Malachi 1:6-14

6 “A son honors his father, and a slave 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 priests who show contempt for my

name.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Malachi 1:6-14

“But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for

your name?’

7 “By offering defiled food on my altar.

“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Malachi 1:6-14

“By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible.8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is

that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame 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.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Malachi 1:6-14

9 “Now plead with 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,

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Malachi 1:6-14

“and I will accept no offering from your hands.11 My name will be great among the nations, from

where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place

incense and pure offerings will be brought to me,

because my name will be great among the

nations,” says the Lord Almighty.

12 “But you profane it by saying,

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Malachi 1:6-14

‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is

contemptible.’ 13 And you say, ‘What a burden!’

and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the Lord

Almighty.

“When you bring injured, lame or diseased

animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I

accept them from your hands?” says the Lord.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Malachi 1:6-14

14 “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable

male in his flock and vows to give it, but then

sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I

am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and

my name is to be feared among the nations.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

Leaders, it begins and ends with us;

everything rises or falls with us.

Everything begins and ends with the

quality of a leader.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

It’s important that we never forget,

particularly those of us who are in

leadership or aspire to leadership

that people become like their

leaders.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Luke 6:40

40 The student is not above the teacher, but

everyone who is fully trained will be like their

teacher.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Jesus says that students become like

their teacher. It’s a simple principle,

but it is this: whoever you decide to

follow you will become like.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

It’s incredibly important that God’s

leaders conduct themselves in godly

ways, because people are going to

follow the example that the leaders

set.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Here today, he asks this question:

“Where is my honor? Where is my

honor?”

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

He is here first speaking to the

priests. In the Old Covenant,

everything orbited around the

temple. In the New Covenant, it

orbits around the church.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

In the Old Covenant, the people

were led by the priests. In the New

Covenant, they’re led by the pastors.

These are the spiritual leaders, and

he calls them out by name.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

God tells us two things regarding his

character, that he is a “Father” and a

“Master.” “Father” reveals to us his

affection for us, and “Master” reveals

his authority over us.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

Malachi 1:6-8

6 “A son honors his father, and a slave 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 priests who show

contempt for my name. “But you ask, ‘How have

we shown contempt for your name?’ 7 “By

offering defiled food on my altar.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Malachi 1:6-8

“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ “By

saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. 8

When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that

not wrong? When you sacrifice lame 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.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

When you offer blind animals in

sacrifice, is that not evil? And when

you offer those that are lame or sick,

is that not evil?”

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

Here’s the issue: God doesn’t want

your money. God wants your heart,

and your heart is an indication of

your money, because Jesus says,

“Where your treasure is, there your

heart is.”

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Love is not what you feel,

love is primarily what you do

and how you give.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

So what God is trying to do is get the

finances straightened out, because

once the finances are straightened

out, then the rest of life tends to get

straightened out. You get your

finances in order, it forces you to get

your life in order.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

They’re collecting their offering and

the food, he says, is polluted. What

this really is it’s rotten.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

And God’s saying, “Why would you

give to me what you would never

give to someone else you respect?”

That’s disrespectful.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

God’s saying, “You’re conducting

your affairs with me in a way you

don’t conduct your affairs with

others. You’re taking advantage of

my kindness, and that’s not right.”

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Malachi 1:6-8

7 “By offering 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

offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not

wrong? When you sacrifice lame 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.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

Here’s God’s question: “Is that not

evil?” And he says it again. He says it

twice. “Is that not evil?” Here’s what

he’s saying: “You’re not cheap,

you’re evil.” See, it’s out of the

overflow of the heart that the wallet

spends.

HOW HAVE YOU LOVED US?

Because love is not just the way you

feel, love is what you do, and love is

how you give. “God so loved the

world, he gave.” The Bible connects

giving and loving.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

Where your treasure is, your heart

is. And God looks down and says,

“This isn’t just cheap; this is evil.”

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

And it starts with church leaders,

many churches don’t even track the

giving of the leaders, and then the

leaders are encouraging the people

to be generous, but nobody’s

checking to see if the leaders are

generous. That’s evil.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

We don’t want to be legalistic about

this, but we do want to say, “Before

we ask anybody to do anything, we

want to make sure that the leaders

are setting a good example.”

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

It’s not about how much you give,

but it’s about how much you give out

of what you have.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

That God is a generous God and

God has a heart that wants to give,

and when God puts resources in the

hand of the leader, and then the

leader clenches their fist rather than

share, they don’t have the Father’s

heart.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

Why would you enthusiastically give

God your sin and begrudgingly give

God your wealth? Why would you

give him the worst gladly and give

him the best begrudgingly?

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

God gives to us so that we can enjoy

and share so that others

might have joy.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

The story of Judas is this: He didn’t

give generously. He stole

continuously. And he saved up all

his money so he could go buy a rope

and hang himself.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Sometimes giving keeps you from

buying a rope. It keeps you from

spending money on things that are

going to kill you. In that way, God is

not taking from you; he’s saving you.

Judas stole all that money. What did

he do with it? He bought a rope.

That was not a good investment.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

You bring a sacrifice without spot or

blemish, foreshadowing that Jesus

would come without spot or blemish,

the Lamb of God who takes away

the sins of the world, the Lamb of

God without spot or blemish. The

Bible uses all this language.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

If Jesus was not a lame sacrifice, if

God gave us his only begotten Son, the

best, perfect, without spot or blemish,

sinless, why would we

think that Jesus, who was a perfect

sacrifice, would be excited about a

lame sacrifice? If God’s people don’t

take God’s glory seriously, no one will.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

Malachi 1:9-10

9 “Now plead with 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,

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

Here’s what’s crazy: people were still

coming because they liked it. You

can have a church that people like

and God doesn’t. Church is for him.

There are benefits for us, but church

is for him.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

They are not honoring God with

their work. Routine has replaced

ritual. It no longer means anything. If

the leaders are halfhearted, the

people are quarter-hearted, and their

children are hardhearted.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

And that’s not going to be a legacy,

that’s going to be a tragedy. And the

leaders are not working hard, and

caring, and giving, and people are

going to be like their leaders, and

God is devastated by the entirety of

this system.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

Pastors who expect their people to

work and give and don’t work and

give are cheating. You need to know

that we track the giving of the

leaders, not in a legalistic way, but to

make sure that we’re not asking you

to do something that they’re not

doing. That’s cheating.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

We are to honor God, number one,

with our wealth, number two, with

our work of ministry, and number

three, with our weariness.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

So when it talks about weariness,

there are two ways that we

experience weariness, weariness of

ministry or weariness from ministry.

The first is very ungodly, the second

is actually very godly.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

The weariness of ministry is where

you just start going through the

motions. You get hardhearted. You

get sick of it. You’re not going to go

to the next level.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

You’ve maxed out. Whatever it is,

you’ve been doing it a long time.

You’re just sort of going through the

motions. You’re weary of ministry.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

And we believe that if God is

gracious enough to save people and

to use us, then we should avail

ourselves to every opportunity that

he affords us.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

And the truth is we should not grow

weary of ministry, but we will grow

weary from ministry. You’re going to

be tired and exhausted. You’re going

to be and you should be. Jesus never

got weary of ministry and he still

doesn’t.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

He’s still ministering to us right now.

But there were times on the earth

that Jesus got weary from ministry.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Ministry is more like parenting.

Somebody gets saved—it’s like a kid

being born. Now you’ve got to love

them, serve them, and grow with

them, and look after them for the

rest of your life, and that’s going to

be exhausting and wonderful

because you get to see life.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

You’re going to grow weary of

ministry, or grow weary from

ministry. We would encourage you

to pour your life out growing weary

from ministry.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Malachi 1:11

11 My name will be great among the nations, from

where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place

incense and pure offerings will be brought to me,

because my name will be great among the

nations,” says the Lord Almighty.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

The point of the church is to scream

the goodness of our great King that

his fame would echo through the

nations of the earth. And the nation

of Israel chose not to do that.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

If you have any idea how great this

King is, you don’t see this as a

burden, but a blessing; not

something you have to give your life

to, but something that you get to give

your life to.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Here’s what’s amazing: our King is

great, so making his name great is

something that we get to do by simply

telling the truth about who he is and

what he’s done. That’s the whole

point, so he says, “I am a great King. I

am a great King.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

Faithworks, we are so excited. We don’t know if

you caught that. We’re really excited about Jesus and the opportunity he’s

given us to be part of making his great name great

among the nations.

WHERE IS MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?

WHERE IS

MY HONOR?