Malachi: Living in a Stinky House

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When I lived in Portland OR and worked as a youth pastor I had the opportunity to play basketball often. The thing about basketball is that you get really sweaty. So after you get home and take a shower you have sweaty clothes that you have to do something with. It is like this when Jeanette and I job. You are so sweaty that your clothes are dripping with sweat.

Now you can’t put them with your regular dirty clothes cause they stink and you don’t want all your clothes to stink which will make your house stink.

No one likes a stinky house, not even those with a stinky house, they just tolerate the smell.

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But there is a stink that can not be tolerated. A stench that even God hates! That’s what I want to look at today.

I think this stench can be deadly, It can literally cause spiritual decay and death.

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We are finishing up a series called “Majoring in the Minors” looking at Major Ideas in the Minor Prophets.

The last three weeks we have been looking at the post-exilic prophets. These are the prophets that spoke to the Israelites after they returned from their Babylonian captivity.

The Israelites have been through a lot, lets recap:

God makes a covenant with Abraham to give them a certain land.

A couple generations later, his descendants end up in Egypt as slaves.

Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Joseph - 200+ years

They were enslaved for 400 years

After a miraculous delivery they experience God on Mt Sinai and given a new covenant, the mosaic law.

He takes them to the promise land, and they won’t go in because of fear

They spend the next 40 years wandering in the desert.

When they are finally able to enter the promise land, they fail to remove all it’s inhabitants.

There is a period were judges ruled and the cycle of sin and repentance starts

They want a king, so he gives them a king but the cycle of sin and repentance remains.

Because of their unwillingness as a nation to be faithful, he upholds his promise to them and they are exiled by the Babylonians.

After the Persians overthrow the Babylonians and the Israelites are able to return to their promised land and rebuild their city and temple.

God sends 3 prophets to them to help then maintain their identity as his people.

Haggai, Zephaniah, and Malachi

Two weeks ago we talked about how Haggai called the people out of the pit of apostasy.

They were building their own homes while the Temple lay in ruins. Persecution and personal comfort drove them to abandon making worship a priority in their lives.

They had become the people of God by name only but their actions and desires did not reflect their identity.

Do you consider or consider yourself a follower of Christ? Now, do your actions, words, and lifestyle match your identity?

Last week, if you joined us online we looked at the book of Zephaniah and one of his visions.

Specifically the one where Joshua was cleansed, called and commissioned.

We are like Joshua the priest in that if we will accept that God has done for us we will be cleansed.

And when we receive this cleansing we will also receive a calling, and when the time is right we will be commissioned!

Illustration: But many of us as Christians want to cleansing and all the benefits of it but don’t want the calling and commissioning.

2 aspects to our calling

We are all called to share the gospel with others

We are all called to serve each other as the body of Christ.

Unfortunately we treat God house as a vacation home, instead of our home church.

We go, give a little money, but do nothing else to improve it.

This week we are going to look at what Malachi challenges us with.

Malachi 1

This is the message that the LORD gave to Israel through the prophet Malachi. 2 “I have always loved you,” says the LORD. But you retort, “Really? How have you loved us?” And the LORD replies, “This is how I showed my love for you: I loved your ancestor Jacob, 3 but I rejected his brother, Esau, and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau’s inheritance into a desert for jackals.” 4 Esau’s descendants in Edom may say, “We have been shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins.” But the LORD of Heaven’s Armies replies, “They may try to rebuild, but I will demolish them again. Their country will be known as ‘The Land of Wickedness,’ and their people will be called ‘The People with Whom the LORD Is Forever Angry.’ 5 When you see the destruction for yourselves, you will say, ‘Truly, the LORD’s greatness reaches far beyond Israel’s borders!’ ” 6 The LORD of Heaven’s Armies says to the priests: “A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. If I am your father and master, where are the honor and respect I deserve? You have shown contempt for my name! “But you ask, ‘How have we ever shown contempt for your name?’ 7 “You have shown contempt by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar. “Then you ask, ‘How have we defiled the sacrifices?’ “You defile them by saying the altar of the LORD deserves no respect. 8 When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. 9 “Go ahead, beg God to be merciful to you! But when you bring that kind of offering, why should he show you any favor at all?” asks the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. 10 “How I wish one of you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “and I will not accept your offerings. 11 But my name is honored by people of other nations from morning till night. All around the world they offer sweet incense and pure offerings in honor of my name. For my name is great among the nations,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. 12 “But you dishonor my name with your actions. By bringing contemptible food, you are saying it’s all right to defile the Lord’s table. 13 You say, ‘It’s too hard to serve the LORD,’ and you turn up your noses at my commands,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. “Think of it! Animals that are stolen and crippled and sick are being presented as offerings! Should I accept from you such offerings as these?” asks the LORD. 14 “Cursed is the cheat who promises to give a fine ram from his flock but then sacrifices a defective one to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “and my name is feared among the nations!

Let’s set the stage before we get into digesting this passage.

It’s been 100 years since the first exiles were allowed to return to Jerusalem

The temple is rebuilt, albeit not to it’s former glory, it is in working condition.

The people are starting to prosper in the land.

But while they think things are going well, from God’s perspective things are really bad and so he decides to intervene.

The first thing we see is God showing his people how he has loved them.

He says in vs 2 - “I have always loved you,” but their response is “Really, how have you loved us?”

Then he explains how he has loved them, by choosing them, Jacob, over Esau.

The actual translation is “Jacob I have loved but Esau I hated.”

Think of it like Cain and Able, one was accepted because of his loving obedience and the other was rejected because of his lack of loving obedience.

After he shows them how he has loved them, he shows them how they have failed to love him.

He starts by asking, ”where are the honor and respect I deserve?” and says “you have shown contempt for my name.”

Of course they ask HOW?

And he goes through the details of how they have not worshipped him as they should.

Leviticus 1-7 explains what the Israelites were suppose to offer.

Leviticus 22:20–25 “20 Do not present an animal with defects, because the Lord will not accept it on your behalf. 21 “If you present a peace offering to the Lord from the herd or the flock, whether it is to fulfill a vow or is a voluntary offering, you must offer a perfect animal. It may have no defect of any kind. 22 You must not offer an animal that is blind, crippled, or injured, or that has a wart, a skin sore, or scabs. Such animals must never be offered on the altar as special gifts to the Lord. 23 If a bull or lamb has a leg that is too long or too short, it may be offered as a voluntary offering, but it may not be offered to fulfill a vow. 24 If an animal has damaged testicles or is castrated, you may not offer it to the Lord. You must never do this in your own land, 25 and you must not accept such an animal from foreigners and then offer it as a sacrifice to your God. Such animals will not be accepted on your behalf, for they are mutilated or defective.””

The people were giving to God in worship, but they were worshipping how they wanted, not how God commanded!

Everyone who says they love God falls into one of three categories:

They say they love God but don’t worship him.

2. They say they love God but worship him how they see fit.

3. They say they love God and worship him how he desires.

They say the Love God but don’t worship him.

What we see here is someone who lacks desire and discipline for God

This person may go to church every once and a while but that is where their commitment to God stops

These people, when they are at church only give our of guilt and rarely is it as much as God desires.

These people, when they do come to church only want to be served, not serve others.

I have some good news for those of you listening to me right now, only a small amount of you fall into this category.

2. They say they love God but worship him how they see fit.

i. This person is where most Christian’s find themselves in our society.

ii. They have a desire and discipline to worship God, but they don’t compliment each other as they should!

They go to church regularly, they give regularly, they even serve when they can.

The problem is they do all this based on what they think they should do!

Church is important but they when on vacation or away from their church home, they don’t go.

They give financially to support the church, but sometimes they fail to give all that they should.

These people also serve, but limit in their service to when they are already going to be at church.

They don’t really go out of their way to serve.

3. This final category have a desire and the discipline to worship God how he desires.

These people find reasons to be at church not reasons to skip (Sundays and Wednesdays)

These people give financially to God, not just the tithe but above and beyond…generously!

These people serve the body. They get involved in the life of the church to serve God by serving others.

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