SPEAKER_00: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Would y'all join me in prayer?
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we want to thank you that you're God, that is that is worth beholding.
SPEAKER_01: That when we truly behold you, God, it blows us away.
SPEAKER_01: We can't really understand how good or how great or how kind or how loving you are.
SPEAKER_01: And even when we when we get a glimpse of it, Lord, we're blown away.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, this morning, as we're we're coming to a new book, the book of Malachi.
SPEAKER_01: This book's gonna reveal things about you and about us that um that it's gonna be good for us, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I pray we'd be encouraged, I pray we'd be challenged, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We want to dig every all the truths out of this book that we can as we go through it, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm trusting you, Lord, that as we go through this book, you're gonna speak to your people.
SPEAKER_01: Come and speak to us.
SPEAKER_01: Your name I pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: All right, so we are gonna be in the book of Malachi this morning.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to go ahead and turn there in your Bible or on your phone, whatever you prefer.
SPEAKER_01: Um, if you see up here on the screen, this is kind of the logo that we came up with for Malachi, and there's two doors there.
SPEAKER_01: It's the danger of spiritual apathy.
SPEAKER_01: The people in the book of Malachi are really struggling with being very apathetic toward God.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the issues that they have is, you know, have you ever had one of those friends where they know that you're about to do something really dumb, really foolish, and they just kind of shut the door on it and they're like, no, you're not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm I love you enough to not allow that to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody had a friend do something like that for them?
SPEAKER_01: It's a at the time you don't like it, but afterwards you look back and you're like, that was a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: They saved me from a lot of trouble.
SPEAKER_01: My uh my youngest son, Bear, um, right now, one of the things that he loves, and I think most kids at this age love this, but especially Bear.
SPEAKER_01: He loves going in our bathrooms and taking a soup ladle or his hand or even a toothbrush, really anything he can find, and just swirling it around in that toilet and just having water go everywhere, right?
SPEAKER_01: And he he will come out from doing that with a huge smile on his face and think it's it's the best thing ever.
SPEAKER_01: We don't think it's the best thing ever.
SPEAKER_01: I, as his father, don't like this.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's there's there's germs in there, and it's a mess cleaning it up all the time.
SPEAKER_01: And now I've told you this, you're never gonna use our bathrooms if you come and visit us, but we we do a pretty good job cleaning it up.
SPEAKER_01: But here's something that I've started to do.
SPEAKER_01: What I've started to do is I've started to shut the door on the bathrooms.
SPEAKER_01: Like I just go around our house and I just shut the doors because I don't want Bear to be able to get in there.
SPEAKER_01: And Bear has seen me doing this, and he wants to be like his dad, so he has started to go around and shut doors to the bathroom too.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: What's going on in this book though?
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's look at 1-8.
SPEAKER_01: And this is really the verse that we take this graphic from.
SPEAKER_01: It says, When you offer blind animals and sacrifice, is that not evil?
SPEAKER_01: And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil?
SPEAKER_01: Present that to your governor.
SPEAKER_01: Will he?
SPEAKER_01: That's not the right verse.
SPEAKER_01: It's 110.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, it's 110, it's behind me.
SPEAKER_01: I just jumped ahead.
SPEAKER_01: Let's try again.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that you were there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle the fire on my altar in vain.
SPEAKER_01: I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.
SPEAKER_01: So the people at this time, they don't have those kind of friends.
SPEAKER_01: They don't have anybody that's like, yeah, you don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just shut the door and just kind of keep you away from that foolishness.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, even their priests are not doing that for them.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're going and they're offering sacrifices to God that God refers to these sacrifices as evil.
SPEAKER_01: Evil.
SPEAKER_01: We need people in our lives that are willing to see us kind of going astray, and they start shutting some of them doors so that we can't go there and we begin to turn back to God, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so that's that's a lot of what this book is gonna be about.
SPEAKER_01: We we want to be those kind of people for our friends, and we don't want to get to a point in our lives where God's, I mean, basically God's, he's kind of saying, I'm gonna shut you out of the temple because of the way that you've been acting.
SPEAKER_01: So here at our church, what we normally do is we preach through books like this, probably 75, 80% of the time.
SPEAKER_01: And so today, this is the first sermon in this book, so I'm gonna spend a little bit more time on the historical background, probably about half the sermon, then the other half we're gonna look at one, one through five.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: And the reason that we do that is because we believe that this book, the Bible, is the best way to understand who we are and who God is.
SPEAKER_01: And God gave us this book so that as we study through it, he would reveal himself to us.
SPEAKER_01: And so we believe that us just preaching through books, you're you're gonna get that in the best way.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, this morning, this is a passage that I don't think pastors would normally preach because it's a rather difficult passage.
SPEAKER_01: But we're gonna preach it anyhow because we believe that all of the Bible is relevant to us and we need to hear it, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So let's begin.
SPEAKER_01: So the first question, if we want to figure out what's going on in this book, is who wrote the book?
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at one one.
SPEAKER_01: One one.
SPEAKER_01: It says, the oracle of the word of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
SPEAKER_01: So Malachi wrote the book, and I wish I could tell you a lot about him.
SPEAKER_01: I can't.
SPEAKER_01: This is the only spot in scripture that this Malachi is referenced.
SPEAKER_01: We don't really know a whole lot more about him.
SPEAKER_01: All we can do is I've read through this book multiple times, and let me tell you what I've kind of picked up about his character from reading through this book.
SPEAKER_01: This is a man that understands the people well.
SPEAKER_01: He understands them very well.
SPEAKER_01: This is a man that's probably sat with them, had coffee with them, and he's talked through the issues that they're wrestling with, and he understands where their hearts are, what they're upset about, and what it is that they're wrestling with.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Malachi's style in this book is much different than the other prophets.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't really deliver messages to the audience.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, what he does is he charges them with various sins, and then he has evidence to back it up.
SPEAKER_01: And as he's doing this, another thing that you'll see him do is they have questions, and he will say, This is something you've been asking.
SPEAKER_01: All right, well, this is kind of the answer, and here's the evidence to what you've been doing wrong, and here's what you should be doing, right?
SPEAKER_01: Another thing about him is he's a man that has sought God through scripture and he's found him and he's found answers to the issues that the people have.
SPEAKER_01: The third thing I'd say about him is he's a man that is absolutely unafraid to speak the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Some of the things in this book that he confronts these people about, there it's it's it's straightforward.
SPEAKER_01: He just calls them out.
SPEAKER_01: This is what you're struggling with, and this is what you you need to turn back to Jesus and stop doing this.
SPEAKER_01: Um, a very brave friend, and I think he loved, I think that shows his love for the people.
SPEAKER_01: To be willing to confront people like that means you really love them.
SPEAKER_01: Another thing we need to deal with with the book is when did he write it?
SPEAKER_01: What time period was he writing into?
SPEAKER_01: Because if we can understand that, we can understand a lot more about the book.
SPEAKER_01: Well, there's some clues in the book, and this is where 1-8 comes in.
SPEAKER_01: So if you look at 1-8 here, it says this.
SPEAKER_01: There's a word here in particular that I want to point out.
SPEAKER_01: When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil?
SPEAKER_01: And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil?
SPEAKER_01: Present that to your governor, and will he accept you or show you favor, says the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_01: That word governor there in the original language is the same word for governor that was used in the Persian Empire.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And so what that's telling us is most likely this work, this book was written during the time of the Persian Empire.
SPEAKER_01: A few more things that would point to that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so in in, we'll go to this in a minute, I'll explain it more.
SPEAKER_01: But in Israel's history, their temple got destroyed when Babylon came and destroyed them.
SPEAKER_01: And then Persia eventually beat Babylon and Persia sent them back to rebuild the temple.
SPEAKER_01: And so the temple at one point was rebuilt.
SPEAKER_01: And this book, if it's written during the Persian Empire, we should expect that the temple has been rebuilt.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you look at 110 or 213, it implies the existence of a temple in those two verses.
SPEAKER_01: So I think again, we're pointing to the same time during uh Persia.
SPEAKER_01: And then if you want to see that evidence in scripture, you could go to Ezra chapter 6, verses 14 and 15, and that's where the temple was rebuilt.
SPEAKER_01: That's when that happened.
SPEAKER_01: So the temple's already rebuilt.
SPEAKER_01: And then one more thing that would kind of point us toward the same time period.
SPEAKER_01: In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the sins that the people are struggling with in that time are the exact same as the sins that people are struggling with during Malachi's time.
SPEAKER_01: So sins, like, you know, they're struggling with stewardship of their money and their resources.
SPEAKER_01: They're not doing well with that.
SPEAKER_01: They're struggling with divorce.
SPEAKER_01: Like there's divorce happening within the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: And then their offerings that they're offering to God are not, they're they're not they're not a blessing to God.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, in this book, you already saw in 180, he calls them evil.
SPEAKER_01: So there's something off with that.
SPEAKER_01: And so the sins are the same as the sins in those two books.
SPEAKER_01: And so and so let me just kind of run through Israel's history a little bit, just a very short snippet here.
SPEAKER_01: In 586, Babylon comes and they destroy Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason they did that, for hundreds of years, God had come and warned them and warned them and warned them and warned them, the direction you're going is not good.
SPEAKER_01: Please turn back to me.
SPEAKER_01: I love you, I want you back.
SPEAKER_01: Stop, stop sending it up.
SPEAKER_01: And eventually they they don't listen.
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, God sends the prophet Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: And at that point, almost all of Jeremiah's prophecy is like, this is happening, and there's nothing you can do about it.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be destroyed, and you're gonna be sent off to Babylon, and it'd be best if you just submitted to that.
SPEAKER_01: And they don't.
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, Babylon comes and and they they destroy Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's turn to 2 Chronicles 36, just kind of some background for this book.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Chronicles chapter 36, and it describes what happened when Babylon came and destroyed them.
SPEAKER_01: 36, 17 to 20.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Chaldeans is just another word for Babylonians, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So read Babylonians, you'll understand what it is a little bit better.
SPEAKER_01: Who killed their young men with swords in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged.
SPEAKER_01: He gave all of them into his hand.
SPEAKER_01: And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: And they burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious treasures.
SPEAKER_01: So the temples destroyed there, right?
SPEAKER_01: And he took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia.
SPEAKER_01: So it's a very sad time in Israel's history.
SPEAKER_01: The temple's destroyed, their nations destroyed, and they're taken off into exile.
SPEAKER_01: And really the only people that remain there are are the uh the poor people are just kind of left there and they take everybody else off.
SPEAKER_01: So then in Ezra, 1-1 through 4, we'll skip a little time in history here.
SPEAKER_01: So Babylon's the ruling power, and then at one point Persia comes in and they destroy Babylon, and now they're the new Babylon, they're the new ruling power.
SPEAKER_01: And so then in Ezra 1-1-4, God comes to this pagan king, and with this pagan king, he uses a pagan king to send his people back to their promised land.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read 1-1 through 4.
SPEAKER_01: In the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all of his kingdom, and also put it in writing, thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever is among you, of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, that the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: He is the God who is in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And let each survivor in whatever place he sojourns be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods, and with beasts, besides free will offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: So God takes this pagan king and rescues his people from exile.
SPEAKER_01: Amazing thing.
SPEAKER_01: And not only does the king say, you need to go and rebuild the temple, he says, I'm gonna fund you as well.
SPEAKER_01: Like people need to give you money, silver, and gold, so that you're able to do this and you're able to settle.
SPEAKER_01: That's an amazing act of God.
SPEAKER_01: Why is this kick doing this?
SPEAKER_01: It's not because the king's a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: I think sometimes we read that and we're like, well, he must be a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's that's not what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: This king is a pagan king, he believes in all gods.
SPEAKER_01: So he believes Persia, you know, we have a God and that's the strongest God, and that's why we're the world power.
SPEAKER_01: But I believe, yeah, there's a God over in Jerusalem too, and I want to keep all the gods happy with me.
SPEAKER_01: So he sends them back, he sends them with money, and he wants them to rebuild the temple because he just wants to be blessed by all the gods.
SPEAKER_01: That's his attitude, and that that's what's going on there.
SPEAKER_01: But regardless, God works through this.
SPEAKER_01: And and so here's the state of the people at this time.
SPEAKER_01: The people in Malachi's day, what they're thinking is they're like, we used to be this huge people group, a nation, and now all we kind of have left is is the city-state.
SPEAKER_01: If you look here, I got a map.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna show David's kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: David's kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: So if you you see how big his kingdom, I mean, it basically stretches almost from Egypt all the way up to close to where Turkey is today.
SPEAKER_01: So this is kind of the Israelite Empire under kind of their biggest point, right?
SPEAKER_01: And then if you go to the next slide, you'll see that when Babylon comes, so you see the Babylonian Empire comes and destroys them, and all that's left is really just the city of Jerusalem and a little bit of surrounding area, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so then, you know, a few years later, Persia comes and they become the pink, and they're they're actually so at this point in history, Persia is the one that is over Jerusalem and Judah, but it's still about the same size, not a whole lot of influence.
SPEAKER_01: And so these people, what they're struggling with is they're saying, we used to be this kingdom with influence and power, and what is left of us?
SPEAKER_01: We're barely even a nation anymore.
SPEAKER_01: We're basically a city-state.
SPEAKER_01: What's left of us?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we got a temple rebuilt, but it's it's like a fourth the size of the previous temple.
SPEAKER_01: Like one of the things I was looking at, they said the temple, uh Solomon's temple, King Solomon's temple, all the gold and silver in that temple, do you know what that was worth?
SPEAKER_01: About$30 billion worth of gold and silver was in Solomon's temple.
SPEAKER_01: And now at this point, they've rebuilt, but it's like a fourth the size.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's not even close.
SPEAKER_01: There's no gold and silver, and it's all because of their sin.
SPEAKER_01: And so these people are seeing all this, and and they can't even see that God's done amazing things to even bring them back, and they're just they're they're they're kind of apathetic and they're kind of negative.
SPEAKER_01: Have you guys ever had a friend like this?
SPEAKER_01: You ever had a friend that it's it's always raining, you know, the sky's always falling, everything's gray, their kids are not good, their wife's angry at them, God's mad at them, he doesn't love them.
SPEAKER_01: You ever you ever had that kind of friend?
SPEAKER_01: And when you look at that friend, you're like, I don't think your life's actually that bad.
SPEAKER_01: Like your kids seem pretty happy, your wife seems to love you and be happy.
SPEAKER_01: Like, why are you why are you being so negative all the time?
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of the state that these people are in.
SPEAKER_01: And and I want to ask us this morning before we go farther, do you think any of us are like this this morning?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not talking about people, there's some of you that are truly going through hardship this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And you just need to hold on to Jesus and get through that.
SPEAKER_01: But I think for some of us, we're probably being a little more negative than we need to be, and a little more apathetic than we need to be.
SPEAKER_01: And I think, you know, if I asked your friend, I said, you know, how are they doing?
SPEAKER_01: And if your friend's answer was they're actually doing really good, like God has been good to them.
SPEAKER_01: But then I talked to you, and your answer was like, Yeah, God, I don't even know if he loves me.
SPEAKER_01: I think he hates me.
SPEAKER_01: Like that that's not good.
SPEAKER_01: There's something wrong there, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like I I think this apat apathy, it creates this ungratefulness in us, and they kind of just feed off of each other.
SPEAKER_01: So let me just kind of explain the situation here.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll put it in modern day context.
SPEAKER_01: Canada has invaded America, right?
SPEAKER_01: I had a Canadian guy helped me with this first service because I got some things wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so the prime minister, not the president, the prime minister of Canada says he's invaded us, he's taken us all up into the northern regions where it's cold, and not all of Canada is cold, but the northern regions are.
SPEAKER_01: He corrects me on that too.
SPEAKER_01: Um, we're all up there, and all that he has left for us is Miami.
SPEAKER_01: That's all we got, just Miami.
SPEAKER_01: And so one day this king he says, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I care for you guys.
SPEAKER_01: I want to send a group of you back to rebuild your church and just kind of rebuild the city of Miami, and that can be the United States of America, the city of Miami.
SPEAKER_01: And so he he pays and he flies us all back.
SPEAKER_01: We get the church rebuilt, but you know, it's it's not the way it used to be, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's like a fourth the size.
SPEAKER_01: The people that come on Sundays, they're not that into it.
SPEAKER_01: Like they're like, they come because, you know, Easter, Christmas, they come because their mom wants them to come.
SPEAKER_01: Other than that, they're very in and out, very apathetic.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we look at our situation and we're like, man, we used to be this huge country, and now all we have is just a like a city state.
SPEAKER_01: And we just feel kind of down and depressed, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of the situation that's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: And that that's that's that's where the people are at.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what we're gonna be dealing with.
SPEAKER_01: These people want Israel restored to its former glory, as we would if we were them.
SPEAKER_01: We would want America restored to its former glory if all we had left was Miami, right?
SPEAKER_01: But what they don't realize is the only way that's gonna happen is it has to start in individual hearts.
SPEAKER_01: For a nation to be revived and come back to God, it's gotta start one heart at a time.
SPEAKER_01: And they don't really want that.
SPEAKER_01: They just want they want the blessings of God, but they don't want to do the hard work to get back to God.
SPEAKER_01: They don't want to do the hard work of repentance.
SPEAKER_01: You know, sometimes we love our sin more than we hate the consequences.
SPEAKER_01: We love our sin more than we hate the consequences.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I think we also we trust our sin to make us happy more than we trust that God will just bring us joy.
SPEAKER_01: We trust our sin to make us happy more than we trust that God's gonna bring us joy.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what always happens to me when I study one of these books, I'm like, man, what is wrong with these people?
SPEAKER_01: What is like they just need to repent?
SPEAKER_01: What's going on with them?
SPEAKER_01: And then as I study it more and more, I start to see, oh, this this isn't about them.
SPEAKER_01: This is about my heart.
SPEAKER_01: This is me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the one that needs to repent.
SPEAKER_01: I have some of these same issues in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray that as we go through this book for these next few weeks, that the same thing would happen to you that you go from, man, those Israelites are so dumb.
SPEAKER_01: What's wrong with them?
SPEAKER_01: To actually, I'm doing a lot of that too.
SPEAKER_01: And I need to repent and I need to turn back to God.
SPEAKER_01: And so one of the questions that's coming up with them in their apathy is they're questioning God, do you really love me?
SPEAKER_01: And I believe, you know, when we begin to ask that question of God, it's actually because of our own lack of love for him.
SPEAKER_01: You see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: Like when you start to question, God, do you really love me?
SPEAKER_01: It's actually because you have started to grow cold in your love for him.
SPEAKER_01: And we lack love for him because we get too stuck in our sins.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what it looks like for us.
SPEAKER_01: We have all of us are involved with sports games with our kids.
SPEAKER_01: Like we're just running all over the place all the time if you have children.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you you're going out to wine with your female friends, some of you you're working crazy hours, some of you are going on vacation, and and we just we struggle to to kind of make God the priority that he needs to be, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I think on top of this, we don't even realize that we're walking in sin a lot of times.
SPEAKER_01: Like as we go through this book, you're gonna see that as Malachi confronts them, they're often like, What are you talking about, man?
SPEAKER_01: I don't have that issue.
SPEAKER_01: But Malachi's like, yes, you do, and then he gives them evidence, and they're kind of like, Oh yeah, you're right.
SPEAKER_01: And now they have a choice what they're what they're gonna do about it.
SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, you're gonna see people in this book making sacrifices to God that God calls it was 1-8 there, where he says, Your sacrifices are evil to me.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason they're evil, I think so.
SPEAKER_01: At that time, in the old covenant, you had to offer sacrifices to make atonement or to cover your sin.
SPEAKER_01: And so you were supposed to give the best from your flock.
SPEAKER_01: But I kind of like the modern-day equivalent to what they were doing is it's like you're driving down your road on the way to church and you see a dead animal and you're like, oh, this'll work, and you pick it up and put it in a bag, and then you get to church and you're like, here you go, priest, let's offer this for my sins.
SPEAKER_01: And God looks at that and he's like, That's that's not a blessing to me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm offended by that.
SPEAKER_01: And I think, you know, the way this relates to us is I believe that we do the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of us we've we've gotten apathetic to the point where, you know, I think it looks like for us, like you're supposed to be spending time with your wife or with your children, and instead you're on social media all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Like if I asked my wife and kids, or if you asked your wife and kids, do they love me or do they love their phone more?
SPEAKER_01: What would their answer be?
SPEAKER_01: That's apathy in our lives that's creating that, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so this is this is what these people in this time are struggling with.
SPEAKER_01: And and the scariest thing to me is they're often blind to it.
SPEAKER_01: And that scares me because I don't want to be blind to my sin.
SPEAKER_01: I want to I want God to open my eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And so I pray that as we go through this book, God would open our eyes and we get to see ourselves for who we truly are as we look at God for who he truly is.
SPEAKER_01: So one, two through five, it says, I have loved you, says the Lord, but you say, How have you loved us?
SPEAKER_01: So this is their question How have you loved us?
SPEAKER_01: Is not Esau Jacob's brother, declares the Lord, yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I've hated.
SPEAKER_01: I've laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.
SPEAKER_01: If Edom says, We are shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins, the Lord of hosts says, they may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called the wicked country and the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.
SPEAKER_01: Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So just the statement here.
SPEAKER_01: When our human love for God atrophies, you will find yourself beginning to question his love for you.
SPEAKER_01: When your human love starts to atrophy, you'll find yourself, and here's you start to question his love for you.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why it will happen.
SPEAKER_01: Even with your relationships with other human beings, I think usually with our relationship with other human beings, when we're in good relationships, it's like we have rose-colored glasses on, and we just see the good in them, and we encourage them, and things are going well.
SPEAKER_01: But then something, you know, we're human, right?
SPEAKER_01: And something will happen.
SPEAKER_01: They'll get sideways with us or be mean to us, and we'll have a tendency to take the rose colored glasses on and put the negative glasses on.
SPEAKER_01: And now we're looking at them, and all that we see is negative.
SPEAKER_01: We don't feel like they're loving us, we don't feel like they're being kind to us.
SPEAKER_01: We're like, did they do that to love me, or are they actually trying to manipulate me?
SPEAKER_01: And I think we do the same with God.
SPEAKER_01: And so this first question, it's like we're coming to God and we're like, God, do you really love me?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, kind of hands on our hips, like, I don't think you love me, God.
SPEAKER_01: Do you not see what's going on around here in Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_01: Do you not see the situation I'm in?
SPEAKER_01: How can you say you love me?
SPEAKER_01: Prove it, kind of thing, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like that, that's that's where their hearts are.
SPEAKER_01: And it mentions here Esau and it mentions Edom.
SPEAKER_01: So Esau and Jacob, they have a relationship, right?
SPEAKER_01: And if I could tell you that story real quickly, Esau and Jacob are brothers, they're twin brothers.
SPEAKER_01: Esau was born first, which is a big deal in Jewish culture.
SPEAKER_01: That means he's got the birthrights, that means he's going to get a bigger inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: It's a big deal in Jewish culture.
SPEAKER_01: So he's born first and then Jacob comes out.
SPEAKER_01: And so they kind of have this this Jacob's kind of a, he's a little bit of a weasel.
SPEAKER_01: And so he figures out a way.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to steal his brother's birthright.
SPEAKER_01: And so he waits till his brother comes in from a field one day, and he's very tired, and he says, Hey man, I'll give you some soup if you give me your birthright.
SPEAKER_01: Which is, it's it sounds stupid, but Esau's like, Yeah, I'm really hungry.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I'm gonna make it much longer.
SPEAKER_01: Sure, give me the soup, have the birthright, I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: And he gives him his birthright.
SPEAKER_01: Fast forward a few days, months, years later, um, Jacob comes up with this plan on how he's gonna steal his brother's uh his his inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: And so what he does is it comes to the end of Jacob, their father's life, and he's going blind.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, I'm gonna trick him and get him to pray his prayer of blessing over me and not over Esau.
SPEAKER_01: And so he goes in with some animal skins on because it's hairy, and Jacob, or Esau was a very hairy man.
SPEAKER_01: So he comes in with these animal skins on, he's got some of Esau's clothes on, so he smells like Esau, he feels like Esau, and he says, Father, bless me, Jacob does.
SPEAKER_01: And the father blesses him and not Esau.
SPEAKER_01: And Esau is broken over this.
SPEAKER_01: He he wants to kill Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: And so there, there, you know, Jacob runs away and eventually one day they meet up and they reconcile.
SPEAKER_01: I say they reconcile, but I don't know how well they reconcile, because throughout history, then, the Edomites, which are Jacob's or Esau's people, the Edomites, are at odds with the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: They live close by and they're constantly at odds.
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you a couple examples.
SPEAKER_01: When uh when the Israelites were trying to get to the promised land, at one point they asked the Edomites, they said, Hey, could we come through your territory?
SPEAKER_01: It'd be a lot shorter.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to, we've been out here forever, we don't want to keep walking.
SPEAKER_01: And the Edomites are like, no, you can't cross through here.
SPEAKER_01: You're not our friends, you're not crossing through our country.
SPEAKER_01: Go the other way.
SPEAKER_01: And it's gonna, so it takes a lot longer and they have to go the other way.
SPEAKER_01: Um few years later, they they actually fought with King Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: A few years after that, they opposed King Jehoshaphat.
SPEAKER_01: A few years after that, they rebel against King Jehoram.
SPEAKER_01: So throughout their history, there's this tension between them.
SPEAKER_01: And so you can see how these people in this passage, one of the things kind of behind this how have you loved us thing is is they're kind of like, how could a twin brother do this to their twin brother?
SPEAKER_01: This isn't the way that you're supposed to interact.
SPEAKER_01: Why, like you're saying you love us, but I don't see that you love us.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you judging us and you're not judging Edom?
SPEAKER_01: Like you exiled us and you've done nothing to Edom, right?
SPEAKER_01: Here's what God says.
SPEAKER_01: In 1.5, 1.4 and 5, he says he's gonna tear down their country.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 5, he says, Your eyes will see this and you'll say, Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So a few years after this, the Nabataeans actually come and they destroy the nation of Edom.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, they live in the wilderness for a while, but basically the nation just kind of disintegrates, and to this day they don't have a nation.
SPEAKER_01: So what God said comes true, and what God says about this is one of this is one of the issues that they have, and God is saying, I'm gonna deal with this.
SPEAKER_01: I one day will make this right.
SPEAKER_01: And when I do, you're gonna say, that is a great God, and he's not just the God of Israel, he's the God of the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: And so, my first thing that I would say to you this morning if people have been injust to you, if injustice has happened to you, I don't care how bad it is or what it is, I don't know if it'll be in this lifetime, but sometime God will make it right.
SPEAKER_01: And the people that have wronged you will be dealt with.
SPEAKER_01: That's a promise from God, and that should encourage you.
SPEAKER_01: But here's kind of their heart, right?
SPEAKER_01: When my kids, when they get in trouble, they do this almost every time.
SPEAKER_01: They get in trouble, and we're talking to them through it, and they're like, Why are you yelling at me, Dad?
SPEAKER_01: What about my brother?
SPEAKER_01: What about my sister?
SPEAKER_01: They did this and that and that, and this is so unfair.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you always get on my case?
SPEAKER_01: And I always have to be like, I'm not talking to them now.
SPEAKER_01: I'll deal with them later, but right now we're dealing with you, right?
SPEAKER_01: You can ask them.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I say, right, guys?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: That's what these people in this book are doing.
SPEAKER_01: God's trying to deal with their issue, and they're like, Well, what about Edom?
SPEAKER_01: Like, why don't you ever deal with them?
SPEAKER_01: They've never gotten destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: And and so God's kind of dealt with that part.
SPEAKER_01: We come to this difficult part where it says, you know, you know, God has this brilliant answer.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, You haven't loved us, and God's just like, yeah, I have.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I've loved Jacob and I've hated Esau.
SPEAKER_01: What's the problem?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's really his answer.
SPEAKER_01: So this is a difficult passage.
SPEAKER_01: When you have a difficult passage, something that you want to do is you always, if if maybe there's something in the New Testament that would help us.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, on this one there is.
SPEAKER_01: And the New Testament quotes this passage and then Paul explains it in Romans.
SPEAKER_01: So let's go to Romans chapter 9, verses 13 through 16.
SPEAKER_01: And kind of this whole chapter in chapter 9 kind of deals with this issue.
SPEAKER_01: Um, so you always want to let the New Testament interpret the old.
SPEAKER_01: Here it is, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: As it's written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
SPEAKER_01: What shall we say to them?
SPEAKER_01: Is there injustice on God's part?
SPEAKER_01: By no means, because that's kind of our issue with it.
SPEAKER_01: Like we see that and it feels so injust to us, right?
SPEAKER_01: And these people had the same issue with it.
SPEAKER_01: So is there injustice on God's part?
SPEAKER_01: By no means.
SPEAKER_01: For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, I will have compassion on whom I have compassion, so then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Clear, right?
SPEAKER_01: Um here's what this passage is saying.
SPEAKER_01: It uses the term mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And it's saying that if you're a member of God's family, it's not because of anything you've done.
SPEAKER_01: Like you can't, by human will, just work hard enough and get into the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: It won't happen.
SPEAKER_01: You can't do enough, you can't make up for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: The only way it happens is just if God chooses you.
SPEAKER_01: He chooses you and says, I want you to be in my family.
SPEAKER_01: Then you can be in his family.
SPEAKER_01: Um let's talk about this word mercy.
SPEAKER_01: I looked it up and it means this.
SPEAKER_01: It's kindness shown towards someone when you have the right or power to punish them.
SPEAKER_01: When you show somebody kindness, you have the right or power to punish.
SPEAKER_01: That's what's happened with God here.
SPEAKER_01: He has the right or power to punish these people, and instead, he has chosen to have kindness to them.
SPEAKER_01: He's chosen to show them grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: So let's just pretend that we live in a world where if God just started, if God had no mercy and grace, but he just said, because our issue is this isn't fair, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so let's just say God is going to be the most fair God that's ever lived, and all he's gonna do is walk in his justice.
SPEAKER_01: What would we actually deserve if that happened?
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at Romans 3.23.
SPEAKER_01: It says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that's everybody in this room, everybody throughout history, we've all sinned, we've fallen short of God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: You get that?
SPEAKER_01: True, right?
SPEAKER_01: Next verse, Romans 6.23, it says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And this isn't just these passages, all of Scripture would affirm this.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Scripture consistently says if God just walked in his justice right now, we would be dead.
SPEAKER_01: So maybe the issue we should have with this passage isn't that God's saying he hates Esau, but maybe the issue we should have with this passage, because both of these men deserve to die.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the issue we should have with this passage and where he's actually being unjust is that he loves Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_01: So what's Malachi saying to these people?
SPEAKER_01: He's saying that God chose you.
SPEAKER_01: Not because of something you've done, not because you've earned enough, but just because he's God and he just loves you.
SPEAKER_01: He just loves you.
SPEAKER_01: My son uh Gabriel, we adopted him.
SPEAKER_01: He's the Asian in our family, the rest of us are white.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of obvious that we adopted him.
SPEAKER_01: But something that I've noticed with adoptive children is often they'll get to their teenage years and they'll start to question like, you know, am I worthy of love?
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody care about me?
SPEAKER_01: Like these kind of questions start to come up in their hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if Gabe will ever be able to mentally get to the point where he's able to ask these questions, but if he is, I kind of know what I want to say to him.
SPEAKER_01: If he comes to me one day and he says, Dad, am I worthy of love?
SPEAKER_01: I I'm adopted, I don't feel like things are the same.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna say to him, I'm gonna say, Listen, your brothers and sisters, we didn't really choose them.
SPEAKER_01: God just kind of gave them to us.
SPEAKER_01: And now we have to love them, right?
SPEAKER_01: I love you guys.
SPEAKER_01: But like in a way, like God just gave them to us, and now we have to choose to love them, and and and we do love them.
SPEAKER_01: But Gabe, for you, your mom and I were sitting there one day and we were reading an email about you.
SPEAKER_01: We could have had any other child in the whole world to adopt, but we read that email and we said, that's the one we want.
SPEAKER_01: Your mom started to cry as she's reading the email, and I look at her, I say, we're gonna adopt him, aren't we?
SPEAKER_01: And we both are shaking our heads, yeah, this is gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: Gabe, we we chose you, and it's just before we even knew you, before we'd ever experienced you, and we love you deeply.
SPEAKER_01: You are worthy of love.
SPEAKER_01: And and guys, that is what God has done for each of us, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like him choosing us is actually a big deal, and it should be super encouraging to you.
SPEAKER_01: Just like April and I chose Gabe, God chose you just because he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I know as we as we look at this, we we we kind of have some issues with it, but can I first just give you some of the positives with it?
SPEAKER_01: God just chose you because he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: That's really good news.
SPEAKER_01: You should be encouraged by that.
SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, if you've been going to church for a long time, I think some of us this can almost become like, yeah, I already know that.
SPEAKER_01: And it can almost get old and stale to us, but this should never get old or stale.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe some of us, you know, you've been trying, you've been starting to try to earn God's favor and be like, you've just fallen back into that trap, and maybe you need to just, I don't have to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I just need to rest in a father who deeply loves me and could not love me more.
SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe with evangelism, you know, as I know for some of us it kind of sends shivers up our spine, we're afraid to share our faith.
SPEAKER_01: But why?
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter if you've read your Bible enough or gone to seminary enough, like it's God that draws us to Him.
SPEAKER_01: It's God that pursues us.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you're sharing your faith, it's not what you say really doesn't have a huge amount of impact on it.
SPEAKER_01: It's what God does that's gonna have the impact.
SPEAKER_01: So really, when you're sharing your faith, it's like you're holding God's hand and he's right there with you, and it's up to him whether or not that person chooses to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't really have a whole lot to do with you and what you say.
SPEAKER_01: That should be incredibly freeing for us, right?
SPEAKER_01: You know, back in Genesis, when God starts to talk about Jacob and Esau, before they're even born, he says the older will serve the younger.
SPEAKER_01: God already knows that's gonna happen, just because he's God.
SPEAKER_01: He says the older will serve the younger.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's the thing God is an all-knowing being, and that comes with kind of some consequences to it as well.
SPEAKER_01: What that means is he knows whether or not you're gonna choose to follow him or not choose to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: He just knows that, just like he knew whether or not Jacob and what was gonna happen exactly with Jacob and Esau.
SPEAKER_01: And I think the issue that we have with this truth is that if we had that kind of knowledge as human beings, we would not handle it well.
SPEAKER_01: Like if I knew that my friend in six months was gonna betray me and just stab me in the back, I think I'd drop him like a bad habit right now.
SPEAKER_01: Because I couldn't handle that kind of knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I'm loving enough to handle it.
SPEAKER_01: But what we see with God is that he can handle that.
SPEAKER_01: Like it says that he died for us while we were still sinners.
SPEAKER_01: To show that kind of love for someone.
SPEAKER_01: And really for me, you know, this spiritual truth has been something that I've wrestled with over the years, and finally it kind of just bothered me that God, that he chose people like this.
SPEAKER_01: It just felt wrong to me, right?
SPEAKER_01: But do you know what kind of just put a nail in the coffin of that?
SPEAKER_01: What I realized was the reason I had so much trouble with it is I want to be in control.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be the center of the universe, I want to be the one that decides what's right and what's wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And kind of what put the nail in the coffin was I realized he died for me.
SPEAKER_01: When I was just sinning it up, he chose to die for me.
SPEAKER_01: And I know I don't think I'd do that for someone.
SPEAKER_01: I need them to clean themselves up a little bit before they come back to me, right?
SPEAKER_01: But he died for me while I was sinning.
SPEAKER_01: And if he's that loving and that kind and that good and that full of grace, I think we're way better if he's in the center and he's the king of the universe and he's sovereign over all.
SPEAKER_01: And I finally just kind of rested in that.
SPEAKER_01: And it's taken a lot of stress out of my life.
SPEAKER_01: And I think for some of us this morning, we need to do that.
SPEAKER_01: We need to rest in this truth that God has chosen us.
SPEAKER_01: Um so for the people of Malachi, I think here at the beginning, what Malachi is saying to them, you know, you guys feel like you're you're such a small nation, you feel insecure, you feel depressed, you feel like things are going terrible.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the truth that you need to know God loves you.
SPEAKER_01: He loves you more than you can possibly imagine.
SPEAKER_01: And he just wants your heart.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't want your roadkill, he wants your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Just come to him.
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's a story, it's it's a very well-known story of a young man, he's working on his father's farm.
SPEAKER_01: And as he's working on this farm, he kind of gets sick of it.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, I'm tired of working here.
SPEAKER_01: I don't, I just don't like this.
SPEAKER_01: I need to get, I need to be free and get out.
SPEAKER_01: So he goes to his father and he asks his father, could you give me my inheritance early?
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking like this is like 30, 40 years early.
SPEAKER_01: I want my inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: And in the culture at that time, incredibly uh culturally offensive to his father for him to even think about asking this.
SPEAKER_01: But he had a good, loving father, and the father said, Okay, I'll give it to you early.
SPEAKER_01: He hands the young man his inheritance, and this young man goes off and just sends it up like you wouldn't believe.
SPEAKER_01: Almost every sin known to man, that is what this young man goes and does.
SPEAKER_01: And he finally burns through all the money, and he ends up working on a pig farm.
SPEAKER_01: And he's sitting there on this pig farm one day, and he's like, What have I done to my life?
SPEAKER_01: I'm alone, I don't have money anymore, my friends don't want to be around me.
SPEAKER_01: I was way better off serving as a hired man.
SPEAKER_01: Hired, hired, I'd be better off at my father's farm serving as a hired hand.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go home.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't need to be a son anymore, I can be a hired hand.
SPEAKER_01: And so he begins walking home.
SPEAKER_01: He still smells like pigs, he's got his clothes are all dirty, and he starts walking home.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, I just hope my dad will even accept me.
SPEAKER_01: What he doesn't know is his dad's been waiting for this moment.
SPEAKER_01: His dad sees him from a long way off and he's like, Is that who that is my boy?
SPEAKER_01: And his dad puts his coat on and just takes off running and embraces him and says, Son, welcome home.
SPEAKER_01: His servants, some of them are there, and he says, Son, or he says to the servants, he says, My son is home.
SPEAKER_01: Let's have a party.
SPEAKER_01: Get that calf over there, let's kill it, get the barbecue fired up, get my son some clothes, get him a bath, he stinks.
SPEAKER_01: Let's have a party.
SPEAKER_01: My son, who was lost, is found.
SPEAKER_01: And guys, that is what the Father has done for each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_01: That's his heart towards you.
SPEAKER_01: Is that in you?
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize how much God loves you?
SPEAKER_01: Because I think if if the Holy Spirit is working in your heart and beginning to draw you to himself, it's gonna bring you to a point where you're just gonna say, God, I want all of you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to turn from the way I've been living and I want to run after you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Jesus, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the truths that we were able to go through this morning.
SPEAKER_01: One of the greatest truths in all of Scripture, Lord, is that you love us.
SPEAKER_01: And there's no reason behind it.
SPEAKER_01: You just love us.
SPEAKER_01: It's not because of anything we've done, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You just love us.
SPEAKER_01: And the only right response to that, Lord, is to stop trying to do things our way, to stop thinking we know better.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to end up where Israel ended up, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us have.
SPEAKER_01: We've sended up so bad, Lord, but you say it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: Just come to me.
SPEAKER_01: I'll forgive you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to walk with you.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to be in my family.
SPEAKER_01: Would you come and would you work in our lives, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Some of us have been running from you for a long time, and it's time to come back home.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us we've just gotten apathetic, Lord, and we need to repent and say, God, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: I need to get back in relationship with you.
SPEAKER_01: I need to begin to pursue you again.
SPEAKER_01: I made so many other things a center, and you need to be the center.
SPEAKER_01: Come and speak to us this morning, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a couple questions up here on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: And they're just up there to help you kind of think through this sermon.
SPEAKER_01: And I think the question you need to be asking this morning is, God, what are you saying to me?
SPEAKER_01: And what are you calling me to do about it this week?
SPEAKER_01: Because we don't want to just be hearers of the word, we want to be doers, right?
SPEAKER_01: So I will take a little bit of time, look over these, and I'll be right back.
SPEAKER_01: So Lord, I'm trusting that you came and you spoke to your people this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray whatever's going on in our hearts and our lives.
SPEAKER_01: I know some of us are facing some difficult things, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I pray we remember how much you love us.
SPEAKER_01: It's not because of anything we've done, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You just love us.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that truth this morning, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You've been so good to us.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, there's a short video that's going to show up here, and it's just telling you some of the things that are happening in our church over the next few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a few things we want you to know.
SPEAKER_00: If you're new, text welcome to 281-626-5707.
SPEAKER_00: This way we know that you're here and get you connected with the church.
SPEAKER_00: Registration is now open for the men's weekend on October 14th through 15th.
SPEAKER_00: There are already over 100 men signed up to join us for two days of treasuring God together.
SPEAKER_00: Register in the lobby or at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got a prom dress or accessory you'd like to donate for Night to Shine, bring it to the warehouse on October 16th so we can bless our honored guests.
SPEAKER_00: We've officially released our church app.
SPEAKER_00: This is a tool to help you stay informed and stay connected to what's happening at the church.
SPEAKER_00: As you use the app, you can register for events, give, watch sermons, and more.
SPEAKER_00: To get the app, head to your app store and search Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about what you heard today or would like someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so men's weekend, I want to encourage you, men, if you haven't signed up, please come.
SPEAKER_01: We have a good speaker.
SPEAKER_01: It's a good time hanging out with you, brothers in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never experienced a group of men singing worship, just men, there's something special about that.
SPEAKER_01: It stirs something in my heart.
SPEAKER_01: So I'd encourage you, come to that if you can.
SPEAKER_01: In addition to that, if you want to worship through giving this morning, there are boxes in the back.
SPEAKER_01: Feel free to do that.
SPEAKER_01: There will be pastors here in the front when service is done, and we're happy to pray with you or talk with you about any questions you might have.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I believe there's a there's a phone number up here on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to get to know us better, we would love to get to know you better.
SPEAKER_01: Text us and we'll try to get in touch with you, and and we'd love to hang out with you at some point.
SPEAKER_01: That's all I have this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Would you guys please stand up?
SPEAKER_01: I would like to bless you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Put your hands out and let me bless you.
SPEAKER_01: So, church family, God loves you because he loves you, because he loves you, because he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: And so, this week, when you're at lunch today, you need to rest in that.
SPEAKER_01: Rest in the fact that God deeply loves you.
SPEAKER_01: When you're napping this afternoon, go to sleep in the comfort of knowing that your heavenly father could not love you more.
SPEAKER_01: As you're out working this week, as you're in the sports fields and kids' games and all of that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Live like a child who could not be more loved than you are.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.