"Consider Your Ways" ~ Old Testament Writing of Haggai

Good morning and welcome to today's sermonette. Just joking. Today is Tuesday, December 30, 2025, and, it is 40 degrees (°F) outside here at the ole blogger ranch. While that's not cold compared to many who are iced in, it is a dramatic drop from the above average temps we experienced in and around our Christmas celebrations. I have a confession to make. I watch a lot of sermons. I do. I really do. If you ever become interested I highly recommend YouTube searches for our Pastor, Dr. Jerry Chaddick, another great pulpit expositor, Pastor C. T. Townsend, I also enjoy hearing the verse by verse presentation from Pastor Gary Hamrick and Pastor Skip Heitzig, the teaching approach from Pastor David Guzik, and, the through the Bible teacher, Dr. J. Vernon Magee, and, Pastor Chuck Smith, Dr. Charles Stanley, and many others. As we get ready to say goodbye to 2025 I randomly landed on a couple of expository presentations from the Prophet Haggai written to the nation of Israel. I have taught that passage myself more than a few times, however, it is an accountability text that reminds us how we are here for a purpose. Accounting for what I accomplished in 2025 is a difficult process. Accounting for what I did for the kingdom in this soon to end year is even more arduous. Why? I suppose because it makes me aware that God has blessed me to be a blessing. Only what's done for Christ will live on and will meet us when we leave this life for the next. The Haggai passage is all about how Israel was using the resources for things other than what God had called them to do. And, as a result God was not blessing the outcomes they were pursuing. The Prophet was sent by God to call them to account for themselves in terms of their specific calling to rebuild the Temple which lay in ruins. That was why they had providentially been returned to the land. Go back and rebuild the Temple. They started to do that but opposition came and the work stopped. They then turned to other pursuits, like building nice homes for themselves and using their resources for other endeavors. God's message was clear, they needed to stop and consider what they were doing. And, that's what I need to do. Take stock of where I am, what I have been doing and compare that to the calling God has on my life. In their case, a great revival came as they returned to the work God called them to accomplish. Like I say, self accountability in terms of kingdom efforts, well, it is always convicting and I don't particularly like thinking about it. What about you? Here's the interesting thing about their response as recorded by Haggai. When they got up and began again to pursue their God ordained assignment, God's Spirit returned to aid them along their way. 

 

I will have to account for me, myself, and I, because as a Christ follower I need awareness of what God wants me to do and then I need to evaluate my progress towards His calling. I look at it like this. I didn't land on these two different fresh expositional sermons from the Book of Haggai by accident. Sure. I am very familiar with that Book, however, God can speak through His Word to anyone at anytime He chooses, including me. I've got my own wrestling to do with my own self. Here's my recommendation for you. Go and read the short two chapters in Haggai. Prayerfully consider what God is saying to His own chosen people which you and I are if we are saved by the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. I often look up teachings by a specific passage like the Book of Haggai, just make sure the individual presenting God's Word is a trustworthy steward committed to rightly dividing the word of truth. (2nd Timothy 2:15) Believe me when I say this. I have plenty to say grace over in my own camp, but, this is what got stirred up since very early, way before the crack of dawn this morning and now I have released it for whatever purpose God chooses to use it. And, may He speak to each one according to His will, and, in so doing may we hear and respond. That would be my prayer today. Amen.

 

Footnote: Expository preaching and teaching seeks to allow God to speak through the passage being presented. Here's how Dr. Albert Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, describes this approach, "Expository preaching is that mode of Christian preaching that takes as its central purpose the presentation and application of the text of the Bible . . . all other issues and concerns are subordinated to the central task of presenting the biblical text."