Restoring Righteousness

Sad bunch, those People of God. Every time we turn around they are in trouble again. Here they go in Malachi, the last Minor Prophet in our Major Stuff blog and sermon series.

God laid out pretty clear rules for His people repeatedly over a thousand plus years: I’m your God; you are my people; you obey my rules; you don’t serve other gods; you stay holy; you worship me as I desire; I’ll bless you. Period.

Simple. Right?

The problem: Simple is not always easy.

The reality: Sin is tempting to humans.

Sin is when we act like God, when we do things our way, which is invariably contrary to God's way.

So, once again, in this concluding book of the Old Testament—not only the last in book order, but written last too (430 BC)—we have Judah, God’s Chosen People, falling back into sin over simple stuff.

God asked faithfulness. God asked worship. God even prescribed how to worship.

Yet Israel was cheating the prescription. They “placed defiled food” on God’s altar and then acted like they didn’t know (1:7). They brought blemished offerings they wouldn’t give a governor, but tried to pass off on God (1:8). They called God’s table a “burden” and would “sniff at it contemptuously” (1:13).

“You might as well turn out the lights and shut the doors of the Temple,” it’s as if God says in Malachi 1:10. Ouch. Problem. Big problem.

God requested worship via the Temple sacrifice system. They had taken it so much for granted that God basically says, “Shut it down. Your worship is an insult. And you are in trouble.”

If ever, did God’s people need righteousness restored? In Malachi’s day, once upon their roller coaster history again, they needed God's imputed righteousness. But how, as 3:4 asks, could their offerings become “acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years?”

The Holy Refinery. The Divine Laundry. God purified them (3:2-3). Only He could restore His people to righteousness. “Then,” and note well what Malachi 3:3b says here, “the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness.”

Did you catch that? In chapter one God’s people were called out for impure offerings, but here in chapter three it is not the offering that it called righteous or unrighteous, but the person offering it. Righteous people offer righteous offerings. Righteous people do righteous things. 

Righteousness comes from from God within the heart of a person. Righteousness is a gift of God, manifest in right action, but rooted in a right heart.

The righteous heart gives birth to righteous actions.

Our righteous God makes us righteous.

Ask yourself today:

• How is my personal righteousness with God?
• What secret sins or unforgiveness am I harboring?
• What must I confess to God without delay?
• How should I express thanks to God for His forgiveness? 

Restoring Righteousness is the twelve and final entry in our Major Stuff from the Minor Prophets series of posts and sermons. You can read all those posts in the previous weeks herein. You can hear any of those sermons via iTunes or our church podcast page. Please share this post and leave comments as you wish.

Post-Election Reminder: Be Prayerful

First of all: Pray.

1 Timothy 2:1-2 instructs us:

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 1 Timothy 2:1-2

Pastor Shaun Jones has it right in this post on our church's Thanksvember page.

"Whether or not your favorite candidate won, God maintains sovereign control and calls his people to complete dependence upon Him."

Judging Disobedience

I’m not that bad. Really. I’m not.

I’m a good person. God loves me. I’m sure of it. He blesses me too.

I try hard. Ask anyone who knows me.

I’m nice. Even to people who make it hard.

I don’t hate people. Other’s do, but not me. I’d never hate. That’s bad.

I’ve never done anything really wicked like murder or bad stuff like that.

I pray lots. When I need something. And I read my Bible. It’s not too dusty.

I go to church. All the time. And I serve there. I even give there.

I’m a real good guy. God would never judge me.

Oh, really?

How sinful is your goodness?

How wicked is your self-righteousness?

How deceived is your self-justification?

God does judge. 

God’s love for us is greater than our ability to deceive ourselves. Our sin does not go unnoticed. By Him. No matter what we think other people see or think about us. He is Sovereign.

Zephaniah was a prophet to Judah in the mid Seventh Century BC. Zephaniah was a member of Judean royal household. And as a member of the royal household he’d know first hand about the righteousness to sinfulness roller coaster his people had been on with his ancestors over the last decades. Good kings to bad kings. Following the God to following false gods. He prophesied early in the reign of Josiah (640-609 BC). The righteous king’s reforms must not have taken too good a hold yet, as Zephaniah fearlessly confronts the pervasive idolatry of his people.

God’s people Judah had seen Israel, their Northern Kingdom counterparts, carried off to slavery by God’s judgment in 722 BC. Yet Judah persisted pandering to the same idolatrous gods. All the while the people of Judah seemed to think, “We’re not as bad as those guys. We’re really God’s people. We have Jerusalem here. God won’t judge us.”

Oh, really? 

Our position before God is not determined by our parentage, but our devotion.

Our position before God is not determined by our church membership, but our righteousness.

Our position before God is not determined by any matrix of our own, but by the blood of Jesus.

Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what He commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger. Zephaniah 2:3 

God judges disobedience no matter who or where. Even so, God extends His grace to a remnant.

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

What stands out to you as you read or listen to the 53 verses of Zephaniah?

What does Zephaniah teach us about God’s character?

What does Zephaniah teach us about human nature?

How can you apply these truths from Zephaniah to your life?

Judging Disobedience is the ninth in the series Major Stuff from the Minor Prophets. You can read previous posts here or listen to previous week’s related sermons here.

Avenging Sinfulness

Bob was in my second grade class. Bob wasn’t a common kid name back then. Seemed like something a grandpa ought to be named. Maybe due to his name, but probably due to his life he was just plain mean. Blonde haired. Freckle-faced. Stout and feisty. Bob was a schoolyard bully.

I was skinny, passive, unassuming, and quiet. A perfect target for bully Bob. Not the fighting type at that stage of my life, Bob's provocations could turn my eyes to fire & set my heart pounding with the desire to avenge myself. He always seemed to get me when the teacher wasn't looking. I’ll never forget after he’d picked on me one day I’d had enough. 

With all my fire and prophetic power scrawny me could muster I pronounced upon him in my most menacing voice, “Some day you’ll get yours, Bob. Some day somebody will give you what you’ve been giving others. Some day someone will pound you, Bob. And when they do I wanna be there to see you faaaaaaaaaall!”  

Can’t say that I finished with a wicked laugh. Can say that I can still recall that visceral rush of standing up to my rival, Bob the Bully.

Obadiah is not unlike that. The prophet Obadiah pronounces God’s judgment on behalf of God’s people, Judah, against the rival nation of Edom.

The bad blood between these two nations goes back to the womb (Genesis 25:22-23) and the rivalry between Jacob and Esau, the patriarchs of the nations that would become Judah and Edom respectively. Everything the Old Testament says of the Edomites is negative aside from one command not to abhor them in Deuteronomy 23:7-8. The two nations fought frequently & there are a number of other prophecies against Edom. There was no love lost. These were rivals.

Little is know about Obadiah the person. His name means “Servant of God.” The exact date of his prophecy andwriting are unknown, yet based on the calamity that had fallen upon Judah mentioned in verses 11-14 the timing was most probably the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BC. The Edomites lived in dessert mountains to the south of Judah. They too fell to Babylon in 553.

Obadiah may be the least known book of the entire Bible. The shortest book in the Old Testament—only 21 verses—it also contains themes of judgment and condemnation. Two more reasons we may care to know little of Obadiah. Yet God included Obadiah in the Bible to be instructive to us.

The Edomites had been treacherous, engaging in violence toward Judah. Furthermore, they’d been callous, not coming to Judah’s aid in time of trial & even taking advantage of it. And, to make it worse, the Edomites were indifferent to Sovereign God. Obadiah, not unlike my pronouncement to Bob the Bully, was announcing God’s purpose to avenge his people and the sinfulness of the Edomites.

As you take a few minutes to read Obadiah—you can click here to read it or hear it on YouVersion—consider the following questions:

• What do wee learn about God from Obadiah?
• What do we learn about human nature within Obadiah?
• How does this change the way you will pray for yourself and your rivals?

Please share this post and subscribe to follow future posts. This is the fourth post complimenting our sermon series Major Stuff from the Minor Prophets surveying one of the twelve books each week.

Practicing Religion

You shave. Daily. Or at least regularly. If you are an American adult reading this, then chances are good that you shave. Man or woman. Blade or electric. You shave.

Do you think about it? How to shave, that is? Apply the cream like this. Hold the razor like that. Move from here to there, but be careful of that other spot. Apply some pressure, but not too much. And so on.

Do you think about it? Chances are good that you don’t. You don’t really think about shaving. You’ve done it enough. You just do it. Paying a little attention to what you are doing. But maybe not fully in the moment. Just going through the motions. Autopilot.

Autopilot works for shaving. It doesn’t for worship.

“Oh, wait, Aaron, but I can put it on autopilot in worship. I can be there, but not there. In body but not in spirit, ya know.” Yes, I know. We all can. But then it’s not real worship. Autopilot doesn't work for worship.

Amos, a Judean shepherd and fig-picker by self description, was called by God to prophesy to the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 8th century. He ministered from about 760-750 B.C. The Old Testament Minor Prophet book bearing his name was written in that same time.

Amos began his message with a unique rhetorical device. Reading from 1:1, you will notice that Amos pulled his audience in by naming the sins of nations all around Israel. Even sister nation Judah. This geographic, prophetic circle, however, was more like a noose tightening around the People of Israel. Throughout the book Amos contrasts God’s sovereignty with Israel’s sins. Through prophetic warnings in poetic imagery Amos paints warnings with words. yet there is hope. There is always hope. As God promises the restoration of His people in the final verses, 9:11-15.

Israel was God’s People. Israel had sinned. Disregarding rights. Trampling the poor. And merely practicing religion.

Israel—blessed immeasurably by God—was no longer living in relationship with God. They “went to worship” but they did not worship. They were on spiritual autopilot. Going through the motions of a religion of men. Missing the faith of relationship with God.

Amos pronounces for God in 4:4,

Go to Bethel and sin;
go to Gilgal and sin yet more.
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
your tithes every three years. 

The People of Israel were going through the motions of worship to please themselves. Almost sarcastically God tells them to sin in the places they had set aside to worship. Their worship had become sinful. Just as their lives. 

Have you disconnected organized church worship from your personal relationship with God? 

Have you disconnected your love relationship with God from your love humanity made in his image? 

Don’t just practice religion. Live a relationship.

You’re not shaving. You’re serving. Serving the Sovereign God who loves.

Read Amos this week. Share this post with someone. Subscribe to follow. This is the third post complimenting our sermon series Major Stuff from the Minor Prophets surveying one of the twelve books each week.