Malachi 1

INTRO

Mal 1:1 The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?”

the way God has dealt with Israel is characterized by “I have loved you”

but they doubt - so God get’s specific - lays out evidence

“Is not Esau Jacob's brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated.

God’s love is evidenced by his choosing.

Do what?

father / son illustration.

*relationship is bad “love you son” “how?”

*bad day at school “I don’t just love you on good days”

Maybe you are distant from God? Angry? Struggling? Despising him?

you should rejoice. what? why? problems. bills. family issues. persecution. why rejoice?

because he chose you.

“Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:20

He loved Israel/Jacob despite themselves.

He blessed those that blessed them.

He disciplined them when they went astray.

and ultimately he sent Christ through this line to save the world.

Because he CHOSE them, we can see the evidence of his love.

the world feels icky over this. . . why?

explain: no neutral.

DO YOU SEE? God LOVES us.

He sent Christ to die for us, the spirit to transform us, to gather us.

But Israel here… a spoiled child “how have you loved us?” and more evidence

Mal 1:6-11 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ 7 By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lord's table may be despised. 8 When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil?

putting on the altar lame/blind animals.

animals that were going to be culled from the flock anyway.

like the clothes we donate to goodwill.

like the furniture we put at the curb

God will take the leftovers. The undesirables. The stuff we were throwing out anyway. The scraps.

No. He gets the firstfruits. The fat. The unblemished.

God gets the best.

SO, God hits home with them.

9 Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts.

They wouldn’t send that to the IRS, the audit would come right behind it.

If you were appearing before the king of england - or whatever - insert dignitary here… and they asked you to sing...

would you sing the same way you sing on Sundays?

and God is fed up with their offerings. He makes it clear:

10 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain!

“If there was some priest that had the courage enough to do something about this.”

and the priests knew better anyway

2:7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people[d] should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

so why would they do this? why would they allow it? their job was to guard knowledge and give true instruction!

because the sacrifices were their paychecks.

if they rejected - they’d be hungry.

But God wanted one, jsut ONE to be faithful.

but there wasn’t one. therefore:

1:11 I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.

PRINCIPLES

the heart of worship - is to honor the Lord

we gather to sing, to offer, and heed his words - all from a disposition of honoring him.

this is why we have a call to worship, this is why we spend time preparing for Sundays , because we’re setting our minds right. to HONOR him.

IN OTHER WORDS

if you give all your money to the poor, sacrifice everything you have for someone else, or even give your body in sacrifice

but if you have no love for the Lord - it means nothing.

Worship begins in the heart.

and those who don’t worship from the heart eventually will out themselves.

a half-way commitment to the Lords day. refusal to offer God the full tithe.

and eventually God will give you what you really want - his absence.

and your children? they’ll fall in line with the mainline apostates.

the ministers leading the churches filled with those worshiping without heart - they adjust - change the teachings - no longer guard knowledge.

and they keep their paychecks.

For a long time folks measured church success by attendance on sundays. It was weird.

but then the numbers started ticking down.

so then the count shifted to “who calls this church home”

but then that started failing.

nowadays churches start counting views on FB as attendees.

what’s happened? The American church has forgotten the heart of worship.

and God shut the doors.

So what do we do?

Heb 12:28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,29 for our God is a consuming fire.

what do you bring to church on Sunday?

a heart distracted? burdened by coming here? just participating in a ritual?

or a heart ready to worship? to be reverent?

do we delight in honoring the Lord? Or is this just another external...

1:11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.

Jerusalem refused to offer a pure offering, so God moved on.

“My name will be great among the nations”

the point? God will be honored. You can either get on the bus or not.

either in this congregation - by your mouth - or by someone else.