Velocity Requires Our Allegiance
Notes
Transcript
Velocity Requires Our Allegiance
Malachi 4:4-6
Signing of Declaration of Independence= Signing your own death sentence. Treason against England.
However, we never gain our independence without their commitment.
To get somewhere you have to make a commitment to get there. Small or big.
I can say I am going to China. Unless I commit to the process I will never get there.
You will not have velocity in your Christian life by accident.
he is concluding his warning to the people of Israel.
This group struggled with allegiance to each other and God.
Story of Nehemiah, contemporary of Malachi, shows the struggle to hold these people together.
-They didn't trust each other.
-They let outside influences dictate their action.
-They were quick to complain.
4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
4 Outcomes of Allegiance
4 Outcomes of Allegiance
1. Obedience (4)
1. Obedience (4)
4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
Remember- combines the ethical or behavioral with the cognitive
This is not just a command to memorize Scripture. They are admonished to act in accord with what they know.
There is a sense of a call to return to what they once were doing. Repentance.
"The law of my servant Moses"-- only time that "my servant" is added to the phrase "The Law of Moses".
"which I commanded"= This was in fact the law of God. Emphasizing that these people still needed to obey.
"Horeb"- used in Scripture as an alternate name to Sinai.
Name is used here to connect with Elijah in verse 5. Elijah travelled 40 days and 40 nights to get there.
It’s at this mountain that the people asked"Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die." Moses replies, "God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers."
Relevance here: builds an expectation that prophecy will return before Yawheh acts on his day. Malachi is last prophet until John the Baptist.
Joshua 1:7, 13
7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.
13 “Remember the word that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God is providing you a place of rest and will give you this land.’
2. Hearing (5)
2. Hearing (5)
5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
Elijah the Prophet-
Is this literally Elijah?
John the Baptist?- considering this last three verses are summing up the whole book I am inclined to say it is John the Baptist.
16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God,
17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
John the Baptist was asked if he was Elijah and denied it.
Leaves room to see another Eschatological fulfillment in the last days.
Left Behind books had Elijah coming during the Tribulation-- linking it to the two witnesses in Revelation.
"before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes."= There will be prophetic warning before that day. There will be time for repentance and mourning before, but not after.
verse 5 points to the time before that day.
Prophets are sent to help us reach the Day of the Lord prepared. But we must listen to God's warnings.
ILL— Warnings before Pearl Harbor.
3:45 am, December 7, 1941 —USS Ward- a US destroyer saw a periscope come out of the water. Couldn’t verify it. Less than 3 hours later around 6:30 am they saw another one and this time attacked and destroyed it. When reported the officer wanted to verify the report instead of sound an alarm.
at 7:02, 2 junior enlisted men, saw a large blob on the radar. They called it in. Lt. Tyler took the report and remembered they were expecting some B-17’s coming from a similar flight plan and told them to disregard it. They failed to let him know that the radar was showing over 50 planes.
7:55 the Japanese began their attack.
Imagine how much more prepared they would have been if they had over an hour to get ready.
We can get the warnings, but will we do anything about them?
3. Reconciliation (6a)
3. Reconciliation (6a)
6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
The result of the previous event will be revival. Reconciliation between man and God.
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
They will rediscover the way to peace with God.
Repentance of Ezekiel 5:10
10 Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds.
The people of Malachi's day were full of treachery and injustice against each other.
This could have both an immediate family reference and a "children of Israel" reference.
The working of the Spirit of God in our life will produce reconciliation in all of our relationships.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
4. Change (6b)
4. Change (6b)
6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
Warning: if there is no change there will be judgment.
Fear of punishment is motivation for obedience.
It works on our children.
But don't we prefer the times when they make the right decision because they want to.
Because of New Testament and the coming of the Holy Spirit, God changes our "want to".
We are "born again"
We are "a new creation"
Romans 6:6-8, 11
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
"strike the land"= The Promised Land-- the land they had been removed from and were brought back to.
Personal Responsibility with National Implications.
13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people,
14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
We need a national revival.
Where is your allegiance?
Where is your allegiance?
Allegiance to God will always mean a life of Velocity.
Are you all talk or are you truly surrendered to Jesus.