God Is Speaking Are We Listening - Malachi: An Overview

SERMON OUTLINE:

(1). The uniqueness of the book of Malachi

• (a). Malachi the man is a Mystery.

• (b). Malachi dialogued with people.

• (c). Malachi is written in prose and not poetry.

• (d). Malachi is full of God words!

• (e). Malachi is God’s last Old Testament word.

(2). The Background to the book of Malachi

(3). The problem in the book of Malachi

(4). The importance of the book of Malachi today.

SERMON BODY

Reading: Selected verses from the book of Malachi.

Ill:

• Fed up with people telling him he was going deaf;

• A man went to get his hearing tested,

• After examining the man;

• The audiologist place a clock on a desk and asked the man if he could hear it ticking;

• The man replied; “Yes I can”.

• The audiologist then placed the clock at the far end of the room;

• And again asked the man if he could hear it ticking;

• Once again the man replied; “Yes I can”.

• The audiologist then opened the door and walked out of the office;

• Placing the clock in a corridor and asked the man if he could hear it ticking;

• For a third time the man replied; “Yes I can”.

• The audiologist then told the man;

• “There is nothing wrong with your hearing, you just don’t listen to people!”

• TRANSITION:

• The title of our talk this morning is, ‘God is Speaking Are We Listening’

• As Christians we believe God is God who speaks to us:

• Primarily through his word the Bible, but also in other ways as well.

• And the key to hearing God speak,

• Is an attitude of obedience,

• He speaks clearest and most often to those people who are willing to obey him!

(1). The uniqueness of the book of Malachi

(a). Malachi the man is a Mystery.

• Now most people think that Malachi is the name of the author,

• But Malachi is not actually a name at all.

• The word ‘Malachi’ is the Hebrew word for ‘messenger’.

• And Malachi is never used as a name for a person anywhere in the Old Testament.

• Whenever the word is used it means ‘messenger’.

• So Malachi is a man of mystery;

• We have no idea who Malachi was or any details to do with him;

• i.e. we don’t know his town or his family etc.

Ill:

• Malachi is another one of God’s unknowns;

• I love the fact God uses nobodies to reach somebodies!

• It has been my observation from reading the Bible,

• That for the most part it is not the high and mighty who are greatly used of God,

• But rather it is an altogether different kind of people.

• Seems to me God doesn’t often use people who would be listed in "Who's Who".

• In fact, often his book of choice would be "Who's Not".

Ill:

• I doubt very much whether you have heard of Frank Wimproy,

• He was one of God’s “nobodies.”

• Another unknown that God chose to do something special.

• Frank Wimproy was one of the workers at the Radnor Street Mission, Shoreditch, London.

• One Sunday in 1912,

• Wimproy felt led to speak to a thirteen-year-old boy in the Sunday School,

• Frank Wimproy asked him,

• “Would you like to be a Christian? Have you given your heart to Christ?”

• Will the thirteen-year-old boy replied “No,”

• Frank Wimproy then asked him, “Do you want to?”

• The boy replied; “Yes, I think I do,”

• So there and then he led him to Christ.

• Years later the boy would write this about his conversion:.

• "I spluttered out my little prayer, it had one merit. I meant it."

• Will’s full name was William Edwin Sangster,

• Better known in Church history as Dr. W. E. Sangster;

• He was minister for 15 years, at Westminster Central Hall,

• There he preached to packed congregations of 3,000 every Sunday,

• Many of whom had queued for up to an hour to get into the auditorium.

• W E Sangster, commonly acclaimed as the ‘greatest Methodist since Wesley’

• He was used of God to reach many thousands of people with the Gospel of Christ;

• TRANSITION: There are so many stories like that in history;

• Where God uses nobodies to reach somebodies!

• The Bible is also full of stories about nobodies.

• Individuals who came from nowhere in particular,

• Who had no reputation, they were unremarkable people,

• Descended from ordinary family lines who had no claim to fame or wealth or power.

• TRANSITION: All of them though had a singular thing in common;