The Lord's love for Israel | Hilary Mushambi

So today we are starting a series in Malachi and we're

going to dig deeper in it. If you don't know where it is in

your Bibles, open up to where the New Testament starts.

You know that that break between the two and skip back a page or

two. If you're on a digital device,

you open up your Bible app and you go the book before Matthew.

That's how you find it. Malachi is the last book of the

Old Testament and the last of a group of books called the Minor

Prophets or the 12. And as these books tend to be

pretty short, they can be easy to miss, but they're still

important enough for God to include.

And so I'm going to, as I unpack the word of the book of Malachi,

let us just ask God to help us to understand what he has for us

here. Let us pray.

Father God, thank you for your word.

Thank you that the words that you spoke through the prophets

in generations past are still relevant for us today.

Please give me wisdom as I teach from the book of Malachi and

give us all ears that are ready to hear what you want to tell

us. Make us ready to apply these

truths to our lives and hearts that are devoted to you in Jesus

name, Amen. So as we look at the book of

Malachi, I'm going to break it down into three main sections to

make it a bit easier to follow and just to make it a bit more

fun. We're going to be sponsored by

the letter C today. First, we're going to look at

the context of Malachi. Then we're going to look at the

concerns of Malachi as a as a whole.

Then we're going to dig deeper into the first few verses and

we're going to look at the core of Malachi.

So you're already you found the book.

Let's jump in the context of Malachi.

Malachi is the last of the prophets in the Old Testament,

and while some scholars disagree about exactly when it was

written, it's very likely it was written about 100 years after

the Israelites returned back to their land from exile under the

Persian king Cyrus. This means it has probably been

written to people who had been back in the land for more than a

generation, maybe two or three generations.

And while the exile and the return from exile would have

still been a a corporate memory, it would no longer be a lived

memory. Most of the people living at the

time would not have been in exile.

They would have been in the land again.

After Cyrus's decree to allow the people to return to their

homeland, a small and unimpressive remnant came back

to Israel. Spurred on by the ministries of

the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, they constructed a

new temple. But this temple had fallen far

short of the glorious temple that was built by Solomon, and

so everyone was somewhat disappointed with the result.

Then under the ministry of the prophet Nehemiah, the people had

rebuilt the walls of the city and Nehemiah had also come to

return something of the old way of life to God's people.

Ezra came next and he brought the people back to the Word of

God and he was stressing it's importance for their daily

living and calling them to repentance where they had gone

away from what God had commanded.

But when he called them out for specific sins, the response of

the people was half hearted. There were times that were

characterized by a neglect of the temple, characterized by

improper worship practices. There was no tithing happening,

and defiled offerings were being given to the Lord.

They were careless about the Sabbath, they had intermarried

with the idolatrous neighbors, and injustice and poverty were

just as prevalent as they had been before the exile.

Now, I'm sure the exile of God's people from the Promised Land,

first by Assyria, then by Babylon, had been a shock to the

nation. Their whole identity had been

built on the events where God took them out of slavery in

Egypt and brought them into this land through many miracles and

provision. And so throughout their time of

exile, it would have been hard for those who wanted to return

to cling to the promises that God had said he would bring them

back. And alongside those promises of

a return, there were also promises being made about a

Messiah who would lead them. So you can understand how those

two ideas would become very much intertwined with each other.

In their minds, God had promised to send a king who would deliver

them from their enemies. And this king would rule over a

once again united Israel, and the nations would bow the knee

before him. This Kingdom would be marked by

peace and justice. So when God seemed to be moving

the hearts of their captors to allow them to return home, it

looked like he was finally going to come through and deliver them

and begin to fulfil these prophecies.

But when they arrived back in Israel, things didn't look so

good for them. Yes, there were some of their

people now back in the land, but Israel was still a people

scattered among the nations, and while there was a remnant who

had come back, it still wasn't their land.

They were an occupied people under Persian rule.

They were broken and poor, and their identity as God's people,

as being special and chosen, had been shaken.

They had come home full of hope and expectation that God was

going to deliver them and fulfill his promises to them.

And now that they had been back in the land for a while, it was

clear that many of those expectations had been

disappointed. They were still not free from

oppression and it when it came to their hearts, just like their

ancestors, they still fell short of a life of faithful obedience.

So this is the context that Malachi is writing into.

This is the people that he was addressing.

So what are the main concerns of Malachi?

All right, So what is this message that he had for Israel?

What are the things God wanted to address?

Well, First off is the format. Most scholars will agree that

this book is the format of a legal discourse.

We're in a courtroom here. We are making charges against

each other. Malachi is structured around six

disputes or arguments between God and Israel.

Each dispute is introduced by a charge or a claim that God makes

about Israel, which has been followed by a counterclaim that

Israel makes against God, to which God finally responds in

the last section of each part, giving his perspective on the

charges that they made. Now.

The questions addressed in Malachi cover a variety of

topics. God's love for Israel.

The priest. Neglect of their

responsibilities in the temple. The corruption of the people

relating to their idolatrous marriages and their divorces.

The absence of God's justice. The neglect of the tithe.

The argument that it was pointless to serve God.

Now in most of these charges, God is confronting Israel's

selfishness and sin. But not only does he confront

their corruption, he also includes, in the midst of all

the rebukes and warnings of judgement, a promise of blessing

to those who are faithful to him.

In Malachi, we see reiterated the promise of God's coming

messenger and two depictions of the day of the Lord that this

messenger will usher in. On the one hand, it will be a

day of reckoning and judgement, destroying all who do not fear

God. On the other hand, it is

described as a day of healing and joy for those who do fear

Him. So Malachi is all about God's

covenant with Israel and whether he and his people have been

faithful to it. While Malachi is full of

examples of Israel's failure to honour God, their failure to

keep their side of the covenant with Him at its heart, all of

that rests against the background of God's covenant

love for Israel. Which is why it is fitting that

the very first claim that God makes is I have loved you.

And this brings us to the core of Malachi's message, God's

covenant love for his people. Let me read the first 5 verses

of Malachi chapter 1, The Oracle of the Word of the Lord to

Malachi 1 · chapter mention

Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, says the Lord,

but you say, how have you loved us?

Is not Esau Jacob's brother, Declares the Lord.

Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.

I have laid waste his Hill Country and left his heritage to

jackals of the desert. If Edom says we are shattered,

but we will rebuild the ruins, the Lord of hosts says they may

build, but I will tear down, and they will be called the wicked

country and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever your

own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, great is the Lord

beyond the border of Israel. So just to get this out of the

way, Malachi starts with a typical prophetic attribution.

This is God's word delivered by the prophet Malachi.

Now, Malachi, according to this formula is probably just the

name of the prophet, though some scholars are sceptical because

they haven't come across the name Malachi in any other

literature from the times, and technically Malachi means my

messenger, so they think that Malachi is not the prophet's

actual name, but just referring to some anonymous messenger of

God. However, this formula is fairly

consistently used with the names of actual prophets, so I see no

reason to think that Malachi wasn't just a very appropriately

named messenger of God to the people.

But what we really want to know is about this message.

So let's move on to verse 2. I have loved you, says the Lord.

Well, if that's the way God starts a message to me, I like

where this is going. Maybe I personally would prefer

the present tense. I do love you, but the gist is

there. The opening line is about God's

love for his people. And since it's in the past

tense, it seems to have an element of referring to God's

past actions regarding this love and not just a vague feeling or

affection that he has for us. So the first charge, the first

claim in this message is that God has loved his people,

Israel. Now, this is not a new idea that

God has loved Israel. He's already expressed his

relationship with them in these terms many times before.

In fact, the Hebrew word for love, because there's multiple

words they use, the one used in this text is generally the one

used in the context of God's covenant love.

Now this term signifies a deep action oriented covenant or bond

of love and commitment rather than just an emotion that may

pass. And it is this kind of love that

God has for Israel. Of course, if you're confused by

the word covenant, you want a definition.

Think of the place as most commonly used in our day and

time, we talk about a marriage covenant.

A covenant was the deepest, most binding kind of agreement or

relationship any two parties could commit themselves to.

It was personal, it was relational, and it was not

something you would enter into lightly or get out of lightly.

This is the kind of commitment that God initiated with Israel

through Abraham and his descendants.

So let's look at some of the examples where God used this

kind of language before the time of Malachi.

So you get a bit more of a picture of how they would have

heard this word before Israel entered the promised land.

Moses said the following to them in Deuteronomy 7.

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured

possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of

the earth. It was not because you were way

more in number than any other people that the Lord set his

love on you and chose you for the you were the fewest of all

peoples. But it is because the Lord loves

you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your Father's, that

the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed

you from the House of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king

of Egypt. Know, therefore, that the Lord

your God is God at the faithful God who keeps His covenant and

steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His

commandments to 1000 generations.

God's love for Israel was expressed at that time in

relation to how God had miraculously brought them out of

slavery in Egypt through mighty signs and wonders, and how He

had begun to bring His people into the land He had promised to

give them a bit later in their history.

We see a similar phrase used in the 31st chapter of Jeremiah.

Now this is the book written to Israel, who has already been

fractured, and a large portion of them have already been exiled

to Assyria. And he writes in the time before

and during the exile of the remaining parts of Israel to

Babylon. And this is what God says of His

plans for Israel at that time, declares the Lord.

I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall

be my people. Thus says the Lord.

The people who survived the sword found grace in the

wilderness. When Israel sought Forrest, the

Lord appeared to him from far away.

I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I've

continued my faithfulness to you.

Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O Virgin Israel.

Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go

forth in the dawns of merry makers.

Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria, and

the planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit.

For there shall be a day when the Watchmen will call in the

Hill Country of Ephraim. Arise, let us go to Zion, to the

Lord our God. For thus says the Lord, Sing

aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief

of the nations. Proclaim, give praise and say, O

Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel.

Behold, I will bring them from the North Country and gather

them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind

and the lame, the pregnant woman, and she who is in labour

together a great company. They shall return here.

With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will

lead them back. I will make them walk by brooks

of water in straight parts in which they shall not stumble,

for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born.

Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the

coastlands far away. Say he who scattered Israel will

gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.

For the Lord has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from hands

too strong for him. They shall come and sing aloud

on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the

goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, the oil, over

the young of the flock and the herd.

Their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall

languish no more than then shall the young woman rejoice in the

dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry.

I will turn their mourning into joy.

I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow.

I will feast the soul of priests with abundance, and my people

shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord.

Now I included a whole lot there because it paints a picture.

Yeah. God expresses His love for

Israel as an everlasting love in the context of this promised

liberation from the enemies that surround them.

We see it expressed in the promise that He will bring all

the plans of Israel back to the land.

And the way He describes this return is in such positive

terms. Streams of water, straight paths

so that they don't stumble. They will come singing and

dancing and radiant over the goodness of God.

They'll find comfort and joy instead of mourning, and they

will be satisfied by abundance and God's goodness.

This is what God, what Israel, would have understood by God's

claim that he has loved them. So what is their counterclaim?

How have you loved us? You've heard their expectations

when you spoke about God's love, what they would have thought of

that. They expected the return to the

land to be triumphant and filled with abundance and blessing.

But you get the distinct impression that their

experiences didn't line up. Israel is suspicious and doubts

God's love. They ask, How have you loved us?

In what way have you loved us? Behind that statement is a

request for evidence. Prove that you love us.

Behind that statement is doubt. Have you really loved us?

And perhaps, given the context I spoke about earlier, you could

understand something of why they might feel this way.

Yes, God had brought them back into the land, but the Remnant

was small and weak and struggling.

Probably many had opted to stay where they were, in Babylon or

Assyria, because they had settled in and become

comfortable in their new homes, the new jobs.

And those who did come back were struggling.

They were poor. They were people around them who

opposed them like they did when they tried to repair, restore

the temple and the city walls. People who were not happy to see

the Israelites come back and claim their share of the land.

And they weren't free. They were still living under the

rule of another political power. They still had to answer to

local governors who reported to the king of another land.

And even after they had been settled for generations, they

still witnessed injustice. Wicked people prospered while

they struggled to get by enough to make them question if there's

any value in serving God. Did serving Yahweh make any

difference when the people following other gods seem to be

living better? I mean, he brought them back

into the land, but was it worth it?

The charge that Israel makes against God is a serious one,

and it's an emotional one, and a one that needs to be given

proper weight even today. Because for many people this

question is real and visceral. Israel had been measuring God's

love by their circumstances, and they had their doubts.

You see, when you measure God's love by your circumstances, it

can be too easy to fall to a position of doubting that God

actually cares about you. When life is hard and when the

heart doesn't let up, it can be easy to listen to the lie that

God has abandoned you and given the opportunity to stand before

God and make a charge against Him.

I imagine many of us could have stood up at one time or another

in a position like Israel where we asked God, do you really love

me? I know, I've been there.

So it is into this hurt, to this charge that God gives the answer

in the rest of the passage. And it's probably not the answer

you expect. It's not Esau, Jacob's brother

declares the Lord. Yet.

I've loved Jacob, but Esau I've hated.

I've laid waste his Hill Country and left his heritage to the

jackals of the desert. If Edom says we are shattered,

but we will rebuild the ruins, the Lord of hosts says they may

build, but I will tear down, and they will be called the wicked

country and the people with whom the Lord is angry.

Forever your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, great

is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.

Now God could have answered Israel by reminding him that it

was He who rescued them from slavery in Egypt in the first

place. More recently, it was Him who

had brought them back into the land as He had promised.

But instead he goes back even further.

He goes back to the story of two brothers and how he chose to

make his covenant of love with Jacob the younger of the 2

instead of with the first born Esau.

The language of loved 1 and hated another in Hebrew writing

would not have been a statement about the emotions involved in

love and hate as much as a statement of giving preference

to 1 instead of the other. The promises he made to Abraham

to make him a great father of a great nation through whom he

would bless all the families of the earth.

These got passed on to Abraham's first born son Isaac, and then

they get passed on to Jacob instead of his older brother as

would have been expected. And so Jacob becomes a picture

of God's sovereign choice. This is the outworking of the

idea that God expressed to Moses about himself in Exodus 3319.

I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show

mercy on whom I will show mercy. God's love isn't earned.

It's a gift he bestows on people who have done nothing to deserve

it. Here God is reminding Israel

that their position as beloved of God is something that is

theirs by virtue of God's choice alone.

We already saw in Deuteronomy that God's choice of the nation

Israel was not because of their size and greatness, but his love

was committed to them because of the promise he had made to

Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob.

Israel finds themselves in a privileged position, being

favoured by God purely because he chose them.

And it's the same with us. We don't find favour with God

because of how good we are. The truth is, we are never good

enough and when your doubt of God's love is rooted in a

performance based mentality, the idea that you need to measure up

before God could possibly love you, then this answer should be

reassuring. His love is not based on how

good you are, it's based on His sovereign choice.

God has chosen you to receive His love.

Israel also needed this reminder.

They were looking for evidence of God's love in their

circumstances. But God says stop looking at

that. Look at how I chose you, how I

chose Jacob over Esau. In fact, when the rest of the

passage in Malachi starts describing how God actually

dealt with Esau, it's very clear there's a distinction between

them. God says he has laid waste to

Esau's Hill Country and left his heritage to jackals.

And even if Esau plans to rebuild, God says, I will tear

it down again. Whereas Jacob was chosen, Esau

was destroyed completely. Now, if at this point you're

thinking maybe God is a little vindictive, he's choosing one to

bless and choosing another one to destroy and ruin.

It would help if we remember that some of some of the history

between Jacob and Esau. You see, Edom, Esau's

descendants, had regularly set themselves up against Israel

after the exodus from Egypt. When Israel wanted to pass

through the land of Edom, they refused passage and threatened

to fight them, forcing them to take a longer route.

And when Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem, the Edomites joined

the Babylonians in attacking them and rejoiced at their

downfall. Amos 111 reminds us that God's

punishment of Esau was the result of their own actions,

because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all

pity, and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his

wrath forever. Obadiah 10 also affirms, because

of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover

you, and you shall be cut off forever.

So as far as God's judgement is concerned, Esau is being

punished for their own wickedness.

They are simply getting the fruit of their own choices.

God is delivering nothing more than justice, and This is why

they're able to say great is the Lord when they see it come to

pass. You see, God doesn't punish

anyone unfairly, for all have sinned and fall short of God's

glory. But salvation.

It's a gift that comes by grace. By drawing this comparison

between Jacob and Esau, God is trying to remind his people that

His love is constant, not because it's based on their

performance, but because of his promise.

God has loved them because he chose them.

Case closed. There's nothing more to it.

And this is important to establish upfront because the

rest of the message coming in. Malachi is going to be exploring

how Israel have failed to honour their part of the covenant and

so it needs to be on the back backdrop of how God has not.

God has kept his end. They have failed to keep God's

command, they have failed to honour God, but God has loved

them faithfully and brought them back into the land as he

promised. So what does this mean for us?

What application can we take from this message that God gave

the Israelites as they were struggling to hold on to hope in

the land as they waited for God to fulfil everything he

promised? Well, for one thing, it reminds

us that when we feel like God doesn't care about us or our

problems, the problem is not with God's character.

More specifically, the problem lies with us and our flawed

expectations. There are many things that might

make us doubt God's love for us. It could be a pattern of sin

that we don't want to give up begins to build up resentment.

It could be that our circumstances are hard.

It could be that we feel like we just don't measure up.

But these are all problems in our own hearts.

When we struggle with the lack of a desire to repent, it's our

own hearts. When our pride leaves us feeling

like God owes us more, that's our own hearts.

Or whether we just struggle to grasp the benefit that God could

work in our lives by allowing us to suffer for Him.

These are all things that can cause us to question God's love.

But when we begin to question God's love, our focus gets so

stuck on accusing Him that we can completely miss what He

wants to do in our lives if we would just humble ourselves and

draw near to Him to learn from Him.

Still, I don't want to gloss over the difficulty of the

situations that cause us to doubt God's love.

Just this week I was watching one of those Kendrick Brothers

movies. Anyone know them?

Know which ones I'm talking about?

They typically have a lot of the same cast appearing in multiple

movies, just different characters each time, and a

storyline that often involves a rather cliche type of challenge

and circumstances. And then the lead character

meets up with someone in the community, an older lady, older

gentleman who offers them wisdom, speaks like a pastor in

front of the church with faith and conviction, and encourages

the lead character to get serious about the Lord, which

lead character then does. They begin to pray, and suddenly

things begin to change, and the problem ultimately gets resolved

and wrapped up very neatly with a nice little bow by the end of

the story. Yes, they're often cheesy, but

they're clean and sweet and inspirational as they remind us

about the power of God and a life surrendered to Him.

But the main problem I have with these movies, and I'm I'm not

dissing them, they have their place.

The main problem that I have with these movies that they seem

to have little room for prolonged hardship and suffering

or situations that never get resolved to our satisfaction.

The losing football team or whatever team or athlete is the

protagonist will be victorious or at least end in a respectable

second place. By the end of the of the the

season, the broken marriage will be restored and back to what it

was before. By the end of the school year,

the kids will have repented and he will have gotten his life

back on track before the seasons even change.

And yes, maybe that's something to be said about movies in

particular, because they do need to be concluded within a about

two hour period, so there's no time to drag out the challenges.

But quite frankly, we'd probably find the extended version a bit

boring or hard to watch. That's why movies often skip

those kind of scenes. The time spent training, the

time spent praying and waiting, those are normally wrapped up in

a little musical montage, but the reality is typically a lot

more messy and a little less pretty.

People facing challenges in real life find they're often harder

to resolve and wrap up neatly than those in the movies,

especially if the challenges are drawn out over month after month

after month, or even years. Yes, we all need to pray more

and depend on God more. More.

But what do you do when your attempts at faith have left you

disappointed, left you feeling like God?

Do you love me? Do you really care about what

I'm going through? When you're trying to be

thankful that God has given you work, but you put in so many

exhausting hours and the money never seems to stretch far

enough? When that relationship you've

been praying about for months just doesn't seem to show any

signs of improving. When the family member or the

friend you've been praying for for so long seems to be

entrenched in a sinful habit that they have no interest in

giving up. When the illness that you prayed

for healing for so long ends in the death of a loved one, where

is God in the midst of that prolonged suffering has a way of

eroding your faith and causing you to doubt God's love.

Yes, Lord, I know you have the words of life, and there's

nowhere else I can turn but You. But sometimes, sometimes Even

so, I wonder if you love me because my life doesn't look

like how I imagined it would look if you really cared about

me. Because we tend to judge love

according to a standard of what we want and what we have.

Look at how much her boyfriend loves her.

He takes our expensive dates and he's always buying her

chocolates and flowers. Look how much my daddy loves me

or my husband. I just have to mention that I

want something and he buys it for me, right?

Isn't that how we often look at love?

How easy it is to translate that kind of thinking to how we

understand God's love? I mean, that's why so many

people would love to flock to prosperity preachers, because

you want to hear how God loves us so much that we never need to

worry again and money and financial struggles will be a

thing of the past. If God's love translates to

material benefit, then surely life and faith would be so much

easier. And honestly, this isn't a new

way of thinking. Has anyone read Psalm 73?

I just took a few verses out of there.

But As for me, my feet had almost stumbled.

My steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the

arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For they have no pangs until death.

Their bodies are fat and sleek. They're not in trouble as others

are. They are not stricken like the

rest of mankind. All in vain.

I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.

We want to know if there is value in serving God.

What does this Christianity thing get for me?

But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me

a wearisome task, until I went to the sanctuary of God.

Then I discerned their end. Truly.

You set them in slippery places. You make them fall to ruin.

Does this not echo with what was said about Edom?

Right. Something happens when we enter

the sanctuary. Something happens when we shift

our attention from our circumstances and start looking

at God, not for His provision, though He does provide, but to

see Him. No, our circumstances don't

typically change the moment we start coming to church the way

they do in the movies. But when we keep coming to God

honestly and humbly and are open to hearing from His perspective

on things, we may find that we actually start to change.

Maybe the change in US looks like a growing disgust for the

sin and the habit that we have been so desperate to hold onto.

Maybe the change in US looks like more gratitude for God and

who he is, and a desire to seek his presence over the things

that he he gives us as we realise how good it is to be

near the Lord. Maybe the change is simply, as

the psalmist discovered, a dose of perspective that puts our

troubles in the light of God's eternal plan, so we can see

them, as Paul did, as light and momentary.

You see, knowing God is the blessing, It's the greatest

blessing of all, greater than any financial provision, to be

able to have a real relationship with the One who made you for

himself. That is the definition of

fulfilling your purpose. And everyone who is able to

recognize that Jesus is Lord can respond to this invitation.

And his invitation is to a life of abundance, maybe not in terms

of finances or freedom from trouble, but abundance in terms

of joy, abundance in terms of peace that passes understanding,

abundance in terms of fulfilment and purpose.

The people in the time of Malachi were still waiting to

see God's fulfilment of of all the promises he had made.

They didn't yet see how the story would end, but we've seen

it. When humankind continued to fail

honour, to fail to honour God. God came down in Jesus Christ

and showed us the best way to live.

And then he became the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf, the

purest sin offering, taking the punishment we deserved so that

we could be made new. And then he sent us the Holy

Spirit to live within us, so that we could be transformed

within and made holy. And he's promised to come again

in glory and to judge all the wicked, and to bring those who

trust Him into a perfected creation to live in joyful

harmony and relationship with Him for all eternity.

And he offers us all of this without us doing anything to

earn it. We can continue, like Esau,

reaping the wage of our own sin and rebellion against God, or we

can come to Him and accept his gracious offer of salvation and

turn to Him in faith. If you would do that, If you

would accept His gift of love, then I can promise you your life

will never be the same. No, it doesn't mean you won't

have troubles. In fact, once God starts working

in you to reject the ways of the world, you may find life gets

harder. But you will be going through

life with a constant companionship of the One who

knows you better than you know yourself, and who wants the very

best for you. He will walk through every trial

with you, and He will strengthen you to endure and persevere in

faith. He will create in you a hope

that will not disappoint if you fix your eyes on Him, no matter

the circumstances, if you will accept His invitation.

I'd like to ask everyone just to close the eyes as we go through

a few reflections. As I want to wrap up, I don't

know where every single person is, but God knows.

And if He was someone who has not yet responded to God's

invitation, this is your moment to think about it now.

God has loved you. He has called you.

He has chosen you to be His. Will you come?

Maybe right now, in this quiet of your heart, come to Him and

ask Him to help you Trust Him and follow Him.

Take a moment to repent of your sinful expectations of wanting

to do things your way, and recognise that His way is the

best way. Ask Him to give you His Spirit

to guide you going forward. And if you are someone who's

already been walking with Him, I want you to take this moment

right now and think about the thing in your life that has most

made you doubt God's love. What is that hardship?

What is that situation? What is that relationship?

And take that to God. Ask God to help you see that

thing from His perspective. Ask Him to give you the

Longview, the bigger picture that you've been missing.

Maybe there's something he's been trying to teach you, but

you haven't been listening. Maybe there's a sinful habit

that you've been refusing to give up.

Maybe there's something in your life, something you thought was

neutral, but it's getting in the way of your enjoying God.

Maybe there's a promise or a truth about God's character that

you have allowed to be twisted and distorted by your

expectations and your circumstances.

Take a moment to repent of your sinful expectations and to thank

God for His constant and faithful love.

Father God, we recognise that you are God.

You see things that we don't. You know the beginning from the

end, you know our many sins and failings, and yet you have loved

us anyway. Thank you for your generous and

gracious love. Thank you for choosing us, for

calling us to the best of all things, to know you, to walk

with you for all of our days. Help us when the days and the

months and the years are hard to remember Your love and your

faithfulness. Help us to keep on trusting You

even when we don't see the things that we would like to

see. Shape us by Your Spirit so that

we may more and more understand the way you are working in US

and submit to your leading and keep on trusting even when the

end isn't clear to us. Thank you for your goodness to

us in Jesus name, Amen.