WEBVTT 00:00:00.180 --> 00:00:03.080 If you brought a Bible and you want to tune in to the last place we're going to look at together. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:06.220 we are in the very last book of the Old Testament. 00:00:06.520 --> 00:00:07.500 So that's kind of fitting, isn't it? 00:00:07.900 --> 00:00:09.620 We're in the book called Malachi. 00:00:10.620 --> 00:00:15.720 Some of us like to purposefully mispronounce that and call it the greatest Italian prophet, Malachi. 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:17.050 That would be me, right? 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:20.940 you come to me asking for that's Malachi, right? 00:00:21.080 --> 00:00:22.540 The Italian prophet, last book of your Bible. 00:00:22.680 --> 00:00:27.180 So turn there and we'll study this book together by way of history. 00:00:27.240 --> 00:00:34.340 So you understand, the last three books of the Bible are well, in chronological order, though the Old Testament last three 00:00:34.400 --> 00:00:41.780 books of the Old Testament, I should say, fall in chronological order, though the Old Testament isn't necessarily given to us in chronological 00:00:41.780 --> 00:00:42.200 order. 00:00:42.280 --> 00:00:50.000 There are some books that follow that sequence, and the last three books of your Bible the Minor Prophets, Haggai, 00:00:50.080 --> 00:00:51.430 Zechariah and Malachi. 00:00:51.680 --> 00:00:56.860 They follow the last events in Israel's history as Israel's come back from the Babylonian captivity. 00:00:58.240 --> 00:00:59.680 And so we've looked at this together. 00:01:00.040 --> 00:01:02.520 Israel became a nation through Moses. 00:01:02.620 --> 00:01:08.700 Then Joshua led them into the promised Land, came, became a prominent nation, ruled by judges, and eventually led to kings. 00:01:09.080 --> 00:01:13.760 Three kings led the nation until the kingdom was split into southern and northern tribes. 00:01:13.820 --> 00:01:16.000 The northern tribes called the tribes of Ephraim or Israel. 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:18.000 Southern tribes taken the name of Judah. 00:01:18.140 --> 00:01:19.940 The North never had a godly king. 00:01:19.940 --> 00:01:24.780 God sent them into captivity and 722 BC by the Assyrians in the south. 00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:27.120 They continued on, had a few godly kings. 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:31.140 Finally, in their disobedience, God took them into captivity under the Babylonians. 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:37.600 In 586 BC, God told them they would be in Babylon as captives for 70 years. 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:42.640 At the end of 70 years, the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians. 00:01:42.880 --> 00:01:50.140 King Darius and Cyrus issued decrees to release the nation of Israel, to go back to their promised land and the place that God had called 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:54.700 them, to re-establish them as a people and rebuild the temple that had been destroyed. 00:01:55.780 --> 00:01:59.020 Those stories take place in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. 00:01:59.060 --> 00:02:04.120 The historical account of God leading his people back to the Promised Land after the Babylonian captivity. 00:02:04.720 --> 00:02:11.920 The first six chapters of Ezra deal with immediately after the 70 years when the decree was issued for the nation of Israel to go back in between chapter 00:02:11.920 --> 00:02:16.340 six and chapter seven of Ezra, there's a break in between that break. 00:02:16.420 --> 00:02:20.440 The story of Esther takes place after the story of Esther takes place. 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:26.580 Chapter seven then continues the Exodus from Babylon back to Israel to continue to build the nation. 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:31.920 Ezra leaves on that trip in the second half of the book while they're rebuilding the temple. 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:39.680 God then leads Nehemiah back to the nation of Israel to build the wall around Jerusalem, to protect the people accomplishing it within. 00:02:40.100 --> 00:02:43.040 Within a couple of months, they were able to reestablish the wall. 00:02:43.080 --> 00:02:44.120 They considered it miraculous. 00:02:45.660 --> 00:02:50.360 During that time, once again, the nation of Israel reestablished themselves under God. 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:53.700 Get to a place where they start walking in disobedience to him. 00:02:54.760 --> 00:03:02.070 You would think after all they've been through and all the destruction they've seen due to their disobedience, 00:03:02.380 --> 00:03:04.380 that the nation of Israel at one point would get it right. 00:03:05.480 --> 00:03:07.080 But then again, so would I. 00:03:08.640 --> 00:03:10.470 Just as I look at them and may point the finger. 00:03:10.620 --> 00:03:15.170 I can look at my own life and think I know right from wrong, I know good from evil. 00:03:15.340 --> 00:03:22.700 And no matter how many times I tell myself something may be wrong, the sinfulness within me rears its ugly head and I do things 00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:24.240 contrary to the nation of God. 00:03:25.640 --> 00:03:30.020 And so God sends these final three prophets to the nation of Israel to speak to them. 00:03:30.100 --> 00:03:35.520 And Malachi comes by way of the last prophet for the nation of Israel around 430 BC. 00:03:36.900 --> 00:03:39.940 As rule begins to stray from God. 00:03:39.980 --> 00:03:47.020 Malachi becomes the last attempt of God speaking to the nation of Israel to turn them back to him before God eventually just 00:03:47.100 --> 00:03:49.530 goes silent to the nation of Israel. 00:03:50.360 --> 00:03:54.160 Josephus, a first century historian on the Jewish people. 00:03:54.160 --> 00:03:55.900 He was a Jew himself. 00:03:56.180 --> 00:04:01.940 Records for the nation of Israel between 400 BC to the coming of Jesus as the silent years. 00:04:04.300 --> 00:04:05.880 God chose not to speak. 00:04:07.340 --> 00:04:13.860 And God is no longer going to speak after Malachi comes to conclusion until the coming of John the Baptist. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:16.980 He wasn't a Baptist, but he baptized, right? 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:19.769 And leaves us with this curiosity. 00:04:21.700 --> 00:04:22.800 God's final prophet. 00:04:24.060 --> 00:04:25.620 God's last message to his people. 00:04:26.900 --> 00:04:27.660 What does he say? 00:04:29.560 --> 00:04:36.700 Knowing that there are wandering from him one more time in a last ditch approach to prophetically proclaim to them what they need to hear to turn 00:04:36.700 --> 00:04:38.320 their hearts back to him. 00:04:38.940 --> 00:04:40.110 What is it God says? 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:44.000 If you turn in your Bibles, you can follow along. 00:04:44.020 --> 00:04:44.530 In chapter one. 00:04:44.760 --> 00:04:48.060 We'll have it up on the screen out of curiosity and just understanding. 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:51.880 If in your final last words, let me just ask. 00:04:51.900 --> 00:04:59.160 And knowing that you're with someone that you care and love and appreciate that you're not going to see them for 400 years or 00:04:59.160 --> 00:05:00.820 for quite a while. 00:05:01.840 --> 00:05:02.760 What would be your last words? 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:05.240 Someone that you care about. 00:05:06.300 --> 00:05:07.720 You're concerned for. 00:05:09.380 --> 00:05:12.260 God's final words to the nation of Israel was one of love. 00:05:14.060 --> 00:05:17.540 He says in Malachi chapter one and verse two, I have loved you. 00:05:20.020 --> 00:05:24.350 I think we've been maybe to this place, or some of us can relate to the place of God's statement. 00:05:24.360 --> 00:05:27.060 In just the opening phrase, I, I've loved you. 00:05:28.440 --> 00:05:28.860 In knowing. 00:05:29.340 --> 00:05:30.740 In relationships we experience tension. 00:05:30.740 --> 00:05:37.940 Maybe you as a parent can even think of children that have just lived lifestyles that are just unhealthy, and your heart's desire is 00:05:37.940 --> 00:05:45.000 just to see them come to grow in the relationship with you and to turn away from those things that are 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.160 so harmful from them. 00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:50.920 But you know, that relationship is just causing such grievous pain within the family. 00:05:51.160 --> 00:05:58.410 And here in this passage, God's about to release this relationship with Israel, but he wants to give this last thought before he just goes silent. 00:05:58.600 --> 00:06:01.590 And he says to them, guys, I've loved you. 00:06:02.900 --> 00:06:05.900 From the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of the Old Testament. 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:08.040 To the end of the New Testament. 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:11.720 God's plan of redemption for mankind. 00:06:11.940 --> 00:06:19.100 As man has turned their backs on him, God has been passionately pursuing us, that we may know him 00:06:19.100 --> 00:06:21.480 and grow in him for all of eternity. 00:06:23.470 --> 00:06:25.990 And once again he shares that message. 00:06:28.060 --> 00:06:28.990 Guess I've loved you. 00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:34.220 As you're straying from me again, don't go get nervous about the fact that you. 00:06:34.500 --> 00:06:36.040 You may perceive that I hate you. 00:06:36.080 --> 00:06:37.270 You could think coming back from Babylon. 00:06:37.740 --> 00:06:39.300 We've left God. 00:06:39.380 --> 00:06:40.780 How is God going to receive us? 00:06:40.780 --> 00:06:42.220 What's God going to respond to us? 00:06:42.220 --> 00:06:44.050 We've allowed us temple to be destroyed. 00:06:44.620 --> 00:06:44.720 Does he? 00:06:44.960 --> 00:06:45.620 Does he hate us? 00:06:45.740 --> 00:06:50.940 And he said, no, that's not even close to the message I've begun to proclaim to you. 00:06:51.840 --> 00:06:56.040 I want to know you, and for you to know me and us. 00:06:56.740 --> 00:06:59.050 To walk in that relationship together. 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:00.300 I, I have loved you. 00:07:02.040 --> 00:07:05.880 When he gives a comparison illustration to the nation of Israel between Jacob and Esau. 00:07:07.580 --> 00:07:10.860 Esau and Jacob were twins born at the same time. 00:07:10.880 --> 00:07:18.100 God had an opportunity from Isaac to choose through which nation or which person he would grow the nation to bring the Messiah 00:07:18.100 --> 00:07:19.940 to bless all nations. 00:07:19.960 --> 00:07:22.140 And he chose Jacob over Esau. 00:07:22.180 --> 00:07:25.160 And so it goes on and says, this I have loved you, says the Lord. 00:07:25.200 --> 00:07:27.320 But you ask, how have you loved us? 00:07:28.520 --> 00:07:30.260 And he says, was not Esau Jacob's brother? 00:07:30.540 --> 00:07:31.470 Declares the Lord. 00:07:31.900 --> 00:07:34.770 Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. 00:07:35.700 --> 00:07:40.820 I have turned his hill country into a wasteland, and left his inheritance to desert jackals. 00:07:42.280 --> 00:07:48.360 I would say when God's talking about hate in this passage, it's not hatred towards Esau. 00:07:48.380 --> 00:07:55.960 As a matter of fact, in Genesis 33 nine, there comes a place where Jacob's offering things to Esau, and Esau says to Jacob, no, I've been blessed 00:07:56.120 --> 00:07:56.570 beyond belief. 00:07:56.740 --> 00:07:58.360 I don't need anything from you. 00:07:58.360 --> 00:08:00.380 God has certainly provided for my life. 00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:07.760 But what it's saying in comparison in this passage is that when God chooses us, that his acceptance looks like 00:08:08.260 --> 00:08:09.460 rejection to other people. 00:08:09.500 --> 00:08:17.260 But God has lavished his love and elected or chosen Jacob for the particular task of revealing himself and 00:08:17.620 --> 00:08:20.570 blessing all nations through him. 00:08:21.080 --> 00:08:24.280 In Luke chapter 14, Jesus gave similar thought to this passage. 00:08:24.520 --> 00:08:31.680 It says this if anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:35.120 their own life, such a person cannot be my disciple. 00:08:36.580 --> 00:08:42.659 And what Jesus is doing for us is dividing the line between worship of him and acceptance of other things. 00:08:42.919 --> 00:08:45.900 Jesus isn't just something in addition to the shelf of our life. 00:08:46.460 --> 00:08:49.520 Jesus takes preeminence in all things over our lives. 00:08:51.920 --> 00:08:54.160 And coincidentally. 00:08:54.440 --> 00:08:56.740 And learning to give our lives to him. 00:08:57.800 --> 00:09:01.950 I would propose we learn to love others more deeply because of him. 00:09:03.560 --> 00:09:06.940 When it comes to those relationships that we set aside to embrace Christ. 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:14.380 Because of that relationship with Christ, we learn to embrace others with a type of love that Jesus displayed to us, 00:09:14.380 --> 00:09:17.220 and that while we were yet sinners, Christ loved us. 00:09:19.860 --> 00:09:26.940 Jesus gave the illustration another way in Matthew, rather than referring to Haiti, he says this in Matthew ten anyone who loves their father or mother 00:09:26.940 --> 00:09:28.800 more than me is not worthy of me. 00:09:29.260 --> 00:09:33.620 Anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 00:09:36.280 --> 00:09:40.720 Jesus doesn't rob you from those relationships that you can't enjoy those relationships. 00:09:41.260 --> 00:09:48.320 Jesus draws you from those relationships so he can transform your heart so that through him you might better love others because of what 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:49.960 Christ has done in you. 00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:59.600 And in this passage, God is demonstrating his love and saying, listen, Israel, from the beginning my hand has been all 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:03.650 over you, demonstrating the love that I have for you. 00:10:04.920 --> 00:10:05.600 I've chosen you. 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:11.180 But you may know me and enjoy me forever. 00:10:13.660 --> 00:10:20.880 He goes on in chapter three and verse six and a like mindedness of the same verse, he says this I, the Lord, do not change. 00:10:21.220 --> 00:10:23.520 So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 00:10:24.020 --> 00:10:29.460 Ever since the time of your ancestors, you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. 00:10:30.180 --> 00:10:32.940 Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty. 00:10:35.500 --> 00:10:42.540 What God is referencing in this passage of Scripture is something we refer to in the Bible as a covenantal love that he has 00:10:42.540 --> 00:10:43.240 expressed. 00:10:44.860 --> 00:10:46.360 When God called Abraham. 00:10:46.400 --> 00:10:50.720 If you remember from the story that we shared, God set a covenant with Abraham. 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:58.140 And during the time of Abraham, when a covenant was established, God, God would find that people would kill an animal and they 00:10:58.140 --> 00:11:00.160 would separate this animal that they killed. 00:11:00.180 --> 00:11:07.860 And when two people walked in agreement of a covenant, they would pass between the middle of this animal that laid separated, saying 00:11:07.860 --> 00:11:13.420 to one another, if we break this covenant, let what happens to this animal happen to me? 00:11:14.880 --> 00:11:21.100 And God tells Abraham, Abraham, I want to establish a covenant with you to display my great name to you as a nation. 00:11:21.100 --> 00:11:25.240 I have chosen you to love you and lavish my love upon you and through you. 00:11:25.340 --> 00:11:26.420 Bless all nations. 00:11:26.420 --> 00:11:28.340 So kill these animals. 00:11:28.660 --> 00:11:36.100 Separate them that we may pass through in the Bible tells us that when it came time to pass through these animals, that God allowed a deep 00:11:36.300 --> 00:11:43.360 sleep to fall upon Abraham, and so that God alone was the one who walked through the animals, establishing the covenant with 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:44.740 the nation of Israel. 00:11:46.560 --> 00:11:49.080 Saying to Israel this covenant. 00:11:50.280 --> 00:11:51.290 Rests upon me. 00:11:52.900 --> 00:11:53.480 Israel. 00:11:54.100 --> 00:11:55.240 I will always love you. 00:11:56.940 --> 00:11:58.580 And in this passage he reminds. 00:11:59.980 --> 00:12:02.260 I, the Lord, am not changing on this. 00:12:03.700 --> 00:12:05.790 That's the reason you've not been consumed. 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:12.480 That rather than justice, I have chosen grace and I have chosen mercy on your behalf. 00:12:15.220 --> 00:12:22.720 Jesus offers Israel the understanding of his love in this passage of Scripture, so that we, as people who have been embraced by Christ, 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:26.910 can walk in confident security with him. 00:12:28.710 --> 00:12:32.420 You think about relationships in your life that aren't that are unhealthy. 00:12:32.420 --> 00:12:39.620 When someone of dominant position lords over you and domineer over you and places fear upon 00:12:39.620 --> 00:12:45.950 you how you might respond to that relationship, there's this timidness to even want to encounter it. 00:12:47.320 --> 00:12:52.490 But when it comes to Christ, his hand is this my mercy and grace have been extended. 00:12:52.800 --> 00:12:56.660 You need to know where I stand and how I feel toward you. 00:12:56.700 --> 00:13:02.800 That you may walk in confidence security by just drawing near to me. 00:13:05.040 --> 00:13:08.540 And I get to the end of this section and reading God's response to Israel. 00:13:08.560 --> 00:13:14.140 And I have to say as I recount these words, Israel, it's a covenant in Israel of always love you. 00:13:14.260 --> 00:13:17.390 You can't help but think that it just it just rips at the heart. 00:13:19.540 --> 00:13:24.840 To know the repetition of what God has said throughout all of Scripture to us. 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:26.240 Come to me. 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:30.720 What I have to offer is far greater than what this world could ever hope to give to you. 00:13:30.760 --> 00:13:31.340 Come to me. 00:13:31.340 --> 00:13:35.000 The hope that you're discovering on your own apart from me, isn't real hope. 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:36.820 I just want to extend that to you. 00:13:36.820 --> 00:13:39.430 Come to me because you think what you have is best. 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:42.950 But what I have is far better than anything you could experience. 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:43.440 Just. 00:13:43.640 --> 00:13:45.500 Just come to me. 00:13:47.820 --> 00:13:51.240 And throughout the Old Testament, God has expressed it to Israel. 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:56.740 And here again is God's going silent to the nation. 00:13:56.740 --> 00:14:02.600 He gives this final cry to them, saying, just come to me. 00:14:04.800 --> 00:14:08.300 I had a friend this past week say to me, he serves in an inner city. 00:14:08.920 --> 00:14:12.180 He said, uh, he's around drugs all the time. 00:14:12.220 --> 00:14:15.720 He says he calls God the greatest hope dealer in the world. 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:16.670 That was great. 00:14:17.860 --> 00:14:21.620 He is the greatest hope dealer life has to offer. 00:14:21.620 --> 00:14:25.790 And so are the people who walk in the hope that he offers towards us. 00:14:28.680 --> 00:14:31.720 When we talk about pursuing God. 00:14:31.920 --> 00:14:36.740 And Jesus also reminds us in this passage of Scripture that the way that God desires is that we give him everything. 00:14:39.160 --> 00:14:46.440 He says in verse 18, and you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those 00:14:46.440 --> 00:14:48.630 who don't or who do not. 00:14:49.700 --> 00:14:55.320 Meaning there's two places you can walk in relationship to God with him or against him. 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:55.880 There's no middle ground. 00:14:57.220 --> 00:15:01.840 When you're walking in relationship with God, it tends to sometimes be like a roller coaster. 00:15:02.400 --> 00:15:02.880 Ups and downs. 00:15:04.120 --> 00:15:05.860 And in that relationship, it works like this. 00:15:06.420 --> 00:15:11.010 You're either drawing near to God or further from God, but you're not staying in the middle. 00:15:12.440 --> 00:15:16.540 There is a distinction between the wickedness and the righteousness. 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:20.940 The difference between being a follower of Jesus and refusing to follow him. 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:29.000 And when Jesus calls us in his love, what he calls us to do is pursue him with everything that we are. 00:15:30.780 --> 00:15:32.420 If we went back to Malachi one. 00:15:32.520 --> 00:15:34.140 I know we're skipping between these chapters. 00:15:34.580 --> 00:15:39.190 It's it says in verse six, a son honors his father and a slave his master. 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:41.020 If I am a father, where is the honor? 00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:41.600 Do me? 00:15:41.980 --> 00:15:43.770 If I am a master, where is the respect? 00:15:44.120 --> 00:15:45.520 Do me, says the Lord Almighty. 00:15:46.160 --> 00:15:48.680 It is your priest who shows contempt for my name. 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:51.480 But you ask, how have you shown contempt for your name? 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:52.160 Meaning? 00:15:52.180 --> 00:15:56.220 These people are saying, yeah, we follow Jesus and they have or we follow God and they have no clue. 00:15:56.220 --> 00:15:58.040 They're not even pursuing God with their life. 00:15:58.180 --> 00:16:03.100 It's this liturgical structure they've established, but their hearts have never connected to it. 00:16:03.660 --> 00:16:05.360 By offering defiled food on my altar. 00:16:05.560 --> 00:16:09.800 God says you've shown contempt, but you ask, how have we defiled you? 00:16:20.800 --> 00:16:20.980 By saying that the Lord's table is contemptible. 00:16:20.980 --> 00:16:20.980 When you offer blind animals for sacrifices, that not wrong? 00:16:20.980 --> 00:16:23.220 When you sacrifice lame, lame, or diseased animals, I'm coveting right now. 00:16:23.280 --> 00:16:24.520 Lame or diseased animals? 00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:25.960 Is that not wrong? 00:16:26.880 --> 00:16:28.460 Try offering them to your governor. 00:16:29.380 --> 00:16:30.910 Would he be blessed with you? 00:16:31.300 --> 00:16:32.280 Would he accept you? 00:16:32.280 --> 00:16:33.210 Says the Lord of hosts? 00:16:35.040 --> 00:16:38.440 And Jesus is saying, when you come to other people, you give your best. 00:16:38.620 --> 00:16:42.140 When you come to the Lord, you're just halfway doing it. 00:16:43.760 --> 00:16:46.220 I've called you to give me all of your heart. 00:16:46.360 --> 00:16:47.520 Not just some of it. 00:16:47.540 --> 00:16:54.160 I'm not just a thought on the shelf, but I've called you to give all of yourself to me. 00:16:55.140 --> 00:16:59.940 God's response in this passage is this I want all of you or none of you, and there's no in between. 00:17:02.660 --> 00:17:04.990 Is reiterating the thought of covenantal love. 00:17:06.260 --> 00:17:13.460 As God has demonstrated this love and covenant to us, and giving himself and all that he has to us, he's asked the same in return out of a heart 00:17:13.460 --> 00:17:14.240 that's willing. 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:19.240 You know, the same place that we express covenantal love here on earth that God's given us. 00:17:19.240 --> 00:17:22.980 The opportunity to demonstrate is through the idea of marriage. 00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:25.960 You think about this for just a moment. 00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:33.040 If you went to the altar with your wife or wherever you want to call, you got married underneath the awning or whatever you want to call it, if you went there 00:17:33.040 --> 00:17:37.540 and you said, honey, I'm here today to give you 90% of me. 00:17:38.820 --> 00:17:39.700 How's that going to go? 00:17:40.020 --> 00:17:40.180 Right. 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:42.340 I love you with 95.43%. 00:17:45.820 --> 00:17:46.900 You know what she's going to say? 00:17:47.800 --> 00:17:48.260 Okay. 00:17:48.260 --> 00:17:49.040 Come on. 00:17:49.890 --> 00:17:53.620 I am not standing here in this dress, looking this way to you. 00:17:53.620 --> 00:17:54.160 Give me 90%. 00:17:56.060 --> 00:17:56.870 I want all of you. 00:17:58.680 --> 00:17:59.850 How would she want all of you? 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:08.520 It's because in that relationship of Covenantally giving yourself to her, that love thrives 00:18:08.520 --> 00:18:09.800 when all of you is offered. 00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:15.010 And God is saying in this passage in like manner. 00:18:16.220 --> 00:18:18.230 I don't want 95% of you. 00:18:19.060 --> 00:18:22.290 I created you that I may enjoy all of you. 00:18:24.080 --> 00:18:27.280 All of who you are belongs to who I am. 00:18:28.760 --> 00:18:29.970 And it should come to me. 00:18:32.180 --> 00:18:33.690 Makes sense in the marriage relationship. 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:38.300 Bible tells us in Genesis, man and woman were created for one another. 00:18:39.840 --> 00:18:46.860 God puts the desires within our heart to pursue that mate, that we may enjoy life together and give all that 00:18:46.860 --> 00:18:50.200 we are to them, that our relationship should thrive. 00:18:50.200 --> 00:18:52.760 In Genesis, it says that the goal of the marriage. 00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:59.720 For this reason, the husband or a husband shall leave his mother and the father, and the two shall be joined and become one flesh. 00:19:01.160 --> 00:19:03.890 God's desire for marriage is oneness. 00:19:04.300 --> 00:19:10.400 It literally means the thought of oneness means at the deepest seat of the identity of the individual. 00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:12.780 It's called it's the word of God in Hebrew. 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:16.520 It's the plurality of one and the plurality of marriage. 00:19:16.840 --> 00:19:21.020 This oneness in the deepest seed is united together. 00:19:22.660 --> 00:19:24.350 It happens in covenantal love. 00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:33.300 And like ways God is saying you as man designed for woman in marriage, you as a being were designed for 00:19:33.300 --> 00:19:35.280 that relationship with God. 00:19:35.420 --> 00:19:42.740 Life doesn't seem full, life doesn't seem whole, life isn't complete, and eternity won't matter for you until 00:19:42.780 --> 00:19:50.020 in the deepest seed of your heart, in the covenantal love towards God, you give all 00:19:50.020 --> 00:19:52.130 that you are to him. 00:19:54.020 --> 00:19:58.900 Jesus says that he came, that his joy might be in you, and your joy might be made full. 00:20:01.640 --> 00:20:08.610 God came for you to experience him and all the goodness and glory that he has to offer. 00:20:10.100 --> 00:20:15.580 And on the backdrop of this thought in the book of Malachi, God then gives two ideas for us. 00:20:16.820 --> 00:20:24.100 For those who ask this morning, who say, okay, I see, I see God loves and I see God has given his covenantal 00:20:24.100 --> 00:20:25.140 love to us. 00:20:25.180 --> 00:20:27.160 It's never changing. 00:20:27.160 --> 00:20:31.120 And now God is asking that we give all of ourselves to him. 00:20:31.620 --> 00:20:31.800 How? 00:20:31.880 --> 00:20:35.630 How do I know that I've done that in my relationship towards God? 00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:39.220 In chapter one and verse 13. 00:20:39.700 --> 00:20:46.380 I don't have it on the screen, but in the same chapter Israel responds to God when God asks for this covenantal love in response. 00:20:46.520 --> 00:20:48.730 And they said, God, we're just tired of you. 00:20:50.360 --> 00:20:52.070 My thought to that would be this. 00:20:52.220 --> 00:20:59.980 The reason that Israel expresses this tiredness to God is that they're looking at God as this religious experience 00:20:59.980 --> 00:21:04.320 where there's things that they desire or God desires for them to do. 00:21:04.320 --> 00:21:07.660 And so any time God calls, it's just because he has something that he wants. 00:21:09.300 --> 00:21:09.460 Into. 00:21:09.460 --> 00:21:13.220 The quickest way to rob yourself from your relationship with God is religion. 00:21:15.060 --> 00:21:19.440 You think about people in your life who come to you, and the only time they ever come to you is because they want something from you. 00:21:19.480 --> 00:21:21.940 And so what you do is just avoid them. 00:21:24.380 --> 00:21:26.760 It's not about what you're doing, but really about you. 00:21:26.760 --> 00:21:27.580 That God is after. 00:21:27.640 --> 00:21:34.680 God desires your heart, and he desires for you to draw near to him, that he, by his power transforms 00:21:34.680 --> 00:21:39.360 your life, that you in your life begin to express the glory of God. 00:21:41.960 --> 00:21:44.590 It's not about things, but about him. 00:21:46.380 --> 00:21:47.460 Another thought for Israel. 00:21:47.560 --> 00:21:50.650 The reason they're tired is this they simply just don't want to change. 00:21:52.200 --> 00:21:54.520 They like where their heart is focused. 00:21:55.700 --> 00:21:57.560 And they like the joy that sin brings. 00:21:58.980 --> 00:22:06.460 Rather than allow God to bring their joy, they turn it over to other things that eventually lead to emptiness. 00:22:08.460 --> 00:22:15.520 God in the book of Malachi, then begins to give a couple descriptions to the nation of Israel and says, hey, if you want to know if you really want to 00:22:15.520 --> 00:22:22.540 know, and you're confused and you think that you're a follower of me when I'm telling you you're not here are a couple indicators for you that reveal really 00:22:22.540 --> 00:22:23.700 what your heart is about. 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:30.820 A religious person would look at these things that God expresses and say this, okay, I messed up. 00:22:30.920 --> 00:22:32.030 I'll, I'll do better. 00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:38.220 But a person that's focused on relationship with the Lord will say this God. 00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:41.490 I'm going to give more of you or more of me to you. 00:22:41.560 --> 00:22:44.140 God, I want to give you all that I am. 00:22:44.200 --> 00:22:48.910 God, I want to give you my heart that you can do a work in me. 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:52.200 Rather than a religion to achieve. 00:22:52.360 --> 00:22:56.130 It's about a relationship to enjoy because God has always loved you. 00:22:57.940 --> 00:23:05.040 And so God gives these two illustrations in the book of Malachi that relate to us how we know our heart is expressing 00:23:05.100 --> 00:23:06.000 joy in the Lord. 00:23:06.040 --> 00:23:06.980 And the first is this it? 00:23:08.300 --> 00:23:10.460 It comes by way of marriage. 00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:11.680 I will skip that. 00:23:12.900 --> 00:23:16.180 Says in chapter two and verse 11, Judah has been unfaithful. 00:23:17.360 --> 00:23:21.120 A detestable thing has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. 00:23:21.120 --> 00:23:26.780 Judah has desecrated the sanctuary the Lord loves by marrying women who worship a foreign god. 00:23:27.220 --> 00:23:34.240 As for the man who does this, whoever he may be, may the Lord remove him from the tents of Jacob, even though he may bring an offering to the Lord 00:23:34.240 --> 00:23:34.690 Almighty. 00:23:35.160 --> 00:23:38.400 Another thing you do you flood the Lord's altar with tears. 00:23:38.900 --> 00:23:45.020 You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. 00:23:45.820 --> 00:23:46.780 You ask why? 00:23:46.800 --> 00:23:50.560 It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. 00:23:50.680 --> 00:23:56.850 You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner and the wife of your marriage covenant. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:23:59.810 God says this. 00:24:01.260 --> 00:24:06.100 If you want to know whether or not your heart is with me. 00:24:07.340 --> 00:24:08.670 Look at the way you treat your spouse. 00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:12.160 In this passage of Scripture. 00:24:12.180 --> 00:24:13.200 The nation of Israel was doing this. 00:24:13.580 --> 00:24:14.840 I've heard people say it this way. 00:24:14.920 --> 00:24:17.180 They're trading in their wife in her 40s for two 20s. 00:24:17.500 --> 00:24:18.050 Right. 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:24.880 Or they're getting rid of their wife because they're looking at just lust and greed. 00:24:24.880 --> 00:24:31.920 And so the nation of Israel has these ladies that they've conquered from other nations, and they're bringing these women in, and 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:36.580 they're getting rid of their wives to marry these women that have been conquered. 00:24:38.060 --> 00:24:43.490 And God is saying, you have no idea how sacred your relationship is with me. 00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:47.700 When God when God created man and woman. 00:24:47.720 --> 00:24:52.040 The first institution that God designed was marriage. 00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:56.530 And got in that marriage talks about the two becoming one. 00:24:56.940 --> 00:24:58.880 It is it is a worship ceremony. 00:25:01.040 --> 00:25:06.780 It says in this verse, it's because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. 00:25:07.140 --> 00:25:12.320 You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. 00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:19.580 What God is saying is that marriage relationship between man and woman is so sacred to God that when it takes 00:25:19.580 --> 00:25:22.820 place, the Lord is present. 00:25:24.680 --> 00:25:27.140 It's worship to him. 00:25:27.900 --> 00:25:33.020 God is treating the marriage relationship as a worship ceremony. 00:25:33.280 --> 00:25:40.320 And he's saying to those that are married this morning, the way you treat your spouse is an act of worship 00:25:41.020 --> 00:25:41.820 before the Lord. 00:25:43.290 --> 00:25:44.850 Let me think about that. 00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:49.690 The way you respond in that relationship. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:51.720 Now, I can say this very easily. 00:25:54.180 --> 00:26:01.680 You're not accountable for the way your spouse responds to you, but you are accountable for the way you choose to react to your spouse. 00:26:04.040 --> 00:26:11.040 God looks at this covenant and says, if you want to know areas of your life that should just display 00:26:11.040 --> 00:26:13.460 my goodness and glory. 00:26:14.560 --> 00:26:15.980 The first he gives is that relationship. 00:26:16.460 --> 00:26:21.200 God talks about two ways in these passages that dominate most of our lives. 00:26:21.240 --> 00:26:28.600 And so he says between the husband and wife, consider your marriage and act of worship before 00:26:28.600 --> 00:26:29.520 me. 00:26:32.100 --> 00:26:32.720 Covenantal love. 00:26:34.020 --> 00:26:35.120 Is the greatest love. 00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:43.980 In that covenant of giving yourself completely away to another, God gives the opportunity for you to 00:26:43.980 --> 00:26:51.200 allow truth and love and mercy and grace and freedom just to thrive in 00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:52.520 that relationship. 00:26:53.720 --> 00:26:59.480 It's when the boundaries of that covenantal love are broken that relationship suffers. 00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:09.920 God creates those boundaries in love, that there is security in that relationship, that it might find oneness 00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:10.500 in. 00:27:10.500 --> 00:27:18.630 Everything we do in that relationship before the Lord should look at as worship before our King. 00:27:19.800 --> 00:27:22.160 Meaning this when you get married. 00:27:24.080 --> 00:27:31.920 The willingness of your heart should be about giving all that you are to love someone else, despite 00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:34.300 their shortcomings. 00:27:36.080 --> 00:27:38.120 Jesus when he says he loves you. 00:27:38.120 --> 00:27:45.300 And that covenantal relationship says, I am loving you, and while you are yet a sinner. 00:27:46.720 --> 00:27:46.860 Why? 00:27:48.560 --> 00:27:49.840 Because that love is what transforms. 00:27:52.680 --> 00:27:58.000 Had Jesus not shown that gracious love to me, I would be lost without it. 00:28:00.020 --> 00:28:00.990 All of us needed. 00:28:03.800 --> 00:28:08.340 I come to give 100% of who I am to display the beauty of who Jesus is. 00:28:10.200 --> 00:28:17.320 I see my purpose to my spouse to say to you, wife, I'm coming to give all that I am 00:28:17.320 --> 00:28:24.760 to honor Christ in our relationship, that you can see the glory of who Christ is being made known through 00:28:24.760 --> 00:28:25.000 me. 00:28:26.440 --> 00:28:27.360 And in that love. 00:28:28.840 --> 00:28:29.820 It transforms her. 00:28:32.680 --> 00:28:33.440 It's an act of worship. 00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:37.160 That expresses the goodness of God. 00:28:38.740 --> 00:28:42.760 The marriage covenant exists so that unconditional love can flow. 00:28:43.900 --> 00:28:45.100 I love this passage in Nehemiah. 00:28:45.400 --> 00:28:47.600 It follows suit with Malachi and what's taking place. 00:28:47.620 --> 00:28:49.280 They say this about the guys. 00:28:49.280 --> 00:28:53.440 Moreover, in those days I saw the men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod. 00:28:53.440 --> 00:28:54.860 This is in Nehemiah 13. 00:28:55.240 --> 00:28:57.540 They had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. 00:28:57.800 --> 00:29:04.940 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of 00:29:04.940 --> 00:29:07.320 Judah, which is the Hebrew language of the Bible. 00:29:07.320 --> 00:29:13.120 And he says in verse 25, I rebuke them and called curses down on them, and beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. 00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:15.220 We're going to do that, and we're not going to do that. 00:29:16.360 --> 00:29:16.710 This is extreme. 00:29:17.140 --> 00:29:24.320 Nehemiah is writing this, expressing just how significant that relationship is, so much so that he has a hair pulling contest. 00:29:24.580 --> 00:29:26.280 It looks like a ladies fight going on. 00:29:26.340 --> 00:29:27.970 I don't know what it is, but. 00:29:29.460 --> 00:29:29.800 That's. 00:29:29.800 --> 00:29:31.860 It's important. 00:29:32.140 --> 00:29:33.640 The covenant. 00:29:33.800 --> 00:29:34.240 The family. 00:29:35.900 --> 00:29:37.470 It's the pillar of society. 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:41.320 It's the first institution that God has established. 00:29:41.540 --> 00:29:49.000 And your dedication to that covenant and your responsibility in difficulty to still love 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:51.280 is the greatest expression of Jesus. 00:29:51.620 --> 00:29:54.740 You think about the people in your life that he's talking in this passage. 00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:00.680 Are the people that you walk closely with in life, the people that you spend the most time with. 00:30:00.760 --> 00:30:06.160 And he says in verse 15, he goes on and says, has this has not the one God made you? 00:30:06.180 --> 00:30:08.500 You belong to him in body and spirit. 00:30:08.780 --> 00:30:09.820 All of you goes to him. 00:30:10.040 --> 00:30:11.670 And what does the one God seek? 00:30:12.060 --> 00:30:12.620 Godly offspring. 00:30:13.100 --> 00:30:17.840 So be on your guard and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth. 00:30:17.980 --> 00:30:23.440 And so he's saying in this passage, do you know what my goal is in this marriage is to create some kids. 00:30:23.480 --> 00:30:25.860 And do you know what my goal is for your children? 00:30:26.160 --> 00:30:33.160 I want to raise up a godly offspring for them so that as you have reflected Christ in your relationship for the next 00:30:33.540 --> 00:30:40.080 generation of children, I desire for them to come to know me in that relationship and for the next generation. 00:30:40.100 --> 00:30:45.570 Those children might also express the goodness of who I am in this world. 00:30:47.500 --> 00:30:52.680 Display me and the covenantal relationship that I've called you to. 00:30:56.080 --> 00:31:03.500 God says this in the book of Jude in chapter two and verse eight, Joshua, son of nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110, 00:31:03.500 --> 00:31:09.740 and they buried him in the land of his inheritance at Timnath Harris, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 00:31:09.900 --> 00:31:16.920 You can check my pronunciation that later, after that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation 00:31:16.980 --> 00:31:22.160 grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 00:31:23.460 --> 00:31:30.480 Meaning all it takes for one generation to be lost is for the past generation to not display the goodness of 00:31:30.480 --> 00:31:31.540 God in their life. 00:31:32.980 --> 00:31:40.100 And God's goal for the marriage is to establish itself in covenantal relationship before God, that they may be one at 00:31:40.100 --> 00:31:47.160 the deepest seed of who they are body, soul, spirit, and strength, reflecting the glory of 00:31:47.160 --> 00:31:54.200 God, so that future generations through that relationship may see the goodness of God and proclaim it as 00:31:54.200 --> 00:31:55.000 well. 00:31:57.660 --> 00:32:00.690 Children need to know the Lord. 00:32:01.340 --> 00:32:04.580 And most importantly, they need to know it in the home. 00:32:06.300 --> 00:32:10.120 Listen, God's not going to hold the church responsible for your kids. 00:32:10.240 --> 00:32:11.200 He will to a degree. 00:32:11.260 --> 00:32:18.050 But God primarily is holding you responsible for the upbringing of your children before him. 00:32:19.100 --> 00:32:26.240 That they know how much they are loved by him and may come to him and embracing what Jesus has done for 00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:30.740 them on the cross, and be able to enjoy him all the days of their lives. 00:32:32.980 --> 00:32:40.420 We need a generation of children to raise up in the midst of this world who are less concerned about how 00:32:40.420 --> 00:32:44.500 much they're making and more concerned about the integrity that they are displaying. 00:32:47.440 --> 00:32:54.480 When he kids in this world, in a generation that's raising today, that are less concerned with being safe and 00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:59.460 more concerned with taking risks for Christ, even if it costs them. 00:33:01.180 --> 00:33:04.040 Now you think about this as parents when your kids leave the house, right? 00:33:04.060 --> 00:33:08.420 Especially when they get their driver's license, first thing you say, be safe. 00:33:08.420 --> 00:33:08.860 Right? 00:33:08.900 --> 00:33:09.680 And I say, be safe. 00:33:10.860 --> 00:33:13.220 You think about the way that plays out. 00:33:13.300 --> 00:33:14.460 Be careful. 00:33:14.460 --> 00:33:18.200 You know what God's will is constantly for us is just to be careful. 00:33:21.460 --> 00:33:21.660 What if. 00:33:22.080 --> 00:33:23.330 What if we changed this way? 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:25.400 Be bold. 00:33:27.480 --> 00:33:29.440 When you go out today, take a stand. 00:33:31.100 --> 00:33:37.140 When you think about the way that you pray for your kids when they go out the door, you could say to them, be faithful or we get down on our knees. 00:33:37.160 --> 00:33:41.700 Once they get that driver's license at their 16, they say, God, just keep them safe, right? 00:33:41.800 --> 00:33:42.760 Or I don't know what. 00:33:42.900 --> 00:33:45.880 I hope they just go to the grocery store, but oh you're right. 00:33:48.020 --> 00:33:49.210 What if the prayer was more like this? 00:33:50.440 --> 00:33:50.700 God. 00:33:50.760 --> 00:33:53.520 Just help them to know you. 00:33:55.740 --> 00:33:59.600 God, I can't be there for everything that they're going to go through in life. 00:33:59.920 --> 00:34:02.740 But I know that you are, because you're covenantal. 00:34:03.340 --> 00:34:04.980 Love says so and so. 00:34:04.980 --> 00:34:10.830 Rather than take time just to pray for every need of their life that I can't even think of God, let's just answer this one prayer. 00:34:11.199 --> 00:34:16.380 Let them know you and let them know you, just personally and intimately. 00:34:16.380 --> 00:34:16.540 God. 00:34:16.620 --> 00:34:19.530 Let them walk with you. 00:34:21.739 --> 00:34:22.600 If they know him. 00:34:24.699 --> 00:34:32.020 The promise is that his joy may be in them, and their joy may be made full, so that regardless of what they go through in this 00:34:32.020 --> 00:34:34.460 world, they rest with Christ. 00:34:36.800 --> 00:34:44.100 Second thought is this he talks about the marriage and the family relationship, but he goes on the passage of Scripture, and he also talks about the 00:34:44.100 --> 00:34:45.980 willingness of your heart to give. 00:34:48.560 --> 00:34:51.620 He says in verse eight, Will a mere mortal rob God? 00:34:51.620 --> 00:34:52.340 Yet you rob me. 00:34:52.780 --> 00:34:55.400 But you ask, how are we robbing you? 00:34:56.060 --> 00:35:02.700 In tithes and offerings it says in verse nine, you are under a curse, your whole nation, because you are robbing me. 00:35:02.720 --> 00:35:07.000 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. 00:35:07.300 --> 00:35:14.360 Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven, and pour out so much blessing that there will not 00:35:14.360 --> 00:35:17.100 be enough room, room enough to store it. 00:35:18.480 --> 00:35:20.320 This is the only time in the Bible God really says test him. 00:35:21.120 --> 00:35:22.860 It happens in the idea of giving. 00:35:24.580 --> 00:35:25.700 I'm going to tell you this. 00:35:25.840 --> 00:35:32.490 We can really take the last portion of this text and just run with it if we wanted to today, and make it just work for us. 00:35:32.900 --> 00:35:35.120 I give to God and God gives to me, right? 00:35:35.380 --> 00:35:35.620 God? 00:35:35.620 --> 00:35:36.680 I'll give you 10%. 00:35:36.680 --> 00:35:40.170 And you put that Rolls-Royce in my house. 00:35:40.770 --> 00:35:42.760 That's not what this verse is saying at all. 00:35:44.340 --> 00:35:51.450 What I, what I think is saying is this, the way that you know, that God's got your heart is that you're willing to give all that you are to him, 00:35:51.580 --> 00:35:54.960 and that includes every area of your life, even financially. 00:35:56.300 --> 00:35:59.160 when you're willing to give to the Lord. 00:35:59.220 --> 00:36:03.300 In that way, it's evidence that the Lord really has a grip of your heart. 00:36:04.700 --> 00:36:10.120 And when you start to give to God in this way, your heart really longs for the things that God longs for. 00:36:10.120 --> 00:36:17.240 When it costs you something, when following God costs you something, you start opening your ears and eyes to the things 00:36:17.240 --> 00:36:18.680 that God really is concerned about. 00:36:20.460 --> 00:36:25.740 And when you start opening your ears and eyes to the things that God's concerned about, God starts speaking to your heart in that way. 00:36:26.620 --> 00:36:30.160 And when God starts speaking to your heart, he fills your cup. 00:36:31.800 --> 00:36:34.820 You find joy and satisfaction in him. 00:36:35.860 --> 00:36:38.140 Because your life belongs to him. 00:36:38.680 --> 00:36:45.780 And I think God's saying in this passage, if you if you don't believe that I can bring joy to your life, just test me 00:36:45.780 --> 00:36:46.270 in this. 00:36:47.260 --> 00:36:49.070 I mean, I've promised it throughout Scripture. 00:36:49.080 --> 00:36:56.300 If you if you don't think that I can fill your life even when things are falling apart, if you don't feel that way, just try giving all 00:36:56.300 --> 00:36:57.880 that you have to me. 00:36:57.940 --> 00:37:01.120 Try giving all that you are to me. 00:37:02.440 --> 00:37:02.940 In this area. 00:37:03.440 --> 00:37:09.620 He's talking about giving because it's a tangible way that we can resolve whether or not our hearts are belonging to God. 00:37:09.820 --> 00:37:11.960 And he asked the nation of Israel to give to fill the storehouses. 00:37:12.360 --> 00:37:16.080 This happened in this particular book that the people of Israel stopped giving. 00:37:16.160 --> 00:37:23.160 The storehouses that filled the temple were supposed to be used for the priests and for offerings, and the priests would eat from that and provide for their family. 00:37:23.220 --> 00:37:29.200 But because they weren't giving to the temple, the priests then had to leave the temple and go back home and plow in their fields. 00:37:29.200 --> 00:37:32.920 And so God's Word wasn't getting proclaimed the way that God had desired for it to happen. 00:37:34.100 --> 00:37:36.420 And so he's saying, this is affecting your nation. 00:37:36.500 --> 00:37:38.360 You don't even see how you're turning your back on me. 00:37:38.360 --> 00:37:42.770 You guys are becoming ignorant to the word because you're not even supplying yourself so that God's Word can be proclaimed. 00:37:43.340 --> 00:37:47.410 And so we need to give that God's word may be made known. 00:37:48.460 --> 00:37:54.420 The word tithe in the Old Testament, I should say to us, means the word of a 10th in the English language. 00:37:54.560 --> 00:37:57.210 So it's talking about 10% in this passage. 00:37:57.300 --> 00:38:01.430 I would add to that the word tithe isn't something that we use in language of the New Testament. 00:38:02.320 --> 00:38:06.460 We talk about giving in the New Testament it means offering or sacrifice. 00:38:07.700 --> 00:38:09.930 The word tithe is an Old Testament law word. 00:38:11.240 --> 00:38:18.340 And so when God in this passage is saying 10%, just to throw this out, that when the nation of Israel were giving, giving to the Lord, if you 00:38:18.520 --> 00:38:23.880 studied all of the giving that the nation of Israel was to give to the Lord, 10% was their base giving. 00:38:25.320 --> 00:38:33.460 The nation of Israel had so many more sacrifices on top of that most people estimate that the nation, when following God, was giving between 22 to 23% 00:38:33.460 --> 00:38:35.800 of their income to give to the Lord. 00:38:37.060 --> 00:38:39.720 I would look at that and say, wow, standards are way high, right? 00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:43.000 But then you look into the old or the New Testament. 00:38:43.420 --> 00:38:47.740 And the way of giving in the New Testament is one of sacrificial giving. 00:38:49.420 --> 00:38:51.760 Meaning 10% isn't even a language for us. 00:38:51.900 --> 00:38:57.120 It's just how much can we sacrifice to just let God's name be made known? 00:38:57.140 --> 00:39:00.760 How much of your heart does God have, and how much do you keep for yourself? 00:39:00.860 --> 00:39:04.800 And God says in this passage, you are robbing me. 00:39:04.860 --> 00:39:08.780 And they say in response, God, how are we robbing you or giving to you? 00:39:08.780 --> 00:39:08.940 Right? 00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:12.000 So how can that be considered robbing when we're doing something? 00:39:13.660 --> 00:39:15.260 And God's response is this. 00:39:16.520 --> 00:39:17.420 It's because it's all. 00:39:17.620 --> 00:39:19.690 It all belongs to me, guys. 00:39:20.470 --> 00:39:22.330 The stuff that you have. 00:39:23.480 --> 00:39:25.140 Isn't really your stuff. 00:39:26.100 --> 00:39:28.140 My stuff. 00:39:28.920 --> 00:39:29.560 I made this world. 00:39:31.440 --> 00:39:32.400 It belongs to me. 00:39:34.340 --> 00:39:38.400 You don't own anything and I can take it all away at any moment. 00:39:39.920 --> 00:39:43.980 What you are is a steward of the things I've created. 00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:47.880 You're not responsible for 10% of it. 00:39:49.340 --> 00:39:50.620 You're responsible for all of it. 00:39:52.780 --> 00:39:54.880 What you do with what you've been given. 00:39:55.360 --> 00:39:56.220 You're accountable to me. 00:39:58.500 --> 00:40:00.560 And it's the evidence of your heart. 00:40:02.840 --> 00:40:03.520 And I say this with. 00:40:05.160 --> 00:40:05.920 Joy this morning. 00:40:05.920 --> 00:40:07.700 Because here's my heart's desire. 00:40:10.320 --> 00:40:12.960 I don't I don't care about our offering this morning. 00:40:13.500 --> 00:40:14.540 I'm not even looking at our finances. 00:40:15.260 --> 00:40:16.420 I'm just saying this. 00:40:16.460 --> 00:40:18.560 To say what Jesus is saying is evidence of your heart. 00:40:18.580 --> 00:40:19.600 And just leaving it at that, I don't care. 00:40:21.240 --> 00:40:22.360 It's between you and the Lord. 00:40:22.440 --> 00:40:25.280 And we can walk out of here and no one even knows, right? 00:40:27.540 --> 00:40:28.340 For Second Corinthians. 00:40:28.660 --> 00:40:35.700 Chapter nine is a chapter in the Bible on giving, and God expresses a thought in there where he says this I desire a joyful giver. 00:40:38.060 --> 00:40:39.480 And that would be my goal this morning. 00:40:40.300 --> 00:40:41.580 I don't want to guilt anybody into anything. 00:40:41.840 --> 00:40:44.100 This isn't a religious list this morning. 00:40:44.440 --> 00:40:45.040 Our marriage. 00:40:45.080 --> 00:40:46.800 We didn't talk about marriage to make you feel bad. 00:40:46.820 --> 00:40:50.040 We talked about marriage to say, I understand what God's called, and I want to go home. 00:40:50.200 --> 00:40:51.610 And I just want to do that in honor of Jesus. 00:40:53.220 --> 00:40:55.520 And I'm looking at giving and I understand what God has called. 00:40:56.000 --> 00:40:57.190 And I just want to do that. 00:40:57.320 --> 00:40:58.300 And in honor of Jesus. 00:41:00.160 --> 00:41:07.300 He's given everything to me in covenant, and I want to give all that I am back to him, and I just want to love him for what he's created me to love him 00:41:07.300 --> 00:41:07.820 to do. 00:41:10.360 --> 00:41:17.400 God desires a cheerful giver, and the way that you get to that place in your life is that you long for Jesus so much, and you long to give to Jesus, and you 00:41:17.400 --> 00:41:20.460 long to see the name of Jesus proclaimed. 00:41:22.500 --> 00:41:23.360 I enjoy. 00:41:23.360 --> 00:41:24.040 Just give and return. 00:41:25.640 --> 00:41:28.040 It's not about God fighting you to take it away. 00:41:28.720 --> 00:41:29.640 God's not even going to do that. 00:41:29.680 --> 00:41:32.780 It's about you just opening your hands and just letting it go, whatever it is. 00:41:33.520 --> 00:41:34.350 It doesn't even have to be money. 00:41:36.680 --> 00:41:39.160 You think about the beauty of what that means for us as a church here? 00:41:39.160 --> 00:41:42.060 In a few weeks, we're going to start a campaign after Easter. 00:41:42.300 --> 00:41:43.810 We've got to finish up the outside of our facility. 00:41:44.460 --> 00:41:47.620 We actually have a timetable from the city of Lehi to do that. 00:41:48.720 --> 00:41:50.380 And it's going to take some money to do that. 00:41:52.020 --> 00:41:59.180 And it's going to be an opportunity for us to think about this place and this city and the people 00:41:59.180 --> 00:42:06.280 who need to be here hearing about the Lord, and to say this, God, for what you've done in my life, I'm just thinking about 00:42:06.280 --> 00:42:09.040 people in these seats that just need to be here. 00:42:09.880 --> 00:42:10.680 I'm just going to give that. 00:42:11.480 --> 00:42:16.020 We can just see them come to know you and enjoy you and celebrate you. 00:42:16.660 --> 00:42:17.780 It baffles me. 00:42:17.780 --> 00:42:23.900 On Sunday morning when we get here and new people show up because we don't have a sign on our building and it's ugly out there. 00:42:24.140 --> 00:42:25.210 It is, man. 00:42:25.760 --> 00:42:32.800 But people are coming and you think once, once we turn the outside of this as a place that says to people, we love 00:42:32.800 --> 00:42:39.940 Jesus, and we're just giving to this cause, and we want to see his name proclaimed, and he's worth it, and we're loving him. 00:42:40.180 --> 00:42:41.820 And God's doing something here. 00:42:41.820 --> 00:42:47.340 When the outside starts saying that, could you imagine what's going to happen? 00:42:47.940 --> 00:42:51.220 We'll be looking for a new building by the end of the year, right? 00:42:52.310 --> 00:42:53.790 It's all just to say this. 00:42:55.780 --> 00:42:57.010 Does Jesus have your heart? 00:42:58.860 --> 00:43:02.380 God's gone silent before the nation of Israel to ask that question. 00:43:03.880 --> 00:43:05.520 As I have loved you. 00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:11.920 I mean, do you look at the sacrifice that I have made on your behalf? 00:43:12.140 --> 00:43:17.750 I mean, what more can I do than just to simply say I love you? 00:43:19.960 --> 00:43:27.000 And I have created you for me, that you may enjoy me all the days of your life from now 00:43:27.000 --> 00:43:28.470 into eternity. 00:43:28.780 --> 00:43:33.540 I have loved you with this covenantal love that just will not fade. 00:43:33.560 --> 00:43:40.560 It will not stop, it will not relent, but it is just giving itself away regardless of the way 00:43:40.560 --> 00:43:43.240 that you've spit on it and harmed it and abused it. 00:43:43.500 --> 00:43:48.340 It is here just crying out that you may respond in love and return. 00:43:51.840 --> 00:43:53.200 Like I just thought is just come. 00:43:53.920 --> 00:43:54.500 Come to the Lord. 00:43:56.060 --> 00:43:58.960 Matter of fact, the book ends talking about the coming of the Lord. 00:44:00.680 --> 00:44:01.510 This made me think of a song. 00:44:01.840 --> 00:44:03.270 In closing, I'll just say this. 00:44:05.060 --> 00:44:06.810 There's a I call this my favorite song. 00:44:07.620 --> 00:44:08.500 You guys know it, right? 00:44:08.640 --> 00:44:13.180 It says, Jesus loves me. 00:44:13.180 --> 00:44:20.200 This, I know for the Bible tells me 00:44:20.200 --> 00:44:21.000 so. 00:44:22.660 --> 00:44:29.280 One of the things I love about just that song, it gives a simplistic way for us to look at the evidence of Jesus's love to us. 00:44:31.080 --> 00:44:33.160 I mean, what if you flipped it for your own personal life? 00:44:34.780 --> 00:44:39.690 What if you said, I love Jesus? 00:44:40.200 --> 00:44:42.440 This I know. 00:44:43.560 --> 00:44:45.500 For my. 00:44:47.900 --> 00:44:48.700 Will you say? 00:44:51.200 --> 00:44:52.360 Where's the evidence of it? 00:44:54.340 --> 00:44:55.840 And someone looks into your life. 00:44:57.220 --> 00:44:57.860 I see Jesus. 00:45:01.040 --> 00:45:06.900 Malaga points to these couple of things for us, that we may see the evidence of God's love within us and know that we're not fooling ourselves. 00:45:07.040 --> 00:45:09.180 But yes, indeed, we love God with our heart. 00:45:10.760 --> 00:45:11.720 Because that's what he's after.