True Worship = Wholehearted devotion

Brothers & Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,

Last Sunday we heard that God placed a burden/a message on Malachi’s heart.
He had to share this Word of the Lord. The burden that God place on His ‘Messenger’ – the name Malachi means “messenger of the Lord”, was:
God’s unfailing covenant love is for His people.
‘This is the mystery of God’s Providence’. I have loved you – present tense (God’s love is everlasting towards His people) – I love you always!
In the remnant – God’s covenant love still abided. Irrespective of their numbers, failures and sins, they still represented the whole nation – including those in exile.
They were still the people of God.
They are the mediators of God’s revelation and the bearers of the covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac & Jacob.

Israel’s response
“How have you loved us?”
In other words: “prove it that you love us.”
The circumstances of the nation at that time were not so great.
It was true that they had been set free from exile in Babylon just as God had promised. The temple had been rebuilt – but its splendor could not be compared to the Temple of Solomon.
They were experiencing hardship – pests and plagues (2:17; 3:11,12) They were politically weak and insignificant living under Persian rule yet God will accomplish His sovereign purpose and plan for His people.

They will see the gracious dealings of God towards His people which will be the conclusive answer and proof to them of God’s love for them.
Today we consider the rest of Chapter 1.
The theme: ‘God’s great Name will be revered by all in spite of the irreverence of Israel.’

‘True worship = wholehearted devotion.’
Malachi the last prophet of the Old Testament declares that Israel has spurned the holy Name of the Lord.
“A son honors his father, and a servant honors his master.”
Yet Israel refused to respect God their Father.
Remember how the Word of the Lord was proclaimed by Moses to Pharaoh.
“Israel is my first-born son… Let my son go.”
God had entered into a covenant relationship with Israel.
The covenant with the nation was formally instituted through Moses, God giving them the law of the covenant and formally outlining the sacrificial laws and the work of the Levitical priesthood.
Because the Lord Almighty loved His people with an immense and jealous love, he disciplined them. Because God loves His people, He sends His prophet to tell them what He thinks of their sacrifices.
It is not the outward actions of the priests that upsets God.
It is their attitude.
“You priests show contempt for my Name.”
They went through the motions of sacrifice – but their hearts were not in it.
“What a burden,” they said.
They took no care or pride in what they offered to God.

The priests did not teach the people to honor the Lord God Almighty.
They accepted the offering of blind, diseased, maimed and lame animals from the people, thinking this was good enough for God.
So the priests were guilty of dishonoring God.
And the people also. They served up to God, what they would not dream of serving to their Governor. The point is that God is not pleased with those who just go through the motions in what they offer to Him.
God evaluates the heart.
‘True worship = wholehearted devotion.’
We no longer offer burnt offerings to God. That has been taken care of with the offering of Christ – the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
The covenant keeper is Christ Jesus himself.
By faith in Christ, his perfect obedience in fulfilling
God’s covenant is credited to the people of God today.
The magnitude of God’s love for his people is demonstrated in giving His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
O the mercy of God in that He does not treat us as our sins deserve.
God redeemed his people from their exile in Babylon.
God has redeemed us from sin, Satan and death, adopting us to be his children, yet each of us need to be honest, putting our hands on our hearts, asking, ‘What does my worship, devotion and love for God look like?’
Romans speaks of the offering of our selves as a living sacrifice.

With what is God pleased?
With those who honor Him with their hearts.
Lip-service does not honor God.
Is showing up for church only when you feel like okay?
Almighty God is not mocked, for He searches our hearts.
We can go through the motions but if our heart is not in it – what does it achieve?
Worse than nothing.
God said through Malachi,
“Oh that one of you would shut the Temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you and I will not accept any offering from your hands.”
God will not allow his glory to be given to another.
God will be glorified from the rising to the setting of the sun.
As we look back over history, God has demonstrated that He is above all the gods of the nations. He conquered the gods of Egypt, the gods of Canaan, Babylon, Persia, Rome, and the gods of this age.
He has been and will be feared from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets.
He is the great God above all gods – there is no other but Him.
For Israel to think that they would get away with their contemptible sacrifices is beyond belief, yet they showed no reverence for the Almighty. Yet this same attitude can creep into the hearts of God’s people today.
Questions like – what is the point of serving God?
It seems so futile.
For many it leads to persecution and trouble. There are the times when our circumstances cause us to doubt God’s love. In those times consider again the greatness of our God. He who so loved us that He sent His one & only Son into the world so that as He was glorified and glorified the Father by being lifted up onto a cross, that He might draw all nations to Him. By the way, next week begins the time of Lent – the church around the world thinks anew on the suffering
Christ endured to save us from our sins.
The punishment of God for our sins was laid on Christ. In view of such love, shall we not come before the Almighty Lord with awe – He is an awesome God.
Come before Him offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving.
What is a sacrifice that is acceptable to the Lord?

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy,
to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to God–this is your spiritual {Or reasonable} act of worship.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s
will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Rom.12:1,2
What do you do when a person is sick?
You put them to bed.
If they continue to get worse, you take them to the doctor.
If the doctor sees their condition is serious, he will put them into hospital. If on the normal ward their condition continues to deteriorate, they put them into I.C.U.
There they will put them on life support. The machines take over the function of their organs. The machines that were keeping Israel going in the time of Malachi were Temple worship. But Malachi had to point out to them how sick they were because their spiritual life was simply, a going through the motions, believing God was happy with that. If the spiritual health of Israel was to be restored, the priests had to change their attitude.

The people had to get right with God offering sacrifices that were pleasing to Him. As Micah 8:6 says, What does the Lord require of you?
To do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Revere Him, honour Him with your whole being.
God says that we are all members of the body of Christ.
How do you know when the body is healthy?
When each part of the body is doing his or her proper work. – the ear hears, the eye sees, the hands do their job.
Now the churches structures or programs in and of themselves can serve as purely the life support machines that keep the body going.
A really healthy body does not rely on the structures or the programs for its health. Indeed, some might think that the Church is going well because they look at all the programs that are being run. If God is not in the centre receiving all the glory and honour, the work we do is in vain.
Let us beware of offering God only lip-service.
With lip-service God is not pleased.
With the keeping of formal traditions that would glorify man, he is not pleased.

With those who go through the motions but their heart is not in it, he is not glorified.
God is calling us to be men & women, boys and girls who walk with the living God by faith one day at a time.
What does that look like?
We are called to be people of the Word because that is how God nourishes and grows our faith. We feed on the living Word of God, which God in the mystery of His providence has given to strengthen us in faith so we might know how we may bring glory and honor, praise and reverent worship to Him who of whom the angels and all the saints cry out, ‘holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty.
God also calls us to be a people who are faithful, may I say fervent in prayer, indeed prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us. Those who seek God with all their heart offer to Almighty God prayers of praise and adoration, prayers of confessing our sins and short-comings.
We plead for God’s mercy recognizing,
“Surely I was sinful from birth, sinful from the time my
mother conceived me.” Psalm 51:5)
In and by faith, God desires prayers of thanks-giving, prayers of intercession, praying “Hallowed be Your Name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Let us be on our guard against praying selfish prayers.
May thee Lord put on our hearts an earnest, fervent and passionate burden that embraces all of what Jesus says to his disciples “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you as well…”

Philippians 4:13 was the verse for the day, Thursday 12/2, “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.”
The day is coming when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. Let us be praying for each other that God will enable us to be his faithful servants using the gifts and talents that he has entrusted to us so that we might truly worship him alone, giving to him our total allegiance.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your
strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
Can I ask what would motivate you to ‘Truly worship
Almighty God with wholehearted devotion.’
Do you remember the parable of the talents or ‘bags of
gold’? To one servant 5 bags of gold were given, at once he went to work and gained 5 more, another was given 2 bags of gold, he gained 2 more.
To these servants the master said, “well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness.” Matthew 25:21

Amen.