Giving God Our Best, Not Our Leftovers

Good evening.

>> Can you hear me? Okay.

>> Okay. Sorry about that.

Well, it's good to be here again with

you. Uh, you know, I was here a couple

months ago and in the morning and I was

with my wife and my my son at the time

and and my wife wishes she could be here

this evening with you all, but we had a

little scheduling conflict. So, she's

unable to be here, but I'm thankful to

be here with you and and worship our God

together.

Now, this is the

time of year when

we're able to spend time with family,

spend time with one another, with with

loved ones.

But it's also a time of

good food, a lot of good food,

but also leftovers.

And let me tell you, when when my wife

says, "We're having leftovers for

dinner," my response is always

hard pass.

Cuz leftovers are gross. Unless it's

Thanksgiving leftovers, chili or pizza.

But nothing's better to me than than a

hot homemade meal.

And this got me thinking

about my relationship with God.

Am I giving my best to God or am I

giving him my leftovers?

If you'll turn with me in your Bibles to

the book of Malachi. Malachi chapter 1.

Malachi 1 · chapter mention

Malachi is that last book in the Old

Testament and it's the last book of the

minor prophets.

And

the thing about Malachi is compared to

the other minor prophets, Malachi is

written with a different structure than

the rest. It's written as a conversation

that's happening between

God and his people.

For example,

uh verse two says, "I have loved you,

says the Lord, but you say, how have you

loved loved us? Was Esau not Jacob's

brother?" Declares the Lord. Yet I have

loved Jacob.

But now let's let's jump into our text

here in verse 6.

Malachi 1 vers6. A son honors his father

and a servant his master. Then if I am a

father, where is my honor? And if I am a

master, where is my respect? Says the

Lord of armies to you the priests who

despise my name. But you say, how have

we despised your name?

You are presenting defiled food upon my

altar. But you say, "How have we defiled

you?" And now you say, "The table of the

Lord is to be despised."

And when you present a blind animal for

sacrifice, is it not evil? Or when you

present a lame or sick animal, is it not

evil? So offer it to your governor.

Would he be pleased with you, or would

he receive you kindly, says the Lord of

Armies? But now do indeed plead for

God's favor, so that he will be gracious

to us. With such an offering on your

part, will he receive any of you kindly,

says the Lord of Armies.

If only there were one among you who

would shut the gates, so that you would

not kindle fire on my altar for nothing,

I am not pleased with you, says the Lord

of Armies, nor will I accept an offering

from your hand.

These four verses are describing what's

happening in the temple of the living

God. The people of Israel were they're

coming to the temple to offer their

sacrifices.

And God's not pleased with what they

gave.

They were offering animals that were

blind, lame,

animals that were already dead.

They're just offering their leftovers to

the Lord.

These sacrifices, they were not given

from the heart, but they were just given

as an afterthought.

So, I want to talk to you with you this

this evening about sacrifices that

should not be given to our Lord. And

we're going to ask three questions and

we're going to answer them together.

So that first question is, is the Lord

pleased

with a sec with a sacrifice that is

secondhand?

Is the Lord pleased with the sacrifice

that is secondhand?

Have has anyone ever shopped at a resale

store?

My wife loves them. Absolutely loves

them.

I, on the other hand, want no part of

it. I don't want I don't want secondhand

shoes. I don't want secondhand pants or

shirts. Not that there's anything wrong

with that. It's just I personally don't

like that.

And the Israelite, that's what the

Israelites were doing. The Israelites

were giving this secondhand sacrifice

that that they didn't care about. One

that no matter it, it did not matter to

them at all.

It's It's like when we go to drop a load

of clothes, shoes, or or kitchen items

that we don't want at the Goodwill or

the resale shop.

We drop these items off. We have no

intention of ever thinking or caring

about those things again. We drop them

off because we don't want them.

And this was the kind of sacrifice that

the Israelites were making.

Read verses 7 to 8 with me again.

You are presenting defiled food upon my

altar. But you say, "How have we defiled

you?" And that you say, "The table of

the Lord is to be despised. And when you

present a blind animal for sacrifice, is

it not evil?" Or when you present a lame

or sick animal, is it not evil? So offer

it to your governor. Would he be pleased

with you? or would would he receive you

kindly, says the Lord of armies?

See, the Israelites, they had no need

for blind, lame, or or dead animals.

They they didn't care, want, or need

what they were bringing.

The law states in Leviticus 22:es 19-20

that for you to be accepted it must be a

male without defect from the cattle, the

sheep or the goats. Whatever has a

defect, you shall not offer for it will

not be accepted for you.

The Israelites were only bringing the

animals that that were of no use to

them.

These were animals that no one else

wanted. They pawned off a gift that was

worthless to them.

Deuteronomy chapter 15 and verse 21

Deuteronomy 15 · chapter mention

reads, "But if it has any impairment

such as a limp or blindness or any

serious impairment, you shall not

sacrifice it to the Lord your God."

What they offered, they were commanded

not to give.

So I want to ask you a question.

Why does God

ask for our best and our giving?

Is it because he wants to recre increase

his riches?

Definitely not. It's all his.

God doesn't want our gifts or our money.

God wants our hearts.

God wants the heart of the worshipper.

He wants us to give our best and show

show him that we love him and trust him

with the gifts that he's given to us.

Do you remember what happened with David

in in 2 Samuel chapter 24?

2 Samuel 24 · chapter mention

2 Samuel chapter 24.

2 Samuel 24 · chapter mention

Second Samuel chapter 24. See, David has

2 Samuel 24 · chapter mention

sinned greatly against God by disobeying

when he took a census of the people of

Israel.

Because of his sin, God sent a plague to

Israel.

David

needed to make a sacrifice for his sin.

So Gad told told David to go up and

build an altar on the threshing floor of

Arana, the Jebite, just as the Lord

commanded.

That's verse 19 of 2 Samuel 24. Then

David went up in accordance with the

word of God, just as the Lord had

commanded.

[cough] And Arana,

he saw David. He sees David coming up

and he runs up and he and he bows down

to him. And Arana offers up this

threshing floor to David at no cost.

He's going to give it to him for free.

Now read with me David's response in

verse 24.

However, the king said to Aronia,

"No,

but I will certainly buy it from you for

a price, for I will not offer burnt

offerings to the Lord my God that cost

me nothing."

So, David bought the threshing floor and

the oxen for 50 shekels of silver.

David was not going to give a sacrifice

that cost him nothing.

and we shouldn't either.

God calls us to sacrifice our best. He

doesn't want our leftover sacrifices.

I need to ask myself, am I dropping off

a sacrifice to God

that cost me nothing or am I giving a

sacrifice that comes from my heart?

The leftover sacrifice

is not pleasing to God.

Secondly, we need to ask, is the Lord

pleased with the worship that is

secondhand?

When we look at the the definition of

worship, it's defined as the feeling of

expression of reverence and adoration

for a deity.

A worship that is pleasing with God is

more than just being here at the

building on Sundays and Wednesdays.

If you're if you're not there, turn back

with me to Malachi.

Malachi 1 and read verse 10.

If only there were one among you who

would shut the gates so that you would

not kindle fire on my altar for nothing.

I am not pleased with you, says the Lord

of Armies. Nor will I accept an offering

from your hand.

That verse right there takes us all the

way back to Cain and Abel

and the very first offerings that were

made to God.

The text says that Cain brought from the

produce of the ground.

And the text also specifies that Abel

brought the firstlings of his flock in

their fat portions.

And the phrase fat portions would later

be used in the law to indicate the best

parts of the animal.

And God had regard for Abel's sacrifice,

but not for kings.

Because just as Cain's sacrifice was

defiled, so was the Israelite sacrifices

because they brought the lame, the

blind, and the sick to the Lord.

It's as if God is saying here, "I wish

you would just close the temple doors.

Shut down all of them. Shut down all the

sacrifices because I'm not pleased with

them at all."

He didn't want an offering from them if

it was not going to be their best.

What about us?

Are we bringing our very best to

worship?

Our worship this morning, our worship

this evening,

it's an indication of what we think

about God.

Am I bringing my best?

Are you bringing your best?

Are we bringing our best?

Or are we bringing a sacrifice that cost

us nothing?

What does our sacrifices look like? Are

we giving to God out of our surplus or

is it or is it coming from our hearts?

The way we worship, how often we

assemble.

This will show God what and where our

priorities lie.

We can't hide from God.

He knows our hearts.

God calls us to love him with all of our

heart, our soul, and our mind. And we

have to ask ourselves, are are we loving

God with all of our heart, soul, and

mind?

Is that showing throughout our lives,

our service, our giving?

We are redeemed with precious blood as

of a lamb unblenmished and spotless, the

blood of Christ.

Peter reminds us of that in 1 Peter

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and verse 19.

So then let's be workmen who present

ourselves

workmen approved to God rightly handling

the word of truth.

A worker Timothy says in 2 Timothy 2 and

verse1 15 who does not need to be

ashamed.

This passage tells us that we are we are

not to be ashamed.

sloppy work would would make one ashamed

and we're ashamed of sloppy work and it

looks looks as if we're just rushing

through to get the job done.

But may our worship never be that way

because we don't want to give God our

sloppy work

or our sloppy worship.

A secondhand worship is not pleasing to

the Lord.

Now this evening we've seen that both a

leftover sacrifice and a secondhand

worship is not pleasing to God.

But lastly, is the Lord pleased with

servants with secondhand priorities?

Pick back up with me in verse 13 of

Malachi

chapter one verse 13.

You also say, "See how tiresome it is,

and you view it as trivial, says the

Lord of Armies. And you bring what was

taken by robbery, and what is lame or

sick, so you bring the offering. Should

I accept it from your hand, says the

Lord."

The people are complaining here. They're

groaning about about having to bring

their best animals, right? Their desires

to bring their sacrifices that that have

been stolen or lame,

the ones that they couldn't sell.

They complained about it being so

tiresome

and they didn't want to give God any

effort.

But are we much different?

Have you Have you been served by someone

who just didn't really care for their

job?

You can always tell who they are.

How does that make you feel?

What about when you go to Chick-fil-A

and everyone's genuine and kind?

They always reply with my pleasure.

Makes you feel good, doesn't it?

What about you and me?

Do we put God first always?

Is it my pleasure to serve God?

Are the things of God first on our

hearts and minds?

Is assembling every time the brethren

meet most important to us?

What does our calendar say about our

priorities?

Do we give to God

out of our surplus or is it something

that was pre-thought of and determined

in our mind before we come to worship?

Read verse 14 with me.

But cursed be the swindler who has a

male in his flock and vows it but

sacrifices a blemished animal to the

Lord. For I am a great king, says the

Lord of armies, and my name is feared

among the nations.

The way we give,

assemble with the saints, plan our days,

and worship God shows him where our

priorities lie.

A servant with secondhand priorities is

not pleasing to the Lord.

We're not going to give God a secondhand

sacrifice, half-hearted worship, or make

him our secondhand priority.

Let us be like David and not offer

sacrifices that cost us nothing, but

instead give God our very best

because he

has given us his very best

with giving his only son to cover our

sins.

if we but yield and obey him.

Let us never be satisfied

with serving God our leftovers

because he is due our best.

Maybe you're here this evening and and

you haven't been giving God your best.

Maybe you've given him your leftovers.

Well, he invites you to come and repent

of those sins and start right now by

giving him your best.

Or maybe you haven't given God your

heart and need to come and give him your

life as well. Well, he invites you to

come to be baptized to wash away your

sins, to walk with him and give him your

best in all areas

of your life. The invitation's here and

Christ invites you to come. Come now as

we stand and sing.