Who Moved?
Notes
Transcript
Who Moved?
Who Moved?
Sara and I had just started dating. 4th of July weekend of 1983.
[The story]
We laughed, got the boat upright, and realized the boat wasn’t that stable and we should get back.
That’s when we noticed that we were a long way from the shore.
It was a beautiful day, my focus was on my new girlfriend, the sailing was easy w/ the wind away from the shore.
But when we needed to get back we knew we were in for a struggle.
I’m more Gilligan than Popeye when it comes to sailing.
I needed to make sure we didn’t get that far away.
Impressive! Obviously, she was blinded by love b/c she still married me.
Eventually, we figured it out, tacked back and forth into the wind and made it back to shore.
Everyone asked
We made up an answer
They knew what was really going on.
When your focus is on what you want and you lose focus where it needs to be, you will drift away.
Then, something happens and you realize what you need , what you should have been focused on, and it’s far away, you’re in trouble.
So, focus on what you need even when you don’t think you need it. So, when you do, it will be close at hand.
Last 3 Prophets, back in Malachi.
The point of the series is to know more of the background so we understand better why Easter happened.
Once Malachi is done writing there is 400 years of silence from God.
He’s done with their unfaithful disobedience until Jesus.
Israel had been in trouble. God punished them, then restored them. Now, they are headed for trouble again.
They were doing the same things previous generations had done that led to the exile.
And there is one specific thing he’s going to point to in this passage that illustrates the path they are one.
Their focus is on something they want. It’s not where it should be.
Then, when they realize they are in trouble, their response is so typical of all of us, “Not my fault!”
God, what happened to you? Where’d you go?
Why are you so far away?
Just like me not paying attention to the shore, Israel was not paying attention to God.
Neither the shore nor God moved. So if there was a distance problem, who’s fault was it?
Stay focused on what you need even when you don’t think you need it. So, when you do, it’s close by.
In Malachi ch. 2.
3 Questions
3 Questions
Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?
My kids used to hate this.
Their friends got to do things they didn’t.
“What’s my last name?”
“What’s your last name?”
“What’s their last name?”
We do what Bowyers do, they do what not Bowyers do.
There are benefits to being a Bowyer.
And, there are also responsibilities.
You do what I tell you to do. And, you get to do what we do for fun.
God could have chosen anybody, but He chose Abraham, and all his descendants.
All one family. W/ one father, God.
They were created t/b different, not look like, act like, be like anybody else.
There’s that part of us that doesn’t want t/b different. We want to fit in. And, we see how much fun everybody else is having. We want it, too.
What we don’t see is the price they pay later.
Those people may make fun of those of us who are act differently.
We play by a different set of rules.
Who would you rather make fun of you?
Those people? Come on. What harm can it do?
God! Oi. I warned you.
When we address God as “Our Father” or “Heavenly Father” we are confirming our covenant relationship w/ Him. It’s a special, personal relationship.
We are agreeing to play by His rules.
And, there are only 2.
Malachi, in asking these 3 questions, is saying;
Yes, we only have 1 Father.
Yes, He alone created us.
So, if that’s the case, why aren’t we acting like it?
If God chose us, redeemed us, and has this rel. w/ us, they why do we treat each Him, and each other, the way we do?
He’s not speaking in generalities here. He has one specific in mind.
If we love God, then we will only marry ppl who love Him, too. And, If we love each other, the divorce rate will go down.
First he deals w/ their choice of a spouse.
They are making poor choices that reflect a deeper problem.
Poor Choices
Poor Choices
Judah has been unfaithful. A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob—even though he brings an offering to the Lord Almighty.
Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands.
This a theological problem, not a biological problem.
It’s based on belief, not race.
Skin color means nothing. Heart condition is everything.
That fact that God says not to do it should be enough. Do they have enough respect for God’s word to obey it.
Obviously, not.
There’s a practical reason, too.
If a U of A grad marries an ASU grad, neither school will get their full support.
Notre Dame, Michigan or USC
Yankees, Red Sox
Cubs, Cardinals
D-backs, Dodgers
All rivals. If loyalties are split, neither gets all their support.
We play by a different set of rules and the first one is, be all-in w/ God.
All your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength.
And, reality, it is impossible t/b all in w/ God if you are married to someone who is not.
You don’t get the support at home, the prayer, BS.
You won’t give as much time or money.
This is a NT principle, too.
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
If you’re all in w/ God, then only consider marrying someone else who is, too.
The deeper issue is are you all in w/ God. It shows itself in who you choose to be intimately involved w/.
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
Does this not apply to marriage. Fights and quarrels. Desires that battle w/in.
You don’t have b/c you don’t ask God. Or you ask w/ wrong motives, driven by your pursuit of pleasure.
We are focused on what we want, driven by the pursuit of happiness not focused on what we need, driven by the pursuit of holiness.
So we lose sight of the source of holiness.
Who we choose, who we pursue t/b intimate w/ reveals the condition of our heart and whether or not we are all in w/ God.
If we’re not that into Him, then He’s not that into our worship.
Remember the story from 1 Samuel and King Saul when he took all the animals alive when he should have killed them.
God didn’t want his worship. He wanted his obedient heart.
Here, Israel was facing the consequences of their behavior. Their worship was rejected.
Earlier it had been b/c they brought diseased and poor quality animals to sacrifice.
Now, they are not bringing their whole heart.
Worship is worth-ship. What is God worth to you? What will you sacrifice for Him?
Will you sacrifice your perceived pleasure and your pursuit of happiness in order to pursue holiness and God?
Would they sacrifice their faulty idea of a better marriage?
The deeper issue was the condition of their heart. They were not all in w/ God therefore not living by rule #1.
But, it got deeper still.
As they came to the realization, they also realized God was far away from them.
This is the the 3rd question of the 7 in Malachi that the book is organized around.
And, it reveals they weren’t living by rule #2, either.
Where’d You Go?
Where’d You Go?
You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.
Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.
“The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty.
So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.
Why? Why would you reject our worship?
Why are you so far away from us?
Where’d you go?
Who really moved?
God’s like, “Been in the same place the whole time.”
The are oblivious to their own responsibility here.
Rule #2, love your neighbor as yourself. At least as much as you love yourself.
Who’s your neighbor?
Sometimes we overlook the obvious.
How did they get to where they were marrying outside their faith?
They had sailed a long way away from God.
They had been married before inside their faith.
They violated rule #1 when they re-married outside their faith.
They violated rule #2 when they mistreated their first spouse and divorced them.
The problem in their minds was they were not happy in their first marriage. And they thought they could be happier w/ a different spouse.
They felt they deserved better and a new spouse would solve their perceived problem.
Remaining faithful and obedient to God, and their spouse, would leave them in their unhappy state.
So, they bel’d it better to take matters into their own hands, since God wouldn’t.
W/ each thought, w/ each action, they sailed farther away from God.
Eventually, they felt no connection w/ God.
Thinking He’d left them and they needed to fend for themselves.
The analogy that Malachi uses is Abraham and Sarah.
God had promised them an heir and it hadn’t happened the way they thought it should.
So, they took matters into their own hands.
They bel’d God was not going to keep His promise. It hadn’t happened, yet, so how could it? God has his limits apparently.
Abraham slept w/ Hagar and she had Ishmael.
God’s like, No, that’s not how it’s supposed to happen.
God miraculously allowed a 99-year old man and 90-year old woman to conceive the old-fashioned way.
Apparently God has not limits to what He can make happen.
When Abraham took matters into his own hands, even though Sarah was complicit and in on it, he was unfaithful to her and the consequences were disastrous, even to this day.
In Malachi’s day, God had made promises to Israel that once fulfilled would lead to their happiness.
They latched onto their happiness, or lack thereof, and missed what God said would lead them to it.
So, while Abraham presented many good examples of how to live your life, he was still a sinful man.
So, don’t follow the example of the man and his behavior. Follow the guidance of the HS w/ others just like you.
They wanted happiness. God wanted holiness.
What they failed to understand was they would be their happiest when they were also their holiest.
Their pursuit of happiness was born out of their heart of disobedience. Violating the only 2 rules we have to live by.
Sometimes, in our efforts to love our neighbors as ourselves we overlook the obvious.
Our neighbors include the ppl sitting at our dinner table w/ us.
They include the ppl who sleep in our bed w/ us.
Who read and watch TV next to us while we are socially distancing ourselves.
Some of your bible translations say in v.16 that God says “I hate divorce.
And, He does.
But He doesn’t just hate it when the judge drops his gavel dissolving the marriage.
He hates everything that happened in the home that led to that moment.
Sometimes we overcook the consequence and undercook what led up to it.
A married couple who is on the path to divorce is not being faithfully obedient to rule #2, or #1, and w/ each hateful comment, each abusive action they are sailing farther from the shore.
One day they are going to wake up and realize how much trouble they are in and they’re going to say, God, where are you? Why did you leave me?
God’s going to reply, I’m not the one who moved.
“If you love me, keep my commands.
That is regardless of circumstance and situation. Focus on what is most important.
So, here we were, living our lives, happily enjoying the freedoms we have, and we got blindsided by a virus.
If we’ve been sailing along, not paying attention to our proximity to God and suddenly realize we’re in trouble, what’s our first thought?
Where’d you go?
Focus on what’s most important. That way, whether you see it coming or are caught off guard you will remain close to God and He will be w/ you thru it all.
Right now there is a virus, our economy is in bad shape, locusts are devouring east Africa, Chernobyl is on fire, there was an earthquake just north of us.
What is going on? Is it the end?
I don’t know. I do know it’s going to get worse the closer we get to the end.
It’s going to be even more important that we stay focused on what’s most important so that whatever happens we stay close to God.
There are just 2 rules to live by.
If we keep these we will never be caught way off shore.
Applications
Applications
Love your neighbors
Love your neighbors
Start inside your house.
Make sure you are loving the ppl you share your house the way Jesus loves you.
If everybody in your house looks out for everybody else in the house nobody has to look out for themselves.
Then, look outside your house.
Are you keeping up w/ the ppl who live around you?
Make sure they are okay and if they need something find a way to get it done.
Love God
Love God
Above everything else.
Love His word. Read it. Study it. Memorize it.
Love prayer. Speak to God. Listen to Him.
Make sure you are not expecting from anything or anybody else whatever on God can provide.
You will be your happiest when you are your holiest. And, only God can make you holy.
Happiness will follow.
Follow the HS
Follow the HS
There are lots of good examples around to follow. But remember every person around you deals w/ their own sin.
They will make mistakes. Don’t follow that example.
Let the HS guide you. Be that example for everyone else.
When your focus is on what you want and you lose focus where it needs to be, you will drift away.
Then, something happens and you realize what you need , what you should have been focused on, and it’s far away, you’re in trouble.
So, focus on what you need even when you don’t think you need it. So, when you do, it will be close at hand.
