Sermon January 9, 2011 We are going to return to Malachi 1 this morning. 6 “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?’ 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? 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. 10 “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. 11 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. 12 “But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’ 13 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. 14 “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. I want us to look once again at this passage, but this time I want us to focus in on verse 11. 11 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. How will this be accomplished? From where the sun rises to where it sets - that is the whole world. How will His Name become great? It begins with honor - Consider for a minute the 10 commandments - the first four are all about honoring God. 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Two specific things that I want us to see here. 1) The name of the LORD is a big deal. And to think otherwise is sin. 2) God loves math. He wants you to count your days. And every seventh day, he wants you to behave differently. --------------------- Now lets return to Malachi. Why is the incense and pure offering brought? Because His name will be great among the nations. So what connection is there between the gift to God, and the Name of God? Perhaps it is not such a hard question, but in our world today we do not connect necessarily connect money spent on something with the honor it deserves. At least not in those words. The only example I can think of is "vanity products." Buy this because you deserve it. - purfume, luxury cars, and nice clothes. But typically, money is spent in a more pragmatic way. A roof over our heads, food on the table, electricity, phones, water...the BILLS. Now if I were to ask you which category giving to God goes into, which would you respond? Most of us would put it into the second category. This is something I have to do. Why? Well, if you want to stay on God's good side, you have to give him some money. The next question in this line of thinking - really? How much do you have to give him? Well, in the Old Testament he asked for the first fruit, and he asked for 10 percent. Leviticus 27:30 “‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD. But we live in an age of grace, not law, so its basically whatever you want to give him. Oh, I see, so how much to you want to give him? Well, my budget is written up so that I give him ten percent, but things sometimes come up, and on months like that, I just give what I can. You know...maybe a hundred bucks. Ok...lets end this line of thinking before we get too convicted. I would like to suggest that giving to God actually goes in the other category. It is not something we do because we have to, its something we do BECAUSE HE IS WORTH IT. It is a vanity gift.
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