Coming Full Circle Again Series

Malachi 3:10-12

The picture we are being given here is along is something like this:-

The people are sitting there at the moment saying, “God’s looking after us and it doesn't matter how you're acting.”

And God is saying, “Well no that's not true. I am a God who wants to bless you I am a God who cares for you. But you've lost perspective on life.”

It's easy isn't it - to lose perspective.

I saw it a couple of times many years ago, and I'm glad it's many years ago now, when we would be visiting Kirsten in hospital. She was recovering from a back operation.

And at times you'll be standing in the lift and there would be this lady there or man. And they would be talking about how terrible the injury they had …

… it was like a broken finger.

… or they had cut.

And sometimes I felt like just shaking these people and go, “Do you have any idea of the sicknesses of the people in this place? You're going on and on about this sore finger.”

Losing perspective.

But this is what happens doesn't it when we have so much in life. We lose perspective.

We are a blessed nation. And we are a blessed people. Just like the people in the day of Malachi. They were getting to the time where everything was coming together.

The temple was restored.

The walls have been restored.

Jerusalem has been restored.

God has given the Persian Kings a heart for the people. Twice they pull out money for the people.

Everything is coming together. And then when everything comes together they all start complaining. So God is reminding them, “I want to bless you, but you have got to have the right perspective.

If we want to break that circle again and again we need to be sitting here and our perspective needs to be … “God I know you bless me. I know you're a God it cares for me. I know you're a God who loves me. And I know that you're a God who wants the best for me.”

We can use this approach to help us to stop going around in circles in my life. Knowing God is for me even when I make mistakes. They are my consequences yet God is still for me and helps me to break the cycle.

The question God is helping us answer here is, “How does God help Us Stop Going Around In Circles?” The third thing that God does is to put a new process in place. There is a circuit breaker. A circuit breaker is the switch in your power board that, if you're going to be electrocuted, rather than you dying the circuit breaker switches off the power and it saves you from dying.

There's a circuit breaker built into the last section of the of the scriptures. It starts at Malachi 3:1.

‘I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,’ says the Lord Almighty.

Malachi 3:1

So there's this promise of someone who will come. Malachi repeats that promise right at the very end – these are the last words of the Old Testament

5 ‘See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.’