Honoring God Matters

God's prophets ridiculed and ignored for speaking God's message.

Malachi was the final prophet to speak before the coming of the Christ. You may wonder why God goes to the trouble to speak to us at all, but he does. Time and again he sends forth his prophets, his messengers, to speak to us. But they were ignored, often ridiculed, brutally beaten, and almost always murdered. What burning message did God want to get across to his people?

The prophets spoke to people like Esau, like the nation of Edomites.

Malachi begins with a compelling observation. There are people, like the descendents of Esau, like the nation of Edom, who have strayed far from God. There are people who, no matter what happens in their lives, or how bad things get, or no matter how much God opposes them, will try to rebuild their lives without God. Do you know anyone like that?

Look at Malachi 1:4 (NIV) which says, "Edom may say, 'Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.' But this is what the LORD Almighty says: 'They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the LORD.' "

There are people around us every day whose lives are in ruin. They are like the foolish man that Jesus describes in Matthew 7:27 (NIV) who built his life upon the sand. "The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." If calamity and the wrath of God don't get a person's attention, or prick a nation's conscience, what will? But some have to taste ruin before they open their eyes and ears to the Lord.

The prophets spoke to people like Jacob, like Israel.

But in the book of Malachi there are people like the descendents of Jacob, like the nation of Israel, who have strayed far from God. There are people, who no matter how much blessing they receive from God, no matter how much God does for them, will never give the Lord Almighty the honor he is due. And this is the problem in the Church today. We're all too willing to receive grace upon grace, but less willing to honor God.

Consider Malachi 1:6 (NIV) which says, " 'A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?' says the LORD Almighty. 'It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name.' "

In these verses Malachi is challenging our concept of God. A good son honors his father. A good servant honors his master. So who is God? If God is your father, where is the honor due him? The law says to honor your father and mother. If God is your master, your Lord, where is the honor due him? You can call God by whatever label you want. You can sing whatever song lyric gives you the warm fuzzies, but the proof is in the pudding. What kind of life are we actually living before God?

Just like Malachi, we live in a culture of contempt.

Allow me to illustrate. Who do we consider worthy, superior in rank and status, and deserving of respect? How many sons and daughters honor their fathers and mothers? How many students honor their teachers, coaches, or professors? How many citizens honor the man in uniform, their elected officials, their Governor, or their President? When we honor people, we raise them up, speak respectfully of them and to them, serve them, pray for them, and seek their good.

But this isn't what we have today. The child rebels. The student cheats and makes his demands. Citizens hold their elected officials in contempt. In fact, we've exempted ourselves from honoring others, and this overflows into our relationship with God. Instead of honoring others, or honoring God, we honor ourselves. We carry on with a superior, condescending attitude. We're quick to serve ourselves, and demand respect, and seize honor for ourselves, but we are slow to give honor to others.

When you honor someone, you put him above you. When you show contempt toward someone, you put him beneath you. Who knows, maybe you feel justified showing contempt for certain people if they don't share your beliefs, your values, your politics, your principles, or your ethnicity. Maybe you have other reasons. They've hurt you, robbed you, disappointed you, or intruded upon your way of life.

In scripture we're instructed to never show contempt for anyone. We're to affirm their dignity, their value, and their worth before God. We're to love our enemies, pray for our enemies, and demonstrate kindness, gentleness, and respect to all men. We're to look not to our own interests, but to the interests of others.

Jacob was more interested in taking from Esau, than in serving Esau. Israel was more interested in hoarding God's blessings, than in being a blessing to all nations.

And all of this contempt overflows into our relationship with God.

Malachi 1:6-14 (NIV) says, " 'A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?' says the LORD Almighty. 'It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name. But you ask, 'How have we shown contempt for your name?' 'You place defiled food on my altar.' "

"But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?' 'By saying that the LORD's table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?' says the LORD Almighty."

" 'Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?'-- says the LORD Almighty."

" 'Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,' says the LORD Almighty, 'and I will accept no offering from your hands. My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,' says the LORD Almighty."

" 'But you profane it by saying of the Lord's table, 'It is defiled,' and of its food, 'It is contemptible.' And you say, 'What a burden!' and you sniff at it contemptuously', says the LORD Almighty."

" 'When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?' says the LORD. 'Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,' says the LORD Almighty, 'and my name is to be feared among the nations.' "

When you honor God, you become his servant.

Let me explain. When you honor someone, you become his servant. You make very costly and personal sacrifices. Our track record of honoring people is kind of lackluster. Our track record of honoring God is even more lackluster. Do you not realize that what we put on the table, what we put on the altar, is our statement to God and to the world about how much we value God, love God, and esteem God? "I am a great king, says the LORD Almighty. My name is to be feared among the nations!"

By the measure of our sacrifices, by the measure of our offerings, just how great is our God? How great is our Father, our master, our Lord, our King? God tells the Israelites, "I wish one of you would just close the temple doors rather than light useless fires on my altar, rather than offer what is diseased, crippled, lame, pathetic, and less than what you'd even give your governor." Don't you see? God is not pleased with our seconds, thirds, and hand-me-downs, and leftovers. He desires our very best, our first fruits, our choice lambs, our firstborn sons.

Now, buckle your seatbelt. What we place on God's table, what we place on God's altar, our offerings, is our statement of honor to God. What God places on his altar, on his table, is his statement of honor to us. When you honor someone, you become his servant. You make a very costly and personal sacrifice.

Instead of showing contempt for us, God honored us.

Instead of showing contempt for us, God honored us by sending his one and only Son into the world to die on the cross for our sins. God gave his very best, his firstborn, his one and only son, his choice lamb-- a lamb without blemish or defect, but holy and pure, Christ Jesus our Lord.

Christ Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and gave his life as a ransom for many. While we were still enemies, Christ died for the ungodly. Philippians 2:6-8 (NIV) says of Jesus, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but
made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!"

How do we know what love is? Not that we loved God, not that we honored God, but that he first loved us, that he first honored us. He died, he was buried, he was raised, and he was glorified to the right hand of God. Why was Christ exalted? Because he exemplified the self-sacrificial love of God to a contemptuous people, and to a contemptuous, ungodly, undeserving, wicked world. We can now love, because God first loved us.

In compassion, God spared us as his sons.

Later in Malachi 3:17 (NIV) God speaks of sparing Israel, "...just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him." Here is the thing. In compassion, God spared us as his sons. But he did not spare his own son. In Romans 8:31-32 (NIV) Paul asks, "What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"

If we knew how much God has given us in Christ, we would honor God with our tithes and offerings, with our service, and with our worship. We would offer our very lives to God! In fact this is exactly what Paul instructs us to do in Romans 12:1-3 (NIV). "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you."

What will your response to God's mercy be?

This morning is decision day. It's a time for you to consider what your response to God's mercy will be. Will we show contempt for the riches of God's kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that his kindness is to lead us to repentance?

Or will today be a day of repentance and confession? Will today be the day you declare yourself to be all in for God? Will today be the day you honor God by offering your very life to him as a living sacrifice? Will today be the day you pledge your life to him, lay down your life in the waters of baptism, receive God's washing and forgiveness, and be raised to live life anew in his kingdom?