Scripture:
Exodus 20: 1-6
Haggai 1: 2-7
Consider Your Ways
Good morning,
Again, today, I have the privilege to speak to you from God’s Word.
As you can tell from the title of this sermon, I’m going to talk awhile about how we, as humankind, sometimes have our own ways…how these ways may not be God’s way.
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There was a humorous story that I read that kind of tells on us, as humans beings and how we sometimes stray.
“There was a Mrs. O’Flaherty, who went into the confessional at her church, she noticed an unfamiliar face behind the shutter. ‘You’re not our regular priest’, she said. ‘What are you doing here?’ The man on the other side of the shutter said, ‘I’m the furniture polisher, ma’am. ‘Well, where is Father Dolan?’ ‘I couldn’t tell you’ the man said, ‘but if he’s heard anything like the stories I’ve been listening to, he’s gone for the police!”
Well, I’m sure that some of us have stories of how we have strayed and forgotten to consider God first…stories that we too could take to a confessional.
In the past few weeks, I have been reading the book of Haggai. The book of Haggai is one of the shortest books in the Old Testament…in my Bible, it’s about two pages long. You might wonder why it has taken several weeks for me to read it…but those two pages are just packed with some real truths that can speak to us today. Truth about how we, as men and women, should “Consider Our Ways”
To give you a little background on the book, it’s about the return of the Judeans to Judah from Babylonia in about 536 BC. You see, after the destruction on Jerusalem, seventy years earlier by the Babylonians, the Judeans had been scattered into several countries, including Babylonia. Well, in 539 BC, the Persians conquered the Babylonian Empire and the Persian King, Cyrus the Great, issued a decree granting permission for the exiled inhabitants of Judah to return to their homeland and rebuild their city of Jerusalem and the Temple there.
Well, King Cyrus, of Persia appointed two men to lead this population of about 50,000 people back to Judah. Their names were Zerubbabel and Joshua. So, as this returning population of 50,000 came to Jerusalem, they encountered difficult conditions. The initial enthusiasm to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and its Temple gave way to discouragement and apathy as the struggle to provide the necessities of life became the prime focus of the people. Consequently, work on the Temple ceased and did not resume for sixteen years, in about 520 BC. The reconstruction was renewed in response to the prophetic ministries of Haggai and Zechariah.
In addition to the struggle to provide for daily needs, the inhabitants of Jerusalem faced opposition from the Samaritans. When the exiles returned to Judah, the Samaritans had initially requested to help rebuild the Temple. Although the Samaritans were distantly related to the inhabitants of Judah, the returning exiles regarded the Samaritans as violators of the Mosaic Law. The Samaritans had married people who worshiped gods other than God who had made the covenant with Israel.
So, when the leaders of the exiles rejected the request by the Samaritans to help reconstruct the Temple, the Samaritans were insulted and tried to disrupt and to prevent
work on the Temple and the city of Jerusalem.
These two factors of providing for the daily needs and the harassment from the Samaritans discouraged the people and the work on the Temple, God’s house, came to a stop.
As we come into the story, Haggai is bringing God’s message to Zerubbebel and Joshua, since they are the leaders. God sends his message in the form of a question.
“Is it right for you to be living in fancy houses while My Temple is in ruins?”
He was saying, “Why have you built nice homes for yourselves (and it says in one translation, paneled homes) while God’s house is still destroyed?” He is asking them to “Consider their ways” Had they forgotten the first of the Ten Commandments? You shall have no other Gods before me. God was really asking the people where they were, Spiritually. Just like he asked Adam and Eve after they had eaten from the tree of knowledge and were hiding in the garden…Where are you?, God asked. God wasn’t concerned about their physical whereabouts, He knew where they were…He was asking, “Where are you, spiritually…what has happened to your relationship with me…your God?
God asked the people of Judah to look at their lives and ask themselves where they were spiritually, and to realize and admit to themselves that they had fallen away from Him. The rains were not falling on the vineyards or the grain fields or the olive trees, anymore. Their labor was not being blessed by God, because they had not obeyed…they had forgotten Him. They had forgotten to consider their ways and put God first in their lives and their prayers.
This can speak to us today. Just like the returning exiles, are we considering our ways? Are we thinking about where God is in our lives…is He first? Or are our lives too full of being busy…of trying to acquire more…of unrighteous thoughts? Is there room in our daily life for God? Have we crowded him out with our personal agenda’s…our personal thoughts and plans for ourselves?
Just like the Judeans…are we sleeping Spiritually?
I listen to the radio on the way home from work and I usually listen to one of the Christian stations. There are times when certain speakers really stand out with their message and it seems to hit home with me.
One speaker, talked about the five principles for Christian living. The very first thing on his list was that the Christian must be Alert…he must be Watchful. The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms that we must not slumber spiritually.
Joshua 8 verse 4…All of you be on the alert
Isaiah 21 verse 11…let him be alert, fully alert.
Mark 13 verse 33…Be on guard, be alert! You do not know when that time will come.
Are we ready for when that time comes…the time when we are tempted…the time when we doubt…the time when we are discouraged…the time when we are persecuted? These are the times when Satan comes into our lives and if we are sleeping spiritually, we won’t be ready to make good Christian decisions. We won’t be awake enough to ask ourselves the simplest of questions…”What would Jesus do?”
The second thing that we need to consider is, “Are we standing firm? Are we grounded firmly in our beliefs? Do we know our scripture well enough to call up the principles of our Faith in difficult times?
Two things come to my mind when I think about these questions…
The first is a line from a sermon of Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, a well-known minister of the 19th century England. He was encouraging his congregation to read their Bibles and to know their scripture better. He said, “Some of us have Bibles at home that have gathered enough dust, that you can take your finger and write the word “Damnation”.
It’s a scary thought to think that we can call ourselves Christians and still not know what the Word of God says.
The second thing that caught my attention on this radio program was the statement that a good 90 day wonder fresh out of Jehovah’s Witness school can tear a professing Christian apart in 30 minutes when it comes to knowing his Bible.
Do you know your Bible like you should? Do we know God’s Word for us?
So, first we need to be Alert and then we need to Stand Firm. Thirdly, you need to be “Mature”. Well, what does this mean? In 1st Corinthians 13, verse 11, Paul tells the church of Corinth:
“11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
Putting away childish actions, like anger, selfishness, deceit, pride and greed…these are just some of the ways we become mature. Jesus said,
“The things that come out of people are the things that make them unclean. All these evil things begin inside people, in the mind; evil thoughts, sexual sins, stealing, murder, adultery, greed, evil actions, lying, doing sinful things, jealousy, speaking evil of others, pride, and foolish living. All these evil things come from inside and make people unclean.
Being able to put these ways behind us is the process of maturing in the Christian Way. Paul even tells us how to become mature when he wrote to the Galatians. He said,
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control.
If we can develop these qualities in our lives…in our everyday lives, we can begin to mature. These are the qualities that Jesus lived and that Paul wrote about. These are the aspects and the essence of being a mature Christian.
Okay then, we need to be Alert. We need to Stand Firm and we need to be Mature. Next we need to have Strength. Strength to take up our cross, daily and follow Him. Where do we find this strength to continually be Alert, Committed and Mature in our Faith. There are two sources for the Alert, Committed, Mature Christian.
The first source for strength is available to every one of us and that is your Bible. This amazing book…this incredible book is your source for every life situation…every question…the answer to every doubt or discouragement one might face
The more I read, the more I realized that this fantastic book contain on its pages a treasure that no other book could impart. Where else would you find one book that has been written over thousands of years with the best advice and teachings from Kings, Sages, Captains, Poets, Shepherds, Scholars, Prophets, Mothers, Murderers, Prisoners, Tax Collectors, Fishermen…all of them speaking about one thing…Finding God and learning to follow Him and Obey his commands in order to lead a more righteous, abundant life that leads to a Glorification…a great and wonderful crescendo through this earthly toil, into a promised Eternal Life.
Take up your Bibles and become strong in the Word!
Our second source of our strength is from the Lord, Himself. 2nd Samuel declares:
33It is God who arms me with strengthH
and makes my way perfect.
34He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
he enables me to stand on the heights.
35He trains my hands for battle;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
36You give me your shield of victory;
you stoop down to make me great.
God seeks to find the righteous and make them strong. If we can be strong in the Word of God, and then avail ourselves to His infinite strength, we can be ready for any struggle we might encounter.
So, finally, we’ve learned that a Christian should stay Alert. A Christian should Stand Firm. We should strive to be a man or woman in the Faith by maturing in the Fruits of the Spirit. A Christian should have strength to endure. Strength given to us through the Scriptures and from God, Himself, if we only avail ourselves of it through reading our Bibles and prayer.
We now come to the fifth and final principle, as we Consider Our Ways, this is the most important of all the principles …Do Everything in Love. As we gird ourselves for battle in this world, we still need to remember that what we do and what we strive for is the greatest of all things…Love! Love of God…Love for our Savior, Jesus Christ…Love for our fellowman.
Just as Jesus said to Peter three times…do you love me?…do you love me?…do you love me?…What a painful reminder for Peter, after he then denied Jesus three times.
Jesus is still asking us today…do you love me…do you love me…do you love me? Will we be ready when the time comes? Will we be Alert to His question…will we be Standing Firm in our Faith…will we be Mature in the Fruits of the Spirit…will we be Strong in the Word and will we be able to answer in Love?
Today, the book of Haggai is still speaking to us. Have we done everything we can to put our Christian priorities in order? Are we getting things straight in our lives?
Consider Your Ways! Are you “Putting God First?”
Amen.
Scripture: Exodus 20: 1 – 6
201And God spoke all these words:
2"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3"You shall have no other gods beforeA me.
4"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Haggai 1: 2 –7
2This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, `The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.’ "
3Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4"Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"
5Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. 6You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."
7This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways
Prayer: Dear Father…Praise to you this day. Be with us here as we come to worship thee in humility and thoughtfulness. Let you Spirit anoint us, so that the we might have eyes to see and ears to hear…so that after seeing and hearing, we might “Consider Our Ways”. Give us your strength each day to carry on in the way of righteousness, that we might be an example to others, a comfort to the hurting and an assurance to those who seek. In Jesus name, we pray these things. Amen.
