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The Day is Coming Serve God

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• 1:11-12a, my name will be great among the nations (twice). But you priests profane it … v14b, my name is to be feared among the nations … 2:2, if you do not set your heart to honor my name, I will send a curse upon you.

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• He wants all nations to know his name and reputation as the defender of the poor,

• the lover of sinners, • the Savior of everyone who

believes in His name.

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• 3:5, I will testify against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the aliens of justice.

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• Lk 12:33; 14:13, Jesus said to his disciples, sell your possessions and give to the poor … when you give a banquet, invite the poor.

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• 3:14 “You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What do we gain by carrying out his requirements … before the Lord Almighty? 15 But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly evildoers prosper, and even when they put God to the test, they get away with it.’ ”

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• The topic today is about serving God with the right heart while there is still time.

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• 17 “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 

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• 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

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• It is important that we serve God with the right motives or right heart.

• James said, Christians who talk about love but do not help the poor are nothing (Jas 2:16).

• They have not served God with the right heart.

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• Paul said Christians who serve the poor without love are also nothing - if I give all I possess to the poor but have no love I gains nothing (1Cor 13:3).

• They have not served God with the right heart.

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• Only those who serve God with a pure heart (Jas 1:27) and a grateful heart (Lk 7:47) will keep on serving even when the going gets tough and even when everyone stops serving.

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• 4:6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse (total destruction).”

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• What is your motive for serving your parents? For inheritance?

• Why do you have children? What do you expect from them?

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• 4:1, “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 

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• 2 Pet 3:10-11, the day of the Lord will come like a thief … The elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

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• Lk 17:28, “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

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• Mt 24:14, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

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• 1 Cor 9:19, though I am free and belong to no one … 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings.

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• How do we serve the nations in our midst?

• To serve an ethnic group, covenant with 3 other young adults to set aside one year of your life to live in a targeted area for the sake of the gospel.

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• There are 52 weeks, save 4 weeks for your family, set aside 48 weeks to serve God.

• Every day go to work but every evening come home to make friends with your neighbors.

• Use the tithes (3%) that you pledged to support the poor for weekly communal meals.

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• Eat communal meal once a week on Saturday or Sunday.

• Invite your neighbors to the communal meal.

• Accept people just as they are. • Show genuine humility because

you don’t know what they are going through.

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• During the meals talk about things that concern them.

• If your neighbors’ concern is education, offer your service as tutors.

• If your neighbors’ concern is immigration, offer to connect them with an immigration lawyer.

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• Wait on God and when the Holy Spirit prompts you, share the gospel fearlessly.

• Get to know the local churches in the target area.

• Invite the neighbors who eat at your table to worship at the local church on Sunday.

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• Support the local church in the targeted area with prayer and tithes (10%).

• Every quarter worship at the home church to share your progress on reaching the nations to the glory of God.

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