These three lessons were presented by Travis W. Lewis in 2012 regarding the subtle, yet costly, attitude of apathy among the people of God. Focus of these presentations is intended to alert saved souls of the danger of exerting effort toward religion while our eyes have long since been turned from God.

APATHY – AH, WHATEVER!

Lesson 1 of 3

June 10, 2012

By: Travis W. Lewis

[CLASS TURN TO MALACHI 1.]

1. INTRODUCTION

a) The three-lesson study that we begin today is based on the challenges of Malachi concerning the spiritual apathy of God’s people.

b) So, as we begin, and as we often do, I again thought it good to have a clear consensus of the meaning of this term that we’ll be using often during these three lessons.

c) QUESTION: How would you define the term “apathy”, generically speaking?

i) Not caring

ii) Unconcerned

iii) No interest

iv) Not placing in high priority

d) QUESTION: I suppose, then, that this begs the question, “Who cares about apathy in spirituality”? God cares.

i) God cares about His people “not caring” about thinking on where we came from.

ii) God cares about His people being unconcerned about why we’re here.

iii) God cares about His people having only token interest, or no apparent interest at all, in either the spiritual direction we’re going or the destiny that awaits.

iv) God cares about the lesser priority, if any priority at all, that we place on these matters that concern our walk with Him.

e) I suppose that most, if not all, of us can agree that spiritual apathy is a problem which we experience as individuals; spiritual apathy is a problem we have as a church; and it is a problem we have a Christian society in general.

f) Today, we identify whether we actually suffer spiritual apathy; the next two lessons, we discuss the importance of ridding ourselves, with God’s help, of this spiritual disease that slowly disables us all.

g) And that is the aim of this series – to cause us to audit our lives for spiritual apathy.

h) It’s a condition that most often doesn’t occur overnight or in a week or two, but it’s a disease that grows ever so slowly as we, almost without noticing, drift away from God.

i) Yet, this isn’t a new problem for God’s people; almost twenty-five hundred years ago, this same spiritual cancer was eating away at the fellowship between God and His people Israel during the life of the prophet Malachi.

j) And, it was upon Malachi whom God laid the burden to turn the eyes of Israel upon their status before God.

[CLASS READ MALACHI 1: 1-5.]

¹The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. ²I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, ³And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. ⁴Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever. ⁵And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel. [1]

2) DOUBTING GOD’S LOVE

a) The name “Malachi” itself means “God’s messenger”.

b) And, that’s what Malachi was to Israel – their messenger from God.

c) QUESTION: How does the very beginning of verse 1 describe the reason for the message he was about to deliver? As a burden, or an oracle; it was an urgent word of the Lord to Israel, who were God’s covenant people.

d) Malachi’s audience lived in the small area around Jerusalem called Judah, and he addressed them as “heirs of the promises and the obligations” that God had given them in times past.

e) Several decades before Malachi’s day, Israel had been allowed to return from Babylonian captivity and eventually even rebuild the temple of worship.

f) The few years following their return were filled with God’s blessings and presence.

g) But now, almost a century later, Israel was in hard times economically – drought had brought on poor crops, which had produced hunger and dire poverty – and here was Malachi preaching to them of how they had been blessed.

h) And Malachi’s admonitions began with the reminder to these that held so special a place in the heart of God of how He had loved them: “I have loved you Israel!”.. (paraphrased)…

i) Oh, Israel, how I have loved you.

ii) Like no other people, I have loved you.

iii) I have rescued you when nothing short of a miracle could have delivered you.

iv) I have helped you when you had no means of helping yourself.

v) I have blessed you both in manner and extent to which no other nation can boast.

i) QUESTION: What was Israel’s general reply to Malachi? Israel’s reply was in the form of a question: “Really, how have you blessed us?”.

j) I think it was a sincere question, asked out of blindness to reality: “How have you blessed us?”.

k) QUESTION: What leads people, especially folks of maturity, to question whether God actually does love them? It is the same prompting that we had as children when our parents wouldn’t do just what we wanted done for us, even when we had disappointed them, or even when it wasn’t good for us; the paraphrased conversation went something like this:

i) God: I have loved you so deeply, Israel.

ii) Israel: I don’t understand; how have you loved us?

iii) God: I chose your ancestor Jacob over Esau; my choice could have just as easily been Esau, and, had it been, where would you be today?”.

l) I can’t know all those individuals who had such a positive influence in your life, yet I venture to say that several actually did.

m) QUESTION: But what if God had never sent them into your life? Where would you be if no one had ever told you about God, or explained where the story of Jesus fit into His plan for your life?

n) Maybe it was a parent or grandparent; maybe a spouse; maybe a lifelong friend or possibly one that you met ever so briefly along the way.

o) Just as God explained to Israel through Malachi that, but by His grace as sovereign God, they, as Jacob’s descendants, could just as easily have been those not chosen.

p) So, I hear God’s reply being, essentially, “How could you have forgotten so quickly?”.

q) And, is He not asking me and you the same question today: “How could you have been so close to Me before, and then ask such an ill-conceived question today? How could you have been so encouraged with my work before, and seemingly now you have lost interest?”

r) Yet, before we see cause to return to God, we must realize that we have drifted away.

s) And, in coming to that realization, God began to explain how they had progressively offended Him.

[CLASS READ MALACHI 1: 6-10.]

⁶A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? 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? ⁷Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. ⁸And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and 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. ⁹And 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. ¹⁰Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. [2]

3) OFFERING OUR SECOND BEST

a) QUESTION: Does what you believe about another person affect your attitude toward that person?

b) So does whatever you and I believe about God affect our attitudes toward Him as well?

c) QUESTION: What is the attitude of a faithful son to his father?

i) Honor

ii) He takes offence when he hears his father’s name slighted – even in the least way.

iii) “You may offend me, but don’t make light of my daddy.”

iv) He honors his father and doesn’t allow him to be disrespected.

d) QUESTION: What is the attitude of a faithful servant to his/her master? Same as above; and, what are some examples of attitudes we often see displayed toward the Lord?

e) The name of the Lord is so often made light of, and so is Heaven.

f) And, whatever we make light of, at that instant, we think little of.

g) If anyone should have honored and feared the Lord, the priests should have.

h) “You, the priests,”, Malachi charges, “accept without question just what’s left over, what people can easily do without, and you never question it.”.

i) Well, “as goes the pulpit, so go the pew.”

j) QUESTION: So, is Malachi not saying…

i) “You call me ‘Father’, but do you honor me as you see a faithful child honoring his or her father?”.

ii) “You call me ‘Master’, but am I the one who is REALLY your master?”.

k) QUESTION: Is God’s reply summarized by saying, “You offer Me your second best.”?

i) “If you count Me to be your Father, then why are so many things and so many people influencing you more than do I?

ii) The priests asked God how He could charge them with despising His name while they were doing all the stuff God’s children should be doing?

(1) They were keeping the lamps lit.

(2) They were tending the altar fires.

(3) They were repeating the prayers, and they were making sacrifices.

l) And God’s reply was, “Israel, you’re bringing – and priests, you’re accepting – leftovers and expecting me to accept and honor such a sacrifice… and, unless you’re convinced to change your view, you might as well shut the temple doors.”

m) That was a very strong statement!

[CLASS READ MALACHI 1: 11-14.]

¹¹For from the rising of the sun even unto 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: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts. ¹²But ye have profaned it, in that ye say, The table of the LORD is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible. ¹³Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD. ¹⁴But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth 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. [3]

4) FORGETTING WHOM WE SERVE

a) There are vast differences between any other master we may choose to serve and the living God who created and sustains us all.

b) And, due to Israel’s neglect, Malachi warns of a day when the past favors of God to Israel will cease, when He will turn from Israel and toward a people who presently are pagans but who will become eager to honor and exalt God for who He is.

c) Paraphrased, this was God’s reply to the priests, though they were going through all the motions of worship as commanded,

i) “These converted pagans will come to understand and honor My name.”

ii) “Before Me, they will bring offerings taken from the best they have and offer them in worship out of a pure conscience.”

iii) “While you have come to expect Me to accept sacrifices that cost you nothing, the converted heathens will gleefully bring their best to the altar.”

iv) “They will see Me as I am – their King, beside whom there is none higher nor whose name is more respected.”

CONCLUSION

a) So, has this opening lesson sensitized an awareness of spiritual apathy in your life?

b) Are you able to recall how or when the slide into apathy began?

c) Are you beginning to consider what you might change that will reverse the level of apathy to which you discover yourself having fallen?

d) Do you desire a vision of the point to which you can recover your spiritual vigor?

e) If so, then maybe we have begun a growth curve today, for God is still as real as ever, and He wants to help us dig out of the hole of apathy.

[1]The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

[2]The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

[3]The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.