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Intro.
Intro.
Everybody has things that they both really love and really hate, right? I could go on and on about a handful of things on both sides for myself.
I really love a good superhero movie, I love music, I love history
I really don’t like deep water, I don’t like math, I don’t like tech work, and I don’t like the feeling of falling.
What are some things you love?
What are some things you hate?
Perspective
Perspective
I often will say that most everything in life is truly a matter of perspective. That includes our walk with God. Our perspective on things matters. This morning, we are going to be looking at two different perspectives one can have toward God — one which is evil in the sight of God first, then one which is good and healthy. I think you can tell a lot about a person who claims to be a Christian based on their feeling toward God’s commands.
We will begin over in Malachi 1.6-14
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of me? says the Lord of Armies to you priests, who despise my name.” Yet you ask, “How have we despised your name?” “By presenting defiled food on my altar.” “How have we defiled you?” you ask. When you say, “The Lord’s table is contemptible.” “When you present a blind animal for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present a lame or sick animal, is it not wrong? Bring it to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the Lord of Armies. “And now plead for God’s favor. Will he be gracious to us? Since this has come from your hands, will he show any of you favor?” asks the Lord of Armies. “I wish one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle a useless fire on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord of Armies, “and I will accept no offering from your hands. “My name will be great among the nations, from the rising of the sun to its setting. Incense and pure offerings will be presented in my name in every place because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord of Armies. “But you are profaning it when you say, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled, and its product, its food, is contemptible.’ You also say, ‘Look, what a nuisance!’ And you scorn it,” says the Lord of Armies. “You bring stolen, lame, or sick animals. You bring this as an offering! Am I to accept that from your hands?” asks the Lord. “The deceiver is cursed who has an acceptable male in his flock and makes a vow but sacrifices a defective animal to the Lord. For I am a great King,” says the Lord of Armies, “and my name will be feared among the nations.
The Lord is speaking through Malachi through asking questions which the people have had in their hearts, and answering them to expose their evils. Here, we find that the people of God, even after their captivity in Babylon, were again disobedient! They were offering profane sacrifices to God!
God’s command for them was to give Him their best of whatever they had, yet much like Cain it seems they were keeping that back for themselves and giving to God some of the left overs, or, worse, what was even stolen from someone else!
We also see their motivation behind this terrible giving… Can you spot it in the text?
You also say, ‘Look, what a nuisance!’ And you scorn it,” says the Lord of Armies. “You bring stolen, lame, or sick animals. You bring this as an offering! Am I to accept that from your hands?” asks the Lord.
(Some translations will also say “What weariness” or “how burdensome”)
They are talking about following God’s commands! They were so pathetically lazy, including the priests at the time, that they looked at the commands of God and His covenant and all they saw was how taxing obedience was to them.
God puts it into perspective for them in Mal. 1.9
“And now plead for God’s favor. Will he be gracious to us? Since this has come from your hands, will he show any of you favor?” asks the Lord of Armies.
Would even the governor of our own state be pleased if we gave in gifts to him what we offer in our hearts to the Lord? It’s a challenging thought, and I hope that spurs us on!
But, what of the good example I mentioned?
How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Here is an entirely different perspective regarding the laws of God, yes?
The Psalmist here says that the blessed man avoids the evildoer and all his ways, because he *delights* in the instruction of God! And therefore, instead of the famine that seems to have been riddling Israel in Malachi’s time, this man will be blessed of God because he loves God!
What are some things that folks in the Church sometimes find “wearisome”?
Coming to Church (more than missing on occasion)
Confrontation of sin
Spreading the Gospel to those around us
Taking care of the needy
Reading the Bible
Yet, the one who loves the Lord with all his heart looks at these, and all commands of God, and delights in them because they bring life!
Family, the Church must be delighted in the commands and the word of God!
Do we truly want to be people who love God with all our very selves? We can’t do that if we are lazy in regard to His commands.
Even under the Law, contrary to popular belief, the commands weren’t too hard! Deut. 30.11
“This command that I give you today is certainly not too difficult or beyond your reach.
God spoke through Moses that the Law was not too difficult for Israel to live by. Yet the People found it too cumbersome, even after returning from exile.
Nehemiah 8, when the remnant returned to Jerusalem and stood for 12 hours reading the Law was only about 100 years before Malachi 1. It doesn’t take very long for people to lose their focus and vigor. They lost it, and God was spurring them on to repent and return to the love of God which their fathers had!
Have some of us here, perhaps, lost some of our love for God over time? Have we begun to resent the words of God as wearisome/burdensome/tiring?
If this is you, please, repent of this sin and return to delighting in God! We must love God in action and affection, and we won’t be able to do so if we do not spend time in devotion and meditating on His word like the Psalmist.
Inventory
Inventory
I have two parts for our Inventory this morning. They aren’t any particularly new form of advice I’m going to give you, but it nonetheless is life bringing will draw the honest, faithful heart to God, I believe.
Pick one passage of Scripture, read it multiple times a day, meditate on it for a few days. Really digest it, and ask God in faithful prayer to instruct your heart and mind through it.
Recognize within yourself what commands you might find burdensome or hard, and go out of your way to do them!