Malachi 1:1-5
Intro: Malachi = “My (God’s) messenger wrote between 430-420 BC
Malachi was the last of the prophets, prophesied B.C. 420. He reproves the priests and the people for the evil practices into which they had fallen, and invites them to repentance and reformation, with promises of the blessings to be bestowed at the coming of the Messiah. And now that prophecy was to cease, he speaks clearly of the Messiah, as night at hand, and directs the people of God to keep in remembrance the law of Moses, while they were in expectation of the gospel of Christ.
Vrs 1 The “Burden” =heavy sentence, stern, warnings and rebukes “to” Israel.
Vrs 2a Israel’s question “How have you loved us?” They doubted God’s love for them because times were not good for the Jewish people after a 60-70 year exile from the land they were back but their rebuilding efforts did not go well, they rebuilt the wall but did not have a good military to protect them from enemies, they rebuilt the temple but is was nothing like the temple Solomon built, there was drought and their farms were not doing well, they had economic problems, they had no king but a Persian appointed as the governor so they little freedom.
Maybe you have had this question
You question God’s love? Because the loss of on a loved one, divorce, financial trouble, marital difficulty, disobedient children, overbearing parents, lousy friends. Don’t get what we want.
As Tim Keller says we accuse God because He did not give us our Idol
Maybe your life is not what you expected or want and it causes you to ask God, do you really love me?
So like the Israelites you have reasons to question God, but are they JUST reasons?
How does God feel when we doubt or misunderstand His love?
The Gift Bible Illustration:
Lets look at Israel
The root of their sin was their doubt of God’s love and claiming they had no examples of His love they looked at what was gone not at what remained. We cannot say that God does not love us because problems come into our lives.
As we will see through a study of this book they were not innocent and brought on many of these problems themselves.
God responds to them..
Vrs 2b-"Yet I loved Jacob and I hated Esau, that is, took Jacob into covenant, the blessing on him and his, but refused and rejected Esau.’’
History moment: Jacob and Esau were Rebecca and Issac’s sons. Issac and Ishmael were Abrahams sons. Ishmael is the Father of the Arabs and Issac is of Jacob known as Israel. That is why there is no peace to this day in the Holy Land and Esau comes into play because He married a descendent of Ishmael.
Why does God respond with this? Jacob is the Father of the Israelites and God was reminding them that He chose the Jews to bring forth His plan and blessing on all nations. That is the line in which the Messiah Jesus would come.
I chose to use you and reveal myself to you and save you from your sinful selves.
Does God hate? Scriptures**ill Yes He has to because His nature is justice and holiness but His nature is love as John says “God is love”
Remember there are two types of Grace
Common Grace- which everyone enjoys James 1:16-17, Matthew 5:44-46. This is God’s way of telling everyone, “hey I am here”
Saving Grace- which God’s desire is for us to trust in Jesus. GOSPEL
We love him, because He has first loved us;
So to answer your question: Does God love me? Yes Here is an example of someone from the 5 who recognizes God’s love for him.
It's been a little over a year ago that I stumbled upon the 5 and it has changed my life forever. I am happier now then I have ever been in my life and I owe it all to my relationship with Jesus. While I have learned so much about the word of God over this past year, I feel I have learned a lot about myself and what is important to me. My biggest regret is that I didn't open my eyes to this years ago. I work on being a better Christian every day and I can tell you I'm light years away from where I was a year ago and I can't wait to see what my future holds. I hope to be a better role model and inspire others to join the church.
Challenge: Make a list of all the ways you see Gods love in your life
Vrs 4 This is what life is like when you do not have God on your side, you may work hard but it will not be successful. It is like spinning wheels, it may be built up but it will be destroyed. Pride gets in the way and they think they can do things without the Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:25 foolishness of God is wiser then the wisdom of men.
James 4:6 “God Opposes the proud”
Repentance is the key, the Edomites responded when things get bad “we have been impoverished” instead of turning to the Lord they turn to themselves.
This is similar to the modern self help movements “you have the power to change things”, work harder, try harder, you can do it. But you can’t do it without Jesus
Jacob’s cities are laid waste, but they are rebuilt; Edom’s are laid waste, and never rebuilt. The sufferings of the righteous will have an end and will end well; all their grievances will be redressed, and their sorrow turned into joy; but the sufferings of the wicked will be endless and remediless, as Edom’s desolations
Those that walk contrary to God will find that He will walk contrary to them; for who ever hardened his heart against God and prospered?
Maybe you are trying to parent on your own, school, work, solve marital or family or friend difficulties on your own, achieve goals…
Challenge: Make a list of areas in your life in which you need to repent and trust Jesus because you have been trying to do it on your own. Really the main reasons why you do that is so that you can take the credit, or you are just acting out of ignorance.
Vrs 5 There is two ways of looking at the verse, when others look at Israel they will see the blessing of God or from a prophetic standpoint of Jesus coming and the people (us) beyond Israel will be blessed and Jesus’ name will be lifted up.
God’s goodness being his glory, when he does us good we must proclaim him great, for that is magnifying him. It is an instance of his goodness that he has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants, and for this those that love his salvation say, The Lord be magnified, Ps. 35:27.
The promise, whether the wicked is held down or the righteous is lifted up God’s name will be lifted up.
Next week we are going to learn about Worship, so come with the list on your mind how God has shown you His love and also come with an attitude of repentance for trying to do things on your own.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Mother's Day "How to Treat your Mom"
This mothers day we would like to honor our moms one way that we honor our moms no matter how old we are is the way that we treat our mom.
Becoming a mom changed your moms life. A mother is an amazing job, the most overworked and underpaid position in the world, like all of you I have a mom and when I am around her I feel like I am 12years old, she still buys me cookies.
And I also have the privilege of being married to mom and observing how my two sons and daughter respond to her. See the boys fall and get hurt and cry for their mommy or pick dandelions from the yard and give them to my wife as gift it reminds me of the special and safe place to be and the place that every child has for the mommy in the heart.
The intuition of a mom is amazing and I already see it in my daughter… everything is a baby and babies have babies, she desires to do housework and cook.
Often times we think about what impact our moms have on us but tonight I want to talk about impact you can have on your mom.
The bible teaches many things about how to treat or moms and tonight I want to focus in on 4 ways the Proverbs guide us into ways to treat or moms in order to have an impact on them.
1. Proverbs 1:8 what is the “law of your mother” you may think it is just… “moms rules” illustration
There is much more to that and chances are from a young age your mom taught or modeled love, compassion, mercy, kindness, patience and if she did not I am sure her intentions were to. Regardless, the bible teaches these things so when we look to our moms we should treat them in the manner in which they would want to be treated.
When we do what is wrong and don’t obey there are consequences Proverbs 30:17 read and
Bottom line is the consequences of living in disobedience are not fun.
So don’t turn your back on the way you mother would want you to treat others or her
2. Proverbs 10:1 The next passage is actually not about how you treat your mom directly but how you live your life will affect how your mom feels.
Sometimes the foolish things we do embarrass our moms like the little girl in the grocery store that her mom was pregnant went up to a man that had a rather large belly and said “my mommy has a baby in her belly too, when is yours going to be born?”
But many times the things that we do and say break our mothers hearts because like Jesus our mom wants good for us and they know that doing the right thing is good for us and regardless of how successful in life we are our moms want us to have a good life and practice what they taught us.
Don’t bring grief to her, challenge, call your mom make things right, maybe you have tried and it is not working. Pray for her
3. Proverbs 23:22 One of two things can happen when you get older, either you age with grace and you become sweeter and more humble or you age with disgrace and you get meaner and grouchier. Much of that depends how you handle what life has dealt out to you.
Ruth Loving Naomi
Love your mother when she is old, even if she put nothing in let her get something out of you because you love Jesus
4. Proverbs 23:25 why would your mom rejoice in you?
2 John1 :4-5 Rejoice in people walking in truth. I am sure it makes your mom happy when you tell the truth. How much more does she want you to know the truth? So what is the Truth? Moms dads sons daughters the Truth is Jesus
Even if we have blown it as a child or as a parent Jesus forgives and in the next life it will be impossible to blow it.
To all you kids young and old God is the mother that you never had “long to gather like a mother hen gathers her chicks”
To all you moms, we love you, we pray for you and we want you to love Jesus so that can spill over into your children’s lives.
Happy Mothers Day!
Becoming a mom changed your moms life. A mother is an amazing job, the most overworked and underpaid position in the world, like all of you I have a mom and when I am around her I feel like I am 12years old, she still buys me cookies.
And I also have the privilege of being married to mom and observing how my two sons and daughter respond to her. See the boys fall and get hurt and cry for their mommy or pick dandelions from the yard and give them to my wife as gift it reminds me of the special and safe place to be and the place that every child has for the mommy in the heart.
The intuition of a mom is amazing and I already see it in my daughter… everything is a baby and babies have babies, she desires to do housework and cook.
Often times we think about what impact our moms have on us but tonight I want to talk about impact you can have on your mom.
The bible teaches many things about how to treat or moms and tonight I want to focus in on 4 ways the Proverbs guide us into ways to treat or moms in order to have an impact on them.
1. Proverbs 1:8 what is the “law of your mother” you may think it is just… “moms rules” illustration
There is much more to that and chances are from a young age your mom taught or modeled love, compassion, mercy, kindness, patience and if she did not I am sure her intentions were to. Regardless, the bible teaches these things so when we look to our moms we should treat them in the manner in which they would want to be treated.
When we do what is wrong and don’t obey there are consequences Proverbs 30:17 read and
Bottom line is the consequences of living in disobedience are not fun.
So don’t turn your back on the way you mother would want you to treat others or her
2. Proverbs 10:1 The next passage is actually not about how you treat your mom directly but how you live your life will affect how your mom feels.
Sometimes the foolish things we do embarrass our moms like the little girl in the grocery store that her mom was pregnant went up to a man that had a rather large belly and said “my mommy has a baby in her belly too, when is yours going to be born?”
But many times the things that we do and say break our mothers hearts because like Jesus our mom wants good for us and they know that doing the right thing is good for us and regardless of how successful in life we are our moms want us to have a good life and practice what they taught us.
Don’t bring grief to her, challenge, call your mom make things right, maybe you have tried and it is not working. Pray for her
3. Proverbs 23:22 One of two things can happen when you get older, either you age with grace and you become sweeter and more humble or you age with disgrace and you get meaner and grouchier. Much of that depends how you handle what life has dealt out to you.
Ruth Loving Naomi
Love your mother when she is old, even if she put nothing in let her get something out of you because you love Jesus
4. Proverbs 23:25 why would your mom rejoice in you?
2 John1 :4-5 Rejoice in people walking in truth. I am sure it makes your mom happy when you tell the truth. How much more does she want you to know the truth? So what is the Truth? Moms dads sons daughters the Truth is Jesus
Even if we have blown it as a child or as a parent Jesus forgives and in the next life it will be impossible to blow it.
To all you kids young and old God is the mother that you never had “long to gather like a mother hen gathers her chicks”
To all you moms, we love you, we pray for you and we want you to love Jesus so that can spill over into your children’s lives.
Happy Mothers Day!
"THree to the Power Of One" Part 3
There are three main issues that the Bible teaches which leads to the logical conclusion of the trinity, here are the 3 key issues we will be working with during this series
-There is one God (The Bible teaches Monotheism, one God) Deut 6:4
-God is three persons
-Each person is fully God
(5) We learned about the community aspect, we also learned about the divine dance of mutual love and glory.
Theologians have two categories for the trinity
Ontological (essence of the being) this is a “given” when we read the N.T. not one writer questions the being of the God encompassing three persons of the trinity.
Economical (the outworking of the being) This is the teaching of the N.T.
This is extremely important to understand because the accusation against the trinity is that it was invented by early church fathers and not a teaching of the N.T. But from reading and studying the N.T. we see that the authors freely speak of each person of the trinity in the context of their divinity.
I want to illustrate this point with an important passage Ephesians 1:2-14 is the praise of the Trinity. The three members are working together to accomplish Salvation.
The Holy Spirit is God: Psalm 139:7-9 speaks of the omnipresence of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 2:10-11 speaks of the omniscience of the Spirit
1 Cor. 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and His Spirit lives within you”
****So how does the Spirit impact our lives?
*John 16:8-11 Brings Conviction
Convicts world of sin, before you came to know Jesus as your Savior you came to the conclusion your sin needed to be forgiven, Godly sorrow produces repentance which leads to salvation 2 Cor 7:9-11
-most of the time we only feel bad or sorry because we are caught, that is worldly sorrow.
Of righteousness, the Holy Spirit makes us realize we need to be made righteous. Sometime we think we are righteous because the people around us are not.
Of Judgment because the Spirit makes us realize there is judgment and a need for judgment
We have a Holy and just and righteous God and that is what He desires from us but we can never compare and the Spirit convicts us so we realize we are not and we need Jesus
*1 Peter 1:2 Brings Sanctification being set apart. If there are no changes occurring in your life there is something wrong. Or if last year or five years ago you were spiritually closer to God there is a problem.
Ez 36:26-27 Prophecy of the Holy Spirit being given to believers
The question becomes for many of you, why am I not being sanctified? What is wrong?
1. Maybe you are not a Christian: you are confused about what a Christian is
2. Maybe you are not exposing yourself to God’s Word
The Bible is the “Sword of the Spirit”
3. Maybe you don’t trust that Jesus is right so therefore you don’t follow the teachings of Jesus. Dumb Oprah book
4. You have fallen into the trap of blame. Like Adam and Eve. If…
5. Maybe you just don’t care. We tend to think of people who are hog wild in sin, but Jesus was always challenging the religious. Did you know that Jesus hates religion.
Maybe you are convicted and you are being sanctified, then guess what you start to stand out in the crowd. When this happens you are open to being persecuted because the world does not understand.
Two Iranian Women in jail
2 Tim 3:12 Yes, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. It is bizarre but it is true that people actually will mock you, hate you and try to harm your reputation because you love Jesus and are living what even the worst of people would think is good.
-Its like making fun of your kid for getting good grades,
-It like a wife yelling at her husband for getting a raise at work
-It is like a teenager telling their parents they hate them for buying them car
It is bizarre to be persecuted for doing good, but that is what happens when we are living for Jesus. Why? Because we become a reminder to those who do not believe.
*1 Peter 4:14 Brings comfort when you are suffering in the Name of Jesus “Spirit rests on you”
How does the Spirit rest on us?
2 Cor 13:14 We have fellowship with the Spirit which implies His personal nature and how the Spirit is the means in which we are united with the Godhead. *Lonely at work or school or home
Romans 5:5 God’s Love is poured out in our hearts. No matter how hard it gets it is an encouragement to know that God loves us and this is something that through the Holy Spirit that we can also experience.
John 15:26 He is the Helper, helps us out of the persecution Paul broken out of prison, during persecution we are tempted to sin. If I give in they will not persecute me any more.
Helps us to escape temptation Jesus in Matt 4
John 14:26 teaches and brings to remembrance “they hated me first”
-There is one God (The Bible teaches Monotheism, one God) Deut 6:4
-God is three persons
-Each person is fully God
(5) We learned about the community aspect, we also learned about the divine dance of mutual love and glory.
Theologians have two categories for the trinity
Ontological (essence of the being) this is a “given” when we read the N.T. not one writer questions the being of the God encompassing three persons of the trinity.
Economical (the outworking of the being) This is the teaching of the N.T.
This is extremely important to understand because the accusation against the trinity is that it was invented by early church fathers and not a teaching of the N.T. But from reading and studying the N.T. we see that the authors freely speak of each person of the trinity in the context of their divinity.
I want to illustrate this point with an important passage Ephesians 1:2-14 is the praise of the Trinity. The three members are working together to accomplish Salvation.
The Holy Spirit is God: Psalm 139:7-9 speaks of the omnipresence of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 2:10-11 speaks of the omniscience of the Spirit
1 Cor. 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and His Spirit lives within you”
****So how does the Spirit impact our lives?
*John 16:8-11 Brings Conviction
Convicts world of sin, before you came to know Jesus as your Savior you came to the conclusion your sin needed to be forgiven, Godly sorrow produces repentance which leads to salvation 2 Cor 7:9-11
-most of the time we only feel bad or sorry because we are caught, that is worldly sorrow.
Of righteousness, the Holy Spirit makes us realize we need to be made righteous. Sometime we think we are righteous because the people around us are not.
Of Judgment because the Spirit makes us realize there is judgment and a need for judgment
We have a Holy and just and righteous God and that is what He desires from us but we can never compare and the Spirit convicts us so we realize we are not and we need Jesus
*1 Peter 1:2 Brings Sanctification being set apart. If there are no changes occurring in your life there is something wrong. Or if last year or five years ago you were spiritually closer to God there is a problem.
Ez 36:26-27 Prophecy of the Holy Spirit being given to believers
The question becomes for many of you, why am I not being sanctified? What is wrong?
1. Maybe you are not a Christian: you are confused about what a Christian is
2. Maybe you are not exposing yourself to God’s Word
The Bible is the “Sword of the Spirit”
3. Maybe you don’t trust that Jesus is right so therefore you don’t follow the teachings of Jesus. Dumb Oprah book
4. You have fallen into the trap of blame. Like Adam and Eve. If…
5. Maybe you just don’t care. We tend to think of people who are hog wild in sin, but Jesus was always challenging the religious. Did you know that Jesus hates religion.
Maybe you are convicted and you are being sanctified, then guess what you start to stand out in the crowd. When this happens you are open to being persecuted because the world does not understand.
Two Iranian Women in jail
2 Tim 3:12 Yes, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. It is bizarre but it is true that people actually will mock you, hate you and try to harm your reputation because you love Jesus and are living what even the worst of people would think is good.
-Its like making fun of your kid for getting good grades,
-It like a wife yelling at her husband for getting a raise at work
-It is like a teenager telling their parents they hate them for buying them car
It is bizarre to be persecuted for doing good, but that is what happens when we are living for Jesus. Why? Because we become a reminder to those who do not believe.
*1 Peter 4:14 Brings comfort when you are suffering in the Name of Jesus “Spirit rests on you”
How does the Spirit rest on us?
2 Cor 13:14 We have fellowship with the Spirit which implies His personal nature and how the Spirit is the means in which we are united with the Godhead. *Lonely at work or school or home
Romans 5:5 God’s Love is poured out in our hearts. No matter how hard it gets it is an encouragement to know that God loves us and this is something that through the Holy Spirit that we can also experience.
John 15:26 He is the Helper, helps us out of the persecution Paul broken out of prison, during persecution we are tempted to sin. If I give in they will not persecute me any more.
Helps us to escape temptation Jesus in Matt 4
John 14:26 teaches and brings to remembrance “they hated me first”
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