It Is Time To Consider Your Ways

Text Verse: Haggai 1:4-5

(Haggai 1:4-5) "Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? {5} Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways."

Introduction:

Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon in 586 B. C. In 538 B. C. King Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. The work began well at first, then stalled, as the people of God became self-absorbed and so concerned about re-building their own homes and lives neglecting the work of God had given then to do.

As a result God sent a man of God of a preacher on the scene to reprove them for being remiss in this matter and encourage them to revive that good work which had stood still for some time, and to go on with it vigorously.

Notice:

1. Scripture Spoken (vss. 1-2, 5, 7)

(Haggai 1:1-2) "In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, {2} Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built."

(Haggai 1:5) "Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways."

(Haggai 1:7) "Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways."

A. Lacked Vision (vs 2)

(Proverbs 29:18) "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."

(Lamentations 2:9) "Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD."

B. Lacked Volition (Failed to chose right)

(Joshua 24:15) "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

C. Lacked Vigor (Strong feeling for enthusiasm)

2. Sever Shortage (vss 6, 9-11)

(Haggai 1:6) "Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes."

(Haggai 1:9-11) "Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. {10} Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. {11} And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands."

A. Lack of Vision, Volition, & Vigor results in:

1. Struggle

2. Sorrow

3. Shame

3. Servant Sent (vss 1,12)

(Haggai 1:1) "In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,"

(Haggai 1:12) "Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD."

A. Man

B. Method

1. Preached

C. Message

1. God’s Word

D. Measure

1. Didn’t compromise

2. Didn’t complain

4. Spirit Stirred (vs 14)

(Haggai 1:14) "And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,"

A. Challenged

B. Conviction

C. Changed

D. Commitment

5. Saints Serving (vs 14)

(Haggai 1:14) "And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,"

Notice those that did the work was a remnant.

Remnant = A surviving trace

A. Decided

B. Determined

C. Did

Close:

It is time for us to consider our ways.