“The greatest is LOVE’. Love for God, His Word, His people and sinners.

Brothers & Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
I want to begin this sermon sharing that wrestling with Malachi 3 and God’s message to me has not been easy. A thousand thousand thoughts have come to mind.
I begin by saying,
‘I cannot look into your heart and see what motivates you to choose to do what you choose to do or the way you will live your life. I do not even want to look into your wallet and know what you are giving to God.’
I just know that Jesus said, none can serve both God and money – you will love the one and despise the other.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
The Psalmist wrote, “You hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And being with you, I desire nothing on earth (apart from you).
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength
of my heart, and my portion forever… It is good to be
near unto God. I have made the sovereign God my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.” Psalm 73:23-28
What is God like?
“I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.”
Fundamental to our understanding of what is going on is: the nature of the Covenant of God, that is, God’s unfailing covenant love for His people.

My friends, because God does not change, the Lord’s mercies and his blessing of good gifts are new every morning but, do we acknowledge Him and give him wholehearted thanks and praise and want to pray the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray and live it?
‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name,
Your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil
one, for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory
forever and ever. Amen – let this be so.

Lord, help me to see what you are seeing!
Give me the faith that enables me to bless you and be the blessing, the channel of your peace, the channel of your love to those you put on my path today.
We read that Jesus called his disciples ‘friends’ for he had told them what his heavenly fathers’ business is. The saving of sinners, the establishment of his eternal
kingdom, reconciling the people he has made to himself.
Jesus is calling us to share his message with our children and grand children, those near and dear to us, the stranger that God puts on our path,
‘God our creator cannot be mocked. Remember him, and do not take life for granted. Be reconciled to God for the day is coming when he comes to judge the living and the dead – yes all of us will give an account for our lives and how we have responded to the free offer of the Gospel. As long as God gives us life and breath, may we offer ourselves as living sacrifices no matter the cost!

The people in the day of Malachi grumbled against God, accusing him of doing them wrong.
They said, ‘why are we suffering the way that we do?’
Look at our circumstances – plagues, pests, our numbers are few and the Persians still rule us.
Why, says Malachi, Have you broken faith?
The people were blind to the reason for their plight.
They were under God’s curse because they rebelled against him.
They were not blessed because they did not respond to God’s covenant love by honouring or loving the Lord with all their being and doing what he had commanded. People dearly loved by God, don’t you know that the greatest is love?
‘God is love! He calls his people to respond to his love and faithfulness by loving him with all their heart and all their soul and all their mind and all their strength.
Why, says Malachi, Have you broken faith?
Over the last weeks we have learnt of what God thinks of his people when they fail to honour him first and always.
The priests had broken faith with the Lord Almighty.
They neglected their duties to God.
They neglected their covenant responsibilities.
How?
They went through the motions of sacrifice – but their hearts were not in it.
“What a burden,” they said.
The priests did not teach the people to Love God, love the Word of God, Love one another or love the sinner. They accepted the offering of blind, diseased, maimed
and lamb animals from the people, thinking this was good enough for God.

A holy God calls for offerings without defect.
God deserves and demands the best.
Indeed in Christ we see the perfect lamb of God who takes away our sins by dying on the cross at Calvary. Since Christ died and rose, the offering of bulls, goats, sheep and pigeons has been done away with.
God was not pleased with his people when they married foreign or unbelieving women. This command of God continues to apply and to disobey his will has its sad consequences.
Paul said, ‘Do not be unequally yoked.’
Many were quick to divorce their wives.
In unbelief they said,
“All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and he
is pleased with them.” or “Where is the God of Justice?“
The prophet replies to the unbelief of God’s people:
A Messenger of the Lord will prepare his way.
The Lord will arrive suddenly – unpleasantly.

He is going to refine His people.
And so we along with the saints of old humbly pray,
‘Lord purify my heart, make me more like Jesus.’
Now Malachi as the Lord’s messenger gives God’s people an invitation to test God’s generosity.’ Return to God & he will turn to us.
How are they to return to God?
By giving their tithe and offerings.
Let’s look at the structure of these verses.
Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’

“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask,
‘How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings.
You are under a curse– the whole nation of you–
because you are robbing me.
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may
be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD
Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the
floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing
that you will not have room enough for it.
I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the
vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the
LORD Almighty.
“Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will
be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.
Can we out give God?
How big is your shovel compared to God’s?
Is it true that we can test God?
Think about God’s dealing with Moses – an unwilling servant called lead Israel out of Egypt. Throw down your staff – it turned into a snake. Pick it up by the tail – back to a stick. Put your hand into your robe – leprous as snow.
Put it back into your robe and it was back to normal.
Moses was called a friend of God.
God told Moses that he would be with Moses and give him the strength to lead his people out of slavery.
Did Moses do his job perfectly?
Only Jesus did the work his Father in heaven had given him to do perfectly.
Through his suffering – because he laid down his life for his friends – he has become the instrument through whom God has reconciled sinners to God.
The Old Testament sacrificial system has been fulfilled by him who came as the lamb of God to bear the punishment sinners deserve.
Now Israel is invited to test God.
Why was tithing so important in the days of Israel?
It was used to support the workers in the Temple.
It was also used to feed the poor.

Are we allowed to test God in the same way today?
What about tithing?
Is this what we ought to be doing?
Tithing was practiced before Israel became a nation.
Abraham gave Melchizedek a tithe.
What can we give of our first fruits out of gratitude to the Lord?
Let us be seeking first the kingdom of God.
No-where in the New Testament is an amount stipulated.
But we do have instructions about giving.
It would be good for all of us to search the Scriptures for ourselves to understand what God is saying to us. Let us not be trying to look into the hearts or wallets of
others – rather let us humble ourselves before Almighty God who knows our hearts.
‘Lord purify my heart – make me more like Jesus – storing up treasure in heaven.’
Let us never forget God’s grace and mercy.
We must not think that salvation is dependent on what we do.
The perfect covenant keeper is the Lord Jesus.
Through faith in Him, God’s people receive the gift of righteousness and are thus enabled to please God.

The offering that the redeemed bring to the Lord is a living sacrifice – ‘Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to Thee.’
God does care about what we do.
Wickedness will be met with judgement.
God will show His justice on the last day when Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead. So let us examine our lives in the light of the Gospel.
Let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling knowing that the Lord does care about every aspect of our lives.
In Christ God has shown us how much he loves us.
“Greater love has no man than he lay down his life for his friends.”
Jesus calls us his friends, he calls us to be partners in the business of sharing God’s love with sinners. May we love God’s Word which directs us as to how we are to live as the redeemed people of God. As we share the living word, the Holy Spirit convicts sinners of the need to repent from evil and seek the forgiveness of God in Christ and so receive the gift of eternal life.
To live for the Living God and to serve Him is the reason we have been given life and breath. God wants Lordship over every area of our lives.
This includes our wallet.
They will know we are Christians by our love for God, our love for God’s Word, our love for each other and our love for sinners.
We offer to God our tithes and offerings not because our salvation depends on it, for we have been saved by grace alone by faith; faith in Christ alone.

Jesus calls us to store up treasures in heaven by seeking first His kingdom and the honour of His holy Name.
Throughout Scripture God calls his people to be holy for He is holy.
Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Show me your way that I may walk in it.
I invite you, I urge you; even I urge myself to join with the Psalmist and pray,
“Search me O God and know my heart;
Test me and know my anxious thoughts,
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.’Psalm 139: 23-24
Jesus calls us friends and has given us the Holy Spirit to help us, weak and needy though we are to live a life that honours God.
“The greatest is LOVE’.
Love for God, His Word, His people and sinners.
Any Questions?

Amen.