Is Serving God Really Worth It?

Some things you just have to wait for. How many of us have ever eagerly anticipated getting out of school for the summer? Just by show of hands, we are in that season right now, right? We are celebrating that. Talked to a couple of teachers this morning.

They are celebrating that. How many of us got our driver's license the moment we were old enough?

I'm just curious. Anybody in the room that's like gotten your license within the last month or so?

Congratulations. How many of us counted the days until we graduated from high school or college? We just celebrated our graduates. We're proud and grateful for all of you. Anyone else ever feel like that wedding day that you scheduled months down the road would never arrive?

We waited for that. How many of us have waited through a pregnancy for the birth of a child?

In addition to our two nine month pregnancies, Allison and I also waited 20 months to adopt. I was thinking about that this week. I'm glad that wasn't a 20 month pregnancy, but I'm probably not as glad as Allison. I mean, giving birth to a 25 pound baby would have been rough. How many of us have built a home and driven by the work site almost every day to check on progress?

That's just a part of that, that, that whole anticipation. How many of us are currently enjoying a retirement that you spent years waiting and preparing for? Yeah, those are the most excited hands in the room. We wait for a lot of different things. In the book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, the people of Judah had endured a lot of difficulty.

Now much of that difficulty, as we've seen in recent weeks, was self inflicted. They were still waiting for God's promised Messiah. And in that waiting, they often grew impatient. They often ignored God's commands and then blamed him for their troubles. So Malachi unpacks this series of declarations that God made.

And then Judah questioned. We saw at the beginning of this series that while Judah's enemies were conspiring against them, God said, I have loved you. And they said, how exactly have you loved us? When Judas priests refused to uphold God's standards for worship, God said, you're disrespecting me. And they said, how?

When Judah offered God defective and diseased animals, God said, your sacrifices are unacceptable. And they said, what are you talking about? When Judah's men began to discard their wives, God said, I don't want your sacrifices while you're breaking your marriage vows. And they said, what's the big deal? When Judah withheld their tithes and their offerings, God said, you are robbing me.

And they said, what do you mean? By the way, Craig shared a great message about giving last Sunday, and if you missed it, I would encourage you to, to go back and give that one a listen. Well, as we move into the home stretch of Malachi today, we're going to find yet another dispute between God and Judah. So if you'll open your Bible or your mobile device with me to Malachi chapter three, we're going to pick this up at verse 13, Malachi three 13. And then we're going to unpack this one final prophetic dialogue.

This time, many people in Judah said serving God is pointless.

You know, people who are skeptical about faith often raise questions about how a loving God can allow suffering, or about the hypocrisy of Christian people, or about the challenge of believing in things that we can't touch or see, or about the exclusivity of claiming that Jesus is the only way to God. These are all big questions. And we've addressed all of these questions in previous messages. But the questions about faith being raised here at the end of Malachi didn't come from skeptical outsiders. These questions came from Jewish insiders.

You have spoken arrogantly against me, says the Lord. Yet you ask, what have we said against you? You have said, it is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed.

Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it. So the gist of Judah's complaints was this, God, we have tried lamenting our sins. We've tried repenting, we've tried obeying you, and life is still hard. Meanwhile, it seems like wicked and corrupt people ignore your warnings without any apparent consequences. So what's the point?

Have you ever felt that dissonance? I mean, I tried tithing, but I'm still struggling financially. I saved sex for marriage, and I still wound up divorced. I went to church and I read my Bible and I prayed. And then I lost my job.

The godliest, most faithful person I've ever known died of cancer. And at the same time, rich, greedy people continue to get wealthier. The world got its first trillionaire this week. Corrupt, selfish people live long, healthy lives. People who want nothing to do with God seem to have everything they want.

Have those thoughts ever crossed your mind? I mean, seeing people flourish while ignoring God's instructions can be puzzling at best and demoralizing at worst. So in recent Years, there's been a lot written about spiritual deconstruction. It's just a blanket term for believers who walk away from their faith because of sometimes their disgust with the actions of corrupt, toxic faith leaders. And there are some of those.

Sometimes they walk away because they have just seen Christian people support political leaders who talk a lot about faith while exhibiting very little of the character of Jesus. Sometimes they walk away from faith because they've seen professing Christians who weaponize Bible verses and show very little grace or compassion. And I get those concerns. Honestly, I even resonate with some of them. But these objections are all about the failures of flawed people, not the character of God.

Think about this. Since Scripture actually teaches that all people are sinful, human hypocrisy doesn't undermine God's word. It actually confirms it. When you experience corruption in the people around you, that is exactly what God has told us we should expect. But rejection of faith isn't always philosophical.

Sometimes it just boils down to faith didn't produce the results I wanted. That's a big one for a lot of us. We are not the first to grapple with the incongruence between our hopes and the reality of our lives. Job and David and the Old Testament prophets all questioned the pain and injustice they saw in the world. But when we decide as human beings that we know better than God how things should be, we arrogantly, dangerously put ourselves in his place.

Now, meanwhile, there were others in Judah who said, God is worthy of our honor. The end of Malachi, chapter three, reveals that not everyone in Judah had turned their backs on God. We read these words. Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other. And the Lord listened and heard.

A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. So there were still some in Judah who feared God. They held him in awe. They looked at God with reverence, and they remained faithful to him. And God noticed them.

This is a really important thing for us to catch here. God hears and God remembers those who honor Him. We're told here in this text that a scroll was written about them. Now, some Bible scholars believe that these faithful people were the ones who wrote the scroll. That they.

They wrote a pledge to God of their ongoing faithfulness. And they all signed it, kind of like the Declaration of Independence. There are other people who believe that God was the one who wrote the scroll. That certainly wouldn't be without precedent. I mean, Moses and David and Daniel and Paul and John and Jesus himself all talked about Scrolls or books that God keeps of those who are faithful to him.

But whoever wrote it this scroll demonstrated that God distinguishes between those who love and serve him and those who don't. God warned of coming judgment against humanity's sin and rebellion. And he made this promise to his faithful people. On the day when I act, says the Lord Almighty, they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him.

And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not. Now that promise wasn't new. By the time Malachi spoke these words to Judah, God had already sent multiple prophets over a period of centuries to call the Jewish people back to him, to reiterate his centuries old promise that he would bless all people on earth through Abraham's descendants, and that those people would be God's treasured possession. God also sent those prophets to warn that judgment awaits those who refuse to honor and obey him. And when that judgment comes, we absolutely want to be on God's side.

So there were some who believed God, while there were others who had heard those promises and they had heard those warnings before and they decided it was all a bunch of ooey and walked away. So in Malachi's final chapter, Malachi, chapter four, this is what God said. God said, I'm playing the long game, you have to trust me. That's a significant theme of much of scripture. I'm playing the long game, trust me.

If the people of Judah grew impatient waiting on God's promises, I expect we're gonna struggle too. Because the pace of our world conditions us to expect nearly instant results. I mean, think about that. We can pull this device out of our pockets and we can stream virtually anything we might ever wanna watch or listen to in a matter of seconds. Drive thru fast food is no longer fast enough.

We don't want to hassle with waiting in line at all. So we pay extra for doordash. We're used to placing an Amazon order and having it on our doorstep within hours. Anybody else ever find that waiting two minutes for your microwave popcorn just feels like an eternity?

So we live in this fast paced, instant results kind of world. And as a result, long haul faithfulness in anticipation of a distant future. Reward can feel like a foreign concept to us. I mean, we want to begin our adult lives oftentimes at the same standard of living our parents worked for decades to get to. We want to join a gym and we want to see Muscle tone and weight loss within a few days.

We want to read a book, we want to listen to a podcast. We want to spend 45 minutes with a counselor and walk away with a radically different marriage. So we may expect to go to church and sing a song and say a prayer and find that our lives are instantly transformed. But that isn't usually how life works, is it? We have to reframe our expectations.

In Malachi, chapter four, God promised a future for final dividing line of judgment Through Malachi, God said this. Surely, surely the day is coming. It will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble. And the day that is coming will set them on fire, says the Lord Almighty.

Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well fed calves. Then you will trample on the wicked. They will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act, says the Lord Almighty.

So what God talks about through Malachi is the idea that his judgment has two facets. First, Malachi warned of a coming day when the arrogant and evil who reject and disobey God will be consumed with a furnace like heat that not only destroys tree branches like we think of in a forest fire, and it also incinerates even the roots so that nothing grows back. At the same time, God's holy presence that destroys evil also brings healing and life to those who honor him. One of my Bible commentaries just says it really succinctly like this. God's presence is a reward for the righteous and a danger to the wicked.

God's presence is a reward for the righteous and a danger to the wicked. When Jesus brings about final judgment, wickedness will be reduced to ashes beneath the feet of his people. Now those predictions were then and they still are today. Futuristic. This is what it's so difficult, I think, for the people in Malachi's day to process.

Malachi preached 400 years before Jesus first coming. And he talked about judgment that will accompany Jesus second coming. That 2,500 years later we're still waiting for. This is a little bit like trying to explain to Christopher Columbus what an aircraft carrier is. It's like trying to explain the Internet to George Washington.

Malachi spoke of things so far in the future that no one who heard him, or their children, or even their great, great, great, great great grandchildren would live to see them. So not everyone got what Malachi meant case in point. Craig alluded briefly to this last week. Let me Revisit this topic. Two thirds of Malachi's 36 mentions of the Lord Malachi talks about the Lord a lot.

Two thirds of those references are to the Lord Almighty. Now, the Hebrew expression here is yahweh, which means the Lord seve, which can mean army or host or war. So this word is sometimes translated the Lord of hosts. It's also sometimes translated like the new living translation says, the Lord of Heaven's armies.

The idea here is that God is awesomely powerful. But at a time when Judah's glory days as a world power were a distant memory, it was easy for people to twist those potential military implications of Yahweh tsive into an expectation of a warrior messiah who would overthrow all of their enemies on a battlefield. So when Jesus arrived 400 years later, right on time and right on mission, with God as a savior but not a soldier, most of the Jewish people rejected him. See, King Jesus came not as a bold, flashy conqueror, but as a humble, gentle teacher. And he doubled down on Malachi's predictions of a coming judgment that would separate those who belong to him from those who don't, the way a shepherd might separate sheep.

But the criteria that Jesus said he would use in making that distinction was surprising. These words come from Matthew 25. Jesus said, Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. And Jesus went on in that text to say that we do those things for him when we do them for others who are in need.

And then he turned the tables. And he said that when we ignore others needs, it's as if we are turning our backs on him. The identifying mark of Jesus followers is kindness. Jesus came to show God's undeserved kindness to sinful people like us.

He came to transform our lives into loving, gracious reflections of him. Jesus said in John chapter 13 that all people will know we are his disciples by the way we love one another. Jesus said, the sheep whose kindness reveals their alignment with him will receive eternal life. He also said that the goats, whose indifference to other people's needs shows that they are not his will be cut off from God and experience the very same destruction prepared for Satan and his demons when Jesus returns and brings everything to its final resolution. God's judgment is no joke.

And that's why God went on in Malachi, chapter four, to urge his people to live by his commands. God said through Malachi, remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. The law that God gave Moses at Mount Horeb, which is sometimes also referred to as Mount Sinai, is a timeless reflection of God's character and the way he wants his people to live. Now. Israel's history was sinful, and it was littered with painful consequences.

So God urged them to learn from the failures of their ancestors and remain faithful to him. Israel had often treated God's commands as though they were this unbearably heavy burden. But God intended them as a blessing. And after God gave the Ten Commandments, Moses added this commentary. Moses said, be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you.

Do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess. If we boil it all down, the Ten Commandments are really just a summation. They're a Reader's Digest condensed version of the entire Old Testament 613 commandment law. The Ten Commandments insist that a God honoring idol, free, well rested parent, respecting life, valuing sexually pure, honest, contented life is the best, healthiest life available.

God's commands were never meant to spoil our fun. They are about setting us up for holy lives and healthy relationships. But Israel had forgotten that they had drifted from that anchor and they needed a reset. So in Malachi chapter four, God insisted to them, as he does to us, that there is still more to come. God went on to say in Malachi, chapter four, verse five, next to the last verse in this little book, see, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.

Which probably sounded a little odd when Malachi spoke those words, because Elijah, one of Israel's greatest and most famous prophets, had lived and died 400 years before Malachi. Now, Jesus would later clarify that when Malachi said Elijah, when what he really meant was John the Baptist, this was a metaphorical, prophetic reference to John the Baptist, who would be the final prophet who pointed ahead to Jesus ministry. Elijah and John the Baptist had some really strong commonalities. They both spent a lot of time off the grid in the wilderness. They both risked their lives by confronting corrupt rulers.

And they both warned of coming judgment and called people to repentance. And if you've been with us for the last few weeks and you've been paying attention, you know that here in chapter four, this wasn't Malachi's first mention of John the Baptist and Jesus. Back in chapter three. We looked at this a couple of weeks ago. Chapter three began with these words.

He said, I will send my messenger. He's talking about John the Baptist, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly, the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant, that's Jesus the Messiah he's talking about. Whom you desire will come, says the Lord Almighty.

So in chapter three, Malachi predicted that John the Baptist would come and prepare the way for Jesus, and that Jesus would establish a new and lasting covenant between God and people. And he would do that by giving his life, not an animal sacrifice, but giving his own life on a cross for the world's sins. And then he would ratify that covenant and confirm that sacrifice by rising from the dead. Here in chapter four, Malachi looked even further into the future, and he predicted that Jesus would eventually return to judge the world and destroy evil and set things right. That's the great and dreadful day of the Lord that Malachi talks about here.

And to prepare the world for that future day of judgment, God sent Jesus to reconcile us to God through his death, so that on that day of judgment, we don't need to have anything to fear. But first, he sent John the Baptist to call people to repent, to turn their hearts back toward God and toward each other. So Malachi's final statement, last verse in the Old Testament, says this. He, John the Baptist, will turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents. Or else I will come and and strike the land with total destruction.

And then silence for 400 years.

God's holiness is uncompromising. His unwavering goodness will not tolerate sin. His perfect justice compels him to judge and remove and punish evil. So he will, but his love for us delays that. The reason that this long period of waiting that we get so weary of sometimes is taking place is because of God's love for us.

Until that great and dreadful day of the Lord, God is patiently allowing us the opportunity to repent. I mean, given God's holiness, he would have been 100% justified in just ending our corrupt world. A long time ago. But instead he sent prophets like Malachi to remind his people that he has a plan. He sent John the Baptist to call people to repentance.

He sent Jesus to reveal his love for us, to pay for our sins and call us back to Him. And even now he waits. He allows us time to turn to Him. Throughout this study in Malachi, my mind has just continually been drawn back to this text from Second Peter, chapter three. I've already shared it with you a couple of times this morning.

I want to zoom out into a little bit broader context, and I want to share this with you again, because what Second Peter says, written a few centuries after Malachi, is just as relevant today. Peter wrote, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar.

The elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth, and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells.

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation.

We began today by thinking about some things that we have waited or in some cases, are still waiting for. Scripture reminds us that God is waiting too. Lovingly, graciously, patiently. God has a plan, and he will accomplish it.

God has a plan and he will accomplish it. So we don't have to worry about whether God knows what he's doing. We don't have to worry about whether God will come through. Now, we can't predict the timing. And as finite human beings, we are not always going to understand what our eternal God is up to.

But God has a plan, and he will accomplish it. We don't have to make the plan, we don't have to execute the plan. Our responsibility is to trust God, to align ourselves with him and to wait on him to fulfill his promises. Now, the book of Malachi is loaded with questions. So we've asked a lot of questions throughout this series, and it's only fitting that as we wrap up this series today, we ask a few more.

One of the things that Malachi drives home is the reality that the life God calls us to isn't always easy. The question is, is God worth serving? Not is serving God easy? But is God worth serving?

The people in Malachi's day got frustrated and irritated and impatient because they couldn't see what God was up to. We can't always see everything that God is up to either.

But do we trust him to do what's right? Do we trust the character of God that what he brings about will be the right thing? We can't predict when, but Malachi and prophets before him and Jesus himself and the apostles after him all insist that Jesus will return to gather those who are his and wipe out evil once and for all. And the question that's embedded in that reality is, are you ready for that day? God has been patient for a long time, but he says that day will come like a thief.

It will come at a time when we're not looking for it, at a time when we don't expect it. Are you ready for that day? Do you know for certain that when that day comes that you're certain where you stand? Does your life belong to Jesus? What is it that keeps you from totally surrendering to Jesus as Lord and Savior?

And the last question I want to ask because God is showing patience toward us, because God doesn't want anyone to perish. He wants everyone to come to repentance. Who else in your life needs to know Jesus? Who else is currently a beneficiary of God's patience, but needs to know his love and his grace so that they can embrace that and they can be a part of this kingdom that scripture says Jesus has prepared since the creation of the world for those who love and belong to him? God has a plan and he will accomplish it.

Would you pray with me, Lord God, we.

We see in your Word that you are busy.

You have been at work. You continue to be at work. You are working things out. And sometimes we get the opportunity of seeing how the puzzle pieces fit together. Sometimes we see the promise and we see the fulfillment, Father.

Sometimes we. We follow the instruction and we experience the reward in a tangible way. But, Father, there are a lot of things that we're still waiting for. We still have a lot of questions.

And in this period of waiting, in this period where not all of our questions have been answered yet, it's easy to grow weary and impatient. And so, God, I thank you for the promise of Malachi, that you know what you're doing, that you've had a plan from the very beginning. Nothing has deviated from that. Nothing that we do takes you off guard.

And Father, if we'll trust you, if we will hang with you, if we'll continue to walk with you. Father, you will not only work in and through our lives in this life, but, Father, what you have prepared for us in the future will be something that will just blow our. Our wildest dreams and imaginations out of the water. God, we thank you for your goodness in including us in that plan. We also recognize, Father, that your.

Your Holiness, your righteousness, your justice is serious business. And, Father, we don't want to take that lightly. We don't want to scoff at that. And we don't want to knowingly allow people within our sphere of influence to go through the rest of their lives without any awareness of those realities. God, we ask you to show us what you want us to do with what Malachi is sharing with us.

And we pray more than anything, Lord, that you would help us even when we can't see, even when we're not sure what comes next, even when we don't have the ability to connect all the dots. Father, help us to trust you and to walk with you. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.