Jesus, I want to thank you God, for meeting with us as we sung,
as we sung our songs of praise to you, Lord God.
And I pray, Lord God, that as we, as we, as we listen to your
word, Lord God, as we open our Bibles today, Lord Jesus, that
that you would mould us and change us.
Lord God, I pray, Lord God that you would, you'd, you'd convict
us on areas where we need to repent, Lord Jesus, where we
need to turn around and come back to you.
Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord God, you'd come for us where we need
comforting. Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord God,
for those who join the break, ask for prayer.
Lord Jesus, and, and, and we pray for extra grace.
We pray that you would change situations.
Lord Jesus, I ask you, God, that, that you would move, Lord
Jesus, Lord God, that you would, you would mend broken hearts or
Jesus, you would bring finances where finances are needed.
You bring jobs, you bring whatever needs happening or God,
you do it. Lord Jesus, we ask it in your
name, Amen. Amen.
So we are continuing in the book of Malachi.
So if you want to find Malachi, it's right at the end of your of
the Old Testament, just before you get to Matthew.
And what we looked at last time is that Malachi is teaching us.
He's God's messenger and he is teaching us what it looks like
to be God's chosen people, that those who through faith accept
God's free gift of grace that we don't live the same.
We don't stay the same. If you've accepted Jesus as your
Lord and Saviour, you can't stay the same.
His grace comes, his spirit lives in you and you just
change. You become more like him and
that now the part of the see there's a side effect.
See when if you take, if you, if you take certain medicine or
whatever, you there's a list of things that say side effects on
it, where there's a side effect of following Jesus.
And that side effect is that you become more like him that you
become devoted to him that you don't you, you, you want to
sacrifice your life for him. Because when, as we've done
already this morning, we sing of how amazing is that God, you're
so good, you're wonderful God. When we get that deep down
inside, it's not just words that we say.
We actually we want to. There's nothing we wouldn't give
up for him because he is so amazing.
So I'm going to. So can anyone remember?
Here's a here's a memory test for you.
Last time I spoke two weeks ago, I taught you some Hebrew.
Can anyone remember the word I taught you?
Amazing. Well done.
That makes me feel really good when people 1/2 No, it makes me
it does make me feel good. I I mean, I honestly expect most
people to walk out there and forget everything I say, but
actually that you remembered that that's brilliant.
Yes, half get that Gods are halves.
He he loved Jacob, that he loved Israel, which we looked at the
fact that that meant that out of every nation, every people
group, every tribe in tongue, God chose Israel and it was
through Israel that he chose to make himself known.
He chose to make him. He chose to love them, meaning
that he chose to make his covenant through them, that
through Jacob he would bring the world back to himself At Babel,
the Tower of Babel, you know, remember that the nations were
scattered to the ends of the earth, and it was through Jacob
that God wanted to undo that. See God, God has always wanted a
people made-up of every tribe and tongue.
And so he desires to do he desire to do that from the very
beginning. And so he was said he was going
to do that through Jacob, through Jacob's descendants,
through Jacob's descendants. He was going to send the Messiah
who was going to bring an end to to injustice and suffering and
he was going to do away with the curse of death.
But as we know, as you read the Old Testament and as Paul
underlines in his book to the Romans, that many people who
were descendants who could trace their lineage back to Abraham,
they weren't true Israel. Paul says there were Israelites.
There are Israel who isn't true, who aren't true Israel.
And what he meant by that is that you read it in the Old
Testament. God, he chose Israel.
But many of them they said we don't want you, Yahweh as our
God. We don't want to be in your
family. We want to worship the bars and
the asturas. We want to worship other gods.
And what we'll see what you see in Jesus time is that they were
no different. I mean, pick in Jesus time the
the most religious, the most, most people, the people who look
like they were most following gods, the Pharisees, they they
were people who we would have all looked at and gone.
That's what it looks like to be a follower of gods.
And Jesus looks at them and says you're not children of the
Father. You're not real Israelites,
you're not true Israelites. And what what what it meant was
that your righteous deeds, you're all your good things that
you're doing. You're not doing them to please
Yahweh. You're doing them because you
want, you're interested in your own status, your own position at
the table, your own wealth. And actually Jesus says that,
that actually you say you worship Yahweh, you.
But when Yahweh himself, when God himself stepped into the
world through Jesus Christ, you wanted to do away with him.
You wanted to kill him, proving that you never loved Yahweh in
the 1st place, you never loved God in the first place.
You see the Pharisees, they would boast about their lineage.
They'd say, you know, they'd go, this is who my father was and my
mum was, This is who my great grandparents were all the way
back to all the way back to Abraham.
They they'd say this is how amazing everyone is.
But Jesus quite clearly was said, and Malachi is saying
here, that you are not saved, you are not counted as God's
children because of your parents.
You are not in his family. Your parents may be amazing,
your grandparents may be. You may have some famous
Christian in your heritage. Doesn't matter squat.
Do you have faith in Christ Jesus?
Jesus died. He shed his blood so that we
could enter into his family through faith.
If you don't have faith in him, it doesn't matter how great your
parents were, it doesn't matter if you were a Jew living in the
1st century who could trace their lineage all the way back
to Abraham. It doesn't matter.
God goes well, I know Abraham, but I don't know who you are.
God. See Jesus he chooses us, but we
have to accept him through faith.
We have to church. My question to you this morning
is have you accepted him? Have you walked in the good of
his grace? Have you accepted his faith?
You see Jesus says in in John chapter 8 verse 41, he says he
says this you are doing, he's talking to the Pharisees and the
Pharisees are claiming that they are children of Abraham because
they can, they can do all the that they've got all the IT
written down. And he says you are doing the
works of your own father, IE not gods.
We are not illegitimate children.
They protest only. The only father we have is God
himself. Jesus said to them, If God were
your father, you would love me. I have come here from God.
I have not come on my own. God sent me.
Why is my language not clear to you?
Because you aren't able to hear what I say.
You belong to your father, the devil and you, and you want to
carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the
beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in
him. When he lies, he speaks his
native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
He's Jesus saying you may be able to trace your lineage back
to great people, great followers of gods, but you don't love me.
So therefore you're not my child.
You, you, you are, you are children of the enemy.
And in in Matthew 2012 and 23, he makes it very clear.
He says you are not children of God.
Instead you are children of the snake.
You are a brood of Vipers. And what he's doing there when
he calls them snakes, he's meant he's, he's hyperlinking back to
Genesis 3 where God says to, to to Adam and Eve and the the
serpent, he says there will be enmity.
There was strife between your children and your children,
between the children of Eve and the children of, of the snake.
And now the snake is, this is, is a spiritual being.
OK. But and what God's not saying is
the snake is going to have physical children.
But as you look through Scripture, you see that that
there is a choice that people have.
And God says you're either following me and you're my
children or you're children of the snake.
We get this with the big arch evil people of the Bible, kind
of starting with Cain. It says sin is crouching out
your door. Cain, what are you going to
choose to do? You're going to choose to be
mine or are you going to choose to be one?
One with the serpent. Are you going to be one with the
deceiver, with the one? Well, the murderer, the liar, he
chooses to be with the serpent. We have, we have people like
Pharaoh, like Nebuchadnezzar, who who are described in kind of
snake like ways. We even have the great arch
nemesis Goliath. He he's he's not called a snake,
but when he'd read how he's described, he described his
armour is scaly, just like a serpent, all bringing links to
say he is that he's not a child of God.
He's a child of the serpent. Even in the tribe of Israel,
we've got we've got the tribe of Dan are described as a serpent
and they're they're the first tribe that really kind of just
completely rebel against gods. And in the in the New Testament,
Jesus, here he comes the Pharisees who are saying, look
at us, look how amazing we are and he's saying you ain't
children of gods. You are deluding yourselves.
Instead, you are children of the serpent.
You see, what are you? Who is your God?
Who are you following? Who are you following church?
See, our status as children of gods is not down to who your
parents were. It is down to do you have faith
in the blood of Jesus Christ. The writer of the Hebrews says
this. Find it.
He says he that's Jesus did not enter by the He did not enter by
the means of blood of goats and calves, but he entered the most
high place once and for all by the bloods.
Thus by play entered the most high place once and for all by
his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
The blood of goats and bulls and ashes and the ashes of a heifer
sprinkled on those who are seminary unclean, sanctify at
them so that they are outwardly clean.
How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleansing
our consciences from the acts that lead to death, so that we
may serve the living gods? You see, Church, every single
one of us scripted teachers, no matter where you were, no matter
where you were born, were once children of the serpent.
We were once under wrath. We were once under condemnation.
We were once rebellious. We were once, once against God.
We were once spiritually dead. Scripture teaches us but Christ,
but Christ stepped in, but Christ shed his blood so that we
could be purified, so that we could enter in.
See, we were once children of the serpent, which brings death
and slavery. But through faith, we can now
become children of God who brings life and freedom.
I mean, that's amazing, isn't it?
How wonderful is that that we that we get to through the blood
of Jesus Christ, we get to walk in true life.
I mean, the world would say, you know, you don't want to become a
Christian because you have to abide by all these rules and
then that's not true life. We'd say there is no life apart
from Christ. There is nothing apart from
Christ. See, see what all we have to do,
all we bring church, all you bring to the table is your
faith, just trusting in the blood of Christ Jesus.
But faith isn't a one time thing.
Faith isn't a well, I prayed a prayer when I was a little kid
and I said sorry to God and now I just do whatever I want.
Faith actually we're and Bethan quoted it last week when she
talks about James. James says that true faith is
displayed in how we act, what we do now, it's not that if you, if
you act really nicely and you pray all the time and you and,
and, and you read your Bible that that earns you favour with
God. It's not that way round.
Actually. You can't earn favour with God.
And also if God love, if, if you've experienced God love, you
don't read your Bible and do good deeds and and pray because
to, to, to try and pay him back. You can't do that.
No, no, no, he shows his love for us.
We grasp how amazing he is in part anyway.
And then just a natural outworking of that is you want
to be like him because he is so amazing, because he is so good.
See that the Scripture tells us over and over and over again
that we accept God's goodness through faith.
It is a gift of grace that God gives to us, and it's by faith
that we enter in. And that is where the Jewish
people of Malachi's time were failing.
Like some of us, they had identified as believers of gods.
They'd said we're children of gods, but their actions showed
something different. As Jesus would say, your actions
prove that you are not my children at all, but children of
the serpent. Let's read Malachi.
Malachi chapter 1, verses 6.
To the ends of that chapter it says a son honours his father
and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the
honour due me? If I'm a master, where is the
respect due me? Says the Lord Almighty.
It is your priest who show contempt for my name.
But you ask, how have we shown contempt for your name?
By offering to file food on my altar.
But you ask, how have we defiled you by saying the Lord's Table
is contemptible? When you offer blind animals and
sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame,
diseased animals, is that not wrong?
Try offering them to your governor.
Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you, Says the
Lord Almighty. Now plead with God to be
gracious to us with such offerings for your hand.
From your hands will he accept you, says the Lord Almighty.
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, says the Lord Almighty, and I will
accept no offering from your hands.
My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun
rises to where it sets in every place incense and pure offerings
will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the
nations, says the Lord Almighty. But you profane it by saying the
Lord's table is defiled and it's food is contemptible.
And you say what a burden and you sniff at it contemptuously,
says the Lord Almighty. When you bring injured, lame or
diseased animals and offer them as a sacrifice, should I accept
them from your hands? Says the Lord.
Curse is the cheat who has who has an acceptable male in his
flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices A blemish animal
to the Lord. For I am a great king, says the
Lord Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations
church. Who do you worship?
Who is your gods? Who do you belong to?
You see, the Jews claim that they were Yahweh's, that they
belong to him, that they were his chosen people.
But Malachi says you don't show God the respect that he's Jew,
you don't honour him, you don't show him the glory, the weight
that he deserves. Malachi is reminding us that our
status, as I keep saying, as children is not based on who
where you came from, who your parents are, but faith in Christ
Jesus, in God alone. You see, the way that they were
not can I get a drink of water, please?
Someone could. The way that they were not
showing in the Old Testament times, the way they weren't
showing respect for God is that they were offering blame, sick
animals, this sacrifice. And Gee, and God says to them,
you wouldn't even dare offer these.
You wouldn't offer these sacrifices to one of your own
rulers, to someone who you would consider important.
And so he goes as far as saying that I wish that someone would
shut the doors to the temple, meaning I wish someone would
shut the doors to my presence because you insult me so much
with your pretend worship. Thank you very much.
So who do you belong to? Church.
Do you belong to Jesus? Do you belong to Christ?
Or do you belong to the serpent? Which do you follow?
Are you devoted to Him? Are you devoted to Christ?
See. What Jesus is saying, and what
Malachi is saying is that God's children, they are devoted to
him, they love him, they sacrifice for him.
You see, in the Old Testament, Leviticus 1/3 tells us that an
acceptable sacrifice looked like this.
It was a burnt offering from the herd that you that was meant to
be without defect, and you must present it your first fruits to
the entrance of the tent, so that it may be acceptable on
your behalf. You see, sacrifice for the Jews
it meant. It meant bringing your first and
your best for them. They were farmers, so they they
either grew crops in the field or they looked after sheep or
goats and cows. And God doesn't care what you
bring, but he says bring your first and bring your best.
And the reason why he says bring your best is because we give our
best to the ones we most love, the ones we most cherish.
So God's saying, that should be me, shouldn't that be me?
And so they were to bring their best to gods and show that they
loved and show that he was the most important thing in their
life. And they were to bring the first
because actually it meant that they trusted him.
See, if you're a farmer and you're growing, you're growing a
field of crop. What what the Israelites were
doing in Malachi's day, they grow, they grow all their
fields. And then they'd look at a corner
of the field and go, well, that's been a bit drowned.
That not very good. That bit.
Well, God wants wants some, some of my crane.
He's not going to eat it anyway. So let's give him that bits the
leftovers. They were look, they were, they
were, they were if they were growing, if they were, if they
were cattle farmers, they'd have their they'd get their all
their, all their cattle that was born that year and they'd look
at them and go, well, there's the there's the lame one, right?
God, you can have that one. I mean, it's not going to matter
to you. What are you going to do with
it? You can just have that one.
No, what they were meant to do is give the very first, the best
one that came first, the best. But if you're growing crop, you
gave the first crop that you grew.
And what that does is what you're doing is you're saying,
God, you are the most important. Again, I'm going to give you the
first because actually I'm trusting you because if you grow
a crop and you give the first to God, you've not got anything.
You're you're relying that the rest is going to grow.
You're relying on God to bring the rest of what you're saying
is that whether the rest comes or not, I trust in you.
I trust in you, I trust that you're good Gods see for that's
us. That's that's bringing bringing
the first of our money, that's bringing the first of our
energy, that's bringing the 1st of our of, of, of what we have
not going well. I've spent everything, whether
that's money or energy or whatever in God, you can have
what's left over. You know, I'll go to Home group
if I've got enough energy left at the end of the day, right?
God says no, flip it. You prioritise spending time
with me in the family of Gods and then you with the rest that
I will give you. You work and you have you, you
and have time. Have fun with that.
It's putting him first, see. But the the Jews, that's not
where they were at. They were sacrificing what they
had left, what was left in their pockets.
And my question whilst I was reading this was had the Jews
become so disheartened with life?
Remember, it was 100 years since they'd come back from exile.
They believed the Messiah was going to come.
They believed the world was going to change.
They believed that everything was going to be amazing.
Now that they've been set free from Babylon in the, in the
Persian Empire. They thought everything was
going to be amazing. But, but it wasn't.
People were still sick. People were still dying.
They, they, they weren't really free.
So had they had they got so disillusioned with God that
they, they thought that's all he's worth.
My circumstances aren't great, so that's all I'm going to give.
Or maybe they truly believed that this was worship.
Maybe they were bringing their leftovers and thinking, well,
that's all God wants. God just wants what I do my
best. And God, if there's anything
left, if you give me anything left, then I'll give it to you.
And they did, they believe that that was worship.
You see, church, we can delude ourselves.
We're very good at deluding ourselves.
Actually, we're very good at deluding others as well.
And you can, you can delude everyone in here that you're an
amazing Christian. Do you love Jesus, that he is
the most important person in your life and nothing comes
anywhere close to that. But it's not true.
You can fool others. You can even fool yourself, but
God says you cannot fool me. You can't fool me.
Remember the Pharisees, Jesus, Jesus told a story about a
Pharisee in Luke 18. He said, he said he told the
story and it was really popular in that time that they would
have times of prayer during the day.
And what the Pharisees would do, they would make sure that they
were out and about during those times of prayer.
This is why Jesus says go to your room and pray privately.
He's not against public prayer meetings.
What he's saying is, is what the Pharisees used to do is go
right. 2:00 is my time of prayer.
I could be at home or I could be in the temple and I could and I
could, oh, it's 2:00. Oh, it's my time of prayer.
Look at everyone. Look everyone, I am actually
stopping and I am praying. I am amazing, I am wonderful.
And whilst I'm at it, rather than telling you how good God
is, I'm just going to just list off all the really good things
I've done this week so you can know how amazing I am.
And Jesus, no, God doesn't want that.
God doesn't hear that. God says, I wish you'd shut the
temple doors. So I can't, I can't, I can't
hear that. Remember?
Then there's a tax collector who just comes before God and he
goes, I'm useless. I'm a I'm a despicable man.
But God, I ask you to forgive me and what I have, I give to you.
And God, Jesus, like that is what I want.
That is who I want. That is who it is who I accept.
You see the Pharisees, they were deluded.
Are we? Are we deluded?
See the church, This is serious. This is really serious.
Sacrifice, worship. It means putting Jesus first
everywhere, not just coming to a Sunday service for an hour or
two. It means that Jesus is #1
everywhere. It's not even having a load of
good things in your life, and Jesus just tucks in on the end.
No, no, Jesus is above and 2nd to none.
That's what sacrifice means. See, God says, if I am not
number one in your life, eventually I'm going to shut the
doors. I'm going to shut the doors to
my presence. I'm going to shut the doors to
my temple. In Revelation, John is given
this image and Jesus says that if your worship, if you're half
hearted, if your lukewarm worship was a drink of water,
I'd sip it and spit it out. That's what he feels when we
come to him half hearted. That's what he feels.
He says one day. This is why it's so serious as
one day you will meet me face to face and some of you bless you,
some of you will say Jesus, my friend, my Saviour, and he'll
say I never knew you, who are you?
And you'll say, but, but, but I went to church a couple of times
a month. I even once went to a Home
group. You know, someone put a prayer
request request online and I put a prayer emoji.
You know, surely I know you Gods, they say away from me.
You never did the works of my father.
You didn't build my father's Kingdom.
You didn't worship me as first in your life.
Jesus says there are two paths, just two.
There's a big old, wide one where we live for ourselves.
We do what we want to do. You might even serve God when
it's on your terms. You might even give when it's
convenient, but it's for you. Or you live down the narrow path
of sacrifice and service of gods.
Yeah, sometimes you go wrong, but you come back on it and you
repent. You say, sorry God, I want to
get right with you. And he says the narrow path is
the path that leads to life. See in John, in Revelation John,
John writes a personal letter from God to the Church of
Ephesus. And he says to the church in
Ephesus, you've done amazing stuff.
You've done wonderful works. Everyone thinks you're great but
you, I hold this against you. You have forgotten your first
love. You don't love me above
everything else. I am not the most important
thing in your life. And some of you maybe sat there
thinking, don't judge me. You don't know who I am.
You don't know what my life's like.
You know, I, I, I have a relationship with Jesus just
because it doesn't look like serving, just because it doesn't
look like giving, just because it doesn't look like, like, like
singing my heart out on a Sunday or turning up to a prayer
meeting. I still have a, a, a
relationship with Jesus. He knows what's on the inside
and you don't. I say, you're right, God does
know what's on the inside and I don't.
And for some of you, that should be a real encouragement because
I know some of you have real struggles.
You really struggle. You, you financially,
physically, you really struggle. And so when you do give, when
you do give of your time, your energy, your money, God is so
pleased with you. It may not be as much as you
wish it could be, but he sees it and he loves it.
Just like the widows might He see this woman who comes and
gives just, it feels like a pathetic amount of money into
the offering. Jesus says she is amazing.
She is wonderful. You look at her on the outside,
you think she just turned up, She just gave a few pence and
she says no, no, no. I see her struggles and I see
how hard it is for her to do that.
And that is a massive sacrifice for her.
But also we need to be a war. It needs to be a warning because
Jesus does see what's inside. So he does see when you're lazy.
You know, I really just can't be bothered to go to Home group
this week. I'll just say I'm.
I'll were you. I'm not pointing fingers.
Anyone here, by the way, between you and Jesus If you feel
guilty. Yeah, I Jesus knows.
Jesus knows. He knows when we're being false.
He knows when we're being lazy. He knows when we're being fake.
And we're just pretending to be kind or to be must be loving.
He knows who we really are. Church.
Are you deluding yourself? Are you deluding yourself?
See, I've got a couple of questions I want to ask you.
These are this is not exhaustive, but I want to just
ask a couple of questions just to see, just to give a litmus
test of is Jesus really number one in our lives?
Because he wants you. He wants every bit of you see,
number one, this one's to do with time.
If you somehow magically got an extra hour tomorrow afternoon,
for example, what would your first thoughts be?
Would it be to spend in prayer? Would it be?
I've always wanted to to. I've been meaning to try and
serve someone, to go and spend time with someone, to go and
look after something for someone to serve them.
Or would it be yes, I can watch another episode of that series
that I'm bingeing on Netflix. What would it be?
You see, Ephesians 5 says look carefully then how you walk.
Not as unwise but as wise. Making the best use of your
time. How about your decision making?
What you let, what you, how you make choices?
Do you consider God's words? Do you go to more more?
Do you go to older mature Christians when you've got big
life decisions to make? Or do you just go make that
choice? Please Jesus, bless me.
What do you do? What do you do?
See the Bible says in Proverbs, Trust not in your own heart and
and not on your own understanding in all your ways
acknowledge Gods and he will make your paths straight.
How about your money and we're going to talk about money later
on in this series. But but does your spending if
people look to your bank account, would your spending
reflect a heart of generosity, a heart of giving or would it
would they find that it reflected funding your own
pleasures and comfort? Matthew 6 says For where your
treasure is, there your heart is also.
What you spend your money on is what you worship.
How about your minds? Do you drift when you're bored
to stress and anxiety? Do you?
Do you start putting into your mind things that aren't helpful?
Do you Do you numb it with endless scrolling?
Or do you focus on God's promises?
Scotians 2, Scotians 3. Sorry, says set your mind on the
things above, not on the things that are on earth.
And finally, this is kind of a coverall.
Does your life belong to Jesus? Is there anything in your life?
If Jesus were to say put that away, you'd say, I can't do
that. There was a rich man who once
came to Jesus. He was desperate to follow
Jesus. He was desperate to enter
heaven. He was desperate to be in the
Kingdom. And Jesus said great, go and
sell all your stuff and follow me.
And that man went, can't do that.
He walked away sad because he loved his stuff more than he
loved Jesus. What things if Jesus was to say,
go without that, would you be? Don't know if it's that or you,
Jesus, I'm choosing that. Matthew 10 says Whoever loves
father, mother, son or daughter more than me is not worthy of
me. See, if we say with our mouths,
I belong to Jesus, but we don't live for him, then we're
probably not his. See whoever confesses with their
mouth, Jesus says you may, you may be saying, well, you know,
scripture says, you know, whoever confesses with their
mouth, they're they're, they're gods.
And I confess with my mouth. It doesn't matter what I live.
We can programme a robot to say Jesus is Lord.
I didn't try it this week, but I'm sure I could ask the I, the
AI on my phone to say Jesus, Lord, I'm sure it'll do that.
It may, may come with some sort of other words, but we can do
that. It is not saved.
Anyone can say Jesus Lord, but it's faith.
It's the belief and the faith is faith.
True faith has the fruit, has the side effect of living for
him. It produces fruit, a desire for
Christ. Not that you are perfect, but
going down the narrow path, it is about messing up every now
and then and then going, Jesus, I'm sorry, coming back onto the
path and living for him. So in a bit we're going to take
communion. But before we do, I believe
every single one of us, me included, God is going to reveal
things that we need to repent of.
Areas of our lives where we're not putting in first.
And so we're going to ask God, you know, examine us.
Scriptures say before we take this meal, we are to examine
ourselves. And if the Holy Spirit brings
anything to mind, we are to repent.
We'd say sorry if we need to say sorry to someone else, and it's
possible to now we do that. And then we come by grace and
eat and drink, remembering what he has done for us.
See, God declares this, this I love this.
God declares that the nations will worship him.
We're all the way back in Malachi.
Jesus hasn't even come yet. God is declaring the nations
will worship me. I will be great among the
nations. Will He make His name great
through you? Will you let him?
Church, we exist the world out there.
We exist for them to bump into Christ.
We exist so that Jesus would get more glory, and he gets more
glory by us not being perfect, but by growing more like Him and
being beacons to the world out there.
So church, will God be glorified to the nations through you?
And by the nations, I don't mean that you need to go back to the
USAI mean you're going to go back to the US this week.
But you don't need to go to Africa or to Asia or whatever.
The nations are right on your doorstep.
They are the person who you live next door to.
They're the person who you work with.
They're the person in your family who doesn't know Christ.
Will you be a beacon of hope to them?
Will you follow Christ? Will you walk down the narrow
path and some of you may be thinking you made it very black
and white. It sounds like you said this
morning, you're either living for Christ or you're not.
Well, it is that black and white.
It is that simple, but I do you know, you may be saying, but how
about where it says about getting in by the skin of your
teeth. Paul talk, Paul talks about, you
know, getting it getting into eternity as one who passes
through the flames, you know, for all eternity you'll you'll
have this kind of just smoky smell on you because everything
you did was was useless. It into the Kingdom was burnt
up. I say, yeah, that that can
happen. That can happen if Jesus is your
Lord. But you decide not to give, not
to show up, not to, to live for him completely.
Maybe you'll get in by the skin of your teeth, but why would you
do that? Why would you do that when Jesus
is so amazing? If you truly believe everything
we've just sung this morning how good God is, how he gave up
everything for us, how he died to have you.
He shed his blood so that you could be in love with him and he
could have you as a son, as a daughter, not so you could just
be like, all right, OK, No, no, he loves you so much.
Why would you? Why would your aim be?
I'm going to get him by the skin of my teeth.
No, God wants us. He loves us and he knows the
best for us is that every single day, even when we doubt it is to
give up everything we have to follow him.
And for some of us that may look like giving more.
For some of us, that may look like spending time with other
people. I don't know what it looks like
in your life, but that's what God's going to do in your with
you right now. You see, God is our Father, He
has given himself for us, and we, you are his children.
He fully accepts you, and He asks you to come by faith and
worship Him and Him alone. See, Malachi is teaching us what
it looks like to be a chosen people of gods, a people sold
out for Christ, which is displayed through sacrificial
living for Christ, for him. So I'm going to pray and I'm
just going to ask God to reveal to us to open our hearts.
And as I do, I'm going to ask you to do business with gods.
Ask him, what do I need to repent of?
What am I not putting first? What?
Sorry. Where am I not putting you
first? Say sorry and then as you feel
right, one after the other, just come take bread and wine.
It's gluten free and it's alcohol free.
So everyone should be able to take it.
And we're going to worship gods. So Lord Jesus, I, I pray God
that you would, if you would come and reveal to us right now,
Jesus, you are the God of gods, the Lord of Lords.
And Jesus, you deserve our all. You deserve our everything, Lord
God. There's nothing beyond you, Lord
Jesus. So look, we pray right now that
you would open our hearts and You would reveal to us where
we're not living sacrificially for you.
Go where we're not putting you first in our life.
Come Lord Jesus.