We are in a series called Fresh Faith where we are looking to how we can prepare ourselves for this coming new year to have the faith that God wants us to have and that we want to have. Our first step to a renewed faith is to see God’s love for you that he chose you before creation to adopt you as his child. This morning we are going to look at the second picture of faith and how we can move closer to God. We are in the book of Malachi. One of the unique features of this book is that God will make a statement and the people will question that statement. Then God will give the answer to their question. So God is working with a people who are questioning God and working to move them to saving faith.
Faith Foundation (Malachi 1:6)
The Lord begins by describing the way the world is supposed to be. A son is to honor his father and a servant is to honor his master. By nature of the relationship there is supposed to be honor shown. God’s law proclaimed that the children are to honor their father and their mother (cf. Exodus 20:12). But look at what God asks next in verse 5. God asks where his honor is. God asks where his respect is. In particular, God challenges the priests because they are despising God’s name. Now this is a very serious charge to make especially against God’s people. God’s people are not giving God honor. God’s priests are showing contempt for God’s name.
Stating the Problem (Malachi 1:7)
But this leads to the people’s questioning God’s charge. “How have we despised your name?” (Malachi 1:6). I want you to see that the people do not think they are withholding God’s honor. The priests do not think that they are despising the name of the Lord. God answers in verse 7 that the sacrifices are polluted and defiled. God says that you are not showing me honor because the offerings to give to me are defiled. Now what do you think the people are going to say to that? Of course, they are going to question God on this point as well. They ask in verse 7, “How have we polluted you?” How have we defiled you? How have we shown you contempt? God’s answer is that the people are saying that the Lord’s table is despised. God is talking about the place of worship. The people would bring their animal as an offering to the Lord. The priest would take that animal and offer it on the behalf of the people. The mentality of the people and the priests is that they do not value the altar. They do not care about the worship. They do not regard their sacrifices as important. They are despising God and holding his name in contempt because they do not value their worship.
Illustrating the Problem (Malachi 1:8-10)
The Lord now describes what the people are doing that shows that they do not value his worship. In verse 8 he says that the people are bringing and the priests are accepting blind, lame, and diseased animals. You are bringing me things that you would never bring to anyone else. You are doing things that you would never do toward anyone else. Here is the point God is making: your worship shows how much you value him. What you bring him shows what he is worth to you. Clearly, God was not worth much to the people because they are giving dishonorable sacrifices that they would never present to others. You do not care. God is not important to you. Worship is not important to you. Now why is God making this point? Look at verse 9.
You want God’s favor and want God to be gracious to you, but God is not important to you. Why would you expect God to show you favor when you his worship is contemptible to you? How can you seek the grace of God when you do not value God enough to make him your highest priority? Now look at verse 10. God says that your worship is useless. Everything you are doing is pointless. God wishes that the doors would be permanently closed so that they would stop their worthless worship. God is not pleased with us and not pleased with our worship when he is not important to us. God does not want our trash. God does not want our leftovers. They were only giving to God what they did not want or need themselves. So we will only give God the time that we do not want or need. We will only give God the gifts that we do not want or need. We live our lives and if there is anything leftover, we give that God and think that he is pleased. God proclaims that if he is only worth the leftovers of your life, then do not expect to find favor and grace from him. In fact, if God is only worth the leftovers, then our worship is useless as an individual before him and as a church before him. God says at the end of verse 10 that he will not accept anything from our hands.
A Great God (Malachi 11-14)
Listen to what God says in verse 11. God is a great God. His name will be great in all the world, across the globe, among all the nations. Friends, God is a great God. We highlighted this in last week’s lesson. God has displayed great love to you and showed you how great he is. He is a great God that is worthy of worship and praise across the whole earth by the whole creation. Now look at verse 12. God’s greatness is dishonored in the world when we do not value him and give him the worship he deserves. Think about how true this is. What does the world learn about God when he hold him in contempt? What does the world learn about God’s glory and greatness when we only give God the leftovers? What does the world think about God when we do not honor him in our lives? What does the world see about God if he does not have the highest priority and highest value in our hearts and in our lives? God is a great God. But does God look like a great God the way we treat him? In verse 14 God proclaims that he is a great King. But do our lives show that God is a great king?
How were the people treating him? Look at verse 13. The people says, “What a weariness this is!” They say that worship is a weariness and they snort at having to give it. I am going to read some other translations to underscore the feelings and thinking of these people who are supposed to be the people of God. The NIV reads, “What a burden!” The CSB reads, “Look, what a nuisance!” The NASB reads, “See, how tiresome it is!” What a burden to worship God! What a weariness! What a pain! How tiresome it is to have to worship and serve this great God! Do you think that God will respond to us with favor and grace when this is our point of view? God says that he will not. Should God receive what we do not want to give?
Husbands, imagine bringing flowers home on Valentine’s Day. You hand them to her and say, “I got these for you because I had to. It’s Valentine’s Day and I didn’t want to have a fight. Can I sit on the couch now?” This misses the whole point of the flowers and the whole point of the day. In the same way, we miss the whole point of worship and the whole point of our lives if we look at God and say, “What a weariness this is!” Friends, it is shocking how we act like worship is a weariness. We act like we don’t want to be here. We try to get here as late as possible and leave as soon as possible. We try to give as little as possible and hope that somehow God is pleased with what we have given to him. I had one person tell me how they hated Sunday night because they have to drive for 30 minutes. What a weariness! How tiring God is! This would be like complaining to your wife that you had to drive to find flowers. Then never mind! God does not receive what we do not want to give. God is not happy with just whatever leftovers we throw at him. God is a great God and we should be thrilled to give him our lives because of his love for us.
Four Messages
First, God loves us but that does not mean he ignores, excuses, or affirms our sins. The first paragraph of Malachi was God proclaiming his faithful love to his people. He has loved them, still loves them, and continues to love. But God’s faithful love does not mean we do not need to change our lives and change our hearts. After proclaiming his love for his people, God will now tell the people where they have faith problems and where their lives need to change.
Second, God inspects the heart before receiving worship. God does not receive our worship if we are not wanting to honor him. We despise the Lord when we give him our leftovers. We show contempt for the Lord when we only give him what we do not want. God says to not think to seek his favor or his grace when you do not have a heart for him. If God is not your passion, then your worship is useless.
Third, if there is no sacrifice in your sacrifice, then it is not a sacrifice. Mr. Gallaty gets credit for this thought (Gallaty, 218). If you don’t care, should God care? Would God ask us to close the doors of this building because we see him as a weariness? Would God ask us to stop calling ourselves Christians and don’t bother to go to services because we find him tiresome? Is doing what God wants a pain or is it our heart’s desire? God does not want anything from us because we have to. God wants us to want to. This is a key point that is overlooked in the parable of the treasure.
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44 ESV)
The man did not sell all that he had because he was required to. Nor did he see giving up everything as a weariness and a nuisance. He sold everything in his joy. In his joy he gave everything. How many ways do we show God that we think he is a burden? How many times do we act like God is blocking what we really want to do rather than be the pathway for joy? So we must amend the idea a little. If there is no JOYFUL sacrifice in your sacrifice, then it is not a sacrifice.
Finally, worship is an overflow of the heart. We will not want to worship the Lord if we do not see him as a great God. We will give God our leftovers when we do not see him as a great king. I want to remind us about one more thing. Do not merely think of worship as coming to this building. Worship is what he do here and God is not satisfied by giving him heartless worship. But apply this lesson to the whole of your life.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1 ESV)
Your life is to be worship to the Lord. Your life is to show that God is a great God. Do not expect to call out to the Lord to find favor and grace when the Lord is not first in all things. God deserves our honor. Do we look forward to time with God or do we dread it and avoid it? We are questioning God’s honor when we are not full of joyful worship to him. Fresh faith for the new year means changing how we look at God and how we look at our lives as worshipers of him. Are we despising the Lord? Are we offering him our trash? Is he a great God in our lives? Do we show him that he is a great God and a great King?