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[0:00] Our study in Malachi, we have looked, we've been looking at God's condemnation, if you will, of the priesthood in the day of Malachi.

[0:23] He said they have defiled the Lord, and they asked, how have we done that? And his response to them was, you are offering polluted sacrifices.

[0:36] Remember that in the law of God, anybody that eats anything polluted is polluted themselves. And the sacrifices offered on the altar were considered the bread of God.

[0:49] So anything polluted that was offered as a sacrifice then polluted the Lord himself. And so God rebuked the priesthood for their carelessness and callousness in offering sacrifices unto the Lord on behalf of the people of Israel.

[1:10] And it was even to the point where God said, I wish there was someone. It was, isn't there just one person, one priest whose duty it is to offer sacrifices that would just shut the doors of the, of the temple.

[1:27] So that no other, that the light could not be kindled upon the fire and that no more sacrifices would be offered. Because he said, I do not accept your sacrifice.

[1:43] That's sad commentary, is it not? And we'll look at that a little bit more later. But God said also in verse number 11, go there with me if you will.

[1:53] Malachi chapter 1 in verse 11, God is saying, I really don't need your sacrifices. You know, God, God doesn't need our sacrifices to make him God.

[2:06] It's not as if he would stop being God if the people did not offer sacrifice to him. He said, I don't need your sacrifice. And he says in verse 11, from the, from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles.

[2:26] 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.

[2:39] Realize and remember now, well, let me ask you, where did Israel come from? How did they get their beginning?

[2:54] Okay. Abraham, the father of the Hebrew race. But who did that? God did it. He took a Gentile, a Chaldean, all right?

[3:08] And from him instituted a nation, created a nation, Abraham to Isaac, his son, to Jacob, his son.

[3:19] And then Jacob had the 12 sons that then constitute the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel. God did enter a covenant with that nation.

[3:31] Never had done that before, hasn't done that since to any other nation or kingdom. So they were exclusive and still are exclusive in that covenant relationship he has with them.

[3:44] But God, and then God, we see in the biblical record, how God dealt with and worked with and worked through the covenant nation, realizing that the reason and the purpose of his doing what he did for them and with them is to bring about the Messiah, the Redeemer.

[4:08] Be Messiah to Israel, the Redeemer of the world, if you will. That was his purpose for them. But we have to ask the question. You know, I think because the scriptures, Old Testament in particular, is so rife with God's dealing with Israel, we lose the fact in our mind that there are some other things that God's been doing as well.

[4:36] With other people besides the kingdom of Israel or the nation of Israel. And we see that in the statement that he makes here. He said, you know, it doesn't matter what sacrifices you offer.

[4:50] Even if you shut the door like I wish you would. My name will be great and I will be seen to be great in the Gentiles.

[5:01] To me, one of the greatest pictures of that lies in the life of the man we know as Melchizedek.

[5:11] The greatest example of that for us in scripture is in Melchizedek. And the handout that I've given you tonight is a summary of some things that we see about Melchizedek.

[5:26] So turn over with me to the book of Genesis and chapter 14. Genesis chapter 14. Let's just refresh our mind about this thing with Melchizedek.

[5:41] Now remember, the setting of this is right after the time that Abram had gone and rescued his nephew Lot from the kings that had captured him.

[5:57] He goes and delivers them and defeats the kings that had captured him. And is on his way back. And on his way back, something happens.

[6:10] We've got to be careful that we don't read too much into this that isn't there. All right. But notice what happens. Let's just read it and see what happens here.

[6:25] Verse 14. Verse 14. When Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan.

[6:40] And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

[6:51] And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot with his goods, and the women also, and the people.

[7:01] Verse 17. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of the Shadol-eromer, and of the kings that were with him in the valley of Sheba, which is the king's dale.

[7:20] Now, look at verse 18, how he identifies Melchizedek. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God.

[7:33] Now, isn't that an interesting statement there? We have, we've never seen him before, before this point. Have no indication that Abram knew anything about him.

[7:46] Don't have that record. He may have, but we don't see it recorded. Melchizedek comes. And the reason he comes is because the kings that Abram defeated were hostile against Melchizedek, Jerusalem, where he was king.

[8:07] And so Abram delivered Melchizedek and his country from these kings. So Melchizedek comes and brings bread and wine to refresh the people that were with Abram, as well as a sign of gratefulness for what he had done in helping their cause.

[8:31] And that wasn't really the purpose of Abram. But it was the secondary thing that happened here as he rescues Lot. So Melchizedek is king of Salem.

[8:45] Shalom, peace, all right. And he brought forth wine and bread and he was the priest of the Most High God. Never heard, never seen that term used prior to this time in Scripture.

[9:02] It's the Hebrew term El Elyon. If you would like, it's the highest of the high ones. Can't get any higher than he. He's the Most High God.

[9:12] That's what the Bible declares him to be. He is the priest, not just the king of Salem, but he is the priest of the Most High God.

[9:25] Now look what happens here. He blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth or founder of heaven and earth.

[9:44] Interesting. Melchizedek is described as being the priest of the Most High God. Melchizedek calls Abram the servant of the Most High God, who is the possessor or the founder of heaven and earth.

[10:03] Thus, he is the one and only true God. The God of Melchizedek is the God of Abram. And Melchizedek recognizes that.

[10:17] That's why he says that. Blessed be the servant, Abram, of the Most High God. And blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand.

[10:35] And he gave him tithes of all. That is, Abram gave tithes to Melchizedek. Now, giving that tenth, giving that tithe to Melchizedek, of all that that he had gleaned from the battle with the kings, was an important picture for us here.

[11:03] Because when you give a tithe to someone, you're indicating something that you're seeing. When Abram gave a tithe to Melchizedek, he was indicating here that Melchizedek was truly a priest of God.

[11:26] But, the picture we find here is that his priesthood is of a higher order than anything Abram's known yet.

[11:43] It's also of a higher order than what the priesthood of Aaron will become later on, that God appoints. Important picture there.

[11:54] It's as if he comes out of nowhere. But he's there.

[12:06] As a priest. Of the same God that... That... Abram serves. Now, Abram acknowledged the God of Melchizedek as the true God.

[12:21] As he then... As Melchizedek asks... Or... You know, when he pays tithes of all...

[12:32] Take notice what happens again here. Let's read on here. Verse 21. The king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons and take the goods to thyself.

[12:42] In other words, all the bounty that you have brought with you, that you captured in the battles. You keep those. But just give me my people that you delivered as well.

[12:53] That's all I want. I just want my folks. You can keep the rest. Notice what happens here. Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou should say, I have made Abraham rich.

[13:23] Now, when Abram lifted up his hand as a solemn oath to Jehovah, the Most High God, he acknowledged himself as a servant of this God by calling his name Jehovah, picturing the same thing that Melchizedek does.

[13:43] So, a prediction here, that there's going to be a royal priesthood, again, that's even higher than the priesthood of Aaron and the sons of Levi that will come.

[13:56] When Aaron was commissioned by God and the tribe of Levi, the tribe of Levi commissioned by God to be the priesthood and Aaron then the high priest, Aaron then and that priesthood became a foreshadow, if you will, of what's going to take place before this.

[14:22] Now, that was a foreshadow in Melchizedek, who blessed as king and priest the patriarch Abraham, whom God had called to be a blessing to all the families of the earth.

[14:37] Now, the name of Melchizedek is full of meaning. It's the king of righteousness.

[14:47] The name of the seat of his government is Salem or the peaceful or peace. Since it shows the capital of its king, it was a citadel of peace, not only as a natural stronghold, but through the righteousness of the king that served over it.

[15:07] And that's the reason why, take note, that's the reason why David chose that as the seat of royalty in Israel. Now, probably the most significant aspect of all of that is the idea that Melchizedek showed up at all to these, the descendants of, or the people of Canaan were not truly righteous people.

[15:38] To me, it's a picture of God overshadowing what's taken place here in Abraham. Abraham was not a warrior.

[15:49] All right? He goes and defeats these kings. You remember, remember what God said. Well, we'll see here in just a minute. All right?

[16:01] What God says to Abraham after all this takes place. 1 of chapter 15. After these things, the word of Jehovah came unto Abraham in a vision saying, Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.

[16:23] Lord. Now, Melchizedek is an interesting individual. Scripture declares that he's without a father, without a mother, without descendant, having neither beginning of days or end of life.

[16:41] Now, that's, the idea there is that there's no record of that. All right? Don't, don't read into that the idea that this is some spirit being.

[16:52] All right? It's not the picture there. But with that, with that identity, then he's a perfect forerunner, if you will, a shadow of that one that is to come and that is the Lord Jesus.

[17:10] I'm going to read it out of the Amplified. Hebrews chapter 7. Go there with me just a moment. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, met Abram as he returned from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him.

[17:26] And Abraham gave to him a tenth portion of all the spoil. He is primarily, as his name was translated, indicates, king of righteousness.

[17:37] And then he is also king of Salem, which means king of peace. Without record of father or mother or ancestral line, neither with beginning of days nor ending of life, but resembling the son of God, he continues to be a priest without interruption and without successor.

[17:58] Now, observe and consider how great a personage this was to whom even Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth. And it is true that those descendants of Levi who are charged with the priestly office are commanded in the law to take the tithes from the people, which means from their brethren, though these have descended from Abraham.

[18:22] But this person, who is not their Levitical ancestry, received tithes from Abraham himself and blessed him who possessed the promises of God.

[18:33] Yet it is beyond all contradiction that it is the lesser person who is blessed by the greater one. Furthermore, here in the Levitical priesthood, tithes are received by men who are subject to death.

[18:51] While there, in the case of Melchizedek, they are received by one who has testified that he lives perpetually. A person might even say that Levi, the father of the priestly tribe himself, who received tithes, paid tithes through Abraham.

[19:09] For he was still in the loins of his forefather Abraham when Melchizedek met him. Now if perfection, and there's a perfect fellowship between God and the worshiper, had been attainable by the Levitical priesthood, for under it people were given the law, why was it further necessary that there should arise another different kind of priest, one after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one appointed after the order of the rank of Aaron?

[19:41] So see, he's looking to the future here, Paul is, or the router of the Hebrew is, he said, you know, Levitical priesthood is going to end because there's going to be one that's even greater that's going to come after it.

[19:57] So, now, you know who he's looking at here. for when there is a change in the priesthood, there is of necessity an alteration of the law concerning the priesthood as well.

[20:11] For the one of whom these things are said belonged not to the priestly line, but to another tribe, no member of which has officiated at the altar.

[20:22] For it is obvious that our Lord sprang from the tribe of Judah, and Moses mentioned nothing about priests in connection with that tribe. And this becomes more plainly evident when another priest arises who bears the likeness of Melchizedek, who has been constituted a priest not on the basis of a bodily legal requirement, but on the basis of the power of an endless and indestructible life.

[20:55] For it is witnessed of him, you are a priest forever after the order with the rank of Melchizedek. Talking about the Messiah here. So our previous physical regulation and command is canceled because of its weakness and ineffectiveness and uselessness.

[21:14] For the law never made anything perfect, but instead a better hope is introduced through which we now come close to God. And it was not without the taking of an oath that Christ was made priest.

[21:29] For those who formerly became priests received their office without its being confirmed by the taking of an oath by God. You know, because it was just a natural descendancy because of the connection to the tribe of Levi.

[21:44] In verse 22, in keeping with the oath's greater strength and force, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better or stronger agreement, a more excellent, more advantageous covenant.

[21:55] again, the former successive line of priests was made up of many because they were each prevented by death from continually, perpetually in office.

[22:06] But he holds his priesthood unchangeably because he lives on forever. Therefore, he is able also to save to the uttermost, that completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity, those who come to God through him, since he is always living to make petition to God and intercede with him and intervene for them.

[22:32] Here is the high priest, perfectly adapted to our needs, as was fitting, holy, blameless, unstained by sin, separated from sinners, and exalted higher than the heavens.

[22:45] He has no day-by-day necessity, as do each of the other high priests, to offer sacrifice first of all for his own personal sins, and then for those of the people, because he met all the requirements once for all when he brought himself as a sacrifice which he offered up.

[23:07] For the law sets up men in their wickedness, frail, sinful, dying human beings, as high priests. But the word of God's oath, which was spoken later after the institution of the law, chooses and appoints as priest one whose appointment is complete and permanent, a son who has been made perfect forever.

[23:32] And that, of course, is the Lord Jesus, who is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, king of righteousness. Isn't it amazing that God does things without our approval or even our understanding?

[23:48] Amen? Yeah. He said, I don't need your sacrifices. My name is going to be great among the Gentiles. Always has been, always will be.

[24:02] Yeah. So, so don't, even though Israel is exclusive to some degree because of some of the things that God has done in them, with them, for them, and to them, gave them the oracles that he's not given to anyone else.

[24:22] Salvation is not solely for them. Amen? Yeah. Great picture. And I, yeah, I've always been enamored by Melchizedek.

[24:33] Still am. Ah, don't know where he came from. Nobody does. or what really God has done through him, except for the episode that we see recorded here in Genesis 14.

[24:53] But we know that God is busy everywhere. That's, you recall, was it John, is it John chapter 10, when Jesus declares himself to be the good shepherd?

[25:05] Look at verse 16. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold or this court. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.

[25:20] Now, we always, we always paint that as a picture of him talking about the Gentiles, which it is. But when we think of God including the Gentiles, we think about those that, that were around since Jesus' ministry, and are around today as well, and everything in between.

[25:44] But when you look at Melchizedek, and the fact that God had appointed him as a priest of the Most High God, then you've got to believe that there are others, Gentiles, that we're not aware of, that God has done things for.

[26:08] It all comes to fruition through the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. All right? So, God's going to see himself, and he's going to be known, not just by Israel, but by the Gentiles as well, throughout the generations, if you please.

[26:31] Now, so, again, in verse 11 of Malachi 1, for from the rising of the sun, even until the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles.

[26:43] Wow. 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.

[26:57] Now, look in Isaiah chapter 2, and you kind of get an idea of a fuller fulfillment of this in the future.

[27:10] Isaiah chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, the word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, and it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountains of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into or unto it.

[27:36] Many people shall go and say, come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem, and he shall judge among the nations, and they shall rebuke, and shall rebuke many people.

[28:01] They shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

[28:11] O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah. All right. That's future.

[28:22] Look at Romans chapter 11, verse 25. For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceit, that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.

[28:41] Now, Isaiah talks about the future of God's renown filling the earth, every nation. This is more present. All right.

[28:52] Talking about the fullness of the Gentiles. And so all Israel shall be saved as it is written, shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

[29:06] For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake.

[29:17] For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in time past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief.

[29:30] Even so have these also now not believed that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all.

[29:43] Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. Who hath known the mind of the Lord, who hath been his counselor?

[29:56] Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory forever.

[30:08] Amen. When Jesus came and Israel rejected their Messiah, Jesus turned to the Gentiles to call out a people for his name's sake, and that's what he's doing now.

[30:24] And that to provoke Israel to jealousy. All right? Yeah. Isn't it interesting as you look at world affairs today, that there Israel is fighting hard and finding friends in the church.

[30:47] The church is ministering to the people of Israel, to the Jews. And they know that, and they see that, and they consider the church a good friend.

[31:00] They still don't believe Israel or Jesus is Messiah, but they consider the church the friend. Whether it's true news or fake news that was on, well, maybe it was on, maybe it was on Fox News app today that I saw, where it said that the Netanyahu, Benjamin Netanyahu said that Donald Trump is the greatest friend in American presidents that we've ever had, that Israel's ever had.

[31:31] So you see Gentiles being friendship and an aid and a help that God is using them. And all of that, you've got to believe that all of that, as the scripture said a minute ago, one day Israel, all Israel will be saved.

[31:49] And part of that will be because of the ministering of the Gentiles to the nation of Israel. Isn't it amazing how God works?

[32:01] Yeah. Yeah. God hasn't made any covenant relationship with the United States or any other country, but he's using Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy and bring them to repentance and to salvation.

[32:18] So Malachi 1.13, service to God, love or weariness. He's been talking to the priests about the polluted sacrifices that they're bringing that are totally unacceptable to God.

[32:34] But what about the service of the priest, not just the sacrifices, but the service of the priest and of the people? What about that?

[32:44] Look at verse number 13. Now he's still talking here to the priesthood, but you've got to believe it includes the people. You also said, behold, what a weariness is it?

[32:56] And you have snuffed at it, says the Lord of hosts. And you brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick. Thus you brought an offering.

[33:06] Would I accept this of your hand, saith Jehovah? Even the people were bringing lame things to be offered as sacrifice to the Lord.

[33:18] And they're saying, what a weariness this is. What a burdensome service it is. Day after day, week after week, offering sacrifices, bringing offerings to be sacrificed.

[33:36] You've got to bring them. You've got to pick them out. You know, it sounds like Baptist. You've got to go find your herd. You've got to pick out one of the best and bring him and take him all that way to the temple and then do all the things you've got to do there.

[33:51] They didn't really care what it looked like. And the priest didn't either. So they said, all this is just weariness to us. It's a burden to us.

[34:01] Now, it's become a tremendous toil in our lives. Now, realize our service to God is its own reward.

[34:21] You realize that? Serving God has its own reward. It is its own reward. If it's not that to us, then it becomes a great toil, a burden to us, just something else we've got stuck in the mix that we've got to do.

[34:40] Now, our only choice is between love and weariness. Either love serving God or it's a weariness to us.

[34:51] Again, as we looked at it a minute ago in Genesis 15, 1, after these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.

[35:06] A rich reward. That's his confidence in his immediate obedience. Now, again, back in verse 13, you said what a weariness it is, and you have snuffed at it, saith the Lord.

[35:21] That word snuffed is an interesting word, has the meaning to blow forcefully. I think I put in your notes a metaphor taken from cattle that don't like their fodder.

[35:36] They blow strongly through their nose upon it, blowing forcefully. Yeah. You ever seen a cow do that? Yeah. Yeah. I thought they just had bed sinuses, but no, they didn't like their fodder blowing on it because they didn't want to eat it.

[35:56] And after that, nobody else would want to eat it either. A guy that was my best friend growing up had a brother.

[36:08] Delaney always liked sugar baby. Remember sugar babies? You had the sugar daddy, which was the long. He liked sugar babies because they're easy to eat. You know, the little round individual oval things.

[36:20] Walked up. He and I, Joe and I walked up to his house one day. His brother was sitting on the front steps eating his sugar daddy or sugar babies. We asked him, he said, can we have some?

[36:34] Yeah. But I've already put all of them in my mouth and spit them back in the bag. And he was telling the truth. He really wouldn't do that.

[36:45] He'd take that whole bag, open it up, spin it back in the bag. And for that very reason. So nobody else would eat it.

[37:00] Yeah. Yeah. But that's what he said is happening here with the people in their service to God. Bringing their sacrifices. So you snuffed at it.

[37:12] Like blowing through your nose over the fodder so that you wouldn't eat it and nobody else would either. That's how you thought about your service to the Lord.

[37:27] Again, it should cause us to think seriously about our service and our worship to the Lord. true, genuine worship has to have an ingredient of things with us inwardly.

[37:50] All right. For us to really worship God like we should, we need to have a deep-seated love for God.

[38:01] All right. Really, a love that saturates our heart and our mind and consumes us, if you will.

[38:14] To have that type of love for God. A reverence for God. A reverence for God then that leads to obedience. Yeah. Respect God.

[38:28] I reverence Him. If I reverence Him then, then I'm going to do what He says. Because if there's one thing we wouldn't want to do to God if we have true reverence for Him and respect for Him is to disappoint Him.

[38:47] We wouldn't want to do anything in our lives to disappoint God. And then, and then thirdly, sacrifice.

[38:59] Sacrifice. You know, there's nothing else that reveals the true heart of a believer more than what he gives to God.

[39:16] Amen? Amen? If it's not something that's, that's valuable to us and that has great meaning for us, when we give it, it's not sacrifice.

[39:30] Never forget, years ago, standing in a missions conference at an independent Baptist church in Tulsa. Good size church.

[39:41] Ran around a thousand on Sunday. Always, once a year, had a big missions conference. Had missionaries come and you could visit with them and meet them and listen to them. Never forget one guy up there, came up there.

[39:55] And, it seems like he was a missionary to one of these aviation, medical aviation ministries on South America or someplace. But he was, they were needing funds.

[40:07] They were needing new aircraft and needing funds. And so, he was talking about the people about, about praying, about giving to the ministry. And he, here's what he said.

[40:19] He laid out whatever the, whatever the amount was that they were really needing. And he had the audacity, James, to say this. Some of you ladies sitting out there have rings on your finger that are worth a lot more than what we need here.

[40:41] I, I didn't, I didn't see anybody take the ring off and put it in the offering plate. Yeah, yeah. But it's true. What is it we're willing to sacrifice for God when he calls us to do that?

[41:03] If we really love him, then it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. When, after my first wife passed away, we had bought a house out just east of New Harmony where we were pastoring.

[41:22] After she died, you know, I stayed there in the church for a while and then when, when, when, when I, you know, left the church there, stayed there a couple of years and then took the church in Copan.

[41:43] Okay, what am I going to do with the house? What am I going to do with it? I thought to myself, yeah, it's no big deal. It's just the house. Always, always had that mindset in my mind.

[41:54] You know, it's not something I'm going to cling to forever. You know, it's just, it's a house, place to sleep, place to live. But, when I moved from that place to go to Copan, loaded up the last load of the U-Haul truck and we're headed out, boy, I look back.

[42:19] I did turn into a pillar of salt. But I look back and boy, I don't know what it is that overcame me or came over me.

[42:31] It wasn't a real, it wasn't really, I couldn't call it a dread. But I discovered that had more hold on me than I ever thought it would. A material possession.

[42:46] Now, I didn't regret moving up, you know, going up there. I mean, after all, look what happened. there was a dear little widder lady sitting there waiting for her knight in shining armor to come riding up.

[43:04] She has a different story, but anyway, I like to tell that story. But, but anyway, what I'm, what I'm saying is we need to have our love for God so strong that we'll be willing to give up anything for him.

[43:24] Yeah, sacrifice, sacrifice for him. He honors that because as we mentioned last week, the reason for sacrifices, the reason God like sacrifice, true sacrifice is when it's an expression of our gratitude for him, but also a revelation of our total dependency and recognition of our total need for him.

[43:54] That's the sacrifice that goes up as a sweet smelling savor to him. Now, our time's about gone.

[44:04] think about it just a moment, if you will, with the nation of Israel. You know, if we don't have that, if we don't have that love and reverence and sacrifice for God, our worship can become just as mundane and we can snuff at it just like Israel did.

[44:25] It becomes a boring exercise, worship does, and then we say what a weariness it is. Think about it. a thousand years from the time Israel came out of Egypt to when Malachi writes, thereabouts.

[44:46] Look what worship had become to them. After all God did for them and to them on their behalf, that's what's happened.

[44:58] God created them for worship. He's created us for that, to worship him. And that's what we need to do with a genuine heart of true worship.

[45:14] Amen? Yeah. When we come to worship God together, it doesn't make any difference what kind of songs they sing. Amen?

[45:24] Well, we're going to rejoice in the Lord and sing to him. I think we got pretty good music here.

[45:41] But we sing to him. We praise him. We listen to his voice. Listen to what God says to us through the message.

[45:51] so we can be obedient to it because we love him. Amen? Yeah. And we don't snuff at this.

[46:03] You know, if I catch anybody snuffing at the music, I'm going to call them out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[46:13] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I understand and I realize there are some places you can go to church, if you will.

[46:26] I hate to use that term. But you go and you want to worship God, but it's just dead, dry. There's problems, people complaining, you know.

[46:40] It's hard. I understand that. But that's why I'm glad that God's done and is doing what he's doing here. Because you don't sense that here.

[46:52] If it's going on, it's going on in the closet and that's where it needs to stay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

[47:03] Time's gone and we'll pick up in verse 14 next week and then we'll get also into chapter 2 next week and I'll have notes for you for chapter 2 as well next week.

[47:18] All right. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you again for your goodness and grace. Thank you. We praise you, Father, for who you are. Lord, I just ask that you keep our hearts pure and our minds pure.

[47:33] That we won't be sidetracked or pulled away by anything that the world throws at us, but that our love for you will be genuine and stay genuine, that will give us grateful hearts and hearts that love to worship you together.

[47:54] So do that work within us that we might be able to worship you in a manner that is acceptable to you and pleasing to you. And we'll thank you for what you do now in Jesus' name.

[48:05]  Amen. Amen.