Pick Your Team Wisely

In 1988, I became a true fan of professional football. I was 11 years old in 1988 (that’s really not that long ago is it?) My father loves football and has been a lifelong fan of the Dallas Cowboys. So here it is, I’m finally interested in football and it’s my turn to pick a team. I remember him telling me to not only pick a team, but to always stick with them, through good times and bad times. I was encouraged to not just be a bandwagon fan. As I began to watch the NFL week after week, there was a team that caught my eye. I believe it was because their uniforms were definitely appealing to an 11 year old boy. Each week I began to search for that team and you know what? They ended up winning the AFC and playing in the Super Bowl in 1989! That year my Cincinnati Bengals unfortunately lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the championship. I saw them win their last playoff game in 1991 against to Houston Oilers followed by their defeat to the Los Angeles Raiders the next week (the game that ended Bo Jackson’s football career, by the way). After that season, they became the worst franchise in all professional sports and compiled a record of 43 wins and 101 losses from 1991-1999.

In case you are wondering, yes, I’m still a fan of the Bengals! Why? Because I picked a team, committed to them and stuck with them! And you know what? God is calling us to do the same thing!

“For indeed, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble. The coming day will consume them,” says the Lord of Hosts, “not leaving them root or branches. ² But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and playfully jump like calves from the stall. ³ You will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the Lord of Hosts.” – Malachi 4:1-3

Through the last few posts we have looked at the book of Malachi and now we come to the end of the book. God has leveled some harsh, but true accusations against His people. He has told them that their worship was useless (Malachi 1), that the commitments that they made were nothing more than worthless words (Malachi 2:1-3:6) and that God was not the first priority of their life and that was evidenced by them robbing God (Malachi 3:7-12). God now speaks through Malachi here at the end of the book to call His people to choose a side (Malachi 3:13-4:6).

In life, whether you accept it as truth or not, there are only two sides with two very different outcomes. One side in life that you can choose to serve is yourself. In doing so you are concerned with only the things that make you happy. Those that live for themselves do not understand God or His ways. They have the same attitude as described in Malachi 3:14, “You have said: “It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord of Hosts?” The outcome for those that live for themselves is eternal life in Hell. The wicked will be consumed on the Day of the Lord.

On the other side, you can choose to serve God. The only way that you can do this is through a relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ. John 14:6 tells us that there is one and only one way that we can have a right relationship through God, “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” The outcome for those that live for God is eternal life in Heaven with Him. ^“At that time those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. The Lord took notice and listened. So a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who feared Yahweh and had high regard for His name. “They will be Mine,” says the Lord of Hosts, “a special possession on the day I am preparing. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him” – Malachi 3:16-17.

The Israelites in Malachi’s day had a choice to make and today we are still faced with that same choice! Will you decide to live for yourselves or live for God? You may not think that choice matters now, but it does. Will you commit your life to Jesus today and be saved?  Your life depends on it!

 “So you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.” – Malachi 3:18

Our Church Has Been Robbed

Yes, our church was robbed yesterday! Even criminals at one time use to have a standard of morals where they would not steal from the church. This is news that I hate to report however I think it is best that you know. The robbery did not happen during the night but it appears to have happened during broad daylight! Not only did the robbery happen during the day when it was easier to be caught, but our sources tell us that it was an inside job. Can you believe that one of our own church members would steal from the church?

The truth of the matter is, our church is robbed every Sunday. This isn't just an epidemic with our church but it is an epidemic with your church as well! The average American Christian only gives 2.5% back to God! (Stats)  Also, in case you haven't figured it out by now, our church wasn't robbed yesterday in the way that you might have thought. It was robbed by Christians not giving their tithes to God!

“Since the days of your fathers, you have turned from My statutes; you have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Hosts. “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me!” You ask: “How do we rob You?” “By not making the payments of 10 percent and the contributions."  You are suffering under a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing Me.  Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this way,” says the Lord of Hosts. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not ruin the produce of your land and your vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the Lord of Hosts. “Then all the nations will consider you fortunate, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of Hosts." - Malachi 3:7-12

Christians, we need to make God our first priority in our life. Many times when I preach or even mention money, I can see the eyes begin to roll and people will just shut down. Money isn't the issue here; the issue is making God the first priority in our life. We are not only commanded to give to God, but to give generously to Him! You may think that tithing is just reserved for the Old Testament, but think about it, if a Jew under the Law was required to give 10% back to God how much more should a Christian under grace give back to Him? When we give to God, we are supporting His work. In a typical Southern Baptist church, the tithes support the ministry of the church. Then members are asked to give above and beyond their tithe for special offerings. These offerings are things such as Designated Church Offerings, Annie Armstrong, Lottie Moon, World Hunger, State Missions, etc. The tithe is for the work of God through His church and we should never take it and designate it. Designated offerings should be above and beyond our tithe. Finally, when we give, we are blessed! We do not give so that we can be blessed but we give in obedience to God. The result of our obedience is however that we are blessed (v10). 

Think about what our churches could do if God's people tithed! How many more missionaries could we support if we were obedient? How many more orphans could we support? How many more homeless people could we feed? How much more could we do to advance God's kingdom if we quit robbing Him and were obedient to give to Him?

Worthless Words

“You, on the other hand, have turned from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of Hosts. 9 “So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people because you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in your instruction.” - Malachi 2:8-9


It's very rare now that an athlete will stay with their professional sports team for the entirety of their career. In fact, many will demand a trade before their contract ends for different reasons. At the same time,  many owners will not honor the contracts of their players. It seems they will squeeze as much as they can out of the athletes and when they feel like they can not offer anything else, they cut them regardless of how long they have left on their contract. Rarely in today's sports do we see players stay with the same team for their entire career. It's the nature of the game though, contracts are not worth the paper that they are written on. What happened to  "let your word ‘yes’ be ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no.’"(Matthew 5:37)? 

The reality is that God could ask us the same thing! Many people make commitments to God and then they turn around and break them. The Israelites had the same problem. When looking at Malachi 2:1-3:6 one can see that the Israelites had broken their commitments to God. 

God first of all addresses the priests. At the very foundation of the problem was the priests lack of keeping their covenant with God. God promised that He would curse the priests (2:2) and He would do this by cursing their blessing, their descendants and their name/pride. He states graphically in Malachi 2:3 "I will spread animal waste over your faces, the waste from your festival sacrifices, and you will be taken away with it." You see what God is saying there? He is so disgusted with the priests breaking their commitments that He likens them to animal waste that should be taken outside the city and burned! It doesn't take too much to realize that God is serious about His people keeping their commitments especially those in leadership!

Next God moves from the priests to the Israelites and He confronts them about their very basic commitment that they fail to keep, marriage. God was upset about their mixed marriages! Now before anyone gets too excited, let's look at what God was calling a mixed marriage here in scripture. The mixed marriage He is referring to is a marriage between a Christian and a Non-Christian. Too many people have used this scripture as a basis for their racism. Their mixed marriages were detestable and so were their frivolous reasons for divorce. God desires for marriages to last but the Bible does give the exception in regards to adultery (Matthew 19:9) and Abandonment (1 Corinthians 7). Also, the Israelites were profaning the Lord's altar with their detestable pagan practices.

Finally, there is a great reminder in Malachi 2:17-3:6 and that is the fact that God will keep His commitments! God is going to judge the wicked. He states in Malachi 3:2 "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who will be able to stand when He appears?" God takes commitments seriously! Humanity does not. We use our salvation as a license to sin and have an attitude of "I'll just do what I want to do, God is a loving God and He'll just forgive me anyway." When we exercise that type of mentality we cheapen our salvation and trample our commitments that we made to Him!

Have you turned away from the Lord? Are you cheapening His salvation? It's time to take our commitments seriously! If you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then live for Him! The priests in Malachi 2 were not living for God, they were living for themselves. We must constantly view our life through the Word of God. When we read the Word of God, are we convicted? If so, then we should adjust our life to God's standards. If you join a church then you have made a commitment to support your church with your service, time and money. If you have committed to be a church member, then be a committed one! If you commit to serve in a ministry, then serve! Too many Christians today are like the Israelites in Malachi 2. They have mixed marriages. They want the salvation of the Lord but they want to live in their sinful desire. They are just as faithful to their church as these Israelite men were committed to their wives. Are you cheating on your church? Are you divorcing your church because another one looks better?  As these men needed to invest in their marriages to make them work some today need to invest in their church to make the relationship work!

Commitments made without follow-through are worthless and unfortunately our churches are filled with people who have made worthless commitments! Are you one?

The Useless Church

“I wish one of you would shut the temple doors, so you would no longer kindle a useless fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands." - Malachi 1:10

For years, prophet after prophet had been the mouthpiece for God and declared Israel's need for repentance. In the last book of the Old Testament, God declared that powerful message again through His prophet Malachi. Malachi addresses Israel’s apathy, lack of fulfilling their commitments, lack of making God their first priority and ends the book asking the Israelites where they stand. Their failure to follow God with all their heart has been a persistent problem for the Israelites during the entire Old Testament. We not only see the Israelites disobedience but we also see just how patient God is. He did not have to endure their disobedience and the fact that He did (and still does) shows us just how much He loves them.

Here in Malachi chapter one, God addresses the apathy of His people. Apathy is a lack of interest, enthusiasm or concern. Passion does not exist when apathy is present. Chapter one is primarily addressed to the priests. If the priests are apathetic towards serving God then the people will certainly not behave any better. The priests had lost their reverent fear of the Lord and apathy had settled in. This was proven by the fact that the priests were animals for sacrifice that were blind, lame or sick. The people were to bring their best to sacrifice to the Lord but they were bringing their leftovers and the priests accepted their despicable sacrifices. God is so displeased with the apathy of the priests, the apathy of the people and their terrible sacrifices that He declares His wishes for the temple. God declares “I wish one of you would shut the temple doors, so you would no longer kindle a useless fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you…” It’s clear that God is saying that it would be better to close the temple all together than to keep doing what they were doing. 

Recently I was vacuuming the floor and I noticed that the vacuum was not picking up like it should but nonetheless I kept on vacuuming. I kept vacuuming but the floor was not getting any cleaner. Finally, I stopped and I began to inspect the vacuum to see if it was blocked. Sure enough, the hoses were blocked and that was why the floor was not getting any cleaner. I was going through the motions of vacuuming but I really was not getting anything accomplished. I was just going through the motions. I wonder what God thinks of our churches today. How many does He look at and is pleased with their service and ministry in His name? How many does He look at and declares the same thing about them as He did to the temple in Malachi 1? How many of our churches does God think would do better if they shut their doors than continue on the way they are going?

Let’s bring these thoughts a little bit closer to home. First of all, as a Pastor I have to continually examine myself in light of God’s standards and His Word. As Christians, you need to continually examine yourself as well. We both need to ask ourselves a few questions. Are we fearing the Lord or are we living in open defiance to Him? Are we giving our absolute best to God or do we only have leftovers for God? Examine your time, money, energy, resources. Does the best go to God or somewhere else? Basically, are we just going through the motions? Apathetic Christians are pew warmers that have no interest, enthusiasm, concern or passion for advancing the Kingdom of God. Apathetic Christians create apathetic churches where the members are more concerned about themselves than reaching the lost, seeking God’s will or obeying God’s Word. Finally, let these words from Revelation serve as a warning and a reminder to the apathetic church: “Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.” – Revelation 2:5