Text: Malachi 1:1-5
Topic: The first steps toward restoring right worship

• Illustration: Mathewson shares a story about a restoration project he took part in at a local forest preserve. The restoration process consisted of getting rid of some things, while also adding some things.
• I want us to begin a restoration project. I want us to restore worship in our church—that active, 24-7 response to God in which we declare his worth.
• I think we have the same problem that a lot of other churches and a lot of other believers have in life: over time, our worship diminishes.
• The Book of Malachi will help us in this restoration process.
• Malachi was written to a group of people who were living about 450 years before Jesus—a people who were disillusioned, discouraged, filled with doubts.

• As you make your way through Malachi, you will find that the message of this book is broken up into six disputes that God has with his people.
• The first dispute is outline in the opening verses—a dispute over God's love for his people.
• In the process of this dispute, we find the key ingredient of right worship: the starting point for restoring our worship is restoring our confidence in God's love.
• In the second verse of the book, God makes a very powerful statement: "I have loved you." Read further in Malachi 1, and you will see that God's people are not buying into the idea of God's love.
• Think about the way life had been for them—a life filled with persecution and great loss.
• God responds to their cynicism by offering proof of his love in verses 2-5, pointing out his rejection of Edom.
• This might be hard for us to wrap our minds around, so let me give you three points of clarification that might help.
• First of all, you have to realize that at this time in their history, Israel is frustrated that their neighbors just across the Jordan River to the southwest—the nation of Edom—seem to have gotten away with murder.
• The Edomites are the descendants of Esau, who was not given the blessing that Israel received. But it had long seemed to Israel that the Edomites had lived a great life.
• At this time in history, though, we know that the Edomites were in the process of being driven from their land by another group of people—the Nabateans.
• As the people of Israel are struggling to rebuild their life in Israel are struggling to see proof of God's love, God is saying through Malachi: I want you to look at the big picture. Look at the way I've treated Edom. You've complained about how they've gotten off free, but look what's going on. They are facing judgment and devastation.
• Let's move to a second point of clarification. When God says, "Esau I have hated," he is using a term that in Malachi's day was not a term of animosity like it is today.
• It was a strong term, but it was a term of rejection often used in a legal context to describe a relationship that is being broken.
• Finally, according to this passage, there is an elective element to God's love.
  • Deuteronomy 7:7-8
• There is an element of God's love where he chooses some and passes over others.
• I realize that this is a hard thing to wrap our minds around, but it is important to realize that most of the time—if not every time—that the Bible talks about election, it is always in the context of speaking about how much God loves us.
• When God's people ask him to prove his love for them, God tells them to look at the big picture—to compare their story with the story of Edom—and they will see that he is delivering them, while also bringing judgment upon Edom for their wickedness.
• All of this points to the starting point for restoring our worship. We must first restore our confidence in God's love.

• How has God demonstrated his love to us today? That's not hard to answer. Consider just one passage from the New Testament: Romans 5:7-8.
  • Illustration: Mathewson tells a story that shows the unconditional, selfless love of Ted Kaczynski's (the Unabomber) mother. He concludes: "We look at that as a rather amazing act of human love, but Romans 5 says God has done something even more incredible than that. While we were still sinners—while were still in full out rebellion against him—he sent his son to die for us.
  • 1 John 4:10
• Like the people in Malachi's day, we might look at our circumstances—struggles in our family, problems with our job, tensions in our relationships with others—and say, "My life is an absolute mess. God, how have you loved me?"
• God will reply, "This is how I've demonstrated my love: I've done something more amazing than you can imagine. My son, Jesus Christ, who is fully God, came to this earth. He became fully human, took upon himself all the limitations of humanity, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross for your sin."
• If you are doubting God's love, I want to offer three suggestions that might help you be more confident in God love for you.
• The first suggestion I have is for you to reflect long and hard on the death of Jesus Christ.
• Second, read the Bible as a love story.
• Third, make a list of what God has done for you—"count your many blessings," as the old hymn says.

• I cannot stress enough how essential it is for us to have confidence in God's love if we're going to engage in right worship.
  • Illustration: Mathewson tells the story of a spy named Moe Berg, whose limited knowledge of German and physics caused him to fail in a task assigned to him during World War II.
• That's the way it works for us with worship. You and I are not going to be able to restore our worship if we don't know about—and have confidence in—God's love.