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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"] ["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"] ["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"] ["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"] ["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"] ["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"] ["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"] ["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"] ["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"] ["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"] ["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"] ["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"] ["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"] ["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"] ["How Beautiful Heaven Must Be"] ["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 Malachi chapter 1 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 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 We can go through the motions all we want We can go through the motions all we want 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 He says go back to Malachi He says go back to Malachi He says go back to Malachi 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 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? Am I loving God today? 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 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 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.