And we'll open up that hymn, song number 39.
We can begin this morning's service
by singing the song number 39,
How Beautiful Heaven Must Be.
Song number 39.
["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"]
Now a great singer.
The problem?
So two next one, number 19.
Sorry, let's switch to song number 19.
There is a problem.
Oh, me too.
All right, song number 19.
There is a problem.
["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"]
Put your hand, Brother Adam will bring you one as always.
The service times are in there on the upper left-hand side.
We've got the salvation and baptisms
for both the month and year.
And of course, happy birthday to everybody
celebrating in the month of October,
either a wedding anniversary or a birthday.
So make sure you congratulate
and wish happy birthday to the individuals there.
And of course, we've got the small town soul winning trip
coming up to Eloy, Arizona.
So it's just a couple of weeks away on the 14th.
You got a pretty locked in schedule there.
If you'd like to participate, so probably everybody knows,
but Eloy is about 45 minutes away here, just north.
When you're headed up to Phoenix, you go through there.
That's where several of those truck stops are.
So we're gonna join a group from Tempe there
and knock some doors.
Assuming, I mean, that is if anybody wants to go.
So we'll have a signup sheet up for that.
And then you can take note of the schedule there.
We'll take care of the lunch
and we'll probably catch some dinner on the way back too.
We'll be going right by in and out the place
with the best fries in the whole world.
So no amens on that.
All right, on the back, we've got the note
about the Dominican Republic missions trips.
So they had a great turnout there,
great success down there in the Dominican Republic
with 17 soul winners and 331 salvation.
So praise the Lord for that.
Also below that, we're gonna be having
the annual church yearbook photos taken
on Sunday, October 29th.
So that's the last Sunday of this month.
So the color is blue.
If you need to coordinate your ensemble
with the background color,
you wanna look nice in the photo.
That you got the date there.
And basically, there's really no signup for this.
You just show up and we'll just probably work
through the bigger families first
and then just get through the photos.
So they turned out great last year.
And then you'll also receive a high quality,
high resolution digital copy of this in your email.
So you can have it a nice photo to do with it,
whatever you want.
And it's great for of course, Christmas time
and things like that if you wanna send out cards.
And then you'll get a copy of the yearbook
as well when it comes out.
Also below that, we've got the annual chili cook-off
coming up at the end of this month on a Tuesday.
So I've kind of adjusted the times a little bit this year.
Entries must be made by 6 p.m.
instead of the 5 p.m. cutoff.
I backed that up just because I know it's kind of hard
for people to get here that early sometimes.
So we've backed that up to six,
which is we'll start a little bit thereafter.
Once all the chilies are here,
we'll officially start the chili cook-off obviously.
And there's really no cutoff time.
So whenever it ends, it ends.
But once everyone has had a chance to vote,
then we'll award the first, second and third place winners
for the chili cook-off.
And there's always great chilies.
So come on out.
A couple rules about the chilies.
Remember, you can only, no pre-made anything.
You can't go down to Walmart and buy the can
of Wendy's in a can chili or anything like that.
It all has to be made from scratch,
meaning no pre-made seasoning packets.
You need to be making your own.
Obviously, we're not asking you to grow your own basil
and everything else and create your own spices.
You can use your own spices.
You don't get the pre-made chili packs.
We want a level playing ground.
We want the people that really know what they're doing
when it comes to chili to rise to the top
and be awarded for their efforts.
So we don't want any doping, so to speak.
We don't want any cheating in the chili cook-off.
The spices would be likened unto the steroid.
We don't want any of that.
We want an even playing ground.
Everyone's on the same level,
has a fair chance at winning.
Start working on those.
Of course, the church will provide beverages,
things like that, and if we could,
I don't know if we'll be doing corn muffins
or not this year, but I'm sure somebody
will bring some cornbread.
Anyway, that's a great time, great time of fellowship.
Come on out.
Even if you don't want to make a chili,
just come eat a chili or two or three and vote
and just have a good time of fellowship.
All right, that'll do it for announcements.
We'll go ahead and sing one more song
before we get into the preaching this morning.
All right, let's start a song, 208.
Song number 208, Grace Greater Than Ourself.
Two hundred and eight.
The marvelous grace of our loving Lord
Praise that it seems all sin and our guilt
God, your dark calories bound and full
Live the God, God of the Lamb who's still
Praise, praise, God, praise
Praise to the morning clear and ill
Praise, praise, God, praise
Praise that it's greater than all God's sin
Sin is scared that the sea may blow
Yet in the soul, within, the length of us
Praise that it's greater, yes, praise, son, so good
Oh, yes, to the refuge the rising cross
Praise, praise, God, praise
Praise to the morning and there's waiting
Praise, praise, God, praise
Praise that it's greater than all of our sin
For he's a saint that we cannot hide
What can I win to wash it away
Oh, there is no way that crimson tide
Why's it so unique today
Praise, praise, God's grace
Praise that we'll pardon and pledge within
Praise, praise, God's grace
Praise that it's greater than all of our sin
For he's a saint that we cannot hide
What can I win to wash it away
Praise that it's greater than all of our sin
For he's a saint that we cannot hide
Praise that it's greater than all of our sin
Praise that we'll pardon and pledge within
Praise, praise, God's grace
Praise that it's greater than all of our sin
Malachi chapter 1
Verse 1 to the bottom of this, the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi
I have loved you, said the Lord, but he saith, whereon hast thou loved us?
I saw Jacob's brother, saith the Lord, and I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and I laid his mountains and his heritage and waste with the dragons of the wilderness
Where I lead him, saith, we are impoverished, but we will return and build a nest of places
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, they shall build as an outgo now, and they shall call them the border of wickedness
And the people, against whom the Lord hath made thee nation forever
And your eyes shall see, and you shall say, the world will be magnified from the border of Israel
A son on earth is bottled, and a servant is mastered. If I, then, be a bottle, where is my honor?
If I be a master, where is my fear?
Sayeth the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest, that spies my life
And saith, wherein have we despised thy name?
Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar, and he saith, wherein have we polluted it?
And that ye say, the table of the Lord is contemptible
If ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?
And if ye offer the lame to sit, is it not evil?
If ye offer it now unto thy government, believe ye pleasingly, or accept thy person, saith the Lord of hosts
And now, pray ye to seek God, if you be gracious unto us, this hath been by your means
And if ye regard your persons, saith the Lord of hosts, who is there even among you that would shut the doors or not?
And I do you tingle fire on mine altar for now?
I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand
For from the rising of the sun, through this going down of the sand
My name shall be great among the Gentiles in every place
The incense shall be offered unto my name, and appear offered
And my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts
And ye have profaned, and that ye say, the table of the Lord is polluted
And the fruit there, given to me is contemptible
He said also, behold, the weary is dead
And he snuffed it, saith the Lord of hosts
And he brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick
And thus he brought an offering, should I accept this of your hand, saith the Lord?
And the mercy of your deceiver, which having a squawk of mail, a vow of sacrifice unto the Lord, corrupt him
For I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen
By the time you pray for us
Lord, thank you so much for allowing us to be here today
We pray that you just be with the service and with Eacon as he's preaching
God's word, and help us to be able to hear what you have for us today
In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen
Amen, so Malachi is a book that was written, of course it's the very last book in the Old Testament
If you didn't notice, the next book is Matthew
But it's written after they had come back from Babylon
So this is a chapter of the book, the whole book really is dealing with Israel after the Babylonian captivity
And just before what a lot of people call the 400 years of silence
So after this they have that big gap between the book of Malachi and the Gospel of Matthew
But what I want to kind of focus in on here this morning out of this chapter
Is the fact that what we see in the book is that Israel has come back into the land
They've been redeemed from Babylon, again they've been brought back and freed from that captivity
But even in spite of the fact of everything that God has done in their lives
In spite of the fact that God has brought them back out of captivity
Which was the result of them being backslidden and not obeying the Lord
And forgetting about the things of God
And in spite of the fact that God showed mercy on them and brought them back into their land
And allowed them to rebuild the temple
And God was fully prepared to just continue to do a great work with them
Find here in the book of Malachi that Israel once again, specifically in this book is the priesthood
That the priests, the Levites, and the people as well have begun to backslide once again
A little bit more specific than maybe I'm going to get this morning
But he deals with the fact that in general, you know just generally speaking
They're not serving God, redeemed and they know their history
They know they've been brought out of Egypt so many years ago
They know the story of their ancestors from that land and given another chance to serve God
And it's just kind of surprising that in spite of all that
You find him here once again, you know just
To be dealt with in this way and to be warned by God
And God is obviously speaking very hard
As Malachi is preaching a very hard message
This isn't a very friendly message, this isn't an easy message that he's preaching
And he's dealing with the priests and the fact that they're bringing a lot of these lame offerings
They're being deceitful in the work of the Lord
They're bringing lame offerings
Later he goes on and talks about how they're putting away in marriage
They're divorcing, they're not tithing
There's all these things that he starts to deal with
But one of the first things he kind of points out here in chapter 1 is the fact that they're bringing these lame offerings
That's the title of the sermon this morning, lame offerings
We'll just get into it this morning, let's look at verse 1
It says, the burden of the Lord, word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi
I have loved you, saith the Lord
So again, God's starting out saying, the preface is
I'm going to say some things in this book, I'm going to say some things
My man Malachi is going to bring a hard message
But let me just start out by saying, I have loved you
He's saying, don't get the wrong idea here
It's not that God's just being mean
He's saying, I have loved you
And that should be obvious, they should be able to look at everything that God has done for them in their lives
And say, hey God loves you, saith the Lord, yet I have loved Jacob
He's saying, so what's going on, you're being kind of harsh
Things aren't going the way we'd like
You're not getting everything we want
And he points out Esau
He says, well it's not the Lord, yet I have loved Jacob
And he gets into Esau here in a minute about what he's going to do with Esau
In verses 4 onwards, and he says, let's just talk in terms of comparison
And you'll see how much I love you
I might be harsh, I might be dealing with you
I might be preaching against some of your sins
But I'm not doing to you what I'm going to do to Esau
I'm not going to utterly destroy you
And make it so that nothing prospers
I'm not going to just come against you
And destroy you
Yeah, God's going to judge, God's going to chasten
But it's for our benefit
It's going to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness
In our lives when God chastens us
Just like he's chasing Israel in the Old Testament
Here, where he's going to deliver this harsh message
Doesn't mean he doesn't love them
It just means that sometimes you've got to deal with things
People just got to get right
And this is kind of an attitude that people can get
We're in a style of love dust
That doesn't seem very nice what you're preaching in this book Malachi
And he's saying, well, was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord
Yet I have loved Jacob, and I hated Esau
And laid his mountains and his heritage waste
For the dragons of the wilderness
He's saying, I destroyed them
They're not coming back into their land
They're done
I've destroyed Esau
And, you know, I haven't done that to you
So in terms of comparison, you'd say that's a pretty loving thing
God hasn't destroyed us
And that's something we have to keep in mind in our own lives
Is that even though we might endure chastening
Joy cometh in the morning
If we endure chastening
We'll get an attitude
Like these people here, we're in a style of love dust
We're in a style of love dust
You know, and get angry and upset
And begin to charge God foolishly
He's saying, I have hated Esau
You know, really, and it's like when you preach verse 3
You almost kind of have to stop and preach a mini sermon
About the fact that God hated somebody
Right?
Because I'm sure that's not news to anybody
In this room here
And obviously it's not a specific person in Esau that he hated
That's another false doctrine that's out there
People teach that God hated the person Esau
Which is not true
And I'm not going to go into all those things
But you know, the Bible tells us that
In Romans chapter 9
That Esau
Was
You know, God had basically judged them
The nations
Before either of them had done either good or bad
Okay?
I don't want to get into all that this morning
I'm sure everybody here understands that
You know, people say
But it is worth pointing out, you know, that God does hate
There are people that God hates
You know, I heard somebody recently say
You know, we should never hate anybody
It's like, well you're more righteous than God
And I understand why he's not referring to Esau
The person
He's referring to the nation
But what is a nation?
It's a group of people
I hated Esau
It's not that he hated one person
It's that he hated a whole group of people
Okay?
Well, God is here saying
I hated Esau
Meaning that entire nation
And I laid their whole heritage waste
Okay?
Anyway, I don't want to go off on that
I want to keep it on track this morning
But look at verse 4
It goes on about it
Whereas Edom saith, we are impoverished
But we will return and build the desolate places
You know, Esau, Edom, they're saying
Hey, we're poor, we're impoverished
But we're going to go ahead and build again these waste places
These things that God has destroyed
We're going to build it again
We're going to go back
And we're going to build it
We're going to build and return
And build the desolate places
Thus saith the Lord of hosts
They shall build it
But I will throw it down
And they shall call them the borders of wickedness
And the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever
And he's saying
If you don't think I love you
Well, consider Esau
Consider Edom
They're going to try and do things
And I'm going to continue to just throw things down
And people are going to call their land the border of wickedness
And people are going to look at them and say
This is the people whom the Lord hath indignation against forever
Okay?
And really that's a good picture of the unsaved
Right?
Everything that the unsaved do in this world is going to come to naught
Everything that the unsaved do in this world
It's going to all be burnt up
It's all going to be destroyed eventually
It's all going to just go away
It's not going to have any eternal value
It's going to be destroyed
And then they're going to go to hell
You know, and that's
You don't want to talk about God having indignation against somebody forever
You know, that's hell
In a nutshell
I mean that is a picture of God's indignation
Eternal indignation is hell
So even if we feel like God maybe is being harsh
Or the Christian life is too hard to live
Or we wonder if God really cares that much about us
Well, you know
At least we can sit here and think about the fact that we're not going to hell
That God saved us
And that we can still do works for God
That we can still serve the Lord
That we can build
Maybe, you know, things have been laid waste
Things have been destroyed
Maybe there's been chasing
You know, we can still build
We still have opportunity
You know, if we don't get the attitude of
Where in hast thou loved us
Like these people
Because that kind of an attitude we'll see this morning
Leads to lame offerings
Where people are just kind of like
They just give God their scraps in their lives
We don't want to be people like this
We want to make sure that we're giving God our best
Because we have that opportunity
The unsaved can't do that
Edom here, you know, they can return and rebuild
And God said, I'll destroy it again
I'll just keep wiping it out
Every time they try to do something
It's just all going to come to naught forever
And he's saying, that's how you know I love you
Is because you can return
And you can build again
And I'm not going to destroy it
And he starts, and he's saying
If, you know, if we deal with some of these things
Go to John chapter number 15
John chapter 15
Of course, keep something in Malachi this morning
We're going to come back, John 15
The Bible says in Psalm 127
Except the Lord build the house
They labor in vain that build it
Except the Lord keep the city
The watchman waketh but in vain
You know, it's vain in life
To do things outside of God
You know, if we're just going to spend our lives
Just not concerned about the things of God
Not, you know, worried about the things of God
Not having no concern for the things of God
You know, God is, you know, maybe not even a second thought
Maybe God's not in our thoughts at all
You know, it's in vain
Anything that we try to do
Even if it's in the name of the Lord
If we're going to just, you know, give God our second best
Or third best, you know, it's in vain
If we don't have God in our lives working
If we're not living our lives in a way that which God can bless
And is pleased with, you know, what we're doing is in vain
You know, if we're trying to serve God
But, you know, on Sunday we're trying to serve God
You know, when we show up at church
But then the other, the rest of the week
Is God's the farthest thing from our thoughts
You know, that's in vain
That's a vain work
God's not going to bless that
You know, God wants all of us
God wants our entire lives
God doesn't want just a part of it
But this is what people do
They just carve out a little sliver for God
And say, well, here, this is what you get, Lord
This is what you can have
You can have this little tiny bit of my life
Well, God says, well, you know, I bought the whole thing
You're not your own
You're bought with a price
Therefore glorify God and your members
You know, glorify God and my members on Sunday
What about the rest of the week?
Yeah, the rest of the week too
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
You know, but, and that's what God deserves
You know, and people say
You know, they hear that
They know it's right
But, you know, and that's kind of what God's dealing with in Malachi
And then people, they get an attitude about it
Man, I think that's fair
Well, look at John 15, verse 1
This is why it's so important we understand it
I am the true vine and my father is the husband
And every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away
And every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it
That it may bring forth more fruit
You know, that's two negatives
Back to back
Obviously, bearing fruit is a positive thing
But, you know, if we don't bear fruit
If there's someone, you know, God says, well, I'm just gonna take it out of there
It's just a drain on the system
Right?
I mean, think about a fruit-bearing tree
If you have some dead, withering branch that's not doing anything
It's just weighing the rest of it down
It's a liability
It's like, well, I'm just gonna cut it off and get it out of there
For the sake of the rest of the tree
Right?
That's not good
Wouldn't want to be that branch
You say, well, I want to be the fruitful branch
Well, are you sure?
Because if you bear fruit, then God's gonna purge you
You know, he's gonna purge you too
That you may bring forth more fruit
You know, God's gonna want more and more and more of us
Not less and less and less
He goes on and says in verse 3
Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you
Verse 4
Abide in me and I in you
Abide in me
Remain in me
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
You cannot do anything for God
outside of God's blessing
We cannot just fall into this
attitude like, well, you know,
where serving God is just like this little checklist
that we kind of fit in with everything else in our life
And I understand we have, you know,
we have other things we have to do
But those are things that God has also ordained for us to do
God has ordained for us to work and
be fruitful and multiply and do all those
Those are God-ordained works
You know, we gotta stop having this idea in our lives
where it's like
we separate, you know, the things of God
from the rest of our life
Look, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain, Paul said
You know, the life, you know, I am crucified with Christ
Nevertheless, the life I live, I now live by the faith and Son of God
who died, you know, and gave himself for me
You know, I don't think Paul had that problem where he's, you know,
he's like segmenting his life into
well, this is where I serve God and this is where I don't
This is the part of my life that I live for the Lord
This is the rest that I don't
This is mine
You know, all of it's God's
And he's saying, you want to bear fruit?
You have to abide in me
You have to have this mentality
You have to have this attitude
You must abide in me and I in you
as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
except it abide in the vine
No more can ye except ye abide in me
You can't just walk up to, you know, some tree
and cut off a branch and throw it on the ground
and expect it to bear fruit
It's going to wither and die
That's the example he's using
And he's saying, you know, as foolish as that would be to think that
you know, it would be just as foolish of us to think
that we can bear fruit in a Christian life
if we're not abiding in Christ
daily
You know, that's what it means to abide
to remain in that state
to remain in Christ
Obviously not talking about salvation
Instead, you're clean through the word which I have spoken under
You're clean
Now abide in me
He said, I am the vine, ye are the branches
He that abideth in me and I in him
the same bringeth forth much fruit
What a great promise
That if we abide in Christ
we can bring forth much fruit for God
I mean, that's what I want for my life
You say, why do you do the things that you do?
Why do you preach sermons?
Why did you come down here and start a church?
Why do you go out soul winning?
It's to bear fruit
It's not because, well, I just didn't have anything better to do
Well, I guess I'm not doing anything else
Bear fruit in my life
You know, I go out soul winning, you know, and I serve God
It's not just, you know, just something
As a pastime
I'm trying to bear fruit for God
I take it seriously
I'm trying to abide
Of course at the end there he says, for without me
you can do nothing
Nothing
You know, if we don't abide in God
And again, this is the mentality that some Christians have
They think, well, I can just, you know
separate my Christian life
I can just, you know, throw God a bone once a week
and then the rest of my life is gonna go great
You can do nothing without me
Nothing
Isn't that exactly what he just said about Edom?
You know, it's like living like a heathen
They think that they can, they're gonna build
and they're gonna build again
and God's just gonna wipe it out again
God's just gonna destroy it again
Because you can do nothing without Christ
Well, you know, I mean, I know I can't go soul winning without Christ
I know I can't understand the Bible
if I'm not, you know, pleasing God
No, you can do nothing
You can't do anything
You know, the businesses, the financial endeavors
you know, your job, your family
you know, whatever it is
whatever else you're endeavoring in life
it's, you know, if God wants you
you can just blow on it and it can just go
gone, like that
just overnight
But a lot of people, they don't get it
and they just want to keep being like these Edomites
Well, we'll just build it again
We'll just start it up again
We'll just get going again
And God's just like, well, I'll just blow on it again
So you have to make sure that we're abiding
in Christ, that we're serving the Lord
because without Him we can do nothing
bear no fruit in our lives
God, people cannot just, you know, segregate
the Christian life from, you know, whatever else
It's all or nothing
That's kind of what we see going on here in Malachi
and it leads to lame offerings
If you look there in Malachi, go back
He said, I'll just review again
in verse 5, he says
and your eyes shall see and shall say
the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel
He's saying, look, I'll destroy the Edomites
every single time
They can keep trying and they can keep trying
and they keep trying
I'm just going to keep wiping it out
But you know what?
Your eyes shall see and say
the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel
If we abide in Christ, you know, then we will bear fruit
God will be magnified
if we're within those borders
Verse 6
I mean, isn't that literally what we call God?
God the Father?
Oh, I believe God
I believe in the Trinity
I believe God the Son
God the Holy Spirit
God the Father
He's like, well, if I be a father, where's my honor?
If I be a master, where is my fear?
It's a, you know, that's an interesting question too
It's like, who would fear their master?
Right?
I mean, some people don't have a fear for their boss anymore
You know, their boss is just like a pain in their neck
To someone they have to put up with, you know
They have to just make sure they do just enough to not get fired, right?
That's kind of how it is in the world today
And I kind of debated whether or not to bring this up
because I don't like to just throw things out there
But I was looking into this
Someone had mentioned this to me at one point
But it was actually legal at one point in this country to beat a servant
Did you know that?
To like cuff them, slap them
Whip them
And not a slave
I'm not saying a slave
I'm saying a servant
An employee
You know?
Oh, you're late again?
Well, I thought you were just going to fire me
No, I still have a job for you to do
But you could, you know
You could take a beating
Just show up on time next time
Oh, you didn't do that right?
You'd probably have a lot more fear for your master
At that point
You'd probably be afraid
You'd say, well, I'll just go get another job
Well, yeah, that's because you live in the land of prosperity
You know, but when it was like
When 90% of people were all involved in agriculture
And you couldn't just
Well, I'll just walk another 20 miles to the next farm
You know, that's not going to happen
You're going to sit there and take that beating
And you're going to get straightened out
You know, today it's just like
Well, I'll just go to the next fast food restaurant
I'll just go to the next retail place
I'll just go to the next place
And it's like, yeah
Well, you know, that's kind of why
Yeah, that's why people end up going
Where is my fear?
That's why we get such lousy service so often anymore
Because people just show up and do a poor job
Because there's no consequences for doing a poor job
But God's using that illustration
If I be a master
If I be somebody you work for
If I be somebody that is employing you
Where is my fear?
Why aren't you afraid of me?
Sayeth the Lord of hosts
O ye priests that despise my name
And ye say wherein have we despised thy name?
So these priests
What we see is they're actually going through the motions
But in their heart they despise God
Look at verse 7
He hath offered polluted bread upon my altar
And ye say wherein have we polluted thee?
In that ye say the table of the Lord is contemptible
Now, try to understand what he's saying here
He's saying, God is saying
They're saying, wherein have we despised your name?
And God answers, verse 7
Ye have offered polluted bread upon mine altar
And then they go
And it's just like another question, right
And you say, wherein have we polluted thee?
How have we despised you?
It's the polluted bread that you offer
What polluted bread?
Because I don't think what's going on here
Is they're literally offering polluted bread
Like moldy, spoiled bread
Otherwise they wouldn't ask that question
If they were literally offering like lame, you know
Moldy, day old, you know
The bread nobody wants to eat
And say, I'll give that to God
Then they would go, oh yeah, well you're right
I guess we have been offering polluted bread
Moldy bread, right
But he's saying, look
You've despised my name
And you've offered polluted bread
They're like, what are you talking about?
What polluted bread?
We don't offer polluted bread
I mean, they might even be doing it
The way they're supposed to be doing it
Like it's laid out in the law
You know, where they're making the bread
Exactly the way God wants it made
It's being brought fresh daily
The way it's polluted is at the end of the verse
In that you say the table of the Lord is contemptible
They're bitter about the work
They're saying the table of the Lord is contemptible
You know, I'm not so sure about the serving God thing
I'm not so sure about this whole, you know
Worshiping the Lord and living for Christ
I just don't really know if I want to do that
And God, you know, they're bringing all this fresh bread
They're doing it right
And God looks at it and says, well, you know
It's not the bread that I'm really concerned about
It's the spirit in which it's being brought
And if it's such a drudgery to serve me
He's saying, it's contemptible
It's polluting my altar
When people have an attitude of, oh, it's such a drudgery to serve God
It's like, well, then God's like, well, you're offering
It might as well be some moldy, lame piece of bread
Yeah, but I spent all morning making the bread
It was so hard
Putting all those ingredients together
And the oven was so hot
And it was such a long walk to the altar
And it was so hard for me to put the bread up there
And I couldn't believe it
It was so hard for me to put the bread up there
And I could have done so many other things with that bread
But here you go, God
Here's some nice, fresh, baked bread
Oh, thanks
Thank you so much
Thank you for serving me
Yeah, you're welcome, God
God looks down and says, you know what
You've polluted my altar
That kind of an attitude
You sit there and say, my table's contemptible
You know, I don't care how fresh you think that bread is
I don't care how good a show you can put on
I see right through it
And it's contemptible
It's polluting my altar
You know, because this is something they were supposed to do
Go to Leviticus
Again, keep something in Malachi all morning
Go to Leviticus 24
The offering of the bread was something that was supposed
That the Levites were supposed to do
Was something that was commanded
If you look at Leviticus 24
Verse 5
He said, Now shall take fine flour
And bake twelve cakes thereof
Two tenths deal shall be in one cake
So he's giving them, you know, the recipe
But notice how he tells them to lay it out in verse 6
And now shalt set them in two rows
Six in a row
So it's twelve cakes
Six in a row
So you have twelve cakes
So it's six rows
And six rows
I know I've pointed this out
Some of you might know where I'm going already
But it's six and six
Can you think of anything
Any other number
That has six and six in it
Well, sixty-six
Sixty-six, what in the world could that
Relation that had to do with the Christian life
That's how many books there are in the Bible
Right, there's sixty-six
And, you know, the Bible
Is often likened unto bread
In the word of God
The manna that fell from heaven
Is likened unto Christ, Christ is the word of God
Man shall not live by bread alone
But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God
Shall men live
Right
So it's kind of a picture of the Bible
You say, well, that's a coincidence
I don't think it is
You're telling me God knew all the way back then
There'd be sixty-six books in the Bible
Uh, yeah
I think that's a little bit within his grasp
Since it's his
Right
So get the picture, these priests are bringing
This bread and they're like, well, you know
We're putting
Having to bring these twelve cakes
Six in a row, you know, two rows
Daily and putting this fresh bread before
You know
You know, it's just
It's contemptible
You know, it's like the Christian who can't
Be bothered to read their Bible
It's like the Christian who
You know, doesn't
Doesn't have any respect for the word of God
You know, despising what the Bible says
How about that?
You know, that's another way in which people could
Despise the altar
You could say, oh, it's contemptible
This service of bread, it's contemptible
And pollute God's service
Go to Isaiah chapter 30
Isaiah chapter 30
You know, one reason people don't read their Bibles
Is because they don't like it
They don't like it
They don't like what the Bible says
They come here with the Bible
What the Bible says, they hear the preaching of the word of God
And say, I don't like that
It's contemptible
You know what?
And they are
Any offering that they're going to make then is polluted
It's not coming from a sincere place
They're not serving God in truth and sincerity
We can go through the motions all we want
God looks on the heart
He says in Isaiah chapter 30 verse 12
Wherefore saith the Holy One of Israel
Because he despised this word
And trust in oppression and perverseness
And stay thereon
Therefore this iniquity shall beat you as a breach
Ready to fall
Swelling out on a high wall whose breaking
Cometh suddenly at an instant
Of course he's referring to
The word that's being despised there is the word of Jeremiah
The prophecy that he's delivering at that time
Of destruction
And doom of eminent judgment
And they despise that word
And they're rather trusting in oppression
And perverseness
You know it's such a picture of where we're at today
We have people that despise the word of God
And then they're trusting in oppression
And they're trusting in perverseness
And they despise the things of God
And God doesn't just go suck his thumb
And boo hoo about it
He says therefore
This iniquity shall be into you as a breach
Ready to fall
This iniquity shall be into you as a breach
Ready to fall
Like a wall just falling over you
Like you've got this bulwark, this breach, this thing you've set up
It's just going to fall, it's going to swell
It's a swelling out on a high wall
Whose breaking shall come suddenly
At an instant
You know it's like the picture of that balloon
That you can just keep blowing air into
And blowing air into
It's like getting big and part of it
Is starting to turn a little
The color starts to go away
You know that thing's going to pop any minute
You're kind of
Everyone around you is doing this
At any instant it's going to
Boom
That's the way it is in our lives
If we despise the word of God
If we despise this word
If the Bible is something that we have contempt for
If it's something we have no respect for
And if people that live their lives like that
If you could see that
If you could see it in someone's life
You're kind of doing this
Like okay any second now
It's just going to happen
Boom
It's just going to blow up
And it's going to be sudden
At an instant
They say the table of the Lord is contemptible
God says you've polluted my offering
People despise the Bible today
They despise what it says
You know I could spend a lot of time talking about
The different things that people despise in the Bible
Today
And I get it we would expect it of the world
But let it never be said of God's people
That there's something in the Bible that we despise
There shouldn't be anything in the Bible that we despise
As God's people
If we're saved, we're born again
We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
We should be able to pick up the word of God
And say there's nothing in here that bothers me
There's nothing in here that offends me
There's nothing in here that bothers me
There's nothing in here that offends me
I love every single word of it
And apply it to our lives
And not just go well you know that might be for some people
But not for me
Well you know that's for so and so
But that's something I can do without
You know you despise this word
It's like your life's just going to be this swelling wall
Ready to just break
And you know it's just
It's you in your heart polluting the sacrifice
It's you you know
Despising God in your heart
I mean that's what the Bible is
It's the Lord
People despise what it says
People despise reading it
People despise reading the Bible
What do you mean people despise reading the Bible?
It's not like people read the Bible and go
I mean some people do that
Right?
But I'm saying people despise it in the sense that
They can't be bothered to read it
They're more interested in other things
You know the time to read the Bible comes around
And it's well you know
I know I should do that but
I've got all these other things going on
And look I'm not suggesting
That everyone in this room sits down for hours at a time
And reads their Bible
I'm not against anybody doing that
I think it'd be great
But you know obviously
You know we have to be practical about it
And maybe there's seasons
Maybe there's a day maybe there's times
You know where we could get into the word of God
For greater lengths of time
Right?
But what about 15-20 minutes a day?
15-20 minutes a day
I don't think that's a lot to ask
To read the Bible one time
One time
In a year
You know it's a shame
To go year after year after year
Having never read the Bible
You say well I'll start in the new year
No you need to start today
And don't go back where you left off
On your plan
And look maybe there's nobody in the room like that
You know I hope so
But it wouldn't surprise me if there was people in the room this morning
That started out in the new year
2023 and they had a plan to read the Bible this year
And they were all excited about Genesis
They were all excited about Exodus
And they got into Leviticus
And they got into Deuteronomy
And they just kind of quit
And they picked it up here and there
But they're not reading it daily
You know you need to start today
And don't go back to Genesis again
Pick up right where you left off
And start there
And don't worry about you know the new year
Just keep reading the Bible
Just keep reading it
Don't get so pedantic about a calendar
Or a checklist
Or some pre-made Bible reading plan
Just pick up the Bible for 15-20 minutes a day
And read it
Well I just you know I can't
Every excuse you come up with is you despising it
I mean what else would you call that?
Well God's my father
Well you know where's his honor?
Well God's my master
Where's his fear?
Look at verse 8
He says go back to Malachi
Or no wait
I messed it all up
You're in Isaiah
I should have had you saying Leviticus
That's what happens when I don't color code everything just right
But I'll read to you
Well you know what
Yeah I'll just read to you verse 8
Leviticus right where he in 24
Where he's giving out hey
Bake the bread this way
Set it up this way
12 bread 12 loaves
6 in a row
And he says every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually
Being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant
And it shall be Aaron and his sons and they shall eat it in the holy place
For it is most holy
You know that bread was meant to be eaten
By the priests you know and we are the priests of God today
God has made us kings and priests unto our God
Through Christ
He's given us this holy man of this holy bread and God intends for us to eat it
And it doesn't mean tear out a page and shove it in your mouth
Okay
Obviously I'm speaking figuratively
Alright
How do you eat it?
How do you get the word of God inside you?
You read it
You read the Bible
Well is it really that important to read the Bible?
Man shall not live by bread alone
But by every word of God
But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God
Is what Jesus said
Sounds pretty important to me
Go to Deuteronomy chapter number 8
Actually you know what?
I've just
I've got you all over the place I know
Just go back to Malachi
Malachi we'll pick you back up there
Oh you know is it really important for me to read the Bible?
How else are you going to abide in Christ if you're not reading it?
And doing it
Well I want to be fruitful
You know I want to have good success
Well read therein all the days of your life
And then thou shalt find
Have favor and good success
Cause you'll abide
Cause you'll know what the Bible says
And when you read something
That maybe goes against the grain
Don't despise it
Say well God's right I'm wrong
I'll fix that
Well I read it but I just don't do anything that's in there
What good is it?
God's not just trying to improve your grammar
You know God's not just trying to improve your reading comprehension
That's why he gave us this big book
He gave us you know these commandments so that we would do them
You know or you can be like those Edomites
Well I'm just going to keep building without God
I'm just going to you know God blows on it
God destroys it I'll just try again and try again
And God can just keep destroying it and wiping it out
And just have you know just go beat your head against the wall in life then
Or you could actually you know get in the word of God
Serve God
Straighten up, clean up your life
Get the sin out of your life
Start doing the commandments of God
Start serving God
Start taking things of God seriously
And God will bless
And you'll be fruitful
And God will purge
There'll be some purge
And God will purge
There'll be some purging that goes along with that if you start being fruitful
But you'll bear even more fruit
Where did I have you go?
You're back there in Malachi
Look at verse 8
He's dealing with these priests
You know you pollute my bread, my altar
With your polluted bread
You say that the table's contemptible
It's not the bread that's the problem
It's the spirit in which it's being brought
You come to my altar with an attitude
And say oh you know this serving God is
What's the point
What a waste of flour
What a waste of my time
To sit down and read the Bible
You know how many shorts I can watch
In 20 minutes
You know how much short form media content
Can be consumed in 20 minutes
You know how many whatever it is
That's just an easy example
It's a necessary one
It's very applicable today
But whatever it is
That takes that place
Of reading
Look at verse 8
And if you offer the blind for sacrifice
Is it not evil?
And if you offer the lame and sick
Is it not evil?
He's saying look if you bring me
These lame sacrifices
And say here you go God
Don't you think that's evil?
Don't you think that's malicious?
Don't you think that's you know
Showing that you don't have any fear for me?
That you don't have any honor for me?
When you start to just throw God
Your scraps
And just throw God a bone
And save the best
For yourself?
And save the best offering?
Well this is for me
And God you know
If he's lucky
He can have a sick
Lame you know offering
And I love how he goes on
And says why don't you try that in the real world
Why don't you go try that with your rulers
Offer it now unto thy governor
You know
Go to your boss at work
And offer some lame offering
See how that goes
See how long that will last
See if he gets mad, see if he gets upset
Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person?
Sayeth the Lord of hosts?
And that's the thing
I heard this said many years ago
This kind of reminds me of that
Is that
When it comes to serving God
Because it's volunteer to serve God
Because it is
It's only volunteer in the sense that you're not getting paid for it
Like the church isn't going to cut you a check
For anything that you do for the church
But if you served
God in the local church
The way you served
Your boss
If you took the same way in which you served the house
The house of God, the Lord and church
And you took that same thing and you went and did it
At work
What would happen?
Some people probably get fired
Some people just say
Well you know
You're late
You didn't do a good job, you did a poor job
Things went completely undone
You've been absentee
You haven't been showing up
Yeah but you hired me
Doesn't that mean I just like
I'm always you know
The fact that I'm hiring
You should just be glad when I show up
You should be grateful I show up ever
Boss, you'd be like get out of here
You know
Leave your apron, leave your name tag
Bring your uniforms
Here's your last check, goodbye
That's how that would go
Right, but that's the example God's using here
Take your lame sacrifices
And go off of that to your boss
Take that to your governor
You know
You expect God to not get upset about it?
When God sees us just you know
Taking the things of God
Light heartedly
Not taking him seriously
Not really that concerned
Just kind of squeezing God in whenever we feel like it
That's not going to lead to God's blessing in your life
It's going to be the complete opposite
It's going to lead to a curse
It's going to lead to God being upset
You know
You know God's going to take
Disciplinary measures
Try that at work, you're going to get the write up
Right
HR's going to call you into the office
Okay, official write up, sign the paperwork
You say, brother Corbin, how do you know about that?
Well I didn't take an HR class
I'll let you figure it out
Right
You get the first one, what is it like three strikes you're out
Most places
Never got that far
Right
You know but that's the same thing that's going to happen with God
You start bringing these lame sacrifices
Bringing evil sacrifices
The sick, the lame
God's going to be like, well here's your first write up
Here's your first warning, oh here's another one
And then God's going to take some serious
Action
Some serious measures
Because you know they were not supposed to bring the lame
They were supposed to bring
That which did not have blemish
In Deuteronomy if there be any
Talking about the first thing in the males, the flocks and the herds
If there be any blemish therein
If it be lame or blind or have any
Ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice
It unto the Lord
God's not interested in
Lame sacrifices
In fact it's an insult to him
It's an affront to him
When we just give God
You know when we just
Throw God a bone
God is not interested in
Our leftovers
You know save your scraps
For somebody else is what God's saying
I want the best
I want the best of your flock
I want the best of your life
You know this is especially true
You know important for young
People to understand
Because you know as we
Get older obviously we can still do great
Things for God
Even in our old age, even as we get older
Moses' greatest works
Were done after he was 80 years old
I'm not saying we're all
Going to be to that caliber of Moses
But you know that's to say that we should never
Just say well you know I'm past my prime or whatever
What it really should be
Is a warning to those that are younger
Give God
The strength of your youth
Give God the best years
Of your life
By best I mean you know where you have
Your most
You know you have the most vitality
You have the most strength
You have the most energy, the most time
How about time?
You know
The older you get the more responsibilities you have
You know and they're
God given responsibilities but it takes away from other areas
In our life
You know we can't all go on
The missions trips, we can't all go on
You know the
Soul winning excursions because we have other
Responsibilities
Well look if we're people that have that ability
If we have the time to go do these things
We should be doing it
Give God your best, why not?
Instead of giving God the scraps
God's not interested
Look at verse 10, who is there even among you
That should shut the doors for not
Neither do you kindle the fire on my
Alter for not
This one's kind of a tricky verse
He's saying who is there even among you
That would
Shut the doors for not
He's not saying that does shut the doors for not
That would shut the doors for not
Say what doors is he talking about
Well I think this has something to do with
Like the alter itself
It makes me think of like
Forgive me if I'm getting this completely wrong
But it's kind of a tricky verse
But the context is the offering
Right bringing the animal
To the alter
Offering it there
He's talking to the priests
Whose service was in the alter
They were to serve about the things of the tabernacle
So that's who he's speaking to
Directly
So they would understand the doors
Opening up perhaps maybe the doors
Of the Lord's house
Or maybe the doors of the alter
Maybe that's where they put the wood in
Stoke the fire
That's what I think he's referring to here
Neither do you kindle fire on my alter
So I think the doors, the fire on the alter
These things are related
But he's saying there
Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for not
Neither do you kindle my alter for not
He's saying you know if you did serve me
In sincerity and truth
If you did bring the best of the flock
If you did do these things
It would not be for not
It wouldn't be meaningless
It wouldn't be vain
There would be profit in it
I think that's what he's saying there
In that first sentence of verse 10
Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for not
He's saying do you think if you serve me
If you give me your best
If you bring me your best sacrifice
Do you think that's going to be for not
Do you think I'm just going to not notice
Do you think I'm not going to care
Do you think I'm not going to be pleased by that
He's saying you know what
If you did do those things
It wouldn't be for not
Look
If you serve God with your life
It's not going to be for not
It'll matter
You know what they're never going to pin a gold star in your chest out there in the world for serving God
Well you know what you're going to have
Be able to hold your head high when the Lord comes
And say like Paul I finished my course
I've kept the faith
And not go for God you know
That we might not be ashamed at his coming
Say well you know what did you do for me
Well nothing
Bare minimum
What did you offer
The lame, the sick
Did you read the word of God
No it was contentable to me
Did you like what you heard out of the word of God
No I despised the word
You know
Maybe
Not hearing that would be reward enough
But to hear those words
Well done
Now good and faithful servant
There is a reward for the righteous
He said you shut my doors
You kindle my fire
You offer the way you ought to
With the right attitude
It won't be for naught
It'll count
It'll matter
You know that's why we serve God
We don't
Hopefully
We're not just going out there
Trying to save souls
Trying to you know go with soul winning
And reading our Bibles
And coming to church
Just because well that's
We're Baptists
And that's what we do as Baptists
That's just the way things Baptists do
You know we're doing that because it matters
Is it going to change the world
No
It's not
You know
And that's a whole other sermon that may be preached sooner than later
This whole idea that somehow we're going to turn this nation back to God
This nation is too far gone
It's too late
You know but that's what revival means to a lot of Baptists today
You know to turn the whole world conservative
Get everybody voting Republican
That's revival of them
You know but here's the thing
Does that mean what we do doesn't matter
Well if we can't turn the whole nation back to God
Does it really matter
Of course it does
You know we went out soul winning and had two salvations
Do you think it mattered to those two people that got saved
I don't care what they vote
I don't care what lever they're going to pull behind some curtain somewhere
I know they don't pull levers anymore folks
I know I don't vote but I still know how it works
Okay
I don't care what ballot they cast
Or if they cast one at all
What we do matters in this life
For God
It makes a difference in eternity
There will be a reward
For the things that we have done
So I say
Let's shut those doors
Let's kindle that fire
Let's get that alder
Blazing hot
In our lives
Let's stoke those flames
If we've grown cold towards the things of God
If we're lukewarm
If that fire is dying out
If it's gone dim
If you couldn't scramble an egg on that altar of your life today
You know what you need to get in this book
You need to get on your knees before God
You need to pray and ask God to help you
And to forgive you
And to rekindle that fire
So that you can bring a real good sacrifice
Not some lame sick sacrifice
And throw it on that altar and listen to it sizzle friend
And burn that thing up
For God
And say here's my whole life
Whatever you want
Wherever you want
Whenever you want
However you want it God
Here's the best of what I have to offer
On this altar
Take it all
Because you can rest assured
If you do that
It won't be for naught
God will notice
And that's what he's saying to these priests
You know if you did serve me
It wouldn't be for naught
In the end he says
I have no pleasure in you
Lord
Neither will I accept an offering at your hand
He says you know people that serve me
In sincerity and truth
It's not for naught
But when the priests
Call the service of the Lord contemptible
When they despise the word of God
When all they want to offer is that which is lame and sick
God says I have no pleasure in you
And I won't receive anything at your hand
I'm not going to take any of it
It's all or nothing with the Lord folks
You can't be half in half out
You can't be eudicus right
In Acts 20
Sitting in the window
Kind of just
Nodding off
In the Christian life
Because you're going to fall out
Get all the way in
Give God everything
So I just don't feel like it
Well you know you've got some soul searching to do
Your heart's not right then
If we think about the service of God
And the things of God
And we're just kind of like
Well you know it's a drag
Your heart's not right
At that point
You've got some praying to do
I should have had you keep something Deuteronomy
But I'll just read to you
Chapter 6 verse 4
Hear O Israel the Lord our God as one Lord
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God
With all thine heart
And with all thy soul
And with all thy might
All of it
Every bit of it
Not most of your heart
Not some of my strength
Not a little bit of my might
Not whatever I can just you know
Have left over for God
That's what he gets
God wants the whole thing
The whole enchilada
It's God's
And I love how that's a command
Thou shalt
Thou shalt love him
Well I don't love God
Well you need to go home and fix it
And start figuring out what you've got to do
To start loving God
Because it's a command
It's not optional
Well I don't know if I really want to love God that much
I don't want to give him that much might
Well you know it's
It's not really optional to you
It's not really something you get to pick and choose
When God told the priest back then
You're going to give me the best of the firstlings of the flock
The best sacrifice
He didn't say if you feel like it
And then when they stopped doing that
And they started bringing the lame and the sick and the weak
God said I have no pleasure in it
I don't want any of it
Give God all of it
And he says in verse 6
These words which I command thee
This day shall be in thine heart
What words?
Obviously the words of Deuteronomy
The words of the Bible
But these words specifically in Deuteronomy
These words that thou shalt love the Lord thy God
With all thine heart
And with all thy soul
And with all thy might
Those words should be in our heart
All the days of our lives
We should wake up every morning and ask ourselves
Am I loving God today?
Every single day
Look at that calendar
Look at what our priorities are
And say would God be pleased with this?
I gotta wrap up
Let's go back to Malachi
If you're still there
You say well you know
Is that really what the Bible teaches?
That God deserves our lives
Well you bought with a price
As with the precious blood of a lamb
And you're not your own
You've been redeemed
He said
We know Romans 12
I beseech you therefore brethren
By the mercies of God
That you present your bodies
A living sacrifice
Look I'm not saying you need to go home
And take your favorite dog or whatever
And go out in the backyard
And fire up the altar
And get the barbecue going
This is for you Lord
We're not gonna start raising flocks here
We're not gonna start raising herds
We're your favorite cat
If you're a cat person
You know whatever
Obviously we don't have
Animal sacrifices today
What do we sacrifice?
Our lives
Our ambitions
Our dreams
The things that we do
We sacrifice those things on the altar
Our bodies
Present your bodies a living sacrifice
Holding acceptable unto God
Which is your reasonable service
Don't go home and throw yourself
On the altar either
Don't go home and throw yourself
On the
You know the Coleman or whatever
I don't know what these girl names are
Right the green egg
Don't throw yourself in the smoker
When you go home
Well you said body
You know obviously
The body is talking about
Abstaining from fleshly lusts
Which war against the soul
You know present your body
A living sacrifice
Meaning you're not gonna just give in
To all the lusts of the flesh
You're gonna say no
You're gonna mortify
The deeds of the flesh
You're going to die daily
You're gonna bear your cross
And not be conformed to this world
But be transformed by the renewing of your mind
That you may prove it
Is that a good acceptable will of God
And that's why we gotta be in the word of God
And reading it
And it'll transform us
Or you can adopt the world's philosophies
Or you can adopt what the world's teaching
And go live the life
That they want you to live
Look at verse 11
We'll wrap up Malachi 1
For from the rising of the sun
Even going down to the same
My name shall be great among the Gentiles
And in every place incense shall be offered
Under my name
And a pure offering
For my name shall be great
Among the heathen
Saith the Lord of hosts
Of course Malachi is a very prophetic book
About Christ
Saying you know that's how the Gentiles
Are gonna come to God
Is through Christ
And this is gonna happen
But ye have profaned it
And that ye say
The table of the Lord is polluted
And the fruit thereof
Even its meat is contemptible
I love verse 13
Ye said also
Behold what a weariness is it
What's a weariness?
The table of the Lord
The offerings of the Lord
The sacrifices of God
Oh behold what a weariness it is
And you've snuffed at it
You know just
It's like rolling your eyes
At the things of God
Oh there goes the preacher again
Whatever
You know it's an attitude
Right
Those of us you know
That have been around teenagers
Or have teenagers
We know exactly what he's talking about here
Okay dad
Whatever mom
We've all said it
Okay
It's not right
We've all said it
Right
It's an attitude
You know people get sometimes
Get that same attitude with God
Isn't that what he said?
If I'm not a father
If I'm not gonna be your father
You know
Where's my honor?
You know we do the same thing to God
Even as adults
You know we hear the preaching of the word of God
We read something of the word of God
I mean come on really
Present my body a living sacrifice
I'm staying for fornication
Drunkenness
Come on
Everybody else is out there doing it
Come on
You can't be serious God
Okay oh
I'm serious
I am gonna do those things
Oh what a weariness it is
That I don't get to go out there
And just run around
And be a fornicator
And a drunkard
You should
You should be real grateful God
That I'm not just some wicked sinner
Out in the world
I hope you recognize this
I'm not just out there
Living a life of sin
I hope you appreciate it
God's looking at us
That's your reasonable service
What are you talking about?
That's serving God today
Oh what a weariness it is
Sayeth the Lord of hosts
And he brought that which was torn
And the lame
And the sick
Thus he brought an offering
Should I accept this of your hand?
Sayeth the Lord
It's a hypothetical question
He's like you think I should take
The lame offering
You think I should take
Some sick
Broken
Worthless offering
That I specifically commanded you
Not to offer
You think I should just accept that
And just be like oh thank you
He said verse 14
But cursed
Be the deceiver
Which hath in his flock
A male
And voweth
And sacrifice on the Lord
A corrupt thing
You know I suppose maybe
That's all the guy had
With some lame offering
Then maybe God would be like
Well that's all he's got
That's the best he's got
But it's the deceiver
That says you know
Well that's
No that's all I got
I'm giving God everything
That's everything I have
That's my best
That's the best I can do
When they know it's not
You know he's bringing the lame
And he's got this nice
Perfectly all
White woolly
Clean
You know strong
Robust firstling male
Of the flock
Sitting at home
That he's just
Fattening up for
You know the next passover
Or whatever
His Thanksgiving meal
I know they didn't have it
Back then
Right he's back there
Licking his chops
Looking at oh this one's mine
What are you gonna give God
Give him that little scraggly
Worthless
One with the limp
You know
And one eye
It's always bumping into things
You know
That one that we're always
Having to change
Give him the stupid one
We always have to go find out
In the field somewhere
Give him the one that got mauled
By some
You know wolf
Some predator
Give him the one that
You know that can't bring forth
After its kind
Give him the one that
You know can't reproduce
Give him that one
Why would anyone do that?
Because it didn't cost you anything
This is not precious to you
Why would someone give
A lame sacrifice
Why would someone take
The lamest
You know firstling of the flock
Or the herd
Because it's worthless
And it didn't cost them anything
You know
Serving God
Is going to cost you something
There I said it
And people might not want to hear it
But that's the truth
It's gonna cost you
Well what's it gonna cost me
How much
Well it's gonna cost you time
It's gonna cost you energy
It's gonna cost you
You know
Your intention
It's gonna cost you
Your attention
It's gonna cost you
You might have to
You know change some things
In your life
To not bring a lame offering
To God
You might have to be more responsible
You might have to give up some things
You might you know
You're gonna have to make changes
In your life
If you want to serve God
Acceptably
With reverence and godly fear
It's just a fact
That's why God said
Give me the best
Not just you know
One because he's worthy of it
He deserves the best
It's the best one
Yeah but he didn't ask for the whole flock did he
He didn't say bring me your flock
And your silo
And all your farming instruments
And all the hay
And you know
Everything in your house
And just bring everything
And you know what
But God could have
It's like tithing
I remember when I first
You know
Got on board with tithing
And I said
I made some comment about
Well man 10%
Of the gross
Really
And a guy just looked at me and says
Well
God's letting you keep 90
And it's not his fault that
You live under
You know
You got the IRS
Taking their cut
Before it gets to you
That's not God's problem
That's a whole other serving
Right
But think about it that way
God's saying
Hey just give me the best one
Just the best one
Not all of them
You could go ahead and keep
The second
And the third
And the fourth
And the fifth
And you could definitely keep
That lame sacrifice
That nobody wants
But that's the one that
Everyone wants to bring
That's the one these priests
Were bringing
They're saying
You know what
We don't want to give God
Our second best
We don't want to give God
Our third
We want to find the lamest
Animal we can find
That's gonna cost us the least
That it's just gonna be
The most
You know
The most convenient
For us
To offer to God
People don't want to be
Inconvenience for the Lord today
They don't want to be bothered
By the word of God
They want to just
Go through the motions
And just check a box
And you might fool people
Around you
But God
You know
Man looketh on the outward appearance
But God looketh on the heart
And those priests
They could bring their fresh
Baked bread
Every Sabbath
And put it on an altar
And God's saying
I know the attitude
And the spirit
In which that's being brought
And it's polluting my sacrifice
You call it
You call it weariness
You call it
You call it contemptible
He said
I will receive nothing
At your hand
And don't expect anything
You know
But God is saying here
You know
I will
You know
Look at verse 14
But cursed be the deceiver
Which hath in his flock
A male
And voweth
In sacrifice
Under the Lord
A corrupt thing
For I am a great king
Saint the Lord of hosts
And my name is dreadful
Among the heathen
I love how this chapter ends
My name is dreadful
Among the heathen
And he's saying in verse 11
Hey
My name shall be great
My name is dreadful
I am a great king
You know
If we hold back
In service to God
God's just gonna use
Other people who won't
That's who's gonna use
You know
I understand
You know
We're not Calvinists
I know that we have a part to play
In service to God
That God uses people
But you know
It might come to a shock
To some people
To find out that
There are actually people
In this world
That understand what I'm saying
And believe it
And actually do want to
Give their best to God
And do want to serve God
Fervently
That's who God's
Gonna end up using
And if we just
You know
Have this attitude
Where it's like
We're just gonna give God
The lamest offering
That we have
We're just gonna be
You know
Give God our second best
If we hold back
In service
God is still a great king
And he's still going
To be glorified
God's name is still dread
And God's just gonna
End up using somebody else
And that's what he's
Telling the priests
That's kind of what the
Book of Malachi is about
He's like saying
I'm gonna send a savior
And he's gonna give me
A light on the Gentiles
And you guys are done
Right
He's saying
You guys had your chance
That's what he's saying here
You know
You don't want to serve me
Priest
Guess what
I'm just gonna go find
The Gentiles then
I'll go find somebody
Who will
You know
And if we don't want to
Serve God as individuals
If we want to hold back
As people
As a church
God will just say
Okay well I'll just go
Find somebody that does
And I'll use them
That's how God works
Cause God will be glorified
God is a great king
And there's people in this
World that understand that
And want to serve him
You know
And not just serve him
You know
With
Some lame sacrifice
There's people in this world
That want to put
Everything on the altar for God
All of it
There's people in this world
That keep that altar
Stoked and blazing hot
Those are the people
That God's gonna use
Is it us this morning?
Do we despise the things of God?
Do we despise the word?
Has that altar in our lives
Kind of gone out?
Do we think it's for naught?
You know
It's not worth rekindling
The flames of
Of that altar
No
You need to
Open and shut those doors
Get that fire going again
Find that best sacrifice
And offer it
Let's go ahead and close
The word of prayer
Dear Lord again
Thank you for
Lord the opportunity
That we have in this life
To serve you
Lord
Not in part
But in the whole
Lord
That we can give
Everything that we have
To you
And Lord that you will accept it
And be pleased by it
And Lord
That you'll bless it
That you'll look upon it
And Lord be pleased
And Lord
There will be a reward
For our labors
Lord I pray to help us all
To search our hearts
This morning
And Lord to
To ponder these things
Lord
If you are our father
Lord
Where is your honor?
If you are our master
Lord
Where is your fear?
Lord I pray to help us
To honor you
To fear you
Lord above all
To serve you
Lord
With all of our soul
All of our
Our mind
With all of our strength
All the days of our lives
We ask in Christ's name
Amen
Alright
We'll go ahead
And then
Let's open up our hymnals
To song number 66
Song number 66
Act out a little
Number 66
Here is your sin
In vanity
And pride
Gearing up
My Lord
Your strength
You sent
Me to you
You sent
Me to you
You sent
Me to you
You sent
Me to you
You sent
Me to you
You sent
Me to you
You sent
Me to you
You sent
Me to you
You sent
Me to you
You sent
Me to you
You sent
Me to you
You sent
My
Knowing
How it
Must
Be
When
He
Died
A
Calvary
First
He
Lives
Great
And
Grace
Was
Free
God
And
His
Bone
To
As my sin I learned, then I trembled at the highest burn.
Till my guilty soul for me turns to Calvary.
Mercy, there was great and grace was free.
God, if there was want applied to me,
then my burn, soul, my liberty, and Calvary.
Oh, the love that drew salvation's bend.
Oh, the grace that brought it down to men.
Oh, the mighty gold that God has spent, and Calvary.
Calvary, mercy, there was great and grace was free.
God, if there was want applied to me,
then my burn, soul, my liberty, and Calvary.
Oh, that now I give to Jesus every day.
Now I'm glad the open has my day.
Now my rapture soul can only sing of Calvary.
Mercy, there was great and grace was free.
God, if there was want applied to me,
then my burn, soul, my liberty, and Calvary.
God, if there was want applied to me,
then my burn, soul, my liberty, and Calvary.