It’s Time to Trust God With the Future
It's Time

Transcript

Good morning, church. Good morning ! We're concluding our series through the book of Haggai this morning. We've got just a few more verses in our eight-part series and I know some of you might have been thinking, Hey, it's only two chapters for eight weeks. Really?

Well, maybe you've understood now, as we've gone very carefully through it, just how full. This might be a little book, but it's a big book with God and He's really spoken to us over these past eight weeks. Today, we'll be concluding our series through the book of Haggai in a sermon that we've entitled, “It's Time to Trust God with the Future.” Our series theme comes from Haggai. It says, Haggai 1:2; 2:4-5 (ESV) “These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord…

Yet now be strong… Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord… My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.” The people of God were saying, ‘It's not time.

We don't feel like it's time.’ But God said, ‘Yes, it is time. It's time for you to be strong, do the work and be fearless and if you do that, I'll take care of your future. If you'll do your part, I'll do My part.’

We get confused sometimes. We want to do God's part, we can't do God's part. We want to be on the throne of our own lives. We want our own way, but God says, ‘If you'll follow Me, if you'll do things My way, I'll take care of your future.’

I believe that we can trust God with our future. Do you worry about tomorrow? Do you worry about things? Are you a worrywart? Are you someone who worries about things?

Are you a planner? I remember when I was working in the corporate world; we used to carry these things called “daytimers,” where you would do a daily entry on what you were working on. Inside, there was a little booklet called the five-year planner. I was one of those crazy guys who tried to come up with things for five years; I would write it down. But, what I came to understand was that you really can't control what's going to happen five years from now.

You don't know what God's going to do. We can aim at things, but it causes anxiety when we try to get in the place of God. I don't know what you're feeling today. Maybe you're worried about something that a doctor told you; you've got an appointment this week and you're worried about how that's going to work out. You might be worried about paying a bill that's due.

It is the first of the month, after all, and so you're trying to figure out how to pay your mortgage payment. You're worried about how that's going to go. Maybe you're worried about your teenager and how they're going to turn out; you're trying to figure out how to make them turn out well.

You can't. Only God can change the human heart. So, I would say to you today that you can trust God with your future; you can trust Him, because His plans will come to pass. That's where the people of Israel were in Haggai's day. They were just a small group, a small remnant of people that were

returning from Babylonian captivity. They'd come back and they were starting to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, but it didn't look like it did, with all the beauty and the greatness under King David, King Solomon and so forth. Now, it's a small place inside of this Persian kingdom. They had to be wondering, How's it all going to work out?

What's our future look like? But then, here comes the Lord, speaking through the prophet Haggai, to tell the people of Israel that they could be assured that their future was secure in His hands. I believe today, as we look at these final verses, it finishes on a huge hallelujah, if you will. The book of Haggai finishes with the best word possible, that you can trust God with your future.

So, as we look at the text today, I think we'll see three reasons why you can trust God with your future. Let's dig in. Haggai 2:20-23 (ESV) 20 The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, 21 “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, 22 and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms.

I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. 23 On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts.” This is God's word. We're looking for three reasons to trust God with our future. Here's the first:

1. Because God’s sovereign plans will prevail.

God's sovereign plans will prevail. We're going to look at those first couple of verses there. I want you to notice the two, “I'm about to” statements. God's got two “I'm about to” statements. Do you see them there? Now, here's one thing I want you to know about Gods “about to” and yours “about to.”

They're two different things. My “about to” means I'm going to do it right now. I'm about to do this right here; unless I'm talking to my wife and I say, “I'm about to.” It means I'm going to work on it sometime today.

She wants me to do it right now. But when God says “I'm about to,” we're not sure if His “about to” is the same as my “about to.” He tells Haggai the prophet, ‘I want you to tell Zerubbabel the governor of Judah.’ He's the governor under king Darius of Persia.

He's over Jerusalem. I've got a word for him and I want you to tell him My plans because I'm about to do some stuff. I've got some plans and My plans will prevail. I'm about to shake things up. I'm about to overthrow some things and shake up some things.

“I'm about to;” I want you to go tell him. Now let's “back up the bus” a little bit and see where we're at. Verse 20 tells you that this is the second time God spoke to Haggai on the same day. It's the 24th day of the month.

Now, what month was it? We have to back up a few verses and we find out it's the ninth month. It's the same day. So this is the second word on the same day. Now, the first word was to the priest.

He had questions for the priests and for the people. But this word, He wants Haggai to go get Zerubbabel and pull him off to the side.He has a special word for him. And he told Haggai, remember how I've been taking note that Haggai's a really good diary keeper. Every time God speaks to him, he puts the date down in his diary and he goes, this is the same day God spoke to me twice.

But the second time he said that He had a word for Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah. I want you to go and speak to him. And here's what I want you to tell him. I'm about to shake up heaven and earth. I'm about to cause an earthquake to all the world's kingdoms

and not just the world's kingdoms, but the heavenly kingdoms because there are spiritual realities in the unseen world that I'm about to shake loose. I'm about to shake it all up. I'm about to bring an earthquake to all creation. I'm about to do this.

Then, He gets very, very specific. Now, this 24th day of the month, if we look back, we find out it was the ninth month. That's the month of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar, which would be the equivalent on our calendar of probably about December 18th. The second word was, in verse 21, “...I am about to shake the heavens and the earth.” This speaks of celestial as well as terrestrial realities. ‘I'm about to shake everything up that I've created.’

Then, He gets more specific, in verse 22, “and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms.” “Throne” is singular. “Of kingdoms” is plural. Now that bothered me a little bit.

I read that and I thought, Now, is that in the Hebrew original translation? Shouldn’t it have said “thrones” of “kingdoms?” because kingdoms would have thrones? There has never been, in the history of the world, one throne over all the kingdoms, has there? I was trying to think about that, but I think there has been in the sense that humanity took the throne that belonged to God

and so, all human kingdoms have really been under a rebellious throne, singular. ‘I'm about to overthrow the throne of all kingdoms.’ Another way you might look at it is that there's the sense in which Satan had stolen from humanity from the time he tempted Adam and Eve. And Jesus calls him, in the New Testament, calls him “the prince of the air;” he's a principality.

We see in the book of Daniel where Michael the Archangel did battle with a fallen one when he was coming to speak to Daniel. We see some things here that there's an unseen reality, there are principalities in the unseen world. God says that He is going to overthrow that; He is going to overthrow the throne of nations, all the authority of the unseen and the seen. He is about to turn it upside down. He gets more specific: ‘I'm going to shake it up, I'm going to overthrow, I'm about to destroy the strength of nations and of kingdoms.’

They think that they are strong, they think that their armies, their chariots and their calvary are strong. By the way, for centuries, really all the way up to even World War I, did you know that they were still fighting with calvary? They were still using horses, even into World War I. Even in World War II, the Poles tried to fight Germany on horseback. It didn't go too well. But up until then, chariots and horsemen was the highest tech you could be. That's the strongest you could be, if you had a lot of chariots, a lot of calvary and you had armor and these things.

Chariots would be like a modern day tank. He's saying, ‘I'm going to overthrow that which nations rely on. I'm going to destroy their strength, the strength of their armies.’ Now what's His strategy for doing it? Is God just going to smite the whole thing?

No. He says, ‘Do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to let them destroy each other.’ Do you see that? Notice that in verse 22 he says, “...And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother.” He's done that before.

You can read an account of that in the book of Judges, with Gideon when he came in with the lamps and the jars and they turned on each other in their confusion. There's other places that that happened in the Bible. He's done that before. Really, that's always what sin does. The sinful structures, kingdoms and culture of this world is ultimately self destructive and will implode.

He says, ‘I'm going to let that happen. I'm going to let them turn on each other. I'm going to overthrow and I'm going to destroy their strength.The way it's going to work itself out, is they're going to kill each other, they're going to destroy each other.’ He tells Haggai, ‘I want you to go tell Zerubbabel.’ Do you remember what Zerubbabel’s name means?

He's the governor. You remember what his name means? It means “seed of Babylon, born in Babylon;” that's what his name means. Zerubbabel means “born in Babylon.”

But we read later in this passage, inverse 23, that he's the son of Shealtiel and Shealtiel is the son of Jehoiachin, who was the king that Nebuchadnezzar took as captive and brought him with that first group of exiles to Babylon. He was the last one. Jehoiachin was his grandfather. So here's Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, grandson of Jehoiachin.

His grandfather sat on David's throne. But now, here's Zerubbabel. He's born in Babylon, he's born in exile. He's supposed to be royalty, but he's not. This is a good word to him.

I want you to get him off to the side, and I want you to tell Zerubbabel (who feels about this big) I know that it doesn’t look too good, but I'm about to turn it all upside down. I'm about to turn everything upside down and I'm about to shake things up. You can trust My plans. Now, here's the thing: I want you to know and I don't know if you believe this or not.

I want to say this and I want to hear if you think you believe it - God's plans for you are better than your plans for you. Now, do you believe that?

Now, do you believe it every day? Because some of us are planners, and here's how we plan. We think, Now, God, can we talk for a minute?

This is my calendar for this week. These bills are due this week and I have these appointments. Could You bless my plans, Lord?

You know you're praying that way. Sounds to me like you don't believe that His plans are better than your plans. You might believe it, but you don't believe it. Now, I want you to think about it a little further. Wouldn't it be better to say, ‘God, this looks like what's on my calendar.

But, if You want to shake things up, if You want to turn things upside down, You're God and I'm not. I want Your plans to prevail in my house, in my life, in my marriage and with my kids, because Your plans for me are better than my plans for me.’ Do you believe that? It starts with declaring it and then acting on it. Then, when things don't go according to your plans, you know, God, I know I'm okay.

I can't figure out how I'm okay right now. But I know that You're still in control because You love me and You have what's best in mind for me. Your plans are better than my plans. I want you to just really think about that and work that out.

It says in Proverbs 19:21 (NLT) “You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.” You can make your plans. I can almost see God up in heaven. I don't think He does it in a mean way, but I think maybe He laughs every once in a while and thinks, Look at what Gary's planning. Can you believe what Gary's planning right now?

If only he knew how much better it's going to be. He's planning for it to be that big, but I'm planning for it to be this big. Every year for the past few years, it's been a thing that we put into our calendar

and if God allows it, we'll do it again in June. We've already paid the deposit on the beach house. We're planning. God might decide we can't go there. He might wash the beach away.

I don't know what He might do, but every year in June, the Combs Clan go on our beach vacay. We take our kids, their spouses and our ten grandchildren, and we rent a big old house, and we spend the whole week at the beach making memories.

It's important to get your family together and do that, isn't it? One of the things we do is we build sandcastles. That's the kind of family we are. We go on vacation and work our heads off at the beach. We don't just build one sandcastle, we build sand “cities.”

Our kids and our grandkids are involved now. We build these things; we build them, but they never survive. We build intricately and build bridges. Then, each grandchild says, “I live in this one right here.” They'll go around and point.

”Which one do you live in?” “I live in this one.” I tell them, “The surf's going to hit that one first. Are you sure you want to live in that one?”

“Yeah, Papa. I've put more sand here.” We plan it out. Now, we have to watch out for the toddlers on the beach. They're like “Godzilla” coming through sometimes.

But, our main problem is that the surf comes up and back every day. So, I usually go out with some of the older grandchildren early in the morning. We make the first run to the beach, when the sun first comes up, to see what survived. Some of it does and some of it doesn't. By the week's end,/p>

when we say, “goodbye,” to the beach, there's no evidence that we were ever there. You know, that's kind of what history's like. The ebb and flow of time comes and washes away. Man's plans are washed away, like sandcastles at the beach. But God's plans will prevail.

Whose plans are you trying to follow today? You can trust God that His sovereign plans will prevail. Here's the second reason that you can trust God with the future:

2. Because God’s servants receive His unshakable kingdom.

If you're a believer in Jesus, you belong to Him and you've been brought into an unshakable kingdom, the kingdom of God. You've received an unshakable kingdom. So, when God does all this shaking, you're part of a kingdom that cannot be unshaken. Let's unpack how we got there. In our text, we're at verse 23.

We're on the last verse of the book of Haggai. He says, 23 “On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts.” “On that day,” what day? Well, it would be the day that He's about to do those other things: I am about to shake. I'm about to overthrow.

I'm about to destroy and overthrow. On the day that I do that, that'll be the day that I do this next thing I'm about to do.’ ‘The day I do this next thing,’ which he says, ‘here's what I'm going to do:’ “I will take you, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel,”

Unusual language. I'm going to take you, Zerubbabel. Where's He going to take him? That's not what He means by “take.”

It reminds me of the kind of language I use as a pastor. For 33 years, I've been doing weddings. I kind of know a lot of this stuff by heart: “Do you “take” this woman to be your wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward? Do you “take” this

man to be your wedded husband?” That's this kind of language; to take as your own. It's like “marriage” language. It's “covenantal” language. Zerubbabel, I know who you are.

I know your daddy. I know your granddaddy, Jehoiachin. I rejected him. I rejected Jehoiakim. It put in jeopardy all the messianic prophecies of the Bible because it was prophesied from early on.

If you go back to Genesis, the first place that we have a Christ Messiah prophecy is in Genesis chapter three, where he says ‘the seed of the woman.’ By the way, women don't have seed. So it's like the virgin birth language right there.

”He will bruise your heel (speaking of Satan) but you will crush his head.” So he's speaking of one that's going to be born to a woman that's coming sometime in the future. Then He tells Jacob to prophesy over Judah, his son and prophesies that his tribe is a lion and that the scepter won't depart from him. I could just keep working through it. There are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament and Jesus fulfilled everyone.

One of the things He promised David was that one of his sons would sit on his throne forever. There will be an eternal kingdom. But here's a problem.

Jehoiakin got carried off into exile and lost the throne to the point where he lost his throne. So, this is what he's saying,

‘I know you, Zerubbabel and I know you think you lost everything, but I'm about to take you.’ It's the kind of language He used when He called David. Look at 2 Samuel 7:8 (NIV) “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says:

I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. It’s the same kind of language he used when he called David, 2 Samuel 7:8 ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel.” He says for Haggai to go and tell Zerubbabel I'm going to take him as my servant.

I'm going to choose him. I'm going to take him as my servant. Isaiah says this of the Messiah. Isaiah 40:2 is speaking of the coming Messiah. And this is God speaking of the coming Christ.

He says, Isaiah 42:1 (ESV) “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” He calls him “my servant.” When Jesus came, He says, “I do what the Father says. Whatever I see the Father doing, I do it.”

“Whatever I hear him saying, I say it.” He was the perfect son and the perfect servant. He came not to be served, but to serve. He tells us, He says, “I'm God's servant.”

So, he's saying something here to Zerubbabel; “I'm going to take you as my servant, declares the Lord.” Notice the triple “declares the LORD” in verse 23; It opens with a “declares the LORD.

it does a midpoint D is in all caps,

so that's “Yahweh.” Declares the “Yahweh” of Heaven's armies. Declares the LORD of hosts. I'm going to do this. I choose you.

I take you as Mine. This is a great word. He's inviting him to be restored to his plans for the kingdom. He's going to shake everything up. But there's one kingdom that won't be shaken.

Now, Gary, how do you get at this? Well, the best way to understand the Old Testament is to read it through the lens of the New Testament. What does the New Testament say about what we're reading right now? Does it say anything about it? Well, it does.

Hebrews 12:26-28 (ESV) 26 “At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,

and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.” Here's what he says, as His servants, as His followers, we've become citizens of an unshakable kingdom. So no matter what kind of chaos you see on the news, no matter what we hear about what's going on in Ukraine, Russia, China, Korea and North Korea; whatever we hear on the news about the politics of things or whatever concerns we have about the economy, know this - that the ebb of time, we know, will wash it all away. It's all going to be shaken and overturned.

If you put your reliance there, you will be washed away with it. You will be carried away. By following the wrong king, the wrong throne, he's going to overturn all of that. But if you follow King Jesus, who's born into the line of Zerubbabel, into the line of David, if you follow Him, you've become part of an unshakable, eternal kingdom, and so we can give Him worship. On October 17, 1989, an earthquake, called the Loma Prieta earthquake, struck the San Francisco Bay.

It was a 6.9 magnitude and it caused widespread devastation; it destroyed almost every building in the area. Freeways collapsed, buildings crumbled, fires broke out. It was devastating. However, one of the city's most recognizable strengths/structures remained. It was the Transamerica Pyramid, one of the tallest buildings in the city.

It was designed to be earthquake proof, and it had a deep foundation and a flexible design that allowed it to absorb the seismic waves without collapsing. Even though the building, it was said, swayed over a foot back and forth, it took no damage other than the desks, papers and stuff flying everywhere inside the building, but the building continued to stand. It was structurally intact when other buildings were demolished. I don't know if it would have survived a 9.0 magnitude.

I do know of one thing that it won't survive. It won't survive the utter shaking, the “I'm about to: shaking, but it is kind of a symbol of an unshakable kingdom that God's building right now. Now, where's it at? Well, Jesus says it's at hand.

He says it's near. He says it's coming. How do you know where the kingdom of heaven is? It's wherever Christ is King.

Is He king of your life? Is He king of your house? Is He king of your family? Then, the kingdom has come to you. If you follow King Jesus, if you've made Him king of your life, you have become a citizen of the unshakable kingdom.

This is the promise and this is why we can trust in His future. It means that all of our interests are safe in Him. No good thing will be lost. It means that all of our exertions will be crowned with ultimate success.

All of our spiritual exertions, those things that we've done for Jesus will stand in the end. They will be unshakable. It means those people that we've talked to about Jesus, that have come to faith in Him, will join us. They say, “You can't take it with you,” but you can take people with you. You can take them with you by saying, ‘Hey, let me introduce you to Jesus’’

and they become a part of this unshakable kingdom. You can know that your reward is certain. You can trust in His future for you as you invest and depend on His kingdom. That leads to the third reason we can trust God with the future. We've got a few more words left in this wonderful book of Haggai. It leads to our third reason:

3. Because God’s promised King will reign.

Because God's promised king will reign. God is speaking with that triple declaration language right there. That is some powerful.

Three times, He says, “declares the LORD of hosts.” This is how I want you to say it to him and when you say this to him, I want you to say, “Oh, Zerubbabel.” That's some Old English right there; I'm glad the ESV included it.

If you look up the word, “O,” the first thing it says is that it's Old English. We don't say it like that anymore. So what does it mean?

I don't know. If my mama said, “Oh, Gary Wayne,” I was probably in trouble. But, the way God's saying it here, when I looked it up, it has the idea of adding dignity and specificity to it. I'm not talking to everybody right now; I'm talking to you.

I'm talking right to you. I know that you're the son of Shealtiel and I'm going to take you. I'm going to make you My servant.

Verse 23, “I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts.” What are You going to do to me?

Are You going to take me and make me, create me into something else that I wasn't before? That's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to make you. I'm going to restore something to you that you think you've lost forever. I'm going to make you like a signet ring. I'm going to put you on My right hand and make you like My signet ring. That's what I'm going to do for you,

Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel is just a little old governor. They've lost the kingdom.

He doesn't even have a Hebrew name. He's got a Babylonian name; he was born in Babylon. I have chosen you. I've chosen you, Zerubbabel.

Now remember what I told you about how Zerubbabel was born in Babylon and his father's name was Shealtiel and Shealtiel never sat on a throne? His father never sat on a throne,but his grandfather, Jehoiachin, did sit on a throne before Babylon came and Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Jerusalem and carried him off into Exile. To the point where Jeremiah, the prophet who was writing during that time, some seventy years before Haggai actually writes this about Jehoiachin, the grandfather of Zerubbabel. Jeremiah 22:24 (NLT) “As surely as I live,” says the Lord, “I will abandon you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off.

They had Jeremiah's writings that Zerubbabel heard growing up; what Jeremiah wrote about his granddaddy. You know what? We were supposed to be in the line of David; we were supposed to be in the line that the Messiah comes in. God took the ring off.

Now, we're nothing. I don't even have a Jewish name. I'm a nobody, but God says, ‘You know what, Zerubbabel? Here's the final word from Haggai that I want just for you.’

See, God's a personal God. He's got a word for you. He says, ‘I'm going to take you and I'm going to make you the signet ring on my right hand. I took it off your grandfather, but I'm restoring to your line all the promises that I gave to David.’

How about that? Man, that had to be encouraging. Don't you imagine that was encouraging to Zerubbabel? He had to be wondering what this means. Of course, I wonder what He means by

”On that day” and “about to,” because the truth is, Zerubbabel kind of disappears from the pages of biblical history. We don't know what came of him. Some have suggested he passed away about 10 years after this, about 510 B.C.

We don't know what came of him. I'm sure he was encouraged by this. God's putting the ring back on; He's taking Zerubbabel and He saying, ‘I'm putting you back on my finger.’ Now, what's a signet ring? A signet ring had the seal of the king, so that if he was sending a message by an ambassador, they would roll up the scroll, tie it off and the king would put a wax seal on it. He would press his ring into it and it was not to be opened until it was given to the person it belonged to.

They would look and they'd say, ‘That's from the king; you break the seal.’ Kings would often wear the signet ring on their right hand. Sometimes they would wear it around their neck on a necklace so that they could use it.

Sometimes, a king would give it to somebody and he would say, ‘Here, you take my signet ring; whoever was the bearer of the ring moved with the king's authority. God says to Zerubbabel, ‘I'm going to give you authority. I'm going to give you My signet ring. You're going to be on My right hand.’

Zerubbabel had to be thinking, What does this mean? As far as we know, other than it being very, very encouraging to him in these words, we know that there was this constant overthrow of these kingdoms. Probably, he saw a little bit of it, but maybe Zerubbabel didn't see any of it, because we know Persia gets overthrown by Alexander the Great. Then, he dies and his four generals are divided into four lands.

Then, the Romans come in and take it over. So, there is this overthrow, and it's still happening to this day. Zerubbabel didn't see all of that. What did Zerubbabel see?

I don't think he saw much of it, but God gave him a word. ‘I don't know if you'll see everything that God has for you, dearly beloved, until the day He calls us home on that day. Verse 23,

”On that day…” Surely this day is ultimately an eschatological day, an “end times” day, a day when King Jesus will return the One who really wears the signet ring on the Father's right hand. The One who has the authority of the Father. Jesus says in Matthew 28:18, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.”

We see Zechariah, who's the prophet right after Haggai, right during the same time period. He prophesies of this coming Messiah, and Matthew quotes it. In Matthew 21, he quotes Zechariah, Matthew 21:4-5 (ESV), This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

So here He comes; here comes King Jesus. So, 500 years later, with this temple they've rebuilt, here comes King Jesus riding a donkey down to the Eastern Gate.He comes in and He walks around this very temple that they're rebuilding right here in the book of Haggai. So, the glory of the second temple is greater than the former, not because of its wealth, but because the King is coming into it. This King has a seal.

He seals us. It says in Ephesians 1:13-14 (NIV) 13 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” So, when you receive Christ, you receive this unshakable kingdom, but you also receive the Holy Spirit, Who seals your soul for your redemption unto His return.

He's also like a guarantee. Did you see this language? He's like a deposit, guaranteeing that everything that belongs to Jesus is yours. He has sealed you, believer, with this. He's saying to Shealtiel, this language; He's saying to Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel is a “Christological type.”

He's a foreshadowing of Jesus. He's telling Zerubbabel actually everything He's going to give to Jesus, Who is in the line of Zerubbabel. I said that Zerubbabel’s name disappears from the pages of the Bible. Well, it does in the Old Testament, until you get over to Matthew. Then, he shows up again In Matthew chapter 1: 12, in the lineage of Jesus

and again over in Luke 3:27 in the lineage of Jesus. So, we see the fulfillment of what God was telling Zerubbabel. His name appears once again over here as it regards Jesus. Some years ago, in 2018, my wife and I were invited to the National Prayer breakfast in Washington D.C. You have to get a personal invitation; it has to be embossed and has to have a signature from the President.

There's a lot of details to it; it's a whole package. When you show up, you have to go through a secret service check in. You have to show that you have the invitation. If you show up without the invitation, they won't let you in. Not only that, you have to show ID that you're that person.

Then, they give you name badges and all kinds of things so you can get in and out of all the things. It's not just a breakfast, it's three days of meetings. It was really wonderful. Unfortunately, I got the flu on the way there and I can't remember much of it. My wife thought that we really should go home because I was getting really sick. But, I was staying here for the whole thing.

We did; it was quite an honor. We got to meet some fantastic people from around the world that were there, that believe in Jesus. We couldn't have gotten in without the invitation. We couldn't have gotten in without the Presidential seal that was embossed on the invitation.

The same is true of you and I when it comes to this unshakable kingdom that Jesus is King over. There's only one way to get into that and that is to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, as the payment for your sins, as the One who is going to overturn all the world's kingdoms. It will all be replaced with His everlasting kingdom. The new heavens and the new earth will come on that day. Will you be part of that?

If you make that decision, you can trust God with your future. His plans for you are better than your plans for you. Do you believe that? Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we want You to be King of our lives. We want to be part of Your unshakable kingdom. I pray for that person, first of all, that came in today and they've never given their life to you. I pray for you, my friend, right where you are.

You could receive Him as your Lord and Savior right now; prayer is just expressing your faith. You could be praying silently or even aloud with me right now. Pray like this, if it's your desire, “Dear Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. I've been trying to be on the throne of my life and control my own life, but I give up.

I surrender. I want You to be on the throne. I believe You came and that You died on the cross for my sins and that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. I believe that. Would You come and take control of my life?

I surrender the throne of my heart to You. I want You to be my Lord and my Savior. Forgive me of my sins and make me a child of God. I want to follow You all the days of my life. I want to be a citizen of that unshakable kingdom.”

Others are here and you've received Jesus and you're a citizen, you're a servant, but you still worry. You still worry about things. Would you just confess that to the Lord right now and say, “Lord, forgive me.

I believe, Lord, help me with my unbelief. Lord, help me. I'm worried about this and I just want to turn my worries into prayers right now.

I just lift it up to You, Lord. This thing that's before me right now that I'm thinking about, I surrender it to You. I hand it over to You, King Jesus. I trust that Your plans for me are better than my plans for me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

I want to read this quote to you. I forgot to read it. This is from Matthew Henry,

“Our Lord Jesus is the Signet on God's right hand, for all power is given to him, and derived from him. By him, and in him, all the promises of God are yes and amen.” Every promise in the Bible, if you have Jesus, it's yes and Amen.