Folks, here's the deal. My father used to say, "No malarkey!" and that's what I'm preaching today. See here, Jack, the prophet Haggai and the governor Zerubbabel were working hard to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. They got it done with the help of their crew and wouldn't you know it, the leaders of the people were all for it! They actually gave them whatever they needed. I'm not joking.

But then the officials from the region of Samaria came in and asked what they were doing. Haggai and Zerubbabel laid out the details and the officials wrote it all down in a letter and sent it to the king. Well, the king was so impressed that he wrote back and told them they could keep on building! Literally, the king was all for it and he even gave them money to help out.

But then, what was that? The enemies of the people started to cause trouble again and the work was slowed down. But then the prophets Haggai and Zechariah stepped in and encouraged the people to keep going. And guess what? They did! They finished the temple and when it was finally completed, the people rejoiced!

C'mon, man! I tell you what, this was a huge victory for the people and it's an example of what we can do when we work together. Or uh, you know, when we don't let our enemies get in the way. Not gonna happen. Excuse me.