Worship God with Your Whole Heart

Malachi 1: 6 – 11 (NIV): 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?' "You place defiled food on my altar. "But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?' "By saying that the Lord's table is contemptible. 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. "Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?" – says the Lord Almighty. "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. 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.

This was written about 430 years before Christ to the Jews who were now back in their homeland after their exile in Babylon. By this point, the temple had been rebuilt about a hundred years and, as often happens, the people had become apathetic about their worship. It's a familiar pattern: we beg for God's mercy in a troubling situation, he answers, we worship him whole-heartedly for a while, then, in our comfort we begin to forget about him.

Malachi, then, preaches to remind them to worship God with all their hearts. It is interesting that he is rebuking the priests for their shallow worship in this passage. The religious leaders themselves were not giving God the respect and honor he deserves. They were offering left-over sacrifices. Try cheating on your taxes like you cheat God, Malachi said. See what happens.

God said he would rather us shut the doors of our churches than come and worship him there half-heartedly. God cannot stand half-hearted commitment. If parents are half-hearted, they will inoculate their children from the gospel. Pastors pass their passion for God to their congregation whether they believe it or not. God gave his only Son for us and it disgusts him when we try to give him our left-overs in return. We show the whole world how great our God is by our total devotion to him.

We're awfully busy these days, but God says he wants our best energy, time, commitment and worship. Nothing else is worthy of his great name. Nothing else is pleasing to him. After all, he is God.

The Prodigal Son

Luke 15: 11 – 24 (NIV): Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. ' "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

This has been a favorite story ever since Jesus told it because it is a beautiful picture of a loving father who wants all of his children to be home and safe – to be saved. The Bible says we all like sheep have gone astray. We are all like this son trying to find our own way, using and squandering the blessings that God has given us. But one day, if we are wise, we will realize that true joy is right back at home – not in some distant land or exotic lifestyle. We realize that life without the Father is life in a pigpen, starving, and eating the pigs' leftovers.

The son does one thing right: he comes home with a humble attitude. He realizes he is not worthy to be his father's son any longer, but comes anyway, asking for mercy, hoping he still loved him. The father's response? He puts a robe on him to show him honor, a ring on his finger to represent his authority, and sandals on his feet, which means he recognized him as a son.

The most beautiful part of this story to me is how the father sat on the porch and watched for his son's return, and when he did, he ran out and met him. God is watching for our return and will run out to kiss and embrace us no matter where we've been.

Why God Allows Us to Suffer

2 Corinthians 12: 7 - 10 (NIV): To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We don’t know what was causing Paul to suffer, perhaps an illness or headaches or eye trouble, but Paul says it was for a reason - to keep him humble and dependent on God’s grace and power. But notice that he asked God to remove the suffering and God said no.
Sometimes God allows us to suffer. Sometimes God says no. The other day both of my children needed shots. I don’t like someone inflicting pain on them, but I knew it was for their own good so I not only allowed it, I paid for it. God in his wisdom knows what is best for us and we must trust him even if life makes no sense at all.
We must never trivialize someone's suffering, and we must be careful not to tell them why we think they are suffering - that may be something only God knows, but we can find in the scripture reasons why God allows suffering. I want to share some thoughts on this.
God allows suffering to humble us. As in this passage, God cannot use us if we are full of pride. God allows suffering to test us. In the book, Job, we find this. This testing is to prove to us that our faith is genuine. God allows suffering to prioritize us. Suffering tends to keep us focused on righteousness and on God. If we never faced trials, we might just forget about him. God allows us to suffer to discipline us. Hebrews 12 says God uses hardship to discipline us like a loving father. It is painful at the time, it says, but produces a harvest of righteousness and peace.
God allows us to suffer to prepare us for future blessing. James 1 says to rejoice in trials because they make us stronger, more mature, and prepare us for a crown of life. God allows us to suffer for his own glory. When Jesus heals a blind man in John 9, the disciples asked who sinned to cause him to be born that way, Jesus said he was born blind so that God might be glorified. God allows us to suffer to prune us. In John 15, Jesus says God prunes those who bear fruit. His one goal for us is to make us like Christ, so he lops away anything in our lives that hinders that.
We may never know why we face many of the trials we do, but we must trust God in all things. God is always up to something good and one day we will fully understand.

The Temptation of Jesus

Matthew 4: 1 – 11 (NIV): Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' " Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: " 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' " Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' "Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.' " Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

It's important to study how Jesus was tempted because the devil tempts us in the same basic ways today. It's also important to see how Jesus defeated the temptations: he fought back with scripture. The Word is our only offense against the devil and some of us only know enough of it to fight back against an army with a water gun.

Jesus' three temptations were to turn the stones into bread, to throw himself from the temple and force angels to catch him, and to set up an earthly kingdom. The first two had to do with misusing his power and proving who he was too soon. The third dealt with taking the easy way out.

Satan hit Jesus in a weakened state. That's how he operates; he searches for our weaknesses and hits us there. Jesus was hungry and could have easily ended his fast by turning the stones into bread. But that would have meant he used his power for his own gain. That is still a major temptation for us today: to do things our way instead of God's way.

The second temptation was to quickly prove who he was. But this would have forced God's hand. It's not fair to jump off a building and expect God to rescue us. We trust God in all things, but we don't foolishly test him (Deuteronomy 6:16). Many of us today live recklessly and expect God to save us from our actions. That's not fair and God forbids it – and almost always lets us fall. (Satan may have hoped he could simply get rid of Jesus if he did something so foolish.)

The third temptation was for Jesus to set up the earthly kingdom everyone expected. He could have lived out his earthly life in luxury and avoided the cross. But that wasn't God's plan for him and he knew it. If we opt for a life of ease and thumb our noses at God, are we not worshiping Satan?

Know the Scripture and beat temptation just like Jesus did.