Gavin Hamms and co-speakers examine Haggai 2:9, arguing that God's future glory exceeds the present even when life feels scarred or resources are thin. They trace how the post-exilic temple builders felt discouraged, then challenge modern believers to stop comparing themselves to others and trust that readiness, not wealth, is what matters.
Chapters
We thank God. Is anyone who needs a word from God this morning? We gonna see. There's an exegetic invitation I want to extend to you. I pray that you accept. You've been invited to fellowship with me this morning. The Old Testament minor prophecy of Haggai. It's a book in the Bible, Haggai, H-A-G-G-A-I. Haggai in chapter number 2. Let's give God praise for our candidate for baptism this morning.
We thank God for him.
Haggai chapter number 2. And I really just want to preach a clause this morning. I'm looking at the clock to see how quick I can get through with this. Haggai chapter number 2. Nobody said take your time, pastor. Now we're going to go down to verse number 9. The word of God reads, the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former. You may be seated. We thank God for his word and for its perpetual nature that lasts Dereck Dendah. Latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former. For just a few moments this morning, I want to wrestle from the subject Greater Than the Glimpse. Greater than The glimpse. Most nights when you look into the sky, see this beautiful ball of light which we refer to as the moon. When we see this beautiful creation of God, we see a microcosm of God's glory in our life. One of the amazing facts about the moon is that it does not have the atmosphere that the Earth has. Does not have the weather system that the Earth has, meaning that right now on the moon there are a lot of indentions called craters on the moon, right? Craters, big indentions, big dips. Some scientists say actually are as large as thousands of miles wide on the moon. Imagine, if you will, a fixture filled with holes.
Question that you have for me this morning: Ham, how did the holes get there?
Over the years, asteroids All types of objects have caused collision and have collided with the moon, causing great holes and indentations.
And since there is no weather on the moon, those indentations cannot be corrected. But yet and still, we see no record in history of God creating a new moon. But the same moon that has holes in it shines every night, and the reason that it shines every night is because it does not produce its own light, but it absorbs light from the sun. Therefore, since it does not produce its own light, since its light comes from a stronger source Even though it has indentions, it still illuminates. And that's the story of our life this morning. Many of us in here have some craters in our life. We got some holes in our life. We got some things that have happened to us. We have some things that have happened in us, and those things that happen in us could impact us.
But look at you this morning, in your right mind, able to lift up your hands and say, Lord, I thank you that because even though I may have my craters, even though life may have happened to me, even though things may have happened the way that I did not want them to happen, I'm still able to exhibit glory because I got the sun shining on me. And this morning, child of God, all of us got some craters in our life, but thanks be to God that there is a light that shineth on us. That when people see you, they see the light that shines, but they don't see the holes in your life. They don't see the mess in your life. They don't see the calamity in your life. I dare somebody this morning to be bold enough and shout to let the devil know that you may have caused some hits in my life, but I still look like God. I— you may have caused some calamity in my life, but I still look blessed. You may have caused some issues in my life, but I still got the anointing of God on my life. That no matter what it may look like, life with you gets sweeter and sweeter. Is there anybody in the house this morning who got the sun shining on you? You know what you're going through, you know how you feel, but you also know that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Even with your sickness, you got the light shining on you.
Calm down, Gavin, you got to get through this fast. We're in the book of Haggai this morning, a very problematic book because God is encouraging people that he has an indictment against. God has brought them out of Babylonian captivity. God mandated them to come out of captivity and to go back and rebuild the temple. They started the rebuilding process, but if you came to Wednesday School, you would know in the book of Ezra that there was a group of people— they started the rebuilding process, they laid the foundation, they got discouraged because what they rebuilt was not looking like the original. It was a group of people who remembered the old days. They remember what the temple used to look like, and now that God has caused them to rebuild, what they rebuild does not look like the original. So now those people have quit. The Bible tells us that not only did they quit, they had the audacity to go and prioritize their own homes instead of the house of God. But 20 years later, instead of sending them back into captivity, 20 years later, God sends Haggai to those same people who were discouraged by what did not look good. Because when they looked at what they were trying to reveal, it did not look glorious. And somebody listening to me this morning, you're trying to build in your life, you're trying to do better in your life, you're trying to get ahead in life, but what you have thus far does not look like what you want it to look like. But even in this circumstance. God says if you will take this chance to do what I told you to do, that by the end of the story, the glimpse that you see, I will have something greater than the glimpse that you saw.
And that's a word of prophecy for somebody this morning.
That don't be discouraged by what you have glimpsed and seen, because I know it may look bad.
I know that it may not look the way you want it to look.
I know that it could be better, but God says if you trust him, if you believe in him, if you obey him, that, that you see today will be greater when you just trust God with it.
And child of God, look around. I've watched the news just like you've watched it over the past few hours. We've seen so much violence, and that's a horrible thing to glimpse at. When we look in the government and we see government shutdown, that's a horrible thing to glimpse at. When we look at literacy rates That's a hard thing to look at. When we look at the economic conditions of our people, that's a hard thing to look at. Okay, that ain't got you. When you look in your house and you look at your kids who don't know how to mime, that's a hard thing to look at. When you look in your bank account and you see so much red, you thought you had a Delta probate, that's a hard thing to glimpse at.
When you look all around, when incarceration is going up and people are leaving God.
It's a hard thing to look at, but God says that's just what the glimpse looks like now. But sooner or later, because weeping may endure only for a night, oh, but joy, it's coming in the morning. So if somebody can just keep on building even when it looks bad, God got joy in the morning.
This, this, this, this text teaches us something about God, that our God— Tony, good to see you— has what's called a progressive nature, uh, meaning that God, even though he's all-sufficient and all good, he still manages to get better in time. He's all good, all-knowing, already supreme, but moments with God still get better with time. I just gave somebody hope, and y'all sitting there waiting on me to get through preaching. He's all good, all sufficient, but yet and still, time with him gets better with time.
Since y'all act like y'all ain't get it, every moment with God is an opportunity for life to get sweeter. Do you receive that by faith this morning, that your days of crying will not last forever, but God has a better— because he's a progressive God.
This text— I'm getting to my thing. Here it is. Text teaches us that God is not hindered by humans who halt. It's God's people who stopped. It's God's people who got discouraged. God didn't tell them to stop. They saw life and they chose themselves to stop. But even though God saw them and how they quit because of what they saw, God said, despite you, my glory shall come to pass.
Is there anybody who's thankful that God has a way of progressing despite you? Even when you don't act right, when you don't do your part, when you don't do what you're supposed to do, God still gets the glory anyway. God can get it with you or without you, but his glory shall be done.
Here's where I'm trying to go. I think I'm in good time this morning.
I'm on time.
I've made it to my destination. Let me unpack my luggage here and pull out some hermeneutic highlights. Once I do that, I'm gonna find 1:6-7 and determine what I'm gonna turn left or right. This text teaches us about appreciating the fact that we are an opportune selection. Let's unpack. Embedded in this text is something that should reshape our willingness to participate in God's plan. What do you mean, Ham? Because God says the glory of the latter house shall be greater than that of the former. However, God instructed them to restart the building process, but they ain't start rebuilding yet. So even though the people have not started doing what they're supposed to do God says the glory shall be greater.
Can I unpack a little bit more?
God is not waiting for the approval of the people. He did not wait on them to pick up their hammers. But God says whether you pick up your hammer or not, the glory of the latter shall be greater. Y'all know what they mean? God gonna do it with or without your yes, with your important self.
Which, oh, been with the Lord a long time, self, which, oh, we can't have church without you, self.
God says today that never believe that my glory being exhibited is going to be contingent upon you.
But whether you do it or not, I'm gonna do it. So therefore, you might as well get on board with me.
Somebody this morning waiting on the sign, as I always say. Somebody this morning decide they want to give up on God, but God said, I've been waiting 20 years, and if I've been patient with you, yeah, that means you could be patient with me.
So even though I may not have done everything you want in your life, since I'm patient with you Go ahead and try and trust me anyway.
It lets us know this morning, it lets us know that God selects people even before they selected him. You look so saved. It causes today's second Sunday And, and we're gonna take circumvent. And since we're gonna take circumvent, you got to make sure that everybody think that you high and holy. But guess what? You didn't select God first.
God saw you in your mess and said, I'm choosing you before you choose me. Now don't let me pull up your resume. Don't let me go in the filing cabinet of your life and look at your facts. But God's saying, I've already seen that, but yet and still there's glory that I want to use involving you.
We thank God today that God teaches us that he chooses people who have not chose him with the hope that those same people would choose him. Notice this, sweet children, notice this. Y'all want to know something about this text? The people in this text— God does not wait on their yes, nor do we see any details where all of these people were skilled builders.
Wow.
God says, I know that, but go back and read what I said. God says, you read verses 7 and 8, God says, I will shake up the earth. Go back, read verse number 8, God says The gold belongs to me and the silver belongs to me. Therefore, that explains why God is so sure that the latter glory will be better. Y'all missed it. God did not say you have it. God didn't say he's going to empower you to shake it up. God didn't say you have enough money. God says, I have what it takes to make the glory appear.
In other words, all you got to do is show up and you'll see that I got the resources, that no matter who it is, as long as I'm involved, there should be greater glory.
I know many of you today feel as if you're under-resourced. You don't have the money, don't have the wisdom, you don't have the connections, you don't have the degrees, you don't have the political affiliation. God says, I know that.
I see what you have, but what I need you to see is what I have. I need you to see that the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof. So no matter what you don't have, I have more than that, plus some, to be able to still get glory even despite your lack. I know there's somebody this morning who God's made a way when you had absolutely no way. And the bill got paid anyway. I know I'm talking to somebody this morning who, when the doctor was out of options, you still got healed anyway. I know for a fact, and I'm talking to somebody, when your back was against the wall and people were against you, God brought you out of that thing swinging because he got the resources that you don't have.
Come here, come here, come here, come here, come here. I'm trying not to preach too long, but y'all making me work too hard. God says— here it is— God says, I don't need you to have the resources, I just need you to be ready. I'm starting to have fun now. I don't need your resources, I just need your readiness. Now that's problematic because many of you saying, well, I'll never be ready. Let me tell you what I mean when I say that. Ready, when I say that, means that you're already eligible and have the criteria. You don't need new criteria when you got the same Christ. Can I tell you what I mean when I say that? I told you that these people were not necessarily skilled builders. So the question that you have for me is, what makes them ready? Can I tell you what God did for them? Was to bring them out of what they got themselves in. So God is saying that when I delivered you, that's the development that you need.
So what do you need to be ready even though you don't have the resources?
What you need is to just simply be a recipient of the deliverance of God. So if God has delivered you, that means that God has put something in you that's going to be able to carry you to where you need to go. Gavin, say it again because maybe you didn't use your hands good enough.
When God has delivered you He's delivered you for a reason, and God did not deliver you without the fact in mind that he has something for you to do. So therefore, if you want to know if God is ready to use you, just look back over your life and see. Ask yourself this question: has God delivered me in something? Has God delivered me from something? Has God delivered me out of something? And if the answer to any one of those questions is yes, that means God is going to resource you to take you to where you need to be.
If you can talk about how God brought you out, then what are you going to build?
Ain't no use in taking up nobody's time in church shouting, talking about how good God's been to you and how God brought you out, and it takes 1,500 ushers to fan you when you're gonna leave church and not build anything. But the real evidence that God has brought you out is that when I do shout in here, but I'm gonna go serve out there and build something great for God.
Preach, Gavin Robert Hanks! So what glory comes out of you is really not your own internal resources, it's God's. I don't, I don't know, I don't know how many of you all, uh, plant, uh, trees, uh, plant trees that, that bear fruit.
But if you ever look at apple tree or pear tree, we used to have this little—
my grandma had this little fig tree, I guess you call it a tree, where figs came out of. Uh, apple trees, lemon trees, all types of trees bear fruit.
Nuke, Nuke, good seeing you, man.
That, that thing shouts me because Can't nothing preach like a tree. Tree shouted to me when I saw it.
It had fruit on.
I saw an apple on it, but the apple was on the branch. If you know anything about trees, the branch really doesn't have the power, but the fruit is visible on the branch. All right, so the blessing in that The branch preached to you and tell you that's a picture of your life, Gavin, because people see fruit that comes from you. And if you're not careful, people will give credit to the branch, but the branch ain't done no work. The real work happened in the roots. The real work happened in the trunk.
And I just happen to be connected to the right thing. And even though I didn't cause the fruit The fruit is manifested in my life. Don't you sit in here arrogant this morning. You know good and well you just a dead branch, but God has fruit coming from you because you're connected to his spirit. And if all you got to do is just be connected to him, you don't have to know how it happens in the root. All you have to do is just grow from him. You don't have to get into the root's business. You don't have to know the process. All you can say is just, I just looked up one day and I'm prospering. I just looked one day and I'm blessed. I just looked one day and I'm anointed. I just looked one day and I'm saved because I just happen to be connected to the right source.
A big hand moving on me. Let me move on down the road here. Opportune selection. I'm gonna struggle to tell you this, but text also teaches us about an orchestrated structure. Uh, text reveals grace and mercy of God because I told you these people had waited 20 years. God didn't go pick new people. He picked those same people and used those same people. The problem with that is that instead of those people being grateful for being brought out, they looked at what they had done so far and quit. Because they compared their temple to another temple. You don't have to tell me, cause y'all know my motto, I don't get in nobody else's business. But many of us are in the prison of comparison. Not able to enjoy what God is doing in your life because of something God has done in someone else's life. I'mma see if you've been paying attention, because I told you at the onset, one of the reasons that they quit is because Ezra tells us that when they lay the foundation and they considered the glory of Solomon's Temple and compared it to theirs, they said that it was not quite equivalent to what was in the past. Who has scrolled down someone else's Facebook page and scrolled yourself right into depression? Who scrolled yourself right into envying somebody else? Who has scrolled yourself right into wishing and lacking satisfaction for what God is doing in your life because you looked and saw what somebody else did? They have 700 likes, I got 7. And instead of appreciating what God is doing now and anticipating what God could do. You saw what God did in somebody else's life and you quit. Well, Gavin, you got to be complete with your audience because a lot of your audience don't worry about stuff like that. Let me, let me, let me, let me do it this way. How many of us look at what such and such Baptist church do and can't appreciate what you do at your own church? And you compare yourself right into a place of self-criticism instead of being compelled to let God do something amazing with what you have. Because here's the reality: these people— it's so simple you're gonna miss it— these people are jealous of and discouraged by a temple that was destroyed. I can see if Solomon's Temple was still up, but God allowed that to be destroyed in captivity. And many of us today are letting destructible things destroy our peace because we're envying everything that's going to be destroyed one day. You want to look like somebody who ain't going to look like that always. You envying somebody's car that's already depreciated when it came off the lot. And we're busy looking at Solomon's Temple, not understanding it's already been Can I unpack this a little bit more? It's, it's, it's, it's funny to note the way in which Solomon's Temple was built. At the time, it was built from David's treasury. So the reason that Solomon's Temple looks so good was because David was in a high political position. And it was able to be funded from some available resources. There was political outside resources that was able to fund David Solomon's temple. But now with these people, they just came back from captivity, they've already spent their resources on their own homes, so therefore they really don't have anything to build with. So God, how is the glory of the latter going to be greater than that of the former? It's in this word glory. This word glory in the Hebrew does not mean physical appearance, but glory in this Hebrew etymology here means weight. So God is saying the weight of the latter is going to be greater than that of the former. Translated, it may not look as good, but it's going to be more filled with me. See, together, and the people were focused on the cosmetics, but God says he was going to fill it with content. And perhaps God may not make your life look as cosmetically beautiful as someone else's, but on the inside, yeah, you're going to be filled with something that's going to be able to fill you when life gets rough.
That when the storms come and when the wind blows, you'll be able to stand strong because you got more glory on the inside. No, I don't have a Maserati. I just got an old monster, but I got glory and weight on the inside of me, and I can still get a prayer through.
Notice this, if you will. God orchestrated reduction in order to fill the latter temple with more than him. God used redux. He orchestrated something that was not as aesthetically pleasing in order to welcome himself into the temple. Y'all missed that.
Y'all know what that means?
That means that opposition, disruption, and discouragement Does not negate God, it invites God. So when you see something that looks like opposition, instead of getting frustrated, start clapping, because God sees that as an invitation.
When you got less of stuff that you don't need God said that leaves more room for me. So when people come against you, that invites God to come and be more glorious in your life. You are the custom back out, but God say don't cuss them out, tell them thank you because that's inviting me into your life. Has there ever been an enemy that came up in your life and you were wondering what God was going to do? Because if God didn't do something fast. You're gonna try to take matters in your own hands. But before they got to you, they stumbled and fell. And now you can say, I don't have to fight my own battles. I can be still and know that God is with me. No weapon that's formed against me shall prosper, because the opposition actually attracted God in my life.
God use— I'm done, I'm done, I'm done. Well, it lets us know that sometimes seeing or taking a glimpse at something that does not look appeasing welcomes something that you cannot see, and that's God coming in your life. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, I just got a text message. Y'all wonder who I just got a text from. I just got a text message from a candle at my house. Candle just text me and said, ham, can I help you preach? Candle says Last night you were at home preparing to talk to your people. You put what you thought were finishing touches on your message, and I was preaching to you the whole time. Thank you, Candle, for texting me at the right time because I was about to close a different way. The candle says, when you lit me, didn't it smell good? Yeah, it smelled good, but you were too busy enjoying the glory that came from it that you didn't take a glimpse at what was happening to me. In order to activate me, is what the candle says, you lit a fire and you lit the stem.
And what started happening to me is I started melting. And the more fire got on me, the more I got smaller. I started melting. I started losing my shape. And when you look at me like that, it looked like I was losing. But when you smell what came from it, that, that looked like it was hurting me was only bringing the glory from me. And good night. That's why I came to tell somebody that what looks like it's hurting you is actually just bringing the glory from you. So be encouraged while you're lit right now. Be encouraged in your melting season because it's bringing the glory in your life. And I see what's going on in society, and society is melting. It looks like everything around you is burning. It looks like everything is melting.
But I want to change that today and say God is just producing a fragrance. I'm done. He's just using the melting season to make something better from it. You sad right now, but God say you so smell better. You got more fragrance to you.
You got more glory on you. You got more anointing on you. I can hear your prayers better now because you feel more with me now.
This text teaches us— good night, I'm done— this is where I can wish I can get an E-flat— is that God specializes in rebuilding torn-down temples.
I'm gonna say it slow.
God specializes in rebuilding torn-down temples. In this text right here, God was calling the people to rebuild a temple.
That's a preview to something else that happened, because there was another torn-down temple that the people were not going to have to rebuild, but God was going to use a torn-down temple to rebuild the people. Did y'all hear what I just said? In this text right here, God wanted the people to rebuild a torn-down temple. But one Friday on the hill called Calvary, God used the torn-down temple to rebuild his people. Because 3 days later, after Friday, he got up with all power in his hand.
And I can still see today that torn-down temple rebuilding his people. I want to offer you the resurrected temple today. Perhaps you don't know him as your personal Savior. He's available right now. It's greater than the glimpse. Whatever you see is not the complete story, but God has more that I have not seen, neither hath ear heard, neither has entered into the hearts of men. The good thing God has in store for those who trust him. Do you trust him this morning? We offer Jesus this morning. Jesus is our offer this morning. Anybody declare that you are going to be more fragrant in this season?
It may look like the melting is destroying you. But it's bringing something better out in you. Because God does not need the best you to get the best out of you. Say it one more time for them, Gavin. God does not need the best you to get the best out of you, because his best can sync with your righteousness and with your— who you are and produce some great things in life. If you received it today by faith, why don't you give God a hand clap of praise?
