HOW HAVE WE NOT HONORED YOU? Malachi 1:6-2:9 Turning Point Church 2019 01 06 Turning Point Church 1/20/2019 55 verses 47 = God speaking in 1st person. INTRO: HOW ARE YOU HONORING GOD? A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me? says the LORD Almighty. It is you priests who show contempt for my name. But you ask, How have we shown contempt for your name? Malachi 1:6 (NIV) Dear God, Thank you for sending Jesus to die for my sin. I want to give you control of my life. Please forgive my sins and give me the gift of the Holy Spirit and eternal life. Help me to know you better and to learn from the Bible how I can live a life that pleases you and helps others. Amen. 1
1. ARE YOU GIVING GOD YOUR BEST? 7 By offering defiled food on my altar. But you ask, How have we defiled you? By saying that the LORD s table is contemptible. 8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Malachi 1:7-9 (NIV) Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you? says the LORD Almighty. 9 Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you? says the LORD Almighty. Malachi 1:7-9 (NIV) 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 sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands? says the LORD. Malachi 1:13 (NIV) 2
Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king, says the LORD Almighty, and my name is to be feared among the nations. Malachi 1:14 (NIV) Total commitment to God leads to fulfillment of life. Christianity is miserable if compromised. 2. WOULD GOD LIKE TO CLOSE OUR CHURCH? 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. Malachi 1:10 (NIV) 3
1 And now, you priests, this warning is for you. 2 If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name, says the LORD Almighty, I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not resolved to honorme. 3 Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it. Malachi 2:1-3 (NIV) 3. LEVI: A GOOD EXAMPLE Only 10% 4 And you will know that I have sent you this warning so that my covenant with Levi may continue, says the LORD Almighty. 5 My covenant was with him, a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered me and stood in awe of my name. 6 True instruction was in his mouth and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many from sin. Malachi 2:4-6 (NIV) For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth. Malachi 2:7 (NIV) 4
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God s holy people. Jude 1:3 (NIV) 8 But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi, says the LORD Almighty. 9 So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law. Malachi 2:8-9 (NIV) If anyone causes one of these little ones those who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. CONC: GOD IS GREAT AND DESERVES THE BEST Matthew 18:6 (NIV) 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. Malachi 1:11 (NIV) 42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God. John 12:42-43 (NIV) 5
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform 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. Romans 12:1-2 (NIV) Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. INTRO: HOW ARE YOU HONORING GOD? 1. ARE YOU GIVING GOD YOUR BEST? 2. WOULD GOD LIKE TO CLOSE OUR CHURCH? 3. LEVI: A GOOD EXAMPLE CONC: GOD IS GREAT AND DESERVES THE BEST Hebrews 13:15 (NIV) Follow- Through Guide 6