Any time I begin a new sermon
series, I like to give a little bit of insight as to why I chose the book or
texts that I did. Sometimes there’s a
good reason and other times there isn’t.
In being completely honest with you, the biggest challenge for me this
time was the time constraint. As many of
you can tell if you’ve walked around many stores today and seen that Christmas
decorations are on full display, we’re not that far from Christmas, and in
terms of worship, Advent Season. Now,
after Advent has passed, then we’re going to spend some time looking at the 10
Commandments, followed by the book of Acts.
I didn’t want to stop halfway through the commandments and then pick
back up in January. I was afraid that
everyone, myself included, would forget everything that had been said. Then, it came to me; why not do a pre-Advent
series? After all, it’s very likely that
many of you haven’t heard too many sermons from the book of Malachi (the final
Old Testament book and the last information that we have before the
intertestamental period). So, there’s my
reasoning. It’s probably not that good,
but I do think that gaining a sense of what the world was like just prior
(relatively) to Christ will help us immensely when we begin our look at the
birth of our Savior here in about a month.
Read Malachi
1:1-14
Now,
I don’t know what everyone’s knowledge of what life was like in the Old
Testament is. So, let me give you a
brief timeline as to when Malachi is prophesying in Jerusalem. In 538 BC, the first exiles are allowed to
return home from exile. After only a few
years, in 536, the reconstruction of the temple begins, but it quickly
stalls. The prophets Haggai and
Zechariah came in and called Israel to renew their efforts to complete the
temple, and eventually it was completed in 516.
However, even though it was built, didn’t mean that the work was
done. Ezra and Nehemiah came in a little
later on at different times and worked to rebuild Israel’s spiritual status and
the city walls of Jerusalem respectively.
Then, almost 100 years after Israel first returned from exile and began
rebuilding the temple, Malachi came onto the scene as a prophet of God. The biggest problem for Israel during
Malachi’s time was apathy. They had
grown lax in their faith and disinterested since the time of prosperity that
they thought was at hand had yet to come to them. They cared nothing for the worship of God and
they really only gave it “lip service”, a problem that I think many Christians
today can relate to. Their faiths were
in essence part of their daily routine, and nothing more.
Malachi
begins his words to Israel by reminding them of the story of Esau and Jacob
that we find in Genesis 25. However,
Malachi isn’t comparing the Lord’s anger with Israel to His anger with Esau. What Malachi is actually doing is telling the
people that they are Jacob (mind you, Jacob’s name was changed to Israel later
on in his life); they are the ones whom God has chosen. He’s reminding the people of Israel that they
are set apart, that they are holy; they are different from all other people
groups because they have been specifically chosen by God Himself. They are the ones that God looks upon and
calls “MY people.” However, this does
not make them immune to straying from the will of their Father; they are
rejecting him even though they have been chosen.
Malachi
goes on in this first chapter to talk about the poor offerings that they are
giving to God. Instead of bringing
animals that were strong and fit, or at the very least healthy, for sacrifice
the people of Israel were bringing their diseased, crippled, blind, and in some
cases dying animals for sacrifice. They
were only giving to God the things that they didn’t want in the first
place. They weren’t giving to God out of
their firstfruits, but out of their excess.
This is very similar to an often deadly (in terms of spiritual health)
habit that we have in our world today, and I’m not talking about our giving or
donations, although that is many times the case as well. Each and every one of us is busy. There’s almost no way to escape it. Heck, I’ve got three different calendars that
I use to keep myself organized that are filled with appointments, dates,
practices, meetings, and events that I have to be at or that I have to get my
kids to. There are literally days in
which Amy and I see each other at 6:30 am when she leaves for work and then we
don’t see each other again until dinner or even later, sometimes not at all. Sometimes, I get exhausted just thinking
about all of the things I have to do.
However, I have to remind myself many times of a few important things. The first is that many of these things are
things I chose. They’re not things that
have to be done but things I wanted to do.
The second thing is that many of them are temporary. I won’t always have the responsibility of
dropping off and picking up my kids from school. I need to take time and enjoy what I have and
not see everything as a bothersome chore.
The third thing, and this is the most crucial, is that I have to
remember my priorities. When I’m running
all over the place and hurrying from one activity to the next, what about my
faith? Am I setting apart time each day
to work on my relationship with God, or am I letting the world around me
dictate what type of relationship I have with the Lord? You see, it’s all well and good to squeeze in
a quick look at Scripture when we’re waiting for our oil to get changed or
sitting in a doctor’s office, but is that giving our firstfruits to God, or
just what we can spare? And don’t get me
wrong, when I have a free moment, I’m very quick to pull out my phone and start
reading my Bible, but that ought to be in addition my daily devotion and
prayer.
The
nation of Israel was giving to God what it either had left over or what it
didn’t want, are we doing the same? Even
the priests, Malachi says, feel like they are burdened and bothered by the work
that they have to do. If that’s the priests’
mindset, I can’t even imagine what the people must have felt towards
worship. I can only imagine what your
opinions of worship would be if I walked around all the time talking about how
awful worship was and how it was such a worthless endeavor. Can you fathom a pastor talking about how
much worship got in the way of everything else?
No, because worship of God ought to be what is primary in the eyes of
the Christian, especially the pastor. Now,
if you happen to still feel that way, then maybe you and I should have a little
talk after the service today. However,
what I want us all to think about is how the words of Malachi, in the midst of
an attempt to rekindle the flames of devotion and worship that once burned
bright within Israel but now only flicker every once in a while, apply to us
today. You see, as I said earlier, I
don’t think that we live in a time that is all too different from that of
Malachi. We’ve allowed our devotion or
commitment to worship to be aimed at other things. We’ve allowed our passion for athletic events
to surpass that of worship, and I’m not just talking about church attendance
here. We’ve allowed the structure of our
weekend to cause us to think, “If only I didn’t have church on Sunday morning, then
I could…” We’ve allowed our time spent
with God to be taken out of what we can spare instead of dedicating time to Him
daily. And don’t get me wrong, I’m just
as guilty of these things as anyone else.
I
want you to hear again what Malachi says in verse 14, “Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet
sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished.
For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be
feared among the nations.” Those who
give only what they are willing to spare are called “cheats.” Modern context aside, the sacrifice of the
fittest male livestock was the highest form of offering that could be given
during this time. To offer up a strong
male and then present a crippled animal was not keeping of one’s
commitment. When we became Christians
and we promised and vowed to give all that we are to the glory of God and to
live for Him, didn’t we vow to bring the best of our flock, the best of our
lives to Him. When you all joined with
my family in pledging before God that you would help Amy and I in raising lil’
Bert in the Lord, didn’t we all dedicate his life to the Lord, agreeing to
nurture him, and set a godly example for him to follow? Well, what are we doing when we only offer up
to God the parts of our lives that are left over and unwanted? What are we teaching those around us about
what it means to be a Christian when our faith is something that we can set
aside at a moment’s notice and act as if it’s not a part of who we are, much
less all that we are? We mirror Israel
in our disinterest of worship having not received the prosperity that we
thought would be a reality by now.
Somehow, a lack of wealth (in whatever areas that may be defined) has
caused us to be disinterested, or at the very least, slightly separated in our
commitment to God. Now, I don’t mean
that we say that we won’t worship until God has blessed us with some reward,
but we often do set God aside in pursuit of earthly things.
The
question now becomes what to do about it.
Well, we’re going to answer part of it today, and we’re going to keep
answering it over the next three Sundays.
For today, let me offer up these suggestions. The first is to set aside a time for the Lord
each day. Some of you may already do
this and my advice to you is to keep it up.
Set aside a time that every day you will offer prayer (even a quick one)
and read at least some verse(s) of Scripture.
The second suggestion is to take a look at your life and try and figure
out the things that you are placing before God or even close to God in terms of
priority. Now, this one can be a bit
tricky, because many times we don’t even realize it, but it must be done. When we find out what those things are, then
we have to work at keeping them in their proper place. And the final suggestion is to find someone,
a spouse, sibling, friend, child, etc., who will help keep you accountable. Find someone to talk to about your time with
God. Find someone who will take part in
a daily reading with you. Just like a
jogging partner or a personal trainer, sometimes we need someone pushing us
from the outside. Friends, we run the
risk of looking evermore like the Israelites that let their faith become devoid
of emotion. The only way that we are
ever going to get back to where we need to be, is to start taking action
against those things in our lives that are pulling us away from our Maker. Let today be the day that you decide that is
not going to happen. Let today be the
day in which you commit or recommit everything you have to the kingdom of
heaven. Glory be to God; in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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