Consider Your Ways

Presented to:

Bethel Chapel Pentecostal Church

Auditorium Sunday School Class

Granite City, IL

11 March 2018

Updated: March 10, 2018

By:

Boyce Belt

Consider Your Ways

Opening:

• (Slide) “There is one safe and happy place, and that is in the will of God.”  —David Livingstone^[1]
• Prayer

Text:

Haggai 1:3-7 (KJV) Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?  5 Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.  6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. 7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.

Introduction:

There are many paths through this world of sin,

But there’s only one I shall travel in;

’Tis the old Cross Road, or the way called “Straight”—

There is just one way to the pearly gate.

Refrain:

There is just one way to the pearly gate,

To the crown of life and the friends who wait;

’Tis the old Cross Road, or the way called “Straight”—

There is just one way to the pearly gate.

There are some who sneer at the old Cross Road,

At the pearly gate and the soul’s abode;

Yet I mind them not, but, with happy song

And assurance sweet, still I press along.

Others risk their souls on some new-made way,

Thinking they will come to the gate someday;

Oh, may they find out, ere their lives are done,

That the old Cross Road is the only one.

Back in the old west, a number of men were upstairs in a boarding house amusing themselves with a game of cards when there was a cry from the street below of “fire!  Fire!”  The men looked at one another in disbelief.  One of the windows grew orange with the flames.  “Wait!”  said the dealer.  “Let’s just finish this hand;  we’ve got plenty of time—I have a key to the back door.”  The men nodded in approval, then quickly picked up the dealt cards.

Precious minutes passed. one of the men became nervous as the flames licked through the now broken window.  With darting eyes and a sweat-filled brow, he asked for the key.  “Coward!” muttered the dealer as he tossed across the key.  Each of them then rushed to the door and waited with bated breath as the key was placed into the lock.  “It won’t turn!” was the cry.  “Let me have it!” said the dealer.  As he tried in vain to turn the key, he whispered in horror, “It’s the wrong key!”^[2]

Proverbs 4:26 (KJV) Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

Proverbs 14:12 (KJV) There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Proverbs 16:25 (KJV) There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Proverbs 12:15 (KJV) The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.

Matthew 7:13-14 (KJV) Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV) Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Background of Haggai:

For the prophets before the Babylonian exile, the major issues were the people’s tendency to worship false gods and the social injustice that created severe inequalities between the rich and the poor.  For the prophets whose message focused on the postexilic Judean community the issue was different.  The great need was the restoration of the instituteions of tIsraelite worship centering in the sanctuary.^[3] 

Haggai was a contemporary of Ezra, Nehemiah, Zechariah, and Malachi.  The Jews had begun to rebuild the temple and laid its foundation but had stopped for a number of years.

The command to consider your ways is issued five times throughout the course of this prophecy.  Twice in our text and three more times in 2:15, 18.  It is a plea on the part of God for the people to take note of what they are doing and amend their ways accordingly.  ^[4]We often speak of considering your ways in an evangelistic endeavor but in this case it is spoken to the people of God.

1. Purity in the Priesthood — we are all priest.  This is not something that is only applicable to the “Professional Preacher.”

1. Separation from the World

1. The priests had intermarried with the nations around them.
2. 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (KJV) Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

2. Hypocritical

1. They like to tell others how to live their lives but do not maintain purity within their own lives
2. In Proverbs 14:12  where we are told there is a way that seems right to man but the end thereof is the way of death; the implication is not that he was tricked but that he relied too heavily on his own wisdom rather than turning in humility to God.^[5]

3. Unscriptural

1. Psalms 14 (KJV) The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.  2 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.  3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.  4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.  5 There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.  6 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge.  7 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
2. They scorn the moral principles of God’s Word and rely on their own ideas to determine what is right and wrong (i.e., moral relativism).^[6]

2. Faithful in Finance

1. Tithes

1. Malachi 3:8-11 (KJV) Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me.  But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?  In tithes and offerings.  9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.  10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.  11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

2. Wrong Priorities

1. What we set as a priority indicates the love we have for our Lord.^[7]
2. The values that are programed into the heart determine how it will control the individual and thus it is essential to guard the heart to ensure that God’s truth is inscribed there.^[8]
3. Matthew 6:19-21 (KJV) Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
4. There is no place for compromise; all one’s energy must be focused on attaining the goal.^[9]

3. Self-Centered

3. Perfected in Praise (Honest in Worship)

1. Purified (Holy)
2. Orderly
3. God-Centered

Conclusion:

Jeremiah 6:16 (KJV) Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

Psalms 11:3 (KJV) If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

I’ll Take The Road I Know

25 March 2018: Consider the Lilies

Prayer