Special lessons for spiritual leaders
Malachi 2:1-17 06/04/06
The Bible places a premium on spiritual leadership. The Bible places high standards on those who serve in the churches with a position of leadership. The Bible places high standards on those who serve as deacons. The Bible places high standards on those who serve in children ministry. The Bible places high standards on those who serve as Sunday school teachers. We expect those who work in capacity of leadership to have high standards. If leaders do not lead the way they should lead then it has a detrimental affect upon the people.
What we have here folks is an entire chapter in the Bible devoted to those who are leaders. You must have known that this sermon was coming sooner or later. So if you are a leader in some capacity, then this chapter speaks to you this morning.
I have looked around this morning since I have been talking and some of you are cleaning out a spot to sort of sleep through this sermon. You say I am not a deacon, teacher, choir member or work in any capacity of the church. Well listen; this chapter has something to say to you as well. You see this chapter doesn’t only speak of leadership but also stewardship. Man to have a chapter devoted to speaking to those who are in leadership and also to speak to us about stewardship has to be one of my favorite chapters in the Bible.
As we look at these 17 verses, we cannot help but to see that Malachi is dealing with some problems. We want to take a look at these problems and what the Word of God has to say about them. The first one we deal with is what we will call MINISTERIAL PROBLEMS. Look at verse 1.
Somebody says I am glad you are going to talk about the preachers this morning. Well, somebody ought to talk about them and I think I will do that for a while. Now remember all of us are believer priest in that we are to be about winning people to Jesus. The Lord did not call me to preach primarily to win people to Jesus; I was already doing that.
Here, he is dealing with a group of priest who are not living up to the standard. He says in verse 2, “If you will not lay it to heart, change your ways, to bring glory to my name. In other words, he was saying as a preacher, you to be living a life that would bring glory to my name. Then He says if you don’t do it the very things that are suppose to be a source of blessing will become a curse to you. Now folks look at verse 3. He says in verse 3 “I will corrupt your seed.” Most every commentary you read about this verse says it refers to their children. Many times it is the children that suffer when there is a lapse of spiritual leadership. I have seen it more times than not those who God has set aside for spiritual leadership and they become unfaithful in their responsibility, they pay the price in their children. But you also find in verse 3 that God says I am going to remove you from your responsibility of leadership.
In verse 5 and some other verses, He tells us what a true minister is to be about. God’s ministers are to be born again. They are to speak the truths of the Bible. You have a right to hear the truth from this pulpit even if it sort of works against the grain in your life. You have the right to hear the truth from the preachers and all leaders from this church even if it rubs you the wrong way sometime. Listen, I am concerned what you think about my sermon when I preach but not half concerned about what you think as I am concerned about what God thinks about it.
When you get to verse 8 God says to those unfaithful ministers He is going to judge their failures because they have caused many to stumble at the law or at their preaching and living. Many people are unkind to God today and a lot of it is because of the leadership they have in their churches.
I want you to notice that he is dealing not only with ministerial problems but also MARITAL PROBLEMS. Look at verse 11.
Mixed religious marriages. The Bible makes it clear that believers are to marry other believers. The Bible says we are to marry in the Lord. There are many reasons that believers ought to marry other believers and one is when difficulties come in life a believer approaches it differently than a nonbeliever. The believer will take the difficulty to the Lord and that is pretty strange for the unbeliever.
One of the saddest stories I think I have read was about Mark Twain and his wife Olivia. Olivia was a believer and Mark Twain wasn’t. She thought she would win him to the Lord and things went well for a while. He was going with her to Bible meetings and prayer meetings. One day he told her this was going to have to stop with him for he did not believe the Bible and he was a hypocrite in the way he was behaving. The tragedy of all of this is instead of her having a positive impact on him; he had a negative impact on her. She moved from a faith in God to a doubt in her on life. She came to a time of personal bereavement and Mark said, “Livvy, if it will help you any, lean on your Christian faith.” She said, “But I don’t have faith any more to lean on.”
We are in real trouble in our marriages in America today. In 1920, one out of 7 marriages ended in divorce. Today in America there is one out of 2 marriages will end in divorce and it is the same even with believers. God’s plan for the marriage is one man and one woman for life.
One day a woman complained to her pastor because she was not married. He said you can’t improve on God’s plan for the marriage. God’s plan is one woman and one man. She said I am not trying to improve on it; I just want to get in on it.
I know there are some of you saying I am in that category and what do I do now preacher? I would tell you accept God’s forgiveness and forget the past and with confidence and faith look to the future trusting God to bless you.
We have discussed the ministerial problems and the marital problems and finally we see that the Word of God deals with MORAL PROBLEMS. Look at verse 17.
What the Bible is telling us here is that people out of the will of the Lord will get to the point that they don’t even have any moral distinctions. They get to the point they cannot tell good from evil.
What the people were saying in the day of Malachi is God doesn’t care about right or wrong. They were saying that there is no absolute right and no absolute wrong. Man does that speak to our world today?
There was another saying in that day and that is that God is just too nice to judge sin. You say people don’t believe that in our day. Well folks if they don’t, they sure act like they do.
Now you remember I said that this chapter deals with stewardship. What does it have to do with stewardship? Well, let me answer that for you. Some of you young people may be the only Christian in your group. Then you have the stewardship of leadership. You ought to be the spiritual leader. Others of you may be the only Christian in your work area. Then you have the stewardship of leadership. You ought to be the spiritual leader in your work place.
Now there are many of you here this morning that God has give you a position of leadership in some capacity. Now the question is are you bringing glory to His name or are you causing people to curse and blaspheme His name? Listen, if you are lost, God is interested in you enough that He doesn’t want you to go to hell but to heaven. I am here this morning with some good news for you and that is you can be saved and on your way to heaven through faith in Jesus Christ. Will you in faith receive Him today?
