Sunday Morning Worship & Word | May 15, 2022 | Pastor Anthony “The Danger of Discouragement”
by Anthony McCool
May 15, 2022 · First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Malachi 3:6, Psalms 103:14-16, Ephesians 4:26, Malachi 1:1-5, Malachi 3:8-9, Malachi 3:10-12, Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/anthony-mccool--sunday-morning-worship-word-may-15-2022
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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let's give praise to that answer today victory has a name why don't you say it out victory has a name and it's jesus redemption has a name [Music] and it's jesus when i felt lonely and it seemed like everyone else had rejected me those that were closest to me seemed to have pulled away but there was somebody right there by my side i looked to the right and to the left and to the front and behind it and he was there when i was in the darkest hour i couldn't get anyone else to answer the phone it seemed like i was all but forgotten about but that's when he showed up and he's the answer let's lift that great name of jesus this morning mighty god we thank you today for the opportunity you have given us we celebrate your great name your victorious name your salvific name jesus you can be seated across this house i give great admiration to the praise team and musicians into this great congregation for just lifting up the name of jesus and lifting up your praise and your worship unto heaven because he inhabits and takes residency in the praises of his people i again echo pastor mccool sentiments in welcoming each and every one of you this morning to first apostolic church and all of you tuning with us online on our live stream through whatever in the various formats i welcome you those that will be tuning in to us on the radio and on our television broadcast we welcome you this morning and this is one great big church that is not prohibited or confined by the walls that are in here but we use every mean and every method to just get this gospel out as far as we can spread it i give special recognition this morning as well my mother-in-law is here for the next few weeks give her a great big hand it's always a great blessing to have her here with us i've got my uh baby boy here this morning this is his second sunday he's got perfect attendance thus far and i give him great honor and my my wife and i also give honor to my mom this morning what what an awesome just display uh last week with our prayer handkerchiefs and the prayer that went forth and this past week i saw even sister perez post the prayers and the seeds that have been planted we are already reaping the harvest from those prayers of the ladies prayer meeting and i'm expecting and we're going to continue to see answers from the united prayer front that with forth and i know me and sister patterson over the past few weeks i won't go into detail been praying over a specific need and we're just consid we're seeing god continue to move in a situation of a lady that is affiliated with the church and we celebrate that as well and with welcoming my son i pastor mccool mentioned it last week but i have to say thank you sister ashley burris and sister ron de henson at fort sanders hospital and all the staff there absolutely incredible and what a what a comfort it is to me and my wife and my family just to be treated in such a manner as uh calloway was uh came to this earth and we're we're we're just so grateful for the special care and uh and all those that checked in with us there and i just feel very humbled and blessed by that care i did tell them when we schedule a vacation maybe another year from now maybe we just go down to fort sanders we were treated so well if one of those rooms are open but we'll pray about that if you have your bibles turn with me to the book of malachi chapter three and verse number six and i welcome you as well brother jones honored to have you here on this uh weekend malachi chapter 3 and verse 6. states for i am the lord i change not therefore ye sons of jacob are not consumed for a few moments this morning i want to minister to you on the subject of the danger of discouragement the danger of discouragement right where you are right at your pew if you would just bow your heads but let's lift up our prayers to heaven as we pray over a certain word mighty god we thank you today lord for the spirit that we've already felt in this house we we know without a doubt that your presence is here as the praise team saying his brother nathan mindedly saying we know what the answer is we know that you are our answer but lord as we look to your word today let it just cut through any of our personal agendas cut through our pride and let us realize that we have a commission to fulfill and the time is now and it's urgent that we all come together to spread out what that answer is and we know it's in your name in jesus name we pray amen the danger of discouragement human frailty is a recurrent theme of scripture captured best by the psalmist in psalms 103 14-16 states for he knoweth our frame it could be our physical frame our frame of mind he knows our state he remembereth that we are dust as for man his days are as grass as a flower of the field so he flourisheth for the wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more that's kind of sad isn't it a key expression of that frailty is the tendency to grow discouraged and is now classic devotional study of nehemiah entitled hand to me another brick author charles swindle discerns four key causes of discouragement number one a loss of strength number two a loss of vision number three a loss of confidence and number four a loss of security indeed there are other causes no doubt but it is important to notice that each cause is a special kind of loss which we will indeed grieve either consciously or unconsciously given its close relationship to the grief process discouragement then can breed all sorts of other difficult emotions anger frustration weariness and even despair the old testament the 39 books fall into five main divisions the books of moses that encompass genesis to deuteronomy the history joshua to esther the poetry job to song of solomon the major prophets isaiah to daniel and the minor prophets hosea to malachi and the central figure of course in the old testament though not mentioned by name as pointing to a kind to come pointing to the messiah jesus christ and luke tells us that the beginning with moses and the prophets jesus interpreted them all scriptures to be things concerning himself the old testament shows our need of jesus and it does so by setting before us god's laws and these laws are summarized in the ten commandments and the old testament points to jesus and dozens of messianic prophecies that he fulfills the events in the old testament now we i'll reiterate point toward the one to come and in those years the bible moves from eternity past with only god to a chosen people waiting for a messiah it begins with the how matter space time and how life have been created and sin enters into humanity and the promise of one who will conquer sin death and the devil are all given many old testament themes foreshadow jesus in his work for example the passover lamb pictures jesus and we see this alluded to in john as the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world and the temple in jerusalem was built as a type of jesus our but our true temple jesus that we find out in revelation the priests and the sacrifices they offered foreshadow jesus who is both our great high priest and the final sacrifice for sin the exodus the liberation of the israelites from bondage of the egyptians is but a foretaste of jesus liberating us from the bondage of sin and death and the rest of the old testament reveals how god began to fulfill his promises as a redeemer whether it be with moses or joshua or isaiah jeremiah daniel you can find yourself on a journey through the old testament the timeline of a people in and out of covenant with god and at times these people were very faithful to god and in other times not so faithful at times they were on fire for god and at other times they had grown cold and you get to the last book of the old testament right before jesus comes onto the scene the book of malachi it's a it's a short book four chapters and upon reading the last scripture malachi 4 and 6 you are then on a slingshot into the new testament and into matthew the birth of jesus and malachi translated is my messenger god's messenger and the prophet malachi again the last book of the old testament right before you get to god manifest in flesh the prophet malachi is the last known prophet of the post-exiled period the paired historical books of ezra and nehemiah are the primary biblical source of information about the return period we know from ezra's accounts that the period of temple rebuilding had been a period of significant revival the jews that were scattered abroad had come back home to their homeland and they had rebuilt the temple and it was a time of jubilation and this was led by the ministries of the prophets hagiai and zechariah culminating of all men of israel observing now the passover celebration for the first time since the days of king josiah prophecies were beginning to just kind of stack up and unfold and there was great anticipation and great expectation those that had been scattered abroad had come back home and they got to work and they rebuilt the temple this was the time certainly the messiah is going to reveal himself the jews had so recently returned to their homeland from exile the temple had been rebuilt and now it was only a matter of time one book away malachi and then it's matthew mark luke and john i mean we're right there oh what's going to happen in the book of malachi i'm sure we we open that book with great anticipation on our yearly reading plans and we kind of skip ahead and say yeah it's only four chapters i can get through this i can get all the way to the new testament by midnight surely this is going to be a time of revival jubilation oh the messiah is about to come onto the scene oh god incarnate is going to reveal himself to humanity the same god that created this world is about to show up oh malachi oh it i can't even begin to anticipate what's going to happen next but one could aptly describe the scene that confronted the prophet malachi as an uneventful waiting period the last book before jesus sure surely as a as i'm in malachi surely the people in the shadow of a rebuilt temple surely the people who are now able to celebrate all of these festivals about their deliverance from egypt and god bringing them back to their homeland and surely this is a time where probably they didn't even sleep it was probably probably day and night that they're looking to the heavens and celebrating that the messiah is about to show up this is the book before jesus comes to the world surely that's what's going to happen but certainly in malachi there was going to be loud rejoicing and jubilation because god and manifest in flesh is about to come to the scene oh and the prophet ezekiel had promised that when the temple was rebuilt god would fill it with his glory however as i read through the book of malachi there's no record of such a glorious manifestation accompanying the temple rededication and it seems the round of religious duties from the priests to the saints continue to be carried on but without much enthusiasm and all of this accumulated to a sense of disappointment slowly poisoned poisoning the people's passion for serving god and you can read through these four books of different emotions and different experiences that people were undergoing everything from disappointment to weariness to hurt sadness lethargy lack of energy lost focus place all of those under our title today of discouragement and the signs were everywhere and the people that were supposed to be greatly anticipating the coming of the messiah we read that they began to buckle under the pressure of conformity they began to be intermarried with non-believers they began to lax in their observance of sacrificial protocol they were offering god the blind and the sick animals of the flock i mean this is the book right before matthew and malachi said this is wrong there's a passage that that says try offering this type of sacrifice to your governor and see if he would be pleased with it would he accept this if he if you offered this to him and imagine trying to offer this to god but perhaps the most egregious is the people were questioning god's love for them and accusing god of actually favoring the wicked and the situation described in malachi as all the more sobering because it's boring here we don't find some radical act of rebellion the people didn't come together and get all of their gold as i alluded to what happened in the exodus and build a golden calf and that didn't happen they didn't they didn't get all their gold together and begin to worship a golden calf and they didn't go up to the high places and begin to build altars to pagan gods no that that didn't happen either they they didn't go into the temple and and try to desecrate it no just kind of a boring time of complacency we don't find some radical act of rebellion or no false gods were constructed the temple wasn't desecrated instead the passion that had enslaved the hearts of the people in the halcyon days of zerubbabel oh in the victorious militaristic days of joshua had just kind of slowly faded to a flicker this last book before jesus comes to the scene is met with complacency and just kind of a yawn for what was to come and this way as you read malachi is an all too frighteningly familiar to many of us today the people of israel had grown cold on god and it wasn't something that took place overnight it wasn't something that took place in a week but it was just an incremental digression back from everything that god had given them and while sitting on a church pew as it were they began to grow cold on god what should have been a time of jubilee what should have been a time of revival what should have been a time of great anticipation and expectation of the messiah about to come on to the scene was just a time of complacency a time of me a time of self-pity and ultimately a time of discouragement standing in their homeland in the shadow of a rebuilt temple gather together once again it wasn't enough oh we got to do this again why i thought i thought revival would be taking place by now i didn't build that temple but you know i don't it's great that we're here what's gonna happen next day after day not overnight not in a week not a month but just just slowly back away from the passion they once had what we see here is humanity on full display human frailty on full display and this human frailty that existed then and the same flesh that could so easily find discouragement then is the same flesh that you and i have on this day and we can certainly find it now as we look through that short book of malachi it was easy to serve god when we were fighting an enemy it was easy to serve god when somebody built a golden calf and we could we had this this visible image of this this thing that was wrong and i know that it's wrong but when complacency strikes and when my passion is drained and when i when i'm hurt over a situation or when i have anger or bitterness over my breath to my brother or sister it just can cause me just to slide back from what god has called me to do and the book of malachi presents a sobering warning about the corrosive nature of discouragement something each and every one of us will face the people's disappointment with the outcomes are their best efforts perhaps there was one who had given everything he or she had yet it was met with failure and the people's disappointment with the outcomes of their best efforts slowly turned into accusations against god in essence they said in essence we've all said god does not love us god are you even listening to my prayers their disappointment also notice this led them to make excuses for their own unrighteous behavior xyz happened so i'm justified and have a right to do thus and so that's against what god has called me to do which is against god's laws and precepts this event in my life took place yes indeed devastating yes indeed tumultuous yes indeed heartbreaking but because this happened then in my human frailty i have a right to then react in this manner their disappointment led them to make excuses for their own unrighteous behavior entirely missing the ways they had dishonored god's name and even robbed him of what rightfully belonged to him and perhaps the most frightening realization in malachi is that the people of israel were backslidden and they didn't even realize it the people in the book right before jesus comes to the scene had grown cold on god marrying unbelievers offering god sacrifices of the blind and the ill animals questioning whether or not he loved us accusing god of loving the wicked even more than them they were being disobedient to god's express commands especially about sacrifice and tithing and thus so because of events that had unfolded in their life they felt justified in their lack of worship to god and it all began with a seed of discouragement this failure this disappointment happened to me so i'm justified in doing thus and so i'm justified in not giving god the praise and the honor and the glory that he deserves it's a danger in being discouraged discouragement as i mentioned earlier this umbrella for a variety of emotions it could be disappointment it could be weariness it could be hurt feelings it could be sadness it could be a heart-wrenching event that took place in your life but an event can take place where we feel as if we have been done wrong and maybe you have been done wrong but in our flesh we can take this wrongdoing we can take this emotion we can harbor it we can put the wrong voices around it and we can feed it and we can use this emotion that we are experiencing as justification to not fulfill what god has called us to do and we can neglect the worship that he desires of us or even from as i mentioned earlier a conscious or or unconscious effort someone can say something hurtful to me someone can do something hurtful to me something that is unjust and indeed i am not operating in speculation today maybe this has happened to you and it can weigh on your mind so heavy that it drains you of your energy it drains you of your desire and it assassinates the passion that you had a negative situation can take place at our job and we'll take it as an omen that god's favor is not on my life god doesn't love me god is not going to bless me whatever the case because of the host of situations that we all deal with we can find ourselves entering into his house or going about our day-to-day walk and find ourselves giving half-hearted sacrifice bringing god not the best either because we feel paralyzed by the pain or the disappointment and we just go through the motions with the bare minimum because our flesh says what's the point you know you were trying and you gave your best effort and it seemed to still not be good enough or in our humanity and in our interpersonal relationships within the church body somebody could say something that hurts my feelings and somebody could say something that i that i put so much that i lifted up so high in my life and the pain it hurts and i can cause this to carry over into my spiritual walk and it's drained my energy my passion and has assassinated the very work that god has called me to do but perhaps the most troubling is we can be the book right before the birth of the messiah right before jesus returns we are in a homeland that we didn't fight for but our ancestors did a previous generation died for standing in the shadow of a rebuilt temple one that we didn't build and what should be a time of revival can slowly turn into a time of entitlement and complaint and while we should be looking for jesus to appear and while we should be honoring the things that got us to this point we can take for granted what god has given us and slowly slip away from the true church god has called us to be and do you know what all of these emotions that make you do you know what all of these retaliations make you make me make us human you know disappointment hurt sadness lethargy lack of energy lost focus each and every one of us are going to experience them and sometimes we have this tendency of i you shouldn't feel like this because something worse is taking place over here and while indeed that is true and these things could should keep us in perspective about the things that we uh potentially take serious in our life also two things can be true something devastated can be happening over here and eyes can also be hurt or be discouraged by something that might seem small to everyone else do you know why because we're human and all these emotions make us human and each and every one of us are going to experience them but the issue lies not in the fact that you're going to experience them it's in the decision you make and how you respond to them because the real danger of discouragement is that it is a transient emotion in the sense that how you feel right now in the peak of your rage and in the peak of your retaliation it might not be how you feel tomorrow when you wake up it might not be how you feel a week from now it might not be how you feel a year from now when i look back at that and say that wasn't really that big of a deal and it kind of escalated into something that it shouldn't have a decision made when your thinking was cloudy we can make a monument out of a moment and say things in the heat of discouragement to say things in the heat of hurt and we can allow these things that we said in the heat of a circumstance to dictate our future decisions how many of family because of an argument still do not speak to one another and their lives are now governed by an ultimatum made in the heat of a door slamming in the heat of a argument around the dinner table a brash response when being driven by our emotions and our flesh and we can become like esau who will sell our birthright who will sell our promise of inheritance to feed our flesh just as hunger attacks our flesh so will disappointment and i promise you you're going to experience it and because you experience it doesn't mean that you're not called by god and because you're experiencing it doesn't mean that god is not answering your prayers how many are relationships frayed over a disagreement or a miscommunication and it it leaves both parties weaker and less motivated and discouraged and all of these life events all of these interpersonal relationships maybe it was a failure to achieve goals when you gave your absolute best frustration disappointment and discouragement can place us in the same position as those in the book of malachi as we both wait on the appearance of jesus in our day and we can bring all these things with us into his house something that happened at the job something that happened within my family maybe a goal that i didn't achieve and all of these things can culminate together and i call it the death of a thousand paper cuts and we can enter into his house and kind of sit back a bit complacent we can enter into his house and stop giving what we once did because of hurt and because of pain either purposefully consciously and it can also happen unconsciously but you can someone ephesians 4 26 says be ye angry and sin not it state that means you're going to get angry at times but don't sin you're going to experience some difficult emotions at times but remember who you serve he said you're going to get discouraged but don't sin don't don't turn away from god someone will do you wrong okay it's going to happen but but don't turn away you're going to have the opportunity to to to get hurt in some manner but don't turn away it will happen and god through the prophet malachi is saying there's not one thing in this world that can happen that is justification for you not giving god what he deserves there's nothing in your life that will justify you not fulfilling the calling i have on your life my uncle bob got up to preach one time and he says the bible reigns on the just and the unjust you know indicating that even god's people will experience difficult times and then he said i feel sorry for all those just people who have to go through this same reign as we others do but malachi's chosen method of encouragement it would not win many admirers in our society today our culture has inculcated us with the idea that the only way to overcome negative feelings is with a barrage of counter balancing positivity you can turn on your evangelical television stations with the prosperity gospel going forth name it claim it push it to the side just think positive and it'll happen every day is friday you know but that's not what malachi stated here all such ways of thinking can easily slip into a pattern of avoidance where we do not truly confront the sources of these emotions malachi does not fall into any such trap instead he directly confronts the root causes of the people's discouragement to do so malachi uses a form of dialogue known as disputation and the pattern is seen clearly in the opening oracle of malachi again i encourage every believer this morning to go read that book again it's only four chapters you could knock it out this afternoon verse 1 says a prophecy the word of the lord israel through malachi he says i have loved you and malachi is this mouthpiece between god and his people says the lord but you ask how have you loved us talking to god was not esau jacob's brother declares the lord yet i have loved jacob but he saw i have hated and i have turned to his country a wasteland edom may say though we have been crushed we will be rebuilding ruins but this is what the lord almighty says they may build but i will demolish they will be called the wicked land the people always under the wrath of the lord you will see it with your own eyes and say great is the lord even beyond the borders of israel and the basic pattern of this conversation and the basic pattern of this conversation that malachi as god's messenger is god's prophet is god's mouthpiece this conversation he is initiating between the people who had slid back they were backslidden and god is a type of answer and question it's a claim about the divine nature him saying i have loved you and the people then ask well how have you loved us and then god gives them the evidence and such a technique accomplished several important things simultaneously first of all it served to emphasize the people's obstacles or their ignorance when god through the prophet laid out the evidence to support his initial claim the people's question was made to look completely foolish if not sacrilegious and the opening oracle the very fact that the people of god dwelt once again in their homeland while the nation of edom had been expunged from world history was proof enough that god truly did love them and kept his word to them and i came to tell first apostolic church this morning every person listening online and on television you need to open your eyes and look around and why don't you take a breath of fresh air and look at your family's with you your friends are with you look at this mighty temple he's given us to worship in and when i began to look at the things around me the things that he's already blessed me with he's already brought me to my homeland i see the temple that was rebuilt i just got to shout for a second i don't care if anybody else will i don't care if anybody else around me is worshiping when i begin to think of what he's done and how i got to where i'm at the things i'm experiencing just begin to fade away just a little bit i know hurt is a real thing i know discouragement is a real thing but when i look around at what he's done god i guess you do love us i start looking around this great congregation as i mentioned earlier about those ladies that helped calloway in the hospital i guess you do love me god how am i going to get discouraged over something so petty how am i going to get hurt over something so minuscule when i think about what the lord has done i guess you do love me but more subtly the oracles serve to bring israel and god back into conversation as was mentioned above the issue of malachi's day was not so much the people rebelling against god but it was kind of a passive aggressive ignoring of god but by structuring their prophetic words as imaginative dialogues between the people and god malachi was helping to reconnect the two parties malachi did not attempt to encourage the people by focusing on the handful of things they were doing right or even by trying to justify their motives and which is the common theme in the sermons of contemporary christianity he didn't say now guys you're doing a good job at this but you know we could do better here with our giving we could do better here with our worship he didn't say oh i know that you've suffered this so god's going to understand you behaving in this manner god's going to understand you keeping your hands folded and not giving him praise oh i know you're heard now now god's going to understand you're not giving him what he deserves oh no no malachi said i don't care what you've gone through he's god and he's worthy to be praised i don't care what you've experienced he's god and he's worthy of your worship you have to make a response people you're going to get discouraged yes hurt is going to come yes turmoil is going to come but you've got to look it right in the face and say lord i still love you i look around and say god i see what you've done for me and you've got to give a response to the emotions that you face he said will a man rob god and you say wherein have you robbed me he said in tithes and offerings but it's okay no he said you're cursed with a curse he said you've robbed me even this whole nation now malachi you need to more if you need to be more sensitive to the people's fragile emotional state no jesus is about to come onto the scene this is the last book before the messiah comes to this earth we've got to wake up we can't allow some petty disagreement we can't allow some miscommunication we can't allow something to go unsaid we've got to be on the same page marching together telling this world about jesus christ but notice god's word for the people did not stop with the pronouncement of a curse for their robbery because it's proof to us because we've we we can hear and understand a lot of things where it makes it feel like you know we shouldn't ever feel this way or we shouldn't ever experience this or you know i i've been baptized in his name and i've got the holy ghost so i must be doing something wrong for me to feel this way no you're human and what god is saying in this circumstance is that you're going to experience this but then you have to make a decision and you also are acknowledging that you're only going to be able to make it because of my mercy and grace and you're going to need it each and every single day if you want to have a relationship with me if you want to stay in covenant with me oh you're not going to be so righteous that you can get by without coming to an altar and without giving me your first fruits you're going to it's going to be dependent on my mercy and grace and that's why he wrapped himself in flesh and came to this world and conquered death in the grave because as you read on to malachi 3 10 and 12 he says bring ye all the ties into the storehouse that there may be meat in my house and prove me now herewith saith the lord of hosts if i will not open you up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you will not even have room enough to recede i will rebuke the devourer for your sake you shall not be destroyed the fruits of your ground will i sustain neither shall your vine cast for fruit before the time in the field saith the lord of hosts and every single nation is going to call you blessed before you have a delighted land saith the lord of hosts so i know you're struggling with discouragement i know you might have went gone through pain i know that you might be experiencing some anger over something but if you'll make a response if you'll turn your life back over to me i've got a promise for you that you don't even have room enough to receive it's going to be dependent on my mercy and grace but you're still my people i still love you i hear your prayers i'm going to bless you [Applause] even though the people had lost their initial spiritual fervor even though their observant of the covenant had grown lacks they were still god's chosen people you everybody say me i'm still god's chosen i made some mistakes i'm still god's chosen i'm angry over something i'm still god's chosen i tried my best but i failed i'm still god's chosen someone said some words that kind of knocked me down a bit i'm still god's chosen he still loves me i didn't retaliate initially in the right way i said some things that i that i wish i could take back but i'm still god's chosen and there's still time for me to turn my life back over there's still time for you to give my first fruits still god's chosen people and all the promises of the covenant relationship with jehovah could still be theirs if they would just simply choose again to obey with a true heart musicians please come malachi's disputational method accomplished one further objective he laid aside the questions of the people and then he put the evidence of what jehovah had already done and malachi used the jews unfaithfulness to god to highlight god's faithfulness to them i brought you out of bondage though you were exiled i brought you back home but even in prophecies of judgment malachi provided echoes of hope stand with me as we go through this book of four chapters right before jesus comes on to the scene what lesson were the jews to draw from the fearsome picture malachi had painted with love but also with conviction not an ounce of truth compromised what was the logical conclusion to these images of swift and final judgment i go to our fi our initial verse our key text malachi 3 and 6 for i am the lord i change not my promises are still available bringing all the tithe into the storehouse bring your bring your first fruit your first worship i'll rebuke the devourer ah every nation will call you blessed you're still my people i am the lord and i change not therefore ye sons of jacob echoing that your still have an inherent inheritance from the heirs of abraham and jacob are not consumed god said you've robbed me you've been unfaithful i'm talking to myself you've been inconsistent you've been ungrateful you've taken my blessings for granted when you stayed up late at night worrying about something so petty a word that was said to you and you forget where that that i've already look look what i've done how can you say this the lesson here was not that god was angry or vengeful and it also wasn't that he was mighty above all but malachi wanted to remind the people that god was faithful we serve a faithful god each and every one of us have a choice of how we're going to respond when discouragement comes again let me reiterate discouragement could come with the mask of so many different emotions but how will you respond he's faithful to his promises he'll rebuke the devourer you'll have blessings that you don't even have room enough to receive if you are endure if you'll have revival while you wait on my return if you give your first fruits if you get along with your brother and your sister if you push your pride to the side if you won't get caught up in pettiness we have a decision it's by no means coincidental that the book of malachi serves as the conclusion to the prophetic corpus to the entire old testament malachi brings together discussions of the severity of the coming judgment indeed it will be severe for those who do not turn their life over to him but he also echoes and reiterates and re-establishes and please before the people that you're the last book before jesus comes to this earth you are the last book before jesus comes to this earth and that faithfulness guarantees both punishment for the wicked indeed but he came not to condemn this world but to save those which are lost and that there's salvation for those who repent of their wickedness their salvation for those who might have slipped back and to once again prove that you're not going to be able to make it without my mercy and grace it's not a golden calf it's it's not a a an altar built in the high places to a pagan god it's emotions that we can allow to just be built up in our life that pull us back from what god wants us to do i close with this centuries before the prophet malachi lived israel's proto prophet moses who authored the beginning books of the old testament he stood before the people of israel with this same message gospel message foreshadowed if you will from moses to jeremiah to isaiah to jonah to daniel to malachi to the disciples and the apostles i'll read this to you today i read this to me today before the priest could go to the altar of incense he had to look in that fountain of water to see the reflection of himself first before he offered up praise to the people and likewise the priest is just as guilty as the people in malachi so i read this to myself as well [Music] i call heaven and earth to record this day against you you're on record right now i'm not talking about tomorrow when you wake up and some new goals you've set i'm not talking about next week or or at the beginning of the year when you set some resolutions i call heaven and earth to record this day this day against you that i have set before you life and death this is moses blessing and also cursing therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live though thou and your lineage may live that thou mayest love the lord thy god and that thou mayest obey his voice and that thou mayest cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days that thou mayest dwells in the land which the lord swear unto the fathers to abraham to isaac to jacob that i give them with every head bowed i want to ask you this question this morning you're on record today what will your response be on this day will you choose life as you pray or will you choose death will you choose your seed and your lineage to be blessed or will you make a decision now that could forever be the decision that turned you and your family and those that you were called to witness to and those that you were called to impacted to forever be gone each and every one of us have a situation we face each and every one of us have an emotion we face some of us might even be standing in the gap for a situation today that we're thinking of but whatever the case if we will acknowledge that nothing that takes place is going to deter me from giving the god the worship and honor that he deserves then god is going to reestablish himself in your life and there's going to be blessings that you do not even have room enough to receive as you've prayed and you focused in on that specific situation i want to open this altar to every single person not a time for somebody to step forward out from everyone else but every single one of us have something in our life that we're dealing with every single one of us are experiencing one of these emotions under the umbrella of discouragement and if we're not careful there's a great danger in discouragement and it can be the very thing that we feed and allow to snowball that affects our life and as we come to an altar of repentance every single one of us oh we begin to acknowledge that god you do hear me you do answer my prayers that thing doesn't seem so big anymore that thing seems minuscule that thing seems so petty in comparison to what you've done for me would you come this morning yes jesus [Music] would you confront the discouragement this morning [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] get on the phone today find that brother find that sister today he said i didn't mean it like that i love you we're on the same day yes [Music] [Applause] you deserve it you all of our worship and our praise [Music] deserve it say hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the prayers [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] all of our worship and our prayers [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hallelujah belongs to you my hallelujah belongs to you [Music] would you just love jesus a few more moments would you just love him a few more moments hallelujah savior i pray for encouragement and strength jesus you've been so faithful to me you've been so good to me today hallelujah hallelujah glory glory glory i remember a song that i heard several years ago and the words of the song said on the other side of through there's a blessing waiting for you we like to talk about going through stuff whatever you're going through you're going to make it there's the other side of through there's a blessing for you i can't tell you there's not going to be discouragement i can't tell you there's not going to be disappointment but i know who's going to have my hand all the ways i know who has blessed me this far and i know who's going to direct my path i haven't changed my direction i know what's on the other side of my situation hallelujah