Putting God First in Our Lives | Malachi 1:1-14

Show Notes

Episode 701: 
In this episode, Chris and guest Wesley dive into the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. This chapter reveals God's blunt message to the Israelites about their lack of respect and honor in their worship practices. The hosts reflect on the significance of God’s declaration of love for His people, despite their cynicism and questioning of His affection. They highlight the Israelites' tendency to measure God's love based on political and economic circumstances, drawing parallels to modern-day attitudes toward faith and material success.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. My name is Chris and I am Wesley, and. We are here today. We are the Bible Guys today because many of you realized that last week we had Kyle as filling in for Jeff, because Jeff is you know, are out and about throughout the country doing great things in other countries for the Timothy Initiative. Well, anyway, he came back into the States and the weather and the pollen get the best of them. So he's resting up to make sure that he's good for Sunday here at Heritage Church. So Wesley, you are the other Bible Guy. I'm glad to be here, and I just have a question. Can we ban pollen? Yes? I know that the bee people will be angry at that bless Yes. Yes, my allergies this time of year are not they are not subtle. Let's just say yeah, yeah, you got that right. Yeah. You know what, Having another Bible Guy is a lot like choosing your favorite movie. I believe because you can't do it. It may you can't compare yourself to Jeff or to me or to Kyle. It's like it's like a different genre. You how do you pick a favorite movie. It's just as good, just different. I would take it. Yes, So thank you for being here. And then also if you're watching a video, you'll notice we're not in our normal podcast studio. That's true. We are on heritage of stage and that's because there was a podcast studio thing that happened, and so we are pivoting, and so we don't know how that long that's going to last. So a lot of explanations today before we dive into today. So we are going to dive into the book of Malachi. Now that book is the last book of the Old Testament, right before the four hundred years of silence, before the New Testament, before the Promise. What we're going to discover in Malachi is God's going to say some words. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. He's a little blunt, isn't he. Yeah, he is very direct in blunt in Malika, Yeah, through the prophet. But before we dive into that, we actually have a segment that Desiree has chosen for us, and it is a stump the pastor question. Okay, and so this is written in by Alison Kyeah. It's awesome. Yeah, Alison kay says this, what do you say to a Christian who feels abandoned by God despite doing everything right? That is a tough question right here. Yeah. Yeah, well I would say, welcome to the club. Yeah, no, that's true. I think we've all been there before. Yes, we've all been there where there were seasons of our life that were really difficult. I even think of myself with my daughter and how we had a couple of miscarriages before then. She was born two pounds twelve ounces premature, spent two months in the ICU, had some reflux issues. After that, it was like thing after thing after thing, and at a certain point where like can we catch a break here? I mean, it just seems like it was a season of difficulty. But I will say through that entire year. Pastor at the time, Yeah, I was a pastor at the time. Yeah. Yeah, I still remember being at church when my wife called. The church was in Southfield at that time, and she called and said her water broke. And I'm thinking, you're like, at twenty eight, twenty nine, Wait, that's impossible, now, remember racing the Saint John Hospital. So, yeah, I'm in church. And when I say in church, I mean i'm a pastor. I'm I'm tithing, doing everything that I know to do that's right. And even us we go through seasons like that, So we're not oblivious just because we're followers of God or pastors or anything like that. But even through that entire season, I could see glimpses of God where he was carrying us, where he was holding our hand every step of the way through that whole crazy season. Yeah, yeah, I think I think we've all been through seasons like that. I have a story where in between minister trees, you know, I got burned by my first two churches. I liked serving in church, Okay, I just didn't like working for people. And I had had one pastor had a moral failure. And then I joined another church worked for that one, and that pastor had a moral failure and no one of that, but like there was a bunch of hardships that came on my family because of those two guys, and so and I just I said I'm done, like I'm done, and I felt as if like I'm like, God, throw me a bone I actually said, I prayed that to God. I said, I said, I said, to throw me a bone. I said, I feel like I'm in a one sided relationship. Right, So when I say join the club, I don't say that flippantly. I'm saying I don't. I don't think that the club is that God often abandons his people. I'm saying that his people often feel as if God has abandoned them. But it's not true because because God says, if he's with us, if we're followers and believers in him, that He's always with us. There's never a time ever where you are not under God's care. There's never a time where you're out of god It's presence. There's never a time where the Holy Spirit has abandoned you as a believer and follower, as a Christian, which is what the question says, right, And so there are times I believe that we feel abandoned by God. But really it's a deeper question, isn't it. Because think about this, Nobody ever questions whether God has abandoned them when life is great. Yeah right, yeah, when things are going great, there's never yeah, there's never an issue. Yeah yeah, And you may not even go to church, and you may, you know, you may be a Christian who stopped going to church, but nobody ever says, you know, just because I don't feel God's presence. It's about God's favor, It's about God's blessings. Wow, everything's going great. I have my health, I have money, I have happiness, and nobody ever questions that it is actually a deeper issue. And the deeper issue is it's about being unfair and it's about hardship. So really it's about this question. It's about why would a loving God continue to treat a faithful follower and why would a loving God allow bad things to happen to good people. Yeah, that's what it is. And the Bible talks about how it rains on the just as well as the unjust, so you know, you can be a christ follower. If you go outside, it's going to rain on you. If you reject God and you want nothing to do with God, if you walk outside, it's going to rain on you too. So the Bible lets us know that because we are Christians, and I think this is this is helpful for some people to hear. When you become a Christian, it doesn't mean you become immune to stuff. Right, And I think sometimes people think I become a Christian, I accept Christ into my life, and then suddenly, poof, like magic, everything is going to be daisies and rainbows and waterfalls and unicorns. And that is not how life works. Yeah, and so you and I both have Bible degrees, right, And so I have a four year bachelor's degree, and I have credits toward a master's degree in theology. I have read hun hundreds of books. I read the Bible countless times through I've had thousands of conversations. And so my theological stance is this is that crap happens. That's the truth it does. That is my theological stance. And I know sometimes people want to fancy deep theological response, but sometimes stuff just happens. Well, I mean, take, for instance, had your daughter not survived. You know, she was born premature. Had she not survived, I've actually heard some Christians say, well, that was God's perfect will, to which I would disagree. Had your daughter not survived, and not to mention there's people listening who've had tragedies like that, I would say, God's perfect will cannot be attached to tragedies. Like that. And in fact, I would say God's perfect will is the garden of Eden. That was God's perfect will. And when sin entered into the equation, the Book of Romans tells us that you and I live under the curse and the bondage and the decay of sin. And so we live in a broken and messed up world. And all things that are bad are as a result of sin, including man's bad choices, but including our DNA has changed in our in our bodies, death came into play, cancer came into play, disease came into play, even earthquakes in tsunamis. I mean, the DNA of the earth changed, right, because what the Bible say, no longer will you be given food from the ground. You have to work for your food, you know, or at least you won't be given it without work or labor. And so the DNA of everything changed. And so you know, when I say that stuff happens, what I'm really saying is is that every time that you know, we shed a tear, I believe God sheds a tear. I believe that God is with us. I believe that looking back we can see God's faithfulness. I believe that God does work in the valleys of our life. I believe that sometimes there's no rhyme or as to why God doesn't intervene. I believe that there are could be reasons, but we'll never understand them this side of eternity. But what I do know is that you can't go wrong being faithful to God. Yeah, that's true, you can't go wrong. And I would also add on very quickly at the end, that God is with us in near to us, even when we don't feel like he is. The example that I think of is in a mall when that little toddler runs ahead of the parents, and sometimes you will see the toddler have that moment of panic, like, oh no, where are my parents? The parents always had their eye on the toddler. Even though the toddler felt separated from the parents. They were really never separated from the parent, even though they felt they were. So I think that's a thing to keep in mind too. Yeah. So I would just say to Alison K, that was a great question. Yeah, if you're going through a hard time, I'm really sorry for that. But my advice to any Christian Alison is do not walk through this alone. Yes, right, So there are people for you. And the Bible says that we are made for community, we are made for encouragement, we are made to be helped. We are not made for independence. We are made to be in dependence, yes, with God and others. Right, yeah, no, it's good. So so thank you Allison for asking that. And so we have to move on, and we're going to transition to Malachi chapter one. And since Jeff does all the reading, you're going to take on the reading today? Is that just so I don't have to so you don't have to do all the Old Testament names. I'm gonna be honest. That's my motivation. But the other motivation is Jeff just has a really good voice and he really can read well. And guess what that's you. You've got the radio broadcast voice. This is WW No, I'm joking right, all right. Malachi first chapter, verses one through fourteen. It says, this is the message that the Lord to Israel through the prophet Malachi. I have always loved you, says the Lord. But you retort, really, how have you loved us? And the Lord replies, this is how I showed my love for you. I loved your ancestor Jacob, but I rejected his brother Esau and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau's inheritance into a desert for jackals. Esau's descendants in Edom may say, we have been shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins. But the Lord of Heaven's Armies replies, they may try to rebuild, but I will demolish them again. Their country will be known as the land of wickedness, and their people will be called the people with whom the Lord is forever angry. When you see the destruction for yourselves, you will say, truly, the Lord's greatness reaches far beyond Israel's borders. Verse six, the Lord of Heaven's Army says to the priest, a son honors his father, and a servant respects his man. If I am your father and master, where are the honor and respect I deserve? You have shown contempt for my name, But you ask, how have we ever shown contempt for your name? You have shown contempt by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar. Then you ask, how have we defiled the sacrifices? You defile them by saying the altar of the Lord deserves no respect. When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn't that wrong? And isn't it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is, says the Lord of Heaven's Armies verse nine. Go ahead, beg God to be merciful to you. But when you bring that kind of offering, why should he show you any favor at all? Ask the Lord of Heaven's Armies. How I wish one of you would shut the temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of Heaven's Armies, and I will not accept your offerings. But my name is honored by people of other nations. From morning till night, all around the world, they offer sweet incense and pure offerings in honor of my name. For my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of Heaven's Armies. But you dishonor my name with your actions. By bringing contemptible food, you are saying it's all right to devile the Lord's table. You say it's too hard to serve the Lord and you turn up your noses at my commands, says the Lord of Heaven's Armies. Think of it. Animals that are stolen and crippled and sick are being presented as offerings. Should I accept from you such offerings as these? Ask the Lord? Cursed is the cheat who promises to give a fine ram from his flock, but then sacrifices a defective one to the Lord. For I am a great king, says the Lord of Heaven's Armies, and my name is feared among the nations. There's a lot there. Yeah, there sure is. The Life Application of Study Bible has an overview of the Book of Malachi that reads this way. It says Malachi rebuked the people and the priests for neglecting the worship of God and failing to live according to his will. The priests were corrupt. How could they lead the people? They had become stumbling blocks instead of spiritual leaders. The men were divorcing their wives and marrying pagan women. How could they have godly children? Their relationship with God had become inconsequential. If our relationship with God is unimportant, we may need to take stock of ourselves by setting aside our sinful habits, putting the Lord first and giving our best to God each day. And so it is just a really wild thing to think about. This is the last book before God stopped speaking to his people. There's four hundred years of silence where God the Father and the Old Testament would speak prominently. You know. So the Old Testament was the Age of the Father, you know, the Age of the Son, where God spoke primarily through Jesus, where the Gospels, when Jesus lived on the earth, and then we lived in the Age of the Holy Spirit after the Resurrection, where Jesus sends the Holy Spirit, and still today that's how primarily God works in and speaks to us. Right, But back then God spoke audibly, and God the Father oftentimes used his prophets and judges like Malachi here and but listen, my point is this is that it's almost no wonder why God decided to stop speaking to his people, because now even the Church is corrupt to the point to where they have forgotten His decrees, they pay no attention to. In fact, it even says that they don't even understand God's word. The priest don't even know the law, right, I mean, it's gotten so bad. We're religion itself was nothing more than just politics and everything. Yeah, going through the motions, I love how it starts off. In verse two. It says, I have always loved you, says the Lord. So the Lord is telling them I have always loved you? Now't does your mind go to Whitney Houston? I'm right, I actually go to Janet Jackson? What have you done for me lately? You know what? I think we should cut an album? Is there is? And it says It finishes with saying, but you retort or reply, really, how have you loved us? And I can imagine and I can't speak for God, but I can almost imagine God saying, are you kidding me? I have preserved your life, I have blessed your people, I've blessed the nation, and you have the audacity to say, you know, how have I loved you? Really? There's a note here also in the Bible, the Study Bible, that says, unfortunately, many people are cynical about God's love, using political and economic progress as a measure of success. Because the government was corrupt and the economy poor, the Israelites assumed that God didn't love them. They were wrong. God loves all people because he made them. However, his eternal reward goes to only those who are faithful to him. And that's a great message, right because sometimes well, I mean think every day, I feel like I hear about the economy in our government, like every single day. It's like, come on, give me a break. And you can't necessarily measure God's favor by the economy or you know, or the politics the political landscape. You know, in third world countries and places developing countries that you and I have been to, people are happier. And they may not necessarily be more taken care of than you or me, but they literally have nothing, and in a lot of ways, it's better for their soul, right, I mean, it's not necessarily better for their bodies because they do struggle. But I've been a places where I've been told like this child only owns a rock and a stick. I've seen it in villages in Kenya, right where it's just like what and they have nothing on their body and they literally their only possessions are a rock and a stick, and yet they are happy and they love God. And even though I'm more well taken care of, I think that. I think that they're better for it as a person. Yeah, their happiness and contentment isn't based on stuff, right, And I think sometimes in the Western world we will base our happiness on stuff. I'm happy if I get the boat. I'm happy if I get the cabin up north. I'm happy if I get the jet skis or whatever the thing is so or the iPhone. Yeah, maybe not the iPhone. Come on, man, Hey, for our listeners who don't know, Wesley is one of the few on staff where he is a he is team sand Sung. I am I'm and cannot do the iPhone. And Jeff says that they don't get to go to heaven. Yeah, and do I mess up the text messages? Oh yeah, Oh yeah, you're the guy that turns all the group text messages Green, I can't name the text threat which, by the way, that's iPhone's fault. Yeah, the iPhone, iPhone is punishing everybody who's not iPhone user. So the funny thing about that is they could make those works seamlessly together if they It's kind of like the PC and the Mac. Yes, you could make it. There's if we could put a person on the moon in nineteen, you know sixty, you know at late sixties, did me though, we're not even going bu We're not even going there. You're sticking a malaka. It's so funny. It's so funny that it's funny. Half our listeners are like, oh, Chris is a doubt. Yeah right, that's so funny. It's funny. Well, so can we touch on verse seven really quick? Yeah? It says you have shown contempt by offering defiled sacrifices on my alter. Sure, and that's a good verse right there. So what they were doing is they didn't want to give God their best. They would look and say, well, wait a minute, I got a ram that's missing a leg in an eye, or. Somebody that a ram that has a disease. Yeah, or a disease, or I got a good ram. You know what, Let's sacrifice the one leged, one eyed Ram for the Lord, and then we'll keep the good Ram. What they missed was it wasn't about the sacrifice in and of itself. It was the heart, the attitude behind it. I use this example. I teach a class here at Heritage called two to one, and we talk about tithing, and I'm gonna make this super easy and simple. Let's say you get paid one hundred dollars, a tithe on that one hundred dollars would be ten dollars because a tie is ten percent. Let's say you pay all of your bills and then you have ten dollars left over. Is that a tithe? The answer would be no, because if you're just looking at the monetary aspect, you would say, well, yeah, that's a tie. But God said I want the first fruits, right, I want mine off the. Top, which is the faith part. That's that's the point. That's the faith that God was trying to get to you with the sacrifices, with the offering. So it's not about the money. It wasn't really about the ram. It was the heart which God was after. So I just think that's interesting. Yeah, and people do it all the time. I've had people call the church and say, hey, do you want these old nineteen seventies books that nobody wants anymore? Yeah, Hey, I bought a new couch. You want this old nasty couch for the church. It's like, no, the church deserves your new couch or a couch like it, right, Yeah, they deserve cutting edge leadership. Books and things like that. The church deserves the best. We're supposed to honor God, not give God the things you don't want. And I love how God said, try giving a gift to that, like that to your governor and see how he likes See how see how that goes? Right, It's just it's a hilarious uh, you know, it's a hilarios comparison because as soon as we hear that, we go, oh, yeah, that's right. I would never dream of giving the governor anything less than a total sacrifice. Right. But Chris, where else can you think of in our lives where we give God the scraps, the crumbs or the leftovers. Well, in our time we do that. And yeah, especially with time. Yeah, it's it's not just things or money, it's our time. Yeah, you know, we offer God. Okay, I have five minutes left over at the end of the day, I might as well, you know, maybe pray or something as opposed to making God the priority. And so it's not about the minutes, it's about the attitude, and it's about the priority of making him first, of making him first. Right. So, yeah, that's a great point. And by the way, let me make reference to where he says Esau. He's not talking about the eternal destination of Esau because he said he rejected Esau. He's talking about how God did not choose Esau, and Esau got a curse because of Esau's disobedience, right, so you know, you know in the Old Testament, Jacob and Esau sold his birthright and then got angry and rejected God and walked away from God for a lot of different reasons, but basically, in a time of weakness he did all those things. And anyway, there's a big story behind that. But I just wanted to reference the fact that God is not indicating that he's rejected Esau's eternity. He's talking about the lineage, because after all, you know, he's the God of Abraham, he's the God of Isaac, he's the God of Jacob. He's not the God of Esau. And he was, it was supposed to be Esau, but through Esau's actions, it became the God of Jacob. And then, as we know, that's an important line because the lineage goes all the way down through Jesus Christ. And so that's what God's That's what Malachi's referring here. Right, referring to here. So yeah, I think that there's a lot of sermons hidden in here about religion becoming a burden, about not honoring God. There's also a very dangerous warning that we're about to see in chapter two that talks about religious leaders not knowing God's word, religious leaders being hypocrites, very dangerous ground there. And then there's and then there's like you said, there's a big, huge warning about you know, the people not treating God first priority in their sacrifices or in their lives. And and we're going to dive into chapter two which has another strong message for priests and religious leaders. So he looks like we'll see you then hopefully you'll join us on the Bible guys,