Sermon on September 18 by Pastor Roland Eskinazi

Scripture:  Malachi 1:6-14

We talk about worship easily and often. However worship without giving our all to God is wasteful worship.
If we would worship God without waste :

1. LOVE HIM SACRIFICALLY, NOT GRUDGINGLY!  (v7-8)

The priests were happy to receive and offer inferior sacrifices from God’s people. Are we?
Sacrifice implies that there is a cost to what you offer.
Don’t despise the ultimate sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice of Jesus! Do not give less than the best in your money and ministry.

2. TREAT HIM THOUGHTFULLY, NOT CASUALLY!  (v9)

How does careless worship start? When we fail to feel the greatness of God’s infinite love and His majestic fatherhood.

‘When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them ‘
(Psalm 8:3-4)

If we come thoughtfully, hungry to respond and receive from God for who He is and what He has done, we will encounter God.

3. HONOR HIM SINCERELY AND INTENTIONALLY!  (v10-11)

God is the one who saves and creates genuine worshippers through the sacrifice of Jesus.

‘When Christ came into the world, he said: “ Sacrifice and offering you did not desire but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said ‘Here I am – it is written about me in the scroll- I have come to do your will, my God” ‘
(Hebrews 10: 5-7 cf Psalm 40:6-8)

The antidote to spiritual boredom is living close to the Cross. When you do, nothing done for the Lord will seem like a sacrifice.

4. WORSHIP HIM ENTIRELY AND GLADLY!  (v12-14)

The priests and people were ‘sniffing’ (sighing) as they brought their offerings!
Do we come to services as if we were the main characters in the drama? Have we reduced God to a consumer God ready to tick all our boxes?

Safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he is good. He is the King, I tell you. ’
(Mr. Beaver referring to Aslan, in ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ , Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis)

Remember! Our worship must be both a declaration of our own unworthiness and His worthiness at the same time. We don’t need just one more sacrifice to make us holy. We need hearts that are glad in Jesus, and eager to make others glad in Him.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. Define worship as you understand it. Use the Bible in defining it. Now write out a definition
2. Why did God insist on perfect (without blemish or disease) sacrifices in the Old Testament? Can we offer any acceptable worship to God if we are not trusting in His perfect sacrifice? Why not?
3. How might we despise God today in our worship? Read Romans 12: 1 and Hebrews 13:15-16. What kind of sacrifices should we offer God that will delight Him?
4. Take some time to search your heart. Confess where you have been giving the leftovers to God. Ask the Lord to show you where you need to change and now pray for yourself and the IBC Brussels family that we might be kept from wasteful worship.

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Photo credit FreeImages.com/Jon Ng