Consider Your Ways

Introduction- 1st Letter In the Mail From The LORD

Have you ever been so wrapped up in the business of life that you found yourself neglecting the things of God:

1.  Prayer

2.  Fellowship

3.  Bible Study

4.  Holiness

5. Worship

This neglect of the things of the LIRD does not happen immediately...

days

Weeks

Months

Years

Decades

Express mailed from heaven and hand delivered by the LORD’s personal Messenger Haggai

Receiving Letter From The LORD Written By The Hand Haggai

Haggai 1:1 ESV

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

When the first group of Jewish exiles returned from Babylon to Jerusalem

After six years of re-building, while encountering opposition, the gave up

Haggai

Receiving Letters From The LORD Written By The Hand Haggai

A Hot Summer Day In August With the Servants Holding Fans Keeping Us Cool Inside The Shade Of Our Homes

Haggai 1:2 ESV

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”

Haggai 1:1–2 ESV

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”

Is It Yet Time To Re-build (we say it with unspoken words by our actions)?

538 B.C.- The Return & Rebuilding Efforts

When the first group of Jewish exiles returned from Babylon to Jerusalem

After six years of re-building, while encountering opposition, the gave up

Contentment With Worldly Possessions

Haggai 1:1

Haggai 1:3–4 ESV

Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?

Haggai 1:2 ESV

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”

Receiving Letters In The Mail From Haggai

Time To Dwell In Your Paneled Houses (while the LORD’s house lies in ruins)?

paneling = wood which covers an interior of a building, as a finishing product to adorn a structure

Body- Consider Your Ways

Haggai 1:5

Haggai 1:5 ESV

Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.

Without God Centeredness Everything Is Fruitless

Haggai 1:6 ESV

You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

Haggai 1:

Psalm 127:1–2 ESV

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Build A God Glorifying House

Haggai 1:8 ESV

Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.

Inattention To The LORD Inhibits Your Blessings

Haggai 1:9 ESV

You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.

The Lord Prospers His faithful people

Temple built in 516

Haggai 1:10–11 ESV

Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”

Be Faithful In Your work For The Lord

Haggai 1:12 ESV

Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, 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 feared the Lord.

Know The Lord Is With You

Haggai 1:13 ESV

Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.”

Transition: The LORD God Get’s Glory When The Spirits of the leaders and the people are stirred

The LORD Calls His People To Repentance

stirred = be in an alert state ready to do an action,

as an extension of being in a physically awake state

Haggai 1:14 ESV

And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God,

Haggai 1:

The latter glory of the temple will be better than its former glory

The LORD Calls His People To Covenant Renewal (restart the re-building)

The LORD Achieves His Purposes

Conclusion- The Signet Ring (The LORD Achieves His Purposes)

Haggai 2:23 ESV

On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.”

Temple Rebuilding Represents (Symbolized) The LORD’s Restored Presence Among His People

Matthew

Matthew 1:1 ESV

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

The Completion of the Temple

Physical Temple re-built in 516 (6 years later)

Imperishable Temple Built On Calvary’s Mountain With A Living Stone

And being built out of living stones

Seek First The Kingdom of God & His Righteousness

And bei

Matthew 6:33 ESV

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

The Imperishable Temple Built On Calvary’s Mountain

Matthew 16:18–19 ESV

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

With A Living Stone

John 2:18–22 ESV

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

And being built out of living stones

1 Peter 2:4–5 ESV

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:6 ESV

For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

1 Peter 2:4-

1 Peter 2:7 ESV

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

1 Peter 2:1–12 ESV

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

1 Peter 2:9–10 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

1 Peter 2:1-

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

Revelation 21:22–26 ESV

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.

Revelation 21: