Quit Giving God Garbage Worship (Malachi 1.6-14)

Scripture: Malachi 1.6-14

Translation: ^1.6“A son glorifies his father, and the slave his lord: but if I’m a father, where is My glory? And if I’m the Lord, where’s My fear?” Yahweh of Armies says to you, the priests who treat My Name with contempt, but you say, “How did we treat Your Name with contempt?” ⁷“You’re bringing to My altar desecrated food! But you say, “How did we desecrate You?” By you saying about Yahweh’s table, “It’s despicable.” ⁸And when you bring something blind for sacrificing, “there’s nothing evil.” And when you offer something lame and/or sick, “There’s nothing evil.” Bring it to your governor, will he be happy with you? or will he make you happy [lit. lift up your face]?” Yahweh of Armies says. ⁹But now beg God’s Face, and will He be gracious to us? This is from your hand. Will He make any of you happy [lit. lift the face of any of you]? Yahweh of Armies says. “Moreover, who is among you, so he could close the [Temple] doors, so you don’t keep making My altar ablaze in vain! There’s no delight for Me among you!” Yahweh of Armies says. “And I won’t accept a gift from your hands! ¹¹Because from the rising of the sun and until its setting, My Name is great among the nations, and in every place incense must be offered to My Name and a gift must be clean, because My Name is great among the nations.” Yahweh of Armies says. ¹²But you are desecrating Me! By your saying, ‘The table of My Lord, it is desecrated, its fruit is despicable, [so is] its food.!’ ¹³Yet you say, ‘Look, what a hardship!’ And you blow it off!” Yahweh of Armies says. “And you bring in something stolen, and something unable to walk, and something sick. So you bring the gift, will I accept it from your hand?” Yahweh says. ¹⁴And the scamming person is cursed, if there is in his herd a male—the person who’s promising and sacrificing what is ruined to My Lord, because I am a Great King,” Yahweh of Armies says, “and My Name is feared among the nations!”

Interpretation

1.      Structure

a.       Second Case: 1.6-2.9

                                                              i.      Part A: You have defiled/desecrated My Altar! (1.6-14)

1.      Issue: You give me garbage for offerings, so I don’t accept it! (1.6-10)

2.      Cause: I am Great, but you treat Me like I’m not! (1.11-13)

3.      Judgment: The Scammer is cursed for offering less than his best (1.14)

                                                            ii.      Part B: You teach lies!

2.      Themes

a.       Defilement/desecration

b.      Less than the best (stolen, weak, injured, etc.)

c.       Excuses/denial

d.      Accepting

e.       Offering

f.       Yahweh is Great

g.      Glory/honor/fear vs. contempt

3.      Doctrines

a.       Yahweh is Great everywhere, worthy of all honor, glory, and worship

b.      Yahweh demands true and good worship and offerings

c.       Yahweh will judge offenders

Applications

1.      Outline

a.       Intro:

                                                              i.      Last week we saw that God truly does love His people, and is strongly committed to them, to us. Yahweh’s strong love and commitment to His people, to us, is actually the overarching context of the whole book. Yahweh is going to be saying some harsh things and calling out some of our secret sins, but it is coming from the God Who loves us totally by grace! He loves us, so don’t take what He will say as a denial of love, but as His commitment to love us when we are unlovable and refuse to love Him!

b.      Quit Giving God Garbage!

                                                              i.      Reasons:

1.      Because it dishonors Him, but He is Great!

2.      Because it won’t get you anything, except God’s anger

3.      Because it won’t be accepted by God as worship, only as sin

                                                            ii.      Possible Responses to this accusation:

1.      Denial

2.      Apathy

3.      Excuses

4.      True Interest

5.      Repentance

                                                          iii.      Ways you could be giving God garbage worship today

1.      Giving God stolen money,

a.       which includes money that you didn’t pay taxes on

b.      but it also includes money made in unrighteous ways, such as cheating your customers into buy fake products, or overpricing and gouging people

c.       or even money from a fraudulent lawsuit,

d.      or making money from selling ungodly things, such as porn

e.       turning a profit isn’t bad, but you can cross the line and stop profiting and become someone who is simply taking advantage of people or abusing them

2.      Giving God half-hearted worship when we sing together

3.      Giving God half-hearted attention during sermons

4.      Giving God half-hearted prayers

a.       I’m just talking about a lack of faith in prayers, but also in treating prayer as something less than a true interaction with God

b.      Not meaning your prayers, which means both “praying what you’re ‘supposed to’ pray” but not really having any authenticity behind it; and praying for show, and trying to look good in prayers

5.      Giving God half-hearted service, when serving His people, our church and even the global church

6.      Giving God the leftovers of your time, attention, energy, talents, and money

7.      Giving God the best you have to offer, but doing it with a disgruntled spirit

8.      Giving God nothing

9.      Giving God sin, sin, and more sin

10.  Giving God only partial control over your life

11.  Giving God silence and shyness, instead of boldness and openness about your faith in Him

12.  Trying to minimize the costs of your worship or relationship with God

13.  Refraining from giving God Glory for Who He is and what He had done

14.  Refraining from fearing God as God

                                                          iv.      Qualifications

1.      God isn’t expecting more than you have to give, the problem is giving God garbage when you could give Him diamonds. It’s not a sin to give God $5 when all the money you made that week was $50, but it is probably a sin to give God $5 when you made $500 that week, and almost assuredly a sin to give God $5 when you made $5 million that week.

2.      While God will no longer curse and judge believers today, punishment and discipline from God are still very real possibilities. Moreover, it is the mark of a true Christian that he or she is in the habit of giving God true worship. If you never give God true worship, perhaps the problem is that you need to come to Christ in repentance and faith for the first time—i.e. maybe you’re not a Christian if you never given God true worship

3.      While God is the One Who is ultimately in control of who gets saved and who doesn’t, giving God garbage for worship, shows other people all over the world that our God is not great. Yahweh makes clear that He is Great, and everyone who sees even a glimpse of Him recognizing that, but giving Him garbage worship denies His Greatness and Worthiness of Worship! It is perhaps possible that if people saw that your whole life was true and costly worship to God, they may be more interested in God. You will never convert a Muslim by showing him how little you actually care about your God!

2.      Questions

a.       Have you been giving garbage worship to God? How? Why?

b.      How could you give Him true, and even costly worship? What about us as a community?

c.       What is one thing you can take home from the sermon and apply this week? How will you apply it?

Illustrations/Explanations

1.      Right now your mom or dad might be really touched by a cheap gift, but in 20 years after one of you has invented the next facebook, they might be a little offended if you made them pay for dinner.