From the preacher to the people...sermon post...Malachi 2.10-16

 


I thought it appropriate at this time of the year to lead with a photo taken by a good friend named Chuck from Maine.  The location is called Josh Stream.  Some of us have the opportunity to live in a place where the 4 seasons bring about their own beauty.  It has made me think of my own life and what season I am in.  What is the beauty around me that God has placed there for me to take in?

A little factoid.  I have preached through Malachi before.  I did 4 sermons with each one covering a chapter.  The average sermon length was 42.5 minutes.  This time I am breaking up the book into the 7 burdens or oracles of God to His people.  So the passages are less than a chapter length but the average sermon length is up to 50 minutes.  Some might say I am going in the wrong direction!

Speaking about marriage and divorce within a text is always tough because it would be a really long sermon touching on all the Bible instructs us about the subject.  Saying that, I am thankful for all the Bible does say and the comfort and guidance it gives to us as Christians.  The challenge of this passage was to keep with what God was saying to the people of God at the time and reinforce the principle found throughout the Bible from the Old Testament and into the New Testament. 

One principle is for the people of God going into marriage.  The people of God are to marry the people of God.  The other principle is for the people of God who are already married.  We are to remember and respond with the fact that God was at our wedding ceremony and a portion of the Spirit is in the union (Malachi 2.15).  May we be faithful and not faithless toward one another.  Being faithless is treating the other without the faith that has been given to us by God and is described by God as treating the other treacherously.  Sounds serious to me.

The passage finishes with saying the phrase twice, "So guard yourselves in your spirit..." (Malachi 2.15-16).  We are to guard, keep, give heed, observe ourselves in the area of our spirit.  The word "spirit" is word pictured toward the nose, the olfactory organ of our body.  We smell things to make sure they are okay to wear, drink or eat.  We give it the "sniff test" before we get any closer or consume something.  So we are to sniff life in light of God's instruction.  At times it is not going to smell right and therefore we need to act accordingly.  Our time with God and His word trains our spiritual nose to know what is best for us.  

The world will throw at us many things that might look really good but when we sniff at it with God's word, it doesn't smell right.  Trust your spiritual nose because you have been faithfully taking in instruction of a faithful Father who loves His children to the extent of the very giving of Himself for your eternal benefit.  Whatever you are looking at that looks good has not done that for you.

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlie...
Read more

God gave us a good weather window to travel...yeah God!!!

Image
  Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass.  It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24.  We give God all the glory for this happening.  So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog.  One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service.  I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks.   I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months.  I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years.  It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip.  No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas.  Of course e...
Read more

Resurrection Sunday in a new space...Matthew 27.62-28.20

Image
  Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel .  We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20.  It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track.  This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together.  The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs.  Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the  Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following t...
Read more