Brady vs. Paul
How To Deal With God • Sermon • Submitted
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· 4 viewsHow to deal with God #1: Remember God loves you all of the time and our goal is to make that love the number one priority of our life.
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Back when I was a teenager and dinosaurs roamed the earth, a cute little ditty came out that you can still find around today.
Some brilliant person came up with a way to make their fortune.
They created a slogan and put it on buttons and bumper stickers and pretty much anything.
And it was absolutely brilliant.
(Show Slide) Smile, God loves you.
People wore the buttons and you could hear people saying it all of the time.
And if I remember correctly, I think some televangelist ended their program with, Remember: Smile, God loves you.
However, another brilliant person came along later and updated the statement a little bit.
It’s not nearly as popular as the first, but it’s probably the better of the two.
He said, “Smile, God loves you—and after all you’ve put him through, that’s really something.”
And that’s what the book of Malachi is all about.
Just as background, Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament.
It was written by a guy named Malachi about 400 years before Jesus was born and that’s all we know about him.
I’m calling this study of Malachi, “How to Deal With God.”
And here is the first point of the series: Remember God loves you all of the time and our goal is to make that love the number one priority of our lives.
How do we deal with God?
First, we make God’s love the number one priority in our lives.
So let’s look at this.
Read Malachi 1:1-5
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?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob
but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.”
If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’ ”
Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”
Were you listening?
Did you hear the precocious child?
Let me help you.
We’ve all been there.
Either you were the parent, or you may have been the kid.
The kid wants something, and wants it very badly.
In fact, they are convinced, if they don’t get it, all life on earth as we know it will end.
The parent, on the other hand says the child can’t have it.
An argument ensues and at some point the child says, “You just don’t love me.”
Now young parents, let me give you some advice that you probably already follow.
If your child says that, not only is that an immediate no to whatever it is they want - it’s a lasting no.
I was a bad parent I’m sure because when one of my children said, “You just don’t love me,” I would typically say, “You are right, I don’t.”
Did it scar them for life?
We’ll you’d have to ask them, but if I had to do it over again, I’d not change it one word.
A child can only say that when their thinking is flawed.
And that’s point number one: When Israel responds to God’s love by saying, “You don’t love us,” or as it is put here in Malachi 1:2 “How have you loved us?” their words give up the fact that their thinking is flawed.
Does God ever not love his children?
Well no, God always loves his children.
Everyone knows that, why are we even talking about it?
Well, it’s like this, life is large and real.
Austin and Lauralee bought their first house this week.
It’s a neat house down on Jackson Avenue and they are so excited.
Do you remember your first new house or new apartment?
So excited, remember?
You couldn’t wait to paint the rooms and decorate everything.
To cut the grass and plant shrubbery and pave walkways and build gazebos and he-sheds and she-sheds.
It’s a thrill - for a while.
But life is large and real.
You have a three or four curtain climbers.
You add a pet or two.
Over time, your two cars turn into three, maybe four - all have to have insurance.
There are braces and doctor’s appointments and broken bones.
And the house needs painting again and the gutters leak and the walkways need cleaning and the yard needs raking.
And the house payments just keep on coming - no matter how much money you don’t have in the bank.
Every month - for 360 months - 30 years - that little payment book has one tiny sheet torn out of it.
And someone gets sick.
And work changes.
And society changes.
And inflation and politics and school systems and....
Someone you love dies.
And one day you sit down and you ask yourself, “Where is God in all of this?”
I mean, doesn’t that smiling dude promise that God wants us to have our best life now?
Is this the best life has to offer, stress and more stress, and demands, and people.
Doesn’t it always seem that when the stress in your life kicks up to 11 on the 1 to 10 scale, that’s the time everybody around you decides to go crazy, right?
Your kids, your wife, your boss - all you are trying to do is work as hard as you can to give them all their best life now - and they’ve all gone insane.
That’s the story Malachi is telling.
God says I love you.
Israel says, “I just don’t see it.”
Here’s their stress.
About 70 years before this was written, they returned to Israel from exile in Babylon - remember, we studied that in the end of days series.
They were so excited to be coming home.
For so long they had lived as strangers in a foreign land, happy to be alive, but hating each day they weren’t free.
And now they are.
They move back and the city is in shambles - but it was like getting a new place.
They rebuilt their houses.
They rebuilt the city walls.
God blessed them by bringing them home.
They were rebuilding a destroyed place and it was hard work.
And their distant family, the people of Edom was still right next door and they caused them all kinds of trouble.
Both Edom and Israel are states of Persia now, and just like jealous kids, Edom would rat Israel out to the Persian rulers to make themselves look better and make Israel look like jerks and cause them problems.
It’s the old mean kid that acts like a saint in front of the teacher but terrorizes the kids on the playground.
And the folks of Israel didn’t understand it.
If God loves us, why is he letting this happen?
If God loves us, how come he lets Edom give us fits?
If God loves us, how come we are still hungry and our friends and family get sick and die?
We don’t understand how a good God would let such bad things happen to people he supposedly loves.
And if we are truthful - when we are alone with ourselves, we are often baffled by God, we are discouraged that God allowed this to happen, and sometimes we are infuriated with him - “If you loved me, this wouldn’t be happening to me.”
Malachi 1:2 ““I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?”
Our thinking is flawed.
We are so laser focused on the problems we have right this minute, that we question God’s goodness, and we end up questioning everyone and everything in our lives.
When we are suspicious of God’s motives, we become suspicious of everyone’s motives.
We act crazy when we forget the promise.
God’s answer here is wholly unsatisfying.
Instead of God saying, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways,” he talks about Jacob and Esau.
Now, let’s get up to speed on those two brothers.
Way back in the book of Genesis - Genesis is at the beginning of the Old Testament and here we are in Malachi at the end of the Old Testament - just as far away from each other as you can get and God refers to something that happened way back when.
Back in Genesis, Abraham and Sarah had a son Isaac.
Isaac grew up and married Rebekah but just like mom and dad, Isaac and Rebecca weren’t having any babies.
In Genesis 25, we hear this, Genesis 25:21 “And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.”
You know there was more angst in that than we hear.
You know as well as I do that Isaac didn’t just pray one time, “Lord, please let my wife have a baby,” and the next thing you know she’s having a baby.
I suspect there were weeks and months and years of pleading with the Lord before God, at the right time, granted his prayer.
Only, she didn’t just have one baby - she had twins.
Twins that didn’t get along.
In fact, while they were in utero, they fought with each other - so much so Rebekah prayed to God, “Why is this happening to me?”
And God replied Genesis 25:23
And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”
The story gets more interesting.
The two boys, Jacob and Esau grow up.
Jacob is a scoundrel.
The name Jacob has multiple meanings, some good and some not so good, but Esau nails it for this Jacob - Jacob is ‘the deceiver.’
Jacob is a mama’s boy and is Rebekah’s favorite.
Esau is a man’s man.
He’s a hairy guy with red hair.
He’s a hunter and he’s good at it.
And he is his daddy’s favorite.
To net the story out, the older son is supposed to get blessed by the father before he dies so he can carry the family name forward.
Only, Jacob tricks Esau into giving up the blessing - now I know many of you know this story - but this is critical to Malachi’s story so hang on.
Jacob is at home cooking a pot of a lentil stew that was red in the pot.
Esau comes in from hunting and he’s famished and he demands some of the stew from Jacob.
Jacob says sure, if you give me let me have daddy’s blessing.
Esau says, what good is the blessing if I die of hunger?
So Jacob gives Esau the stew and Esau gave no more thought to what he had done than the man in the moon.
He filled his stomach with lentil stew and probably laid in the sun and took a nap.
OK, don’t zone out, this is why this is important.
Remember what God said when Israel said, “Malachi 1:2 “How have you loved us?” [God replied] “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob” but Esau I have hated.”
We’ll talk about love and hate in a second - but here’s the deal - God is saying to Israel - I chose to love you.
As evidence he goes into the explanation about Edom, and the reason that matters, is Esau was the one who established Edom.
So you can still see these two brothers fighting each over a thousand years later
So God is telling Israel, I chose to love you for no other reason that I chose to love you.
Even when you are an insolent, smart mouthed brat, I still choose to love you.
But then he says this and this is the key to understanding this, “Malachi 1:5
Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”
There is some knowledge assumed of us here - so let me remind us of it.
Remember that God blessed Abraham right?
Way back when.
And when God blessed Abraham, he said this, “Genesis 12:2-3
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So follow me here, God tells the whiny children, I chose to love you, I’m keeping your enemies at bay and they will never be more than an annoyance to you.
But then he says that you’ll say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.”
Is that just because he is holding Edom at bay?
No, it’s because of the promise to Abraham.
God is saying, I chose you to be the family that the Messiah will come from.
I’m working that plan right now.
You are whining because you’ve taken your eye off the ball.
You are acting like all of your momentary annoyances will end life as you know it and that’s not true.
I promised, and I never renege on my promises, I promised that “in you all of the families of the world will be blessed,” and that’s exactly what is going to happen.
We act crazy when we forget the promise so from time to time, God has to remind us.
That’s the expression of God’s loyalty to us - that he remembers His promise.
I said we’d talk about God saying he loved Jacob but hated Esau so let’s do that right quick because it’s important.
When we talk about love and hate, we are talking about emotions.
Love is soft, cuddly and sentimental.
Hate is anger and rage and destruction.
When God talks love and hate, He’s talking action.
Love is loyalty, hate is disregard.
Remember when Jesus said this, “Luke 14:26
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
He’s not telling you to hate your mom and dad.
What he is saying is if your family hinders you from following Jesus, you must choose to disregard your family and be loyal to Jesus.
And we are loyal to Jesus because He was loyal to us first.
Don’t forget, you are a part of that promise.
You are blessed because you are a part of that promise.
Yes, the world is insane, but that doesn’t matter.
We are chosen of God and we are part of His plan to bless the world.
We know the blessing is Jesus.
God caused us to find Jesus.
And his plan is for us to give Jesus to others to bless them too.
There’s a big picture.
I’m not working for today.
My goal is not to have more, bigger, better, more.
My goal is to be as loyal to God as He is loyal to me.
And that’s the rub.
Every person has a choice to make - do we want to be Tom Brady or do we want to be Paul Melton?
Tom Brady - according to one sports website, Tom Brady is the number one quarterback of all time.
His teams have won 7 Super Bowls.
He has won 5 Super Bowl MVP awards.
He has won 3 regular season NFL MVP awards.
He has thrown 581 touchdowns and is second to Drew Brees in passing yards at 79,204 which he is expected to surpass.
His net worth is currently estimated at $250 million dollars.
Everybody knows his name.
Paul Melton was a member here - we laid him to rest back in February.
Paul was never voted an MVP in anything that I am aware of.
He pastored small churches his entire life while he worked a full time job, completed his college degree at night and raised his children with Frankie.
They never made a big splash.
Few would recognize him outside of his circle and if he and Frankie have $250 million in the bank, they sure have squirreled it away so no one can see it.
He lived a modest life.
He had a modest house.
He drove a modest car.
He wore modest clothes.
He worked with the Social Security Administration to provide a living for his family.
And he worked in small churches loving people into the kingdom of God.
We know which choice we ought to make - but good golly Miss Molly - the lights and sounds of the big city are real.
There is a brother who routinely posts on Facebook pictures of his gigantic house with his manicured lawn and his new sports car out front and pictures of his hot wife.
The subtext is this is what God does when you honor him.
That’s what Malachi’s people believed and that’s what some would have you believe.
They didn’t want to be no stinkin’ Paul Melton, they wanted to be Tom Brady.
And if God loves me, that’s who I’ll be.
But that’s now how God works.
God is working a plan that He created before the foundation of the world.
He purposed in His heart to create a people who would love Him and enjoy Him forever.
He said He would be their God and He would be their people.
We know, because we studied Revelation, that at the end of days, God will fulfill that promise in its entirety.
Because he has been loyal to us from the beginning all the way to the end.
God loves us all of the time and our goal is to make that love the number one priority of our lives.
That’s our goal.
That’s our goal.
As a church, we are making loyalty statements to God today.
We celebrated baptism.
Four people of all ages committed their lives to following Jesus and they proclaimed two things by being baptized.
By being baptized, they stated they are going to be loyal to Jesus regardless forever as best they can.
And by being baptized, they stated they know that Jesus has been loyal to them from before they were born and He will be forever.
And now we are going to celebrate communion.
God’s loyalty to us was proven that in that the promise He made to Abraham was fulfilled in Jesus.
The whole world is blessed - salvation is ours.
We know God.
We can approach God.
We can cry out to God and expect an answer.
We don’t need a priest because we are priests.
We don’t need a sacrifice, because we have a sacrifice.
And it is by His wounds we are healed.
The Holy Spirit tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
As you take the bread and the juice today, remember that Jesus is loyal.
He gave his body to be the sacrifice, once and for all, for our sins.
And one day He is coming again.
Remember He said this to us, “John 14:3
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
It’s a promise, and Jesus is loyal and He will follow through.
We invite anyone who has committed their life to following Jesus and has been baptised to join us at the Lord’s table.
Paul does caution us though, examine yourself before you come.
If your loyalty is not with Jesus, do not take communion.
Examine your heart and be right with Jesus before you come forward.
If you are sitting on the left, please exit your pew to the left and circle around to the front.
If you are sitting on the right, please exit your pew to the right and circle around to the front.
Once you have taken the Lord’s supper, you may leave with the taste of freedom on your lips.
Pray with me:
O almighty Lord and everlasting God;
Vouchsafe, we implore you, to direct, sanctify and govern both our hearts and bodies in the ways of your laws, and in the works of your commandments; that through your most mighty protection both here and ever, we may be preserved in both body and soul; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
Please come to Jesus’ table.