Don't Give God The Leftovers Series

Don’t Give God the Leftovers

Associate Pastor Dave Barnes, Discover Church, November 14, 2021

INTRO VIDEO – first 2:30 minutes of “How to Read Malachi” by Bible Project. You can view it here: https://youtu.be/HPGShWZ4Jvk I used a clip from the RightNow Media version because it was 1080p HD resolution.

Text: Malachi 1

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1 This is the message

ILLUS. An oracle

An oracle is actually a “burden.” Webster defines it as something carried that is difficult to bear. It has the idea of something heavy, a load to be lifted up. The words to follow in Malachi are not light or trifling but weighty and substantial. The prophet recognizes that what he is about to communicate to people is not fluffy stuff that will just tickle the ears but will ultimately trouble their souls. … While the Word of the Lord is heavy, notice that it is written not “against” Israel, but “to” them. God wasn’t out to blast them. He wanted to bring them back. - Experiencing God's Love by LeRoy Redding, SermonCentral.com

Picture the heartbroken appeal of the heavy-hearted parent of an ungrateful or wayward child or the pain and weight of heartache carried by someone with an unfaithful spouse or lover

that the Lord gave to Israel through the prophet Malachi.

2 “I have always loved you,” says the Lord.

ILLUS.

The word “love” is in the perfect tense, indicating that God not only loved in the past but loves in the present as well. We could say it this way: “I have loved and do love you.” And the word He chooses for “love” is not the typical Old Testament term that describes “tough love” or “covenant love.” The word God uses here is more relational: “I have embraced you. I have expressed my affection for you,” says the Lord. - Experiencing God's Love by LeRoy Redding, SermonCentral.com

ILLUS.

Israel questioned God’s love because He had allowed the Babylonians to take them captive and permitted the Edomites to add to their sorrow. Psalm 137:7 sums up the feelings of the Israelites toward the Edomites: “Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. Tear it down,’ they cried, ‘tear it down to its foundations!’

Here is God’s answer to their complaint: “I have proved my love for you by choosing Jacob over Esau, I returned you to your land and destroyed the Edomites.”

What more evidence do you need? - Experiencing God's Love by LeRoy Redding, SermonCentral.com

ILLUS.

We don’t receive God’s love because we deserve it. He chose to love us even when we were undeserving. God chose Jacob, not because he deserved it (after all, he wasn’t the firstborn, and he was a crafty conniver and scheming deceiver), but because of His grace.

Deuteronomy 7:7-8

7 “The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! 8 Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you,… That is why the Lord rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery

Ezekiel 16:4-6 – Ezekiel uses a graphic PG-13 or R-related description of how he loved Israel when they were unlovable

4 On the day you were born, no one cared about you. Your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were never washed, rubbed with salt, and wrapped in cloth. 5 No one had the slightest interest in you; no one pitied you or cared for you. On the day you were born, you were unwanted, dumped in a field and left to die.

6 “But I came by and saw you there, helplessly kicking about in your own blood. As you lay there, I said, ‘Live!’ 7 And I helped you to thrive like a plant in the field. You grew up and became a beautiful jewel….

22 In all your years of adultery and detestable sin, you have not once remembered the days long ago when you lay naked in a field, kicking about in your own blood.

ILLUS.

Romans 5:

6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners…. 10 … our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies,

But you retort, “Really? How have you loved us?”

ILLUS.

When a little boy's mother refused to buy him the toy he had seen as they passed the toy store in the mall, he began to wail. “You don't love me!” he accused. “Of course I do,” his mother replied. The child was not convinced. “If you loved me, you would buy me what I want!”