RTW September 22

Promote Progression to Resist Regression

This is the message that the LORD gave to Israel through the prophet Malachi.
Malachi 1:1

 

 

My Takeaways

Something Old

How do we promote progression in rather regression in our faith ?

• Don’t love other gods. (Malachi 1:4)
• Don’t deny our sin. (Malachi 1:7)
• Don’t fake “church.” (Malachi 1:10) Be real about our feelings, fears, and struggles with God. He can take it. If He’s tough enough to take nails to save me, He’s tough even to handle my insecurities and crises of faith.
• Don’t be disobedient. (Malachi 2:9)

Something New

I don’t usually do this, share complete sections of a commentary, but I had to share this. In a day when pulpits are filled with watered-down  and light-on-the-Word messages, this really hit home for me.

David Guizk shared this about Malachi 1:6-8- defiled sacrifices. (Here’s the link if you want to check out more.)

i. If the pastor’s sermon is filled with funny jokes, clever anecdotes, and emotional stores but it lacks God’s word – this is like defiled food. To throw in a few Bible verses here and there to illustrate or back up the preacher’s stories, but to really make the sermon all about the preacher is to offer defiled food. If the sermon isn’t about Jesus, if it isn’t about God’s Word, then the preacher is setting defiled food on God’s altar.

ii. If the pastor’s sermon is sloppy, without doing the work in the study when there was the opportunity to do that work, that is like offering defiled food before God. When the preacher will not labor in prayer and meditation over God’s word and seek His message for the people, the sermon can be and offering of defiled food. If the preacher does not hold fast the pattern of sound words and rightly divide the word of truth, it is all like setting defiled food on God’s altar.

iii. If that preacher’s sermon is cold, refusing to show any concern or passion in the pulpit; if his passion is reserved for other things in life, then the sermon can be like defiled food. If the preacher can pontificate or argue with the best of them, but his messages have no deep passion for God or your people, the message may be like defiled food. If the preacher does his job and collects his paycheck but with a heart for Jesus that is cold, that preacher sets defiled food on God’s altar.

Something to Do

Progress don’t regress in my faith.

 

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