June 11, 2025 • 38 mins
This week we take a look at Zerubbabel and how God sent a word to encourage him through the prophet Zechariah. Like Israel and Zerubbabel we often times face enemy opposition which can cause discouragement or we can become indifferent to the assignment God is calling us to do, but we must understand it is not by might nor by power, but by the Lord's Spirit that we will do what He is calling us to do. No matter how many natural resources or people we have none of it matters if it is not driven by the Holy Spirit. Unless the Lord builds the house then it is done in vain.
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Pastor (00:13):
Marshall is gonna come up here and speak because she
she forgot one of her pointslast week. So she's gonna name
it. She she ain't gonna preachsermon. But she's gonna go over
the points again and then she'sgonna give a fair point.
Alright.
You come on. Yeah. I'm gonna
Marshall (00:31):
be preaching so he doesn't have to worry about
that. So, I went over the signsof a true leader and it was five
and the first one was beingresponsible and the second
obedient to God. Courageous wasthe third and the fourth was
truthful and the fifth that Ididn't mention was faithful,
dependable. Jesus is faithfuland that's all I wanted to add.
(00:55):
Thank you.
Pastor (01:07):
Amen. Well, praise god. Hallelujah. So, you know what? I
think this is a word that wecould probably relate to but you
know, have you ever been givenan assignment from god or a
task, mission however you wantto
say it and then you started offand you start out on fire you
start out hungry and then all ofa sudden some obstacles come and
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hit right and then we start toslow down right we wonder what's
going on or we may think, man, Imissed it. I missed it. Oh god,
I'm in a wrong area. I missedyou. What what what's going on?
Right? But, you know, that's in
the Bible where many people have thought like that.
Right? So, we we're gonna readabout you could turn to
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Zechariah. Alright? The bookright before Malachi because I
know many of
us don't read the book of Zechariah a lot but right
before Malachi. So turn turn toMatthew and then turn two books
to the left.
Alright. We're gonna start at chapter four.
So I don't know how many of you heard of Zerubbabel.
Alright. So we're probablyfamiliar with it but we
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may not all know his story. But he was somebody that
faced what I mentioned anddescribed earlier.
Alright. We there? Amen. Amen. So we'll begin.
I'll read the whole chapter. Ibelieve it's 14 verses. Correct?
Alright. Alright.
So, Zechariah. Zechariah chapterfour. Alright. Beginning at
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verse one and as always, I'll bereading from the New King James
version. Now, the angel whotalked with me came back and
waken me as answered and spoketo the angel who talked with me
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saying, what are these, my lord?
Then, the angel who talked withme answered and said to me, do
you not know what these are? AndI said, no, my lord. So, let's
stop right there. We'll continuereading in a minute. So, here
you have Zechariah who wasactually a priest.
So, the angel asked him todescribe what he's saying and
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then he asked him, well,Zechariah says, what is this?
Now, here you have a priest thatdon't know what he's looking at,
right? So, remember, when I readthat, sometimes we can beat
ourselves when we don'tunderstand certain things we may
read in the scripture and I'mhere to say, that's okay, right?
Because none of us in this worldare gonna gonna understand
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everything in the Bible, right?But when we don't understand
something, what we need to do ispray and wait.
Amen. And then when we don't getit right away, we pray and we
continue to wait, right? Andthen as we pray, god will lead
us. He will reveal it to us. Hemay speak to us.
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The the interpretation of it orhe may lead us in the
scriptures, the interpretationof it or he may lead us to
someone or somewhere that may bespeaking on that particular
scripture or passage, but wehave to be patient. Alright,
let's continue on. Verse six, sohe answered and said to me, this
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is the word of the lord toZerubabel. Not by might nor by
power but by my spirit says thelord of hosts and I'll read that
again. Not by might nor by powerbut by my spirit says the lord
of hosts.
Verse seven, who are you, ohgreat mountain? Before
Zerubbabel, you shall become aplain and he shall bring forth
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the capstone with shouts ofgrace, grace to it. Moreover,
the word of the lord came to methe hands of Zerubbabel have
laid the foundation of thistemple. His hands shall also
finish it. Then, you will knowthat the lord of hosts has sent
me to you.
For who has despised the day ofsmall things? For these seven
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rejoice to see the plumb line inthe hand of Cerobo. They are the
eyes of the lord which scan toand fro throughout the whole
earth. Verse 11, then I answeredand said to him, what are these
two olive trees? At the right ofthe land stand and at its left.
And I further answered and saidto him, what are these two olive
branches that drip into thereceptacles of the two gold
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pipes from which the golden oildrains? Then, he answered me and
said, do you not know what theseare? And I said, no, my lord.
Verse 14. So, he said, these arethe two anointed ones who stand
beside the lord of the wholeearth.
Amen. Amen. So, here we haveZechariah. So, what do we know
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about Zechariah? So, Zechariahwas a priest and obviously also
a prophet, right?
He was a contemporary of Haggai.So, for those that don't know,
Zechariah prophesied two monthsright after Haggai Haggai gave
his first prophecy. So,Zechariah was actually born in
Babylon. As we know, Jeremiahprophesied how Israel's gonna go
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into captivity and spend seventyyears in the captivity of
Babylon and he was telling theIsraelites at that time saying,
hey, go and god, this is themessage from the word of the
lord. Nebuchadnezzar's gonnacome.
Babylon's gonna come. It's goingto defeat Israel. It's going to
take Israel to captivity and youare to go and not resist and god
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will take care of you and godtake care of them so much when
it was time for them to leaveBabylon. Many of them stayed.
Because they already houses,they had property, they had
spouses, and they were good andchildren, right?
So, some of them did not want togo, right? But when it came time
for them to leave, once Babylongot got defeated by the middle
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now, god spoke to a king by thename of Cyrus and god spoke to
Cyrus who was a middle Persianand god said, hey, go me some
houses in Jerusalem. Right? Now,this is a Gentile king that
god's speaking to. So, hereleases, they go in waves as we
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read in Nehemiah and Ezra,right?
They go in waves and here'sZechariah going in the first
wave and then now, he's god isspeaking to Zechariah for to to
give him a message to Zerubbabeland like I said, two months
prior to that, Haggai was givena message as well. So, Haggai
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came with a message of for themto repent because what happened
is, you think about it. Herethey are. There was, in the
first way, there's about 50people that came out of the
first wave, right? So, as theygot to Israel, just imagine, you
have people that were alive atthe first temple when it was
first built that Solomon builtand Solomon made it magnificent.
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Now, here you have the samepeople who are coming to the
same city and then those who areyounger, who were not alive at
that time like Zechariah, theyheard all sorts of stories from
the elders. So, now, they get toJerusalem and they're all
excited how they're gonnarebuild the temple and guess
what? They see it's a dump.Because Solomon, he did what? He
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used the greatest materials,gold, ivory.
Solomon had the smartest andmost talented people to be able
to come and help build thetemple. Matter of fact, Solomon
didn't just use the Israelitesto build the temple. Solomon got
outside help. He asked forpeople who knew how to shape and
was able to produce ivory,right? He also used, believe it
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or not, illegal immigrants thatwas there at the time, right?
Solomon used all these peopleand now they had, here they are.
Turn to Haggai. There's only twochapters. There's one book over
to the left. So, go to Zechariahchapter one then go to Haggai
chapter two.
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Alright, we there? Amen.Alright, beginning at verse one.
In the seventh month, on thetwenty first of the month, the
word of the lord came by Haggai,the prophet saying, speak now to
Zerubel, the son of Shetel,governor of Judah, and to
Joshua, the son of Jehozazak,the high priest, to the remnant
of the people saying, who isleft among you who saw this
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temple in his form of glory andhow do you see it now? In
comparison with it, is this notin your eyes as nothing so?
Like I just mentioned, as I,well, paraphrase that who you
have some elderly people therewho saw the temple and his
magnificent glory. So, theycan't picture how they're gonna
rebuild this temple that Solomonbuilt. Let's keep going. Verse
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four, yet now be strong Zerubo.So, Zerubo was actually governor
at this time.
So, in Haggai and Zechariah, itdeals with two main people as
well as the Israel as a whole.Zerobo was a governor at that
time.
So, let me backtrack. I got ahead of myself. So,
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we know that there was kings in Israel that was in over
Israel prior to them going intothe captivity. So, now, Israel
released and guess what? There'sno kingly line at that. Well,
the guy king, descendants of theking but they were not going to
be named king because they werestill under the rule of the
Meadow Persians. Zerubo wouldhave fell under that to be a
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king but because they were not,they were submitted and
surrendered unto Meso Persians,Zerubo was now known as the
governor.
So, he was the civic leader.Then, you had a religious leader
which was Joshua, not Moses andJoshua because that that Joshua
was dead. Long time ago, right?So, now, you have Joshua who is
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the high priest. Right?
So, let's keep going. I'll startat verse four again. Yet now be
strong, Zerubel, says the lord,and be strong, Joshua, son of
Jehozazak, the high priest andbe strong all you people of the
land, says the lord and work forI am with you, says the lord of
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hosts. According to the wordthat I covenated with you when
you came out of Egypt. So, myspirit remains among you.
Do not fear. Verse six, for thussays the lord of hosts. Once
more, it is a little while. Iwill shake heaven and earth, the
sea, and dry land and I willshake all nations, and they
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shall come to the desire of allnations, and I will fill this
temple with glory, says the lordof hosts. So, I will fill this
temple with the glory, says thelord of hosts.
So, they're not saying that. So,now, Haggai, god is speaking
through Haggai to motivate them.Because they can't understand
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how because we have tounderstand. Like I mentioned,
Solomon had the best material.They don't have the best
materials.
They don't have the financialresources that Solomon have.
They don't even have the talent.Matter of fact, not only did
they have to rebuild the templebut they also had to build their
houses. Verse eight, the silveris mine and the gold is mine,
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says the lord of hosts. Theglory of this latter temple
shall be greater than theformer, says the lord of hosts
and in this place, I will givepeace.
Say, says the lord of hosts. So,how could the glory be greater
in the latter temple that theywere gonna rebuild compared to
the first one and they're sayingin their mind, the splendor of
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Solomon's temple because it wasZerubo's temple that Jesus went
into. See, sometimes we look atbuildings and we get so fixated
on the buildings and we treatbuilding. Nothing wrong with the
church cross Street but likethem, big old property. I've
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been inside there before.
Not for a good reason but for afuneral. But you know, when we
look at it on the surface, it'smagnificent. And see, not just
using that as example. But, youknow, sometimes we look at these
big fancy churches and we'relike, man, god is with them. But
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then, we all been saved longenough.
I've been quite a few churchesand usually, usually, it's the
small storefront shack churchesthat usually have the presence
of god in there, right? Becauseit doesn't matter how many
projector screens a church mayhave. Doesn't matter how many
instruments a church may havebut if Jesus Christ does not
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enter into that temple, thatbuilding, it's all for nothing.
So, unless the lord builds ahouse, it's in vain. Yes.
Alright. Let's go back toZechariah. So, he says this in
verse six, this is the word ofthe lord to Zerubo, not by
might, nor by power, but by myspirit, says the lord of hosts.
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So, what is might? Hold on.
Imma give you the exactdefinition. So, might focuses on
collective strength. So, mightis natural resources. Might is
it actually means army. It meansfinancial resources.
It means strength, materialthings. That's might. Now power
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comes from an individualstandpoint. Right? So, power can
be a rich person and whatfinancial or materialistic
resources they can bring to thetable.
So, they got discouraged becausewhat happens is when they came
to Jerusalem went to rebuild thetemple, rebuild the city, they
faced opposition. And we readthat in Ezra and Nehemiah
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because when you read Nehemiah,you read Ezra, Haggai, and
Zechariah, they all go together.And see, Zechariah is more of a
prophetic book because it dealswith prophecy during that time
but it also foretells how Jesusis gonna come. And also how he's
gonna come riding in on a donkeyand then also, it talks about
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Jesus' second coming and howhe's gonna establish the
millennial kingdom. Actually,out of all the Old Testament
books, Zechariah talks about theend times more than all the Old
Testament books to includeDaniel.
So, here they are. The peoplecome to the city and they see
all this and now, they face,they start to become discouraged
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because enemies coming againstthem, right? And not only do
they become discouraged becausetheir enemies but they also slow
down because they becomeindifferent. Well, why are they
becoming different? Becauseremember I said they had to
build their houses.
So, they spend all day workingon their houses and then now,
it's time for them to go work onthe temple. When you do all
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that, by the time you get to thetemple, you're tired. How do we
look when we come in here onWednesdays? We don't work all
day. I don't see some of ourfaces.
I feel it. Right? We becometired. And in Haggai in chapter
one, god is rebuking them forthat. He's saying, you are
focused more so on your thingsthan my house.
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Marie just read it. Matthew sixthirty three, seek you first the
kingdom of god and all thesethings will be added onto you
but see, they were seeking thosethings first and then, god's
things second and see, inchapter one of Haggai, it talks
about how they were bringing inmoney but putting in their bags
and they were just strippingthrough the bags. Why? Because
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it wasn't supposed to be aboutthem, right? Supposed to be
about building the temple.
Why? And see, see, so, Theythought so here, they started
and they laid the foundation.Another governor prior to Zeruba
laid the foundation. But whathappened? The people sat.
Don't you know sat for sixteenyears? Not working on the
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temple? Because they becamediscouraged. And the opposition
of the enemy. See, but that'swhat's supposed to happen.
When god calls us to do some, weare going to face opposition.
Opposition. As a matter of fact,we all heard the term sweatless
victory, right? I've said itbefore. Sweatless victory.
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See, we're going to faceopposition. Why? Satan is the
ruler of this world. You thinkhe's going to give us free
passage to do the things forgod's kingdom without
opposition? No, no.
There's going be a whole demonickingdom coming against us. And
god is saying, look, it's notabout your might nor about your
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power. It's about my spirit andsee in order for us to recognize
the spirit, we have to stayfilled with the oil. Amen. See,
the temple and the tabernacle atthat time was supposed to have a
lamp.
It was a manure and not whatthey should, not what we see
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today in Hanukkah because theyadded they added eight but that
time, it was seven and that wassupposed stay lit. Twenty four
hours a day, seven days a week.The priest were responsible for
making sure oil stayed in thelamp to keep it filled, to keep
it and it was had to be pureoil. It couldn't be an oil that
was So, they had to make the oiland that oil, that light was
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represented that Israel wassupposed to be the light of the
world and now, we have the holyspirit in us as a representative
that we as the church supposedto be the light of the world.
Amen.
And see, sometimes we can getcaught up in going by our might
and by our power in doing thingsand we can forget and see what
we do with this. We go by might,we go by power, and then we
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wanna invoke god in the end andsay, oh, look what god did. I've
been in a part of enoughstrategy meetings in churches.
Don't you know where and I'm notagainst meetings or anything
like that. There's nothing wrongwith that but we spend more time
meeting about the event oroutreach that we're doing than
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we do praying.
That's might. All theThanksgiving giveaways. Come on
everybody. Use your resources.Let's say, how about we go by
the spirit?
Right? There was somebody. Thisperson used to come here, right?
Long time ago, he used to comehere and they would always say
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to me, you know what? I feelgod's calling me to do this.
I wanna do this and but I needthis amount of money, this
amount of money, this amount ofmoney because I could buy this.
I could do that and then I couldgather up all these people here
and do this and do that. I'mlike, that's not god because
that's what you're trying to dowith your spirit, your your
might, and your own powerbecause if you knew that and see
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what happens is not that hecouldn't get the financial
resources to do it but then hewill want to vote god at the end
of it but no, you strategize itbecause you say, the only way
you can do that is by financialresources but that's not god's
spirit. See, we just read inHaggai. He said, what?
The silver is mine. Meaning,god's. The gold is his. All the
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resources are his but it's byhis spirit that we have to do
these things. Amen.
We can't get caught up in theideas of what we want and
neglect god's spirit. See, wehave to seek god and be led by
his spirit to the location, tothe building that he wants for
us. Amen. See, yes, we will faceopposition such as people not
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getting in contact with us. Andthen we know for those some of
us who couple of us say, we'rein the house, we know that
sometimes we had almost 30people in the house.
Right? So, we're thinking, oh,it's rolling. It's rolling. It's
good. It's good.
And then we move out. Look at usnow. So, there will be
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opposition. Many of us haveinvited people. I know my wife
have invited people and peoplesay, oh, I'm coming.
And then they don't show up.It's not by might. Not by power.
Right? Yeah.
We still invite. And then whenwe invite, we pray. And then we
invite, and we still pray. See,many of us, we invite, but we're
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not praying. But, no, we have topray.
And we have to pray some more.And we have to pray some more.
Because it's not about ourefforts. That's right. Right?
But it's about what god wants todo and see when we start start
trying to do things out ofeffort, that's when we grow
weary because it's by our mightand by our power. No matter how
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strong, how charismatic we arein our natural abilities, we
will eventually grow tired andweary. Yes. I don't care how
great an athlete is. Take thegreatest Olympic athlete ever.
They still gonna get tired.Amen. Amen. Right? But it's only
by god's spirit that we can pushforward and move and we forget
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that.
So verse seven of Zechariahfour, who are you, oh great
mountain, before Zerubo? Youshall become a plain, and he
shall bring forth the capstonewith shouts of grace, grace to
it. In other words, he had thatmountain. Basically, how am I
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gonna start this? I don'tunderstand.
I don't have what he have.What's on in there? But you have
something greater. You have thespirit. Right?
And then this is why the lordwill come and give prophetic
words, words of knowledge tocontinue to to to motivate us,
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to give us dreams, to give usvisions, right? Moreover, the
word of the lord came to mesaying, verse nine, the hands of
Zerubbabel have laid thefoundation of his temple. His
hands shall also finish it.Then, you will know that the
lord of hosts has sent me toyou. So, he laid the foundation.
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So, there's one or two ways thatmost theologians look at this
saying that hands will be theone to finish it but I like my
new King James version. His isactually capitalized. Meaning,
so rule will lay the laid thefoundation but his hand,
meaning, god's hands will finishit. See, even when we read it
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and all, what was it? Acts, whenPeter and John was arrested, I
forgot who was.
Maybe it was Caiaphas. I can'tremember but he said this, he
said, look, if this is a god, wecan't stop it. We can't stop it.
But see, the enemy was usingthem to discourage Peter and
John and the rest of the earlychurch but they didn't do. They
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didn't get discouraged.
Why? Even if they got beat,jailed, what happened? They came
together and they prayed. Theyprayed and they got a what?
Refilling.
See, the holy spirit will comeand work in three ways in there.
Right? He is with us. Right? So,that doesn't mean just for
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believers but he's also with theunbelievers because god said,
his spirit will not alwaysstrive with man.
So, he's with us tapping us onour shoulder. Listen to me. Even
when somebody's was leading usto the lord, he's talking at our
hearts. He's with us. Now, as webecome born again, he comes in
us.
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But here's what many in thechurch fall short. See, they
think when he comes in us,that's it. No. No. No.
He comes upon us. And see thatcan also fall to the unbeliever.
Right? Because what do you sayin acts? Pay, pray, and wait
until you endured until the holyspirit comes upon you, and then
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he should give you power.
But we forget that. We focus inon the second one that he's in
us. But see, in order tomaintain that oil, we have to
make sure he comes upon us. See,just like even in the Old
Testament, he came upon them.See, it's by his spirit that he
can lead us to greener pastures.
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It's by his spirit that we canbe successful in whatever task
he's called us to do. Regardlessof whatever opposition may come
upon upon us. See, many peoplethink it was Moses that parted
the Red Sea. Meaning, he justlooked up in. No, it was god's
spirit.
Amen. That part of the Red Sea.It was god's holy spirit that
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raised Jesus, resurrected Jesusfrom the dead. It was the holy
spirit that gave blindBartimaeus his eye sight. It was
the holy spirit that raisedJairus' daughter from the dead.
It was the holy spirit thatcaused Elijah to outrun the
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chariots, to win the battle atMount Carmel against all false
prophets. It was the holyspirit. And see, when we are not
filled with the oil, we go bymight and we go by power. And
understand something. When Italked about how Christians we
do certain things and we invokegod on it.
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Understand, god has given uscommon sense. I was supposed to
talk about this a few weeks agobut I I I guess it wasn't man at
that time but it was funnybecause I listened to one of my
pastors in Connecticut, pastorCarmen at Company Life Ministry.
I watched it and then she spokeabout it. That that that
following morning on Sunday. Youknow, we as Christians, we
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forget.
God has given us common sense.Holy spirit don't need to talk
to us about everything. Youdon't need the holy spirit to
tell you not to cross the streetin front of a fast moving car. I
hope not. Exactly.
You don't need the holy spiritto tell you. I'll use the
example she gave. Oh, god'stelling me to eat that chocolate
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cake. No. He's not telling youto eat that chocolate cake,
folks.
You eat it or you don't eat it.God forbid you got diabetes. You
better not eat it. Oh, thelord's gonna heal me. No, he's
not.
No. That's just ignorance. Butthat's what Christians do. They
don't have common sense and thenwe get these hyper spiritual
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people and they're ignorant ofthe word. And this is why I said
when we go back and we study andwe don't understand some, we
wait and we be patient and wepray and you may not give it to
us that day but we continue topray.
Don't sit up here and say, well,you know what? The holy spirit
told me, holy spirit told me,then, you know what? You know
what I find amazing? The silentyears. You know, you have four
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hundred silent years fromMalachi to John the Baptist.
Well, there was no revelatoryword. Holy Spirit was not
speaking. So, it's funny how theHoly Spirit's always speaking to
everybody. What would they haddone at that time? You know what
they had to go off of?
What was written in thescriptures? Because god gave
them enough prophetic word.Amen. In Haggai, Zechariah,
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Malachi, all that was and allthat was leading up to the
Messiah coming and they weresupposed to study but what
happened was they quit studyingand this is why they ended up
looking for a political messiahto come instead of the way Jesus
come and that's why a lot ofthem missed it. Because they
grew impatient.
With not receiving the word of
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the lord. Although the word of the lord came to them.
For who has this verse for whohas despised the day of small
things? For these seven rejoiceto see the plum in the hand of
Zerubbabel. They are the eyes ofthe lord which scan to and fro
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throughout the whole earth.
Alright? See, sometimes we candespise the small beginnings.
Right? Like us. We can we candespise the small beginnings.
Right? But everybody has tostart somewhere, whether it's a
business, whether it's aministry, whether it's a church,
has to start somewhere. Right?So, they were despising the
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small beginnings. So, god wassending his word to them for
them to be encouraged.
So, I'll get to the seven herein a minute. The plumb line. So,
we know in Amos, the plumb linewas god's standard but the plumb
line here in Zechariah verse 10is meaning, it's the work of the
lord, right? They were to do thework and they were not to
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deviate from the work that godwas calling them to do. They
were not to go to becomeindifferent.
Just like we cannot becomeindifferent. We have to fight
against it and we have to stayfilled with the oil which is
god's holy spirit. So for theseseven rejoice to see the plum
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line. So what are these seven?These seven is representative of
the holy spirit.
Wait a minute. I thought theholy spirit was one. Yeah. The
holy spirit is one. But let meask you this.
How many attributes does Jesushave? Two. Divine nature and
human nature. What about god?Three, god the father, god the
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son, and god the holy spirit.
And what about the holy spirit?Tell her Isaiah chapter 11. You
(31:57):
gotta say amen. Chapter 11.Amen.
Yep. Isaiah chapter 11.
Alright. We there? I don't have pages turning so.
Alright. Begin at verse one. There shall come forth a
rod from the stem of Jesse and abranch shall grow out of his
roots. The spirit of the lordshall rest upon him. The spirit
(32:17):
of wisdom and understanding, thespirit of counsel and might, the
spirit of knowledge and the fearof the lord.
So I don't need to go nofurther. The spirit of the lord
is one. The spirit of wisdom istwo. Understanding is three.
Counsel is four.
Might is five. Knowledge is six,and the fear of the lord is
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seven. See, the holy spirit wasgoing to a full. The holy spirit
was going to lead them to staywithin god's standard of what he
was calling them to do. See, nomatter what we do, we have to
maintain god's standard and theholy spirit will lead us and
guide us.
Why? We as long as we stayfilled with the oil. And when we
(33:00):
start to run dry and start torun weary, we gotta go back to
the well and get filled again.Amen. Then at verse 11,
Zechariah four.
(33:21):
Then I answered and said to him,what are these two olive trees
at the right of the lampstand atit and at its left? And and I
further answered and said tohim, what are these two olive
branches that drip into thereceptacles of the two gold
pipes from which the golden oildrains? Then he answered me and
said, do you not know what theseare? And I said, no, my lord.
(33:43):
So, he said, these are the twoanointed ones who stand beside
the lord of the whole earth.
Now, this is also makesreference to Revelation chapter
11. Right? But let's deal withwhat what what's right here.
Right? So, the two anointed onesmeans sons of oil.
Right? So, in other word, thetwo olive branches were
represented by Zerubbabel hereand Joshua, the high priest. In
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other words, as the anointingflows through them and flows
through the upon the people tocomplete the ministry and a task
that god was requiring of themto do. Right. So, as long as the
leaders were not full, thepeople could not be full.
Amen. See, opposition cameagainst all of them and then the
(34:32):
leaders started to getdiscouraged. And see, the
leaders get discouraged and thatmeans that people are gonna get
discouraged. Yes. So, god had tosend this word to encourage the
Zebul and say, listen, you aregoing to complete this work and
not just by your strength, notby your might, but by my spirit.
(34:52):
Right? It's not about me. It'snot about Marshall, Phil, Byron,
John. None of us. It's aboutgod's spirit.
Amen. Praise god. It's not bymight not by. So, we can have
all these fancy ideas. None ofthat matters.
Yeah. Right? So,
(35:13):
we we used to have disagreements when we first
started the ministry where shewanted Marsha wanted me
to pass out flies and I said, well, god didn't want me
to pass out flies. He said, no.Right? I didn't know why. I just
said, look, I can only tell youwhat he told me.
Right? Not that I'm opposed toit but but it makes sense now.
Why? Because it starts to becomemight, power. That's not god's
(35:36):
spirit.
I don't recall Jesus passing outflyers. Right? Because what
we've done today is we havecommercialized churches and we
follow the ways of the world andit's become might and power. So,
now we see so and so churchsuccessful and we thinking, oh
god did that. What is the reasonhow they gotta build up so fast?
(35:59):
Because guess what? If you'redoing things god's way, you're
gonna face opposition. See, ifif there's no opposition, like I
said earlier, might not be god.Because see, the enemy can't
stop us but what the enemy cando is cause discouragement and
if he causes discouragement, wecause ourselves to stop just
(36:23):
like Israel did here inZechariah. That's how he stops
us.
But see, when we recognize, hey,it's not by might nor by power
but by my spirit, meaning god'sspirit. Amen. Amen. We keep
pressing forward regardless ofthe opposition we face. Right?
(36:43):
We don't grow indifferent likeIsrael did here. No. We keep
moving forward. Why? Because weare filled and then when we
start to get weary, now we gottago to the well and we gotta see,
there was a constant supply oflight in the tabernacle that
time.
There should be a constantsupply of light in us because we
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are the light of the world.Jesus shines to us. He's he said
he was the light of the worldbut he shines to us. That we
become the light. And then wedon't put a cover over our
light.
Our light should is in whathappens to many Christians,
right? The light doesn't gofully out but it begins to
flicker. Have you ever operateda gas guild with grill and the
(37:25):
propane starts to die, starts toflicker, turns blue, and then it
goes out. That's how Christiansoperate now. Right?
We're not staying filled. Right?But we have to stay filled with
the oil. That's how we maintain.That's how we press forward.
That's how we get to where godis calling us to and that's how
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we become what god is calling usto be. Amen?
Amen. Let's bow our heads.
Marshall is gonna come up here and speak because she
she forgot one of her pointslast week. So she's gonna name
it. She she ain't gonna preachsermon. But she's gonna go over
the points again and then she'sgonna give a fair point.
Alright.
You come on. Yeah. I'm gonna
Marshall (00:31):
be preaching so he doesn't have to worry about
that. So, I went over the signsof a true leader and it was five
and the first one was beingresponsible and the second
obedient to God. Courageous wasthe third and the fourth was
truthful and the fifth that Ididn't mention was faithful,
dependable. Jesus is faithfuland that's all I wanted to add.
(00:55):
Thank you.
Pastor (01:07):
Amen. Well, praise god. Hallelujah. So, you know what? I
think this is a word that wecould probably relate to but you
know, have you ever been givenan assignment from god or a
task, mission however you wantto
say it and then you started offand you start out on fire you
start out hungry and then all ofa sudden some obstacles come and
(01:29):
hit right and then we start toslow down right we wonder what's
going on or we may think, man, Imissed it. I missed it. Oh god,
I'm in a wrong area. I missedyou. What what what's going on?
Right? But, you know, that's in
the Bible where many people have thought like that.
Right? So, we we're gonna readabout you could turn to
(01:52):
Zechariah. Alright? The bookright before Malachi because I
know many of
us don't read the book of Zechariah a lot but right
before Malachi. So turn turn toMatthew and then turn two books
to the left.
Alright. We're gonna start at chapter four.
So I don't know how many of you heard of Zerubbabel.
Alright. So we're probablyfamiliar with it but we
(02:12):
may not all know his story. But he was somebody that
faced what I mentioned anddescribed earlier.
Alright. We there? Amen. Amen. So we'll begin.
I'll read the whole chapter. Ibelieve it's 14 verses. Correct?
Alright. Alright.
So, Zechariah. Zechariah chapterfour. Alright. Beginning at
(02:39):
verse one and as always, I'll bereading from the New King James
version. Now, the angel whotalked with me came back and
waken me as answered and spoketo the angel who talked with me
(03:17):
saying, what are these, my lord?
Then, the angel who talked withme answered and said to me, do
you not know what these are? AndI said, no, my lord. So, let's
stop right there. We'll continuereading in a minute. So, here
you have Zechariah who wasactually a priest.
So, the angel asked him todescribe what he's saying and
(03:37):
then he asked him, well,Zechariah says, what is this?
Now, here you have a priest thatdon't know what he's looking at,
right? So, remember, when I readthat, sometimes we can beat
ourselves when we don'tunderstand certain things we may
read in the scripture and I'mhere to say, that's okay, right?
Because none of us in this worldare gonna gonna understand
(03:57):
everything in the Bible, right?But when we don't understand
something, what we need to do ispray and wait.
Amen. And then when we don't getit right away, we pray and we
continue to wait, right? Andthen as we pray, god will lead
us. He will reveal it to us. Hemay speak to us.
(04:17):
The the interpretation of it orhe may lead us in the
scriptures, the interpretationof it or he may lead us to
someone or somewhere that may bespeaking on that particular
scripture or passage, but wehave to be patient. Alright,
let's continue on. Verse six, sohe answered and said to me, this
(04:38):
is the word of the lord toZerubabel. Not by might nor by
power but by my spirit says thelord of hosts and I'll read that
again. Not by might nor by powerbut by my spirit says the lord
of hosts.
Verse seven, who are you, ohgreat mountain? Before
Zerubbabel, you shall become aplain and he shall bring forth
(05:00):
the capstone with shouts ofgrace, grace to it. Moreover,
the word of the lord came to methe hands of Zerubbabel have
laid the foundation of thistemple. His hands shall also
finish it. Then, you will knowthat the lord of hosts has sent
me to you.
For who has despised the day ofsmall things? For these seven
(05:23):
rejoice to see the plumb line inthe hand of Cerobo. They are the
eyes of the lord which scan toand fro throughout the whole
earth. Verse 11, then I answeredand said to him, what are these
two olive trees? At the right ofthe land stand and at its left.
And I further answered and saidto him, what are these two olive
branches that drip into thereceptacles of the two gold
(05:47):
pipes from which the golden oildrains? Then, he answered me and
said, do you not know what theseare? And I said, no, my lord.
Verse 14. So, he said, these arethe two anointed ones who stand
beside the lord of the wholeearth.
Amen. Amen. So, here we haveZechariah. So, what do we know
(06:08):
about Zechariah? So, Zechariahwas a priest and obviously also
a prophet, right?
He was a contemporary of Haggai.So, for those that don't know,
Zechariah prophesied two monthsright after Haggai Haggai gave
his first prophecy. So,Zechariah was actually born in
Babylon. As we know, Jeremiahprophesied how Israel's gonna go
(06:31):
into captivity and spend seventyyears in the captivity of
Babylon and he was telling theIsraelites at that time saying,
hey, go and god, this is themessage from the word of the
lord. Nebuchadnezzar's gonnacome.
Babylon's gonna come. It's goingto defeat Israel. It's going to
take Israel to captivity and youare to go and not resist and god
(06:51):
will take care of you and godtake care of them so much when
it was time for them to leaveBabylon. Many of them stayed.
Because they already houses,they had property, they had
spouses, and they were good andchildren, right?
So, some of them did not want togo, right? But when it came time
for them to leave, once Babylongot got defeated by the middle
(07:14):
now, god spoke to a king by thename of Cyrus and god spoke to
Cyrus who was a middle Persianand god said, hey, go me some
houses in Jerusalem. Right? Now,this is a Gentile king that
god's speaking to. So, hereleases, they go in waves as we
(07:35):
read in Nehemiah and Ezra,right?
They go in waves and here'sZechariah going in the first
wave and then now, he's god isspeaking to Zechariah for to to
give him a message to Zerubbabeland like I said, two months
prior to that, Haggai was givena message as well. So, Haggai
(07:56):
came with a message of for themto repent because what happened
is, you think about it. Herethey are. There was, in the
first way, there's about 50people that came out of the
first wave, right? So, as theygot to Israel, just imagine, you
have people that were alive atthe first temple when it was
first built that Solomon builtand Solomon made it magnificent.
(08:19):
Now, here you have the samepeople who are coming to the
same city and then those who areyounger, who were not alive at
that time like Zechariah, theyheard all sorts of stories from
the elders. So, now, they get toJerusalem and they're all
excited how they're gonnarebuild the temple and guess
what? They see it's a dump.Because Solomon, he did what? He
(08:46):
used the greatest materials,gold, ivory.
Solomon had the smartest andmost talented people to be able
to come and help build thetemple. Matter of fact, Solomon
didn't just use the Israelitesto build the temple. Solomon got
outside help. He asked forpeople who knew how to shape and
was able to produce ivory,right? He also used, believe it
(09:09):
or not, illegal immigrants thatwas there at the time, right?
Solomon used all these peopleand now they had, here they are.
Turn to Haggai. There's only twochapters. There's one book over
to the left. So, go to Zechariahchapter one then go to Haggai
chapter two.
(09:36):
Alright, we there? Amen.Alright, beginning at verse one.
In the seventh month, on thetwenty first of the month, the
word of the lord came by Haggai,the prophet saying, speak now to
Zerubel, the son of Shetel,governor of Judah, and to
Joshua, the son of Jehozazak,the high priest, to the remnant
of the people saying, who isleft among you who saw this
(09:59):
temple in his form of glory andhow do you see it now? In
comparison with it, is this notin your eyes as nothing so?
Like I just mentioned, as I,well, paraphrase that who you
have some elderly people therewho saw the temple and his
magnificent glory. So, theycan't picture how they're gonna
rebuild this temple that Solomonbuilt. Let's keep going. Verse
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four, yet now be strong Zerubo.So, Zerubo was actually governor
at this time.
So, in Haggai and Zechariah, itdeals with two main people as
well as the Israel as a whole.Zerobo was a governor at that
time.
So, let me backtrack. I got ahead of myself. So,
(10:44):
we know that there was kings in Israel that was in over
Israel prior to them going intothe captivity. So, now, Israel
released and guess what? There'sno kingly line at that. Well,
the guy king, descendants of theking but they were not going to
be named king because they werestill under the rule of the
Meadow Persians. Zerubo wouldhave fell under that to be a
(11:06):
king but because they were not,they were submitted and
surrendered unto Meso Persians,Zerubo was now known as the
governor.
So, he was the civic leader.Then, you had a religious leader
which was Joshua, not Moses andJoshua because that that Joshua
was dead. Long time ago, right?So, now, you have Joshua who is
(11:27):
the high priest. Right?
So, let's keep going. I'll startat verse four again. Yet now be
strong, Zerubel, says the lord,and be strong, Joshua, son of
Jehozazak, the high priest andbe strong all you people of the
land, says the lord and work forI am with you, says the lord of
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hosts. According to the wordthat I covenated with you when
you came out of Egypt. So, myspirit remains among you.
Do not fear. Verse six, for thussays the lord of hosts. Once
more, it is a little while. Iwill shake heaven and earth, the
sea, and dry land and I willshake all nations, and they
(12:09):
shall come to the desire of allnations, and I will fill this
temple with glory, says the lordof hosts. So, I will fill this
temple with the glory, says thelord of hosts.
So, they're not saying that. So,now, Haggai, god is speaking
through Haggai to motivate them.Because they can't understand
(12:32):
how because we have tounderstand. Like I mentioned,
Solomon had the best material.They don't have the best
materials.
They don't have the financialresources that Solomon have.
They don't even have the talent.Matter of fact, not only did
they have to rebuild the templebut they also had to build their
houses. Verse eight, the silveris mine and the gold is mine,
(12:54):
says the lord of hosts. Theglory of this latter temple
shall be greater than theformer, says the lord of hosts
and in this place, I will givepeace.
Say, says the lord of hosts. So,how could the glory be greater
in the latter temple that theywere gonna rebuild compared to
the first one and they're sayingin their mind, the splendor of
(13:18):
Solomon's temple because it wasZerubo's temple that Jesus went
into. See, sometimes we look atbuildings and we get so fixated
on the buildings and we treatbuilding. Nothing wrong with the
church cross Street but likethem, big old property. I've
(13:39):
been inside there before.
Not for a good reason but for afuneral. But you know, when we
look at it on the surface, it'smagnificent. And see, not just
using that as example. But, youknow, sometimes we look at these
big fancy churches and we'relike, man, god is with them. But
(14:00):
then, we all been saved longenough.
I've been quite a few churchesand usually, usually, it's the
small storefront shack churchesthat usually have the presence
of god in there, right? Becauseit doesn't matter how many
projector screens a church mayhave. Doesn't matter how many
instruments a church may havebut if Jesus Christ does not
(14:23):
enter into that temple, thatbuilding, it's all for nothing.
So, unless the lord builds ahouse, it's in vain. Yes.
Alright. Let's go back toZechariah. So, he says this in
verse six, this is the word ofthe lord to Zerubo, not by
might, nor by power, but by myspirit, says the lord of hosts.
(14:46):
So, what is might? Hold on.
Imma give you the exactdefinition. So, might focuses on
collective strength. So, mightis natural resources. Might is
it actually means army. It meansfinancial resources.
It means strength, materialthings. That's might. Now power
(15:08):
comes from an individualstandpoint. Right? So, power can
be a rich person and whatfinancial or materialistic
resources they can bring to thetable.
So, they got discouraged becausewhat happens is when they came
to Jerusalem went to rebuild thetemple, rebuild the city, they
faced opposition. And we readthat in Ezra and Nehemiah
(15:33):
because when you read Nehemiah,you read Ezra, Haggai, and
Zechariah, they all go together.And see, Zechariah is more of a
prophetic book because it dealswith prophecy during that time
but it also foretells how Jesusis gonna come. And also how he's
gonna come riding in on a donkeyand then also, it talks about
(15:54):
Jesus' second coming and howhe's gonna establish the
millennial kingdom. Actually,out of all the Old Testament
books, Zechariah talks about theend times more than all the Old
Testament books to includeDaniel.
So, here they are. The peoplecome to the city and they see
all this and now, they face,they start to become discouraged
(16:18):
because enemies coming againstthem, right? And not only do
they become discouraged becausetheir enemies but they also slow
down because they becomeindifferent. Well, why are they
becoming different? Becauseremember I said they had to
build their houses.
So, they spend all day workingon their houses and then now,
it's time for them to go work onthe temple. When you do all
(16:39):
that, by the time you get to thetemple, you're tired. How do we
look when we come in here onWednesdays? We don't work all
day. I don't see some of ourfaces.
I feel it. Right? We becometired. And in Haggai in chapter
one, god is rebuking them forthat. He's saying, you are
focused more so on your thingsthan my house.
(17:03):
Marie just read it. Matthew sixthirty three, seek you first the
kingdom of god and all thesethings will be added onto you
but see, they were seeking thosethings first and then, god's
things second and see, inchapter one of Haggai, it talks
about how they were bringing inmoney but putting in their bags
and they were just strippingthrough the bags. Why? Because
(17:27):
it wasn't supposed to be aboutthem, right? Supposed to be
about building the temple.
Why? And see, see, so, Theythought so here, they started
and they laid the foundation.Another governor prior to Zeruba
laid the foundation. But whathappened? The people sat.
Don't you know sat for sixteenyears? Not working on the
(17:49):
temple? Because they becamediscouraged. And the opposition
of the enemy. See, but that'swhat's supposed to happen.
When god calls us to do some, weare going to face opposition.
Opposition. As a matter of fact,we all heard the term sweatless
victory, right? I've said itbefore. Sweatless victory.
(18:11):
See, we're going to faceopposition. Why? Satan is the
ruler of this world. You thinkhe's going to give us free
passage to do the things forgod's kingdom without
opposition? No, no.
There's going be a whole demonickingdom coming against us. And
god is saying, look, it's notabout your might nor about your
(18:32):
power. It's about my spirit andsee in order for us to recognize
the spirit, we have to stayfilled with the oil. Amen. See,
the temple and the tabernacle atthat time was supposed to have a
lamp.
It was a manure and not whatthey should, not what we see
(18:53):
today in Hanukkah because theyadded they added eight but that
time, it was seven and that wassupposed stay lit. Twenty four
hours a day, seven days a week.The priest were responsible for
making sure oil stayed in thelamp to keep it filled, to keep
it and it was had to be pureoil. It couldn't be an oil that
was So, they had to make the oiland that oil, that light was
(19:14):
represented that Israel wassupposed to be the light of the
world and now, we have the holyspirit in us as a representative
that we as the church supposedto be the light of the world.
Amen.
And see, sometimes we can getcaught up in going by our might
and by our power in doing thingsand we can forget and see what
we do with this. We go by might,we go by power, and then we
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wanna invoke god in the end andsay, oh, look what god did. I've
been in a part of enoughstrategy meetings in churches.
Don't you know where and I'm notagainst meetings or anything
like that. There's nothing wrongwith that but we spend more time
meeting about the event oroutreach that we're doing than
(19:58):
we do praying.
That's might. All theThanksgiving giveaways. Come on
everybody. Use your resources.Let's say, how about we go by
the spirit?
Right? There was somebody. Thisperson used to come here, right?
Long time ago, he used to comehere and they would always say
(20:18):
to me, you know what? I feelgod's calling me to do this.
I wanna do this and but I needthis amount of money, this
amount of money, this amount ofmoney because I could buy this.
I could do that and then I couldgather up all these people here
and do this and do that. I'mlike, that's not god because
that's what you're trying to dowith your spirit, your your
might, and your own powerbecause if you knew that and see
(20:41):
what happens is not that hecouldn't get the financial
resources to do it but then hewill want to vote god at the end
of it but no, you strategize itbecause you say, the only way
you can do that is by financialresources but that's not god's
spirit. See, we just read inHaggai. He said, what?
The silver is mine. Meaning,god's. The gold is his. All the
(21:04):
resources are his but it's byhis spirit that we have to do
these things. Amen.
We can't get caught up in theideas of what we want and
neglect god's spirit. See, wehave to seek god and be led by
his spirit to the location, tothe building that he wants for
us. Amen. See, yes, we will faceopposition such as people not
(21:29):
getting in contact with us. Andthen we know for those some of
us who couple of us say, we'rein the house, we know that
sometimes we had almost 30people in the house.
Right? So, we're thinking, oh,it's rolling. It's rolling. It's
good. It's good.
And then we move out. Look at usnow. So, there will be
(21:55):
opposition. Many of us haveinvited people. I know my wife
have invited people and peoplesay, oh, I'm coming.
And then they don't show up.It's not by might. Not by power.
Right? Yeah.
We still invite. And then whenwe invite, we pray. And then we
invite, and we still pray. See,many of us, we invite, but we're
(22:16):
not praying. But, no, we have topray.
And we have to pray some more.And we have to pray some more.
Because it's not about ourefforts. That's right. Right?
But it's about what god wants todo and see when we start start
trying to do things out ofeffort, that's when we grow
weary because it's by our mightand by our power. No matter how
(22:37):
strong, how charismatic we arein our natural abilities, we
will eventually grow tired andweary. Yes. I don't care how
great an athlete is. Take thegreatest Olympic athlete ever.
They still gonna get tired.Amen. Amen. Right? But it's only
by god's spirit that we can pushforward and move and we forget
(23:00):
that.
So verse seven of Zechariahfour, who are you, oh great
mountain, before Zerubo? Youshall become a plain, and he
shall bring forth the capstonewith shouts of grace, grace to
it. In other words, he had thatmountain. Basically, how am I
(23:21):
gonna start this? I don'tunderstand.
I don't have what he have.What's on in there? But you have
something greater. You have thespirit. Right?
And then this is why the lordwill come and give prophetic
words, words of knowledge tocontinue to to to motivate us,
(23:44):
to give us dreams, to give usvisions, right? Moreover, the
word of the lord came to mesaying, verse nine, the hands of
Zerubbabel have laid thefoundation of his temple. His
hands shall also finish it.Then, you will know that the
lord of hosts has sent me toyou. So, he laid the foundation.
(24:07):
So, there's one or two ways thatmost theologians look at this
saying that hands will be theone to finish it but I like my
new King James version. His isactually capitalized. Meaning,
so rule will lay the laid thefoundation but his hand,
meaning, god's hands will finishit. See, even when we read it
(24:30):
and all, what was it? Acts, whenPeter and John was arrested, I
forgot who was.
Maybe it was Caiaphas. I can'tremember but he said this, he
said, look, if this is a god, wecan't stop it. We can't stop it.
But see, the enemy was usingthem to discourage Peter and
John and the rest of the earlychurch but they didn't do. They
(24:50):
didn't get discouraged.
Why? Even if they got beat,jailed, what happened? They came
together and they prayed. Theyprayed and they got a what?
Refilling.
See, the holy spirit will comeand work in three ways in there.
Right? He is with us. Right? So,that doesn't mean just for
(25:12):
believers but he's also with theunbelievers because god said,
his spirit will not alwaysstrive with man.
So, he's with us tapping us onour shoulder. Listen to me. Even
when somebody's was leading usto the lord, he's talking at our
hearts. He's with us. Now, as webecome born again, he comes in
us.
(25:33):
But here's what many in thechurch fall short. See, they
think when he comes in us,that's it. No. No. No.
He comes upon us. And see thatcan also fall to the unbeliever.
Right? Because what do you sayin acts? Pay, pray, and wait
until you endured until the holyspirit comes upon you, and then
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he should give you power.
But we forget that. We focus inon the second one that he's in
us. But see, in order tomaintain that oil, we have to
make sure he comes upon us. See,just like even in the Old
Testament, he came upon them.See, it's by his spirit that he
can lead us to greener pastures.
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It's by his spirit that we canbe successful in whatever task
he's called us to do. Regardlessof whatever opposition may come
upon upon us. See, many peoplethink it was Moses that parted
the Red Sea. Meaning, he justlooked up in. No, it was god's
spirit.
Amen. That part of the Red Sea.It was god's holy spirit that
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raised Jesus, resurrected Jesusfrom the dead. It was the holy
spirit that gave blindBartimaeus his eye sight. It was
the holy spirit that raisedJairus' daughter from the dead.
It was the holy spirit thatcaused Elijah to outrun the
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chariots, to win the battle atMount Carmel against all false
prophets. It was the holyspirit. And see, when we are not
filled with the oil, we go bymight and we go by power. And
understand something. When Italked about how Christians we
do certain things and we invokegod on it.
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Understand, god has given uscommon sense. I was supposed to
talk about this a few weeks agobut I I I guess it wasn't man at
that time but it was funnybecause I listened to one of my
pastors in Connecticut, pastorCarmen at Company Life Ministry.
I watched it and then she spokeabout it. That that that
following morning on Sunday. Youknow, we as Christians, we
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forget.
God has given us common sense.Holy spirit don't need to talk
to us about everything. Youdon't need the holy spirit to
tell you not to cross the streetin front of a fast moving car. I
hope not. Exactly.
You don't need the holy spiritto tell you. I'll use the
example she gave. Oh, god'stelling me to eat that chocolate
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cake. No. He's not telling youto eat that chocolate cake,
folks.
You eat it or you don't eat it.God forbid you got diabetes. You
better not eat it. Oh, thelord's gonna heal me. No, he's
not.
No. That's just ignorance. Butthat's what Christians do. They
don't have common sense and thenwe get these hyper spiritual
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people and they're ignorant ofthe word. And this is why I said
when we go back and we study andwe don't understand some, we
wait and we be patient and wepray and you may not give it to
us that day but we continue topray.
Don't sit up here and say, well,you know what? The holy spirit
told me, holy spirit told me,then, you know what? You know
what I find amazing? The silentyears. You know, you have four
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hundred silent years fromMalachi to John the Baptist.
Well, there was no revelatoryword. Holy Spirit was not
speaking. So, it's funny how theHoly Spirit's always speaking to
everybody. What would they haddone at that time? You know what
they had to go off of?
What was written in thescriptures? Because god gave
them enough prophetic word.Amen. In Haggai, Zechariah,
(29:14):
Malachi, all that was and allthat was leading up to the
Messiah coming and they weresupposed to study but what
happened was they quit studyingand this is why they ended up
looking for a political messiahto come instead of the way Jesus
come and that's why a lot ofthem missed it. Because they
grew impatient.
With not receiving the word of
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the lord. Although the word of the lord came to them.
For who has this verse for whohas despised the day of small
things? For these seven rejoiceto see the plum in the hand of
Zerubbabel. They are the eyes ofthe lord which scan to and fro
(29:58):
throughout the whole earth.
Alright? See, sometimes we candespise the small beginnings.
Right? Like us. We can we candespise the small beginnings.
Right? But everybody has tostart somewhere, whether it's a
business, whether it's aministry, whether it's a church,
has to start somewhere. Right?So, they were despising the
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small beginnings. So, god wassending his word to them for
them to be encouraged.
So, I'll get to the seven herein a minute. The plumb line. So,
we know in Amos, the plumb linewas god's standard but the plumb
line here in Zechariah verse 10is meaning, it's the work of the
lord, right? They were to do thework and they were not to
(30:43):
deviate from the work that godwas calling them to do. They
were not to go to becomeindifferent.
Just like we cannot becomeindifferent. We have to fight
against it and we have to stayfilled with the oil which is
god's holy spirit. So for theseseven rejoice to see the plum
(31:07):
line. So what are these seven?These seven is representative of
the holy spirit.
Wait a minute. I thought theholy spirit was one. Yeah. The
holy spirit is one. But let meask you this.
How many attributes does Jesushave? Two. Divine nature and
human nature. What about god?Three, god the father, god the
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son, and god the holy spirit.
And what about the holy spirit?Tell her Isaiah chapter 11. You
(31:57):
gotta say amen. Chapter 11.Amen.
Yep. Isaiah chapter 11.
Alright. We there? I don't have pages turning so.
Alright. Begin at verse one. There shall come forth a
rod from the stem of Jesse and abranch shall grow out of his
roots. The spirit of the lordshall rest upon him. The spirit
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of wisdom and understanding, thespirit of counsel and might, the
spirit of knowledge and the fearof the lord.
So I don't need to go nofurther. The spirit of the lord
is one. The spirit of wisdom istwo. Understanding is three.
Counsel is four.
Might is five. Knowledge is six,and the fear of the lord is
(32:38):
seven. See, the holy spirit wasgoing to a full. The holy spirit
was going to lead them to staywithin god's standard of what he
was calling them to do. See, nomatter what we do, we have to
maintain god's standard and theholy spirit will lead us and
guide us.
Why? We as long as we stayfilled with the oil. And when we
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start to run dry and start torun weary, we gotta go back to
the well and get filled again.Amen. Then at verse 11,
Zechariah four.
(33:21):
Then I answered and said to him,what are these two olive trees
at the right of the lampstand atit and at its left? And and I
further answered and said tohim, what are these two olive
branches that drip into thereceptacles of the two gold
pipes from which the golden oildrains? Then he answered me and
said, do you not know what theseare? And I said, no, my lord.
(33:43):
So, he said, these are the twoanointed ones who stand beside
the lord of the whole earth.
Now, this is also makesreference to Revelation chapter
11. Right? But let's deal withwhat what what's right here.
Right? So, the two anointed onesmeans sons of oil.
Right? So, in other word, thetwo olive branches were
represented by Zerubbabel hereand Joshua, the high priest. In
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other words, as the anointingflows through them and flows
through the upon the people tocomplete the ministry and a task
that god was requiring of themto do. Right. So, as long as the
leaders were not full, thepeople could not be full.
Amen. See, opposition cameagainst all of them and then the
(34:32):
leaders started to getdiscouraged. And see, the
leaders get discouraged and thatmeans that people are gonna get
discouraged. Yes. So, god had tosend this word to encourage the
Zebul and say, listen, you aregoing to complete this work and
not just by your strength, notby your might, but by my spirit.
(34:52):
Right? It's not about me. It'snot about Marshall, Phil, Byron,
John. None of us. It's aboutgod's spirit.
Amen. Praise god. It's not bymight not by. So, we can have
all these fancy ideas. None ofthat matters.
Yeah. Right? So,
(35:13):
we we used to have disagreements when we first
started the ministry where shewanted Marsha wanted me
to pass out flies and I said, well, god didn't want me
to pass out flies. He said, no.Right? I didn't know why. I just
said, look, I can only tell youwhat he told me.
Right? Not that I'm opposed toit but but it makes sense now.
Why? Because it starts to becomemight, power. That's not god's
(35:36):
spirit.
I don't recall Jesus passing outflyers. Right? Because what
we've done today is we havecommercialized churches and we
follow the ways of the world andit's become might and power. So,
now we see so and so churchsuccessful and we thinking, oh
god did that. What is the reasonhow they gotta build up so fast?
(35:59):
Because guess what? If you'redoing things god's way, you're
gonna face opposition. See, ifif there's no opposition, like I
said earlier, might not be god.Because see, the enemy can't
stop us but what the enemy cando is cause discouragement and
if he causes discouragement, wecause ourselves to stop just
(36:23):
like Israel did here inZechariah. That's how he stops
us.
But see, when we recognize, hey,it's not by might nor by power
but by my spirit, meaning god'sspirit. Amen. Amen. We keep
pressing forward regardless ofthe opposition we face. Right?
(36:43):
We don't grow indifferent likeIsrael did here. No. We keep
moving forward. Why? Because weare filled and then when we
start to get weary, now we gottago to the well and we gotta see,
there was a constant supply oflight in the tabernacle that
time.
There should be a constantsupply of light in us because we
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are the light of the world.Jesus shines to us. He's he said
he was the light of the worldbut he shines to us. That we
become the light. And then wedon't put a cover over our
light.
Our light should is in whathappens to many Christians,
right? The light doesn't gofully out but it begins to
flicker. Have you ever operateda gas guild with grill and the
(37:25):
propane starts to die, starts toflicker, turns blue, and then it
goes out. That's how Christiansoperate now. Right?
We're not staying filled. Right?But we have to stay filled with
the oil. That's how we maintain.That's how we press forward.
That's how we get to where godis calling us to and that's how
(37:47):
we become what god is calling usto be. Amen?
Amen. Let's bow our heads.
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