The Religious Nerd

The preaching pastor at my former church often said Malachi was one of his favorite books because he could relate to the man, because they were (are) both Italians (Mal-a-chi).  I always giggled when he would say that as he preached through the book verse by verse.  There is a lot of practical application to be found in this short prophetic book, especially regarding the topic of worship.

For a long time I struggled to worship God.  I thought I was worshiping God.  I said a prayer here or there when a difficult situation came up.  I asked Him to deliver me from my circumstance and then forgot about Him when He did. For many years I maintained a lackadaisical attitude regarding worship with the thought that God should accept me for who I am, and that He should be thankful that He gets any sort of worship from me. When I heard the Malachi series preached I had an encounter with God that I had never experienced before.  I realized that my definition of acceptable is actually completely unacceptable to god.  I immediately knew that something had to change.  Since I am convinced God doesn’t change, I knew it had to be me.

I have no clue if reading Malachi 1 (and considering these 8 points) will have any effect on you, but I can tell you this, it helped me understand and appreciate what God expects from us. Knowing what God wants makes doing this Christianity thing a million times easier.  With that in mind, I encourage you to actually read Malachi 1 in your Bible and then read through the following 8 points.  Each point corresponds with a verse in Malachi 1 (marked accordingly).

If you’re like me and you don’t want to read a giant essay, just read the 8 points and think about how they apply to your life.  Always remember that because of what Jesus did on the Cross, we don’t have to be afraid of God, or strive to Worship Him perfectly.  We can’t worship God perfectly until we are without sin (glorified).  However, we can get started on the right path of being obedient worshipers of God.  Grab your Bible and open it to Malachi 1, or click HERE to open it in your browser.

 1) Do you really believe God is worthy of praise or are you just saying it? Vs. 6b.  God uses the example of the relationship between a father and his son and a master and his slave to remind Israel of who exactly is in charge.  We often forget our place in the family of God. Consider this, our relationship with our earthly father often represents our relationship with our Heavenly Father.  If we do not respect and revere our earthly father, how can we possibly respect and revere our Heavenly Father? The two go hand in hand.  The same goes for our governing authorities.  I have heard things like “Barack Obama is not my president” or “I hate that guy”.  I hate to break it to you, but yes, as of today Barack Obama is your president and you should treat him with respect as he is an authority figure over you, and no authority figures are allowed to take office outside of the providence of God (see Romans 13).

2) Religious people are often the biggest  problem . Vs. 6b. It’s often the people who consider themselves to be extremely religious or who appear extremely Godly in Church on Sunday morning who are secretly guilty of being lazy in their walk with God.  Anyone can put on a show Sunday morning, but if your actions do not live up to the Sunday morning performance, God knows what you are up to.  Religious people are offended by a girl who shows up to church in pants, and then they wear sweatpants at home later that same day.  They say “God’s house is holy” to justify their judgment forgetting that God is omnipresent and is with us every minute of every hour of the day. If you rely on outward appearance to gain you respect in your local church community, you aren’t worshiping God in Spirit and truth ( See John 4:24)

3) God makes it clear what He expects from us Vs.7  We knowingly choose to disobey Him, and then we question God ” How have we polluted you?”  God lays out what is expected from us in His Word.  Like the priests, we cannot claim ignorance.  We cannot justify our sinful actions before God.  For example, the Bible says that sexual immorality is a sin. Young unmarried’s engage in oral sex and try to justify it saying it isn’t sexual intercourse.  To God, any sexual act outside of the marriage covenant is a sin.  He knows what you are up to in secret, you can’t hide it from Him. As Christians we need to study His Word and work diligently to obey it even if it seems inconvenient to us. If you have no interest in learning what He expects from you, you likewise have no interest in worshiping God.

4) Often times we offer more to our boss (or friends)  than we do to God. Vs. 8.  Have you ever gone to a job interview before?  If you are smart, you likely dressed up in your best clothes, got a hair cut, clipped your finger nails, and prepared for the interview the day before. You likely showed up early.  You were probably nervous as you didn’t know what questions to expect or if you would impress the hiring manager.  When was the last time you went through that sort of ordeal for God?  We often show up to church late, leave early, focus on the wrong things while there, or simply skip church all together for something else that seemed more fun at the time (such as sleep or a football game).  Why it is that we give more of ourselves to our manager than we give to God?  Why do we fear our manager more than we fear God?  The response is often “my manager controls my salary”.  You wouldn’t have one penny if God didn’t give it to you! If you don’t tithe to your local church, you aren’t worshiping God, you are worshiping your money.

5) God may not even be interested in your fake worship! Vs. 10.  If you have spent the week involved in unrepentant sin and then on Sunday morning you show up to church so that you can feel good, God will not accept your worship and He takes no pleasure in it.  People do not realize that worshiping God is an event that takes place 7 days a week.  Worship isn’t simply allocated to 2 hours on Sunday morning.  We are to strive to glorify God in every area of our lives.  If you are involved in unrepentant sin (sex before marriage, getting drunk all the time, porn addiction, drug use, gossip, stealing cable/internet, etc) God knows about it and will not accept your worship of Him until you repent.  The priests in Malachi were not repentant of their sinful behavior, and God called them out on it.  Repent of your sins and then worship God. A lifestyle of unrepentant sin is not acceptable to God and therefore is not worshiping Him.

6) God’s excellence is visible 24 hours a day. Vs. 11.  If you can’t see it your heart is in the wrong place. Often times we need some sort of external encouragement to motivate us to improve.  Our encouragement exists both internally and externally. As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit who empowers us to grow in Godliness on a daily basis.  We also have the hope that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.  God is all around us and operating through us.  We need to be constantly aware especially in those difficult times in life so that we can overcome sin and get through the rough times. If you don’t worship God during the tough times, you aren’t truly worshiping Him in the good times.

7) God knows what resources are available to you. Vs.14a  He knows if you’re poor.  He know’s if you’re comfortable, He know’s if you’re rich.  He knows what you do with your time.  If you give Him a blemished offering He knows.  There is no excuse for not tithing to your local church.  In fact, if you willfully chose to hold back your tithe to God, He is grossly offended by it.  Tithing is a delight, not a burden. “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,” 1 John 5:3. If you don’t tithe, you are failing at offering acceptable worship to God.

8) You are a member of the royal priesthood! While you aren’t an Old Testament priest, you are a member of the “royal priesthood, a people belonging to God” 1 Peter 2:9.  It’s always important to consider what application can be made while studying any scripture regardless of whether it’s OT or NT.  Yes, you do have to consider context, that is an essential step in good Bible study methods.  While Malachi is largely God indicting the Jewish priesthood for their disobedience and laziness, there are many lessons that we can learn from it as Christians today!  We have to strive to worship God in an acceptable way.  We can’t pretend to be ignorant, and we can’t get away with being lazy. (See Romans 12:1) We must seek to discover the areas of our lives that aren’t being lived to the glory of God and work hard at improving those things.

Just remember, there is a difference between acceptable and unacceptable worship.  If you are failing at any of these 8 things (like I am), I encourage you to think about it and make a decision to change.