Sermons

Summary: God desires for his people to express their adoration and devotion to him in the appropriate and fitting ways that he has prescribed.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next

SLIDE #1

Introduction

• A loss of hope can do bad things to one’s focus and outlook on life. Last week as we began our look at the book of Malachi, Israel was at a point in history where they had come back from Babylonian captivity almost 100 years earlier.

• The nation anxiously waited for God to restore them to the former glory the possed before Babylon.

• As the Temple was rebuilt about 15 years after their return, they waited. Twenty years after the restoration of the Temple, they waited.

• Now they are some 80 years after the rebuild of the Temple, and boy, have things changed.

• The nation has descended from the joy and hope of returning to their homeland, to listless, lazy, and indifferent.

• The people of God are barely obeying God’s commands and are bringing a half-hearted effort to their worship of the God of the universe.

• What makes matters worse, the people are complaining that the act of worshipping God has become wearisome to them.

• They have ceased to enjoy and delight in the worship of God.

• What was designed by God to bring deep satisfaction and health to the nation has been reduced to religious platitudes and mechanical obedience, devoid of heart.

• The people have become self-centered, seeking self-gratification rather than pursuing the worship of God.

• When one loses their heart for God, it infects all they do.

• Last week we heard Malachi try to encourage the people to rekindle a fresh love for the Lord.

• Today, we see how the lack of love and heart manifest itself in the life of the people.

• Today we will focus our attention on the concept of possessing a sense of Fresh Worship.

• As was the case at many points in the history of the Nation of Israel, worship became something God never intended for it to be, void, burdensome, and empty.

• Worship was getting to a place where even God said enough.

• Worship is something that should bring joy, excitement, and expectation to those who are worshipping the Lord.

• The reason for this is by our worship, we are acknowledging to ourselves, the word, and God, that we know we are a part of something larger than ourselves, that we are a part of a bigger purpose for life.

• Yes, worship is about God, but it also is for each one of us to be blessed.

• In the passage, we will experience a great deal of negativity; however, I want us to see the negative so that we can learn from it.

• My prayer is that we can avoid the pitfalls pertaining to worship that can happen so easily if we are not careful.

• Let’s begin by turning to Malachi 1:6-7

SLIDE#2

Malachi 1:6-7 (CSB)

6“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of me? says the Lord of Armies to you priests, who despise my name.” Yet you ask: “How have we despised your name?”

7“By presenting defiled food on my altar.” “How have we defiled you?” you ask. When you say: “The Lord ’s table is contemptible.”

SLIDE #3

Fresh worship requires one to have a…

I. Refreshed respect.

• Just like in the first five verses we looked at last week, God starts with an assertion; then He anticipates the objects of the people, then He answers the objection.

• God asks the question of the people concerning the issue of respect. He asks the question:

Malachi 1:6 (CSB) — “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of me? says the Lord of Armies to you priests, who despise my name.” Yet you ask: “How have we despised your name?”

• The people lost respect for God. God is specifically speaking to those who should have known better, the Priests.

• The priests were not showing God honor or respect.

• The word HONOR deals with acknowledging one’s WEIGHT, one’s importance, authority or position.

• The priests want evidence of what God is accusing them of doing.

• The predictable response from the people is, “How have we despised your name?”

• In verse 7, they want to know how they are defiling God.

• God gives them an answer.

• They were despising His name by presenting defiled food on the altar.

• Here “food” refers to the animal offerings (Lev 21:8, 21).

• The implicit allegation suggests that the animals had not been properly selected nor properly prepared as stipulated (Lev 22:17–25 and Deut 15:21), a sense represented by the NET’s rendering, “you are offering improper sacrifices on my altar.”

Copy Sermon to Clipboard with PRO Download Sermon with PRO
Talk about it...

Nobody has commented yet. Be the first!

Join the discussion
;