Sermon Tone Analysis

Chicken Dinners

Introduction: Let’s just stop having church and start selling chicken dinners!!! That’s actually what one church did a few years ago.

Illustration: Chuck Swindoll in his book “The Church Awakening: An Urgent Call for Renewal” tells of another pastor perusing the Atlanta yellow pages a few years ago to find “Church of God Grill” and out of curiosity called to inquire how it got such a peculiar name.

The real chipper guy on the phone told of how they had a little mission in the city and one day decided to start selling chicken dinners after worship on Sundays to help pay some bills.

He went on to say, “Well, people like the chicken, and we did such a good business, that we started cutting back on the church stuff.”

After a while they just decided to close the doors of the church, but they kept selling chicken dinners, continuing on with the name they started with, Church of God Grill.”

What do you imagine would cause or be the reason for a church closing its doors and doing such?

Malachi gives us an inclination as to the reason.

In fact in the scripture we are about to read, God essentially tells the priest and He would rather they shut the doors of the Temple than to continue doing what they were doing.

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PRAYER

One could rightly assume the reason for that church closing its doors or any other one is more than likely the same reason God confronts the priest here…God was no longer honored in nor did He accept their worship.

You can almost here the frustration and contempt…I just wish someone would shut the Temple doors so these people would no longer offer WORTHLESS WORSHIP on my altar.

The Priest of Israel were responsible for setting the standards and promoting the proper worship of God among His people.

So, what we find first here from this scripture are God’s spiritual leaders and in turn God’s people who followed, being:

The Priest of Israel were responsible for setting the standards and promoting the proper worship of God among His people.

So, what we find first here from this scripture are God’s spiritual leaders and in turn God’s people who followed, being:

Dishonorable Sons who gave:

Disrespectful Service and offered

Defiled Sacrifices

Yet, they thought nothing was wrong in their worship of God, showing so by their pretentious scoffing at God’s charge against them.

The example of godly leaders is helpful, but only the Savior is worthy of our worship and devotion.1506

Dishonorable sons:

God declares Israel as His first born Son.

Israel is shown as an ungrateful Son.

Isaiah begins with God’s complaint against His rebellious sons.

God is the Father of Israel because:

He redeemed them

He nurtured them

He disciplined them

v.6 - Through Malachi, God says that even though sons honor their fathers, His Sons do not honor Him by despising His name.

To despise means “to raise the head disdainfully” Or as claimed, They honored God with their heads (lips) not with their hearts.

As many commentators affirm, “Worship is an attitude of one’s heart.”

The word is derived from the old English word Worth-ship - “worthiness or acknowledgement of worth.”

In the case of God it is ascribing to Him the honor, respect, glory and majesty He is worth because of who He is and what He has done as our Creator and Redeemer.

To honor someone is to consider them and their name as carrying a lot of weight.

Profaning God’s name meant they were ruining his reputation.

Speaking half truths, down right lies or unfounded words of gossip about someone to others means you unjustly ruin their reputation.

That is what the priest were doing to God by not taking worship seriously with:

Profaning God’s name meant they were ruining his reputation.

Speaking half truths, down right lies or unfounded words of gossip about someone to others means you unjustly ruin their reputation.

That is what the priest were doing to God by not taking worship seriously with:

Disrespectful Service:

v. 13 - Disrespectful service is treating the Holy as ordinary.

There service to God had become monotonous, so much so they saw it as burdensome and cared not for doing it.

It was the motions of ministry without the power of God in the ministry.

Malachi notes their boredom with the rituals of worship, so their heads and hands were in it but not their hearts.

Ever hear the old saying “familiarity breeds contempt.”

Disrespectful service is treating the Holy as ordinary.

The priest were treating God with much indifference.

They were pretending everything was okay in worship.

After attending church with his father one Sunday morning, before getting into bed that evening a little boy kneeled at his bedside and prayed, “Dear God, we had a good time at church today, but I wish you had been there.”

(1500 illustrations book)

God declares that it is not okay.

They cared more about what they would give the government than what they would give God because they were breaking the Levitcal laws with:

Defiled Sacrifices:

God set high standards for what he would accept as offerings and sacrifices in worship.

In he says the animal must be an unblemished male, without defect, and perfect.

These sacrifices required a lot, and giving such could be costly, especially if that ended up being the only one of the flock like that.

They were giving God their left overs.

They were giving God what they didn’t need or want.

If there is no sacrifice in your sacrifice then it’s not a sacrifice.

God’s standard was not an arbitrary one.

It represented someone.

It point forward to the Messiah.

It cost Him something.

The Priest had lead the people:

To go through heartless worship instead of giving heart-filled worship

To show no care or concern for God’s majesty (worshipping Him not important anymore to them)

To wink at their own sin while condemning the people around them

To have no compassion or love for one another

To complain and cry over God’s refusal to bless their giving

To commit spiritual adultery

The impossibility of humanity to fulfill the requirements of God’s Law necessitated a substitute.

That’s why we as Southern Baptist believe strongly in the Substitutionary Atonement.

God promised the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ would be:

The Great High Priestly Son that would bring honor His Father -

God promised the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ would be:

The Suffering Servant who would surrender and Honor His Master -

The Perfect Sacrifice, Lamb of God without spot, blemish or defect -

The sacrifice was made to create communion, seal the covenant, and establish commitment on the part of God.

The sacrifice was made to create communion, seal the covenant, and establish commitment on the part of God.

v. 9 - “accept” - the Hebrew word here covers 3 distinct semantic ranges that are important for us to note. 1 - meaning to lift (literally or figuratively) 2 - to bear or carry away guilt or punishment of sin (this is where we find the concept of representative or substitutionary bearing for another) 3 - to take away guilt or to forgive.

God can never accept a human offerings seeking to remove their guilt of sin, but through the offering of Jesus on the cross God does all three of the things to which this word “accept” applies.

“accept” - the Hebrew word here covers 3 distinct semantic ranges that are important for us to note. 1 - meaning to lift (literally or figuratively) 2 - to bear or carry away guilt or punishment of sin (this is where we find the concept of representative or substitutionary bearing for another) 3 - to take away guilt or to forgive.

God can never accept a human offerings seeking to remove their guilt of sin, but through the offering of Jesus on the cross God does all three of the things to which this word “accept” applies.

v. 11 - “pure” - in a moral and ceremonial sense, genuine.

God judges the value of a sacrifice by the quality of the offerer’s heart.

Jesus gave selflessly and sinlessly.

The priest of Malachi’s day had lowered the perceptions about God and the expectations of God causing others to think.

“well if they live and worship like that then we should be okay.”

Since God gave his best, he expects the best from those who have been accepted and forgiven.

This scriptural charge against priest is completely applicable to every Christian according to Peter.

God expects then from each one of us who are the forgiven and saved people of God to be:

Respectful/Reverent in our Worship

Ready to serve as part of our worship

Real in our worship

Respectful/Reverent in Our Worship:

The priest modeled a lackadaisical/don’t care attitude of worship that had infected other people.

That is disrespectful to God and harmful to others when we enter the building where we are supposed to worship together and we act and speak in ways that defame God’s name.