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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hello, thank you for listening to your Daily

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Speaker 1: Bible Verse, the podcast that examines one verse each today

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Speaker 1: to learn more about God and his will for our lives.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Kyle Norman. After a brief message from

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Speaker 1: one of our sponsors, we will continue with today's verse.

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Speaker 1: Today's verse can be found in Hagi chapter two, verses

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Speaker 1: four and five. Be strong, oh people of the land,

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Speaker 1: declares the Lord work for I am with you, declares

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Speaker 1: the Lord of Host. According to the covenant that I

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Speaker 1: made with you when you came out of Egypt, my

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Speaker 1: spirit remains with you or not. There's an ancient story

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Speaker 1: involving a child and a famous artist. You may have

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Speaker 1: heard it. The artist is sculpting a large lion out

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Speaker 1: of pure marble, when the child asks, how do you

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Speaker 1: do that, to which the artist responds, well, I look

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Speaker 1: at the marble until the lion reveals itself, and then

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Speaker 1: I chip away everything that is not the lion. This

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Speaker 1: is a lovely, poetic and artistic answer, and there's a

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Speaker 1: great image of what it means to work in pristine

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Speaker 1: environments with pristine materials. Sure, when you have perfectly hewn

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Speaker 1: marble slab and all the tools necessary, at your disposal.

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Speaker 1: One can chisel a fine lion. That's great. But I

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Speaker 1: don't know about you, but I rarely work in pristine environments.

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Speaker 1: Life is chaotic at times, and sometimes I feel that

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Speaker 1: it takes all of my effort just keep up. When

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Speaker 1: hag Eye prophesies to the people of Israel, they aren't

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Speaker 1: surrounded by pristine slabs of marble. They are surrounded in rubble.

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Speaker 1: They've just returned from the Babylonian exile with a desire

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Speaker 1: to rebuild the temple. Solomon's Temple in all of its

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Speaker 1: grand opulence, had been destroyed nearly seventy years prior, and

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Speaker 1: so now they face the task of chiseling out a

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Speaker 1: new temple. But they didn't have fine materials as they

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Speaker 1: did before. They didn't have pristine tools and endless supplies

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Speaker 1: of gold and silver which adorned Solomon's temple. And so

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Speaker 1: the people of Israel looked at the task before them

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Speaker 1: and got discouraged. How could they ever do the task

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Speaker 1: that God was calling them to do? Have you ever

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Speaker 1: felt that way? Have you ever felt discouraged in your faith,

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Speaker 1: as if you were lacking all of the resources necessy

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Speaker 1: to live your faith in the way that God was

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Speaker 1: calling you. I can feel like that. Sometimes when we

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Speaker 1: are up against the mountainous task, it can feel like

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Speaker 1: we lack the necessary strength or fortitude to get it done,

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Speaker 1: and we can feel alone, left to ourselves, without hope

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Speaker 1: or without resources. But Hagi reminds the people that's not true,

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Speaker 1: because the spirit of God was with them. Be strong, all,

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Speaker 1: my people. My spirit remains with you, God says. Hagi

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Speaker 1: tells the discouraged people that God was empowering their efforts

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Speaker 1: and that the glory of the new Temple would outweigh

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Speaker 1: the glory of the old. So be strong, the Lord says,

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Speaker 1: And work. What are you facing? What work is God

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Speaker 1: calling you to do? In what way is God asking

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Speaker 1: you to step into a town, ask or a ministry

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Speaker 1: or an action with a bold or resilient trust. He

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Speaker 1: Guy's words ring out to us, All be strong, old

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Speaker 1: people of the land, and work, for I am with you.

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Speaker 1: These words are rooted in the audacious belief that renewal

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Speaker 1: will take place. They resound with encouragement and good hope.

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Speaker 1: But this hope isn't about the ease of the task

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Speaker 1: nor the skill of their hands. Remember, for Israel, the

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Speaker 1: task still loomed large, and they were still surrounded with rubble.

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Speaker 1: The people still lacked the fine tools, but they could

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Speaker 1: move forward in hope because God's presence was with them,

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Speaker 1: working in ways beyond what they could ask or imagine,

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Speaker 1: and that was really all that they needed. As Christian people,

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Speaker 1: we are called to live out our faith in tangible ways.

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Speaker 1: God calls us to works, to ministries, to acts of righteousness,

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Speaker 1: not as ways wherein we earn our salvation, but as

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Speaker 1: responses to God's gracious presence and God's invitation to join

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Speaker 1: in what God is doing in this world. So, as

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Speaker 1: people empowered by the Spirit, we are sent by the

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Speaker 1: Spirit into the world, and despite the nature of the

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Speaker 1: work that lies before us, we are called to engage

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Speaker 1: it in hopefulness, to dare to believe that God is

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Speaker 1: working with us to build expressions of God's kingdom. Israel

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Speaker 1: was asked to work toward rebuilding the Temple as a

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Speaker 1: testimony that God was for the people of Israel. It

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Speaker 1: was to be assigned to the nations that despite all

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Speaker 1: of their waywardness, they were still God's people and Yahweh

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Speaker 1: was still their God. If we believe that God brings

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Speaker 1: new life to us. Then we can't just sit on

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Speaker 1: this truth. We need to actively engage in it. To

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Speaker 1: live out this reality in all boldness and resolve. We

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Speaker 1: are to express this renewal that we know is ours.

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Speaker 1: And we do so, taking up the work of the

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Speaker 1: spirit daringly, boldly and hopefully, because we know that we

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Speaker 1: are not alone, that the power of God is alive

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Speaker 1: and working all around us, and so to us, to

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Speaker 1: you today, God says, be strong, work, for I am

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Speaker 1: with you and my Spirit remains with you. Do not

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Speaker 1: fear