A HAPPY LIFE DEPENDS ON OBEDIENCE TO GOD
Mal 1:1-14
What are the things
that make you happy?
For you to have an joyful
day, what element must be included
And what would have to
be eliminated?
For your joy to
continue, what would have to happen?
What if we changed our
focus from us to pleasing God,
Would that change what
is needed to be happy?
HAPPY PEOPLE PROCLAIM THE LORD
V:1. An oracle: The word of the Lord to Israel
A. Those who have been blessed with the Word
have the burden
Of being obedient to the Word.
1.
Those who have been blessed with the Word have the
responsibility of proclaiming and
teaching the Word to
others.
2. As parents we have the awesome
responsibility of
teaching the Word to our children.
3. We have the burden of making sure our
children are
obedient to the Word.
B.
Those we come in contact with have to see the Word in
Action in us.
1. Others must see us as being obedient to
the Word.
2. We not going to be effective proclaiming
the Word if
we are not role models of the Word.
HAPPY PEOPLE KNOW LOVE
2 "I have
loved you," says the Lord .
"But you ask, 'How have you loved
us?'
"Was not Esau Jacob's
brother?" the Lord says. "Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but
Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left
his inheritance to the desert jackals."
A. Your relationship with Lord is one
of love
1. God loved you before He created the
world.
2. Ephesian 1:4 says you were predestined to be in Christ.
3. The love God has for you is a
special love.
4. While He love everyone, His love for
those predestined
is filled with more grace and mercy than His love for
the world.
5. We see this in the comparison between
Esau and Jacob.
a. They were twins, yet one He loved more than the other,
by His own admission.
b. Seem strange to me that neither Jacob or Esau had
done any good or evil in the womb.
c. But my thoughts are not God’s thoughts, nor my ways
his ways.
B. Man has a problem if He don’t know
the love of God.
1. Man has a problem if he doubts the love of God.
2. Man has a problem if he takes the Lord’s love for granted.
3. Man has a problem if he tries to use the Lord’s love as a
reason to continue in sin.
4. Once you accept Christ as you personal savior, God will
give you visible evidence of His love.
UNHAPPY RESULTS
V:4. Edom
But this is what the Lord Almighty says: "They may build, but I
will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land
A. God show us how He deals with those
who reject Him and
Continue is sin.
1. They build up. God tears down
2. Before Esau was born, his decendants
were known to
God as wicked.
B. God knows the end from the
beginning.
1. No one can come to Go unless he is drawn.
2. God chooses as He wills who will be His disciples.
3. Happy is the person that God chooses.
4. Happy is the person that chooses God.
HAPPY PEOPLE SEE GOD’S GLORY
V:5. You will see it with your
own eyes and say, 'Great is the Lord
-even beyond the borders of Israel
A. Once we have accepted Christ as our
Savior, He will reveal
To us His greatness.
1. Once enlighten with the Word, we will not be able to deny the
the glory of God.
2. It is the Word that brings awareness of God in Our lives.
HAPPY PEOPLE HONOR THE LORD
WITH WORSHIP
V:6-8 "A son
honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the
honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the Lord Almighty. "It is you, O priests, who show
contempt for my name.
"But you ask, 'How have we shown
contempt for your name?'
7 "You place
defiled food on my altar.
"But you ask, 'How have we defiled
you?'
"By saying that the Lord 's table is contemptible. 8 When
you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice
crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your
governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the Lord Almighty.
A. God expects us to honor him through
obedience to His
commands.
1. Our worship is important to God,
2. God is not pleased when we give Him lest than our best.
3. God gave Israel
animal that was to brought to priest to
sacrifice to Him.
4. Every sacrifice was to be unblemished.
B. We are blessed when we worship God
according to His
commands.
1. God wants our best.
2. We
are curse when we bring God what left after we
have used our best for ourselves.
3. We ruin our happiness with our disobedience.
HAPPY PEOPLE DON’T GIVE GOD EXCUSES
V:9-10 "Now
implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he
accept you?"-says the Lord Almighty.
10 "Oh, that
one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless
fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you," says the Lord Almighty, "and I will accept no offering
from your hands.
A. We insult God when we
bring Him less than what He
Commands.
1. We insult God when we
look for payment for the service
do
for the Church.
2. We insult God when we
fail to serve at our highest level.
B. If we can’t come prepared
to give our best, we come
to entertain Satan.
1. You can fool the world with mediocrity,
but God
is not impressed.
JOY IN THE GREATNESS OF THE
LORD
V:11 My name will be
great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every
place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name
will be great among the nations," says the Lord
Almighty.
A. People know how great God is from your
testimony.
1. We
ought to show how excited we are in the council of
the
Lord.
2.
The world will come to know God through your discussion
of how great He is.
B. When others see you coming, they ought to
know your
conversation will be about what God has done.
1.
You should be the one who gives God the credit for
every success.
Rev. Melvin Mitchell
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