In this final charge the people bring against God in Malachi 3:13-18, the people are asking whether it's really worth it to follow God with their whole lives. They see the wicked prospering around them and it's caused them to grow cynical about fruitful and faith-fill obedience. God's word against them is that those who follow obediently in his commands will have their names written in the book of remembrance, forever sealed by the blood of the Lamb.

It's become commonplace in popular culture to tell people to follow their hearts. But what Malachi makes clear is that that's terrible advice. What we see in Malachi 3:7-12 is that when it comes to something as ubiquitous as money and wealth, we can't trust our hearts. The people are robbing God by not giving joyfully, humbly, and sacrificially. How can they return? By regaining our fear of the Lord. It's the fear of the Lord that saves us from the danger of wealth and provides us with a direction for our wealth.

Pastor Josh's sermon: The Generous God | Matthew 6:2-4

One of the common threads throughout the Bible is that God is purifying and refining his people. While this change may seem painful at times, we can trust in a God who never changes. Our unchanging God only wants to refine, not destroy, his beloved people. Because God never changes, we must trust how he changes us.

From the promises to Abraham to the story of Exodus, God has been calling a people set apart to display his goodness and mercy to the nations. And yet, in Malachi 2:10-16, we see Israel betraying God and each other as they live unholy lives by marrying foreign women and being enticed to their gods, as well as casually divorcing the wives of their youths. This compounds into betrayal and treachery not just before God, but before each other as a covenant community. And yet the exhortation in these verses is that because God is our Father, we must live as a faithful family by pursuing holiness, faithful worship, and fruitful relationships.

We are all hard-wired to know why we were made. Millions of dollars are spent each year in the hopes that people will be able to find their true purpose in life. Yet we miss the simple truth told to us in Scripture: we are made to worship God. This is the very same idea the prophet Malachi brings up in Malachi 2:1-9, that because God has made, called, and purposed us, our posture in worship and proclamation in the truth must honor the name of God.

There can sometimes be grave consequences when we ignore warning signs and treat uncontrollable things irreverently. In the case of Israel, they were treating God irreverently through their defiled sacrifices. The pronouncement of Malachi 1:6-14 reveals the foundation of their worthless worship is a low view of God and the fruit of their worthless worship is empty religious rituals. Yet, this pronouncement helps us anticipate that redemption from our worthless worship is the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Disappointment is something everyone, everywhere has to face. Relational, social, financial, and vocational disappointments can, if we are not careful, make us fall prey to doubt and disobedience. If our view of God's love is based on our circumstances, we will always be disappointed. Yet, the opening verses of Malachi declare that even in the disappointments of life, we can know we are loved by the Father.

Just like news stations interrupt regular programming to bring you special alerts, Malachi disrupts our ways of living so we may hear God clearly. In Malachi's time, God's chosen people still live in the unfaithful ways of their ancestors. They question God's love, despise and defile his temple, pursue unfaithfulness, question justice, neglect proper worship, and remain cynical about wholly serving God. Because we are prone to wander, we must remember God's faithful love, the seriousness of sin, and our future hope.

Feats of human endurance can be found all around us; from ultra-marathoners to world records, humans can do incredible things. This is why the author of Hebrews draws on the analogy of running with endurance to describe the Christian life in chapter twelve. Endurance is required as we run the race with faithfulness, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.

Our world is filled with fear and discouragement. We are told to follow our hearts and discover our purpose to what end? In Joshua 1, we meet a man who must take on the responsibility of leading a nation to war. God meets him amid any fear and discouragement with the command to be strong and courageous! It was a call Joshua needed then, and it's a call we need today.