Does Your Worship Honor the Lord?

Scripture: Malachi 1:6-10

"'A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?' says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, 'How have we despised Your name?'  "You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, 'How have we defiled You?' In that you say, 'The table of the LORD is to be despised.'  "But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?" says the LORD of hosts.  "But now will you not entreat God's favor, that He may be gracious to us? With such an offering on your part, will He receive any of you kindly?" says the LORD of hosts.  "Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD of hosts, "nor will I accept an offering from you.

Insights: One last thought this week.  We read a passage like this one and our minds immediately go to Sunday morning worship services at church.  The reality is offerings were presented to God daily at the temple.  This mindset changes the focus of worship even more.  We now have to evaluate our daily walk with the Lord God.  Beloved, how often during the day do you think of our Lord?  The things you do, the decisions you make throughout the day ought to reflect a spirit of worship to God.  My fear, however, is we rarely think about our love relationship with the Father outside of “formal” worship settings.  To be even blunter, I am not certain how much we think about God during our “formal” worship services.  Even though the verses we have studied this week were written 400 years before Jesus, I think they could have been written by a contemporary to us in 2012.  We are a people who desperately want this world and all it has to offer and at the same time want God to bless and favor us.  James is clear when he wrote, “friendship with the world is hatred toward God (4:4).”  Until we come to the place we recognize our desperateness for God, then our worship, more than likely, is going to be defiled.  Beloved, repent and seek pure worship with our loving Lord.  Worship Him in truth and spirit.  Show your love in your obedience!

Questions:

1. What kind of offering are you presenting to God on Monday, Wednesday or Friday?
2. Do you even think about your worship and offering outside of the context of Sunday morning church?

Prayer: Father, may You be pleased with the offering I bring to You today.  Amen.

Just Go Home!

Scripture: Malachi 1:10

"Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD of hosts, "nor will I accept an offering from you.

Insights: There are so many verses in the Bible that are truly sad.  Today’s verse is one of those.  In modern day vernacular God is saying, “Just go home and shut the doors to the church.  I want nothing to do with you.”  E. Ray Clendenen helps us historically understand this verse.  He wrote, “According to 2 Chronicles 28:24, idolatrous King Ahaz of Judah ‘shut the doors of the LORD’s temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem.’  The present verse may be an allusion to that event, the point being that what the priests of Judah were doing was no better than Ahaz’s idolatry.  God ironically wished for another King Ahaz who would construct a visible barrier between God and His people like the one they already had constructed in their hearts.  After Judah’s great wickedness had brought about the devastating punishment of exile, it is amazing that the abundance of Judah’s gratitude for the Lord’s restoration should have reverted so quickly to empty ritual. . . . The Lord Is not dependent upon human offerings or service.  They are a means of testifying to His greatness and exalting His name, and He is pleased with sincere praise and worship.  Worship also benefits the worshipers, serving to nourish their relationship with God individually and to encourage one another in the faith.  But religious activity performed without genuine love and gratitude to God is not only useless but repulsive to Him because it slanders His character.  God does not need our gifts or our service, and His favor cannot be bought.  Gifts that are offered ‘reluctantly or under compulsion (2 Cor. 9:7)’ humiliate the recipient and place him under obligation.  The God who can transform the stones into followers (Matt. 3:9) wants no part in such a transaction.”  Today’s verse is a call to reflection.  It is time for us, Beloved, to evaluate what we are offering to the Lord.  If we are giving to Him anything but our best, then He is resolutely telling us to shut the doors and go home.  God will not settle for our trifles.  He wants all of our hearts and all of our worship.  We need to seriously approach the Lord with humility the next time we enter into His place of worship.  We need to be asking ourselves what kind of offering I am bringing the Lord today. 

Questions:

1. Are you willing to give God the love, honor and respect He rightfully deserves?
2. Or is your worship amounting to God saying, “Close the doors”?

Prayer: Father, may the day not come where all the church offers You is leftovers.  Send a revival in Your body and let us return to authentic worship.  Amen.

The Self-Centered Gall

Scripture: Malachi 1:9

"But now will you not entreat God's favor, that He may be gracious to us? With such an offering on your part, will He receive any of you kindly?" says the LORD of hosts.

Insights: The journey leading to today’s verse has been progressive in nature and we will review this journey a few times over the next couple of weeks.  The trek goes like this:  Israel did not love God, but ought to have.  If they did not love God, they ought to have at least honored Him, but they did not.  If they did not honor Him, they ought to have at least respected Him, but they did not.  And because they did not love, honor or respect God, they brought Him defiled worship.  These preceding statements were the path the Israelites walked leading up to today’s verse.  In previous days, I stated, and still hold to, the notion that the church of America is following the same pilgrimage the Israelites took.  And it is at this point that today’s verse is an absolutely pathetic joke and insult to the Lord God.  After not loving God, not honoring God, not respecting God, these Israelites had the self-centered audacity to ask God to bless them and show His favor on them.  This lunacy is communicated in the word “entreat” which means to pacify or appease someone.  Think about those two words for a moment, pacify and appease.  When we are pacifying or appeasing someone the majority of the time we are not really acting in the other person’s interests, but rather our own.  Think about a baby for a moment.  We even call the thing we give to them a pacifier.  The baby is crying for food and for whatever reason we don’t think it is the right time to give them food.  So, we give them a pacifier with which they can suck and pretend they are eating.  The baby is getting no nutrition from the pacifier, but the crying has stopped and about that is all we really cared.  Israel is giving defiled worship, but at least they are giving something; therefore, God is appeased and ought to grant their request.  Beloved, do you see the craziness of such a request?  God responds with a rhetorical question that has an obviously negative answer.  No, God is not going to answer such a request.

Questions:

1. Do you have the audacity to give the Lord defiled worship and then proceed to ask for His favor?
2. If you are living with this kind of self-centered gall, are you willing to repent and turn to God and give Him the worship He rightfully deserves?

Prayer: Father, forgive me for coming to You with my selfish heart and asking You to bless me.  Forgive me, especially, when I am giving You defiled worship and yet still make these kind of selfish requests.  May my heart be transformed and my love abound for You and You alone.  Amen.

The Worship Defiled

Scripture: Malachi 1:7-8

"You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, 'How have we defiled You?' In that you say, 'The table of the LORD is to be despised.' "But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?" says the LORD of hosts.

Insights: In verse seven God accuses Israel of bringing defiled food to His altar.  This word defiled is a play on words.  There is another word which is more often used to describe food that is bad or defiled.  But God wanted to compare their offerings to their attitude of despising Him found in verse six.  Look at these two transliterations of each of these words.  In verse seven “defiled” in Hebrew is ga’al.  In verse six “despise” in Hebrew is gaʽal.  Notice the only difference is the apostrophe’s direction.  So, God is doing a play on words.  He is really telling Israel the offerings they bring are really abhorrent and loathsome and it is because they despise God that they are bringing such worthless offerings to worship.  Some reading this thought might be saying to themselves, “This portion of the letter is really being writing to the priests or ministers.  It does not apply to me.”  Let me quote Ron Brown for a moment.  He wrote, “While the priests bore responsibility for the deficient way worship was conducted, the people weren’t exempt from the accusation.  Yes, the priests were guilty of offering defective offerings, but the offerings came from the people.  They too were guilty of dishonoring God by their misplaced priorities.”  Brown goes on to ask a potent question.  He asked, “How do we ‘blame’ our pastors and others when we’ve failed to worship?”  God created us to be a worshipful people.  We worship sports, materialism, jobs, family, hunting, power, etc.  What we have to be asking ourselves is this: Are we giving the majority of our worship to these substitute gods and bring the leftovers to the One True Lord or are we honestly giving God our very best worship?  My thoughts, as I evaluate the church, are many, if not most, are giving God the leftovers of their worship.  Part of the reason I believe this is because of comments I hear so many people make.  “Worshippers” complain about long services.  “Worshippers” complain about songs sung.  “Worshippers” complain about temperature.  “Worshippers” don’t exalt the Lord!

Questions:

1. What kind of offering are you bringing to God during worship?
2. Are you giving your best to this world or to the Father of our salvation?

Prayer: Father, forgive me when I do not bring You true and sincere worship.  I desire to bring You the very best I have.  Give me the courage to focus on You and You alone and may You receive my offering.  Amen.

The Honor Lost

Scripture: Malachi 1:6

"'A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?' says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, 'How have we despised Your name?'

Insights: This verse has so many points to it.  It comes right after the dialogue God had with Israel about their lack of love for Him.  So, the conversation, in modern day vernacular, would have gone something like this:  “You, Israel, ought to have loved Me, but you did not.  If you refused to love Me, you ought to have at least honored Me for being your Father, but you did not.  If you refused to honor Me, you ought to have at least respected Me for My position as Master over your lives, but you did not.”  What a tragic conversation God was having with these stiff-necked people.  Let’s dig a little deeper.  The word translated respect in verse six literally means fear.  W. Eichrodt helps us understand biblical fear when he wrote, “Certainly ‘respect’ does not adequately express what God’s holiness should arouse in us.  Respect calls for politeness and such gestures as taking off one’s hat, but fear results in awe and obedience.”  I think the church has lost its fear and awe of God.  These priests in today’s verse, however, went even further.  Not only had they lost their honor and respect for God, they also despised Him.  E. Ray Clendenen helps us here, “it was not an ‘attitude of revulsion, but of treating something as if it were insignificant or worthless.’”  The particular participle used in this verse indicates this attitude was an ongoing contempt for God.  In other words, day in and day out, these “worshippers” entered into the temple and were unimpressed with God.  They saw His works as being insignificant and worthless and as a result stopped honoring and respecting Him.  Because of such an ongoing attitude, they despised the name of God.  By despising His name they were breaking the third commandment (Ex. 20:7).  There are always exceptions, but as a general rule, I really do believe this attitude is characteristic of the average church attender.  We go to church, but don’t really expect God to show up.  Because we don’t anticipate His arrival, we don’t really give Him honor and respect.  Because of such an attitude, our hearts truly condemn us.  This condemnation proves we down deep really despise God.  And because we despise Him, we break His commands.  Beloved, we need to repent and turn to God.

Questions:

1. When you go to worship are you expecting God to wow you?
2. Has God become unimpressive to you?

Prayer: Father, forgive me for not having proper fear and honor of You.  Forgive me for taking You for granted.  Let my heart be drawn to You and have the awe restored to my worship.  Amen.

God's Majesty through Love

I will be out of pocket tomorrow.  So here is Thoughts By Scott early.

Scripture: Malachi 1:5

Your eyes will see this and you will say, "The LORD be magnified beyond the border of Israel!"

Insights: Why does God do all of this?  By all of this, I mean, punish those He loves.  Bring to destruction those He has prepared for wrath.  The answer is simple: to bring glory and majesty to His name!  For those that have been redeemed, they are able to look at the destruction of the wicked and praise God for His mercy on their lives.  For those that have been redeemed and have experienced God’s punishment, they are able to look at God’s guiding hand and praise Him for His persistent love.  For those that have been redeemed and are in a right love relationship with Him, they are able to look at God and reflect that love back to a world in desperate need of salvation.  And all of these things bring glory and majesty to God!  God will share His glory with no one and everything He does is intentional.  This intentionality is for His glory to be acknowledged in all the earth.  So, the means by which He works to create this glory is not for us to decide.  It is for us to obey!  Beloved, let us live our lives in such a fashion that we receive the disciplines of God well and praise Him for the rebukes.  Let us praise Him that He did save us from eternal destruction.  Let us praise Him that we are equipped and gifted to proclaim His love to a lost world and let us actually share this gospel.  Can you image with me what this world would look like if all God’s children lived this kind of life?  It would be extraordinary.  Let us strive to live this way and bring God the majesty He deserves!

Questions:

1. Do you praise God for His amazing love?
2. Are you ever awed by the magnificence of God’s love?

Prayer: Father, You daily display Your glory in Your love for me.  May I have eyes to see and ears to hear and the sensitivity of the heart to recognize Your love.  Then Lord, let me have voice to praise and magnify You as a result of Your grace.  Amen.

God's Mystery about Love - Part 2

Scripture: Malachi 1:3-4

but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness." Though Edom says, "We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins"; thus says the LORD of hosts, "They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the LORD is indignant forever."

Insights: Yesterday we learned salvation is not based on us.  Second, God desires that all be saved.  Third, God does the drawing on men’s hearts.  At this point some would argue that God must draw on all men’s hearts, but that is just not biblically accurate.  Our fourth point is God sometimes creates vessels of destruction.  Romans 9:22 reads, “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?”  You might ask are their biblical examples of these vessels of wrath and the answer is yes.  Exodus 9:16 states, “But I [God] have raised you [Pharaoh] up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”  The purpose for which God raised him up was his destruction.  In fact, when you get to the plague of the boils, the Bible makes statements like this one, “But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 9:12).”  So, God has created some vessels for destruction so that those saved by grace may better understand the gift they have received.  The final point, however, is God gives humanity free will to choose or reject Him.  Joshua in his famous farewell sermon said these words, “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”  So, God also desires for His creation to want to choose to love Him.  Now the mystery comes full circle.  God draws, but He does not draw on everyone.  Those He does draw on have the free will to reject His promptings.  If they choose to receive the grace offered in the drawings, then they are saved and the Holy Spirit comes and makes them born again.  How God works all of this out in His sovereign election, I do not know.  I just trust by faith God does and I am grateful He drew on my heart.

Questions:

1. What will you choose today?
2. Is there anything holding you back from receiving the love of God?

Prayer: Father, again this morning I thank You that You have drawn on my heart and allowed me to respond to Your grace.  Father, please keep drawing on all men.  Amen.