Sermon Tone Analysis

Haggai 1:1-15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Caswell © 2005

Introduction

 

In sport timing is everything.

Golfers, cricketers and footballers all know the importance of timing.

Timing is also important to businessmen who trade on the Stock Market.

To maximize profits they must buy and sell at the right time.

The same is true in the Real Estate market.

Investors want to buy when the market is down or starting to rise and to sell when the prices are high.

When the Jewish exiles returned from Babylon they talked about timing.

They said it wasn’t the right time to serve the Lord.

They had so much work to do for themselves.

God responded by asking the people to consider their priorities.

We will see 3 things.

*/1./* */Consideration/* */2.

Consecration & 3. Construction./*

 

1.

Consideration

/ /

/a.

Your House, My House/

 

*1:2-5:* /Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying: this people says, the time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.

Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?/ /Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: *consider your ways!* /

 

At this point the exiles had been back in Israel for about 20 years.

They had resettled in Jerusalem and in the surrounding area.

They had started to rebuild the temple but quit after they received opposition from the Samaritans living there.

Because of the local opposition and a letter from the Persian King the temple lay in ruins.

/To justify their disobedience to God’s commands the people said the time wasn’t right to rebuild the temple.

/God allowed them to carry on like this for about 20 years.

*/Billy Sunday called an excuse, /*/The skin of reason stuffed with a lie./

God had commanded His people to rebuild the temple and now they were making excuses.

They were disobedient to His command.

/If they weren’t doing what God wanted them to do, what were they doing with their time?/

The Jewish exiles were busy building their own homes.

God’s house lay in ruins while they built paneled houses or what we would call posh homes.

The kind of houses kings and wealthy people owned.

God condemned their behavior.

/They had embraced worldly values.

*They didn’t love the Lord their God, neither did they give Him first place.*/

/Before we point the finger at them*, Let Us Consider Our Ways*/*.*

/Does God’s House in Tent Hill lie in ruins?/ */Under the New Covenant the people are God’s temple./*

At Tent Hill Baptist Church on Sunday mornings more than half the temple is missing.

/Where are the missing stones on Sunday mornings?/

I would suggest that some are working, others are playing sport, some are sleeping in, while others are socializing with family or friends.

/We run to our homes and the things in them.

Our possessions have taken God’s place in our lives./

*/Many stay on Sunday evening to relax in front of the TV.

/*/Sunday is no longer the Lord’s Day./

For most Christians Sunday is just like any other day.

15 or 20 twenty years ago the majority of Christians went to Church twice on Sunday.

/Like the Psalmist we were glad to go and worship the Lord./

We wouldn’t think of missing it.

Yet today, Church attendance is falling at an alarming rate.

Things look bad for our children.

*/How many will quit Church altogether because of their parents complacency?

/*Today, our values have been distorted.

*/We need to consider our ways.

/*/We don’t need something new to get the Church going in this fast, hectic world./

We need to take a good look at our values.

/We, Christians *need to Consider Our Ways*/ in /light of the Bible./

*Jeremiah 6:16:* /Thus says the Lord: *Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it;* *Then you will find rest for your souls.*

But they (the people in Jeremiah’s time) said, we will not walk in it.

/

/ /

It’s time to put our excuses aside.

God doesn’t accept them.

*/Benjamin Franklin wrote/,* /I never knew a man who was good at making excuses who was good at anything else./

There are no excuses that God will accept to cover our disobedience.

I have no intention of coercing you to attend Church from a sense of duty or guilt.

I want you to come to Church twice a week because you love the Lord and His people.

*/That’s all!/* That’s the only motive that pleases God.

Love is also the only motive that will keep us walking the right way all of our life.

Let us consider our ways.

The Lord’s house has been lying in ruins for far too long while we are running to our own homes.

Let us choose today to honor the Lord and attend the Sunday services every week.

*/Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the whole temple here every Sunday morning and evening?

Let us honor the Lord by rebuilding His house, and I am talking about the People of God!/*

 

/b.

Your Work, My Work/

 

*Haggai 1:6-7:* /You have sown much, and 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.

Thus says the Lord of hosts: *Consider your ways! */

 

God’s house lay in ruins.

/His work also suffered from their lack of service.

/The Priests and Levites couldn’t minister in the temple because it lay in ruins.

The people weren’t bringing their tithes to support the priests and Levites so they lacked food.

There was no singing or prayer going on in the temple because it lay in ruins.

There was no place of worship for the people to come and hear God’s Word read.

The ministry that God desired wasn’t being exercised.

God’s work was not being done.

*/What were the people doing with all their time?/*

Building fancy homes and trying to get rich.

Haggai reminded the exiles of all their hard work.

He says you planted much, looked for much, but it came to little.

*/Instead of becoming wealthy and having plenty to eat and drink, they were hungry, thirsty, cold and poor./*

Their hard work had accomplished nothing.

Their money was put into a bag with holes in it.

/Perhaps the tax man caught up with them./

*/What was the result of all of this?/* Dissatisfaction and frustration.

*/Why couldn’t they get ahead?

How come they couldn’t make ends meet?/ /What had gone wrong?/

T*hey had forgotten the Lord.

They no longer served Him.

They forgot that He blessed their labors and He could also remove the blessing.

*Deuteronomy 28* warns of this.