Malachi 1:8-14 | Shut The Door of Your Church! | Pastor Daniel Banna

It's Friday night bible study. Let's turn our bibles to the first chapter of the book of Malachi. We have heard the first chapter of the book of Malachi read, for us this evening, and we had the opportunity to, begin study of this book a couple of months ago, and we are continuing in this, study. Israel is back in their land from captivity. It's almost eighty years now since they came back to the land.

And how is their spiritual condition? We have seen and will continue to see. Let's begin in verse eight. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, this what they were offering, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, Is that not evil?

Present that to your governor. Will he accept you or show you favor, says the lord of hosts? And the answer to these questions is absolutely not. God will not accept you. God will not accept such a sacrifice.

And look at the contrast here. The lord of hosts and your governor. You will not dare give a sacrifice such as this to your unfair Persian governor, yet you give such a sacrifice to the lord of hosts. What a shame. How would you think that the lord of hosts, the god of the universe, will accept such a sacrifice from your hand?

And we see this expression repeated several times, the Lord of hosts. It mentioned in these verses eight times in verse four, six, eight, nine, 10, 11, thirteen, and fourteen, total of 24 times in the book of the land of Malachi. This term, the Lord of hosts, probably, if you read the Old Testament, you've you've noticed it many times. It was mentioned more than 261 times in the Old Testament, only twice in the New Testament. One in Romans nine twenty nine.

It's a quote from the Old Testament from Isaiah one nine. It's in the context of God judgment and also once in James five four. We sing it in Luther's song, if you remember that song. I'm going to read to you the verse two of that song. It says, did we in our own strength confide?

Our striving would be losing were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. You ask who that may be, Christ Jesus. It is he, Lord Sabaoth, his name, from age to age the same, and he must win the battle. Lord Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts in the Hebrew is. In other words, he is the lord of the universe.

He is the lord of everything. What does the the lord of hosts really means? You might have sang this this song many times and you wondered what is lord of means. There's at least three meaning in the scripture to this expression. The first one is the angels.

Sabaoth or tzvaoth, the armies. The host referred to the angels to the he is the lord of the angelic beings of heaven. But secondly, he is the lord of the armies of Israel. David in first Samuel, chapter chapter 17, when he confronted Goliath, he told him, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of Lord Sabaoth, of the Lord of hosts. David was proclaiming that God is the universal ruler of the angels and of the armies of Israel.

And then the word also means the heavenly stars. Again, it means that the God is the Lord of the universe and that and everything that is in it. How do you dare offer this sacrifice to God, Lord of Zv'ot, and you don't dare offer it to your earthly Persian governor. If your earthly governor would not accept such an offering, how do you bring it to me? God says.

Is there a message for the church today? Is there a message for us today? What is the condition of Christian worshippers in our day? We go to church every Sunday, and that's really great. But what is our heart condition?

What do we offer to God, to the Lord of the universe and the Redeemer of our souls? Are our interests aligned with his interests? Are our hearts longing to offer him our best? The priests of old wasted their time going to the temple and offer sacrifices. God rejected every sacrifice they offered.

It would have been much better if they have not offered anything at all. It would have been much better if they did not go to the temple at all and open the door of the temple than open their door and sacrifice such unacceptable offerings to the God of the universe. That was irreverent, disrespectful, worthless, careless worship. How many people today, I would say, waste their time going to church? Yes.

How many Christians, so called Christian, Have no respect for God's word. Go maybe every Sunday. And what they offer God? The lame, the sick, the blind, the stolen, what is unworthy of God. They are maybe generous to our people because this is what they really want.

They want to be known as generous. They want to be pleasers of people. They want to be popular in the community, that they have a cold heart toward God. They leave the love for themselves and they give the crumbs to God. The feast is for them and the leftover is for God.

This is despising God's name. I want you to think about it this way. Imagine you are a father, or maybe let's say you are a son. Most of us are young here. You are a son or you are a daughter, and your dad did the best to raise you up.

He was the most wonderful father. He sent you to school. You graduated from high school. You graduated from college. You did very, very well.

And now you're so proud of you as you graduated. You found your first job, high pay, and then you find a you found a bride, and you got married. And you decided you want to have you want to have a party for your friends, and you invited all of your friends. Everything goes on you to the best restaurant in town. You had a great time together with your friends.

You enjoyed the food. You enjoyed the service. And at the end of that night, the waiter comes and asks you if you want to take the leftover. And you say, absolutely. She puts it in a box, and you take it with you.

And as you're going out with your bride, you tell her, you know, my dad lives not too far from here. He's on our way. Let us go there and see my dad. You go to see your dad, and your dad is thrilled to see you. How you doing, son?

I have not seen you for a long time. Oh, dad. Sorry. We've been very, very busy, But we are here to see you. Have a seat, son.

Have a seat. Oh, I'm sorry, dad. We are really in a rush. I have really worked tomorrow. I have to get up early.

I just came to say hi. We were at the most beautiful restaurant in town. The service, the food, the drinks, the appetizer were so great, and I thought I'll bring you something, my dad. And you offer him, you give him that box of leftover and you leave. Your dad opens that box and what he sees, your leftover.

What does he do? You know what does honorable dad would do? He'll take that box and throw it in the garbage. That is the place for that box in the garbage. You show me how much you love me by the offering you give me.

You give me your leftover, this how much I mean to you. You give your friends the best feast, this what they mean to you. And this what God says in verse 10. Listen to this. I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.

I will not accept it. That's a leftover. This is the crumbs. This is the lame, the sick, the blind, the stolen. That cost you nothing.

How do you dare give it to me? Listen. Give to god your best. Give to God the first fruits, heart filled with gratitude to God, sincere and true worship. He deserves it.

He is a god of the universe and the redeemer of your soul and mine. Does he deserve it? Always remember, he is not just the lord of hosts. He is also the king of kings, and he is the redeemer and the savior of our soul. He is not one among many.

He is one above all, and he must always have the preeminence. He must always have the preeminence. And only when we understand the greatness of who God is And only when we understand the greatness on and the magnitude of God has done for us, then and only then we will be able to worship him through worship in his spirit and truth and offer him true sacrifices. The worshiping spirit demands knowing who he is who he is and what he has done for us and what he has revealed for us in his word. I want to skip verse nine.

We'll get back to it later. Let's read verse 10 again. Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the doors that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. Now this is very serious, and it's getting more and more and more serious.

This is very do you see what God is saying? Shut the doors of the temple. Shut it. Shut it. I don't want any sacrifice.

I have no pleasure in your so called worship. It is in vain. I have no pleasure in you. The Hebrew word here translated in vain is kinnam, means cost you nothing. It's stolen.

Nothing. I believe God says today to many pastors, shut the door of your church and go home. I was tempted to name names, but I'm not going to do that. Shut the door of your church and go home. I say your church, not God's church, because it is your church that you have a claim upon it, not God's church.

God's church, his glory is sought. In God's church, Christ has a preeminence. In your church, you are the man. If this is the case, shut the door of your church and go home. This is what God told the priests, and it's what God tells, I believe, many pastors today.

I have no pleasure in you. You are dishonoring my name. My name is dishonored among the people because of you. You are getting filthy rich through preaching of what the so called prosperity gospel and and deceiving many. Shut the door of your church and go home.

I will not accept such an offering from your hand, I will not accept such so called worship. It is shameful. These are not my words. These are harsh words that God speaks, that many want to erase from the Bible. God is serious about his glory.

God is very serious about his honor. No one can replace him. Let's go to verse 11. For from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations, and every place incense incense would be offered to my name and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the lord of hosts.

Have you noticed the repetition? What repetition this here there is in this verse? My name will be great among the nations. You see, again, the core problem was their failure to recognize the greatness of God, the greatness of the Lord of hosts, God and his majesty. Through worship, I repeat, begins by understanding and acknowledging the greatness of God, his power, and his majesty.

The places where we have replaced worship with entertainment is a place where they have lost understanding of who God is, how great God is. They lost complete understanding of that. That why that is why worship is been replaced with entertainment. Entertainment. When you recognize who god is, when you acknowledge his greatness, his power and majesty, then you begin to worship.

And I pray that we understand all of us that so we might really truly begin to worship our great God. Now there are three things I see here concerning worship that God cares for very much. We see them in verse twelve, thirteen, and verse also 11 that I want to talk about. The first thing is the condition of the offerer, verse 12. In verse 13, the quality of the offering.

And thirdly, in verse 11, the place of the offering or the altar. Let's begin in verse 12, the condition of the offerer or the worshipper. How was the spiritual condition of the priests? How was their attitude toward the offering, toward god? Verse 12.

But you profane it when you say that the Lord's table is polluted, and its fruit that is its food may be despised. That was their condition, the condition of the offeror. The worshippers, they are despising the table of the Lord. They are despising the offering. They are despising God.

Now let us look to Exodus chapter 29. I want to look at couple of verses there to see how important is the condition of the offerer, the quality of the offering, and the place of the altar for true worship. The condition of the offer. Now in the book of Exodus, from chapter 24 to the end of the book is all about true worship, except that section chapter 32 to 34. Remember in chapter 32, Moses up on the mountain, receiving the commandments of the Lord, people of Israel doing what down there, worshiping the golden calves.

Unbelievable. Really, unbelievable. This was not just and for and faithfulness and and unbelief in God, Jehovah, but that was, I think, foolishness and stupidity. After they have seen what God has done, after they have seen and heard God, what are they doing? Worshipping the golden calf.

Now chapter 25 to 27 of the book of Exodus, we read of the structure and the furnishing of the tabernacle. We're not going to be touching on this, tonight. In chapter 28, the focus shifts to the priests, and that's what concerns us tonight. The focus for the focus shifts to the priests, to the offerers, And the entire chapter deal with the wardrobe, the clothings of the priest when they enter the tent of meeting and when they approach the altar. Then we come to chapter 29.

Let's read verse beginning in verse one. Now this what you shall do to them, to consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. Take one bull of the herd and two rams without a blemish, and unleavened bread and leaven cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil, verse four. You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. Then you shall take the garments and put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breastpiece, and gird him with a skillfully woven band of the ephod.

Verse six, and you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on his turban. You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. Now they are ready to enter the tent of meeting and minister. All these things have to be done first and then enter the tent of meeting and minister. So first, in order to enter the holy place and offer sacrifice, first, one must be male.

Aaron or his sons, not daughters. Right? Male. Secondly, he has to be a descendant of Aaron. Not anybody could enter the tent of meeting and offer sacrifices.

No. But someone who is from the tribe of Levi, a descendant of Aaron. Now all of us remember probably in one Samuel 13 when King Saul was at war with the Philistines, and Samuel did not come at the exact time Saul expected him to come. And he called for the sacrifice. He took the burnt offering and the peace offering, and he offered them.

He was not a Levite. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. And as soon as he finished the sacrifice, Samuel showed up. What have you done? Oh, no how are you?

Nothing. What have you done? And Saul, he's very good at this, at giving excuses, and he began to list his excuse excuses. Oh, my troops are abandoning me. The Philistines are are are gathered against me, and you, you delayed.

You did not come on the appointed time, so I was forced. That's what he told him. I was forced to offer these sacrifices. What did Samuel told him? You have acted foolishly.

The kingdom, your kingdom shall not continue. It's it's it's over. It's over. It was not up to Abin Geminite to enter into the temple and offer sacrifice nor offer sacrifice on the altar of the Lord. In second Chronicles, we have another king.

I don't know if you remember him. He was a good king. In fact, the Bible testifies that he was a great king. He did very good, but yet at his old age, he became proud, and he tried to do something only the priests could do. Do you remember who was he?

Mhmm. Chronicles, we read chapter 26. But when he was strong, he grew proud to his destruction, for he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of the incense. But Azariah, the priest, went in after him with 80 priests. Look how serious is this.

With 80 priests of the Lord who were men of valor, and they withstood king Uzziah and said to him, it's not for you, Uzziah. Can you see that? It's not it's not for you, king Uzziah, your majesty? No. No.

But by his by his first name. You are not respecting God. We don't respect you. It's not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense on the to incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the son of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense, go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong. And it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.

Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had censure in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priest, liberty broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord by the altar of incense. And Azariah, the chief priest, and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprosy in his forehead, and they rushed him out quickly. And he himself hurried to go out because the Lord had struck him. And verse 21 tells us, and king Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death.

That is a terrible ending for a king that begins or began very well. But you see, what was permitted then only to men and only men from the tribe of Levi now is the privilege of every believer, a man and a woman. We are priests to the God most high. You are priests. What was only for the men from one single tribe now for all of us as believers in Jesus Christ.

As it tells us in first first Peter two nine, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own position that you may proclaim the excellences of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous lie light. Priestess today, under the new covenant, is not an office for a few, but it's a privilege for every child of God. We are to enter his holy of holies, and we are to offer him our offering of worship. Now, this message, by the way, is is specific. I want to make it clear.

It's exclusive. It's exclusive for those who have repented from your sin from their sins and who have been washed by the blood of Jesus, have become heirs with Christ. They are the children of the promise. They are a chosen race. They are a royal priesthood.

They are a holy nation. And for what reason? For what reason what Peter tells us? To proclaim the excellences of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, to declare his praises, to proclaim his wonderful acts. This is worship.

This is worship. What is it proclaiming his excellent acts means? But to worship him, that is your privilege. That is my privilege. This is worship.

The third thing, not just to be male and from the tribe of Levi, we don't see that in in in, Exodus 29, but we see it in Leviticus twenty one sixteen. You don't have to turn there. We see there quite interesting that the offerer must be without blemish, Of course, speaking externally, for there is no one without blemish but Christ himself. But listen to what it sees, what it says in, in Leviticus 21 verse 18. It it says these words.

It says, for no one who has a blemish shall draw near a man blind or lame or one who has mutilated face or a limb too long to the end. Verse 23, but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar because he has a blemish that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctified them. A male, a descendant of Aaron, but also the offerer must be without blemish. Just a little observation here. The priest here typifies our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, our high priest, And as such, he must be without blemish.

As it tells us in Hebrews seven twenty six, for it was indeed fitting that we should have such high priest, innocent and stained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. But secondly, these priests also a type of every believer, without a blemish or deformity. And you might you might ask how in the world that is possible. All of us are stained with sin, aren't we? We know ourselves very well.

How could this priest typify a believer? David speaks about us, about himself and our condition. In Psalm 51, he says, for I know my transgressions. All of us can repeat these words. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. But the great exchange took place. The great exchange took place. Christ died for me. Christ died for you, the just for the unjust.

He took my place. He took my punishment, what I deserve. He already took it upon himself. He became my substitute. And the result is what?

Second Corinthians five twenty one is the result. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. You might become that you might become the righteousness of God As also it tells us in Romans five nineteen, for as by one man's disobedience, Adam, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, Christ, the many will be made righteous. We have been justified by faith. What does it mean to be justified, my friend?

Not just forgiven. No. Justified mean that God looks at you and sees you as you have never ever committed any sin. That is the great exchange. So, yes, the priest typifies the believer in this sense that God looks as us justified in Christ without the blemish.

Holy, heirs with Christ, children of the promise, have entrance to the holy of holies. No one can worship god truly unless he is or she is justified. And then going back to Exodus 29, if you're still there, we see couple of things need to be done to consecrate the priests. Verse one, we see animal sacrifices need to be offered. Verse two, three types of wheat, offerings.

Verse four, ceremonial washing. Verse five, to put on them the garments designed by God, and it is not this a picture of the righteousness of Christ that we are robed with. And then in verse seven, anointing with oil. And we are not gonna speak in details of any of these things, but one must be clean, holy, righteous to approach God in worship. Listen to these words of the psalmist in Psalm 24 when he says, who shall ascend to the hell of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place, he who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to that is false and does not swear deceitfully.

He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. In it then, the first thing about what God looks at regarding worship is the condition of the offeror justified. But secondly, not just the condition of the offeror, but the quality of the offering. Now I'm going to assume if you have right standing before God, you're going to have the right offering for God. Bear with me to Leviticus 22 verse 20.

Again, it's a bible study, so we need to turn to our bibles to a few references. And we see this repeated in the Old Testament. Leviticus 22 verse 20. You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you. Verse 22.

Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or or scabs. You shall not offer to the Lord or give them to the Lord as a food offering on the altar. As we have explained that the priest is a type of Christ, our highest priest, and as such, he must be without blemish. And here we see the sacrifice is also a type of Christ, but not as our high priest, but as our suffering Messiah. And as such, it should be without blemish.

The priest is a type of Christ as our high priest, and the sacrifice is a type of Christ as a suffering messiah. It begins with the offerer. If the condition of the offerer is right, then the offering comes next. What did the priest offer in Malachi's day? We read about it.

They offered the lame, sick, worthless things, and that was an expression of their low, debased, corrupt spiritual condition, rejection of the clear command of God, despising his glorious and wonderful name. We offer to God what he prescribes. God requires, God demands our best. And worship is costly. Worship is costly.

The sick, the lame, the blind, the storing cost you nothing, and God rejects all of that. God demands what is costly. God demands what requires sacrifice from me and from you. All of us remember Mary. Right?

And by the way, Christ wanted us to remember Mary very well, who came to Jesus, who was always and we know the character of Mary, who would sit at Jesus' feet and and listen to him. She took that alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. She broke it, and she poured it on his head. That was very costly. That was an expression of her love, of her devotion to Christ.

People who criticized her, what a waste, but Christ came to her defense. And he said that wherever the gospel is preached, that story, that Mary will be mentioned. God honors those who they honor him. That was a true worship, an ultimate act of true worship, what Mary did. It's quite interesting.

Not one single word from Mary. Do you read if Mary is saying anything there? Not one single word of Mary, yet one act one act of true worship. Pouring on his head the most expensive thing she owned. The quality of the offering is our best.

A basket filled with first fruits. The quality of the offering, what God has prescribed. He alone prescribes the type and the method of worship. God rejects human inventions in worship. God rejects human inventions.

True worship is what God prescribes. Unfortunately, today, human inventions are so prevalent in what is called worship. It has nothing to do with God or his word and everything to do with man. It is man glorifying. It is man focused.

It's it's it's about your happiness. Feel good. The music, the preaching is nothing more than strange fire, not true worship. A wife of one famous preacher said these words once not long time ago, and I quote, do good because God wants you to be happy. When you come to church, when you worship him, you are not doing it for God.

You are doing it for yourself because that what makes God happy. Miss, you should go home. You should go home. That is blasphemous. Everything is about God.

It's not not about my happiness, but about pleasing him, glorifying him, exalting him, honoring him, worshiping him, bowing at his feet. It's not about my happiness. If you turn with me to Leviticus nine twenty two. Now one of the things god, showed his satisfaction or accepting a sacrifice was through fire. The fire of God will come and will consume the sacrifice.

We see that on Mount Carmel, if you remember, with Elijah when he confronted the 450 prophets of Baal, and, he told them to each one to take a bowl, and he will take a bowl to cut into pieces. He will cut his in pieces, and they will pray to their god, and he will pray to his god, and the god who answers with fire is a true god, and they did that. They got their they they they cut their bull into pieces, and they dance, and they cut themselves, and they they they worshiped, and they did all demonic things that they do, nothing happened. Yet Elijah turn came and he prayed to God. And what happened?

The fire of God came and consumed the sacrifice and licked even the water and everything else. The sacrifice and licked even the water and everything else. That was clear sign that this sacrifice is accepted by God, and Elijah is the prophet of God. So one of the signs of God accepting the sacrifice was the fire of God coming down from heaven and consuming the sacrifice. Now if you turn me to to Leviticus nine beginning in verse 22, and let me read for you that.

Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. And fire came from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. Now look at chapter 10, just the following verses.

Verse one. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered an authorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Listen. The fire of God in Leviticus nine twenty four consumed the offering.

But what happened in Leviticus ten two? The fire of God consumed the offerer. Wow. This is serious. This is to take be taken seriously.

The fire of God either will consume the offering or will consume the offer. But you know, our God is patient. If he weren't patient, he would have consumed so many of the others who offer daily strange fire on his altar. God is patient, and we need to thank him day and night for his patience and endurance. God here says to the priest, your sacrifices are stench to me.

Unless you truly repent unless you truly repent, I will not accept it. Then first, the condition of the offerer, secondly, the quality of the offering, but thirdly, the place of the altar or where you put or make your offering, and I would be very, very brief. Look at verse 11. Still in Malachi. Malachi 11.

For from the rising of the sun to its sitting to its sitting, my name will be great among the nations, and in every place, incense will be offered to my name and a pure offering. Now this seems to be a future promise, a a prophecy. And seeing that God is contrasting the defiled offerings offered by the chosen people at his temple in Jerusalem, the only place God has chosen to dwell and the pure offerings that will be offered in the future to God, which is today, in every place by every nation. Now this demands hallelujah. That demands amen.

I want to look briefly at the place of the altar in the Old Testament and its importance and how this relates to us today. I don't hear about this being talked about almost at all in the church today. If you look at Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 13 and verse 14, it says here, take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, but at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes. There, you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there, you shall do all that I am commanding you. Tens of times in the scripture if you if you read, God says to the Jews is not the place of your choosing, but the place of my choosing.

The place of my choosing. Be careful. Be careful. I'm warning you. The place of my choosing, the place of my choosing again and again and again and again, how this is relevant to us today.

For the Jews, the place of God's choosing, we know it was Jerusalem. And there, the temple was built. That was the location. What about us? Of course, we have the answers in in Jesus' response to the Samaritan woman in the gospel of John chapter four verse 20.

She said to the lord Jesus, she said, our fathers worshiped on this mountain, But you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. The Jews were right, by the way, about worshiping the Lord in the place God has chosen, Jerusalem. But the hour is coming, verse 23. Christ tells her, and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth. For the father is seeking such people to worship him.

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. This is, I believe, a fulfillment of Malachi one eleven, that a pure offering will be offered to God in every place among the nations. The point I believe Jesus is making here is this, the location is not important as long as the worship is in the spirit and in truth. Let me be clear. I think there is a difference between location and a place.

And let me explain it. I'll try to explain it. God is no longer interested in the location of worship. You can worship the Lord in Chicago. You can worship the Lord in Warsaw.

You can worship the Lord in Africa. You can worship the Lord in any location you want. Location is not important. It does not matter. But the place is this, where he is worshiped in spirit and truth only, not any place.

One place only where he is worshiped in spirit and truth and truth. And where there is true worship, there is the place where God wants you to be. There is the place of God's choosing, the church of God's choosing. It is where Christ is glorified and exalted, where the Holy Spirit leads the worship according to God's holy word, where the word of God is preached. So, yes, it's not up to us to choose the place of worship according to our own likings.

Oh, the music and the songs are very nice. That's why I'm joining that place. Oh, I like the comfort of the chairs. Oh, I like the size of the building. I prefer large churches.

I don't want to know anyone or anyone to know me. Oh, I like the programs. They are wonderful. My kids love it. I like the diversity of the church.

I like the preacher. He has really good jokes. It's not about you and what you like. It's about God. Clearly, the place of God choosing the church God wants you to be in is the place where God is glorified, and his name is exalted, and his word is preached.

Christ has the preeminence. The father is worshiped in spirit and truth, and the whole counsel of God is proclaimed week after week after week after week. And if you are listening to me on the Internet, I would tell you this. The place God did not choose for you, but you did, is the place where man is glorified. Prosperity gospel is preached.

Emotion led, not spirit led worship. Feel good at church. Be happy only at church. Give me, give me, give me, give me church. That's the place of your choosing, not the place of God's choosing.

So, yes, the place of God choosing is very important. It's where Christ's name is glorified. This is how you examine yourself if you are in the right place or not. Let's end with verse thirteen and fourteen as we come to a close. But you say what awareness this is, and you snort at it, says the lord of hosts.

You bring what has been taken by violence or lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering. Shall I accept that from your hands, says the lord. What awareness is this? You snort at it. You sniffed at it.

In Hebrew, it's You see, everything was done by the priests, was done out of duty. There was no joy in their ministry, no joy in their worship. Lukewarm hearts produce dry and ineffective and tiresome worship and tiresome ministry. Almost eighty years passed, and they came from captivity. How was it then at the time of Ezra or before that, time of Zerubbabel?

There was a joy in the hearts of people. Right now, the jaw the joy has gone. Lukewarmness in the heart. Everything becomes dry and ineffective, dull, shallow, superficial, even fake. In verse 14, god says, but curse be the deceiver or the cheat who has in his flock a male and takes a vow, but sacrifices the Lord what is blemished.

For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name is to be feared among the nation. Who is the deceiver and the cheat? Who has in his flock a male that is a worthy male for sacrifice? And it takes a vow, but sacrifice the Lord what is blemished. This is a deceiver and a cheat.

One, God has given him so much, then he gives God a very little. One who lives in a million dollar house, yet he thinks $10 is enough for God. One who has five three hours a day, yet it's hard for him to give five minutes for God. One who works forty, fifty, six hours a week to build his own empire, but he will not put one hour a week to build God's kingdom. God calls this a deceiver and a cheat.

The blemished is anything that costs you nothing or very little. The blemishes anything you offer to God carelessly. The blemished, anything you offer to God with a cold heart. Anything less than your best. God desire for us to give him our best.

He deserves our best. Yes, he's our king. He is he's our Lord, and he is also our savior and the redeemer of our soul. He deserve our praise. He deserves our honor.

He deserve a basket full of first fruits. Don't give him anything rotten. Don't give him left over. Don't give him the crumbs. Give him your pray your your best.

Let's pray. Oh, lord, we thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your grace. Thank you that you are a patient god. Oh, you look at us with patience.

You look at us with love. And, yes, as you have told your people of old, you tell us today, I have loved you. I love you. I love you with an everlasting love. I have chosen you.

I have redeemed you with my own blood. I have taken your place. And, yes, I want your best. But we thank you for your goodness. We won't be forever thankful for what you have done for us, our Lord.

And we bow before you tonight, Lord. We thank you for your majestic power, for your greatness. Yes. You are a great God, and we thank you. We can read your word.

We can study it, and we can understand how great you are or what you expect from us. Lord, as your people, we come before you with humble hearts to worship you, and we pray, lord god, you give us increase our faith, increase our love to you, increase our devotion. Though we admit we fail in many ways. We admit we are weak. We are weary.

Sometime we are weary of serving you. We're weary of of the ministry, of the worship. Our worship, Lord God, sometime becomes dull and superficial. Lord, we pray that you help us to be on fire for you. Set our hearts on fire, God, for you because you deserve it.

You deserve it. You deserve it. Lord, we give you all the honor and the praise. Amen.