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Every Thanksgiving, the Butterball Turkey Company puts a hotline together, a telephone hotline, in case you, the consumer, have a question about turkeys and preparation. How many people, by the way, have called the Butterball Hotline?
Several have. How many people call every year? And Paul Harvey relates the story that a lady called in and she wanted to know if she could cook her turkey, even though it had been in the freezer for 23 years.
The rep said on the phone it would be safe to eat, but he did not recommend eating it because the flavor would be deteriorated and it would be pretty dry. The lady responded, and I quote, That's what I thought.
Okay, we'll probably just give it to our church then. Leftover turkey. I want to ask you a question this morning. How's your worship? How's your ministry to the Lord Jesus Christ? If I had to define the attitude you had of worship, the motivation you had for worship, the energy you use in worship.
Most of you here, I know very well, you have ministries and you want to excel in your Christian ministry. And maybe it's behind the scenes, maybe it's up front. I wonder how good your worship is. How well do you worship?
Daily worship? Corporate worship? Let's turn our Bibles to Malachi chapter 1 this morning for some help for any of us who are falling into the trap of routine worship, boring worship, that'll do worship, ministry just enough to get by.
Now if you're not a Christian this morning, what you need is not a ministry. You need to be born again. You need to have your sins forgiven. And so we're going to talk much today about the Lord Jesus Christ, how He can forgive sinners like you.
But after you've become a believer in the resurrected Savior, He employs you into ministry. You're in gospel ministry. Whether that's a pastor or back in the nursery, everyone should be ministering to the Lord.
And the question of the day is, do you just kind of give the leftover worship to the Lord? Or are you hot for the Lord and you have enthusiasm and you want to serve? Just think, maybe even the last month.
How has your worship been the last month? I don't just mean Sunday morning. But behind the scenes? A last minute, just minimum amount of energy put into it? Or do you worship the Lord as you should in light of the risen Savior?
And I think Malachi is going to help us. Because they were struggling with, his readers were struggling with, kind of a calloused indifference. They knew the right things. They were doctrinally sound.
They were orthodox. They knew all the statements of faith. But their hearts were hard. Their hearts were not sensitive. Their hearts were calloused and fossilized. And God uses a preacher to shake them up.
And I love Malachi for lots of reasons. One is, he was basically the best preacher of his day. And also, there's so many nuggets in here that we just sometimes forget because it's unknown territory to us, the book of Malachi, terra incognita.
And so we're going to look at Malachi today, chapter 1, verses 6 through about verse 14. We'll see how far we get as the last book of the Old Testament provides for us motivation for long-lasting ministry to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, last week we looked at verses 1 through 5. And that was the first, what we called, a disputation. This is the first interaction that the Lord, through Malachi, had with Judah, whom he calls Israel, broadly.
And if you look at verse 2, it says, I have loved you, says the Lord. But you say, how have you loved us? And then God proves his love for Judah, for Israel, by saying, see what happened to Edom? See what happened to Esau's offspring?
Compared to them, you have been loved. I have loved you. Can you imagine? You haven't loved me. You don't love me. You don't love us. And now we move to disputation number 2, found in verses 6 of chapter 1.
And it probably works its way all the way through chapter 2, verse 9, as Malachi takes out his big guns and puts the priests in the crosshair. He's after the priests because as leadership goes, so does everyone else.
If you can get the leaders to be lax, if you can get the leaders to be cold, then everybody will follow. But I do want you to notice, before you just check out if you're not a leader, if you're not an elder, not a deacon, not a Sunday school teacher, not a dad, not a mom, there are things here that show both the priests are in the target and the people.
Take a look at verse 6, please. Just a quick kind of 30 ,000-foot view before we get into the exposition. Priests are addressed twice here in a direct fashion. Chapter 1, verse 6, son honors his father and a servant his master.
If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear, says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise my name. And then if you look in chapter 2, verse 1, you see the refrain there,.
And now, O priests, this command is for you. But in the middle of this disputation, there's lay people addressed additionally. Verse 13 of chapter 1. I mean, the message is primarily for the priest, for the leaders.
But the people are involved as well, and they follow the leadership. But you say, chapter 1, verse 13, What a weariness this is as you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring, we're not talking about the priests now.
You bring what is taken by violence or is lame or sick,. And this you bring as your offering. Shall I accept that from your hand, says the Lord? Verse 14, also addressed to lay people. Cursed be the cheat who has made a male in his flock,.
Who has a male in his flock, rather, and vows it, And yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. And so, as Hosea would say, Like priests, like people, like people, like priests. Malachi is going to deal with enthusiastic worship, Biblical worship, God-centered worship, First to the priests, the leadership, and then to the lay people.
And he's going to basically describe in verses 6 through 14, As he turns the table on them. Remember, these people in Judah were saying, You don't really love us, and now the tables are flipped over, And now God will say, No, but you don't really love me.
Your love, Israel, for me, is lacking. Let me give you this morning, I don't know how many we'll get through, So let me say several. If I tell you ten and not get to ten, then we have trouble. Then it's a lot of trouble when that happens.
So I've learned over the years. Let me give you several questions Designed to help you worship the Lord Jesus Christ With a robust enthusiasm. So that you avoid the routine, so you avoid the ritual. I mean, we all need it.
We all need a little shot in the arm, So our enthusiastic worship maintains enthusiastic, Because otherwise we just kind of fall down to the lowest thing. I mean, we know, I know Bethlehem Bible Church, And I speak for myself and you.
We know what to do. It's just, how do we do it? Is it enthusiastically done, Or is it done in a fashion that's just enough to get by? Rooting out hypocritical worship. Malachi helps both lay people and leaders for that very thing.
Question one, so we don't give God our leftovers in worship, Corporately and privately. Question one, do you honor God as Father? When you think of worship, do you think of God as Father? This will help you when it comes to worship.
Do you consider God as your Father? Let's take a look at verse six. As Malachi, the messenger from God, Continues with these rhetorical questions, And he has a little slogan here. He has a little proverb.
A son honors his father, a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? If I'm a master, where is my fear? Here says the Lord of hosts to you, O priest, who despise my name. But you say, how have we despised your name?
Let's focus in on the first part of that proverb. A son honors his father. Friends, don't we know that even unbelievers get this fact. Children should honor their parents. Unbelievers know that. Pagans know that.
Children should obey their parents. They should honor them. There's subordination, yet affection. They understand that. But the readers of Malachi are probably having this kind of attitude. God, you don't love us.
Yes, I do. And let me show you the ways. But you don't love me. Who, us? Who, me? Little old us? What do you mean? Sounds reminiscent of Isaiah chapter 1, verse 3. An ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib.
But Israel does not know. My people do not understand. So how do you treat your father? If you have a father, what's the best way to treat him? If your father's passed, what was the way that you would want to treat him if he were alive today?
And the text, if you look at it, a son honors his father. That's a really wonderful word there, honor. Honor is the same word where we get glory, kavod. The glory of the Lord has filled the temple. And it's a word that means heavy.
It's a word that means weighty. There's some gravitas to this. It's dense. I was trying to think of a comparison. And the densest thing that I know for regular day purposes is pewter. It's just got a density to it.
I remember going to Grandma's house, and she collected elephants, not real elephants, small miniature elephants. And she'd have one made of ivory, and you could just pick it up. And then you work your way down to the one that was pewter.
And, man, it was heavy. There was some weight to it. And when things are heavy, you can imagine back in the 60s, some of you look like you've lived through that era. That's heavy, man. There's some heaviness to it.
There's some gravity to it. There's some importance to it. And that's the word here. It's so weighty, it's to be honored. There's so much import. There's respect that should be given, dignity. Now, this word kabod can either mean glory, like the glory of God, Shekinah glory, or it can mean to recognize that something has worth.
It has worth so much that you defer to them, that you worship them, that you submit to them, that you praise them. True or false? Israel was a son to the Lord God. True. Israel was a son. Hosea, out of Egypt have I called my son.
Exodus chapter 4, then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son. And now, Malachi zooms in. He's talking to the priest primarily, but with a spillover to the lay people.
When it comes to worship and bringing offerings to the Lord and being enthusiastic in terms of serving Him, do you consider that God is your Father? How would you treat your Father so He uses this earthly comparison, because God, the Father, should be given honor.
If you honor your dad on earth, who's probably a fine person, but still not perfect, how much honor do you give God the Father? Now, let's talk about it as a church in a New Testament context. Before you were a Christian, before God saved you, monergistically regenerated you, made you alive, 1 Peter chapter 1 says He caused you to be born again.
Before you were born again, before I was born again, to what degree did you honor your Father spiritually? Oh, I don't mean God the Father, I mean your other Father. No, I don't mean your human Father, I mean your other Father.
Whose Father, who was our Father before we were saved? Jesus said in John 8, 44, You are of your Father the devil, and your will is to do your Father's desires. I mean, didn't we, with heart, soul, mind, and strength, serve our spiritual Father Satan before we were saved?
I mean, it just cost a lot of money, sweat, toil, enthusiasm. I don't think anybody could look at my life before I was saved and say, You know what? He's kind of backslidden in his desire to serve his Lord Satan.
I mean, nobody would really talk that way unless you're Anton LaVey, but you get my idea. True or false? A son is supposed to honor his father. True. He's supposed to obey his father. True. Esteem his father.
True. Doesn't a son want to say, I want my father to look good? I want my father's name to be enhanced based on my behavior? I want my father's reputation not to be sullied by what I do or don't do? And God says through Samuel, For those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me will be lightly esteemed.
Turn if you would to Ephesians chapter 1, and let me just remind you quickly, as we look at Malachi talking to Judah, called Israel in our text. Israel was a son, but I want you to remember, Bethlehem Bible Church, you are sons and daughters of the Lord God Himself.
And when you think of Malachi's audience, they struggled with their worship. They did the right things on paper, but they just didn't have enthusiasm. The way to cure your lack of enthusiastic worship, if you're struggling with that, I'm sure some are here, not everyone, there's lots of enthusiastic worshipers, is to remember that you're a son.
I mean, I wonder if being a son would affect the way you give. How's your giving? I wonder if it would affect the way you sing. How's your singing? I wonder if it would affect the way you'd serve behind the scenes in a nursery when no one's looking.
Wherever you serve, however you minister, say, well, I'm just in one of those slumps. Just remember, God is your Father. Chapter 1, verse 5, it says in Ephesians, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.
God is a Father. Do you know that is the essential view of Christianity, understanding God is a Father. So says G .I. Packer, quote, You sum up the whole of the New Testament teaching in a single phrase.
If you speak of it as a revelation of the fatherhood of the Holy Creator, in the same way you sum up the whole New Testament religion, if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one's Holy Father, and he gets the tie-in, listen, if this is not the thought that prompts and controls your worship and prayers and your whole life, then it means you do not understand Christianity very well at all.
God is my Father. Say, I need a jumpstart in my worship. Consider God as your Father. Why don't you go with me, if you would, to Matthew chapter 6 for a moment. Matthew chapter 6, I love the Lord Jesus Christ as He addresses God as Father.
Rarely in the Old Testament is God called Father, but in the New Testament, Jesus calls God the Father more times in the Sermon on the Mount than He's called Father in all the Old Testament. I mean, He calls Him Father over and over and over, and it helps us when it comes to worship, in this particular case, prayer.
Let's just kind of work through this. How can knowing God as Father help me in worship, specifically prayer? Now, just if you'd count with me, at least mentally, 12 times in Matthew chapter 6, verses 1 through 32, Father.
It's incredible to think Jesus is introducing this concept not of Mother God. I remember going to CBD bookstore sale all the time in puberty, and they'd have the $1 books out there, and we'd go get a bunch of the books, and then we'd finally, at the end of the day, go to the $1 section.
And I always remember it was the question mark book, and it had a question mark with a statement there, and it said, is it okay to call God Mother? And whenever I'd pick up that book, and even no one was around me, I'd just have to say out loud, no, it's not.
God creates. He doesn't birth. You can't describe God as Mother. It violates God's holiness, depicts God as pagan. And here, the intimate relationship of a son or a daughter to the Father. Chapter 6, verse 1, with your Father who is in heaven.
Chapter 6, verse 4, and your Father who sees you. Verse 6, pray to your Father, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Verse 8, for your Father knows what you need. Verse 9, our Father who is in heaven.
Verse 14, your heavenly Father. 15, your Father. 18, but your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret. Verse 26 of Matthew 6, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. And finally, verse 32, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
How does motivation occur in the heart of a Christian? In light of what God has accomplished in Christ Jesus for us, both in Malachi's day and in Jesus' day, and in our day, understanding God as Father should motivate you for gospel, ministry, and worship.
Take a look at verse 9. You know this passage, of course. It's very well known. How does knowing God as Father help in worship, specifically maybe the pinnacle of worship, prayer? Let's find out. Chapter 6, verse 9 of Matthew, pray then in this way, our Father who is in heaven.
You understand that we're supposed to go to God as Father. And if you understand God as a Father, you're not going to be a hypocrite. Verse 5, if you back up just a hair, when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and the street corners so that they may be seen by men.
Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. If God isn't Father, you might play the hypocrite. Verse 6, if God is Father, you're going to be sincere. But when you pray, go into your inner closet, inner room, close your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
And in verse 7, if God is your Father, how do you pray? You don't have to talk a lot for Him to hear you. When you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.
If you understand God as a Father, you don't have to talk a lot to get God's attention. It's kind of like going to the temples in the East, and when you go to the temple, you have to ring the bell to wake up God.
Well, if I'm standing there and one of my kids says something, Daddy, I need help, Daddy, could you help? I don't say, if you just keep talking for another minute, then I might wake up. I might understand you.
And then what if they say, Dad, you know, you don't listen to me unless I keep repeating myself. And the text here, by the way, in verse 7 of Matthew chapter 6, meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do.
Literally, Jesus is saying, when you pray, don't say the word Bada all the time. The Greek word is Bata Logosete, to say the word Bada all the time. God's your Father. You don't need to say this all the time to get His attention.
Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada, Bada. That's exactly what He is saying. It sounds funny. My kid comes up to me and they're like, Dad, I just have to try to get your attention.
Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. I'm your father, just say, Hi, Dad. J .I. Packer says, What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as father.
So let's make it as practical as we can. You sing on Sunday morning, you have the hymnal open, and you go, I'm going to praise the name of my father. I was a son, I'm a son of God the Father based on Jesus Christ's work, and I'm going to sing to the praise of the glory of God.
And by the way, you say, you know what, I don't really want to sing too loud because my voice is bad. Do you think I care how my kids sing based on their voices, because I know half their voices are from my side of the family?
But there's where the analogy breaks down. Sing! Can you imagine you're singing happy birthday to your dad, but you don't really sing, you just mumble because, you know, it's the voice that I have isn't really too good.
You just sing, God is my father. And the thing is, our fathers are imperfect, our fathers are fallen and sinful, and maybe you've got a bad experience with a father, but the heavenly father, he's a perfect father.
And so when you say, I'm going to worship, I'm going to sing, God's my father, I wonder what you put in the offering plate if it would change, if you think, you know what, I'm going to put this in the offering plate, and my dad's an elder here at Bethlehem Bible Church, and that doesn't work because I don't look at the money.
Let's think of a different illustration. We have some counters here, and they count the money. What if your dad was one of those counters and you gave the money, and he opened it up, and you think, you know, this is amazing.
I wonder if it would change if you knew God as a father. I think it would. Well, let's go back to Malachi, Malachi chapter 1. How do we worship? Well, one of the best ways you could worship is to know God as your father.
How do you root out hypocritical worship? Your father's going to see past it all. He knows you. He knows all about you. Question 2 of Malachi, do you fear God as Lord? Do you fear God as Lord? And of course, as I ask these questions, as the weeks go on in the sermon series, I'm going to focus your attention on Jesus Christ.
He's the one who always does the things that are pleasing to his father, and of course, he honored God as father, and of course, we have here, do you fear God as Lord? What's the other half of the proverb?
Son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I'm a master, where's my fear, says the Lord of hosts. Oh, priest, you despise my name, but you say, how have we despised your name? When you come to worship, you say, well, you know what?
I don't like that word fear. I like the word respect. But if you get this word fear down, I think it's going to help you in your worship. Because when I think of respect, I think of I walk into a room and I take my hat off in front of a lady back in the old days.
But if you get fear down, if you understand what this word fear means, you're going to say, this results in me being on my face in worship. So let's take a look at this for a second and ask ourselves, can you have fear and father in the same concept?
It's in the same proverb, a son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I'm a father, then where's my honor? If I'm a master, where's my fear? Can you think of God as father and also fear him?
And if you had a dad like mine, the answer would be yes. Listen to even this, 1 Peter 1, if you call on God as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.
You can have a desire to esteem your heavenly father and a desire to properly respond with fear. Take a look again at verse 6, it says, where is my fear? The word is translated three different ways, fear, terror, or awe, A-W-E.
Those are the three nuances, fear, terror, and awe. And it is translated in the Greek version of the Old Testament as phobos, as phobia, as fear. Say, how can I fear my heavenly father? Respect I get, awe I get, but what about that fear part?
Am I supposed to fear? I thought perfect love casts out what? Fear. Here's what's going on. Judah has leftover turkey worship, 23-year-old turkey worship. And Malachi is going to use words to prod them along.
But if you think of God as your father, you'd never give that kind of worship. You wouldn't even give your dad that kind of response. How much more God the father? Then also he says, well, what about a servant and a master?
Pagans know that servants should treat masters with fear. And that's exactly what it means, with fear. That's an appropriate response to God. Fear of the Lord is of what? Beginning of wisdom. It's perfectly fine to fear God because fear then relates to awe, obedience.
And the priests were doing everything opposite of fearing and obeying. Listen to what Pfeiffer said, the commentator. Religion is love accompanied by a humble sense of inferiority. Reverent trust in an immensely powerful and fearful deity who is at the same time just and benevolent.
If you think of fear as reverence alone, I think you've missed the point. It's just a nuance. And so to other writers, a naked feeling of terror and the term reverence alone may be too refined to keep one aware of the intended element of inward terror.
I want to honor you, God as father. I want to make your name look good. And by the way, I recognize that I'm frail, I'm sinful, I'm created, and it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God.
I understand that I don't ever have to fall into your hands because of Jesus's death on my behalf. But there needs to be an awe. There needs to be a desire to say, you know, the opposite of fear would help me to stay away from, what's it say at the end of the verse, priest who despise my name.
So if I want to push the envelope, I could ask, I wonder if you fear God. For those of you that don't like my definition of fear, then I just want you to say, am I in awe of God? Because if I'm in awe of God, my singing will change, my giving will change, my ministry will change.
I'm in awe of God. And these priests, they were despising his name instead of giving it weight, instead of obeying. They were behaving in such a way that they don't care what happens to God's name, his person.
And by the way, in Malachi, when it says, name there in chapter 1, verse 6, oh, priest who despise my name, what's name mean? Name means the person of God, all the representation of one's character and work and personality.
People say, well, you know what? What's profanity? Profanity is away from the temple. Profanity is what you do when you're not in church. When you're far away from church, you don't talk the way you do in church.
It was used from the temple. So you're in the temple, you have to talk godly ways. You're away from the temple, you talk poorly if you're not careful. That's what profanity really is at its root. I have a question for the New Testament believers, the only kind of believers that are out there now.
Does this sound familiar? Would this help us with worship and doing the right thing? Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say? That's exactly what could be happening here in Malachi's day.
I'm your master. Anybody here read the book Slaves by John MacArthur? Some have, right? God is a master and we are servants. God is the master and we are bond servants. God is the master and we are slaves.
And every slave knows, honor the master. And that's what Malachi's after. God's your father, he's also your master. I love Ephesians regarding earthly masters and earthly bond servants. Obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart as you would Christ.
Not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bond servants of Christ. Doing the will of God from the heart. Rendering service with a goodwill as to the Lord and not to man. Knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord whether he is bond servant or free.
How do you work for your boss? Matter of fact, that leads us to the third question which is very, very fascinating. Very fascinating question, question number three. We've seen so far, do you see God as a father?
Do you see God as your master when it comes to worship? I think those are helpful. Number three, if you worked at your job with the same intensity you serve the Lord in His church, would you get promoted or fired?
If you have a ministry here at the church and you worked at it with the same intensity as you do at work, I wonder what would happen. Look at verses 7 through 9. As Malachi is racking up the evidence against the priests and he charges them through more questions.
By offering polluted food upon my altar, Malachi 1 .7. But you say, how have we polluted you? By saying that the Lord's table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil?
And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor. Would he show you acceptance or show you favor, says the Lord of hosts? Now entreat the favor of the Lord that he may be gracious to us with such a gift from your hand.
Will he show favor to any of you, says the Lord of hosts? Can you imagine what God is saying through Malachi? These kind of offerings you bring to God, but if you bring it to your earthly governor, he wouldn't accept it.
Very fascinating. The governor wouldn't be pleased, so we think the Lord would be? Some of you are very successful in business. Some of you are very successful mothers. Some of you go to work tomorrow.
Some of you wake up at work tomorrow. And you have to work hard to get ahead. You have to work hard to get a raise, to get honor, to get a bonus. Do housewives get bonuses? They should. Only one brave man just said amen.
Here's Malachi. If you slack off at your job tomorrow, every day, you get fired. And yet Judah, and of course we can stumble into sin as well. The way we worship God, I wonder. Let's take a look at your ministry the last six months.
And you know, we don't do it at Bethlehem Bible Church, and maybe we should. We start having performance reviews for ministry. The chair people, they set up the chairs. How'd they do? Come on in. Pastor Steve puts on his cop badge and he gives them a little interview.
That's an interview I don't want to do. And so, you know, this is a volunteer army. It's ministry. We're called into ministry. But the thing is, God is watching what we do. He knows our hearts. And, of course, if the Apostle Paul can be at Ephesus and minister to them for a year after a year after a year, and then later we read in Revelation, these people have lost their first love.
They know the doctrine. They ascribe to the 1689 London Baptist Confession. They would agree generally with the Savoy Confession, with the Westminster Confession of Faith. They've got it all down, but it's just like lackluster.
And so Malachi wants to help them and say, yes, but if God's your Father, wouldn't you want to obey your Father from the heart? Wouldn't you want to respect Him? Wouldn't you say, you know what, if I was a slave, I'd want to honor my Master.
I'd want to have some fear and obedience and submission. And so you go to work tomorrow and you just slack off and I'm telling you what's going to happen. You're going to get downsized is what's going to happen.
Sometimes you get downsized for no reason of your own, of course. But these people were despising the name of God, these priests especially, by offering polluted, profane sacrifices. And friends, listen, this is the problem of any kind of religion.
I will give some offering, but it can't be sacrificial and it can't be the best. I'm willing to throw a fiver in the offering plate because it'd be pretty dumb if I didn't. But to give cheerfully and sacrificially with a whole heart, you know what, I've got to keep some on reserve.
What about later in my life if something goes bad? And of course that forgets that God's a Father and He protects and He watches over. So I've got a ministry that's, forget giving, how about singing? You know, it always has surprised me.
I've met people over the years and their kids don't sing at Bethlehem Bible Church. Their kids don't sing at any church they go to. Well, if you're in Ebendroth, you sing. This is just, we don't even ask the question.
You sing. And if you get old and you say, you know, I don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ anymore, we'll have another conversation, but you sing. Now, I can't get an unregenerate kid to sing from the heart, but I can say to people, you know what, you want to walk by the Spirit's power?
The Lord Jesus Christ leaves the earth, but He leaves another one of same essence of Himself, the Holy Spirit, and now the Holy Spirit dwells in you and the Holy Spirit works through His Word to confront and to convict and to revive.
You want a revival? It happens through the Word of God. Revive me according to your Word, Psalm 119. Revive me according to your Word. Revive me according to your Word. And this is not given because, you know what, how are we going to extract more out of people at Bethlehem Bible Church?
It has nothing to do with that at all. It has everything to do with God sees you worship. I wonder what He's seen in the last week, two weeks, three weeks. And here's the good news. God loves repentance.
And so you say, Lord, I'm sorry for that. I could give you a thousand excuses. I mean, I try to do this when a policeman pulls me over for speeding. I always do the exact same thing. I probably told you a dozen times.
I hope you used it to your own benefit. Officer, I could give you a thousand excuses, but I'm guilty. Hands at ten and two position. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. And the same thing happens. Can you imagine if God really is a Father?
For you fathers, if a kid comes to you and says, Daddy, will you please forgive me? Daddy, do you think you have in your heart to forgive me? Of course, you can't wait to say it almost. It's like the picture of the prodigal son.
The father who's older, who shouldn't be running, does run, and he runs to the son, and he's forgiving. And God is a forgiving God, and God is a loving God, and God is a caring God. And God's demonstrated that at Calvary.
He's demonstrated that at our own salvation. He's demonstrated that at eternity past. God can't wait to forgive almost. It's like on tippy toes, ready to forgive. Of course, I'm going to meet you halfway.
And so the same thing when we say to ourselves, My giving, my singing, my ministry, my sermons, my behind the scenes. You know, it's like the person who says, Well, I'm always on time for my Sunday school class because I'm the teacher, but I don't really prepare it until like 11 .35 on a Saturday night.
You know, that'll kind of do. I think, you know what? But if you just realize God's your Father. God's your Master. I don't think he likes the presentation of defiled food. I don't think he likes last second, that'll do.
Because it wouldn't do at work. And so what's happening here? He basically says that very thing. Present that to your governor. They were coming with a blind sheep, a sheep with only three legs, a deformed sheep, a sheep that wasn't perfect, a sheep that wasn't whole, a sheep that wasn't indicative of the Lord Jesus Christ, sacrificial death that's going to happen in the future.
Why was it so important to have pure, spotless, holy sacrifices? Because the Lord deserves the best. And it's supposed to be a sacrifice. And it's indicative of the type of Jesus because it's going to be Jesus who is pure and spotless and sinless.
That's the only kind of sacrifice God will take. And all of a sudden it's like, we'll give the worst. It says in verse 7, by offering polluted food upon my altar, but you say, how have we polluted you?
I mean, that's either so dense or so enslaved to sin, so blinded by sin. How have we polluted you? Hey, my worship has been great. I didn't do anything wrong. I gave you the sacrifice. And the language here about present that to your governor.
Let's think about it. Now we have to wrap up. I guess we don't have to wrap up, do we? There's no second service. We just go. We don't have to do anything. You're going to have Thanksgiving dinner. And you're going to invite some friends over.
Do you try to put nice things on the table? Or do you do the 23-year-old turkey? You say, well, let's have the pastor and his family over. Would you like to turn it up just a notch for me, please? Pretty please?
What if your favorite Bible teacher were going to come over? Maybe some of you love Chuck Swindoll. Swindoll's coming over for Thanksgiving. Maybe your favorite teacher's John MacArthur. John MacArthur's coming over.
Maybe you think, well, I'm not so into some of these teachers. Maybe it's Tom Brady's coming over for Thanksgiving. President Obama's coming over. Well, honey, here's the to-do list for you. Day-old bakery.
You'll never know. Put enough butter on it, that bread tastes fine, no problem. That's the idea here in Malachi. We would never, ever do that. If MacArthur's coming over, it's going to look nice. It's going to be deluxe.
We're going to go above and beyond. But it comes for the worship of the eternal God who said, by imputation I take all of your sins and place them on the Lord Jesus Christ, and He stands in your stead on your behalf as a representative, as a substitute, triumphant in victory over death.
And we just say to ourselves, you know what? Just tell me the least I can do so I can get this over with. It's like Lloyd-Jones says, most people come to Sunday morning worship service so that they can just go home.
That is, they've done their duty and then everything's done. See, I know you don't want to do that. I see you as a church who you want to give yourselves to the church and give wholeheartedly. But I know we're human and I know we struggle.
And it's just hard to stay zealous. It's hard to stay fired up. So what can help me fire up? I would go through Malachi and say, I would do better in corporate America. I worked harder in corporate America than I do for the church.
God, forgive me. I don't even act like I'm a servant. God, forgive me. I'm a servant. I'm here to serve others as I serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And I wouldn't treat my dad this way. My dad's been dead for 25 years, and I wish I could see him again.
I wish I could just be around him. He wasn't even a believer. And if he asked me to do something, I mean, I would just bring tears to my eyes even now. I would love to just do anything for him. Talk to him.
If he asks me anything, I just want to do it for the sake of my dad and his honor. How much more for the Lord Jesus Christ's Father, the Heavenly Father? What are we after here? It's Romans chapter 12 is what we're after.
Living sacrifices. Not blind sacrifices. Not cheap sacrifices. Offering plates were being passed. Passed it to a kid. He was about eight years old, and he put the offering plate on the ground. Dad's like, what are you doing?
And the kid put it on the ground, and he stepped on the offering plate, in the offering plate. What are you doing? Dad, I'm giving myself to the Lord. That's the idea. Let's pray. Father, I thank you that a broken and contrite heart you accept.
I'm thankful that, of course, we don't stand before you based on our own deeds. That would never work. The Lord Jesus Christ submitted to you. He was always about your work. He did it wholeheartedly, obviously, sacrificially, even to the point of death, death on a cross.
And we failed in so many ways for motivated sacrifice and worship. But we know Jesus has paid for all that. And we have, to our credit, his perfect, enthusiastic, fervent worship. But Father, in light of that, in light of our forgiveness, in the light of what he's done, and how he stands as our mediator, would you help us to worship better?
Would you help us in every way, behind the scenes, up in front, worshiping at work? Father, we want to show ourselves as men and women who've recognized we've received grace. We thank you for that. Father, we could never do it on our own, so may your Spirit, especially working through his word, help us this week that we might be men and women, children of awe, giving you awe, praise, honor.
Give us wisdom so we have the right amount of seeing you as a father and having some awe, fear. We need that. I pray for every ministry here, from Moana to the homeschool co-op, IBS, Sunday schools, ladies' studies, all the things that go on behind the scenes and home groups.
I just pray in the weeks to come, as we look at Malachi, we'd look back during this time and praise you to say, you know, there really was a revival at Bethlehem Bible Church. It really was an amazing thing to see how you use your word to help stir us up to serve.
And Father, for those that are here today that know nothing of these words about service and ministry, just hoping and hope, I pray that you would grant them repentance and faith. And today, Lord, that through gospel preaching and songs about your Son, that they would be convicted about their sin and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, trusting alone in his sufficient and victorious work.
I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.