Malachi: My Messenger

Our God is a great God. As a matter of fact, there is no God except our God. There be many gods, little g, but there is only one Lord God. And I'm so glad that we know him intimately in the power of his spirit. Hallelujah. And that God is in this place tonight. That God that that ubiquitous omnipresent God chooses to localize himself and manifest himself in places like this where people like us are gathered together in his name. He said, "I'll be right there in the midst of you."

Hallelujah. Our God Amen. God bless you tonight. You may be seated in the name of the Lord. And uh Pastor Brad was kind enough to get a new battery for this microphone. So, I'm just going to go until it wears out. I know that's why he did it, right? I want you to put up my first panel if you would there. The key verses we're going to talk about the book of Malachi tonight, the the very final uh prophet of the Old Testament. And, uh uh, there are key verses in the book of Malachi.

The first one in 3:1 says, "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." And then from Malachi 4:5, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." Now, Malachi, uh, could be his name. We're not even certain about that, but what happens is that that there are key verses that are related to that theme of Malachi, which means my messenger.

My messenger. We're going to receive, uh, his messenger tonight. So, uh, if you'll put up my second panel, I want to launch into this. In 1977, there was a, uh, there was a group, Morton Thiokol, that had been contracted with NASA. NASA had understood that they had developed a product that, uh, that they could potentially use in their newly developed space shuttles. It was, uh, it was a polymer that was able to withstand the stress of solid rocket boosters. And, uh, so they they started building these space shuttles with that piece of material in there, the O-ring.

It was about a third of an inch thick. And since 1977, uh, testing had demonstrated a potentially fatal flaw in the material used in those O-rings. Engineers had had warned the people the powers that be at Morton Thiokol. They'd told them that we've got a problem here because at low temperatures it that that material becomes rigid. It loses its flexibility. So, they knew this from 1977 that they had a problem. But, this was just one of 2 and 1/2 million parts that went into the building of that space shuttle, and so it was negligible.

Not a big deal. What's the big deal, man? It's just an O-ring. Just a little O-ring, right? A third of an inch thick of this polymer material. But, on January 28, 1986, eight astronauts climbed into that space shuttle for a launch that took place, and and we watched in horror, those of us who saw that, we watched in horror as that that rocket we cheered when the rocket took off, and and we watched it hit the the stratosphere, and at 46,000 ft at 11:39 a.m. tragedy struck when we saw the entire thing just explode in the air, and eight lives were lost because somebody didn't take care of something so small as a 1/3 of an inch piece of rubber.

Negligible. Ignorable. Insignificant. But, fatal. The problem was hidden, but it wasn't harmless. My next panel, please. The second temple that we're going to talk about tonight was finished in 516 BC, about 80 years or so before Malachi the prophet prophesied. And uh I don't know about you, but I've questioned why did God command and why was it so important that they build this temple? Why did God command it? Because Ezekiel had seen, much prior to this, the glory of God had departed from Israel. The glory was God.

And and so why did God Why did God command this temple to be built when he was not going to occupy that temple? Because and and this is my take, okay? My interpretation tonight. Garden 101. Because for a covenant people the law concerning sacrifices must continue in order to fulfill the law. It had to go on. And there had to be a place because God had commanded Israel and told them 22 times in the books of the Pentateuch this statement occurs. And this shall be a statute forever unto you.

In order to fulfill the law, they had to have that temple built. Josephus said it resembled a mountain covered with snow wherever it was not overlaid with gold. It occupied, ultimately, when Herod rebuilt and and expanded, it occupied 35 acres of land. This magnificent temple. Next panel, please. But they learned something. They learned how to have a church about God without God. Because the God of the temple was gone. He departed. They they had lost some things. The in this temple, there was no fire that had fallen from heaven to consume their sacrifices.

That continuity had been broken in this temple. There was no fire from heaven. There was no breastplate of judgment determining the will of God. And that's what the house of God really is about, seeking the will and the the the favor of God. And there was no ark. There was a void behind that veil where the ark used to be. And there would the priest knew about this. It was hidden, but it wasn't harmless. They knew that there was no ark back there because every year on the day of atonement they would go behind that veil to the emptiness that was there.

And I questioned, what did they do then on the day of atonement? They just took the blood and and some scholars believe that all they did was they just flung it on a rock that was back there. The priests knew. It was hidden from the people, but the priests knew that there was no ark. There's a void where the presence and the glory of God used to be. But we're learning how to have church about God when God is not present. Hallelujah. And there was no glory that would occupy that.

No manifest presence of God. Now, let me just explain something here. That we know that God is everywhere. David said, "If I ascend to the heavens, you're there. If I make my bed in hell, you're there. If I take the wings of the morning and I fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, you're there. You're You're going to be there. The presence of God is omnipresent. But there in this case, what God did with Israel was called a manifest presence. The God who was everywhere localized himself, and they saw his glory.

But when there's no glory, you you learn to have church about God without God. When the glory is gone, and and it becomes a problem when protocols replace the presence. When all you do now is go through the motions of the sacrifices, but there's no result for that. There is no place where you encounter the glory of God. And so, you go through the liturgy, and you go through the rituals, and and you go through the motions of of having church without God. We can do this.

I have seen, and I'm going to I'm going to act as a prophet here and become very negative for a minute, but we have watched great churches die because of these very things. No fire, no ark, no glory, no presence, but we learned how to have church about God without God. And it's okay. No, it's not. The problems are hidden but they are not harmless and the silence that Israel experienced from God was mistaken for God's continued presence and approval and the breach in the relationship between God and Israel, the thing that nobody talked about.

The thing that nobody wanted to admit, that breach became widened. The problem was hidden but it was not harmless. Amen. Let's go to panel five. The the the most key verse in the book of Malachi, at least to my to my mind, was where the Lord speaks to them this poignant message. And he said, I have loved you. I have loved you. It's the message that not any of us ever want to come in, walk into an empty house and walk over to the counter and pick up a note from the person that we've been living with that says, I have loved you yet.

We come to the emptiness of a relationship and the Lord speaks to them. There is something very poignant about what he says to them because in this instance, he is saying, I'm leaving. Goodbye. I loved you. I want you to know that I have loved you. But this when it's translated, this word, this adversative conjunction, becomes a pivotal word. This yet, yet I have loved you, and yet you have questioned my love for you. You You have mistaken affection. Let me explain some things as I go along.

Because when God answered their question that says, "Wherein have you loved us?" We don't think you love us, God. We think you have abandoned us, God. And he said, "I just want you to know in my departing that I have loved you. And you've asked, "When have you loved me?" or "How have you loved us?" And God answers with a statement that is so profound and yet so simple that defines his view of what love is. In Malachi chapter 1 verse 2, he he answers them and says this, "Was not Jacob Esau, Jacob's brother?

Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" saith the Lord. "Yet I loved Jacob. What he's saying is you're looking for something as a sign of my love for you. And I'm telling you I chose you, and that's enough. The fact that I had a choice between Esau and Jacob, the heel grabber, the deceiver, the man, the one brother that they described as being ugly on the outside, but you were ugly on the inside. You were somebody who is ambitious and willing to step over people. You were unlovable as it were, but I chose you.

Don't dare question my love for you because I You want to know how I showed my affection for you? I chose you. Simply, I chose you. And God says to them, "Love is not just an emotion or a desire or even a strong desire. It is a choice. I am this way. I am who I am as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus Christ, because he chose me and I chose him." Ezequiel chapter 16. And this is what God saw when he when he saw them.

Ezequiel 16 beginning at verse 3. Here's what the Lord says, "And say, thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan." I'm going to recount some things, God. Along with that note that says I have loved you, he starts listing a list of grievances as to why he is saying goodbye. Why he is lifting that that that affectionate presence of God. He said, "Your father was an Amorite and your mother was a Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day that thou was born, your navel wasn't cut.

You weren't washed in water to supple thee. You were not salted or swaddled at all. Nobody pitied you to do any of these things unto thee, to have compassion upon you, but thou was cast out into the open field. I'm talking about this is how God saw them when he first saw them, when he first picked them up. This was how he found them. Nobody pitied you to do any of these unto you, to have compassion unto you, but you were cast out into an open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that you were born.

And when I passed by thee, I saw you polluted in your own blood, and I said unto you, "When you were in your blood, live. I'm choosing you to give life to you." This was how God saw them. Unlovable, hopeless, and helpless, and and filthy in their sins, but he says to them, "I'm choosing you, and I'm going to lift you up, and I'm going to make you live." I loved you. I chose you when nobody else saw the beauty or the potential in you. I saw you as that bloodied child, that loathed child, that nobody wanted.

I saw you in that condition. Oh, I'm talking to people tonight. Paul described it this way, "And such were some of you." When he found you, where were you when he chose you and picked you up out of the pit of sin. They were questioning the expression because God's love never ceases. Now the the Hebrew term for love is quite different from the Greek. The Hebrew term is more comprehensive. Ahab and it entails all the aspects of love, not just the internalized emotion of love, but also the outward expressions, what the Greeks call phileo, the expression of love.

The way that we express our love as human beings is by showing affection, right? But you can show affection without love. You can have humanitarian efforts and and show affection without really the love of God being in you. You can do this, but but to the to the Hebrew mind God says, "I'm going to answer your questions about how I have expressed my love to you. I'm going to answer this." Jesus asks of Simon Peter three times, "Do you love me? Do you love me?" He was using a Greek term a agape.

The highest internalized spiritual type of love. Do you love me? And and Simon Peter would say use the term phileo. "Yeah, I've showed you affection." And Jesus said, "If you want to show affection, feed my sheep." Three times he answers him the same way. "You want to show me that you love me? Feed my sheep. Show me with in that form of affection. We humans find ourselves looking for expressions and signals of of love and it causes anger and frustration when we don't get them. Especially from people that we have affection for or we show affection for.

Back in I believe the late 70s, Neil Diamond wrote a song that says you don't bring me flowers. You don't sing me love songs. You never talk to me anymore. Right? It was the It was the frustration of unrequited love. Because the person with whom they were was not showing them the affection that is an expression of love. This is what Israel was wanting God to do. And Israel was saying, "You have not shown us that. We just spent 70 years in Babylonian captivity. We came out of that captivity and we expected prosperity because you brought us out and now it's been over 80 years and we're still living in tents and we're still living in rubble and we haven't seen the expression of your love and so therefore you don't really love us."

Don't question God's love. Don't ever question God's love. When I struggle with a diagnosis I don't deserve, I start questioning God. When I struggle with a sickness that just will not heal, I'm asking, "Where are you and why do you love them but you don't love me?" When I When I am suffering loss and grief and I start questioning God or my finances are failing me, and and my necessities are failing me. We are humans, and we start questioning, "Where are you, God, in all of this?

Do you really love me, and why am I not seeing the signs of your affection when I'm in the furnace of testing or the crucible of suffering, when the tears won't stop and the pain WON'T CEASE?" MY QUESTION IS, "How have you loved me? Because it doesn't feel like it." You don't bring me flowers. You don't sing me love songs. That's what we expect from God. Let me tell you what love is. For you young people, I don't want to sicken anybody, but some of you have already gone through this.

Love is this, holding somebody's head when they're throwing up sick, when they can't even hold their heads up themselves, putting that putting that bucket or that trash can under them, and then wiping vomit from their face because they can't That's That's where he found me. That's where he found us. That's love. THAT IT'S NOT ALL FLOWERS, IT'S not all roses and boxes of candy. It's not all blessing in the It's It's this expression that says, "I chose you in the worst of conditions. I picked you up."

Paul said in Romans 5, he said, "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Verse 8 says, "But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You want to know what love's all about? Look at the cross. He chose you before you were born. Let me tell you something. When we stand in eternity, we will not remember the times when he eased the pain, and we will not remember the times that he chose not to ease the pain.

We won't remember the tears that he dried or the ones that I cried. We won't remember the grief that he shared or the grief that he allowed me to bear. We will not remember the lack and the loss that we suffered in this life. It's all going to be forgotten. Fiery tests and trials are going to give way to glory because every tear is going to be wiped. All the pain is going to cease. All the trials and troubles and stresses of this life are going to someday pass away.

I will not remember those things, but what I will remember is this. I am here because you chose me, and you are worthy to receive glory and riches and blessing and strength. The thing that I will remember is you have redeemed me out of all the people in the world. Unrequited expressions of love. And so, it led to a church about God without God because they said, "If you don't care, we don't care either. And they begin to erode. And and Malachi addresses this as the Lord speaks to them, and he begins to rebuke the priesthood in verses 6 through 10.

He said, "You withheld honor from me. You withheld reverence from me. You haven't given me the place of honor that I deserve because you felt like I didn't love you. And I wasn't doing enough for you." Let me tell you something about God. He places honor of source very high on his list of priorities. Honor the elders. Not because I am one, source. And so And so the Bible tells us, Paul writing, he said that Christ is the head of man, and man is the head of woman.

And each of them has their glory, but it goes upward to their source. Man is the glory of Christ. Christ is the glory of God. Woman is the glory of man. So who glorifies woman? He said, "I've given her her hair." Don't go quiet on me right now. That's where your glory comes from, ladies. Hello. God has placed that on you to become the thing that testifies of your glory. Of your glory. God places great stress upon honor of source. And so we'll we'll address this later on in chapter 4 or chapter 4, but he he addresses the priesthood.

He said, "Here's the things Here's my list of grievances. You have offered polluted bread. You have brought sacrifices that are blind, lame, and sick. And we're all repulsed and we go, "Ugh, I would never do that." I'll get there. They said it's the best we got. I'm sorry, God. It's the best we can do right now. You know, you just haven't given us enough and and and and therefore, you know, it's all I can do. It's you know, I can barely drag myself to church. We think it's a sacrifice to come to church.

God help us. Well, I did get here and and God bless you all, you faithful people who are here in the house of God tonight. But their best was unacceptable because they were bringing what they could afford rather than what God dictated that they should bring. They were bringing what they thought was acceptable rather than what God thought was acceptable. And and he's he gets very plain with them. He said, "I'm going to rub your faces in this." They were bringing offerings and sacrifices. He said they're fit for the garbage heap.

For the dung heap. They're throw them in the garbage. Don't put them on the altar. They're not acceptable. And and he goes into this litany about about things that they had offered. Blind and and lame and scarred and marred and not even your firstborn lambs are being offered anymore. And God was looking back at a lineage And he's making this comparison with these people who are bringing what they considered to be their best. He said, "You've got better in your flocks and herds, but you're saving Listen, God doesn't just judge you on what you gave.

He judges you on what you save." Getting quiet. That's okay. But God was looking at them from the lens of sacrifices and where they had come from. He's looking at them and doing this comparison quickly. "I remember," God says, and he didn't say it in Malachi, but you can kind of ascribe this to him. "I remember Abraham marching up Mount Moriah with his son, his only son. You want to talk about sacrifice, he brings his only son and he puts him on an altar of sacrifice.

That's the best he had. I'm talking about Moses, who enjoyed all the the the luxuries of Pharaoh's palace, but when he came to years, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and he chose rather the reproach of Christ over the comforts and the luxuries of Egypt. God's saying, "I'm looking at your lineage of sacrifice, and you somehow are not measuring up to all of this. I'm remembering David, who took six steps when my glory was trailing, took six steps, and he began to sacrifice before me and became the worship leader of the glory of God.

My best. It's all I got. That's what Israel said. It's my best. If it's not acceptable, too bad. What's the big deal, man? Huh? It's only an old ring after all. It's just a small thing. God's looking through the lens of history at sacrifice, real sacrifice that have been made, and these slackers who are now bringing unacceptable offerings and sacrifices before him, polluted bread and blind and lame and sick sacrifices. He said, "I'm looking at Solomon down the road who who offered so much in such quantity that he it was such a great sacrifice that Solomon made that I had to show up in force and acknowledge that that's the kind of sacrifice that I will accept."

Priests, you are a priest. He's addressing them. This is the priesthood. You're a priest. I'm a priest. And when I when I come to this house, let me tell you something. I'll never get through this Tuesday morning prayer meeting, all right? We'll we'll get there. Hallelujah. I come here we come here sometimes. We got a praise team. Thank God for the praise team. They but I'm going to tell you something. What I do is not contingent on what that praise team does. When I come into the presence of God and I pull back that veil, I want to know that there's some glory in the house.

I want to know for my Nobody is responsible for taking me to that place but me. I am a priest, a royal priesthood, and when I pull back that veil for myself, I want to understand I am in the presence of of the almighty God. Pastor Brad, that team is not the worship leader. This is the worship leader right here. And I'm going to tell you something. Give me a hand. This man is at his best not when he's preaching, not when he's counseling, not when he's doing administrative duties.

This man is it at his dead-level best when he does what he does well, when he walks into the presence of God and begins to feel that anointing and that spirit. When you begin to, as David did, acknowledge the glory of God, WHEN YOU BEGIN TO SPIN like a top in the presence of God, that's when you are at your best because you will lead the rest of us into the presence of God. Hallelujah. And so God finally says in verse 10, you can read this.

He said, "I've seen all this stuff going on. Somebody just shut the door. Just bar the doors. Don't let anybody else in. All this stuff that you're you have going on, the temple has become about God, but it's without God. And all the things that you're doing are not doing anything that brings people closer to God. Close the operation down. I don't ever want to get to that point, and I I believe this is the heart of Pastor Brad, too. That's why we do sometimes take that that that little formality right there and say, "It doesn't matter anymore.

When that presence shows up, it is time to move with the under the auspices of the Holy Spirit of God." We can do church without God. All the programs that we have, Celebrate Recovery, you can do that without God. GriefShare, you can counsel people without God. You can do everything that we do without God. You can and church can become about God, but without God. But, Sister Amber, that's not what it's all about. When you hold somebody's hand and you're counseling them through their grief, it's I am imparting to you.

I'm giving you this token of affection, not from myself, but I am giving you of the spirit that is in me. If it isn't leading people to Jesus Christ, it's about God, but it's not with God. Hallelujah. APC, the heritage that we enjoy is one of sacrifice, praise, and unadulterated worship. I am so so for the heritage that we have. We cannot we do not dare leave that behind. But we are here and now. And the future is dependent upon the foundation upon which we stand and have been built.

And I can tell you from all the years that I have been in the this church, there has never been a time when God has failed to show up. When the people of God bring the proper response, when the people of God come with the proper attitude, there's never BEEN A TIME when God fails to show up. Let me hurry on. God's reputation He says in Malachi 1:11 from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.

Now, say with a minute. God's reputation was invested in Israel's response. Not his existence, not his character, not his power, but his reputation among the nations of the world was invested in this little nation of Israel. He said, "My reputation among those heathen, among those Gentiles, is dependent upon what you show them." When people come through those doors into this place, when they come here, the Lord is telling us tonight APC my reputation is resting upon what you show them and how you respond to my presence.

As in those days of Israel, listen, it's not just about ancient Israel. These are lessons that we learn for ourselves. Those who walk through those doors, they may not understand everything. They will not have the theological background that you might have. They might not have the church background that you might have, but one thing can be unmistakable. Our presentation when we honor our God and how we esteem him and how we worship him to those who are watching. When we attract the presence of God, it can be undeniable.

I didn't understand all of that, BUT I FELT SOMETHING when I came into that house. Why? Because the people of God honored him. Their attitude was, he said you snuff. Not that. It's like You ever You ever have somebody do that for you? What's the big deal, man? He said, "This is what you've done to me. When when I have I have you you've offered these things and and you've just What's the big deal, man? Why can't you accept this? And and and uh This this was attempted uh deception directed toward God.

I got about 3 minutes left. In in in in the He God doesn't put up with that mess. I'm going to tell you just very directly. If it's not your best, God don't want it because our best, our perfect is only his acceptable. You can read it for yourself. When we bring our best, that he says that's just acceptable. We think it's our our the greatest thing that we've ever done, and he says, "It's just acceptable. It's only what you could do. And And the And he said, "You You have robbed me.

You have robbed me of tithes and offerings. And not only that, you've robbed me in the sacrifices. You have become a a nation of thieves and robbing. And And so, it This is why puzzling aspect of this. In the New Testament church, one of the first things that we see happen is a bunch of bunch of the Christians got together, and they start selling their land. Right? And And Now, they've come out of 400 years, this blind bunch has come out of 400 years of the heavens like brass, no sound of the prophet, no voice of God, no manifestation of God.

They've come out of 400 years of this. And And God finally gets a bunch of people to respond to him. And And these two bozos named Ananias and Sapphira, they sold some land. And when they came to the apostles, the apostles said, "Did you sell it for so much?" Oh, yes, we did. And God says, "I'm not putting up with this anymore, this robbery. That's what got Israel in the mess in the first place. I'm not I'm going to start this thing off right. I'm going to show you I am not putting up with anybody robbing me anymore."

And so, Ananias and Sapphira both died for seeking recognition for a pretense of an offering that wasn't their best. The second thing that happened in the book of Acts was this king by the name of Herod. So, they robbed him of his offering. But, Herod accepted the praise of the people as though he were God, and God said, "I'm not putting up with that either." They robbed me of my tithe my offering. I'm not going to let you rob me of my glory. And the Bible says that when he did that, he was just he was consumed with worms.

It was God saying interventionally, "I am not going to put up with this mess anymore." God was insulted and embarrassed by what was being passed off as the best. Let's rethink this when we come to the house of God. I have said this often. David said, "I was glad when they said to me, let's go to the house of the Lord. I will enter through his gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts with praise." We've got greeters out there, and we stand and talk to them.

I wonder what would happen how it would affect everything else that goes on if we did what the psalmist said when we came through his gates with Thanksgiving and we came into the courts with praise. What kind of church service might we be involved in? I'll quit here. I'll take this up with the Tuesday morning prayer group at some point. But I'm telling you, he didn't leave them without hope. He said, "I'm going to send my messenger." Before every before every manifestation, there is a message.

Gabriel speaks to Elizabeth and said, "You're going to have a child." Gabriel speaks the messenger speaks to Mary and said, "The Holy Ghost is going to come upon you and you're going to conceive. Before every manifestation there is a message and the Lord sends his messenger to tell the people it ain't over yet. I'm still going to Let's stand together. I'm still going to deal with you. It says that he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers.

Now we read that, doesn't mean a whole lot. But to Israel their future was resting upon receiving this messenger who comes in the spirit of Elijah. Their whole future was resting on it. Let me speak to the church. The determination of destiny of the church is a confluence of two streams. The fathers and the children. The fathers, the past and the children, the present will determine it will it will merge into one stream and project us into the future. Pastor Brad this is a great church.

It is a glorious not just this local assembly. This is great too, but this is a glorious church. Don't ever forget that, but the future is dependent upon we do not leave the foundation of the fathers. We build on that. The present generation, listen some of you young people, you may not know the history of this church, but you are standing on the backs and the shoulders of some giants of sacrifice. They put in the labor and the sacrifice. They buried their children and they still worship God.

They've stood on the precipice of financial ruin and they've still worshiped God. The present generation needs to hear, you are not in this by yourself. There is a generation behind you and there is a future ahead of you in God. Amen. Let's just thank the Lord together for a glorious church, Apostolic Pentecostal Church. A glorious church with a great future in Jesus Christ. Amen.