Exposing Improper Worship

Hey, good morning. Welcome to Vita Springs.

Glad all of y'all are here today.

If you were here last week, you know, we have shifted from the

book of John and we're in the book of Malachi for a few weeks,

which I was told last week a few is relative and maybe even

misleading. We're in Malachi for eight

weeks, so hope you're OK with that. 8 weeks and then we'll go

back to the book of John. If we've not met.

My name's Gordon. I'm one of the pastors here, got

to kick off the series last week here again today and we we're

going to jump right in. If y'all are good with it, go

ahead and grab a book. There's Bibles in the seat in

front of you. If you didn't bring your own, if

you don't have a Bible, we would love for you to take that one

home with you. And I think there's a page

number up on the screen. Yep. 8 O1 for Malachi chapter 1.

Malachi 1 · chapter mention

We're in verses 6 through 14 today, and I've got a story for

you. So when I was young, I don't

remember how young, my mom had many rules in her house, my mom

and dad. One was no bat, no bat in the

house. Well, she wasn't there and I had

a bat in the house and I broke her lamp and then she came home

and all of a sudden I found myself in a courtroom.

And my mom is the, she's the lawmaker.

OK, They set the rules for the house and now she is acting as

the judge too. And I'm the defendant.

And she asks me how do I plea? And I said not guilty and I

pointed at my sister, which I thought this would be a fun

story to tell cause some of y'all know my sister Heather.

I pointed at Heather and now the the trial just got really

interesting. And so you're looking for

credibility of witness. And they found her more credible

than me and probably because it was my bad.

And anyway, I broke the house rule, I broke her instructions

and there was agreed upon punishment for that.

And so the sentencing came and I was sentenced to a spanking when

my dad got home. And I learned my lesson.

I honored my mom and feared her after that and my dad.

We're in the book of Malachi, right?

And Malachi is set up in the form of six disputes where God

is going back and forth with his people.

And it's very much a court hearing.

It's very much a trial where there's a lawmaker and there's a

law and they've agreed upon it and there's blessings and curses

if you break the law and God is having to step in, in the form

of judge, lawmaker and judge. There's a defendant today and

they're going to plead not guilty.

And what they don't know is the charges far greater than what

they're willing to admit. It's a far greater offense than

they realize. And that's what we're going to

be digging in today. So you know what you do?

Maybe some of you have been in jury duty before, or maybe

you've been a defendant in a court hearing.

I don't know. You know what happens when the

judge is about to come, right? All rise for the honorable.

OK, the judge comes into this story and we have the judge's

words. And in a sense, the judge is

coming into the room and he's going to speak today through his

word. And so I'm going to ask us all

to do something, all who are able rise with me now for the

reading of God's Word. I'm going to read it and then

I'll, I'll pray for us. Starting in verse 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?

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 and

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 show you favor?

Will he accept you or show you favor?

Says the Lord of hosts. 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. 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, or 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 your offering for my name will be great among the nations,

says the Lord of Hosts. 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 snorted it, says the

Lord of Hosts, you bring what has been taken by violence, or

is lame or sick. And this you bring is your

offering. Shall I accept that from your

hand, says the Lord of? 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. Father, Great King, Master, we

come to you now with reverence, and I pray, Lord, that you would

help us to. We don't truly know how to be

reverent before God. We've never stood before you

face to face. But would you help us today?

I pray all of us would have humble hearts as we hear from

you, the Lawgiver, and I pray Lord, that you would help us and

by your grace, help us to live in a way that honors you, that

gives you the pure worship that you deserve.

We pray for all of these things and anything else you would like

to do today in Jesus name, Amen. Y'all gonna have a seat?

OK, There's a lot in the verses being in the book of Malachi.

Last week we had a syllabus where we needed to just like if

you were to take a new course, you students, if you're jumping

into a new course, you have a syllabus at the beginning to

help explain some key terms that we'll need and kind of the plan

for the course. I'm going to give a syllabus

recap today before we jump back into Malachi.

I would encourage you go back and listen on our Spotify

account to last week to catch, to catch a lot more about the

book of Malachi. But here's a quick recap.

Who is Malachi? Malachi is a prophet, meaning

God spoke through him. Malachi's name means messenger

and that's what he is. He's he's referred to as a minor

prophet, but that's just because the book is shorter.

But what he has to say it's God speaking.

It's important. And he is the last prophet.

He's the last book in the prophetic literature before we

see the Gospels when Jesus comes along.

So in a sense, he's the last prophet until you get John the

Baptist and until you get Jesus himself.

Now, some terms that we learned that are important to hold onto.

1 is covenant comes up a lot in Malachi.

If it doesn't come up by word, by the word itself, you just

need to know that there is a covenant that these people have

agreed to between them and God. A covenant is stronger than a

promise. It's stronger than a vow.

It's a relational agreement with terms and blessings and curses

if followed or broken, and the covenant that they are in.

It's important to know it's different than the covenant we

are in now through Jesus Christ. And so there's a lot of

translation that happens through an Old Testament book.

What did it mean for them then? What does that mean for us Now?

Another term you need to know. Israel, ethnic Jewish.

Israel at this point, under that covenant was God's chosen

nation. That's different.

Now it's anybody, regardless of ethnicity, who comes to God in

faith through Jesus. But when you see Israel, it's

God's chosen people. And then last term heritage,

we're learning, we learned a lot last week that there is a when

you look at land or inheritance, that is a material possession

that represents something greater, a spiritual possession.

And all of this is on the line. If they are faithful and live to

God, live for God, they have the spiritual possession and

material possession. And if they don't, that is

what's at risk is they would lose their material possession,

which they already have. They've been scattered and

brought out of their promised land and a remnant has returned.

They're back in Israel now, but they're still struggling.

So what's really on the line is they have God, their spiritual

possession. Will they continue to faithfully

follow him or will they be spiritually exiled?

That's all on the line now. Let's jump into the verses and

I'm going to keep setting it up like a courtroom.

OK? And so before you ever walk into

a courtroom, there is a pre-existing lawmaker, right?

I don't come into the courtroom and all of a sudden they're

making up the laws on the go, right?

There's already a law and that means there was a lawmaker.

OK, someone stamped this is law. This is the punishment if

guilty. All of that is pre-existing

before you step in a courtroom. And that's the same here today.

This obviously is God. He is our lawmaker, and there's

a lot of titles given to God in our text today.

So we see a title like Master, and that is true of God.

He is our master, we are his servant, and we see great king

multiple times through this section and through the whole

book of Malachi. He is a great king and we are

his subjects. A Lord of hosts apparently is

used more in Malachi than any other place, which literally

means Lord of Angel armies. So he's not just Lord of us,

he's Lord of heavenly beings. And then another term that we

see in this text is Father. OK, so you've got Lord, King,

Master. And then which one is unlike the

rest? Father.

He is all of those things. And he deserves respect.

He deserves reverence, He deserves fear.

And then he's a father. And he relates to us as a father

does a child. And he communicates to us that I

am a God of abounding love and faithfulness.

And all of that is true too. And that kind of father deserves

honor. OK, so that that is the

lawmaker. Now, if there's a, there's

another term given to God, rightfully so.

He is our creator. Hey, this is his world.

It's not our world, right? It's just like you come into the

judge, the courtroom and it's the judges courtroom.

OK, We stand for him. OK, He is the creator.

He created our world. It's his, and thus he has

determined what the law is. He's basically taught us how to

live in his world. Just like those of you parents.

You've got kids and you have to teach them how to live in your

house. OK, My parents set instructions.

No bats in the house. OK, We live in his world.

He has given us laws that help us know what was this world

intended to be? How are his people intended to

live? How are we to relate with him?

What is proper and what is improper?

Have you ever heard the phrase it's their world?

We're just living in it, You know, like people say it now

about Taylor Swift, like it's Taylor Swift's world.

We're just living in it. You know, where it originally

came from. I had to look this up, and I am

ashamed to say I don't really know these people.

I just know their names. But some of you older in the

crowd, you'll appreciate this. While filming the 1960 movie

Ocean's 11, so the original Dean Martin famously quipped it's

Frank's world, referring to Frank Sinatra.

It's Frank's world. We're just living in it.

And that was the first time it showed up on the map, that

phrase. And so that phrase, it says a

lot. It's that is a dominant

personality. When they come into the room,

everybody notices. It's their world.

We're just living in it. If they were in your living

room, who would have the remote? You or them?

They would have the remote. If you were all getting in the

car, who would get the driver's seat?

Who would call shotgun? It's their world.

We're just living in it. They make the rules.

We bend to them. We adjust ourselves to them.

OK, so whose world do we live in?

It's God's world. He's creator.

We're just living in it. Can't it?

It's maybe about a celebrity. It would come with some like

baggage where it's like they're a self absorbed personality.

They feed on the attention of others and that is not true of

God. Okay, you realize God existed

for eternity long before you or I ever showed up, long before

the world was created. He wasn't insecure about his

greatness, and so he made us to help him be secure.

God's was fully existent, self-sufficient within the

Trinity, Godson, Holy Spirit, and he was fine without us.

He is great regardless of if we think He's great.

And because of that, he deserves a certain kind of treatment.

OK. We come into his world and we

are to treat this great king, just like if you were to go into

a King's court and rightfully there is all of a sudden a way

that you treat them. I went to South Africa a while

back and I went into their world.

It's not my world. I went into their world and they

had to teach me. When I come, how do I honor an

elder? How do I shake someone's hand?

It's different than here. I had to learn.

I come into their world and I need to learn.

Not because they needed it. They were doing just fine before

I got there. It's just simply because it's

right. When I come into an elder's

presence, when I come into somebody else's world, this is

just how I treat them. And so our first take away today

is there is a proper way to treat God.

There's a proper way to treat God because he's the Master,

He's the King, he's the Father, he's the Lord.

There's a proper way to treat God.

So we have the lawmaker, we have his laws, and his laws are

simply helping us know how do we properly live in God's world?

How do we properly treat God? If you go through the Old

Testament, you see all the laws, right?

One, one thing, I've been reading through Deuteronomy, and

I see a lot in Deuteronomy, be careful to do, be careful to do,

be careful to do over and over. Be careful to do all that I've

commanded. Be careful to do over and over

and over. And it's because there's a

proper way to live in God's world.

There's, you know, like the 10 commandments, one of which I'll

just read. Exodus 2012.

Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in

the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Where do you think that honor came from?

Where do you think that dynamic came from between a child and a

parent? Why are we to honor our earthly

parents? Because we're to honor our

greatest parent, our Father. And in the Old Testament you

have lots of laws about sacrifice, which we see a lot of

references in our text today to sacrifice, right.

And so let me translate something for us real quick.

Because we're in the new covenant under Jesus.

What is sacrifice? OK, sacrifice to them.

If they would have heard the word worship, they would have

immediately thought sacrifice. That is how we ascribe worth to

God, which is the word worship worth.

That's how I approach him. That's how I honor him.

There's free will sacrifices that I just give because I want

to honor Him. It's even how I pay for sin.

It's how I approach him when I've offended him.

I need to give a sacrifice to pay for the sin and make us

right again. And there's all these laws about

sacrifice, but it simply means worship.

OK for us today. I'll explain in a second.

Do we still have male lambs that we're supposed to bring the

church? I'll answer that one for you in

a second. For now, I'm just translating.

It's worship. It's how we ascribe worth to

God. It's how we approach him.

It's how we draw near to Him when we've offended him.

It's how we give free will, offering simply to give Him

honor or affection. And so there's a proper way to

worship. I said there was a proper way to

treat. Really, there's a proper way to

worship. God is the focus of today.

It's not just what you're feeling.

It's not what you think He wants.

It's not what you might consider more convenient.

I'll just opt for this instead of that.

It's what I have on hand. There is a proper way to worship

God as defined by God. One of the things you'll see in

the text. Look at verse 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.

And so God has a right way that we're to worship him, right?

And if we worship him improperly, it does nothing for

him. He doesn't accept it.

Some of you know the story of Cain and Abel in the Old

Testament. He has regard for one brother's

offering and he has no regard for another.

OK, there's proper and there's improper and he does not accept

it. It's it actually does worse.

It offends him. It grieves him.

I have no pleasure in this where he's he's begging one of the

people. Oh, that one of you would have

come and shut the temple doors so that you don't keep offering

sacrifice kindling fire uselessly.

This is use. What you're doing is useless.

This does nothing for me. This is not proper.

I would rather you shut the doors then continue to worship

me improperly. That's what's going on here in

the text. If you are coming to an airline

and you get to the TSA agent desk, they have a proper form of

identification, right? And if you gave a library card,

a voter registration, it would do nothing for them.

They do not need that. They have no pleasure in that.

They have a proper way for you to come in.

OK. And it has to be that we don't

make the rules. We live in his world.

He makes the rules. And so let me try and tackle

some questions we should all be asking as Christians, right?

Or really as humans living in God's world.

What is proper worship today? What is it?

Am I doing it properly, improperly?

What is proper worship today? Are we supposed to bring a male

lamb to church next week? I'll tackle that one first, no?

OK, so we live under a new covenant, right?

A new agreement with God, with new terms, new ways of

worshipping God. Why?

Because Jesus Christ was the perfect, spotless, blemishless

male lamb that came and made a once and for all sacrifice for

all time through faith in Jesus Christ.

He is now your regular sacrifice to God.

And so you come to God, you worship God through Jesus

Christ. We don't need lambs anymore.

When Jesus hung on the cross and said it is finished, that made

lambs obsolete. We don't need them anymore.

So no, don't bring a male lamb to church next week.

And then another question. So what is proper worship today

according to God? There's so much guys.

There's so much. And I'm trying to keep it really

simple today. Proper worship has always been

more about heart than action. OK, so even if the action isn't

bringing a male lamb, and I'll try to get out what the actions

might be today, what what the Bible says, but it's always been

more about heart than about action because it's all about

ascribing worth to God, right? And you don't, you know, you can

do the action and not ascribe worth to God.

You can go through emotions. You can when we think worship,

we think singing, right? You can sing to God and your

heart can be somewhere else. OK, you can read your Bible, you

can come to church, you can do all the acts that we might think

of giving worth to God, and your heart is not giving him any

worth. And so it's not necessarily only

action. It's always been more about

heart. It is both though.

Just as God does not accept improper acts of worship, He

certainly does not accept improper hearts of worship.

Psalm 5116 through 17. King David says, For you will

not delight and sacrifice, or I would give it.

You will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and

contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise

you. See what David's saying?

David is saying there is a need for a sacrifice right now.

David has sinned. This is after he realizes his

guilt for murder and adultery and he comes to God and he's

saying I could just give you the act of worship, but you would

not delight in that. The sacrifices of God, that

would just be going through motions.

The sacrifices of God truly as if my heart was humble and

broken and contrite and properly revered you, respected you

honored you, ascribed worth to you.

It's always been more about heart than it has been the

actions. And so then look at some things

that we see today after Jesus about sacrifice.

Mark 1233. Jesus is talking with someone

about the commands and they respond to him and to love him.

God with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the

strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more

than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

To which Jesus says to this man, you got it, you're not far from

the Kingdom. OK?

It's more than the ACT, it's the heart.

Romans 12/1 Paul, the apostle Paul writes, I appeal to you,

therefore, brothers Christians, by the mercies of God, to

present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable

to God, which is your spiritual worship.

And so worship today is still in one sense, what it's always

been. It's hearts that describe worth

and honor and fear to God. And there are actions

associated, there are commands. God gives us ways to properly

worship him. And really Romans 12 is saying

it's your whole life at your deepest level.

It's your heart, your bodies, your everything is given as a

sacrifice, a living sacrifice to God.

That means it's what you think. Oh boy, it's what you say, It's

your attitudes, your motivations.

It's your holiness. It's what you do with your body.

Everything is a living sacrifice of worship to God.

Now we go back to the aim of Malachi, right?

Malachi calls us to honor God through faithful living.

OK, so that's what's happening here.

He's saying I have a proper way for you to live in my world.

And for us as Christians today, it's everything we want to honor

God through faithful living and that is our spiritual worship to

God. So there's a lawmaker and a law

and that's all pre-existing. Now let's come back into the

courtroom. OK, who's the guilty and what is

the charge? Did you notice who the guilty

is? It's right there in one of the

first verses, OK, the people are doing lots of things improperly,

but the person on the stand right now, the guilty O priests,

look at the end of verse 6. O priests who despise my name.

And so the priests are being called up, and the charge

against the priests is you despise me.

And if you look at all the other words baked in here, pollute to

file. If you look at other

translations, it's you show me contempt, OK, Essentially the

charges, priests, you dishonor me, your father who deserves

honor, OK. And the priests would be looking

at that. And if the judge was to ask what

do you plea, they would say not guilty.

They ask, how have we despised your name?

Give us the evidence. We would do no such thing.

We know Exodus 2012. Honor your father and mother,

and you shall live long in the land we would never.

How have we despised your name? To which God says he gives, He

brings evidence. You say not guilty.

God brings up. Leviticus 13.

If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall

offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the

entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before

the Lord God might bring up. Deuteronomy 2321.

If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay

fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of

you, and you will be guilty of sin.

Hey, these laws, God has taught them how to properly live.

And then you look at the evidence God brings forward to

the priests. You've allowed people to bring

sick, lame and blemished animals.

I require a particular form of worship and you're allowing

something less. He says at the end of our verses

today, verse 14. Cursed be the cheat who has a

male in his flock and vows it and then brings what is

blemished instead. OK, they've broken they've

broken the sacrificial laws. And so here's basically the two

evidences. First is for the priests.

By allowing improper worship in my world, you have dishonored

me. By allowing it, you have

dishonored me. And now if you were the people

sitting in the courtroom and they're talking about your

sacrifices, what would you be doing?

Are you innocent just because he's up on the stand?

No. You'd be sinking in your chair

like he's talking about me. OK, the people are guilty of

bringing improper worship. The time right now, the court

hearing right now is for the priests.

You allowed it. But I want all of us to know

it's for priests and people. Both are guilty.

Both have broken the law. Here's why it's important for

the priests and keep in mind translating between covenants,

right when Jesus came along, he was the great high priest, the

once and for all priests. And so we don't have the office

of priests now, OK? But the priests at this time,

they were those set apart by God from the from the tribe of Levi,

from the sons of Aaron, to be those who would guard God's

sanctuary, which included who could come in and what sacrifice

could come in. That was their responsibility.

And they've neglected it, OK. They were also charged to

instruct the people how to live in God's world.

They had God's law. They were the ones that taught

it. And they're not doing a very

good job. And so the priests are held

first and foremost accountable. And then for the people, I

realized that the priests allowed it.

But people, you brought it. You brought it.

You knew better. You brought not your first and

your best lamb, according to what I said.

You brought sick and blemished and lame lambs.

You promised one thing you didn't follow through.

There's two other things you see in the text. 1, They're

following laws selectively, OK? They're picking and choosing

which ones they're going to follow closely, carefully to AT,

and they're picking which ones they it's OK.

He won't notice the lawmakers not here.

The other thing you see them doing is there's a line in here.

It says, you snort at it, verse 13, but you say what a weariness

is. This is OK.

The priests are saying what a weariness.

This is burdensome. They're serving begrudgingly and

you snort at it, which could be translated.

You sniff with contempt, OK, You're not doing it joyfully.

And so I imagine priests and people, this is a burden to them

really. Another lamb to pay for sin,

really. It's the time of the year again

for me to bring a free will offering again.

And so there's lots of ways, but here's what I hope you remember.

The priests are allowing improper worship and that

dishonors God. The people are bringing improper

worship and that dishonors God. OK, let's talk about for both.

And I want to leave you with a question because again, we're

trying to figure out what is the greatest charge here?

Is it simply breaking a rule or is it something much greater?

What does it communicate to the lawmaker when you disregard his

laws? What would it communicate to my

mom when I bring a bat into the house?

I disrespect her. I dishonor her.

And that, that again, is why the primary charge, the priests are

saying no. How have we?

But the take away here is how you worship and what you allow

says a lot about how you view God, whether you view him

highly, whether you view him with honor, or whether you have

a low view for him. You despise his name.

How you worship and what you allow says a lot.

And so now's where we're going to get to application.

What does it look like for you? What do you bring to God again,

our whole lives, living sacrifices.

What do you bring? And any priests in the room,

here's here's the catch. When Jesus became the once and

for all priest, he also made all who trust in him a royal

priesthood, a holy nation. We are a priesthood of

believers, OK? And so in one sense, all of us

are called to guard God's proper worship.

All of us are called as Christians, not to the

unbelieving world, but to other Christians who have vowed

something to God when they professed His name and they have

to follow through, OK? We are all called to help each

other by what we allow or by what we shut the doors on.

We are called to help each other honor God through faithful

living, bringing him proper worship because it's His world

and we're just living in it. OK.

And so here's what I'm going to do today.

I'm going to target our elders and our pastors with this

application. And I want the rest of you,

though, to be listening closely and come back next week.

There's a Part 2 to this whole dispute.

And next week we're going to get all like we're going to dig into

what it looks like for us as people to help guard God's

proper worship. But to be to honor this text, he

is calling out those set apart to primarily instruct the people

and what is proper worship and guard what comes in.

Let me talk to the elders, which I'm one, OK?

It's rare that we get to just apply something directly to the

elders in the church. OK, Elders at Vita Springs

Church, there's six of us and we are set apart by God to lead the

church. What's our mission?

To glorify God, My loving God, loving people, and making

disciples of all nations. OK.

And we're to guard even how our worship services are set up to

worship God properly. And so pastors and elders, you

know God's word, OK? You know what it means to

properly worship God. And I'm preaching to myself too.

What do you allow? What do we allow what when you

sit in a meeting with another Christian who's opening up about

life, What do you say that's not that big of AI know you're

trying and yeah, I struggle with that too.

Like we're yeah, that's like a complicated thing now like we

all it's pretty common. I What do you allow?

When God has spoken clearly, what is proper in our worship

service? What do we allow?

OK, what has God said is a proper way for his people to

gather once a week to worship them?

What would we allow? Do we get to talk about anything

we want or is he determined what we should talk about, what we

should teach in our worship gatherings?

Do we get to sing whatever we want or is he determined as he's

spoken about how he wants to be sung to how He wants worship

like worship through song to be? When we do baptism in the Lord's

Supper, key elements in a church worship service, do we get to

take the Lord's Supper however we want?

Is it for anybody or is God-given specific instructions

for how we're to do those things?

And then elders, are we guarding it?

Are we allowing anything outside of what God has deemed proper

church? We did not do it perfectly and

we're trying our best. And really that's our pursuit is

how can we most honor God as a church?

And that's what we believe is our obligation to you is to lead

the way in that what is God, What does it look like to live

properly in God's world? Have you noticed any changes in

the church over the last year and a half?

Have you noticed we've changed how we've been teaching the

Bible front to back, book by book, expository preaching,

because we believe God spoken about how to preach His Bible

and we want to do that properly. Have you noticed that the Lord's

Supper, it used to be set up at different tables around the room

because that's what was expedient or convenient.

We got through the line quicker. OK, But there's principles in

Scripture where we all come as a body to 1 table together.

And so it takes a little bit longer, but it's our best

attempt at saying, how do we want to worship God?

If you're new here, you might not know this, but we sent our

lead pastor away for five months, which is not convenient.

OK, Why? Really, if if I was to dig down

at why we would do that, it's because he's learning something

that he can bring back to help us as a church be more faithful,

to honor God through proper worship.

That's why it's worth the inconvenience.

OK? We want to guard what's proper

according to what God has said comes down to our worship, song

selection and the types of songs we would sing.

It comes down to how we structure our leadership, how we

govern the church. It comes down to what are we

going to do to like, how are we going to use our time?

Are we going to throw parties? Are we going to do more

trainings? How are we going to equip the

church? These things that God has

instructed us on as elders, we're not going to do perfect,

but we're working hard to do our best.

And now Malachi's talking to the priests, and all the people

would be sitting there sinking in their chair, right?

And so if I'm talking to the priests in quotes, what do we

allow as people? Were any of you sinking in your

chair? What am I doing in my life?

My life's the living sacrifice. There's one principle in the

text from the people in Malachi that we could pull out and start

to analyze our life by. Do you give God your first and

your best? Do you give him the male lamb as

he's instructed? Do you give him your first and

your best, or do you give him the seconds and what's

convenient? And so people, let's think about

it. Do you give him the 1st and the

best of your time? It's his world.

We're just living in it. It's his time.

You could say it's his life. Paul would say it's no longer I

who live, but Christ who lives in me.

My whole life is yours. God.

You give him the 1st and the best of your time.

OK, those of you who are single, Paul would also say that is the

best life stage for devotion to Christ and his church.

Paul says, I wish that all of you were single like me, because

then you're not distracted. And I can say this as a married

man, you're distracted when you have a wife to take care of and

kids. And Paul would say you can be

more wholly devoted to God. So those of you in your

singleness, do you give the first?

Do you give the best life stage to worship God?

Do you run hard while you're in this spot in life and service to

God, worship to him? I've also heard once you peak 50

and on, those are some of your most influential years.

You have a gained wisdom from life.

Those are the best decades. Do you give the best decades to

influence and disciple and love God's people?

Do you give your first and your best people?

When you look at your your budget, you get your paycheck

in, do you give your first and your best?

If you decide a percentage to give to God and set it aside

before the bills are paid, before your gym membership,

before going out to eat, or is it the leftovers and what's

convenient? Do you give your first and your

best? And we're going to dig in a lot

next week into that. How you worship says a lot about

how you view God and I hope Malachi would press you by this

point to suggest, maybe stronger than suggest.

If you disregard proper instruction about how to live in

God's world, you dishonor the Father.

And so now it comes time for sentencing.

Verse 14 Malachi. God through Malachi says cursed

be the cheat. If you look in the next chapter,

chapter 2 verse one and two and now O priests, this command is

for you. If you will not listen, if you

will not take it to heart to give honor to my name says the

Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will

curse your blessings indeed. OK, it comes time for sentencing

and God says I've given you the evidence.

My charge stands. How do I find you guilty?

And here's the sentencing. You remember Deuteronomy or

Exodus? I can't even remember the 5th

commandment. Honor your father and mother and

you'll live long in the land, OK?

What's the opposite? What would the curse associated

with that be? If you dishonor the father, what

would that mean? Not living long in the land, OK?

And if you look at the covenant for these people, it was you

will be exiled and scattered from your material possession,

the promised land, and from your spiritual possession, me, God.

OK, there's the sentencing. Cursed, are you?

If you're guilty of improper worship or if you're guilty of

allowing improper worship? Either way, the real charge is

that you dishonor your father. And the sentencing is that you

should be exiled from him forever.

Now, some of you might say, Gordon, this is a bit heavy.

You sure? I feel like I do a pretty good

job worshiping him. Like, I come to church and I do

read my Bible. I try pretty hard.

I feel like my heart honors him. OK, me too.

You realize though, all of us have If we're living sacrifices,

we are polluted at best, OK? Even if we do it again with the

right act of worship, do we do it with the right heart all the

time? No.

And so it always comes back to we as humans are terrible at

honoring our Father in his world.

We dishonor the Father and we deserve to be exiled, Timothy

Keller, a famous pastor who's now passed away.

He famously said. We are more sinful and flawed

and ourselves than we ever dared believe.

And so people and priests, whether you bring it or allow

it, we are more sinful than we realize and more flawed than we

believe. And we do not deserve to be in a

relationship with God. We just, we're guilty and

deserve to be exiled. Did you notice in the text,

there's a surprising alternative?

There's the curse, but squeezed in the middle there, there's a

surprising alternative. You know why?

Because God's not like a governor, and he's not like a

TSA agent. Our God is a gracious heavenly

Father, and he tells us we can entreat his favor.

OK, look in the middle. Verse 9 and now entreat the

favor of God, that he may be gracious to us.

That word entreat. It's like David said in Psalm

51, broken and contrite heart. It's make yourself sick.

It's humble yourself. It's come to God and plead for

favor. He is the great king.

We have offended the great king. We've dishonored him.

Come and entreat his favor. Now here's where it gets really

good. This great king, the lawmaker,

the Master, the Lord the Father, sent his one and only Son,

Jesus, because we couldn't even entreat his favor.

Jesus had to do that for us. Jesus Christ came as our perfect

sacrifice and he took on our sin.

He made himself sick. He he became sick for us and he

died on a cross and he became the sacrifice that paid for sin

so that we could have God's favor.

And so in a sense, the best entreating we can do is humble

ourselves and come and repentance and say, Jesus, help

me. But Jesus, it's your entreating

on a cross that gives me favor with God.

And now through Jesus, and only through Jesus are we able to

bring lives of pure sacrifice and worship to God.

Later in Malachi, we'll see. I'm just going to read it for

us. It talks about the day where

Jesus would come and he said it says he will sit as a refiner

and purifier of silver and he will purify the sons of Levi,

the priests. It goes on to say then the

offering of Judah and Jerusalem, God's people will be pleasing to

the Lord as in the days of old and as in former days.

Jesus comes and purifies his people so that we can live lives

of proper worship. So Christians, you and I deserve

to be exiled. Would you agree?

Is that the sentence? And is God great for giving us

alternative, allowing us to entreat His favor, and now

purifying you so that you can turn around and give a life of

proper worship to Him? The question would be, how will

you live in light of this? How will you live in light of

this? What does it look like for you

to give your first and your best to God?

Christians, if you realize you've broken some of the rules

today, meaning you've dishonored the Father because of Jesus

Christ, you have the ability to, in your heart, come straight to

God in repentance and he promises he's just to forgive.

I would encourage you to do that today as you analyze your life

and look, am I living properly in God's world?

And then Vita as a church, as a whole, will we glorify, which is

just another way of saying honor.

Will we glorify God by loving God, loving people, and making

disciples of all nations? Will we help make this great

King's name known among the nations?

And for those of you that you are not a Christian and you're

seeking Him, you're learning about him, you're just here

today out of curiosity. Who knows?

There is a gracious offer today for you to entreat God's favor

through Jesus Christ. It's acknowledging you need

Jesus to. That's the only way you're going

to honor the Father and coming to him and he will not turn away

any who seek, seek Him for repentance and faith.

So my encouragement to you today would be come and seek him and

treat him, plead for his favor, and through Jesus you'll have

it.