The Sin Of The Polluted Altar

00:02 Amen. Let the church say amen. Okay. Well, I invite you this morning to turn in your copies of the Scriptures to the book of Malachi for our second message in a series on the book of Malachi, the Prophet Malachi speaking to the people of Israel, the last word from God in the Old Testament. 00:23 And I invite you to stand for the reading of Scripture this morning as we read Malachi 1:6-14. Would you stand, please? Malachi 1:6-14. "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the father, 00:45 where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my reverence?" says the Lord of hosts. 00:51 "To you priests who despise my name, yet you say, 'In what way have we despised your name?' You offer defiled food on my altar, but say, 'In what way have we defiled you?' By saying, 'The table of the Lord is contemptible.' And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? 01:13 Offer it then to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?" says the Lord of hosts. "But now entreat God's favor that he may be gracious to us. While this is being done by your hands, will he accept you favorably?" says the Lord of hosts. 01:31 "Who is there even among you who would shut the doors so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain? I have no pleasure in you," says the Lord of hosts. "Nor will I accept an offering from your hands. For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, my name shall be great among the Gentiles. 01:51 In every place, incense shall be burned to my name, and a pure offering, for my name shall be great among the nations," says the Lord of hosts. "But you profane it in that you say, 'The table of the Lord is defiled, and its fruit, its food is contemptible.' You also say, 'Oh, 02:10 what a weariness!' And you sneer at it," says the Lord of hosts. "And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick. Thus you bring an offering. Should I accept this from your hands?" says the Lord. "But cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male and takes a vow, but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. 02:31 For I am a great king," says the Lord of hosts. "And my name is to be feared among the nations." This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. I want you to think of this morning on the subject with me of the sin of the polluted altar. The sin of the polluted altar. On a more positive nature, 02:51 we could also call it, "Give of your best to the master. Give of the strength of your youth. Clad in salvation's full armor, join in the battle for truth," the songwriter said. So we could call it giving your best to the master. 03:07 I want you to think with me this morning, what would you do if a king that you knew was a king... and I'm not talking just about a president who can be impeached, but I'm talking about a king who is an absolute monarch. And what would you do if a king walked in the room today? 03:28 What would your response be? And this was maybe a king of a foreign country, or maybe it was our king. Maybe we would have a king. But imagine a king, if you can do that. And what would your response be if he entered the room? Now, take that a step farther, 03:49 and I want you to think about what you would do if this king had an army with him. What if this king had a regiment in the army? Had some soldiers show up with him and come to church? What would you do with that king and his army? 04:08 Let's say that the king had not just a regiment or a platoon, but he had the entire country's army, and he showed up here this morning in Goshen, 04:21 Indiana, at Living Water Church. What would you do? What would you do? 04:25 What would you do if this king also brought the sun, moon, and stars with him? Now, that's getting a little bit far-fetched in that sense that we can hardly imagine that. But this king that we're going to talk about this morning not only shows up with his glory of himself, but he shows up with the glory of his army, 04:47 the entire army that king has at his disposal. And he not only shows up with his army, but he shows up with the sun, moon, and stars to display his glory and to command. And he says to the sun, "Shine," and it shines. And to the sun, "Not shine," and it doesn't shine. And he says to the moon to orbit in its orbit. 05:07 And he says to the stars to twinkle in their orbit or to not twinkle. And he has with him the sun, moon, and stars. And then let's add to this king all of the angels of heaven. All of the angels of heaven. And what would your response be to that kind of a king who brought not only the glory of his presence, 05:29 not only the armies of the world, not only the sun, moon, and stars, but all of the hosts of the heavenly hosts of heaven, both of the angels of the angelic world, and has on the other side demons falling at his feet and in shame and fear? What would you do with a king like that? 05:49 And what would be a fitting gesture for that king? Well, you have to kind of get that picture this morning because what I just described to you is the Lord of hosts. And several times in this passage of Scripture, in verse 6, in verse 8, 06:08 9, 10, 11, 13, and 14, he refers to himself as the Lord of hosts. And the Lord of hosts in his temple is being given slipshod offerings. Not anywhere close to the offerings he deserves. 06:27 Not even a good heartfelt word of praise to this God of the universe, to this Lord of hosts. But the theme of this passage this morning is that by crooked priests offering defiled sacrifices, the Lord of the hosts of heaven was dishonored, 06:48 and his name was being profaned. Did you get that? 06:51 By crooked priests offering defiled sacrifices, the Lord of the hosts of the armies of the Lord, both the heavenly hosts, the armies of the world, and the armies of Israel, and the armies of the heavenly hosts is being dishonored, and his name is being profaned. 07:13 Now, let's look at the text this morning and look at the offense, the comparison, the result, and the way back. The offense is very clear that God lays out before them this morning. They have despised his name. Verse 6. They have despised his name. 07:32 Would you say the word despised there is the word honor or dishonor or respect? He says, "Where is my reverence? Where is my honor? Where is my respect to you priests who despise my name?" And so he says, you've got a father here, and a father deserves honor, and you have a master, and he deserves respect. 07:53 And yet you have the heavenly hosts of God, the Lord of the hosts of the heavens and the earth, and he doesn't get honor or respect. And so this is the sin that we're looking at this morning. They polluted his altar. Verse 7. You say, "In what way have we despised your name? 08:12 Have we dishonored you?" Verse 7, "In that you offered defiled food on my altar." The King James version, the old King James says, "You have polluted my altar." They had polluted his altar with polluted food. 08:29 In verse 7, it says, "In what way have we defiled you?" By defiling the altar, they were also defiling the Lord himself. The word there means polluted or contemptible. The word contemptible, the table of the Lord is contemptible, has the idea of something that is despised. 08:49 And so instead of looking at this king with glory and honor and awe and respect and reverence and godly fear, they are polluting his offerings. They are polluting his name. They are considering his table, the table of the Lord, to be contemptible. In verse 8 and verse 13 and verse 14, he continues to give them the offense. 09:11 In verse 8, he says, "You offer the blind as a sacrifice." And in verse... he also says, "You offer the lame and the sick." In verse 13, "You bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick for an offering. 09:26 Should I accept this from your hand?" In verse 14, "You offer to the Lord what is blemished." And so this was a direct violation of their commandment in Deuteronomy 15:21, which says, "But if there is a defect in it, that is in the sacrifice, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, 09:47 you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God." The priests knew this. In Leviticus 22:21 and 22, he also states about the offerings, "And whoever offers a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord to fulfill his vow or a free will offering from the cattle or the sheep, it must be perfect to be accepted. 10:07 It must be perfect." And yet here they were offering anything but perfection. "It must be perfect to be accepted. There shall be no defect in it. 10:20 Those that are blind or broken or maimed or have an ulcer or eczema or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord nor make any offering by fire of them on the altar to the Lord." You get it? You get it, people of Israel? 10:36 God, the Lord of hosts, deserves the honor and glory and respect at least as much as you would give to a father or to a master. And yet you're polluting his offering. You're defiling him and his table, his altar, and you are detesting and mocking the Lord. 10:56 Verse 13, he continues on with the offense. Verse 13, "You also say, 'Oh, what a weariness! What a weariness this serving of God is. What a nuisance! What a weariness! What a... how tiresome! How burdensome!'" Talk about burnout, you know? 11:15 Do you ever get burned out serving the Lord? Well, you know, that's what these people... well, it's just so much of a trouble to go to the temple and to get that perfect sacrifice. And they were not giving of their best to the master. They were not giving of the strength of their youth. And they were defiling the altar of the Lord with weariness and with a snort. 11:35 You kind of got to kind of chuckle at that a little bit. But it's not more... one translation calls it, "You snort at it or you sneer at it." You sneer at the offering of the Lord. You sniff contemptuously. You turn away. You turn up your nose against the offering made by fire unto the Lord. 11:54 You scorn and disdainfully sniff like a cattle or an oxen or a horse that rejects its food that's placed before it and snorts and turns its head away to reject what's been offered to it. And then you get... you offer these things through ill-gotten deceit and through injustice. 12:13 Verse 14, "Cursed be the deceiver. You have it at your disposal," he says. "And yet you refuse to give it, and you've stolen my offerings." As you kind of go into the New Testament then, where this was still continuing to happen, where they would offer... 12:31 where they would charge exorbitant rates for animals to sacrifice at the temple. And so they would steal from the people and offer them subperfect and unperfect, imperfect sacrifices to offer to the Lord. 12:46 And in all of this, the issue is not the sacrifice as much as it is, what does this reveal about their picture of God? What kind of a vision of God did they have as reflected in these polluted offerings? 13:07 He says, "You've done this, and it's a reflection on me and on my glory, and it's a reflection on what you think about me." And so I think you can see here this morning some things that we can apply this with. When we give to the Lord less than the best that we have, 13:27 what does that say about what we view or how we view the Lord of hosts? Now, the comparison. He gives several comparisons to give us an example. You know, we often treat God in a way that we would never treat anybody else. How many other people would you fall asleep while you're visiting with them and talking with them? 13:50 And yet how many times we fall asleep while we're praying? You know? And I understand that. I understand that. I've done that myself, and I'm just as guilty as anybody else. But I've had to think about some of the things that I do and some of the slipshod ways that I try to serve God. And I understand and don't take this the wrong way that the Lord understands our weaknesses. 14:09 He understands when you've been up all night with a crying baby. He understands those weaknesses. He understands when you've gone the extra mile in the physical bodies and its limitations and so on. But I still have to think, do I treat God worse than I would treat somebody else? How many people have I actually fallen asleep on in my living room when I'm visiting with them? 14:31 And what would they think? Reminds me of a minister who had some visiting... had some visitors in his home one day. And he dismissed himself. He said, "I need to go study now and go get up, catch up on my reading." And they were left sitting there alone. 14:47 You say, "That's rude." How much more rude is it when we do that to God? 14:53 And so he says, "I'm a father, and I should at least have as much honor as you would give an earthly father." He said, "I'm a master, and I should at least have as much reverence and holy respect and godly fear as you would give to a master." He said, "Try giving this to your governor. 15:14 Try giving it to your governor. Try give it to the king of Assyria or the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar or Darius or Cyrus or somebody like that and see what they think about your offering." And here you have the Lord of hosts being offered something that a human governor wouldn't even accept. 15:35 Now, let's think about this thing of the Lord of hosts. We mentioned it in verse 6, in verse 8, verse 9, verse 10, 11, 13, and 14. He refers to himself as the Lord of hosts. What is this, the Lord of hosts? What's he talking about? 15:54 Well, it is a word that in the Hebrew that has the idea of hosts, of armies, of an army. In fact, the word sabah is the word for army in Hebrew. And today, 16:13 it actually refers to the Israeli defense force, the sabah. But... and then when you add the sabahot, you have multiple armies. And so when he's talking about the Lord of hosts, there's a good chance that he's talking about the hosts of the armies of Israel. 16:32 He is the commander of the hosts of the armies of Israel. But that's only one use of the word hosts. If you go into Genesis 2, the first chapter of chapter 2, you find out that he talks about the heavenly hosts. 16:49 "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the hosts of them in Genesis 2:1." And so it can have an idea of earthly armies. It can have an idea of the heavens and the earth, the hosts of the earth and the sun, moon, and stars. 17:08 And then it also has the idea of the angels. Psalm 103 says, "All ye his hosts, ye ministers of his that do his pleasure, the angels that excel in strength to praise and bless him." Alexander McLaren said it like this. He said, "I think we shall come to this conclusion that by that title, 17:28 the Lord of hosts, the prophets and psalmists meant to express the universal dominion of God over the whole universe in all its battalions and sections, 17:40 which they conceived as one ranked army obedient to the voice of the great general and ruler of them all." So you could look at it like this. 17:51 All of the hosts of heaven, all of the angelic world, all of the armies of this world marching lockstep to accomplish the will and purposes of the Lord of the hosts. Now, that kind of power, that kind of authority, that kind of wisdom, that kind of ability, 18:11 that kind of glory deserves more than defiled sacrifices. Someone else wrote it like this. "When we call our heavenly Father the Lord of hosts, there is so much in that name. Yes, there are the myriad of armies of angels at his disposal. And yes, he is a warrior mighty in battle. 18:33 But he is also the conductor of the beautiful orchestra that is in the entirety of all creation. 18:41 Every atom, every molecule moves in accordance with his purpose, and at his command, he sustains everything by his powerful word." And so we're not even maybe just talking about the angelic world, the heavenly hosts, and the armies of the world. 19:00 But we're talking about even the very molecular structure of all the creation marching in lockstep according to the commands and the instructions of the Lord of the hosts. 19:15 That's a comparison. And the offense. What is the result that we have here this morning? Verse 10, he says, "You might as well close the doors. 19:25 Oh, I wish you could find somebody to close the doors of the temple so you wouldn't keep offering this rubbish." Verse 10, "Who is there even among you who would shut the doors so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain?" Shut the doors. 19:44 If that's all you can give to God is just a sniff and a token, a showing up as a token of your disdain and you sneer at the Lord, then close the doors. That's the result he's calling for. 20:03 And he says in verse 10, "I will not receive your offering so that you would not offer, not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you," says the Lord of hosts, "nor will I accept your offering from your hands." See, he's not going to accept this kind of offering. In fact, there are several times in the book of Malachi when he says, 20:23 "As long as you continue to do this, I will not accept you or your offering." That's a sad day when that doesn't bother us anymore. Then he says, "I want you to recognize the evil." The evil. Verse 8, "When you offer this kind of offering, is it not evil? 20:44 When you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?" We're not talking about just something that is kind of a bad idea, but we're talking about sin. We're talking about the sin of offering God less than the best. 20:59 We're talking about the sin of polluting the Lord God by polluting his offering and his altar. 21:10 He says, "There is a curse on these swindlers." Verse 14, "Cursed be the deceiver. 21:16 These priests are in big trouble because they're bringing upon them the wrath of God in turn for favor with the people." Maybe they're trying to cultivate favor with the people. Maybe they're trying to trick the people into thinking that God will accept them and they can exchange the good oxen and the good sacrifice for a lesser sacrifice and pocket the change. 21:38 Who knows what all was going on? But it brought down a curse on the order of the priests. But there is a way back. There is a way back. And praise the Lord that there's always hope even in the judgments of God. There is a way back. Number 9, 21:58 verse 9, "But now entreat God's favor." Entreat God's favor. "Seek after God's favor. Repent of your sin and seek after the commendation of the Lord." For the Bible says, "It is not who man commends that is commended, 22:19 but it is who God commends that is commended." And so seek that. Don't seek to capitalize financially on these offerings. Don't seek to curry favor with the masses and with the people. 22:37 Don't seek to exalt yourself and bring down a curse upon yourself. But seek the Lord's favor by recognizing who he really is. I just think this is so key that he refers to himself over and over and over as the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts. 22:57 And when we recognize who God really is, and then we recognize of how we bring him less than our best. Now, our best isn't very good at times, but it should still be the best. And then he says, 23:16 "I want you to participate in my universal praise." Verse 11, "For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name shall be great among the Gentiles." And I want you to see me as the Lord God of heaven and earth. And I want you to see that there is a day coming. God is telling them where I will be praised, 23:38 that I will have the glory that's due unto my name throughout all the realms of my kingdom and all of the areas of the earth. From the rising of the sun until the going down of the same, the name of the Lord shall be praised. And my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. 23:57 And while the people of the world were getting prepared for the Messiah who would have a new reign and a new heart and a new kingdom, and then the people of Israel were missing out. They were missing out because they were self-centered, shortsighted, and sinful. 24:20 Now, how do we apply this for us today? How do we apply this? Because certainly, this has something to say to us. 24:30 And it is true that we no longer bring sacrifices of oxen and sheep and goats and doves and turtle doves and pigeons and all of the other things that they brought. We no longer bring the grain offering and wave it in front of the altar. And we no longer bring the peace offerings and the fellowship offerings. 24:49 We don't bring those things in the New Testament, but we still bring sacrifices in the New Testament. It's just that they're of a different kind. 24:58 So I want to give you five scriptural New Testament sacrifices that we're to bring to the Lord our God, the Lord of hosts. Number one, we're to bring the sacrifice of our offerings. Now, let me just hasten to say that when we talk about bringing these sacrifices, 25:19 we are not talking in the New Testament about earning our salvation. That sacrifice has been made and completed once for all. It is applied to our hearts and our lives by faith in the person and finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. 25:39 So when we talk about offering our sacrifices in the New Testament, we're not talking about sacrifices that earn us salvation or that earn us righteousness or merit with God. 25:51 But we're talking about a revelation of what is in the heart of how and what we think about God and about the grace of God and about the gift of salvation that we have been given. 26:04 And so there are some sacrifices that he calls upon us to bring in response to his greatness and his goodness and his benevolence and his grace. And so the first one is to bring our offerings. Now, Philippians 4:16-18, Paul talks about these offerings. 26:24 He talks about the Thessalonicans. He says, "For even in Thessalonica, you sent me aid once and again for my necessities." And so Paul's talking to the Philippians about the aid that they sent him in Thessalonica. He said, "You gave an offering for my necessities, not that I seek the gift, 26:44 but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. Indeed, I have all and abound. 26:51 I am full having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you." And when he talks about the things sent from you, he calls them a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice well-pleasing to God. 27:09 Do you ever think about that when you give your offering in the offering? When you give your ties, when you give your offerings, when you give your gifts on Sunday mornings as you bring the ties into the storehouse? 27:21 Do you think about as you put that check in the offering, as you put that cash in the offering, that when it's done from a heart that is in awe of God and is in relationship with God and is in reverence and godly fear of the Lord of hosts, 27:37 that you're actually giving a sweet-smelling aroma and an acceptable sacrifice well-pleasing to God? Do you ever think about that? Oh, just time to get out the offering. Here they come again asking for more money. Put it in or take it out and make change, whatever you do when your offering basket goes past you. 27:58 We don't think about it in those terms that I'm giving this as an act of sacrificial worship to God, and I want to give my best. I want to give my best. No more used tea bags for the missionaries. That's actually been done, I understand, in years gone by. 28:17 I hope it's not being done anymore. I hope the church has learned a little bit more than that. I'm talking about the church in America sending used tea bags to the missionaries. Well, they can sacrifice. They will eat of the fat of the land, and they can eat from scraps of the land. That's been the attitude of the church in years past. 28:41 I remember being in a home in another state years ago when I was early married. And that morning, the husband of the home is an older couple, a relative to my wife. And they had their reading from the Daily Bread. 28:57 And the Daily Bread that morning was about how the workman is worthy of his hire and that missionaries and pastors and personal workers and those who live by the gospel or those who live of the gospel should live by the gospel, and they should be supported. 29:12 And we no longer, no sooner got done reading the scripture and the emphasis from the Daily Bread than they began complaining about a family in that community that were all in ministry expecting other people to support them. And wait a minute. What did we just read? 29:30 And so our offerings are given as a sweet-smelling aroma to God. The second thing of a New Testament sacrifice is our praise. Our praise. 29:41 Hebrews 13:15 says, "Therefore, by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God." That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Now, some people just think it's just a matter of what's in your heart. 30:01 As long as your heart's right, as long as your heart's right, it doesn't matter what you say, what you do, what you give, how you come. You just have a right heart. Brothers and sisters, that's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about a heart that has some fruit, the fruit of our—say it—lips. 30:17 The fruit of our—some of you got it—the fruit of our—speak it, say it, sing it, shout it, announce it, testify it. Somehow get it from here to here. I'll be honest with you, 30:37 brothers and sisters, it really bothers me when you sit over a crowd. And it doesn't just happen here, but it happens other places as well. And you look over a crowd, and you see numbers in the church not singing. Wow. Well, my heart, boy, I'm singing in my heart. That's not what God said. You speak of that which is in your heart, 30:58 and you let it out. They said, "I can't sing. I'm afraid to sing." Well, mouth the words then. But give to God the glory due unto his name. We must realize that to not do that is a sin. If glory is due, and we do not give glory, 31:21 then that is what? Sin. No, it's a sin to give glory and not have your heart right. But it's also a sin to have your heart right and not give glory. Read the book of Psalms and the number of times that it says to speak it, to say it, to sing it, to proclaim it, to testify it. 31:44 And so don't sing because the preachers are looking at you or the song leaders looking at you. Sing it because God's looking at you. 31:54 And the Lord of the hosts, of the armies of heaven and earth and the molecules and the sun, moon, and stars is worthy of an offering of praise that is due unto his name. It's required. It's expected. 32:13 It's assumed that it would be a part of our worship. Sing it. Testify it. 32:23 In fact, I heard one pastor one time said—I don't remember where I heard this, but I think it was Levi Summers—said that he tells young ladies to beware of any young man who won't sing. I didn't make that up. 32:43 He did. I thought that was interesting. Beware of any young man that won't sing. Didn't say any young man that can't sing. Beware of any young man that won't sing, that won't express, somehow express his gratitude to God. 33:02 The third sacrifice that we must be aware of in the New Testament is our good works. Now we start talking legalism, don't we? No, not according to scripture. Hebrews 13:16, "But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices, 33:24 God is well-pleased." Good works are a sacrifice unto God. Again, we're not talking about trying to earn our salvation. 33:35 We're talking about responding to the Lord of hosts in an appropriate way that reflects our adoration and love and relationship with him. 33:51 So as we do good and share in the context of the brotherhood and outside of these walls, we are sacrificing unto the Lord. We're giving a sacrifice unto the Lord. Do you think about that? You think about when you're baking those cookies, ladies? You're baking those cookies. 34:10 You're baking those cookies. This is part of my good works for the Lord of hosts. Oh, he is so good. I love him so much. And I just want to serve God with good works and communicate and sharing with others. Do you think about it? I'll tell you what, that changes the way—and I'm talking to myself—it changes the way we serve. It changes the way we serve. 34:31 Instead of, oh, verse 13, "What a weariness," and we sneer at it, guess we got to bake cookies again. Well, if your heart's not in it, don't do it. 34:45 But if your heart is right with God, then find a way to distribute and do good and to do good works. Maybe baking is not your thing. Maybe teaching is your thing. Maybe reaching out to a neighbor is your thing. 35:07 But do something for the Lord. That is a sacrifice with which God is well-pleased. And of course, then we go to that passage of scripture number four. 35:19 The fourth New Testament biblical sacrifice is Romans 12, "Riveseat you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God in view of what God has done for you, that ye present your body as a living—what?—sacrifice." A living sacrifice costs you something. 35:43 Costs you something. With a living sacrifice, it costs the one who gives it, and it costs the sacrifice too. So it's costly. But we're talking about the Lord of hosts here. 35:56 We're talking about the King of the universe who shows up with all of the molecules of creation responding to the voice of his command. 36:09 And so God is concerned about what we do with our bodies as we present them. Try this sometime. You get up in the morning. You drag yourself out of bed. Before you jump in the shower or whatever it is that you do when you get out of bed, just take a moment and just stand there. 36:30 Or maybe you can even do it before you get out of bed. And just take your hands and raise them up to God and say, "God, today, these are your hands. I give them to you." Take your feet. Say, "God, these are your feet today. I give them to you. They're only going to be used for your glory today. God, these are my eyes today. 36:48 I'm only going to give them to you. They're only—here's my ears. Here's my nose. Here's my senses. Here's my appetite. Here's my sexuality. Here's everything about my body. And I'm giving it to you today as an offering and a sacrifice. 37:02 And I'm going to do it in the best way that I can." Offering your bodies as a living sacrifice. And number four or number five, our witness. Romans 15:16, Paul says that, "I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, 37:24 ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable." The offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. You see, our witness, our witness to others is an offering. 37:42 Those souls are an offering to the Lord. 37:49 And when you think about sharing your faith with somebody, when you think about handing that tract out, when you think about giving that God bless you in the grocery store aisle, or when you think about just using a word of encouragement in the name of the Lord to someone that you see who's maybe having a hard day, 38:07 whatever it is that God lays on your heart to influence others for Christ, that influencing of others for Christ is an offering, a sacrifice to God. What we're talking about here are practical expressions of these offerings. 38:25 And I was challenged with my own sinfulness as working through this passage this week because many of the things that I'm talking about are things that I struggle with myself. Finding time for God, making time for God, for devotions. 38:47 What would it be like? What would our worship experience on Sunday morning as we come together and give to the Lord the glory due unto his name? What would it be like if on Saturday already we began preparing for it? On Saturday evening, we began preparing for it. 39:06 You prepare for a message. You prepare for a Sunday school class. Your worship leader prepares. What would it be like if everybody prepared to worship on Sunday as a body? What would that do to our worship? 39:22 What would it be like if I rested on Saturday so I could stay awake on Sunday morning? And I'm talking to me too because sometimes the eyes get heavy. What would that be like? What would it be like? Or are we giving to God the leftovers? The leftover of my week, 39:43 I'm going to go to God, give to God. And I worked so hard, and I busted my tail all week. And now is my time to rest and relax and sleep. I'm just saying, what do we give to God? 40:00 What would it say about our practical expressions of worship to the Lord of hosts if we sang heartily and testified regularly? We talk about everything under the sun, but how difficult it is at times to talk about the Lord and the things that he's done for us. 40:18 What would it be like if we gave from a heart of generosity above and beyond what we feel the Lord requires? What would it be like if we reached out to assist others in finding their way to Christ? 40:34 What would it be like if we gave a year or two of service 40:41 to God? 40:44 Give of your best to the Master. Give of the strength of your youth. I have seen people, young people, who have given their lives in service for a year or two of voluntary service before they went off into their career, before they went off into college, before they went off and got married. 41:02 And I have watched those people and the way God has blessed them. Some of them have been blessed extremely well financially, but it all started with giving their best to God. I want to challenge young people. Think about doing a term of service, something that costs you something, 41:21 something that you can do for the Lord as a sacrifice of good works. What if we gave scripture the same type of interest as we give social media? 41:36 Somebody challenged me some time ago. I don't know. Maybe in the Lord directly. I don't remember how I got challenged, but I've been thinking about this. What is the first thing that you reach for when you wake up in the morning? I'll be honest with you. Sometimes it's my phone. 41:55 My wife and I were talking about this last night at the supper table. What is the first thing we do when we wake up in the morning? What do we reach for? Do we reach for the scriptures for a verse? Or do we reach for our phone for a message? What we're really saying is possibly that message on my phone is more important than the word, a message from God for the day. 42:16 Now, you don't do this in a legalistic way. "Oh, man, I'm going to hell because I reached for my phone before I read my Bible." That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about priorities. We're talking about first fruits. We're talking about giving the Lord the glory that's due unto his name. We're talking about honoring God. 42:33 We're talking about those things that are of greater value than other things. 42:41 What would it say about our corporate worship to God when we dress up to come to church to meet the King in his temple? Again, I know the temple's not the building, but the temple is the people. And so we come and we bring our best. And of course, 42:59 you can do this with a heart that isn't right. You can dress up to come to church so that you can be seen of men. And God despises that. We get that. But where is our passion? What if our passion was more for the kingdom of God than for the United States? But I'll tell you, some people, you get them on fire for the Republican Party, 43:20 and they'll tell you a few things about politics. My challenge for myself is to say, "You know what? 43:29 Get me excited about the kingdom of God, about the rule and reign of Jesus Christ more than who's in power politically or what shenanigans they pull." What if our passion was for people more than our pursuit of pleasure? 43:48 What if we expressed our faith in God to heal more than our confidence in medicine? What if we were more concerned for the church as a body than for our own personal preferences and personal ideas? 44:03 Again, we're not saved by our sacrifices, but the sacrifice of our offering to God speaks loudly about what we think of the value of the Lord of hosts. 44:17 And so the songwriter said, "Give of your best to the Master. Give of the strength of your youth. Throw your soul's fresh, glowing ardor into the battle for truth." Jesus has set the example. Dauntless was he, young and brave. Give him your loyal devotion. Give him the best that you have. Give of your best to the Master. 44:37 Give him first place in your heart. Give him first place in your service. Consecrate every part. Give, and to you will be given. God, his beloved Son, gave, gratefully seeking to serve him. Give him the best that you have. Give of your best to the Master. Not else is worthy his love. He gave himself for your ransom, 45:00 gave up his glory above, laid down his life without murmur, you from sins ruined to save. Give him your heart's adoration. Give him the best that you have. Give of your best to the Master. Give of the strength of your youth. 45:14 Clad in salvation's full armor, join in the battle for truth." That's the message of Malachi 1:6-14, whose priests were defiling not only the temple and the sacrifices and the altar, 45:33 but the Lord himself by giving polluted offerings. Would you take this morning your purple songbooks and turn to number 9:57? I'm going to lead this because I'm not sure that our song leader knows it. 9:57. 45:54 We're going to sing the first and the last verse, and let's stand to do so. 46:01 Heavenly Father, 46:02 we thank you this morning for this word from Malachi about the vision of the Lord of hosts. The Lord, the armies of heaven and earth. 46:16 Lord, show us that vision in our hearts that we might recognize you and give you the honor and glory that is due unto your name. Lord, let us not look at this in some legalistic way that we must do this to measure this to get that. But let us do it, 46:36 Lord, in a heart, 46:37 from hearts that are captivated by the glory of God and that are wanting to respond in adoration and praise and service. Forgive me, Father, where I've fallen short in these areas. 46:57 Forgive me for at times offering evil, polluted offerings, selfish offerings, self-centeredness, caring more about the things of this world than about the things of God. Forgive us, Lord, as we repent. 47:18 Captivate our hearts by your glory in Jesus' name. Now, unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the throne of his glory with exceeding great joy. In Jesus' name. Amen.