Introduction:
How to Get Back to Real Worship
- Breathe In the Love of God. (Mal 1:1-5)
- Breathe out Reverence for God. (Mal 1:6-14)
Am I a Worshiper or a Faker?
- Do I offer God my Best? (Mal 1:6-9)
- Do I just go through the Motions? (Mal 1:10-14)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:48-00:52
Well, I am so excited to be back speaking.
00:54-01:04
And somebody right now just thought, "Oh, you were gone?" Well, being a preacher, I talk to other preachers and hear stories about what happens with other preachers.
01:05-01:13
And I heard this story about this couple that had come to this pastor for marriage counseling.
01:15-01:34
I could sort of relate to the story because the pastor had said that when the couple would come in, it was obvious from the posture, the wife was sitting listening to what the pastor had to say, and she had her Bible with her, and she's like, "I need help. We need help." And she was really just tuned in.
01:36-01:37
I've seen this so many times.
01:37-01:44
But the husband was just kind of slouched down in his chair, not really paying attention the whole time.
01:44-01:47
The pastor's trying to share this with what the Bible says.
01:47-01:49
Here's what God's called you to be as a husband.
01:49-01:51
And here's what God's called you to be as a wife.
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And the pastor's talking, and the guy's just sitting there with his head down.
01:55-01:59
But the pastor's like, he is totally just not even listening to me at all.
02:00-02:03
And he's thinking to himself, what am I going to do to get this guy's attention?
02:05-02:17
So the pastor just has this moment of just craziness where he gets up and walks around the table, He takes the young lady by the hand and he stands her up.
02:20-02:25
And he puts his hand on the back of the lady's head and dips her over and kisses her.
02:27-02:37
And puts her back in the seat and she's just like, "Whew!" The pastor turns to her husband and he said, "That's what she needs!
02:38-03:00
At least twice a week!" and her husband goes, "I can bring her in here on Tuesday and Thursday if that works for you." The truth is where there's a relationship, there's going to be times of feeling close, and there's going to be times of feeling distant, right?
03:01-03:06
And if you are a Christian, this can happen in your relationship with God.
03:08-03:11
That there are times in your walk with the Lord You feel very close, right?
03:11-03:16
And there are times in your walk with the Lord that you feel very distant, and you feel very detached.
03:17-03:25
And if that's how you're feeling today, if you're sitting here today and you say, "Pastor Jeff, I feel detached." God didn't move.
03:27-03:27
You did.
03:28-03:31
When I feel distant from the Lord, that's on me.
03:33-03:39
And there's some people here that once upon a time had a growing You were on an exciting walk with Jesus Christ.
03:41-03:49
Love to pray, you love to read the Bible, you were excited to witness, you were excited to worship, and there was a time that you just saw God at work in your life.
03:51-04:08
And it was so vibrant and so exciting, and right now you're saying, "Yeah, you know, not so much." You might be saying, "You know, I need to get back on track." How do we get there? How do we get off track?
04:10-04:12
Well, for some people, it's trials.
04:14-04:20
I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, but for some people right here, you've gone through a trial in your life that has discouraged you.
04:22-04:24
And you've lost heart.
04:25-04:27
I don't really feel like it.
04:29-04:34
You know, this trial's been going on so long, I'm just discouraged.
04:37-04:38
For some people, maybe it's not a trial.
04:38-04:40
Maybe you're just too busy.
04:42-04:52
That somehow Jesus Christ and your walk with Him and the priority of being a disciple of Christ has sort of dropped down on your priority list.
04:53-04:55
For some here, maybe it's sin.
04:57-05:11
I'm like, you know what, I know what I need to do, but I've been involved in sin, and that has really just severely hindered my walk with the Lord, as it does and as it always will.
05:13-05:14
We want to get back on track.
05:17-05:24
And even hearing this now, I know there are some people right now you're hearing this, "I want to get back on track with God." You're hearing this and you're like, "You know what, Pastor Jeff, I would love that!
05:26-05:27
You don't know how to do that.
05:29-05:31
Well, I have some good news for you.
05:32-05:37
God's Word tells us exactly how to do that.
05:39-05:47
So, if right now you're feeling like, "You're right, I need to get back on track." You cannot miss any part of this series.
05:49-05:51
I want you to turn your Bibles to the book of Malachi.
05:52-05:54
It's the last book of the Old Testament.
05:54-05:58
It's actually the last word from God in the Old Testament.
05:59-06:03
It was written about 430 B.C.
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And if you're trying to put this in a timeline on your mind, Malachi would have been a contemporary of Nehemiah.
06:12-06:14
And what was happening in Israel at the time?
06:14-06:17
Well, Israel was returning to their land from exile.
06:18-06:29
Remember, God disciplined Israel for persistent sin by sending the Assyrians and the Babylonians to conquer and scatter the people.
06:30-06:44
And under the Persian rule, the Lord allowed the Israelites to come back into their land to rebuild and to restore, specifically the city of Jerusalem and particularly the temple.
06:46-06:51
And when Israel got back into the land, as you could imagine, they were so zealous for the Lord.
06:52-06:57
And we're like, "The Lord restored us!" And we thought we were done as a people and the Lord restored us!
06:57-06:59
And let's build the walls in Jerusalem!
07:00-07:01
And let's build the temple!
07:01-07:02
And they were so fired up!
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So excited! So zealous!
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Can you believe just 90 years later when Malachi was giving this message, Israel was worse than before they went into exile.
07:23-07:25
Back to their old ways.
07:26-07:30
And that's why we're turning to the book of Malachi because this is what the book of Malachi is about.
07:30-07:32
Malachi is about God saying, "Hey, hey, hey!
07:33-07:34
Get back on track!
07:35-07:58
You see, you were so zealous and then you just kind of veered off and God's like, "No, no, no, we're going to get back on track." And they're like, "Well, how in the world are we going to get back on track?" And God says, "Here are some areas that you need to focus on to get back on track." So if there's anyone here right now that needs to get back on track, here's where it starts on your outline.
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It starts with real worship.
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So the message today is how to get back to real worship.
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It has to start here.
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What is worship?
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Worship defined is showing reverence and adoration.
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That's worship.
08:18-08:22
You know, worship is actually an abbreviated word.
08:23-08:39
It really comes from "worth-ship." They just sort of shortened that, made it easier to say, which I'm glad, because when we sing "Here I am to worship," it'd get real awkward, you know, "Here I am to worth-ship." Sound like Sylvester the Cat.
08:41-08:47
But that's worship, it's worth-ship, it's ascribing worth to God.
08:49-08:56
Now when we talk about music, I know there's so many people here probably right now that are thinking, "Oh, I know what worship is.
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That's the singing part of church.
09:00-09:09
Worship is just the music." Well, music is part of worship.
09:12-09:15
But worship is so much more than just music.
09:15-09:27
You see, it would be like if I brought in the wheel of a car today and held it up, and I said, "This is a car." And you would say, "No, that is not a car.
09:27-09:30
That is a very important part of the car." Right, Ben?
09:31-09:36
That is a very important part of the car, but that is not the car.
09:37-09:38
That's what some people do with music.
09:39-09:40
This is worship. No, no, no, no.
09:41-09:45
Music is an important part, but music is not the totality of worship.
09:47-09:48
Okay?
09:48-10:00
So, in the Old Testament, worship centered primarily around offering sacrifices in the temple, and we're going to see that here in Malachi.
10:01-10:12
But if you're thinking, "Pastor Jeff, I've read the Bible, I know a little theology, and I know that Jesus Christ offered the final sacrifice, and we don't offer sacrifices anymore.
10:14-10:27
So, for us to be talking about Malachi and talking about sacrifices, we're sort of detached from that, because the truth, Pastor Jeff, is we don't offer sacrifices anymore." And I want to tell you that's not true.
10:28-10:32
We absolutely do still offer sacrifices.
10:35-10:36
Look at Romans 12.
10:39-10:47
Romans 12.1 says, and this is New Testament, "Present your bodies as a..." What's that say?
10:48-10:54
"A living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your..." What's the next two words?
10:55-10:56
Spiritual worship.
10:57-10:58
What is your spiritual worship?
10:58-11:00
By offering yourself as a sacrifice.
11:01-11:09
When that animal was killed on the altar, dead, wholly committed to God, God says, "That's you. You're the sacrifice, but you get down off the altar and you live.
11:10-11:18
But every step you take is as a living sacrifice." So the question is, do we still offer sacrifice today? Yes or no?
11:19-11:21
Yes. And guess where the sacrifice is?
11:21-11:24
It's you. You are the sacrifice.
11:26-11:29
Another example, Hebrews 13, verses 15-16.
11:29-11:31
We still offer sacrifices. Look at this.
11:32-11:38
The Hebrew writer says, "Through Him, through Jesus, then let us continually offer up a sacrifice." There it is again.
11:40-11:44
"A sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name.
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Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such..." Is that a word?
11:54-11:56
Sacrifices are pleasing to God.
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So the question is, do we still sacrifice under the new covenant?
12:01-12:02
Yeah, we do.
12:02-12:04
And here are the sacrifices.
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Sacrifice of praise.
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Yeah, that music, part of that.
12:09-12:11
Also, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name.
12:11-12:15
Every time you witness for Christ, you're offering a sacrifice to God.
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Every time you give testimony on how awesome God has been to you, You are giving God a sacrifice.
12:24-12:31
Every time it says to do good, every time you do good in the name of Jesus, you are offering a sacrifice to God.
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Every time you share what you have, you are offering a sacrifice to God.
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Now this is not a sacrifice to have your sin forgiven.
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Don't think, "Well, I have to worship and I have to do good, and then God will forgive my sin." No, no, no.
12:50-13:00
offered himself as a once-and-for-all sacrifice for sin. There are no more sacrifices to be made for sin. This is talking about a sacrifice of praise, okay?
13:01-13:42
It's a sacrifice of praise, not a sacrifice for sin. Everybody with me on that? So how do I get back on track with worship? We're gonna go to the text for your outline. I'm gonna make it real easy. Here is how you get back on track with we're going to breathe. Oh, Pastor Jeff got new age while he was gone. Breathe. Go ahead, breathe. In. Out. What are we breathing? Number one, jot this down.
13:43-13:47
Here's how you get back on track with worship. You have to breathe in the love I love God.
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I'm not making this up.
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I want you to look at the text with me.
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The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
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"I have loved you," says the Lord.
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But you say, "How have you loved us?" "Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the Lord.
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"Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.
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I have laid waste his hill country left his heritage to jackals of the deserts.
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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.
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Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.
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Now what's this talk about Jacob and Esau?
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Now understand here, Malachi, he's not talking about individuals.
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He's talking about people groups.
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How do you know that?
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Well, look at verse 4 again with me.
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God says, "If Edom says..." Wait, wait, wait. Who's Edom?
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Those were the descendants of Esau.
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You see, Jacob represented Israel, and Esau represented the Edomites.
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And this language is used in the Bible that Jacob representing Israel, Esau representing Edom, or people that ended up becoming severe enemies of God.
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It's used other places in the Bible.
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Obadiah - that little teeny tiny book in the Old Testament?
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Same thing.
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And Romans 9 - same thing.
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What's the point?
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The point - God is starting this whole prophecy, This whole "get back on track," this whole message from Malachi.
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Here's God's point. God says, "Listen, I chose you, and I have loved you." Israel doubted God's love because they weren't as prosperous as they thought they should be.
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Does that sound familiar to anyone else?
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doubt God's love because He's not cashing in the way that we think He should.
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Anybody else, has that been your experience?
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I think we've all been there if we're honest.
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Does God really love me?
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Why is this happening?
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Why is God allowing this?
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If God really loved me, He'd do something about this.
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And Israel was at a place in their history that they're starting to doubt a little bit.
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So when God calls them back on track, It's not about legalism.
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God's not saying, "Israel, you're just not jumping through the right hoops for Me." It's not about religion.
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It's not about religion.
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It's not God saying, "Okay, Israel, here's your checklist of rules you have to keep in order to make Me happy." Do you see right off the bat - this is Old Testament - but do you see right off the bat God says this is about a love relationship.
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I love you.
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The only way anyone is motivated to really worship God is to know God's love.
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I can't motivate you to worship by trying to make you feel guilty.
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You know, Ryan, shame on you as a leader in the church, and I didn't see you really belting it out during worship time. Shame on you.
17:30-17:34
that's not going to motivate... I wasn't watching Ryan during worship, okay?
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That's not going to motivate you to worship, is it? No. I can't motivate you to worship through obligation. Like, "Come on, Kerry, you know what the Bible says about worship, so why aren't you doing it?" "Well, you're right, Pastor Jeff, I should, so I guess I'll worship." That's not the motivator. What is the motivator to To worship!
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Breathing in God's love.
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That's the motivator.
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And only that.
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When I came to Christ, back in 1995, it was a period of my life where I was involved in a lot of sin.
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A lot of sin.
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to list them for you, okay, but I was involved in a lot of sin in my life at the time.
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But for the first time in my life, somebody had shared the gospel with me in a way that I understood it, and that was because God was turning the lights on, right?
18:40-18:49
And I understood the gospel, and I wish I could stand here and tell you, I just wholeheartedly jumped in. I heard the gospel, and I'm like, "Woohoo! Off to Bible college!" That wasn't the story.
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to my shame, during this season of understanding the gospel, but still living this sinful lifestyle.
19:01-19:05
I remember saying, "I'm not sure what I want to do.
19:05-19:23
I think I'm just going to go back to my old way of living." At this crossroads, I was considering walking away from what I now understood about the cross of Jesus Christ embrace the lifestyle that I'd been used to.
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But this was the sentence that changed my life.
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Do you want to hear it?
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This sentence changed my life.
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As I was confessing this, like, hey, thinking about going back to my sin lifestyle, someone said to me, "Do you have any idea "how much God loves you?" And I walked away, and I thought to myself, "What?
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A wicked idiot I am!
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That God would give His Son for me.
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Jesus would die for me in my place on that cross.
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That God would so lavish and demonstrate His love on me.
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And I would choose instead to live in the sewer.
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How could I be so foolish?
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And I was crushed by the weight of my own sinfulness.
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How can I turn my back on a God like this?
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And it changed my life.
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Do you have any idea how much God loves you?
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Maybe that's why Paul in Romans 2, verse 4, says it is God's kindness that leads us to repentance. So how do I get back on track with worship? You have to breathe in the love of God. You have to breathe in the love of God. If you're not taking in God's love, if you're not understanding and meditating upon and reveling in the love of God in Jesus If you don't have a place to worship Jesus Christ we don't use that word anymore. I think we need to bring it back.
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What is reverence? You know what reverence is? It is deep respect.
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Not just like props. Reverence is deep respect. And some people have the audacity to have that as a title. Pastors, right? I'm Reverend Miller.
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Please don't ever call me that.
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I hate that title.
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You know what, if pastors out there that use that title, hey, I'm not judging them.
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I'm just saying that only God is to be revered.
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My skin crawls when I hear a man want to take that title on himself.
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Call me reverend.
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God deserves reverence.
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Look at verse 6.
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The Lord says a son honors his father, and a servant his master.
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If then I am a father, where is my honor?
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And if I am a master, where is my fear?
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Says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name.
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Jump down to verse 14.
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God says, for I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.
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Do you see that?
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Father, master, king.
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Some people want to identify God as like, "Grandpa, Santa Claus, the big man upstairs." Wrong, wrong, wrong.
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He is a father, he is a master, and he is a king, and that means he is to be revered.
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And that is so lost on the church today, this idea of reverence.
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This idea that we honor God, we fear God, we have this holy awe of God.
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We are just too happy to familiarize God.
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Speaking of things that make my skin crawl, the expression "the big man upstairs," I just hate hearing that.
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It just shows a complete lack of reverence for God.
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He's not big.
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He's infinite.
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He makes big look small.
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He's not a man. He's God.
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He's not upstairs.
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Heaven is His throne The earth is His ottoman.
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It's time to get back, church.
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It's time to get back to revering God.
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Because when we breathe in His love, and we breathe out reverence for God, that's worship.
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That's worship.
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So how am I doing regarding reverence?
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you need to ask yourself.
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So in your outline, two questions I want to leave you with today.
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As you examine, you're going to see it straight from the text.
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Two questions you have to ask yourself.
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Am I a worshiper or a faker?
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Am I a worshiper or a faker?
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Here's two questions where you can evaluate for yourself.
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Are you genuinely worshipping God?
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Are you genuinely breathing in His love and breathing out reverence?
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Are you doing that, or are you faking?
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Like, "How do I know?" Here you go. First of all, letter A.
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"Do I offer God my best?" Pick up in the text, God says that the priests despise His name.
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But you say, "How have we despised Your name?" "By offering polluted food upon My altar." But you say, "How have we polluted You?" by saying that the Lord's table may be despised.
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The Lord's table here refers to the altar.
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Okay, this is before Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper.
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You're saying that the Lord's table or the altar may be despised.
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Look at verse 8.
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"When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil?
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And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil?
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Present that to your governor.
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Will He accept you or show you favor?" says the Lord of hosts.
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"And now, entreat the favor of God, that He may be gracious to us.
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With such a gift from your hand, will He show favor to any of you?" says the Lord of hosts.
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Do I offer God my best?
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A lack of reverence always shows up in your conduct.
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You will not offer God your best.
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You see, in the Old Testament times, during the times of this temple, when you were to go sacrifice to God, you were to take the absolute best from your flock.
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Okay? You were to go out to your herd or your flock, and you were to pick the unblemished, the very best.
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"I'm going to give back to God the very best that He's given to me." But do you see what happened by the time you get to Malachi's day?
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It says they took the blind, they took the lame, they took the sick, They'd go out to their flock and they'd see some animal on its deathbed, and they would say, "Well, this one doesn't have long to live.
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Let's offer it to God before it dies." Like, "Oh, yeah, I get the sacrifice thing, Pastor Jeff, but again, that doesn't really apply today." If you're thinking that, that these principles don't apply, honestly, what you're saying is because of Jesus, God is okay with lame worship now.
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Would you say that?
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Because Jesus came and completed His messianic mission, God is just fine with lame worship now.
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Compare us in our day to the people Malachi was addressing in his day.
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Us versus them. Let me ask you.
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Should we be more fired up or less than them?
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What do you think?
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Should we be more fired up about God or less fired up about God?
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Not sure?
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Well, consider this.
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We live under the new covenant.
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The Messiah, from our perspective, and in our timeline in history, the Messiah has come.
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and the Messiah saves us from our sins by dying in our place.
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Jesus Christ rose from the dead to give us eternal life and the promise of heaven.
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The Holy Spirit has come and indwells all believers, empowering, comforting, and guiding.
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So should we be more fired up or less fired up for worship than the Old Testament saints?
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We should be more, right?
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We should be more.
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But church, when we roll in here, not ready to worship, When it's our turn to teach the kids and harvest kids and we don't prepare ourselves.
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When we lead a small group and we just phone it in.
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When the offering comes around and we just give God a tip.
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You know, somehow the waitress gets 15% and God gets 10.
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Doesn't seem right.
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When all those things happen, you're not giving God your best.
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Look at verse eight again, where the Lord is condemning them for their half-dead sacrifices they were making.
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But middle of verse eight, you see that God says, "Present that to your governor.
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"Will he accept you or show you favor?" Try paying your taxes like that.
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Could you imagine next tax season?
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Could you imagine?
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Next tax season, you're like, "You know what I'm gonna do?
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"I've been thinking about this.
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I'm going to pay what I want to pay.
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And they're going to have to be fine with it.
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Is that going to work?
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That is not going to work.
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And so do you see God's point?
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If that's not going to work in paying your taxes, why do you think it's going to work for the king of the universe?
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But that's exactly what people do.
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The offering comes around.
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It's like, I'm going to give God what I think, and it'll be good enough.
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Whatever I give God will just be good enough, because I live under the new covenant, I don't have to tithe, right?
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So whatever I give God is going to be good enough.
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Lame! Lame! And you don't understand worship.
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Because you're not breathing into love, and that certainly is not breathing out reverence.
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You should prepare yourself for worship.
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I talked to a dear couple in our church this past week, and they were just chit-chatting, right?
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They were saying that one of the things they like to do is they find out the songs that we're going to be singing in church and they listen to them in the car on the way to church.
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Isn't that awesome?
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So it's not like, "Let's get in here to worship." They're like, "Our worship starts in our driveway." So they're worshiping as a couple on the way in, and then they come to church.
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Do you think they're ready to worship?
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Yeah, they are.
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Talked to one of the leaders of our church this morning, who said, "Yeah, I knew we were going through Malachi, so you know what I did?
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I have the Bible audio, and I've been listening to it when I go to bed." Do you think that guy came into church ready to hear what the Lord has to say through Malachi?
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So you have to ask yourself, "Am I offering God my best?
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Or am I just willing to phone it in? It's good enough." Last question. Do I just go through the motions?
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Do I just go through the motions?
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Look at verses 10-14.
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The Lord says, "Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain.
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I have no pleasure in you," says the Lord of hosts, And I will not accept an offering from your hand.
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For from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering.
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For my name," here it is again, "for my name will be great among the nations," says the Lord of hosts.
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But you profane it when you say that the Lord's table is polluted and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised.
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But you say, 'What a weariness this is!' And you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts.
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You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering.
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Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord.
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Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock and vows it, And yet, sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished.
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For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.
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So are you a worshiper or a faker?
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Well, do you offer God your best?
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Secondly, ask yourself, do I just go through the motions?
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Do you see that in verse 13?
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Jump back to verse 13.
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But you say, "What a weariness this is," and you snort at it.
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"What a weariness. I'm kind of tired of this. I'm just so tired of this church stuff. Boring!" What a pain to go to worship.
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You want to go to church this morning? "I don't know. It's a lot of work.
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We're gonna dress the kids, and I'm gonna have to get a bath and probably brush my teeth.
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Oh, what a pain.
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When it becomes a burden to get here to worship, we find ourselves in this passage where the Lord says, "Your belly aching about what a weariness this is." He says, "You snort at it." Go ahead.
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What do you think that sounds like?
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Go ahead.
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That wasn't bad.
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You snored at it. Time to worship.
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You snored at it.
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Jump up to verse 10.
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Look at this again.
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God says, "Oh, that there are one among you who would shut the doors." God would rather you stop worshipping than go through the motions without your heart being in it.
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I'm going to say that again.
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God would rather you stop worshipping than pretending to worship.
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God says, "I wish there was somebody down at the temple that would just shut and lock the doors, so the hypocrites don't come in and put on their little half-hearted show." You know, when I was preparing for this message, I was looking up articles online. I looked up, "What do I do when I don't feel like worshipping?" There were so many articles about that, and I went through and I read a few. Do you know one thing that was on all the articles? One thing was on all the articles. It says, "If you don't feel like worshipping, you should do it anyways." Every article said that. Here's a list. Ten things you should do when you don't feel like worshipping. Seven things you should do when you don't feel like worshipping. Here's the top 26 things you should do when you don't feel like worshipping. Every list. "You should worship anyways." "You should worship You should worship anyways.
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And in the Bible, God's like, "You don't feel like worshiping? Don't!" "Shut and lock the door and stay home." So hear me.
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If you're like, "You know what, Pastor Jeff, I want to get back on track.
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That's where my heart is, and I've just been struggling with stuff.
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And I'm really seeking the Lord to bring revival in my heart." Then absolutely, you should come.
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And you should worship if that's your heart.
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But if you're just coming in here, and you're like, "I don't want to stay, I don't want to go to the king." Like, "No effort, I don't care, when do we leave?
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How much longer is this going on?" You should just stay home, honestly.
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You should. Just stay home.
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Because that does nothing for God.
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Mary Zacharias said, "When a man is bored with God, even heaven doesn't have a better alternative." So how about you?
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Are you going through the motions?
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Are you bored?
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Can't wait to get out of here?
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If that's you, this is your wake-up call from the Lord.
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It's time to get back on track.
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It has to start with worship.
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I'd like you to bow your heads.
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I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand or stand up or come forward or anything.
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I'm not going to ask you to do that.
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I just want you to bow your heads, but I want to ask you with your head bowed, is there someone here this morning that says, "You know what, Pastor Jeff, I have not been giving God my best.
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I haven't been.
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I've been content to just go through the motions.
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Quite honestly, it's not very exciting right now, my walk with Christ.
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Does that apply to you today?
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Like, I know I need to get back on track, but right now I'm just not feeling it.
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With your head bowed, I want to remind you that it's time to breathe again.
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You need to breathe in God's love.
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You need reminded that your heavenly Father loves you so much that He sent His Son to die in your place.
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Your heavenly Father loves you so much that He has chosen to make His holy habitation your very heart, with the presence of His Holy Spirit in you.
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You need to breathe in His love again.
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You need to breathe out reverence.
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Yes, He is my Savior, but He is also my King.
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And I haven't been treating the Lord God like a king whom I should revere, honor, and obey.
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And it's time to breathe out reverence again.
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Our Father in Heaven, again, I pray for myself for my brothers and sisters here, that we would stop phoning it in.
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We would stop making a half-hearted effort in serving You and saying, "Well, that's good enough." Father, I pray that You would restore in us a heart of worship.
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That, Father, we would breathe in Your love in a fresh way.
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that we would breathe in this love that was willing to pay the ultimate price so that I could be free.
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The love that can never be lost, because it's love that was never earned.
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You have chosen to love us in Jesus Christ, and I pray Father you would hit us Again, hit me again the way you did when I first understood that message.
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Father, I pray that we would show you the reverence that you deserve.
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As you said so clearly in your word, you are a father, you're a master, you're a king.
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Let our conduct, let our attitudes in the home, at our workplace, in the church, wherever we find ourselves, let them reflect that we are subservient to the king who loves us.
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Get us back on track, God, by giving us a fresh start today in being true worshipers of you.
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Pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Malachi 1:1-14
Malachi 1:2-3 talks about God's love: What exactly is God saying? How does this prove His love?
Why is love the motivator for worship (see also Romans 2:4)?
Have you ever doubted God's love because things weren't happening the way you expected? Share the experience with the group.
Define reverence: Why do you think this is a lost concept in our culture today?
How would you reply to this statement: "This stuff in Malachi doesn't apply to us today. We don't offer sacrifices anymore!"
What are ways, today, that you can "breathe out" reverence for God?
Breakout Questions:
Complete transparency: How are you doing with sincerely worshiping God? What changes do you need to make to be able to "breathe" (in God's love / out reverence for God)?