From Questioning to Praising

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Don Filcek; Malachi 1:1-5 From Questioning to Praising

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to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsack preaches from his series,
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Dead Religion, taking us through the book of Malachi. Let's listen in. Well, good morning,
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Recast Church. I'm Don Filsack. I'm the lead pastor here, and I'm happy to be together with God's people.
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I hope you're happy as well, together, together. It's a good thing to come together to worship God in community. If you're anything like me, then you need that.
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You need that reminder that you are not in isolation, but that God has called us together as a people, and we need one another to sharpen each other, to hold each other accountable, to work through life together, and to know that there are others who have the same values, who are believing the same things and are working towards the same goals.
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And I know that not everybody that you encounter in any given week holds the same things that you hold dear and believes in Jesus Christ and even wants to honor him with their lives.
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And so a lot of times out there, if we're going it alone, that can be tough. And so I really, I personally benefit from getting together and having conversations here and even just the preparation for hearing from his word.
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Of course, I try to hear from it as well. You can think of me as the pastor who stands up here and tells you the word, but this has an impact on me long before I ever get up here and share it with you.
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I wanted to give everybody a building update just briefly this morning. How many of you have actually seen our property?
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I'm just curious, how many of you have actually been out there, the new property that we have? How many of you actually driven back in there? A handful of us?
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I would encourage you to not during business hours because there's a lot of construction going on back there.
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I just don't want anybody getting in the way or to be hurt back there. But even this afternoon, it's a nice day out.
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It's going to be pretty nice out there. And so if you wanted to take a chance to drive out there, our goal is to eventually, maybe when spring hits, to have an opportunity for us to go out there as a group and pray.
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It's just that the weather is so unpredictable that it's kind of hard to organize that in advance right now. We don't want anybody to be cold and you have to prepare for boots and all that stuff.
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But where we're at right now, the land has been cleared. All the trees are out that they're going to take out now. And so you can go back there and see that there is a gravel drive in there, so it's more safe to drive back in there.
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Just know your vehicle and the conditions. If it does get wet, then it does get a little sloppy back in there.
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It's cleared out. They've got it leveled now. They've been working all week bringing gravel for the base for the parking lot where the asphalt's going to be put.
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So you can see where the parking lot is. The foundation has been mostly laid for the building.
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It goes in in two stages. Tomorrow they're hoping to pour the final footers for the building.
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So the foundations will be all in hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow. The steel arrives on the 13th of February, the steel building, and they'll begin construction on that in the middle of February.
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So I'm just praising God for the way that that is going. Just continue to be praying for that process. Continue to pray that God continues in the financial realm as well.
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Again, this church from day one has been extremely generous, and we haven't had to have a capital campaign.
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We haven't sold chairs. We haven't sold bricks. No gimmicks. Just been a fund that's opened, an expansion fund for people to give to that, and we're going to continue to keep that open for anybody who would choose to give towards that building and expansion project, and just been amazing to see how
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God has provided that. So I think, you know, I think it'd be appropriate for us to give God a hand on that. There's a building going up on that property out there, and I'm just excited for what he's doing.
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The T in Recast, most of you know, stands for our core value here of truth.
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The T, it's replicating community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth, and with that belief that the
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Scriptures, the Bible is the truth, we take the time each week to look into the Scriptures, into God's Word, the
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Bible, to see what God desires to communicate to us, and my style is really to preach through books of the
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Bible chapter by chapter. From time to time, I'll kind of take, I think maybe a handful of times in the course of seven years,
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I've taken a little bit of a topical sermon here or there, but by and large, it is a series going through a book of the
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Bible, and this morning, we're going to be starting a new series in an Old Testament prophet, the prophet
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Malachi. It's the last book of the Old Testament, and to be quite honest, the prophets can be quite confusing.
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Have any of you ever read the prophets? You've read those Old Testament prophets? Have any of you ever been confused by something that you read in the prophets?
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I think everybody who said that they have read through them raised their hand, right? Like, you've been confused by something in there.
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It can be a little bit confusing to us if we haven't studied them before, but Malachi begins, this book begins with a strong declaration in our text that we're going to be looking at this morning that God loves
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His people. Even if His people don't feel like He loves them, even if they do not deserve
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His love, God loves His people, and if you've been brought into His kingdom by faith and allegiance to His Son, Jesus Christ, then
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His relationship toward you is one of love and commitment and kindness toward you.
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The people of God during Malachi's day doubted the love of God, as we're going to see in our text. They doubted it and even asked
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Him, prove it to us, show us, how have you loved us, God? I assume this had a lot to do with their circumstances, and so think in terms of your circumstances.
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Think in terms of how you are processing the love of God in your circumstances. Sometimes we might go through that too.
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We ourselves can find ourselves in a position of doubting God's love for us, but for those who belong to Him, God will point us to the long -term perspective of what we deserve as sinners, what our destination as sinners would have been were it not for His love shown to us.
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What He has promised to us as children could not be further from the reality of what we deserve, and in that we see
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His love. We're going to see in this text a movement among the people of God, among those who are called by His name and those who are covenant people, those who
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God has entered into a relationship of saying, I will do this for you. I pledge it by myself, by my own honor, by my own authority.
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I pledge to do good for you, and we're going to see people move from questioning God to, by the end, a declaration of praise to the greatness of God.
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They're going from questioning Him, how have you loved us, to great is the Lord, great is our
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God. So let's open our Bibles to Malachi 1, 1 through 5, a little bit shorter text, but it's in Malachi.
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It's the last book in the Old Testament, so if you find Matthew, then you can turn back a couple pages and you can find it that way, and that's a fairly easy way.
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If you don't have a Bible or a means to navigate to the Bible on a device, maybe you've got an iPhone or an
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Android or something that you've got an app on, but if you don't have one, if you got some back here and you would love to bring one to you, the only reason
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I'm asking not to call you out, but just that everybody has a copy of God's Word to be able to see, um, follow along and see that what we're, what we're talking about this morning comes from God's Word.
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But this is, Recast, this is God's Word to us. This is what He desires for you and I to hear from Him this morning.
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He's brought us together, um, not by some chance, but because He wants to communicate to us, and so Malachi 1, 1 through 5.
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The oracle of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, says the
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Lord, but you say, how have you loved us? Is not
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Esau Jacob's brother, declares the Lord? Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.
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I have laid waste his country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert. If Edom says we are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins the
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Lord of hosts says, they may build, but I will tear down and they will be called the wicked country and the people with whom the
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Lord is angry forever. Your own eyes shall see this and you shall say, great is the
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Lord beyond the borders of Israel. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for calling us together.
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I thank you for the opportunity that we have to praise you and to worship you. Father, I thank you for the salvation that we have through your
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Son, Jesus Christ, and the hope that we have that He has demonstrated such love to us.
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While we were sinners, while we were His enemies, while we were in opposition, He died for us.
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And so Father, I pray that as we get an opportunity to continue our worship this morning, a worship that hopefully has been carried through this whole week of not just singing songs, but doing what we do for you to honor you, to not be grumblers and complainers and to be building others up and encouraging one another and all of those aspects of worship that come together in this morning that we have together to worship you in singing and hearing from your word and taking it in and contemplating it and moving out from this place.
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Father, I pray that we would sing songs of delight and joy because of your love for us that we've experienced.
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Father, that we'd be reminded of your great love for us this morning. Many of us might have lost sight of that because of busyness or because of circumstances that seem hard right now and your love seems obscured and clouded right now.
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Maybe some of us, it's just the weather, just going through and not seeing the sun for days can be a challenge and Father, I pray that you would impress your love on every heart that is here in Jesus' name.
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Amen. Yeah, you can go ahead and be seated and just thanks to Dave and the band for leading us.
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Appreciate the effort and the time that they put in each week and then go to make yourself comfortable.
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I recognize that the seats that you're sitting in are not the most comfortable of chairs and so if you need to get up at any time during the message and stretch out in the back or just give your back a break, feel free to do that and then remember there's more coffee and juice and donuts while supplies last up there.
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You're not going to distract me if that's what you need to keep your focus on God's word. Just jump up there and get anything at any time and I would ask you also just to do me a favor and keep your
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Bibles open to Malachi. Really do yourself a favor. Keep your Bibles open to Malachi chapter 1 verses 1 through 5 and just so you can see that the flow of my message is coming from the text and you can reference it and just check into it to see if the things that I'm saying are accurate or not.
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I'm never going to try to intentionally trick you, but I am not perfect and so I just love it that you guys have a copy of God's word to be able to check it out and see that that is the flow of our text.
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You can look at it and check it out as I'm going through this. Now I want to set the stage for us this morning by explaining the prophetic books in some general sense.
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The prophetic books comprise about 20 % of the Old Testament. They were written over a span of about 400 years.
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That 400 years spans from about 800 years before Christ was born to about 400 years before Christ was born.
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The prophet Malachi was somewhere as the estimates are between 430 and 460 BC and so you kind of get that rough estimate about 400
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BC the last prophet before Jesus came and really before John the Baptist came on the scene. So when we hear the word prophecies what comes to your mind?
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What do you think of when you hear the word prophecy or prophet? I would guess that many of you when you hear the word prophecy have some kind of future telling idea in your mind.
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Someone who can tell the future. How many of you that kind of that kind of concept comes into your mind when you think about prophet? I think a handful of us and the rest of us are just not wanting to raise our hand yet this morning but you'll get warmed up and eventually you'll raise your hand on one of these but yeah so it's this idea in our culture is a prophet is somebody who tells the future but what we really ought to think of more if you were to just take the bulk of what the prophets say in that 20 % of the
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Old Testament. The bulk of what they say is calling their culture to repentance.
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Calling the covenant people back into a relationship with God that that yields obedience and right living.
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The prophets were occasionally of course we know given glimpses into the future and that's the kind of thing that stands out to us right that grabs our attention because that's kind of radical that's kind of different and so that's why our minds gravitate towards that idea of them being able to tell the future but the prophets were given revelation by God to speak into their cultural context to correct the slide primarily of God's people.
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Now occasionally they would speak to excuse me pagan nations they would speak to people from other cultures but by and large they primarily spoke to God's covenant community and their primary purpose in writing was to address the covenant community of God those people who were already in a relationship with God really to tell them that they had where they had lost their way in relationship to God that was they they weren't in the correct living the right way and in right relationship and they often they often the prophets often told the people of God in quite harsh and direct language and I think that's where it kind of rubs our culture the wrong way maybe some of the more confusing things that you read in the prophets are some of the more harsh things that you read in the prophets we're going to see some of those harsh things as we go through the book of Malachi all of the prophets have something that kind of goes you know
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I mean to preach through any of them you're going to encounter something that's like whoa settle down there Malachi settle down there
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Micah settle down there Obadiah it's every one of them has something in there that kind of grabs you and is like whoa wait a minute that's and a lot of it is intentionally remember
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God speaking through the prophets is declaring to his people what he wants of them and and what he's observed of their sinfulness and what he's observed of their of their lifestyle and their their slide away from being in right relationship with him so the specific contact context of the book of Malachi really matters significantly to us as we're going to go through this book and so I'm glad that you're here for the opening of this
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I'm not going to go through this same history that I'm going to go through right now and ever before every one of these messages but I think it is valuable for us to understand when this was written because it helps us to understand why
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Malachi and why God through Malachi is addressing the people the way that he is so I know that a lot of people in here some of you like history anybody here like some history and then some don't and so I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand but we're going to give you a little bit of history here just briefly again hold tight we'll get through this history together and some of it's some of it's you're aware of but the way that it flows together kind of matters and so let me start with the exodus and give give a brief whirlwind tour of how the people of Israel the
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Jews find themselves in this context receiving these words that God reveals to them through the prophet
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Malachi well we know the first thing that God's going to say is I have loved you and understanding why would
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God be saying that to this people don't they know that why wouldn't they know that why would this be kind of new information to them why is it even worth putting a pen to parchment to write this and so we need to understand exactly what's going on so through circumstances that we know are recorded in Genesis I preached through the book of Genesis and many of you were here for that God's people were slaves in Egypt through plagues on Egypt many miracles and trials
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God brought his people out through the miracle of the Red Sea for example and many other things the provision of manna and all of those things in relationship to his people and showing himself to be a provider and faithful to them and he was following a promise that he had made to a guy an ancient guy named
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Abraham and his son Isaac he re -upped the the commitment the covenant that he made with Abraham he he reconfirmed that with Isaac and then he reconfirmed it with Isaac's son
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Jacob and the promise was simply this I'm going to bless you with a great land I'm going to give you a place to settle
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I'm going to bless you with many offspring I'm going to make your numbers like the the numbers of your descendants like the stars in the sky and I'm going to bless all the nations through one of your offspring a three -part promise that he gave to Abraham and kind of reconfirmed to the people down through the ages and we we reap the spiritual benefits of those promises that were to Abraham I don't know if you've ever thought about it but you are one of those stars if you're a child of God one of those stars that Abraham saw in the sky
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I don't believe it's literal but I mean when he saw that multitude you were one of them you were one of them that he was that was revealed as a as a child of the faith of Abraham so to speak if you're in through Christ through that descendant who is promised to Abraham one of his offspring would be a blessing to all the nations his name is
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Jesus Christ and so that promise uh was given to the given to the people Abraham Isaac Jacob then in that exodus
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God took him on a little detour past this mountain called Sinai and there that generation got their reconfirmation
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I will be your God you will be my people uh in relationship to God then here is how
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I want you to live here is how I want you to be a distinct people a lot of those laws that you read about in Leviticus really confusing to us um cloths sewed with two different kinds of fibers and things like that it was about distinction it was about standing out it when you when you realize what the giving of the law in Leviticus and in the latter half of exodus is um it was about relationship with God and a different kind of relationship to culture and society around them on their approach to the promised land uh they went by Sinai received the law a reconfirmation
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I will be your God you be my people I covenant to do good for you and then they were approaching the land of promise that God was going to give to them and in order to approach from the east they had to go through a land called
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Edom but they came to the border of Edom and Edom came out in force and prevented the Israelites from going through their land they said we won't even drink from your wells just let us pass through and the
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Edomites said no way and came out with military force to oppose the Israelites who were coming through now
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I only mentioned that that's found by the way in Numbers 20 verses 14 through 21 for anybody who wants to look that up and read it later but I only mentioned that because Edom is mentioned in our text and it kind of bears uh comes to bear on our text this morning but under Joshua then uh
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Moses uh dies Joshua is taken really by the Lord and under Joshua the people of God conquered the land that God gave to them they struggled to completely take the land and settled into a time of skirmishes with the other nations around them called the
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Judges some of you have read the book of Judges before in the Old Testament and then they they united under uh the first King Saul Samuel was a one of the earliest prophets and um under and and heard the people's cry and God allowed them to have a king and King Saul had a divided heart his kingship was taken from him and was given to King David and King David was set up in his place a man who it was said had had a heart after God a man after God's own heart and King David was a uniting influence under his reign uh the nation expanded and had relative peace um then his son
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Solomon became king after him and here's something that just kind of is a historical nugget for you if you're curious about these kinds of things the highest point of the nation of Israel's history as a nation was under King Solomon he had the most territory extending way over into modern day
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Iraq and some would even say maybe even parts of Iran at one point would have been possessed by King Solomon his reign was massive his area was the largest extent that Israel ever possessed and of course he's known for his amazing wisdom and people came from other nations to seek out the wisdom of Solomon but Solomon did not do such a great job passing along that heritage to his children
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Solomon's son made some foolish decisions early on in his reign the nation was split in half between north and south the north known as Israel the south called
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Judah during this divided time and so the books of kings and chronicles first and second kings first and second chronicles that we see in the old testament is really a story of those kings and the way that they ruled in the north over Israel in the south over Judah and really they remained divided for the remainder of Israel's history the north again
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Israel the south Judah during that period of time and it's during that age of the kings that the majority of the prophets came so now we're down to the age of the prophets the majority of them spoke to either the north or the south there's the rare prophet who would speak to both but that's really where that 20 percent of the end of the book is to those that divided that divided nation and the kings were were a mixed bag of whether or not they were good or whether they were evil the majority of them were evil led the people to actually sacrifice all the way up to sacrificing children to pagan gods um terrible practices that happened during that era and that time in Israel's history um they uh again the prophets were sent to call them back into relationship with god time and time again and often during that divided kingdom it would be kind of like a family that goes to church because it's just the cultural thing to do there were the forms of religiosity but a lot of it was not in the heart there was just the duty just to go do this thing and I've checked it off my list and the prophets are calling calling calling calling come back to me come back to god in relationship and we might understand begin to understand the opening line the opening thing that god has to say to his people here through the prophet
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Malachi but we're not quite to the age of Malachi yet because some other major things have happened before Malachi so Malachi is a unique prophet he's going to come after an intense and amazing event in the history of Israel god was warning through the prophets warning warning warning during this divided kingdom and the north was conquered by Assyria god sent
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Assyria and it says as much in scripture to conquer the north and the Babylonians god raised up and sent to conquer the south and Jerusalem was besieged in the darkest day of Israel's history in 586
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BC and that's a that's a hard and fast historical date this is this is one of the most notable ancient historical dates on record 586 corroborated by people who don't believe anything that you and I believe 586
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BC Babylon besieged Jerusalem knocked down her walls destroyed the temple took out all the artifacts from the temple and hauled off massive numbers of people the youngest who were able to work that's where Daniel the book of Daniel comes in Daniel served as a a wise guy to three kings of three different nations but starting with Babylon he was carted off and even king
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Zedekiah who is the king of Judah during this time had his eyes gouged out and was carried off to Babylon as a trophy okay so dark times for Israel fast forward from that date 586
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BC fast forward 130 years and we get to Malachi we get to Malachi and things have changed again
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Babylon was conquered by the Medes the Persians conquered the Medes and now the people are allowed to resettle
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Israel Nehemiah comes back builds the walls around Jerusalem again rebuilds those walls that were destroyed under Ezra and a funny a guy with a funny name
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Zerubbabel another group of exiles returns and builds the temple again so now there's a new temple and Malachi is now writing to those people who have returned to Jerusalem a pretty rough period of history there for uh being carted off the destruction that all occurred and and many of these people that he's speaking to are first generation returnees they weren't raised here they were born where in 130 years where would they have been born
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Babylon all of these people that he's writing to were not born in Israel they were born in exile in another country that wasn't their own with all of the pagan practices this people this is a people whose history has been shattered they have reasons to hope but only because they have been brought back into the land but I'm not sure that they even fully recognize that the greatness of that and the faithfulness of God in that but as a people they've been through a tough period in their history as a people
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I don't I don't think we can as Americans we we just don't understand I mean the idea of being exiled is pretty far does anybody wake up in the morning and fear exile if you if you do
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I mean I'd encourage you to you know come and talk with me we can get some help but um if you're in all honesty we just don't fear that right like that's not that's not a real legitimate fear that we think that somebody's going to come in and cart us off and take us to another nation to to try to adopt and assume their lifestyle and and force us into subservient lifestyle or something like that but that was reality for these people that's what they had experienced they had experienced this as kids uh they're hearing the stories from just their parents generation about these things or even grandparents who talked about the horrible horrific siege of Jerusalem and so in verse one in verse one
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Malachi is given a burden from the Lord for these exiles a burden the the
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Hebrew word translated oracle is literally burden heavy weight and often the prophets spoke about their prophecies as being a heavy weight on their shoulders
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Ezekiel talks about it like a fire in his bones and if I don't speak God's word it burns me up from the inside out
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I have to speak this we get a little indication of what it must have been like to be a prophet we even see some of the prophets like Jeremiah resistant to it at first and like I don't really could you call somebody else to this role
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God could you use somebody else's voice I'm not super eager to this they not everyone who was a prophet in the old testament was eager to judge their culture
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I mean some some of us in the room maybe you're eager to judge the culture right and and but they were not eager to to light up their community for God they were not all happy to be used by God to convey that judgment and correction to their culture but I think at the end of the day they were
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God whatever you need to do whatever you want to do with me I'm I'm here and I'm available they suffered for it most all of the prophets suffered greatly for their call to ministry for their call to their culture for correction and to come back to God but Malachi faithfully carries the burden of the word of the
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Lord to Israel and Israel is the people of God remember who have been called out by him and who have been promised good things by him they have been brought into a relationship with the almighty
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God but based on his promises to them there's a contract between them and God is speaking through Malachi to call them back into relationship with him and so in drawing them back he starts off with these surprising words that you already know because I've read them to you
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I have loved you says God I have loved you God loves his people now there are many books and thousands of pages written probably thousands of books written about the love of God some things that I read this week deny that there's any emotion connected with this love some people can't stand the thought of a
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God who exhibits emotion and so there I read things this week that it's merely his choice says some scholars his choosing to do good to you that's it there's no feeling there that's what some would say others on the other side of the spectrum would read between the lines and believe that God is capricious and overly emotional maybe even foolish in his love for sinful humanity what a sap that expresses itself by the way is a very popular notion in our culture
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God is a pushover how many of you have ever heard that God is love expressed in supporting whatever a person wants you heard that because God would never say no to you
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God is a sap or a big pushover it's a pretty common thought in our day and age he just all he is is love that's not accurate did
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God say he is love yeah but he also has justice he has mercy but he also has wrath and that's that's from that's from the word not not from not because I want it that way it's just the way that he's revealed himself that's the way he spoke of himself it's dangerous for us to merely take the word love as we experience it in a fallen world by the way and apply it to God and that's what that's where some of these people on the lack of emotion side are trying to run with it because we could we could make him too much like us we could make a
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God in our own image who is who is you know faulty in his love is weak in his love because we are so if we make a
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God in our image he's not going to love perfectly right see if we if we just look at the one the people around us and the way that we love and the way that they love us there's a brokenness to that but his love is perfect his love is pure compassion is giving it is generous it is beyond any faithfulness or kindness that you or you and I will ever experience from any other but I do not believe that God's love is without risk
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I believe that God risks it's not as if some kind of it's not as if his love is some kind of measured gift that he willingly gives with no hope of return he hopes for return he wants us to love him back he wants that he initiates the love he's the starter of it he's the he's the originator out of it he we love him because he first loved us it's his love that initiates but does he want something in return yeah he does he wants our love and and and to say that God's love is without risk is to miss the point
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I mean the cross was a big risk put it all out there for us paid the ultimate price for us
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God's love does cost him and God does want people to love him in return so after all the history of forsaking their
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God after all the idolatry all the immorality all the rejection of him he says those three words
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I love you and the Hebrew tense is one that indicates we don't like to add tenses to the translation and so it's it's a little bit of a tricky um verb tense in Hebrew that doesn't really translate easily over into English but uh it has an ongoing attitude towards it so when you read
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I have loved you well um if you say that to your spouse how did that strike how's that gonna strike your spouse
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I loved you I mean I said it on our wedding day right isn't that what it kind of sounds like like I told you I loved you I'll tell you again if anything changes um that's that's not a good practice guys okay or girls um but it's it's an ongoing action so it's
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I have loved you still do is the the notion behind this I have loved you and I still do not saying
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I used to love you I am in an ongoing relationship committed to your well -being but the people of Israel respond in verse two with a jaded and cynical response do you see it there in verse two how have you loved us
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I don't quite know where to put the emphasis on that sentence but I I really do believe that it's jaded and cynical
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I believe that it's a little bit dark and it's meaning how have you loved us how have you loved us
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I say it's jaded and cynical because I put myself into the text for just a second I think at first blush you might look at it and go are they asking it honestly are they not what's the what's the nature of it but put yourself in a real genuine conversation with someone that you love that will make it come to light pretty fast you say to your spouse
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I love you and they respond how so wow if if if you if somebody comes to you and says
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I love you and you say how what does that make you I needed a technical word for it
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I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a technical term it's a jerk you're a jerk if if your first response to someone saying
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I love you is you say really I mean in essence what they're saying is what have you done for me lately this like Janet how many of you get that I'm just curious everybody you that's a song okay that's the title of a song what have you done for me lately so I'm just informing
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Dave he's like I got no clue some people were not born then so but did you did you know who that was you got me you got me bro okay we're gonna talk about that later so show me up no you're a jerk if you say what have you done for me lately that's rude that's a rude response to someone saying would you would you agree with me on that that's that's a rude response to someone saying
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I love you what have you done for me they might be thinking that I don't know what you say
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God says I love you and his people say prove it the book of Malachi begins with a strong relational tone though do you see that it's relational it's not a strong legal tone it's a strong relationship tone it's a it's a
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God calling and saying I love you now some of the prophets have a more legal tone it's almost reads like litigation against the nation you've done this and you've done this and you've done this and you've done this but Malachi begins with the relationship first immediately
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God is driving for relationship not mere obedience obedience to the law is only ever meant to be a byproduct of a loving relationship with God and that's why we should never expect those who do not have a relationship with God to obey him our job is not to go out on social media or go to our workplace or go to our neighbors and call people to get their act together stop cussing stop doing this stop doing that the church has thought it's been in the business of reforming people's behavior before they introduce them to the one who loves them and can change them it's not our job we're to go out and call people to the one who loves their soul show them that they have someone who loves them greater than any love they've ever experienced one who is full of grace and full of mercy and if they would humble themselves and come under his protection they'll be saved but I would contend that often difficulties and hardships drive doubt about God's goodness into the hearts of his people the people of Israel endured the destruction of their homes the murder of friends and family the exile to a foreign land they have become jaded they have become cynical and they have quite frankly
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I think in many ways forgotten the love of God but in all that he has done to get their attention he has only ever operated out of love for them and so his answer to what he has done for them is shown by drawing their attention to two historical brothers they would be all too familiar with these brothers if their parents were at all faithful to tell them any of the stories about their lineage anything to do with their history which
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I assume they were these names would have mattered to them Jacob whose name was changed to Israel the very name of this nation the very name of the people that are being addressed by Malachi Jacob had a twin brother
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Esau and according to Romans 9 11 through 12
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Paul speaking into this context of the birth of these two twins said um or again
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Romans 9 11 through 12 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad they're not even born yet when
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Paul is talking about this they've done neither good nor bad their mother
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Rebecca was told the older will serve the younger in order that God's purpose of election might continue not because of works not because Jacob was super awesome and did really good things and was a great guy man
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God was like I'm impressed with Jacob I need a Jacob Jacob was a swindler you follow the old testament narrative
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Jacob was not a great guy he was saved by God though that's a intense text
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Esau was the older and was in line to receive the blessings and promises of God by his birth order but God had given indication that his choice for the promise was the younger
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Jacob well his plan God's purpose
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God's election God's choice was worked out in real life one day Esau was out in the field and came home famished and uh so hungry
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I could die and sold his birthright to his younger brother for a bowl of stew how much did he value that position in that relationship with God I don't
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I don't need it what I really need is a bowl of stew right now Esau was not chosen by God but Esau also rejected
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God by his own foolish choice and so God says
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I loved your forefather Jacob but I hated Esau anybody uncomfortable with that terminology a little a little uncomfortable with that terminology right we we don't like that and so many that I read this week want to soften this by saying that the hate hate is a word that means less loved means less loved that sounds convenient that sounds nice and it also sounds like whoever wrote that didn't go on to read what comes next it's not accurate as a matter of fact look at the rest of rest of verse three and and all of verse four to see what the hatred of God provided for Esau whatever this word hatred means this is what it looked like for Esau and his descendants who are called
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Edom Edomites descendants of Esau God laid waste to his hill country he left his heritage to the jackals of the desert in other words basically his heritage is now vacant there's nobody there to receive it it's like gold buried in the ground and there's nobody there to dig it up he refuses them the hope of rebuilding he says if you say
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I will rebuild God I will tear it down and further he titles them the wicked country and the people perpetually under the anger of God a does not sound pleasant to me you agree with me on that not pleasant things and now down through the ages the descendants of Esau who are known as the
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Edomites they were idolaters who opposed the Israelites with military force they even aided the
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Babylonians in the siege of Jerusalem they aided the
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Babylonians against the Israelites Edom should be acting like a brother to the people of Israel but instead they responded as enemies in Psalm 137 7 the songwriter recorded the involvement of the
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Edomites in the destruction of Jerusalem with these words remember O Lord remember drawing attention
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God pay attention to this and remember O Lord against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem the terrible terrible day of Jerusalem the a figure of speech for the siege of it in the the breaking down of her walls and the carting off of her people remember
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O Lord against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem how they said lay it bare lay it bare down to its foundations the
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Edomites calling for the destruction of Israel God is here saying that he has restored the remnant of Israel because of his great love and the contrast with Edom is stark
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God has not forsaken his promises to his people but for those who stand outside of the covenant of his grace there is not hope the only hope is to come into the covenant relationship with God God has pledged destruction against the enemies of his people and this is not merely to show that he is a defender of his people but also the graphic nature of his wrath toward those who reject him how good we have it as God's people is set here in this text against the backdrop of the terrible reality of how bad those who reject him it's a reality another way we could look at this entire interplay is just to summarize it in some simple uh like like a screen a script made for screen or for for a play
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God says I love you Israel says how have you loved us God says
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I have preserved you and promised good to your people look to Esau to see what you would have gotten if I did not love you look to Edom and see where you would stand today were it not for my choice to love you were not for me to put it out there for you and love you further and finally he says in verse 5 a time in the future is coming when you will see what
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I do beyond the borders of Israel and acknowledge my greatness you will say great is the
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Lord beyond the borders of Israel according to verse 5 those who began by questioning
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God how do you love us will one day be moved by what they see with their own eyes to say great is the
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Lord beyond the borders of Israel the mouths that questioned his love will be moved to praise him for his greatness over the whole world remember that in context where who's talking
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Malachi who's he talking to Israel these are mouths that have never uttered the name of Jesus they are ears that haven't heard his name yet these are eyes that have not seen the promised
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Messiah they have not seen the gospel moving out to the nations beyond Israel where they haven't seen the movement that in the old testament was come to Israel and see come in here and see and in the in the new testament it's transformed to go out and tell go out among the nations and tell and they haven't seen that shift they don't aren't aware of that and I think the greatness of the
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Lord beyond the borders of Israel is the nature of the good news that they are not aware of yet but one day they would be it is about God's salvation being spread throughout the whole earth a day is coming says
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God to his speaking to his covenant and his old testament covenant people when you will rejoice that the fate of Esau out there will no longer rest on those outside of your borders but there will be good news available to all
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God will do great and wonderful things outside of the borders of Israel but make no mistake
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God is drawing all things toward a final close and those who believe that he has loved them will be under his protection in the end
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Brendan Manning they're actually making a movie about his life apparently and some of you have any of you ever read anything by Brendan Manning are you familiar with his name a handful of us
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Brendan Manning said that he is convinced that the judgment will be based on one primary question listen carefully to this question
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I don't think he's far off on this it's not the bible this is a man's quote and at the same time
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I think there's significant value in this quote one primary question did you believe
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God speaking did you believe that I loved you did you believe that I loved you that is a fundamental question in judgment did you believe that I loved you that changes everything if you believe that God loves you changes everything if you don't either you believe that God loves you and have run to him for mercy if you believe he loves you then you go to him then you run to him you plead with him and you say you you have loved me be merciful to me be gracious to me be kind to me
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I need your forgiveness believe that he loved you through the cross either you've run to him for mercy or you spend a life of fear either either you recognize he loves you or you're afraid of him or you deny him or you reject him or some other other other response to him maybe you've been trying to please yourself or even please him without accepting the love that he gives you the mercy that he offers freely through his son
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Jesus Christ in the opening of the book of Malachi we encounter a God who loves his people and his people doubt it but God graciously honors them with a response saying if I didn't love you you would be hopeless so let's wrap up with three application points from our text this morning as we as we close the first is trust in his love trust in his love do you know that God loves you this morning if you're all in with Jesus Christ and I would assume at least at one point you acknowledge that he loves you enough to send his son to die on the cross for your sins but if you're anything like me you can become forgetful anybody admit to struggling a bit with forgetfulness a bit with needing to be reminded time and time again it's one of the reasons
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I I preach the gospel for my benefit and I hope you gain something from it too but I I hate the notion that when
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I was younger I thought oh oh here comes the gospel presentation close up the bible get ready to go like this is for those these are maybe there's an unbeliever here who needs to hear the gospel that was my attitude toward that when
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I was younger now I listen I lean in I I I preach the gospel to myself
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I need to be reminded of this forgetfulness is my greatest enemy in my life and maybe for you maybe maybe maybe for some of us circumstances in your life have taken center stage and you have a hard time experiencing or believing in God's compassion towards you because of what you are facing maybe you've wandered far enough into a mire of sin that it feels embarrassing to look up to him and receive his love
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God couldn't love someone like me so far gone or maybe you've just become too busy fighting after the
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American dream to even pay attention to him saying I love you maybe for some of us it's not a shout maybe it's a whisper but he's there saying
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I love you I love you and a step of faith today would simply to be to trust in his love for you he loved you enough to send his son to die for you he made a way for his enemies to be adopted into his family trust in his love second praise
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God for what he's doing beyond your tribe beyond your tribe great is the
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Lord beyond the things we see him doing with our eyes among his people I find it ironic that the word border occurs in this text this morning as I was working through this this week anybody else hear the word border mentioned a couple times really be honest raise your hand if you heard the word border immigration or refugee this week did you hear some talk about borders this week once one time and then you shut it off that's what
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I'd recommend before your blood boils whatever direction you're going whichever side you're on I don't really care
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I don't I'd prefer not even to know but just just shut it off before you boil that God doesn't want us to be worked up about those things
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I find it ironic that it occurs in this text it's been talked about a lot this week borders borders borders and I'm not going to make a political statement on it but I am going to make an observation and application from this text this morning regarding borders and beyond the borders of Israel beyond the borders of what
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God we perceive God is doing he is doing something outside of the four walls of this church did you know that he's doing a lot outside of the four walls praise
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God if this was it that would be disappointing I'm sorry I'm really happy to be here and I'm glad I'm glad you guys showed up but I mean
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I think you know where I'm going what I mean by that I'm not disappointed but it should move us that he's doing more it should move us that he's involved out there he will vindicate he will judge he will draw many in before the final day of judgment he will send many out before the final judgment he is doing something beyond the borders of our nations beyond the border of our nation our nation is not the promised land heard a lot of talk like we're the promised land this week like if people could just get here everything would be okay for them
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America is not the new Israel we used to sing a song that I think we've forgotten in the last couple weeks when
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I was a little kid he's got the whole world in his hands it sounded like the whole world at the start of that song the whole world in his hands we should believe that we should live like we believe that and the application is simply this praise
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God for what he is doing beyond your tribe beyond this nation beyond this church did you know that a radical shift by the way is happening in the
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Middle East and people have been coming to faith in Christ in unprecedented numbers because of this refugee crisis love of Christ is being shown by Arab Christians this is coming directly from a friend who's been there who works there he lives in Grand Rapids he takes trips back and forth to the
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Middle East a few times a year used to live there it's a dangerous place to live he's now here but he takes trips back and forth he said baptisms are he said we're seeing baptisms where there weren't baptisms for the last 50 years we're seeing the
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Arab Christians and the Arab churches stepping up and reaching out into these refugee populations where where Muslims are coming to faith in Christ because they're being shown love for the first time not just being argued with or or pushed towards this or pushed towards that but they're they're experiencing the love of Christ amazing stuff great is the
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Lord beyond our borders and lastly the last application is make sure you are all in with the
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Savior make sure you personally are in with the Savior maybe you fear that you're outside of the scope of God's grace
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I didn't dive deep into the doctrines of election in this text but let me say this clearly by the way the text kind of gets there doesn't it there's some there's some depth in here there's some things that could leave you confused about how this whole doctrines of election
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God choosing one and not choosing the other and oh no how does that work and we focus on the one not chosen and then we really get ourselves into a wrangle that he chose any is to his grace is to his glory is to demonstrate his love and his mercy no room for arrogance in that but I didn't dive deeply into those doctrines in this text but let me clearly say that it is never up to you and I to determine who is and is not in his elect who he chooses
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I believe that he does choose and yet I also believe that anyone who expresses faith in Jesus Christ is their
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Lord and Savior proves their own election by their faith how do you know you're chosen because you believed if you've not put your trust in Jesus Christ then you stand with Esau this morning scary scary man to be aligned with but if you would trust in God's love through Jesus you can join his people who are promised forgiveness joy and peace in an eternal kingdom
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I would love to talk to you about that decision if you want to follow Jesus Christ this morning every week we seek to remember the sacrifice of his family his great love expressed without that sacrifice we would still be living in fear and relating to God based on laws and rules and all of that old testament law but if you've asked
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Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior if you've recognized his great love for you then I would encourage you in his grace and in his mercy to come to one of the four tables and take the cracker to remember his body that was broken for you and to take the cup of juice to remember the blood of Jesus Christ shed for you and let's in this next five minutes or so remember the greatest act of love that has ever been displayed let's pray father
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I thank you so much for your grace I thank you for your love not worthy of it