Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: I wonder if we have half-heartedly come to worship. Do we prepare our hearts and attitudes for the hot date you have on Friday night more than you prepare your heart and your attitude for when you come before the Lord on a Sunday and give God your leftovers?

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador concerning the posture of worship in Today's Word.

Brett Meador: I'm reminded of what Colossians 3:23 and 24 declares: "And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ."

Guest (Male): Though the Lord had been faithful to the Israelites, God needed to confront them through the Prophet Malachi for their insincere worship practices of offering blemished sacrifices. In our verse-by-verse study in Today's Word, Pastor Brett Meador challenges us to examine our own hearts. Are we honoring God with sincerity or giving him what cost us little instead of our best?

Brett Meador: The Book of Malachi. This is the first section and it's heartbreaking. The first section, we're going to call verses 2 through 5 "The Denying of God's Love." We pick it up in verse 2. The Lord is talking about several things that are springboards into interesting discussions. The Lord says, "I loved you guys." And the people are like, "When did you love us?"

Does that sound like a grateful bunch of people? "What have you done for us lately?" they might have said. It's easy to say because they're living large right now. During Malachi's time, they have their temple built, their houses are comfy, and they are in somewhat freedom from enemies at this point.

Isn't it funny how that's usually when you start to doubt God? It is when you're living in times of prosperity, doing your own thing, and do not have a real need for God. You're not in desperate need, so you're not crying out to God. In prosperity, you forget God, and that's where the people were.

"I love you." "Where did you love us, God?" This is the people's heart. Then the Lord says, "I have loved you. Think about it. I chose Jacob." Remember, he is the guy that changed the name from Jacob to Israel. "And Esau have I hated." Romans talks about this idea of the Lord choosing us. Election is an interesting part of the discussion here. God chose the Jews over the descendants of Esau.

The Esau descendants, the Edomites, are the ones mentioned here. It is important to know what is going on with these guys. The Lord says, "I'm going to crush them. I loved you because I didn't crush you." Well, that's not loving. It really is. The Lord should have crushed the whole world. We're all sinners. We all deserve death and hell.

But the Lord loves the Jews. We're huge sinners and the Lord still loves us. It reminds me of Romans 5:8, where we're told by Paul the Apostle, "But God commends his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." But why would God choose Jacob over Esau?

There's an interesting biblical theme that goes throughout the Bible, but Esau is a symbol of the carnal man. Jacob is the one who was chosen and elected. We could number the ways that God loved Israel. We could talk about the deliverance out of Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea. Was that a loving thing for God to do? I think so. It was loving to part the Red Sea and destroy Pharaoh's army.

What about starving in the wilderness? Did the Lord love them? Yes. They were hungry and all they had to do was wake up in their tent, reach outside the tent door, and grab manna off the ground. They didn't have to stand in line at Safeway.

Throughout the history of Israel, God loved them, provided for them, protected them, and wiped out their enemies over and over again. But the Jews rebelled against God. Now in Malachi's time, they ask, "Whatever good thing have you done for us? When did you love us, God?"

If you ever start doubting the love of God like the people here, repent from that and look to the cross. See what God has done for you. The answer is everything. He's done everything.

Now we come to the second section. We have number one, "The Denying of God's Love." Number two is "The Defiling of God's Table," and that's verses 6 through 14. It says, "A son honors his father and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where is mine honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts unto you, oh priests, that despise my name. And you say, 'Wherein have we despised thy name?'"

This is the banter back and forth between God and the people of Israel. The first one is "I have loved you." "Wherein have we seen you love us?" Now the Lord says, "You've actually defiled the table of God. You've despised my name." And they say, "Wherein have we despised your name?" This is their attitude demonstrated here.

The Lord makes a reasonable discussion. He says sons honor their fathers and employees honor their employers and even have a healthy fear of them. "Why would you not have that honor and fear for me?" the Lord would say. "Wherein have we despised your name?" they said.

The Lord responds: "You offer polluted bread upon mine altar. And you say, 'Wherein have we polluted thee?' in that you say, 'The table of the Lord is contemptible.' And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it now to thy governor. Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person? says the Lord of hosts. And now I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us. This hath been by your means. Will he regard your persons? says the Lord of hosts."

Interesting thing that's going on here. When it says here, "You offer polluted bread," when they bring the table of showbread to the table in the holy place, it's old, crusty, stale bread. They basically eat the good stuff themselves. Instead of making a fresh batch, they bring a bunch of old, crusty bread and put it on the table. They say, "Here's God's bread. At least we didn't have to eat it."

When it says in verse 8, "You offer the blind, the lame, and the sick," it's talking about animals. They bring a blind, wounded lamb that's scarred and spotted up. They say, "We don't want to eat that one, so let's bring it to the temple and offer it to the Lord." The Lord says, "Would you offer this to the governor of your town or would you get the nice one for the governor?"

When they bring their offering, the animals would be blemished, spotted, and spoiled. He is making the case that if you had the governor to your house, you would bust out the good stuff, but with Him, you're giving the trash. We are guilty of the same thing. I'm reminded of what Colossians 3:23 and 24 declares. Paul says, "And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ."

When they came to worship, they came with their junk. I wonder if we half-heartedly come to worship. Do we prepare our hearts and attitudes for the hot date you have on Friday night more than you prepare your heart and your attitude for when you come before the Lord on a Sunday, a Wednesday night, or during your morning devotions? That's the problem. It is human nature to do the half-hearted worship thing and give God your leftovers.

We can also come to church with a cynical attitude. That is what happened here when it says they despised his name and they say the table of the Lord is contemptible. That was their attitude in that day. Sometimes we care more about what man thinks than what God thinks. Some people struggle with what people think of them.

We sing songs like "Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, bless the Lord." A lot of our songs sing about lifting hands. I have to say, trying not to be judgmental as a pastor—Jesus said, "Judge not lest you be judged," but in the same chapter he says, "But you'll know them by their fruit." In other words, you should notice whether it's good fruit or bad fruit.

Sometimes I'm blessed and sometimes I'm bummed. I'm bummed when I see people come to church and they're more into their games or letting their kids wear the hoodie and slouch in the corner. My dad would have killed me because that was not the posture of worship. The posture of worship is to come attentive, involved, and listening. I notice parents just don't care about that anymore.

"Brett, you don't understand. I can't even get my kid into church." You should make that happen, especially if you're a parent of young kids. There are ways to teach them to do the right thing and come with the right attitude. People come with an attitude, and we sing about lifting hands.

We sing that song on a Sunday morning. The song boldly declares, "I'm going to lift up my hands to the Lord." There are maybe three or four people that I'll see actually doing what they're singing. Is that judgmental? It's actually biblical. Psalm 134, verse 2 says this: "Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord." That is just an easy one.

"Well, Brett, I don't want my wife thinking that I'm Mr. Holier-than-thou because I was at home being grouchy with the kids and now I'm lifting my hands. My wife will think I'm a hypocrite." There's only one time you should not be worried about what your wife thinks. That is when you're in church before God. I think your wife will forgive you. If he's lifting his hands in church, that's a good thing even if he was grouchy with the kids on the way to church.

Lift up your hands. The Bible makes that an easy thing we can do. Some of you feel like when you get to church, you have to lift your hands. That was the attitude of Malachi's people. "We have to take bread at the table and we have to bring a lamb. Where can we find a scratched-up, half-alive lamb?" That is the way people approach worship today.

"Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord." These people were given very clear instructions of how they were supposed to bring their lambs. Let me read you some of Leviticus 22:18-25. "You shall offer at your own will a male without blemish." This is what Leviticus 22, verse 19 says.

Verse 21 says, "Whosoever offereth a sacrifice, peace offering unto the Lord to accomplish a vow, a freewill offering of beef or sheep, it shall be perfect and accepted. There shall be no blemish. No blindness, no brokenness or maimed, or having a wen or scurvy or scabbed. You shall not offer these of the Lord, nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar of the Lord." It goes on and on. It is repeated in Leviticus 22 about what you should not be offering.

The people of Malachi's time were doing exactly the opposite. The Lord's acknowledging that. He's saying, "You guys have defiled my temple." It's going to get even more brutal and pointed here. For them, they had Leviticus 22. For the church, we have the Book of Acts and the epistles of what we should be doing in church.

The church needs to follow a biblical way and not go against the Word. That's what these people were doing. They blew off God's Word on how to worship. Today, people are blowing off God's Word on how to worship. You see the churches with the LGBTQIA+ flag flying proudly over their churches. That's exactly what Malachi's people were doing. They were saying, "We don't care what God's Word says. We don't care about His law. We're going to just do what we're going to do." We've seen that for a long time. Don't be like that. We have to reject the attitude that Malachi's day had. It is much like what's happening today.

They were defiling God's table. Worship had become something that was not fun for them. Let's take a look at verse 10. "Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for naught? Neither do you kindle fire on mine altar for naught. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand."

The King James is a tough translation here. The ESV and NIV do a good job with verse 10. I'm going to give you the ESV because it is clear and what the Hebrew is telling us. "Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors," that is shut the doors of the temple, "that you might not kindle a fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand."

This is like if the Lord were to say, "If your heart and attitude are wrong and you are not doing what the Bible actually says about why we go to church." People can go to church for all kinds of weird reasons. People go to churches because it's a good way to get to know business people and have a network that helps your business.

People go to churches because they think there is a chance to find a spouse. People go to churches because you might have more influence. But be careful. The Lord says, "I have no pleasure in that." Some of you go to church because your wife drags you there. The Lord would say, "Don't even come. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts."

The idea we learn from the Old Testament is something that we should do in the New. There was a New Testament church that had the same problem as Malachi's time. It's Revelation 4:11. Remember the seven churches to Asia Minor? In Revelation 4:11, it tells us why we exist. "Thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

We were created for His pleasure. What pleases the Lord is found in Hebrews Chapter 10, verses 22 through 25. I call this the "spiritual salad" or the "church salad." Why do I call it the church salad? It says, "Let us." Number one, "Let us draw near with a true heart." This is how you approach God and how you go to church.

Draw near in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Second part of the salad: "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised." Third part: "Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching."

When the Lord spoke to the seven churches of Asia Minor, one of the worst on the list was the church of Laodicea. Flip there real quick. Keep your finger in Malachi and go to Revelation 3. Talk about a parallel. I see a huge parallel and this helps us with a New Testament application of Malachi.

It's Revelation 3, verse 14. "And unto the angel of the church of Laodiceans I write, 'These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that you were cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, "I am rich and have increased with goods and have need of nothing," and knowest thou not thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked?'"

They thought they were living large, just like the people of Malachi and the people today. We are the rich ones of the world. But He says you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. He says in verse 18, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried with fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with eye salve in the midst. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent." The Lord gives a strong word here to the church of Laodicea. This idea of lukewarmness, going through the motions of religiosity but not having a real heart for the Lord, is always a bad deal.

Number two is "The Defiling of God's Table." That's what we see in verses 6 through 14. Now, back to Malachi. In verse 11, it says, "From the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles. And in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering, for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts."

This verse is amazing. The Lord is saying, "You are my people, the Jews, and you've lost it." He's saying, in some ways, good news for us Gentiles. The Lord's predicting what would happen in the world. If the Jews are going to come and bring bad sacrifice and not really care about God, there is going to be a bunch of Gentiles who are going to do this.

How is that going to happen? We know how that happened. There are two possible fulfillments of this. The first is possibly the church. Once the church came, the Gentile church grew all over the world. Incense is a type of prayer. Is prayer ascending all over the world? From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same means all over the world there are Christian Gentiles praying today. This verse has been fulfilled in the church of Jesus Christ. In every place, incense shall be offered in my name.

The second theory is that this verse isn't just talking about the church. Maybe it's both. But it might be talking about the millennial kingdom. He's called the Lord of hosts at the end of verse 11. That's the language of the kingdom in Zechariah. That is a kingdom term given to the Lord. Some say this will be ultimately fulfilled when the kingdom, when Jesus rules and reigns from Jerusalem.

Regardless of which one this is, we should be offering intense, pure prayer before the Lord. That's what we Gentiles get to do. Verse 12: "But ye have profaned it in that you say, 'The table of the Lord is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even his meat is contemptible.' And ye said also, 'Behold, what a weariness is it!' And ye have snuffed"—sneered—"you have sneered at it, saith the Lord of hosts. And you brought that which was torn and the lame of the sick, and you brought an offering. Should I accept this of your hand? saith the Lord. But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen."

God has to tell you, "I'm a great king." That is how bad it is. Don't bring defiled things to Him. If we are not careful, we can blow things off that are important when we come to worship the Lord. First Corinthians Chapter 11, verses 23 through 32, talks about people that come to the Lord in communion and they come with an unworthy attitude. He said, "For he that eateth and drinketh the Lord's cup unworthily, he's guilty of the death and damnation that comes with that." He eats and drinks damnation to himself. That is so sad.

It is part of what the church is supposed to be about. In Acts Chapter 2, verse 42, the church was all about the apostle's doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. But do we approach the communion table, going to church, Bible teaching, or fellowship with "whatever"? I see people blow off all of these things in the modern-day church. We have to be careful about this. We need to make sure and make worship a priority. That's the key.

I see my own tendency to have that half-hearted approach of God. It is interesting because sometimes we've almost fooled ourselves into caring more about the external than we do about what's going on internally, the attitude of the heart. One of the things people deal with is what you wear to church.

Clothing is such a big deal to many people. But God says, "I look at the heart of man, man looks at the outward appearance." People make big deals out of stuff they shouldn't. I don't think the Lord looks at our clothes. But I do know that He looks at our hearts. The people of Malachi's time came to worship and their hearts were way off. Their actions proved their hearts were off.

That is where you and I can stand corrected ourselves to make sure that when we come to church, we come putting our pride down, being willing to worship the way God told us to worship. That means actively, with enthusiasm. I love the word enthusiasm. The word comes from a Greek word "entheos," which means "in God." Enthusiasm means something you do with energy and effort because it is before God.

I challenge you once again: Let's be lifting our hands and lifting our voices. When you feel the spirit moving and your hearts are lifted up and you are singing praise the Lord with enthusiasm, there is something infectious about that. It's preventative to keep us from the Malachi attitude of those people. "The table's defiled. I don't care. Let's bring in our junk." That can be the attitude. Just checking a box. We don't want that ever. When we come to church, let's come enthusiastically and ready to worship before the Lord. Amen?

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador, drawing from our first look into the book of Malachi, that we seriously consider whether our worship is genuine or merely routine before a worthy God. Pastor Brett has a closing prayer to end our time together in Today's Word in just a moment, so I trust you'll stick around for that.

Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. Our vision on Today's Word is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful study of the Bible.

We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have locations in Hillsboro and McMinnville. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations." Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations." Well, to wrap up today's message, Pastor Brett Meador offers this closing word of prayer.

Brett Meador: Lord, we thank you so much for your Word. It is always enlightening and bringing truth to us. We're thankful for the good reminder from Malachi. As we finish up this Old Testament, what an amazing journey it has been and so much that we can learn. Lord, I pray we wouldn't just check the Bible study box. Lord, let us meditate on your Word. As we meditate on your Word day and night, we'll be like a tree firmly planted by the river of water. Give us that firmness and steadfastness to meditate on the things we've talked about. Help us to remember those things and internalize those things. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time on Today's Word. Next time, Pastor Brett will look at what God has to say about the issue of tithing. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.