All right, thank you again. Dr. Billy Graham used to love to tell a story on himself where he and his wife Ruth were sitting together in church and the offering plate came down. Meaning to put in a $5 bill, he put it in a $20. And for all his notoriety, Dr. Graham has ever been a wealthy man and money was hard to come by and he meant to put in the $5. It's in the $20. As soon as a guy out of his hand went down the row, he said, it was wife Ruth. Oh no, I meant to put in a $5, not a $20. Ruth, as only a wife could, the padded hand said, that's OK, Billy. I'm sure God only gave you credit for the $5. He sees through the externals, you know. He knows the intentions of our hearts. As I mentioned, a while ago, reading through the older testament again, and I've read through it a few times. And reading through last week of December, reading through Malachi came across the passage. We're looking at this one in Malachi 1, which is 6410. And I read that, I thought, this is the text for our next communion service. I've read this before, but it jumped out of me and just hit me. And I thought, well, I'm going to share the joy with all of you. So Malachi, chapter 1, verses 6 through 14, read it in your Bible with me, read it in the Bulletin, look up here on the screen. Read along with me, if you will. Malachi writes, a son honors his father and a slave is master. If I am a father, where's the honor do me? If I'm a master, where's the respect do me? Says the Lord Almighty. It is you priests who show contempt for my name. But you ask, how have we shown contempt for your name by offering defiled food on my altar? But you ask, how have we defiled you by saying that the Lord's table is contemptible? When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice the name or disease animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor. Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you? Says the Lord Almighty. Now, plead with God to be gracious to us with such offerings from your hands. Will he accept you, says the Lord Almighty? Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar. I'm not pleased with you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will accept no offering from your hands. My name will be great among the nations from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord Almighty. But you profane it by saying the Lord's table is defiled, and its food is contemptible. And you say, what a burden. And you snip at it contemptuously, says the Lord Almighty, when you bring injured lame or diseased animals and offer them a sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands, says the Lord? Curse is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king, says the Lord Almighty. My name is to be feared among the nations. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank you for your word, and even the times when we look into your word, and it basically slaps us, and it's such a jolt to our systems.
Lord, even those places where the scripture, frankly, shocks us. We thank you for your word. Lord, that it's a biting and active forever, and that it does pierce down to the very division between soul and marrow, join to marrow. Lord, thank you for your word. I pray to this morning, as I preach this word, it would be not only just the scalpel that cuts, but also Lord, that you will allow me to wield this word as a surgeon who cuts in order to heal. Lord, that you speak to us through your word, is my prayer this morning, in Jesus' name, the living word, Amen. Well, the name Malachi means my messenger. Malachi's message this morning was to the older covenant people Israel, is to the newer covenant people, the church, and it's to us right here this morning. It's about how we are to approach God in worship. Folks, if there's anything I know more about than probably your average pastor, this is this, this corporate worship. So I want to speak to us this morning. This is about giving honor, where honor is due, it's about paying tribute, what tribute is due, it's about showing respect for whom respect is due, and it's about offering worship to whom worship is due. All of life needs to be understood as worship, as everything we do is an active worship for the Lord. Good, bad or indifferent, everything we do is an active worship before our living God, but this is about specifically about corporate worship. How do we offer a God worship, which is pleasing in his sight? How do we, as Psalm 29 puts it, how do we ascribe to the Lord the majesty, do his name, ascribe to the Lord, glory and majesty? How do we do that? Well, let's suggest to this morning that we do it and as follows, we offer God worship that it is characterized by excellence, by excellence. This is a blistering indictment of his people, folks. This is the skating criticism. When you come together for worship, he says, you're not giving me your best, look back at the latter part of verse six, but you ask how we show him contempt for your name by offering the filed food on my altar, but you ask how we defiled you by saying the Lord's table is contemptible. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? And then God says, try offering that to your governor. He says, you wouldn't offer this to your governor? You'd be ashamed. You'd be afraid to offer this to your governor. You're gonna offer it to me? This is just a sting, review of his people. You're trying to see, God says, you're trying to see how little you can get by with. When it comes to worship, you give me the scraps off your table. You give me the loose chains from your cushions, from your car seats. You're phoning it in, which would have been kind of weird for them, you know, 400 years BC, but he says, you're going to the motions. You're not giving me your best. Worship is not a priority with you. It's an inconvenience. It's an interruption to you. It's a nuisance. It's a bother. At best, corporate worship, he says for you, it's an afterthought. Verse 13, he says, look at you say, what a burden. You know, starting to sound familiar? You ever say anything like this? I have. I'll confess or something. I don't really feel like being here, but I do want to get a paycheck, you know, so I do show up. When I get here, I'm telling, I'm glad. I understand. I understand that feeling sometimes, but if I had a nickel for every time I have been asked, could we have an earlier service? I really kind of wanted to get the worship service over so I can have the rest of my Sunday free. Oh, believe me. If I had a nickel for every time I've been asked, I have a lot of nickels. I have a lot of nickels. Or, you know, a Saturday night service or whatever, just not 11 o'clock Sunday because it really kind of cuts the middle out of my day. I forget who's dead is. I forget who's dead is. In other words, people say to me, could you make corporate worship of God Almighty? By the way, the phrase is used here, it says the Lord Almighty. You see, it's six times, it's this little passage. This is Yahweh's Seventh. The Lord Almighty, the Lord of hosts. People are saying, could you make us a corporate worship of God, fits into my schedule, more community? Some of you in here have asked me that, but I want you to know, you're here. So I give you a great credit. I give you your props. You've asked for different times, but you're here anyway. I hesitate to tell you this, but I'm gonna do it anyway. We're family. If you're visiting here with us, you're in a family worship service. So, folks, every single week, every single week without exception, I invite people to come here to worship. I do it in person, I do on a phone, I do it by email, and I even occasionally do it by sale mail. You remember sale mail when you put a stamp on something that post-personal theater? This past week, because I was out for a couple of weeks, a couple of Sundays anyway, I was a little backed up. So, this past week was a little unusual, but within the past week, I've invited about 30 people to be here, and some of you are here today. I appreciate that greatly. All I'm doing is I'm asking you. I'm asking you a family. Do you invite people to come here? When was the last time you invited somebody to come here? I'm gonna tell you some. Rick Warren puts this very typical, pithy-pointed Rick Warren, as him, he says, if people are never inviting us to come to church with him, our base is saying, everybody else can just go to hell. Now, he said it, okay, I'm just quoting him. If you never, ever invite anybody to come here with him, what are you saying? He's saying about your church. See what happened when you give me a couple of Sundays, I'll come back with an attitude, you know it. I'll come back snarky. I'm calling you out as I'm calling myself out folks. No excuses. That's my theme for 2011. No excuses. Let's do what God has called us today. Worship needs to be a priority for God's people. We need to give him what's best, not what's left. You know, everybody knows that the Butterball Company does a Thanksgiving hotline. When people call in, they ask for tips or, how do I do this or where they're having a problem with their Butterball turkey or whatever. True story, a woman calls in and gets the Butterball expert on the phone. What a title, I'm your Butterball expert. She gets the Butterball expert on the phone and she asks this question. She said, I've got this turkey. I've had it in the freezer for 23 years. Do you think it's still good? And the Butterball expert says, well, if it's been frozen solid the whole time, you probably still eat it, but I gotta tell you, the taste of it's going to have deteriorated at the point where it's not gonna be worth much. And the woman replied and I quote, that's what I thought, we'll just give the turkey to the church. It's not good enough for us. Now, we'll give it to the church. Oh, you surprised at that, by the way? I'm not. I'm not. I've seen this happen over and over again. What I'm saying is we need to give God what's best, not what we don't want. How do we offer worship that's pleasing God's sight? We do it by giving God our best, by offering God worship with excellence. And I tell you what, that's gonna be one thing for those of us who are the leaders up front here, okay? For myself, for Doug, the musician, for everybody, you see it front, that's gonna be one thing for us. I'm calling on us to raise the level of our game, to do what we do better than we've been doing it. It's gonna be something else for the guys in the tower. That's the generic guys, sometimes we have the fairer sex up there as well. For the folks in the tower, on the microphones and the slides, it's complicated. It's not an easy thing they do. For people that open up and lock up, people that make the place look nice in the take care of their grounds. I'm calling on all of us to raise the level of our game this year. No excuses. Let's do what we do with excellence and offer our best. Our utmost for his highest and Oswald Chambers, wonderful phrase. In fact, I've been giving you worship definitions in your bulletin. I'm gonna keep doing that with passages of scripture that are particularly appropriate and worship definitions that I've gathered. I've got about 14 pages of them in my computer, so I'll give you some of them too. Here's one from a friend of mine, Professor of Covenant Theological, Mark Dolby. But I love Oswald Chambers' definition. From January the 6th of my utmost for his highest and Oswald Chambers says, worship is giving God the best that he has given you. Everything we've got comes from him offer the best of it back to him, will you? How do we offer worship pleasing to God's sight? We do offer him worship that is excellent, but this excellence gotta be balanced by being authentic, being authentic. Verse 10, and listen to this. This is God talking to his people. Verse 10, oh that one of you would shut the temple doors, so you would not light useless fires on my altar. I'm not pleased with you. Probably the greatest understatement in scripture right here. I'm not pleased with you. Says the Lord Almighty. Says Yahweh, Sebel. And I will accept no offering from your hands. He is saying, I'd rather you nail the door shut and don't even come than do what you're doing. You're making me sick, he says. I don't want your worship like this anymore. Stop phoning it in, stop going through the motions, stop giving me the lame and the blind that's sick from your flocks. If you don't give me your best, stay home. Stay home. We've got an honor, God, and worship. We're not worship him at all. Better to lock the doors and turn out the lights and offering this wimpy, half-hearted going through the motion sort of efforts. Now I ask myself fairly often, why would a person come to candle presbyterian church? Well they come the first time for all kinds of reason. More often than not, it's the website. Sometimes because they've driven by it and they've seen our sign. Best of all I like is the word of mouth. Come to my church, come to this church. I've been there and so on and they'll listen to a sermon online and they'll come anyway, you know. But for what a reason that people come to our church, as opposed to other churches, and then I ask myself, after attending it the first time, why would he come back? Why would he come, we're not the biggest church. We're not the wealthiest, we're not the flashiest. We're certainly not the hippest or the trendiest. That usually doesn't go with the word presbyterian. And again when I'm out, it's kind of difficult for a family to get to different worship services, but I watch different preachers on television. I'm reminded again of all the things I'm doing wrong. My hair's all wrong. I need to do my hair more like this. And it would probably help, is it doing it? It would probably help if I didn't wash it for a couple of days, you know. You think I'm kidding? Watch the guys on television. My mother would die if she saw what I just did. Out of frosted platinum, I either lose the mustache or grow a goatee or just not shave for a couple of days before I show up here on Sundays. I'm dressed all wrong. I don't look like I just stepped off MTV. I need to be wearing, you know, a jersey and ripped jeans. I'm not tall enough. You know, I'm doing everything wrong according to what I see the big guns on television. I don't preach sermons like three keys to a successful business life or successful marriage or a better sex life order. I just said that to see if you're still paying attention. You and no preach said that. I didn't hear that. I don't preach sermons like that. I don't do the, Jesus is coming back and I don't win. I don't do that stuff. I don't do the 10 most humble people I know and how I chose the other nine. You know, I'm not marketable like that. I don't think in those terms. I don't Twitter. I don't tweet. I'm not on the 500 million people on Facebook. We do have a website by the way. It's very nice y'all to look at it. And I am blogging. I expect you to appreciate that. But I think worship is primarily about God and not me and not my happiness, not my success. I even actually believe that this Bible is God's word. Even the politically incorrect parts of it. Parts of when I talk to people about them and I tell them what the Bible says and I still believe this stuff, make me sound like a Neanderthal. And that's who I am, that's who we are. So why would anybody come here? Why would anybody come back here? Folks, it better be because of the reality of what we're doing in this place. It better be because of the reality that we are meeting with God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that He is here, really here, dwelling in the midst of His people, dwelling, residing, abiding in our praises. It better be because His Paul told the Corinthians when the non-believer, the non-Christian comes in your midst. He says, oh, God is really in the midst of you. It needs to be because we're engaging with Him. Intellectually, we're pretty good at that part, but also emotionally, we're terrible at that, volitioning with our wills and even with our bodies. So when we leave this place, we're different because we came here. We need to be engaging Him with this sincere, open, authentic attitude of praise and worship, yes, but also repentance and confession. We're not His because we're good. We're in spite of who we are. He's called us to be His own anyway. Need to be honest and open. Now, we dress up pretty nice and that's fine. Well, let's not play church folks. Let's not play religion. Let's be authentic about who and what we are before Holy God. Let's engage one another openly and sincerely in an attitude of encouragement and admonition of comfort and support. I'm not talking about putting on a show, some kind of a theatrical extravaganza. Some churches do that and they do it very well and they know whether they're doing it as unto the Lord or whether they're putting on a show. They know God knows and they know it's not my place to judge them. I'm just talking about authenticity and I think you know the difference. When's the night in the inquiries class? I'm telling you, it's a good, very engaged bunch. You're welcome to join us for meeting in the KCS, the school library, room 15. Mrs. L, we try to clean it up when we're done, I promise. When we're talking about people who lead in worship and I made the comment to them, you know, it's not easy when you're sitting up here and I got all your eyes looking to me and you can ask the other worship leaders, it's kind of, it's not easy for us to forget that you're not the audience. You're the congregation. We have an audience of one, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, our triumphant God. That's my only audience, you're my fellow worshipers. And I might have fool you but I'm not fooling him but you know, I don't think I'm fooling you either. I think you know the difference between the person who says I am here to point to Christ, the risen Christ. I am here to usher you into God's presence and point you to him. I'm trying to basically be invisible and point you to God Almighty. The person is really trying to abandon himself into the presence of God and the person is putting on a show. I think you know the difference. And if you ever get the sense, listen to me. If you ever get the sense that I or the other worship leaders that we're putting on a show, run, don't walk and go to another church where they're not doing that stuff. We're not the biggest of the flashiest or wealthiest or the hippest or the trannyest but we can be the most authentic. That's what I'm calling on us to do and to be in 2011. No excuses, authenticity. Keeping it real as a phrase goes to offer God worship that is pleasing and simple inside. We need to do with excellence. We need to do with authenticity. We need to offer in worship this participatory. Biblical worship folks, it's participatory name to read the Bible. The New Testament doesn't tell us much about actually corporate worship services but the older Testament is replete with the work of God's people in worship. They come before Him and they sing and they shout and they cry out and they stand for hours just to hear the reading of God's word and then they fall flat on their faces and the dust and they repent and they weep and they realize how far they fall into God's glory. But it's a very physical, it's a visceral, it's an emotional, it's an all-encompassing, all-engaging contact sport when the worship God Almighty and the older Testament. It's a very participatory, it's not a spectator thing folks. It's not a spectator sport. Every Sunday folks, let me ask you if you were invited to a gathering, let's say it was a banquet where they were gonna honor somebody, some dignitaries, maybe somebody you know who's really accomplished something great, who's sacrificed something great, who's getting some sort of lifetime of service kind of an award and you're invited to come to that gathering. Would you come? Would you sit at home? Let me go play golf, let me go out on the boat. Maybe go the, I started to say go to the dolphins game, I'm sorry, that would be a bad thing to say this Sunday this week, sorry, erase that. If you're listening to this later on the internet, this has been a bad week in dolphin land, so forget I said that. But would you show up? It's coming late, halfway through the second and the third quarter of whatever the event was. If it called for you to give a gift to, you know, to attribute some kind of the dignitarie. Would you bring some lame left over, some you picked up at Walgreens on the way, something somebody gave you and you didn't want it so you re-gift it and give it back. Would you do that? There really were total questions you know you wouldn't. So every Sunday folks, we're invited to come here and be in the presence of our living God. He invites us to come to us, presence to honor him, especially for what he's done for us in Christ. What kind of a, what kind of a representation are we making before the Lord? Is it important to us? This year folks, no excuses. Let's not offer him any wimpy, half-hearted, going through the motions sort of. Let's give him our best. Let's give him our best. Excellent, authentic, participatory, Christiani, not artificial religiosity. Let me read something to you. It's something I shamelessly stole from somebody up at Willa Creek in Chicago and then I've run it through a reform grid, through my own grid. So it's not original with me, but I've tweaked it a lot. Let me read this to you. I've read to you before it's been a while. And I call it spectators versus players, please listen. Spectators look upon churches in another obligation to fulfill. Players see church as an opportunity to be used of God. Spectators receive constructive criticism with indignation. Players are grateful for the feedback because they want to give God their utmost for his highest. Spectators sit passively and complain about what they don't like. Players stand up, speak up, make it their personal mission to find a solution. Spectators never think about their church between Sunday and Sunday's, players are involved in the weekly ministries of the church and they pray for the church's daily. Spectators are ready to quit. The first sign of adversity or hardship. Players dig in and persevere because they know what it costs Jesus to redeem his bride. Spectators think only about their own needs. Players think about, pray about, and work to meet the needs of others and the church as a whole. Spectators are prone to feeling jealous, threatened, or simply indifferent toward the gifts and talents of others. Players praise God for distributing his gifts richly across the body of Christ. Spectators run away from resolving interpersonal conflicts. Players seek to resolve such conflicts in order to honor, honor God, promote the peace, purity, and unity of the church. Spectators focus on their own talents, abilities and sense of happiness. Players know that being used of God sacrificially is the most fulfilling thing they can do with their lives. Spectators will not allow themselves to be put in a situation where they will be stretched. Players respond to such situation with humble reliance on our all-sufficient God. I'll post that on the website this week, by the way, but to do anything less than that, I'm calling us to get off the sidelines, stop the spectating if that's what you're doing. Most of you are not, and I want you to know how much I respect and admire what you do. If you've been spectating, I'm calling you out and I think, get off the sideline. Come on, get in the game. Let's give our utmost for his highest to do anything less than that dishonor's God. He's empty seats dishonor God, and they bring contempt on his table. He wasn't pleased with the people of Israel 400 plus years BC. He's not pleased with it today in 2011 in Miami. Now, what happens? I need to say to them, when we fall short of giving our utmost for his highest, folks, this is the gospel grace to know. Jesus has already done it. Jesus has already given the utmost for his highest. He's already given sacrificial with excellence, with authenticity. He has participated to the point of death, even death on a cross, and that's where our confidence lies. Not in our efforts, our efforts are merely response, merely a response to what he has already done for us. We respond him not because we have to, not out of obligation, but out of gratitude. The question before the house day is, how grateful are you for what he's done for you today? Let's live our lives in such a way to show that. At the end of every life, folks, at the end of every life, we will stand before God and we will offer back to him a life that is either a thank you note or an apology. What do we want to offer him? Let's pray together. Lord God Almighty, thank you for what you've done for us in Christ. Thank you for this table, this service. Thank you for the opportunity we have to lift our hearts, our minds, our wills, our hands before you. Lord, that you would accept, again, our offerings of worship this morning, that you would meet with your people in the elements on this table as our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's pray together. Have mercy on the Son of God according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy. Blood out our transgressions, our sins and sinfulness seem ever before us. We do not do the things you command, but even more, we are not the people of character that you rightly demand. We're grieved by how our sins wound others. We're grieved by how our sins wound our own consciences with the guilt of our rebellion. For most grieved, how our sins offend you are good and perfect, creator, sustainer, redeemer and father. Father, wash us thoroughly from our iniquity and cleanse us from our blood and from our sin by the blood of Christ. Shadow broad, you're comforting and renewing grace in our hearts through your spirit that the joy of our salvation would be restored to us and clean heart and an upright spirit would be renewed in us. Our plea for mercy is not made through our own efforts or zeal or remorse. Our plea, we make this day in the name, the power and authority of the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, even Jesus. Amen. We ask that you receive, and have the Lord's benediction. Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing as well. May he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.