Is this our Church Today?

Today we are reading out of the book Malachi 1:6-14:

6 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says to the priests: “A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. If I am your father and master, where are the honor and respect I deserve? You have shown contempt for my name! “But you ask, ‘How have we ever shown contempt for your name?’ 7 “You have shown contempt by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar. “Then you ask, ‘How have we defiled the sacrifices? “You defile them by saying the altar of the Lord deserves no respect. 8 When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? “Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

In today’s society, the churches are filled with dishonor: the way people dress, talk, joke, and eat.  We come to church so casual and with no cares, like, “Oh, Jesus accepts me for who I am.”  Wrong, is the answer!  God should be worthy of our best in everything we do and we need to give Him our best if we expect Him to uphold His promises.  God is Holy and just, He demands perfection for certain things and it is very clear in this above scripture He is not pleased with what’s been going on within His church.  God had specific laws, a requirement for the sacrificing of animals and these priests allowed people to bring in blind, crippled and diseased animals.  God accused them of dishonoring Him by offering these subpar sacrifices.  Today proves the same disobedience with our generation.  Romans 12:1 says:

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

If we only give God the leftover parts of us, our leftover time, our leftover money, or our leftover energy are we then any different than those before us?  God is very unpleased with a lot of the same things happening in today’s churches, especially with their leaders because they allow this contempt; they allow the lackadaisical attitudes brought into the churches.  It is the shepherd the church members are following and if they don’t chasten this behavior than who will?  One of the top tier mottoes in the church today is “come as you are”, but that’s for the new believer, not something that actual believers are supposed to carry in their backpacks.  The Word of God says it like this:

In 2 Corinthians 5: 17   “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

We are to be new creations in Christ, changing and conforming to His image, His likeness.  Staying stagnant and not changing is the mindset of the devil and is very displeasing to the Lord our God.  He sacrificed His Son so that we may have life everlasting.  That is definitely worthy of our respect and I would go as far to say that is worthy of us dying to ourselves and give it all to Him.

I want you to imagine you have dinner at the governor’s mansion and you are looking for support for your local business franchise.  You know that the governor loves these certain Swiss chocolates that are only for sale in Switzerland.  Now, would you try and pass off some knock-off chocolates from NY just to win points from him?  No, because that could backfire and ruin everything.  Well if we would do something like that to a mere mortal than shouldn’t we be giving God our best, I mean our very best?  Of course we should and you know He is expecting it for certain.  Let’s get back to the scripture in Malachi 1:9:

9 “Go ahead, beg God to be merciful to you! But when you bring that kind of offering, why should he show you any favor at all?” asks the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 10 “How I wish one of you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “and I will not accept your offerings. 11 But my name is honored by people of other nations from morning till night. All around the world they offer sweet incense and pure offerings in honor of my name. For my name is great among the nations,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 12 “But you dishonor my name with your actions. By bringing contemptible food, you are saying it’s all right to defile the Lord’s Table. 13 you say, ‘It’s too hard to serve the Lord,’ and you turn up your noses at my commands,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Think of it! Animals that are stolen and crippled and sick are being presented as offerings! Should I accept from you such offerings as these?” asks the Lord. 14 “Cursed is the cheat who promises to give a fine ram from his flock but then sacrifices a defective one to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “and my name is feared among the nations!”

The Lord is angry with liars and cheats.  In these verses, He speaks about how these wicked people show no respect or honor to God.  They bring Him garbage sacrifices like He doesn’t deserve the best.  Oh, how this angers God.

All these warnings are to the priests in Chapter One, “Cursed is the one who promises God a fine ram for sacrifice, but brings a defected one, for you can’t cheat God.  He knows all, sees all, and is all.  He is The Great “I am, that I am.”

Our land is wicked, the Lord will destroy it.  We will try to rebuild it, but we will fail.

Right now our country’s moral compass is turned upside down.  Our country went down the tubes in morality, ethics, and civility.  Over half our country, 60 plus million people don’t believe in the one true God.  They live like animals off their instincts, living for money and pleasure.  The other half of the 60 plus million, I’d say they all believe in a god, but only a few maybe less than ten percent actually believe in the one true God, serving, believing, and following Jesus.

This land is evil and wicked, serving the false gods of this world.  God will destroy this land and all lands in this world and He will restore His Kingdom.

The blind will lead the blind.  I don’t believe 100% peace, order, law, morality, and civility will ever come.  Only when Christ returns and takes His home will they experience that.  As this world progresses into the abyss of sinfulness and godlessness, things will keep on the downward spiral getting worse and worse until it devours itself from within.

As time perpetuates, the hidden sins that were once shameful are all coming out of the closet.  When our society, our public schools, some people that are in our government, some presidents, members of congress, senate, some of the Supreme Court Judges, governors, and mayors approve of the godlessness, the sinful way of life and then couple that with a Hollywood that has an agenda to normalize immorality, sin, and perversion which its constantly pushed all the time then society will follow and soon after it becomes a normality.  It just is accepted because it’s just what you’re used to.  This is a very bad situation for our children if we don’t do what God has called us to and allow this lack of apathy to trickle into the church and if it is never addressed then there will be no hope because God’s wrath will come.  

Well, standing by and doing nothing as a follower of Christ is not good enough for God, it is time to stand for righteousness and be heard.  You will be hated, but then again so was Jesus.  Homosexuality, cursing, and abortion were once frowned on, hidden in the closet, but today it’s normal and accepted by the world.  Soon God and Jesus will be outlawed and all immorality, sin, lust, greed, and perversion will rule our land and we, the followers of Christ, will be the outlaws.  It’s close, real close.

Don’t rob God or cheat Him.  If you are going to a church or place of worship, then, by all means, bring in your tithe for this is a command from God.  If you don’t and always have an excuse for why you can’t then He would look at you as a thief and a cheat.  He does though understand our position and will show grace to those who deserve grace because like I said He is a God of understanding, grace, and mercy.  I know we can’t change the world but we can at least start in the church with bringing a righteous spotless sacrifice and that my friends would be you.  Turn from your sins and repent, let Jesus make you pure as the whitest snow and let His Spirit lead and guide you.  Keep from any evil practices and let our Lord pave the way for you to Him.

Questions:

1. What are some of the things the priests did and/or allowed that God detests written in Malachi 1?

2. What are some things allowed and happening in our modern day church that could be compared to these?

3. What can change that would pleasing to the Lord and be an example to others?