Consider Your Ways

Introduction

300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon The Ones Who Are Idle Cannot Be Warm (Psalm 116:16; Ephesians 4:28; 2 Thessalonians 3:10; 1 Timothy 5:13; Titus 3:14)

When we were boys, we have sometimes gathered around our father’s fire in the winter time, and almost sat on it, yet we could not get warm. We rubbed our chilled fingers, but they still kept blue. At length our father wisely turned us out of doors and told us to work, and after some healthy pastime we soon came in with limbs no longer numbed. The blood was circulated, and what fire could not do, exercise soon accomplished.

Ministers of Christ, if your people cry to you, “Comfort us! comfort us!”—comfort them and make the fire a good one. At the same time remember that all the fire you can ever kindle will not warm them as long as they are idle. If they are idle, they cannot be warm.

Context

Haggai was a prophet in the post-exilic period following the return of Israel from Babylon to Jerusalem. The Jews had at long last returned to their homeland, though it was not as they remembered it. In fact, many who were returning were seeing the land for the first time. The world into which they were entering was altogether different from the world from which they were exiting, not so much in geography but in ethnicities and religiosity. The Jews only thought to re-establish themselves in their land, but working to re-establish their faith and the most outward icon thereof (i.e., the temple) for the pleasure and glory of their God was not their first priority. Their ways were not as they ought to have been. It was this scene into which Haggai was called to speak the message of God to His people to stir them up to do as they ought.

Theme: Consider your ways, and continue in His ways.

Charge of the People

Haggai 1:1–11 ESV

1 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: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” 3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 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. 7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 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. 9 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. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 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.”

Charge of the People

Charged with laziness (2-4)

It wasn’t time yet.

They tended to their own houses while the house of the LORD was left in ruins.

2 Samuel 7:2 “2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.””

Psalm 132:3-5 “3 “I will not enter my house or get into my bed, 4 I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, 5 until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.””

Charged with Waywardness (5-6)

Waywardness leads to ruin

Results of waywardness (9-11)

Micah 6:15 “15 You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.”

Hosea 4:10 “10 They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the Lord to cherish”

Consider the prodigal son, but the father took him back just as Jesus does us.

Commissioned to Change (7-8)

Build the house

Theme: Consider your ways, and continue in His ways.

Change of the People

Haggai 1:12–15 ESV

12 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. 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” 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 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, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Change of the People

The People Obeyed (12)

Proverbs 1:7 “7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Proverbs 9:10 “10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

The Prophet Proclaimed (13)

Isaiah 43:5 “5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you.”

The LORD Emboldened (14-15)

2 Timothy 1:7 “7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”

Hebrews 10:24 “24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,”

Theme: Consider your ways, and continue in His ways.

Consider Your Ways

Conclusion

We Christians, like the Jews, are not living in our homeland. We are citizens of another realm, but while we are here, we ought to make the most of it and be actively building up the kingdom.

Jesus, the Holy One of the LORD, has given us new life and a new spirit. With this new life and spirit we ought to desire to work for him and be obedient to his call.

Many Christians today have become complacent in our faith, not accepting the commission to make disciples of all nations; rather, we actively neglect the call.

300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon No Right to Be Idle (Proverbs 19:15; 24:30–34; Matthew 25:21; Romans 14:7–8; 1 Corinthians 6:19–20; 7:23; Colossians 3:23)

If I am a Christian I have no right to be idle. I saw the other day men using picks in the road in laying down new gas pipes. They had been resting; and just as I passed the clock struck one, and the foreman gave a signal. I think he said, “Blow up,” and immediately each man took his pick or his shovel and they were all at it in earnest.

Close to them stood a fellow with a pipe in his mouth who did not join in the work but stood in a free and easy posture. It did not make any difference to him whether it was one o’clock or six. Why not? Because he was his own: The other men were the master’s for the time being. He, as an independent gentleman, might do as he liked, but those who were not their own fell to labor.

If any of you idle professing Christians can really prove that you belong to yourselves, I have nothing more to say to you. But if you profess to have a share in the redeeming sacrifice of Christ, I am ashamed of you if you do not go to work the very moment the signal is given. You have no right to waste what Jesus Christ has bought with a price.

Theme: Consider your ways, and continue in His ways.