Do I Worship You? pt 1
I Love You, BUT • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a great honor to share the Word of God with the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church this morning.
You may be familiar with the phrase, “The Customer is always right.”
This mantra of business has been employed by many retailers since the mid 1800’s, popularized in the early 20th century, and still used today. From the original usage in department stores, then carried into the hotel industry, and now the food service industry, customers today are more empowered to influence the exchange of goods and services than ever before.
From a business stand point, this makes some good sense. You need to maintain customer satisfaction to keep sales coming and continue on being in business. With all of the options available to us in the world, I’d rather do business with a company that will work with me on an issue. Believe me, I’ve done a return or two to Costco in my day.
But from a sociological view, the idea that “I am the customer and the customer is always right,” has some pretty horrific implications. This plays out in a few ways. It’s one thing to have purchasing power. It’s a whole other ball game to believe that you are always right and never wrong. If we take this idea to its furtherest extension, we begin to believe that the world around us exists to serve us. We begin to believe that every thought or desire we have should be acted upon and good, despite how debased that desire may be. When we have been conditioned that we are always right, we dismiss any challenges to our thoughts, we view truth as relative, and we end up with an over-inflated ego. In all actuality, we begin to see ourselves as the little g gods living in a world that is made to serve us.
This ideology then spills over into the church world. We make participation in the church about serving ourselves, rather than covenanting with other believers. We skip over the sections of Scripture that we find disagreeable. We make worship about our own preferences rather than the glory of God. And we see God as a means to our own ends. As if He owes us as His customers. We say I paid my tithe, or I went on that mission trip, now give me my blessing.
It may make business sense to promote the Customer as always being right, but it is not tenable in the rest of society, in the church, or in our relationship with God.
This morning we are going to continue our walk through the book of Malachi. You can turn to Malachi chapter 1, if you have not already.
Last week, in our introduction we talked about the communication strategy of saying, “I love you, but” when you use that phrase you are expressing to the other person that your love for them is dependent upon their ability to bend to your desires for them. We saw how in the period Malachi was writing this oracle, Israel said they loved God but felt like He didn’t love them well enough. God then shows them how He has loved them, loves them now, and will love them. We applied that to God’s love for us in sending Christ to die for our sins.
Today we are going to start part one of a three part sub-series addressing another deficiency in Israel’s love for God and applying that to our practice in the Church as God’s people.
Begin with me in Malachi 1:6
6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
This morning, our sermon has been entitled, “I love you, but do I worship you?”
We have talked about worship in the past. I’ve shared with you all how aw struck I am by the linguistic roots of the word worship. It comes from seeing something as “worthy” and “ship” or sending. When we are talking about worship we are talking about Worth-shipping. Sending God the dignity, glory, honor, and distinction that He is worth.
In the church, we often think about worship as singing. Singing to God through psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs is certainly an ACT of worship, a part of worship. We’ve recently added some new songs to our worship team’s music catalog that we hope illuminate the worth of God and encourage our hearts to praise Him. But worship is limited to singing. We worship when we give our offerings, seeing that God and His work is worthy of our finances. We worship when we evangelize, seeing that God’s gospel is worthy of our attention and proclamation. We worship when we have times of fellowship, seeing that God people are worthy to be around and invest in. We worship when we pray, seeing God’s worth in communicating with. We worship when we read God’s Word, Seeing that His Word is worthy of our attention. We can really worship in anything we do in this life, when we sincerely do whatever it is we do in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Worship is the right response of seeing God for who He really is. It is responding accordingly to His glory. This happens both during the church service and in the regular flow of everyday life.
So why do I bring this up when the word worship isn’t used one time in the Malachi 1:6? Well I talk about worship here because we are transitioning from looking at the Love of God in verses 1-5 to now seeing the acts of worship by the people and the priests in Israel in verses 6 through chapter 2 verse 9.
In this verse the priests of the Israelites are rightly accused of “despising God’s name?” Despising is the antithesis of worship! We will get into how they were specifically doing that in the following verses, but as we ponder here on verse 6, we need to see just how great the name of God is!
Through the prophet Malachi, God uses two analogies to represent the honor due to His name.
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master.”
Now, anytime familial analogies come up, I want to recognize that not everyone has the best experience with their father. Many earthly fathers fall short of the high calling that comes with rearing children. America is currently plagued by fatherlessness in which the man who is supposed to give good gifts, lovingly provide discipline, and teach their children to walk in ways of the Lord so often relinquish this honor by either being totally absent, completely passive, or even abusive in their role. None us have nor are perfect fathers, but there is a great joy in owning the role God has designed for us in the household.
Nevertheless, there is a desire and design for honor between a father and son. Even when the father rejects his duties, you will often see children go above and beyond to seek their father’s approval.
While your experience with your father may have been great or may have been strained, we can all recognize the natural bond and desire for honor between a son and their father.
This would have been well known by the priests in Israel. When we think of priests, we think of celibate men taking confessions in the back of the cathedral. But the Israelite priests were not celibate. They were married and many of them had their own children. They would have known and likely cherished even the honor their sons showed to them. They would have recognized the pain of a child saying they honor their father with their lips but not with their life, not with their attitudes and their actions. That is the right accusation God is making against the Israelite priests. “You call me Father, but you do not honor me.”
“How does a son honor his father? Certainly by obedience but also by love, by the esteem the son has for the father who had trained him in the way of righteousness. A son honors a father by protecting his father's reputation, by not acting or living in a profane way which would bring criticism or even contempt upon the father's reputation.” As we will see, the Israelite priests say they honor God their Father, but do not act like it.
Then we see the analogy of the servant and master. The master is the one in charge, the servant serves the master. It’s so simple, yet we miss it! We mustn’t suppose our 20th century, individualistic ideas on this metaphor. It is possible for their to be a good master. In direct context to our day, you can have a good boss! When we read here in verse six about the fear between master and servant, we don’t have to assume that this is some sort of abuse driven cowering where the servant shrivels at the sight of the master in fear of the heavy hand striking one more time. No, this fear is love driven reverence. It is awe. It is seeing that the Master is good and seeking to follow His commands because He gives good commands!
God is both Father and Master. We understand and are to see Him as Lord, Sovereign, Commander we willfully serve, but also as the Loving Father we love to honor.
Using these analogies together is intentional. These terms describe the covenantal relationship between God and His people. He is to us a Father who lovingly disciplines us but His steadfast love will not depart from us (2 Sam 7:14-15). He is the Master who gives His Word to His people for our good and for His glory.
Simply who God is, demands our worship, our obedience, our honor, our love, and our service.
The priests in Israel called God Father and Master, but they didn’t act accordingly. Look at the next verse and the beginning of verse 8.
Malachi 1:7–8 (ESV)
7 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. 8a When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil?
The priests at first could not understand how they were “despising the the name of the Lord.” They thought they were doing alright. They were attending to their duties in the temple. They were offering up sacrifices. They were “doing their duty.” When we look at how this back and forth between God and the priests is constructed, it gives the impression that they are caught off guard by the accusation of despising the name of God. They look at how they’re going about business as usual and think that the accusation is coming out of left field.
Man, if this is a corollary for the church today, I don’t know what is. We gather on Sunday mornings. We do our time. The kids get their question. We sing our two songs. We read a little Scripture. We pray. We sing a couple more songs. We sit through the sermon. Sing another song and head on our way, slipping a check in the offering plate on the way out. Job done. Check the box. Move on.
In the life of the church, it is not abnormal to go through phases of apathy or even rut. We go through the motions and turn the lights on, do the thing, and then leave. We came together for “worship” but we didn’t really “worship”.
Don’t hear me wrongly here, There is nothing inherently wrong with any of the things we do in our worship service. The questions are good. The songs are good. The Prayers are good. The reading and preaching of the Word is good. Giving to the offering is good. But in those “things” are we giving our first and our best?!
In regards to the Israelites priests, they may have been performing the functions of worship, but they had allowed apathy to taint the quality of their worship! They were offering blind animals, they were sacrificing diseased cattle. God calls their lack of passion for honoring Him in their care of the offerings, EVIL! When you read through the Old Testament, you see that they were commanded to bring their first and their best to the Lord, not the leftovers, not the rejects of the herd. They were to offer the lambs who were without blemish. Leviticus 22:22 “22 Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or scabs you shall not offer to the Lord or give them to the Lord as a food offering on the altar.”
The priests thought that by going through the motions of worship that they were honoring the Lord, but it was clear that their hearts were not in the worship nor in God’s Word!
For the church’s application today, this message is very similar to what Christ said to the church in Ephesus as recorded in the book of Revelation: Revelation 2:2–4 “2 “ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”
Church going through the motions, even with doctrinal purity, is meaningless if we have forgotten our first love!
And some might say that they’re tired. They’ve sung those songs before. They’ve heard the pastor preach that message before. They’ve got other things on their minds. God doesn’t need me to give it my A game today. On that I’d say they’re right on one thing. God doesn’t *need* our A game in the sense that He is lacking without it. But God certainly DESERVES our A game in each and every moment. Look at the last half of verse 8.
Malachi 1:8b (ESV)
8b Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts.
Not everyone is like this, but I love having people over. And I really enjoy cooking for other people. I like making a big spread, trying to cook new and fancy food. When you come over to my house, I often want to honor you with some form of feast.
In the time that Malachi was speaking to the Israelites, Persia was the ruling force. Ruled by King Darius the First. In his palace, there are carved reliefs of peasants and common-folk bringing him food and livestock. It was a fairly regular practice. None of the Israelites would’ve dared to bring King Darius, or even the Governors serving under his rule the kinds of animals that they were offering to God. They would recognize that such a presentation would not be honoring to the ruling authorities.
So if they wouldn’t give that kind of gift to the local authorities, why did they feel comfortable giving it to God? It is because they had lost their first love. It is because they did not value God. They called Him Adonai, meaning High Lord, but they treated their offerings to Him worse than they would a visiting mother-in-law.
While today we do not offer animal sacrifices because Christ fulfilled all that the sacrifices were pointing to when He died on the cross, we must understand that the principle here is not about the necessity of animal sacrifices, but about the heart of worship.
God doesn’t need our sacrifices. King Darius, even, didn’t NEED the animal gifts. By and large, the King has the resources He needs. God in a much greater sense than Darius is self-sufficient, complete in Himself. But God is WORTHY of our first and our best! It shows honor, it shows reverence, it shows respect for God to give Him the best of what we are and what we have.
One commentary noted the following story. “A few years ago, radio commentator Paul Harvey shared a true story about a woman and her frozen turkey. The Butterball Turkey Company set up a telephone hotline to answer consumer questions about preparing holiday turkeys. One woman called to inquire about cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 years. The representative told her the turkey would be safe to eat, but did not recommend eating it because the flavor would have deteriorated. The caller replied, “That’s what I thought. Okay, we’ll probably just give it to our church then.””
This is a funny story until we realize that it is the common heart attitude towards serving God among Christians in our context today. Church, are we serving God our leftovers?
And I’m not talking just about food. In the busyness of life, we so often relegate God to the margins. We come to church if its convenient. I only sing if its a hymn *I* like. We give to the offering plate if we happen to have an extra dollar in our pockets. We’ll move heaven and earth to go on a vacation, but can’t spare a couple days for a mission trip.
We say I love you God, but I’m not willing to make a sacrifice for You. At least not real sacrifice, not costly sacrifice. Instead, I’ll fit You in the margins and give you leftovers.
Notice what God says about this earlier in verse 8. He says, “is that not evil?”
One pastor noted, “Let’s stop calling it ‘a busy schedule’ or ‘bills’ or ‘forgetfulness.’ It’s called evil.”
My intention this morning is not to promote to you some burdensome legalism. My intent is to have us all evaluate what we are giving to God in response to Who He is! He is Father! He is Master!
British Evangelist G. Campbell Morgan wrote, “What does sacrifice reveal? Not a selfish seeking for favor, but a soul’s estimate of the One to whom the gift is offered. Sacrilege we have always thought was the breaking into a church and stealing therefrom. That is not so; it is going into Church and putting something on the plate. Do not forget that. Sacrilege is centered in offering God something which costs nothing, because you think God is worth nothing. God looks for the giving at His altar of a gift that costs something. Men are perpetually bringing into the Christian Church the things they do not need themselves.”
The priests in the time of Malachi, were guilty of sacrilege by offering unworthy offerings to a worthy God. In our flesh, the same is often true for us today.
As we progress towards the end of our text for this morning, we see the seriousness of this offense.
Look with me to verse 9:
9 And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the Lord of hosts.
There is more going on in this verse than it seems on the surface. Malachi is specifically addressing the priests. He is saying that it is their duty to offer the sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. He even includes himself in the “us” at the end of that first sentence. He is reminding the priests of the great duty and honor that they have to be the ones whom God has called to lead in worship.
But the question there in the second sentence is sarcastic. With such a gift, with these paltry offerings, with these blind, lame, and diseased offerings you are giving to the Lord, will He show favor to any of you?
This is a direct and terrifying allusion to the blessing the priests were supposed to be to Israel.
There is a section of Old Testament Scripture you may be familiar with. We had it as a Scripture Proclamation a while ago. Numbers 6:24–26 “24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”
This blessing comes directly after God installs the levite priesthood. Allow me to read to you the verses that surround this blessing
Numbers 6:23–27 “23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel (by acting as faithful priests): you shall say to them, 24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. 27 “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.””
God used the Levitical Priests to steward worship and have reverence for the Lord permeate through all of Israel.
In our text this morning in Malachi is referencing and intentionally inverting this blessing. “Malachi is implying that the ancient blessing that priests were privileged to pronounce has been voided by their despising of God’s name.”
Such a pronouncement would have sent shivers down the spine of any priest that understood what their role was supposed to be.
The grievous nature of their lack of care is punctuated in the next verse:
10 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.
What should be the result of the priests careless, despising, evil acts of worship?
God says through the prophet Malachi, that someone should come by and close up the doors.
It would be better for their to be no worship at all than the false, vain efforts that were currently being made.
Let me say something really difficult. If churches are just going to carelessly go through the motions, if they are going to serve themselves through whatever best suits them with no regard for the authority of God’s Word and the commands He has for His people, it would be better for them to close the doors than to continue meeting in vain.
Why is this the case? For a couple of reasons. First, if we are cultivating a culture of apathetic or, worse, false worship, we are doing nothing more than peddling self-centered, false hope. We diminish the glory of God by implicitly suggesting He does not deserve our first and our best. We are teaching others that God makes a good side dish, when His Word shows us He is the main course. Secondly, vain worship is a waste of time. It’s pointless. Listen, I’m not here this morning to waste your time. We don’t gather again on Sunday Evenings to simply fill out your weekend. I am here to point you to the glory of God and participate in the assembly of the saints showing love, sharing encouragement, and praising God with one another. If we can’t do that with a full heart to God, we are simply wasting our time.
If a church and its members are unwilling or uninterested in giving their first and their bests to God, they may as well close the doors. Part of the issues going on in American Christianity is a plethora of churches continuing on in the name of Jesus, but preaching the gospel of convenience either by diminish the worthiness of God to be served or by diminishing the sufficiency of God’s Word through twisting it to fit themselves. A study released recently suggested that over 40% of self-identified American Evangelicals deny that Jesus is God. This is a travesty. If our Churches can’t preach the truth, can’t teach the divinity of Jesus, can’t build up the faith, they faith, they would be better off closing. There would at the least be less people claiming a cultural Christianity that is incongruent with truly seeing Christ as Lord.
You give God no glory by claiming His name with out seeing His worthiness to be served and following Him with your full heart. “I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of Hosts.”
God has no need nor receives no glory from the giving of our leftovers. He deserves our first and our best. The priests in Israel weren’t doing that. He says, “I will not accept an offering from your hand.” Using the term “accept” signals the conditions they were currently operating with were inadequate. As worship is currently being practiced, it was unacceptable.
I hope that through this message today, God has exposed each of us to the inadequacies of our worship. Our Father, Our Lord is worthy to be served, He is worthy of our first and our best. He is worthy of attention. He is worthy of Praise. He is Worthy of our finances. He is worthy of our time. He is worthy of prayers. He is Worthy.
If today there has been area of deficiency in worship exposed in your life, take heart. Today is the day to repent! Today is the day to sing aloud and praise your God! May the Spirit use God’s Word to kindle a fire in all of our hearts. To move us to stop playing church and start praising God, full heartedly.
Revelation 5:12 “12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!””
Jesus Christ lived and died and rose again to pay the cost of our sins and reconcile us to holy God! In understanding that, we understand He is worthy to be served. May we understand and apply that today. If you desire to know more about what that looks like, come find me in this hymn of response. Let’s pray.
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