9/1 Sermon - Give Careful Thought To Your Ways

Give Careful Thought to Your Ways
Haggai 1:1-11 – 9/1/24

ILL: Have you ever had to take a long time to think about something?

A decision that needed hours, days, or even weeks to think about?

There are lots of examples!

Buying a house: price range, location, number of bedrooms and bathrooms.

Which job should we go with? Stay here or move?

Which college do I attend, what career path do I pursue?

Research for a new car?

Do I date keep dating this person? Do I marry them?

Lots things to think about, to Give careful thought to your ways.

That’s our theme for today. It’s repeated 2x in Haggai!

In Hebrew it says, literally, “Place your heart upon your path.”

In other words, do some soul-searching. Give careful thought to your ways.

That was God’s message to the Israelites for 100s of years.

Give careful thought to your ways. Do some soul-searching.

ILL: The history of the Israelites was like a roller-coaster, up and down, up and down.

They had good kings! Like David. The people followed God, put him first.

They had bad kings. The people turned away from God, didn’t put him first.

Up and down, up and down. Reject God, turn to him. Reject him, turn to him.

Their history was like a roller-coaster.

For 100s of years, God sent prophet after prophet with really ONE message:

Repent! Give careful thought to your ways! If you don’t, I will send judgment on you.

I can hardly be patient for 10 seconds. God preached that for 100s of years.

However, the people did not give careful thought to their ways.

So God sent Babylon, who destroyed and ravaged Israel in two ways. 

1. They destroyed the land.

ILL: You’ve seen pictures of Ukraine and Gaza recently, right? Other war torn, destroyed places? 

That was Israel and Jerusalem. Destroyed. Burned. Annihilated.

2. They took the people into captivity for 70 years! 

ILL: Imagine you are in your 30s with a few children.

You wouldn’t come back until your grandchildren were in their 30s.

Why did all of that happen?

They didn’t give careful thought to their ways. They didn’t put God first.

Our reading from Haggai comes in after the 70 years, after God brings then back.

But they still didn’t learn! They still didn’t careful thought to their ways!

ILL: Have you ever seen an abandoned house? Crumbling, dilapidated, barely standing? 

That was God’s house, his temple. Abandoned. In shambles. Forgotten.

1. They made excuses: “Now’s not the time. First our houses, then God’s temple.

Sure, that makes sense for the first year or two… but it had been 15 years! 

Can you imagine making that excuse for 15 years in a row? Pure stubbornness.

2. They were distracted. We’re told they “ran after their own houses, and not God’s house.”

They would rather spend time with their houses, their lives, and not God.

Haggai tells them, again, Give careful thought to your ways.

God brought judgment on them.

ILL: Have you ever tried grabbing water? Can you hold water in your hand? No! 

The Israelites, for 15 years, tried to grab happiness.

They planted, harvested, built house after house, made olive oil and wine, raised cattle and sheep, ran after their business and hobbies, bought nice clothes.

What happened?

Happiness slipped through their fingers like water. God blew it away.

“You expected much, but it turned out to be little.”

The happiness and blessings they looked for in this world, weren’t there.

They did not give careful thought to their ways.

The solution? Easy.

Look at v. 8. “Build my temple. Give me honor and glory.”

Give careful thought to your ways and put me first.

Then you will be blessed.

That was them. What about us?

Like the Israelites, we don’t always Give careful thought to our ways.

ILL: We do in other areas! When it comes to retirement, our house, our vacation, our hobbies…

We are very careful to plan, budget, and sacrifice to get what we want.

We know what we can and can’t do.

But what happens? It seems that happiness, joy slips through our fingers like water.

We are doing a stewardship series right now, and this week’s theme is “First fruits.”

We want to give our first fruits to God, to put him first.

Haggai forces us to ask ourselves a couple of questions, to do some soul-searching.

What is my personal relationship with God?

Where does God actually rank in my life?

Do I carefully plan each week or month how I’ll serve him?

Do I give God my first fruits?

Or is he an afterthought?

Do we make excuses? “Next month, next year I’ll take it seriously, serve God or give him more.”

Do we find peace and joy in life slipping through our fingers?

God gives us a simple solution: Give careful thought to your ways.

Look at v. 8. Build my temple. Give me glory and honor.

God isn’t asking the Israelites to make him a giant pyramid or palace.

God wants their heart.

That’s what first fruits is all about, the heart. That’s our focus for this week.

Why? Why put God first?

Because of what God gave us first!

God gave his only Son.

Jesus gave us honor, power, majesty, his own blood and life. h

He took on our sin and our death.

Jesus gives us forgiveness, salvation, eternal life, peace and joy right now.

That’s given, no strings attached, no work.

God, our abundant and gracious God, gives so many eternal, everlasting blessings.

Why put God first?

Because of what God gives us right now!

Look around your life! How many blessings do we have?

Family, children, parents, breadth, clothes, food, and roof over our heads.

God, our abundant and gracious God, gives us so many blessings day after day.

Today, our theme is Give careful thought to your ways.

I want you to focus on first fruits, on our hearts.

Stewardship, as I said at the beginning of worship, isn’t just money.
It’s life! Money, time, the talents we have. It’s everything!

In every area, God is first, because God put us first.   

I want you to do this one thing, here’s your take-away application:

Go home with these slips of paper, these commitment cards.

Every week I’m going to ask you to go with your family or just with God, and take these cards.

And I want you to ask yourself one question this week.

Give careful thought to your ways, and ask yourself, is God first?

In our time we spend, is God first?

In the treasures and money we spend, is God first?

In how we use our talents, is God first?

Just go home and talk about it. Maybe he is, that’s great. Maybe there’s something to work on.

It’s NOT about the amount. It’s about the heart.

Remember God’s promise: He already has given us everything we need in Jesus. He promises to bless us in this life and the next with abundant blessings. That’s the God we have. What grace!