It's A Love Hate Relationship Series

We are majoring in the minor Prophets this summer. Summer means baseball and the major leagues as well!

Most of you know the name Jackie Robinson. Robinson was the first African American to break into Major League Baseball. Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier on April 15, 1947, when he donned a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform. He put on that now-iconic No. 42 across his back at the old Ebbets Field. Jackie went on to be a Hall of Famer player, and his No. 42 was retired by all major league teams. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was, by any measure, an extraordinary human being. In becoming the first black man to play in the major leagues, Robinson encountered racism in its vilest manifestations – racial taunts and slurs, insults on the playing field and off, character assassination, and death threats. But did you know that Christianity played a significant role in the man who masterminded integration, the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers? The man who chose Robinson for his role was Dodgers GM Branch Rickey. Robinson and the Dodger’s general manager, Branch Rickey, forever changed race relations in the United States. The General Manager was a “Bible-thumping Methodist” who refused to attend Sunday games. He believed it was God’s will that he integrate baseball, viewing it as an opportunity to intervene morally for the sake of the nation. Rickey specifically chose Robinson because of his faith and moral character. The general manager considered other players, but he knew integrating professional sports would take more than raw athletic ability. He knew the attacks would be ferocious, and the media would fuel the fire. And if the selected player sought retaliation or lashed out, the effort would be set back a decade. So in their first meeting together, Rickey read aloud from a book entitled, The Life of Christ, and he chose to discuss a section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Inside the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ teaching to His followers: “But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39b). During his first two years as a player, Jackie often prayed, asking God for the strength to continue resisting the temptation to fight back or to say something he would regret.

At the center of one of America's most important civil rights stories [lies] two men of passionate Christian faith. A Methodist pastor led Jackie to faith in Christ. Jackie went on to even teach Sunday school. Jackie’s Christian faith gave him an emotional and spiritual poise that he had never known.

Now, baseball has nothing to do with the sermon, but it’s just a fun way to introduce the series!

Your Bible has major prophets and minor prophets. The minor prophets are tiny books compared to the others, and they are often neglected by Christians today. Please turn with me to the book of Malachi (page 953 in your pew, Bibles in front of you). Malachi is the very last book in your Old Testament. Find the New Testament book of Matthew and turn left ?.

Malachi means “my messenger.” Certainly, this is God’s message, as Malachi quotes God’s very voice in 47 of 57. Again, 47 of 57 verses are direct quotes from God Himself. We know nothing else about this man other than he spoke God’s message to his generation, and then he died. Could that be said of you? Are you someone who speaks God’s message for your generation?

Today’s Scripture

“The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

2 ‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?’ ‘Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?’ declares the Lord. ‘Yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.’ 4 If Edom says, ‘We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,’ the Lord of hosts says, ‘They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’ 5 Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, ‘Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel’” (Malachi 1:1-5)!

Again, Malachi’s name means “my messenger.” Malachi lived around 450-500 years before the time of Jesus Christ.

1. Tell Me Again You Love Me

“‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us’” (Malachi 1:2b)? God says to His chosen people, “I have loved you.” God says, “I have loved you,” and the people say, “In what way have you loved us?”

So many people take God’s love for granted. Others say, “I know God loves me, but I can’t ‘feel’ it.” Or, “I know God loves me, but that’s just a theory. I don’t see any real evidence that God loves.” To you, God says, “I have loved you in the past and I love you right now.” The verb tense in verse 2 (Hebrew, perfect tense) makes it clear that God’s love has not only operated in the past but also in the present. God says, “I have loved you then and I love you now.”