with abuse long enough and you think that abuse is normal. It's the standard. It's the way life is. It's been that way for a long time. It'll probably never change. And you just accept verbal abuse, physical abuse, and you believe that that's just the way it is if you live with it long enough. You live in a house full of strife and chaos and criticism and doubt and anger. You live that way long enough, and you just start to assume that's the way it'll always be. That's the way it's always been. I expect it, anticipate it, believe it. You live in poverty, indebtedness where you can barely pay your bills and you always have creditors calling you up, and you just believe that that's the way life is. It's always barely. Barely surviving, barely living. It's always one paycheck to another. It's moving apartments while creditors chase after you and follow after you. It's just the lifestyle that you've become used to. You live there. You accept it. You make it your culture. You think it's normal because when you procrastinate on something long enough, long enough, you start getting used to a culture of procrastination, even though it's not what God has called you to. So God sent Haggai to wake them up, and in verse two he says, this is what the Lord Almighty says. These people say, the time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord's house. It's not the right time. It's not the right time. Verse three. Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai, and he says to the people, it is a time for you. Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in paneled houses while this house remains in ruin? What Haggai was telling them is God called you to rebuild the temple, but you got discouraged and you got distracted with your own things. And so now that which should have been a priority is no longer a priority in your life, and you have switched priorities, you've forgotten to put first things first. You know, the greatest challenge that we have as Christians, as believers. Is not necessarily that we go after evil things. It's that we switch our priorities and so that God is no longer at the center, number one top priority. He's a part of our life, but not the center of our life. We've added into our life. Like we add the gym, a therapist, an accountant. And our favorite TV program. If we have time for it, we love to come and watch it. But at the center of our life is something else. Jesus said to his disciples, seek ye. Say it all together. Siki. What? First the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And then everything else shall be added to you. But you got to put first things first. Haggai and the people of Israel were living in a city where the temple was torn down. It wasn't finished because they had postponed it. They were working on their own houses, building their own houses, busy with other things, but hadn't finished the House of God number two. So not only do you need to decide to stop postponing, but you need to understand also that we move to finish. When we understand the ripple effects of unfinished business, you need to understand that you're unfinished business, that you're procrastination, that you're putting it off. It has ripple effects into your life that some that you're losing something by not obeying. You're losing something by postponing obedience. You're losing something the longer you wait. And so the prophet says to the people in verse five, now this is what the Lord Almighty says, give careful thought to your ways. The Living Translation says, look, look at what's happening to you. In other words, check out your life. Examine your life. Look at the mess that you've gotten yourself into. Pause for a moment to examine what's happening in your life by postponing obedience.

That's Mark job, and you're listening to Moody Presents, where we're online at Moody presents.org. And when you go to that website, make sure to take a moment and check out this month's Moody Presents Gift Prevailing Prayer. This is a book we'd love to get into your hands right away. And as our program name implies, it definitely presents Moody in prevailing prayer. D.L. Moody writes, The Christian on his knees sees more than the philosopher on tiptoe. God sends no one away except those who are full of themselves. Isn't that great? You might say Moody didn't mess around. He kind of cut to the chase in his sermons and his books. And if you're weary of conversations about prayer that are foggy at best, get this powerful tool that you can use. It's called Prevailing Prayer. It's by our founder, D.L. Moody, and it's yours with a gift of any size. Now, to make that donation and request a copy, just go online to Moody presents.org or reach out to us by giving us a call at (800) 400-7022. I'll slow that down (800) 400-7022 and if this ministry has made a meaningful impact in your life, and you'd like to help make a similar impact in somebody else's life, well consider becoming part of our advance team by signing up to give on a monthly basis. With your steady support, we're going to be able to continue reaching new listeners with these Bible based messages sharing the gospel all across the globe. And when you sign up to give it a level of $30 a month or more, you'll also get the Moody Publishers discount code 50%. I'm serious. This will give you half off every purchase of yours at the Moody Publishers website, so sign up to become part of the Moody Presents Advance Team today at Moody presents.org or call (800) 400-7022. Now, before we close, one quick question why not subscribe to the Moody Presents podcast? Open up your podcast app on your mobile device, search for Moody Presents with doctor Mark Jobe, and then click subscribe to get all of these weekly messages downloaded automatically for free for easy listening. Anytime. I'm John Jaeger, thank you for joining us today. Do come back next week for part two of Mark's message. It's not over yet. Moody presents is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.

That's Mark job, and you're listening to Moody Presents, where we're online at Moody presents.org. And when you go to that website, make sure to take a moment and check out this month's Moody Presents Gift Prevailing Prayer. This is a book we'd love to get into your hands right away. And as our program name implies, it definitely presents Moody in prevailing prayer. D.L. Moody writes, The Christian on his knees sees more than the philosopher on tiptoe. God sends no one away except those who are full of themselves. Isn't that great? You might say Moody didn't mess around. He kind of cut to the chase in his sermons and his books. And if you're weary of conversations about prayer that are foggy at best, get this powerful tool that you can use. It's called Prevailing Prayer. It's by our founder, D.L. Moody, and it's yours with a gift of any size. Now, to make that donation and request a copy, just go online to Moody presents.org or reach out to us by giving us a call at (800) 400-7022. I'll slow that down (800) 400-7022 and if this ministry has made a meaningful impact in your life, and you'd like to help make a similar impact in somebody else's life, well consider becoming part of our advance team by signing up to give on a monthly basis. With your steady support, we're going to be able to continue reaching new listeners with these Bible based messages sharing the gospel all across the globe. And when you sign up to give it a level of $30 a month or more, you'll also get the Moody Publishers discount code 50%. I'm serious. This will give you half off every purchase of yours at the Moody Publishers website, so sign up to become part of the Moody Presents Advance Team today at Moody presents.org or call (800) 400-7022. Now, before we close, one quick question why not subscribe to the Moody Presents podcast? Open up your podcast app on your mobile device, search for Moody Presents with doctor Mark Jobe, and then click subscribe to get all of these weekly messages downloaded automatically for free for easy listening. Anytime. I'm John Jaeger, thank you for joining us today. Do come back next week for part two of Mark's message. It's not over yet. Moody presents is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.