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Preacher: Pastor Chuck Holiday
Scripture: Malachi 2:1-16
God disciplines His disobedient children to protect us and bring us home when we wander.
Transcript
Morning it’s great to see you all and and glad to be able to continue this study on Malachi that David introduced last week um you know it’s um there’s a gripping verse in that question that God in that last chapter that first chapter of the introduction where God basically says um to to the people of Israel he and especially to the priest he said “I wish one of you had the courage to shut the door to the temple i wish one of you cared enough about what we’re doing here to actually lock everybody out for a Sunday
and and Jesus sort of picked up that theme didn’t he in in John chapter 2 where he goes into the temple and what does he do he starts a
riot and I mean I know a young man that loves loves God dearly and he says “You know I’ll go back to church when I find a church.”
um that believes that if Jesus showed up he’d probably be making a
whip and you know Malachi is a difficult message because it’s basically a I mean it’s a wonderful message but it’s difficult it’s really about the relentless pursuit of the love of God but how does God pursue his wayward people and and um he’s really upset with them because they don’t fear him anymore now we don’t talk about that much i mean I I’m guilty of of minimizing that concept i you know where I think
I’m afraid of of pushing people away you know from the gospel but but God said “Look guys you don’t fear me anymore you don’t fear me anymore.” So I mean it hit me this morning again just looking at it and wrestling with God myself it’s like do I fear
God do you fear God well no i I love God perfect love casts out all fear well that’s sort of true but but it’s also true that you can’t love somebody you don’t respect you know it’s it’s kind of like your three-year-old what you know when you when you see parents coddling their children and and basically indulging them and um I have a granddaughter who works in an afterare you know here just a half a mile from here you know with with a very prosperous parents and she’s telling me the other day about the dad’s attempt to pick up his little girl from after pre you know after afterare and little girl says not yet daddy and so Okay honey okay and and gives her another minute and Okay honey we have to go now well not no I’m not ready well okay okay well well okay what do you We’ll give you a little more time and this goes on for like 10 minutes you know and my granddaughter saying “What in the world are they thinking you know i mean it’s the most instinctive thing in our hearts right to know that you can’t really love somebody you don’t respect and we can’t love a God we don’t respect and when Jesus shows up at the temple for worship he says “There’s no love here because there’s no respect
here.” A guy named Wilbur Reese wrote this little book he said “I would like to buy $3 worth of God please not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine i want ecstasy not transformation i want the warmth of the womb not a new birth i want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack i would like to buy $3 worth of God please
you know a number of years ago probably 20 years ago I I was calling on uh one of my parishioners mothers in a in a retirement center it was in a not a I mean it was an okay place it wasn’t great but it was it was okay but there were a lot of uh average people in there and uh but I went to pray for this lady’s mother who I’d never met before and I found her and I told her that her daughter had asked me to come pray with her and she was happy but she said “Oh we can’t start till I get Rose.” And I said “Oh okay rose must be the chaplain or somebody you know.” And and she asked her friend “Go get Rose because we’re going to pray the pastor’s going to pray with me.” And uh so eventually Rose comes somebody comes pushing Rose up in her wheelchair she did it was a older uh African-American woman with no legs and the biggest smile I’ve ever seen in my life and uh and she said “Okay we can pray now rose is here.” And uh so I prayed and Rose prayed and little four or five other people in the room praying you know for for this lady and um and I I was just taken by this woman and afterwards you know I I just said “Hey Rose what what’s your story i mean you just have such a sweet smile and such a deep walk with Jesus.” and she said ‘Well I I’m not going to bore you with all the details but I got off the road and I wasn’t I wasn’t pursuing God and and God gave me a whooping.” And she said “And I recognize my whooping and God has given me such joy and peace in serving him i have such a place of ministry here in this in this nursing home god has given me a just such a wonderful life of joy and peace now this is a woman who was probably in her 80s with no legs but a deep sweet contentment in her heart because she had recognized God’s whooping i I don’t know the details of that but I se s I mean I think it was severe you know i think it had something to do with her not having any legs
but this lady was not angry at God she was not bitter she was just amazingly grateful and felt so deeply loved because God had pursued her when she was wandering now this picture this this book of Malachi is a picture of God pursuing his people i mean this is you know what he what he says in I don’t need I don’t need that you can leave that there thank you Sarah he says in verse four “So that you know that I have sent this command to you that my covenant with Levi may stand.” He said “These hard times you David introduced us to this last week things weren’t going the way they thought this new kingdom was going to go.” you know they they weren’t experiencing the what they had thought were going to be the blessings back in the land kind of like you know we get disappointed with God because we read all these blessings of new life in Christ and you know a lot of them are for the next life you know they’re not all to be fulfilled in this world and we get a little upset with God a little disappointed with God well where’s the promise you know where’s the healing where’s the riches that one of the greatest lies in our day is that this is your best life now my friends God never said this is your best life now he said what you get is a better hope for the life to come but what you get in this life is joy and peace and deep contentment and knowing that you’re loved and part of that is knowing that you will be pursued by the relentless love of God with the discipline of a father that deeply loves you you have a father who won’t let you just run out into the street into traffic with indifference he will pursue you he will chase after you and sometimes it can feel a little severe you know but there’s nothing I I don’t really think there’s anything more settling in the hearts of a Have you ever had an unruly three-year-old that that you you just tried everything you know more crackers uh more distractions more promises about a zoo or a beach trip nothing worked and finally you know there was some discipline might have been a spanking if you’re old enough to remember those or might have been a timeout but it was something that said “No you’re not in control i love you but you’re not in control.” And then find that three-year-old just melt into your arms and just fall asleep not with fear but with just a deep resignation and and the receiving finally the comfort of a father or mother who is stronger than her but who is for her my friends it’s not really different in our walk with God there’s a couple things I want to point out you know just in the time we have together the first maybe not seem obvious but I think it’s important there are crisis moments in our walk with God you know we believe in spiritual formation you know that’s part of the beauty of Anglicanism you know we’re formed by the liturgy you know reminding ourselves of the basic truths reading the go the Apostles Creed every Sunday reciting it the the prayers you know of the church that are theologically rich and deep the the hymns and songs that we sing that we try to always make sure are theologically accurate and rich there’s a there’s a ongoing daybyday weekby- week formation of our lives that is appropriate and biblical but we we must not lose sight with the of the fact that God deals with us in crisis moments also I think this is where uh you know there’s broad range in the in the in church world you know we have on maybe on one end uh the people that we would more tend to be more charismatic and Pentecostal who are almost demanding every week be a spectacular display of God’s presence through some miraculous signs some deep penetrating work of the spirit that’s impressive and overwhelming and on the other hand we have maybe those of you from more of a Catholic or Anglican or Presbyterian tradition Lutheran you know where we don’t ever expect that in our service we just expect the gradual formation Sunday by Sunday by Sunday well I think the truth is somewhere in the middle you know it’s in the context of this uh daily weekly spiritual formation that we’re called to we should expect God to show up sometimes in dramatic uncomfortable but wonderful ways amen i mean this is what happens when a church person gets born again this is what happened to George Whitfield this is what happened to John Wesley this is what happened to Charles Wesley their whole lives were about spiritual formation but in the middle of their spiritual formation they got surprised by the presence of the Holy Spirit who who showed them how deeply sinful they were and how wonderful the love and grace of Christ was and as Charles Wesley says I was in this dungeon of duty and and the Holy Spirit showed up and I had a new life well it my friends it doesn’t just happen when you’re born again it happens periodically throughout your life your your spiritual formation will be punct if it if you have a genuine walk with God will be punctuated with uh special moments where God shows up and says “I know your name i love you but I know what you’re doing and it’s not okay.” And we’re going to have a talk about that
and and it’s scary and it’s uncomfortable but it’s deeply satisfying to know that God’s pursuing me he’s holding on to me you know Paul says in Hebrews one of the ways you know you’re a believer is because of the discipline of God those whom the Lord loves he disciplines so my friends how how is it with you now there there are little I mean every time we open the word just sit down privately before God with our Bible and meditate on it we should expect a little pinch right god God the Holy Spirit bringing something to our attention that maybe wasn’t on our radar at all right but then God never leaves us in the if it’s if it’s really the Holy Spirit he never leaves us in despair he draws us right back to the cross and to Christ and the forgiveness of our sins and and but but there are occasions when God has a has a big word for you and a big surprising new revelation of himself you know one of my mentors always said “Fresh fresh joy only comes through fresh repentance.” And fresh repentance only comes through a new awareness of your sin so so David knew this he said he prayed cried in in Psalm 139 “Search me oh God try me see help me to see where I’m anxious and where I’m living out of my fear and anxiety.” It was a prayer of of David it should be our prayer pretty consistently lord help me see what I’m missing and it’s a scary prayer i I remember one of those times in my life about 35 years ago you know I was going to a conference that I suspected was going to be um deep and rich and scary from you know from what I’d heard from others who’d been to something like that some of you been to you know weekend special events and things like that you know and I I I remember thinking I’m not sure what to pray for because I’m scared and the only prayer I could offer was I said God I want to ask you to do more for me than I want you to i want to ask you to do more for me than I want you to and boy did he it just knocked me off my feet and then picked me up feeling so clean and so bathed in the love of God and the righteousness of Christ and and literally don’t you have some moments like that i’ve got a I’ve got a handful of them in my in my long walk with Jesus that I could say that changed my
life didn’t didn’t fix it didn’t make it perfect have I slipped back many times but I can also say my life was never the same after that event i had a new awareness of the love of God the righteousness of Christ that is a gift to me well my friends that’s what God’s doing in Malachi with the people he says “This is so that I will not lose you this is I’m doing this i’m withholding the grain i’m causing all this disappointment in your lives because I am determined to keep my covenant with
you and that you know there’s so much we can we can um say in this but first of all that’s why he’s singling out the priests in this why why this he specifically he says now you priests this whole this is for the priests now lest you think it’s just for David and a few of us you know no the New Testament makes it very clear that we are a kingdom of priests we do believe in the priesthood of all believers in the new covenant if you’re a child of God you’re a priest but but you want to ask what’s my air are you a teacher then you’re a priest are you a parent well you surely are a priest are you a husband you’re a priest to your
wife that you you have a priestly role as one who is to instruct others who God is and why is he particularly concerned with the priests because they’re the ones who give people the image of who God is why why is it so important for fathers and mothers and husbands to walk authentically before God because they we are the ones from whom our children in the world get the impression of what does it mean that God’s our father martin Luther actually said “I I stumble every time I say the Lord’s Prayer when I have to say our father because my own father was so harsh and unrelenting.” You know your role as father is either going to help your children know who God is or be a barrier so that’s why he’s singling out the priests here but all of us are priests but but then specifically he focuses on this issue of marriage and you know we don’t have time to go into much of the detail but why does he pick this example of marriage specifically because he’s talking about a
covenant and in this and in the the the marriage of a of a husband and wife we have what we call a covenant of marriage covenants are different than contracts aren’t they when you enter into a contract and unfortunately most of our world now views marriage as a contract not as a covenant there’s a huge difference god said ‘I gave you marriage as a covenant to show the world what my relationship with you is like in a contract if one party doesn’t finish the building the other party says “We don’t pay you.” It’s very simple you don’t do your part I’m released from my obligation in a
covenant the covenanting king says “I am bound to do what I have promised to do even when you don’t do your
part.” This is why he says to husbands “When your wives disappoint you don’t put them away and look for a smarter prettier younger replacement.” I met a I talked to a guy in the gym this week just felt so humbled you know he’s about my age been married about as long as I am and his wife had a severe stroke last summer so now he’s a full-time caregiver without bitterness you know but his whole life has changed you know and and God is saying that’s a covenant why why is it so
terribly damaging for Israel that the priests have begun to get very just anybody can get a divorce for any reason that’s what was going
on he says “You’re destroying the picture of who I am this is not okay because this is not what I’m like and this is what this is not what husbands can be like they must keep their part even when they’re
disappointed now the other side of that is and I just always want to say this sometimes I’ve had to counsel people to to divorce their husbands because they would not stop cheating again there can be no love without
respect okay that I just want to throw that in there because some of you there is a place God Jesus very specifically said there’s a place where you can and actually should leave your marriage if you’re with an abusive person you know that’s a different subject for a different day the point is God’s a God who will never let you go
you know um Malachi means my messenger God’s messenger he’s speaking to the priests and to the we who are parents and husbands and teachers because we’re his messengers but thank God there’s a better messenger jesus is the only truly faithful messenger of God and why is why is God so upset in in the first chapter because they’re bringing blemished lambs for their sacrifices it’s going to die anyway so any old lamb will do why should I give God an unblenmished lamb when I can give him this one that you know why wh why why you know what I mean it’s just human reasoning if he wants a lamb give him the one that’s going to die anyway god says “No the whole point of the unblenmished lamb is for you to know that I’m going to send the unblenmished perfect sinless lamb of God to die for your sins a blemished God can’t die for your sins only the truly righteous son of God can die for your sins.” Why is he so concerned about marriage because he wants them to know that there’s a true husband the Lord Jesus Christ who’s the perfect husband who will love you the bride in your best days and on your worst days he loves you not because you’re good but because he’s good but because he loves you he demands respect in fact he said “You can’t love me if you don’t respect me.” So my friends the the um I guess what I want to say to you as we close here is how’s it been for you have Have you been under the heavy hand of God has there been something going on in your life recently or a longstanding frustration a heart or just a Have you wondered if God’s trying to say something to you well I don’t know because it could just be a trial or it could be a chastisement but if you ask him he’ll tell you he’ll reveal it to you if you get alone with him and say “God is there something you’re trying to tell me is there something in my life that you’re trying to put right get alone with him and ask him God is there more of yourself that you want to reveal to me?” Get alone with him and ask him and s and and just pray David’s prayer lord search my heart try me and see what the anxious ways are how am I hurting people how am I hurting you how am I neglecting you my friends his purpose is never never to push you away his purpose is never to punish it’s to gather you as Jesus wanted to gather the children of Israel before his crucifixion may God bring us home to our faithful father and our loving righteous savior Jesus amen
