The Lord Whom We Seek Series

MINOR PROPHETS MAJOR MESSAGE:

THE LORD WHOM WE SEEK

MALACHI 2:17-3:5

INTRODUCTION… Mr Incredible and Tricycle Kid

The man is hunched over in his powder blue aging car that is way too small for his incredibly large frame. He barely fits. He is dejected and unhappy and unfulfilled and all of the other ‘un’ words of which you can think. He pulls into his driveway at home and the car sputters and dies and the man hopes it will start again. He gets out.

He feels eyes on him and looks behind him. There on the sidewalk in front of his house is a little red-haired kid on a tricycle. The man looks at this neighborhood kid and asks in a tone far too harsh: “So what are you waiting for?!”

The kid responds from his tricycle: “I don’t know. Something amazing… I guess.”

The man sighs with all of his stress and unhappiness.

He resonates with this kid’s words and says: “Me too, kid”

The man sighs again and goes into his house.

This morning you are going to see something amazing!

SERIES INTRODUCTION

In the Bible, when God wanted to get His people’s attention He would often do something demonstrative like speak from a burning bush or lead by a pillar of cloud or shake the ground or do a miracle in nature. God did all of those things. God also spoke through people we call prophets. Prophets had many roles and many jobs:

Preaching what God shared with them to others

Rebuke those in power who were misusing political or religious power

Ordain those who would be kings

Predict the future and what God would do among His people revealing His plan

Heal diseases

Evangelize other nations and bring God’s Word to them

Teach about God and God’s Law

We know some of the names of these folks whom God called to be His prophets: Moses, Miriam, Deborah, Nathan, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Huldah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Anna, John the Baptist, and many more. God calls the people through His prophets and gives them directions in their relationship with Him. God calls the people through His prophets and encourages their faithfulness and warns them that faithlessness would have dire consequences.

This morning we sort of finish our journey through these last 12 books of the Old Testament and finish our series called “Minor Prophets Major Message.” We have focused each week for the past eleven weeks on one of these specific prophets and the message that he had to bring to the people of God because those messages are important for us.

Today, we will be in the Book of Malachi. Malachi is the last of these prophets to write down their words around 432 BC and is the last book in the Old Testament. Not much is known about Malachi other than his name, he was an excellent teacher, and he was deeply devoted to the worship of God and wanted to lead his fellow believers in God well. Malachi’s mission was to correct the abuses and attitudes of the Jewish community of his day. Unlike some of the other books we have read, by Malachi’s day, Jerusalem and the temple in Jerusalem had just been rebuilt and so there was a ‘new normal’ that needed to be created for the People of God. Malachi was called to speak to this ‘new normal.’

TRANSITION

Let’s read from Malachi at the end of chapter 2 and a few verses in chapter 3.

READ MALACHI 2:17-3:5 (ESV)

17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied Him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” 3:1“Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord Whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple; and the Messenger of the Covenant in Whom you delight, behold, He is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. 5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear Me, says the Lord of hosts.