SERMON MANUSCRIPT
Israel was hurting economically, sociologically, and spiritually. The questions they hurl at God throughout this book (questions to which he responds through Malachi) are dripping with childishness, defensiveness, and rebelliousness. “How have you loved us?” (1:2). “How have we despised your name?” (1:6). “How have we defiled you?” (1:7). “For what reason [do you not accept our offerings]?” (2:14). “How have we wearied [God]? … Where is the God of justice?” (2:17). “How shall we return [to you, God]?” (3:7). “How have we robbed you?” (3:8).
Blinded by sin and circumstances, the people had lost sight of the character and promises of “the Lord of hosts.” They saw no evidence of his love for them and his faithfulness to them, and because of that, they were struggling to offer God the worship he deserved, the obedience he demanded, and the trust he desired.
Perhaps you can relate. Like Israel, you’ve felt discouraged and disgruntled at times, deflated and deserted at others. And, if so, it’s possible that you, like them, have struggled to praise a God who seemed indifferent and to serve a God who felt distant. You wondered—or are wondering right now—“Is it worth the effort?”
God says, “Yes, it is.” This passage contains the Lord’s call to service, an invitation that transcends heavy hearts and hard hearts and is fuelled by faith. God’s people aren’t called to serve him because we always feel like it. No, we’re called to serve in faith, believing it’s worth it even if we don’t now see how.
THE CALL TO SERVE
Let’s consider first God’s call to service. Looking to the future, [3:17–18] describe what God desires. Add to that the lauded example of “Moses my servant” in 4:4 and it’s clear that serving God is righteous and good, admirable and divinely preferable. It’s what the Lord wants. It’s to what he calls his people—it’s a future certainty but sometimes a present difficulty.
It was for Israel as they were doubting this call to serve. [3:13a] Literally, “Your words are strong against me.” God’s people are called to serve him humbly, not like this “arrogant” remnant rebuking the One who commands heaven’s armies. Who do they think they are? Who do they think God is? They’ve forgotten that he’s the God who’s “coming, burning like a furnace; [when] all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff” (4:1).
It’s hard to serve someone you consider less than yourself; when deep-down you think they should be serving you. It’s why a prerequisite for ministry to vulnerable people is the conviction that they too are image bearers of God, loved by God, and worthy of care. But Israel had lost that humble perspective and had started to think God existed for them, not the other way around.
And in their arrogance, the people pose another snide question: [3:13b]. So, God gets specific. [3:14] God’s people are called to serve humbly, yes, but also obediently, something they were struggling to do here. Instead, they were saying, “It’s useless to worship God the way he wants, honour him the way he wants, give to him the way he wants, and speak about him the way he wants. It does nothing for us to keep his law and walk his paths.”
They felt they’d done the whole religious thing—even repenting of sins, “mourning before the Lord of hosts”—and where’d obedience get them? Nowhere good. So, what’s the point? What’s the point of sacrifices and tithes, of submission to God’s rule, and of resisting sin and chasing holiness? Why bother serving humbly and obediently if it doesn’t seem to help anything?
It’s hard not to empathize. We live in a world that hails the sovereignty of the self and lionizes victimhood so, the thought of not getting exactly what we think we deserve in the way we think we deserve it when we think we deserve it and from whom we think we deserve it is unthinkable. We want to see a return on our investment and, if not, we’re cashing out. It’s just good business.
“God, I’ve prayed, studied, repented, and evangelized. I’ve gone to church, helped at church, brought people to church, stayed at church, and planted a church. I’ve tried to take sin seriously, love Jesus rightly, and walk by the Spirit faithfully. Where’s the ROI? ‘What profit is it that I have kept your charge?’”
This may sound reasonable to some, but to God, it’s just arrogant disobedience. It’s creatures, assuming they know the mind of their Creator, trying to control the actions of God with their actions. “If I do these things for him he owes these things to me and if he doesn’t come through then he’s not worthy my service.”
But God is no one’s debtor. He’s the sovereign, not us. We’re to serve him humbly and obediently and reverently. [3:16] Some, hearing Malachi’s rebuke, woke up as if from a rebellious trance. They discussed what they were hearing and wrote it down so as to never again forget. And God, seeing their reverence, drew near, “gave attention and heard [them].” Such reverence will be rewarded in the future also: [4:2a].
God told Pharaoh, “Let my people go, that they may serve me” (Ex. 8:1). He told his wandering people, “You shall serve the Lord your God” (Ex. 23:25). Joshua charged them to, “Fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth” (Josh. 24:14). The psalmist declares, “Serve the Lord with gladness” (Ps. 100:2).
We are meant to serve God. Israel was not doing this. Instead, they were arrogantly, disobediently, and irreverently wondering if God deserved any attention at all.
Maybe you’re here today and you’ve grow weary of serving the Lord. It’s been years and you’re tired of unrequited labour. Maybe you’re new to the faith and you’re not sure you have much to offer that would please God. Maybe your view of God is so small that he doesn’t deserve such allegiance. Maybe you’re stuck in sin, and that rebellion has calcified your heart to a bitter place of withholding from God what you know you ought to offer him. Or maybe you’ve been involved in churches who have explicitly or implicitly taught you that serving God is for the professionals. You just come to receive not give, to consume not contribute.
THE NEED FOR FAITH
There are many reasons we don’t serve God but, no matter the reason, God is calling each of us to serve him, and to do so humbly, obediently, and reverently. But all of that just paves the way for the chief ingredient, and that’s belief. Malachi shifts from the call to serve to the need for faith.
And why is faith needed for God’s people to serve him the way he deserves? Because its enjoyment is potentially delayed. Because the benefits of serving aren’t always immediately obvious. God doesn’t promise that his servants will see the full fruit of their labours right away and, without faith, that can be discouraging.
You encourage and no one says “thank you.” You give and nothing happens. You invest and the church shrinks. You rebuke and their no repentance. You serve and nothing gets better.
That’s what Israel was struggling with. [3:14–15] The people assumed that if they did what they were asked, life would go well now, the wicked would lose now. They thought evil would be punished now and blessings experienced now. They figured that the reasons for their mourning would be alleviated now.
But it wasn’t. They were surrounded by sin, watching God’s enemies thrive and God’s people struggle. Why do they need faith to serve God? Because sometimes serving God doesn’t immediately produce observable and enjoyable blessings.
And we’re not always great at waiting, are we? It’s dangerous to root our service to the Lord in our experience of the effects of that service because the benefits don’t always show up right away. They’re potentially delayed.
But that doesn’t mean our service goes unseen. By faith, God’s people can know that our work is perfectly assessed. That while it may seem that God’s not paying attention because of the lack of evidence, it doesn’t mean he’s not keeping track.
The very fact that God is calling Israel out for what they’ve been arrogantly saying is proof that he’s paying attention. “Your words.” “What words?” “These words!” And, just as God was paying attention to their rebellion, he was also paying attention to their repentance: “and the Lord gave attention and heart it” (3:16).
Finally, looking again to the future, there’s coming a day when God will reveal all the righteous and wicked. Who’s who will be clear to us then as it is to him now. [3:18]
While we may not get to immediately enjoy the benefits of our humble, obedient, and reverent service to God, by faith, we can still serve, knowing that all we’re doing is perfectly assessed, that God pays attention, that he’s keeping track, and that, one day, it will all be revealed and rewarded. [2 Cor. 5:11]
More than that, we know that the blessings for serving God will be eventually enjoyed. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day. Have faith! [3:17] Note the intimate language. “They will be mine … I will prepare my own possession … As a man spares his own son.” There’s intimacy ahead for those who serve.
[4:1–3] There is coming a day when all sin will be gone and all barriers to perfect service removed. When the Lord returns, when he comes for those “who fear [his] name,” there will be healing, joy, levity, and liberty. God’s people will help judge the wicked that, through their lives, have watched dance in victory.
[4:5–6] God’s people will know when that day draws near because Elijah will show up, empowered to restore Israel to their God. Jesus said that this could’ve been John the Baptist had Israel been willing to listen, but they didn’t so he wasn’t. Which means, he’s still coming and God’s people are still waiting. But for what has not changed. The blessings of serving God now will be eventually enjoyed. Have faith.
We are all called to serve. If you are a child of God, you are called to serve the God who has saved you and with whom you will spend eternity. The church in the west has generally done a poor job at communicating this, often implying that the people are not necessary because we have professionals to serve. You come to consume not to contribute.
That is wholesale incorrect. The metaphors God uses for the church are that of family, body, and house, all of which need all parts functioning properly to be effective. We are all called to serve for the glory of Christ and in the power of the Spirit, whether teaching, greeting, encouraging, evangelizing, praying, giving, loving, sharing, singing, leading, submitting, shepherding, writing, hugging, directing, or any other way God leads.
Please hear me: the Lord has brought you to this assembly because you’re needed at this assembly—not just your presence, but your service, your humble, obedient, and reverent service. And we’re invited by God to serve him by serving one another irregardless of the effects we see, the growth we can measure, the thumbs-up we get, or the feels we feel. No, we serve God in faith, knowing he sees all (and that’s good enough for us) and that he rewards all. We do it because we know that our labours for the Lord are not in vain but echo into eternity.
Malachi has not pulled any punches. He saw a people of God who were less than they should have been. And so, inspired by God himself, he placed some divine resolutions before them, resolutions that you and I can cling to as well. Be it resolved: I will not doubt God’s love. Be it resolved: I will give God what he deserves. Be it resolved: I will cherish covenantal unity. Be it resolved: I will not doubt God’s justice. Be it resolved: I will give God everything. And, finally, this morning, be it resolved: I will serve God in faith.
If we, with humble and dependant hearts, ask God to help us align our lives, our homes, our assembly to these commendations, we will become more like Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who never doubted God’s love or justice, who perfectly guarded God’s covenants and loved unity, who came to serve and not to be served and who gave everything for our sake.
Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
