Could you turn with me, please, if you have your Bible, to Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. Malachi chapter one. We're in a series about the local church. Why the local church really matters. I would argue that the local fellowship of God's people, the local church, is not only critical to us as believers, but it is absolutely essential to us as believers. It's essential to our spiritual maturity. It is essential to our spiritual testimony. And while the New Testament never talks about church membership as we maybe have it today, the foundation of God's people submitting and belonging to a local congregation is clearly seen, clearly seen in the life of the local church. And so we could say this morning, the local church needs you, but do not ever forget, you need the local church. We need you, but you need the local church to help you to mature and grow and develop for God. So far in our series, we have looked at the pattern of a local church, we have looked at the power of a local church. Last time, we looked at the practicality of a local church and how it helps to minister in times of trouble and difficulty. This morning, I want to look at The passion for a local church. The passion for a local church. I believe that in every local congregation of God's people, there is always a percentage that are cold to the things of God. There's a percentage that are indifferent to the fellowship of God. There are those who are unconcerned about the message of God. They're unfeeling towards the worship of God. They're uninterested in the work of God and unresponsive to the challenge of God. There is, in every single fellowship that you would attend, a little percentage that varies from place to place that are just going through the motions. They've lost the thrill. They've lost the excitement. They've lost the passion for the local church. And if that's how you are this morning, well, I have to say to you, thanks for coming, because I think if I felt like that, I would be at home. I wouldn't be here. So thank you for coming. Or if you're tuning in through Sermon Audio and you feel that you've got cold of the things of God, thank you for tuning in. because many another wouldn't. Of those who have lost the passion and the thrill of the local church, some are not saved. And there has been no new birth and they have got tired of playing a part and pretending that there's something that they're not. And so they have lost interest. because they really were not part of it in the first place. Others are saved by the grace of God, but Satan has been able to rob them of the joy and the adrenaline rush of meeting with God as a body of believers. That's what I want to address with God's help this morning. The passion that ought to be there for a local church. It's not a new problem. We are going to find that Malachi the prophet faced exactly the same situation about 2,400 years ago, and he tries and seeks with the help of God to address this very problem. So we're going to dip our toe just into Malachi to get a few verses to see what Malachi's thinking was. Malachi chapter 1, look at verse 6. A son honoureth his father and a servant his master. "'If then 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 priests, "'that despise my name. "'And ye say, wherein have we despised thy name? "'Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar, "'and ye say, wherein have we polluted thee? "'And ye say, the table of the Lord is contemptible. And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you 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? Verse 11. For from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the sea, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering for 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. He said, also behold, what a weariness is it, and ye have snuffed at it. It means to stick your nose up at it. saith the Lord of Hosts. And ye brought that which was torn, and lame, and the sick. Thus ye 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 vieth, and sacrifices to the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great king, saith the Lord of Hosts, and my name is dreadful, powerful among the heathen. And amen. In Malachi's day, the cry of the congregation was, what a weariness this is. Do I really have to go? Do I have to go to church? Do I really have to sing those hymns? Do I really have to listen to the pastor yet again? Maybe you've heard that in your home this morning before you come out. The messages are too boring. The services are too long. I am weary of it all. Now I have to say something up front. I don't understand that mindset. I don't, there's times I feel the weight of responsibility, and often I say to my wife on a Saturday night, I don't want to do tomorrow, that the weight of responsibility is hanging on my shoulders. I feel that very, very deeply, but I don't understand not wanting to come to the church. I find it the most exhilarating and exciting thing that I could do. And I have to listen to myself. Take prayer. When you pray, you soar above petty bureaucrats. And you soar above the members of parliament. and you soar above royalty and prime ministers and potentates, and you rise above the elite of this world. In prayer, you go beyond demons and angels and cherubim and seraphim, and in prayer, you enter in through the veil into the immediate presence of God. How could that not be thrilling? How could that not be exciting? I don't understand it. If I could spend every day, all day on my knees, I would love it. I couldn't do it. I get too distracted, I understand that. at all the power to be able to get into the very presence of the one who spoke it all into creation, spoke it all into being. It's a marvelous thing. How can it be boring? Young people, I've heard you pray before the salt meetings. the prayer goes around the room. You've thrilled my heart. Come out on Thursday night and show some of the rest of us how to pray. Please. Come and show us how it's done. As you touch God on behalf of your friends and family and folk in school and folk in college. Oh, it's not a boring thing. In Malachi's day, in They'd lost the excitement, they'd lost the passion for God. How in the local church do we deal with unexcited Christians? How do we deal with unexcitable Christians? Well, this morning, I want to highlight three things. And I believe that Malachi deals with this very issue, and it can reignite your passion for the local church. Number one, We need to appreciate the position of God. The position of God. Say, what do you mean? Well, I'm not talking so much about the fact that he's in heaven. I'm not talking so much about the fact that his Spirit is in our midst, and we can know God through the moving of the Spirit of God. What I'm thinking of is this. Unexcited Christians have forgotten who God is. Malachi 1 and 6, he gives two aspects of his position. Number one, he is father. Number two, he's master. When we come to church on a Sunday, it is a family gathering to meet our father. We are his children. We are his offspring by new birth and we pay him respect. We display our love. We reveal our esteem and honor to him, our father. And he said that, where is my honor? If I'm your father, where is your respect for me? I loved my father. Died in September, 23rd of September, oh wait, just over 11 years ago now. Every Monday he rang me to see what I preached on the Sunday, see how the meetings went. I loved hearing the stories about his past. He was a fire watcher during the Blitz. Hearing about how he started in business, the stories, I loved to tap into his biblical knowledge. We used to sit and look at passages, and I loved that. And he maybe took a different slant than me, and we'd tease it out, and I loved my dad. I delighted to honor him. I delighted to give him his place. Listen to me very carefully. If we come to this church, or any church, in a lackadaisical, careless, critical manner, it's disrespectful to your loving Heavenly Father. Do you get that? Let me repeat it. If you come to this church, or any church, in a lackadaisical, careless, critical kind of manner, it's disrespectful to your Heavenly Father. More. Whenever we come to church, not only is it a family gathering, because he's our father, but it's a fearful gathering, he's our master. And he expects a sense of awe, and he expects a sense of reverence. Whenever we come, there should be that sense of reverence. The writer to the Hebrews in chapter 12, serve the Lord acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. Tell me, whenever you drove into the car park this morning, Did you sense I'm going to meet my father and I'm going to meet my master? When you turned the car off and you started walking to the door to be welcomed by one of the elders, did you say, my, isn't this exciting? I'll tell you, many parts of the world would love this opportunity. They're in hiding somewhere. they don't have this opera, but we take it so casually. Coming to Bali Baptist will be an exciting, thrilling, inspiring thing when we, in a new way, appreciate the position of God. He is our Father. He is our Master. Could you imagine Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, the 10th day of the 10th month in the land of Israel? That morning, Aaron, the high priest, puts aside all his beautiful colored regalia, the breastplate of the 12 stones representing the tribes of Israel, and the colors that was magnificent, and the miter head, all put aside. On that day, he puts on a simple white linen garment. goes and he makes sacrifice at the altar. And with the blood, as there's a stony silence, as the nation waits, his one chance in the year to meet with God, and he takes the blood. and goes in through the veil into the Holy of Holies, where the Shekinah glory sat above the cherubim, where there was the pillar of fire ascending at night and the pillar of cloud by day. There he is in the presence of God, and he sprinkles the blood out before and below the mercy seat. and the nation is silent. He's meeting with the God of heaven. Dear Saint of God, as you come across the car park, that's what you were doing. About to go through the veil and meet with the God of glory. Don't dare tell me that's boring. Don't dare tell me that doesn't matter. Don't dare tell me that you can just turn your face up at it. Maybe you're in church this morning and you're hurting. Maybe you're confused, maybe you're worried, maybe you're anxious, maybe last night the tears were flowing. I want to tell you, we are in the presence of our heavenly Father. And I don't mean to be irreverent, please, please understand the picture. I want you, as it were, to climb up onto his knee. Feel his arms of love around you. and to know that he cares, and know that he loves you with an everlasting love, and he'll never leave you, he'll never forsake, more than that. Not only is he a father, you see, I'm a father. Sometimes problems come and I can't help. Whenever the children are small and something breaks, daddy comes to the rescue, fixes it, you know? Problem in school, daddy goes and sorts it. But there comes an age whenever the problems, daddies can't sort anymore. and we feel powerless, and we'd love to be able to do something and we can't. Ah, but this morning, the one who is our Father is also the Master. He can meet the need. He can heal the body. He can take away the pain. He can deal with the troubled breast. He can deal with a bereaved heart. He can deal with all the problems and far more. appreciate the position of God. He's your father and he's the master. That can't be boring. Secondly, not only appreciate the position of God, but we need to adore the purity of God. It says, verse six, it says, O priests that despise my name, and ye say wherein have we despised thy name? Could it be that we're bored with the local church because we despise his name? What does that even mean? Does that mean swearing and we take his name in vain? No, no, no, no. What does it mean to despise his name? Well, Malachi tells us, verse seven and eight, and the end of verse 13, ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar, and ye say, when have we polluted thee? And that ye say, the table of the Lord is contemptible, or the altar of the Lord deserves no respect. And ye offer the blind for sacrifices and not evil, and if ye offer the lame and the sick as in not evil, offer it now to thy boss, thy governor, will he be pleased with thee? "'or accept thy person, saith the Lord of Hosts.'" Despising his name is coming to church and living our lives, but giving God the leftovers. It's coming to church and giving him what is worthless, and it's what you don't need anymore. It's giving him the stuff that we're never going to miss. It's like sending the missionaries the tea bags you've used, and there's maybe another cup of tea in it, so we'll send it to the missionary. and giving God what won't affect your lifestyle at all. It's just a little bit that happens to be in the purse after you've got all that you want and you give it to him. And he says, that is to dishonor my name. It is to despise my name. If we had time, we could go to Exodus 22, Leviticus 22, and there you would find God describing that offering that was to be brought to him The offering to the Lord, it had to be perfect. It had to be unblemished. It had to be the very best. They had to watch it for so many days to make sure there was no discrepancy, no problem, no difficulty, no illness. Had to be perfect. Why? Because every little lamb that was sacrificed, every bullet that was sacrificed, every turtle dove that was sacrificed, they all pointed, there was a picture, it was an illustration, it was a type of Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice. And so every time they came, they had to make sure it was perfect. It was the best. No compromise. We had to give our very best, why? Because this points to the Messiah that's coming, the perfect Lamb of God. So bringing him the hurt, the maimed animal, was an indication of what you think of God. It's an indication of what you think of his Messiah that's coming. It's an insult to his name. And that's what they were doing in Malachi's day. I was reading in the newspaper the other day, In the town of Langley, I don't even know where that is to be honest, Langley I think it was, a coffee shop. The poppies and the wee collection box. Three times in one week people stole the collection boxes for the poppies. And this article was saying, that's the lowest of the low. These people gave their lives. These people sacrificed for this nation. How on earth could you steal the poppy money? I'll tell you what's worse. Jesus came and died for us, and we give him the leftover. It says, Malachi, you dishonor, you despise. My name. I tell you, there will be a passion for the local church. There will be a passion for this local assembly when we come to give him our very best. Imagine, you arrive in church, you get in the door, you find your seat. Jennifer's playing the organ. People are talking about, but in your heart and in your mind, you're climbing onto the altar. and climbing onto the altar and saying, Lord, here I am again, wholly available. As for me, I will serve the Lord. Lord, here I am another Sunday morning. I want to give you my very best. In the prayer meeting this morning, a dear brother started up a hymn, the words of Isaac Watts, And we finish with those words, love, so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Is church boring? Were you nearly not coming this morning? Don't feel like it? Oh. Oh, listen, the passion for the local church will be different if you appreciate the position of God. He's our Father. He's our Master. We can climb up onto His knee. We can know His arms around us. We can know how He is our strength and our weakness. He's our wisdom and our foolishness. He's our guide and our going-astray. He's the one we need. And our passion will be different if we come to give him our very best. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6. Notice in verse 8 of Malachi, he says, try it on your boss, try it on your governor. Will he be happy with that casual, lukewarm, insipid, blandness? Will he be happy with that? No, he won't. Will he be happy and tolerate negativity and criticism? No. Will he be happy if you don't really care about being here? No. Passion for the local church will be automatic. When you appreciate the position of God, he's father, he's master, and whenever we adore the purity of God, he wants our very best. Finally. not only appreciate the power of God, the position of God, not only adore the purity of God, but thirdly, acknowledge the power of God. Verse 14, he says, for I am a great king, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen. So on the news the other night, the actress Olivia Colman being interviewed, She's on a program, she's Queen Elizabeth II on a program called The Crown. I've never seen it, know nothing about it. But in the interview, she said that the more she read about the Queen Elizabeth and the more she studied her and watched her and read reports about her, she says, the more I became obsessed with the manner and the dignity and the strength of Queen Elizabeth. I thought that was nice. This actress who's playing the role, the more she read about our present Queen, the more she admired her, the more she was taken up and obsessed with her. Can I say to you this morning that the more we try to appreciate the power, the authority, the majesty of God, the more we will be passionate about the local church. Paul writing to Timothy, 1 Timothy 6, speaking of God's majesty, it says, he dwelleth in light which no man can approach. I've spent a long time thinking about, maybe you would say I wasted my time, I don't think I did. He dwelleth in light that's unapproachable. You know, God has revealed himself in many ways. He reveals himself in his Son most perfectly. He reveals himself in his attributes and his decrees and his works. But Paul, writing to Timothy, suggests that there is a sense in which God is a mystery, and he's beyond our understanding, and we could spend every day, all day in church, and we'd never get to the bottom of him. Fast. He's beyond our finding out. In that church, we get the chance to move out of the paddling pool of the spiritual kindergarten, and lift our eyes and see an ocean out there with its waves and its storms and its battles and its excitement. And we can get out of the paddling pool of the ABCs, the little kindergarten of church, and we can start to get into the waves and battle the storms for God. Get something of an appreciation of the depth and the height and the width of his glory. Dear friend, you might know more of this book than I do. God bless you. But you don't know God in his fullness. And even when we get home to glory and we see the Savior face to face, we'll still be learning about his love and omnipotence and his glory and his knowledge and his mercy and his grace and his sacrifice and his comfort and his healing. And oh, and throughout eternity, throughout eternity, we'll be learning more. Why is church boring? Why do we lose the passion for the local church? Well, the Bible isn't boring. It's inspiring and relevant. The Lord Jesus certainly is not boring. He's our Lord and Savior. The gospel is not boring. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. It could be, it could be that the preacher makes exciting things boring. I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about that. But just maybe, just maybe, we need to refocus and renew our passion for the local church. And we need to appreciate in a new way the position of God. He's our father and master. And we need to adore the purity of God in a new way and give him our very best. And we need to acknowledge the power of God. He stretches our imagination. He's far greater, far bigger, far more majestic than anything that we can imagine. What a God we serve. The passion for the local church, the position of God, the purity of God, the power of God. May God help us. to have a fresh, renewed passion for coming together as a local church. May God bless his work.