Giving God Your Best in Worship

Malachi 1:6-14

We talk a lot about giving our best.

Whether it’s on the job, or in school, or on the athletic field, we emphasize giving our best

Did you know that when it comes to worship, God wants you to give your best?

Open your Bible to Malachi 1:6-14.

Malachi 1:6-14 "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?' 7 "You place 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 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. 9 "Now implore 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, "and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11 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. 12 "But you profane it by saying of the Lord's table, 'It is defiled,' and of its food, 'It is contemptible.' 13 And you say, 'What a burden!' and you sniff at it contemptuously," says the LORD Almighty. "When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?" says the LORD. 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.

In these verses, God is telling His people that when you worship,

I want you to give your very best.

He is not talking about what you wear - I don’t dress up to impress God.

I dress up to impress you and some of you are not impressed

If you want to impress God…have pure hands and a clean heart and give Him your best -

I Samuel 16:7 says “God looks on the heart” ….Eccl. 9:10

Don’t you want to give your best?
I want to preach my best - I am a dying man preaching to dying people…II Tim. 4:2…

what we discuss each week is a matter of heaven or hell.

And what is true of my preaching, is true with our praying…

when we pour out our hearts to God, it should come from the depths of our soul…I Pet. 5:7

And what is true of preaching and praying is also true of our singing…

when you sing you should give it your very best…focus on the words…

sing them in such a way that honors God and encourages those around you…

And what is true of preaching and praying and singing, should be true of our giving…

Ac. 20:35 - we are told that “It is more blessed to give than it is to receive…”

II Cor. 9:7 - “God loves a cheerful giver…”

And what it true of preaching and praying and singing and giving,

should be true with our communion...

when we stop and focus on the most important event in history -

the death of the Son of God on the cross….we should give it our best.

Here is the question this morning -

When it comes to your personal worship, do you give God your best?

Look at what the Israelites were giving to God…
(vs. 8) - “blind, crippled and diseased animals” - they were bringing God their leftovers.

And Malachi says “that is just wrong!”

When it comes to worship, then or now, God does not want our leftovers.

God didn’t want a second class animal, and God doesn’t want a second class effort.

(Deut. 15:21) “If an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the Lord your God.”

(Lev. 22:21) - “When anyone brings from the herd or flock a fellowship offering to the LORD to fulfill a special vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without defect or blemish to be acceptable to the Lord.”

And yet, that is exactly what the Jews were doing…that is what they were giving God.

Malachi asks an interesting question in vs 8 -

“try giving that to your governor, would he accept it?”

Look at verse 10 - “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors...”

Why don’t you just close the church doors?

If you are not going to give me your best, why don’t we just shut the doors and forget it, it’s useless, I am not pleased, I won’t accept it.

Look at verses 12 & 13 - God uses the words “profane, defiled and contemptible.”

In fact, He says in vs 13, that you have made worship a burden rather than a blessing.

Look at verse 14 - the KJV says you are a deceiver…NIV says you are a cheat…

When one fails to give God their best, they are cheating themselves and cheating God.

Now with all of those things in mind, again I raise the question:

When you worship, do you give God your best?

You say, “Preacher, I want to. How do I do it? How do I give God my best?”

I am so glad that you asked, because that is what we want to discuss briefly.

Nine practical suggestions to help us give God our best in worshiping Him.

Number One: I would suggest to you, that you make worship a priority in your life.

If you were to sit down this week, and make a list of the most important things that you must do, would number one on that list be - Worship God?

Where does worship fit in on your list?

I know we are busy people!

But if we are too busy to assemble with our brothers and sisters in Christ,

to worship our God, we are too busy.

Listen to David in Psalm 95 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3 For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.

Is that your attitude?

Is worship something that you love to be a part of,

want to be a part of.

Is it a priority for your week?

Suggestion #2: If you want to give God your best in worship, make your worship God centered.

We are here for one reason this morning, and that is to worship God and please Him.
I’m not here to critique who should and should not be taking the Lord’s Supper…

Who is or is not giving or how much …

the kind of clothes you are wearing…

to analyze your singing or lack there of…

not here to debate with you…

I am here to worship God.

This is a worship service, and it should be God-centered, God-focused, and God-honoring!

Our preaching, praying, singing, giving, communion…all focused on God.

Worship is not a time to solve the world’s problems…

it’s a time to focus on God, and in doing so,

to begin to solve some of my own problems…

as I look at me and my relationship with Him.

Suggestion #3: If you want to give God your best in worship, involve your heart, not just your lips.

It’s so easy to go through the outward motions,

when our hearts and minds are someplace else…isn’t it?

Easy to sing words….pray words…take the communion...go through the motions.

“Examine yourself” - that is A unique human quality -

the ability to look inside ourselves and examine our very thought processes…

our attitude, our heart, our disposition, our commitment or lack thereof...our motives...

You know right now, where your thoughts are…

where your focus is…where your heart is.

Worship services will do nothing for you, if you don’t involve your heart.

Again going back to the Israelites -

so often they went through the outward observances of worship

without involving the heart, and it was worthless.

Suggestion #4: Before coming to worship, make some preparations.

We do physically - we bathe, dress, put on our deodorant,

comb our hair and brush our teeth, and I am glad we do.

But none of that will help you worship!
Do you spend any time getting your spirit ready to worship?

Let me suggest to you, that before you come to worship, you spend some time in prayer…

You may want to read a Psalm like Psalm 95 or Psalm 104 or Psalm 19,

all of which speak of the greatness of God, and help to focus on God.

You may want to spend some time thinking about what you will be doing,

and committing to giving your worship, your best.

You may want to make things right with another.

The Bible teaches that you cannot worship God acceptably,

when you have problems with your brothers and sisters (Matt. 5 & 18).

Oh, how much more meaningful and encouraging our worship would be, if we would take the time to prepare.

We see the need for preparation in so many areas of our life,

and then jump up on Sunday mornings, and make a mad rush for the building.

No wonder we fail to give our best in worship.

Suggestion #5: You need to be on time.

When is the last time that you left at the last minute for a ball game or a movie?
When it comes to a ball game or a movie, we want to be there early.

We want to get the best seat we can get so we can see and hear everything..

We want to be a part of the activities that are going on before the game,

we want to see all the previews of up coming movies.

We are not going to miss the opening kick off, tip off or whatever it might be.
We are not going to miss the beginning of the movie.

But you see preacher, a ball game is...the movie is...

Is what? More important to you than worship?

This goes right back to preparing your heart.

It’s hard to have a sweet, sweet spirit, when you have been sprinting, sweating, and speeding to get to the services.

Get here early, talk with your brothers and sisters, meet our visitors,

find out what is going on in one another’s life, set down and prepare to worship

And I would encourage you to take a few minutes to visit after the final amen.

There are some of you sitting here who would be hurt,

if you needed something from this church,

and this church did not respond.

When the truth is, you have never given many of the members of this church a chance

to get to know you.

You come to worship for years, and you really don’t know one another,

and we all are less, because of it.

Suggestion #6: Bring your Bible.

I hope that as we looked at Malachi, you looked with us.

I hope that when this text was read a few moments ago, that you read along.

I hope that as you took note, of certain things in this text, and made some notes about it.

I like stories, I like illustrations, but what I want you to take away with you each week,

is not a neat story that I shared, but rather something that God says!

This week, from Malachi 1 - God says “When you worship Me, I want you to give your very best.”

That is what I want you to hear....

what I want you to take with you...

what I want you to struggle with.

Each week, bring your Bible and find that nugget of God’s Word, that challenges you.

Suggestion #7: Listen carefully to the sermon.

I make no claim to being the best, or one of the better, preachers you will ever hear.

But this I promise you - I work hard every week to put together some thoughts,

that will challenge you, to be a little bit more of what God would have you be.

And I know, that I don’t hit a home run every week,

but I try to at least get on base.

So forget the preacher....forget his ability, or lack there of.

What if this were the last sermon that you would ever hear, before you left this old world?
Would you try to listen and hear something, that would help you draw closer to God?
Would you find at least a nugget of truth that would help you?

Plan your week some other time.

Play with the kiddo when you get home.

When you come to worship, listen to the sermon.

You will hear so much from the world the rest of the week.
Focus for a few minutes on a word from God.

Suggestion #8: Be a participant and not a spectator.

Worship is not a spectator sport.
We are not here to watch...to observe...critique - we are here to worship.

Sit up and sing!

When we are lead in prayer, listen and pray along.

During communion, focus on the cross, on Jesus.

When scripture is read, and sermons are preached, get into it.

God is your only audience...how are you doing?

Suggestion #9: Expect something wonderful to happen in worship.

Allow me to share a fact, that is true in all areas of life, and is equally true in worship:

One usually gets what one expects...isn’t that right?

What you expect this morning...is probably what you will get.

If you expect worship to be a challenging, life changing experience, it can and will be that.

“Preacher, it isn’t that for me, what is the problem?”

You might want to look in your seat.

Nobody can keep you from sitting up and singing your heart out...

Nobody can keep you from humbling your heart and praying to God...

Nobody can keep you from focusing on the cross as you partake of the Lord’s Supper...

Nobody can keep you from finding a life changing truth as scripture is read...

Nobody can keep you from challenging and encouraging your brothers and sisters in

Christ as we come together and worship together...

Nobody that is except you...and you will probably get what you expect.

What do you expect this morning?
Do you expect God to be glorified...

the lost to be saved...

the weak to be strengthened...
the strong to be encouraged....

Have you prayed to that end...what do you expect?.

Again, you are probably going to get what you expect.

I don’t want to be like those in Malachi’s day.

I don’t want my worship to be second rate leftovers, that God rejects...how about you?

Nine suggestions to keep that from happening:

(1) Make your worship of God a priority

(2) Make your worship God centered

(3) Put your heart into it

(4) Prepare before coming to worship

(5) Be on time

(6) Bring your Bible

(7) Listen

(8) Participate

(9) Expect wonderful things to happen - to you and to those around you

I Sing Praises to your Name, O Lord.