Introduction:
It Gets Better: An Eternal Perspective Keeps You On Track.
- It gets better, and no one is more Excited than God. (Mal 3:16-17)
- It gets better, but not for Everyone. (Mal 3:18-4:1)
- It gets better, in Every Way. (Mal 4:2-3)
- It gets better, and I'll wait Faithfully. (Mal 4:4-6)
Luke 1:78 - ...the sunrise shall visit us from on high.
Review: Matthew 17:10-13
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:29-00:31
Alright, grab your Bibles. You have them with you? You're gonna need them.
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Open up to Malachi and chapter 3 While you're turning there You know several years ago. I was at the doctor and Just for my normal Routine checkup I go into the doctor and you know how the physician's assistant comes in and puts that thing over your arm with the little pipe and the What's that thing?
00:56-01:06
The blood pressure yeah, yeah, yeah And she's-- so she's taking my blood pressure, and she gets this absolutely horrified look on her face.
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Horrified.
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She goes, are you feeling OK?
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I'm like, yeah, I feel all right.
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She says, your blood pressure is dangerously high.
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I'm like, no, I don't feel stressed or anything.
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I haven't been-- you know.
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She goes, no, you don't understand.
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This is, she goes, "This is serious." She threw the cuff down on the counter and walked out.
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So I'm sitting on that bench, you know, with the big sheet of tissue paper.
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I'm just sitting there crinkling on this tissue paper.
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And I had this moment, I'm gonna be honest with you, I had this moment, I don't know what it's like at your doctor, but at my doctor, you gotta wait for the doctor.
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Anybody else?
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Just me?
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Okay, you gotta wait for the doctor.
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So I'm sitting there and it was, It felt like three hours.
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It was probably only 10 or 15 minutes.
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But I honestly, Audrey, I was just sitting there like looking at my life.
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Like I'm in my 30s.
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What's going to happen with my wife?
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What's going to happen to my kids?
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So my doctor eventually comes in.
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And he says, we've got to talk about your blood pressure, man.
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He says, you've never had high blood pressure, but this is scary high, man.
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I said, I know.
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And he says, well, have you had any major lifestyle changes?
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I said, no.
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We got a really serious concern here.
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And he looked over, and he said, is that the cuff that they use to take your blood pressure?
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Me, Mr. One Foot in the Grave, said, yeah.
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That was the cuff that they used.
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He goes, that's the cuff they use on 10-year-olds.
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It's no wonder your blood pressure was high.
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So he went out and got a regular cough and all over again.
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Oh, your blood pressure's great.
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And I was invigorated.
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There's nothing like good news, right?
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There is nothing like good news.
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And I have been so excited to give this message because I'm going to give you some good news today.
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And it's three words.
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The three words are these.
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It gets better.
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It gets better.
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For those of you who have battled cancer and sickness, it gets better.
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For those of you that have had to deal with injustice, it gets better.
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For those of you who have been crushed by abandonment or abuse, it gets better.
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For those of you who have been afflicted by depression, it gets better.
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For those of you that have had to watch loved ones suffer or even had to say goodbye to some loved ones, it gets better.
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The message today gets better.
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An eternal perspective keeps you on track.
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And really that's what it is, isn't it?
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It's about getting an eternal perspective, because we are people that get so focused, don't we Matt, right in the here and now.
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Right in the here and now.
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And that's what we're seeing God's Word call us to here in Malachi, is getting back to an eternal perspective.
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You don't walk out after the first scene of a movie and say, "Well, that stunk." You don't abandon hope during the first quarter of a football game saying, "We stink!" Unless you live in Cleveland.
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Look, have I become your enemy because I declared to you the truth?
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Even their players are like, "Can I be a stealer?" If you want motivated to get back on track, church, you've got to take the long view.
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You've got to take the long view.
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So let's get right to it.
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Number one, jot this down.
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This is awesome news.
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It gets better, and no one is more excited than God.
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I was studying this passage this week.
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I actually called a pastor friend of mine.
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I'm like, "This is the first point of my sermon, I'm gonna run this by you because I'm like, like my mind is being like just obliterated here.
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I'm like, this is the first point of the sermon.
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It gets better, no one's more excited than God.
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I'm like, what do you think about that?
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He's like, yes, that's true.
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Like, okay.
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Because that's what I see in the text here.
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Look at verse 16.
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It says, "The those who feared the Lord spoke with one another.
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The Lord paid attention and heard them and a book of remembrance was written.
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before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name." Already in Malachi a couple times, haven't we?
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We've heard from the haters, we've heard from the mockers, haven't we?
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Haven't we heard from those guys?
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Now we see the God-fearers show up.
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And notice it says in your Bible that, verse 16, "They spoke with one another." It doesn't even say in this passage that they were worshiping, I'm sure they were, but they weren't here.
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It doesn't even say that they were praying, I'm sure they were, but they weren't here.
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What is highlighting here is they were speaking to one another.
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Don't miss this.
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Because people are so ready to say, "Well, you know, you don't gotta go to church "to be a Christian." And we sound so spiritual when we say those things.
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"You don't gotta go to small group to be a Christian." But this is exactly why we are assembled here this morning.
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This is exactly why we encourage you to get involved in one of our small groups.
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You need to take note of this.
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When corruption abounds, and it is, when sin is crushing and oppressing and smothering our culture, and it is, and while the wicked are frolicking, we don't need to hide, which some of us wanna do.
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We don't need to just take it out on social media, which some of us do.
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What do we need to be doing?
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We need to be speaking to each other.
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We need to be speaking to each other.
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Speaking what?
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speaking encouragement, speaking reminders of the glories of God, the glorious truths of His Word.
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It says that God has a book. Did you know that?
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God has a book. The Bible talks about it in many, many, many places.
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God has a book. Exodus 32, Psalm 69. God has a book.
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Interestingly here, Malachi says that the book was written before him.
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The Hebrew literally means "in sight." Meaning God has the names of His people written down.
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And where does He keep that book? In some box in His cellar?
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Some shelf in the attic?
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God has the names of His people written down, and Malachi says that it is right in front of Him.
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Doesn't that encourage you?
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Where are you God? I was like, I got my eye on you.
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In fact, you're right here on page 307.
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And if you think you're excited for heaven, I want to show you that no one is more excited than God.
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Look at verse 17. It says, "They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him." Do you see that?
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God says, "Mine, a treasured possession." Treating like a child, like a son.
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Do you see the passion of God for His people?
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Some people think of God as being indifferent or unfeeling, Like he's just sitting in heaven going, "Well, turn or burn, don't matter to me.
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I'll be God either way." Like he's this unemotional person.
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And we see here in chapter 3 verse 17, God is anything but.
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You see the passion that God is looking forward to being with His people.
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You remember back in verse 14, the accusation was made from some of the haters.
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the accusation was made that it is vain to serve God.
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So let me ask you, after reading verse 17 and thinking about what's ahead, do you still think it's vain to serve God?
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I'll put it this way.
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In a hundred years, look me up, and ask me then how vain it was to serve God on my days on the earth.
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Ask me in a hundred years if it was vain that I trusted the Lord.
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In a hundred years, I want you to see how God is loving and caring for His people in person, and then on that day, I want you to ask me how vain it was.
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The Jews here in Malachi's day were so caught up in the moment, and so often we get so caught up in the here and now, the moment, the current circumstances, that we forget this glorious truth.
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Things are not always going to be as they are now.
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It gets better, and no one is more fired up for it than God.
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Number two, jot this down.
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We have to make it clear, it gets better, but not for everyone.
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Look at verse 18.
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"Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him." That was part of the problem in Malachi's day, right?
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Chapter 2, verse 17, we couldn't see distinctions.
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Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord.
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They were saying, "There's no distinction. It doesn't matter what you do." We saw it in chapter 3, verse 15.
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"The evildoers prosper, it doesn't matter what you do, there's no distinction." Well, hear this, the distinction is about to be evident right quick.
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Okay? Because look at chapter 4.
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"For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.
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"The day that is coming shall set them ablaze," says the Lord of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch." Really, the day is the theme of this section that we're covering today.
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Five times God mentions the day, the day, the day, the day.
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What day?
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Well, you know, on the wall of God's office, He has a calendar.
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And you flip forward some pages, I don't know how many pages, but he has a day circled.
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Like, "What happens on that day, Lord?" He says, "That is the day." And that is the day that we're talking about here in Malachi.
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And usually in God's Word, as it is here, usually that day is associated with judgment.
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Usually in your Bibles, when God speaks of the day, it's not good news for a lot of people.
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In this passage, he talks about the arrogant and the evildoers being like stubble.
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"What do you mean stubble? We usually think of, 'Oh, you didn't shave in a couple of days.'" That comes from the real picture.
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It was when they harvested crops, and they would sort of take that sickle and take the head of the wheat, the rye, the barley, whatever, they'd take it off.
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Well, that stalk, that trunk of the wheat that was left on the ground after it was harvested, that little wheat trunk was called stubble, And it burns very easily.
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Notice also, he says at the end of verse 1, "So that it will leave them neither root nor branch." What does that mean?
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That means, for the wicked, there's no coming back from this.
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Like, how many of us have pulled weeds, right?
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We've all pulled weeds.
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You know how it goes when you pull weeds.
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If you get a pool of weed, and you just get to the top, what happens?
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That weed's back in about 12 minutes, right?
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You've got to grab that thing at the base and get the root, right?
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That's what God's saying. He goes, "Hey, on this day, it's all going to be gone." The root and the branch, there's no coming back for the wicked from this.
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And I promise you, because God's promising you, that you're going to see the distinction then between who loves the Lord and who doesn't.
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I mean, it looks like everyone's treated the same now, doesn't it?
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Not then.
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So Christians, if you're sitting here today and you've given your life to Jesus Christ, if you are born again, here's the news for you.
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This life on this earth is as bad as it's going to get for you.
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It gets better.
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In fact, this life on the earth is the closest you'll ever get to hell.
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But I have to give a word of caution here for somebody here who doesn't know the Lord.
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Maybe somebody here has been on the fence, been thinking about it, been seeking, I don't know.
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But if you're sitting here and you don't know the Lord, This is as good as it gets for you on this earth and this earth is the closest You're ever going to get to heaven So if you're sitting here today and you're thinking to yourself, you know, I don't know I don't know if i've ever been on track with the lord. You're talking about getting back on track I don't know if i've ever been on track Well today's the day It gets better But not for everyone You understand that your eternal future can change in one instant.
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Do you realize that?
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Your eternity can change like that.
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And that instant is when you see yourself for who you really are.
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"I'm lost. I'm wicked at my core.
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By nature I'm rebellious. I'm selfish." You see yourself for who you are, but then you have to see Jesus Christ for who he is.
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He is the God who loves me. He is the God who took on the form of man. He took on a human body so that he could march that human body up and die on a cross in my place. That's my God who rose from the dead to conquer sin and Satan and death and to secure my future and to For the joy that was set before Him, He gave His life, He laid His life down.
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He endured the cross, despising its shame.
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That's my God!
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So as we're going to be talking about this good news today, it's important that we pause and remind, it gets better, but not for everyone.
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Today can be a new day for you to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior.
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Number three, I love this, it gets better in every way.
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It gets better in every way. Look at verse 2 in chapter 4.
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"But for you who fear My name, the Son of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.
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"You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall." You know, I did a lot of studying this week.
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This Son of Righteousness, what's going on there?
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Is that the actual Son?
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Is it talking about the celestial ball?
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Is it a metaphor?
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And I really believe that the Son of Righteousness being discussed here is actually Jesus Christ Himself.
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Why?
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Because many, many, many times in Scripture, Jesus, God, is called the Son, called a star, called light.
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One example here, we have Luke 1.78, it says, "The sunrise shall visit us from on high." Another reason I believe that this "Son of Righteousness" refers to Jesus Himself is just simply this, it's talking about the Son of Righteousness with healing in its wings.
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Well, that orange ball in the sky can't heal people.
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But Jesus can heal people.
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A metaphor can't heal people.
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But Jesus heals people.
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And how afflicted we are as people.
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Just think in terms of the physical.
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You know, I have it up in the office. I could show you my prayer journal.
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How many prayer requests do we get for people to be healed and whole?
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How many prayer requests are pleased for health, for surgeries, for cancer, for recovery from injury?
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Here's some incredible news.
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There's a day coming when the sun comes up, God's people are going to be healed and going to be whole.
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Totally healed, totally whole.
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And I can wonder what that's like.
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Well, He tells you what that's like.
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"You should go out leaping like calves from the stall." Well, what is that?
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Calves from the stall, that's uninhibited joy. That's what that's like. Uninhibited joy.
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I don't have a calf. The closest thing that I have is Cade, my 11 year old.
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So I was thinking about uninhibited joy. Uninhibited joy, and I couldn't help but I would think last Christmas, our family was having our little, just my immediate family was having our little gift exchange.
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And Erin was so excited.
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Erin loves to give gifts, right?
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I don't know if that's her love language or whatever, but I should probably look into that.
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But she was, you know, distributed gifts and everybody's, you know, sitting by their gifts.
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And Cade gets to this one gift in particular, it was a box like this, and Erin's like, oh, this is, this is, this is.
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And Cade opens up the box, she got him a laptop.
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Granted, it was used and refurbished, but I mean, what does a, you know, he's not launching space shuttles from our house, okay?
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But he opens it up and it's a laptop.
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So he opens it up and he goes, "Laptop." And he sets it aside.
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And Aaron just looks at me like, and Aaron goes, "Cade, there's a laptop "in that laptop box." And he goes, "Yeah." Sets it aside.
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And Aaron's like, "The heck." So about two minutes later, he opens up another present.
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It was a bag of Sour Patch Kids.
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You know that candy, Sour Patch Kids?
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It was a bag of Sour Patch Kids.
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The kid lost his mind.
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"Sour Patch Kids!" Oh my gosh!
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He runs over, this kid is not a hugger, he runs over and dives on Aaron and hugs her.
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Oh, thank you so much, thank you, I love Starburst Kids.
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Then he runs over and he dives on me on the other end of the loop.
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Oh, dad, thank you so much, thank you.
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And uninhibited joy.
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And I'm just sitting there thinking, we could have saved a lot of money on that laptop.
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But that's the picture here, right?
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Uninhibited joy.
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Do you have any idea how awesome heaven is going to be?
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No, you don't!
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Because whatever you think it is, it is infinitely greater than that.
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But look at verse 3.
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It says, "And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act as the Lord of hosts." I don't think any of us are really excited about this thought.
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Even God doesn't delight in the death of the wicked.
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But there is something on that day that I'm going to rejoice in.
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Revelation 20.14, John says that he saw death and Hades and everyone who rejected Christ thrown into the lake of fire.
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My mind really has, over the years, I've thought about that so many times, because John saw death thrown into the lake of fire.
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What do you think that looked like?
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I mean, John says he saw death thrown into the lake of fire.
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He saw something.
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So follow me here.
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That means that death had to have had some sort of embodiment in some way, right?
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was some visible representation of death in order for John to see something thrown into the lake of fire. You understand what I'm saying? He saw something and what that something was I don't know exactly, but he saw death thrown into the lake of fire. And I thought, well, if death and Hades are sort of personified visible representation kind of things, I thought maybe autism is too. And I thought, wouldn't it be awesome on that day that that this is my dream, this keeps me going every day.
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But I think, you know, on that day, autism is thrown into the lake of fire.
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And this is what I'm hoping.
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I'm hoping that on that day, autism like catches itself right on the end.
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It's like about to go into the lake of fire and autism like stops, catches itself right in the end.
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Like, woo.
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And then I pray that the Lord grants me permission.
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Boom!
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I think about that literally every day.
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Oh God, may you grant me the joy, the thing that's plagued my family, the thing that's hurt my son, gone forever.
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It gets better.
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It gets better.
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God's presence, totally healed, total joy, total elimination of anything that can hurt.
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No more sorrow or death or goodbyes.
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Better in every way.
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And finally today, number four, it gets better and I'll wait faithfully.
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It gets better and I'll wait faithfully.
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Look at verses four through six.
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Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him in Horeb "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction." Notice in verses 4 and 5, two characters are mentioned, Moses and Elijah.
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You see these two sort of paired up, don't you?
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Like, you remember the Transfiguration, Matthew 17?
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Do you remember that?
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And in Matthew 17, Jesus showed three of his disciples, basically, he's like, "I'm going to pull the curtain back. I'm God!" And he showed them a glimpse of glory.
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And who was there? Who was there with Jesus?
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Moses and Elijah, right?
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and here they're sort of paired off again.
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So the question when you get to this passage is, was Malachi 4 and verse 5 fulfilled already?
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Or will it be fulfilled before the second coming of Christ?
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I did a lot of study on this this week.
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And I found this passage, like let's let Jesus clear that up.
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you know, was this already fulfilled or is it going to be fulfilled?
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Well, look at Matthew 17, verses 10-13.
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This is right after the transfiguration.
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It says, "And the disciples asked him, 'Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?'" It's because of this verse, that's why the scribes say that.
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But they're like, "Okay, we just saw Elijah, and then there's the whole John the Baptist thing, so they're asking about this." And he answered, 'Elijah does come, and he will restore all things.
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But I tell you that Elijah has already come.' And they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased.
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So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.' Then the disciples knew, the disciples understood, that He was speaking to them about John the Baptist.
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We know from Luke 1.17 that John the Baptist, we already talked about him in the series, he came in the spirit and power of Elijah.
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John the Baptist was Elijah at the first advent, but it seems from Scripture that Elijah is coming before the second advent, right?
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Because it says, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes." Looks like there's some things yet to be fulfilled.
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And the questions abound.
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Is it going to be a literal resurrection of Elijah?
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Is it going to be someone who comes in the spirit and power of Elijah, like John the Baptist did?
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A lot of commentators think that Elijah is one of the two witnesses in Revelation chapter 11.
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It is a fascinating study.
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One that I spent hours on this past week, and I would be more than happy to discuss it with you.
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Just buy me a cup of coffee, and I'll love to share, love to talk.
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But for our purposes today, let's not miss the point of the passage.
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We can get so wrapped up in prophetic timeline that we miss the point of the passage.
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And here's the point, actually, too.
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First of all, verse 6, a day is coming.
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A day of restoration, a day of healing of relationships, and a day of repentance.
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Sin abounds and people are off track, and God says the ultimate day of getting back on track is coming.
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Here's another huge point you don't want to miss.
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It's from verse 4.
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Look at verse 4 again.
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He says, "Remember the law of my servant Moses.
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the statutes and rules that I commanded Him in Horeb for all Israel.
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For those of us waiting, for those of us who are waiting for the fulfillment of all things, we need to cling to, we need to embrace, we need to love the Word of God.
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Because until Christ returns, this is what I hold on to.
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It gets better.
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That's why I love this book.
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I wouldn't be able to get up and share these words of encouragement if it wasn't for this book.
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God's given you this glorious gift of all of his promises.
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That's why we make such a big deal out of the Bible.
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That's why at Harvest Bible Chapel, we proclaim the authority of God's word without apology.
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This is the thing that we're so tightly holding onto until his return.
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We are all going to be in heaven.
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The redeemed are going to be in heaven in about an hour. So until then, can we wait faithfully?
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Can we take each day, one day at a time, and press on?
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Again, we can be so nearsighted, church.
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In our culture, we've learned that we want what we want, and we want it now.
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It's the culture we live in, right?
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We live in a culture where we stand in front of the microwave, and we say, "What's taking this stupid thing so long?" We're like speed, radioactive cooking our food, and that's not fast enough for us, right?
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We live in a day where somebody would be like, "Hey, check out this video.
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You know, guy falls out of a 20-story window and lives, and you click on it, and it's like, "Video will play after this 15-second ad." I'm like, "Pfft, ain't nobody got time for that." We live in a day, like, "I wanna buy this, but I don't have the money for it, so what do we do, Alex?
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We whip out the credit card, right?
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I don't have the money for it, but I want it now!" We're not taught to wait on anything.
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But listen, church, God has a plan.
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And He may not be rolling it out on my schedule, and He may not be rolling it out on your schedule, but believe me, He's rolling it out, and His schedule is always perfect.
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So we wait.
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In the meantime, our priority is seeking the Lord.
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Our priority is serving the Lord.
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Our priority is loving Him and loving people in His name.
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And on the journey, there's times, church, that you're going to feel like maybe you've gotten a little off track in your walk with the Lord.
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And you might be asking yourself, well, how do I get back on track?
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Keep this little checklist here.
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Write it down, put it in your Bible for future reference.
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When you feel like you're off track, examine yourself in the five areas that Malachi gave us.
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The first one is this, number one, are you worshiping?
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Breathing in God's love, and breathing out reverence for God.
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That's real worship.
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Number two, are you being faithful in your marriage?
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If you're a married person, like to remind you, God says if you're faithless in your marriage, He takes that personally.
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He considers that being faithless to Him.
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You're not going to get on track until you're faithful to your wife.
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Until you're faithful to your husband.
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Number three, personal holiness.
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All believers have God's Holy Spirit.
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Are you walking in the Spirit?
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Are you learning to say yes when the Spirit tells you to do something, and say no when the Holy Spirit tells you not to do something?
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Personal holiness.
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Number four, are you giving?
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Faithfully, joyfully trusting God.
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It's all His.
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I have the privilege of giving some back to Him, and He's going to give me more I can give more.
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And finally, are you stuck in the here and now?
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Or are you looking to then and there?
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Because it gets better.
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Will you pray with me?
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Father in heaven, thank you for the truth of your word.
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How lost we would be without your word.
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How lost we would be, Father, wondering who you are or what you're like or what it takes to live a good life or whatever.
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We wouldn't even know where to begin.
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But you've given us this glorious gift of your word that gives us encouragement with passages like this, that it gets better.
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We look forward to that day, Father.
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And I pray for my brothers and sisters here and for myself that you would help us to take the long view.
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Help us, Father, to realize and to embrace the fact we are not going to be walking on this earth eternally.
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We are not going to be living the situation that we're living in indefinitely.
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We have just a short chunk of time on this earth that we want to maximize for your glory.
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Father, help us to do so.
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Help us, Father, to not get so wrapped up in the wickedness that abounds in our culture right now.
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Help us not to get so wrapped up in the afflictions and the trials and the pains and the heartache.
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Father, help us to put an eye towards the future, which will fire us up to be faithful witnesses now.
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We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, forever.
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Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Malachi 3:16-4:6
What exactly does it mean to "fear the Lord" (Mal 3:16)? List ways people display the fear of the Lord, and ways people don't. (Bonus if your list comes from things we've seen in Malachi.)
How much does eternity fill your thoughts? How can you grow in having eternal perspective?
"No One Is More Excited than God" about eternity. How do we know this from Malachi 3:17?
Bonus theological discussion: How do you understand Malachi 4:5-6 in light of the ministry of John the Baptist and the future (not yet fulfilled) Day of the Lord?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another to constantly be seeking to get back, and stay, on track - especially in the 5 areas Malachi mentions: Worship, Marriage, Holiness, Giving, and Looking Beyond Today(Eternal Perspective).
