DAY 16

LEFTOVERS

JOHN MACDONALD, LEAD PASTOR

I really don’t like leftovers. They almost fall in the same category as green vegetables for me. Not quite, but almost. There are very few things we have for dinner the night before that I want to eat for lunch the next day. Leftovers just don’t taste as good as the meal did when it was first prepared. Come to find out God doesn’t like leftovers either.

“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?’ “By offering defiled food on my altar.
“But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’

“By saying that the Lopd’s table is contemptible. 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.

“Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the Lord Almighty.

“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. 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.

—Malachi 1:6-11

The setting of Malachi is approximately 430 B.C. Many of the exiles had returned to Jerusalem from captivity about 100 years earlier. They rebuilt the temple and finished its construction under the leadership of Neiemiah in 515 B.C. The prophet Malachi’s mission was to call the nation of Israel back to God, starting with the religious leaders. 100 years after they had rebuilt the temple, we find the people and the priests in a state of disobedience. The animal sacrifices that God required were to be perfect, spotless, without blemish. The scripture passage above gives us a window into the real attitude of the people toward God. They were bringing worthless animals to sacrifice on God’s altar. They were bringing blind, crippled, and diseased animals to be sacrificed. In today’s church culture, we could compare this to giving God our leftovers... our leftover time, our leftover money, and our leftover energy.

The attitude of the people was one of carelessness, neglect, stinginess, taking the easy way out, and outright disobedience. There was no passion, no hunger, no desire to honor or please the Lord. Their lives and their faith were not one, but separate. They were going through the motions of religion. They were trying to satisfy through religious duty what could only be completed through a loving, committed, covenant relationship.

This so broke the heart of God that Malachi called the people to shut the door! It was a call to shut down the whole sacrificial system. Every time the people sacrificed, they were heaping judgment on themselves and on their nation. Malachi’s call was a call to stop giving God leftovers and return to giving a pure offering of true worship and prayer back to God.

In our culture today, we come to church to check off the box of religious duty. We give God an hour of our time one day a week and live the other 6 days and 23 hours for ourselves, fully disconnected from Him. Essentially, we give Him the leftovers from our leftovers.

This is happening on a personal level and on a corporate level in the church as well. When will Jesus have the preeminence in His own church, amongst His own people? When will He be the center of it all once again? In our culture we have tried really hard to make the church comfortable for everyone but the Holy Spirit. When will we give the presence of the living God center stage again?

When we gather together, we gather for Him. The whole purpose is to encounter Him, to meet with Him, and to hear His voice. He is our first priority, our first inclination, our first thought. We have to break away from religious forms, religious acts, and simply going through the motions. What has to happen today is a turning away from the lesser things and a turning toward Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

This should cause us to ask ourselves who and what really defines our lives. Who really sits on our throne? What and who are we really living for? The reality is whoever or whatever we are giving our best time to, our best and most financial resources to, and our best energy to, that's what we are living for. You can lie to yourself and say that God is the most important thing in your life, but does your life prove that through your motives, your attitudes, your calendar, your tithes and offerings, your time serving, your intimacy, and your hunger for the Lord?

I hope you can also see in this passage the desire that God has to pour out his presence and blessing on His people. The Lord’s original intention was to bless the whole world through His people Israel if they just would have walked in obedience and love. He still wants to bless his people today. And He will! If we will stop giving Him our leftovers.

PRAYER

Ask the Holy Spirit in prayer to help you identify areas where you are only giving your leftovers to God. Listen with honesty, and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you. Then, pray the prayer below in your own words. Lord Jesus, forgive me for giving you my leftovers. You are worthy of my very best. All I have is because of You and from You! You gave your one and only Son as a sacrifice for my less than worthy life. You came and rescued me, redeemed me, cleansed me, and filled me with Your precious Holy Spirit. You have given me your promise of eternal life with you. Because of your promises, because you have always been faithful and always will be, I give you and offer you my whole life as a living sacrifice. May the life I live be lived to honor You and You alone, amen.