Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E45 | Everyday Eurasia | Chad Gibbons

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S1-E45 | Everyday Eurasia | Chad Gibbons · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  Hello and welcome to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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  Inspiring Faith for Every Day. Each day we are on a journey
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  with Jesus in our churches, our homes, our workplaces, and in so
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  many different places around the world.
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  Is it beautiful that no matter where we are, we can walk with
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  him every single day? Jesus is the one who connects us
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  all and stands at the very center of our lives day after
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  day. Through this podcast, you'll
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  hear voices from across the region sharing devotionals that
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  reminds us of God's presence in our everyday moments.
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  This week, we'll be journeying together with Chet Gibbons.
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  Chet serves as the Nesserin Discipleship International
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  Coordinator for the Eurasia Region.
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  As a missionary, he lives and serves alongside his wife
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  Crystal from the regional office in Business, Germany.
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  Today, Chet will be thinking with us about the new year that
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  is in front of us. At the start of the new year,
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  there's always a big temptation to start new things, make new
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  promises. You say to yourself, this is the
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  year when I'm finally going to do the things that I've been
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  wanting to do. But before we add more things to
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  our To Do List this year, even if they're good things, let's
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  listen to the prophet Haggai. He was dealing with the same
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  issue. There was utter destruction in
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  Jerusalem. The people of God have been in
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  exile. They've been returned back to
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  their promised land and now they're rebuilding the city,
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  rebuilding the temple. As the people are coming back.
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  They have a lot of work to do and they have a big To Do List,
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  and many of them have chosen to take care of other things before
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  they're taking care of the things of God.
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  And the prophet Haggai comes on the scene, and this is from
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  chapter 1, verses 2 through 9. This is what the Lord of
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  Heaven's armies says. The people are saying the time
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  has not yet come to rebuild the House of the Lord.
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  Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai.
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  Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in
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  ruins? This is what the Lord of
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  Heaven's Army says. Look at what's happening to you.
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  You have planted much, but harvest little.
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  You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty.
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  You put on clothes but cannot keep warm.
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  Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets
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  filled with holes. This is what the Lord of
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  Heaven's Army says. Look at what's happening to you
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  now. Go up into the hills, bring down
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  timber and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it
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  and be honored, says the Lord. You hoped for rich harvests, but
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  they were poor, and when you brought your harvest home, I
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  blew it away. Why?
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  Because my house lies in ruins, says the Lord of Heaven's
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  Armies, while all of you are busy building your own fine
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  houses. It's because of you that the
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  heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops.
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  I have called for a drought on your fields and your hills, a
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  drought to wither the grain and grapes and olive trees and all
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  your other crops. A drought to starve you and your
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  livestock and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.
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  This is the word of the Lord. It sounds frighteningly familiar
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  to me. I don't know if you felt that
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  way, working really hard, but coming home with a little bit.
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  We eat and eat, but we're never satisfied.
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  We drink and we're still thirsty.
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  We work and we feel like we're putting money into pockets with
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  holes in them. It sounds very familiar to me.
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  Why was all this happening? Well, the Israelites were
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  ignoring the Temple and focusing on their own things, focusing on
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  their own houses. Now, when we read the Old
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  Testament, there's something we should always remember the the
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  equivalent to the temple structure that we read about in
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  the Old Testament. When we come to the New
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  Testament, the equivalent of that structure is the body of
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  Christ. It's the church, not the church
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  building, but the church. It's you and I.
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  We are the temple where God dwells, where his Spirit dwells
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  now, and we have the same problem the Haggai was dealing
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  with, that we have our own priorities instead of focusing
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  on the things of God and the temple of our Lord.
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  It's one of Satan's great strategies is to see the less
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  important things of this world as the most important things.
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  Like in Haggai's day, it's the same temptation for us to be
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  busy, busy, busy with all the wrong things.
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  And if we're not careful, we can go into this new year and the
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  temptation is to add more things to our resolution list, more
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  things to our To Do List. And we and it comes to church
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  and when it comes to our spiritual lives, we're just
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  exhausted. We say I'm working so hard, I'm
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  so busy, I feel like I don't have time for anything.
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  Well, that's true. You are working hard.
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  You don't have time for anything, and you could try
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  working harder this year, but that's not going to work either.
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  Nothing is going to work until you focus on the right things.
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  Until you focus on the right things, until you focus on your
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  relationship with God, none of it will mean anything.
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  You're only going to become more exhausted at the end of the
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  year. The problem isn't that you're
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  not working hard enough. The problem is you're working
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  hard making yourself your own luxurious home while the temple
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  of the Lord lies in ruin. While your relationship with God
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  needs to be fixed, you're going around fixing everything else.
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  Haggai wasn't trying to add more work to the Israelites plate, He
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  was trying to get our priorities in order.
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  Jesus didn't die so that you could have more things to do.
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  Jesus died to give you new life. Love the next verses.
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  And Haggai, because the people listen to him.
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  They repented that they were so distracted with all the things
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  of this world. And in verse 12 and 13 it says
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  then there's then Zerubbabel son of Shaltiel, and Jeshua, son of
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  Jehoshadek, the high priest. And the whole remnant of God's
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  people began to obey the message from the Lord their God.
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  When they heard the words of the prophet Haggai, whom the Lord
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  their God had sent. The people feared the Lord.
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  Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, gave the people this
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  message from the Lord. I am with you, says the Lord.
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  I am with you. They got together.
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  The Israelites got together and said, from now on we're putting
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  God first, we're putting his house first.
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  They repented. They put God 1st.
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  And Haggai says to them, great, now here's what God says to you.
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  I am with you. I am for you.
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  This is the greatest promise and reward we could possibly have.
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  If God is with us, then who could ever be against us?
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  God wants us to make Him our top priority this year.
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  Not because He wants to make you miserable.
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  Not because He wants you to focus on things that you don't
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  care about. God knows that if you put
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  something else as your top priority besides Him, that is
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  going to make you miserable. That is how you end up spinning
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  your wheels and feeling exhausted day after day.
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  We are built to have God at our center and until we have Him as
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  our top priority, we will just be going nowhere.
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  Working hard and going nowhere. I don't know what your goals are
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  this year or what you have planned for your life, but if
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  you truly want that thing, the first thing you need to do is
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  not to chase after it harder. You chase after God harder.
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  Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all of the other things will
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  be given to you, and God's promise will be the same as what
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  Haggai said to the people. God will be with you, and that's
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  far better than anything else you could chase after anyway.
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  Thank you for listening to the Everyday Eurasia podcast
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  Inspiring Faith for Everyday. For more Everyday stories,
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  subscribe on this podcast channel, follow our socials,
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  For our newsletter and further information about the Eurasia
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  region, visit our website, eurasiaregionorg.