In u 2016, Samsung released the famous Galaxy Note 7, a premium smartphone, which was uh very highly anticipated with several cool novel features. But within weeks, phones began overheating and catching fire. Airports banned them. Airlines refused passengers to carry them. It became one of the most expensive product recalls in human history, costing Samsung over $5.3 billion. You know, why was the recall? Now, we all know about recalls. We've experienced recalls of several products that you may have bought or had. Well, for this particular phone, there was a critical flaw in the battery design itself. You know, even though the phone looked sleek and and very attractive on the outside, something deep inside was fundamentally broken. The heart of it, the core of it, the power engine of it. So, it had to be called back before it could be rebuilt. You know, in Hagi chapter 1, God issues a spiritual recall. You know, he's recalling his people not only as they are coming back from exile. You know, the people have returned from exile by now, but their hearts are still far from him. The foundation of his temple was laid. Ezra already did that almost 14, 16 years ago. But their hearts are still far. It lies in ruins. the temple has not been finished while their own homes are furnished and finished. So God says to them in this chapter, consider your ways. I am recalling you to return to me and to rebuild your life. You know this is what we are going to look at in the passage we read today. But as we are doing this as part of our walk through the Bible, we will see God's covenantal actions. If you want to know someone who they really are, you can get to know them. Especially if you're trying to date someone, if you're getting married or nowadays it's online dating, you get to meet them for a cup of coffee. There's only so little you can get to know about that person, isn't it? But if you really want to know someone, you need to spend a long time with them. And here in God's word, we have the opportunity to see God, how he interacts with his people over thousands of years. And the one thing that underlies God's engagement with his people is his covenant. He makes this eternal covenant even before creating anything. And we we have been tracing his covenantal arc throughout redemptive history. He makes this covenant that he is going to create a people for himself which is and he is going to be their people and they will be his people. So simple covenant, a unilateral covenant and it unfolds through several covenants with Adamic covenant, covenant with Noah, the covenant with Abraham, the covenant with Moses. But you, as you look at the undercurrent of all these covenants, what you see is God's unchanging love and grace for his people. Even when his people are being rebellious and keep walking away from him, he brings them back. He brings back his covenantal people into a relationship with him. This is so unlike our love, isn't it? For one another. If someone even says something hurtful, or if we think they say something hurtful, imagine they said something hurtful, we stop talking to them. We're done with them. We try to avoid them. We don't want to develop that relationship anymore. But Bible is a book where we can see the unfailing love of God and his covenantal embrace of you and me. You know, if we remove this covenantal foundation, we will not be a able to appreciate any of the acts of God in history. You know, I I I heard BSF is doing a series right now on the return of the exiles. I haven't read that, but I know they do a great job with background and commentaries, but I I really hope uh they're able to address bring out this covenantal part of it so that you can integrate all those teachings. And as we have been journeying through the books of the Bible, we have covered almost 18 books of the Old Testament so far from January to now. Now that's the most number of Old Testament books I've preached in my life. Way more than what I preached in the first 10 years. We've covered in the first eight months. We've been on this rapid helicopter ride, you know, zooming in and out. And it's been beautiful, isn't it? I've enjoyed uh just reading God's word, preparing, synthesizing, and seeing this big picture and also at the same time going deep and extracting and mining some wonderful spiritual truths. And I'm hoping this is also helping you to understand and appreciate and read God's word, especially the Old Testament in a better way or in the right way because most of the times it tends to be read without this framework. If you read it, you can make any kind of application out of any part of it that will really not be helpful. So, I hope this has been also helpful for you. And we're going to a close. Next week, we'll wrap up the entire Old Testament and then we will move on to the New Testament. And last week in Mikah, um we saw how God's people were corrupt and acted unjustly. And um he gave them a warning that if they continue like that, they will be exiled. That was one of the blessings and curses attached to God's covenant. And they did get exiled. However, he also promised in Jeremiah 31:25 that at the end of 70 years, he will bring them back. And that's what's happening right now. You know God is acting not just in redemptive history in human history as well. You know they have been in exile. The Babylonians took them and after that the Assyrians and then the Persians have taken over. And now he gives a change of heart to one of the greatest kings uh King Cyrus to let his people go back. And we read about that in the book of Ezra which we haven't had time to go into it. But after Cyrus comes Darius and he upholds the same decree that the king Zyus did and the first wave of Israelites are returning back from exile to their country. They had returned from exile but their spiritual lives were stalled. The foundation of the temple was laid but for 16 years there was opposition, discouragement and other things that left God's house in ruin. But at the same time they were building their own homes, beautifying it and living the life. So as I said when you want to read a prophetic book you need to answer those fundamental questions of five W's. who, where, when, what, why, and how. So, some fascinating facts about Hagai. He's the first prophet uh in exile that God gives to the people of Israel in Jerusalem. He ministers for only 15 weeks, one week shy of four months, and gives four prophecies, that's it, and then disappears. is one of the shortest prophets in terms of the time God enabled him to minister to the people of Israel. And there are three things in his prophecy that we see we are going to look at today. The recall of God of his covenant people, return of God's covenant people back to God and rebuilding of God's temple. So how God recalls his people and we may all not be wondering how does this text apply to us? What about this rebuilding the temple? How does it apply to us? Well, for us currently, we are not in exile, but our rebuilding may look like trying to fix a broken marriage, trying to restart after a career setback or a loss of job or career, or perhaps trying to return back to God after a time of spiritual dryness, or even just restoring your daily rhythms of being in God's presence. And for some of us today, the ruins are not architectural, but rather they are relational, spiritual, and emotional. So let me ask you this morning, my dear friends, before we go into this text, what are the ruins that you want God to rebuild in your life today? Are they relational ruins? Are they spiritual ruins? Or are they emotional ruins? Whatever it may be, you can take encouragement that you have some hope from God's word. And we are going to learn several things about God and how he recalls his people back to him. The very first verse it says in the second year of Darius the king in the sixth month on the first day of the month the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggi the prophet. You know it's fascinating. It's a very significant verse. When a Bible passage begins by dating an event so precisely to the year and the month and even the date, it means that it's a very very significant milestone and it is authentic. It can be verified and it carries great authority. That's why even in geopolitics when any peace accords are made, it is usually referred by the date or the year that was made. Even the one I I forget the date the the AsianAmerican uh immigration act in the 60s right they always attach a date to it because it was significant and it was authoritative and it's interesting how the dates are mentioned here it starts with the year and the month and the date now we've all been through this several times right I mean where you grew up um at least in southern Asia the way we write dates is we start with a date the day and then the month and the year and then you come here you have to relearn how to do that right you start with the month and then the day and then the year we still have to think every time we write it and here it's it's even different it starts with the year right and then the month and then the date but also later on it's the reverse order but the point is just that it's significant and another very side interesting note because these dates there are four dates that are mentioned in the book of Hagai and they were able to correlate it with different calendars and compared it to our current calendar. You know the date that is mentioned here it happened in 520 BC and the day was August 29th of 520 BC. So close to today is what? August. I don't know how I timed it so perfectly. I'm so impressed by myself. But what you see here as you read through this text is several things about God comes to the four. When God is wanting to recall his people back to himself, he's not sitting and waiting for them to call. He takes the first step. God's covenantal care comes across the fact that he is the initiator in rebuilding. You know, pop quiz for couples. You don't have to answer right now. When you have a fight, who's the first one to say sorry? And how do you feel as the other person? Uh most of the times the pattern is it's it's only one person who keeps doing that for a long time in marriage. Isn't that so moving? Doesn't it melt your heart when that happens? In our relationship with God, God is the one who is constantly after us. He initiates the rebuilding by recalling them. You know after 70 years of exile only a very small number of people wanted to come back. Even later on when the time of Nehemiah the population of Jerusalem was just 20,000 people which is not much. It's nothing. They had the permission of their king. They had a prophetic mandate and they even had initial momentum. The king had told them that they can go back with all the jewelry and gold that Nebuchadnezzar had taken captive to Babylon. He said he could send them back. But they were not ready. God initiates by first speaking. The word of God came. You know the phrase the word of God came in different ways comes close to 20 times in just these two chapters in so many different ways. A God keeps speaking again and again and again to us when we keep going away from him to try to bring us back into that relationship. The rebuilding that we are reading in the book of Hagai does not begin with human initiative but divine revelation. That's always the first step. God has to change something in our heart in a supernatural way. Happened for the apostle Paul. It happened for Peter. It happened for uh Martin Luther. It happened for so many of us and including you and me. Have you had that experience in your life? My dear friends, that's one of the most beautiful experiences where God sparks that desire in you to come back to him. And he does that. Whether you are coming to him for the first time or you've been in exile, you've been in a time of spiritual dryness or you've been in a time of emotional dryness. He calls. His word comes to you in several ways. You may send a friend. You may receive a card or a text or a note. But he always comes to you and brings you back to him. He may speak to you through one word you hear in an entire worship service in a song or a prayer or a sermon or the sacrament because God is doing all these things. He's surrounding you with this to rebuild our lives. So the first thing about God's covenantal care is it's expressed in his constant communication with you and me. Secondly, God also is showing he's not only caring. He provides the leadership. He gives them a prophet. He gives them a governor. He gives them a priest. For now, God not only calls, he also provides all the means to fulfill his mission. And why was there a recall? Why is God recalling them? You know, in a product, it's easy to find. You just open it up and look at the design and and and if you do a dissection of the heart of people which God does and he himself says he knows the reason why these people are not wanting to prioritize their relationship with him first. Verse two says, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, these people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord. God as a master surgeon of our souls, he could get what was in the hearts of his people. He was able to discern what they were thinking and believing. They believed for real. Time has not yet come. Which was a lie. We all tend to believe lies, isn't it? It was a lie because they had not seen what God has provided. Not just leaders. As I said, they got the treasures that were taken away from Babylon. In fact, Cyrus had even sent an edict that those who were still residing in Babylon were supposed to support this by giving whatever resources was needed. It was not because they didn't have the resources to do it for them to think, oh, this may not be the right time. That was a lie. They had everything. In verse three and four says, "Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Hagi the prophet. Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paddled houses while this house lies in ruins?" They thought it was not the right time to set their relationship with God as the highest priority to go back to him. But they thought it was a great time. They didn't have resources, they think, to build a temple that will help them to enjoy his presence. But they had resources to build fancy houses. You know, panled houses you can think of is like one of these houses on the on as you walk up to Mission Peak or or if you go down freeway one, that's this uh homes that are standing alone overlooking the bluffs. And uh you know I got to uh uh visit a friend who lives in a house in Los Katos and and then as you go there's actually uh a road that goes inside their house and and has it takes two turns. I was confused. I've never seen someone having a such a huge house that you have a road that goes in to different parts of their homes. Right? People had time to build that kind of houses for themselves but never got to think about prioritizing their relationship with God. And the foundation of the temple was built 16 years ago. Maybe the foundation of your spiritual life was set 10 years, 16 years, 5 years, whatever years ago. God laid the foundation of your faith already. But maybe you've lived in exile, a self-imposed exile perhaps away from God, chasing after other dreams and desires in your lives. Your mind keeps telling you, "It's not the right time to take care of your spiritual life. Let's back get back to God. Maybe after we finish this or after we do that." But the real reason God was recalling them back reflected by them building panel houses symbolized absolute selfabsorption, self-pity, self-s sympathy. You know, they all sound nice and they feel nice, but at the root of it, it's all about our self. You know, panel houses symbolized comfort and personal ambition. So, their lives looked great outside like the Samsung Galaxy phone, but was broken inside that others couldn't screen. I don't know if you've had this experience um of getting a brand new iPhone, recently switched one of our iPhones, the very first day it dropped down and the screen cracked. You know how that feels, isn't it? Shattered glass. And thankfully, we had a screen protector on it. So, it was we didn't know later, but we found was the screen protector that cracked. What we thought maybe the screen also cracked. But even if the screen is cracked for a long time, we didn't change it. You know, we just uh I don't want to don't want to say who it was just kept using swiping up and down. You can still read. Yeah, I can read. I can use that. So what? I don't need to change. It's frustrating and risky, but we use it. It took like I think two months before finally we decided to change that screen protector. Some of us are like that spiritually, isn't it? Still functioning, still showing up, but deeply cracked inside. Hagai is God's invitation to stop tolerating the cracks in your life and let them rebuild you from the inside out which is beautiful you know and for that we need to know what our priorities are and we need to find our way back to him you know uh I remember talking to pastor Juan Basson now he was a senior pastor of Korean Emanuel Presbyterian Church was so generous. We started our first worship services there in their English ministry sanctuary. They gave it to us for free. And he told me once, I used to meet up with him every now and then, who is a great friend and mentor. Um he said when Koreans move into a new city, the very first thing they do, he says, was they look for a church and if there is no church, they build one. So, in San Francisco Bay area, the demographic of Korean-Americans, there's only 100,000 Korean-Americans. Used to be 80,000. Now, it's 100,000 as I looked up yesterday. And guess how many Korean-American churches are there? 300 Korean-American churches for 100,000 Korean-Americans in San Francisco Bay Area. There are 1.2 million close to South Asians, maybe close to a million from India alone, living in the San Francisco Bay area. And guess how many churches are there in San Francisco Bay area? Maybe 12 evangelical or semi-eangelical churches. And and this is not to, you know, beat our trumpet or be proud about it, but honestly, we may be the only reformed, theologically reformed church among Indian-Americans in the entire San Francisco Bay area. You may wonder why. When Koreans move into a city, they want to think of a church and build a church. What do you think Indians do when they move into a new city? What do we look for? Was that grocery stores? You need a curries need, right? That was kind. I would say we look for school districts, right? What's the best school district? We look for safe neighborhoods um and or apartments and homes and of course a you know a good job or a career or a elite school that you can be proud of. Hey, my kid studies in this and that school. Well, when you run life like that and you don't really prioritize coming to God or being in his presence, you know, the rest of your life can be cracked up like this. And what it results would be fruitlessness. Now Sinclair Ferguson said this beautifully. He says when God is not first, everything else is out of order. When God is not first, everything else is out of order. And that's what happened. Their efforts were fruitless. Despite working so hard, 80our weeks, 90 hour weeks, 100 hour weeks, sewing, eating, drinking, earning, they remained dissatisfied. That's what the Bible says. I'm not saying that. Read it verse 5 and 6. Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have sown much. You have given your blood, sweat, and toil for this job, for your company, right? You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Maybe you make a six-f figureure salary or more, but the more it comes, there's something that happens and it just goes away. We build carriers, plan families, renovate kitchens. But if God's presence isn't central, we live lives with bags of holes, empty souls, burnt out lives, and restless hearts and degrading health. That is what is the result of a life lived when we do not pursue God first. So now God having made that recall notice, he sends that recall notice through his prophet Hagi. He now sends the call for them to return. We read the return in Hagi 1 verse 7 onwards. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. God calls them out to return. There there's a phrase he uses two times. Consider your ways. It's repeated twice. You know what that means? The word consider where God is saying is hey you've been running so hard so fast for so long almost killing yourself and trying to do more more more and still feel empty and drained out and having no joy in your life. Stop. Just stop it. Pause. Take a deep breath. Reflect. Consider. you know to consider something you need to have that frame of mind to stop. If you just keep on running and you're trying to build a plane as it flies that plane is going to crash someday somewhere. So stop is the first thing. Don't just keep on running like this empty. You will crash, you will burn out, you will flame out. So what's this big deal about the temple? Isn't it? I don't know. Doesn't that thought come to your mind? Why is God so insistent about these guys building a temple? Does he really need a temple? Does is that what God is actually saying? Hey, I need a temple. I'm desperate. It sounds like that, isn't it? But the temple, if you remember and read from this uh redemptive history was never about the temple. God wanted to provide them a temple because a temple always signified a localized manifestation or presence of God amidst his people. Whenever God's presence was locally there, mighty things had happened in their life in the past when God dwelt among them. His first temple was a tabernacle. And that's why it says even in John, it talks about Christ tabernacling amongst us. We'll come to that later. It was just a tabernacle, nothing fancy. But when God's presence was there in the midst of his people, amazing things happened. His sheck glory shone forth from it. No one could touch them. He saved them from enemies behind them. Whether it was the mighty Pharaoh and his exorbitant number of armies, they would just drown in the Red Sea, the Egyptians. Or it was the enemies that were ahead of them. And he shielded them, his presence through his cloud of uh fire, pillar of fire and cloud. He gave them the ten commandments when his glory descended on Mount Si and he gave all of these things to them. When his presence was there, it was lifegiving. It was never about the architecture or the building. It was about his presence. The temple always represented God's dwelling. Which meant not only did he give them protection, it was a place they could come for forgiveness, offer sacrifices, feel redeemed, freedom from guilt. It was for protection. It was for provision. They could bring the fruit of their labor and offer and experiences blessing in all areas of their lives. They could experience joy where they could worship. When they were not having a temple, they're spiritually homeless. And twice it refers when the prophecy is given that the he's called as the Lord of hosts. He's Yahweh. But the Lord of hosts that we don't use that phrase often, but what it means is he's like the Lord of the armies. He's so big and so mighty. He's working in political history. He's changing the heart of two greatest kings, Cyrus and Darius. He's restoring back