Take Courage, All You People of the Land—and Work

In Haggai chapter 2, beginning with verse 1, it says: “On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the Word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai.” Look at the figures involved in this passage: “the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah”—a second figure, Zerubbabel the governor—a third person, “and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest”—a fourth entity—“and to the remnant of the people, saying”; and this is the Lord’s message: “Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem like nothing in your eyes?

“Yet now, Zerubbabel the governor, be strong, says the Lord. Be strong also, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and take courage, all you people of the land.” Congregation Lion of Judah, take courage, says the Lord; take courage. Regain your strength, regain your enthusiasm, recover the vision.

“Says the Lord: And work.” Work; I would add: contribute, keep giving, keep believing, keep striving, keep giving sacrificially; get involved, do not lose the vision, do not lose the passion, do not lose your sense of commitment, do not let your hands hang down, do not lower your guard, do not give up. Work. Why? Because we are strong, with a marathon runner’s drive? Because we do not give up or chicken out, as the Mexicans say? Why? It says: “Because I am with you, says the Lord of Hosts.” Say with me: God is with us. Louder: God is with us! God is with us.

That is why we must exert ourselves and work. According to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit will remain among you; do not fear. For God is saying: I am the same yesterday, today, and forever. The God who has given us two buildings to construct, who has enabled us to finish them and become a very real presence in the city of Boston, and to do extraordinary things that we never imagined when we left our humble place over there in Cambridge, and who has placed us in a position of prominence and positive, respectable influence in the eyes of the authorities and the community.

He is the God who is still with us and the God who is absolutely committed to His people and to the vision He has entrusted to us. Many people sometimes think, “Ah, God was there for that, but He will not be there for this.” But He says: Look, the same One who was with you in Egypt and brought you out with His outstretched arm is also here with you today. The same God who was with Moses, who was with Gideon, who was with Elijah and Elisha, the same God who was with Paul and the disciples—even though they were only a handful of frightened people when the Lord ascended—is the same God who is with us today.

The God who enables us to perform great feats for His glory and honor, the God who strengthens our arms if we allow Him to. I am with you; do not fear, for thus says the Lord of Hosts. Very importantly, He says: “In a little while I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations,” says the Lord. I will shake all nations, and then the Desire of All Nations will come.

I do not know whether “the Desire” is capitalized in your Bible, but in mine “Desire” is written with a capital D because He is not just any desire; He is the Desire. And who is the Desire of All Nations? Christ Jesus. He is the One whom the nations—often without realizing it—are waiting for to change their societies: to turn crime into peace, ignorance into wisdom, the absence of the Spirit of God into the fullness of the Holy Spirit; to turn cities desolated by crime and poverty into places of prosperity, blessing, and growth.

The Desire is the only One who can establish justice among men, who can free cultures from drugs, AIDS, early pregnancy, and the wasting of lives when God wants to turn them into instruments for His Glory. “The Desire of All Nations will come. And the Lord says: And I will fill this house with glory. I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of Hosts.” Listen to this promise: “The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, says the Lord of Hosts.”

Do you know why we have gotten ourselves into situations like this one, why we will keep doing so, why we will continue doing great things for the Lord, and why we will dare to do things that frighten us once we are in the midst of them? Because I believe what it says there: The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, says the Lord.

The Lord Jesus Christ says in Matthew chapter 28: “All authority has been given to Me, both in heaven and on earth; therefore go.” Our guarantee when we undertake great things is that the Lord holds all resources and all power in His Hand, and He wants to make them flow through men and women full of faith—vessels that empty themselves so that His Glory may be contained within them and His oil may accomplish the things God wants to do.

I was thinking this morning—and in a moment I am going to get fully into my sermon. I was thinking about someone I know who is going through serious tribulations right now, and I am not going to say what kind, so that you do not get ahead of me and think I am referring to you. But this person is going through trials, and everything would indicate that what this person needs to do is pull back, conserve energy, and stop doing things. Yet what the Lord was telling me—and I have had to pray for the Lord to confirm the Word before I give it to that person—is that what God is saying to that person is: Instead of doing less, do more. And that goes against the very situation this person is experiencing.

It is a counterintuitive Word, because reason would indicate that this person should stop doing things and conserve what they have. But what I believe God is saying—and because telling that person this carries a great deal of responsibility, I am still meditating on it—is: What you must do to get out of your dilemma is more, not less. And I believe there are times in the lives of God’s children when, in order for God to do something greater in us, we must strip and empty ourselves, and we must lay the things we love most at the Lord’s feet, putting ourselves at a deficit. Whatever it may be—whether giving or serving—we must do it in such a way that only if God does the work will we be able to get out of the predicament into which we have placed ourselves.

I believe the Bible is full of those things, of those moments. I believe God is saying to this Congregation: I want to do something great among you. As it says here, I am going to fill this place with glory, and My purpose must be fulfilled. In verse 7 of chapter 1, the Lord says to those same people in Haggai: “Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Consider your ways, rebuild the house, and I will place My Will in it and be glorified, says the Lord.”

God wants to place His Will in this house, and God wants to do something through us, and God wants to use us in an extraordinary way, but there is a price that must be paid. We cannot emerge unscathed; we must emerge smelling of smoke so that God can then glorify Himself as He desires. Listen carefully: you must empty yourself in order to be filled.

When Elisha speaks to the widow in that well-known passage, the widow is in a great predicament and does not know what to do because they are coming to take away her sons to pay the great debt. Elisha tells her: Go and find empty vessels, and not just a few. If the vessels had been full, they could not have been filled with oil. Sometimes we must empty ourselves, brothers and sisters, and we are a very strong people, and God is not going to give us things unless we work for them.

And I tell you: you and I have not suffered, honestly, through the construction of these sanctuaries and these buildings that God has given us over the years. I see my fellow pastors, honestly, wringing themselves out and tying themselves in knots to accomplish anything, build anything, making appeals every Sunday and filling the house with urgent appeals and crises. You and we have certainly exerted ourselves and have given generously, that is true, but in reality, let me tell you that you and we have not given as much as other churches give toward the construction of their buildings.

God has allowed there to be a certain degree of wisdom here and an incredible economy, and He has enabled us to build this sanctuary—which would be worth 10 or 12 million dollars—for less than 5 million dollars. Why? Because God has given expertise, wisdom, and knowledge. But there is still a measure to go. I thought we might get away with building this sanctuary without a certain measure of urgency, but in the end God has wanted us to go through the same purposes, the same processes, that we have gone through in other endeavors.

It is interesting: this morning I was looking for sermons in which I spoke about previous fundraising campaigns and buildings. I found one—what a shame I did not bring it here—that had to do with the first building, at 68 North Hampton Street. I preached it in ’96. And I was saying—I had some notes there that said: Brothers and sisters, we are a little over 20,000 dollars short. We are reaching the end, I said, and the things we need to do require additional money. Right now, we are a little over 20,000 dollars short of paying for our elevator, and we need a special offering from you. I said, “Wow, déjà vu, here we go again.”

And it is interesting that this is the third project, and it always happens near the end. Now, what happens when a mother, a woman, is about to give birth? The labor pains come, do they not? The womb tightens, and there is trembling and nausea; there are all kinds of pains, and she almost regrets getting herself into this predicament. Well, we are in that process right now. We are ready; very little remains. And one of the reasons, as I was telling you, that I wanted you to come here is that some brothers and sisters believe, as it says here in another passage: “These people say: The time has not yet come for the house of God to be built.” Verse 2.

Some are skeptical; they are like Thomas. They hear the Pastor saying, “We are close,” and this and that, while they hold back because they want to see it for themselves and think there is still a great deal left to do. Well, here it is; you can see it. I was waiting for the right moment. Some wonder why I have not spoken about this in recent weeks; it is because I wanted to have a graphic image before making one final appeal. We are here because God is saying: Work hard, and because there is an urgent situation.

I do not like making urgent appeals, and I have never made one. Some brothers and sisters told me: “I think the problem is that every time you stand up to encourage the Congregation and give a rallying speech, you present it as though everything were fine and there were nothing to worry about, as though we were fine and doing well. And I think many people believe that because we are doing well, they do not have to give, or do not have to give what truly needs to be given.” I ask the Lord to help me make this clear to you this time, and if I do not, let one of the deacons or whoever it may be stand up and correct me; I will be guided. But we are at a point where we are almost ready to finish, and we need an effort.

I have made two final appeals to my brothers and sisters, and we have fallen far short of the goal. Not long ago, I challenged three hundred of you to give 500 dollars so that we could finish now. And let me also tell you that we are so grateful for what you have given; this Congregation has given extraordinarily generously, but the work is great. Yet no more than a third of what was supposed to be collected through that appeal was collected. Many brothers and sisters came through, but no—and we were 100,000 dollars short. Those are small amounts when you look around here, but we need that money now.

In addition to the offerings, tithes, and what you present each Sunday, remember this: several weeks ago, the bank disbursed the entire loan it was going to give us, and the amount the bank gave us was not immense either. I have never wanted to place the Congregation under excessive debt. God has given us three wonderful buildings and an enviable physical plant in the heart of the city, and our mortgage is incredible: it is half of what many churches commit themselves to paying for a single building; we have three.

And all we have to do is give a little more so that this place can be completed, because it always happens at the end. And I believe God is saying: These people are a strong people; they are a people through whom I can do something great, and I want them to feel the impact, the weight, of what it means to build. And the Lord did not want to let even me emerge unscathed. I believe congregations should feel and pay a sacrifice that glorifies the Lord. The flesh must die.

I am speaking to you; do not put someone else’s name on it. I am speaking to you. God has given us many new people; our Church has grown, and I fear that these new people—and even others who have been here for some time—have not yet grasped what the Christian life means in terms of giving sacrificially to the Lord. I have learned in my life that there is nothing like giving to the Lord and seeing His Glory manifested. The way to unleash the glory of God, divine provision, and the manifestation of God’s gifts in our lives is by opening holes in ourselves so that God’s oil can flow through them.

You have to open a hole—to use a good, rather inelegant word—in your bank account, in what you love so much, so that the Glory of the Lord can fill that space. I have learned that God always probes what we love most so that, by being crucified as Christ was crucified, His Power may then be perfected in us.

And right now we are in need; last Wednesday our treasurer called me on the phone and said to me: Roberto, we have a serious deficit in our bank account right now, and if some urgent emergency funds do not come in, checks are going to start bouncing, because in these last few weeks the entire burden of the construction has rested exclusively on us. There is no longer any bank to help us with what remains of the construction, and it is not that much.

But right now this Church is responsible not only for all its regular expenses, including the mortgage we have on the other buildings, but the mortgage on this sanctuary now also has to be paid in full. And whatever remains of the construction now comes out of our pockets, and this is no time for income from tithes and offerings to decline, as it has declined a little lately—certainly not for special donations for the construction of the sanctuary to disappear.

I am speaking to you and forcing myself to get every word out because, unfortunately, I am the shyest person in the world when it comes to asking, and that is my great crucifixion; I am crucifying myself here right now by asking. I assure you that giving to the Lord costs me nothing, but asking—that is a death for me.

But I want to encourage every one of you to understand—I am not speaking vaguely anymore—if you do not give now, this is going to come to an end and we are going to shut down the work, and that would be a disgrace and a loss for the Kingdom of God. And I know that this Congregation is a Congregation capable of giving the last measure; I have no doubt whatsoever—the resources are there among you. So I encourage you, in the Name of the Lord, to get moving and release the blessing, and let us leave here with a clear commitment.

I want to invite the musicians; please come over here. Omar, come quickly, come, run, and come up here quickly; I need you up here. Get ready, brothers and sisters, and what I want—look, I am not going to make any appeal. Just let me say a couple more things. What I see in this passage is that the Lord is referring to all these people. First there is Haggai, the prophet of God, who channels a Word from God to the people.

This sanctuary is being built because there is a prophetic Word that came to my heart years ago, years ago when the first sanctuary was a pile of rubble. I sat down—I have told you before—in a place over there and looked toward what used to be a small parking lot, and the Lord placed in me the image of this place that I now see with my own eyes, before we had finished the first sanctuary. I felt in my heart: when this place is filled twice on a Sunday and cannot hold everyone, it will be necessary to have a place there in that four-level space, with a small parking area underneath, an auditorium with a balcony around it, and an additional floor.

And so today, now, that vision is beginning to be fulfilled, and look at how full this place already is; it was just the same this morning. It is possible that if everyone from this morning were here now, we would not fit in this place. There. God wants to use this place and fill it—I do not know whether two, three, four times, whatever—and there is a North American, English-speaking, Caribbean and Anglophone congregation that will also be occupying the other place over there while we are here.

We will be able to process thousands of people in a single day, and this is going to fill up. I can already see how people are arriving without our even calling them; they are coming. Listen, I do not know how anyone can stop halfway and fail to be part of something so glorious and so significant; I cannot understand it. I encourage you who have just arrived at the Church, you who are new to the faith, and you who have been here for many years: become pregnant with God’s vision.

God says: I want to fill this place with My Glory, and I call the Zerubbabels who have resources; I call the Pastors who have vision to encourage others; I call the Haggai-like prophetic spirit to convey My call, because I want to do something magnificent. If you notice what verse 6 says, that sanctuary which God wanted built thousands of years ago—rebuilt, because God is speaking to a defeated people who have just returned from exile and are discouraged, with a sanctuary reduced to rubble since the Babylonian exile—and now God wants it rebuilt because God likes to have places where His Glory dwells. He is not contained by any place, but He likes places filled with His Spirit, where His Word can spread, where His Ministry can be exercised.

And that is why He tells the people: rebuild My sanctuary; wait no longer. Yes, there have been setbacks, says the Lord, but do not tell Me that it is not yet time; build Me My house and work, because I want to cause My Glory to spread over this house, so take courage and work. And look at what verse 6 says; remember this: “This is a prophetic place, just as that sanctuary was.”

When God is telling the people of Israel, “Rebuild My house,” He is not thinking only of that moment; rather, His gaze is extending telescopically thousands of years into the future, when the Desire of all nations would come and there would be another sanctuary which, I believe, will ultimately be the sanctuary built in Jerusalem that will mark Christ’s Coming into the world again—and we are close to that time.

I encourage you to see this sanctuary as a sanctuary not simply for Lion of Judah; this is a prophetic sanctuary that stands as an example in this city that is so resistant to the Word of God, surrounded as we are by a secular humanist culture that rejects the values of the Kingdom of God and not only rejects them but delights in practicing that which is totally contrary to the Will of God. And God says: this sanctuary is a place that I want to prophesy to this city about My purposes, which will be fulfilled.

In the Name of Jesus, I tell you prophetically: we are in a special time in which the Glory of God is going to be manifested as never before in history. Listen to me carefully: cataclysmic times are coming for the nations, times of great distress and great urgency. Times in which the very structures of society and culture, government and finance will be shaken, and the way nations do business and conduct transactions will be completely disrupted—and we are in the midst of that time.

Times are coming when the Gospel, the Word of the Lord, anointed churches filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophetic Ministries will be absolutely precious and necessary to explain to the nations what will be happening. When the Lord allowed me, I believe, to stand there in that ecumenical service where President Obama was present and which was televised nationally and internationally, I sensed from the Lord once again: that is a glimpse of what God wants to do—that when the nations find themselves tormented and dismayed by events they will not know how to explain and that will fill them with fear, anguish, and confusion, I will require an anointed people to interpret for them why I am moving in the way I am moving, and to encourage them to believe that it is I, and not hell, who is in control of history and that I allow it.

That was what I explained as being key when I was preaching. In my reflection, I was telling the nation and everyone who was listening: evil moves in the world and thinks it is winning the victory, but evil’s dilemma is that every time it does something to kill, steal, and destroy, God uses it to bless—and what has happened is simply one such thing. Every time terrible and destructive things happen in nations—such a haughty city as Boston—why do things like these happen in a city as decent, rational, academic, and intellectual as Boston? Why did the planes that destroyed the Towers depart from here? Why did same-sex marriage, which is contaminating our nation, come out of here? Why do terrorists now return here to attack precisely here in Boston? Because there is a sign. This city is a city marked by God.

Here the Gospel was born for all of the United States, and still the God who is totally consistent in His ways says: My purposes here are still not finished, and I am going to shake the foundations. If you have time later, look in Hebrews chapter 12, where the writer of Hebrews takes this very passage from Haggai and applies it to the last days; it was not only for that time, but also for the future.

We are building not only for now but for what God has in hand. God wants an anointed and gifted people. What I was telling those people was: understand clearly, God allows pain to come. I was not going to tell those people at that moment, “Oh, because there is sin in the nation,” this and that—but a word to the wise is enough. I am saying: God allows it, and the most quoted statement from the entire reflection was this: God has not abandoned Boston; God has not abandoned this nation. He is simply weaving a beautiful, brilliant tapestry that contains some dark threads.

And those dark threads of terror, death, and wounds are things that God allows in order to prepare the haughty, prepare those who reject in the name of God, prepare the nations that are resistant to the Word of the Lord, and soften them so that the people of God may then come and gather the harvest. And the move of God will be like the Word of Christ when He said to Peter: Peter, cast your nets for a catch. And that word, “Cast your nets for a catch,” and Peter’s declaration: “Lord, we have fished all night, but in Your Name I will cast the net.” And I know that when Peter said that in response to Christ’s call, the fish were summoned from everywhere to flow into Peter’s net, and that is why he caught what he caught.

And God will be doing the work; God will be preparing the people. We will not have to go to people with gimmicks and impoverish the Word of the Gospel so that they will come; they are going to beg us to let them in so they can receive the refuge that the people of God will be prepared to give them. And that is why we need to build structures where the people of God can come, so that people may be saved. But God is not going to do it through fainthearted and mediocre people—I am very sorry.

Warriors, people who have died for Christ: this is not the time to live normal lives; it is not the time to be accumulating large amounts of money that you do not even know whether you are going to use—listen to me. I do not want to be there piling up kernels of corn like a hen, hidden away somewhere for an old age that may never come, because I want to die serving the Lord and giving Him everything. I do not want to be accumulating when there is so much to do, so much to give, so much service to render to the Lord.

Why would I want to be accumulating an academic career or other things, when ultimately all the books in this world will be burned and consumed by fire? There will be no library left; there will be no museum left; there will be no work of art able to withstand God’s consuming fire or enter the perfect place where we will dwell. All of that will remain here on Earth. The only thing that will enter there will be our works on behalf of the Kingdom of God.

The love that survives this fire that is to come. Brother, surrender it to the Lord; do not fail to give the Lord what God asks of you. I can tell you from up here: my wife and I, my family, have given, will continue to give, and every day we will give with greater fury and greater joy. The thing is, God holds nothing back—listen to me. The blessing that has come through the holes we have opened for the Lord, I would not exchange it for anything in this world. I am speaking to you from a position from which I know, believe, and have tasted the God who blesses.

When I stretch myself out on the cross and let them nail my hands and pierce my chest so that life may flow out, God afterward says: I am going to close all of that up, and I am going to bless you; I am going to raise you up. Do not miss that experience. At this moment, in order to build this place that God will use greatly for His Glory and with which God has a great prophetic move in store, do not fail to give to the Lord.

Let us bow our heads for a moment. I was telling my brothers and sisters this morning: I am no good at going around with gimmicks, holding an auction—who will give more, who will give this, who will give that, who will give five hundred, who will give a thousand? To me, God’s sanctuary is a sacred place. I want to appeal to mature, discerning people; I do not want to stand before a people whom I have to manipulate to get their money out of them.

I encourage you right now to settle on an amount that you yourself are going to give to the Lord. I am not going to ask you for anything, but in your spirit, commit yourself to an amount. Now my eyes are fixed on a young man: let not one young person fail to give—no one, not even the children; let them come to the Lord. Parents, have your children give something, and make that commitment there. I do not want a signature on paper here; commit in your spirit to an amount of money that you are going to give to the Lord, and do not regret it or let the devil snatch it away from you when you leave here. What happens is that we make certain plans while we are being manipulated and someone is turning the crank to spur us on emotionally, and when we leave, the devil steals the vision from us and we go back to business as usual.

Lord, rebuke that spirit. God works through people of integrity who are serious and committed—people who, when they say, “I am going to put my hand to the plow,” let no one pull it away until they have fulfilled what they promised.

Let us give generously to the Lord. Ushers, please come over here and place the baskets here. You may also put your offering in the chest at the end of the service, but just in case, it is better to have too many places than too few. Before you leave here—it does not have to be right now—if you brought your checkbook, put it in here now; and if not, conceive a vision and come next Wednesday or next Sunday and bring it to the Lord. We need it now. The only reason we are not bouncing checks right now is that a family from the church very privately lent the congregation a fairly considerable sum of money, for us to repay whenever we could. It was not money that this family had to spare, but they gave it. Yet that money has to come from somewhere, and I know it will come from us.

Up to this point we have never failed the Lord, but this is serious, and I do not know—brothers, pastors, and deacons, I have made it very clear, okay? We are not playing games. If you do not rise to meet the need, no one will. This twelve o’clock service is attended by people who love to worship the Lord, but now I also need you to be people who give. Sometimes those at the nine o’clock service are a little more subdued, but they are people who give incredibly; do not miss that opportunity here either. It is not all simply about praising and shouting, but also about giving to the Lord. Conceive a powerful vision before God.

Young adults: many of you have professional jobs and many other things; give to the Lord. Learn what it means to give generously to the Lord. And those who do not have much: give to God so that He may release the blessing. God wants to bless us.

Father, in the Name of Jesus—bow your head. Conceive something magnificent there for the Lord. We worship You, we bless You, we thank You because it is good to do battle in Your Name; it is good to take up the sword and feel the blood flowing until the sword sticks to the hand because so much blood has flowed. It is good to do battle in Your Name and wage war for You, Father; it is good to agonize for You. It is good to sweat blood for You; it is good to feel terror entering our hearts as we give to You and serve You, because I know that Your Son suffered far more.

I ask You not to let us enter the glory of this place unscathed. Keep pressing us, and keep glorifying Yourself, and may Your Name be established in this place. Move Your people, move Your people, and let us conceive a vision for victory, so that there may be no more appeals of this kind, but rather that we may enter into what You have called us to do. Impregnate us now with Your purpose, and thank You, thank You for Your anointing, thank You for Your blessing, in the Name of Jesus, amen and amen. Glory to the Name of the Lord! Give the Lord a great round of applause. People of God, take courage.