No Surprises
How To Deal With God • Sermon • Submitted
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· 6 viewsThe Lord does not hide his affection for us.
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Today isn’t the last of our How To Deal With God series, there’s three more messages to go.
But it is the last message from Malachi.
So, like any good teacher does, it’s time for a test.
It shouldn’t be hard - especially if you listen closely to the question.
So here we go.
The Lord made a number of complaints against His people and each time they reacted with a question that contained the same word.
I’m going to read their reactions and you see if you can pick out the common word in all of them.
God’s people asked, “How have you loved us?”
“How have we despised your name?”
“How have we polluted you?”
“How have we wearied you?”
“How have we robbed you?”
“How have we spoken against you?”
Told you it was going to be easy - what is the common word in every response?
How?
With the innocence eyes of a con man, each time the Lord confronts them with their sin, they act all sheepish, they look puzzled and clueless and basically said, “We’re doing the best we can? How have we failed?”
And maybe they had drifted so far for so long that they really did think they were doing the wrong things.
But I don’t think so.
Something else they said gives lie to time they acted shocked when God called them out.
In the very first chapter, God’s calling them on the carpet for not following the rules for sacrifices and their response was this: “What a weariness this is.”
People feign innocence all of the time.
We’re doing the best we can.
Everyone makes mistakes.
That’s old fashioned.
That’s bigoted, misogynistic, homophobic.
But when you dig down real deep, you find the real problem.
What a weariness God’s requirements are.
The main point for today - God does not hide His plans from us.
It’s one of the ways he shows His affection for us.
We know God’s plan - He makes it plain.
We simply find it tedious - it makes us weary.
I didn’t get in trouble much at AT&T.
I was good at what I did - I enjoyed the work -I was a hard worker - high achiever kind of guy.
I was the only person in the company responsible for the sales incentives for 22 states, originally 3,000 person Small Business sales force.
I had a team of 1 and a half to do that with.
I learned to thrive in that environment.
But I was constantly looking for shortcuts.
It’s a long complicated thing, but in a nutshell.
I had to account for every reward every person received, no matter how big or small.
Unless…unless it fell under an IRS rule.
I thought I had found the perfect loophole.
And I did - for a while - until I got the phone call from Security asking me to come to their office in Atlanta on a certain day at a certain time.
I knew from watching other people that talking to Security was never a good thing.
The way I got busted was, a dishonest manager was exploiting my loophole and stealing the money I was sending to his branch.
He got away with it until he got bolder and tried it on someone else.
Then he got busted.
Then I got busted.
And it didn’t have to happen.
Even though I didn’t know the corporate rules, my team’s rules were plain.
But my teams rules - well, “What a weariness this is,” I said.
Thank the Lord, I was able to repent and be saved.
I got a good slap on the wrist along with a hefty dose of embarrassment in front of the executives I supported.
And I followed that rule pretty strictly from then on.
Our text today is Malachi 4:4-6.
It’s the last 3 verses of the entire Old Testament.
It’s the summary statement.
The people were weary of God’s rules and regulations.
It seemed to them that they weren’t getting anywhere by following them.
Doing what God has laid out to them was tedious.
It cost them time and money.
It made them different.
The other people around them didn’t have to do all of this nonsense and it didn’t seem to hurt them any
But, whether they said it out loud or not, they said it.
“What a weariness this is.”
But the Lord doesn’t play.
He does not hide His plan from us.
He tells us exactly how to live for our best life now.
So He calls them out.
But then He tells them what to do.
Malachi 4:4-6
“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
One of the ways the Lord shows His affection for us is the Lord does not hide His plan from us.
And in these three verses, He makes three things very plain.
He makes plain how we are to live.
He makes plain that He is coming.
And He makes plain His final goal.
Verse 4 makes plain how to live - 4“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. “
Remember.
This isn’t a gentle reminder to remember what we have forgotten, this word is imperative.
It’s the dad tapping on his son’s noggin saying “remember, you put the oil plug back in the oil pan BEFORE adding the new oil.”
This also isn’t an intellectual reminding.
If you know something, you either do it or you don’t.
You either obey what you know is right or you don’t.
It doesn’t take 16 years of school to learn how to do that.
The Bible doesn’t teach us things to simply know them - everything we learn in the Bible has an expectation that we will do them.
You learn it - you do it.
Or you don’t.
Remember the statutes and rules - words used in the church that we have no clue what they mean.
A statute defines how to live.
The Lord has given us statutes to tell us how to have our best life.
In case you are wondering, let’s start easy - You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Statutes to live by.
Rules define how we deal with conflicts.
It breaks the statutes down into definable, enforceable parts.
The statute is on certain days and times you sacrifice an animal.
The rules would tell us the process for doing the sacrifice.
So, remember the statutes and rules - but which statutes and rules.
Well, that would be the ones the Lord gave to Moses on Mt. Horeb.
It’s the Ten Commandments and all of the associated statutes and rules.
Remember those - not for a test - not to recite them in class.
Remember them and do them.
Why?
And typically we’ll answer, because God said so - not a bad answer but it misses the point.
Why does God want us to remember and do His law?
Following His law is pretty tedious isn’t it?
When it comes to actually doing what we learn, “What weariness this is,” really does come to mind.
Let me ask you a question - have you ever told your child or someone you care about, “Be strong and courageous.”
You know where that comes from, right? It comes from the book of Joshua, the very first chapter - you might want to turn there right quick.
As the story goes, Moses has died and now Joshua is the man.
He has 1.5 million people to lead into the promised land.
A land of milk and honey and very large, angry people who don’t want to give their land away without a fight.
And here is Joshua.
The Ray Perkins to Moses’ Bear Bryant.
The whoever to Nick Saban.
The pressure to succeed is huge - but the odds - well they don’t appear to be forever in his favor.
So the Lord says: Joshua 1:2-5
“Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel.
Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.
From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.
No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.
There’s the promise - God does not hide His plans from us.
Then the Lord says: Joshua 1:6
Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.
Now if you stopped here, you would think God is telling Joshua to ‘suck it up, buttercup,’ ‘pull on your big boy pants’ and let’s roll.
And when we tell folks to be strong and courageous - we’re essentially telling them that.
Remember the Lord will never leave you or forsake you - now get out there on that field and make the family proud.
But that’s not the place to stop.
Joshua 1:7-8
Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Here’s how to be strong and courageous.
Then he tells Joshua to do the same thing He is telling the folks in Malachi.
Be careful - you make sure - that you do all of the law my servant Moses commanded you.
Don’t stray from it - not one little bit.
Don’t stray to the right and make it too hard.
Don’t stray to the left and make it too easy.
Do what is says - and what does the Lord promise?
“…You may have good success wherever you go.”
Now, how is he supposed to stay on the path?
God tells Joshua that His law should be on his mind all of the time.
You should talk about it.
You should think about it.
You should do it - day and night.
Not adding to it and not taking away from it.
If you do that - “then you will make your way prosperous...”””
Whoa! Who will make Joshua prosperous.
Joshua will.
Correct me if I am wrong, but it certainly appears to me that the Lord is tell Joshua, how you follow Me will determine how successful you are in life.
If you follow my statutes and rules, then you will have “good success.”
God’s words.
The Lord finishes the pep talk in verse Joshua 1:9
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Let me paraphrase this: Joshua, I’ve told you to be strong and courageous.
I know what we are about to do doesn’t seem like it makes walking around sense, but don’t be frightened by it.
And don’t let yourself get confused - lots of folks are going to tell you you are crazy - stay on the path.
I, the Lord, will be with you everywhere you go.
Trust me and follow me and I’ll take you on the adventure of a lifetime.
And if you keep reading, as long as Joshua led the people to follow the Lord’s statutes and rules, everything worked out well.
Now, this is Old Testament, right?
And we live under grace and not the Law.
We know that we cannot life the life we need to live to be acceptable to the Lord.
Had He not sent Jesus, we would have continued in our sin and we would have died to suffer God’s wrath for eternity.
So Jesus came, lived the life we couldn’t live.
Died the death we should have died.
Rose from the dead, ascended to heaven where He waits for His final end-it-all-forever appearance.
And because of that, we are no longer under the law, we are under grace.
But - now think with me here - did the Ten Commandments become irrelevant when Jesus came?
What did Jesus say about them?
Matthew 5:17-20
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Now, think with me, follow me - in the context of what we learned about Joshua.
The scribes and Pharisees had strayed to the right and made following the law very difficult - they added things in that weren’t there.
But Jesus warns us to be careful not to stray to the left and water them down.
But what does He say, “Whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Grace means that when I break one of God’s statues and rules, that I’ll not be condemned - in fact, He will lean in to me because I will be broken that I failed Him again.
But Grace doesn’t mean I ignore the law.
I want you to think about your child or grand child or friend who you’ve told to “Be Strong and Courageous.”
Did you remind them how to do it?
Did you simply tell them to remember that Jesus is with you?
Or did you tell them how to remember?
Or should you tell them every day how to remember so when they need to remember they will remember.
See, you go to college to learn how to think - but that means something entirely different than what we mean.
If you think for a skinny minute that your son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter can stand up to the onslaught of the non-Christian, anti-Christian teaching just because you told them to be strong and courageous, you have your head in the sand.
From birth we need to be reminding our children of God’s Law all of the time.
Not too strict, not too liberal - but exactly as the Lord means them to the best of our ability.
For the next three weeks, we’re going to be studying the 10 commandments.
What a better time to do a refresher for your family.
So, to answer the original question of why?
Why remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel?
Why?
Because the Lord knows that following Him is the guarantor of our success in everything we do.
He makes that abundantly plain.
And here we are about out of time with 2 points left.
So let’s bullet point verses 5 and 6.
Malachi 4:5
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
The Lord makes plain that He is coming.
It will be a great day.
Multitudes of millions and thousands will cheer Jesus on that day.
Full of reverence at His Lordship and full of exuberance that we are seeing the Lord face to face.
It will be a great day.
But it will also be a terrible day.
I checked 5 translations for how they translated the word awesome in the ESV.
There was 1 awesome, 2 terribles and 2 dreadfuls.
For those who reject Jesus, it will be awesome because they will see the King of Glory coming with His angels; it will be an incredible sight.
But it will be terrible.
Every person will immediately be confronted with their sinfulness - they will know who they are and what they done.
And if they aren’t a Christ follower, they will know they have no chance of redemption.
And that will make it dreadful.
Because they will know their destination.
They will rail against the Lord with hate filled eyes and blasphemous words; but it won’t stop what is coming.
Finally, the Lord makes plain His final goal.
Malachi 4:6
And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
Jesus will cause parents to love their children by teaching them the success rooted in God’s laws.
Children will revere their parents because they will hear how much their parents love them by standing for the truth.
Malachi ends on a downbeat though.
If you don’t follow, your only inheritance, you or your child, is utter destruction.
The literal translation is the word ban.
You’ll be banned from God’s love forever.
What do you think about all of the time?
If you had this one thing, you’d be set?
It’s a game we all are taught to play almost from birth.
We learn to think:
When I finish school
When I get married
When I have a baby
When I have my forever home
When I have a grand child
When I retire
Then - then I will be set.
Then entire book of Malachi is one big NO to that.
You can have all of those things, and you’ll still not be set.
If you don’t know Jesus.
If you don’t desire to follow Jesus.
If you don’t try to follow Jesus.
You’ll never be set.
It will be a very terrible thing to end up at the very end of everything and realize that you missed the main thing.
And it’s too late to fix it.
Back in the 90’s a family from Thomaston was on vacation in Tampa.
A hurricane was coming and everyone was packing up to evacuate.
But when the sun came up that last morning, it was such a beautiful, peaceful day; not a hint of a storm anywhere.
Dad got their raft out and took his daughter out on the bay to make one final memory before they left.
While they were a ways out from the shore, the winds started picking up.
Offshore winds, driving them further and further from land.
They passed out of sight - the hurricane came - they were never heard from again.
And I always thought, what did that dad think when he knew his bad decision had cost his precious daughter her life?
Imagine what it will be like to stand before Jesus unprepared.
Let us pray.