Losing Touch With The Living God

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

Ill:

• When it comes to killing humans, no other animal even comes close to it;

• Forget sharks and lions and snakes and….whatever;

• They don’t even come close!

• Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on the planet!

• Despite their innocuous-sounding name—Spanish for “little fly”

• Mosquitoes carry devastating diseases.

• The worst is malaria, which kills more than 600,000 people every year;

• And another 200 million cases weaken and inactivate people for days at a time.

TRANSITION: The book of Malachi is like a mosquito;

• (a). It is small;

• Four short chapters long in English, and only three chapters in the Hebrew Bible,

• (b). It is lethal.

• It may be small but it carries a deadly sting!

• Quote: Someone has said:

• “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”

• TRANSITION: This book maybe small;

• But wise is the man or woman who takes notice of its powerful message!

(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.

• But the word is frequently used to mean ‘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;

There are so many stories like that where God uses nobodies to reach somebodies!

• The Bible is full of stories about nobodies.

• Individuals who came from nowhere in particular,

• Who had no reputation, 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;

• They were loved by God and used by God,

• God is the lover of nobodies.

(b). Malachi dialogued with people.

• As far as I am aware he is the one prophet who had dialogues with people.

• Well that is the polite way to put it;

• The truth is he was heckled and he reports the heckling in his book;

• And he was happy to then debate with his hecklers.