Dec 15 Malachi 1, Malachi 2:1-16 – Revelation 6 – Psalm 143:1-12

Mal 1:6

“A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honour? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’

Interestingly – the book of Malachi is anonymous. It’s not a name – it actually means “messenger”. The word is never used as a name is the old testament, but used many times to say messenger. The Jews suspect that it’s written by Ezra, but there’s no evidence either way.

Malachi contains the last of God’s prophecies given to His people for about 400 years and he is getting pretty fed up with them. Unlike many of the books before it, it’s in prose not poetry – a sign that God really had lost patience.

After so long, it appears that Israel had finally learnt its lesson about idolatry. Never again did they seek out foreign gods. Unfortunately, they did what we as the church have done time and again – they found religion instead.

Even in modern worship, where we may not have the rigidity of religion, when it’s purely about emotion we miss the point.

There’s more than just emotion needed in worship. God wants some reverence.

Praise is appreciating God for what he does; worship is adoring him for who he is. CS Lewis said, “I learned how a thing can be revered, not for what it can do to us, but for what it is in itself.” He was then that he understood the difference between praise and worship. Worship isn’t about been grateful to God for what he has done, but awestruck by who he is.

When we praise God, we can come to him as our friend very easily. We delight in what he has done, that the veil has been torn down – that he IS our friend.

But worship… there’s a reverence that’s needed. It is a passionate response to his glory. It’s an acknowledgement that he is all powerful God. And we are not.

Worship is closer to repentance than praise, because it brings humility and reverence for God.

In India the word for father in Pithar. But you don’t called your father that. You call him Pithar G. It’s using the term for the nearest and dearest, but adding respect to it. It means daddy Sir. It’s a mark of reverence and respect. That’s what God is saying here, you call me dad – but where is the Sir?

I’m not saying that Jesus is not our friend. He’s the very best friend that you could ever have, but I think that we sometimes get too familiar with God. Yes he is our friend, but he is also our God and King. Even some worship songs lose this reverence.

Now don’t misunderstand; God is accessible to us all, we all can have a relationship with him – a very close and intimate one. But when we come in worship then there needs to be reverence.

God says, if I am your master – where is the respect?

We are meant to enjoy Him, of course. But don’t just enjoy Him. Revere Him. Worship that is about emotion only is about self, not God. We don’t worship for our benefit, but to glorify Him.

Mal 1:10

Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.

God is so displeased with the quality of their sacrifices that it would be better for the doors of the temple to be closed and no sacrificial fires lighted than for them to go through a mockery of sacrificial service that God will not accept

The fact is a sacrifice that costs you nothing is not a sacrifice at all. All worship requires a sacrifice of sorts. 

And that’s how he feels. He’d rather we shut the doors than give him our second best. 

He’d rather they did not bother. ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the LORD of hosts – that was their attitude. 

You see – the “at least I’ve turned up” argument doesn’t work. If your body is in church but your mind and heart are elsewhere… God is not looking for that. Church attendance on its own is not a virtue.

If you are in that place – warning bells should be sounding right now. Have you got sick of worshipping God? Has it become a chore? Well I have news for you – in that case, He’d rather you didn’t bother!

If we are half hearted and wishing we are still in bed, then – shocking as it is to say – you are better off in bed. At least then you are not wasting God’s time.

By the way – I’m not suggesting if you are struggling that you stay in bed. That won’t help you at all, but it’s certainly better than keeping up a pretence. No, instead we need to deal with it.

Stop. Focus. Who is this God? Who is this wonderful Jesus? He’s the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. When we lose sight of Him – then our worship becomes routine.

The focus of our Worship is ministering to Him! When we are sloppy in our worship it’s God we are short changing. No wonder in Malachi the language is so strong.

Am I saying you need to be lost in it every single moment of the meeting? That every week you should cry because you are so amazed at how wonderful he is? No, I don’t know of anyone who feels that all the time.

What we are is real with God. We give Him our best even on days where our best isn’t very good. 

We gather in church to worship Jesus. The king of kings. We don’t fake a superficial experience or feel bad if we’ve not sent the glory cloud or fallen over. But when we come to worship, we do that to the best we can. What he requires is that we mean it. 

If we don’t’ mean it – he don’t want it.

Mal 2:13-14 and 2:16

And this second thing you do. You cover the LORD’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favour from your hand. But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant…” …For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

I could comment away on this passage and get people angry because they disagree with me… but it’s the Lord speaking in these passages.

Guys, how we treat our wives is important. How we treat our marriage vows is important.

Can we expect God to bless us when we pay our marriages little regard? You don’t need me to speak into that. Re-read this passage. Let God speak in to that.

Then… maybe someone reading this needs to do something about it.