FBC Morning Light – December 30, 2022

Malachi’s Rebuke of Half-Hearted Worship

Well, a good Friday morning to you, and some of you have been following along in this Bible reading plan that we started two years ago, and today you can breathe a sigh of relief, or you can exclaim hallelujah, because today you will have finished the Old Testament.

You will read the book of Malachi, and the Old Testament readings will have been completed today, and you will have read through Psalms and Proverbs twice in the last year. Well, I want to focus on a few of the verses in the book of Malachi, because this is a challenging passage of Scripture.

It can be, and it can confront us pretty harshly. So I want us to notice some things, and let's ask ourselves, as we end this year and look forward to the new year, may give us something to think about, some goals to work on, or some areas of growth where we need to focus in the coming year.

So in chapter 1, verses 6 and 7, and verses 12 and 13, have to do with our, well, all that we want to look at this morning has to do with our worship, but these in particular have to do with what we offer to the Lord.

So in verses 6 and 7, now remember Malachi the prophet is speaking to people in the Old Covenant, who are bringing literal, physical sacrifices to the Lord. Meat offerings, animal sacrifices, bread, grain offerings, and so forth.

So he says this, he says, And he's speaking to the priests, who despise his name. But he says, they say, well, how have we despised your name? In verse 7, he says, By saying, and here's the key, here's the attitude in it all, by saying the table of the Lord is contemptible.

It's contemptible. It is something to be despised. We're tired of this. We despise going through all of this process of offering these sacrifices. Now, you may say, well, this doesn't have anything to do with us.

We don't offer these kinds of sacrifices, and after all, I'm not a priest. Oh, wait a minute. Are you a follower of Christ? Well, remember, if you are, he has made us a kingdom of priests. And no, we don't offer sacrifices on an altar, but we offer the sacrifice of ourself.

We offer the sacrifice of our praise to the Lord. We offer the sacrifice of our time, and our energy, and our worship. But what is our attitude in it all? If we go to church on Sunday, for example, and we do so with a sense of drudgery, or a grudging attitude, that I have to do this.

That's the same attitude that these priests had in the Old Testament, that the Lord confronts them with that. He confronts them with that. And in verses 12 and 13, again, he speaks of profaning the table of the Lord.

He says, the table of the Lord is defiled, they say, and its fruit, its food, is contemptible. They have this kind of an attitude toward the sacrifice, the offerings that they offer. But he says, you also say, what a weariness, and you sneer at it, says the Lord of hosts.

You sneer at it. This is a weariness. Do you ever get to the point of being weary of the Lord's day, of feeling like, I wish I could just sleep in. I wish I didn't have to get up and go to church. I wish I didn't have to do this every week.

That's the attitude that the Lord is condemning in these Old Testament people of God. They were sneering at the Lord's house. They were sneering at the Lord's worship. Then in chapter 3, verses 13 and 14, they say this.

The Lord confronts them. He says, your words have been harsh against me, says the Lord. Yet you say, what have we spoken against you? He says, you have said, it is useless to serve God. That serving of God has to do with worshiping God.

It is useless to worship God. What profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts? What profit is it in worshiping the Lord? Here's the way this attitude can come out in the New Testament Christian.

We can have a very utilitarian or economic outlook on our serving of the Lord, our worshiping of the Lord. We can ask ourselves, what did I really get out of the time I went to church today? What did I get out of it?

If I don't go to church with an attitude that says, I'm going to get something today, the Word of God is going to be open, and there's going to be something that the Lord will share with me today through his Word.

But if that's not the heart that I have in going to church, I will often come away from God's house with this kind of an attitude that says, that was worthless, I didn't get anything out of that. We can also have a utilitarian attitude as well in our worship.

For example, if you have the prosperity gospel mindset regarding your giving to the Lord in your tithes, your offerings, what you financially give to the local church, to the work of the Lord. If you have a prosperity gospel mentality, your mentality says, I'm giving X number of dollars, I should see at least that much in return, and I'm not seeing it.

In fact, my budget's really tight, and I'm kind of living paycheck to paycheck, and I would do a whole lot better off if I didn't have to put that money in the offering plate, or in the offering box, or whatever, however it is you give.

If that's your attitude, then you have this attitude that the Lord is condemning here. Your words are harsh against the Lord. Your attitude is, this is useless, it's useless. There's no profit in serving the Lord.

There's great benefit, and blessing, and profit to your soul if you serve the Lord with gladness, if you come before his presence with singing, if you have the right attitude in your heart in your giving to the Lord, in your serving of him.

I trust you do. I really do. I trust that those who are watching this on a regular basis, they hear these things and say, yeah, there have probably been times in my life when I've been like that, but that's not the norm.

I trust that's the case for you today. Let's wrap up the Old Testament thinking about, what is our attitude when we go to the house of the Lord, when we worship our God? Our Father and our God, I pray that we would consider these things today, and I pray that our worship of you would be glad-hearted, would be wholehearted, and we would rejoice in the privilege.

We pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Have a wonderful rest of your day today, and I hope you have a good New Year's Eve, however you celebrate that. I hope that you don't stay up till midnight bringing in the New Year and then feel like you can't make it to church the next day.

That's a little bit of a distorted priority, I would think. Let's get the New Year off to a great start, gather together with God's people in God's house on January 1st. I hope you have a good weekend.

God bless.