Sins of the People

There is an old story that has made its rounds in the pulpit. Goes' something like this: "A church member scolded her pastor for preaching a series of sermons on "The Sins of the Saints."
"After all," she argued, "the sins of Christians are different from the sins of other people."
"Yes," agreed her pastor, "they're worse."

This is the heart behind the next two weeks. Malachi is faced with the formidable task of confronting the people and the priests of their sins. Because the sins of God's children are indeed worse. When believers sin, they not only break the Law of God, but they break the heart of God. It would be so easy for us to simply attribute this book to be simply ancient history and not let it affect us in any way but the harsh reality is that these sins not only exist in the church today but they have become prevalent! Let's commit ourselves to the Lord and affirm our love for him today!

Hope to see you on Sunday!

End of the Road (Zech 14)

As we come to the end of the road in our study of Zechariah, we find ourselves pursuing the same subject as in the previous chapters. The day of the Lord, the day the cup of staggering is poured out. Now, there are those who endeavor to make chapter 14 simply a footnote or the attempt to ignore it all together. The great theologian Martin Luther supposedly offered the brief words about chapter 14 “Here, in this chapter, I give up. For I am not sure what the prophet is talking about.” While I find it comforting that others have labored through it as well, we still must honor God’s word and address the contents. So, I implore you, read through this chapter before coming to worship or watching the service online this week! 

To give you a taste of the questions we will tackle look at verses 1-2:

“A day of the Lord is coming when your plunder will be divided in your presence. I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle. The city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city.” (Zech. 14:1-2 HCSB)

Here is the question: why does God wait until after all this horror to come and rescue?

I mean, He does show up, the very next verse tells us He does fight, and He does win.

But why does He wait until after the plundering, the destroying, the raping, the enslaving, and the spoiling? Why do His people have to suffer first? For that matter why do we? Afterall if Jesus defeated death on the cross why do believers today have to endure these hardships?

The question goes deeper when you look closer at verse two notice what it says, “I will gather…” So, this isn’t even an issue with God’s timing. The verse says God is gathering or bringing these nations against His people.

If God is really in control why all the suffering and pain? Now, this is obviously a huge question, for which I don’t have all the answers but when we look to God’s word for the answer the long and short of it is our perspective which is the problem. Our point of view is that no pain is best; God’s is that suffering is temporary and the result at the end is better than the start. Thus it is worth it. 

Alas, there is a lot more to be said on this and I hope you show up or tune in on Sunday as we deal with this and some other critical questions in our lives today!

On That Day...

Resuming our study of Zechariah this week. The final three chapters take us to end times. We see the description of Gentile nations attacking Jerusalem, the Jewish people experiencing severe trials, and the Lord returning in power and great glory to deliver His people. We see the phrase "in that day" used 16 times in these final chapters. "That day" is "the Day of the Lord," which we see described in Joel 3 and Zephaniah 1, a day in which God's wrath and judgment would be poured out upon the earth.

In Zechariah 12-13 we are reminded of the meta-story of God. A story that begins with God, who created. Humanity, who rebelled. Jesus, who came. And us, who respond with repentance.

We then live lives of hope – hope that “our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (2 Cor 4:17); hope that God’s “love for (his people) is passionate and strong; (He is) consumed with passion for (them)!” (Zech 1:14, 8:2); and hope that determines that we will live for Him, not for ourselves.

What do you hope in?