Receiving Gods Blessings

Black Friday is a day when you see the worst of humanity.

I have a confession. I am fascinated with the craze of Black Friday and Cyber-Monday. My fascination goes all the way to high school days, when I worked retail at K's Merchandise Mart. I was a salesman in electronics and loved working Black Friday because of the commission. While other associates were busy selling ten dollar radios, I'd be over in the computer aisle selling one thousand dollar computer systems. They didn't know anything about computers, except how to turn them on. The store manager loved me. I gave people my home phone number to sweeten the deal. My parents probably didn't like that. By the way, don't go calling me if you have any computer problems. I'll send you a bill!

But Black Fridays were crazy. People were crazy. You'd see the worst of humanity on those days. Anger, selfishness, greed, theft, shoving and pushing. People could be so caustic and rude. Swindlers would come to the store and fabricate stories of how you said this, or said that, and then they would accuse you of lying. Associates would get arrested for stealing. I saw in the news how a heckler was making fun of bargain hunters. You really don't know whether to laugh, compete, or feel a sense of sadness for folks.

If God were to speak to us, what do you suppose he would say about Black Friday? About Cyber-Monday? About December 25th? About Christmas? What would he say about any of it?

This morning we reach the finish line on our study of Malachi. The closing words of Malachi are as relevant today as ever. They were relevant to those waiting for the first coming, the birth of Christ. Now they're relevant to those of us awaiting Christ's return.

What really doesn't matter?

We make a pretty big deal about December 25th, the day. If you Google December 25th, you will see that this isn't Christ's actual birth date. Quite the contrary! Pagan cultures from the time of the Babylonian empire, to the Roman empire, and well into the third and fourth centuries, worshiped pagan deities on December 25th.

The pagans would put on enormous feasts where they would engage in raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and would exchange gifts just like we do today. And yes, they would light candles and would even drag evergreen trees into their homes. The trees reminded them that spring would soon arrive, and their crops would grow again.

There isn't anything uniquely Christian about the day of Christmas, nor even the way we celebrate December 25th. In 350 A.D., Pope Julius I declared that Christ's birthday would be celebrated on December 25th. And why? He wanted to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans to convert to Christianity. Most scholars believe that Christ was actually born during the more mild temperatures of September, when shepherds were known to be out on the hillsides sleeping under the stars and watching their flocks of sheep.

We have to be careful not to let the craze of December 25th become all-consuming for us. After all, there is a much more important day we must prepare for.

We must prepare for the Day of the Lord.

In Malachi 4:1 (NIV) God speaks of the Day of the Lord. He declares, " 'Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,' says the LORD Almighty. 'Not a root or a branch will be left to them.' "

Imagine all the stuff that matters for December 25th. How much of that same stuff will matter on the great and dreadful day of the Lord's coming? Did you see the headlines this week? We are so desperate to possess things. A sister stabbed her own brother in the neck with a serving fork at a buffet line. An elderly greeter at Walmart was punched out as she checked the bags of a shopper.

Everything we possess will be burned with fire. Most of the stuff that matters for December 25th, that we so desperately think we need for today, won't matter two months from now, let alone a year from now, or for all eternity.

2 Peter 3:7 (NIV) says that the, "...heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." In 2 Peter 3:8-12 (NIV) God's word says, "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat."

We'd all benefit from a little perspective on the things we want to possess. In Luke 12:15 (NIV) Jesus warned us, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." In Luke 12:20 Jesus invites us to consider what might come of us, and the things we've stored up for ourselves, were our soul to be demanded of us.

So what really, really matters?

Think of the great lengths you'll go to possess something you really want. You've convinced yourself that if you get that one thing, that one bargain, you will have joy. The truth is that you won't be any happier the morning of December 25th than you are today. In fact, on December 26th, the day after Christmas, you'll be out looking for more stuff. And by next year, everything you've treasured this December will be long forgotten, put into storage, or given to Goodwill.

You've heard of attention deficit disorder. We have joy deficit disorder and treasure deficit disorder. Nothing satisfies us. Nothing holds us in joy! But maybe we've got it all backwards. What if true joy isn't about us possessing anything? What if everlasting joy is more about being possessed by God, belonging to God, being his?

In Malachi 3:17-18 (NIV) God says, " 'They will be mine,' says the LORD Almighty, 'in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.' "

At Christmas we want this thing or that thing. Children beg in agony. We shove people out of our way. We honk at them to move it! But we are the treasure. The people at the mall who get in our way, the family members we cannot stand, they are the treasure. From God's viewpoint, we don't give treasure. In God's viewpoint, we are the treasure, and we are of great worth in his sight. And unlike the things we treasure today, what God treasures he never forgets, or abandons, or discards, or destroys. Not today, not tomorrow, and not for all eternity. "They will be mine!" says the Lord. "Mine! Mine! Mine! I want you, and you, and you, and more of you!"

But there is more. When God wants something, he doesn't steal, rob, mug, or kill for a thing. He pays for it. And he pays the highest price, so that he might have the joy of full ownership.

What was God willing to pay?

Malachi 3:17 (NIV) foreshadows the high price God was willing to pay to make us his treasured possession. "...I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him." Take this verse at face value for a moment. We expect a father to spare his son. During the Civil War, Abe Lincoln agonized about letting his oldest son fight in the war. A son is a father's most valuable possession, right?

In Genesis God tested Abraham to see whether Abraham would give up his son. But in the end God spared Abraham's one and only son. But when it came to his treasured possession, God did not spare his one and only Son. John 3:16 (NIV) says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." And 1 John 4:9 (NIV) says, "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him."

Romans 8:31-32 (NIV) says, "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?"

An item is worth whatever someone is willing pay for it. What does it say about our value to God that he was willing to die for us?

How then should we live?

This week I started thinking of all the excuses the Israelites used for not serving God. They accused God of hating them, but it was them who refused to love God. They accused God of not hearing their prayers, but it was their hearts that were far from God. They said it was a burden to give to God. They denied God their very best, their first fruits, their choice lambs, and a simple tithe. They even claimed that it was futile to serve to God. Why serve when the evildoers prosper? Why be righteous, when it doesn't seem to get you ahead in life? They accused God of being unfaithful to his children, so they decided to be unfaithful themselves, first to God, then to their wives, and then to their children.

We'd understand if God sent his Son to die for a perfect people. But he sent his Son to die for a people who most deserved his wrath. While we were still sinners, Christ died for the us, the ungodly. He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for our lives. God is faithful, even when we are faithless. He does not punish us as our sins deserve, but he spares us, just as in compassion, a father spares his son.

In Malachi 4:2 God speaks of revering his holy name. In Malachi 4:4 God speaks of remembering our covenant with God by obeying his commandments. In Malachi 4:6 God speaks of the hearts of fathers returning to their children. In Malachi 3:7 (NIV) God invites us, "Return to me, and I will return to you."

If we could get this one thing right, it would go well for us.

Christ gave us the example of how we should live.

In 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (NIV) Paul says, "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."