Malachi

A couple of Sunday's ago I was fortunate to be able to preach for a very unfortunate Dr. Curtis McClane who had fallen very ill to the Tennessee Fall cocktail of allergies/bronchitis/pneumonia... thing

The sermon came from what many (myself included) would see as an odd source... Malachi.

Malachi is a very short book, but it has a lot of great lessons and its place holds great historical (and spiritual) significance; the last book of the Old Testament.  You see, for years and years (centuries), God had communicated with His people verbally - through the words of His prophets.  Additionally, God had also used dreams, visions, pillars of fire, hands on the wall, a burning bush, etc.

Then, after a long period of silence, in stepped Malachi.  Malachi, right out of the gate, cold turkey, began to call the post-exile Israelites out on all their short comings, misgivings, and blatant misuse of God's temple (that they had finally rebuilt).  Then, with a few moments of hope and reminders of promises made, God goes into a divine silence.  400 years of it.  For 400 years, God leaves us with the words of Malachi and allows them to "sink in" over 400 years of divine silent treatment.  What's the significance of this silence?  Why would God do that?  What were His last words that He left us with?

My sermon focused on Malachi 1:6-2:9, Mostly all focused on what I believe to be the most important lines of Malachi (and what God wanted us to consider during those 400 years):  Malachi 1:8-10

The sermon may be seen below:

http://highlandviewchurch.org/zVideo/_sermon.htm