Living Hope

Pastor Philip Miller: And the book of Malachi serves as a series of warning lights flashing in their faces, trying to grab their attention to get them to repent, to turn around, to pay attention to what matters, and come home to God.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: Welcome to Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. I'm Pastor Larry McCarthy and we're glad you're joining us today in this series on Malachi. Pastor Philip, Malachi, a new series. What does he have for us today?

Pastor Philip Miller: Well, Malachi, as many of our listeners know, is at the end of the Old Testament. It's the very last of the prophetic books. After Malachi lays down his pen, we're going to get 400 years of prophetic silence before John the Baptist and Jesus show up and sort of break that silence. So this is sort of the last word from God in the Old Testament before this long wait and then the coming of Jesus Messiah. It's kind of like the lingering final words of the Old Covenant and then you're supposed to absorb those and listen to them and they just weigh over history. So they're very important words.

They're actually words of warning because what's happened in Israel's history is they've come back into the land. They're all excited. They've got a new temple, a new land, a new place, and all of this. All that fervor of rededicating themselves to God comes in a flurry and then it starts to fade. The people sort of fall into the routine of just going back to routine religion that's just sort of going through the motions, but their hearts are not in it.

We're going to see this. It goes off the rails. When Jesus shows up, he's going to look at the Pharisees and say, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." In other words, they're just going through the motions of religion without the real heart of devotion and worship. So Malachi is the warning to help them get back on track because they're about to go off track. This is a really good warning for all of us of the dangers of spiritual apathy and routine religion and just losing the heart behind everything that we do. So that's where we're going.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: Well, let's go now to the pulpit of the Moody Church where we look at these warnings. This is part one of the sermon "Doubting God's Love".

Pastor Philip Miller: When we were moving to Chicago a couple years ago, we knew that we would be living within walking distance of the Moody Church here and so we decided to become a one-car city family. We sold both of our vehicles in Washington state and we decided to hunt for a new vehicle when we got here to meet our needs here in Chicago. I asked Krista, "What are some of the features that you would be dreaming about in a new vehicle?" I was thinking like heated seats or all-wheel drive or something like that. She told me, "I don't want there to be any of those little warning lights flashing on the dash."

You have to understand for most of our married life we had had very used vehicles and the dash was lit up like a Christmas tree. I grew up with warning lights always on the dash on the vehicles we drove in our family. I just kind of learned to ignore them. I even sometimes took electrical tape and I put it right over the top so I wouldn't see it because if you don't see it, it's not real, right? Those are just suggestion lights, right? Some of you are losing all respect. The little bit you had for me you've lost it at this point.

Anyway, those little lights were stressing Krista out all the time. It was like a little rebuke. You're doing something wrong all the time and she wanted no lights. So I'm pleased to report, and I drove the vehicle yesterday, there's not one, not one warning light on, not even a tire pressure gauge light. I'm so proud of myself.

Anyway, the book of Malachi is in many ways like a series of warning lights on the dashboard of our spiritual lives. Malachi, that great Italian prophet from the Old Testament, he prophesied around 450 BC. He's the very last of the Old Testament prophets. After Malachi, it goes radio silent for 400 years. God doesn't give any word to his people for 400 years until Jesus shows up. So this is like God's final message to his Old Testament people, Israel, before Messiah comes.

And it's full of all these warnings. You see, the people of Israel had come back from exile. They had been exiled in Babylon. They came back, they had rebuilt Jerusalem, they re-established the wall, they restored the temple, and they rededicated themselves to God with fervor. They were ready for all the new covenant promises of God to come true right then, right there. But it didn't happen—not the way they dreamed it would, at least.

The temple turned out to be less glorious than they'd remembered. The city was less prosperous than they had planned. The nation was less influential than they had aspired. And so their fervor for the Lord started to fade. Their faithfulness started to fluctuate. Their fidelity started to falter. And so we'll see in the book of Malachi they started doubting that God loved them. They became careless in their worship. They grew indifferent to the truth. They started abandoning their covenants. They started skimping on their offerings to God.

The spiritual slide in their lives over the next 400 years will end up in what we know as Pharisaism—the Pharisees and their performative religion of doing everything right on the outside but their hearts being lost and wandering. This is where it's going. Jesus will call out the Pharisees in Matthew 15:8, quoting the prophet Isaiah, "This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." They're saying the right words, practicing the right religion on the outside, but their hearts aren't in it at all. They've lost the heart of it all.

And God, sensing the spiritual drift of the peril that they are heading into, sends them a word through the prophet Malachi. And the book of Malachi serves as a series of warning lights flashing in their faces, trying to grab their attention to get them to repent, to turn around, to pay attention to what matters, and come home to God. In fact, the central theme of the book of Malachi is found in chapter 3, verse 7, where we read, "Return to me and I will return to you. Return to me and I will return to you."

In amongst all of these warnings in the book of Malachi are woven some of the most beautiful promises in all of the Bible. So Malachi is both full of warnings and great warmth. It's full of tough love and tender mercies. And as people whose hearts are also prone to wander, whose religions can too easily slip into performance where we end up going through the motions but lose the heart of it all, we need this message. We need this tough love and these tender mercies.

So grab your Bible. We're going to be in Malachi chapter 1, verses 1 to 5 today. It's the very last book in the Old Testament. As I read God's word, would you listen along? This is the word of the Lord, Malachi chapter 1, verses 1 to 5: "The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. 'I have loved you,' says the Lord. But you say, 'How have you loved us?' 'Is not Esau Jacob's brother?' declares the Lord. 'Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.' If Edom says, 'We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,' the Lord of hosts says, 'They may build but I will tear down and they will be called the wicked country and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.' Your own eyes shall see this and you shall say, 'Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.'"

Thanks be to the Lord for the reading of his word. It's a slightly odd passage, isn't it? Let's dig in here. Malachi structures this book around a series of disputes, six of them in total, between God and the people as they argue back and forth over these points. This is the very first of the disputes in these first five verses. In these verses we find a weighty concern, weary hearts, and wondrous love. Weighty concern, weary hearts, and wondrous love. There's your outline. Let's pray and we'll jump in.

Father, we are often blind to our own spiritual condition. Our heart's ability to self-justify is endless. The doubts that plague our hearts are many. And Father, to the extent that we too doubt your love, would you remind us of how much you love us this morning? We cry out to you in Christ's name. Amen.

So first of all, a weighty concern. Malachi, whose Hebrew name means my messenger, begins this prophecy with these words in verse 1: "An oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi." Now, the word translated oracle here in Hebrew literally means burden—a burden like a heavy, weighty load. This is the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

These are weighty words from a heavy heart that is caring for the souls of his people. Malachi feels the weight of the responsibility of bringing this word to his people. The concern of their souls lays heavily upon his heart. He senses their spiritual peril and he is burdened for their souls. And so the Lord God gives Malachi a word for his people—a word that is not to be taken lightly for it is the word of the Lord.

You'll notice it is capital L-O-R-D. This is Yahweh, the covenant-keeping name of God. He is speaking to his covenant people and the word of the Lord weighs heavily on Malachi. He longs to see a spiritual breakthrough in the lives of his people—that somehow this word would penetrate their jaded hearts and that they would turn back to God and that this heavy weight would have its effect.

Friends, the care of souls is a heavy burden. You know that? The care of souls is a heavy burden. I'm reminded how the apostle Paul, like Malachi, describes his daily carrying of the burden of all the churches—the cares and concerns of the churches. That's in 2 Corinthians 11:28. Souls don't weigh an ounce, do they? And yet carrying them is the greatest weight in the world. Ask any pastor, any minister, any prayer warrior, any parent, any guardian, any grandparent. The care of souls is a heavy burden.

Aren't you grateful, friends, for those who have loved you enough to burden themselves with the care of your soul? Aren't you grateful? Aren't you thankful for people who have loved you enough to speak heavy truths into your life? Aren't you blessed by those who faithfully bring the weightiness of the word of the Lord to bear upon your soul? Aren't you grateful? We desperately need people like Malachi who will faithfully bring the burden of the word of the Lord to his people whose souls weigh upon his life, his heart. It's a weighty concern.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: This is Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. I'm Pastor Larry McCarthy. We're glad you're joining us today as we dig deeper into the importance of rebuke. Pastor Philip, one of our producers, Micah, said, "Everybody loves a loving rebuke." Well, I'm not quite sure that's true, but it's hard to give a loving rebuke.

Pastor Philip Miller: It is. It's a weighty responsibility. It's heavy. Probably if you enjoy rebuking people, that's probably a problem. You shouldn't enjoy it and be volunteering. But it ought to be a concern, it ought to be a weight, it ought to be something that we carry with a degree of sobriety and heaviness. It shouldn't be something we're super eager about.

But if we love people and we care about them, it's important for us to help get in the way when people are self-destructing or when they've really just gotten off track and it's not good for them. So our love for people means that we love them enough to do the uncomfortable thing and to try to speak truth and love and wisdom into their life. Love requires that we love people enough to do uncomfortable things.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: This is so practical. I'm so glad that you're doing this series. There's a difference between criticism and correction. And when we talk about a loving rebuke, really we should be thankful that someone is taking the time to offer correction or a loving rebuke as opposed to just criticism.

Pastor Philip Miller: Criticism is just negative. There's nothing much you can do with it. It's just like, "Why are you always like that?" or whatever. And I think what happens is when you get feedback that's negative, it's saying something's off or people don't like something. There's sort of two modes that can come at you. One mode is they're just irritated because you're not doing what they want. And so in other words, the motivation of it is sort of self-serving criticism. They have something they want and they're not getting it or they wish it was different. In other words, they want to be comfortable. They want to have what they want and so then they're trying to get you to play their game.

And that's easy at some level to screen out because you can realize they're not doing that for me. They're doing that for them. The other way that that feedback can come at you is if it's really actually for you. In other words, they love you and they want you to be better. So they're trying to help you—not control you, but help you.

And I think learning to discern the difference between those two is really important because one of them is selfish and the other one is a servant posture. Proverbs 27 talks about blessed are the wounds of a friend. The wounds of a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy. Anybody can flatter you, but only a friend will do the hard thing of actually giving you a wound that helps you get stronger. And so you can trust that friend in a different way. I think that's what we're talking about.

You have to learn to be able to discern between those two kinds of feedback mechanisms. But the best kind of feedback is the one where someone says, "I'm here for you. I love you. I want the best for you. I want you to be the best version of yourself. And because I'm so for you, I'm going to tell you something that might be uncomfortable, but if you'll absorb it, you're going to come out way better and that's what I want for you. And I think that's what you want too. And so that's why I'm doing the hard thing, which is leaning in and having a conversation that's uncomfortable for both of us, but we're going to get better because of it." That's the kind of loving rebuke that can change our lives.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: This is Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. We're talking about the importance of loving rebukes. That's so good. Criticism, it comes down to an issue of the heart motive. In loving rebukes, I'm interested in your best interest. The heart of criticism is always hypocrisy and jealousy. I'm just upset with you and I just want to criticize you. That is so good. But okay, rebukes are good, but we avoid them. We don't want to hear it. Somebody comes here, "I've got something to say," walls go up almost automatically about this. Why do people put up these walls if it's a good thing, getting a loving rebuke?

Pastor Philip Miller: We're self-defensive, right? We don't want to hear that we're off or whatever. We're self-defensive, we're self-protective, we're a little self-delusional too. We tend to think, "I'm doing everything good." It's amazing, they do surveys and everyone thinks they're an above-average driver. But statistically, a whole bunch of us are not. But everyone thinks they're above average. So our ability to just frame our life with a rose-colored glasses is pretty strong. So we're not good at receiving it.

But I think there's a humility and a teachability that we have through the gospel. The gospel humbles us down. And I think if we can let that absorb into our life more, we can be a little bit more teachable and then we can grow. When you know you're not perfect and you know you need to make progress and the gospel tells us all of that—that we were more sinful than we ever dared realize and more loved than we ever dared hope—that gives us the safe place to actually learn and grow and we don't have to be quite so defensive.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: Let's see if we can help some of our listeners. Maybe the Lord has placed this burden, this heavy burden that you talked about, on their heart to provide a loving rebuke for someone. What practical steps would you have for them?

Pastor Philip Miller: Well, the first thing we've got to do is pray a lot. And then the second thing is, I think, to make sure the relationship is secure in love. The kind of love that we're seeing in Malachi where God loves with this covenant-keeping love—he's always for us, he's never against us—that's his motive, his heart. That's why the rebuke is coming.

In the same way, we need to make sure that our relationship is so enfolded and covered in love that it's strong enough to sustain the hard moment of rebuke. So you've got to just reassure that. You know I love you. You know I'm for you. You know I'm never against you. I'm only saying this because I think it can make you better. I don't want you sabotaging your future self by the choices you're making right here, right now, etc. In other words, you want to make sure that net of love is so secure it can handle the weight of a moment of rebuke.

And then one of the questions that I use is just, "Are you aware?" You seem stressed. Are you aware that when you're stressed, you affect people in this way and that's actually damaging these relationships? Are you aware of that? And then if they say, "No, I'm not aware," then you say, "Well, this is what's happening." And if they say, "No, I am aware," you say, "Oh okay, now that you're aware, I'm glad to hear that. What are you doing about that?"

And then you can help walk through it. And I think that question is a good one because it's not a really harsh question. It's not an attacking question, but it's a curious question that invites someone into a collaborative space where they're trying to work on the problem with you. And I think that's always effective. So that's just one way.

Pastor Larry McCarthy: Outstanding. You know, when we face a loving rebuke, it's often an invitation to evaluate our integrity and how we handle anger in our relationships. To help you stay anchored for the first time ever, we're offering a wonderful resource by Rebecca Lutzer. It's called Life-Changing Bible Verses Every Woman Should Know. As the wife of Pastor Emeritus Erwin Lutzer, Rebecca explores what God says about becoming a woman of grace.

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