The cost of complacency. Let's read in Malachi chapter number one, and beginning in verse number six. A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master. If then I be a father, and God is speaking here, if I be a father, where is mine honor? And if I be a master, Where is my fear? Saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest that despise my name. And you say, wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar. And you say, wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, the table of the Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor. Will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person, saith the Lord of hosts? And now I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious unto us. This hath been by your means. Will he regard your persons, saith the Lord of hosts? who is there even among you that would shut the doors for not, neither do you kindle fire on my altar for not. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. For from the rising of the sun, even into the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering and my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye have profaned it, in that ye say the table of the Lord is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible. Ye also behold what a weariness it is, is it? And ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts, that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick. Thus he brought an offering. Should I accept this of your hand, saith the Lord? But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great king, saith the Lord, of hosts, And my name is dreadful among the heathen. Father, we pray that you'd bless in this hour to follow. Lord, speak to our hearts. Lord, show us from thy word things that you'd have us to know, not just because there's a new year coming, but Lord, because you are our King, you are our God, you are our Father. And Lord, we owe everything to you. Lord, we owe you our obedience, our faith, our worship, We pray that you'd bless us this morning to that end. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The cost of complacency. Have you ever felt stuck and just feel like you're coasting through life without a clear purpose? Probably have. Picture a couple celebrating their wedding anniversary and the husband has decided to show his wife a great honor and on their anniversary, he arranges a candlelight supper and the table is set and fine food, romantic setting, and as he sits down to eat with her, she's just on her phone and paying no attention to the table or him or anything else. In our text that we just read, I think God was feeling that way. He has set the table, he's done everything for his people Israel in the book of Malachi. It's the ending book of the Old Testament. He said, boy, I'm getting kind of fed up with you Israelites. I've done everything for you. You're looking at me like I'm a vending machine. Yeah, you want blessings at my hand, but you're not interested in me. And that's the way we see God in this passage. There's kind of a conversation going back and forth and God speaks and then the people answer and God rebukes them and they're back and forth. What is complacency anyway? It's a deceptive feeling of being satisfied, self-satisfied and complete with no fear, no expectation of doing anything any different and yet there's approaching danger and trouble. That's the place where the Israelites had come. Let's explore this idea in Malachi today of spiritual complacency. First of all, we think about complacency in comfort. Have you ever just felt comfortable and you don't need anything? Just feel comfortable, and I'm okay, I've got all I need. I spoke to a guy in Denver, Colorado once. His kids were riding our bus, and they had gotten saved and baptized. Actually, I was going to get the father's permission to baptize them, and we're sitting on the front porch visiting, and I'm talking to the guy. He's swigging on his beer, and he's just happy-go-lucky, and I asked him if he would come to church. He said, nope, not interested. He said, well, I've got everything I need. He said, I've got a good job. I'm an engineer. I make good money. I supply everything that my kids need. And he said, I just enjoy sitting on the porch drinking beer on the weekend, and I'm not going to church. I'm happy with what I've got. And nothing could shake him. from that. You know what the problem was there? He was complacent. He got to the place where I'm comfortable, I've got a good job, I've got good kids, I've got a home, I've got my beer, what else do I need? And he kind of shoved God into the background. You know, without God we couldn't even breathe. Complacency and comfort. All of Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. Now watch this, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in the evening tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful to look upon, and David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her. And she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness. And she returned unto her house, and the woman conceived, and sent, and told David, and said, I am with child. While her husband's out on the battlefield, while Joab is out there leading when David should have, when all of the servants of God, those loyal, faithful servants, they're out there fighting in the battle, but it says David, at the time when kings go to war, tarried behind in Jerusalem. You know what happened? He got comfortable. He got comfortable with where he was. He said, I don't need anything else. I'm just going to kick back and relax and have a good time. And he fell into a very deep sin that brought God's judgment upon him. David, the man after God's own heart, grew spiritually lazy. Spiritually lazy. And that led to a whole bunch of other things. the slow drift of a boat. It's come untied from the dock and it's just drifting away out to sea. That's what happens when David gets spiritually lazy. He drifts, he's comfortable, he doesn't know that he's drifting far, far away from the Lord. God spoke through Malachi in our text to show those Israelites that they had lost their fervor with God. Do you remember a time when you used to be excited just for God's sake? Man, you can't wait to tell somebody else about Jesus. You can't wait to go to church. You can't wait to show up on Sunday morning. You don't have to get up and wonder, am I going to church today? You knew where you were going. Well, that's what happened to David. He just said, I'm satisfied. What more do I need? That's what happened to these Israelites, Malachi. Malachi is speaking for God and he said, you've grown spiritually lazy Israelites. They once were sacrificial in their service to God. They were once excited about going to the Lord in prayer. They were once excited about hearing the Word of God. They were once excited about bringing their family to the Lord. They were once excited about even giving to the Lord in sacrifice. Malachi in the third chapter, verse 8 and 9 says, Will a man rob God? God's speaking here. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. You're cursed with a curse. For you have robbed me, even this whole nation. They were still interested in giving some lip service. They were still making some sacrifices on the altar, but instead of picking out the little sheep for sacrifice that was specified in the Old Testament, instead of picking out that one that was perfect, unblemished, you know what they were doing? They'd go out there and they'd cull out part of their sheep The ones that were good and pretty, they'd keep them, and they'd take the ones that were lame and sick and blind, and they'd say, this is good enough for God. They had the blessings of God, but they'd take the ugliest, mangiest, sickest sheep, and say, here, God, I'm going to offer this to you. They'd gotten comfortable. thought anything was okay for God. I mean, we want a few blessings from Him, but we're not going to do anything for God. The question is, have we grown comfortable in our faith feeling that we owe God our devotion? Notice the second thing, the complacency in blessing. They were These Israelites were comfortable and they felt like, I don't need anything else. I'm just fine. They weren't fine. God's rebuking them. But then they were comfortable in their blessing. You know, sometimes we get so many blessings flowing on us, we feel like everything's great. We don't notice that we're slipping away. Numbers 11. Verse number 4 says, And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting, and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, and we remember how we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks. onions and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There's nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes. Listen, they had been given manna from heaven, miraculous manna from heaven. They were in the middle of the wilderness. They were in the desert. They could have starved to death, but God graciously rained down the manna from heaven and they could go pick up all they wanted and they could be nourished. I suppose that that manna must have been pretty nutritious since God was giving it. They had blessing, but they said, we're sick and tired of this manna. Give us some meat. I wonder if God was pleased with them about that. I don't think so. Blessings, and yet that's not enough. They just wanted more and more and more, and yet they complained to God for what he'd already supplied. I'm blessed. God's given me a lot. God's given me a good family, a home, good church, good health. He said, your health ain't too hot, Pastor. I was thinking about yesterday, you know, I was thinking about some things I could mully grub about a little bit. Not as healthy as I wish I was, but then I got to thinking about those who are struggling for their life. I'm pretty blessed. Those Israelites had come to this place. They said, man, God has just surrounded us with all this stinking manna. I'm sick of it. They wanted meat. Nothing God could do to please them. And they didn't do anything back for God except complain. Complain. Not got enough. They thought God was a vending machine where He should have spit out everything that they wanted. You know, God will give people their needs. but not necessarily their wants. God's people were freshly delivered from Egypt. Now they're given manna, but they're sick and tired of it. They craved other things over and above God's provision. Imagine a child who opens a gift at Christmas. They open that gift and they look at it, throw it to the side, say, that's not what I even wanted. That's what the Israelites were doing to God. That's not what we wanted. Man, we wanted a T-bone. We had a lot of people over the years come by and need some help. I was here at the church one day and a guy stopped by. He said, I'm in need of some food. So I said, well, we'll try to help you out. And so I got in the pantry and got out some sugar and flour and meal. two or three cans of this and two or three cans of that, and I started setting it all out, and he said, no, no, no. He said, don't you have some meat of some kind? I said, what are you thinking about? I said, there's some tuna in there and some vegetable beef. He said, no, no. He said, I was thinking about maybe something like steak or roast. You know what I told him? I said, friend, I had a bologna sandwich for lunch today. If you don't need this, I'll just put it back in the closet. Some people are never satisfied with what God's done for them. So how do we approach God? With hearts full of gratitude? Or with criticism and disdain for what He's already done? Now notice the third thing, that there was complacency in their worship. How they worship God. Look, there's all kinds of things that go on today in the name of worship that's not worship at all. And you can even do it sincerely, but be sincerely wrong. The story of Cain and Abel, Genesis chapter 4, verse number 3. Cain and Abel, it says in verse number 3, And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto him, Cain, why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And it wasn't long until Cain got mad because God didn't accept his offering and he went out and killed his brother. What a horrible thing. You say, why wasn't Cain's offering accepted? It may sound like he offered some good stuff because it wasn't what God required. And some of the stuff that people offer up for worship, they may feel like, this is good enough. This ought to work. This is what I think. God said, that's not what I accepted. That's not what I requested. And many times in the Bible we see worship portrayed as everybody's having a big hoopla and the lights in the dark room and there's a party nightclub atmosphere and everybody's having a hoo-rah time. If you look up worship in the Bible, you know what you'll find more often than not? You'll find people falling on their face in respect and honor to God. They're not having a party. Because the party is what our flesh desires, and what God desires is sincere, honest, respectable worship. Just recognizing, wow, this is God. This is God. He's not frivolous. Cain brought an offering to God out of obligation. He went to church because he had to. God said, just showing up is not going to be worship. I'm glad when people show up to church, aren't you? I'm glad when the house is full. I'm glad when people make it a habit of going to church. But you can go to church and not be in an attitude of worship. If you're thinking, when will this preacher ever get through? Man, it ought to be over by now. I've got a roast in the oven. I'm going out to eat with family. Why is it not over? If our attitude is just hurry up and get out. You know what, most of the churches across America, maybe around the world today, is let's see how we can set the church schedule to get people in and out as fast as we can. Let's hurry up and worship God and then let's hit the road. Well, I think God probably feels like he's worth a little more than that. Imagine a student that slaps together a school project at the last minute, just slaps it together. It was not about lack of ability. It was a lack of care. Like Cain's worship. Cain just didn't care. what God requested and what God wanted. He said, this is what I'm going to do. Like it or lump it, God, this is what I'm doing. Well, that's a poor attitude to have towards God. Are we giving God the best of our time, talents, and treasure? The Israelites weren't. The Bible is overflowing with examples of complacency. Remember the prodigal son. He grew up being blessed and having everything he wanted. He had a dad who had an inheritance ready for him. He was going to inherit the farm along with his brother, and they were going to have a whole life provided for them. And yet the prodigal son said, Dad, I'm kind of tired of living this way. I believe I could have a better time if I just had my part of the inheritance and I could go out where I want and do as I please. I can live it up, but I need my money now, Dad. Give it now. And the father gave him his inheritance early. And you know the rest of the story. The young man went out and squandered it with harlots, booze, wine, women, and song. And when the money ran out, his friends were gone. Where'd he end up? Hog pen. Slopping the pigs and wanting to eat some of it. He was so hungry. Sin will take you a lot further than you wanted to go, and it'll keep you a lot longer than you intended to stay, and sin will pay you wages that you didn't want. The prodigal son was complacent. He didn't care what the father had done for him. He didn't care how the father had laid up plans for him. He didn't care he wanted his fleshly desires met, and boy, did he learn a lesson. Wouldn't it be good if people didn't have to learn that lesson the hard way? He learned from the prodigal son. What about Gehazi in the Old Testament? 2 Kings 5, 20-27. Gehazi was a servant of Elisha, the great prophet of Israel. Elisha was the greatest prophet going at the time. Man, he was speaking for the Lord and he was a great prophet. And Gehazi was his right-hand man. And then when Naaman comes to Elisha to be healed of his leprosy, sure enough, Elisha heals Naaman of his leprosy and refuses to take the rewards Naaman offered him. He offered him fine clothes and gold, all kinds of stuff. Elisha said, no, I'm not in this for the money. I'm serving God. Naaman said, well, okay. And so he rides off with his servants and their mules. They're just barely out of sight. And Gehazi gets to thinking, you know, Elisha was pretty dumb not taking that stuff. He's not as smart as I thought he was. I mean, it's supposed to be for number one, right? Gehazi thought, well, if he's not gonna take it, I might as well have it. And so he jumps up and takes off after Naaman. And he said, Naaman, my master, changed his mind. He's gonna take some of that gold and silver and clothing after all. Naaman said, well, okay. And he gave it to Gehazi. Gehazi gets back, and Elisha's smarter than he thought. The preacher had more insight than Gehazi thought. Gehazi wasn't walking with God and Elisha was. Elisha said, Gehazi, where did you go? Oh, he said, I was just doing this and that and the other thing, nothing in particular. Elisha said, you're lying, son. You're lying. You went and took those gifts because you were more interested in what you can receive than serving God. And he said, because of that, leprosy that Naaman had is going to cling to you. Oh, Naaman had a great deal of opportunity. Who knows where he could have gone in life? I mean, he's the number two man in this ministerial organization that's doing some great things for God. Who knows what he might have been able to do? He missed his opportunity because he said, I'm more interested in the worldly things than I am the godly things. He was complacent about his opportunity. that God gave him. What about Samson? You know that story well. Samson was called of God to deliver Israel, and yet he couldn't keep himself on track for more than a few minutes at a time. And he's ready to live it up with wine, women, and song too. He's ready to turn his back on God. The things of God seemed cheap to him, just like those Israelites in Malachi. The things of God seemed cheap to him. He missed out on the opportunity and he ended up not only losing his power because of his affiliation with ungodly people, but he ended up losing favor with God. He ended up between pillars being mocked, scorned, ridiculed, enchained, chained to the pillars of a palace where all of his enemies were making fun of him because he valued the things of the world more than the things of God. He ended up basically committing suicide because he was chained between the pillars And so, realizing how much he had failed God, he said, well, maybe I can do one more thing. God gave him enough power that he pulled those pillars in and the whole rooftop collapsed with all the Philistines on top. And God's judgment fell on the Philistines, but Samson perished with them. The cost of complacency. Moses died and Joshua led them up, led the Israelites up to the Jordan River and they're gonna cross over and they defeat the enemy there at Jericho. And then, man, they're feeling like, we're invincible now. We're invincible. And we don't have time to pray, we don't have time to seek God's face, we're just going up to Ai and show those people what we can do too. And they go up there and get the socks beat off of them. Why was that? They got complacent. They didn't care what God said. They didn't care about the principles of God. They didn't care enough to go to God in prayer and say, is it time for us to go up? God, are you going to be with us? No, they presumed upon God's goodness. They presumed upon God's blessing. They presumed upon God's power and the outcome. They're depending on self. His sons were vile. They were serving in the ministry, but their hearts were far from God. And they were so vile, selfish, snagging the best of God's gifts for themselves and letting the people suffer, lying with the women on the steps of the tabernacle. But the Bible says Eli restrained them not. You see, we think we're doing our kids a favor by just letting them have a free for all and do whatever they want. It doesn't work that way. Those sons were devoured by the judgment of God, and Eli suffered the rest of his life because of his complacency. We read about Jesus saying to the church, He's saying how they have turned to the world instead of to God. And because of that, their name is held in infamy until this very day. These stories all highlight the dangers of drifting away from God, counting God as absent. They counted God as just... If they got to needing something, they'd call on him, but that was it. Kind of like a spoiled child, asking their parents for something, but never do anything for their parents. In their old age, they push their parents away, and they've learned that selfish way of living. They can't expect God's blessing that way. When you get complacent with God, now listen to this, When you get complacent with God, there is a cost to it. And when we get apathetic towards God, we get apathetic and indifferent to everything else around us. One thing leads to another. Why? Because if we're apathetic and complacent towards God, well it's just a smaller step to be that way about everything else. About your family, about your spouse, about your kids, about your job, about your church. Well, if I don't show up to church, it's fine. They'll be okay without me. But what does God think? If I don't ever serve God, maybe He'll never notice. You think? People might not notice, but God does. I'm saying in 2025, we don't want to be complacent. See, if we start to ignore our devotion and our worship to God, and our service to Him and our obedience to Him, it's just the next step is till we become that way with everybody else and everything else around us. That follows. And there's so many people that have gone down that slippery slope. Yes, a slippery slope. Because once you take a step away from God, you don't know how far you're going to slide. There are people who treat God with indifference. But I think we can see enough in the Bible to know that it doesn't work out very well. Why? Because down the road, down the road, you neglect that family, you neglect that spouse, you neglect your church, you neglect the things of God, and neglect your job and everything around you. One of these days, friend, you will look back with sorrow and regret. I've never heard it of a deathbed testimony where somebody says, boy, I wish I'd have worked harder on my job, put more hours there instead of in my family. Never heard anybody say, man, I wish I had more recreation on the lake. I'm about to die and I wish I just had more time to spend on the lake or on the golf course instead of going to church. Never heard anybody say that. Let's visit our main text once more. In Malachi 1, 6-14. We'll just mention this one verse. God's plea of a broken heart. I want you to see in verse number 6 one more time. God says, and you can almost hear the verge of tears in the voice of God. You think God doesn't have emotions? You think God doesn't have desires, things that please Him. Listen to this. God asked, if I be a father, where is mine honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear? Those people in Malachi giving the worst scroungy old sheep that they could as an offering instead of the good ones, being contemptible, at the Lord's table, thinking the things of God are not really worth very much. Imagine having a guest over to your house for a New Year's meal, and you serve them spoiled food. That's what those Israelites were doing in Malachi. That's sometimes the way we treat Him too. Complacency is a subtle poison. If we can detect it early enough, detect and correct, we can get off that slippery slope. But if you've been slipping in 2024, you've been slipping away from God, you've been slipping in your devotion and your worship, you've been slipping in your service to God, you've been slipping in your obedience to God, you've got a good time to correct it right now. The Bible calls it repentance. turn off that slippery slope. God is just one step away when we say, Lord, I've sure been on the wrong track. I've been drifting a little bit. I'm like a boat. I'm tied from the dock. I'm drifting out to sea. And out there somewhere there's going to be some big rough waves, Lord. I don't want to drift anymore. So right now, I'm going to paddle back to the dock and get anchored once more. That's how we correct it. A soldier once said, I give my life for my country, not because it's perfect, but because it's mine. JFK is noted for saying, ask not what you can do for your country and ask not what your country can do for you, but rather ask, what can I do for my country? Instead of saying, God, give me, give me, give me, like a big Santa Claus or like a vending machine. Give me this, give me that, Lord. What about just sometime very quickly, maybe this morning at the altar during the invitation time, what about just saying, Lord, you know, I've been a little bit selfish. I've been straying a little bit. I thought my service to you didn't matter much. Can I just tell you that every single saved person has a gift, a spiritual gift, and they can serve God with that gift. And if your gift is not preaching, if your gift is taking care of the nursery, to God your faithfulness is just as important as a preacher or a missionary or anybody else. What can you do for God? Maybe it's time today, on the eve of 2025, Maybe it's time we just say, Lord, show me what you want me to do for you. Maybe some are watching on the internet right now and you've never trusted Christ as Savior. Can I just tell you that He has given the most precious gift of all time, the blood of His Son on the cross of Calvary. That one gift cannot be explained or ever paid back. that one gift. The only way of salvation is through the blood of Jesus Christ and some may hear or on the internet watching right now may say you know I've never been saved but I thought I was okay with God. You can't be okay with God. In fact the Bible teaches that we're enemies of God until we accept His Son as Savior. The moment you trust Him you become God's child born again. You become a friend of God instead of His enemy. It's all in trusting Jesus as Savior. It's not in the magic of maybe praying through. It's not in the magic of being baptized. It's not in the magic of joining a church. It's in the shed blood of Jesus and that alone that saves a soul. Anything else is vain. And until a person accepts Jesus as Savior, there's nothing else you can do to please God. That's where it begins. Would you bow with me in prayer? Father, we thank you Forgiving your son on the cross of Calvary to pay for our sins of which we could never pay ourselves. Lord, I pray that if there's some soul under conviction right now, knowing that they have turned their face from you, I pray that this moment they would turn back and say, Lord, I'm going to trust you as Savior right now. I believe Jesus' blood sacrifice on the cross was sufficient to save my soul. Lord, I want to be saved today. I'm placing my trust in you. Lord, if there's some Christian that says, you know, I've been drifting. The things of God have not been very important to me. Maybe my job has overshadowed the things of God. Maybe my desires, my wants, my striving for money, prominence, social acceptance, maybe those things, Lord, have caused them to turn their face from you. Oh, they're saved. Lord, they've just been drifting far from you. I pray this morning they'd make that commitment right now to resolve to follow you no matter where they would lead. Lord, I pray that you'd bless now in this invitation time in Jesus' name. Our heads are bowed and eyes are closed.