Micah - “Hear, Hear!”

 Come back!

Joel, Jonah, Amos, and Hosea use the word return (shub, H7725) some 50 times.  After that Israel is going into exile.  Judah is next.  And the next 6 prophets only use the word 9 times.  Then the last three (Daniel, Zechariah, Malachi) use it 47 times.  I urged you to return, to come back to Me, and you didn’t, so now you’re going away, but eventually you WILL come back.  I will bring you back. 

There are a couple of words which Micah uses more than these other prophets.  One is the word, will.  Future tense, indicative mood.  It is the language of future fact.  I will do this.  You will experience this.  They will do this.  This will happen.  "I will" is the language of the settled and decided future fact.  The language of promise.  I will, you will, they will, it will - 131 times (!) (in 105 verses) in Micah.  Over and over again.  This thing is as good as done.  It is GOING to happen, as surely as summer follows spring.  Basically at this point Israel is staring at the unavoidable consequences of her waywardness dead in the face.  

[read verses 1.1-7]

Another word which we see in Micah is the word, hear.  Israel (and Judah) have NOT been listening.  They are not listening, they are not paying attention, in other words.  Hear, hear!

What does it take to hear?

[story of Austin Chapman - deaf filmmaker whose poor quality hearing aids convinced him there was nothing much to hear but then who finally gets good hearing aids and hears for the first time: “When Mozart’s Lacrimosa came on, I was blown away by the beauty of it. At one point of the song, it sounded like angels singing and I suddenly realized that this was the first time I was able to appreciate music. Tears rolled down my face and I tried to hide it. But when I looked over I saw that there wasn’t a dry eye in the car.”]

[recording of lacrimosa - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE2muDZksP4]

Israel wasn’t listening.  Altho, sometimes the enemy of hearing is actually noise.  Isn’t that true for our world today?  Isn’t there so much noise?  And isn’t it true that we so willingly tune in to the noise, to the cacophony of the world, rather than tune in to the sounds of heaven?

You know how they test hearing?  They put you in that small sound proof chamber, and put those headphones on you, and you’re supposed to listen for the tiny beep, that still small noise.  And it wouldn’t be so hard - but then they turn on noise.  They turn up this static background noise, and it makes it so much harder to hear what you’re actually trying to hear.

[picture of an ear] - Ear, ear drum, bones, nerves, neural/cerebral processing - and then it gets handed off to the mind and the heart, which control what kind of motor responses will result from the reception of the audio signals.

Talk about complexity [Darwin’s Black Box - the nucleus of a cell and irreducible complexity… “"If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down," Charles Darwin]. When we encounter complexity in the world, our minds instinctively understand that there is intelligence behind that.  Some intelligent being accounted for that “random” anomaly.  I call complexity an anomaly because one of the most fundamental laws of physics tells us that randomness increases.  In our current universe, randomness is always naturally increasing.  Things get more random, they break down.  Everything breaks down, doesn’t it?  Our cars.  Our houses.  Our toys.  Our bodies.  Even relationships are prone to this.  Without some measure of intervention, sooner or later everything breaks down.  And we, the people of the Book, understand that this is a result of the Fall.  All that which was designed by our Creator to last forever - now is subjected to what the Bible calls the law of corruption. 

Romans 8:21 

…that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

The entire universe is enslaved to this principle of corruption, of decay.  Randomness increases.  The Law of Corruption means Stuff breaks down - UNLESS acted upon by some external force.  Unless you introduce some energy - AND intelligence - into the equation.

[pictures of peter ellenshaw paintings] - Take a look at this “picture”.  Our fallen nature with an assist from Darwin assumes that what we glimpse in this screen is a photo of a place that it arose by a long series of successive helpful slight modifications.  I.e. random.  But what if I tell you that the image you see on the screen is actually a painting, a bunch of paint on canvas?  What would be the best explanation for how this painting came about?  If a bunch of paint were thrown onto a canvas, what are the chances that something like this would result?  We look at a painting, and we can easily intuit that there is intelligence behind this beauty - but why then, when we look at the real thing, are our fallen corrupted minds wont to dismiss the idea that there is intelligence behind this?

[picture of trees in a row]

How many trees in a row does it take before the most reasonable answer becomes intelligence as opposed to randomness?  And what if you had to stake your life on it?  What is the most reasonable explanation for that row of trees?  Just because you did not see them planted, or cannot even see the one who planted them, means nothing.  Any reasonable open-minded thinking person can see that this is no random accident.  But this is exactly what many thinking people are desperate to believe about the universe, and about humans specifically.  That we are random accidents, hopeful mutations.  We say hopeful mutation, because outside of the Marvel Comic Universe mutants overwhelmingly tend to struggle to even survive. Much less multiply.

Let’s go back to the ear.  Look at the amazing complexity of this design.  What is the most reasonable explanation to account for this?  Random accident?  Or the product of ingenious engineering?  Complex structures do not arise from random accidents.

Psalm 94:9  

He who planted the ear, does He not hear?  He who formed the eye, does He not see?

Isaiah 42:20  

You have seen many things, but you do not observe them; Your ears are open, but none hears.

A reality with which all parents are familiar. There is more to hearing than the mere physical anatomy of the situation.  Ears are always open.  They are always on.  Like Alexa/Google/Siri - unless our battery dies.  Or we get this…  

[no signal logo]

But when it comes to our always-on ears, our mind has the ability to tune out.  It tunes out when we’re asleep.  And it tunes out the noise when all it is is noise.  Our minds tune out what they perceive to be noise.  It’s Charlie Brown’s teacher.  Woh woh woh.  When our child is not listening to us, when they are not hearing what we are saying, it’s not that their ears are not functioning.  Ears are always on (assuming they are in fact healthy).  No, something needs to happen in the mind and heart of this audio receiver.  There is this thing called attention.  Hearing is about paying attention.  And yes, one could say that there is a cost, a price to pay when it comes to paying attention.  

Another option for when ears don’t hear is when they’re operating in a vacuum.  Sound waves cannot travel in a vacuum - did you know that?  There is no sound in space.  All those cool space explosions in Star Wars and the Marvel Universe - in space your ears wouldn’t hear a thing.  And I do think that one plausible explanation as to why some people don’t hear the Word of the Lord is that they are operating in a spiritual vacuum.

But for most of us, the challenge of hearing is that of paying attention.  And then there is this other thing called response.

Micah 6:3

“My people, what have I done to you, and how have I wearied you? Answer Me.”

God says His people's lack of response is because they have grown weary, they are tired of Him.  Impatient.  It is the law of diminishing returns.  We get tired of the same old stuff - even when it's amazing 5-star stuff.  And in our modern pop-culture age, things get old and tired and outdated not in years and decades but in minutes - and milliseconds.  And so God says, Remember!  Remember what I have done for you! 

Micah 6.4-5  

“Indeed, I brought you up from the land of Egypt and ransomed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron and Miriam.  My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered him, and from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you might know the righteous acts of the LORD.”  

Remember!  Never forget, never lose the awe and grandeur of Who I am and all I have made and done.

And Micah says, As for me, I will watch.  I will wait for the Lord.  I will even bear with His indignation - because I have sinned against Him. (7.7-9) I will remember who He is, and who I am.

Micah 6:8  

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness (chesed), and to walk humbly with your God?

Walking.  Humbly with your God. 

And here’s a thing about our ears.  Healthy ears are what make it possible for humans to walk.  Structures in our middle and inner ears help us regulate our equilibrium and retain our balance.  We can’t even walk right without our ears.  And isn’t that true in a spiritual sense?  Isn’t that what the Lord is saying?  Hear!  Hear, hear!  Hear O Israel!  The Lord is God.  He is the One and Only.  And you will love Him with all your heart.  You will do what is right, and love chesed, and walk humbly with Him.  Walk humbly with Him.  Because it is so easy to grow tired of Him.  To get sidetracked.  To get out of spiritual balance.  We start paying attention to other things.  The noise!  So much noise!  We lose sight of Who He is.  What He has done - His righteous acts.  His wonders!  The grandeur and perfection and majesty of Who He is.

But there must be an initial humbling, this initial lowering of ourselves, where we initially acknowledge that God is God.  That there is a God, and I am not Him.  That He made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.  Unbelievably complex.  Including me.  And therefore I am accountable to Him.  He is Lord, and I will bow my knee to Him.  I think this initial humbling is about removing the spiritual vacuum.  It is about emerging from the vacuum chamber and out into the atmosphere, the world of sound, not only where your physical ears can hear beautiful music and birds and all the attendant noise, but where your spiritual ears can hear the still small sound of the voice of God.  I will bend my ear and listen to Him.  I will pay attention to Him and rank myself under Him and do what He wants.  This is the price we must pay.  I will live into doing what He wants.  He has told us.  He has shown us.  He has made it perfectly clear.  The heavens - everything around us - is declaring that there is a God, and He is glorious.  We just need to choose whether or not we will pay attention.  Whether or not we will humble ourselves, get off our high horse and acknowledge that He is God.  But in the end we find with the saints of old, that whatever price I think I have paid, that it was all more than worth it.  In the words of Hudson Taylor, I never made a sacrifice.

And for those of us who have done that, who have made this initial acknowledgement, there is the need to keep paying attention, the daily need to walk humbly with our God.  Walking humbly with God means we defer to Him, we tune in to Him.  Every day.  Because as we see with Israel, it doesn’t take much.  It doesn’t take much to get off track, to tune out.  We’re not talking about signal loss as much as we are talking about competing stations.  Isn’t that what happens on the radio?  You have this one station you really like to listen to, and invariably it seems as tho some other station will come along, set up shop closer to where you live, and it starts crowding out the station you’ve been listening to.  That’s what happened to the Israelites.  They were camping out in Shittim, in the plains of Moab, God had brought them so far and through so much, and King Balak hires Balaam to curse them, and instead God speaks through a donkey and through Balaam and blesses His people.  But there they are, camping right beside the banks of promise.  And [Num 25.1-3] they begin to play the harlot.

It doesn’t take much.  It doesn’t take long.  Every day brings with it a new need for fresh grace and fresh fire from the Lord, fresh spiritual fuel for our journey.  And the challenge is the same for us as it was for Israel.  Hear, O Israel.  Hear, O church.  Hear, hear!  Listen up!  Pay attention!  Pay attention to the Lord.  You and I and all God’s people need Him today.  We need to listen to His Word and His Spirit and depend on Him today, because apart from Him there is nothing we can do.  And the problem is not with our ears.  The problem is with our hearts.  We tune out.  Our hearts and our minds tune out - we turn the voice of the Lord into so much noise.  Woh woh woh.  Or there’s too much noise in our lives, so much noise that it’s drowning out the Lord.  We need to find ways to eliminate the extraneous noise.  Silence - that’s what we need.  The sounds of silence.  So that we can really hear.  Taking the time to listen.  

When do you do your best listening?  And where do you do your best listening?  What does it take for you to be able to hear the still small voice of the Lord?  Silence.  It is a spiritual discipline.

Luke 5:16 But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.

Matt. 14:23 After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone.

Mark 1:35   In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.

Luke 6:12   It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.

Morning - or evening.  It made no difference to Jesus.  Where is your mountain?  Where do you find your wilderness?  Your alone time?  Where do you & I find silence in our lives?  When?  Jesus would find it often.  In our day, it is an increasingly fleeting commodity, so many messages and voices and stimuli coming screaming at us - even from the moment we wake up?

Psalm 46:10  

“Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.

C. S. Lewis

Inner silence is for our race a difficult achievement. There is a chattering part of the mind which continues, until it is corrected, to chatter on even in the holiest places.

C. S. Lewis

The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.   C. S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis was heavily influenced by a Scottish author named George Macdonald.  Macdonald wrote this about heaven: he described it as "that region where there is only life, and all that is not music is silence."  It is an interesting thought - one on which Lewis then elaborates in The Screwtape Letters.  There, the “senior demon” Screwtape reveals one very interesting plan of the devil.

Music and silence–how I detest them both!….[Hell] has been occupied by Noise–Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile–Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end….The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. (The Screwtape Letters, 119-120, emphasis added)

In order to drive us away from God, Satan chooses to distract us with “Noise.” He knows that if we are overrun by countless distractions that we will be unable to hear the voice of God in silence.

[turning off the tv]

Jesus - "My sheep hear My voice…"

Samuel - "Speak Lord, Your servant is listening..."

Ending promises

2.12-13

4.1-7

5.2-3

7.18-20

Outline of Micah

•  Hear I: Judgment Will Come (ch 1-2)

1. 1.1 - Hear the Word of the Lord
2. 1.5 - Israel AND Judah
3. 2.1 - Woe
4. 2.3 - Thus says the Lord
5. 2.12 - A remnant

Hear II: Judgment Then Blessing (ch 3-5)

1. 3:1 - Hear Heads/Rulers
2. 3.5 - (False) Prophets
3. 3.9 - Hear the judgment on leaders (rulers, priests, prophets)
4. 4.1 - Last days
5. 4.9 - Purposeful punishment
6. 5.1 - Messiah/Bethlehem
7. 5.10 - The Pruning

Hear III: Indictment And Blessing (ch 6-7)

1. 6.1 - Hear (shama) the indictment
2. 6.3 - God’s heart
3. 6.9 - The indictment
4. 7.1 - The perishing
5. 7.7 - The watching (for the Lord instead of for calamity)
6. 7.11 - The Come Back

Malachi - “Father Knows Bester”

So the people of Israel have been back in the land for a century at this point.  They have finished rebuilding the temple.  They have finished rebuilding the walls.  They have rebuilt their lives - they have made it back!  Comeback!  But there is still work to be done…

God sends them Malachi - the Italian prophet.  We actually don’t know much about him.

There are 10 quotes attributed to the people in the book.  Look at these 10 quotes - what does it say about their hearts?  How would you describe their hearts?  What we see is this spiritual malaise, this general state of disaffection.  They are disappointed, fairly disinterested, and when God calls them on it, they are in denial.  There is a spiritual arrogance about them.  And it manifests itself in three ways:

-These people are pessimistic.  They are slouchy.  And they are stingy.

-Pessimism results from unmet expectations.  They were dashed.  And rather than be constantly disappointed, the pessimist readjusted their expectations - but they lowered them so far as to live in a state of perpetual disappointment.  They have seen the brokenness of the world, how life lets you down, but rather than make the best of living in the tension of glory-yet-to-be-restored, they are the prophet of doom.  The world is broken, people are broken, systems are broken, stuff breaks down.  The future will be just as bad as the present, which is just as bad as the past.  There is some truth to that, yes - but that’s only part of the story.  Sadly, living hope does not apply to this person.  Failure to understand the God of the Come Back.  I come to make all things new, He says!  But comebacks usually take time.  Yes, you may have to be patient.  You may have to wait for it.  You may have to live with the reality of “yes but not yet”.  Unfortunately, the pessimist is unwilling to wait.  Why bother waiting, why bother hoping?

-[1.2-3] I have loved you, God says - AND STILL DO. “How have You loved us?”, they ask.  They may as well just come out with it - You HAVEN’T loved us.  That’s what they’re thinking.  Shortsighted thinking, to be sure.  Pessimism, oozing out of them.  Cuz that whole exile thing - that was not what we wanted.  And this come back - it has not been what we expected.  We didn’t expect all this brokenness.  All this opposition.  We didn’t get what we wanted.  You didn’t let us have our cake and eat it too.  You didn’t let us have it our own way.  When in fact God did give them exactly what they wanted - they wanted life on their own terms, life outside of God’s instructions - and that’s what God gave them.  He allowed them to experience life apart from Him.  Brokenness.  Reminding them of their desperate need for Him.  But to come back from that - rebuilding, healing - that always takes some time.  Work.

-And God responds:  I HAVE loved you - AND STILL DO!  There is ample proof.  God always has ample proof of His love for us.  As evidence, God here reminds them that He chose them.  He chose them over Esau, and He repeatedly lived into that choice over the centuries.  And when Esau joined in with Babylon and cheered the heathen on when they destroyed Jerusalem, God let them have it.  Esau, the Edomites, cheered the Babylonians on - and that was their last mistake.  Raze it, burn it to the ground! [Ps 137.7]  Whoa.

-Questioning God’s love.  Why do we do that?  Do you ever do that?  God, You must not love me, cuz you have let this happen to me.  Dashed expectations.  You have put me here.  You haven’t done such-and-such.  You made me like this.  It’s hard for me to see Your love when this is the hand I’ve been dealt.  There must be some mistake, God.  Father, You made a mistake - this hand You dealt me makes it really hard for me to feel like You love me.  Sometimes it’s the love we experienced from our own parents that dashed our expectations.

[Lauren Chapin] - Father Knows Best was one of the most popular television series of the 1950s and early 1960s. The program won six Emmy Awards and finished sixth in ratings during its final year of production. Father Knows Best continued to be shown in prime time for three years after production ended and then for another five years on ABC’s daytime lineup. Father Knows Best can still be seen in reruns today.

The showstopper on the program was Lauren Chapin, the adorable little Kathy (nicknamed “Kitten”). Lauren appeared in many TV and radio programs as well as movies and commercials. Five times she was awarded Junior Emmy awards for best child actress. Elvis Presley, probably the most popular singer in the world at the time, was brought in by the studio to entertain at her private birthday party. Recently E! True Hollywood Stories aired a two-hour television special on Lauren’s life that won ratings higher than any of the shows produced to date.

To all outward appearances Lauren had the perfect life—fame, money, and professional accolades. However, looks can be deceiving and that was certainly true of this little girl. Lauren’s home life was totally dysfunctional. Secretly, her father was abusing her, and her mother was cold, unloving, and even cruel. When Father Knows Best was suddenly canceled, Lauren was devastated. With no direction she went from bad to worse. For years she lived a life of incredible misery—drugs, fast company, casual lovers, eight miscarriages, welfare, a mental hospital, and even prison!

Lauren had never been a religious person, but her son began going to church with relatives. When he threatened to quit if she did not attend with him, Lauren agreed. After visiting several churches, she found one where the pastor clearly shared the gospel. As the pastor preached, she felt he was speaking directly to her. For the first time, she heard that she had a Father who loved her with an unconditional love, in spite of her many sins. With tears she received Christ as her Lord and Savior, and her life was changed forever. Today she has found personal and professional success. She shares her testimony in churches and with all who will listen. During the interview for her biography on the E! True Hollywood Stories, Lauren gave a bold gospel presentation of how Jesus Christ changed her life. Lauren was touched by the love of God.

-“But I HAVE loved you”, He says.  And still do!  Such grace and forbearance.  When did God’s love for you begin?  Eph. 1:4 “Even before He made the world, God loved us…” [Jer 31.3 - “I have loved you with an everlasting love…”]  And for each one of us, He HAS shown us His love in no uncertain terms - at the Cross.  God demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were sinners, while we were His enemies, what?  Christ died for us.  He gave us His Son.  It is the old story of the train conductor - most of us have heard it.  He is our loving restoring redeeming healing heavenly Father.  And He wants to be the Father we never had.

-[1.6-10] So we see that they are questioning His love - and they are withholding their hearts.  Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also, right?  So where was Israel putting its treasure?  The better question, of course, is, where were they NOT putting their treasure?  We know where they were NOT putting their treasure - it was not going to the Lord.  You don’t give Me your treasure, because I am not your Treasure.  You’ve heard of the treasure principle?  That’s what we’re talking about.  We give our treasure - the best of our time, the best of our talent, the best of our treasure - to that which we treasure.  And God was getting their scraps, their leftovers.  They were giving Him what they didn’t want.  What they didn’t care about.  What wasn’t even theirs.  Things they didn’t care about - because they really didn’t care about Him.  "How tiresome it is."  They were weary.  Bored.  And it made them slouchy.  [1.11]  From the rising to the sun even to its setting, My Name will be great among the nations, the Lord says.  My Name will be great.  Revered.  Honored.  It means weighty.  That to which I attach weight.  Significance.  Importance.  Which is precisely what you, My people, are NOT doing for Me.  You are not attaching honor and value and significance to Me. You are not treasuring Me.  You are bringing it in weak.  Not to mention diseased!  In doing so, You are despising Me.  You are profaning Me.  Making Me look bad.  You are offering Me that which costs you nothing, second-hand, that which is worthless, and You are basically saying that I am worthless.  Second-hand.  Slouchy.  Oh that someone would shut the gates, just shut the doors of the temple, God says.  Put a stop to it!  I would that you were cold or hot but not lukewarm...

-Some people treasure the Dallas Cowboys.  I realize I’m about to step on some toes here…[on Dallas Cowboys fanaticism, and 25 yrs of fan loyalty for a team mired in mediocrity]

-We treasure by instinct.  We have no trouble with our treasure mechanism.  It’s our treasure identification system which is a bit haywire.  Our treasure wi-fi is always on - it just has trouble picking the best network.  My Name will be great…!

[2.1] - this command is for you, O priests.  Yes, the priests were complicit.  All this profane slouchy sacrificing was being conducted and condoned by the priests.  Their spiritual leaders.  They were maybe not the ones who were bringing it in weak and sick and diseased and worthless, but they were offering it up.  They were doubly culpable.  They were just as guilty.  They could have put a stop to it.  They could have said no - you are not bringing God some diseased sacrifice.  And I am not offering it.  That’s not right.  

[2.5-6] - that’s how it used to be w Levi, God says.  He revered Me.  He feared Me, stood in awe of My Name.  He walked with Me - and turned many back from iniquity.  There was a time when Levi would have said no way - you are not bringing this in here.  You are not bringing it in like this.

-This slouchiness - that’s not how we relate to the Lord, the thrice-holy God.  And here’s the thing - we are also doubly culpable - because who does God say are the priests now?  We are.  We are the priests - we are the ones offering the sacrifices now.  Not animals.  But our treasure.  Our time and our talents.  Our lives and our hearts.  God gets our best - because He is bester.  Suffice it to say, the Lord is trusting me and the leaders of this church to do all that we can to help everyone who is part of the Hope Fellowship Family bring their best to the Lord.  But we are all accountable.  So, by all means, and by the grace which God so generously provides, let’s not bring it in weak.

-There was yet another symptom of this slouchiness.  [2.10-12] - You are giving your hearts to the daughters of a foreign God.  You are giving your heart to someone who does not love the Lord, Who is not following Him, who doesn’t know Him.  This maybe is mostly for young singles.  Sometimes we don’t think about it when we begin to give our heart to someone.  We think they are funny, or they make us feel special, or they are good-looking - but what we are not thinking about is that, when/if I give my heart to someone is NOT following the Lord, usually they are going to pull my heart AWAY from the Lord.  There is a reason why the Lord made this part of His covenant with His people.  It is not because He is trying to restrict their freedom.  No, far from it.  He loves us.  He wants the very best for us - and He knows that our greatest good, our highest bester joys are to be found in Him.  IF God calls you to be with someone (that’s for a lifetime!), you want that person to ultimately be spurring your heart on closer to the Lord.  And they are not generally going to do that if they don’t know Him.  I’m not saying that God never can use us in the life of someone who is not following Him.  Sometimes God in His grace will draw someone we date or marry to Himself.  But that is usually the exception.  What usually happens is that you give your heart to so-and-so, and you think they will start following the Lord, and somewhere down the road you are sitting in church by yourself.  Maybe the kids are with you - but maybe they aren’t.  It’s usually the women.  There are a lot of (married) women sitting in churches by themselves.  They fell in love with a guy who treated them nice and made them laugh and they figured he would start going to church but he didn’t change.  And now the kids have a dad who is not following the Lord.  Of course, God can redeem that situation - but God’s point here is, the smart choice is just to set some boundaries.  In fact, just live within these boundaries I’ve set up for you.  That’s freedom.  That’s where blessing is found.  There is freedom to be found inside the fence of God’s love.

[Laska’s journey of chaos and the freedom of the fence - our dog is happiest and free-est inside the boundaries of the fence we installed] 

-God says, you turned away from My statutes, BUT, He says, return to ME [3.7].  Return to Me.  Heaven is a Person.  It is not just a bunch of wearisome cumbersome do’s-and-don’ts.  It's not just going thru the motions of Sunday morning stand-up-sit-down-pay-your-tithe-sing-a-song-and-listen-to-some-long-and-boring-message and be done with it.  Maybe the message is long and boring - I don’t know.  But it’s not about all that.  Return to Me, He says.  We’re talking about a Person.  THE Person.  The King of the universe.  The God Who made us.  Return to Me.  Every day.  Come back to Me, to a relationship with Me.  Relate to Me - as your Treasure.  The most important and bestest Person-Place-or-Thing in your life.

-So, God's people were cynical.  They were slouchy.  And they were being stingy.  You are also robbing Me [3.7-12].  You are not giving Me your best, AND you are not giving me your all.  You’re not giving Me the whole tithe, what you are giving Me is less than your all - and this is all a symptom of your heart.  Your time, your talents, AND your treasure - you are being stingy, because I am not your treasure.  Again, we give our treasure to that which we treasure.  But what is it that makes a person generous, ready to share, ready to give?  What would it look like for you and me to give our all to the Lord?  Why is it that a person would give their all to the Lord?  I think stinginess is the symptom of a small heart.  It’s classic selfishness laced with a scarcity mindset.  We are concerned that there will not be enough for us.  If I give my all to the Lord, there will not be enough for me.  Isn’t that how it plays out in everyday life?  We identify certain things as ours.  Perhaps some bag of cheesy or sugary yumminess.  And then we are unwilling to share, and what we’re afraid of is that if we give some of this to someone else, then there won’t be enough for me.  That’s MY bag of yumminess, and there needs to be enough for me.  It extends to my time and my talents: if I give you or the Lord my time - and the corresponding level of effort required - then there won’t be enough left for ME.

I think what we ultimately have is a heart which has not been truly overrun by the magnanimous uber-generous God of the universe.  His amazing wonderful grace and undeserved favor.  His all-sufficient abundant supply.  We forget.  We fail to realize how much He has first given us.  How much He has forgiven us.  We forget His promise to provide - or we doubt.  It’s a bit of cynicism mingled with some fleshy fear.  If I give my all to God, there won’t be enough.  I’m not sure I really believe that God will fully supply all my needs.  Test Me now in this, He says.  Scripture actually tells us NOT to put God to the test, but here He makes this glaring exception, gives us a blanket invitation, to test Him in this.  Bring the whole tithe in.  Give Me your all, He says.  Open up your hand, and see if I don’t open up the windows of heaven.  Watch Me.  See if I won’t bless your socks off.  Overflowing.  Uncontainable.  All nations will call you blessed, and you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of Hosts.  Open hands (and hearts) open the windows of heaven.  Some of God’s greatest blessings are tied to the generosity of His people.  Generous with our time.  And our talents.  And our treasure.  Generous with our stuff.  With His blessings.  Generous with the Gospel.  Welcoming to strangers.  Welcoming towards those who are different.  Towards ones who maybe require a little extra grace.  EGRs we call them.  Extra grace required.  That’s each one of us.  Open up your heart.  Open up your hand.  Ask God to open your eyes to ways that you can do that this week.  For your family.  For your neighbors.  For our church.  For our city.

[4.1-5]  The cure for this malaise?  What we need is a fresh glimpse of our God Who is NOT a tame lion.  The Coming King!  The day of the Lord is great and terrifying because He is great - and terrifying.  Those who fear the Lord, He says… He is coming back - are we living like it?  Are we ready?  We each need fresh glimpses of the greatness and fearsome awesomeness (and generosity!) of the bester God of heaven.  May the Lord open our eyes to see Him…

Outline of Malachi

1. Intro [1.1]
2. Questioning God’s love [1.2-5]
3. Disrespectful sacrifices [1.6-14]
4. Dishonoring priests [2.1-9]
5. Treachery in marriage [2.10-16]
1. Marrying unbelievers [2.10-12]
2. Divorce [2.13-16]
6. Questions of justice [2.17-3.6]
7. Symptoms of the need to return [3.7-15]
1. Questioning return [3.7]
2. Robbing God [3.8-12]
3. Not serving God [3.13-15]
8. VIII. The Great and Terrifying Day of the Lord [3.16-4.6]
1. The reverent vs the arrogant [3.16-4.4]
2. The restoring messenger [4.5-6]

How have You loved us? [1.2]

How have we despised Your name? [1.6]

How have we defiled You? [1.7]

(My Name will be great/feared among the nations) —> My how tiresome it is [1.13]

Why do you no longer accept our offerings w favor? [2.14]

How have we wearied the Lord w our words? [2.17]

How will we return? [3.7]

How have we robbed You? [3.8]

What have we spoken against You? [3.13]

It is vain to serve God. [3.14]