Sunday Sermon by Rajesh Mathew on 29 November 2020

Haggai 1:7-8- 7 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! 8 Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the [a]temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the Lord.

James 4:7-8- 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

• This is a simple word—Rise up from the situation you are in and draw near to God. The prodigal son when he became ready to rise up, the father was ready to bless him and receive him. No matter where you have been, decide to rise up.
• The book of Haggai says that the Lord wants to rejoice over you with singing. He wants to be glorified through you and your household.

What should u do?

1. Go up the mountain
2. Bring wood
3. Build the temple

God’s favour is found within this!

Haggai 1:2,4- 2 “Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” 3 Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this [a]temple to lie in ruins?”

• Many of us believers are in that situation. Haggai is referring to a set of people who were saying that it is not the time to build the temple of God, quite unashamedly. If it is something to do with the Lord’s thing, they are very conscious to verify if it truly is the Lord’s voice. We are very interested to do our work and do not often care to figure out if it truly is the voice of God leading us but when it comes to doing the Lord’s work, we are extra cautious to know if it is truly God’s voice!
• This is the way of the believers. We do not ask God for His thoughts concerning our own things but if pastor says something to us regarding the Lord’s work, we are uncertain. • If you have that mindset then, the prophet is speaking to you. He is saying, ‘Come up to the mountain, don’t be sitting with that attitude.’
• People wait for everything to become alright to be able serve God or do what He tells you to do. But on the other hand, when it comes to matters like marriage and business, we are very clear when the time is right! We don’t ask God for His views on those aspects, but when we are thinking about ministry, we are unsure of stepping in and look for signs after signs.

Haggai 1:6- “You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

• The verse blow basically is saying that you sowed a lorry full of seed but got only 1 kilo of rice in return. You invested 1 crore but got a profit of just 10 lakhs.
• The productivity is not proportionate to your input. Do not blame anybody. You are the cause for that! You want to only walk in your ways and in your plans. Tell the Lord, that you will submit to Jesus Christ. If you do, God will do great things for you.
• The prophet is looking at such people and saying—Consider your ways!

Verses 7-8- 7 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! 8 Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the [a]temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the Lord.

1. Go up to the mountain

First seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything else will be added unto you. Whatever you need will come to you. But first go up to the mountain!

The book of Revelations says, “Come up hither” ---rise up—

• There is a revelation that the Holy Spirit has kept for you. You can’t be sitting where you are but you need to go up. I am going to rise up and enter into that revelation by the grace of God. • The prophet told the widow at Zarephath---first, make me a bread. After he ate, there was increase therein her life. In the Old Testament if the prophet blessed a person, it meant the Lord blessed him/ her.
• When you do something for God or for God’s servants, there are certain things that is released into your lives without you even knowing about it. You need to go up to the mountain. • God likes aroma. He likes the fragrance.

Psalm 15-

1LORD, who may dwell in your sacred tent?

Who may live on your holy mountain?

2 The one whose walk is blameless,

who does what is righteous,

who speaks the truth from their heart;

3whose tongue utters no slander,

who does no wrong to a neighbor,

and casts no slur on others;

4who despises a vile person

but honors those who fear the LORD;

who keeps an oath even when it hurts,

and does not change their mind;

5who lends money to the poor without interest;

who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things

will never be shaken.

Come up to the Lord’s holy mountain!

• It is only on top of the mountain that you will find the trees to build the kingdom of God. It signifies prayer and His Presence. Only if you rise up in prayer will you will receive the materials to be a part of God’s revival and build His kingdom. Sitting down and watching won’t help. But if you climb up, God will give you certain resources, certain materials to build.
• You will receive Vision and a Mission when you climb up the mountain. • God will remove all kinds of lack at the top of the mountain. Giftings, graces, mission, vision, a sense of purpose, materials and more will be obtained by you at the top of the mountain/
• Jesus went up the mountain to pray to the Father in the night. There, He received guidance on whom to choose as His disciples.

Who can go up?

Psalms 15

1. He that walketh uprightly- many people pray for some time and they get up and go on their way. You may sit and pray for 3 hours. But what did you really get as a result of the 3 hours of praying? Did God give you a song, an utterance, a vision, a revelation, a prophecy, a visitation, healing or deliverance? May you be able to say that your praying gave you access to something!! May you be able to enter into a realm where this is a reality in your life. May you have a revelation that you are meeting the Living God. May you be conscious of this truth!
2. And worketh righteousness- It is not enough if you just go to church, are you baptized? If you don’t intend to, then there is a problem. You can’t go up the mountain, you will be only sitting under a tree. Jesus while getting baptized said, “for righteousness sake”.
3. Speaking truth in your heart- That means be original. Don’t be someone inside and someone else on the outside.
4. whose tongue utters no slander - Do not become Doordarshan through your tongue. Such people do not cut trees. They come to church and they go. Esp. those backbiting against servants of God.
5. Verse 5: who lends money to the poor without interest;

who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Help with what you have

• Your heart has to be right before God. For example, if you have risen up to the mountain, you will find a good tree. Some people get into God’s presence and return only with a leaf. They get that leaf and put that into their WhatsApp status. But if you truly, with a sincere heart, go up the mountain, you will find a solid, valid and powerful tree. It could be a deep revelation and a gifting. As you enter in, there is ministries of the angels of God! Jesus help me enter into that realm!
• When Moses was praying in God’s Presence on Mount Sinai, God told him even the tree that needed to be used to build the tabernacle.

Exodus 25:10- They are to make an ark of acacia wood—its length is to be 45 inches, its width 27 inches, and its height 27 inches.

• This tree is a crooked tree, seen on the banks of the river Jordan. It is difficult to work with and it can’t be straightened very easily. The carpenters do not usually use this wood. They are thorny and can prick you. But God told Moses to use the wood of this tree to build the tabernacle, even though it was difficult.

No matter what shape you are in currently, God will work in you. You may be a crooked tree, you may be full of thorns. But yet, God is able to shape you, ornate you with gold and make you useful for Him.

• What was Peter’s nature? He was like a rough tree. At one point, he spoke great revelations and soon after he would utter the words of Satan. Yet, God shaped him, anointed him, decked him with gold and anointed him on the day of Pentecost and used him to save 3000 souls. • Psalm 15 says, the one who is like this will never be moved.
• Definitely through the Blood of Jesus, repent, turn away from things you need to turn away from and enter His presence. When the presence of God comes down, the building may not shake but people will shake. I am not talking about that outward shaking or a shaking out of pretense, but if you truly rise up to the Lord’s mountain, God will release some incredible anointings into your life. You have shaken enough (clapped loud, sang worship aloud) but still the problems seem to persist. However, when the anointing shows up, it has to leave!

When Abraham went up the mountain, he saw Jehovah Jireh

• Either you have mission, or you don’t have a mission. The one with a mission will have the desire and focus to build the House of the Lord. He/she won’t destroy the church of God. ‘Either you have a mission or you are poison’ (translated literally from Malayalam!). People without a mission are poisonous.
• Open my spiritual eyes, Lord. Climb up, that’s where you receive your vision, that’s where you see Jesus and receive a revelation from God.

Jesus climbed up several mountains to pray:

1. The Mount of transfiguration- When you climb this mountain, you are transformed. 2. In John 6, Jesus went up the mountain after sending away the disciples. He walked over the waters to meet them the next day. Even in these days, if you climb up the mountain, that same strong anointing, grace and authority to walk over your every stormy waters and challenges will come upon your life. Certain problems cannot be handled by you! You don’t have the caliber to handle it. You need His Presence, His glory and His strength. There are some issues that are just not getting resolved. You think you are taking two steps forward but you are falling back 4 steps, just get into God’s presence and things will divinely accelerate. When you climb up the mountain, you will be changed. Your identify will change.

Within certain waters, we find quick sands. It can suck you in and take you down. Similarly, in the atmosphere, there are air pockets and they rather strong; can end up causing injuries. However, these air pockets can help you drift higher. Let’s think about an eagle. It stretches its wings and waits on the top of a mountain to catch ab air pocket and when it does, it Immediately gets pushed higher. The level increases. There is a change. The eagle begins to soar and then there are the crows around it that loudly flap their wings and make a lot of noise. They say I have a job, I have salary, I got this, I got that; you don’t have this or that etc! The eagle doesn’t bother to say anything back. It only soars. Some people are trying hard, flapping their wings, clapping their hands really hard. They work overtime/ extra time. The Eagle doesn’t make much noise. It just glides looking for the air pockets.

If you want to go beyond a certain level, you need the anointing; you need the wind of the Holy Spirit. There is a higher level that only the anointing can take you to. This is the season to enter into another level.

Once the eagle begins to drift higher, it immediately gets caught in 2 -3 air pockets in quick succession and drifts up to great heights. The crows won’t find him even with a pair a binoculars!

• Some of you will soar like that. Get on top of the mountain and let the wind of the Holy Spirit take you higher! A level that you never imagined. Heavens have seen it over you! • It is not just about going higher, there is something more to it. The air pockets higher up has warm air within it. This eagle is old, feathers have fallen, and the beak is blunt. That’s when the crows make a lot of noise trying to intimidate it. The warm air stimulates the eagles’ blood and

speedens up the growth and sharpness of the nails, growth of the feathers etc. It ca be likened to a massage for you muscle, or your physical beauty; it will come from the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 40 says that those who waiteth upon the Lord, will renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagle. They shall run and not grow tired, walk and not be faint.

• The eagle never flies in gangs but the crows always have gangs. The eagle has taken refuge in the Lord. No gangs, no connections.
• Get ready for the wind of the Holy Spirit! In the Name of Jesus
• Jesus climbed up four mountains: The mountain of Prayer, of transformation and miracles. The 4th mountain is the Golgotha.
• Jesu became the tree and went up to mount Golgotha. Everything that you need from the tree health, deliverance, Presence of God, victory over darkness, victory over sin I available for you through the cross of Calvary. You need to climb up that mountain and take that what is rightfully yours in prayer as you climb up the mountain.