Priorities-3

PRIORITIES—III—Haggai 1:1-15

Attention:

Priorities:

Hurricane Dorian Devastated the Bahamas in August of 2019.

Below is an actual picture of our TV screen showing just how Floridians are Preparing for the threat of Hurricane Dorian.

Synopsis: The Weather Channel host is speaking to their man live on location on the east coast of Florida. He is centered in the screen & standing on the beach, with a stern look in his eye. His forehead is wrinkled with concern for those living in Dorian's projected path as he verbally describes the ensuing hurricane preparations. The ticker at the bottom of the screen says in capital letters, "FLORIDIANS PREPARE FOR HURRICANE DORIAN."

However, the live feed of the beach behind the ‘live feed’ shows that the beach is actually full of beachgoers in their bathing suits, some stretched out on blankets getting tanned...Others under beach umbrellas reading books or sleeping...Kids are building sandcastles...Some are in the water swimming...Some are walking down the beach at a leisurely pace, stopping occasionally to pick up a shell or two, as they lazily meander along.

!What a picture of contrasting opinions & priorities!

?What Are Your Priorities?

?Is God your FIRST priority?

WE Need:

God’s Priorities in our Land or sphere of influence.

God’s Priorities among God’s people.

Prioritize a Return to God.

•Perhaps you have spent some time away from God.

•Perhaps you have withheld an area of your life from God.

•Perhaps you don’t know what to do next...Lonely, Fearful, Unsettled, Living with the results of your poor choices. Perhaps you feel trapped.

Haggai exhorted those returning from exile to prioritize their relationship with God.

God’s people must prioritize their relationship with God.

How must God’s people prioritize their relationship with God?

3 assessments securing a proper relationship with God.

We’ve already found that, •A prioritized relationship with God properly assesses...

1. The TIME(:1-2)

2. The WORD(:1, 3)

3. PERSONAL MOTIVATION(:4-5)

4—A prioritized relationship with God properly assesses...

SURROUNDINGS/CIRCUMSTANCES(:6-7)

Explanation:(:6-7)

:6—“You have sown much, & bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

:7—“Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider your ways!

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:6—“You have sown much, & bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

The truths stated here highlight the utter futility of vain self-effort. When willingly separated from YHWH, God’s people labor uselessly as do the lost of this world.

•’Civil religiosity’ is a dead end which leads one to utter failure...YHWH God is not at our/man’s beck-&-call. Rather the obverse/converse is absolutely true!...Man is rightly at God’s beck-&-call. Mankind is uniquely accountable to God regardless of whether any singular man or group of them admits it or not!

•Satisfaction with civil compliance only, makes one beholden to man’s manifold ways/means of acceptance, rather than God’s singular way/means.

Mat. 11:28-30—““Come to Me, all you who labor & are heavy laden, & I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you & learn from Me, for I am gentle & lowly in heart, & you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy & My burden is light.””

“Nothing has prospered with you while you neglected your duty to God.” By “keeping their money to themselves”, returning Israel “thought to escape poverty by not building” YHWH’s house/temple.—JFB

•Such considerations beg a springboard into the importance of titheing. The tithe(tenth) is the minimal guideline to which every Christian should be dedicated. Whatever your income might be, one tenth of it should be set aside, off the top, for use in the upkeep of church’s meeting house(repairs, electricity, water, taxes, etc.), as well as for the income of the paid personnel who depend upon the church for their livelihood(1Cor. 9:7-14).

1Cor. 9:7-14—“Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard & does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock & does not drink of the milk of the flock? Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, & he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, & those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.”