The People's Profane Worship of God (Mal 1:6-14)

Announcements

We’ll have a brief special business meeting at the end of this service, it’ll be just a few minutes.

We have one last summer outreach opportunity and that’s during the Sandy Ridge Homecoming Parade on August 13th. If you’re able to help, please sign up at the front of the room; and if you have any questions, please talk to Natalie about it.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the LORD through your giving. To help you with your giving, we have three ways for you to do so: (1) in-person giving can be done at the offering box at the front of the room—if you give cash and you’d like a receipt for your gift, please place it in an envelope with your name on it; if you give a check, please write it to Grace & Peace. If you’d prefer to give with a debit or credit card or through ACH transfers, you can do that either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at www.giving.gapb.church. Everything that you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 56)

Our Call to Worship is Psalm 56. This is a psalm of David written during a time in his life in which he was being pursued by those who sought to harm him. Though he does write of those who are seeking to harm him, ultimately, he places his complete trust in the Lord.

Psalm 56 ESV

To the choirmaster: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. A Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. 1 Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; 2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. 3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. 4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? 5 All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. 6 They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life. 7 For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God! 8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? 9 Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. 10 In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, 11 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? 12 I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. 13 For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

Congregational Singing

Behold Our God (126)

Immortal, Invisible (36)

Crown Him with Many Crowns (129)

Scripture Reading (1 Chronicles 16:23-34)

Our Scripture Reading this morning is wedged in the middle of a poem of praise. This is David speaking and he’s calling God’s people to worship the Lord. Fred, can you read 1 Chronicles 16:23-34 for us?

1 Chronicles 16:23–34 ESV

23 Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. 24 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! 25 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be feared above all gods. 26 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. 27 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place. 28 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! 29 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; 30 tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. 31 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” 32 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! 33 Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. 34 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

Sermon

Introduction

If you have your Bibles, please turn it to Malachi 1:6-14.

I don’t have much this morning in way of an introduction; I want us to essentially jump straight into the text; but let me remind you that we’ve started a new series in the book of Malachi and last week I mentioned a handful of times that Malachi will be a book that is extraordinarily applicable to our modern-day world. You’ll see just how applicable it is this morning.

Let’s read Malachi 1:6-14.

Malachi 1:6–14 ESV

6 “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? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts. 9 And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the Lord of hosts. 10 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. 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. 12 But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. 13 But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord. 14 Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into two parts, (1) Improper Worship Condemned (6-10) and (2) God’s Name Profaned by Improper Worship (11-14). In this particular passage, Malachi is focused primarily on the priests who led the people into improper worship, but I think we can tell that the idea at hand concerning proper worship is applicable to every believer. This morning’s sermon will challenge our modern-day concepts of worship and it will convict us of when we’ve inappropriately worshiped the Lord. Ideally, we will walk away this morning with a much better idea of what true worship is and the desire to be sure that we are genuinely worshiping God.

Prayer for Illumination

Improper Worship Condemned (6-10)

The first indictment that the Lord speaks through Malachi in this book is one that he directs specifically at the priests in the temple.

It’s really no wonder that he directs these statements to the priests first because the matter involves one of improper worship within the body of Israel, and who are the ones responsible for directing and leading the worship? The priests.

The priests were appointed from out of the tribe of Levi to be the ones primarily responsible for the temple and the worship within the temple for Yahweh, which means that they needed to know the Law of God well enough to know how to do the sacrifices, how to lead the musical worship, and what was required to come into the presence of God.

And since they were the ones primarily responsible for leading worship, it’s fairly clear that the ones who receive the indictment or condemnation for improper worship would primarily be the priests.

However, don’t think that this lets everyone else off the hook for improperly worshiping God—He later on confronts all of Israel for profaning the covenant that they had with God—for inappropriate worship.

It just so happens that this first indictment is laid against those who were primarily responsible for leading Israel to worship the Lord because they were the ones responsible for leading Israel to worship the Lord.

Malachi starts this indictment by utilizing two examples that are familiar to everyone who would be reading his book, "a son honors his father, and a servant his master.”

In the two relationships that he mentions, he writes of how a son or a servant is to honor the person who is head over them. He intentionally chooses two relationships in which one person is subject to another.

Now, of course, he’s making the assumption that the child is a good child who actually does honor his father and the servant is a good servant who actually honors his master, but the point remains the same—in these sorts of relationships, those who are subject to others are to honor the ones that they are subject to.

In this instance, Malachi makes it clear who the priests and who the Israelites are to be subject to; remember that this is God speaking through Malachi, “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.”

God makes the assertion that he is a father and he is a master over Israel and it isn’t the first or only time that these ideas are present throughout the Old Testament:

For example, Isa 64:8-9 “8 But now, Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter, And all of us are the work of Your hand. 9 Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord, Nor remember wrongdoing forever. Behold, please look, all of us are Your people.”

It doesn’t take much digging in the Bible to see the idea of God being a master over his people was prevalent. Even in the creation account, it’s clear that God was the head that defined their relationship; He decided what was right and what was wrong—just like a father does for a child and just like a master does for his servant.

And the Israelites readily admitted that Yahweh was their Father and that God was their master, but it’s clear that despite their lip service, they didn’t actually live as if God was their Father or their master.

God says, “If then I am a father . . . and if I am a master, where is my honor and where is my fear?”

Where is the respect that is owed to God for who He is? Where is the awe that they owe Him? Where is the glory that they should be giving to Him?

When taken into context with vv. 1-5 of last week, we can rightfully make this statement, that despite the fact that they couldn’t see or wouldn’t see how God loved them, they still, at the very least, owed Him honor, respect, awe, and glory simply because of who He is as their Father and their master.

Or in other words, if you are a parent, hopefully your children can tell that you love them, but regardless of if your child can tell that you love them, you at least want them to honor and respect you because you are their parent. If you are a manager at work or you’re the owner of a company, regardless of if your employees think you like them, you at least want them to honor and respect you simply because you are their boss.

God’s essentially making the statement that He is their Father and He is their master, but He isn’t receiving the honor, the glory, the respect, and the awe that He is owed for being who He is.

In fact, He makes it clear that instead of respecting Him, instead of honoring Him, instead of them responding to Him in the way that they ought to, they’re despising Him.

He calls out the priests specifically and He calls them the ones who despise His name, which sets up vv. 7-9. He says that the priests have despised His name, but they say, “how have we despised your name?” and then in vv. 7-9 He explains one of the ways that they’re despising Him, “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. 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?"

Despite the priests pushing against God’s statements, that they have despised His name and that they have offered polluted food on His altar, God’s statements remain.

There is a significant problem in the way that the Israelites are claiming to worship Yahweh and it stems from their unwillingness to actually follow what God has commanded them to do.

Yes, they’re offering sacrifices like they were commanded to do and they’re keeping rituals like they were commanded to do, but they’re clearly not doing it the way that they were supposed to do it. It doesn’t take much study to figure out what exactly they were doing wrong. Consider the Law in Leviticus—the Law required multiple sacrifices for different purposes—there were burnt offerings, grain offerings, guilt offerings, sin offerings, and peace offerings. Each one had their own purpose, but one thing was common amongst all of them.

In Leviticus 1, we see the requirements for burnt offerings—regardless of if the offering is from the herd, the flock, or if it is a bird, the offering is to be perfect, without defect.

In Leviticus 2, we see the requirements for grain offerings—they are to be of fine flour, the highest quality and they are to be of the first fruits, the first to be harvested.

In Leviticus 3, we see the requirements for peace offerings—regardless of if the offering is from the herd, the flock, or if it is a goat, the offering is to be perfect, without defect.

In Leviticus 4, we see the laws concerning sin offerings—regardless of if the offering is a bull, goat, lamb or two turtledoves or pigeons, or fine flour the offering is to be perfect, without blemish.

In Leviticus 5, we see the laws concerning guilt offerings—he is to bring a ram without blemish to be sacrificed by the priest and he is to pay restitution to the one who he sinned against.

Did you catch the commonality? Every offering offered to the Lord is to be of the firstfruits and the offering is supposed to be perfect, without defect, and without blemish. But what was being offered to the Lord in Malachi?

V. 7, they’re offering polluted food upon God’s altar and when they ask “how have we polluted you?” God explains what exactly they’ve been offering to Him.

They’re offering blind animals, lame animals, and sick animals—they definitely aren’t offering the animals that would be considered perfect and without blemish. And they definitely aren’t offering the sacrifices that would be considered the firstborn.

They’re offering the animals that they don’t want, that are flawed, that are damaged. They’re offering not the best that they have to offer but the worst that they can offer—and they think that they’re getting away with it.

But in reality, God knows that they’re offering garbage to Him. In v. 8b he points out that what they’ve been offering to Him as their sacrifices wouldn’t be acceptable even to human government, but their care for Him is so flippant, so lackadaisical, and so disrespectful that they’re giving Him sacrifices that they would never dare to give a human governor; and yet, they don’t care enough to see how wicked it is to offer garbage or dross to Him.

God says, “Present that [meaning the blind animals, the lame and sick animals]” to your governor [or their human authorities] [would] he accept you or show you favor?” If they offered what they were offering to God to the human leader, would the human leader be pleased?

The rhetorical question is answered with a resounding “no!” Of course not, and yet in v. 9, the people are still asking for favor from God, “entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us,” but God responds by pointing again at their gifts. Why would He grant them favor when they offer the worst of the worst to Him?

And in v. 10, we see the statement that makes it abundantly clear as to why we know that despite this being directed specifically at the priests, it really applies to everyone. “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.”

God confronts them for their improper and disrespectful sacrifices that really was a hallmark of their profane worship and it’s easy to assume that the priests were purely responsible for the issue at hand, but the last few statements from God in v. 10, makes it clear that he’s expanding the indictment further than just at the level of the priesthood.

God essentially laments, “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain!”

We could possibly view this in a different way, God is lamenting, why didn’t one of them stand up and stop this? Why didn’t they do the right thing? Why didn’t they reject garbage “worship” and insist on them doing things the right way?

Why didn’t someone step up and do what was right? Clearly, the assumption here is that they knew what was right and did wrong anyways—they knew how they were supposed to worship God, they chose not to do it properly.

If someone had just stepped up and stopped the improper worship, the book would’ve been different. But instead, God says that He has “no pleasure in [them] . . . and [He] will not accept an offering from [them].”

Which, let’s be honest, is a fairly significant thing for God to say. What this shows us is that there is a proper way to worship the Lord and worshiping God improperly results in God not accepting our worship.

This means that we need to take our worship of God utterly seriously and we need to learn what God says about worshiping Him and we need to learn how we best worship Him, which we’ll get to a little bit later in our application.

At this point, God is lamenting that someone in this group of people who all seemingly know what’s right concerning their worship of Him decided to continue to "worship” instead of fixing the problem at hand. Why would He accept their improper, illegitimate worship? Why would He want to bless them and care of them when they actively choose to disobey Him and worship Him wrongly? He wouldn’t, and He makes it abundantly clear that He won’t accept improper worship and illegitimate sacrifices before continuing in the text.

The text continues in the same theme of improper worship, but it focuses on how their improper worship of Him profanes His name. Take a look at vv. 11-14 again.

God’s Name Profaned by Improper Worship (11-14)

Malachi 1:11–14 ESV

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. 12 But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. 13 But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord. 14 Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.

God continues in Malachi by speaking about His name. And remember from our series in Psalm that when the Bible refers to someone’s name in this sort of context, it isn’t just referring to a word that identifies a person. It’s referring to every part of that person—his character, who he is, it’s everything about that person.

In v. 11, God is making the statement that everything about Him will be great among the nations—and note, with the way that this is written in Hebrew, that this can be viewed in two different ways—it might be written in a footnote for this verse, but the Hebrew can mean both “my name will be great” or “my name [is] great.”

You might ask why exactly that is the case and it all has to do with the Hebrew not having a word there. If we were to translate it literally, word-for-word, it would simply say, “my name great.” It was up to the translators to make the decision as to what exactly was meant here and most translators have chosen to view this in the future tense—that it is something that will happen in the future.

My personal thought is that it means both—that God’s name is already great, but the nations’ realization of God’s greatness is more focused in the future.

In the future the nations will recognize God’s name to be great and in the future in every place incense will be offered to God’s name.

The key isn’t so much of when God’s name will be recognized as great among the nations, but the fact that God’s name is great—that He, Himself is great and others see it and will see it.

The issue, and this is the point, is that the Israelites, who should know that God’s name is great, profane His name. V. 12, “But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering!’”

To profane something means to treat it with irreverence or disrespect. In this case, God makes the claim that the Israelites are profaning God’s name—they’re disrespecting and treating His name with irreverence. You may not realize this, but this is a breaking of one of the Ten Commandments.

The third command found in Exodus 20:7 “7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”

We typically think of this command only referring to the speaking of God’s name inappropriately—and that’s certainly one aspect of it. It’s utilizing the word God or that certain three-letter acronym that infiltrates texting and messaging when you’re definitely not speaking about God.

But that is only one aspect of using God’s name in vain. It also includes blasphemy or cursing the name of God, which we see in Leviticus 24:16, it includes using God’s name to swear an empty or false oath (Lev. 19:12; Hos. 10:4), and it includes claiming to prophesy and have visions but really just lying about it all like in Jeremiah 23:25. This is a little unusual, but in Leviticus 18:21, we’re told that those who sacrifice their children to Molech also profane the name of God and thus break the third command.

How are the Israelites in Malachi taking God’s name in vain? It’s explained to us in v. 12, “you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it.”

By not worshiping God properly, by not following the Laws that God had given them to follow, and by giving sacrifices that were unacceptable, they were profaning God’s name—they were disrespecting God’s name, they were treating His name with irreverence; they were taking God’s name in vain, by claiming to be followers of God and then by claiming to worship Him despite not worshiping Him properly.

It’s like taking God’s name and figuratively dragging it through the mud, which coincidentally is precisely what we do when we claim to be a Christian and then choose to live in unrepentant sin—we take God’s name in vain because when we call ourselves a Christian, we’re literally saying that we follow Him, but when we sin unrepentantly, we essentially denigrate His name, we spit in His face, and we take His name in vain.

God says that the Israelites are profaning His name, despite the fact that His name is great and will be great among the nations.

Despite the fact that they claim to follow Him and they claim to bring Him the offerings that are required and they claim that they’re worshiping Him properly, they aren’t and by claiming to follow Him, but not doing it correctly, they denigrate God’s name, they spit in His face, and they take His name in vain.

Despite knowing what is right, they chose to do what is wrong, what is sin; and then they acted shocked when they found out that God knew all along that they weren’t worshiping Him properly and they were surprised when He refused to accept their wrongful worship.

The last verse reflects God’s judgment concerning the type of worship that the Israelites offered to God. Starting with the last sentence of v. 13, “Shall I accept [this offering] from your hand? says the Lord. Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.”

Of course God won’t accept their wrongful worship. Why not?

Not only because He’s already explained to them what right worship of Him looks like and what right worship is throughout the Law, particularly in Leviticus,

But also because of their mindset throughout the whole ordeal. Not only are they offering bad sacrifices to the Lord, they’re doing it on purpose and their heart reveals that they don’t actually care about God and they don’t actually love Him like they claim to love Him.

If they did, their worship would have been done the way that it was supposed to be done and their sacrifices would’ve been of their best and not of the worst.

God says that the one who vows to give the best of his flock and yet sacrifices the worst of his flock is to be cursed before reminding them, yet again, that He is a great King and His name will be feared among the nations.

Which brings us to our application for this morning. Of course, things for us will be a little different since we no longer offer sacrifices the same way that the Israelites did and our worship of the Lord doesn’t require ritualism the way that their worship of the Lord did. Instead, we’re told of a different way that we are to worship that doesn’t require outward rituals and sacrifices, but rather an inward change through which we worship God.

Application

Before we actually dig into application, we do have to answer one question and the answer to this question is found all throughout Scripture, but we see it clearly in Malachi 1 as well. The question is, how do we worship God correctly?

We see in Malachi that the Israelites are being accused of incorrectly worshiping God by offering blemished sacrifices also known as polluted offerings, by doing the rituals half-heartedly and by essentially taking God’s name in vain by not worshiping God properly.

And I think if you read the passage with discernment, you can actually pick up on the fact that God isn’t so much upset at the offerings, sacrifices, and rituals—they are doing these things, but rather how they’re doing them. The issue isn’t whether or not they’re doing them, it’s how they’re doing them.

They’re offering the sacrifices, yes; but they’re offering polluted sacrifices, blemished animals, that are blind, lame or sick.

They’re giving their different offerings, yes; but they’re not offering the firstfruits, but rather whatever remains and the lowest quality.

They’re clearly still doing what they think they’re supposed to be doing, but they’re not offering the best that they have, they aren’t giving out of the abundance, but rather, what remains.

And in their disobedience, they reveal that their hearts aren’t actually right—they aren’t doing these things out of love, but because they think they deserve blessings from doing it.

Their ideology is that they’re checking off all the right boxes, but the reality is that their hearts are far from God—that despite the fact that God is great and that His name is to be feared, they don’t act like God is great or that His name should be feared.

They know they’re supposed to worship God, but they aren’t worshiping Him properly; and this is where our application comes into play. Since we don’t offer sacrifices and we don’t need to do rituals like the Israelites did since Jesus is our ultimate sacrifice that atoned for our sins, how do we worship God properly today?

Our application really needs to answer this question because until we do, we won’t worship God correctly—what does it mean to worship God properly today?

There are many passages that we can look at, but thankfully, the answer to what does it mean to worship God properly today is summed up in Romans 12:1-2, which by now should be familiar to you because I regularly reference it, Romans 12:1-2 “1 Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Paul says that worship that is acceptable to God is this idea of presenting your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. That idea of being a holy sacrifice stems from the Old Testament Law, that there are sacrifices that were to be given to reconcile you to God.

Paul says that to offer yourself as a sacrifice acceptable to God requires you to be transformed by the renewing of your mind and for you to not be conformed to the image of the world—or in other words, for you to be acceptable to God, you need to think like God thinks, live like He wants You to live, and be the person that He wants You to be—He doesn’t want you to remain just like you were before your salvation.

This tells us that genuine worship of God supersedes any one place or any style of musical worship, it supersedes any one local church.

It’s something that ought to happen in a local church setting, but it’s something that should also happen at home, maybe at work, but really anywhere that a believer is; which makes sense when Jesus, Himself tells the Samaritan woman that there will be a time when no one worships God in temples, but rather everywhere.

Genuine worship of God supersedes any one time or place and there aren’t any specific methodologies to worship the Lord that we’re required to use.

This means that worship of God may look different, it might include different elements, and it might include different styles of musical worship.

Our outward behavior in worship will most definitely look different than brothers and sisters who worship God in other local churches in other places—and that’s not a bad thing. Because styles can be different, worship elements might differ, or what’s worn in church might change, but true worship doesn’t actually change.

In our modern-day church culture, we’ve gotten so caught up in musical style, what we wear, and whether we’re more or less traditional, that we’ve completely missed the point of what it means to worship God—you might ask how I know this, and I know this for one simple truth. In our modern-day world, there’s a lot of talk about revitalizing older churches that no longer thrive like they used to. In almost every case this involves a new, younger pastor coming in, and it involves him changing external issues in the name of modernizing things—let’s put in new lights, let’s get rid of the pew, no more piano, let’s switch to a worship band. The preaching becomes less like preaching and more like a Ted Talk; and they tend to think that they’re doing the right thing because people start to come to the church

They fail to realize that people aren’t coming because they revitalized the church, but rather because they’ve given people something new and shiny to look at.

Genuine church revitalization requires the people to properly worship God—the focus on external lights, chairs, and such only prove that they have yet to worship God properly.

Rather, I would argue that genuine worship of God has remained the same for six-thousand years because genuine worship of God doesn’t rely on any style, any particular music, any specific liturgy, or any other thing that we could focus on externally, it all relies on the heart and a person’s attitude when coming to worship the Lord.

We see this in Malachi 1. It’s clear that the Israelites were doing the right things—they were keeping the rituals and doing the sacrifices, we can tie this to us, doing the right things today:

We can regularly read Scripture, we can be at church every Sunday and every Wednesday, we can sing along during the musical worship portion, and follow along during the Scripture reading.

We can take it a step further and we can get involved with serving by actively participating in various ministries, but unless our hearts are right and our attitudes are right when we come to do these things, then it’s nothing more than busy-work.

We can do all the things that we know we’re supposed to do, but if our hearts aren’t that of genuinely worshiping God, then we’re no better off than the Israelites who did all the right things with wrong motives and wrong hearts.

And quite frankly, when it comes to church revitalization or musical worship styles or the parts of our corporate worship that change depending on culture, what I’ve learned in ten years of ministry is that churches that focus more on style tend to be further gone than they realize.

Churches that think they can solve their problems by “modernizing” and replacing the piano with a guitar, the pews with chairs, and the sermon with a Ted Talk don’t seem to understand that the style isn’t the problem; the hearts of the people are the problem.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with being modern as a church, there’s nothing wrong with leading musical worship with a guitar, and there are different styles of preaching that can all accomplish the goal at hand (though I would argue a Ted Talk as a sermon is unbiblical and sinful).

But changing these stylistic issues won’t fix the problem, the problem is that the people aren’t worshiping God with the right heart and the right attitude.

Worshiping God properly has nothing to do with a building, a musical style, the style of preaching, what people wear to church, or any of these other tertiary issues—it all has to do with the person’s heart.

So, what does it mean to properly worship God today? It means that we need to worship God the same way that the Israelite’s were supposed to worship God.

We worship God properly by genuinely fearing Him—by giving awe, honor, and glory to Him

We worship God properly by offering our best—not our leftovers, not the very least, and not what remains—but rather, the firstfruits, the best quality, and abundantly. Really, this involves the Romans 12:1-2 idea of presenting your bodies as that offering that’s been transformed by the renewing of your minds.

We worship God properly when we aren’t just going through the motions, but rather we’re going through the motions because of our love for Him.

And we worship God properly when our worship stops being about us and is rather all about Him.

True worship of God is all about God; not about us, it is heartfelt because of our love for Him; it is us giving of our best, our fully transformed self; and it is us doing all this because we understand who God is and we honor and glorify Him for who He is.

Got Questions in answering the question, “What is true worship?” writes this, “True worship is God-centered worship. People tend to get caught up in where they should worship, what music they should sing in worship, and how their worship looks to other people. Focusing on these things misses the point. Jesus tells us that true worshipers will worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). This means we worship from the heart and the way God has designed. Worship can include praying, reading God’s Word with an open heart, singing, participating in communion, and serving others. It is not limited to one act, but is done properly when the heart and attitude of the person are in the right place.”

Put simply, Malachi 1:6-14 challenges the modern-day idea of what worship is by reminding us that true worship of God (1) is God-centered—all about Him because of who He is, (2) it involves us giving our best to Him, which is really just us offering our transformed selves to Him, and it requires (3) heartfelt devotion that’s all about worshiping Him and not about worshiping us.

True worship of God has nothing to do with style, preference, or modernization—it’s all about Jesus and who He is.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

Praise Him! Praise Him! (94)