Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Intro & Illustration

Pleasantries

Tonight, we are going to be in the OT, in a book that I’m sure many of you frequent often....and that is the book of Malachi!

Reading of the Word

The Priestly Problem

And if you don’t know where Malachi is, I’ll give you a helpful tip, just turn to the book of Matthew, chapter 1, and head left.

It will be the first book you come to

The Priests’ (& the people’s) contempt and indifference for God

Offered polluted offerings

And tonight we are going to be looking at Chapter 1

As you are finding your way there, I want to tell you about a time when my parents, my sisters and their families and my family were spending time together up at Alpine Lake, where my parents have a cabin

God the Master

And if you know my mother and my sisters, you will know that they like to go antiquing and find deals on little things and so forth....and so one day we were out and about, all of us, together and we had made a few stops along the way

God the greater than the governors

Blind, lame, sick

God the Great King

And like it’s been my entire life, I was more than done with this little adventure…as a kid I used to spend so much time just sitting in the van waiting for hours and hours for them to finish, so I was used to this

vs 31-33

Despised His name

Despised His name

However, I had Jaxton with me, a little 3 or 4 year old…and he was getting antsy.

Turns out, we were at this one little shop, and sure enough, they had a petting zoo behind the store

God the Father

God the Master

God the greater than the governors

God the Great King

I AM - Yahweh

What a fantastic idea!

The women can shop and we can go do manly things like petting animals....I guess that’s a manly thing to do?

Drill into this name

Viewed worship and sacrifice as a weariness

Saw nothing wrong

“How have we despised your name”....etc.

They did not truly believe God…because faith is evidenced by our actions…and tells us without it is impossible to please God.

The Pattern Persists

So I head down behind there with Jaxton and we head over to where the animals are, a sheep, a donkey, a goat, etc.....

And this one sheep comes running over because usually they get fed by people who weren’t too cheap to stop and pay .25 cents to get some food out of the dispenser, which I didn’t do

The same still applies to us

- verse 10 & 12

Christ redeemed us from the sacrificial system

“Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin” - verse 18

He is our great high priest -

Christ truly “did away with the first in order to establish the second” as says

And immediately, I know something is wrong with what I’m looking at....because as the sheep approaches, I realize that it’s head was upside down

,

Because of that we are a holy priesthood under our great high priest

To offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ

Verse 9 - We are a chose race, a royal priesthood....and we are to proclaim the excellencies of Him.

And you’re probably thinking “yeah, right”, but I’m 100% serious here, the sheeps head was naturally upside down

Living sacrifice

Holy & acceptable to God…which is your spiritual worship

I didn’t even know what to do at this point as I’m just standing there looking at it.

Me, being an awesome parent, I forgot for a minute or two that my son was looking at the same animal and I wish I would have gotten a picture of his face because he was confused to say the least

I’m scratching my head wondering what would have happened if I did try to feed the animal, because how does this sheep eat upside down?

[Art Azurdia]

What is authentic faith?

The cultivation of an optimistic outlook on life with a kind of spirituality attached to it?

A holy hoping for the best?

Is this how you think of faith?

Authentic faith is the confident assurance in events not yet seen

Faith is not a call to believe in things when common sense tells you not to

Faith is not a mindless stab in the dark

It is not a crossing of the fingers and hoping for the best

It is not a leap into apparent nothingness

It's a word that speaks of reasoned, careful, deliberate, intentional thought

Thought upon what?

God and his promises

If you are absolutely gripped by the coming realities that have been promised to you by God, then how you live your life in the present will be radically different than if you did not possess that certainty

This is what faith is, my friends!

Positive certainty expressed in action

Authentic faith is not merely believing in God.

It is believing God

Taking God at his word, living in obedience to his revelation whatever the cost because you know down deep in your bones that God will always do what he says, that his speaking is his doing

It is an abiding assurance in God and his promises that animates you to persevere in your obedience to Him

Do you wish to be a more consistently obedient, steadily persevering Christian?

A stronger Christian?

A more courageous and outspoken Christian?

Then you need to strengthen your faith!

Your faith instinctively strengthens in direct proportion to the expansion of the object of your faith!

You expand your understanding of the object of your faith and faith itself will obediently follow

The object of your faith--if indeed you are a Christian--is Jesus Christ and all of his promises

Is your faith weak?

It is owing to the fact that you don't know the object of your faith well enough

But when Jesus Christ becomes progressively bigger, or better yet, your understanding of who he is progressively conforms to reality, your faith will become increasingly stronger

But how does that happen?

By immersing yourself in the faith-arousing Word of God

Read of Jesus Christ!

The same powerful Word that long ago brought the universe to life is the same Word that can bring you to life and furnish you with a faith that is truly and authentically Christian

And I looked desperately to find pictures of these animals because we did take some, but neither my sisters nor myself could find any of them…but it was the strangest thing I have ever done

And I actually took my student leadership team on a retreat last year and our last stop of the day was to visit these animals....just to find out they were no longer there.

And I’ve never felt like a worse human being than when I was standing there petting these animals and being disappointed that they were normal!

Well, tonight we’re going to be looking at a passage that is centered around animals as well, in particular the animals that the priests were offering to God on behalf of the people…animals who were themselves not perfect....and what I want us to consider when we’re all said and done here is this thought:

Do I find the worship God to be wearisome, or a burden?

Because what we are going to see is that the people of Israel were guilty of that

- Read the Passage

Read the passage

What we just saw in the passage is that God has a very big problem with the priests (and the people of Israel)…and that’s probably the understatement of the year.

And the issue at hand is that they are showing a complete indifference and downright contempt for God and His commands....

and that’s being displayed and made very clear to us in this passage in 4 ways, and I want to look at those tonight with you all…and have each of us heart check ourselves to see if any of these are prevalent in our own lives.

1.

They offered polluted offerings upon the altar