Thursday, June 28, 2012

We take a detour when pastors do not live or lead in a way that honors God...

This week, we are looking at a section of a letter in the Bible called the book of Malachi, where Malachi confronts the pastors of his day for failing to fulfill the roles and responsibility that they have as pastors to make much of God in a way that gives God the glory and honor that He so rightly deserves as the One True God. Yesterday, we discovered a pastor’s job description is to live a life of Christ-like character and integrity that calls people away from selfishness and rebellion and to follow his leadership as He follows Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching and teaching of the word of God. Today, we will see Malachi contrast God’s expectations with the pastors of his day’s performance in verse 8:

"But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi," says the LORD of hosts.

Here we see Malachi reveal the reality that instead of walking with God in integrity, the pastors of his day had now walked away from God. Instead of helping the Jewish people turn away from selfishness and rebellion, the pastors of his day were now causing the Jewish people to fall into selfishness and rebellion. Instead standing in awe of God and honoring God, the pastors of his day thought lightly of God and dishonored Him. And as a result, the pastors had violated and broke the covenant that they had entered into with God. Malachi then concludes by revealing the consequences that had already begun to occur for the pastors of his day in verse 9:

"So I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction.

As a result of the pastors failure to make much of God in a way that gives God the glory and honor that He so rightly deserves; as a result of the pastors being unimpressed with God and looking lightly upon God, Malachi proclaims that God was making the pastors despised and abased before all the people. When Malachi uses the phrase “showing partiality in judgment” this phrase in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to carry more than one face.

The pastors were two faced when it came to the teaching and carrying out of the message and teachings of the Bible. The pastors began to look for loopholes when it came to what the message and teachings of the Bible called people to do and live. The pastors were no longer following the way of the Lord of teaching the word of the Lord. And people began to see through the hypocrisy; people began to see through the false teaching.

And as a result, the pastors began to lose the amazing status and respect that they had previously held with the Jewish people. By the time Jesus appears, the pastors had only the level of the respect that their position required. By the time Jesus arrived, the pastors were positional leaders who had either no influence or faulty influence. The pastor’s failure to honor the Lord resulted in their loss of honor. The Jewish people were no longer impressed with their pastors and though lightly of them.

And it is here that we see revealed for us a timeless detour that can get us off track when it comes to our relationship with God and can result in us living a life that dishonors God. And that timeless detour is that we take a detour when pastors do not live or lead in a way that honors God.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, “well that’s fine Dave, but how does this detour impact me? What does this have to do with me?” If I have just described the thoughts that are running through your mind, here is my answer: This has everything to do with you. This has everything to do with you because you are reading this. And the reason that you are reading this is because at some level you are either exploring faith or growing in your faith. And at some level, you will be impacted and influenced by what you have read this morning.

Every Sunday morning, and in environments throughout the week, people are listening and watching me. And what you see or hear from me will influence, at some level, how you view God and how you live with God. So this has everything to do with you. This message is a warning to you from God to make sure that your pastor is actually doing what he is supposed to be doing. Because, chances are, if I begin to take a detour by not living or leading in a way that honors God, your lives can also end up taking a detour.

John Maxwell says it this way: leadership is influence, plain and simple. And based on the level of involvement that you have with me, my words and my actions will have influence in your lives. And to be honest, that is incredibly humbling and incredibly scary for me. The fact that my words and my actions could result in you taking a detour that dishonors God- that is a responsibility that I must continually keep in the forefront of my life. And you need to know what God expects of me and pastors when it comes to their roles and responsibilities.

Because we all take a detour when pastors do not live or lead in a way that honors God. So now you know.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

A Pastor's Job Description...

This week, we are looking at a section of a letter in the Bible called the book of Malachi, where Malachi confronts the pastors of his day for failing to fulfill the roles and responsibility that they have as pastors to make much of God in a way that gives God the glory and honor that He so rightly deserves as the One True God. Yesterday, in Malachi 2:1-4, Malachi called the pastors of his day to repent from giving God less than their best when it came to fulfilling their role and responsibility. Malachi called the pastors of his day to repent from being unimpressed with God that resulted in them fulfilling their roles and responsibilities out of duty and as a tiresome nuisance that gave Him what is of little value and worth. Malachi then explained that just as the unclean refuse of the offerings was carried away to be discarded outside the camp, the pastors would be removed from serving the Lord in utter disgrace if they refused to repent from their selfishness and rebellion.

Today we will see Malachi, as God’s spokesman, provide the pastors of his day a history lesson when it came to how they came to be pastors in Malachi 2:5:

"My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence; so he revered Me and stood in awe of My name.

Here we see God bring the pastors back to a story that is recorded for us in a section of the New Testament of our Bibles called the book of Numbers. After being delivered from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt, instead of embracing a relationship with God, the Jewish people selfishly rebelled against God, which caused an entire generation of the Jewish people to die off in the wilderness. And it is in that context that we read the following story in Numbers 25:1-13:

While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the LORD was angry against Israel. The LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel." So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you slay his men who have joined themselves to Baal of Peor." Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the body. So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. Those who died by the plague were 24,000. Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy. "Therefore say, 'Behold, I give him My covenant of peace; and it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel.'"

As a result of the reverent respect and awe that Phinehas displayed for God, God entered into a covenant relationship with him and his descendants that they would be the priests, or the pastors of the Jewish people. In this covenant agreement would give the priests life and peace as long as the priests held a reverent awe that gave honor to God. Malachi then unpacks for us what that reverent awe and honor looked like in the lives of Phinheas and the other pastors in verses 6-7. Let’s look at it together:

"True instruction was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity. "For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

In these verses, God, through Malachi, is revealing the expectations that He had for pastors as they fulfilled the role and responsibility that they have been given. First, God reminds the pastors of Malachi’s day that pastors are to preach and teach the truth of the word of God. The true instruction the God refers to in verse 6 refers to the Law, which were the first five books that are recorded for us in our Bibles today. Phinehas had a passion for the truth of God’s word and communicating God’s word.

Second, God reminds the pastors of Malachi’s day that pastors are to speak in ways that are marked by righteousness and justice. Phinehas did not speak unjustly in ways that promoted injustice. Instead, Phinehas speech was marked with words that were true, right, and just.

Third, God reminds the pastors of Malachi’s day that pastors are to live lives of integrity. When Malachi uses the word peace, this word conveys the sense of completeness of wholeness. The word uprightness conveys the sense of standing firm and living right before the Lord. Phinehas lived a life of integrity before the Lord. He lived a complete life; publicly and privately, that was faithfully following Jesus.

And fourth, God reminds the pastors of Malachi’s day that pastors are to live lives that lead people away from selfishness and rebellion and to Jesus. Phinehas was used by God in a powerful way to bring repentance from selfishness and rebellion.

In verse 7, Malachi then provides the reason why these expectations are so essential for pastors in order for them to fulfill the role and responsibility that they have been given: “For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.” In other words, a pastor is responsible to be the type of a person who keeps watch over and guards the truth about God and the word of God in a way that results in people having the confidence that they could come and would be able to receive clear and accurate guidance and direction that comes from God and the word of God. These are essential because, as Malachi points out, a pastor is a messenger who is responsible to deliver God’s message to God’s people and to all humanity.

A pastor’s job description is to live a life of Christ-like character and integrity that calls people away from selfishness and rebellion and to follow his leadership as He follows Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching and teaching of the word of God. And that should be my job description and that is what you should hold me accountable for, because that is what God says He will hold me accountable for.

Tomorrow, we will see Malachi contrast God’s expectations with the pastors of his day’s performance…

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

What is the Point of Pastors?


On Father’s Day 2006, six years ago, Julie, Rachel, and I began our ministry at City Bible Church. And during these past six years we have seen God do amazing things in and through the church. We have watched God do a transformational work as He led the church through a time of transition that resulted in us becoming a church that was replanted or restarted with a new name and a new affiliation in 2010. During the past six years my role in the life of this church has transitioned and changed as well.  In that time, I have transitioned from being an Associate Pastor, to an Administrative Pastor, to an Interim Pastor, to the position I now have as Senior or Lead Pastor.

Now the reason I bring all of this history up is because I have a question for us to consider. And that question is this: What is the point of the job of pastor? What is a pastor’s job description? And how do you know if a pastor is successful? Do we measure a pastor’s effectiveness the same way that God does? This week, as we look at the book of Malachi, I find myself in many ways in a unique and potentially awkward position. I find myself in a unique and awkward position because the section of the letter that we are going to look at this week is targeted specifically at me and others like me who are pastors.

So you get to look at a passage that is written to people like me. And for many of you, this may be the first time you will be exposed to the job description that God has for those who pastor His people. And it is in this section of the book of Malachi that we see Malachi accuse the pastors of the Jewish people of his day of taking a detour. And it is in the prophet’s accusation and the evidence that he presents we will see God reveal for us a timeless detour that pastors can take when it comes to our relationship with God that results in us living a life that dishonors God.

And unfortunately, when pastors take this detour, not only does it result in the pastor’s life dishonoring God; this detour can also result in those who the pastor is responsible to lead taking a detour that results in a life that dishonors God. And for that reason, this is a message that is essential to hear, not only for me as a pastor, but for you as followers of Jesus, so that you can clearly understand what God expects of pastors and so that you would be able to clearly recognize the detour signs that will arise if pastors fail to meet those expectations. So look on as I preach a sermon to myself, beginning in Malachi 2:1:

"And now this commandment is for you, O priests. "If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name," says the LORD of hosts, "then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart.

Malachi begins this section of his letter by giving a command and an if-then statement: "If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name." The word listen here conveys the sense of hearing that results in obedience. When Malachi uses the phrase “take it to heart, this phrase, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to, at the core of one’s being, determine a course of action in response to one’s knowledge or awareness of something.

The course of action that God, through Malachi, calls the pastors of his day to embrace and engage in is “to give honor to My name”. As we discovered earlier in this series, the word honor, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means weighty or heavy. It conveys the sense of giving one who carries weight the due that is rightly theirs. The prophet is calling the pastors of the day to fulfill the roles and responsibility that they have as pastors to make much of God in a way that gives God the glory and honor that He so rightly deserves as the One True God.

However, if the pastors failed to respond to God’s command to change the course of how they were acting as pastors so as to bring honor and glory to God; if the pastors failed to heed God’s command from the core of their beings; Malachi states that God will send a curse upon you.  But what does that mean? I mean what exactly is a curse? When we see the word curse in the Bible, this word refers to a destructive power that is sent by God as an instrument of God’s right and just response to selfishness and rebellion.

In addition, a curse, unless removed by God, results in whatever that is cursed being destined for annihilation. So, as a general rule, you do not want to be cursed by God; not a good thing. When Malachi explains that I will curse your blessings, he is revealing the reality that every aspect of their lives would become plagued with trouble as a result of God’s curse. No aspect of their lives would not be impacted. 

Malachi then explains to the pastors of his day that they should not be surprised by either the command or the consequences for not following the command, because God has already begun to curse them. And the reason that God had already begun to curse them is because they were not fulfilling the roles and responsibility that they had as pastors to make much of God in a way that gives God the glory and honor that He so rightly deserves.

Malachi is calling the pastors of his day to repent from giving God less than their best when it came to fulfilling their role and responsibility. Malachi is calling the pastors of his day to repent from being unimpressed with God that resulted in them fulfilling their roles and responsibilities out of duty and as a tiresome nuisance that gave Him what is of little value and worth. After providing the command and the immediate consequences, Malachi gives the pastors of his day a glimpse of what would happen if they failed to follow God’s command and repent in verse 3:

"Behold, I am going to rebuke your offspring, and I will spread refuse on your faces, the refuse of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it. "Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that My covenant may continue with Levi," says the LORD of hosts.

In these verses, we see Malachi paint a shocking word picture to describe what would happen to the pastors of his day if they refused to follow God’s command so as to make much of God in a way that gives God the glory and honor that He so rightly deserves. To fully understand this word picture, however, we first need to understand a little about the Jewish sacrificial system that the priests were involved in.

In the Jewish sacrificial system, there were two times every day that sacrifices were made to God for the sins of the people, one early in the morning and one in the in the late afternoon at 3 p.m. The sacrificial offerings involved animals who were offered as a substitute to pay the penalty for acts of selfishness and rebellion that had been committed against God. The burnt offerings were expression of worship and thanksgiving to God. These sacrifices and offering were to be made by the pastors on the altar at the Temple in Jerusalem.

In the Old Testament, God provided the Jewish people very clear and detailed instructions when it came to when sacrifices and offerings were to be offered and what was to be offered in those sacrifices. There were some parts of the animals that were to be sacrificed, while other parts of the animals were to be discarded and not used in the sacrificial offering. For example, when a bull was slaughtered and sacrificed for the selfishness and rebellion of the people, the blood and the fat of the bull would be offered up on the altar, while the flesh, the hide, and all the internal organs, which were viewed as unclean, would be taken away to a place outside the city and burned.

Now with that in mind, here is how Malachi’s words to the pastors of his day would have sounded if they had been communicated in the language that we use in our culture today: “Pastors, if you do not repent and give Me the Honor and glory that I am deserving of, here is what is going to happen to your descendants. I am going to take your descendants and just as the unclean refuse of their offerings is carried away to be discarded outside the camp, they will have the hide, the flesh, the internal organs of their offerings spread on their faces and they will be carried away as being unclean to reveal externally what is going on in their lives internally”.

Malachi’s point here is just as the unclean refuse of the offerings was carried away to be discarded outside the camp, the pastors would be removed from serving the Lord in utter disgrace if they refused to repent from their selfishness and rebellion.

Now that sounds kind of gross, doesn’t it?  That kinds sound of harsh, doesn’t it? Yeah, it does, which is exactly how the pastors would have responded to Malachi’s words here.

Tomorrow, as Malachi continues, we will see God, through the prophet, provide the pastors of his day a history lesson when it came to how they came to be pastors…

Friday, June 15, 2012

We take a detour when we worship God with less than our best…

This week, we are looking at a letter in our Bibles where God is challenging the Jewish people of taking a detour when it came to their worship of Him. Yesterday, Malachi confronted the Jewish people of his day for viewing worship as something they got to do out of duty instead of something they get to do out of delight. Today, we will see Malachi, after predicting and proclaiming the future worship of God by all nations, transition to reveal the present problem that plagued the Jewish people in verse 12:

"But you are profaning it, in that you say, 'The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised.'  "You also say, 'My, how tiresome it is!' And you disdainfully sniff at it," says the LORD of hosts, "and you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering! Should I receive that from your hand?" says the LORD.

Unlike the future, Malachi confronts the Jewish people with the reality that they were profaning the name of the Lord. In other words, the Jewish people were dishonoring and despising God. Malachi then provides the evidence of their dishonor of God. First, the Jewish people were dishonoring God by readily acknowledging that their worship was polluted and contaminated as the result of their failure to follow the very clear and detailed instructions when it came to the Jewish sacrificial system. Yet, in spite of that acknowledgment, the Jewish people still viewed the idea of even having to worship God with loathing and contempt.

In verse 13, Malachi quotes the Jewish people and their attitude toward worship: “My, how tiresome it is!” Now this word tiresome literally means wearisome. This complaint, if communicated in the language we use today, would have sounded something like this: “What a nuisance it is to have to go to church this morning. There are so many things that I could and would rather be doing then going to church. I could be on the lake, I could be camping, in the fall I could watch football; I could be shopping, I could sleep in; this whole church thing is just so wearisome. Church just gets old, you know”. When Malachi uses the phrase you disdainfully sniff at it, this phrase literally means to blow from one’s mouth contempt or disdain. “Ugh, I gotta get up and go to church today. What a drag.”

But not only were the Jewish people dishonoring and despising God through their words; they were also dishonoring and despising God through their actions. Malachi reveals the reality that the Jewish people were stealing from one another, and then were giving to God what they had stolen in worship. In our day, it would be similar to someone robbing a Circle K and then bringing that money to church and putting it into the offering as an act of worship. So instead of worshipping from what was their own, the Jewish people were worshipping from that which was another’s.

In addition, Malachi provides the evidence that the Jewish people dishonoring and despising God through their deception. When Malachi refers to a vow, a vow is an oath or promise that is made to someone, in this case God. What was happening was that an individual would make a vow to offer a male animal that was in the best condition as a burnt offering to God according to the requirements of the Law as an act of worship. However, after making a promise to offer God the best of their animals as an act of thanksgiving and worship to God, the Jewish people were then attempting to deceive God by instead offering an animal that was handicapped, sickly, or otherwise damaged. The Jewish people recognized that an animal that was handicapped, sickly, or otherwise damaged was far less valuable than a male animal that was in the best condition.

So the Jewish people would promise God their best when it came to worship, and would then attempt to deceive Him by giving them what was the worst when it came to worship. The Jewish people decided that God was only worthy of their leftovers and had come to the conclusion that God could be deceived into thinking that they were offering the best when in fact they were offering the worst.

God then asks a rhetorical question through Malachi to reveal the reality that He was wise to their attempts at deception: “Should I receive that from your hand?” In other words, God is asking “Do you think that I am pleased with your deception? Do you think that I am going to look favorably on that kind of worship”.

And it is in this section of this letter that we see revealed for us a timeless detour that can get us off track when it comes to our relationship with God and can result in us living a life that dishonors God. And that timeless detour is that we take a detour when we worship God with less than our best. This morning, the timeless reality is that God deserves, desires, and demands our very best when it comes to our worship of Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. God desires that we respond to who He is, what He has done, and what He has promised to do out of delight, not out of duty. God desires that we view Sunday morning worship as something we get to do, not something we got to do.

And when we worship God by giving Him less than our best; when we worship God out of duty; when we view worship as a tiresome nuisance; when we are unimpressed with God and give Him what is of  little value and worth, we end up taking a detour that gets us off track in our relationship with God and that dishonors God. Malachi reveals that reality for us as he concludes this section of his letter:

 "But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord, for I am a great King," says the LORD of hosts, "and My name is feared among the nations."

Here we see Malachi reveal the reality that the person who attempts to deceive God into thinking that they were giving Him their best when in fact they were giving Him their worst when it came to worship provokes a strong response from God. And that strong response was that God would inflict such a deceitful person with a curse. God then reveals the reason for such a strong response: “for I am a great King and My name is feared among the nations.” Yahweh, the Lord of Hosts, the One True God, is alone large and in charge and alone is worthy to be viewed with a reverent awe and honor.

However, when we approach worship as though we are unimpressed with God; when we approach worship in a way that thinks lightly of God; the result is that we take a detour that fails to give any honor or respect to God. Because, we take a detour when we worship God with less than our best.

So here are some questions to consider: is worship something you get to do or something you got to do? Is gathering together in community to worship on Sundays a duty or a delight?  Do you show up Sunday morning with an expectation that you will experience and encounter God through the music, the message, the times of giving and prayer? Do you show up Sunday morning with an excitement that results in a response of giving God the best of your worship? Or do you show up Sunday morning with an apathetic attitude that gives God whatever is left from the rest of the weekend?

Because, we take a detour when we worship God with less than our best…

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Do You Get to Worship? Or Do You Got to Worship?


This week, we are looking at a letter in our Bibles where God is challenging the Jewish people of taking a detour when it came to their worship of Him. Tuesday, we saw Malachi reveal the reality that God was accusing the Jewish people of viewing the worship of Him as being something that was to be loathed and viewed with contempt.  God is accusing the Jewish people of failing to approach the altar and the worship that would occur at the altar with any respect. The Jewish people were being accused of being so unimpressed with God and thinking so lightly of God that they failed to give any honor or respect to God. Malachi then continues to speak for God and provide the evidence of this lack of honor and respect in verse 8:

"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.

Now this evidence, if communicated in the language we use today, would have sounded something like this: “Don’t you think it is dishonoring and disrespectful to offer up to God that which God has specifically said was not to be offered to Him in worship? I mean, do you hold animals that are blind, handicapped, or weak and sickly as being very valuable? No, you consider blind, handicapped, and weak and sick animals as being of little value and worth. So do you think that giving those animals to God in worship shows that you honor and respect God?

Would you take animals that were blind, handicapped, sick, or weak and give them to any political leader that you wanted to honor? Would any earthly political leader and ruler be pleased with you and accept them favorably? No, of course they wouldn’t. They would feel dishonored and disrespected because you are giving them less than your best, you would be giving them your leftovers. So what makes you think that giving God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, your leftovers would result in a different response? If such an offering would not earn the favor of an earthly ruler, what makes you think that such an offering would earn that favor of the King and Lord of all?

You see, as far as the Jewish people were concerned, worship was a duty that needed to be done. There was no excitement about worship; there was no sense of expectancy when it came to worship; and there was no delight in worship. Instead, worship was done out of duty with loathing; worship was viewed with contempt; worship was something that was endured.

Does that describe how you feel about worship? Is Sunday morning worship something you get to do? Or is Sunday morning worship something you got to do? Do you show up Sunday morning with an expectation that you will experience and encounter God through the music, the message, the times of giving and prayer?  Do you show up Sunday morning with an excitement that results in a response of giving God the best of your head, heart, and hands in worship? Or do you show up Sunday morning with an apathetic attitude that gives God whatever you have left over from the rest of the weekend? Is gathering together in community to worship on Sundays a duty or a delight? And does it matter?

You may be here this morning and you may be thinking to yourself “Dave does it really matter? Whether it is duty or delight, God is still being worshipped. I’m putting my time in. I mean does God really care?” Malachi provides us God’s answer to these questions in verse 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.

God’s response is straightforward and to the point: “Oh, I just wish that one of you would close the doors and lock them tight. If that is how you are going to approach worship, I just wish one of you would cancel church. I just wish you would cancel your worship services, because you acts of worship are useless to Me. I do not find any pleasure or delight in your worship. And I will not accept your worship of Me favorably.”

God makes it abundantly clear that He would rather that we not worship at all than receive worship that makes light of Him. God would rather that we not worship at all than receive worship that is not impressed with Him. God would rather that we not worship at all than receive worship that is out of duty and that gives God less than our best. God would rather that we not worship at all than receive worship that is driven by the motivation that worship is something I got to do and is viewed with contempt.

Now you might be thinking “well Dave, God needs my worship, doesn’t He? And God gets honor and glory regardless of whether my worship is done out of duty rather than delight, doesn’t He?” Malachi provides the answer to this question in the form of an amazing prophecy in verse 11:

"For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations," says the LORD of hosts.

Here we see Malachi predict and proclaim that in the future all of the nations would honor and make much of God. From as far as the east is to the west, individuals across continents and cultures would respond to who God is, what God has done, and what God has promised to do by worshipping Him.

A little over 400 years after this letter was written, God sent His Son Jesus, who entered into humanity as God-in-a-bod and allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. Jesus came with a mission to seek and save the lost from the selfishness and rebellion that separated them from God so that they could have the opportunity to experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that they were created for by believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

Jesus passed that mission on to His followers and Divinely designed the church to be the vehicle that He used to reveal His Son Jesus and His message of rescue through the message of the gospel to the world. In 70 A.D., the doors were permanently shut by the Romans when they destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, thus practically putting an end to the Jewish religious system’s ability to function. And throughout the history of Christianity, followers of Jesus have embraced God and advanced that mission in a way that has produced transformation and has resulted in God being honored and glorified.

Tomorrow, we will see Malachi transition to reveal the present problem that plagued the Jewish people…

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Thinking Lightly of God...

As a church we have begun to spend our time together discovering some timeless detours that we can find ourselves taking as followers of Jesus that can bring us to a place where we find ourselves off track, lost, frustrated, confused, and responding in a way that dishonors God and others. This week, we will see Malachi accuse the Jewish people of taking a detour. And it is in the prophet’s accusation and the evidence that he presents we will see God reveal for us a timeless detour that can get us off track when it comes to our relationship with God and can result in us living a life that dishonors God. So let’s look together as Malachi makes his accusation beginning in 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.

Malachi introduces the accusation that God has against the Jewish people through a comparison. This comparison, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “It is common knowledge that a son normally shows honor and respect to his father. It is common knowledge that a slave normally shows honor and respect to his master or lord. Well if it is normal to show honor and respect to your earthly father and earthly master or Lord, then why are you not showing Me the honor and respect that I rightly deserves and should receive as King and Lord of all?”

What is so interesting is that the word honor, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means weighty or heavy. To honor someone conveys the sense of giving one who carries weight the due that is rightly theirs. When Malachi uses the word respect, this word literally means to fear or stand in awe. This word conveys the sense of holding someone or something in a state of respectful awe.

Here Yahweh, the Lord of Hosts, the One True God, is asking the Jewish people why they were failing to hold Him in a respectful awe and show the honor that He was worthy of as their Heavenly Father and Lord. The Lord is asking “How could you honor and show respect to your earthly fathers and lords and not show honor and respect to your Heavenly Father and Lord? Malachi then reveals the objection that the Jewish people would have to God’s accusation at the end of verse 6. Let’s look at it together:

But you say, 'How have we despised Your name?'

The Jewish people’s response was one of denial: “How have we despised Your name”. The word despised, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to think lightly of. The Jewish people denied that they were making light of God instead of making much of God and by bringing glory and honor to God. The Jewish people denied that they were not impressed with God instead of viewing God with a respectful awe. And the Jewish people not only denied the accusation; the Jewish people also demanded proof of the truth of the accusation. Malachi then responds to their demand by providing evidence to support his accusation in verse 7:

"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.'

To understand the evidence that Malachi is presenting here, we first need to explain how the Jewish people worshipped God in the Old Testament and then define some terms. When Malachi refers to presenting defiled food upon My altar, he is referring to the sacrificial offerings that the Jewish people were required to complete two times a day. In the Jewish sacrificial system, there were two times every day that sacrifices were made to God for the sins of the people, one early in the morning and one in the in the late afternoon at 3 p.m. The sacrificial offerings involved animals who were offered as a substitute to pay the penalty for acts of selfishness and rebellion that had been committed against God. There were also burnt offerings that were offered as an expression of worship and thanksgiving to God.

These sacrifices and offerings were to be made on the altar at the Temple in Jerusalem. In the Old Testament, God provided the Jewish people very clear and detailed instructions when it came to when sacrifices and offerings were to be offered and what was to be offered in those sacrifices. In a letter recorded for us in the Bible called the book of Leviticus, we see God offer a summary of what was to be offered to God on the altar in Leviticus 22:19-25:

for you to be accepted-- it must be a male without defect from the cattle, the sheep, or the goats. 'Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer, for it will not be accepted for you. 'When a man offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD to fulfill a special vow or for a freewill offering, of the herd or of the flock, it must be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it. 'Those that are blind or fractured or maimed or having a running sore or eczema or scabs, you shall not offer to the LORD, nor make of them an offering by fire on the altar to the LORD. 'In respect to an ox or a lamb which has an overgrown or stunted member, you may present it for a freewill offering, but for a vow it will not be accepted. 'Also anything with its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut, you shall not offer to the LORD, or sacrifice in your land, nor shall you accept any such from the hand of a foreigner for offering as the food of your God; for their corruption is in them, they have a defect, they shall not be accepted for you.'"

However, the Jewish people were presenting, or offering defiled food upon the altar. In other words, the Jewish people were presenting offerings of worship to God that were contaminated, polluted, or desecrated in some way.  Malachi then records the objection that the Jewish people would have to God’s accusation-“How have we defiled You?”  This response, if communicated in the language the we use in our culture today, would have sounded like this: “how have we shown contempt for You and Your Name?”

Malachi, anticipating this response, replies with a powerful statement: 'The table of the LORD is to be despised.”  When Malachi makes this statement, he is revealing the reality that God was accusing the Jewish people of viewing the worship of Him as being something that was to be loathed and viewed with contempt.  God is accusing the Jewish people of failing to approach the altar and the worship that would occur at the altar with any respect. The Jewish people were being accused of being so unimpressed with God and thinking so lightly of God that they failed to give any honor or respect to God.

Tomorrow, we will see Malachi continue to speak for God and provide the evidence of this lack of honor and respect...

Thursday, June 7, 2012

We take a detour when we fail to respond to God's grace in a way that brings Him glory...

This week, we are looking at the opening section of a letter in our Bible called the Book of Malachi. Yesterday, we saw the Jewish people respond to God’s declaration of love and faithfulness with skepticism and doubt. From their perspective, the Lord had not demonstrated that He had always loved them. And how was the Lord being faithful to His promises? From their perspective, the problem was not with them, the problem was with God. And their response was to question whether or not God had really loved them at all. “How have You loved us?” We see God’s response to the Jewish people and their question at the end of verse 2:

"Was not Esau Jacob's brother?"

Now, to understand what Malachi is communicating here, we first need to understand who Esau and Jacob were and the role that they played in God’s story. In the first letter that is recorded for us in our Bibles, called the book of Genesis, we meet Abraham, who was the father of the Jewish people. Abraham was the head of the Jewish people’s family tree. In Genesis 25, we enter into God’s story as Isaac, who was the son of Abraham, has grown up and is now married. However, Isaac’s wife Rebekkah was also unable to bear children. And it is into this context that we read the following, beginning in Genesis 25:21:

Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it is so, why then am I this way?" So she went to inquire of the LORD. The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger."

Rebekah then gave birth to the twins, who were named Esau and Jacob. The oldest son, Esau when he became an adult, despised his birthright, which was the special rights, responsibilities, and privileges that he had as the firstborn. And in Genesis 25, we read that one day, after returning famished from a hunting trip, Esau was manipulated into handing over his birthright and the larger inheritance that the birthright represented by his brother Jacob. Esau, out of selfishness, sold the blessings that come from the birthright to his younger son Jacob for a bowl of soup.

A little later in the book of Genesis, in Genesis chapter 27, we read a story where Jacob deceived his father Isaac in order to receive the blessing that belonged to Esau. Then, in Genesis 28, Esau chose to marry a woman that he knew his parents disproved of in order to rebel against them. Who says that the Bible is boring? You should really read it some time. I mean, we could not make this kind of stuff up, could we? What a dysfunctional family. Deception, manipulation, this is the stuff that could make for a top-flight reality T.V. show. Would we all agree that both Esau and Jacob had significant issues, wouldn’t we?

In the Bible, the descendants of Esau would eventually form the nation of Edom and were referred to as the Edomites. The descendants of Jacob would eventually form the Jewish people. Now, with this background in mind, look at how the Lord responds to the Jewish people questioning His love for them in verse 3:

Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness.

Well that sounds harsh, doesn’t it? I mean what is God saying here? Is God saying that He hates people? The word hated here, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to disregard or reject someone. The word loved, as we discovered earlier, literally means to bestow love for someone who is in need and is intimately connected with the idea of choosing and with faithfulness.

Unlike how we use love in our culture today, Malachi is not simply referring to a warm fuzzy feeling; this is about intention and action and choice. What the Lord is communicating here is that He had chosen Jacob and His descendants to live in relationship with Him while rejecting Esau and His descendants. Malachi is explaining that the Jewish people cannot question whether or not God loves them because of His act of choosing them.

The point that Malachi is making here is not that God loved Jacob more than Esau. The point that Malachi is making here is that He loved Jacob rather than Esau. And this choice of Jacob and rejection of Esau had incredible ramifications. When Malachi states that the Lord had made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness, he is revealing the reality that the rejection of Esau was the result of God’s judgment and punishment.

And God’s judgment and punishment of Esau and his descendants was designed to arouse awe and terror in all who saw and heard. The Bible tells us that the Edomites were a wicked people who rejected God and openly rejoiced when Jewish people were conquered by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. However, only a few years later, the Edomites themselves found themselves being gradually overrun by the Nabateans, who lived in what is now modern day Jordan. But there was a fundamental difference when it came to what happened to the Jewish people and what happened to the Edomites after they were conquered, which Malachi reminds the Jewish people of in verse 4:

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."

Here we see Malachi reveal for us the reality that God’s rejection of Esau and his descendants was not temporary. While the Edomites believed that they would simply rebuild their nation that had been crushed and destroyed by the Nabateans and return to power and prominence, God had other plans. The prophet explains that the Edomites attempts at rebuilding would be futile; that God would stand in opposition and wreak havoc and destruction upon the nation as a result of their selfishness and rebellion. Malachi then predicts and proclaims that humanity would forever look on Edom as a wicked country whom the Lord has cursed. Edom would always be a people under the wrath of God.

And that is exactly what history tells us happened to the descendants of Esau. First, the Nabeans eventually drove them from their territory. Then, in 185 B.C., Judas Maccabeus led the Jewish people to crush the remaining resistance of the nation of Edom. Fifty years later, John Hyrcanus, the nephew of Judas Maccabeus, forced the Edomites to be circumcised. Finally, the Jewish historian Josephus recorded the end of the nation of Edom in the first century as they had became fully engulfed by Jewish culture.

You see, the Lord wanted the Jewish people to clearly understand from history that He had always loved them. The problem was not with God and whether or not He loved or was faithful to the Jewish people. The Lord had demonstrated His love and faithfulness by bringing them back from captivity in Babylon. The Lord demonstrated His love by His actions toward them and towards the nation of Edom. But this morning, that does not resolve the tension that we all feel from verse 3, does it? When God says “Jacob I loved, and Esau I hated, that seems harsh, doesn’t it? So what is going on here? We discover the answer as Malachi hammers his point home in verse 5:

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

To help us understand what Malachi is communicating here, let’s ask some questions about the lives of Jacob and Esau. First, were both Jacob and Esau equally guilty of having a huge problem with God as a result of their selfishness and rebellion? Yes they were. Were Jacob and Esau each equally needy of rescue as a result of their selfishness and rebellion? Yes they were. Did both Jacob and Esau both deserve God’s right and just response to their selfishness and rebellion? Yes they did.

Now here is the big question: was it what they did for God that resulted in them having the opportunity to be rescued and enter into a right relationship with God? No, it wasn’t. Both Jacob and his descendants and Esau and his descendants rebelled against God throughout their history. That is why the Jewish people were conquered and carried off to captivity by the Babylonians. You see, it was not what they did for God that resulted in the Jewish people having an opportunity to be right with God. Both the Jewish people and the Edomites deserved God’s right and just response to their selfishness and rebellion.

But, instead of giving them both what they deserved, God chose to extend grace and rescue Jacob and his descendants from the selfishness and rebellion that they had embraced. And God chose to reject, to not rescue Esau from the selfishness and rebellion that they had embraced. God’s answer to the question: “How have you loved us? In what way have you demonstrated that you love us?” was “look at your history of rebellion and look at my history rescuing you from your rebellion”.

And how the Jewish people should have responded to God’s demonstration of His grace and love throughout their history was to bring glory to God. What they Jewish people should have been doing is proclaiming God’s grace, mercy and love to all the nations. What they Jewish people should have been doing was to respond in a way that revealed and reflected the grace, mercy, and love of God to the world.

But that is not what the Jewish people did. Instead, the Jewish people continued to take detours. The Jewish people kept taking detours from walking in relationship with God that resulted in them getting off track, lost, frustrated, confused. Detours that dishonored God and dishonored others. Detours that we all too often can find ourselves taking today.

During the summer, we will discover timeless detours that lead us away from God and that dishonor God and others. And my hope an prayer is that God would move in our heads and our hearts to equip and empower us to recognize and avoid taking these timeless detours that dishonor God so that we would live our day to day lives in a way that walks with God and reveals His Son Jesus to others.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Questionning God's Love...

This week, we are looking at times in our lives where we can be traveling in relationship with God and decided to take a detour. This summer, we are going to discover that the detours that we can find ourselves taking as followers of Jesus are not new detours; these detours have been around for thousands of years. As a matter of fact, there is a letter that is recorded for us in our Bibles called the book of Malachi that records the many detours that the Jewish people decided to take instead of living in relationship with God.


To fully understand the timeless nature of these detours, however, we first need to understand the context in which the book of Malachi was written. You see, as a result of the refusal of the Jewish people to respond to the repeated warnings by God through the prophets to repent from the selfishness and rebellion that characterized their lives, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.

The Southern Kingdom of Judah, however, failed to learn from what happened to the Northern Kingdom. Instead, they continued to selfishly rebel against and reject God. God responded to their selfishness and rebellion by sending the Babylonian empire to as His instrument to judge the Jewish people. In 589 B.C., the Babylonians began to destroy and capture parts of the Jewish nation. Finally, in 586 B.C., led by King Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian Empire captured and destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple.

Forty eight years later, In 539 B.C., the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Persian Empire. The next year, the Persian Emperor Cyrus pronounced an edict that allowed the Jewish people to return back to Israel and rebuild their city. By 536 B.C., the Jewish people had rebuilt the altar and began to worship God again through the Jewish sacrificial system.

However, while the Jewish people were building their own houses, they failed to rebuild either the rest of the Temple of the walls around the city of Jerusalem. God responded by sending the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to call the Jewish people to rebuild the Temple. In 515 B.C., the temple was completed. The events leading up to the completion of the Temple are recorded for us in a letter in our Bibles called the Book of Ezra. In 458 B.C. Ezra himself returned from Babylon to Jerusalem and led the Jewish people to repent from selfishness and rebellion that had once again arisen among the people, which resulted in the Jewish people entering into a covenant to follow the Lord.

14 years later, in 445 B.C. Nehemiah traveled to Jerusalem and led the Jewish people to rebuild the walls around the city, which is recorded for us in the book of Nehemiah. After traveling back to Babylon, Nehemiah ended up having to return to Jerusalem in 427 B.C. in order to, once again, confront the continuing selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people.

So, 150 years after being conquered and deported by the Babylonians, where they lived in captivity for fifty years; after being allowed to begin to return to Jerusalem as a result of God’s activity through the Persian Empire; after spending over 100 years rebuilding the Temple and the city of Jerusalem; the Jewish people were still selfishly rebelling and rejecting the Lord. The Jewish people were continuing to take detours when it came to walking in relationship with God. And it is in this context that God sends the prophet Malachi to the Jewish people with a message. Let’s begin to look at that message together. Beginning in Malachi 1:1:

The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi. "I have loved you," says the LORD.

The book of Malachi begins by introducing us to the writer and the reason for the letter. The word oracle, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means “a burden”. The Lord was carrying a burden when it came to the Jewish people and decided to pronounce that burden to the Jewish people through a man named Malachi. Malachi, in Hebrew, means “my messenger”. The Lord had a message for the Jewish people that was weighing on Him, so He sent His messenger, Malachi, to deliver that message.

Malachi begins the Lord’s message with four simple words that have profound meaning “I have loved you”. What is so interesting here is that the Lord is not simply saying “I love you now”. This phrase, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would sound like this: “I have always loved you. I have always had a warm regard and affection for you as my chosen people”.

You see, the word love in the Old Testament is intimately connected with choosing and with faithfulness. This word literally means to choose to bestow love and affection for someone who is in need. The Lord is “I have always chosen to love you and I have always been faithful to you”. Malachi, then reveals for us the response of the Jewish people to the Lord’s declaration of His love and faithfulness in the second part of verse 2:

But you say, "How have You loved us?"

The Jewish people’s response to the Lord’s declaration of love and faithfulness was doubt and skepticism. The question “how have you loved us” conveys the sense of asking “in what way have you demonstrated that you love us, because we do not feel loved?” As the Jewish people looked at their history, they believed that God was not either loving or faithful.

After all, they had been conquered by the Assyrians and Babylonians. For some of the Jewish people, like Daniel, they had spent nearly seventy years in captivity. And after being able to return to Israel; after spending over 100 years rebuilding the Temple and the city of Jerusalem, they did not feel like they were experiencing God’s love and faithfulness. The Temple was not nearly as splendid and spectacular as it had been in the past. The city of Jerusalem was not nearly as populated as in the past. The Jewish people were not in a position of power and prominence as they had been in the past. And the Messiah that God had promised had not shown up yet.

So, from their perspective, the Lord had not demonstrated that He had always loved them. And how was the Lord being faithful to His promises? From their perspective, the problem was not with them, the problem was with God. And their response was to question whether or not God had really loved them at all. “How have You loved us?”

Tomorrow, we will see God’s response to the Jewish people and their question…

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...and Detours...

In addition to remembering those who have fallen for our freedom, Memorial Day weekend also marks the unofficial beginning of summer. By this point in the year, most schools are out and plans have already been made for a summer of fun. Regardless of age or stage of life, summer is a time that is marked by travel. Whether by plane, train, or automobile individuals and families will spend time this summer on vacations and trips that will make memories that last a lifetime.

And all of us would be able to share a story of a memorable summer vacation. Stories of summer camp, mission trips, and family reunions. Stories of trips to baseball games and visits to grandma and grandpa. Stories of a first airplane flight; stories of a cramped ride in a car filled to capacity with camping equipment. Stories about vacations that you wished never would end and stories about vacations that you wished would have ended sooner. That story about a memorable summer vacation that popped into your mind as I have been speaking. That story that still comes up in conversation with relatives and family members.

Now, for all of us whose story about a memorable summer vacation involved a trip in an automobile, here’s what I know about your story. Even though I have never heard your story, here’s what I know about your story, because here’s what I know about my story about a memorable summer vacation that involved a trip in an automobile. What I know about your story and my story is that somewhere in the middle of the story a question was asked by someone. And we all know what that question was, don’t we? We could all say it out loud together, couldn’t we? At some point in all of our stories, someone asked the question “are we there yet? How much longer? Are we there yet?” Do you remember how long those trips seemed to take as a child?

And what was all the more frustrating as a child; what was all the more irritating as an adult, is when there was road construction. Have you been there? Because when there is road construction, traffic comes to a crawl. When there is road construction, whether you had a car growing up that had 4 x 75 air conditioning, which was 4 windows down at 75 miles an hour, or whether you had air conditioning as standard equipment on your car, air conditioning does not work as well when a car is crawling through construction. Temperatures rise, patience gets short, and then comes the question “How much longer?” Have you been there?

And what could complicate things all the more would be if there was a detour. You know the detour sign; that orange sign that would have an arrow pointing you to take some back road off the main highway. And once on that back road you often quickly had no idea where you were at and no idea where the road was taking you. And you would find yourself hoping and praying that there was a sign that would point you back in the right direction.

And the further the detour took you off track, the more frustrated you became. You began to feel like the detour sign should have looked like this. Temperatures rise, patience gets short, and then comes the question “How much longer?” Have you been there? Off track. Lost. Frustrated. Confused. Responding in a way that dishonors others?

Have you been there spiritually? Have you been at the place in your life where you traveling in relationship with God and decided to take a detour? And once you took that detour you soon found yourself at a place where you had no idea where you were at and no idea where the road you were on was taking you? Temperatures rise, patience gets short, and then comes the question “How much longer?” Have you been there? Off track. Lost. Frustrated. Confused. Responding in a way that dishonors others?

As we enter into the summer travel season, I would like for us to spend our summer discovering that the detours that we can find ourselves taking as followers of Jesus are not new detours; these detours have been around for thousands of years. As a matter of fact, there is a letter that is recorded for us in our Bibles called the book of Malachi that records the many detours that the Jewish people decided to take instead of living in relationship with God.

To fully understand the timeless nature of these detours, however, we first need to understand the context in which the book of Malachi was written. Tomorrow, we will look at that context and the beginning of the book…