See if you can help me out and complete the following phrase:
One man’s trash is…
[Wait for answers]
That’s right:
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Because we live in a culture where we tend to rapidly lose interest in things that we just had to have at one point, we have given rise to entire industries that profit from that concept. At the most basic level, we have garage and yard sales where people sell things that they once valued, but in which they have lost interest and no longer need.
At the more commercial level, we have thrift shops that sell these items and pawn shops where people can get money for items that are no longer as valuable as the things they want to buy with the money they get from pawning those items. Then we have the whole self-storage industry that profits from people who actually pay to store these items, thinking that they might need them again someday.
Even television has gotten in on the act with shows like Pawn Stars, Hardcore Pawn, and Storage Wars. Sorry if I offend anyone this morning, but I have a hard time understanding the draw of a television program where people go around buying the contents of storage units that are being auctioned off for failure to pay the storage fees.
Now, like most of you, I’m certainly guilty of having purchased things over the years that I thought I just had to have, only to lose interest in those items and later sell them at a yard sale or give them away to some charity so they could turn around and sell or give those items to someone else who would appreciate them more than I did. In hindsight, that wasn’t very good stewardship on my part, but on the positive side I did make some other people very happy when they were able to obtain those items at a small fraction of what I paid for them.
But unfortunately man’s penchant for losing interest isn’t just limited to our material possessions. That same mindset can easily carry over into the spiritual realm as well. That was certainly true in Malachi’s day, so he addresses that situation in the passage that we heard read earlier in the service today – Malachi 1:6-14. But certainly the attitude Malachi addresses in that passage was not limited to Israel nearly 2,500 years ago. Unfortunately it is still present in our culture today.
Before we take a look at that passage, I want to take a moment to review our main point from the opening verses of the Book of Malachi that we developed last week. Since that particular theme is the key to understanding the entire book of Malachi, we’re going to keep coming back to it each week. Let’s see if you can help me fill in the blanks:
[Wait for answers]
God desires for me to pursue Him
in the same way He has pursued me
With that idea in mind, we’re now ready to tackle the rest of chapter 1 this morning. Since we already heard the passage read earlier, I’m not going to read it again, but I want to encourage all of you to open up your Bible to that passage because you’re going to need to be able to refer back to the passage during the message this morning. Remember that Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament and you’ll find it right before the gospel of Matthew in your Bibles.
Let me give you a roadmap of where we’re going first and then we’ll use that roadmap to guide our journey through this passage. As we’ve discussed often before, our corporate worship gatherings are only one aspect of our worship because worship involves our entire lives. But in His prophecy, Malachi is primarily addressing God’s people as a whole rather than individuals, so we’ll follow his lead and keep our focus primarily on the corporate aspect of worship. In particular, we’re going to focus on these three aspects of corporate worship this morning:
• The purpose of corporate worship. We’ll look at worship from God’s perspective and see what He desires to accomplish through our worship.
• The profaning of corporate worship. We’ll see how the nation of Israel was keeping that purpose from being accomplished through the ways they were profaning worship.
• The practice of corporate worship. This is where we’ll spend most of our time and we’ll see if we can’t develop some steps we can take to make sure that our worship furthers God’s purposes.
The purpose of corporate worship
The idea of God’s name permeates Malachi’s entire prophecy, but it particularly takes center stage here in this passage where God’s name is referred to six times. As we’ve discussed before, the name of God is more than just a title – it encompasses God’s revealed character and His presence. And God reveals here three times in this passage – twice in verse 11 and one more time in verse 14 – that His desire is that the worship of Israel will result in His name being great among the nations and feared among the nations. In other words, God’s desire is that the worship of Israel will be so genuine and passionate that it will result in God’s character and His presence being exalted well outside the borders of Israel.
This is exactly what we saw last week in Genesis 12 when God promised Abraham that His descendents – the commonwealth of Israel – would be a blessing to all the nations of the earth.
So I think we can conclude that from God’s perspective, the purpose of corporate worship is…
• To exalt God’s name
God’s purpose for worship hasn’t changed over the last 2,500 years. He still desires that His name would be exalted throughout the world through the corporate worship of His people.
That truth ought to have a tremendous influence on our worship each week. I want to ask all of us to think honestly for a moment about why we’re here this morning. Did you come this morning out of a sense of duty – it’s Sunday morning and that’s what I do on Sunday morning? Did you come because you thought that being here would earn favor with God – that you could in effect earn some “Brownie points” with Him by your attendance? Did you come for what you could get out of our gathering today? Are you here to “get fed” or to take part in some experience that will make you feel better about yourself? Or are you here this morning because you genuinely want to be part of exalting God’s name in a way that His character and presence will be made great not just within the walls of this building, but in this community, state, country and world?
Unfortunately the people of Israel had lost sight of God’s purpose for their corporate worship, and therefore they were profaning that worship.
The profaning of corporate worship
As we saw last week, the people of Israel had been back in Jerusalem for a while. The Temple had been rebuilt and the walls around the city of Jerusalem had been rebuilt. Under the leadership of Ezra, there had been a great spiritual revival as God’s Word was proclaimed boldly and the people lived it out in their everyday lives. But that revival had been short-lived and their worship had now become lukewarm at best. They were going through the motions but they had lost sight of their purpose of exalting God’s name.
In this passage, Malachi addresses both the people in general and their spiritual leaders, the priests. They were all complicit in profaning their corporate worship.
In the Old Testament, God had prescribed a system of sacrifices that were to be part of Israel’s worship. Some of those sacrifices provided for the atonement for sin and forgiveness of sinners. Other sacrifices were for the purpose of thanksgiving or to express dedication to God. And God had given the people some very specific instructions regarding those sacrifices to make sure that they were bringing their very best to God. The people were to bring God the very best of their flocks and their grain, but instead they were now just bringing Him the leftovers.
And the priests, who should have know better, just went ahead and offered up these diseased, blind, crippled animals to God. Not only that, the implication here is that the priests were despising God’s name by failing to comply with the God’s commands concerning their ceremonial washing that was required prior to offering these sacrifices to God. The people and the priests didn’t have the nerve to actually stop the sacrifices, but instead chose to just go through the motions, offering second-rate sacrifices while their hearts and lives were far from God.
From their human perspective, offering lukewarm worship was better than not worshipping at all, but God had a different view of the situation, as we can see in verse 10:
Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.
(Malachi 1:10 ESV)
God makes it clear here that He would rather have someone shut the doors to the temple, and stop the sacrifices altogether rather than have the people and priests continue to profane their worship of Him. The point that God is making here is really the heart of this passage and we need to make sure that if we take only one thing away from this passage, that it would be this:
Worship that requires little
is worth nothing
From the perspective of the people and the priests, half-hearted worship was better than no worship at all, but from God’s perspective, that kind of worship is in vain and God takes no pleasure in it at all and He won’t accept that kind of worship.
We’re certainly reminded here of Jesus’ words to the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:
I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
(Revelation 3:15-16 ESV)
I take this truth very seriously and I hope you do, too. But we live in a culture where unfortunately, even many of our churches don’t seem to understand the significance of what God is saying here.
Out of what I believe is a genuine desire to reach people with the gospel of Jesus, some churches have developed what I would term “Convenient Christianity” where the church is marketed like a restaurant or a department store in order to attract more “customers.” Much of the time we use terms like “seeker sensitive” to justify the way we make corporate worship more convenient and require very little of people.
So pastors flock to conferences where they are taught how to attract large crowds of unchurched people. Most of the time, the advice focuses on how not offend people and includes things like:
o People are used to watching 30 minute TV programs so we have to keep the sermons short, make them entertaining and include lots of TV and movie clips.
o Don’t preach about sin, because that will offend people and scare them away.
o Don’t ask people to bring their Bibles to church or to engage in an in-depth Bible study. Just give them some little nuggets from the Bible that will make them feel good.
o And of course don’t ever ask people to give money or preach about giving.
But from God’s perspective, if we’re going to attempt to worship Him like that it would be better to just close the doors rather than to dishonor the name of God. Remember…
Worship that requires little
is worth nothing
So how do we make sure that our corporate worship doesn’t become worthless? Let’s conclude our time by looking at some positive steps we can take to make sure we don’t engage in worship that requires little.
The practice of corporate worship
1. Prioritize
As I read this passage, I got the distinct impression that worship wasn’t much of a priority for either the people or the priests when it came to their time, their talents or their treasure.
They wanted to worship in the most expeditious way possible in order to minimize the time, effort, and resources required for worship. As we’ve already seen, the priests didn’t want to take the time for the prescribed washing and the people were just sacrificing that which was most convenient and required the least amount of their time and effort.
And certainly the people weren’t giving priority to God when it came to their material possessions. Instead of giving to God the best of their flocks, they were giving Him the leftovers – animals which they probably couldn’t sell otherwise and even those animals which they probably couldn’t eat because they had been attacked and killed by predators. One commentator I read this week accurately referred to these as “road kill sacrifices.”
Unlike David, who refused to give God an offering that would cost him nothing, these people refused to give an offering that would really cost them anything.
When it comes to our corporate worship, is it really a priority or are we just giving God the leftovers?
Because I love you and I genuinely want the best for you and for our body when it comes to our worship, I’m going to risk offending some of you this morning with some of the things I’m going to say. But I want to make this practical and relevant, so I’m going to be very direct here and not beat around the bush.
Are you making corporate worship a priority when it comes to your time? I’m certainly thankful for the people who demonstrate that worship is a priority on a consistent basis. There is a group of women who meet here every Sunday morning at 7:45 a.m. to study God’s Word together. The worship team arrives by 8:00 each week to prepare for our worship gathering. There are people like Ryan, Daniel, Loren, Don and Shirley and others who show up early every week to help with the preparations for our worship time.
But I often wonder just how much of a priority corporate worship is for others. Let me suggest that if it is a priority in your life that you’ll make sure you get to bed at a reasonable time on Saturday night so that you’ll be well rested and ready to worship on Sunday morning. It’s instructive that the Jewish Sabbath actually begins at sundown on Friday and I’m convinced that one reason for that is so the people would not be so consumed with activity that night that they would be worn out before they gathered for worship the next day.
If corporate worship is a priority, then you’ll be here on time. Frankly some of you who would never think of being late for a business appointment or your tee time or who will get up early for vacation or some other activity that is important to you don’t seem to have a problem at all consistently showing up late for a worship gathering or Bible study. Have you thought about what that demonstrates to God and to others about the priority of corporate worship in your life?
If corporate worship is a priority, then you will also find ways to spend time with your brothers and sisters in Christ for more than a little over an hour on Sunday mornings. I understand that some of you have physical limitations that make that difficult, but that is not the case for most of us. Some of you will spend more time just today watching a football game, or playing Candy Crush or Words with Friends, or watching TV than you will spend all week worshipping God with your fellow believers and then claim that you just don’t have time to stay for Connections on Sunday morning or attend a Bible study during the week.
How about making worship a priority when it comes to our material possessions? Let me just say here that I’m really grateful for many of you here this morning that consistently demonstrate the priority of worship when it comes to your finances. I frequently talk to other pastors who are amazed at the level of giving for a church of our size and many of you are to be commended for your consistent, sacrificial giving. But at the same time, I know that there are some of you who are just giving God the leftovers when it comes to your material possessions.
Remember here that God just wants your best. He’s not concerned with how much of your time and material resources you give compared to someone else. He just wants your best. So will you commit to give Him the best you can give when it comes to your time, talent and treasure?
2. Prepare
In this passage, because corporate worship wasn’t a priority, the people and the priests didn’t take the time to make proper preparations. The priests, in particular, didn’t take the time to go through the ceremonial cleansing that God had commanded them to engage in.
But when something is a priority in life, we naturally make time to properly prepare for that activity. If playing an instrument or participating in a sport is a priority, then I’ll take time to learn new techniques and to practice. If travel is a priority, I’ll take time to research my destination and arrange for lodging and transportation. If playing golf or watching my favorite NFL team is a priority, then I’ll arrange my schedule to make time to do that.
The same thing is true with our corporate worship. If that is a priority in my life, I’ll take time to properly prepare for it. I don’t want to embarrass anyone, so I won’t ask for a show of hands, but how many of you prepared for this morning’s worship gathering by spending some time this week reading and meditating on the passage in Malachi that we’re studying this morning? How many of you took the time before you arrived here this morning to pray and ask God to reveal any unconfessed sin, so that you could confess it and allow God to cleanse you? How many of you prepared for our time together this morning by praying and asking God to prepare your heart to receive His Word and to respond to His Word appropriately?
3. Participate
The priests were tasked by God with being intermediaries between the people and God. In that role, they foreshadowed Jesus, our great high priest, who is the permanent intermediary between us and God, as the writer of Hebrews explains:
This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
(Hebrews 7:22-25 ESV)
But that did not mean that the priests were the only ones who worshipped. It was never God’s intent for them to do all the worshipping while the rest of the people were just spectators.
Even in the sacrificial system, the person making the offering had to select the animal from among his flock, bring it to the entrance of the temple, put his hand on the animal’s head and kill the animal himself. It was only then that the priest would take some of the blood and sprinkle it on the altar and burn the animal.
The same is true for us. As our intermediary, Jesus makes it possible for us to have access to God and worship Him. But worship is not a spectator sport. It was never God’s intent for the pastors, or elders or worship team to do all the worshipping while everyone else just sits back and watches.
A few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend who goes to another church here in town. He was telling me that every week there is a group of people who wait in the lobby until all the singing is over and then they go in and sit down and listen to the sermon. Now I get that some people just aren’t into singing, but in my opinion, the real issue there isn’t the music, it is the selfishness of those who chose to participate in only those parts of the worship gathering that are most comfortable or enjoyable for them. And I certainly don’t see how that kind of attitude toward corporate worship results in God’s name being exalted.
Being a part of our corporate worship gathering is not like going to a restaurant where we get to pick and choose which items on the menu we’ll choose to consume today. If I treat worship like that, then I not only hurt myself, but I also diminish the worship of the body as a whole and I rob God of some of the glory that He deserves.
I understand that for some of us, music is not something we particularly enjoy or excel at, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still participate during the time we sing. At a minimum, we can meditate on the words of the songs and even respond to the message of the song in some way – perhaps by silently praying to God or even just raising our hands to Him.
And the same is true when it comes to the message. The sermon is not merely a speech which we are to listen to passively. It is the exposition of the Word of God which requires our attention and our response.
As we’ve seen this morning…
Worship that requires little
is worth nothing
But a God that loves us so much that He continues to pursue us is certainly worthy of the kind or worship that pursues Him by prioritizing, preparing for and participating in corporate worship so that we can be a part of exalting God’s name.
This morning, we want to take a few minutes to respond to God’s Word. I’ve given you some space on your sermon outline to answer some questions that will help you evaluate whether or not you’ve lost interest when it comes to your worship. I’m going to give all of us a few minutes to reflect on those questions. Hopefully that will just be the beginning of a process that you’ll continue this week as you spend some time in prayer, asking God to reveal your heart when it comes to your worship and then asking him to help you make any changes that you need to make. Let me pray for all of us and then I’ll give you some time to respond to God personally.
