The Quality of the Gift
Notes
Transcript
Last 3 Prophets
Last 3 Prophets
Haggai, Zech, and Malachi are the last 3 books in your OT and chronologically, the last 3 written. (w/ Esther)
Israel was on a dangerous path repeating past bad behavior.
Their circumstances were difficult. They’d been worse. They’d been better. But now, they were struggling again.
And, in their effort to understand and correct their problems it revealed the heart issues they were suffering from.
Innately we try to find reasons why. We have a built-in sense of fairness.
So, if things are not going as we think they should, there must be someone or something to blame.
In Israel’s effort to understand and place blame it revealed underlying heart issue.
Not cholesterol, clogged arteries, or angina. It was a spiritual problem.
They were blaming the wrong person for their struggles.
And, their behavior reflected bad conclusions.
Difficult times reveal more about us than anything else. And what the stress was revealing about them, what our stress reveals about us, shows everyone exactly where our hearts are w/ God.
When we’re stressed, what’s going on inside shows up on the outside.
And, one of the ways it shows up in the quality of the gifts we give and things we do for each other.
When we’re struggling, we’re in no mood to do anything good for anybody else.
Quality of the Gift
Quality of the Gift
What are some of the best gifts you’ve been given?
I don’t mean most expensive, necessarily. I mean, most valuable. Real quality b/c of who gave it, the context, how much effort it took and what it cost beyond money.
One of the gifts Sara has given me that I consider t/b among the most valuable to me is this ring I wear.
It’s a James Avery. Sterling silver.
It’s not that it’s all that expensive.
But, it’s what the ring represents and the context in which it was given give it its value.
This is actually the 2nd one. I lost the first on last year somewhere around the golf course. Between my finger and my golf bag. In the parking lot or in the grass next to the 18th green.
I felt horrible.
Sara has always been a stay-at-home mom. 3 kids.
My ministry, is also my job. I go to work and earn a paycheck, give most of it her so she could manage the household.
She’d set up and manage the house wherever God led us to do ministry.
She’d set up and manage the house wherever God led us to do ministry.
God never led us different directions. So, when I’d get a sense He was leading me to a new position, she’d get the same message.
We’d work together to find out where God was leading us. But, I’m running point on this searching for where God wants us to go.
I’ve got to get this right b/c it involves uprooting the kids, schools, little league teams, friends. There’s a lot to it.
It would always add stress to my life doing the best I could to listen to God who would be leading us to the best place for us.
Stressful.
In the midst of one of these transitions at Christmas, she gave me this ring.
The words on it are in Hebrew. .
The story of Ruth. Naomi had 2 sons, Weakling and Sickly.
They both married. They both died.
One DIL moved back w/ her people.
Ruth, not Jewish, decided to stay w/ Naomi and return w/ her to her Jewish family.
Ruth made a promise to Naomi b/c Naomi made a promise to Ruth to care for her.
What is on this ring is part of Ruth’s promise to Naomi:
“Wherever you, I will go.”
What Sara told me w/ this is she trusted me. I was doing my best to keep my promises to her. And, she’s saying, relax. I’m all in. I’m w/ you.
Well thought out. She knew what I was going thru.
Took so much pressure off of me. This was a stressful time.
B/C of the quality she made it clear that her heart was all mine.
No matter where we ended up, no matter where God led us, she’d set up the house and manage it, take care of the kids. We’d be fine.
Have you ever received a gift like this?
Do you give gifts like this?
And, not just the ppl in your life. Do you do this for God?
God wants all your heart. And, one of the tangible ways we demonstrate and communicate that He’s got all of it is in the quality of the gifts we give Him.
Not necessarily the monetary value. Giving great thoughtful effort and time. doing things for the people He cares about, and getting to know Him better.
Not just the ppl in your life, but do you give gifts to God that are of such quality to communicate to Him that your heart is all in w/ Him?
Very quickly, almost every potential idol we could have has been removed from our lives except one.
No sports heroes.
No bands and performers.
Can’t go to movies. All re-runs on TV.
No places to buy more stuff.
Less money to do these things w/.
About the only thing left is, ME.
Circle the wagons. I’m concerned about ME.
When we do that, what we are saying is, “I am the most important person in my life.” I have to look out for me. No one else is. So, it’s all about me.
That puts me on the throne.
Rather than relieving stress, it creates more stress b/c I can’t fix this problem.
Even if I could figure out who to blame what could I do about it?
W/ that, if I could just figure out who else to blame. Anybody but me.
Chinese, president, spring breakers, neighbors.
The issue there is I am incapable. I can’t. That only makes matters worse. And I am dangerously close to imploding as the stress levels become unbearable.
That throne is reserved for Jesus. He is the only one who can.
Focusing on myself also shuts out my wife, kids and everyone else who is important to me. Including God.
God is the promise-maker and promise keeper. He is in the process of keeping every promise He has ever made to us.
And, He’s doing it all the time in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.
Stay focused outside ourselves, on Jesus, and even in the midst of these stressful times continue to give Him quality gifts that demonstrate He has your whole heart.
In times like these, it is important to stay focused outside ourselves on the One who can relieve our stress by continuing to give Him quality gifts.
It’s not like we don’t have time right now.
The building is locked up. Not much going on around here. But, the church is still alive and active. B/C the church is the ppl.
We’re stuck inside social distancing.
But, we still have plenty of opportunities to do things for God that demonstrate to Him that He has all our heart.
We’re not giving any of it to this virus or any other threat to our peace and security.
This is the issue Malachi addressed in the second question Israel had for God. God calls them out and they respond defensively demanding God prove His accusation.
The 2nd question:
Dishonor? Contempt? What?
Dishonor? Contempt? What?
Malachi
“A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty.
“It is you priests who show contempt for my name.
“But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’
“By offering defiled food on my altar.
“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’
“By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible.
This is the next question. God calls them out that they are not honoring Him, respecting Him.
How?! How have we shown contempt for you?
How have we dishonored you?
How have we disrespected you?
Honor. Sons honored their fathers.
It was an honor culture. Children honored their parents. God commanded it, and they just did it.
Honor means glorify.
When you glorify something you make it look good.
You compliment them to their face and to others.
Never speaking in derogatory terms about them.
When you talk about them to others you leave the others thinking more highly of them than they did before you spoke.
You make them feel good about themselves and look good in the eyes of others.
Israel considered themselves to be children of God.
They were also considered slaves of God.
Respect. Slaves respected their masters.
Respect mean reverence. When you revere someone you treat them as valuable to you.
A slave wouldn’t worship his master. But that word revere is the same root as worship.
A simple definition of worship is, worth-ship. What is this worth to you? When you worship something you are saying that it is the most valuable thing in your life.
You demonstrate that in how talk to them, talk about them. listen to their words, and give valuable gifts to.
And the priests were called out here b/c they were responsible to facilitate honor and respect from the ppl to God.
One of the main ways they would do this is by evaluating the animal a person would bring to the temple to sacrifice to God.
The animal was to be their best animal. Spotless. No defects or diseases.
The priest would either declare it acceptable or reject it.
And, if the animal was rejected then if the person wanted God to forgive their sins then they’d need to come back later w/ a better animal.
But, the priests were accepting every animal. Not rejecting anything. Their fear was that the ppl wouldn’t come back w/ a better animal.
So, not only would the people not receive forgiveness, but the priests couldn’t eat. They took a portion of the people’s sacrifices for themselves. Appropriate.
So, the sacrifices people were making were minimal. The animals were going to die anyway. Wouldn’t be bred.
The quality of their gifts to God was very low.
The priests despised the name Yahweh.
Yahweh is the promise-maker and promise keeper.
They believed God was not holding up His side of their deal.
Their lives were hard. They were suffering under the oppression of the Persians.
They were not as wealthy or as influential in the world as the used to be.
And, God had promised them they would be, or so they thought.
But the deal God had w/ them, the Mosaic covenant that ended at Jesus’ death, was conditional.
They were oblivious to their own responsibility.
They blamed God. Believing He didn’t deserve a better sacrifice.
This was a heart issue. It wasn’t that they couldn’t afford to sacrifice the better animal. It was they didn’t think God was worth it. They hadn’t given him their whole heart.
Heart Issue
Heart Issue
When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.
“Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the Lord Almighty.
“Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.
When a governor would host an elaborate banquet for dignitaries he would accept donations, use tax revenue, to feed the people.
Taxes weren’t just monetary. They gave him animals, too.
It was widely known that the tax-man would not accept a animal any less than perfect for the governor.
Everybody knew that.
So, if the tax man wouldn’t accept it, why would the priests?
The priests had a heart issue that they set the bar way too low for the people.
But, the ppl had a heart-issue, too. They performed down to the standard that the priests set.
Word got out that the priests wouldn’t reject any animal so they met that standard. And, they met a different std for the tax man.
Their sac was unacceptable to God. The sac was given from their heart. Which made it obvious their heart was not in it w/ God.
If their heart was not all in w/ God, then God rejected them the way the priest should have rejected their offering.
And, if their offerings were rejected, then there was no sense in coming to worship.
“Oh that someone would shut and lock the temple doors b/c your worship is so bad.
Useless fires burning up diseased animals that should never have been allowed onto the altar.
Reminds of the story of King Saul and the Amalekites in .
God instructed Saul to attack and kill everyone and everything related to the Amalekites.
Long before they had attacked Israel when they were wandering in the wilderness. They were vulnerable.
God protected them. And decided Saul would exact His revenge.
Saul attacks, kills everyone, except the king.
And, kept all their livestock alive. There was a fortune in livestock.
Samuel shows up and asks Saul how it went. Did you do what God said? Absolutely!
“Then, what’s all that mooing of cattle and bleating of sheep I hear?”
Oh that, I kept those so we could sacrifice them on the altar to God.
Right. Quick thinking excuse. He was looking to get rich.
Saul’s like, “That’s not what God said to do.”
Then he said this:
But Samuel replied:
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
1 Samuel
God wanted Saul’s faithful obedience, his whole heart.
And, if He didn’t get it all, He didn’t want His worship either.
Worship: Communicating to God what He is worth to you.
The livestock was worth a fortune.
But, more valuable to God is your heart.
Going thru the motions, mindlessly, heartlessly, even if it is of great monetary value, not what God wants.
In Malachi’s words there was a warning to Israel and a hint to what was coming.
Maybe God should have lowered His standards and accepted their sick animals. If that’s all He’s going to get, ever. Right?
He didn’t lower His standards. And thru Malachi warned Israel that a time was coming when people from all over the world will not only bring valuable sacrifices, but will also give God their heart, too.
If Israel won’t, others will.
Others Will
Others Will
My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty.
In the Hebrew there is a conjunction that starts this sentence meaning this is the reason why God won’t accept Israel’s worship.
A day is coming when people from east to west, the entire world will worship God.
In fact, we won’t have to come to Jerusalem or the temple, we can do it right where we are.
This is a foreshadowing of the church. Wherever ppl are they will be able to express to God his value to them by making quality sacrifices once they have given Him their heart.
Istanbul
Addis Abba
London
Bogata
St. Petersburg
New York
Dallas
Phoenix
Munds Park
Appropriate offerings will be brought and hearts will be given and changed.
God will be worshiped. There will never be a time when God won’t have faithful people worshiping Him.
The question for everyone is, will you be one of them?
And, in the priests case in Malachi’s day, no, they are not among those who worship God appropriately.
Earlier he dealt w/ their actions. He wraps this section up by dealing w/ their attitude.
Bad Attitude
Bad Attitude
“But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’ And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the Lord Almighty.
“When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.
They knew what they were doing was wrong. They did it anyway.
Handling the sacrifices was messy, a difficult task. And, it wasn’t worth their effort.
It wasn’t good, appropriate and not accepted by God.
So, why did they have to do it?
God is the great King. He is worthy of all our praise, worthy of great sacrifice, worthy of our best efforts.
Then, they showed up w/ the diseased animal.
We know the right thing to do. We just need the courage to follow thru w/ it.
So, after this, what do we do?
Church is closed. We aren’t doing worship services.
Worship services are important. It’s important for us to get together and sing, pray, study and enjoy each other’s presence.
But, we don’t need a worship service to worship God.
That brings us to our applications for today
Applications
Applications
Heart
Heart
Does God have your whole heart?
Is there anything that you consider to be more important than God? Anything you love more? Anything you will do before spending time w/ God?
Is there anything you think would bring you more joy, satisfaction, fulfillment? They won’t. But we can think they will.
Maybe you need to reconsider your priorities.
Just about every potential idol has been removed and made inaccessible.
Is there anything you miss more than time w/ God?
Give God your whole heart. Don’t let anything else be a higher priority.
Call
Call
How do you communicate to anyone you care about them?
Call them. Ask how they are doing. If they have a need let’s get it filled.
If you can’t let me know. We have ppl going to the store in Flag and we can pick up supplies.
We have a benevolent fund to help ppl who need a little money.
Call God, too.
Pray.
Not like yo don’t have time.
Spend a little more time talking to God and listening.
Set up an empty chair. Talk out loud. You don’t need to close your eyes or bow your head. Talk as if Jesus is in the chair.
Praise Him for a quality or characteristic you appreciate about Him.
Thank Him for something you have.
Confess a sin. Inappropriate fear, maybe you looked at something you shouldn’t have, watched a show you shouldn’t have, shopped a little to much online spent too much money.
Ask.
Pray more.
Word
Word
Another way to communicate God’s value to you is when you value what He wrote.
Read an entire book in one sitting.
Read thru the NT over the next few weeks.
When you read a verse that speaks to you in a significant way memorize it. Let it in deeply into your soul.
We don’t have to go to church to be the church. We don’t have to have services to worship God.
There are ways to communicate and demonstrate his value to you while you sit at home.
When we do, it takes our focus off ourselves and directs at the One who can really do something about the things that stress us.
Thanks for watching this. Thanks for listening. Thanks for singing along w/ Linda. Thanks for worshiping even when we can’t come to church.
Some of you might get too comfortable doing this in your PJs and fuzzy slippers. It’ll be okay if you wear them next time we’re together here, too.
God cares much more about having your whole heart than what you wear and what you bring to give.
The quality of the gifts you give are less about their monetary value and more about the condition of the heart they come from.
Give God your whole heart and then worship well.